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"A couple of years ago I was told by a fitness trainer that an eight-week cycle of steroids could change my career. In his experience, a player that did just one cycle would maintain 60 per cent of the gains he achieved.
"To put this in perspective, and both these examples are very achievable, this is what I could have 'achieved':
"If I gained 5kg of muscle mass - even when I went off the drugs - I would keep three of those kilos. If I increased my explosiveness which allowed me to reduce my 100 metres time by one second, even if I never did another cycle of steroids, I would remain 0.6 of a second faster.
"These numbers may not seem enormous but to gain that type of edge could mean the difference between being a good player and a star, a provincial representative or an international. And we know what else would change. The base salary, the access to endorsements, image rights. Without exaggerating, the difference could mean being a journeyman or a rugby millionaire." - Paul Dearlove, former Scottish international and captain of Pau, February 2009
Five months ago, on the afternoon of June 27, Jacques Servat entered the 17th chamber of the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris, raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about his experiences with the England rugby team at the 2007 World Cup.
Servat, a captain with a special forces unit of the police ("le Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), was appearing as a witness in the trial of Laurent Benezech, the former French international rugby player being sued for defamation by Provale, the professional rugby players union, and 134 of its players.
Servat had spent eight weeks with England during the 2007 World Cup, and had been invited by the court to recount his experiences of escorting the defending champions through the highs (the defeat of Australia and France) and lows (the defeat to South Africa) of the tournament.
One story in particular was of interest. It happened on the day after the final when a farewell ceremony was organised and his officers were presented with some gifts (signed jerseys and kit) by the team. One of them, a gym-rat, had spent hours discussing fitness with a member of the England staff and was given some food supplements the team had used during the tournament.
At first glance, the only unusual thing about these supplements was that they were "made-in-the-USA" but Servat soon discovered that they were different to any of the protein powders available in France. His officer, the gym-rat, had put on 14 kilos of muscle in 10 weeks and needed a new uniform.
It was rugby's obsession with size - big is beautiful - that had landed Benezech in court. Fifteen months earlier, on the evening of March 2, 2013, he had driven home one night after a game in Paris, shaken by what he had seen.
"C'est pas normal."
This was not the sport he loved.
"C'est pas normal."
This was not the game he'd played.
"C'est pas normal."
How were these guys so big?
Two weeks later, when he had formed an opinion and expressed it to a newspaper, the writ hit the fan. In the months that followed, he spent hundreds of hours and thousands of euros compiling evidence for the case. His first call was to Damien Ressiot of L'équipe, whose brilliant work had exposed Lance Armstrong in 2005.
Ressiot had good news and bad; the good was that he knew a lot and was prepared to help; the bad was that the 'Omerta' in rugby was worse than anything he had experienced in cycling.
Their starting point was a crossover between the two sports and a doctor called Herve Stoicheff, a student of the late Francois Bellocq, whose theories on "hormonal rebalancing" had fuelled successive French cycling teams and champions since the 1970s.
Stoicheff preferred rugby and was team doctor at Brive when they defeated Leicester in the final of the 1997 Heineken Cup. Three years later, he was sanctioned by the Medical Council for having prescribed a multitude of different products - vascular, arterial, heptatic and respiratory - to 33 healthy Brive players. Some were juniors at the Academy.
If Stoicheff was the sport's most popular doctor - he treated players from Bordeaux to Paris - Alain Camborde was its most popular trainer. At one stage, the 50-year-old from Pau had a client list of over 50 players, most of them internationals. His "dossier de presse" from 2009 makes interesting reading.
2003: Alain Camborde is convinced of the necessity to use food supplements in the physical preparation of sportsmen. He is one of the first to install a programme of nutrition and weightlifting for rugbymen like Damien Traille, Sebastien Tillous-Borde, Imanol Harinordoquy, Jerome Thion, Peio Som...
He has been saying it for ten years: "Nutrition is 50% of preparation."
2004: He's earning credits and working with Pau, Bayonne and some top-class sportsmen and players from the Top 14.
2007: He is invited to supervise the physical preparation and nutrition of the Argentinean Pumas for the World Cup. He leaves every week and moves from club to club working on the physical preparation of players like: Patricio Albacete, Juan Martin Hernandez, Mario Ledesma, Agustin Pichot, Rodrigo Roncero. "It's an honour for me to prepare this team," he says.
2009: He decides to commercialise his own range of food supplements under the brand name 'Physicoach Nutrition'.
But four years later, in May 2013, he was suddenly out of fashion when a newspaper (Sud-Ouest) reported that he was being investigated for the "importation and possession of prohibited goods and illegal practice as a pharmacist having, together with three other people, possessed, handed over, distributed or passed on around 30 doping products."
A month later he was given a three-month suspended prison sentence from the criminal court in Pau and fined €1,000. He was also ordered to pay €2,000 in compensation plus interest to the National Order of Pharmacists.
Felipe Contepomi, the former Leinster and Argentinean outhalf, was one of a number of prominent sportsmen questioned by Jean-Jacques Lozach that summer during a French Senate hearing on the efficiency of anti-doping:
Lozach: "A fitness coach, Monsieur Alain Camborde, was charged with illegal practice as a pharmacist and with endangering the lives of others. He was a fitness coach to the Argentine team in 2007. Did you know him?"
Contepomi: "As far as I know our training was undertaken by American coaches. Where is he from in France?"
Lozach: "From Pau."
Contepomi: "Yes, Alain, that rings a bell, from Patricio Albacete's club. But he definitely wasn't working in any official way with the Argentine team. It's true that some players take supplements which have been supplied by individual coaches. If cases of taking doping products are admitted, I maintain that very severe sanctions should be taken."
Two months ago, on September 26, three judges at the Palais du Justice in Paris decreed that Laurent Benezech had acted in good faith and ruled against Provale.
Two weeks later, on October 14, the Associated Press reported that an investigation by an anti-doping task force in Kenya had revealed that steroids had been found in supplements given to players on the national rugby sevens team.
The task force, led by Moni Wakesa, had noted "a concoction they (the coaches) gave players to drink before the beginning and end of training" and that the players would stop taking the supplements four days before competing.
Two weeks ago, Paul Kelso, the sports correspondent for Sky News, reported that more than a third of all British sports men and women currently serving doping bans in the UK are rugby union players.
"One promising player currently banned, Sam Chalmers, the son of former Scotland flyhalf Craig, told Sky News that young players are under pressure to build muscle in order to compete, tempting some into using supplements containing banned substances.
"In one case a player from Nottingham admitted importing human growth hormone. In another a Devon county age group player pleaded guilty to using testosterone.
A range of steroids are also among the drugs identified by UKAD (the UK anti-doping agency), with many of the players claiming they tested positive after taking supplements intended to help them build muscle."
Chalmers, 20, was banned for two years in 2013 after failing a test administered by the International Rugby Board (IRB) while preparing for the Under-20 World Cup. He told Sky News he took a supplement after coming under pressure from coaches to get heavier.
A day after Kelso's report, Benezech sent me an email: "My God! Time to wake-up England."
And Ireland? Be honest, do you really want to know?
Win One of Five Pairs of Tickets to Ireland v France - Click here
Sunday Indo SportThe Milwaukee Bucks selected Rashad Vaughn with No. 17 pick in 2015 NBA draft on Thursday night at the Barclays Center.
The UNLV shooting guard averaged 17.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists in his freshman year. He made an immediate impact for the Rebels, scoring 26 points in his college debut against Morehead State on Nov. 14.
Vaughn hit double figures in 21 of his 23 games played and also shot 38.3% from three-point range.
Vaughn was a McDonald’s All-American after transferring to Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., from his hometown of Golden Valley, Minn. A five-star recruit in the class of 2014, he chose nearby UNLV over Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and others.
Vaughn's season was cut short nine games after tearing the meniscus in his left knee in February against Fresno State. The 6'6" guard was still named the Mountain West Conference freshman of the year.
• MORE NBA: Live draft tracker | Team needs | Critical off-seasons | Sleepers
Mannix's analysis: Vaughn has inched up draft boards in recent weeks. He’s a pure scorer with great size. Khris Middleton will likely be back in Milwaukee, but Vaughn is a talented player who can be developed behind him. He is also protection against a trade that moves O.J. Mayo, who I’m told is very available.
Grade: B+
Strengths: Vaughn is 18 years old, making him one of the draft’s youngest players. And at 6’6”, he has good size for his position. He’s a natural scorer, with the ability to make shots from anywhere on the floor, over any level of defense. As a freshman, he scored in bunches and excelled as a shooter especially in catch-and-shoot scenarios. He also does well in isolation and can create off the dribble. With his size and relative athleticism, he has potential to be a capable defender, if not better.
Weaknesses: Vaughn shot 43.9% from the field last season and will need to be more efficient at the next level. That means improving his shot selection, resisting contested shots and also becoming a more willing passer. His low assist rate in 2014-15 underlines his resistance to find the open man or create opportunities for others. He’s not particularly long or strong, so he’ll have to work to become a good rebounder and defender. He’s not the most athletic player in the draft, so he’ll need to be crafty at getting to the rim and improve at finishing when he gets there. Otherwise, he risks becoming solely a spot-up shooter.
Rashad Vaughn Shot Chart | PointAfterThe Thing, also known as the Great Seal bug, was one of the first covert listening devices (or "bugs") to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal. It was concealed inside a gift given by the Soviet Union to W. Averell Harriman, the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, on August 4, 1945. Because it was passive, needing electromagnetic energy from an outside source to become energized and activate, it is considered a predecessor of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.[1]
Creation [ edit ]
The Thing was designed by Soviet Russian inventor Léon Theremin,[2] best-known for his invention of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.
Installation and use [ edit ]
The device, embedded in a carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States, was used by the Soviets to spy on the US. On August 4, 1945, several weeks before the end of World War II, a delegation from the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union presented the bugged carving to Ambassador Harriman, as a "gesture of friendship" to the USSR's war ally. It hung in the ambassador's Moscow residential study for seven years, until it was exposed in 1952 during the tenure of Ambassador George F. Kennan.[3]
Operating principles [ edit ]
The Thing consisted of a tiny capacitive membrane connected to a small quarter-wavelength antenna; it had no power supply or active electronic components. The device, a passive cavity resonator, became active only when a radio signal of the correct frequency was sent to the device from an external transmitter. This is currently referred in NSA parlance as "illuminating" a passive device. Sound waves (from voices inside the ambassador's office) passed through the thin wood case, striking the membrane and causing it to vibrate. The movement of the membrane varied the capacitance "seen" by the antenna, which in turn modulated the radio waves that struck and were re-transmitted by the Thing. A receiver demodulated the signal so that sound picked up by the microphone could be heard, just as an ordinary radio receiver demodulates radio signals and outputs sound.
Theremin's design made the listening device very difficult to detect, because it was very small, had no power supply or active electronic components, and did not radiate any signal unless it was actively being irradiated remotely. These same design features, along with the overall simplicity of the device, made it very reliable and gave it a potentially unlimited operational life.
Technical details [ edit ]
The device consisted of a 9-inch (23 cm) long monopole antenna (quarter-wave for 330 megahertz (MHz) frequencies, but able to also act as half-wave [at 660 MHz] or full-wave [at 1320 MHz], the accounts differ - given the radio technology of the time, the frequency of 330 MHz is most likely) — a straight rod, led through an insulating bushing into a cavity, where it was terminated with a round disc that formed one plate of a capacitor. The cavity was a high-Q round silver-plated copper "can", with the internal diameter of 0.775 in (19.7 mm) and about 11/16 in (17.5 mm) long, with inductance of about 10 nanohenry.[4] Its front side was closed with a very thin (3 mil, or 75 micrometers) and fragile conductive membrane. In the middle of the cavity was a mushroom-shaped flat-faced tuning post, with its top adjustable to make it possible to set the membrane-post distance; the membrane and the post formed a variable capacitor acting as a condenser microphone and providing amplitude modulation (AM), with parasitic frequency modulation (FM) for the re-radiated signal. The post had machined grooves and radial lines into its face, probably to provide channels for air flow to reduce pneumatic damping of the membrane. The antenna was capacitively coupled to the post via its disc-shaped end. The total weight of the unit, including the antenna, was 1.1 ounces (31 grams).
The length of the antenna and the dimensions of the cavity were engineered in order to make the re-broadcast signal a higher harmonic of the illuminating frequency.[5]
The original device was located with the can under the beak of the eagle on the Great Seal presented to W. Averell Harriman (see below); accounts differ on whether holes were drilled into the beak to allow sound waves to reach the membrane. Other sources say the wood behind the beak was undrilled but thin enough to pass the sound, or that the hollowed space acted like a soundboard to concentrate the sound from the room onto the microphone.
The illuminating frequency used by the Soviets is said to be 330 MHz.[6]
Discovery [ edit ]
The existence of the bug was discovered accidentally by a British radio operator at the British embassy who overheard American conversations on an open radio channel as the Soviets were beaming radio waves at the ambassador's office. An American State Department employee was then able to reproduce the results using an untuned wideband receiver with a simple diode detector/demodulator,[7] similar to some field strength meters.
Two additional State Department employees, John W. Ford and Joseph Bezjian, were sent to Moscow in March 1951 to investigate this and other suspected bugs in the British and Canadian embassy buildings. They conducted a technical surveillance counter-measures "sweep" of the Ambassador's office, using a signal generator and a receiver in a setup that generates audio feedback ("howl") if the sound from the room is transmitted on a given frequency. During this sweep, Bezjian found the device in the Great Seal carving.[7]:2
The Federal Bureau of Investigation set about to analyze the device, and hired people from the British Marconi Company to help with the analysis. Marconi technician Peter Wright, a British scientist and later MI5 counterintelligence officer, ran the investigation.[7] He was able to get The Thing working reliably with an illuminating frequency of 800 MHz. The generator which had discovered the device was tuned to 1800 MHz.
The membrane of the Thing was extremely thin, and was damaged during handling by the Americans; Wright had to replace it.
The simplicity of the device caused some initial confusion during its analysis; the antenna and resonator had several resonant frequencies in addition to its main one, and the modulation was partially both amplitude modulated and frequency modulated. The team also lost some time on an assumption that the distance between the membrane and the tuning post needed to be increased to increase resonance.
Aftermath [ edit ]
Wright's examination led to development of a similar British system codenamed SATYR, used throughout the 1950s by the British, Americans, Canadians and Australians.
There were later models of the device, some with more complex internal structure (the center post under the membrane attached to a helix, probably to increase Q). Maximizing the Q-factor was one of the engineering priorities, as this allowed higher selectivity to the illuminating signal frequency, and therefore higher operating distance and also higher acoustic sensitivity.[7]
The CIA ran a secret research program at the Dutch Radar Laboratory (NRP) in Noordwijk (Netherlands) from 1954 to approximately 1967 to create its own covert listening devices based on a dipole antenna with a detector diode and a small microphone amplifier. The devices were developed under the Easy Chair research contract[8] and were known as Easy Chair Mark I (1955), Mark II (1956), Mark III (1958), Mark IV (1961) and Mark V (1962).[9] Although initially they could not get the resonant cavity microphone to work reliably, several products involving Passive Elements (PEs) were developed for the CIA as a result of the research. In 1965, the NRP finally got a reliably working pulsed cavity resonator, but by that time the CIA was no longer interested in passive devices, largely because of the high levels of RF energy involved.[10]
In May 1960, The Thing was mentioned on the fourth day of meetings in the United Nations Security Council, convened by the Soviet Union over the 1960 U-2 incident where a U.S. spy plane had entered their territory and been shot down. The U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. showed off the bugging device in the Great Seal to illustrate that spying incidents between the two nations were mutual and to allege that Nikita Khrushchev had magnified this particular incident as a pretext to abort the 1960 Paris Summit.[11][12]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]Police: Schaumburg man posted anti-Semitic fliers at University of Chicago
hello
A 21-year-old Schaumburg man is facing charges after officials say he posted offensive, racially charged posters around the University of Chicago.
University police on Thursday arrested Matthew Urbanik in connection to the fliers, which contained anti-Semitic messages. Urbanik is charged with criminal damage to property, said Jeremy Mainer, the university's assistant vice president for communication. Urbanik has no ties to the school and has been permanently barred from university property, Mainer said.
A photo published in the school's student-run newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, showed the fliers' anti-Semitic messages, which encouraged a "white revolution."
Police records show Urbanik was initially stopped March 9 and admitted to previously posting signs on the university's campus. He was let go with a verbal and written warning.
Authorities later learned the fliers had been posted on campus buildings, and a warrant was issued for Urbanik's arrest Thursday, according to police records.
He has posted bond and is no longer in police custody.
Katiesmithdh@gmail.comSpurred by public criticism of its poor handling of the black money menace and the Supreme Court's intervention, the UPA's accelerated efforts to ferret out ill-gotten wealth have borne fruit.
The government's persistent black money chase has revealed a goldmine of information on tax evaders. The tax authorities have obtained 9,900 leads from foreign banks about suspicious overseas transactions involving Indian citizens. They are also looking at data on another 30,700 domestic transactions for suspected tax evasion and money laundering, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday.
The results are beginning to show as the government has been able to ferret out tens of thousands of crores of black money in the last two years after getting information from foreign entities, working on specific leads and conducting raids.
Besides, tax treaties with foreign countries were amended to enable Indian authorities to get their hands on black money details.
Indian authorities made over 300 specific requests for obtaining banking information from foreign jurisdictions.
Addressing the Economic Editors conference, Mukherjee said, "Due to our sustained efforts in the last two years, both domestically as well as internationally, we have been successful in creating an environment where a regular flow of banking information has started." The investigation wing of the income-tax department unearthed concealed income of Rs 3,014 crore in the last five months of the current fiscal. This was after the sleuths carried out focused searches on the basis of information from abroad. The total black money unearthed by this wing over the last two years stands at Rs 18,750 crore.
Meanwhile, the directorate of international taxation has collected Rs 33,784 crore as taxes from cross border transactions in the last two years.
Information on Indians who have overseas bank accounts has been received under the direct tax avoidance agreement (DTAA) with France. In 69 cases, the taxpayers admitted to unaccounted income of Rs 397.17 crore on which taxes of Rs 30 crore have now been recovered.
The finance minister said that the revised tax treaty with Switzerland is expected to improve the inflow of banking information to India substantially. The DTAA will allow India to obtain information from the European nation in specific cases from April 2011.
Mukherjee said that as many as 81 tax treaties with foreign countries had been amended to enable the better flow of financial information and 14 tax information exchange agreements had been signed with four tax havens. India is also constructively engaged with the Mauritius government to update the existing double taxation avoidance convention in line with international practices, he said.
Figures relating to the quantum of illegal funds stashed abroad in tax havens range from $ 500 billion to $ 1,500 billion. But the government has maintained that these figures are based on unverified assumptions.
Instead, the government has set up a committee of experts to estimate the quantum of black money and suggest measures to prevent generation of unaccounted wealth.
A large part of the black money is being generated through transfer pricing mechanism, which shows transactions taking place between a company and its subsidiary firms.
The government was first jolted into action following questions raised by the Supreme Court on the black money issue after which it faced a blitzkrieg from civil rights activists led by Anna Hazare and yoga guru Ramdev.
The Supreme Court had expressed its displeasure over the government's refusal to disclose the names of Indian entities who had stashed black money in overseas tax havens.
It had also appointed a special investigation team to monitor the efforts to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks.
Mukherjee had then announced that the Indian government could not disclose the names of 18 Indian entities - known as the'Liechtenstein list' - who had stashed black money in foreign banks provided by the German authorities as the information was obtained under "a secrecy clause". This related to money kept in the LGT bank of Liechtenstein.
A special committee has been set up under the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to examine ways to strengthen the country's laws to curb the generation of black money in the country and its illegal transfer abroad. According to sources, the committee is looking at the issue of bringing in a law that will enable the government to declare wealth generated illegally as a national asset which can then be confiscated.
The issue of enhancing the punishment for tax evasion so that it serves as an effective deterrent is also under discussion.Russia on Friday denied allegations by the commander of NATO that Moscow may be assisting the Taliban as the insurgents fight US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
“These claims are absolutely false,” Zamir Kabulov, head of the Russian foreign ministry’s department responsible for Afghanistan and the Kremlin’s special envoy in the country, told RIA Novosti state news agency.
“These fabrications are designed, as we have repeatedly underlined, to justify the failure of the US military and politicians in the Afghan campaign. There is no other explanation.”
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, US General Curtis Scaparrotti, who also heads the US military’s European Command, told lawmakers in Washington on Thursday that he had witnessed Russia’s influence grow in many regions, including in Afghanistan.
In a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Scaparrotti said Moscow was “perhaps” supplying the Taliban.
In February General John Nicholson, the US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, testified that Russia is encouraging the Taliban and providing them with diplomatic cover in a bid to undermine US influence and defeat NATO.
Kabulov in 2015 said that Russia was exchanging information with the Taliban and saw shared interest with them when it comes to fighting the Islamic State jihadist group.
Russia considers the Taliban a terrorist group and it is banned in the country, along with the Islamic State group.
Taliban fighters on Thursday captured Afghanistan’s strategic district of Sangin, where US and British forces suffered heavy casualties until it was handed over to Afghan personnel.The poll is now closed; with 600 votes cast, here are the results for "the top 40":
1. Ludwig Wittgenstein (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) 2. Gottlob Frege loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 261–160 3. Bertrand Russell loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 280–137, loses to Gottlob Frege by 218–156 4. John Stuart Mill loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 280–135, loses to Bertrand Russell by 204–178 5. W.V.O. Quine loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 291–150, loses to John Stuart Mill by 214–198 6. G.W.F. Hegel loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 290–130, loses to W.V.O. Quine by 214–210 7. Saul Kripke loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 314–138, loses to G.W.F. Hegel by 224–213 8. Friedrich Nietzsche loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 290–117, loses to Saul Kripke by 209–207 9. Karl Marx loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 359–95, loses to Friedrich Nietzsche by 254–138 10. Soren Kierkegaard loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 358–124, loses to Karl Marx by 230–213 11. Rudolf Carnap loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 345–90, loses to Soren Kierkegaard by 245–194 12. John Rawls loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 379–80, loses to Rudolf Carnap by 212–175 13. David K. Lewis loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 352–92, loses to John Rawls by 211–166 14. G.E. Moore loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 362–59, loses to David K. Lewis by 188–152 15. Donald Davidson loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 342–50, loses to G.E. Moore by 171–158 16. Martin Heidegger loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 351–63, loses to Donald Davidson by 188–161 17. Edmund Husserl loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 336–51, loses to Martin Heidegger by 169–140 18. Hilary Putnam loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 338–51, loses to Edmund Husserl by 148–138 19. William James loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 347–42, loses to Hilary Putnam by 151–146 20. Charles Sanders Peirce loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 333–40, loses to William James by 145–109 21. Alfred Tarski loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 323–55, loses to Charles Sanders Peirce by 132–109 22. J.L. Austin loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 346–29, loses to Alfred Tarski by 131–126 23. P.F. Strawson loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 339–42, loses to J.L. Austin by 137–127 24. Karl Popper loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 344–47, loses to P.F. Strawson by 135–127 25. G.E.M. Anscombe loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 326–35, loses to Karl Popper by 137–128 26. Jean-Paul Sartre loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 355–54, loses to G.E.M. Anscombe by 145–139 27. John Dewey loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 344–28, loses to Jean-Paul Sartre by 138–134 28. Wilfrid Sellars loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 348–29, loses to John Dewey by 123–116 29. Arthur Schopenhauer loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 352–30, loses to Wilfrid Sellars by 129–117 30. Henry Sidgwick loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 302–29, loses to Arthur Schopenhauer by 108–105 31. Alfred North Whitehead loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 333–24, loses to Henry Sidgwick by 108–86 32. Michel Foucault loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 357–31, loses to Alfred North Whitehead by 123–121 33. Bernard Williams loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 337–29, loses to Michel Foucault by 128–127 34. Gilbert Ryle loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 347–23, loses to Bernard Williams by 113–110 35. Maurice Merleau-Ponty loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 329–32, loses to Gilbert Ryle by 112–107 36. Franz Brentano loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 326–26, loses to Maurice Merleau-Ponty by 111–100 37. Michael Dummett loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 343–26, loses to Franz Brentano by 106–92 38. Jurgen Habermas loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 340–22, loses to Michael Dummett by 115–97 39. Hannah Arendt loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 336–29, loses to Jurgen Habermas by 107–98 40. Simone de Beauvoir loses to Ludwig Wittgenstein by 336–30, loses to Hannah Arendt by 110–100
I do hope some sociologist is prescient enough to hold on to these results; I imagine they will look both startling and revealing to the philosophers of 2059--though I'd expect some of "the top ten" to be the same (e.g., I'd imagine that Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Mill, and Marx will be there--perhaps even Hegel, Frege and Russell). I was surprised by Kierkegaard's climb in the last few days. It is also interesting to see how much better Kripke fared than Lewis when we switched from first-past-the-post to Condorcet.
Comments are open for post-mortem assessments; signed comments only. Post only once.For healthy adults, consume enough protein to meet your daily protein requirement with a combination of high protein foods and protein supplements throughout the day as part of a balanced diet and exercise program.
Shaker: Bringing a shaker cup with you to the gym is the best way to get a powerful dose of protein immediately after your workout. Just add 2 rounded scoops of 2:1:1 Recovery to a shaker cup filled with 12-16 oz of your preferred beverage. Cover and shake for 25-30 seconds. (if you're making a 1 rounded scoop serving, cut the amount of water or milk in half).
Blender: Add 2 rounded scoops of 2:1:1 Recovery to a blender filled with 12-16 oz of water, milk, or your favorite beverage. Blend for 20-30 seconds. Then add 3-4 ice cubes and blend for an additional 30 seconds. Reduce the liquid and ice by half if you are only using 1 rounded scoop of 2:1:1 Recovery powder.
Spoon Stirred: If you forgot your shaker cup or don't have time to get out the blender, you can add 2:1:1 Recovery to a glass filled with cold water, milk, or your favorite beverage. If you're preparing a 2 rounded scoop serving add 12-16 oz of liquid, for a 1 rounded scoop serving use 6-8 oz. Then mix it up with a spoon for about 30 seconds or until powder is completely dissolved.
Serving scoop included. But may settle to the bottom during shipping.We've all enjoyed carrying around our favourite Mega Drive and Super Nintendo classics in our pocket thanks to the various Android apps and jailbroken equivalents for Apple iOS. As of today though, those interested in the more obscure side of gaming will be pleased to know that Panasonic 3DO emulation has arrived on the Google Play Store.
The newly released Real3DOPlayer is the newest addition to Android's emulation line-up, costing just a mere £1.19 to download. Although simplistic in its approach and selection of settings, Real3DOPlayer promises (and delivers) full-speed emulation of the 3DO on devices with 1.5 GHz dual core ARM at the ready.
Our initial tests found the likes of Need For Speed, Road Rash, and even Star Wars Rebel Assault working flawlessly on Real3DOPlayer. So should you have a phone in need of some multimedia action, or even an Android gaming tablet such as the JXD S7800B or the GPD XD, then be sure to check out Real3DOPlayer.
Real3DOPlayer (Panasonic 3DO Emulator for Android)
Link: Download Real3DOPlayerIndian banks and companies face short-term downside risks due to the cash crunch arising from the government’s decision to invalidate old high-value currency notes, but the move will be beneficial for the Indian economy in the long run, global rating agency S&P said on Wednesday.
“Indian government reforms will have long-term structural benefits but carry short-term execution and adjustment risks," S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Abhishek Dangra said in an article titled India’s Demonetization And The GST: Short-Term Pain For Long-Term Gain.
It pointed out that the decision to demonetise Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency notes had led to a significant cash crunch in the economy.
S&P expects both demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST) to adversely impact some sectors of the economy in the short run but have long-term benefits. It had recently revised it’s growth forecast for India to 6.9% in 2016-17 from 7.9% earlier.
“Both the demonetisation and a goods and service tax (GST) expected to be implemented by September 2017 are likely to have a higher disruptive impact on the informal, rural, and cash-based segments of the economy," it said.
However, in the long run, demonetisation and GST could result in a wider tax base and greater participation in the formal economy. This should benefit India’s business climate and financial system in the long run, S&P said.
S&P says that as per it’s base case scenario, the disruption from demonetisation should be short-lived with demand revival in the next one to two quarters, limiting the impact on Indian banks and corporates.
However, in the short term, the rural and informal sectors of the economy are experiencing large-magnitude adjustments. Business sectors that often transact in cash, including jewelry and real estate, will also face some degree of upheaval, S&P said.
It added: “In a less-likely downside scenario, the shock of demonetization will not be absorbed within the next few months and the economic disruption will spill over into fiscal 2018, and potentially coincide with the introduction of the GST. Economic growth will stay lower for longer, raising stress levels on corporates, banks, and other financial institutions; although the sovereign rating is likely to remain resilient."Wesley Matthews keeps transforming himself as an NBA player, and his transformation has been key in Portland’s unexpected leap from lottery fodder to top-tier Western Conference team. He came into the league an undrafted spot-up guy with uncertain spot-up credentials, |
is the matter of the 2013 Gold Cup, which kicks off next weekend and for which a record-tying 32 MLSers have been called – including four San Jose Earthquakes players.
One of those four – Goodson – hasn’t played a second for the Quakes this season, so they can’t quite lament his "absence" as much as a delay in his acquisition. Of the remaining three, Chris Wondolowski and Marvin Chávez are starters and key players, while Nana Attakora is a bench player whose absence strips the Quakes of some of their depth.
The Gold Cup is going to roadblock two key areas Quakes fans might reasonably have hoped to see improve during the second half of the season: 1) the defense, which will be thinner and will have to wait to add its new veteran US international and 2) the goalscoring form of 2012 Golden Boot winner Wondolowski, who had fallen off his record-setting pace of a year ago.
San Jose fans waiting for Wondolowski to bust out in MLS in 2013 will have to wait some more.
Road Ahead
The Quakes are 0-3-1 after victories this season, and whatever effect Saturday’s landmark triumph has on the club, San Jose’s next three games are tough ones. First, they travel to Chicago to take on the resurgent Fire – a team hungry to salvage its own season – then they visit Eastern Conference bubble team New England before facing fellow Western Conference playoff strivers Seattle at home on July 13.
That’s a rough stretch, and the Quakes will have to travel it without all four of their Gold Cup players, as the regional tournament will still be in the group stage and no teams will have released players back to their clubs yet.
San Jose round out the month on July 27 with a match against the Portland Timbers, who have lost just once all season.
Clock Ticking
The Quakes have the talent to weather the Gold Cup absences, but it’s time for other players to start contributing if the team is going come out the other end of July with its playoff hopes intact.
They’ll also have to avoid the injury bug that plagued them in the early part of the season and has shown recent signs of returning (Steven Lenhart, Alan Gordon and defender Steven Beitashour all have minor knocks).
Saturday night’s incredible finish may have cast a bright new light on the season, but considering the absences, the impending road trip, and the crowded field of contenders in the West, the hour is later than it seems.President Donald Trump's 62-page budget blueprint, released to the public on Thursday, would zero out funding for dozens of programs big and small. | AP Photo Trump budget would wipe out dozens of programs
If President Donald Trump has his way, the federal government will stop paying for programs to prevent homelessness, boost the struggling economy of Appalachia and investigate disasters like the 2013 explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant that killed 12 people.
Trump's first budget proposal would wipe out funding for programs that support public radio and television stations and helped create the National Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, as well as those that train nurses, help low-income families manage their energy bills, provide grants to vulnerable urban communities and aid poor countries struggling with the effects of global warming.
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Trump's 62-page budget blueprint, released to the public on Thursday, would zero out funding for dozens of programs big and small, collectively saving taxpayers billions of dollars but setting up a major clash with members of Congress.
But the proposed cuts could anger voters in states that helped Trump win the election. Eliminating funding for restoring the Great Lakes likely won't go over well in Michigan. And cutting off federal money to the Appalachian Regional Commission, which assists communities in the eastern United States, might upset people in West Virginia, which has been a focal point of Trump's promise to rebuild rural America.
In a message to Congress included in the budget proposal, Trump calls his cuts "sensible and rational."
"Every agency and department will be driven to achieve greater efficiency and to eliminate wasteful spending in carrying out their honorable service to the American people," he wrote.
The budget proposal would kill more than 50 programs at the EPA alone, saving $347 million, according to the document.
The blueprint would ax funding for efforts to protect the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay. It would discontinue funding for much of the agency's work on climate change, including former President Barack Obama's regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and climate research and international global warming programs.
Trump's plan also calls for eliminating funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, an Energy Department program that promotes high-risk, high-reward technology. The program, which is modeled on a similar program at the Defense Department that is credited with spawning the internet, is a favorite of many lawmakers in Congress.
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In addition, Trump's proposal takes the first steps toward shifting air traffic control away from the Federal Aviation Administration and to an "an independent, non-governmental organization," a proposal favored by most major U.S. airlines.
The budget plan closely mirrors recommendations released by the conservative Heritage Foundation in February. The Heritage plan similarly called for killing dozens of programs that it labeled as inefficient and wasteful. The word "eliminate" appears 230 times in the Heritage plan.
Heritage is an influential force in the Trump administration, especially when it comes to the budget. Heritage officials — including the group's president, former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint — have briefed Trump and his advisers on its proposals, and dozens of the think tanks staffers served on the presidential transition team and in the administration. Former Heritage staffer Paul Winfree is now the director of budget policy at the White House.
Here's a list of some agencies facing funding elimination:
African Development Foundation
Appalachian Regional Commission
Chemical Safety Board
Corporation for National and Community Service
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Delta Regional Authority
Denali Commission
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Inter-American Foundation
U.S. Trade and Development Agency
Legal Services Corporation
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
Northern Border Regional Commission
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
United States Institute of Peace
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Woodrow Wilson International Center for ScholarsCalifornia has an abundance of poverty and a shortage of housing. Crime, energy prices, rent and the general cost of living are increasing. Our tax burden is one of the highest in America. Californians pay 40 percent more than the national average for their energy. All of this is the predictable result of state laws and regulations that the elites can afford but that make the rest of California poorer.
Call it poverty by design.
One party, the Democrats, enjoys unchallenged control of California government and for a generation has been actively ignoring basic economic principles to implement its progressive policies. Our socioeconomic maladies are squarely, inarguably, the responsibility of the party in power. By every measurement, our standard of living comes up short in comparison to other states. California once led the nation in opportunity, housing, affordability, educational excellence and upward mobility. Now we rank at or near the bottom in nearly every category.
California’s has America’s highest poverty rate at 20.6 percent, according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which experts consider the best measurement of poverty, as it accounts for cost-of-living factors such as taxes, housing and medical costs — in addition to income. In Central Valley communities such as Bakersfield, Delano (Kern County) and Turlock, the poverty rate is even higher.
•Another 20 percent of Californians live in “near-poverty” and struggle to pay for such necessities as food and shelter, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
•13 million of California’s 39 million residents are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the federal-state program to provide medical services for the poor. From the perspective of health care affordability, one-third of Californians are poor.
•$100 has only $88 of actual purchasing power in California, because of our high cost of living.
These outcomes may not be intended, but they aren’t accidental.
The failure to pursue rational water policies, such as expanding our water storage infrastructure, deepens droughts. The result is forced conservation, which requires local water agencies to raise rates to compensate for reduced revenues.
For years, progressives have pushed mandates to increase the number of electric and hybrid vehicles on the road. Because these cars use little or no gasoline, the gas taxes that fund highway and road repair remain flat even as the number of cars increases. Rather than re-prioritizing spending, Sacramento politicians are imposing a huge tax increase on gas and diesel fuel.
Everyone agrees the high cost of housing, whether owned or rented, is a huge contributor to poverty in California. However, the state’s governing elites never ask themselves: “Why we are short 1.5 million housing units? Or why are rents so high and homes so expensive?” It’s not a market defect, but a tangled web of environmental and land-use policies that make it nearly impossible for developers to bring affordable housing to the marketplace.
Imagine government regulations making it so expensive to build cars that automobile manufacturers could only earn a profit by selling luxury vehicles. That will give you an idea of what progressive politicians have done to housing development in California.
Misguided policies from Sacramento force us to pay more than our fellow Americans for the necessities of life: food, housing, energy, transportation. They’ve wiped out swaths of middle-class jobs and are rapidly transforming California into a state of haves and have-nots as the middle class flees to states where the cost of living is lower, and work and thrift are rewarded instead of punished.
It doesn’t matter that Sacramento politicians don’t intend to make Californians poorer and their state more expensive. Their intentions are irrelevant because the reality is that under their reign this state has more poverty and less opportunity than ever before. The reality is the ruling Democratic politicians are building a vanity economy that rich elites can afford to indulge but that poor and working Californians pay for through higher taxes and more expensive housing, energy and services. They earnestly believe their policies will refashion California into a society of sustainable abundance. But like utopian social engineers throughout history, they’re unwilling to take off their ideological blinders and honestly confront the disastrous human results of their actions.
Travis Allen, a Republican, represents Huntington Beach in the state Assembly. He is a candidate for governor.How far the country has come since the fall of apartheid is undeniable, but it could have been so much better
The new South Africa goes on trial again this week. Twice.
On Monday, Oscar Pistorius returned to court to buttress his charge that this was a country so ravaged by crime that he had to arm himself to the teeth in expectation of murderous burglars.
On Wednesday, 25 million registered voters will go to the polls – the first since Nelson Mandela died in December and the fifth in our 20-year-old democracy.
Both events are being watched closely. Pistorius, who rose against massive odds to teach the world a new way of looking at disability, is an obsession for South Africa and the world. And as South Africa votes in a new government, the question niggles: where is the country heading? Can it fulfil its promise as a beacon of prosperity and progressive governance in the world?
This is one of those weeks where South Africa gives watchers across the globe their regular dose of its "one minute before midnight" scenarios: is this the tipping point?
Twenty years after Nelson Mandela cajoled, threatened and shouted down even his own comrades and led us down the path of freedom, his successor Jacob Zuma has been crisscrossing the country campaigning to be re-elected.
In answer to virtually every question, he trots out his party's election slogan: "We have a goooooood story to tell."
The masses imitate him, and so do the middle classes. But how good a story do we have to tell?
If there is one thing South Africans agree on, it is that our country is a far better place than the monstrosity it was before 1994. The fruits of freedom are numerous and real for many of us: a country where we walk proudly, without fear; a full citizenship of the world; a democratic dispensation and constitution to be proud of.
For the government, there is also much to trumpet on economic transformation, on access to health and education, and in relatively harmonious race relations.
For a black man who grew up under apartheid, it is unimaginable to even dare to compare: I grew up with stories of my father and my brother being arrested or harassed because they were in a "white area". We were not human under apartheid, we were a cipher. Now, my humanity and dignity has been restored and – as Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said – the humanity of the perpetrators has also been restored.
So as South Africa celebrates its 20 years of democracy the question is how much better could our story have been. The truth is that the shine is coming off our rainbow nation.
Every day now there are dozens of protests across the country over poor or absent services. Unemployment remains as intractable as it was 20 years ago (36% are out of work). The state of education remains parlous. South Africa is one of the top five most unequal societies in the world today. The economy is anaemic, growing at a mere 1.9% last year compared with averages of 5% across the African continent.
But the shine of the new South Africa really came off in the five years of Zuma's leadership, though. Corruption is rife, with the scandal of the president's private home receiving "security upgrades" of about £20m becoming the main motif of the election.
Other clouds loom. A pernicious secrecy law is awaiting Zuma's signature. The police are under the spotlight after the daylight killing of 34 mineworkers at the Marikana mine in August 2012. A handful of former ANC ministers have become so disgusted with their party they are calling on citizens to vote for smaller parties or spoil their vote.
As Thabo Mbeki, Mandela's successor, said in the early 2000s, South Africa is still a country of two worlds: the first rich and white, the second poor and black.
It is a reality every visitor to our country sees, and which ordinary South Africans are beginning to question. New political parties such as former ANC firebrand Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters – which calls for nationalisation of the economy and expropriation of white land without compensation – are tapping into this disquiet.
A look back at the past 20 years is bittersweet. We have come so far, achieved so much, and yet have fallen so far short of truly transforming our country.
At an election debate, Congress of South African Trade Unions leader Zwelinzima Vavi, a fierce critic of corruption, told a minister who tried to defend Zuma's home improvements: "If you want people to believe in the future then you must be honest about the present."
The truth about South Africa today is that there are elements of a good story, as the ANC puts it. But that story is marred by how much better we could have been – and how much further we could have travelled – had we not allowed the twin evils of corruption and poor leadership to enter and settle into our political firmament.Just because it's open-source doesn't mean that it's secure: That's the message a number of researchers and security mavens are touting about the recently released Diaspora social network. Even though the social site's source code was released in a pre-alpha stage earlier this week, that hasn't stopped various Internet commenters from weighing in on the alleged security holes peppering the service.
The Diaspora developersfour New York University students and a war chest of $200,000 in donations--have publicly acknowledged that the pre-alpha release of its Facebook competitor service still contains various security and feature issues that should be addressed in subsequent versions, like the service's planned Alpha stage that's scheduled for release in October.
That said, The Register's Dan Goodin calls Diaspora, "littered with landmines," based on his interviews with other software enthusiasts and an ever-growing list of security issues being posted to Diaspora's Github launching page--"a combination of Rails Security 101 errors and 'web application programming is hard.'," writes one commenter on Hacker News.
"The bottom line is currently there is nothing that you cannot do to someone's Diaspora account, absolutely nothing," said Patrick McKenzie, a software company owner, in an interview with Goodin. McKenzie has been busy taking to the digital airwaves to warn users against jumping on to any version of Diaspora they find.
"Don't use the #diaspora instances popping up. Don't host it publicly. Don't invite people to do either. It is screamingly unsafe," reads a message he posted to his Twitter account the day after Diaspora's pre-Alpha release.
Joining the anti-Diaspora chorus is a growing argument that said security vulnerabilities should be an expected part of an open-source packagethe point being that, with all the code out in the open, aspiring security fixer-uppers can start hacking away and sealing up the flaws to the betterment of the community as a whole. If users enjoy the service, in theory, then they should be just as excited to participate in its development as Diaspora's actual developers.
But that's certainly not a view shared by all.
"Security does not just happen for open source projects. The notion that it does is one of the more harmful myths in software security," writes Thomas Ptacek via a Hacker News comment. "Open source makes a lot of software security problems easier but slapping a GPL on your codebase and pushing it to Github does not make magical unicorns poop security findings into your mailbox."
Some users and commenters are rising to Diaspora's defense due to the fact that, yes, this is a pre-Alpha release that should come with an expectation that issues are going to exist. However, that still hasn't been enough to give Diaspora a free pass for some in the security worldmainly due to the sheer number of alleged security holes combined with the fact that Diaspora's primary marketing push is that it promises stronger privacy protections than its rival, Facebook.A small army of commentators have already commented on YouTube’s decision to retire Video Responses. But virtually no one seems to have noticed that YouTube has dramatically changed the list of social media sites where you can share YouTube videos. So, marketers should remember that old adage: YouTube giveth and YouTube taketh away.
First, let’s look at what YouTube plans to taketh away: video responses.
The YouTube Creator Blog announced:
Currently video responses have a click-through rate of.0004% — in other words, only 4 out of every 1 million users who sees a video response clicks on it. So, on September 12 we’re going to retire this little-used feature as we work to develop more effective fan engagement tools for creators. The team is focused on enabling you to share video links in comments. Doing this in comments will let creators and viewers add more context to a video, and more context should drive more engagement.
In the meantime, you can continue to encourage fans to upload videos with specific titles, hashtags or descriptions (e.g., Video Response To Taylor Swift’s Video “22”), so you can find these by searching for them. If you want to highlight them, you can use playlists and channel sections instead of displaying these videos below yours. Any video responses you or your fans have made will still be available and discoverable.
Also, to help your audience find more of your channel’s videos we recommend using features like InVideo Programming.
About the only thing missing from this obituary notice was the name of a charity where YouTubers could send donations in lieu of flowers.
Is it worth a few more words to lament the passing of this little-used feature? Not really.
What’s worth commenting on are the features that YouTube has quietly giveth.
YouTube has dramatically expanded the list of social media buttons that appear when you click “Share” underneath a YouTube video. Until recently, all you would see was the Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ buttons – and a “More” option that would display buttons for Orkut, Tumblr, Blogger, MySpace, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Pinterest if you clicked on it.
Now, when you click on “Share” underneath a YouTube video, you’ll see buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, and Odnoklassniki (a Russian social media site). The “More” option is gone – along with the buttons for Orkut, Blogger, and MySpace.
This is a significant change.
It shifts the balance of power away from Orkut, a social networking site that is owned and operated by Google; Blogger, a blog-publishing service which was bought by Google in 2003; and MySpace, a social networking service with a strong music emphasis owned by Specific Media LLC and pop music singer and actor Justin Timberlake. And it makes Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ slightly less exceptional.
And this change shifts the balance of power towards Reddit, a social news and entertainment website; Tumblr, a microblogging platform and social networking website now owned by Yahoo; Pinterest, a pinboard-style photo- and video-sharing website; StumbleUpon, a discovery engine; LinkedIn, a social networking website for people in professional occupations; LiveJournal, one of the web’s most popular early blogging sites which was sold in 2007 to SUP, a Russian firm headed by controversial oligarch Alexander Mamut; and Odnoklassniki, a social network service for classmates and old friends that is popular in Russia and former Soviet Republics.
Now, this shift may not be as significant as the day the Berlin Wall fell (Nov. 9, 1989). However, with more than 1 billion unique users visiting YouTube each month and with over 6 billion hours of video getting watched each month on YouTube, this change is still something that more commentators ought to be commenting about.
Meanwhile, the sections in YouTube’s Creator Playbook which compiled important tips, best practices, and strategies for using Facebook and Twitter have disappeared. All that remains is a page on how to leverage Google+ to build viewership and engage with your audience in new ways.
So, yes, YouTube giveth and YouTube taketh away. But, marketers need to get out into the streets and look beyond the official announcements on the YouTube Creator Blog if they want to discover new opportunities and competitive advantages.
Want to stay on top of the latest search trends? Get top insights and news from our search experts. SubscribePolice investigate whether shooting of three rural activists was linked to efforts to win land also contested by sugar mill owners
Brazilian police are investigating whether the fatal shooting of three rural activists was linked to their effort to win rights to land also contested by owners of a sugar mill.
The activists were shot on Saturday as they got out of a car near a landless workers' camp in the south-western Minas Gerais state.
A five-year-old girl, the granddaughter of two of those who were killed, survived the attack. No one has been arrested, a police spokesman said.
Watchdog groups said police were questioning land activists about the possibility the killings could have resulted from an internal conflict within their movement. The groups rejected that idea and accused landowners of paying gunmen to shoot the activists.
Carlos Calazans, head of the Minas Gerais branch of the federal department of land reform, known as Incra, said police were looking into the land dispute as a possible motive.
"It's definitely one of the theories for the motive behind this barbarous crime," he said. "I've no doubt these activists were summarily executed. But police have to follow all leads until they find the truth."
Calazans said the killed couple approached Incra last year seeking support in various land conflicts in the region, including the one with the mill owners. He said Incra tried to get the owners and activists to agree on the issue a few weeks ago, but the effort was unsuccessful.
Killings over land in Brazil are common, and people rarely face trial for the crimes.
The watchdog group Catholic Land Pastoral says more than 1,150 rural activists have been murdered in Brazil over the past 20 years. The killings are mostly carried out by gunmen hired by loggers, ranchers and farmers to silence protests over illegal logging and land rights, it says. Most of the killings happen in the Amazon region.
Fewer than 100 cases have gone to court since 1988, Catholic Land Pastoral says. About 80 of the hired gunmen have been convicted, while 15 of the men who hired them were found guilty, and only one is currently in prison.
According to Incra, those killed on Saturday were Clestina Leonor Sales Nunes, 48; Milton Santos Nunes da Silva, 52; and Valdir Dias Ferreira, 39.
The girl was apparently the only witness to the killings, which were carried out along a highway near the camp, about 25 miles (40km) south-east of Uberlandia. She told police a car cut off the one she was riding in with the victims, forcing it to stop. Either one or two gunmen then opened fire.
A statement on the Catholic Land Pastoral's website described the three victims as state leaders of the Landless Liberation Movement, one of several rural activist groups that invade land and set up camp, living on what they say is unproductive ground.
Brazil's agrarian reform laws allow the government to seize fallow farmland and distribute it to landless farmers. Nearly 50% of arable land belongs to 1% of the population, according to the government's statistics agency.
The latest killings come just before the month that landless worker movements typically step up invasions of what they say is unused land. The seizures are meant to mark the April 1996 killing of 19 landless activists in Para state.The move shows NATO and Montenegro are denying Russia a veto while progressing towards greater stability in the Balkans.
There are six reasons Americans should feel good that Montenegro — a tiny state of little over 600,000 inhabitants with a military of about 2,000 — will become the 29th NATO ally, as ratified by alliance foreign ministers earlier this month.
First, and most obvious: with tension between Russia and the West at center stage, NATO and Montenegro are denying Russia a veto over their policy. We are standing strong in the face of Russian intimidation. Last fall, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov declared NATO’s expansion to include Montenegro “a mistake, even a provocation” and an “irresponsible policy.” And after Russia invaded Ukraine, when Montenegrin Prime Minister Djukanovic visited Washington and took a public stand with the United States and European Union, Russian officials poured vitriol on him personally, while offering bribes for military access to Montenegro’s ports, providing financial and other support to opposition groups against NATO membership, and imposing counter-sanctions on Montenegrin agricultural products. Last week, Russia declared that they would cancel cooperative “projects” with Montenegro; it is unclear what Moscow meant since the two governments have no current notable joint projects.
But Montenegro is standing firm. Some major Russian private investors, such as oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who invested in Montenegro’s aluminum industry, have been forced out of Montenegro. Its Ministry of Defense is moving to modernize its military with U.S. or European equipment — for example, gradually ditching aircraft that require Russian spare parts and maintenance. Montenegro’s determination and NATO’s decision stand in defense of the sovereign right of states to determine their political, military and economic associations and as a counter to Russian bullying.
Second, this is another step in the U.S.-launched effort to bring stability to the Balkans, going back 20 years to the signing of the Dayton agreement, which brought peace to Bosnia. This work is far from complete. Bosnia remains a weak state, wrought with ethnic political tension. Serbia has yet to recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state. Macedonia is politically and ethnically polarized. But there has been no war in the Balkans since the Kosovo war, which NATO brought to a finish after about three and a half months in 1999. Montenegro becomes the third former Yugoslav state to join after Slovenia (2002) and Croatia (2009 with Albania). As the Balkan state that prides itself on positive relations with its neighbors, NATO membership acknowledges the significance of that achievement for the youngest Balkan state, founded only in 2006 in a peaceful split with Serbia. And this will only serve to encourage Serbia in its EU-led normalization with Kosovo, since Belgrade’s motivation is also obtaining membership, albeit in the EU, not NATO (for the moment; this will likely change).
Third, this NATO expansion, the first since 2009 (and the first for the Obama administration) will provide much-needed encouragement and pressure on the remaining three formally acknowledged NATO aspirants Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Macedonia (with Ukraine as a longer-shot aspirant). The seven-year lapse after the expansionary burst of the 2000s left many in the Balkans and Georgia wondering whether NATO’s so-called “Open Door” had not quietly been closed. Last week’s decision proves this is not the case. Bosnia and Macedonia still have much work to do in order to be ready for NATO membership and the latter has the formal requirement to come to an agreement with Greece over the name of the country (this is the sole stated requirement, but given political dynamics in Macedonia, NATO may also demand more reform). Georgia is ready in many ways for membership; the chief obstacle is Russia’s military occupation of 20 percent of its territory.
Fourth, including Montenegro seals off the entire Adriatic coast for NATO and prevents — in the words of one senior NATO military official — “Kaliningrad on the Mediterranean.” While NATO faces Russian air defenses and missiles in its Baltic Sea enclave, we can now avoid this in the Adriatic; Montenegro will no longer be vulnerable to subtle Russian military occupation, exercised through access to bases and stationing of Russian personnel and equipment.
Fifth, this is good news for Montenegro. As result of NATO requirements, and in support of their membership bid, they professionalized their military. Among other things, the government revamped military education and training and established a military intelligence agency separate from domestic intelligence services. Since 2010, their forces have deployed with U.S. troops to Afghanistan, where they gained valuable military interoperability with NATO. And they were forced to take some action against corruption and to strengthen rule of law. Here, this is only a start; much more will need to be done, perhaps in a more secure post-accession political environment.
Sixth, and finally, as Damon Wilson, Executive Director of the Atlantic Council has pointed out elsewhere, NATO has demonstrated and boosted its own confidence through its invitation to Montenegro: “You don’t enlarge if you don’t have a sense of confidence in your institution.”
This December 2 brought — along with the horrific San Bernardino attacks — some good news for Americans: we have another formal ally in our war against radical Islamic terrorism and another demonstration of the appeal of free-market capitalism, democracy and collective security built on sovereignty and consensus.CLOSE Protesters march from FSU campus to the Capitol to rally against racism and the KKK. Joe Rondone
Buy Photo Protesters burn a confederate flag at the Capitol building after a march against racism and the KKK on Thursday. (Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)Buy Photo
As a car drove by the Florida Capitol playing "Dixie," a brief pause fell over a group of almost 100 activists rallying against recent Ku Klux Klan activity in North Florida.
They would resume their outcry, burning a Confederate flag on the concrete steps of the Old Capitol just moments later.
The rally came in response to leafleting of Leon and Jefferson county neighborhoods with Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan recruiting fliers last month and the arrest last week of two Department of Corrections employees and one former employee linked to the group in a plot to murder a black former inmate.
"This is a racist institution that we have to stand against. We have to fight it," said Nicky Nora, president of the Students for a Democratic Society, which led the march. "We have to tell the Klan that we want them out of our communities, out of our town, out of our public offices."
Brandishing signs reading "Amerikkka the ugly" and "You are not a patriot. You are a terrorist," the crowd drew attention to America's oldest hate group, their connection to some law enforcement agencies in Florida and their recent attempts to make deeper inroads in the Panhandle.
"People ask how can you connect the KKK to police?" said Florida State University student Regina Joseph. "And then you see what happened in the Department of Corrections"
DOC Secretary Julie Jones told a Senate committee this week she knows of no other KKK activity within the department, but sniffing out those who may be involved in extremist groups is hard because the agency is not allowed to ask job applicants about their political affiliations.
Last July, a deputy chief in the Fruitland Park Police Department, about 40 miles north of Orlando, resigned and an officer was fired when the FBI reported the two had KKK ties. Another officer resigned there in 2009 when photos of him surfaced in the KKK's trademark white robe and pointed hood.
Last month, four Fort Lauderdale police officers were fired after they produced a movie trailer called "The Hoods" which depicted hooded KKK members and scenes of racial violence. Also included in the department's internal investigation was a series of text messages between the fired officers filled with racial slurs, including some about their coworkers.
While national experts say the group has weakened from its once prominent stature of millions of members in the 1920s, local citizens were concerned to see recruiting efforts literally coming to their doorstep.
Those attempts are indicative of KKK supporters in the area, experts say, but are not likely linked to an active group in the Tallahassee area. Recruiting fliers can be printed from the group's website.
"A group and an ideology of white supremacy that we thought we had defeated in the 60s is back in the gates of the people," said SDS member Shivaani Ehsan. "They are back in our neighborhoods, and they are back to spread their hate."
Last year, the letters "KKK" were spray painted on three predominantly black churches in Wakulla County plunging the rural area into a discussion about racism in the Panhandle and unity among its citizens.
The TAKKK's national leader, Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona told the Tallahassee Democrat the fliers were a targeted recruitment effort across the Panhandle, but the group is not focused on the hate that once marked the group's history.
Tallahassee Police and the Leon County Sheriff's Office did not investigate the distribution of the fliers in March because the KKK had not violated any laws, despite their upsetting nature.
Some are not as lenient with the message they send.
"I know some people say the KKK has whatever free speech rights. (Expletive) that," said SDS leader Zachary Schultz. "They should not be allowed to spread their hate and racist propaganda in our communities, in our cities, and we will stop them."
Read or Share this story: http://on.tdo.com/1FFgotZPrendergast’s Objections to Toll Reform Don’t Make Any Sense
On WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show this morning, MTA Chairman and CEO Tom Prendergast joined his boss Andrew Cuomo in dumping cold water on the Move NY toll reform plan as a way to fund the transit authority’s capital program. Trouble is, his critiques don’t make much sense.
Lehrer played a clip of Cuomo arguing against toll reform on the radio yesterday, then asked Prendergast what he thought of the idea. The MTA chief said he isn’t being dismissive of the plan and that he’s not opposed to it. He then ticked off what, in his view, are a bunch of reasons to dismiss the plan and oppose it.
First, Prendergast said that Move NY “leaves some bridges free.” Exactly what he’s referring to here is a mystery. Maybe Prendergast is concerned that the plan doesn’t put tolls on the Harlem River bridges. He never explains. “I’m not saying this is my position,” he said, “but there some local elected leaders that are concerned [that] some bridges are left free.”
Then, the MTA head said these mysterious free bridges would lead to toll shopping. “I’m not so sure it accurately predicts what driver behavior will be,” he said of Move NY. “I’ve been other places where people drive a long way out of their way to avoid paying a toll.”
Again, it’s not clear what Prendergast is talking about here. The most fundamental component of Move NY is a consistent toll for driving into the central business district, thereby eliminating the incentive to shop for a free bridge and clog up local streets.
Prendergast was also concerned that Move NY would not provide enough revenue to maintain the existing East River bridges — a cost that’s already paid for in the city’s capital budget.
But Prendergast’s objections don’t stop at the bridges. “There’s also some concerns about what will happen with the 60th Street cordon,” he said, without explaining the problem. “I’ll let others speak to the political process.”
Prendergast was also concerned that toll reform wouldn’t start generating revenue soon enough. “To implement this and see your first dollar of revenue, you measure it in years, not months. You see it in three or four years,” he said. “Let’s not count this capital program dependent on that process.”
Even if it took four years to implement — which Move NY says is unlikely — a portion of the toll revenue could back bonds, which would provide cash for the capital plan more quickly than a purely pay-as-you-go program.
These answers are unlikely to sway the Cuomo administration. Apparently, the governor and his MTA are just not interested in reforming the city’s broken toll system to raise revenue for transit.We are attracted to tales of bravery, courage, and heroism. We read about them in books, comics and on social media. But not every brave act is confined to books or comics. This has been proved by Police Constable Bheem Rao who rescued twenty people stuck inside a multi-storied residential building in Masab Tank area of Hyderabad that caught fire on Monday.
Constable Bheem Rao was on duty in a lane near the building when he was notified by the locals who saw flames coming out of a flat from the first floor of the five-storey structure. He immediately rushed to the spot and realised that the fire had reached the second floor too.
“He barged into the building and helped 20 people who |
case, we can set the GSM band to unlicensed space and set a network name:
OpenBTS> config GSM.Radio.Band 1800 GSM.Radio.Band changed from "900" to "1800" WARNING: GSM.Radio.C0 (51) falls outside the valid range of ARFCNs 512-885 for GSM.Radio.Band (1800) GSM.Radio.Band is static; change takes effect on restart OpenBTS> OpenBTS> config GSM.Radio.C0 870 GSM.Radio.C0 changed from "51" to "870" GSM.Radio.C0 is static; change takes effect on restart OpenBTS> OpenBTS> config GSM.Identity.ShortName MyBTSName
Now we’re going to add new subscribers, so a mobile phone will be able to connect to OpenBTS. From the OpenBTS console, you can see which mobile phones were trying to subscribe, like:
OpenBTS> tmsis IMSI TMSI IMEI AUTH CREATED ACCESSED TMSI_ASSIGNED 123456787890123 - 3210987654321 0 96h 6h 0 123456787890124 - 4210987654321 0 95h 95h 0
Now you know the IMSI, you can use a tool called nmcli.py to add the subscribers:
cd workarea-openbts/openbts/NodeManager python2./nmcli.py sipauthserve subscribers create "phone1" IMSI123456787890123 6055551231 8430f55ba77243bf91cd0212bcbad52a python2./nmcli.py sipauthserve subscribers create "phone2" IMSI123456787890124 6055551231 edb70d6c162146bb87e366c0f72bcc9a
The first parameter is a unique name to identify the subscriber, the second is the IMSI code, which the tmsis CLI command listed. The IMSI can also be found on the SIM cardholder if you ordered OpenBTS preprogrammed SIM’s. The third parameter (MSISDN) is a unique arbitrary number within the network. We use the preferred phone number here. The last parameter is the Ki-code. This is a secret code stored on the SIM. It is used to encrypt GSM calls with using liba53. The Ki-code is also listed on the SIM cardholder if you ordered preprogrammed SIM’s. Calls are not encrypted if you omit this value, but you will be able to register.
Edit both sip.conf and extensions.conf and change the IMSI to the real values and restart Asterisk.
Testing mobile calls
Let’s see if two test mobiles can connect to OpenBTS (fingers crossed). Check your phone’s mobile operators setup and see if the network name (the short code) or a different unusual name (like testplmn) is listed between the operators. Pick the name and see if the phone can register on the network. Let’s test if we can send an SMS to the phone from the OpenBTS console:
sendsms 123456787890123 6055551232 Hi there!!! sendsms 123456787890124 6055551231 Hi there!!!
Now check if an SMS arrives from one mobile to the other. Keep an eye on the Asterisk console (using verbose logging). See if you can call 6055551232 from 6055551231. You now have your own BTS receiving and accepting calls with an Asterisk backend that routes your calls. In my current setup on an open workspace, the acceptable range seems to be about 10/20 meters. There are some settings which allows you to tweak the radio output, which can result in better radio traffic, but this is out of the scope of this article.
Browser calling
Now, let’s move on to the last part; calling from a browser to a mobile phone. I made an example SIP.js VoIP client so you don’t have to hack it yourself. Install like:
cd workarea - openbts / git clone https://github.com/wearespindle/dialerjs cd dialerjs npm install gulp js scss watch
Change the host variable in the source JavaScript at /src/index.js, so it connects to the right host. Open Chrome or Firefox on your LAN IP at the following port: https://123.123.123.123:8999/. Accept the self-signed insecure certificate. Also, check out if Asterisk’s HTTPS server is running on https://123.123.123.123:8089/httpstatus. Accept the certificate here. You will get an insecure response error in the browser if you try to connect to the Asterisk HTTPS/Websocket server if you don’t accept the certificate first!
The default password should match this article’s settings. Try to login as 1000 and see if you can make a call to 1111 or 6003. You should hear some audio. 6003 may require some additional music-on-hold settings in Asterisk. Watch the Asterisk console while you’re testing. Now try to call a mobile phone like 6055551231 or another browser client that’s logged in as 2000.
The browser uses SIP over a websocket to negotiate a DTLS-SRTP connection to Asterisk. You can also run the VoIP client in Electron if you have it installed:
npm run start
Now you also have a simple desktop VoIP client! It uses a setting to ignore self-signed certificates, so there is no need to accept the certificate here. SIP.js can also run in Node.js, so you can also create server-side VoIP clients if you would like to.
Lessons learned
So, that’s a wrap! I wouldn’t have thought that a browser could connect to a GSM over my own BTS when I got started! I hope you found this article useful. It sure was a lot of fun to hack on and a quite learningful experience to me! I learned some things during the process:
SDR is how radio protocols will be shaped in the (near) future.
OpenBTS seems a bit outdated, but it’s stable to run your own BTS on. I would also definitely dive into the Osmocom project to learn more about BTS software.
I barely scraped the surface of new terms and knowledge that involves running OpenBTS. Especially when it comes to running multiple OpenBTS instances, handovers, etc..
OpenBTS interacts nicely with out-of-the-box Asterisk.
Asterisk is a versatile software project, able to connect several sources together in a flexible manner, as long it talks SIP and RTP.
SIP.js is a very flexible and mature SIP client and makes it a breeze to make a WebRTC and websocket powered VoIP client.
I also didn’t know that after SIP negotiation over a websocket, the browser fires up a DTLS-SRTP connection straight to Asterisk. I always thought that the browser would indirectly be connected by using a websocket transport to some gateway to transfer the media to the final destination. To learn more about radio and SDR, I would highly recommend installing GNURadio:
cd ~/projects/radio mkdir workarea - gnuradio cd workarea - gnuradio git clone --recursive https://github.com/gnuradio/gnuradio cd gnuradio git checkout v3.7.10.1 mkdir build cd build cmake../ make sudo make install sudo ldconfig
I made an example project from other examples that’s using GNURadio to fire up a FM radio. Reception isn’t that good, but that’s probably because the antenna’s are optimized for GSM bandwidth.Bear in mind, distinguished ladies and gentlemen of this sub-committee, these events were occuring while the IRS was subjecting me to multiple rounds of abusive inquiries, with requests to provide every Facebook and Twitter entry I’d every posted, questions about my political aspirations, and demands to know the names of every group I’d ever made presentations to, the content of what I’d said, and where I intended to speak for the coming year. The answers to these sorts of questions are not of interest to the typical IRS analyst, but they are of great interest to a political machine that puts its own survival above the civil liberties of any private citizen.
This government attacked me because of my political beliefs, but I refuse to be cast as a victim; not to the IRS, not to the FBI, not to OSHA, not to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or to any other government agency. I am not a victim, because to be a victim is to accept that I have no options. I do have options and I intend to use them all to the fullest extent of my capabilities.
As an American citizen, I am part of a country that still believes in freedom of speech, and so I will continue to speak out; here in Congress and all across this country, I will continue to press in every legal way possible, as I did by filing suit against the Internal Revenue Service. No American citizen should be willing to accept a government that uses its power against its own people.
[VIDEO STOPS HERE]
I also refuse to let a precedent be set that allows Members of Congress, particularly the Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to misrepresent this governing body in an effort to demonize and intimidate citizens. Three times, Representative Elijah Cummings sent letters to True the Vote, demanding much of the same information that the IRS had requested. Hours after sending letters, heBendigo Street in Collingwood has been a "ghost street" for the past 18 months. That was, until squatters moved in.
Rows of vacant houses have been home to nothing more than dust and cobwebs since the Victorian Government acquired 17 properties. They were supposed to be demolished to make way for a sound barrier for the now defunct East West link.
But those empty homes came to life again on Wednesday morning.
Occupiers are staging a sit in, as part of an organised protest against the waste of much needed inner-city housing.
About 50 homeless people and members of the Homeless Persons Union Victoria are protesting at several of the empty homes that are now publicly owned. They have moved into the street, bringing couches, gas cooking burners and placards with them.Published on 4 April 1755[1] and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.
There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas (£1,575), equivalent to about £240,000 in 2019.[2] Johnson took seven years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. He did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life.
Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who laboured under anything like the disadvantages in a comparable length of time".[3]
Background [ edit ]
In earlier times, books had been regarded with something approaching veneration, but by the mid-eighteenth century this was no longer the case. The rise of literacy among the general public, combined with the technical advances in the mechanics of printing and bookbinding, meant that for the first time, books, texts, maps, pamphlets and newspapers were widely available to the general public at a reasonable cost. Such an explosion of the printed word demanded a set pattern of grammar, definition, and spelling for those words. This could be achieved by means of an authoritative dictionary of the English language. In 1746, a consortium of London's most successful printers, including Robert Dodsley and Thomas Longman – none could afford to undertake it alone – set out to satisfy and capitalise on this need by the ever-increasing reading and writing public.
Johnson's dictionary was not the first English dictionary, nor even among the first dozen. Over the previous 150 years more than twenty dictionaries had been published in England, the oldest of these being a Latin-English "wordbook" by Sir Thomas Elyot published in 1538.
The next to appear was by Richard Mulcaster, a headmaster, in 1583. Mulcaster compiled what he termed "a generall table [of eight thousand words] we commonlie use...[yet] It were a thing verie praise worthy...if som well learned...would gather all words which we use in the English tung...into one dictionary..."[4]
In 1598 an Italian–English dictionary by John Florio was published. It was the first English dictionary to use quotations ("illustrations") to give meaning to the word; in none of these dictionaries so far were there any actual definitions of words. This was to change, to a small extent, in schoolmaster Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall, published in 1604. Though it contained only 2,449 words, and no word beginning with the letters W, X, or Y, this was the first monolingual English dictionary.
Several more dictionaries followed: in Latin, English, French and Italian. Benjamin Martin's Lingua Britannica Reformata (1749) and Ainsworth's Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (1737) are both significant, in that they define entries in separate senses, or aspects, of the word. In English (among others), John Cowell's Interpreter, a law dictionary, was published in 1607, Edward Phillips' The new world of English words came out in 1658 and a dictionary of 40,000 words had been prepared in 1721 by Nathan Bailey, though none was as comprehensive in breadth or style as Johnson's.
The problem with these dictionaries was that they tended to be little more than poorly organised and poorly researched glossaries of "hard words": words that were technical, foreign, obscure or antiquated. But perhaps the greatest single fault of these early lexicographers was, as historian Henry Hitchings put it, that they "failed to give sufficient sense of [the English] language as it appeared in use."[5] In that sense Dr. Johnson's dictionary was the first to comprehensively document the English lexicon.
Johnson's preparation [ edit ]
Johnson's dictionary was prepared at 17 Gough Square, London, an eclectic household, between the years of 1746 and 1755. By 1747 Johnson had written his Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language, which spelled out his intentions and proposed methodology for preparing his document. He clearly saw benefit in drawing from previous efforts, and saw the process as a parallel to legal precedent (possibly influenced by Cowell):
I shall therefore, since the rules of stile, like those of law, arise from precedents often repeated, collect the testimonies of both sides, and endeavour to discover and promulgate the decrees of custom, who has so long possessed whether by right or by usurpation, the sovereignty of words.
Johnson's Plan received the patronage of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield but not to Johnson's pleasure.[6] Chesterfield did not care about praise, but was instead interested by Johnson's abilities.[7] Seven years after first meeting Johnson to discuss the work, Chesterfield wrote two anonymous essays in The World that recommended the Dictionary.[7] He complained that the English language was lacking structure and argued:
We must have recourse to the old Roman expedient in times of confusion, and chose a dictator. Upon this principle, I give my vote for Mr Johnson to fill that great and arduous post.[8]
However, Johnson did not appreciate the tone of the essay, and he felt that Chesterfield had not made good on his promise to be the work's patron.[8] In a letter, Johnson explained his feelings about the matter:
Seven years, my lord, have now past since I waited in your outward rooms or was repulsed from your door, during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before... Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind: but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not want it.[9]
The text [ edit ]
A Dictionary of the English Language was somewhat large and very expensive. Its pages were 18 inches (46 cm) tall and nearly 20 inches (51 cm) wide. The paper was of the finest quality available, the cost of which ran to nearly £1,600; more than Johnson had been paid to write the book. Johnson himself pronounced the book "Vasta mole superbus" ("Proud in its great bulk").[10] No bookseller could possibly hope to print this book without help; outside a few special editions of the Bible no book of this heft and size had even been set to type.
The title page reads:
A
DICTIONARY
of the
ENGLISH LANGUAGE:
in which
The WORDS are deduced from their ORIGINALS,
and
ILLUSTRATED in their DIFFERENT SIGNIFICATIONS
by
EXAMPLES from the beſt WRITERS.
To which are prefixed,
A HISTORY of the LANGUAGE,
and AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
By SAMUEL JOHNSON, A.M.
In TWO Volumes
VOL. I
The words "Samuel Johnson" and "English Language" were printed in red; the rest was printed in black. The preface and headings were set in 4.6 mm "English" type, the text—double columned—was set in 3.5 mm pica. This first edition of the dictionary contained a 42,773-word list, to which only a few more were added in subsequent editions. One of Johnson's important innovations was to illustrate the meanings of his words by literary quotation, of which there are around 114,000. The authors most frequently cited by Johnson include Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden. For example:
OPULENCE
Wealth; riches; affluence
"There in full opulence a banker dwelt, Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt; His sideboard glitter'd with imagin'd plate, And his proud fancy held a vast estate." -- Jonathan Swift
Furthermore, Johnson, unlike Bailey, added notes on a word's usage, rather than being merely descriptive.
Unlike most modern lexicographers, Johnson introduced humour or prejudice into quite a number of his definitions. Among the best-known are:
"Excise: a hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid" [11]
"Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words" [12]
"Oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people"[13]
A much less well-known example is:
"Monsieur: a term of reproach for a Frenchman"[14]
He included whimsical little-known words, such as:
"Writative – A word of Pope's, not to be imitated: "Increase of years makes men more talkative but less writative; to that degree I now write letters but of plain how d'ey's.""[15]
On a more serious level, Johnson's work showed a heretofore unseen meticulousness. Unlike all the proto-dictionaries that had come before, painstaking care went into the completeness when it came not only to "illustrations" but also to definitions as well:
"Turn" had 16 definitions with 15 illustrations
"Time" had 20 definitions with 14 illustrations
"Put" ran more than 5,000 words spread over 3 pages
"Take" had 134 definitions, running 8,000 words, over 5 pages[16]
The original goal was to publish the dictionary in two folio volumes: A–K and L–Z. But that soon proved unwieldy, unprofitable, and unrealistic. Subsequent printings ran to four volumes; even these formed a stack 10 inches (25 cm) tall, and weighed in at nearly 21 pounds (9.5 kg).[citation needed] In addition to the sheer physical heft of Johnson's dictionary, came the equally hefty price: £4/10/- (equivalent to approximately £687 in 2019).[2] So discouraging was the price that by 1784, thirty years after the first edition was published, when the dictionary had by then run through five editions, only about 6,000 copies were in circulation—an average sale of 200 books a year for thirty years.[citation needed]
Johnson's etymologies would be considered poor by modern standards, and he gave little guide to pronunciation; one example being "Cough: A convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity. It is pronounced coff". Much of his dictionary was prescriptivist. It was also linguistically conservative, advocating traditional spellings such as publick rather than the simpler spellings that would be favoured 73 years later by Noah Webster.
In spite of its shortcomings, the dictionary was far and away the best of its day. Its scope and structure were carried forward in dictionaries that followed, including Noah Webster's Webster's Dictionary in 1828 and the Oxford English Dictionary later in the same century.
Reception history [ edit ]
Initial reception [ edit ]
From the beginning there was universal appreciation not only of the content of the Dictionary but also of Johnson's achievement in single-handedly creating it: "When Boswell came to this part of Johnson's life, more than three decades later, he pronounced that 'the world contemplated with wonder so stupendous a work achieved by one man, while other countries had thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies'."[17] "The Dictionary was considered, from the moment of its inception, to be Johnson's, and from the time of its completion it was Johnson's Dictionary—his book and his property, his monument, his memorial."[18]
Immediately after publication "The Dictionary was enthusiastically written up in important periodicals such as the London Magazine and—none too surprisingly—the Gentleman's Magazine. In the latter it received an eight-page notice".[19] Reviews, such as they were, proved generous in tone: "Of the less positive assessments the only properly judicious one came from Adam Smith in the pro-Whig Edinburgh Review... he wished that Johnson 'had oftener passed his own censure upon those words which are not of approved use, though sometimes to be met with in authors of no mean name'. Furthermore, Johnson's approach was not'sufficiently grammatical'".[20]
Despite the Dictionary's critical acclaim, Johnson's general financial situation continued in its dismal fashion for some years after 1755: "The image of Johnson racing to write Rasselas to pay for his mother's funeral, romantic hyperbole though it is, conveys the precariousness of his existence, almost four years after his work on the Dictionary was done. His financial uncertainties continued. He gave up the house in Gough Square in March 1759, probably for lack of funds. Yet, just as Johnson was plunging into another trough of despondency, the reputation of the Dictionary at last brought reward. In July 1762 Johnson was granted a state pension of £300 a year by the twenty-four-year-old monarch, George III. The pension did not make him rich, but it ensured he would no longer have to grub around for the odd guinea."[21]
Criticism [ edit ]
As lexicography developed, faults were found with Johnson's work: "From an early stage there were noisy detractors. Perhaps the loudest of them was John Horne Tooke... Not content to pronounce it 'imperfect and faulty', he complained that it was 'one of the most idle performances ever offered to the public', that its author 'possessed not one single requisite for the undertaking', that its grammatical and historical parts were'most truly contemptible performances', and that 'nearly one third... is as much the language of the Hottentots as of the English'."[22] "Horace Walpole summed up for the unbelievers when he pronounced at the end of the eighteenth century, 'I cannot imagine that Dr Johnson's reputation will be very lasting.' His dictionary was 'a surprising work for one man', but 'the task is too much for one man, and... a society should alone pretend to publish a standard dictionary.' Walpole's reservations notwithstanding, the admirers out-numbered the detractors, and the reputation of the Dictionary was repeatedly boosted by other philologists, lexicographers, educationalists and word detectives."[23]
Johnson's dictionary was made when etymology was largely based on guesswork. His Classical leanings led him to prefer spellings that pointed to Latin or Greek sources, "while his lack of sound scholarship prevented him from detecting their frequent errors". For example, he preferred the spelling ache over ake as he wrongly thought it came from the Greek achos. Some of his spelling choices were also inconsistent: "while retaining the Latin p in receipt he left it out of deceit; he spelled deign one way and disdain another; he spelled uphill but downhil, muckhill but dunghil, instill but distil, inthrall but disenthral".[24]
Boswell[25] relates that "A lady once asked him [Johnson] how he came to define pastern as the knee of a horse: instead of making an elaborate reply, as she expected, he at once replied, 'Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance.'" On the same page, Boswell notes that Johnson's definition of network ("Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections")[26] "has often been quoted with sportive malignity, as obscuring a thing in itself very plain."
Influence in Britain [ edit ]
Despite the criticisms, "The influence of the Dictionary was sweeping. Johnson established both a methodology for how dictionaries should be put together and a paradigm for how entries should be presented. Anyone who sought to create a dictionary, post-Johnson, did so in his shadow."[27] "In his history of the Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester asserts of its eighteenth-century predecessor that 'by the end of the century every educated household had, or had access to, the great book. So firmly established did it swiftly become that any request for "The Dictionary" would bring forth Johnson and none other.' 'One asked for The Dictionary,' writes Winchester,'much as one might demand The Bible.'"[28] One of the first editors of the OED, James Murray, acknowledged that many of Johnson's explanations were adopted without change, for 'When his definitions are correct, and his arrangement judicious, it seems to be expedient to follow him.'... In the end the OED reproduced around 1,700 of Johnson's definitions, marking them simply 'J.'."[29]
Reputation abroad [ edit ]
Johnson's influence was not confined to Britain and English: "The president of the Florentine Accademia declared that the Dictionary would be 'a perpetual Monument of Fame to the Author, an Honour to his own Country in particular, and a general Benefit to the Republic of Letters'. This was no empty commendation. Johnson's work served as a model for lexicographers abroad. It is no surprise that his friend Giuseppe Baretti chose to make the Dictionary the model for his Italian—English dictionary of 1760, and for his Spanish dictionary nearly two decades later.[30] But there are numerous examples of influence beyond Johnson's own circle. His work was translated into French and German."[31] And "In 1777, when Ferdinando Bottarelli published a pocket dictionary of Italian, French and English (the three languages side by side), his authorities for the French and Italian words were the works of the French and Italian academies: for the English he used Johnson."[32]
Influence in America [ edit ]
The Dictionary was exported to America. "The American adoption of the Dictionary was a momentous event not just in its history, but in the history of lexicography. For Americans in the second half of the eighteenth century, Johnson was the seminal authority on language, and the subsequent development of American lexicography was coloured by his fame."[32] For American lexicographers the Dictionary was impossible to ignore: "America's two great nineteenth-century lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, argued fiercely over Johnson's legacy... In 1789 [Webster] declared that 'Great Britain, whose children we are, and whose language we speak, should no longer be our standard; for the taste of her writers is already corrupted, and her language on the decline.'"[33] "Where Webster found fault with Johnson, Joseph Worcester saluted him... In 1846 he completed his Universal and Critical Dictionary of the English Language. He defended Johnson's work, arguing that 'from the time of its publication, [it] has been, far more than any other, regarded as the standard for the language'."[34] Notwithstanding the evolution of lexicography in America, "The Dictionary has also played its part in the law, especially in the United States. Legislators are much occupied with ascertaining 'first meanings', with trying to secure the literal sense of their predecessors' legislation... Often it is a matter of historicizing language: to understand a law, you need to understand what its terminology meant to its original architects... as long as the American Constitution remains intact, Johnson's Dictionary will have a role to play in American law."[35]
Folio and Abridged editions [ edit ]
Folio and Abridged Dictionaries together Samuel Johnson'sandtogether
Folio and Abridged Dictionaries of 1755 and 1756 by Samuel Johnson Close up of pages for M entries in theandof 1755 and 1756 by Samuel Johnson
Johnson's famous dictionary came out in two forms.
The first was the 1755 Folio edition, which came in two large volumes on 4 April. The folio edition also features full literary quotes by those authors that Johnson quoted, such as Dryden and Shakespeare. It was followed a few weeks later by a second edition published in 165 weekly parts. The third edition was published in 1765, but it was the fourth, which came out in 1773 which included significant revisions by Johnson of the original work.[36]
The Abridged edition came out in 1756 in two octavo volumes with entries, "abstracted from the folio edition by the author",[37] laid out as two columns per page. The abridged version did not feature the literary quotes, just the author quoted. This made it cheaper to produce and buy. It sold over a thousand copies a year for the next 30 years bringing "The Dictionary" to the reach of every literate home.[38]
Modern editions [ edit ]
Johnson's Dictionary has been available in replica editions for some years. The entire first Folio edition is available on A Dictionary of the English Language[39] as an electronic scan.
The Preface to the Dictionary is available on Project Gutenberg.[40] In addition, a scan of the 6th (1785) edition can be found at the Internet Archive in its two volumes.[41][42]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The Samsung Galaxy S5's 16-megapixel camera is one of its best assets, but it's also turned into something of a liability for the company just weeks after launch. Complaints across internet forums have documented a major flaw with the camera on some devices — particularly the Verizon Wireless model — that renders the shooter useless.
According to reports, a "camera failure" error has been randomly popping up for some new owners. There's no obvious cause behind the bug, but once the error is received, the camera hardware becomes permanently disabled. Users have taken afflicted S5 phones back to carrier stores and Samsung's own specialty sections at Best Buy in hopes of bringing the camera back to life, but only a physical exchange for a new device has remedied the problem so far.
Samsung has now confirmed that it's aware of the reports and is actively trying to assist impacted customers. In a statement, a company spokesperson told The Verge, "We have learned that a limited number of Galaxy S5 devices may have an issue that causes 'Camera Failure' pop-up error message." S5 owners with a busted camera are asked to call 1-888-987-4357 to arrange an exchange under Samsung's warranty, or they can visit their respective carrier for a swap. Verizon is also doing its part to spread the message, as seen below. The complaints haven't swelled to a crisis quite yet, so you probably shouldn't let the early hiccup sway you away from Samsung's flagship if you were planning to purchase it.by Ron Paul
This week the House passed an $819 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is d�j� vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There are many red flags that I have found in this bill.
At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.
To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal �medical privacy� rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.
$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.
$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to �faith-and-community� based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.
Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into �green jobs�. $200 million to �encourage� electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can�t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for �research in potentially revolutionary technologies� in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.
This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.
There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill � that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.
Dr. Paul is a Republican congressman from Texas.Researchers at the University of Bath have developed an innovative miniature fuel cell that can generate electricity from urine, creating an affordable, renewable and carbon-neutral way of generating power.
Cheap, renewable electricity for those in need
In the near future this device could provide a means of generating much needed electricity to remote areas at very little cost, each device costs just £1-£2. With growing global pressures to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and the associated greenhouse gas emissions, microbial fuel cells could be an exciting alternative.
A microbial fuel cell is a device that uses natural biological processes of ‘electric’ bacteria to turn organic matter, such as urine, into electricity. These fuel cells are efficient and relatively cheap to run, and produce nearly zero waste compared to other methods of electricity generation.
In practice, urine will pass through the microbial fuel cell for the reaction to happen. From here, electricity is generated by the bacteria which can then be stored or used to directly power electrical devices.
Smaller, more powerful & cheaper
The research team from the University’s Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemistry and the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT), have worked with Queen Mary University of London and the Bristol Bioenergy Centre, to devise this new kind of microbial fuel cell that is smaller, more powerful and cheaper than other similar devices.
This novel fuel cell developed by the researchers, measures one inch squared in size and uses a carbon catalyst at the cathode which is derived from glucose and ovalbumin, a protein found in egg white. This biomass-derived catalyst is a renewable and much cheaper alternative to platinum, commonly used in other microbial fuel cells.
The researchers worked on the cell’s design to maximize the power that could be generated. By increasing the cell’s electrodes from 4mm to 8mm, the power output was increased tenfold. Furthermore, by stacking multiple units together, the power was proportionally increased.
Currently, a single microbial fuel cell can generate 2 Watts per cubic metre, enough to power a device such as a mobile phone. Whilst this value is not comparable with other alternative technologies such as hydrogen or solar fuel cells and other methods of bioenergy digesters, the significant advantage of this technology is its extremely cheap production cost and its use of waste as a fuel, a fuel that will never run out and does not produce harmful gasses.
The research team is now looking at ways of improving the power output of the microbial fuel cell and is confident that by optimising the design of |
in smaller annual "raises" for seniors.
The taxation of Social Security benefits would begin to phase out in 2045, and disappear completely by the year 2054.
Spouses and children of higher-earning retired and disabled individuals would have a cap placed on their monthly benefits.
The retirement earnings test, which allows the SSA to withhold some or all of your benefits if you earn too much within a given year and claim benefits before reaching full retirement age, would be eliminated
COLAs would be frozen for the wealthy beginning in Dec. 2018.
Lastly, minimum benefits for low-income retired working Americans would be lifted.
The last point, a benefits hike for low-income retirees, might shock a few people, but this plan epitomizes the path Republicans would prefer to take with Social Security. Namely, raising the full retirement age to account for lengthening life expectancies, adjusting COLA to the Chained CPI, and ending the taxation of benefits.
But this is far from the only solution that would work on Capitol Hill – and that's the problem.
The Democrats have a workable Social Security plan, too
In April, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) reintroduced the Social Security Act 2100, which was first presented back in 2014. This plan, like Johnson's, would eliminate Social Security's 75-year budgetary shortfall.
Larson's plan would:
Increase the primary insurance amount formula, resulting in higher payouts to beneficiaries.
Switch the COLA to the CPI for the Elderly (CPI-E). The CPI-E only takes into account the spending of households with persons aged 62 and up, meaning it would be expected to be more reflective of the higher medical and housing costs seniors face compared to middle-aged working Americans. In short, the CPI-E would lead to bigger annual "raises."
Minimum annual benefits would be raised to 125% of the federal poverty level.
The taxation threshold on Social Security would be increased, since they haven't been adjusted for inflation in 34 years.
The payroll tax would be reinstituted on earned income above $400,000. Currently all earned income between $0.01 and $127,200 (as of 2017) is subject to the payroll tax, with any earned income beyond $127,200 free and clear of it.
Gradually increases the payroll tax for all working Americans by 1.2% (or 2.4% for the self-employed) over a 24-year period.
Since both parties have a plan that works, neither has been willing to back down or work with the other party. Thus we have our stalemate on Social Security and a rapidly approaching asset reserve exhaustion date.
If Congress manages to come to a consensus on Social Security reforms, given how long it's been since any meaningful reforms were enacted, Trump would probably have no choice but to consider signing it into law. Whether it happens under the Trump administration or not, change is eventually coming to the Social Security program.Months after the GOP primary came to an end, Mitt Romney finally grew comfortable touting his Massachusetts health care law, even though he couldn’t really use it effectively as an asset on the campaign trail.
“[D]on’t forget — I got everybody in my state insured,” Romney said in an interview three weeks ago. “One hundred percent of the kids in our state had health insurance. I don’t think there’s anything that shows more empathy and care about the people of this country than that kind of record.”
But there’s a tragic plot twist in this father-son reunion tale. Though he clearly takes pride in the accomplishment — and as recently as 2008 had hoped to run for president as a candidate uniquely suited to take the program nationwide — the national health reforms he is now promising to enact in 2013 would deeply, perhaps fatally, undermine his greatest achievement in public life.Like the Affordable Care Act, Romney’s Massachusetts law relies on adequate federal funding to provide subsidies, and an individual mandate — to pull younger, healthier people into the insurance risk pool and hold premiums down. Romney’s promised reforms as President — specifically his support for deep cuts to Medicaid and his call to allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines — threaten that foundation.
“If Romney block grants Medicaid, the question with our Commonwealth Care system is just the money question. Would he give us the money we need to make that work?” says Jonathan Gruber, an MIT health care expert who helped design the Massachusetts law.”[For] the rest of our market, it essentially would unravel what the mandate would do. We’d be back to where we were before the mandate.”
Unlike the ACA, the Massachusetts law has two separate markets — one for people living under 300 percent of the poverty level and thus qualify for insurance subsidies; one for people above that threshold.
The subsidized pool is called Commonwealth Care. For that market to work, Massachusetts relies on the federal government, via Medicaid, to cover half the cost of the generous subsidies it provides to lower income individuals. If Romney were to block grant Medicaid and cut its spending as dramatically as he’s signaled he would, Massachusetts would slowly lose those dollars.
“[I[n the long run we would lose the federal money that makes this program possible,” Gruber said. “Remember that the feds pay for half of our program. It isn’t clear if the state would be willing to pay 100% of the costs if the feds pull this funding.”
“I’m not sure how viable that plan would be if they block granted Medicaid,” said Timothy Jost, a health care expert at Washington and Lee University law school.
That’s one of two spears Romney is pointing at his own health care law. The other is aimed at the individual mandate.
So what’s the threat there? If Romney signs a bill allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines, he’ll compromise the integrity of the mandate, or pre-empt it altogether, causing his own law to unravel.
“A lot would depend on what the actual legislation said,” says Samuel Bagenstos, a professor of law at the University of Michigan who knows the Massachusetts reforms well. “The legislation could be written to preempt any state mandates. If not it would still encourage or facilitate the unraveling of the Commonwealth Care system.”
If a federal law allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines pre-empted the individual mandate in Massachusetts, Romneycare would begin to come apart away.
“Some of the proposals in the past have often been specifically aimed at pre-empting state mandates,” Jost said. “That’s the main driver of selling across state lines is you don’t have to comply with state mandate. It’s a huge cause for concern.”
But even if the state-lines law was silent on the individual mandate, the consequences for Romneycare could still be quite damaging.
Here’s why.
Most new entrants into the Massachusetts insurance markets receive subsidies. But a substantial number of them pay the full cost of their premiums — half in a system called Commonwealth Care, the other half directly from private insurance carriers.
If out of state insurers — free to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions — began selling insurance to people in Massachusetts, young, healthy people currently in the Commonwealth Care system could jump ship leaving older, sicker people stuck with skyrocketing premiums.
“People who didn’t have pre-existing conditions would buy insurance from states that didn’t mandate coverage of people with pre-existing conditions,” Bagenstos said. “Even if you have an individual mandate in Massachusetts, it’d no longer require people without pre-existing conditions to be in the same pool as people with pre-existing conditions.”
Gruber agrees with this analysis.
“There are no subsidies in this market, so young healthies would have every incentive to exit,” he said. “We could end up back where we were before the mandate — a market that just has old and sick [people paying] incredibly high prices.”
But John McDonough, a Harvard health policy expert and another architect of Romney’s Massachusetts law takes a less grim view.
“It would depend on how such a law was written and how it would affect all state insurance mandates, not just those in Massachusetts,” he wrote in an email. “An individual who purchased a policy across state lines would still be legally subject to the requirements of the MA health reform law with it’s ‘minimum creditable coverage’ requirements … unless the ‘states’ rights’ supporting President Romney and Congress chose to override such state requirements and prerogatives.”
Absent an explicit pre-emption, he suspects that the Commonwealth Choice system would survive — because, he noted, allowing the sale of insurance across state lines “is the silliest and most uninformed health policy idea I’ve seen in about 30 years. Just dumb.”
He illustrated with a hypothetical.
“OK, I can buy a health insurance policy from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, lucky me!” he writes. “But with what providers in Massachusetts does BCB of A have contracts to pay for services? None.
And if they come to Partners Health Care or to Boston Medical Center or any other, and ask for a contract, what incentive do the providers have to give them any kind of a break? Zero. And that’s what accounts for nearly all the cost of the premiums. So the out of state plans, if they have contracts, will pay the premium rate for the services their enrollees have, meaning their premiums will be higher than anything currently prevailing in the Massachusetts market. And how many Massachusetts residents will want to pay super high premiums for Alabama BCBS? Nobody. Which is precisely why, when Georgia opened up their market for out of state plans earlier this year, no one showed up to play.
Romney’s spokesman and policy director did not respond to a request for comment. If he’s elected, Romney could simply oppose any legislation that undermines his prior legacy. But his zealous quest for the nomination, and his selection of Paul Ryan as a running mate, have aligned him with policies which do just that.In a report that aired on April 27, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl expressed surprise that part of the computer system responsible for controlling the launch of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles relied on data loaded from 8-inch floppy disks. Most of the young officers stationed at the launch control center had never seen a floppy disk before they became "missileers."
An Air Force officer showed Stahl one of the disks, marked “Top Secret,” which is used with the computer that handles what was once called the Strategic Air Command Digital Network (SACDIN), a communication system that delivers launch commands to US missile forces. Beyond the floppies, a majority of the systems in the Wyoming US Air Force launch control center (LCC) Stahl visited dated back to the 1960s and 1970s, offering the Air Force’s missile forces an added level of cyber security, ICBM forces commander Major General Jack Weinstein told 60 Minutes.
“A few years ago we did a complete analysis of our entire network,” Weinstein said. “Cyber engineers found out that the system is extremely safe and extremely secure in the way it's developed.”
However, not all of the Minuteman launch control centers’ aging hardware is an advantage. The analog phone systems, for example, often make it difficult for the missileers to communicate with each other or with their base. The Air Force commissioned studies on updating the ground-based missile force last year, and it's preparing to spend $19 million this year on updates to the launch control centers. The military has also requested $600 million next year for further improvements.Warner Brothers
They say that even the longest journey begins with a single step, and Peter Jackson has finally reached that step on his movie adaptations of “The Hobbit” where cameras are (metaphorically) rolling, actors are performing their parts and footage is being gathered that will someday arrive in your local cinema. Warner Brothers announced on Monday that production had begun in Wellington, New Zealand, on Mr. Jackson’s two-film version of J. R. R. Tolkien‘s “Hobbit” novel, a project that has previously been stalled by the loss of the director Guillermo del Toro; a battle between Mr. Jackson and labor unions in New Zealand and Australia over hiring practices for the films; and, just when things finally seemed to be getting on track, an emergency surgery for Mr. Jackson to repair a perforated ulcer.
In a statement, Warner Brothers said that the “Hobbit” movies “will be shot consecutively in digital 3-D using the latest camera and stereo technology” and that filming “will take place at Stone Street Studios, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand.” The movies, which are being jointly produced by New Line Cinema and MGM, are planned for release in 2012 and 2013, though if history is any indication, there’s no need to start camping outside your theater for tickets just yet.When people talk about Windows Phone they like to mention the lack of official apps in the Marketplace. Apps like YouTube, Pandora, and Google Music are notably absent, but 3rd party developers have created great alternatives. Despite those great 3rd party apps people still complain about official support.
Why is that? Is the idea of using a 3rd party YouTube app just foreign to us? A lot of people choose to use 3rd party apps like Rowi and Mehdoh over the official Twitter app, but when it comes to Pandora that doesn’t cut it? Personally I don’t mind if official apps are available as long as they provide tools for 3rd party developers. Pandora refusing to develop for Windows Phone has opened the door for apps like Radio Controlled and MetroRadio. I bet that both of those are better than what Pandora would offer.
What about you? Do you need to see official app support? Are 3rd party apps good enough for you? Let us know in the comments below.Show full PR text
Drop-top Supercar: 2015 Corvette Z06 Convertible
NEW YORK – Chevrolet today introduced one of the most capable drop-tops on the market: the 2015 Corvette Z06 Convertible. With at least 625 horsepower, and 635 pound-feet of torque, the Z06 is also the most powerful convertible ever produced by Chevrolet.
"The Z06 Convertible is a world-class supercar in every sense," said Mark Reuss, executive vice president, Global Product Development. "Only a handful of convertibles in the world bring more than 600 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque. Even fewer can match the advanced technologies, aerodynamic design, and visceral driving experience of the Z06 Convertible."
This is the first Z06 Convertible offered from the factory since 1963 when the Z06 option package was introduced for endurance racing. Records show only 199 Corvette orders with a Z06 package that year, including one convertible.
Recent technological advancements enable the building of a modern Z06 Convertible, said Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter
"Until recently it was not possible to create a lightweight, open-roof structure strong enough to cope with the braking, cornering, and acceleration of Corvette's top performance models," Juechter said. "The frame for the Z06 convertible leverages advancements in computer-aided engineering, metallurgy, and manufacturing techniques – many of which were not available just five years ago."
The aluminum structure is 20 percent stiffer than the previous, fixed-roof Z06. As there are no structural reinforcements needed for the Z06 Convertible, its curb weight is nearly identical to the Z06 Coupe. They also share the same chassis tuning, powertrain output, driver technologies and equipment options – including the Z07 Performance Package, which adds Brembo carbon-ceramic matrix brakes, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires and adjustable front- and rear-aerodynamic components.
"The most impressive aspect of the Z06 Convertible may be its performance bandwidth," said Juechter. "Very few cars on the market can match its combination of extreme, supercar levels of performance; the flexibility for daily driving and long-distance commuting; and the 360-degree, open-air driving experience only true convertibles can offer."
All-aluminum, high-tech foundation
The Corvette Z06 Convertible represents the culmination of more than four years developing an all-new, all-aluminum structure for the seventh generation Corvette. That structure, built at General Motors' Bowling Green Assembly plant, was designed to the specifications of the Corvette Stingray, Corvette Z06 and the Corvette Racing C7.R.
"We wanted a frame that was lighter than the steel frame of the previous Corvette, yet strong enough for both a 600-horsepower convertible and a 24-hour endurance racer," said Ed Moss, engineering group manager for Corvette structures. "That would not have been possible without improvements in computer-aided engineering software, which allowed us to model more than 17,000 frame iterations, with each iteration improving strength and stiffness, while reducing mass."
The team used nearly 186,000 computational hours of modeling to develop the frame. It features main rails composed of five customized aluminum segments, including aluminum extrusions at each end, a center main rail section and hollow-cast nodes at the suspension interface points. The gauge of each segment varies in thickness from 2mm to 11mm, tailored – along with the shape – to meet the strength and stiffness requirements for each frame section with minimal weight.
These components are assembled using many advanced manufacturing processes, including:
• 439 spot-welds using a GM-patented process that uses a unique electrode designed specifically for aluminum
• 188 Flowdrill-machined fasteners installed by a high-speed drill that extrudes the frame material to create a strong, integral collar tapped for bolt-on fasteners
• 113 feet of structural adhesives used in conjunction with welding and fasteners to increase overall frame stiffness
• 37 feet of laser welds, which join frame sections via a precise beam of high energy that minimizes heat beyond the weld area for improved structural accuracy.
The only structural differences between the Z06 Coupe and Convertible are provisions for mounting the power-folding top, and repositioned safety-belt mounts.
High-performance aerodynamics
Like the structure, only minor design changes distinguish the Z06 Coupe from the Convertible. The Z06 convertible features an electronic top that can be lowered remotely using the car's key fob. The top can also open or clos on the go, at speeds of up to 30 mph (50 km/h).
With the top up, the Z06 Convertible is designed for a refined driving experience. A thick fabric top, offered in four colors along with sound-absorbing padding and a glass rear window, contributes to a quiet cabin and premium appearance.
Behind the seat backs, dual accent panels – either Carbon Flash-painted or available with exposed carbon fiber – enhance the character lines of the tonneau cover. Corvette Stingray's signature "waterfall" design originates in the valley between the nacelles, bringing the exterior color into the interior.
The power-operated tonneau cover necessitated moving the air intakes for the differential and transmission coolers from the rear quarter panels on the Z06 Coupe to the underbody of the Z06 Convertible.
Otherwise, both models share the same, performance-driven aesthetic.
"Practically every exterior panel serves a functional purpose to meet the performance goals of the Z06," said Tom Peters, Corvette design director, "The flared fenders accommodate larger, wider wheels and tires for more grip. The larger vents provide more cooling air to the engine, brakes, transmission and differential for increased track capability. The more aggressive aerodynamic package generates true downforce for more cornering grip and high-speed stability."
Both Z06 models are fitted with Michelin tires (Pilot Super Sport tires for the Z06; Sport Cup 2 tires with the Z07 package): P285/30ZR19 front, and 335/25ZR20 rear.
The tires are mounted on lightweight, spin-cast aluminum wheels (19 x 10 inches in front and 20 x 12 inches in the rear). Their open, ultralight design showcases the massive Brembo brakes, which contribute to the design:
• The Z06 features two-piece steel rotors, measuring 14.6 x 1.3-inch (371 x 33 mm) front and 14.4 x 1-inch (365 x 25 mm) rear, with aluminum six-piston and four-piston fixed calipers, respectively
• The Z07 package adds larger, 15.5 x 1.4-inch (394 x 36 mm) front and 15.3 x 1.3-inch (388 x 33 mm) carbon ceramic-matrix brake rotors for consistent performance lap after lap. They collectively save 23 pounds over the standard Z06 rotors.
Both Z06 coupe and convertible will be available with one of three, increasing levels of aerodynamic downforce:
• The standard Z06 features a front splitter, spats around the front wheel openings, a unique carbon-fiber hood with a larger vent, and rear spoiler
• An available carbon-fiber aero package delivers aerodynamic downforce four times greater than the standard Z06. It adds a carbon fiber front splitter with aviation-style winglets, carbon fiber rocker panels, and a larger rear spoiler with a fixed wickerbill – a small, vertical tab at the edge of the spoiler that significantly increases downforce. The package is available in black or a visible carbon-fiber finish
• The available Z07 package adds larger winglets to the front splitter, along with an adjustable, see-through center section on the rear spoiler enabling customers to tailor the aerodynamics to their preference.
Compared to the Corvette Stingray, the Corvette Z06 fenders are 2.2 inches (56 mm) wider at the front, and 3.15 inches (80 mm) at the rear. Those extensions give the Corvette Z06 a wider, lower appearance further emphasized by a unique rear fascia. It incorporates the same taillamp assemblies as the Stingray, but on the Z06 the taillamps are pushed approximately three inches farther apart, toward to edges of the body.
The exterior design also reflects the increased cooling required for the new Corvette Z06. For example, the mesh pattern on the front fascia was designed to deliver the most possible airflow to the supercharger's intercooler heat exchanger, so much that the mesh grill directs more air into the engine bay than if the grille was removed.
The unique grille also features dedicated brake-cooling intakes and wider grille outlets on the bottom serve as air diffusers. A larger hood vent allows air driven through the grille to exit through the hood rather than being forced under the car, which could create lift.
Standard front and rear brake-cooling ducts, including Z06-signature rear ducts integrated in front of the rear fender openings, are also part of the functional design changes.
The Z06 benefits from interior details designed for high-performance driving, first introduced on the Stingray, including a steel-reinforced grab bar on the center console for the passenger and soft-touch materials on the edge of the console, where the driver naturally braces during high-load cornering.
Like the Stingray, the Z06 comes with two seating choices: a GT seat, for all-around comfort, and a Competition Sport seat with more aggressive side bolstering, which provides greater support on the track. A magnesium frame structure for both seats provides greater rigidity and strength compared with steel frames.
Unprecedented attention to detail and build quality complements the Corvette Z06's performance. All models feature a fully wrapped interior, with every surface covered by premium, soft-touch materials. Available materials, depending on the trim level, include Napa leather, aluminum, carbon fiber and micro-suede.
The interior also features a flat-bottom steering wheel with a carbon fiber center spoke. The Z06 comes in five interior colors, including two that are unique to Z06 – blue and dark gray.
Supercharged, efficient performance
The heart of the 2015 Corvette Z06 is the all-new LT4 6.2L supercharged V-8 engine, expected to deliver at least 625 horsepower (466 kW) and 635 lb-ft of torque (861 Nm). To balance performance and efficiency, the LT4 leverages the same trio of advanced technologies introduced on the Corvette Stingray: Direct injection, Active Fuel Management, or cylinder deactivation, and continuously variable valve timing.
These technologies – combined with the fuel-efficient multi-speed transmissions, aerodynamic design and lightweight construction – help make the new Z06 surprisingly fuel efficient.
"The supercharged LT4 engine delivers the greatest balance of performance and efficiency ever in the Corvette," said John Rydzewski, assistant chief engineer for Small-Block engines. "It is one of the world's only supercharged engines to incorporate cylinder deactivation technology, enabling it to cruise efficiently on the highway with reduced fuel consumption, but offer more than 600 horsepower whenever the driver calls up its tremendous power reserve."
The supercharged LT4 comes with a standard seven-speed manual transmission with Active Rev Match, or an all-new 8L90 eight-speed paddle-shift automatic transmission designed to enhance performance and efficiency. The seven-speed manual incorporates rev-matching technology for upshifts and downshifts. A new dual-mass flywheel and dual-disc clutch deliver greater shift quality and feel through lower inertia.
The eight-speed automatic is tuned for world-class shift-response times. Smaller steps between gears keep the LT4 within the sweet spot of the rpm band, making the most of the output of the supercharged engine for exhilarating performance and greater efficiency.
"There's no trade-off in drivability with the new 8L90 eight-speed automatic transmission – it was designed to deliver performance on par with dual-clutch designs, but without sacrificing refinement," said Bill Goodrich, assistant chief engineer for eight-speed automatic transmissions. "It is also the highest-capacity automatic transmission ever offered in a Chevrolet car."
Featuring four gearsets and five clutches, creative packaging enables the GM-developed eight-speed automatic to fit the same space as the six-speed automatic used in the Corvette Stingray. Extensive use of aluminum and magnesium make it more than eight pounds (4 kg) lighter than the six-speed. Along with design features that reduce friction, the 8L90 is expected to contribute up to 5-percent greater efficiency, when compared with a six-speed automatic.
Track-proven technologies
The 2015 Corvette Z06 Coupe and Convertible leverage the technologies introduced on the Corvette Stingray, with unique features and calibrations tailored for its capabilities.
"Our mission with the seventh-generation Corvette was to make the performance levels more accessible, enabling drivers to exploit every pound-foot of torque, every 'g' of grip and every pound of downforce," said Juechter. "It's a philosophy we introduced with the 460-horsepower Corvette Stingray – and one that's even more relevant with an estimated 625 horsepower at your beck and call."
The new Z06 retains the SLA-type front and rear suspension design of the Corvette Stingray but uniquely calibrated for the higher performance threshold. The third-generation Magnetic Selective Ride Control dampers, adjustable for touring comfort or maximum track performance via the standard Driver Mode Selector, are standard on Z06.
Like the Stingray, the Driver Mode Selector tailors up to a dozen features of the Z06 to suit the driver's environment, including:
• Launch control: Available in Track mode for manual and automatic transmissions, providing maximum off-the-line acceleration
• Traction control: Weather mode tailors traction control and engine torque for driving in inclement conditions
• Performance Traction Management: Available in Track mode and offers five settings of torque reduction and brake intervention for track driving
• Electronic Limited Slip Differential: Adjusts the rate at which the limited slip engages, balancing steering response and stability in different driving conditions with more aggressive performance in Sport and Track modes.
The smart electronic limited-slip differential, or eLSD, is standard. It features a hydraulically actuated clutch capable of infinitely varying clutch engagement. The system enhances all aspects of performance by constantly tailoring the clutch-pack engagement based on a unique algorithm that factors in vehicle speed, steering input and throttle position to improve steering feel, handling balance and traction.
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world's largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4.9 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design, and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.An active social life appears to delay memory loss as we age, a new study shows.
The finding, which appears in the July issue of The American Journal of Public Health, suggests that strong social ties, through friends, family and community groups, can preserve our brain health as we age and that social isolation may be an important risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly.
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health used data gathered from 1998 to 2004 from the Health and Retirement Study, a large, nationally representative population of American adults ages 50 and older. Participants took memory tests at two-year intervals during the study period. Testers read a list of 10 common nouns to survey respondents, who were then asked to recall as many words as possible immediately and again after a five-minute delay. The researchers also measured social integration based on marital status, volunteer activities, and contact with parents, children and neighbors.
The results showed that individuals who in their 50s and 60s engaged in a lot of social activity also had the slowest rate of memory decline. In fact, compared to those who were the least socially active, study subjects who had the highest social integration scores had less than half the rate of memory loss. The researchers controlled for variables like age, gender, race and health status. Those who had the fewest years of formal education appeared to have the most to gain from an active social life as they aged. The study showed that the protective effect of social integration was greatest among individuals with fewer than 12 years of education.
“The working hypothesis is that social engagement is what makes you mentally engaged,” said Lisa F. Berkman, the study’s senior author and director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. “You can’t sit and withdraw if you’re constantly talking and working on things and figuring out problems in your daily life. It’s not just completing a crossword puzzle, it’s living your life.”
The data are particularly important for those caring for aging family members. Simply visiting and giving support to an older family member does not make them socially engaged. “A lot of people when they think about the elderly focus on social support — things like what can I do for an older mother,” Dr. Berkman said. “But having someone to count on is not what we’re measuring. It’s not about support, it’s about being completely engaged and participating in our society.”
What was notable about the study is that participants didn’t have to be married or surrounded by extensive family to receive the protective effect of social engagement. “There are lots of relationships that are substitutable,” Dr. Berkman said. “You don’t have to have friends if you have family. If you don’t have family but you have friends, that’s good. If you volunteer in civic organizations, that can substitute. People don’t have to have all of these things. They just have to have some breadth and diversity in the kinds of networks and ties they have in a community.”KOHAT: Speakers at ‘Milli Yakjehti Conference’ from Kurram Agency on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for not visiting Parachinar following the twin bomb blasts, saying he had no sympathies with the people of the tribal agency.
The conference was attended by the ulema and elders, including Syed Talwat Hussain, Syed Kabir Hussain, Haji Swab Gul, Syed Ahmed Abbas and Syed Mohammad Taqi Sherazi.
They lauded Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa for his visit and meeting with the elders. They emphasised that they all stood by the Pakistan Army in its endeavours for peace.
They said that Mr Sharif had never come to Kurram Agency in his entire political carrier despite several blasts. They said that it showed that he had no sympathies with the tribesmen of Kurram Agency.
Addressing a press conference at Kohat Press Club, Allama Taqi Sherazi said that they were thankful to the army chief for comforting their wounds after the twin blasts. He said that in the recent terrorism RAW and anti-Pakistan elements were involved to fan Shia-Sunni differences.
He clarified that their sit-in was against politicians, which was visible from the difference between compensation amount for the oil tanker victims and that of Kurram Agency. He said that the government was hiding the actual figure of deaths and terming it 71, but it was higher than that.
Allama Ahmed Abbas criticised the role of political parties, particularly Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who announced Rs2 million for each of the victims of oil tanker incident the same day, but it took him one week to respond to the blasts in Parachinar.
He said that it was an open truth that RAW was involved in terrorism activities in the country and it had consulates along Afghan border whose only function was to destabilise Pakistan.
Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2017Photo: CPS Chatter.
Is there a free speech storm brewing at Lane Tech?
Here is what I am hearing.
CPS suits apparently sent a directive to Lane (and how many other high schools?) on March 13th, 2013 to remove copies of the graphic novel, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
Persepolis deals with the Iranian Revolution and issues of intolerance. The author wrote a sequel. An award winning animated movie was made in 2007.
But the staff at Lane Tech’s library were directed to remove the book from their shelves.
I have been told that some students reported the removal of Persepolis in a journalism course. As reporters, those students called CPS central offices to try to find out what had happened and why the books were being removed.
On March 14 Lane staff members received the following email:
Yesterday afternoon, one of the Network Instructional Support Leaders stopped by my office and informed me (per a directive given during the Chief of Schools meeting on March 11) that all ISLs were directed to physically go to each school in the Network by Friday (3/15) to:*Confirm that Persepolis is not in the library,*Confirm that it has not been checked out by a student or teacher,*Confirm with the school principal that it is not being used in any classrooms,*And to collect the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi from all classrooms and the Library.I was not provided a reason for the collection of Persepolis. If I learn more I will inform all staff.
Are there legal issues involved in book banning at CPS?
One teacher shared this:
Board of Education vs. Pico in 1982 states that is illegal to remove a book from a high school library. This, effectively, is a violation of the Freedom of Speech. Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982), was a case in which four Justices of the United States Supreme Court concluded that the First Amendment limits the power of local school boards to remove library books from junior high schools and high schools, four Justices concluded the contrary (with perhaps a few minor exceptions), and one Justice concluded that the Court need not decide the question. News on social media boards yield that CPS is claiming that there was a set of new books sent to schools and the distributor included copies of this one by mistake. Since CPS hadn’t paid for them, schools were asked to pull the books and send them back. “a mix-up’. The books, in fact, were purchased some years ago by an English teacher when she applied (and received) a grant to pay for them.
More to come. I’m sureBig news everyone! Fantasy Flight Games have just announced a new edition of their galaxy-sized flagship game, Twilight Imperium. Which means we can announce something of our own…!
Here at Shut Up & Sit Down we’ve been huge fans of Twilight Imperium since we reviewed the 3rd edition all those years ago. It’s the grandest, silliest game that we know; an epic brawl featuring everything from capitalist cats to a race of sentient vegetables. So back in 2014 we got to talking with owner of Fantasy Flight and original designer of TI Christian Peterson, one thing led to another, and we agreed to document the process of making TI 4th edition.
How do you go about making the grandest board game in the world even more grand? Find out later this month!
UPDATE: We’ll be screening the documentary at SHUX’17 this October. It’ll be followed by a panel featuring Chris Hosch and Dane Beltrami, of the game’s art and development teams, who will also be hauling up a sackful of TI4 that you can get your hands on. Christmas will be coming early!No one plays office politics just for fun – not even the types who read Machiavelli on the beach. But the developers behind a new iPhone app are hoping to change that.
In the game “Office Politics,” players get promoted up the rungs of the corporate ladder by backstabbing as many co-workers as they can in a kind of cubicle whack-a-mole. Since manipulating co-workers hardly seems like the recipe for the next Angry Birds, Billy Shipp, vice president of “Office Politics” publisher Iddiction, says the company needed to take some poetic license.
“This is what games are good at,” he says. “You take something that is stressful, complex, and unpleasant and give people a way to escape that reality. You re-contextualize the problem and provide a new way to interact with it.” (There are no plans as of yet for DMV the game.)
In the game, when enemy employees have their backs turned, a simple tap of the thumb provides the fatal blow. Those facing forward need to be flipped around with a sideways swipe and stabbed (the same two-part touch screen move used to delete an email) before they hurl what appears to be crumpled laser-printer paper. Get hit enough times and the game is over.
“It was said that the office was once a peaceful and harmonious place,” the game begins, “where everyone was kind to each other, where rainbows and marshmallows” could be seen everywhere. This nameless company’s once pleasant culture turns toxic with the arrival of Arnold Chocolate Face, who pits employees against one another, shows favoritism and convinces the staff that hard work is no longer the path to success.As a university professor and a mother of teen boys, I am immersed in a world of young faces buried in their phones. To be fair, adults, too, are enamored with the tiny, powerful computing devices in the palms of their hands. The patterns of daily life have been forever altered by the ubiquity of digital devices. The world has been rewired. And nobody wrote a user’s manual.
Advances in digital media and mobile devices, and the rising power of social media, are changing the way people engage not only with the world but also with close friends and family. This generation of parents faces rapidly emerging and unprecedented challenges in managing digital devices and the activities they enable – and must simultaneously wrestle with these issues in |
not talking about 2-3 beers here. RateBeer lists dozens of traditional Lithuanian beers, but in a few days I found at least 10 new ones, so clearly the true number is quite high.
I thought kaimiškas was a single style, but the beers are surprisingly varied. Some of the pale ones are fairly bitter and dominated by a dusty strawy taste, like being dropped face first into a bale of hay that's baked in the sun all day. Lithuanian beers appear to use lots of hops, and I suspect this is the aroma of the local hops. These beers have no trace of yeast character, surprisingly, but other beers are dominated by it. One tasted like a mild gueuze, another like a Belgian tripel, and a third was most of all like a Finnish sahti with a good dose of hops.
One I really liked was Jovaru Alus, at 5.6%. It was hazy and amber-coloured, and tasted of fruity walnuts and alcohol with herbal hoppy notes. It was both sweet and bitter at the same time, and a lot more harmonic than it sounds. I found it almost scarily drinkable. A more straightforward pale kaimiškas was Salaus alus at 5%. It was hazy and yellow with a huge white head, and tasted strongly of earthy peppery dusty straw. That taste was so incredibly vivid and clear I can still remember it fairly exactly. There was some sweetness, but mostly this was a bitter beer, with a long aftertaste that stayed in the mouth after I'd left the bar.
There is quite a lot to explore here, and since I've found no evidence of named styles, mostly one simply has to try beers at random to see what they are like. I really liked most of the ones I tried, and they were certainly a lot more interesting that the variations on industrial pale lager that are all most countries have to offer.
In Vilnius kaimiškas is actually quite easy to find, since there are several bars specializing in these beers. But that is a subject for another posting.
Kaimisko alaus baras
Update: If you want more information I've published a guidebook to Lithuanian beer, which goes into a lot more detail.The man stood above the Bucktown couple for about 15 minutes, Mackercher said. View Full Caption Jack Mackercher
BUCKTOWN — Jack Mackercher was horrified to learn that while he and his girlfriend slept in their Bucktown duplex Monday morning, a stranger looked over them and watched. For 15 minutes.
After his girlfriend, Jordan, said her purse was missing, Mackercher reviewed home security footage (watch below), hoping it would show where she misplaced it. Instead, he said, he saw a hooded figure walk out of his upstairs bedroom and stare down at them while they slept on the couch below.
Akex Nitkin talks about the creepy Bucktown intruder.
"We realized what had happened, and we were both like, 'What the hell, is this real?'" Mackercher said. "It was really quite creepy, especially when you see that happen in your house."
The couple had fallen asleep on their couch watching Netflix, he said, and they neglected to lock the balcony door on their upper floor.
"Every other night we would have been in bed and kept it locked," Mackercher said. "You leave the door unlocked one time, and this is what happens."
The man didn't steal anything besides Jordan's purse, Mackercher said, but he stood motionless above them for a solid quarter of an hour.
It was especially bad timing, he later learned, because at least five of his neighbors near Armitage Avenue and Leavitt Street reported seeing a man wander from home to home that night. Multiple photos and videos of a bearded man, cloaked in a white hoodie, showed up on a neighborhood Facebook group the next day.
The face of a man in a hoodie was captured on multiple security cameras. Photo: Adam England
Apparently this guy was just walking around trying door handles all over the place," Mackercher said.
All the images were turned over to police, he added.
"This guy really needs to get caught," he said.
Watch the video here:
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For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:[ for carousel reports from N-Z countries, click here ] Web www.dullmen.com
AIRPORT LUGGAGE CAROUSELS -- A WORLDWIDE REPORT
Tabulation: 376 airports have reported in... 44.8% are counterclockwise, 29% clockwise, 7.5% go both ways, 3.2% other, 15.5% have no carousels
"Why I Like to Travel" by Grover Click Some men travel because they want to see new sights. Some men travel because they want to brag about where they've been when they return home. Some men travel to get away from home. I travel because I like to watch the luggage carousels. I like to watch the carousels go around and around carrying all the bags. And once I know my bag has arrived, I know that I have arrived. The excitement I feel the moment I spot my bag is overwhelming. I never tire of it. I like other things about traveling -- queuing for the check in counter, going through security (I beam with pride when they see my neat packing), and eating those airline meals. But the trill of watching luggage carousels tops them all. ALBANIA Tirana [ ] — now has a carousel, and it goes counterclockwise [Thank you Tony Restall for this 9/1/2004 update] ANGOLA Benguela [ ] — none, local children offer to carry your bag Soyo [ ] — none ARGENTINA Buenos Aires [EZE] — counterclockwise [Thank you Abel C. Rochwarger for this report] ANTIGUA V.C. Bird Airport [ ] — counterclockwise [thanks to Nicolas Willmott for this report] ARMENIA
Yerevan [ ] — clockwise [thanks to Stephanie Martin for this report] AUSTRALIA Adelaide (Domestic Terminal, Ansett wing) [ADL] — both clockwise and counterclockwise Brisbane [BNE] — both clockwise and counterclockwise Broken Hill [ ] — none [Thank you Dennis Kolberg for this report]
Burmie [ ] — none, a truck and trailer take the luggage to the front of the airport, a tri of about 10 metres
[thanks to Kym for this report] Cairns [ ]— counterclockwise [thanks to Alastair Gregory for this report] Canberra (Domestic) [CBR] — counterclockwise, except it doesn't go around but instead goes in a squiggly worm shape pattern Carnovon [ ] — none, a tractor tows a luggage cart from the aircraft to the front of the terminal Darwin [ ] — clockwise [Thank Ian Loftus for this report] Gladstone [ ] — clockwise [Thank you Robert Parrish for this report] Hobart [HBT] — clockwise [Thank you Jimil Baba for this report] Karratha [ ] — clockwise Launceston [ ] — none, a little tractor tows a trolly with the bags [Thank you Frank Hayes for this report] Learmonth [ ] — none Melbourne [ ] — clockwise [Thank you Fraser Redmon for this report] Mildura [ ] — none [Thank you Peter Nunan for this report] Newman [ ] — none [Thank you Ben Kolberg for this report] Perth [PER] — counterclockwise Sydney [SYD] — counterclockwise [thanks to popinjay for this report] Toowoomba [ ] — none, they take the luggage from the plane, place it on a cart, push the cart to the terminal which is about 20 meters away [thank you Geoff Jarvis for this report] Townsville [ ] — At least No. 2 does. No. 1 wasn't moving so I cannot be sure that there is conformity. I did not have time to stay and watch as there are so many really duill things to do in Townsille [thanks to Ian Mac for this report] AUSTRIA Graz [ ] — both clockwise and counter Clockwise [Thank you Oliver van Best for this report]
Salzburg [ ] — clockwise [thanks to Steve Reszetniak for this report]Vienna [VIE] — clockwise BARBADOS Counterclockwise. That's when they don't just toss your fragil sports equipment on the ground from a distance. [Thank you Alex Ford for this report] BELGIUM Brussels (International) [BRU] — clockwise Brussels (Domestic) [BRU] — none, there is no Brussels Domestic Terminal [thank you Andrew Joseph and Robert van Apeldoorn for reporting this to us]Charleroi [CRL] — clockwise BERMUDA [ ] clockwise [Thank you John Asbacker for this report] BHUTANH Para [ ] — none [Ian Harris] BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Sarajevo [ ] — counterclockwise. Two carousels, one for first/business, one for economy. The first/business carousel has a curve with a radius so tight that the bags fall off. [Thanks to Chazza for this] BOTSWANA Maun [MUB] — none, carried by hand to the terminal [thanks to Bo. A. Johnson for this report and the next two from Botswana] Nxamaseri [ ] — none Xudum [ ] — none BULGARIA Sophia [SOF]— counterclockwise [Thank you "bob" for this report] CANADA Calgary, Alberta [ ] — clockwise [thank you Paddy Glenny for this report] Grand Prairie, Alberta [ ] v one oblong carousel that runs counterclockwise along south wall of building [thanks to J. Taylor for this report] Lethbridge, Alberta [ ]— no carousels, a conveyor belt delivers bags to the floor at the far end of the terminal Kelowna, British Columbia [ ] — No carousels. A conveyor belt with many twists and turns. Better to send someone to collect your bags as it is too exciting to stand there waiting to see whether or not the bags will fall off the conveyor belt. [thank you David Bailie] Vancouver, British Columbia [ ] — counterclockwise [thank you Andy Fielding] Victoria, British Columbia [ ] v counterclockwise [thank you Dave G] Winnipeg, Manitoba [ ]— counterclockwise [Thank you James Dykstra, who avoids the airport if possible. With a big screen TV often on a sports channel, and a children's play structure, it almost makes the airport interesting.] Saint John, New Brunswick [ ] — clockwise, a T-shaped conveyor belt [Thank you Matt Seely for this report] Halifax, Nova Scotia [ ] — counterclockwise [thank you Derek Squire for this report] Elliot Lake, Ontario [ ] — no carousel [thank you E. Power] Gore Bay, Ontario [ ] — no carousel [thank you E. Power] Kingston, Ontario [ ] none [thank you John Paterson] Toronto, Ontario [ ] — counterclockwise [thank you John Paterson] Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island [ ] counterclockwise [thank you Derek Squire for this report] Montreal, Quebec [ ] — clockwise [thank you Pascal P for this report] Prince Albert, Saskatchewan [ ] — none [thank you Nicholas Crosby] Regina, Saskatchewan [ ] — clockwise. This is a dull airport. Some displays on air travel rules. A gift shop with newspapers in it. It's quite safe for the dull traveller. Indeed, Regina seems to be an ideal town for the dull man. [thank you Steve Adam] CHECHNYA Grozny [ ] — out of order CHINA Beijing [ ] — counterclockwise, eight carousels, each one has a baggage attendant [thank you Leigh Byrne] Hefei [ ] — clockwise [thanks to Richard Rejmer] CROATIA Zagreb [ ] — counterclockwise [thanks to Steve Reszetniak] CZECH REPUBLIC Prague [PRG] — counterclockwise CUBA Havana [ ] -- counterclockwise [thank you Colin Hewitt for this report] Holguin City [ ] — clockwise Santiago di Cuba [ ] — none [Thank you Brian H. Moore for the above two reports] Veradero [ ] — clockwise [thank you Derek Squire for this report] DENMARK Aarhus [ ] — clockwise [thank you Drew Peacocke] Copenhagen [ ] — counterclockwise [thank you Bo Johnsson] Faroe Islands (Vagar) [ ] — counterclockwise ECUADOR Quito's Marisal Sucre Airport [UIO]— counterclockwise [thank you Daniel Gonzalez] EGYPT Cairo [ ]— clockwise [thanks to Scott Sadman for this] Hurghada [ ] — clockwise [thank you Robin Pollard for reporting this to us] EL SALVADOR [ ] — counterclockwise [thank you John Paterson for reporting this to us]
FIJI Suva [ ] — counterclockwise, "not very big, but fascinating." [Thank you David Hamnett for reporting this to us.] FINLAND Helsinki [HEL] — counterclockwise Tampere [ ]— counterclockwise FRANCE Bergerac [ ] — none, bags loaded onto a baggage train, driven 10 meters, then off loaded onto floor of Arrivals Lounge (Arrivals Lounge is a small portacabin) [thank you Leigh Byrne esq.] Dinard [ ] — none, just goes straight to a collecting bay, very small, doesn’t always work [thank you Cat for reporting this to us] Lyon [ ] — counterclockwise Marseilles [ ] — counterclockwise [Thank you James Lowe] Nice [NCE] — counterclockwise [thanks to John Meredith] Paris (Charles de Gaulle) [CDG] — counterclockwise Strasbourg [ ] — clockwise [thank you Nick for reporting this to us] GABON Libreville [ ] — clockwise Mayumba [ ] — none GERMANY Berlin (Tegel) [TXL] —counterclockwise Cologne [ ] -- counterclockwise [Thank you Michael Schmitt for this report] Duesseldorf [DUS] — both clockwise and counterclockwise Frankfurt [FRA] — both clockwise and counterclockwiseHamburg [HAM]? clockwise Hanover [HAJ] — counterclockwise Nuremburg [ ] — clockwise [thank you Andrew Simpson] Saarbrucken [SCN] — clockwise [Thank you Doug Burgess for reporting this to us] GIBRALTAR [ ] Counterclockwise — [thanks to Tony Russel for this] GREECE Athens [ ] — clockwise [thank you Russell Carman] Hania [CHA] — counterclockwise Paros Island [PAS] -- a six-foot slide [thank you Ron Cocker for this report] Preveza [PVK] — counterclockwise [thank you James Nunnerley] Samos [ ] — clockwise Greece Skiathos [JSI] — no carousel. Baggage dumped on ground for passengers to rummage through. [thank you John Karban] Thessaloniki [SKG] — clockwise [thank you Eric Glasgow] GUAM Counterclockwise HONDOURAS Tegcigalpa [ ] — none [thank you John Paterson] HONG KONG Hong Kong (Chep Lak Kok) [HKG] — clockwise HUNGARY Budapest (Ferihegy) [BUD] — counterclockwise ICELAND Akureyri [ ] — none [thank you Jon Thorsteinsson for this report] Egilstadir [ ] — a short belt [thank you Jon Thorsteinsson] Keflavik [ ] — clockwise [thank you Styrmir Barkarson] Rekjavik (Keflavik) [KEF] — counterclockwise [Thank you Douglas Balog and Jon Thorsteinsson for reporting this to us.] INDIA Bangalore [ ] — clockwise [thanks to Martin Gray for this] Cochin [ ] —counterclockwise Delhi (Domestic) [ ] — counterclockwise Mumbai (formerly Bombay) (Domestic)[ ] — counterclockwise IRELAND Cork [ ] — has two carousels, the one on the left goes clockwise, the one on the right goes counterclockwise [thank you David Hancock for this report] Dublin [DUB]— counterclockwise [thank you Paul Smart for this report] Shannon [ ] — clockwise, fourf carousels at a "quite dull" airport [thanks to Joey Joe Joe Johnson] ISRAEL Tel Aviv [TLV] — counterclockwise ITALY Bologna [ ] — counterclockwise, at least the one that was working went counterclockwise [thanks to Joey Joe Joe Johnson] Milan [ ] — counterclockwise [thanks to Tony Restall for this] Naples [ ]— counterclockwise; that is, when they move. That's one of the endearing features of this airport: though it's surprisingly small for such a large city, it provides all the delays of a larger facility. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of benches on which to pass the resulting time, but at least the wait provides a soothing prelude to the decidedly non-dull Naples traffic. [thanks to Greg Hamblin for this report] Rome [ ] — counterclockwise [thanks to Victoria Birch for this]Turin [ ] — clockwise Venice (Treviso) — clockwise
IVORY COAST Abidjan [ ] — counterclockwise JAPAN Nagoya [ ] — clockwise Osaka [ ]— counterclockwise [thanks to Mat Grouse for this report] Tokyo (Narita) [NRT] — clockwise KENYA Lamu [ ] — no carousel [thank you Mark Macauley for this report] Mombassa [ ] — counterclockwise Nairobi [ ] — clockwise LAOS Pakse [ ] — none [thanks to Ian Harris] Vientiane [ ] v belt goes straght, luggage falls off at the end [Thank you J.A. Watts]
LEBANON Beirut [ ] — counterclockwise [thanks to Igor Boog]
MALAYSIA Kuala Lumpur [KUL] —counterclockwise [Thank you Arch Roberts for this report. Arch adds that the carousel runs quite silently, and that there is another belt for oversize luggage, which is not a carousel, but many seem to spend a lot of time watching it. By the way, Arch was one of the original members of the local chapter of the DMC in Washington DC.]
Lankawi [ ] — counterclockwise [thank you Paul for this report] Penang [PEN] — counterclockwise MALDIVES Male [ ] — counterclockwise MALTA Counterclockwise [Thank you Robin Ayres for this report] MEXICO Chihuahua [CUU] — counterclockwise [thank you Daniel Gonzalez for this report] Merida [ ] — counterclockwise [thank you Julian Solis for this report] Mexico City [MEX] — counterclockwise MOROCCO Tangier [TNG] — clockwise [thank you Nadia for this report]???????? for carousel reports from N-Z countries, click here THANK YOU FOR USING AIRPORT LUGGAGE CAROUSELSFILE - In this June 28, 2013 file photo, The Blue Nile river flows near the site of the planned Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam near Assosa in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, near Sudan, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa. The only reason Egypt has ever existed from ancient times until today is because of the Nile River, which provides a thin, fertile strip of green through the desert. For the first time, the country fears a threat to that lifeline, as Ethiopia rushes to finish a massive hydroelectric dam.(AP Photo/Elias Asmare, File)
CAIRO (AP) — The only reason Egypt has even existed from ancient times until today is because of the Nile River, which provides a thin, richly fertile stretch of green through the desert. For the first time, the country fears a potential threat to that lifeline, and it seems to have no idea what to do about it.
Ethiopia is finalizing construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, its first major dam on the Blue Nile, and then will eventually start filling the giant reservoir behind it to power the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa.
Egypt fears that will cut into its water supply, destroying parts of its precious farmland, hampering its large desert reclamation projects and squeezing its bourgeoning population of 93 million people, who already face water shortages.
Dam construction on international rivers often causes disputes over the downstream impact. But the Nile is different: few nations rely so completely on a single river as much as Egypt does. The Nile provides over 90 percent of Egypt’s water supply. Almost the entire population lives cramped in the sliver of the Nile Valley. Around 60 percent of Egypt’s Nile water originates in Ethiopia from the Blue Nile, one of two main tributaries.
Egypt barely gets by with the water it does have. Because of its population, it has one of the lowest per capita shares of water in the world, some 660 cubic meters a person. The strain is further worsened by widespread inefficiency and waste. With the population on a path to double in 50 years, shortages are predicted to become severe even sooner, by 2025.
That is despite the fact that Egypt already receives the lion’s share of Nile waters: more than 55 billion of the around 88 billion cubic meters of water that flow down the river each year. It is promised that amount under agreements from 1929 and 1959 that other Nile nations say are unfair and ignore the needs of their own large populations.
Complicating the issue, no one has a clear idea what impact Ethiopia’s dam will actually have. Addis Ababa says it will not cause significant harm to Egypt or Sudan downstream.
Much depends on management of the flow and how fast Ethiopia fills its reservoir, which can hold 74 billion cubic meters of water. A faster fill means blocking more water at once, while doing it slowly would mean less reduction downstream.
Once the fill is completed, the flow would in theory return to its previous levels, but the fear in Egypt is that the damage from the fill years could be long-lasting or that Ethiopia could build more dams and hold Egypt hostage by continuing to reduce the flow.
One study by a Cairo University agriculture professor estimated Egypt would lose a staggering 51 percent of its farmland if the fill is done in three years. A somewhat slower fill over six years would cost Egypt 17 percent of its cultivated land, the study claimed — still a catastrophic scenario that would hit the food supply and put tens of thousands out of work in a country where a quarter of the work force is employed in agriculture.
Internal government studies estimate that for every reduction of 1 billion cubic meters of water in Egypt’s supply, 200,000 acres of farmland will be lost and livelihoods of 1 million people would be affected, given that an average of five people live off each acre, a senior Irrigation Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the figures.
Other experts say the impact will be far smaller, even minimal.
They say Egypt could suffer no damage at all if it and Ethiopia work together and exchange information during the filling of the reservoir, adjusting the rate to ensure that Egypt’s own massive reservoir on the Nile, Lake Nasser, stays full enough to meet Egypt’s needs during the years of the fill.
Unfortunately, that isn’t happening between the two countries, whose ties have often been deeply strained.
“To my knowledge, this situation is unique, particularly at this scale,” said Kevin Wheeler at the Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. “I just can’t think of another case that has two large reservoirs in series without a plan on how to operate them together.”
Construction on the dam is around 60 percent complete and is likely to be finished this year or early next. Ethiopia has given little information on when it will start the fill or at what rate. It is pushing ahead with construction without waiting for an independent study on the impact that it, Egypt and Sudan agreed to under a 2015 Declaration of Principles agreement.
“We have taken into account (the dam’s) probable effects on countries like Egypt and Sudan,” Ethiopia’s water, irrigation and electricity minister, Sileshi Bekele, told reporters in Addis Ababa. He added that plans for the filling process could be adjusted but did not elaborate.
A joint Ethiopian-Egyptian-Sudanese committee has met 15 times over the past two years, most recently this month, trying to implement the Declaration of Principles. Under that deal, they committed to abide by the impact study and agree on a plan for filling the reservoir and operating the dam. But though the deadline to complete it has passed, the study has hardly begun, held up by differences over information sharing and transparency.
In public, Egyptian officials have said both governments are cooperating.
But the frustration is starting to show.
In June, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri spoke of “difficult talks” and complained of delays in the impact study. He warned that unless Ethiopia addresses Egyptian concerns, Egypt will search for an alternative path, though he did not elaborate. The irrigation official said that Egypt is trying to build international pressure on Ethiopia.
A high-ranking government official acknowledged there’s little Egypt can do. “We can’t stop it and in all cases, it will be harmful to Egypt,” he said.
A senior diplomat involved in the negotiations only shrugged. “We can only wait and see,” he muttered. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are still ongoing.
Egyptian leaders in the past have rumbled about military action to stop any dam. Recently, Ethiopia accused Egypt of supporting rebels caught trying to sabotage the dam, and there are also accusations that Egypt is setting up a military base in Eritrea to carry out an attack — all claims denied by both Egypt and Eritrea.
A military option seems less likely after the 2015 accord in which Egypt agreed to cooperation.
International law also provides little recourse. International charters spell out broad principles on managing rivers, saying waters should be shared in an equitable way and one country’s projects on a river must not cause “significant harm” to another.
But it is largely left to the riparian countries — those along the river — to work out the details. The 2015 accord committed Egypt to resolve differences in negotiations, and while it can seek outside mediation, all parties would have to consent.
Originating in Ethiopia, the Blue Nile flows into Sudan, where it joins with the White Nile, whose source is Lake Victoria in east Africa. From there it flows north through Egypt to the Mediterranean.
For Ethiopia, the $5 billion dam is the realization of a long-delayed dream. Ethiopia’s infrastructure is among the least developed in the world, leaving the vast majority of its 95 million people without access to electricity. The dam’s hydroelectric plant is to have a capacity to generate over 6,400 Megawatts, a massive boost to the country’s current production of 4,000 Megawatts.
The longer it takes to fill the reservoir, the longer Ethiopia has to wait for the benefits, meaning lost growth.
“If everybody is working together, if there is trust, it is possible to have win-win,” said Kenneth M. Strzepek, professor of water resources engineering and economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
He believes that even in the worst case scenario, damage to Egypt’s economy will not be huge.
“But you will hurt people,” he said. “If you reduce the flow, you hurt the farmers.” Over 80 percent of Egypt’s water goes to agriculture.
Any blow could resonate hard in Egypt. The country is already undertaking a painful reform program of austerity measures that have hiked inflation in a bid to rebuild an economy deeply damaged by years of turmoil.
At the same time, Egypt uses its water with chronic inefficiency. Nearly a third of the around 9 billion cubic meters of drinking water is wasted each year because of old, dilapidated pipes and distribution networks, according to the official statistics agency.
Farmers irrigate their fields by flooding, increasing water loss. The government has been reluctant to incorporate more efficient sprinkler or irrigation systems into the national water plan because of the cost.
Among Egyptians, there are bitter accusations that Ethiopia is acting unilaterally.
“Ethiopia wants full control over the Nile. It doesn’t want to abide by any deals,” said Hani Raslan, a Cairo-based expert in African affairs.
“Egypt is fed up,” he said. “When the fill-in starts, there will be grave dangers.”
But some critics say Egypt only has itself to blame because of its own high-handedness in the past.
Egypt and Sudan, which also gets a large share of the Nile waters under past accords, traditionally rejected pressure by other nations to get a fairer distribution of the water.
In 1999, the countries established the Nile Basin Initiative as a forum on the river’s use. Egypt and Sudan walked out of the talks, demanding their “historic rights” be recognized.
The boycott backfired. The other nations went ahead, creating their own Cooperative Framework Agreement in 2010 and throwing support behind Ethiopia’s dam. Sudan and Egypt remained hold-outs.
After coming to office in 2014, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi took a new approach, visiting Sudan, Ethiopia and other upstream nations and talking of diplomatic solutions.
Egypt then signed the 2015 Declaration of Principles. For the first time, it made no mention of its past water shares. Critics said it had gone too far in the other direction and had surrendered its rights.
Salman Salman, a Sudanese water expert, said Egypt ignored past opportunities to work together with Ethiopia. “There is this arrogance (in Egypt) and the feeling that this is our river and no one can touch it,” he said.
Now Egypt is isolated, and Ethiopia is dragging its feet over cooperation — just as Egypt did in the past.
“Egypt is no longer the dominant force along the Nile,” Salman said. “Ethiopia is replacing it.”
____
Associated Press writers Sam Magdy in Cairo and Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.Labor Group Calls For End To Occupation Of Afghanistan
Above photo: October, 2012,Lead banners at Minneapolis anti war march. (Fight Back! News/Staff)
American troops have been fighting in Afghanistan for over twelve years. At the beginning American working people might have had some idea—right or wrong—what the war was about. But now, after over 3,500 soldiers and Marines have been killed and thousands more grievously wounded, no one seems to remember why they are there and for what reason they have died.
In communities all over the United States people are hearing from their sons and daughters who are deployed to the Afghan war zone: they don’t understand why they are there. The Afghan people don’t want them there. They can’t trust that the Afghan troops—who are supposed to be their allies—won’t turn on them in a firefight. These young men and women, who went into the Armed Forces because they had no other job opportunities, often volunteered for duty in Afghanistan because of the premium pay they would earn for combat service. That little bit of extra cash is nothing compared to what these young people have sacrificed, even those who have come home with no physical wounds.
The tragedy that is Afghanistan has been over three decades in the making. American foreign policy under six presidents has brought this unfortunate country to the state that it is in today. When Soviet troops intervened in the 1980s to defend a progressive Afghan government, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency organized an insurgency led by reactionary tribal leaders and opium poppy planters. This was the beginning of the Taliban. The CIA helped to recruit foreigners from fundamentalist sects of Islam to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, including a young man from a wealthy Saudi family named Osama bin Ladin. This was the beginning of al-Qaeda.
Both the Taliban and al-Qaeda have “Made in U.S.A.” stamped all over them. Americans have been dying in conflict with forces originally organized by their own government. It is tragic and unnecessary!
The failure of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was a big contributing factor to the demise of the Soviet Union itself, which multinational oil companies saw as an opportunity to exploit the oil and gas resources of the former Central Asian Soviet republics and the underwater reserves under the Caspian Sea. U.S. corporations, including Halliburton, began developing plans to build a pipeline across Afghanistan to ports on the Indian Ocean. Some geologists believe as well that Afghanistan has considerable untapped mineral resources. The big business executives and their friends in Washington are concerned that it should be U.S. business that reaps the profits from building a pipeline, transporting oil and gas, and exploiting newly-discovered mineral resources, rather than Russian or Chinese interests. Should American working men and women in uniform be fighting and dying for the profits of these corporations?
At a time when politicians in Congress and state legislatures are complaining of fiscal deficits and threatening to cut earned benefits, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and other programs which benefit working people, the unemployed, and the sick and disabled, the continued occupation of Afghanistan is costing a staggering amount of money. The estimate for fiscal year 2014 is $79.5 billion (according to the Friends Committee on National Legislation), or about the same amount as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). That $79.5 billion does not include the cost of caring for wounded veterans nor the burdens placed on social service agencies by unemployment, homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other problems faced by the young men and women returning from the war zone.
The overwhelming majority of the American people would much prefer that the tens of billions of dollars going down the sinkhole of an unwinnable war in Afghanistan be spent instead on jobs, infrastructure, education, the environment, and safety net programs here at home.
How can the astronomical cost of continued military operations and occupation of Afghanistan be justified in 2014? Today, Osama bin Ladin—whose presence in Afghanistan was the original pretext for war—is dead. By the CIA’s own estimates, there are no more than 100 al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. Much of the country is under the control of local warlords, some affiliated with the Taliban, but none is strong enough to threaten anyone outside of Afghanistan, least of all the United States of America.
Why do U.S. troops continue to fight and die there? Why are billions of dollars diverted from human needs in the United States to a useless conflict abroad?
The Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between the U.S. and the Afghan government, headed by President Hamid Karzai, which allows the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, is due to expire at the end of 2014. A new BSA has been negotiated which would allow about 10,000 U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan indefinitely after 2014, but Karzai has thus far refused to sign it. Karzai is justifiably angry about civilian casualties and about U.S. troops’ searches of civilian homes and restrictions on civilian travel. Should the agreement not go into effect, the U.S. will have to withdraw all its forces, as it was required to do from Iraq in 2011.
Karzai’s term of office ends in April 2014, and he is not allowed to seek another term. Whether his successor will be willing to sign a new BSA with the United States cannot be predicted. According to David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, writing in the January 26, 2014, issue of the New York Times, the U.S. intelligence community is concerned that if a BSA is not renewed, “they could lose their air bases used for drone strikes against al Qaeda in Pakistan and for responding to a nuclear crisis in the region.” They go on to say, “If Mr. Obama ultimately withdrew all American troops from Afghanistan, the C.I.A.’s drone bases in the country would have to be closed…because [they] could no longer be protected.”
An end to the drone warfare, which has caused hundreds of civilian deaths in the region, is something that working people in the United States should support. Our security is harmed, not helped, by drone warfare, aside from the obvious injustice of killing people who were never a threat.
President Obama, in his State of the Union message delivered on January 28, 2014, said, “More than 60,000 of our troops have already come home from Afghanistan. With Afghan forces now in the lead for their own security, our troops have moved to a support role. Together with our allies, we will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over.” But then he went on to say, “If the Afghan government signs a security agreement that we have negotiated, a small force of Americans could remain in Afghanistan with NATO allies to carry out two narrow missions: training and assisting Afghan forces, and counterterrorism operations to pursue any remnants of al-Qaeda.” American working people have a right to ask, “Will the Afghanistan war really be over?”
There is nothing beneficial to American working people in a continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, no matter how reduced in size and activity it might be. It is time to bring all the troops home now. Too many—both Americans and Afghans—have died already.
There is barely a whisper coming from the politicians in Washington in opposition to continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, and not a peep for bringing the troops home immediately. It is the labor movement’s responsibility to organize its own membership as part of a broad coalition with community-based organizations which are working for peace, and faith groups to come out into the streets in massive numbers, showing clearly that for American working people the time for bringing their young people in uniform home is now.
Issued by the Labor Fightback Network. For more information, please call 973-944-8975 or emailconference@laborfightback.org or write Labor Fightback Network, P.O. Box 187, Flanders, NJ 07836 or visit our website at laborfightback.org.Image caption Cigarette packs in India currently carry this image
India says tobacco firms will soon have to reserve almost all the space on cigarette packs for health warnings.
Health Minister Harsh |
Chiropractic research has produced no evidence to support the underlying chiropractic theory. While there is evidence that spinal manipulation therapy can be effective for low back pain, that treatment is not exclusive to chiropractors. Beyond low back pain, there’s no evidence that chiropractic treatments offer any meaningful benefit for other conditions. It’s possible to be an evidence-based chiropractor, as SBM contributor and chiropractor Sam Homola has taught us. Unfortunately the profession of chiropractic is not made up of Sam Homolas. This collaboration between U of T and CMCC is reminiscent of an attempt by CMCC to affiliate with York University almost 15 years ago. At that time it was noted that there were serious scientific concerns about chiropractic that made the incorporation of the school into York University inappropriate. It’s not clear what’s changed with chiropractic since that time.
4. The University gives a platform for the promotion of pseudoscientific ideas about health and medicine
It’s been noted by many that there is no such thing as “alternative” medicine, as medicine doesn’t fail to work in a conventional sense yet work in an “alternative” manner. Medicine either works or it doesn’t. What works we call medicine. The rest is either proven not to work, or is not proven to work. Despite this the University of Toronto Scarborough (a satellite campus) is hosting a conference that’s filled with pseudoscience. Coming this Saturday is Alternative Cares of Medicine, a Population Health and Policy Conference:
Among the speakers is Beth Landau-Halpern, a Toronto homeopath recently caught on camera by the CBC television show Marketplace selling homepathic “nosodes” to a mother as a substitute for a real vaccine. Homeopathic “nosodes” are a dangerous consequence of the pseudoscience of homeopathy. “Nosodes” are just sugar pills, like all homeopathy, but may be sold by homeopaths as substitutes for vaccination. They are not. After the Marketplace episode aired, Landau-Halpern went on record noting that while Health Canada requires nosodes to be labelled “not a vaccine”, that she is not required to do so. She knows they are not to be sold as a substitute for a vaccine, yet she did so anyway. This conference is labelled as being about population health, and given the resurgence of measles in Ontario and across North America, there is no better case study for the threat that homeopaths make to public health than examining homeopathic “nosodes” and the behaviour of homeopaths. What’s even more concerning is that Landau-Halpern actually seems to have a teaching appointment at the university. How a homeopath has obtained a teaching appointment in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto is another question that the university should answer. Given the recent public outcry over a professor at Queen’s University teaching anti-vaccine pseudoscience, why the University of Toronto is sponsoring a talk by an anti-vaccine homeopath deserves an explanation.
Another speaker is Bryce Wylde, another homeopath and self-described “alternative medicine expert, philanthropist, television host” who certainly gets significant television exposure, whether it’s his own show or guest appearances on The Dr. Oz Show. He’s been criticized for repeatedly promoting ideas and treatments that lack good evidence. There’s also Jennifer Yun, a naturopath who is the co-founder and “clinical director” of Adara Integrative Clinic which offers quackery like intravenous vitamin infusions and a pseudoscience I’d never heard of, esoteric acupuncture, described by her clinic as:
Drawing upon the disciplines of Traditional Chinese acupuncture, sacred geometry, the qabbalastic tree of life, the ayurvedic nadi system, and high Qi nutrition, esoteric acupuncture brings the subtle and finer aspects of Qi (vital energy) into balance.
The entire program is a cornucopia of pseudoscience, and I see little on the agenda that is going to contribute meaningfully to supporting population health. It’s not surprising to see this program is also sponsored by the Toronto School of Chinese Medicine and the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. It’s a clever way to leverage the credibility of the university while promoting your particular form of pseudoscience.
Conclusion
Like many universities, the University of Toronto appears to be taking a new and discouraging turn towards supporting pseudoscientific ideas about health and medicine. The line between science and pseudoscience is increasingly becoming difficult to see, especially when alternative medicine and quackery is rebranded as “integrative” medicine. Yet as can be seen with the resurgence of infectious disease driven by dropping vaccination rates, there are very real consequences to promoting incorrect ideas about health and wellness. We need academic centres like the U of T to be strong societal proponents of the scientific method and the best scientific evidence, rather than using appeals to popularity to determine academic programs and collaborations. Moreover, when the university or its staff make decisions that raise questions about their judgement, the university owes the community an explanation.Pin 5 4K Shares
Justin King
January 9, 2015
(ANTIMEDIA) The specifics and motives of the attack in Paris are being hotly debated, but the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue has in essence attempted to justify the killings by saying that the attack was provoked.
In a rambling statement he says that he has never encouraged violence, but that
“neither should we tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction.”
The editor-in chief targeted in the attack, was Stephane Charbonnier. Donohue states that
“Had he not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive.”
He doubles down on the statements in an interview with Newsmax. He talked about protesting against art and then called the victims of the attack “thugs.” Not the alleged shooters; the victims. He cites the abuse of liberty in the United States as well. Apparently, he is unaware that the same Amendment to the Constitution that protects free speech also protects his religious rights and his right to protest art that offends him.
“The abuse of liberty, in this country and... by these smart alecks who want to take their middle finger and put it in the face of people of faith, that has to stop too.”
He also stated:
“I also condemn the lack of restraint of people perverting their freedom by choosing the most pornographic, obscene, vulgar depictions of Muhammad for the juvenile intent of insulting them. You know, when you keep doing that, you’re going to get a response.”
The “response” in this case was the apparent attack on a satirical newspaper that killed 12 people. He asked people that wished to condemn Islam to do it with civility and decency.
Donohue was not the only public figure to put his foot in his mouth by attempting to gain political capital out of the deaths.
Nigel Farage, a Member of the European Parliament, blamed immigrants for the attacks and said that it could be blamed on a
“really rather gross policy of multiculturalism.”
This was said without poetic intent. Farage is apparently unaware that having one culture is exactly what the shooters thought was best as well.
The two talking points made by these men complement each other nicely. Don’t criticize religion and there needs to be only one culture. It sounds alarmingly like the probable talking points of the shooters. The solution to the threat of domination by one culture and one religion cannot be the domination of another culture and religion.
Before his death, Stephane Charbonnier said:
“Extremists don’t need any excuses.”
That may be true, but it seems that extremists will excuse each other when the times demand it.
Editors note: It should also be noted that the Catholic Church has sued Charlie Hebdo fourteen times.
This article is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive our latest articles.
Pin 5 4K SharesBy: OnIslam & Newspapers
Source: OnIslam
Facing a sharp rise in Islamophobia, leaders of the Muslim community in Hong Kong have issued an open “letter of peace”, listing true teachings of Islam and dispelling misconceptions and myths surrounding it.
“The Muslims in Hong Kong have lived side by side with their fellow non-Muslims for the best part of the last 175 years, and we certainly desire nothing else but to continue this peaceful coexistence,” the letter, which was backed by more than 21 Muslim groups and released in English and Chinese, was quoted by South China Morning Post.
“We request everyone not to judge the religion by the actions of a few, rather judge it by its original scriptures and sources. There are bad apples in every basket.”
The letter was issued after recent reports that the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) was extending its branches to recruit Indonesian migrant workers.
These reports have led to increase in anti-Muslim hate attacks, after Muslim women reported several cases in which they were targeted with comments about links to terrorism.
Taking a step-forward, the groups offered the letter to give the wider community a glimpse into Muslims’ beliefs.
“Discrimination is in every society, and we can’t say Hong Kong is absent from that,” Adeel Malik, an English teacher and one of the directors of educational group Discover Islam Hong Kong, said.
“These [news] articles have brought these issues from the back of the mind to the front of the mind because it’s happening at [our] doorstep. We have felt that as a community, the stories have had a negative impact.”
Malik, who was born and raised in Hong Kong, said that the open letter was “about building bridges with the local community”.
Unity
For businessman Ali Diallo, who moved to the city from Guinea about five years ago and teaches courses on Islam, the letter showed the Muslim community as one body acting together against threats.
“Since I’ve come to Hong Kong, this is the first time that I’ve seen the Muslim community come together like this,” he said.
Hong Kong’s chief imam, Muhammad Arshad, said local Muslims were shocked with the news stories “because it was unexpected and still most of them do not believe that ISIS could reach here”.
Arshad said that comments from Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung about a terrorism threat and possible links to Islamic State “would have been based on some intelligence reports so we have asked our community to be vigilant and supportive to the authority”.
Estimates put the number of Muslims in Hong Kong between 200,000 and 250,000.
About 100,000 are from Indonesia and work as domestic helpers. The rest come from all over the world, including large populations from Pakistan, Bangladesh and West Africa.
Only 20,000 or so are Hong Kong citizens.Weekly schedules are for people with reliable Internet connections.
Card Strike, Local Tournament, 10/09/2016
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1st Place: Juunishishi
Meteor Shower, Local Tournament, 10/08/2016, 42 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: JuunishishiTrading Card King Shop, Local Tournament, 10/08/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: Kaiju Train ShaddollTrading Card King Shop, Local Tournament, 10/01/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: LightswornIdol Sasebo Hino Shop, Local Tournament, 10/08/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: D/DSaisai Shop, Local Tournament, 10/05/2016, 10 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: FroggeozoicSaisai Shop, Local Tournament, 10/02/2016, 9 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: MetalfoesLaccus Kashihara Shop, Local Tournament, 09/29/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: Masked HEROLaccus Kashihara Shop, Local Tournament, 10/01/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: ABCSeagull Yonezawa Shop, Local Tournament, 10/01/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: MonarchManga Warehouse Kagoshima Shop, Local Tournament, 10/02/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: ABC2nd Okura CS, Domestic Tournament, 10/02/2016, 90 Players (30 Teams)—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: ABC—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: Masked HERO—————————————————————-1st Place, Player C: Froggeozoic—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player C: ABCHatti Grand CS 2016 (Day 1 top 32 standings), Domestic Tournament, 10/08/2016, 249 Players—————————————————————-Top 32: ABC—————————————————————-Top 32: D/D—————————————————————-Top 32: ABC—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: Atlantean Mermail Frog—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: Froggeozoic—————————————————————-Top 32: Darklord—————————————————————-Top 32: ABC—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-Top 32: D/D—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: D/D—————————————————————-Top 32: D/D—————————————————————-Top 32: ABC—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: ABC—————————————————————-Top 32: ABC—————————————————————-Top 32: Darklord—————————————————————-Top 32: ABC—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-Top 32: Froggeozoic—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes—————————————————————-Top 32: Darklord—————————————————————-Top 32: Metalfoes45th Trading Card Mania Yu-Gi-Oh CS, Domestic Tournament, 10/08/2016, 23 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place: Juunishishi—————————————————————-3rd Plce: ABC—————————————————————-4th Place: Speedroid Yang Zing Metalfoes23rd Trading Card Mania Amagasaki Yu-Gi-Oh CS, Domestic Tournament, 10/08/2016, 17 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place: ABC—————————————————————-4th Place: Froggeozoic145th Alann Cup, Domestic Tournament, 10/08/2016, 32 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Speedroid Yang Zing Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place: Atlantean Mermail Frog—————————————————————-3rd Place: Metal KozmoBattle City Shanghai, Local Tournament, 10/05/2016, 100 Players (China)—————————————————————-1st Place: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place: Metalfoes—————————————————————-3rd Place: Metalfoes—————————————————————-4th Place: D/DBattle City Fuzhou, Local Tournament, 10/02/2016, 54 Players (China)—————————————————————-1st Place: Masked HERO—————————————————————-2nd Place: Kozmo—————————————————————-3rd Place: ABC—————————————————————-4th Place: Speedroid Phantom AbyssSaisai Shop, Local Tournament, 09/28/2016, 8 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: DarklordCard Kingdom Tokushima Local Tournament, 10/01/2016, 12 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: KozmoCard Kingdom Tokushima Local Tournament, 09/24/2016, 10 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: CrystronLaccus Kashihara Shop, Local Tournament, 09/25/2016 (October Format)—————————————————————-1st Place: KozmoSeagull Sakurada Shop, Local Tournament, 09/17/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: DarklordKamifuku Cup, Domestic tournament, 10/02/2016, 192 Players (64 Teams)—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: D/D—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: D/D—————————————————————-1st Place, Player C: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player C: Blue-EyesKamifuku Cup, Domestic Tournament, 10/01/2016, 192 Players (64 Teams)—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: Metal Kozmo—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: Masked HERO—————————————————————-1st Place, Player C: D/D—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player C: MetalfoesCard Strike, Local Tournament, 10/03/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: Blue-EyesCard Strike, Local Tournament, 10/01/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: ABCLaccus Kashihara Shop, Local Tournament, 10/02/2016, 7 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: ABCLaccus Kashihara Shop, Local Tournament, 10/02/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: D/DMSH CS, Domestic Tournament, 10/02/2016, 235 Players (47 Teams)—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: Metalfoes—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: Artifact Kozmo—————————————————————-1st Place, Player C: D/D—————————————————————-1st Place, Player D: ABC—————————————————————-1st Place, Player E: Artifact Kozmo—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player C: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player D: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player E: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player A: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player B: Metalfoes—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player C: Metalfoes—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player D: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player E: ABCMeteor Shower, Local Tournament, 10/02/2016, 33 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Froggeozoic2nd University Exchange Duel – Autumn Festival, Domestic Tournament, 10/01/2016, 65 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: ABC—————————————————————-2nd Place: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place: Monarch—————————————————————-4th Place: Darklord3rd Hinoki Cup, Domestic Tournament, 10/01/2016, 35 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Blue-Eyes—————————————————————-2nd Place: Snow HERO—————————————————————-3rd Place: ABC—————————————————————-4th Place: Speedroid Artifact Monarch—————————————————————-5th Place: Metalfoes—————————————————————-6th Place: Dark Magician—————————————————————-7th Place: ABC—————————————————————-8th Place: Speedroid Artifact Yang Zing144th Alann Cup, Domestic Tournament, 10/01/2016, 32 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Froggeozoic—————————————————————-2nd Place: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place: MetalfoesRed Cat Cup, Local Tournament, 09/24/2016 (October Format)—————————————————————-1st Place: DarklordTrading Card King Shop, Local Tournament, 09/24/2016—————————————————————-1st Place: Performapal Odd-Eyes MagicianSaisai Shop, Local Tournament, 09/23/2016, 6 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: KozmoCK CS, Domestic Tournament, 09/24/2016, 144 Players (48 Teams) (October Format)—————————————————————-1st Place, Player A: Metalfoes—————————————————————-1st Place, Player B: ABC—————————————————————-1st Place, Player C: Masked HERO—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player A: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player B: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place, Player C: Kozmo—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player A: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place, Player C: ABCStrike Cup, Domestic Tournament, 09/25/2016, 63 Players (October Format)—————————————————————-1st Place: Metalfoes—————————————————————-2nd Place: ABC—————————————————————-3rd Place: Atlantean Mermail Frog—————————————————————-4th Place: Masked HERO21st Duel Off, Local Tournament, 09/25/2016, 7 Players—————————————————————-1st Place: Kozmo—————————————————————-2nd Place: Masked HERO—————————————————————-3rd Place: Blue-Eyes D/D—————————————————————-4th Place: RaidraptorLaccus Kashihara Shop, Local Tournament, 09/26/2016 (October Format)—————————————————————-1st Place: KozmoLaccus Kashihara Shop, Local Tournament, 09/24/2016 (October Format)—————————————————————-1st Place: ABC—————————————————————-CARD RANKINGEXCLUSIVE: MGM has optioned Rising Stars, the Top Cow comic series created by J. Michael Straczynski. He is set to write the script, and Alex Gartner and Richard Suckle will produce for Atlas Entertainment. Straczynski created/produced the Emmy and Hugo-winning Babylon 5 series, and he most recently wrote and exec produced with Lily and Lana Wachowski the Netflix series Sense 8, and his script credits include Changeling, Ninja Assassin, Thor, Underworld Awakening and World War Z.
Studio JMS
Aside from all this, he still finds time to create comics for Marvel DC, Top Cow and others, and his comics have sold over 11 million copies and earned him the Eisner Award and other honors. Rising Stars follows a special group of people all linked to one extraordinary event, and how they change the world we know into something we only imagined. It offers a new world of superheroes, as 113 children who were in utero when a meteor hit their Illinois hometown were left with special powers. Some of them are being murdered, and when that happens, their powers switch to the remaining “specials,” some of whom want nothing to do with this superhero business. Straczynski will also serve as a producer along with Atlas, though his Studio JMS banner. He’s repped by Paradigm and Kevin Kelly at Gender/Kelly.Scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a possible secret to dramatically boosting the efficiency of perovskite solar cells hidden in the nanoscale peaks and valleys of the crystalline material.
Solar cells made from compounds that have the crystal structure of the mineral perovskite have captured scientists' imaginations. They're inexpensive and easy to fabricate, like organic solar cells. Even more intriguing, the efficiency at which perovskite solar cells convert photons to electricity has increased more rapidly than any other material to date, starting at three percent in 2009 -- when researchers first began exploring the material's photovoltaic capabilities -- to 22 percent today. This is in the ballpark of the efficiency of silicon solar cells.
Now, as reported online July 4, 2016 in the journal Nature Energy, a team of scientists from the Molecular Foundry and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, both at Berkeley Lab, found a surprising characteristic of a perovskite solar cell that could be exploited for even higher efficiencies, possibly up to 31 percent.
Using photoconductive atomic force microscopy, the scientists mapped two properties on the active layer of the solar cell that relate to its photovoltaic efficiency. The maps revealed a bumpy surface composed of grains about 200 nanometers in length, and each grain has multi-angled facets like the faces of a gemstone.
Unexpectedly, the scientists discovered a huge difference in energy conversion efficiency between facets on individual grains. They found poorly performing facets adjacent to highly efficient facets, with some facets approaching the material's theoretical energy conversion limit of 31 percent.
The scientists say these top-performing facets could hold the secret to highly efficient solar cells, although more research is needed.
"If the material can be synthesized so that only very efficient facets develop, then we could see a big jump in the efficiency of perovskite solar cells, possibly approaching 31 percent," says Sibel Leblebici, a postdoctoral researcher at the Molecular Foundry.
Leblebici works in the lab of Alexander Weber-Bargioni, who is a corresponding author of the paper that describes this research. Ian Sharp, also a corresponding author, is a Berkeley Lab scientist at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis. Other Berkeley Lab scientists who contributed include Linn Leppert, Francesca Toma, and Jeff Neaton, the director of the Molecular Foundry.
A team effort
The research started when Leblebici was searching for a new project. "I thought perovskites are the most exciting thing in solar right now, and I really wanted to see how they work at the nanoscale, which has not been widely studied," she says.
She didn't have to go far to find the material. For the past two years, scientists at the nearby Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis have been making thin films of perovskite-based compounds, and studying their ability to convert sunlight and CO2 into useful chemicals such as fuel. Switching gears, they created pervoskite solar cells composed of methylammonium lead iodide. They also analyzed the cells' performance at the macroscale.
The scientists also made a second set of half cells that didn't have an electrode layer. They packed eight of these cells on a thin film measuring one square centimeter. These films were analyzed at the Molecular Foundry, where researchers mapped the cells' surface topography at a resolution of ten nanometers. They also mapped two properties that relate to the cells' photovoltaic efficiency: photocurrent generation and open circuit voltage.
This was performed using a state-of-the-art atomic force microscopy technique, developed in collaboration with Park Systems, which utilizes a conductive tip to scan the material's surface. The method also eliminates friction between the tip and the sample. This is important because the material is so rough and soft that friction can damage the tip and sample, and cause artifacts in the photocurrent.
Surprise discovery could lead to better solar cells
The resulting maps revealed an order of magnitude difference in photocurrent generation, and a 0.6-volt difference in open circuit voltage, between facets on the same grain. In addition, facets with high photocurrent generation had high open circuit voltage, and facets with low photocurrent generation had low open circuit voltage.
"This was a big surprise. It shows, for the first time, that perovskite solar cells exhibit facet-dependent photovoltaic efficiency," says Weber-Bargioni.
Adds Toma, "These results open the door to exploring new ways to control the development of the material's facets to dramatically increase efficiency."
In practice, the facets behave like billions of tiny solar cells, all connected in parallel. As the scientists discovered, some cells operate extremely well and others very poorly. In this scenario, the current flows towards the bad cells, lowering the overall performance of the material. But if the material can be optimized so that only highly efficient facets interface with the electrode, the losses incurred by the poor facets would be eliminated.
"This means, at the macroscale, the material could possibly approach its theoretical energy conversion limit of 31 percent," says Sharp.
A theoretical model that describes the experimental results predicts these facets should also impact the emission of light when used as an LED. Linn Leppert, Sebastian Reyes-Lillo, and Jeff Neaton performed this particular work.
The Molecular Foundry is a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Berkeley Lab. The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis is a DOE Energy Innovation Hub led by the California Institute of Technology in partnership with Berkeley Lab.
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The research was supported in part by the Department of Energy's Office of Science.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www. lbl. gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the Unites States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website at science.energy.gov.Custom 3D printing will move one step closer to becoming mainstream next year, thanks to a forthcoming service from office supply mega-chain Staples.
Called Staples Easy 3D, the new offering will allow customers to upload STL, OBJ, or VRML files to the Staples Office Centre for 3D printing, then either pick up the finished models at their nearest Staples store or have them shipped.
Customers have been able to obtain 3D printing services from niche players such as Shapeways for several years now, but Staples will be the first major retailer to step into the field.
"Given our market leadership in commercial print, why would we ever stop at two dimensions?" Wouter Van Dijk, president of the Staples' European Printing Systems Division, said in a press release. "Customised parts, prototypes, art objects, architectural models, medical models and 3D maps are items customers need today, in a more affordable and more accessible manner."
The retailer offered no word on whether it had an official policy with regard to assault weapon parts.
Staples announced its plans for the service at the Euromold 2012 conference on Thursday alongside partner Mcor Technologies, which will supply its Mcor IRIS 3D printers to handle the orders.
Launched on Tuesday, the IRIS is a new kind of full-color 3D printer that uses paper, rather than plastic, as its build medium. Starting with a stack of ordinary A4 or letter-sized sheets, the machine binds them together using a water-based adhesive to create the finished models.
According to Mcor, because paper is such a natural medium for ink, the IRIS can also print in over one million simultaneous hues, producing near-photorealistic results. By comparison, most other color 3D printers only support a small range of colors, printed one at a time.
What's more, because they are paper-based and use no solvents, toxic resins, or plastics, IRIS-printed models can be disposed of in the recycling bin.
It's not clear how much models produced in this fashion will cost, compared to those made using other kinds of 3D printers. Staples has yet to announce pricing for its Easy 3D service, though it said it expected using the Mcor kit would help it keep prices low.
To hear Mcor tell it, the parts cost for the IRIS is 5 per cent that of other 3D printers, and the total cost of ownership for the printer is "one-fifth that of the competition." Time will tell.
Even if Staples' offering is the most cost-effective 3D-printing service on the market, however, it may be a while before you can try it out. The retailer said it plans to launch the service in the first quarter of 2013, but only in the Netherlands and Belgium to start.
After the initial run, it said, it plans to roll the service out to other countries "quickly" – but it did not specify which ones and it gave no timeline. ®Of course Chelsea won. Of course.
Yesterday's match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield should have been the happy climax of what has been one of the greatest stories of the season. Liverpool were once a great club, and, to some, everything right and noble and just about soccer. They were a working class team, with working class fans and a working class captain in Steven Gerrard. They had working class players and played working class soccer, rarely gorgeous but always earnest, honest, and they won 18 First Division titles doing it. In 2005, they won the Champions League against AC Milan on penalties after trailing 3-0 at half. To a specific subset of people, Liverpool embodied every good thing about English soccer, and about England.
Then, after finishing second to Manchester United in 2009, England's paladins fell off a cliff. They were outspent and ultimately outcoached, outbid, and outcompeted by richer clubs, and languished in midtable hell for this entire decade. Last year, they finished seventh, 28 points off the title. We assumed they would this year, too. But once more, Liverpool fought back.
They did so through evolution. Though captain Gerrard, now older than fuck with a body to match, was no longer the box-to-box terror that he once was, he's reinvented himself as a game-changing holding midfielder who commanded his men not from the front or heart of battle, but from in front of his back line. That back line, mind you, has always been a back four, just because that's what Liverpool do, but this season, manager Brendan Rogers switched to a free-ranging 5-3-2 formation, more at home in the Mexican league than anywhere east of the Atlantic ocean. English striker Daniel Sturridge was sold to Liverpool from Chelsea in January 2013 after being considered a highly-talented, highly-wasteful washout who would never, ever be good enough to lead the Blues' line. Instead, he teamed up with Luis Suárez, the semi-disgraced racist, biting, handballing Uruguayan forward who was every bit a superstar and every bit a roach of a man, and sat out the first five games of the season before playing himself back into our hearts by going on a one-man, season-long scoring spree through the Premier League. And dammit, we forgave him. Suárez is leading the league in goals and assists this season (30 and 12), and the Sturridge/Suárez partnership combined for 50—50—goals, more than half of the league's clubs.
(Phillippe Coutinho, Raheem Sterling, and Martin Skrtel have been revelations, too. Mamadou Sakho and Simon Mignolet are pretty great. The whole team, really.)
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Liverpool ascended to the top of the Premier League, and did so by playing some of the most beautiful, most ingenious, most fun attacking soccer in the world. Liverpool this year were inevitable, and going into Sunday's match against Chelsea, had scored 96 goals in 35 matches. That's five more than Manchester City, whose UAE owners are richer, probably, than God Himself, and have spent more money on players in six years than some of us could spend in six lifetimes to concoct an undeniably great, frankly evil squad that scores virtually at will and throws up nigh-American football scores against some of the world's best clubs, and—depending on who you ask—is Very Literally Every Single Motherfucking Thing Wrong With The Sport. After a 2-1 loss to City in the beginning of the season, Liverpool outperformed them on April 13, and beat them 3-2 to separate themselves from City and place one calloused hand on the Premier League title.
Going into Sunday's match against against Chelsea, a win or even a draw would have all but completed Liverpool's rebirth, capping their five-season fight back to the summit of the world's most popular, most competitive league. Unfortunately, standing in their way was manager José Mourinho.
To a specific subset of people, Mourinho is the worst person in the whole, entire world. This is because the Special One, as he's called, is a singular genius who jaunts whimsically from team to team, from league to league, and wins trophies, year after year, no matter what, and does so while being one of the most arrogant sports figures to ever walk the Earth.
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Mourinho is so hated because he is a a real-life, in-the-flesh, honest-to-God supervillain, whose arrogance has paved the way for his cynicism, which has led him to cracking the code and solving soccer.
When you honestly, truly feel you're the greatest thing to ever hold a clipboard, you stop giving a fuck what people think. You stop giving a fuck about what the media writes. You stop giving a fuck about the aesthetics of your team's philosophy. You solely chase points and titles.
Last fall and all year, we crowed that Mourinho had finally overstepped when he let young striker Romelu Lukaku go on loan to Everton. Lukaku immediately began scoring in bunches, while Chelsea's three strikers—the ancient Samuel Eto'o, the diminished Fernando Torres, and the never-was Demba Ba—have scored 18 goals between them this year, less than Suárez, Sturridge, and City midfielder Yaya Touré have each tallied themselves. Going into Sunday's match against Liverpool, though, Chelsea sat in third place in England's top flight, and had advanced to the semifinal round of the Champions League. Mourinho earlier said that he'd given up on the Premier League title, and that his focus was on the more prestigious European trophy. Iconic keeper Petr Čech was out for the season, and center back John Terry and newly-minted English Young Player of the Year Eden Hazard were both trying to return from injury. Neither made the bench on Sunday. Early in the week, Mourinho said that he'd field his reserves on Sunday so that his best 11 would be healed up for the more important semifinal match against Atlético Madrid this week.
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It was cynical, a dismissal of the importance of the Liverpool, an anticlimactic end to Liverpool |
outlined “overwhelming” evidence of plagiarism in Spence’s thesis for his prestigious doctorate of education degree. Centa presented the tribunal with 67 examples of passages — including one that was nine pages long — that were found to be the work of others who were not credited or cited in Spence’s dissertation. “This is not close to the line, this is not a few random sentences in a 120-page thesis,” Centa told the hearing.
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Instead, he said it’s a case of “paragraph after paragraph after paragraph, page after page after page in some instances, of text taken verbatim or nearly verbatim” without quotation marks, italics or anything else to indicate it was material from other sources. Fishbein said the written decision outlining reasons will follow. Spence can appeal after that decision is released. The damning evidence and the tribunal’s ensuing call for the most severe sanctions took place without Spence present, and amid the celebratory sounds of students gathering for convocation outside the building. The panel’s recommendations to U of T’s Governing Council come more than four years after a stunning fall from grace for the former education director with the Toronto District School board in the wake of allegations that he had cribbed other writers’ work in newspaper articles including the Toronto Star, blogs and books without giving them credit. In December, the Ontario College of Teachers imposed its most severe penalty on Spence when it stripped the 54-year-old of his teaching licence after he was found guilty of professional misconduct.
But Spence, who is currently living in Chicago and has said he is working on a youth mentoring program there, has mounted a campaign to fight back against the college, arguing that he has taken responsibility for his actions, that the penalty was “disproportionate” and that he wants to teach again. Last month, in a half-hour online video interview with former TDSB chair Bruce Davis as a part of the “Let Spence Teach” campaign, Spence pledged to defend his U of T thesis and attributed the accusations of plagiarism to “careless, reckless, sloppy research.”
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However, Spence’s chair was empty at the opening of the hearing Tuesday, even though four days had been booked to address the merits of the case following three years of delays over procedural issues from his various lawyers. Last Friday, one of his lawyers was in divisional court arguing for a stay against the U of T proceedings, but was not successful. On Tuesday, a different lawyer, Carol Shirtliff-Hinds, opened by requesting another postponement, arguing that she had concerns about her client’s mental state and that she was unable to get clear instruction from him. After being pressed by Fishbein to find out where he was, she returned and told the panel her client was in Chicago and had reported having an anxiety attack the previous day. Her request for a postponement was denied and Shirtliff-Hinds withdrew from the proceedings saying she couldn’t remain given her “ethical position.” Evidence presented by Centa went beyond the alleged examples of plagiarism. He also argued that Spence’s actions were deliberate because he “edited the plagiarized text to mask the fact he was plagiarizing.” He cited passages where American spellings and phrases were changed to Canadian versions and text was personalized so it appeared to reflect Spence’s own observations and experience. His only witness was Luc De Nil, vice-dean of students with the school of graduate studies. Asked if the doctorate of education would have been granted to Spence if these issues had been brought to his office back in early 1996, he said “no, it definitely would not.”Following negotiations that probably consisted of, “hey, do you want to be on TV?” “Always,” Deadline reports that Breitbart jagoff—we refuse to call him a “provocateur,” because he probably enjoys that—Milo Yiannopoulos will in fact appear on this week’s episode of Real Time With Bill Maher. Now, to be fair to the staunchly (old school) liberal Maher, he will presumably do his best to make Yiannopoulos look like an idiot, as he recently did with conservative talking heads Tomi Lahren and Piers Morgan. But those two were on the panel for the show, allowing other guests to join in the discussion and deliver their own sick burns. Yiannopoulos, meanwhile, will be the top of the show guest, interacting with Maher and only Maher. Let’s just hope the topic of Islam doesn’t come up, because that could get…awkward.
UPDATE: Journalist and co-founder of The Intercept Jeremy Scahill does not think this Milo shit is cute, and has canceled his appearance on this week’s Real Time With Bill Maher in protest of Yiannopoulos’ appearance on the show. He was scheduled to sit on this week’s panel. You can read his full statement on the matter via Twitter below.Getty Images A German oil refinery
German metalworking conglomerate Metallgesellschaft AG gambled hard and fell even harder. In 1993 the company lost $1.3 billion after speculating that oil prices would rise. Oil plummeted, however, forcing shareholders to hastily put together a $2 billion rescue package to keep the company from going under bankruptcy.
CEO Heinz C. Schimmelbusch, widely respected as a financial wunderkind, was quickly ousted along with most of Metallgesellschaft’s senior management. The company sued Schimmelbusch in the U.S. and Germany, accusing him of breach of duty in the trading losses. The ex-CEO filed a $10 million countersuit in New York Supreme Court against the current management and Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest financial institution, claiming the bank used the company’s misfortunes to profit financially and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. (The two sides eventually settled.)
Metallgesellschaft AG returned to profit in 1996 and is now part of GEA group.
Next 9. Orange County, $1.7 BillionThe luck o’ the Irish—it’s all buried in their soil. (Photo: TinnaPong/shutterstock.com)
Who needs to hunt for leprechauns when a one-pound baggie of lucky Irish dirt only costs $11.40?
Official Irish Dirt is normally sold in the U.S. in small pouches or canisters—sometimes with shamrock seeds thrown in for extra luck—but for some folks, that’s not enough. One 87-year-old lawyer hailing from the Emerald Isle spent $100,000 worth of Irish dirt to fill his American grave, while a man originally from County Cork purchased enough Irish-sourced earth to spread under his freshly constructed house in New England, a total investment of $148,000. Funeral directors and florists order the dirt in bulk, while others just need enough to sprinkle around a tree or on a casket to connect with their land of birth.
Desire for the “auld sod” of their homeland is apparently enough to bring Irishmen abroad to tears. And when businessman Alan Jenkins saw those tears, back in the mid-’90s, he saw an untapped opportunity and a market unmet.
It all began when Jenkins, an Irish immigrant then in his mid-50s, found himself at a gathering in Florida of the Sons of Erin, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting Irish heritage. “The only thing everyone [at the meeting] would give their right arm for was a drop ‘of the auld sod’ to put on top of their casket,” Jenkins told The New York Post. It seemed that while Irish-Americans had been able to bring over their families, their schools, their churches, and their pubs, the one thing they didn’t have was their dirt—and Irish dirt, it turns out, holds a special place in Irish hearts. Men would sometimes tear up, said Jenkins, expressing how deeply they wished for a bit of true Irish dirt to be spread over their caskets. It got Jenkins thinking.
Oh, the sweet earth of the Emerald Isle! (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
Normally, there are bans on soil imports in order to prevent foreign critters from infiltrating domestic crops. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has actually made two special exceptions, issuing special permits for import to Irish dirt and Israeli dirt (available wholesale from the company Holy Land Earth).
Securing that permit took Jenkins years of contemplation and effort.
Five years after his Sons of Erin encounter in Florida, Jenkins got in touch with an industrial chemist, who thought he might be able to cleanse the dirt enough to satisfy trade regulations. Though the chemist soon decided it was impossible, Jenkins wasn’t quite ready to give up.
In 2006, he met Pat Burke, a young, Irish-American agricultural scientist. Together, after petitioning both the U.S. Customs Department and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, they patented a method of sanitizing Irish dirt that met American regulations. When they got the green light, they committed themselves full time to the booming business of redistributing earth. Their company became the Auld Sod Export Company and their product, “Official Irish Dirt.” Initially, Jenkins had wanted to collect dirt from each of Ireland’s 32 counties so that buyers could choose the dirt closest to their ancestral home, but that proved a bit too laborious, so they began sourcing from a two-acre field in Tipperary county in the middle of the Golden Vale.
A 1 lb pouch of dirt straight from “My Ireland.” (Photo: Joe’s Plant Nook)
Later that same year, their first shipment reached a warehouse in Long Island, New York, and the company’s website crashed within 15 minutes of launching. Jenkins reported receiving calls all week from folks interesting in starting up franchises. Auld Sod Export Co. started digging up dirt more rigorously and ramping up shipments to its distribution center in Williston, Vermont. They started buying and renting other plots of Irish earth to keep up with demand.
While many Irish immigrants wanted dirt from home to bless their burials, florists were equally interested in ordering the topsoil for planting flowers and shamrocks. There’s also an Irish tradition of planting a tree to mark the birth of a newborn, and many wished these trees could set their roots in Irish soil.
Soon, Jenkins and Burke were receiving online requests from Irish folks all over the world. The lore of lucky Irish dirt even made its way to China, where non-Irish Chinese began requesting shipments of the trending soil, too. With business booming, Jenkins and Burke chose to donate 80% of the company’s multi-million-dollar profits to charities in the U.S. and Ireland.
Official Irish Dirt is great for growing authentic Irish shamrocks. (Photo: Supportstorm/Wikimedia Commons Public Domain)
However nine years later, the Irish dirt business seems to have all but ground to a halt. If you’re still hoping to buy some Official Irish Dirt, there’s a limited stock left, sold by sites like Joe’s Plant Nook and Sullivan’s Irish Alley. Business has definitely slowed down, and retailers say that the Auld Sod Export Company has gone out of business entirely. Its website is still available, but their customer service number now greets you with a Rent-a-Car recording. Luckily, if you can get your hands on some of the dirt, it’ll last you a while; the “best before” date on the bags is August 9, 2162.
It makes one wonder what happened—did folks in Ireland start noticing massive craters appearing in their fields and start to complain? Did they start demanding their dirt remain domestic? Did someone decide that the amount of earth being shipped over the ocean was getting excessive? Or did Jenkins and Burke decide they had other fields to sow and fish to fry?
If there’s one thing that’s obvious, it’s that dirt is nothing to be taken lightly.
Or as the poem on pouches of Official Irish Dirt would tell you:
I have traveled far but never seen,
an island of such emerald green,
the mystery of this ancient place,
is written on land and friendly face.
It touched my heart,
and once my hand,
and now I’m surrounded,
by my treasured land.People of the Gun love the Old West, a place where, they like to imagine, “an armed society is a polite society” (as if Deadwood were a good model for modern life).
But when the Starbucks’ CEO Howard Shultz requested — not demanded, mind you, but requested — that people visiting his coffee shops please leave their guns outside, much as saloon-keepers did in the days of Wyatt Earp, rightbloggers threw a fit.
This bizarre story goes back to 2010, when gun advocates started walking into Starbucks outlets located in open-carry states with their guns ostentatiously out, just to show they could do it.
Why Starbucks? Probably because if they let you flash your gun at Cletus’ Bait Shop and Chaw Depot, it’s not news, but if the hippie-dippy Starbucks lets you, it’s man bites dog. (As a commenter to a related story at Breitbart.com grunted approvingly, “Kind of weird. Anti-gun liberals are their main customers, sitting around having their phony, ‘intellectual’ discussions.”)
In some cases, the gun advocates got mild pushback, which they seemed to consider a provocation. As KING5 News reported in October 2010, for instance, one Tom Brewster had been asked by police for ID when he came packing to a Spanaway, Washington Starbucks (“I carry [a gun] in the open because I have nothing to hide”), and though the cops let him alone once he’d shown it, 35 of Brewster’s buddies later came back with their own guns, just to show everyone how harmless a bunch of resentful people with weapons can be.
Not quite a bitchin' as "Guns & Booze," but you could always get drunk before you bring your gun to Starbucks. They'll all be too scared to hassle you!
This seems to have been part of a strategy — get in trouble for your gun in a public place, return with armed backup to show everybody you have right. “Two weeks ago five patrons at a Madison, Wisconsin restaurant were cited for disorderly conduct for openly carrying holstered handguns,” gun rightsblogger Jeff Soyer of Alphecca wrote that same month. “…Today, Wisconsin Carry, Inc. is planning a “Meet and Greet” at the Starbuck’s in Ashwaubenon, WI…”
The practice attracted attention, as the practitioners apparently had hoped it would, and the chain eventually issued a delicate statement, saying that “while we deeply respect the views of all our customers” on controversial gun issues, “Starbucks’ long-standing approach to this issue remains unchanged. We comply with local laws and statutes in all the communities we serve. That means we abide by the laws that permit open carry in 43 U.S. states.”
This cheered the People of the Gun, and they started having “Starbucks Appreciation Days” to further publicize their wonderful new gunman-hostage relationship with the coffee shops. Here, for example, a gun bulletin board poster announces one set for Valentine’s Day 2012: “There is no open carry in SC. Which really REALLY REALLY sucks. But, I will be leaving early enough to grab a coffee, and maybe…” Though it sounds like a suicide note, no incidents were reported. (Top rightblogger Instapundit also noted the event, adding later, “Starbucks should be rewarded for refusing to bow to bigots.”)
On August 9, 2013, the People of the Gun, perhaps deciding the sheeple were ready to hear their message loud and clear, held a much better publicized “Starbucks Appreciation Day.” This one had a big Facebook page, lots of attention from Fox News affiliates, and a great news hook: One of the brandish-ins would be held in Newtown, Connecticut, site of the Newtown massacre — you know, that gun bloodbath in 2012? Oh, you don’t remember? That’s okay, there’ve been so many. Anyway, some of the brethren thought it’d be neat to celebrate and flash guns at the place where 26 people were slaughtered by them.
To normal people this might seem in terrible taste, to say the least, but these are cold-dead-hands types we’re talking about, so rightbloggers wished them godspeed: “If you need a Friday afternoon pick-me-up and support your right to carry a firearm, head over to Starbucks,” wrote Katie Pavlich at TownHall. “This had the usual crowd of activists up in arms,” laffed Jazz Shaw at Hot Air, and isn’t that what matters — not ordinary decorum in a shattered community, but pissing off stupid libtards? And with guns yet! Why, it’s almost as good as shooting them.
The brethren posted photos of themselves posing cheerfully with guns drawn at coffee shops.
One fellow videoed himself going to Starbucks with a rifle. “I wanna thank Starbucks for their position supporting the Second Amendment, I appreciate it a lot,” the guy told the baristas, who kept their heads down and continued working on his order, hoping their families knew that they loved them. Some cops came in and gently urged the gun guy outside to ask if he’s trying to provoke some kind of reaction with his brandishing. “No, sir,” said the cowboy, “we do this for educational purposes.” This being Texas, an open-carry-and-then-some state, and the gunman being white, there was nothing the cops could do thereafter but wait for the hail of bullets, but thankfully our hero was in educational rather than mass-murder mode, and collected his order without incident.
At this point Starbucks CEO Shultz seemed to want to stay out of the controversy more than ever — “I’m not a politician,” he pleaded to the press. “I run a coffee company and we’re trying to abide by the laws in which we do business” — and when the gun guys showed up in Newtown, that Starbucks branch closed early. Maybe they thought it was a decent compromise, though some of the brethren were pissed, per the Washington Times: “‘I came here to support Starbucks for supporting the Constitution,’ Dom Basile of Watertown told a local CBS affiliate. ‘Now, they’re not supporting us.'”
By and large, though, there was no reason for the brethren to consider it anything but a triumph; for, like the Battle of Chick-fil-A — the 2012 anti-gay demo which only required right-wingers to show up at fast-food restaurants — there was no way to measure how many gun nuts were among Starbucks’ patrons, so it could have been a kabillion for all you know, therefore we win. Plus which, they could be sure they’d made an impression on those folks in the Starbucks who saw them come in, and anyone else within firing range.
Sill, Connecticut’s two Democratic Senators, who may have heard from constituents about the gunplay, complained about it. So did other anti-gun groups, and some of them even threatened to boycott Starbucks, but since they didn’t have guns drawn no one paid attention to them.
As you may recall, if the NRA hasn’t already scrubbed your memory of it, last week there was another big mass shooting at Washington D.C.’s Navy Yard. This may have moved Shultz to issue another extremely timid, yet differently shaded, statement on September 17, the day after the shootings, which basically said again that anyone who could legally bear arms could bear them in Starbucks, but that Schultz rather hoped they wouldn’t.
“We appreciate that there is a highly sensitive balance of rights and responsibilities surrounding America’s gun laws,” wrote Schultz, “and we recognize the deep passion for and against the ‘open carry’ laws adopted by many states.” But “pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called ‘Starbucks Appreciation Days,'” he went on, “that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of ‘open carry’…”
Trying even harder to be what we suppose someone like Chuck Todd would call “fair,” Schultz also complained that “some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners.” See, both sides are equally to blame! But still, Starbucks was “respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas…” He hastened to assure patrons “this is a request and not an outright ban,” in part because he was “not comfortable” with a situation that would “potentially require our partners to confront armed customers.” (We bet those partners wouldn’t be comfortable trying to eject a guy with a gun, either, and not for political reasons.)
So, Shultz had made the most cringing request possible — in fact, had said that if gun nuts didn’t honor his request to behave as he preferred in his own stores, nothing would happen to them.
Nonetheless the brethren were upset at his assault on their liberties.
“Unfortunately, Starbucks has relented to public pressure,” said United Liberty.
“I was willing to go out of my way to throw Starbucks business they would not have ordinarily gotten because they were not giving in to the bullying by anti-gun extremists,” said Sebastian of Shall Not Be Questioned. “…But Starbucks has decided they no longer want my business, and I will take it back to Dunkin Donuts gladly. Their coffee is better anyway.” (Later in the same post Sebastian wrote, “We have to be prepared to take our money elsewhere, and mean it. If Starbucks does not quickly reverse this policy, I’m done with them.” Ooops! Guess someone was lured off the reservation by Banana Walnut Bread!)
The Washington Free Beacon did a round-up of Facebook posts called “Starbucks Irks 2nd Amendment Supporting Customers.” “Bye Bye Starbucks,” one such ex-patron wrote. “I’ll support small business instead of your corporate dictatorship and take my money to the little locally owned coffee house where they know me by name.” Another told Starbucks, “You have lost an annual revenue of over $1,500,” this fellow will be getting his rage-fuel elsewhere. The article mentioned that “Starbucks stock trading under the symbol SBUX was down.032 in early trading, after closing at $76.04 yesterday.” See, tea patriots? You can make a difference!
See, it's all about perception. For instance, I also have a syringe filled with ammonia hidden in my pants pocket, but you're not scared of that.
“Guess I won’t be going there anytime soon,” claimed The Right Scoop. “I guess they don’t want gun owner business,” hmmphed Say Uncle. “Because that is what will happen. They never really got my business except a couple of times because I don’t like to pay excessive prices for mediocre coffee.” (Wicked burn!)
“[Schultz] lies when he says he is not anti-gun,” hollered Warner Todd Huston at Wizbang. “…If he’s saying he wants gun owners not to carry their guns anymore, then his desired ban of guns cannot be construed as anything but anti-gun. Henceforth, all true Americans that support the U.S. Constitution should refuse to patronize Starbucks coffee shops.”
“McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts to Gun Owners: Hey, We Respect Gun Laws,” reported Leah Barkoukis at TownHall. The other fast food joints had “gun neutral” statements — that is, more like Schultz’s earlier ones. “Up until this week, gun owners celebrated Starbucks’ neutral gun policy, and increasingly came to use the coffee shops as gathering places,” said Barkoukis. “Now it looks like they’ll be frequenting Starbucks’ competitors a bit more often.” See? There’ll be consequences if you aren’t nice to the guys with the guns.
“Starbucks Against the Second Amendment?” asked Scared Monkeys. That was just a rhetorical gambit, of course: Their answer was, Starbucks pussy no guns aargh blaargh. “Starbucks claim that they did not want to get involved in the open carry gun debate, yet they just did,” said Scared Monkeys in his best Junior Debate Club manner. “…When a company sides with one side of the debate and restricts the other, that is the definition of taking a side.” Quidditch game, set, and match! Then Scared Monkeys really brought it: “I wonder,” he mused, “how many Starbucks employees would be thankful if some one legally carrying a gun actually saved them during a commission of a crime?” Next week, Scared Monkeys will wonder: if he rescued Princess Leia from an Imperial Storm Trooper, would she let him touch her boob?
Speaking of dorks, now for the libertarian position: Josh Featherstone of Indiana Libertarian seemed to understand that showing up at Starbucks with weapons was provocative, but “of course, the anti-gun advocates leaped out in response,” he reasoned, and that’s where the trouble really started: “The gun owners were having their open carry events, and the anti-gun crowd was bound and determined to have their rallies at the same places and at the same times. Suddenly, Starbucks’ locations everywhere were being turned into political battle grounds.” You see how it is: Proponents came with guns, opponents came with flyers — clearly both sides are in the wrong.
Another thought experiment came from Cam Edwards at Rare. “With all due respect to Mr. Schultz, I’ve been unsettled and upset by some of the piercings I’ve seen on my local baristas,” he wrote. “I’ve been unsettled and upset by the sight of a very large woman in very small yoga pants.. I understand that when I enter your store, I’ll likely be coming in contact with lots of folks who make different lifestyle choices than I do. It’s cool with me. But if you truly want folks to be respectful of others as citizens and neighbors, you might start by not asking gun owners to go quietly back into the closet as long as they’re in your stores.” See? He’s not asking your pierced, fat-hippie customers to go “back into the closet” (get it? That means gay). So why can’t he whip his piece out in your store without having to remember that someone once asked him nicely not to?
“If I were Howard Schultz,” speculated Edwards, “I wouldn’t have tried to extricate my company from the debate. I would have instead embraced the chance to play a positive role. I would have invited local pro-gun and anti-gun activists inside to formally debate in Starbucks shops across the country on certain evenings, instead of demonstrating outside on a weekend.” Think what a draw that would be! Come for the latte, stay for the angry nuts!
In Jennifer’s Head announced her own boycott. “I patronized your business for one purpose and one purpose only,” she told Shulz, “to offset any potential losses you may have faced due to an anti-gun sponsored boycott of your stores.” Imagine how many millions of customers went to Starbucks for the same reasons.
Some of the brethren wanted you to know that they were the real victims here.
In a post called “No dogs or Irish…” View From the Porch compared Starbucks’ attitude toward “me and my kind” to, it would appear, old Brit bigotry toward the Irish (“We don’t want to cause a stink or make a scene; we just don’t like Irish people that much. But we’d still appreciate their money”). Why not use the more compelling example of racial segregation in America? We can imagine a few reasons.
Lorraine Yapps Cohen of the San Diego Examiner lamented that “customers of liberal persuasion have the freedom to walk away, but don’t. The liberty to leave does not compute among progressives.”
Allahpundit of Hot Air thought the lesson here was, “unless your business is designed to be overtly conservative, staying on the left’s good side is usually in your economic interest even if it means alienating righties. Imagine how many wedding-industry professionals have learned a lesson from stories like this one to extend their services to gay couples, whether they have an objection to gay marriage or not.” Making you accept business from homosexuals! Next they’ll make you sell to black people.
“Starbucks’ CEO Doesn’t Fear Guns. He Fears Liberals,” declared Sonny Bunch at the Washington Free Beacon. “…Look, here are the facts of life, my conservative friends: We don’t do the politicized life particularly well… The left, however, does the politicized life exceptionally well. They mount campaigns to pressure corporations to get what they want. They organize boycotts.” They don’t bring guns to get what they want, but really, who’d feel threatened by that? Anyway, conservative delicacy is “why you’re losing the culture,” Bunch told his comrades. “It’s why Howard Schultz doesn’t fear you. It’s why Howard Schultz will never fear you.” Maybe it’s time to bring something stronger than guns. Bazookas?
The idiocy is never complete without some Republican politician getting involved, and sure enough Louisiana State Rep Jeff Thompson declared, “The home of the most expensive cup of coffee is apparently now the home of one of the most dangerous as well… You won’t find me in Starbucks… not when I know they openly try to make villains out of law abiding citizens who own guns…” etc.
Meanwhile NRA President Wayne LaPierre was on TV the day of the Navy Yard memorial — boy, do these guys have a sense of timing or what! — to explain that the solution to mass shootings is more rather than fewer guns. He did not speak to the Starbucks issue, though Dana Loesch did appear at an “NRA News Cam & Co” interview to blame Schultz’s decision on “the cougars for gun control… a bunch of women who got bored drinking box wine in the driveway.” But then, why should LaPierre dirty his hands with this? The folks in the trenches have it all covered. Maybe soon a bunch of the boys will get together and pick another fast food chain to favor with their armed custom. We really hope it’s Pinkberry.President Barack Obama stumps for Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia in September. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster President Barack Obama on Tuesday unleashed on Donald Trump's positive statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During a rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Obama called Putin "Donald Trump's role model," and slammed the Republican nominee for trying to "curry favor with Vladimir Putin."
"He loves this guy," Obama said of Trump's relationship with Putin.
The president expressed disbelief that the GOP standard-bearer had positive sentiments about the Russian president, a complete reversal from the party's longtime skepticism of the state's authoritarian regimes.
"Now their nominee is out there praising a guy, saying he's a strong leader, because he invades smaller countries, jails his opponents, controls the press, and drives his economy into a recession," Obama said.
During a recent town hall appearance, Trump defended his statements about the Russian president by touting Putin's high polling numbers among many Russians — a point that Obama latched onto at Tuesday's speech.
"Saddam Hussein had a 90% poll rating. If you control the media and you've taken away everybody's civil liberties, and you jail dissidents, that's what happens," Obama said.
Throughout the campaign, the real-estate magnate and his campaign haven't shied away from their closer relationship with Russia than many past Republican nominees.
Former campaign chair Paul Manafort was a longtime consultant for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a Putin ally who sought asylum in Russia after civil unrest in his own country forced him to flee.
Last week, Trump lauded Putin's ability to exert "very strong control over his country," and both Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, declared that Putin was a "stronger leader" than Obama.Amoo knocks in the second goal for Partick Thistle
Partick Thistle progressed to the last 16 of the Scottish Cup courtesy of a well deserved win over St Mirren.
The Premiership visitors were totally in command until a late wobble when Keith Watson forced the ball home.
Danny Seaborne shot the Jags ahead on 62 minutes when the ball fell to the defender from a corner.
Thistle's second goal came from another corner, with David Amoo converting after Jamie Langfield had saved a Kris Doolan overhead kick.
It was a fifth win in seven outings for Alan Archibald's side, with the only loss in that sequence coming at champions Celtic.
The other consistent factor was the quality of the Paisley pitch which coped well with the snow and looked pristine, if with added zip. Is there a better playing surface in all the land?
Thistle tried to prove the point with slick passing but the first real opportunity took 20 minutes to arrive.
Stuart Bannigan and Stevie Lawless combined on the break to set up Doolan, who came sliding in and should really have scored, but already we were getting a sense of things to come.
Even the missed chance was costly for Saints. Midfielder Stuart Carswell was injured attempting to halt it and although he managed to play on for a few moments, he had to be replaced by youngster Jordan Stewart.
That triggered a St Mirren reshuffle and Thistle went on to dominate the first half, with Lawrence Shankland dreadfully isolated up front and the Paisley back line under siege.
Amoo sizzled in a shot which Langfield just about dealt and the score was somehow blank at the interval.
There was another alteration in the Buddies' shape at the break but not much changed in the second half.
Thistle continued to threaten and Doolan and Amoo both went close again.
Watson strikes late on for St Mirren
A goal was coming and it arrived when Seaborne got on the end of a Bannigan corner kick on the left, which was knocked down by a Saints head.
The defender was given too much time and space and drove the ball beyond Langfield, although the keeper did get a hand on it.
Ten minutes later the visitors made it two, from another corner.
Doolan met Bannigan's delivery with a spectacular bicycle kick which rattled the crossbar after a touch from the keeper, and Amoo was there to bundle the rebound over the line.
Saints rallied late on and Watson scrambled an 88th minute goal after a couple of late chances, one of which brought a miraculous save from Thomas Cerny.
The match was labelled First foot Friday, with fans of both teams encouraged to sit together inside the stadium. The Maryhill faithful enjoyed the party but the hangover had already bitten on St Mirren.According to the Budapest Beacon, Hungary is to invest almost 100 million USD to build shooting ranges with clubhouses.
The plan is to build no less than 197 shooting ranges in the country.
If the total investment becomes real, it means that every major county town will have a 100-meter shooting range within three years from now.
Formally, the Hungarian government has approved a request from the Ministry of Defense.
The average cost per shooting range would become around 465 000 USD, and include 25, 50 and 100-meter long shooting ranges with clubhouses.
Personally I would hope for a few 300 meter, and longer, shooting ranges as well.
There is no background information, at least that I have found, as to why the Ministry of Defense is investing in these amount of shooting ranges.
We can only speculate if it’s to encourage people to enjoy shooting more for recreational purposes, but as the Ministry of Defense is involved I’m leaning towards purposes for defense. The borders of Hungary have been quite exposed lately.
There is also a rumor thatMatt Cassel has one last expected start before quarterback Tony Romo is activated from the short-term IR.
Cassel's record is 0-3 under center for the Dallas Cowboys and he's completed 55-of-90 passes for 623 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions in those starts. With a Week 10 matchup against the Buccaneers, Cassel is focused on his opponent and not the weeks ahead.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Cassel said after practice on Wednesday, via DallasCowboys.com. “Obviously, Tony [Romo] is coming back next week, and when he gets back, he’s back. But at the same time, I would love to finish on a winning note. We’d all love to win, so again all of our focus has gone into this week. We’re not even thinking about next week when he comes back. We’re just focused on the task at hand, which is a good football team this week.”
In each of his last three games, Cassel has put the Cowboys in a position to win. At the same time, he's made two costly mistakes that have resulted in interception returns for touchdowns in the Cowboys losses to the Giants and Eagles.
“I feel like I get more comfortable each and every week,” Cassel said. “I feel like that in turn, the results on the field, you start to perform better. There’s just a comfort level in terms of just being in the huddle, being with the guys, and also learning the playbook. So every week I’m here, every week I’m on the field, I feel like I’ve grown and gotten better.”
Cassel becomes a free agent at the end of this season which would give the Cowboys an interesting decision to make. Re-sign the veteran quarterback, re-sign backup Brandon Weeden, or look elsewhere.
“I don’t think about that at all, to be honest with you, at this point in the season,” Cassel said of free agency. “My main focus is all about this week. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes here. If you’re asking me would I like to be a Dallas Cowboy for a long period of time, absolutely.”
Cassel has certainly made a case to stay in Dallas long-term as the backup to Romo, already proving he can handle the team's offense in a short period of time. Cassel's veteran leadership could also help develop a young quarterback for the future if the Cowboys decide to draft a QB in 2016.
Related: Cowboys shot at first overall pick better than playoff hopes
Noticeable on the field, Cassel is participating in "Movember." The quarterback has grown out a mustache to help raise awareness for men's health issues. The NFL has an entire month dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness, so it seems like Cassel is just doing his part in November with the'stache, although his family doesn't necessarily approve.
"I think my daughter the other day said, 'Dad, when are you going to shave your mustache? It doesn't look like you.' I said, 'Sorry honey, not for the rest of the month,'" Cassel recalled.
Click here for more information on Movember
Cassel's last expected start is Sunday in Tampa. Kickoff for Cowboys-Buccaneers is set for 12:00 p.m. CST from Raymond James Stadium.The Explorer
The Adventures of a Pythonista in Schemeland/16
by Michele Simionato
February 17, 2009
There is a feature of Scheme that I never liked, i.e. the fact that functions (more in general continuations) can return multiple values. Multiple values are a relatively late addition to Scheme - they entered in the standard with the R5RS report - and there has always been some |
to have originated as an apotropaic symbol intended to ward off evil. In a late myth invented to explain the origins of the Gorgon, Medusa is described as having been a young priestess who served in the temple of Athena in Athens. Poseidon lusted after Medusa, and raped her in the temple of Athena, refusing to allow her vow of chastity to stand in his way. Upon discovering the desecration of her temple, Athena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster with serpents for hair whose gaze would turn any mortal to stone.
In his Twelfth Pythian Ode, Pindar recounts the story of how Athena invented the aulos, a kind of flute, in imitation of the lamentations of Medusa's sisters, the Gorgons, after she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. According to Pindar, Athena gave the aulos to mortals as a gift. Later, the comic playwright Melanippides of Melos ( c. 480-430 BC) embellished the story in his comedy Marsyas, claiming that Athena looked in the mirror while she was playing the aulos and saw how blowing into it puffed up her cheeks and made her look silly, so she threw the aulos away and cursed it so that whoever picked it up would meet an awful death. The aulos was picked up by the satyr Marsyas, who was later killed by Apollo for his hubris. Later, this version of the story became accepted as canonical and the Athenian sculptor Myron created a group of bronze sculptures based on it, which was installed before the western front of the Parthenon in around 440 BC.
A myth told by the early third-century BC Hellenistic poet Callimachus in his Hymn 5 begins with Athena bathing in a spring on Mount Helicon at midday with one of her favorite companions, the nymph Chariclo. Chariclo's son Tiresias happened to be hunting on the same mountain and came to the spring searching for water. He inadvertently saw Athena naked, so she struck him blind to ensure he would never again see what man was not intended to see. Chariclo intervened on her son's behalf and begged Athena to have mercy. Athena replied that she could not restore Tiresias's eyesight, so, instead, she gave him the ability to understand the language of the birds and thus foretell the future.
The fable of Arachne appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 AD) (vi.5–54 and 129–145), which is nearly the only extant source for the legend. The story does not appear to have been well known prior to Ovid's rendition of it and the only earlier reference to it is a brief allusion in Virgil's Georgics, (29 BC) (iv, 246) that does not mention Arachne by name. According to Ovid, Arachne (whose name means spider in ancient Greek[175]) was the daughter of a famous dyer in Tyrian purple in Hypaipa of Lydia, and a weaving student of Athena. She became so conceited of her skill as a weaver that she began claiming that her skill was greater than that of Athena herself. Athena gave Arachne a chance to redeem herself by assuming the form of an old woman and warning Arachne not to offend the deities. Arachne scoffed and wished for a weaving contest, so she could prove her skill.
Athena wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon in the contest for the patronage of Athens. Arachne's tapestry featured twenty-one episodes of the deities' infidelity, including Zeus being unfaithful with Leda, with Europa, and with Danaë. Athena admitted that Arachne's work was flawless, but was outraged at Arachne's offensive choice of subject, which displayed the failings and transgressions of the deities. Finally, losing her temper, Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom, striking it with her shuttle. Athena then struck Arachne across the face with her staff four times. Arachne hanged herself in despair, but Athena took pity on her and brought her back from the dead in the form of a spider.
Trojan War [ edit ]
The myth of the Judgement of Paris is mentioned briefly in the Iliad, but is described in depth in an epitome of the Cypria, a lost poem of the Epic Cycle, which records that all the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles). Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited. She was annoyed at this, so she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "for the fairest"), which she threw among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.
The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, the goddesses appeared before Paris for his decision. In the extant ancient depictions of the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite is only occasionally represented nude, and Athena and Hera are always fully clothed. Since the Renaissance, however, western paintings have typically portrayed all three goddesses as completely naked.
All three goddesses were ideally beautiful and Paris could not decide between them, so they resorted to bribes. Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over all Asia and Europe, and Athena offered fame and glory in battle, but Aphrodite promised Paris that, if he were to choose her as the fairest, she would let him marry the most beautiful woman on earth. This woman was Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the apple. The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.
In Books V–VI of the Iliad, Athena aids the hero Diomedes, who, in the absence of Achilles, proves himself to be the most effective Greek warrior. Several artistic representations from the early sixth century BC may show Athena and Diomedes, including an early sixth-century BC shield band depicting Athena and an unidentified warrior riding on a chariot, a vase painting of a warrior with his charioteer facing Athena, and an inscribed clay plaque showing Diomedes and Athena riding in a chariot. Numerous passages in the Iliad also mention Athena having previously served as the patron of Diomedes's father Tydeus.[186] When the Trojan women go to the temple of Athena on the Acropolis to plead her for protection from Diomedes, Athena ignores them.
In Book XXII of the Iliad, while Achilles is chasing Hector around the walls of Troy, Athena appears to Hector disguised as his brother Deiphobus and persuades him to hold his ground so that they can fight Achilles together. Then, Hector throws his spear at Achilles and misses, expecting Deiphobus to hand him another, but Athena disappears instead, leaving Hector to face Achilles alone without his spear. In Sophocles's tragedy Ajax, she punishes Odysseus's rival Ajax the Great, driving him insane and causing him to massacre the Achaeans' cattle, thinking that he is slaughtering the Achaeans themselves. Even after Odysseus himself expresses pity for Ajax, Athena declares, "To laugh at your enemies - what sweeter laughter can there be than that?" (lines 78–9). Ajax later commits suicide as a result of his humiliation.
Classical art [ edit ]
Athena appears frequently in classical Greek art, including on coins and in paintings on ceramics. She is especially prominent in works produced in Athens. In classical depictions, Athena is usually portrayed standing upright, wearing a full-length chiton. She is most often represented dressed in armor like a male soldier and wearing a Corinthian helmet raised high atop her forehead. Her shield bears at its centre the aegis with the head of the gorgon (gorgoneion) in the center and snakes around the edge. Sometimes she is shown wearing the aegis as a cloak. As Athena Promachos, she is shown brandishing a spear. Scenes in which Athena was represented include her birth from the head of Zeus, her battle with the Gigantes, the birth of Erichthonius, and the Judgement of Paris.
The Mourning Athena or Athena Meditating is a famous relief sculpture dating to around 470-460 BC that has been interpreted to represent Athena Polias. The most famous classical depiction of Athena was the Athena Parthenos, a now-lost thirty-six-meter-tall gold and ivory statue of her in the Parthenon created by the Athenian sculptor Phidias. Copies reveal that this statue depicted Athena holding her shield in her left hand with Nike, the winged goddess of victory, standing in her right. Athena Polias is also represented in a Neo-Attic relief now held in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which depicts her holding an owl in her hand[i] and wearing her characteristic Corinthian helmet while resting her shield against a nearby herma. The Roman goddess Minerva adopted most of Athena's Greek iconographical associations, but was also integrated into the Capitoline Triad.
Post-classical culture [ edit ]
Art and symbolism [ edit ]
Statue of Pallas Athena in front of the Austrian Parliament Building. Athena has been used throughout western history as a symbol of freedom and democracy.
Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Firmicus, denigrated Athena as representative of all the things that were detestable about paganism; they condemned her as "immodest and immoral". During the Middle Ages, however, many attributes of Athena were given to the Virgin Mary, who, in fourth century portrayals, was often depicted wearing the Gorgoneion. Some even viewed the Virgin Mary as a warrior maiden, much like Athena Parthenos; one anecdote tells that the Virgin Mary once appeared upon the walls of Constantinople when it was under siege by the Avars, clutching a spear and urging the people to fight. During the Middle Ages, Athena became widely used as a Christian symbol and allegory, and she appeared on the family crests of certain noble houses.
During the Renaissance, Athena donned the mantle of patron of the arts and human endeavor; allegorical paintings involving Athena were a favorite of the Italian Renaissance painters. In Sandro Botticelli's painting Pallas and the Centaur, probably painted sometime in the 1480s, Athena is the personification of chastity, who is shown grasping the forelock of a centaur, who represents lust. Andrea Mantegna's 1502 painting Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue uses Athena as the personification of Graeco-Roman learning chasing the vices of medievalism from the garden of modern scholarship. Athena is also used as the personification of wisdom in Bartholomeus Spranger's 1591 painting The Triumph of Wisdom or Minerva Victorious over Ignorance.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Athena was used as a symbol for female rulers. In his book A Revelation of the True Minerva (1582), Thomas Blennerhassett portrays Queen Elizabeth I of England as a "new Minerva" and "the greatest goddesse nowe on earth". A series of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens depict Athena as Marie de' Medici's patron and mentor; the final painting in the series goes even further and shows Marie de' Medici with Athena's iconography, as the mortal incarnation of the goddess herself. The German sculptor Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert later portrayed Catherine II of Russia as Athena in a marble bust in 1774. During the French Revolution, statues of pagan gods were torn down all throughout France, but statues of Athena were not. Instead, Athena was transformed into the personification of freedom and the republic and a statue of the goddess stood in the center of the Place de la Revolution in Paris. In the years following the Revolution, artistic representations of Athena proliferated.
A statue of Athena stands directly in front of the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna, and depictions of Athena have influenced other symbols of western freedom, including the Statue of Liberty and Britannia. For over a century, a full-scale replica of the Parthenon has stood in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1990, the curators added a gilded forty-two foot (12.5 m) tall replica of Phidias's Athena Parthenos, built from concrete and fiberglass. The state seal of California bears the image of Athena kneeling next to a brown grizzly bear.[213] Athena has occasionally appeared on modern coins, as she did on the ancient Athenian drachma. Her head appears on the $50 1915-S Panama-Pacific commemorative coin.
Modern interpretations [ edit ]
Modern Neopagan Hellenist altar dedicated to Athena and Apollo
One of Sigmund Freud's most treasured possessions was a small, bronze statue of Athena, which sat on his desk. Freud once described Athena as "a woman who is unapproachable and repels all sexual desires - since she displays the terrifying genitals of the Mother." Feminist views on Athena are sharply divided; some feminists regard her as a symbol of female empowerment, while others regard her as "the ultimate patriarchal sell out... who uses her powers to promote and advance men rather than others of her sex." In contemporary Wicca, Athena is venerated as an aspect of the Goddess and some Wiccans believe that she may bestow the "Owl Gift" ("the ability to write and communicate clearly") upon her worshippers. Due to her status as one of the twelve Olympians, Athena is a major deity in Hellenismos, a Neopagan religion which seeks to authentically revive and recreate the religion of ancient Greece in the modern world.
Athena is a natural patron of universities: At Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania a statue of Athena (a replica of the original bronze one in the arts and archaeology library) resides in the Great Hall. It is traditional at exam time for students to leave offerings to the goddess with a note asking for good luck, or to repent for accidentally breaking any of the college's numerous other traditions. Pallas Athena is the tutelary goddess of the international social fraternity Phi Delta Theta.[221] Her owl is also a symbol of the fraternity.[221]
Genealogy [ edit ]
Athena's family tree Uranus Gaia Uranus' genitals Oceanus Tethys Cronus Rhea Metis Zeus Hera Poseidon Hades Demeter Hestia ATHENA a [j] b [k] Ares Hephaestus Leto Apollo Artemis Maia Hermes Semele Dionysus Dione a [l] b [m] Aphrodite
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Ancient sources [ edit ]Scott McAdams of ATR Dairy is one of many Florida farmers who will be hanging up the milkers for good this year. McAdams said he and his partner decided to sell their 745 cattle in June to prevent going into more debt.
He said it started with Florida milk prices falling drastically in 2009.
Matt Lussier, owner of Lussier dairy, has been in the dairy farming business for 25 years and purchased some of the cattle from ATR Dairy. He said rapidly changing prices are a part of the industry.
“We’re going to fight our way through it,” Lussier said.
Florida is ranked 19th in milk production in the country and produced more than 277 million gallons of milk in 2015, according to Florida Dairy Farmers Industry Relations Manager Brian Chapman.The worst thing about this ongoing kerfuffle over superinjunctions is that it keeps forcing me to contemplate the extra- curricular activity of men who kick balls around lawns for a living. Since I'm not into sport, I simply don't "get" the deification of footballers. I can see they've got a demanding physical task to do, and I can appreciate that some do it better than others – but that's the extent of my understanding. When they're not at work, what's so interesting about them? Seriously, what?
It's like living in a world in which half the population has inexplicably decided to worship shire horses. But as if that wasn't strange enough, they're not content to simply admire the animals' ability to pull brewery wagons: they also want to know what the horses get up to back at the stables. And when Dobbin goes on a hay-eating binge, or tries to mount a donkey, not only will they voraciously read all about it, they'll judge him for it. They'll phone HoofTalk FM to pontificate on air about what a bad horse he is. In behaving like a simple horse, Dobbin, who is richly rewarded with nosebags and thoroughbred fillies, has committed the ultimate crime: he's set a bad example to their children.
I don't have kids, but I know enough about parenting to state the following with confidence: any parent who is genuinely concerned that their child's worldview might be hopelessly altered by the unruly behaviour of a footballer has failed as a parent.
Footballers, we're told, should be role models. A few months ago, Wayne Rooney swore into the camera during a live televised football match, and the world briefly reacted as though he'd burst into a toddler's birthday party and brutally molested a duckling. The general consensus was that he was being a bad role model to the nation's kiddywinks. Rubbish. He was being a brilliant role model. He'd just scored a hat-trick – thereby excelling in his chosen field – when a cameraman (who, by all accounts, wasn't supposed to be standing that close to the players) poked a lens in his fizzog. At which point Rooney demonstrated an entirely healthy instinctive disdain for the cameras, for the media, and ultimately for all the hoopla surrounding his primary task, which is kicking balls into nets. He'd just scored a goal and everything else could, quite literally, "fuck off". Good for him.
Conversely, anyone who took to the airwaves to huff and whine about Rooney being a poor "ambassador for the game" was an abysmal role model for children. Remember, kids – it's not how you play the game that matters, but how prosaically servile you are in front of the cameras.
The "role model" argument is often tied to another popular bone of contention about prominent sportsfolk: their bank balances. During last week's Question Time, one member of the audience expressed her disappointment with Ryan Giggs, explaining that his off-pitch behaviour was of particular concern because "we pay his wages". Presumably she works in the human resources department of Manchester United.
Athletes earn astronomical sums because that's how society has chosen to reward them. It's wonky and demented, and I don't understand it, but that's the way it is. Corporations, the media and the public have somehow conspired to create that environment. They designed, dug and filled the ornamental fishpond: now they complain when the goldfish shit in the water.
Ah, yes, right, yes, right, but... footballers aren't content to rake in obscene amounts of money just by kicking balls around. They sign lucrative sponsorship deals and advertise soft drinks and razorblades. And in those commercials they're depicted as nice guys. But now we know they're not nice guys! They traded off their image! It's a lie! They owe us! They owe us!
No they don't. They owe the sponsors, maybe, if they signed a contract promising to behave like Saint Agnes of Rome. If you, the consumer, are suggestible enough to buy a particular brand of aftershave just because a footballer sploshed it round his cheeks on a billboard, you should take a long hard look at your own malleability. And if you now feel wounded and deceived because he was smiling on the poster, not shagging or snarling, then you're far too fragile for this world. Newsflash: adverts are set in a parallel fantasy realm. That Go Compare tenor? Not only is he miming, that moustache isn't real [see footnote]. Oh, and meerkats aren't Russian. Please stop quaking and remain calm.
Given all the above, what is the indignation about footballers' private lives really all about? Either an outlet for envy and resentment – they're paid too much and celebrated too keenly – or perhaps just a subconsciously adopted psychological position used to excuse our own basic prurience. Let's be honest: we're judgmental and nosy. We want to hear all the juicy details so we can experience the cathartic rush of being enraged by them, like a cuckolded boyfriend demanding a second-by-second account of his girlfriend's infidelity.
Given the alternating streams of adulation and rage flung in their direction, I'm amazed footballers retain their sanity. They exist in a bizarre dimension of banknotes and blowjobs and furious mobs. And all they're supposed to do is kick balls into nets. It's impossible to pity them – but to actively resent them? That's madness. Like shaking your fist at a shire horse.
• This footnote was appended on 31 May 2011. To clarify: on film the Go Compare tenor may be miming, but the voice the viewer hears is that of the man they see, tenor Wynne Evans.A bill has been introduced in the West Virginia House to prohibit bestiality.
House Bill 2664, which was sponsored by Delegates Kessinger, Paynter, Overington, Foster, N., Martin and Isner, would make it a felony to perform a sexual activity with an animal.
It would add a new section to the West Virginia Code, which would be designated §61-8-32.
If convicted, the sentence would be one to five years in a state correctional facility, plus a fine.
The person would have to give up ownership of all animals they have and also undergo psychiatric or psychological evaluation.
The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee.
You can read the full bill, which, to warn you of graphic content, defines what constitutes bestiality in detail, by clicking this link.
West Virginia is one of very few states in the U.S. that still does not have a law on the books specifically prohibiting bestiality. Others include Kentucky, Texas, Wyoming, Nevada, Vermont, and Hawaii.
In Virginia, bestiality is listed as a Class 6 felony punishable of up to 5 years in prison.Rachael Brown reported this story on Monday, November 10, 2014 07:25:53
CHRIS UHLMANN: Australians are being asked to pause for a second minute of silence on Remembrance Day tomorrow to honour those veterans who've committed suicide after returning from battle.
The support group Soldier On says 103 serving Defence personnel have killed themselves since 2001, nearly triple Australia's combat toll in Afghanistan.
Soldier On says more resources are needed to help veterans face their second war, the emotional and psychological one they battle on coming home.
Rachael Brown reports
RACHAEL BROWN: For Liam Haven, teaching himself guitar was an escape, a distraction from the trauma of having lost his sight on deployment in Iraq.
His black Labrador called Omen pads around at his feet, as he tells me he was a sentry when a roadside bomb exploded beside him.
LIAM HAVEN: It was just a big huge flash and everything went black; I thought it all went black because of the dust, I just assumed that I've copped an eyeful.
RACHAEL BROWN: Mr Haven says reintegration has been a struggle, and he's recently been diagnosed with type two bipolar.
LIAM HAVEN: A mood disorder stemming from trauma. It was more that I wasn't prepared to deal with the fact that I could be damaged psychologically upon my arrival back in Australia, I was on newspapers, it was on TV and all sorts of stuff and people we're saying I was a hero. I didn't do anything.
RACHAEL BROWN: He's leaving the army soon, and wants to help others deal with their invisible scars.
LIAM HAVEN: I was moved straight over to WA with my family, so i was quite lucky but I just know so many people that weren't as lucky as me, that were struggling and current organisations were just too far behind the needs of contemporary soldiers.
RACHAEL BROWN: One-hundred-and-three serving ADF members have killed themselves since 2001, that's close to triple Australia's combat deaths in Afghanistan.
There've been seven suicides already this year, and these grim statistics don't include veterans.
LIAM HAVEN: No one knows these numbers, which is very concerning because there's many men and women who are falling through the cracks and unfortunately taking their own lives.
RACHAEL BROWN: John Bale is part of the new breed of veterans. The 30-year-old is out of the force after two deployments to Afghanistan, and he founded Soldier On to help other returning soldiers.
He wants Australians to pause tomorrow for a second minute of silence.
LIAM HAVEN: To remember those who have come back and unfortunately succumbed to their wounds, especially in such a important period of time in our history being in the centenary of ANZAC.
RACHAEL BROWN: Australia's Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) has determined 13 claims where suicide was the cause of death for veterans from post 1999 conflicts.
But anecdotally the toll is far higher
DVA figures don't include unsuccessful compensation claims, nor cases families chose not to pursue, nor single motor vehicle accidents.
Its principal medical advisor, Dr Graeme Killer, says DVA is working on better understanding the size of the problem
GRAEME KILLER: We're attempting to see whether we can go through our own files to better determine whether someone has been the subject of suicide and we're also working with other databases, particularly in ComSuper to see whether their database will complement our own.
RACHAEL BROWN: The DVA and ADF are often quick to comment suicide is not the military's problem, but rather, society's as a whole.
Doctor Killer says clearer statistics will help target programs
GRAEME KILLER: We will do what we can at our end, but certainly the medical profession itself needs to be made aware that veterans may have a risk that they haven't taken into account.
Liam Haven says sometimes the best medicine is simply talking.
LIAM HAVEN: Sharing each other's stories is a big thing that helped me a lot, my injuries, I don't think they were that severe compared to the people who have lost limbs and stuff like that, so it's always good to ground myself listening to other people the way they've struggled, it helps me, I hope it helps them.
(Sound of guitar)
CHRIS UHLMANN: Soldier, Liam Haven, ending that report by Rachael Brown.It’s been 20 years since the premiere of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and 5 years since studio Gainax has produced anything anyone actually cared about.However mere numbers haven’t stopped Evangelion fans from digging exceedingly deep into the metaphorical messages of what’s been called “The Best Show That Aired in the Second Half of the 90’s Except for Cowboy Bebop and Maybe Great Teacher Onizuka”.
After 20 years of brooding, fans are finding that their hard drives don’t have enough free space to save their analyses of the landmark series that they’ve spent their lives compiling. John Matthews, who recently joined the dissenters sat down with Anime Maru to discuss the pandemic.
AM: Mr. Matthews, thank you for sitting down with Anime Maru to discuss your current situation. We know that your time has become very valuable these days. Would you please begin by describing your current relationship with the Evangelion franchise?
Matthews: Ah- yes, I watched the three existing Rebuild of Evangelion movies last week and found them to be a hallmark of modern animation and story creation. I haven’t watched the original series because the animation looks old and dated in comparison.
AM: I see. Anyways, you joined the cause because you don’t have enough hard drive space to save your analysis, correct? Could you please elaborate?
Matthews: Well you see, while watching the Rebuilds I noticed a deep metaphorical meaning between the amount of eye contact the main character, Shinji, makes with tertiary side characters. You would think that the side characters with next to no lines serve little purpose, but every seasoned Eva veteran knows that NOTHING Hideaki Anno does is arbitrary or unnecessary. However by the time I had put all of my thoughts down I had already extended into the 107th page.
AM: That certainly is impressive Mr. Matthews, however isn’t 100+ pages still quite small for most word processors?
Matthews: And what, delete portions of my Asuka douj- I mean, fanart folder to make room? I didn’t know your site would be sending uneducated casuals for interviews…
According to Matthews, there are “probably at least more than a dozen” fans across the internet’s various Evangelion boards experiencing the same problem, and that widespread riots are “hypothetically inevitable”. Unfortunately Matthews declined any further questions, citing refusal to talk to “uneducated Rei-fan scum”.
Anime Maru was unable to find any actual fans of Rei Ayanami to comment on Matthew’s interview.
When and why any of the protesters will get justice is still uncertain. However it’s been made clear that justice will not be served until the final Rebuild installment is released, allowing fans to finally lay the Evangelion series to rest in the halls of history.
“The final movie will tie up all of the loose ends,” One fan claims. “I’m sure of it”.Share. BioWare's new RPG is familiar, but different. BioWare's new RPG is familiar, but different.
E3 2004 is a show of sequels. Half-Life 2, DOOM 3, Sims 2, Knights of the Old Republic II. Sure, they all look great, but we still like being a little surprised, and seeing something new at the big show. Thankfully, BioWare delivered today with an RPG that, although familiar, is something completely new at the same time.
Although BioWare is probably best known for their Dungeons and Dragon's based Baldur's Gate series, Dragon Age isn't another foray into the D&D universe. As Joint-CEO Ray Muzyka told us, "Dragon Age is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate." However, Dragon Age has nothing to do directly with Baldur's Gate.
Although set against a traditional fantasy backdrop, BioWare is hoping to do something a little different with Dragon Age, and the world won't be inhabited by Dwarves, Elves and Halflings -- although it will be filled with Dwarf-like, Elf-like and Halfling-like races. While this may sound like a cop-out, Ray explained that BioWare wanted to try something a little different, but still wanted it to be familiar to fantasy RPG players. Although nothing is finalized at this point, Dragon Age will feature archetypal races and classes (you know, fighters, clerics, mages and the like), and BioWare is looking to the community to decide exactly which classes and races they want to see in the game. We did see one completely new race that will be in the game, though. Although they don't have a name as of yet, or at least BioWare wasn't saying what the name was, the characters sport horns on their heads and look rather lizard (or perhaps dragon) like.
BioWare is known for their intensive research when building universes, and as with all their RPGs, BioWare strives to create an extremely deep and rich lore to go with their worlds. Dragon Age will be no exception, and they have already developed a backstory and culture for the playable races as well as the non-playable races in the game. BioWare even has a few linguistics PhD students developing entirely new languages for Dragon Age. When asked about the significance of the title, BioWare told us that, like the Stone Age and Iron Age, they wanted to indicate that the game takes place in a time where dragons are prevalent.
Like most RPGs, in the beginning you'll create a party of characters and tailor them to your desire. You'll also be able to hire henchmen during the game, and BioWare promises you'll run into some characters with a lot of personality, like Minsc from Baldur's Gate.“Altering that would make it more difficult for American companies to compete in the global economy and harm job creation and long-term economic growth,” said Mac O’Brien, a spokesman for the group. “Fortunately, the discussion on tax reform is far from over.”
Similar concerns are emanating from Wall Street, with the American Bankers Association warning that a limitation on borrowers’ ability to deduct interest expenses could “adversely impact economic growth.”
Republicans have only slightly tipped their hand as to the overall structure of the tax rewrite. The plan would slash the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, and create a new 25 percent tax rate for “pass through” businesses such as partnerships, sole proprietorships and family farms.
It would also lower the top individual tax rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent, while raising the bottom rate to 12 percent from 10 percent as it also doubles the standard deduction. The plan would eliminate many corporate “loopholes” and deductions, such as the state and local tax deduction. But it would also get rid of many provisions that are currently costly to the rich, like the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax.
The most politically fraught proposal is eliminating the state and local tax deduction, which allows taxpayers who itemize to write off their property, state and local taxes. The measure is particularly prized in blue states with high property taxes, but is also widely used in some Republican districts in Virginia, New Jersey and California.
Eliminating the deduction, which the real estate industry also opposes, would save more than $1 trillion over a decade and make room for the tax cuts. But Republican members of Congress in affected states have already expressed concern about the provision, and a plan that repeals the deduction could be impossible to pass.
“The state and local tax piece is very concerning, because we’re already a donor state to Washington, and this would exacerbate that problem,” said Representative John J. Faso, Republican of New York, referring to the amount the state pays in taxes. “And so I want to see — based on income categories — how a hypothetical family of four with a certain amount of income, with a $8,000 property tax and state income tax bill, how they are affected.”This article is also available in: Shqip Македонски Bos/Hrv/Srp
The Hague Tribunal, where Dunjic was due to testify.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia said that Dunjic died on Thursday in a hotel in The Hague and that a court official found the body, while the cause of death is being investigated.
“Emergency services personnel were immediately notified and ascertained Mr. Dunjic’s death. Dutch authorities are conducting an investigation into Mr. Dunjic’s death,” the tribunal said in a statement.
Mladic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, is on trial for genocide against about 7,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica in the days that followed the occupation of the town on July 11, 1995.
Mladic is also charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which allegedly reached the scale of genocide in six other municipalities, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
Dunjic has previously testified as a defence expert in several other cases at the Hague Tribunal.
In his testimony at Radovan Karadzic’s trial in 2013, Dunjic said that there was “firm evidence” that only “450 to 500” bodies exhumed from mass graves linked with the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995 were victims of shooting.
Mladic’s trial resumes on Monday.Looking for news you can trust?
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For his recent Mother Jones story on the origins of the “remy” hair used in high-end wigs and extensions worthy of Lady Gaga, Scott Carney sacrificed his own locks to a Hindu temple, but explained that clippings from short hair like his are used mainly as fertilizer or source material for a ubiquitous food additive called L-cysteine (L-cys for short). This amino acid, which gives hair its strength, also gives Noah’s bagels their bounce, puts the softness in Tastykakes, and imparts mom-made freshness to Lunchables. It’s a meat flavor enhancer and an expectorant, too—and has even turned up on a list of cigarette additives.
Human hair isn’t the only source of L-cys. You can extract it from poultry feathers or even synthesize it in a lab—although the end product is no different than what you’ll get by dumping tons of barbershop waste into vats of hydrochloric acid and separating the coveted compound from the resulting chemical stew. George Cherian, chairman of Indian hair exporter Raj Impex Hair, however, has long been the cheapest source of L-cys. You’d be hard pressed to find a richer source: Human hair contains up to 20 percent cysteine by weight, while duck feathers may yield only about half as much.
But you’d be equally hard pressed to find food manufacturers willing to admit that they use the hair-derived version. Vegans don’t take kindly to it, nor do Muslim religious authorities, who have deemed human hair derivatives haram—forbidden. (Jewish authorities have approved L-cysteine for use in kosher products, regardless of source.) Food manufacturers may also be sensitive to the ick factor (is it cannibalism?). Of the numerous companies I contacted, only supplement maker Twinlab—which markets L-cys for its powerful antioxidant properties—verified that it came from human hair.
Indeed, although the stuff is everywhere, trying to pinpoint the source of L-cys in any specific consumer product can be a nearly Kafkaesque exercise. While Cajun food maker Zatarain’s said it uses the synthetic product to create a “vegetarian chicken flavor” in its Blackened Chicken With Yellow Rice, I couldn’t get any sort of answer out of General Mills |
same exact die as the X4 chips but with two of the cores deactivated. They are binned down, which means the two other cores were not strong enough to run at stock specs but does not mean they will not work at all. This is great news for enthusiasts: with certain motherboards like the Biostar TA890FXE used in this review, you can enable the two hidden cores and hopefully (with a little more voltage supplied to the processor) have yourself a quad core (X4) processor for the price of an dual core (X2). Similarly, the stock multiplier bump to 16.5 could mean that these 560’s are better silicon than the 555’s, which could hint at better overclocking performance.
Performance
Marketing can often be deceiving, but benchmarks never lie… or something like that. At any rate, I have put this 560 through several hours of torture to see what it is really capable of. I’ll be using the same Biostar TA890FXE that I previously reviewed which will allow me to compare the numbers this processor achieves to those of the Athlon II X4 640. I’d have liked to see directly how this does compared to the 555, but unfortunately I don’t have one at my disposal. I’ve used the numbers from HWBot for a frame of reference. There is much more diversity in the hardware used in the HWBot database, so ther numbers aren’t directly comparable but will still give a good idea of relative performance.
HWBot data for the Phenom II X2 555 BE:
Single Task: Average Super Pi 1M – 16.703 s
Average Super Pi 1M – 16.703 s Multitasking: Average wPrime 32M – 15.124 s
Average wPrime 32M – 15.124 s Average Overclock (MHz): 2x 3200 (4531)
The table data is from all submissions with all types of cooling, including dry ice and liquid nitrogen, but the averages shouldn’t be too far off from what is possible on air. Filtering the data a little, I found the maximum overclock with air cooling was 4630 MHz with 1.62 V. Knowing that, the 4531 MHz average listed above looks achievable.
Testing platform:
Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition
AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition Motherboard: Biostar TA890FXE
Biostar TA890FXE Memory: G.Skill 2x 1 GB DDR3-2000 Trident
G.Skill 2x 1 GB DDR3-2000 Trident Power Supply: NZXT HALE90 850 W
NZXT HALE90 850 W Heat sink: Zalman CNPS-9900
Results
When overclocking this chip, I was able to reach a maximum overclock of 4300 MHz, which is just shy of my goal of 4500 MHz. When running tests, I was only able to complete them all at a maximum of 4133 MHz. I was able to pass a 1 hour test of OCCT at that speed, but did not have time to test if that was 4 hour Prime 95 stable. I was also able to reach a maximum HT Reference of 290 MHz, which is higher than I was able to achieve when running the Athlon II X4 640. What’s even more exciting is that I was able to unlock to 4 cores and run 10 minutes of Prime95 at 4 GHz (20 x 200 MHz). This is impressive to me since I borrowed a Phenom II X2 555 to test the unlock feature when I first reviewed the Biostar TA890FXE but I could not get that processor stable with 4 cores even at stock speed.
People use their computers for several reasons, many of which can benefit from increased performance. Synthetic benchmarks try to emulate the real world performance but it doesn’t always translate perfectly. At the same time, rendering benchmarks like Cinebench are much better at showing actual performance for the task they are designed to simulate. Screen shots with stock scores are included in the gallery at the end of the article.
Additionally, we have the results that matter to competitive overclockers: SuperPi, PiFast, wPrime, and 3DMark. These may translate in to real world performance, but the boints (bot points on HWBot) matter so much more! The Athlon II X4 tests were run at different speeds according to what settings would allow the processor to pass the test. I pulled the numbers straight from my Biostar TA890FXE review, so check that out for more details.
Conclusion
The Phenom II X2 560 BE is a welcome addition to the Black Edition family and is a normal product refresh. It doesn’t overclock particularly better than the 555, but the silicon is a little more stable allowing you to essentially have a Phenom II X4 on the cheap. Considering the 560 retails around $105 and the X4 970 retails around $185, this is a perfect example of where overclocking gets more value for your dollar. If you want a fantastic overclocking chip, you’ll have to look elsewhere, but this processor certainly holds it’s own and shouldn’t be completely overlooked.
– splat
More picturesOn Sunday a Kern County, California, sheriff's deputy shot and killed David Lee "Deacon" Turner, a 56-year-old former running back for the Cincinnati Bengals, outside a convenience store in Bakersfield. Police questioned Turner, who was coming out of the store with his 19-year-old son, while investigating reports of teenagers asking adults to buy them alcohol and cigarettes. The Kern County Sheriff's Office says Deputy Wesley Kraft fired twice at Turner after the former football player hit Deputy Aaron Nadal over the head with a bag containing two 24-ounce cans of beer. Turner's son offered a strikingly different account:
Turner's son was too shaken to speak with Eyewitness News on Sunday, but he told his sister what he witnessed.
"They asked my dad if he was the person buying alcohol for underage youth," Jerrica Cor-Dova said.
According to Turner's son, his father denied the claims, but deputies continued to question him. Turner then asked officers if he was being arrested. The deputies said no, and Turner grabbed his stuff and began to walk away.
"As he was walking away, the officers came up behind him and hit him in the back of the legs with a club, causing him to fall on his knees," Cor-Dova said.
Turner's son said the bag his father was carrying fell to the ground and the beer in the bag exploded. The next thing he heard was two shots being fired.
"My brother said he yelled my dad's name, and my father was lying there still," Cor-Dova relayed the story.
But according to the sheriff's department, the shots were fired because one of the officers was hit over the head with the items in the bag. His son said that never happened.
"I know that there is a video recording, so we are relying heavily on the video recording from Fastrip," Cor-Dova said.Dele Alli made his England debut in October
Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli will miss the rest of the season after being banned for three games for violent conduct.
He admitted a charge after television cameras showed him punching West Brom player Claudio Yacob in the stomach.
Alli, 20, contested the standard three-match penalty as "clearly excessive", but that claim was rejected, said the Football Association.
He tweeted: "Gutted my season is over. Shouldn't have reacted like I did."
He added: "Will learn from this and come back stronger."
The 26th-minute incident was not in the referee's report of Monday's 1-1 draw.
However, it was caught by cameras and reviewed by an independent panel.
England international Alli was named as the Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year on Sunday.
It means his next competitive game could be England's Euro 2016 opener against Russia in Marseille on 11 June, if selected.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said he had not seen the incident but added after the game: "Sometimes the opponents find him and try to provoke. They know he has a strong character and may react."
Off-the-ball incidents missed by the officials are referred to a panel of three former elite referees to decide on any sanction.
Alli has been a hugely influential figure in his debut season for Tottenham.
The former MK Dons player has scored 10 goals so far and has formed an impressive partnership with striker Harry Kane.
Second-placed Spurs are seven points adrift of Leicester with three games left. The Foxes can win the title on Sunday with victory at Manchester United.Daimler is best known for its Mercedes-Benz brand German carmaker Daimler has pleaded guilty to corruption in the US and will pay $185m (£121m) to settle the case. The charges relate to US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the company's global sales practices. Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, admitted to paying tens of millions of dollars of bribes to foreign government officials in at least 22 countries. The company said it had now reformed the way it did business. Offshore accounts The offences were committed between 1998 and 2008 by Daimler's German-based exports subsidiary Export and Trade Finance, and its Russian business Mercedes-Benz Russia. Today, we are a better and stronger company, and we will continue to do everything we can to maintain the highest compliance standards
Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche They were said to have given money and lavish gifts to help win contracts in countries including China, Russia, Thailand, Greece, and Iraq. The Justice Department said that by "using offshore bank accounts, third-party agents and deceptive pricing practices, these companies saw foreign bribery as a way of doing business". Daimler has since fired 45 employees implicated in the bribery. The company's chairman Dieter Zetsche said the firm had "learned a lot from past experience". "Today, we are a better and stronger company, and we will continue to do everything we can to maintain the highest compliance standards," he added. 'Deserves credit' The case was heard in a federal court in Washington, where the presiding judge, Judge Richard Leon called the financial settlement a "just resolution". Prosecutor John Darden added that Daimler had "showed excellent cooperation". "The company has undertaken an effort to clean its own house," he added. "That reflects a serious change of mind on part of Daimler. This deserves credit." Daimler's agreement to pay $185m is broken down into $93.6m to end the US Justice Department investigation, and a payment of $91.4m to settle the civil case from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial watchdog. The company made a 2.6bn euros ($3.5bn; £2.3bn) loss last year. Back in 2008, German industrial group Siemens paid $800m to settle a US investigation into bribes paid to government officials in Argentina, Bangladesh, Iraq and Venezuela.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionA Marxist student group at Swarthmore College disbanded itself earlier this year after realizing that its members were too rich and too white to be real commies.
According to screenshots confidentially provided to Campus Reform by an individual with access to the group’s private Facebook page, the demise of the Swarthmore Anti-Capitalist Collective (SACC) came in the wake of a farewell letter from a member who had decided the group could never be an effective proponent of “unproblematized anticapitalist politics” due to its “history of abuse, racism, and even classism.”
"Their main support base was middle-upper class white kids who enjoy jogging."
“From my understanding SACC disbanded because they realized the makeup and tactics of their group was at odds with their espoused principles,” Swarthmore Conservative Society President Gilbert Guerra told Campus Reform. “Their main support base was middle-upper class white kids who enjoy jogging.”
[RELATED: UGA socialist group disbands amid outrage over anti-GOP tweet]
The farewell letter corroborates Guerra’s understanding, asserting that “SACC’s fundamental failure” was that “at its formation, it was made up of entirely white, with the exception of one person of color*, students,” and to make matters worse, “not one of [the founding members] are from low-income and/or working class backgrounds.”
Arguing that “low-income people of color should never be an afterthought in a group whose politics supposedly focus on their liberation,” the author then went on to accuse SACC of having a “history of abuse, racism, and even classism that was never adequately addressed or recognized despite constantly being brought up as an issue.”
The screenshots provided to Campus Reform do not include dates, but the SACC Facebook page suggests that the group may have folded at some point in late-March or April. The page has seen no activity since March 26, prior to which posts had been added on a fairly regular basis.
Campus Reform reached out to other former SACC members for their take on the group’s disbandment, but none were willing to comment.
[RELATED: Profs gather to ‘fight the right’ at Socialism 2017 conference]
Guerra agreed strongly with the letter-writer’s assessment that SACC was ineffective, telling Campus Reform that “SACC didn’t do anything noteworthy during their existence,” and had little impact on campus discourse.
“If anything,” he said, “I think the legacy of that particular group will turn out to be motivating some apathetic students to become involved in the Conservative Society.”
As for the future of Marxist groups on campus—which the SACC letter optimistically predicted would provide a “future for anti-capitalist organizing on this campus”—Guerra said that he expects there will be a “new Maoist group on campus in the fall,” but didn’t seem terribly concerned about its prospects.
Saying that such a group is “a foregone conclusion” because there are many leftist students at Swarthmore who want to actively “resist during the Trump Presidency,” Guerra noted that the only question now “is whether this new group will be any more sustainable that [sic] the past couple of leftist groups that have splintered and fizzled out.”
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @mstein81David Cameron has opposed Jean-Claude Juncker’s candidacy for the next President of the European Commission. Miguel Otero-Iglesias writes that while Juncker may not be the best candidate for the job, he is the most legitimate from a democratic perspective. He notes that with even Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the left-wing SYRIZA party in Greece and Commission President candidate for the Party of the European Left, appearing to support Juncker, the UK is in danger of appearing to be the main obstacle to bringing the EU closer to its citizens.
David Cameron and the British press – both tabloid and broadsheet – are up in arms against the candidacy of Juncker for European Commission president. In their view, with the German-inspired Spitzenkandidaten campaign, the European Parliament is attempting a power grab. This strategy, by what is considered the most federalist of all EU institutions, is portrayed as the modern equivalent of a coup d’état. Gideon Rachman has gone so far as to claim that it is necessary to “block Juncker to save real democracy in Europe”. Cameron seems to agree. Reportedly he has told German Chancellor Merkel that if Juncker is elected the UK will most likely leave the EU.
There are two defined camps in this debate: those who think that giving more power to the EP will make the EU more democratic and those who hold the opposite view. Suddenly, in this new battle between European federalists and intergovernmentalists, the latter, led by London, have found themselves in the minority. This is the reason why they are so restless. Once again the British establishment has underestimated the political will in the Continent for a more united Europe. Emboldened by the rise of Eurosceptic and euro-critic parties in the recent elections, Cameron thought he would have a strong hand against Merkel and eliminate the federalist Juncker from the race. However, by blackmailing the German Chancellor he has manoeuvred himself into a position where he stands between the German electorate and the strengthening of democracy in Europe. This is not a wise move.
This miscalculation is due to different political attitudes towards Europe. While the electoral innovation ofthe Spitzenkandidaten campaign was well received in most EU countries, especially within the Eurozone, it was ignored in Britain. More strikingly, the two main candidates, Juncker and Schulz, representing Europe’s centre-right and centre-left respectively, were banned from the campaign. By contrast, in Germany there were several debatesbetween these two candidates, who repeated their political battles in other EU countries. In Spain, for example, Schulz and Juncker participated in a number of political meetings and were interviewed by leading national media in press, radio and TV.
Rachman is therefore wrong when he claims that we are in “the absurd situation in which voters are said to have ‘chosen’ a leader they have never heard of”. Of course, the campaign was driven by national issues, and it is certainly true that most voters did not know the leading candidates for the five biggest pro-EU political blocs in the EP. But what of those that know them, watched the presidential debates between the main candidates on Euronews for the first time ever and ‘chose’ their ballot accordingly?
A significant number of people, in different European countries, voted for a pan-European candidate for the first time. Will the European leaders now go and tell these committed Europeans that the whole exercise was purely academic? If the purpose is to kill the idea of establishing a European democracy (perhaps an appealing thought in London), the strategy could not have been better designed, but if the aim is to let citizens have a bigger say in the affairs of the EU, then the leaders must give Juncker the chance to gather the required parliamentary majority to become president.
Juncker might not be the best candidate for the job, but he is the most legitimate. Critics cry that Juncker is the face of austerity and that he embodies the ancien régime of the European elite. These are gross oversimplifications. He has called for fiscal restraint in debtor countries, but he has also dared to propose Eurobonds and has often criticised the German government for its lack of sensitivity towards the South. His seniority is an asset. If he were to be elected European Commission president, he would have sufficient authority to confront his former peers, including Cameron, Merkel and Hollande, in order to push for badly-needed institutional reforms, something his predecessor has carefully avoided.
Overall, Juncker has gathered widespread support. He defeated Michel Barnier in the race to become the Spitzenkandidat for the European People’s Party, and he now has the backing of the five pro-EU political blocs in the EP, including the European Left. If there is one young, anti-austerity and anti-establishment politician that embodies the opposition to the ancien regime, this is Tsipras, the leader of Syriza. His recognition of Juncker’s victory is therefore a powerful statement in favour of more democracy. In tune with Habermas, and a number of renowned European academics, he too wants to set the historic precedent of having the Commission president elected directly by the EP and, hence – albeit indirectly – by European citizens.
With this statement, Tsipras also positions himself clearly on the federalist side, debunking the myth that all extreme parties are anti-EU or anti-euro, and reinforcing the feeling that – when push comes to shove – most politicians in continental Europe, be they Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals, or Leftists, will vote for “more Europe”.
Ultimately the EU club is made out of compromises. And as Nikolaus Blome has argued, over the past few years, the South has undertaken painful adjustments while the North provided financial guarantees to keep the club together. Cameron should compromise too and accept Juncker as the new Commission president under the dominant interpretation of democracy in Europe. It would certainly be a pity if the country that has most effectively criticised the lack of transparency and democracy in the EU should now cling to the idea of continuing to elect the president through shady backroom deals.
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Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.
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About the author
Miguel Otero-Iglesias – Elcano Royal Institute
Miguel Otero-Iglesias is a senior analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute, Madrid, Spain.Greyhound racing will be illegal in the ACT from April 30, if two draft bills pass the Legislative Assembly.
The proposed legislation will also make it more expensive to own a racing greyhound, although breeding, keeping and training dogs for racing will remain legal. It will also still be legal to bet on interstate greyhound races.
The date for the ACT's greyhound ban has been revealed. Credit:Jay Cronan
The bills, introduced on Thursday, remove the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club as the controlling body for greyhound racing, which will no longer be recognised as a form of racing under the act.
ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said 94 per cent of dogs that raced in Canberra were from NSW, where live baiting and "wastage" had marred the reputation of the industry.Are you as hot as we are? Temperatures are hitting the triple digits in D.C. this week, which makes me want to say something clever about third digits and obscenities, but my brain has melted past the point of cleverness and seems to be functioning as little more than a nerve center for "Me Want Ice Cream" impulses. Not that I think about ice cream (or maple creemees) all the time, of course. Nope. I'm not that simple-minded.
Sometimes I also think about popsicles.
Popsicles originated as a happy accident, according to the food inventions exhibit I just visited at the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum. The story goes that on a chilly San Francisco evening back in 1905, an 11-year-old boy named Frank Epperson was making himself a soft drink, using a cup and a stirring stick to blend a powdered mix with water. Somehow he got distracted and left the concoction on his front porch overnight. In the morning, he discovered the drink had frozen with the stick inside, making a handle of sorts. Eureka!
Amazingly, by the time it occurred to Frank as an adult that such frozen treats might be marketable, no one else had thought of (or stolen) his idea yet. He patented "frozen ice on a stick" in 1923 and started making what he called "Eppsicles" and his children soon termed "Popsicles." A year or two later, Epperson sold his patent to the Joe Lowe Co. The nickel-priced novelties soon took off like wildfire. (Well, really cold wildfire.) These days, the brand name is owned by Unilever, but most of us refer to all ice-on-a-stick as "popsicles," the way we call all tissues "kleenex."
I admit that there's something alluring about those old-fashioned, tongue-staining, splittable-if-you-must popsicles, the kind sold from ice cream trucks and convenience-store freezers. But I also love homemade popsicles, the kind my mom made with one of those white plastic Tupperware kits. She would freeze orange juice, yogurt, or a mixture of both, like a creamsicle. These healthy variants miraculously fell into the "eat as much as you want without asking permission" category when my brother and I were kids, foraging in the freezer between runs through the sprinkler on summer vacation.
Inspired by that, here are a few ideas for making your own popsicle variations:
1. Puree fresh watermelon with a hint of lime juice for a sweet treat with no added sugar.
2. Use shot glasses instead of plastic molds for a more elegant look, like La Tartine Gourmand's rhubarb and raspberry yogurt ice pops.
3. Put a stick in a chunk of peeled banana, and freeze it with a tasty coating like chocolate or peanut butter—or both, as Simple Bites does.
4. Make bite-sized pops using toothpicks stuck in grapes or blueberries.
5. Who says popsicles have to be sweet? Try unusual flavors like sour plum, wasabi-citrus or even pickle juice pops.
What other ideas do you have?Marcus Rashford is a shock inclusion in Manchester United's side to face Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final at Stamford Bridge on Monday night.
The teenage star has been suffering with illness and did not travel with the rest of the United players by train on Sunday. However, Rashford arrived at the team hotel later in the evening and was passed fit to play the club's medical staff.
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial already ruled out through a combination of suspension and injury, Rashford's absence would have left Mourinho without a recognised striker to face the Premier League leaders.
Marcus Rashford (left) started against Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Monday evening
Jose Mourinho is without forwards Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial
But in a major surprise, revealed by Sportsmail, he was able to make the starting line-up after all as United look to defend the trophy they won at Wembley last May.
United's doctors felt it was worth the risk even though United have a Europa League tie against Rostov just 72 hours later when Ibrahimovic will be eligible again.
The 19-year-old has made just 18 starts and scored seven goals this season after a sensational breakthrough at United in the last campaign.
However,Jose Mourinho claimed in the build-up to this game that it was always going to be a difficult year for the teenager and that he will be stronger again next season.
'After the season of the surprise, the season without pressure, he comes in and makes an impact. He feels free,' said Mourinho.
'The second season was always going to be a difficult one. It's the pressure, it's the people that know him, it's the expectation. Is he a national team player? Is he in the line-up for the club? Should he go to the Under 21 European Championship or not?
Ibrahimovic begins a three-game suspension for his elbow on Bournemouth's Tyrone Mings
'Having all these things around him doesn't give him an easy season. But he is a good kid, a good humble boy. He tries to learn with every experience.
'I think the third season is going to be the good one again, the one with more maturity. He can build on his experiences, so I'm sure the third season will be better than the second.
'We had a nice conversation where he said that even at the dressing-room at half-time he learns so he is a good kid with a good mentality.
'He is playing well. He played centre forward in some matches. He is having his opportunities, his minutes, he is having lots of experiences, so I am happy.'It’s True! It’s True! 2017 WWE Hall of Fame inductee and current RAW General Manager Kurt Angle will be getting the Home Video treatment this summer — his first-ever WWE DVD has already been made available to pre-order here on Amazon.com.
The new listing confirms that the release is on the way for August 1st, 2017 in the United States with an official title of “Kurt Angle: The Essential Collection”.
Amazon’s page and the name given to the product infer a collection of Angle’s greatest matches, and since it went live we’ve been able to confirm the match compilation format. Therefore this one is expected to be a DVD-only offering with no plans for a Blu-ray edition at this time.
However, WrestlingDVDNetwork.com can exclusively reveal that the DVD, a 3-disc set, will not only feature matches but also a brand new, previously unseen interview with the man himself!
A Kurt Angle DVD has been under consideration by the company since at least April of 2016 and now, one year later, it has become a reality with his recent return to the WWE family.
The official synopsis for the 2017 release follows below:
“Kurt Angle: The Essential Collection”
It’s true! It’s true! Kurt Angle has had some of the most epic matchups in WWE history. Now for the first time ever, you can watch them all with Kurt Angle: The Essential Collection. Relive all of his rivalries with Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, Edge, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and more in this complete collection.
Right before the Olympic gold medalist, Kevin Owens is on the 2017 WWE Home Video schedule as “Fight Owens Fight – The Kevin Owens Story” arrives in July on DVD and Blu-ray.
It’s “KO WEEK” here at WrestlingDVDNetwork.com and that means more match reveals!
Today’s picks include Kevin Owens’ debut match in NXT, his first clash with Sami Zayn also in NXT, and one of the defining matches of his run as the WWE Universal Champion…
— Kevin Owens vs. CJ Parker
NXT Takeover: R-Evolution • December 11, 2014
— NXT Championship Match
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens
NXT Takeover: Rival • February 11, 2015
— Hell in a Cell Match for the Universal Championship
Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins
Hell in a Cell • October 30, 2016
The FULL content listing for WWE’s new “Fight Owens Fight – The Kevin Owens Story” DVD set will arrive here exclusively tomorrow and it’s slated to give a complete rundown of the documentary chapters, extras to the main feature, and even more matches too!
Don’t miss it — join our free email list here or in the box above to get an alert to your inbox.I like to spend my late nights making youTube videos for my friends, building custom survival and first aid kits and designing new gear for my adventures, which brings me to the reason for this Kickstarter campaign.
I have been developing an all new style of nylon pouch; I call it the MINI KIT. It is a 5.5” x 5.5” nylon clam-shell opening pouch designed to be filled with small gear or medical supplies that would otherwise be loose in your pocket or in a backpack. I found that I needed a modular, lightweight pouch with no MOLLE or PALS strapping on the exterior. I just wanted something that would hold my small gear or medical supplies, fold open and closed easily and slide into my pocket when on the trail or outings with my kids. The pouch needed to be rugged and have retention for my tools and other gear as well as a few interior pockets to keep everything organized.
I didn't just decide to make this, I was lazy and tried to just buy one first, well the problem with that was there was no such thing on the market to purchase. I looked extensively and after exhausting the search I made a decision to design and build one to my specifications, might as well, right.
So back to the pouch, the final design I call the MK-7, the 7 stands for the seventh prototype. I started about a year and a half ago with a drawing sketched in the middle of the night, when I have my best ideas. After contemplating the final design and elaborating on the drawing I called on a company out of Oceanside, CA to start building the first Mini Kit. I paid them a fee for their time and materials, went down and met with the Nylon Product Manager and we got ourselves quickly started in the construction of the first prototype.
It is a lot harder to explain an idea to someone that is building it for you then you might imagine. It took us four attempts over the better part of a year to come up with the MK-5 my first full prototype run and the fifth prototype in the series. We made (20) of them to distribute to people for their use and feedback and it seemed to go over very well with all involved.
I sent the MK-5 out to retired Army, active DHS agents, LE and a bunch of my backpacking and survival buddies, it seemed that all the feedback was the same. They all loved the pouch and wanted to get (2) more so they had a set of three. most of the guys also mentioned that the D-ring protruded and hung-up on your pocket and they wanted a plastic ITW (military grade) D-Ring. I completely agreed with all of the feedback and was pleasantly surprised that the boys liked them so much.
Left to Right - MK-5, MK-6 and MK-7 prototypes
So I called my manufacturing partner here in Southern California and we made some changes, moved the D-ring further into the pouch so it barely protruded, switched the D-ring out for the ITW plastic and WALA we had the MK-7. We were ready to produce the third and last prototype run.
I have worked now for over a year with Jon Z (Production Manager) for a reputable Private / Military nylon manufacturer here in Southern California We have designed, created prototypes and produced (3) prototype or proof of concept runs of (20) pouches to make absolutely sure we are ready for mass market. We have recently created a game plan to produce the first ever full production run once the kickstarter campaign funds. The manufacturer and his team have grown over the last year due to their popularity and it seems they have mastered the production process for the Mini Kit. It now takes them one hour to produce (20) Mini Kits when in full production mode. Once the campaign funds we will need about (2.5) weeks to schedule in the (4-5) days of production time to produce 2-3 hundred Mini Kit pouches and more if demand dictates. Then another week to get them all in the mail. All of the material and trim are on hand and we are ready as soon as my backers say go!!
So here we are on the brink of the final 10% of the project, they say that 90% of the people can get a project 90% of the way complete, but only 10% can get it 100% complete. Well I am one of those 10%’ers and I would love to prove it to you!!
REMEMBER: The uses for the Mini Kit MK-7 are only limited by your imagination!
Thanks for looking and thank you very much for your support!!
The Mini Kit MK-7 Designed by me 20$Bandit and 100% made in the USA!!Recent evidence suggests that the cannabinoid receptor subtype 2 (CB 2 ) is implicated in anxiety and depression disorders, although few systematic studies in laboratory animals have been reported. The aim of the current experiments was to test the effects of the CB 2 receptor potent-selective agonist β-caryophyllene (BCP) in animals subjected to models of anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects. Therefore effects of BCP (50 mg/kg) on anxiety were assessed using the elevated plus maze (EPM), open field (OF), and marble burying test (MBT). However for depression, the novelty-suppressed feeding (NSF), tail suspension test (TST), and forced swim tests (FST) were used. Results indicated that adult mice receiving BCP showed amelioration of all the parameters observed in the EPM test. Also, BCP significantly increased the time spent in the center of the arena without altering the general motor activity in the OF test. This dose was also able to decrease the number of buried marbles and time spent digging in the MBT, suggesting an anti-compulsive-like effect. In addition, the systemic administration of BCP reduced immobility time in the TST and the FST. Finally, BCP treatment decreased feeding latency in the NSF test. Most importantly, pre-administration of the CB 2 receptor antagonist AM630, fully abrogated the anxiolytic and the anti-depressant effects of BCP. Taken together, these preclinical results suggest that CB 2 receptors may provide alternative therapeutic targets for the treatment of anxiety and depression. The possibility that BCP may ameliorate the symptoms of these mood disorders offers exciting prospects for future studies.A truck carrying big bags of marijuana crashed in San Jose, allowing passing motorists and pedestrians to snatch up free pot.
The San Jose Mercury News reported that bags of marijuana were strewn about an intersection after the truck crashed Wednesday near Oakridge Mall. The truck driver fled, and several motorists grabbed most of the pot before police arrived at the scene.
"Officers eventually collected the remaining bags of weed left at the scene and also found a loaded handgun inside the white truck," the newspaper said.
The police were trying to track down the truck driver and anyone who made off with some marijuana, but they had no descriptions of suspects, according to the paper.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
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Burglary suspect arrested when she returns for her purse
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-- Kimi Yoshino
Photo credit: Getty ImagesUS president Donald Trump’s decision to ban people from seven Muslim countries entering America is ‘discriminatory’, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday.
‘We reject this measure,’ Rutte is quoted as saying during a debate on the ban. Judging entire groups of people rather than individuals is ‘simple discrimination’, Rutte said, adding that he realised some people are concerned that terrorists could be hiding among ordinary migrants.
‘We are a decent country and are open for all who flee war and violence,’ Rutte said. Trump’s decree conflicts with western values and will not help the fight against IS because Dutch soldiers rely on the help of local groups such as Kurdish forces, he said.
In addition, the ban may force people from Muslim countries into the arms of IS, by making it harder to them to make the right choices, the prime minister said.
MPs had called on Rutte to make a strong statement opposing the ban, following comments earlier in the week by foreign minister Bert Koenders.
Nevertheless, Rutte said he planned to build a good relationship with the new US president and would not take part in general ‘US bashing’, he told MPs.Population transfer in the Soviet Union refers to forced transfer of various groups from the 1930s up to the 1950s ordered by Joseph Stalin and may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population (often classified as "enemies of workers"), deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite |
in the world, or at least that it did before the advent of Obamacare. Senate leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker John Boehner are both on record as having said so. A survey from Harvard University, taken not long before passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), found that 68 percent of Republicans (but only 32 percent of Democrats) thought the US healthcare system was the world’s best. To support that belief, conservatives often note that world leaders like former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Jordan’s late King Hussein, and the Shah of Iran have all sought healthcare in the United States.
Unfortunately, hard data do not support that optimistic view. One of the most detailed recent comparative studies of healthcare systems in wealthy countries comes from the Commonwealth Fund. The following figure shows its ranking of eleven healthcare systems along with data on expenditures per capita (evaluated at purchasing power parity to avoid exchange rate distortions):
The United States ranks last in the fund’s overall evaluation of health care, despite having by far the largest per capita expenditures. The Commonwealth study is not the only one to have reached that conclusion. This earlier post discussed other rankings that agree. (We will return to some of the more detailed findings of the Commonwealth Fund report shortly, but the whole report is worth reading.)
Conservative Myth No. 2: European healthcare saves costs only by severely rationing care
The second conservative myth is that Euro style healthcare achieves lower costs only by employing a degree of rationing that would be unacceptable to Americans. Here, for example, is David Brooks, writing the The New York Times:
Sanders would create a centralized and streamlined system. His approach would also, as in Europe, reduce the rate of medical progress, increase the rationing of care, increase the wait times for patients, induce many doctors to retire, and centralize decision-making.
In a recent televised debate, Presidential candidate Ted Cruz put it even more bluntly:
Socialized medicine is a disaster. It does not work. If you look at the countries that have imposed socialized medicine, that have put the government in charge of providing medicine, what inevitably happens is rationing.
Canada is Exhibit A for many who make the rationing argument. Consider, for example, this “explainer video” from Vox, titled “What is Single-Payer Healthcare?” After noting that such a system could save administrative costs, the narrator says, “But there’s a catch.” The catch is said to be longer waiting times and other limits on services, illustrated by a graphic showing that waiting times for health services are longer in Canada than in the United States.
Detailed data from the Commonwealth Fund report show how unfair the charge of rationing is, especially when based on a comparison with Canada. Of the eleven countries covered in the survey, the US ranks last overall, but Canada is next to last. One of the main reasons for Canada’s poor performance is its poor record on measures of rationing, where it has the lowest ratings of the countries surveyed.
48 percent of Canadians reported an emergency room waiting time of over two hours (11 th place) compared with 28 percent in the US (7 th place) and 14 percent in New Zealand (1 st place).
place) compared with 28 percent in the US (7 place) and 14 percent in New Zealand (1 place). 38 percent of Canadian doctors reported that patients had difficulty getting specialized tests like MRIs (10 th place) compared to 23 percent in the US (7 th place) and 3 percent in Switzerland (1 st place).
place) compared to 23 percent in the US (7 place) and 3 percent in Switzerland (1 place). 18 percent of Canadian doctors reported a wait of four months of more for elective surgery (9th place) compared to 7 percent in the US (6th place) and 1 percent in The Netherlands (1st place).
To compare the US with Canada in terms of rationing by waiting, then, is to make a sub-par system look better by comparing it with one that is truly terrible. Most wealthy European countries do better than either of their North American peers when it comes to rationing by waiting, and still manage to spend less.
Instead of rationing by waiting, the American system practices rationing by cost. Relatively few private plans, whether employer-provided or individual, give free access to a full range of providers, drugs, and services. Most middle-class insurance plans steer their members toward hospitals and doctors who are in a preferred provider network and drugs that are on the company’s preferred list. The uninsured often find themselves rationed out of anything but emergency services by high prices.
The burden of rationing by cost shows up clearly in the Commonwealth study:
37 percent of Americans reported that they did not fill a prescription, skipped a test or treatment, or failed to visit a doctor when ill—the worst of all countries. In Canada, the figure was 13 percent, a respectable 4 th
28 percent of Americans reported that their insurance company denied payment or paid less than expected for treatments they received, the worst of all countries. In the top ranked countries, Norway and Sweden, the figure was 3 percent.
What is more, the pressure toward rationing by cost is intensifying. A recent New York Times article describes the situation in these terms:
Once emblematic of everything wrong with health insurance, the health maintenance organization is making a grudging, if somewhat successful, comeback. But its reputation for skimping on care has so tainted the plans that the insurers and companies resurrecting them have gone through innumerable steps to try to avoid using the term H.M.O.... Despite the stigma and many failed efforts, insurers say they are eager to push a revamped version that revives many of the same features that restrict choices as a way of lowering costs
In short, far from achieving their cost savings through rationing, European systems provide more timely care with fewer people skipping needed services for economic reasons.
Liberal critics focus on cost
Unlike conservatives, liberal critics, by and large, approve of Sanders’ Medicare for All plan in principle. They instead focus their criticisms on its cost.
The most widely publicized critique comes from Kenneth Thorpe of Emory University. As this discussion explains,Thorpe estimates that Sanders’ plan would be almost twice as expensive as the candidate claims. Instead of leaving most middle class households better off, Thorpe claims the Sanders plan would make 71 percent of households worse off, when the taxes needed to fund it fully are set against savings in healthcare costs.
I find Thorpe’s analysis disingenuous. The problem is that he construes Sanders’ plan in a naively literal way that makes it very different from the healthcare systems of Europe as they actually operate.
The first difference concerns just who pays for what under high quality, low cost Euro style systems. When many Americans think of European healthcare, they assume that the government pays for everything, providing a broad range of services at no charge to the consumer. That is not strictly true. The following chart, reproduced from a 2015 OECD report, shows that in other wealthy democratic countries, governments do pay a larger share of healthcare costs than in the US, but they do not by any means pay for everything. The government share of total healthcare expenditures ranges from nearly 90 percent in Sweden and the UK to around 75 percent in Switzerland, compared with a little under 50 percent in the US.
The reasons for the substantial private healthcare expenditures vary from one country to another. Most countries expect copayments for some, if not all, services and medications. In many, people purchase private insurance to cover services not provided in the government’s basic package, for example, private hospital rooms. Some countries do not fully cover dental and vision services. (However, most Euro style systems have special mechanisms in place to shield low income families from some of these cost-saving measures.)
One of the reasons that critics like Thorpe come up with such high cost estimates is that they take at face value the version of the Sanders plan that is found on his campaign website. That version promises to “cover the entire continuum of health care, from inpatient to outpatient care; preventive to emergency care; primary care to specialty care, including long-term and palliative care; vision, hearing and oral health care; mental health and substance abuse services; as well as prescription medications, medical equipment, supplies, diagnostics and treatments.”
I do not think we have to take that language literally in estimating the cost of translating Sanders’ political aspirations into a specific program for implementation in the real world. The very fact that Sanders describes his plan as “Medicare for All” suggests that a final version is likely to include deductibles and co-payments similar to those in Medicare as it now exists for seniors. Nor would we need all of the features of the website version of the plan in order to meet Sanders’ often-repeated goal of equaling the quality and cost performance of other countries.
The hard part lies ahead
It is easy to criticize a campaign slogan and to inflate the cost of ambitious aspirations. Liberal critics, who ostensibly share Sanders’ aspirations, ought to put their energies into the hard part—filling in the details that would allow the US to equal the cost performance of the best Euro style healthcare systems without loss of quality.
Including Medicare-style deductibles and co-payments would go a long way toward closing the gap between Thorpe’s estimates of the costs of Sanders’ healthcare plan and the candidate’s own estimates, but it would not entirely close it. There are many other problems to deal with.
To date, Sanders has focused on two sources of potential cost savings. Administrative costs are one. The Sanders campaign estimates that administrative savings from his plan would reduce total healthcare spending by 13 percent. Thorpe says it would save 4.7 percent. If we split the difference, the savings would be a little under 9 percent. But reducing per capita healthcare spending to the level of The Netherlands (the most expensive after the US among the eleven covered in the Commonwealth study) would require US spending to fall by 33 percent. To get to the level of the UK (the least expensive of the eleven) would require a 60 percent cut. So, even viewed optimistically, administrative savings are just a start.
The second major saving claimed by the Sanders team comes from lowering the price of prescription drugs. The US currently spends about $300 billion per year, or 10 percent of total healthcare costs, on prescription drugs. Cutting that in half—a truly heroic accomplishment—would still save only another 5 percent of total healthcare costs.
So, beyond prescription drugs and administrative costs, where would the additional 20 to 40 percent saving come from that would be needed to bring US healthcare costs down to the level of the best performing Euro style systems? There are only two possible sources: Cuts in quantity of services or cuts in prices.
Cutting quantities is not as easy as it sounds. To be sure, there are some areas where the US does seem to provide excessive services or procedures. For example, the US rate for Caesarian sections is more than 30 percent, compared to around 7 percent in The Netherlands and Scandinavia. On the whole, however, as healthcare economists like Princeton’s Uwe Reinhart note, the quantity of healthcare services provided in the US is actually lower than in other advanced countries. It does not seem realistically possible to cut service quantities further while extending healthcare coverage to the 13 percent of Americans who remain uninsured, even under the Affordable Care Act, and to do so without any loss in quality of care.
Prices, says Reinhart, are the elephant in the room. US Prices for common medical procedures like appendectomies or normal deliveries average three or four times the levels in Europe. What is more, the prices for such services, or for tests like an MRI or colonoscopy, can vary by a factor of two, three, or more even with in a city. Worst of all, says Reinhart, “Fees in the private health care sector have been jealously guarded trade secrets among insurers and providers of health care.” That makes it impossible for consumers to shop around for the best price, as they would do if they wanted a new set of snow tires.
Liberal critics don’t even pretend to address the problem of healthcare prices. The widely cited Thorpe study simply assumes that prices under the Sanders’ plan would be an average of the prices now paid by private insurers and the modestly lower prices now paid by Medicare.
The day after a Sanders inauguration, his healthcare team would have to set to work on tackling the elephant in the room. Unfortunately, there is no single solution to the problem of high US healthcare prices. Instead, the problem would have to be approached one piece at a time. Coordinated bargaining for lower prescription drug prices is just a start.
Lowering the prices charged by the most expensive hospitals to those charged by the most effective ones would help—and no, they are not necessarily the same hospitals. A single government payer would have more bargaining power. Greater transparency in pricing would help, too. So would greater competition among hospitals. The present trend toward mergers and consolidations demonstrably pushes up prices.
Another reason for the higher cost of US healthcare services are higher earnings of physicians. US doctors earn considerably more than their European counterparts do, even when we adjust fees for differences in expenses and cost of living. But changing compensation practices for American doctors would not be easy without reforming other pieces of the healthcare complex. European doctors typically receive free education, so they don’t begin practice with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt. Entry into medical schools is not as tightly restricted in Europe as in the United States. And less adversarial systems to deal with malpractice claims free European doctors from a major cost item while giving them less incentive to practice unproductive defensive medicine.
The bottom line
It is hard not to conclude that Sanders is right to think that America needs a healthcare system more like those in Europe. True, his Medicare for All plan is still more aspirational than operational, but what do other candidates offer? Hillary Clinton proposes building on Obamacare, but there is nothing in the byzantine complexity of the Affordable Care Act that makes it easier to solve any of the cost and price problems we have discussed, and many things that make it harder. Republican candidates have a field day enumerating the problems of the ACA, but offer only the vaguest suggestions of what they would offer in its place.
So I say, better to go with someone who has the right aspirations and hope his team can work out the details as they go along. Otherwise, we are stuck with the healthcare mess we have, or with a worse one.
Related posts:Prices have become a bigger issue in the last few weeks, as the Warriors landed in the finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. For the finals, the team sent prices through the roof.
Mr. Williams’s not-great corner tickets rose to $400 from $50. Pretty good first-level seats — which during the regular season go for under $200 — are selling for a face-value of $1,000 to $2,000. On the secondary market, the tickets are going for much more. One anonymous fan purchased a pair of courtside seats for Game 7 of the Western Conference finals for $58,000. ESPN reported that several members of the Cavaliers declined to purchase tickets for their families at Game 1 and 2 of the finals because prices were just too high.
Given the prices and the team’s connection with tech, I expected the crowd at Warriors games to resemble a venture capital firm’s cocktail party — young, vaguely geeky, demure business types, mostly white, mostly men. I also felt a sense of embarrassment for jumping on the bandwagon. A couple of years ago, I barely knew the rules of basketball, but as the team kept defying odds and breaking records, I got a bad case of Warriors fever.
Image Credit Stuart Goldenberg
Yet the crowd at the two games I attended this year, including the first finals game, was not a bunch of bandwagoners like myself. Warriors fandom is one of the few Bay Area experiences that still seems to cut across a wide swath of the population. The people who attend the games seem diverse in just about every way — by race, age, willingness to yell out and make a fool of oneself — except one: pretty much everyone wears a yellow Warriors T-shirt, and pretty much everyone looks overjoyed to be there.
Katie Jansen, the chief marketing officer of a start-up called AppLovin, which owns a suite at the arena that it shares with employees and customers, echoed that idea.
“I’ve met the owners of a suite a few suites down from us, and it’s literally a bunch of Oakland natives, a group of men who’ve been Warriors fans their whole lives, and they’ve owned this box for 30 years,” she said.
Many of the techies who now flock to Oakland told me they love this vibe. “There is a real die-hard fan base there in Oakland, and there’s something special happening in that arena right now,” said Craig Butler, Spotify’s newly hired vice president for engineering, who owns season tickets with a few of his buddies. “The energy level at Oracle right now is double what it is anywhere else — it’s just the best show in town.”Photo
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, investors bet on companies that seemed too big to fail. Even if a business wasn’t growing at breakneck speed, there was safety in large numbers; the more sales the better, it seemed.
So in 2011, when Hewlett-Packard hastily announced a plan to break in two, investors balked. Separating HP’s personal computers unit from its enterprise products and services seemed a risky bet that could leave both halves vulnerable. That plan was shelved, and the chief executive who proposed the split was summarily dismissed.
But today, stock market investors are betting on companies with tightly focused visions. Too many divisions are seen as a distraction for management. And activist investors are eager to take small stakes in big companies and call for breakups, betting that profit will follow.
So when HP announced on Monday that it would split in two, essentially reviving the 2011 plan, shareholders rejoiced. HP’s stock jumped nearly 5 percent, and virtually no one questioned the decision.
In announcing a plan to break itself apart, HP is following a trail blazed by other technology companies, including eBay and IBM. And in bowing to investors’ appetite for simplicity, HP is signaling that the wave of spinoffs and divestitures shaking up Silicon Valley may just be getting started.
“During the financial crisis shareholders rewarded size, sales and diversity,” said Chris Ventresca, co-head of global mergers and acquisitions at JPMorgan Chase. “Now they don’t feel like they need the safety net of larger scale. Companies are healthier and stronger. That gives boards the confidence to take a harder look at their portfolio.”
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Just last week, eBay announced that it would spin off its PayPal unit into a separate publicly traded company, giving in to the wishes of the activist investor Carl C. Icahn. That move follows eBay’s sale of its Skype Internet phone service a few years ago.
IBM, for its part, routinely sheds big units that no longer fit with its strategy. It recently sold its low-end server business to Lenovo, the Chinese company that acquired IBM’s personal computer business nearly a decade ago. EMC, a big data storage company, is under pressure from activist hedge funds to divest itself of its stake in VMware, a valuable virtualization company. Some analysts even want Microsoft to break into different companies focusing on software, video games and search.
The shift in investor sentiment is already leading to upheavals well beyond the technology industry. A flurry of spinoffs and divestitures has reshaped the media industry in recent years, thanks in part to a seller’s market. Other companies and private equity firms are eager to acquire good businesses, and investors are willing to buy stock in new companies.
“Companies have lots of choices right now,” Mr. Ventresca said. “They can sell because buyers are hungry. And they have the opportunity to do something like an initial public offering because the markets are healthy.”
Time Warner has whittled itself down to the core, creating a streamlined television and movie studio group. In recent years, it has spun off AOL, Time Warner Cable and Time Inc., its magazine businesses.
Rupert Murdoch split News Corporation in two, spinning off its movie and television assets into a new company called 21st Century Fox. Gannett, the publisher of USA Today, announced in August that it was shedding its newspaper assets to focus on its television operations.
Three of the biggest industrial companies are also slimming down. DuPont, under pressure from the activist investor Nelson Peltz, said last year that it would split in two. And while Dow Chemical has resisted calls from another activist investor, Daniel S. Loeb, to split itself in half, it continues to divest itself of smaller business lines. General Electric spun off its retail finance arm in July and sold its appliance business in September.
Consumer goods and pharmaceuticals companies have joined the fray. Procter & Gamble is selling more than half its brands. The drug maker Abbott Laboratories spun off AbbVie in 2013, creating two enormous health care companies.
And still, the cleaving in half of HP is among the most attention-getting splits to date.
The Hewlett-Packard Split Hewlett-Packard’s decision to split in two would produce two publicly traded companies of approximately the same size. Approximate annual revenue, in billions* HEWLETT-PACKARD ENTERPRISE Specializing in business technology, including computer servers, data storage equipment, software and services. Enterprise group Enterprise services Software TOTAL $58.4 $28.0 22.8 4.1 3.5 Financial services HP INC. Specializing in personal computers and printers. Personal systems Printing TOTAL $57.2 $33.7 23.5
HP was founded 75 years ago, when two friends from Stanford University, William Hewlett and David Packard, began making audio equipment in a garage. The company grew to become the largest maker of personal computers in the world, a major supplier of printers and ink and a big provider of servers, software and supplies for other businesses.
When Meg Whitman took over HP in 2011 after the failed tenure of Léo Apotheker, she inherited a troubled company that lacked focus and had lost some of its financial muscle.
“HP was under acute pressure,” said Peter Burris, an analyst at Forrester Research. “They had a hugely complex portfolio. The balance sheet had degraded a bit over the last 10 years.”
Ms. Whitman announced job cuts, refocused the business units and cleaned up the balance sheet. Those moves allowed her to revive the idea of a split with a measure of confidence that shareholders would cheer the idea.
“A move like this a few years ago might have looked like a fire sale,” Mr. Burris said. “Now, this move improves its focus, simplifying some of the complexity.”
Ralph V. Whitworth, the activist investor who gained a seat on HP’s board, hailed the split on Monday as a victory for shareholders, a reminder of the degree to which the decision was motivated by financial concerns.
The separation is “a brilliant value-enhancing move at the perfect time in the turnaround,” Mr. Whitworth said. “Shareholders will now be able to invest in the respective asset groups without the fear of cross-subsidies and inefficiencies that invariably plague large business conglomerates.”
The separation of HP Inc. (the computer and printers unit) and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (the business products and services division) does not mean each company will not grow. Both could be in the market for deals after the split is complete, or possibly even before.
HP held talks with EMC earlier this year, and a deal between the companies is still on the table, according to people briefed on the matter. And HP Inc. might be able to acquire smaller personal computer or printer companies, or could be a target itself.
There will be risks for both companies too. HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will now have to fend for themselves. While both companies will be big, neither will enjoy the same sort of safety in numbers that investors valued during the financial crisis.
“It doesn’t make all the challenges go away,” Mr. Burris said. “Their successes or failures will be much more transparent. They won’t be able to hide their struggles anymore.”
Related:
Meg Whitman Finds a Vision for HP By splitting Hewlett-Packard into two new entities, Meg Whitman is putting her own, decisive stamp on the iconic company she has led for three years.What if you could live to 85, 90 or even 100 with your mental faculties intact, able to live independently without debilitating conditions until the last year of your life? What if just one medical treatment could stave off a handful of terrifying ailments like heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s?
The idea of a pill for aging sounds like science fiction or fantasy. But the hunt is increasingly real. At the cutting edge of research, scientists and doctors are already deep into the quest for a drug that could transform the experience of aging. The goal isn’t a pharmaceutical fountain of youth, exactly; nobody is promising to stretch human lifespans indefinitely. Instead, they're looking for a way to ensure healthier aging—a drug that could make it more likely people reach their eighth or ninth decade of life with fewer of the ailments that make old age painful and disabling for millions, and cripplingly expensive for the health care system.
The leading approach even has a name: senolytic drugs. The science is still far from proven; it may turn out that like many new ideas, these drugs never show up in American medicine cabinets at all. But the prospect of a drug for healthier aging has already attracted significant investment from well-known drug companies, and the first human studies of anti-aging drugs are getting underway. If the results pan out, the first drugs could be available in as little as a decade.
As the research moves forward, however, it is raising a series of new questions that both medicine and regulators will need to confront. And the most complex questions arise around exactly the issue that makes the field so exciting: The notion of treating the aging process itself. There’s never been a drug for aging in part because “aging” isn’t considered a disease by the FDA. Should it be? What signs and symptoms of aging is it OK to medicalize? And if a drug were approved for aging – something that every human experiences — who would bear the costs for a pill that potentially could be prescribed for every person alive?
And those aren’t the only questions. It turns out that evaluating the science is also complex, partly because it's hard to measure whether a drug is fundamentally changing the course of human aging. It's also ethically fraught: Aging is a normal human process, so testing a drug for "aging" means that otherwise healthy people would be subjected to its inevitable side effects, for unproven benefit. How long a trial would even be needed? Regulators aren't close to answering this kind of question.
New research into drugs that could alter the aging process hold out the promise that future Americans could live into old age with fewer infirmities and greater mobility. | Getty
So far scientists are tiptoeing around many of these complicated issues by testing these drugs only in very sick people, studying to see if they help treat deadly diseases with few other treatment options. The idea is to get a potential anti-aging drug approved first under more traditional protocols without having to tackle the thornier, longer-term questions raised by the idea of treating “aging.”
However, doctors are unlikely to wait for answers to the larger questions around these drugs before they begin to prescribe them to patients. As soon as a senolytic or other anti-aging drug is approved for any purpose, physicians are allowed to start prescribing them to their patients for any condition they want, and likely will. Which means that these ethical challenges need answers soon — sooner than many expect. “It would change all of life,” said Robert Temple, FDA’s deputy center director for clinical science. “If there was something that really slowed the aging process, wouldn’t everyone want to be on it? I think so.”
“Zombie” cells
Anti-aging science has long been viewed with skepticism, a “soft” science more often the province of quacks selling dubious potions like jellyfish extract than serious medical researchers. But senolytic drugs are changing that. The idea behind them is to attack senescent or “zombie” cells – cells that have stopped dividing, but aren’t dead. Senescent cells release toxic and inflammatory compounds that impair the function of healthy cells, and scientists believe they help drive the decline of important body tissue, like organs. Scientists have found that the number of senescent cells increases with aging in mice, monkeys and humans; they're associated with chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis and overall frailty.
ln small mammals, scientists have found that killing senescent cells delays and prevents many age-related conditions and diseases. In animal testing, senolytic agents have also successfully treated conditions including heart dysfunction, lung diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, and damage induced by radiation. Clearing senescent cells from adult mice has even been shown to increase median lifespan.
Ethicists are also more comfortable with senolytics than some other anti-aging ideas, because the drugs aren’t intended to extend how long we live, but improve how well we live. The goal is to achieve what McGill University bioethicist Jennifer Fishman describes as the “ideal form of aging”: to be healthy until right before you die. People would experience more years of healthy, active, dementia-free life and then a briefer, more merciful final illness. “It’s not this sort of post-human robot, [or] artificial intelligence freezing your brain,” she said. “It’s not any of these fantastical things. It is actually targeting something that has been a dream of mainstream medicine for quite a long time, too.”
As it happens, the drug first in line for possible anti-aging approval is not new, and not a senolytic agent – it’s an old, off-patent diabetes treatment that has been used in other parts of the world for more than 50 years. The drug, called metformin, has been shown to delay aging and extend health span in animals. Observational studies in humans have linked metformin to decreased incidence of cancer, improved cardiovascular function and reduced risk of cognitive impairment.
Scientists believe that if regulators approve metformin as an anti-aging drug, it could pave the way for other, newer agents. They have pitched a large, long-term randomized controlled trial of metformin called TAME: Targeting Aging with Metformin. It would be a test case to convince FDA it is possible to devise trials that can show a drug helps prevent or delay multiple age-related diseases – what the FDA calls “indications.” That’s needed so the agency could eventually sign off on marketing language that would let companies sell products with anti-aging claims,
including senolytic medicines.
The first drug that might gain FDA approval as an "anti-aging" treatment is metformin, a diabetes medicine that's been around for decades and has been shown to extend the healthy lives of small mammals. | Getty
Right now, “aging is not an indication, it’s not a disease, so health care providers won’t pay,” said Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and the leader of the TAME study. “If health care providers will not pay, then pharmaceuticals [companies] won’t jump in to develop more drugs, better drugs, combination drugs.”
Metformin may not be the strongest potential drug in the anti-aging arsenal, but Barzilai and fellow aging researchers see it as a good stepping stone. It’s cheap, available and has been used by humans for decades with a reasonably clean safety record. All that should make it easier for the FDA to say yes to approval as an anti-aging treatment. The TAME trial has received preliminary approval from FDA, but Barzilai and other researchers are still trying to line up the funding needed to launch it.
Even if they find the money, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. Because the nature of anti-aging drugs is fundamentally different than drugs designed to treat a specific disease, the kinds of clinical trials they need will also be different. “The traditional approach is one drug, one target, one disease… ” said James Kirkland, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic who helped develop the idea that removing senescent cells may ease the disabilities of old age. “This is not in that realm at all.”
The TAME study would evaluate metformin versus placebo in 3,000 American patients – ages 65 to 79 – measuring the time to a new occurrence of diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, or time to death. But to get FDA to sign off on an anti-aging claim, scientists will likely need to go further. So the six-year trial would also look at the drug’s effect on other conditions of old age, like walking speed and injuries from falls. It would also assess how well study participants perform what the medical field calls “activities of daily living” — the basic skills people need to take care of themselves and live independently as they age, like preparing meals or using the restroom.
Interpreting results of such anti-aging studies won’t be easy. If, for instance, the TAME study shows metformin decreases chances of a heart attack, we won’t necessarily know whether that’s because the drug prevented heart attacks or because it slowed aging overall, said FDA’s Temple. “All chronic disease always gets worse over time,” Temple said. “Is that because having the disease for longer makes it worse? Or does it have something to do with the age of the patient?”
To prove that a drug prevents aging, companies will ultimately have to find changes in people that aren’t known to be affected by disease. For example, skin gets lined and wrinkled and loses elasticity over the years – but that doesn’t cause illness. Muscle mass also decreases with age. If a company could show that the drug alters these changes, “that’s a pretty good argument that you are affecting aging,” Temple said.
But the potential for approving anti-aging drugs on the basis of these signposts is already triggering the alarm bells of bioethicists. They fear companies’ pressure to approve these medicines quickly could lead to patients being exposed to medicines that offer only superficial benefits – and possibly hidden harm. For McGill’s Fishman, this harkens back to mistakes made when hormonal treatments for post-menopausal women were approved. Those studies, she said, were too short to pick up on significant adverse effects that occurred in women taking the drug for a long time. And while the drugs were approved specifically to treat symptoms of menopause, in practice they were often prescribed for a general anti-aging benefit.
This concern over “indication creep,” as Fishman calls it—the tendency for drugs to be prescribed for problems they weren't approved to treat—is another trigger for ethicists. Many of the companies testing the first senolytic drugs aren’t trying to get them approved for aging but instead are targeting diseases where they believe senescent cells play a role. For example, Unity Biotechnology plans to start its first clinical trials with a senolytic for osteoarthritis of the knee in 2018.
Because of the enthusiasm around the drugs, researchers are already concerned about anecdotal stories of people wanting to use the medicines to treat aging before they’re ready for prime time. Paul Robbins of the Scripps Institute said some senolytics are natural products you can buy from Walgreens or Amazon — compounds like quercetin, which gives many fruits and vegetables their color. Others are older drugs like dasatinib, a blood cancer chemotherapy drug. He’s heard of clinics already being set up overseas to provide drugs like these as anti-aging treatments, even without evidence they work, or data on the right dosage.
The hype is dangerous, warns Kirkland, whose employer, the Mayo Clinic, is investing in senolytics through Unity and other companies. Lots of drugs look promising when they are used in mice or rats or monkeys – but fail in humans. “Anything can go wrong along the way,” Kirkland said. “If you could caution your readers, tell them absolutely not to take these drugs until trials are done, because this is a new way of doing things. We don’t know if they are going to work and we don’t know what the side effects are.”
‘Crazy lucrative’
The potential benefits of drugs that extend the healthy period of human life are huge. But so are the potential costs.
The United States’ population aged 65 and older is expected to double by 2050; the population over age 80 will triple. After age 65, the incidence of chronic degenerative diseases increases exponentially. More than 75 percent of people over age 65 have two chronic diseases, and the older people get the more health spending they require.
“If you demonstrate that these drugs work, probably everybody is going to want to take the drugs. So then the question becomes a question of cost,” said Steven Austad, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, which is sponsoring the TAME study.
While metformin is relatively cheap, the drugs that follow could be much more expensive. Senolytics “could be crazy lucrative for a pharmaceutical [company] in a way that we might find problematic,” Fishman said. It’s also likely that there won’t be one silver bullet anti-aging drug, meaning different people may require different treatments or combinations of anti-aging treatments, adding to the costs.
A high-priced drug taken by everyone could place a burden on an already strained health care system, including Medicare, which presumably would have to pay for everyone to take the drug for many decades. And the longer people live, the longer they will draw from Social Security and other government benefit programs. “Politically, this is a hot topic,” said Laura Niedernhofer of the Scripps Research Institute. “Someone who does not dig in deeply thinks immediately, ‘Oh my God, lifespan is going to extend and Social Security is already in bad shape, and so how are we going to handle this’?”
Niedernhofer is an optimist, however, arguing that the costs of anti-aging therapies will more than pay for themselves, their costs offset by the fact that healthier people will require less medical care in the final years of their lives. The drugs may even allow people to work longer, contributing more to the economy and to Social Security and freeing up family members to stay in the workforce instead of taking care of elderly relatives.
Nir Barzilai, the physician heading up the study of metformin as an anti-aging drug, discusses his research at an American Federation for Aging Research event last year in New York. | AP Photo
Another concern, said University of Minnesota bioethicist Leigh Turner, is pushing resources toward an unproven idea, instead of toward tried-and-true public health programs that have already been proven to extend lives and improve health, like providing clean drinking water or better waste management. Even in the United States, these social determinants of health — unequal access to good education, economic opportunities and even health insurance coverage and health care — often contributes to poor health outcomes, particularly for minorities and those with fewer financial resources.
But “ |
. 17 hasn't brought a whole lot of luck to any forwards who have worn that sweater number in recent years.
In fact, the last forward to wear No. 17 for the Senators for an entire season was Bill Muckalt, who infamously went the entire 2001-02 campaign without scoring a single goal in 70 games. Since then, Denis Hamel was the only other forward to wear No. 17, producing four goals in 43 games in the 2006-07 season when he was shuttled between Binghamton and Ottawa. (It should be noted that defenceman Filip Kuba wore the jersey for parts of four seasons in between).
Looking at the last few forwards to wear No. 17 for the Senators, you will notice a distinct trend:
Denis Hamel (2006-07): 4 goals in 43 games
Bill Muckalt (2001-02): 0 goals in 70 games
Eric Lacroix (2000-01) 0 goals in 9 games
Colin Forbes (2000-01) 0 goals in 39 games
Colin Forbes (1999-00) 2 goals in 45 games
Chris Murray (1998-99): 1 goal in 38 games
That's a total of only seven goals scored in 244 games by forwards wearing this jersey number in the last 15 seasons. Or about one in every 35 games - which means if that curse continues, Legwand would score two - or maybe three - goals this season.
However, the smart money is on Legwand having a nice offensive season for the Sens, considering he is coming off a 51-point season last year. Somewhere between 12-15 goals seems like a realistic target for Legwand, who will start the season on the Sens' first power play unit. That's a far cry from Muckalt's 2001-02 season, when Roger Neilson - who coached the team for the final two regular season games - put him on the club's top power play unit in the regular season finale in an attempt to buy Muckalt a goal. That strategy proved fruitless for Muckalt, but Paul MacLean seems very confident in Legwand's ability to help the Senators' power play.
The Sens head coach likes the diversity of having some left-handed shots like Legwand and MacArthur on the first unit power play and believes that Legwand was a driving force in the Senators scoring five goals with the man-advantage in their final two pre-season games.
"I think David had a lot to do with getting it organized and having things done. Along with Erik, I think the two of them really took charge and said, 'Listen, here's what we're going to do' and they went on the ice and did it," MacLean said.
Legwand will make his Sens debut on Thursday night in Nashville in a building he is very familiar with, having been the Predators' first draft pick back in 1998. This will mark the first time he's been back in the city since the trade that sent him to Detroit on deadline day last spring, although he doesn't sound like he will be too emotional.
"It's weird going back. Getting traded at 2pm eastern time, I think I was out of there at 7pm and I haven't been back since, Legwand told reporters yesterday. "It's interesting - it's kind of a chapter that is over in our lives and we've moved on."Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has released a campaign platform that includes promises to raise corporate tax rates and cut auto insurance rates in the first year of an NDP mandate.
The platform features a mix of new and previously announced measures, with an emphasis on "fundamentals for families," in a bid to woo voters ahead of the June 12 provincial election
In announcing a plan heavy on pocketbook issues, Horwath assailed the Liberals for wasting taxpayer's dollars in scandals such as the gas-plant fiasco.
"You deserve a government that makes sense, that respects your tax dollars and invests them in your priorities," she said. "That's what the New Democrats are offering."
Join the debate What would you ask the leaders during the June 3 leaders debate? Email us at ontariodebate@cbc.ca and you may be chosen to ask your question on-camera during the televised broadcast. Please include your contact information.
But the platform also includes a promise to freeze tuition fees and a plan to eliminate interest on student loans.
"It is not acceptable that people finish their post-secondary studies and have debts the size of mortgages," Horwath said. "We are going to get this under control."
The NDP also want to forgive up to $20,000 a year of student debt for doctors who agree to work in under-serviced areas.
Other highlights of the plan include:
A balanced budget by 2017-18. This is the same year the Liberals plan to return to balance and a year later than the PCs' plan.
An increase to Ontario's corporate tax rate to 12.5 per cent. It's currently at 11.5 per cent. The PCs have vowed to drop it to eight per cent.
A promise to restore passenger service on Ontario Northland Rail. The service operated at a loss before it was cancelled in 2012, angering residents in Northern Ontario who must endure long bus rides to travel south for medical treatments.
A promise to reduce auto insurance rates by 15 per cent in the first year.
The purchase of 200 additional snowplows and sand trucks.
A plan to widen 60 kilometres of highway every year.
A new fund to help people retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient.
A vow to eliminate wait lists for long-term care beds.
A $1,275 caregiver tax credit for those looking after relatives who are ill. Horwath says the move would help seniors live at home as long as possible, and cost taxpayers $230 million a year.
A promise to conduct an environmental assessment of pipeline projects
Funding for one cycle of in-vitro fertilization for couples struggling to conceive. This matches a Liberal plan to do the same.
Tougher rules on government partisan advertising.
New limits on the use of consultants.
Nutritional programs for children "to make sure they have a healthy start on life."
Moves to ensure kids have access to dental care, something Horwath says is "long overdue."
Targeted tax cuts for companies that create jobs, up to $5,000 per employee, but with "strings attached" to make sure the strategy achieves its goals.
Platform details outlined in previous announcements:
Appointment of a minister of savings and accountability. The NDP says this will save the province $600 million a year, but didn't offer specifics. Horwath also vowed to get a financial accountability office up and running.
Capping salaries of public-sector CEOs. Horwath announced plans to do this last year. On Thursday she said this will be a "hard cap."
A plan to open new 24-hour health clinics.
The NDP would take the provincial portion of the HST off hydro bills and repeal the debt retirement charge, saving the average household about $200 a year. "People tell me they open the hydro bill and nearly fall off their chair," said Horwath. "We can do better than that."
A plan to cut emergency room wait times in half, largely through increase use of nurse practitioners. This was announced earlier in the week.
An open-schools fund to retrofit closed schools to "keep them part of the community" and allow them open after hours.
One notable omission from the NDP platform was a made-in-Ontario pension plan, which the Liberals are promising.
Horwath said Thursday her party supports the idea in principle but said she wants to see what happens in the 2015 federal election before committing provincial dollars to it.
"We may actually get a federal government that will take pension plans seriously," said Horwath. "We are the party that first began to talk about pension security for Ontarians."
Liberals dismiss platform as 'waste of time'
Liberal candidate Brad Duguid criticized Horwath's decision to vote against the May 1 budget with every answer during a news conference after the NDP announcement.
"This platform really is a bit of a waste of Ontarians' time," said Duguid, the incumbent in the riding of Scarborough Centre.
"She could have achieved a lot of objectives in this platform, albeit by different ways, more effective ways, had she voted for the Liberal budget. She could have avoided this unnecessary, expensive election campaign altogether."
Former NDP advisor Gerry Caplan said on the CBC's Power and Politics Thursday that many NDPers don't understand why Wynne's budget was voted down either.
"Kathleen Wynne has a budget and it has all these quite explicit measures and then she's not going to introduce any of them because she can't be trusted? No, I don't buy it at all," he said.
"It was simply an ad hominem attack on the premier who was introducing these terrific measures and now they're gone, maybe gone forever.
"The problems that Ms. Horwath has created for the NDP (are) not only failing to attract new voters but detracting old voters who are seriously considering now, listen to this, voting Liberal in order to keep the Hudak menace at bay."
PC leader Tim Hudak said earlier in the day he hoped the NDP would focus on growing payrolls and not adding to bureaucracy, calling this a single-issue election.
The PCs unveiled their full platform last Wednesday, the Green Party's platform came out last Tuesday and while the Liberals are running primarily on their voted-down budget, they're holding an official launch for their platform on Sunday.
Mobile users, read the Ontario NDP platform here.IT'S 10 years ago today since Chris Judd officially became a Blue.
For the 134-game West Coast premiership captain and Brownlow Medallist, it was all about coming home. For the football club, landing Judd at the peak of his powers was, as with Ron Barassi in ’64, a recruiting coup of truly stunning proportions.
Judd joined Carlton at a time when Carlton was foundering. The Club had been hit with everything, kitchen sink included, for salary cap indiscretions, and its teams had collectively “earned” three wooden spoons through the five seasons previous.
When his knee gave way on the MCG in the 10th Round of 2015, the bald man in the No.5 guernsey had given it his all – as captain, triple club best and fairest, Brownlow Medallist (again) and four-time All Australian through 145 games in eight seasons.
So on the 10th anniversary of Chris Judd’s monumental announcement, let’s revisit the machinations which led to him crossing the Nullabor to join the only team old Carlton knows.
On the morning of September 29, 2007, then Carlton CEO Greg Swann drove from his home in Williamstown to the Sandringham locale of Chris Judd’s parents, Lisa and Andy, where Judd was convalescing after groin surgery.
With Judd close to making a call on which club would complete the supercoup and secure his services, Swann’s modus operandi was simple enough.
“Everybody likes to put their best foot forward, as should happen, but as is often the case whoever gets to him last might have had the biggest impact,” Swann said, in an interview for the publication Out of the Blue. “We were still very much in the mix but perhaps we weren’t as clear as we were beforehand [and] I was fearful that after everyone else had quite rightly made good presentations we might have been forgotten.
“So I rang Paul [Connors, Judd’s manager] and I said, ‘Look, we really need to get in front of him again’. He [Connors] wasn’t so sure. He said, ‘That’s unfair, everyone will want a second go’. I said, ‘Okay, but what are his movements?’ and he [Judd] happened to be in town.
“On the Sunday after the Grand Final I went to his parents’ house in ‘Sandy’. I just knocked on the door about lunchtime and there he was, he’d just had his groin op [an abductor release in Newcastle], so he asked me in and I had about three quarters of an hour with him. At that stage it had probably come down to the two, Carlton versus Collingwood, so I went through it all with him: how we had a good young list, all those things. I then went off to my in-laws’ farm that night.”
As the shadows lengthened on Sunday afternoon, Judd finalised his decision. It would be Carlton over Collingwood... and not for the first time in football history either.
Connors well remembered the conversation. “He [Judd] just blurted out matter-of-factly that it was Carlton,” Connors said. “It wasn’t, ‘I’ve chosen Carlton for this reason or that reason’, it was just ‘Carlton’. No mention that it was a bloody difficult decision or anything, just simply ‘Carlton’.
“I drove to his parents’ house in Sandringham at around six o’clock in the evening and we met in the front room and discussed how this would be played out. We decided to knock off Melbourne and Essendon on the Monday, and I was keen for him to leave it for 24-48 hours before we advised the Pies, just in case he changed his mind.
“I was pretty sure Chris’s decision was final, but as was the case before I thought it important I gave him time to sleep on his decision, and that it was not a knee jerk reaction to ‘Swanny’s’ visit.”
When he took that now famous call from Connors at his in-laws’ Maffra property, Swann was sworn to secrecy for at least the next 24 hours. “I couldn’t say anything because while Paul had announced that it had come down to two, he didn’t want to declare straight away that Chris had gone to Carlton. Out of respect for Collingwood he just needed to play that out for another couple of days,” Swann said. “I then rang Paul on the Tuesday and said, ‘Look, we can’t hold out anymore, we’ve got to get it out there.’”
Connors duly rang Geoff Walsh, who in another life served as Carlton’s Recruiting Co-ordinator, to deliver football’s equivalent of the infamous Jeff Browne sandwich. Instead he copped a recorded message. “He [Walsh] then rang back and I said something like, ‘This is not the call I want to make,’” Connors said. “Collingwood had done everything right. Chris’s head said the Pies and his heart said the Blues. It was just a gut feel.
“Was it Greg Swann’s visit on the Sunday? I think it certainly played a part, but no doubt Chris’s desire to be a part of something from the bottom up, in addition to the Blues’ ability to do the trade, all played a factor in his final decision.”
On the Tuesday afternoon, Swann authorised a release declaring that Chris Judd had nominated Carlton as his club of choice. Barely a week later, the terms of the trade with West Coast were finalised. Josh Kennedy was the reluctant pawn and by Wednesday, October 11, it was official. The game’s most respected footballer would now be wearing navy blue.
Ten years ago today, this happened... #BoundByBlue A post shared by Carlton Football Club (@carlton_fc) on Oct 10, 2017 at 4:02pm PDT
Swann was first to admit his club’s disappointment in having to part with Kennedy. “But ultimately you’ve got to give up something to get something good. So we gave up pick three, Kennedy, swapped pick 20 for 46 and kept the priority, pick one, which was a massive plus because we got the best player in the draft and the most outstanding kid [Matthew Kreuzer] in the one year,” Swann said.
“That was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where you had a 24-year-old player, the best player in the competition at that time, wanting to come home. He [Judd] is a good guy, he’s an interesting guy, and if you spoke to him about why he chose us I reckon a lot of it would be that he thought we could get the deal done.
“The Barassi thing is probably a bit bigger in that he came as an untried captain-coach, but having said that not too many champion players have left their club and come home. Chris would be the first one and how it plays out will be really interesting. It’s quite correct to say that we were on our knees when Chris came to Carlton, just as we were when Barassi came to Carlton in ’64. It took a couple of years for him [Barassi] to turn it around and you’d like to think that we improved enough to say that Chris has made that big an impact on the playing group with his professionalism.”
Notwithstanding his understanding that Carlton could actually get the deal done, Judd himself was genuinely enthused by his newly-adopted club’s medium to long-term prospects both on and off the field.
As Swann also observed: “Collingwood had just missed out on a Grand Final by a few points and the added pressure of him going there to be the Messiah to take them to the Grand Final was probably a harder thing for him to cope with, rather than joining a team starting from the bottom and going up with a young list”.
Later that Wednesday, Judd held court at a mass gathering of reporters in the John Nicholls Room on the second floor of the Carlton Social Club. As he purposefully and methodically addressed journalists’ questions, floor-to-ceiling posters of Judd sporting a superimposed navy blue guernsey flanked the future Carlton captain. “I didn’t have huge doubts that the deal would get done,” Judd declared as the television cameras slowly rolled. “I can be part of something from the ground up... that’s the exciting part of it for me.”
Eleven months to the day later, Judd would again take centre stage, as Carlton’s latest recipient of the John Nicholls Medal. “For us, Judd coming to Carlton was enormous,” Swann said.
“You couldn’t begin to fathom what impact he was going to have on membership, merchandise and corporately. You knew he would help but you didn’t know how much, and there’s even been a flow-on effect.
“Not so long ago you couldn’t get a player in the joint. That is why Chris Judd has been enormous for Carlton and will continue to be so.”Here’s What Cards Against Humanity Is Doing With The $71,145 They Made On Black Friday
While a lot of the US was out and about shopping for themselves or others for the holidays, Cards Against Humanity ran their own Black Friday campaign, asking for $5 and in return the buyer would get nothing.
Nada.
Zip.
And the buyers (all 11,248 of them) LIKED it.
Today, the team shared that they’d made a grand total of $71,145 in one day and let us in on what they would be buying with their hard-earned cash. Let’s call it an early holiday bonus for the team:
This year we offered our customers the ultimate Black Friday experience – the ability to buy nothing from us for $5. We took our entire store offline, and put up a simple payment form where people could give us $5. 11,248 people gave us $5, and 1,199 people gave us more than $5 by filling out the form more than once. One enthusiastic fan gave us $100. In the end, we made a windfall profit of $71,145. Cards Against Humanity is known for our charitable fundraising – since 2012 we’ve raised nearly $4 million for organizations we love like Worldbuilders, the Sunlight Foundation, the EFF, DonorsChoose.org, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Chicago Design Museum. We even started a $500,000 full-ride scholarship for women getting degrees in science. There’s been a lot of speculation about how we would spend the money from Black Friday, and we’re happy to announce that this time, we kept it all. Here’s what we bought. – Max, Ben, Josh, Eli, David, Daniel, and David
What did they learn in the process?
https://twitter.com/MaxTemkin/status/670719931005161472
Each team member listed what they aimed to buy, with many of them giving money to charity. This is certainly not the first time charitable giving played a role in their efforts. Here’s my favorite purchase:
Our cats poop a lot, too. Read the full list of what they snagged here.The Legion of Boom (LOB) was the nickname given to the Seattle Seahawks' defense during their rise to prominence in the 2010s. The original group that was nicknamed the Legion of Boom consisted of the main starters in the Seahawks defense backfield: Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Brandon Browner, Walter Thurmond, and Byron Maxwell. The group was led by defensive-minded head coach Pete Carroll.
Over time, the nickname grew to encompass the Seahawks defense as a whole, including prominent players such as Bobby Wagner, K. J. Wright, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, Brandon Mebane, Frank Clark, Chris Clemons and Bruce Irvin.
During the LOB era, the Seahawks amassed six consecutive winning seasons, three division titles, two NFC championships, and a Super Bowl victory. They made the playoffs in five consecutive seasons and finished with five consecutive 10+ win seasons, a feat the franchise had never achieved before in consecutive seasons. They also appeared in back-to-back Super Bowls, winning once to secure the franchise's first ever championship. During the 2012 to 2015 seasons, the Seahawks led the league in scoring defense, allowing the fewest points scored each year for four years straight. The only other team to accomplish this feat were the Cleveland Browns of the 1950s.[1] The 2013 defense led the league in points allowed (231), yards allowed (4,378), and takeaways (39), the first team to lead all three categories since the 1985 Chicago Bears.[2] It is widely regarded as one of the best single-season defenses of all time. The 2011 unit ranked 7th, the 2016 unit ranked 3rd. Following the 2013 NFL season, cornerback Richard Sherman was voted the cover athlete for the video game Madden NFL 15 and the rest of the LOB was featured on the start menu of the game.[3]
The Legion of Boom’s crowning achievement was their team's 43–8 win in Super Bowl XLVIII, a blowout victory over the Denver Broncos, a team that was considered to have the best offense of all time. For the 2013 season, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning set NFL records for passing touchdowns and passing yardage, and the Broncos' offense set NFL records for touchdowns and points scored in a single season. However, the Seahawks did not allow a score until late in the 3rd quarter, by which point the game had already entered garbage time. Safety Kam Chancellor and linebacker Malcolm Smith each recorded an interception in the game, with Smith returning his for a touchdown. Smith also recovered a fumble caused by Byron Maxwell, who punched the ball out of the hands of Demaryius Thomas. Smith was later named Super Bowl MVP. He left the team after the 2014 season in free agency.
The season following the Seahawks' first Super Bowl victory, they made it back to Super Bowl XLIX after making an improbable "miracle" comeback against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game, scoring 15 points in the final 2:09 of regulation and winning on a 35-yard touchdown reception by Jermaine Kearse in overtime. In an ironic twist, in Super Bowl XLIX, former LOB starter Brandon Browner, now playing for the opposing New England Patriots, was instrumental in jamming up the infamous play in which Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson on the goal line and sealed the Patriots' victory. The Legion of Boom recorded two interceptions facing Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, by cornerback Jeremy Lane and linebacker Bobby Wagner. Jeremy Lane suffered a serious injury immediately following his interception in the first quarter, breaking his arm after being hit by Julian Edelman on the play. Lane played a key part in the LOB secondary, often playing on nickel packages as a 5th defensive back. Lane later said he immediately was sent to surgery to fix his injury, and when he woke up he saw the Seahawks with the ball on the one yard line and witnessed the interception that followed. Defensive end Cliff Avril was also injured during the game, he left during the 3rd quarter due to a concussion and did not return. Despite having a torn ligament in his elbow sustained during the NFC Championship Game, Richard Sherman played the entire game, as did Earl Thomas, even though he dislocated his shoulder during the game. In addition, Kam Chancellor suffered a bruised knee during pre-game practice, but also played. Some point to all these injuries as the cause of the 28 points that the Seahawks allowed to the Patriots, which was unusual for a defense that only allowed an average of 15.9 points during the regular season (first in the NFL). The main focus following the game, however, was the coaching staff's decision to throw the ball on the one yard line instead of allowing Marshawn Lynch to run the ball. Lynch led the league (tied with DeMarco Murray) in running touchdowns that season and was fourth in total rushing yardage.
The future of the Legion of Boom was in question after the 2017 NFL season, following the release of Richard Sherman and the career-ending injury of Kam Chancellor. Over seven seasons, the Legion of Boom's core had consisted of Sherman, Thomas and Chancellor, with the comings and goings of members of the secondary.[4] At the start of the 2018 NFL season, only Thomas remained, but in Week 4, he suffered a season-ending injury, putting his future with the Seahawks into question.
Pete Carroll, with the help of former and current defensive coordinators Gus Bradley, Dan Quinn, Ken Norton Jr. and Kris Richard, popularized the trend of Cover 1 and Cover 3 defensive schemes during the LOB era. Several key Seahawks defensive coaches in the Carroll Legion of Boom era have gone on to jobs elsewhere in the league. Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley became the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and is currently the defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is the current head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and took his team to Super Bowl LI. Richard was fired on January 10, 2018, after five seasons as a defensive back coach and three as defensive coordinator, and was hired by the Dallas Cowboys to fill in as their defensive backs coach.[5] Linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. was hired as the defensive coordinator of the Oakland Raiders and then returned to the Seahawks as their defensive coordinator in 2018. Defensive backs coach Jerry Gray became the defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans. Defensive line coach Todd Wash is the current defensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars and helped lead his team to the 2017 AFC Championship game. Quality control coach Robert Saleh is the current defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers. Defensive assistant Marquand Manuel was the defensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons until the end of the 2018 season.
Background [ edit ]
Before the 2011 season, the Seahawks drafted cornerback Richard Sherman in the 5th round and cornerback Byron Maxwell in the 6th round of the 2011 NFL Draft and signed cornerback Brandon Browner as a free agent from the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), adding to 2010 draftees free safety Earl Thomas and strong safety Kam Chancellor. They first met during the 2011 NFL lockout at a charity basketball game put on by Jamal Crawford, and played good team defense together from the start.[6] After an injury to Marcus Trufant and Walter Thurmond, Sherman earned his first career start on October 30, 2011 against the Cincinnati Bengals, marking the first time the four original members started a game together.[7] The group's dominating play over the rest of the 2011 season would inspire the nickname.
(explaining the origin of "Legion of Boom")
“It was a radio interview. The fans wanted to come up with a name for the group and we saw a bunch of names come across Twitter. None of them were catchy, but when we saw Legion of Boom, it jumped out.” –Kam Chancellor
On August 2, 2012, safety Kam Chancellor was a guest on 710 ESPN Seattle's Bob and Groz show and asked fans to suggest a nickname for the Seattle Seahawks' secondary. The name "Legion of Boom" was suggested to the show by fans on Twitter and noting the way the secondary "brings the boom". It is also a play on the Legion of Doom supervillain group from DC Comics.[6][8] Shortly thereafter, Google searches for the term skyrocketed.[9][10] The term became commonly used in the media by the start of the 2012 season by sources like NFL.com and ESPN commentator Jon Gruden.[6][11] Nike currently offers "Legion of Boom" branded apparel as the group grows in popularity.[12] An ESPN feature found the "Legion of Boom" comparable to nicknamed great defenses such as the Monsters of the Midway, Big Blue Wrecking Crew, Steel Curtain and the Doomsday Defense.[6]
The unit's aggressive nature is notable in an era where the NFL has placed particular emphasis on player safety. Kris Richard, who served as defensive backs coach from 2012 to 2017 and as defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2017, helped build the Legion of Boom into a unit that hits hard while staying within the rules. During practice, the receivers run routes with shields strapped to their chests that run from neck to mid-thigh, and the defensive backs are taught to keep their hits within that area in order to limit penalties for blows to the head. Bleacher Report described the Legion of Boom as a monument both to Richard and head coach Pete Carroll, who was a safety himself in his playing days and a defensive backs coach in his early coaching career.[13] Carroll also studied taller cornerback tandems like Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes when assembling the core of defensive backs.
The physical running style of Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch was also known to feed into the Legion of Boom mystique, with the run game and defense feeding off of each other.
Due to the departure of Sherman and Chancellor, the 2018 Seahawks defense featured original member Earl Thomas, until his week 4 season ending injury, and many new faces including Shaquill Griffin, Bradley McDougald, Justin Coleman, Tedric Thompson and Tre Flowers.
Members [ edit ]
Original [ edit ]
Walter Thurmond[14] (2010–2013), at 5 ft 11 in, 190 lb, The Seattle Seahawks drafted Thurmond in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He primarily played nickelback for the Legion of Boom and started eight of 34 games for them during his four-year tenure with the team. Thurmond was an integral piece of the secondary during their Super Bowl season in 2013. After serving a four-game suspension, he returned and was tasked with defending the slot during the Seahawks' playoff run to the Super Bowl.[14]
Other featured [ edit ]
DeShawn Shead (2012–2017), at 6 ft 2 in, 220 lb, signed with the Seahawks as an undrafted rookie free-agent in 2012. Shead, a collegiate Decathlon star, is a special-teams standout who excelled as the team's 'Swiss Army knife' multipurpose defensive back, and became the starter at right cornerback, opposite Sherman in 2014. He is a fast-and-physical player with elite body control, who displays his prowess intuitively as a quick and reliable tackler against the run, and as a solid pass defender with excellent speed downfield. Shead demonstrates uncanny athleticism, and has a knack for stripping the ball and forcing fumbles. When utilized as an additional weak-side 'bandit/hybrid' safety, or as a 'big nickel' defensive back, Shead matches up effectively against taller, larger and more physical receivers and tight ends. During the 2015 season, Shead started games at five different positions, designated as the primary backup at free- and strong-safety positions, both outside cornerback positions, and inside at nickelback, and ultimately earned the starting job at right cornerback. From 2012–present, in the regular season, Shead has produced 132 tackles, 21 passes defensed, 1 sack, 2 interceptions, and 3 forced fumbles.
Jeremy Lane (2012–2017), at 6 ft 0 in, 190 lb, was drafted by the Seahawks in 2012, number 172 overall (6th round). Lane is a premier inside nickelback, possessing elite speed, quickness, and shadowing ability in coverage. His speed is well respected; he was one of the most dangerous gunners in special teams coverage, often double-teamed and deliberately forced out-of-bounds. Lane's skills as a defensive back afford him advantages against smaller, quicker slot receivers and deep threats. From 2012–present, in the regular season, Jeremy Lane has 104 tackles, 14 passes defensed, 2 interceptions, and 1 forced fumble. Lane also recorded an interception in Super Bowl XLIX. He was released along with fellow LOB member Richard Sherman in early 2018.
Marcus Trufant (2003–2012), at 5 ft 11 in, 199 lb, Trufant was drafted by the Seahawks back in 2003. Although only on the team for the Legion of Boom’s infancy he served a pivotal role in mentoring the teams young secondary from 2010–2012. He made the Pro Bowl for the Seahawks in 2007 and retired in 2013.
The 2017 backups and starters included the Seahawks 3rd round pick out of UCF Shaquill Griffin, Justin Coleman whom the Seahawks acquired over a trade with the New England Patriots, returning veteran Byron Maxwell and Bradley McDougald who was signed from free agency after leaving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Griffin and McDougald would prove to be very important players for the Seahawks defense who were without Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor.
Griffin, Coleman and McDougald have all become starters for the 2018 Seattle Seahawks season, in addition to rookie cornerback Tre Flowers. Safety Tedric Thompson, nicknamed T2, will also see an increase in play time. Without previous starters Sherman and Chancellor, this young group looks to continue the legacy of great secondary play for the Seahawks.
Backups [ edit ]
The other defensive backs on the Seahawks roster are also considered members of the Legion of Boom. Particularly following the suspensions of Brandon Browner in 2012 (four games)[23] and 2013 (suspended indefinitely, but reinstated March 4, 2014), as well of that of Sherman (which he successfully appealed in December 2012), the term "Legion of Boom" has encompassed more than just the four original starters.[6][24] At the Super Bowl parade in Seattle, Sherman called the Legion of Boom "more than the secondary, it's the linebackers, the defensive line, the entire defense."
The 2013 backups during their Super Bowl XLVIII-winning year were: Byron Maxwell (replacing injured starter Brandon Browner), Jeremy Lane, Walter Thurmond, Jeron Johnson and DeShawn Shead.
The 2014 backups during their subsequent Super Bowl XLIX year were: Jeremy Lane, Jeron Johnson, Tharold Simon, Marcus Burley, Steven Terrell and DeShawn Shead. After the 2014 season, Richard Sherman expressed his approval of two new Legion of Boom members:[25] rookie Tye Smith, and veteran Cary Williams (who was subsequently released by the Seahawks after starting 10 games in the 2015 season).[26]
Backups during the 2015 season were: DeShawn Shead, Jeremy Lane, Marcus Burley, Steven Terrell and Kelcie McCray. DeShawn Shead emerged as the starter at right cornerback.
The 2016 backups were: veterans Kelcie McCray and Steven Terrell, newcomers Dewey McDonald and Neiko Thorpe, and rookies DeAndre Elliott and Tyvis Powell. Terrell advanced to full-time starter at free safety after Earl Thomas suffered a broken leg during a game.
Linebackers [ edit ]
Defensive linemen [ edit ]
Accomplishments [ edit ]
Early success [ edit ]
Following the 2011 season, Thomas, Chancellor, and Browner were named to the 2012 Pro Bowl. Thomas also earned AP All-Pro honors. Browner tied for fourth in the NFL with six interceptions.[27] In every year thereafter, at least three members of the "Legion of Boom" have been named either AP All-Pro or voted to the Pro Bowl.
After the 2012 season, both Sherman and Thomas were named AP All-Pro. Sherman finished second in the league with eight interceptions.[28] Additionally, the team defense finished first in points allowed, and second in passing touchdowns allowed.
2013 season [ edit ]
The Legion of Boom had a banner year in 2013. In the regular season, they allowed the fewest passing yards and passing touchdowns in the league[13] while anchoring the league's best passing defense as well as overall defense. Sherman finished first in the league with eight interceptions. Seattle finished the season with the most interceptions in the NFL. Sherman and Thomas were named first-team AP All-Pro, while Chancellor was named to the second team. Sherman, Chancellor, and Thomas were also named to the 2014 Pro Bowl, but did not play due to the Seahawks playing in Super Bowl XLVIII. In their rout of the Denver Broncos, they held Peyton Manning and the record-setting Broncos offense to only eight points, intercepting Manning twice, forcing two fumbles, and playing a major part in securing the first Super Bowl championship in franchise history.
On June 6, 2014, Richard Sherman won the Madden NFL 15 cover vote against Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.[33]
During the 2014 season, the Legion of Boom helped their team reach their second straight Super Bowl, which ended in a loss to the New England Patriots, 28–24. Thomas, Chancellor, and Sherman were selected to the 2015 Pro Bowl, marking the second year in a row in which all three were named to the Pro Bowl together. Thomas and Sherman were again named first-tt 9 points and 339 yards, coming up with a last-second goal line stand to seal the victory 14–9. Sherman intercepted a pass and returned it 38 yards to set up a touchdown, and Walter Thurmond recorded a sack.
In a Week 10 revenge game against the Atlanta Falcons, Seattle allowed 10 points and |
.
Loaded voltage output is also a little off at times. When the battery is running on a full charge, it holds the loaded (with the cartomizer attached) voltage pretty close, maybe lower by.1v or so.
However, when the battery gets low on juice, the VTube has a hard time holding that voltage. Drops may be closer to.3v or more, which is fairly significant. It seems to me more an issue of the battery cutoff being set too low than anything else.
Performance is naturally relative when you’re talking variable voltage. My opinion is that it doesn’t do so good with dual coil cartomizers as I prefer them closer to 5v which exceeds the amperage limit of the device.
It does fine on higher resistance gear. I run 2Ω cartos around 4v which is a little aggressive, but does fine. Anything 3Ω or above can go all the way up to the 6v max output of the device with no complaints.
Unless you’re a die-hard dual coil fanatic (and you like ’em hot!) the VTube is a competent performer.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
Apollo rolled out it’s exclusive new VTube in stainless steel. Lavatube fans will take notice of the new, elegant design. The adjustable center pin is a clever feature, and the built-in eGo adapter is almost clever if it worked. A quick adapter fix allows the unit to look damn good sporting eGo specific cartomizers. The circuitry is the same as the original Lavatube, which is competent in most situations. You can pick one up at Apollo.
Pros:
Solid steel construction
Adjusting center pin
Attractive design
eGo cartomizers look great (adapter required)
Cons:
Adapter required for eGo cartomizers
No indication of protection circuitry activation
Voltage drops with low battery
2.5 am circuit
Details:
Product: Stainless Steel VTube
Available from: Apollo Electronic Cigarettes
Price: $104.95 (70.95 for chrome model)
Battery: 18650 or 18350 (regular or mini)
Disclosure: This device was provided for review by Apollo. I feature affiliate links for Apollo Electronic CigarettesThe Locomotive - history of the train's ALCO PA.
Why a Freedom Train? - the train's purpose in 1947 America.
Giving Wheels to the Dream - railroad equipment logistics.
Specialized Personnel - maintaining the train.
The Train's Journey Across America - statistics, milestones.
U.S. Marines: The Train's Proud Staff - their vital role.
A Precious and Unique Cargo - the train's historic contents.
More Than a Symbol: Upholding a Creed - confronting racial prejudice in 1940's America.
The Epilogue: Part 1 - Disposition of the Train's Equipment.
The Epilogue: Part 2 - Dispersal of the Train's Contents.
The Epilogue: Part 3 - A Second Freedom Train for the Bicentennial.
Text by Mr. Larry Wines.
The Freedom Train - A Memoir by Del Robb, Archivist.
Photo: Mr. Carroll Long, Pullman Conductor - 1947 Freedom Train at New Orleans.Vaginal looseness is a problem that plagues many women. It is the result of aging – as a woman matures, her body gradually decreases its production of estrogen. This hormone is responsible for keeping vaginal muscles strong and tight. Once estrogen levels start to wane, the muscles weaken and lose their elasticity. They also become thin and weak, which can dramatically change the way intercourse feels. In your particular case, you’ve experienced a loss of sensation and can no longer “feel” your husband’s penis.
Age isn’t the only culprit when it comes to vaginal looseness. Childbirth also contributes to this condition, especially when a woman has endured multiple vaginal deliveries. It’s important to know the vagina is like an accordion: it stretches to accommodate intercourse and childbirth and then “snaps” back into place. After repeatedly being stretched, however, the vagina’s tissues become fatigued. This means they’ve lost their previously youthful tension and will no longer contract back into place.
Implications on Intimacy
Right now, you probably feel your sex life is ruined. But that’s hardly the case. Society has long been programmed to think neither men nor women enjoy sex again after a woman gives birth. The reality is that all women, whether or not they’ve given birth, will experience vaginal looseness. As previously explained, this is a natural part of the aging process, and women continue to enjoy sex at all ages. The key is in how you do it.
Before intercourse, set the stage for romance with candles and soft music. Make yourself feel sexy and desirable with lingerie, silky panties or any other article of clothing – you can also opt for full nudity. Then take control and show your husband what you like. You mentioned he has never given you an orgasm. For the record, most women do not climax during vaginal penetration because the vagina is not a sex organ. Instead, females typically need clitoral stimulation. Encourage your husband to gently stroke, lick or rub your clit until you reach orgasm. This will change the way in which you perceive penetration, and it will make intercourse much more enjoyable.
Also remember that sex should be a meaningful experience. This is a time for the two of you to revel in closeness. Forget about vaginal looseness, childbirth and all the other worries that afflict your daily life. Live in the moment and, again, communicate to your husband what feels good. You never know - a change in technique might be the perfect solution to combatting vaginal looseness.
Explore New Sexual Techniques and Forego Surgery
When it comes to technique, keep in mind that what felt good to you 10 years ago may no longer bring the same pleasure. A woman’s body changes with time, just as a man’s does. The two of you probably need to try some new positions in bed. Skip the missionary, which “opens” the vagina to its widest, and try sex from behind or with you on top. This will help your vagina feel snugger during intercourse.In the end, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty would have been hard-pressed to find a black storefront preacher to provide him with political cover from the towering shadow of Tamir Rice.
On Tuesday, his stunning lack of appeal to African-American voters cost him his job.
A voting analysis of the prosecutor's contest by Rich Exner of Cleveland.com shows the deep degree of black antipathy toward McGinty. In Cuyahoga County, 282 precincts have black voting-age majorities. McGinty lost every single one of those precincts -- and lost badly.
While McGinty, a first-term incumbent, was able to eke out a paper-thin victory in the white majority precincts over challenger Michael O'Malley -- 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent -- black voters countywide threw 70 percent of their support to O'Malley.
The result was a bloodletting: O'Malley, a former Cleveland councilman and assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, won the election 55 percent to 44 percent.
It's doubtful that McGinty saw this drubbing coming until it was too late. But he should have. By the time Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and a collection of prominent black clergy members endorsed O'Malley, a virtual unknown in the black community, McGinty had already alienated far too many influential blacks.
Fudge and powerful clergy members chafed at his handling of the grand jury proceedings that determined whether two officers involved in the 2013 shooting of Tamir would be indicted. The officers were not indicted.
Still others took umbrage at McGinty's ill-revised remark that the Rice family and legal team were exploiting the boy's death for financial gain. Some question why he chose to prosecute the case in the first place, rather than bringing in an outside prosecutor.
These concerns would have been substantial enough to weaken even a strong candidate with lasting ties to the African-American community, which McGinty did not possess. But when you throw in a certain tone deafness and perceived aloofness, which he routinely exhibits, a spirited primary election challenge to his office became predictable.
Ultimately, despite his tenaciousness -- often criticized as a personality defect -- McGinty did get important work done. Those efforts could have been more heavily promoted in African-American communities.
His dogged handling of more than 4,700 rape kits that went untested for decades in the evidence rooms of Cleveland and surrounding area police departments resulted in the indictments and convictions of scores of rapists who had long gone undetected.
Working in cooperation with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department and Cleveland police, hundreds of violent rapists have been identified by their DNA and taken off the street.
And here's the rub: most of the rape victims were poor, black, drug-addicted and/or mentally ill women. The evidence of their assaults routinely went untested for years in evidence rooms, while their attackers continued on.
Few cared for these women. Even fewer fought for them. McGinty went after the rapists with a vengeance.
But even the campaign commercial he aired in the weeks leading up to his defeat missed an opportunity to connect with African-American communities. The commercial featured a white rape victim, whose case his office had solved. Important mileage could have also been gained, however, if he had also featured some of the black survivors who, ironically, came from the same communities that overwhelmingly voted to toss him from office.
So, given that no Republican or Independent candidate filed in the race, what is the mandate for Michael O'Malley, who will be Cuyahoga County's next prosecutor?
How will he reform the office to respond to the concerns of African-American voters who swept him into the job?
It's far from crystal clear. The alliances are new and untested.
At a January meeting where O'Malley eagerly sought the endorsement of a group of black pastors, Bishop Eugene Ward Jr., pastor of Greater Love Missionary Full Gospel Baptist Church, offered what could prove to be the local election quote of the year:
"Do I pick the witch or the devil," he asked about the decision to choose between McGinty and O'Malley.
He then answered his own question.
"We're going with the devil you don't know."
Ward was keeping it painfully honest. He has more than a passing familiarity with the prosecutor. McGinty successfully prosecuted the pastor's son, Aric Ward, last summer.
Aric, 17, was sentenced to six years in prison for shooting and wounding a man who had testified against the Heartless Felons in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court.
So how will an O'Malley office be run?
I suppose the devil is in the details.CARTERSVILLE, Ga. - The Anheuser-Busch Brewery stopped canning beer this week to can drinking water to ship to areas hard hit by Hurricane Harvey.
A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch said more than 50,000 cans of emergency drinking water were packed up to be sent to Baton Rouge and on to families who may not have safe drinking water in the storm's aftermath.
The water will be used at Red Cross shelters and distributed by volunteers.
“Throughout the year, we periodically pause beer production at our Cartersville, Georgia brewery to produce emergency canned drinking water so we are ready to help out communities across the country in times of crisis. Putting our production and logistics strengths to work by providing safe, clean drinking water is the best way we can help in these situations,” Sarah Schilling, Brewmaster, Anheuser-Busch Cartersville Brewery was quoted as saying in a statement sent to FOX 5 News.
Anheuser-Busch provided video and photos to FOX 5 News of the operation.
In the past few years, the Cartersville plant has canned water for flooding victims in Texas and Oklahoma, victims of Hurricane Matthew along the Florida and Georgia coasts, firefighters working wildfires in Washington state, and those devastated by Hurricane Sandy."First step is foundation. I'm using a shade called 'rhetoric' by 'condescending politician.' It feels so good to be slapped in the face with rhetoric by a condescending politician. I love how valid I feel right now."
Megan MacKay, the comedian behind the powerful Ray Rice-inspired makeup tutorial, is now using her mad beautification skills to tackle politics -- specifically how important it is for women to get out and vote.
In her latest video, MacKay brings up some of the issues at stake during the midterm elections, like access to safe abortion and contraception, and equal pay, reminding us why who we vote into office really, really matters.
"I'm sealing my foundation in today with a pressed powder called 'not a doctor,'" MacKay explains. "So wherever you applied 'condescending politician,' add a light dusting of 'not a doctor' and remind yourself that some politicians frequently make medically inaccurate assumptions about your body's needs."
In the end, she perfectly sums up just why the Beyoncé Voters demo -- and all women -- should ignore the haters and exercise their democratic right.
"For lips, I'm using my favorite shade, Independent Woman. Because b*tch, Beyonce outearned her husband last year. She doesn't need to rely on anybody, and she asks for what she wants... On voting day, don't let other people speak for you."They’re back! Around this time last year, we investigated the sudden disappearance of Morningstar Farms’ delicious vegetarian corn dogs and hot dogs from grocery shelves. Consumers seem to care very deeply about this product. We’re happy to report that the corn dogs, at least, are back on the Morningstar Farms website, and a reader has spotted them in the wild.
Catastrophegirl sent us these photos, noting: “Apparently they are popular, since they were almost all gone.” This creates a mental picture of local vegetarians buying armfuls of boxes, then going home to spend the evening in a corn dog-eating frenzy.
The site tells me that the only retailer carrying the full-size corn dogs near me are suburban Walmarts, and no one carries the mini dogs locally. Have any of this product’s fans found and taste-tested the new version? What did you think?
Morningstar Farms® Veggie Corn Dogs [Morningstar Farms]The Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) resume contract discussions today following a two-week hiatus that was initiated after WGA rejected an AMPTP offer.
The ominous possibility of a WGA strike could drain millions of dollars of revenue from the industry, which has seen tremendous growth in the years since the 2007-2008 WGA strike—though members of the WGA say they aren’t receiving a fair cut.
"Writers have seen their fees go down by 23%," said Chris Keyser, co-chair of the WGA negotiating committee, Fox News reported. "For the last five or so years … the companies have seen a boom from the growth in TV. There's been an ability to reach a huge number of people around the world at any time. "
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It’s possible that companies such as Lionsgate, CBS, Viacom and others could be seriously affected by an industry shutdown if the WGA approves a writers’ strike, Deadline reported in February. The companies have huge amounts of money invested in these entertainment selections, and though a potential strike would come in May, when broadcasters are on a break, there are still multiple series that are scheduled be in production at that time.
Fox News reported that Netflix’s "Marvel" dramas and the comedy “One Day at a Time,” HBO’s “Divorce,” CBS All Access’ “Star Trek: Discovery,” and “American Horror Story” from FX, owned by 21st Century Fox, would all be immediately affected if writers refused to work in the middle of production.
Production studios, cable companies, broadcast networks and internet-based television and movie services brought in more than $50 billion last year combined, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. There are more television show series today than ever before: 455 this season compared to less than half that number six years ago. But current series typically air fewer episodes than previous series did, meaning that writers’ pay is stretched farther.
"Two-thirds of all shows, including some on broadcast, are produced with fewer episodes, but we're still paid episodic fees," Keyser told the AP. "I, for example, have a show on Amazon. And I will work for about the same amount of time as I used to work, almost a year, for eight episodic fees. So I am working for a fraction of what I used to work for, even though the companies are making double what they used to make—and I am not alone."
The WGA will poll its more than 20,000 members on Monday for a strike authorization. The current Minimum Basic Agreement between the WGA and the AMPTP expires on May 1.Yesterday I suggested that Attorney General Sessions was nervous and defensive during his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He did nothing to bolster confidence in himself or this administration. Most of the reaction will be to Sessions’s bizarre invoking of what we might call “preemptive executive privilege” to avoid answering questions..
Sessions seems to invoke pre-emptive executive privilege – saying he can't comment on convos w/ Trump unless Trump approves questions. — Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) June 13, 2017
Yvette Cabrera has a good rundown on that.
I’d like to focus more narrowly on the various statements Sessions made about Russia. First of all, on a couple of occasions, he emphasized the seriousness of the probe into whether or not they attempted to influence the election. But then, there was this exchange:
King: "Do you think Russians interfered with 2016 election?"
Sessions: "Appears so."
King: "But you never asked about it?"
Sessions: "No." — Roger Simon (@politicoroger) June 13, 2017
Sessions went farther than that and said that during his tenure as attorney general he has never been briefed on Russia’s interference in our election.
The attorney general of the United States just said he's never been briefed on Russian interference in the 2016 election — Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) June 13, 2017
Here’s the headscratcher in response to some questions from Senator McCain:
Sessions said he's more concerned about computer hacking … after earlier saying he hasn't had one briefing on Russia's election hacking — Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) June 13, 2017
I’m not sure what to make of that. It could be simple incompetence. But it might also be that his protestations of concern are merely scripted and—like Trump—he isn’t curious because he knows who is guilty.
But here’s the real kicker that came during a rather contentious exchange with Senator Harris, who asked him if he had meetings with Russian officials other than the ones that have been reported:
Sessions (who's never been briefed on Russian interference): "Really a tragic strategic event" the US doesn't get along better w/ Russia. pic.twitter.com/KQTWVdrOj8 — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 13, 2017
In a hearing before a committee that is looking into how the Russians tried to interfere in our election and whether or not the administration he works for cooperated with them in that attempt, Sessions alluded to conversations with Russian officials about “whether or not Russia and the United States could get on a more harmonious relationship and move off the hostility.” He went on to say that since the Cold War is over, it is “really a tragic strategic event” that we’re not able to get along better with Russia. Given the circumstances and context, that is an explosive statement. But it comes right out of the playbook we’ve been hearing from Trump for months now.
I was particularly interested in this because I had previously written about the fact that, prior to joining the Trump campaign, Sessions was right up there with Senators like McCain and Graham in his hawkishness on Russia. Within weeks of signing up, he did a complete 180 degree pivot about that.
My point is that there was no consistent logic to anything Sessions said yesterday about Russia. To me, that signals that he is lying and didn’t even have the wherewithal to get his story straight. In that, he seems to be a perfect foot solder for a president who demonstrates regularly that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about amidst a penchant for lying.Stephen Harper’s long-time close adviser, Ray Novak, knew from the outset about a plan by former chief of staff Nigel Wright to secretly pay $90,000 to cover Sen. Mike Duffy’s controversial Senate expenses, it was alleged at Duffy’s trial Tuesday.
Novak, through a Conservative Party spokesman, has denied knowing about the payment before it became general public knowledge. Harper has also repeatedly said he himself was unaware of the payment, and fired Wright when he found out about it.
Novak was Harper’s chief of staff before the election campaign and is now travelling with the Conservative leader.
The allegation that Novak knew of the payment – and the potential political embarrassment this carries for the Conservatives – is contained in a statement made to police by Harper’s former legal adviser, Ben Perrin.
It was read into the court record by defence lawyer Donald Bayne at Duffy’s trial on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
Harper, in the throes of a campaign, now faces a political dilemma. Wright left the Prime Minister’s Office in 2013 because he had kept details of the $90,000 payment from his boss. The new allegation is that Novak, likely his closest confidant, did the same thing.
Asked about the testimony late Tuesday, a Harper spokesman Stephen Lecce stuck to the message Harper has been giving for days.
“The Prime Minister told Mr. Duffy to repay his expenses. The Prime Minister was told Mr. Duffy had repaid those expenses. When the Prime Minister learned that was not true, he made that information public. There are two individuals responsible for this matter – Mr. Wright and Mr. Duffy – and they are being held accountable,” Lecce said in an emailed statement.
As of Tuesday, Perrin’s statement about who knew what was not evidence. However, he will be testifying next at the trial, when Wright, currently in his fourth day of cross-examination, completes his testimony.
Defence lawyer Bayne read out an interview conducted by the RCMP with Perrin in February 2014. In it, Perrin told the RCMP investigator that it was “black and white” that Novak had been told Wright would foot the $90,000 bill for Duffy’s contested expenses.
“I believe that Ray Novak was in the room at that time,” Perrin said in the transcript that Bayne read out.
“ … The people who from my own personal knowledge knew about this was (sic) obviously, Nigel Wright, Ray Novak, we’ve gone through that, and David van Hemmen, Nigel Wright’s assistant.”
Though Wright left the PMO more than two years ago, he told the trial that he is still in contact with Novak and, pressed by Bayne, said he last communicated via BBM with him about two weeks ago
No record remains of the conversation, said Wright. Bayne did not ask what the two men discussed.
Wright himself testified Tuesday that he knew there was a chance his $90,000 personal payment to cover Duffy’s Senate expenses might not remain a secret, but said he didn’t expect the public impact to be as great as it became.
“My view was when I decided to write the cheque myself that it could well become known and if that were to be the case it would be embarrassing,” he said. “But I had no concept of the impact it would have or the connotations that would be put on it.”
Wright has testified that he paid Duffy’s bill in an act of altruism and wanted it kept secret in accordance with the teachings of the Bible.
(Duffy’s tab was originally to be paid out of the taxpayer-supported Conservative Fund but the controllers of the fund apparently balked when the bill suddenly rose from about $32,000 to $90,000. The fund did, however, pay a $14,000 legal bill for the senator).
Wright’s “biblical” explanation was met with skepticism by Bayne, who says the cheque from the independently wealthy Wright was nothing more than part of an elaborate political damage control strategy concocted by Harper’s senior aides.
Wright, 52, spent much of his testimony Tuesday sparring with Bayne over his role in a confidential Senate-ordered audit of Duffy’s expenses. Bayne accuses Wright of attempting to influence the outcome of the audit and ignoring its highly sensitive nature.
Bayne also reacted skeptically to Wright’s claim that he didn’t anticipate the public furore over his apparent gift to Duffy.
“You had no concept?” asked the lawyer. “The chief of staff in the prime minister’s office whose job is damage control and you had no concept? Are you walking around in a cloud?”
“I got that one wrong,” responded Wright.
Wright has already testified that he and his small group of senior Harper staffers – Perrin, Novak, Chris Woodcock and Patrick Rogers – had reached a secret deal with Duffy whereby he would tell the public he would pay back the expenses (though Wright would secretly do it for him) and publicly admit a mistake in exchange for not being part of an independent audit by the firm Deloitte.
But, in Bayne’s words, “the wheels came off” the deal when Conservative Senate leadership subsequently asked Deloitte to specifically include the former TV reporter in its audit.
Duffy went on Prince Edward Island television in late February 2013 with a PMO orchestrated script to admit he had “mistakenly” claimed his Cavendish, P.E.I., cottage as his primary residence while collecting “secondary residence” expenses for his main Kanata home.
But a month later, with Wright’s part of the deal still unfulfilled, Bayne alleges that Harper’s right-hand man ignored the “highly confidential nature” of the audit, called influential Conservative Sen. Irving Gerstein for help and began trying to influence its outcome.
Wright denies the allegation and says he called Gerstein only to open channels of communication with senior Conservative senators.
According to Bayne, Gerstein contacted a senior source inside Deloitte but the approaches were apparently rebuffed by the auditor working on the file.
Despite that, the PMO was able to get advance notice that the audit would not address the Duffy residence issue because the auditors didn’t have the information they needed.
That, says Bayne, was due to Duffy and his lawyer, Janice Payne, having been discouraged by Wright and his team from giving Deloitte the information.
– With a file from the Canadian Press.GroupMe — the free and simple way to stay in touch with friends and family, quickly and easily. Organize a night out, keep in touch with friends and family, plan your events, or coordinate with coworkers — all in the same place. GroupMe works on Windows, iOS, Android, and the web, so you can stay in touch on the go. Even your friends without smartphones can join - add anyone from your phone book and they can jump right in and chat with the group. GroupMe — for all the groups in your life “Lifechanger… utterly indispensable” — Gizmodo • START CHATTING FOR FREE It’s simple to add anyone to a group using their phone number or their email address. If they're new to GroupMe, there’s no need to download right away — they can start chatting over SMS immediately. • INTEGRATED WITH WINDOWS View your groups right in the People app, and you can reply to messages fast with interactive notifications. Share photos and links with your groups from other apps. • YOU’RE IN CHARGE Choose when and what type of notifications you receive. @Mentions help you find messages specifically for you, and you can mute or snooze a chat if it gets too noisy. • THERE’S NO END TO THE FUN Meme images, find and share GIFs and videos, all right from GroupMe. Go ahead – fall in love with our exclusive emoji. • COORDINATE EASILY Create and share events with your groups. See who's coming and who has liked your messages. • CHAT WHEREVER, WHENEVER It doesn’t matter if you’re on a computer, at home or out and about — you can stay in touch easily on smartphone or tablet. Whether you’re in class or at the office, GroupMe lets you stay in touch with your favorite people and makes sure you never miss a thing. Get your group together with GroupMe today! We want to hear your feedback. Email: support@groupme.com Twitter: @GroupMe Facebook: facebook.com/groupme NOTE: SMS chat currently available in the US only. Standard text messaging rates may apply. Privacy Policy: https://groupme.com/privacy Made with love in New YorkLOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Southern California family spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about their child transitioning from a boy to a girl.
“I felt like I was an actor in a TV show playing a character except it was 24/7 and there was no escape,” Lily Rubenstein, who was born a boy, told CBS2’s Kristine Lazar.
“I’ll never forget it. She was shaking uncontrollably and just said, ‘Mom, you need to come sit down on the couch with me. I have something to tell you,’ ” Britt Rubenstein, her mother, said.
Lily came out to her family as transgender when she was 12.
“She said, ‘I feel like a girl inside and I want to start dressing like a girl and this is who I am,’ ” Rubenstein said.
Lily’s parents were blindsided because they say their daughter had never showed signs that she wasn’t happy being a boy.
But right around puberty something changed in their once easy-going child who was depressed and struggling at school.
“We started to see this steady decline in our child,” Rubenstein said.
Lily, with the support of her family, decided to make the transition to a girl.
“It’s not really a decision to transition. It’s necessary. I could no longer go on as my former self,” she said.
Lily has been receiving hormone therapy and blockers to stop puberty at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which is home to the largest clinic for transgender youth in the nation.
“The trans-experience has been happening since the human experience started,” said Johanna Olson, an adolescent medicine physician.
Olson treats more than 400 trans-youth, the youngest of which is 4.
“Kids do roll through a lot of things as they go through identity formation but our gender is a core part of who we are and we actually all know what our gender is and have pretty solid gender identity by the age of 3 or 4 years old,” Olson said.
Lily just this year told her classmates at her new school, where she has only been known as a girl, that she is transgender. She read a poem aloud in class.
“I wrote about the good times. I wrote about the bad times or about the stressful times. I wrote about the really awesome times. And I wrote in there about friends that have left me because of this,” she said.
The high school freshman has never spoken publicly before but her hope is that, in doing so, she can inspire other transgender youth.
“Looking back on when I wasn’t happy, I was always thinking about the present. And now that I’m happy, I’m always thinking about the future and I think it’s a great thing to be able to do that,” she said.
The Rubenstein family gave their neighbors a letter telling them their daughter was transgender and say they’ve received nothing but kindness.This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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Samuel Armstrong was accused of attacking the woman in the office of his boss, the Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay, last year.
The jury heard that after the attack, the woman fled through the Palace of Westminster before asking a cleaner to call police.
During cross-examination, the woman denied the defence’s suggestion that she had consented to having sex with the aide, then changed her mind.
Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said: “On a night in the autumn of last year, this defendant abused his position – his position as someone newly in charge of other people. And, after an evening drinking at his workplace … [he] took advantage of her.”
Armstrong was charged with two counts of sexual assault and two of rape. “Each of those charges reflects things that happened to her – that he did to her,” Heywood told Southwark crown court in London.
The jury was played a recording of a police interview with the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in which she described the attack.
She told an officer she froze after Armstrong started to kiss her. She said she explicitly declined an invitation to go back to Armstrong’s flat, but he undressed her and raped and sexually assaulted her.
She said he told her “this is what you want”, which made her feel there was an “inevitability” that they would have sex, despite her not wanting to.
The court heard the pair had been drinking in the Sports and Social bar in the Houses of Parliament and, at one point in the night, Armstrong took her to the roof garden terrace so she could hear Big Ben chime. Later, the jury heard they went with two other people to the Lords’ offices, before Armstrong and the woman headed alone to Mackinlay’s office.
CCTV footage shown to the jury showed them in Westminster Hall. The prosecution said: “It is obvious that the mood between them was light-hearted and playful.”
Once inside Mackinlay’s office, “it began to go wrong”, Heywood said. “The defendant took gross advantage of the situation and of her obvious and open friendliness towards him.”
Armstrong became insistent and determined, the prosecutor continued. “As he knew perfectly well, he had her [at] a very distinct disadvantage. His manner was now changed. He repeatedly called her a ‘bitch’,” he said.
CCTV footage from later in the evening was also shown to the jury, and the prosecution said it showed the woman “moving in an agitated way, neither relaxed nor at all happy … her steps are purposeful; she looks around herself and behind her at times, and her step breaks into a little run from time to time”.
Questioned later in the proceedings by Sarah Forshaw QC, for the defence, the woman denied having begun to find Armstrong attractive as a result of being “disinhibited by drink” and having a “fascination with parliament”.
She agreed that he had been “sweet” towards her in the time they had known each other, but denied that her distress that night was due to her having got lost in the parliament buildings after leaving Mackinlay’s office. “I couldn’t find a way out and I was, absolutely, crying, because a man had forced himself upon me,” she told the jury.
Forshaw suggested the sex between the pair had been consensual. “[It is] 2am and you can’t find a way out and you get more and more anxious and you have been with Samuel Armstrong until 2am. You have got to go home and you have told your boyfriend you wouldn’t be out late,” she said.
“I am going to suggest to you that that is when you decided that you had not wanted what had happened in the office.”
The woman denied the suggestion. Armstrong denies the charges. The trial continues.Choosing between dessert and cheese at the end of a meal is one of life's most difficult dilemmas. Sweet or savory? Sugary or salty? There's never a wrong move, because you can't go wrong with cheese or dessert. But what if there were a better option? What if you didn't have to choose between the two at all? What if you could have them both -- at the same time? But of course! From now on, do the right thing and order cheese with your dessert.
Cheese and dessert pairings are almost better than cheese and wine pairings. If you have the right cheese and the right dessert, the contrasting flavors complement each other so well you'll never want to eat one without the other again. You've probably heard of apple pie and cheddar cheese, but that's just the beginning of cheese and dessert pairings.
We reached out to the experts -- cheesemongers and owners of some of our favorite cheese shops -- to hear the different cheese and dessert combinations they suggest. We heard from Andrew Torren, one of the cheesemakers at Beecher's Handmade Cheese. Torren also leads Beecher's cheese pairing classes in New York, so he knows a thing or two about the subject. We also heard from Charlotte Kamin, owner of Bedford Cheese Shop, and Katie Falconer, the cheese buyer at Stinky Bklyn.
Take it from them: some desserts are practically meant to be eaten with cheese, and vice versa. Here are 12 winning cheese and dessert pairings, recommended by the the pros:
1 Blue Cheese With Black Forest Cake Carlos Gawronski via Getty Images/TorriPhoto via Getty Images Torren of Beecher's Handmade Cheese recommends Arethusa Blue from Arethusa Farm & Dairy in Bantam, Connecticut. As he explains, it's "a perfect pairing of like with like. Both have a delicate balance of chocolate with bright fruit tones. The bold spiciness of the blue cheese helps to cut through the richness of the chocolate cake." 2 Cheddar Or Gruyere With Lemon Tart J Shepherd via Getty Images David Murray/Jules Selmes via Getty Images Everyone knows that cheddar goes well with apple pie, but have you ever thought to put |
economists studying the implementation of artificial intelligence.
“The amount of money and industrial energy that has been put into accelerating AI code has meant that there hasn’t been as much energy put into thinking about social, economic, ethical frameworks for these systems,” Crawford tells Quartz. “We think there’s a very urgent need for this to happen faster.”
AI Now released a report last month that outlined many of the issues the institute’s researchers will explore more fully. Initially, the founders plan to hire somewhat fewer than 100 researchers.
The organization’s advisory board includes California supreme court justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill, and former White House CTO Nicole Wong. Other board members are Cynthia Dwork, the creator of differential privacy—an idea that has become a standard for protecting individuals’ data in a large database, and Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of DeepMind.
The institute will be based at New York University, where many academics studied the artificial neural networks responsible for today’s AI boom. AI Now is partnered with eight NYU schools, including the NYU School of Law and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
AI Now will focus on four major themes:
Bias and inclusion (how can bad data disadvantage people) Labor and automation (who doesn’t get hired when AI chooses) Rights and liberties (how does government use of AI impact the way it interacts with citizens) Safety and critical infrastructure (how can we make sure healthcare decisions are made safely and without bias)
Crawford and Whittaker have worked for years on such issues within Google and Microsoft. One barrier to creating solutions to AI’s societal issues is the lack of a shared language between those who build AI and those studying its implications and affects.
“Part of what we’re doing is talking to the people who build the systems about the real practices and processes around this. Where are the assumptions?” says Whittaker. “And what don’t you know, that you would want to know, if you were going to do this in a way that you felt was responsible?”The 160,023 convicts transported to the Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868 left leg-irons and chains a’plenty, but surprisingly little in the way of clothing. Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum has a jacket and there are just three of the striped cotton shirts that we know the convicts wore.
Were it not for a strange folk magic ritual, unknown and unsuspected until recently, the number of surviving convict garments would be sparse indeed. The three examples survived because they were carefully concealed within the walls of houses or barracks.
The concealment of the convict shirts and many other objects throughout Australia is part of my PhD thesis, the result of six year’s work in which I located and photographed deliberately concealed objects in old houses and buildings throughout Australia.
But why conceal a shirt in a wall?
Two of the surviving convict shirts were discovered within the structure of Sydney’s Hyde Park Barracks in 1980, found by tradesmen involved in preparing the building for its current use as a heritage flagship for the Historic Houses Trust – or, as it now prefers to be known, Sydney Living Museums.
A third shirt came from inside a wall at a former convict supervisor’s residence at Granton, north of Hobart. This garment, now in the collection of the National Museum of Australia, was found in a wall cavity adjacent to a fireplace. It was probably placed there while the house was being constructed in 1830.
The house was part of a major project to build a causeway across the Derwent River to enable easier access to farms and settlements in the Midlands. Some 200 convicts, under heavy guard and in chains, were employed on the construction of the causeway.
Many objects have been found at Woodbury, near Oatlands, Tasmania Ian Evans, Author provided
The practice of concealing garments, shoes, toys, trinkets and dead cats in houses and other buildings can be traced back to Britain - where it dates back to the 1400s and probably earlier than that. Settlers and convicts carried this ritual to Australia and North America as part of their cultural baggage.
Young woman’s boot, from Woodbury, north of Oatlands, Tasmania Ian Evans, Author provided
The journey of this ritual to the United States, England and Australia forms the focus of a book edited by English historian Ronald Hutton, titled Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain to be published by Macmillan in England this year.
It takes up where projects such as the Deliberately Concealed Garments Project, established by the The Textile Conservation Centre in the UK, leave off. Where the DCG catalogues discovered objects and academic writing on the topic in Britain, titles such as M. Chris Manning’s The Material Culture of Ritual Concealments in the United States (2014) examine the practice in the US.
So why bury garments, shoes and cats in wall cavities? The purpose of these mundane objects was to decoy evil spiritual forces away from the people who lived and worked in houses and other buildings.
According to folk magic belief of the time, a host of evil beings occupied an invisible realm that intersected and flowed through the world in which we humans live. Inspired and encouraged by the Devil, they sought to do humans grave harm.
At a time when there was little understanding of the way in which the world worked and when science was struggling out of its swaddling clothes, such ideas were widely accepted. So, to distract these otherworldly and malevolent beings from their real targets - actual people - old shoes and tattered clothing were concealed under floorboards, behind fireplaces and in ceilings.
Marrickville cat Ian Evans, Author provided
Why cats? A couple of theories: cats were thought to be associated with witches. And their habit of prowling about in the dark did their reputation no good at all. So, bad cat? Perhaps, but cats also guarded a house against vermin. Sent into the other world where they stood guard against spiritual vermin? Good cat? Perhaps.
But why has this only just been discovered? One explanation is the lack of contemporary documentation about the phenomenon. Historians tend to follow the paper trail, researching in documents held in libraries and archives. So, our history has been written from the documentary record.
Australia’s largest cache, from Woodbury, north of Oatlands, Tasmania Ian Evans, Author provided
The ritual I describe here did not leave a trace in the archives or in books. There are no references to it in journals, memoirs or letters. It appears to have been conducted in the utmost secrecy.
The only evidence is in the form of battered old boots and shoes, tattered garments, scatters of childrens’ toys and trinkets and the bodies of long-dead cats. And these were tucked away in building voids which mostly held their secrets until houses were renovated or demolished.
In some six years of research I’ve travelled throughout New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia and inspected numerous sites where concealed objects have been found.
I began the search by asking members of heritage advisors' mailing lists in NSW and Victoria if they knew of objects found in unusual places in houses and other buildings. It soon became apparent discoveries of such objects were common: reports of concealed shoes came in from cities, towns and rural areas throughout the country. Cats and garments were less common but there were enough to substantiate their inclusion in a national catalogue of concealed objects.
The stables at Shene, Tasmania. Ian Evans, Author provided
Patterns started to appear: the shoes of children and adolescents outnumbered those of adults. My theory on these is that the goodness and innocence of childhood had been harnessed to combat evil.
I then began to look for evil-averting marks or apotropeia. I found the first of these in the great stables at Shene, north of Hobart. Scratched into the sandstone margin of a window was one of the marks commonly found in England: a hexafoil. Apotropaic marks are commonly employed on points of access to a building: adjacent to windows or doors, on the lintel of fireplaces or in the roof cavity. I’m still finding these.
What can old shoes and dead cats tell us about Australia’s convict past? Ian Evans, Author provided
The lesson from this is that history exists as much as it does in objects as it does in the written record. The objects in this case, though mute, have an important story to tell – a story of the hopes and fears of Australians in the formative years of our country.
This is the tip of this story’s iceberg. If you’re curious, you can read more about it here.
Featured image: Convict Shirt, National Museum of Australia Ian Evans, Author provided
The article ‘ These walls can talk: Australian history preserved by folk magic ’ by Ian Evans was originally published on The Conversation and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.
By Ancient-OriginsThe STE||AR Group is proud to announce the sixth formal release of HPX (V0.9.6). We would like to thank everyone for their time and dedication which continues to push HPX to the edge of parallel computation.
HPX (High Performance ParalleX) provides a unified programming model for parallel and distributed applications of any scale. It is the first freely available, open source, feature-complete, modular, and performance oriented implementation of the ParalleX execution model. HPX is a general purpose C++ runtime system for applications targeted at conventional, widely available architectures.
With the changes below, HPX is leading the charge of a whole new era of computation. By intrinsically breaking down and synchronizing the work to be done, HPX insures that application developers will no longer have to fret about where a segment of code executes. HPX allows coders to focus their time and energy to understanding the data dependencies of their algorithms and thereby the core obstacles to an efficient code. Here are some of the advantages of using HPX:
HPX exposes an API equivalent to the facilities as standardized by C++11/14 extended to distributed computing. Everything programmers know about primitives in the standard C++ library is still valid in the context of HPX.
There is no need for the programmer to worry about lower level parallelization paradigms like threads or message passing; no need to understand pthreads, MPI, OpenMP, or Windows threads, etc.
There is no need to think about different types of parallelism such as tasks, pipelines, or fork-join, task or data parallelism.
The same source of your program compiles and runs on Linux, MacOS, Windows, and Android.
The same code runs on shared memory multi-core systems and supercomputers, on handheld devices and Xeon-Phi accelerators, or a heterogeneous mix of those.
In this release we have made several significant changes:
Consolidated API to be aligned with the C++11 (and the future C++14) Standard
Implemented a distributed version of our Active Global Address Space (AGAS)
Ported HPX to the Xeon-Phi device
Added support for the SLURM scheduling system
Improved the performance counter framework
Added parcel (message) compression and parcel coalescing systems
Allow different scheduling polices for different parts of code with experimental executors API
Added experimental security support on the locality level
Created a native transport layer on top of Infiniband networks
Created a native transport layer on top of low level MPI functions
Added an experimental tuple-space object
We hope you will try out V0.9.6 and begin to contemplate where HPX can take your applications to the next level.
You can download the release here, or get HPX directly from GitHub. If you have suggestions, questions, or ideas we would love to hear from you. You can find us at our website, reach us at hpx-users@stellar.cct.lsu.edu, or chat with us live on IRC in the #ste||ar chat room on Freenode.
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This article is about the country. For other uses, see Gabon (disambiguation)
Gabon (; French pronunciation: [ɡabɔ̃]), officially the Gabonese Republic (French: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, Gabon is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of nearly 270,000 square kilometres (100,000 sq mi) and its population is estimated at 2 million people. Its capital and largest city is Libreville.
Since its independence from France in 1960, the sovereign state of Gabon has had three presidents. In the early 1990s, Gabon introduced a multi-party system and a new democratic constitution that allowed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed many governmental institutions.
Abundant petroleum and foreign private investment have helped make Gabon one of the most prosperous countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the 7th highest HDI[4] and the fourth highest GDP per capita (PPP) (after Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea and Seychelles) in the region. GDP grew by more than 6% per year from 2010 to 2012. However, because of inequality in income distribution, a significant proportion of the population remains poor.
Etymology [ edit ]
Gabon's name originates from gabão, Portuguese for "cloak", which is roughly the shape of the estuary of the Komo River by Libreville.
History [ edit ]
The earliest inhabitants of the area were Pygmy peoples. They were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes as they migrated.
In the 15th century, the first Europeans arrived. By the 18th century, a Myeni speaking kingdom known as Orungu formed in Gabon.
On February 10, 1722, Bartholomew Roberts, a Welsh pirate known as Black Bart, died at sea off Cape Lopez. He raided ships off the Americas and West Africa from 1719 to 1722.
French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza led his first mission to the Gabon-Congo area in 1875. He founded the town of Franceville, and was later colonial governor. Several Bantu groups lived in the area that is now Gabon when France officially occupied it in 1885.
In 1910, Gabon became one of the four territories of French Equatorial Africa,[5] a federation that survived until 1959. In World War II, the Allies invaded Gabon in order to overthrow the pro-Vichy France colonial administration. The territories of French Equatorial Africa became independent on August 17, 1960. The first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon M'ba, with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president.
After M'ba's accession to power, the press was suppressed, political demonstrations banned, freedom of expression curtailed, other political parties gradually excluded from power, and the Constitution changed along French lines to vest power in the Presidency, a post that M'ba assumed himself. However, when M'ba dissolved the National Assembly in January 1964 to institute one-party rule, an army coup sought to oust him from power and restore parliamentary democracy. French paratroopers flew in within 24 hours to restore M'ba to power.
After a few days of fighting, the coup ended and the opposition was imprisoned, despite widespread protests and riots. French soldiers still remain in the Camp de Gaulle on the outskirts of Gabon's capital to this day. When M'Ba died in 1967, Bongo replaced him as president.
In March 1968, Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state by dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party—the Parti Democratique Gabonais (PDG). He invited all Gabonese, regardless of previous political affiliation, to participate. Bongo sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government's development policies, using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that had divided Gabonese politics in the past. Bongo was elected President in February 1975; in April 1975, the position of vice president was abolished and replaced by the position of prime minister, who had no right to automatic succession. Bongo was re-elected President in both December 1979 and November 1986 to 7-year terms.[6]
In early 1990 economic discontent and a desire for political liberalization provoked violent demonstrations and strikes by students and workers. In response to grievances by workers, Bongo negotiated with them on a sector-by-sector basis, making significant wage concessions. In addition, he promised to open up the PDG and to organize a national political conference in March–April 1990 to discuss Gabon's future political system. The PDG and 74 political organizations attended the conference. Participants essentially divided into two loose coalitions, the ruling PDG and its allies, and the United Front of Opposition Associations and Parties, consisting of the breakaway Morena Fundamental and the Gabonese Progress Party.[6]
The April 1990 conference approved sweeping political reforms, including creation of a national Senate, decentralization of the budgetary process, freedom of assembly and press, and cancellation of an exit visa requirement. In an attempt to guide the political system's transformation to multiparty democracy, Bongo resigned as PDG chairman and created a transitional government headed by a new Prime Minister, Casimir Oye-Mba. The Gabonese Social Democratic Grouping (RSDG), as the resulting government was called, was smaller than the previous government and included representatives from several opposition parties in its cabinet. The RSDG drafted a provisional constitution in May 1990 that provided a basic bill of rights and an independent judiciary but retained strong executive powers for the president. After further review by a constitutional committee and the National Assembly, this document came into force in March 1991.[6]
Opposition to the PDG continued after the April 1990 conference, however, and in September 1990, two coup d'état attempts were uncovered and aborted. Despite anti-government demonstrations after the untimely death of an opposition leader, the first multiparty National Assembly elections in almost 30 years took place in September–October 1990, with the PDG garnering a large majority.[6]
Following President Omar Bongo's re-election in December 1993 with 51% of the vote, opposition candidates refused to validate the election results. Serious civil disturbances and violent repression led to an agreement between the government and opposition factions to work toward a political settlement. These talks led to the Paris Accords in November 1994, under which several opposition figures were included in a government of national unity. This arrangement soon broke down, however, and the 1996 and 1997 legislative and municipal elections provided the background for renewed partisan politics. The PDG won a landslide victory in the legislative election, but several major cities, including Libreville, elected opposition mayors during the 1997 local election.[6]
Facing a divided opposition, President Omar Bongo coasted to easy re-election in December 1998, with large majorities of the vote. While Bongo's major opponents rejected the outcome as fraudulent, some international observers characterized the results as representative despite many perceived irregularities, and there were none of the civil disturbances that followed the 1993 election. Peaceful though flawed legislative elections held in 2001–2002, which were boycotted by a number of smaller opposition parties and were widely criticized for their administrative weaknesses, produced a National Assembly almost completely dominated by the PDG and allied independents. In November 2005 President Omar Bongo was elected for his sixth term. He won re-election easily, but opponents claim that the balloting process was marred by irregularities. There were some instances of violence following the announcement of his win, but Gabon generally remained peaceful.[6]
National Assembly elections were held again in December 2006. Several seats contested because of voting irregularities were overturned by the Constitutional Court, but the subsequent run-off elections in early 2007 again yielded a PDG-controlled National Assembly.[6]
Independence Day celebration in Gabon
On June 8, 2009, President Omar Bongo died of cardiac arrest at a Spanish hospital in Barcelona, ushering in a new era in Gabonese politics. In accordance with the amended constitution, Rose Francine Rogombé, the President of the Senate, became Interim President on June 10, 2009. The first contested elections in Gabon's history that did not include Omar Bongo as a candidate were held on August 30, 2009 with 18 candidates for president. The lead-up to the elections saw some isolated protests, but no significant disturbances. Omar Bongo's son, ruling party leader Ali Bongo Ondimba, was formally declared the winner after a 3-week review by the Constitutional Court; his inauguration took place on October 16, 2009.[6]
The court's review had been prompted by claims of fraud by the many opposition candidates, with the initial announcement of election results sparking unprecedented violent protests in Port-Gentil, the country's second-largest city and a long-time bastion of opposition to PDG rule. The citizens of Port-Gentil took to the streets, and numerous shops and residences were burned, including the French Consulate and a local prison. Officially, only four deaths occurred during the riots, but opposition and local leaders claim many more. Gendarmes and the military were deployed to Port-Gentil to support the beleaguered police, and a curfew was in effect for more than three months.[6]
A partial legislative by-election was held in June 2010. A newly created coalition of parties, the Union Nationale (UN), participated for the first time. The UN is composed largely of PDG defectors who left the party after Omar Bongo's death. Of the five hotly contested seats, the PDG won three and the UN won two; both sides claimed victory.[6]
2019 attempted coup d'état [ edit ]
In January 2019, there was an attempted coup d'état led by soldiers against the President Ali Bongo; the current status is still unclear.[7]
Government [ edit ]
Gabon is a republic with a presidential form of government under the 1961 constitution (revised in 1975, rewritten in 1991, and revised in 2003). The president is elected by universal suffrage for a seven-year term; a 2003 constitutional amendment removed presidential term limits and facilitated a presidency for life. The president can appoint and dismiss the prime minister, the cabinet, and judges of the independent Supreme Court. The president also has other strong powers, such as authority to dissolve the National Assembly, declare a state of siege, delay legislation, and conduct referenda.[6]
Gabon has a bicameral legislature with a National Assembly and Senate. The National Assembly has 120 deputies who are popularly elected for a 5-year term. The Senate is composed of 102 members who are elected by municipal councils and regional assemblies and serve for 6 years. The Senate was created in the 1990–1991 constitutional revision, although it was not brought into being until after the 1997 local elections. The President of the Senate is next in succession to the President.[6]
Despite the democratic system of government, the Freedom in the World report lists Gabon as "not free", and elections in 2016 have been disputed.
Political culture [ edit ]
In 1990, the government made major changes to Gabon's political system. A transitional constitution was drafted in May 1990 as an outgrowth of the national political conference in March–April and later revised by a constitutional committee. Among its provisions were a Western-style bill of rights, creation of a National Council of Democracy to oversee the guarantee of those rights, a governmental advisory board on economic and social issues, and an independent judiciary.[6]
After approval by the National Assembly, the PDG Central Committee, and the President, the Assembly unanimously adopted the constitution in March 1991. Multiparty legislative elections were held in 1990–91, despite the fact that opposition parties had not been declared formally legal. In spite of this, the elections produced the first representative, multiparty National Assembly. In January 1991, the Assembly passed by unanimous vote a law governing the legalization of opposition parties.[6]
After President Omar Bongo was re-elected in 1993, in a disputed election where only 51% of votes were cast, social and political disturbances led to the 1994 Paris Conference and Accords. These provided a framework for the next elections. Local and legislative elections were delayed until 1996–97. In 1997, constitutional amendments put forward years earlier were adopted to create the Senate and the position of vice president, as well as to extend the president's term to seven years.[6]
In October 2009, newly elected President Ali Bongo Ondimba began efforts to streamline the government. In an effort to reduce corruption and government bloat, he eliminated 17 minister-level positions, abolished the vice presidency and reorganized the portfolios of numerous ministries, bureaus and directorates. In November 2009, President Bongo Ondimba announced a new vision for the modernization of Gabon, called "Gabon Emergent". This program contains three pillars: Green Gabon, Service Gabon, and Industrial Gabon. The goals of Gabon Emergent are to diversify the economy so that Gabon becomes less reliant on petroleum, to eliminate corruption, and to modernize the workforce. Under this program, exports of raw timber have been banned, a government-wide census was held, the work day has been changed to eliminate a long midday break, and a national oil company was created.[6]
In provisional results,[when?] the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) won 84 out of 120 parliamentary seats.
On January 25, 2011, opposition leader André Mba Obame claimed the presidency, saying the country should be run by someone the people really wanted. He also selected 19 ministers for his government, and the entire group, along with hundreds of others, spent the night at UN headquarters. On January 26, the government dissolved Mba Obame's party. AU chairman Jean Ping said that Mba Obame's action "hurts the integrity of legitimate institutions and also endangers the peace, the security and the stability of Gabon."[8] Interior Minister Jean-François Ndongou accused Mba Obame and his supporters of treason.[8] The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said that he recognized Ondimba as the only official Gabonese president.[citation needed]
The 2016 presidential election was disputed, with very close official results reported. Protests broke out in the capital and met a brutal repression which culminated in the alleged bombing of opposition party headquarters by the presidential guard. Between 50 and 100 citizens were killed by security forces and 1,000 arrested.[9] International observers criticized irregularities, including unnaturally high turnout reported for some districts. The country's supreme court threw out some suspect precincts, but a full recount was not possible because ballots had been destroyed. The election was declared in favor of the incumbent Ondimba. European Parliament issued 2 resolutions denouncing the unclear results of the election and calling for an independent investigation on the human rights violations.[10]
Foreign relations [ edit ]
Since independence, Gabon has followed a nonaligned policy, advocating dialogue in international affairs and recognizing each side of divided countries. In inter-African affairs, Gabon espouses development by evolution rather than revolution and favors regulated private enterprise as the system most likely to promote rapid economic growth. Gabon played an important leadership role in the stability of Central Africa through involvement in mediation efforts in Chad, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), and Burundi.
In December 1999, through the mediation efforts of President Bongo, a peace accord was signed in the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) between the government and most leaders of an armed rebellion. President Bongo was also involved in the continuing D.R.C. peace process, and played a role in mediating the crisis in Ivory Coast. Gabonese armed forces were also an integral part of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) mission to the Central African Republic.
U.S. Navy commander is greeted by Gabonese Army
Gabon is a member of the United Nations (UN) and some of its specialized and related agencies, as well as of the World Bank; the IMF; the African Union (AU); the Central African Customs Union/Central African Economic and Monetary Community (UDEAC/CEMAC); EU/ACP association under the Lome Convention; the Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA); the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC); the Nonaligned Movement; and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS/CEEAC), among others. In 1995, Gabon withdrew from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), rejoining in 2016. Gabon was elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for January 2010 through December 2011 and held the rotating presidency in March 2010.[6]
Military [ edit ]
Gabon has a small, professional military of about 5,000 personnel, divided into army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and police. Gabonese forces are oriented to the defense of the country and have not been trained for an offensive role. A 1,800-member guard provides security for the president.[6]
Administrative divisions [ edit ]
Gabon is divided into nine provinces, which are further subdivided into 50 departments. The president appoints the provincial governors, the prefects, and the subprefects.[6]
The provinces are (capitals in parentheses):
Geography [ edit ]
Satellite image of Gabon.
Gabon map of Köppen climate classification
Beach scene in Gabon
Gabon is located on the Atlantic coast of central Africa on the equator, between latitudes 3°N and 4°S, and longitudes 8° and 15°E. Gabon generally has an equatorial climate with an extensive system of rainforests covering 8.5% of the country.[11]
There are three distinct regions: the coastal plains (ranging between 20 and 300 km [10 and 190 mi] from the ocean's shore), the mountains (the Cristal Mountains to the northeast of Libreville, the Chaillu Massif in the centre), and the savanna in the east. The coastal plains form a large section of the World Wildlife Fund's Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests ecoregion and contain patches of Central African mangroves especially on the Muni River estuary on the border with Equatorial Guinea.
Geologically, Gabon is primarily ancient Archean and Paleoproterozoic igneous and metamorphic basement rock, belonging to the stable continental crust of the Congo Craton, a remnant section of extremely old continental crust. Some formations are more than two billion years old. Ancient rock units are overlain by marine carbonate, lacustrine and continental sedimentary rocks as well as unconsolidated sediments and soils that formed in the last 2.5 million years of the Quaternary. The rifting apart of the supercontinent Pangaea created rift basins that filled with sediments and formed the hydrocarbons which are now a keystone of the Gabonese economy.[12] Gabon is notable for the Oklo reactor zones, the only known natural nuclear fission reactor on Earth which was active two billion years ago. The site was discovered during uranium mining in the 1970s to supply the French nuclear power industry.
Gabon's largest river is the Ogooué which is 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) long. Gabon has three karst areas where there are hundreds of caves located in the dolomite and limestone rocks. Some of the caves include Grotte du Lastoursville, Grotte du Lebamba, Grotte du Bongolo, and Grotte du Kessipougou. Many caves have not been explored yet. A National Geographic Expedition visited the caves in the summer of 2008 to document them.[13]
Gabon is also noted for efforts to preserve the natural environment. In 2002, President Omar Bongo Ondimba designated roughly 10% of the nation's territory to be part of its national park system (with 13 parks in total), one of the largest proportions of nature parkland in the world. The National Agency for National Parks manages Gabon's national park system.
Natural resources include petroleum, magnesium, iron, gold, uranium, and forests.
Economy [ edit ]
A proportional representation of Gabon's exports
Gabon's economy is dominated by oil. Oil revenues constitute roughly 46% of the government's budget, 43% of the gross domestic product (GDP), and 81% of exports. Oil production is currently declining rapidly from its high point of 370,000 barrels per day in 1997. Some estimates suggest that Gabonese oil will be expended by 2025. In spite of the decreasing oil revenues, planning is only now beginning for an after-oil scenario.[6] The Grondin Oil Field was discovered in 50 m (160 ft) water depths 40 km (25 mi) offshore, in 1971 and produces from the Batanga sandstones of Maastrichtian age forming an anticline salt structural trap which is about 2 km (1.2 mi) deep.[14]
Gabonese public expenditures from the years of significant oil revenues were not spent efficiently. Overspending on the Trans-Gabon Railway, the CFA franc devaluation of 1994, and periods of low oil prices caused serious debt problems that still plague the country.[6]
Gabon earned a poor reputation with the Paris Club and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the management of its debt and revenues. Successive IMF missions have criticized the government for overspending on off-budget items (in good years and bad), over-borrowing from the Central Bank, and slipping on the schedule for privatization and administrative reform. However, in September 2005 Gabon successfully concluded a 15-month Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF. Another 3-year Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF was approved in May 2007. Because of the financial crisis and social developments surrounding the death of President Omar Bongo and the elections, Gabon was unable to meet its economic goals under the Stand-By Arrangement in 2009. Negotiations with the IMF were ongoing.[6]
Gabon's oil revenues have given it a per capita GDP of $8,600, unusually high for the region. However, a skewed income distribution and poor social indicators are evident.[15] The richest 20% of the population earn over 90% of the income while about a third of the Gabonese population lives in poverty.[6]
The economy is highly dependent on extraction, but primary materials are abundant. Before the discovery of oil, logging was the pillar of the Gabonese economy. Today, logging and manganese mining are the next-most-important income generators. Recent explorations suggest the presence of the world's largest unexploited iron ore deposit. For many who live in rural areas without access to employment opportunity in extractive industries, remittances from family members in urban areas or subsistence activities provide income.[6]
Foreign and local observers have lamented the lack of diversity in the Gabonese economy. Various factors have so far limited the development of new industries:
the market is small, about a million
dependent on imports from France
unable to capitalize on regional markets
entrepreneurial zeal not always present among the Gabonese
a fairly regular stream of oil "rent", even if it is diminishing
Further investment in the agricultural or tourism sectors is complicated by poor infrastructure. The small processing and service sectors that do exist are largely dominated by a few prominent local investors.[6]
At World Bank and IMF insistence, the government embarked in the 1990s on a program of privatization of its state-owned companies and administrative reform, including reducing public sector employment and salary growth, but progress has been slow. The new government has voiced a commitment to work toward an economic transformation of the country but faces significant challenges to realize this goal.[6]
Society [ edit ]
Demographics [ edit ]
Population in Gabon[1] Year Million 1950 0.5 2000 1.2 2016 2
Crowd on beach in Gabon
Gabon has a population of approximately 2 million.[1] Historical and environmental factors caused Gabon's population to decline between 1900 and 1940.[citation needed] Gabon has one of the lowest population densities of any country in Africa,[6] and the fourth highest Human Development Index in Sub-Saharan Africa.[4]
Ethnic groups [ edit ]
Almost all Gabonese are of Bantu origin. Gabon has at least forty ethnic groups with differing languages and cultures.[6] The Fang are generally thought to be the largest,[6] although recent census data seem to favor the Nzebi.[citation needed] Others include the Myene, Kota, Shira, Puru, and Kande.[6] There are also various indigenous Pygmy peoples: the Bongo, Kota, and Baka; the latter speak the only non-Bantu language in Gabon. More than 10,000 native French live in Gabon, including an estimated 2,000 dual nationals.[6]
Ethnic boundaries are less sharply drawn in Gabon than elsewhere in Africa. Most ethnicities are spread throughout Gabon, leading to constant contact and interaction among the groups, and there is no ethnic tension. One important reason for this is that intermarriage is extremely common and every Gabonese person is connected by blood to many different tribes. Indeed, intermarriage is often required because among many tribes, marriage within the same tribe is prohibited because it is regarded as incest. This is because those tribes consist of the descendants of a specific ancestor, and therefore all members of the tribe are regarded as close kin to each other (identical to the clan system of Scotland or the Gotra system in the Hindu caste system). French, the language of its former colonial ruler, is a unifying force. The Democratic Party of Gabon (PDG)'s historical dominance also has served to unite various ethnicities and local interests into a larger whole.
Population centres [ edit ]
Libreville
People in Libreville
Cities of Gabon Order City Population Province 2003 Census[16] 2013 census[16] 1. Libreville 538,195 703,940 Estuaire 2. Port-Gentil 105,712 136 |
forest. This matches a pledge made previously by the British Columbia provincial government, as well as private donations of $60 million, making the total funding for the new reserve $120 million.[19]
In the autumn of 2008, Greenpeace, Sierra Club BC and ForestEthics (jointly known as Rainforest Solutions Project) launched an online campaign titled, "Keep the Promise," to put public pressure on Gordon Campbell, then Premier of British Columbia, to honour the Great Bear Rainforest agreement in its entirety. The groups were concerned certain aspects of the agreement, including implementation of ecosystem-based management (EBM), would not materialize in time for the government's own final implementation deadline of March 31, 2009.[20]
Government recognition and protection [ edit ]
On February 1, 2016, Premier Christy Clark announced an agreement had been reached between the province of British Columbia, First Nations, environmentalists and the forestry industry to protect 85% of the 6.4 million hectare Great Bear Rainforest from industrial logging.[4][5] The remaining 15% would still be subject to logging under stringent conditions. The agreement also recognizes aboriginal rights to shared decision-making, and provides a greater economic share of timber rights and $15-million in funding to 26 First Nations in the area.[4][21][22]
The Great Bear Rainforest (Forest Management) Act was introduced by the government on March 1, 2016.[23] In September, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, visited and unveiled a plaque in the forest acknowledging its admission into the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy.[24]
Future [ edit ]
The area is currently in the media due to the Northern Gateway Pipelines project, which if approved, would bring crude oil tanker traffic regularly passing through the channels of the area.[25]
Fuel spill [ edit ]
Fuel spill Athlone Island, BC Inside Passage marine highway through Great Bear Rainforest
In October of 2016, a tugboat hauling a tanker which held approximately 200,000 litres of industrial oils including diesel, ran hard aground at Seaforth Channel[26][27] near the Heiltsuk Nation and the Great Bear Rainforest.<ref name="aljazeera_fuelspill_2016">{{cite news |title=Canadian First Nation cleans up latest fuel spill mess: Fuel spill in Canada's Great Bear Rainforest adds to pressure to cut fuel transport lines on Pacific Coast
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Coordinates:Three mothers who have babies with the same birth defect and live in homes on the same Moncton, N.B., road want more research into gastroschisis, which causes the intestines or colon to grow outside the body through a hole beside the belly button.
The three women live within blocks of each other and gave birth in the last 16 months.
"To me, it came off as not a coincidence. I thought it was really weird. With the numbers that are given, I just didn’t understand how all three could be so close," said Natalya Beatty, one of the mothers..
He's laughing, and walking and playing, but you know, on the inside he's in a lot of pain. - Andrea Cunningham, mother of baby born with gastroschisis
Beatty gave birth to daughter Rylee last month, knowing ahead of time her the baby would have gastroschisis. After Rylee was born, she was airlifted to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.
“They put her bowels into a silo — it's like a big bandage thing — and then they had the surgery. They put all her bowels back in through her belly button," said Beatty.
While at the IWK, Beatty met other moms and discovered the connection.
All three women live on Salisbury Road in Moncton, within eight kilometres of one another. Before meeting at the IWK, the moms didn’t know each other personally.
Now, they’re wondering what might have caused their children’s birth defects.
'It's surprising,' doctor says
Gastroschisis facts: Gastroschisis occurs early in pregnancy, when muscles that make up baby's abdominal wall don't form correctly.
Young parents, those with low incomes, and mothers who smoke/drink during pregnancy are at greater risk of having a baby born with gastroschisis.
Soon after birth, surgery is needed to repair defect.
According to a 2010 study by the National Birth Defects Center in the U.S., the number of children born with gastrochisis is even higher south of the border at one in every 1,871.
Babies with gastroschisis often need to receive nutrients through IV and antibiotics to prevent infection. Sources: U.S. CDCP, Public Health Agency of Canada
Dr. Natalie Yanchar is a pediatric surgeon and researcher who tracks cases of gastroschisis across Canada.
“It’s surprising, especially when you hear it in that context, but until we look at it critically, we can’t really draw any assumptions from it,” said Yanchar.
The birth defect is uncommon, but not rare, she said. It occurs in about one in every 10,000 babies, worldwide.
Of those, about six per cent don’t survive.
Yanchar said doctors have yet to identify hot spots in Canada where the birth defect may be more prevalent.
She said there isn’t any evidence that the birth defect is more common in Moncton or even New Brunswick, for that matter.
"We are always hesitant to sort of assume this might be a hot spot until we look at it really critically,” she said.
On Monday, officials with the New Brunswick's Department of Health said, "Cases of gastroschisis are not currently being studied in New Brunswick. However, the province recently announced the New Brunswick Perinatal Health Program which will gather information on births and maternal and newborn health."
Officials said the program will "explore options" to track more information about gastroschisis.
Difficult journey
While Beatty’s daughter was able to go home after one surgery and about a month in the hospital, another woman who lives on the street is still waiting for her child to come home.
Andrea Cunningham’s son, Dylan Rosie, was born 16 months ago and is still in hospital.
Dylan has had 13 surgeries and nearly 20 blood transfusions, and has never eaten on his own. He is fed through a tube in his stomach and wears a small backpack that holds the food being pumped into his stomach.
"He's laughing, and walking and playing, but you know on the inside he's in a lot of pain," said Cunningham. "He's just kind of adapted to it. It's his normal now.”
Normal for Cunningham is travelling back and forth between the IWK and Moncton, where her young daughter is living with her grandparents.
Natalya Beatty's daughter, Rylee, was born with gastroschisis, a birth defect that causes organs to spill outside the baby's abdomen through a hole by the belly button. (CBC)
“It makes it a struggle — to divide yourself in half,” said Cunningham.
She sleeps on a cot in the bathroom attached to Dylan’s hospital room so he can have more room to play.
Cunningham was six weeks from graduating college when Dylan was born. Her education and job have been on hold ever since.
Dylan’s next surgery, which will take out some of his bowel, is scheduled on Cunningham’s birthday. If that surgery doesn’t work, he will have to have a bowel transplant.
The third mom did not want CBC to reveal her name. She gave birth within the last few weeks and confirmed she lives on the road, just blocks away from the other two women.
All three moms said regardless of whether it is a coincidence, they want more research done on what causes the defect.
“I mean, I’ve thought about thousands of things — if it’s an environmental thing, if there are other causes,” said Beatty.The Government's welfare benefits and tax changes will widen income inequality between rich and poor on a scale similar to that of Margaret Thatcher, new analysis will reveal this week.
Research for the Fabian Society claims cuts to benefits and tax credits, particularly for working-age families with children, will amount to a “speeded-up replay of Thatcherism”, with inequality increasing twice as fast by 2015 as it did under the former Conservative prime minister.
The analysis is published just as signs of optimism about the economy appear, with the latest GDP figures, published this week, expected to show a further quarter of modest growth. At the same time, a poll for the consumer organisation Which? has found that people are becoming increasingly optimistic about both the economy and their own spending power. But household incomes continue to be squeezed, with 1.5m more families feeling the pinch than a year ago.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The report, published tomorrow for the Fabian Review by the economist Howard Reed, sets out a projection of the impact of coalition policies on income equality. The poorest families will lose more than 12 per cent of their net income on average, compared to around 3 per cent of net income for households in the ninth decile (the second most wealthy income bracket), Mr Reed, director of Landman Economics, says. This underscores how regressive coalition tax and benefit changes have been. Council tax, for example, on average charges low- to middle-income families a much higher percentage of their disposable income than the richest households.
Mr Reed said it is “quite possible that the impact of the coalition’s tax and benefit measures would be as bad for inequality as the Thatcher government’s record, despite the fact that, by 2015, David Cameron will have been Prime Minister for less than half as long as Margaret Thatcher was. Looked at in this way, the coalition government’s tax and benefit reforms are like a speeded-up action replay of Thatcherism. This may come as a particular shock to Liberal Democrats in the government, many of whom spent the 1980s railing against [this] kind of increase in inequality.”
Andrew Harrop, general secretary of the Fabian Society, said: “This research reveals that income inequality is set to rise sharply in this parliament. But since 2010 barely a word has been heard from the Labour Party on equality, certainly compared to past generations.
“Faced with a Thatcher-style inequality boom, Labour must rediscover its egalitarian core and never forget that redistribution must be part of the answer.”
Mr Cameron and George Osborne are preparing to seize on this week’s GDP figures, which could show growth of 0.8 per cent for the quarter. But living standards remain constrained.
The Which? Consumer Insight Tracker shows a third of families – 9 million in total – are feeling squeezed, up from 7.5 million in July 2012; but 24 per cent of people think the economy will get better in the next year, up from 16 per cent who thought so a year ago, while consumers are less likely to cut back on non-essential spending such as major household purchases, home improvements and holidays.
However, only 25 per cent of people said their personal financial situation would improve, suggesting an increasing reliance on credit. Food prices have increased by 4.3 per cent on the year, while gas and electricity bills are up by 8 per cent.
Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director, said: “Consumers may be aiding our fragile economic recovery, but using savings and getting into debt is not sustainable, and more people are now feeling the squeeze. The Government must do more to keep spiralling housing, food and energy prices in check.”
Chris Leslie, shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “To get the economy back to where George Osborne expected it to be in 2015-16, we need growth of 5.3 per cent a year, or 1.3 per cent a quarter, over the next two years.
“While this may feel like a recovery for those at the top, life is getting harder for middle- and low-income families. Wages after inflation are now down by an average of £1,300 since David Cameron got into Downing Street, yet bank bonuses soared to £4bn in April, as high earners took full advantage of the top rate tax cut.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe now.The common theme of much of the gun enthusiast community is that they want unfettered access to any and all guns to, 1) protect their family/home; 2) fight tyranny [so far extremely undefined], and 3) defend against marauding hordes in a time of social unrest.
This brings us to the events of last two weeks in Colorado and Texas. On March 20, the Executive Director of Colorado Prisons, Tom Clements, was gunned down at his front door. It would be expected, considering his job, that he was armed, or at least had a firearm in his home.
Days later the suspect shot a Deputy Sheriff in Texas minutes before he was fatally injured during a car chase. The gun in his possession was traced back to the gun that killed Colorado prison chief Clements. That gun, a Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic, had been purchased through a strawman buyer two weeks before Clements was killed. The suspect was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
On January 31, in Kaufman, Texas, Assistant District Attorney Mark E. Hasse, 57, was gunned down in the employee parking lot of the Kaufman County Courthouse by two men wearing tactical vests. He was working on a major case against the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. He was armed and expecting trouble.
On March 30, Kaufman District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were gunned down in their home by assassins with an AR-15 rifle. The 20+ shots killed the District Attorney who had 23 years of military training, weapons in his home and, after his ADA was killed less than two months earlier, was expecting trouble.
Three days later, April 2, the Federal prosecutor in Dallas, who had been working on the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas case, walked away from the job for “security” reasons. This prosecutor had available the blanket of security of the U.S. Marshal’s service to protect him. He did not feel safe.
The cases are being investigated by the FBI, Homeland Security, U.S. Marshal Service, Texas Rangers, Texas State Police [DPS], Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies. The focus at this time is on the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas but consideration is still being given to other possible groups.
And that brings us back to marauding hordes. If anything defines civil unrest by an armed group, these last few months do; unrest perpetrated by a highly armed criminal enterprise that apparently is fearless to the repercussions of killing cops and district attorneys. When we realistically look at defending against a marauding horde and home invasion, it seems there is a perception that the “good guy with the gun” will, as he does in the movies, stop the “bad guy with a gun.” In three very clear instances, the victims did not stand a chance. They were armed, prepared and, by all indications, trained to protect themselves and their family. All for naught.
Just days later the Federal Prosecutor, with a cadre of armed agents of the U.S. Marshal’s Service and other agencies, made the decision to walk away instead of face that threat.
The point: gun enthusiasts say that they need an unlimited arsenal to protect the home, the homestead and society. Yet history has shown that it just doesn’t work that way. Folks who are on alert, who are expecting danger, still can’t stop it. The illusion that is given by gun enthusiasts is that somehow “they would.” It is a dangerous illusion.
_____________________________________________________
McAllister is a life long liberal, environmentalist, Eagle Scout, and even gun owner – born in Harlan, Kentucky and has lived in Southern California, New York City and now resides in Lexington, Kentucky as a Systems Analyst.
You can read more of McAllister’s observations and opinions at Shoot From the Left HipOur good buddy Kris has been playing around endlessly with some leaked builds of BlackBerry OS 10.2 and had a fun discovery last night. His latest experiments are with OS 10.2.0.663 which features the Android 4.2.2 runtime - meaning there are a slew of Android apps that run with no tweaking or debug tokens needed. One of those apps happens to be Facebook Home.
While it hasn't been released for BlackBerry 10, Facebook Home was released for some Android devices a few months back. The custom launcher Facebook's your phone showing off photos, status updates and more as part of your homescreen.
As Kris found out, Facebook Home works like a champ on OS 10.2, acting as a launcher for the sideloaded Android apps on the Q10. Pretty cool stuff overall and we're definitely looking forward to the Android 4.2.2 support with OS 10.2.
Check out the video above for a quick demo and hit up the thread below for more discussion.
Discuss more in the CrackBerry forumsLegia Warsaw supporters allegedly chanted discriminatory language at Borussia Dortmund.
UEFA has ordered Legia Warsaw to play their next Champions League match against Real Madrid behind closed doors as punishment for crowd trouble during their game with Borussia Dortmund.
Following their 6-0 defeat to Dortmund a fortnight ago, Legia, the first Polish side to appear in the Champions League group stage in 20 years, were charged with crowd disturbances and racist behaviour, as well as four other cases, by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body.
On Thursday, UEFA confirmed it has ordered a full stadium closure for Legia's upcoming clash with Madrid on Nov. 2 and also imposed an €80,000 fine.
Legia, however, have said they will appeal the decision, adding that they will do everything to make sure the match against Madrid can be played in front of the club's supporters.
Legia maintained that the evidence presented to UEFA could not back "the initial assessment of the UEFA match delegate" -- that the chants against Dortmund were discriminatory.
Two weeks ago, Seweryn Dmowski, Legia's adviser to the board, told ESPN FC that the club could not guarantee that racist chanting did not take place.
"We are not idiots, and we don't want to tell people you don't see what you see," he said. "There probably were some individuals who may have chanted this way. We want to identify all of them and ban them from the stadium."
Dmowski, however, said that the majority of the crowd at the Dortmund match did not use discriminatory language.
Legia were still on a trial period with UEFA after being ordered to play two European home matches behind closed doors for racism from their fans during a Europa League match at Lokeren in November 2014, while fans displayed a "Jihad Legia" banner before a Europa League game at Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2011.
Stephan Uersfeld is the Germany correspondent for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @uersfeld.Union delivering coal to Station Casinos in labor dispute
Members of the Culinary Union delivered lumps of coal to a casino company as part of a long-running labor dispute.
The Christmas-themed protest began Thursday evening at Red Rock Resort, which also is Station Casinos' headquarters.
The union represents about 55,000 casino workers and says it wants a vote among Station workers over whether the properties should be unionized. Station officials say they're fine with a vote, but the union won't agree to hold it secret-ballot style.
It's the second demonstration at Red Rock in about two months.
Four protesters were arrested Oct. 9 after blocking a lane even though the state denied them a road closure permit.
The demonstration happened the same night that the Downtown Summerlin retail complex celebrated its grand opening next door.Acknowledgements
Fingerprints of the Gods could not have been written without the generous, warm-hearted and sustaining love of my partner Santha Faiia— who always gives more than she takes and who enriches the lives of everyone around her with creativity, kindness and imagination. All the photographs in the book are her work.
I am also grateful for the support and encouragement of our six children—Gabrielle, Leila, Luke, Ravi, Sean and Shanti—each one of whom I feel privileged to know.
My parents, Donald and Muriel Hancock, have been incredibly helpful, active and involved through this and many other difficult times and projects. Together with my uncle James Macaulay they have also patiently read the drafts of the evolving manuscript, offering a wealth of positive suggestions. Thanks, too, to my oldest and closest friend, Peter Marshall, with whom I have weathered many storms, and to Rob Gardner, Joseph and Sherry Jahoda, Roel Oostra, Joseph and Laura Schor, Niven Sinclair, Colin Skinner and Clem Vallance, all of whom gave me good advice.
In 1992 I suddenly found that I had a friend in Lansing, Michigan. His name is Ed Ponist and he got in touch with me soon after the publication of my previous book, The Sign and the Seal. Like a guardian angel he volunteered to devote a hefty chunk of his spare time to helping me out in the US with research, contacts and the collection of documentary resources of relevance to Fingerprints of the Gods. He did a brilliant job, always sending me the right books just when I needed them and finding references that I didn’t even know existed. He was also an accurate weather-vane on the quality of my work, whose judgment I quickly learned to trust and respect. Last but not least, when Santha and I went to Arizona, to the Hopi Nation, it was Ed who came with us and who opened the way.
Ed’s initial letter was part of an overwhelming deluge of mail that I received from around the world after writing The Sign and the Seal. For a while I tried to answer all the letters individually. Eventually, however, I got swamped with the new work on Fingerprints and had to stop replying. I feel bad about this, and would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who wrote to me and to whom I did not write back. I’m intending to be more systematic in the future because I enormously value this correspondence and appreciate the high-quality information that it frequently turns out to contain...
Other researchers who have helped me on Fingerprints of the Gods have been Martin Slavin, David Mestecky and Jonathan Derrick. In addition I would like to thank my Anglophone editors on both sides of the Atlantic, Tom Weldon at Heinemann, Jim Wade at Crown and John Pearce at Doubleday Canada, as well as my literary agents Bill Hamilton and Sara Fisher, for their continuing commitment, solidarity and wise counsel.
My warmest appreciation also to those co-researchers and colleagues who have become my friends during the course of this investigation: Robert Bauval in Britain (with whom I shall be co-authoring two future books on related subjects), Colin Wilson, John Anthony West and Lew Jenkins in the United States, Rand and Rose Flem-Ath and Paul William Roberts in Canada.
Finally I want to pay tribute to Ignatius Donnelly, Arthur Posnansky, R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Charles Hapgood and Giorgio de Santillana— investigators who saw that something was badly wrong with the history of mankind, who had the courage to speak out against intellectual adversity, and who pioneered the momentous paradigm shift that is now irrevocably under way.
Back to Contents
Part I
The Mystery of the Maps
Chapter 1 - A Map of Hidden Places 8 RECONNAISSANCE TECHNICAL SQUADRON (SAC) UNITED STATES AIRFORCE Westover Airforce Base Massachusetts
6 July 1960
SUBJECT: Admiral Piri Reis World Map
To: Professor Charles H. Hapgood,Keene College,Keene, New Hampshire.
Dear Professor Hapgood,
Your request for evaluation of certain unusual features of the Piri Reis World Map of 1513 by this organization has been reviewed.
The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land Antarctica, and the Palmer Peninsula, is reasonable. We find this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.
The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949.
This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap.
The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick.
We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513.
HAROLD Z. OHLMEYER Lt Colonel, USAF Commander Despite the deadpan language, Ohlmeyer’s letter 1 is a bombshell. If Queen Maud Land was mapped before it was covered by ice, the original cartography must have been done an extraordinarily long time ago. 1 Letter reproduced in Charles H. Hapgood FRGS, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, Chilton Books, Philadelphia and New York, 1966, p. 243.
How long ago exactly?
Conventional wisdom has it that the Antarctic ice-cap, in its present extent and form, is millions of years old. On closer examination, this notion turns out to be seriously flawed—so seriously that we need not assume the map drawn by Admiral Piri Reis depicts Queen Maud Land as it looked millions of years in the past.
The best recent evidence suggests that Queen Maud Land, and the neighbouring regions shown on the map, passed through a long ice-free period which may not have come completely to an end until about six thousand years ago. 2 This evidence, which we shall touch upon again in the next chapter, liberates us from the burdensome task of explaining who (or what) had the technology to undertake an accurate geographical survey of Antarctica in, say, two million BC, long before our own species came into existence. By the same token, since map-making is a complex and civilized activity, it compels us to explain how such a task could have been accomplished even six thousand years ago, well before the development of the first true civilizations recognized by historians.
Ancient sources In attempting that explanation it is worth reminding ourselves of the basic historical and geological facts: 1 - The Piri Reis Map, which is a genuine document, not a hoax of any kind, was made at Constantinople in AD 1513. 3 2 - It focuses on the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America and the northern coast of Antarctica.
3 - Piri Reis could not have acquired his information on this latter region from contemporary explorers because Antarctica remained undiscovered until AD 1818, 4 more than 300 years after he drew the map.
4 - The ice-free coast of Queen Maud Land shown in the map is a colossal puzzle because the geological evidence confirms that the latest date it could have been surveyed and charted in an ice-free condition is 4000 BC. 5
5 - It is not possible to pinpoint the earliest date that such a task could have been accomplished, but it seems that the Queen Maud Land littoral may have remained in a stable, unglaciated condition for at least 9000 years before the spreading ice-cap swallowed it entirely. 6 6 - There is no civilization known to history that had the capacity or need to survey that coastline in the relevant period: between 13,000 BC and 4000 BC. 7 2 Ibid., pp. 93-98, 235. The period lasted from about 13000 BC to 4000 BC according, for example, to the findings of Dr Jack Hough of Illinois University, supported by experts at the Carnegie Institution, Washington DC. John G. Weiphaupt, a University of Colorado specialist in seismology and gravity and planetary geology, is another who supports the view of a relatively late ice-free period in at least parts of Antarctica. Together with a number of other geologists, he places that period in a narrower band than Hough et al.—from 7000 BC to 4000 BC. 3 Ibid., preface, pp. 1, 209-211. 4 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1991, I:440. 5 Maps of The Ancient Sea Kings, p. 235. 6 Ibid.
7 Historians recognize no ‘civilizations’ as such prior to 4000 BC.
In other words, the true enigma of this 1513 map is not so much its inclusion of a continent not discovered until 1818 but its portrayal of part of the coastline of that continent under ice-free conditions which came to an end 6000 years ago and have not since recurred.
How can this be explained? Piri Reis obligingly gives us the answer in a series of notes written in his own hand on the map itself. He tells us that he was not responsible for the original surveying and cartography. On the contrary, he admits that his role was merely that of compiler and copyist and that the map was derived from a large number of source maps. 8 Some of these had been drawn by contemporary or near-contemporary explorers (including Christopher Columbus ), who had by then reached South America and the Caribbean, but others were documents dating back to the fourth century BC or earlier. 9
Piri Reis did not venture any suggestion as to the identity of the cartographers who had produced the earlier maps. In 1963, however, Professor Hapgood proposed a novel and thought-provoking solution to the problem. He argued that some of the source maps the admiral had made use of, in particular those said to date back to the fourth century BC, had themselves been based on even older sources, which in turn had been based on sources originating in the furthest antiquity. There was, he asserted, irrefutable evidence that the earth had been comprehensively mapped before 4000 BC by a hitherto unknown and undiscovered civilization which had achieved a high level of technological advancement. 10
It appears [he concluded] that accurate information has been passed down from people to people. It appears that the charts must have originated with a people unknown and they were passed on, perhaps by the Minoans and the Phoenicians, who were, for a thousand years and more, the greatest sailors of the ancient world. We have evidence that they were collected and studied in the great library of Alexandria [Egypt] and that compilations of them were made by the geographers who worked there. 11
8 Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, pp. 220-4. 9 Ibid., p. 222.
10 Ibid., p. 193
11 Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings (revised edition), Turnstone Books, London, 1979, preface. Piri Reis map (original) Redrawing to show detail
The US Airforce map shows the probable projection that governed the layout of the ancient Piri Reis map.
From Alexandria, according to Hapgood’s reconstruction, copies of these compilations and of some of the original source maps were transferred to other centers of learning—notably Constantinople. Finally, when Constantinople was seized by the Venetians during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the maps began to find their way into the hands of European sailors and adventurers:
Most of these maps were of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. But maps of other areas survived. These included maps of the Americas and maps of the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. It becomes clear that the ancient voyagers travelled from pole to pole. Unbelievable as it may appear, the evidence nevertheless indicates that some ancient people explored Antarctica when its coasts were free of ice. It is clear, too, that they had an instrument of navigation for accurately determining longitudes that was far superior to anything possessed by the peoples of ancient, medieval or modern times until the second half of the eighteenth century.
This evidence of a lost technology will support and give credence to many of the other hypotheses that have been brought forward of a lost civilization in remote times. Scholars have been able to dismiss most of that evidence as mere myth, but here we have evidence that cannot be dismissed. The evidence requires that all the other evidence that has been brought forward in the past should be re-examined with an open mind. 12
Despite a ringing endorsement from Albert Einstein (see below), and despite the later admission of John Wright, president of the American Geographical Society, that Hapgood had ‘posed hypotheses that cry aloud for further testing’, no further scientific research has ever been undertaken into these anomalous early maps. Moreover, far from being applauded for making a serious new contribution to the debate about the antiquity of human civilization, Hapgood until his death was cold-shouldered by the majority of his professional peers, who couched their discussion of his work in what has accurately been described as ‘thick and unwarranted sarcasm, selecting trivia and factors not subject to verification as the bases for condemnation, seeking in this way to avoid the basic issues’. 13
A man ahead of his time The late Charles Hapgood taught the history of science at Keene College, New Hampshire, USA. He wasn’t a geologist, or an ancient historian. It is possible, however, that future generations will remember him as the man whose work undermined the foundations of world history—and a large chunk of world geology as well.
Albert Einstein was among the first to realize this when he took the unprecedented step of contributing the foreword to a book Hapgood wrote in 1953, some years before he began his investigation of the Piri Reis Map : I frequently receive communications from people who wish to consult me concerning their unpublished ideas [Einstein observed]. It goes without saying that these ideas are very seldom possessed of scientific validity. The very first communication, however, that I received from Mr. Hapgood electrified me. His idea is original, of great simplicity, and—if it continues to prove itself—of great importance to everything that is related to the history of the earth’s surface. 14 12 - Ibid.
13 - Ibid., foreword. See also F. N. Earll, foreword to C. H. Hapgood, Path of the Pole, Chilton Books, New York, 1970, p. viii.
14 - From Einstein's foreword (written in 1953) to Charles H. Hapgood, Earth's Shifting Crust: A Key to Some Basic Problems of Earth Science, Pantheon Books, New York, 1958, pp. 1-2. The ‘idea’ expressed in Hapgood’s 1953 book is a global geological theory which elegantly explains how and why large parts of Antarctica could have remained ice-free until 4000 BC, together with many other anomalies of earth science. In brief the argument is: 1 - Antarctica was not always covered with ice and was at one time much warmer than it is today.
2 - It was warm because it was not physically located at the South Pole in that period. Instead it was approximately 2000 miles farther north. This ‘would have put it outside the Antarctic Circle in a temperate or cold temperate climate’. 15
3 - The continent moved to its present position inside the Antarctic Circle as a result of a mechanism known as ‘earth-crust displacement’. This mechanism, in no sense to be confused with plate-tectonics or ‘continental drift’, is one whereby the lithosphere, the whole outer crust of the earth, ‘may be displaced at times, moving over the soft inner body, much as the skin of an orange, if it were loose, might shift over the inner part of the orange all in one piece’. 16
4 - During the envisaged southwards movement of Antarctica brought about by earth-crust displacement, the continent would gradually have grown colder, an ice-cap forming and remorselessly expanding over several thousands of years until it attained its present dimensions.’ 17 Further details of the evidence supporting these radical proposals are set out in Part VIII of this book. Orthodox geologists, however, remain reluctant to accept Hapgood’s theory (although none has succeeded in proving it incorrect). It raises many questions.
Of these by far the most important is: what conceivable mechanism would be able to exert sufficient thrust on the lithosphere to precipitate a phenomenon of such magnitude as a crustal displacement?
We have no better guide than Einstein to summarize Hapgood’s findings: In a polar region there is continual deposition of ice, which is not symmetrically distributed about the pole. The earth’s rotation acts on these unsymmetrically deposited masses, and produces centrifugal momentum that is transmitted to the rigid crust of the earth. The constantly increasing centrifugal momentum produced in this way will, when it has reached a certain point, produce a movement of the earth’s crust over the rest of the earth’s body... 18 15 Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, 1966 ed., p. 189. 16 Ibid., p. 187.
17 Ibid., p. 189.
18 Einstein's foreword to Earth's Shifting Crust, p. 1
The Piri Reis Map seems to contain surprising collateral evidence in support of the thesis of a geologically recent glaciation of parts of Antarctica following a sudden southward displacement of the earth’s crust. Moreover since such a map could only have been drawn prior to 4000 BC, its implications for the history of human civilization are staggering. Prior to 4000 BC there are supposed to have been no civilizations at all.
At some risk of over-simplification, the academic consensus is broadly: Civilization first developed in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East.
This development began after 4000 BC, and culminated in the emergence of the earliest true civilizations ( Sumer and Egypt ) around 3000 BC, soon followed by the Indus Valley and China.
About 1500 years later, civilization took off spontaneously and independently in the Americas.
Since 3000 BC in the Old World (and about 1500 BC in the New) civilization has steadily ‘evolved’ in the direction of ever more refined, complex and productive forms.
In consequence, and particularly by comparison with ourselves, all ancient civilizations (and all their works) are to be understood as essentially primitive (the Sumerian astronomers regarded the heavens with unscientific awe, and even the pyramids of Egypt were built by ‘technological primitives’). The evidence of the Piri Reis Map appears to contradict all this.
Piri Reis and his sources In his |
ahid Avakian Gregg.
Over the course of a long career that began in his early 20s, Avakian worked closely with many jazz legends, including Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. He also shaped core perceptions around jazz’s historical recordings, creating both the first jazz album and the first jazz reissue program. And he helped put the music in relatable context, savoring his reputation as “the father of jazz album annotation.”
Few figures were as integral to the jazz recording industry during its commercial and creative peak. During his tenure with Columbia Records in the 1950s, Avakian signed and produced artists like Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Erroll Garner and Benny Goodman. Later, in the ‘60s, he worked with RCA Victor. His momentous run on those two labels included touchstone albums like Ellington at Newport (1956), Miles Ahead (1957) and Sonny Rollins’ The Bridge (1962).
But well before that run of contemporary recordings, Avakian oversaw a collection of six 78-r.p.m. discs he called Chicago Jazz. Recorded in 1939, and featuring musicians like guitarist Eddie Condon and trumpeter Jimmy McPartland — central figures in what had been known as the Chicago Style — Chicago Jazz was released on Decca, and generally recognized as the first jazz “album.” It was packaged with Avakian’s liner notes, providing full credits and other information, in an unusual gesture at the time.
Avakian was still an undergraduate at Yale when Columbia asked him to initiate a program of archival releases. No one had ever taken such a concerted effort to go through a label’s back catalog, but Avakian threw himself into the task. He compiled and produced boxed sets for seminal figures like Ellington, Bessie Smith and Armstrong, often discovering and incorporating previously unreleased material in the process. His comprehensive, methodical approach would become the gold standard for reissues of historical material.
One result of Avakian’s archival explorations was of monumental significance. The series of recordings that Armstrong had made between 1925 and 1928, known as the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens, were obscure and out of print before Avakian advocated for their reissue in the late 1930s. His advocacy of this material, which Armstrong biographer Terry Teachout has memorably called “the Old Testament of classic jazz,” was crucial to its survival.
“When I gave Louis a set of the newly discovered test pressings in the spring of 1940,” Avakian wrote in a recollection for JazzTimes, “his delight was boundless, especially after we both realized that a few months later these unidentified metal masters would have been automatically recycled because wartime scrap drives had increased as Hitler’s armies advanced.”
George Mesrop Avakian was born on March 15, 1919, in Armavir, Russia, the oldest of three children of Mesrop Avakian. His family immigrated to the United States when he was 4, settling in New York City.
He became a jazz fan in his early teens, furtively listening to radio broadcasts after the rest of his family was asleep. By the time he was a senior at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx, Avakian was well-versed enough to interview Benny Goodman for the school paper. One of his classmates showed the article to his older brother — Lester Koenig, the founder of Contemporary Records.
Koenig invited Avakian over to hear some rare Armstrong: Hot Five tracks like “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue” and “West End Blues.” As Avakian vividly recalls in a 2010 conversation with Josh Jackson, on WBGO’s The Checkout, he then asked where he could buy these records. “You can’t,” he was told. Thus began a furious letter-writing campaign to Brunswick, which owned OKeh at the time, and had let the recordings fall out of print.
George Avakian speaking with Josh Jackson on WBGO's The Checkout, in 2010
Avakian attended Yale University, and almost immediately fell in with a jazz record club and study group that gathered at the home of the pioneering jazz historian Marshall Stearns. “When I was in New Haven as a freshman and a sophomore,” he told me in 2006, “I went every Friday night to Marshall’s house, and he invited anybody that wanted to come talk about records and so on. It was an interesting experience, because it introduced me to the whole history of jazz as it was known at the time.”
After serving in the Army during the war, Avakian returned to Columbia, where he became a leading proponent for the new 33⅓-r.p.m. long-playing record format. He also wrote about jazz for magazines including DownBeat and Mademoiselle. (He would keep writing well into his late career: he received a Grammy Award for best album notes in 1996, for the boxed set Miles Davis & Gil Evans - The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings.)
Avakian left Columbia in 1958, briefly establishing a label at Warner Bros. One of his signings, Bob Newhart, became the first comedian to win Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. (The album was The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, released in 1960.)
As an artist manager in the 1960s, Avakian advanced the careers of musicians like the pianist John Lewis and the saxophonist Charles Lloyd. He was integral to the ascendance of a young pianist named Keith Jarrett, negotiating the contract that landed him at ECM Records.
Avakian was one of the co-founders of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences, and served as its president from 1966-67. He received the Trustees Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2009 — one year before he received the A.B. Spellman Jazz Advocacy Award from the National Endowments for the Arts. In 2011 he was inducted by ASCAP to its Jazz Wall of Fame.
In addition to his daughter Anahid Avakian Gregg, Avakian is survived by another daughter, Maro Avakian; a son, Greg; and two grandchildren. His wife, the violinist Anahid Ajemian, died in 2016. His brother Aram Avakian, a filmmaker who directed the 1960 documentary Jazz on a Summer’s Day, died in 1987.
“If I hadn’t gotten into music, I wouldn’t be alive today,” Avakian said in his 2010 conversation with Josh Jackson. “It kept me going in many, many ways.”(Adds details, quotes)
* Rossi to join Lorenzo at Yamaha
* Ducati finding partner for Nicky Hayden
ROME, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Italian motorcycling great Valentino Rossi will leave Ducati at the end of the MotoGP season and rejoin Yamaha on a two-year deal, the Japanese-owned team said on Friday.
“In June, we were able to sign Jorge Lorenzo for the 2013-14 campaign and now we are able to confirm Valentino Rossi for the next two years,” Yamaha Motor Racing managing director Lin Jarvis said in a statement.
The 33-year-old nine-times world champion - seven in the premier class - first joined Yamaha in 2004 and won four MotoGP titles with the manufacturer before agreeing a two-year deal with Ducati at the end of the 2010 season.
However, the dream of pairing up Italy’s best-known rider with Italy’s top team turned into a nightmare and he finished seventh on an uncompetitive bike last year.
This season has been just as bad with Rossi lying eighth.
Rossi left Yamaha because he felt having two very strong riders in one team did not work. His then Yamaha team mate was 2010 champion and current championship leader Lorenzo but the Italian will now return to the same arrangement.
Spaniard Lorenzo has ridden for Yamaha since 2008 and leads the current championship by 23 points after 10 races of the 18-race season. Rossi has secured just one podium finish all season.
“We have run this ‘super team’ together in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and during that time we achieved the triple crown titles with Rider, Manufacturer and Team World Championship victories for three consecutive years,” Jarvis said.
“I have no doubt that with the experience, knowledge, skills and speed of these two great champion riders we will be able to challenge for many race wins and for the 2013 and 2014 World Championship titles.”
Ducati said they were in the process of finalising their 2013 championship lineup having recently renewed their agreement with American Nicky Hayden.
Rossi, who last won the championship in 2009, has often been linked with a move to Formula One team Ferrari and pundits wonder whether Rossi made an error in not switching to four wheels when he had the chance with the Italians in 2006 and again in 2009. (Reporting by Steve Scherer, Terry Daley and Amlan Chakraborty; Editing by John O’Brien/Mark Meadows)The Seattle City Council has joined the growing number of groups calling for an end to the lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has prohibited men who have sex with other men from giving blood since 1983, when the AIDS epidemic first began its spread.
But a number of medical and legal experts argue the lifetime ban is obsolete because testing now allows for rapid detection of HIV. And after a group of Seattle city employees complained they couldn’t give blood because they are gay men, the City Council stepped in.
“We have employees that would like to participate and are kept from participating,” says Seattle City Councilmember Sally Clark. “We host blood drives in public buildings here at the city where we would normally not allow discrimination.”
Clark and the other members of the Council have sent a letter the head of the FDA, calling for an end to the lifetime ban.
In it, the councilmembers call the ban “outdated and discriminatory practice.”
The letter calls for screening gay and bisexual men based on a risk assessment of behaviors rather than sexual orientation.
“We know a whole lot more about blood screening, we know that really it’s behaviors – whether you’re gay or straight – that really have to do with whether you should be donating blood or not. That seems to be a much smarter approach,” Clark says.
Medical experts point out men who have had sex with HIV-positive women or prostitutes are only banned from donating blood for a maximum of one year.
“We think it’s time for the FDA to take a serious look at its policy, because it’s out of step with peer countries, it’s out of step with modern medicine, it’s out of step with public opinion, and we feel it may be legally problematic,” said Glenn Cohen, the director of Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics, in an interview with CBS News.
Cohen recently co-wrote an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association calling for an end to the lifetime ban with Jeremy Feigenbaum of Harvard Law School and Dr. Eli Adashi of Brown University’s medical school.
He points out a number of other countries have ended their lifetime bans on blood donations. The United Kingdom has a one-year ban on donations from gay men, while Canada recently changed its policy to a five-year ban.
Dr. Steven Kleinman, a senior medical advisor to the AABB, an international non-profit blood bank association, says current technology allows accurate detection of HIV in the bloodstream within weeks of exposure. And he says there’s been no sign of adverse effects in those countries since their lifetime bans were lifted.
An FDA spokeswoman says the agency is open to ending the ban, and is awaiting the findings of recent research that might provide additional evidence.
Along with the Seattle City Council, The Puget Sound Blood Center, Seattle Mayor Edward Murray and the American Medical Association have also made similar requests to end the lifetime ban.
“We want people to give blood. It is incredibly valuable and we want that to continue,” Clark says. “And we want to make sure we are able to maximize the number of people who want to give blood.”In the violent southern Mexico town of Chilapa, just being named Sanchez, Nava or Carreto can lead to trouble.
Several men with those last names were among 10 to 14 people who vanished from the Guerrero state city when a 300-strong armed group occupied Chilapa for five days in May.
Relatives of the missing fear they were kidnapped because they share the same names as a notorious drug lord and a former police chief in a region where crime and politics often intersect.
The armed group, which described itself as one of the "community police" forces that are common in Guerrero, entered Chilapa on May 9, disarmed the municipal police and blocked the town's entrances.
They left on May 14 after an agreement with federal authorities.
Residents say the armed group was infiltrated by Los Ardillos, a local drug gang which is fighting for Chilapa against a rival criminal group known as Los Rojos.
The armed group has rejected kidnapping and criminal links accusations.
During the occupation, at least 14 men, most between the ages of 15 and 25, vanished without a trace, according to a list their relatives provided to AFP.
Authorities say they are investigating the alleged kidnapping of 10 people in the town of 120,000 people, which lies on a strategic route for heroin traffickers who grow opium poppies in the surrounding mountains.
- Selling cattle and pizza -
Armed civilians stand guard at the entrance to Chilapa in Guerrero State, southern Mexico on May 10, 2015 Pedro Pardo, AFP/File
Witnesses say that the armed group went around town with rifles and machetes, shouting "Give up 'El Chaparro!' and we'll go away!"
"El Chapparo" is the nickname of reputed Los Rojos leader Zenen Sanchez Nava.
One man had just left his job at a pizzeria when he disappeared, others had come to Chilapa to sell cattle.
Alexandro Nava Reyes, a 21-year-old truck driver, told his parents on May 10 that he was going to visit his girlfriend "but he never came back," his sister Melissa said.
Four other young men whose parents have either Sanchez or Nava in their last names disappeared.
"Being Nava or Sanchez is extremely dangerous in Chilapa," said Jose Diaz, a teacher and spokesman for relatives of the missing.
Jose Apolonio Villanueva, a farmer and leader of the armed group, said the goal of their "visit" to Chilapa was to speak with the mayor because "many people have been lost in our communities" as well.
While they never saw the mayor, Apolonio's group was able to negotiate the resignation of the town's police chief.
Another former Chilapa police chief, Silvestre Carreto González, stepped down in July last year.
The missing include three brothers, Miguel, 23, Juan, 20 and Victor, 15, whose last names are Carreto Cuevas and were last seen when they came to Chilapa to sell a cow.
Two other relatives, Crispino Carreto Gonzalez and his son Samuel, also disappeared between May 9 and 14.
Guerrero State police patrol in the back of a pick-up truck in the city of Chilapa, in the southern Mexican, on the eve of midterm elections on June 6, 2015 Pedro Pardo, AFP/File
Residents believe the disappearances of the Carretos was some sort of vengeance against the former police chief in a region where authorities are often accused of colluding with criminals.
A week after the armed group left Chilapa, three bodies were found near the town with their facial skin peeled off. But authorities say the victims were men who had disappeared before the May 9-14 occupation.
- Drugs and politics -
Esther, another sister of Alexandro Nava, said the latest unrest in Chilapa began before June 7 midterm elections.
"It all started because of the elections," she said, recalling how masked men tried to place next to her house a banner demanding that people support a political party.
A day before the legislative, municipal and gubernatorial vote, relatives of the missing held a protest against what they termed "narco-elections."
Jesus Parra Garcia of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won the mayoral race. He replaced another PRI candidate who was shot dead on May 1.
"It doesn't matter who wins. If they don't arrest Los Ardillos and Los Rojos, the situation will stay the same," said Diaz, the spokesman for the relatives.
"The election only decides if the mayor is Rojo or Ardillo," added Diaz, who said two of his brothers were killed by Los Ardillos last year.
Chilapa is near Ayotzinapa, the location of a teacher training college still reeling from the September disappearance of 43 students who, according to authorities, were attacked by police in the city of Iguala under the mayor's orders.
Officials say Iguala's officers handed the students to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, which has been battling Los Rojos and is accused of killing the 43 young men.It’s black days for the Black Tomato, and owner Pete Besserer puts the blame squarely on Ontario’s higher minimum wage, which takes effect Jan. 1.
The restaurant, a stalwart of ByWard Market dining for 23 years, will close at the end of the month.
“It’s the minimum wage, absolutely. That will be an $80,000 hit for me, just in hours,” Besserer said. “Then you have to factor in the grey area of what all the other stuff that comes through the door is going to cost. Is it going to be 10 per cent more? 15? 20? Who the hell knows? Nobody knows.”
Ontario’s minimum wage, now $11.60 an hour, climbs to $14 on Jan. 1 and to $15 on Jan. 1, 2019. Besserer employs 17 people at the Black Tomato and says he simply can’t afford the increased labour cost. That it takes effect in the toughest month of the year for restaurants only makes it tougher.
“I followed the story all along. Whether economists agree with it or not, everything that I’ve ever read says ‘way too much, way too fast.’
“I don’t know other restaurant owners’ situations, but I’ve done the math. If you have a staff of two people, then obviously that changes things. But I’ve got a staff of 17. Those are the facts for me.”
The higher wage has been opposed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association, among others.
However, a handful of Ottawa businesses say they support the move. Jessica Carpinone, co-owner of Bread by Us Bakery in Hintonburg, supported the $15-an-hour minimum wage in an opinion piece she wrote for the Ottawa Citizen in June.
“There are a number of reasons why businesses close, but paying fair wages is not one of them,” she wrote. “I cannot stress this enough: Well-paid and satisfied workers are better for business. Not only are they willing to work hard for you, but their satisfaction is felt by customers.”
And last month, Ivan Gedz of Union 613 in Centretown announced he was boosting his workers’ minimum wage to $16 and said restaurateurs who say paying “a fair living wage couldn’t be done” are “full of s—.”
But Black Tomato’s Besserer is adamant that he’s had enough. He plans to unveil protest banners in his eatery on Tuesday and has ordered black T-shirts for staff that say “Grim” on the front and “Wake Up Ontario’ on the back. Telling his employees the business was closing was tough, he said.
“There were a lot of tears shed. To stand here for 23 years in the kitchen and to work like a dog to have this happen — it hurts. That’s reason No. 1. Reason No. 2 is I had to stand here like a grinch and tell 17 staff members that they don’t have a job after Christmas time. Twenty-three years of hard work and what do I do? I put a key on the counter and walk away. That’s a hard pill to swallow.”
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBACDutch speedskating coach Jillert Anema knows how the United States can improve on its Olympic 0-fer on the Sochi ovals -- stop playing sports like football.
"You have a lot of attention for foolish sport, like American football," Anema told CNBC on Friday. "You waste a lot of talent, athletic talent, in a sport where it's meant to kill each other, to injure each other.
"... (The U.S.) is so narrow-minded, and you waste a lot of good talent in a sport that sucks."
The U.S. assured itself of its first medal shutout in the long-track events since 1984. No American placed higher than seventh in an individual event, and the men's team was relegated to the "D" final, which will decide the last two positions in the eight-team field.
On the short track, only a silver medal in the 5,000-meter relay kept the U.S. from its first shutout since 1988.
Anema believes the United States could do so much better with an improved infrastructure in the sport.
"When you compete once every four years, with talent, with a few lone wolves who are skating, you can't beat the world," Anema told CNBC. "It's no way."
You can't blame Anema for being a bit cocky as the Dutch have won 21 of the country's 22 medals on the speedskating ovals in Sochi.
"I think that the gold medal in speedskating is just as valuable as the gold medal in basketball, and we won 22.
"You'll never win 22 in basketball."Share. Word has it that the Wachowskis are about to take the Red Pill again. Word has it that the Wachowskis are about to take the Red Pill again.
Exit Theatre Mode
We’ve heard about a return to the world of the Matrix on the big screen here and there over the years, but now a new report indicates that Warner Bros. and series creators the Wachowski siblings are moving ahead on a new trilogy in the series.
Latino Review has the scoop, saying that the Wachowskis have started the writing process and have turned in treatments and outlines to Warners. It’s not clear whether or not they’ll direct the films, if they actually come to pass.
Exit Theatre Mode
Also not clear: Whether or not Keanu Reeves or any original cast members will return. LR does say one of the early outlines is about the birth of the Matrix, which would predate Neo.
This is all very early in the process, obviously, and that’s assuming that LR’s sources are even correct. But if they are -- which they usually are -- what do you guys think? Is a return to the Matrix in order?
Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.We’ve seen some pretty revolutionary baseball research over the two decades, but until about three years ago our public estimations of catcher defense were pretty limited. We had some idea about which catchers were the best at catching base stealers, but blocking, framing, game calling, and the other nuances of the job were relative unknowns. We knew they were there, we could see them at work in individual situations, but we just didn’t have quality, public data to give us a clear pitcher of catcher defense. That’s starting to change, although we’re still a long way from home.
Over the last couple of seasons, pitch framing has become a popular topic of conversation in the game with teams like the Rays, Pirates, and others seemingly targeting quality framers. We have had new metrics and seen lots of articles considering the merits of those catchers who can steal extra strikes. It’s hard to say if it’s permeated the baseball world, or just the advanced metrics/blogger world, but framing is the new “it” asset. We even saw our own Dave Cameron place a high value on catcher defense on his 2014 NL MVP ballot.
Catcher defense can essentially be divided into five categories: normal fielding, pitch framing, blocking, game calling, and controlling the running game. In no area are we perfect, but there are some areas that we can evaluate better than others. Catcher defense is an evolving area of study and hot topic of conversation. Let’s briefly consider what we do and don’t know about the most indispensable position.*
*-This is simply the opinion of a former catcher and shouldn’t be construed as a “fact.”
Normal Fielding
This is pretty straightforward as far as catcher defense is concerned. Catchers field bunts and chase pop flies and need to put tags on runners trying to score just like normal fielders. Baseball Info Solutions soaks that up in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), and seems to do a solid job determining which catchers are capable of handling typical fielding tasks.
The major problem here is that there just aren’t enough difficult “traditional” defense plays for catchers to make to really get a great handle on the distribution of performance. Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) doesn’t even consider catchers for this reason, although there’s a chance that StatCast data might open some doors in the near future.
This isn’t a buzzing area of research, but catchers are involved in standard plays in addition to all their other duties.
Pitch Framing
Pitch framing is ground zero for baseball analysts right now. There are dozens upon dozens of studies of pitch framing that were made possible by public PITCHf/x data, but this one from Mike Fast is one of the most prominent. He wasn’t the first or last to investigate, but that article sort of blew the doors off and gave us the idea that a catcher might be worth 3-4 wins a year based on their ability to get extra strikes.
StatCorner implemented a model for capturing framing and Baseball Prospectus followed last March with an effort of their own. Efforts vary and you can easily construct a measure of extra strikes using data on FanGraphs or Baseball Savant, but the BP model, for example, takes into account the probability of the pitch being called a strike, the run value of the pitch, and attempts to control for umpire and pitcher.
The research and fascination has exploded over the last couple of years. Until recently, we all knew that framing was a part of the game, but had no idea what the numbers looked like. Now, we’re in a position to say that excellent pitcher framers might be able to add a couple of wins to their team’s total by the end of a season. There’s more work to be done in perfecting some of the controls and understanding the role pitcher, but we seem to be at the point where we’re only arguing about the magnitude of the effect rather than who is very good and who is very bad.
Blocking
Blocking is another one of those skills that we’ve known about forever but had no real idea about how to measure until a few years ago. This groundbreaking work (pun intended) by Bojan Koprivica makes use of PITCHf/x data to estimate the probability that a pitch will get away from the catcher and then credits those catchers who keep that from happening. It’s impossible to do it justice in a summary article, but you should absolutely read it if you’re interested at all in the subject and read the Baseball Prospectus article on framing, which considers blocking as well.
The model is quite impressive, but given that the talent spread is pretty limited, we’re probably not in a position to take the numbers as gospel, even if they do allow us to say that a quality catcher saves about 5 runs with his ability to block pitches. My biggest personal reservation is actually related to the next section, which is the biggest mystery: game calling. The relationship between the two is understandably foggy and impossible to strip out at the moment.
Game Calling
Basically, we don’t know anything. That’s hyperbole, but it’s representative of game calling’s place in the overall framework of baseball analysis. Ben Lindbergh penned a fantastic piece on the subject over the summer, but despite a very deep dive into one particular catcher’s game calling, it doesn’t leave us with a framework to truly evaluate the skill.
In the same piece, Lindbergh cites data from Mitchell Litchman that indicates the spread of game calling performance over the course of a season is probably -10 to +10 runs, but the data driving that estimate isn’t publicly available. What we learn from reading that piece is that Yadier Molina seems to have a powerful effect on his pitchers compared to other Cardinals backstops, but the actual art of calling and managing a game is still quite mysterious.
We don’t know anything about who really deserves credit for calling a particular pitch: the catcher, the pitcher, or the coaching staff. We don’t know anything about how often pitchers overrule catchers and choose another pitch. We don’t know about sign stealing, advanced scouting reports, or what the right pitch distribution should be in any one situation. We don’t know how often a catcher calls the right pitch and the pitcher simply executes poorly.
Right now, we don’t have a game calling metric to point to because it’s really hard to develop a valid framework. Individual teams have some idea, but they have access to private information that we don’t.
One of the catcher’s most important jobs is deciding which pitch the pitcher should throw and in what location, but at this moment we do not have a publicly available metric that tells us anything about that skill.
Controlling the Running Game
Finally, catchers prevent stolen bases and keep runners close enough to their base to limit how far they can advance on batted balls. Baseball Info Solutions has a rSB metric that captures the catcher’s ability to hold and eliminate base runners, with the goal of stripping out the role of the pitcher. Over the last year, Max Weinstein has authored two pieces (here and here) that shine light on the role of the pitcher in a big way.
Certainly a great arm and quick release scare off runners and allow catchers to rack up caught stealings, but recent evidence shows that a lot of what happens on the base paths is conditional on the pitcher’s time to the plate and ability to hold runners. Ironically, the part of the game we most associate with catchers might be the part of the game in which they play the smallest role.
Overview
This piece isn’t meant to serve as a comprehensive reference list for every study of catcher defense conducting during the last five years. Instead, it’s meant to highlight some leading work and provide a sense of where we currently stand. We have some decent measures of all aspects of catcher defense except for game calling/leadership/managing the pitcher staff, which is probably the most interesting skill of all. Framing and blocking numbers are new, and there’s recent research which indicates our conception of stolen base prevention might be slightly off target.
In general, it’s all a great start but there’s room to grow. Unlike stats like wOBA and FIP, we only have a few years of data for most of these metrics and haven’t put them through the ringer in the same way as popular hitting and pitching stats. It’s important to replicate and build on this work, but it’s also important to take stock of where we are. We knowing something about four of the five aspects of catcher defense, but we still know less about catcher defense than we do about most aspects of the game. So much of the evaluation we want to do is conditional on knowing information we simply aren’t privy to.
That’s exciting if you’re curious about the game, but frustrating if you’re someone who craves precision and immediate answers.With a Committee of Secretaries favouring lateral entry into the civil service, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) has been instructed to put up a proposal on the induction of outsiders in the middle rung of ministries that deal with economy and infrastructure.
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Sources said instructions have come from the Prime Minister’s Office to prepare a broad outline of modalities for selecting private individuals for appointment in the ranks of deputy secretary, director and joint secretary. The move was in response to a central government staffing policy paper where the DoPT had indicated a huge shortage of officers in the middle management level, they said.
Sources said the shortlisting of private sector executives or social workers would be through a matrix of experience and qualification, without taking into account their existing salaries. The final selection would be done by a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary, they said.
The preliminary estimate was that around 40 individuals, including successful entrepreneurs, academicians and social workers, would be taken in through lateral entry, mainly at the joint-secretary level where there is a dearth of officers.
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According to another official, these appointments would not be for regulating ministries such as Home, Defence, Personnel or even Corporate Affairs. Last August, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh had told Lok Sabha that there was no proposal to constitute a committee to study the feasibility of lateral entry as such issues required political consensus.Top Stories Top Stories More>>
Food Fight: Tell us where you like to eat! Food Fight: Tell us where you like to eat! It’s the battle for the best eats! Let us know where you like to eat! It’s the battle for the best eats! Let us know where you like to eat! News 12 New Jersey is holding a battle of the best eats around! So tell us where you like to eat! News 12 New Jersey is holding a battle of the best eats around! So tell us where you like to eat!
R. Kelly leaves jail after posting $100K in sex abuse case R. Kelly leaves jail after posting $100K in sex abuse case (AP Photo/Tom Gianni). ADDS NAMES OF LAWYERS - In this courtroom sketch, R&B singer R. Kelly, attorney Steve Greenberg and prosecutor Jennifer Gonzalez appears before Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, S... (AP Photo/Tom Gianni). ADDS NAMES OF LAWYERS - In this courtroom sketch, R&B singer R. Kelly, attorney Steve Greenberg and prosecutor Jennifer Gonzalez appears before Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, S... R. Kelly's attorney says arrangements are being made to pay the R&B singer's $100,000 bail to free him while he awaits trial for aggravated sexual abuse. R. Kelly's attorney says arrangements are being made to pay the R&B singer's $100,000 bail to free him while he awaits trial for aggravated sexual abuse.
Bridge scandal defendant resentenced to less prison time Bridge scandal defendant resentenced to less prison time An appointee of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called out his former boss Tuesday at his resentencing for his role in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal, blaming his missteps partly on a misguided loyalty to the two-term Republican. An appointee of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called out his former boss Tuesday at his resentencing for his role in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal, blaming his missteps partly on a misguided loyalty to the two-term Republican.True Life: I'm 27 years old, I'm in a fantasy football league that takes itself way too seriously, & I just re-took the SAT. This is the story of the absurd experience & mind-blowing results.
2014
It was season five of our storied fantasy football league. Fourteen college friends/fraternity brothers sparring in the ultimate competition of strategy, stamina, and athleticism. In the first 4 years of the league, winning wasn't everything, it was the only thing. Fame, fortune, women, endorsement deals...a league champion could expect a life-changing windfall. But in our 5th year, we decided that wasn't enough.
Foolishly, we made a decision that will likely haunt each of us for the rest of our lives: The Loser Punishment. It was a simple, seemingly harmless concept - the two teams with the worst records would square off in The Dumpster Bowl at the end of the season. The Dumpster Bowl Loser would then be subject to a punishment chosen by the prior year's loser. Since this was the first year, we put the inaugural punishment up for a league vote. The winner by a landslide: Re-taking the SAT. "Ha! What an idiot that guy's gonna be!" I smugly thought as I submitted my vote. I was coming off a heartbreaking 2nd place finish and had never been close to coming in last, so I was in no danger of this peril...
The Season
After starting out a mediocre 4-4, roughly 50% of the ACL's on my team blow out and I lose the next 5 out of 6 games.
Oh shit.
And just like that, I'm sitting in second to last place. It's alright though...no need to panic...I'll be facing Keep Calm & Megatron, a team with an owner so terrible that he would be making his 3rd consecutive appearance in the Dumpster Bowl had it been a thing in prior years. I confidently set my lineup and go on living my life.
Sunday of the Dumpster Bowl
I'm pumped up but I try to stay focused as I spend 7 straight hours lounging hungover on the couch watching Redzone. This is what winners are made of, I whisper to myself as I finish off my second delivery meal of the day.
Monday Morning
We both came to play on Sunday and I'm ahead by 8 points. We each have kickers in the Monday night game (Atl vs. GB) but he's also got a banged up Jordy Nelson. It's gonna be close but I'm still optimistic.
Monday Night
4th Quarter. 10:00 minutes left. Still ahead by 5. Nothing big happens and I'm good. And then...Rodgers drops back on a play-action and launches a bomb down the middle of the field hitting Nelson perfectly in stride. My heart sinks as he crosses into the end zone...64-yard touchdown. My vision goes blurry and all sound turns to a low hum. I'm pretty sure I black out and see my entire life flash before my eyes. That's it. It's all over. My fate is set.
I'm going to be taking the SAT again...only this time a full decade older than my spry high school self.
2015
Because the SAT is only offered every few months and I have a life full of Saturday morning conflicts (literally any excuse I could come up with), I put it off for as long as possible. However in order to establish the punishment going into the 2015 season, I have to commit to a date and submit my registration online. The very astute College Board website recognizes that I had already taken the test and requires my original registration number to proceed. Dammit...I knew I shouldn't have thrown all my papers in |
, the art style, and the details are all so very good. Hyper-realistic games lose that. Zelda Breath of the Wild is a work of art.
Sorry it’s a bit dusty. BB-8 for scale.
The best way I have found to control the Switch has been one Joy-Con per hand. Meaning undock the two gamepads from the Switch and use them independently. It is by far the most comfortable way I have found and from all the reviews I have seen I’m not alone. You can use the included gray Joy-Con straps if you have large hands to make it a bit more comfortable but I was fine without them. Nintendo does sell color matched blue & red Joy-Con straps but sold separately.
I have not used the Joy-Con Grip once since getting the system. It brings your hands way too close together and feels unnatural. I guess this would be my first gripe with the system itself but my thinking is it’s designed to push gamers to purchase the Pro Controller which I may end up doing eventually. As of now, I am smitten with using them separately. Especially games like Zelda that incorporate Motion controls.
Speaking of gripes the fact that the only way you can get screen caps off of the system is either to post them directly or to save them to a micro sd card, then take it out, then put it into a reader, and finally pull them off… its a bit much. I’m surprised that I can’t just plug in over USB-C to my computer and pull the files off. I will give Nintendo credit where credit is do, it is super easy to capture a screen cap and share over social media the way it set up… just not my favorite.
I have also seen the dreaded left Joy-Con bluetooth issue first hand. It is not as bad as some people as witnessed but when I’m 8ft away and I put my hands to my sides… it becomes completely unresponsive. I Hope Nintendo fixes this asap because the right Joy-Con has zero issues connecting.
Overall I’m pretty sure you can tell by now I am in love with the new Nintendo Switch. I had to pull myself away from Zelda long enough to write which was very hard. It has a few shortcomings but nothing that would make me not want to recommend this system to pretty much 80% of people I know. It’s that good.
Do yourself a favor and buy Zelda Breath of the Wild and play it. On the Switch, if you are lucky enough to have one already, the Wii U if you must, or make friends with someone who does… it’s worth it!
Full list of Nintendo Switch accessories can be found here: http://www.nintendo.com/switch/buy-now/accessories/
If you liked this feel free to checkout my personal Blog www.JoeyRiz.com as well as my YouTube https://www.youtube.com/joeyrizSon jarocho is a regional folk musical style of Mexican Son from Veracruz, a Mexican state along the Gulf of Mexico. It evolved over the last two and a half centuries along the coastal portions of southern Tamaulipas state and Veracruz state, hence the term jarocho, a colloquial term for people or things from the port city of Veracruz.
Characteristics [ edit ]
Son jarocho group
It represents a fusion of indigenous (primarily Huastecan), Spanish, and African musical elements, reflecting the population which evolved in the region from Spanish colonial times. Lyrics include humorous verses and subjects such as love, nature, sailors, and cattle breeding that still reflect life in colonial and 19th century Mexico. Verses are often shared with the wider Mexican and Hispanic Caribbean repertoire and some have even been borrowed from famous works by writers of the Spanish "Siglo de Oro". It is usually performed by an ensemble of musicians and instruments which collectively are termed a "conjunto jarocho".[1] Son jarocho is often played only on jaranas and sung in a style in which several singers exchange improvised verses called décimas, often with humorous or offensive content.
Instruments [ edit ]
The instruments most commonly associated with son jarocho are the jarana jarocha, a small guitar-like instrument used to provide a harmonic base, with some double strings arranged in a variety of configurations; the requinto jarocho, another small guitar-like instrument plucked with a long pick traditionally made from cow-horn, usually tuned to a higher pitch and with a four or five thick nylon strings; the diatonic arpa jarocha; the leona, a type of acoustic bass guitar, and sometimes a minor complement of percussion instruments such as the pandero (especially in the style of Tlacotalpan), the quijada (an instrument made of a donkey or horse jawbone) or the güiro.[2] Some groups add the marimbol, a plucked key box bass, and the cajón, (although the Peruvian version, not the Mexican cajón de tapeo).
Sones and groups [ edit ]
The most widely known son jarocho is "La Bamba", which has been popularized through the version by Ritchie Valens and the American movie of the same name. Other famous sones jarochos are "El Coco" and "La Iguana" and "El Cascabel", all of which have a call and response form, and "El Chuchumbé", "La Bruja".
Fermin Herrera (a Jarocho Harpist) has taught many people how to play, such as: John Robles and Antonio Moraza. It is because of him that many groups play or even know about the son jarocho in the USA. More recently, instruments and rhythms from son jarocho have been used by rock groups such as Café Tacuba, Quetzal, 22 Pesos, Ozomatli, and Zack de la Rocha. East L.A. rockers Los Lobos have also recorded in the Jarocho genre, as has Mexican-American artist Lila Downs. More recently son jarocho music has experienced a resurgence in the United States. U.S.-based bands now playing (as of 2012) or using elements of the genre include Radio Jarocho, David Wax Museum, Son del Centro, Las Cafeteras, Son del Viento, Los Cenzontles and Jarana Beat.[3]
Related genres are: son huasteco, huapango, son jaliscience, son chiapaneco
Well-known artists playing the genre are: Conjunto Hueyapan, Mono Blanco, Siquisirí, Tlen Huicani, Chuchumbé, Chucumite, and Son de Madera.
References [ edit ]Ford has brought its hot 2016 Focus RS to the New York International Auto Show, running through Sunday. Its 2.3-liter EcoBoost will deliver “well in excess of 315 hp,” and it features an all-wheel drive system that can send up to 70% of power rearward. The RS also comes equipped with adaptable suspension for street and track. It goes on sale next spring.
The all-wheel drive system is tuned to deliver excellent grip, according to Ford F, +1.37% with lateral acceleration capable of exceeding 1g. The RS comes standard with a set of high-performance Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires; Pilot Sport Cup 2s are optional. The system is calibrated together with Ford’s Electronic Stability Control and brake-based torque-vectoring functions to work as a package deal.
New aerodynamic adjustments eliminate lift and improve high-speed stability, according to Ford, while the coefficient of drag comes in at 0.35, about 9% less than the standard Focus.
Four selectable driving modes include normal, sport, track and drift, which modifies torque distribution to “help achieve controlled oversteer” — what we call a sweet, smoky drift. The RS also gets launch control, which basically allows the driver to pin the throttle and drop the clutch without leaving parts all over the starting line.
Bigger brakes with lightweight Brembo calipers are cooled with dedicated ducts from the front fascia. The front discs also feature ventilation fins to aid in cooling.
Ford PR is still being cagey with the exact output of the 2.3-liter EcoBoost mill, but 340 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque is not out of the realm of possibility. And don’t get us started on what the tuners will do to this engine. The poor thing doesn’t even know what’s coming.
Four exterior colors include nitrous blue, stealth gray, shadow black and frozen white.
Check out our intro story on the RS for the rest of the details and Autoweek’s RS photo gallery. We’ll be holding our breath waiting for our first drive, which could come by the end of the year.
About the New York Auto Show
The spring auto show season concludes with the New York Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Center. See Autoweek’s New York Auto Show home page for all the latest news, photos and reveals.
The story “2016 Ford Focus RS hot hatch will arrive next spring” originally appeared on Autoweek.com.
Get a daily roundup of the top reads in personal finance delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Personal Finance Daily newsletter. Sign up here.At a recent appearance at the National Press Club, Dick Cheney blamed Richard Clarke for leaving the nation vulnerable to attack ahead of 9/11 saying, "He obviously missed it." Cheney was referring to the threat from al Qaeda which Clarke had emphatically warned the administration about several times before the fall of 2001.
Jon Stewart was not pleased with Dick Cheney for these accusations, nor the members of the National Press Club who failed to challenge him about the assertion. In a segment called "Dick Uncut," Stewart used dark humor to take both the former Vice President and the media to task for the events leading up to 9/11 through the waterboarding of detainees. It simultaneously makes you laugh and want to punch a whole through the wall.It's not quite the drone-delivery business model that Amazon is planning to offer.
But a drone carrying heroin, marijuana, and tobacco dropped its payload over a prison yard crowded with inmates, causing a brief melee before authorities stamped out the brawl with pepper spray, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC).
Local media reported Tuesday that the July 29 melee at the Mansfield Correctional Institution began moments after a drone let loose with the goods. At least nine inmates began fighting over the package while other inmates rushed toward the brawl.
According to the Mansfield News Journal:
Other inmates on both north and south recreation began running in the general direction of the fight. The officers then used pepper spray to control the fight and ordered all inmates to get on the ground. The inmates complied and remained on the ground as other staff responded. All inmates (approximately 75 on north recreation and 130 on south recreation) were removed from the recreation yards to the gyms, where they were strip searched, run through the cell sensor, and clinic checked. The nine fighters were placed in solitary confinement status. There were no injuries to any staff or inmates, according to a report from ODRC. Upon reviewing the cameras, it was determined that a drone passed over the recreation yards immediately before the fight began. Further investigation revealed the drone dropped off a package intended for an inmate. The package was picked up on the north recreation yard, setting off a fight. The package was then thrown over the fence to the south recreation yard, according to ODRC.
None of the inmates are believed to have gotten away with the 65.4 grams of marijuana, 6.6 grams of heroin and 144.5 grams of tobacco.Vietnamese American Photographer An-My Le Selected For Whitney Biennial
Vietnamese American photographer An-My Le is one of 63 artists selected for this year's Whitney Biennial. Her new work was shot in Louisiana.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
During the Vietnam War, An-My Le lived with her family in Saigon in the southern part of the country. It was April 1975, the tense days before the city fell to the North Vietnamese, and there was a knock on the door.
AN-MY LE: It was a, I would say, huge American man in a Hawaiian shirt. And I still remember the Hawaiian shirt. And he said, you know, I'm from the embassy, and we're coming to pick you up to evacuate you. I'm coming back at 2 o'clock. And you need to be here, and do not have a suitcase, nothing more than just a little handbag.
SIEGEL: Along with thousands of others, the teenage An-My Le and her family were evacuated.
LE: The American military saved my life. The U.S. saved my life. You know, I was airlifted in an American C-130.
SIEGEL: Today Le is a photographer. She's also 1 of 63 artists selected for this year's Whitney Biennial in New York. The exhibition brings together new work by all kinds of different artist, many of them responding to the most pressing issues of our time. In An-My Le's case, it's how the past clashes with the present, as NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: To work out her own feelings about war, An-My Le spent years photographing the military - uneasy soldiers, training camps. She went back to Vietnam to shoot landscapes and portraits. More recently she's made trips to Louisiana to study Vietnamese fishermen. But her focus changed when one of her trips coincided with the election.
LE: So this picture here with the three workers - it's outside of New Orleans, and it's closer down to the ocean where the Vietnamese fishermen have their docks.
BLAIR: In a Brooklyn studio, Le points to a large photograph of three men gardening in a small plot of land next to the water, Mexicans working for the Vietnamese fishermen. All three wear sweatshirts, their hoods hiding their faces. She took the photo a day or two after the presidential election. As an immigrant herself, the scene grabbed her.
LE: I knew that there was something with the fact that they were somehow shrouded even though it wasn't that cold. There was something anonymous but important about the way they were working.
BLAIR: After the election, this image felt symbolic for Le.
LE: Symbolic because of I think Trump's rhetoric about undocumented workers, about illegal immigrants.
BLAIR: Even though Le is drawn to subjects that are personal, the stories her pictures tell have a much wider frame, says Yael Perez. He's a photographer and colleague of Le's.
YAEL PEREZ: She doesn't stay locked into the personal experience. She's able to shift from the Vietnamese community and turn the camera around and show this picture of the Mexican workers working on that garden.
BLAIR: Do you identify with these men at all?
LE: I think I used to. I think once I became an artist, I felt I had a voice, so I'm not so anonymous. But I used to feel that way, and I think many Vietnamese feel that way. And I think we were taught to not stand out.
BLAIR: An-My Le clearly didn't take that advice. In addition to the Whitney Biennial, her photos have been shown at galleries and museums around the world. And she won a MacArthur Genius Grant a few years ago. Elizabeth Blair, NPR news.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLOOD ORANGE SONG, "UNCLE ACE")
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The failure of Coalition leader Tony Abbott or his communications spokesman Tony Smith to indicate whether they would support the bill reflects divisions within the party about the government's plan to block access to internet sites banned under Australia's classification rules.
The Greens are opposed to the filter, giving the Liberals the crucial votes in the Senate that determine the success of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's plan, which has attracted criticism from Google, the United States and others in the internet industry.
On Monday night, when asked about the filter on the ABC's Q&A program, Mr Abbott explained key arguments for and against the proposal but did not articulate a definitive position.
''I want to see protections in place,'' the Opposition Leader said. ''I don't want to see our kids exposed to really terrible stuff on the internet. On the other hand, I don't want to see the internet destroyed by a filtering system that won't work, so I guess for me it's a factual issue.Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) talks to members of the media before an election night event in support of Terry McAuliffe at the Sheraton in Tysons Corner on Nov. 5 (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)
Despite sweeping losses in this month’s off-year elections, Virginia Republicans are hoping that the botched rollout of the health-care law will drag down Democrats across the country in 2014 — including U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner.
But if Republicans want revenge after their drubbing by Democrats this year, they must overcome some familiar hurdles.
The first is that Warner remains extremely popular, polls show, and has the wealth to fund a formidable reelection campaign. The second is that Republicans lack a big-name candidate willing to take him on, and they may not get one as long as they stick with their plan to select a nominee at a party convention rather than in a primary.
“I don’t see a whole lot of vulnerability for Warner, and even if the environment gets pretty awful, you still need a credible candidate,” said Jennifer Duffy, who covers Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Both the Cook Political Report and the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report rate Warner’s race as “safe” for Democrats, meaning a partisan flip is highly unlikely.
Warner, who declined to comment for this article, has long enjoyed high favorability ratings. A Quinnipiac University survey in September gave him a 61 percent job-approval score, although that was before the Affordable Care Act’s rollout began affecting the poll numbers of President Obama and the Democrats.
To some in the GOP, the answer is obvious: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II should pivot from his Nov. 5 gubernatorial race, which he lost by less than 3 percentage points to Terry McAuliffe (D), to a quest for the U.S. Senate. But that looks unlikely.
In mid-November, Cuccinelli told The Washington Post that he saw the race against Warner as “tempting” because of the controversy surrounding the health-care law.
“There is no such thing as an un-endangered Democrat who promised, as Mark Warner did, on video, sitting in his Senate office, ‘I would not vote for a health-care plan that doesn’t let you keep health insurance you like,’ ” Cuccinelli said. “Oh, really? You were the tie-breaking vote.... Mark Warner’s not going to have a cruise in 2014.”
Despite that rhetoric, Republicans who know Cuccinelli well say privately they do not expect him to run, partly because he will need the income and benefits from a full-time job to support his family after his service as attorney general ends in January.
Beyond Cuccinelli, the field appears wide open — and thin.
So far, two little-known Republicans have entered the race: Shak Hill, a Centreville financial planner, and Howie Lind, a former Pentagon official and lobbyist from McLean. Both men are military veterans who have worked on Virginia’s 10th Congressional District Republican Committee.
Neither has mounted a big-ticket campaign before or demonstrated he can raise the kind of cash necessary to keep pace with Warner.
Patrick Murphy, Lind’s campaign manager, said Lind would be competitive because “he has a deep background in defense issues, which Mark Warner lacks,” and because Warner is “one of Barack Obama’s most reliable wingmen in the Senate.”
Hill acknowledged in an interview that he was “the underdog” in the race, but he compared himself to U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who both won tough primaries with support from the tea party movement.
“They were also at very low name ID when they entered their respective races,” Hill said.
Through Sept. 30, Hill had raised $118,000 — nearly all of it from his own pocket — and Lind had raised $83,000. Warner had $5.9 million in the bank as of that date.
Among better-known Republicans, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling are not expected to run. State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (Harrisonburg) is awaiting a recount in his tight race for attorney general and probably won’t say anything more about his future until he knows the outcome of that election.
E.W. Jackson, the Chesapeake minister who lost the lieutenant governor’s race this year by a wide margin, has yet to say what he will do next.
“I am still thinking about the future, and far from ready to make any announcement at this time,” Jackson said in an e-mailed statement.
Jackson won the nomination for the post at a state party convention over six candidates who were mostly better-known and better-funded than he was. His choppy campaign and convincing loss are reason enough for some Republicans to hope that the party will hold a 2014 primary.
But at the moment, the plan is to hold a convention, and several Republicans said they saw no concerted effort within the state party to change that decision.
Stafford County Board of Supervisors Chairman Susan Stimpson, one of the GOP candidates who lost to Jackson in the lieutenant governor’s race, said primaries and conventions each have their merits. And while she’s not running, she thinks Warner can be beaten.
“I want someone to name one time Mark Warner has voted opposite what President Obama has pushed for,” Stimpson said. “I think he’s very vulnerable.”
Prince William Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, another defeated candidate for lieutenant governor, thinks the party needs to change how it picks its nominees. “We’ve got to take a serious look at changing the nomination process to a primary.... There’s never been any doubt that a primary is better for choosing the most electable candidate,” Stewart said.
Stewart also says that the Republican who faces Warner “is going to have one hell of a time.”
“He’s obviously popular,” Stewart said of the incumbent. “Anything can happen... but I don’t think it’s likely, and whoever we nominate is going to have to be a real strong candidate to have any chance at all.”Virus-induced autoimmunity may play a causal role in autism. To examine the etiologic link of viruses in this brain disorder, we conducted a serologic study of measles virus, mumps virus, and rubella virus. Viral antibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serum of autistic children, normal children, and siblings of autistic children. The level of measles antibody, but not mumps or rubella antibodies, was significantly higher in autistic children as compared with normal children (P = 0.003) or siblings of autistic children (P <or= 0.0001). Furthermore, immunoblotting of measles vaccine virus revealed that the antibody was directed against a protein of approximately 74 kd molecular weight. The antibody to this antigen was found in 83% of autistic children but not in normal children or siblings of autistic children. Thus autistic children have a hyperimmune response to measles virus, which in the absence of a wild type of measles infection might be a sign of an abnormal immune reaction to the vaccine strain or virus reactivation.Google lawyers are trying to wrest more information from movie studios about their relationships with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who began investigating the search giant at the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America.
Ongoing litigation between Google and the MPAA has unearthed and made public just one new e-mail so far—and it's very revealing.
The e-mail (PDF), published in court records on Thursday, shows Hood's plan of how a media attack against Google could proceed—and how the MPAA could help out. It's a six-step plan, which begins with a call to several Google attorneys. It proceeds as follows:
A session at the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) summer meeting in which Hood's office will demonstrate illegal online purchases that begin with a Google search. The memo suggests, "Possibilities include (i) prescription painkiller that advertises with Google; (ii) an illegal drug, such as heroin; (iii) download of a currently-running R rated movie by a minor (volunteer from NAAG); and (iv) assault weapon delivered to home, in violation of federal firearm laws (taped purchase via an investigator from our office)." The buy would be followed by a "panel discussion of possible next steps for AGs."
Research into possible causes of action against Google and preparation of a memo to distribute to other AGs. Hood's attorneys had the prep for this underway at the time the e-mail was sent in 2013, and they suggested it "likely will focus on unfair trade practices."
A media campaign focusing on a Today Show segment that would show off the "live buys" of illegal goods that Hood's office performed at the NAAG summer session. The memo says, "We propose working with MPAA (Vans), Comcast, and NewsCorp (Bill Guidera) to see about working with a PR firm to create an attack on Google (and others who are resisting AG efforts to address online piracy). This PR firm can be funded through a nonprofit dedicated to IP issues... After the Today Show segment, you want to have a large investor of Google (George can help us determine that) come forward and say that Google needs to change its behavior/demand reform. Next, you want NewsCorp to develop and place an editorial in the WSJ [Wall Street Journal] emphasizing that Google's stock will lose value in the face of a sustained attack by AGs and noting some of the possible causes of action we have developed."
The final two steps are:
Regulatory Action: "Following the media blitz, you want Bill Guidera and Rick Smotkin to work with the PR firm to identify a lawyer specializing in SEC matters to work with a stockholder. This lawyer should be able to identify the appropriate regulatory filing to be made against Google." AG Action: "As a final step, we propose that AGs will issue CIDs [civil investigative demands] to Google. We have researched these issues in the past and can draw from that."
Ultimately, Hood did send a CID, a subpoena-like investigative document, to Google. However, a serious wrench was thrown into the plan when the close ties between MPAA lawyers and Hood were revealed following internal MPAA e-mails becoming public after the Sony hacking attack.
Google challenged the CID in court, citing the newly public MPAA e-mails as evidence. That move caused US District Judge Henry Wingate to put Hood's investigation on ice. Now, Google is seeking more information to prove its case that the investigation should be enjoined permanently.
This latest e-mail was produced as a result of Google filing a motion to compel (PDF) in New York, in which the search company complains that its discovery subpoenas "have produced nothing" due to "meritless" objections from the MPAA. Google lawyers said there's evidence that Hood's investigation was "undertaken in bad faith and for a retaliatory purpose." They continue:
The requested documents are likely to bolster that finding by shining a light on the parties that were animating the Attorney General and other government officials. Google expects the documents will show that the Attorney General, the Subpoenaed Parties, and their lobbyists understood that his actions invaded the exclusive province of federal law. More fundamentally, the documents are likely to show that the Attorney General's investigation was intended not to uncover supposed violations of Mississippi law, but instead to coerce Google into silencing speech that Viacom, Fox, and NBC do not like (such as search results, user-generated content and advertising), in violation of Google's constitutional rights.
The motion to compel has yet to be ruled on.Share
Huawei’s latest wearable is a fitness tracker that looks like a smartwatch. It’s also nothing like last year’s Huawei Watch, so it doesn’t run Android Wear.
The Huawei Fit is akin to Fitbit’s Charge 2 band — it features a continuous heart-rate monitor, can track various exercises but has a focus on running, monitors your daily activity, pairs with your smartphone to alert you of incoming calls and messages, and monitors your sleep.
But while the Charge 2 costs $150, Huawei undercuts the tracker with a $130 price tag. It also has a leg up with two important features: longer battery life and water resistance up to 50 meters.
The Huawei Fit has an 80mAh battery that offers up to six days with “normal use,” but thanks to its memory LCD touchscreen (similar to the Pebble), it can last up to 30 days in standby mode. A memory LCD touchscreen is like a harmony between an e-ink display and an LCD. You’ll also notice the always-on screen only displays content in black or white, which also helps with conserving battery.
Design wise, there’s nothing too special about Huawei’s 39.5mm watch. It has a sizable bezel around the display, which is housed in an aluminum case. An ambient sensor will help you check the screen easily in broad daylight. The silicone band comes in an 18mm or 20mm size and is interchangeable. It comes in three color variants — black, blue, and orange — but you also have the option to choose the color of the metal casing: “Moonlight Silver or Titanium Grey.”
The Huawei Fit isn’t a smartwatch.
With the Fit on, it can detect when you’re running, walking, or sleeping, so you don’t need to trigger a session. It tracks basic fitness information like most devices in its category including steps, distance, calories burned, and duration of sleep. You can set goals via the Huawei app for more personal measurements, and after any exercise session, it will show you relevant information, including your VO2 max and your exercise result score.
Running is one of the core focuses of the Fit — Huawei says it partnered with FirstBeat, a fitness analytics company, to help users “design running plans,” get real-time guidance during exercises, and the option to export your data after sessions. There are four different running modes: 5km, 10km, half marathon, and a marathon mode.
The heart rate monitor is akin to what we’ve seen on other fitness trackers — it’s automatic during exercises, or you can access it via the heart rate screen. You can even monitor your heart rate all day and see a detailed overview over the course of four hours. But Huawei’s got one unique feature that’s distinct to the Fit.
“During exercise and training modes, five heart rate zones are displayed on the watch in real time,” according to the company. “These zones are divided according to the activity: warm up, fat burning, aerobic endurance, anaerobic endurance and maximum effort. When the heart rate approaches the maximum effort zone, the watch will vibrate to alert the user.”
You can view all the information about your heart rate, such as maximum and minimum heart rates and your resting rate, via the Huawei Wear app. The app also analyzes the data and can give you a “health assessment” after it monitors your heart rate over time.
The Huawei Fit isn’t a smartwatch. The only non-fitness and non-sleep related feature it has is smart notifications when connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth 4.2, but this is limited to incoming calls and messages. You can end a call by swiping up on the screen, but don’t expect a keyboard to respond to texts. You also won’t be able to store any songs to the device for Bluetooth playback, as there’s only 16MB of flash memory.
The Huawei Fit is available today for $130 from Best Buy, Newegg, and Amazon. You’ll only be able to get the black variant at Best Buy for the next 60 days, but the blue and orange variants are available online.
Amazon JetThe revolutionary technology that tracks just about everything and everyone on a baseball field made its televised debut on the MLB Network showcase game between the Cardinals and Nationals in Washington, D.C., and Jay, the fleet-footed St. Louis center fielder, made the most of the statistical spotlight with a defensive game to remember.
Statcast was off and running during Tuesday night's 2-1, 10-inning Nationals win over the Cardinals, and so was Jon Jay.
Statcast was off and running during Tuesday night's 2-1, 10-inning Nationals win over the Cardinals, and so was Jon Jay.
The revolutionary technology that tracks just about everything and everyone on a baseball field made its televised debut on the MLB Network showcase game between the Cardinals and Nationals in Washington, D.C., and Jay, the fleet-footed St. Louis center fielder, made the most of the statistical spotlight with a defensive game to remember.
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Jay made the play of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, the score tied at 1 and the bases loaded. Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth hit a hard line drive that was sinking to the outfield turf and surely would have won the game if not caught. But Jay, playing shallow in center field, sprinted to his left and dove to catch the ball and save the game, at least temporarily, by sending it to extra innings.
Tech-tacular! Nats' walk-off W caps Statcast debut
Statcast showed that Jay's first step, from contact to making his first move to the ball, was 0.3 seconds, and his top speed was 14.8 mph as he covered the ground to lay out for the highlight-reel grab.
"I put myself there," Jay said. "Just in that situation, I want to make him beat us over the head. In that situation, I didn't want a line drive [to drop]. I was going to make him beat us to the biggest part of the field. It worked out right there."
Jay's "D" worked out earlier, too, and Statcast was all over it.
Video: STL@WSH: Jay takes away a hit with nice running catch
With one out in the bottom of the third inning and St. Louis starter Lance Lynn already trailing, 1-0, and dealing with runners on first and second, Nats first baseman Ryan Zimmerman hit a ball hard to the right-center-field gap.
Jay got a good jump on the ball and was able to run it down by the wall while basically in cruise control. The play helped Lynn eventually escape that inning unscathed, and Statcast helped determine how Jay got the job done.
Get acquainted with glossary of Statcast terms
Jay averaged 10.7 mph while running his route, reaching a maximum speed of 17 mph. For comparison, Cincinnati speedster Billy Hamilton was tracked on Statcast at 21.2 mph while recently stealing a base.
But MLB Network analyst and Hall of Famer John Smoltz astutely pointed out that Jay slowed down with caution while approaching the wall, knowing it was coming up quickly and that he might get injured if he slammed into it.
"He had two terrific plays," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "Just a real nice job. He saved the game there, gave us an extra chance. Good defensive day for him, for sure. Jon's just got great instincts, good jumps and does a nice job out there."Chip Ganassi will this evening be inducted into the MSHOF in Daytona Beach, Fla., along with AMA bike legend Everett Brashear, NASCAR team owner Richard Childress, late Land Speed Record holder Gary Gabelich, NHRA commentator Dave McClelland, former all-’round racer, and subsequent writer and broadcaster Sam Posey, and 1955 Indy 500 winner and sprint car ace Bob Sweikert. For more details click here.
Ganassi, a former Indy car driver, is the only car owner in history to have won the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, the Brickyard 400, and earlier this month he added the 24 Hours of Le Mans to his list of conquests.
His teams have won 18 championships and 175 races. His open-wheel teams have amassed 11 championships and more than 100 victories, including five in the Indy 500. His NASCAR teams have 17 victories including wins in the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400. In addition to his recent win at Le Mans, his sports car teams have a record six Rolex 24 at Daytona victories to complement their seven IMSA sportscar series championships.
Many stars – rivals, partners, employees – have paid tribute. Roger Penske commented: “When you look back at how Chip transitioned from being a driver to a team owner and how he has built his organization into one of the top teams across all levels of motorsports – it certainly is remarkable.
“From IndyCar to NASCAR to sportscar competition, Chip Ganassi Racing has really raised the bar in all of those disciplines and the consistent performance of their teams has been very impressive over the years. We know that drive to succeed starts at the top with Chip. I am proud to call him a friend and a competitor and he is very deserving of this special honor.”
Mario Andretti commented: “I’ve known Chip since he was driving Formula Fords in the early ’80s. As he transitioned to team ownership, the motorsports world watched him reach the pinnacle of the sport by winning in all the major categories that he entered. In my eyes, that makes him an icon. His contributions to our sport are immense. He’s a tremendous competitor and also a great friend.”
Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon added: “Chip is a great businessman and he is the definition of a racer. It doesn't matter what series, whether it's the Indianapolis 500 or the Brickyard 400, whether it's the Daytona 500 or the 24 Hours of Daytona, or Le Mans, Chip's teams will be battling for the win. It takes a great leader to accomplish the impressive victory résumé he has. Chip is a very deserving honoree."
Jim Campbell of Chevrolet, Ganassi’s partners in both IndyCar and NASCAR, praised his “incredible ability to attract talent and put people in the right positions to create team chemistry with a sole focus on winning,” before adding, “It’s a lot more fun racing with Chip Ganassi than it is against him.”
Ford Racing’s Product Development and Chief Technical Officer |
ing peace and stability in the South China Sea region."
The International Court of Justice had ruled in July that China had no superior claim to the islands, but the verdict was rejected by Beijing.A full six years after the global financial crisis, not only have governments failed to rethink the way we organise our economic systems, but politicians across the world have pressed forward with an obsolete political agenda that has paved the way for yet more financial chaos. The failure of our elected representatives to adopt a just and sustainable alternative to neoliberal capitalism has also set the scene for years of increased hardship and popular unrest that will inevitably follow any future economic crash.
The very real prospect of a repeat of the 2008 meltdown is now widely accepted in the mainstream media, and the many possible factors that could trigger it are readily discussed in policy circles. As the International Monetary Fund makes plain in its latest World Economic Outlook report, for example, the risk of a worldwide recession is of particular concern — especially as the Holy Grail of achieving respectable levels of economic growth is becoming ever more elusive.
Of particular concern is the Eurozone where five countries, including Spain and Italy, are already experiencing economic deflation. All eyes are currently on Germany, which is teetering on the brink of recession as its economic activity continues to contract over consecutive months. The implications for the Eurozone as a whole if Germany enters a contractionary cycle will be far-reaching, since Germany is widely regarded as the main engine for growth in Europe and often props-up neighbouring states when they experience financial hardship. The overarching concern is that this entire currency block could soon succumb to a deflationary spiral, which would plunge it back into a full blown Euro crisis.
The expansion of the shadow banking industry, especially in Europe, has also been flagged by senior officials within the banking industry and the IMF as a threat to global financial stability. This shrouded sector of finance is far less regulated than mainstream banking, partly because they make use of tax havens and complex speculative instruments. Assets managed by investment funds operating within this sector, which include hedge funds, have risen by 30% in the past two years alone.
Global debt and other tipping points
Mounting levels of debt, largely fuelled by historically low interest rates that encourage excessive borrowing, are another potential cause of future crisis. According to the latest Geneva Report, global debt has reached a staggering $158.8 trillion, which sets a new debt-to-GDP record. China has been the real engine driving this indebtedness – their external debt has risen by 50% in the last year alone, making them particularly vulnerable to financial crisis at a time when their economic growth rate is also stagnating.
The impact of debt will, of course, be most keenly felt in developing countries. According to the Jubilee Debt Campaign, reckless lending to a set of 43 developing countries has surged by 60% since 2009 – raising the prospect of a new debt crisis in the developing world. Undoubtedly, this will leave many governments with crippling debt repayments over the next decade, which will further thwart government efforts to reduce poverty and provide essential public services.
As James Medway of the New Economic Foundation explains, the real problem arises when high levels of debt (as are currently evident across the globe) combine with low rates of growth, which will almost certainly decline further in the period ahead. If there is not enough economic growth to repay these debts with interest, then the entire system will inevitably come to a grinding halt.
On top of this already lethal cocktail of stagnant growth, excessive debt and burgeoning speculative activity, we can also add the recent drop in oil prices, which will have dramatic implications for oil exporting countries. Venezuela, Iran and Russia, for example, are all heavily dependent on their income from this commodity to finance government spending or maintain the strength of their currency. And these economic concerns do not even take into account the financial impact of Ebola, the economic consequences of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, or the cost of climate change if we fail to reverse our current trajectory of inaction.
From any angle, the world financial outlook can only be regarded as rapidly deteriorating, and this starkly reflects how little policymakers have done to address the root causes of the 2008 crisis. Instead of dramatically overhauling the global economy and safeguarding the needs of the majority, governments have chosen to resuscitate a discredited economic ideology that preaches more of the same deregulatory, consumption-driven, austerity-backed neoliberalism. As the social and environmental impacts of the ongoing economic crisis become ever more apparent, how long will concerned citizens be willing to tolerate a political elite that is largely self-serving and neglects the needs of ordinary people?
The road towards system change
Despite the palpable frustration being expressed everywhere since the current cycle of public protest began, our leaders have failed to listen to the voice of the people, preferring instead to continue pandering to the same corporate interests they are so closely allied with. Consequently, the top 1% of the world’s population are richer now than they were before the financial crisis and this tiny minority own almost half of all available wealth. Meanwhile, half the world’s population now share a mere 1% of the world’s combined wealth, a staggering 2 billion people remain undernourished, and global income inequality has returned to 1820 levels.
There can be little doubt that we are entering a prolonged period of economic hardship, which will be accompanied by a steady escalation in public protest as large swathes of ordinary people join activists and civil society organisations in calling for social justice, environmental stewardship and true democracy. As is happening right now in Hong Kong and London’s Parliament Square, it will be in iconic public spaces that these citizens will make their demands and thereby gain mainstream media attention and support from within the wider populace.
If governments across the world intend to avoid the inevitability of economic upheaval, social unrest and public protest, they need to finally accept that the existing economic model is wholly responsible for the current crisis. At the very least, any solution will require a decisive break away from the myopic pursuit of economic growth, the maximisation of corporate profit, and the relentless promotion of consumerist values. As campaigners have long been demanding in response to the convergence of crises we face, we urgently need a new economic paradigm – one in which wealth, power and resources are shared more equitably and sustainably within nations and internationally.
Will politicians make these changes willingly and in accordance with the many sane alternatives that are widely discussed among progressives? A transformative shift in public policy is certainly not on the cards any time soon. But with prolonged financial crises on the horizon and public protest intensifying across the globe, it will remain impossible for governments to ignore the voice of the people indefinitely.As Bob Dylan told us long ago, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” These days, a foul wind blows from City Hall.
With subpoenas issued, investigations spreading and at least one federal grand jury at work, the question isn’t whether Bill de Blasio’s administration has a corruption problem. The questions are how big is the problem, how many agencies are tainted and how high up the pecking order does it go?
The preliminary answers are worrisome. A small army of investigators, including the FBI, is on the hunt, and all roads appear to lead straight to Mayor Putz.
The two biggest and most recent scandals involve lucrative gifts and cash given to current and former top officers in the NYPD, and the removal of a deed restriction and sale of a city-owned Manhattan building that netted private investors a cool $72 million profit.
The rub is that both cases feature donors who contributed large sums to the mayor’s campaign and his slush fund. That would suggest the fish stinks from the head.
That pattern isn’t new. There were red flags when de Blasio went to extraordinary lengths, including the approval of huge raises for the City Council, to do the bidding of donors who demanded the end of the beloved horse carriages. He also used phony traffic statistics to try to crush Uber, a move that would have meant a windfall to the yellow medallion kings who donated more than $500,000 to the mayor.
The possibility that de Blasio presides over a pervasive pay-to-play culture cannot be dismissed. To cite yet another example, the teachers union piled cash into his political fund, and came away with an excessively generous contract.
All those suspect exchanges demand the strictest scrutiny because even a suggestion that City Hall is for sale is intolerable. As the incidents multiply, with the mayor’s city and state Democratic allies joining the probes, we are long past the suggestion threshold. A little more than two years into de Blasio’s term, an integrity reckoning is overdue.
Yet as bad as the corruption problem is, it is only part of a larger failing. From the moment he announced his 2013 campaign, de Blasio never pretended to speak for the whole city.
In his mind, he had sliced and diced 8 million New Yorkers into factions. Race and ethnicity here, class and geography there. It was always us against them, with “us” being anyone who had a grievance and supported him, while “them” were critics and supporters of others.
The police were a favorite target, Al Sharpton a favored friend. Outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg was accused of running a plantation — a plantation! — at de Blasio’s inauguration, and the crass new mayor pronounced himself untroubled.
If the ominous class and race warfare had stopped there, it would have been bad enough. But it didn’t stop.
Nor did the mayor’s obsession with politics. He fancies himself the leader of a national movement, and spends an inordinate amount of time out of the city spreading the news of his greatness. In one telling interview, he complained that people outside New York better understood him than did the benighted folk in the five boroughs.
Yet national pols aren’t impressed with him either. He had to cancel a planned forum in Iowa when none of the candidates would attend, and foolishly trekked to the cornfields there to make amends to Hillary Clinton after he snubbed her. She refused to see him, the smartest thing she’s done in years.
Back at the ranch, problems were growing in de Blasio’s absence, but even when he was at his desk, he wasn’t much interested in the vexing details of governing. When The Post pointed out the rising tide of homelessness, the mayor insisted it wasn’t true.
By the time he finally got around to conceding a problem that the whole world saw, a deputy mayor hired with great promise abandoned ship. She complained, friends said, that de Blasio had no time for her or for a substantive discussion, and was only interested in — you guessed it — the politics.
How would homelessness play? Would it hurt him? How could he use it to demonstrate his progressive values?
So it goes, day in, day out, where every event, every statement, every mayoral utterance is a horn-blowing exercise designed to boost No. 1’s political standing.
Whether it’s good for anyone in New York is an afterthought, if it’s a thought at all.
A mayor this cynical and reckless usually ends up on thin ice, and once the ice starts to break, the trouble doesn’t stop. That’s the new phase we’ve entered, as revealed by the foul wind blowing from City Hall.
Of course, this isn’t the Mayor’s first scandal:Why Internet Access Monopolies Harm Innovation
from the innovation-stifling dept
When antitrust stories make headlines—as the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger has—even well-intentioned analysis often confuses harm to competitors with harm to competition. Viewing antitrust law through a "competition" lens, as opposed to a "competitors" lens, is not intuitive: consumers are harmed not by being denied access to existing services, but by being denied new ones.
In antitrust law there is a debate, known as Schumpeter-Arrow—based on the initial intellectual adversaries, Joseph Schumpeter and Kenneth Arrow—which concerns whether monopoly power leads to innovation. On the pro-monopoly side, Schumpeter believed that companies with market power have economies of scale and financial stability, which allow them to invest more capital into R&D. By contrast, more competitive firms have to focus their energy—and money—into maintaining their competitiveness. On the other side of the debate, Arrow argued that monopolists have no incentive to innovate. Anti-monopolists preach the gospel that competition begets innovation. Consumers will gravitate towards companies that are offering new and better services.
In reality, each view holds some validity, depending on the specific market at issue. In some markets, market power might have a more positive effect on innovation. For example, in certain markets—usually referring to patents—many believe that monopolies are sometimes necessary. The most commonly mentioned market of this nature is the development of new pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical companies claim they need the promise of a monopoly on their work if they are going to invest enormous research dollars into a new drug (whether or not this is actually true is another discussion for another day).
In most other markets, however, monopoly power is likely to do more harm than good. For example, in the market for Internet services, the Schumpeterian view that companies with dominant market power will invest their profits into innovation is both implausible and disproven. As Brendan Greeley wrote in Business Insider:
The utterly consistent position from the ISPs has been this: Guarantee us a higher income stream from a more concentrated market, and we'll build out new infrastructure to reach more Americans with high-speed Internet. A decade ago, this argument had at least the benefit of being untested.
A graph published by the National Communications and Telecommunications Association confirms that consolidation has not resulted in increased infrastructure expenditures.
Using inflation-adjusted dollars, it is clear that infrastructure investment has actually declined:
In sum, with experience as a guide, we know that monopoly power is harmful in the broadband industry.
In addition to monopolization of Internet service, ISPs can also exert market influence over the content that flows over those networks. But the Arrow-Schumpeter model is limited. It simply answers the question of whether less pipe manufacturers results in better or worse pipes. It does not take into account whether there will be less or more water, or what the quality of the water will be. In the network infrastructure industry, where monopoly power means control of networks which operate the Internet, monopoly harm is amplified.
In addition to residential broadband, the other crucially important network is wireless. They are not mutually exclusive. Verizon is both. And it has been reported that Comcast "might try its hand at mobile phone service." Verizon and Comcast have been able to use not just their existing monopoly in Internet service and wireless data to obtain and to maintain monopolies in television, phone service, and other content markets.
Competition would disrupt the incumbents' monopolies in all of these markets. These markets all exist on the Internet, and yet, the status quo allows Comcast and Verizon to charge separately for these markets. In other words, the Internet is, or could be, people's television and phone service as well. There already are Internet-based video and phone service alternatives. For phone service, Skype, Google Voice, and other free alternatives already exist. For "television," there are also numerous services available. YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime all have a vast array of content, with different pricing models and delivery methods.
Despite the fact that free or low-cost services are available for video, phone calls, and texting, consumers are still forced to pay individually for cable television, data plans, and calling/texting service. The Internet, in addition to being a gigantic market on its own, hosts the market for everything else. Advertising, banking, and mail are all done online. And entire industries like social media, servers, and coding have been created as a result of the Internet.
Perhaps the best example of the Internet's ability to transfer data for free is WhatsApp. Originally valued at 1.5 billion dollars, Facebook purchased the app for a total of $19 billion. In 2013, WhatsApp saved consumers $33 billion that they would have otherwise had to pay their cell phone carrier. In addition to ISPs and wireless companies, television networks and phone companies profit from the existing business model, where television, land line phone service, and cell phone service takes place without the aid of the Internet.
Having people pay for each individual thing they do online, in addition to diminishing the incredible power of the Internet, also costs consumers. And harm from monopolization—in all industries, not just network infrastructure—is often underestimated. Rutgers Law Professor Michael Carrier calls this "innovation asymmetry," where existing businesses and business-models are over-valued at the expense of yet-to-be-developed technologies.
Carrier notes that new, innovative technologies are often undervalued because they
are less tangible, less obvious at the onset of a technology, and not advanced by an army of motivated advocates. First, they are less tangible. [Moreover, the value of new technologies is] difficult to quantify. How do we put a dollar figure on the benefits of enhanced communication and interaction?... Second, they are more fully developed over time. When a new technology is introduced, no one, including the inventor, knows all of the beneficial uses to which it will eventually be put.
The essential problem is that monopolies prevent innovative technologies from reaching the market. The value of the technologies lost cannot be quantified. Carrier notes examples of new technologies initially being undervalued:
Alexander Graham Bell thought the telephone would be used primarily to broadcast the daily news.
Thomas Edison thought the phonograph would be used "to record the wishes of old men on their death beds."
Railroads were originally considered to be feeders to canals.
IBM envisioned only 10 to 15 orders for the computer in 1949.
In the Internet context, Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia are just some examples of companies that disrupted the existing marketplace.
With Internet service, we have ample evidence of what a more competitive market looks like, and what sort of service consumers could expect with a more open Internet. Many Europeans get Internet at substantially faster speeds for a fraction of the price. In the few cities that are lucky enough to get Google Fiber, users get Internet at exponentially higher speeds at much lower costs.
The existing business model is based on the dearth of competition in the high-speed residential broadband market and in the market for wireless data plans. In the former, Comcast-TWC dominates; in the latter, Verizon and AT&T dominate. In both of these industries, the incumbents have a substantial infrastructure advantage over their rivals, which creates an insurmountable barrier to entry, preventing significant competitors from entering the marketplace. The incumbents further solidify their position through frivolous litigation. As Ars Technica documented, potential new ISPs face a blizzard of lawsuits.
Another area of litigation which solidifies incumbents' market power is copyright litigation. Copyright is a form of artificial monopoly, which allows the owner to exclude others. The paradigmatic example of copyright in action is professional sports. Football and baseball broadcasts are "blacked out" nationally when a game is available in a local market. Comcast profits from sports both directly, through Comcast Spectacor, and indirectly, through NBC's licensing agreements.
When the sword of copyright law is given to companies with market power, the result is that incumbents' market power is solidified and compounded. For example, in June, the Supreme Court essentially ruled that TV-streaming service Aereo had an illegal business model because it violated copyrights. Because copyright damages can be exorbitant, the likely result of the Aereo decision is that investment in new technology companies will be chilled. As Carrier put it, "harms from ambiguous standards used as a litigation hammer are exacerbated by statutory damages and personal liability."
The result of the competitive landscape is that both wired and wireless companies can exploit their monopoly on the network to receive royalty payments from the content which the network hosts. There is a two-fold result: innovation in content markets is stifled and costs of entering the network market become insurmountable. We have ample evidence that consolidation in network infrastructure has harmed innovation, and that further consolidation will result in greater harms.
Filed Under: access, antitrust, innovation, internet access, monopolies, net neutrality
Companies: comcast, time warner cableWhen I think of the July Fourths of my childhood, one stands out in particular. We had spent the weekend at a large family reunion in Cascade, Idaho, where my cousins and I biked along the lake, played chess, and created a makeshift parade with flags duct-taped to our hats. During mealtimes, the mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and great-aunts brought out of pasta salad, baked beans, casseroles, and all those other lovely northwestern comfort foods. We would load up our paper plates, sit around picnic tables, and listen to my great-grandfather, his sister, and brothers—all nearing or in their 90s—swap stories about the old days.
The night before the Fourth, my sister, cousin, and I travelled home with my grandparents. We spent the next morning helping them unpack supplies from their camper, and then Grandma fed us in a splendid fashion. That night, we watched fireworks from the fields next to their house: fields that led up to a steep cliff, overlooking the valley beyond. I was cold, so Grandma gave me her red jacket. Like any splendid grandmother, she wore seasonal clothing with aplomb. This unbelievably soft jacket had a bejeweled flag pinned to the left shoulder.
I’ve often wondered why that Independence Day stands out so strongly in my memory. Perhaps it’s because it embodies many of the things I love and feel devotion for: strong family ties, rich heritage and history, distinctive local food cultures, bright aesthetic displays of devotion.
In recent years, my Fourth of July has looked quite different. There were some college summers spent at Nationals baseball games in D.C., grabbing food in Georgetown and watching fireworks on the Potomac. Post-marriage, I joined a new clan, and began to acclimate to their Independence Day culture: there were less casseroles and more salads, but the close family dynamic remained.
What I’ve missed most on the east coast, perhaps, is that rich tapestry of inter-generational history and context that gives permanence and meaning to one’s celebration. Washington’s Fourth of July revelers are a less rooted bunch—many of them interns and recent college graduates, who scan the homepages of the Washington Post and Washingtonian for the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants and rooftop bars from which to watch fireworks and drink booze. They have no family get-togethers to attend. Even my husband’s close-knit family members are immigrants to this area, originally from the midwest.
Yet there is an aura to Washington’s Fourth that is distinctive and interesting: it involves a sense of intellectual camaraderie and depth that is very different from the Independence Days of my past. These days, I am better versed in Tocqueville and the Federalist Papers. I’ve visited monuments and written extensively on American politics; I’ve met congressmen and attended countless policy panels. These all give me an interesting tapestry of intellectual and political distinctiveness through which to view July 4th. They even give me a slight sense of kinship with the various interns, politicians, and think tankers scattered throughout Washington.
But I’m also learning that a little bit of homesickness is almost a necessary piece of Independence Day, as we grow older. It reminds us where we’re from: of the local ties that bind us, the fond remembrances that truly encapsulate our American experience. Without that sense of loss and homesickness, we wouldn’t understand fully what it means to love a place and its people.
So this year, as I gather to eat with new family and watch fireworks with old college friends, I’ll also be thinking of Grandma and her soft red jacket—of watching fireworks burst bright colors across the shadows of Idaho fields, and the sweet tapestry of family and history that brought me to this new place.WK935 Type Fighter Gloster Meteor F8 Manufacturer Armstrong-Whitworth Serial WK935 First flight 10 February 1954 Owners and operators Royal Air Force
A much modified Gloster Meteor F8 fighter, the "prone position/prone pilot" Meteor, was used to evaluate the effects of acceleration/inertia-induced forces while flying in a prone position. Along with the Reid and Sigrist R.S.4 "Bobsleigh", the Gloster Meteor was engaged in a proof-of-concept experimental programme that proved in practice that the difficulties in rearward visibility and ejection outweighed the advantages of sustaining higher "g" effects.
Design and development [ edit ]
In the early 1950s the adoption of a prone position cockpit in future combat aircraft designs appeared attractive for two reasons. Firstly, such a configuration enabled the frontal area of the airframe to be reduced and therefore reduced drag. Secondly, aircrew can withstand greater inertial forces if not sitting upright, a vital consideration given the need for jet combat aircraft to manoeuvre at ever increasing speeds. While the Reid and Sigrist R.S.4 "Bobsleigh" explored low speed performance 1951–1956, the Royal Air Force soon also needed a higher performance concept aircraft.
The Bristol Aeroplane Company sought to exploit these advantages by incorporating a prone pilot position in its proposal for a rocket-powered fighter, the Bristol Type 185. In order to establish the viability of a prone pilot cockpit, the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine required a jet aircraft that could be flown in experimental flight tests. The last production Meteor F8 WK935 built by Armstrong-Whitworth was selected for modification and joined the Institute of Aviation Medicine in autumn 1954.
Armstrong-Whitworth carried out all the modifications as an "in-house" project. A standard fighter cockpit was retained; WK935 was never flown solo from the radically modified front cockpit, which incorporated a custom-built couch, offset tiny control column, and suspended rear pedals. A Meteor NF 12 tail unit was substituted for the usual F8 tail.[1] The Armstrong-Whitworth Chief Test Pilot Eric George Franklin carried out the test flights.[2]
The prone pilot's emergency escape involved an extremely complex procedure which included jettisoning the rudder pedals, crawling backward to an escape hatch and retracting the nose wheel. This system was never used.[1]
Operational history [ edit ]
Testing and evaluation [ edit ]
WK935 at Royal Air Force Museum Cosford Meteor F8at Royal Air Force Museum Cosford
Following some 55 hours of flight testing over 99 flights, the results were inconclusive; although the prone position concept was feasible, the development of special aviation clothing (g-suits) offered a simpler solution to the problem of counteracting inertial forces, and the prone position Meteor was no longer needed. Although prone pilots were able to control the aircraft as well as a standard Meteor, the extreme forward position with limited rear view presented a problem in mock combat with conventional aircraft.[2] RAF test pilot C.M. Lambert described flying Meteor WK935 in the 30 March 1956 issue of Flight magazine [3]
Meteor F8 WK935 was retired after a year and after storage at No. 12 Maintenance Unit, the aircraft was sent to RAF Colerne before being preserved at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford in the UK.[2]
Operators [ edit ]
Specifications (Meteor F.8 modified) [ edit ]
Artist's impression
Data from The Great Book of Fighters[4]
General characteristics
Crew: 2
2 Length: 52 ft 5 in (15.9 m)
52 ft 5 in (15.9 m) Wingspan: 37 ft 2 in (11.32 m)
37 ft 2 in (11.32 m) Height: 13 ft 0 in (3.96 m)
13 ft 0 in (3.96 m) Wing area: 350 ft² (32.52 m²)
350 ft² (32.52 m²) Empty weight: 10,684 lb (4,846 kg)
10,684 lb (4,846 kg) Loaded weight: 15,700 lb (7,121 kg)
15,700 lb (7,121 kg) Powerplant: 2 × Rolls-Royce Derwent 8 turbojets, 3,500 lbf (15.6 kN) each
Performance
Armament
No armament was carried
See also [ edit ]
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
References [ edit ]
Notes
a b Jones 1998, p. 156. a b c Young 1985, p. 83. ^ Lambert 1956, pp. 345-348. ^ Green and Swanborough 2001
BibliographyYet the tide can only be turned, a host of scientists and economists with varied perspectives agree, if China and other rising powers like India speed through the familiar path in nation building — resource extraction, industrial and economic growth, accompanying despoliation, and then environmental restoration and protection. If they don’t, their emissions will eventually swamp all other sources, according to many analyses.
Richard Richels, an economist at the Electric Power Research Institute, helped produce an ominous forecast: even if the established industrial powers turned off every power plant and car right now, unless there are changes in policy in poorer countries the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could still reach 450 parts per million — a level deemed unacceptably dangerous by many scientists — by 2070. (If no one does anything, that threshold is reached in 2040.)
Libertarians say that once countries get rich, they’ll do the right thing for the climate. But critics of this view say the long life of carbon dioxide (and of sources like the coal-burning plants China is building at the rate of one a week) mean that waiting just compounds the problem beyond fixing.
Theories abound over how best to help China embrace emissions-reducing policies. One way, many scientists and scholars say, is to make nonpolluting energy sources cheaper than the unfettered burning of abundant fossil fuels. Right now they are far more expensive.
That is why several dozen top-flight climate and energy experts sent a letter this month to members of Congress and the presidential candidates seeking a tenfold rise in the federal budget for energy research, now about $3 billion a year.
Some economists say the only thing that will speed the change is money, whether it is called aid, technology assistance, or something else.
Representatives of developing countries have long made this point, noting that the established powers spent a century building the greenhouse-gas blanket. Speaking in Bali, Munir Akram, Pakistan’s United Nations ambassador, said: “What we have to do is to find a way to reduce emissions by those who can afford to reduce emissions.”
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But there are plenty of doubts about the willingness of Congress, particularly, to pay emerging economic competitors.
Some experts see the best prospects for change coming from the ground up, pointing to efforts like MetroBus, a program involving the World Resources Institute that greatly expanded the use of mass transit in Mexico City.
BinBin Jiang, a research associate in energy and development at Stanford University, sees similar opportunities in creating an efficient infrastructure for China’s exploding midsize cities. “That’s where you determine if you are going to leapfrog or go along the old Western path,” she said.
But Ms. Jiang also stressed that meaningful change in energy and climate policy within the United States was critical, too. “China is clearly responsible for the largest wedge of emissions in the future, but the United States is still the biggest roadblock,” she said. “The U.S. is not going to be influential by telling China what to do. It has to lead by example.”MANILA, Philippines - China has called on the international community to respect the Philippines’ sovereign prerogative in combating the drug menace in the country.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang issued the statement after 45 of 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) urged the Philippine government to end extrajudicial killings and withdraw its plan to revive the death penalty.
“Drugs are the common enemy for all human beings, bringing pain to many developing countries, including China. China supports President Duterte and the Philippine government in combating drug-related crimes in accordance with the law,” Geng said in a press conference on Thursday night.
“We hope the international community can respect the judicial sovereignty of the Philippines and support its efforts in fighting drug-related crimes through cooperation,” he added.
Geng also called on UNHRC member-states to be objective in reviewing human rights situations in other countries.
On May 8, the 27th session of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UNHRC assessed the human rights situation in the Philippines.
Several countries including China, Cuba, Russia and Venezuela made positive comments and lauded the efforts and achievements made by the Philippines in eliminating poverty, promoting socio-economic development as well as improving and protecting human rights.
Geng said the UPR was an important mechanism for UN member-states to conduct dialogue and cooperation on an equal footing in the area of human rights.
“We hope various parties can be objective and fair in viewing the human rights conditions in different countries and promote the human rights cause through dialogue and cooperation,” he said.
The Philippines received a total of 257 recommendations – the highest – from among the participating states. Recommendations after review averaged 220.
Extrajudicial killings, death penalty and human trafficking were the core issues on which the recommendations were based.
Around 8,000 suspected drug offenders have died since the Duterte administration launched a brutal campaign against illegal drugs last year.
Human rights advocates claimed that the drug war has encouraged summary executions and human rights violations, but officials have denied the allegation.
Cayetano appointment welcomed
Meanwhile, the Chinese government is looking forward to working closely with incoming secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to further strengthen relations betwee the two nations.
“We welcome the appointment and congratulate Mr. Cayetano. China is ready to work with him to implement the high-level consensus and keep deepening practical cooperation to push forward China-Philippines relations for greater benefits to our peoples and regional peace and stability,” Geng said.
Prior to his appointment as DFA secretary, Cayetano headed the Senate foreign relations committee. He was President Duterte’s runningmate in last year’s election.
Last week, Cayetano led the Philippine delegation to the UNHRC’s UPR of the Philippines in Geneva, Switzerland where he defended the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Geng said that since last year, relations between the Philippines and China “have achieved all-round improvement and bilateral cooperation has entered a new stage.”
“Cooperation across the board has recovered and yielded fruitful outcomes. Our relationship is making overall progress,” he said.
Duterte is among 29 heads of state and government leaders who will attend the Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation in Beijing from May 14 to 15.
During his first visit to Beijing in October last year, Duterte brought home $24 billion worth of investment pledges and infrastructure projects.The hijab has been under fire for a little while now, with France banning the face-covering veils worn by Muslim women way back in 2010.
But the whole hubbub died down fairly quickly. Until now.
Suddenly, the hijab -- and who does or does not wear it -- is back in the headlines big time.
Earlier tghis month, the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven, led a delegation to Iran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei met him and the talks were warm and wonderful. But in Sweden, the headlines were all about the female government officials who went along on the trip and chose to wear Islamic headscarves while in Iran.
The 11 women wore them "almost all the time," adhering to the laws of Iran. This was big news because Lofven describes his government as “feminist." This hit Twitter and exploded.
Walk of shame: Women of Sweden's "first feminist government in the world" don hijab as they walk past Iran's Rouhani https://t.co/aeEFgibVhV pic.twitter.com/urHrtObkYv — Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 12, 2017
One official said she didn't want to wear it, but "it is law in Iran that women must wear the veil. One can hardly come here and break the laws,” she told the Swedish Expressen newspaper.
An opposition party member said that was no excuse, calling the headscarf “a symbol of oppression for women in Iran.”
Now, two more incidents have occurred, igniting what will soon be a big, fat fire.
Iran on Monday banned chess grandmaster Dorsa Derakhshani from the national team for not wearing a hijab. The head of Iran's Chess Federation, Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, said: "The first step in dealing with them would be to deprive them from every game that is played in Iran and in the name of Iran, and they will not have the chance to be on the national team," according to India Today.
On Tuesday, French far-right National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen made headlines when she bailed on a Tuesday with Lebanon's grand mufti. The reason: She didn't want to wear a headscarf.
"You can pass on my respects to the grand mufti, but I will not cover myself up," she said.
Also this past weekend, the inaugural ‘Modest Fashion Week’ was held to pitch clothing to Muslim consumers. The event was "sponsored by a makeup brand who refuse to sell products to supporters of U.S. President Donald J. Trump," Breitbart News reported.
So, the whole can of worms is open again -- and you can expect the debate to wash ashore in America pretty soon. But don't look for Melania Trump to be donning a hijab any time soon. Not gonna' happen.Manchester City defender Jason Denayer has held talks with Marseille as he stalls over a loan move to Galatasaray.
The Turkish side were confident of reaching an agreement after the Belgian arrived in Istanbul on Monday for talks.
However, he is keeping his options open and has travelled to speak to Marseille manager Michel too.
Manchester City defender Jason Denayer is in talks with Marseille over a season-long loan move to France
Denayer, pictured celebrating a goal for Celtic last season, spent the previous campaign on loan at Parkhead
The 20-year-old Denayer also has interest from Bayer Leverkusen, Lyon and Sunderland.
Denayer has been forced to look elsewhere for regular first-team football following the £32million arrival of Nicolas Otamendi from Valencia.
Denayer already has three caps for the Belgium national team.
He spent last season on loan at Celtic, where he won the Scottish Premiership and Scottish League Cup. He was also named PFA Scottish young player of the year.
Denayer chases down Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema during a pre-season friendly in MelbourneBengaluru: Uttara Kanda, Saraswati Samman recipient SL Bhyrappa’s new novel, was sold out within an hour of its state-wide release on Monday, its publishers said.“There were many pre-orders for the book from individuals and distributors. We had kept aside some copies to sell them at our bookshop on the release day. They too were sold out |
County “is exclusive, which means any talent signed in the upcoming year should arrive soon after in Orange County.”
I know what you’re thinking — if LAFC sign a big-name Designated Player in 2017, will he be sent to play in USL? Probably not. The exclusive partnership is for the United States.
“All of the players they’ll be signing for the U.S. market next year will be playing for us in the USL,” said Orange County executive VP of soccer operations Oliver Wyss in the story.
So if a player, probably a North American, possibly Central American, signs for LAFC next year and needs a place to play, he’ll play for OC. If he’s still under contract until 2018, he’ll play with the team he’s contracted to, and that probably includes any big-name stars signed.
Still, it’s nice to know that players signed next year will have a place to play locally and get some reps before presumably joining LAFC the following season, and that random players won’t be farmed out to random clubs. In other words, it sounds like both teams are taking this partnership seriously, and the enticement for LAFC fans to go watch Orange County games in 2017 is even bigger.
There’s a lot more to read in that profile on the partnership on USL’s website, so be sure to check out the whole story.
What do you think? Leave a comment below!Social media is simultaneously at its best and worst in the midst of a major disaster. Those in the path of danger use Facebook to broadcast their safety — or to post calls for help. Others follow the near real-time stream of news for updates, or to organize ways to help those affected.
[Harvey may force 30,000 people into shelters while flooding will linger, officials warn]
And then there are the people who use a natural disaster to try to make a hoax go viral. It is a relentless and inevitable aspect of what happens online during a major disaster.
As the aftermath of Harvey continues to unfold along the Texas coast, we are rounding up all of the hoaxes and unverified viral stories we can find about it.
The shark picture is fake
Any time you see a picture of a shark swimming down a street — or in a subway station, or what have you — after a major flooding event, be suspicious. Fake shark pictures, often the work of photo editing, are the most inevitable visual viral hoax in a disaster like this, to the point that it’s almost become a meme. And Harvey was no exception:
Believe it or not, this is a shark on the freeway in Houston, Texas. #HurricaneHarvy pic.twitter.com/ANkEiEQ3Y6 — Jason Michael (@Jeggit) August 28, 2017
The shark is not swimming down the street. It was not swimming down the (same) street during Hurricane Matthew. It wasn’t swimming in the aftermath of Sandy. And most of the other pictures of sharks swimming where people were are fake, too.
Because of their popularity, these shark images are usually quickly debunked. But as the tweet we’ve highlighted shows, part of the reason it’s a popular hoax is because people seem to fall for it, every time. This tweet has nearly 70,000 retweets as of Tuesday, and it appears to have inspired this exchange on Fox News last night:
Watters: I saw a shark on a highway, swimming in the water
Guilfoyle: like Sharknado
Watters: like Sharknado pic.twitter.com/ycsRqV36F6 — Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) August 29, 2017
Maybe some day there will be a real photo of a real shark swimming down a flooded street after a disaster. But the one you’ve seen is almost definitely fake.
This is not a photo of Houston’s airport
Twitter
A dramatic photograph circulating on Twitter appeared to show several planes floating in a deep lake that was once an airport. The airport pictured here is LaGuardia in New York, and it’s a mock-up, meant to show the potential effect of climate change on the transportation hub by 2100, based on data from Climate Central.
Houston’s airports are both closed Monday, with passengers basically stranded there until conditions improve. The roads to both airports — Bush Intercontinental and Hobby — flooded Sunday because of Harvey, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Obama is not serving food to evacuees in Texas right now
A viral, now-deleted tweet claimed to show former president Barack Obama serving hot meals to those evacuated from the floods in Texas.
“Something you’ll never see Trump do: Obama is in Texas serving meals!,” the tweet read. While the photo is real, the context is fake — it’s not a recent photo of Obama, and it has nothing to do with the former president’s response to Harvey.
As my colleague Gene Park pointed out on Twitter, the photo is old — from Thanksgiving 2015, when Obama and his family served meals at a homeless shelter.
Look how desperate @feisal_hagi is attaching hashtags to his same fake news tweet and RTing himself, pinning fake tweet. It's gross. pic.twitter.com/pW5YB4xtfE — Gene Park (@GenePark) August 27, 2017
This phone number won’t connect you with the National Guard
A couple of viral copy-paste memes circulating around Facebook and Twitter tells those in the Houston area to call a 1-800 number if they find themselves in an emergency situation because of Harvey. The number does not connect callers to the National Guard, as the message is designed to imply, but instead to a private insurance company.
Here are a few of the hundreds of shares for this hoax that we found on a quick Facebook search Monday morning:
Facebook
On Sunday, the Houston Police told residents to call 911 in an emergency, or one of two nonemergency numbers to request help evacuating if you are safe.
This incredible photo of a family escaping floodwaters is not from Harvey
This picture from Houston is haunting me. [via @KHOU] pic.twitter.com/QeYoqb18f6 — Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) August 28, 2017
It’s an evocative photo that has been circulating on Twitter to show the impact of Harvey on Houston’s residents. The photo itself is real — however, it’s not from Harvey. It’s from an earlier round of devastating flooding, in 2016.
Corpus Christi didn’t restrict reentry to the city
The official Twitter account of the city of Corpus Christi debunked a fake, copy-paste meme circulating on Facebook that appeared to be from a city official, warning residents of reentry restrictions in the coastal Texas city after Harvey.
Rumor Control: Seen this post? It is FALSE. No restrictions on re-entry to the City. Official notices will always come from our account. pic.twitter.com/i4fzghPgZn — CityOfCorpusChristi (@cityofcc) August 26, 2017
Earlier, the account debunked a rumor claiming the city was going to turn off all utilities in anticipation of the storm.
Rumor control: the City of Corpus Christi will NOT be turning off utilities in anticipation of Hurricane Harvey. — CityOfCorpusChristi (@cityofcc) August 25, 2017
Katie Couric’s friend didn’t get a visit from an alligator
Look who wandered into my friend's Houston 'hood Thinking about everyone affected by Harvey and they r safe pic.twitter.com/BTuGLACiqg — Katie Couric (@katiecouric) August 27, 2017
Couric was duped over the weekend by a photo that appeared to show a curious alligator paying someone a visit amid Harvey flooding. The photo, however, is from April, snapped by a Fort Bend County sheriff’s deputy.
Mmmm. She's not answering. She lives in Houston but in nyc and someone sent to her…she sent to me-looks like a double punk! https://t.co/5RAFW8XJxt — Katie Couric (@katiecouric) August 27, 2017
The “Cajun Navy” may be on the way to help — but this isn’t a photo of them heading to Houston
Members of a grassroots, mostly online-organized volunteer rescue group called the “Cajun Navy” (i.e. people with boats in Louisiana who want to help) have told reporters that they are trying to get to the worst-hit regions of Texas in order to help.
But this photo, which has accompanied several viral tweets about the group, does not show the “navy” on its way to Houston.
"#Houston Hang on. The CAJUN NAVY is already activated and on the way."https://t.co/J62KpUODPg pic.twitter.com/q4n7HuO9Pq — KPLC (@KPLC7News) August 27, 2017
It’s actually from 2016, when the Cajun Navy was on its way to help with flooding in Baton Rouge. The person who took the original, uncropped photo weighed in on its resurfacing late on Sunday:
While my photo from the Baton Rouge flooding has resurfaced, the sentiment is still there and this ragtag fleet *is* mobilizing for Houston. https://t.co/p4J6zxgQPu — Troy Gilbert (@GulfSails) August 28, 2017
Black Lives Matter is not stopping emergency vehicles from reaching flood victims
A bit of fake news– shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook — claimed that Black Lives Matter “thugs” were blocking ambulances and rescue workers from Houston.
Here’s a taste of the tone of the original post, which was published to Land of the Free a few days ago, and then picked up by a couple other unreliable sources:
“While blacks whined about having to spend a few minutes on rooftops as George W. Bush worked hard to keep people safe after Hurricane Katrina hit, they are now so “woke” that their need to have people hear them scream that some thug who punched a cop got hurt (insert any one you can think of here) has dwarfed their desire to seed people safe from the Hurricane.”
Snopes has debunked this story, noting that the image at the top of the article comes from a 2016 protest against police shootings in Atlanta. Also, Snopes explains that this type of fake story, accusing left-wing protesters of causing innocent deaths with protests that temporarily block highway traffic, has become a popular genre for hoaxers looking to go viral on right-wing outrage.
Trolls are creating fake tweets about looting
There are a bunch of social media posts of varying virality claiming to show evidence of widespread looting in Houston after Harvey. At least some of these tweets are obvious trolls — particularly those using the hashtag #HarveyLootCrew. As Motherboard explained, trolls have previously used #BaltimoreLootCrew and #SandyLootCrew to try and make fake posts about looting go viral during major news events.
This tweet, for instance, uses an image from a 2015 news article. The Twitter handle’s racist username — which we have partially redacted above — is another giveaway. There are many other, similar tweets circulating out there from accounts posing as looters, bragging about looting. We have yet to see one account like this that has been verified as connected to a real instance of looting in Texas.
That doesn’t mean looting isn’t happening at all in Houston, however. While there have been some arrests, officials strongly dispute the main thing that these fake looting tweets want you to believe: that looting is now endemic in Houston. As of Monday evening, my colleagues reported, four people in all had been arrested for looting.
In short: if you see a viral tweet from someone who appears to be a looter, bragging about looting, be very wary of it.
This post, first published on August 28, has been updated multiple times. We will continue to update this post as we inevitably spot more viral hoaxes.Rep Nunes Cleared in Ethics Probe of Disclosing Classified Information EIGHT MONTHS LATER
The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday it cleared Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA) of claims he mishandled classified information after dragging it out for eight months.
In a statement, the committee said that classification experts in the intelligence community had concluded that “the information that Rep. Nunes disclosed was not classified.” Fox News reported.
Rep. Devin Nunes walked away from the House Intelligence Committee Russia probe in April after he said in a press conference in March that Trump and his associates were unmasked after viewing intelligence reports.
Nunes then went to brief the President on the information in the intelligence reports before meeting with the Intelligence Committee.
The left-wing lunatics came unglued and hit Nunes with a probe that lasted eight months. Nunes slammed the accusations as “entirely false and politically motivated”.
Now eight months later, Nunes has been cleared. In a statement he said:
“I respect the ethics process, but I remain dismayed that it took an unbelievable eight months for the Committee to dismiss this matter,” added Nunes, who called on the committee to release “all its transcripts related to my case.”
A few days after Nunes’ March press conference disclosing Trump and his associates were indeed unmasked, independent journalist Mike Cernovich broke the news that Susan Rice requested the unmasking of the incoming Trump administration.
BREAKING NEWS! Susan Rice requested unmasking of incoming Trump administration officials. — Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) April 2, 2017Modern first-person shooter games like Call of Duty and Battlefield have conditioned players to expect elements like leveling, classes, and cover systems. But one upcoming FPS has none of those features, and its developer--German studio Reakktor--says the game is better off for it.
Toxikk is a PC title built using Epic Games' Unreal Engine. The game is designed to return the arena FPS genre to its roots, which means no leveling, no regenerating health, no perks, no cover systems, no classes, no configurable weapons, and no iron-sight aiming. "Toxikk plays as if today's military shooters never existed," its developers say.
Instead, players will find that Toxikk allows for "fast and precise movement," thanks to "deeply configurable" mouse controls. You can also perform double-jumps and dodge-jumps. In addition, players can pick up various performance boosters in the game to supplement your arsenal of weapons. There are nine unique guns in all, and you can carry them all simultaneously. In addition, every weapon has a secondary fire mode.
When you die in Toxikk (and it sounds like that will happen often), you will respawn with a melee weapon and basic pistol, nothing more. You'll need to find other weapons on the battlefield. Though there is character customization, it is cosmetic in nature only, Reakktor says. This is part of ensuring that "all players are equal."
Toxikk gives off a Unreal Tournament meets Halo vibe
There is an XP system in Toxikk, but this system, and the ranks associated with it, are used for reputation and matchmaking purposes only. Toxikk will also include an offline bot mode for players who would like to hone their skills before going head-to-head against live opponents on the battlefield.
Toxikk is a paid game, and you can pre-purchase a copy today from Reakktor for $15. Though free-to-play is a rising trend on PC, Reakktor wants nothing to do with this business model.
"We believe that classic arena FPS and free-to-play don't go well together," Reakktor says. "A true arena FPS requires all player characters to have equal stats and the availability of all weapons to everyone. Always! The skill of a player should be the only deciding factor about victory or defeat. Allowing players to buy different (i.e. better) weapons or to permanently boost their stats does totally contradict the idea of classic arena FPS gaming in our opinion."
Toxikk will have two kinds of maps: Classic Maps and Massive Maps. Classic Maps will feature fast-paced gameplay and are described as medium-sized environments for up to eight players. Massive Maps, on the other hand, will require more strategic gameplay on larger-sized locales for up to 16 players. There will also be various vehicles like gliders and hoverbikes exclusively on Massive Maps.
Another component of Toxikk will be user-generated content. All players can apply for a free software development kit (SDK) that will allow them to build their own maps, characters, and skins for the game. Reakktor will eventually launch a "hub" for users to submit their own content, which can then be voted on. All user-generated content will be offered for free.
"We believe that classic arena FPS and free-to-play don't go well together" -- Reakktor
Could Toxikk come to consoles some day? Reakktor hasn't ruled it out, but it doesn't sound likely. "We believe that shooters are meant to be played with mouse and keyboard," the developer said. "That's why Toxikk is exclusively designed for PC. At this point, we do not intend to port the game to any other platform."
Reakktor is launching Toxikk all on its own, without a publisher. According to Reakktor, that means it does not have access to a marketing team to help promote the game. The developer hopes that fans will spread the word about Toxikk to make the game a success.
Reakktor says the core experience for Toxikk is "pretty much finished," and the studio is now working on more multiplayer maps and fine-tuning player movement within the game. The developer is also looking for fan feedback, and encourages you to submit your ideas and opinions through the game's official forums, where you can talk directly to developers.
Toxikk is in development exclusively for PC and should launch on Steam as an Early Access title later this year.CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami Hurricanes football program will partner with UM neuroscientist Dr. Amishi Jha for an innovative research study to investigate how mindfulness training can help football players better cope with the high stakes and high demands of collegiate athletics.
“The question we ask is if mindfulness training – which has been found to benefit high-stress groups like soldiers, Marines, CEOs and college students – can help student athletes in their academic and athletic performance,” said Dr. Jha, associate professor in the UM College of Arts & Sciences Department of Psychology and director of contemplative neuroscience for the UMindfulness Initiative.
Jha, the lead researcher on the study, is collaborating with Scott Rogers, director of programs and training for the UMindfulness Initiative and of UM Law's Mindfulness in Law Program. Their previous research found that mindfulness training helps curb mind wandering and improve attention as high-stress undergraduates near exam season. Jha will begin the project this summer with Rogers delivering an innovative mindfulness program to UM's football student-athletes.
Mindfulness involves focusing attention on present-moment experience and observing one's thoughts and feelings without judgement. "Through mindfulness training," suggests Rogers, "student-athletes may be able to develop a set of mental tools and resources that will serve them well on the field and in the classroom."
The Jha-Hurricanes football collaboration is the first phase of a larger "Cane Brain Project". The project aims to determine if mindfulness training might help protect collegiate football players' brains, an area of interest that is drawing national attention. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that the hippocampus, a part of the brain necessary for memory, is smaller in college football players – especially those who have had concussions. Other research has shown that mindfulness training may increase brain gray matter density in this area.
“While better helmet design may help protect their brains from the outside in, very little known about what types of cognitive training exercises might help protect athletes' brains from the inside out,” said Jha. “We are eager to see if mindfulness training might help.”
Josh Rooks, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology and a member of Jha's research team, said, “Our very first step is to see if cognitive performance and academic performance benefits from mindfulness training in collegiate football players.”
Rooks, a former college football player who practiced mindfulness during his time as a tight end for the Northwestern University Wildcats, joined Jha's lab in 2012.
“I recently returned from the ACC Conference meetings and a symposium given by the NCAA's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brian Hainline, MD. Dr. Hainline shared with us two of the greatest challenges facing college athletes; (1) overuse (as a result of pre-puberty specialization and year-round participation) and (2) mental health and welfare,” said Al Golden, UM head football coach. “The latter is why we are thrilled to be partnering with Dr. Jha to study mindfulness training."
He continues, “Mental health is a vital, yet often overlooked component, of academic and athletic achievement. Our football program is excited about mindfulness training and enhancing student-athlete focus, stress management, working memory, and improving the overall competitive environment here at The U.”
Recently, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), a mindfulness practitioner who will be speaking at UM this summer through the UMindfulness lecture series, invited former NFL players and military veterans to the Capitol to discuss the benefits of mindfulness in their recovery from brain trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, the 2014 Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks revealed that many team members practiced mindfulness meditation throughout their winning season.For the past three years, Peschel and her 17-year-old have made the hour-long drive into Toronto every two weeks. They would knock on a darkened Queen St. E. storefront, follow a doorman inside, and buy $140 worth of marijuana from the people at CALM, or Cannabis As Living Medicine.
When Georgia Peschel first heard police had raided CALM, a compassion club in Toronto, her initial panicked reaction was this: “Now where will my son get his marijuana?”
On a bad night, the pain would cause Storm to scream for hours. When he was eight, doctors began prescribing him codeine, but the drug made him groggy, nauseated and unable to go to school. It also made him depressed.
At the age of four, Storm was diagnosed with Multiple Synostosis Syndrome, an extremely rare genetic disorder that causes his bones to slowly fuse. Eventually, his vertebrae will meld and his cartilage will turn hard as bone. Storm doubts he will live past 30.
The Newmarket-area, church-going family hardly seem the type to frequent drug dens. But Storm Peschel — named for his tendency to “kick up a storm” while in his mother’s womb — is no regular kid.
But CALM, like the dozens of other compassion clubs across Canada, is unlicensed and therefore illegal. And at about 3:40 p.m. on March 31, the club was raided by police and shut down for business.
But to date, Storm has found just one source for easily accessible, high-quality cannabis: CALM, a compassion club that sells medical marijuana to some 3,000 registered members.
Since discovering cannabis, Storm has lost 75 pounds from being able to ride his bike and do other activities, and he improved his marks to make the honour roll. He says marijuana has given him a life; his mother says it’s given him hope.
“I felt it lift away,” Storm says of the pain that creaks in his hands and joints. “I (now) live a fairly normal life. I don’t actually feel my bone disease takes anything away anymore.”
When Storm was 15, Peschel decided to let her son try marijuana. She knew this was a startling proposition for a parent to make, but her doubts went up in smoke with Storm’s first toke.
In 2001, in response to a court order, the federal government introduced the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), which established guidelines for allowing sick Canadians to possess marijuana.
“It’s a matter of necessity,” says lawyer Alan Young, an advocate of medical marijuana and defender of compassion clubs. “There’s a sense of necessity when you need to break the law in order to achieve a greater good.”
But for stakeholders of the program, there is still one vital thing missing when it comes to medical marijuana: reasonable access.
“I think the Medical Marijuana Access Division of Health Canada is the biggest oxymoron we have in federal government,” says Philippe Lucas, a Victoria city councillor and founder of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. He uses marijuana to treat the symptoms of hepatitis C, which he contracted in Ontario from a tainted blood transfusion. “It’s not about improving access; it’s about restricting access, to the point where we literally force people to break the law in order to treat their symptoms.”
There are two ways of getting marijuana legally, both condemned by medical cannabis users as grossly flawed. The first is to buy from Health Canada, which contracts its supply from Saskatchewan’s Prairie Plant Systems. The contract expires in the fall of 2011, and Health Canada says a “new competitive procurement process” was opened in April 2009. It is currently evaluating new bids.
But currently, the government grows only one strain of cannabis, despite research and patient feedback that show different strains have varying therapeutic effects. Many users also complain the marijuana is vastly inferior to black market supplies, describing it as weak, irradiated (repugnant to many medical users) and inconvenient (orders are currently sent by mail). As of June 2009, about 20 per cent of the 4,029 licensed Canadians were buying marijuana from the government.
Health Canada declined to provide an interview for this story but answered a few questions via email.
The second way to legally obtain marijuana is grow it yourself, or designate another person to do it for you. This option Young calls a “slap in the face” — what other patients are required to grow their own medication, he asks?
“Pretty much the day the MMAR was proclaimed into force was the day I knew it was defective,” Young says. “The routes for access to medicine were so limited that we argued they were constitutionally deficient.”
And the courts have largely agreed. According to Young, the government has lost as many as six court challenges related to medical marijuana, each time a judge deeming the system unconstitutional.
“It’s insulting and it’s irrational,” says Lucas. “If this was any other program but medical marijuana, there would be an incredible uproar right now. This would be a government scandal of the highest order.”
Young criticizes the government for only improving the program reflexively when forced by the courts. And even when changes are made, they are often minimal; in 2003, Young successfully challenged an MMAR restriction that forbade pot growers from supplying to more than one user. A federal court deemed this “one-to-one” restriction unconstitutional and ordered Health Canada to expand it. Health Canada did, just barely, to two-to-one.
“If you don’t tell me that’s the ultimate disrespect and contempt to me, to patients and to the court, I don’t know what is,” Young says.
Compassion club owners say they’re simply doing what Health Canada won’t.
“We bridge the gap between regulation and reality,” says CALM owner Neev Tapiero. “I knew I was helping people and I was quite confidant a jury trial would never convict me.”
Tapiero started CALM in 1996 and moved it to its current location in 2004. The club’s exterior is unmarked, its windows blackened, but inside, CALM has all the trappings of a clinic: waiting room, pamphlets, customer kiosks with scales and hand sanitizer. CALM rules say all members must be licensed or have doctor’s notes confirming their condition.
But the shadowy nature of compassion clubs can invite skepticism about their true motivations, and certainly some of them are shady. Prominent AIDS activist Jim Wakeford, the first Canadian granted federal exemption for marijuana possession, has accused compassion clubs of profiting off sick people by selling at black market prices (most clubs charge between $6 to $12 per gram; Health Canada charges $5).
Tapiero insists CALM steers clear of organized crime and also inspects its marijuana with a microscope. As for the prices, Tapiero says they’re regrettably high, but he has four employees, legal fees, rental payments and a two-year-old son to provide for. He declined to disclose his earnings but says he pays taxes.
Police contend compassion clubs are definitely making profits and that when CALM was raided, cops seized three bags of cash and some 18,700 grams of marijuana and hashish, with a total estimated street value of more than $200,000. (Tapiero says quantities were exaggerated by police.) Tapiero was arrested, along with eight CALM employees and volunteers, and all are now facing drug trafficking charges.
The raid was captured by CALM’s security cameras, however, and the club has since posted the video online, prompting outrage from members and supporters.
“It’s a public relations nightmare,” Young says. “The officer who decided imprudently to raid the club did not know the bigger picture, and I’m assuming he must regret his decision because you can’t win.”
Detective Jim Brons, who conducted the raid, admits he was unaware of the legal context swirling around medical cannabis prior to making the arrests. He also recently learned of the club’s existence after transferring to 51 Division last summer.
Brons sympathizes with patients who rely on CALM, but says that as a police officer, he simply couldn’t ignore the “numerous” community complaints being made about the club.
“Nobody really wants to engage a compassionate centre in an investigation,” he says. “But they cannot supersede the laws.”
The detective does concede the issue is ambiguous, however, and that he’d like to see clarification from higher-ups.
“Give us some guidelines because right now, there are no guidelines for the Toronto police in relation to compassionate centres,” he says. “I think that’s why they haven’t been enforced.”
If history is any indication, the CALM arrests are unlikely to result in convictions. In 2002, the Toronto Compassion Centre was raided but all the drug-related charges were dropped 17 months later. The federal justice department said proceeding with a prosecution would be against the public interest.
Tapiero’s lawyer, Ron Marzel, is confident CALM’s charges will similarly disappear.
But changes are afoot, according to Health Canada. In an email to the Star, a spokesperson said the government is considering “longer-term measures” to revise the medical marijuana program, focusing on “key areas” such as reasonable access. Public safety and security and overall costs to the government are also being evaluated.
Alan Young has a tiny spark of hope. In December, for the first time ever, he secured a meeting with Health Canada officials to discuss improving the program. He will meet with them again on Monday.
“It may be that the tide is turning and Health Canada will try to fix the problem,” he says, cautiously optimistic. “I think they know they’re vulnerable. They’ve played their hand too far now.”
Young is proposing that Health Canada end its monopoly on marijuana production and start regulating the private sector. He already has a person in mind for Canada’s first supplier of medical marijuana: Sam Mellace, a former Torontonian now living near Vancouver.
Mellace was once connected with CALM but the relationship dissolved over personal differences with Tapiero. He is now critical of compassion clubs but says he shares the same goal: to bring accessible and affordable marijuana to sick Canadians.
He suffers from chronic pain himself and has one of the biggest licences in Canada, permitting him to grow nearly 300 plants. Because of the scale of his grow-op, Mellace thinks his company, New Age Medical Solutions, is ready to start legally producing on an industrial scale for no more than $5 a gram. He is also developing alternatives to smoking cannabis, such as creams and butters.
Health Canada killed a 2006 pilot project to examine marijuana distribution through pharmacies, citing provincial and territorial barriers, but Mellace envisions a future where clinics can prescribe medical marijuana and patients can buy their dosages at Shoppers Drug Mart.
Such a future would certainly the Peschels’ lives easier. But for now, the reality is that Georgia will continue buying marijuana for Storm any way she can.
“I will do whatever it takes to take away my son’s pain,” she says fiercely. “If it means I have to go downtown and try and find someone to buy drugs off of, I would do it.
“Tell me any mother who wouldn’t.”Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved (Courtesy: Bobby Luttrell)
Adam Snider - NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) - A string of break-ins has left East Nashville on edge after surveillance cameras caught two suspects in the act in the middle of the day.
"We've live here about nine years, and nobody's even ever come in our yard," said resident Shannon Russelburg.
Russelburg was one of the lucky ones this weekend. As strangers snooped through her neighborhood near 15th and Shelby, she was none the wiser.
"It's scary, it's still scary," she noted. "Come home at night by yourself and not know if they're in your backyard."
The suspects weren't in her backyard, but they were spotted across the street on surveillance while the homeowner were away.
Story after story soon made the rounds online.
"They were going through backyards, peeking through windows, breaking into houses," said Loree Beth.
With the two suspects still on the run, the neighborhood finds itself in a place it's been before.
"It's something that you kind of get used to," said Beth. "You just have to remain aware of your surroundings, and take the proper precautions so you don't get broken into."
Proper precautions range from surveillance cameras, security systems, even home décor shake up.
"You don't put your expensive s*** in windows, and you lock your cars," said Britneigh Nannie, during her walk. "I've lived here since I was a kid. We're not stupid."
"I recommend dogs. It's great for security," added Russelburg.
While dogs are top-notch crime fighters, the best security is a nosy neighbor. During this crime spree, many turned to Facebook to get the word out.
Anyone with information on the suspects should call Nashville Crime Stoppers at 615-74-CRIME.Sixteen Israeli military aircraft have penetrated Lebanese airspace and flown over several areas of the country in blatant violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
Two Israeli fighter jets crossed into Lebanon's airspace over the southern city of Sidon, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Beirut, at 7:10 p.m. local time (1610 GMT) on Thursday, according to a statement issued by the Lebanese military on Friday.
The warplanes flew over several areas in Lebanon before leaving the country’s airspace at 12:10 p.m. local time (0910 GMT) while flying over the southern village of al-Naqoura, which is situated 91 kilometers (57 miles) south of Beirut.
Later in the day, two other Israeli jets entered Lebanese airspace over the coastal city of Jounieh, located about 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of Beirut, at 10:40 p.m. local time (1940 GMT).
The aircraft left Lebanese airspace at 12:40 a.m. local time on Friday (2140 GMT on Thursday) while flying over the town of Alma al-Shaab.
Two Israeli fighter jets penetrated Lebanese airspace over Beirut at 12:35 a.m. local time on Friday (2135 GMT on Thursday). The planes flew over several areas in Lebanon before leaving the country’s airspace at 3:15 a.m. local time (0015 GMT) while flying over Alma al-Shaab.
Two Israeli planes entered Lebanon’s airspace at 6:00 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Friday over Beirut. The military aircraft flew over several areas in Lebanon and left at 8:50 a.m. local time (0550 GMT) on Friday while flying over the southern village of Rmeish.
Another two Israeli jets crossed into Lebanese airspace over the town of Alma al-Shaab at 8:55 a.m. local time (0555 GMT) on Friday. They flew over several areas in Lebanon and left at 11:15 a.m. local time (0815 GMT) while flying over the village of Rmeish.
Two Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace over the town of Alma al-Shaab at 10:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Friday. They flew over several areas in Lebanon before leaving the country’s airspace at 11:45 a.m. local time (0845 GMT) while flying over the southern village of al-Naqoura.
Two Israeli fighter jets entered Lebanon’s airspace at 1:10 p.m. local time (1010 GMT) on Friday over the village of Rmeish. The military aircraft flew over several areas of Lebanon and left at 3:05 p.m. local time (0550 GMT) while flying over al-Naqoura.
And finally, two Israeli jets crossed into Lebanese airspace at 3:15 p.m. local time (1215 GMT) on Friday over Rmeish. They flew over several areas in Lebanon and left at 11:15 a.m. local time (0815 GMT) while flying over Alma al-Shaab.
Israel violates Lebanon's airspace on an almost daily basis, claiming the flights serve surveillance purposes.
Lebanon's government, the Hezbollah resistance movement, and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, have repeatedly condemned the overflights, saying they are in clear violation of UN Resolution 1701 and the country's sovereignty.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the war of aggression Israel launched against Lebanon in 2006, calls on Israel to respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In 2009, Lebanon filed a complaint with the United Nations, presenting over 7,000 documents pertaining to Israeli violations of Lebanese territory.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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6 announcement, GT said it would provide a business update, which it then delayed to this week. The company warned that its stock may be halted temporarily due to the bankruptcy protection filing.
Representatives from GT and Apple didn't respond to requests for comment.
Updated, 9:55 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. PT: Adds comments from Corning and a Raymond James analyst.A 65-year-old woman is dead and a Quebec provincial police officer is in hospital after police responded to a report of a domestic dispute at a home in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, a community of about 40,000 70 km southwest of Montreal..
Johanne Chayer has been identified as the woman who died from a gunshot wound.
The 27-year-old Sûreté du Québec officer is reportedly in serious but stable condition.
He was shot when officers from the provincial police service responded to a call about domestic violence at the home on du Sentier Street around 9:30 p.m., according to Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau.
It was really stressful to see this kind of deployment of police officers, because it's a very quiet neighbourhood. - Marie-Ève St-Onge
"[The officer] was transported to the hospital," Bilodeau said. "He suffered major injuries but he is stable right now."
The gunman had barricaded himself in the home for hours, but the tactical squad finally entered at around 2 a.m. Chayer was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police were called to the home after reports of a domestic dispute around 9:30 o.m. Tuesday. (Charles Contant/CBC)
A 72-year-old man is in police custody following the incident. A police spokesperson said it's likely he will face murder and attempted murder charges and various weapons-related charges.
Investigators are going over the scene examining the technical details to figure out what happened.
Witness sees officers hidden in bushes
A least a couple of neighbours witnessed the police efforts.
François Prévost was watching from his living room window, and his two young children were asleep, when police arrived to evacuate the residence.
"We saw many police officers hidden in the bushes and between the vehicles," Prévost said.
He said he saw a police officer being taken away in an ambulance.
Prévost said he did not know the neighbours at the home where the shooting took place, and that they had lived on the street only for two or three months.
Most residents on the street are young families or retirees, he said.
The shooting took place in a home on du Sentier Street in the community of 40,000. A neighbour said most residents on the street are young families or retirees. (Charles Contant/CBC)
Marie-Ève St-Onge said she saw police gather and heard about six gunshots close to 10 p.m., and began watching through the window.
She said police told her to stay away from the windows and to go to the back of the house.
Then, at around 11:30 p.m., police told the family to evacuate their home. She went to her mother-in-law's house with her partner and children.
"It was really stressful to see this kind of deployment of police officers, because it's a very quiet neighbourhood," St-Onge said.
"Usually nothing happens here."In the past year, I’ve touched more than 50 naked people.
Don’t worry though—the fancy parts were covered—I’m a massage therapy student. They have you start on friends and family, other students and then the general public. Some people are silent during a massage; others can’t stop talking in a nervous attempt to clothe themselves with something, even if only words.
Despite our obsession with sex, American culture doesn’t really encourage nakedness (physically or emotionally). And if all the pleasantries and social constructs we use weren’t bad enough, we add social media into the mix and distance each other even further. When we’re naked and silent, all of that falls away. What I learn from what a person tells me is minuscule compared to what I learn by feeling his skin, muscle and bone. By watching him move. By listening to his breath. By feeling his pulse. So, in case you didn’t know:
1. Your body doesn’t lie. You might say, “I’m relaxed!” or, “That pressure is great, you can work deeper,” but your body may tell a very different story. What goes on in your muscles, with your breathing, with your pulse is the truest you: the you that even you might not know yet. It’s a good thing to get in touch with. You’d feel much better if you listened and let your words match up to what your body was saying.
2. When you stretch, you open up space. This is physically true, and emotionally true. When you physically stretch (or allow yourself to be stretched) you create space and allow for greater movement, greater vulnerability and more growth. It’s the same when you stretch yourself emotionally, too. Your physical and emotional selves aren’t separate––stretch one, and you usually stretch the other, too. It isn’t always comfortable at first, but it’s a wonderful thing. Surrender to it. You won’t regret it.
3. That thing you’re embarrassed about? That you don’t want anyone to see? That you tense up and hold your breath over? The part of you that you wish were different? It’s okay. Let go. Enjoy it. It’s part of what makes you so beautiful.
4. Everyone has body hair in various places and amounts. There’s no one right amount. It’s all good. Same goes for moles. Even models don’t look like they do in the pictures. Smooth and hairless is a Madison Avenue invention designed to create discontent (and sell grooming products).
5. Everything you’ve experienced is stored in your body at a cellular level. Each cell is a record of all of it. I’ve felt it in your skin. Being born. Being held. The time you fell off your bike and weren’t that hurt but very scared. That brutal sunburn on your shoulders at 14. The time you fell out of a tree and broke your collarbone. The first time you felt deeply loved. The person who hurt you so badly you thought you were broken for good. Your muscles remember it. They remember it like it happened 10 minutes ago.
Your successes hold your shoulders high. Your losses pull your chest inward. You hold your sadness in your throat, your anger in your jaw and your fear in your belly. Your happiness rises and falls in your chest. Love rolls in and out on the tides of your breath. It’s all there, all the time. {You can release the parts that hurt, if you want to. Yoga and massage are the best ways I’ve seen.}
6. Your weight is the least interesting thing about you. I promise.
7. Your skin, however, is fascinating. Every line, every freckle, every scar tells the amazing stories of your life. Please don’t Botox, bleach or sand it all away. They’re all beautiful.
8. Your body is a f*cking wonderland. You are amazing just as you are, right now.
Relephant:
Bonus:
~
My favorite kind of preventative healthcare:10.
Forest Hiyoshi, Kyoto, Japan
May 20 - May 21
With their high-spec soundsystems and picture-postcard settings, you could argue that Japan does boutique festivals better than anyone. In addition to worldwide favorites like Labyrinth and Rainbow Disco Club, the country's spring and summer circuit boasts Star Festival, a camping event in the forest area of Nantan in Kyoto, now in its sixth year. Star Festival's 2017 programme includes sets from a cast of artists who are all masters of their respective niches, from Kassem Mosse to DJ Marky to Nathan Fake.Local eyes will be on rising DJ Peggy Gou, who will be playing Japan for the first time.
09.
Athens, Greece
May 4 - May 7
Fasma is proof that festivals run by promoters embedded in a city's scene create a level of authenticity and natural growth that big budget operations can't match. In spite of a crowded festival circuit placing ever-greater demands on smaller events, Fasma has built its reputation and programme on a bedrock of Greek and Athenian producers and labels. Rather than relying on big international names to sell tickets, they integrate visiting artists like DJ Stingray and Toxe into a local vision. That all this goes down in a city as striking as Athens is just the icing on the cake.Tolouse Low Trax keeps dance floors heaving without breaking 110 BPM.
08.
Boston, USA
May 14 - May 21
Together shows what a well-done festival can do for a local scene. Boston has long been home to a proud cast of inspired DJs, producers and promoters, but it wasn't until this week-long, multi-venue series of events that they saw what would happen if they all worked—well, together. Combining seven nights of parties at clubs across the city with a daytime program of illuminating panels and workshops, Together aims not only to put on a week of killer music, but also to strengthen its city's scene. Safe to say they've succeeded on this front. By booking events with local DJs and visual artists alongside international acts like Avalon Emerson, Clark and the Hessle Audio crew, Together has helped put Boston on the dance music map.Alessandro Cortini's live show should do the trick.
07.
North Carolina, USA
May 18 - May 21
With each passing year, Moogfest pushes itself to go beyond what you'd expect from a festival. Attendees can make their own Moog drum machine in a DIY synth building workshop, coming away with a piece of gear unavailable anywhere else. Its dedicated protest stage stands in the face of very real and present threats—the festival takes place in Durham, North Carolina, a state that last year repealed legislation protecting LGBT rights. Encompassing themes from Afrofuturism to technoshamanism and bringing in artists as diverse as Wolf Eyes, Avalon Emerson and Derrick May, Moogfest has become an essential beacon of electronic music in North America.Time travelling through African American history via noise and electronic hip-hop, Moor Mother is a genuine must-see act.
06.
Eastville Park, Bristol, UK
May 27 - May 28
It makes sense that a city like Bristol should have a festival like Love Saves The Day. Anyone who grew up in the area will have likely spent their years listening to all sorts of dance music, from local-brewed sounds like trip-hop and drum & bass to dubstep, techno and grime. Love Saves The Day, which returns to Eastville Park across two days, reflects this diversity. On Saturday, Little Dragon shares the bill with Jamie Jones, Peverelist and Addison Groove, while Sunday welcomes Fat Freddy's Drop, Jessy Lanza and bassline supergroup TQD. In short, there's something for everyone.Ricardo Villalobos DJing inside this thing
05.
Higashi Izu Cross Country Course, Japan
May 3 - May 5
The sight of Antal's two daughters happily dancing around on stage while their father DJ'd was one of the enduring images of last year's Rainbow Disco Club. That scene illustrates what this festival is all about. The atmosphere is warm and inclusive. It also happens to take place in a spectacular setting, nestled among the hills of Izu, a coastal area in Japan known for its natural hot springs. This year's lineup is the festival's widest offering to date, with a sprinkling of Rainbow Disco Club debuts (Sadar Bahar, Fatima Yamaha, DJ Dustin) alongside returning guests like DJ Nobu, Antal and Hunee.It's a toss-up between DJ Nobu and Fred P's back-to-back set and the Rush Hour All-Stars.
04.
Het Twiske, Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 27 - May 28
As the little sibling of Dekmantel Festival, Lente Kabinet has big shoes to fill. But as with Dekmantel, you can expect top-shelf production and a killer lineup every year. In 2017, the old school mixes with the new, with sets from pioneers like Boo Williams, Matthew Herbert and Sadar Bahar confirmed alongside the likes of Helena Hauff, Konstantin, Objekt and a big cast of homegrown acts. As always, Lente Kabinet goes down at the lush Het Twiske parkland north of Amsterdam over one afternoon and evening. Dekmantel might be bigger than ever, but you can always count on a cosy waterside rave as long as Lente Kabinet is around.See how Objekt's razor-sharp techno suits the sunny surroundings.
03.
Parc Del Forum, Barcelona, Spain
May 31 - June 4
You wouldn't think it looking at this year's lineup, but Primavera Sound didn't have a dedicated electronic stage until 2012. Now it has several. Between them they'll host a wealth of DJs and live acts in 2017, from the stadium-sized (The xx, Aphex Twin, Flying Lotus) to the experimental (Vladimir Ivkovic, Swans, Polar Inertia). It's by no means all electronic, though—there's also rock, pop, disco, grime, R&B and, well, a lot more besides. All this goes down across several days at Parc Del Forum, a striking seaside complex in the heart of one of the world's most beautiful cities.Aphex Twin and a shitload of lasers.
02.
Lyon, France
May 24 - May 27
Calling Nuits Sonores a festival doesn't do it justice. Thrown across 50 locations—which include a swimming pool, a factory, an ice skating rink and parks—in Lyon over five days and nights, there's something for the most diehard dance music fan through to the curious observer. It has everything you'd expect from an event supported by the local government, with an informative daytime programme of workshops, talks and screenings and access to dozens of interesting spaces. And for those just looking to let their hair down, this year's curators—The Black Madonna, Nina Kraviz and Jon Hopkins—have put together a lineup that features party-rockers like Derrick Carter, Daniel Avery and Rahaan billed alongside experimentalists such as Aleksi Perälä, Ben Frost and Actress.Optimo back-to-back-to-back with The Black Madonna should go off with a bang.
01.
Hart Plaza, Detroit, USA
May 27 - May 29
Movement has never skimped on international acts—Ben Klock, Dixon, Cassy and Carl Cox are just a few who've been booked this year—but it's the festival's deep roots in Detroit that really make it great. This may be truer in 2017 than ever before. In addition to the usual cast of local royalty—Robert Hood, Carl Craig, Seth Troxler et al—the festival has pulled off some truly impressive bookings, including one of the first performances of Richie Hawtin's new live act, CLOSE, and a rare set from techno pioneers Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson as The Belleville Three. Throw in a hodgepodge of inspired artists from across the musical spectrum, from Danny Brown to Thundercat tosoundtrackers S U R V I V E, and you've got a festival worthy of its city's extraordinary musical heritage.Gonna have to be The Belleville Three.Boca: Paredes joining Roma
By Football Italia staff
Boca Juniors have confirmed that they are allowing Leandro Paredes to join Roma on an initial loan deal.
The Gazzetta dello Sport have picked up quotes today from the Argentine club’s President Daniel Angelici, confirming that the 19-year-old attacking midfielder is set for the Italian capital.
“Paredes leaves tomorrow [today], we have authorised his departure for Italy,” Angelici has commented.
“He will be on loan to Roma because he has no place here and he wants to grow professionally. Is this a loan? Yes, so that he can recover from his last injury.”
That last injury was a fractured metatarsal in his right foot. It is believed that Paredes is joining on an 18-month temporary deal at a cost of €250,000 to the Giallorossi, with a purchase option of €4.5m also set.CENTENNIAL, CO - JULY 23: Accused movie theater shooter James Holmes makes his first court appearance at the Arapahoe County on July 23, 2012 in Centennial, Colorado. According to police, Holmes killed 12 people and injured 58 others during a shooting rampage at an opening night screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" July 20, in Aurora, Colorado. (Photo by RJ Sangosti-Pool/Getty Images) James Holmes - Arapahoe County, Colorado courtroom - Monday, July 23, 2012. (Credit: RJ Sangosti-Pool/Getty Images)
James Holmes, the alleged gunman in the recent theater shooting that left 12 dead in Aurora, Colo., was previously awarded a $26,000 federal grant.
PHOTOS: James Holmes First Court Appearance
WNEW News reports that Holmes was awarded a prestigious grant from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It gave the graduate student a $26,000 stipend and paid his tuition for the highly competitive neuroscience program at the University of Colorado in Denver. Holmes was one of six neuroscience students at the school to get the grant money.
Holmes is expected to be formally charged next Monday. He is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and he could also face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations. Holmes has been assigned a public defender.
Weeks before, Holmes quit a 35-student Ph.D. program in neuroscience for reasons that aren’t clear. He had earlier taken an intense oral exam that marks the end of the first year but University of Colorado Denver officials would not say if he passed, citing privacy concerns.
At a news conference, university officials refused to answer questions about Holmes. “To the best of our knowledge at this point, we think we did everything that we should have done,” Donald Elliman, the university chancellor.
The judge has issued an order barring lawyers in the case from publicly commenting on matters including evidence, whether a plea deal is in the works or results of any examination or test performed on someone.
(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)Been going through my second gameplay in Mass Effect 3, (finished it in like...less than 48 hours lals.) anywho. I had the sudden urge to draw most of the aliens from it, a random asari, just some turian, mean-ass-lookin' vorcha, sexy hanar, Wrex <3, a fabulous salarian, serious!Thane, Tali and a adorkable volus, I didn't want to draw a human there, because it's so boring to draw compared to the rest, and I know I'm missing an elcor and batarian, not much space left on the paper! Even an elcor wouldn't fit in there alone!
I so wanted the biotic god volus as a squad member in ME3 :'< but oh well.
Think I kinda lost it there on the details on Wrex. ohwell. wanted to test mah skeelz!
Mass Effect (c) Bioware
Drawings (c) me.Firearms, like other tools, fulfill a specific application for the user. If you wanted to nail deck boards down, you’d pull out your nail gun. If you are looking to go hunting, target shooting or home defense, you would choose an AR-15. The AR-15 serves many purposes, it is extremely customizable and can be a showpiece of individuality along with being a hard-working firearm.
Every collector needs a signature AR-15 set up to their specifications, and anyone looking for a versatile firearm should consider a Stag Arms rifle.
The following are three things you may want to consider about your AR-15 purchase:
The Purpose of the Firearm
The first thing to determine when choosing a rifle is to ask yourself, “For what purpose am I purchasing this rifle?” Once you answer that question, it makes it a lot easier to narrow your search to a specific model.
Target shooting. One of the most popular uses of our rifles is target shooting, and it is where most of our customers start their journey as shooters. You can challenge yourself or your friends’ by shooting at targets to see who gets the highest score, or you can simply practice shooting for self-improvement. A day at the range can also create a family or friends bonding experience.
Hunting. Stag 15 rifles are able to be used to hunt a wide range of animals. The 5.56 models are great for varmint and small game hunting, with the Stag 15 Varminter being specially designed for that purpose. Our Stag 15 Super Varminter rifle was designed to hunt larger game such as deer and it utilizes the 6.8 SPC II cartridge for more power.
Home defense. The AR-15 is a good choice for home protection. The 5.56 cartridge is a great choice to stop an intruder intent on doing you harm and has less penetration through walls and structures than pistol rounds shot through a carbine or buckshot out of a shotgun.
Competition. Many of our rifles are used in competition such as the Stag 15 Retro in the service rifle category, the Stag 15 Varminter with a ½ MOA, and the Stag 15 3Gun Elite which was designed from the ground up by our shooting team for 3-gun competitions.
See if the Company Stands Behind Their Products
You need to make sure the company is reputable in the industry. It’s best to ask knowledgeable people, and use an internet search engine to look up information about the company and what others have to say about them, especially if they have had repeated issues. Every company from time to time will have an issue with their manufacturing, so you should also look up how a company acts and works with the customers when these issues do arise.
You should also make sure the firearm you’re planning to purchase has a warranty or guarantee. All Stag Arms rifles which ship from our factory include an industry leading lifetime transferable warranty and an infinite shot guarantee with the barrel.
Magazine Size: What is Legal?
Some states have restrictions on magazine size which you should know before trying to purchase additional magazines for your rifle.You need to check your state law to confirm what size magazine is legal. You can check this chart to see what is legal in your state.
Key TakeawayLoading All Pictures; please wait.
Garrett Landon Edwards, born 11 January 2002, died 03 August 2015 in Oneida, Tennessee
Our Remembrance
Our sweet handsome son. 13 years was not enough time to spend with your kindred soul. You left such a testimony of kindness, love, friendship and selflessness, you are missed by so many. Love Mia
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Melissa Leigh Melton, born 08 January 1970, died 13 January 2009 in Tennessee, USA
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Alyssia Marie Sosa, born 24 August 2001, died 19 May 2017 in Texas, USA
Our Remembrance
Alyssia you were so young and Bright. Sweet Dreams
(Click to view)
Jessica Claire Fletcher, born 15 December 1982, died 26 April 2011 in England
Our Remembrance
My beautiful daughter Jessica, why were you so sad? I miss you so much my baby. I wish wish wish! Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Eugene F. Smith II, born 22 March 1994, died 17 March 2015 in Texas
Our Remembrance
Texas size heart- Gone way too soon! We'll always miss you!
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Felicia Garcia, born 11 March 1997, died 24 October 2012 in New York, USA
Our Remembrance
If only Felicia could see the outpouring of love and support from the grief-stricken community. If only she knew how many lives she had touched, and how many damaged souls she has left behind.
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Mitchell Hamilton, born 10 April 1984, died 02 November 2010 in Clinton Township, Michigan, USA
Our Remembrance
Mitchell was my youngest son. We love and miss him so very much
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Paul Alan Coker, born 30 November 1985, died 28 December 2009 in Victoria, Australia
Our Remembrance
In loving memory of my precious son who I miss more and more each day and who I love so dearly.Forever in my heart.xx
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Steven Myers, born 12 January 1990, died 23 December 2011 in Cary, North Carolina
Our Remembrance
My reason for living, until we are together again...One Love
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Matt Clairday, born 22 June 1987, died 05 May 2004 in Arkansas
Our Remembrance
In memory of my youngest son mathew scott clairday (known as matt)
I love n miss you always
Dad!!!
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Hannah Kelley, born 19 March 1997, died 30 April 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Our Remembrance
All this time I searched And I never knew. I'm so sorry. Hannah you was loved by all of us. These three years you have been gone and I never knew, My heart is so broken finally finding out. I literally am sitting here bawling my eyes out. You was so young, Hannah. Gone at 18 years old! It's NOT FAIR! I will never forget all the times we laughed cried and fought. You were my best friend from Oneida Baptist Institute. Now that I know you are gone I will never stop missing you. Fly high angel. May we meet again one day.
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Jackie Vaughn Rhodes, born 09 December 1935, died 05 December 2010 in Bridgeport, Texas, USA
Our Remembrance
My dad was not a perfect father but he was an excellent provider and loved each of us in his own quiet way. My dad was a true cowboy worked on farms and ranches at an early age and he remained a cowboy for the rest of his life. He loved me despite all the numerous poor choices I made. My dad was never able to absolve himself of guilt and grief after my older brother chose to take his own life at the age of 12. For many many years my father drank his guilt away and watched our family fall apart over our own grief. After my father ended his life I found information that devastated me and when I questioned another family member and they confirmed it was true, I lost it. Not because of what he did but that other family members were given an opportunity to speak their mind and voiced their disappointment to him. If I was given that opportunity I would have said: \\\"Dad, although I am deeply disappointed in the choices you made, I do not support the choice BUT my love
for you has not wavered and I will support you even though I don\\\'t condone your behavior.\\\"
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Grant Edward Charles Richter, born 13 May 1980, died 10 June 2007 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Our Remembrance
Honourable Loving Gentleman
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Peggy Ann Sutton, born 02 January 1963, died 28 October 2009 in Moore, Oklahoma
Our Remembrance
Peggy Sutton 01/02/1963 10/28/2009
Peggy was the life of the party,she loved her kids, being a grandma and her dog boo! she is deeply missed everyday by those who love her
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Emily Jane Ingram, born 21 March 1959, died 24 October 2010 in Michigan, USA
Our Remembrance
We miss you terribly each day but know you\'re at peace after all you\'ve been through. I\'ll never be as close to someone as I was with you, wish more was said towards the end. At least we have so many beautiful pictures of you Darling! We had so much fun taking them. I\'m so grateful for the times we shared together, its sad that no more wonderful memories will ever be created with you.
You deserved so much more out of life than one struggle after another.
Your Love Forever,
Tom XOXO!
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Daniel Malcolm Schaefer, born 13 May 1986, died 30 August 2014 in Aurora, Illinois
Our Remembrance
IN loving memory of our Son Daniel an inspiration to many. Always in our heart. YOUR family
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Matthew Austin Seabolt, born 28 January 1981, died 13 August 2009 in Franklin, Tennessee, USA
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Brian Cameron, born 06 November 1976, died 19 September 2013 in Ontario, Canada
Our Remembrance
R.I.P Brian You will be missed by everyone who knew you.
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George F. Frank, born 16 July 1969, died 21 February 2015 in Florida
Our Remembrance
You never really believed how truly special you were. Many people remember, love, and miss you every day.
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul
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Erika Michelle Eberhart Peterson, born 19 April 1995, died 12 April 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Our Remembrance
Our darling angel, Erika...you loved us all so fiercely...yet you didn't realize it darling, but you were loved and cherished so very much. We are lost without you.
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Timothy Galceran, born 10 November 1968, died 09 April 2006 in Capistrano Beach, California, USA
Our Remembrance
Friend to Many Father of 3
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Joleen Danielle Moore, born 30 January 1982, died 28 February 2011 in Washington
Our Remembrance
The loss of my child did not define me, but it certainly has forever changed me.
My dear daughter Joleen,
Your life was a blessing
your memory a treasure...
You are loved beyond words
and missed beyond measure...
I Love & Miss You, Mom
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Willam Douglas Foss, born 26 November 1986, died 06 October 2013 in Idaho
Our Remembrance
I'm trying not to worry - Love and miss you so much! Your Favorite Aunt Sharon
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Sterling David Taylor, born 28 June 1977, died 16 January 2001 in Portage, Indiana
Our Remembrance
Son, father, brother, uncle....Always loved, never forgotten.
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Richard R. Shamblin, born 27 April 1954, died 13 December 2010 in Northport, Alabama
Our Remembrance
My Rick was the most loving compassionate, caring person you could meet, he was my soul mate, my best friend. He always helped those in need, loved his Harleys, always rode in all the charity runs, He actually saved my life when I met him, yet I was unable to save his. That guilt will be with me for the rest of my life. He had a horrible childhood raised by a surgeon father who could not see past his God syndrome enough to show his children love and a mother who could think of nothing but keeping up the \"family\" name.. He could not get past his childhood, was always looking for love, acceptance and validation from his father, something that was never going to come, Rick gave up his early retirement plans to travel the states to move back to Alabama to care for his aging parents, nothing he did was ever good enough for his father. I hope he is finally at peace... if anyone deserves to be in God\'s loving arms, it is my Rick Rick....
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Ryan Anthony Morrison Bradley, born 22 September 1991, died 08 May 2017 in Poway, California, USA
Our Remembrance
Ryan, You will always be our special and only son, the first blessing from above of three beautiful children to complete our family. We miss you Ry beyond description, our hearts are forever broken! We miss your big forgiving heart, those bear-hugs you always gave us, your warm and kind smile, but most of all we just MISS YOU, your daily presence here among our earthly lives where we believe you still belong and would have achieved your dreams and so much more. Although it's very difficult to accept, please know we respect your decision to end your mental anguish and emotional pain that we know you endured for so many years, thank you sweet boy for staying with us for as long as you could, WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH & UNTIL WE ALL MEET AGAIN, Oh what a Glorious day that will be!! For your generous gifts of life through your tissue donations, you are a Forever Hero to us, our entire family, and the dozens of recipients saved by you across America!!!!!
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James Lee Schreiner, Jr., born 18 June 1971, died 07 June 2010 in Titusville, Florida
Our Remembrance
True Love thwarted by a malign star. No more good-byes.
\"Joy and gladness shall overtake them, sorrow and sighing have fled away.\"
Isaiah 35:10
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Matthew Ival Stevens, born 05 October 1971, died 18 November 12006 in Walla Walla, Washington
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Stephanie Dawn Barragy, born 05 August 1970, died 19 November 2007 in Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska
Our Remembrance
There are things that we don\'t want to happen, but have to accept, things we don\'t want to know but have to learn, and people we can\'t live without, but have to learn to let go.~ Author Unknown
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Croix Lazzara, born 26 August 1977, died 27 June 2014 in Tampa, Florida
Our Remembrance
Missed and Loved Forever & Ever.
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Brandon Bruce Johnson, born 04 May 1998, died 06 January 2019 in Alabama, United States
Our Remembrance
Why did you leave me? I love you so much I would have done anything to save you so that I could have you forever
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Randy John Chadbolt, born 10 August 1972, died 18 December 2006 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Our Remembrance
You\'re in the arms of an angel, may you find some comfort there.
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Randall Bruce Fisher, born 24 June 1970, died 04 September 2011 in Missouri, USA
Our Remembrance
You will be with me forever because you came from me.
I will love you always,
Mom
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Alexander Graves, born 31 August 1997, died 25 January 2017 in Kansas City, Missouri
Our Remembrance
Alex, I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you very much in high school. You were a wonderful person and I'm sorry you were in pain. I hope you're in a much better place now.
-Ana T.
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Sgt. Peter Anthony Maginnis, born 02 March 1965, died 20 September 2002 in Wantagh, New York
Our Remembrance
My precious son with every breath I take, a tear falls..you will never be forgotten. You are my Forever Angel. Taken from us too soon. You are so missed every minute of the day. You were my Sunshine, my only Sunshine.
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Liana Martin, born 11 April 1992, died 20 February 2011 in Missouri, USA
Our Remembrance
You are loved more and more everyday. Not a day goes by without thinking of you, your pretty face, laughter, and kind ways. You are missed more than you will ever know. No worries, we are taking good care of Chewy.
Love you always and forever, Mom, Felicia, Evan, Memaw, Uncle John, Uncle Dan, Cousin Jake, Nephews Aiden and Corbin.
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James Young Jr, born 16 June 1967, died 27 September 1996 in Augusta, Georgia
Our Remembrance
Beloved husband of Sandra Benson Young, Father of Stephanie,
Ashley, Jennifer and James Young, III. Be at peace.
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Vladimir Sotnikov, Jr., born 22 June 1973, died 02 May 2013 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Our Remembrance
I will love you forever my green eyes, my boxa ❤
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Michael V. O Neall, born 18 September 1981, died 30 June 2003 in Indiana, USA
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Elizabeth Anne Lay, born 19 March 1974, died 25 February 2008 in Byhalia, Mississippi
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DeVeronica Cameron, born 16 February 1997, died 29 November 2011 in New York
Our Remembrance
Cameron was loving, caring, and everyone loved to be around her. She planned on becoming a Pediatric Surgeon and had so many other plans for her future until being bullied consumed the innermost of her loving soul. Thank you Cameron for letting me be your mother for 14 wonderful years, and my angel for the rest of my days on this earth. Someday, I will hold you in my arms again.
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Marissa Josalyn Murphy, born 01 June 1998, died 10 April 2015 in Rialto, California, USA
Our Remembrance
I don't want my daughters death to define her. She was a beautiful girl with an infectious |
have fully comprehensive immigration reform,” Issa said, but he added that it would be mindful of the mistakes that Republicans believe were made in the 1986 immigration overhaul, when illegal immigrants were granted amnesty, but the government failed to tighten the border enough to curb illegal immigration.
The meeting comes at a critical juncture for the push for immigration reform, the top domestic priority for President Obama’s second term. The Senate cleared a comprehensive plan last month on a bipartisan, 68-32 vote. But the measure earned support from fewer than half of Senate Republicans and drew opposition from the entire GOP leadership, limiting its momentum in the House.
In the lower chamber, Republicans have largely shrugged at the Senate bill and attempts by Democrats for them to take it up.
Gloom that immigration reform will not reach the president's desk has deepened among some Democrats. White House press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday acknowledged the fight was "an uphill climb."
One reason for the growing pessimism is Boehner's vow not to bring a bill to the floor that lacks the support of a majority of House Republicans. Democratic aides said they believed Boehner, though there have been some doubts within Boehner's own conference.
Boehner addressed those concerns during the closed-door meeting, as well as GOP worries about what might emerge from a House-Senate conference on immigration.
“The Speaker said that we're going to have a majority of the conference for anything that goes over [to the Senate] or comes back [from conference],” a lawmaker at the meeting said.
“People were asking, 'Well, can you guarantee me what's going to come back from conference won't be the Senate bill-light?’”
“[Boehner] said, 'I can't guarantee what's going to come back from conference because it hasn't happened yet, but I can guarantee that we're going to have something a majority of the conference accepts,’” a lawmaker in the room told The Hill.
During the meeting, Rep. Mo Brooks Morris (Mo) Jackson BrooksCongress just proved there is hope for honest discussion on climate Coulter slams Trump as 'lazy and incompetent,’ says he could face primary challenger Dems press Pentagon officials to explain why troops are still at border MORE (R-Ala.) read aloud a passage from “America the Beautiful” to emphasize the importance of the rule of law, he said. He told the conference he would oppose any path to citizenship, including procedural votes to bring such a bill to the floor.
While the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees have advanced a handful of individual immigration bills, Boehner has publicly and privately encouraged a bipartisan group of House lawmakers who have met in secret for more than four years to craft a comprehensive proposal. That group has stumbled repeatedly in recent months, and though its 500-page bill has been drafted, it has yet to be released.
Two members of that group, Reps. John Carter (R-Texas) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), said they did not plan to make a formal presentation to the conference on Wednesday.
After the meeting, Diaz-Balart said he came away “very encouraged” and that he was more confident that the bipartisan bill would receive a favorable response from House Republicans. The group met on Tuesday night and made "a lot of progress" in combing through the legislative draft, he said.
Asked if it was likely the 500-page proposal would have to be broken up into pieces to be viable, Diaz-Balart replied, “To me that’s a strategic decision. It doesn’t concern me one way or the other.”
This story was posted at 5:14 p.m. and updated at 6:36 p.m.It's been a long decline for the Grand Old 'Pelago a.k.a. the Iron Islands. At one point, they were among the most powerful groups in Westerosi politics, owning all of the Iron Islands and the Riverlands. But in recent years, the Iron Islanders have been mostly confined to ranting about how awesome things used to be while launching raids on any neighbor in sight. The last leader of the Iron Islands, Balon Greyjoy, was a buffoon most famous for launching a disastrous war without securing enough allies or having a clear exit strategy. I'm not saying Balon's middle name was "Dubya," but he probably ran on a platform of " compassionate pillaging."
Game of Thrones and in the A Song of Ice and Fire books, Euron Greyjoy appears in the middle of the storyline almost out of the blue to become the new leader of the Iron Islanders. While fans initially thought of Euron as something of a clown—perhaps not unlike pundits initially thought of Donald Trump—with this week's release of a new chapter for George R. R. Martin's The Winds of Winter, it's clear that Euron could post a threat to all of Westeros. Enter Euron Greyjoy. Onand in thebooks, Euron Greyjoy appears in the middle of the storyline almost out of the blue to become the new leader of the Iron Islanders. While fans initially thought of Euron as something of a clown—perhaps not unlike pundits initially thought of Donald Trump—with this week's release of a new chapter for George R. R. Martin's allegedly-forthcoming-but-he's-been-saying-that-for-years novel, it's clear that Euron could post a threat to all of Westeros.
"Released" is perhaps the wrong word. Martin read the chapter out loud at Balticon last weekend and dedicated fans transcribed the entire thing. The transcribed document, titled "The Forsaken," is filled with weird Lovecraftian elements and signals a somehow even darker turn for the world of Westeros.
Before getting into the new chapter, let's review the Trumpian rise of Euron Greyjoy.
The Iron Islands are the only part of Westeros that has something resembling an election. Instead of the throne passing from king to prince, the Iron Islands holds a "kingsmoot," where the captains elect the new leader. In both the books and the show, the election initially seems like it will go to Balon's heir, Yara Greyjoy (in the books Asha), just as everyone assumed Jeb Bush would easily take the GOP nomination (just as everyone, until recently, assumed Hillary would cake-walk over Trump to the presidency). Instead, Euron sails onto the scene, insulting his way to the kingship.
In the books, he brags about his enormous wealth—achieved not through sketchy real estate deals, but through pillaging around the world. In the TV show, he just brags about his dick. Sound familiar? Then he announces he's going to build 10,000 ships (and make the Lannisters pay for it?).
Is it a stretch to compare Donald Trump to Euron Greyjoy? Well, I don't believe that Trump has a ship full of mute and mutilated slaves, but there are some real parallels. In both cases, the outsider candidate doesn't seem to have any real loyalty or principles but just spouts whatever he thinks people want to hear. The die-hard conservatives of the GOP were horrified by Trump's constant breaches of orthodoxy and his willingness to insult past leaders like George W. Bush and John "He's Not a War Hero!" McCain. Similarly, Euron mocks the recently deceased—at his hands!—Balon Greyjoy, and, in the books, freaks out the ideological Aeron, who thinks Euron doesn't hold enough faith to be king.
But mostly, both men bluster their way to power by bragging about genitals and wealth while merely announcing they are going to make everything better without detailing any real plan. Trump will Make America Great Again by... who knows. He'll figure it out later. Euron will conquer all of Westeros for the Iron Born... somehow. Maybe with dragons if Daenerys likes his penis? Hard to say.
(Warning: There be spoilers ahead.) The new chapter is told from the POV of his captured his brother, the religious leader Aeron. Euron forces Aeron to drink hallucinogenic nightshade where he experiences horrifying eldritch visions, which include Euron sitting on the Iron Throne surrounded by dead gods of every religion: While Trump likely doesn't have secret evil magical plans, the new chapter makes it clear that Euron does. He may have bragged his way to power, but he's using the Iron Islanders to do some freaky things.The new chapter is told from the POV of his captured his brother, the religious leader Aeron. Euron forces Aeron to drink hallucinogenic nightshade where he experiences horrifying eldritch visions, which include Euron sitting on the Iron Throne surrounded by dead gods of every religion:
Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith... even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath. And there, swollen and green, half—devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair.
Another juicy nugget shows Euron donning a crazy suit of armor made entirely from Valerian steel! Valerian steel is the strongest and rarest metal, heretofore only seen in a handful of swords.
In all the Seven Kingdoms, no man owned a suit of Valyrian steel. Such things had been known 400 years ago, in the days before the Doom, but even then, they would've cost a kingdom.
Euron did not lie. He has been to Valyria. No wonder he was mad.
The chapter ends with Euron strapping priests and priestesses of different religions to the bows of his ship and sailing into battle against a fleet from the Reach. What is he doing with all these holy men? Probably something pretty damn evil. In fact, it may just signal a fan theory— popularized by the very smart ASOIAF blogger Poor Quentyn —that the Iron Islands subplot might involve the summoning of a Cthulhu-type Lovecraftian god. That's right, if White Walkers, zombies, dragons, and constant warfare weren't enough, there might be a stygian horror from the depths of the ocean wrecking havoc on the land.
Will Euron bend the world to his evil whims? Will Euron on the TV show cause a similar amount of eldritch horror? Will Donald Trump summon Cthulhu at the GOP convention? Whatever the case, people will be writing about it.
Follow Lincoln Michel on Twitter.This blog was originally published on October 29, 2016.
The news first broke when I was in the north of Kashmir in Vijbal, a town of less than a hundred households.
My cousins had invited me for dinner as I was scheduled to leave for New Delhi right after Eid.
One of my friends from Tral, south of Kashmir, informed me through a Whatsapp text: Burhan Wani has been killed.
I didn’t believe him. It was just a rumour, I thought. Half an hour later, the Indian media erupted in celebration, announcing victory.
The party immediately began on Twitter and continued on television. “Burhan Wani elimination BIG NEWS,” tweeted Barkha Dutt of NDTV.
Abhijit Majumdar, the managing editor of Mail Today, chipped in: “with Burhan Wani's killing, Indian forces have eliminated entire gang of Facebook terror poster-boys of #Kashmir one after the other. Salute.”
Cars, trucks, and motorcycles began to honk mindlessly. My aunt worriedly asked her son to check if everything was alright.
Burhan gove shaheed (Burhan has been martyred), I told them.
They looked back at me in shock.
My aunt began to wail.
Ye kusu tawan cxunuth khudayoo (what tragedy did you send upon us, oh God), she lamented.
The heavens opened up at the same time and the sound of rain hitting the tin-roof of the house got louder.
I looked at my cousin, red-faced, eyes welling up, his body shivering.
His phone rang and he finally noticed on the fifth ring. It was my mother calling.
By the next morning, the internet was blocked. People were expecting mobile networks to be shut by the government as well in order to restrict communication in the valley.
People know how the state functions. The Indian state’s oppression is as routinised in war-time as it is in peace-time.
In-depth: The pursuit of Kashmir
People knew that in the coming days, the only way to communicate and find out what was going on would be to travel, on foot, from village to village. They knew that they had to avoid the highways which are constructed to allow smooth movement to Indian military convoys only.
'They know everything'
Rafiabad, the place where I live, is as militarised as any other place in Kashmir. Indian army camps are located every five kilometres from one another, allowing them to bring every village and its people under the army’s view.
The army knows the number of people in each household, including how many males and females, educated and uneducated, where they work, newborns, adults and old.
They have numbered our houses and categorised the localities. They have marked our streets, shops, playgrounds, even the apple orchards.
They know the size of our courtyards and backyards, as well as the the shape of our cowsheds.
They know everything.
As the protests and stone-pelting began, so did the congregational funeral prayers.
People began to count the dead. And the numbers kept rising.
The protest demonstrations kept swelling.
The campaign of killing, blinding, maiming and torturing people continued.
For more: Dispatch from Srinagar: Our nights are becoming longer and darker
The Pakistan bogey
The protests were a sign of the Indian state losing all ground. The divisions that they had constructed — Shia-Sunni, Muslim-non-Muslim, Kashmiri-Ladakhi, Tableeghi-Salafi, majority-minority — to obfuscate the truth went up in smoke as the air was now incensed with songs of freedom.
But in the newsrooms in India, it was the perennial threat that was being accused of fomenting the trouble. Pakistan, they said, was responsible for causing unrest in Kashmir.
Sometimes, one imagines, if Pakistan were to tectonically shift from here to Antarctica, where would the Indian state and its jingoistic media derive their narrative from?
Who will they blame for their own failure and guilt, their own deception and debauchery?
A confrontation
Soon after (dates have lost their significance) the death of Burhan Wani, people of Rafiabad assembled near the Eidgah in Achabal.
The announcement was made through the mosques’ loudspeakers. People from adjacent villages poured in as well. As the numbers kept rising, so did the volume of the slogans, causing panic inside the Indian army camp nearby.
As the protesters neared the army camp, two armoured vehicles blocked the way on one side.
Rest of the road was sealed with barbed wires. The demonstration came to a halt, but the sloganeering did not.
Soon, there was chaos.
Read next: What pellet guns have done to protesters in Kashmir
As stones were hurled at the armoured vehicles, more army men from the camp arrived and started moving toward the protesters with guns and lathis. A few protesters started to turn back.
A direct confrontation with the Indian army, we are told by our elders, should be avoided. But some among the protesters didn’t relent and stood their ground firm.
Several of them were later picked up. All security installations in Kashmir are equipped with high-quality surveillance cameras to keep watch on the people's every movement.
From the footage, they identified the persons who were at the forefront of the march. They knew who these men were. They knew their addresses. They could pick them up from inside their bedrooms.
Inside the camp, they were tortured. One of the boys later told me about how they were made to stand naked, abused, spat on, and beaten with guns, sticks and belts till their bodies bled. They were given death threats and some were even made to jump naked in the river. Yet, after he came out of the prison, he was determined to protest again.
Another boy, in his pre-teens, lying flat in his room, smiled as I entered to see him. He didn’t appear to have been affected by the torture at all.
He was waiting for a bandage to be removed from his back. “I remember the face of the army man who beat me up”, he said, “I won’t spare him”.
He was clearly enraged. He wanted to avenge what was done to him.
It is this anger and this sense of revenge, especially among the youth, which the ‘experts’ on Kashmir amplify and manipulate to present the issue as a problem of inteqaam (revenge) alone.
They also see in the youth a rage informed by religious extremism.
Building a false narrative
For years now, these Kashmir ‘experts’ have dedicated all their energy and resources to maintain control over the Kashmir narrative that comes on TV screens and newspapers.
In April this year, when an Indian army trooper was accused of molesting a teenage female student in Kupwara, a group of reporters were dispatched from New Delhi to report the aftermath in which five protesters were killed, including a woman.
The Kashmiri reporters working for various Indian media organisations, barring a few exceptions, were asked to stand down or take leave of absence or just assist the reporters airdropped from New Delhi.
While the reporters filed contradictory versions of the actual incident, India’s Kashmir ‘experts’ were quick to process the information and construct a narrative which helped the government to systematically shift the focus from the molestation to the protests.
Praveen Swami, one of India’s leading Kashmir ‘experts’, a journalist who has the audacity to tell Kashmiris that he knows more about Kashmir than Kashmiris themselves, tried to historicise the violent protests. For him, “the underlying crisis in Kashmir needs to be read against the slow growth, from the 1920s, of neo-fundamentalist proselytising movements.”
He implied that allegations of sexual violence against an Indian army man do not merit any protests as per secular traditions and only religious movements, like the Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith and Jamaat-i-Islami, can inspire people to take such a recourse.
Two more ‘experts,’ David Devadas and Aarti Tickoo Singh, whose writings have a clear streak of right-wing bigotry, indulged in victim blaming and in theologising the movement for self-determination in Kashmir.
Also read: Modi has become a prisoner of his own image
Devadas wrote that the different “narratives emphasise that unarmed ‘civilians’ were killed by armed forces, with no reference to the fact that the mobs attacked an army bunker and a camp before the army retaliated”. Four months later, Devadas said that “it still isn't clear what exactly lies at the heart of the current unrest.”
Aarti Tickoo Singh believes that in 2010 “stone pelting phenomenon that led to the death of over 100 youth during clashes with the forces was restricted to urban poor Sunni Muslim youth in Srinagar”. She also cites a study by Indian police officials that “lack of entertainment resources and Saudi-funded religious radicalisation” motivate the youth towards violence.
These ‘experts’ have time and again warned the people of Kashmir about the capabilities of the Indian State: you will be killed if you come out on the streets.
For them, the responsibility of Kashmiris getting killed by an Indian soldier is on the Kashmiris and not on the Indian state.
However, their ideological manipulations have been of little consequence to the people of Kashmir.
Men, women, young and old, come out daily in the streets of Kashmir with the slogan: Hum kya chahtey? Azaadi!
Freedom, self-determination and the right to live in peace are innate to a people. No matter how much violence the Indian state resorts to and no matter how much the country’s media manipulates the narrative surrounding what’s going on in Kashmir, the people of Kashmir will keep coming out on the streets to demand for their rights.SAN MATEO, Calif. — Walking into the electrical substation, I see a green vapor cloud above a circuit breaker. There’s a dangerous gas leak, and immediate action is required. Nearby, a transformer is glowing red: It’s low on oil. Maintenance is urgently needed.
I can almost hear a loud siren wailing and a metallic voice informing me that “this is a test, this is only a test.” But while that’s in my imagination, this is a test. After all, a real gas cloud isn’t green, and a faulty transformer looks the same as one that’s working. But for those who need to spot them in such emergency situations, wouldn’t it be great if they were green and red? For me, right now? They are.
Welcome to Oculus Rift in the enterprise.
Oculus, of course, is the immersive virtual-reality technology created by Palmer Luckey, and subsequently acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. Now, while much of the attention directed at Oculus focuses on how the technology is being used in games and entertainment, some see it as a natural fit for industrial companies looking for ways to solve problems without having people in the field at all times, or for training technicians how to recognize and address problems when they come up.
Visualizing floods of data
That’s why I’ve come to San Mateo, about 20 miles south of San Francisco: to see a short VR demo at Space-Time Insight, a 7-year-old startup that’s been developing technology to help utilities and other large industrial clients make sense of the flood of operational data coming in from an ever-growing collection of meters, sensors, and other systems.
But while Space-Time Insight has traditionally worked on 2D software tools, it has seen the future, and recently unveiled an Oculus integration showcasing how virtual reality can be an essential tool in the enterprise.
Strapping on the Oculus goggles, I’m transported to a large utility company operations center. On each wall, I see huge screens filled with maps, charts, and other tools. For the uninitiated, it would be overwhelming. I’m thinking that’s the point — to get people used to what it would be like inside a real-life utility company ops center — when a dot in the middle screen starts flashing red. There’s a problem.
I’m brought into the virtual substation, where I spot the cloud of green vapor. Walking up to it, I see that the gas pressure is dangerously low thanks to the “gas leak.” And nearby, there’s the busted transformer.
Image Credit: Space-Time Insight
Here’s the point: Utility companies have installed endless sensors throughout their massive infrastructure, and at any given moment, their systems are processing all that data. When there’s a problem, like a gas leak, it can be found in the data, but how does a human recognize the actual issue, or know how to react when it happens?
Space-Time Insight thinks that VR is a perfect way to analyze issues like these, and that’s why it has developed software it hopes its clients will begin using as they transition into the Internet of Things era.
Steve Erlich, Space-Time Insight’s senior vice president of marketing and product management, explained that its software was designed to process huge streams of data and distill them down to simple visualizations that would make sense to real people.
“Even if you were in a substation,” Erlich said of the gas leak scenario, “you couldn’t see the gas. But based on the data we collect, our analytics can visualize it in a way…a technician” could actually recognize.
Across the enterprise
The opportunities here are endless, Erlich suggested. Someone in an ops center could be wearing Oculus goggles and walking through a scenario while communicating with someone in the field — leading them directly to a problem. Or, it’s ideal for training, he said.
Today, Space-Time Insight has yet to line up customers for its Oculus integration, but the company thinks its clients are more than ready. Many, he said, have already begun testing the virtual-reality technology and have been looking for just this kind of implementation, even as the world waits for Oculus to move beyond the developer version of its technology and release its consumer version. That day could be coming soon. At the Crunchies — a tech-industry awards show — last week, an Oculus executive said on stage that “We promise one day we’ll ship a consumer product.”
Meanwhile, as Space-Time Insight focuses much of its energy on the utility industry, Erlich said another obvious type of client would be airlines, which could give their technicians a way to virtually inspect planes if a problem arises, either on the tarmac or even in the air. Modern airplanes generate huge amounts of data, and the technology could be used to create instant visualizations of problems.
Image Credit: Oculus VR
But whether airline, utility company, or other, Space-Time Insight is betting that the enterprise is ready for Oculus, and has even been doing the groundwork that will make the VR technology valuable in the short term. “All of our clients have some sort of 3D model of their infrastructure,” said Zaid Tashman, an engineering product manager at Space-Time Insight, “so it’s easy to integrate with our” software.
To Erlich, this combination is a no-brainer, given that it’s essential that companies be able to take quick action when the data indicates it’s needed. “Right now, if I think about traditional business-intelligence-type tools, you have your dashboards, but what do [you] do with them,” Erlich said. Now, with Oculus, “I’ve got the data, I press a button, and something happens. That has big, big, big business impact.”Twenty years ago, the U.S. Sentencing Commission issued a landmark report that highlighted the injustices caused by mandatory minimum penalties. Since then several developments have helped mitigate those injustices. In 1994 Congress enacted a "safety valve" provision that allows low-risk, first-time offenders to escape mandatory minimums. In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court held in U.S. v. Booker that the commission's sentencing guidelines (as opposed to mandatory minimums required by statute) should be treated as advisory because they hinged on facts that were not determined by a jury. In 2007 the commission changed its guidelines to reduce recommended sentences for crack cocaine offenses. In 2010 Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which shrank the senseless sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine powder. Last month the commission issued a follow-up report on mandatory minimum sentences that reflects the improvements made by some of these changes but also shows that federal criminal penalties remain excessively harsh and rigid.
The report confirms that the safety valve, championed by Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), is having a significant impact. In fiscal year 2010, drug offenders accounted for two-thirds of federal defendants convicted of offenses that carried mandatory minimums, but they qualified for shorter sentences about half the time. According to the report, "One-quarter (26.1%) of these offenders received relief through operation of the safety valve alone, 19.3 percent by providing substantial assistance to the government; and 9.0 percent through both the safety valve and substantial assistance provisions."
The report also shows that judges are taking advantage of the leeway allowed by Booker. "In fiscal year 2010," the commission says, "courts imposed a sentence within the applicable guideline range in fewer than half (43.7%) of all cases involving an offense carrying a mandatory minimum penalty. In 28.3 percent of such cases, the sentence was below the applicable guidelines range at the request of the government because the offender had provided substantial assistance to the government in the investigation of another offense." That means that in most cases where judges departed from the recommended range, they did so at their own initiative, presumably because they deemed the minimum suggested sentence too severe.
This report does not include data for all crack sentences (just the ones involving mandatory minimums), but another report shows the average crack sentence in fiscal year 2009 was 115 months, compared to 87 months for cocaine powder. That's a difference of about 32 percent, substantially smaller than the gaps seen in the 1990s and early 2000s (56 percent in 2000, for example). The Fair Sentencing Act, which took effect toward the end of fiscal year 2010, should reduce the gap further.
Despite such modest progress, it's clear from the commission's report that federal sentences are still out of whack. From interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys, for example, "the Commission learned that inconsistencies in application of mandatory minimum penalties exist between districts, and often within districts, where individual prosecutors exercise their discretion differently. In part, these differences may have developed to avoid the overly severe consequences that result from certain mandatory minimum penalties applying in individual cases." In other words, prosecutors are exercising the discretion that once belonged to judges, effectively determining offenders' sentences by deciding how to charge them.
The commission also found that "mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses sweep more broadly than Congress may have intended." The most common function among offenders subject to mandatory minimums was courier (23 percent), followed by wholesaler (21 percent), street-level dealer (17 percent), and high-level supplier/importer (11 percent). That breakdown suggests mandatory minimums continue to hit low-level offenders more often than "drug kingpins."
The irrationality is not confined to drug offenses. The share of federal sex offenders subject to mandatory minimums has risen dramatically in the last decade, from 5 percent in 2001 to 51 percent in 2010. And unlike drug offenders, they rarely qualify for lower sentences. Most sex offenders (72 percent in 2010) are charged with child pornography offenses, primarily (58 percent) possession only. The average sentence for child porn offenders subject to mandatory minimums is 11 years. "The Commission's preliminary review of the available sentencing data suggests that the mandatory minimum penalties for certain non-contact child pornography offenses may be excessively severe and as a result are being applied inconsistently," the report says. "The Commission is undertaking a more comprehensive study of child pornography offenses and expects to issue a report in the near future."
FAMM President Julie Stewart, whose organization just marked its 20th anniversary, discusses the report at The Huffington Post. More on absurdly draconian child porn penalties here and here.Here is a thing for color contest (It ends April 30th if you wanna join! Twas so much fun!) each artist is assigned their own color palette to work with, you can see mine as well as close ups on this Tumblr Post I stared at the palette for a few days not knowing what the heck to do with it and this was the best concept I came up with (I didn't like that puke color in the middle, but in context between the browns and blues it looks quite lovely!). When we lived in Mississippi we appropriately had a swamp as our back yard. It was really interesting and beautiful to look at every day and that's what I was thinking of when I drew this.I went out of my comfort zone a little here. I decided towork with mixtures of the 5 colors from the color palette. It was hard for me because I really like to use a big value range basically spanning from white to black, and I still think the image would benefit from having darker shadows, but I must stick to the boundaries I set myself! Pink has historically been my least favorite color and I tend to avoid it if I can. I also don't like unnaturally colored make up, but it just fit so well here because it makes her face pop and keeps it a focal point, so I feel happy with myself for using the color palette to my advantage (plus, if fancy make up's gonna work on anybody, it'd be a mermaid!).A Youtuber who's content is all about being vegan got attention recently for posting a video including the temper tantrum he threw after finding out that the sauce on his pizza actually contained cheese. You can watch the entire 27 minute video if you have the fortitude, otherwise, the action starts at about the 16 minute mark:
If you can't manage to watch the video but just want to be in the know, notable moments include the throwing of his phone and going on a tirade while flossing every speck of parmesian cheese from his teeth ON CAMERA.
We would post some internet reactions, but the vegan guy already created a video about it that you can hate-watch if you really want to know what other people are saying about that video:“In October 2010, Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany had ‘utterly failed,’ stating that: ‘The concept that we are now living side by side and are happy about it’ does not work and ‘we feel attached to the Christian concept of mankind, that is what defines us. Anyone who doesn’t accept that is in the wrong place here.'” — from the Wikipedia entry for Angela Merkel
The announcement by Angela Merkel’s government that Germany will take in another 500,000 Muslim “refugees” in 2016, on top of the 1.1. million Germany took in in 2015, should fill any well-informed German, or European, with bewilderment and dread. After all, throwing open the doors of Europe to what is in effect an invasion by Muslims (an invasion that needs no weapons, and that is accomplishing its conquests through demography), represents a complete and astonishing break with the West’s long history of resisting Islamic imperialism, a resistance bolstered by Western Christendom’s historic memory of the subjugation, through violence, of non-Muslims by Muslims from North Africa to India. This expansion of Dar al-Islam – the Domain of Islam — at the expense of non-Muslims was recognized as being a natural and essential part of Islam, to which statesmen as various as John Quincy Adams, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Winston Churchill have all testified. When the great mass of Christians thought about Muslims at all, they never doubted that they had been well-informed by those who had studied Islam or by those who had observed Muslims in their own lands: Islam was an all-encompassing and fanatical faith, deeply hostile to the two monotheisms – Judaism and Christianity – that preceded it. No Westerner prior to the present age would have employed that soothing and misleading phrase about “the three great Abrahamic faiths” that has gained such foolish currency, serving to conceal a great many differences at the very moment when Muslims are managing to enter the West in large numbers. In the Western world, even if they could not cite sura and ayat by number, non-Muslims in Europe for more than a millennium had a much better understanding of Islam than we do now, and instead of that “three Abrahamic faiths” nostrum, they knew, though perhaps not literally, the Muslim injunction to “take not Christians and Jews as friends, for they are friends only with each other.” This understanding did not depend on Europeans studying the contents of Sura 9 and a hundred other jihad verses in the Qur’an, or many hundreds of anti-Infidel hadiths. The inhabitants of Europe learned about Islam by coming into contact with Muslim raiders up and down their coasts, and with Muslim privateers attacking Christian shipping in the Mediterranean, seizing seamen as well as goods and the ships themselves.
Eventually Europe not only successfully resisted Islamic conquerors, but took the fight to Muslim lands and peoples. The French in Africa, the Italians in Libya, the Dutch in the East Indies, the British in India (with both Muslims and Hindus) were all examples of benign colonialism. Despite the current simple-minded denunciation of “colonialism,” in many places the colonial power helped civilize the uncivilized. The French in North Africa, for example, took their “mission civilisatrice” seriously. They founded schools, universities, hospitals, introduced modern agricultural methods, and spread the French language, which for many Muslims provided access to a wider intellectual world. The Italians in Libya (and in Somalia and Eritrea, too) built roads and schools, and introduced the Italian language, which had a similar opening-to-the-wider-world effect. Great Britain arrived in Egypt to install a competent civil service under Lord Cromer, a mission that lasted from 1882 to 1922, and in Iraq from 1922 to 1932, to usher a League of Nations’ mandate into statehood. There was and is no need to feel guilty over these examples of “colonialism” – the Muslim peoples were given far more than they gave.
But whatever one’s final judgment of individual examples of European “colonialism,” the general phenomenon signaled a relationship of the more powerful Europeans directing the less powerful Muslims. Europeans no longer saw Muslims as a threat, and began to forget the long history of Muslim aggression, and could not imagine that some day, they might be threatened from within, through the presence of large numbers of Muslims, wielding the silent weapon of demography. In an act of mass historical amnesia, the political and media elites of Europe have permitted millions of Muslim migrants to settle, virtually without serious discussion, within their countries. European leaders failed to study Islam, or to heed those who have (Jihad Watch would be a good place to start). so as to understand, and not after the fact, what the West was getting itself into.
There have always been some who, to borrow Matthew Arnold’s phrase, saw Islam steadily and saw it whole. In the Netherlands, the outspoken and brilliant Pim Fortuyn was the first to warn 0bout what Muslim immigration was doing to his country; after his assassination in 2002 (by a deranged man “defending” not just animal-rights but “defenseless” Muslims), Geert Wilders became the head of the anti-Islam movement in that country. In France, Marine Le Pen inherited her father’s political movement and transformed it, for she turned out to be much less offensive and more intelligent than he, with his dismissive remarks about the Nazi murders of Jews being a “detail” of World War II, had ever been. In Germany, a politician, writer, and Bundesbank officer, Thilo Sarrazin, wrote Deutschland schafft sich ab — “Germany Does Away With Itself.” This book, warning Germans about the effect on the national I.Q. level of large numbers of Muslim immigrants, became an instant bestseller. Of course, Sarrazin’s study was largely ignored by the political and cultural elite of Germany: it would not do to praise a thesis that even hinted at “racism,” and any discussion of comparative I.Q.s does not just hint at but for many people hollers “racism.” Nor should any writer be allowed to inquire into the effect on an individual’s capacity to think – his I.Q. – of his having been in thrall, |
we recruited this year,” coach Tom Osborne said during a news conference on letter-of-intent-signing day.
Frazier was “the guy you’ve all been writing about,” Osborne said.
That’s often the case with quarterbacks, although the Huskers’ class of 22 included another who didn’t draw quite as much attention – Ben Rutz, from Oklahoma City, Okla.
Frazier was special. He was named to the Parade magazine and USA Today All-America teams and attracted recruiting attention from schools across the country.
“He probably had 20 or 30 schools he could have gone to,” said Osborne.
ENOUGH OF RECRUITING
After visiting four of those schools, Frazier was weary of the travel, tired of the process, so he decided he wouldn’t take a trip to Nebraska, despite having scheduled one.
Frazier called Kevin Steele, the Husker assistant who was recruiting him, to say he was canceling, that he was sick of recruiting and didn’t need to see another school. Steele immediately called Frazier’s mom, Priscilla, who said her son would be calling him back in 10 minutes.
Frazier called back “after 10 minutes of her saying, ‘You have no choice; you’re going to go. You gave them your word, and I always brought you up (that) if you tell somebody you’re going to do something, you do it,’ ” Frazier recalled during an interview in 2004.
She told him he didn’t have to pick Nebraska but he did have to visit there.
Had he not visited, Frazier would have gone to Clemson or Notre Dame.
He also visited Syracuse and Colorado, committing to the Buffaloes on his trip to Boulder, in fact.
When Koy Detmer, a quarterback from Mission, Texas, also committed to the Buffaloes, however, coach Bill McCartney changed course and told Frazier his future there would be at defensive back.
Yes, Frazier had given his word, but under false pretenses. So he scratched Colorado.
He also scratched Syracuse after being told he would redshirt as a freshman, leaving Clemson and Notre Dame. Both schools told him he’d be given a chance to play right away.
Notre Dame said he could compete for a job as a back-up to senior Rick Mirer. Clemson said whether or not he played would depend on how quickly he learned its offensive system.
NO GUARANTEE
Nebraska said much the same as Clemson. Osborne “never once promised me anything,” Frazier recalled. “He said, ‘You’re going to have an opportunity. You’re going to have reps. You might not get the reps you think you deserve or need, but you’ll get some reps, and what you do with those reps is going to determine if you move up on the depth chart, if you play as a freshman or if you redshirt.’
That’s what I respected him for because he never once guaranteed me anything.”
Frazier would face plenty of competition in replacing Keithen McCant, the coaches’ Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year, as the Huskers’ starter.
The returning scholarship quarterbacks included redshirted freshmen Tony Veland and Brook Berringer as well as senior Mike Grant, who also had redshirted in 1991. Grant had been Frazier’s recruiting host.
Veland emerged from spring practice atop the depth chart, after a broken collarbone sidelined Grant. Less than two weeks before the 1992 season-opener, however, Veland also suffered a broken collarbone during a controlled scrimmage, and Grant became the starter.
Grant started the first five games before giving way to Frazier.
CONFIDENCE AND DETERMINATION
If Frazier hadn’t come to Nebraska, the course of Husker football would have been dramatically altered. Husker fans know the particulars, so what follows might not be necessary.
He was the first true freshman quarterback ever to start for the Huskers. He helped lead them to back-to-back national championships. He was 33-3 as a starter. And he was a consensus All-American as a senior, finishing second to Ohio State’s Eddie George in voting for the Heisman Trophy.
He accomplished those things not only with exceptional athletic ability but also self-confidence and an extraordinary will to win. Had he gone somewhere other than Nebraska, “I don’t necessarily think it would have been different, just with the way of my mentality and the way I played the game,” Frazier said during the 2004 interview. “I felt that I was the best at what I did, and I could have gone anywhere and helped them win the (national) championship.”
Steele wrote a list of goals Frazier intended to accomplish and gave him the list before he ever stepped on the field at Memorial Stadium. At the top of the list was “national championship.”
“People might say that I was cocky. People might say I was arrogant. So be it,” said Frazier. “I had goals. And I was going to accomplish my goals the best I could.”
Earlier this week, candidates were announced for the College Football Hall of Fame. Frazier was among 76 FBS players, along with other former Huskers Trev Alberts and Eric Crouch.
If not for his mom, Frazier probably would have been on the ballot representing another school. He had the confidence and will to win, as well as the abilityThe Business of Reprints
By Spencer. January 16, 2006. 8:02am
Ever wondered how brand new copies of Rez, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Gitaroo Man, Persona 2 and Resident Evil 3 for Gamecube just popped up out of nowhere? The story starts with a company called Game Quest Direct. Originally, Game Quest Direct had a chain of video game stores nationwide, but they consolidated their retail locations just in Southern California. Instead of just being another video game store and try to compete with the likes of Best Buy, Gamestop and Walmart Game Quest Direct decided to restructure their company. Aim for the hardcore gamer and use the internet as way to reach them. Their online inventory began with the usual offerings, new copies of Grand Theft Auto and the latest releases at slim discounts.
Obviously this wasn’t distinguishing GQD from any other retailer or the hordes of eBay sellers. They had to carve a niche for themselves. While they unloaded some of their inventory over eBay they noticed that eBay prices for hard to find games skyrocketed way over retail value. Resident Evil 2 and 3 for Gamecube were printed in limited quantity, which made the games sought after by collectors. Game Quest Direct decided to capitalize on the opportunity. They directly contacted Capcom and arranged a deal to reprint the games, but Game Quest Direct would have to front all of the money. They paid a lofty sum and took a heavy risk. Each reprint costs Game Quest Direct nearly $100,000 to do. But instead of getting a low profit margin that retail stores struggle with, Game Quest Direct would get 50% of the profits on each sale. The gamble paid off and GQD made a sizeable profit.
Quickly after Capcom agreed to do reprints Game Quest Direct was hot on the next set of titles to release and what better place to look than Atlus USA. Atlus titles are known to be “rare” in the world of game collectors. Typically they’re printed in low numbers and don’t have the same store exposure as Super Mario Sunshine. You’re just not going to find a copy of Persona 2 at Wal-Mart. Unlucky gamers who couldn’t score a classic on the first round would be forced to shell out loads of dough to by a used copy on eBay. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness was one of Atlus’ most critically acclaimed titles, but after it was showered with praise it was nowhere to be found. Prices for a used copy could fetch over a hundred dollars for a copy before the reprint. Game Quest Direct reprinted Persona 2, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and later on Disgaea: Hour of Darkness in 2005. All of these games sold like hotcakes, even the PS1 titles Persona 2 and Rhapsody. It’s not really a huge surprise since Game Quest Direct was selling new copies of the game way below the price of a used copy.
However, hardcore video game collectors were irked. Reprints could not be distinguished from the originals, which brought the value down of their collection. That $85 copy of Persona 2 purchased used, dropped nearly 50% in price. Speculators who snagged up copies of Disgaea couldn’t profit from eBay sales. Especially proud collectors weren’t perturbed by the economics, but more that they lost exclusivity of being the only one on the block with these a rare game. In a way Game Quest Direct angered the audience they were searching for. On the other hand a bunch of gamers were happy with the situation. More gamers got to try out Disgaea and at a reasonable price.
In between these titles Game Quest Direct were hashing out the final details for two major reprints: Gitaroo-Man a quirky Japanese music game created by Inix (who also recently did Ouendan for the Nintendo DS) and the psychedelic music shooter Rez from Sega. Unlike the speedy process with Atlus and Capcom these reprints took months to work out. Negotiating prices, filing paperwork and waiting for Sony to officially press these games was a long waiting process. Like the other reprints each of these cost over a hundred thousand for each and Game Quest Direct had to give all of the finical security to bring these niche titles back into the marketplace. When Gitaroo Man appeared and Rez trickled in, eBay prices bottomed out since new copies could be picked up for a mere $50. Once again successful Game Quest Direct profits from the reprint and a new group of gamers gets to play these rarities.
But if Game Quest Direct really is controlling the flow of these imports by acting as a pseudo-publisher how are they appearing at Gamestop? Simple, Game Quest Direct is selling them directly to Gamestop. A representative spokesperson has said that they decided to unload a sizeable amount of inventory to Gamestop at a bulk price. However since Gamestop sells used copies of these games at a higher price they’ve taken the liberty of unsealing and selling the brand new game as a used copy. Game Quest Direct is happy to sell a bulk lot to any distributor or even eBay seller if the price is right. Even though they may be the masterminds behind many reprints gamers shouldn’t be surprised to see copies appear at other video game specialty stores.
What’s next in 2006 for the publisher/retailer? Recently they purchased the now defunct Working Designs’ remaining inventory. Copies of Growlanser: Generations Deluxe Edition, and Silhouette Mirage can be picked up. What’s really surprising is a number of extremely rare titles like Sega Ages for the Saturn, Exile, and Cosmic Fantasy 2 for Turbo Graphix 16. They’re currently in talks with Square-Enix, Atari and Konami for more reprints. It’s possible that reprints of Valkyrie Profile, Ikaruga and Suikoden II may pop up eventually. Collectors take note, Game Quest Direct said that they would try to reprint any game that goes on eBay for over $100. On the bright side a second chance to check out gaming glory benefits a large number of gamers out there.
Do you think Game Quest direct is doing a service or a disservice to the gaming community? Leave your thoughts in a comment.103 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit
Is Duck Season a game? Is a Hot Pocket a meal? Who needs labels anyway? Created by Stress Level Zero, developers of multiplayer shooter Hover Junkers (2016), Duck Season is something, that’s for sure. Part shooting game, part theater piece, part exploration experience, Duck Season defies the genre pigeonholing that would make this article easier to write.
Update: It was stated incorrectly in the article that Duck Season was a Vive exclusive. Stress Level Zero reached out to us to correct the statement by saying that it will be releasing on Steam for SteamVR-capable headsets, and not Vive alone. The studio maintains they aren’t “fans of exclusivity,” and that they believe “once you make a game you’re proud of you just want everyone to be able to play it.”
Hosted at Valve’s booth at this year’s GDC, I met studio co-founder Brandon Laatsch to show me Stress Level Zero’s latest development, something that initially surfaced two weeks ago without context on Laatsch’s YouTube channel featuring a weird dog mascot getting shot to death behind a house.
I would later meet that weird dog-person as he fills the role of the hound from an uncomfortably realistic version of the Nintendo lightgun classic Duck Hunt (1984). The minigame, realized as an actual 3D duck shooting game, plays a central role in how the whole thing unfolds. Although there is a simple Duck Hunt-style game, there’s much more going than meets the eye. You certainly didn’t bet that the dog, who you invariably always took a shot at, would come back for revenge.
Playing the room-scale game on the HTC Vive, there’s a warm sense of familiarity sitting on the rug in front of the TV with the obligatory melange of lovingly worn game cartridges, VHS tapes, and gummy snacks strewn about. Picking up the Duck Season cartridge and placing it into my nondescript 8-bit home video game console (i.e. not Nintendo), I’m transported to a marshy world beyond the CRT’s screen and given a shotgun, plenty of ammo and a bunch of ducks to shoot.
The demo offered me a look into three different points in the game; my first encounter in the Duck Hunt minigame with pump shotgun and real ducks, a slightly harder level of the minigame, and a disturbing snap back to reality where the dog-person makes the jump from my imagination to the real world.
Laatsch told me the game has several different endings depending on what you do or how you anger the creepy dog mascot, which he says runs at about 90 minutes of gameplay once through. Endings range from “kind of good” to bad, he says—probably an understatement considering how creepy the deranged character comes off. Laatsch maintains that if you go back and explore each of the storylines, it could bring you to about 4 hours total of gameplay.
I couldn’t help but think of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things (2016) as I played through the demo given its otherworldy interludes and clear nostalgia for the past. Laatsch however maintains that development started before the series was released and draws on the same longing to recreate the atmosphere of the Steven Spielberg-esque ’80s films of his youth.
Duck Season is still in development, so there’s no hard release date yet.Brush with the law: These photos provided by the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department show Johnny Mullet (left) and Lester Mullet, who have been accused of taking part in hair-cutting attacks. Picture: AP
A BIZARRE beard-cutting case in America's secretive Amish community has exposed an alleged tyrant accused of beating up those who stray, locking others up in his chicken coop, and taking sexual advantage of married women.
Samuel Mullet Sr, his three sons Johnny, Daniel and Lester, his son-in-law Emanuel Schrock, and followers Levi and Eli Miller have been charged with committing and conspiring to commit religious hate crimes.
Five of the accused were arrested last month on kidnapping and other charges and were out on bail.
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Mullet Sr, 66, the leader of the breakaway Amish sect, was detained today.
Mullet allegedly ordered his sons and followers to cut off the beards and hair of rivals who contested his decisions as he ran his splinter group in the tiny community of Bergholz with an iron fist.
Wielding 20cm scissors and battery-powered hair clippers, the attackers allegedly arrived at victims' homes after dark, held them down forcibly and cut off the men's beards and the women's hair.
The attacks have shocked the Amish, pacifists who reject the idea of revenge.
The distinctive beards of Amish men and the uncut women's hair are held as sacred, and trimming them is considered the ultimate humiliation.
An affidavit released today after an exhaustive FBI investigation included testimony from Mullet's daughter-in-law and former son-in-law, saying that he controlled "all aspects of the lives of Bergholz clan members."
"No decisions are made in Bergholz or visitors permitted without Samuel Mullet Sr's permission," the affidavit said.
"In disregard for Amish teachings and scripture, Samuel Mullet Sr has forced extreme punishments on and physical injury to those in the community who defy him," it said.
This includes "forcing members to sleep for days at a time in a chicken coop on his property and allowing members of the Bergholz clan to beat other members who appear to disobey Samuel Mullet Sr," it said.
"Moreover, Samuel Mullet Sr has been 'counseling' the married women in the Bergholz clan and taking them into his home so that he may cleanse them of the devil with acts of sexual intimacy."
The Amish, a small Christian community that predominantly dwells in the central US states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, shun modern conveniences such as electricity, cell phones and cars. They have religious leaders called bishops.
Several different groups live almost side-by-side in neighboring counties in Ohio.
Mullet and his wife and children, according to witnesses in the affidavit, moved in approximately 1995 from one community in Fredericktown, Ohio to another in Bergholz.
Mullet became bishop of the Bergholz clan in 2003. Two years later, eight families moved out of the community, primarily due to disagreements over his leadership.
The affidavit says Mullet excommunicated these families, which under Amish law made it impossible for them to join other communities until the situation was resolved.
A meeting of some 300 Amish church leaders was held in Ulysses, Pennsylvania to address the practices of Mullet and the Bergholz clan and resulted in the excommunications being overturned.
It was Mullet's anger at this decision that apparently set off the attacks.
One of seven Amish bishops involved in that ruling had his beard cut on October 4.
When the bishop pleaded with the attackers not to cut his hair and placed his hands over his head, one assailant told him he shouldn't struggle because he was a Christian, the affidavit said.
The bishop replied that if they were Christians they shouldn't attack him, to which another assailant allegedly retorted: "We're not Christians."
The same men are accused of attacking a second bishop in a neighboring county less than two hours later. On both occasions Mullet's followers took photographs of the victims to highlight the humiliation, the FBI said.
Several attacks followed in the proceeding days including one on a 13-year-old girl, another on a 74-year-old man, and a third on an elderly victim who was allegedly shorn by his own son.
Mullet himself is not accused of taking part in the attacks but charged with orchestrating them. One of his sons has confessed his involvement and implicated the others, according to the FBI.
During his October 12 arrest, another of the accused, Levi Miller, was asked: "Were you following community orders?" Miller, according to the affidavit, responded "Yes, I guess I was."
The seven accused, who were to be arraigned Wednesday in Youngstown, Ohio, face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
AFPFor a public figure interested in dropping a piece of news with little to no scrutiny or pushback, there are few opportunities better than a Christmas holiday weekend after an election. Reporters are checked out for the holidays and desperate for a few days to unplug after an insufferably long campaign season. Much of the rest of the country is in the same frame of mind. Nobody wants to read the news.
So it’s not entirely surprising that President-elect Donald Trump waited until Christmas Eve to announce that he intends to shutter the Donald Trump Foundation, his unorthodox charity that has faced persistent allegations of corruption and self-dealing. But Trump put the best possible face on this decision, claiming that he wants to close the foundation to head off any potential conflicts of interest. “To avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as President,” Trump said in a statement, “I have decided to continue to pursue my strong interest in philanthropy in other ways.”
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As my colleague Matthew Rozsa notes, closing the charity won’t be so simple, given that the foundation is still under investigation by the New York attorney general’s office and can’t be dissolved until that inquiry wraps up. But let’s take a step back and grapple with the broader argument Trump is making: As the incoming president, he has to close his charity to head off the appearance of conflicts. For anyone else, this would be a prudent measure and a show of commitment to ethical governing principles. For Trump, however, it’s just another lie.
It’s not actually possible for Trump to “avoid even the appearance of any conflict” with the Trump Foundation, because those conflicts already exist. One of the largest donors to the Trump Foundation over the past few years has been WWE co-founder Linda McMahon, who (along with her husband Vince) directed several million dollars to the charity. McMahon was recently tapped by Trump to be the next head of the Small Business Administration. In 2013, the Trump Foundation sent an illegal donation to a political group connected to Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who at the time was weighing the possibility of suing Trump over his Trump University scam. Bondi secured a position on the Trump transition team shortly after the election.
Those are conflicts. They’re pretty flagrant, and they exist because Donald Trump cultivates such conflicts as a way of enriching himself. Shutting down the foundation now doesn’t undo those conflicts, but it does give the (completely unjustified) impression that the president-elect actually gives a damn about ethics in governance.
As is so often the case, Trump longs to be viewed as the hero in this situation. It’s not enough for him just to try and shut the foundation down quietly. He has to argue, against all the available evidence, that the Trump Foundation was one of the world’s great philanthropies and not an elaborate slush fund.
Here’s what Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning:
Well, there’s charity, and then there’s what the Trump Foundation does: It abuses its nonprofit status to benefit Donald Trump. We know this because the Trump Foundation keeps getting busted for its shady practices. That donation to the Bondi-related group, for example, resulted in Trump paying a $2,500 fine to the IRS. The Trump Foundation has used funds to purchase items for Trump and his businesses, and it has acknowledged violating the ban on self-dealing in its tax filings. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in Trump Foundation money have been used to settle Trump’s legal problems. So yes, Trump’s nonprofit has directed money towards legitimate charity organizations, but all too often those acts of giving were intended to redound to Trump’s personal benefit. He got to play the philanthropist while skimming off a little something for himself.
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That is the legacy of the Trump Foundation: Its founder took advantage of irregularly enforced nonprofit rules to spend other people’s money on projects that benefited himself. The foundation should close down, but not before the relevant regulatory bodies have had sufficient time to pore over its dodgy finances and scummy practices. When the Trump Foundation does eventually meet its end, it will be critical to keep in mind that Donald Trump consciously cultivated precisely the sorts of conflicts he now claims he wants to avoid.Riyadh: Rockets fired by Yemeni rebels into a Saudi border city on Saturday killed a Saudi civilian and wounded six others including a Pakistani man, the Saudi civil defence agency said.
Quoted by Al Ekhbariya state television, the agency the five other wounded in the city of Najran were all Yemeni citizens.
Video footage posted on social networks showed two blazing buildings in the city centre.
Cross-border attacks into Saudi Arabia have increased since a Saudi-led Arab coalition this month stepped up air strikes on insurgent targets inside Yemen in an attempt to shore up the internationally recognised government.
Saturday’s attack was the third this week.
On Friday, five foreign residents of Najran were wounded in a rocket strike just west of the city.
Seven civilians were killed on Tuesday when the city centre was shelled, with three victims said to be expats.
Tuesday’s toll was the highest reported number of civilian casualties in Saudi Arabia for a single day since the Arab coalition intervened in Yemen in March last year against the Iran-backed Al Houthi rebels.
More than 100 civilians and soldiers have been killed in southern Saudi Arabia by retaliatory rocket strikes or skirmishes since the coalition began operations in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s government.
Meanwhile, the rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported a wave of coalition raids inside Yemen on Saturday, including one that killed three civilians near the Al Houthi-held capital Sanaa.
Despite the reported attacks, Saba claimed that “thousands” of people demonstrated in Sanaa in support of the rebels and their allies, forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.The Norwegian Coastal Administration has located a total of 15 more World War II shipwrecks in Skagerrak after 20 wrecks were already discovered in the area in 2009.
After World War 2 has ended many decommissioned vessels which were loaded with chemical warfare agents and munitions were scuttled in a 600m deep trench off Arendal, a port on Norway’s Southern coast. Two weeks after the Norwegian Coastal Administration and Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI – Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt) started mapping the dump field a total of 15 more shipwrecks were discovered, taking the total to at least 35.
Mr Lågstad stated that some of the wrecks are broken up and destroyed so that parts of the load with chemical weapons are scattered across the seabed. Fortunately, most of the wrecks appear to be undamaged and are located at a depth of 600 m.
Based on sediment samples and experiences from Sweden and Denmark, they pose little environmental and health risks today, as long as it is not taken up to the surface, according to the NCA. It is for that reason that most likely the wrecks and, or cargo will never be raised.
Dumpet kjemisk ammunisjon i Skagerrak from Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt on Vimeo.Police are searching for a man who allegedly threatened staff and students at an Islamic school in Sydney.
The man, who was carrying a knife, walked into the Al-Faisal College in Minto yesterday afternoon, asked if it was a Muslim school and threatened a female teacher and student with a knife.
Primary school students hid under their desks while those from the high school were gathered in a prayer hall as the school went into lockdown.
Mariam Veiszadeh, spokesperson for Islamophobia Register Australia, said the matter was shocking.
"We are very shocked and saddened to hear about this incident. Distressed parents of affected students arrived at the school earlier today and found it surrounded by Police officers and the SWAT team."
It comes after a Islamic centre in Brisbane was vandalised with graffiti on Wednesday night and less than a week after another mosque, in the north Queensland town of Mareeba, was defaced with anti-Islamic slogans.
According to Sydney-based Islamic community activist Rebecca Kay, anti-terror raids have led to greater division between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians. “Certainly there has been angst,” she said, “in the last three weeks we've attacks on Muslim women increase to an average of seven per day.”
Ms Kay says she has been the target of direct threats and she's now collecting evidence from other women who say they too have been the victims of verbal and, in some cases, physical attacks. “I spoke to a woman yesterday,” says Ms Kay, “who had her hijab removed in the middle of a shopping centre. She found a man standing there staring at her and telling her that she was a f***ing terrorist and needed to leave the country.”
Many Muslim women, say Ms Kay and other community members, are fearful of going out and many won’t venture far beyond their homes.
Ahmed Kilani, editor of website muslimvillage.com, says some are now questioning whether Australia is still a safe and tolerant society. “My own mother rang me yesterday,” Mr Kilani told SBS, “with concern about what’s going, she said, ‘I don’t feel safe and secure.’ She made the comment to me that despite living here for 40 years which is a lot longer than she lived in Egypt. She said perhaps I need to consider moving back there and questioned whether I should go and get myself a dual citizenship in case things get really bad.”
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane has called for calm, saying, “Muslim Australians are entitled to a fair go and to be treated with respect and there is simply no place for this kind of bigotry and this kind of criminal behaviour.”
Shot teen may not have been acting alone
A terror suspect fatally shot following the stabbing of two police officers may not have been acting alone, Victoria's top cop says.
"On the night, there is some information that would suggest otherwise," Chief Commissioner Ken Lay told ABC radio in Melbourne on Thursday.
Mr Lay said police had information Numan Haider, 18, was talking to others before Tuesday night's attack outside Endeavour Hills police station.
"There's some information that he was certainly talking to other people around the time," he said.
"It's certainly something we're pursuing."
Mr Lay said it was unclear whether others might have dropped him off or were waiting for him.
"That'll be clarified in a little while," he said.
Mr Lay also dismissed claims Mr Haider may have intended to behead the police officers.
"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I'm aware of that would suggest that was the intention," he said.
"Having said that, there were some really worrying pieces about this young man's behaviour that we are working through.
"It's not helpful to be making these great leaps based on speculation."
Mr Lay said police are "quietly and methodically" working through evidence.
Police say the officer had no other choice after the known terror suspect repeatedly stabbed an Australian Federal Police officer and the leading senior constable who shot him.
Haider, of Narre Warren, had been seen at a shopping centre displaying a flag linked with jihadist group Islamic State, or ISIL, and last week had his passport cancelled on national security grounds.Government borrowing rises by more than expected to £6.9bn in June – almost 50% higher than in the same month last year
The government was forced to borrow more than expected in June after a jump in the UK’s budget deficit to £6.9bn – almost 50% higher than the same month last year.
The sharp rise followed a spike in the cost of financing the UK’s debt, a drop in corporation tax receipts and a larger than forecast contribution to the EU in June.
There is growing pressure on the chancellor, Philip Hammond, to loosen the public purse strings but some analysts said the figures are likely to toughen his stance on pleas from ministers for extra funds.
There was good news for the chancellor after data indicated that the dramatic slowdown in the economy during the first quarter had so far failed to reduce tax receipts. Corporation tax fell by more than 4% compared with June last year but all the main sources of tax receipts – income tax, national insurance and VAT – were up more than that predicted by the Treasury’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The Treasury said the persistent shortfall in the government’s income compared with spending illustrated the need for a “credible fiscal plan” that allowed ministers to support “sound public finances” while “promoting a stronger economy”.
The Tories have failed to fix the roof – and now storms are brewing | Larry Elliott Read more
Opposition parties were quick to say that the higher deficit showed that austerity had failed and was delivering weaker public services without strengthening the public finances or the economy.
The deficit is already expected to rise from full-year borrowing of £46bn last year to £58bn this year.
With a queue of government departments clamouring for inflation-busting rises in their funding before the autumn budget, the early signs are that Hammond will be reluctant to put extra cash on the table.
The chancellor is under pressure to relax a pay cap on public sector workers and find extra resources to boost police and healthcare budgets.
Some analysts said the bigger-than-expected deficit in June meant the final figure could exceed £60bn before any extra money has been allocated for public services.
Alan Clarke, an economist at Scotia Bank, said it was worrying that the deficit was wider than expected in the early part of the financial year when the last third was already scheduled to see a large deterioration in tax receipts.
Phil Shaw, an economist at Investec, said: “Today’s figures illustrate the challenges confronting the chancellor to manage the public finances, as he is faced with a double whammy of slowing growth and rising inflation on one side and calls for greater expenditure on the other.
“It is now looking likely that the deficit will rise this year for the first time since 2012-13. There are some idiosyncratic factors here and the OBR’s forecasts already envisage extra borrowing. But there are medium-term challenges as well, not least from the ageing population, as the OBR’s recent Fiscal Risk Report highlighted.
“Unless there is a sensible public debate over the UK’s fiscal challenges, the government will face an uphill task in providing a coherent response to deliver sustainable public finances,” he said.
But John Hawksworth, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ chief economist, said the chancellor would still have room for increases in public spending in the budget. “Looking beyond the current financial year, we would expect the decline in the budget deficit to resume if current tax and spending plans are maintained. This should give the chancellor some room for manoeuvre in his autumn budget to ease up on austerity in priority areas like health, social care, policing and housing investment,” he said.
“But he will wish to do this in a measured way given the uncertainties around the economic environment as the Brexit process continues and the high initial level of the public debt to GDP ratio.”
In the first three months of the financial year, the budget deficit widened by 8.9% compared with the same period in 2016 to £22.8bn, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Spending on debt interest jumped an annual 33% in June to £4.9bn, the highest for any month of June since 2011, reflecting a sharp rise in inflation that has pushed up the cost of index-linked bonds for the government.
The deficit was also widened by higher payments to the EU budget, which have shifted from the usual pattern of contributions to skew annual comparisons, and bigger purchases of goods and services by the government. The EU contribution was £700m higher than in June 2016.
The ONS said income tax and capital gains tax revenues increased by an annual 7.1% to £12.7bn but corporation tax revenues fell by 3.2% on the year to £4.8bn.+1 19K Shares
Concerned citizens and veterans packed City Hall in Beloit, Wisconsin Monday night to contest the Beloit Police Department’s decision to ask the Honor Guard to forgo the traditional three volley salute before a veteran’s burial. BPD cited an often-overlooked ordinance during the veteran’s funeral on Presidents Day. Police Chief David Zibolski claims the sound of weapons being fired in residential, or high-traffic areas, could cause concerns over public safety.
The department argues that drivers heading down a busy street or through a busy intersection could cause an accident if startled by firearms that are discharged as part of the salute. They also argue that gunfire inside of residential areas could be a public safety concern and disruptive to residents in areas surrounding popular churches and funeral homes.
Local legislature allows the three-volley salute at various cemeteries in the city. Approval and coordination is needed for spaces outside of city cemeteries. Permission must be sought and is subject to denial by the city, according to Beloit city statute.
The longest-tenured members of the group have been carrying out honor guard duties since 1968. They state that this is the first time they were ever asked to forgo the salute. Police ordered the service be moved away from the church to an area across the street.
Police chief Zibolski defended the department’s actions, saying the current ordinance prohibits the firing of any weapon within city limits. He went on to say that conducting the honorary firings in some city areas could stand as a possible risk to the general peace of a neighborhood.
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Veterans and citizens both voiced their displeasure with Zibolski’s defense.
“This is all about respect and honoring each veteran correctly, they are honoring people that gave their time and lives for serving for their country,” said Jerry Murphy, Director of Daley-Murphy-Wisch Funeral Home.
City Council President Dave Luebke also publicly voiced his support for the veterans and their traditions. He said the city will continue to honor veterans in Beloit, and went on to promise that the three volley salute would not be hindered from local cemeteries.
“The salute is a dignified and honorable way to honor our veterans, and that will not change,” said Luebke.
Councilors Regina Dunkin and Mark Preuschl also supported the salute and veterans. Preuschl went as far to apologize on behalf of the city. City legislators have stated that the current ordinance will be revised to be more accepting of the traditional salute.
[revad2]
ADVERTISEMENTPosted on May 15, 2009 in Uncategorized
Actually, this kinda hurts [note: all of these are taken from Buffalo Beast’s 50 Most Loathsome annual lists]:
From 2004:
Crimes: You gaze idly at the carnage around you, sigh, and go calmly back to your coffee and your People magazine. You can’t stop buying useless crap, though you’re drowning in a deepening pool of debt. You think you’re an activist because you bitch all day on the internet, but you reelect the same gangsters at a 99% rate. You consider yourself informed because you waste a significant portion of your life watching the same three news stories cycle over and over again on your gargantuan, aerodynamic television set while you eat processed food. You really thought everything would be okay if Kerry won. Not only do you believe in an invisible man who magically farted out the universe, you also excoriate and marginalize those who disagree. You have a poorer understanding of your country’s foreign policy history than a third world peasant, but you can’t wait to see what Julia Roberts will be wearing at the Oscars. You cheer as Ukrainians challenge an election based on exit poll data, but keep waiting around for someone else to fix your problems. You can’t think, you can’t organize and you won’t act. This is all your fault. Smoking Gun: You’re fat. Punishment: You’re soaking |
stars influence into your ritual via that planet. This usually requires you to have at least a passing familiarity with the magical power of that planet.
I hope this advice is useful to you and proves fruitful in your future. In my experience the times when I have had the support of an activation backed up by some conduction done beforehand and have chosen an auspicious moment using the guidelines as set out above have proved to be some of the most interesting ritual experiences I have had, and among the easiest and most satisfying ones.
AdvertisementsPornHub Airs Trump’s Inauguration Video, Says 'Rich White Man Fucks The Entire Country At Once'
PornHub Airs Trump’s Inauguration Video, Says 'Rich White Man Fucks The Entire Country At Once'
As believers, we always thought that Trump's reign would always be a part of his illusional world - it wouldn't exist.
We thought that we'd never be dictated by this white man, and yet we are. We thought we'd never see a kingdom ruled by a pseudo-reformist, quasi-nationalist, and someone who believes in getting weirdest things on board.
Alas, we are!
twitter
(Also read: Showdown Begins: Hundreds Gather Spontaneously Outside New York's JFK Airport To Protest Donald Trump's Muslim Ban)
Trump, who recently became the 45th President of United States, took charge on 20th of January and within 10 days, he's managed to piss off the entire world.
Hundreds of people have gathered around different parts of the States to protest against him and all the policies that he's force-feeding. But amid that, something bizarre really happened.
Don't Miss 1 K SHARES 96.2 K SHARES 50.8 K SHARES 65.5 K SHARES 21.9 K SHARES
Trump's inauguration video made it to PornHub's weird search space.
techworm
The image shows it with nearly 200,000 views and the very fitting title, “Rich white man fucks the entire country at once.”
The above screenshot is actually a meme and has been doing rounds on Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
Donald Trump A Hit On PornHub, Watch Donald Trump Fuck the Entire Country at Once https://t.co/lugbYI7ILw pic.twitter.com/YkUnXEYHDN — Wakka's Hacking News (@H4ckN3ws) January 27, 2017
Found Donald Trump on pornhub pic.twitter.com/jI4zk9nTgU — Camille🌸 (@thirstjauregui2) January 26, 2017
Tired of News? Head to @PornHub to Watch Donald Trump Fuck the Entire Country at Once https://t.co/wX1d29sR2M — OBSERVER (@observer) January 26, 2017
(Also read: Why Trump Is The Worst Thing That Has Happened To US & The World Amidst Ongoing Refugee Crisis)
“The Donald Trump image was a video screenshot that someone turned into a meme, not a real upload,” is what John Corey, VP, Pornhub had to say about the meme.
Someone is actually posting videos of Donald Trump on PornHub pic.twitter.com/jts5dcjq92 — IN THE NOW (@IntheNow_tweet) January 26, 2017
Even though this one is a meme, someone really did upload his video on the website.Spearman ousts incumbent Lee in Democratic primary
In an impressive show of force for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, was defeated Tuesday night by fellow Democrat Patricia Spearman.
With nearly the majority of the vote counted, Spearman chalked up an insurmountable double-digit lead over Lee.
Lee’s re-election bid was a key test for progressives, who after five years of state budget cuts and concessions on sacred cows like public employee bargaining, had felt Democrats in Carson City had drifted too far to the right. To do it, they had to take on their party’s establishment — Sen. Harry Reid had endorsed Lee.
Lee’s re-election provided the almost perfect test case for the liberal groups, led by Erin Neff of ProgressNow Nevada Action, environmentalists and lesbian and gay activists. His votes and bills in Carson City had drawn their ire.
This was the first time in memory that Nevada progressives have taken on an incumbent lawmaker.
But it was not without significant hurdles.
Lee had raised $200,000 and received the personal endorsement of Reid and other elected Democrats. Some groups that had battled with Lee in Carson City, like the state teachers union and AFL-CIO, decided to remain neutral in that race, figuring he would win.
But Spearman, a first-time candidate, swept the vote with the help of a passionate contingent from the Democratic base.
The progressives’ decision to take Lee out in the primary was a first for Democrats. It’s a move conservatives have used repeatedly and effectively to take out moderates in the Republican Party and send a message to the rest that the base can’t be taken for granted.
Some voters heeded the calls. Michelle Cody, of North Las Vegas, said she voted for Spearman.
"As many phone calls as I've gotten on this race, from both sides, I thought I better come vote,” she said.
Cody said Lee’s conservative stance on reproductive rights drove her decision.
“I do foster kids and I do teenagers and birth control is important,” she said.NEW DELHI: Employees in India are expected to get double-digit salary hikes in 2014 as companies deal with challenges such as attracting and retaining critical talent, but high inflation will end up eroding much of their wages, a Towers Watson survey says.Average salary across Asia Pacific is set to rise 7% in 2014, while Indian employers are expected to dole out a hike of 11%.After factoring in inflation, the salary rise in India is expected to be just 2%, the survey said.Taking inflation into account, China and Vietnam at 4.9% lead the way, while Japan at 0.5% and India at 2% are among countries offering the smallest raises."Overall, the Asia Pacific data for 2013 and 2014 looks similar, so companies should be budgeting for salary increases much the same as last year," Sambhav Rakyan, Global Data Services practice leader, Asia Pacific at Towers Watson said.Rakyan further added that "if the company is growing at a fast rate and revenue exceeds the cost by a huge margin, it is easier to be aggressive on salary budgets than low growth companies."Companies in Asia Pacific, including India, are finding it hard to both find and retain suitably skilled staff, the survey said.Over 80% of the companies surveyed in India say a larger portion of their salary budget allocation would go to high performers in 2014. The retail industry in India particularly stands out with all respondents planning along these lines."Our research clearly indicates that both employers and employees in India rank base pay among the top two retention drivers," Towers Watson India director - Talent and Rewards Subeer Bakshi said.Indian companies continue to offer double-digit salary hikes as they deal with the challenge of attracting and retaining critical talent, Bakshi said, adding high levels of inflation end up eroding much of the hike.A few short lines in the 2015-17 Senate budget would eliminate state-paid health retirement benefits for teachers and state employees hired after January 1, 2016.
“This will negatively impact the state’s ability to recruit good, qualified folks,” said Richard Rogers, executive director of the North Carolina Retired Governmental Employees’ Association. “In the future, I don’t see folks sticking with state government for the long term or for a career.
Current law provides teachers and state employees with a paid health insurance plan for the duration of retirement. It’s a graduated system, said Rogers, so employees must work a certain number of years in order to receive the maximum benefit of a fully-paid health insurance plan.
The Senate budget provision, located deep in the biennial proposal that was released and passed by Senators this week, would affect teachers and state employees who join the workforce after January 1, 2016 by eliminating the health insurance benefit altogether.
The provision also affects those who stop out of the workforce and withdraw their retirement benefits from the state system, then re-join the workforce after January 1, 2016. Those state employees would also forfeit their retiree health insurance benefits.
The retiree state health plan provides health care coverage to more than 685,000 teachers, state employees, retirees, current and former lawmakers, state university and community college personnel, state hospital staff and their dependents, according to the plan’s website.
The General Assembly is expected to spend the rest of the summer hammering out a final 2015-17 budget for the state. Stay tuned to see if the Senate’s proposal to axe retirement health benefits for teachers and state employees makes it past the cutting room floor.The tiny houses costing only $5,000 that are playing their small part to help solve homelessness
Occupy Madison Build hoping to create cluster of tiny houses for homeless
Many of the homes built with donated materials and volunteer labour
Sites of tiny houses have already been built in Washington and Oregon
They have traditionally attracted those planning on downsizing or looking to simplify their lives for financial or environmental reasons.
But there is now another group of people benefiting from the growing small-dwelling movement - the homeless.
Efforts to construct the compact buildings are growing across the U.S. because they are cheaper than a traditional large-scale shelter, help the recipients socially because they are built in communal settings and are environmentally friendly due to their size.
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Occupy Madison Build are hoping to create a cluster of tiny houses to help the homeless
Many have been built with donated materials and volunteer labour, sometimes from the people who will live in them
Most require residents to behave appropriately, avoid drugs and alcohol and help maintain the properties
Betty Ybarra, 48, stands outside a tiny house she and her boyfriend live in, in Madison, Wisconsin. It is the first house built by OM Build, which wants to build nine houses in Madison for the homeless
'You're out of the elements, you've got your own bed, you've got your own place to call your own,' said Harold 'Hap' Morgan, who is without a permanent home in Madison. 'It gives you a little bit of self-pride: This is my own house.'
Mr Morgan is in line for a 99-square-foot house built through the non-profit Occupy Madison Build, or OM Build, run by former organizers with the Occupy movement. The group, in Wisconsin, hopes to create a cluster of tiny houses like those in Olympia, Washington, and Eugene and Portland, Oregon.
Many have been built with donated materials and volunteer labour, sometimes from the people who will live in them. Most require residents to behave appropriately, avoid drugs and alcohol and help maintain the properties.
Still, sometimes neighbours have not been receptive. Linda Brown, who can see the proposed site for Madison's tiny houses from her living room window, said she worries about noise and what her neighbours would be like.
'There have been people who have always been associated with people who are homeless that are unsavoury types of people,' she said.
Organizer Brenda Konkel hopes to allay neighbours' concerns by the time the City Council votes in May on the group's application to rezone the site of a former auto body shop to place the houses there. Plans include gardens, a chicken coup and possibly bee hives and showers and bathrooms in the main building.
Organizer Brenda Konkel said: 'I think there is some ways we can be a real asset to the neighbourhood'
The interior of a tiny house built by OM Build in Madison. The group wants to build nine altogether and allow the homeless to live in them
The City Council will be voting in May on the group's application to rezone the site of a former auto body shop to place the houses there
Plans for the site include gardens, a chicken coup and possibly bee hives and showers and bathrooms in the main building
'I think a lot of them we can work through. I think there is some ways we can be a real asset to the neighborhood,' she said.
The group has already built one house that is occupied by a couple and parked on the street. A volunteer moves it every 24 or 48 hours as required by city ordinances.
The house, which cost about $5,000, fits a double bed with overhead storage, a small table and a small room with a compostable toilet. There's no plumbing or electricity, but the home is insulated and has a propane heater to get the residents through the harsh Wisconsin winters.
Eventually, organizers want to add solar panels.
Harold 'Hap' Morgan works in the OM Build workshop in Madison, Wisconsin. He is in line to get one of the nine houses planned to be built by the group to help those without permanent homes
The group has already built one house that's occupied by a couple and parked on the street
The industrial park workshop where tiny houses for the homeless are being constructed in Madison, Wisconsin
Construction on the first two houses started last summer, and the first residents moved in on Christmas Eve, according to the Wisconsin State Journal
Mr Morgan, who has struggled with a spinal cord surgery, alcohol addiction and unemployment, lives in a trailer provided by OM Build. He hopes to work as a cook again.
'My goal is to go back to that and get my own place, but it's really nice to have this to fall back on,' he said.
The tiny house effort in Eugene sprung up after the city shut down an Occupy encampment that turned into a tent city for the homeless. Andrew Heben and others worked with the city, which provided them land for the project.
Opportunity Village Eugene opened in September with little resistance, said Heben, 26, who is on the board of directors. Most of the nine huts, which are 60 square feet, and 21 bungalows, which are 64 square feet and 80 square feet, are already built.
The small structures have a roof, insulated walls, toilet and sink and are intended to provide basic shelter against the elements
The tiny house effort in Eugene sprung up after the city shut down an Occupy encampment that turned into a tent city for the homeless. Pictured is the workshop for Occupy Madison Build
The group has already built a house which cost about $5,000, fits a double bed with overhead storage, a small table and a small room with a compostable toilet
The current home has no plumbing or electricity, but is insulated and has a propane heater to get the residents through the harsh Wisconsin winters
Thirty people are living in them now, and he expects 40 to 45 to ultimately be there. The houses don't have electricity, water, bathrooms, showers or kitchens, but separate shared buildings do.
They have done it all for less than $100,000, which is about half the median home price in Eugene, all from private donors with no taxpayer money. He said the story has changed from how tent cities were a problem in America to how the community is banding together.
'It's an American success story... Now we see in different cities people coming up with citizen driven solutions,' Heben said.
Most of the sites require residents to behave appropriately, avoid drugs and alcohol and help maintain the properties
Ministries in Texas and New York also are developing communities with clusters of small houses.
Mobile Loaves and Fishes plans 135 small homes and 100 recreational vehicles on 27 acres near Austin, Texas.
The Christian ministry that started 15 years ago bringing food and clothing to the homeless hopes to raise $7 million to build the homes, streets, utilities, sewers, a farming operation, medical facility and sanctuary, President and CEO Alan Graham said.
Residents would pay rent that ranges from $90 a month for a 150-square-foot home to $375 for 400 square feet.
'The goal is to reach everybody where they are economically,' Graham said.
He expects a staff of 15 will run the village, with residents having the option to get paid to help with upkeep.
Community Faith Partnership near Ithaca, New York, has built six of up to 18 planned 320-square-foot houses as transitional living for homeless men, said Jim Crawford, the group's executive director.
The men will pay rent on a sliding scale that looks at their situation and whether they receive government aid.
The heart of the operation will be a community centre where people who aren't social can learn to relate to others in a safe environment, Crawford said.ComEd filed two requests for rate increases Wednesday that the utility says are needed to help cover costs for modernizing the system, including investments in Smart Grid-related work.
ComEd is asking for a rate increase of about $138 million, which it said would translate to about $2 per month for the average residential customer beginning in January 2017. That request was filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission, which has eight months to review it before issuing a decision.
ComEd also wants an increase in transmission rates that it said would add about $1 to an average residential customer's bill beginning in June. That request was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
ComEd said it spent $2.4 billion in capital investments in 2015, including $663 million for Smart Grid-related work. The Smart Grid has provided customers with "record power reliability, millions of avoided outages and faster restoration times when outages do occur," according to the utility.
The Citizens Utility Board said it plans to review ComEd's proposal.
"ComEd has launched historic improvements to the power grid that have the potential to benefit all customers, but that doesn't mean the company should get more money than it can justify," the utility watchdog group said in a statement.
gwong@tribpub.com
Twitter @GraceWong630Red Letter Media's Mr. Plinkett
“Red Letter Media is Creating Weird Internet Videos and Films” is the tagline for the Milwaukee-based collective’s page on online fundraising platform Patreon. It’s an appeal that has impressively generated the group almost $100,000 a year in fan donations.
Red Letter Media is the home of various creators, including Mike Stoklasa, whose critical vivisections of George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels landed him on Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces list in 2010. Offering reviews of films and video games alongside other content (like a comedic instructional feature film, How Not to Make a Movie), Red Letter monetizes itself through YouTube advertising, DVD sales, merch and its own Blip player. But while Red Letter’s 194,000 YouTube subscribers is impressive, its 1,272 followers on Patreon is perhaps more so. That’s because those patrons are donating over $8,000 a month — almost $100,000 a year — to support Red Letter’s ongoing work.
Founded in 2013 by Jack Conte and Sam Yam, Patreon aims to reinvent patronage for the internet age. Artists, who include not just filmmakers but musicians, gamers, podcasters, comics, and choreographers, create pages, establish pledge levels and set rewards. Fans contribute monthly to support those artists’ ongoing work. As Red Letter’s Mr. Plinkett (Stoklasa) says on the group’s “patron of the farts” video, “It’s like a subscription that’s voluntary… you don’t have to do it. Do whatever you want, I don’t care.” Red Letter says it may create higher tiers in the future, but for now offers $2 (the most popular), $5 and $12 monthly subscriptions.
In return for funds, artists offer fans bonuses such as behind-the-scenes content, downloads, Google hangout chats, pre-sale tickets and other items. Reports Sarah Buhr at Techcrunch, new tools for artists are forthcoming from Patreon in the form of a “launch mode” — a page offering live streaming, chats and a “countdown to hype” a new piece of content.
While a number of Patreon artists are scoring substantial sums on the service, Red Letter’s nearly six-figure annual revenues are among Patreon’s highest. Below, and conducted over email, is a short interview with Stoklasa about Red Letter’s use of Patreon.
Filmmaker: How and why did you choose Patreon as a fundraising platform?
Stoklasa: We chose Patreon because it seemed like a new and interesting way to do a kind of voluntary subscription service to our site. We’ve always had a donate button, but never felt the need to do a Kickstarter to ask people to pay us to make something. Seems like you should establish your fan base and prove you can be successful first. Our videos are free to watch, and they’ll always be that way. If people enjoy them enough to become a Patreon member on our site, they are welcome to [become members]. If they just want to keep watching, that’s fine with us too. We love doing what we do.
Filmmaker: So to what do you attribute your success so far on the platform?
Stoklasa: Well to our fans, of course, and their generosity. I think they see how hard we work at producing content on a regular basis and a lot of them take it upon themselves to donate to help us to continue to make videos.
Filmmaker: What sort of content are you creating now that your Patreon fans are responding to? Would you be creating this content if they weren’t in the picture?
Stoklasa: Our Patreon has three tiers – text updates, photo updates, and exclusive video updates. The video content is usually behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes from episodes and unused content from the review shows. A lot of stuff that would end up on the cutting room floor, but we take the time to edit it and provide it to Patreon members.
Filmmaker: Aside from the revenue, how is this formalized fan relationship helping you guys? What are you learning about your fans?
Stoklasa: Well, one thing we’ve learned is that we have a pretty great fanbase. The response has been overwhelming, and we can see how much people appreciate what we do. Patreon also made us work a little harder to keep people watching and contributing. We don’t take that kind of support from our viewers lightly and we want to keep expanding, growing, and making better and more frequent content.Plastics Don't Disappear, But They Do End Up In Seabirds' Bellies
By recycling items like plastic bottles, he says, and then ultimately recycling those products again, what might have become harmful debris can be turned instead to better use — and kept out of the ocean.
Thompson says limiting the damage plastics can cause to sea life doesn't mean giving up plastic entirely. "It's not about banning plastics," Thompson says. "It's about thinking about the ways that we deal with plastics at the end of their lifetime to make sure that we capture the resource."
"The smaller the piece of debris, the more accessible it is — and the wider the range of creatures that could potentially eat it," says Thompson, who talked with NPR's Melissa Block about his research on the effects of these tiny particles.
While plastic may break down into smaller and smaller pieces, some as small as grains of sand, these pieces are never truly biodegradable. The plastic bits, some small enough that they're called microplastics, threaten marine life like fish and birds, explains Richard Thompson, a professor of marine biology at Plymouth University in the U.K.
The vast majority of debris in the ocean — about 75 percent of it — is made of plastic. It can consist of anything from plastic bottles to packaging materials, but whatever form it takes, it doesn't go away easily.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
What we're dumping into the ocean can be gauged by what washes up on shore. The vast majority of marine debris, about 75 percent of it, is plastic - plastic rope, plastic bottles, packaging materials, food containers, fishing line, plastic bags. These may break down into smaller and smaller pieces, but they never biodegrade. And those tiny pieces - or micro-plastics - threaten marine life too. Marine biologist Richard Thompson of Plymouth University in England has been studying the effects of those tiny particles as small as a grain of sand.
RICHARD THOMPSON: If we were to have, say a coffee mug in front of us, full of sand and we worked our way through it, we might only be finding 2, 3, 4, 5 - perhaps an exception - 20 pieces of micro-plastic, which doesn't seem a lot out of a coffee mug full of sand.
BLOCK: Yeah.
THOMPSON: But when you scale that up to the number of beaches worldwide and you consider that this material's also present at the ocean's surface and at the seabed, you realize that there's actually quite a lot of material that's present at this microscopic scale. And it certainly appears now that that is the most numerous type of marine debris - these microscopic fractions. And of course over time, what we would like to expect is that the large items that are present in the ocean today will break down progressively into these smaller and smaller pieces. So you know, unfortunately, even if we were to stop releasing plastic to the oceans tomorrow, we would still likely see an increase in these very, very small particles. And that's why it's important that we understand the potential consequences.
BLOCK: Well, what are the consequences? Why are these tiny particles such a big problem?
THOMPSON: They are of concern because they could result in different problems to the larger debris. And we don't fully understand, at the moment, the nature of those problems. We know that large items of debris can threaten a whole range of species through entanglement and ingestion. And of course the smaller the piece of debris, the more accessible it is - the wider the range of creatures that could potentially eat it, including some quite small marine invertebrates. Things, you know, less than an inch in length - some small selfish, small marine worms have the potential to ingest these microscopic fragments of plastic. One recent study looking at a commercial species of crustacean - a kind of small lobster - the Dublin Bay prawn - showed that over 80 percent of some populations had small but had quantities of plastic in their guts - not very many particles, but 80 percent of the individuals. Similarly, if we look at some seabirds - if we look at the northern fauna - we find that up to 95 percent of some populations have got plastic in their gut. So there's cause for concern there, first, to want to understand more about the impacts.
BLOCK: Along with ingesting these microscopic particles, there have been studies done - necropsy's done on wildlife show huge amounts of big pieces of plastic inside their systems. What do those studies show?
THOMPSON: Well, I've seen examples from the guts of a whale, which has shown substantial numbers of plastic bags. I've seen examples coming from large seabirds, like an albatross, which could contain really quite large everyday items like a toothbrush or a cigarette lighter.
BLOCK: Short of banning plastics altogether, what would you say is a solution that would reduce - have an impact on the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans?
THOMPSON: The solution certainly is not about banning plastic. Plastics are not the enemy here at all. In fact, plastics bring many societal benefits. And I believe that in the long-term, plastics will help to reduce our environmental footprint on the planet. So it's not about banning plastics, it's about thinking of the ways that we deal with plastics at the end of their lifetime to make sure that we capture the resource. The plastic bottles can be recycled and turned back into new plastic items. So same for many of the things that we see in the sea. If we could capture them and harness that resource and use again, it would be much more efficient.
BLOCK: And what about cleaning up the vast amount of plastic that's already in the ocean? How do you deal with that?
THOMPSON: Well, cleanup of course is very important because our seas are heavily contaminated with plastic debris. The problem is, that at the moment, we're putting this debris and so quickly and we don't have absolute numbers on the rates of injury to the ocean but the quantities are so substantial that it's going to be almost most impossible for us to think about cleaning up as fast as it's going in. So the analogy I would use is, it's a little bit like trying to mop the floor up in your bathroom. If the bath is overflowing and both taps in the bath and the shower are all running at full speed, it's a waste of time trying to just clean up. You will need to clean up eventually but the first thing is to stem the flow. And that has to be the priority.
BLOCK: Professor Thompson, thanks for coming in.
THOMPSON: Thank you very much.
BLOCK: Richard Thompson is a professor at the School of Marine Science and Engineering at Plymouth University in England.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
This is NPR News.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.In his State of the Union message President Obama assured Americans that...
...while some have moved on from the debates over our surveillance programs, I haven’t. As promised, our intelligence agencies have worked hard, with the recommendations of privacy advocates, to increase transparency and build more safeguards against potential abuse. And next month, we’ll issue a report on how we’re keeping our promise to keep our country safe while strengthening privacy.
Let's keep a sharp eye out for the report, but the response by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to unconstitutional domestic spying is much more forthright. The senator notes that Washington elites say
... “trust us, we won’t violate your privacy.”
But when the Intelligence Director is not punished for lying to Congress, how are we to trust them?
Are we to trust them to collect and hold every American’s phone records?
Remember, these are the same people who have only a 10 percent approval rating!
The Constitution is clear. Politicians should NOT collect this information without a warrant. Warrants must be specific to an individual and there must be probable cause before government is allowed to search any American’s documents.
The President created this vast dragnet by Executive Order without Congressional authority. He should immediately end this invasion of our privacy.The face of hunger in Toronto is growing older. Adults over age 45 are the fastest growing group of food bank users in the city, making up more than one-third of 905,970 visits in 2015-16, according to the Daily Bread Food Bank.
Michael Moroz, 60, a former CN rail conductor, is shown outside the Daily Bread Food Bank warehouse in Etobicoke, where he is a volunteer. He is among a growing number of older Toronto adults who now rely on food banks to get by. ( Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star )
A decade ago, older adults made up just over one-quarter of food bank users, but today they account for 35 per cent of those relying on free food hampers. Meanwhile, the opposite has happened for children under 18, who represented 34 per cent of food bank clients in 2006. That number has fallen to 29 per cent this year, says Who’s Hungry, the food bank’s annual report. “One of the biggest demographic shifts observed in those accessing food banks in Toronto is the reversal of age groups at opposite ends of the age spectrum,” says the report being released today.
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“While large strides have been made in the last 10 years in income support for children, there has been little done for a large cohort of older adults, especially single people, who have lost their jobs after the recession and are having a difficult time re-entering the labour market,” the report says. Stagnant welfare rates mean those who have lost jobs or have become disabled are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of food and housing in the city, says the report’s author, Richard Matern. “The vast majority of these older adults — 70 per cent — had some sort of disability or serious illness. They were working in the last 10 years but they lost their jobs, and after that they were forced to rely on social assistance,” he says. The rise in these older food bank users illustrates “a fundamental gap in our social safety net,” he adds.
Former CN rail conductor Michael Moroz, 60, is one example. About 10 years ago, after two decades with CN, Moroz left and invested his pension in a Christmas tree business. But by 2007, the business was foundering and Moroz developed spinal stenosis, which left him in severe pain and unable to walk. Back surgery helped him regain his ability to walk, but the ongoing weakness and pain means he has been unable to work.
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In 2014, Moroz moved into a subsidized apartment in an Etobicoke seniors building. But the $770 in monthly benefits he receives from the Ontario Disability Support Program doesn’t leave much for food after he pays his rent, utilities and outstanding debts. “I always thought about the stigma around using a food bank and said it was not for me,” he says. But after he began volunteering at Daily Bread’s Etobicoke warehouse, he realized he wasn’t alone. “I share the same emotions of most people here,” he says. “They are embarrassed, but grateful as hell.” The education level of food bank users is also rising. A decade ago, just 22 per cent had post-secondary education, while today 36 per cent have college diplomas or university degrees. The jump in more educated food bank users may indicate that both foreign-trained and those who have received post-secondary education in Canada are having more difficulty getting their first job or re-entering the job market, the report notes. Food bank use in the city was up slightly over last year, largely due to a spike in early 2016 that coincided with rising food costs and Syrian newcomers moving out of hotels and into housing, says the report. In an ongoing trend, food bank use continues to shift from the city’s rapidly gentrifying downtown and into the inner suburbs. Since 2008, food bank visits have dropped 16 per cent in the core but have spiked by 48 per cent in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough. In the past year alone, Etobicoke saw a 15 per cent increase and Scarborough saw a 7 per cent increase, the report says. But with last fall’s federal election, “the stars have aligned” at the local, provincial and federal levels of government on poverty reduction, the report says. A new, more generous federal child benefit and a provincial commitment to develop a portable housing benefit have the potential to cut food bank use, says Matern. A provincial panel working on welfare reform and Ontario’s planned “basic income” pilot project are also promising developments. Meanwhile, the city’s commitment to a 10-year poverty reduction strategy to tackle affordable housing, child care and transit for low-income residents is providing leadership at the local level, the report says. “The driving force behind the need for food banks — a lack of income — cannot be met with food alone,” says the report, based on more than 1,000 interviews with clients between March 2015 and March 2016. “The level of hunger faced in Canada’s wealthiest city is unacceptable, and the government’s outdated income support system needs a major overhaul.” Across Canada, more than 850,000 adults and children rely on food banks every month, including about 360,000 in Ontario and 45,000 in Toronto, according to Food Banks Canada.Getty Images
The Bills released long snapper Garrison Sanborn along with several other veterans last week, but Sanborn didn’t have to wait too long to find a new home.
Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Sanborn reached agreement on a one-year contract with the Buccaneers on Tuesday.
It’s a homecoming for Sanborn, who grew up and played his high school football in Tampa before heading to college at Florida State. He joined the Bills as an undrafted free agent in 2009 and played every game for the team over the last eight seasons.
Andrew DePaola was Tampa’s long snapper last season, but he tore his ACL in the final week of the regular season and was not tendered a contract as a restricted free agent. The Bucs also have Dax Dellenbach on the roster as a long snapper, but Sanborn’s experience could be enough of an edge to keep it from being much of a competition.Sen. Bernard Sanders leads Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton in Rhode Island and is within striking distance in Connecticut ahead of Tuesday’s primary contests, according to polling released Monday.
Mr. Sanders had a 4-point, 49 percent to 45 percent, lead in Rhode Island, according to the poll from the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling, while Mrs. Clinton had a 2-point, 48 percent to 46 percent, edge in Connecticut.
Mrs. Clinton had a 10-point, 51 percent to 41 percent, lead over Mr. Sanders in Pennsylvania. All three states, along with Maryland and Delaware, vote on Tuesday.
On the Republican side, GOP front-runner Donald Trump held big leads in all three states.
Mr. Trump was at 61 percent in Rhode Island, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich was at 23 percent, and Sen. Ted Cruz was at 13 percent.
In Connecticut, Mr. Trump was at 59 percent, Mr. Kasich was at 25 percent, and Mr. Cruz was at 13 percent.
And in Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump was at 51 percent, Mr. Cruz was at 25 percent, and Mr. Kasich was at 22 percent.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Shelly Sterling announced late Thursday night that she has signed an agreement to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will improve the Clippers on the court and in the front office, Amin Elhassan writes.
Steve Ballmer is about to shell out $2 billion for the once-lowly Clippers. But there's a reason for it, Kevin Pelton writes.
The Clippers will get a fresh start with a new owner, who should continue the cleanse with a new team name, Arash Markazi writes.
A source close to the situation told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne that Sterling and Ballmer signed the final papers of the sale shortly before midnight at the offices of her Los Angeles-based attorneys. Sterling announced she was acting under her authority as the sole trustee of the Sterling family trust, which owns the Clippers.
"I am delighted that we are selling the team to |
two concerns that I had about the Gear VR in earlier versions, battery drain and overheating phones, have largely been mitigated. An hour of solid use hits my Note 5 for anywhere from 15-20 percent. Only once have I gotten a warning to disconnect the phone before it gets too hot, and it was after nearly two hours of intense play of the bomb-defusing game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
Differences on Display
OK, so you got a Google Cardboard in the mail. You can slap your iPhone in there, and it was free. Why would you consider upgrading?
A few reasons, and they're all benefits of Oculus and Samsung partnering up on this thing. For one, every other mobile headset—whether Cardboard or something like it—relies solely on your phone's accelerometer and gyroscope to track your head's movement. The Gear VR has a dedicated onboard sensor that takes 1000 samples per second, which significantly lowers the delay between your head's movement and seeing your virtual surroundings change accordingly. That delay, known as "latency," is one of the major culprits behind VR nausea; while it can still plague mobile systems, Oculus has managed to reduce latency to under 20 milliseconds, which makes things feel stable, responsive, and comfortable. I've regularly worn the Gear VR for a couple of hours at a clip—whether watching Netflix, wandering among Gaugin paintings at London's Cortauld Gallery, browsing through thousands of panoramic 360-degree images, or or exploring the peaceful puzzle-strewn islands of the game Land's End—without the slightest bit of discomfort.
Ustwo Games
While only working with a small selection of phones might seem like a drag, it circumvents the difficulties of developing for a fragmented OS like Android.
Second, while only working with a small selection of phones might seem like a drag, it circumvents the difficulties of developing for a fragmented OS like Android. That narrow scope allowed Oculus to ignore the needs of other phones, and instead squeeze everything they could out of Samsung's mobile hardware. Then there's the screen: while pixel density is important (and the Note 5 in particular boasts a gorgeous 2560 x 1440 display that makes for crisp images, even when halved for stereoscopic purposes), the company's AMOLED screens allow for what's called "low-persistence" display. That means that each pixel actually spends only 30 percent of its time illuminated—by flashing the display on and then off again, it drastically reduces the motion blur when you turn your head quickly. On other mobile headsets, the image can appear to smear across your vision. Not so in the Gear VR. Through hours and hours of use, my only moments of discomfort came from 360-degree videos (which some people argue are a speed bump for VR innovation).
Is it Worth It?
It was last September when I first put on the first Innovator Edition of the Gear VR, and I remember my reaction as clearly as if it happened yesterday: this thing has no right to feel this good. Before that, I'd dismissed "smartphone VR" as impossibility for at least a couple of years. But that original version of the Gear VR changed my mind. And in the intervening year, the two companies have streamlined the hardware while building a software experience that manages to usher people into the age of immersion stumble-free.
So yes. Good VR is here. After three and a half years, I can't believe I'm finally saying it, but it is. It's in Best Buy, it's on Amazon, it's in T-Mobile and AT&T stores, it's just fucking here. If you have a Samung phone already, spending $99 on it is a no-brainer. There's nothing like it, and unless you have a high-end gaming PC or a Playstation 4—and then spend more than $300 on the VR system to go with them—it's your best shot at VR for the next year or more. If you're an iOS user, though, your choice gets tougher. Samsung hasn't officially announced any headset/phone bundles, but I'd be surprised if some deals don't come along that let you buy in at a discount and use the phone as the VR version of an iPod Touch. After all, when VR's your future, phones can be loss leaders.September turned out to be quite a month, yours truly here became 21, and for the first time I had no desire what so ever to celebrate the stepping stone. Since lately I have stopped looking at birthdays as a cause of celebration and more of a time of reflection, however that didn’t stop me from heading over to O2 for a spot of birthday pancakes where I ran into one of my favorite people!
Another even that marked September was in fact the first ever Libyan ComicCon, woohooo!
Comic Con is not something I expected to see in Libya anytime soon, majorly because I feel that it is one of those trends that can be seen as strange and unnatural and while a large percentage of the public deemed the event “Satanic” “A Halloween Celebration” and the “epitome of ignorance” which was quite ironic as everyone making this statement was (lets admit it) simply ignorant about all things comic con.
Starting on Friday the 23rd of September, Tripoli’s comic con took off in one of the halls in Tripoli International exhibition with high expectations and a mighty crowd armed with their tickets (Which came at the affordable price of 1 dinar sold at different spots around Tripoli). The opening day I went by in true Libyan Fashion, with the electricity cut, leaving the hall steaming hot, also managed to cancel tournaments, the music and disable the gaming contest.
However, I was amazed at the number of people who showed up in cosplay (Costume), at some point I even stopped counting. One of the most popular figures seemed to be The Joker, as around 4-5 people came dressed as him sporting the green hair, full face makeup and purple suit!
I went back on the third day in order to see the events procession without the electricity cut and was absolutely amazed (How much of a difference can electricity make you ask? A HUGE ONE!) The music, the gaming spots, the screen in the booths all came together to create a great atmosphere, not to mention the AC’s keeping us from melting!
As part of Radio Alsaa’s staff, I had the amazing opportunity to interview some of the people involved including the Japanese community founders, some cosplayers, and the people selling the merchandise. Although I personally did not purchase anything, my brother the actual geek brought some sort of key, a poster, and a ring from a manga thingy majigy, which is how I really know the event was a success, it pleased the audience it was targeted towards. I personally was about to attend dressed as Professor Snape when an ex-Friend pointed out how that was non-comic related and made me give up on the whole notion of cosplay.
Why am I writing this, while the reasons are many one of them has to be pride, I am overwhelmed with pride of everyone involved in this event, everyone who fought against circumstance to make it happen and while it may seem rather trivial, it certainly adds a sense of normality to our daily lives, the fact is Libya may be the hot spot of serious violence, hardships, and civil unrest the population has not forgotten how to enjoy and celebrate different cultures and this event is a living proof that this generation, while living against all sorts of odds is doing its best to move Libya and Libyans forward despite the popular misconceptions.
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When sexual-harassment allegations first emerged against Minnesota Senator Al Franken, I wrote in these pages that he shouldn’t resign. Seven new accusations later, I’d come to agree with prominent Democratic senators that Franken has to go. And on Thursday he agreed. Ad Policy
While claiming that “some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others, I remember very differently,” Franken nonetheless resigned from the Senate. “I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,” he noted.
It pains me to write this. The comedian turned politician has been an excellent senator, this year establishing that Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied about his contacts with Russian officials, which led to Sessions’s recusing himself from the investigation into collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Franken was also part of an earlier Resistance, against George W. Bush, in the dark days after Bush’s 2004 reelection. He raised progressive spirits and raised money for Democrats in the years leading up to the election of Barack Obama, when Franken was also elected to the Senate (after a protracted recount). I have written about him as the perfect foil for Trump. I’ve said I hoped he’d run for president. He assured me, back in May, that he would not—for one reason, he was extremely happy in the Senate.
But as the stream of allegations went on, it became obvious Franken couldn’t continue to be effective—and on Wednesday night, that apparently became obvious even to Franken.
Still, I would like to see Franken’s departure be not just another #MeToo moment but a long-delayed #TrumpToo moment. Now that Franken has left the building, why can’t the Democratic senators who’ve asked him to resign—an astonishing 35 out of 48 caucus members—now commit to holding hearings on Trump’s many sexual-abuse accusations? A Quinnipiac poll out Wednesday shows that 70 percent of Americans polled say they want Congress to investigate the allegations against Trump; only 25 percent are opposed. Given that Trump’s pathetic approval ratings normally show him with the backing of 35 to 40 percent of those polled, this means a significant number of Trump supporters also want these charges investigated.
I know: Democrats are in the minority, in both houses of Congress. Such hearings would hold limited power. But even in the minority, ranking congressional Democrats can still get congressional hearing rooms and media attention. They won’t have subpoena power, but they don’t need subpoena power to call Trump’s victims to testify.
I would like to see the Democrats get more aggressive with Trump, because they need to be honest with themselves about what Franken’s resignation will not do. It will not force GOP leaders to concede that Democrats have integrity when it comes to these claims, and that Republicans don’t. As Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains, that’s because “Republicans have built an unlevel playing field of morality.” Remember: Serial prevaricator Sarah Huckabee Sanders has already explained that the difference between Franken and Trump is that Franken admitted something happened, and apologized, while Trump denied all the charges against him. Current Issue View our current issue
To GOP hypocrites like Sanders—and so many more—all Franken’s resignation will mean is that the senator is guilty of sexual wrongdoing, while Trump is not. And that standard applies to the brazen child molester Roy Moore, accused of sexual predation by nine women—including one who said he molested her at age 14—and who may still be elected Alabama’s next senator. And on Fox Wednesday night, host Laura Ingraham and guest Newt Gingrich previewed a new way conservatives will use Franken against them, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter: by making them the party of “weird puritanism,” denying Franken “due process” over “minor stuff” and acting like a “lynch mob.” There is no bottom when it comes to the GOP.
Another thing Franken’s resignation won’t do: It will never establish any kind of equivalence between what the Minnesota senator is accused of doing, and the accusations against Trump, Moore, and Texas Representative Blake Farenthold. Even though Franken is the first among them to pay any political price, there is no comparison in terms of what they’ve been charged with. Let’s start with Farenthold, who used 84,000 taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual harassment claim with an employee. That woman told The Washington Post this week that Farenthold ruined her career. She left politics and now babysits and does other odd jobs. None of Franken’s accusers have said anything close to that happened to them as a result of his wayward hands.
Much like Farenthold’s accuser, the woman Moore molested at 14, Leigh Corfman, says Moore’s abuse took a serious toll on her life—on her romantic prospects, her friendships, her sobriety, her career. That’s a sadly common story for victims of child sexual abuse.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, doesn’t have eight accusers, like Franken; he has twice that, 16. Their charges range from his reaching up their skirts to touch their vaginas through their underwear, to multiple counts of unwanted kissing, to all kinds of creepy groping, kissing, and predation. Plus, there are the four young Miss Teen Universe contestants who told Buzzfeed that Trump walked in on them while they were changing.
For both that and the vagina-groping charge, we have Trump’s own voice in confirmation.”When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he said on the Access Hollywood tape. “Grab ‘em by the pussy.” About his Miss Universe pageants, Trump told Howard Stern: “I’ll tell you the funniest is that I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed. No men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it. You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody OK?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that.”
I think it would encourage demoralized progressives considerably if Democrats followed Franken’s departure with a strategy to bring Trump to public account for his serial abuse. And to shame House Speaker Paul Ryan for having the audacity to weigh in on now-retired Democratic representative John Conyers, while saying nothing about Farenthold. Democrats are doing the right thing, morally, but they really need to figure out the right thing, politically. This doesn’t end with Franken’s departure. It begins.It’s probably time to update the list on my Facebook profile for the books I “like.” If you think that “liking” a book is a fairly nebulous and meaningless concept, you’ll get no argument from me. I made the list a couple of years back and jotted down the first few titles that came into my head (“Gravity’s Rainbow,” “The Big Sleep,” “More Pricks Than Kicks” and “The Anatomy of Melancholy,” if you must know). They weren’t selected entirely at random — they’re all books I think are great — but I didn’t spend much time pondering the selection, and on another day I might well have chosen four completely different titles.
Looking at the list now, however, I can see that it contains elements of the pretentious littérateur and the moody loner, both of which are obviously to be avoided. And if the horror of the Arizona shooting has taught us anything, it’s that some place a high value on what can be gleaned from a man’s reading habits, whether actual or simply professed. I have no idea if Jared Lee Loughner was really a great reader of Plato, Lewis Carroll, “The Will to Power” or “The Communist Manifesto,” as he claimed, but he wanted the world to think he was. And perhaps you really can judge a man by the books he displays on his bookshelf (or keeps on his Kindle).
In which case I pray that no F.B.I. agent, criminal profiler or (worst of all) news pundit ever gets a look at my bookshelves. There, alongside Swift, Plato, Lewis Carroll and Marx, you’d find the Marquis de Sade, Mickey Spillane, Hitler and Ann Coulter. Books are acquired for all kinds of reasons, including curiosity, irony, guilty pleasure and the desire to understand the enemy (not to mention free review copies), but you try telling that to a G-man. It seems perfectly obvious to me that owning a copy of “Mein Kampf” doesn’t mean you’re a Nazi, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Thanks to Timothy W. Ryback’s “Hitler’s Private Library,” we now know that Hitler read “Don Quixote,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and “Gulliver’s Travels,” and considered them “among the great works of world literature,” in Ryback’s words. This is problematic enough, since a taste for great literature is supposed to make us more humane and empathetic, isn’t it? But then Ryback tells us that Hitler had “mastered” the writings of Karl May, an ultraprolific German author of cowboy novels featuring the characters Old Surehand and Old Shatterhand. Hitler’s fondness for tales of the Old West may mean something, but if you’re trying to understand Hitler there are more obvious places to start.
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Reading habits would seem to be relevant enough to someone’s biography, especially if that person is a writer. In his study “Built of Books,” Thomas Wright attempts to reconstruct the contents of Oscar Wilde’s library, which was dispersed and auctioned off between his imprisonment and trial. It’s worth knowing (though hardly surprising) that Wilde read the Greek and Roman classics, Shakespeare, Hegel and some French pornography, but difficulties arise when Wright tries, in a self-described moment of “quixotic madness,” to make the book a partial autobiography, in the belief that if he read everything Wilde had read, Wilde would become a “Socratic mentor, who would help me give birth to a new self.”
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Forging a deep link between criminals and their books can be even more quixotic. Ed Sanders, in “The Family,” tells us that one of Charles Manson’s favorite books was Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land,” but we’re also told that Manson was barely literate. Both John Hinckley Jr. (Reagan’s would-be assassin) and Mark David Chapman (the murderer of John Lennon) have been connected to “The Catcher in the Rye,” Hinckley by having a copy in his hotel room, Chapman by calmly reading the book outside the Dakota apartment building while waiting for the police to arrive after he shot Lennon. But it’s hardly surprising that a book that has sold well over 35 million copies has occasionally fallen into the hands of criminals.The celebrated singer, songwriter, and actress, Mariah Carey, who has encountered numerous wardrobe malfunctions in the recent past yet again landed in a similar situation when she was hanging out with her partner Bryan Tanaka on a date night last week.
The incident happened when Mariah Carey went out with Bryan Tanaka along with her two children Monroe and Moroccan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
To mark her fashion statement Mariah Carey has donned a tight green dress highlighted with a plunging diamond neckline, but that did not enough hide her modesty at some point of time, particularly when Bryan Tanaka escorted her from her car.
The singer-actress was quick to manage her dress malfunction and went along her date nicely only to get stuck with another malfunction at some point of time later. Carey, however, focused on her date more than these little incidents.
Though there have been rumours about the split between Mariah Carey and her boyfriend Bryan, St. Patrick's Day celebration would certainly put all those rumours at bay for now.
Carey, later on, took to the social networking site Instagram to share some of her pictures from the date night with Bryan and St. Patrick's Day celebration with children, amongst the wardrobe malfunction report.Following a months-long debate on how best to scale the bitcoin network to accommodate a greater number of transactions, bitcoin mining firms are voicing their support for a newly introduced proposal called Bitcoin Classic.
Though a new entrant to the debate, Bitcoin Classic so far has the support of bitcoin developers including former Bitcoin Core maintainer Gavin Andresen, Bloq CEO Jeff Garzik and Ledger Journal editor Peter Rizun, among others. If adopted, Bitcoin Classic would increase the size of blocks on the bitcoin blockchain to 2MB, up from 1MB today.
The proposal has created controversy in the industry for running counter to the recommendations of the Bitcoin Core developers, the network’s main development team, which has introduced a road map that advocates for a change that would not directly increase block size, but boost transaction capacity four-fold.
However, bitcoin mining firms believe that the solution to the scaling debate must come in the form of a direct increase to the network’s block size limit, and that Bitcoin Classic offers a more immediate solution to the perception problem that bitcoin as a whole is not doing enough to accommodate new users.
To date, miners including BitFury, Bitmain and Genesis Mining are among seven groups that the Bitcoin Classic initiative has said have pledged support to the project.
At The North American Bitcoin Conference (TNABC) this week, all three groups were vocal in their enthusiasm, putting forth the argument that Bitcoin Classic is the fastest way to achieve a solution that moves the open-source project forward.
Speaking on a panel session, BitFury CIO Alex Petrov explained:
“Right now, the Bitcoin Core team is slowly introducing a solution, and it’s a really complicated solution, and it’s been a half a year and they are still in tests. Bitcoin Classic is a fast answer.”
Elsewhere on the panel, FinalHash CTO Marshall Long, Genesis Mining CEO Marco Streng and Bitmain’s Yoshi Gato spoke positively about the proposal, while underscoring that they believe the industry is in need of a solution that prioritizes speed.
“The transition with Bitcoin Classic can happen in a few weeks,” Gato said.
Despite the consensus among the day’s panelists, however, some Chinese miners have suggested that their support for Bitcoin Classic may be wavering, with major mining firms in China putting forth an uncertain stance on which proposal they favor.
Notably, developers like Andresen have voiced support for both proposals, suggesting others may be willing to align with whichever concept gains traction in the market, thus helping the network scale.
‘Straightforward’ solution
In his statements, Long perhaps best spoke to Bitcoin Classic’s merits, calling the proposal the “most direct” from a technology standpoint.
The panelists indicated their belief that the Bitcoin Classic proposal only intends to increase increase the block size, and that additional changes will not be included as part of the proposal despite confusion it would also aim to change bitcoin’s mining algorythm
“We’re supporting Bitcoin Classic because we feel it solves the current problem,” Streng told the audience. “Bitcoin Classic is a proposal for increasing the block size without changing the rest.”
Still, some in the community are worried about the message such an action would send to the Bitcoin Core team and its developers.
For example, Blockstream CEO Austin Hill, whose company funds the work of many of Core’s more notable developers, has argued that Bitcoin Classic sends a message that the efforts and reasoned recommendations of developers are under-appreciated.
Dangerous upgrade
But while straightforward in its rule changes, Bitcoin Classic differs from the road map put forward by Bitcoin Core in that it would require a hard fork of the bitcoin blockchain, meaning that it would enact a change that makes the latest edition of the software incompatible with older versions.
“Core is saying, well the miners might do it, the service providers might do it, but not the merchants or other entities. That’s their argument, saying we have to be sure that everyone wants it,” Streng continued.
Gato noted that there is a potential danger that a certain segment of the community will continue running Bitcoin Core, thus creating a situation where there are two versions of the bitcoin blockchain, each with transaction histories that couldn’t be reconciled.
“I think the perception of Bitcoin Classic is that because it’s a hard fork change, the existing system will branch into two separate blockchains,” he said.
Petrov also argued that, despite the risk, time was of the essence in dealing with the problem given that blocks on the bitcoin blockchain are becoming increasingly full.
Calling it a “question of survival” for the project, Petrov added:
“If the Bitcoin Core team doesn’t deliver [a solution] in time, we should force the process and that’s why we’re supporting classic. It’s not the best way, it’s painful, but we should do it.”
Overcoming obstacles
Still, Long voiced his opinion that the bitcoin community needs to come together to solve the human challenge involved in a hard fork given that, as more businesses and consumers seek to use the blockchain, it’s likely future increases will be needed.
The opinion is similar to one originally voiced by Garzik at Scaling Bitcoin Hong Kong, at which the community’s developers considered a number of solutions and theories on how blockchains can and could be designed.
“One benefit that I think everyone agrees on is that if we do [a hard fork] gracefully, it proves that we can actually do something that form the outside is hard, not from a technological level, but a communication level,” Long said.
Petrov acknowledged that “a lot” of work would need to be done to increase the community’s awareness about the change, but that this was preferable to waiting on a solution.
Petrov concluded:
“It will be not easy to implement, but we can do it one month. This is why we are supporting Bitcoin Classic.”
Unity image via Shutterstock(Newser) – Somebody who bought a Powerball ticket in Massachusetts has scored the biggest solo jackpot in American history. But state lottery officials have a major correction: It turns out, the winning ticket for $759 million was sold at a store in Chicopee, not Watertown as originally announced, reports the AP. "Human error, plain and simple," says the state lottery's executive director, Michael Sweeney. The store in Watertown did sell a ticket worth $1 million, perhaps playing a role in the confusion, but the much bigger winner picked up the lucky ticket at the Pride Station & Store across the state. The numbers that won a jackpot were 6, 7, 16, 23, 26 and the Powerball was 4. The only bigger lottery jackpot in US history was 2016's $1.6 billion prize, but that was split three ways.
The store owner in Chicopee will get $50,000 for selling the winning ticket, reports CBS Boston. The store owner in Watertown will have to settle for $10,000 for selling the $1 million ticket. Of note: The $758.7 million is the figure for the annuity option, which is paid over 29 years. If the winner wants it all now, he or she will receive $443.3 million, minus more than 30% to cover state and federal taxes. (Read more Powerball stories.)"Dirty Old Town" is a song written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 that was made popular by the Dubliners and has been recorded by many others.
History [ edit ]
The song was written about Salford, Lancashire, England, the city where MacColl was born and brought up. It was originally composed for an interlude to cover an awkward scene change in his 1949 play Landscape with Chimneys, set in a North of England industrial town,[1] but with the growing popularity of folk music the song became a standard. The first verse refers to the gasworks croft, which was a piece of open land adjacent to the gasworks, and then speaks of the old canal, which was the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. The line in the original version about smelling a spring on “the Salford wind” is sometimes sung as “the sulphured wind”. But in any case, most singers tend to drop the Salford reference altogether, in favour of calling the wind “smoky”.
A portion of the canal referenced by the song
Salford Docks, another place mentioned in the song
The Pogues' version of the song is played during walkout of the teams at Salford City FC. Also Real Betis. A football club in Seville, Spain.
The Dubliners [ edit ]
Chart (1968) Peak
position Ireland (IRMA)[2] 10 UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[3] 43
Recordings and performances [ edit ]
Notable renditions of the song include:There’s something endearing, but also puzzling, about Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic partnership with actress-comedian Maya Rudolph. Forgive me for delving into a director’s personal life, but Phantom Thread, the new film from the celebrated auteur opening December 25, kind of feels like an invitation for some gentle scrutiny. So, I’m gonna do it. On the one side you have Anderson, whose past three films have been elusive, esoteric pieces, studied, formal, intense, and a little cold. And then there’s Rudolph, such a loose, warm, amiably goofy performer and personality. What is the secret to this union of seeming opposites, which has lasted for 16 years and produced four children? I think Phantom Thread offers some answers to that question, in unexpectedly sweet and strange fashion.
Phantom Thread is the second movie this season that finds a lauded writer-director processing how he, as an artist, has functioned in his personal relationships. In September, Darren Aronofsky gave us a hectic, harrowing allegorical look at a creator who’s also a destroyer with Mother!—a movie starring the woman he was dating at the time of filming, and that seems to refer back to a past marriage with another famous actress. The film is stuffed with biblical allusion and is, to my mind, a pompous, sneakily self-exonerating mess. Some people loved it, of course.
Give me Anderson’s version of that same inquest over Aronofsky’s any day. Like Mother!, Phantom Thread is about an unyielding artist. Daniel Day-Lewis, giving us one last blessing before he disappears into his version of retirement, plays Reynolds Woodcock, a sought-after high-end dress designer in 1950s London. Reynolds is exacting and frequently lost in indulgent distraction, wrapping himself up in his genius and expecting all those around him to be in his low orbit—to be called on and used whenever he is ready but to otherwise remain out of the way. Which means he’s not the best guy to date, dismissing women when they’ve begun to annoy him in some petty way, or when they get too close to seeing beyond whatever tortured artist bullshit he’s steeped himself in. (There’s a dead mother, of course.)
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Which is, perhaps, a familiar character. But what Anderson does with this pile of chauvinist ego and entitlement is continually surprising. Most crucially, Anderson puts two formidable women beside Reynolds, and Phantom Thread undergoes a disarming transformation from chilly portrait of a cruel and powerful male narcissist to what could be described as a romantic comedy. The great Lesley Manville plays Reynolds’s sister, Cyril, a crisp and commanding business partner—and, in subtle ways, a confidant. She does the breaking up for Reynolds, firmly but not unkindly giving the current despondent young lady the boot when Reynolds has tired of her. That’s the formula until the arrival of Alma (Vicky Krieps), an émigré waitress Reynolds brings from the countryside to London, installing her in his stately townhome as his muse and lover. It’s an arrangement we just know will end at some point, and badly—because this is a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, and some sense of ruin or despair tends to arrive eventually in his films.
But Phantom Thread is something else, quite welcomely. As Reynolds and Alma circle one another, figuring out their dynamic by testing and prodding to see where boundaries lie, something like actual parity gradually develops between them. I won’t say how, exactly, because that would be something of a spoiler. But by the film’s lovely, darkly amusing end, it’s become clear that Reynolds and Alma have found some corresponding need and understanding within each other, that theirs is a bond that works because it sometimes breaks, because it’s dramatic and odd and makes a bizarre kind of sense only to them.
Which is a hell of a testament to a marriage (unofficial or not), isn’t it? After seeing the film, I found myself thinking how touched I would be if I were Rudolph, watching a film that’s so ardently honest (if a bit exaggerated) about the charged and complex exchanges of couplehood, the peculiar compromises of commitment. There’s a “you and me babe, against the world” kind of vibe to Phantom Thread—it winks with the conspiratorial coziness of a private joke. It’s fiercely romantic, in its improbable way. Cyril does not get shoved off to the side, either. Her and her brother’s relationship gets its fair due, its own affectionate assessment. (How often are brother-sister dynamics between older people explored in cinema? Not very!) What initially seems like another alienating P.T.A. outing reveals itself, in quiet but glorious bursts, to be a wry and heartfelt love poem.
And how ravishing it is. Anderson does his own cinematography, styling the film with a grainy, muted texture—tailored and expensive but lived-in. Jonny Greenwood’s lush, indispensable score is—I’m gonna say it—the fourth major character in the film. His compositions are airborne on curious breezes, lilting and sinister, playful and sincere. It’s just gorgeous work, as integral to the experience of the film as its sterling trio of lead actors.
Day-Lewis is a lot smaller here than he was in his first collaboration with Anderson, 2007’s howling There Will Be Blood. Which is a nice change. In Day-Lewis’s hands, Reynolds is a bully and a brat, but we see some bits of decency peeking out through all his measured prickliness. He’s obnoxious, this man who professionally, arrogantly instructs women how to comport themselves and then treats it as empowerment. But he’s also funny and charming in his moody way. There are a few moments of towering anger, but mostly Day-Lewis keeps things interior; Reynolds is a more reserved and watchful kind of jerk. He’s complemented well by Manville, who plays Cyril with a flinty poise that does not deny her her humanity. Unmarried herself, Cyril could easily have been rendered a brittle spinster. But Manville and Anderson instead give Cyril a confidence, a knowing, a self-possession that feels a bit revolutionary. She’s not alone. Because she has Reynolds, yes. But also because she has her business, and she has herself.
It’s Krieps, though, who—mostly unknown to me before this—makes the strongest impression. The Luxembourg actress has been handed a complicated role: a woman who’s both antagonized and antagonizing, an increasingly autonomous half of this alternately thrashing and tender pas de deux. Krieps finds just the right bearing through the material, mixing the pain and the humor and the slightly more surreal stuff to stand strongly toe-to-toe with Day-Lewis. It’s a terrific breakthrough performance, wise and clever and sexy. Alma is quite a creation. If that was how my filmmaker partner wanted to show some version of me to the world, I think I’d be a pretty happy muse indeed.
But then again, what do I know about what the film means to Maya Rudolph? Or about what any gesture means to any couple, really? As Phantom Thread winningly argues, it doesn’t much matter how I see it, or how anyone else on the outside does. In the end, there’s only one person who really needs to get it—and only one person who really can.FACT CHECK: Did a hiker stumble across a “United Nations Base Camp” hidden in Missouri?
Claim: A hiker stumbled across a “United Nations Base Camp” hidden in Missouri.
The Conspiracy
Example:
Imagine if you will: You’re hiking along one of your favorite trails, enjoying nature and time to yourself, and all of a sudden, you come across a military base camp in the middle of nowhere, yet not too far away from roads, etc. in order to make shipments and maneuvers to and from said base camp quite easy and efficient. This was the case for one American citizen who recently contacted the online watchdog group Operation Jade Helm And Beyond with the following message: This was an active nine hole golf course hidden by trees less than 600 feet from the JC (Jefferson City, Missouri) airport and they are building something. Idk what’s about to happen but that white tent is surrounded by Mercedes vans that have no licensing and UN stickers on them. I need to get this out because idk how much more is going on but people need to know. Strange military bases have been popping up seemingly overnight in many places across the U.S. in the last couple of months, and many fear they are all related to what is supposed to be nothing more than a military exercise known as Operation Jade Helm 15, which many concerned Americans feel is going to be more than an ‘exercise.’ Gun grabbing and body snatching are rumored to be in the works for Patriots loyal to the Constitution yet not necessarily loyal to the Obama regime and their seemingly anti-Constitutional agenda.
Origins: These images and accompanying text about a hiker who supposedly stumbled across a hidden “United Nations Base Camp” near Jefferson City, Missouri, are part of the Jade Helm aspect of conspiracy lore, which holds that the upcoming military exercise of that name slated for July 2015 somehow has to do with the looming imposition of martial law and use of “FEMA camps” to incarcerate non-compliant citizens.
This particular iteration was published on the Consciously Englightened web site on 12 June 2015 and describes “ |
i.e. Jaina Proudmoore in Hearthstone. And customizing a deck is akin to designing your character. Instead of stats and character traits you design a deck that distinguishes your play style from other players, and your deck evolves as you unlock new cards and become further acquainted with the game’s mechanics.
Many MOBA’s also offer customizable characters through items, skins, and abilities. As well as a leveling system that serves as a sign of one’s skill. But they also feature microtransactions, a typical trait of free-to-play MMO titles, although not exclusive.
About “Massive”
A typical rebuttal is that 5v5 matches are too small for a MOBA to be considered an MMO, not deserving of the term “massive.” But in the context of MOBAs massive isn’t used to describe an individual game between players, but the shared server in which everyone plays, or the environment in which players are grouped together. And with 540,000 concurrent players on average each month, Dota 2 seems to qualify as "massive."
It is difficult to narrow down a strict rule when determining how many players constitute massive. Ten players may not be enough to embody the term but what about 32? Where is the cutoff? If I start with one grain of sand and keep adding one grain every second, at what point does it become a pile? The same issue exists with the terminology. A satisfactory definition of "massive" cannot be exclusively based on the number of players. If players can play a game where each instance of play is potentially grouped with new players, then enough players exist for the game to be considered massive.
MMO Features But Not An MMO
Many games are beginning to feature MMO characteristics, but they’re not considered MMOs. Grand Theft Auto V’s online play includes microtransactions, levels, and a massive world, but it is not an MMO. The core experience of an MMO is online play, but the online features in games like GTAV are secondary attractions, not the focus of the game’s narrative. Also, the interactions between players are not the driving force behind the online experience of Grand Theft Auto V. It is possible to play the online portion of GTAV without working with other players. Whereas, in order to achieve a win-state in Final Fantasy XIV (in terms of item collection) players must group and coordinate together. And player interaction is a core element of any MMO.
Buy-to-play VS. Free-to-Play
Surveying the landscape of MMOs it's apparent there are two camps. Free-to-play MMOs, abbreviated F2P, offer players content without the need to spend real money on the game. But they feature premium content, that comes in a variety of flavors, and varies from game to game. Numerous F2P titles offer cosmetic items, whereas others offer powerful items that give players an advantage over fellow players. Regardless, premium content must be acquired with an in-game virtual currency, purchased with cash. Or, players may be able to purchase items with currency earned in-game.
On the other hand, pay-to-play games are either purchased for a flat cost, such as The Elder Scrolls Online, or require a monthly subscription to continue playing, such as Dark Age of Camelot. Although the latter seems to be a dying breed, as more developers transition to a flat cost or free-to-play model.
Many new titles are hybrids of both genres, whereby a pay-to-play game may offer premium content such as cosmetics, or a free-to-play title has the option to purchase a monthly subscription for additional perks, such as Skyforge. But free-to-play only refers to games that allow players access to all core content without paying. Games that offer free-to-play elements but require paying to proceed through later game content, like Wizard101, are not truly free-to-play titles. But keep in mind that essential content does not refer to items such as experience boosts or cosmetics.
MMO is still an evolving term that is sure to include new features in the future. Many survival games have are now grouped as MMOs, by offering persistent worlds, microtransactions, a massive amount of players, and a core experience revolving around online play (i.e. Rust). As with any word, the term will change, but the previously listed features are guiding themes to be used when dissecting a particular game.
If I missed any features you think define an MMO, leave a comment below.Buddy Guy’s Legends, the well of memories that will quench my thirst for a couple lives to come. If I reincarnate as a caterpillar, I’ll still tell the butterflies around, about the times I’ve been in this Chicago’s Blues club.
The club itself was established in 1989 and the sign stating “Honorary Buddy Guy Way” is hanging right in front of the entrance. There, you can always listen to live Blues and every January, Buddy Guy performs from Thursday to Sunday for an entire month as part of his “Residency Performance”. The place had seen the the greatest people visit throughout it’s 25 years of existence. Both, top-grade musicians and visitors with great taste of music.
First Come – First Serve
I’ve called Legends at 2 pm the day of the show. Asked the kind lady on the phone what time should I get there to find a seat for Buddy Guy performance at 11.30 pm. The kind lady said “Now”. I was somewhat intimidated by the Legends “First-come-first-serve” rule but I urge all the first-comers to dismiss doubts. The comfort and intelligent design of the stage did not make it an issue. A gray-haired couple next to me were giving me a run for the money, dancing to the Damn Right Blues Band till 3 am.
When you anxiously locate 700 S. Wabash, you see the corner building with the walls covered in mosaic faces of Chicago Blues Legends: Little Walter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf. Immediately you know that you will remember this visit.
Main Stage Floor
Walking into Buddy Guy’s Legends, you see a cozy, subtle grandeur of Blues history and memorabilia all over. Everywhere around the perimeter, signed guitars are hanging under the ceiling. The walls are covered with glassed pictures, outfits and other items from fans, Buddy Guy and the best of Blues legends history.
The stage itself is a short pedestal in the middle of the back wall. It’s surrounded by a number of tables (that were all packed with people drinking since 2 pm) and on both sides of the hall, bar sections are serving guests. I was truly enjoying how efficient was the entire building as an organism. No lines, no waiting, no discomfort or loss in space.
The Staff
The staff needs an article of their own for the welcoming, helpful assistance and thorough service provided while making you feel like you are at home. In front of my eyes, one of the security gentlemen took that gray-haired couple from behind a few tall men and moved them to a place where they could see the “Puma” shoes on Buddy Guy’s feet.
I don’t think that it’s something coming form instructions, to do among the avalanche of other duties and I choose to believe that it was a great gesture of human kindness. Special “thank you” to all the staff hard work, making our time there memorable. Special thanks to a beautiful girl, working there that I had a crush on.
Second Floor
Thought I might get bored if I come too early before the main show. The Blues was there throughout the day: Lunch Session, Dinner Jam, Warm-up & Buddy Guy himself. However, my thoughts were fast-dismissed when I came up to the second floor of the Blues club.
There I saw more walls covered with stories of Blues decades past, more guitars, another bar and pool tables. All over, large screens were streaming what was going on downstairs for those who may have felt fatigue and wanted to rest at one of many tables around.
There, hours went by as I was reading the priceless walls, meeting like-minded people, talking to the band members and playing dozens of pool games.
Buddy Brew
A word of caution: If you care for your beer, finish it before you go outside to smoke. When you will be back, your Buddy Brew won’t be waiting there, where you left it. Same goes for the food. I did not care, the Buddy Brew is a homemade beer of Buddy Guy’s Legends and is more than affordable compared to the bars of Chicago. More so, it was fantastic. I took one home with me and opened it 5048 miles later to relive the memories I’ve gathered one more time.
The Buddy Guy Show
Buddy Guy had much of his stage act inspired by Guitar Slim. This includes beginning to play before he enters the room. He’d done it ever since playing in 1950s Baton Rouge. It hadn’t changed and when Buddy Guy stormed onto the stage from the backdoor, well into “Damn Right I Got The Blues”, the crowd exploded.
Buddy Guy and the Damn Right Blues Band gave a proper show. BG played with a pick, fingers, his tongue and even with his rear, while saying “I just wanted you to know that I can do that”. I considered describing it in detail but would much rather add to the pool of people who would say that a Buddy Guy show is a must-see. It really is, and it is full of exciting surprises. The man will soon turn 79 and he still jumps around the room, setting it ablaze better than most of the performers I’ve seen live and on record.
After the show, the band spent another hour or so welcoming the guests (unless they really need to go to the bathroom after a three-hour performance) and BG would be signing things at the gift shop next to the entrance or saying hello to the guests.
The Damn Right Blues Band
Drums: Tim Austin
Bass: Orlando Wright
Guitar: Ric Hall
Piano: Marty Sammon
Buddy Guy’s Legends
People of all ages (21+) come to Buddy Guy’s Legends and they all share the same sweet aftertaste that lasts them for decades to come. I, in my twenties will say the same thing that a college professor well in his sixties told me when he learned that I was going to visit Legends. He said that it was a blast and that I should go. I am telling everyone who will have an opportunity to go – it is a blast and you should.Duke Energy, the giant utility whose spill of toxic waste into a North Carolina river last month is under federal investigation, released wastewater last week from a second site near Raleigh that state regulators said could be illegal.
Aerial photographs of two Duke coal ash ponds at the head of the Cape Fear River show portable pumps and hoses that appear to be siphoning water into a canal leading to the river.
A spokesman for the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources said on Saturday that its inspectors noticed the pumping while on a site visit last week. “We are investigating the utility’s actions,” the spokesman, Drew Elliot, said in an email. “While routine maintenance is allowed under the permit, discharge of untreated wastewater could be a violation.”
A spokesman for Duke, based in Charlotte, said the pumping was intended to lower the water level in the ponds, which contain a slurry of coal ash with toxic heavy metals, as part of a “routine maintenance” program and was allowed under the site’s antipollution permit.Spanish Revolution Part of the Spanish Civil War Women training for a militia outside Barcelona, August 1936. Location Catalonia, Anarchist Aragon, Various regions of Spain – primarily Madrid Andalusia, and parts of Levante, Spain Goals Elimination of all institutions of state power; worker control of industrial production; implementation of libertarian socialist economy; elimination of social influence from Catholic Church; international spread of revolution to neighboring regions. Methods Work place collectivization; political assassination Resulted in Suppressed after ten-month period.
The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and more broadly libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to three years, primarily Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and parts of the Valencian Community. Much of the economy of Spain was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%, but lower in areas with heavy influence by the Communist Party of Spain.[citation needed] Factories were run through worker committees, agrarian areas became collectivized and run as libertarian socialist communes. Even places like hotels, barber shops, and restaurants were collectivized and managed by their workers.
Overview [ edit ]
Sam Dolgoff estimated that about eight million people participated directly or at least indirectly in the Spanish Revolution,[1] which he claimed "came closer to realizing the ideal of the free stateless society on a vast scale than any other revolution in history." Dolgoff quotes the French anarchist historian Gaston Leval (who was an active participant) to summarize the anarchist conception of the social revolution:
In Spain during almost three years, despite a civil war that took a million lives, despite the opposition of the political parties (republicans, left and right Catalan separatists, socialists, Communists, Basque and Valencian regionalists, petty bourgeoisie, etc.), this idea of libertarian communism was put into effect. Very quickly more than 60% of the land was collectively cultivated by the peasants themselves, without landlords, without bosses, and without instituting capitalist competition to spur production. In almost all the industries, factories, mills, workshops, transportation services, public services, and utilities, the rank and file workers, their revolutionary committees, and their syndicates reorganized and administered production, distribution, and public services without capitalists, high salaried managers, or the authority of the state. The various agrarian and industrial collectives immediately instituted economic equality in accordance with the essential principle of communism, 'From each according to his ability and to each according to his needs.' They coordinated their efforts through free association in whole regions, created new wealth, increased production (especially in agriculture), built more schools, and bettered public services. They instituted not bourgeois formal democracy but genuine grass roots functional libertarian democracy, where each individual participated directly in the revolutionary reorganization of social life. They replaced the war between men,'survival of the fittest,' by the universal practice of mutual aid, and replaced rivalry by the principle of solidarity.... This experience, in which about eight million people directly or indirectly participated, opened a new way of life to those who sought an alternative to anti-social capitalism on the one hand, and totalitarian state bogus socialism on the other.
The collectivization effort was primarily orchestrated by the rank-and-file members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT; English: National Confederation of Labor) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI; English: Iberian Anarchist Federation), with the two often abbreviated as CNT–FAI due to the affinity between the two organizations and the major role of the latter within the former in maintaining anarchist "purity." The non-anarchist socialist Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT; English: General Union of Workers) also participated in the implementation of collectivization, albeit to a far lesser degree.
Orwell's account [ edit ]
The British author George Orwell, best known for his anti-authoritarian works Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, was a soldier in the militia of the CNT-allied Partido Obrero Unificación Marxista (POUM; English: Workers' Party of Marxist Unification). Orwell meticulously documented his first-hand observations of the civil war, and expressed admiration for the social revolution in his book Homage to Catalonia.[4]
I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life—snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.—had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master.
Continuing, Orwell describes the general feeling of the new society that was built within the shell of the old, offering specific elaborations on the effective destruction of hierarchical arrangements that he'd perceived in anarchist Spain.
This was in late December 1936, less than seven months ago as I write, and yet it is a period that has already receded into enormous distance. Later events have obliterated it much more completely than they have obliterated 1935, or 1905, for that matter. I had come to Spain with some notion of writing newspaper articles, but I had joined the militia almost immediately, because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only conceivable thing to do. The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags and with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Señor' or 'Don' or even 'Usted'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos días'. Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all been commandeered, and the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and from, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small number of women and foreigners there were no 'well-dressed' people at all. Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls or some variant of militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in this that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for...so far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine."
Orwell was a democratic socialist and a left-libertarian sympathizer who expressed solidarity with the anarchist movement and social revolution, later commenting, "I had told everyone for a long time past that I was going to leave the P.O.U.M. As far as my purely personal preferences went I would have liked to join the Anarchists."[5]
Social revolution [ edit ]
Anarcha-feminists milicia during Spanish Social Revolution.
The most notable aspect of the social revolution was the establishment of a libertarian socialist economy based on coordination through decentralized and horizontal federations of participatory industrial collectives and agrarian communes. Here are just a few opinions of foreign journalists who have no personal connection with the Anarchist movement. Thus, Andrea Oltmares,[6] professor in the University of Geneva, in the course of an address of some length, said:
"In the midst of the civil war the Anarchists have proved themselves to be political organizers of the first rank. They kindled in everyone the required sense of responsibility, and knew how, by eloquent appeals, to keep alive the spirit of sacrifice for the general welfare of the people. "As a Social Democrat I speak here with inner joy and sincere admiration of my experiences in Catalonia. The anti-capitalist transformation took place here without their having to resort to a dictatorship. The members of the syndicates are their own masters and carry on the production and the distribution of the products of labor under their own management, with the advice of technical experts in whom they have confidence. The enthusiasm of the workers is so great that they scorn any personal advantage and are concerned only for the welfare of all."
The well-known anti-Fascist, Carlo Rosselli,[6] who before Mussolini's accession to power was Professor of Economics in the University of Genoa, put his judgment into the following words:
"In three months Catalonia has been able to set up a new social order on the ruins of an ancient system. This is chiefly due to the Anarchists, who have revealed a quite remarkable sense of proportion, realistic understanding, and organising ability...all the revolutionary forces of Catalonia have united in a program of Syndicalist-Socialist character: socialisation of large industry; recognition of the small proprietor, workers' control...Anarcho-Syndicalism, hitherto so despised, has revealed itself as a great constructive force...I am not an Anarchist, but I regard it as my duty to express here my opinion of the Anarchists of Catalonia, who have all too often been represented to the world as a destructive, if not criminal, element. I was with them at the front, in the trenches, and I have learnt to admire them. The Catalan Anarchists belong to the advance guard of the coming revolution. A new world was born with them, and it is a joy to serve that world."
And Fenner Brockway,[6] Secretary of the I.L.P. in England who traveled to Spain after the May events in Catalonia (1937), expressed his impressions in the following words:
"I was impressed by the strength of the C.N.T. It was unnecessary to tell me that it was the largest and most vital of the working-class organisations in Spain. The large industries were clearly, in the main, in the hands of the C.N.T.--railways, road transport, shipping, engineering, textiles, electricity, building, agriculture. At Valencia the U.G.T. had a larger share of control than at Barcelona, but generally speaking the mass of manual workers belonged to the C.N.T. The U.G.T. membership was more of the type of the 'white-collar' worker...I was immensely impressed by the constructive revolutionary work which is being done by the C.N.T. Their achievement of workers' control in industry is an inspiration. One could take the example of the railways or engineering or textiles...There are still some Britishers and Americans who regard the Anarchists of Spain as impossible, undisciplined, uncontrollable. This is poles away from the truth. The Anarchists of Spain, through the C.N.T., are doing one of the biggest constructive jobs ever done by the working class. At the front they are fighting Fascism. Behind the front they are actually constructing the new Workers' Society. They see that the war against Fascism and the carrying through of the Social Revolution are inseparable. Those who have seen and understand what they are doing must honour them and be grateful to them. They are resisting Fascism. They are at the same time creating the New Workers' Order which is the only alternative to Fascism. That is surely the biggest things now being done by the workers in any part of the world." And in another place: "The great solidarity that existed amongst the Anarchists was due to each individual relying on his own strength and not depending on leadership. The organisations must, to be successful, be combined with a free-thinking people; not a mass, but free individuals." - all three cited in: Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism, Original 1938, AK Press Edition, page 66-67.
This was accomplished through widespread expropriation and collectivization of privately owned productive resources (and some smaller structures), in adherence to the anarchist belief that private property is authoritarian in nature. Spanish Civil War scholar (and anti-socialist) Burnett Bolloten writes of this process:[7]
The economic changes that followed the military insurrection were no less dramatic than the political. In those provinces where the revolt had failed the workers of the two trade union federations, the Socialist UGT and the Anarchosyndicalist CNT, took into their hands a vast portion of the economy. Landed properties were seized; some were collectivized, others were distributed among the peasants, and notarial archives as well as registers of property were burnt in countless towns and villages. Railways, tramcars and buses, taxicabs and shipping, electric light and power companies, gasworks and waterworks, engineering and automobile assembly plants, mines and cement works, textile mills and paper factories, electrical and chemical concerns, glass bottle factories and perfumeries, food-processing plants and breweries, as well as a host of other enterprises, were confiscated or controlled by workmen's committees, either term possessing for the owners almost equal significance in practice. Motion-picture theatres and legitimate theatres, newspapers and printing shops, department stores and bars, were likewise sequestered or controlled as were the headquarters of business and professional associations and thousands of dwellings owned by the upper class.
The economic policies of the anarchist collectives were primarily operated according to the basic communist principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". In some places, money was entirely eliminated, to be replaced with vouchers and coupons distributed on the basis of needs rather than individual labor contributions. Bolloten writes of this process also:[8]
In many communities money for internal use was abolished, because, in the opinion of Anarchists,'money and power are diabolical philtres, which turn a man into a wolf, into a rabid enemy, instead of into a brother.' 'Here in Fraga [a small town in Aragon], you can throw banknotes into the street,' ran an article in a Libertarian paper, 'and no one will take any notice. Rockefeller, if you were to come to Fraga with your entire bank account you would not be able to buy a cup of coffee. Money, your God and your servant, has been abolished here, and the people are happy.' In those Libertarian communities where money was suppressed, wages were paid in coupons, the scale being determined by the size of the family. Locally produced goods, if abundant, such as bread, wine, and olive oil, were distributed freely, while other articles could be obtained by means of coupons at the communal depot. Surplus goods were exchanged with other Anarchist towns and villages, money being used only for transactions with those communities that had not adopted the new system.
Bolloten supplements this analysis through quotation of anarchist journalist Augustin Souchy's remark that "The characteristic of the majority of CNT collectives is the family wage. Wages are paid according to the needs of the members and not according to the labor performed by each worker."[8] This focus on provision for the needs of members rather than individual remuneration effectively rendered these conditions anarcho-communist in nature.
Despite the critics clamoring for "maximum efficiency" rather than revolutionary methods, anarchist collectives often produced more than before the collectivization. In Aragon, for instance, the productivity increased by 20%.[9] The newly liberated zones worked on entirely libertarian principles; decisions were made through councils of ordinary citizens without any sort of bureaucracy (it should be noted that the CNT–FAI leadership was at this time not nearly as radical as the rank and file members responsible for these sweeping changes). In addition to the economic revolution, there was a spirit of cultural revolution. Traditions some viewed as oppressive were done away with. For instance, women were legally permitted to have abortions, and the idea of "free love" became widely prevalent. In many ways, this spirit of cultural liberation prefigured that of the "New Left" movements of the 1960s.[citation needed]
As the war dragged on, the spirit of the revolution's early days flagged. In part, this was due to the policies of the Communist Party of Spain, which took its cues from the foreign ministry of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, the source of most of the foreign aid received by the Republican side. The Communist policy was that the war was not the time for the revolution, that until victory in the war was won the goal had to be the defeat of the Francisco Franco forces, not the abolition of capitalism, which was to be addressed once the war had been won. The other left-wing parties, particularly the anarchists and POUM, disagreed vehemently with this; to them the war and the revolution were one and the same. Militias of parties and groups which had spoken out too vociferously in opposition to the Soviet position on the war soon found further aid to have been cut off. Partially because of this, the situation in most Republican-held areas slowly began to revert largely to its prewar conditions; in many ways the "revolution" was over well before the triumph of the Franco forces in early 1939.[citation needed]
Environmentalism [ edit ]
The Spanish Revolution undertook several environmental reforms which were possibly the largest in the world at the time. Daniel Guerin notes that anarchist territories would diversify crops, extend irrigation, initiate reforestation and start tree nurseries.[10] Once there was a link discovered between air pollution and tuberculosis, the CNT shut down several metal factories.[11]
Criticisms [ edit ]
Criticism of the Spanish Revolution has primarily centered around allegations of coercion by anarchist participants (primarily in the rural collectives of Aragon), which critics charge run contrary to libertarian organizational principles. Bolloten claims that CNT–FAI reports overplayed the voluntary nature of collectivization, and ignored the more widespread realities of coercion or outright force as the primary characteristic of anarchist organization.[12]
"Although CNT-FAI publications cited numerous cases of peasant proprietors and tenant farmers who had adhered voluntarily to the collective system, there can be no doubt that an incomparably larger number doggedly opposed it or accepted it only under extreme duress...The fact is...that many small owners and tenant farmers were forced to join the collective farms before they had an opportunity to make up their minds freely."
He also emphasizes the generally coercive nature of the war climate and anarchist military organization and presence in many portions of the countryside as being an element in the establishment of collectivization, even if outright force or blatant coercion was not used to bind participants against their will.[13]
"Even if the peasant proprietor and tenant farmer were not compelled to adhere to the collective system, there were several factors that made life difficult for recalcitrants; for not only were they prevented from employing hired labor and disposing freely as their crops, as has already been seen, but they were often denied all benefits enjoyed by members...Moreover, the tenant farmer, who had believed himself freed from the payment of rent by the execution or flight of the landowner or of his steward, was often compelled to continue such payment to the village committee. All these factors combined to exert a pressure almost as powerful as the butt of the rifle, and eventually forced the small owners and tenant farmers in many villages to relinquish their land and other possessions to the collective farms."
This charge had previously been made by historian Ronald Fraser in his Blood of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War, who commented that direct force was not necessary in the context of an otherwise coercive war climate.[14]
"[V]illagers could find themselves under considerable pressure to collectivize - even if for different reasons. There was no need to dragoon them at pistol point: the coercive climate, in which 'fascists' were being shot, was sufficient. 'Spontaneous' and 'forced' collectives existed, as did willing and unwilling collectivists within them. Forced collectivization ran contrary to libertarian ideals. Anything that was forced could not be libertarian. Obligatory collectivization was justified, in some libertarians' eyes, by a reasoning closer to war communism than to libertarian communism: the need to feed the columns at the front."
Anarchist sympathizers counter that the presence of a "coercive climate" was an unavoidable aspect of the war that the anarchists cannot be fairly blamed for, and that the presence of deliberate coercion or direct force was minimal, as evidenced by a generally peaceful mixture of collectivists and individualist dissenters who had opted not to participate in collective organization. The latter sentiment is expressed by historian Antony Beevor in his Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939.[15]
"The justification for this operation (whose ‘very harsh measures’ shocked even some Party members) was that since all the collectives had been established by force, Líster was merely liberating the peasants. There had undoubtedly been pressure, and no doubt force was used on some occasions in the fervor after the rising. But the very fact that every village was a mixture of collectivists and individualists shows that the peasants had not been forced into communal farming at the point of a gun."
Historian Graham Kelsey also maintains that the anarchist collectives were primarily maintained through libertarian principles of voluntary association and organization, and that the decision to join and participate was generally based on a rational and balanced choice made after the destabilization and effective absence of capitalism as a powerful factor in the region.[16]
"Libertarian communism and agrarian collectivization were not economic terms or social principles enforced upon a hostile population by special teams of urban anarchosyndicalists, but a pattern of existence and a means of rural organization adopted from agricultural experience by rural anarchists and adopted by local committees as the single most sensible alternative to the part-feudal, part-capitalist mode of organization that had just collapsed."
There is also focus placed by pro-anarchist analysts on the many decades of organization and shorter period of CNT–FAI agitation that was to serve as a foundation for high membership levels throughout anarchist Spain, which is often referred to as a basis for the popularity of the anarchist collectives, rather than any presence of force or coercion that allegedly compelled unwilling persons to involuntarily participate.
Michael Seidman has suggested there were other contradictions with workers' self-management during the Spanish Revolution. He points out that the CNT decided both that workers could be sacked for 'laziness or immorality' and also that all workers should 'have a file where the details of their professional and social personalities will be registered.'[17] He also notes that the CNT Justice Minister, García Oliver, initiated the setting up of 'labour camps'[18] and that even the most principled anarchists, the Friends of Durruti, advocated 'forced labour'.[19]
Anarchist authors have sometimes understated the problems that the working class sometimes faced during the Spanish Revolution during the early period of the movement. For example, while Gaston Leval does admit that the collectives imposed a 'work discipline' that was'strict', he then restricts this comment to a mere footnote.[20] Other radical commentators, however, have incorporated the limitations of the Spanish Revolution into their theories of anti-capitalist revolution. Gilles Dauvé, for example, uses the Spanish experience to argue that to transcend capitalism, workers must completely abolish both wage labour and capital rather than just self-manage them.[21]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]After being forced to withdraw from a pair of pay-per-view main events earlier this year due to injury, Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier admit a change in training methods was needed.
Velasquez, a former UFC heavyweight champion, has been plagued by injuries over the years and forced to withdraw from numerous fights. The most recent was a title rematch with Fabricio Werdum in February. Cormier, meanwhile, pulled out of a fight for the first time in his career against Jon Jones at UFC 197 in April.
Their training base, American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif., has been a target for criticism when it comes to fighter injuries. And with Velasquez (13-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) set to fight Travis Browne (18-3-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) on the UFC 200 main card, and Cormier (17-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) set to rematch Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) in the event’s headliner, both men knew adjustments had to be made.
“Right after Cain got hurt, he talked to me and he goes, ‘We don’t want to say “old,” but us experienced guys, maybe we should reevaluate our training a little bit,'” Cormier told MMAjunkie. “It made me take a hard look at myself, as it did Cain. We both had to take a hard look at ourselves, as we had to prepare for these new fights. It was a blessing in disguise.”
UFC 200 takes place July 9 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.
Velasquez said he hasn’t exactly stopped the hard training, but instead tweaked his schedule to give more days off for rest and recovery. He said that’s helped greatly and allowed him to have the energy to put in the necessary work so he and Cormier are prepared to fight at UFC 200.
“A lot of people don’t see behind the scenes what we do to get ready for fights,” Velasquez said. “They just see fight day, and we go out there and fight. But there’s a lot of hard work that needs to happen beforehand, and we’ve been criticized for sparring |
ura(MNES), Babura,Jigawa State Nigeria Instead of senseless effort to spend taxpayers money to save those cloase to extinction, you better invest in genetic engineering to release better fit species into changed environment. And those can be crops and meat. Imagine giant protein plant based on plankton or krill. They will better serve to "save whales" aims. All this "save biodiversity" call is just a call for money. You cannot overcome basic rules of nature, only the fittiest survive. You are not going to restore some Jurassic biodiversity arent you?
JC, Northwood, UK....last few words from my letter to the editor in 2001: For thousands of years humans have found a deep inspiration in nature to create works of art or to discover the secrets of the universe. Perhaps it is not too late to acknowledge the ultimate logical revelation that life on Earth without the rest of creation will be empty and forever sorrowful.
Nick Sauter, London Ontario Canada When I think of the authoritarian practices which are rapaciously destroying wildlife habitat on the edge of Southport, I feel very sceptical about our Secretary of State for the Environment's comments. Protection of biodiversity in this country is currently a joke. Does it take a genius to make it policy renovate unused buildings in the cities? Clearly this government isn't too smart.
Alex Holt, Southport Really another vaugue dire prediction from some eco activist parading as a scientist. What evidence is there to support his "point of no return" claim? Absolutely none you say, I thought so. Keep spinning the eco yarns no one cares or listens anymore.
Don Simpson, Edmonton, Canada There are so many different resources under threat, I agree with so many posts here, we have to cut population alongside other initiatives. It seems blindingly obvious that attempting to conserve resources without population control is like trying to fill a bucket with a large hole. It annoys me when I see people having three and four children, there's no other word for it than selfish. But they just don't get it clearly, and until population stops being "someone's elses problem", we're going to get nowhere. What effect would it have, I wonder over the next 30-40 years, if all new prospective parents were limited to birthing only one child? I'm not in any postion to suggest how we would do this, but I think time is fast approaching when we will be forced to take such drastic measures
Mark, Leeds I agree with Steve Johnson. The human population issue must be addressed by all countries, seriously and soon before solutions to biodiversity and other ecology problems become nonviable. The support systems of this world will collapse, taking humans along.
Lin Penrose, Atascadero,USA I suspect that in 100 million years time (assuming there are palaeontologists around to examine it) the fossil record corresponding to the 20/21 century will show the sudden deforestation of the entire planet and, in the blink of a geological eye, the extinction of all animals with a body weight greater than 10Kg, (with the exception of around half a dozen species whose population exploded!) This represents a breadth, depth and rate of mass extinction that dwarves even the Permian-Triassic extinction (AKA the "the Great Dying") If all this seems a bit pessimistic, it is worth noting that this has pretty well already happened over much of the developed world. Unless something pretty dramatic happens over the next couple of decades the process will be largely complete, globally, within the lifetime of people alive today! "Climate Change" is an insignificant issue by comparison!
Paul, Wrecclesham, Surrey This thing is beyond all of us. Whatever governments do it will be, as always, too little or too much and too late. It will be solved by natural means. If it means less human beings then that is what will happen. This is the way of the world, it always was and it always will be. Try not to make things worse but don't get your nickers in a twist about it. Live as you are able and enjoy every minute. The future will take care of itself.
Keith Cooper, Rotherham Instead of naming 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, the UN should have named it the International Year for Sustainable Development. If they had, then maybe the meeting in Nagoya would be more focused on finding solutions to the problems, rather than just creating another framework for awareness.
Richard Aitken, Jakarta, Indonesia As for Benn's mention of "perverse subsidies", in addition to cross-subsidising biofuels from crops, his Government gives over £700 million of annual public subsidy to factory farming, with its heavy ecological fooprint.
Jim Roland, London, UK "Can anyone name a species that has gone extinct in the last 50 years?" Neil McEvoy, Guildford, England Estimates vary but roughly 27,000 per year
Giles Bradshaw, Rose Ash, Uk Britain could set a good lead going into this conference by at least recognising that the concept of 'Prosperity Without Growth' as espoused by Prof Tim Jackson is worthy of consideration. Sadly it seems to have been side-lined. Imagine that we aspire to well-being, social integration and happiness instead of more possessions, bigger houses, more exotic holidays etc. Biodiversity threats and climate change are both symptoms of human greed. Break out of the consumerist paradigm and we might stand a chance. Biofuels must be consigned to history. Using land, water and agricultural resources to grow petrol and electricity is insanity at a time when 1 billion people go hungry. Britain's renewable energy strategy leans heavily on biofuels. If the companies proposing to build palm oil power stations get their way, we shall all soon be helping destroy the rainforests every time we boil a kettle. Apparently we've got the best wind power resource in Europe. So Mr Benn, why import palm oil from Indonesia to generate electricity here?
Robert Palgrave, Woking, England At the heart of the matter is money and more importantly greed. Increasing populations to increase growth cause the loss of habitat and biodiversity. Surely we can not continue with a world run as a common market. Each country/continent should have a population limit it can sustain itself. As individuals we can make a difference by voting, the shame is there is no one there to vote for. Maybe a Green/UKIP coalition party!!!
Nick Brown, leamington Spa "economics and ecology are interdependent" Damned right they are Mr Benn!; the more people, the more money, the more people, the more money.... And though all of that spiraling upwards out of control, the more planet that gets ripped up to pay for all of it. Like Climate Change, Biodiversity is another symptom; a surface sign of the fundamental, underlying, illness; too much Human Activity on planet Earth. Human Activity = (Number of individuals) x (Individual Impact) The UN says we all have the right to live to the same levels of Individual Impact; mobile phone, wide screen TV and walk-in fridge. So the only part of the equation we have left to control is the (Number of individuals). And no; his piece here does not elevate Mr Benn to the dizzy political heights of World President (or whatever) as one person comments. Oh, it's an excellent piece of work, I agree with every word; well done; welcome to the top of the hill... But as a measure of the calibre of a politician; no; it rather more begs when the rest of them are going wake up and smell the forrest fires. We are ripping up the planet faster than it can cope; it's gone past "curbing". It's reached the time to stop; plain, outright; stop! We have to get the Human population down, stop having kids; save the knowledge we have, and live within the means of the planet. Otherwise; otherwise,... ask the lemmings! Every five years lemming numbers collapse to 20% of their peak numbers. Every five years they overbreed, then they starve to death, and 80% of them die. Is that our plan too? Another dumb old history of Boom-Bust population cycle? It used to be 'black death' brought us back into line; now it's going to be the whole planet caving in beneath us. Personally I'd rather we had a plan. Nice piece Mr Benn; it demonstrates that one more person has woken up. Now; about the other 5,999,999,999? Cheers Steven
steven walker, Penzance If Mr Benn wants to take a first step, then he can get the government to kick HMRC into action to deal with the sale of illegaly habitat collected endangered plants being sold on eBay that I have reported to them but which they have not acted upon. But why would I expect that to happen? It'd require actual effort rather than mere talk. Having enforcement agencies like customs that actually act to enforce the illegal trade of endangered species would be a good start. Perhaps they're too busy losing the personal details of the other half of the country on a CD instead?
Ian, Leeds I agree with the comments about curtailing population growth and economic growth. Deforestation is mainly caused by the increased number of subsistence farmers clearing land for food and the demand for people in developed countries for more goods, not the cutting of trees for forest products. In fact the annual growth of wood from all land use types is three to four times annual demand, not the other way round. The annual growth of biomass captures about 100 billion tonnes of carbon and releases the same amount through decomposition and wild fires etc.(the carbon cycle). Much more of this carbon could be used for energy and other purposes. After all, electic power cannot provide all energy requirements. Regarding Mr. McEvoys query about loss of species over the last 50 years, in the next 50 to 100 years, it may be humans that become extinct!
Keith Openshaw, Vienna, Virginia, USA Two animals were declared extinct in the first year of the new millennium. They are the Pyrenean ibex (6 January, 2000)and a West African monkey, the Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey (October 2000). Plus the Chinese River Dolphin went extinct in August 2007. See the Global figures for 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Total species assessed = 47,677 Total Extinct or Extinct in the Wild = 875 (2%) [Extinct = 809; Extinct in the Wild = 66]. Total threatened = 17,291 (36%) [Critically Endangered = 3,325; Endangered = 4,891; Vulnerable = 9,075]. Total Near Threatened = 3,650 (8%). Not sure optimism is justified. We need to stop breeding so many humans. In my lifetime (half a century) world population has grown from 2.5 billion to almost 7 billion. To quote David Orr: "If today is a typical day on planet Earth, we will lose 116 square miles of rainforest, or about an acre a second. We will lose another 72 square miles to encroaching deserts, as a result of human mismanagement and overpopulation. We will lose 40 to 100 species, and no one knows whether the number is 40 or 100. Today the human population will increase by 250,000. And today we will add 2,700 tons of chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere and 15 million tons of carbon. Tonight the Earth will be a little hotter, its waters more acidic, and the fabric of life more threadbare." 1991 " What is Education For?".
Barbara Grafton, Ely, UK Hi Bevan, I can't comment on the impact of photosynthesis, although I would be surprised if studies did not exist. However, there are studies which consider changes in the planet's albedo (reflectivity) and how that impacts on global warming. I imagine that they are largely focussed on the transition of ice to water, but there's probably some capture of vegetation changes in the data as well.
Bernie, Bristol "Can anyone name a species that has gone extinct in the last 50 years?" Neil McEvoy, Guildford, England. Yes the Chinese River Dolphin declared "functioanlly extict in 2006" And Bali and Javan tiger 1950s. There are countless examples.
Philip Crump, Plymouth "The cutting of population is mandatory. There are now too many people for the planet to support." Population curbs by reducing birth rates will have no effect for 50-70 years. In the meantime, population will continue to increase. So this meme can only be solved by culling the excess population. Very Dickensian. Of course, if we wish to reduce the number of people we have to remove, we should get rid of those who damage the planet most: the richest people. So just go down the list of the top earners and pop them off."My understand of the principles of Evolution is that species are continually mutating to take advantage of different niches and habitats. This might not be as quick as the losses but it seems to show that life will find a way." didn't work out too well for the dodo, did it, all this evolving away from a threat...
Mark, Exeter, UK "Overfishing has reduced blue fin tuna numbers to 18% of what they were in the mid-1970s." Indeed. So it beggars belief that Mr Benn's own department now seems to be backing away from giving support to a trade ban on the species, does it not? Actions speak louder than words. If the UK government can't get it right on bluefin, no point lecturing anyone else about biodiversity decline!
William, London I cannot understand why the decreased amount of photosynthesis on land and in the oceans is not counted as a possible cause of global warming, if there is any real warming. A vast amount of land has been cleared for development, that is, cities and monoculture farms, so land based photosynthesis and transpiration must have significantly decreased. This means that more of the incident radiation from the sun simply heats up the ground. We are told that the oceans are a mess of plastic and chemicals from sewerage plus debris. I suspect that this is causing less algal growth, again another absorber of the sun's energy. If 0.04% of the atmosphere in the form of CO2 is a cause of global warming then why not photosynthesis and transpiraton? Can anyone provide some comparitive figures on heat absorption by fauna and flora compared to atmospheric gasses?
Bevan Dockery, Perth, Western Australia When people talk about population what they really mean is poor people 'over there'. The real problem is consumption and greed by the already wealthy. No one but Governments can stop the forests falling or the seas being emptied. Our fishing policy is a joke, and can only lead to one conclusion, and we must make the change to a non-deforestation driven agriculture. There is plenty of already converted land waiting to grow crops that is sitting abandoned. But of course that means that the businesses and governments do not get the value of the timber that they prize so dearly. And I agree entirely with Martin Jacobs. The Green community has got its priorities wrong by making every argument about climate.
Dr Dolittle, Cornwall, UK The cutting of population is mandatory. There are now too many people for the planet to support. We must have power and the hydrogen cell engine. In order to generate the power we need, we must use the power of the sun on massive batteries of solar cells encircling the globe and connected by a ring main also encircling the globe with spurs to north and south. It must be a WORLD grid. This will bring power to all countries. Deserts can then be irrigated and the rain forests restored. This massive project will give employment to ALL peoples around the earth. Hence hunger and deprivation can be banished. Don't say it is impossible. If Malaysia can supply 136kV to Sumatra beneath the South China Sea then we CAN build the world grid. Solar cells are, in development about where the internal combustion engine was in the 1890s. What militates against the project is one man's hatred of another chiefly in the name of religion. Moslem, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Shintoist etc. We ALL have to learn to be friends with one another. for the Project to be successful. This project I have outlined, once up and running, burns no fossil fuel and is pollution free. It does not depend on a finite source for, if the Sun dies, then we all die. This must be the greatest challenge faced by the Human Race since time began.
John Cupis, Timsbury, Bath, UK what is there to disagree about - except, perhaps, the optimism? indeed, wary of being dubbed a catastrophist (catastrophists are so tiresome and they try to make everyone feel so guilty), environmentalists always end on a false note of optimism. Hilary Benn's note of optimism doesn't ring true. when we can disaggregate economics and politics from international concerns such as the environment, we might make progress. sadly, locked as we are into nation states, this will not come to be and the short-term vision of poticians and economists will bulldoze the long-term necessities of the environment. Hopeful, optimistic? What do you think?
stuart, maputo, mozambique Can anyone name a species that has gone extinct in the last 50 years?
Neil McEvoy, Guildford, England Having read the article I still fail to see how Mr Benn proposes to reconcile the obvious conflict of interests between environmental concerns and the economic growth of which, he speaks so reverentially. Surely fundamentalist market globalism is based on the core concept of exponential growth by the exploitation of finite resources? It is simply not possible for change to be enacted by the British political class. Their parties receive the lion's share of their funding from the very business interests who profit from the ongoing destruction of the planet. Why should we believe that the political class has suddenly experienced a change of heart and decided to stand with the people against big business? They've certainly never done it before.
Dr Michael Swann, Thurso, Scotland Global biodiversity may well be approaching the point of no return but it's an issue that most people can't really do anything about. One of the defining aspects of rich biodiveristy is strong local differences, there is biodiversity, literally, on our doorsteps. The government need to pull their finger out and help local people protect and encouage their own areas, that includes people in the rainforest and people in the UK. Massive, money driven, global events are not the answer.
Mike, Manchester why do the rich western countries not'rent' vast tracts of third world land in order to protect it from having to be used for the income of the people.
jphndark, uk Spot on! Now what are the BBC going to do to help educate people be part of the solution? It's not enough to have negative journalism now, we need educational and inspirational articles to show the lay person what they can do to help.
Stephen Hobbs, Bristol, England Yes. Biodiversity, the preservation of forests, and the organic integrity of the oceans, and overpopulation are all far more important and immediate issues than CO2. The green movement has got its priorities wrong.
Martin Jacobs, Stockport UK If we continue to be selfish it is not a problem. Then we must ask ourselves "do we care about our children or their childrens' future?" One would hope that we do care and therefore we should address the issue without delay. Hilary Benn is to be admired for his forthright statement.
Martin P Mannion, Cork, Ireland This is all very well, but his Government's support for biofuels for transport is in direct collision both with world biodiversity and cutting net greenhouse gas emissions. It has meant the abolition of set-aside across Europe so valuable for biodiversity, and also is leading to more total imports of palm oil, being a major contributor to the expected catastrophic doubling of demand for palm oil he speaks of above. His Government has gone even further and awarded double ROCs for electricity generation from fresh vegetable oil, sparking a wave of planning applications for such power plants that can readily use palm oil, and inevitably will further increase the UK's 'overshoot' of net food imports, so exporting even more deforestation and hunger.
Jim Roland, London, UK I am completely agreed with this article and I am giving a lot of thanks to the UK Secretary of State Hilary Benn. Of course, the decline of world's biodiversity is approaching a point of no return. As a Local Government Professional Civil Engineer I am to work with biodiversity while planning and implementing of any infrastructure development project. Due to the green house effect a lot of species of amphibians, plants and animals have been disappeared, which could not be return. And also others which still exists, their survival are so much vulnerable. As climate change and biodiversity are inextricable linked, so,it is very essential to arrange an international conference like Copenhagen summit. Although we now need an intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services to oversee progress in the same way the IPCC does for climate change. Brazilian and UK Government have been taken tremendous initiative for the improvement of Biodiversity. I hope and believe that it would be possible to halt the rate of species loss. Yes, I am optimistic about the future state of the Earth.
Engr Salam, LGED, Kushtia, Bangladesh And what is the main cause for this loss of bio-diversity? I'm no expert but would guess that's it mankind. With a global population increase of around 75 million people per annum is it any wonder that nature is losing out? Hilary Benn links loss of bio-diversity and global warming (man made global warming to be precise) but surely the ever growing number of people on the planet is the root cause? I appreciate how sensitive the subject is, but unless we bring population into the equation and discussion I fear the debate is not going anywhere meaningfull.
Peter, East Grinstead The General Assembly of the United Nations has declared 2010 the international year of Biodiversity. Mr.Hilary Benn has done a great job by writing for the biodiversity. I too feel pain and helplessness in my bones when I see the plight of other creatures. I too consider myself very optimistic. But how can we remain optimistic at all the places? There are many powerful professionals including political leaders who are optimistic about infrastructural, industrial and agricultural growth rates. This optimism and penchant for the competitive norms is contrary to cause of biodiversity. If we look at the pressures of the existing trends, efforts to check human population and promotion for biodiversity come at less prior positions. Even these professionals too understand the importance of biodiversity but they succumbed to the pressures of the current trends. Just look at urban areas and the current model of development, one can easily make out that how much population pressure is there on the lands and oceans. We are constantly focussing on the result, not on the source. Even while raising critical issues we are more bothered about declining biodiversity, less worried about growing human population. We can not get success unless we restrict some of our optimism in those existing trends which are fatal for the balanced existence. I fully support the work of the author of this article. Some how, I feel we need a coordinated strategy more focussed on the source and reasonable focus on the result very urgently.
Sanjay Singh Thakur, Indore,India All the depressing statistics and stories we read every day of deforestation and loss of ecosystems never appear to contain suggestions of what the ordinary person on the street can do: please tell us which products we should avoid buying, and name and shame those companies who are contributing to unnecessary destruction of the world's resources. I'm sure if people were made more aware, they would think twice before laying hardwood flooring or buying products that contain palm oil.
Rob Morton, Twickenham Human beings have a nearly inexhaustable capacity for innovation and overcoming seemingly insurmountable barriers. I have no doubt that we will be adequate caretakers of the richness the earth.
Ronald kern, Marlborough Connecticut, usa Loss of habitat and biodiversity is probably going to be the end of the world. Global warming is very likely much less of a threat to the future habitability of this planet. All of the extractable oil left in the ground WILL be extracted and burnt. Populations (of humans) WILL continue to skyrocket. 95% of all humans WILL act with shortsightedness to improve their lives, and their children's lives, by consuming more. This is as true of illegal Indonesian loggers as of Surrey stockbroker belt frequent flyers. I do not share Mr Benn's optimism, and I'm not sure he isn't just putting a brave face on things. Having faith in agencies and mechanisms to sort everything out nicely is not something history tells us is wise. As long as we have no enforcable global laws we will continue as a species to be irresponsible. The prospect of an all powerful global force is terrifying anyway, even assuming it is benign and clever enough to save the planet. My only hope is that we manage to develop a plentiful source of cheap clean power (fusion?). The next step down from that is to remember that in a million years the ecosystem should start to recover from all the toxic waste and runaway warming that wiped humans out. Grim or what? Once it sinks in we'll all go crazy and society will start to fall apart. 50 yrs from now we'll be living in isolated domes if we're one of the 1%. The rest? Hmmm. No bees, no fish, no fresh water, no coral reefs, no oil, no rainforests... jellyfish soup anyone? I'm not a natural pessimist, but I do have a habit of spotting things from further off than other people. Help me out here, tell me why I'm wrong?
Ben Johnson, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK The ONLY way to preserve the ecosystems we utterly depend on is to CUT population growth initially and then cut population. ANY other suggestion just amounts to a lot of hot air in the end - literally - which makes matters worse. Only China has faced up to this so far. Nobody else even wants to even talk about it(not even Hilary Benn it seems)... It should be introduced urgently as a subject in primary schools worldwide(easy enough to do after all) so that at least people would grow up with the idea that maybe only one or two children is a GOOD IDEA and what the consequences will be(starvation, increasing genetic damage as a result of chemical pollution) if families continue to be larger than that. And that conversely with the voluntary control of population, with the knowledge we now have Earth could be a paradise as never before Meanwhile 'I wish I liked the human race. I wish I liked its silly face. I wish when I was meeting one that I could say, 'What jolly fun'...'
Simon Morrison, Truro Hilary Benn's assessment is true. Tragically, the obvious solutions are unpalatable for our materialistic society - for example, if the UK and other wealthy countries were to ban import of all non-recycled and non-FSC certified wood/paper products (from sustainably managed forests) and take similar action with other imported goods that are destroying the Planet's biodiversity, it would have almost no real impact on our standard of living and would have an enormous immediate positive impact on biodiversity and a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren. I live in hope but time is running out.....
Chris P, Ipswich UK I think Hilary Benn's concerns are real. I am dismayed at a couple of things that he says. Firstly the idea that a UN super quango a la IPCC will improve the situation - it will manifestly tie all action into inaction and waste valuable resources that need channeling into real solutions on to nonsensical posturing. Secondly his persistent belief in Climate change - caused by co2 - the evidence for this is non-existent and the "inextricable" linking of this non problem to the very real problem of loss of habitat and bioduversity. "Inextricable" to me is inexplicable. They are manifestly unrelated - and linking the two ensures that no effective action on biodiversity is possible. So a bleak article. It identifies a problem - destroys its own logic and ultimately comes up with a non-solution
Gary Winter, Strathmiglo Fife I am not optimistic about biodiversity, and therefore us too, as we are a part of it. We are like children who wish that everything will remain the same, without us having to do a thing. We are dreaming our planets life away. If we as a species grew up, looked around u,s and took right action, we would still have only a little time to halt the losses, but at least we will have tried. If we put the effort we put into acquisition on an individual level, and war on a global level, and turned all that mental energy that characterizes us as humans, we could do this. But I am still not optimistic that we will..........
L Ashford, Birmingham My understand of the principles of Evolution is that species are continually mutating to take advantage of different niches and habitats. This might not be as quick as the losses but it seems to show that life will find a way. Politicians talk all the time about tipping points but its an opinion, do we really know? We have vastly modified the landscape of the British Isles and, as a consequence, the biodiversity within them. It must ring a little hollow to developing countries when we telling them they can't do what we have. There have been vastly different climates during the history of the earth. During each climate life has expanded to fill each nook and cranny. Even if we wipe out 99.99% of species, over time, new species will evolve to replace them. This tipping point, and the one over climate change, is just a measure of the arrogance of mankind. We believe so much that we are masters of everything, and have the ability to manage everything. So far we've not managed to back this up at all.
Mick Sheppard, York, UK The country would be in a much better state if Hilary Benn was Prime Minister. He is brilliant at a constituency level and assured and respected on a national and international level. Surely the best proof that not all politicians are the bane of all evil!
Lewis Smith, Leeds I agree we need to seize the opportunity to stop the damage to nature and biodiversity. I would like to know why nobody in the UK takes seriously a plan by the ecuadorian government to leave 6000 million dollars worth of oil untouched in a very highly biodiverse area of the Amazon, known as Yasuni National Park and one of the most important natural reserves of the world. This 2 year old plan to leave the oil in return for contributions from the international community is now in serious jeopardy as too few countries have been negotiating the details of the plan, such as Germany and Spain. What about the rest? Also why is this important plan only being broadcast in the spanish version of the BBC?
Victor Velecela, Edinburgh Hilary!When are you going to grasp the population nettle?The world cannot sustain its present population to our standard of living never mind the 9 billion that we seem to accept as inevitable.Big business wants more and more people,the planet doesn't.When you're grandchildren ask what became of the millions of species about to be lost how will you explain it?
steve johnson, whitwick,leics Mr. Benn, can I direct you to the recent comments of the PM, your party leader: He said: "A fair society is one where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules has a chance to fulfil their dreams whether that's owning a bigger house, taking a holiday abroad, buying a new car or starting a small business." Those are definitely 3 things - under most circumstances 4 - that, under the exponential growth model that governments drool over, typically have a heavy toll on the environment. So what's your priority?
Ryan, Glasgow No we are not approaching a point of no return in biodiversity. When the last human dies, the bones will be crawling with flies and ants. Anyone who acknowledges Garrett Hardin's economic thesis of "The Tradgedy of the Commons" will see that the greed and selfishness of the human race will lead to its downfall. The colony collapse of bees and the decline of fish stocks in the world's oceans are warnings of the destruction wrought by the human race. However with in ever increasing rate of population growth and desire for economic growth, the end of our species looks inevitable. But life will continue to evolve and perhaps produce an intelligent species better able to control its emotions and demands so that it can live in harmony with all other life forms.
Bevan Dockery, Perth, Western Australia I agree that biodiversity must be protected and sooner rather than later. Here in Tasmania, the whole island (around the size of the UK)is under species attack for greed. Ancient cool climate rain forests are being clear-felled en mass and the trees sent to the wood chipper for export.In the case of Eucalypt, the chips are used to make paper in Asia. In the case of the ancient Myrtle and Blackwood, the chips are sent to Japan to generate electricity. The understory and trees not required are burned, along with the limbs, to prevent re-seeding. The area is then covered with 1080 poison, to wipe out any herbivore before seedlings of monoculture plantations are planted. Carnivorous animals, such as Tasmanian Devils, Eagles and Hawks are also killed by ingesting the dead herbivores. This death takes around 80 hours and is agonising. The blue gum plantations are a cost effective method of harvesting timber. It is also a way of cutting labour cost and therefore jobs. Tasmania's cold climate rain forests sequester 5 times the carbon of any other forest on the planet. This desecration is removing biodiversity on a massive scale.
David Leigh, Derby, Tasmania JC, Northwood seems to think that cooking up some new animals will solve the problem! he clearly has as much understanding of ecology as he does of genetic engineering. The ecosystems of the world are finely tuned and loss (or introduction) of any species can have truly disastrous consequences for that ecosystem. And the humans in it too. Its' not about preserving cuddly pandas - rats, fleas, hagfish - they all deserve protection to protect their ecosystems and prevent catastrophe.
Paul Coyne, Glasgow, Scotland 99% of all species that ever existed are extinct. 0% of people anticipating the end of the world have been correct. What we have to decide is wether or not the world we are creating is what we want. It looks likely that the world in 2100 may not look anything like the world today. Unfortunately, this won't mean flying cars and cyborgs, this mean, no wildlife, no fish, no forests. But plenty of info-mercials, ready made meals, electronic gizmos and hand sanitizer. Sounds like a bad deal to me.
Max, Amsterdam, Netherlands When species go extinct they don't come back - there never was "a point of return" in the first place. The only species that will survive this mass extinction will be those'synanthropic' species that benefit from our presence - such as rats, diseases, escapees from biotechnology labs and of course crops and cattle and associated pests. Lets hope Jurassic Park becomes a reality.
Mark, Bristol The single issue underlying environmental damage is population growth, yet it seems that no politican will even mention this. It is for fear of being labelled as racist? or fear of alienating immigrant communities? The UK and EU can't manage the rest of the world, but we can do something about immigration into Europe and make sensible choices about our energy and food sources. Our government, like most if not all others, is wedded to the idea of eternal growth in GDP - and the simplest way to grow GDP is to allow the population to increase through immigration (as in the UK over the last 10-15 years). The main arguments that are usually trotted out are that we need more people to support an ageing population, and people to do low paid menial tasks - both of these arguments are fatuous. We need to adopt a new set of success measures that we judge governments on, not short term growth but long term trends in the quality of life and the state of the environment (trouble is these are both hard to measure, and policitians tend to do what's easy and will get them re-elected rather than what's needed ).
Ian, Stockton, UK
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STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) - A Wausau man is scheduled for his preliminary hearing on cocaine charges after being found on a warrant.
53 year old Robert Brown faces charges of delivery of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute. Deputies first arrested Brown after a high speed chase in Portage County back in May. Officers had been tailing another suspect in a drug case when that suspect fled. Brown was found in the vehicle after it crashed into a ditch. Officers at the scene found nearly 80 grams of cocaine at the scene after the arrests.
Brown has missed multiple court dates, resulting in warrants for his arrest. He has been freed on a cash bond prior to his preliminary hearing in the case next week.The Reds are prepared to accept an offer inclusive of extras for the 26-year-old, who has long settled on personal terms with the Eagles
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Crystal Palace are assessing the possibility of a structured deal for Mamadou Sakho as the Liverpool defender remains a premier target to solidify their rearguard.
As revealed by Goal on July 4, the centre-back already has a personal agreement in place with the Eagles, having been critical to their Premier League survival while on loan at Selhurst Park last season.
Crystal Palace 9/4 to be relegated
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The only hindrance in turning that temporary stint into a permanent one has been the Reds’ £30 million valuation of the Frenchman, with Palace maintaining for months that such a figure is beyond them.
And manager Frank de Boer reiterated as much following his side’s 1-0 defeat at Anfield on Saturday, saying: “When he’s available for us, I think that is a quality injection for the club.
“It is not like this now, because he is much too expensive for the club.”
Talks have continued with both Sakho and Liverpool throughout the summer and the Merseysiders are now prepared to accept an offer inclusive of extras for the 26-year-old.
Palace are yet to submit a formal bid, but have the discussed variables around a fee.
It is clear that they covet Sakho, the former Paris Saint-Germain man wants the move and the Reds are willing sellers, but there is still a poker game playing out over the final sum.
It was Palace that caved in first |
was more sensitive than his heart. As for the lover, he said his soul dwelt in the body of another. 6 And as for repentance, he said he had indulged in it himself but thrice in his whole life: once when he entrusted a secret to his wife; once when he paid ship's fare to a place instead of walking thither; and once when he remained intestate a whole day. To an old man who was steeped in iniquity he said: "Man, old age has disgraces enough of its own; do not add to them the shame of vice." 7 To a tribune of the people who had been accused of using poison, and who was trying to force the passage of a useless bill, he said: "Young man, I know not which is worse, to drink your mixtures, or to enact your bills." And when he was reviled by a man who led a life of shameless debauchery, he said: "I fight an unequal battle with you: you listen to abuse calmly, and utter it glibly; while for me it is unpleasant to utter it, and unusual to hear it."
Such, then, is the nature of his famous sayings.
p331 10 1 Having been elected consul9 with Valerius Flaccus, his intimate friend, the province which the Romans call Hither Spain was allotted to his charge. Here, while he was subduing some of the tribes, and winning over others by diplomacy, a great host of Barbarians fell upon him, and threatened to drive him disgracefully out of the province. He therefore begged the neighbouring Celtiberians to become his allies. 2 On their demanding two hundred talents pay for such assistance, all his officers thought it intolerable that Romans should agree to pay Barbarians for assistance. But Cato said there was nothing terrible in it; should they be victorious, they could pay the price with the spoils taken from the enemy, not out of their own purse, whereas, should they be vanquished, there would be nobody left either to pay or to ask the price. In this battle he was completely victorious, and the rest of his campaign was a brilliant success. 3 Polybius indeed says that in a single day the walls of all the cities on this side the river Baetis — and they were very many, and full of warlike men — were torn down at his command. And Cato himself says that he took more cities than he spent days in Spain, nor is this a mere boast, since, in fact, there were four hundred of them.
4 His soldiers got large booty in this campaign, and he gave each one of them a pound of silver besides, saying that it was better to have many Romans go home with silver in their pocketsd than a few with gold. But in his own case, he says that no part of the booty fell to him, except what he ate and drank. "Not that I find fault," he says, "with those who p333 seek to profit by such a case, but I prefer to strive in bravery with the bravest, rather than in wealth with the richest, and in greed for money with the greediest." And he strove to keep not only himself, but also his associates, free from all taint of gain. He had five attendants with him in the field. One of these, whose name was Paccus, bought three boys for his own account from among the public prisoners, but finding that Cato was aware of the transaction, or ever he had come into his presence, went and hanged himself. Cato sold the boys, and restored the money to the public treasury.
11 1 While Cato still tarried in Spain, Scipio the Great, who was his enemy, and wished to obstruct the current of his successes and take away from him the administration of affairs in Spain, got himself appointed his successor in command of that province. Then he set out with all the speed possible, and brought Cato's command to an end. But Cato took five cohorts of men-at‑arms and five hundred horsemen as escort on his way home, and on the march subdued the tribe of the Lacetanians, and put to death six hundred deserters whom they delivered up to him. 2 Scipio was enraged at this proceeding, but Cato, treating him with mock humility, said that only then would Rome be at her greatest, when her men of high birth refused to yield the palm of virtue to men of lower rank, and when plebeians like himself contended in virtue with their superiors in birth and reputation. However, in spite of Scipio's displeasure, the Senate voted that no change whatever be made in what Cato had ordered and arranged, and so the administration of Scipio was marked by inactivity and idleness, and detracted from his own, p335 rather than from Cato's reputation. 3 Cato, on the other hand, celebrated a triumph.10 Most men who strive more for reputation than for virtue, when once they have attained the highest honours of consulship and triumphs, straightway adjust their future lives to the enjoyment of a pleasurable ease, and give up their public careers. But Cato did not thus remit and dismiss his virtue, nay, rather, like men first taking up the public service and all athirst for honour and reputation, he girt his loins anew, and held himself ever ready to serve his friends and fellow-citizens, either in the forum or in the field.
12 1 And so it was that he assisted Tiberius Sempronius the consul in subduing the regions in Thrace and on the Danube, acting as his ambassador; and as legionary tribune under Manius Acilius, he marched into Greece against Antiochus the Great, who gave the Romans more to fear than any man after Hannibal. For he won back almost all of Seleucus Nicator's former dominions in Asia, reduced to subjection many warlike nations of Barbarians, and was eager to engage the Romans, whom he deemed the only worthy foemen left for him. 2 So he crossed into Greece with an army, making the freeing of the Greeks a specious ground for war. This they did not need at all, since they had recently been made free and independent of Philip and the Macedonians by grace of the Romans. Greece was at once a stormy sea of hopes and fears, being corrupted by her demagogues with expectations of royal bounty. 3 Accordingly, Manius sent envoys to the several cities. Most of those which were unsettled in their allegiance Titus Flamininus restrained p337 without ado, and quieted down, as I have written in his Life,11 but Corinth, Patrae, and Aegium were brought over to Rome by Cato.
4 He also spent much time at Athens. And we are told that a certain speech of his is extant, which he addressed to the Athenian people in Greek, declaring that he admired the virtues of the ancient Athenians, and was glad to behold a city so beautiful and grand as theirs. But this is not true. On the contrary, he dealt with Athenians through an interpreter. He could have spoken to them directly, but he always clung to his native ways, and mocked at those who were lost in admiration of anything that was Greek. 5 For instance, he poked fun at Postumius Albinus, who wrote a history in Greek, and asked the indulgence of his readers. Cato said they might have shown him indulgence had he undertaken his task in consequence of a compulsory vote of the Amphictyonic Assembly. Moreover, he says the Athenians were astonished at the speed and pungency of his discourse. For what he himself set forth with brevity, the interpreter would repeat to them at great length and with many words; and on the whole he thought the words of the Greeks were born on their lips, but those of the Romans in their hearts.
13 1 Now Antiochus had blocked up the narrow pass of Thermopylae with his army,12 adding trenches and walls to the natural defences of the place, and sat there, thinking he had locked the war out of Greece. And the Romans did indeed despair utterly of forcing a direct passage. But Cato, calling to mind the famous compass and circuit of the pass p339 which the Persians had once made, took a considerable force and set out under cover of darkness. 2 They climbed the heights, but their guide, who was a prisoner of war, lost the way, and wandered about in impracticable and precipitous places until he had filled the soldiers with dreadful dejection and fear. Cato, seeing their peril, bade the rest remain quietly where they were, 3 while he himself, with a certain Lucius Manlius, an expert mountain-climber, made his way along, with great toil and hazard, in the dense darkness of a moonless night, his vision much impeded and obscured by wild olive trees and rocky peaks, until at last they came upon a path. This, they thought, led down to the enemy's camp. So they put marks and signs on some conspicuous cliffs which towered over Mount Callidromus, 4 and then made their way back again to the main body. This too they conducted to the marks and signs, struck into the path indicated by these, and started forward. But when they had gone on a little way, the path failed them, and a ravine yawned to receive them. Once more dejection and fear were rife. They did not know and could not see that they were right upon the enemy whom they sought. But presently gleams of daylight came, here and there a man thought he heard voices, and soon they actually saw a Greek outpost entrenched at the foot of the cliffs. 5 So then Cato halted his forces there, and summoned the men of Firmume to a private conference. These soldiers he had always found trusty and zealous in his service. When they had run up and stood grouped about him, p341 he said: "I must take one of the enemy's men alive, and learn from him who they are that form this advance guard, what their number is, and with what disposition and array their main body awaits us. 6 But the task demands the swift and bold leap of lions fearlessly rushing all unarmed upon the timorous beasts on which they prey." So spake Cato, and the Firmians instantly started, just as they were, rushed down the mountain-side, and ran upon the enemy's sentinels. Falling upon them unexpectedly, they threw them all into confusion and scattered them in flight; one of them they seized, arms and all, and delivered him over to Cato. 7 From the captive Cato learned that the main force of the enemy was encamped in the pass with the king himself, and that the detachment guarding the pass over the mountains was composed of six hundred picked Aetolians. Despising their small numbers and their carelessness, he led his troops against them at once, with bray of trumpet and battle-cry, being himself first to draw his sword. But when the enemy saw his men pouring down upon them from the cliffs, they fled to the main army, and filled them all with confusion.
14 1 Meanwhile Manius also, down below, threw his whole force forward into the pass and stormed the enemy's fortifications. Antiochus, being hit in the mouth with a stone which knocked his teeth out, wheeled his horse about for very anguish. Then his army gave way everywhere before the Roman onset. 2 Although flight for them meant impracticable roads and helpless wanderings, while deep marshes and steep cliffs threatened those who p343 slipped and fell, still, they poured along through the pass into these, crowding one another on in their fear of the enemy's deadly weapons, and so destroyed themselves.
Cato, who was ever rather generous, it would seem, in his own praises, and did not hesitate to follow up his great achievements with boastings equally great, is very pompous in his account of this exploit. 3 He says that those who saw him at that time pursuing the enemy and hewing them down, felt convinced that Cato owed less to Rome than Rome to Cato; also that the consul Manius himself, flushed with victory, threw his arms about him, still flushed with his own victory, and embraced him for a long time, crying out for joy that neither he himself nor the whole Roman people could fittingly requite Cato for his benefactions. 4 Immediately after the battle he was sent to Rome as the messenger of his own triumphs. He had a fair passage to Brundisium, crossed the peninsula from there to Tarentum in a single day, travelled thence four days more, and on the fifth day after landing reached Rome, where he was the first to announce the victory. He filled the city full of joy and sacrifices, and the people with the proud feeling that it was able to master every land and sea.
15 1 These are perhaps the most remarkable features of Cato's military career. In political life, he seems to have regarded the impeachment and conviction of malefactors as a department worthy of his most zealous efforts. For he brought many prosecutions himself, assisted others in bringing theirs, and even instigated some to begin prosecutions, as p345 for instance Petillius against Scipio. 2 That great man, however, trampled the accusations against him under foot, as the splendour of his house and his own inherent loftiness of spirit prompted him to do, and Cato, unable to secure his capital conviction, dropped the case. But he so co-operated with the accusers of Lucius, Scipio's brother, as to have him condemned to pay a large fine to the state. This debt Lucius was unable to meet, and was therefore liable to imprisonment. Indeed, it was only at the intercession of the tribunes that he was at last set free.
3 We are also told that a certain young man, who had got a verdict of civil outlawry against an enemy of his dead father, was passing through the forum on the conclusion of the case, and met Cato, who greeted him and said: "These are the sacrifices we must bring to the spirits of our parents; not lambs and kids, but the condemnations and tears of their enemies." However, he himself did not go unscathed, but wherever in his political career he gave his enemies the slightest handle, he was all the while suffering prosecutions and running risk of condemnation. 4 It is said that he was defendant in nearly fifty cases, and in the last one when he was eighty-six years of age. It was in the course of this that he uttered the memorable saying: "It is hard for one who has lived among men of one generation, to make his defence before those of another." And even with this case he did not put an end to his forensic contests, but four years later, at the age of ninety, he impeached Servius Galba. 5 Indeed, he may be said, like Nestor, p347 to have been vigorous and active among three generations. For after many political struggles with Scipio the Great, as told above, he lived to be contemporary with Scipio the Younger, who was the Elder's grandson by adoption, and the son of that Paulus Aemilius who subdued Perseus and the Macedonians.13
16 1 Ten years after his consulship,14 Cato stood for the censorship. This office towered, as it were, above every other civic honour, and was, in a way, the culmination of a political career. The variety of its powers was great, including that of examining into the lives and manners of the citizens. Its creators thought that no one should be left to his own devices and desires, without inspection and review, either in his marriage, or in the begetting of his children, or in the ordering of his daily life, or in the entertainment of his friends. 2 Nay, rather, thinking that these things revealed a man's real character more than did his public and political career, they set men in office to watch, admonish, and chastise, that no one should turn aside to wantonness and forsake his native and customary mode of life. They chose to this office one of the so‑called patricians, and one of the plebeians. These officers were called censors, and they had authority to degrade a knight, or to expel a senator who led an unbridled and disorderly life. 3 They also revised the assessments of property, and arranged the citizens in lists according to their social and political classes. There were other great powers also connected with the office.
Therefore, when Cato stood for it, nearly all p349 the best known and most influential men of the senatorial party united to oppose him. The men of noble parentage among them were moved by jealousy, thinking that nobility of birth would be trampled in the mire if men of ignoble origin forced their way up to the summits of honour and power; 4 while those who were conscious of base practices and of a departure from ancestral customs, feared the severity of the man, which was sure to be harsh and inexorable in the exercise of power. Therefore, after due consultation and preparation, they put up in opposition to Cato seven candidates for the office, who sought the favour of the multitude with promises of mild conduct in office, supposing, forsooth, that it wanted to be ruled with a lax and indulgent hand. 5 Cato, on the contrary, showed no complaisance whatever, but plainly threatened wrong-doers in his speeches, and loudly cried that the city had need of a great purification. He adjured the people, if they were wise, not to choose the most agreeable physician, but the one who was most in earnest. He himself, he said, was such a physician, and so was Valerius Flaccus, of the patricians. With him as colleague, and him alone, he thought he could cut and sear to some purpose the hydra-like luxury and effeminacy of the time. As for the rest of the candidates, he saw that they were all trying to force their way into the office in order to administer it badly, since they feared those who would administer it well. 6 And so truly great was the Roman people, and so worthy of great leaders, that they did not fear Cato's rigour and haughty independence, but rejected rather those agreeable candidates who, p351 it was believed, would do every thing to please them, and elected Flaccus to the office along with Cato.15 To Cato they gave ear, not as to one soliciting office, but as to one already in office and issuing his decrees.
17 1 As censor, then, Cato made Lucius Valerius Flaccus, his colleague and friend, chief senator. He also expelled many members of the Senate, including Lucius Quintius. This man had been consul seven years before, and, a thing which gave him more reputation than the consulship even, was brother of the Titus Flamininus who conquered King Philip.16 2 The reason for his expulsion was the following. There was a youth who, ever since his boyhood, had been the favourite of Lucius. This youth Lucius kept ever about him, and took with him on his campaigns in greater honour and power than any one of his nearest friends and kinsmen had. He was once administering the affairs of his consular province, and at a certain banquet this youth, as was his wont, reclined at his side, and began to pay his flatteries to a man who, in his cups, was too easily led about. "I love you so much," he said, "that once, when there was a gladiatorial show at home, a thing which I had never seen, I rushed away from it to join you, although my heart was set on seeing a man slaughtered." 3 "Well, for that matter," said Lucius, "don't lie there with any grudge against me, for I will cure it." Thereupon he commanded that one of the men who were lying under sentence of death be brought to the banquet, and that a lictor with an axe stand by his side. Then he p353 asked his beloved if he wished to see the man smitten. The youth said he did, and Lucius ordered the man's head to be cut off.
4 This is the version which most writers give of the affair, and so Cicero has represented Cato himself as telling the story in his dialogue "On Old Age."17 But Livy18 says the victim was a Gallic deserter, and that Lucius did not have the man slain by a lictor, but smote him with his own hand, and that this is the version of the story in a speech of Cato's.
5 On the expulsion of Lucius from the Senate by Cato, his brother was greatly indignant, and appealed to the people, urging that Cato state his reasons for the expulsion. Cato did so, narrating the incident of the banquet. Lucius attempted to make denial, but when Cato challenged him to a formal trial of the case with a wager of money upon it, he declined. 6 Then the justice of his punishment was recognized. But once when a spectacle was given in the theatre, he passed along by the senatorial seats, and took his place as far away from them as he could. Then the people took pity upon him and shouted till they had forced him to change his seat, thus rectifying, as far as was possible, and alleviating the situation.
7 Cato expelled another senator who was thought to have good prospects for the consulship, namely, Manilius, because he embraced his wife in open day before the eyes of his daughter. For his own part, he said, he never embraced his wife unless it thundered loudly; and it was a pleasantry of his to remark that he was a happy man when it thundered.
p355 18 1 Cato was rather bitterly censured for his treatment of Lucius, the brother of Scipio, whom, though he had achieved the honour of a triumph, he expelled from the equestrian order. He was thought to have done this as an insult to the memory of Scipio Africanus. But he was most obnoxious to the majority of his enemies because he lopped off extravagance in living. This could not be done away with outright, since most of the people were already infected and corrupted by it, and so he took a roundabout way. 2 He had all apparel, equipages, jewellery, furniture and plate, the value of which in any case exceeded fifteen hundred drachmas, assessed at ten times its worth, wishing by means of larger assessments to make the owners' taxes also larger. Then he laid a tax of three on every thousand asses thus assessed, in order that such property holders, burdened by their charges, and seeing that people of equal wealth who led modest and simple lives paid less into the public treasury, might desist from their extravagance. 3 As a result, both classes were incensed against them, but those who endured the taxes for the sake of their luxury, and those no less who put away their luxury because of the taxes. For most men think themselves robbed of their wealth if they are prevented from displaying it, and that display of it is made in the superfluities, not in the necessaries of life. This, we are told, is what most astonished Ariston the philosopher, namely, that those possessed of the superfluities of life should be counted happy, rather than those well provided with life's necessary and useful things. 4 Scopas the Thessalian, when one of his friends asked for something of his which p357 was of no great service to him, with the remark that he asked for nothing that was necessary and useful, replied: "And yet my wealth and happiness are based on just such useless and superfluous things." Thus the desire for wealth is no natural adjunct of the soul, but is imposed upon it by the false opinions of the outside world.
19 1 However, Cato paid not the slightest heed to his accusers, but grew still more strict. He cut off the pipes by which people conveyed part of the public water into their private houses and gardens;f he upset and demolished all buildings that encroached on public land; he reduced the cost of public works to the lowest, and forced the rent of public lands to the highest possible figure. 2 All these thingsº brought much odium upon him. Titus Flamininus headed a party against him which induced the Senate to annul as useless the outlays and payments which he had authorised for temples and public works, and incited the boldest of the tribunes to call him to account before the people and fine him two talents. The Senate also strongly opposed the erection of the basilica which he built at the public cost below the council-house in the Forum, and which was called the Basilica Porcia.
3 Still, it appears that the people approved of his censorship to an amazing extent. At any rate, after erecting a statue to his honour in the temple of Health, they commemorated in the inscription p359 upon it, not the military commands nor the triumph of Cato, but, as the inscription may be translated, the fact "that when the Roman state was tottering to its fall, he was made censor, and by helpful guidance, wise restraints, and sound teachings, restored it again." 4 And yet, before this time he used to laugh at those who delighted in such honours, saying that, although they knew it not, their pride was based simply on the work of statuaries and painters, whereas his own images, of the most exquisite workmanship, were borne about in the hearts of his fellow citizens. And to those who expressed their amazement that many men of no fame had statues, while he had none, he used to say: "I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one." 5 In short, he thought a good citizen should not even allow himself to be praised, unless such praise was beneficial to the commonwealth.
And yet of all men he has heaped most praises upon himself. He tells us that men of self-indulgent lives, when rebuked for it, used to say; "We ought not to be blamed; we are no Catos." Also that those who imitated some of his practices and did it clumsily, were called "left-handed Catos." 6 Also that the Senate looked to him in the most dangerous crises as seafarers to their helmsman, and often, if he was not present, postponed its most serious business. These boasts of his are confirmed, it is true, by other witnesses, for he had great authority in the city, alike for his life, his eloquence, and his age.
20 1 He was also a good father, a considerate p361 husband, and a household manager of no mean talent, nor did he give only a fitful attention to this, as a matter of little or no importance. Therefore I think I ought to give suitable instances of his conduct in these relations. He married a wife who was of gentler birth than she was rich, thinking that, although the rich and high-born may be alike given to pride, still, women of high birth have such a horror of what is disgraceful that they are more obedient to their husbands in all that is honourable. 2 He used to say that the man who struck his wife or child, laid violent hands on the holiest of holy things. Also that he thought it more praiseworthy to be a good husband than a good senator, nay, there was nothing else to admire in Socrates of old except that he was always kind and gentle in his intercourse with a shrewish wife and stupid sons. After the birth of his son, no business could be so urgent, unless it had a public character, as to prevent him from being present when his wife bathed and swaddled the babe. 3 For the mother nursed it herself, and often gave suck also to the infants of her slaves, that so they might come to cherish a brotherly affection for her son. As soon as the boy showed signs of understanding, his father took him under his own charge and taught him to read, although he had an accomplished slave, Chilo by name, who was a school-teacher, and taught many boys. 4 Still, Cato thought it not right, as he tells us himself, that his son should be scolded by a slave, or have his ears tweaked when he was slow to learn, still less that he should be indebted to his slave for such a priceless thing as education. He was therefore p363 himself not only the boys' reading-teacher, but his tutor in law, and his athletic trainer, and he taught his son not merely to hurl the javelin and fight in armour and ride the horse, but also to box, to endure heat and cold, and to swim lustily through the eddies and billows of the Tiber. 5 His History of Rome, as he tells us himself, he wrote out with his own hand and in large characters, that his son might have in his own home an aid to acquaintance with his country's ancient traditions. He declares that his son's presence put him on his guard against indecencies of speech as much as that of the so‑called vestal Virgins, and that he never bathed with him. This, indeed, would seem to have been a general custom with the Romans, for even fathers-in‑law avoided bathing with their sons-in‑law, because they were ashamed to uncover their nakedness. 6 Afterwards, however, when they had learned from the Greeks their freedom in going naked, they in their turn infected the Greeks with the practice even when women were present.
So Cato wrought at the fair task of moulding and fashioning his son to virtue, finding his zeal blameless, and his spirit answering to his good natural parts. But since his body was rather too delicate to endure much hardship, he relaxed somewhat in his favour the excessive rigidity and austerity of his own mode of life. 7 But his son, although thus delicate, made a sturdy soldier, and fought brilliantly under Paulus Aemilius in the battle against Perseus.19 On that occasion his sword either was smitten from his hand or slipped from his p365 moist grasp. Distressed at this mishap, he turned to some of his companions for aid, and supported by them rushed again into the thick of the enemy. After a long and furious struggle, he succeeded in clearing the place, and found the sword at last among the many heaps of arms and dead bodies where friends and foes alike lay piled upon one another. 8 Paulus, his commander, admired the young man's exploit, and there is still extant a letter written by Cato himself to his son, in which he heaps extravagant praise upon him for this honourable zeal in recovering his sword. The young man afterwards married Tertia, a daughter of Paulus and a sister of the younger Scipio, and his admission into such a family was due no less to himself than to his father. Thus Cato's careful attention to the education of his son bore worthy fruit.
21 1 He owned many domestics, and usually bought those prisoners of war who were young and still capable of being reared and trained like whelps or colts. Not one of his slaves ever entered another man's house unless sent thither by Cato or his wife, and when such an one was asked what Cato was doing, he always answered that he did not know. 2 A slave of his was expected either to be busy about the house, or to be asleep, and he was very partial to the sleepy ones. He thought these gentler than the wakeful ones, and that those who had enjoyed the gift of sleep were better for any kind of service than those who lacked it. In the belief that his slaves were led into most mischief by their sexual passions, he stipulated that the males should consort with the females at a fixed price, but should never approach any other woman.
p367 3 At the outset, when he was still poor and in military service, he found no fault at all with what was served up to him, declaring that it was shameful for a man to quarrel with a domestic over food and drink. But afterwards, when his circumstances were improved and he used to entertain his friends and colleagues at table, no sooner was the dinner over than he would flog those slaves who had been remiss at all in preparing or serving it. 4 He was always contriving that his slaves should have feuds and dissensions among themselves; harmony among them made him suspicious and fearful of them. He had those who were suspected of some capital offence brought to trial before all their fellow servants, and, if convicted, put to death.
5 However, as he applied himself more strenuously to money-getting, he came to regard agriculture as more entertaining than profitable, and invested his capital in business that was safe and sure. He bought ponds, hot springs, districts given over to fullers, all of which brought him in large profits, and "could not," to use his own phrase, "be ruined by Jupiter." 6 He used to loan money also in the most disreputable of all ways, namely, on ships, and his method was as follows. He required his borrowers to form a large company, and when there were fifty partners and as many ships for his security, he took one share in the company himself, and was represented by Quintio, a freedman of his, who accompanied his clients in all their ventures. In this way his entire security was not imperilled, but only a small part of it, and his profits were large. p369 7 He used to lend money also to those of his slaves who wished it, and they would buy boys with it, and after training and teaching them for a year, at Cato's expense, would sell them again. Many of these boys Cato would retain for himself, reckoning to the credit of the slave the highest price bid for his boy. 8 He tried to incite his son also to such economies, by saying that it was not the part of a man, but of a widow woman, to lessen his substance. But that surely was too vehement a speech of Cato's, when he went so far as to say that a man was to be admired and glorified like a god if the final inventory of his property showed that he had added to it more than he had inherited.
22 1 When he was now well on in years, there came as ambassadors from Athens to Rome,20 Carneades the Academic, and Diogenes the Stoic philosopher, to beg the reversal of a certain decision against the Athenian people, which imposed upon them a fine of five hundred talents. The people of Oropus had brought the suit, the Athenians had let the case go by default, and the Sicyonians had pronounced judgment against them. 2 Upon the arrival of these philosophers, the most studious of the city's youth hastened to wait upon them, and became their devoted and admiring listeners. The charm of Carneades especially, which had boundless power, and a fame not inferior to its power, won large and sympathetic audiences, and filled the city, like a rushing mighty wind, with the noise of his praises. 3 Report spread far and wide that a Greek of amazing talent, who disarmed all opposition by the magic of his eloquence, had infused a tremendous p371 passion into the youth of the city, in consequence of which they forsook their other pleasures and pursuits and were "possessed" about philosophy. The other Romans were pleased at this, and glad to see their young men lay hold of Greek culture and consort with such admirable men. 4 But Cato, at the very outset, when this zeal for discussion came pouring into the city, was distressed, fearing lest the young men, by giving this direction to their ambition, should come to love a reputation based on mere words more than one achieved by martial deeds. And when the fame of the visiting philosophers rose yet higher in the city, and their first speeches before the Senate were interpreted, at his own instance and request, by so conspicuous a man as Gaius Acilius, Cato determined, on some decent pretext or other, to rid and purge the city of them all. 5 So he rose in the Senate and censured the magistrates for keeping in such long suspense an embassy composed of men who could easily secure anything they wished, so persuasive were they. "We ought," he said, "to make up our minds one way or another, and vote on what the embassy proposes, in order that these men may return to their schools and lecture to the sons of Greece, while the youth of Rome give ear to their laws and magistrates, as heretofore."
23 1 This he did, not, as some think, out of personal hostility to Carneades, but because he was wholly averse to philosophy, and made mock of all Greek culture and training, out of patriotic zeal. He says, for instance, that Socrates was a mighty prattler, who attempted, as best he could, to be his country's tyrant, by abolishing its customs, p373 and by enticing his fellow citizens into opinions contrary to the laws. 2 He made fun of the school of Isocrates, declaring that his pupils kept on studying with him till they were old men, as if they were to practise their arts and plead their cases before Minos in Hades. And seeking to prejudice his son against Greek culture, he indulges in an utterance all too rash for his years, declaring, in the tone of a prophet or a seer, that Rome would lose her empire when she had become infected with Greek letters.g 3 But time has certainly shown the emptiness of this ill-boding speech of his, for while the city was at the zenith of its empire, she made every form of Greek learning and culture her own.
It was not only Greek philosophers that he hated, but he was also suspicious of Greeks who practised medicine at Rome. He had heard, it would seem, of Hippocrates' reply when the Great King of Persia consulted him, with the promise of a fee of many talents, namely, that he would never put his skill at the service of Barbarians who were enemies of Greece. He said all Greek physicians had taken a similar oath, 4 and urged his son to beware of them all. He himself, he said, had written a book of recipes, which he followed in the treatment and regimen of any who were sick in his family. He never required his patients to fast, but fed them on greens, on bits of |
works for quite a while. Starting off with Homura and Madoka in late-November 2016 followed by Kyouko and Sayaka in February 2017, we will finally be getting Mami two months after that in April.
Fresh of the Madogatari collaboration series of figures, Banpresto has decided to stick with the linking-bases concept. This allows you to pose two figures side-by-side thanks to the inter-connecting bases. Each character comes in two variants, with eyes wide open (Normal Version) or with their eyes closed (Oyasumi Version). Of course, with the linking-bases you are free to pair up your favorite characters together like Madoka and Homura, Kyouko and Sayaka and Mami and, well, Mami. Yes, the same characters can link together to each other owing to Banpresto cleverly making two versions of the same character with only minor differences in an attempts to separate you from your hard-earned Yen.
Nevertheless, I am still really excited about this announcement and readily welcome any new figures from the series. Also, since it is an arcade figure, prices ought to be very reasonable too. With just three month on the clock, I am really looking forward to this one. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!
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Solihull Police have reported this morning that a wallaby was on the loose in the Knowle area of Solihull.
The situation is thought to now be "under control" and the incident is believed to have been last night.
It was unclear where the hopping marsupial had appeared from, or if was an escaped mascot for the Australian cricket team who are in England for this summer's Ashes series.
The marauding marsupial was reported this morning on the police Twitter account after cops were alerted by James Attree:
The following video was posted by James on You Tube today.A new year means more exciting craft beers to investigate. Photo: Andrew Smith
Following an explosion of new styles, collaboration and, experimentation, the Australian craft beer scene has more enticing brews on offer than ever before. Here are 10 new crackers to track down in 2016.
HopDog BeerWorks, Quincemas Baubles, 5.8 per cent alcohol
This small operation out of Nowra on the NSW South Coast is well known for its annual seasonal Christmas release, and you might be able to snap up a couple of leftovers if you're lucky. It's also well known that head brewer Tim Thomas isn't afraid to experiment. Coupled with his wife/brewing partner's 14 years of culinary experience as a chef, fruits, spices and a myriad of other kitchen ingredients feature heavily throughout their offerings. Naturally fermented in barrels with the addition of quince and peppercorn, this is one weird and wild beer, with flavours of stewed fruit and bitter almond. It won't be long before they're gone, so grab a bottle quick. hopdog.com.au
Doctors Orders Brewing / Bridge Road Brewers, Berliner Weisse four-pack Photo: Bryn Price
Shenanigans Brewing Company, Grisette, 4.6 per cent alcohol
Sydney-based gypsy brewing duo Sam Haldane and Dan Beers first debuted their hopped farmhouse ale in 2014. It was the first beer produced by the pair under the Shenanigans label and a welcome addition to the craft beer scene. Two years later, she returns. The boys have worked hard to pair the aromatic characteristics of a classic saison yeast with individual hop profiles. The fruit and spice of a typical farmhouse saison is accentuated by the tropical aromas of Citra hops and the peppery qualities of Styrian Goldings. Stay tuned as more re-incarnations begin to emerge in local bottleshops, showcasing alternate hop combinations. At 4.6 per cent, with a crisp, dry palate, this is a seriously sessionable ale, ideal for sunny days in the backyard or local beer garden. shenanigansbrewing.com
Batch Brewing Co., Chapeau, 6.2 per cent alcohol
The taproom of Batch Brewing Co, Marrickville, now two-years old. Photo: Supplied
A term the French use to give respect or praise, chapeau loosely translates to "hats-off" (or more literally, just "hat"). Brewed to celebrate the Marrickville team's second birthday, and a hard year maintaining a brew schedule of one new beer every 10 days, it's easy to understand why the name was chosen. This 6.2 per cent kettle soured raspberry ale initially transports you back to the schoolyard canteen line, with pungent aromas of red cordial and raspberry Sunnyboys. The first sip reveals a different beast: dry and tart, with sweet/sour complexity coming from the fruit. Oh, and it's bright pink. You can pour one for your nan and she can pretend it's a Fire Engine. batchbrewingco.com.au
Moon Dog Brewing, Jumping the Shark 2015, 18.4 per cent alcohol
The third annual Jumping the Shark release from the Abbotsford brewers and the biggest yet. At a preposterous 18.4 per cent alcohol, this freeze-distilled imperial rye stout, aged in rye whisky barrels, is a bona-fide behemoth. A process synonymous with the powerful eisbocks of Germany, the procedure involves a partial freezing of the brew during conditioning, allowing a proportion of water to be removed, thus concentrating potency. Expect rich flavours of chocolate, molasses and toasted rye, followed by a warm boozy wallop. Make sure you tuck one away for the cooler months. moondogbrewing.com.au
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Napoleone Brewers, Rauchbier, 5.7 per cent alcohol
Following its popularity at the Great Australian Beer Spectacular in 2015, this Manuka wood smoked lager is back, and this time it's available in the bottle. The Yarra Valley brewery has succeeded in creating an approachable interpretation of the German classic, with an inviting burnished-copper appearance and a focus on overall balance. The palate is crisp and mellow, with gentle flavours of sweet smoked meat, complimented by a dry, spicy finish brought home by Saaz hops. Swing past your local delicatessen and pick up an assortment of smoked cold cuts to enjoy this sessionable swiller the way you ought to. napoleone.com.au
Young Henrys, Old Master, 5.2 per cent alcohol
The Bavarian Bier Cafe's new line of locally brewed beer, "The Crafty Bavarian". Photo: Supplied
A collaboration between Young Henrys and the Art Gallery of NSW has seen the the Newtown brewers curate a beer inspired by the Gallery's current exhibition – The Greats. The entire brew crew toured the exhibition, selecting two works by 17th century masters Diego Velazquez and Gerrit Dou. Head brewer Sam Fuss explains that stylistic definition is difficult with this one, as the team have tried to find common ground between the humble, atmospheric qualities in the works and what a tavern ales might have been like in the 17th century. With a solid backbone of rye, biscuit and lightly smoked malts, this brew is comforting and sessionable. For a dark pub corner and plate of smoked kippers. younghenrys.com
Two Metre Tall, A Farmers Resilience and the Seven Year Itch, 6.4 per cent alcohol
Upon examining the bottle, one will notice a brew date of 2008. No misprint here: this Tasmanian ale is seven years old and proud of it. When brewer Ashley Huntington first released this wildly fermented sour concoction it was to a market unfamiliar with farmhouse ales of the style. Following a barrage of harsh criticism, he was left with a product he couldn't sell but refused to throw away. Like the palates of Australian drinkers, the bottles slowly matured and seven years later, after decanting into oak barrels prior to re-fermentation, a different beast is born. With aromas of grapefruit and barnyard, followed by layers of savoury complexity, this sour ale reflects place and purpose. A truly unique beer from an outfit on the forefront of innovation in the Australian craft beer scene. 2mt.com.au
Young Henrys' brewer Sam Fuss with AGNSW senior coordinator of public program Josephine Touma. The pair have collaborated on "Old Master", a new beer for The Greats exhibition. Photo: Jenni Carter
Doctors Orders Brewing / Bridge Road Brewers, Berliner Weisse, 5.5 per cent alcohol
Beechworth heroes Bridge Road have teamed up with esteemed gypsy brewer Darren 'Doc' Robinson to bring you a seasonal Berliner weisse four-pack featuring one bottle of base beer and plus three different fruit variations (raspberry, grapefruit and rhubarb). Not content with the more predictable – but invariably less interesting – kettle-souring method, the team opted for a full two-day sour mash, leaving the grain to work its lactic magic. The Doc admits that 5.5 per cent alcohol is well above standard for the style. "Maybe we should have called it an Imperial Berliner Weisse," he jokes, pointing out that the extra alcohol percentage and sour mash process help to accentuate body and mouthfeel. Drink each bottle individually or experiment with making your own fruity blends (NB: deliciousness of blends may vary). bridgeroadbrewers.com.au
The Crafty Bavarian, Hop Dock Wheat Beer, 5 per cent alcohol
Known for its selection of quality German imports, the Bavarian Bier Cafe is planning to double its number of Australian venues in 2016 and has taken the plunge into brewing themselves. From the initial range of four house beers, the wheat is the pick of the bunch (there's also a lager, pale ale and low-carb blonde). Deceivingly named the 'Hop Dock', it's not a hop heavy new-wave interpretation brew, but rather a relatively subdued take on a typical Hefeweizen. Classic aromas of banana and clove dominate, and with a subdued wheat component, this weizen presents an approachable entry point into wheat beer for punters usually more inclined to drink a lager. bavarianbiercafe.com
Akasha Brewing Company, Korben D IIPA, 8.5 per cent alcohol
Since parting ways with the Parramatta microbrewery, Riverside, which he co-founded in 2012, Dave Padden has been kicking goals with his new project Akasha Brewing. Those familiar with Padden's work know that he is no stranger to the IPA, and the brewery's first seasonal release demonstrates his knack for producing big, balanced, hop heavy brews. Padden says the key to a good IPA is drinkability, which comes down to "balance and a dry palate". Clean and linear, the Korben ticks this box, hiding its hefty alcohol volume behind American ale, Munich and Gladiator malts before making way for the star of the show, a gargantuan dose of late addition Mosaic and Simcoe hops. akashabrewing.com.au"I believe God has raised him up for a time like this", declares Cruz' campaign surrogate and father Rafael Cruz, who predicts that god-anointed kings, blessed by priests, will bring about a future, great transfer of wealth, from the godless to the godly - a theme apparently lifted from the dominionist movement known as the NAR.
"Ted Cruz's campaign is fueled by a dominionist vision for America," charged a recent Washington Post op-ed. "Stop Calling Ted Cruz a Dominionist", petulantly complained a subsequent Christianity Today article.
Does Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz yearn to rule and reign over America like a God-anointed king from Old Testament scripture? Short of Cruz himself shouting it from the rooftops, who can say for sure? Still, nothing says "dominionism" quite as forcefully as "biblical" slavery.
Back in 2011, an open letter to Dr. Laura Schlessinger (concerning her radio show statement that, per Leviticus 18:22, homosexuality was an "abomination") began, "Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law," then popped the question,
"Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?"
For David Barton, Cruz' super-pac head (and the top evangelical power broker behind Cruz by one media account), this is no joke. It's a serious question for which Barton's website offers a serious, bible-based answer - an American may enslave both Mexicans and Canadians, but only if they're pagans.
So, David Barton is probably a dominionist. But is Ted Cruz? Who knows. What we can say for certain includes the following :
First, various dominionists including David Barton, Rafael Cruz, evangelical organizer David Lane and televangelist Kenneth Copeland have blessed and anointed Ted Cruz (see 1, 2) in public ceremonies that look suspiciously like an evangelical answer to the sort of ceremonies held when state churches officially consecrate kings.
Next, at least five members of Ted Cruz "Religious Liberty Advisory Council" have in various ways promoted "Seven Mountains" dominionism, which encourages believers to use sneaky and covert methods take control of key sectors of society; and three are in a global dominionist movement which teaches that believers are to "invade", "infiltrate", and "subdue" secular society and "rule like kings".
And Cruz hasn't shied away from dominionist venues.
In early 2016, Ted Cruz made two high-profile appearances (1,2) at one of the most significant dominionist churches in America, whose pastor has repeatedly over the years emphasized that a small minority of Christians as dedicated as Lenin's revolutionary Bolsheviks could take the nation, and who prophesies a coming Christian government that may at first "seem like totalitarianism" - until Americans have been forcibly re-educated and trained to properly behave (after which things will loosen up a bit.)
As if all that wasn't enough, for several years Cruz' own father Rafael has been on an almost perpetual speaking tour, promoting to church audiences a range of Christian nationalist history myths that motivate the dominionist movement, which itself represents something very different from honest evangelical participation in the democratic process.
"Jehovah-sneaky" - Dominion by Stealth
How is dominionism different from legitimate Christian democratic engagement? Critics often fail to address this key question.
The answer is that - while the Citizens United Supreme Court decision has allowed a flood of secret campaign money to subvert the electoral process - Dominionism also subverts democracy by teaching conservative evangelicals to participate in the electoral and political process in a manner that's fundamentally dishonest, by using stealth and deception to "infiltrate" America's political system.
This isn't a new thing; during the 1980s the Christian Coalition distributed the following Pat Robertson memo:
How to Participate in a Political Party Rule the world for God.
Give the impression that you are there to work for the party, not push an ideology.
Hide your strength.
Don't flaunt your Christianity.
Christians need to take leadership positions. Party officers control political parties and so it is very important that mature Christians have a majority of leadership positions, God willing.
Now, three decades later, you can spit in the general direction of the Cruz for President effort and hit a dominionist.
Dominionism teaches that believers are not only to engage in the democratic process -- they are to use it, and game the process, to acquire political power by which dominionists can rule ("like kings", according to dominionist guru C. Peter Wagner) over all other groups in society.
The characteristic tactic is stealth. Promoters of the so-called "Seven Mountains" mandate (or "Seven Mountains dominionism") often use words, to describe the project, such as "sneaky", "covert", and infiltrate"
(In this 2008 video, top 7M promoter Lance Wallnau explains the Seven Mountains mandate, including the idea that the project can be either overt or covert, with the latter approach patterned after an aspect of God that Wallnau calls "Jehovah-sneaky".)
Lance Wallnau serves on the leadership team of a new NAR apostolic network - the U.S. Coalition of Apostolic Leaders, along with Dr. Jim Garlow, a 7M promoter who serves on Ted Cruz' Religious liberty Advisory Council.
And, taking the Seven Mountains is a decidedly hostile venture. Believers are to "invade" and "occupy" like an army. One of the NAR's newest dominionist books, co-authored by Wallnau, is Invading Babylon - The Seven Mountain Mandate. On page 97, the book devotes an entire page to the following, in large print:
"We need divine strategies to infiltrate the systems of the world and to effectively work within them. Once the spiritual gates have opened to us, we need great wisdom to steward and distribute the resources God funnels our way."
Where did Rafael Cruz get his idea on the coming "great transfer" of wealth, to be brought about by God-anointed kings? The main promoters of the idea have been the NAR's apostles and prophets, and top NAR organizer and theorist C. Peter Wagner even devoted an entire 2015 book to the "great transfer of wealth" idea.
Transforming Michigan - state level dominion
Dominionists aren't only targeting the U.S. presidency. Much of the movement is devoted to state-level politics. In Kansas, the dominionist governor Sam Brownback (who has close ties both to the NAR and The Fellowship, the dominionist group which hosts the National Prayer Breakfast) has slashed individual and buiness taxes, slashed government spending and "tightened welfare requirements, privatized the delivery of Medicaid, cut $200 million from the education budget, eliminated four state agencies" and fired 2,000 government employees. The result? - lackluster job growth and a devastated public sector (Louisiana, under the dominionist governor Bobby Jindal, followed a similar program, to similar results.)
In Michigan, In 2014 prior to his reelection effort, governor Rick Snyder gave a speech at a key fundraising event of Michigan's dominionist (or "pro-theocracy") Christian right that provides Snyder crucial electoral support. Joining Snyder at the event was former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who has advocated amending the U.S. Constitution in accord with the Bible and would like to forcibly indoctrinate Americans with the pseudo-history lessons of David Barton.
In the introduction to a 2012 NAR book, one of Lance Wallnau's NAR Michigan colleagues writes,
"Out governor has attended a session on the Seven Mountains led by Lance Wallnau. Our lieutenant governor is a Spirit-filled believer... Our governor has stated that he has heard what God has said about Michigan and it will be the "turnaround state" that creates a new paradigm for the nation. He acknowledges the place of God in the transformation of the state."
In Michigan, with backing from both the Koch brothers and and the Christian right, the Snyder-led "transformation" of the state has featured union-busting, the de-funding of public schools, and reckless cost-saving measures that have afflicted an entire city population (Flint, Michigan) with Lead poisoning.
David Barton - Dominionism on Steroids
Ted Cruz' presidential campaign boasts a number of unabashed "Seven Mountains" dominionists (see 1,2) including David Barton, a key player in the dominionist movement whose work Ted Cruz has enthusiastically endorsed, who heads Cruz' most important super-PAC, and who has for over a decade promoted the maximally dominionist idea of "biblical" slavery (which I'll get to a bit later in this story.)
If ever the case were to be argued, in court, that Ted Cruz is truly a dominionist, "exhibit A" would be his endorsement of Barton, whose work has helped Americans "rediscover the founding principles of our nation" according to the Texas senator.
Barton's brand of Christian nationalist pseudo-history has for decades helped inspire America's religious right political cadres who, aided by Koch money, have helped paralyze the national legislative agenda and, at the state level, propelled efforts to gut the social safety net, de-fund public education, deregulate industry, slash taxes on business and the rich, and force a supremacist version Christianity into the public square.
By endorsing Barton (and, Barton has strongly endorsed Cruz), Senator Ted Cruz has in effect endorsed the use of lies towards the acquisition of political power. As a secular tactic that's as old as the hills, and the process is typically facilitated by lots of cash, passed from hand to hand in back rooms.
But as a specifically evangelical Christian project aimed at gaining political power with which to dominate all other factions and groups in society, and impose upon them a coercive and anti-democratic agenda, it's known by another name: dominionism.
Dominionism differs from garden-variety political corruption in at least one significant way - it consecrates, claims divine sanction for, the project of putting entire populations under dominionism's boot. And I'm not using that imagery at random. "We put our foot on Hawa'ii!", shouted one NAR dominionist at a 2009 rally aimed at the (unsuccessful) political conquest of the state in the 2010 election.
For years, David Barton has toiled to create a major body of pseudo-history designed to politically mobilize the evangelical right (and its dominionists) by informing them that America's rightful heritage, as a "Christian nation", has been stolen by scheming secularists and whitewashed by a huge conspiracy of American history scholars.
Along the way, Barton has also promoted something called "biblical" slavery -- very distinct from historic Southern Slavery, but slavery nonetheless. By endorsing Barton, Ted Cruz has endorsed "biblical" slavery too.
The quintessence of dominionism is theocracy. And nothing says "theocracy" better than the enslavement of unbelievers, a practice carried out in an especially brutal manner by the revolutionary Islamic organization ISIS.
But America has its own, would-be theocrats who yearn for "biblical" slavery -- and Barton might just be one.
Now, theocracy isn't just about slavery and witches. It has a secular economic agenda too. Did Jesus oppose the minimum wage? Yes, says David Barton.
In addition, Barton teaches that the United States Constitution was based on ideas that the authors derived from the Old Testament, from the books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Exodus, and so on.
Why push the Constitution/Bible claim? Well, if the founders got Constitutional ideas from Leviticus, it stands to reason that we might want to look to the Old Testament for our legal codes too, which is precisely what the pro-theocracy movement known as Christian Reconstructionism advocates.
It's a line of reasoning that would have seemed eminently reasonable to the Puritans at the time of the Salem Witch Trials, and it slopes towards the community-based stoning of witches and adulterers and to biblical slavery.
In 2013, Ted Cruz enthused to Politico reporter Stephanie Simon that "David Barton is a good man, a courageous leader and a friend". Cruz continued,
"David's historical research has helped millions rediscover the founding principles of our nation..."
Underscoring the point was a December 2015 appearance by Rafael Cruz and Ted Cruz on the Christian Broadcasting Network during which Rafael Cruz cited David's Barton's myth of Peter Muhlenberg and the "Black Robe Regiment" -- with Ted Cruz nodding his head in enthusiastic agreement.
In Barton's Revolutionary War myth, pastor Muhlenberg, in the middle of a fiery sermon, throws off his black clerical robe to reveal underneath an officer's uniform - and the men of his congregation march out from church with him to fight the British.
Barton, Kingmaker
Back in 2011, presidential contender Mike Huckabee "joked" that all Americans should be "forced, at gunpoint no less, to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better for it." In 2012, Barton was described in an NPR story as "The Most Influential Evangelist You've Never Heard Of".
Now, Barton's guiding, inspirational light shines upon the presidential hopes of Ted. In early 2016, a Daily Beast journalist called David Barton "The Evangelical Power Broker Behind Ted Cruz".
Both NPR and the Daily Beast were on target -- Barton does have clout. For an entire decade, David Barton was vice chair of the Texas GOP and served in 2000 as an adviser to the George W. Bush for President campaign. Barton was hired in 2004 as part of Bush's get-out-the-vote reelection effort.
"When David Barton talks, conservatives listen", explained the New York Times in a 2011 story that probed Barton's influence within the evangelical right that comprises the biggest single voter block in the GOP's base; Barton's 2011 backing for Ted Cruz' successful bid for a U.S. Senate seat representing Texas was doubtless very important, maybe even essential, in getting Cruz to where he is now - his steely eyes trained on the White House.
Ted Cruz has long moved in the sort of elite conservative evangelical circles Barton circulates in -- in 1999, an astonishingly precocious twenty-nine year old Cruz, then a Bush campaign aid, brokered a key lunch meeting between leading co-architect of the modern religious right and new right Paul Weyrich (who co-founded the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, and ALEC) and top Bush for President campaign leader Timothy Goeglein.
Cruz and Goeglein won Weyrich's support for Bush (they talked for hours, recalled Goeglein in his mémoire) and so helped the Bush campaign lock down support of the religious right in advance of the 2000 election. Joining the Bush for President effort, as a campaign adviser, was David Barton.
Like father, like son -- leading up to the 1980 election, Ted Cruz' father Rafael served on the Religious Roundtable -- a precursor to the Moral Majority that Rafael has described as a Christian version of the Tea Party, which mobilized religious right voters and helped loft Ronald Reagan into the White House.
AnoinTed!
David Barton's central claim is that America was founded as an expressly Christian nation based on a "biblical worldview". And what does that "worldview" entail according to Barton?
One interesting aspect is that, since 2003, Barton's Wallbuilders website has featured an article, written by a board member of one of Barton's Wallbuilders organizations, that claims the Bible justifies "biblical" slavery including the right of believers to enslave non-Christians (this isn't simply my own take -- as I'll describe shortly, one of America's leading relevant academics concurs.)
The Wallbuilders article cites the founding manifesto of the overtly theocratic (or "theonomic") Christian Reconstructionism movement -- which fuses a Koch-brothers style radically libertarian economic agenda with a plan to impose Old Testament civil law -- for example, by instituting the death penalty (perhaps by stoning) for adulterers, homosexuals, blasphemers, un-chaste women, and witches.
And, some movement leaders also hope to one day institute certain forms of "biblical" slavery. It's in the Bible.
It's not just that Barton has endorsed Ted Cruz and Cruz publicly endorsed Barton, nor is it just that David Barton is heading the most important 2016 election pro-Cruz super-PAC.
And it's not merely that Barton can be seen, at a 2013 pastors gathering in Iowa, along with Rafael Cruz, laying hands on Ted Cruz -- presumably to designate the junior Texas U.S. senator as one of God's anointed who will, Rafael Cruz has suggested, facilitate a great wealth transfer from the godless to the godly.
The Once and Future Christian Nation
The most important thing is that Ted directly endorses David Barton's discredited history work, and that Cruz' top campaign surrogate Rafael Cruz has for several years been on an ongoing national speaking tour during which he frequently promotes American history fabrications lifted directly from Barton.
Examples abound: Rafael Cruz declaiming Barton history lies at billionaire televangelist Kenneth Copeland's church, or spouting them at Christian Zionist John Hagee's Cornerstone Church, and so on.
Rafael Cruz does this so prolifically that one critical liberal interest group has dubbed him the "poor man's David Barton".
Few historians would dispute that Christianity, and Christian values, were woven into the fabric of American culture, including its political culture, since the nation's founding. But Barton goes much further.
David Barton has made a career of rewriting American history with such extreme "creative" license that one persistent, thorough critic has openly identified Barton as a "liar for Jesus" (Barton seems to have chosen not to contest the characterization) and devoted several entire books to debunking Barton's pseudo-historical accounts, which assert that America was founded as an expressly Christian nation.
The Jefferson Lies Lies
Dramatically underlining that point, in 2012 Barton's most recent book, The Jefferson Lies, was pulled from book stores by Thomas Nelson ("basic truths just were not there", said the publisher) due to criticism over the book's numerous historical inaccuracies. Barton's book depicted Jefferson as an orthodox, pious Christian.
While Jefferson did approve of Jesus' moral message contained in the New Testament, so adamantly did he reject the Bible's numerous accounts of miracles that Jefferson created his own 84-page version of the Bible (the Jefferson bible) which omitted the Old Testament altogether as well as all the miraculous events mentioned in the New Testament.
Jefferson constructed his cliff-notes bible, quite literally, as a cut-and-paste operation -- by slicing out selected scripture, from the Bible, with a sharp implement (perhaps a pen-knife.)
The most damaging criticism of Barton's The Jefferson Lies probably came from an evangelical coalition which arranged a boycott of the book because of its alleged whitewashing of Thomas Jefferson's views on race and his record as a slave owner.
Secular liberals were scathing too. "In a sane era, Barton would be peddling hand-typed manifestos on a street corner in his hometown of Aledo, Texas", quipped a writer for The Atlantic during the controversy.
One of Barton's early books claimed that the current constitutional understanding of church/state separation was exactly the opposite of what the founders intended, but that's hardly the most outlandish of his positions.
Then, there's the slavery article.
Joy of "Biblical" Slavery
I first covered the Wallbuilders pro-slavery article in July 2010 and revisited the subject in 2011. And I've been mentioning this in stories up into 2015.
Meanwhile, David Barton's star has risen high indeed. He's now close to a sitting U.S. Senator who might just become the next president of the United States.
The Wallbuilders article in question is written by Stephen K. McDowell, one of the current board members (as of 2014,. according to its 990 IRS tax form) of the nonprofit 501(c)(3) wing of Barton's organization (Wallbuilders Presentations). In turn, Barton serves on the board of McDowell's Providence Foundation. Barton and McDowell heartily co-endorse each other's books.
The first 6 footnotes of McDowell's article (which appears to have been excerpted from McDowell's blatantly dominionist 2004 book Building Godly Nations) cite theologian R. J. Rushdoony's monumental work The Institutes of Biblical Law in which Rushdoony spelled out, in extreme detail, how biblical law could be applied in all spheres of modern society.
The McDowell article explicitly spells out the four "Types of Slavery Permitted by the Bible". Number four? -- "pagans could be permanent slaves". As justification, McDowell cites Leviticus 25:44-46:
"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have - you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you... You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves."
Though the permanent enslavement of unbelievers might seem a bit harsh, McDowell's theological argument goes like this -- Slavery was not in God's original plan but entered into the world with sin, which was born from the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Accordingly, God provided some slavery guidelines, lest things get out of hand. Writes McDowell,
"laws concerning slavery provided parameters for treatment of slaves, which were for the benefit of all involved... The Biblical slave laws reflect God's redemptive desire, for men and nations."
McDowell's argument tracks, quite precisely, those of leading Christian Reconstructionists such as R. J. Rushdoony.
Rushdoony is widely considered the father of the Christian Reconstructionism movement, which promotes radically laissez-faire economics, hopes to abolish most functions of the federal government, and aims to establish the death penalty for myriad infractions of biblical law including adultery, homosexuality, idolatry, blasphemy, witchcraft, un-chastity (female intercourse before marriage), and "incorrigible" teen rebelliousness.
Stephen K. McDowell appears, along with Rushdoony and other top Christian Reconstructionists, in the several hour 1999 CR video series "God's Law and Society"- which provides "a comprehensive look at how biblical law can be applied to bettering American society" (the entire series is now on Youtube.)
David Barton's own Wallbuilders website article on the issue of slavery directly links to McDowell's article, referring readers to it "For more information on this issue" (slavery.) Barton also heartily endorses McDowell's new book The Bible: America's Source of Law and Liberty.
In writing this story, I was gratified to discover that one of the leading secular scholars of the Christian Reconstructionism movement, University of North Florida professor Julie J. Ingersoll, included, in her 2015 book on the movement, a take on McDowell's Wallbuilders article that's nearly identical to the one I'd articulated in 2011 but with somewhat more nuance. Writes Ingersoll,
"By promoting McDowell, and by extension Rushdoony, Barton promotes a biblical worldview in which slavery is in some circumstances acceptable. This worldview downplays the dehumanization of slavery by explicitly arguing that God condones it in certain circumstances" -- page 205, Building God's Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction, by Julie J. Ingersoll, Oxford University Press, 2015.
Ingersoll is clear: "Barton promotes a biblical worldview in which slavery is in some circumstances acceptable". One of the permissible forms of slavery, per Ingersoll's reading of the article? -- "non-Christians can be held in non-voluntary perpetual slavery." (page 205)
But Ingersoll isn't alone. From an almost diametrically opposing viewpoint, a 2008 undergraduate Regent University thesis that seems to favor Christian theocracy, titled "GOD IS JUST: A DEFENSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT CIVIL LAWS", favorably cited Stephen McDowell's interpretation "biblical" slavery too.
It's important to recognize that McDowell and the Christian Reconstructionists aren't just writing pointless academic commentaries on biblical scripture. They're writing scripturally-derived guidelines for the radical reconstruction of society, along "biblical" lines.
Weaponized history
But why is this so important?
Well, Barton's lifetime endeavor has been the wholesale fabrication of American history -- a decades-long propaganda effort to convince evangelicals that scheming secularists and non-Christians have "stolen" America's rightful heritage and birthright and hounded God from the public square.
It's the key narrative that has motivated America's politicized religious right -- the movement which now dominates numerous state legislators, that propelled the Newt Gingrich-led takeover of congress in 1994 and the Tea Party-driven takeover of congress and the senate in 2010, that has blocked proactive national legislation to address a wide range of pressing issues, from campaign finance reform to climate change.
In short, David Barton's pseudo-history has helped to politically paralyze the most richest and powerful nation on Earth.
Barton's books, videos, presentations, and "walking tours" of the capital undergird and support a right wing narrative of cultural complaint (a modern-day American analog of the post-WW1 German Dolchstoßlegende) which motivates a range of constituencies on the Christian right inclined to back Ted Cruz.
One is the Christian Reconstructionism movement, another is the closely related Christian homeschooling movement. The first is tiny, the second considerably bigger.
Then, there's the charismatic movement, which is huge. Barton has close ties to perhaps the most aggressive and ideologically extreme current in the charismatic movement, the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation movement.
NAR leaders are the most active promoters of the dominionist "Seven Mountains" mandate, which calls upon believers to "invade", "infiltrate", and develop influence and control in seven key sectors of society: government, business and finance, media, education, arts and entertainment, religion, and the family.
Longtime top NAR theorist and organizer C. Peter Wagner has called upon believers to "take dominion over everything" and describes establishing "dominion" as a process of "subduing" in which his movement becomes "the head not the tail" and NAR members rule "like kings".
In 2005, shortly before her successful bid to become governor of Alaska, the future 2008 GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was blessed and anointed by a Kenyan NAR apostle (and friend to Peter Wagner) named Thomas Muthee, whose church planting empire in sub-Saharan Africa had been financed by the Wasilla, Alaska church where Muthee blessed Sarah.
Shortly before blessing Palin, Muthee made a short speech in which he called upon believers to "invade... infiltrate" the "Seven Mountains".
The Cruz campaign includes (on its Religious Liberty Advisory Council) at least two New Apostolic Reformation apostles (Samuel Rodriguez and Jim Garlow) and one NAR prophet (Bishop Harry Jackson). All three have either directly promoted the "Seven Mountains" dominionist idea (Jackson,Garlow) or (Rodriguez) have helped lead an organization which pursues the 7M agenda (the evangelical Benham brothers, also on Ted Cruz religious liberty council, have also promoted the 7M mandate.)
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grappling to understand the concept — leaving the average person with the opportunity to take advantage before the behemoths enter…but are we too late?
Bitcoin Forks: Taking a Look at The Details
We are not too late, but now is the time to educate yourself! Bitcoin Gold, another ‘left-behind’ Bitcoin network, forked from the Bitcoin core network on October 25th, 2017. This created another, incompatible version of the Bitcoin network, effectively splitting the blockchains — Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Gold. Another Bitcoin fork (network upgrade), Segwit2x, is scheduled to happen on November 16th, 2017. Similar to the spawn of Bitcoin Cash, the Segwit2x fork will birth another competing Bitcoin network. Read this article to understand the Segwit2x hardfork in laymen terms.
Remember, Bitcoin has died 183 times and counting…this is not something to panic about, but something to be conscious of as Bitcoin Miners choose which chain to support — Bitcoin Core (legacy Bitcoin) or Segwit2x (B2X). The chain with the most Bitcoin Miner support will result in that chain being considered THE Bitcoin chain. As far as I am concerned, all of these forks are a direct attack on the Bitcoin network as participants take away fractions of value off of Bitcoin over the long-term while those supporting the forks try to profit off of the brand — driven by greed more than anything.
The average person can still benefit from the growth of Bitcoin, but the various forks on the network make it very clear the behemoths, rich folks, recognize this as an opportunity to take advantage of. We must stay ever vigilant, open-minded, and educated in order to stay safe while operating in this space. Let’s take a look at some interesting information I found in emails while doing investigative work.
Why We Should Expect More Bitcoin Network Fork Assaults
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is essentially waking the world up, forcing world powers to face a sobering reality of just how connected the human race truly is. World powers are individuals, companies, governments — groups of people who have the power to influence large parts of the world. Examples are the Chinese and Russian governments, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Amazon, Overstock.com, and various other companies quietly operating within the field of blockchain tech. Keep in mind, blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is such a powerful tool that entire countries can use it to take wealth back from the largest economic powers. It is clear that this new, sobering reality has caused groups to start planning on how to make the most money from Bitcoin —is it possible we see a Bitcoin takeover? Maybe.
Email I Received From QoinPro on the Bitcoin Forks:
As I was looking through my emails, I noticed that QoinPro, a blockchain education platform and faucet, knew quite a bit about the upcoming forks. In fact, not many Bitcoin service providers emailed me messages this detailed — I started digging.
The images above and to the left are the October 29th email explaining the Bitcoin Gold and Segwit2x forks. Now, here’s where things start to get interesting. Notice in the image to the left at the very bottom how you can contact QoinPro leadership team for a 25% bonus in Bitcoin Segwit2x on the Bitcoin you deposit to their platform. When Bitcoin forks, it creates two different networks — how can they give a 25% bonus? Above the secret bonus portion, notice they mention ANOTHER Bitcoin fork “which is scheduled for Q1, 2018.”?
Are there even more [Bitcoin] forks coming?
The image to the left is from QoinPro’s October 31st, 2017 email on the Bitcoin fork situation. I learned that Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is expected to fork on November 13th, but is just an upgrade of the network with no expected competing chains. Looking at the darker red line at the bottom we can see that the QoinPro leadership team “are aware of several other [Bitcoin] forks in various states of planning/execution.” No way…”various”?!
This is the most exciting time for the cryptocurrency community as we continue growing to all new heights together. I truly hope this article catalyst to you gaining greater clarity on the situation affecting the entire cryptocurrency market — be conscious and stay safe! Until next time, give me a follow and take a look at the resources below if you need to refresh your cryptocurrency resources!The great thing about Netflix is there's always something to watch. Whether you want to marathon a TV show or check out a movie, you're almost guaranteed to find something that interests you. This is especially true of the streaming service's documentary selection. There are hundreds of documentaries available to stream on the platform, but probably the most popular are those that tell tales of the macabre. Which is why I've combed through all of them to uncover the most chilling documentaries on Netflix.
The documentaries listed here cover a wide range of subjects, including murder, missing persons cases, sex crimes, climate change, the food industry, politics, and animal abuse. But they all have one thing in common: Every single one of them will bother you at some level. And what's most disturbing is that these aren't just scary movies; they're documentaries. In other words, you can't just tell yourself "It's only a movie" after you watch one of them, because it's not only a movie. These are all documents of real events, which make them so much more frightening than anything even the most twisted minds in Hollywood can come up with. So if you're feeling brave, check out these 34 most chilling documentaries on Netflix.
1 'Amanda Knox' Netflix US & Canada on YouTube This tale is truly terrifying.
2 '13th' Netflix US & Canada on YouTube The criminal justice system of the United States is more messed up than you think.
3 'Crips And Bloods: Made In America' BVProds on YouTube There's a violent war going on less than 10 miles from your favorite celebrities' neighborhoods.
4 'Interview With A Serial Killer' Real Stories on YouTube A serial killer casually recalls his crimes.
5 'Hiroshima' BBCWorldwide on YouTube Witnesses who were there for the atomic bombing recount the horror they witnessed.
6 'Cartel Land' Movieclips Film Festivals & Indie Films on YouTube This documentary gives a new meaning to the term "war on drugs."
7 'Who Took Johnny' BIFFTRAILERS on YouTube Few things are more terrifying than having your child stolen from you.
8 'Holy Hell' Worldwide News on YouTube Cults are forever creepy.
9 'H.H. Holmes: America’s First Serial Killer' filmmakerjohnb on YouTube Meet the sicko who started a trend.
10 'The Jihadis Next Door' Channel 4 on YouTube ISIS has seeped into Britain, as this documentary shows.
11 'Killer Legends' Movieclips Film Festivals & Indie Films on YouTube Ever wonder if there's some truth to urban legends?
12 'Audrie & Daisy' Netflix US & Canada on YouTube A horrifying story of rape and online bullying.
13 'Team Foxcatcher' Netflix US & Canada on YouTube The disturbing true inspiration behind the film Foxcatcher.
14 'The Fear Of 13' Dogwoof on YouTube A man spends 21 years on death row... and he's innocent.
15 'Food, Inc.' eattolive22 on YouTube FYI, everything you're eating is killing you, the environment, and the economy. Enjoy your burger.
16 'Narco Cultura' Movieclips Trailers on YouTube It's tough to fight crime in an area where the criminals are worshipped as rock stars.
17 'The Imposter' Movieclips Trailers on YouTube What's worse than having your son go missing? Having an imposter show up years later pretending to be him.
18 'The Ivory Game' Fresh Movie Trailers on YouTube Learning what's happening to the world's elephants should fill you with worry.
19 'Welcome To Leith' moviemaniacsDE on YouTube A small town in North Dakota becomes a haven for white supremacists.
20 'Cropsey' SnagFilms on YouTube Serial killers, abandoned mental institutions... who knew Staten Island was so scary?
21 'The Alps Murders' DCDRights on YouTube An old-fashioned murder mystery that will chill you to the bone.
22 'GasLand' Cinema Management Group on YouTube You'll be surprised at how much harm is inflicted on communities by the natural gas industry.
23 'Blackfish' Dogwoof on YouTube You'll never go to SeaWorld again after viewing this horror show.
24 'Shadow Trade' Soi Dog Foundation on YouTube The illegal dog meat trade is exposed. This may be the most difficult film to watch on this list.
25 'Aileen Wuornos: The Selling Of A Serial Killer' Sundance Now on YouTube Female serial killers are a rarity, but that doesn't make them any less disturbing than their male counterparts.
26 'The Hunting Ground' RADiUS on YouTube This doc explores just how rampant sexual abuse is on college campuses.
27 'Whores’ Glory' LorberFilms on YouTube This doc explores the world of sex workers.
28 'An Inconvenient Truth' Movieclips Trailer Vault on YouTube Think all that other stuff on this list is scary? Well, none of it matters because the world is ending.
29 'Behind Closed Doors' Nicolas Sicurella on YouTube Domestic violence victims open up about their lives.
30 'Josef Fritzl: Story Of A Monster' back2backtv on YouTube One of the most notorious criminals of this decade is profiled.
31 'Pervert Park' De Andra on YouTube Meet a trailer park where every inhabitant is a sex offender.
32 'Tricked' 3GenerationsOrg on YouTube Human trafficking is a much bigger problem than you think.
33 'The Thin Blue Line' Sundance Now on YouTube This 1988 film is considered a classic, and is one of the earliest and best looks at corruption in the criminal justice system.One of the most interesting developments in the transportation industry right now is the initial work being done on Elon Musk’s Hyperloop concept. The concept is starting to take shape in the form of a couple of independent efforts to develop prototype test tracks for a Hyperloop. It is unclear when these test tracks will finally become operational or what they will reveal about the technical feasibility of the Hyperloop (though the caliber of work done on the concept thus far suggests the idea has promise, as evidenced by the extensive study originally put out by Musk’s team).
Setting aside the technical issues involved in actually building the Hyperloop, one critical factor in whether the system will ever be constructed is its cost. Because the system is theoretical right now, cost estimates are going to vary widely, but it is possible to come up with a reasonable ballpark estimate.
To look at the cost of the Hyperloop, it’s important to distinguish exactly where the two end points of the system would be. Musk has talked about using the Hyperloop to connect LA and San Francisco. That distance spans about 382 miles.
So how much would a Hyperloop from LA to San Francisco cost?
Assuming a circular pylon diameter of around 10 feet, and a height of forty feet, that implies roughly 46 cubic yards of concrete per pylon. Concrete prices per yard vary, of course, but are often around $100 per cubic yard for the material itself. Adding an additional $900 per yard for labor, grading work, structural reinforcement, regulatory paperwork, etc. and a further $20,000 for steel brackets to hold the tube implies a cost per pylon of $64,000 each. This suggests the pylons for 1 mile would cost about $3.46 million or a total of $1.3 billion for the entire LA to San Francisco route.
Assessing the cost of the tube is harder since it would likely be manufactured in a factory and then assembled on site via cranes, but railroad track which is somewhat similar, in concept at least, costs about $1.5 million per mile. Tripling that figure, to be conservative, gives a cost per mile for the Hyperloop tube of about $5 million per mile, and then multiplying by two (for two, one way tubes) gives a total cost of $10 million per mile or $3.8 billion for the entire 382 mile distance.
Finally, the pods for the Hyperloop would also likely be built in a factory, with price heavily dependent on volume, given the traditional cost curve in transportation economics. A reasonable comparison here though might be passenger cars used on trains in the northeast or estimates given for California’s bullet train cars which are larger than most Hyperloop pod designs and thus might be a conservative comparison to use in this situation. Those cars often cost around $3 million each versus NYC subway cars at $1.3 million each. Assuming an average between the two gives a number of around $2 million per car. Assuming each pod holds 25 passengers and the ride takes 1 hour each way, then each pod could run perhaps 2 trips each way during the peak daily travel period for a total of 200 daily passengers per pod (i.e. two trips from LA to SF and back in the morning and then a second pair in the afternoon/evening). To accommodate 10 million passengers annually (27,000 passengers daily) then would require about 150 pods (given downtime/maintenance needs).
Adding these figures up, $1.3 billion for pylons, $3.8 billion for tube, and $300 million for pods gives a total cost of about $5.4 billion or about $14 million per mile. This compares to a cost per mile for interstate highway of $10 million or more in urban areas and nearly $20 million per mile for highway in California. The cost for the Hyperloop’s real competition, California’s bullet train? Nearly $100 billion. Clearly the Hyperloop looks like a relative bargain here, though not an unrealistic one.
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Source: http://oilprice.com
Original article: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Elon-Musks-Hyperloop-Expensive-But-Doable.htmlThe Dutch prodigy, who made his debut last year at the record-breaking age of 17, is believed to be on the radar of a number of teams for 2017.
Asked whether spending a third season with Toro Rosso in 2017 was a possibility, Verstappen told Motorsport.com: "[It] can be. [But] it's not my aim.
"I want to go forward. I mean, it's a great thing [being at Toro Rosso] - I have a lot of fun and it's a great family.
"But at one point you want to win races and you want to go forward and you want to go to the top of the top."
Verstappen also insisted that he is feeling no pressure from being a young driver in Red Bull's famously tough programme.
"The future looks very positive, for next year as well," he said. "I'm just enjoying this season, trying to gain a lot of experience and we'll see where we end up next year."
"Nothing is happening" regarding Ferrari links
Ferrari is rumoured to be among the teams that have taken an interest in Verstappen for 2017 and onwards - and the Dutchman is not displeased by such links.
Asked whether he was happy with his debut season and whether the Ferrari rumours are a reflection of his on-track successes, he said: "Yeah, and it's good that other people see it that way.
"It's always nice to see that your name is up there, even though, I mean, nothing is happening. I am happy where I am at the moment."
Interview by Roberto Chinchero16
2777 Ventura Ave
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
(707) 565-1400
I'm giving 3 stars because eventually I did get the help I needed. The first night my friend was incarcerated he only had 2 dollars in his pocket. He was able to make initial phone calls before they booked him but he quickly kept getting called back, so the calls soon racked up and he was out of money. I was freaking out because I wanted to help him situate things with his job and his lawyer but now he was calling collect and the calls were dropping. So here is what I have learned if you really want to help someone that has been taken in. 1. They can only call you, so be by your phone, preferably cell phone. 2. Call PCS, which they (as of this week) can be reached at 888.288.9879 and set up a prepaid account linked to your phone number. Now when your friend or loved one calls that phone number, they are linked to your phone number. Minimum 25 dollar deposit, with an 8 dollar fee. There is a 4 dollar refund fee, so yeah, if the balance drops below 4 bucks consider it gone unless you add more to the balance. A one hour phone call costs approximately 8 or 9 dollars. Shoot, a ten minute phone call cost 4 dollars (the difference is the initial connection fee). Our 25 dollar deposit lasted through one 10 minute call, and 2 just over one hour phone calls. 3. Immediately put money on the books for your friend or loved one. You must call the MADF and get the inmate number (so yeah this may not be able to be done the same night until they are actually booked). Then go to www.touchpaydirect.com. It will take 24 hours for this money to hit their "books". They can then use this money to buy extra food, needed items, and calling cards. And also what is left over they get to take with them in cash when they post bail. There is a variable fee for this service too. Oh and the MADF number is 295403. My worst frustration about all this was that the first lady I spoke with the night he was booked was totally b*!@#$ and didn't give me any help. Listened to me on the edge of tears and hung up on me. The next morning, after my friend was booked, I got a very helpful person who gave me the above information and sounded genuinely empathetic. You can also get a phone number for depositing money to someone's books, she mentioned. Talk about a difference in service. I guess the woman the night before was starting her graveyard shift or something. My friend did tell me he thought they were way understaffed. A government agency? Go Figure?! Another thing to note, when you get the inmate number, get the visiting hours. Everyone has different ones, and there is NO VISITING on Tuesday or Wednesday. Unless you are the person's lawyer of course. The other crappy thing? My friend went in on Monday and his court date set on Wednesday so I couldn't go see him. I was tearing my hair out, and if he'd been there any longer I vowed to figure out how to get mail to him. I'm sure that would take 24 hours too.
You guys might like to hear about this. A sudden death just came out of NCDF, where an inmate who was working in the laundry for the past two months, he was 24 years of age, working 14 hour days. This was done on a starvation diet which others have clearly reported to you how poor and meager the food rations are. The illegal messicans and commie chinese there (about 40% of the population are illegal and not suppose to be there) they have no money.. so they steal food from other inmates. This results in a smack down and an ambulance ride to the ER on your dime. What is worse, is that the corpulently obese food addict Correctional Officers there are sadists. They go out of their way to search for illegal food taken from the chow hall like two pieces of bread to take back to the dorms and make a PBJ, as peanut butter and jelly is sold out of the commissary for people to up their caloric intake from the starvation diet they put out. Well back to the NCDF deaths. Do not know how many their are, and when someone dies there is no investigation, no autopsy out of the sheriff/coroner who investigates his own wrongful death under his own care. This is by County regulation by the Board of Supervisors I understand. The same ones who make it illegal to fire any ADA who is working in the DA's office, and no newly elected DA can fire any of them when he or she takes the new job. So that is why you get the same crap on a different day out of them. The Correctional Officers up there with long term duty get very rare cancers they suffer with unto death them selves. The inmates who work in the laundry die from time to time in their confluence of events and they also get violent so they end up in solitary confinement. Their Defense Structure is working to get out of a toxic place. It seems the NCDF IS ON TOP OF A TOXIC WASTE SITE. They just piled dirt on top of what the Airport was dumping down there and built the County buildings on the so called Honor Farm. They did this as putting private buildings to the public would never pass the permit process as the toxic waste laws require reporting it and also the clean up costs when it is sold. Deal with it you Libtards.. this is your government. You don't elect a Sheriff for the past 16 years. Why start now and have a better life for your children. In Lake County it is served 3 to 1 on the sentence... and in Los Angeles County it is served 10 to 1 on the sentence it is so bad there. For example in LA, a 180 day crime is served in 18 days. Mostly cause you are likely to get Woman Raped down there or Man Raped. Keep your mouth shut and your butt to the wall is the advice given for that County jail. You go to this jail there is a good chance you gonna end up dead or with a worse case of cancer depending on how long you stay. Work there, you gonna get cancer for sure. Not to worry, the tax payers pay for it all, including the medical, Shorter retirement is the only down side. Anonymous wrote this for his own protection.
I stay out of trouble with the law. I don't get arrested. I don't get pulled over. I'm polite. Etc. etc. So let me tell you - as a visitor dealing with a problematic immediate family member who got arrested.. This place treats visitors like crap and is incredibly unhelpful. I got lost inside the jail because I wasn't told where to go - during a very traumatic, distressing time. I lost 10 minutes of my visit time and had a severe anxiety attack in the process. Thanks. And when I was called to pick that family member up - I waited outside for well over an hour. When I went to the front desk to inquire, I told them a staff member had called me to be there at a specific time. Imagine my irritation when his response was "nuh-uh." Oh I'm sorry, did you call me? No? Then yes-uh. I get it - you deal with some crummy people here. But the people who come through your doors aren't inmates. And a lot of us, myself included, are not visiting because we support what the inmate we're visiting did - for some, we don't have a choice. We get called and have to deal with this shitty situation to the best of our abilities. Maybe you should hire someone to train your staff in the art of sensitivity and tact.
Just got out of this filthy insane asylum. I picked up a ridiculous case for an angry voicemail message I allegedly left with an old friend that ripped me off for $1000's. 653(m) "making annoying phone calls". In a plea bargain I had a choice of 1 year anger management classes + probation or 45 days (which is actually 22) in the 'Farm' & no probation. I just wanted to get it over with & move on. Plus, since I've been to Co jail a couple of times over a decade ago I thought 22 days would be nothing, esp in the farm. I was wrong. Different Counties, different jails. I turned myself in to the 'farm' but for whatever reason they moved me to the main. It was the longest 3 weeks of my life. SoCo MADF is an animal factory. Inhumane in every way. Each day felt like a week. 23 1/4 hours a day in a cell alone at 65f. There were plenty of books to read but since my reading glasses weren't prescription I couldn't take them in with me & couldn't read shit. There were TV's but you had to have a cell with the right view angle. No sound, no closed captioning. So I missed a lot of Judge Judy & Dr Phil, no big deal. The 'food': Every goddam day; B'fast; cornflakes, milk, bread, hard boiled egg. Lunch; baloney sandwich, soggy cookies, milk, rotten orange. Dinner; mystery meat, over boiled veg, bread, poisonous lemon aid mix. You can buy extra junk food twice a week through the commissary racket at a ridiculous mark up. I came out sick af. I think it was from not seeing the sun even once and the crap food. The staff: I know their jobs must suck in that environment but the co's don't have to unconditionally treat everyone like dirt. Going to jail everyday for work can't help. No thanks. I guess the world needs co's. County jail tour review 99-01, the Blunder Years: Contra Costa 4 stars CoCo (decent food, out of your cell most of the day, classes, sunshine, pruno, work outside.) SF county 2 stars for 850 Bryant (the food was barely edible so them you are Kosher ;) Also, something exciting happened almost everyday (I saw some co's beat up an alleged child molester once). 3 stars for San Bruno because no recycled air & they let you out in the sun everyday.
The difficulty of figuring out how and when to communicate with a family member (in this case a senior citizen) in this place left me feeling like I was in a comedy about dealing with a jail. When I asked to speak (by phone) with said family member I was informed I had to put money into an account for them which they can use to call out, which sounded easy enough. I asked if once I added money to the account I would be able to speak with them and they told me as long as it was within certain hours that a phone call was permitted. I was satisfied and did as instructed. I was able to successfully add money to the account and sent word for her to call me. I never heard anything. The next day still nothing, so we bailed said relative out and then found out that she had tried to contact us but was informed that she first needed to pick up a card from somewhere to access the money and that she could do that on Tuesday (this was Friday) so she would've had to wait DAYS just to get the card that allowed her to use the funds we gave her. Really ridiculous, especially since the money is of course non-refundable. That may have been useful information to provide especially since I specifically asked. But hey, it's jail, what do you expect? Way to be a sinkhole of Bureaucracy and maintain the stereotype. I guess I should send a cake with a file in it next time.
Of the five county jails and five state prisons I've been to, I have to say that Sonoma County Jail had ALMOST the WORST food of any of them. (Sac County was the worst). By the time it got to me (after 5:30pm) it was cold and hard - completely inedible, especially unappealing after a couple-day bender. The COs were mean, rude and not helpful in the slightest. They wouldn't give me a pillow, a stamp or a pencil. I had a hell of a time finding a bible to read even. The cell was cold & dirty with boogers & graffiti all over the walls and some screaming maniac in the vents all night long. No respect. The visiting situation sucked too. Very limited available visiting time every week makes it hard to coordinate and only 35 minutes per visit makes it more of a tease. The only positive review I have for Sonoma County Jail is that they run commissary two times a week. Prisons only run it once a MONTH and most counties only run store once a week or sometimes even bi-weekly. Their programs are decent too, depending on your housing level. Overall, I would avoid visiting this jail if at all possible. Try Marin County Jail - much more comfort & respect for the incarcerated.
First of all for this to be on Yelp is useless. But as outsider, and not an Inmate (there's no such thing as "Former" inmate okay for 99% of the population) this place is top notch for a Detention Facility and is comparable to a hospital. Many DB's say so them selves. And just since I foung some of you are curious. I am educated, I have never been arrested, and I am in this field. And btw you are gettting arrest not booking a freaking hotel, get over yourself and your expectations, its not a service, you are not a customer.
Worst customer service experience ever!!! I understand that jails aren't going to have much sympathy for the inmates but that doesn't mean they have to be rude to the concerned family members trying to visit. I wanted to put money on my sister's books so she could call and let us know how she's doing. Well the lady was ridiculously rude and wouldn't give any info on how the calling card works. If they can't give any info that's fine, but they could at least let ppl know that instead of being rude. Another visitor had to give me the info and thank god she did because I wasn't sure how much money I needed to put to last her the week she was staying. Being rude is just soo unnecessary! It would be nice if they could at least place themselves in the visitor's shoes for a second. Geez!!
Food was sub-par. The toilet paper is very poor. They keep the TV on food network to torture the patrons of this poor establishment. The only plus is unlimited phone calls.
Had a family member booked here due to misinformation and a cop with an EGO. The charges were dropped which they shouldn't have charged my family member with in the first place! I was told the food was horrible, same thing everyday. Calling to see when the intake happened was like pulling hens teeth! The person on the phone was a BITCH! Sorry to say it but completely unprofessional, not everyone who calls or walks through your doors is a criminal. You basically get treated like an animal, no chance of seeing sunlight. The guards are obnoxiously rude and adding money to someone's account was like pulling hens teeth again! Prisoners in prison are treated with more dignity and respect. My family member plans to counter sue for damages and false charges pressed. You get arrested for telling a PUBLIC SERVANT aka a Police Officer to not condescend you these days?! Wow! Then again the case won't win because the court system here is well known for corruption and letting officers off with a slap on the wrist!
I took a tour of MADF. And I have to say there were a number of interesting things that stood out to me. First, it was clean. I was very impressed w/ how clean it was. It was quite shocking. I rested my foot on the wall during one section of the tour and thought, "gee I hope it doesn't leave a mark". Second, It smelled nice (granted we didn't go into the main detention rooms where the inmates actually live). Third, it seemed like a well organized detention unit. The staff was quite polite. The inmates waved and stared at us from their cells. Fourth, the food was not that great (or so we were told). We were also told that Marin's jail has better food! I only give it 4 starts because... well... it is a jail. Check it out in your free time... or drive drunk... or commit a crime... or don't pay your dog license... or what ever else you can think of to get you in! They take pretty much anyone. They're not picky.
The mural in the booking area is a nice touch. Its so nice to know that while the Deputy Sheriffs are working hard running this jail and patroling the streets, the management of this agency is debating whether they should be the "Sheriffs Department" or "Sheriffs Office"
Obviously most of you have never been there. Clean as a hospital? PLEASE. I got three skin infections during the few months i was in custody. OH... and only ''bad people'' who ''break laws'' go to jail?? FUNNY. I am far from a bad person. I come from a law enforcement family, and unfortunately i was hanging out with the wrong people, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. I was later acquitted of all charges. Let me give you a real description of the Sonoma county jail. It is disgusting. The clothes always smell terrible, and not to mention have a million different colors of hair on them. The underwear has stains on them. The shoes are falling apart. I was able to get decent clothes because i was friends with the women who worked in laundry. MOST of the cells are freezing, and dirty. The Co's dint give two shits about anyone. There is only 3 Co's that actually treated me like a human being. Shout out to Hubert, Pappola, and Campbell. So when i was there i had MANY MANY medical issues. I slipped and fell on my head, and passed out. I was told to fill out a ''sick slip''. I later had a seizure. It took the medical staff a week and half to evaluate me. I could go on and on about how terrible this jail is. I cant forget the food. It is not only repulsive, it is so bad for you. I gained 20 pounds in jail. The food is full of sodium, and god knows what else. These women go there skinny, and end up being rolled out. Its sad. You know, people end up in jail for various reasons. I met some of the most wonderful people Ive ever known in jail. Don't judge people on the mistakes they've made, and don't comment on the jail if you've never actually been in custody. You can go on a million tours of that place, and you'll never actually know what its really like. Spend a few nights in jail, and then tell me what you think.
not a good place. I new someone who was staying here and he said the food was was non edible. Also in the past you didn't have to pay a fee to put money on inmates "books" now you use an automated machine and it costs 5 bucks to put money on the books. why Does the US have more people in Jail and prison than china a Country of 1 billion people? The system is broke
This place has WONDERFUL accomodations, an All Inclusive resort! Beautiful stucco building with views of the Santa Rosa foothills in the distance. Extremely CLEAN place with minimal intrusions. This place allows you to become one with yourself and reflect on your life, it doesn't get more relaxing than this! Minimal privacy allows you to interact with other members of the community. You will most likely share a room with another person of your same caliber and stature. Food and clothing are provided when you stay at this wonderful facility. The clothing is made from 100% egyption cotton, the one piece suit is comfortable and exquisite. I wish they sold them in the gift shop! The staff at this place are friendly and are mainly concerned that you have a wonderful, safe, and peaceful stay. Room service is provided 24/7 and showers occur at the same time each day. Regular meals provides structure and comfort to an otherwise chaotic life. Relax, and enjoy your stay at the Sonoma County Jail. Come to Sonoma County on VACATION, leave on PROBATION.This page describes significant revisions to source.android.com. For a complete list of changes to this site refer to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) docs/source.android.com log.
August 2018
Hello and welcome to the revised Android Open Source Project (AOSP) website. As our site has grown, we’ve reorganized the platform documentation navigation to better accommodate new and updated information.
Please see the subsections below for a guide to major changes. See the Release Notes for feature summaries, updates, and additions. Send us your feedback via bugs filed at g.co/androidsourceissue or by clicking the Site Feedback link in the footer of every page on the site.
Second horizontal menu
The most sweeping change is the introduction of a second horizontal menu of tabs within the site’s navigation to better expose deeper pages. Now, instead of left navigation menus containing dozens of entries, each subtab contains a small list of sections and pages directly relevant to the associated topic identified in the subtab.
Note we have not yet updated directory paths and URLs for existing documentation to avoid breaking bookmarks and external links… yet. In time, we will make these changes and institute redirects accordingly. So revisit the site for new locations and update bookmarks as you find changes.
Setup to Set up
The main Set up tab has been renamed slightly from Setup to match the verbs used for subsequent primary tabs. Download and Build contents have been split into distinct subtabs to ease access to the pages they contain. The Develop subsection has been renamed as a Create subtab to avoid confusion with the new top-level Develop tab of the same name.
The information previously found on the Compatibility > Contact Us page has been merged into the main Set up > Contact (Community) list.
Compatibility to Design
The information formerly found on the Compatibility top-level tab can now be found under Design. See the Compatibility subtab for an overview of that program and links to the new Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD).
In a related change, instructions for the Android Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) and general debugging information have been moved to a new Tests subtab. Display and Settings menu guidelines have been shifted to dedicated subtabs.
Porting to Develop
The Porting tab has been renamed Develop to better convey the instructions this tab contains. Largely focused upon implementing individual interfaces, this documentation helps you write the drivers necessary to connect your device to the Android operating system.
As a result, the Architecture section describing the overarching HIDL format has been moved to the Design tab for consideration during the planning phase, earlier in the development cycle. The Bootloader contents now live under Design > Architecture, while an Interaction subtab has been introduced to contain Input, Sensors, and related information.
The Connectivity section has been reorganized to include Bluetooth and NFC, Calling and Messaging, Carrier, and Wi-Fi subsections. In addition, the Wi-Fi section includes the following new articles:
Tuning to Configure
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end of the fight.
After spending the vast majority of the first round on her back Joanna was looking to get any type of rhythm going. Below see that the two are keeping a fair amount of distance between each other. Joanna doesn’t want to get taken down again, and Gadelha doesn’t want to run into any counter strikes. Joanna then resorts to using her longest weapon her front kick.
Notice how Joanna sets this up. The champion walks her rear foot forward shifting into a southpaw stance. When Joanna lifts her left leg, it looks as if she is going to simply take another step and shift into an orthodox stance. Instead Joanna lifts her left leg higher, snaps at the knee and pushes her leg forward through the hip. Joanna sticks a left hand out for good measure, but Claudia easily parrys the halfhearted jab.
Damage done, damage avoided, distance maintained and money in the bank. Any strike to the body will reveal its true damage later as the strikes accumulate. Knowing this Joanna rinsed and repeated her front kick at all possible opportunities.
Here we see Joanna walking Gadelha down at the end of round two. Gadelha is again maintaining a large amount of distance, but the champion is desperate to score after being controlled for a fair amount of the round. As Joanna plants her left leg mid-walk she uses her forward momentum to lift and extend her right leg to throw it as a front kick. After the right leg touches the floor Joanna looks to check Gadelha’s left hand to avoid a counter. Now in a switched stance Joanna throws a front kick off of the left leg and pushes away Gadelha’s face to avoid being dominated in the oncoming clinch. Joanna then uses a strong left underhook to push Gadelha to the fence just as referee John McCarthy calls the end of the round.
By the middle of the third round Gadelha was a shell of her first round self. She barely completed her takedowns, and Joanna immediately popped to her feet when they were on the ground. When Joanna was on top of the challenger with less than a minute and thirty seconds left in the round, Joanna walked away from Gadelha prompting a stand-up and a roar from the crowd. Instead of coming to fight her foe, Gadelha crawled to her feet but couldn’t walk away from the fence in time to avoid Joanna getting back in her grill.
The fourth round was essentially a striking seminar from the champion. Below Joanna paws with a jab out of a southpaw stance, and feints a kick with a twist of her hips. Joanna opts to kick the challenger’s leg due to her lack of response to the feint. Back to the hands now as the champion plays pat-a-cake by pawing with a few rights and a lazy left straight before slapping with the hook. The hook pushes Gadelha’s head toward Joanna’s left side, and the champion throws a sharp left straight to meet her head. Gadelha responds with a counter left hook so the champion backs out. With more distance between the two Joanna goes back to the front kick to freeze her opponent before throwing a hard inside low kick. Gadelha tries advancing after the kicks but Joanna extends her arms to push the Brazilian off of her.
With all of this being said the leg kicks were almost equally responsible for Gadelha’s fading.
In the lead-up to this fight we discussed the problems with Gadelha’s stance. The stocky Brazilian stands heavy on her front leg, making it harder to lift her leg to check kicks. Each kick absorbed makes it that much harder to push-off the ground to shoot and throw punches. After eating too many leg kicks fighters are essentially sitting ducks. In the case of Gadelha vs. Joanna, Gadelha was left absorbing strikes while unable to shoot for takedowns.
With this series we generally only focus on one maneuver and how it was set-up over the course of the fight, but there were so many beautiful techniques to take away from the event. In the clinch Joanna gave a masterclass on mitigating an opponent’s head pressure with pushing off and elbows.
To ignore what the challenger did in this fight would be disrespectful in its own right. Gadelha’s counter punches were coming hard and fast early in the fight. Hell, the Brazilian “grappler” dropped the striking master Joanna in the first 15 seconds of the fight.
What really caught my eye was Gadelha’s use of her left arm on the fence. Gadelha would hold Joanna against the wall alternating between using left underhooks and overhooks while softening Joanna up with punches from the right arm. When the opportunity struck, Gadelha would use her body control to wrench Joanna down to the ground. No one in the past has been able to do that to Joanna over and over again.
Just look at the control exhibited below. Joanna is attempting to inch her way backwards toward the cage to stand up. Gadelha is locking down Joanna’s right leg prevent her from getting her legs beneath her to stand up. With her left shoulder Gadelha is pressuring into Joanna’s face to break posture, and with her right arm she is grabbing Joanna’s left arm, preventing her from posting with it to get to her feet. As Joanna regains more rigid posture thanks to the fence, her left arm is acting more as a post beneath her now. Realizing that the arm is acting as a post, but Joanna is froze on the fence, Gadelha uses her right arm to smack Joanna in the face.
Going forward Gadelha would be wise take some time off to adapt her style to fit the limitations of her body. Loading up less on everything would do wonders for her cardio, and Gadelha already hits hard enough as it is.
Joanna has recently stated she intends on moving up to 125 as the cut to 115 is brutal for her. If the weight class becomes permanent I wouldn’t mind see Joanna take on Joanne Calderwood in the inaugural title fight at that weight class. In the meantime Joanna has a potential challenger in the making in Rose Namajunas. We’ll discuss that if Namajunas can get past Karolina Kowalkiewicz in her next fight.
TUF 23’s Finale is over and Joanna has further cemented her place in the history books. Hopefully with some time, the fire from rivalry between the two will die down. Keep your eyes around Cagepages for more fight announcements and analysis.Federal lawsuit questions Cruz's eligibility for president
The Cruz birther controversy explained It seems like only yesterday that skeptics of Barack Obama's birth in Hawaii rushed to the Supreme Court to try to block the son of an American mother and Kenyan father from taking office as president. Seven years later, Canadian-born Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is facing similar scrutiny.
Here are some answers to questions about the constitutional requirements to be president, and Cruz's situation: less The Cruz birther controversy explained It seems like only yesterday that skeptics of Barack Obama's birth in Hawaii rushed to the Supreme Court to try to block the son of an American mother and Kenyan father... more Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images Image 1 of / 37 Caption Close Federal lawsuit questions Cruz's eligibility for president 1 / 37 Back to Gallery
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's eligibility for U.S. President could be decided by a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Houston.
Veteran Houston attorney Newton Schwartz wants the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Cruz's Canadian birth to an American-born mother and a Cuban father disqualifies him from the nation's highest office. Cruz is seeking the Republican nomination for president.
The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the president must be a "natural born citizen." Now, a court may have to decide what that means.
"It's very simple, but it's amazing that no one has taken it to the Supreme Court," said Schwartz, who started his legal career as a federal prosecutor in Houston in 1955.
ZINGERS: Cruz-Trump battle spawns best one-liners of GOP debate
Issues over Cruz's birthplace and citizenship have flared up in recent weeks, especially as Republican rival Donald Trump persistently has raised the eligibility question. It could have a major impact on the Cruz campaign, which ranks second, behind Trump, in most major polls.
In the Republican presidential debate Thursday night, Trump said that Cruz likely would face a lawsuit over his eligibility if he did not settle the issue himself.
A Reuters poll, reported Friday, found that a quarter of Republicans think Cruz's birthplace disqualifies him from the presidency. Cruz has said that his mother's U.S. citizenship makes him a natural born citizen, comparing himself to children of military personnel deployed overseas. A Cruz campaign spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday.
BACKGROUND: The Ted Cruz citizenship controversy explained
Now, the question will go before a judge. Schwartz said he expects the case to go to the Supreme Court, given the deeply constitutional nature of the question.
Peter Linzer, professor of constitutional law at the University of Houston, predicted the case would be dismissed quickly because "no judge really wants to have to decide this case."
Various legal scholars have weighed in on the public debate, arguing for both sides in recent weeks.
THE SPARK: Trump says Cruz's Canadian birth could be'very precarious' for GOP
Schwartz's 28-page lawsuit said, "It is undisputed, by all legal scholars, there is no U.S. Supreme Court decision or precedent: determinative of the following agreed facts of this case and controversy. 'Natural born citizen' has never been defined."
Registered to vote since 1948, Schwartz said he has voted Democratic in presidential elections since he cast a ballot for Richard Nixon in 1968.
"No one put me up to this," he said.
He said he filed the case on behalf of the American people to avoid a messy situation in which Cruz is deemed ineligible only after winning the Republican nomination or the presidency.
Other experts dismissed the merit of the case.
"I'm no fan of Ted Cruz, but my view is that he's a natural born citizen," Linzer said. "If you're born to a U.S. citizen abroad, there seems to be a clear view that that is good enough."
He noted that the birthplace issue has been repeatedly raised in presidential races, always with the conclusion that children of American-born U.S. citizens are eligible for the Oval Office.
For example, Arizona senator Barry Goldwater was allowed to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 1964, even though he was born in Arizona in 1909, three years before the territory became a U.S. state.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., son of the American president, was also considered a serious presidential contender, though he never sought the nomination. He was born during a family vacation in Canada.
George Romney, father of Mitt Romney, sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 despite his birth to American parents at a Mormon community in Mexico.
Sen. John McCain also faced questions during his 2008 presidential bid over his birth at the U.S.-controlled territory of the Panama Canal.
Mark Jones, a fellow in political science at Rice University's Baker Institute of Public Policy, who also thought Cruz was a natural born citizen, said the question likely would continue to dog the Cruz campaign like it did for President Barack Obama throughout his two campaigns and his entire presidency.
Obama was born in Hawaii, but some opponents have claimed he was born in Kenya to an American-born mother.Walgreens Boots Alliance will expand mental health services, including access to behavioral health treatment via telemedicine, to expand customer options for treatment, screenings and awareness, the company announced today.
About one in five Americans suffer mental health conditions, which is greater than medical conditions like diabetes and heart disease. But patient adherence to prescriptions is worse for mental health conditions than physical illnesses, so Walgreens sees its army of pharmacists and nurse practitioners having an impact.
“In mental health, in particular, adherence (to prescriptions) is a major, major challenge,” Walgreens chief medical officer Dr. Harry Leider said in an interview.
Less than 50% of Americans who are prescribed medications to treat mental health conditions take them as directed, if at all, Walgreens said. “Pharmacies have always been oriented around supporting patients who are on medications for mental health conditions, but we are providing even more training around medication issues,” Leider said.
The expansion of mental health services is the latest push by drugstore giants like Walgreens, CVS Health and Walmart to push further beyond a pharmacy chain’s traditional role of dispensing and managing customer prescription needs.
To improve mental health treatment, Walgreens will offer access to 1,000 therapists and psychiatrists via Breakthrough, an MDLive telemedicine company. Walgreens 18 months ago began a relationship with MDLive, a telemedicine company, to provide customers with around-the-clock access to physicians.
Walgreens thinks it can make a difference given six million Americans shop at the drugstore chain’s stores each day and some two million people come to “our digital properties” like the company’s web site and mobile app, Leider said.
In addition, Walgreens is working with Mental Health America, a nonprofit that will help the drugstore giant connect its customers to free community-based screenings for mental health conditions that include depression, anxiety and bipolar disorders.
Walgreens also said it will work with Mental Health America and other experts in the field to improve training and education of its more than 27,000 pharmacists and more than 1,100 nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Mental Health America and Walgreens set a goal to screen three million people by the end of 2017 to improve care and patient awareness through a multi-faceted campaign.
“Mental Health Month has been MHA's signature wellness event since 1949, and our online mental health screening program has rapidly become an amazing year-round way to reach people who have mental health concerns with helpful information and supports,” Paul Gionfriddo, president and CEO of Mental Health America, said in a statement accompanying the Walgreens announcement. “Adding the Walgreens suite of supports and services to our program will strengthen our offerings, and help many more people recover from serious mental health conditions.”Chapter 1
AN hey guys this is the new improved verson of my story, hope its better this time! btw i am young and have dyslexia i find spellin hard but its meant2 be unformal ok! no critisism pls! tis story goes out 2 my bf zac(kisses!) amd my besfreind Tiffi LOVE YA GRRRL! EDWARD IS OUR GODD!(we wanna SEX him gud!) love &blood becky mac! xxx x x xx
UPDATE: I have a proofreader and I have cleaned up the spelling and grammer on this chaptor a hell of a lot as you will see (thank u vickie!) i will be imrpoving the next chaptors soon.
Altantiana
Hey, my names Atlantiana Rebekah Loren (but everyone calls me Tiana or just plain Tiaa). I am a 16 year old girl and I live in Forks, Washington! My hair is long and pale like spun gold and skims to my waist like a pale shimmering amber mist. My eyes are deep forgetminot blue and my delicate fentures are lilly white and pure as the winter snow in moonlight. I've been told by loads of sleazy, ugly, guys that I'm real pretty and look like a model or a bunny girl (some of the guys who like me are really old and try to make opt with me its disgusting and weird!) but basically a lot of the girls I meet tell a different story. They say I'm too ivory white and ethereal and too skinny and that I look anorexic which i don't care about, but I think its seriously disrespectful to people with REAL eating disorders (btw i'm so totally not anorexic! I eat loads I just never gain weight and I'm not thin enough to be anorexic anyways, I think they were just being BIATCHES especially this one ratty brain called Ellie Mayfair who I hope freaking DIES in PAIN with SHIT ON HER FACE! Sorry, I'm not really such a batch but she is SO horrible if you met her you'd think the same!)
Anyways I am quite tall and slim and but with really big boobs that I used to HATE because they look noticeable on my slender body and draw to much attention but now i like them and don't care who stares at me! I have a lip ring and recently put black and indigo and magenta streaks in my long pale blond hair. I smell like mint and cinnamon. I wear mostly black and hot pink, deep purple and neon blue and listen to COOL music!
It is my first day at school in forks as I just moved here to live with new foster parents Dave and Marie. They are nice and all very hole some sweet people but it is not like having a real family. I've been hurt to many times to let people close to me and I don't talk to them very much. My real mom died when I was born and I never knew my real dad. I sometimes wonder what he is like and if I will ever get to met him. Dave gave me a ride to school and I smiled faintly as he wished me good luck and I got out of the car and went into the school. Loads of people freaking stared at me as I walked down the hall. I was wearing tight black leather pants with silver chains at the waste and a red fishnet-like top and you could see my black lacy bra through it. I ignored whispers and the big pink cheerleader imbosils pointing at me. I was used to it and I paid no at-tension to the guys asking desperately for my number(like hell I'd even LOOK at the horny little donkeys!) and told a ditsy blond cheerleader called Jessica to STFU(!) when she called me a freak! Next time she tries anything I'll hit her in the eye cause NO ONE messes with me nemore! My first day I was relay board, I sat gazing out of the window into the gray cloud-embittered sky for most of the morning, My teachers all looked at me disprovable but said nothing cause they probably new I was a foster kid and a Gothic and didn't want to upset me in case I cut them up as they slept,.
My ears are pierced four times, I have a tattoo of a scorpion(like S my birth-sign!) on my ankle and a Gothic cross on my shoulder, and on my hand i have a weird birthmark in the shape of a seven-pointed star that I've had all my life. Your probably wandering why I'm bothering to tell you this, well I tell you now I am no ordinary sixteen year old girl. I have a secret, a dark and forbidden secret witch I am only just beginning to understand. When I sleep I hear whispers in another language and even though I understand them at the time, when I wake up i can't remember it! I also see weird faces in my dreams that fade to nothingness when I open my eyes and I swear out the corner of my eye my birthmark glows shocking bright gold and gets relay hot sometimes but when I look properly it is back to normal boarding scar-color! I am really gracefull like the running anti-lopes when I run very fast and am stronger and faster than most people. I used to just think i was relay athletic but now I'm not so sure, I think there might be something else at work, something so much more mysterious and eeire. The truth hovers so softly on the brink of my memory sometimes but if only i could remember the weird things that clung to the edge of my mind as I slept!
At lunch I sat alone in the corner and scanned the cafeteria quietly with my eyes smoldering dark blue beheath my long black lashes and my slim thighs curled under me. It was the n I noticed an unbelievably jaw-droopingly hawt HAWT HAAAAAAAAWT dude with tusseted blondey-brown hair, golden yellow eyes like wells of hot caramel and pale sexy features. He was tall and mussel and looked like he was wearing eyeliner and my body got hot and cold all at once as I looked at him. I'd never felt this way about anyone before and I'd totally never felt this weird feeling that I'd met someone before but I had no idea where and i knew it was impassible because I'd freaking remember someone THAT hawt! A girl sat next to him with long brown hair with her arms dripped over him like a freaking flesh-eating plant so i thought well whatevah, hes taken. She wasn't nearly as hawt as he was, she wasn't ugly though. I figured I was maybe prettier then her. I never really saw myself as beautiful but i'd guessed from thinks others had said, plus this girl wasn't great looking but anyways I'd never try to pilch with another girls' BF cause thats just low. So I got up to leave the hall thinking I'd go and smoke some bald drugs in the locker room while no one was there. As I waked over to he exit I couldn't help but notice the hawt pale guys musky eyes as they met mine. I locked away hurriedly. I smocked dope in the locker room for a bit then I wondered to my next class. I bumped into someone in the corridor and my bocks fell everywhere! FRICK! FRICK! FRIIIICKK!
"WTF!" I screamed loudly, "watch where your FREAKING going you asshole!" (i have anger problems)
"I'm so so sorry" he said in a voice like wet heaven "please forgive me my lady"
It was the hawt pale guy!We all have come to a pretty general understanding that sports drives revenue for universities, with football bringing the most money into the university. No athletic program generates as much income as Oregon (thanks Nike!), but academic leaders in Eugene would like to see more of that money be put to academic uses.
“Our administration needs to take more responsibility to fully exploit the opportunity that our athletic department provides — on behalf of our students, our faculty and our institution,”former business school dean Dennis Howard said Friday, per The Register-Guard. He was not alone in challenging Oregon officials to think hard about how the budget will be formed.
“It would be really good if we were all in this together and the athletic department was trying to help the rest of the university,”Oregon economics professor Bill Harbaugh said.
Oregon football really cashed in this past year with an appearance in the College Football Playoff championship game, not to mention the revenue share it receives from the Pac-12 and any money funneled in through its relationship with Phil Knight of Nike. The problem some have with all of the money coming in through Oregon athletics is every dime of it is spent on athletics.
“They have $98 million in revenue and, strangely, exactly $98 million in expenses,” Howard explained. “If you look back year after year, you will find that revenue and expenses match up almost to a penny. … When they get extra TV revenue, they do what they just did in February. They go to the president and the Board of Trustees and the coaches and the athletic director get raises, so expenses go up.”
There is something to be said for a football program that is capable of being self-sufficient in its operations, and it is far better than operating in the red on an annual basis. But how much should Oregon’s athletics department be contributing to the academic side of things? There may be no perfect answer to this question.
Follow @KevinOnCFBEditors of the world rejoice!
Thanks to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry we have another useful way to refer to America’s “pivot” towards Asia. We can now thankfully “pivot” away from the idea of a “rebalance” (sorry had to get that last pivot reference in there).
Truth be told, I never cared for the “rebalance” term anyway, it seemed too politically correct when anyone who has been following events in the Asia-Pacific already knows, America’s focus on Asia is all about China.
As part of his recent trip to Asia, Kerry delivered a speech that seemed to be a play on Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream” concept that has been widely reported in the media as well as in this publication.
“Now Beijing’s new leader has introduced what he calls a ‘China Dream.’ Today I’d like to speak with you about our opportunity in this increasingly global age to design and define our dream for the Pacific region, one in which nations and people forge a partnership that shapes our shared future.”
The most important point I took away from the speech was the idea of a "Pacific Dream." Kerry laid out in the speech four principles “to ensure that Asia contributes to global peace and prosperity.” These included: “strong growth, fair growth, smart growth, and just growth.”
The focus on economics makes perfect sense. As America continues to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership, linking the economies of Asia with America is one way to create stronger ties as well as economic bonds. But China’s absence in TPP has some questioning if America is seeking to contain China economically.
There have been some interesting reactions to the speech. One particularly from the Global Times is noteworthy:
“Kerry's speech has reinforced an impression: the core issue in the Asia Pacific is what kind of bilateral ties China and the U.S. can nurture. The U.S.' confidence in policies backed up by its military strength to contain China has been declining.
The U.S. will focus on maintaining economic dominance in the region to ensure its competitive advantage over China. The Trans-Pacific Partnership led by the U.S. will be a stage on which it will compete with China's economic influence.
Kerry didn't want to provoke China the same way his predecessor Hillary Clinton did, which is worth applause. China has maintained a consistent attitude toward the U.S., while the U.S.' stance toward China has always been the changing factor in bilateral relations.
If the US had not always calculated what geopolitical challenge China's development will pose but focus on how to improve its own economic vitality, the China-US competition would be seen differently. Most Chinese would see it as much better than the US using its military strength as leverage over China.
The economic competition between the two should be fair, or it will continue to be the source of tensions between the two.”
Although not the complete focus of the piece in the Global Times, the idea that the United States is trying to contain or was trying to contain China seems quite silly. The classic idea of containment died when the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time. Using Cold War ideas to explain U.S – China competition is dated at best. In an age where the internet, social media, and global trade drive commerce around the world, how could the world’s second largest economy ever be contained? Containment as defined in the Cold War is dead.
Washington and China are certainly competing with one another for power and influence in the Pacific, and America is very clearly hedging its bets. In fact, a clear hedging strategy seems the appropriate and desired American course of action these days. Even as strategic issues grab headlines the two countries have strong reasons to cooperate, such as hundreds of billions of dollars in annual bilateral trade. Kerry's trade-centric strategy for the Asia-Pacific is a smart one. Washington gets an A in my book for its PR sense. It’s something China could certainly learn from.Use Truth Cards And AR Cards To Solve Cases 3DS Detective Conan Game
By Sato. April 4, 2013. 3:00pm
There is always only one truth. Help Conan find it using Truth Cards and AR Cards in Spike Chunsoft’s Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony.
Truth Cards are key items that will be helping you solve cases. They can be acquired by investigating and listening to others about the case.
By using the “zap” feature to switch between characters, you’ll be able to investigate from different perspectives and find more clues. It will be a vital part of your ongoing investigations of Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony.
In this particular situation, Conan has lost track of a suspect. It’s moments like these that the Truth Cards will come in handy, by leading you to the next part.
Using the AR Cards on your 3DS will show a 3D modeled Conan. He’ll show different expressions and movements if you give him coins.
In addition, there’s an AR Conan’s Hint feature, that can be used to give you hints on your current case when you’re stuck.
Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony will be released on April 25th for Nintendo 3DS.For fishermen in Malaysia, accidentally catching a seahorse is like getting a cash bonus. They can sell one of these tiny, odd-looking fish at the dock in exchange for roughly enough cash to buy a pack of cigarettes.
It’s not quite as lucrative as hauling in a prize tuna, but a seahorse is worth enough that fishermen can remember each time they caught one—which helped University of California, Santa Barbara, researcher Julia Lawson discover that millions more seahorses may be caught annually than make it into official reports.
Fishermen worldwide sold an annual average of 5.7 million seahorses from 2004 to 2011, according to the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species. Data from government agencies, surveys, and field interviews with fishermen that were conducted in 22 countries between 1989 and 2013, revealed to Lawson and her colleagues that the annual by-catch of seahorses is probably closer to 37 million—more than a six-fold increase, which accounts for seahorses that are discarded or sold in domestic trades (which CITES does not record). The demand for seahorse is tied to its popularity in traditional medicine for treating virility problems.
“What struck us is [that] people were telling us, ‘I’m catching one [seahorse] a day; what does that matter?’” Lawson says. “But when you think of the scale of the fisheries, they’re extracting a huge number.”
What this means for seahorses is grave. Restrictions on their trade are already often ignored, and anecdotal evidence suggests population numbers are dropping. Yet Lawson thinks the bigger takeaway is what the rampant seahorse by-catch probably means for other small fish.
Seahorses are a charismatic and easily identifiable species, and are more likely to stick out in fishermen’s minds. If the unintentional by-catch of seahorses can scale up to tens of millions every year, the same is probably true for other small, though less-memorable, fish species that occasionally turn up in nets.
“Most small fish just look like a grey fish, so they blend together in the minds of fishermen,” Lawson says. “Seahorses are potentially symbolic of a whole bunch of brown and silver fish nobody really pays attention to.”
Lawson will next investigate how to reduce small-fish by-catch in developing countries through community-based management. These regulation schemes often grant a group of fishermen exclusive access to an area, motivating them to take better care of it.
A researcher with the nonprofit Fish Forever, Gavin McDonald, says community-based management can help reduce small-fish by-catch, though the concept might initially be foreign to some fishermen. “In most of these countries, there’s not really a notion of by-catch—anything people fish, they’ll eat,” he says.
This means fishery laws that have effectively reduced by-catch in developed countries—such as quotas for certain species—probably wouldn’t work in places like Southeast Asia. The authors suggest that communities establish protected areas, as well as zones where non-selective gear, such as trawl nets, are banned.
Finding solutions will be a challenge, Lawson admits. “These people are often very poor, and they need to feed their kids. But we’re trying to find that balance to make the resources work for them.”
Related Stories from Hakai Magazine:Arson fires plague Novato - 25 since Saturday NOVATO
Novato police are searching for at least one suspect in a string of 25 small arson fires since Saturday night.
Police say the first fires, in a trash bin and in dry grass, were set in southern Novato late Saturday. More fires were reported nearby as firefighters were extinguishing those blazes.
In all, at least 18 arson fires were reported Saturday night and early Sunday on South Novato and Redwood boulevards, Sunnybrae Lane, Seascape Drive and Sequoia Glen Lane, said police Capt. Jim Berg.
The fires damaged a utility pole and a fence, he said.
Another seven fires were reported Sunday night and Monday morning, Berg said. Six were in the area where the arson fires were set the night before, Berg said.
It is not yet clear if the seventh fire, which burned more than a half-acre of brush, is related, he said.
"The fires are set late at night when not a lot of people are up, so we don't have any eyewitnesses," Berg said.
Police ask that anyone with information call (415) 897-1122 or (800) 848-0101.Anita Gibson has been the makeup artist behind some of our favorite movies—including Love & Basketball, Brown Sugar, Beyond The Lights, and Maid in Manhattan. With over 20 years of experience under her belt, she's managed to master the no-makeup makeup look on women of color on screen—and now she's the lead make-up artist on the Starz hit TV show Power, making La La Anthony and Naturi Naughton look glam. She says her approach to makeup on screen is: "It's a very natural, pretty, soft look… I don’t want my makeup getting in the way. I’m just there to enhance the characters."
I talked to Gibson about Power, the best makeup for women of color, and her views on the skin-darkening controversy surrounding the Nina Simone movie.
How did you get into beauty?
I stumbled in, [but] I’ve always been an artist. I came to New York to go to school for fashion marketing, and I came to discover very quickly that it wasn’t my passion. I left being a store manager at Victoria’s Secret on 57th Street to work at Estee Lauder. From there, I went to Yves Saint Laurent, and I discovered the fashion world. I started doing makeup at fashion shows, I met someone who was doing a film—Strictly Business with Halle Berry—and they asked me to work on it, and that’s how it all got started.
On Power, how do you use makeup to distinguish the female characters' personalities?
[Writer/producer] Courtney [Kemp] and I met in Los Angeles, and she gave me the backdrop of the female characters. She let me know that Tasha [Naturi Naughton] was Ghost’s wife and Ghost [played by Omari Hardwick] is the biggest drug dealer in New York City, he’s actually so big that he’s not even a dealer, he’s a distributor. When I created her [look] it became instantly trophy wife; she doesn’t have to work, so she can get to the gym, she can go shopping, she can buy makeup, she can get her hair done, she can get her nails done. Tasha’s backdrop is a woman of privilege, and what do they look like? You have the best shoes, you have the best nails, you're always beat and looking good for your man—even when she lies down in the bed, she looks good for her man.
Angela [Lela Loren] is a more [of a] practical professional… She needs to have a basic uniform of make-up. La La, her character is Keisha, the around-the-way girl and Tasha’s best friend. They have to match. She’s got the lips, she’s got the nails, but she’s not as pulled together as Tasha because she doesn’t have the same money.
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There aren't a lot of women show-runners on television—and very few black women. What’s it like working with another black woman on Power?
It is awesome. I am so privileged and honored to be working with Courtney. It is a big undertaking to be a show runner, especially to be a show runner on a premium channel full of men… full of white men. I am always amazed at her being able to stick to her principles of who these people are and what this show is and always wanting to be true and honor what it is that she’s trying to convey.
In fashion, models often call out make up artists for not having the right shades of brown—or note that there are not enough black makeup artists. What’s it like in Hollywood?
[Some] models have the ability to voice their opinions—in Hollywood you have to be careful. If you are in a show or a movie, the makeup artist is the make-up artist [the whole time]. So, if they don’t have [the makeup you need], you’re going to [have to] bring it yourself, or you’re just going to be stuck. It’s sad to say in 2016, you still have to do that.
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What are your favorite brands for women of color?
When you’re broke and a woman of color, L’Oreal’s Perfect Match is a great foundation line, they cover every skin tone. [I like] NYX for lipsticks, eyeshadows and eye liners. And then the next level is Bobbi Brown, NARS, and AJ Crimson, a great black makeup artist who has now created a line for women of color. I love his foundations, I used them in Beyond the Lights on Gugu [Mbatha-Raw], I used them on Naturi [Naughton] for Power. High-end? Tom Ford is doing amazing work for women of color with pigments and eyeshadows. Makeup Forever is another good line. Anastasia Beverly Hills too. Her pigments are really rich for our brown skin, so eyeshadows come out amazing, blushes come out amazing.
It's been 10 years since Spike Lee's Girl 6 was released, and you were also the lead makeup artist for that film. The movie was about phone sex operators, so the obvious approach would be to have the makeup be very sexy. But you used brown instead of the expected red lip on many characters. '90s makeup trends are making a comeback—what's so appealing about them?
1990s makeup had a raw look—the brown lip, the deep burgundy lip. There was something a little edgy about it that had sex appeal to me. I did Lauryn Hill for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and took her from The Fugees Lauryn to Lauryn Hill. We always did a brown lip or like a coffee or currant, or deep burgundy, which is so sexy you don’t need anything else. The glossy look has gone away. We’re going back to the matte lip, that isn’t so shiny or shimmery. It’s kind of reflective of the time, it’s an edgier time in America. It’s rough, people are standing up and protesting and speaking up. Nobody wants to be shiny and glitzy when statements are being made. You’re not making a statement with a big ole’ red lip on, you’re making a statement with darker, chocolate lip. |
San Diego Bay for the Spanish Empire, and he named the site San Miguel.[14] In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno surveyed the harbor and what are now Mission Bay and Point Loma and named the area for Saint Didacus, a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego.[15] European settlement in what is now San Diego County began with the founding of the San Diego Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá by Spanish soldiers and clerics in 1769.[16] This county was part of Alta California under the Viceroyalty of New Spain until the Mexican declaration of independence. From 1821 through 1848 this area was part of Mexico.
San Diego County became part of the United States as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, ending the Mexican–American War. This treaty designated the new border as terminating at a point on the Pacific Ocean coast which would result in the border passing one Spanish league south of the southernmost portion of San Diego Bay, thus ensuring that the United States received all of this natural harbor.
San Diego County was one of the original counties of California, created at the time of California statehood in 1850.[17]:221
At the time of its establishment in 1850, San Diego County was relatively large, and included all of southernmost California south and east of Los Angeles County. It included areas of what are now Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, as well as all of what are now Riverside and Imperial Counties.[17]:221
During the later part of the 19th century, there were numerous changes in the boundaries of San Diego County, when various areas were separated to make up the counties mentioned above. The most recent changes were the establishments of Riverside County in 1893[17]:207 and Imperial County in 1907.[17]:113 Imperial County was also the last county to be established in California, and after this division, San Diego no longer extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River, and it no longer covered the entire border between California and Mexico.
Geography [ edit ]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,526 square miles (11,720 km2), of which 4,207 square miles (10,900 km2) is land and 319 square miles (830 km2) (7.0%) is water.[18] The county is larger in area than the combined states of Rhode Island and Delaware.[19]
San Diego County has a varied topography. On its western side is more than 70 miles (110 km) of coastline.[20] Most of San Diego between the coast and the Laguna Mountains consists of hills, mesas, and small canyons. Snow-capped (in winter) mountains rise to the east, with the Sonoran Desert farther to the east. Cleveland National Forest is spread across the central portion of the county, while the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park occupies most of the northeast.
Although the county's western third is primarily urban, the mountains and deserts in the eastern two-thirds are primarily undeveloped backcountry. Most of these backcountry areas are home to a native plant community known as chaparral. San Diego County contains more than a million acres (4,000 km²) of chaparral, twice as much as any other California county.[21]
North San Diego County is known as North County; the exact geographic definitions of "North County" vary, but it includes the northern suburbs and sometimes certain northern neighborhoods of the City of San Diego.
The eastern suburbs are collectively known as East County, though most still lie in the western third of the county. The southern suburbs and southern detached portion of the city of San Diego, extending to the Mexican border, are collectively referred to as South Bay.
Periodically the area has been subject to wildfires that force thousands to evacuate. The most recent are the December 2017 Lilac Fire and the May 2014 San Diego County wildfires; before them was the Witch Creek Fire in 2007 and the Cedar Fire in 2003. California defines a fire season in which fires are most likely to occur, usually between late July and late October (which are the driest months of the area). Signs posted in numerous spots of the county provide information on the level of threats from fires based on weather conditions.[citation needed]
Climate [ edit ]
Under the Köppen climate classification system, the urban and suburban San Diego area straddles areas of Mediterranean climate (CSa) to the north and semi-arid climate (BSh) to the south and east.[22] As a result, it is often described as "arid Mediterranean" and "semi-arid steppe." Farther east, arid desert conditions prevail. Western San Diego's climate is characterized by warm, dry summers and mild winters with most of the annual precipitation falling between November and March. The city has mild, mostly dry weather, with an average of 201 days above 70 °F (21 °C) and low rainfall (9–13 inches (23–33 cm) annually). Summer temperatures are generally warm, with average highs of 70–78 °F (21–26 °C) and lows of 55–66 °F (13–19 °C). Temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) only four days a year. Most rainfall occurs from November to April. Winter temperatures are mild, with average high temperatures of 66–70 °F (19–21 °C) and lows of 50–56 °F (10–13 °C).
The climate in the San Diego area, like much of California, often varies significantly over short geographical distances resulting in microclimates. In San Diego's case this is mainly due to the city's topography (the Bay, and the numerous hills, mountains, and canyons). Frequently, particularly during the "May gray/June gloom" period, a thick marine layer will keep the air cool and damp within a few miles of the coast, but will yield to bright cloudless sunshine approximately 5–10 miles (8.0–16.1 km) inland. This happens every year in May and June.[23] Even in the absence of June gloom, inland areas tend to experience much more significant temperature variations than coastal areas, where the ocean serves as a moderating influence. Thus, for example, downtown San Diego averages January lows of 48 °F (9 °C) and August highs of 77 °F (25 °C).[24] The city of El Cajon, just 10 miles (16 km) northeast of downtown San Diego, averages January lows of 42 °F (6 °C) and August highs of 89 °F (32 °C).[25] Julian, in the mountains, has an average January low of 29 °F (−2 °C) and August high of 85 °F (29 °C).[26] Borrego Springs, in the Colorado Desert, has an average January low of 29 °F (−2 °C) and August high of 106 °F (41 °C).[27]
Rainfall along the coast averages about 10 inches (25 cm) of precipitation annually, which occurs mainly during the cooler months of December through April. Though there are few wet days per month during the rainy period, rainfall can be heavy when it does occur. However, the rainfall is greater in the higher elevations of San Diego. Some of the higher areas of San Diego, such as Palomar Mountain and the Laguna Mountains, receive 20–40 inches (51–102 cm) of rain per year, supporting lush forests similar to the Sierra Nevada and California Coast Range. The Colorado Desert portion of the county lies to the east of the mountains, which receives the least amount of precipitation; Borrego Springs, the largest population center in the desert, averages only 5 inches (13 cm), with a high evaporation rate.
Climate data for San Diego Int'l Airport (1981–2010 normals,[a] extremes 1874–present)[b] Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 88
(31) 90
(32) 99
(37) 98
(37) 98
(37) 101
(38) 100
(38) 98
(37) 111
(44) 107
(42) 100
(38) 88
(31) 111
(44) Mean maximum °F (°C) 78.4
(25.8) 79.2
(26.2) 79.8
(26.6) 82.8
(28.2) 79.0
(26.1) 81.2
(27.3) 83.2
(28.4) 85.4
(29.7) 89.5
(31.9) 86.8
(30.4) 82.9
(28.3) 76.6
(24.8) 94.1
(34.5) Average high °F (°C) 65.1
(18.4) 65.0
(18.3) 65.6
(18.7) 67.5
(19.7) 68.5
(20.3) 70.8
(21.6) 74.6
(23.7) 76.4
(24.7) 75.9
(24.4) 72.8
(22.7) 69.0
(20.6) 64.7
(18.2) 69.7
(20.9) Average low °F (°C) 49.0
(9.4) 50.7
(10.4) 53.2
(11.8) 55.9
(13.3) 59.4
(15.2) 62.0
(16.7) 65.4
(18.6) 66.7
(19.3) 65.2
(18.4) 60.6
(15.9) 53.6
(12.0) 48.4
(9.1) 57.5
(14.2) Mean minimum °F (°C) 41.9
(5.5) 44.6
(7.0) 47.1
(8.4) 50.7
(10.4) 55.0
(12.8) 59.1
(15.1) 62.5
(16.9) 63.3
(17.4) 60.4
(15.8) 54.4
(12.4) 45.8
(7.7) 41.4
(5.2) 40.3
(4.6) Record low °F (°C) 25
(−4) 34
(1) 36
(2) 39
(4) 45
(7) 50
(10) 54
(12) 54
(12) 50
(10) 43
(6) 36
(2) 32
(0) 25
(−4) Average rainfall inches (mm) 1.98
(50) 2.27
(58) 1.81
(46) 0.78
(20) 0.12
(3.0) 0.07
(1.8) 0.03
(0.76) 0.02
(0.51) 0.15
(3.8) 0.57
(14) 1.01
(26) 1.53
(39) 10.34
(263) Average rainy days (≥ 0.01 in) 6.7 7.1 6.5 4.0 1.4 0.8 0.7 0.4 1.2 2.8 4.1 5.8 41.5 Average relative humidity (%) 63.1 65.7 67.3 67.0 70.6 74.0 74.6 74.1 72.7 69.4 66.3 63.7 69.0 Mean monthly sunshine hours 239.3 227.4 261.0 276.2 250.5 242.4 304.7 295.0 253.3 243.4 230.1 231.3 3,054.6 Percent possible sunshine 75 74 70 71 58 57 70 71 68 69 73 74 69 Source: NOAA (sun and relative humidity 1961–1990)[29][30][31]
Adjacent counties and municipalities [ edit ]
Beach at Border State Park ; San Diego is on the right while Tijuana is on the left.
National protected areas [ edit ]
There are seven official wilderness areas in San Diego County that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Four of these are integral parts of Cleveland National Forest, whereas three are managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Some of these extend into neighboring counties (as indicated below):
State parks and protected areas [ edit ]
Mountains [ edit ]
There are 236 mountain summits and peaks in San Diego County[37] including:
Bays and lagoons [ edit ]
Lakes [ edit ]
Rivers [ edit ]
Demographics [ edit ]
Since at least 2014, San Diego County is the fifth most populous county in the United States.[38] In 2000, only about 3% of San Diego County residents left the county for work while 40,000 people commuted into the metropolitan area.[39]
Population, race, and income (2011) Total population[40] 3,060,849 White[40] 2,182,604 71.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race)[41] 967,858 31.6% Asian[40] 333,314 10.9% Black or African American[40] 154,076 5.0% American Indian or Alaska Native[40] 20,597 0.7% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander[40] 14,266 0.5% Some other race[40] 220,000 7.2% Two or more races[40] 135,992 4.4% Per capita income[42] $30,955 Median household income[43] $63,857 Median family income[44] $74,633
Historical population Census Pop. %± 1850 798 — 1860 4,324 441.9% 1870 4,951 14.5% 1880 8,018 61.9% 1890 34,987 336.4% 1900 35,090 0.3% 1910 61,665 75.7% 1920 112,248 82.0% 1930 209,659 86.8% 1940 289,348 38.0% 1950 556,808 92.4% 1960 1,033,011 85.5% 1970 1,357,854 31.4% 1980 1,861,846 37.1% 1990 2,498,016 34.2% 2000 2,813,833 12.6% 2010 3,095,313 10.0% Est. 2017 3,337,685 [6] 7.8% U.S. Decennial Census[45]
1790–1960[46] 1900–1990[47]
1990–2000[48] 2010–2015[5]
Race [ edit ]
The 2010 United States Census reported that San Diego County had a population of 3,095,313. The racial makeup of San Diego County was 1,981,442 (64.0%) White, 158,213 (5.1%) African American, 26,340 (0.9%) Native American, 336,091 (10.9%) Asian (4.7% Filipino, 1.6% Vietnamese, 1.4% Chinese, 3.2% Other Asian), 15,337 (0.5%) Pacific Islander, 419,465 (13.6%) from other races, and 158,425 (5.0%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 991,348 persons (32.0%).[49] Including Multiracial Asian Americans, the number of Asian Americans in San Diego County were 407,984.[50]
As of 2009, the racial makeup of the county was 79.4% White American, 5.6% Black or African American, 1% Native American, 10.4% Asian, 0.5% Pacific Islander, 10.3% from other races, and 3.6% from two or more races. 31.3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
67.0% spoke only English at home; 21.9% spoke Spanish, 3.1% Tagalog and 1.2% Vietnamese.
Other demographics [ edit ]
As of 2009 Census Bureau estimates, there were 3,053,793 people, 1,067,846 households, and 663,449 families residing in the county. The population density was 670 people per square mile (259/km²). There were 1,142,245 housing units at an average density of 248 per square mile (96/km²).
In 2000 there were 994,677 households out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.7% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.3% were non-families. 24.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.29.
As of 2000, in the county the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18, 11.30% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 11.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.7 males.
In 2012, it was estimated that there were 198,000 unauthorized immigrants; the origin of the plurality of them is Mexico.[51]
In 2018, the median household income was $70,824; most people spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs.[52] In August of that year, the median home price was $583,000; this is lower than the median home price in Los Angeles, and Orange, counties.[53]
Income [ edit ]
According to the 2000 Census, the median income for a household in the county was $47,067, and the median income for a family was $53,438. Males had a median income of $36,952 versus $30,356 for females. The per capita income for the county was $22,926. About 8.9% of families and 12.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.5% of those under age 18 and 6.8% of those age 65 or over.
Much of the county's high-income residents are concentrated in the northern part of the city of San Diego. The San Diego metropolitan area has two places with both a population of over 50,000 and a per capita income of over $40,000: Carlsbad and Encinitas.
The county's largest continuous high-income urban area is a triangle from a first point on the northern edge of Carlsbad, a second point southeast of Escondido, and a third point on the southern edge of La Jolla. It contains all or most of the cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, and Poway in addition to a substantial portion of northern San Diego.[54]
Religion [ edit ]
According to the Pew Research Center as of 2014, 68% of adults in the county are Christian, of whom 32% are Catholic. 27% were unaffiliated, and 5% adhered to a Non-Christian faith.[55] According to the University of Southern California, in 2010, the largest faith in the county was Catholicism, followed by Nondenominational Christians, and Mormons.[56]
Government [ edit ]
The Government of San Diego County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution, California law, and the Charter of the County of San Diego.[57] Much of the Government of California is in practice the responsibility of county governments such as the Government of San Diego County. The County government provides countywide services such as elections and voter registration, law enforcement, jails, vital records, property records, tax collection, public health, and social services. In addition the County serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas.[58] Some chartered cities such as San Diego and Chula Vista provide municipal services such as police, public safety, libraries, parks and recreation, and zoning. Other cities such as Del Mar and Vista arrange to have the County provide some or all of these services on a contract basis.
The county government is composed of the elected five-member Board of Supervisors, several other elected offices and officers including the Sheriff, the District Attorney, Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk, and Treasurer/Tax Collector, and numerous county departments and entities under the supervision of the Chief Administrative Officer such as the Probation Department. In addition, several entities of the government of California have jurisdiction conterminous with San Diego County, such as the San Diego Superior Court.
Under its foundational Charter, the five-member elected San Diego County Board of Supervisors is the county legislature. The board operates in a legislative, executive, and quasi-judicial capacity. As a legislative authority, it can pass ordinances for the unincorporated areas (ordinances that affect the whole county, like posting of restaurant ratings, must be ratified by the individual city). As an executive body, it can tell the county departments what to do, and how to do it. As a quasi-judicial body, the Board is the final venue of appeal in the local planning process.
As of January 2019, the members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors are:[59]
District Supervisor Party 1 Greg Cox Republican 2 Dianne Jacob (Chair) Republican 3 Kristin Gaspar Republican 4 Nathan Fletcher Democrat 5 Jim Desmond Republican
For several decades, ending in 2013, all five supervisors were Republican, white, graduates of San Diego State University, and had been in office since 1995 or earlier. The Board was criticized for this homogeneity, which was made possible because supervisors draw their own district lines and are not subject to term limits.[60] (In 2010 voters put term limits in place, but they only apply going forward, so that each incumbent supervisor can serve an additional two terms before being termed out.[61]) That pattern was broken in 2013 when Slater-Price retired; she was replaced by Democrat Dave Roberts, who won election to the seat in November 2012 and was inaugurated in January 2013.[62]
The San Diego County Code is the codified law of San Diego County in the form of ordinances passed by the Board of Supervisors. The Administrative Code establishes the powers and duties of all officers and the procedures and rules of operation of all departments.
The county motto is "The noblest motive is the public good." County government offices are housed in the historic County Administration Center Building, constructed in 1935-1938 with funding from the Works Progress Administration.[63]
Politics [ edit ]
San Diego County registered voters (2014)[64] Total population[40] 3,060,849 Registered voters[64][note 1] 1,530,462 50.0% Democratic 531,941 34.8% Republican 503,639 32.9% Democratic–Republican spread +28,302 +1.9% No party preference 412,807 27.0% American Independent 52,088 3.4% Libertarian 12,484 0.8% Green 7,668 0.5% Other 5,695 0.4% Peace and Freedom 4,140 0.3%
As of June 2013, there are 1,556,739 registered voters in San Diego County. Of those, 547,897 (35.2%) are registered Democratic, 526,306 (33.8%) are registered Republican, 401,340 (25.8%) declined to state a political party, 51,993 (3.3%) are registered American Independence Party, 11,657 (0.7%) are registered Libertarian, 7,675 (0.5%) are registered Green, and 4,012 (0.3%) are registered Peace & Freedom.[65]
Voting [ edit ]
San Diego County has historically been a Republican stronghold. The Republican presidential nominee carried the county in every presidential election from 1948 through 2004, except in 1992 when Bill Clinton won a plurality. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority of votes in San Diego County since World War II; he won a majority of county votes again in 2012. In 2016, the county voted in favor of the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by 19.7%, the largest margin for a Democrat since 1936.
Presidential elections results San Diego County vote
by party in presidential elections[66] Year GOP DEM Others 2016 36.57% 477,766 56.30% 735,476 7.13% 93,158 2012 44.95% 536,726 52.51% 626,957 2.53% 30,266 2008 43.79% 541,032 53.95% 666,581 2.26% 27,890 2004 52.45% 596,033 46.33% 526,437 1.22% 13,881 2000 49.63% 475,736 45.66% 437,666 4.71% 45,232 1996 45.57% 402,876 44.11% 389,964 10.33% 91,311 1992 35.69% 352,125 37.24% 367,397 27.08% 267,124 1988 60.19% 523,143 38.34% 333,264 1.47% 12,788 1984 65.30% 502,344 33.41% 257,029 1.29% 9,894 1980 60.81% 435,910 27.26% 195,410 11.93% 85,546 1976 55.74% 353,302 41.60% 263,654 2.66% 16,839 1972 61.82% 371,627 34.34% 206,455 3.84% 23,055 1968 56.26% 261,540 36.07% 167,669 7.67% 35,654 1964 50.31% 214,445 49.69% 211,808 0.01% 33 1960 56.41% 223,056 43.31% 171,259 0.28% 1,106 1956 64.47% 195,742 35.15% 106,716 0.38% 1,147 1952 63.50% 186,091 35.92% 105,255 0.58% 1,688 1948 49.43% 101,552 47.80% 98,217 2.77% 5,690 1944 45.42% 75,746 53.94% 89,959 0.64% 1,059 1940 43.27% 55,434 55.57% 71,188 1.16% 1,488 1936 35.04% 35,686 63.45% 64,628 1.51% 1,540 1932 41.46% 35,305 53.58% 45,622 4.96% 4,223 1928 67.14% 47,769 31.97% 22,749 0.89% 633 1924 48.99% 22,726 6.35% 2,944 44.66% 20,721 1920 63.78% 19,826 27.27% 8,478 8.95% 2,783 1916 46.47% 16,978 46.02% 16,815 7.51% 2,744 1912 0.29% 63 44.79% 9,731 54.92% 11,934 1908 57.56% 5,412 25.45% 2,393 16.99% 1,598 1904 59.52% 4,303 19.34% 1,398 21.15% 1,529 1900 54.91% 3,800 38.69% 2,678 6.40% 443 1896 46.86% 3,631 50.44% 3,908 2.70% 209 1892 45.71% 3,525 30.26% 2,334 24.03% 1,853
The city of San Diego itself is more Democratic than the county's average and has voted for Democrats in each presidential election since 1992. Various cities within the county are swing areas that have split their votes in elections since 2000. Republican strength is concentrated in North County, as well as the inland portions.
One unique feature of the political scene is the use of Golden Hall, a convention facility next to San Diego's City Hall, as "Election Central." The County Registrar of Voters rents the hall to distribute election results. Supporters and political observers gather to watch the results come in; supporters of the various candidates parade around the hall, carrying signs and chanting; candidates give their victory and concession speeches and host parties for campaign volunteers and donors at the site; and television stations broadcast live from the floor of the convention center.[67] The atmosphere at Election Central on the evening of election day has been compared to the voting portion of a political party national convention.[68]
On Nov 4, 2008 San Diego County voted 53.71% for Proposition 8 which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, thus restoring Proposition 22 which was overturned by a ruling from the California Supreme Court. However the city of San Diego, along with Del Mar, Encinitas, and Solana Beach, voted against Proposition 8.[69]
Federal and state representation [ edit ]
In the U.S. House of Representatives, San Diego County is split between five congressional districts:[70]
In the California State Assembly, San Diego County is split between seven legislative districts:[71]
In the California State Senate, San Diego County is split between four legislative districts:[72]
Crime [ edit ]
In 2014 according to Pew Research Center, there are about 170,000 individuals who immigrated to the United States without authorization living in the region.[73] San Diego has been a destination for trafficked minors from Mexico and the Philippines.[74] In 2018, the United States Border Patrol catches an average of over a hundred individuals crossing the border illegally each day.[75]
The following table includes the number of incidents reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense.
Cities by population and crime rates [ edit ]
Economy [ edit ]
Arising from an effort by the state government to identify regional economies, San Diego County and Imperial County are part of the Southern Border Region, one of nine such regions. As a regional economy, the Southern Border Region is the smallest but most economically diverse region in the state. However, the two counties maintain weak relations and have little in common aside from their common border.[78] The region has a high cost of living.[79] This includes the highest cost of water in the United States.[80] As of 2018, San Diego County is within the top ten highest cost of rent in the United States;[81] this has led to people moving out of the county.[82]
Agriculture [ edit ]
San Diego County's agriculture industry was worth $1.85 billion in 2013,[83] and is one of the top five egg producing counties in the United States.[84] In 2013, San Diego County also had the most small farms of any county in the United States, and had the 19th largest agricultural economy of any county in the United States.[85] According to the San Diego Farm Bureau, San Diego County is the United States' leading producer of avocados and nursery crops.[86] Until the early 20th century, San Diego County had a thriving wine industry; however the 1916 Charles Hatfield flood was the beginning of the end of the industry which included the destruction of the Daneri winery in Otay Valley.[87] As of October 2016, there are roughly one hundred vineyards and wineries in San Diego County.[88]
Tourism [ edit ]
Tourism plays a large part in the economics of the San Diego metropolitan area. Tourists are drawn to the region for a well rounded experience, everything from shopping to surfing as well as its mild climate. Its numerous tourist destinations include Horton Plaza, Westfield UTC, Seaport Village, Westfield Mission Valley and Fashion Valley Mall for shopping. SeaWorld San Diego and Legoland California as amusement parks. Golf courses such as Torrey Pines Golf Course and Balboa Park Golf Course. Museums such as the San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego Museum of Art, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San Diego Natural History Museum, USS Midway Museum, and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. Historical places such as the Gaslamp Quarter, Balboa Park and Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Wildlife refuges, zoos, and aquariums such as the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, San Diego Zoo's Safari Park, San Diego Zoo and San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park. Outdoor destinations include the Peninsular Ranges for hiking, biking, mountainboarding and trail riding. Surfing locations include Swami's, Stone Steps Beach, Torrey Pines State Beach, Cardiff State Beach, San Onofre State Beach and the southern portion of Black's Beach.
The region is host to the second largest cruise ship industry in California which generates an estimated $2 million annually from purchases of food, fuel, supplies, and maintenance services.[89] In 2008 the Port of San Diego hosted 252 ship calls and more than 800,000 passengers.[90]
Education [ edit ]
San Diego County contains three public state universities: University of California, San Diego; San Diego State University; and California State University, San Marcos. Major private universities in the county include University of San Diego (USD), Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), Alliant International University (AIU), and National University. It also includes three law schools, USD School of Law, California Western School of Law, and Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Within the county there are 24 public elementary school districts, 6 high school districts, and 12 unified school districts. There are also 5 community college districts.[91]
There are two separate public library systems in San Diego County: the San Diego Public Library serving the city of San Diego, and the San Diego County Library serving all other areas of the county. In 2010 the county library had 33 branches and two bookmobiles; circulated over 10.7 million books, CDs, DVDs, and other material formats; recorded 5.7 million visits to library branches; and hosted 21,132 free programs and events. The San Diego County Library is one of the 25 busiest libraries in the nation as measured by materials circulated.[92][93]
Military [ edit ]
San Diego is the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Eleventh Naval District and is the Navy's principal location for West Coast and Pacific Ocean operations.[94] Naval Base San Diego, California is principal home to the Pacific Fleet (although the headquarters is located in Pearl Harbor). NAS North Island is located on the north side of Coronado, and is home to Headquarters for Naval Air Forces and Naval Air Force Pacific, the bulk of the Pacific Fleet's helicopter squadrons, and part of the West Coast aircraft carrier fleet.
The Naval Special Warfare Center is the primary training center for SEALs, and is also located on Coronado. The area contains five major naval bases and the U.S. Marines base Camp Pendleton. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and serves as its prime amphibious training base.[95] It is located on the Southern California coast, bordered by Oceanside to the south, San Clemente to the north, and Fallbrook to the east.
U.S. Navy [ edit ]
U.S. Marine Corps [ edit ]
U.S. Coast Guard [ edit ]
Culture [ edit ]
The culture of San Diego is influenced heavily by American and |
the right to choose. He then went on to bring up why some parents have reservations about heavily vaccinating their young children, describing stories that he’s heard where perfectly healthy children get sick after an immunization shot. In response, the mainstream media made it its mission to brand his commentary on why others may have reservations, into Rand Paul advocating against vaccinations. In fact, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean went so far as to say it should disqualify Rand from running for president.
At the core of this entire debate is the question of who is in control. Who owns your body? That is precisely why corporatist-state media and politicians have come out so passionately about this issue. The busy bodies and medical profiteers are irate that you and I think that we should actually have a choice in how we manage our own healthcare decisions.
Nine months ago, on April 18th, I was sitting in a maternity room with my 12-hour-old daughter. When a nurse came in to immunize her from hepatitis B, a disease known to be transmitted only from sex, blood transfusions, and child birth only IF the mother has the virus. Knowing my newborn daughter hadn’t had sex, hadn’t had a blood transfusion, and that my wife – who had been to about 20 doctor visits in the past 6 months – didn’t have hepatitis, I told the nurse I wouldn’t allow them to give this immunization to my baby. The nurses were quite pleasant. They had me sign a form, and that was the end of it.
Prior to the nurse leaving, I asked to see the side effects of the vaccine they had attempted to inject into a half-day-old newborn. The side effects were fever, insomnia, hypotension, drowsiness, loss of appetite and irritability. My heart was crushed after reading this, thinking of all the other babies in the hospital that would be given this shot. Here you are, hours old, you just survived delivery, which can pretty intense, and now someone wants to inject a vaccine into your body, where the side effects could make you sick. For no reason, by the way, in my daughter’s case. So the risk-reward wasn’t even in the equation – it was pretty much all risk.
From the CDC’s website:
On the decision of which vaccines to get and when, for my family it’s all about trust, and I don’t trust anything mandated by this government. I will be damned if they force a needle into any of my children. I have often pondered where I would draw the line, and that’s it. Take my money, take my property, but do not F*** with my kids.
By the way, would it surprise any reader that the former CDC Director went on to become president of Merck’s Vaccination Unit? Today, Dr. Julie Gerberding is the Vice President of Strategic Propaganda… I mean Communications for Merck.
In her title change, Merck had this to say: “Julie has been instrumental in making Merck’s vaccines more accessible.”
With the help and support of my doctor, my children are receiving some of the vaccines at the ages we feel appropriate.
I want to mention this only because this is not an anti-vaccine essay. The debate to vaccinate or not to vaccinate is a distraction from the more important issue at hand:
Who owns your body, you or the government?When Joseph Dwyer’s aeroplane took a wrong turn into a thundercloud, the mistake paid off: the atmospheric physicist flew not only through a frightening storm but also into an unexpected—and mysterious—haze of antimatter.
Although powerful storms have been known to produce positrons—the antimatter versions of electrons—the antimatter observed by Dwyer and his team cannot be explained by any known processes, they say. “This was so strange that we sat on this observation for several years,” says Dwyer, who is at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
The flight took place six years ago, but the team is only now reporting the result (J. R. Dwyer et al. J. Plasma Phys.; in the press). “The observation is a puzzle,” says Michael Briggs, a physicist at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, who was not involved in the report.
A key feature of antimatter is that when a particle of it makes contact with its ordinary-matter counterpart, both are instantly transformed into other particles in a process known as annihilation. This makes antimatter exceedingly rare. However, it has long been known that positrons are produced by the decay of radioactive atoms and by astrophysical phenomena, such as cosmic rays plunging into the atmosphere from outer space. In the past decade, research by Dwyer and others has shown that storms also produce positrons, as well as highly energetic photons, or γ-rays.
It was to study such atmospheric γ-rays that Dwyer, then at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, fitted a particle detector on a Gulfstream V, a type of jet plane typically used by business executives. On 21 August 2009, the pilots turned towards what looked, from its radar profile, to be the Georgia coast. “Instead, it was a line of thunderstorms—and we were flying right through it,” Dwyer says. The plane rolled violently back and forth and plunged suddenly downwards. “I really thought I was going to die.”
During those frightening minutes, the detector picked up three spikes in γ-rays at an energy of 511 kiloelectronvolts, the signature of a positron annihilating with an electron.
Each γ-ray spike lasted about one-fifth of a second, Dwyer and his collaborators say, and was accompanied by some γ-rays of slightly lower energy. The team concluded that those γ-rays had lost energy as a result of travelling some distance and calculated that a short-lived cloud of positrons, 1–2 kilometres across, had surrounded the aircraft. But working out what could have produced such a cloud has proved hard. “We tried for five years to model the production of the positrons,” says Dwyer.
Electrons discharging from charged clouds accelerate to close to the speed of light, and can produce highly energetic γ-rays, which in turn can generate an electron–positron pair when they hit an atomic nucleus. But the team did not detect enough γ-rays with sufficient energy to do this.
Another possible explanation is that the positrons originated from cosmic rays, particles from outer space that collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere to produce short-lived showers of highly energetic particles, including γ-rays. “There’s always like a light drizzle of positrons,” says Dwyer. In principle, there could be some mechanism that steered the positrons towards the plane, he says. But the motion of positrons would have created other types of radiation, which the team did not see.
The team’s data are a “cast-iron signature” of positrons, says Jasper Kirkby, a particle physicist who heads an experiment investigating a possible link between cosmic rays and cloud formation at the CERN particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. But “the interpretation needs to be nailed down”. In particular, he says, the team’s estimate of the size of the positron cloud is not convincing.
If Kirkby is right, and the cloud was smaller than Dwyer’s team estimates, that could imply that the positrons were annihilating only in the immediate vicinity of the aircraft, or even on the craft itself. The wings could have become charged, producing extremely intense electric fields around them and initiating positron production, says Aleksandr Gurevich, an atmospheric physicist at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow.
To answer these and other questions, Dwyer needs fresh observations of the innards of thunderclouds. To that end, he and others are sending balloons straight into the most violent storms, and the US National Science Foundation even plans to fly a particle detector on an A-10 ‘Warthog’—an armoured anti-tank plane that could withstand the extreme environment. “The insides of thunderstorms are like bizarre landscapes that we have barely begun to explore,” says Dwyer.
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on May 12, 2015.• Midfielder sidelined with chronic bowel condition • 'I have to find a way to manage it so I can still play football'
The Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher is targeting a return to action next season. Fletcher has been sidelined for an indefinite period as he seeks to manage a chronic bowel condition.
The Scotland international is trying a variety of different ways of overcoming the problem in a manner that would allow him to continue his career. That other high-profile sports stars, including Sir Steve Redgrave, have managed it offers genuine reason for optimism.
However, the 28-year-old has written off playing any further part in United's Premier League title bid this season. "It's a week-by-week situation so I've not got any timescale on recovery, but the target is next season," Fletcher told the Manchester Evening News.
"If I can come back then, that would be great for me. It's something that will never leave me but somehow you have to find a way to manage it so that I can still play my football. I'm trying everything under the sun at the moment: diet, hypnotherapy."
Fletcher first started to experience problems last March. His absence for all but two games of the final three months of last season was put down to a virus. However, after appearing in 10 United games this term, Fletcher felt he needed to take an extended break and revealed the true nature of his condition.Share
Following a briefing with lawmakers and high-ranking security officials late Tuesday, the White House implicitly criticized the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), insinuating that the House cybersecurity bill fails to adequately protect critical national infrastructure, such as electrical grids and water supplies, and could threaten individual privacy and civil liberties.
CISPA would allow companies and the federal government to more easily share “cyber threat intelligence” with each other. But according to National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden, the sharing of information is not enough to combat potential cyberattacks. Moreover, Hayden said that any cybersecurity legislation must also include “robust” protections for civil liberties, something a multitude of rights advocates say CISPA does not do.
“The nation’s critical infrastructure cyber vulnerabilities will not be addressed by information sharing alone,” Hayden told The Hill in a statement.
“Also, while information sharing legislation is an essential component of comprehensive legislation to address critical infrastructure risks, information sharing provisions must include robust safeguards to preserve the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens. Legislation without new authorities to address our nation’s critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, or legislation that would sacrifice the privacy of our citizens in the name of security, will not meet our nation’s urgent needs.”
While the White House did not threaten to veto CISPA, which is scheduled to go up for a vote before the full House sometime next week, its criticism of the bill provides the growing anti-CISPA movement with a much-needed governmental ally.
Earlier this week, a broad faction of privacy and civil liberty advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), and others, launched a week-long “Stop Cyber Spying” campaign to combat CISPA. These critics assert that CISPA’s broad language would allow companies to hand over private information about their customers and users to the federal government without sufficient oversight or consequences for mishandling the data. They also warn that the shared information could potentially be handed over to spy agencies, like the National Security Agency (NSA), a military organization with little public oversight. Furthermore, these critics echo the White House’s sentiment that CISPA would do little to protect against cyberattacks.
CISPA supporters in Congress dismiss the criticisms of the bill as unfounded, and argue that greater sharing between the government and the private sector would provide needed protections for the government, businesses, and citizens alike. CISPA currently enjoys broad bi-partisan support from 106 112 co-sponsors in the House, and wide support from many business, including Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, AT&T, Verizon, and Intel.
Congress is currently considering a number of cybersecurity bills in addition to CISPA. The Obama administration has backed the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, a Senate bill introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), which gives the Department of Homeland Security the power to enforce cybersecurity standards. The Lieberman-Collins bill also includes a requirement that companies strip all shared data of any personally identifiable information, a key privacy protection that CISPA lacks.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), co-author of CISPA, said in a speech Tuesday that the Lieberman bill imposes unnecessary governmental regulations that Republicans in the House will oppose, making its passage unlikely.While being the first person in your social circle to get your hands on an iPhone 4 certainly gives you bragging rights, there’s a downside to being in such an exclusive club—there’s no way to try out the phone’s FaceTime feature. After all, it takes two to video chat—and in the case of FaceTime, it takes two with an iPhone 4 and a Wi-Fi connection.
But if you bought an iPhone 4 and don't know anyone else who has one, you are, apparently, not alone. In fact, the situation seems to be so common that Apple has set up a special hotline that allows you to test FaceTime with a company representative at no charge.
All you need to do is call 1-888-FACETIME (1-888-322-3846) from your phone. Once any of the Apple reps at the other end of the line pick up, they will go over some details with you to confirm that you can, indeed, use FaceTime: namely, they will ensure that you are the owner of an iPhone 4 and that you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
You’ll then get switched over to FaceTime, as the rep spends a few minutes showing you how the technology works, going over its features, and answering any questions you may have.
FaceTime, one of the main new features of Apple’s latest iPhone offering, is designed to provide simple, easy-to-use video-chatting capabilities to cellular users. Although the technology currently requires iPhone 4 and only works over Wi-Fi, the company has stated that it plans on making its underlying protocols an open standard and work with mobile providers to include support for cellular data at a later date.VIJAYPURA: A gang of four boys, including two minors, gang-raped and murdered a Class 9 girl, also a minor, in the Khaza Amin Dargah neighbourhood on Tuesday night. The main accused, one of the minors, was a schoolmate of the girl, a Dalit.
The girl’s family began an overnight protest at the DC’s office, demanding arrest of the accused, but dispersed after district minister M B Patil assured action would be taken.
The girl’s father has filed a complaint with the Adarsh Nagar police here. He alleged that the main accused had been harassing the girl, a student of Class 9, for months now. On Tuesday evening, he allegedly abducted her on his two-wheeler and took her to a house in the dargah locality, followed by five others in an autorickshaw.
The main accused and three others from the auto raped her even as a friend caught them in the act. They threatened to kill the friend if she told anyone. The girl, however, fled the spot and informed the victim’s parents. They found their daughter and took her to hospital. She died on the way.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah, who was in the city on Wednesday, visited the girl’s house late in the evening and handed over a cheque of Rs 8.25 lakh. He condemned the crime as “inhuman”. The district in-charge minister announced an additional Rs 5 lakh.
Vijayapura SP Kuldeep Jain said the postmortem report is awaited to ascertain the cause of death. “Prima facie, it looks like the accused did not use any weapons. Only scratch injuries have been found on the body,” he said.
A special team led by DSP D Ashok is on the lookout for the accused, he said. “We have taken in some people for interrogation. We will arrest the accused soon,” he said.
Protests were held in various cities of north Karnataka in protest against the incident. ABVP workers held a candlelight vigil at Chennamma Circle in Hubballi while Dalit and leftist outfts went on a demonstration at Gandhi Circle in Gadag.
Dalit outfits have called a bandh in Vijayapura.
“This is a pointer to the lawlessness and lack of fear among criminals in the state,” said JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy.
State Congress president G Parameshwara, a Dalit, maintained that the government had swung into action immediately after the incident came to its notice and there were no lapses.Eleven month-old polar bear Nora in the winter habitat at the Oregon Zoo. © Oregon Zoo / photo by Michael Durham.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) – For the last year, visitors to the Oregon Zoo have fallen in love with Nora – the zoo’s rambunctious two-year-old Polar Bear.
The beloved bear arrived Tuesday at her new home at the Hogle Zoo in Utah.
Nora came to Oregon in September 2016 as a pint-sized cub, just under one year old.
She was meant be a companion for the Oregon Zoo’s other polar bear, Tasul, who had just lost her longtime habitat mate Conrad. Nearly a month after Nora’s move, however, Tasul passed away.
Nora will be moving into the Utah zoo to live with another polar bear named Hope.
“From the time she was a week old, Nora has interacted almost exclusively with people,” said Amy Cutting, who oversees the Oregon Zoo’s marine life area. “As hard as it is for us to say goodbye, this is a great move for Nora and we are really excited for her.”
Nora was born at the Columbus Zoo on Nov. 6, 2015. Her mother started leaving her alone in the den, so zoo staff said they made the difficult decision to step in and rear the cub.
“For a young bear that was hand-raised, the companionship of another bear will be so important for developing social skills,” said Cutting. “Hope should be a great companion for her. The two bears were born less than a month apart, and they have a similar youthful energy.”
Cutting said that the Oregon Zoo would have enjoyed having Hope move to Portland, but they are still working to build a new Polar Passage habitat. The project is expected to wrap up in 2020.
Zoo officials said it is too soon to tell if Nora will move back to Oregon once the Polar Passage habitat is finished.
“Hogle Zoo has a terrific modern polar bear habitat and an expert animal-care team. It will be a great place for these two young bears to get acquainted,” said Cutting.
She said that staff from the Utah zoo spent time with Nora before the move, getting acquainted with her routines and personalities. Her Oregon Zoo handlers traveled with her to make the transition as seamless as possible.Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh will not play back-to-back over the festive period as they done.
SNS
Glasgow Warriors will kick off their PRO12 campaign away to champions Connacht with next season's 1872 Cup matches against Edinburgh to be split over the season.
The games between the two Scottish rivals are traditionally played back-to-back over the festive period. However, in 2016-17 the pair will face off at Murrayfield on Boxing Day before the return fixture on May 6 which will be the last game before the semi-finals.
Gregor Townsend's men will kick off their Pro12 campaign against champions Connacht, who defeated the Warriors 16-11 at the semi-final stage en route to securing their first ever title in the competition.
Glasgow's first home game of the season will be on September 10 against runners-up Leinster, who topped the PRO12 table heading into the play-off ties.
Edinburgh's first game of the campaign will be an away trip to Cardiff on September 3.Hey guys! I’m Snitch, Flex player for Team Dignitas, and this is my guide on Medivh. The build I’m showcasing today is what I would consider to be the general Medivh build. This build helps accentuate the main features of the hero, which include: supporting teammates in aggressive plays, saving teammates when they’re in dangerous situations, providing consistent harassment of the enemy team through his Arcane Rift ability, and using Portals to create chaotic gameplay. First of all we’ll go through the talent build, then after that I’ll go through his Early and Mid to Late game playstyles.
TALENTS
At Level 1, I would always choose Stable Portal. This increases the duration of your Portal to 10 seconds which makes it much more effective. The longer duration gives you and your teammates more time to use the Portal to harass an enemy, poke on the other side, or make plays, while still having the safety of being able to return at any point. Additionally, Stable Portal has incredible synergy with Quickening at Level 13, which allows you to have a portal down permanently due to the duration and cooldown syncing perfectly.
At Level 4, I would always choose Bird’s Eye View. This talent passively increases the vision range your Raven Form provides by 25%, as well as giving you an Active ability, which lets you provide an immense amount of information to your team through a massive vision circle. There are some cases for Dust of Appearance depending on what stealth heroes you are facing, but generally I will always pick Bird's Eye View, as the information it gives you and your team, as well as providing a lot of vision and safety, are generally invaluable.
At Level 7, I believe the only choice is the Master’s Touch. While this quest can be harder to complete for newer Medivh players, I believe it’s so strong that you should take it, as completing it makes you a much larger threat. The lowered cooldown and increased damage of Arcane Rift can allow you to 1v1 many backline heroes which makes you much harder to play around and allows you to outplay the enemy team.
At Level 10, the Heroic I always choose is Ley Line Seal. I believe it’s an invaluable tool for isolating opponents, engaging teamfights, or disengaging from a bad engage or situation. Any situation where Poly Bomb looks good, I generally believe Ley Line is better. It’s a very flexible heroic. Thinking about ways you could use it before the game can be very important, as it lets you be conscious of good situations in teamfights where you can unleash it. You do have to be careful not to mess up your teammates, as some heroes like Tyrael with Sanctification end up wasting their ultimates if used at the same time as your Ley Line.
At Level 13, the choice has to be Quickening. In conjunction with your Level 1 talent, Stable Portal, this allows you to have a portal down permanently, as the duration and the cooldown sync up. This allows you to save teammates more often, as you should have no cooldown on Portal, unless you end up wasting it, and it can also allow you to use portals more aggressively, as you can easily have another one ready for an escape should it time out.
At Level 16, I take Reabsorption. This adds a lot more power to Force of Will and rewards really good usage. Correct timing can provide massive healing to your teammates. Blocking more damage obviously means more healing, so make sure to be aware of who is going to output the most on the enemy team, so you can be sure your timing is correct, as it becomes a lot more important at this point in the game.
At Level 20, I always choose Medivh Cheats! This adds even more usability to Ley Line Seal. People also don’t normally think about it, which can allow you to set up huge wombos or engages with clever bounce usage. Additionally, you can use it to isolate some enemy team members longer than others, as the bounce can end up stopping some enemies 1 or 2 seconds later. This can be team fight winning on its own, as it can allow you to focus important members who are coming out of the stasis while tanks or supports remain locked for a few seconds more.
EARLY GAME
The Early Game playstyle of Medivh changes whether you are in a rotation or if you are playing as a solo laner. In the solo lane, generally stay in Raven form, as you cannot be targeted or ganked, so you can soak freely against any lane opponent. If you feel like you can however poke them for free with Arcane Rift, don’t feel hesitant to as if you get consistent harass, the damage can add up quickly. Try to position the wave between yourself and the enemy so you can not only harass them, but also wave clear and push the wave in your favour.
If you are playing Medivh in the rotation, it’s important to be aware of when you can get the most Force of Will value on a teammate. If your Johanna is approaching to clear the wave, you want to shield her as she is using Condemn, to block any poke the enemy team intends to put on her. Once your team is rotating safely, you can then use Raven Form to scout the position of the enemy team, giving your team valuable information. Once you’re aware that the enemy team could be approaching an ally who is playing aggressively, make sure to position yourself at max portal range in your Raven Form, so you can easily quickly drop a shield and a portal on them to get them to safety if it’s required. You can also safely soak against an enemy rotation, as if you are in Raven Form they obviously cannot target you, allowing you to get experience freely. If there is a situation where there is a fight breaking out, don’t be afraid to use Arcane Rift if you’re sure you aren’t being focused. As long as you don’t have to shield or portal yourself, you should be generally safe to poke the enemy.
Once you hit Level 7 and have skilled into The Master’s Touch, make sure to be even more conscious about using Arcane Rift aggressively. It’s important to fulfill the quest as soon as you can as the damage and cooldown it provides is insane.
MID-LATE GAME
In the Mid to Late Game as Medivh being aware of how you should use Ley Line Seal in fights beforehand can make it a lot easier. You should be asking yourself question like, “Should I be engaging for a wombo combo with Ring of Frost or Apocalypse?”, “Should I be looking to reset a fight by using it on Tyrael’s Sanctification?” or “Should I be looking to isolate a Valla from her supports to allow my team to quickly eliminate her?”. Asking yourself these things will allow you to come to the right decision quicker in the moment, and can make team fights to go a lot more smoothly.
From Level 13 with Quickening, you can be a lot more aggressive with your portal usage as you can place them off cooldown to assist your teammates, or yourself, from getting in and out of the fight. Try to be aware of who is outputting the most damage in teamfights and keep an eye on them so you can be sure to time your Force of Will correctly. A good example of this is against Li-Ming. Keeping an eye out for her using her combo will allow you to shield it instantly and prevent a lot of damage on your front line.
Good scouting usage of Raven Form is even more important in these stages of the game, as knowing the enemy's position can allow your team to make even better decisions, especially if you are ahead. If you have completed the Master’s Touch, be aware of how strong you are in a 1v1 scenario. Combined with Force of Will, you can take almost any ranged carry in the game in a straight up fight as Arcane Rift does an insane amount of damage and has an incredibly low cooldown. Keeping this in mind will allow you to use portals aggressively for yourself to eliminate enemy ranged carries before they can do anything about it.
Thanks for reading my DIG University guide on Medivh! Medivh is one of my favourite heroes and I hope you learned something about playing him. If you really want to check out some fun game play, make to watch our recent IEM Katowice performance where we had a great game on Medivh against Misfits on Battlefield of Eternity.Like fellow luminaries Steven Spielberg and George Lucas before him, James Cameron has decided to alter one of his classic films — in this case, Titanic, for the re-release. However, in contrast to the drastic changes made by Spielberg and Lucas that changed entire plot lines (Greedo Shoots First) or props out of ethical concerns (the police searching for E.T. carrying walkie talkies instead of guns), Cameron has decided to make changes to better accurately convey science–specifically, the alignment of the stars. Astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History Neil DeGrasse Tyson pointed out the glaring error with the star sequence of the film in a “snarky email” sent to the director.
Cameron tells UK magazine Culture:
(He) sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year, in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen, and with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in. So I said, ‘All right, you son of a bitch, send me the right stars for the exact time, 4:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, and I’ll put it in the movie.’ So that’s the one shot that has been changed.
In case you’re not familiar with the scene, it’s after Rose lets go of Jack prior to being rescued.
…And she’s staring off into the astronomically-inaccurate nighttime sky.
During a Q&A at Cosmic Quandaries, held at The Palladium in St. Petersburg in 2009, Tyson publicly made the criticism.
“There is only one sky (Rose) shoulda been looking at, and it was the wrong sky!” Tyson observed. “Worse than that, it was not only the wrong sky, the left half of the sky was a mirror reflection of the right half of the sky! So not only was it wrong, it was lazy!”
Watch Tyson’s criticism of Titanic prior to the changes below:
(h/t Gawker via Moviefone)
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comBlunt remarks by the Netherlands' ambassador to Hungary, Gajus Scheltema, have ruptured relations between the two EU member states and prompted Budapest to take "one of the most radical steps in diplomacy" by withdrawing its ambassador from The Hague.
In an interview published Thursday in the Hungarian opposition magazine 168 Ora, Scheltema lambasted Hungary's unwillingness to take part in the EU's plan to relocate asylum seekers, expressed concerns over corruption and press freedom in the country, and decried the Orban government's campaign against billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros.
Read more: Hungary's Orban: 'Ethnic homogeneity' vital for economic success
However, what most enraged Budapest was when he drew parallels between the Hungarian government and the so-called "Islamic State" jihadist group.
Watch video 04:33 Share Refugees mistreated in Hungary Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2ZDFm Refugees mistreated in Hungary
"Here it is always an immediate search for an enemy," he said, accusing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of "creating enemies according to the same principle as globalization losers and religious fanatics."
The interview was published in Hungarian, although it remains unclear in what language it was conducted.
Budapest hits back
Following the interview, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced that Budapest would withdraw its ambassador from The Hague and bar Scheltema from entering any Hungarian ministry or state institution.
"Relations at the level of ambassadors have been suspended indeterminably," Szijjarto said.
Hungary's top diplomat described the decision as "one of the most radical steps in diplomacy," adding that he would ask for the Dutch Foreign Ministry's position on ambassador Scheltema's statements. "We won't settle for an explanation behind closed doors," he said.
Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Scheltema's remarks were "totally unacceptable and impermissible."
"There is no need for such unprecedented statements, neither in bilateral relations nor in Europe," Kovacs said. "We decidedly reject (them) and we expect the Netherlands to take steps in this regard."
Scheltema was reportedly already scheduled to leave his diplomatic post in the near future.
Watch video 04:06 Share Hungarian radicalism on the rise Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2iGfZ Radical Hungarians on the rise
Dutch top diplomat 'embarrassed'
Speaking to reporters later on Friday, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders admitted that he was "embarrassed" by the ambassador's comments and that "that comparisons should not be made."
"For me, it's clear there is no link between terrorism and the actions of the Hungarian government," he told Dutch news agency ANP. "I can't imagine that this is what the ambassador had wanted to say," he added.
Read more: Angela Merkel's MEPs criticized for appeasing Hungary's Viktor Orban
Orban has repeatedly gone head to head with the EU over his hard-line stand on immigration, which he has described as the "Trojan horse of terrorism."
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe Cleaning up Tomáš Rafa began his project "New Nationalism" in 2009 when segregation walls were built in cities in eastern Slovakia. Three years later, he got a permission to organize an event, during which Romani kids from Ostrovany painted the 120-meter-long and 3-meter-high wall that, in the words of the local mayor, prevents goods from being stolen by the people from the settlement.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe Tear down the wall "I wanted to show that the adaptation process needs much more attention and that problems can’t be solved by building a wall," said Rafa about his wall-painting project which also took him to Sečovce, Slovakia. The settlement, pictured here, has been described as the place with the worst social conditions among all Romani villages in Slovakia by the local authorities.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe Rise of the far-right In 2015, a selfie of Lutz Bachmann, the founder of the German anti-Islamic and nationalistic organization PEGIDA, posing as an Adolf Hitler lookalike, went viral in the the German press. This picture was taken by Rafa one year earlier in Dresden, both Pegida’s and Bachmann’s hometown, during a march of far-right extremists.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe Igniting the fire The decision by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to abandon ties with the European Union in favor of Russia triggered a series of demonstrations that eventually evolved into the EuroMaidan protests in early 2014. Rafa went to Ukraine again a few months later, this time to capture the siege of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe Standing against facism "In Germany and Austria, anti-fascist protests have a long tradition. People use them as the last, physical tool of resistance," says Rafa. This picture captures anti-fascist protests against the right-wing populist and national conservative political party FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria), which has strong ties to Germany’s AfD and Marine Le Pen’s National Front.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe March to the gallows Left-wing and right-wing protesters clashed in Prague on June 1, 2015. Some anti-Islamic sympathizers came to the demonstration carrying gallows and were allowed to march with them through the city center. The police failed to intervene and was heavily criticized by the public, politicians and media. To this day no one has been charged.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe Protecting their freedom Thousands of people gathered in Budapest recently to protest against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist policies after he pushed through legislation that may result in shutting down the Central European University founded by US-Hungarian investor George Soros who is one of Orban's main opponents.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe Smoke screen Thousands of Poles celebrated the 78th anniversary of the establishment of the Second Polish Republic with red flares and national flags, but several far-right groups used the occasion to protest against globalization, refugees, Islam, and the European Union. Author: Jan Tomes
dm/rt (AP, dpa, AFP)In a confrontational and much-needed LewRockwell.com article, Prof. William Anderson launched a counter-attack against mainstream academic economists’ refusal to consider seriously the Austrian School’s theory of money. Despite the fact that Ludwig von Mises’ 1912 theory of money explains booms and busts better than rival theories, and despite the fact that Austrian School disciples predicted the most recent bust when academic economists denied that such a bust was imminent, Austrian School economists get no respect. I could almost hear Aretha Franklin as I read Anderson’s essay.
I would put it somewhat differently. I would say that the nine-decade blackout on Mises’ theory of money has fared better than the seven-decade blackout on his theory of why socialist economic calculation is impossible (no capital markets), and therefore socialism as a system will fail.
What rescued Mises’ theory of socialism was the bankruptcy of the Soviet Union in 1988, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the suicide of the Soviet Union in 1991. Reality had undeniably triumphed. So, grudgingly, there was a new willingness by a few mainstream economists to give Mises’ 1920 essay, “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth,” at least a footnote. One old-line socialist even admitted in print that Mises had been right. Robert Heilbroner, who became a multimillionaire from royalties on his undergraduate textbook on the history of modern economic thought, The Worldly Philosophers, which did not mention Mises, said so in print. He made his admission in a non-economics setting: The New Yorker (Sept. 10, 1990).
So far, there has not been a breakdown of the monetary system comparable to the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union always was, in Richard Grenier’s magnificent phrase, Bangladesh with missiles. Because it had power |
not connected to a display) To edit and execute python scripts A way to see the GUI generated by those python scripts (hard to do without a display) Monitor the image onscreen near the headless unit (very hard to do without a display)
With these needs in mind, VNC and X11 forwarding to my stationary computer were not going to work. I found a tutorial on X11 forwarding using JuiceSSH and an X11 server app on my Android phone, but the port forwarding setup never seemed to direct it back to the device properly, and I would have had to rely on using the soft keyboard to start the python script each time anyway.
While going back through the motions of setting up X11 forwarding in PuTTY, I thought about what would happen if I forwarded to someplace other than my desktop.
As it turns out, that gave me exactly what I needed to work in my situation.
I'll walk you through how I did that:
*Disclaimer, this is geared towards windows users with android phones. As in it won't work for anybody with any other combination of devices.
Download the X server application from Google Play.
Once installed, open the application and wait for the blue screen to show up with your device's info.
Open up PuTTY on your Windows machine.
Fill in the Host Name field with your Pi's IP address.
Configure PuTTY to forward all X11 traffic to your Android phone by entering the IP address shown after the DISPLAY= on your phone (include the display number after the colon, as shown below)
Open the connection (or click back to the Session screen to save it as a preset) and log in to your pi.
Type startlxde & in the command line and wait for all of the warning messages to flood through and the Raspberry Pi's desktop to appear on your phone. In case you are wondering if/why the ampersand is important - This instructs the system to execute the command in the background. This allows you to continue typing commands even if the last one is still running.
in the command line and wait for all of the warning messages to flood through and the Raspberry Pi's desktop to appear on your phone. In case you are wondering if/why the ampersand is important - This instructs the system to execute the command in the background. This allows you to continue typing commands even if the last one is still running. Run any command you want, and have the GUI appear on your phone. If the command you run has no GUI element to it, it will not show up on the screen. If the command you run has a GPU dependent GUI, it probably won't work. Here is an example of a pygame application started over SSH.
Check out the configuration options of the X server on the Google Play page. There are steps to turn off the annoying mouse gyroscope control there. To change the screen resolution/text size, restart the app and tap on the black loading screen when prompted.
That should get you started in viewing your Raspberry Pi X session on an Android phone. The benefits of this procedure are:
Versatility of a physical keyboard
Access to Windows at your desk/couch/wherever
Mobility of the display
A great guide on using PuTTY to forward X11, which this was based off of, can be found on the UT Dallas wiki.Before marrying Rick Santorum, Karen Santorum lived with a pro-choice Ob-Gyn 40 years her senior. Today, Santorum the candidate believes the government should be able to ban contraception and abortion, and criminalize extra-marital sex and gay sex among other things. The Senator’s fervent desire to deny the rest of us the sexual and reproductive choices that his own wife once enjoyed is breathtakingly hypocritical and cruel.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was amended at 3:02 pm on Monday, January 9th, 2012 to correct an error. A case cited in the original version as Lawrence v Kansas should have been Lawrence v Texas. The text now reflects the correct citation.
“When she met Rick, Karen was living with Tom Allen, an OBGYN who in the early 1970s cofounded Pittsburgh’s first abortion clinic. It was a somewhat unusual pairing. Allen was the doctor who delivered Karen. She began living with him while an undergraduate nursing student at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University. She was in her early 20s, he was in his 60s…..‘When she moved out to go be with Rick, she told me I’d like him, that he was pro-choice’ said Allen.’”
The above quote is from an article on Senator Rick Santorum first published in a Philadelphia weekly in 2005, with similar material later repeated in U.S.News and World Report. Normally, I feel that the past sexual history of a candidate’s spouse should be off limits to journalists and bloggers. But given Santorum’s rising fortunes as a serious candidate for the presidency, and in particular, his astonishing views on sexuality and contraception, I believe that attention to Karen Santorum’s past is warranted in this instance.
Here, as reported by the journalist Michelle Goldberg, is a summary of the Senator’s position on these topics: “It’s [contraception] not OK. It’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” Included in this is birth control used by married couples. Sex, he said, is ‘supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal and unitive, but also procreative. Most presidents don’t talk about such things’, he said, but ‘these are important public policy issues. They have profound impact on the health of our society.’”
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Santorum also believes the government should be able to ban adultery and gay sex. Here is his comment to the press, expressing his disapproval of the 2003 Lawrence v Texas decision, in which the Supreme Court overturned Texas’ anti-sodomy law:
“And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does.”
In recent days, Santorum has restated his belief that states have the right to outlaw birth control. As he told ABC news, “The state has a right to do that… It is not a constitutional right, the state has the right to pass whatever statues they have.” (The Senator, trained as a lawyer, evidently has forgotten, or chooses to ignore, that in the 1965 Supreme Court decision, Griswold v Connecticut, the Court found such a constitutional right).
What does all this have to with Karen Santorum’s past, before her marriage to the Senator? In simplest terms, Mrs. Santorum was living in a situation–unmarried but cohabitating, and presumably using birth control—that has become only more common in American society since the late 1980s, when she lived with Dr. Allen. (Indeed, the only difference between Karen Santorum and millions of other Americans in similar circumstances, then and now, was the unusually large gap in age between her and her partner).
Currently married couples form less than half the households in the U.S. (with many cohabitating couples eventually going on to marry, though obviously, as in the case of Karen Santorum, not all do). Moreover, premarital sex, whether or not it takes place in the context of a cohabitating household, is nearly universal in the U.S. and has been so for decades. With respect to contraception, some 98 percent of American women who have had sexual intercourse report using contraception at least some of the time to prevent pregnancy. With respect to abortion, about which, if the article cited above is correct, apparently both Santorums once approved, approximately one out of three American women will have this procedure by the age of 45.
In short, Rick Santorum’s stated policy positions, which include not only his well known obsession with abolishing legal abortion, but also his opposition to birth control and all nonprocreative sexual acts, are greatly out of step with the lives of the vast majority of Americans. Clearly, the Santorums have changed their views over time on the issues of premarital sex and contraception as well as abortion, moving in a far more conservative direction. The couple has attributed these changes to a deepening religious faith, and such new beliefs are of course their right. But the Senator’s fervent desire to deny the rest of us the sexual and reproductive choices that his own wife once enjoyed is breathtakingly hypocritical and cruel."The Supreme Court today affirmed what we know -- domestic violence escalates and is often deadly. Ensuring that convicted abusers do not have access to firearms will save lives," said Kim Gandy, president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
Everytown for Gun Safety legal director Elizabeth Avore called the decision an important win for public safety.
"Access to a gun is what often turns domestic abuse into murder," she said in a statement. "That’s why the Supreme Court’s rejection of dangerous arguments that would have eviscerated federal gun laws and allowed dangerous convicted abusers to legally possess guns in more than two-thirds of states is so significant."
Judge Judy Harris Kluger, executive director of Sanctuary for Families, applauded the decision, but noted that loopholes in current law allow convicted abusers to skirt federal gun restrictions.
"Today’s ruling is an important victory, but without mandatory background checks on all gun purchasers, domestic abusers still can legally obtain guns without further scrutiny," she said in a statement.SEATTLE, Wash. -- Sunday morning, there will be a special dedication for a memorial crosswalk at the corner of Boren Avenue and Howell Street.
It’s the same crosswalk Williams used before he was shot and killed by Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk 6 years ago.
Williams, a Native American woodcarver, was shot and killed in August 30, 2010.
The use of deadly force was widely questioned but no criminal charges were filed.
The mayor is expected to be there Sunday along with Seattle police and members of John T Williams’s family.
Crews put the finishing touches on this new community crosswalk Saturday. The white stripes of the old crosswalk have been replaced will with a repeating design of a “White Deer Person.”
“The whole message is about calm and peace,” said the chairperson of the John T. Williams Organizing Committee.
Supporters hope the community crosswalk conveys a message of peace.
“We ask for no retributions against police officers, no harm against others, that we learn to live together as a common people,” said Hollingsworth.
The crosswalk is a collaboration between the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Indian Health Board.
Community members are invited to attend the ground breaking ceremony at 8 a.m. Sunday.A father who wanted to stop subsidizing rent for his 20-something kids had a victory in court — the judge threw out an agreement that he and his ex-wife made, requiring him to pay nearly $4,000 a month for his gainfully employed children’s living expenses.
According to a court ruling reported in the New York Post, Jeffrey Liberman began subsidizing the expenses of his son and daughter in 2010, when they both lived at home, in order to “assist them in getting on their feet and becoming financially independent.” When both kids moved out, Jeffrey and his then-wife, Julie, a stay-at-home mom, signed a contract stating that Jeffrey would continue to give each kid $1,900 a month. In return, the Post says, Julie agreed to try to resolve the couple’s marital problems.
STORY: College Student Blows Through $90K College Fund, Blames Parents
The agreement, according to the Post, said Jeffrey would pay the monthly stipends until the children — now 28 and 26 — turned 30, moved in with a partner, or got married. But when Julie filed for divorce, Jeffrey pulled the plug on the financial help, even though none of the original conditions for stopping payment had been met. Instead, he gave each kid a lump sum of $10,000 and ended the monthly installments.
Julie brought her ex to court, hoping a judge would enforce the original agreement, but Justice Sharon Gianelli wasn’t having it, the Post reports, especially since the Liberman kids are both “gainfully employed … adults” who went to Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania on tuitions paid by their dad. She said the original agreement was “one-sided, invalid and unenforceable,” according to the Post.
STORY: 21-Year-Old Sues Parents for College Tuition — and Wins
Neither Jeffrey Liberman, his children, nor either of the party’s lawyers responded to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.
Randall Kessler, a family law attorney and author of Divorce: Protect Yourself, Your Kids and Your Future, who was not involved in this case, tells Yahoo Parenting he’s surprised by the judge’s ruling. While couples or ex-couples are not legally obligated to financially support adult children, Kessler says it’s unusual for a judge to throw out an agreement made between parents. “These are two adults who made a decision, they reached an agreement — who is the judge to say, ‘You didn’t know what you are doing’?” Kessler says. “The parents are the people who know the kids best, they reached an agreement, why not enforce it?”
Judges face so many family law cases that whenever parents do concur on something, judges usually enforce that contract unless it’s unethical or crazy, Kessler says. This agreement doesn’t fall in either of those categories, he adds. “Crazy would be, ‘I’m only going to give them college tuition money if they have straight A’s and will cut them off for an A-,’ and I’ve seen people try to get away with things far crazier than even that,” Kessler says. “This sets a bad precedent — if every one of my clients that reaches an agreement knows that one day a judge can throw it out, it could encourage other people to try and get out of agreements they don’t feel like abiding by anymore.”
In this case, Jeffrey’s lawyer, Evan Schein, says his client, who has a “good relationship with his children,” felt cutting them off was for their own good. “He did support them throughout their lives,” Schein told the New York Post. “But he did want them to be independent and he did feel like it was time.”
(Photo: Getty Images)
Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? Email us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.Calling it the most sophisticated malware-driven espionage campaign ever discovered, researchers said they have uncovered an attack dating back to at least 2007 that infected computers running the Windows, OS X, and Linux operating systems of 380 victims in 31 countries.
The "Mask" campaign, which gets its name from a string of text found in one of the malware samples, includes a variety of components used to siphon encryption keys, key strokes, Skype conversations, and other types of sensitive data off infected computers. There is also evidence that the Spanish-speaking attackers had malware that ran on devices running both Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile operating systems. Victims include government agencies, embassies, research institutions, private equity firms, activists, energy companies, and companies in other industries. The sophistication of Mask makes it likely that the campaign is the work of attackers sponsored by a well-resourced nation-state, said researchers from Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security company that discovered it.
Mask—or "Careto" as its Spanish slang translation appears in source code analyzed by Kaspersky—joins a pantheon of other state-sponsored malware campaigns with names including Stuxnet, Flame, Duqu, Red October, Icefog, and Gauss. Unlike more opportunistic crimeware campaigns that generate revenue by targeting anyone with an Internet-connected computer, these "advanced persistent threats" (APTs) are much more determined. They're tailored threats that are aimed at specific people or organizations who possess unique data or capabilities with strategic national or business value.
"With Careto, we describe yet another sophisticated cyberespionage operation that has been going on undiscovered for more than five years," Kaspersky Lab researchers wrote in a detailed analysis published Monday. "In terms of sophisticated, we put Careto above Duqu, Gauss, RedOctober, or Icefog, making it one of the most complex APTs we observed."
The attackers relied on highly targeted spear phishing e-mails to lure targeted individuals to malicious websites. In some cases, attackers impersonated well-known websites, such as those operated by The Guardian and The Washington Post. One of the exploits recently used by the attackers targeted CVE-2012-0773, a highly critical vulnerability in Adobe's Flash Player that made it possible to bypass the sandbox security protection Google Chrome and other browsers rely on to prevent websites from executing malicious code on end-user computers.
"What makes 'The Mask' special is the complexity of the toolset used by the attackers," the Kaspersky analysis stated. "This includes an extremely sophisticated malware, a rootkit, a bootkit, 32- and 64-bit Windows versions, Mac OS X and Linux versions, and possibly versions of Android and iPad/iPhone (Apple iOS)."
Kaspersky researchers first stumbled onto Mask after noticing that it exploited a vulnerability in older versions of Kaspersky antivirus products to hide itself. The vulnerability has been patched for an unspecified amount of time, but attackers were exploiting the vulnerability on machines that continued to run older versions of the Kaspersky software.
Like Stuxnet and many other pieces of malware used in the last five years, Mask code was digitally signed, in this case with a valid certificate issued to a fake company called TecSystem Ltd. Such digital credentials are designed to bypass warnings delivered by Windows and other operating systems before executing programs that haven't been vouched for by credentials issued by a recognized certificate authority. The malware uses encrypted HTTP or HTTPS channels when communicating with command and control servers.
Researchers were able to take control of some of the domain names or IP addresses hosting the control servers that Mask-infected computers reported to. In all, the researchers observed 1,000 separate IP addresses in 31 countries connect. They also found traces of 380 different victim identifiers designated by the Mask naming convention. The Mask campaign was abruptly shut down last week within hours of being revealed in a short blog post.
"For Careto, we observed a very high degree of professionalism in the operational procedures of the group behind this attack, including monitoring of their infrastructure, shutdown of the operation, avoiding curious eyes through access rules, using wiping instead of deletion for log files and so on," the Kaspersky analysis noted. "This is not very common in APT operations, putting the Mask into the 'elite' APT groups section."
Post updated to add "slang" to the third paragraph.Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
More than 25,000 venomous spiders have descended upon a small town – leaving experts baffled and arachnophobes terrified.
It is unknown why the brand new species of tarantula has taken such a liking to Maningrida, Australia.
The town – found 300 miles east of Darwin – is crawling with the eight-legged freaks.
Arachnologist, Dr Robert Raven, however, thinks the town's hostile takeover could be invaluable to medical research.
“Normally, I find two or three hundred spiders in one spot,” he said.
"Presumably, something is missing that would hammer them or there is something good [like a food source]."
He added: "It's one of the beauties of science, being able to say 'I don't know'."
Fortunately for the – surely – doomed town of Maningrida, the spiders are not venomous enough to kill humans.
(Image: Queensland Museum)
"One of the traditional owners was bitten in eastern Australia and had six to eight hours of vomiting," Dr Raven said.
The spider expert did suggest, however, that bites from the beasts could be painful and do damage beyond the venom.
He concludes: "These are not shallow bites. Long fangs can potentially do damage by ripping tissue."
While the tarantulas are yet to be officially named, they have been dubbed 'diving tarantulas' after their ability to create air bubbles to survive underwater.
Dr Raven is now looking for some poor souls to go and research the tarantula in the Australian town.
And, when asked why he didn't want to continue the research himself, he said: "Someone young can take over, you'd need to be able to run."
Though he did suggest the running was for "buffalos and pigs" as opposed to the venomous spiders.
Yeah, right.Mangled butts have been turning up all over NLSScirclejerk and the inhabitants are scared. Ten murders in ten weeks, all committed with a mom's knife, and still nobody has a clue who the salty killer is.
Ryan 'Northernlion' Letourneau is a scummy and shrek-like private detective with a fondness for DONKEH. He doesn't know it yet but he is the only one who can stop the scum killer.
When his husband, Josh Smith, is kidnapped, Ryan Letourneau finds himself thrown into the centre of the investigation. His only clue is a dank xbox controller for FPS on PC.
He enlists the help of a cute fishmonger called 'Rockleesmile' Reineke.
Can Reineke help Letourneau overcome his DOTA 2 addiction and find the answers before the mad because he's bad killer and his deadly mom's knife strike again?The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a meme about a lovely milkshake-drinking duck whose goodwill is almost instantly squandered when it's revealed the duck is racist. The premise of the meme is that everything you love on the internet will one day let you down.
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To be clear, there is no actual duck drinking milkshakes; it's a joke in a tweet. Like anything else heavily steeped in internet culture, the joke, first posted by Twitter user To be clear, there is no actual duck drinking milkshakes; it's a joke in a tweet. Like anything else heavily steeped in internet culture, the joke, first posted by Twitter user @pixelatedboat last year, is inherently absurd on its face, but it's also a particularly effective commentary on the reactionary nature of internet discourse. Consider it an addendum to Warhol's maxim about fame in the future; he just never predicted the second act when each of our skeletons are dragged out of the closet, owing to a lengthy internet paper trail of poor behavior.
The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist — Pixelated Boat (@pixelatedboat) — Pixelated Boat (@pixelatedboat) June 12, 2016
"I can't remember, exactly, but my best guess now is it was probably the Chewbacca Mom," @piexlatedboat, a comics artist from Australia, who asked not to use his real name, explained of the inspiration behind it. Chewbacca Mom, a woman who went viral for laughing in a mask — it was a much more innocent time last year— later "I can't remember, exactly, but my best guess now is it was probably the Chewbacca Mom," @piexlatedboat, a comics artist from Australia, who asked not to use his real name, explained of the inspiration behind it. Chewbacca Mom, a woman who went viral for laughing in a mask — it was a much more innocent time last year— later came under heavy criticism for a misguided attempt at fomenting racial harmony. She got Milkshake Ducked.
"It was a thing that had happened a few times that seemed to be a trend," he went on. "I was trying to come up with a joke that would sum it up because I hadn't seen that joke done before, so I was trying to come up with the most absurd version of that that I could."
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At first the joke didn't take off.
"I think it got a few hundred likes or something," he says. "I thought it was a pretty good joke. Usually I tweet something and I instantly hate it, but I thought, eh, I did that one pretty well. It didn't do as well as it should have. But it took a while to catch on."
Milkshake Duck is doing the rounds again, did someone fuck up real bad? — Pixelated Boat (@pixelatedboat) — Pixelated Boat (@pixelatedboat) May 26, 2017The first rain of the new year fell very early Thursday morning and is expected to continue throughout the weekend as a storm system moves through the country, leading to fears of flash floods in dry desert areas.
Thursday’s rain, which began in the south and east, is expected to spread to the rest of the country along with heavy thundershowers, ending the several-month dry period.
The rains could quickly overwhelm dry riverbeds in the Negev desert and areas around the Dead Sea, leading to flash floods that have in the past trapped drivers and hikers.
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Forecasters say the rain will be accompanied by an unseasonable spike in the mercury and high winds.
Temperatures are expected to climb as high as 35°C (95°F) in Tiberias, 32°C (89°F) in Beersheba, 30°C (86°F) in Tel Aviv and 29°C (84°F) in Jerusalem on Thursday, several degrees above the seasonal average, according to the Israel Meteorological Service.
Winds could reach 50 kph (30 mph) by Thursday afternoon and swimmers are being advised to stay out of the sea, with swells expected to reach as high as two meters (seven feet) in the afternoon.
Temperatures are expected to begin to drop to seasonal levels Friday as the rain gradually tapers off, though flash flood warnings will remain in effect for dry riverbeds in the eastern and southern parts of the country.Hybrid graphene plasmonic waveguide geometry
The most straightforward HGPWM geometry modulated by the Pauli blocking effect (Fig. 1a) is based on the classical SPP configuration and is shown in Fig. 1b, top inset, where the gold strip (yellow colour), which supports the SPP propagation and serves as a backgate, is covered by a hexagonal boron-nitride (hBN) flake (purple colour), acting as a dielectric spacer and atomically smooth substrate for graphene, and a graphene flake (black colour). However, the SPP mode in such a waveguide configuration is, away from the surface plasmon resonance in the visible, only weakly bound to the metal surface and features primarily transverse electromagnetic fields, which do not excite currents in graphene, while in-plane fields (which do interact with the graphene in-plane conductivity) are negligibly small in the infrared29. Hence, the classical HGPWM configuration, producing only very weak graphene-related absorption (Supplementary Discussion 1A) and promising thereby only very weak modulation by gating, can hardly be used in practice. Attempting to enhance in-plane field components in the graphene layer, we introduced a nanostructured (corrugated) part of the plasmonic waveguide (Methods) so as to produce longitudinal near fields generated by the SPP mode propagating along the corrugated part of waveguide (see middle inset of Fig. 1b). It is however clear that the expected enhancement of in-plane field components is quite limited as the metal surface corrugation has to be shallow to not introduce significant additional propagation losses by scattering. Finally, we decided to make use of the wedge SPP mode supported by the edge of planar section of the waveguide30,31 (see bottom inset of Fig. 1b,c). This mode, in addition to enhanced in-graphene-plane fields near the edge of the strip that should result in higher modulation depth induced by graphene gating (Supplementary Discussions 1 and 5 and Supplementary Fig. 4), has superior field confinement characteristics, which is essential when considering potential applications to the surface plasmon circuitry. Figure 1d provides a general outline of modulation experiments: a non-transparent gold grating couples light into a plasmon-propagating mode that can be affected by gated graphene placed on the top of dielectric spacer and then running plasmons are decoupled into light through the transparent grating. Such configuration allows one to decrease the crosstalk between input and output lights, see Methods.
Figure 1: Principle of hybrid graphene plasmonic waveguide modulators. (a) Optical Pauli blocking expressed in terms of graphene relative conductivity. (b) Sketches of three types of plasmonic modes under investigation—flat, corrugated and wedge plasmons. White arrows indicate approximate direction of electric field. (c) 3D rendering of the experiment with the wedge plasmon mode. (d) The schematic of experiment where non-transparent grating couples light into plasmon modes (flat, corrugated or wedge), which can be affected by gated graphene, black layer, placed on the top of dielectric spacer (a flake of boron nitride, purple layer) and then be decoupled into light through the transparent grating. Full size image
All three studied plasmon–polariton modes—flat plasmons (FPs), corrugated plasmons (CPs) and wedge plasmons (WPs)—can be excited by moving the incident light beam to different parts of the coupler (Fig. 2a). An optical micrograph of one of our devices studied in this work is shown in Fig. 2b along with outlines demonstrating positions of hBN and graphene flakes. We have checked operation of plasmonic waveguides in both transmission and leakage radiation32,33 modes. Leakage radiation detection of plasmonic propagating modes for wedge and FPs are shown in Fig. 2c. Figure 2c confirms that the plasmonic modes were successfully excited and propagated along the waveguide. For completeness, Fig. 2d provides a scanning electron microscope micrograph of an area marked in Fig. 2b by the blue dashed box where the semitransparent decoupler and a part of the nanostructured area of the waveguide are shown. As preliminary experiments, we performed AFM studies of our samples to find thickness of hBN crystals (which turned out to be ∼50–70 nm, see Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Discussion 2) and hence to deduce the gating voltage necessary to induce optical Pauli blocking at the telecom wavelength (∼10–16 V). We also measured dc graphene resistance as a function of gating voltage in flat and corrugated regions of the waveguide with an idea to evaluate the position of the charge neutrality point (CNP) in graphene (V CNP ∼0 V), see Supplementary Fig. 2 and Supplementary Discussion 3. Alternatively, the CNP has been evaluated from Raman measurements described in Supplementary Fig. 3 and Supplementary Discussion 4.
Figure 2: Plasmon modes of hybrid graphene plasmonic waveguide modulators. (a) The schematics of a studied plasmonic waveguide. The red, green and blue arrows represent WP mode, FP mode and CP mode, respectively. (b) The optical micrograph of a typical hybrid graphene plasmonic modulator studied in this work. The red, green and blue arrows represent WP, FP and CP modes, respectively. An area enclosed by green dotted line represents hBN. An area enclosed by dotted brown line represents graphene. Scale bar, 50 μm. (c) Leakage radiation detection of wedge, upper panel, and flat, lower panel, plasmon-propagating modes. The wedge mode is given in both raw and Fourier filtered images. (d) A scanning electron micrograph of an area shown in b by the dotted box that shows corrugated waveguide and the semitransparent decoupling grating. Full size image
Modulation of plasmonic waveguides by graphene gating
Here we describe the main results of our experiments. The plasmonic waveguides were excited using telecom laser providing ∼3 mW of power at wavelength λ=1.5 μm. We measured the dynamic response of our modulators by applying an offset square-wave voltage to the back gate with peak-to-peak amplitude and dc component. Figure 3 shows the modulation-depth characteristics both as a function of and. Comparing the modulation depth of FP and CP modes (Fig. 3a), one can see that the modulation effect is substantially stronger for CP: the CP mode gives around an eightfold increase in modulation depth compared with FP (for large ). Here is set to 7.6 and 6 V for the measurements of the FP and CP mode modulation depths, respectively. For both FP and CP we see an approximately symmetrical increase in modulation depth with, which we attribute to being the positions of the CNP (for the FP mode this is V CNP ≈2.7 V; for the CP mode this is V CNP ≈0.9 V). For other samples the modulation for FP modes compared with CP modes was even less pronounced (see Supplementary Fig. 5 and Supplementary Discussion 6). A drastic improvement in the modulation depth is expected from the increased interaction of graphene with electric field of the CP mode. Indeed, the longitudinal component of the electric field of FP is rather weak, whereas the presence of corrugations creates strong local longitudinal fields near ridges (see the sketch of the mode on Fig. 1b and, for example, ref. 34).
Figure 3: Operation of hybrid graphene plasmonic waveguide modulators. (a) Modulated AC transmission of the waveguide expressed in dB μm−1 as a function of gating voltage for the flat, green data points, and the corrugated, blue data points, plasmon modes. The peak-to-peak amplitude of AC modulation was 7.6 and 6 V for FP and CP modes, respectively, the frequency 6 Hz. The filled and empty data points represent two different devices. The inset shows the position where the plasmonic modes were measured. (b) Modulated AC transmission of the waveguide expressed in dB μm−1 as a function of gating voltage for the wedge, red data points, and the corrugated, blue data points, plasmon modes. The amplitude of AC modulation was 6 V, the frequency 6 Hz. Notice the 10-fold increase of the modulation signal for wedge mode. The filled and empty data points represent two different devices. The inset shows the position where the plasmonic modes were measured. (c) Theoretical fit to the experimental data for the wedge mode modulation as a function of gating obtained for the following parameters: peak-to-peak modulation amplitude 6 V, frequency 6 Hz. (d) Modulated AC transmission of the waveguide expressed in dB μm−1 as a function of AC peak-to-peak amplitude for the wedge plasmon mode, red data points, and theoretical fit to the experimental data. The dc offset was 6 V, the frequency 6 Hz. Error bars were estimated as a noise level in the absence of AC modulation and were combined with random errors whenever repeated measurements were performed. Full size imagePremier Kathleen Wynne says she will sacrifice the lynchpin of her last election mandate — the Ontario pension plan she once promised voters — to seal a CPP deal with the rest of Canada if they agree to move quickly and robustly. That means getting an improved Canada Pension Plan in place by the beginning of 2018 — no more endless delays — even if that means agreeing to phase it in more slowly, with more modest increases, than Ontario had first planned.
Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa chats with Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau in December of last year. ( Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
A historic compromise is taking shape on the eve of closed doors talks in Vancouver this weekend on an expanded CPP that has eluded the country’s political leadership since 2008. We won’t know until Monday whether Wynne gets her way. Either way, it’s a win for pension reform. If talks collapse, Wynne’s ambitious Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP), which roughly doubles today’s paltry CPP (now limited to $13,110 a year) will take effect in 2018 as scheduled — boosting retirement security for many Ontarians.
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Alternatively, if nationwide negotiations succeed thanks largely to the premier’s tight timeline, the country could be on the cusp of a long overdue, pan-Canadian pension overhaul. Albeit watered down to roughly two-thirds of what the ORPP offers, a compromise deal would still be a victory after the setbacks and stalling tactics of recent years that left CPP payouts lagging the industrialized world, a half-century after its inception. That the federal and provincial finance ministers are hewing, grudgingly, to Ontario’s negotiating deadline attests to Wynne’s high stakes pension politics. “We’ve got every government across the country and the federal government talking about this — we need to address it and we need to address it now,” Wynne said in an interview Friday. “It’s a very hopeful moment for the country.” It’s a moment that has been nearly a decade in the making, at a time when traditional private sector workplace (defined benefit) plans are disappearing as companies opt out of the risk and liability of backstopping their own employees’ retirements.
Now, with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals scrambling to fulfil their own 2015 campaign promise for pension improvements, a more robust compromise is in the air — bigger and better than previous efforts. Much of the credit will go to Ontario’s gambit, leveraging its own ORPP to force the hand of other provinces. “In the end if we get a CPP enhancement it will be at least in part because we’ve been willing in Ontario to move ahead on this,” Wynne argues.
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She’s not alone in her view. Canadian Labour Congress president Hassan Yussuff, who has lobbied tirelessly for a doubling of the CPP since 2008, credits Wynne for keeping pension reform on the agenda after the federal Tories tried to extinguish it. “Kathleen Wynne should be given a lot of credit for her leadership but more importantly she should also be praised for showing some ability to compromise,” he told me. Changes to the CPP require the support of Ottawa and seven provinces representing two-thirds of the country, which means Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and B.C. are crucial players in the |
and nutritional balance.
Alternative Medicine by Burton Goldberg, page 1014
"In other words, caffeine affects your body just like any drug: Addiction and withdrawal"
Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. Studies show that abstinence induces a withdrawal syndrome of fatigue, headache and drowsiness within 24 hours and lasts about a week, on giving up the habit.
Bartrams Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Thomas Bartram, page 83
The second way that caffeine contributes to depression is, of course, the withdrawal reaction, the most prevalent symptoms being headache, depression, and fatigue. Three facts are important to grasp in regard to withdrawal. First of all, each of the symptoms compounds or magnifies the depressive effect. Secondly, withdrawal can occur even in light caffeine users. And third, withdrawal reactions can be evident even when caffeine is withheld for just a few hours. Some people feel depressed or anxious if they're simply late for their morning or afternoon cup. That's not only a powerful motivation to consume the beverage, but it also creates an often-unidentified source of background stress.
Caffeine Blues By Stephen Cherniske MS, page 112
Almost all of the research that has been done on caffeine agrees that it is definitely physically addictive. It is a mood-altering central nervous system stimulant. Though milder in its effects, caffeine manipulates the same neurochemical channels that amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin do. Overuse of caffeine can result in a variety of symptoms, including irregular heartbeat, sleeplessness, headaches, nervousness, tremors, irritability, and depression. Withdrawing from heavy caffeine use can cause symptoms, too, principally a nagging headache that is unaffected by aspirin or other over-the-counter painkillers, as well as fatigue, muscle pain, lethargy, and feelings of depression. To break a caffeine addiction, therefore, it is best to cut down gradually to avoid an uncomfortable withdrawal period.
Prescription For Dietary Wellness by Phyllis A Balch, page 230
It's this "more" that is a double-edged sword. The initial high from caffeine is followed by mild withdrawal symptoms, one of which is fatigue. A vicious cycle can result as you drink more coffee to prevent the inevitable letdown. The fatigue, an irritable or depressed mood, and reduced work performance associated with caffeine withdrawal can begin within hours of the last cup and can last up to a week or more. People's tolerance to caffeine varies widely. Withdrawal symptoms are reported in some people even with small amounts of daily caffeine, such as one to two cups, while other people can tolerate higher doses with no problems.
Food & Mood By Elizabeth Somer MA RD, page 105
Caffeine, which has come to be many Americans' "drug of choice," is highly addictive. A number of people suffer severe withdrawal symptomsheadache, fatigue, depression, muscle painswhen they abruptly stop their coffee or indeed their caffeinated tea intake. Caffeine also gives some people headaches and makes others quite anxious. Coffee in particular irritates the stomach and may stimulate the development of cysts in women's breasts.
Manifesto For A New Medicine By James S Gordon MD, page 155
Caffeine is clearly addictive, completely unregulated, and its presence in our foods and beverages is often hidden! Almost daily I see a patient whose symptoms are made worse by the consumption of caffeine. The drug contributes to palpitations, panic attacks, hypoglycemia, gastritis, fatigue, insomnia, and PMS, to name a few. Some people are so sensitive to caffeine that they don't realize a fruit drink with hidden caffeine can cause their symptoms.
Caffeine Blues By Stephen Cherniske MS, page 10
Many people are addicted to caffeine. While studies attempting to prove that caffeine is implicated in everything from heart disease to high blood pressure have never been conclusive, I believe that the damage excessive caffeine consumption does can't be ignored. Caffeine wreaks havoc on your metabolism and creates a real stress that could precipitate symptoms including headaches, fatigue, irritability, inability to concentrate, depression, and nervousness.
Natural Prescriptions by Dr Robert M Giller, page 10
Telling whether you are addicted to caffeine is simple, says Dr. Griffiths. Just give up your caffeine sourcescoffee, tea, soft drinks for a couple of days and see if you feel tired, headachy, unmotivated, grumpy and depressed. Headaches and fatigue are the classic signs of caffeine deprivation.
Food Your Miracle Medicine by Jean Carper, page 277
A significant cause of general fatigue is caffeine withdrawal. Since millions of Americans have caffeine addictions, caffeine-related fatigue is a common problem. When a person accustomed to large quantities of caffeine suddenly limits his or her intake, the result will be fatigue, probably accompanied by a headache. Eliminating dependence upon coffee and other caffeinated products is crucial to maintaining health and avoiding debilitating bouts with fatigue.
Complete Encyclopedia Of Natural Healing by Gary Null PhD, page 104
Anyone with regular caffeine intake should truly consider withdrawing from their habit until they can reach a state of occasional use and enjoyment. For caffeine detoxification, it is important to support ourselves nutritionally while we eliminate or reduce our intake. If we are clearly addicted to caffeine products or if we become pregnant, we should quit totally. Breaking the habit by tapering down or going "cold turkey" will be better handled with a good diet and adrenal support.
Staying Healthy With Nutrition by Elson M Haas MD, page 942
If your body doesn't get its caffeine quota, it can go through a week or two of withdrawal symptoms, including headaches, fatigue, intense cravings for caffeine, constipation, anxiety, and a dim bulb where you used to have bright ideas.
Alternative Cures by Bill Gottlieb, page 137
It is important for people with hypoglycemic-induced fatigue to alter their diets, incorporating high-fiber, protein-containing complex carbohydrates, such as oatmeal, into their meals, and consuming nutritious snacks during the mid-morning and afternoon. Complex carbohydrates and high-protein (from fish and vegetable sources) diets can also be useful in combating fatigue resulting from caffeine withdrawal.
Complete Encyclopedia Of Natural Healing by Gary Null PhD, page 106
"Although the phenomenon of caffeine withdrawal has been described previously, the present report documents that the incidence of caffeine withdrawal is higher (100 percent of subjects), the daily dose level at which withdrawal occurs is lower (roughly equivalent to the amount of caffeine in a single cup of strong brewed coffee or three cans of caffeinated soft drink), and the range of symptoms experienced is broader (including headache, fatigue and other dysphoric mood changes, muscle pain/stiffness, flu-like feelings, nausea/vomiting and craving for caffeine) than heretofore recognized."
Caffeine Blues By Stephen Cherniske MS, page 189
Cut off from caffeine or limited to considerably less than they're accustomed to, caffeine junkies complain of headaches, depression, difficulty concentrating and fatigue.
The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Women, page 99
Some people run their bodies on caffeine and not on their basic life force and the natural energy of their hormones, such as adrenal and thyroid. Caffeine, although it is not seriously addicting, is very habit forming. It is not particularly good for athletes or anyone seriously interested in their health. Although it may improve muscular work and short-term performance in both physical and mental athletes, it creates depletion by its diuretic nutrients, and foods can help balance this.
Staying Healthy With Nutrition by Elson M Haas MD, page 939
Do not consume any caffeine, alcohol, or sugar. Eating sugar in any formincluding fructose and honeypromotes fatigue, increases pain, and disturbs sleep. If these substances have been a regular part of your diet, your symptoms may actually get worse for a short period as a result of the "withdrawal" effect, but after that, you should experience a noticeable improvement in your condition.
Prescription For Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A Balch CNC and James F Balch MD, page 377
Fatigue is a common symptom when you're quitting caffeine. One way to beat it is to "thoroughly rub your ears and earlobes for a couple of minutes when you wake up in the morning," says Dierauf.
Alternative Cures by Bill Gottlieb, page 138
Headache isn't the only side effect you may experience from quitting caffeine. It's just the most obvious. Your body, which has become accustomed to drug-induced stimulation, needs to recover its natural abundant energy supply. After all, most people consume caffeine to boost their energy levels, so restoring natural energy production once you're off the bean is critical. If you find yourself unable to muster the oomph to face the day, or crippled by "brain fog" that won't clear, you'll get discouraged quickly. Any program for quitting caffeine must provide a variety of successful methods to deal with fatigue so you don't go running back to caffeine.
Caffeine Blues By Stephen Cherniske MS, page 336
Be aware that abrupt cessation of coffee drinking will probably result in symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, including fatigue, headache, and an intense desire for coffee. Fortunately, this withdrawal period doesn't last more than a few days.
Encyclopedia Of Natural Medicine by Michael T Murray MD Joseph L Pizzorno ND, page 368Which One Of These Network TV Bubble Shows Should Be Saved? By Jessica Rawden Random Article Blend
Over at NBC, there are a ton of shows on the bubble. This mostly includes first season shows like State of Affairs, Marry Me, and American Odyssey, but it does also include About A Boy. A few months ago, NBC About a Boy, but the show is the network’s longest-running comedy (wildly) and could come back next year. Which brings us to Constantine, NBC’s oft-discussed freshman comic book series. The rumor mill last week Constantine was cancelled, but the outlet that first reported later retracted its statement. So, there still seems to be a glimmer of hope that the show will return.
Over at Cristela and Resurrection, American Crime, Forever, Agent Carter and Revenge. Secrets and Lies probably could have been tossed on this list, but we’re a little more confident about that one.
Over at CBS, the choices seem pretty easy. While the network has already cancelled programs, The Millers, CSI, Stalker and Battle Creek all have very dim chances. At Fox, it’s Backstrom, Weird Loners and The Following that may get the ax.
It’s always tough when a show you have invested in might be up on a chopping block. Fans get 22 episodes or a few seasons to get to know characters and it’s tough when those characters don’t return in the fall—especially for the people who are watching more than one of the shows on this list. We know it can be tough, but here’s the ultimate question: Which one of this year’s shows with low-ish ratings would you like to see return to TV next season?
If you are looking for an updated list of network cancellations and renewals, head
Network cancellations aren’t an exact science. It’s difficult to predict what a network will do, especially for shows that have avid but not large fanbases, or shows that were well-reviewed but didn’t land enough viewers to automatically land in the renewal safe zone. This season, there are a slew of shows that fit this criteria, and depending on what deals the network is able to work out, some of them will land a renewal and some of them will be sure to be cancelled next month.Over at NBC, there are a ton of shows on the bubble. This mostly includes first season shows like, and, but it does also include. A few months ago, NBC shortened the episode count of, but the show is the network’s longest-running comedy (wildly) and could come back next year. Which brings us to, NBC’s oft-discussed freshman comic book series. The rumor mill last week stated was cancelled, but the outlet that first reported later retracted its statement. So, there still seems to be a glimmer of hope that the show will return.Over at ABC, there are also plenty of shows on the bubble, including programs that got full season orders and shows that received limited season orders, but could still return should the network want to give them another run. Among these are comediesand Galavant, and a slew of dramas likeandprobably could have been tossed on this list, but we’re a little more confident about that one.Over at CBS, the choices seem pretty easy. While the network has already cancelled programs, including andall have very dim chances. At Fox, it’sandthat may get the ax.It’s always tough when a show you have invested in might be up on a chopping block. Fans get 22 episodes or a few seasons to get to know characters and it’s tough when those characters don’t return in the fall—especially for the people who are watching more than one of the shows on this list. We know it can be tough, but here’s the ultimate question: Which one of this year’s shows with low-ish ratings would you like to see return to TV next season?If you are looking for an updated list of network cancellations and renewals, head here. If not, let us know which show you would like to see return in the poll, below. Which One Of These Network TV Bubble Shows Should Be Saved? Stalker
CSI
Battle Creek
Weird Loners
The Following
Backstrom
Revenge
Resurrection
Agent Carter
Galavant
Forever
Cristela
American Crime
State of Affairs
Marry Me
Constantine
American Odyssey
About A Boy Vote RESULTS WANT TO VOTE? Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topWe weren't the only ones who were moved by one seven-year-old fan's take on the new "sexpot" version of Starfire in DC Comics' Red Hood and the Outlaws. A lot of other people seemed to be hoping that DC would take these comments on board — not just about the sexed-up character, but about the fact that she seems not to do anything heroic.
And last night, DC did respond on Twitter, writing:
We've heard what's being said about Starfire today and we appreciate the dialogue on this topic. We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.
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In other words, "It's your own fault if you let your kids read our comics." Which, honestly, seems to be missing the point a bit.PlayStation 4 Pro Will Be the Last PS4 Edition for "Substantial Period of Time" - IGN News
PlayStation 4 Pro Will Be the Last PS4 Edition for "Substantial Period of Time" - IGN News
Share. You can stop progress, as it turns out. You can stop progress, as it turns out.
Sony appears to have no plans to introduce a further upgrade to its PS4 hardware in the near future, according to new comments from the company.
Speaking to The Guardian, head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Andrew House said: “We think that for a really substantial period of time [the PS4, PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro are] the PlayStation 4 lineup. We’re very comfortable with that.”
Some have questioned whether Sony and Microsoft - which will release the Xbox One upgrade, Project Scorpio next year - are moving towards something akin to an "Apple model" of regular upgrades to a base design.
Exit Theatre Mode
Sony has previously said that the Pro is "not the start of a new console generation, nor is it a console that's going to blur the lines between generations".
House also explained that the Pro has been designed, in part, to provide competition with the PC, as opposed to its direct console rivals.
“I saw some data that really influenced me,” he explained. “It suggested that there’s a dip mid-console lifecycle where the players who want the very best graphical experience will start to migrate to PC, because that’s obviously where it’s to be had.
"We wanted to keep those people within our eco-system by giving them the very best and very highest [performance quality]. So the net result of those thoughts was PlayStation 4 Pro – and, by and large, a graphical approach to game improvement.”
Exit Theatre Mode
The PS4 Pro will feature a boosted CPU clock rate, a 1 terabyte hard drive, and more than double the power of the PS4 GPU, as well as supporting HDR and 4K game output. It won't, however, play 4K Blu-Rays.
It will arrive on November 10 for USD $399 / £349 / AUD $560.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he was really rather hoping for PS4 Shoes next. Boo. Follow him on Twitter.– Florida Head Coachwill be part of ESPN's "Megacast" during the national championship game on Jan. 11 at 8:30 p.m.McElwain will appear on ESPN2 during the matchup between Alabama and Clemson as part of the network's "Film Room" coverage. ESPN analysts Brian Griese and Chris Spielman will joinas well as other additional guests.This group will be providing in-depth X and O analysis of the game as it happens from a film room equipped with multiple camera angles, coaches' clicker technology and telestration at ESPN's Bristol, Conn. headquarters.The World Wide Leader debuted its "Megacast" two years ago.McElwain won two NCAA Championships (2009, 2011) during his four-year stint at Alabama as the Crimson Tide's offensive coordinator. In his first season on the sidelines in Gainesville, McElwain was named the SEC Coach of the Year after guiding the Gators to a 10-4 record and their first SEC East Division Title since 2009. McElwain is only the third first-year coach in SEC history to reach the SEC Championship game, joining LSU's Les Miles (2005) and Auburn's Gus Malzhan (2013).In addition, McElwain was the first coach in program in school history to win 10 games in his debut season at Florida.For ESPN's complete release of its coverage of the College Football Playoff Title Game, click hereMost at issue for Tesla's next-gen lithium-ion chemistry are lithium and cobalt, each of which carries some degree of risk, though for very different reasons. Cobalt, a necessary ingredient for the current generation of nickel-cobalt-aluminum batteries powering Tesla's Model S, is something of a conflict mineral, with a large portion of the global supply originating in the oft-unstable Democratic Republic of Congo. But while the touch-and-go political situation there substantially influences the global price of cobalt, battery makers have an out. While a long-term spike in cobalt prices could cause short-term disruption in battery supply chains, manufacturers can adjust their battery chemistry to swap out cobalt for other materials, like manganese.
That workaround for a long-term surge in cobalt prices does not exist for lithium, an irreplaceable element in Tesla's current battery designs. Fortunately for Tesla, lithium isn't exactly in short supply, and the lithium exploration and production activity is picking up.
(Read more: Texas auto dealers say no special treatment for Telsa)
"In terms of the actual production of these raw materials, we don't really have a concern for the supply of them," said Cosmin Laslau, an energy storage research analyst at Lux Research. "There will need to be some additional resources brought online, but as far as there being enough out there to support this, we think, 'Yes, yes there is.'"
In fact, there have been short-term oversupply concerns for companies in the business of producing lithium. A recent Goldman Sachs report estimates that Tesla may soak up as much as 17 percent of the current global supply of lithium when its Gigafactory is running at full capacity (15,000 to 25,000 tons of lithium carbonate annually), which would ease oversupply fears—a more conservative forecast from Bank of America put Tesla's lithium needs at 9,000 tons.
The current spot market price for lithium carbonate is between $5,000 and $6,000 per metric ton, according to Roskill, a U.K.-based metals market research company. The lithium price has been fairly stable in recent years, according to Roskill's managing director, Robert Baylis, though it has been rising on average 5 percent to 10 percent annually.
The global hunt for lithium
New lithium reserves are being discovered all the time. The majority of the world's lithium comes from Chile where companies including Sociedad Quimica y Minera and FMC LIthium (part of FMC Corp.) are the largest exporters. Australia is the world's second-biggest current lithium producer, but salt flats in Bolivia are thought to hold 6 million tons of untapped reserves, and a new deposit of lithium-rich brine discovered in Wyoming could hold another 18 million tons that have yet to be exploited.
"People are now looking for and finding sources of lithium all over the place," said Dan Hearsch, a battery and energy storage expert at consultancy AlixPartners LP. "Even with the expected growth of EVs, in this century there's really not a constraint. Even in the processing, it's not constrained, and it's not that expensive to process."
(Read more: Bottom-fishing in materials stock sector)
That's because lithium isn't extracted via traditional mining (though it can be) but rather through an electrolytic process that separates lithium salts from brine pools and brine deposits, a flexible and scalable process that requires a fraction of the sunk costs associated with traditional mining.PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — The principal of a Park Slope school who was accused by the city of organizing "communist activities" has reportedly been cleared of major charges by the Department of Education.
Jill Bloomberg, the principal of Park Slope Collegiate, had sued the city saying she was part of a "chilling" and "McCarthyite" witch hunt for pointing out inherent segregation in the city's school system.
Park Slope Collegiate, with a majority black and Latino student body, is one of four schools inside the John Jay Educational Campus in mostly white Park Slope. Bloomberg said her students were unfairly singled out compared to the other majority white schools in the building.
When she started speaking out against this segregation, she said, including passing out critical fliers from the school's PTA on campus, the DOE said she was being investigated for "communist activities taking place at the school."
SEE MORE: Park Slope Principal Says She's The Target Of 'Chilling, McCarthyite' Commie Hunt
According to the New York Daily News, the department found those claims unsubstantiated. But they did ding Bloomberg for other, unrelated violations, the Daily News reported.
(Patch has reached out to DOE for confirmation, and we'll update this story if we hear back.)
"Based on the findings of a thorough investigation conducted by OSI, several of the allegation against Ms. Bloomberg were substantiated," Michael Aciman, a DOE spokesman, told the Daily News. "Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken."
The violations included failing to get permission for a documentary to be filmed at school and not getting proper authorization to substitute a history class for a mandated government class, according to the Daily News.
Bloomberg told the News the she feels vindicated by the findings and blasted the department for the other violations.
"The DOE has admitted that they initiated an investigation against me based on allegations from a completely unreliable source," Bloomberg said. "Nonetheless, while finding the allegations of Communist organizing to be patently false, they are still threatening disciplinary action based on minor bureaucratic complaints from the same discredited source.
"Any disciplinary action is simple retaliation for our defense of our students, their civil rights and our advocacy for integration."
Read the full Daily News story here.
Lead photo courtesy of Park Slope Collegiate“If you produce more gas in a static demand environment, you’re going to have a fuel fight between gas and coal,” said Kevin Book, an analyst with ClearView Energy Partners, a nonpartisan energy analysis firm.
It is also hard to see how Mr. Trump could use policy levers to expand production of natural gas. Over the last year, the historically high production levels of natural gas production glutted the market. Companies have idled fracking rigs as they wait for supply to tighten and prices to rise. Experts said that in a free market, the government cannot change that.
“No president controls the market. It’s pretty straightforward,” Mr. Book said.
Mr. Trump vowed to do so by ending regulations on fracking. “I think probably no other business has been affected by regulation than your business,” he told the gas executives. “Federal regulations remain a major restriction to shale production.”
That is largely false. The Obama administration has put forth regulations intended to govern the safety of fracking on public lands — a rule which would cover about 100,000 fracking wells, or about 10 percent of all fracking taking place in the United States. The vast majority of fracking occurs on state or private land and is governed by state and local regulations.
Still, in his appeal to both sides of the fossil fuel equation, Mr. Trump is distinguishing himself from Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, who has put forward proposals to continue and increase environmental regulations on both coal and fracking.
In a debate in March, Mrs. Clinton said, “By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place.”
She has also vowed to uphold President Obama’s climate change policy, the Clean Power Plan. The heart of the rule is a set of aggressive Environmental Protection Agency regulations intended to curb planet-warming carbon pollution, which comes mainly from coal-fired power plants. The rule has been temporarily suspended by a Supreme Court order, but if it is eventually upheld, it would most likely lead to the shutdown of hundreds of coal-fired plants — and an eventual freeze of the nation’s coal markets.Excited scientists unveiled the discovery - its facial features clearly visible - in Yakutsk today. Picture: Anastasiya Koryakina
The pre-historic animal was found in permafrost on the bank of Tirekhtykh River of the Abyisky district of Yakutia by a local resident Boris Berezhnov.
Excited scientists unveiled the discovery - its facial features clearly visible - in Yakutsk today.
The animal was aged around one and a half to two months old when it perished. It is not yet clear whether the cub was male or female.
Expert Dr Albert Protopopov said: 'It is a perfectly preserved lion cub, all the limbs have survived. There are no traces of external injuries on the skin.'
'It is a perfectly preserved lion cub, all the limbs have survived. There are no traces of external injuries on the skin.' Pictures: The Siberian Times
The preservation is so good that it raises hopes of cloning the species back to life, he said.
The discovery is seen as better preserved than two tiny cave lion cubs found in the same Siberian region in 2015.
In one of these scientists found what is believed to be traces of mother's milk.
'Everyone was amazed then and did not believe that such a thing is possible, and now, two years later, another cave lion has been found in the Abyiski district,' he said.
Tests will be carried out on the latest cub to discover its exact age but the estimate is between 20,000 and 50,000 years old. Pictures: The Siberian Times
'The preservation degree is even better.' The latest cub is also slightly older.
The earlier pair - named Uyan and Dina - were said to be some 12,000 years old, dating to around the time the species became extinct. However later research showed them to be up to 55,000 year ago.
Tests will be carried out on the latest cub to discover its exact age but the estimate is between 20,000 and 50,000 years old.
Analysis of the creature's teeth is expected to give a good indication of the age.
The earlier pair - named Uyan and Dina - were said to be some 12,000 years old, dating to around the time the species became extinct. However later research showed them to be up to 55,000 year ago. Pictures: Vera Salnitskaya
Significant results are expected after around three years research, said Dr Protopopov, head of the department for the study of mammoth fauna, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Berezhnov spotted the carcass of an 'unrecognisable animal' in September after a drop in the river's water level.
The length of the cub's body is 45 centimetres.
Dr Protopopov told journalists the preservation of the remains of a lion cub may allow an attempt at cloning.In a world filled with graphic horrors, the Western media have become increasingly squeamish about showing what war, famine or death actually look like. There is an understandable fear of upsetting the audience, and a well-founded reluctance to be seen making a market out of the suffering of others. But some upsetting images demand to be seen, precisely because they are a true representation of reality. They show us the world as it is, its cruelties exposed, and not the world as we would wish it to be. And by the shock to our eyes, our conscience may be stirred.
Which brings us to the image on the front page of Thursday's Globe and Mail: a tiny, lifeless body lying face down on a beach. The child was part of a group of at least 12 Syrians who drowned in the waters off Bodrum, Turkey, while trying to cross to the Greek island of Kos. This part of the Aegean Sea has long been a playground for European holidaymakers, but in the past few months it has become a highway, and also a graveyard, for an increasing number of far more desperate travellers. Today's image is just one distressing scene from Europe's growing migrant crisis.
There is no simple solution to the crisis. But one thing at least has become clear: Europe is mishandling it, badly. The European Union can no longer reconcile labour mobility inside the open-borders, passport-free Schengen zone with the Dublin Regulation, the rule that an asylum-seeker must make his application in the EU country where he first arrived – and normally must stay there until his case is resolved. Bankrupt and depression-ridden Greece, where many refugees are landing, cannot afford for them to stay. And Greece is not their destination.
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The Dublin Regulation has to give way. It needs to be repealed or replaced. There should be no attempt to confine large numbers of asylum seekers to Mediterranean Europe, where unemployment is high and society itself is already strained. This is a European problem, and it needs a European solution. Countries on the EU periphery can't handle it themselves, and shouldn't be forced to.
At the same time, a continent that is working itself into a panic over the idea that it is being swamped by a human tidal wave needs to get a grip, and put the situation in perspective. The human beings trying to enter Europe are clearly in crisis – but why must Europe act as if it is in crisis?
Yes, in the first half of 2015, more than 300,000 migrants arrived in Europe. But that's only about 0.1 per cent of the EU's population. Canada takes in close to 1 per cent of its population each and every year, in the form of immigrants and refugees. Canada is not in crisis as a result. Quite the opposite.
The Greeks, to their credit, have exposed the nonsensical character of Europe's stay-where-you-land Dublin rules. They have simply let migrants keep on moving into Macedonia, and thence to points farther north, if they can.
Hungary is a more desirable destination, or at least a stop on the way to the more prosperous parts of the continent, but the cultural and ethnic nationalism that now prevails in Hungarian politics has some ugly results. A razor-wire fence is going up on the southern border; it is soon to be fortified. The monstrous deaths of 71 migrants in a truck occurred in Austria, close to the Hungarian border. There have been ugly scenes involving attempts to get on trains, to get to Austria, and above all, Germany and Sweden – inconsistently, the Hungarian government isn't helping migrants leave Hungary.
Admirably, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has made clear that her country could comfortably absorb as many as 800,000 migrants – which would help an aging labour force from shrinking. But Germany cannot and should not bear the whole burden.
Canada can also help, and it must. Last January, the federal government promised to resettle 10,000 refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war by the end of 2017. Ottawa has not revealed how many have actually arrived, but the government has admitted it has run into difficulties and is behind schedule – without giving hard numbers. Canada is relying heavily on finding private sponsorships and charities, which may be too slow an approach for this fast-moving crisis.
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Canada can also help by accepting more refugees, including Syrians and others who have already landed in Europe.
The allegation by some that Europe's asylum-seekers are merely economic migrants, and not real refugees, is simplistic. Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans, Somalis, Sudanese and others are coming from war zones, and war and poverty are deeply intertwined.
The 28 interior ministers of the EU will meet on Sept. 14. They must think and act boldly. Europe's open borders should stay; the Dublin Regulation has to go. Europe needs a refugee policy that is both smarter and more generous. The same goes for Canada.It’s been five years since Domonic Brown cracked the public consciousness as a five-tooler in the Phillies system. Five up and down years. Three of those years, he failed to impress in short samples with the big league team, and yet the team’s outfield crumbled around him gradually. So this year, playing time in the outfield is embarrassingly available. Domonic Brown made some changes, and looks to be ready to capitalize, finally.
One thing that sticks out in Brown’s profile is his batting average on balls in play. Despite owning above-average speed and power, and hitting the ball on the ground more than he hits it in the air, Brown’s career BABIP in 492 plate appearances is.269. It might only be bad luck, but his 19.7% line drive rate, though close to average, is doing him no favors. Nor are his nine infield fly balls in less than a full season’s worth of plate appearances.
Speaking of infield flies. We can’t ask Joey Votto what he would do, at least not right now, he’s busy, but we could guess: maybe Brown should level his swing plane a bit. Joey Votto isn’t Brown’s hitting coach, but Wally Joyner is. And Joyner was known for using the whole field, making a lot of contact, and having some plus BABIPs in his time. Joyner helped Brown make some changes:
Joyner, now 50, and hitting coach Steve Henderson have lowered Brown’s hands. Most of the time, his once-hyper lower body stands as still as a tiger’s before attacking its prey.
The videotape backs up the hitting coaches. Check out Brown’s 2012 swing on the left, and the 2013 version on the right. Both were singles to center-ish field off a right-handed pitcher. One came September 11th of last season off of Nathan Eovaldi, and the other just yesterday off of Brandon Morrow. Both pitches were reasonably low in the zone.
It certainly looks like a different swing plane. Most stark is the placement of the hands. In 2012, Brown had to adjust his hands downward as the pitch was moving towards the plate. In 2013, his hands are ‘readier.’ You can also see in the finish that his bat plane is more level, if that might be slightly obscured by the particular placement of the ball in each case. It also looks like Brown is trying to keep both hands on the bat through the end of the swing.
In any case, it’s working. We’ve talked a lot, recently, about how important spring stats are. Carson Cistulli has attempted, with SCOUT, to focus on the more ‘controllable’ aspects of a small sample such as spring training. Jeff Sullivan tried to quantify how important spring results were to the participants. I pointed out how some pitchers are working on things, so results can be obscured by irregular spring processes. John Dewan once found that a 200-point difference between spring slugging percentage and career slugging percentage can be a harbinger of good times.
Domonic Brown is at the nexus of all of these aspects. He can control his swing, and has made some changes. But he can’t control how hard pitchers are trying, or what pitches they are using. So most likely his numbers are inflated by the rites of spring. And yet they are so impressive that they probably mean something. His.671 slugging percentage this spring is well beyond his.388 career slugging number.
Domonic Brown has made some changes! We might have to wait until the regular season to see how important they are.BOISE - "Lucky to be Alive" is a phrase that gets used often in stories of survival.
But the phrase "lucky to be found" may be a more fitting description for what happened in the middle of the Payette National Forest.
Last month, a dog trainer from Firth had a group of dogs learning to hunt bear in the mountains outside of Council.
One of those young Redtick hounds didn't come back from a day of chasing bear, having disappeared without any sort of trace.
The Shaw family has been holding reunions for generations along the middle fork of the Weiser River - where swimming, fishing, and hiking are all part of the plan.
This past weekend, however, they decided to head to a spot they'd only visited once in the last three decades: a little-known, narrow cave hidden near Mica Creek.
"It was more than 40 years ago, probably, that my grandfather's cousin told us about it," said Bret Friend.
About a dozen family members made their way to the cave. And above the commotion of conversation, Friend heard something else as they neared the entrance.
"I heard a dog whine."
Friend said he then heard it again, followed by the bay of a hound dog, and the Shaw family hike became an impromptu search and rescue.
" 'We need to get down there and see if it's hurt and get it out,' " was Friend's first thought.
He was the first down the hole, using a rope ladder, and when he reached the bottom 20 feet below, he found an English Redtick hound that seemed thankful to see him.
"She ran right up to me and put her nose right here," said Friend, pointing to his stomach.
So Friend and his brother, Dan, put the dog |
compared against the best methods, but under certain circumstances a placebo or no treatment group may be utilised (Article 29). The interests of the subject after the study is completed should be part of the overall ethical assessment, including assuring their access to the best proven care (Article 30). Wherever possible unproven methods should be tested in the context of research where there is reasonable belief of possible benefit (Article 32).
Additional guidelines or regulations [ edit ]
Investigators often find themselves in the position of having to follow several different codes or guidelines, and are therefore required to understand the differences between them. One of these is Good Clinical Practice (GCP), an international guide, while each country may also have local regulations such as the Common Rule in the US, in addition to the requirements of the FDA and Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) in that country. There are a number of available tools which compare these.[6] Other countries have guides with similar roles, such as the Tri-Council Policy Statement in Canada. Additional international guidelines include those of the CIOMS, Nuffield Council and UNESCO.
History [ edit ]
The Declaration was originally adopted in June 1964 in Helsinki, Finland, and has since undergone seven revisions (the most recent at the General Assembly in October 2013) and two clarifications, growing considerably in length from 11 paragraphs in 1964 to 37 in the 2013 version.[7] The Declaration is an important document in the history of research ethics as it is the first significant effort of the medical community to regulate research itself, and forms the basis of most subsequent documents.
Prior to the 1947 Nuremberg Code there was no generally accepted code of conduct governing the ethical aspects of human research, although some countries, notably Germany and Russia, had national policies [3a]. The Declaration developed the ten principles first stated in the Nuremberg Code, and tied them to the Declaration of Geneva (1948), a statement of physicians' ethical duties. The Declaration more specifically addressed clinical research, reflecting changes in medical practice from the term 'Human Experimentation used in the Nuremberg Code. A notable change from the Nuremberg Code was a relaxation of the conditions of consent, which was 'absolutely essential' under Nuremberg. Now doctors were asked to obtain consent 'if at all possible' and research was allowed without consent where a proxy consent, such as a legal guardian, was available (Article II.1).
First revision (1975) [ edit ]
The 1975 revision was almost twice the length of the original. It clearly stated that "concern for the interests of the subject must always prevail over the interests of science and society."[8] It also introduced the concept of oversight by an 'independent committee' (Article I.2) which became a system of Institutional Review Boards (IRB) in the US, and research ethics committees or ethical review boards in other countries.[9] In the United States regulations governing IRBs came into effect in 1981 and are now encapsulated in the Common Rule. Informed consent was developed further, made more prescriptive and partly moved from 'Medical Research Combined with Professional Care' into the first section (Basic Principles), with the burden of proof for not requiring consent being placed on the investigator to justify to the committee. 'Legal guardian' was replaced with'responsible relative'. The duty to the individual was given primacy over that to society (Article I.5), and concepts of publication ethics were introduced (Article I.8). Any experimental manoeuvre was to be compared to the best available care as a comparator (Article II.2), and access to such care was assured (Article I.3). The document was also made gender neutral.
Second to Fourth revisions (1975–2000) [ edit ]
Subsequent revisions between 1975 and 2000 were relatively minor, so the 1975 version was effectively that which governed research over a quarter of a century of relative stability.
Second and Third Revisions (1983, 1989) [ edit ]
The second revision (1983) included seeking the consent of minors where possible. The third revision (1989) dealt further with the function and structure of the independent committee. However, from 1993 onwards, the Declaration was not alone as a universal guide since CIOMS and the World Health Organization (WHO) had also developed their International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects.
Fourth revision (1996) [ edit ]
Background [ edit ]
The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Study 076 of 100 Zidovudine in maternal-infant transmission of HIV had been published in 1994.[10] This was a placebo controlled trial which showed a reduction of nearly 70% in the risk of transmission, and Zidovudine became a de facto standard of care. The subsequent initiation of further placebo controlled trials carried out in developing countries and funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control or National Institutes of Health raised considerable concern when it was learned that patients in trials in the US had essentially unrestricted access to the drug, while those in developing countries did not. Justification was provided by a 1994 WHO group in Geneva which concluded "Placebo-controlled trials offer the best option for a rapid and scientifically valid assessment of alternative antiretroviral drug regimens to prevent transmission of HIV".[11] These trials appeared to be in direct conflict with recently published guidelines[12] for international research by CIOMS, which stated "The ethical standards applied should be no less exacting than they would be in the case of research carried out in country", referring to the sponsoring or initiating country.[13] In fact a schism between ethical universalism[14] and ethical pluralism[15] was already apparent before the 1993 revision of the CIOMS guidelines.[12]
Fourth revision [ edit ]
In retrospect, this was one of the most significant revisions because it added the phrase "This does not exclude the use of inert placebo in studies where no proven diagnostic or therapeutic method exists" to Article II.3 ("In any medical study, every patient--including those of a control group, if any—should be assured of the best proven diagnostic and therapeutic method."). Critics claimed that the Zidovudine trials in developing countries were in breach of this because Zidovudine was now the best proven treatment and the placebo group should have been given it.[16] This led to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ignoring this and all subsequent revisions.[17][18]
Fifth revision (2000) [ edit ]
Background [ edit ]
Following the fourth revision in 1996 pressure began to build almost immediately for a more fundamental approach to revising the declaration.[19] The later revision in 2000 would go on to require monitoring of scientific research on human subjects to assure ethical standards were being met.[20] In 1997 Lurie and Wolfe published their seminal paper on HIV trials,[21] raising awareness of a number of central issues. These included the claims that the continuing trials in developing countries were unethical, and pointing out a fundamental discrepancy in decisions to change the study design in Thailand but not Africa. The issue of the use of placebo in turn raised questions about the standard of care in developing counties and whether, as Marcia Angell wrote "Human subjects in any part of the world should be protected by an irreducible set of ethical standards" (1988). The American Medical Association put forward a proposed revision in November that year,[22][23] and a proposed revision (17.C/Rev1/99) was circulated the following year,[24][25] causing considerable debate and resulting in a number of symposia and conferences.[26] Recommendations included limiting the document to basic guiding principles.[27][28] Many editorials and commentaries were published reflecting a variety of views including concerns that the Declaration was being weakened by a shift towards efficiency-based and utilitarian standards (Rothman, Michaels and Baum 2000),[29][30][31][32] and an entire issue of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics was devoted to the debate. Others saw it as an example of Angell's 'Ethical Imperialism', an imposition of US needs on the developing world,[33] and resisted any but the most minor changes, or even a partitioned document with firm principles and commentaries, as used by CIOMS. The idea of ethical imperialism was brought into high attention with HIV testing, as it was strongly debated from 1996-2000 because of its centrality to the issue of regimens to prevent its vertical transmission.[20] Brennan summarises this by stating "The principles exemplified by the current Declaration of Helsinki represent a delicate compromise that we should modify only after careful deliberation". Nevertheless, what had started as a controversy over a specific series of trials and their designs in Sub-Saharan Africa, now had potential implications for all research. These implications further came into public view since the Helsinki declaration had stated, "In the treatment of the sick person, the physician must be free to use a new diagnostic and therapeutic measure, if in his or her judgement, it offers hope of saving life, reestablishing health or alleviating suffering."[34]
Fifth revision [ edit ]
Even though most meetings about the proposed revisions failed to achieve consensus, and many argued that the declaration should remain unchanged or only minimally altered, after extensive consultation the Workgroup [35] eventually came up with a text that was endorsed by WMA's Council and passed by the General Assembly on October 7, 2000, [36] and which proved to be the most far reaching and contentious revision to date. The justification for this was partly to take account of expanded scope of biomedical research since 1975.[37] This involved a restructuring of the document, including renumbering and re-ordering of all the articles, the changes in which are outlined in this Table. The Introduction establishes the rights of subjects and describes the inherent tension between the need for research to improve the common good, and the rights of the individual. The Basic Principles establish a guide for judging to what extent proposed research meets the expected ethical standards. The distinction between therapeutic and non-therapeutic research introduced in the original document, criticised by Levine[19][38] was removed to emphasise the more general application of ethical principles, but the application of the principles to healthy volunteers is spelt out in Articles 18-9, and they are referred to in Article 8 ('those who will not benefit personally from the research') as being especially vulnerable. The scope of ethical review was increased to include human tissue and data (Article 1), the necessity to challenge accepted care was added (Article 6), as well as establishing the primacy of the ethical requirements over laws and regulations (Article 9).
Amongst the many changes was an increased emphasis on the need to benefit the communities in which research is undertaken, and to draw attention to the ethical problems of experimenting on those who would not benefit from the research, such as developing countries in which innovative medications would not be available. Article 19 first introduces the concept of social justice, and extends the scope from individuals to the community as a whole by stating that'research is only justified if there is a reasonable likelihood that the populations in which the research is carried out stand to benefit from the results of the research'. This new role for the Declaration has been both denounced [18] and praised, [39] Macklin R. Future challenges for the Declaration of Helsinki: Maintaining credibility in the face of ethical controversies. Address to Scientific Session, World Medical Association General Assembly, September 2003, Helsinki and even considered for a clarification footnote.[40] Article 27 expanded the concept of publication ethics, adding the necessity to disclose conflict of interest (echoed in Articles 13 and 22), and to include publication bias amongst ethically problematic behavior.
Additional Principles [ edit ]
The most controversial revisions [39] (Articles 29, 30) were placed in this new category. These predictably were those that like the fourth revision were related to the ongoing debate in international health research. The discussions[36] indicate that there was felt a need to send a strong signal that exploitation of poor populations as a means to an end, by research from which they would not benefit, was unacceptable. In this sense the Declaration endorsed ethical universalism.
Article 29 restates the use of placebo where 'no proven' intervention exists. Surprisingly, although the wording was virtually unchanged, this created far more protest in this revision. The implication being that placebos are not permitted where proven interventions are available. The placebo question was already an active debate prior to the fourth revision but had intensified, while at the same time the placebo question was still causing controversy in the international setting. This revision implies that in choosing a study design, developed-world standards of care should apply to any research conducted on human subjects, including those in developing countries. The wording of the fourth and fifth revisions reflect the position taken by Rothman and Michel[41] and Freedman et al.,[42] known as 'active-control orthodoxy'. The opposing view, as expressed by Levine[19] and by Temple and Ellenberg[43] is referred to as 'placebo orthodoxy', insisting that placebo controls are more scientifically efficient and are justifiable where the risk of harm is low. This viewpoint argues that where no standards of care exist, as for instance in developing countries, then placebo-controlled trials are appropriate. The utilitarian argument[44] held that the disadvantage to a few (such as denial of potentially beneficial interventions) was justifiable for the advantage of many future patients. These arguments are intimately tied to the concept of distributive justice, the equitable distribution of the burdens of research.[32][45] As with much of the Declaration, there is room for interpretation of words. 'Best current' has been variously held to refer to either global or local contexts.[46]
Article 30 introduced another new concept, that after the conclusion of the study patients'should be assured of access to the best proven' intervention arising from the study, a justice issue. Arguments over this have dealt with whether subjects derive benefit from the trial and are no worse off at the end than the status quo prior to the trial, or of not participating, versus the harm of being denied access to that which they have contributed to. There are also operational issues that are unclear.
Aftermath [ edit ]
Given the lack of consensus on many issues prior to the fifth revision it is no surprise that the debates continued unabated.[39][47] The debate over these and related issues also revealed differences in perspectives between developed and developing countries.[48][49][50] Zion and colleagues (Zion 2000)[30][48] have attempted to frame the debate more carefully, exploring the broader social and ethical issues and the lived realities of potential subjects' lives as well as acknowledging the limitations of absolute universality in a diverse world, particularly those framed in a context that might be considered elitist and structured by gender and geographic identity. As Macklin[39] points out, both sides may be right, since justice "is not an unambiguous concept".
Clarifications of Articles 29, 30 (2002–2004) [ edit ]
Eventually Notes of Clarification (footnotes) to articles 29 and 30 were added in 2002 and 2004 respectively, predominantly under pressure from the US (CMAJ 2003, Blackmer 2005). The 2002 clarification to Article 29 was in response to many concerns about WMA's apparent position on placebos. As WMA states in the note, there appeared to be 'diverse interpretations and possibly confusion'. It then outlined circumstances in which a placebo might be 'ethically acceptable', namely 'compelling... methodological reasons', or'minor conditions' where the 'risk of serious or irreversible harm' was considered low. Effectively this shifted the WMA position to what has been considered a'middle ground'.[51][52] Given the previous lack of consensus, this merely shifted the ground of debate, [39] which now extended to the use of the 'or' connector. For this reason the footnote indicates that the wording must be interpreted in the light of all the other principles of the Declaration.
Article 30 was debated further at the 2003 meeting, with another proposed clarification[50] but did not result in any convergence of thought, and so decisions were postponed for another year,[53][54] but again a commitment was made to protecting the vulnerable. A new working group examined article 30, and recommended not amending it in January 2004. [55] Later that year the American Medical Association proposed a further note of clarification that was incorporated.[56] In this clarification the issue of post trial care now became something to consider, not an absolute assurance.
Despite these changes, as Macklin predicted, consensus was no closer and the Declaration was considered by some to be out of touch with contemporary thinking,[57] and even the question of the future of the Declaration became a matter for conjecture.[58]
Sixth revision (2008) [ edit ]
The sixth revision cycle commenced in May 2007. This consisted of a call for submissions, completed in August 2007. The terms of reference included only a limited revision compared to 2000.[59] In November 2007 a draft revision was issued for consultation till February 2008,[60] and led to a workshop in Helsinki in March.[61] Those comments were then incorporated into a second draft in May.[62][63] Further workshops were held in Cairo and São Paulo and the comments collated in August 2008. A final text was then developed by the Working Group for consideration by the Ethics Committee and finally the General Assembly, which approved it on October 18. Public debate was relatively slight compared to previous cycles, and in general supportive.[64] Input was received from a wide number of sources, some of which have been published, such as Feminist Approaches to Bioethics.[65] Others include CIOMS and the US Government.[66]
Seventh revision (2013) [ edit ]
The most recent iteration of Helsinki (2013) was reflective of the controversy regarding the standard of care that arose from the vertical transmission trials. The revised declaration of 2013 also highlights the need to disseminate research results, including negative and inconclusive studies and also includes a requirement for treatment and compensation for injuries related to research.[67] In addition, the updated version is felt to be more relevant to limited resource settings—specifically addressing the need to ensure access to an intervention if it is proven effective.
Future [ edit ]
The controversies and national divisions over the text have continued. The US FDA rejected the 2000 and subsequent revisions, only recognizing the third (1989) revision,[58] and in 2006 announced it would eliminate all reference to the Declaration. After consultation, which included expressions of concern, [68] a final rule was issued on April 28, 2008 replacing the Declaration of Helsinki with Good Clinical Practice effective October 2008. [69] This has raised a number of concerns regarding the apparent weakening of protections for research subjects outside the United States. [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] The NIH training in human subject research participant protection no longer refers to the Declaration of Helsinki. The European Union similarly only cites the 1996 version in the EU Clinical Trials Directive published in 2001.[79] The European Commission, however, does refer to the 2000 revision.[80]
While the Declaration has been a central document guiding research practice, its future has been called into question. Challenges include the apparent conflict between guides, such as the CIOMS and Nuffield Council documents. Another is whether it should concentrate on basic principles as opposed to being more prescriptive, and hence controversial. It has continually grown and faced more frequent revisions.[40] The recent controversies undermine the authority of the document, as does the apparent desertion by major bodies, and any rewording must embrace deeply and widely held values, since continual shifts in the text do not imply authority. The actual claims to authority particularly on a global level, by the insertion of the word "international" in article 10 has been challenged. [81]
Carlson raises the question as to whether the document's utility should be more formally evaluated, rather than just relying on tradition.
Timeline (WMA meetings) [ edit ]
1964: Original version. 18th Meeting, Helsinki
1975: First revision. 29th Meeting, Tokyo
1983: Second revision. 35th Meeting, Venice
1989: Third revision. 41st Meeting, Hong Kong
1996: Fourth revision. 48th Meeting, Somerset West (SA)
2000: Fifth revision. 52nd Meeting, Edinburgh
2002: First clarification, Washington
2004: Second clarification, Tokyo
2008: Sixth revision, 59th Meeting, Seoul
2013: Seventh revision, 64th Meeting, Fortaleza
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Training [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Articles [ edit ]
Prior to fifth revision
Following fifth revision
Following sixth revision
WMA [ edit ]The same rowdy band of green activists who toppled the Keystone XL pipeline are aiming their sights at ExxonMobil.
Environmental groups are waging an escalating public relations campaign against the giant oil and gas company, diving deep into Exxon’s history to accuse it of knowingly — perhaps illegally — misleading the public about its decades of research on the dangers of climate change. Their allegations, backed by recent news reports from Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, led New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to launch an open-ended investigation this month into Exxon's actions. All three Democratic presidential candidates followed up by urging the Justice Department to open a racketeering probe.
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Green groups and their allies are also appealing to foreign governments to put Exxon under the microscope. And they’ve taken their message to social media, branding it with the hashtag “ #ExxonKnew.”
Their aim is to make Exxon face the same kinds of consequences for allegedly obscuring the risks of climate change as Big Tobacco did for lying about cancer. It is the next phase in a multi front campaign against fossil fuels in which greens have defeated the Keystone pipeline, successfully pushed to shut down hundreds of coal plants and helped persuade President Barack Obama to cancel plans for Arctic offshore drilling.
But Exxon will be a tougher opponent for the greens than Keystone developer TransCanada, which was essentially a nonentity in Washington influence circles until two years into the seven-year-long pipeline fight. Exxon, in contrast, is one of the world's largest and most politically active companies, and it has already mounted a vocal, well-organized defense that seeks to discredit its critics — while maintaining that it has always been upfront about its climate research.
Still, the greens say they’ve won underdog battles before.
“Coal is finally on the ropes — who would have guessed that five years ago?” said Bruce Nilles, leader of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, which has helped to shutter more than one-third of the nation’s highest-polluting power plants. “We need a similar focus on the oil sector.”
Critics of the anti-Exxon campaign say greens are trying to turn political disagreements into criminal cases. “It’s very disturbing, and the fact that these presidential candidates are running with this stuff is kind of scary,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the industry-backed American Energy Alliance.
"People can be thoughtful about climate change and come up with a conclusion that’s not what the left wants, and that should be OK,” Pyle said.
Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said activists are trying to “ focus attention on their goals ” by attacking the company, “ and that would be fair if they wouldn't lie about us and distort what we say, what we’ve done, our history. We’re very proud of the climate research we’ve done and been leaders of it for decades. ”
The company also notes that it’s been on record as supporting a revenue-neutral carbon tax, a measure that would put an economic price on greenhouse gas pollution.
Schneiderman's subpoena includes demands for information on the company’s activities as members of trade groups that wield their lobbying clout against emissions-cutting bills and regulations.
If the emerging grass-roots green movement can wound or even nick the heavily armed Exxon, it could come away as an even more powerful political force — but a loss would find the nation's climate upstarts unable to build on their recent victories. And it will push the limits of grass-roots advocacy's ability to win the Washington influence game, where Exxon's $100 million in spending on lobbying is more than 30 times as much as its primary antagonists put out.
The activists ’ overarching goal is to further damage the reputations of the oil, gas and coal industries to diminish their political influence, making it easier for environmentalists to defend and build on climate regulations.
Schneiderman is using a New York statute called the Martin Act that gives him uniquely wide latitude to investigate alleged corporate wrongdoing. New York attorneys general have used the Martin Act to pursue charges of corporate corruption for more than 80 years, and both Schneiderman and his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, successfully sued Wall Street's biggest financial players under the law.
The state investigation may be the best that activists can hope for in the near future. Calls for a federal investigation from Hillary Clinton and other Democratic White House hopefuls could make DOJ wary of wading into election-year jockeying.
“If it’s a political issue or perceived as a political issue, it’s harder to see the Justice Department getting involved,” warned one former DOJ official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.
Nevertheless, other fossil fuel companies, investors and industry-allied advocates are taking notice.
The Exxon flap is “ real, legit, expensive, and I don’t think it’s going to be constrained to Big Oil,” the leader of one industry-backed group acknowledged, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity. Greens are “ going to go after anyone who’s aligned. We could be on their list as well, down the line. ”
Industry allies are attempting to turn the tables. Two conservative groups, Cause of Action and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, this week filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint against the Institute of Global Environment and Society, a nonprofit group whose founder was among the early voices calling for a federal racketeering investigation. The complaint accuses Jagadish Shukla of illicitly deriving personal gain from the work of his institute, which is being investigated by House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) in a separate congressional probe of federally supported climate research.
Still, the New York inquiry of Exxon will “immediately induce more careful disclosures by companies of climate risks, ” predicted Columbia University environmental law professor Michael Gerrard. And while DOJ may not get involved right away, Schneiderman's inquiry will presumably unearth many documents that are relevant to whether” a federal investigation would be fruitful.
A group of House Democrats is also asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Exxon violated securities laws “ by failing to appropriately disclose material risks related to climate change ” in its mandatory filings. Another House Democratic inquiry aims to broaden the Exxon campaign to various oil and coal giants, pressing CEOs to explain whether their companies formed “ fake grassroots organizations to spread uncertainty ” about climate science.
The anti-Exxon campaign has a global element, too. Greens are looking for avenues to heighten regulatory and legal scrutiny in the European Union, United Kingdom and other foreign jurisdictions that could follow up on New York's move by probing Exxon disclosures. Campaigners hope that companies forced to disclose additional climate risks would see their share prices fall or face lawsuits from shareholders that could result in hefty monetary penalties.
Greenpeace led another potential line of attack in September by petitioning the Philippine Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines to look at whether Exxon and other fossil-fuel companies could be held responsible for the broader impacts of climate change. The commission is powerless outside of the Philippines, a low-lying island nation for which climate change is an existential threat, but Greenpeace hopes its investigation could set a precedent of opening the company to sanctions from more powerful international bodies.
Bill McKibben, the author and activist who played a major role in making Keystone XL totemic for climate activists, acknowledged that Exxon is “ in a sense ” a more daunting foe than the Canadian company behind the pipeline.
“[H]owever, we're four years further into the progress of global warming and climate chaos, ” McKibben wrote in an email, “so it's easier to see the stakes. ” And Exxon “ is just one part of the larger fossil fuel industry — which has always been the adversary.”
Exxon is fighting back with a huge arsenal at its disposal. The company has spent more than $100 million lobbying the federal government since the start of the Obama administration, according to federal lobbying disclosure records. And its political action committee and employees have contributed more than $17.5 million over the past quarter-century to politicians, almost exclusively Republicans, according to campaign finance records tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics.
In contrast, the Sierra Club has spent nearly $3 million lobbying the Obama administration, and its PAC has given $8.3 million in political contributions since 1998, mostly to Democrats. The newcomer climate group 350.org spent about $50,000 on lobbying through its Action Fund since 2009, and its PAC has made no donations for the 2016 cycle after scant spending in 2014.
Scrutiny of Exxon grew in the wake of a series of news reports detailing its history of scientific research and the company's stance on climate change. Even before 1980, company scientists were warning that rising carbon dioxide emissions from burning oil, gas and coal risked threatening populations in the planet's most sensitive regions, but by the mid-1990s Exxon shifted its support to organizations whose primary goal was to question the scientific consensus and highlight uncertainties around climate change, according to the press investigations.
The company has hit back with a series of blog posts defending its climate research and public policy positions. Jeffers labeled as “preposterous and disappointing” the subsequent activist efforts to turn Exxon into “some kind of James Bond villain” and “make oil and gas immoral.”
Schneiderman this month announced a settlement following years-long probe into Peabody Energy that forced the coal company to better account for climate change risks in its financial statements. He later said he is casting a wider net to investigate Exxon.
“This is a much broader case, it has much broader implications, because in addition to their shareholders, it may have been affecting the public — consumers who might have made a decision to use their products or not, regulators, and quite frankly, they exercised some influence in politics and public policy, too,” Schneiderman said in a recent televised interview.
The New York inquiry is “likely to be the tip of the iceberg” of scrutiny directed at companies' pollution risk disclosures, predicted veteran federal prosecutor John Marti. Even if Exxon does not face specific civil charges as the tobacco companies did, behind-the-scenes negotiations following the New York subpoena could still force significant concessions from the company.
“Energy companies and others that have made disclosures related to climate change would be well advised to carefully review their disclosures, knowing that government agencies and private entities may be scrutinizing disclosures for misstatements,” added Marti, now a partner at the Washington firm of Dorsey and Whitney, in a statement.
Another top Washington law firm, Crowell & Moring, warned in a client bulletin this month that the New York subpoena of Exxon "could prove even more complex, and the results more far-reaching," than the Peabody probe. The bulletin cited a 9th Circuit federal appeals court ruling last year that "took BP to task for what many would consider standard boilerplate disclosure in its Annual Report, the type of boilerplate that Exxon Mobil itself has used in the climate change context" in its own SEC filings.Hatch of the day: Rare chicken-guinea fowl hybrid has FOUR wings
Rare breed: Tulip the ¿guin¿ has two extra wings at the front but cannot fly
What has four wings, pretty blue eyes and walks with a swagger?
No, it’s not a joke – it’s a real bird and it’s called a guin.
The strange-looking fowl is a hybrid of a chicken and a guinea fowl.
The chick, named Tulip, hatched in Lyn Newman’s coop.
Mrs Newman had brought in two guinea fowl to act as a warning system for foxes, but did not know they could breed with her hens.
Mrs Newman, 59, raises a number of fowl in Defford, Worcestershire, but she was astonished when one of her eggs hatched into an odd looking bird even she couldn't identify.
The tiny bird was covered in clumps of feathers and - most strangely of all - had four wings.
Mrs Newman, a retired social care worker had to trawl the internet before she realised that the bizarre bird was a hybrid.
A rogue guinea had mated with one of her hens - and the result was this ugly chick - who has since been named Tulip.
The four wings are a result of a genetic mutation because of the cross-species breeding.
Mrs Newman said: 'I was just shocked when I saw that this thing that hatched had four wings.
'I couldn't believe my eyes. I had no idea what it was until I did some digging around on the internet.
'As well as having extra wings, the bird is also much smaller and is a totally different shape.
'I was shocked when I found out it was a cross between a guinea and a chicken - you just don't expect it. Apparently the cross is very rare.
Odd couple: Tulip (centre) is an extremely rare chicken-guinea fowl hybrid with four wings. The bird, known as a guin is pictured here with her parents - a mother hen and a male guinea fowl
'But she's settling in really well, and doesn't seem to realise that she's different from all the other chicks.
'She's an odd looking bird, and apparently extremely rare. I had no idea that guineas could actually breed with chickens.
'I've seen a guinea flying around, so probably soon we'll be overrun with these weird looking birds.
'She's a real character and is one of the gang. I'm thinking of selling her at auction, as apparently guinea-chicken crosses are very rare and also infertile.
'I'm sure that she will find a very loving home, and that people won't be put off by her four wings.'
Sharon Boundy who runs UK Guinea Fowl said that the hybrid bird sounded like a freak of nature with its four wings.
Tulip hitches a ride in a wheelbarrow belonging to Lyn Newman's granddaughter Nicole Turner
She said : 'It is very rare for chickens and guinea fowl to breed. I've only known of one other guinea-chick in my many years in the business.
'It's especially unusual for them to have four wings though - I've never heard of anything like it.
'It's not dangerous for the two species to breed but they don't tend to go near each other.Former President Obama called for action on gun violence after the deadly mass shooting at a church in Texas on Sunday.
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"We grieve with all the families in Sutherland Springs harmed by this act of hatred, and we’ll stand with the survivors as they recover,” Obama tweeted Sunday.
“May God also grant all of us the wisdom to ask what concrete steps we can take to reduce the violence and weaponry in our midst.”
May God also grant all of us the wisdom to ask what concrete steps we can take to reduce the violence and weaponry in our midst. — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 5, 2017
At least 26 people were killed after a gunman opened fire at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said it was the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history, and it came a little more than a month after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, in Las Vegas.
Obama pushed to pass new gun laws following deadly mass shootings during his administration, most notably after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
Obama issued executive orders in 2016 that expanded background checks for people buying firearms online or at gun shows.
Trump repealed another Obama rule that required the Social Security Administration to share information about mentally ill recipients of Social Security benefits. That information was included in background checks for gun sales.This article is from the archive of our partner.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Egypt has not gone so well, as he was lectured by a Sunni Cleric, mobbed by aggressive glad-handers, and had someone else throw a shoe at him.
There were conflicting reports about who threw the offending footwear, as a local Turkish outlet originally stated that he was "physically assaulted" by an angry Syrian citizen. Then Luke Russert said that NBC had a report of four Sunni Salafist men being arrested for the attack. Finally, a video surfaced that showed a shoe thrower not really coming that close to Ahmadinejad. It's not quite the Iraqi journalist who launched two shoes at President George W. Bush at a press conference four years ago, but, really, everyone in this shot is probably closer than anyone should be able to get in public to a world leader with a lot of enemies:
Ahmadinejad was leaving a historic mosque in Cairo, where earlier he and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi met with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, who runs the 1,000-year-old "seat of religious teaching." According to Reuters, Al-Tayeb, who is Sunni Muslim, "scolded" the head of the Shiite country for interfering in other Arab states and rejected Iran's attempt to influence matters in Sunni-majority nations.DAGUPAN CITY — A man, who was driving to a court hearing in Lingayen town, was shot dead on Monday (Sept. 26) in the middle of a traffic jam in Binmaley town.
The vehicle of Napoleon Manaois, 34, was stuck in a long line of stalled vehicles at 8:20 a.m. when unidentified men fired multiple times into the car.
Manaois was taken to a nearby hospital but a doctor there pronounced him dead on arrival.
Investigators found two bullets and 11 empty cartridges fired from a.45-pistol.
A 9mm pistol with nine bullets were also found inside the vehicle.
A motorist heading for Dagupan City captured the shooting through a dashboard camera, which showed at least four men wearing helmets firing at the driver’s side of Manaois’ vehicle. The men escaped in three motorcycles. The video was posted online. SFM
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.By Dr. C. Michele Martindill
“Ageism? Who cares about old people anyway? I volunteer with a group of white women over the age of 50. They are so behind the times and not helpful at all,” said a vegan.
“Why was it important for you to mention their age or gender?”
“Um…I don’t know.”
V |
118] Sudan,[119] Syria[120] and Yemen[121] do not allow entry to people with passport stamps from Israel or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa, or where there is evidence of previous travel to Israel such as entry or exit stamps from neighbouring border posts in transit countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
To circumvent this Arab League boycott of Israel, the Israeli immigration services have now mostly ceased to stamp foreign nationals' passports on either entry to or exit from Israel. Since 15 January 2013, Israel no longer stamps foreign passports at Ben Gurion Airport, giving passengers a card instead that reads: "Since January 2013 a pilot scheme has been introduced whereby visitors are given an entry card instead of an entry stamp on arrival. You should keep this card with your passport until you leave. This is evidence of your legal entry into Israel and may be required, particularly at any crossing points into the Occupied Palestinian Territories." [122] Passports are still (as of 22 June 2017 ) stamped at Erez when travelling into and out of Gaza. Also, passports are still stamped (as of 22 June 2017 ) at the Jordan Valley/Sheikh Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin/Arava land borders with Jordan.
Iran refuses admission to holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp that is less than 12 months old.
Armenian ethnicity [ edit ]
Due to a state of war existing between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the government of Azerbaijan not only bans entry of citizens from Armenia, but also all citizens and nationals of any other country who are of Armenian descent, to the Republic of Azerbaijan[123][124] (although there have been exceptions, notably for Armenia's participation at the 2015 European Games held in Azerbaijan).
Azerbaijan also strictly bans any visit by foreign citizens to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh[125] (the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh), its surrounding territories and the Azerbaijani exclaves of Karki, Yuxarı Əskipara, Barxudarlı and Sofulu which are de jure part of Azerbaijan but under control of Armenia, without the prior consent of the government of Azerbaijan. Foreign citizens who enter these territories will be permanently banned from entering the Republic of Azerbaijan[126] and will be included in their "list of personae non gratae".[127] As of January 2019 the list contains 795 persons.
Upon request, the authorities of the largely unrecognized Republic of Artsakh may attach their visa and/or stamps to a separate piece of paper in order to avoid detection of travel to their country.
Criminal record [ edit ]
Some countries (for example: Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand and the United States [128]) routinely deny entry to non-citizens who have a criminal record.
Persona non grata [ edit ]
The government of a country can declare a diplomat persona non grata, banning their entry into that country. In non-diplomatic use, the authorities of a country may also declare a foreigner persona non grata permanently or temporarily, usually because of unlawful activity.
Attempts to enter the Gaza strip by sea may attract a 10-year ban on entering Israel.[citation needed]
Fingerprinting [ edit ]
Iris recognition biometric systems apply mathematical pattern-recognition techniques to images of the irises of an individual's eyes.
Several countries mandate that all travellers, or all foreign travellers, be fingerprinted on arrival and will refuse admission to or even arrest those travellers that refuse to comply. In some countries, such as the United States, this may apply even to transit passengers who merely wish to quickly change planes rather than go landside.[129]
Fingerprinting countries include Afghanistan,[130][131] Argentina,[132] Brunei, Cambodia,[133] China,[134] Ethiopia,[135] Ghana, India, Japan,[136][137] Malaysia upon entry and departure,[138] Paraguay, Saudi Arabia,[139] Singapore, South Korea,[140] and Taiwan.[141]
Additionally, the United Arab Emirates conducts iris scanning on visitors who need to apply for a visa.[142][143]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Zbog činjenice da postoji snažno protivljenje prijedlogu HNS-a da se kroz izmjene izbornog zakonodavstva konačno omogući da Hrvati biraju legitimne predstavnike sve su glasniji pozitivi za vraćanjem na političke nadležnosti koje su Hrvati imali prije Daytona, odnosno Washingtonskog sporazuma.
Jedan od onih političara koji jasno i bez dlake na jeziku upozorava kako nespremnost za kompromis oko Izbornog zakona može odvesti BiH u situaciju u kojoj se izborni rezultati iduće godine neće moći implementirati, a zbog čega će biti zaustavljeni svi politički procesi u zemlji, je Mario Karamatić, predsjednik HSS-a BiH.
On je u razgovoru za Dnevni list upozorio kako nam vrijeme curi te kako bez promjene izbornog zakonodavstva koja će poštovati odluku Ustavnog suda BiH i omogućiti novi način biranja u Dom naroda koji bi Hrvatima omogućio legitimno predstavljanje treba razmisliti o alternativnom rješenju.
Karamatić nam je potvrdio kako okvirno oko kraja godine, pod uvjetom da ne bude promjene izbornog zakonodavstva, HSS pokreće inicijativu na Hrvatskom narodnom saboru kroz koju će se tražiti donošenje stava kako se treba vratiti na Hrvatsku republiku Herceg-Bosnu.
Inicijative i odluke
-Znači, mi bi išli na Predsjedništvo HNS-a s ovom inicijativom, a nakon čega bi Predsjedništvo donijelo odluku, izjavio je Karamatić.
Naša je želja da to ide ispred HNS-a, odnosno da inicijativu poguraju sve stranke.
Ukoliko HNS to ne bi prihvatio, iako ne vidim razloga da ne prihvati, mi bi to u Saboru Republike Hrvatske potegli preko hrvatskog HSS-a s kojim smo razgovarali i imamo njihovu potporu, pojasnio je Karamatić.
On je naveo kako bi srž inicijative bilo vraćanje nadležnosti hrvatskom narodu koje je imao prije Washingtonskog i Daytonskog sporazuma.
-To je dakle povratak na Hrvatsku republiku Herceg-Bosnu. Jer, kroz Washington i Dayton Hrvati su grubo oštećena strana. To je izvan svake razumne sumnje-dovoljno je pogledati inicijative visokih predstavnika i nametnute odluke, dodao je Karamatić.
Biranje legitimnih predstavnika
Ovu će inicijativu, naveo je on, pokrenuti ukoliko se do kraja godine ne donesu promjene Izbornog zakona jer u suprotnom, dodaje, neće biti nikakva mogućnost implementacije izbornih rezultata.
-U tom bi slučaju ušli u jedan začarani krug, jer onda nema Parlamenta; nema tko donijeti izmjene izbornog zakona.
U principu Federacija u prvom redu, ali i BiH ostaju u statusu kojeg sada ima Mostar. To nikomu normalnom nije u interesu, stoga je bolje vratiti se na početno stanje, kaže Karamatić.
Okvirni rok je kraj godine, a Karamatić navodi kako bi se inicijativa pokrenula ukoliko ne dođe do usvajanja bilo kakvihpromjena Izbornog zakona koje će omogućiti implementaciju izbornih rezultata, ali i omogućiti da Hrvati biraju svoje legitimne predstavnike.
A takvo što su i predvidjele hrvatske stranke kroz Prijedlog izmjene Izbornog zakona koji je dobio potporu na Domu naroda. U Prijedlogu su obrađene tri tematske cjeline, a prva se odnosi na popunjavanje Doma naroda Federacije BiH sukladno presudi Ustavnog suda BiH.
Naime, odlukom Ustavnog suda sukladno apelaciji Bože Ljubića osporene su odredbe Izbornog zakona BiH koje govore o popunjavanju federalnog Doma naroda. Sud je u odluci naveo kako je očito da navedene odredbe Izbornog zakona omogućavaju da predstavnicima jednog konstitutivnog naroda u zakonodavnom tijelu županije legitimitet daju predstavnici drugog konstitutivnog naroda.
Ovom presudom je potvrđeno i kako načelo konstitutivnosti naroda u Federaciji, u kontekstu Doma naroda, može biti ostvareno samo ako se popunjavanje Doma naroda temelji na jasno preciziranim kriterijima koji trebaju dovesti do što potpunijeg predstavljanja svakog od tri konstitutivna naroda. Nakon što u predviđenom roku nisu donesene promjene Izbornog zakona Ustavni sud je stavio izvan snage dvije odredbe koje se odnose na federalni Dom naroda.
U tom kontekstu politički predstavnici hrvatskog naroda ističu kako implementacija izbornih rezultata ne bi bila moguća bez promjene Izbornog zakona, a samim tim ne bi moglo doći ni do imenovanja nove federalne vlasti, čije formiranje i počinje u federalnom Domu naroda.
(Dnevni list)After getting to preview [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card], a high bar was set when it came to preview cards. Living up to that standard was not going to be easy, yet somehow I think we got there. Our M13 preview card might actually be more relevant to Standard than Bonfire currently is, though things might change once Mana Leak (and Vapor Snag, which you will soon see is quite relevant) rotate.
I love me a [card]Loxodon Hierarch[/card], so imagine my pleasant surprise at seeing this Beast (both literally and figuratively):
What do you get for the extra mana over the soon-to-extinct [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]?
An extra point of life. Hmm, not bad.
Slightly different stats. 5/3 vs 4/4 is kind of a push right now.
A loss of the discard protection clause. This basically never came up, so no big deal (though ask Tom Martell about this in Modern if you want a good laugh).
An extra 3/3 when he leaves play for any reason. And we have a winner!!!
Getting a replacement beast when Thragtusk dies is one thing, and would already be quite good. Getting such a beast when he leaves play at all is huge, and exactly why I mentioned a certain card earlier.
[draft]vapor snag[/draft]
Vapor Snag might be the premiere removal spell in the format now, and it’s downright terrible against Thragtusk. Not only do you get a 3/3, defeating the purpose of the Snag almost entirely, you get another five life when you do replay him. That’s insane, and as long as you remember to name Beast with [card]Cavern of Souls[/card], [card]Mana Leak[/card] won’t be able to stop you either.
Moving past specific anti-Delver applications, this is a pretty huge card in its own right, and even combos really well with a ton of other action. It sacrifices to [card]Birthing Pod[/card] extremely well, leaving behind 3-5 life and a 3/3, all while fitting into a casting cost that needed a bit of a boost defensively (with [card]Zealous Conscripts[/card] and [card]Wolfir Silverheart[/card] handling the part of the aggro 5-drop).
Thragtusk also triggers twice off of any Blink effect, which means [card]Cloudshift[/card], [card]Ghostly Flicker[/card], and of course, [card]Restoration Angel[/card]. If you think blinking a [card]Blade Splicer[/card] is sweet, you aren’t thinking big enough.
I like this card a lot, and not only because I have a soft spot in my heart for Baloths of all shapes and sizes, but because it will certainly help promote diversity in Standard. I’m not saying it topples Delver by itself, or anything like that, but that it is definitely a boost to non-Delver decks in the battle against Delver, which can only be a good thing.
LSV
Extra Bonus Tristan Shaun Gregson Action
Who doesn’t want extra TSG, after all? Since we didn’t have the opportunity to film a Magic TV about ol’ Thraggy, I asked TSG what he thought about the card, specifically in the context of Cube, TSG’s wheelhouse.
TSG:
The first thing I do, as I’m sure most of you do when you look at a new card, is compare it as closely as you can to the previous cards you’ve played with.
My very first impression of Thragtusk was “hey look, [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card] and [card]Reveillark[/card] had a little giant baby!”
Most notably in terms of the keywords on the card, ‘enters the battlefield’ and ‘leaves the battlefield’ show up, which means for Cube all sorts of fun tricks like ninjitsu, [card]Momentary Blink[/card] and maybe even [card]Cloudshift[/card] could be in play. Sure, five power, five mana, that’s all well and good, but we’re talking Cube here, so the bar is higher in terms of card quality. We’ll need to compare the Thragtusk up against your usual suspects for green five drops in Cube.
[draft]Acidic Slime
Deranged Hermit
Indrik Stomphowler
Thornling
Wolfir Silverheart
Vorapede[/draft]
Thragtusk is bringing something different to the table from these cards, but if I had to compare it head to head with a single card on this list it would have to be [card]Vorapede[/card]. The leaves play trigger isn’t quite the undying trigger, but that’s not what I want to focus on here. I’m a big fan of finding those interactions just under the surface in Cube. The simplest example is a good one here: red deals lots of direct damage, and it’s nice to have cards that just happen to have life gain built in. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card], [card]Elderwood Scion[/card] and others make me fall in love with Thragtusk. Against the red deck in Cube more often than not it’s all about stopping the bleeding, landing a threat, and finally using your own attack phase. There just aren’t enough [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]s to go around, so while Thragtusk does do so much more than that, it’s what first sold me on including it in my M:13 Cube update. While I don’t personally run cards like Cloudshift yet more creatures like this one printed in the future could be changing my mind.
Thumbs up, will cast in Cube in the near future.
– TSGQatar has slashed its budget for hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup.
Hassan Al Thawadi, the Qatari official charged with delivering the tournament, told CNNMoney the original budget had been reduced by between 40% and 50%.
"We wanted to ensure there is financial responsibility in relation to the infrastructure relating to the World Cup," said Al Thawadi, secretary general of the Qatar 2022 supreme committee for delivery and legacy.
"That's why we had set an initial budget early on and made a commitment towards reducing it as the market became clearer, as the project became clearer, as we define the scope."
Thawadi's committee now expects tournament infrastructure will cost between $8 billion and $10 billion, with most of the money earmarked for stadiums and training grounds.
Qatar, which had planned for 12 stadiums in its original bid, is now proposing eight -- the minimum required by FIFA. It is building seven new venues and upgrading an existing stadium.
"Fifa has not yet agreed on the final number and we are in discussions with them to finalize the final number of stadiums that will fit the operating model of Qatar 2022," said Al Thawadi.
"We are moving ahead with eight stadiums and in case discussions go on there might be an extra stadium to be developed," he added.
Qatar is feeling the pinch financially due to a slump in world oil and gas prices. It has been reining in government spending in other areas, and along with other countries in the Gulf, will introduce a 5% sales tax in 2018.
The gas-rich state is better protected than some of its neighbors thanks to its huge sovereign wealth fund. Al Thawadi said the reduction in the 2022 budget was not related to lower oil and gas revenues.
Related: Qatar will invest another $6 billion in Britain
"It's been a fiscal responsibility and not as a result of oil prices going down. It's a commitment we've made from day one," he said.
Russia, which is hosting the 2018 tournament, has increased spending on the World Cup by $326 million, state media reported last month, bringing the cost of hosting that event to more than $10 billion.
Still, that's $5 billion less than the cost of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and a fraction of the $50 billion Russia reportedly spent hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics.
If FIFA accepts Qatar's proposal, the World Cup will be played in the fewest stadiums since Argentina hosted the tournament in 1978. Six stadiums were used then.
Al Thawadi said construction work was well underway.
"Plans are moving ahead pretty well. In terms of overall infrastructure as well... plans are going ahead on schedule."A Marietta, Ga., mom who was convicted of jaywalking after her 4-year-old son was run over and killed in a hit-and-run said on the Today Show that the worst part of going to jail would be the separation from her two remaining kids.
Raquel Nelson was convicted of homicide by vehicle and reckless conduct by a jury and faces sentencing tomorrow. She can receive up to a three-year jail sentence, six times the stretch that Jerry Guy--who admitted to drinking before running over Nelson's son, A.J.--served.
"I think to come after me so much harder than they did him is a slap in the face because this will never end for me," she said. "It's three years away from the two that I have left."
Nelson also said that the jury had "never been in my shoes," because each of them answered that they had never taken public transportation before. Nelson, who doesn't have a car, was three-tenths of a mile away from the nearest crosswalk when her bus dropped her off at the stop across the street from her apartment with her three children. She decided to cross with her kids rather than remain outside any later at night, she said. (You can read more about her case here.)
"We are just hoping as a family that [the judge] is compassionate and lets my niece remain with her other children," Nelson's aunt Loretta Williams said. Nearly 75,000 have signed an online petition in support of Nelson.
You can watch the interview below:MASSACHUSETTS — To ease the pain and symptoms of glaucoma and arthritis, an 81-year-old living in South Amherst was growing a marijuana plant outside her home to use as medicine.
Margaret Holcomb said it also helped her sleep, and she reportedly grew the plant within a raspberry patch in her yard near a fence. On Sept. 21, a helicopter circled her home, and shortly thereafter, the Massachusetts National Guard and Massachusetts State Police came to her property to yank out the marijuana plant, reports the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Her son, Tim Holcomb, lives with his mom and was eating lunch when the helicopter circled, and described the event as "scary as hell" to the Gazette.
No criminal charges were filed, and the seizure was part of a collection that day, with 44 plants found on properties in the areas of Amherst, Hadley and Northampton, State police spokesperson David Procopio confirmed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. He also said none of the property owners were charged, and that troopers explained the purpose of their visit.
Pro-marijuana bloggers are having a "field day" with the seizure of the senior's single pot plant. Leafly.com leads with, "The Massachusetts National Guard and the Massachusetts State Police teamed up last month to eradicate a pernicious threat to public safety: a single cannabis plant tucked away in an 81-year-old grandmother's raspberry patch."
I feel so much safer now that the National Guard has mobilized to remove the single marijuana plant being grown... https://t.co/zEf8McdIb8
— Chris Arabadjis (@MrPink2u) October 2, 2016
"If you were trying to come up with a headline that perfectly demonstrated why so many people have turned against keeping marijuana illegal, you probably couldn't do better than this real headline from the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Massachusetts," writes Vox.com. "The story is just as absurd as it sounds."
National Guard, police raid 81-year-old woman's home to seize one pot plant #marijuana https://t.co/U61aqByaRq pic.twitter.com/M0rf1xZWVg
— 420 NEWS (@42ONEWS) October 6, 2016
PrivacySOS, which "shines sunlight on surveillance (SOS) and highlights actions you can take to protect your privacy," reported that in 2015, the Government Accountability Office reported that the U.S. military spent $3 billion on anti-drug operations between 2014-2015, which includes marijuana crop eradication.
Social media reaction erupted similarly in August when an 81-year-old cancer patient's four plants that he grew on his property on Martha's Vineyard were seized by the National Guard, state police and the DEA, reports The Natural News.
The raid in Western Massachusetts comes as voters hotly debate what will be ballot question 4 in the November election. The Massachusetts Marijuana Legislation Initiative, if passed, would allow the use, cultivation, possession and distribution of recreational marijuana for individuals at least 21 years old.The holiday season is one time that we overhaul every knick knack and home decor item in our house into a Christmas motif. I’m talking everything. But in keeping with our “green” Christmas efforts, we look for ways to repurpose things we already have and utilize them as holiday decorations. And yes, this post is proof that I’ve already decorated for Christmas. What else was I going to do during the Buffalo Blizzard we had last week?
Repurposed Holiday Decor Ideas
1. Repurposed vintage tablecloth as window valances – I loved this tablecloth on my kitchen table but over the years a few holes appeared near the center of the table cloth. To remedy this I cut it in half, trimmed the holes and hemmed it into curtains.
2. Unused Cookies tins store holiday decorations and ornaments during the off season, then serve as shelf decor during at Christmas time.
3. Festive books adorn selves facing out. The Norman Rockwell book we picked up over the summer at a sale to benefit a wildlife refuge. Now it’s a Christmas decoration! Like that Charlie Brown Tree craft? See how to make it.
4. Fancy packaging from Christmas’ past make excellent accent pieces among your holiday tablescapes and decorative scenes. The faux holly branches came as filler in a gift box my husband received from a client. Hello, reuse! Even like Godiva chocolate packages have had decorative ribbon and beaded berry garnishes that I love to wrap around a vase or set in a tablescape.
5. Burned out Christmas light bulbs add color and holiday spirit to clear vases and crystal glasses. They are so much better in your home decor than a landfill.
What have you repurposed for holiday decorating?My heart is heavy over the tragedy that occurred in Connecticut and my thoughts are with those who are grieving. I’ve always supported the Second Amendment rights of Minnesotans to own firearms for collection, protection, and sport. But I also think we need to find a balance between those rights and the safety of our children and our communities. I co-sponsored legislation to large clips like those used in so many mass shootings. I also support the principle that we should reinstate a ban on assault weapons, and I will carefully review any proposal to do that. We need to make sure we don’t have weapons out there that are really designed for the battlefield, and not for hunting. In the days and weeks ahead, I’m going to consult closely with all of the affected communities in the state – and that includes people like hunters, educators, parents, and other elected officials – about the best path forward.Clackamas Co. to get 30 pods for homeless vets Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved The proposed site off Southeast 115th Avenue south of Highway 212 in Clackamas County for pods for homeless veterans, June 28, 2017 (KOIN) [ + - ] Video
Amy Frazier and KOIN 6 News Staff - CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. (KOIN) — Temporary transitional housing for homeless veterans in Clackamas County will include 30 sleeping pods under a plan approved Tuesday by the county Board of Commissioners.
The proposed site off Southeast 115th Avenue south of Highway 212 -- land owned by the county's development agency -- would have to undergo zoning changes. Public hearings are planned for the summer.
Catholic Charities, the bidder with the most complete and feasible grant application, proposed the 30 pods, a community kitchen, showers and restrooms, a community room and a fully-equipped work shed on-site.
The county and the non-profit will begin negotiating an operations plan. The board set aside $300,000 to help develop the shelter community.
The group's goal is to have the community amenities and 15 sleeping pods completed and ready for use before December 2017. The first residents of the shelter will be in charge of building the remaining 15 pods during the first 5 months.
Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved Rick Birkel, the executive director for Catholic Charities in Portland, June 28, 2017 (KOIN)
Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved Rick Birkel, the executive director for Catholic Charities in Portland, June 28, 2017 (KOIN)
Rick Birkel, the executive director for Catholic Charities, told KOIN 6 News this project is in the very early stages.
"I think our general interest is finding new, creative ways to deal with houselessness and homelessness," Birkel said. He added about half the homeless population in Clackamas County may be veterans.
They're looking for more options for transitional housing that they think "will be for the better of all our houseless community members, including veterans."
He drew a distinction between transitional housing and "self-governing community pieces" like Dignity Village.
"This will be a very time-limited placement for people. It's safe, it's a way for you to have people all in one location where we can deliver case-management services in an effective way," he said.
Veterans may "already be wired to understand" how to be successful in this type of community because of their past military experience. The personal pods will be built with the PSU architecture program and will be safe and warm, he said.
"One of the charms, I think, they are all different. Each one can be personalized and made very different, but attractive."
Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved Fourteen tiny homes in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, June 8, 2017 (KOIN)
Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved Fourteen tiny homes in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, June 8, 2017 (KOIN)
He added this could be similar to the women's village in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland that recently opened. Birkel re-iterated the Clackamas pods are short-term housing, maybe up to a year.
"The county will ultimately have to make that decision base on input they receive," he told KOIN 6 News.
Doug Hoerth, who is a Navy veteran and has a shop near the proposed site, is opposed to the pods. The idea, he said, is not good enough for veterans.
The county can do better than "giving them a little tiny barn, nothing better than a chicken coop," Hoerth told KOIN 6 News. "I think they deserve more than that."
"We already have enough trouble with people who roam in here for various activities."
Birkel understands the skepticism, but also understands homelessness is a challenge for everyone.
"This is a good faith effort to try something different, particularly for veterans in this case, who, I think everyone agrees should be given a fair shot at getting back on their feet and getting into permanent housing," he said.
"If this can work in a way that actually makes the community a better place for everyone to live, then I think it will be a success."The Dome Effect: Is It Real? Has A Journalist Ever Taken A Stats Class? What Is Reality Anyway?
mah depth perception noooo
One of the reasons I'm not too happy to get Kansas in the Sweet 16 is where the games will be played—Jerryworld—combined with Kansas's #1 strength—Jeff Withey going grrr aargh and depositing your shot in the eighth row. Domes have a reputation for being poor environments to shoot in. Meanwhile, the alternative to shooting is challenging this guy.
But just because something is supposed to be true does not mean it is so. Reasons are applied to random chance all the time. Does being in a dome really kill shooters? I wish I had an answer for you without painstakingly combing through every dome game in the NCAA tournament since forever. The data is thin, contradictory and oft-polluted by what can only be termed a journalist's approach to statistics. After googling every which way for any take on the subject, I've come out the other end possibly less informed than I started.
The best I've got: the WSJ published an article in 2011 that appears to be the most comprehensive tackling of the issue. It showed that from 1997-2011, Final Four teams hit 32% of their threes and 42% overall, both four-point drops from—ugh—the four FFs held before the dome came into vogue. Or we could take thousands of games of data instead of 12, WSJ. And maybe account for the fact that the three-point line moved back in 2008-09. Guh.
/shakes fist at journalism school
For what it's worth, Statsheet shows that three-point shooting held steady at around 34.8% from 2003 to 2008 and around 34.2% after the line moved back. I'd imagine tourney teams are on average slightly better than that, so 32% over 15 years represents a small but probably real negative effect that may or may not be caused by domes instead of various other factors that apply to Final Fours like your hand shaking nervously for an hour before the game. "Other factors" didn't impact 12 games almost 20 years ago, FWIW.
KSRCollege put together a chart covering the "open dome"—ie, court on the 50, not in one endzone—era the NCAA instituted in 2009. (It appears Jerryworld is configured with the court on the 50.) It found three point shooting averages dropped from 36% (for the season) to 32%, free throws from 73% to 67%, and eFG from 51% to 44%.
Caveats are rife. For one, the KSR post has a nine-game sample and the WSJ article is rage-inducingly sloppy. For two, some of these effects may be due to the level of competition. For three:
At first glance if you compare the season percentages to the in-game percentages you’d think that all teams are shooting poorer than their season percentages, but this is not the case. There are three severe outliers taking down the entire sample; 2011 UConn (twice) and 2009 Villanova. But, when you see their season percentages you’ll see Villanova was an average three point shooting team and UConn was a terrible three point shooting team, so it’s not hard to believe these two teams would have bad shooting nights. All other Final Four participants in the “Open Dome” era have shot right around their season percentage, so this leads me to believe that distorted sightlines have less to do with the low point totals than I originally thought.
While I'm not sure I agree with the idea that a poor shooting team will be more affected by the depth issues presented, at least this passage underscores the scanty amount of data we're working with.
Other poorly-assembled nine-game samples show no dome effect.
In 2009 and 2010, the NCAA used all three different setups to contest the eight regionals: regular basketball/hockey arenas; traditional domes, with the court set up in the corner of the football field, and the stadium configuration, with the court built on a platform at the center of the football field. Here is how the shooting stats broke down in those games: — Arenas (nine games): 42.8 percent, 455-of-1,064. — Traditional domes (nine games): 43.1 percent, 444-of-1,030 — Stadium setup (six games): 42.4 percent, 290-of-684. Essentially, there was no distinct statistical variation among the various types of courts.
This study is also tiny and doesn't even bother to separate out threes and free throws, instead hurling everything in one statpile ranging from dunks to prayer heaves. So it's far from definitive itself. Despite that, Mike DeCourcy appears to run it every year without bothering to update it and reference it whenever the topic comes up. No wonder he gets in fights with Kenpom.
Last year, teams didn't seem to have much problem. OSU, Louisville, and Kansas hit exactly 36% of their threes; Kentucky was at 38%. This is probably why there was a flurry of articles about shooting in a dome before that Final Four, but not after.
So. We have a pile of shifty data. Overall I'd suggest it suggests there is a small dome effect that hurts shooting based on the WSJ numbers, which are the closest thing to a real sample we've got. This is advantage Kansas, which takes relatively few threes and forces a lot thanks to Jeff Withey. Probably, anyway. The effect isn't big enough or solid enough to be fate.
Ugh. This post. Just like a younk man who thinks Standard Deviation is a Christian goth metal band coming in for a low-sample size study. I am zo unzatisfyed.While visiting the Wings restaurant in Surrey, a B.C. woman was outraged to find a drink bearing the name of Canada’s most notorious serial killer, Robert Pickton.
The “Willie Pickton”, featuring a mix of blue curacao, melon, orange juice, cranberry, and blackberry, appeared on the restaurant’s shooter menu until recently. It was removed when Rebecca Brass, an aboriginal woman who works extensively with the families of missing and murdered Vancouver women, demanded the chain take action.
READ MORE: Official launch of the inquiry in to missing and murdered indigenous women
Robert Pickton shot to notoriety in 2002 after an RCMP search of his Port Coquitlam farm resulted in the discovery of human remains belonging to at least 27 missing women, many of them indigenous women from the Downtown East Side.
He was charged in February 2002 for the murders of 27 women, but once told an undercover police officer that he killed as many as 49. Evidence heard during the trial confirmed that Pickton had fed the women’s bodies to his pigs and then sold the meat to neighbours.
The court eventually stayed most of the charges and ultimately found Pickton guilty of six counts of second-degree murder in 2007, with a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for up to 25 years.
WATCH BELOW: B.C. woman explains why its not OK to name a drink after serial killer Robert Pickton
READ MORE: B.C. tables law forbidding profit from crimes
Brass says the inclusion of this drink on the menu creates “a huge desensitization toward the culture of violence that we live in.”
“This is very unacceptable. It is extremely inappropriate.”
She added that she does not know how long the drink existed on the menu until she complained.
The Surrey Wings location was the only one of the chain to offer the drink, and has now said the employee who came up with the drink is no longer employed.
“The Surrey team sincerely apologizes for over-sighting this old list created by the past manager,” said a representative from the company in a statement.
They say they removed the menu listing |
as severe cramps, bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting.Antioxidant NAC Improves Symptoms of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an antioxidant available without a prescription in health food stores, has shown remarkable effectiveness when added to regular treatments for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the substance abuse that often accompanies these illnesses.
A 2008 article by Michael Berk and colleagues in the journal Biological Psychiatry reported that compared to placebo, 2 grams/day of NAC reduced both positive symptoms of schizophrenia (hallucinations, delusions) and negative symptoms (social withdrawal, difficulty planning and problem-solving). A 2013 study by Mehdi Farokhnia found that 2 grams/day of NAC improved negative symptoms in 42 patients with schizophrenia. Two other studies found that NAC improved deficits in auditory sensory processing in people with schizophrenia.
NAC also improves symptoms of bipolar disorder. A 2008 study by Berk and a 2011 study by Pedro Vieira da Silva Magalhães showed that NAC improved bipolar depression, and a small 2013 study by Magalhães showed that it improved mania in 15 patients. After 24 weeks, 60% of those who took NAC were in remission, compared to 15% of those taking placebo.
NAC is also effective at reducing habitual behaviors such as substance abuse, which is common in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Studies have shown that NAC can reduce patients’ use of marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, and nicotine. It is relatively safe with minimal side effects, and fights oxidative stress, which is also common in severe mental illness.
NAC comes in 500mg or 600mg capsules. Dosing typically begins with one capsule twice a day for a week, followed by two tablets twice a day thereafter. As with any recommendations in the BNN, these should not be acted on without guidance from a treating physician.
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Average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $954 in March, little changed from $951 the previous month. Compared with 12 months earlier, weekly earnings increased by 2.8%.
Chart 1
Year-over-year change in average weekly earnings and average weekly hours
The 2.8% increase in weekly earnings compared with March 2014 reflected a number of factors, including wage growth, changes in the composition of employment by industry, occupation, and level of job experience, as well as average hours worked per week.
Non-farm payroll employees worked an average of 33.0 hours per week in March, virtually unchanged from the previous month and unchanged from a year earlier.
Average weekly earnings by sector
Year-over-year growth in average weekly earnings outpaced the national average in 3 of the 10 largest industrial sectors: wholesale trade; professional, scientific and technical services; as well as manufacturing. At the same time, earnings were little changed in administrative and support services, educational services, accommodation and food services as well as construction.
Chart 2
Year-over-year change in average weekly earnings in the 10 largest sectors, March 2015
On a year-over-year basis, average weekly earnings in wholesale trade rose 9.8% to $1,188, with most of the growth occurring between September and December. In the 12 months to March, earnings growth was widespread within the sector, led by food, beverage and tobacco wholesalers as well as machinery, equipment and supplies wholesalers.
Average weekly earnings in professional, scientific and technical services increased 5.4% to $1,361 in the 12 months to March. Gains were widespread, led by architectural, engineering and related services, as well as computer systems design and related services.
On a year-over-year basis, weekly earnings in manufacturing were up 3.9% to $1,077. Earnings growth was driven by gains in transportation equipment manufacturing; non-metallic mineral product manufacturing; as well as primary metal manufacturing.
Average weekly earnings by province
Year-over-year average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees increased in every province in March. The highest earnings growth was in New Brunswick, while British Columbia had the lowest.
Chart 3
Year-over-year growth in average weekly earnings by province, March 2015
In the 12 months to March, average weekly earnings in New Brunswick increased 4.4% to $855. Earnings growth was spread across most sectors, led by gains in educational services as well as professional, scientific and technical services.
Compared with 12 months earlier, average weekly earnings in Prince Edward Island increased 3.7% to $790, with widespread gains led by finance and insurance.
In Ontario, average weekly earnings rose 3.3% to $962 on a year-over-year basis, the largest increase in earnings since January 2011. The gains in Ontario were driven by growth in wholesale trade; professional, scientific and technical services; as well as manufacturing. Earnings in the province have been increasing since November.
British Columbia had the lowest earnings growth of the provinces compared with March 2014, increasing 1.2% to $905. The low growth was partly attributable to earnings declines in health care and social assistance, as well as a drop in the number of employees in the high-earning mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry.
Non-farm payroll employment by sector
The number of non-farm payroll jobs fell by 19,500 in March, following a decline of 14,000 in February. The largest declines in March were in retail trade, manufacturing and construction. At the same time, there were more payroll jobs in accommodation and food services as well as arts, entertainment and recreation.
In the 12 months to March, non-farm payroll employment increased by 161,500 or 1.0%. Over this period, employment growth was highest in forestry, logging and support (+3.7%), real estate and rental and leasing (+3.3%); accommodation and food services (+2.9%); as well as professional, scientific and technical services (+2.8%). At the same time, employment declined in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (-4.5%), with most of the decline since October. Employment in utilities (-3.9%) was also down on a year-over-year basis.
Note to readers The Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours ( SEPH ) is produced by a combination of a census of payroll deductions, provided by the Canada Revenue Agency, and the Business Payrolls Survey, which collects data from a sample of 15,000 establishments. The key objective of SEPH is to provide a monthly portrait of the level of earnings, and the number of jobs and hours worked by detailed industry at the national, provincial and territorial level. Estimates of average weekly earnings and hours worked are based on a sample and are therefore subject to sampling variability. This analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 68% confidence level. Payroll employment estimates are based on a census of administrative data and are not subject to sampling variability. Statistics Canada also produces employment estimates from its Labour Force Survey ( LFS ). The LFS is a monthly household survey, the main objective of which is to divide the working-age population into three mutually exclusive groups: the employed (including the self-employed), unemployed and not in the labour force. This survey is the official source for the unemployment rate and collects data on the socio-demographic characteristics of all those in the labour market. As a result of conceptual and methodological differences, estimates of changes from SEPH and LFS do differ from time to time. However, the trends in the data are quite similar. Unless otherwise stated, this release presents seasonally adjusted data, which facilitate comparisons by removing the effects of seasonal variations. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions. Non-farm payroll employment data are for all hourly and salaried employees, as well as the "other employees" category, which includes piece-rate and commission-only employees. Average weekly hours data are for hourly and salaried employees only and exclude businesses that could not be classified to a North American Industry Classification System ( NAICS ) code. All earnings data include overtime pay and exclude businesses that could not be classified to a NAICS code. Earnings data are based on gross taxable payroll before source deductions. Average weekly earnings are derived by dividing total weekly earnings by the number of employees. With each release, data for the current reference month are subject to revision. Data have been revised for the previous month. Users are encouraged to request and use the most up-to-date data for each month.
A summary table is available from the Browse by key resource module of our website. Under Summary tables, choose Subject then Labour.
Data on payroll employment, earnings and hours for April will be released on June 25.
More information about the concepts and use of the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours is available online in the Guide to the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (Catalogue number72-203-G), from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.
Contact information
For more information, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca).
To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Emmanuelle Bourbeau (613-951-3007; emmanuelle.bourbeau@statcan.gc.ca), Labour Statistics Division.Liturgy
The Mass
The Mass is the central religious service of the Church, which is the celebration of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the rite instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper.
High Mass at St. Thomas is the celebration of the Eucharist with traditional liturgy using the 1549 English Prayer Book. Principal parts of the service are sung by the Priest, choir, and congregation with a Deacon and Sub-Deacon assisting. The solemnity of the Mass is enhanced with the use of incense, rite of Asperges (sprinkling with holy water), Gospel procession, and Sanctus bells.
Low Mass at St. Thomas is the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist with a simple liturgy said by the Priest without music or incense. Sunday Low Mass is the traditional language mass from the 1549 English Prayer Book. During weekday masses the 1549 Prayer Book is also used.
The Rosary
The Rosary is an ancient, beautiful, and powerful prayer of devotion to God through Mary, our Blessed Lady. Through a series of prayers and meditations on the life of Jesus and Mary, we journey with God through the joy, pain and ultimately the glory of our life in Christ.
Evensong
Evensong is the most particularly Anglican service in all of Christian worship. It is derived from the Daily Office of the Church. During the last century, it has emerged as a liturgy of rare and mystical beauty in which the Word is illuminated by music.
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is an extra-liturgical devotion commonly is used in connection with Evening Prayer on Sundays and greater Holy Days. It consists of the singing of certain hymns, or litanies, or canticles, before the Blessed Sacrament, which is exposed upon the altar in a monstrance and is surrounded with lights. At the end of the service, the priest holds the monstrance aloft and blesses the congregation, making the sign of the cross (hence the name Benediction) in silence over the kneeling congregation.In the wake of the disclosure in 2013 that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had intercepted German chancellor Angela Merkel’s calls, Taoiseach Enda Kenny was mocked by some when he said he always operated on the basis that his calls were being intercepted.
In the years since, it has become clear that Kenny was closer to the mark than many appreciated – a reality that has been highlighted by this week’s focus on the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission’s use of journalists’ telephone records.
The controversy caused by the use of legal powers by Gsoc, the Garda Síochána and to a lesser extent the Defence Forces and the Revenue to access private data has raised legitimate concerns about data protection and the limits of current laws.
However, a lack of understanding about the ability to intercept and what can be done with the fruits of such work confuses the discussion and diverts it from where public interest might be better focused in an era where the landscape surrounding privacy and surveillance is fast-changing.
In the wake of the slaughter in Paris in November, few would dispute the duty of any state to do all in its power to protect the nation and people from attack by domestic and foreign extremists.
Counter-terrorism
Surveillance and interception can be the difference between success and failure, stopping attacks, preventing or solving crimes, even protecting life. However, they are powerful tools that can be used for malign as well as benign purposes and not just by the State’s own agencies.
However, the concern from the press this week – and, it must be said, to a far lesser extent from the public at large – about Gsoc’s legal use of metadata, and over issues of accountability, oversight and data protection are legitimate.
However, apart from a few experts who live in the security world, there is a general lack of knowledge about the capabilities of modern surveillance, let alone what the implications are in terms of data protection, privacy or even national security.
Sensitive challenge
Trust in the professional judgment of the state’s security services is also critical.
Under existing legislation, oversight happens after the fact, not before. Sometimes, that is entirely justified, if time is critical and where there is a risk to life. Police or national intelligence authorities must be permitted to exercise professional judgment to approve immediate interception. However, this argument is less convincing where no risk to life exists.
No doubt, this issue will feature prominently during former chief justice John Murray’s three-month inquiry. Crucially, however, Murray can only consider Irish State entities, as only these are subject to current Irish law.
The broader question must also be asked: what about entities outside this jurisdiction where different national interests and legal conditions apply?
As a small, non-aligned state with an open economy, we might not perceive fellow states as adversaries. Ireland is hardly as a threat to anyone else. Our national interests do not require us to threaten, let alone gather intelligence on, neighbouring states. But other countries do, including some of our fellow EU member states.
The adage that “there are no friends in diplomacy” applies most particularly in the world of intelligence. Given the infinite array of technical means available, it is no surprise that states, including friends, do pursue their own national interest.
In the case of terrorism this is understandable. However, the pursuit of commercial or technological advantage is different. Irish businesses are increasingly conscious of the risks they face in the cyberworld.
Before the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations, few would have considered foreign national intelligence agencies might be active in the area as opposed to commercial rivals. For some countries, national interest is a broad concept.
For those of a certain generation, surveillance conjures images of Sean Doherty and manual recorders in dusty ministerial offices. For the internet generation, surveillance means Wikileaks, the French weekly Canard Enchaine or Snowden.
The reality lies somewhere in between – depending on the size, scope and resources of the nation concerned. The potential capability reaches far beyond anything fictionalised on Homeland or similar shows familiar to a younger audience.
Reality checks
The US NSA can access communications – verbal or electronic – “in any room, any building, any city in the world”, to quote one expert. Conversations in copper-lined rooms in embassies – common practice since the 1920s to prevent snooping – are no longer secure from its reach.
Other states can do the same, and do. Vibrations in glass caused by speech, or the electronic signal produced when a keyboard is touched, can be captured. Sometimes, long-life listening devices that can “hibernate” for up to two years are secretly installed.
However, information can be gleaned in a myriad other, less-dramatic ways. Existing technologies allow a torrent of social media traffic to be gathered by a “fire-hose feed”. Once analysed, information can become intelligence.
Manipulated
Companies, or agencies carrying out trawls can anonymise or disguise their searches so that even if interference is suspected, it is extremely difficult to trace, let alone identify those responsible. The protections in law offered by the Irish Data Protection Act are largely futile in such cases.
In the context of the current controversy, however, are we missing that point? Protecting our right to personal security is valid but so is protecting our right to protect our national security. The current narrative perhaps overlooks the latter.
Flawed as the existing legislation might be, it must be borne in mind that non-State and non-Irish entities are not subject to the legal restrictions placed on the Garda, Revenue, Defence Forces or Gsoc.
Faced with the risk of interception, states and companies have taken actions across many fronts to protect themselves: more paper, less electronic traffic, or more guarded phone calls. Sometimes, an analogue Nokia 6210, minus internet has its uses.
Cathal O’Neill is chief executive of security risk firm RMIPreventing Timing Attacks on String Comparison with a Double HMAC Strategy
Modern cryptography protocols are more likely to be broken by side-channel information leaks than the persistent efforts of clever mathematicians.
One of the common cryptographic side-channels that developers should be aware of is how long a specific operation, such as a string comparison, takes to complete. Thus, they are called timing attacks.
A common place to find a timing attack vulnerability in a cryptography library is in the MAC validation logic.
if ($mac === hash_hmac('sha256', $message, $authKey)) { return decrypt($message); }
Timing attacks are possible because string comparison (usually implemented internally via memcmp() ) is optimized. For example: If you compare "apple" with "acorn", it will take measurably longer (on a nanosecond scale) than if you were to compare "apple" with "pecan", simply because the first character matches. This allows an attacker to slowly guess the first character, then the second, etc. of a valid Message Authentication Code for a forged message.
Plugging Timing Leaks
There are two basic defensive strategies against timing attacks:
Ensure that the string comparison always takes the same amount of time to complete. Use a strategy called Double HMAC to blind the side-channel.
The first is easily satisfied by helper functions (e.g. hash_equals() in PHP 5.6 and newer). Where libc functions like memcmp() will return false earlier if the first byte is different in both strings than it would if they matched, these functions compare every byte.
/** * Constant-time comparison * @param string $a * @param string $b * @return bool */ function constant_time_compare($a, $b) { $len = mb_strlen($a, '8bit'); // See mbstring.func_overload if ($len!== mb_strlen($b, '8bit')) { return false; // Length differs } $diff = 0; for ($i = 0; $i < $len; ++$i) { $diff |= ord($a[$i]) ^ ord($b[$i]); } // If all the bytes in $a and $b are identical, $diff should be equal to 0 return $diff === 0; }
This strategy is generally effective, but it's hard to explain to developers who have never seriously worked with cryptography before. (It doesn't help that most cryptographic side-channels sound like the result of H.P. Lovecraft writing about computer hardware.) Additionally, a sufficiently advanced compiler is indistinguishable from an adversary. How can you guarantee that your constant-time code is constant-time on every platform, with every compiler?
These concerns have led many security to propose a Double HMAC strategy instead of writing a constant time comparison loop where one is not already provided (e.g. PHP before 5.6.0).
A Word of Caution
If you are considering adopting a Double HMAC strategy instead of a constant-time string comparison loop because you believe that there is any security loss if the length of the strings leaks out, you are gravely mistaken.
The output of HMAC is dependent on hash functions, whose output lengths are public information. No sane cryptography protocol that employs constant time string comparison for comparing the output of two hash functions (i.e. for message integrity) depends on the length of those hash function outputs remaining a secret.
In fact, it's conceptually impossible to stop length from leaking out. Consider the following:
$m1 = str_repeat("\x80", 32); $m2 = str_repeat("\x80", 33554432); // Start the clock HERE: $hash1 = hash('sha256', $m1); $hash2 = hash('sha256', $m2);
Which hash operation takes longer to complete? The answer is predictable.
Don't worry about leaking the string length. It's a complete non-issue.
Simple Double HMAC Comparison
A naive approach to Double HMAC takes code that looks like this:
if ($mac === hash_hmac('sha256', $message, $authKey)) { return decrypt($message); }
... and instead makes it look like this:
define('CONSTANT_COMPARE_KEY', "\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07". "\x08\x09\x0A\x0B\x0C\x0D\x0E\x0F". "\x10\x11\x12\x13\x14\x15\x16\x17". "\x18\x19\x1A\x1B\x1C\x1D\x1E\x1F"); /** * Compare two strings with deterministic blinding * * @param string $a * @param string $b * @return bool */ function hmac_compare_static($a, $b) { return ( hash_hmac('sha256', $a, CONSTANT_COMPARE_KEY) === hash_hmac('sha256', $b, CONSTANT_COMPARE_KEY) ); } //... $calc = hash_hmac('sha256', $message, $authKey); if (hmac_compare_static($mac, $calc)) { return decrypt($message); }
This works because instead of allowing an attacker to slowly forge a valid MAC for their invalid ciphertext, it blinds the comparison by the hash function (due to the avalanche effect). If you change one byte, the actual strings involved in the comparison will (with overwhelming probability) become something completely different, and thus you don't get a useful timing side-channel out of the mix.
However, this isn't a perfect solution:
You've just reduced the security of your hash comparison to depend on an additional secret key ( CONSTANT_COMPARE_KEY above). If you send the same message twice, the comparison is predictable, since hash functions are deterministic.
This concern isn't known to be practically exploitable (the cryptography literature is sparse on successful blind remote timing attacks), but there is a rule in cryptography: Attacks only get better, they never get worse. A tangential discussion about Blind Birthday attacks by Defuse Security indicates that they're not entirely impractical.
Double HMAC Comparison with a Random Key
To truly blind the operation (i.e. render it non-deterministic), simply drop the constant key for string comparison and instead use a random HMAC key each time (thus making it a nonce):
/** * Compare two strings with non-deterministic blinding * * @param string $a * @param string $b * @return bool */ function hmac_compare($a, $b) { $compare_key = random_bytes(32); return hash_hmac('sha256', $a, $compare_key) === hash_hmac('sha256', $b, $compare_key); } //... $calc = hash_hmac('sha256', $message, $authKey); if (hmac_compare($mac, $calc)) { return decrypt($message); }
Assuming a cryptographically secure random number generator is available, this completely blinds the side-channel (send the same forged message twice, the time duration is non-deterministic; attackers will therefore never receive useful timing information). And in the worst case (a weak PRNG), you don't find yourself in a worse position than the deterministic Double HMAC comparison.
In ClosingA booking photo of Sean Middleton, 21, from the Portland Police. + Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved A booking photo of Sean Middleton, 21, from the Portland Police. + Copyright by KOIN - All rights reserved Video
By: Chelsea Wicks Posted: Oct 23, 2017 05:40 PM PDT
Updated: Oct 23, 2017 05:40 PM PDT
Cole Miller and KOIN 6 News Staff - PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- A man faces 9 felony charges after allegedly abusing a 10-month-old baby boy he was babysitting.
Sean Middleton, 21, was arrested after the child's mother brought the baby to Randall Children's Hospital, where court documents say doctors found "non-accidental injuries" on him. The baby had bruises all over his body including his genitals, a burn on his back, burned hair and scratches on his face. He was also dehydrated, had low-glucose that indicated he may not have been fed for days and tested positive for THC.
According to court documents, the mother asked Middleton to babysit on Oct. 13. She had known him for 2-3 months and thought she could trust him with her baby. She saw the boy again the following day and saw nothing wrong, but when she brought him home on Oct. 15, she and a friend noticed the injuries and called the Department of Human Services hotline.
Middleton initially denied abusing the baby, but later told investigators he was frustrated with the boy's crying and dirty diaper. According to the affidavit, Middleton admitted to grabbing the boy, putting his hand over the boy's mouth and wiping hard while changing his diaper. He also allegedly admitted that the burn on the boy came from a lighter and that he burned his hair for no reason.
Middleton is charged with 4 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, 5 counts third degree assault and one count harassment, a misdemeanor.
People who live in the SE Portland apartment building where the abuse allegedly happened were shocked to hear the details.
Terry Burton, who lives 2 doors down from Middleton, said she heard the baby crying as she walked down the hallway. She told KOIN 6 News it sounded like the baby was chocking, but she didn't know what was going on.
"I should've went with my gut feeling. I should've knocked on the door and done something," Burton said. "How can anybody do that to anybody, let alone a 10-month-old baby?"I originally got this because I was hoping to house a couple ghost shrimp in it. I loved the look of it, wanting a clock, and I thought it would be cool to have for the shrimp. The first thing I want to note is what some others have said: This is NOT an appropriate size for ANY FISH. It is a fraction of a gallon. For people asking about betta fish, the cups and small containers places sell the fish in are horrible and lead to a miserable life and early death for the fish. The bare minimum for a betta would be 5 gallons and that's pushing it. I would recommend 10+ gallons. Believe it or not betta fish like to swim and can get along well with certain tankmates, such as the very entertaining African dwarf frogs. Just do your research on the species and their needs to find tankmates. To keep a fish in this is very cruel because of the size alone. Aside from even swimming space, any sort of aquarium needs to be cycled before adding fish. This involves the breakdown of toxic ammonia to nitrate by bacteria. These bacteria establish themselves over time. In a small "tank" like this, there is such a tiny amount of water in it that any rise in ammonia levels (given off by fish) is significant and can easily killed any aquatic pets you have in there. Another thing is the pump in this. It creates a strong current which stresses out the fish and can kill them. You can try to diffuse it like I did but no matter what is stays strong. On to the other parts of this item. I really liked the clock display and I wanted it so I could see it at night. The clock portion is battery only, and it only lights up when you push a button on it. So at night or early morning, when most people want to be able to see their alarm clock you can not see it. The space behind the clock for storage is so small that it is useless for most things except maybe a couple pencils. The sounds it plays are nice though and are the only reason I would feel comfortable even giving it one star. To reiterate, it is way too tiny for ANY FISH, the clock is useless, but the sounds to fall asleep to are good.Last week, I was driving down Division Place in Greenpoint when I noticed something at the corner of Porter Avenue…
…what has to be the weirdest limo I have ever seen:
Once a normal Lincoln Towncar, the body has been covered in metalwork straight out of Mad Max:
Everything is jagged and menacing, from the grill and hood…
…to the angles protruding from the roof like dragon scales…
…to the spiked bumper. I can’t recall what Bowser drives in MarioKart 64, but it should have been this:
As it turns out, the limo was made by artist/designer Yarrow Mazzetti, who creates similarly strange and exotic art pieces for his Overkill Movement company. According to this article on TribecaCitizen.com, the metal adornments were inspired by the way Oakley sunglasses wrap around your face. At the time of the article, Mazzetti was using it as his primary vehicle. Oh, and at night, it glows:
You can see more of his Art Car creations here. Mad Max would approve.
-SCOUT
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And hey, if you've made it this far, why not follow us via RSS, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Tumblr?Monday on MSNBC while discussing the shooting at the Colorado Springs, CO Planned Parenthood clinic that resulted in the deaths of three people, former Texas State Sen.Wendy Davis, the senator who in 2013 filibustered to block legislation that would restrict abortion, warned of “dangerous rhetoric” fueling these incidents.
Davis said, “You know, there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered about who this person truly is, and what his state of mind at the time was, but we do know that when he was taken into custody, he talked about dead baby parts. This is part of a political rhetoric, a very dangerous political rhetoric, that we’ve been hearing from most candidates on the Republican presidential primary side, and I think it is fueling this kind of behavior that we saw in this individual last week.”
She added, “I think that both sides of the aisle, all political candidates, and all office holders, have a responsibility to understand and be very careful with the language that they use. We see this often in political contests where people will dog whistle to voters and use terms, highly charged terms, that they know will appeal to people’s fears and sadly, people’s intolerance and sometimes their had hatred. We see it in Republican candidates right now, who are using very highly charged language about abortion. We see it in the conversation about immigration in this country. The understanding on the part of those candidates is that they are appealing to a particular type of voter, who is going to respond to that rhetoric and hopefully come their way when it comes time to vote. But the consequence of using language like that, can be very dangerous. I think candidates need to step back, take a deep breath, and understand, as I said before, we have a responsibility to use thoughtful and careful language. It is fine to disagree on this issue. Of course, abortion is a constitutionally protected right in this country, but I respect people who have a differing opinion on it. We have to be careful about the language that’s used when we discuss it.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNENNew Jersey state troopers have arrested four men for allegedly smoking marijuana in the back of a police station parking lot Tuesday.
A state trooper was preparing for a night on patrol at the Totowa station when he noticed a strong marijuana scent, state police said.
He walked toward a 2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue and found three men with small bags of marijuana allegedly in the open. They were waiting for a fourth friend who was visiting the station to pick up paperwork for an impounded car, according to police.
Police said they found 15 plastic bags of marijuana and more than a dozen suspected ecstasy pills inside the car.
State troopers at the station immediately arrested the suspects. The fourth man later emerged from the station and was arrested as well.
The men, who are in their early 20s and from Paterson and West Paterson, were arrested and charged with drug possession, police said.
By NBCNewYork.comMan arrested with AK-47 style rifle outside Nissan Stadium released on bond Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Terron London (Courtesy: Metro-Nashville Police Department) [ + - ] Video
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) - The 22-year old arrested for running from police carrying an AK-47 style assault rifle outside the Tennessee State University homecoming game is out of jail.
Shots were fired, but police said they came from a different gun.
News 2 has been doing some digging into the background of Terron London.
London is no stranger to police.
He has several drug convictions, weapon charges and a domestic charge, but a couple of years ago he tried get his life back on the right track.
4:13 Strong is a program which helps turn the lives of young men around, and London was part of it until he was kicked out after failing a drug test.
"The drug test was definitely a major part of the reason in him leaving our program," 4:13 Strong Executive Director Eric Evans said.
London was arrested Saturday with an AK-47 style assault rifle after shots rang out in the parking lot of Nissan Stadium during the TSU - Austin Peay football game.
"When a guy feels like he [has] to have an AK-47, that says to me that he's living a lifestyle that he doesn't trust nobody," Evans said.
Evans continued, "He doesn't trust nobody or no one, that he's really out trying to protect himself. It was tough, you know, he's a guy that you know, I thought had every opportunity in the world to be somewhat successful and to see him do something like that is pretty sad."
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry weighed in on a weekend of violence surrounding the TSU homecoming parade and outside the game.
"Our goal is to make sure people [are] safe. Thankfully nobody was hurt," said Barry. "I don't think we tar TSU with anything except the great parade we saw and the game."
She said it's disheartening to hear London was carrying an AK-47 at a family-friendly event.
"Anytime you have people who are armed in public places that are potentially going to create mayhem it's a cause for concern," the mayor said.
Metro police Chief Steve Anderson said thanks to quick thinking officers, an arrest was made in the stadium incident.
"It's very, very concerning," Anderson said. "It's very, very disheartening that in fact one of our young people in this community needs to resort to violent to settle some score."
Even with the serious charges against him, London's bond was set at $6,000.
He paid $600 and was back out on the street a little more than an hour after being locked up.
Evans said he believes London can still change his life around.
"I'm willing to try and do whatever I can to try and save him, you know," Evans said. "I know he made a major mistake I recognize that, but I think he's worth saving."
News 2 has learned Hermitage Precinct detectives want to question London about another crime, but police would not say which crime.The Derby Name Debate
By Bill Mayeroff
Craig Bailey had a goal in mind when he helped found the Charlotte Speed Demons.
He and the other founders of the Charlotte, N.C.-based roller derby team wanted fans to concentrate on the athletics and competitiveness of the sport, rather than many of the more theatrical aspects of derby.
There was one aspect in particular that the group felt was keeping people from focusing on the sport – derby names.
“It’s always about the name,” Bailey said. “What people are focusing on is not the competitiveness. What they’re focusing on is the theatrics.”
The Charlotte Speed Demons are somewhat of an anomaly in the derby world because every skater on the team has competed under their real name since the team’s founding in 2010. When the team was founded, Bailey said, he had learned from his wife, who has played derby since 2008, that roller derby is often not perceived as a sport by the world at large, but rather as entertainment.
“Roller derby struggles to be accepted as a sport,” Bailey said. “We feel the game is exciting enough without all the other stuff.”
Beyond changing the perception of the sport, Bailey said, not using derby names had other advantages. One major one, he said, was that using legal names assured that every bout was family-friendly, since none of the skaters use derby monikers that parents might not want their younger kids to hear.
“We want to be positive role models,” he said.
Bailey is not the only one who believes derby monikers affect the way the world perceives roller derby. Julia Rosenwinkel skates under her legal name as a member of the Windy City Rollers’ b-team, the Second Wind. When she joined the league in 2004, Rosenwinkel skated under the moniker “Lucy Furr,” though she had always been reluctant to use a pseudonym.
“I actually never wanted a derby name,” Rosenwinkel said. “At the time, I thought choosing a moniker was very near required.”
Rosenwinkel’s teammate, Val Capone, actually came up Rosenwinkel’s original derby moniker.
“I had just finished my undergraduate work in religious studies, so I wanted something to connect with that part of my life |
-touch regulation of companies that offer Internet services over those networks via line-sharing agreements. That would require an increase in regulation.
But in reality, Pai has proposed only the elimination of regulations. Tomorrow, Pai's Republican majority is expected to approve a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would overturn the Title II classification and eliminate or replace the net neutrality rules. A final vote, after public comment, would occur in the second half of this year.
After that process, Americans will be left with roughly the same amount of broadband choice they have today and fewer regulations that ensure access to the whole Internet and prevent ISPs from abusing their dominant market positions.It was autumn of 2011. Sitting in a dimly lit London classroom, taking notes from a teacher’s slides, Nick Brown could not believe his eyes.
By training a computers man, the then-fifty-year-old Brit was looking to beef up his people skills, and had enrolled in a part-time course in applied positive psychology at the University of East London. “Evidence-based stuff” is how the field of “positive human functioning” had been explained to him—scientific and rigorous.
So then what was this? A butterfly graph, the calling card of chaos theory mathematics, purporting to show the tipping point upon which individuals and groups “flourish” or “languish.” Not a metaphor, no poetic allusion, but an exact ratio: 2.9013 positive to 1 negative emotions. Cultivate a “positivity ratio” of greater than 2.9-to-1 and sail smoothly through life; fall below it, and sink like a stone.
The theory was well credentialed. Now cited in academic journals over 350 times, it was first put forth in a 2005 paper by Barbara Fredrickson, a luminary of the positive psychology movement, and Marcial Losada, a Chilean management consultant, and published in the American Psychologist, the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the largest organization of psychologists in the U.S.
But Brown smelled bullshit. A universal constant predicting success and fulfillment, failure and discontent? “In what world could this be true?” he wondered.
When class was over, he tapped the shoulder of a schoolmate he knew had a background in natural sciences, but the man only shrugged.
“I just got a bee in my bonnet,” Brown says.
* * *
Before enrolling in the positive psychology program at the University of East London, Brown had been in a self-described “rut.”
The married father of two had graduated from Cambridge University in 1981 with a degree in computer science, and spent most of his career as an IT networks operator at an international organization in Strasbourg, France.
After nearly twenty years in the position, stretched thin between technical duties and managerial headaches, he was looking for something new. So he jumped at the chance to transfer into human resources when it presented itself. The move didn’t deliver the change he was expecting, however. Still operating in a large bureaucracy—the same organization, in fact—Brown was now tasked with promoting staff welfare. But he had “little leeway to make decisions,” and was constantly signing off on stuff he “thought was just plain wrong.” Adding insult to injury, when charged with renewing his company’s suppliers list for training and coaching materials, he wound up interacting with “nuts” and “charlatans,” people who listed reiki and crystal healing among their interests, or resorted to “hand-waving” when selling their wares.
He was fed up. Coming up on fifty, his mother ailing, “the general BS, the constant, not particularly high, but nonstop level of moderate dishonesty,” was beginning to wear on him.
Then one day in November 2010, Brown happened to find himself at a Manchester conference attending a talk by popular British psychologist Richard Wiseman, who had written a book called The Luck Factor.
“Basically, the way to be lucky is to just put yourself in situations where good things can happen,” Brown remembers, “because more good things will happen to you than bad on any given day, but nothing will happen to you if you just sit indoors.”
After the talk, Wiseman signed books. The pile dwindled down and down, and only four books remained when Brown made it near the front of the line. Four people were standing between him and Wiseman.
“I thought, ‘Well okay I’m not going to get one,'” he says. “And then I was about two feet from the front, and the woman in front of me, she was one step away from him—had been queuing for twenty minutes—she just decided she didn’t want a book anymore and walked off.”
“Well there you go,” Brown said, greeting Wiseman, “the science of luck.”
The two men laughed and got to talking. Brown explained his situation at work. He asked Wiseman where he could find “evidenced-based stuff,” science-backed skills he could use to motivate employees and gain the upper hand of the hucksters and quacks hawking Tony Robbins-esque fluff.
The emerging field, Wiseman said, was called positive psychology.
* * *
As described by the Oxford University Press, positive psychology aims “to study positive human nature, using only the most rigorous scientific tools and theories.”
In a 1998 president’s address, then-president of the American Psychological Association Martin Seligman announced the birth of positive psychology, calling it, “a reoriented science that emphasizes the understanding and building of the most positive qualities of an individual: optimism, courage, work ethic, future-mindedness, interpersonal skill, the capacity for pleasure and insight, and social responsibility.”
In large part, positive psychology can be defined by what it is not—the study of mental illness (rather, it aims to preempt it)—and in contrast to what came before it—a branch of the social sciences called humanistic psychology that focuses on “growth-oriented” aspects of human nature, but which some in positive psychology criticize as not being adequately scientific.
A typical positive psychology exercise, as described by Seligman, the movement’s most visible figure, in his popular 2011 book Flourish, goes like so:
“Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well.”
The “What Went Well” or “Three Blessings” exercise, which is known in positive psychology as a “positive intervention,” comes as part of a package of treatments collectively called positive psychotherapy. And in a study of people with severe depression, Seligman found that positive psychotherapy relieved, “depressive symptoms on all outcome measures better than treatment as usual and better than drugs.”
Similar findings have afforded positive psychology a level of public credibility that few other psychological subfields enjoy. Centers and academic programs have sprouted up across the world, the most influential of them being Seligman’s own one-year, $45,000 Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2002, with a $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the Penn Resiliency Program (part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center) began a four-year study of positive psychology’s effects on ninth-graders at a high school outside of Philadelphia. Six years later, in 2008, Seligman entered into a far-reaching collaboration with the U.S. Army, resulting in a $125 million government-funded “Army-wide” program known as Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF).
Guest-editing a January 2011 special edition of the American Psychologist that was dedicated to the program, Seligman wrote, along with two military personnel, that CSF’s goal is to, “increase the number of soldiers who derive meaning and personal growth from their combat experience,” and “to decrease the number of soldiers who develop stress pathologies.”
Recently, however, it has been reported that CSF has done little to reduce PTSD. Nevertheless, the government is expanding the $50-million-per-year program.
One of the authors who contributed to the American Psychologist’s special edition on Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was Barbara Fredrickson. Co-writing “Emotional Fitness and the Movement of Affective Science from Lab to Field,” she cited her 2005 work on the “critical positivity ratio.”
Fredrickson is best known for her “broaden-and-build” theory, which posits that the cultivation of positive emotions promotes greater and greater wellbeing. She is considered a rock star of the positive psychology movement, once having been praised by Seligman as its “laboratory genius.” Over the course of her career, according to her curriculum vitae, she has received $240,000 in awards and fellowships and over $9 million in grant funding.
Where the concept of a ratio of positive to negative emotions dates back to the 1950s, the specific origin of the critical positivity ratio took place in 2003, writes Fredrickson in her general readership book Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3-to-1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life.
A Chilean business-consultant named Marcial Losada, “who had begun to dabble in what had become his passion: mathematical modeling of group behavior,” sent her an out-of-the-blue email. Appealing to research he performed in the 1990s that coded the language of sixty business teams for positive and negative affect, Losada said he had “developed a mathematical model—based on nonlinear dynamics—of (Fredrickson’s) broaden-and-build theory.”
Two independent tests by Fredrickson studying the emotional ratios of individuals seemed to confirm Losada’s findings. In 2005, the two unveiled the critical positive ratio in an American Psychologist paper titled “Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing.”
The theory was bolder than bold: Mankind, whether working alone or in groups, is governed by a mathematical tipping point, one specified by a ratio of 2.9013 positive to 1 negative emotions. When the tipping point is crested, a kind of positive emotional chaos ensues—“that flapping of the butterfly’s wing,” as Fredrickson puts it—resulting in human “flourishing.” When it is not met (or if a limit of 11.6346 positive emotions is exceeded, as there is a limit to positivity), everything comes grinding to a halt, or locks into stereotyped patterns like water freezing into ice.
In Positivity, Fredrickson writes that it is possible to promote positive emotions and decrease negative ones. The critical positivity ratio, then, represented a stark dividing line—the difference between a bummer of a life and a blissful one. Feel good about twelve things in your day and bad only about four, and by the laws of the ratio you’ll be happy. Knock just one of the good emotions out, however, and you won’t. So get that extra cookie and talk with someone you love, and push yourself over the mathematical hump.
“Our discovery of the critical 2.9 positivity ratio,” Fredrickson and Losada wrote, “may represent a breakthrough.”
* * *
Less than a month into his program at the University of East London, Nick Brown was making breakthroughs of his own.
He had been poring over the original papers that informed Fredrickson and Losada’s 2005 article—papers written or co-written by Marcial Losada. They seemed “sketchy,” Brown says. In his research on business teams, for instance, “the length of the business meetings weren’t even mentioned.”
“Normally you have a method and the method says we selected these people and we picked these numbers and here’s the tables and here are the means and here’s the standard deviation,” Brown says. “He just goes: ‘Satisfied that the model fit my data, I then ran some simulations.’ The whole process was indistinguishable from him having made the data up.”
In scrutinizing Fredrickson and Losada’s work, Brown happened upon a line in their 2005 paper that caught his attention: “Losada (1999) established the equivalence between his control parameter, c, and the Lorenzian control parameter, r. Using the above equation, it is known that the positivity ratio equivalent to r = 24.7368 is 2.9013.”
“So I started looking for where that formula came from,” he says.
He dug out a famed 1963 paper by the American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz on nonlinear aspects of fluid mechanics, a subdiscipline of fluid dynamics—or the study of liquids and gases in motion.
“I couldn’t read most of it,” Brown says. “It’s a proper physics paper. But I started digging into it, and I managed to find one equation that I could read, and which when I plugged in the numbers”—the constants that Lorenz chose for convenience in 1963—“came out with the positivity ratio.”
“I thought, ‘Yes, I’ve got it.’”
It seemed a case of numbers fudging. In a valid fluid dynamics problem, the numbers plugged into the equation must correlate to the properties of the fluid being studied. But in attempting to draw an equivalence between the physical flow of liquids and the emotional “flow” of human beings, Losada had simply lifted the numbers that Lorenz used in 1963 to explain his method in the abstract, numbers used merely for illustrative purposes. Losada’s results, along with the pretty butterfly graphs Brown had been shown in class, were essentially meaningless.
Brown knew he was on to something. He knew equally well he would need help dotting his mathematical I’s and crossing his psychological T’s.
When a teacher at University of East London suggested he contact Fredrickson directly and say he’d found a mistake, he resisted. “It occurred to me that the level of proof someone would have to bring to me if I was Dr. Fredrickson, if I was a senior professor and you were a grad student who’d been in psychology for three weeks, would have to be pretty big.”
So he went Googling instead, sending out emails to academics and researchers he suspected might be sympathetic to his cause.
On December 5th, he got a response.
* * *
Harris Friedman lives in a wilderness reserve near the Florida Everglades. A sixty-five-year-old psychology professor at the University of Florida and a Professor Emeritus at Saybrook Graduate School, he calls himself, “one of these people who likes to think deeply about issues in psychology that most take for granted and think of as givens.”
Friedman worries about “faddish things” in his field. As a disciple of the humanistic psychological tradition, he was chagrined when positive psychology erupted onto the scene in what he calls “a burst of negativity.”
In 2000, writing in the American Psychologist, Martin Seligman and fellow positive psychology pioneer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote that humanistic psychology failed to “attract much of a cumulative empirical base,” that it, “spawned myriad therapeutic self-help movements,” and that the legacy of the movement is “prominently displayed in any large bookstore,” with the “‘psychology’ section (containing) at least 10 shelves on crystal healing, aromatherapy, and reaching the inner child for every shelf of books that tries to uphold some scholarly standard.”
The dig “got a major groan out of me,” says Friedman, who prides himself on the rigor of his work and the legacy of humanism.
Psychology has long been vexed by the question of the quantitative vs. the qualitative, resulting in a kind of shame known as “physics envy,” whereby researchers in so-called “softer” social sciences feel inadequate when compared to “harder” physical sciences. Friedman says he tries to take a balanced view on the subject. Seligman, on the other hand, he says, “claims that quantitative work is more rigorous than qualitative, and that’s something I dispute. Each can be rigorous in their own way, and each can be misused.”
And misused was exactly the word on his mind when he read Fredrickson and Losada’s paper upon its publication in 2005. “I recollect just letting out a sigh,” he says, “just more stuff of dubious worth.”
So he was intrigued when he received Brown’s email six years later, asking for help to take it down.
“Dear Dr. Friedman,
Please excuse me writing to you spontaneously like this…”
“I had no idea what his background was,” Friedman says, “I didn’t know if it was suitable, and I didn’t know how to tackle the math myself, so essentially I responded, ‘I’m willing to play, tell me what’s on your mind.’”
Friedman suggested that Brown start drafting a critique. “He began to make sense,” Friedman says. “Nick intuitively saw the flaws in the mathematics. He realized how implausible this was.”
“But he couldn’t pin it down,” he says. The math was too much.
* * *
Enter Alan Sokal. A mathematician and physicist, Sokal is best known for a trick he played over a decade ago, now known simply as the “Sokal Affair.”
In 1996, wanting to see if, “a leading North American journal of cultural studies…would publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors’ ideological preconceptions,” Sokal submitted a paper to a postmodern cultural studies journal called Social Text that made little to no sense, and ended up getting it published. A great deal of controversy ensued when Sokal announced his hoax, and a year afterward he co-wrote a popular book titled Intellectual Impostures.
“I guess I’m seen as an all-purpose fighter against bullshit,” says Sokal, now fifty-eight years old, with a voice reminiscent of Phil Hartman.
Brown had emailed the science gadfly in late November of 2011, but Sokal, who was swamped with papers and class work, had filed it away. He had received similar emails before, emails asking him for help debunking bad science, “several times a year,” he says, “some less serious, some more serious.”
More often than not, the emails got lost in the mix, but somehow, combing through his correspondence a few weeks later, he happened across Brown’s and started reading.
Sokal “didn’t know what positive psychology was at the time,” he says, but he saw that the issue was in his domain—“a misuse of math and physics”—and that the mathematical offense was particularly obvious. “This one wasn’t even hard.”
Brown related a list of inconsistencies he had found in the mathematical guts of the theory. Finishing his email, he wrote:
“Here’s my problem. I am just this grad student with no qualifications or credentials, starting out in the field. I don’t know how to express this kind of idea especially coherently in academic written form, and I suspect that even if I did, it would be unlikely to be published.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “I don’t think that I’m a crank, and this is starting to bug me…I would be very happy to be proved ignorant on this, by someone who understands the science and mathematics better than I do.”
Sokal responded that he was “quite impressed with the cogency” of Brown’s critique, and encouraged him to develop it into a full paper for publishing. Later, the two met up for lunch in London, where Brown was studying and Sokal was teaching. Soon after, another email reached Brown’s inbox.
Sokal, “came back with my draft one day,” Brown says, “and had written 3,000 words.”
* * *
By the late winter of 2012, Friedman, Sokal and Brown were all in touch via email and working together towards a draft of what would become “The Complex Dynamics of Wishful Thinking.”
The three men brought different skills to the plate. Brown was the outsider, the instigator, who, knowing no better, dared to question the theory in the first place. Friedman provided psychological expertise and played a diplomatic role, helping guide the paper towards publication. Sokal was the finisher, the infamous debunker with the know-how needed to dismantle the theory in hard, mathematic language.
The article they wrote not only took to pieces Fredrickson and Losada’s 2005 paper, but also two earlier articles written or co-written by Losada. Taken together, Brown, Sokal and Freidman tallied a litany of abuses, which they related, one by one, in painstaking detail.
“We shall demonstrate that each one of the three articles is completely vitiated by fundamental conceptual and mathematical errors,” they wrote.
But before getting to those fundamental errors, they agreed it would be best to begin the piece with a rudimentary explanation of differential equations, the mathematical building blocks that Losada and Fredrickson misused, and how they work.
The pedagogical intro was written by Sokal and intended to have a two-pronged effect. On the one hand, it enabled “anybody with one undergrad course of calculus to understand the paper,” says Friedman. On the other, the intro carried an implicit message, one directed towards psychologists that tacitly scolded them for accepting the theory without understanding of the math allegedly supporting it: “If you can’t understand this,” as Brown put it, “don’t allow yourself to continue reading.”
Math aside, the paper has a biting, sardonic quality. “Most of the good lines are Nick’s,” says Sokal.
In critiquing a section of Losada’s earlier research that characterized high performance teams as “buoyant” and low performance teams as “stuck in a viscous atmosphere,” to take an example, Brown wrote mockingly:
“One could describe a team’s interactions as ‘sparky’ and confidently predict that their emotions would be subject to the same laws that govern the dielectric breakdown of air under the influence of an electric field. Alternatively, the interactions of a team of researchers whose journal articles are characterized by ‘smoke and mirrors’ could be modeled using the physics of airborne particulate combustion residues, combined in some way with classical optics.”
The line made it in to the final; others were struck. Friedman worked to tone down harsh language where he could, feeling protective of his profession and suspecting “how much resistance there would be,” as Barbara Fredrickson is an associate editor at the American Psychologist.
In the end, the paper that was submitted to the American Psychologist—the same journal that had peer reviewed and published Fredrickson and Losada’s theory in 2005—was relentless in its attack, tightly written and squarely focused on bad math.
And through it all, the three met only once in person, when Friedman was in London to give an academic address. It was a day spent scribbling equations in chalk on blackboards and talking strategy – a debunkers’ bonhomie.
Afterwards, Friedman and Brown downed a few beers at a local pub. None of the authors have seen each other since.
* * *
On July 2, 2012, Alan Sokal submitted the finished paper for peer review, then titled “The Complex Dynamics of an Intellectual Imposture,” to the American Psychologist.
On July 12th, they had a response. Citing the journal’s 85-percent rejection rate, Managing Editor Gary VandenBos informed Sokal that the paper had exceeded the two-month limit of which authors were allowed to respond to a target article, and was “just not right for American Psychologist at the time.”
The following day at 2:32 p.m., Sokal replied. In an appeal that “took a bit of bravado,” the team decided to go over VandenBos’ head, writing to American Psychological Association CEO Norman Anderson that this was no ordinary comment; that the paper would be published soon in some good journal; and that if it were published somewhere else it would not look good for American Psychologist. Sokal wrote that by not letting the paper go to peer review, the American Psychological Association was running the risk of converting “a minor scandal into a major one.”
Two hours later at 5:22 p.m., Anderson responded. The decision had been reversed. The paper would go under review.
When asked to comment for this article, VandenBos wrote in an email that, “the APA editorial peer review process for all of our scholarly journals is a confidential process.” But as Friedman and Sokal explain, when reviewing a paper, the managing editor first sends it to an associate editor “closest in field” to the subject addressed in the paper. The only problem with this, Sokal explains, was “that the associate editor closest in field to our paper was Barbara Fredrickson.”
“But the editor in chief, he’s honorable,” says Sokal, and so the paper was assigned to another associate editor who in turn sent it out to four reviewers.
In September, the results came in.
“The messages were mixed,” Sokal says. “One said it was ‘perfect.’ One said the content was great, but that he wanted it to be toned down. Three and four had some complaints about the tone and some rather more extensive criticisms of the content.”
They went through the paper again, removing harsh criticisms and toning down language. It was here that the title changed from “Complex Dynamics of an Intellectual Imposture” to “Complex Dynamics of Wishful Thinking.” Similarly, other references to “intellectual imposture” in the paper were removed.
As for the third and fourth reviewers’ “more extensive” criticisms, Sokal says, the team addressed “each and every” point, accepting “about 20 percent” of the commenters’ criticisms and refuting “about 80 percent” of them. The cover letter attached to the revised draft was 25-pages long. The paper was recommended for publishing.
* * *
Nearly a year later, on July 15, 2013, “The Complex Dynamics of Wishful Thinking” was published online by the American Psychologist. That same day, a response from Fredrickson was also released, called “Updated Thinking on Positivity Ratios.”
Barbara Fredrickson declined to comment for this article. In her published response she wrote that she has “come to see sufficient reason to question the particular mathematical framework,” employed in her 2005 paper.
Co-author Marcial Losada, Fredrickson wrote, “chose not to respond.” Emails sent to Losada seeking comment for this story were not answered.
While ditching the math underlying her theory—the authors issued a formal correction to their 2005 work on Sept. 16th—Fredrickson still believes that research in positivity ratios holds “logic and importance.”
“My aim in this response article is not to defend Losada’s mathematical and conceptual work,” she wrote. “Indeed, I have neither the expertise nor the insight to do so on my own. My aim, rather, is to update the empirical evidence for the value and nonlinearity of positivity ratios.”
She echoed the point in a Sept. 16th letter to the editor about “The Magic Ratio That Wasn’t,” an article written by Tom Bartlett of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Frederickson stated: “It is important to recognize that considerable theory and evidence point to the continued value of tracking and raising positivity ratios.”
“Other elements of the original article remain valid and unaffected by this change,” she wrote, “most notably the empirical finding—replicated across two independent samples—that positivity ratios were significantly higher for individuals identified as flourishing relative to those identified as nonflourishing.”
In the same letter, Fredrickson announced that future printings of her book Positivity would “feature a new note to readers” referencing the “current scientific dialogue,” and that a link to her formal correction would be included on the book’s website.
Brown, Sokal and Friedman were little satisfied with Fredrickson’s response, or the authors’ correction. Nor were they happy with the treatment they say they received at the hands of the American Psychologist.
The authors claim they agreed to let the American Psychologist show Barbara Fredrickson an advance copy of their paper to inform her response, but only if they were granted the “last word” in the form of a response to her response—an agreement they say the American Psychologist subsequently broke. (After a months-long appeals process, the authors have been granted permission to answer Fredrickson in the American Psychologist.)
Fredrickson’s response, Brown says, “totally fails to address almost any of the points we made, except to the extent that she says, ‘okay, well, if I throw my collaborator under the bus maybe that will make you happy.’”
“She claims that out of the trinity of math theory and data, we maybe lost the math, but we still have the familiar duo of theory and data you need to do science,” Brown says, “but she doesn’t because the only theoretical support she had were those equations.”
“She did the classic tar baby thing,” Friedman says. “Two out of three ain’t bad.”
There are other inconsistencies, they note, odd facts confusing Fredrickson’s claim that she studied the math but lacks the “expertise and insight” needed to defend it.
In Positivity, she states: “I needed to clear the decks to make room for this sudden new turn in my research program. I wanted to do it justice. Thanks to the John Templeton Foundation, I arranged a mini-sabbatical for the following semester. I was released from teaching duties so I could immerse myself in the science of dynamic systems that Marcial introduced me to…Having done so, I’d now like to share it with you.”
Additionally, Fredrickson references a textbook called Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and an Introduction to Chaos, a book Sokal says “is aimed at upper-level undergraduates in mathematics, physics and related disciplines.”
“If she had studied 1/10th of what she said she studied,” says Sokal, “she would have seen right through Losada.”
Muddying the waters still, Martin Seligman, positive psychology’s most influential figure, butchered facts relating to the critical positivity ratio in his own book, misstating that “60 companies” rather than the factual sixty business teams had been studied.
Emails sent to Seligman seeking comment on the discrepancy were not answered.
“I contacted Seligman to clarify his use of the sixty corporations research vs. sixty teams,” Friedman says, “and he responded that he wasn’t sure how he came up with it. He distanced himself from the whole situation, saying that he had never endorsed the ratio as an exact number.”
The two continued dialoguing on the topic. Eventually Seligman thanked Friedman and his coauthors for helping to correct the scientific record, but “his first response was brief and seemed rather annoyed,” Friedman says. “Dismissive.”
“Very strange,” says Sokal. “It doesn’t give you confidence if two of the biggest names in the subfield are at the very least so sloppy.”
* * *
To this day, Nick Brown still smells bullshit. He smells it despite the claim that he and his coauthors make at the end of their paper that they do not, “have an opinion about the degree to which excessive enthusiasm, sincere self-deception, or other motivations may have influenced Losada and colleagues when writing their articles.”
“I don’t like people who take the piss,” he says, and that’s exactly what he thought Losada did by taking his theory to Fredrickson.
In their forthcoming comment on Fredrickson’s response, they intend to detail other errors in Fredrickson and Losada’s work and argue that even the metaphor of critical positivity is groundless. “(Fredrickson’s) abandoned the specific number but she’s still grasping for the general concept,” Friedman says.
“It may feel like we’re taking this dead horse, flogging it, quartering it, baking it out in the sun,” Brown says. “A lot of people are saying ‘Stop already!’ And we’re going, ‘We can’t!’ When you’re dealing with people like this—particularly with people like Losada, although I must say I was disappointed by Fredrickson’s reaction too—you have to kill every point stone dead.”
In the meantime, greater questions remain, says Sokal, who notes that only one person before Brown had publicly criticized the math informing the theory—a Chilean researcher named Andres Navas who critiqued Losada’s 1999 paper in a note to the website of the French National Center for Scientific Research.
“For me, the real question is not about Fredrickson or Losada or Seligman,” Sokal says. “It’s about the whole community. Why is it that no one before Nick—and I mean Nick was a first semester part-time Master’s student, at, let’s be honest, a fairly obscure university in London who has no particular training in mathematics—why is it that no one realized this stuff was bullshit? Where were all the supposed experts?”
“Is it really true that no one saw through this,” he asks, “in an article that was cited 350 times, in a field which touts itself as being so scientific?”
In posing this question to psychologists with relevant expertise, a partial picture begins to emerge.
Some said they weren’t informed on the issue, and couldn’t comment. Others said they knew about the 2005 paper and had cited it, but with qualifications. “My opinion of the paper has always been that it was a metaphor, disguised as modeling,” said David Pincus, a psychologist at Chapman University who specializes in the application of chaos theory to psychology.
But it also emerged that others had indeed voiced direct concerns over the math underlying the theory, only to meet deaf ears.
Stephen Guastello, a psychologist specializing in nonlinear dynamics at Marquette University, wrote: “We’ve seen many sketchy metaphors in our line of work over the years. The question is how should one respond?”
In his email, Guastello included a list of errors he had found in Fredrickson and Losada’s application of the math.
“Ironically,” he wrote, “I did send American Psychologist a comment on some of the foregoing points, which they chose not to publish because ‘there wasn’t enough interest in the article.’ In retrospect, however, I see how I could have been more clearly negative and less supportive of any positive features of the original article.”
And from John Gottman, a well-known marriage researcher who has performed his own nonlinear difference equation modeling—work that Fredrickson referenced in the chapter of her book devoted to the critical positivity ratio:
“I did read the Fredrickson & Losada paper, and I wrote them because I couldn’t understand their math either,” he wrote. “They never replied to my email message.”
* * *
“To look for enduring stabilities across space and time,” Harris Friedman says, “they’re hard to come by.”
“The essence of the criticism of the critical positivity ratio is that it takes quantitative reasoning to its absurd extreme,” he says, “that because we can talk about things in numerical terms, that that makes it scientific.”
It’s the kind of stuff that makes Nick Brown sick. Now fifty-two and “retired,” he says he has plans to become an existential life coach and to continue his efforts picking apart shoddy psychological research. A few weeks ago, he finished his program in positive psychology at the University of East London. “I passed,” he says.
When asked whether or not the class was worth it, Brown responds with characteristic wit.
“A lot of people who’ve been through my experience would be wanting their money back,” he says, “but my goodness have I gotten my money’s worth.”
* * *
Liked this story? Our editors did too, voting it one of our 20 best untold tales!
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* * *
Kevin Huizenga works and lives in Saint Louis. He is working on Ganges #5.- Advertisement -
Cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in the world. They are caused by a number of factors such as genetic inheritance, age, injuries, sedentary lifestyles, poor diet, adverse environmental conditions, stress and depression, and a number of other reasons.
Owing to the overall significance of the heart to the human body, it is imperative that the organ be kept in the very best working condition at all times. That’s because a heart that is sick interferes with the health and overall robustness of the body, leads to diminished physical activity, and certainly leads to premature death in the long run.
A number of intervention mechanisms may be adopted to help keep the heart healthy and disease-free. These include dieting, curative measures, and lifestyle adjustments.
The discussion below focuses on dieting by identifying and explaining the top 5 healthy diets that can help to protect your heart.
Green Tea:
Green tea is a beverage that is made from Camellia sinensis leaves which have not become withered or undergone oxidisation. It is has a pale appearance and is slightly bitter in flavour compared to ordinary tea. It is produced and consumed mainly in China and Japan.
Studies have shown that green tea has the ability to effectively counter some of the main risk factors that cause heart disease. It can lower the total body cholesterol as well as the low density lipoprotein (LDL) both of which tend to block the cardiovascular vessels and inhibit the smooth flow of blood. It also reduces Triglycerides levels which may predispose persons to the risks of coronary artery diseases, especially in women, It facilitates the flow of blood by reason of containing flavonoids that relax the blood vessels and improves the health of the body cells that line the blood vessels. It can also increase the antioxidant capability of the blood, thus protecting the LDL cholesterol particles from oxidizing, and prevents a range of heart-related issues such as high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.
Avocado:
Avocados are pear-shaped tropical fruits with rough leathery skins, smooth oily edible flesh, and large seed. They are nutrient-dense fruits that are high in monounsaturated fatty acids.
They protect the heart against diseases and disorders in the following ways: Since they are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, they can reduce cholesterol levels, improve the blood lipid profile, and lowers the risks of stroke and other heart diseases. They lower the blood triglycerides levels by up to 20% and in so doing, reduce the risks of coronary artery disease. They also decrease the low density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol) levels by up to 22%. In general, they are also easy to digest and absorb into the bloodstream besides providing plenty of Vitamin E which boosts the health of the heart and the body as a whole. They do not lead to obesity when consumed in greater quantities on a regular basis.
Nuts:
Nuts are fruits consisting of hard or tough shells around an edible kernel. They are generally culinary versatile, rich in flavour, and aromatic. Common examples of nuts include: almonds, medium cashews, hazelnuts or filberts, medium Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecan halves and English walnut halves.
They do offer certain heart-protective benefits. They are naturally cholesterol-free which means they greatly reduce the risks of coronary heart diseases; are a good source of dietary fibre and proteins which enhance the digestion and absorption of food and in so doing, prevent obesity and high blood pressure; contain a variety of |
to original dir so cleanup of temp dir can happen chdir $tdist;
Instead of using File::Temp directly, I’m using Path::Tiny here, because it will make several other things easier as well. We make a temp dir for our faux distro, and then chdir to it. The one tricky bit is, if we’re still in the temp dir when our test ends, it can’t be cleaned up, because you can’t remove the current directory. So I use an END block to make sure we go back wherever we came from. 6
# create a skeletal distribution my $tname = 'Test-Module'; my $tversion = '0.01'; path('dist.ini')->spew( <<END ); name = $tname author = Buddy Burden <barefoot\@cpan.org> license = Artistic_2_0 copyright_holder = Buddy Burden version = $tversion [\@BAREFOOT] fake_release = 1 repository_link = none END my $lib = path( 'lib', 'Test' ); $lib->mkpath; $lib->path('Module.pm')->spew( <<'END' ); package Test::Module; # ABSTRACT: Just a module for testing # VERSION 1; END my $t = path( 't' ); $t->mkpath; $t->path('require.t')->spew( <<'END' ); use Test::Most 0.25; require_ok( 'Test::Module' ); done_testing; END
That’s about the minimum you can get away with for a DZ distro. I add the fake_release bit just in case I want to test releasing someday... I definitely don’t want my unit tests accidentally uploading things to PAUSE. And I need the repository_link = none bit because I’m using the GithubMeta plugin, but I’m not creating a git repo for my fake distro.
# now build our test dist so we can have some files to test demand_successful_command("dzil build"); chdir "$tname-$tversion"; my $meta = path('META.json')->slurp; like $meta, qr/"version" \s* : \s* "$tversion"/x,'version is correct in meta';
Run dzil build, change to the build dir it makes, suck in our META.json file, and verify something trivial in it (in this case, the version number). Easy peasy.
done_testing;
Have to let the TAP harness know we successfully reached the end our test file without keeling over in the middle.
sub demand_successful_command { my ($command) = @_; # get rid of stdout, but keep stderr # it might aid in debugging is system("$command >/dev/null"), 0, "command succeeded [$command]" or done_testing, exit; }
And, finally, the definition of our function to run a command: execute, toss stdout, keep stderr, verify success, bail out if not.
(You can see the full version of this first cut at my unit test on GitHub.)
So, I ran this and it worked like a charm. Now what I needed was a failing test. 7 Well, at this point, that’s pretty simple. We just change this:
my $lib = path( 'lib', 'Test' ); $lib->mkpath; $lib->path('Module.pm')->spew( <<'END' ); package Test::Module; # ABSTRACT: Just a module for testing # VERSION 1; END
to this:
my $lib = path( 'lib', 'Test' ); $lib->mkpath; $lib->path('Module.pm')->spew( <<'END' ); class Test::Module with Some::Role { # ABSTRACT: Just a module for testing # VERSION } 1; END
and add one line towards the end:
like $meta, qr/"provides" \s* : /x, 'contains a `provides` in meta';
And, voilà: verification of our META.json tweak. (Again, full code for this version can be seen on GitHub.) This code runs, the test fails, I add the line to my plugin bundle that I showed you before, test passes, and bob’s yer uncle.
Now, before I uploaded this to PAUSE, I decided to go ahead and build my distro and verify that the META.json would be correct now. Except it wasn’t. I spend an embarrasingly long time trying to figure out what the hell was going on there before I realized that my plugin module is self-hosting: that is, I build my DZ plugin module using my DZ plugin module. This gives us a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem; specifically, when I build the new version of my module, I’m actually using an old version of my module... whatever the last version I had installed was. My new code is local to my git repo, but, when I build the module, it’s going out to the old code, installed wherever Perl modules are installed. 8 Which is fine, most of the time. But, in this case, building using the old code means that I’m not actually going to fix my problem: the META.json I’m about to upload to PAUSE doesn’t contain the provides directive, so it’s still not going to get indexed. Crap.
We can fix this, though. Build the new version locally but do not upload it to PAUSE. Now use cpanm to install the resulting tarfile:
cpanm -n Dist-Zilla-PluginBundle-BAREFOOT-0.04.tar.gz
Now, build it again (which will now be using the new code), verify that the META.json looks right (it does), then upload to PAUSE. Yay!
But now CPAN Testers lets us know that it hates us. Sigh.
sh: 1: dzil: not found # Failed test 'command succeeded [dzil build]' # at t/tdist.t line 79. # got: '32512' # expected: '0' # Looks like you failed 1 test of 1.
My first thought was, how can dzil not be found? After all, Dist::Zilla is listed as a dependency of ours, so it has to be installed... right? Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean that dzil necessarily has to be in the path. For some smokers, it will be. For others, it won’t. Counting on being able to find it is just not a good idea, in the general case.
Briefly I considered posting something to the perl-qa mailing list asking how I can figure out where the bin/ directory is. Maybe I could use @INC to figure out where Dist::Zilla is installed, and somehow reverse engineer where dzil must be...? But then a much simpler solution occurred to me.
Have you ever looked at the code for dzil? It’s super-simple. It’s just a wrapper around the run method of the application class. So why bother to shell out to run an external command from our Perl unit test? We can just run the application class ourselves.
Again, this is pretty simple. In our unit test, we’ll need to add:
use Dist::Zilla::App;
And we’ll need to change this line:
demand_successful_command("dzil build");
to this:
run_dzil_command("build");
And define that command thusly:
sub run_dzil_command { local @ARGV = @_; Dist::Zilla::App->run or die("failed to run dzil"); }
How simple can you get? Dist::Zilla::App is expecting to find its arguments in @ARGV, so we’ll transfer @_ there, but we use local to make sure we only temporarily override the arguments to our unit test. 9 Then we just run run and call it a day.
One problem though: apparently run doesn’t return success when it’s successful. I didn’t spend any time trying to figure out why that was true; I just moved my or die somewhere else:
chdir "$tname-$tversion" or die("failed to run dzil");
There: now, if the build fails, we won’t get the build dir, therefore we can’t chdir to it, therefore failure to chdir indicates the build didn’t work. Simple enough. (Again, full version on GitHub.)
So, that was my recent adventure with Dist::Zilla. 10 Hopefully there’s something in there that will be helpful to at least a few people. I’d like to tell you that this solved all my problems, but the truth of the matter is it didn’t. Maybe now that I’ve figured out how to tell PAUSE about my class, next time I’ll tell you how to tell Pod::Weaver about it.
As soon as I figure out how myself...“The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. ‘Live,’ Nietzsche says, ‘as though the day were here.’ It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal––carries the cross of the redeemer––not in the bright moments of his tribe’s great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.” Joseph Campbell ~ The Hero with a Thousand Faces
♦ ♦ ♦
Anyone suggesting that they have ideas that will actually help men, psychologically speaking, has an obligation to place their philosophy, their rationale, front and center for men to see. I also understand that most practitioners don’t really do that, especially in what I loosely define as the “mental health” industry.
Usually what you get is a short and sputtering list of platitudes about “wholeness,” finding your “inner this” or “inner that,” accompanied by an obscure definition of the practitioner’s approach. It is either that or you get nothing but the bill.
Sometimes, often actually, they will inform you that they subscribe to feminist theory, which is an admission of their philosophy, except to the extent that it should be viewed cautiously, regardless of your sex.
This writing is intended to explain exactly what An Ear for Men is about in regard to assisting men, specifically in their more modern struggle for identity and an understanding of where they fit in the world. This is particularly important as the lack of those things may well result in some serious problems. Among them are family dysfunction, substance abuse, suicide, violence, anxiety, depression, shame and a lack of self-respect that often crosses the line into self-hatred.
It is not that the current crisis of male identity is the sole cause of these problems. It certainly isn’t. For example, family dysfunction is a self-perpetuating malady passed down from parents to children. In and of itself it has little to do with modern masculinity. Alcoholism is not a “male problem,” nor is violence or other forms of abuse, though those practicing under a feminist shingle may send that very message.
When assessing problems, it can be very difficult to tell the difference between cause and symptom, between a problem and its source. Does family dysfunction cause substance abuse or is substance abuse the cause of the dysfunction? Is violence at the root of relationship problems or do relationship problems fuel and promote the violence? Do communication problems cause hostility or does hostility cause communication problems?
Are all these problems symbiotic, just a teeter-totter interaction of various pathologies feeding each other? If so, can we ameliorate one problem by successfully intervening on another?
I suggest that there may be some truth answering those last two questions in the affirmative. There are, however, workarounds, back doors if you will, to what may well form part of the root structure of an array of problems with no readily visible connection. The good news about that is that you don’t need to see the connection initially in order to do something about it.
The philosophy here is that solutions begin with a recognition that there is indeed a crisis in male identity and male self-respect. It affects all of us, gay or straight, black or white or other race, regardless of religion or socioeconomic status.
Fifty years of gender politics have thrust all men into a new paradigm of sexual politics with no rule book. We are now three generations of men who have been pummeled with messages of who we are, almost all of them wrong, and who we are supposed to be, almost all of them destructive in one way or another. Our mental health industry is one of the prime proponents of these misguided ideas. They are espoused, for profit, at the expense of our men and boys.
The Old School Archetypes
The classic, historical masculine archetypes of Hero, Villain, Ruler, Warrior, Creator, Sage, Rebel and Explorer, all of which either defined what men chose or what they were driven to be. They provided men a model of what they chose not to be as well. They gifted men with a sense of identity and purpose, a rudder for their navigation of life. To a great degree (with some downsides) they worked. Jungian analysts, in the days before the ideological corruption of the field of psychology would likely tell you that these archetypes are rooted in our biology.[1]
It is also important to note that all these archetypes are anthropomorphic projections of the human male experience. They took root in our earliest mythologies because they were already in play in human life. Strangely, “mythology” told the real story of our lives. Every epic battle, great journey, tragedy and triumph of mythical figures mirrored the internal and external experience of real human beings in some way or another.
And so it went from epoch to epoch.
All that has been supplanted with a new and toxic narrative. To simplify it, we now live in a Zeitgeist where all male archetypes have been reduced to that of Villain, with the expectation that they will assume the role of Hero when needed…and directed. The ongoing expectations of men to protect, provide, sacrifice and endure have not changed. The change in narrative, however, demands that recognition and honoring of those things ceases in favor of persistent demonization.
Similar changes have happened in the lives of women. The Manipulator, the Bitch, the Saboteur, the Queen and the Damsel in Distress have usurped the timeless archetypes of mother (Demeter), daughter (Persephone), lover (Aphrodite), civic life and learning (Athena), etc.. While all these and other female archetypes are on full social display, the spectrum of those archetypes has begun to degrade into a vacillation between two roles based on immediate perception. Women are universally seen as the Queen, unless they are in distress or claim to be in distress. Once the perception of female distress registers, social consciousness reverts them to being the original Damsel in Distress. It is as though they live in a perpetual state of flux between empowered and helpless, depending on which is more advantageous, just as we see play out today across the geopolitical landscape.
That, too, is ultimately heading for a crisis of identity in women, though for the purpose of this discussion we need not explore that further.
The denial of all this, and the assumption that it has not had a tremendous impact on the psyches of men, has left them in an emotional and social wasteland that produces more of the psychosocial problems already identified in this writing.
This leads to an inescapable conclusion. While men do need assistance with specific problems, they are also suffering in a famine of functional archetypes. Failing to recognize this, even if we seek in earnest to help them with problems symptomatic of that deficit, is putting a Band-Aid on potentially mortal wounds.
If we are to help men, it requires us to enable them to nurture a new narrative of themselves and their lives. They need new archetypes that foster a new sense of identity if they are going to thrive in a new age.
So what exactly is an archetype?
The Greek root words are archein, meaning “original or old,” and typos, meaning “Model or type.” Archetype: Original Model. Archetypes are the old, original models on which men, in the unconscious recesses of their biology, shape and mold their lives.
Perhaps in the days when there were payoffs, e.g. honor, appreciation, respect and status, men’s unconscious movement toward one archetype or another made more sense.
We do not live in those times any more, and we haven’t for most or all of your lifetime. What remains for most men in modern life is a world of expectation without reward, burden without honor and service without self.
Most men know on some level that this is true, but many have a very hard time facing it out of fear. Fear of the loss of social approval, the loss of love and the loss of what they imagine is the only space the world grants them.
Some of the fear is at least superficially warranted. Facing these issues means reaching a level of consciousness sufficient to make you a bad fit in the world of the walking blind. It means a new mythology with new archetypes born of a newer and more accurate picture of the world.
The daunting challenge is that men can no longer afford the luxury of allowing biology alone to write their story. Technology and ideology have rendered that too dangerous. The old model makes men far too easy to manipulate and far too willing to comply with the manipulation to their own detriment. You can find this same story throughout classic mythology so it is nothing new. Those, however, were cautionary tales, the moral lesson from which has been erased from the cultural consciousness. Most dare not speak honestly of Hera and Medea in the modern age.
The results of that resembles a modern genocide of the male soul.
Fortunately, that which has been forgotten can be learned again. And that which has been learned in error can be corrected. The fruits of that effort are the restoration and “wholeness” so easily promised and seldom delivered.
The risks of embracing this on a personal level is actually an illusion. Once you walk the newer path you will most probably find you don’t particularly want to return to the old one. The feigned approval of others loses its luster when the vision clears.
Despite appearances, all of this is really not so arcane. It is actually quite simple. You can start with most any problem in life; relationship and family issues are a good start. Map the mythology that got you there, that determined your actions and reactions. Were you playing the role of the Hero? The Warrior? Were you surrendering to the Siren’s Song? Was the Damsel in Distress a façade with something more sinister behind the surface impression?
Did a faulty narrative of your place and worth in this world lead you directly into a painful wall? And if that is true, do you have the fortitude to face it and change the story?
Imagine the consciously constructed mythology that would lead you to a better place with better people. Imagine the story of you being written by your own hand.
The solutions are not always easy, but they are made much more accessible when you make the decision to clear your own path; when you are at the helm, navigating your own way, when the stars in the sky are arranged according to your own dreams and desires.
How many miserable professional men out there can remember a time when they aspired to be artisans, writers or artists, only to watch those dreams buckle beneath the oppressive weight of a story that they did not write?
How many desperate men are clinging to the role of provider and protector, having become automatons in loveless, abusive marriages that have ground their self-respect into the dust?
How many men have stories that end with a bottle of scotch and a handgun because they cannot breathe and do not know where to find free air?
Men need an alternative to the new mythology’s archetypes of Servant, Slave and Scapegoat. The only thing preventing that from happening is being trapped in or clinging to a narrative they did not produce and which has never served them.
We have seen the results of men living in a world that is devoid of any honoring of men’s roles or even of men’s being. How can men cope in this sort of world? How can therapists or anyone else facilitate a man moving from this restrictive, prison-like consciousness into a more truly masculine path that embraces his well-being, self-interest and happiness?
That is what An Ear for Men is about. Not just a place for men to tell their stories, but to author and own them with support and encouragement from other men.
.
[1]Andrew Samuels, Jung and the Post-Jungians ISBN 0415059046, Routledge (1986)The announcement by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa that outstanding e-toll fees will be linked to the licence renewal system cannot be enforced immediately, and amended regulations will have to be published for public comment on the matter.
This is according to Justice Project South Africa, which said the withholding of licence discs due to e-toll non-payment may “not pass constitutional muster”.
“Interested parties will have 30 days from the time of publication of that government gazette [containing the amended regulations] to make written representations to the Department of Transport,” said JPSA.
“JPSA is of the opinion that withholding the issue of licence discs… would be tantamount to forcing a person who has in fact paid licence fees to renew their licence, but to whom a licence disc has been refused, to contravene the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 by not displaying a current licence as prescribed.”
During its announcement of the new e-toll dispensation, Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters said the review panel was aware that legislative changes will be needed to link licence disc renewals to e-tolls.
The pending Aarto Amendment Bill could be used to effect the necessary changes, she added.
JPSA said even if the amendments were passed, there was no guarantee that withholding licence discs would encourage motorists to pay e-tolls.
“In fact, quite the opposite is true and the possibility of a whole new industry of mass false licence disc production could become a very real possibility.”
“If this provision does go through and people dig their heels in, it may be found by the Gauteng Provincial Government and all licensing authorities in Gauteng that the tactic of withholding licence discs will have a profound negative impact on their own licensing income revenues.”
JPSA said it was a pity the government had insisted with “what has already demonstrated itself to be a failed and unworkable system”.
Current legislation
With regards to current legislation, there are only 4 instances where a licence disc may lawfully be withheld, according to JPSA. These are:
When there are outstanding licensing fees or penalties on those outstanding licensing fees present for any vehicle registered in the name of the licensee; The vehicle in question has been suspended due to a roadworthy issue or requires a roadworthy certificate to be issued before a licence disc may be issued; When a warrant of arrest has been issued against the licensee; or When an AARTO Enforcement Order has been issued against the licensee.
According to Dembovsky, not displaying a current licence disc is, under the AARTO Act, a minor infringement which results in a R250 fine (discounted by 50% if paid within 32 days).
“The consequence of not paying such a fine could, after the prescribed period and processes have ensued, lead to an enforcement order being issued, thereby blocking licensing transactions on eNaTIS against the person whose licence disc has already been refused.”
“In other words, that person would then not only have unpaid e-tolls and no licence disc, but would also have one or more unpaid traffic fines which can currently proceed no further than an enforcement order and would therefore constitute no real further consequence,” he said.
More on e-tolls
Big shock awaits e-toll non payers
E-toll tariffs halved
Thank you ANC for e-tolls and load shedding: DATrump's insurgent campaign has riven the Republican Party, with party leaders openly discussing how to thwart the will of the tens of thousands of members who have voted for Trump so far, helping him comfortably win in three of the four states that have so far held nominating contests. (Photo: AP)
Washington: Meg Whitman, the head of technology firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co, said on Sunday that Donald Trump was "unfit" for the US presidency, and criticized New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose failed presidential bid she supported, for endorsing Trump.
Trump's insurgent campaign has riven the Republican Party, with party leaders openly discussing how to thwart the will of the tens of thousands of members who have voted for Trump so far, helping him comfortably win in three of the four states that have so far held nominating contests.
Party leaders are nervous that Trump, a billionaire real-estate developer from New York City who deviates from some of the central tenets of Republican conservatism, may alienate voters if he is their candidate in the Nov. 8 general election. He has proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States and declined a journalist's invitation on Sunday to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, the violent white supremacist group.
Christie, who scrapped his own presidential bid earlier this month, became the most prominent Republican figure to break ranks with party leadership by endorsing Trump on Friday ahead of this week's "Super Tuesday" contests, when voters in 11 states go to the polls.
Whitman, who was a co-chairwoman of the national finance committee of Christie's campaign, said in a statement to reporters that Trump would take the country on "a dangerous journey" and that Christie was aware of this.
"Chris Christie's endorsement of Donald Trump is an astonishing display of political opportunism. Donald Trump is unfit to be president", said the statement from Whitman, who is chief executive and president of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and chairman of HP Inc.
She called on Christie's donors not to follow him to Trump, who has predominantly funded his campaign with personal loans. Representatives of Christie and Trump did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump was asked repeatedly if he would unequivocally condemn the Klan and other support from white supremacists.
"I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists," Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper after being asked about his endorsement by David Duke, a former Klan leader. "If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them and certainly I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong."
Previously, Trump had seemed less uncertain about his views on Duke. "David Duke endorsed me?" he said in a response to a reporter. "Alright. I disavow. OK?"
In a separate interview on Sunday, Trump also defended posting on his Twitter account a quote sometimes attributed to Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. He told NBC News he did not realise that the quote - "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep" - was associated Mussolini but said it did not matter because it was a good aphorism all the same.
Many party leaders hope US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida will somehow overtake Trump before the party's nominating convention in July, despite Rubio's not having won any states and lagging behind in Trump in opinion polls.
In recent days, Rubio has taken to adopting Trump's habit of using adolescent insults to denigrate his rival, suggesting on Friday that Trump urinated in his trousers during last week's televised debate and saying his face looks unappealing.
Rubio and US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the only Republican to beat Trump in a primary election so far, both criticized Trump's reticence to share his view on the Klan on Sunday.
"We cannot be a party that nominates someone who refused to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan," Rubio told a crowd of voters in Purcellville, Virginia, MSNBC reported.British Prime Minister Theresa May gives a keynote speech as she closes the 2016 Conservative Conference at the ICC Birmingham on Oct. 5 in Birmingham, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
In defense of the Brexit decision she now must implement, British Prime Minister Theresa May In defense of the Brexit decision she now must implement, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that no "divisive nationalists" would hold up the process of exiting the European Union, and she firmly asserted that all four of Britain's constituent "nations" — England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — would Brexit together.
But the Brexit decision was But the Brexit decision was fueled in many ways by nationalist sentiments, centering on perceived threats to Britain's sovereignty and many of its citizens' desires to prevent the supposed dilution of their national identity by immigrants crossing the European Union's open borders.
Just three days after her comment about "divisive nationalists," at her Conservative Party's annual conference, May espoused her own brand of nationalism — one that seems to encompass all of Britain, but excludes those who may feel as though they have multiple nationalities, or identities.
"Today, too many people in positions of power behave as though they have more in common with international elites than with the people down the road, the people they employ, the people they pass on the street," she "Today, too many people in positions of power behave as though they have more in common with international elites than with the people down the road, the people they employ, the people they pass on the street," she said. "But if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere. You don't understand what citizenship means."
As it turns out, about half of the people "down the road" or whom one might "pass on the street" identify with the very phrase May disparaged — being a "citizen of the world" or global citizen.
In an In an 18-nation survey conducted by GlobeScan in conjunction with the BBC World Service that was released just over a month ago, 47 percent of Britons said they somewhat or strongly agreed that they considered themselves more as global citizens than citizens of the United Kingdom.
That number is just slightly below the 51 percent of all respondents who felt the same way. Below is a look at how respondents from each of the 18 surveyed countries responded. It is worth noting that "urban-only" samples were used in Brazil, China, Indonesia and Kenya.
A screenshot of a graphic produced by GlobeScan to accompany a 14-nation survey on global citizenship it released in August, 2016. (GlobeScan)
The poll surveyed 20,000 people between December 2015 and April 2016, which coincides with the lead-up to the Brexit vote.
GlobeScan has been carrying out similar surveys since 2001, and this year marks the first time since then that a global majority leans toward "global citizenship." Strong upticks in feelings of global citizenship in developing countries — including Nigeria (73 percent, up 13 points), China (71 percent, up 14 points), Peru (70 percent, up 27 points) and India (67 percent, up 13 points) — were the biggest drivers of the increase.
Conversely, seven European countries in the survey have followed an opposite trajectory, dropping to a low of 39 percent in 2011 and remaining at low levels since (now at 42 percent), according to GlobeScan. It notes that this has been "particularly pronounced" in Germany, where identification with global citizenship as opposed to national identity has dropped 13 points since 2009 to 30 percent today (the lowest since 2001).
Read More:Get ready for the coolest history lesson you’ll have sat/walked/driven through in a minute.
Mixed by Blood Diamond and presented by design-centric site The Upsetter, “Two Up Two Down! The Beginners Guide To Understanding Virginia (Part One)” is a comprehensive and inspiring audio-journey, comprised simply of songs and interview snippets. Guiding the listener through the work of the best and brightest musical pioneers from Virginia, “Part One” makes a case for why the state is low-key behind some of the most important musical movements and moments of the past few decades.
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Featuring work from Devante Swing & Mr Dalvin, to D’Angelo, The Neptunes, Missy and Tim, and beyond, this mix is essential for any music lover (and/or Virginian).
Listen below, and peep Part Two of the mix series, on Virginia’s new school.I recently came across a fascinating study that Stephan Guyenet mentioned in an article in his series on the neurobiology of eating. In this study, the researchers found that half of annual weight gain in the U.S. occurs during the holiday period.
That is a sobering statistic in itself, but what makes it even more significant is the fact that most of this weight is retained indefinitely. People tend to lose a little bit in January when the holidays are over, but the rest of it sticks around. Even modest increases like this each year can add up over time. The average American gains between 0.5 and 1.75 pounds a year, and a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey follow-up study found that among adults 25 to 44 years old, the body weight measured at 10-year intervals increased by an average of 3.4 percent in men and 5.2 percent in women (1).
But there’s evidence that holiday weight gain is even more of a problem for those that are already overweight or obese. People that gain 5 pounds or more during the 6-week holiday period are more likely to be obese or overweight than those that gain less. (2) It’s also well-established that weight loss programs are less effective over the holidays than at other times of year. (Duh.)
In a previous radio show episode called Why It’s So Hard To Lose Weight – And Keep It Off, I discussed the concept of the body fat setpoint. From an evolutionary perspective, survival in a natural environment is threatened by either too little or too much fat. If we have too little fat, we can’t survive periods of food scarcity and we starve. If we have too much fat and we become obese, then we aren’t as fit to hunt and gather food and evade predators and survive. The body fat setpoint is a mechanism that helps us maintain an ideal weight appropriate for the human ecological niche. When our weight increases above this setpoint, the brain engages various mechanisms to decrease it – and vice versa. This is how normal weight people are able to maintain virtually the same weight throughout their entire life without counting calories coming in or going out.
In overweight or obese people, however, the setpoint is broken. Instead of defending an ideal weight, the setpoint gradually creeps up over time. There are many theories about why this happens, but one novel possibility that Stephan speculates on in his article is that weight gain itself increases the setpoint over time.
If this is true, it has profound implications. Something as seemingly innocuous as picking up a few pounds over the holidays could increase the weight that the body defends. This could explain why it’s so difficult for people to lose the weight they gain over the holidays; their body is holding on to that weight as if its survival depended on it (remember: the body fat setpoint is essentially a survival mechanism).
This means it’s crucial – especially for people that are already overweight – to avoid holiday weight gain if your goal is to maintain your current weight or lose weight.
Half of all annual weight gain in the U.S. occurs during the holiday period.
How to prevent holiday weight gain
Now that we’ve established how important it is to avoid weight gain during the holidays, let’s look at some strategies for keeping it off. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to diet and nutrition. The recommendations I’m making here are not for normal weight, healthy individuals. They are for people that are already overweight and/or have a tendency to gain weight easily. In those cases, we might suspect that the homeostatic system that regulates weight is impaired in some way, and a specialized approach is required.
Some of these recommendations may surprise you if you believe that calories don’t matter and weight gain is not possible as long as you’re eating a nutrient-dense, low-carbohydrate diet. I used to think this was true myself, but after further research and more experience working with people in my clinic, I now know that it is not. If you’re confused about this, please listen to the podcast I linked to above (or read the transcript); it will clear things up.
Eat more simply
One of the biggest reasons people overeat during the holidays is because of the abundance of highly palatable and rewarding food. A food is palatable when it tastes good. A food is rewarding when it makes us want to eat more of it. Palatability and reward usually travel together, but there are exceptions. For example, most people think steak tastes good, but it doesn’t tend to encourage eating beyond satiety.
Choosing foods that are lower on the reward value scale during the holidays is one way of spontaneously reducing your calorie intake. But what makes a food rewarding? There are several factors, including:
sugar, fat and salt content
calorie density
certain textures (fat that melts in mouth, crunchy, soft/easy to chew)
free glutamate
starch
certain aromas
variety of flavors, textures, foods
many other flavors can become rewarding when associated with above nutrients
Looking at that list, it’s not hard to see why holiday meals would promote overeating!
With that in mind, here are some tips for eating more simply during the holidays:
Don’t add additional fat to your food. Skip the gravy and don’t put butter on your mashed potatoes (if you’re making them yourself, use less butter or cream in the first place). Don’t add salt or seasonings to your food. Reduce the variety of flavors, textures and foods you eat. Choose a main dish and one or two sides and stick with that. Eat less This one is easier said than done, right? The best way to accomplish this for most people is to focus on reducing the energy density of the food they consume. Energy density is defined as the number of calories in a given weight of food. A Paleo diet contains foods that are typically low on the energy density scale: animal protein, fruits, vegetables and tubers. A holiday feast contains foods that are typically high on the energy density scale: stuffing, bread, pie, cream, butter, gravy, etc. Here are a few tips for reducing energy density: Add extra vegetables and starchy tubers (without added fat). Add extra protein to your meal. Chew your food thoroughly. This increases satiety. Cook a Paleo holiday meal and minimize energy dense foods typically associated with the holidays. Move more Exercise may not be a great strategy for weight loss, but it’s likely that physical inactivity helps prevent an increase in the body fat setpoint, and studies have consistently shown that exercise prevents weight gain and maintains leptin sensitivity in animals. ( 3
In the U.S., at least, holidays tend to be associated with a lot of TV watching, especially amongst sports fans. That means additional time sitting on your butt, which |
,):Some will nonetheless insist that "intelligence" is of vital significance, and that it depends on specialized knowledge,"secret information." That, too, is a lie. Here is Ray McGovern, who worked for the CIA (excerpted in my article, " You, Too, Can and Should Be an 'Intelligence Analyst '"):In thinking about this issue during the years since I first excerpted McGovern, and given the intervening events, I've concluded that the 80% figure is almost certainly too low. I think the more accurate figure would be 90%, or even 95%. (Among other things, I doubt that McGovern wants to put his former colleagues, and possibly many friends of his today, largely or even completely out of work.)I underscored this point when I wrote about the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. You may recall that the NIE was the subject of much commentary. But one central fact was overlooked by almost everyone:You can read my article, " Played for Fools Yet Again: About that Iran 'Intelligence' Report," for the detailed argument about "intelligence" generally. It should also be noted that I and many others had been making the argument about Iran's entirelythreatening status for quite a while, and almost no one paid us any mind. Suddenly, when theis issuedwhat we had been saying all along became the incontrovertible truth. But I stress that I was entirely consistent in my argument. From later in "Played for Fools":And here is Chalmers Johnson, in his review of the book Legacy of Ashes, about the CIA's decades of failure. I urge you to read this with care, for many of Johnson's arguments are critically relevant to the current debate about the NSA and all the other means of "intelligence" gathering:You will find still more Johnson excerpts in this essay. Much more recently, we witnessed the "intelligence" follies in Boston, which I documented here In his review, Johnson urges the abolishment of the CIA, a recommendation with which I heartily concur. I would add to that the abolishment of the NSA. All right, I'll be reasonable: let's go with McGovern's estimate of the proportion of "intelligence" that relies on "open media." So cut the CIA and NSA budgets by 80%. That would be a good start, and then we can discuss all the other agencies and programs devoted to "intelligence" and decide which of them should be abolished or cut down by 80% (or 90% or 95%).You can consult the articles linked above (and follow the internal links for much more on this) to appreciate the full scope of the fraud represented by "intelligence." The crucial point is that "intelligence" as it is thought of by most people -- and as it is marketed by the State -- is a fraud from start to finish. It is a damnable, unforgivable lie. I will probably have some narrower comments about Obama's speech, but the speech in its entirety is premised on a complete fabrication, on a conception of "intelligence" that corresponds to the facts and the truth at not even a single point. In that sense, Obama's speech isa lie.I am painfully aware that my position represents an almost undetectable minority view. Very few people agree with me. Among other things, that is a testament to the training and conditioning to which all of us have been subjected. As children, we often had no choice but to accept our parents' and other authority figures' claims to "secret information," which was one of the supposed justifications for commanding our obedience. Most people carry this belief system into adulthood without alteration or serious challenge. An authority figure makes a serious pronouncement, and most adults are prepared to accept it; you see this dynamic with "experts" in all fields, even when what they say is obvious nonsense. The President makes a series of claims that have nothing to do with the truth, and there is no wise child -- and there are almost no adults -- who will declare: "You're a liar, and you're naked, too."But I'll say it: You, Barack Obama, are a goddamned, bloody liar. And put some fucking clothes on.Strawberry Fields Forever: the legacy of The Beatles
As a die-hard Beatles fan, I was delighted to learn that the Beatles’ lyrics are very popular with teachers of English as a foreign language. Apparently, the songs are notable for containing high percentages of the commonest English words, and are therefore very useful for learners. But in writing this article, I’m more interested in what makes the language of the Beatles special. August 22nd is an important day for Beatles history: fifty years ago, on August 22nd 1962, the new line up of John, Paul, George, and Ringo was first captured on film, by Granada TV cameras. On the same date in 1969, the Beatles attended their final photo session. So, what better day to look back at some of the now well-known words that caused such excitement when they were first written?
Tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is one of the Beatles’ most famous songs, and as everyone knows, the title refers to the drug L.S.D. Well, actually, maybe not. It was one of those “facts” that was trotted out in school drug-awareness lessons (perhaps my teachers thought the Beatles would catch our attention; given that this was the 1990s and all my friends were nuts for Kylie and Jason, their ploy failed dismally.) Unfortunately, at the age of thirteen, I was the biggest Beatles fan who had ever lived, and I would fight you to prove it. I put my hand up, and said “actually, sir, the song is named after a drawing done by John Lennon’s son. It doesn’t refer to drugs at all. And the Beatles are very cross when people say that it does.” If you take one lesson from this, let it be that precocious teenagers are the pits. But if you feel like taking a second lesson, then it should be that John Lennon’s son Julian really did present his dad with a drawing of his friend surrounded by stars, which he described as “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”. Nonetheless, the context of the song in the psychedelic 1960s, the Beatles’ own well-known experiments with drugs, and the song’s hallucinogenic lyrics have all conspired to make sure that it is remembered as a classic of acid-inspired pop. “Lucy” is even occasionally used to refer to L.S.D., although if you look her up in the dictionary, what you’ll find is that Lucy is the name given to a partial female skeleton of a fossil hominid, discovered in 1974. Apparently the name comes from the coincidence that the Beatles’ song was on the radio when she was being dug up, though I prefer to believe that it’s because the anthropologists found a hash pipe and a pair of round blue-tinted sunglasses buried with her.
In the beginning I misunderstood
The tendency to read extra meanings into Beatles lyrics is not confined to people who see drug references in every other syllable. There are also those who like to look for hidden sexual content. Paul McCartney once lamented this tendency, saying that “I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that Can’t Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That’s going too far.” One of the more fertile songs for the euphemism hunters has been Happiness is a Warm Gun. It’s certainly not a big stretch to see the phallic symbolism in the image of the “warm gun”, especially not with lyrics such as “when I hold you in my arms, and I feel my finger on your trigger”, and the repeated chorus “Bang, bang, shoot, shoot!” The use of this kind of language to refer to sex is not particularly new. Shoot, in the sense “ejaculate”, goes back at least to Victorian times, and bang as a term for sexual intercourse is well established. The source for the title of the song came from an American gun magazine. An advertisement proclaimed that “happiness is a warm gun”, something that appealed to John Lennon: “I thought, what a fantastic thing to say. A warm gun means that you’ve just shot something.” In fact, the more obvious sexual images of the song are those of the “touch of the velvet hand” and the “man in the crowd with the multi-coloured mirrors on his hobnail boots”. The former was inspired by a friend of Lennon’s, who told a story of having met a man who got a thrill from wearing moleskin gloves when with his girlfriend, and the latter came from the story of a football fan arrested for sticking mirrors to his shoes in order to look up women’s skirts. “Shoot” can also refer to the practice of injecting drugs, a sense which the word first acquired in the early twentieth century. The middle section of the song’s assertion that “I need a fix” also supports the view that the song is about drug taking. Fix, meaning a dose of narcotics, appears to be a shortening of the earlier “fix-up”, and came to prominence in the 1930s. It’s impossible to say whether any or all of these meanings were in John Lennon’s mind when he wrote the song. If they were, then it certainly gives us a brilliant example of the classic trio: sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.
Man you been a naughty boy
Of course, the Beatles’ lyrics do have plenty of obvious sexual and drugs references beyond the euphemisms of guns and sky-dwelling girls. The song It’s Only Love, with the line “I get high when I see you go by”, shows how the experience of taking drugs and sexual attraction can be conflated with each other. She’s a Woman, similarly, speaks of a woman who will “turn me on when I get lonely”. To turn someone on, meaning to excite them sexually or to introduce them to drugs, goes back to 1953 in the Oxford English Dictionary’s evidence, though Henry James also used the term in 1903 to refer to piquing someone’s interest. There is also a darker side to sex in the Beatles’ songs. In Don’t Let Me Down, the lyrics say of a woman that “she done me, she done me good”, a sexual sense of do which is first found in print in Victorian erotic literature. (And for those who complain that the use of good here as an adverb is bad English, I can only say that it has a venerable history, being first recorded in the 1300s). The narrator of Norwegian Wood meanwhile claims that “I once had a girl – or should I say, she once had me”. Had in the sexual sense goes all the way back to Shakespeare. Interestingly, both “do” and “had” could also be interpreted as “cheated” or “swindled”, senses which are first seen in the 1600s (do) and 1800s (had). A Freudian might well see an interesting comment here on the Beatles’ attitudes to the opposite sex.
People and things that went before
As we might expect, the Beatles’ lyrics are full of contemporary slang, language that might well not have been understood a hundred, or even fifty years previously. I’m a Loser uses a meaning of loser, someone who is a failure in life, which first appeared around the middle of the twentieth century. (The very earliest meaning is “a destroyer”, so next time someone calls you a loser, just give them your best wicked laugh...) Day Tripper, meanwhile, refers to a phenomenon that began to appear later in the 1800s, when mass transportation made short breaks away from home possible for large numbers of people. Jazz slang and other American slang are also popular with the Beatles: the line “I feel hung up” (from I Want to Tell You) uses a term recorded in the Hepcat’s Jive Talk Dictionary in 1945, where it is defined as “completely bewildered”, while the line “Man, I was mean, but I’m changing my scene” (Getting Better) uses a sense of “scene” which the OED describes as originally “U.S. Jazz slang and Beatniks’ slang”. “Killer diller” (a description of the character Polythene Pam) also started out life in jazz contexts, attributed to jazzman Benny Goodman and meaning impressive or formidable.
The Beatles also use plenty of contemporary-sounding words which have a surprisingly long history. That use of “man” as an interjection, from Getting Better, is first recorded by the OED in 1823. And those of us young people who are pretty sure that we invented rude words might raise an eyebrow when we discover that the line “everybody had a wet dream” (I’ve Got a Feeling) uses a term already recorded in 1851. But even these terms are relative babies in comparison with some of the Beatles’ other “modern” language. The description of a man “watching the skirts” in Good Morning, Good Morning uses a slang term for women which is first found in 1560, while John Lennon’s description of Sir Walter Raleigh as a “stupid get” is one which might have been used by Wally’s contemporaries: get as a term of insult is first recorded in 1567. Meanwhile, the description of Bungalow Bill as “the all-American bullet-headed Saxon mother’s son” may give us a vivid picture of the typical 1950s square-jawed Yankee hero, but “bullet-headed” goes back to 1699, where the New Dictionary of the Canting Crew defines it as meaning “a dull silly Fellow”.
I’ve got something I can laugh about
But it’s not really their use of slang, whether contemporary or centuries old, that makes the Beatles’ lyrics so fantastically enjoyable. It’s their sense of humour, their cleverness, and sometimes their sheer nonsense. The later songs, such as I am the Walrus with its image of “sitting on a cornflake, waiting for a van to come”, or Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and its bizarre tale of a serial killer, are obvious sources of humour and invention, but the Beatles’ earlier work also shows evidence of creative wordplay. A Hard Day’s Night is a famous example. Ringo Starr claimed to have invented the paradoxical term, although it appears in print first in John Lennon’s book of nonsense verse and prose, In His Own Write (1963). “A hard day’s night” has by now become almost a cliché to refer to any long and tiring period of activity, and you’ll find it in countless newspaper headlines and sports commentaries, but it regains its original humour and cleverness when you stop to think about the meaning of the words. And if we go back to Happiness is a Warm Gun, we’ll find my favourite Beatles joke. The “man in the crowd” has “a soap impression of his wife, which he ate and donated to the National Trust”. To “donate to the National Trust” is perhaps not the best-known euphemism for defecation, but it’s certainly one of the more creative ones.
But it would be wrong to end by focusing on the humour of Beatles lyrics. Because what I and so many others love most about the Beatles is their sense of poetry. The earlier albums may have been based on catchy pop, but the group’s style developed throughout the 1960s into something far more thoughtful. From the romantic Things We Said Today, through the darkness of She Said She Said and the Zen-like tranquillity of Because, the Beatles produced some of the most beautiful lyrics in the history of popular music. August 22nd 1969 may have been an ending for the Beatles, but it was also the beginning of the making of their legend.The latest Gallup poll findings, and their catalysts, should be cited in every Republican stump speech from now until November.
According to the latest survey, satisfaction with the state of the country has plummeted to a staggering 17 percent -- 12-points lower than last month and the lowest overall measure since 2013.
Given the time correlation, it's no surprise that race relations have soared to the "most important problem" on the list, and of course, terrorism is ever-present on Americans minds as well. Gallup reports:
Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. dropped 12 percentage points in the past month, amid high-profile police killings of black men and mass shootings of police. Currently, 17% of Americans are satisfied with the state of affairs in the U.S.
These data are from Gallup's latest monthly reading of Americans' satisfaction, taken July 13-17. Between the June reading and now, the U.S. has been rocked by deadly shootings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the targeted killing of police at a protest in Dallas. Also since the last survey, a gunman killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando. World news has not offered much solace, with a terrorist attack across the Atlantic in Nice, France, involving a truck ramming into a crowd on Bastille Day in mid-July, killing 84.
According to the poll, "the decline in Americans' satisfaction this month includes a particularly sharp drop among Democrats, whose satisfaction levels — after registering 51 percent last month — dropped 22 points to 29 percent in July." This poll may provide added fuel for Republicans as they hope to capture the vote of disenfranchised Democrats in November.HAVE you heard the one about football star Lionel Messi being an international spy?
No?
Well, what about the one which claims the Syrian war was actually staged?
These are among the rumours circulating online for months about broadcaster Al Jazeera and its activities.
But perhaps even more surprising than some of the rumours has been the response from the Doha-based media outlet.
Rather than outrage, Al Jazeera has responded by producing a satirical video.
From claims that Messi was bribed to send messages to rebel fighters with his on-field movements to the hilarious rumour it has a ‘fabrication room’, the video sums up the best of the rumours.
A statement released by Al Jazeera said it decided to finally make light of the rumours and stories surrounding its brand, after “months of false reports circulating on regional and social media”.
Real, fake, exaggerated or anything otherwise, here are some of just three of the funniest rumours.
1. Lionel Messi was a spy.
Apparently, at least according to one theory, the star footballer communicated his on-field moves to rebel fighters.
In the video, the subtitles reveal: “Al Jazeera persuaded me.
“I met with their management and they convinced me by giving me new shoes and offering a lot of money.”
The subtitles go on to say he was given certain tactics to follow on the field that matched the tactics of Syrian fighters.
In 2012, pro-government Syrian television channel Addounia TV claimed his moves secretly indicated arms smuggling routes from Syria to Lebanon.
The station superimposed a map of Syria on a screen to show how Messi and his teammates, who represent smugglers kick the ball which represented a weapons shipment, Spy Ghana reported.
2. The Syrian Revolution was made in Al Jazeera
According to another rumour, the broadcaster made miniature structures of Syrian cities and squares to make it appear as if it was there.
Oh, and it also apparently staged clashes between the Syrian army and rebels too.
According to an article in the Syrian Free Press last year, the network were clearly agenda setting and Al Jazeera reporters were also told what information to release and alter regarding the war.
3. The secret black room
Based in the broadcast headquarters, it apparently has a secret black room where not only are stories fabricated but a team is dedicated to “fabrication training”.
In 2011, Syrian anchorwoman Luba Al Shibl caused a storm of controversy when she resigned from Al Jazeera criticising its non-credibility.
She accused it of fabricating news about Syria with the intention of overthrowing Al Assad’s regime and mentioned the black room where stories were fabricated to serve certain political processes, msn Arabia reported.
Al Jazeera, which rose to prominence after being the only TV channel to broadcast the war in Afghanistan in 2001, has faced claims in recent times of bias and creating false news.
The broadcaster attracted international headlines when three of its journalists, including Australian Peter Greste, were jailed in Egypt for between seven and 10 years.
Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were convicted in June of aiding the black-listed Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false news that portrayed Egypt as being in a state of “civil war”.
Al Jazeera said there “flaws in the arrest procedure” as well as “the fact that evidence presented in the Egyptian court did not marry with the charges”.
Al Jazeera, which has been praised for its coverage of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, has also been accused by many Egyptians for being a mouthpiece for the Muslim brotherhood and also the Qatar government, The Conversation reported.
Since Mohamed Morsi was booted from power in 2013 and following its journalists arrests in December last year, the rift between Egypt and Qatar deepened even further.
More recently, Al Jazeera has also been the subject of a fake screen shot featuring a famous Bollywood film, which circulated on social media for a number of weeks, but has made light of this via comments on its Facebook page.The protestors fighting in Maidan wore their own makeshift uniforms and armor, while the women who later came to mourn them, including Hanna, above, each carried flowers
I’m standing halfway up Hrushevskoho Street on a frosty February morning in Kiev. It’s -13 degrees Celsius, and I’m chain-smoking with my friend and fixer Emine. It makes us feel warmer while we wait for the Euromaidan protestors, who in 2014 occupied Kiev’s Independence Square, known as Maidan, demanding closer ties to the European Union and an end to government corruption, to pass my makeshift portrait studio on the way to the frontline barricade.
A tall man in his mid-30s strides past in a camouflage jacket, his face blackened by soot from burning tires. I cheerfully call out to him, “Hi, I’m Nastya from London. Can I make your picture?”
His name is Oleg, and I photographed him twice, on this day and again after the worst day of violence on February 20, which became known as “Bloody Thursday,” when snipers opened fire on protestors fighting security forces loyal to the government, killing about 50 people in a few hours.
The second time I photographed Oleg was different. When we saw him again, he hugged each of us, tightly, unusual for acquaintances in this part of the world. Many men changed like that, as if after all the blood and death they had seen they needed to touch the living and to feel touched and alive themselves. We also felt the trauma of so much violence, and touch comforted us, too.
Taylor-Lind photographed Oleg, above, and the other subjects of "Maidan: Portraits from the Black Square" in front the same black backdrop, removing them from the violence of the square
During the 2014 Ukrainian uprising in Kiev, I made a series of formal analog film portraits of male protestors like Oleg and female mourners in that makeshift portrait studio. This work formed my first book, “Maidan: Portraits from the Black Square,” published later that year. But knowing that it would be weeks until the film was processed and scanned in London and weeks more until even I could see the images, I also mounted an iPhone over the viewfinder of my medium-format Bronica camera, recording videos of my interactions with each subject as I made their portrait. These videos omitted the portraits themselves; the shutter firing obscured the actual moment the film was exposed. The videos show everything except the photographs.
The moments that take place between photographs are usually never recorded, and are easily forgotten by the photographer. But I was able to share these moments directly from Maidan via Instagram, using the same device on which the images were made.
Traditionally, what ended up in printed media was considered the “real work.” Today, social media platforms like Instagram give me the chance to broaden the scope and depth of my storytelling by including what goes on behind the camera, images that otherwise would end up on the cutting room floor, or, like the videos of my subjects, would never be captured at all. I am also able to reflect on and respond to viewers’ reactions to my images in real time, while still in the field.
By mounting an iPhone over her viewfinder, Taylor-Lind was able to share the moments before and after photographing Talas, above, for "Maidan: Portraits from the Black Square"
The changing landscape of journalism has forced many of us to change the way we tell stories. I have no choice but to experiment with new tools that technology has gifted me. Social media broadens a journalist’s reach and scope. It allows professionals to share experiences immediately and directly with their audiences. It also allows consumers of images to interact with and influence the creator. This is an enriching experience, for the audience, which feels an increased closeness to events without the middleman of a newspaper or media outlet, and for the photographer, who can learn what moves people to engage with a given subject. This is direct and personal storytelling. Most excitingly for me, it can be a way to engage and include the people in the pictures and the communities from which they come.
My work in Ukraine looks at the domestic landscape of war in the country. Media coverage of the conflict, in which Russian-backed rebels are fighting the Ukrainian army and various pro-Ukrainian militia groups for the separation of the Donbass region, is hugely distorted. Most images depict the Eastern, war-affected region of Donbass, leaving the vast majority of the country undocumented. As a result, one could be forgiven for thinking that the whole of Ukraine looks like Chechnya during the 1990s. But in most of the country life goes on as normal, and the war is not visually present.
I am interested in visualizing this unseen war inside the home, the invisible concepts of normality, familiarity, and violence inhabiting the domestic space. Here, the tentacles of war spread out across the entire country, entering every home and every living room. In most places, you can hear and feel the war, but you cannot see it. I am working with a combination of traditional analog and modern digital storytelling techniques, experimenting with the way social media enables me to make war stories much more personal, immediate, and impactful.
The Maidan videos were intended to be Instagram vignettes of my experiences as a photographer, an intimate look at how I see the world. They show how I saw the men of Maidan: 6cm x 6cm, through the camera’s frosted ground glass, their reflections reversed by the mirror, moving and speaking to me, with the sounds of the revolution all around us. These images break the rules, showing what traditional photojournalism does not have space for: the photographer’s voice and interaction with subjects.
In May, I created an installation at Four Corners Gallery in London, displaying the videos on iPhones placed under actual camera viewfinders, next to prints of the Maidan portraits—a marriage of the digital video experience with the analog process of shooting film. Bringing videos created specifically for dissemination via social media into a traditional gallery context brought the project full circle.
Later that month I returned to Ukraine, utilizing social media to relocate the men and women in “Portraits from the Black Square.” I found 10 subjects, visiting some at their homes to deliver gifts: prints of their portraits. Of course, I documented this process through social media, too.
Maidan: Through the Viewfinder While making the portraits that would be published in her book “Maidan: Portraits from the Black Square,” Anastasia Taylor-Lind mounted an iPhone over the viewfinder of her film camera. The videos she captured and shared on Instagram depict the interstitial moments of photography that are typically never recorded. In the video, the camera’s shutter obscures the actual moment she took the photo.
I
Taylor-Lind uses Instagram to share pieces of her work before publication, including notebooks, clippings, and photographic outtakes
had tried to document the war in Donbass last summer, making pictures like I usually do: pictures of the war that look like the war, pictures where men and women become “victims,” the “war wounded,” or “collateral damage.” When I edited these pictures afterwards, they failed to move me because they looked like characters from a war story, a story set in a place that looked like a war zone, a place and a people that were unlike me. These images looked so foreign and exotic it was hard for me to imagine that this kind of violence could be visited on my hometown, on my family, and in my life.
In Ukraine, people always tell me, “We never believed this could happen here.” I’ve heard it before in other places, too. War is always unexpected. It always arrives to the disbelief of the people whose lives it destroys. The photography critic Val Williams wrote in “Warworks,” “War photography has always been a parody of real war.” So, how can I tell a “real” war story? Welcome to Donetsk is my answer.
Welcome to Donetsk is a series of postcards of the capital of the Donbass region that depict peaceful scenes of the city before the war, with the words “Welcome to Donetsk” written over the image. They are real tourist postcards, produced before the war arrived. In these cards Donetsk looks like an ordinary, peaceful European city, like anyone’s hometown, like my hometown. When I look at them, I understand that war is something that happens to ordinary people just like me, before the media reduces them (or us) to refugees and civilians and combatants, the lead characters in media stories around the world.
I came across these postcards in a post office in Slovyansk and was moved to buy them and photograph them for Instagram. The owner of the company that published them closed his business and moved abroad because of the war, but I arranged to buy his remaining stock, which was stored in his mother-in-law’s basement. I traveled to Donetsk to collect the postcards, a grueling, checkpoint-filled, 17-hour journey by train and taxi from Kiev across the frontline.
Back in Kiev, with almost 1,000 postcards, I began posting them all over the world to people whose addresses I collected via social media outreach. My request for participation stated only that I was sending postcards as part of my new project about the war in Ukraine, inviting people to send me their postal addresses if they would like to receive one. Like the Maidan work, this project also merges digital and analog techniques by using mass-communication social media tools to reach specific individuals with a unique and deeply personal story. By the time I finished, I had sent 921 postcards, sharing photographs of some of the cards on Instagram using the hashtag #welcometodonetsk.
Phil Mansell photographed the postcard he received in the U.K. as a way to commemorate the dead in Ukraine
I wrote each card by hand. On the front is an idyllic image of Donetsk. On the back is the name of one of the 7,962 people so far killed in the conflict, the U.N.’s latest official count, along with the date and place where they died. I list the names of combatants from both sides of the conflict, civilians and journalists, although they are never identified as such. On one side of the postcard is peace, on the other war—but in the same place. If news reports, statistics, and the soulless linguistics of conflict cannot make war personal, maybe one name can, one name I will write just for you.
Valentina Shirokaya was killed in Donetsk on Thursday the 22nd of January 2015.
When Robin Lacey in Totnes, England received his card, he shared a smartphone picture of it and wrote on Facebook: “It is one thing reading or listening to the news, quite another when its personalization lands on your doormat.”
When her postcard reached Cory Zapata in San Diego, her son brought the postcard into class and she gave a short lesson using my pictures about the war in Ukraine and the situation of the country’s internally displaced persons (IDPs). On Instagram she told me, “The [number] of IDPs in Ukraine is equal to the population of our city of San Diego, CA. ♯warispersonal [The postcard] really brought it home for them because our victim was their age, 8 years old. Thank you.”
Shirley Field received a postcard in Tiverton, my hometown in Devon, UK. She lit a candle on her sunlit windowsill to remember Olga Shudikina, who was killed near Volnovakha on Tuesday January 13, 2015.
Shirley was the first to remember and mourn the person who died in this very personal way, but as the weeks passed and the postcards have arrived at the homes of people in more than 60 countries, recipients have been lighting candles all over the world: Aislinn Delaney in Ireland, Alison Stieven-Taylor in Australia, Marco Franciosi in Italy, Gisele Cassol in Brazil, Muzzafar Suleymanov in New York. In more than a decade of being a photojournalist, no one had ever written to me to say that they cut out one of my photographs from a magazine, placed it in their living room, and lit a candle for the person in the picture.
David Niblock’s postcard, which commemorates Francesca Davison, who was killed near Grabovo on July 17, 2014, arrived on the first anniversary of her death. David, who lives in London, googled Francesca’s name and found out that she died aboard MH17, the plane shot down over Grabovo in eastern Ukraine. “The card arrived on the 17th of July, the anniversary of Francesca’s death aboard flight MH17 when it was destroyed in Ukrainian skies,” he wrote on Facebook. “I am humbled and saddened … and taking a moment of silent reflection.”
Welcome to Donetsk brings the war in Ukraine into the U.K. home of Abbie Trayler-Smith
These postcards do not deliver the news, nor do they provide much information at all; what they do is provide a catalyst for research, engagement, and conversation within foreign homes. Laurence Butet-Roch in Canada e-mailed me to say, “When I received the postcard, I was saddened by the news it delivered. Wanting to know more about the deceased, I turned to the closest research tool I had: Internet. In only a few clicks, I found out that Nikita Rusov was a hip-looking 12 year old and a seventh-grader. I also came across a gruesome video of the shelling’s aftermath. My thoughts are now with his family and friends.”
On the postcards, the names of once peaceful Ukrainian towns—Volnovakha, Gorlovka, Saur Mogila, Debaltseve, Grabovo—became ugly words, loaded with knowledge of the recent violence there. These are juxtaposed with the quaint, peaceful names of the towns to which the cards were sent—Pleasantville, Richmond, Arlington, Stanton Drew, Southsea, Annandale, Wetherby—sweet-sounding, idyllic names of places where the inhabitants are sure war will never reach. And written below them, the street names that represent the aspirations of the local communities: Valley View, Apple Creek Lane, Edenmore Avenue, Rainbow Drive, Elmfield Terrace, Daffodil Way.
As the postcards continue arriving at people’s homes, recipients photograph them in their own domestic spaces and share on social media the names of the people killed. On Instagram many recipients also use the hashtag #warispersonal. One user, Carlos Franco, wrote to me: “I received your postcard this morning here in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Proud to join this network to say to the world that every war is personal and stupid.”
Dmitry Kupriyan, a soldier in the Ukrainian Army, was one of the few who received a postcard within Ukraine
The response to this work has been overwhelming: so many emotional responses from recipients, sometimes reflecting on their own experiences of bereavement; seeing them perform small intimate acts of remembrance for people they have never met; the way they have used the postcards as a catalyst to spread the news of the Ukrainian war in a very personal way to their family, friends, and social media community. Unexpectedly, the project has also reached many Ukrainians. I posted only 26 cards inside Ukraine, a few times to IDPs from Donbass and one to a soldier in the Ukrainian army. Ukrainian media have also reported on the project.
Though I am no longer working in Ukraine, I will continue collecting the names of those who die in the conflict. My aim is to formulate and translate into English a comprehensive list of the dead from all sides, something that does not yet exist. A friend in Ukraine collected another 2,000 postcards for me and I am gathering more addresses so that I can continue the project. My hope: to keep writing postcards until the war ends and I have recorded the name of every person to die in it.
It is our challenge to find new ways to engage people with what is happening in Ukraine. If people don’t care about the war, it is our job as journalists to tell stories in ways that make them care, in ways that move them and evoke empathy or connection. This is one small attempt to do that.We must secure the existence of our people and the future of White children. — David Lane’s 14-word creed.
Hardly any concept is thrown around as carelessly these days as “white supremacy.” It has become the go-to term of condemnation, applied as loosely as "fascism," with similar ramifications in terms of lack of clarity. Are all white supremacists separatists, and are all separatists supremacists? Is anti-Semitism (and, more recently, Islamophobia) always a part of white supremacy? Are white supremacists interested in combating government or taking it over for their own ends? Are all white supremacists violent, or do some value peaceful means of attaining their aims? Are all white supremacists even Christians? If they’re not, then how does religious diversity accommodate the overall principles of white supremacy?
Getting a grip on the real meaning of white supremacy allows us to be clear about essential questions of behavior and policy. To what extent has white supremacy infiltrated mainstream political parties and actors, and how might this back-and-forth influence be addressed? What is the general set of beliefs under which white supremacy operates, and have those beliefs changed over time or remained constant? What is the actual power and strength of white supremacy, and are groups of people entering or exiting the movement in ways we can measure and understand? Finally, if we’re clear about the meaning of white supremacy, we can then legitimately ask how white supremacy is |
approve of girls being turned out. "I have no knowledge of any KMC rule at Star Theatre that prohibits girls in skirts," he said.There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to be in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards, where white clouds of bloom drifted above the green land. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the mornings. Along the roads, laurel, viburnum, and alder, great ferns and wild flowers delighted the traveller’s eye through much of the year. Even in winter, the roadsides were places of beauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow. The countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and fall, people came from great distances to observe them. Other people came to fish streams, which flowed clear and cold out of the hills and contained shady pools where trout lay. So it had been from the days, many years ago, when the first settlers raised their houses, sank their wells, and built their barns. Then, one spring, a strange blight crept over the area, and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community; mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens, and the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was the shadow of death. The farmers told of much illness among their families. In the town, the doctors were becoming more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness that had appeared among their patients. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among the adults but also among the children, who would be stricken while they were at play, and would die within a few hours. And there was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where had they gone? Many people, baffled and disturbed, spoke of them. The feeding stations in the back yards were deserted. The few birds to be seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. In the mornings, which had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, and wrens, and scores of other bird voices, there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marshes. On the farms, the hens brooded but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs; the litters were small, and the young survived only a few days. The apple trees were coming into bloom, but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The roadsides were lined with brown and withered vegetation, and were silent, too, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died. In the gutters under the eaves, and between the shingles of the roofs, a few patches of white granular powder could be seen; some weeks earlier this powder had been dropped, like snow, upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and the streams. No witchcraft, no enemy action had snuffed out life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves. This town does not actually exist; I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of them has actually happened somewhere in the world, and many communities have already suffered a substantial number of them. A grim spectre has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and soon my imaginary town may have thousands of real counterparts. What is silencing the voices of spring in countless towns in America? I shall make an attempt to explain.
The history of life on earth is a history of the interaction of living things and their surroundings. To an overwhelming extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth’s vegetation and its animal life have been molded and directed by the environment. Over the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. It is only within the moment of time represented by the twentieth century that one species—man—has acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world, and it is only within the past twenty-five years that this power has achieved such magnitude that it endangers the whole earth and its life. The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of the air, earth, rivers, and seas with dangerous, and even lethal, materials. This pollution has rapidly become almost universal, and it is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates, not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues, is for the most part irreversible. It is widely known that radiation has done much to change the very nature of the world, the very nature of its life; strontium 90, released into the air through nuclear explosions, comes to earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters into the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and, in time, takes up its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death. It is less well known that many man-made chemicals act in much the same way as radiation; they lie long in the soil, and enter into living organisms, passing from one to another. Or they may travel mysteriously by underground streams, emerging to combine, through the alchemy of air and sunlight, into new forms, which kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. As Albert Schweitzer has said, “Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.” It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth—aeons of time, in which that developing and evolving and diversifying life reached a state of adjustment to its surroundings. To be sure, the environment, rigorously shaping and directing the life it supported, contained hostile elements. Certain rocks gave out dangerous radiation; even within the light of the sun, from which all life draws its energy, there were short-wave radiations with power to injure. But given time—time not in years but in millennia—life adjusted, and a balance was reached. Time was the essential ingredient. Now, in the modern world, there is no time. The speed with which new hazards are created reflects the impetuous and heedless pace of man, rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is no longer merely the background radiation of rocks, the bombardment of cosmic rays, the ultraviolet of the sun, which existed before there was any life on earth; radiation is now also the unnatural creation of man’s tampering with the atom. The chemicals to which life is asked to make its adjustment are no longer merely the calcium and silica and copper and the rest of the minerals washed out of the rocks and carried in rivers to the sea; they are also the synthetic creations of man’s inventive mind, brewed in his laboratories and having no counterparts in nature. To adjust to these chemicals would require time on the scale that is nature’s; it would require not merely the years of a man’s life but the life of generations. And even this would be futile, for the new chemicals come in an endless stream; almost five hundred annually find their way into actual use in the United States alone. The figure is staggering and its implications are not easily grasped: five hundred new chemicals to which the bodies of men and all other living things are required somehow to adapt each year—chemicals totally outside the limits of biological experience. Sign Up for The Sunday Archive Newsletter Read classic New Yorker stories, curated by our archivists and editors. Among the new chemicals are many that are used in man’s war against nature. In the past decade and a half, some six hundred basic chemicals have been created for the purpose of killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described in the modern vernacular as “pests.” In the form of sprays, dusts, and aerosols, these basic chemicals are offered for sale under several thousand different brand names—a highly bewildering array of poisons, confusing even to the chemist, which have the power to kill every insect, the “good” as well as the “bad,” to still the song of birds and to stop the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with poison and to linger on in soil. It may prove to be impossible to lay down such a barrage of dangerous poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life. Indeed, the term “biocide” would be more appropriate than “insecticide”—all the more appropriate because the whole process of spraying poisons on the earth seems to have been caught up in an endless spiral. Since the late nineteen-forties, when DDT began to be used widely, a process of escalation has been going on in which ever more toxic chemicals must be found. This has happened because insects, in a triumphant vindication of Darwin’s principle of the survival of the fittest, have consistently evolved super-races immune to the particular insecticide used, and hence a deadlier one has always had to be developed—and then a deadlier one than that. It has happened also that destructive insects often undergo a “flareback,” or resurgence, after spraying, in numbers greater than before. The chemical war is never won, and all life is caught in its cross fire. Along with the possibility of the extinction of mankind by nuclear war, a central problem of our age is the contamination of man’s total environment with substances of incredible potential for harm—substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals, and even penetrate the germ cells, to shatter or alter the very material of heredity, upon which the shape of the future depends. Some would-be architects of our future look toward a time when we will be able to alter the human germ plasm by design. But we may easily be altering it now by inadvertence, for many chemicals, like radiation, bring about gene mutations. It is ironic to think that man may determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of his insect spray. The results, of course, will not be apparent for decades or centuries. All this has been risked—for what? Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species of weeds and insects by a method that brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? The problem whose attempted solution has touched off such a train of disaster is an accompaniment of our modern way of life. Long before the age of man, insects inhabited the earth—a group of extraordinarily varied and adaptable beings. Since man’s advent, a small percentage of the more than half a million species of insects have come into conflict with human welfare, principally in two ways—as competitors for the food supply and as carriers of human disease. Disease-carrying insects become important where human beings are crowded together, especially when sanitation is poor, as in times of natural disaster or war, or in situations of extreme poverty and deprivation. As for insects that compete with man for food, they become important with the intensification of agriculture—the devotion of immense acreages to the production of a single crop. Such a system sets the stage for explosive increases in specific insect populations. Single-crop farming does not take advantage of the principles by which nature works; it is agriculture as an engineer might conceive it to be. Nature has introduced great variety into the landscape, but man has displayed a passion for simplifying it. Thus he undoes the built-in checks and balances by which nature holds the various species within bounds. One important natural check is a limit on the amount of suitable habitat for each species. Obviously, an insect that lives on wheat can build up its population to much higher levels on a farm devoted solely to wheat than on a farm where wheat is intermingled with crops to which the insect is not adapted. In all such circumstances, insect control of some sort is necessary and proper. But in the case of both types of insect—the disease-carrying and the crop-consuming—it is a sobering fact that massive chemical control has had only limited success, and even threatens to worsen the very conditions it is intended to curb. Another aspect of the insect problem is one that must be viewed against a background of geological and human history—the spreading of thousands of different kinds of organisms from their native homes into new territories. This worldwide migration has been studied and graphically described by the British ecologist Charles Elton in his recent book “The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants.” During the Cretaceous period, some hundred million years ago, flooding seas created many islands within continents, and living things found themselves confined in what Elton calls “colossal separate nature reserves.” There, isolated from others of their kind, they developed large numbers of new species. When some of the land masses were joined again, about fifteen million years ago, these species began to move out into new territories—a movement that not only is still in progress but is now receiving considerable assistance from man. The importation of plants is the primary agent in the modern spread of species, for animals have almost invariably gone along with the plants—quarantine being a comparatively recent and never completely effective innovation. The United States government itself has imported approximately two hundred thousand species or varieties of plants from all over the world. Nearly half of the hundred and eighty-odd major insect enemies of plants in the United States are accidental imports from abroad, and most of them have come as hitchhikers on plants. In new territory, out of reach of the natural enemies that kept down its numbers in its native land, an invading plant or animal is able to increase its numbers enormously. Realistically speaking, it would seem that insect invasions, both those occurring naturally and those dependent on human assistance, are likely to continue indefinitely. We are faced, according to Dr. Elton, “with a life-and-death need not just to find new technological means of suppressing this plant or that animal” but to acquire the basic knowledge of animal populations and their relations to their surroundings that will “promote an even balance and damp down the explosive power of outbreaks and new invasions.” Much of the necessary knowledge is now available, but we do not use it. Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though we had lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good? Such thinking, in the words of the American ecologist Paul Shepard, “idealizes life with only its head out of water, inches above the limits of toleration of the corruption of its own environment,” and he goes on to ask, “Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?” Yet such a world is pressed upon us. For the first time in history, virtually every human being is subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals from birth to death. In the less than two decades of their use, DDT and other synthetic pesticides have been thoroughly distributed over all but a few corners of the world. They have been recovered from many of the major river systems, and even from the streams of ground water flowing unseen through the earth. They have been found in soil to which they were applied a dozen years before. They have lodged in the bodies of fish, birds, reptiles, and domestic and wild animals to the point where it is now almost impossible for scientists carrying on animal experiments to obtain subjects free from such contamination. They have been found in fish in remote mountain lakes, in earthworms burrowing in soil, in the eggs of birds, and in man himself. These chemicals are now stored in the bodies of the vast majority of human beings, regardless of their age. They occur in mother’s milk, and probably in the tissues of the unborn child. All this has come about because of the prodigious growth of an industry for the production of synthetic chemicals with insecticidal properties. This industry is a child of the Second World War. In the course of developing agents of chemical warfare, some of the chemicals created in the laboratory were found to be lethal to insects. The discovery did not come by chance; insects were widely used to test chemicals as agents of death for man. In being man-made—by the ingenious laboratory manipulation of molecules, involving the substitution of atoms or the alteration of their arrangement—the new insecticides differ sharply from the simpler ones of prewar days. These were derived from naturally occurring minerals and plant products: compounds of arsenic, copper, lead, manganese, zinc, and other minerals; pyrethrum, from the dried flowers of chrysanthemums; nicotine sulphate, from some of the relatives of tobacco; and rotenone, from leguminous plants of the East Indies. What sets the new synthetic insecticides apart is their enormous biological potency. They can enter into the most vital processes of the body and change them in sinister and often deadly ways. Yet new chemicals are added to the list each year, and new uses are devised for them. Production of synthetic pesticides in the United States soared from 124,259,000 pounds in 1947 to 637,666,000 pounds in 1960—more than a fivefold increase. In 1960, the wholesale value of these products was well over a quarter of a billion dollars. But in the plans and hopes of the industry this enormous production is only a beginning. A Who’s Who of pesticides, therefore, is of concern to us all. If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals—eating and drinking them, taking them into the very marrow of our bones—we had better know something about their power. The Who’s Who would certainly include some of the pesticides that were used before the Second World War. Chief among these is arsenic, which is still the basic ingredient of a variety of weed and insect killers. Arsenic is a mineral occurring widely in association with the ores of various metals, and, in very small amounts, in volcanoes, in the sea, and in spring water. Its relations to man are varied and historic. Since many of its compounds are tasteless, it has been a favorite agent of homicide from long before the time of the Borgias. It was also the first recognized elementary carcinogen (or cancer-causing substance), being identified in chimney soot and linked to cancer nearly two centuries ago by an English physician. Epidemics of chronic arsenical poisoning involving whole populations over long periods are on record. Arsenic-contaminated environments have also caused sickness and death among horses, cows, goats, pigs, deer, fishes, and bees, but arsenical sprays and dusts are still widely applied. In the arsenic-sprayed cotton country of the southern United States, beekeeping as an industry has nearly died out. Farmers using arsenic dusts over long periods have been afflicted with chronic poisoning; livestock have been poisoned by crop sprays or weed killers containing arsenic. “It is scarcely possible... to handle arsenicals with more utter disregard of the general health than that which has been practiced in our country in recent years,” Dr. W. C. Hueper, of the National Cancer Institute, an authority on environmental cancer, has said. “Anyone who has watched the dusters and sprayers of arsenical insecticides at work must have been impressed by the almost supreme carelessness with which these poisonous substances are dispensed.” The vast majority of modern insecticides fall into one of two large groups of chemicals. One group, represented by DDT, consists of the chlorinated hydrocarbons. The other consists of the organic phosphates, and is represented by the reasonably familiar malathion and parathion. All have one thing in common: they are built on a basis of carbon atoms, which are also the indispensable building blocks of life, and thus both groups are classed as “organic.” Carbon is an element whose atoms have an almost infinite capacity for uniting with each other in chains and rings and various other configurations, and for becoming linked with atoms of other substances. Indeed, the incredible diversity of living creatures, from bacteria to whales, is due in large measure to this capacity of carbon. The complex protein molecule has the carbon atom as its basis, as have molecules of fat, carbohydrates, enzymes, and vitamins. So, too, have enormous numbers of nonliving things, for carbon is not necessarily a symbol of life. Some organic compounds are combinations of carbon and hydrogen. The simplest of these is methane, or marsh gas, which is formed in nature by the bacterial decomposition of organic matter under water. Mixed with air in certain proportions, it becomes the dreaded firedamp of coal mines. The structure of methane is beautifully simple—one carbon atom to which four hydrogen atoms have become attached. Chemists have discovered that it is possible to detach one or all of the hydrogen atoms and substitute other elements. For example, take away three hydrogen atoms and substitute chlorine atoms, and we have the anesthetic chloroform. Substitute chlorine atoms for all of the hydrogen atoms, and the result is carbon tetrachloride, the familiar cleaning fluid. These changes rung upon the basic molecule of methane illustrate in the simplest possible terms what a chlorinated hydrocarbon is. They give little hint of the complexity of the chemical world of the hydrocarbons, or of the manipulations by which the organic chemist creates his infinitely varied materials. For instead of the methane molecule, with its single carbon atom, he may work with hydrocarbon molecules consisting of many carbon atoms, arranged in rings or chains, and with side chains or branches, any of which may hold to themselves with chemical bonds not merely atoms of hydrogen or chlorine but also a wide variety of chemical groups. By seemingly slight changes, the whole character of the substance is transformed. DDT (short for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) was first synthesized by a German chemist in 1874, but its properties as an insecticide were not discovered until 1939. Almost immediately thereafter, it was hailed as a means of stamping out insect-borne disease and winning the farmers’ war against crop destroyers overnight, and, in due course, the chemist who had discovered its ability to kill insects, Paul Müller, of Switzerland, won the Nobel Prize. DDT is now so universally used that in most minds it has taken on the harmless aspect of the familiar. Perhaps the myth of the harmlessness of DDT rests on the fact that one of its first uses was the wartime dusting of many thousands of soldiers, refugees, and prisoners, to combat lice. It is widely believed that since so many people came into extremely intimate contact with DDT and suffered no immediate ill effects, the chemical must certainly be an innocent one. This understandable misconception arises from the fact that—unlike other chlorinated hydrocarbons—DDT in powder form is not readily absorbed through the skin. It does penetrate readily when it is dissolved in oil, as it usually is. If it is swallowed, it is absorbed slowly through the digestive tract; it may also be absorbed through the lungs. Once DDT, which, like all the chlorinated hydrocarbons, is soluble in fat, has entered the body, it is stored largely in organs rich in fatty substances, such as the adrenals, the testes, and the thyroid, and relatively large amounts are also deposited in the liver, the kidneys, and the fat of the large, protective mesentery, the tissue that enfolds the intestines and attaches them to the body wall. This storage of DDT begins with the smallest conceivable intake, and the fatty storage depots act as biological magnifiers, so that an intake of as little as one-tenth of one part per million in the diet results in the storage of from ten to fifteen parts per million—a hundredfold increase, or more. These terms of reference, so commonplace to the chemist or the pharmacologist, are unfamiliar to most of us. One part in a million sounds like a very small amount—and so it is. But some substances are so potent that a minute quantity can bring about vast changes in the body. For example, as little as three parts of DDT per million has been found to inhibit an oxidative enzyme in the heart muscle of experimental animals. In other experiments, only five parts of DDT per million brought about necrosis, or disintegration, of the cells of the liver; only 2.5 parts of the closely related insecticides dieldrin and chlordane have the same effect. This is really not surprising. In the normal chemistry of the human body, too, there is just such a disparity between cause and effect. For example, a quantity of iodine as small as two ten-thousandths of a gram can spell the difference between health and disease. Because these small amounts of pesticides are cumulatively stored and, in general, are built up at a rate higher than that at which they are excreted, the threat of chronic poisoning and of degenerative changes of the liver and other organs is a real one. Scientists are not sure how much DDT can be stored in the human body. Some believe that there is a ceiling beyond which absorption and storage cease. Others do not. For practical purposes, it is not particularly important which view is right. Storage in human beings has been well investigated, and we know roughly how much the average person is storing. According to various studies, individuals with no known exposure except the inevitable dietary one store from 5.3 parts per million to 7.4 parts per million; agricultural workers about 17.1 parts per million; and workers in insecticide plants as high as 648 parts per million. Potentially harmful amounts undoubtedly vary from individual to individual, and, in any case, harmful results may not occur for years. The chemists’ ingenuity in devising insecticides long ago outstripped the biologists’ knowledge of the way these poisons affect the living organism. One of the most significant features of DDT and related chemicals is the way they are passed on from one organism to another through all the links of the food chains. Fields of alfalfa, say, are dusted with DDT; meal is later prepared from the alfalfa and fed to hens; the hens lay eggs that contain DDT. Or the hay, containing residues of from seven to eight parts per million, may be fed to cows. The DDT will turn up in the milk in the amount of about three parts per million, but in butter made from this milk the concentration may run to sixty-five parts per million. During the process of transfer, what started out as a very small amount of DDT may end as a heavy concentration. The poison may be passed on from mother to offspring. The presence of insecticide residues in human milk has been established by Food and Drug Administration scientists. This is probably not the breast-fed infant’s first exposure, however; there is good reason to believe that he starts receiving toxic chemicals while he is still in the womb. In experimental animals, the chlorinated-hydrocarbon insecticides freely cross the barrier of the placenta, the traditional protective shield between the embryo and harmful substances in the mother’s body. While the quantities so received by human infants would normally be small, they would not be unimportant, because children are more susceptible to poisoning than adults. Chlordane, another chlorinated hydrocarbon, has all the unpleasant attributes of DDT, plus a few that are peculiarly its own. Its residues are long persistent in soil, on foodstuffs, and on surfaces to which it may be applied, yet it is also quite volatile, and poisoning by inhalation is a definite risk to anyone handling it or exposed to it. Chlordane takes advantage of all available portals in entering the body. A diet containing such a small amount of chlordane as 2.5 parts per million may eventually lead to storage of seventy-five parts per million in the fat. In 1950, Dr. Arnold J. Lehman, who is the chief pharmacologist of the Food and Drug Administration, described chlordane as “one of the most toxic of insecticides,” adding, “Anyone handling it could be poisoned.” To judge by the carefree liberality with which dusts for treating suburban lawns are laced with chlordane, this warning has not been taken to heart. If a suburbanite handling one of them is not instantly stricken, this does not mean he has escaped harm; the toxins may sleep long in his body, to become manifest months or years later in an obscure disorder that is almost impossible to trace to its origins. However, death may sometimes strike quickly. One man who accidentally spilled a twenty-five-per-cent solution of chlordane on his skin developed symptoms of poisoning within forty minutes and died before medical help could be obtained. Heptachlor, one of the constituents of chlordane, is marketed as a separate formulation. It has a particularly high capacity for storage in fat. If the diet contains as little as a tenth of one part per million, there will be measurable amounts of heptachlor in the body. It also has the curious ability to undergo change into a chemically distinct substance known as heptachlor epoxide. It does this in soil and in the tissues of both plants and animals. Laboratory tests on quail show that the epoxide is from two to four times as toxic as the original chemical. As long ago as the mid-nineteen-thirties, a special group of hydrocarbons, the chlorinated naphthalenes, had been found to cause hepatitis and a rare and almost invariably fatal disease known as yellow atrophy of the liver in persons subjected to occupational exposure. These chemicals have led to illness and death of workers in electrical industries (where they are used in insulation), and more recently, in agriculture, they have been considered a cause of a mysterious and usually fatal disease of cattle. It is not surprising that three of the insecticides that belong to this group are among the most violently poisonous of all the hydrocarbons. These are dieldrin, aldrin, and endrin. Dieldrin, named for a German chemist, Otto Diels, is about five times as toxic as DDT when it enters the body through the mouth and forty times as toxic when it is absorbed through the skin in solution. It is notorious for striking quickly at the nervous system, sending the victim into convulsions. Because the insecticidal action of dieldrin is particularly potent, and because its residues persist for a long period, it is one of the most widely used insecticides today. There are vast gaps in our knowledge of how dieldrin is stored and distributed in the body, and of the extent to which it is excreted, but there are indications of long storage in the human body, where deposits may lie dormant like a slumbering volcano, only to flare up in periods of physiological stress, when the body draws upon its fat reserves. Much of what we do know has been learned through hard experience in the anti-malarial campaigns carried out by the World Health Organization. As the malaria mosquitoes have become resistant to DDT, dieldrin has been substituted in malaria-control work, and, as this has happened, cases of poisoning have appeared among the spraymen. A study published in 1959 reported that the seizures were severe; from half to all of the men affected—the proportion varied in different programs—went into convulsions, and several died. Some were still subject to convulsions as long as four months after the last exposure. Aldrin is a still more mysterious substance, for although it exists as a separate entity, it bears the relation of alter ego to dieldrin. When carrots are taken from a bed treated with aldrin, they are found to contain residues of dieldrin—a change that occurs both in the living tissues and in the soil. If a chemist, knowing that aldrin has been applied, tests for it, he will be deceived into thinking all residues have been dissipated. The residues are there, but they are dieldrin, and this requires a different test. In any event, aldrin is slightly more toxic than dieldrin. It has produced degenerative changes in the liver and kidneys of experimental animals. A quantity the size of an aspirin tablet is enough to kill more than four hundred quail. Many cases of human poisoning are on record, most of them in connection with industrial handling. Beyond that, aldrin, like most of this group of insecticides, projects a menacing shadow into the future—the shadow of sterility. Birds that consume it in quantities too small to kill them lay few eggs, and the chicks that hatch soon die. Rats who have been exposed to aldrin have fewer pregnancies, and their young are sickly and short-lived, and puppies whose mothers have been exposed to the poison have been known to die within three days. By one means or another, the new generations suffer as a result of poisoning of their parents. No one knows whether the same effect will be seen in human beings. The third of the naphthalenes, endrin, is perhaps the most toxic of all the chlorinated hydrocarbons now in use. Although it is chemically rather closely related to dieldrin, a little twist in its molecular structure makes it up to twelve times as poisonous to rats; by comparison, DDT seems almost harmless. In the decade of its use, endrin has killed enormous numbers of fish, has fatally poisoned cattle that have wandered into sprayed orchards, and has poisoned wells. At least one state health department has warned that careless use of endrin is endangering human lives. But even apparently careful use can be dangerous. In 1958, an American couple with a year-old boy had gone to live in Venezuela.. There were cockroaches in the house they moved into, and after a few days they used a spray containing endrin. The baby and the small family dog were taken out of the house before the spraying was done, about nine o’ clock one morning. After the spraying, the floors were washed. The baby and dog were returned to the house in midafternoon. An hour or so later, the dog vomited, went into convulsions, and died. At ten in the evening, the baby also vomited and went into convulsions, and then lost consciousness. At once, this normal, healthy child became little more than a vegetable—unable to see or hear, subject to frequent muscular spasms, and, it would seem, completely cut off from his surroundings. Several months of treatment in a New York hospital failed to change his condition or bring hope of change. “It is extremely doubtful,” reported the attending physicians, “that any useful degree of recovery will occur.”
The second major group of insecticides, the organic phosphates—esters of phosphoric acid—are among the most poisonous chemicals in the world. The origin of these chemicals has a certain ironic significance. Some of them had been known for many years, but their insecticidal properties were first discovered by a German chemist, Gerhard Schrader, in the late nineteen-thirties. Almost at once, the German government recognized the value of these chemicals as new and devastating weapons in man’s war against his own kind, and work on them was declared secret. Some became nerve gases. Others became insecticides. The chief and most obvious hazard attending their use is that of acute poisoning of people applying the sprays or accidentally coming in contact with drifting spray, or vegetation coated with it, or a discarded container. In Florida, in 1960, two children used a discarded bag to repair a swing. Shortly thereafter, both of them died, and three of their playmates became ill. The bag had once contained the insecticide parathion, and tests established death by parathion poisoning. The organic-phosphate insecticides act on the living organism in a peculiar way. They have the ability to destroy enzymes—enzymes that perform necessary functions in the body. Their target, whether the victim is an insect or a warm-blooded animal, is the nervous system. Under normal conditions, an impulse passes from nerve to nerve with the aid of a “chemical transmitter” called acetylcholine, a substance that performs an essential function and then disappears. Indeed, its existence is so ephemeral that without special procedures medical researchers are unable to sample it before the body has destroyed it. The transient nature of the chemical transmitter is necessary to the normal functioning of the body. If the acetylcholine is not inactivated as soon as a nerve impulse has passed, impulses continue to flash across the bridge from nerve to nerve; the chemical not only goes on exerting its effect but exerts it in an ever more intensified manner. The movements of the whole body become uncoördinated; tremors, muscular spasms, convulsions, and death quickly result. Fortunately, the body has its own protective device against this peril—an enzyme called cholinesterase, which breaks down the transmitting chemical once it is no longer needed. By this means, a precise balance is struck, and the body never builds up a dangerous amount of acetylcholine. But on contact with the organic-phosphate insecticides the activity of the protective enzyme is inhibited, and as the effective quantity of the enzyme is reduced, that of the chemical transmitter builds up. In having this effect, the organic-phosphate compounds resemble the alkaloid poison muscarine, found in a poisonous mushroom, the fly amanita. Repeated exposure may lower the cholinesterase level until an individual reaches the brink of acute poisoning—a brink over which he may be pushed by a very small additional exposure. For this reason, it is considered important to make periodic examinations of the blood of spray operators and others regularly exposed. Parathion is one of the most widely used of the organic phosphates. It is also one of the most powerful. Honeybees become agitated and bellicose on contact with it, engage in frantic cleaning movements, and are near death within half an hour. A chemist, hoping to learn by the most direct means the dose acutely toxic to human beings, swallowed a minute amount, about.00424 of an ounce. Paralysis followed so swiftly that he could not reach the antidotes he had at hand, and so he died. One of the circumstances that save us from extinction by parathion and the other chemicals of the organic-phosphate group is that they are decomposed rather rapidly. However, they last long enough to create hazards and produce consequences that range from the merely serious to the fatal. In Riverside, California, eleven out of thirty men picking oranges became violently ill, and all but one of the eleven had to be hospitalized. The grove had been sprayed with parathion some two and a half weeks earlier; the residues that reduced them to retching, half-blind, semi-conscious misery were from sixteen to nineteen days old. And this is not by any means a record for persistence. On citrus fruit, parathion has been found to have |
listen to DNAinfo Radio here:In his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, Karl Rove remembers something that was done to John McCain in Vietnam:
Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can't raise his arms over his head. One night, a Vietnamese guard loosened his bonds, returning at the end of his watch to tighten them again so no one would notice.
This is what is called a "stress position." It was authorized, monitored and practised as a torture technique by this president, whose chief adviser at the time was Karl Rove. Rove even planned to run the 2006 Congressional campaign on the message of being tough enough on prisoners in American custody.
In the same op-ed, Rove refers warmly to McCain's Bangladeshi adopted daughter - the same daughter his surrogates demonized in the 2000 campaign, by spreading rumors that McCain had a black illegitimate daughter.
Every now and again, one is shocked by the Big Lies and chutzpah that come out of a man as utterly indifferent to the truth as Rove. And then one realizes: this is what these people do for a living. They say anything to retain and wield power.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.For as long as cannabis have been illegal, people have been finding new, innovative ways of getting it from here to there. This has led to some pretty crazy smuggling stories, methods that make you wonder just why these people aren’t using their creativity in different fields. Maybe they just like the thrill.
Either way, here are some of the craziest ways in which people have tried to smuggle cannabis.
Chocolate bars
Smugglers might have thought they’d found a sweet way to get drugs into the country, but earlier this year border agents uncovered the ploy during an inspection at the Port of Halifax: more than 200 kilograms of hashish tucked away inside chocolate bars.Officers located and seized 100 chocolate bars with each containing two kilograms of hashish, a drug produced from cannabis resin.
Filling hash in the speakers of fictional rock bands
In the 70s, arguably the world’s most beloved dope smuggler, Howard Marks, or Mr. Nice, transported around 30 tonnes of marijuana around the world. This Oxford nuclear physics genius conjured up fictional rock bands in the books, used their speakers and other equipment and loaded them up with massive amounts of cannabis.
Weed-stocked Wheelchair
A 19-year-old man pretending to be disabled was caught with at the U.S.-Mexico border with this weed-stocked wheelchair in 2011. This ultra-light aircraft was carrying 253lbs of marijuana when it was captured in December, 2008 in the Tucson, Arizona area. According to U.S. government statistics, there were 228 known aircraft incursion along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010 alone.
Tunnels
The first “narco-tunnel” from Mexico to the US was discovered in 1990. According to the Los Angeles Times, the tunnel ran 273 feet from a luxury home in Agua Prieta, Mexico to a warehouse in Arizona, and it was equipped with electric lighting, a drainage system and a trolley for moving the drugs.One of the biggest narco-tunnels ever discovered in the United States was found in April 2016. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, it ran half a mile from a house in Tijuana, Mexico to an industrial property in the San Diego area, and it was equipped with lights, rails and a ventilation system. Authorities indicated the tunnel was likely used to move multiple tons of drugs that included marijuana and cocaine.
Improvised Cannon
It’s no secret that some of the most ingenious methods of smuggling have occurred between the US border with Mexico, and this one is certainly no exception. Many of these cannons are home-made from PVC piping, can be powered by a car engine, and can catapult about 13kg of drugs at a time. Some cannons can project packages as far as 120m across border fences, where they can be picked up by accomplices on the other side.
They may be on the wrong side of the law, but these guys sure do have some major cojones!Naturally occurring oil seep near McKittrick California, United States.
Petroleum seep near the Korňa in northern Slovakia.
Tar "volcano" in the Carpinteria, California asphalt mine. Oil exudes from joint cracks in the petroliferous shale forming the floor of mine. 1906 photo, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 321
A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow. Seeps generally occur above either terrestrial or offshore petroleum accumulation structures.[1][not in citation given] The hydrocarbons may escape along geological layers, or across them through fractures and fissures in the rock, or directly from an outcrop of oil-bearing rock.
Petroleum seeps are quite common in many areas of the world, and have been exploited by mankind since paleolithic times. Natural products associated with these seeps include bitumen, pitch, asphalt and tar. In locations where seeps of natural gas are sufficiently large, natural "eternal flames" often persist. The occurrence of surface petroleum was often included in location names that developed; these locations are also associated with early oil and gas exploitation as well as scientific and technological developments, which have grown into the petroleum industry.
History of petroleum seep exploitation [ edit ]
Prehistory [ edit ]
The exploitation of bituminous rocks and natural seep deposits dates back to paleolithic times. The earliest known use of bitumen (natural asphalt) was by Neanderthals some 70,000 years ago, with bitumen adhered to ancient tools found at Neanderthal sites in Syria.[2]
Ancient civilizations [ edit ]
After the arrival of Homo sapiens, humans used bitumen for construction of buildings and waterproofing of reed boats, among other uses.[3] The use of bitumen for waterproofing and as an adhesive dates at least to the fifth millennium BCE in the early Indus community of Mehrgarh where it was used to line the baskets in which they gathered crops.[4] The material was also used as early as the third millennium BCE in statuary, mortaring brick walls, waterproofing baths and drains, in stair treads, and for shipbuilding. According to Herodotus, more than four thousand years ago natural asphalt was employed in the construction of the walls and towers of Babylon, great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, one of the tributaries of the Euphrates,[5] and this fact confirmed by Diodorus Siculus.[6] Herodotus mentioned pitch spring on Zacynthus (Ionian islands, Greece).[7] Also, Herodotus described a well for bitumen and oil near Ardericca in Cessia.[8]
In ancient times, bitumen was primarily a Mesopotamian commodity used by the Sumerians and Babylonians, although it was also found in the Levant and Persia. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the area was littered with hundreds of pure bitumen seepages.[citation needed] The Mesopotamians used the bitumen for waterproofing boats and buildings. Ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. In ancient Egypt, the use of bitumen was important in creating Egyptian mummies — in fact, the word mummy is derived from the Arab word mūmiyyah, which means bitumen.[3] Oil from seeps was exploited in the Roman province of Dacia, now in Romania, where it was called picula.
In East Asia these locations were known in China, where the earliest known drilled oil wells date to 347 CE or earlier.[9] The ancient records of China and Japan are said to contain many allusions to the use of natural gas for lighting and heating.[7] Petroleum was known as burning water in Japan in the 7th century.[7] In his book Dream Pool Essays written in 1088, the polymathic scientist and statesman Shen Kuo of the Song Dynasty coined the word 石油 (Shíyóu, literally "rock oil") for petroleum, which remains the term used in contemporary Chinese.
In southwest Asia the first streets of 8th century Baghdad were paved with tar, derived from natural seep fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan. These fields were described by the Arab geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads. Distillation of petroleum was described by the Persian alchemist, Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes).[10][unreliable source] There was production of chemicals such as kerosene in the alembic (al-ambiq),[11][incomplete short citation] which was mainly used for kerosene lamps.[12] Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce flammable products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain, distillation became available in Western Europe by the 12th century.[13] It has also been present in Romania since the 13th century, being recorded as păcură.[14]
Eighteenth century Europe [ edit ]
In Europe, petroleum seeps were extensively mined near the Alsace city of Pechelbronn, where the vapor separation process was in use in 1742.[15] In Switzerland c. 1710, the Russian-born Swiss physician and Greek teacher Eyrini d'Eyrinis discovered asphaltum at Val-de-Travers, (Neuchâtel). He established a bitumen mine de la Presta there in 1719 that operated until 1986.[16][17][18][19] Oil sands here were mined from 1745 under the direction of Louis Pierre Ancillon de la Sablonnière, by special appointment of Louis XV.[20] The Pechelbronn oil field was active until 1970, and was the birthplace of companies like Antar and Schlumberger. In 1745 under the Empress Elisabeth of Russia the first oil well and refinery were built in Ukhta by Fiodor Priadunov. Through the process of distillation of the "rock oil" (petroleum) he received a kerosene-like substance, which was used in oil lamps by Russian churches and monasteries (though households still relied on candles).[21]
Colonial Americas [ edit ]
The earliest mention of petroleum seeps in the Americas occurs in Sir Walter Raleigh's account of the Pitch Lake on Trinidad in 1595. Thirty-seven years later, the account of a visit of a Franciscan, Joseph de la Roche d'Allion, to the oil springs of New York was published in Sagard's Histoire du Canada.[7] In North America, the early European fur traders found Canadian First Nations using bitumen from the vast Athabasca oil sands to waterproof their birch bark canoes.[22] A Swedish scientist, Peter Kalm, in his 1753 work Travels into North America, showed on a map the oil springs of Pennsylvania.[7]
In 1769 the Portolà expedition, a group of Spanish explorers led by Gaspar de Portolà, made the first written record of the tar pits in California. Father Juan Crespí wrote, "While crossing the basin the scouts reported having seen some geysers of tar issuing from the ground like springs; it boils up molten, and the water runs to one side and the tar to the other. The scouts reported that they had come across many of these springs and had seen large swamps of them, enough, they said, to caulk many vessels. We were not so lucky ourselves as to see these tar geysers, much though we wished it; as it was some distance out of the way we were to take, the Governor [Portola] did not want us to go past them. We christened them Los Volcanes de Brea [the Tar Volcanoes]."[23]
Modern extraction and industry [ edit ]
During the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, oil seepages in Europe were exploited everywhere with the digging, and later drilling, of wells near to their occurrences and the discovery of numerous small oil fields such as in Italy.[24]
The modern history of petroleum exploitation, in relation to extraction from seeps, began in the 19th century with the refining of kerosene from crude oil as early as 1823, and the process of refining kerosene from coal by Nova Scotian Abraham Pineo Gesner in 1846. It was only after Ignacy Łukasiewicz had improved Gesner's method to develop a means of refining kerosene from the more readily available "rock oil" ("petr-oleum") seeps in 1852 that the first rock oil mine was built near Krosno in central European Galicia (Poland/Ukraine) in 1853. In 1854, Benjamin Silliman, a science professor at Yale University, was the first American to fractionate petroleum by distillation. These discoveries rapidly spread around the world.
The world's first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853, and the second in nearby Romania in 1857. At around the same time the world's first, but small, oil refineries were opened at Jasło in Poland, with a larger one being opened at Ploiești in Romania shortly after. Romania is the first country in the world to have its crude oil output officially recorded in international statistics, namely 275 tonnes.[25][26] By the end of the 19th century the Russian Empire, particularly in Azerbaijan, had taken the lead in production.[27]
The first oil "well" in North America was in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada in 1858, dug by James Miller Williams. The US petroleum industry began with Edwin Drake's drilling of a 69-foot (21 m) oil well in 1859[28] on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania, both named for their petroleum seeps.
Other sources of oil initially associated with petroleum seeps were discovered in Peru's Zorritos District in 1863, in the Dutch East Indies on Sumatra in 1885, in Persia at Masjed Soleiman in 1908, as well as in Venezuela, Mexico, and the province of Alberta, Canada.
By 1910, these too were being developed at an industrial level. Initially these petroleum sources and products were for use in fueling lamps, but with the development of the internal combustion engine, their supply could not meet the increased demand; many of these early traditional sources and "local finds" were soon outpaced by technology and demand.
Petroleum seep formation [ edit ]
Tar seep at Rozel Point, on the mud (salt) flats of the Great Salt Lake.
Re-worked tar on beach at Rozel Point, Utah. The black rocks are basalt: the tar is brown and looks like cow manure.
A petroleum seep occurs as a result of the seal above the reservoir being breached, causing tertiary migration of hydrocarbons towards the surface under the influence of the associated buoyancy force. The seal is breached due to the effects of overpressure adding to the buoyancy force, overcoming the capillary resistance that initially kept the hydrocarbons sealed.
Causes of overpressure [ edit ]
The most common cause of overpressure is the rapid loading of fine-grained sediments preventing water from escaping fast enough to equalise the pressure of the overburden.[29] If burial stops or slows, then excess pressure can equalize at a rate that is dependent on the permeability of the overlying and adjacent rocks. A secondary cause of overpressure is fluid expansion, due to changes in the volume of solid and/or fluid phases. Some examples include: aquathermal pressuring (thermal expansion), clay dehydration reactions (such as anhydrite) and mineral transformation (such as kerogen to oil/gas and excess kerogen).
Types of seeps [ edit ]
There are two types of seep that can occur, depending on the degree of overpressure.[30] Capillary failure can occur in moderate overpressure conditions, resulting in widespread but low intensity seepage until the overpressure equalizes and resealing occurs. In some cases, the moderate overpressure cannot be equalized because the pores in the rock are small so the displacement pressure, the pressure required to break the seal, is very high. If the overpressure continues to increase to the point that it overcomes the rock's minimum stress and its tensile strength before overcoming the displacement pressure, then the rock will fracture, causing local and high intensity seepage until the pressure equalizes and the fractures close.[31]
California seeps [ edit ]
Diatomite outcrop containing oil that seeps out in hot weather, near McKittrick, in Kern County California.
Oil stained outcrop near Kern River oilfield, in Kern County California.
Oil Seep in the Simi Valley area of Ventura County, CA
California has several hundred naturally occurring seeps, found in 28 counties across the state.[32] Much of the petroleum discovered in California during the 19th century was from observations of seeps.[33] The world's largest natural oil seepage is Coal Oil Point in the Santa Barbara Channel, California.[34] Three of the better known tar seep locations in California are McKittrick Tar Pits,[35] Carpinteria Tar Pits and the La Brea Tar Pits.[36]
At Kern River Oil Field, there are no currently active seeps. However, oil-stained formations in the outcrops remain from previously active seeps. Petroleum seeps may be a significant source of pollution.[34]
Seeps known as the McKittrick Tar Pits occur in the McKittrick Oil Field in western Kern County. Some of the seeps occur in watersheds that drain toward the San Joaquin Valley floor. These seeps were originally mined for asphalt by Native Americans, and in the 1870s larger scale mining was undertaken by means of both open pits and shafts. In 1893, Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a line to Asphalto, two miles from present day McKittrick. Fuel oil for the railroad was highly desired, especially since there are very few coal-bearing formations in California.[37] The field is produced now by conventional oil wells, as well as by steam fracturing.
The oil seeps at McKittrick are located in diatomite formation that has been thrust faulted over the younger sandstone formations. Similarly, in the Upper Ojai Valley in Ventura County, tar seeps are aligned with east-west faulting. In the same area, Sulphur Mountain is named for the hydrogen sulfide-laden springs. The oil fields in the Sulphur Mountain area date from the 1870s. Production was from tunnels dug into the face of a cliff, and produced by gravity drainage.[38]
The petroleum fly (Helaeomyia petrolei) is a species of fly that was first described from the La Brea Tar Pits and is found at other California seeps as well.[39] It is highly unusual among insects for its tolerance of crude oil; larvae of this fly live within petroleum seeps where they feed on insects and other arthropods that die after becoming trapped in the oil.[40]
Offshore seeps [ edit ]
In the Gulf of Mexico, there are more than 600 natural oil seeps that leak between one and five million barrels of oil per year, equivalent to roughly 80,000 to 200,000 tonnes.[41] When a petroleum seep forms underwater it may form a peculiar type of volcano known as an asphalt volcano.
The California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources published a map of offshore oil seeps from Point Aguello (north of Santa Barbara) to Mexico.[42] In addition, they published a brochure describing the seeps. The brochure also discusses the underground blowout at Platform A which caused the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. It also describes accounts from divers, who describe seepage changes after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake.[43]
In Utah, there are natural oil seeps at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake.[44] The oil seeps at Rozel Point can be seen when the lake level drops below an elevation of approximately 4,198 feet (1,280 m); if the lake level is higher, the seeps are underwater. The seeps can be found by going to the Golden Spike historical site, and from there, following signs for the Spiral Jetty. Both fresh tar seeps and re-worked tar (tar caught by the waves and thrown up on the rocks) are visible at the site.
The petroleum seeping at Rozel Point is high in sulfur, but has no hydrogen sulfide.[45] This may be related to deposition in a hypersaline lacustrine environment.[46]
See also [ edit ]Adrian Peterson Is Taking His Time, but Will New England Wait for Him?
What do Adrian Peterson and ‘Tom and Jerry’ have in common? A lot more than you might think
Kenneth Wilson Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 9, 2017
Pro Football Talk
Adrian Peterson is still a free agent. At an initial asking price of reportedly $8 million per year, is anyone surprised? This comes after Peterson had the worst season of his illustrious and undoubtedly HOF career, but he is nowhere near the guy that once rushed for 2,000 yards and carried a Vikings franchise. Peterson is hitting the trail, shaking hands, and figuratively kissing — well, not babies in hopes of gaining a job that resembles a decent salary. But will he get something he deems respectable? I can’t say on the monetary end of things but at this point in his career considering the money he has earned and accolades he has accomplished, isn’t it time to chase a championship?
Hello, Bill Belichick. Hello, Tom Brady. Hello, New England Patriots. ‘All Day’ can take as many visits as he wants and desires, but there is one place that is undoubtedly better for him that any other — Foxborough, Massachusetts.
For The Win
As mentioned earlier, Peterson has had a 2,000 yard rushing season on his way to over 11,700 total career rushing yards. However, last year and in only 3 games Peterson rushed for a career low 72 yards. Peterson rushed for three more yards, 75 total in 2014, where he played in 2 fewer games. What this does say, however, is that Peterson has lost a step and needs more help from those around him to be as successful as he would like. There is no better person at giving this assistance than Bill Belichick.
Along with his non-stop learning, game planning ability, and undying love for the game of football, what sets Bill Belichick apart is his way to manipulate players. It sounds a lot dirtier than it actually is, but it covers the broad range of his capabilities. In one example you can look no further than one of last year’s breakout stars, Chris Hogan. Although Hogan was famous for playing college lacrosse before football, and actually playing in the league for a few years, he became a different and more explosive player under the tutelage of Belichick.
U.S. Lacrosse Magazine
Another of the most vivid examples and one that fits exactly with the subject is the way he uses his RB’s, and more specifically what LeGarrette Blount was able to accomplish just last year alone. To address the above part by part, the committee element is important because it not only allows for the best to be pulled out of AP whenever he is on the field but also accounts for his shortcomings. We have all heard about these shortcomings in recent weeks, with the most glaring being his lack of “want to” or his overall pass blocking ability. The “LeGarrette Blount” element is important because the two of them, Blount and Peterson, are really similar backs. They are both tall, big backs, although Peterson is an inch taller and about 20 pounds lighter. They share a similar running styles in that they would both rather plant and get vertical through the middle although they can attack horizontally and/or around the edges. Proof, you say? Blount rushed for 18 touchdowns last year and almost 1,200 yards himself. His closest season production wise was his rookie year in 2010, where he rushed for 6 touchdowns and just over 1,000 yards.
MassLive.com
What we are now watching is a classic case of “Cat and Mouse” with Peterson maneuvering strategically in hopes of drawing his desired response from an NFL organization. The big deal here, though, is that there is no way of knowing which organization that could be. But there is one thing for certain here; Peterson already knows where he wants to be. He should be looking for jewelry (if you know what I mean), so his best choice again is New England.
There is no way in particular to say where Peterson wants to land. He left the Patriots last week without a deal and has a meeting set up with New Orleans in the coming week. Reports say he may even have other meetings on the way as he continues to play the waiting game. Although it dates back to the early 11th century and was made popular by one of the great theatrical pieces of all-time, House Party 2, one of my favorite quotes is “time waits for no man.” Take heed, Mr. Peterson. Bill Belichick is the hand of time — don’t make him wait.2017 CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 Champion-elect Nick Rowe has won today’s second race in treacherous conditions on the Gold Coast.
Without his championship secured, Rowe enjoyed a spirited drive to finish 7.6 seconds ahead of Team BRM’s Zane Morse.
However it was Simon Fallon who got the jump on Rowe and led much of the race, with times largely identical between the pair. However a brush with the wall in the final two laps caused major damage to the front corner of his Team BRM car. Teammate Cameron Shields had a similar impact barely a lap later.
“I was really commiting as much as I could but I couldn’t catch Fallon. I think I closed the gap to about half a second… unfortunately for him he was having a good run and he accidentally hit the wall. I was just there to reap the rewards, I guess you’ve got to finish to win,” Rowe said.
“Coming third in that first race was one of the best experiences of my life – even though coming third’s not that great but to get the championship was unbelievable. To be able to go out there and not think about it too much, just worry about what you’ve got to do is a good feeling.”
Zagame Autosport’s Ryan Suhle just edged ahead of Race One winner Liam Lawson for the final spot on the podium. Suhle’s teammate Tyler Everingham was a further few seconds behind the pair to round out the top five.
“It was wild enough in the dry and the wet’s just made it a whole lot worse! It’s still super fun and I’ve enjoyed every lap I’ve done this weekend,” Suhle said.
AGI Sport’s Zakkary Best and JRD’s Jordan Mazzaroli had the closest finishing margin of the field, with 0.26 seconds separating the pair at the chequered flag.
The final race of the 2017 CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 Championship will take place at 10:40am on the Gold Coast, televised live on Fox Sports 506.
Provisional Race Two Results
1. Nick Rowe – AGI Sport
2. Zane Morse – Team BRM: +7.6757
3. Ryan Suhle – Zagame Autosport: +15.8237
4. Liam Lawson – Team BRM: +17.2437
5. Tyler Everingham – Zagame Autosport: +19.7646
6. Zakkary Best – AGI Sport: +35.6902
7. Jordan Mazzaroli – JRD: +35.9585
8. Sage Murdoch – AGI Sport: +1:07.3322
DNF: Cameron Shields – Team BRM
DNF: Simon Fallon – Team BRM
DNF: Aaron Love – Team BRM
DNF: Luis Leeds – Zagame AutosportA pedestrian was hit and killed by a Barnstable police cruiser early Sunday morning. A police spokesperson confirmed that an adult male was hit while walking in the road on Route 28 in the Centerville section of Barnstable at about 2 a.m. The officer was responding to a call with lights and siren activated and a civilian car pulled off to the right to get out of the way. Moments later, state police said the cruiser hit the man, who was walking on the double-yellow line in the center of the road. The pedestrian was not in a designated crosswalk, state police said. Red paint left behind by the collision analysis and reconstruction team marks dots the road and crosses the center lines. The officer who was driving the cruiser was taken to the hospital to be treated for glass in his eye, according to police. The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash is under investigation by the Barnstable Police Department and Massachusetts State Police.
A pedestrian was hit and killed by a Barnstable police cruiser early Sunday morning.
A police spokesperson confirmed that an adult male was hit while walking in the road on Route 28 in the Centerville section of Barnstable at about 2 a.m.
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The officer was responding to a call with lights and siren activated and a civilian car pulled off to the right to get out of the way. Moments later, state police said the cruiser hit the man, who was walking on the double-yellow line in the center of the road.
The pedestrian was not in a designated crosswalk, state police said. Red paint left behind by the collision analysis and reconstruction team marks dots the road and crosses the center lines.
The officer who was driving the cruiser was taken to the hospital to be treated for glass in his eye, according to police. The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash is under investigation by the Barnstable Police Department and Massachusetts State Police.
AlertMeThat was the circlejerkers posse. Sorry, they were mine. Some Reddit history: /r/circlejerk used to be a controlled environment for trolling. Then YTKnows decided to turn /r/circlejerk into Staples. A cadre of some of the harder trolls splintered off into /r/CIRCLEJERKERS, probably the most-often-banned subreddit in the history of Reddit. There was a circlejerker by the name of RyanBatts who thought I was awesome. he wanted my help in setting up /r/education or something. Unfortunately he was an alcoholic and imbalanced. The other mods in /r/education asked my help in controlling him. About the time I added YTKnows to the mod list of /r/favors. This annoyed the circlejerkers... however in their midst were drunkenjedi and grandpawiggly, friends/admirers of mine. I got leaked modmail of them attempting to dox me. One of the more imbalanced of them, a guy going by pozhualista, noticed what I had going on with /r/youngluck so he decided to stir up shit in there. This upset my other mod, a very nice and reclusive ex-mormon lady in her '50s, so I banned him. Thus began the circlejerkers' jihad to googlebomb the notion that youngluck was in jail for molesting his son. I stirred up shit with the admins because that kind of shit ain't cool. Hueypriest told me there was nothing they could do about it because stuff they did in their own subreddits was their own thing and stuff they didn't do on Reddit was entirely out of their control. He hinted, however, that if they violated the TOS he'd ban their subreddit. Thus began a nine month campaign of trench warfare where I occupied the circlejerkers with baiting tactics against me so they'd get bored with Dante (what his ex was able to find on the Internet did occupy a court of law off'n'on for about a year, so I wasn't completely successful). I got maybe eight of them shadowbanned, several of them multiple times, and had three of their subreddits banned. It turned me into a real dick - goading trolls as part of your daily routine is bad for your constitution. About that time I pissed off Violentacrez by implying that the admins had some sort of responsibility to civic behavior - he's more of a fan of unrest. An enemy of my enemy is my friend, and VA started hanging with the circlejerkers. Modded them in /r/jailbait, in fact, just to piss off the admins. Thus was jailbait banned briefly, then unbanned as soon as the circlejerkers were unmodded. Meanwhile, I'm a cranky fucker. And i was unduly rude to someone asking for heaven and earth from the designers of /r/favors. As there were at least a couple in there who were homeless, I was short in the modmail. It being summer, a witch hunt commenced. A couple months later, drunkenjedi pointed me here. I stuck around. As soon as google searches for my handle started pointing here, the circlejerkers followed. The simple fact that you responded to them in a civil fashion and didn't stomp on them diffused that situation - they were trying to get my goat but since I didn't follow them, I couldn't see their antics. And since their antics were largely intended for me, they decided that Hubski wasn't "trollable." Some of them have stuck around. Meanwhile on Reddit, a large number of them were IP banned as soon as Yishan took over. That thing I asked for to defend Youngluck? Sure, no problem. Youngluck, in the meantime, became an admin himself. So three years later and a shit ton of blood in the water, and all is right with the world. Other than the fact that one of those original leakers of the modlogs from /r/circlejerkers decided to dox violentacrez to Gawker for lulz. There you go. Hubski's role in one of the biggest internal dramas in Reddit's history. At least nobody had the bomb squad called on them.In case you hadn’t noticed, barefoot and minimalist shoe running seems to have exploded in popularity (including my wife’s recent run in the Wildflower triathlon wearing her Vibram Five Fingers, pictured above).
From Paleo and primal enthusiasts to the Barefoot Running Society (with nearly 2000 members), to crazy people trying to run across the country barefoot, barefoot running has certainly become a craze over the past several years – despite significant advances in shoe technology, enhanced shoe features like better cushioning or motion control, and even the advent of special fitness shoes.
But is barefoot running safe, or is this trend simply sending lots of excited, shoe-less runners to the sports medicine doctor with foot injuries? The answer is: it depends on your approach, and you’re about to learn why.
To decide whether barefoot running is safe for you, it’s important to understand the basic biomechanics of running.
Running involves two basic phases: a ground contact phase (in which your foot strikes the ground and maintains contact with the ground) and a swing phase (during which your foot is moving through the air).
Aside from perhaps a small amount of extra weight from a shoe, the swing phase is not as important as the ground contact phase when it comes to understanding how the presence or absence of shoes may affect your running gait, since the impact with the ground tends to transmit about 5 times your body weight through your leg – so let’s focus on that phase, which basically includes:
1) Contact: your leg decelerates and absorbs the impact from striking the ground
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2) Midstance: your body weight shifts from the back of your foot to the front of your foot to prepare for leaving the ground
3) Toe-off: you extend your foot, ankle, and legs, and push off the ground
During this series of movements, your foot needs to absorb the impact of striking the ground, and also absorb your own body weight as you move over your foot, and this scenario can be very different when barefoot running is compared to running with shoes.
When you have shoes on, you tend to strike the ground closer to the back of your foot, which is called a heelstrike. But when you take your shoes off, or run in minimalist shoes such as Vibram Five Fingers or the Merrell Trail Gloves, you tend to strike closer to your midfoot or forefoot, and there are two significant mechanical things that happen when you make this change.
1) You take shorter strides when running barefoot. Running with shorter strides and higher frequency naturally reduces the impact forces on your foot – which you tend to not worry about quite so much when you’re wearing shoes. Fortunately, shorter strides also mean less impact higher up in your ankle, knees and hips!
Likely due to these shorter strides, barefoot running has also been shown to lower heart rate and rating of perceived exertion while increasing running efficiency.
2) You land with a slightly flatter foot when running barefoot. Since your toes are quite as “pointed towards the sky” when you’re running barefoot, since you don’t strike with your heel as much, this means that your heel and ankle undergo far less pressure and impact.
In addition, the skin on the bottom of your foot can actually do a better job sensing the ground when you run barefoot (called “proprioception”), and this may help the small muscles in your feet do a better job distributing load and lowering the force of impact in any given joint. In other words, running barefoot may reduce your risk of injuring your ankles, knees or hips.
On the other hand, shoes – in addition to being a powerful fashion statement |
somehow escaped detection in a concentration camp.
“The Torah is the size of a person. It’s not like you can hide one,” he said.
Brent Strawn, an associate professor at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, said Christian pastors are not treated as kings in the New Testament.
“They are almost always spoken of as servants,” he said. “This is exemplified by Jesus in the New Testament, when he wears the garment of a servant and washes his disciples’ feet.”
Long declined to speak, but his spokesman released a statement from the rabbi who led the ceremony.
Messer leads the Simchat Torah Beit Midrash congregation in Colorado, which describes itself as a community of Jewish and non-Jewish believers in “Yeshua,” or Jesus Christ. He said the ceremony was held to honor and encourage Long because the pastor had given so much to his church, and the world.
“It was not to make Bishop Eddie L. Long a king,” Messer said in the statement. “Lifting him on the chair was to acknowledge and honor him. It is done all the time at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs.”
Long is one of the most well-known televangelists in America. At its peak, New Birth had around 25,000 members, and Long’s sermons were broadcast around the globe.
Two years ago, Long’s public image took a hit when four young men accused him of misusing his spiritual authority to coerce them into sexual relations. Long’s wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce last year.Lux is a work of beauty. This velvet looking camera is a has a waist level viewfinder and it shoots 120 film. Made by Kevin Kadooka it is 100% open source with everything up for improvement and modification, from the 3D printed body, to the electronic shutter (powered by Arduino) ending with the brilliant view finder.
You may recall Kevin from his wonderful Duo TLR which ended up as a successful Kickstarter project.
This time he is making a fully open-sourced camera and no need for backing to get one. You can build your own with the electronics and 3d files openly available.
The camera itself is beautiful black with a brilliant viewfinder and a sexy shutter button (that can glow in red light)
The camera breaks into four parts per Kevin’s open-sources and makerability vision: “…part of being open-source, in my opinion, is for it to be easily modified or repaired. As such, the unit shouldn’t be hermetically sealed with glue, anti-tamper screws, etc. Lux splits into four segments, with nuts and bolts so that it can be easily modified.”
To facilitate framing, the camera is equipped with a brilliant viewfinder.
And photos are taken with a Single Leaf Shutter controlled by an Arrduino
The vision from Kevin is to make a 100% DIYable camera: Lux is my proof-of-concept platform for my new electronic shutter (see SLS, single leaf shutter). A secondary goal for this camera was to make it completely homegrown, meaning no parts from existing camera manufacturers, only using single-element lenses from Anchor Optics.
Here are some scanned pictures taken with the Lux:
[Lux, Source Files | Kevin Kadooka]Sugar Bush Squirrel is a real, live Eastern Gray Squirrel who is owned and photographed by Ms. Kelly Foxton. Rescued, as a baby in her nest, from a tree which was being cut down, she is now living the 'good life' with Kelly in Boca Raton, Florida. A small, lime-green parrot, named Rio, is her big sister and constant companion.
Being an International Superstar and The World's Most Photographed Squirrel, Sugar Bush loves to dress up, and has over 4,000 outfits with matching hats and accessories. Sugar Bush Squirrel has her own, posh studio with 7 elaborate stages, tens of thousands of stage props, and has posed for over 6,000 photos since her modeling career began. Also included in her studio is a huge green screen & blue screen video stage with multiple cameras and state of the art sound studio for recording her 'vocals'.
As News Anchor of SNN-The Squirrel News Network, she has turned the catch phrase, 'you've been squirreled' into an overnight success. It is fast becoming her very own, international, household expression.
Keep watching and you will find her on everything from glossy photos, greeting cards, calendars, TV Shows, children's books, pop culture books, paper dolls, a stuffed animal with an elaborate wardrobe, coffee table books, coloring books, all social networking, thousands of blogs, advertisements, billboards, buses, magazines, newspapers, webnews to military photos for our troops!
And now... sit back and enjoy the world ofPublished online 7 October 2011 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2011.584
News
Two years after his arrest over allegations of terrorism, researcher still awaits trial.
Fresnes Prison, where Adlène Hicheur has been held for two years without trial. FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images
French intelligence services say that Adlène Hicheur is a dangerous terrorist who was caught plotting attacks in Europe and beyond; family members and colleagues argue that he is a brilliant young physicist singled out because of his academic background. Guilty or innocent, on Saturday Hicheur will have spent two years in detention without trial.
Hicheur, now 34, was arrested on 8 October 2009 in his home town of Vienne. At the time, the French-Algerian was a postdoc in high-energy physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and was working on the LHCb detector at CERN, Europe's premier particle-physics laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland.
The French authorities allege that Hicheur was working with members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — the terrorist group's North African wing. Press reports at the time stated that he was plotting attacks against French forces and an oil refinery owned by the French firm Total. On 12 October, an independant judicial investigation into the case will close. Prosecutors will then have one month to decide whether to try him or dismiss the charges.
Since his arrest, Hicheur has remained in 'provisional detention' at Fresnes Prison near Paris, with limited access to the outside world. But, in answers relayed through his brother, Halim, the physicist denies involvement in any terrorist plot. Rather, he says, he was engaged in vigorous Internet discussions about ongoing world conflicts, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan. The online debates, in web forums, covered numerous topics, including terrorism. But he says that he never planned attacks such as those reported in the press.
Weight of evidence
Halim Hicheur, a neuroscience postdoc working in France, says his family believes that the intelligence agencies have held off bringing the case to trial because they lack evidence. "Our feeling is that the French services after two years know that they have nothing against Adlène," he says.
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The imprisoned physicist also has the support of former colleagues. Jean-Pierre Lees, a physicist at the Laboratory of Particle Physics in Annecy-le-Vieux, France, worked with Hicheur when the physicist was a graduate student and has spearheaded a campaign in support of his freedom. Lees says that many current and former colleagues of Hicheur's have joined letter-writing campaigns to politicians and the Ministry of Justice. But, he says, others who didn't know the physicist personally are reluctant to get involved. "Most people think when you are arrested there is a reason for that, and that justice will do her job," he says. "But it's not that simple, I think."
Lees says that the forums Adlène Hicheur visited may or may not have been frequented by terrorists, but Hicheur never offered aid or assistance to anyone he engaged with. The prosecutors "know very well that he has done nothing serious", Lees says. He believes Hicheur was singled out because he was a well-educated Muslim working in nuclear physics: "This case is used to demonstrate that even the best-integrated Islamic people are never integrated," he says.It’s still spring, yet 2016 already stands out as one of the ugliest years in modern British political history. It was fantastic to see Londoners choosing hope over fear in May, electing Sadiq Khan as our first Muslim mayor. But David Cameron, having shamelessly endorsed Zac Goldsmith’s dog-whistle campaign tactics, owes those young Muslims who have been put off politics by the slurs hurled at Khan an explanation. How does racial profiling and sectarian scaremongering fit into his One Nation vision for Britain?
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, one of the best bets to succeed Cameron as our next prime minister, embarrassed Britain on the world stage with a racially charged allusion to Barack Obama’s Kenyan heritage. And my own party has been grappling with a swath of deeply disturbing revelations regarding the attitudes held by some on the left towards Israel and Jewish people. Sowing discord by stigmatising or scapegoating a single faith group or community is profoundly at odds with the British tradition of “tolerance”, but we can’t ignore that this year’s events are part of a rising trend of friction and factionalism.
Last year’s general election should have been a wake-up call. The political and cultural divides between people living in the north and south and urban and rural areas – as well as between working-class and metropolitan sensibilities – appear starker than ever. In May’s devolved elections, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish politics became yet more distinct – giving the impression of a kingdom coming apart at the seams. All the while, more and more voices in our national politics seek to pin the blame for the challenges facing our country on a single section of society, whether immigrants, Muslims or another group.
This trend stretches beyond our borders. From Ukip, the French Front National and Austria’s Freedom Party to Podemos in Spain and Italy’s Five Star Movement, new populist parties of the right and left are on the rise across Europe. In the United States, Bernie Sanders is tapping into the energy of Occupy Wall Street, while Donald Trump has emerged as the heir to the Tea Party: a poster boy for division and recrimination.
Trump’s rise should be a warning for us Brits. The New York Times commentator David Brooks has described his success as less indicative of the emergence of a new school of thought, or movement, and more of dissatisfaction with the status quo. Trump’s campaign has tapped into a complex cocktail of grievances, from the loss of manufacturing jobs in a globalised economy to rising inequality and raw anger felt by many white working-class Americans at demographic and cultural changes.
In the run-up to last year’s general election, as I travelled around the country, I was confronted time and time again with the reality that in the UK – just like in the US – people are afraid and angry because the world is changing in ways they fear are beyond their control. Where once they had believed that, if they worked hard, they would get ahead, too many Britons now feel that the system is rigged in favour of those born into opportunity and that those in power have abandoned them to a broken future. What it means to be British seems to have shifted around them, triggering a crisis of solidarity.
We are at a crossroads and may face nothing less than the Trumpification of British politics. In an uncertain and changing world, it is all too easy to imagine that our problems are caused by those who are different from us.
If we wish to follow the fine example set by Londoners on 5 May and choose unity and empathy over division and blame, we must accept that simply “tolerating” one another will no longer do. There is an accusation built into the very word: what you are doing is “other” or “wrong”. As Britain has become more diverse, we have come to know each other less. This makes it harder to understand how people from different walks of life feel about the big issues.
I am a Labour member because I believe, as it says on our membership cards, that, by the strength of our common endeavour, we achieve more together than we do alone. In order to develop the bonds of trust required for this to become a reality, and for our communities to flourish and our democracy to deliver for everyone, we must build a society in which people from all backgrounds actually get to know one another and lead interconnected lives. In this sense, “One Nation” – the land over which all parties seek purchase – should become more than a platitude. It should become a way of life.You can set up a wireless connection between two routers. One can link a wireless network to a wired network allowing you to bridge two networks with different infrastructure. You can find wireless access points products that offer either a “bridge” mode or a “repeater” mode. In this post, I’m going to explain three popular open source choices that can use for setting up a wireless bridge.
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Connect Two Wireless Router Wirelessly ( Bridge ) With Open Source Software
Consider the following network diagram or sample setup:
You connect to the Internet using standalone ADSL2 modem with 202.54.1.1 public IP address.
SSID set to nixcraft on wireless # 1 and an IP address set to 192.168.1.2. This router is located in downstairs and connected to ADSL2 modem.
SSID set to nixcraft on wireless # 2 and an IP address set to 192.168.1.1. This router works in client bridge mode and located in upstairs.
All computers and devices connected to wireless router #1 and #2 can share files and other resources with each other.
Where,
This setup saves electricity and resources by removing standalone ADSL 2 modem.
You connect to the Internet using combo ADSL2 modem plus wireless router (AP) with 202.54.1.1 public IP address. This router is called wireless #1 and SSID is set to nixcraft. This device has two IP address and it is located in downstairs.
SSID set to nixcraft on wireless # 2 and an IP address set to 192.168.1.1. This router works in client bridge mode and located in upstairs.
All computers and devices connected to wireless router #1 and #2 can share files and other resources with each other.
Software (3rd party firmware)
You can use the following software / firemware to get the addition features which are not typically included in a manufacturer’s router firmware such as client mode wireless bridge. You can either setup a full WAP or just bridge your LAN so that wireless devices can get access to all LAN resources transparently.
DD-WRT : Linux-based alternative OpenSource firmware for wireless routers. It works for several routers, most notably the Linksys. It works great with variety of wireless routers and embedded systems. This is recommend for new users as it comes with easy to use web-gui. Tomato : Another simple and easy to use replacement firmware for Linksys’ WRT54G/GL/GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54, Asus and other Broadcom-based routers. It features a new easy to use GUI, a new bandwidth usage monitor, more advanced QOS and access restrictions, enables new wireless features such as WDS and wireless client modes, raises the limits on maximum connections for P2P, allows you to run your custom scripts or telnet/ssh in and do all sorts of things like re-program the SES/AOSS button, adds wireless site survey to see your wifi neighbors, and more. This is recommend for new users as it comes with easy to use web-gui. OpenWrt : OpenWrt is not just firmware but it is often described as a complete Linux distribution for embedded devices. Instead of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt provides a fully writable filesystem with package management. This frees you from the application selection and configuration provided by the vendor and allows you to customize the device through the use of packages to suit any application. This firmware is recommend for advanced users only. DIY option – You can install Linux or FreeBSD/OpenBSD based operating systems and create a full WAP or just a bridge. This option requires good understanding of Unix, networks and embedded devices.
I strongly recommend DD-wrt for new users and openwrt for advanced Linux users.
Hardware
I’ve used the following devices in last couple of years for personal usage:
Linksys WRT 54 with DD-WRT firmware. Dlink DIR-615 with DD-WRT firmware. Asus RT 16 with Tomato firmware. Soekris net4801 with DIY option. You can use Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS Linux and FreeBSD/OpeNBSD. This option is only recommended for advanced hardcore unix users.
You can find list of supported router hardware by visiting the following pages:
Example: Configuring Asus RT-16 as a wireless bridge
Let us see how to configure a wireless connection between two routers only as discussed earlier with tomato firmware.
Wireless # 1: ADSL2+router configuration
This is my ADSL 2 modem + wireless router (netgear N600) that connects to my ISP. This is my primary router and it is called wireless #1. Open a browser and type:
http://192.168.1.2
Make sure LAN setup is as follows:
Set the IP address of your router in dotted decimal notation to 192.168.1.2 (factory default: 192.168.0.1). Also set IP subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Your router will automatically calculate the subnet mask based on the IP address that you assign. Unless you are implementing subnetting, use 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask (computed by the router).
Setup wireless as follows:
Set SSID to nixcraft. Setup mode as per your requirements. I set it to 300Mbps performance mode, with a maximum Wireless-N speed. Set security options to WPA2-PSK standard encryption with the AES encryption type. Finally, set the WPA passphrase (network key) as per your requirements. For demonstration purpose I set it to “Neil_Armstrong”.
Wireless # 2: Router client bridge configuration
I’m assuming that you’ve already replaced your default firmware with DD-WRT/Tomato/Open-WRT. In this example, I’m going to use tomato firmware.
How do I use Tomato firmware as wireless ethernet bridge?
Fire a web browser and type the following url:
http://192.168.1.1
Click on Basic > Networking. Make sure LAN is setup as follows:
Make sure router IP address is set to 192.168.1.1. Make sure subnet is set to 255.255.255.0. Make sure default gateway is set to 192.168.1.2 (IP address of wireless # 1). Make sure static DNS is set to 192.168.1.2 (IP address of wireless # 1). However, you can set it to OpenDNS or Google DNS.
Scroll down to the Wireless section and set it as follows:
Set wireless mode to “Wireless Ethernet Bridge”. Set wireless network mode to “N only” or as per your requirements. set SSID to “nixcraft”. Set security to “WPA-2 Personal” and encryption to “TKIP/AES”. Set shared key to WPA passphrase (see Fig.04: Prepare Netgear N600 / DGND3700 For Wireless Client Bridge Mode). In this example set it to “Neil_Armstrong”.
Click on Advanced > Routing:
Set mode to “Gateway” Make sure RIP1 & v2 set in “Disabled” mode. Turn on “DHCP routes” for dhcp relays i.e. send all dhcp requests to DHCP server located at 192.168.1.2 (or any other server on LAN)
Click on Advanced > Firewall. Set it as follows:
You are done. Configure any other settings you wish at this point. To see current router status click on Status > Overview:
Have any advice for better 3rd party firmware or software? Let’s hear them in the comments.
Share on Facebook TwitterThe Texans could be starting Brandon Weeden on Sunday against the Titans in Tennessee if Brian Hoyer’s concussion issues linger and keep him out of the game.
“Now they’ve actually heard me call a play in the huddle,” Weeden joked Wednesday when asked about getting used to being a quarterback on the team.
Weeden, who took over for T.J. Yates when Yates went down with an ACL injury, took just one snap last week in practice before his game action Sunday.
“What is it? Basically two quarters of football? Able to do some decent things offensively. We’ve got a feel for each other now it’s just see where we’re at moving forward.”
Bill O’Brien noted Weeden’s limited practice snaps were based around getting Yates ready to play last week and focusing on keeping the offense moving.
“When you get here there’s no similarities,” Weeden said about learning a new offense.
He mentioned he might hear a certain word and connect it but said it is a fresh start and said it might even be a little bit easier to learn from the ground up. He said he will prepare off the field like he usually does but this week could have more snaps for him.
“I really didn’t get a chance to throw many routes to these other guys because there’s just limited throws out there,” he said.
Weeden said he is helping new quarterback B.J. Daniels as much as he can but noted they draw from Hoyer, T.J. Yates, and even center Ben Jones to help with the intricacies of the offense.
Weeden knows he can’t try to do too much this week.
“I think for me just going out, doing the little things, day one stuff, get the cadence right. Get the (linebacker call out) points right. The communication. If I can just over-communicate you know we’ve got good players, hopefully the rest will take care of itself.”
Follow Stoots on Twitter – @Cody_StootsSRI LANKA TOUR OF INDIA 2017
Injured Kedar Jadhav ruled out of Sri Lanka ODIs
Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on Sat, 09 Dec, 2017, 10:02 PM
Jadhav failed to recover from hamstring injury. © BCCI
Kedar Jadhav has been ruled out of the three-match One-Day International series against Sri Lanka due to a hamstring injury, it was confirmed on Saturday (December 9). Washington Sundar, the Tamil Nadu allrounder, has been called in as replacement.
Jadhav had been doing rehabilitation work at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore ahead of the series and was to be monitored on Saturday, as per captain Rohit Sharma. The middle-order batsman failed to fully recover from the injury that he had to his left hamstring during training session on Friday, and will undergo scans.
Jadhav's replacement, Washington, has been in exceptional form since the Indian Premier League earlier this year and was rewarded with a place in the India T20I side that'll take on Sri Lanka after the ODI series. Washington's selection came after he had cleared the all-important Yo-Yo Test, on his second attempt.
While he was impressive in domestic cricket, he boosted his chances even further when he finished the highest run-getter and the second-highest wicket-taker in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.
The two teams play the first ODI in Dharamsala on Sunday (December 10) before travelling to Mohali and Visakhapatnam for the remaining two games on December 13 and 17 respectively.
© Cricbuzz
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RELATED STORIESA microscopic image of a tumor cell migrating through collagen. Photo by Ryan Petrie, taken in Drexel Cell Imaging Cell.
What makes cancer so deadly is its ability to move. The better that doctors can keep tumors contained and protect unaffected organs in the body, the less lethal a cancer will be.
So if doctors were able to pinpoint tumor cells and literally stop them in their tracks, it would go a long way in treatment.
“Therapeutically preventing the inappropriate movement of metastatic tumor cells could be used in combination with existing chemotherapies to increase patient survival,” said Ryan Petrie, PhD, an assistant professor in Drexel’s College of Arts and Sciences.
With that in mind, Petrie led research efforts that were able to determine that certain tumor cells (fibrosarcoma) are unable to perform a certain kind of movement that normal connective tissue cells perform when moving through tight, three-dimensional environments.
Since cells’ nuclei are big and rigid, they’re not easy to squeeze through three-dimensional structures. When such a structure (or matrix, as they’re called at the cellular level) is encountered, normal cells can switch to a form of movement that creates a pressure differential inside the cell by moving their nucleus, like a piston in an engine.
But Petrie’s research found that fibrosarcoma cells can’t perform this piston movement to get through those tight squeezes when certain protease enzymes are present and highly active. Thus, these tumor cells effectively chew their way through the matrix, while normal cells use powerful molecular motors to muscle their way forward and leave the matrix more intact.
Petrie’s research, published in the Jan. 2 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, studied this movement of cells — and lack thereof — in rat tail and cattle skin collagen.
“Cell migration is a lethal characteristic of metastatic tumors, where malignant cells begin to move inappropriately and spread through the body to form secondary tumors,” Petrie said. “To fully understand the mechanisms which drive normal and pathological cell movement, we must study cell migration in three-dimensional environments, such as the ones found in our tissues.”
The research has implications beyond just fighting cancer cells.
“Promoting movement of fibroblasts in specific three-dimensional tissues like dermis [skin] and cartilage could help to heal difficult-to-treat wounds,” Petrie explained. “Understanding the fundamental molecular mechanisms driving the movement of these cell types will be essential for designing rational therapeutic strategies in the future.”
Determining the different methods in movement between normal and malignant cells is important, but more research needs to be done to find out exactly why there is a difference.
“The next step will be to untangle the intracellular signaling pathways which dictate cell behavior to understand precisely why tumor and normal cells move differently in the same three-dimensional environment,” Petrie said. “We speculate these signaling pathways will provide the best candidates for drugs aimed at promoting or reducing cell movement in the future.”
Those interested in reading Petrie’s full study, “Activating the Nuclear Piston Mechanism of 3D Migration in Tumor Cells,” can access it here.In these final days of the election, what has emerged as the hottest topic? Strategic voting. Not streetcars or housing. Not cycling or waste reduction. Not urban agriculture or waterfront renewal. Not arts funding or green energy. All of these topics have taken a backseat to the growing debate about strategic voting. And not just for the mayoral race. It’s happening in the ward races too, all across the city.
I’d like to contribute two thoughts to this debate.
The first thought is simple: Vote-splitting is a completely unnecessary phenomenon, unique only to cities that insist on using foolish voting systems. We can completely eliminate this distraction from our next election with a small and simple change called Instant Runoff Voting. That journey begins at RaBIT.ca
The second thought is also simple: Don’t vote strategically.
Vote with your heart.
I’ll give you three reasons:
a) Strategic voting kills the comeback. What would politics be without the ‘comeback’? The concept of the underdog gaining ground is one of the ways in which politics can be exciting, whether it’s David Miller making a comeback against Barbara Hall, Rob Ford making a comeback against the downtown progressive elite (as he calls them), George Smitherman making a comeback against Ford, or Joe Pantalone making a last-minute comeback against George. The further back, the more exciting. Third-place comebacks can only happen if a candidate’s supporters vote with their heart, ignoring calls to give up. Imagine how boring American Idol or Battle of the Blades would be, if contestants just gave up and dropped out along the way, because they thought they probably couldn’t win. That would be bad TV. And it’s bad politics too.
b) Don’t let the pollsters shape the elections. Strategic voting is based on the premise that you already know how everyone else is going to vote – before election day. This is based on polling that has been provided to you by media companies who usually have political ties to specific parties or candidates. Giving in to strategic polling gives way too much power to our pollsters and political strategists who we know are very selective about when they release a poll, which parts of a poll they release – or whether to release a poll at all. Polling ruins elections, by marginalizing new and young voices early on in the race – before the campaigns have even started. Polls are bad for politics, and strategic voting lends legitimacy to polls.
c) Elections aren’t just about who wins. Elections are a survey of values, and every number counts. It’s the one time, every four years when you are asked what you think about our city. How could anyone suggest that any citizen should do anything with this rare and precious vote, other than vote with their heart?
On election day, we won’t just end up with a mayor and 44 councillors. We’ll also have an amazing thing: Over half a million votes, each cast by an independent human being, clearly showing what Torontonians truly believe in.
Rob says that George and Joe are the same. Baloney. Joe says that George and Rob are the same. Rubbish! Each candidate represents a different platform, and a different approach. How will anyone know which platform and approach you liked – if you don’t vote for it?
Voting is supposed to be a free market system, with no trade barriers, no subsidies, no embargoes and no monopolies. You get one vote. Everyone gets one vote. It’s designed as the great equalizer. Rich, poor. Tall, short. Downtown, suburban. Left, right, green, grey. One vote each. And for what purpose? To pick a mayor? No. To express what you believe in. So everyone can hear. The new mayor, but also policy experts, from all levels of government. Editors. Business leaders. Professors. And campaign advisors, who will shape future election campaigns. The proportions of the vote reflect who we are as a city, and everyone is watching. We are Ontario’s largest market research focus group, and every vote matters.
To be clear, this isn’t a pitch to vote for Joe Pantalone. I haven’t decided who to vote for, and I’m becoming less decided each day. All I’m saying is, look at all the candidates, and decide which person most reflects your values and your view of what Toronto is, and could be, and vote for that person.
But what about Ralph Nader? Well, I happen to like Ralph Nader, and I like what he has contributed to US politics, and I wish we had more gutsy people like him engaging in our political system. Don’t underestimate the immense power that ‘fringe’ candidates can have. In Toronto, for example, look at the Green Party. They can’t win a seat, even downtown, but people keep voting for them – and in increasing numbers. The NDP accuses them of being vote splitters, of being Ralph Naders. Personally, I would take that as a compliment. Even if a Green candidate only gets a few hundred votes, if the following election is a tight race between the Liberals and NDP you can bet that both of those parties will be doing everything they can to get those Green votes. And how do you get Green votes? By incorporating elements of their platform into your own. By becoming more Green. In other words, the Greens can win, without winning.
If you think Joe Pantalone is the best person to represent your views and values, then you should vote for him. Same goes for Smitherman, or Ford. Or any of the other 40 people running for mayor. Heck, I would even argue that if your favorite candidate was Rocco Rossi, or Sarah Thomson then you should still vote for them even though they’ve dropped out. How else will anyone ever know that you support an Allen Expressway tunnel, or that you wanted to see a female mayor in Toronto (for the first time in 13 years)?
After all, your vote is your chance to be heard. Don’t relinquish that right. Each vote for each candidate will have an impact on the outcome, and on future policies, and future campaigns. Has it occurred to anyone that Barrack Obama’s candidacy and victory was a direct result of Ralph Nader’s candidacy in previous elections? Maybe the democrats, after losing votes to Nader, had to ask themselves “Why are we losing votes to this guy? What’s he saying that we’re not saying? How is he attracting young voters and volunteers? What is Facebook?”. Without Nader in the picture, it would have been much easier to simply shift to the centre-right and try to erode the Republican vote. But you can’t shift away from your core support, if someone is around to pick up the pieces.
Never underestimate the influential power of those who come in second, third, fourth or even fortieth. Check out all the candidates, and vote for your favorite. The so-called losers in an election, those who were brave enough to stick it out to the end, those who inspired people to vote for them – not out of fear, but out of excitement – those candidates make a difference in the long run. They can shift the debate, inspire young volunteers, and open up doors for future ideas, future candidates and new possibilities. But only if you vote for them.
AdvertisementsAmerican Airlines has unveiled plans for a new “simplified” boarding process, to begin on March 1, with passengers prioritised according to nine numbered groups, up from the current four, and with those in the airline’s recently launched ‘basic economy’ class (more on that here) embarking dead last.
Those with priority boarding are split into five groups:
Group 1
First Class (naturally)
Active duty U.S. military with military I.D.
(Business Class on a 2-class international aircraft)
Group 2
Executive Platinum
oneworld® EmeraldSM
(Business Class on a 3-class aircraft)
Group 3
Platinum Pro
Platinum
oneworld® SapphireSM
Group 4
Alaska Airlines MVP® members
AirPass
Premium Economy
Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive cardmembers
Customers who bought Priority boarding
Group 5 (Preferred boarding)
Main Cabin Extra
Eligible AAdvantage® credit cardmembers
Eligible corporate travelers
Then comes the rabble. Passengers falling in the lower half (groups six to eight) have not been specified:
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
And last up, of course...
Group 9
Basic Economy
See the full outline of the new boarding system here.
Sounds complicated? We think so, but American Airlines disagrees: “The boarding order will be the same, with only minor exceptions. The change is in how we refer to each group on boarding passes and announcements,” a company spokesman told MarketWatch.
The perfect way to board a plane
Which is the fastest way to board a plane? Not like American Airlines. According to various studies, from sources as varied as Northwestern University in Illinois and the Discovery Channel’s TV series MythBusters, a simple new approach could save airlines – and passengers – up to 20 minutes of runway faffing on every return flight.
Instead of getting passengers to board according to their row number, they should board according to their column. Those with a window seat first, followed by those in the middle and, finally, those in the aisle. The “WilMA” method, as it has been dubbed – window, middle, aisle – could cut boarding times by more than 35 per cent, according to Northwestern. Similar savings could be made if WilMA is used to disembark the plane, too, it said.
MythBusters, which devoted almost an entire show to the thorny problem, tested six options using a replica of an aircraft interior and 173 willing volunteers. To simulate reality, five per cent of passengers were asked to behave “problematically” – sitting in the wrong seat, wasting time folding up their coat in the aisle, that sort of thing.
The regular method, with business class getting on first and then everyone else boarding in zones, starting at the back and moving to the front, took a whopping 24 minutes and 29 seconds. WilMA took just 14 minutes and 55 seconds, even when premium passengers were still permitted to board first. Volunteers were also asked to give each method a “satisfaction” score, and WilMA scored far higher than the standard boarding technique.
Remarkably, the method currently favoured by airlines was shown to be far slower than simply letting everyone on board at once to find their own assigned seats (17 minutes and 15 minutes).
Quickest of all, however, was allowing passengers to board all at once and to choose their own seats – a method once favoured by Ryanair but abandoned in 2014 as part of its “family-friendly” facelift.
So why don’t airlines take heed? For one, passengers who like to take advantage of speedy boarding – and airlines who like to take advantage of charging them for the privilege – would be scuppered. But the most glaringly obvious reason is that groups and families would – albeit temporarily – be split up. As a family will typically share a row of seats, mum in the window seat would need to leave behind everyone else to take her place, while little Jimmy in the middle would be expected to find his seat all on his own.
How else could airlines speed things up? Using both front and rear doors would be a start. Ryanair is one airline to do so as a matter of policy.
An innovative option was introduced by Delta last year. Its “Early Valet” service sees staff preload passengers’ hand luggage above their allotted seats prior to boarding and is available on selected routes.
Research has suggested that baggage is the biggest factor when it comes to rapid boarding, while average boarding speeds have slowed from 20 passengers per minute in the 1960s to nine per minute in 1998 as use of hand luggage increased due to fees for checking bags.
Delta’s service is not free, of course, which makes you wonder whether it was really devised with speedy boarding in mind.
The best option of all, according to Dr R. John Milne, of Clarkson University in New York, and set out in the |
him there is no deceit and falsehood. This is where the essence of Suchness is by itself. When all things are viewed in the light of wisdom (chih-hui=prajna), there is neither attachment nor detachment. This is seeing into one's Nature and attaining the truth of Buddhahood.
28. Good friends, if you wish to enter into the deepest realm of Truth (dharmadhatu), and attain the Prajnasamadhi, you should at once begin to exercise yourselves in the life of Prajnaparamita; you just devote yourselves to the one volume of the Vajracchedika-prajnaparamita Sutra, and you will, seeing into the nature of your being, enter upon the Prajnasamadhi. It should be known that the merit of such a person is immeasurable, as is distinctly praised in the sutras, of which I need not speak in detail.
This Truth of the highest order is taught to people of great intelligence and superior endowments. If people of small intelligence and inferior endowments happen to hear it, no faith would ever be awakened in their minds. Why? It is like a great dragon pouring rains down in torrents over the Jambudipa: cities, towns, villages are all deluged and carried away in the flood, as if they were grass-leaves. But when the rain, however much, falls on the great ocean, there is in it neither an increase nor a decrease.
When people of the Great Vehicle listen to a discourse on the Vajracchedika their minds are opened and there is an intuitive understanding. They know thereby that their own Nature is originally endowed with Prajna-wisdom and that all things are to be viewed in the light of this wisdom (chih-hui) of theirs, and they need not depend upon letters. It is like rain-waters not being reserved in the sky; but the water is drawn up by the dragon-king out of the rivers and oceans, whereby all beings and all plants, sentient and non-sentient, universally share the wet. All the waters flowing together once more are poured into the great ocean, and the ocean accepting all the waters fuses them into one single body of water. It is the same with Prajna-wisdom which is the original Nature of all beings.
29. When people of inferior endowments hear this "abrupt" doctrine here discoursed on, they are like those plants naturally growing small on earth, which, being once soaked by a heavy rain, are all unable to raise themselves up and continue their growth. It is the same with people of inferior endowments. They are endowed with Prajna-wisdom as much as people of great intelligence; there is no distinction. Why is it then that they have no insight even when listening to the Truth? It is due to the heaviness of hindrance caused by false views and to the deep-rootedness of the passions. It is like an overcasting cloud screening the s un; unless it blows hard no rays of light are visible.
There is no greatness or smallness in Prajna-wisdom, but since all beings cherish in themselves confused thoughts, they seek the Buddha by means of external exercises, and are unable to see into their Self-nature. That is why they are known to be people of inferior endowments.
Those beings who, listening to the "Abrupt" doctrine, do not take themselves to external exercises, but reflecting within themselves raise this original Nature all the time to the proper viewing [of the Truth], remain [always Undefiled by] the passions and the innumerable follies; and at that moment they all have an insight [into the Truth]. It is like the great ocean taking in all the rivers, large and small, and merging them into one body of water -'this is seeing into one's own Nature. [He who thus sees into his own Nature] does not abide anywhere inside or outside; he freely comes and departs; he knows how to get rid of attaching thoughts; his passage has no obstructions. When one is able to practise this life, he realizes that there is from the first no difference between [his Self-Nature] and Prajnaparamita.[1]
30. All the sutras and writings, all the letters, the two vehicles Major and Minor, the twelve divisions [of Buddhist literature]-these are all set forth because of the people of the world. Because there is wisdom-nature (chih-hui-hsing), therefore there is the establishment of all these works. If there were no people of the world, no multitudinous objects would ever be in existence. Therefore, we know that all objects rise originally because of the people of the world. All the sutras and writings are said to have their existence because of the people of the world.
The distinction of stupidity and intelligence is only possible among the people of the world. Those who are stupid are inferior people and those who are intelligent are superior people. The confused ask the wise, and the wise discourse for them on the Truth in order to make the stupid enlightened and have an intuitive understanding of it. When the confused are enlightened and have their minds opened, they are not to be distinguished from the people of great intelligence.
Therefore, we know that Buddhas when not enlightened are no other than ordinary beings; when there is one thought of enlightenment, ordinary beings at once turn into Buddhas. Therefore, we know that all multitudinous objects are every
[1. The text has "the Prajnaparamita Sutra" here. But I take it to mean Prajna itself instead of the sutra.]
one of them in one's own mind.[1] Why not, from within one's own mind, at once reveal the original essence of Suchness? Says the Bodhisattvasila Sutra: "My original Self-nature is primarily pure; when my Mind is known and my Nature is seen into I naturally attain the path of Buddhahood." Says the Vimalakirti Sutra: "When you have an instant opening of view you return to your original Mind."
48. The Great Master died on the third day of the eighth month of the second year of Hsien-t'ien (713 C.E.). On the eighth day of the seventh month of this year he had a farewell gathering of his followers as he felt that he was to leave them forever in the following month, and told them to have all the doubts they might have about his teaching once for all settled on this occasion. As he found them weeping in tears he said: "You are all weeping, but for whom are you so sorry? If you are sorry for my not knowing where I am departing to, you are mistaken; for I know where I am going. Indeed, if I did not, I would not part with you. The reason why you are in tears is probably that you do not yourselves know whither I am going. If you did, you would not be weeping so. The Essence of the Dharma knows no birth-and-death, no coming-and-going. Sit down, all of you, and let me give you a gatha with the title, "On the Absolute"[2]
There is nothing true anywhere,
The true is nowhere to be seen;
If you say you see the true,
This seeing is not the true one.[3]
[1. The text has the "body", while the Koshoji edition and the current one have "mind".
2. The title literally reads: "the true-false moving-quiet". "True" stands against "false" and "moving" against "quiet" and as long as there is an opposition of any kind, no true spiritual insight is possible. And this insight does not grow from a quietistic exercise of meditation.
3. That is, the Absolute refuses to divide itself into two: that which sees and that which is seen.]
Where the true is left to itself,
There is nothing false in it, which is Mind itself.
When Mind in itself is not liberated from the false,
There is nothing true, nowhere is the true to be found.
A conscious being alone understands what is meant by "moving";[1]
To those not endowed with consciousness, the moving is unintelligible;
If you exercise yourself in the practice of keeping your mind unmoved, [i.e. in a quietistic meditation],
The immovable you gain is that of one who has no consciousness.
If you are desirous for the truly immovable,
The immovable is in the moving itself,
And this immovable is the [truly] immovable one;
There is no seed of Buddhahood where there is no consciousness.
Mark well how varied are aspects [of the immovable one],
And know that the first reality is immovable;
Only when this insight is attained,
The true working of Suchness is understood.
I advise you, O students of the Truth
To exert yourselves in the proper direction;
Do not in the teaching of the Mahayana
Commit the fault of clinging to the relative knowledge[2] of birth and death.
[1. "Moving" means "dividing" or "limiting". When the absolute moves, a dualistic interpretation of it takes place, which is consciousness.
2. Chih, jnana in Sanskrit, is used in contradistinction to Prajna which is the highest form of knowledge, directly seeing into the Immovable or the Absolute.]
Where there is an all-sided concordance of views
You may talk together regarding the Buddha's teaching;
Where there is really no such concordance,
Keep your hands folded and your joy within yourself.
There is really nothing to argue about in this teaching;
Any arguing is sure to go against the intent of it;
Doctrines given up to confusion and argumentation
Lead by themselves to birth and death.
IV
YOKA DAISHI'S "SONG OF ENLIGHTENMENT"[1]
1. Knowest thou that leisurely philosopher who has gone beyond learning and is not exerting himself in anything?
He neither endeavours to avoid idle thoughts nor seeks after the Truth;
[For he knows that] ignorance in reality is the Buddha-nature,
[And that] this empty visionary body is no less than the Dharma-body.
2. When one knows what the Dharma-body is, there is not an object [to be known as such],
The source of all things, as far as its self-nature goes, is the Buddha in his absolute aspect;
The five aggregates (skandha) are like a cloud floating hither and thither with no fixed purpose,
The three poisons (klesa) are like foams appearing and disappearing as it so happens to them.
[1. Yoka Daishi (died 713, Yung-chia Ta-shih, in Chinese), otherwise known as Gengaku (Hsuan-chiao), was one of the chief disciples of Hui-neng, the, sixth patriarch of Zen Buddhism. Before he was converted to Zen he was a student of the T'ien-tai. His interview with Hui-neng is recorded in the Tan-ching. He died in 713 leaving a number of short works on Zen philosophy, and of them the present composition in verse is the most popular one. The Original title reads: Cheng-tao Ke, "realization-way-song".]
3. When Reality is attained, it is seen to be without an ego-substance and devoid of all forms of objectivity,
And thereby all the karma which leads us to the lowest hell is instantly wiped out;
Those, however, who cheat beings with their false knowledge,
Will surely see their tongues pulled out for innumerable ages to come.
4. In one whose mind is at once awakened to [the intent of] the Tathagata-dhyana
The six paramitas and all the other merits are fully matured;
While in a world of dreams the six paths of existence arc vividly traced,
But after the awakening there is vast Emptiness only and not even a great chiliocosm exists.
5. Here one sees neither sin nor bliss, neither loss nor gain;
In the midst of the Eternally Serene no idle questionings are invited;
The dust [of ignorance] has been since of old accumulating on the mirror never polished,
Now is the time once for all to see the clearing positively done.
6. Who is said to have no-thought? and who not-born?
If really not-born, there is no no-birth either;
Ask a machine-man and find out if this is not so;
As long as you seek Buddhahood, specifically exercising yourself for it, there is no attainment for you.
7. Let the four elements go off your hold,
And in the midst of the Eternally Serene allow yourself to quaff or to peck, as you like;
Where all things of relativity are transient and ultimately empty,
There is seen the great perfect enlightenment of the Tathagata realized.
8. True monkhood consists in having a firm conviction;
If, however, you fail to have it, ask me according to your ideas, [and you will be enlightened].
To have a direct understanding in regard to the root of all things, this is what the Buddha affirms;
If you go on gathering leaves and branches, there is no help for you.
9. The whereabouts of the precious mani-jewel is not known to people generally,
Which lies deeply buried in the recesses of the Tathagata-garbha;
The sixfold function miraculously performed by it is an illusion and yet not an illusion,
The rays of light emanating from one perfect sun belong to the realm of form and yet not to it.
10. The fivefold eye-sight[1] is purified and the fivefold power[2] is gained,
When one has a realization, which is beyond [intellectual] measurement;
There is no difficulty in recognizing images in the mirror,
But who can take hold of the moon reflected in water?
11. [The enlightened one] walks always by himself, goes about always by himself;
Every perfect one saunters along one and the same passage of Nirvana;
His tone is classical, his spirit is transparent, his airs are naturally elevated,
His features are rather gaunt, his bones are firm, he pays no attention to others.
[1. The fivefold eye-sight (cakshus) : (1) Physical, (2) Heavenly, (3) Prajna-, (4) Dharma-, and (5) Buddha-eye.
3 The fivefold power (bala): (1) Faith, (2) Energy, (3) Memory, (4) Meditation, and (5) Prajna.]
12. Sons of the Sakya are known to be poor;
But their poverty is of the body, their spiritual life knows no poverty;
The poverty-stricken body is wrapped in rags,
But their spirit holds within itself a rare invaluable gem.
13. The rare invaluable gem is never impaired however much one uses it,
And beings are thereby benefited ungrudgingly as required by occasions;
The triple body[1] and the fourfold jnana[2] are perfected within it,
The eightfold emancipation[3] and the sixfold miraculous power[4] are impressed on it.
14. The superior one has it settled once for all and forever
The middling one learns much and holds much doubt;
The point is to cast aside your soiled clothes you so dearly keep with you;
What is the use of showing off your work before others?
15. Let others speak ill of me, let others spite me;
Those who try to burn the sky with a torch end in tiring themselves out;
I listen to them and taste [their evil-speaking] as nectar;
All melts away and I find myself suddenly within the Unthinkable itself.
[1. (1) The Dharma-body, (2) the Body of Enjoyment, and (3) the Body of Transformation.
2. (1) Mirror-intuition, (2) intuition of identity, (3) knowledge of doing Works, and (4) clear perception of relations.
3. The Abhidharmakosa, VIII, gives an explanation of the eight Vimoksha. See La Vallee Poussin's French translation, Chap. VIII, pp. 203-221.
4. For the six Riddhi, which are the supernatural products of the meditations, see op. cit., VII, 122 ff.]
16. Seeing others talk ill of me, I acquire the chance of gaining merit,
For they are really my good friends;
When I cherish, being vituperated, neither enmity nor favouritism,
There grows within me the power of love and humility which is born of the Unborn.
17. Let us be thoroughgoing not only in inner experience but in its interpretation,
And our discipline will be perfect in Dhyana as well as in Prajna, not one-sidedly abiding in Sunyata (emptiness);
This is not where we alone have finally come to,
But all the Buddhas, as numerous as the Ganga sands, are of the same essence.
18. The lion-roaring of the doctrine of fearlessness--
Hearing this, the timid animals' brains are torn in pieces,
Even the scented elephant runs wild forgetting its native dignity;
It is the heavenly dragon alone that feels elated with joy, calmly listening [to the lion-roaring of the Buddha].
19. I crossed seas and rivers, climbed mountains, and forded freshets,
In order to interview the masters, to inquire after Truth, to delve into the secrets of Zen;
And ever since I was enabled to recognize the path of Sokei,[1]
I know that birth-and-death is not the thing I have to be concerned with.
[1. T'sao-ch'i is the name of the locality where Hui-neng had his monastery, means the master himself.]
20. For walking is Zen, sitting is Zen,
Whether talking or remaining silent, whether moving or standing quiet, the Essence itself is ever at ease;
Even when greeted with swords and spears it never loses its quiet way,
So with poisonous drugs, they fail to perturb its serenity.
2 1. Our Master, [Sakyamuni], anciently served Dipankara the Buddha,
And again for many kalpas disciplined himself as an ascetic called Kshanti.
[I have also] gone through many a birth and many a death;
Births and deaths-how endlessly they recur!
22. But ever since my realization of No-birth, which quite abruptly came on me,
Vicissitudes of fate, good and bad, have lost their power over me.
Far away in the mountains I live in an humble hut;
High are the mountains, thick the arboreous shades, and under an old pine-tree
I sit quietly and contentedly in my monkish home;
Perfect tranquillity and rustic simplicity rules here.
23. When you are awakened [to the Dharma], all is understood, no strivings are required;
Things of the samskrita[1] are not of this nature;
Charity practised with the idea of form (rupa) may result in a heavenly birth,
But it is like shooting an arrow against the sky,
When the force is exhausted the arrow falls on the ground.
Similarly, [when the heavenly reward comes to an end], the life that follows is sure to be one of fortune.
Is it not far better then to be with Reality which is asamskrita and above all strivings,
And whereby one instantly enters the stage of Tathagatahood?
[1. According to Buddhist philosophy, existence is divided into two groups, samskrita and asamskrita. The samskrita applies to anything that does any kind of work in any possible manner, while the asamskrita accomplishes nothing. Of this class are space regarded as a mode of reality, Nirvana, and nonexistence owing to lack of necessary conditions.]
24. Only let us take hold of the root and not worry about the branches;
It is like a crystal basin reflecting the moon,
And I know now what this mani-gem is,
Whereby not only oneself is benefited but others, inexhaustibly;
The moon is serenely reflected on the stream, the breeze passes softly through the pines,
Perfect silence reigning unruffled-what is it for?
25. The morality-jewel inherent in the Buddha-nature stamps itself on the mind-ground [of the enlightened one];
Whose robe is cut out of mists, clouds, and dews,
Whose bowl anciently pacified the fiery dragons, and whose staff once separated the fighting tigers;
Listen now to the golden rings of his staff giving out mellifluous tunes.
These are not, however, mere symbolic expressions, devoid of historical contents;
Wherever the holy staff of Tathagatahood moves, the traces are distinctly marked.
26. He neither seeks the true nor severs himself from the defiled,
He clearly perceives that dualities are empty and have no reality,
That to have no reality means not to be one-sided, neither empty nor not-empty,
For this is the genuine form of Tathagatahood.
27. The Mind like a mirror is brightly illuminating and knows no obstructions,
It penetrates the vast universe to its minutest crevices;
All its contents, multitudinous in form, are reflected in the Mind,
Which, shining like a perfect gem, has no surface, nor the inside.
28. Emptiness negatively defined denies a world of causality,
All is then in utter confusion, with no orderliness in it, which surely invites evils all around;
The same holds true when beings are clung to at the expense of Emptiness,
For it is like throwing oneself into a flame, in order to avoid being drowned in the water.
29. When one attempts to take hold of the true by abandoning the false,
This is discrimination and there are artificialities and falsehoods;
When the Yogin, not understanding [what the Mind is], is given up to mere discipline,
He is apt, indeed, to take an enemy for his own child.
30. That the Dharma-materials are destroyed and merit is lost,
Comes in every case from the relative discriminatory mind;
For this reason Zen teaches to have a thorough insight into the nature of Mind,
When the Yogin abruptly by means of his intuitive power realizes the truth of No-birth.
31. A man of great will carries with him a sword of Prajna,
Whose flaming Vajra-blade cuts all the entanglements of knowledge and ignorance;
It not only smashes in pieces the intellect of the philosophers
But disheartens the spirit of the evil ones.
32. He causes the Dharma-thunder to roar, he beats the Dharma-drum,
He raises mercy-clouds, he pours nectar-showers,
He conducts himself like the lordly elephant or dragon and beings innumerable are thereby blessed,
The three Vehicles and the five Families are all equally brought to enlightenment.
Hini the herb grows on the Himalaya where no other grasses are found,
And the crows feeding on it give the purest of milk, and this I always enjoy.
One Nature, perfect and pervading, circulates in all natures;
One Reality, all comprehensive, contains within itself all realities;
The one moon reflects itself wherever there is a sheet of water,
And all the moons in the waters are embraced within the one moon;
The Dharma-body of all the Buddhas enters into my own being,
And my own being is found in union with theirs.
33. In one stage are stored up all the stages;
[Reality] is neither form, nor mind, nor work;
Even before fingers are snapped, more than eighty thousand holy teachings are fulfilled;
Even in the space of a second the evil karma of three asamkhyeya kalpas is destroyed;
Whatever propositions are made by logic are no [true] propositions,
For they stand in no intrinsic relation to my inner Light.
34. [This inner Light] is beyond both praise and abuse,
Like unto space it knows no boundaries;
Yet it is right here with us ever retaining its serenity and fulness;
It is only when you seek it that you lose it.
You cannot take hold of it, nor can you get rid of it;
While you can do neither, it goes on its own way;
You remain silent and it speaks; you speak and it is silent;
The great gate of charity is wide open with no obstructions whatever before it.
35. Should someone ask me what teaching I understand,
I tell him that mine is the power of Mahaprajna;
Affirm it or negate it as you like-it is beyond your human intelligence;
Walk against it or along with it, and Heaven knows not its whereabouts.
36. 1 have been disciplined in it for ever so many kalpas of my life;
This is no idle talk of mine, nor am I deceiving you;
I erect the Dharma-banner to maintain this teaching,
Which I have gained at Sokei and which is no other than the one proclaimed by the Buddha.
37. Mahakashyapa was the first, leading the line of transmission;
Twenty-eight Fathers followed him in the West;
The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country;
And Bodhidharma became the First Father here:
His mantle, as we all know, passed over six Fathers,
And by them many minds came to see the Light.
38. Even the true need not be [specifically] established, as to the false none such have ever been in existence;
When both being and non-being are put aside, even non-emptiness loses its sense;
The twenty forms of Emptiness are not from the first to be adhered to;
The eternal oneness of Tathagatahood remains absolutely the same.
39. The mind functions through the sense-organs, and thereby an objective world is comprehended--
This dualism marks darkly on the mirror;
When the dirt is wiped off, the light shines out;
So when both the mind and the objective world are forgotten, the Essence asserts its truth.
40. Alas! this age of degeneration is full of evils;
Beings are most poorly endowed and difficult to control;
Being further removed from the ancient Sage, they deeply cherish false views;
The Evil One is gathering up his forces while the Dharma is weakened, and hatred is growing rampant;
Even when they learn of the "abrupt" school of the Buddhist teaching,
What a pity that they fail to embrace it and thereby to crush evils like a piece of brick!
41. The mind is the author of all works and the body the sufferer of all ills;
Do not blame others plaintively for what properly belongs to you;
If you desire not to incur upon yourself the karma for a hell,
Cease from blaspheming the Tathagata-wheel of the good Dharma.
42. There are no inferior trees in the grove of sandalwoods,
Among its thickly-growing primeval forest lions alone find their abode;
Where no disturbances reach, where peace only reigns, there is the place for lions to roam;
All the other beasts are kept away, and birds do not fly in the vicinity.
43. It is only their own cubs that follow their steps in the woods,
When the young ones are only three years old, they roar.
How can jackals pursue the king of the Dharma?
With all their magical arts the elves gape to no purpose.
44. The perfect "abrupt" teaching has nothing to do with human imagination;
Where a shadow of doubt is still left, there lies the cause for argumentation;
My saying this is not the outcome of my egotism,
My only fear is lest your discipline lead you astray either to nihilism or positivism.
45. "No" is not necessarily "No", nor is "Yes" "Yes";
But when you miss even a tenth of an inch, the difference widens up to one thousand miles;
When it is "Yes", a young Naga girl in an instant attains Buddhahood,
When it is "No", the most learned Zensho[1] while alive falls into hell.
[1. Shang-hsing, lit. "good star", was a great scholar of his age.]
46. Since early years I have been eagerly after scholarly attainment,
I have studied the sutras and sastras and commentaries,
I have been given up to the analysis of names and forms, and never known what fatigue meant;
But diving into the ocean to count up its sands is surely an exhausting task and a vain one;
The Buddha has never spared such, his scoldings are just to the point,
For what is the use of reckoning the treasures that are not mine?
All my past achievements have been efforts vainly and wrongly applied-I realize it fully now,
I have been a vagrant monk for many years to no end whatever.
47. When the notion of the original family is not properly understood,
You never attain to the understanding of the Buddha's perfect "abrupt" system;
The two Vehicles exert themselves enough, but lack the aspirations [of the Bodhisattva];
The philosophers are intelligent enough but wanting in Prajna;
[As to the rest of us] they are either ignorant or puerile;
They take an empty fist as containing something real, and the pointing finger for the object pointed;
When the finger is adhered to as the moon itself, all their efforts are lost;
They are indeed idle dreamers lost in a world of senses and objects.
48. The Tathagata is interviewed when one enters upon a realm of no-forms,
Such is to be really called a Kwanjizai (Avalokitesvara)
When this is understood, the karma-hindrances are by nature empty;
When not understood, we all pay for the past debts contracted.
49. A royal table is set before the hungry, but they refuse to eat;
If the sick turn away from a good physician, how are they cured?
Practise Zen while in a world of desires, and the genuine power of intuition is manifested;
When the lotus blooms in the midst of a fire, it is never destroyed.
Yuse (Yung-shih) the Bhikshu[1] was an offender in one of the gravest crimes, but when he had an enlightened insight into No-birth
He instantly attained to Buddhahood and is still living in another world.
50. The doctrine of fearlessness is taught as loudly as a lion roars:
What a pity that confused minds inflexibly hardened like leather
Understand only that grave offences are obstructions to Enlightenment,
And are unable to see into the secrets of the Tathagata's teaching.
51. Anciently, there were two Bhikshus, the one committing murder and the other a carnal offence:
Upali's insight was like that of the glowworm, and ended only in tightening the knots of offence;
But when they were instantly enlightened by the wisdom of Vimalakirti,
Their griefs and doubts melted away like the frost and snow before the blazing sun.
52. The power of incomprehensible emancipation
Works wonders as innumerable as the sands of the Ganga and knows no limits;
[To him] the four kinds of offerings are most willingly made,
By him thousands of pieces of gold are disbursed without involving anybody in debts;
The bones may be crushed to powders, the body cut
up to pieces, and yet we cannot repay him enough for what he does for us;
Even a phrase [issuing from him] holds true for hundreds of thousands of kotis of kalpas.
[1. The story of this Bhikshu is told in the Sutra on Cleansing the Karma-hindrances (Ching Yeh-chang Ching).]
53. He is the Dharma-king deserving the highest respect;
The Tathagatas, as many in number as the Ganga-sands, all testify to the truth of his attainment;
I now understand what this mani jewel is,
And know that all those who accept it in faith are in correspondence [with it].
54. As to seeing it, the seeing is clear enough, but no objects are here to be seen,
Not a person here, nor the Buddha;
Chiliocosms numberless are mere bubbles in the ocean,
All the sages and worthies are flashes of lightning.
55. However rapidly revolves the iron-wheel over my head,
The perfect brightness of Dhyana and Prajna in me is never effaced;
The sun may turn cold. and the moon hot;
With all the power of the evil ones the true doctrine remains forever indestructible.
The elephant-carriage steadily climbs up the steepest hill,
Before whose wheels how can the beetle stand?
56. The great elephant does not walk on the hare's lane,
Supreme Enlightenment goes beyond the narrow range of intellection;
Cease from measuring heaven with a tiny piece of reed;
If you have no insight yet, I will have the matter settled for you.
V
BASO (MA-TSU) AND SEKITO (SHIH-T'OU), TWO GREAT MASTERS OF THE T'ANG DYNASTY
Ma-tsu (Baso) whose posthumous title was the Zen Master of Great Quietude (ta-chi) was to be properly called Tao-i (Doichi). His family name was Ma, from the district of Han-chou. His teaching which was originally propagated in the province of Chiang-hsi proved of great influence in the Buddhist world of the time, and he came to be generally known as Ma the Father, that, Ma-tsu.
Historically, Zen Buddhism was introduced to China by an Indian monk called Bodhidharma during the South and North Dynasties, probably late in the fifth century. But it was not until the time of Hui-neng and Shen-hsiu that Bodhidharma was recognized as the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism in China; for this was the time when Zen to be properly so called came to establish itself as one of the strong Buddhist movements created by Chinese religious genius. The movement firmly took root with Ma-tsu (-788) and Shih-t'ou (700-790). The latter had his monastery in the province of Hu-nan, and thus Hu-nan and Chiang-hsi became the hot-bed of the Zen movement. All the followers of Zen in China as well as in Japan at present trace back their lineage to these two masters of the T'ang.
Shih-t'ou (Sekito) whose family name was Chen came from the district of Tuan-chou. His other name was Hsi-ch'ien. While still young, his religious feeling was strongly stirred against a barbarous custom which was practised among the Liao race. The custom consisted in sacrificing bulls in order to appease the wrath of the evil spirits which were worshipped by the people. Shih-t'ou destroyed many such shrines dedicated to the spirits and saved the victims. He probably acted quite decisively and convincingly so that even the elders of his village failed to prevent him from so rashly working against popular superstitions. He later embraced Buddhism, becoming a disciple of Hui-neng. The latter however died before this young man had been formally ordained as a Buddhist monk. He then went to Hsing-ssu (-740), of Chi-chou and studied Zen Buddhism. Hsing-ssu like Nan-yueh Huai-jang who was the teacher of Ma-tsu, was also a disciple of Hui-neng.
Before quoting Ma-tsu, let me acquaint you with some of Shih-t'ou's questions-and-answers (mondo = wen-to) as recorded in the Transmission of the Lamp.
Hsing-ssu one day asked: "Some say that an intelligence comes from the south of the Ling."
T'ou: "There is no such intelligence from anybody."
Ssu: "If not, whence are all those sutras of the Tripitaka?"
T'ou: "They all come out of here, and there is nothing wanting."
Shih-t'ou, "Stone-head", gains his name because of his having a hut over the flat surface of a rock in his monastery grounds in Heng-chou. He once gave the following sermon: "My teaching which has come down from the ancient Buddhas is not dependent on meditation (dhyana) or on diligent application of any kind. When you attain the insight as attained by the Buddha, you realize that Mind is Buddha and Buddha is Mind, that Mind, Buddha, sentient beings, Bodhi (enlightenment), and Klesa (passions) are of one and the same substance while they vary in names. You should know that your own mind-essence is neither subject to annihilation nor eternally subsisting, is neither pure nor defiled, that it remains perfectly undisturbed and self-sufficient and the same with the wise and the ignorant, that it is not limited in its working, and that it is not included in the category of mind (citta), consciousness (manas), or thought (vijnana). The three worlds of desire, form, and no-form, and the six paths of existence are no more than manifestations of your mind itself. They are all like the moon reflected in water or images in the mirror. How can we speak of them as being born or as passing away? When you come to this understanding, you will be furnished with all the things you are in need of."
Tao-wu, one of Shih-t'ou's disciples, then asked: "Who has attained to the understanding of Hui-neng's teaching?"
T'ou: "The one who understands Buddhism."
Wu: "Have you then attained it?"
T'ou: "No, I do not understand Buddhism."
A monk asked: "How does one get emancipated?"
The master said: "Who has ever put you in bondage?"
Monk: "What is the Pure Land?"
Master: "Who has ever defiled you?"
Monk: "What is Nirvana?"
Master: "Who has ever subjected you to birth-and-death?"
Shih-t'ou asked a monk newly arrived: "Where do you come from?"
"From Chiang-hsi."
"Did you see Ma the great teacher?"
"Yes, master."
Shih-t'ou then pointed at a bundle of kindlings and said: "How does Ma the teacher resemble this?"
The monk made no answer. Returning to Ma the teacher, he reported the interview with Shih-t'ou. Ma asked: "Did you notice how large the bundle was?"
"An immensely large one it was."
"You are a very strong man indeed."
"How?" asked the monk.
"Because you have carried that huge bundle from Nan-yueh even up to this monastery. Only a strong man can accomplish such a feat."
A monk asked: "What is the meaning of the First Patriarch's coming from the West?"
Master: "Ask the post over there."
Monk: "I do not understand you."
Master: "I do not either, any more than you."
Ta-tien asked |
_Gage) December 13, 2017
LMAO REP MAXINE COMING IN HOT — Juan Aguas (@JuanAguas) December 13, 2017
Dear Auntie Maxine, please run in 2020!
-America 😩😩 pic.twitter.com/a94pvrXrYV — Jon Pierre (@Mr_Repertoire) December 13, 2017Hello everybody, I hope your New Year has been going as well for you as it is for us!
Everyone here is working around the clock to prep something really great for the upcoming GDC! For those who don’t know, GDC(Game Developers Conference), is the world's largest professional game industry event.
http://www.gdconf.com/
As for Vertical Slice, we are hitting that halfway mark soon, so hopefully we will have some cool new stuff to show you next update.
Art
Here is some updated art on our Cyborg Drone done by the talented Robb Waters!
FAQ
Q: Will System Shock be Mac compatible?
A: Yes. Mac, Linux and PC
Q: Can I upgrade my backer level?
A: Yup, once we have BackerKit wired up and deployed.
Q: Will you be adding PayPal funding?
A: This should be supported through BackerKit.
Job Openings
-Lead Animator
http://www.nightdivestudios.com/careers/
Shout Outs
Pillars Of Eternity II: Deadfire by Obsidian Entertainment
The sequel to one of the highest-rated PC games of all time, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a party-based, isometric role-playing game with a rich narrative, intricate world design, and tactical combat. Pillars II will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms.
You can check them out and help fund here:
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire
See you next time,
(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Karlee Meow~Brobdingnagian Comes From Gulliver's Travels
In Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, Brobdingnag is the name of a land that is populated by a race of human giants "as tall as an ordinary spire steeple." In Gulliver's first close-up encounter with the giants, he is attempting to get past a stile of which every step is six feet high when a group of field-workers approach with strides ten yards long and reaping hooks as large as six scythes. Their voices he at first mistakes for thunder. Swift's book fired the imagination of the public and within two years of the 1726 publication of the story, people had begun using Brobdingnagian to refer to anything of unusually large size. (Swift himself had used Brobdingnagian as a noun to refer to the inhabitants of Brobdingnag.)Hacktivist group Anonymous is inviting people to join their ongoing mission against pedophiles dubbed #OpDeathEaters. The group’s plan is to compile incriminating evidence against international pedophile rings and bring perpetrators to justice.
READ MORE: Journalist Barrett Brown sentenced to 63 months in prison for Anonymous link
“The objective of #OpDeathEaters is an internationally linked, independent, victim-led inquiry,” Anonymous said in a statement. “US federal and state employees are running paedosadist industry. Protected child trafficking rings with cops, judges, lawyers, clergy and government employees are all covering for each other.”
Underneath the veil of authority there is an intertwining world between state figures at all levels and the paedosadist industry. — Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) January 23, 2015
The group has announced plans to create a database that would map established connections between different cases, targeting not only US and UK activities, but also tracking global links.
Now, the latest video released by the group explains how activists can get involved and help with the research.
The group is calling on volunteers to help with the ongoing work, which has been divided into three steps. The first is about collecting “all the factual information,” second is to “share that information as widely as possible,” and the third step is “to set up an independent, internationally linked, inquiry into all the areas which do not appear to have been investigated properly.”
READ MORE: Britain’s Prince Andrew accused of using 'under-age sex slave'
#OperationDeathEaters is happening against the backdrop of high-profile pedophile scandals in the US and in the UK.
A new report by Gawker revealed that flight logbooks place former president Bill Clinton more than a dozen times on the private jet of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. At times, Clinton reportedly flew alongside a woman who prosecutors believe procured underage girls to service Epstein and others.
If you want to help and organize with others for #OpDeathEaters join us here: FB https://t.co/dgpKCMv9Xz … Tumblr http://t.co/Toqy6eGFGk — OpDeathEaters (@OpDeathEaters) January 24, 2015
The news comes amid a scandal that erupted earlier in January over a civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Roberts against Epstein, an American financier, in the US Federal District Court of Southern District of Florida. In the suit, Roberts alleges that Epstein forced her to have sex with prominent people, including Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz, when she was underage.
READ MORE: Bill Clinton’s name found 21 times in rich sex offender’s phone book (VIDEO)
Meanwhile in the UK, Buckingham Palace has continued to defend Prince Andrew, and has refused to publicly explain the extent of the relationship between Andrew and Epstein.
Operation ‘DeathEaters’ comes after the group’s action dubbed #OpCharlieHebdo, when Anonymous declared war on terrorist websites. The hacktivists promised to shut down all extremist accounts on social media in a mission to avenge those killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France.
READ MORE: #OpCharlieHebdo: Anonymous declares war on terrorist websites
In the past, the group has successfully attacked many websites, including government, military, religious, and commercial pages. Anonymous often calls for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, in which particular servers are swarmed and taken off the web with a massive amount of network requests. However, the group is also known for urging a collective action against suspected rapists or pedophiles, such as in the cases of Amanda Todd, Rehtaeh Parsons and Daisy Coleman.With the Iowa caucus on Monday, Salon writers Amanda Marcotte and Andrew O'Hehir are going head-to-head on their picks for the Democratic nomination. Read Andrew O'Hehir's argument for backing Bernie Sanders, and watch them fight it out below in their video debate.
[jwplayer file="http://media.salon.com/2016/01/Salon.Amanda.Andrew.1.28.16_480p_v2.mp4" image="http://media.salon.com/2016/01/AMANDA.ANDREW_STILL_SALON.jpg"][/jwplayer]
Sitting down to craft my explanation of why, going into the primary season, I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, I made a critical mistake. I read the unhinged, downright embarrassing attack on Sanders by the Washington Post's editorial board published Wednesday night. The piece, which is a series of straw man attacks on Sanders' platform (denying that single-payer healthcare is workable, even though it works perfectly well in Canada and the U.K., for instance) and red-baiting that would make Joe McCarthy proud. It made me want to vote Sanders, just to piss them off.
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It's a shame, too, because there's actually a germ of an argument here that the biggest problem with Sanders is that his promise of transformative politics is undermined by his unwillingness, in many cases, to give the public and his followers especially a realistic path to actual change. The problem with his single-payer healthcare plan, for instance, isn't that it's unworkable — he's right that replacing insurance premiums with a generic tax that pays for every person probably would save most Americans money — but that he might as well be promising everyone a pony, for all that this is ever going to happen.
The reality is that Sanders had his best shot at creating single-payer healthcare during his long career in the Senate, where legislation like that is actually written. He had his greatest opportunity in 2009, when Congress was actually writing its healthcare bill. He couldn't do it then, so why on earth should anyone believe he's more capable of getting it done as president, an office that doesn't even write legislation?
Most presidential candidates over-promise, of course, which is something I discussed with my colleague Andrew O'Hehir in our dialogue over this. Clinton does it, too, and you'd be a fool to claim otherwise. But her over-promising is relatively mild, considering most of what she has on offer could be accomplished if she got a Democratic majority in Congress at some point during her presidency, which is far from impossible, albeit improbable. What Sanders is offering — single-payer healthcare, free college at public universities — is never going to happen; not even with a 65 percent Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.
Not that it was wrong of Sanders to run or to offer visions of this socialist future. I agree with Andrew that symbolic politics have an important role to play in politics. By shooting for the moon, he's opened up the frame of what is possible. We won't get single-payer healthcare, for instance, but the popularity of his proposal could embolden Congress at some point to modify the ACA so that more price controls are in play or subsidies are more robust. We aren't getting free college, but now the possibility of tuition price controls is in the air. These things matter.
The problem is that Sanders is actually in this to win it now, and that is where I get off the train. Not that I think he'd be a failure as president — the job is mostly about appointing judges and filling bureaucracies with the right people, all of which I'm sure he is capable of handling — but because Clinton is just better equipped for it.
The presidency is an executive office. Clinton's more pragmatic approach to politics means she's more suited to that work, which is about executing the existing law in ways that best get you closer to liberal goals. The job isn't about passing single-payer healthcare. It's about running the health and human services department. Sanders has failed to persuade me that he really, truly gets the difference, and so I can't, in good conscience, support nominating him over Clinton.
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My other concern about the Sanders campaign is that its focus on impossible goals might backfire. Effecting change is not about making really big promises and posturing about how you're more socialist than thou. It's about organizing, lobbying, working with others and, yes, compromising. It's about running for and winning offices on the local and state level. It's not a top-down thing, but a bottom-up process. I worry that even if Sanders wins the presidency, the cold reality that we're not getting single-payer will disillusion all the people he's got worked up. If he wants a revolution, he might do better actually working with supporters on how to organize and effect change.
That would be a shame, because a lot of liberal activism going on right now is smart about these things. The Black Lives Matter movement, for instance, is the opposite of Sanders socialism in most ways. The activists have concrete, achievable goals. They have strategies that are focused on the nitty-gritty of politics, focused on city and state governments, where real change happens.
The more liberals focus on savior figures and less on learning to save ourselves, like the BLM movement does, the less effective we'll be. Clinton has shown, repeatedly, that she's open to change and pressure from liberal activists to move to the left. We don't want to turn into the Republicans, who are tearing themselves apart right now because the conservative base can't understand why they don't get everything they want just because they screamed loudly for it. Liberals need to refocus our efforts on organizing and lobbying and away from hoping that one dramatic gesture like electing Sanders will save us all.The Pope has criticised US bishops for their handling of sex abuse scandals
A US federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit against the Vatican over claims it covered up decades of child sex abuse by priests can go ahead.
The case was filed by three men from Kentucky who say they were abused by clergy in their childhood.
It centres on a 1962 directive from the Vatican - made public in 2003 - which told church officials not to disclose sex abuse complaints against priests.
The US Roman Catholic Church has been plagued by a string of abuse scandals.
On a visit to the US earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI criticised US bishops for their handling of the child sex abuse crisis, saying their response had sometimes been very poor.
In ruling the Kentucky lawsuit could go ahead, the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier decision by a district judge.
Although the Vatican is largely protected from lawsuits, the court ruled that clergymen could be taken to court as part of their role as Roman Catholic Church employees.We have exactly zero writings of Socrates today, do you believe he existed?
If you take the four Gospels, and consider them as the four different accounts they are, written at four different places, at different times, by different people, then toss in Paul’s letters, and the Acts of the Apostles (written by the author of Luke) you’ll have more documented authors writing about Jesus than you have writing about Socrates.
The common confusion comes from looking at the Bible as one book, rather than as an anthology of 66 different books, which it is.
So, four or five different authors writing about Jesus.
Three authors writing about Socrates.
And not one scrap of paper remains written personally by either Jesus or Socrates. All that exists is oral traditions of each, recorded by others and passed down through time for thousands of years.
Again... Jesus and Socrates... why is one easier to accept than the other?
Your answer may say more about you than it says about Socrates or Jesus.
AdvertisementsWalk in Ain’s New Path! Lofty: Anpassen and Erbluhen Emotion is Here in Time for The Lunar New Year!
Heya adventurers! Guess what we have in store for you tomorrow? Ok, you don’t need to guess, it’s in the title. But aren’t you excited for it? I am! Aside from Ain’s 2nd Path, we also have the Lunar New Year’s Celebration coming in early so get your fireworks ready! And a new map has become available in the Elrios Studio for your character photo shoots. Win/Lose motions are also now in the studio as well. Check out Solace’s Family Garden and the new motions in the studio tomorrow! And last but certainly not the least, we have TONS of stuff coming out at the Item Mall tomorrow. We guarantee that you’ll love all of it!
Ain 2nd Path Event
Ain’s second path has been revealed and tomorrow you can conquer the whole of Elrios with him! But wait, don’t forget to join the event to get epic rewards!
Players who have not received Ain’s Diorama during Ain’s launch will have another chance to get it tomorrow! You can’t be greedy, though. Players who already have Dioramas from Ain’s launch won’t be able to see the timer event anymore.
during Ain’s launch will have another chance to get it tomorrow! You can’t be greedy, though. Players who already have Dioramas from Ain’s launch won’t be able to see the timer event anymore. You will get an El Energy when you log-in for an accumulated time of 10 minutes. The El Energy can be used to craft a new special accessory!
when you log-in for an accumulated time of 10 minutes. The El Energy can be used to craft a new special accessory! If you want to craft that special accessory, you only need to party up with an Erbluhen Emotion three times to get God’s Power. Yes, you can get God’s Power. You don’t even have to party up if you’re an Erbluhen Emotion. You can just solo those dungeons, bruh!
. Yes, you can get God’s Power. You don’t even have to party up if you’re an Erbluhen Emotion. You can just solo those dungeons, bruh! Annnnnd when you change from Ain’s Base Job to Lofty: Anpassen or Erbluhen Emotion, you get a special equipment cube containing +7 items! Praise Ishmael!
Lunar New Year
Enter the dragons, and fireworks, and lucky charms! Celebrate the Lunar New Year in Elrios with eggs and Ruchis!
Level up by one using the Sage’s Scroll you’ll get when you login for 60 minutes!
you’ll get when you login for 60 minutes! Beat up those pesky Golden Ruchis disrupting your dungeon runs and you can get a nifty Lucky Pocket that either gives a stat boost or a helping hand in your run!
disrupting your dungeon runs and you can get a nifty that either gives a stat boost or a helping hand in your run! Free Golden Eggs that replenish 100% of your HP and MP over at Ariel’s! Why? Because we can!
that replenish 100% of your HP and MP over at Ariel’s! Why? Because we can! Log-in for 30 minutes during the second week of the event and you’ll get an adorable Mini Ruchi accessory to accompany you in your travels!
Item Mall Goodies
Travel the dead-cold terrains in style like the nomads of the olden days with the Arctic Travel set. If you don’t like traversing ice terrains for fun, it’s also a suitable attire to get extra toasty during the winter. Get it tomorrow!
You won’t need to go to the universe because with the Celestial Master Ice Burner set the universe is within you or on you… You are the universe! Complete this beautiful set when it comes out tomorrow!
Open your eyes, your eyes are open. Now it’s Ain’s and Rose’s turn. Open their eyes and give them a new set of peepers. Choose from Black Eyes for Rose and Ain, or Cat Eyes for Ain! Available tomorrow!
Are Rose and Ain catwalk ready or battle ready? They can be both! Get Battle Poses and Model Poses for Rose & Ain tomorrow!
After all that posing, why don’t you let Rose & Ain take a much-deserved rest. Let them have a seat on colorful and whimsical crescent moons with Moonlight Dream tomorrow!
That’s all for now folks!
See y'all in-game~Happy Vernal Equinox! For all you earthlings, today’s the day the northern hemisphere FINALLY tips towards the sun, bringing longer days and warmer temps to those of us who reside in the great north woods. Just like the swapping of your wardrobe, we’re giving you a spring refresh for your beer fridge in the form of a tasty and totally crushable Session India Pale Ale we call Prolonged Enjoyment.
Prolonged Enjoyment (3.5% ABV – 45 IBU) is a Session IPA brewed with Amarillo, Simcoe, and Citra hops. The beers abundant aromatics of intense grass, pine, and citrus complement the great malty backbone and balanced bitterness. At 3.5% ABV, this brew is an incredibly sessionable IPA.
Increased face time with Mr. Sun leaves us seeking out our favorite low ABV beer. No need to lunge for a Lager or spring for a Shandy, Prolonged Enjoyment is here to pack a punch with all the flavor of an IPA brewed to session strength. “Unquestionably quaffable for those long days needed to remain upright and refreshed at the same time,” Prolonged Enjoyment is now headed to stores and taps in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Longer days mean time for Prolonged Enjoyment!We have rounded up a list of 30 festivals we want to experience before we are 30! Reckon we will get through it?
30. Winter Light Festival
Where: Kuwana City, Japan
When: October to March
Why: Titled one of the best winter light shows in all of Japan, experience a large landscape turned into a giant light spectacle. With LED light tunnels, light rivers and even a LED sunset of Mt. Fuji.
Website: www.japantravelinfo.com
(source)
29. Snow & Ice Festival
Where: Harbin, China
When: Jan 5 – Feb 5
Why: This is the largest snow and ice festival in the world. It features carved towers and full size buildings made from giant blocks of ice.
Website: www.icefestivalharbin.com
(source)
28. Electric Daisy Carnival
Where: Las Vegas
When: June (dates change each year)
Why: This music festival draws 400,000 people for a gigantic three day electronic music festival. Thats a lot of people!
Website: www.electricdaisycarnival.com
(source)
27. Rio de Janeiro Carnival
Where: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
When: February to March
Why: This world famous festival held before Lent every year is considered one of the biggest carnivals in the world, with 2 million people attending (okay, now thats a lot of people)! The non-stop party is filled with floats, colour, samba music and elaborate costumes.
Website: www.rio-carnival.net
(source)
26. Boryeong Mud Festival
Where: Boryeong, South Korea
When: July
Why: A cosmetics company in South Korea developed a line of products which featured mud from the Boryeong mud flats as the main ingredient. The company didn’t want to spend money on commercials, instead they created the Mud Festival so potential customers could feel the benefits of the special mud firsthand – thus, the Boryeong Mud Festival was born!
Website: www.boryeongmudfestival.com
(source)
25. Chinese New Year
Where: Hong Kong
When: February (date changes each year, according to the Chinese calender)
Why: During the Chinese New Year, millions of people fill the streets of Hong Kong celebrating peace and happiness. They say it is one of the happiest places in the world to be during this time of year. Red clothing is worn to scare evil spirits and colourful dragons roam the streets. It is definitely the most impressive heritage event in the world!
Website: www.discoverhongkong.com
(source)
24. Transahara
Where: Sahara Desert, Morocco
When: 5 days in early April
Why: Who wouldn’t want to say they have partied in the Sahara Desert? Only 1000 tickets are available, so if you enjoy a more intimate setting this is perfect. Music is as much as the focus as art, culture and getting in touch with your mind, body and soul. For a 5 day event, $200 is a pretty good deal if you ask me!
Website: www.nomadstribe.com
(source)
23. Tomorrowland
Where: Boom, Belgium
When: June (dates change each year)
Why: This music festival has grown to become one of the world’s largest electronic dance music festivals. Each year a crazy 100,000 people flock to Belgium to dance the days and nights away!
Website: www.tomorrowland.com
(source)
22. Saint Patrick’s Day Festival
Where: Dublin, Ireland
When: March 17th
Why: Saint Patrick’s Day was originally a celebration of the beginning of Christianity in Ireland but has expanded into a world-wide celebration of Irish culture. And what a better place to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day than in Ireland! There are parades, costumes, music, comedy, film, drinking … and lets not forget leprechauns.
Website: www.stpatricksfestival.ie
(source)
21. Ultra Music Festival
Where: Bayfront Park, Miami
When: March (date changes each year)
Why: This electronic music festival attracts over 300,000 partygoers with tickets selling out in a matter of seconds. As the years have gone by this festival has grown from a 1, 2, 3 day concert … now exploding into a full week of partying!
Website: www.ultramusicfestival.com
(source)
20. The Carnevale
Where: Venice, Italy
When: Late January to early Feburary
Why: In 1162, the Republic of Venice was victorious against an attempted invasion. To celebrate, the people of Venice gathered in San Marco Square. It became a tradition. Once a year everyone was free to do what they pleased without the guilt – thanks to the masks. Still till this day each year Venetians and tourists gather to celebrate, dressed in mask. It feels like a fairy tale that has come to life!
Website: www.carnevale.venezia.it
(source)
19. Splendour in the Grass
Where: New South Wales, Australia
When: July (dates change each year)
Why: Despite the colder weather, this three day festival attracts an international audience. Each year Splendour features an impressive international lineup. Once the festivals over why not head down to the iconic Bondi Beach!
Website: www.splendourinthegrass.com
(source)
18. Bay to Breakers
Where: San Fransisco, California
When: Third Sunday in May
Why: Originally a race to raise San Francisco’s spirits after the 1906 earthquake, Bay to Breakers has evolved into a “race” where 100,000 people dressed in costume (many not so costumed) drink and party. It is the largest mobile party of its kind!
Website: www.baytobreakers.com
(source)
17. Roskilde Festival
Where: Roskilde, Denmark
When: June or early July
Why: This is one of Europe’s largest music festivals, attracting over 100,000 people each year, and includes a naked run for those up for the challenge (why does festivals and nudity always seem to go together).
Website: www.roskilde-festival.dk
(source)
16. Garma Festival
Where: Northern Territory, Australia
When: Late July to early August
Why: Garma is Australia’s most significant Indigenous event. It is a celebration of the Yolngu cultural inheritance. It is aimed at sharing knowledge and culture, opening people’s heart to the message of the land. It also encourages the preservation of the indigenous Australians art and ceremonies.
Website: www.garmafestival.com.au
(source)
15. Day of the Dead
Where: Mexico
When: October 31st to November 2nd
Why: This Mexican holiday involves people getting together to pay tribute and remember friends and family members who have passed away. This holiday dates back hundreds of years to the Aztec festival. A bit of a spooky festival you may want to spend next halloween?
(source)
14. Coachella
Where: Indio, California
When: April (dates change each year)
Why: Each year this music festival boasts the biggest names in music! People don’t go just for the music, many A-Listers show up to enjoy the day also, plus who wouldn’t want to spend the weekend camping in the desert with their friends?
Website: www.coachella.com
(source)
13. Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
Where: New Mexico, USA
When: October
Why: This nine day festival paints the New Mexico skyline with colourful hot air balloons. Over 750 balloons are flown during the festival, making it the largest hot air balloon festival in the world!
Website: www.balloonfiesta.com
(source)
12. Snowbombing
Where: Mayrhofen, Austria
When: April (dates change each year)
Why: Held in a ski resort in Austria, this festival focuses on snowboarding as much as on music. You can party in an igloo village, take a dip in one of the 50 heated pools and saunas whilst admiring the alpine scenery.
Website: www.snowbombing.com
(source)
11. KaZantip
Where: Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine
When: Six weeks through July and August
Why: This festival isn’t your standard 2/3 day event … KaZantip stretches over a whopping 6 weeks throughout the Ukraine summer! Most pop in for a day here and there or a week, but those who feel up to it could attempt to complete the six week challenge. When arriving you are known as a “paradiZer”, the festival declares itself a “virtual republic”, it is held on 60,000 square metres of land and the music is on 21 hours a day, every day! Could you handle it?
Website: www.kazantip-republic.com
(source)
10. Full Moon Party
Where: Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan, Thailand
When: Whenever there is a full moon!
Why: Located at the island’s nightlife capital, this is the ultimate travellers get together. Imagine a crowd of party animals, on a tropical island, mixed in with A-list DJ’s.
Website: www.fullmoonparty-thailand.com
(source)
9. Wanderlust Festival
Where: Squaw Valley, California
When: July (dates changes each year)
Why: Beginning in 2009, the Wanderlust Festival combines yoga, music and food. You are bound to leave this festival beaming with happiness.
Website: www.wanderlust.com/yoga-festivals
(source)
8. Glastonbury Music Festival
Where: Pilton, UK
When: June (dates change each year)
Why: Who would of guessed this classic dairy farm in the middle of nowhere would become home to this mammoth festival known world wide! Tickets sell out in a matter of minutes so you need to get onto this festival fast. You will spend your day listening to bands pumping out amazing music along with many other things to do, such as an oxygen tent.. weird?
Website: www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk
(source)
7. Mardi Gras
Where: New Orleans
When: Tuesday before Ash Wednesday
Why: Along the streets of New Orleans get involved in a crazy party full of masks, costumes and beads… lots and lots of beads! The Mardi Gras’ reputation precedes itself! If you want to party like there’s no tomorrow, Mardi Gras is where it’s at!
Website: www.mardigrasneworleans.com
(source)
6. Oktoberfest
Where: Munich, Germany
When: Late September to the first weekend in October
Why: This 16-day festival gets 6 million people from around the world attending the event each year. The event is all about beer, beer … oh, and did I mention? beer! You will be surrounded by traditional huge jars of frothy goodness while beautifully dressed women serve them to you. In 2013, more than $96,178,668 worth of beer was served every day during the festival!
Website: www.munichsoktoberfest.com
(source)
5. Lantern Festival
Where: Pingxi, Taiwan
When: February (dates change each year)
Why: Imagine witnessing thousands of sky lanterns light up the night sky. There is nothing more surreal than a sky covered with thousands of floating lanterns. These lanterns were originally released to let others known that the town was safe, decorated with wishes and images by the person releasing it.
Website: www.eventaiwan.tw
(source)
4. La Tomatina
Where: Buñol, Spain
When: The last Wednesday in August each year
Why: This festival is held every year … purely for fun! In 1945 a few locals began throwing fruit and veggies during a parade, and La Tomatina was born. Nowadays, participates throw tomatoes at each other and ride down tomato covered slides.
Website: www.latomatina.info
(source)
3. Burning Man
Where: Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA
When: August to September (dates change each year)
Why: Burning Man is where humans go to shed themselves of the conventions of society. 48,000 people attend this annual event in Nevada’s Black Rock desert to create art and express their individuality. It gets its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy, set alight on the Saturday evening. It is claimed that Burning Man needs to be experienced to truly understand how amazing it is. It is described as an experiment in community, art, radical self-expression and self-reliance.
Website: www.burningman.org
(source)
2. Holi Festival
Where: India, Nepal, Sri Lanka
When: March (dates change each year)
Why: Also known as the Festival of Colours, it is an ancient Hindu religious festival. It is held to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring, which I believe is worth celebrating! Anyone is invited and it is fun, safe … and FREE! (just don’t forget your dye)
Website: www.holifestival.com
(source)
1. Holy Ship!
Where: Departs from Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and sails The Caribbean
When: January (dates change each year)
Why: This new festival only began in 2012 and already has a crazy fan base. Who wouldn’t go crazy over the idea of a three day luxury liner cruising the Caribbean, a number of dance music’s biggest names on board spinning the decks and to top it off, a beach party at a private island in the Bahamas! This year Holy Ship! sold out in 28 hours and left a 10,000 people long waitlist – imagine how quickly it will sell out next year!
Website: www.holyship.com
(source)
Which festival would be number 1 on your list?
READ NEXT: 20 ADVENTURES TO DO IN YOUR 20S
[related_posts taxonomy=”category” numberposts=”6″ minimum=”3″ itemsmin=”1″ itemsmax=”3″ image_size=”thumbnail” carousel=”true”]Andrew Bowen (Courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute)
Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Andrew Bowen, like many scholars in Washington, predicted Hillary Clinton would surely win.
Bowen, then a global fellow in the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, wrote a weekly column in Arab News, an English-language outlet based in Saudi Arabia. In his columns before the election, Bowen frequently criticized Donald Trump, denouncing his temper and xenophobic remarks and calling him “a man not often suited to the responsibilities of the presidency.”
Like many others, Bowen was shocked on Nov. 8. But within days, his tone changed, calling for a “new beginning” under President Trump.
Now, months later, Arab News says that Bowen requested that it delete his earlier, pre-election columns, stating he needed “to be cleared” for a possible job with the Trump administration’s State Department.
Arab News initially refused to take down the articles, and fired back — publicly. In an unapologetic post on its website, Arab News announced Tuesday it would be discontinuing Bowen’s column, explaining Bowen’s request and blasting it as “unprofessional journalistically, particularly given that there were no factual errors or libelous comments that require a redaction or correction.”
Bowen’s apparent concern is not without justification. The administration reportedly vetoed veteran GOP foreign policy expert Elliott Abrams as deputy secretary of state because he was critical of Trump before the election, The Washington Post’s Anne Gearan reported.
In the statement, Arab News wrote that Bowen “also insinuated — verbally and in writing — that he will seek the support of influential friends and contacts to help remove the articles.”
At the end of the announcement, Arab News did exactly the opposite of what Bowen requested — it linked to the complete archive of Bowen’s columns for the site.
And it concluded with one final message: “We wish Mr. Bowen the best of luck in his job application.”
But hours after the Arab News statement was published, it was taken down, along with several of Bowen’s columns. Arab News did not respond to calls or emails from The Washington Post, and the reason for the statement’s removal was not immediately clear.
Before the post was taken town, Bowen, now a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, told The Post that he was surprised, “deeply concerned and saddened” by the news outlet’s comments. Bowen, a Republican, said he was told by the media organization that his “concerns” with the columns were being addressed. He refused to clarify to The Post what exactly these concerns entailed. He also declined to comment on what Arab News referred to as a “possible job” with the State Department.
“This was not the most professional way to handle it,” he told The Post regarding the statement from Arab News.
After the announcement was removed from Arab News, Véronique Rodman, director of public affairs at the American Enterprise Institute, called The Post on behalf of Bowen, saying the statement was taken down because it was a “mistake.”
Citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the incident, Foreign Policy reported Tuesday that Bowen contacted Saudi government officials he was close with to exert pressure on the news site to revert it’s statement.
Bowen, whose research and expertise focuses primarily on politics and economics of the Middle East, energy policy and U.S. national security policy, has written for and been interviewed by a number of news outlets, including The Post.
In an Arab News column published Nov. 7, Bowen wrote that Trump had done more than any other presidential candidate in modern U.S. political history to “whip up xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments in the US.”
He wrote that Trump has shown repeatedly a “frank disregard for human decency and civility” and said his speeches and image have been used in recruiting videos for the Islamic State.
Bowen wrote that Trump could serve as a straightforward deal-maker and provide a crucial perspective on how to reboot the U.S. economy and boost innovation in the country. But he said Trump’s “questionable business practices and ethics raise deep questions about the level of public corruption, which could up swell during his term in office.”
In a column published Oct. 31 and titled “Clinton’s moment,” Bowen wrote that Clinton’s “steely pragmatism and vague commitment to ideology will allow her to make the deals to advance her domestic agenda that Obama could never do.”
But then on Nov. 14, in his first column after the election, Bowen wrote:
“As a Republican who expressed deep reservations about some of the policies the president-elect articulated and some of the actions he took on the campaign trail, this election outcome indeed was initially a shock.” I never though was a signer of #NeverTrump letters. Unlike many members of the Republican political and intellectual establishment in Washington who are either going to hold their nose and not work with the new president or those in the Democrat Party who now see opposition to Trump as their now raison |
, Kim put all of her energy into the landscaping business she'd started in 2007 and had a high school friend, Kathy Griner, helping her run it. From there, it's hard to pin down the exact moment when Kim and Jim began their spirals.
The live news conference Irsay held in March 2012 to announce that he was cutting Peyton Manning showed the owner at his peak: earnest, articulate, engaged. But by December of that year, Griner says she would arrive to find the house a mess, with Kim or Jim or both passed out in their clothes.
Kim began taking pictures of Jim in his most inebriated states, lying face down in the furniture with burned-out cigarettes around him, in the hopes of showing him how much he needed help, too. "I saw those pictures," Griner says. "I didn't know what to say."
A gaunt Irsay watches Colts minicamp from the sideline in 2013. Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports
A Clean Break
The moment that spelled the end for Jim and Kim came in the spring of 2013, when she left for yet another rehab retreat in Utah. While she was away, her possessions were moved out of the house on Mill Pond Lane and into a townhouse Jim bought for her nearby using the "2009 Blue Trust," which then put the property under Kim's name.
"Honestly, I was relieved [when I heard it happened]," Chad Boda says. "I thought it would be good for her to get back to a simpler life and not have all the noise and controversy that came with being around someone like Jim."
But Kim was shattered when she returned to find her belongings sitting in bubble wrap. Even though Jim arranged for her to have a $6,000-a-month allowance and occasionally left her stacks of cash in empty fast-food bags, according to several of her friends, her eviction underscored everything she'd felt about being a second-class citizen.
"As far as I know, Kim never got an explanation from Jim," Cohen says. "He never told her, 'I don't love you. It's time to move on.' All she got were a few incoherent phone calls."
A Tragic End
Kim sounds fragile and scratchy on the voice mail. "I can't believe I can even halfway laugh, because it's not going to be funny at all," she says.
Rob Griner, Kathy's husband, is standing in his driveway in Indianapolis when he plays the message on his phone. Like his wife, he went to high school with Kim, and he considers himself a big brother to her. So he didn't hesitate when she called him to bail her out of jail in January of this year.
In the early hours of Jan. 4, Kim had pulled onto I-65 South and started driving in the wrong direction for eight miles, narrowly missing cars and tractor-trailers along the way. Four cops eventually joined in a chase, with two speeding ahead of her to try to block her path. She nearly smashed into the cruisers before finally pulling onto the median. One of the officers described her as "unsteady on her feet" and having eyes that were "glassy looking and watery." With slurred speech, she insisted that she had no idea she was going the wrong way. It was her second impaired driving charge in four months, following an arrest while visiting a relative in Ohio in which the arresting officer had found 18 nonprescribed Vicodin and some crushed Adderall in her car.
On the voice mail, Kim thanks Rob for coming to her rescue. "I just want you to know I love you very much, and, um, and, um, I appreciate your friendship."
The Griners hated to see their friend of 30 years this broken, and they tried to lift her spirits. But there continued to be troubling moments, like when Rob took Kim to a Pacers game and noticed she was having trouble staying awake. In fact, the more he saw her, the more he became concerned about a new friend she'd started hanging around, a struggling 48-year-old waiter named Tony Marshall, who had been convicted of cocaine possession.
In an interview, Marshall says, "I had a drinking problem, and she had a pill problem. We were trying to help each other."
In early February, with the very real prospect of jail hanging over Kim's head in one or both of the impaired driving cases, she and her new companion headed out on a two-week trip to Florida. Marshall calls it a "sabbatical" from their troubles.
The two went to Flagler Beach to see Kim's old friends and surprise Megan Boda just before her 33rd birthday. "She looked healthy," Megan says. "She even made a joke about sobriety."
On Thursday, Feb. 27, as they were driving back to Indiana, Marshall says that Kim confided to him that she was using heroin for the first time since her days in Flagler Beach. He says he was stunned because Kim had been seeing a therapist and because he and she hadn't done more than drink together. "That's how I found out," he says. "That was the beginning of the end of the whole thing."
The next day, Kim seemed resolute when she saw Cohen, who helped her run errands because she no longer had a license. Cohen brought a small gift, a plaque embossed with the phrase: "One day at a time." On Saturday, Marshall says he made plans with Kim to drive her to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting the next day.
But on Sunday, Marshall overslept and missed his appointment. When Kim didn't respond to any of his texts, he drove to her townhouse, let himself in through the garage and looked around the living room. Not seeing any sign of her, he went to the second floor and into the bathroom, where he found her body sitting upright and fully clothed.
The coroner would conclude that she'd died of polysubstance overdose the prior day. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department closed the case after the coroner's office labeled Wundrum's death an accident.
Cases Closed
Early on the afternoon of Friday, March 7, mourners began filtering into Conkle Funeral Home in Speedway, Indiana, to say goodbye to Kim. She was surrounded by lilacs and lilies and, of course, the blue orchids.
One of the mourners who came to say goodbye was a driver who worked for the Irsay family and had grown close to Kim on their countless trips over nearly a decade. He had to leave the service early, but promised to rejoin the group later at a hotel bar. That night, when someone asked him where he'd been, the driver explained that he'd been called away from the service to take Irsay out for the evening.
According to the source who asked the question, the driver said his boss wanted to go to a comedy club with his girlfriend.
Nine days later, at almost midnight, a police officer patrolling near Irsay's home in Carmel spotted his SUV stop and start, then stop and start again in the middle of the road. After the officer pulled him over for turning without signaling, Irsay had trouble finding his driver's license even though it was in plain sight in his open briefcase. The officer reported that the man standing before him was gaunt and his eyes were glassy. He fell backward when asked to touch the tip of a pen and couldn't stay balanced on one foot. "Numerous" bottles of pills were found in the front seat in a laundry bag, as well as $29,000 in the briefcase.
By the next day, Irsay's mug shot had gone viral, igniting questions about how one of the most prominent owners in the NFL could look like he'd just walked off the set of "Breaking Bad."
Initially, the cops charged Irsay with four felony counts of possessing controlled substances and a misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. But prosecutors in Hamilton County dropped the possession counts after reporting that he provided proof of having the drugs legally. Andre Miksha, the county's chief prosecutor, declined to offer specifics on what kind of proof, saying only: "Mr. Irsay's possession of controlled substances did not violate the criminal code. I cannot provide more detail."
In the seven months since Kim Wundrum's death, Irsay hasn't publicly mentioned her name. His only extended comments about his own arrest came in a June interview in The Indianapolis Star with Bob Kravitz. "The disease aspect gets lost when you're talking about alcoholism and addiction," he said. "Even in 2014, there's still this stigma."
On Sept. 2, he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of impaired driving and got a suspended 60-day jail sentence. As he moved hurriedly down a courthouse stairwell, an "Outside the Lines" producer asked Irsay whether he cared to say anything about Kim Wundrum.
"I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head. When the producer asked again, Irsay's lawyer replied, "What about no don't you understand?"
One of his bodyguards later agreed to deliver a note asking for an interview. It went unreturned.
At least in part, that silence might have to do with her family's wishes. Rhonda Wundrum declined several requests for an interview. In an email on Oct. 15, she refused to discuss details, only to characterize information given to the Magazine from multiple sources as "inaccurate." In an email a day earlier, she had said: "Everything I know about Jim is good. He has extended generosities and helped countless people... my sister included. I hope you choose to refrain from trying to hurt a truly good man and let my beautiful sister rest in peace."
But Irsay still might have to answer questions about Kim Wundrum and their drug use. An Indiana judge recently backed a request by Jami Martin's ex-husband, Greg, to have Irsay testify in a custody battle that begins on Jan. 27 about whether he's a negative influence on the Martins' children.
When he returned from his six-game NFL suspension on Oct. 10, Jim Irsay continued to entertain and entice Colts fans, sending out this nonsensical tweet as his first public statement:
"What can I say? I could say something, but nothing IS something; nothing isn't nothing, if I say it; it's something. No things are nothing things."
Irsay kept tweeting, but no explanation ever came.BEREC Guidelines on the Implementation by National Regulators of European Net Neutrality Rules
BEREC Guidelines on the Implementation by National Regulators of European Net Neutrality Rules have been drafted in accordance with Article 5(3) of the Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015. They are designed to provide guidance on the implementation of the obligations of NRAs. Specifically, this includes the obligations to closely monitor and ensure compliance with the rules to safeguard equal and non-discriminatory treatment of traffic in the provision of internet access services and related end-users rights as laid down in Articles 3 and 4. These Guidelines constitute recommendations to NRAs, and NRAs should take utmost account of the Guidelines. The Guidelines should contribute to the consistent application of the Regulation, thereby contributing to regulatory certainty for stakeholders.Sacchi in Allegri dig?
By Football Italia staff
Arrigo Sacchi has seemingly blamed Max Allegri for Paulo Dybala’s poor Juventus form. “Not even Lionel Messi would’ve touched the ball against Napoli.”
Dybala’s failure to score in Juve’s 2-0 win at Olympiacos meant he had gone the entire group stage of the Champions League without a goal, but Sacchi suggested Allegri’s tactics were not getting the best out of the Argentine attacker.
“Forwards must feel motivated and supported because otherwise, they lose rhythm and confidence,” the coaching icon said after the game, reports ItaSportPress.
“Juventus could’ve played with Messi at the San Paolo against Napoli, but not even he would’ve touched the ball.
“It’s not fair because you have to give excitement to the fans. With excitement, you win and convince people. This makes the game more beautiful.”For decades, the U.S. government turned a blind eye to the pirating of intellectual property--and the practice helped some of the country's largest book publishers make their fortunes.
Oxford University Press
I've written a lot lately about the U.S. government's attempt to protect the country's intellectual property against overseas-based online pirates, nowhere more forcefully than in the case of MegaUpload. Last month, the U.S. government indicted Kim DotCom, MegaUpload's founder, on criminal copyright charges. He was arrested in New Zealand and U.S. officials will attempt to bring him to this country to stand trial.
Just so happens that I've also been reading the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning book "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898." The book's authors, Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace, describe the birth of New York's publishing sector in the 1830s and 1840s, and guess what? The U.S. government's relaxed attitude toward copyright at the time gave publishers a big boost.
According to the book, one of the most lucrative revenue streams for U.S. publishers during this period came from churning out unauthorized copies of British books before their rivals could. Authors didn't get a dime, say Burrows and Wallace. But don't feel too bad for the British publishers--they'd done exactly the same to French authors.
From the book:
Some (U.S. publishers) sent agents to England with orders to grab volumes from bookstalls... and ship them west by fast packet. Copy was then rushed from the dock to the composing room, presses run night and day, and books hurried to the stores or hawked in the streets like hot corn.
According to Burrows and Wallace, one of the most successful pirates was the company that eventually became HarperCollins, now owned by News Corp.
It wasn't as if the U.S. government had no copyright laws at the time. The country put copyright protections on the books in 1787. But those only covered U.S. works. The government simply "refused as yet to recognize foreign copyrights," according to the authors of "Gotham."
In January 1842, Charles Dickens visited New York, a city in love with the British author. His stories illustrated the evils of poverty and class divisions and these resonated with a New York population that included large numbers of immigrants who lived in squalor.
Dickens visited this country "partly for sightseeing, partly in a fruitless attempt to promote an international copyright law that would require Americans to pay for the pleasure of reading him," according to "Gotham." How did he fare?
Not well. When he wrote about his New York trip, the piece was promptly pirated by U.S. publishers. The government didn't agree to respect international copyright laws for another 40 years.
There's not much significance to all this other than to show that countries with little intellectual property to protect often have little interest in copyright. This may help explain why the United States is so focused on blocking suspected overseas pirate sites.Absentee ballot at City Hall
An absentee ballot at Kalamazoo City Hall in Kalamazoo, Mich., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. (Bryan Bennett | MLive.com)
(MLive file photo )
PONTIAC, MI - More than 400 absentee ballots went undelivered in Ohio, according to 13abc Action News in Toledo.
Those ballots made it to the sorting center in Pontiac, but did not make it to their final destination. The missing ballots span at least seven counties in Northwest Ohio, 13abc reports. They were sent out by the various county board of elections offices between Oct. 12 and Oct. 14.
Multiple Ohio elected officials have met with postal service representatives, 13abc reports.
While some ballots are back on their way, many others will have to be reissued. Unlike Michigan law, ballots must be postmarked by Monday, Nov. 7, or received in person before polls close to count in Ohio.By Dustin Slaughter
The City of Philadelphia does not want you to know in which neighborhoods the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) is focusing their use of powerful automatic license plate readers (ALPR), nor do they want disclosed the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of this technology, as they continue to fight a Declaration public records request filed in January with MuckRock News.
City officials argue in their response that every metro driver is under investigation, in an effort to exempt so-called criminal investigatory records from release under PA’s Right-to-Know Act:
We appealed the city’s decision last week and await the state’s Office of Open Records (OOR) decision, although because these records are deemed “investigatory”, even if the OOR rules that the city’s denial lacks merit, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office will have the final say, and OOR does not have enforcement powers. That would leave open the possibility of a lawsuit.
The city did see fit to include what they claim is a two week summary of the department’s ALPR usage, although without the raw data we requested, there is no way to verify its accuracy:
The current leg of our investigation seeks a two week glimpse of raw license plate reader data, specifically to determine which neighborhoods the surveillance technology is most prevalently used, as well as its impact on crimes ranging from minor infractions such as outstanding traffic tickets and lapsed insurance, to more serious matters like car thefts and counterterrorism efforts. We also want to determine if PPD is disproportionately targeting with its ALPR program low-income neighborhoods and areas where people of color predominantly reside.
Last year, The Declaration began an investigation of PPD’s use of license plate readers. We learned that the police department has an ALPR fleet consisting of at least ten units that comb city traffic, snapping thousands of plate images per minute, and storing them on a server located inside the Philadelphia Police Department’s fusion center, known as the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center; read our previous reporting to learn more about how plate data is pooled and likely accessed by federal officials at the fusion center.
According to a policy document first obtained by Philly-based journalist Christopher Moraff, the police department retains this plate data for an entire year, regardless of whether drivers are under investigation. Moreover, police store this information indefinitely should plate data be used as part of an investigation.
Legal advocacy organizations including the ACLU of Southern California and Electronic Frontier Foundation are currently fighting a protracted legal battle with the Los Angeles Police Department over that agency’s ALPR records. Last year, the LAPD used a legal argument similar to Philly’s, maintaining that all ALPR scans (whether or not those scans were later used in criminal investigations) are investigatory in nature, and therefore must be withheld from the public. Los Angeles Superior Court agreed with the LAPD. The ACLU and EFF appealed the decision in January and are awaiting an appellate court’s ruling.
EFF had more success with obtaining records from the Oakland Police Department, however. Comparing just eight days of raw data this year to Census statistics, EFF’s analysis found that OPD targeted its ALPR program in neighborhoods with significantly lower per-capita income, and those populated largely by African Americans and Hispanics. EFF also discovered that police “did not use ALPR surveillance in the southeast part of Oakland nearly as much as in the north, west, and central parts of Oakland, even though there seems to be just as much crime.”
While there is no question this technology can be useful in certain instances, such as this 2014 incident involving a ‘road rage’ shooter in Center City, the department’s lengthy data retention period raises significant privacy and Constitutional issues, because of the glimpse it provides into innocent people’s lives, including activities many people assume are not subject to law enforcement scrutiny, such as visits to a doctor’s office, or whose residence we visit – information, according to PPD’s own policy, that police can access with relative ease.
The department launched its ALPR program in or around 2011, according to Newsworks’ reporter Tom MacDonald. Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey told MacDonald he believes ALPRs are a highly effective crime fighting tool:
“I used them when I was in the District of Columbia and the number of arrests for auto theft went up pretty dramatically.”
A 2013 Boston Globe investigation by journalist Shawn Musgrave found a significantly different picture of ALPR use by that city’s police department, however. After the Boston Police Department accidentally released over 68,000 unredacted license plate numbers in response to a records request from Musgrave, an error that raised serious questions about BPD’s ability to responsibly handle sensitive data, the release also revealed repeated failures to follow-up on license plate “hits”.
For example, the Globe reported that a stolen motorcycle “passed license plate scanners a total of 59 times between Oct. 19, 2012, and March 13, 2013. It was often recorded on sequential days or multiple times in a single day, all by the same scanner and almost always within the same half-hour span in the early evening,” but was never stopped by police.
As a result of the Globe‘s reporting, Boston police discontinued its license plate reader program pending review by then-commissioner William Evans. Musgrave this week told The Declaration that two years later, BPD has not resumed the program.
For the latest on our Philly police ALPR reporting and other law enforcement stories, subscribe to us via email and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. You can also check out MuckRock News for updates on our ongoing records request, and other FOIA-based reporting.
If you enjoyed this story, please donate to the Declaration to support more investigative journalism like this.
If you cannot view our donate buttons because of your browser security settings, please donate here.
AdvertisementsThe honors keep pouring in for University of Miami freshman Duke Johnson.
The ACC Rookie of the Year -- according to both the media and coaches -- was named second-team All-America by the Walter Camp Football Foundation Thursday.
He is UM's first major All-America selection since 2005 (Eric Winston, Brandon Meriweather, Kelly Jennings) and was one of only two freshmen named to the Walter Camp team, joining Texas A&M quarterback and Heisman candidate Johnny Manziel.
The Miami Norland product had one of the greatest freshman seasons in UM history, amassing 2,060 all-purpose yards and 13 touchdowns, while breaking Clinton Portis' 13-year-old school freshman rushing record with 947 yards. He ranked nationally with a 33.0 yards per kick return average. His 892 kick return yards were a single-season record and he also tied the school single-season mark with two kick return for touchdowns.* Evidence of serious violations of law and rights in Gaza
* UN rights chief tells Israel to end impunity
(Adds statement from another UN committee on Israel)
GENEVA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - There is significant evidence that Israeli forces violated international law and human rights in their invasion of Gaza between late December and mid-January, the United Nations human rights chief said on Friday.
A report by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay lambasted the "nearly total impunity" for the violations.
The already critical human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) deteriorated further during the war, she said in the report, the first of a series of periodic reports ordered by the U.N. Human Rights Council in January during Israel's "Operation Cast Lead".
The 34-page report is one of two -- together with a forthcoming one by South African jurist Richard Goldstone who has been conducting hearings in Gaza -- that will be presented to the council next month.
"...significant prima facie evidence indicates that serious violations of international humanitarian law as well as gross human rights violations occurred during the military operations of 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, which were compounded by the blockade that the population of Gaza endured in the months prior to Operation Cast Lead and which continues," Pillay said.
Pillay said rights violations included arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial execution, forced eviction and home demolition, settlement expansion and related violence and restrictions on freedom of movement and expression.
"While these violations are of deep concern in their own right, the nearly total impunity that persists for such violations (regardless of the responsible duty bearer) is of grave concern, and constitutes a root cause for their persistence," the former South African high court judge said.
Pillay's recommendations included the following:
-- Israel should lift the blockade of Gaza and restrictions on movement in and out of the West Bank, which amount to illegal collective punishment.
-- Allegations of violations of humanitarian law and human rights during the Gaza war should be investigated by independent bodies, and victims should have the right to reparations.
-- Israel should tackle impunity for violations, and curb its use of the military justice system, which does not meet international standards.
-- Israel should end the illegal expansion of settlements in the occupied territory, halt evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes, and end settler violence.
Unlike rulings of the U.N. Security Council, the findings and recommendations of the Human Rights Council are not binding.
Islamic and African countries, backed by Russia, China, Cuba and Nicaragua, currently have a majority on the 47-member council, which has spent more time on Israel/Palestine than on any other issue since being set up three years ago.
In a separate statement, a U.N. special committee on human rights in the occupied territories said it would report to the U.N. General Assembly on violations of humanitarian law including increasing violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank while Israeli police and troops looked on.
The committee, set up in 1968, was again unable to visit Israel or the occupied territories on its latest 10-day mission this month, but travelled to Egypt, Jordan and Syria to hear testimony. Its members are from Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal. (For Pillay's full report go to here.pdf ) (Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)I had a bit of time to actually do something for fun so I thought of making an After Effects Template for free to share. It’s a logo introduction / transition done in After Effects CS6. Here is what you’ll get:
You can download the free After Effects Templates here:
CS6 or above: Free 2D Logo Intro Template by Motionanddesign.net.
CS5.5: Free 2D Logo Intro Template by Motionanddesign.net(CS 5.5).
You can easily change the colors and shapes as it’s all vector based.
Font: Typograph Pro
Update: Our 2nd and 3rd templates are up, check it out HERE!
I hope you like it! Stay tuned for more in the near future! Thanks and don’t forget to follow us on twitter and facebook! You can also share it with the buttons below.It will not shock readers to hear that quite often legislation on Capitol Hill is not as advertised. When Congress wants to do something particularly objectionable, they tend give it a fine-sounding name. The PATRIOT Act is perhaps the best-known example. The legislation had been drafted well before 9/11 but was going nowhere. Then the 9/11 attacks gave it a new lease on life. Politicians exploited the surge in patriotism following the attack to reintroduce the bill and call it the PATRIOT Act. To oppose it at that time was, by design, to seem unpatriotic.
At the time, 62 Democrats voted against the Act. On the Republican side there were only three no votes: former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), former Rep. Butch Otter (R-ID), and myself.
The abuses of the Constitution in the PATRIOT Act do not need to be fully recounted here, but Presidents Bush and Obama both claimed authority based on it to gut the Fourth Amendment. The PATRIOT Act ushered in the era of warrantless wiretapping, monitoring of our Internet behavior, watering down of probable cause, and much more. After the revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, we know how the NSA viewed constitutional restraints on surveillance of American people during the PATRIOT Act period.
After several re-authorizations of the PATRIOT Act, including some cosmetic reforms, Congress last October unveiled the USA FREEDOM Act. This was advertised as the first wholesale PATRIOT Act Reform bill. In fact, the House version was watered down to the point of meaninglessness and the Senate version was not much better. The final straw was the bill’s extension of key elements of the PATRIOT Act until 2017.
Fortunately, last week the USA FREEDOM Act was blocked from further consideration in the US Senate. The procedural vote was significant and important, but it caused some confusion as well. While some well-meaning pro-privacy groups endorsed the FREEDOM Act as a first step to reform, some anti-liberty neoconservatives opposed the legislation because even its anemic reforms were unacceptable. The truth is, Americans should not accept one more extension of the PATRIOT Act and should not endorse its continued dismemberment of our constitutional liberties. If that means some Senators vote with anti-liberty colleagues to kill the extension, we should still consider it a victory.
As the PATRIOT Act first faced a sunset in 2005, I had this to say in the debate over whether it should be re-authorized:
“When Congress passed the Patriot Act in the emotional aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, a sunset provision was inserted in the bill that causes certain sections to expire at the end of 2005. But this begs the question: If these provisions are critical tools in the fight against terrorism, why revoke them after five years? Conversely, if these provisions violate civil liberties, why is it acceptable to suspend the Constitution for any amount of time?”
Reform is often meant to preserve, not repeal bad legislation. When the public is strongly opposed to a particular policy you will almost never hear politicians say “let’s repeal the law.” It is always a pledge to reform the policy or law. The USA FREEDOM Act was no different.
With the failure of the FREEDOM Act to move ahead in the Senate last week, several of the most egregious sections of the PATRIOT Act are set to sunset next June absent a new authorization. Congress will no doubt be under great pressure to extend these measures. We must do our very best to make sure they are unsuccessful!
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
Read more by Ron PaulThis question already has an answer here: Is static typing worth the trade-offs? 20 answers
So, we've got a guy who likes to write methods that take Objects as parameters, so they can be'very flexible.' Then, internally, he either does direct casting, reflection or method overloading to handle the different types.
I feel like this is a bad practice, but I can't explain exactly why, except that it makes it more difficult to read. Are there other more concrete reasons why this would be a bad practice? What would those be?
So, some folks have asked for an example. He has an interface defined, something like:
public void construct(Object input, Object output);
And he plans to use these by putting several in a list, so it sort of builds bits and adds them to the output object, like so:
for (ConstructingThing thing : constructingThings) thing.construct(input, output); return output;
Then, in the thing that implements construct, there is a rickety reflection thing that finds the right method that matches the input/output and calls it, passing input/output.
I keep telling him, it works, I understand it works, but so does putting everything into a single class. We're talking about reuse and maintainability, and I think he's actually constraining himself and has less reuse than he thinks. The maintainability, while probably high for him right now, will likely be very low for him and anyone else in the future.Regions of the ocean where the abundance of phytoplankton is low and fairly constant despite the availability of macronutrients
High-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions are regions of the ocean where the abundance of phytoplankton is low and fairly constant despite the availability of macronutrients. Phytoplankton rely on a suite of nutrients for cellular function. Macronutrients (e.g., nitrate, phosphate, silicic acid) are generally available in higher quantities in surface ocean waters, and are the typical components of common garden fertilizers. Micronutrients (e.g., iron, zinc, cobalt) are generally available in lower quantities and include trace metals. Macronutrients are typically available in millimolar concentrations, while micronutrients are generally available in micro- to nanomolar concentrations. In general, nitrogen tends to be a limiting ocean nutrient, but in HNLC regions it is never significantly depleted.[1][2] Instead, these regions tend to be limited by low concentrations of metabolizable iron.[1] Iron is a critical phytoplankton micronutrient necessary for enzyme catalysis and electron transport.[3][4]
Between the 1930s and '80s, it was hypothesized that iron is a limiting ocean micronutrient, but there were not sufficient methods to reliably detect iron in seawater to confirm this hypothesis.[5] In 1989, high concentrations of iron-rich sediments in nearshore coastal waters off the Gulf of Alaska were detected.[6] However, offshore waters had lower iron concentrations and lower productivity despite macronutrient availability for phytoplankton growth.[6] This pattern was observed in other oceanic regions and led to the naming of three major HNLC zones: the North Pacific Ocean, the Equatorial Pacific Ocean, and the Southern Ocean.[1][2]
The discovery of HNLC regions has fostered scientific debate about the ethics and efficacy of iron fertilization experiments which attempt to draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide by stimulating surface-level photosynthesis. It has also led to the development of hypotheses such as grazing control which poses that HNLC regions are formed, in part, from the grazing of phytoplankton (e.g. dinoflagellates, ciliates) by smaller organisms (e.g. protists).
Primary production [ edit ]
Global distribution of surface chlorophyll levels. Chlorophyll (a proxy for phytoplankton mass) is relatively low in the three HNLC regions (North Pacific, Equatorial Pacific, and Southern Ocean).
Global nitrogen to phosphorus ratio is plotted for the global surface ocean. Nutrients are available in the three HNLC regions in sufficient RKR Ratios for biological activity.
Primary production is the process by which autotrophs use light to convert carbon from aqueous carbon dioxide to sugar for cellular growth.[7] Light catalyzes the photosynthetic process and nutrients are incorporated into organic material. For photosynthesis to occur, macronutrients such as nitrate and phosphate must be available in sufficient ratios and bioavailable forms for biological utilization. The molecular ratio of 106(Carbon):16(Nitrogen):1(Phosphorus) was discovered by Redfield, Ketcham, and Richards (RKR) and is known as the Redfield Ratio.[8] Photosynthesis (forward) and respiration (reverse) is represented by the equation:
106 CO 2 + 16 HNO 3 + H 3 PO 4 + 122 H 2 O ↽ − − ⇀ ( CH 2 O ) 106 ( NH 3 ) 16 ( H 3 PO 4 ) + 136 O 2 {\displaystyle {\ce {{106CO2}+ {16HNO3}+ {H3PO4}+ {122H2O}<=> {(CH2O)106(NH3)16(H3PO4)}+ {136O2}}}} [9]
Photosynthesis can be limited by deficiencies of certain macronutrients. However, in the North Pacific, the Equatorial Pacific, and the Southern Ocean macronutrients are found in sufficient ratios, quantities and bioavailable forms to support greater levels of primary production than found. Macronutrient availability in HNLC regions in tandem with low standing stocks of phytoplankton suggests that some other biogeochemical process limits phytoplankton growth.[7]
Since primary production and phytoplankton biomass cannot currently be measured over entire ocean basins, scientists use chlorophyll α as a proxy for primary production. Modern satellite observations monitor and track global chlorophyll α abundances in the ocean via remote sensing. Higher chlorophyll concentrations generally indicate areas of enhanced primary production, and conversely lower chlorophyll levels indicate low primary production. This co-occurrence of low chlorophyll and high macronutrient availability is why these regions are deemed "high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll."
In addition to the macronutrients needed for organic matter synthesis, phytoplankton need micronutrients such as trace metals for cellular functions.[7] Micronutrient availability can constrain primary production because trace metals are sometimes limiting nutrients. Iron has been determined to be a primary limiting micronutrient in HNLC provinces.[5] Recent studies have indicated that zinc and cobalt may be secondary and/or co-limiting micronutrients.[10][11]
Global distribution [ edit ]
Common characteristics [ edit ]
HNLC regions cover 20% of the world’s oceans and are characterized by varying physical, chemical, and biological patterns. These surface waters have annually varying, yet relatively abundant macronutrient concentrations compared to other oceanic provinces.[5] While HNLC broadly describes the biogeochemical trends of these large ocean regions, all three zones experience seasonal phytoplankton blooms in response to global atmospheric patterns. On average, HNLC regions tend to be growth-limited by iron and variably, zinc.[11][12] This trace metal limitation leads to communities of smaller sized phytoplankton. Compared to more productive regions of the ocean, HNLC zones have higher ratios of silicic acid to nitrate because larger diatoms, that require silicic acid to make their opal silica shells, are less prevalent.[10][11][12] Unlike the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific, the Equatorial Pacific experiences temporal silicate availability which leads to large seasonal diatom blooms.[13][14]
The distribution of trace metals and relative abundance of macronutrients are reflected in the plankton community structure. For example, the selection of phytoplankton with a high surface area to volume ratio results in HNLC regions being dominated by nano- and picoplankton. This ratio allows for optimal utilization of available dissolved nutrients. Larger phytoplankton, such as diatoms, cannot energetically sustain themselves in these regions. Common picoplankton within these regions include genera such as prochlorococcus (not generally found in the North Pacific), synechococcus, and various eukaryotes. Grazing protists likely control the abundance and distribution of these small phytoplankton.[15][16]
The generally lower net primary production in HN |
got to take her to Emergency,' and I would be like, 'Yes, she's unwell but we're not going to Emergency.'"
This followed an anxious pregnancy where Paul had been constantly having to calm things down.
As the panic became a pattern, it did cause friction.
"Dealing with someone who is in a panicky state is difficult. I would see it as overreacting and say, 'Would you not do that?' and we'd end up having a squabble about it.
"It throws back on me," Paul says. "I'd think, 'Wait a minute am I being too blasé about this? Am I being an uncaring father? Is my judgment right?'"
Asked if anxiety and depression limit their life together these days, the couple answers simultaneously.
"No," Xenia says — at the same moment her husband answers the opposite.
"I'd say it does," he repeats.
"There's times where it's a beautiful day and you want to go for a bike ride and it just doesn't happen because she doesn't have the motivation or she's just feeling flat," Paul explains.
"It used to make me angry but now I accept I can't change that."
He says the depression is worse than the anxiety.
"For me depression is the bigger issue because that's the one that affects the family and me more.
"She just crashes."
Missing ingredient and a blind rage
The family remembers one occasion when Xenia was in the kitchen prepping for a meal with friends, and lost it.
"It's not just the normal 'get anxious because the mussels aren't opening properly'. This was blind rage, white-hot anger."
Paul and his 13-year-old daughter were quick to volunteer to go to the supermarket for a missing ingredient.
"We were driving around looking for something that was open on a public holiday. I remember my daughter saying, 'I'm sure there's one on the other side of the city we could go to.' Neither of us were in a hurry to get home.
"Combined with two daughters going through puberty, I do have those moments of fantasising about picking up the passport and just disappearing overseas."
A sense of humour goes a long way.
It can be lonely loving someone who's wrestling with anxiety and depression.
"At times it can create quite a chaos inside my head," says Xenia. "It takes a lot of energy to ensure it's not noticeable. It's like you have a constant radar where you're monitoring yourself, the situation, other people. I have to do what I need to do then withdraw."
"All your sensitivities are heightened. It's mentally and physically exhausting. I need a lot of solo time to let it settle and just unwind."
The bouts of depression are cyclical, swinging around every few weeks.
"I think Paul feels very alienated and shut out sometimes because I will shut down.
"Yeah I do," admits Paul. It would be worse if he wasn't himself an introvert.
"Luckily I like being on my own but there are times when it's difficult and you just think, 'Well, I hope we reconnect again soon because there's stuff I want to talk about.'"
Warning signs
Paul has become finely attuned to how his wife is tracking, mood-wise.
"It makes a huge difference to me that Paul is able to say, 'I'm worried and I can see that you may be going down an unhealthy path."
There are warning signs, often noticed by Paul before Xenia.
If she stops going to the gym.
If she stops riding her bike.
If she's sleeping more.
If she's spending increasing amounts of time on social media.
"I don't know what's going on (with the correlation to Facebook et cetera) but it seems to be a sign that she's not happy in her own self or mind."
What's happening when she withdraws or becomes absorbed in social media, Xenia says, is fear. Overwhelming and consuming fear. Of not being good enough, of not being perfect.
Scenarios of life-yet-to-happen will have her awake at 4am, mulling over things that have happened or something coming up. Panic sets in, then inertia. A predictable array of behaviours play out.
"During bouts of extreme anxiety I may appear disorganised or disinterested or disconnected and yet I have rehearsed and ruminated for days.
Some things you just have to live with. Adapt.
At her daughters' basketball games you will find Xenia perched in the far reaches of the grandstand.
"I remove myself and watch on my own up in the corner. The kids thought it made me stand out."
"They said, 'Mum it makes you look like a loser loner,' and I had to talk to them and explain that that was the only way I was able to go.
"Otherwise I do start to have panic attacks and it becomes quite debilitating.
"It's not me sitting down with the kids and saying, 'I have anxiety.' It's saying, 'This is me,'"
"Oh, have you got a mental health diagnosis?" Paul asks, in mock surprise.
"You know I do…"
But he's making a serious point.
"I don't think of Xen's mental state as mental illness. I just think, 'What mood's she in today?' That's the way the kids are too. They'll just say, 'Mum's like this,' and I'll say, 'Yeah, she is.' Just like people have headaches from time to time.
"I think we see a high divorce rate and a high turnover in relationships because people are looking for a fantasy and if it doesn't work out they swipe left. I don't think that's a great thing.
"Everyone has a right to be who they are. If anxiety or depression is part of who they are then they've still got that right.
"The only time you've got concerns is when it becomes pathological, and then you need to support them in that."
The fact that Paul works in public health and is regularly exposed to people who're unwell has given him perspective. At one stage he was every day seeing cancer patients who were in the midst of chemo.
"A lot of people go through a lot of stuff and this (anxiety) is just another thing you have to deal with."
Stigma, still
But what about Paul? Where does he go for support?
Mostly, he turns inward, embracing meditation and mindfulness and making his own self care a priority.
He did see a psychologist a few years back.
The help wasn't offered. He had to seek it.
"Whenever there's a traumatic event, counselling is offered. I don't know if that's the case when people are supporting people with mental illness and whether stuff is offered early enough," he says.
"It'd be easier to say my partner's been diagnosed with cancer or been injured in a car accident. It fits in a nice box.
"When you say, 'My partner suffers from anxiety or depression,' it's, 'Oh. What's wrong with her then?' They don't understand what that means."
Not so long ago Xenia went through a particularly rough period and 'came out' to her friends as an anxiety sufferer. That's what it was like. A confession.
Xenia found that once she told her friends what she was going through, others disclosed their own struggles with mental health.
"We're all high functioning professionals yet internally we're dealing with this," says Xenia. "But stigma's going to keep us quiet."
A few years ago she was hospitalised.
"You go into a general hospital ward, there are flowers and GET WELL cards everywhere. If I was sick in that way, people would say to Paul, 'Can I come around and cook you meals or help with the kids?' But because I was in a psychiatric hospital, no one quite knew what the protocols were. People might quietly whisper to you that they're going through the same thing. But they don't want to say it out loud."
It hadn't really occurred to Paul before this moment, the stigma.
But here he sits, hesitating to reveal aspects of his wife's experience.
"It brings home to me the awareness that the stigma is there. However much we try to intellectualise it, it's still a thing."
The stigma is probably worse than the symptoms, says Xenia.
It's why she's trying to be as honest as possible, though it's personal.
"If we said no to this interview, we'd be buying into that stigma."
Paul believes mental health struggles are more widespread than is acknowledged.
"They say one in four people will have a mental illness in their lifetime, in terms of coming up against a diagnosis.
"I'm not a big fan of the notion that 75 per cent of people are 100 per cent hunky dory.
"I'd say everybody has to deal with mental health issues.
"The same way we have to look to stay fit and eat healthy, we have to work on our mental health.
"Everyone's got stuff going on that can make for good or make for ill. It's just about being kind. Just take a minute to see where other people are at."
That kind of acceptance makes a huge difference to Xenia, who never has to feel defined by her anxiety and depression.
"Paul recognises it's a part of me. It's not who I am, it's just a part of who I am.
"The kids just think, 'Oh, that's Mum.'"
Thanks to the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council for making this story possible.
Topics: mental-health, health, family, family-and-children, community-and-society, diseases-and-disorders, depression, anxiety, psychosis, melbourne-3000, vic
First postedBy golly, this past week felt a little like fall! When I stepped outside this morning, I was greeted by cool air—I almost needed a light jacket! As I was making this soup, a hard rain danced against the windows, and outside, wind whipped through tops of the palm trees. There was no doubt that we were experiencing soup weather.
For whatever reason, I’m obsessed with orange soup. I often make carrot soup and butternut squash soup whenever I’m seeking a little comfort from my food. This vegan sweet potato leek soup is no different! Creamy but not too heavy, it makes for a perfect, slow lunch on a rainy afternoon.
Vegan Sweet Potato Leek Soup
Ingredients:
1 tbsp., 1tsp. coconut oil (divided)
3 leeks
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1” knob of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1” knob of fresh turmeric, peeled and minced
3 large sweet potatoes
2 cups vegetable broth
3 cups coconut milk
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
1 green onion, thinly sliced
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Warm 1 tbsp. coconut oil in a large pot. Remove ends and dark green portion of leeks. Rinse each layer well. Roughly chop leeks and add to pot. Sauté for about 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic, ginger, and turmeric. Stir for one minute.
3. Wash and slice sweet potatoes into small cubes. Add to the pot, followed by vegetable broth and coconut milk. Reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender. Set aside and allow to cool before blending.
4. In a small pan, warm 1 tsp. coconut oil at medium-low heat. Toss pumpkin seeds in oil. Stir occasionally and remove from heat after 10 minutes.
5. Once soup is blended and served into bowl, garnish with green onion and toasted pumpkin seeds.
More fall recipes: Gluten Free Vegan Gumbo
Orange Cinnamon Quinoa Porridge with Caramelized Figs
Photos: Mary HoodMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption CCTV shows the shopkeeper threatening the robber with his broom
A jeweller who fended off a knifeman with a broom in east London acted with "great courage", police have said.
The shopkeeper was working in Harrolds Discount Jewellers, in Dagenham, when a man grabbed a female saleswoman and held a knife to her throat.
The shopkeeper freed her and avoided the attacker's knife before threatening him with his broom.
Officers have appealed for witnesses to the attack, which happened on 21 October.
CCTV images of the dramatic incident have been released by the Metropolitan Police.
Det Ch Insp Ian Corner, who is leading the investigation, said: "This was a violent attack which left the shop workers extremely shaken.
"They acted with great courage to fight off the suspect and were lucky to have avoided being seriously injured.
"We need help from the public to trace this individual before he attempts to target someone else."
The suspect fled across the road and into the shopping centre along Dagenham Heathway.
He is white and of stocky build with a shaved head.STANTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Dozens of arrest warrants were served Friday during a roundup that targeted people police say were selling a variety of drugs including pills, meth, and heroin.
Kentucky State Police, US Marshals, Powell County Sheriff's deputies, Stanton Police, and Clay City Police were working together to serve the warrants. Police say they used informants in each of the cases and their evidence is solid.
"It's pretty evident what happened when its on video," said Detective Ernie Dudleson with the Powell County Sheriff's Department.
Judge Frank Fletcher came into the the county and had a special court session just to handle the arraignments of the more than 30 people they were able to arrest by the afternoon.
"This eliminates a huge transport problem for us," Dudleson said. "Otherwise we'd have to bring fifty people or so back to the courthouse."
Those not arrested today will be targeted in the coming weeks. Dudleson says his department sees the effects of these drugs daily.
"It's become such a problem it's unreal, when you take those things you just become a zombie."
Because the Powell County Jail didn't have room to house the people arrested, most of them were taken to Three Forks Regional Jail in Beattyville.INBREEDING IN HUMANS
Eugene Ochap
Genetics 535
3-22-04
Inbreeding is simply defined as the mating of relatives. It is a mating system in which individuals carry alleles that originated from a common ancestor. Inbreeding is considered a problem in humans because inbreeding increases the chances of receiving a deleterious recessive allele inherited from a common ancestor. When discussing inbreeding, the level at which is taking place becomes important. Most studies are concerned with close inbreeding, also known as incest, which usually sets a threshold at the level of first-cousin mating (Thornhill 1993).
When discussing inbreeding, one of the most important values to be concerned with is the inbreeding coefficient. The inbreeding coefficient represents the probability that an offspring will receive a gene from each parent that is a copy of a single shared ancestral gene. The inbreeding coefficient is zero if the parents do not share a common ancestor, and if the inbreeding coefficient is one than the offspring has a 100% chance of receiving two copies of the ancestral gene. However, this maximum inbreeding coefficient of one cannot be achieved in human populations ( Dorsten 1999).
In western civilization consanguineous marriages and human inbreeding have been frowned upon by society for some time now. In fact, statutes passed in the 19th and early 20th centuries made inbreeding and marriages to the first cousin level illegal in the majority of the United States. The earliest recorded study of inbreeding and its effects on human health was reported by Bemiss in 1858. Charles Darwin became very interested and upset at this idea that children of consanguineous marriages could be biologically disadvantaged. These uneasy feelings towards these new reports were due to the fact that Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgewood, and the two gave birth to ten children (Bittles 1991). In 1970, Darwin continued his opposition to this issue by stating
"… In England and many parts of Europe the marriages of cousins are objected to from their supposed injurious consequences: but this belief rests on no direct evidence. It is there manifestly desirable that the belief should be either proven false, or should be confirmed, so that in this latter case the marriages of cousins might be discouraged…" (Hedrick 1991).
Darwin then attempted to provide evidence to support his point of view. In 1871, Darwin attempted to get questions concerning numbers and effects of cousin marriages included in the census of Great Britain and Ireland. The request for the inclusion of these questions into the census was declined, but Darwin's son George came up with a new approach to studying inbreeding in humans. He came up with an approach, which is still used in some studies today, known as martial isonomy that uses surnames to estimate numbers of consanguineous marriages. To look at the physical effects of inbreeding, George Darwin examined the incidence of first cousin progeny among oarsmen on the teams at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Although, these historical studies provided little information concerning the incidence of inbreeding and its effects on humans, they did pave the way for some more important future studies (Bittles 1991).
REASONS A POPULATION WOULD PRACTICE INBREEDING
Due to concerns surrounding inbreeding and its effects, levels of inbreeding dropped as low as 0.5% in the 1990s at the first cousin level in the general populations North America and Western Europe, and the levels were even lower in Japan. Even though inbreeding levels have decreased in western civilizations, many studies have shown that in many other large societies consanguineous marriages still predominate. In fact, in many large populations of Asia and Africa twenty to fifty percent of all unions are that of consanguineous marriages (Bittles 1991). There are several circumstances that would give a population a reason to practice inbreeding at a large scale. Some of these reasons for practicing inbreeding include royalty, religion and culture, socioeconomic class, and geographic isolation and small populations.
Religion and culture can play a large role in the amount of inbreeding that takes place in a population. In many Muslim and Hindu societies in Africa, Asia, and India, consanguious marriages, especially unions of first cousins, account for twenty to fifty-five percent of the total. These religions tend to inbreed because of religious acceptance, preference, and tradition. Moreover, the culture of these societies also plays a large role into increased levels of inbreeding. Consanguineous marriages are thought to be an advantage when considering compatibility of the bride and her husband's family. This is particularly important when discussing the bride's relationship with her mother-in-law and the up-keep of the family's property. Another incentive to close relative marriages concerns bride wealth and dowry. Consanguineous marriages can lead to greatly reduced or no payments at all in unions of this culture. This allows small landowning families to keep their property and land (Bittles 1991).
Other groups that are associated with inbreeding because of religion and culture are the small Anabaptist populations in North America. These groups include the Amish, the Mennonites, and the Hutterites. These groups settled in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries in search of religious freedom. These populations have shown increases in consanguineous marriages over time, and the high was reached in the 1950's when some groups reached levels of consanguineous marriages as high as 85%. The reason for the high levels of inbreeding is not only due to religion; it can also be attributed to the small isolated farming communities in which these populations find themselves. These factors of religion and small communal societies lead to limited choices when searching for possible mates (Agarwala 2001).
Geographic isolation and population size play a large role in many populations when concerning levels of inbreeding and genetic barriers. Migration rates can also play a large role in inbreeding levels. Furthermore, as the number of generations since the isolated population was founded increases so should the inbreeding levels. Several of these factors were seen in studies in small communities and countries located and isolated in European mountain ranges. One such population study was performed in the country of Andora. Andora is on of the smallest countries in Europe, and it is very isolated by being surrounded by very high mountains in the Central Pyrenees. It was traditionally a small agricultural and cattle farming country that had a population between 4,000 and 6,000. This was an ideal model for high inbreeding levels, but changes in the economy has caused a decline in these levels over the past fifty years. The economy of Andora has grown to include areas of tourism and trade, and immigration has increased to Andora partially due to the absence of taxes and beautiful scenery. The population has grown to approximately 46,000 people, which itself can cause a decline in inbreeding levels because it increases the number of mates to choose from and brings new views and ideas to the population (Gonzalez-Martin 2002). Another isolated population study that has seen a decrease in consanguinity levels is located in the Gredos Mountain Range in Spain. The inbreeding levels decreased over time, and it was thought to be due to industrialization, greater population movement, a decrease in family size, and an increase in literacy rates. These studies show that inbreeding levels can depend largely on geographic, demographic, social, and economic factors (Fuster 2001). Furthermore, numerous other studies have shown that socioeconomic status can have a large impact on the level of inbreeding. In many cases the poorest and least educated members of a community tend to have the highest inbreeding levels in a population.(Bittles 1991).
Inbreeding has also been seen to occur frequently in many royal families' histories. Royal incest was commonly found in Ancient Egyptian, Incan, Hawaiian, and many European royal families. Brother-sister unions become more frequent when royalty is the major factor concerning the incidence of inbreeding. There are several factors that can explain why royalty leads to high levels of inbreeding. One factor is that the king has limitless power in many cultures, and he can do what he wants and marry who he wants. Also, in many cases inbreeding is practiced in royal families to preserve royal blood lines. Another explanation is that a royal family can keep land, material possessions and resources within the family. Moreover, brother-sister royal incest allows succession of the throne to both a male and female blood line. There are also cases in which royal incest is part of a culture and is sometimes linked to legends or myths. One of the best documented cases of this was seen in the Incan culture in the 16th century. The Incan king was to marry his full sister. This was done to emulate the king's mythical ancestor, the Sun, who married his sister, the Moon, and this was thought to preserve the purity of the divine royal blood line (Van Den Berghe 1980).
Royalty also uses inbreeding to try to maximize fitness. One of the royal strategies to maximize fitness by using inbreeding to put as close to a genetic clone as possible on the throne as the heir. Moreover, females tend to maximize fitness by picking the best possible mate, which in this case would mean marrying to a higher social class. This leads to women with the highest-status in a population to being the most inbred in this type of society (Van Den Berghe 1980).
EFFECTS OF INBREEDING
The negative health effects caused by inbreeding are due to the expression of rare, recessive deleterious genes that are inherited from common ancestors or a single shared ancestor. Studies on population in which inbreeding is common have shown increased levels of mortality and morbidity due to a variety of genetic defects. However, inbreeding can also result in the production of perfectly healthy offspring (Bittles 1991).
Study of European Royal Families
Inbreeding was very common among the royal families of Europe, and it has been linked as the cause of the widespread number of cases of hemophilia in the families. The presence of hemophilia in the royalty of Europe started with Queen Victoria of England. Victoria is thought to be the original carrier for the recessive X-linked hemophilia gene, which lead to over twenty members of royal families inheriting the disease in just over 100 years. The disease was spread throughout Europe, because Queen Victoria's children and grandchildren married into many different royal houses in Europe to create political alliances. Females can only been carriers for the rare blood clotting disease if one of there X chromosomes contains the deleterious recessive allele. Moreover, males inherit the disease if there X chromosome carries the gene for hemophilia.
Hemophilia spreads rapidly through the British royal house for several generations, and inbreeding in the family was seen as a major cause of the deleterious recessive allele's frequently through the lines of British royalty. Moreover, the disease was also spread into the royal houses of Russia and Spain by descendants of Queen Victoria. Victoria gave birth to three children with the hemophilia allele; Leopold, Alice, and Beatrice. Alice then gave birth to two female carriers and one male hemophiliac. One of the carrier daughters was Alexandra, also known as Alix. Alix was married to Nicholas the Czar of Russia in 1894. Alix then had tremendous pressure on her to produce a male heir. She finally gave birth to a male, Alexis, but he had hemophilia. This lead to political unrest in Russia, and the royal family was executed by a firing squad during the Russian Revolution.
Hemophilia was also spread into the Spanish royal family when Victoria Eugenie, a hemophilia carrier and daughter of Beatrice, married Alfonso XIII, the king of Spain. The marriage was arranged to try to bring Spain and England closer together. This attempt did not work when Beatrice gave birth to two sons with hemophilia. This event led to increase anti-British feeling in Spain, because many believed that the Spanish monarchy's blood line was polluted by this British Princess.
The events in Russia and Spain along with an increase in British hemophiliacs led to political unrest and instability. Many people believe these cases of inbreeding and hemophilia to be a contributing cause to World War I. Moreover, a mystery surrounds the originator of the hemophilia gene in England. No ancestor of Queen Victoria showed any evidence of hemophilia, so several theories arose on the gene's origin. One theory is that Victoria was the victim of a mutation that could have been due to years of inbreeding in British royalty. Another interesting theory is that Victoria's mother had an affair because of the intense pressure of producing an heir, and the Edward Duke of Kent was not Victoria's biological father (Stevens 1991).
Study on Japanese Children after WWII
Shortly after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in World War II there was an increase in the number of consanguineous marriages in the areas surrounding Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The most common union was seen to be inbreeding at the first-cousin level. The study was set up to study some of the possible effects of inbreeding. The five effects of inbreeding looked at in this study was: the fertility of the marriages, the mortality of the offspring, the morbidity of the offspring, the reproductive performance of the offspring, and the characteristics of the offspring.
In the study it was seen that inbreeding did not have an adverse effect on the fertility of the marriages, but there were some significant increases seen on childhood mortality in the first year of life. Inbreeding also increased morbidity in the study. There were significant increases in levels of handicapped offspring associated with inbreeding. Inbreeding was associated with a 37.5% increase in offspring with one or two major handicaps, while it also caused a 24.1% increase in offspring with one or two minor defects. Moreover, inbreeding caused an increase of 31.7% in hearing impairments. Development also seemed to be affected by inbreeding. Children of consanguineous marriages were significantly older than the control group when they first walked and talked.
The study did not only show harmful effects of inbreeding in Japan. School performance, which is a vital part for betterment in their culture, showed no significant change with inbreeding. In fact, intelligence seemed to be more influenced by socioeconomic class. Furthermore, inbreeding also seemed to be beneficial when examining some aspects of health. Offspring from the inbreeding group showed a 14.3% decrease in allergies and a 23.9% decrease in nephritis, a rare genetic disorder that causes inflammation of the kidneys (Schull 1965).
Study on an Amish Settlement
The Old Order Amish tend to have high levels of inbreeding, because they are a highly traditional agricultural and religious group that is very isolated from outside populations. These high levels of inbreeding are seen in a settlement in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Moreover, this group is a good study group because they come from similar backgrounds and socioeconomic class. They also keep very detailed genealogical records. These records date back to the 1700s and show a family history for up to twelve generations.
Inbreeding in the Lancaster settlement is thought to be a major cause of infant mortality due to genetic defects. One of these deleterious recessive genetic disorders that led to increased infant mortality is Ellis-van Creveld disease. Ellis-van Creveld is a disease associated with dwarfism in the extremities and a malformation in the heart's atrium. These genetic problems have been seen to be the reported cause for almost all of the deaths of children under the age of one in the Lancaster settlement. Therefore, it was seen that inbreeding increased the likelihood of early childhood deaths in the Lancaster Amish settlement. In fact, the higher the level of inbreeding coefficients involved in the marriage, the greater the chances of cases of childhood mortality. This study shows that inbreeding can pose significant health threats by increasing mortality and morbidity in offspring ( Dorsten 1999).
Study on the Hutterites
The Hutterites are a small group of Anabaptists that fled Europe and Russia and settled in what is now the Dakotas and Canada to escape from religious persecution. The Hutterites settled on communal farms, which isolated them from outside populations. Their isolation along with their beliefs leads to a highly inbred population. Moreover, the Hutterites are a good population to study because, like the Amish, they keep very detailed genealogical records. The Hutterites are also among the most fertile populations that commonly practice inbreeding. Furthermore, in studies concerning the Hutterites the confounding effects of socioeconomic class are not a factor, because they are relatively uniform in this population's communal lifestyle. One such study wanted to investigate some of the effects of inbreeding on the fertility of adult women.
Little is known about the effects of inbreeding on offspring's fertility, so this study was done to answer some of these questions. There were several measurements used to detect any adverse changes in fertility. Inbreeding coefficients, measurements of birth intervals, and family size were all measured. The offspring of the Hutterite women showed that the intervals between births decreased as levels of inbreeding increased. These intervals not only increased as inbreeding levels increased, they also increased with each generation of Hutterite women. Therefore, the deleterious effects of inbreeding can be tracked through each generation. These significantly longer interbirth intervals were due to lower conception rates or higher losses in embryonic stages of pregnancy. Moreover, this also caused large declines in family size. In fact, average family size shrunk from above nine from 1901 to 1920 to five from 1941 to 1960. This showed a decrease in two family members per generation in the Hutterite population. This study has shown that deleterious recessive alleles received from inbreeding can lower the fertility rates of adult woman (Ober 1999).
Study on a Population in Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Dammam is the capital city of the oil-rich Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The population of Dammam is estimated to close to two-hundred thousand, and the rate of consanguineous marriages is around 52%, which is higher than the average rates of most countries and providences in the Middle East and the surrounding area. First-cousin marriages dominated all forms of marriage in Dammam accounting for 39.3% of the unions. The high rates of consanguineous marriages lead to a relatively high inbreeding coefficient of 0.0312. These high rates of inbreeding were thought to be due to beliefs, culture, and to keep property within the family.
A study was performed on the population from Dammam to see how inbreeding could affect certain aspects of offspring's health. The study first looked at "Reproductive wastage," which was defined as the number of stillbirths, childhood death's in the first month of life, and childhood deaths during the first year of life. This study showed no real significant differences in "reproductive wastage" between consanguineous and non-consanguineous marriages. Moreover, birth weights were also examined and no significant differences were seen between mean birth weights of children from consanguineous marriages and children from out breeding relationships. These results were somewhat different from other studies performed that showed inbreeding to have negative affects on offspring.
This study shows that inbreeding is not always harmful and can produce perfectly normal offspring. In fact, some investigators believe that long-term practice of inbreeding can actually benefit a population and its health by reducing deleterious or harmful genes (Al-Abdulkareen 1998). The reduction of these harmful genes is thought to be a result of an increased frequency of the deleterious gene's presence which can make it more vulnerable to selection. Therefore, selection could eliminate the harmful gene if it is given ample time to "act" on it (Hedrick 1991).
CONCLUSION
There are several reasons that a population would practice inbreeding that span from religion to geography to royal bloodlines. Many studies have shown that inbreeding can cause increases in mortality and morbidity. As populations become more knowledgeable to these possible effects levels of inbreeding tend to decrease. However, there are other populations that are less knowledgeable to the possible negative outcomes of inbreeding, and it is possible that the effects of inbreeding may not be detectable or visible. Therefore, if there are harmful recessive alleles present in the population, the genes and characteristics still have the possibility of surfacing and negatively affecting a population, but it is very possible that the population will never see any harmful effects due to incest. In fact, some experts believe that in some cases inbreeding can be helpful to a population by constantly exposing harmful recessive genes to selection. By frequently exposing these genes to selection, the harmful alleles can become permanently eliminated from the population. Inbreeding is a very touchy and controversial subject when it concerns humans, and there is still a lot that we do not know about the possible effects of inbreeding. It is very difficult to run experiments to determine all the possible effects of inbreeding in humans, because there are just too many variables to control. Moreover, ethics makes it difficult and many times impossible to perform studies on humans. However, most experts would agree that practicing outbreeding will provide a population with the best opportunity to achieve a high level of health.
REFERENCES
Al-Abdulkareem, A. and Ballal, S. 1998. Consanguineous Marriages in an Urban Area of Saudi
Arabia : Rates and Adverse Health Effects on Offspring. Journal of Community Health, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp 75-83.
Agarwala, R., Schaffer, A., and Tomlin, J. 2001. Towards a Complete North American
Anabaptist Genealogy II: Analysis of Inbreeding. Human Biology. Vol. 73, No. 4, pp. 533-545.
Bittles, A., Mason, W., and Greene, J. 1991. Reproductive Behavior and Health in
Consanguineous Marriages. Science. Vol. 253. pg. 789-794.
Dorsten, L., Hotchkiss, L., and King, T. 1999. The Effect of Inbreeding on Early Childhood
Mortality: Twelve Generations of an Amish Settlement. Demography. Vol. 36. No. 2. pp. 263-271.
Fisher, Ronald. 1965. The theory of Inbreeding. Second Edition. Academic Press Inc. : New
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Fuster, V., Jimenez, A., and Colantonio, S. 2001. Inbreeding in Gredos Mountain Range (Spain):
Contribution of Multiple Consanguinity and Intervalley Variation. Human Biology. Vol. 73, No. 2. pp. 249-270.
Gonzalez-Martin, A. and Toja, D. 2002. Inbreeding, Isonomy, and Kin-structured Migration in
the principality of Andoria. Human Biology. Vol. 74. pp. 587-601.
Hedrick, P. 1991. Fertility, Health, and Consanguineous Marriages. Science. Vol. 254. pp. 1434
Hedrick, P. 1991. Inbreeding Depression In Conservation Biology. Annual Review of Ecology
and Systematics. Vol. 31. 200. pp. 139-162.
Ober, C., Hyslop, T., and Hauck, W. 1999. Inbreeding Effects on Fertility in Humans: Evidence
For Reproductive Compensation. American Journal of Human Genetics. Vol. 64. pp 225-
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Schull, W. and Neel, J. 1965. The Effects of Inbreeding on Japanese Children. Harper & Row.
New York.
Spence, M. and Hodge, S. 2000. The "Circular" Problems of Calculating Risk: Dealing with
Consanguinity. Journal of Genetic Counseling, Vol. 9, No. 3. pp. 179-201.
Stevens, Richard. 1999. The History of Hemophilia in the Royal Families of Europe. British
Journal of Hematology. Vol. 105. pp. 25-32.
Thornhill, N. 1993. The Natural History of Inbreeding and Outbreeding: Theoretical and
Empirical Perspectives. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Van Den Berghe, P. and Mesher, G. 1980. Royal Incest and Inclusive Fitness. American
Ethnologist, Vol. 7. No. 2. pp |
imestone County Sheriff's Office in Athens, Alabama February 13, 2015. REUTERS/Limestone County Sheriff's Office/Handout via Reuters
(Reuters) - The federal trial of an Alabama police officer who faces a civil rights charge after being captured on video throwing an Indian man to the ground got underway on Tuesday with the start of jury selection, prosecutors said.
Eric Parker, 26, is accused of using unreasonable force while serving as a police officer in Madison, Alabama during the Feb. 6 incident, which left an Indian grandfather badly injured.
He faces a single charge of depriving the victim of his rights.
Sureshbhai Patel, who spoke no English, had been on a morning walk about two weeks after moving from India to northern Alabama to help his son's family care for a young child.
He sustained injuries that required surgery to relieve pressure on his spinal cord, according to a civil suit that he has filed against Parker and the city.
The 58-year-old is expected to testify through a translator, his attorney Hank Sherrod said in an email. He said Patel is not expected to fully recover from his injuries, and now requires assistance to walk.
The police department released a video recorded inside a patrol vehicle. It showed Patel standing with his hands behind his back with two uniformed officers in a residential neighborhood, before he was abruptly flipped to the ground.
The Madison Police Department apologized for Parker's actions and recommended his termination, which he has challenged.
Parker's attorney, Robert Tuten, previously said the officer did not believe he had violated the law. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Parker was charged in state court with misdemeanor assault. Both that trial and his termination proceedings are on hold pending the outcome of the federal case, a city official said.
(Reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla.; Editing by Andrew Hay)Deep in the Colombian jungle lies an ancient city, older, more isolated and more difficult to reach than Machu Picchu.
Ciudad Perdida (‘Lost City’) was built by the Tayrona people over 1,000 years ago (a whole 650 years before Machu Picchu) to be used as a ceremonial centre and residence for somewhere between 2,000 and 8,000 people. It was abandoned during the Spanish conquest and lost for centuries, left to be overtaken and reclaimed by the jungle, until it was rediscovered by treasure looters in the 1970’s.
The journey to get there is not easy. It involves four to six days of trekking through 46 km of winding jungle paths, over precarious rickety bridges, through running streams, up ancient, seemingly endless stairways that lead ever deeper into the heart of the jungle (the final ascent consists of some 1,400 steps) and sleeping in hammocks under impromptu shelters, all at altitudes of 900-1,300 metres above sea level. It requires a good level of fitness, and understandably, it is only possible to visit with a guide (several companies offer tours, all costing about 300 USD).
It may sound scary, but the journey is half the fun. Along the way, travelers encounter several indigenous villages, where Kogi people still live in their straw huts. Their extreme isolation has largely allowed them to preserve their traditional way of life as the descendants of the ancient Tayrona people who built the lost city.
After the arduous trek, the city emerges from the surrounding wilderness and speaks of an ancient civilization, forgotten for centuries and overrun by vegetation, reclaimed by the jungle and the passage of time, the reward for braving your way through the rain forest. It lies on a series of hills, with 169 terraces, several central circular plazas and a network of stone roads, all of which can be explored at your own pace in almost complete solitude.
Machu Picchu is deservedly recognized as a wonder, one of the world’s most fascinating and magical places, but with its direct trains, luxury hotels, modern amenities and throngs of eager tourists, it feels more like a tour than an adventure (there are even buses that take you right to the very top of the mountain). On the other hand, while it is true that the city itself may not be as impressive as Machu Picchu, going to Ciudad Perdida is a true venture into the wilderness: the trek is a challenge; its successful completion, an accomplishment. It is a trip more about the journey than the destination, and an experience that is sure to stay with you for the rest of your life.
For more travel content and complete destination guides, visit www.ArrivalGuides.comUpdate: Play-Ins Stage has ended! To catch up on MSI's Group and Knockout Stages, head over here.
MSI Standings: Play-In Stage
MSI 2017 takes place in three stages this year, featuring 13 League of Legends teams from around the world. Opening up the tournament is the Play-In Stage, where eight teams have been split into two groups. Each group runs through a Best of 1 (Bo1) double round robin, meaning everyone in the group plays each other twice. Afterwards, the top team from each set of standings moves on to face either TSM or Flash Wolves, the matchup determined by random draw.
Today the winners of both groups were decided, along with their opponents in the next round of games, so here’s a roundup of the MSI standings so far.
Group A Winner: Supermassive Esports (Turkey)
Supermassive Esports are the champions of Group A, topping the standings at 5-1. The team certainly entered MSI as favorites -- not only are they the superstar roster of Turkey, but the they're no stranger to international competition. They were the only wildcard team to enter MSI last year, where they went 1-9, but managed to take a win off of CLG with a smile.
The Turkey team saw tough competition from RED Canids, Brazil’s representative and the home-team favorites. The Brazil stars faced off against Supermassive twice over the round, even beating them in their last encounter. Unfortunately, their loss to the Dire Wolves earlier in the day, combined with their loss to Supermassive Esports earlier in the week, wasn’t enough to topple Supermassive’s nearly perfect standings.
Following the results of the random draw, Supermassive will take on Flash Wolves in a Best of 5 on May 4. The winner will get a ticket to the upcoming Group Stage.
Group B Winner: Gigabyte Marines (Southeast Asia)
Gigabyte Marines swept Play-Ins as solidly as they did their home region. They went 12-0 in the Vietnam Championship Series, then moved on to the GPL, where they didn't lose a series. The team brought that dominance and aggressive playstyle into MSI 2017, winning four games in a row, and solidifying their top spot in a 23-minute stomp, the fastest game of Play-Ins thus far.
Jungler Levi and midlaner Optimus played a large part in Gigabyte Marine's MSI sweep. Levi's intimidating Lee Sin play, made famous during his Barcelona All-Stars run, made two strong appearances against Lyon Gaming. If you haven't seen his lighting-quick Lee Dragon steal, we recommend you check it out.
On May 3, Gigabyte Marines play TSM in a Bo5, the winner of which will move forward in MSI. The loser of this match will fight against the loser of Supermassive vs. Flash Wolves for the last spot in Groups.
To keep up with all the MSI standings and games, check out our live stats over here. If you want a full rundown of the tournament format (in 2 minutes) head over to our video here.Whataburger is known for its orange and white roof, 100 percent pure beef burgers and its Twitter reputation.
Most recently, the burger chain has started trolling Kanye West’s Twitter page.
West has been focusing on his new album, “The Life of Pablo,” and his fashion line during New York’s Fashion Week.
He apparently decided he needed a break and tweeted on Feb. 10: “please no one text me or ask me for anything till Monday.”
Whataburger tweeted back: “@kanyewest know you asked everyone not to ask you anything but if you wanna bring me Whataburger that’d be cool.”
.@kanyewest know you asked everyone not to ask you anything but if you wanna bring me Whataburger that'd be cool — Whataburger® (@Whataburger) February 11, 2016
The tweet from the burger chain has more than 1,300 likes and 620 shares.
Whataburger struck again on Feb. 12, tweeting “@kanyewest is a perfect example of what happens when you don’t have Whataburger in your life.”
.@kanyewest is a perfect example of what happens when you don't have Whataburger in your life — Whataburger® (@Whataburger) February 12, 2016
Copyright 2016 by KSAT - All rights reserved.It started with some inspiration from the video game “ Army Of Two ”. The main characters use weapons equipped with shields. I thought these gun-shields were an innovative, if not entirely practical, idea.
After having completed the above, I thought adding a stowable bipod would be a nice feature.
Before long, that idea changed to giving it vehicle-mounted capability.
Mounting via the rear hitch receiver, it has a vertically adjustable pedestal.
I went the quick route, not fabricating a true pintle/cradle or T&E.
The inner pedestal tube allows 360 degrees of horizontal traverse.
Elevation is from horizontal to vertical, but with no adjustable/locking elevating arc bracket.
Who likes picking up brass?
I added a 50cal ammo can/cradle to catch ejected shells and a 3” ABS plastic chute to direct them from the weapon into the ammo can.
Wearing a respirator, I heat-formed the ABS to better interface with the ejection port and clear the C-mag.Human Martians
Humans are gearing up to make the next journey into the relative unknown with the first manned missions to Mars, which could come as early as 2022. The long-term goal of these missions will be to colonize the Red Planet. Experts believe that space colonization and becoming a multi-planetary species is the only way to ensure humanity’s survival.
There are plenty of obstacles beyond traveling to Mars that we will need to overcome before long-term colonization becomes a possibility, such as terraforming the planet to make it more livable for us Earthlings. Further, once a colony is established, the goal would then be to flourish, ensuring the colony’s survival in perpetuity. At this point, we are stepping into an interesting new branch of human biology, reproduction, and human development outside of Earth.
According to Kris Lehnhardt, an assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, “This is something that we, frankly, have never studied dramatically, because it’s not been relevant to date. But if we want to become a spacefaring species and we want to live in space permanently, this is a crucial issue that we have to address that just has not been fully studied yet.” Lehnhardt’s full remarks can be viewed in the video above.The German magazine Der Spiegel has obtained classified documents in which NATO top commander and US General John Craddock, a long time advocate of steering the international forces in Afghanistan toward fighting the drug export industry, issues a “guidance” advising NATO troops to use deadly force against those involved in the drug industry, even if there is no evidence that the person being killed is actually involved in the insurgency.
In what at the time seemed like an uncharacteristically harsh outburst, General Craddock lashed out at NATO allies in October for their reticence in approving military raids on the drug industry. At this point little of what the general says about Afghanistan, particularly where it involves the drug trade surprises anyone: he seems intent on turning what President Obama is styling as a central front in the war on terror into part of an ill-conceived war on dirt-poor opium farmers in rural Afghanistan.
Indeed, when Gen. Craddock was pushing this plan in the first place the primary concern of those NATO members was that exactly something like this would happen: that engaging the drug trade at all would inevitably divert attention from fighting the insurgency and turn it toward killing random drug dealers and calling them legitimate military targets: alienating the civilian population and creating new enemies.
Even as President Obama looks to escalate the war by doubling the military’s presence, the Taliban has taken over a growing portion of the nation and the international forces are struggling to hold them at bay. It seems hard to imagine that these forces will have either the time or the inclination to launch a separate war on drugs in the midst of what is by most accounts an unmitigated disaster.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzOver the last century, computing has transitioned from server-rooms, to desktops, to our pockets. ‘Spatial computing’ is the next step, as we move from content hidden behind screens, to a ubiquitous digital layer that exists in the world around us.
One of the first industries to tap into this ubiquitous ‘digital layer’, is augmented reality.
Why is this such a big deal?
Instead of looking at 2D diagrams in textbooks, Medical students will be able to visualise the body in A.R., allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of how the body works. Designers will be able to rapidly prototype new ideas and see those new ideas materialise before their eyes. Engineers will be visually guided through day-to-day tasks, allowing them to fix machinery that they’ve never even seen before.
A.R. will do for skills & understanding, what the internet browser did for information.
However, there are a number of challenges left to solve before this vision of the future can become a reality. First and foremost, is understanding your precise location.View more videos at: http://nbcconnecticut.com.
MERIDEN, Connecticut -- A $100 million claim on behalf of a 6-year-old survivor is the first legal action to come out of the Connecticut school shooting that left 20 children and eight adults dead two weeks ago.
The unidentified client, referred to as Jill Doe, heard "cursing, screaming, and shooting" over the school intercom when the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, opened fire, according to the claim filed by New Haven-based attorney Irv Pinsky.
"As a consequence, the... child has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined," the claim said.
Pinsky said he filed a claim on Thursday with state Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr., whose office must give permission before a lawsuit can be filed against the state.
The parents of a 6-year-old girl who survived the Connecticut school shootings that resulted in the deaths of 20 other children at her school seek to file a claim for $100 million, saying their child was traumatized. NBC's Kate Snow has more.
"We all know its going to happen again," Pinsky said on Friday. "Society has to take action."
Twenty children and six adults were shot dead on Dec. 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The children were all 6 and 7 years old.
Pinsky's claim said that the state Board of Education, Department of Education and Education Commissioner had failed to take appropriate steps to protect children from "foreseeable harm."
It said they had failed to provide a "safe school setting" or design "an effective student safety emergency response plan and protocol."
Pinsky said he was approached by the child's parents within a week of the shooting.
The shooting, which also left the gunman dead, has prompted extensive debate about gun control and the suggestion by the National Rifle Association that schools be patrolled by armed guards. Police have said the gunman killed his mother at their home in Newtown before going to the school.
More content from NBCNews.com:
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and FacebookAndrew Luck signed a new deal with the Indianapolis Colts Tuesday, making him the highest paid player in NFL history.
And Eagles Nation thought Sam Bradford was overpaid.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Andrew Luck is currently the highest paid player in NFL history after signing a five-year extension with the Indianapolis Colts Wednesday afternoon.
The deal is actually for six years with a total salary just north of $139 million with $87 million guaranteed, both NFL records.
With Luck now the highest paid quarterback in the league, let's take a look how his deal compares to Sam Bradford.
Bradford signed a two-year, $35 million deal in March and only cost the Eagles a $12.5 million cap hit. That spikes to $22.5 million in 2017 if the Eagles pick up his $4 million option in March of next year.
The deal is expensive, but provides some flexibility for the Eagles as they are only committed to Bradford (and his career 81.0 rating) for a season. Philadelphia can use the extra cap room to sign its young players and become a player in free agency.
Now for Luck. He's signed through 2021 with an average annual value of $24.6 million. Luck will make $75 million over the first three years of the deal.
Luck's cap hit will be at $16.5 million in 2016 and will go upwards in the coming years, giving the Colts little flexibility to build a team around him.
That has been an issue in Luck's first four seasons despite him throwing for 14,838 yards, 101 TD and 55 INT and leading the Colts to a 35-20 record in 55 starts. He also has been sacked 115 times as the Colts have been unable to improve the offensive line despite his cap-friendly rookie deal.
While the value of a franchise quarterback is the quickest model of success in the NFL, general managers need to build a team around that quarterback in order to win one or more Super Bowls with that player.
Time will tell if the Colts will get one with Luck. His contract certainly won't help.President Barack Obama is expected to reveal plans to station about 500 to 1000 Marines at a barracks in Darwin and to expand the US navy's use of bases at the Northern Territory capital and in Perth in Western Australia.
He will make the announcement in Australia next week during a visit that includes Hawaii and Indonesia designed to assert America's commitment to the Asia Pacific region.
The bases would be beyond the expanding range of new Chinese missiles, which can reach the main US Pacific bases on Okinawa island in Japan and the small island territory of Guam, east of the Philippines.
The US Marines are reportedly due to be positioned at the Robertson barracks in Darwin, effectively the nearest mainland Australian military base to China. But the fresh US presence would also involve additional use of aircraft of air bases in the north west of the country and further access to training ranges.
The move comes amid a realignment of US forces across the Asia-Pacific and growing pressure to lighten its presence on Okinawa, where local politicians have called for a troop reduction as part of a planned relocation of a controversial US base.
Kevin Rudd, the Australian foreign minister, said: "From the Australian perspective, here we are with a vast coastline, a population of just 23 million. It has always made national security sense to have a strong security alliance with America."
But there are also heightened concerns across the region about China's strengthening military capability and its apparent growing willingness to assert its presence across the South China Sea, Indian Ocean and Western Pacific. In June, China was accused of harassing Vietnamese and Filipino vessels in the South China Sea, while the arrest by Japan of a Chinese trawler last year led to a diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Tokyo.
During a visit to Australia next week – his first as President – Mr Obama and Prime Minister Julia Gillard are expected to unveil their plans as they mark the 60th anniversary of the alliance. No US troops are stationed in Australia – though forces have visited since 1907 - and analysts say the move is likely to be badged as a "rotation" rather than a permanent deployment.
"The US could build their forces up quickly in places like Australia out of missile range from China," a professor of international security at Sydney University, Alan Dupont, told the Telegraph.
"A lot of Japanese facilities in Okinawa are quite vulnerable to the new generation of Chinese missile capabilities. It is arguably one of the most important shifts in both US and Australian strategic policy in the past 20 years." Australia's defence minister, Stephen Smith, said Australia would seek to expand "practical cooperation" with the US but would not agree to a Marine base in the country. At present, the main US military presence in Australia is limited to a joint satellite tracking station at Pine Gap, in the Northern Territory, and a naval communication station in Western Australia.
President Obama, who was born in Hawaii and calls himself "America's first Pacific president", has overseen a shift in focus away from the Middle East to the Asia Pacific. The US has signalled an expansion of defence ties across the region, including with Vietnam and Singapore.
However, the plan to expand the US presence in Australia has raised concerns among some analysts that it could escalate regional tensions and damage relations with China.
Hugh White, a former senior Australian defence official, said a dramatic expansion of US troops in the country was "a very significant and potentially very risky move for Australia".
"In Washington and in Beijing, this will be seen as Australia aligning itself with an American strategy to contain China," Dr White, a professor at the Australian National University, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "In the view from Beijing, everything the US is doing in the western Pacific is designed to bolster resistance to the Chinese challenge to US primacy."Hi Everyone,
Crypto Variants are becoming more and more common, I’ve had the fun of going through one myself and on a regular basis see reports of it on one of my favorite websites, Reddit.
So, I have decided to take the time to write a little post on how to minimize the impact of a cryptolocker variant on your network. Not how to stop one, how to prevent it from breaking too many things. Trying to stop a crypto is a long and hard process that involves user education (never fun!)
Points I’ll cover
Vectors of attack
Good End Device protection
Good file server protection
Backup and restore methods
So, without any further ado:
Vectors for attack
Crypto variants can come in through any device that can transfer data. USB sticks, E-mails, Web browsing and more. The main two culprits are dodgy e-mails and web browsing. E-mails usually come in with an attachment called “Invoice” or something similar. These usually are full of macro’s that initiate malware on the end device, the malware then tends to be a trojan that gets the Crypto and starts encrypting all that precious data.
Good End device Protection
This is one of the biggest ways of reducing impact, make sure you have a good centrally managed antivirus installed on every PC on your domain. We use SCCM’s Endpoint protection on our network and it works a treat. We have e-mail alerts set up to come into our ticket queue so we see it very, very quickly. Make sure you have real time scanning enabled and scheduled scans at least once a day for a quick scan and once a week for a full scan.
If your end users have no need to use USB devices for data transfer it may be a worthwhile idea to restrict the devices your users can plug into the ports, Just keep it to Keyboards and Mice for now, it’ll be impressive to see a Crypto come in via one of those. A good article is available here on how to do so.
Another popular method of blocking the malware from even starting would be to use a program called applocker in windows. You can configure applocker via group policy and it is a life saver. I’m starting to implement it into my company and it’s working really nicely under testing. It basically stops any executable from being ran on the system unless allowed in the applocker policy. A good guide for implementing app locker is here
One of the biggest solutions is to set up a robust spam filter for your e-mail service. We use mimecast and Microsoft exchange 2013. Since implementing mimecast we have had hardly any e-mails slip through the net containing dodgy attachments. We also scan outbound as to make sure that an infected device can’t spread to anyone on their address list. Trust me, it happens! We also use MSME local to the exchange to capture any internal e-mails, just in case.
A crypto almost always comes from an end user device, they’re the biggest weakness on the network, if you can prevent one spreading when a device gets hit – you’re in a pretty good position. A little user education doesn’t hurt either, maybe a mass e-mail round with a few pointers on it. Just screenshots of what to watch out for. I’ve found it quite useful over time.
Good File Server protection
This is the big one, all crypto locker variants I’ve seen go direct for file shares, especially if they contain the words “Finance” or “Money”. On a windows file server your best friend is File Screening and the File Server resource manager. If you don’t use these, I suggest you look into them and get used to them.
Make sure your file server permissions follow the principle of least access, the more access that infected machine has, the more damage it can do. Overhaul your file server permissions if need be. I’m currently doing mine at the moment. Put users into a role based on their position in the company. That role has an AD group, the AD group is then made a member of a domain local group. You then assign the permissions to the local group. It makes it easier for file permissions management and you will have a much clearer idea of what could be impacted when the end device gets infected.
Infections tend to open hundreds and hundreds of files at once to encrypt them. I use file server resource manager tied with some Powershell to notify me when a user exceeds 25 sessions of files open on the share. No machine should ever have more than 25 files open on this network, half the PC’s wouldn’t be able to cope with them all open!
The other useful one is to enable file screening. Block all.exe files and executable files from within here, only allow the directory they are meant to be stored in (like your software dump). it stops users saving random exe files to the file share.
Also get a good AV on your file server, if it is a VM I recommend McAfee move. if it’s a physical server there is a McAfee AV client.
Backup and Restore Methods
Backups, Backups, Backups!
Backups are critical, if you get hit – you’re gonna be relying on these to fumble your way out of the mess your end user got you in. I have shadow copies enabled on my data volume which certainly helps, but chances are – if it’s a good crypto it will take your shadow copies with it. At the min our file server is a physical server so we use a backupexec server (I know.. it’s bad) connected into a quantum tape library. It does incremental backups every night and a full over the weekend. A full file server restore would take about a day at the current setup.
If you have a virtual file server, I suggest you use veeam to back it up as often as is reasonably practicable. The more often you have a backup, the less data you lose. Simple.
When restoring the data you have 2 options,
1. restore the data to the original server
2. restore the data to a new server.
Depending on how bad the hit was, you may want to go for option 2. You can’t risk being infected twice. As for the end user machine, make sure you nuke that into orbit. anything on that laptop should be considered infected, crack out DBAN and start over.Wii Sports[a] is a 2006 sports video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game was released in North America along with the Wii on November 19, 2006, and was released in Japan, Australia, and Europe the following month. It was included as a pack-in game with the console in all territories except Japan and South Korea, making it the first sports game included with the launch of a Nintendo system since Mario's Tennis for the Virtual Boy in 1995. Wii Sports is available on its own as part of the Nintendo Selects collection of games.
The game is a collection of five sports simulations, designed to demonstrate the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote. The five sports included are tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. Players use the Wii Remote to mimic actions performed in real-life sports, such as swinging a tennis racket.[1] The rules for each game are simplified to make them more accessible to new players. The game also features training and fitness modes that monitor players' progress in the sports.[2]
Wii Sports was well received by critics and received a number of awards. Selling over 82 million copies by the end of 2017, it is the bestselling single-platform game of all time, and fourth best overall.[3] Wii Sports has been featured on television in Wii commercials, news reports, and other programming.[4][5][6][7] The game has become a popular means for social gatherings and competitions among players of varying ages.[5][8][9] A sequel, Wii Sports Resort, was released in 2009, while a high-definition remake, Wii Sports Club, was released in 2013 for the Wii U.
Gameplay [ edit ]
The player uses the Wii Remote to mimic the motion of putting a golf ball in a game of golf.
Wii Sports consists of five separate sports games—tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing—accessed from the main menu.[10][11] The games use the motion sensor capabilities of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk attachment to control the actions of the on-screen ball pit. The player moves the remote in a similar manner to how the separate games are played in real life; for example, holding and swinging the Wii Remote like a golf club, baseball bat or bowling ball.[1] Some aspects of the gameplay are computer controlled. In tennis, player movement is controlled by the Wii, while the swinging of the racket is controlled by the player. Baseball consists of batting and pitching, with all of the fielding and baserunning handled by the Wii.[11]
Two people Wii boxing; the Wii Remote and Nunchuk are used here to control punches.
The in-game characters are taken from the Wii's Mii Channel, which allows the user to create a Mii (a customized avatar) that can be imported into games that support the feature. Wii Sports is the first Wii title to use this feature.[10] Miis saved on the Wii will appear in the crowd during bowling games and as members of human-controlled teams in baseball. The non-player characters in the game were also created using the Mii Channel toolset. Miis created on one Wii can be transferred onto the internal memory of a Wii Remote for use on another Wii with different save data.[12]
After a game, a player is awarded or penalized skill points based on performance relative to the computer's skill level, though some games do not calculate points during multiplayer sessions. The game keeps track of these points by charting them on a graph, as well as increasing the size of the crowd in Tennis and Boxing single-player modes. After obtaining 1000 skill points in a sport, a player is awarded "pro" level, along with a cosmetic feature for their Mii in Bowling and Boxing. A Mii newly turned pro will receive a message on the Wii Message Board notifying them. Wii Sports also features a fitness test that calculates a player's fitness age (ranging from 20 to 80 years old, 20 being the best possible). The test gauges the player's performance in three randomly chosen challenges in each test from the training mode that have been played at least once, and can only be taken once a day per Mii. Calculating the fitness age takes into account a player's balance, speed, and stamina. Fitness age results are graphed over one, two, or three months, with daily results posted on the Wii Message Board.[12][13]
Development [ edit ]
Katsuya Eguchi, who managed Software Development Group 2 at Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, produced Wii Sports.[14] With the Wii, Nintendo desired to reach people who had not played video games before. To do this they needed software that allowed both long time and first time players to interact together in a fun way.[15] Nintendo also wanted players to use the system daily and intended Wii Sports to be the console's flagship title to help accomplish this.[16] Wii Sports was designed as a simple introductory line meant to offer something for both gamers and non-gamers.[17] Sports were chosen as the theme because of the widespread familiarity with them. Rather than feature professional athletes or have realistic graphics, the game was designed to be simple so that anyone could play. Gameplay like running towards a ball in tennis was excluded to maintain simplicity.[14] At one point in development, Mario characters were used, but were removed because of feedback from players who preferred Miis.[18] The game supports a 16:9 widescreen ratio and progressive scan, runs at 60 frames per second,[10] and makes use of the Wii Remote's accelerometer to interpret the player's motion.[19] Motion-sensing actions, like pitching and hitting, were prioritized to make them as realistic as possible.[18] Because Nintendo did not expect players to purchase the Wii solely to play Wii Sports, they bundled the game with the console; Nintendo believed players would be more likely to play Wii Sports through this distribution method. They also felt players that enjoyed the game would increase its popularity by word of mouth.[20]
Before the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Media and Business Summit of 2006, the first sport in the game was announced as Wii Sports: Tennis. It was later announced, at Nintendo's press conference prior to E3 2006, it would be part of a sports package.[19] Satoru Iwata introduced this package as Wii Sports, and stated it would include tennis, golf, and baseball. The game was featured as both a video demonstration and an on-stage playable demo. The demo featured Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime in a doubles tennis match against Shigeru Miyamoto and Scott Dyer, a contest winner.[15] The other sports titles were on display at E3 and shared a similar naming convention to the tennis game such as, Wii Sports: Baseball, Wii Sports: Golf, and Wii Sports: Airplane.[21] At the time, baseball only featured a batting simulation.[22] The airplane title was similar to Pilotwings and required the player to maneuver an airplane through rings within a time frame.[21] It was not included in the final game, but was later incorporated into Wii Sports Resort.[23] At the Nintendo World event on September 14, 2006, Reggie Fils-Aime announced that Wii Sports would be included free with the Wii. The bowling and boxing titles were also introduced.[24]
Reception [ edit ]
Wii Sports received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[25] GameTrailers called it a good complement to the Wii system and referred to all five games as a "nice total package". They commented that the games provided enough gameplay for long time gamers without making it inaccessible to novices. GameTrailers stated, however, that the lack of a tournament mode was a detractor, and did not recommend paying for the game if it did not come bundled with the system.[11] GamePro also commented that the free addition of Wii Sports with the Wii was a positive.[1] Matt Casamassina of IGN called it a "successful showpiece for Nintendo's new hardware" and enjoyed the ability to import Miis.[10] GameSpot editor Ryan Davis complimented the multiplayer aspect and the fitness test.[32] Reviewers praised the game's controls and ease of use. Casamassina referred to the controls as "revolutionary" and described them as intuitive.[10] GamePro echoed similar comments, praising the ease of play and realistic motion controls, while Davis commented that the motion controls were sometimes erratic.[1][32] Common criticism focused on the graphics and lack of depth in the separate games. Casamassina stated that the game "comes up short in depth and visuals", and called the graphics "generic" and "archaic".[10] Other reviewers said the graphics were on par with Nintendo's older gaming systems, the GameCube and Nintendo 64.[1][11] Davis criticized the oversimplified nature of the games, and GamePro stated that the separate games offered less depth than regular console sports games.[1][32] Nintendo Power listed Wii Sports along with its sequel Wii Sports Resort as two of the greatest multi-player experiences in Nintendo's history, stating that everyone from young children to grandparents can enjoy the games. The magazine praised the grouping of sports and the game's longevity.[33]
The separate games garnered their own reception among critics. Casamassina called bowling, tennis, and baseball "fun and addictive", while Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer said baseball, golf, and boxing were lacking in gameplay depth when compared to tennis and bowling.[10][29] PC Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak, an avid bowler, praised the realistic physics used in bowling and stated, "Nintendo did a stupendous job of coding." He complimented the addition of physical activity to video gaming, but complained that long term use caused his wrist and shoulder to become sore.[34] Casamassina ranked bowling as the best experience of the five.[10] Before its release, IGN's Craig Harris commented on an exploit allowing easy strikes in the bowling game that removed the challenge and replay value.[35] After the release, he stated that the exploit was not fixed.[24] GameTrailers called golf the most in-depth, but criticized the lack of multiple courses and unpredictable controls when trying to slice or hook a shot.[11] GamePro said golf offered the most content and was the best looking of all the games, but commented that its controls were the most difficult to use.[1] GameTrailers called tennis the most accessible and easy to play, but criticized the difficulty of putting spin on a shot.[11] Casamassina stated that tennis was one of the more enjoyable games, but the lack of movement control was a detractor.[10] GameTrailers called baseball the most "worthless" because of the luck factor associated with the computer-controlled fielding. They called boxing the best workout on Wii Sports, but criticized the difficult timing needed to punch properly.[11] Casamassina criticized boxing for being "like a chore" and ranked it as the worst experience of the five sports.[10]
Sales [ edit ]
By the end of 2007, Wii Sports was the best-selling Wii game.[36] In Japan, where the game was not included with the system, the game sold 176,167 copies |
and global society by enrolling in ED 203. Participants will have had an opportunity to discuss openly topics of race, class, ability, religious oppression, and power/privilege in a staff-only space. -Participants will learn specific vocabulary used on campuses and within academia to describe a multitude of everyday life experiences and perspectives. -Participants will be educated on microaggressions in order to reduce and attempt to eliminate the racist, classist, sexist, heterosexist, ableist, and privileged attitudes on our campus -Participants will be able to engage in meaningful conversations with their colleagues around multiple topics and learn about multiple perspectives in a brave space.
Of course, while learning these “multiple perspectives,” it’s pretty certain that any conservative perspective, or any perspective that treats Western culture as anything other than a horrible impediment to our new and exciting “multicultural world,” will not be tolerated.
Brandon Jones, President of the San Diego State College Republicans, told Red Alert Politics:
SDSU’s attempt to create an “inclusive” campus community is becoming almost laughable. Every time I turn around there’s a new course on some type of diversity. In today’s world, everything is a microaggression. SDSU is no longer educating students… they’re teaching them how to become victims. Left-wing indoctrination is a disease spreading like a wildfire.
Poor Brandon. He’s going to be left behind in our glorious new world. Someone get him enrolled in the class quickly. He can sit in the back. We have a special chair for him so he won’t be distracted.
H/T: Red Alert Politics
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.People spread out blankets on the grass and munched on snacks, cheering on the upbeat counter-protesters—who, by some estimates, outnumbered the free speech rally-goers by more than a thousand to one—as they marched down Charles Street. Some dressed up for the occasion: A middle-aged guy with a man bun sported a tank top with “Resistance” spelled out across his chest in glittery gold; a group of women wearing pointy black hats and matching veils silently roamed the Common carrying a sign announcing themselves as “Witches against white supremacy.” Protesters carried posters that read, “Not in my city,” and joined in periodic chants of, “Fuck the Nazis!”
As with most large political demonstrations, the scene took on an absurdist quality at times. At one point, Black Lives Matter activists lit a flag on fire, prompting a tattooed onlooker in a Red Sox cap to launch into a profanity-laced rant about the lack of patriotism on display. A heated argument followed between him and a few other bystanders, which went on for several minutes before someone pulled the tattooed ranter aside and asked, “You know that was a Confederate flag, right?”
“It was a Confederate?”
“Yeah.”
He paused for a moment to process this information, and then smiled sheepishly. “Shhh,” he said, pressing a finger to his lips. He then returned to his argument.
Organizers were adamant in the days leading up to the Free Speech Rally that they were not supporting white nationalism, and disapproved of the beliefs that were showcased in Charlottesville. They said they would throw out anyone who showed up in neo-Nazi garb, or brought signs advocating for white supremacy.
At the same time, the small group that gathered on Boston Common clearly shared some ideological sympathies with the alt-right movement—a dynamic that could make it increasingly difficult to untangle the extremist racial elements from the broader American right.
Chapman, for example, told me he did not under any circumstances consider himself a white nationalist. “But I can tell you that there is a war against whites,” he said. “Whites are discriminated against en masse. I personally have been the victim of multiple hate crimes. As a people, we do have our own grievances, we do have our own story to tell.” Until it becomes safe to discuss that reality in mainstream political circles, he argued, victimized whites will continue to gravitate toward the alt-right.
Chapman says “free speech” is his primary concern, and added that it was the one reason libertarians like himself would come to the defense of Richard Spencer and his ilk. “I don’t really know them personally, and I don’t know if they’re bad people personally,” he said. But “they had the right to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights in Charlottesville. And those rights were intentionally suppressed.”IN SHORTMAN OF STEEL begins with a well-done 20-minute setup on Krypton, relying heavily on fairly-well-designed stunningly-executed computer graphics, and would probably rate 4 out of 5 on its own. The remainder of the movie is almost entirely action in excellent, seamless CG, but repetitive and excessive, and utterly lacking in any other essential components of a story, such as plotting and character development, and with problems of internal inconsistency and implausibility. The resolution is implausible and incomplete.PERSONAL COMMENTLike THE HOBBIT movies, MAN OF STEEL could have been greatly improved by cutting a half-hour of unnecessary, repetitive, gratuitous violence. I'm a guy, I like action---but it simply went on and on so long, and so repetitively, that it got boring. It really burns my butt that a superb series like STARGATE UNIVERSE was canceled because the very-limited computer graphics were "too expensive". Five minutes of the CG wasted on MAN OF STEEL (or the HOBBIT movies) could have paid for a whole season of SG-U, the whole budget of SG-U, not just the CG.CRITIQUE---from a storyteller's perspective> MAN OF STEEL is unconstrained even by the "laws" of physics. The aliens are utterly invincible and omnipotent. So the audience is reduced to passive observers of the inexplicable. That is very poor storytelling.> The best stories are about successes which are achieved with great difficulty by struggling within constraints, of law, of human nature, of expectations, of morality, etc.. Many stories are precisely about stretching or testing those limits. This is what stories are made of---because these are precisely the challenges we all experience in our ordinary lives.RULES OF THE GAME> In fantasy (or any game or any sport, which are very simplified fantasy worlds), the "rules" are essential. Not merely important, but rather essential.> If the audience knows the rules-of-the-game or constraints-of-the-fantasy-world, they can become involved by anticipating potential problems and they can figure out solutions to the problems.EXAMPLE: When watching football---the main viewer activity is yelling at the quarterback, telling him what play to call, and how to execute it. Would watching a football game be any fun if three were no rules at all, no "plays", if any "player" could do anything at any time?EXAMPLE: in ERAGON (the book, not the mediocre movie), doing magic was a great strain on the user, so his/her physical strength had to be conserved and wisely used. Readers could anticipate when a character might be be tempted to over-extend himself. Readers could anticipate strategies which could be used do conserve strength. And as it happened, the character usually did what the reader expected (or feared). That made the reader a participant in the story, and made the novels very satisfying. Same for Rowling and Tolkien novels and movies.DEUS MACHINA> Even the ancient Greeks had a derisive term ("deus machina") for poorly crafted stories which ended by a god just showing up and resolving all conflicts and problems by decree (essentially by unconstrained unspecified "magic").> The "resolution" of the movie (when the Big S smashed head-first through the terraforming machine and "black hole" reactor and then snapped the even thicker neck of his equally invincible fellow alien) were pure (and self-contradictory) "deus machina" moments.HEROISM?I refuse to call the main character in this movie SUPERMAN---because he isn't the Superman I grew up with. The Big S is supposed to be a heroic figure--Right? Heroism is about overcoming ordinary limits (especially of fear and pain) and scraping hard against absolute limits (such as risking death). If there are no limits, no effort, no challenge, no risk, there is no heroism. There is nothing heroic about the Big S.AN AMERICAN EMBLEM?Are we suppose to get all mushy over a guy (the big S) who selectively "saves" a few random individuals, ignores dozens falling from buildings, and indirectly murders tens of thousands by carelessly destroying occupied vehicles and buildings? The Big S is just a big dumb brainless thug---"a bull in a china shop". The best you can say about him is that he is a thug on our side. Tragically, that is how most of the world thinks about America. The SUPERMAN of my childhood was an admirable moral man, a strong man, but a man, who tried his best---an appropriate symbol for the America which was once respected.OVERDONE ACTIONViolence is pointless if all the characters are utterly invincible. A contest of strength is only interesting if there is the possibility and likelihood that one will win and the other will loose. The Big S and his fellow aliens can be thrown through a dozen buildings without mussing their hair. Once you are satiated by the shear visual impact of the CG, MAN OF STEEL is about as exciting as watching two babies throw marshmallows at each other.IMPLAUSIBILITIESSuspension of disbelief can go only so far, and MAN OF STEEL was way over-the-top for any intelligence-unimpaired individual.> Why do invincible aliens pay the slightest attention to soldiers with mere guns, when missiles have no effect on them?> Why punch a helpless pathetic human when you can toss him (or her) a mile away with a flick of your wrist?> And, these super-aliens happen to carry knifes in case a knife fight with a human is in order? Really?> What happened to the aliens which were not on the terraforming machine when it was destroyed? Perhaps they just surrendered, formed a little farming community in Iowa, and applied for green cards??> While it was reasonable that the original SUPERMAN worked as a shy, self-effacing, mild-mannered newspaper reporter, it is utterly implausible that the bulky negligent egocentric Big S could do so.> Is destroying multi-million dollar aircraft really the best way a guy with god-like powers and technology can conceal his liar from human eyes? And just what lair is that? Wasn't his spaceship destroyed? Is the writer/director confusing the Big S with Batman?> A complete list of implausibilities and inconsistencies could go on for pages. The above are just the ones that particularly triggered my barf reaction. MAN OF STEEL is a two-rolls-of-duct-tape movie (you wind it around your head to keep it from exploding).GRAPHIC DESIGNThe design of much of the other worldly technology was imaginative---but largely derivative. That is, most has been done before, much has been done better, and most of the original stuff simply makes no sense. Are these aliens color blind? or just plain blind??---all their graphic displays are circular very-low-resolution monochrome (apparently in flowing textured metal). Could you work with such a crappy computer display? They might be great touch (feel) displays for the visually impaired (blind), but not so great for folks with normal vision; ridiculous for aliens with super-vision.ACTINGMany reviewers complain about the acting. In my opinion the acting in the few pauses between the endless CG action scenes was mostly maudlin and cliched, but adequate. The failure of the underlying story to engage the audience was the fault of the directors/editors, not the actors.STARGATE UNIVERSE---recommendationIf you haven't watched SG-U since the series, I very strongly recommend that you try it. It is MUCH better the second time, and MUCH better as binges. The first time you watch SG-U, you don't know the characters, and don't care what happens to them, and so the story kinda drags, but the second time you watch it is an entirely different experience--you become emotionally involved, because you know the characters. The individual episodes, aired a week apart, were often depressing, because the resolution didn't happen until next week---but in binges of 4 or 5 episodes in an evening you get the crises and the resolutions together. I'm not an SG fan in the normal since. (I know no SG trivia, I've never been to an SG website, I know nothing of the actors, and you couldn't drag me to an SG convention). Yet I've watched the whole series 4 times (in binges 6--9 months apart)---and every time, I have enjoyed it more. The two complete seasons are about $10 each used, or $15 each new on DVD. SGU: Stargate Universe - The Complete First SeasonGian Villante next will enter the octagon in an unfamiliar situation: loser of two straight UFC fights.
The Levittown-raised light heavyweight can put an end to that on Jan. 20 when he faces Francimar Barroso at UFC 220 at the TD Garden in Boston.
Villante (15-8) last fought in July at Nassau Coliseum, losing a split decision to Patrick Cummins in Long Island’s first UFC event. Before that, Villante lost by third-round stoppage to former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in Brazil in March. In an up-and-down UFC career thus far, it’s the only time Villante has lost back-to-back fights in the octagon. (He also lost two straight in 2011 while fighting for Strikeforce.)
Barroso (19-5, 1 no contest) is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Aleksandar Rakic at UFC Fight Night in the Netherlands in September. Since joining the UFC in 2013, the Brazilian Barrosso has won four of his seven fights.
Other announced fights for UFC 220 include:
Islam Makhachev vs. Gleison Tibau
Dustin Ortiz vs. Alexandre Pantoja
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Thomas Almeida vs. Rob Font
Shane Burgos vs. Calvin Kattar
Kyle Bochniak vs. Brandon Davis“Tell me, Superman. What shall we engrave upon your tombstone?”
Solar-Superman. Doomsday. These were hardly the only villains to successfully kill a Superman. Among the other adversaries was Mandrakk, slayer of the Thought Robot Superman, who immediately before doing so delivered the taunt quoted above. That Superman stopped the cosmic vampire-god, because of course he did, but it cost him too his own life. Dying beside the tombstone already prepared for him, his final act was to etch his own epitaph. “Mandrakk asked what words I’d have inscribed on my tombstone. Only these….” The final splash page of the issue (Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #2) reveals to the reader what was written: “To be continued.
Such was the confidence that Superman had in a rebirth, a belief that his so called “never-ending battle” was truly that. The Thought Robot Superman shared the same consciousness as the post-Crisis, pre-New 52 Superman. It is that Superman who spends this issue reacting to the death of the New 52 Superman of Earth Prime, approaching such with the same certainty as he had at the hour of his own deaths. He hovers over the tomb of his doppelgänger, more assured in his heart of a coming resurrection than Christ’s own apostles that first Easter morning. He is wrong.
As has become fashionable in the age of Abed Nadir, there is a metatextual message at work in all this. True, this Superman has seen himself, all his allies, and various villains walk through the revolving door of death so many times that comic book logic has become common sense. Like we the readers, the denizens of those worlds do not always accept death as the inevitable end because so often it is not. Even mere mortals like Jason Todd and Damien Wayne die and rise again. Thus, Superman’s conviction is the mirror to the comic reader’s own cynicism at character deaths. Though novel and somewhat shocking when Jean Grey and Superman first respectively returned, deaths have become blasé, rebirths assumed. By systematically laying out a program to revivificate the New 52 Superman and spending a large portion of this issue deconstructing that plan, Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, and DC Comics are making an implicit promise to the readers that this is not a cheap, clichéd comic book death to temporarily boost circulation that will be redacted when another sales spike is needed, but rather a real closing chapter with lasting consequences.
Of course, a secondary reason for drawing so deliberately on the original Death of Superman storyline is the midst of ‘90s nostalgia in which we now find ourselves. Though the actual issues hardly hold up (as I can attest to, having reread Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend, and Reign of the Supermen in full not too long ago), many of us who remember reading it at the time of release still hold fond feelings despite the flaws. This issue was an opportunity to re-experience that event as we remember it without revisiting the issues themselves which have aged rather poorly. Moreover, it was closely keeping with the theme of rebirth. Whereas the other releases from DC this week strained to incorporate the concept (e.g. Calendar Man molting in Batman: Rebirth), often merely telling tales of new beginnings (e.g. Green Lanterns and Green Arrow), Superman: Rebirth actually recounts a time when the character was quite literally reborn, cleverly tying such to the new direction which the series is taking.
Perhaps what is most surprising is just how much of an improvement Doug Mahnke’s reinterpretations of these seminal scenes are over the originals. Surely I’ve said it before somewhere, but it bears repeating: Superman, as iconic a character as any, despite or perhaps because of such, remains one of the hardest for most pencillers to draw. Many superstars of the industry such as Jim Lee and Ivan Reis, have applied their own signature style to Superman, but only four artists have truly captured the core of the character: Curt Swan, John Byrne, Alex Ross, and Jason Fabok. This isn’t Mahnke’s first attempt at illustrating Superman. He was the artist responsible for the aforementioned issues from Final Crisis featuring the Thought Robot Superman. His interpretation at the time had been somewhat serviceable, at best. A great deal more time and effort was poured into the first half of this issue, evidently, as there are several panels which truly rival the work of Byrne and Fabok. Now that it’s clear he’s capable of work of this caliber, my hope is that he can continue to deliver such quality consistently going forward.
(As an aside: the character is called “Superman.” The beard is both super and manly. DC, let him keep the beard. It’s the right look for the character. Oh, and ring back the red trunks too. Not that they’re either super or manly, but Superman without the shorts is like me without my cowboy hat. How do folks even recognize him with the iconic getup?)
As with the end of the post-Crisis era, Superman is again in need of a rebirth. After the Byrne era and the Death and Return storyline, he’d have the occasional arc of enduring quality, such as For Tomorrow or Geoff Johns’ Brainiac, but most of his most memorable appearances were propped up by other characters, whether in Crises (e.g. Identity, Infinite, Final Crisis), crossovers (e.g. Superman/Batman, Legion of Three Worlds), or elseworlds (e.g. All-Star, Kingdom Come, Red Son, Earth One). The New 52, by hitting the reset button, was supposed to change all that, specifically for Superman. And yet after Morrison’s departure from Action Comics, the best Superman stories have been in the pages of Justice League and American Alien instead of any of his own titles. Perhaps Rebirth will finally fix that. This issue makes the promise that the mistakes of the last few years are dead and buried. Time will tell if something super rises to replace them, if the best days of the character are truly once again “To be continued…”
7.0/10
AdvertisementsNew Westminster police are investigating the Queensborough neighbourhood after shots were fired early this morning.
Police responded to the scene where multiple shots were fired between two cars in the 1000-block of Ewen Avenue in New Westminster at about 1:30 a.m.
The suspect vehicle fled the scene and is described as a dark-coloured sedan.
The vehicle that was hit crashed into a traffic barricade and investigators found two bullet holes in it. The people in the vehicle were uninjured, are known by police and are not cooperating in the investigation.
The area was closed by police while they investigated the scene for more than an hour this morning.
The New Westminster Major Crime Unit has now taken over the case.
If anyone has information about the incident, please contact the NWPD Major Crime Unit.The American Letter Mail Company was started by Lysander Spooner in 1844, competing with the presumed legal monopoly of the United States Post Office (USPO, now the USPS).
History [ edit ]
Spooner started the service out of frustration with the exceedingly high postal rates. It cost 18 3/4 cents to send a letter from Boston to New York and 25 cents to send one all the way to Washington DC. A letter sent from Boston to Albany, NY written on a 1/4-ounce sheet of paper and carried by the Western Railroad, cost 2/3 as much as the freight charge for carrying a barrel of flour the same distance. Spooner's justification was that the Constitution provided for a government-run postal service, but did not exclude others from engaging in the same business, but Spooner dropped his rates even lower -- delivering many letters for free. Competition dropped prices dramatically. Postage 6 1/4 cents per each half-ounce, payable in advance always. Stamps 20 for a dollar. Deliveries were made twice daily between New York City and Philadelphia. The US Government tried to lower prices by threatening railroads to withdraw business. However, the U.S. Government challenged Spooner with legal measures whereby Spooner was initially vindicated. in fact the U.S. Circuit Court expressed doubt that the U.S. had the right to monopolize the transportation of mail. Congress eventually forced him to cease operations in 1851 by legislating a US monopoly[1].
Overview [ edit ]
According to McMaster,[2] the company had offices in various cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. In February 1844, Spooner advertised rates of "Postage 6 1/4 cents for each half oz.... Stamps, twenty for a dollar." He further stated, "The Company design also (if sustained by the public) thoroughly to agitate the question, and test the constitutional right of free competition in the business of carrying letters."[3] Stamps could be purchased and then attached to letters which could be sent to any of its offices. From there, agents were dispatched who traveled on railroads and steamboats and carried the letters in handbags. Letters were transferred to messengers in the cities along the routes who then delivered the letters to the addressees.
Competition with the U.S. Post Office Department [ edit ]
Spooner's intentions were founded on both an ethical perspective, as he considered government monopoly to be an immoral restriction, and an economic analysis, as he believed that five cents were sufficient to send mail throughout the country. From its inception, the Company was a vehicle for legal challenge. "Mr. Spooner, the head of the American Letter Mail Company, has transmitted to the Department at Washington, a written admission of his conveyance of letters, &c., with all the necessary facts in the case, to make it a purely legal question, so that the Postmaster General has nothing to do but take the whole subject to the Supreme Court of the United States, as soon as it can be got there."[4] The American Letter Mail Company was able to reduce the price of its stamps significantly and even offered free local delivery, significantly undercutting the Post Office Department. The federal government treated this as a criminal act:
United States v. John C. Gilmore—This was action instituted by the Government of the United States, to recover the sum of $50 for an alleged violation of the laws regulating the Post Office Department, embodied in the act of Congress of 1825...[5]
Calvin Case, another of the persons alleged to be in the office, or connected with "Postmaster General Lysander Spooner's American Letter Mail Company," was arrested and held to bail in the sum of $100, by the United States Marshal, in [Philadelphia], on Friday, on the ground of conveying letters contrary to the laws of Congress.[6]
Although the business was forced by the U.S. Government to close shop after only a few years, it succeeded in temporarily driving down the cost of government-delivered mail.[7]
See also [ edit ]Forty percent of adult internet users have personally experienced some kind of online harassment, most of it involving things like name-calling or attempts to embarrass someone.
But there are also more menacing forms of harassment, such as physical threats. That was the focus of a decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned the conviction of a man who had made violent threats on Facebook against his estranged wife.
The case involved a Pennsylvania man who had written posts on the social media site saying that he wanted to slit the throat of his estranged wife. The argument pitted prosecutors against free-speech advocates over whether the man’s posts constituted a “true threat” or whether it was “protected speech” under the First Amendment.
In the closely watched case, the court ruled that it was not enough — as prosecutors had argued — to convict someone on the basis that the language used could be regarded as a threat by a reasonable person. The justices said there had to be proof that the writer actually intended the words to be a threat to warrant criminal charges.
The case mirrors similar issues being wrestled with in the online world. Our 2014 study of online harassment noted, “At a basic level, there is no clear legal definition of what constitutes ‘online harassment.’ Traditional notions of libel, slander and threatening speech are sometimes hard to apply to the online environment.” However, today’s court decision rested on narrow legal grounds rather than First Amendment issues and did not suggest guidelines for the future.
The two most common forms of online harassment for both men and women are being called offensive names or being personally embarrassed, according to the 2014 survey.
The more serious forms of harassment are less frequent: 10% of men and 6% of women said they had been physically threatened on online platforms and similar shares said they had been harassed for a sustained period of time, stalked or sexually harassed.
Another Pew Research Center study showed there are clearly times when social media activity does spill into the real world with harmful consequences, including physical fights, family feuds and disputes that caused them trouble at work.
Young women (ages 18 to 24) are particularly vulnerable to some of the more serious forms of online harassment, according to our 2014 survey. They are significantly more likely to say they have been stalked or sexually harassed than men, although roughly equal shares of both young men and women say they have been physically threatened or were victims of sustained harassment.
Women are also more likely than men to see online harassment as traumatic. Nearly four-in-ten (38%) women who experienced it found it extremely or very upsetting compared with 17% of men.
The survey also probed internet users on incidents of harassment that they witnessed online: About a quarter (24%) said they had seen someone being physically threatened, 19% reported seeing sexual harassment and 18% saw incidents of stalking. Another quarter said they had witnessed someone being harassed for sustained periods of time online.
About 5% of those who said they were victims of harassment reported the problem to law enforcement, while another 22% reported the person responsible to the website or online service they were using. (The Telecommunications Act of 1996 does not hold website administrators liable for content posted by users.)
Note: This is an update of a post originally published Dec. 1, 2014.
Topics: Social Media, Internet ActivitiesEver wondered whether the “>” symbol can, or does, appear in FASTA sequence headers at positions other than the start of the line?
.@sebhtml I say yes (because the original format didn't really specify anything) but bet that this would break lots of code. — Keith Bradnam (@kbradnam) August 13, 2014
I have a recent copy of the NCBI non-redundant nucleotide (nt) BLAST database on my server, so let’s take a look. The files are in a directory which is also named nt:
# %i = sequence ID; %t = sequence title blastdbcmd -db /data/db/nt/nt -entry all -outfmt '%i %t' | grep ">" > ~/Documents/nt.txt wc -l ~/Documents/nt.txt # => 54451 /home/sau103/Documents/nt.txt # and how many sequences total in nt? blastdbcmd -list /data/db/nt/ -list_outfmt '%n' | head -1 # => 23745273
Short answer – yes, about 0.23% of nt sequence descriptions contain the “>” character. Inspection of the output shows that it’s used in a number of ways. A few examples:
# as "brackets" (very common) emb|V01351.1| Sea urchin fragment, 3' to the actin gene in <SPAC01> gb|GU086899.1| Cotesia sp. jft03 voucher BIOUG<CAN>:CPWH-0042 cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene, partial cds; mitochondrial # to indicate mutated bases or amino acids gb|M21581.1|SYNHUMUBA Synthetic human ubiquitin gene (Thr14->Cys), complete cds dbj|AB047520.1| Homo sapiens gene for PER3, exon 1, 128+22(G->A) polymorphism # in chemical nomenclature gb|AF134414.1|AF134414 Homo sapiens B-specific alpha 1->3 galactosyltransferase (ABO) mRNA, ABO-*B101 allele, complete cds # as "arrows" gb|EU303182.1| Apoi virus note kitaoka-> canals ->NIMR nonstructural protein 5 (NS5) gene, partial cds ref|XM_001734501.1| Entamoeba dispar SAW760 5'->3' exoribonuclease, putative EDI_265520 mRNA, complete cds
Something to keep in mind when writing code to process FASTA format.A bystander ran over a machete-wielding refugee this afternoon, ending a rampage that saw a pregnant woman killed and two other injured in Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
While there are no exact details of motive to the attack yet, pictures uploaded to social media show a young bearded man in the process of being arrested and German police have told media that the perpetrator was a “Syrian refugee” who “acted alone”, reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The attack is believed to have taken place before 1630 Central European Time.
UPDATE 20:17 GMT – The district of Reutlingen received, to the end of February 2016, around 3,058 migrants who share accommodation. The chart below shows the distribution of nationalities among the most represented countries of origin in the district.
UPDATE 20:15 GMT – Local news sources are now suggesting the woman in question may have been married to the asylum seeker.
The killing started this afternoon in a local “snack-bar” kebab shop according to reports in Sueddeutsche Zeitung after a “dispute” broke out between the perpetrator and others. The paper reports one woman has died, while another woman and a male are injured. Baden-Württemberg told press this afternoon that the man responsible had been arrested, that he was previously known to them, and there was “no evidence of a terrorist attack”.
Remarkably, a German citizen stepped in to help police arrest the machete-wielding killer. An eyewitness told German newspaper Bild: “The perpetrator was completely out of his mind. He ran with his machete even behind a [police] car. A BMW driver gave it some gas and ran him over. Then he lay prostrate and did not move”.
The paper reports the man behind the wheel of the car was the son of the kebab-shop owner, and that by running down the refugee he likely prevented others from being attacked.
The pavement outside the snack-bar was reportedly “covered with blood” after the attack.
PHOTO: Reportedly shows the attacker after being apprehended by police, Reutlingen #Germany – @News_Executive pic.twitter.com/Y2VNMMhR2G — Conflict News (@Conflicts) July 24, 2016
The official police statement released this evening said: “Shortly before 16:30 we received several emergency calls at the police headquarters in Reutlingen, that a man had quarreled with a woman in the area of the central bus station and had injured her with a machete. The woman suffered fatal injuries.
“The perpetrator was arrested a few minutes later close to the scene due to the rapid intervention of the police. After the initial fatal attack the perpetrator injured another woman and a man.
“The suspect is a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Syria. He is known to the police. According to current knowledge, he is a lone operator, a threat to the population in and around Reutlingen at present is not likely.
“According to current knowledge there is no evidence of a terrorist attack”.
The attack comes less than 48 hours after an 18-year-old German Muslim killed nine in a shooting rampage at a McDonalds in Munich, Bavaria. Just this morning German media reported “panic” after a 22-year-old pulled a knife on a train on the route between Hamburg and Bremen, and less than a week ago an axe-wielding “refugee” injured four on a train in Wurzburg.
The youth immigrant, who shouted “Allahu Akhbar” as he attacked passengers was shot by German police, as reported by Breitbart London on Monday.GOOGLE STREETVIEW The incident took place at the Sydney Russell School
The victims were taken to an east London hospital following the incident at the Sydney Russell School in Dagenham. Police and paramedics were called to the disturbance between the pupils at around 2.11pm on Wednesday amid reports a "noxious substance" had been used. Two of the victims have since been discharged from hospital, while the three suspects, boys aged 12, 13 and 15, remain in custody on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.
GETTY Police were called to the disturbances around 2.11pm
We treated three patients at the scene and took them to a hospital in north-east London London Ambulance Service spokeswoman
A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: "We treated three patients at the scene and took them to a hospital in north-east London. "Three other patients were all also treated at the scene but did not require hospital treatment." The Metropolitan Police have appealed for witnesses.
GETTY The victims were taken to an east London hospital
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: "Officers from Barking and Dagenham are investigating after three teenagers were injured at an east London school. "Police were called by the London Ambulance Service to Sydney Russell School in Parsloes Avenue, Dagenham, at 2:11pm on Wednesday, 22 February to reports of a disturbance involving youths where a noxious substance had been used. "Three people, believed to be two females and one male, were taken to an east London hospital for treatment; two have since been discharged.
GETTY A Scotland Yard spokesperson said that officers are investigatingGovernor Kate Brown today announced that she is reaffirming her commitment to pursue gun violence prevention measures. NEWS RELEASE
October 6, 2017
Media Contact:
Chris Pair, 503-559-5938
Governor Kate Brown Renews Call for Gun Violence Prevention (Portland, OR) – Governor Kate Brown today announced that she is reaffirming her commitment to pursue gun violence prevention measures. In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, the largest mass shooting in United States history, and the two-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, Governor Brown will be working with Oregon lawmakers to develop legislation for the 2018 legislative session that will keep guns out of the wrong hands and help protect Oregonians from gun violence.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families suffering from gun violence in Oregon and across the country. But, I know my condolences will never be enough to keep families safe from violence,” said Governor Brown. “We, as lawmakers, must put politics aside and work together to keep our communities safe. I look forward to working with the Legislature to finish what we started last session and close the Charleston and Boyfriend Loopholes for good. These policies will keep guns out of the wrong hands and help keep our promise to families across the state to keep our communities safe.”
DOWNLOAD AUDIO OF GOVERNOR BROWN DELIVERING THIS STATEMENT
Closing the “Charleston Loophole” will keep a person who is prohibited from purchasing firearms unless and until the Oregon State Police can determine they are eligible. Closing the “Boyfriend Loophole” will update the definition of a domestic violence offender to match the definition already in Oregon law, and will also add persons convicted of misdemeanor stalking to those prohibited from purchasing firearms. ###Earlier this month we got the sad news that the owners of La Borinqueña Mex-icatessen & Specialty Shop (582 7th St.), a family-run institution in Old Oakland for 71 years, had decided to call it quits. La Borinqueña, which specialized in tamales, will have its last day of business on Friday, July 31 — a date that will mark the end not only of a beloved restaurant, but also of one of the last connections to what had been a thriving Latino barrio in Old Oakland.
Tina "Tamale" Ramos, granddaughter of the original owners and the public face of the business for |
pioneer in the industry in a lot of other ways, too.
Kroger was one of the first — if not the very first — to: hire female cashiers, operate its own fleet of trucks, run routine quality control checks, be surrounded by parking lots on all four sides, and test electronic scanners.
5. You can fuel up at almost 1,500 locations.
The first of Kroger's on-property gas stations was constructed in 1998. Loyal customers love it for the Fuel Points program. When you shop in the supermarket or fill your tank, you earn points that can be redeemed for discounts on gasoline.
6. You've probably shopped at a Kroger-owned market without even knowing it.
The grocery conglomerate also owns 25 other big-name retailers including Harris Teeter, Ralphs and Food4Less.
7. Its food will be totally different by 2020.
So far, Kroger has made 11 goals that relate to sustainable food and eco-friendly practices. In three years' time, the chain expects to offer 100% sustainable seafood, 100% cage-free eggs, plus they're hoping to reduce their water consumption by 5% and majorly cut down on food and material waste.
8. Kroger Marketplace is the chain's newest concept store.
Think of it like the new Target or Walmart. Of Kroger's nearly 3,000 stores, more than 120 follow the Marketplace format. That means they're massive in size (typically more than 100,000 square feet), and stocked with the usual groceries, plus fast food, kitchen appliances, home goods, toys, and clothing.
9. Some stores have beer on tap.
Kroger started rolling out beer and wine bars in a handful of its markets in the fall of 2015. You can sit down for a craft brew or fill up a growler, which Kroger sells on site.
10. Kroger has a clearance rack.
They're sneaky and hide the discounted goods in the back of the store. If you trek to the end of the aisles, though, you'll find some pretty good deals. In the past, shoppers have scored boxes of Nature Valley's bars for $1 and baby formula for $1.22.
11. It's one of the biggest grocery retailers in the U.S.
Between the more than 20 stores that operate under The Kroger Co., the grocer raked in$115.3 billion in sales in 2016.Donald Trump became US president by telling voters he wanted “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering” the country. “I think Islam hates us,” he said. Trump also repeatedly criticized president Barack Obama for not using the specific terms “radical Islam” and “radical Islamic terrorists,” suggesting that the articulation of those words was key to keeping America safe.
Trump didn’t use those words either, today in Saudi Arabia, in his vaunted address to a group of Muslim leaders and the Islamic world at large. His goal was to rally listeners around the idea of defeating “terrorists and extremists,” regardless of religious affiliation.
“This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations,” he said. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it. This is a battle between good and evil.”
Still, there were echoes of the same tone-deafness Trump exhibited during a presidential debate in 2016, when he argued that America’s Muslim community needed to do more to prevent terror attacks. “Muslims have to report the problems when they see them,” he said at the time. “If they don’t do that, it’s a very difficult situation for our country.”
Trump’s call to Muslim nations—several of which he singled out for a controversial US travel ban in February—today was similar: “Muslim nations must be willing to take on the burden, if we are going to defeat terrorism and send its wicked ideology into oblivion. The first task in this joint effort is for your nations to deny all territory to the foot soldiers of evil.”
That wider narrative of good versus evil no doubt was inspired by Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist. Bannon’s worldview, especially when understood in the context of some of his documentary filmmaking, includes the conviction that there’s a recurring battle between good and evil, and that the dark forces of evil have taken many forms, “radical Islam” is just the latest incarnation.Definition:
Slow Play is an infraction as per the Penalty Guide. A player is guilty of Slow Play if he fails to perform game actions in a reasonable period of time. Note that time in the round is not a factor of Slow Play, and Slow Play can occur in the initial portions of a round or in the untimed turns. If a judge watches a table where a player is thinking for a long time, the judge should probably pay a bit more attention to this game. If that amount of time becomes unacceptable, he should intervene.
Objectivity and Subjectivity:
Slow Play and Stalling are the only infractions described in the Penalty Guide that do not rely on definite criteria. If Game Play Errors can be identified as soon as the Comp Rules see print, if Unsporting Conduct is described pretty accurately, Slow Play is defined with notions like, "longer than reasonably," or, "quickly enough." Slow Play is therefore a subjective notion whose evaluation is all up to the judge.
Different types of Slow Play:
During the first 50 minutes in the round (or 60 at a PT), Slow Play is a pain for both players. Having played slowly, they end up having been able to play fewer turns, the game's rhythm having been slowed down by the players' reflection. Within a game, the rules do not specify any amount of time allowed to make a play. Between two games or before game 1 starts, rules do indicate a time limit: each player has three(3) minutes to complete all his shuffles and present his deck to his opponent. If that time limit were to be exceeded, a judge should intervene. During additional turns, Slow Play causes a disruption of the tournament itself. If turn 0 and each additional turn lasts at least 2 minutes, that game will likely finish about 15 minutes after the end of the round—an unacceptable situation!
Identifying Slow Play:
How long is "too long?" Practically, what does that mean?
As soon as a player takes a 20-30-second-reflection without any action, this is worth issuing a caution, so that he knows he's taking too much time. Sometimes, in spite of this remark, the player still won't have moved in the following 10 or 20 seconds. This is the perfect moment to issue the infraction of Tournament Error — Slow Play. The penalty is a warning at all RELs.
Theoretically, the rhythm a player plays at should be evaluated without taking the game state into consideration. In a draft tournament, it is possible both players control a bunch of creatures, making the game state almost impossible to understand perfectly. Even if a player faces an incredibly and extremely complex situation, thinking for too long is an infraction. Magic is a game where one has to take decisions within a reasonable time.
The typical time a player will seek additional reflection time is when they believe they are faced with a complex situation (like a board with 10 creatures on each side). What both player and judge need to realize is that this situation is usually the result usually of a less complex situation last turn. Unless the game state has radically changed (such as Armageddon has resolved), complex situations arise over time and are not an excuse to play slowly.
The aforesaid time limit needs to be changed with the situation. A player that performs an action every 5-10 seconds for a total of two minutes is unlikely to be guilty of Slow Play, provided his actions aim at having the game state to evolve. On the contrary, a player who would think for 30 seconds, drop a land, think for 20 seconds, announce a combat phase, then think 20 more seconds before declaring attackers definitely plays too slowly. Despite the fact that he spent "only" a minute a 10 seconds on his turn, it is unlikely the game state has evolved enough to finish the game within reasonable time. Every action was not significant enough to make the game state progress.
You can evaluate Slow Play through techniques that don't use quantified time limits. For instance, you may try to understand the game state. When you think you've understood, let 5-10 more seconds pass and issue a caution. You have to be careful if you want to use this technique: you may be far better than the player you're watching and therefore understanding too quickly what's happening; or your playing skills in the format may not be good enough, so you won't intervene quickly enough. Be aware of what your skills are.
Finally, be aware that a player who called you to watch his opponent for slow play can himself be playing too slowly.
Slow Playing and Bluffing:
There is a thin layer that separates bluffing and playing slowly. For instance, a player has the right to think a moment with two lands in hand and an empty board. He's indicating his opponent that he has options. If this is perfectly acceptable one or two turns in a row, the player can't keep doing that every turn.
Nothing in the rules prevents players from bluffing. This has to be respected. This is a reason why the content of the players' hands is irrelevant for Slow Play. It becomes relevant to deal with intentionality.
Issuing Slow Play Penalties:
You're certain a player isn't playing fast enough, and you've already issued him a caution. Then it's time to tell him he's guilty of Tournament Error — Slow Play! As usual, write all the relevant information down on the back of the Results Entry Slip.
Players also get two extra additional turns per warning. This is a major change that came with the new Penalty Guidelines. There is an exception to this rule: if you're issuing a Tournament Error — Slow Play Warning during the additional turns, players do not get extra turns.
Issuing the caution: The caution doesn't have to be presented as such. A sentence like, "please play faster," or, "you have to make a decision now" looks better than "I'm close to issuing you a Warning for Slow Play."
The reasoning behind that is the following: the player is not yet playing too slowly but is close. He may not be aware of it and judges should prevent problems from happening; so you're telling him he might end up committing an infraction. Since the judge simply wants to prevent problems from happening, a caution can be issued any time the judge wishes.
Issuing the Warning: When you're decided you will issue the player a Warning, you should try to avoid breaking his concentration and wait until he has taken an action to do so.
The reasoning behind that is the following: A player guilty of Tournament Error — Slow Play is honest, which means he doesn't realize he's taking too long or just having difficulty making a decision. Therefore, it seems more respectful to let him finish his reflection. Of course you will not allow him infinite time, but is there a point in issuing a double sanction to a player? Indeed, issuing a written sanction to a player will make his change his range of interests. He'll lose the path of reflection he was in, and is likely to make severe mistakes. This is why, whenever possible, I'd recommend not issuing a Warning while he hasn't made a decision.
If both players have chosen to play slowly, they're still committing an infraction. The whole process described above should still apply, with two warnings if they do not wish to play faster. Why? Consistency! How can a judge tell players they're playing too slowly in extra turns while he hasn't intervened in the first 50 minutes? How can a judge tell a player he's playing too slowly in round 6 while his rhythm was found decent two rounds earlier?
After you've issued a Tournament Error — Slow Play Warning, you're still not done. You need to remain at the table so that they keep playing at reasonable pace. A Warning is worth nothing if the player doesn't feel "encouraged" to play faster. Staying at a table is a good way to do so.
Dealing with player reactions:
You have to keep in mind the difference that exists between a player involved in the game and the judge noticing from an external point of view that player is playing too slowly. Time passes much quicker for the player than for the judge. This is why the judge should expect reactions from players who are issued penalties for Tournament Error — Slow Play. Most of time, they will not understand what's happening to them. That is, of course, not an excuse for any unsporting behaviour. It seems better to explain calmly the reasons why you intervened than issuing a penalty for Unsporting Conduct – Minor (slight disruption of the tournament).
Slow Play vs. Stalling:
Here's the big one. Stalling can roughly be defined as "Intentional Slow Play," but that would be wrong. It's a bit trickier than that. A player might be guilty of stalling without being guilty of Slow Play. Let's take the definitions and take a look at the differences. Both come from the Penalty Guidelines:
Slow Play: Players who take longer than is reasonably required to complete game actions are engaging in slow play.
This means a player is playing too slow to finish a game within reasonable time.
Stalling: A player intentionally plays slowly in order to take advantage of the time limit.
This means the player adapts his rhythm to optimize the time limit.
We've seen above that Slow Play doesn't have to the game state (although you'll probably end up taking it into account). Stalling, on the contrary, mostly does.
Therefore, the analysis of these two concepts rely on different basis. That's why one may be stalling without playing slowly.
Here's an example that occurred at Worlds in Paris: Player A (Adam) plays an aggressive deck. Player B (Billy) plays a control deck. Adam calls a judge to ensure nobody will be playing too slowly. Adam makes a strong start, playing very quickly. He complains that Billy sometimes takes time to think about his options. The judge doesn't react except by telling them to keep playing. By turn six or so, Billy has taken control of the game, and it becomes obvious Adam will not be able to kill Billy anymore. Billy's body language tends to prove he kind of agrees with this statement.
By turn seven, Adam draws a fetchland. He has lost all his creatures but two the turn before, and is facing four blockers. He cannot attack. He thinks for 20 seconds, and Billy asks him to play or pass. Adam reacts quite aggressively, saying he's the one who called for Slow Play (which is not an argument at all by the way). He ends up playing his land and passing.
Here's the new situation: Billy cannot die, but needs to kill Adam before the time limit is reached. So he quickly does some things and passes. Adam thinks for some time before deciding to sacrifice his fetchland. He takes time to find a land. He loses several seconds before untapping. He thinks before drawing a card. Etc.
Though he never met the criteria that would make him guilty of Tournament Error — Slow Play, he was still guilty of stalling. He behaved differently because he knew the game would be almost impossible to win, and that a draw was his last hope. And what was his last option to obtain it? The time limit!
This article is the result of a seminar that has been held at PT Yokohama and has been reviewed by Sheldon "French addict" Menery and Andy Heckt.
Kevin Desprez
DCI Judge Level 3Not as many coins dropped into New Jersey red kettles
With a smile and always a kind word Eileen Scheibner a volunteer for the Salvation Army for over four years outside Kings Super market ringing a bell in the cold for a three hour shift. In certain areas the foot traffic is less because of the popularity of online shopping and how this affects the Salvation Army, which relies on volunteers ringing bells in the hopes of donations from people when they go in or come out of a stores. In Morristown, NJ. December 19, 2016. (Photo: Demitrius Balevski/NORTHJERSEY.COM) Story Highlights More people shopping online or not carrying cash, cuts into donations
Army gives 85 cents of every $1 collected to needy people, causes
Salvation Army helps 30 million each year
The bright-red kettles suspended from tripods in front of supermarkets, usually accompanied by ringing bells, have many people automatically reaching into their pockets in search of loose change.
This December, however, the Salvation Army is ringing the alarm bell. Its strategy of standing outside of malls and supermarkets asking for donations isn't working as well.
The New Jersey division of the Salvation Army is worried that online shopping is taking a toll on donations. Fewer shoppers visiting stores is leaving the kettles a bit empty.
“With the rise of online shopping during the holiday season, coupled with the fact that many people do not carry cash anymore, the Salvation Army in New Jersey is challenged to raise money through their traditional red kettles,” says Alexandria Hammond, community relations manager.
Initially started to fund a Christmas dinner for the poor in San Francisco in 1865, the tradition of “bell ringers” calling for change has become the Christian group’s main fundraiser.
Eileen Scheibner and her daughter have spent a few hours at a time out in the cold ringing bells for the Salvation Army this year, and they plan to spend more time championing its causes. Scheibner says she knows what it's like to need help.
“They helped me out in 2011 when I had cancer,” says the retired nurse. The organization helped her with money when she couldn't afford her rent. “They supported me and my daughter during my cancer treatment,” she says. That is why the mother and daughter stand in front of stores greeting strangers and trying to appeal to their Christmas spirit.
With a smile and a kind word, Eileen Scheibner, a volunteer for the Salvation Army for the last four years, stands outside Kings Supermarket in Morristown for her three-hour shift. (Photo: Demitrius Balevski/NorthJersey.com)
“I love ringing the bells and promoting the good works of the Salvation Army,” Scheibner says.
The money collected through the iconic campaign still feeds those in need. It also provides assistance to victims of disasters and pays for programs for people who are poor, disabled, elderly, ill or homeless.
The Salvation Army helps 30 million Americans annually, giving 82 cents of every dollar it collects to the causes.
Maj. Ivan Rock, state commander of the Salvation Army in New Jersey, says the tradition of storefront collection is feeling the effects of time. Contributions, he says, are down 10 percent from last year so far.
"Society is changing. What we have found is, fewer people are carrying cash and more people are shopping online," he says. "We are feeling the impact of that."
Rock says bell ringers (their term for the volunteers) across the state are reporting a decline in contributions.
Paying it forward: “They helped me out in 2011 when I had cancer,” Scheibner says of the Salvation Army. Now, as a bell ringer, the retired nurse is helping the organization help others. (Photo: Demitrius Balevski/NorthJersey.com)
“In 2011, the campaign raised $2.2 million,” Rock says. “We have seen the decline slowly over the past number of years to $1.9 million.”
Last year’s $1.9 million went to helping more than 700,000 New Jerseyans. The numbers still seems impressive, but going deeper, Rock says, reveals reasons to worry.
"When you think about it, the kettle campaign is nickels and dimes that add up,” Rock says. “A decline of that magnitude makes it more difficult for us to provide the services we provide.”
He says he sees more people in need this year and expects still more in the coming year.
“Many of the people coming to us for Thanksgiving help and Christmas help have been the working poor,” Rock says. “We have seen a large growth in that. In order to meet that growing need, we have actually set our goal this year a bit higher than last year. But we are struggling.”
Eileen Scheibner, a volunteer for the Salvation Army for the last four years, helping children donate coins as she stands outside Kings Supermarket in Morristown for her three-hour shift. December 19, 2016. (Photo: Demitrius Balevski/NorthJersey.com)
Lt. Col. Ron Busroe is national spokesman for the organization, and he says the downward trend for contributions is not a national trend. In fact, Busroe says last year was the best year the Salvation Army has ever had with Christmas kettles. Nationally, the program collected $150 million. The downward trend has been tracked specifically to the Northeast. Neither state nor national Salvation Army officials offer a reason for the trend, but they say they are tracking it.
In 2011, $30 million was collected in Christmas kettles across the Northeast. In 2012, $29 million was collected; in 2013, $26 million; in 2014, $28.7 million. And in 2015, when collections in the rest of the country were up, collections in the Northeast were down 1 percent at $28.4 million, according to Busroe.
“There are a number of trends against the kettle campaign,” Busroe says. “We are becoming a cashless society, and retail traffic has shown steady decline over the last four or five years.”
So the Salvation Army is trying to roll with the times. It has just launched a new mobile campaign where people can donate by texting NJkettle to 41444. There are other sources of revenue as well, including mailed-in donations. But the kettles are most visible, when it comes to the group’s identity.
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“The kettle campaign is our largest campaign of the year and therefore most important,” Rock says. “It is a time when people are thinking about the Salvation Army and the services we provide. The kettle on the corner is a fixture at Christmastime. I don't envision a day when the Salvation Army would get rid of our kettles. They are too important to who we are.“
Last Sunday, the red kettles and the Salvation Army got a bit of a boost when Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott jumped into a big Salvation Army red kettle after scoring a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Salvation Army said the publicity helped boost donations, and in the 12 hours after Elliott's jump, the organization collected $182,000 in online donations, Busroe says.
Email: myers@northjersey.com
Read or Share this story: http://northjersy.news/2id2yIuWASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Thursday that the United States was willing to discuss how the criminal case against Edward J. Snowden would be handled, but only if Mr. Snowden pleaded guilty first.
Mr. Holder, speaking at a question-and-answer event at the University of Virginia, did not specify the guilty pleas the Justice Department would expect before it would open talks with Mr. Snowden’s lawyers. And the attorney general reiterated that the United States was not willing to offer clemency to Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked documents that American officials have said threaten national security.
“Instead,” Mr. Holder said in response to a question at the university’s Miller Center, “were he coming back to the U.S. to enter a plea, we would engage with his lawyers.”
Calls for clemency for Mr. Snowden, who has taken refuge in Moscow, have increased in the last several months as some civil liberties groups and prominent news organizations, including an editorial in The New York Times, have asked the government to consider such a move.*I am writing this while sitting in a commercial airplane typing on a laptop that is wirelessly connected to the internet, drinking a chilled glass of clean water. The numerous technologies needed to make this situation possible are mind blowing to me as an engineer. That I am thousands of feet off the ground at this moment is amazing to me and was beyond the wildest dreams of my relatives just a few generations ago. *
Last week was a devastating week for spaceflight.
On Tuesday Orbital Science’s Antares rocket, en route to the International Space Station with supplies and scientific experiments, exploded. On seeing the first images from Wallops island, my thoughts went to the ground crew on site at the launch. It was with great relief that I read that no injuries were caused by this explosion. Just three short days later, I saw the horrible news of the crash of SpaceShipTwo which, unlike Antares, was a vehicle with a crew. It wasn’t long before there was confirmation that one pilot had been killed and the other was en route to a hospital. A few hours later, I watched my husband (wearing an astronaut costume he had planned weeks earlier) trick-or-treating with our daughters, and it was impossible not to think of the family whose test-pilot father isn’t coming home. As an engineering professor I also spent time thinking of the team of engineers who had worked on the vehicle in which he died.
When things go right, we sometimes applaud technology, engineers and the entrepreneurs that help fund these innovations. More often, we don’t even notice. (Here I should point out that SpaceShipTwo had previously flown over fifty times. I, and likely many of you, had not followed more than a handful of those flights; I had to do some digging to find the total number.) When things go wrong, our reactions are much more varied, and often much louder. There are always, and always should be, questions raised. I applaud the work that is currently being done by the agencies investigating the crash, and know that this situation will become a case study in engineering classes in the years to come. These investigations began immediately after the crash, and will likely continue for many months, if not years, to come.
#### AnnMarie Thomas ##### About AnnMarie Thomas is an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. She has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Caltech, and an SB in Ocean Engineering from MIT. Follow her on Twitter [@amptMN](https://twitter.com/amptMN).
I am heartsick for the families and friends of the pilots, as well as for the engineers who are likely spending sleepless nights replaying the last five days in their heads. In addition to my sadness, I am angry. Why?
A few hours after the crash, I saw a tweet from WIRED with the words “Space tourism isn’t worth dying for,” and a link to a piece written by Adam Rogers. While it is likely that the phrase in the tweet wasn’t Rogers’ own words, the first sentence of his article declares that the death and injury were “in the service of a millionaire boondoggle thrill ride.” TIME had its own day-of-the-crash headline and article: “Enough with Amateur-Hour Space Flight.” In it, author Jeffrey Kluger describes Richard Branson as being “driven by too much hubris… and too little knowledge of the head-crackingly complex business of engineering.”
Let’s be clear here: SpaceShipTwo was not built by amateurs. Richard Branson didn’t build a space ship. If he did, with all due respect to him, I would strongly advise you not to ride in it, as Richard Branson is not an aerospace engineer. What Branson did was to hire one of the world's most innovative and experienced aerospace companies to build the vehicle. Scaled Composites, the company that designed and was testing SpaceShipTwo, is over thirty years old. It was founded by Burt Rutan, designer of the Voyager aircraft, to design and test experimental aircraft. Since its founding, Scaled Composites has pushed the state of the art in both design and materials. It has over 200 highly skilled employees. Scaled Composites is a respected company, not one that just popped up overnight.
As someone who teaches engineering students, it has been impossible not to reflect on SpaceShipTwo this week. A colleague of mine, also an engineering professor, reminded me of the many advances in automotive engineering that came about because of attempts to break the land speed record. Those efforts were ones that involved many engineers, and also many of that era’s wealthy elite. Land speed record holders have come from families with backgrounds in diamond sales, fur trading, and other entrepreneurial endeavors. In 1904, William Vanderbilt, son of William Henry Vanderbilt and a millionaire himself, held the record at 92 miles per hour. At the time these attempts could easily have been dismissed as “thrill rides” by critics, but they also led to advances in tires, composites, and engine design.
In the piece that was posted on WIRED.com, the author repeatedly refers to the high cost of the tickets that have been sold for future flights on SpaceShipTwo, and that the pilots death “keeps rich people further away from weightlessness and a beautiful view.” I’d like to remind all of us that there are many examples of technology that was originally extremely expensive, and thus used initially by an admittedly wealthy subset of the population, that then became commonplace at multiple income levels. Consider, for a moment, the commercial airplane, computers, clean water and refrigeration— the technologies that I mention at the beginning of this article. There was a time when these were luxury items and some commentators couldn’t imagine that these would be available to the average person.
The cost of space and air travel research is high, and we are living in an era where NASA and NSF budgets for research are being slashed. As these budgets shrink, the role of private industry in researching and developing the technologies of the future is growing out of necessity. If someone has the money and interest to support such research and hires the highly skilled individuals capable of carrying out that research and testing, we may continue to see the kinds of exploration and discoveries once limited to massive government-sponsored efforts. Any of the “millionaire boondogglers” who bought advance SpaceShipTwo tickets were helping to fund the research that the Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composite teams are doing. Regardless of the goal of that research, even if it is “only” to develop new methods for short duration low altitude space flight, I would not be so naïve as to claim that there are no other possible uses for the technologies that will be developed in the process. As a follow-up article in WIRED made clear on Friday, there are myriad reasons why Virgin Galactic's mission advanced science and technology.
This brings me back to the original article that caught my eye on this topic. What gives any of us the right to decide for others what is, or is not, worth dying for? Last year I, as a longtime sailor and Ocean Engineer, read WIRED’s coverage of the 2014 America’s Cup. This year’s race was undertaken by multi-million dollar boats that reached never-before seen speeds. At this size and speed, these boats could be labeled both state-of-the art and also deadly. Andrew Simpson, a highly skilled sailor, was killed in a crash during one of the training runs. In all of my reading of WIRED and WIRED.com at that time, I do not once recall coming across any coverage that declared yacht racing “not worth dying for.”
At the university where I work, our students are given the option of joining the “Order of the Engineer” at graduation. Think of it as analogous to the medical profession’s Hippocratic Oath. It ends with the phrase “In the performance of duty and in fidelity to my profession, I shall give the utmost.” I have yet to meet an engineer who works in aerospace, or any other field in which human lives are at stake, who doesn’t do honor to this phrase (whether they are a member of the order or not).
The deceased pilot, Michael Alsbury, worked at Scaled Composites for over a decade and was also the copilot on SpaceShipTwo’s first powered flight in 2013. I have spoken to many test pilots, astronauts, and (undersea) submersible pilots. Never once have I met one who was not acutely aware of the risks inherent to their profession and had not made a well-considered choice to do this work.While Rogers acknowledges that the pilots and engineers working on the Virgin Galactic vehicles are doing amazing things, I can’t help but read his attack on the reason behind the company’s endeavor as an attack on them as well. If you ask any of the highly skilled and trained engineers and test pilots who worked on SpaceShipTwo or its predecessors what they work on, I sincerely doubt that any of them will tell you that they are working on a “millionaire boondoggle thrill ride.” For author Adam Rogers to imply that that is what they were working on and WIRED to tweet that “Space Tourism isn’t Worth Dying For,” mere hours after one of those colleagues perished strikes me as irresponsible sensationalism.
We should all be very cautious about deciding, for others, which endeavors are worth doing, or even dying for. What we should be concerned about is informed consent. The teams that undertake these endeavors must ensure that participants understand the risks, and should do everything in their power to protect those participants. Moreover, they must ensure people uninvolved with the project are kept safe. At this point it seems that the testing was done in such a way that the public was not at risk, and that the participants knew what they were taking on. I am sad for everyone involved in this tragic event. My thoughts are with them as they decide how to move forward. I also urge authors to focus first on the technology and data, rather than immediately casting aspersions on the people working to build new technologies.Dude, where’d all my stuff go? Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
This post originally appeared on Business Insider.
A 68-year-old man from the U.K. successfully sued Apple after the company deleted precious photos, videos, and contacts from his iPhone, according to The Evening Standard.
The plaintiff, Deric White, sought the equivalent of $7,500 in damages after he took his iPhone 5 into the Regent Street Apple Store in London for repair. Instead of fixing the phone, a store employee deleted everything.
White was awarded $1,800 and around $1,200 in costs.
“My life was saved on that phone,” he told The Sun. “It was only after staff fiddled around they asked if I’d backed my things up.”
Apple argued in court that White has “not demonstrated how he suffered any loss” when his data, which includes 15 years worth of contacts, was deleted. The Court found differently, however.
White will put the $1,800 towards a holiday in Cornwall, on the South Coast of England. “It’s not so much the money that I have won, but it’s the moral victory,” he said. “It’s absolutely fabulous, it’s a monumental victory.”
See also: Spotify Just Became the Most Popular Music Streaming AppView a pdf of the report here.
Submit a comment regarding the Keystone XL pipeline here.
A new report out today from environmental groups shows that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would, if approved, be responsible for at least 181 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 e) each year, comparable to the tailpipe emissions from more than 37.7 million cars or 51 coal-fired power plants.
In documenting the emissions associated with the controversial pipeline project, the report makes real the scale of climate impact and the further hurdles the project would create for the battle against climate change, putting the State Department’s “business as usual” scenarios into doubt.
The major findings of “Cooking the Books: How The State Department Analysis Ignores the True Climate Impact of the Keystone XL Pipeline” are:
— The 181 million metric tons of (CO2e) from Keystone XL is equivalent to the tailpipe emissions from more than 37.7 million cars. This is more cars than are currently registered on the entire West Coast (California, Washington, and Oregon), plus Florida, Michigan, and New York – combined.
— Between 2015 and 2050, the pipeline alone would result in emissions of 6.34 billion metric tons of CO 2 e. This amount is greater than the 2011 total annual carbon dioxide emissions of the United States.
— The International Energy Agency has said that two-thirds of known fossil fuel reserves must remain undeveloped if we are to avoid a 2 degree C temperature rise. Constructing the Keystone XL pipeline and developing the tar sands make that goal far more difficult, if not impossible, to reach.
“When evaluating this project, the State Department should apply a simple test: Does its completion bring the U.S. closer to meeting its climate goals? The answer is clearly no, and therefore the project must be denied,” said Steve Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International.
In its 2012 World Energy Outlook, the IEA is very clear about the impact of climate policy on U.S. oil demand. If meaningful climate policy is pursued, U.S. oil demand would necessarily be cut 50 percent by 2035 and 70 percent by 2050 based on a 2012 baseline.
“Alberta’s premier was just in Washington, DC noting how essential the pipeline is to meeting increased production of the dirtiest oil on the planet. The numbers in this report make it clear that we can’t afford to help Big Oil meet that goal,” said Elizabeth Shope of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
U.S. demand for oil has declined since 2005 by 2.25 million barrels per day – or the equivalent of almost three Keystone XL pipelines.
“Any objective analysis of the impact of building Keystone shows that it would be a climate catastrophe,” said Ross Hammond, senior campaigner for Friends of the Earth. “Instead, the State Department seems ready to buy into the pipeline propaganda of an army of lobbyists who are trading on their ties to Secretary Kerry and President Obama to taint the decision. The president must act in the national interest, not the interests of Big Oil, and reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”
“Today’s report clearly demonstrates that we can’t protect future generations from the worst impacts of global warming while allowing ourselves to become hooked on even dirtier sources of fuel,” said Daniel Gatti, Get Off Oil Program Director for Environment America. “We need President Obama and Secretary Kerry to say no to tar sands, and no to the Keystone XL pipeline.”
“If he’s to keep his promise to confront climate change to protect America |
lasted Andrew Dromsky 6-2, 7-5 at the No. 6 spot and Robert Stineman followed with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jess Jones at the No. 5 position, putting Stanford in front 2-1.
Playing two spots higher in the lineup at No. 4, David Hsu won his 11th consecutive match when he outlasted Luis Valero 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 and increased the Cardinal's lead to 3-1.
Mikelis Libietis kept Tennessee within striking distance, putting away Tom Fawcett 6-4, 7-6 (6) in a battle of players ranked among the top-30 at the top of the lineup.
With the Volunteers gaining momentum and leading 4-1 at the No. 2 spot, Wilczynski polished off his match to secure the win.
Stanford and Tennessee were hooking up for the first time since 2001, when the Volunteers posted a 4-2 victory in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Cardinal improved to 5-1 in the all-time series.
Stanford owns a 104-20 all-time record in the postseason. The Cardinal has won 17 NCAA championships, including 15 since the NCAA Tournament went to its present format in 1977. The most recent crown came back in 2000, when Stanford blanked VCU 4-0.
- - - - - - - - - - -
No. 23 Stanford 4, No. 41 Tennessee 2
DOUBLES
1) No. 4 Libietis/Reese (TENN) d. No. 9 Morrissey/Stineman (STAN) 8-4
2) Dromsky/Igor Smelyanski (TENN) d. No. 69 Fawcett/Maciek Romanowicz (STAN) 8-5
3) Paige/Wilczynski (STAN) vs. Schipanski/Valero (TENN) abandoned
Order of Finish: 1, 2The Democratic National Committee is throwing a hissy fit after President Donald Trump fired acting attorney general Sally Yates for refusing to enact his executive order on immigration and refugees:
DNC response to Trump's firing of Sally Yates: "Tyrannical" (h/t @BennettJohnT) pic.twitter.com/k8MxCJPsGO — Todd Ruger (@ToddRuger) January 31, 2017
Actually there was nothing "tyrannical" about Trump firing Yates, as she refused to do her job. Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro has more on that here. But the DNC is also being incredibly hypocritical, because there are plenty of instances in which Democrats have fired people who answered to them. Here are seven times where this has happened.
1. Barack Obama fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal in 2010 for criticizing him and Joe Biden. McChrystal said the following about Biden in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine:
Last fall, during the question-and-answer session following a speech he gave in London, McChrystal dismissed the counterterrorism strategy being advocated by Vice President Joe Biden as "shortsighted," saying it would lead to a state of "Chaos-istan." The remarks earned him a smackdown from the president himself, who summoned the general to a terse private meeting aboard Air Force One. The message to McChrystal seemed clear: Shut the fuck up, and keep a lower profile. Now, flipping through printout cards of his speech in Paris, McChrystal wonders aloud what Biden question he might get today, and how he should respond. "I never know what's going to pop out until I'm up there, that's the problem," he says. Then, unable to help themselves, he and his staff imagine the general dismissing the vice president with a good one-liner. "Are you asking about Vice President Biden?" McChrystal says with a laugh. "Who's that?" "Biden?" suggests a top adviser. "Did you say: Bite Me?"
McChrystal also said this about Obama:
The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. "It was a 10-minute photo op," says an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."
And then McChrystal was fired. Obama tried to spin it the firing as necessary for the war in Afghanistan, but a source from the administration at the time told the New York Times, "A lot of us were arguing that the message of letting McChrystal’s comments roll off our backs would be enormously harmful." The fact that McChrystal was fired shortly after making those comments also makes it clear that the comments were why he was fired.
McChrystal later said in an interview with ABC News that his firing was "surreal."
"My whole career I'd thought that I could be fired for incompetence, or I could be killed, or I could have any number of things happen, but I never thought I could be painted with any brush of disrespect or disloyalty, because I didn't see myself that way," McChrystal said. "And I still don't."
2. Obama fired national security aide Jofi Joseph for tweeting out criticisms of Obama's staff that were...colorful. Joseph, who had served on the National Security Council, had tweeted out the following from an anonymous account:
"I'm a fan of Obama, but his continuing reliance and dependence upon a vacuous cipher like Valerie Jarrett concerns me," he once reportedly tweeted of the president's senior adviser. Summing up his colleagues, he once reportedly tweeted, "'Has shitty staff.' #ObamaInThreeWords."
Joseph was subsequently fired.
3. Bill Clinton fired surgeon general Joycelyn Elders for suggesting that children learn about masturbation. Elders was asked in 1994 if masturbation education would cause unprotected sex to decline.
"I think that is something that is a part of human sexuality, and it's a part of something that perhaps should be taught," Elders said. "But we've not even taught our children the very basics."
She was fired shortly afterward.
4. Clinton also fired FBI director William Sessions for reported ethics violations. Sessions, a holdover from the Reagan administration, was alleged to have "improperly used government money to build a $10,000 fence at his home" and "had taken numerous free trips aboard F.B.I. aircraft to visits friends and relatives, often taking along his wife," among other ethics violations. Sessions refused to resign, so Clinton simply fired him.
5. Clinton fired all of the U.S. attorneys but one after taking office in 1993. Fox News's Brit Hume reported in 2007:
News stories reporting that the Bush administration had considered firing all 93 U.S. attorneys across the country failed to mention that that is exactly what Bill Clinton did soon after taking office in 1993. The only sitting U.S. attorney Clinton did not cashier was Michael Chertoff, now the Bush Homeland Security Secretary. At the time Chertoff was U.S. attorney in New Jersey and then Democratic Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey intervened to save Chertoff's job. None of this was noted, even in passing, in front-page stories today in The New York Times and Washington Post, or in the AP's story on the subject.
6. Jimmy Carter fired four department secretaries in 1979. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss told National Public Radio in 2013 that Carter "wanted a new start" by firing those secretaries due to the rocky circumstances facing his presidency at the time.
"That was a time in which inflation was roaring, there was an energy crisis," Beschloss said. "He wanted to show that he was changing the terms of his administration. It completely backfired. His polls plunged. People thought that that was a confession of the fact that Carter was saying that he was going down in flames."
7. Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur over disagreements on how to proceed with the Korean War. Truman reluctantly agreed to MacArthur's plan to completely eradicate the communist threat in North Korea despite concerns that it would prompt China to get involved in the war. The move did in fact cause China to intervene, which resulted in "driving the U.S. troops back into South Korea."
"MacArthur then asked for permission to bomb communist China and use Nationalist Chinese forces from Taiwan against the People’s Republic of China," notes History.com. "Truman flatly refused these requests and a very public argument began to develop between the two men."
The argument eventually ended with MacArthur's firing.
Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter @bandlersbanter.The "popup" reference seems to indicate that this will be a temporary store. That's in contrast to Apple and Microsoft, who both have permanent footholds in New York. Still, it's a notable move on Google's part. Following its earlier "Made by Google" marketing materials -- which included billboard posters and mysterious, rectangular statues -- the company seems serious about advertising its new hardware. That's important if Google is going to fight Apple's iPhone and Amazon's Echo effectively. As we've seen with companies like Sony and HTC, it's not enough to simply build great products -- they have to be marketed heavily too.
Google has experimented with stores before. While Google Glass was still a curiosity, the company experimented with some showroom-style installations. Since then, it's also set up a store-within-a-store as part of a Currys PC World in London. A retail presence like Apple's seems unlikely -- but that could soon change if the Pixel struggles in carrier stores.Be sure to check out our store for a great collection of Muslim products!
The following piece is taken from the editorial introduction of American Journal of Islamic Science’s special issue dealing with homosexuality. It is posted here with Dr. Ovamir Anjum’s permission, who is the editor-in-chief of the journal.
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Introduction | The Limits of Consent and the Autonomy of the Self | The Limits of Historicism and Social Construction | The Imperative to Draw Reasoned Boundaries | Endnotes
By Dr. Ovamir Anjum
Introduction
In your hands is another thematic issue of AJISS, one that consists of two main contributions that address the Islamic tradition’s prohibition of the homosexual act. Jonathan A. C. Brown’s essay analyzes the authenticity of pertinent hadith traditions, whereas Mobeen Vaid’s essay explores the Qur’anic perspective. Both articles had their origin in presentations by a number of scholars at a colloquium held at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Herndon, VA, on November 1-2, 2015. Although an earlier version of Vaid’s essay is available online, its original intent and thematic complementarity with Brown’s essay on hadith merit its inclusion here. Together, they make crucial contributions to the scholarship that has reopened the question of how the Islamic scriptural and jurisprudential traditions view this particular sexual practice. In the same workshop, I presented my reflections on the stakes of the rise of new pro-homosexual (or at least neutral) laws and cultural formations for Muslim scholarship as well as politics, which I share in a modified form in this editorial essay.In keeping with this issue’s theme of sexual ethics, we also include David Finn’s critical and extensive evaluation of Aysha Hidayatullah’s important Feminist Edges of the Qur’an (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Scholarship does not always need to address burning issues; however, scholarship on Islam is often unable to provide the quiet anonymity that serious scholars often crave. What is at stake for American Muslims in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell decision on gay-marriage, the meteoric rise of homosexual assertiveness over the last few decades in the country, and the sea-change – let’s label it “homonormativity” – in cultural and intellectual norms that this decision has ushered in? As Muslims around the world are avid consumers and targets of American culture, norms, policies, and wars on terror – not to mention presidential sermons about the essence of Islam – the repercussions of its culture and norms in this era of globalization and American hegemony are not limited to American Muslims. Yet no one is more directly affected by the former, nor better placed to most intimately understand and critically evaluate its imperatives or exports. IIIT’s aforementioned colloquium intended to do precisely that.
This editorial seeks to frame the political as well as religious issues raised by homonormativity and suggest why and how Islamic norms, despite their origins in what was, as Dreher and his likes have argued (see below), a radically different time and place, remain relevant.As a minority residing under non-Islamic legal norms, Western Muslims may be justified in disarticulating their political and legal stances from their moral, cultural, and religious lives. Without claiming to offer political advice or critique, I wish to highlight the stakes involved in Western Muslims’ support for or opposition to same-sex marriage and in the arguments proffered for these positions.
One index of the stakes of the Obergefell decision can be found in the sobering words of Rod Dreher, an American Christian and editor of The American Conservative magazine, who writes in his bestselling The Benedict Option,
The advance of gay civil rights, along with a reversal of religious liberties for believers who do not accept the LGBT agenda, had been slowly but steadily happening for years. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage was the Waterloo of religious conservatism. It was the moment that the Sexual Revolution triumphed decisively, and the culture war, as we have known it since the 1960s, came to an end. In the wake of Obergefell, Christian beliefs about the sexual complementarity of marriage are considered to be abominable prejudice – and in a growing number of cases, punishable. The public square has been lost. [1]
Whether this is all mere hyperbole remains to be seen; however, the undeniable fact that a large number of conservative Americans felt this way served as one of several reasons why many voted against the Democrats in the fateful 2016 presidential election.The ongoing electoral upset is epoch-making indeed, and yet it only reinforces trends long underway in American politics toward cultural liberalism and political conservatism. After citing the declining religiosity among young Americans (one in three 18-to-29-year-olds have put religion aside), Dreher turns to those who claim to be religious and finds even greater cause for concern. A 2005 sociological study of American teenagers from a wide variety of backgrounds found the most common religious views, regardless of the formal affiliation and denomination, to be a “mushy pseudo religion” that the researchers labeled Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD). It has five basic tenets:
A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth;
God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions;
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself
God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life, except when he is needed to resolve a problem; and
Good people go to heaven when they die.
The author highlights the unsettling vindication of these results in the experiences of American Christians at large: “America has lived a long time off its thin Christian veneer, partly necessitated by the Cold War … [t]hat is all finally being stripped away by the combination of mass consumer capitalism and liberal individualism.”[2]
The decades-long ideological shift has made homosexuality not merely an issue of personal choice, but also the newest frontier of human rights, the decisive definition of what it means to be on the right side of history. Late-modern capitalism and its favored ideology of liberal humanism have finally moved to banish the last remnants of interdiction,sanctity, and prohibition from the sovereign path of individual desire.
But, one might ask, have not Muslims in the West lived in substantial numbers for nearly half a century alongside norms that violate their own? Why should Western Muslim intellectuals and ulama not treat this recently established homonormativity as just another such norm? What is it about this issue that poses a greater challenge to people of faith than,say, general sexual promiscuity and non-marital sexual relations?
Some reasons may be suggested as to why the stakes are higher. Homonormativity has arguably sealed the fate of the founding blocks of the American society that had been based upon a bedrock of Christian (lately dubbed “Judeo Christian”) norms and that have been under attack since the 1960s. 3 Barack Obama, who presided over this sea-change during his presidency, expressed the uneasiness of this shift well when he wrote, on the same page of his memoir The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, “our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo Christian tradition” and yet “Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, … and a nation of nonbelievers” (p. 218). One may note the paradox reflected in these words: The same category of “non-Christian” that makes room for nonbelievers also affords breathing space to Muslims.
There is little point in disputing the fact that the opposition to homonormativity is often accompanied by an inveterate hatred for Islam and Muslims, an all-encompassing cruelty to all who are not white males, and both planet threatening and willful ignorance. Lone voices (such as Professor Robert George, see below), notwithstanding, the complicit silence of American conservatives is deafening. To Muslims who simply wish to avoid ending up in concentration camps or that American bombs would stop incinerating ever more people and referring to them as “collateral damage,” allying with the right appears suicidal. Fateful ironies loom over any options American Muslims may adopt. Pious Muslims cannot avoid seeing the Faustian overtones of the bargain they have struck with the left, often by simply keeping silent. The legacy of black resistance and the civil rights movement, whose masterful deployment fueled the politics of gay rights, also remains American Muslims’only haven. Yet what has made the United States more hospitable to Muslims at a cultural level than Europe is precisely its lingering Christianity and conservatism, the same forces that, in their current forms, are bent on annihilating them.
Homonormativity aggravates the distance between Islam’s foundational socio-familial makeup and the American legal establishment,such that devout Muslims will be even more likely (whether individually or communally) to construct a cocoon for themselves, thereby disengaging from the larger society as the Orthodox Jews and the Amish have done.The assimilated Muslim mainstream will then become increasingly torn between Islam and the United States, a situation that can only lead them down the path of marginalization and alienation familiar to European Muslims. “All of Germany’s Muslim MPs voted in favour of same-sex marriage,” reads the title of a news-piece from the Independent, “whereas German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, has faced criticism for opposing the bill and announcing that ‘marriage is between a man and a woman.’”[4]
To many religious American Muslims, the new sexual and gender norms heighten the cost of integration.Whereas anti-racism has been wholeheartedly Islamized as a cause that creates cross-cultural connections and anti-sexism has been embraced in a qualified form, normalizing homosexuality could shake the very foundations of Islamic moral community – unless, of course, this new chasm is met by the creation of sustainable and peaceful prophetic intellectual and counter-cultural movements and alliances.
Apart from pro-gay Muslim activists, two kinds of Muslim opinion leaders have encouraged indifference to the country’s shifting sexual mores and gender norms, which I labeled above as “homonormativity”: (1) those who strategically prioritize the community’s civil rights over religious concerns and (2) those who postulate a sharp separation between the political sphere and social mores and who hope to be “outside” even while being “inside” the country, perhaps even advocating that the community selectively disengage from the larger culture. Some versions of this option rely on a logic of pragmatic reciprocity. Others have invoked the pluralistic model of pre-modern Islamic tolerance of or indifference to the objectionable practices of other communities to argue that a similar indifference may be justified in this case.
The presuppositions underlying this logic invite further questions. Many scholars of the modern state point out its ability to penetrate and reshape its society’s culture; modern states are not empty political shells, but active agents that shape norms. Supreme Court decisions are not merely temporary dispute resolutions between opposing groups governed by legal formalism, but are actual articulations of norms based on political views that, unless actively challenged, define ethics and morality for American society. [5] Unlike the pre-modern Islamic world, in which society governed itself through a communally grounded legal tradition that communities could interpret and negotiate, the modern state governs the individual inside and out. Such critics argue that the role of law, culture, and state in the United States cannot be wished away and that the pre-modern Islamic posture of political apathy, which perhaps once made sense in the context of legally pluralistic and minimally intrusive governance, cannot be used to justify Muslim indifference to these tectonic shifts in the American landscape.
It is no wonder, then, that for the vast majority of American Muslim individuals and institutions,American cultural norms are the backdrop and justificatory framework within which Islamic norms are reformed and selected, and not the other way around. According to one recent poll, for instance, 42% of American Muslims showed support for gay marriage. [6] A 2007 PEW poll revealed that 27% of American Muslims supported homosexuality as a lifestyle and that 61% opposed it. According to the same poll, 50% of Muslims were unsure as to whether the Qur’an was literally true. Another survey put the number of American-born Muslims who abandon Islam at 23 percent.All else being equal, this rate of loss, about half that of Christians, will in all likelihood increase in the next generation due to greater assimilation. [7]
A passive acceptance of homonormativity among conservative Muslims (as among Christians) may be accompanied by vague hopes of a reversal of trends or by a pessimistic view that, morally speaking, the United States is a lost cause, that it is fast traversing the path of decadence already trod by Europe and that there is no stopping it. Regardless, those concerned with the effects of American foreign policy abroad and with political and social justice at home find little choice but to align themselves with the left.Alternatively,some conservative Muslims may ally themselves with conservative Americans in their moral dissent against the dissolution of sexual and social mores. Princeton University professor and influential Catholic intellectual Robert P. George is a rare and unheeded advocate of such an alliance with American Muslims. [8] A healthy development of principled conservative interfaith discourse at a political level might have helped temper the right’s antipathy toward Islam.The recent swing of American politics in the ultra-right direction appears to have dampened any such hopes for the time being.
***
In addressing the challengesraised by homonormativity and the emergence of those Muslims who advocate for it, scholars must explore a number of interrelated fronts. The traditional Islamic case againstsodomy, conventionally understood as being unanimous, needsto be explored afresh at both the legal and ethico-philosophical levels. But the applicability of these norms to the phenomenon of contemporary homosexuality requires great caution. In order to make a compelling moral and ethical case for the continued relevance and soundness of Islam’s norms, scholars must examine the historical conditions that enabled homosexuality’s rise as well as the context, meaning, and implications of the relevant pre-modern prohibitions. Finally,such scholarship cannot disregard the human cost of whatever conclusion it reaches or recommendations it makes, and must consider the pastoral and political strategies that Muslims can use to respond to this new homonormativity in an ethical, compassionate, and effective fashion. The two contributions featured in this issue, focused as they are on the exegetical task, are important steps in an ongoing discourse.
In broaching the challenges involved in formulating Muslim intellectual, political, and social responses to homonormativity, we must recognize that traditions of faith in God are tied to divine interdictions whose reasons, they believe, are not always discernible to the human intellect.These interdictions and the social order they envision stand in the way of modernity’s evisceration of all limits – limits not just on sexual conduct but also the environment; consumption; aesthetics and beauty; the human body; the realm of passions, desires, and emotions; and interpersonal ethics. Catholics call it “the natural law”; Islamic law has notions of fiṭrah and a natural order of ease and human felicity that is believed to be built into the Sharia. [9] But this divinely ordained and thus “natural” social order (a contradiction in secular terms), in which marriage is tied to procreation, chastity, and honor, and, more broadly, the virtues of self restraint, humility, and charity are desirable, is fundamentally at odds with the political and economic order of unbridled self-interest and systematic transgression that defines capitalism (as many economic philosophers from Adam Smith to J. Maynard Keynes [10] have reiterated).
The conditions of late-capitalist modernity, sometimes called postmodernity, are structurally suited to such transgression because once projects of transcending natural limits (from the bio-technological refashioning of humans to cloning and age-defying technologies) are normalized, any ethical and creedal system grounded in respecting those natural limits is made to seem irrelevant and irrational. If procreation is undesirable for a planet that is already held to be overpopulated, a lifestyle that seeks pleasure without procreation, whether heterosexually or homosexually, is preferred. Similarly, where a secular welfare state bureaucratically manages all insurances and goods previously furnished by God, the family and community, ranging from laws and guidance to safety nets, marriage and family become inexplicable burdens. Put differently, homonormativity is structurally related not only to ethical and religious decline and the political success of a vocal minority, but also to the fundamental dynamics of late-modern politics and economy.
Muslim thinkers have been only too willing to rethink Islam in a way designed to fit into the (often seemingly erratic) developments of the twentieth century, first the welfare state and then neoliberalism, rather than effectively questioning these developments. This post-hoc approach to change is a result, I argue, of the lack of a political philosophy that could help them envision the larger interests of Islam and its community and help replace the tired language of “catching up with the times” with discourses better grounded in Islam’s own vision. Note that I do not mean here merely the maqāṣid-based approach to fiqh, which although certainly helpful, in the absence of further checks and balances, can equally be used to justify the instrumentalization of Islamic law for any externally imposed ends. If fiqh chooses not to theorize political life in a fashion grounded in a coherent vision, then it nonetheless becomes politicized – but in a way that is reactionary and ethically irrelevant.
The Limits of Consent and the Autonomy of the Self
The key issue underpinning homonormativity is consent. Any kind of sex is ultimately permissible, under this vision, so long as it is consensual. Consider the advice given by professionals to those who suffer from “virtuous pedophilia”: to exercise restraint, remain virtuous, and not act on their desire. [11] Thus, the concepts of self-control, abstinence, refraining from acting out one’s desire, and living without sexual fulfillment until one’s death are not foreign to the liberal world. What makes this case different from homosexuality, however, is the presumption that children are incapable of expressing consent.And yet intractable philosophical as well as legal problems continue to afflict the conceptualization of consent. [12] As feminist and political theorist Carole Pateman argued in her The Sexual Contract (1988) and ever since, the very notion of consent becomes meaningless if neither the structural factors (e.g., politics and economy) nor the contractual limitations that individuals place upon themselves are considered.
In the liberal account, consent is an expression of the human self – that mysterious entity which in the modern secular world cannot be judged but which judges all things.Yet the self also has a history.The pre-modern religious self (nafs, in the Islamic tradition) was thought to be both the source of all desire and also an object that one had to discipline and cultivate. Human desires were either good or bad; they could be judged by their singular creator, master, and sustainer. Good desires were natural, part of one’s fiṭrah, and bad ones came from the Devil and had to be resisted. But in nineteenth-century Europe, a number of modernity’s “prophets” (from Darwin and Nietzsche to Freud and Weber) killed God to their satisfaction and discovered a new one: the human self, which is supreme and sovereign.
For Kant, the self is autonomous because not only does it choose to act in accord with what isright, but it also defines or discoversfor itself what isright. Nietzsche saw through this charade, for once there was no God or God became irrelevant to the discovery of morality (as Kant would have it), the self was both free and inscrutable. Nietzsche thus reasonably declared that all declarations of good and evil and all judgments related to desire were baseless. He taught that all ethics were a tale cooked up by the slaves and the weak to keep the few true men, the “supermen,” chained. It is often acknowledged that there can be no morality without God. But what is less understood is that with God there was no inscrutable self, that the self is governed territory. And precisely because the self is governable, there was no need for the sovereign modern state and its projects of refashioning the self. The self was governable under a regime of beliefs and norms that addressed and directed it. According to the Qur’an there was nothing worse than the unrestrained self (hawā), for it is the playground of the Devil.
Freud, arguably the greatest prophet of modern unbelief, freed the self from God by theorizing it in terms of a repressed, inscrutable desire, just as God’s prophets had explained the human nafs and its origin: the divine breath (rūḥ). Freud taught that the self was a world unto itself, only a tiny fraction of which comprised discursive reason. He used the analogy of a vast city under the sway of barbarians, only a small castle of which has been conquered by modern science and examined by objective discourse. Only the tip of the iceberg was known to us. Our desires came out of an inscrutable world, the id, that could neither be judged nor disciplined because no knowledge or agency could be superior to the human self.
This is the first element of “consent” – an expression of the sovereign self or psyche that could only have been posited and sustained in a Godless world. Within this world, human desires (ahwā’) cannot be judged. Elsewhere, whether in Aristotelianism, Thomism, or Islam, the self is there to be judged, disciplined, and trained, whether according to rational or revelational principles. This is why “homosexuality” could not have existed as a self’s identity in the pre-modern world: In its place, only an assemblage of desires and acts could be found, already judged by scripture and religious traditions as an abomination. Even in the Greek world, Plato considered male-male sex unnatural despite its immense popularity; whether it was good or bad was determined by whether it was natural and good, not simply because it was an irrepressible expression of the self. This is also why Christians and Muslims could relatively easily integrate Greek ethical philosophy, because despite having a radically different theology it did not contradict the Abrahamic notion of the human self as teachable, as a site of the battle between good and evil.
Of course, the secular self does not automatically lead to homonormativity in twenty-first-century America. Certain political and economic conditions of modernity that can be best captured as late-capitalism have led to a world in which desire reigns supreme and the conditions of excessive affluence in “winner” societies – never mind the enormous corresponding deprivation in the “losing” societies – provide the context in which inscrutable desires could be properly worshipped; not merely satisfied, but idolized, legalized, and infinitely extended and explored.And why not, for what else is there in a world that has lost its God and its raison d’être?After having demolished the community and the extended family, the biological and nuclear family is merely the latest frontier in the march of capitalism. Whatever else may be said about capitalism, it is inconceivable without secularism, but (like nationalism) it has often been fueled by foolish religious fervor, passion, or discipline. [13]
The non-liberal alternative to the modern, capitalist self was the Marxist self – a place that, while awash with passion for equality and revenge, was fundamentally empty. Capitalism can tolerate a religion that restricts itself to managing the poor, fueling its ideals, justifying its winners and losers, and/or quenching its guilt. But Marxism, bent on ideological consistency and purity, refused to traffic in even this nominal religion. Marxism, ultimately more modern and rational than capitalism, would fall with the rise of postmodernity, a condition best seen as a continuation or logical extension of, rather than a rejection of, modernity. Unlike capitalism, which promotes greed or expanding desire as a principle and thus leaves the self to freely (“liberally”) choose its own myriad means of satisfaction and extension (limited only by the infinitely disputable principle of no-harm), the Marxist self sought to limit itself by its dogma of materialism and the desires of which it approved. Having vanquished its nemesis, late capitalism has now overcome politics and democracy as well. The task of “manufacturing consent,” to use Noam Chomsky’s well-known phrase, may have been pioneered by the nation-state in times of war, but global capitalism, in its current neoliberal phase, has dwarfed states and taken over the task of managing mass desires while deepening the illusion of individual choice and freedom. A world set against divine interdictions and sanctions has proven unsustainable not only in the spiritual but also in the material sense, leading us ever faster toward an economic and ecological apocalypse.
The Limits of Historicism and Social Construction
It is widely acknowledged that whereas same-sex sexual activity has been recorded in nearly all past societies, homosexuality, the idea that certain persons are to be identified by their sexual preference, on the grounds that this is a fundamental part of their identity, is socially constructed and historically novel. Furthermore, whereas the biological and cultural bases of such desire are debated, science has returned empty-handed from its quest for a “gay gene.”According to the new ta’wīl, however, the results are carefully couched in a postmodern framework to draw our attention to the constructedness of all categories.
That homosexuality is a cultural construct as opposed to a biological construct does not mean that it is based on something other than a real, strongly felt, desire. But as Imam al-Ghazali said, “intention,” the basis and determinant of all actions, is semi-voluntary at any given instance. In other words, one cannot instantly purify and simply will to be as pious as one wishes. Our passional constitution is comparable to our physical one; just as one builds muscle over a long period of time via a process that depends on training, discipline, diet, as well as other environmental and genetic factors, so is our emotional make-up multi-dimensional and only semi-voluntary. From an individual and instantaneous perspective, however, the source of one’s desire may appear moot. The misery of a pious homoerotic individual may indeed be great and is definitely worthy of compassion and support, but one must also be aware of the deployment of such tropes in accounts that are, in fact, key to constructing homonormativity.
Aside from homoerotic desire, which has been documented in almost every society, the homosexual identity that fortifies it as a right is a modern construction. In The History of Sexuality, Foucault famously shows that Western society’s views on sex have undergone a major shift over the past few centuries. Same-sex relationships and desires certainly existed before – but homosexuality was never considered a biological type or social identity. Besides Foucault, various historians have argued that the idea of a homosexual role and stereotypical behavior emerged in late-seventeenth-century England. [14]
Psychologists, at that time still working under the remnants of Christian morality but without Christian belief, sought to replace religion and superstition and to categorize all untidy phenomena systematically. In this quest, they recast “sodomy” as a disorder (seen as harmful to the family, which was then regarded as an indispensable engine of national progress). When such vestigial Christian moralism came under fire, homosexuality became a new normal, an identity to which some people were simply biologically wired. Later on, Foucault established the relative novelty (and thus historical contingency) of both “the idea that our desires reveal a fundamental truth about who we are and the conviction that we have an obligation to seek out that truth and express it.”[15]
More broadly, postmodernist critique opposes not only sexual truths about oneself, but also truth in general. Religious truths or religious differentiation of gender roles are thus no less constructed than homosexuality. In other words, the postmodern case for homonormativity argues not that it is an essential part of one’s being, but that since there is no essential norm or truth or self, and thus no rational obligation to discipline the self, homonormativity is just as good or bad as any other option. [16]
Historians of Muslim societies tell a similar story about the wide attestation of homosexual behavior, but also the absence of anything like contemporary homosexual identity. Khaled al-Rouayheb shows that in the traditional Muslim world, lustful or romantic behavior toward beardless boys was quite common. 17 He quotes countless testimonies to the spread of sodomy and pederasty, to which one may add the following from al-Aqhisari, a zealous seventeenth-century Ottoman reformer who wrote that
In this time, sodomy [Michot translates this as |
Party 2013). they’re in reverse order because WordPress wants it that way.
Abe won this game but scooped before he had the chance for victory to actually occur. I love boardstate photos.
Abe “Thrag” Lusk: thinking hard or hardly thinking? You be the judge!
Another cool board state with a million cat-elemental tokens.
For all the haters: proof that Mono Blue is 47% creature cards.
Billy and I split. I didn’t fight for the promo card because, uh, I didn’t need the promo card I guess. More likely: Billy really wanted it and I couldn’t attempt to strip him of such joy.
Hunter O’Kelly Rodriguez, the man with the greatest name of all time, was defeated. American Control, shame on you!
Dustin’s lands failed him in both directions games two and three.
Dan was playing a Strionic Resonator combo deck. I know, I know, I was super surprised that it’s a thing, too! I asked him for his decklist and he emailed me the following:
Hey Matt! This isn’t the exact decklist as I’ve been constantly tweaking it (and don’t honestly remember where I was at with this last Friday) but I think it’s close:
Assemble the Resonator
That’s it! Later, gators!In her new memoir What Happened, failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has blamed everyone but herself for her stunning loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 election, even lashing out at her allies in the liberal media. In the book, she reveled that she was “almost physically sick” with rage at Today co-host Matt Lauer following his interview with her during NBC’s Commander-in-Chief Forum one year ago.
Recalling the event in her self-serving account of the campaign, Clinton ranted: “Lauer had turned what should have been a serious discussion into a pointless ambush.” Why was she so upset with the morning show host who usually provided her a friendly forum? Apparently he asked too many questions about her e-mail scandal.
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Lauer was surprisingly tough on Clinton, asking her at one point: “You were communicating on highly sensitive topics. Why wasn’t it more than a mistake, why wasn’t it disqualifying if you want to be commander-in-chief?”
One wonders why Clinton would feel blindsided by such obvious questions about a major scandal during a forum designed to assess her fitness for office.ANYBODY walking into the Shiva Headshop, in the east London suburb of Greenwich, could be forgiven for thinking that drugs are legal in Britain. In the centre of the store, a glass case displays expensive stainless steel vaporisers. There is a vast array of cannabis-themed grinders, bongs, pipes and ashtrays. As your correspondent enters the store, some adolescents wander out, one clutching a discreetly wrapped foil packet. Hanging behind the counter, stacks of these are on offer, with names like “Blessed” and “Iced Diamonds”. On the shop’s website, they promise to “keep you humming all night”.
So-called “legal highs”—so novel and fast-evolving that they are not controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act—are reopening the drugs debate. On January 14th the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform called for an overhaul of Britain’s relatively stringent drugs laws, proposing that “less harmful” new substances be regulated and sold in chemists. In December the Home Affairs Committee called on the government to set up a royal commission to consider decriminalising or even legalising certain drugs. Overwhelmed by the number of new substances and worried about their effects on users, some police chiefs and doctors have also recommended change.
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The government dismisses all such suggestions. “We have a policy that actually is working,” claimed David Cameron, the prime minister, in December. Data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales seem to back him up. The use of conventional drugs such as cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy is declining in Britain, particularly among the young. The number of 18- to 24-year-olds registering for treatment for heroin addiction has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 2001.
But this may have little to do with legal controls. Alcohol consumption is also falling even though the law has not changed. Cannabis use actually fell after the drug was reclassified as less harmful in 2004. And, as the shop in Greenwich shows, many new substances are filling the gap. Drugs like heroin and cannabis are “yesterday’s news”, says a drugs officer in the West Midlands Police. Instead of waiting on street corners for an unreliable dealer to arrive, many young drug users are simply ordering their supplies online.
Under a law introduced in 2011, new psychoactive substances can be banned temporarily, before being fully criminalised after a year. But the police are “flat-footed” trying to keep up with the pace of change, says Tim Hollis, the drugs spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers. New drugs pop up so frequently that sniffer dogs must undergo retraining every few weeks to learn the new scents. Even the suppliers struggle: lots of drugs sold as “legal highs” turn out to be banned.
It is not clear that bans reduce availability or greatly deter consumers. According to Fiona Measham, who researches drug-taking and drinking habits at the University of Durham, mephedrone, which was banned in 2010, is now a staple of the clubbing scene: it is typically taken alongside ecstasy and cocaine. Police officers report that gangs have violently muscled in on the distribution of the drug, which is now cut with the same harmful chemicals as cocaine. Its use has become more damaging: mephedrone is now injected by some users as often as five or six times a day. Ketamine, a similar drug which was controlled in 2005, is now causing many users severe health problems, such as bladder damage.
Liberalisation would reduce some of these side effects, argues Molly Meacher, a peer on the all-party parliamentary group, and help to divert drug users to the least harmful substances. But the government’s reticence is understandable. Though experts demand change, there seems to be little public appetite for drugs to be more openly available. According to data from the British Social Attitudes Survey, British people’s views on cannabis have hardened since 2001. Then just 46% of people thought that the weed should remain illegal; now 63% do. But perhaps ministers should have some courage. As one MP said in 2002, going to war on drugs “does not work”. His name was David Cameron.Photo illustration by Jeff Boyer / Times Union Photo illustration by Jeff Boyer / Times Union Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Editorial: Sprawl, Adirondack style 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
THE ISSUE:
The Adirondack Park Agency is considering the impact of a housing development proposed for Fulton County.
THE STAKES:
The APA shouldn't allow a maximum number of lots just because it can.
Yogi Berra's quote, "It's deja vu all over again," comes to mind looking over the development proposed for the Woodworth Lake Boy Scout Camp in northern Fulton County in the Adirondack Park. The housing project would chop up 1,100 acres into lots for 26 luxury homes in much the same way as another project in Tupper Lake.
The Tupper Lake project, the Adirondack Club and Resort, is the largest ever approved by the Adirondack Park Agency — 80 luxury homes scattered across 4,700 acres. Groundbreaking is planned this year.
Both projects fall under the park's most restrictive land classification, resource management. That classification, under the Adirondack Park Agency Act, allows "residential development on substantial acreages or in small clusters on carefully selected and well-designed sites."
The devil falls in the details of exactly what constitutes "substantial acreages" or "small clusters."
With both projects, leading park conservation organizations have argued the developments are too dispersed, allowing too great an impact on the park's resources and wildlife.
More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion
Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, argues in the Adirondack Almanack that "conservation subdivision design" would be more appropriate because fewer parcels would be "clustered" in one region of a project's overall footprint, leaving vastly more land completely untouched. The APA, Bauer notes, approved such a development more than 10 years ago for 420 acres of resource management land in Horicon. That project clustered 10 lots in one 20-acre corner, leaving the rest alone.
In fact, tighter clustering is recommended for wildlife, especially for projects on previously undeveloped land. A study in the 2003 Journal of the American Planning Association found "clustered development, in contrast to dispersed development, can reduce the impact of exurban residential development on wildlife habitat."
Protect the Adirondacks and a host of other groups have asked that the public comment deadline on the Woodworth Lake project be extended and a hearing be held. That stance is backed by Adirondack Mountain Club; Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve; Protect the Adirondacks; Sierra Club/Atlantic Chapter; and The Adirondack Council.
The Tupper Lake project withstood environmentalists' legal challenges, but that doesn't mean sprawling "great camp" developments are a model of good planning. Given that only 800,000 of the park's 3 million acres of private land fall under this most-precious category of lands available to develop, more time for comment and a hearing are not too much to ask of the agency charged with stewardship of the Adirondacks.
Otherwise, some corners of the Adirondack Park may soon enough bring to New Yorkers' minds another Yogi Berra quote: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.''NEW DELHI: An image in a class six textbook taught in ICSE schools in India showing a ‘mosque’ as a source of noise pollution has sparked outrage on social media, prompting an apology from the publisher and the promise that the picture would be removed in subsequent editions, reported Times of India.
The science textbook, published by Selina Publishers, has a chapter on the causes of noise pollution.
The picture, shared widely on social media, shows a train, car, plane and a mosque, all with symbols depicting loud sound, next to a man grimacing and shutting his ears.
Netizens have now launched an online petition demanding the book be withdrawn.
While ICSE board officials were not available for comment, the publisher has apologised for the image.
“This is to inform all concerned that we will be changing the picture in subsequent editions of the book,” publisher Hemant Gupta said on social media sites.
Gupta said the diagram on page 202 of its publication, Integrated Science, consisted of ‘a structure resembling a portion of a fort and other noise producing objects in a noisy city’.
“We do apologise if it has hurt the sentiments of anyone,” he said.
Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam had stoked a controversy in April this year when he said he was woken up by the sound of ‘azaan’ – early morning calls for prayers from mosques – amplified by loudspeakers.
There have been several incidents of controversial content being found in Indian school textbooks in recent months.
Excerpts from a class seven Physical Education textbook taught in some CBSE schools had kicked up a furore for defining a figure measurement of 36-24-36 as the ‘best body shape for females’.
A class four environmental science textbook that suggested killing a kitten as part of an experiment went viral on social media, forcing the publisher to withdraw it from the market earlier this year.The Sandinistas, in their difficulties with the Indigenous peoples of the Atlantic, had not reflected on the irony of being on the opposite side of the nationalist equation than they were when, as the representatives of Nicaragua, they encountered the United States. It had not initially occurred to the Spanish-speaking majority of Nicaragua that they, too, walked in the shoes of a colonialist. Larger nations have long dominated smaller nations, but a nation can be both a larger and a smaller nation at the same time, in relation to various other nations.
Nicaragua, a small country of 3 million, was long the plaything of far larger neighbors. But Nicaragua is an artificial construct: the dominant people of Spanish descent are dominant because their ancestors decimated the people who had already lived there. The concept of a Nicaraguan nationality is itself a legacy of colonialism, but also the peculiarities of local geography. Why are there seven countries on the narrow strip of land between Mexico and Colombia? Five of those countries, all speaking the same language, were part of a single Central American Federation. Yet that federation broke apart, unlike Mexico, because communication and travel were so difficult due to the mountainous terrain.
Over time, patriotisms developed, separate in each country created by the breakup. Domination by more powerful countries, and repeated direct interventions in the twentieth century by the latest, and most powerful yet, of those more powerful countries helped forge strong national identities. But those identities did not include the people who were already there, and had seen their numbers decimated through war, disease and plunder—in plain language, through a hemispheric genocide. It is easy to understand a colonial relationship when you are on the wrong end; it is far more difficult to understand this when you are on the power side of the equation.
Nicaragua’s nationalism was forged in its colonial relationship to the European powers and then to the United States. Augusto Sandino was able to articulate these feelings, and Sandino’s writings and example were strong enough to form a key pillar of a movement decades later. But as the majority Nicaraguans found their voices, found the confidence to create a revolution and to attempt to develop their culture free of colonial domination, the minorities in their midst, the descendants of those Indigenous nations decimated centuries earlier, felt themselves oppressed by those very same people who were so motivated by their own oppression at the hands of the giant neighbor to the north.
The movement of the majority, the Sandinistas, were not oblivious to their country’s history nor to the minorities of the Atlantic east, and were acutely aware of the poverty, underdevelopment and cultural trampling endured by the Indigenous minorities. But the Sandinistas had thought and acted in a mechanical manner, and so, initially, inflamed rather than soothed.
“The Left here did not incorporate anthropological concepts because it was married completely to the strict classical scheme: bourgeoisie versus proletariat without analyzing the cultural differences and the ‘civilizing’ conflicts that took place,” is the assessment of journalist and feminist activist Sofía Montenegro, who was one of the leading figures of the official Sandinista newspaper, Barricada. “What has happened here is not a mixing of the races but a clash of two civilizations, the Occidental and the Indigenous, in which one imposed itself on the other but was never able to completely conquer it.”
Marxist difficulties with nationalism
Marxism’s practitioners have often had a difficult time coming to terms with nationalism. The downgrading of the nation-state was articulated clearly in the movement’s most important early document, The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. The two wrote: “The workingmen have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got…National differences between peoples are daily vanishing, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto.”
Corporate globalization is not a new phenomenon, although of course the process has vastly accelerated since those words were written in the nineteenth century. Despite the increasing cross-cultural fertilizations in which better communications and increased commerce played no small role, the strength of nationalism only increased through the nineteenth century as disunited nations such as Germany and Italy struggled to unify their many pieces and other nations struggled to end their domination by stronger powers.
Those ongoing developments led to a current within Marxist theory that saw a difference between the nationalism of a colonial power and that of a captured nation seeking to throw off the hegemony bonding it. Self-determination for all nations had to be backed and therefore support should be given to independence movements. Independence was the right of all peoples in the name of self-determination. But it was also believed that national struggles were a “distraction” for the vast majority of a nation in that as long as they were oppressed by another nation they would not be able to fight for their emancipation as a class—they would not be able to free themselves of their domination by their native capitalists and aristocracy.
Humans can have multiple motivations, of course. World War I provided an excellent example: Nationalism was whipped up successfully in order to get millions to willingly fight a war that was fought to determine the capitalist division of the world’s resources. There was no other way to get those millions to fight. The war had to be brought to an end when those millions started to think more in terms of class, and of their common interests with the soldiers in the opposite trench, rather than in solely national terms. Very different feelings were unleashed, thanks to bitter practical experience.
Nationalism seen as a distraction from class
But the nonetheless still living body of nationalism continued to engender strong debates among the various strains of Marxism. A forceful argument against advocacy of self-determination of nations was put forth by Rosa Luxemburg, one of the outstanding contributors to twentieth-century political theory. Regardless of how valid a reader finds Luxemburg’s argument, she had the moral authority to make it. She was triply oppressed—as a woman in a male-dominated world, as a Jew in a Central Europe riddled with anti-Semitism and as a Pole (until the last days of her life, Poland was occupied and divided among three empires: Tsarist Russia, Prussian-dominated Germany and monarchal Austria-Hungary). Luxemburg adamantly refused to endorse independence for her native Poland, or any other nation.
“[T]he duty of the class party of the proletariat to protest and resist national oppression arises not from any special ‘right of nations’…[but] arises solely from the general opposition to the class régime and to every form of social inequality and social domination, in a word, from the basic position of socialism…The duty to resist all forms of national oppression [under an apolitical ‘right of nations’] does not include any explanation of what conditions and political forms” should be recommended, Luxemburg wrote in 1909. Generic calls for self-determination don’t provide any analysis of underlying social conditions and therefore cannot provide a guide to action.
A further basic weakness of generic calls for self-determination, Luxemburg argued, is that they do not take into consideration the highly differentiated status of nations. “The development of world powers, a characteristic feature of our times growing in importance along with the progress of capitalism, from the very outset condemns all small nations to political impotence,” she wrote. “Apart from a few of the most powerful nations, the leaders in capitalist development, which possess the spiritual and material resources necessary to maintain their political and economic independence, ‘self-determination,’ the independent existence of smaller and petit nations, is an illusion, and will become even more so.”
Further, within each nation, there exist a multitude of interests that cannot be reconciled. “In a class society, ‘the nation’ as a homogeneous sociopolitical entity does not exist,” Luxemburg wrote.
“Rather, there exist within each nation classes with antagonistic interests and ‘rights.’ … There can be no talk of a collective and uniform will, of the self-determination of the ‘nation’ in a society formed in such a manner. If we find in the history of modern societies ‘national’ movements, and struggles for ‘national interests, ’ these are usually class movements of the ruling strata of the bourgeoisie, which can in any given case represent the interest of the other strata of the population only insofar as under the form of ‘national interests’ it defends progressive forms of historical development.”
Luxemburg here argued that movements for national independence or self-determination are effectively controlled by the nation’s capitalists who, by virtue of their economic dominance, will control the movement to establish their own narrow rule and thereby subjugate the working people of the nation. Therefore, only the widespread adoption of socialist economic relations can truly free the working people of any nation.
Seventy years after those words were written, the capitalists of Nicaragua indeed sought to control the liberation movement of their country. Nicaragua wasn’t fighting for independence in the formal sense, but it was a country with very little self-determination. In the modern system of capitalism, the interests of local capitalists in subordinate countries align with the capitalists of the dominant nation. The interests of the Nicaraguan plantation owners and industrialists were simply to rid themselves of their local dictator, Anastasio Somoza, and establish their own rule. Rule by these local capitalists would be dependent on capitalists from the dominant power, through the medium of multinational corporations, and therefore compatible.
When direct rule of a colonized nation is no longer possible because of resistance, formal “independence” is granted, but a compliant dictator can be put in charge. When the rule of the dictator is no longer viable, a more “modern” form of domination is put in place, the rule of a local oligarchy. The local industrialists and plantation owners are ready to step in and assume domination of society; eager to fulfill what they see as their natural role, they seek to topple the dictator. Nicaragua’s capitalists could not do that on their own (they are numerically minuscule) and so joined the rapidly building mass liberation movement in an attempt to wrest the movement’s leadership from the Sandinistas. The capitalists were unable to do so because the working people of Nicaragua took an expanded, rather than narrow, view of self-determination, and this understanding led them to swell the ranks of Sandinista organizations.
But should nationalism be ‘skipped’ as a stage?
But although Nicaraguans were aware of their class interests, and that their liberation necessitated changes in their societal institutions and social relations, nationalism played a significant role. Sandinista National Liberation Front co-founder Carlos Fonseca had helped create the FSLN’s philosophy by skillfully blending the nationalism of Sandino with Marxism. The importance of nationalism was a consequence of the force of colonialism upon Nicaragua. Therefore, for the colonized, nationalism can potentially play a partly progressive role if it is combined with other political ideas. Another outstanding political theorist, Frantz Fanon, writing in the middle of the twentieth century at the peak of the Global South’s national liberation movements, argued that nationalism is an important stage that can’t be skipped.
National and racial differences are used to create and continue colonial situations, Fanon argued, and therefore, for the colonized, this divide adds to the complexities of a class analysis.
“In the colonies the economic infrastructure is also a superstructure. The cause is effect: You are rich because you are white, you are white because you are rich. This is why a Marxist analysis should always be slightly stretched when it comes to addressing the colonial issue. It is not just the concept of the pre-capitalist society, so effectively studied by Marx, which needs to be re-examined here. The serf is essentially different from the knight, but a reference to divine right is needed to justify this difference in status. In the colonies the foreigner imposed himself using his cannons and machines. Despite the success of his pacification, in spite of his appropriation, the colonist always remains a foreigner.”
The urban and rural working people of Nicaragua could not free themselves without “kicking out” the foreigner (the US commercial interests that dominated their country) and instead institute balanced trading relationships with interests outside their borders. No colonized country can attempt such a liberation without developing a sense of itself as a nation, and that sense of nationhood can’t be separated from the differences between the newly awakened nation and the nation that dominates it. During Nicaragua’s domination, just as throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere, these differences were pointed to by the colonizing power as justification for the colonial nature of the relationship.
It is the recovery of nationalism, Fanon wrote, that provides the basis for an independence struggle. “A culture is first and foremost the expression of a nation, its preferences, its taboos, and its models…The nation is not only a precondition for culture…it is a necessity. Later on it is the nation that will provide culture with the conditions and framework for expression.” It is impossible to skip this stage of development. “Humanity, some say, has got past the stage of nationalist claims,” Fanon wrote.
“The time has come to build larger political unions, and consequently the old-fashioned nationalists should correct their mistakes. We believe on the contrary that the mistake, heavy with consequences, would be to miss out on the national stage. If culture is the expression of the national consciousness, I shall have no hesitation in saying, in the case in point, that national consciousness is the highest form of culture. ”
Sandinistas used national understanding as a scaffold
Fanon wrote as a Caribbean activist deeply involved in Algeria’s 1950s struggle against brutal occupation by France, and so it may seem that his expressions of nationalism and equating those expressions with a definition of culture are too strong, but if a people are oppressed on a national basis, then it is only natural that a culture takes on that oppression in that form. It is not necessary to agree with Fanon’s elevation of nationalism to such heights to find merit in his formulation. The course of the past century demonstrated the validity of Fanon’s theories: Nationalism has been, and continues to be, an extremely powerful political force.
Fanon’s integration of nationalism (grounded in profound sympathy for the distortions imposed by colonialism) with Marxism provides a more realistic analysis than Luxemburg’s dismissal of national liberation movements. Not because Luxemburg’s analysis of the lack of autonomy for the world’s smaller nations is incorrect (in fact, it was fully accurate then as it still is today) but because it, to use Fanon’s phrase, “skips” an important stage of development. A national consciousness bound together Nicaraguans in the struggle against Somoza, but rather than make that struggle a purely nationalist movement, the Sandinistas built upon nationalism, using it as a scaffolding upon which they erected a much larger understanding of what would be needed for Nicaraguans to liberate themselves. A struggle against an internal dictator, underdevelopment, lack of education and external domination is necessarily, in part, a cultural struggle.
Such a struggle by a national majority, however, inevitably contains differences from the concurrent struggle experienced by national minorities, and these differences, too, are cultural. The Sandinistas, to their credit, did come to understand, in a concrete manner rather than in their previous abstract theoretical manner, that they had to provide sufficient space for their own minority nations to develop their culture, and that those minority cultures had been stultified to a degree more severe than their own cultural underdevelopment.
This is an excerpt from It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment, published by Zero Books. Citations omitted. The omitted sources cited in this excerpt are: Katherine Hoyt, The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy [Ohio University Press, 1997]; Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto [Washington Square Press, 1964]; “The National Question and Autonomy (Excerpts),” Rosa Luxemburg, anthologized in Paul Le Blanc (ed.), Rosa Luxemburg: Reflections and Writings [Humanity Press, 1999]; and Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth [Grove Press, 2004]
AdvertisementsA recent study suggests younger women who have heart attacks may hesitate to get help because they’re afraid of being labeled hypochondriacs. But the bigger problem is just how justified that fear really is.
Heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States, yet it’s long been considered a “man’s disease” in the popular imagination. This perception likely stems, in part, from the fact that coronary heart disease, the most common cause of heart attacks, is more prevalent among men—and tends to strike them at a younger age. When younger women do have heart attacks, though, studies have found that they are about twice as likely to die as their male counterparts—and more than 15,000 women under the age of 55 do every year.
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For decades, studies have attempted to tease out the various factors that may contribute to that significant gender gap. Recently, researchers at the Yale School of Public Health published a qualitative study exploring the experiences of women under the age of 55 who had been hospitalized for a heart attack. The main take-away—according to most headlines summing up the results—seems to be that younger women may “ignore” or “dismiss” their symptoms and “hesitate” or “delay” in seeking care, in part out of anxiety about raising a false alarm.
But focusing on what individual women do—or don’t do—when they’re having a heart attack is a way of subtly shifting the blame for the deep and systemic failures of our health care system onto its victims. In reality, the themes that emerged from the interviews with 30 women in the Yale study, as well as previous research on women and heart attacks, paint a more complicated—and even more disturbing—picture of how gender bias plays out on multiple levels, both within and outside the medical system, to affect women’s ability to get life-saving care in a crisis.
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Over the past couple of decades, public education campaigns have gradually increased awareness that heart disease is a major health threat among women. But many of the interviewees in the Yale study, even those who had a family history of the disease, underestimated how much they were personally at risk, often figuring that they were too young to be having a heart attack. They also had a fairly stereotypical idea, gleaned mostly from popular media, of what it would feel like: the sudden onset of chest pain and shooting left arm pain that marks the “Hollywood heart attack.” So when they began to experience symptoms like jaw pain, upper back pain, a feeling of indigestion, nausea, and fatigue—the “atypical” signs that women are more likely than men to get—they tended to attribute them to other health problems.
To an alarming degree, their misconceptions simply mirror the ignorance about women’s heart disease in the medical community. Although more women than men have died each year from cardiovascular-related causes since 1984, fewer than one in five doctors—primary care physicians, OB/GYNs, and even cardiologists—surveyed in a 2005 study knew that. And they tended to underestimate female patients’ personal risk for the disease, recommending fewer preventative measures to them compared to the men. Health care providers also seem to be on a rather steep learning curve when it comes to understanding how women’s experiences may diverge from the “textbook” heart attack. In 1996, a national survey revealed that two thirds of doctors were completely unaware of any gender variations in symptoms. Last year, a poll of physicians commissioned by the Women’s Heart Alliance found that only about half agreed that there were differences between men’s and women’s hearts.
Of course, the fact that women’s heart attacks are less likely to adhere to the “textbook” model is not exactly an accident, since the textbook was, quite literally, written based on what men’s heart attacks look like. Though there’s been slight improvement since the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act mandated proportional representation of women and minorities in clinical trials in 1993, recommendations for preventing, diagnosing, and treating heart disease continue to be largely extrapolated from research conducted on white, middle-age men. A review of the American Heart Association’s 2007 prevention guidelines for women, for example, found that they drew on studies in which women made up only 30 percent of the subject population. Only one third of the studies even broke down the results by gender.
What modest progress has been made in closing this gender gap in the clinical studies has led to some real shifts in practice—and probably contributed to the decline in cardiovascular-related mortality rates, especially pronounced among women, since 2000. Last year, the American Heart Association credited recent gender-specific research with improving the diagnostic processes for non-obstructive coronary heart disease in women. “For decades, doctors used the male model of coronary heart disease testing to identify the disease in women, automatically focusing on the detection of obstructive coronary artery disease,” AHA cardiologist Jennifer H. Mieres explained at the time. “As a result, symptomatic women who did not have classic obstructive coronary disease were not diagnosed with ischemic heart disease, and did not receive appropriate treatment, thereby increasing their risk for heart attack.”
In all likelihood it’s mostly thanks to these improvements in catching and managing coronary heart disease before it causes a heart attack that the mortality gap between younger women and men has begun to narrow in recent years. It’s less clear if health care providers have become any better at recognizing—and quickly responding to—heart attacks in women when it does get to that point. Like their patients, doctors remain slower to act when symptoms don’t conform to the “classic” model. A 2012 study that tracked more than 1.1 million heart attack patients from 1994 to 2006 concluded that this helped explain why 15 percent of the women died in the hospital, compared to 10 percent of the men. Patients who never experienced chest pain were nearly twice as likely to die, due in part to delays in getting life-saving interventions. And women, particularly younger women, were overrepresented in this group: 42 percent of the women didn’t have chest pain, compared to only 31 percent of the men.
But attributing the disparity entirely to a difference in symptoms may actually understate the gender bias at play. Among younger patients in the 2012 study above, gender played a role independent of symptoms, chest pain or not. In the Yale study, too, while the interviewees had a range of symptoms, including atypical ones, the vast majority of them—93 percent—did indeed have chest pain. And they told stories of unresponsive health care providers and delays in getting timely work-ups when experiencing both atypical and typical symptoms. One woman, for example, called her doctor to report chest pain and was told to schedule a regular appointment—five days later.
A series of studies led by psychologist Gabrielle R. Chiaramonte in 2008 provides some clues as to why that may be. In the first study, 230 family doctors and internists were asked to evaluate two hypothetical patients: a 47-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman with identical risk factors and the “textbook” symptoms—including chest pain, shortness of breath, and irregular heart beat—of a heart attack. Half of the vignettes included a note that the patient had recently experienced a stressful life event and appeared to be anxious. In the vignettes without that single line, there was no difference between the doctors’ recommendations to the woman and man. Despite the popular conception of the quintessential heart attack patient as male, they seemed perfectly capable of making the right call in the female patient too.
But when stress was added as a symptom, an enormous gender gap suddenly appeared. Only 15 percent of the doctors diagnosed heart disease in the woman, compared to 56 percent for the man, and only 30 percent referred the woman to a cardiologist, compared to 62 percent for the man. Finally, only 13 percent suggested cardiac medication for the woman, compared to 47 percent for the man. The presence of stress, the researchers explained, sparked a “meaning shift” in which women’s physical symptoms were reinterpreted as psychological, while “men's symptoms were perceived as organic whether or not stressors were present.”
That was when the patients did experience the “classic” heart attack symptoms. In the next twist on the study, the researchers asked 142 family physicians to assess a male and female patient presenting with atypical symptoms, including nausea and back pain. This muddied the picture further: The woman was slightly less likely than the man to receive a heart disease diagnosis, but neither was likely to get one at all. And when stress was added to the mix, both men and women became even more likely to be diagnosed with a gastrointestinal problem instead. Given that women more commonly have both atypical symptoms and signs of anxiety, the end result is, yet again, that women are left under-diagnosed.
In Chiaramonte’s studies, the hypothetical patients had the exact same risk of a heart attack according to their age group. Given that younger women are, on average, at lower risk for heart attacks than younger men, the tendency to dismiss their symptoms as anxiety is likely even greater.
That’s what a 2014 study looking at over 1,000 patients, aged 18 to 55, who had heart attacks in Canada, the United States, and Switzerland, suggests. The study found that men received faster access to cardiac testing and care than women; the average time it took for men to get an electrocardiogram, for example, was 15 minutes, compared to 21 minutes for women. While some factors—including an absence of chest pain—seemed to cause delays in both genders, anxiety was associated with the failure to meet the 10-minute benchmark for ECG only in treating female patients. The researchers also gave the patients a personality test gauging how closely they adhered to traditional gender roles and found that both men and women with more stereotypically feminine traits faced more delays than patients with masculine traits.
Feminist critiques of modern medicine have long noted that, particularly when the cause of an ailment is unknown, doctors default to a psychological explanation in women more than in men. There are certainly some factors that may heighten this tendency when it comes to heart attacks. After all, only 20 percent of people who come to the ER with chest pain are actually having a heart attack. There is also clear symptom overlap between a heart attack and an anxiety attack, and younger women are at relatively lower risk for the former and higher risk for the latter. This reality, the Yale researchers suggest, might contribute to “initial triage strategies to attribute symptoms to non-cardiac conditions” in young women. One cardiologist put it more bluntly: "In training, we were taught to be on the lookout for hysterical females who come to the emergency room.”
But to a large degree, that sentiment reflects the kind of treatment many women receive from the health care system as a whole. The fact that psychological problems, like anxiety disorders and depression, can have a wide range of “non-specific” symptoms means they can serve as remarkably plastic diagnoses. To take just a few examples from the experiences of young women I know: For a month, multiple health care providers insisted that a friend’s stabbing chest pain was |
thought about the importance of genetics for sperm motility and may open the way to more studies in this area.”
In a study of 500 men attending semen analysis as part of infertility investigations, the team used sophisticated computer technology to accurately measure how fast the men’s sperm swam and then correlated this information with how many brothers or sisters each had in his family.
When the data were analyzed, the researchers were surprised to find that men with mostly brothers had faster sperm than men with mostly sisters. Although this does not mean that siblings directly influence sperm, there is a correlation which could offer an insight into how different sperm speeds in men have evolved.
“This is certainly not a smoking gun as a reason for infertility in men,” says Jim Mossman, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University who collected the data during his PhD studies in Sheffield and who led the research.
“However, it would be interesting to test whether the same relationships are observed in other human populations as well as in other species. Likewise, would we observe similar associations when looking at female fertility?
“If the relationship between sex-bias in the number of children and fertility is a more universal phenomenon, then we may expect female fertility to follow a similar pattern, albeit in the opposite direction.”
Jon Slate, professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of Sheffield adds: “We are very intrigued by this finding and hope other researchers examine their datasets in a similar fashion. If our results can be replicated we think it provides some evidence that humans have experienced what evolutionary biologists like to call ‘sexual conflict.’ The idea behind this is that genes that make males reproductively successful make females reproductively unsuccessful and vice versa.”
Source: University of SheffieldThe mission-driven venture capital fund New Crop Capital and the marketing gurus at BeyondBrands have joined forces to become a powerful accelerator for plant-based companies. By combining financing with consulting, this unique joint venture is designed to conceive, launch, and support groundbreaking new companies.
The coupling is based on strategic thinking and a shared mission: to move our food system away from factory farming by building a market for competitive, animal-free alternatives.
Meet the team leading the New Crop and BeyondBrands coalition: From left: Chad Sarno (chef and former culinary exec from Whole Foods), Renee Loux (cookbook author, restaurateur, and entrepreneur), Chris Kerr (NCC Managing Director and GFI’s entrepreneur-in-residence), Marci Zaroff (eco-lifestyle entrepreneur), and Eric Schnell (co-visionary of BeyondBrands)
Obviously, we at The Good Food Institute are crazy excited about this collaboration and will be working closely with both groups to streamline product development and distribution so that new good-food companies can have the maximum positive impact.
Our executive director, Bruce Friedrich (also co-trustee of NCC):
Most consumers are actively reducing the amount of meat, fish, dairy and egg products in their diets. With BeyondBrands and its team of experts, we will have a direct impact in supporting this lifestyle shift — while providing nutritious, clean and delicious products.
New Crop Capital and BeyondBrands’ first collaborative brand launch will be unveiled Summer 2017.
Get stoked.
To learn more about how GFI supports entrepreneurs seeking to change food and change the world, check out what we do
The nation is still struggling to recover from the dissolution of Brangelina (or so I hear). Thankfully, there’s a new power couple to catch our collective attention:Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey is set to lead a renewed push for Australia to become a republic, raising the ire of some of his Coalition colleagues.
Mr Hockey and Labor senator Katy Gallagher are forming a Parliamentary Friendship Group to revive debate about the issue, which has been effectively dormant since the failed 1999 referendum.
Key points Joe Hockey, Katy Gallagher to revive debate through Parliamentary Friendship Group
Treasurer supported 1999 referendum
Announced by Australian Republican Movement head Peter FitzSimons
Republic process should begin within five years: FitzSimons
The announcement was made by Mr Hockey's friend, and the head of the Australian Republican Movement, Peter FitzSimons at the National Press Club.
But the timing of the announcement has surprised some within Government, given the Coalition has struggled in recent months to maintain focus on its agenda of jobs and economic growth.
Mr Hockey's Cabinet colleague, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, said a renewed debate on the monarchy was not on his list of priorities.
"We've got important issues to deal with, like the economy and managing difficult international issues, the security of this country. I think those are the sorts of things I'll be giving my priority to," he said.
"I think we've dealt with [the republic debate] in the past, I suspect public opinion hasn't changed much, so let's concentrate on the things that matter most to this country."
The Treasurer supported the 1999 referendum and is one of the most prominent republicans in Government, along with Cabinet colleague Malcolm Turnbull, who led the Australian Republican Movement before entering Parliament.
Liberal senator and constitutional monarchist Dean Smith criticised Mr Hockey, saying it was "most definitely a distraction".
"The priority for every parliamentarian is to focus on the national economy and on jobs creation, nothing is more important than strengthening the economy and creating jobs at this time," he said.I
However, Mr Hockey defended his decision, saying he had long advocated his views on a republic.
"They are a matter of public record and those views haven't changed," his spokeswoman said.
ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja came to Mr Hockey's defence.
"Joe Hockey's views on this are well known, I happen to share those views," he said.
"I think, whilst it's certainly not a top-three issue, it's an important discussion to have and Joe's free to lead the charge."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he believed Australia was "smart and mature enough" to have a debate about an Australian head of state.
"It's time for Australia to become republic and I welcome the support of anyone — including Joe Hockey — in helping this happen," Mr Shorten said.
"If only he could convince his Prime Minister to think of the future for a change and not remain stuck in the past."
Fitzsimons: 'We're putting the band back together'
FitzSimons said in his Press Club speech: "The key thing I wish to say today is we are putting the band back together."
Politics in your inbox Subscribe to get ABC News delivered to your email, including top politics headlines, plus the day's top news and analysis and alerts on major breaking stories.
"It's the hope in the next five years, Australia can begin the formal process towards becoming the Republic of Australia.
"A republic that we deserve to be, an independent sovereign nation beneath the Southern Cross we stand, a sprig of wattle in our hand."
In 2004, Mr Hockey described the then-Labor leader Mark Latham's push for another republic referendum as a "distraction".
"When you've got hospitals and schools and police and security as you talked about — the issues that really matter — including national security, Mark Latham is off talking about the republic and as an avowed republican, I don't know where he's coming from," he told Lateline at the time.
In that interview, he said if another referendum were to be held "let's get it right and let's get it up".
'Minimalist model' proposed for referendum question
Two reasons are often cited for the failure of the 1999 referendum: the wording of the question, and a brawl within the republican movement over whether the head of state should be elected by politicians or the people.
To avoid these problems, FitzSimons proposed a "minimalist model", starting with a simple question to be put to the Australian people.
He said the question should be: "Do you support replacing the British monarch with an Australian citizen as the Australian head of state?".
Under his proposal, the Prime Minister would still appoint a Governor-General, but rather than asking the Queen to approve the appointment, it would be signed off by a two-thirds majority of Parliament.
"When properly presented, my minimalist model — this is only my view — is the most likely to succeed as it addresses the foremost concern of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' crowd," he said.GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations war crimes investigators plan to publish names of suspects involved in Syria’s four-year war and push for new ways to bring them to justice, in a radical change of strategy announced on Friday.
Diplomatic sources said the independent Commission of Inquiry, led by Brazilian investigator Paulo Pinheiro, may publish some or all of hundreds of names on secret lists of suspects at the U.N. Human Rights Council on March 17.
Pinheiro, speaking to reporters after informally briefing the U.N. Security Council, refused to be drawn, saying any release of names would need to “be of some use” and have some “follow-up”.
“You have to understand that we have to keep the suspense,” he said.
The investigators have already drawn up four lists including military and security commanders, the heads of detention facilities, and commanders of non-state armed groups, including the so-called “emirs” of radical groups, they said. They now have a fifth list ready.
“Not to publish names at this juncture of the investigation would be to reinforce the impunity that the Commission was mandated to combat,” they said in a report to the Human Rights Council.
The report, the latest in a series documenting human rights abuses such as torture, sex crimes, murder and the use of child soldiers, said the international community had failed in its duty to protect Syria’s civilians.
The fighting has killed more than 200,000 people and forced 10 million from their homes, triggering a regional humanitarian crisis that shows no sign of ending.
Without naming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s allies such as Russia and Iran, nor countries backing rebel armed groups such as the United States, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the investigators made plain that they blamed such countries for the continuing bloodshed.
“The consistent support provided to the government by its international backers, in terms of military equipment, advice and training, encouraged it to persist in its military and security approach based on the excessive use of force,” the report said.
Meanwhile support for opposition armed groups was too restricted to enable them to seriously challenge government forces, and had strengthened the hand of radicals, it added.
“The support given to the so-called ‘moderates’ has ultimately consolidated the dominance of extremist groups such as ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, which managed to overrun the positions of moderates and to gain loyalties among their ranks.”
The inquiry has repeatedly called for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court, but with that avenue blocked by divisions on the U.N. Security Council, it said an international ad hoc tribunal should be urgently considered instead.
The investigators said they had increasingly been sharing information with countries planning to prosecute their own citizens for crimes committed in Syria, and they also would be willing to share information with states trying to prosecute foreign nationals under the rules of “universal jurisdiction”.
“It’s absurd that the International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction and is not investigating,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall-Grant said.
Syria has refused to cooperate with the investigators and its U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari called their inquiry biased.
“All this propaganda aims at diabolizing the Syrian government and misleading public opinion. They did it in the past and they will do it in the future.”President Barack Obama lit into Donald Trump again on Tuesday, this time attacking the Republican presidential nominee for slandering a Muslim family whose son was killed while fighting in Iraq.
He added that Trump lacks "basic knowledge" about "critical issues," and that he believes he doesn’t have "the judgment, the temperament, or the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world."
"I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president," Obama said, while speaking next to the Singaporean prime minister at a press conference. "I said so last week, and he keeps on proving it. The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that had made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, means that he’s woefully unprepared to do this job."
Most of the coverage of Obama’s remarks focused on his hit on Trump. But his comments were primarily an appeal to top Republican leadership, which has tried to criticize Trump’s most offensive statements while also still supporting him over Hillary Clinton in the election.
That position, the president argued, is becoming increasingly impossible to hold.
"There has to come a point at which you say, ‘This is not somebody I support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party,’" Obama said. "The fact that this has not happened makes these denunciations ring hollow."
Vox’s Dylan Matthews explained yesterday just why it’s so hard for congressional Republicans to bring themselves to endorse Clinton, even while they condemn what Trump is doing.
But Obama has now made clear that he doesn’t have much sympathy for that argument. Here’s what he went on to say:Country music star Carrie Underwood had a little fun over social media recently at the expense of Nashville Predators forward Ryan Johansen.
Underwood, who is married to Predators veteran Mike Fisher, gave Johansen the business after the 23-year-old player was seen kissing his hockey stick during Friday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The seven-time Grammy Award winner wasn’t about to let that public display of affection go by the boards as Underwood took to Twitter and set Johansen’s kiss to four separate three-second music clips.
The former American Idol was direct in pairing Color Me Badd’s ditty of "I Wanna Sex You Up" with Johansen’s display before taking a classier route with Sixpence None The Richer’s "Kiss Me." Whitney Houston’s "I’m Your Baby Tonight" followed before Underwood finished her trolling with Prince’s "Kiss" – complete with emojis in tow.
Article continues below...
Hey, @RyanJohansen19 heard you got a little snuggle time w/ a special someone for #ValentinesDay So sweet… pic.twitter.com/lVvjDQUpnk — Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) February 13, 2016
Johansen fired back on social media with what best could be described as a comedic kiss off. How did he do that? Well, the new Predator puckered up with Fisher in front of a poster of Underwood.
What is happening here??? https://t.co/6VKHRoT9Ae — Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) February 14, 2016
Your move, Carrie.Following my recent trip to Iceland (which I highly recommend), I wanted to visualize the trip using a map, complete with the route and stop locations along the way.
Source code
Full source code for this project can be found on Github
Requirements
Flask web framework - Python web framework for the backend server Requests - Python package for performing Mapbox API queries GeoJSON - Python package for creating GeoJSON objects
Create the environment
Signup with a new / existing user in Mapbox
In order to use the Mapbox API you will need an access key, and for that you need to have a user account. For smaller projects, I recommend using the starter plan which is free to use (https://www.mapbox.com/pricing/)
Once your account is set up, you can find your API key by following this URL https://www.mapbox.com/studio/. It will be under the “Access Token” section.
Prepare python environment
Create a virtual environment with the following packages:
click == 6.6 Flask == 0.11. 1 geojson == 1.3. 3 itsdangerous == 0.24 Jinja2 == 2.8 MarkupSafe == 0.23 requests == 2.11. 1 Werkzeug == 0.11. 11
Create a flask project
Create the folders for the project:
/flask_mapbox /static /templates
We’ll put our main files in the flask_mapbox folder. The static folder will be used for CSS, Javascript and images, while the templates folder will be used for HTML files
Create a server.py file for the python code:
from flask import Flask, request, session, g, redirect, \ url_for, abort, render_template, flash app = Flask ( __name__ ) app. config. from_object ( __name__ )
Create a bash script to that will set the environment variables needed to start the server:
# start.sh export FLASK_APP = server.py export FLASK_DEBUG = 1 flask run
That’s it, the server is ready to run!
Open the command line console and run the start.sh file:
sh start.sh
Browse to http://127.0.0.1:5000/. For now, you’ll only get a 404 page not found error as we are not doing anything yet.
Display a simple map
In this part you will learn how to display a map using the Mapbox API.
As we don’t want to put the API key as part of the code, start by putting it in a configuration file. Create a new file with the name settings.py in the root folder of the project and add the following code:
# settings.py MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY = '<MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY>'
Add an additional environment variable in start.sh that will point to settings.py.
export APP_CONFIG_FILE = settings.py
start.sh should look like:
# start.sh export FLASK_APP = server.py export FLASK_DEBUG = 1 export APP_CONFIG_FILE = settings.py flask run
In server.py read the settings.py configuration file from the environment variable and get the access key from the configuration file:
# server.py app. config. from_envvar ( 'APP_CONFIG_FILE', silent = True ) MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY = app. config [ 'MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY' ]
Next, create a function in the server.py file that will route to the new template templates/mapbox_js.html. The function should also send the Mapbox access key to the template.
# server.py @app.route ( '/mapbox_js' ) def mapbox_js (): return render_template ('mapbox_js.html', ACCESS_KEY = MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY )
Finally, we want to create the HTML file that will show the map.
In the templates folder, create a new HTML file with the name mapbox_js.html for showing the map.
In the HTML header we will load the css and javascript from Mapbox.
In the JavaScript section of the HTML we will set the Mapbox access key that we got from the server, and create a new map object in the <div id="map"> element.
We will set the map to show Iceland ( [65.0,-18.73] ) with zoom level of 7.
The mapbox_js.html file should look like this:
# templates/mapbox_js.html <html> <head> <meta name= 'viewport' content= 'initial-scale=1,maximum-scale=1,user-scalable=no' /> <link href= 'https://api.tiles.mapbox.com/mapbox.js/v2.2.3/mapbox.css' rel='stylesheet' /> <script src= 'https://api.tiles.mapbox.com/mapbox.js/v2.2.3/mapbox.js' ></script> <script type= "text/javascript" src= "https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.4.min.js" ></script> <style> body { margin : 0 ; padding : 0 ; } #map { width : 100% ; height : 700px ; } </style> </head> <body> <div id= "map" ></div> <script> L. mapbox. accessToken = '{{ACCESS_KEY}}' ; var map = L. mapbox. map ('map','mapbox.streets', { scrollWheelZoom : false, zoomControl : false }). setView ([ 65.0, - 18.73 ], 7 ); </script> </body> </html>
You can start the server again by running the start.sh file:
sh start.sh
Browsing to http://127.0.0.1:5000/mapbox_js will show a map of Iceland:
Show the route on the map
In order to show a route on the map we will use the Mapbox routing API.
Start by gathering the geo-coordinate points along our route around Iceland’s ring road.
We will use these geo-coordinates when performing our Mapbox API request.
Add the following code to server.py :
# server.py ROUTE = [ { "lat" : 64.0027441, "long" : - 22.7066262 }, { "lat" : 64.0317168, "long" : - 22.1092311 }, { "lat" : 63.99879, "long" : - 21.18802 }, { "lat" : 63.4194089, "long" : - 19.0184548 }, { "lat" : 63.5302354, "long" : - 18.8904333 }, { "lat" : 64.2538507, "long" : - 15.2222918 }, { "lat" : 64.913435, "long" : - 14.01951 }, { "lat" : 65.2622588, "long" : - 14.0179538 }, { "lat" : 65.2640083, "long" : - 14.4037548 }, { "lat" : 66.0427545, "long" : - 17.3624953 }, { "lat" : 65.659786, "long" : - 20.723364 }, { "lat" : 65.3958953, "long" : - 20.9580216 }, { "lat" : 65.0722555, "long" : - 21.9704238 }, { "lat" : 65.0189519, "long" : - 22.8767959 }, { "lat" : 64.8929619, "long" : - 23.7260926 }, { "lat" : 64.785334, "long" : - 23.905765 }, { "lat" : 64.174537, "long" : - 21.6480148 }, { "lat" : 64.0792223, "long" : - 20.7535337 }, { "lat" : 64.14586, "long" : - 21.93955 }, ]
In order to get the driving direction from Mapbox we’ll create an API request using the geo-coordinates and Mapbox access key.
This is the template for the API call:
https://api.mapbox.com/directions/v5/mapbox/driving/{GEO_COORDINATES_LIST}.json?access_token={MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN}&overview=full&geometries=geojson
Add the following code to server.py :
# server.py # Mapbox driving direction API call ROUTE_URL = "https://api.mapbox.com/directions/v5/mapbox/driving/{0}.json?access_token={1}&overview=full&geometries=geojson" def create_route_url (): # Create a string with all the geo coordinates lat_longs = ";". join ([ "{0},{1}". format ( point [ "long" ], point [ "lat" ]) for point in ROUTE ]) # Create a url with the geo coordinates and access token url = ROUTE_URL. format ( lat_longs, MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY ) return url
The function create_route_url will create the API URL with all of our geo-coordinates and the Mapbox access token.
The get_route_data function will use requests to run the API request and return the results as a GeoJSON object:
# server.py def get_route_data (): # Get the route url route_url = create_route_url () # Perform a GET request to the route API result = requests. get ( route_url ) # Convert the return value to JSON data = result. json () # Create a geo json object from the routing data geometry = data [ "routes" ][ 0 ][ "geometry" ] route_data = Feature ( geometry = geometry, properties = {}) return route_data
We’ll modify the previous mapbox_js function and add the routing data to the render_template function:
# server.py @app.route ( '/mapbox_js' ) def mapbox_js (): route_data = get_route_data () return render_template ('mapbox_js.html', ACCESS_KEY = MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY, route_data = route_data )
In the mapbox_js.html file add a Mapbox feature layer with the routing data.
Add the following code to the JavaScript section in mapbox_js.html :
// templates/mapbox_js.html L. mapbox. accessToken = '{{ACCESS_KEY}}' ; var map = L. mapbox. map ('map','mapbox.streets', { scrollWheelZoom : false, zoomControl : false }). setView ([ 65.0, - 18.73 ], 7 ); L. mapbox. featureLayer ({{ route_data | safe }}). addTo ( map );
Start the server again by running the start.sh file:
sh start.sh
Browsing to http://127.0.0.1:5000/mapbox_js will show a page with a Mapbox map and the routing (the black line) starting in Keflavík International Airport (KEF), going around Iceland and ending in Reykjavík:
Add location markers on the map
Next, we’ll add location markers for cities and locations along the route.
We’ll edit the ROUTE dictionary with the location names ( name ) and a boolean to signal if this is a stop location ( is_stop_location ) for locations that we stopped in along the way.
In server.py edit the data in ROUTE :
# server.py ROUTE = [ { "lat" : 64.0027441, "long" : - 22.7066262, "name" : "Keflavik Airport", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 64.0317168, "long" : - 22.1092311, "name" : "Hafnarfjordur", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 63.99879, "long" : - 21.18802, "name" : "Hveragerdi", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 63.4194089, "long" : - 19.0184548, "name" : "Vik", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 63.5302354, "long" : - 18.8904333, "name" : "Thakgil", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 64.2538507, "long" : - 15.2222918, "name" : "Hofn", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 64.913435, "long" : - 14.01951, "is_stop_location" : False }, { "lat" : 65.2622588, "long" : - 14.0179538, "name" : "Seydisfjordur", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 65.2640083, "long" : - 14.4037548, "name" : "Egilsstadir", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 66.0427545, "long" : - 17.3624953, "name" : "Husavik", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 65.659786, "long" : - 20.723364, "is_stop_location" : False }, { "lat" : 65.3958953, "long" : - 20.9580216, "name" : "Hvammstangi", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 65.0722555, "long" : - 21.9704238, "is_stop_location" : False }, { "lat" : 65.0189519, "long" : - 22.8767959, "is_stop_location" : False }, { "lat" : 64.8929619, "long" : - 23.7260926, "name" : "Olafsvik", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 64.785334, "long" : - 23.905765, "is_stop_location" : False }, { "lat" : 64.174537, "long" : - 21.6480148, "name" : "Mosfellsdalur", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 64.0792223, "long" : - 20.7535337, "name" : "Minniborgir", "is_stop_location" : True }, { "lat" : 64.14586, "long" : - 21.93955, "name" : "Reykjavik", "is_stop_location" : True }, ]
In the server.py file, we’ll declare a function to create GeoJSON objects for markers. These marker objects will have the latitude, longitude and different properties such as title, icon, marker color and the number of marker along the way.
The new function will look like this:
# server.py def create_stop_locations_details (): stop_locations = [] for location in ROUTE : # Skip anything that is not a stop location if not location [ "is_stop_location" ]: continue # Create a geojson object for stop location point = Point ([ location [ 'long' ], location [ 'lat' ]]) properties = { 'title' : location [ 'name' ], 'icon' : 'campsite','marker-color' : '#3bb2d0','marker-symbol' : len ( stop_locations ) + 1 } feature = Feature ( geometry = point, properties = properties ) stop_locations. append ( feature ) return stop_locations @app.route ( '/mapbox_js' ) def mapbox_js (): route_data, waypoints = get_route_data () stop_locations = create_stop_locations_details () return render_template ('mapbox_js.html', ACCESS_KEY = MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY, route_data = route_data, stop_locations = stop_locations )
In the template, we’ll set a new feature layer with the stop locations data:
// templates/mapbox_js.html L. mapbox. accessToken = '{{ACCESS_KEY}}' ; var map = L. mapbox. map ('map','mapbox.streets', { scrollWheelZoom : false, zoomControl : false }). setView ([ 65.0, - 18.73 ], 7 ); L. mapbox. featureLayer ({{ route_data | safe }}). addTo ( map ); L. mapbox. featureLayer ({{ stop_locations | safe }}). addTo ( map );
Go to http://127.0.0.1:5000/mapbox_js again will show the map of Iceland with the route and markers for the stop locations.
Mapbox.js to Mapbox GL
Some time ago, Mapbox released a new framework, Mapbox GL.
While Mapbox GL is still considered a new framework, it might be the future replacement for Mapbox.js (Leaflet plugin).
In this part, we will convert our code to user Mapbox GL and show some of the differences between the two frameworks.
We’ll start by creating a new function in server.py that will route to a new template that uses Mapbox GL:
# server.py @app.route ( '/mapbox_gl' ) def mapbox_gl (): return render_template ('mapbox_gl.html', ACCESS_KEY = MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY )
Create a new template templates/mapbox_gl.html and add the following code:
<!-- templates/mapbox_gl.html --> <html> <head> <meta charset= 'utf-8' /> <title></title> <meta name= 'viewport' content= 'initial-scale=1,maximum-scale=1,user-scalable=no' /> <script src= 'https://api.tiles.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-js/v0.24.0/mapbox-gl.js' ></script> <link href= 'https://api.tiles.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-js/v0.24.0/mapbox-gl.css' rel='stylesheet' /> <script type= "text/javascript" src= "https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.4.min.js" ></script> <style> body { margin : 0 ; padding : 0 ; } #map { position : absolute ; top : 0 ; bottom : 0 ; width : 100% ; } </style> </head> <body> <div id='map' ></div> <script> mapboxgl. accessToken = '{{ ACCESS_KEY }}' ; var map = new mapboxgl. Map ({ container :'map', style :'mapbox://styles/mapbox/streets-v9', center : [ - 18.73, 65.0 ], zoom : 6 }); map. scrollZoom. disable (); </script> </body> </html>
This time we use the mapbox-gl JavaScript and CSS.
In the JavaScript section we’ll create a new mapboxgl.Map object.
the mapboxgl object is set with the id of the relevant div, the style of the map, latitude and longitude of the center of Iceland and the zoom level for the map.
Going to http://127.0.0.1:5000/mapbox_gl will show the map of iceland.
Add the route data using the same get_route_data function that we used previously:
# server.py @app.route ( '/mapbox_gl' ) def mapbox_gl (): route_data = get_route_data () return render_template ('mapbox_gl.html', ACCESS_KEY = MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY, route_data = route_data )
In the mapbox_gl.html template, add the following to the JavaScript section after the initialization of the map object.
This time, in the JavaScript part of the HTML we first create a source with the routing data for the map and then we add a layer using the source object that we just created.
// templates/mapbox_gl.html route = {{ route_data | safe }} map. on ( 'load', function () { map. addSource ( "route", { "type" : "geojson", "data" : route }); map. addLayer ({ "id" : "route", "type" : "line", "source" : "route", "layout" : { "line-join" : "round", "line-cap" : "round" }, "paint" : { "line-color" : "#007cbf", "line-width" : 2 } }); });
Going to http://127.0.0.1:5000/mapbox_gl will show the map of Iceland with the route drawn along the ring road:
Adding the markers is a bit different with Mapbox GL, as it is more of a manual process.
From the server side, we send the markers in the same way as we did before:
# server.py @app.route ( '/mapbox_gl' ) def mapbox_gl (): route_data = get_route_data () stop_locations = create_stop_locations_details () return render_template ('mapbox_gl.html', ACCESS_KEY = MAPBOX_ACCESS_KEY, route_data = route_data, stop_locations = stop_locations )
On the HTML side, in templates/mapbox_gl.html add the following css:
/* mapbox_gl.html */.marker { border : none ; cursor : pointer ; height : 32px ; width : 32px ; background-image : url(static/marker.png) ; background-color : rgba ( 0, 0, 0, 0 ); transform : translate ( 28px, 56px, 0 ); }
The configuration uses a file called marker.png which can be found in my Github repository. Put marker.png in the templates folder.
In the JavaScript part of templates/mapbox_gl.html, load the stop locations data structure and add a marker for each stop location.
// mapbox_gl.html map. on ( 'load', function () { // Add this to end of function var stop_locations = {{ stop_locations | safe }} stop_locations. forEach ( function ( marker ) { var el = document. createElement ( 'div' ); el. className ='marker' ; el. style. left = '-15px' ; el. style. top = '-32px' ; new mapboxgl. Marker ( el ). setLngLat ( marker. geometry. coordinates ). addTo ( map ); }); });
Going to http://127.0.0.1:5000/mapbox_gl will show the map of Iceland with the route along the ring road, and with markers in the stop locations:
Adding map animations
We can also add an animation on top of our map. For this example, we will add an animation of a car going through the route between the stop locations.
We start by adding a new source and layer for the car icon that we will animate across the route.
On the client side, add the following code to the JavaScript section in mapbox_gl.html inside the map load function:
// mapbox_gl.html // *********************************************** // Add the following code in beginning of the file // *********************************************** // Add points for start and end of animation var origin = route. geometry. coordinates [ 0 ]; var destination = route. geometry. coordinates [ route. geometry. coordinates. length - 1 ]; var point = { "type" : "FeatureCollection", "features" : [{ "type" : "Feature", "geometry" : { "type" : "Point", "coordinates" : origin } }] }; map. on ( 'load', function () { // ********************************************* // Add the following code to end of the function // ********************************************* // Add source for the car icon layer map. addSource ( 'point', { "type" : "geojson", "data" : point }); // Add car icon layer map. addLayer ({ "id" : "point", "source" : "point", "type" : "symbol", "layout" : { "icon-image" : "car-15", "icon-size" : 1, } }); });
Add the animation function for moving the car along the route:
// mapbox_gl.html // *********************************************** // Add the following code in beginning of the file // *********************************************** var counter = 0 ; map. on ( 'load', function () { // ********************************************* // Add the following code to end of the function // **************************************** |
conference in Ankara on Friday that she had made a request to the Syrian government for unhindered access to the worst-hit areas, but that the Syrian government had asked for more time.
The Syrian government had agreed to join UN agencies in a "limited assessment" of the situation, she said.
Amos said in Damascus on Thursday that Baba Amr is "completely destroyed" and that most of its residents were gone.
She was the first independent observer allowed into the neighbourhood since government forces entered on March 1.
The army prevented aid convoys associated with the International Committee of the Red Cross from entering for more than three days.
"The devastation there is significant, that part of Homs is completely destroyed and I am concerned to know what has happened to the people who live in that part of the city," Amos said.
UNESCO resolution watered-down
The UN's cultural agency, the Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), condemned Syria on Thursday for its crackdown on a year-long uprising but did not expel Damascus from its human rights committee as some Western and Arab countries had demanded.
Angered by Syria's inclusion on the committee, a group of Western and Arab nations had pressed for Syria's expulsion
following the violence in the country.
But a resolution, submitted by Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Britain, Denmark, and other countries, stopped short of expelling Damascus from the key committee.
Ziad Aldress, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UNESCO, told Al Jazeera that it was impossible to use stronger language without losing crucial support for the resolution.
"If we lose the votes then it will be a hopeless case," he said.
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reported that some UNESCO officials were unhappy about the way their organisation was being used as a forum for international disputes.
"Some officials at UNESCO told us privately that they are getting quite tired of playing the role of a political football," she said.
"What we've seen here today, once again, is the limitations of international diplomacy when it comes to trying to move forward in consensus on the subject of Syria," she said.During a news conference at a hotel in Sepang, Malaysia, Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, center, shows a note from Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang stating that they received a recent satellite image during a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Hishammuddin told reporters Saturday that he had been informed that a Chinese satellite had spotted a 74-foot-by-43-foot object in the ocean.
March 22, 2014 During a news conference at a hotel in Sepang, Malaysia, Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, center, shows a note from Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang stating that they received a recent satellite image during a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Hishammuddin told reporters Saturday that he had been informed that a Chinese satellite had spotted a 74-foot-by-43-foot object in the ocean. Joshua Paul/AP
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has two points of focus: finding physical wreckage and determining an explanation of the suspected “deliberate act” that led to the plane’s disappearance.
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 now has two points of focus: physical wreckage, and an explanation of the suspected “deliberate act” that led to the plane’s disappearance.
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 now has two points of focus: physical wreckage, and an explanation of the suspected “deliberate act” that led to the plane’s disappearance.
Shouting and wailing in anger and grief, a handful of Chinese relatives of passengers on a missing airliner burst into the media auditorium in the Malaysian capital on Wednesday, and unfurled a banner demanding the government “tell the truth.”
Chaos ensued as the relatives were surrounded by dozens of television camera operators, photographers and correspondents jostling each other for position in a narrow space at the back of the hall. A Malaysian government official appealed in vain for the relatives to leave, before they were finally bundled out the door by police in an unseemly melee.
One woman collapsed to the ground and had to be virtually carried out as she wailed “Where are they? Where are they?”
There were more than 150 Chinese people among the 239 passengers and crew aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, which vanished in the early hours of March 8. Their relatives have been angry almost from the outset with the slow and often contradictory information flow coming from the Malaysian government and airline. Some have been flown to Malaysia to wait for news, although most have elected to stay behind in China.
After the family members were removed, only their banner was left behind on the floor. A government spokesman ordered it to be rolled up, saying it was not “appropriate”.
View Graphic New data has provided an arc of possible locations for Malaysian Flight MH370.
On Tuesday, Malaysian officials, faced with mounting frustration over the progress of their investigation of an airliner that disappeared 10 days ago, made an international appeal for help in finding it.
The search has been bedeviled by scant information and contradictory reports, prompting Chinese Ambassador Huang Huikang on Tuesday to say the Malaysians were “inexperienced and lacking the capacity” to carry out the investigation properly.
Malaysia also has been slow to line up help from other countries, including the United States, that have expertise or information that could speed up the search. Although a group of U.S. crash investigators has been in Kuala Lumpur for more than a week, the nation has not accepted assistance from a team at the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office waiting to depart for Malaysia.
Nor has Malaysia responded to an offer of assistance from a U.S. oceanographic institute, whose expertise in underwater searches helped locate the last major airliner to crash into the sea: Air France Flight 447, which disappeared over the Atlantic in 2009.
But Malaysia is warming to some of these offers, U.S. officials said. A senior law enforcement official said Tuesday that the Malaysian government is starting to cooperate with the FBI and American intelligence agents in the field after a week of rebuffing help.
“Initially, there was a little bit of fog of war. That has cleared,” the official said. “They had a hard time pulling this together. Every intelligence agency in the world was beating their door down. I think they were overwhelmed, and that has settled a little bit.”
Malaysia has now sought FBI technical expertise in examining the flight simulator found at the home of the pilot and other items, a U.S. law enforcement official said. There are also fewer than a dozen FBI agents, including the agency’s assistant legal attaché and legal attaché, on the ground in Kuala Lumpur, the official said.
Two relatives of passengers missing from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 were forcibly removed a daily briefing to journalists after trying to unfurl a banner. (Reuters)
In Bangkok, a Thai air force spokesman said that Thai military radar may have spotted Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 just as it steered away from its intended path and after its transponder was cut off. But Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn said officials did not share the information because Malaysia did not specifically request it, the Associated Press reported.
Had Thailand’s disclosure come earlier, it might have directed the search away from the Gulf of Thailand, which crews combed for seven days on the theory that the airliner, with 239 passengers and crew members on board, had perhaps crashed at the same time that it disappeared from civilian radar March 8. The focus of the search now is farther to the west, in particular the Indian Ocean.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, at a news conference Tuesday, brushed off criticism that his government has held back information or been slow to follow possible leads. He said Malaysia is cooperating with the FBI and other international law enforcement authorities.
“Our priority has always been to find the aircraft,” he said. “We would not withhold any information that could help. But we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by the international investigation team.”
He added, “Over the last two days, we have been recalibrating the search for MH370. It remains a significant diplomatic, technical and logistical challenge.”
He asked the United States on Tuesday to scrutinize data from defense satellites and airborne radar. He also requested more U.S. vessels in the Indian Ocean.
“The entire search area is now 2.24 million square nautical miles,” Hishammuddin said. “This is an enormous search area. And it is something Malaysia cannot possibly search on its own.”
Search grid defined
Unless floating debris from the aircraft is discovered somewhere in that vast area, it becomes increasing unlikely that the plane will be found, U.S. experts said.
In what has become the largest search on record for an aircraft, Malaysia acknowledged for the first time that other countries needed to take leading roles in scouring a grid about the size of Australia. Malaysia said it has divided that grid into 14 sections and negotiated for Australia, China, Indonesia and Kazakhstan to coordinate efforts in some of those areas.
If the plane or wreckage is located, the senior U.S. law enforcement official said, the FBI is ready to dispatch additional teams of agents. They could help with forensic analysis of bodies, debris and other material to help determine what happened. The official said the FBI also is prepared to look into the backgrounds of all the passengers and crew members but has not been asked by the Malaysian National Police, which is leading the investigation.
“The Malaysians have the lead on this, and we stand ready to assist in any way we can,” the official said.
At the White House, one senior administration official said cooperation with the Malaysian government is proceeding as smoothly as can be expected given the “unusual” nature of the mystery.
“This is very difficult for any country,” the official said, referring to the Malaysian response. “We’ve provided a lot of technical assistance in particular, and we helped with the new search area.”
At the National Security Council, officials are monitoring the response from the Defense and State departments, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI, and the staff has had “working level” meetings with various agencies. But the effort has been based out of the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the official said. The United States has added a few staff members to assist at the embassy.
Citing U.S. officials, the New York Times reported Monday that Flight MH370’s westward turn away from its route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was programmed into the plane’s computer system, suggesting that whoever steered the Boeing 777 had technical expertise.
“If this turn point was loaded in on the ground before takeoff, then both pilots would have to agree on that being part of the flight plan, which is unlikely,” said Ron Carr, a retired airline pilot who teaches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona. “It would be easier and less likely to call attention to a ‘not authorized waypoint’ for it to be loaded [after takeoff] when the course change is to be conducted.”
Finding Air France Flight 447
Although Malaysian authorities have appealed for help with the underwater search, they have not responded to offers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, which found Air France Flight 447.
“We’ve tried every way we can at Woods Hole just to have a conversation with someone in Malaysia,” said Dave Gallo of Woods Hole. “We offered through our State Department, and then we tried to go directly to the Malaysians and to Boeing. Nothing.”
Gallo said that if the plane is underwater, searchers first must find evidence of its location by spotting debris on the surface.
“It’s similar to finding a needle in a haystack, which is doable these days if you have the right tools,” he said. “So knowing that we’re at least looking in the right haystack is important. We don’t want to be looking in the Gulf of Thailand in shallow water and then they say it’s off the coast of Perth [Australia] in deep water.”
Five days after the Air France crash, floating debris was located. Using water currents and the final communications from the aircraft, investigators narrowed the search area to 40 square miles. Brought in after the plane’s locator box stopped sending underwater signals, the Woods Hole team found the Airbus A330 more than 11,000 feet below the surface, almost two years after it went down.
The longer it takes to find floating evidence of Flight MH370, the more problematic the search becomes. Narrowing the area to scour would allow ships towing sonar sleds on long tethers to focus on that section before the 30-day battery life runs out on an underwater beacon emitting homing signals every second.
As time passes, floating debris drifts and disperses. Experts can evaluate those patterns based on the time the material has been in the water and pinpoint where to search. If the search narrows from millions of square miles to just a few dozen, it becomes a matter of bringing in the right equipment.
Ships towing sonar sleds must move at less than two miles an hour or risk breaking the miles-long line that lets their equipment sink thousands of feet below the surface. The better choice is autonomous underwater vehicles — unmanned mini-submarines.
“They have the ability of running very precise lines on the sea floor, just like plowing a field or mowing the lawn,” said Gallo, whose team also mapped the remains of the Titanic ocean liner on the bottom of the Atlantic.
Gallo said assembling a fleet of AUVs, if a search area can be narrowed, is a challenge.
“They are scattered all over the Earth,” he said. “There are a couple of companies that can respond. There are a couple of oceanographic institutes like ourselves that can respond, but no one’s got dozens of vehicles. Everyone’s got one or two, and who knows where they are?” If that focus comes down to the waters off Perth, he said, that is “one of the most incredibly complicated underwater terrains on the planet.”
“This place is not only rugged, but it’s unpredictable,” he added. “It can be a high plateau, a deep valley, a mountain slope, so it’s difficult.”
Australia said Tuesday that it will take several weeks to search its area, with help coming Wednesday from New Zealand and the United States. That search area — the southernmost potential crash spot for the aircraft — is 230,000 square miles, about the size of Wyoming.
Halsey reported from Washington. Tim Craig in Islamabad, Pakistan; Annie Gowen in New Delhi; and Ernesto Londoño, Adam M. Goldman, Scott Higham and David Nakamura in Washington contributed to this report.GENEVA – The third round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six powers opened in Geneva Wednesday with the parties offering contradictory assessments of the chances for success.
Yet even as some of the negotiators sought to lower expectations, most seemed optimistic that by the end of the weekend, an agreement on curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief would be reached.
A senior U.S. official insisted Wednesday that the proposal now on the table differs little from the one Iran rejected two weeks ago, even though lower-level talks with the Iranians have continued since then. The main sticking points last time were the Iranians’ rejection of the demand that they cease construction of their heavy-water reactor in Arak, and their insistence that the agreement explicitly recognize their right to enrich uranium.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that the issue of whether Iran will ultimately be allowed to enrich uranium will not be decided in the interim deal under discussion in Geneva.
“Whatever a country decides or doesn’t decide to do, or is allowed to do under the rules, depends on a negotiation,” Kerry told reporters. “We are at the initial stage of determining whether or not there is a first step that could be taken, and that [the issue of Iranian enrichment] certainly will not be resolved in any first step, I can assure you.”
The talks in Geneva began with a luncheon attended by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is heading the talks for the P5 + 1 countries – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.
A European Union spokesperson called the luncheon meeting “positive,” and the Iranian Fars News Agency quoted Zarif as calling the meeting “good.” But Zarif’s deputy, Abbas Araghchi, sounded less optimistic, telling Iranian reporters that the previous round of talks undermined trust between the sides, and that “the lost trust must be revived.” He also said the disagreement over Iran’s right to enrich uranium remains unresolved.
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Representatives of some of the six powers also sounded more cautious about the chances of success.
A senior American warned that it would be “very hard” to clinch a breakthrough nuclear deal this week.
“I think we can (get a deal), whether we will, we will have to see because it is hard. It is very hard.... If it was easy to do, it would have been done a long time ago,” the official said.
The French, for their part, were furious over remarks made Wednesday by Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in which he termed Israel a “rabid dog” and accused the French of “bending the knee to the Zionist regime” by taking a tough stance in the last round of talks. A spokeswoman for French President Francois Hollande denounced the remarks, saying they “complicated” the Geneva talks.
Yet over in Geneva, neither the senior American official nor Ashton’s spokesman followed Hollande’s lead, though the American admitted that Khamenei’s remarks caused some “discomfort.”
British FM: Gap is ‘narrow’
By contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow Wednesday that he is optimistic about the talks in Geneva, as did British Foreign Minister William Hague.
Hague, speaking in Istanbul at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, called the nuclear talks a “historic opportunity,” adding, “A deal is on the table that would be in the interest of all nations, including countries across the Middle East. The differences that remain between the parties are narrow and I believe they can be bridged through political will and commitment.”
Publicly, at least, there was little discussion Wednesday of the main issues on the table – the Arak reactor and what will be done with Iran’s 200 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 percent. The substantive talks on these issues are expected to begin only Thursday.
But the American official did shed some light on the other side of the equation: He said the sanctions relief would be “balanced, targeted, limited and reversible,” with the vast majority of sanctions remaining intact, and also promised that Washington would “vigorously” implement them.
The U.S. official also said he “understands [Prime Minister] Netanyahu has to call things how he sees them. We share a joint objective, preventing Iranian nuclear weapons.”
Netanyahu, in remarks after the meeting with Putin, said, “We believe it is possible to reach a better agreement, but it requires us to be consistent and persistent.”
The Ashton-Zarif luncheon was followed by a plenary meeting of the Iranian delegation with the P5 +1 negotiating teams. That meeting lasted only 15 minutes, indicating that the parties are agreed on matters of protocol.
The talks are expected to continue until Friday, but they may be extended if deemed necessary. Should the talks yield an agreement ready to be signed, the foreign ministers of the six countries will go to Geneva.
Zarif arriving for talks with EU foreign policy chief Ashton in Geneva, November 20, 2013. AFPThe Blade Runner Partnership
Here is some news that will make fans of the 1982 science-fiction cult film “Blade Runner” shudder with either anticipation or trepidation.
On Thursday the film’s director, Ridley Scott, announced that a new division of his commercials company, RSA Films, was working on a video series called “Purefold.” The series of linked 5- to 10-minute shorts, aimed first at the Web and then perhaps television, will be set at a point in time before 2019, when the Harrison Ford movie takes place in a dystopian Los Angeles.
Mr. Scott, his brother Tony and his son Luke are developing the project in conjunction with the independent studio Ag8, which is run by one of the creators of “Where are the Joneses?” a British Web sitcom that solicited storyline suggestions from the audience. Similarly, “Purefold” will harvest story input from its viewers, in conjunction with the social media site FriendFeed.
But the series won’t be hewing too closely to the specific characters or situations in “Blade Runner.” Some of that material stemmed from the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” which the “Purefold” creators do not have rights to.
“We don’t take any of the canon or copyrighted assets from the movie,” said David Bausola, founding partner of Ag8, who said he hoped the series would debut later this summer and that the first episodes would depict events about two years into the future. “It’s actually based on the same themes as ‘Blade Runner.’ It’s the search for what it means to be human and understanding the notion of empathy. We are inspired by ‘Blade Runner.’”
Other partners in the project include the ad and marketing agencies WPP, Publicis, Aegis Media and Naked Communications. They will bring in advertisers whose products and brands — or hypothetical future versions of them — could be featured in the series.
In an indication that the filmmakers are interested in exploring a new kind of collective, social creativity, the episodes in the series will be released under a Creative Commons license, marking the first time a major Hollywood director has embraced that alternative licensing scheme. The license means fans of the series can take the episodes and remix or otherwise repurpose them, and even make their versions available commercially under the same license.Danny Wicks extends Parramatta Eels' NRL deal
Updated
Danny Wicks has re-signed with Parramatta until the end of the 2016 NRL season.
The 29-year-old was initially signed to a one-year deal with the Eels and the former St George Illawarra and Newcastle player is delighted to remain at Parramatta.
"I'm very grateful for the Eels taking a chance on me and I'm loving working under Brad (Arthur) and being part of the club," Wicks said in a club statement.
Wicks made his return to the NRL this season after more than five years out of the game.
The former Dragon and Knight was arrested and charged with drug-related offences in 2009, quitting Newcastle after being released on bail.
In 2011, he was sentenced to a maximum of three years in jail after being found guilty of trafficking drugs, eventually serving 18 months of the sentence.
AAP
Topics: nrl, rugby-league, sport, parramatta-2150
First postedThe University of Cantabria has announced that it will host a special summer course on bitcoin and blockchain technology, spanning for two days from July 14 to 15.
According to the official website, the course titled "Bitcoin and Blockchain Technologies: the FinTech Disruption" is the first course organized by a public Spanish University on bitcoin and blockchain technologies.
The 10-hour course will be held at the university premises in Santander and will explore the world of cryptocurrencies with a focus on bitcoin. The course will also look into basic features of blockchain systems and its possible applications. AirBitz, a decentralized bitcoin wallet service provider plays a major role in organizing.
“The faculty at the University of Cantabria sought us out to help enhance the course they were offering, and we were thrilled to participate. Airbitz is always eager to support Bitcoin education and outreach initiatives. We look forward to working with more institutions and educators to spread awareness of digital currencies and how blockchain technologies are changing our world,” Airbitz COO, Will Pangman told themerkle.com.
The course will be taught in Spanish and include 7 hours of classes, covering topics like fundamentals of bitcoin and blockchain, bitcoin ecosystem and operating with bitcoin among others. The course will also have practical workshops where students will learn to perform transactions with bitcoin.
Bitcoin and Blockchain Technologies course is aimed at professionals in the technology and / or financial sectors, entrepreneurs, and students of any discipline. People interested in learning the technology can enroll this course which will explore topics from scratch.
The course instructors include Claudiu Tanasescu, software developer and bitcoin enthusiast; Óscar González Fernández, quantitative researcher and Steven Van Vaerenbergh, research scientist.
One of the partner sponsor company SofCloudIt is offering 5 scholarships to graduate and postgraduate students in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics.State legislators looking to crack down on illegal immigration in 2012 are turning away from the law enforcement laws that dominated state houses this year, and instead are pushing other measures that can make life just as difficult for illegal immigrants.
Much of the international furor over state immigration laws in states such as Arizona and Alabama focused on the portions that granted local police the ability to conduct roadside immigration checks of people stopped for other crimes.
Alabama leaders are now considering revisions after foreign workers at Mercedes-Benz and Honda carmaking plants in the state were detained under the new law. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued to block four state enforcement laws — Alabama, Arizona, South Carolina and Utah — and Arizona's law will be in limbo until at least next summer when the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on its constitutionality.
"(Immigration enforcement) bills in other states that were advancing, you may see them stall until we can get clarification from the Supreme Court," said South Carolina state Sen. Larry Grooms, a Republican whose enforcement bill passed this year.
That political and legal turmoil has left few legislators in other states pushing new law enforcement laws.
Mississippi state Sen. Joey Fillingane, a Republican whose enforcement bill passed the state Senate and could pass the House with a new Republican majority there this year, said he won't let potentially-lengthy reviews of Arizona's enforcement law stop him from pushing a similar measure.
"We understand from being attorneys and dealing with appeals that rulings can take a long, long time," Fillingane said. "I don't think that's any reason … to stop everything in its tracks."
But Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has helped Arizona and other state legislators craft laws cracking down on illegal immigrants, sees that as the exception. He said legislators will continue expanding the use of E-Verify, which businesses can use to check the immigration status of job applicants, Secure Communities, which allows police to check the immigration status of people booked into local jails, and laws that restrict illegal immigrants from accessing public benefits.
Yet it's a new provision in Alabama's law that has caught the eye of many state legislators. Kobach said Alabama was the first state to invalidate all contracts entered into with illegal immigrants. A strict reading of the law could mean that any contract, including mortgages, apartment leases and basic work agreements, can be ruled null and void.
"That is one that has a much greater effect than some people might expect at first glance," Kobach said. "Suppose an illegal alien is doing some roofing business and wants to rent some equipment. Some short-term or long-term rental suddenly becomes more difficult to do."
Another aspect of Alabama's law forbids illegal immigrants from conducting any "business transaction" with a government agency. An Alabama federal judge ruled that the state must stop using that provision to prohibit illegal immigrants from renewing permits for their mobile homes, but it's being applied elsewhere.
The combination of those provisions "has led to nothing short of chaos in the state," said Karen Tumlin, managing attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, which was part of a lawsuit against Alabama's law. "They've been applied to a striking range of activities, from getting tags on your cars to getting public utilities to changing title on your cars."
Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican and founder of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, which pushes for federal and state laws that restrict illegal immigration, said he will wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the Arizona law before pushing anything similar in his state. But he said the recent success of Alabama banning contracts and business transactions by illegal immigrants has placed them on his "wish list" for the upcoming session.
"That's a very good way to expand the fight to shut down access to revenue that they get," he said.
North Carolina state Rep. Harry Warren, co-chairman of the state's Select Committee on the State's Role in Immigration Policy, said he is intrigued by the Alabama's law ability to prevent illegal immigrants from securing utilities such as heat and gas. He said that could be part of a package that the committee recommends to the Legislature some time in 2012.
But he worried about some of the unintended consequences that the contract and business transaction provisions have had in Alabama. Legal residents had to wait for hours in lines to renew their car registrations because they had to prove their citizenship.
"Going to the DMV is a long line already," Warren said. "The only thing you can do in your state is make it less attractive (for illegal immigrants) to come to, a little harder to live here legally. But the flipside is unforeseen circumstances. We need to really try to see what the ramifications would be of the laws that we would pass to try to accomplish those means."CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury at the party’s 21st National Congress in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. (Source: PTI Photo)
Senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Friday slammed Prime Minister’s frequent foreign tours saying he is travelling abroad so much now to make up for not being permitted to travel to some countries for many years.
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“May be he was not able to travel for the past ten years. I mean not being permitted to travel by these countries. He has got the chance now and he is going all over these countries. Let him. If he advances India with his dressing and all, it is good,” he said.
Yechury further said that Modi was creating more garbage than cleaning it, referring to the Prime Minister’s comments in Canada yesterday that his government was cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous governments.
“It (Modi’s comments) is like one of those sustained release medicines. Mr Modi is like one of the sustained release campaigns. Wherever he goes he is doing it. Since it (Canada) is a new country, there are new NRIs, but the campaign is the same,” he said while talking to reporters.
“Back home what are you doing? The economic policies you are following are actually compounding people’s miseries …What he is doing is actually creating more garbage which is accumulating in our country. Therefore, I said it is a sustained political campaign,” he said.
Talking about the ongoing 21st national Congress of CPI(M) here, Yechury said general secretary Prakash Karat had introduced the draft political resolution for discussion, and 2,552 amendments and 248 suggestions were received while 71 amendments were accepted since it was released in January.
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One of the objectives of congress was to produce an action plan for the growth of the party on its own, he said.
(With inputs from PTI)State Attorney Won't Reopen Questionable Investigation Unless Questionable Law Enforcement Agencies Provide The Evidence
from the please-take-another-look-at-our-wrongdoing,-said-no-agency-everq dept
In May 2012, Seth Adams pulled into the parking lot of the gardening store his family owned. A few minutes later, he was dead, shot by an undercover cop who had been sitting in an unmarked vehicle in the store's parking lot. The officer, Michael Custer, claimed Adams was "drunk and belligerent" and that he "feared for his life." He also claimed Adams reached into the cab of his pickup, presumably to grab a weapon, and that's when he opened fire.
It was clear from the beginning that the ensuing investigation would be nothing more than ornamental. Adams' "guilt" and the officer's "innocence" had been predetermined.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw made it clear from the start that he had no intention of investigating the incident impartially. Referring to Adams, Bradshaw at one point told local media, “Why he decided to assault the deputy? We may never know that.” When the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) began a state investigation, Bradshaw added that he was confident the results would “verify exactly what I thought from the beginning.”
“An FDLE investigator even asked for Custer’s employee evaluations but was told they didn’t exist.”
"First thing I want to make clear on with the Seth Adams investigation is that was closed out during a prior administration," said State Attorney for the 15th Judicial Court, Dave Aronberg who was elected to the post in November, 2012.
State Attorney Aronberg and Anderson didn't say much more during the Q & A except that if new evidence comes into their office they could re-open the case.
Any new evidence would have to come from a law enforcement agency, not an attorney working a civil case.
Why isn’t the state’s attorney’s office investigating the sheriff’s department for reportedly lying about the existence of Custer’s employee evaluations? And why did FDLE investigators take the department at its word that those evaluations didn’t exist? An investigator for the Adams family was able to obtain them through an open-records request. Shouldn’t a state agency charged with investigating police shootings be a bit more skeptical of the targets of its investigations?
And the Sheriff's Department began taking steps to ensure the investigation wouldn't have any other outcome. Police seized surveillance video captured by the store's cameras and then claimed no recording of the incident existed. Forensic evidence suggesting Custer's narrative was flawed was produced (a trail of blood beginning at the back of the pickup, rather than by the cab where Custer claimed Adams was reaching for a weapon), but the officer was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.This led to a lawsuit filed by Adams' family. Nearly two years later, and the obstruction of justice still hasn't stopped. New evidence has been obtained by the family's lawyer, but the state's attorney isn't interested in re-opening the closed FDLE investigation The new information is a scathing Sheriff's Office review of Sgt. Michael Custer, who was deemed incapable of "making sound decisions under pressure." Despite this review, Custer was allowed to retain control of an elite tactical unit.This review was never turned over to the FDLE by the Sheriff's office.The family's attorney also claims the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office ignored the contradictory blood trail evidence from the forensics investigation when performing its own investigation into the incident. This report, as potentially damning as it is, has just had its usefulness neutered by the state attorney's office So, there will no reopening of a flawed investigation in which the law enforcement agency being investigated hid information from investigators. That's the level of accountability State Attorney Aronberg is comfortable with. Oh, but itbe reopened, provided any new information comes from an Aronberg-approved source -- like the same agency that obstructed the original investigation.Which, in any language, is bullshit. Aronberg will only look into things if cops ask him to, not civilians. Not for nothing has the idea been floated that the job of prosecuting police misconduct be turned over public defenders, rather than offices like Aronberg's, where the relationship might be a bit too cozy. Those that areto be a key part of accountability are, in actuality, often just an escape route for abusive law enforcement officers. Whatever Aronberg thinks he's doing with this decision, it certainly can't be considered to be part of his job description These are all questions Aronberg doesn't want to answer, so he's conveniently ensured he'll never be asked these questions again. And the Sheriff's Department that obstructed a state investigation will continue to employ an officer who's demonstrated he's a danger to himself and others and face no consequences for impeding an investigation by a state agency.
Filed Under: dave aronberg, evidence, florida, law enforcement, michael custer, seth adamsCanada's telecommunications regulator has rebuffed calls from broadcasters to regulate online video services such as Netflix.
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications released a report Wednesday detailing the results of fact-finding launched in May about mobile and internet media services, also known as "over-the-top" (OTT) services.
"Stakeholders calling for the imposition of regulatory obligations on OTT providers demonstrated that consumer adoption of OTT services is real and growing," the CRTC said.
The report noted that Netflix, which streams movies and TV episodes over the internet to TVs and other devices for a monthly fee, had reached 800,000 Canadian subscribers in less than a year and was projected to have a million subscribers by the third quarter of 2011.
However, the CRTC said stakeholders "did not submit evidence of harm to the traditional broadcast system" and there is no clear evidence that Canadians are reducing or cancelling their television subscriptions.
"Online and mobile programming appears to be complementary to the content offered by the traditional broadcasting system," the commission said.
The regulator added that licensing online services could lead to unintended consequences, such as discouraging innovation or impairing the ability of Canadian media companies to compete globally.
The CRTC said it will keep an eye on over-the-top services, and will conduct another fact-finding exercise in May 2012.
Some of the other findings of the report were that:
The tools are not yet available to accurately measure consumer consumption of online and mobile programming.
Canadian creators are producing innovative content for online and mobile platforms and Canadian broadcasters and distributors are launching online and mobile programming services.
Some services such as Netflix have established viable business models and are competing in the marketplace for programming rights and viewers.
Internet and wireless networks may have trouble expanding their capacity to support increasing consumption of media content. Some submissions also noted that internet bandwidth caps could limit adoption of over-the-top services.
(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)At a time when politics have dominated the national conversation in a way that can often feel overwhelming, the best books of 2016 so far have provided escapism and comfort. They've shown us that empathy is a great virtue, and that art can transcend the unhappiness of the everyday. These 25 books are all highly recommended.
25. How To Be a Person In the World by Heather Havrilesky
If Americans really wanted a president who "tells it like it is," Heather Havrilesky would be running for office right now. At a time when most self-help gurus are charlatans, the world could use a less bullshitty, more emotionally connected leader, one with equal parts compassion and charisma. Enter Havrilesky, who writes the advice column Ask Polly for The Cut, and who has compiled a collection of many new columns along with some old favorites. Havrilesky uses a liberating blend of straight talk, empathy, many F-bombs, and pop culture references (see the extended metaphor about |
stay, and I had assured him that I intended to."
The president replied, according to Comey, that lots of people wanted his job and "he would understand if I wanted to walk away."
Watch more!
The Senate Intelligence Committee on June 7 released a written statement by former FBI director James B. Comey prior to his appearance before senators on June 8. Here’s what you need to know. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
Comey's instincts, he wrote, were that both the setting and the conversation "meant the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship. That concerned me greatly, given the FBI's traditionally independent status in the executive branch."
The president then made his demand for loyalty.
"I didn't move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed," Comey wrote. "We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner."
Related: [Read Comey’s prepared remarks for his upcoming testimony]
When prompted again on the subject of loyalty, Comey said he replied, "You will always get honesty from me."
Comey said that once before Trump's inauguration, and again at the January dinner, he assured the president that he was not personally under investigation. He also told the president later on that he had shared that information with congressional leaders.
In his letter firing Comey, Trump wrote that three times Comey had assured him he was not under investigation. After the firing, Comey's defenders publicly challenged the accuracy of that statement.
Trump's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, said Wednesday that the president "is pleased that Mr. Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the President was not under investigation in any Russian probe. The President feels completely and totally vindicated."
Overall, Comey's written testimony describes a strained, awkward relationship between the two powerful men, punctuated by exchanges in which the president expressed his displeasure about the Russia probe in ways that alarmed the FBI director. Even the number of contacts between the two were alarming to Comey, who noted that he only spoke twice privately with President Barack Obama.
The written testimony also recounts a face-to-face conversation the two men had on Feb. 14 in the Oval Office, where many senior officials had gathered for a counterterrorism briefing.
After the meeting, the president asked everyone to leave. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and senior adviser Jared Kushner lingered in the room, but the president told them to leave, too, according to Comey.
When the door by the grandfather clock closed, Comey wrote, the president said, "I want to talk about Mike Flynn'' — the former national security adviser who was forced out after disclosures about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Flynn had resigned a day earlier.
"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go," the president said, according to Comey. The FBI director replied only that "he is a good guy.''
In that conversation, the president repeatedly complained to the FBI director about leaks, and Comey said he agreed with him about the harm caused by leaks of classified information.
Comey said he understood the president to be asking for him to "drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the president to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign.''
The former FBI director wrote that he found the conversation "very concerning, given the FBI's role as an independent investigative agency.''
Later, Comey complained to Sessions that he should not have been left alone with the president, and Sessions did not reply, according to the written testimony. Sessions declined to comment.
Then, in late March, Trump called Comey at the FBI. In that conversation, the president called the Russia probe "a cloud'' hanging over his ability to lead the country.
He also expressed continued frustration that unsubstantiated allegations in a private dossier about him had become public, including lurid claims of sexual activity while in Russia.
"He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he had been recorded when in Russia,'' Comey wrote.
"He asked what we could do to 'lift the cloud.' I responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could, and that there would be great benefit, if we didn't find anything, to our having done the work well. He agreed, but then re-emphasized the problems this was causing him," Comey wrote.
After that phone call with the president, Comey said he called acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente to tell him what was discussed and to "await his guidance." Comey said he never heard back from Boente. A spokesman for Boente did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Then, on April 11, Comey wrote, the president called him and asked him what he had done about getting out word that he was not personally under investigation. The president told him "the cloud" of the probe was interfering with his ability to do his job.
"I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know," Trump told Comey, according to the written testimony. "I did not reply or ask him what he meant by 'that thing.' "
He added: "That was the last time I spoke with President Trump."
Sari Horwitz and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.
Devlin Barrett writes about national security and law enforcement for The Washington Post. He has previously worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and the New York Post, where he started as a copy boy.
Post Recommendsfirmware tutorial
Without a firmware loaded onto it, an Atreus keyboard is just a pile of key switches wired together. The firmware tells the controller how to report switch state to the operating system. The controller is a tiny computer specialized for simple input/output tasks. It has a number of pins which can be used either to turn voltage on and off (output) or to read the voltage level (input).
It would be simplest to hook each key up to an input pin, but there aren't enough pins for all the keys. To scan all the keys with only 15 pins, it reads only one row at a time using a process called a matrix scan. In addition, the small number of keys on the Atreus necessitates the use of layers of key mappings that the user can switch through quickly.
While the final product may feel a bit intimidating at first, in this article we'll step through the process of writing the firmware incrementally. Starting with the simplest thing that could possibly work (a single key) we'll add features until we have a full-fledged matrix-scanning, layered, customizeable firmware.
The Atreus uses the popular ATmega32u4 chip, which is the same as the Arduino Leonardo and offers native USB device support. There are a number of projects that implement keyboard firmwares on this platform, but they're all written in boring old C. Let's see what one would look like if it were written in the Scheme programming language. In particular, we'll be using Microscheme, a new compiler for subset of Scheme that specifically targets the AVR architecture used by these chips. If you are unfamiliar with Scheme, Microscheme has a crash course guide introducing the basics.
step one: a single key
If you'd like to follow along at home, you can pull down the menelaus project as well as microscheme. After installing the avr-gcc and avrdude prerequisites, run make in microscheme/ and link the microscheme executable to some location on your $PATH. Then run make upload in the menelaus/ directory and activate the reset on your Atreus, and the code should be loaded in.
Note that loading in this code will remove your keyboard's ability to do a reset from within the firmware. To load successive versions or to revert back to the "classic" C firmware, it will be necessary to perform a hard reset; see the docs for the classic firmware for details on this.
(input 11) (high 11) ( for-each output (list 0 1 2 3)) ( for-each high (list 0 1 3)) (low 2) (call-c-func "usb_init" ) (pause 200) ( define ( loop ) ( if (low? 11) (call-c-func "usb_send" 0 4 0 0 0 0 0) (call-c-func "usb_send" 0 0 0 0 0 0 0)) (loop)) (loop)
Here we've got the code to check a single key and report whether it's pressed over USB. Each key switch has one side wired into a row and the other into a column. In this case we're checking the state of the A key, which is in the row connected to pin 1 and in the column connected to pin 11.
Pins 0 through 3 are outputs; each corresponds to a row of the keyboard. We'll discuss the logic behind activating different rows in a future installment, but for now we simply deactivate rows 0, 1, and 3 by setting them high and activate row 2 by setting it low. Otherwise we would get spurious reads from other keys connected to pin 11 in that column.
We then set pin 11 high. Setting the state of an output pin simply changes the voltage level of the pin, but on an input pin it is interpreted as activating the pullup resistor for that pin. This prevents "floating" inputs. Remember that we're not strictly in the world of software here; electrical signals work in terms of voltage levels. A disconnected input will float at mid-range voltages, resulting in random-seeming reads as the voltage level drifts above and below the midpoint threshold based on whatever electrical currents happen to be close to the pin. Even the static from a nearby human finger can trigger it. The pullup will cause it to always read high unless it's directly connected to a low-voltage pin. This is exactly what happens when a switch is pressed and the connection between the low row pin and the input column pin is made.
It feels a bit backwards to treat high as deactivated and low as activated, but because of the pullup resistors built-in to each pin, this is the most convenient way to detect switch state. If it helps, you can think of "high" as having the key be in its "up" position and "low" as being pressed down, but of course this is not the actual reason.
Next we bring the keyboard online as a USB device with a call to the C function usb_init using Microscheme's FFI. (The C functions are implemented in the usb_keyboard.c file if you are curious, but for the purposes of the article we treat it as an external library.) A short pause gives the OS time to register the device as connected before we start sending keycodes.
Finally the loop function decides which keycode to send. If the switch is pressed, the circuit from pin 1 to pin 11 will be connected, which means the low voltage of pin 1 will bring pin 11 low. In this case it sends a 4, which is the USB keycode for A. The FFI again calls usb_send. It accepts the modifier state as its first argument, and the following six arguments are normal keycodes, of which we only use one.
Then we loop by calling the loop function from inside itself, a technique known as recursion. In most programming languages, unbounded recursion will cause a stack overflow, but Scheme has special provisions for recursion at the end of a function that allows this to work indefinitely.
At this point we have implemented the simplest, silliest keyboard possible.
step two: a full row
Here we've expanded the logic to scan the entire home row.
(include "keycodes.scm" ) ( define columns (list 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)) ( define column-pins (vector 11 12 18 19 10 7 8 9 5 6)) ( define layout (vector key-a key-s key-d key-f key-g key-h key-j key-k key-l key-semicolon)) ( for-each output (list 0 1 2 3)) ( for-each high (list 0 1 3)) (low 2) (for-each-vector input column-pins) (for-each-vector high column-pins) (call-c-func "usb_init" ) (pause 200) ( define ( scan-column last n) ( if (low? (vector-ref column-pins n)) (vector-ref layout n) last)) ( define ( loop ) ( let ((pressed (fold scan-column 0 columns))) (call-c-func "usb_send" 0 pressed 0 0 0 0 0)) (loop)) (loop)
Rather than hard-coding keycodes into the functions like we did with 4 in the last step, we've moved the key layout into the "keycodes.scm" file; it gives names to all the numeric keycodes we need. The other main change is that we have a whole vector of columns instead of just one, so they all need to have pullups activated.
In loop we determine what keycode to send by fold ing (aka reducing) over a list of columns. The fold function calls scan-column once for each element in the list, and it passes it the list element and an "accumulator". This starts out as the initial value of zero, but the return value of each scan-column call is fed into the accumulator argument of the next call.
If a low pin is found by scan-column, it looks up the keycode for that column in the layout vector and returns that; otherwise it returns the accumulator, which is value returned by the last scan-column. The final return value of the whole fold is passed on to usb_send. We are still only sending a single keycode in a last-scanned-wins manner, but at this point we can spell a few short words like "dad" and "hall". Progress!
to be continued...
In the next installment we cover how to scan all the keys and support multiple keys pressed at the same time. While you're at it, take a look at the Atreus keyboard kit if you haven't already.Make DIY lace mason jars in less than an hour! This project is perfect for fall decorating and goes with a variety of themes.
Skills Required: Intermediate Beginner. You'll need to be able to spray paint or paint glass without runs. This typically requires a little bit of prior crafting experience. It's still a relatively easy project even with the painting.
Hello Mod Podge Rocks readers! Justine from Sew Country Chick here again with a quick and fun way to spruce up some old mason jars for fall.
My husband has always been sort of funny about saving our glass jars. With the mason jar craze happening, it certainly is handy having my husband's hoard collection hanging around to experiment with. Because you just never know when you might need an empty jar!
These lace mason jars are perfect for fall decorating, and would also be fun for an elegant vintage addition to your Halloween decor.
They also took less than an hour to make. The longest part of the project involved letting the spray paint dry. Which takes forever when you are staring at it, don't you think?
Before we get into the lace mason jars, I wanted to give you a few tips based on questions I've gotten about this craft. These are some common topics that readers are wondering about, so hopefully these help you as you decorate your mason jars.
Preparing Glass Jars for Crafting
The first thing you need to do is make sure all of the adhesive labels are removed from your jars – you'll do that with a sticker remover. Click here to get our article with all-natural ways to remove the adhesive.
After the adhesive is removed, make sure the jar is clean and dry. You can wash away fingerprints and other oils with a mild soap and warm water. Some people use rubbing alcohol and cotton balls as well.
How to Paint Mason Jars
In this project I used spray paint, but you can also use acrylic paint to coat your jars. Spray paint will be more expensive than a bottle of acrylic paint. If you choose acrylic paint, make sure to get the multisurface, enamel, or something that is rated for glass.
Spray Paint vs. Acrylic Paint
So which one would I use – spray paint or acrylic paint? Well, personally I'm going to use acrylic paint if I'm painting the insides of jars. Painting the insides of the jars is fine if you're going to use faux florals for decor, because you won't put any water in the jar.
Not only that, but I think painting behind glass looks much nicer. It's harder to see imperfections and gives the paint a nice glassy sheen on top. Having said this... if I want to put water in my mason jars, I'll be spray painting the outsides. It's just quicker, and I'm lazy.
Using acrylic paint is more time consuming, and only worth it if I'm painting the inside of a jar. Plus let's be honest, it's hard to spray paint the inside of a jar and get all the cracks and crevices!
Which Mod Podge Should I Use?
You can use any type of Mod Podge, though I'd choose from Gloss, Matte, or Satin based on the type of finish you like. With glass I typically use Gloss Mod Podge, just because glass is shiny, and the formula is too. But, matte glass looks great as well. You can decide!
Are you ready to learn how to make this project? Let's get started.
DIY Lace Mason Jars
To make this project I used:
Mod Podge Matte
Black spray paint
Mason jars or recycled jars – 2
Lace trim from the hobby store -I have loads of lace trim I've accumulated from garage sales, but this lace was from Michaels
I spray painted my jars and let them dry. then I cut strips of lace to fit around the jars and glued them down with Mod Podge, using a paintbrush to apply the Mod Podge, and finished with a top coat to seal it. Simple!
Thanks for stopping by and reading! If you liked these lace mason jars, check out this spring craft idea below. We used a different type of lace and didn't paint the jars. Get that tutorial by clicking the image:I was pulled out of line in the immigration queue at Los Angeles airport as I came in to the USA. Not because I was Mem Fox the writer – nobody knew that – I was just a normal person like anybody else. They thought I was working in the States and that I had come in on the wrong visa.
I was receiving an honorarium for delivering an opening keynote at a literacy conference, and because my expenses were being paid, they said: “You need to answer further questions.” So I was taken into this holding room with about 20 other people and kept there for an hour and 40 minutes, and for 15 minutes I was interrogated.
The belligerence and violence of it was really terrifying
The room was like a waiting room in a hospital but a bit more grim than that. There was a notice on the wall that was far too small, saying no cellphones allowed, and anybody who did use a cellphone had someone stand in front of them and yell: “Don’t use that phone!” Everything was yelled, and everything was public, and this was the most awful thing, I heard things happening in that room happening to other people that made me ashamed to be human.
There was an Iranian woman in a wheelchair, she was about 80, wearing a little mauve cardigan, and they were yelling at her – “Arabic? Arabic?”. They screamed at her “ARABIC?” at the top of their voices, and finally she intuited what they wanted and I heard her say “Farsi”. And I thought heaven help her, she’s Iranian, what’s going to happen?
There was a woman from Taiwan, being yelled at about at about how she made her money, but she didn’t understand the question. The officer was yelling at her: “Where does your money come from, does it grow on trees? Does it fall from the sky?” It was awful.
There was no toilet, no water, and there was this woman with a baby. If I had been holed up in that room with a pouch on my chest, and a baby crying, or needing to be fed, oh God … the agony I was surrounded by in that room was like a razor blade across my heart.
When I was called to be interviewed I was rereading a novel from 40 years ago – thank God I had a novel. It was The Red and the Black by Stendhal – a 19th century novel keeps you quiet on a long flight, and is great in a crisis – and I was buried in it and didn’t hear my name called. And a woman in front of me said: “They are calling for Fox.” I didn’t know which booth to go to, then suddenly there was a man in front of me, heaving with weaponry, standing with his legs apart yelling: “No, not there, here!” I apologised politely and said I’d been buried in my book and he said: “What do you expect me to do, stand here while you finish it?” – very loudly and with shocking insolence.
Australian children's author Mem Fox detained by US border control: 'I sobbed like a baby' Read more
The way I was interviewed was monstrous. If only they had been able to look into my suitcase and see my books. The irony! I had a copy of my new book I’m Australian, Too – it’s about immigration and welcoming people to live in a happy country. I am all about inclusivity, humanity and the oneness of the humans of the world; it’s the theme of my life. I also had a copy of my book Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes. I told him I had all these inclusive books of mine in my bag, and he yelled at me: “I can read!”
He was less than half my age – I don’t look 70 but I don’t look 60 either, I’m an older woman – and I was standing the whole time. The belligerence and violence of it was really terrifying. I had to hold the heel of my right hand to my heart to stop it beating so hard.
They were not apologetic at any point. When they discovered that one of Australia’s official gifts to Prince George was Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, he held out his hand and said: “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, Ms Fox.” I was close to collapse, very close to fainting, and this nearly broke me – it was the creepiest thing of all.
I had been upright, dignified, cool and polite, and this was so cruelly unexpected, so appalling, that he should say it was a pleasure. It couldn’t have been a pleasure for him to treat me like that, unless he was a psychopath.
In that moment I loathed America. I loathed the entire country. And it was my 117th visit to the country so I know that most people are very generous and warm-hearted. They have been wonderful to me over the years. I got over that hatred within a day or two. But this is not the way to win friends, to do this to someone who is Australian when we have supported them in every damn war. It’s absolutely outrageous.
Later in the hotel room I was shaking like a leaf. I rang my friend, my American editor and bawled and bawled, and she told me to write it all down, and I wrote for two hours. I fell asleep thinking I would sleep for eight hours but I woke up an hour and a half later just sobbing. I had been sobbing in my sleep. It was very traumatic.
After I got back to Australia I had an apology from the American embassy. I was very impressed, they were very comforting, and I’ve had so many messages of support from Americans and American authors.
I am a human being, so I do understand that these people might not be well-trained, but they now have carte blanche to be as horrible and belligerent as they want. They’ve gone mad – they’ve got all the power that they want but they don’t have the training.
British Muslim teacher denied entry to US on school trip Read more
They made me feel like such a crushed, mashed, hopeless old lady and I am a feisty, strong, articulated English speaker. I kept thinking that if this were happening to me, a person who is white, articulate, educated and fluent in English, what on earth is happening to people who don’t have my power?
That’s the heartbreak of it. Remember, I wasn’t pulled out because I’m some kind of revolutionary activist, but my God, I am now. I am on the frontline. If we don’t stand up and shout, good sense and good will not prevail, and my voice will be one of the loudest.
That’s what it has taught me. I thought I was an activist before, but this has turned me into a revolutionary. I’m not letting it happen here. Instead of crying and being sad and sitting on a couch, I am going to write to politicians. I am going to call. I am going to write to newspapers. I am going to get on the radio. I will not be quiet. No more passive behaviour. Hear me roar.
As told to Lucy ClarkThe state's former governor, Steve Beshear, a Democrat, changed the traditional "bride and groom" language on the licenses in the summer of 2015, following the Supreme Court's gay marriage decision, to make it more inclusive. The proposed legislation would bring back the traditional language, and couples would be allowed to choose which form to use.
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the bill would create two licenses, one that lists a "bride and groom" and another that lists a "first party and second party."
The bill will still have to pass the state's House, which is controlled by Democrats, and receive approval from Republican Gov. Matt Bevin before it is signed into law, but opponents of the bill already say it is unconstitutional, setting up a legal fight over the separate-but-equal licenses.
The Kentucky Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that would create a separate marriage license application for gay couples in the state and would remove county clerks' names and personal information from the licenses, a measure inspired by Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis's protest last year over having to marry gay couples.
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The Kentucky Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that would create a separate marriage license application for gay couples in the state and would remove county clerks' names and personal information from the licenses, a measure inspired by Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis's protest last year over having to marry gay couples.
The bill will still have to pass the state's House, which is controlled by Democrats, and receive approval from Republican Gov. Matt Bevin before it is signed into law, but opponents of the bill already say it is unconstitutional, setting up a legal fight over the separate-but-equal licenses.
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the bill would create two licenses, one that lists a "bride and groom" and another that lists a "first party and second party."
The state's former governor, Steve Beshear, a Democrat, changed the traditional "bride and groom" language on the licenses in the summer of 2015, following the Supreme Court's gay marriage decision, to make it more inclusive. The proposed legislation would bring back the traditional language, and couples would be allowed to choose which form to use.
Related: Men Will Need Wives' Permission to Get Viagra Under New Kentucky Bill
"Quite frankly, [the change was] almost disrespectful to the traditional family," said Republican state senator John Schickel, of Union, according to the Associated Press. "That's why, wisely, we decided to have two forms. That has nothing to do with bigotry, nothing to do with discrimination. It has to do with the vast majority of Kentuckians that respect traditional marriage."
The Senate voted 30–8 to approve the bill.
"Separate forms for gay and lesbian Kentuckians constitute unequal treatment under the law," Michael Aldridge, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said in a statement after the vote. "Pure and simple, this bill is motivated by the desire to accommodate discrimination against same-sex couples."
The Kentucky Senate, the statement added, was "setting a dangerous slippery slope precedent" of giving privileges to one religious belief over another.
Davis's refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples following the Supreme Court's gay marriage decision last year sparked rallies outside the Rowan County courthouse, where she was remanded to jail in contempt of court. The rallies drew the attention of then–presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and scored Davis a visit with Pope Francis on his trip to the United States in September.
Related: Noah's Ark Theme Park to Open in Kentucky Next Summer
The ACLU sued Davis for acting with "careless disregard for" four gay couples who were denied marriage licenses by her.
Bevin, a conservative who took office in December, issued an executive order in his first weeks in office to remove county clerks' names from marriage licenses.
Democratic state Senator Gerald Neal, of Louisville, said after the vote that the two forms were a bad idea and that "separate has never been equal," according to the AP.Wednesday, February 8, 2017
A six-month suspension retroactive to a previously-imposed interim suspension and probation was ordered by the Oklahoma Supreme Court
On November 15, 2014, Respondent, Ian Michael Shahan, was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Public Intoxication. Subsequently, on February 6, 2015, Respondent was arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) of Alcohol and Leaving Scene of Collision Involving Property Damage, also occurring in Tulsa, Oklahoma. All counts were filed as misdemeanors.
Respondent entered a plea of guilty on January 8, 2016, to the crime of Public Intoxication. That same day, Respondent pleaded guilty to the crime of Driving Under the Influence and no contest to Leaving Scene of Collision Involving Property Damage. Respondent received a $50 fine for the Public Intoxication count and an eighteen month deferred sentence for the DUI count. Respondent self-reported these arrests to the Oklahoma Bar Association (OBA).
On February 1, 2016, this Court entered an Order of Immediate Suspension.
The story
Respondent's pleas of guilty and/or no contest stem from two separate cases involving three criminal counts. In the first case, Respondent was arrested on November 15, 2014, for the misdemeanor of Public Intoxication. He had been to a birthday dinner for a colleague where he consumed alcohol. Respondent left the dinner with friends and continued to drink at a bar. From this bar, he took a cab to the VFW where he consumed even more alcohol and was witnessed to be extremely intoxicated.
While at the bar at the VFW, Respondent told the female bartender, "I'm going to rape the shit out of you." The bartender alerted her manager who called the police. The manager escorted Respondent outside to wait for the police. The manager testified that Respondent was not argumentative nor did he attempt to flee. Police arrived and transported Respondent to jail.
Respondent stated he was horrified when he learned of his comment to the VFW bartender. Although he testified that he cannot imagine making such an awful statement, Respondent does not contest that he said it and has since apologized to the bartender.
Regarding the second incident, Respondent testified that on February 6, 2015, he attended a Young Lawyer's Association bowling event where he consumed alcohol. After this event, Respondent went to a bar near his home where he consumed even more alcohol. While driving home, Respondent crashed his car into a utility pole. No other vehicles or people were involved in the accident. Respondent testified that he was dazed from the collision and left the scene to walk to his nearby home when he was stopped by the police and arrested. Respondent's breath test revealed a blood alcohol level of.22. Respondent pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol and no contest to Leaving Scene of Collision Involving Property Damage, also a misdemeanor.
Respondent self-reported his DUI arrest to the OBA. He stated that after this second arrest, he took all of the actions he would have counseled his own clients to take: he completed a DUI/substance abuse assessment, attended AA meetings and drug classes, and stopped drinking. Respondent also testified that he began meeting with Lawyers Helping Lawyers and volunteering with the Youthful Drunk Driving program, hoping to help others learn from his mistakes.
Respondent admits that he had become a problem drinker. He testified that for approximately eleven months following his second arrest that he did not consume any alcohol. After that point, Respondent stated that he had drinks on two occasions, as a test. Although he remained in control and did not drive on these occasions, he felt that he had worked too hard and wished to continue his sobriety. Respondent continues to meet with mentors from the Lawyers Helping Lawyers program, volunteers his time with various community service projects and shares his experiences in cooperation with the Tulsa County Youthful Drunk Driving Program in the hopes that he will prevent others from making similar poor choices to his own.
The OBA investigator testified that all of Respondent's witnesses spoke very highly of Respondent as a criminal attorney who shared great care and concern for his clients. He further testified that each witness believed that Respondent's actions leading to this matter were completely out of character for him. For example, Robert "Skip" Durbin, a Tulsa criminal defense attorney who shares office space with Respondent called him a "credit to the profession" and someone who has always been respectful of women.
Likewise, Kimberly Jantz, a family law attorney in Tulsa and close friend and law school classmate of Respondent, testified to Respondent's dedication to his sobriety and that she has never heard him utter a rude or sexist comment toward women. Tulsa County Assistant Public Defender Laura Howard is also a close friend of Respondent's. She testified that he has always been respectful and appropriate towards women. Howard further testified that Respondent's DUI accident was a "wake up call" and that he has since taken great measures to ensure a healthy lifestyle, such as attending AA meetings, volunteering at high school drinking programs and working with Lawyers Helping Lawyers. Finally, Tulsa Municipal Judge Mitchell McCune testified via telephone that Respondent was a very bright attorney who is well-liked by, and very respectful to, court staff.
The Trial Panel found that Respondent has found healthier ways to manage his personal and professional stress and that he continues to use his arrests as an opportunity to effect positive change in himself and others. As evidenced at the hearing, Respondent has a large, supportive circle of friends and professional colleagues who care about his well-being and believe in his good character. The Trial Panel found that he is in a healthy place and has made voluntary, genuine efforts to redeem himself.
Sanction
Respondent's criminal convictions provide clear and convincing evidence of his actions that reflect adversely on the legal profession. His misconduct serves as a basis for the imposition of discipline, which we must determine. We appreciate Respondent's honesty, remorse and voluntary efforts to remain sober while helping others learn from his mistakes. He has garnered the support of numerous well-respected attorneys, judges, police officers, family and friends who have faith that Respondent has been rehabilitated. We find that Respondent has accepted full responsibility for the poor choices he made while consuming alcohol and that he has taken the proper steps to ensure that such behavior will not be repeated in the future.
(Mike Frisch)
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/02/a-six-month-suspension-retroactive-to-a-previously-imposed-interim-suspension-and-probation-was-ordered-by-the-oklahoma-supre.htmlSINGAPORE - Thundershowers after a hot dry spell are just what the arborist ordered for Singapore's flowering plants. From now till September, people can expect to catch Singapore's flora in full bloom, says National Parks Board (NParks) group director of streetscape Oh Cheow Sheng.
It's a second chance for nature-lovers who may have missed the earlier flowering season, which takes place in March and April.
The riot of colour in housing estates and along roads is the work of some of Singapore's more than 2,000 native species, as well as plants introduced from outside the region.
One standout is the 25m-tall trumpet tree, whose flowers are known to blanket the ground in a carpet of pink and white. A tip from Mr Oh: Drop by the Ayer Rajah Expressway near Hong Leong Garden, or the Central Expressway near Cambridge Road and the Moulmein Road exit, to catch the trumpet tree in action this week.
More Maniltoas along Yishun Avenue 2 in Singapore. PHOTO: LEE SHIYUN
Trumpet trees are named for the trumpet shape of their flowers - and the same goes for the handkerchief tree, a small sturdy tree which hails from New Guinea and is used for furniture-making. The handkerchief tree is also known as pokok sapu tangan, or by its Latin name maniltoa.
One Facebook user posted a shot on the NParks Facebook page with the caption: "Not a good shot but the handkerchief trees around Yishun are full of 'flowers'!"
Not living around Yishun Avenue 2? To catch a glimpse of the large drooping foliage that resembles white handkerchiefs, Mr Oh also recommends University Road, Martin Road, Punggol Walk and Sengkang Square.
If bright neon shades are more to your liking, the yellow cat's claw ivy can be found in bloom along Havelock Road and Dunearn Road.
Visitors to the east coast are also in for a treat. Not only are oleander and bougainvillea flowering at East Coast Park, but the hot pink crepe myrtle is also blossoming along the centre divider of East Coast Parkway.
Flowers seen along CTE near Cambridge Road in Singapore. PHOTO: CHAN CHUNG LEONG
NParks has brought back its two-year-old #sgblooms hashtag on social media for members of the public to share photographs of flowering plants. During the April flowering period this year and last year, the statutory board partnered with camera firm Nikon to run a photo contest and politicians such as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Acting Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung and Senior Minister of State Sim Ann joined in on their Facebook pages as well.
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The president and the government emphasize sincerity and practice. After this declaration of intention and consolidated ceasefire, it is now the government's turn to show sincerity and practice.We would like to state that we will follow AKP's approaches and attitudes towards the new process.
- In order to improve the process and to reach a conclusion, it is important for the government to allow us to meet Öcalan. This will strengthen the seriousness of the statements and increase the support for a solution to the Kurdish issue.
- Forming the basis and content of the historic statement, the negotation titles aim to solve the problems of other outsiders like Alevis, as well."
KCK, an organization founded by Kongra-Gel (Kurdistan People's Congress), has been functioning as an umbrella organization covering the Kurds of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria since they were formed in 2005.
There are five main subdivisions of the KCK: the ideological front, the social front, the political front, the military front and the women's division. In addition to the PKK, some political parties are included in the organization such as the PJAK (The Free Life Party of Kurdistan) in Iran and the PYD (Democratic Union Party, in Kurdish) in Syria, as well as civil society organizations, and the PKK's armed wing, the HPG (People's Defense Forces, in Kurdish). In Iraq the party is called the PÇDK (Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party).By SentinelOne Labs -
The focus of any malware research is on anticipating where an attack may go, or where it’s already been in order to develop and implement new prevention techniques. While reverse engineering some recent Linux malware samples, I found an interesting and novel technique being used that’s important to share with the broader community. A malicious actor had logged into a honeypot and attempted to download a file I hadn’t seen before. Loading the file into IDA Pro I was prompted by a “SHT table size or offset is invalid. Continue?” message – nothing to worry about as this is normal for every stripped executable. However, after continuing through this message I was prompted by a new warning I’d not seen before;
This caused the ELF loader to fail in IDA Pro – preventing me from loading the binary for analysis. Opening up the file in 010Editor using the ELFTemplate it was quite easy to see what had happened;
One of the program headers was pointing outside of the actual file. This is easy to fix, simply nulling this section out allowed IDA Pro to load the sample. Interestingly enough, it turned out this was an invalid binary and the section was misaligned only because the file was truncated. However, this error message lead me down the path to try and reconstruct this error – and it was simple to do. The steps were relatively easy to reproduce using the hex editor;
Strip all sections from the ELF header
Find a program header which is not required by the ELF file for loading
Make this program header have the offset for this section pointing outside of the file
As long as the rest of the section headers are not found – IDA Pro will fail to load. After scripting this process, I decided to test a few scenarios with other disassemblers and debuggers. Radare (r2), Hopper and lldb handled the binary perfectly fine – however GDB failed to understand the file format;
Trying to take things a bit further I wanted to see if this would work as not only an anti-disassembly technique, but also an anti-analysis or obfuscation technique. The idea was that if I was so easily able to find this issue with a few disassemblers, it would be likely that some anti-virus applications may have also implemented the same issue in their parsing engines. From here I grabbed a relatively well detected malware sample from the Linux/XorDDos family;
https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/0a9e6adcd53be776568f46c3f98e27b6869f63f9c356468f0d19f46be151c01a/analysis/
9 different engines (Two appear to be owned by the same company? So I hesitate to say 10) failed to detect the same malware, they just recently detected. This was interesting to me, as I’m relatively new to the Linux side of malware, I would have assumed that these engines would have easily detected the malware and a simple change like this would not be such a simple evasion technique.
It seemed almost too easy to beat the disassemblers and engines – so I wanted to look across a large corpus of samples and see if anyone else has stumbled upon and implemented this technique. Using the rather simple YARA rule below, I was able to find over 6,000 samples which are currently utilizing this exact technique. Luckily, almost every single one of these samples was just a commercial Android packer attempting to protect it’s own code.
While we have yet to see any malicious actors use this technique in the wild, there are likely many other similar tricks being used in the wild. This is a good start at looking to see how ELF files might be abused to hide from analysis, and hopefully with the release of these scripts, people will be able to monitor for this technique being used and other similar ones in the future.
Prior to publishing this article, I’ve notified Hex-Rays and the 10 engines which failed to detect the slightly modified malware. The script for producing and fixing these modified binaries can be found on github here.
Yara Rule:UPDATE: House Republicans unveiled their massive tax reform bill Thursday, with several proposed changes related to renewable energy and other clean energy technologies.
The Hill reports the plan would repeal an inflation increase for renewable energy production tax credits, thereby increasing taxes for resources like wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydropower. Making that change would raise $12.3 billion in new government revenue over ten years.
The 429-page bill also aligns the expiration date of investment tax credits for certain clean energy resources, including solar, distributed wind, fuel cells, and combined heat and power by moving the commence construction date to January 1, 2022. Republicans also extended tax credits for residential energy efficiency programs to December 31, 2021. Those two proposals are expected to cost the government $2.3 billion over ten years.
Other energy-related reforms include ending the $7,500 federal credit for electric vehicle purchases and extending a nuclear industry production tax credit to new power plants beginning in 2021. GTM's coverage of the GOP tax plan is ongoing.
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Much remains unknown about the tax bill House Republicans plan to unveil this week. Politico recently reported that even “rank-and-file House Republicans are increasingly alarmed by the secrecy shrouding the massive tax bill.”
The closed process has left solar, wind and other clean energy companies scrambling to discover how the bill might affect their industries. Representatives from solar and wind companies in particular are concerned that Republican lawmakers, in search of revenue to pay for tax cuts for corporations and high earners, might scrap federal tax incentives for their industries agreed to in December 2015.
On October 30, Bloomberg's Ari Natter reported that the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar and Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind appeared to be safe. In a tweet posted after a meeting of the Ways and Means Committee, the House’s tax-writing committee, Natter quoted Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL): “Most if not all members want to honor the commitments that have been made in the past.”
At the meeting, Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY), author of a bill to restore the ITC for a batch of energy technologies left out of the December 2015 deal, argued in support of the wind and solar tax credits. “We’ve made the case,” he said. “I think it’s gaining some traction, but nothing is done until it’s done.”
We’ve already been tax-reformed
Solar and wind industry representatives say that having already reached a bipartisan deal to phase out tax credits for their industries, lawmakers should look elsewhere for revenue.
“We’ve already been tax-reformed,” said Dan Whitten, VP of communications for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), at a panel discussion held at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in early October.
“We have a deal that was a bipartisan deal, [with] strong Republican support, that called for the scaling back of our incentives. Our hope and belief is there’s enough support on the Hill for our ramp-down to hold the deal, and not include that in a tax reform package," said Whitten.
“That deal was one of the most successful tax policies in recent years,” added Peter Kelley, VP of public affairs at the American Wind Energy Association, speaking on the same panel. “It has galvanized a lot of economic growth. As they...try to get votes for a tax reform package, they’ll be looking for things that increase political support for the final deal, not decrease political support.”
He went on: “Certainly, the business community does not want to have a retroactive tax increase on any industry. We’d be against a retroactive tax increase, and I think we’d have a lot of company.”
In an interview, Rhone Resch, former president and CEO of SEIA, cautioned the solar industry to watch for relevant provisions that could emerge as bargaining chips during negotiations. One to watch, he said, is the permanent 10 percent ITC for commercial solar projects. (After 2021, the ITC for residential solar goes away, while the commercial credit remains at 10 percent.)
“The permanent 10 percent [credit] is certainly something we’re going to have to work hard to protect,” said Resch.
The fate of federal tax incentives for wind and solar will be a telling indication of whether the industries’ expanding geographic reach translates into dependable political support. According to AWEA’s 2016 market report, 88 percent of new wind capacity is in states that voted for President Trump, and three-quarters of U.S. congressional districts have operational wind energy projects or active wind-related manufacturing facilities.
Corporate tax cuts and tax equity project funding
Another concern for clean energy companies is the potentially negative impact a sharp reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate could have on tax equity investment in projects. The White House and Republicans in Congress have proposed reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent.
Clean energy project developers often sell their projects’ tax credits to third-parties that apply the credits to reduce their own tax bills.
“We run a real risk of seeing tax equity start to dry up and a change in how we finance solar projects due to a decreased corporate tax rate,” said Resch. “All our tax equity investors that have existed previously did so because they had large tax burdens.”
He added that when the economy plunged into recession in 2008 and 2009, tax equity largely disappeared. Congress authorized a grant program allowing companies to receive a cash grant from the Treasury Department in lieu of tax credits as a stopgap until tax equity returned.
“In this case,” Resch said, “if Congress lowers the tax burden, we’d have the same effect. And you’d see a significant drop-off in tax equity investors in projects -- at least among traditional investors.”
“You do have a lot of new players...coming into the space -- utilities, large energy companies, other investors -- that will still have tax appetite at a lower rate. We may need to pivot faster than we’ve done in the past. We certainly might not be able to rely as much on traditional tax equity investors, but there will still be some tax appetite out there. It’s just going to be more expensive and harder to get," explained Resch.
Master limited partnership legislation resurfaces
And then there are the provisions companies want added -- or restored -- to the tax code. On October 25, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) reintroduced bipartisan legislation enabling clean energy companies to form master limited partnerships. A companion bill, HR 4118, was reintroduced in the House by Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX) and Mike Thompson (D-CA).
According to the co-sponsors, MLPs “combine the investment advantages of corporations and the tax advantages of partnerships.” Currently this business structure is permitted only for fossil-fuel-based energy projects.
“Clean energy technologies have made tremendous progress in the last several decades, and they deserve the same shot at success in the market as traditional energy projects have experienced through the federal tax code,” said Coons in a statement. “Updating the tax code in this way will help increase parity and ensure that these energy technologies can permanently benefit from the incentives that traditional energy sources have depended on to build infrastructure for more than 30 years.”
Orphaned technologies want federal tax credits restored
Also uncertain is the fate of the so-called “orphaned” energy technologies left out of the December 2015 tax extenders package. The 30 percent ITC for the orphaned technologies, including small wind turbines, expired at the end of 2016.
“It’s salt in the wound,” said Mike Bergey, president of Bergey Windpower, in an interview. Bergey Windpower is an Oklahoma-based manufacturer of small wind turbines.
“Congress, in their infinite wisdom, extended the solar credits in the 2015 omnibus budget bill, but didn’t extend the small wind credits. Which means that a homeowner in Oklahoma who installs an imported solar system gets a 30 percent tax credit, but if they install a made-in-Oklahoma small wind turbine for the same utility bill reduction application, they get nothing," said Bergey.
“That’s disappointing to us and the 300+ companies in America we buy goods and services from. We are working hard with our trade association [DWEA] and other associations in this basket of orphaned technologies -- combined heat and power, fuel cells, geothermal heat pumps -- to get that remedied,” he said.
Bergey is cautiously optimistic about the pending legislative fix for the orphans: HR 1090, introduced by Rep. Reed. The bill has more than 100 co-sponsors in the House, with more Republican (62) signatories than Democrats (52). The bill would restore and phase down the ITC -- to 26 percent or 22 percent, depending when the project comes on-line -- for the orphaned technologies through the end of 2021.
“Most of the legislators in Washington express support, some very strong support, for remedying the situation,” said Bergey. “We’re hopeful that if not in the tax bill they’re working on now that there will be some sort of tax extenders package at the end of the year or during the debt ceiling extension.”
“HR 1090 is gaining a lot of needed support with 114 co-sponsors,” Jennifer Jenkins, executive director of the Distributed Wind Energy Association, said in an email. “I am being told that something is possible to move by the end of the year, but it is still unclear to which vehicle we will be attached. I wish we knew more -- this is an absolute game-changer for the orphaned technologies should we not get a solution this year.”
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Come join us for GTM's first annual U.S. Power & Renewables Conference in November. You'll get an in-depth look at how the renewable energy market will interact with the U.S. power market, and how those interactions can impact overall industry development and market growth. Curated by GTM Research, MAKE, and Wood Mackenzie energy analysts, we’ll take an expansive view of key issues and timely topics, bringing together a diverse group of energy experts and stakeholders to discuss demand dynamics, economics and business model shifts, and policy and regulatory implications.CLEVELAND — The Raptors need to turn to Norm — again.
Unwilling to allow Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love and LeBron James to terrorize them on the boards in Game 1 on Monday, the Raptors started Jonas Valanciunas, instead of Norman Powell, who had turned heads during the series against Milwaukee.
Not only did the Raptors still lose the battle of the glass in the opener — with Thompson hauling in 14 — Valanciunas had a brutal game, the offence struggled, as it usually does when he and DeMar DeRozan are on the floor together. Meanwhile, Powell — so key against the Bucks — only played 10 minutes through the first three quarters, never catching a rhythm in the eventual 116-105 loss.
In order to get the ball moving again and to cover more ground defensively, the Raptors must again turn to Powell as a starter moving forward. Otherwise, this is going to be a quick series. He was a team-best +14 (DeRozan was a dreadful -32, Valanciunas -21).
Cleveland had a huge edge in three-point attempts and makes and it’s hard to stay close when you are shooting mostly two-pointers and giving up an extra point per attempt at the other end repeatedly.
Powell could address some of that. He hit all seven of his shots from beyond the arc against the Bucks and also creates off of the dribble and opens up more room for DeRozan and Kyle Lowry while putting pressure on defences, especially bad ones. Cleveland was near the bottom defensively in the second half of the season.
Powell opened the fourth with consecutive three-pointers, putting at least a bit of intrigue into a game that appeared to be over, at least for a few minutes.
Powell has many fans around the NBA, in front offices, and on the court.
Former Raptor Luis Scola gushed about him in a recent interview with TSN Radio 1050.
“I think he needs to play a lot. With him on the court, I think they are a lot more dangerous,” Scola said. “I don’t see any other way the Raptors can compete without using Norman.”
Powell says the right thing, acting like a true professional, even though he is itching to play more.
“I’m a young guy in this league. You know, I want to start, I want to play big minutes, I want to be in there, but it’s a process,” Powell said in a 1-on-1 interview earlier Monday.
“You’ve got to work for it, you’ve got to earn it and that’s my main focus, trying to earn the trust of the organization and the coaches and my team and continue playing and keep working until then.”
It says here Powell has already earned that shot. What else does he have to do?
He saved the season last year in the first round and repeated that feat to a lesser degree in April. Powell’s.743 true shooting percentage against the Bucks was the fifth-best mark ever in a series (of guards attempting at least 30 shots), per basketball-reference.com.
Nobody expects Powell to duplicate those performances, but anything close would be a major boost for a Raptor team that needs it.
Powell has been excellent as a starter historically and not much of a factor as a reserve. He complements the first group well.
He will be ready if called upon.
“I don’t look at (playing so well against Milwaukee) as something that happened crazy for me,” Powell said. “It’s what I prepare for, what I work for and I have the same mental focus coming in to this round, no matter the minutes I get. My mental focus is doing whatever it takes to get the win and move to the next round.”
Coach Dwane Casey liked what he saw from Powell and fellow sophomore Delon Wright, who also was a +14, so maybe that means they will both be utilized more going forward.
“I thought both of them were aggressive with their speed and quickness and playing with force and I thought that was a positive for us,” Casey said afterward.
MUCH-NEEDED REST
You can bet James enjoyed his full week off between games.
Though he is only 32, James has logged a ton of miles over the years. He’s 25th in all-time minutes and 4th in post-season minutes (averaging a whopping 42.2 a night, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell), yet he still averaged 37.8 minutes per game this year, leading the NBA and ranking 10th in overall minutes (he missed eight games).
He was asked earlier Monday whether he’d be rusty.
“There’s only so much rest you can get,” James said.
“At the end of the day you want to try to stay in playoff form and stay in playoff intensity and we haven’t been able to do that because we’ve been off for a week,” he said.
James and the Cavs certainly didn’t look rusty early on. James had 10 points in the opening quarter, the Cavs shot 52% and out-rebounded the Raptors 13-9. James threw down a monster one-handed jam off a pass from Kyrie Irving and Cleveland’s legs looked extremely fresh.
AROUND THE RIM
James in the first round ranked third in the NBA in points per game, 7th in rebounding, fifth in assists and second in steals. After watching Game 1 here you wondered how he wasn’t first in everything. He was that good … James on the Raptors: “They’re a very good team … They’ve got some great guys who have played in big games. We look forward to the challenge.” They’ll have to wait until Game 2, maybe … A Raptors assistant to Wright after shootaround Monday morning: “Stay ready.” Wright’s response: “I’m always ready.” Wright could see some action guarding Irving, because his length might disrupt one of the league’s best one-on-one scorers.And it's an important thing to tell school-agers, not least because kids terrified of being outed are much less likely to report being bullied - or for that matter, to report physical and sexual abuse from adults, as that whole Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse keeps reminding us in case after heartbreaking case at the moment. But that's just one side of the argument. Sure, Safe Schools might save lives and prevent abuse - but on the other hand, what if their work is used to "indoctrinate children into a Marxist agenda of cultural relativism", huh? …sorry, what? That's the argument that's been put forward by well-respected public intellectual and Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi. And Bernardi is deep thinker on the subject of The Gays. After all, he was the only Australian politician to question whether a liberal definition of marriage might end up including consensual relations between humans and animals.
Cozza's brave statements might have killed his frontbench career when he was stepped down as Parliamentary Secretary to then-opposition leader Tony Abbott (who memorably declared that "They are views that I don't share. They are views that many people will find repugnant"), but his incandescent influence remains undimmed. And with wise, insightful statements like his, how could it not? Won't someone think of the bullies? That's why Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ordered Education Minister Simon Birmingham to commission a review of the Safe Schools teaching manual, presumably to ensure that it's free of calls for the proletariat to rise up and seize the means of production, unless Bernardi is just using "Marxism" as a conversational wild card.
And while we may (and should, and do) laugh at these ludicrous and vapid objections to a program designed to help prevent children getting hurt, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews dropped a truth bomb on the matter declaring "I don't think these extreme Liberals are actually offended by the structure of the program, or the teachers who lead it. I just think they're offended by the kids who need it. They don't like the fact that some young people might be different." But maybe he's just overreacting. Heck, it's not like gay people still get bashed in the middle of the nation's largest city simply for having the temerity to exis… oh… In any case, it's great that the Turnbull government is doing something about protecting our precious young bullies. After all, if we don't encourage ignorance, division and gay panic in our young people today, who's going to represent the Liberal Party as No.1 on the South Australian Senate ticket in the years to come? Negative gearing: the sky is falling! And also rising! Fortunately, Parliament was far more excited about arguing over Labor's proposal to restrict negative gearing. And you can't blame the government for trying out a range of different attacks to knock the idea down, even if they directly contradict one another.
On Tuesday Turnbull was insisting in Parliament that removing negative gearing from established properties bought after July next year would tank house prices, roaring that "Every single home owner in every single electorate represented in this house will be poorer if the Labor Party is elected to government." So that's clear, right? Sure, defending the value-inflating power of negative gearing seems to go against the government's supposed concern about housing affordability, and does also rather confirm Labor's claim that negative gearing makes property more unreachably expensive for first home buyers. Fortunately back in September Scott Morrison was determined to ensure that housing affordability for young Australians was tackled by increasing the supply of housing which… um, would bring prices down, surely, unless supply and demand are no longer connected? Anyway, this is apparently different and somehow perfectly AOK. The waters were muddied on Friday, however, when Morrison explained to the ABC's AM program that limiting negative gearing "…will really penalise ordinary mum and dad investors who will now have to compete against people on high incomes with more properties, who will bid up the cost of those new properties." So, to recap: the problem with Labor's plan is that it will drive the value of housing down… and also force them up.
Well, if nothing else, that policies excitingly versatile. Poor people don't drive houses And just in case you suspected that maybe Morrison's way out of his depth on how money works, he did explain something important about houses. They depreciate like cars, apparently. "The minute you put your key in the front door, your house turns from a new house to an old house," he helpfully explained during that same storied AM appearance, "and it's a bit like driving the new car off the lot in terms of what it means for your assets." Now, let's just think about that for a moment.Canberra A-League organisers have all but given up on their $4 million bid to join the competition and will start refunding foundation memberships as soon as the FFA confirms they will not be included in an expansion.
As the heated battle between Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer and FFA boss Frank Lowy continued yesterday, Canberra bid chief Ivan Slavich conceded it was unlikely the capital could secure a team.
Despite having $4 million ready to be injected into a Canberra team, Slavich still needed another $2 million to reach the FFA's requirements.
He will write a letter to FFA chief executive Ben Buckley this week to seek clarification of whether Canberra was in contention for an expansion spot.
The Canberra bid can hold the $400,000 in membership pledges until December 31.Uber Inc. is disrupting helicopters, taxis, courier services and now, it seems, buses.
The ride-hailing company is testing a new feature called ‘Smart Routes,’ where the Uber car takes a set route with set stops and picks up passengers on the way. The “experimental feature” is part of uberPOOL, an existing Uber service where passengers share the ride for a lower cost.
“Smart Routes is part of our ongoing efforts to increase the efficiency of driver-partners’ time spent on the road while helping riders save time and money,” Uber said in a statement.
In addition to its taxi-like services, Uber has been testing out food and package delivery and expanded to a helicopter service, UberChopper, during special events
Passengers who walk to the Smart Route and drag the pick-up pin there receive a $1 discount on the ride.
Uber says most UberPool rides in San Francisco are $7 or less. San Francisco’s MUNI bus system costs $2.25 per ride.
The idea is similar to San Francisco startup Chariot, which operates a commuter shuttle, and Leap, which offers a luxury bus service in the city.
The feature is currently being tested out on two streets in San Francisco: Fillmore St. between Haight St and Bay St and Valencia St between 15th and 26th St.Ride, ride, ride your bike gently down the street. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life's a storm of shit. Bam. And I fall again. This time I scraped my right knee. By my counting, it's the seventh time I've scraped the right one. The left's been scraped three times only. Being left-handed and all, I fall more to the right. I pull the bike up and climb again. Ride, ride, ride your bike – Bam. Right side again. I pull myself up from the pavement again. Dark, dark, dark all around me. The highway whistles a cold wind that smells of dead bodies. Not really, it smells fine, I'm just being overdramatic. It is dark as shit though, and I am having trouble riding this thing. My balance is somewhat acceptably fine, but my arms are weak enough now that they keep sliding off of the handles, and so I fall. And fall again. At this rate it'll take me weeks to get to New York. What? Yeah, I know exactly where I am. I just went by a sign reading 'Allentown City Limit'. So we're good. On our way to New York, all right. Everything's fine. What's that? Where's Allentown? Fuck if I know. Back on the bike. Before I can even start it, my hand slips again. I can't get a firm grip anymore. If I could eat just one person, I'd get better enough to drive this damn thing. But nooo, Eve's gotta be a goody good vegan zombie girl. I look around. I can barely see three feet ahead. The stars and the moon are out over the highway like they're CGI – one of the nice side effects of this post-human world. No lights, more stars. Both ways, ahead and behind, the road extends seemingly forever. I look at the handles in front of me again. If only I had something to keep my hands steady on the – I look down at my waist and pull my shirt up. Uh....
Weee! Here I go. This is more like it. Forty, fifty... fifty five miles an hour straight through Pennsylvania's woods and steep gable roof houses, my leather Aerosmith belt keeping my wrists tight to the handles of the bike. This is more like it. Cue 'Born to be Wild', Eve's on the road and she's gaining on you fucking zombies! I. Am. So. Very. Hungry. Focus. Fuck hunger. Just drive, drive, drive, drive, drive, Eve. Let's get to New York. Let's get to Levon. Come on! And so I go.
Zombie fact number twenty: In the distance, mere shapes of black against the slightly less black of the sky, I spot New York City's skyline.HYDERABAD: A kafil in Saudi Arabia is holding Jacintha Mendonca – an Indian nurse from Karnataka – to ransom and is demanding 24,000 Saudi Riyals (Rs 4.32 lakh) to let her go free; even as the agent in Mangalore who illegally trafficked her to Saudi is roaming free. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj are aware of her plight.
The victim was trafficked to Saudi Arabia via Qatar on June 19, 2016. The last time she was able to speak to her family was in December 2016.
“My mother has been sold for Rs five lakh by an agent. She is suffering terribly in Saudi Arabia. She is ill and is being beaten by the kafil. She is helpless. She has to be rescued,” Jacintha Mendonca’s son Vinroy told TOI. “She was promised a job as a home nurse in Qatar for Rs 25,000 salary a month, but was trafficked to Saudi Arabia and pushed into slavery,” Vinroy said.
The Indian Embassy in Riyadh was able to establish contact with Jacintha Mendonca and the kafil holding her. However, the adamant kafil who is also said to be torturing 46-year-old Mendonco, has made it clear that until the 24,000 Saudi Riyal is paid to him, he would not let her go back to India.
The woman, who has three children, was sent to Saudi Arabia by a Mangalore agent named James.
While police have the authority to order the local agent to ensure her return, James was supposedly let off by the Mangalore police after questioning. The Telangana police, on the other hand, has been able to rescue some women from Saudi Arabia by applying pressure on the local agents. At least three women who were trafficked to Saudi Arabia were rescued by the Telangana police who dealt severely with the illegal agents.
The Karnataka police can possibly look at how the Begumpet police in Hyderabad got a woman rescued from Saudi Arabia. The woman Haseena Begum had been thrown from the third floor of a building in Damam by the kafil. The Begumpet police got the illegal agent to get through to the Mumbai agent to ensure her return.
Following stern action against them, Haseena Begum could be freed and she returned in May.
This month the Kadapa police in Andhra Pradesh and Wanragal police in Telangana coordinated and rescued a woman, P Subbalaxmi, who was trapped in Saudi Arabia. She could be brought back because the police acted firmly against the local agent.
In another instance, this month, the Shalibanda police in Hyderabad got a woman Saira Banu rescued from Saudi Arabia in a similar manner.
In Jacintha Mendonca’s case, though the names and telephone numbers of both the local agent James and Mumbai agent Shabha Khan are disclosed; precious little has been done about getting the woman rescued.
Ravindranath Shanbhag -- president of Human Rights Protection Forum, Udipi -- has also shared with the Deputy Commissioner of Police Mangalore, the telephone number of an Indian driver in Yanbhu, Saudi Arabia, who knows the whereabouts of Jacintha Mendonco and is also willing to help. He said the embassy informed him that the Recruiting Agency that sent her to Saudi Arabia had been blacklisted by the MEA.
“James and Shabha Khan are responsible for sending Jacintha to Saudi Arabia. They were working for Trio Tracks Travel, New Delhi. As per the website maintained by the Ministry of External Affairs, this Travel Agency has been black listed. We do not understand how a blacklisted company could arrange visa for Jacintha,” said Ravindranath Shanbhag.
He told TOI that the Under Secretary of MEA had written to the Home Secretary of Maharashtra and DGP of Mumbai to investigate and report the matter.
When TOI contacted DCP Mangalore K M Shantha Raju on Friday to find out if anything had been done to rescue Jacintha Mendonca, he said he would have to look into the case details. Bangalore city police commissioner Praveen Sood is also aware of Jacintha’s suffering.
Jacintha’s son Vinroy said the family had lodged a complaint against the agent in Karkala police station in January this year. “What we know is that the agent was questioned and let off. My mother has not been rescued from slavery yet,” he said.A trainee TV reporter was left red-faced after accidentally mistaking a male sex toy for what she believed was a rare mushroom.
The TV reporter thought the male sex toy was a rare mushroom (Picture: REX)
Novice reporter Ye Yunfeng was sent to investigate when Xi’an TV station received a tip-off about the ‘strange fungi’ growing in a Chinese village.
Believing the sex aid was a ‘rare medicinal Taisui mushroom’, Ms Yunfeng then proceeded to film an in-depth feature about the sex toy.
It involved several dubious close-ups and a detailed explanation about the conditions needed for the ‘mushroom’ to grow.
Describing the toy, the reporter commented: ‘We can see there is something like a mouth; and on the other side there is a hole that connects all the way through to the other end.
‘It is very smooth. It feels very much like meat.’
Xi’an TV realised its mistake after being bombarded with calls by members of the public who pointed out it was actually a sex toy for men.
The station published an apology over the incident online, saying: ‘The incident was purely due to the inexperience of our young reporter. We say sorry.’Stocks
Starbucks shares roasted more than 10% in after-hours trade following news that Howard Schultz would step down as CEO in April 2017. However, the coffee chain giant's shares have since recovered and are now down only around 2% premarket. Kevin Johnson, current COO of Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), will replace Schultz, who will become executive chairman and focus on new high-end coffee shops.
Almost a year after its last product VP jumped ship, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) has finally found a replacement to take on the challenging job of rekindling the service's stalled user growth. Keith Coleman, a longtime Google (GOOG, GOOGL) product manager, has been working at a small, little-known company called Yes for the past few years. Twitter took an interesting route to hire Coleman: it acquired his seven-person startup.
President Obama is poised to block a Chinese company from buying Germany's Aixtron (NASDAQ:AIXG) because Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), a major U.S. defense contractor, is among the chip equipment maker's customers. It would mark only the third time in more than a quarter century that the White House rejected an investment by an overseas buyer as a national security risk. AIXG -1% premarket.
BP is planning to press ahead with a major deep water project in the Gulf of Mexico - the latest evidence oil companies are tentatively wading back into big-ticket projects amid signs a two-year crude market slump is ending. BP said it reduced the cost of phase 2 development of Mad Dog - as the project is known - to $9B, compared with an initial $20B estimate in 2013.
Johnson & Johnson has been ordered by a federal jury in Dallas to pay more than $1B to six plaintiffs who said they were injured by defectively designed Pinnacle hip implants and were failed to be warned about risks. J&J (NYSE:JNJ), which still faces nearly 9K lawsuits over the implants, stopped selling the product in 2013 after the FDA toughened regulations on artificial hips; it plans to appeal the verdict.
Red alert, parents. Toys 'R' Us will have Hatchimals and the Nintendo NES Classic at select stores this weekend. Both products have been sold out at a number of retailers and have been highly sought by consumers this holiday season. Hatchimals has Spin Master (OTC:SNMSF) trading at all-time highs on the Toronto exchange, while Nintendo (OTCPK:NTDOY) |
the Press. “Although he has taken controversial positions that have alienated some groups, he has had an uncanny ability to draw voters from across partisan and ideological divides.”
King is “especially strong with white working-class and middle-class voters who dominated in his district,” Levy added. “Union workers who often support Democrats have crossed over for him in large numbers because he is seen as a guy with working-class roots and a professional who also is willing to work with people from the other party on things like [Hurricane] Sandy recovery and rebuilding after 9/11. He is, to paraphrase Trump, ‘One tough political hombre.’”
Still, Grechen Shirley is undeterred. She mentions the district’s Democratic majority and the 18,000 registered Independents whose votes may be up for grabs. She’s also optimistic that New York’s 2nd District Democrats will continue to ride a wave of momentum, which, ironically, has been buoyed by Trump’s inability to shake the drama surrounding Russia’s alleged role in interfering in the election and policies Democrats find objectionable.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Grechen Shirley said. “I know that we’re all dedicated enough because this is a horrifying time in American history to see Donald Trump doing what he’s doing in the office of the presidency. He’s undermining the judiciary, he’s undermining the press, he’s undermining the constitution, and this man is our president. It’s not acceptable. It’s awful. So, I’m not slightly concerned about keeping up the momentum.”
Talk to other members and you’ll uncover similar enthusiasm for political activism—which some argue may not have manifested if Clinton had been victorious.
Katie Twomey, a social worker who lives in Nassau County but declined to say which town because of the nature of her work, sees potential Republican seats up for grabs. She mentioned how the recent indictments of Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and since-resigned Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto could shift upcoming elections in the left’s favor.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for people who feel very disaffected by what’s going on,” Twomey said.
Twomey has always been politically minded, she said. What’s most heartening for her and other local politicos is the participation of previously apathetic Long Islanders.
Kayla Cooper, 28, of Amityville, a social worker, is one such person. She was disconnected politically during the Obama era. Trump’s victory changed all that.
“The best thing to come out of this election is I am more engaged politically,” she told the Press.
Cooper’s entrance into the political sphere goes beyond criticizing Trump. She’s become more interested in bills being debated in Congress and is also focusing on local politics.
Trump’s win was a “shock to the system,” she said. But joining New York’s 2nd District Democrats has “definitely been cathartic for me.”
The anti-Trump movement is not only for America’s youth, but they have been credited with breathing life into the so-called “Resistance.”
“I’ve been involved since Vietnam and so on,” said Burt Koza, 70, of Copiague, another member of Grechen Shirley’s group. “It’s nice to see this same feeling that I think I had when I was in college, and shortly after college, coming alive again. I see the spirit that we had back in those days in these young people.”
Koza found New York’s 2nd District Democrats on Facebook. (“I play around on Facebook a lot cause I’m a retired guy,” said the former Catholic school teacher.)
Koza, a Suffolk County Democrat Committeeman and member of the Babylon Town Zoning Board, was impressed by the turnout at the King protest and a sister Women’s March in Port Jefferson.
“It’s good to see it’s happening across the country,” he said.
Koza volunteered for Gregory’s campaign against King, and said he wishes more people came out to support the congressional nominee.
Like Grechen Shirley, he believes Democrats can channel the energy they’ve created into persistent political action.
“I think it’s tough to keep it going, but luckily we have a man in Washington that keeps doing things that gets it moving again—he’s his own worst enemy,” Koza said. “Every day there’s something new. Those people that are upset about [Trump] are upset by what he did that day. That’s keeping it going, in a strange sort of way.”
Featured Photo: Rep. Peter King (Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press)"CHUCK TODD:
Well, that's an important revelation at this point. Let me ask you this. Does intelligence exist that can definitively answer the following question, whether there were improper contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials?
JAMES CLAPPER:
We did not include any evidence in our report, and I say, "our," that's N.S.A., F.B.I. and C.I.A., with my office, the Director of National Intelligence, that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that included in our report.
CHUCK TODD:
I understand that. But does it exist?
JAMES CLAPPER:
Not to my knowledge.
CHUCK TODD:
If it existed, it would have been in this report?
JAMES CLAPPER:
This could have unfolded or become available in the time since I left the government." Meet the Press 5 March 2017
------------------
You all probably know that I am not a big fan of the perjured former Director of National Intelligence, but this is interesting. Earlier in this interview Clapper says that there was no FISA court approval of a warrant to intercept Trump campaign communications. This contradicts other rumor/reporting that there were two attempts last year to obtain such a warrant. The first of these failed and the second was supposedly approved. Remember! A FISA court warrant IS NOT a warrant in a criminal investigation. A FISA court warrant is a permission to intercept communications in a suspected espionage or terrorism case. It is a vacuum cleaner that seeks information useful to intelligence analysis without regard to the admissibility of such information in a federal court.
In this quoted section of the MTP interview Clapper, who always seeks to cover his hindquarters, throws the Left's case for Russian/Trumpian collusion in the election "under the bus." pl
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-03-05-17-n729271When we think of extinction, we often picture the last individual of its kind leading a solitary life until its death marks the species' disappearance from the face of the Earth. Called “numerical extinction,” this is the traditional concept of extinction, and it forms the basis for many conservation decisions.
But there is another type, called “functional extinction,” which takes a more ecological approach. Some scientists argue that the threshold for extinction should not be the complete disappearance of a species, but instead the point at which there aren’t enough individuals left in that species to perform whatever roles it was playing in the ecosystem. A species can be considered functionally extinct when its dwindling numbers cause another species in the same food web to disappear from the natural community first. These extinctions are important to understand since a species can go functionally extinct well before the population is small enough to put it in danger of a numerical extinction.
A recent theoretical paper in Nature demonstrates that functional extinctions occur at a surprisingly high frequency. The paper suggests that they should be considered when making conservation decisions and setting environmental policy.
Using both natural and computer-generated food webs, the researchers ran analytical models to examine how often functional extinctions happen and to identify the circumstances in which they occur. The model food webs were generated based on roles that species tend to play in real food webs, and they followed general rules common to most ecosystems (such as large animals being less abundant than smaller animals). In each web, the relationships between each species—such as who eats what, how much they eat, and how often—was either known (in the case of the natural webs) or calculated (in the case of the model webs).
To investigate what happens in a food web when a particular population declines, the researchers focused on each species separately and increased its mortality rate until an extinction occurred. If the species they manipulated was the one that disappeared, the extinction could be considered a numerical extinction; if a different species in the ecosystem disappeared as a result of the manipulation, the extinction was functional. The researchers found that functional extinctions happened at a surprisingly high rate: the probability of a functional extinction, compared to a numerical one, was 0.49 in the natural food webs and 0.72 in the model webs. In the authors' words, "a species' ecological functionality is often lost long before its existence is threatened."
Furthermore, a species doesn’t have to be down to its last few straggling survivors in order to lose its ecological effectiveness. More than a quarter of the species in the natural food webs and more than half of those in the computer-generated webs became functionally extinct after losing just thirty percent of their population. That’s a pretty frightening statistic: a die-off of less than a third of a species’ members can unbalance an ecosystem enough to trigger the complete extinction of another species in the community.
Food webs are incredibly complicated and nuanced, and the results demonstrate the delicate balance of ecological communities. In the study, many of the species that disappeared as a result of a functional extinction weren’t even directly linked to the dying species in the food web. In other words, they were driven to extinction by a small decline in a species they don’t eat (and which doesn't eat them).
Of course, this study was a simplistic representation of what goes on in actual ecological communities. However, if anything, it’s probably a conservative estimate of the damage that increasing mortality rates and decreasing population sizes can cause. In all likelihood, the effects of a changing world—including climate change, decreasing forest cover, and human-wildlife conflict—can wreak even more havoc on ecosystems than this study suggests.
The bright side is that understanding functional extinctions can inform our decisions about managing and conserving species. For instance, the researchers found that there is an inverse relationship between a species’ body mass and its tendency to go numerically, rather than functionally, extinct; the bigger an animal is, the more likely it is that increasing its mortality rate will drive another species to extinction. This type of knowledge could help prioritize where conservation efforts and resources should go. However, to make this type of information useful, scientists must continue to investigate extinction in a more ecological sense, and policymakers must be willing to take the results into account.
Nature, 2013. DOI: 10.1038/nature12277 (About DOIs).Image caption The Taliban have always said they will not talk as long as foreign troops are on Afghan soil
Outgoing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has confirmed that the US is holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Mr Gates said talks were "preliminary" but that a political solution was the way "most of these wars end".
It is the first time the US has acknowledged such contact and comes a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said peace talks had started.
The US is due to start withdrawing its 97,000 troops from Afghanistan in July.
It aims to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.
"There's been outreach on the part of a number of countries, including the United States," Mr Gates told CNN., without naming other countries involved.
"I would say that these contacts are very preliminary.
"My own view is that real reconciliation talks are not likely to be able to make any substantive headway until at least this winter."
'Time to engage'
Mr Gates, who will leave office at the end of the month, said the first step had been to ensure the contacts were genuine and influential Taliban members.
Image caption Mr Gates said progress was unlikely to be made until the winter
"We don't want to end up having a conversation at some point with somebody who is basically a freelancer."
Mr Karzai said on Saturday that peace talks involving Afghan officials, the US and other "foreign militaries" were taking place and were "going well".
He gave no details as to whether the discussions involved Taliban officials with US authorities, or a go-between.
Shortly after, the Taliban said it carried out a number of suicide attacks in Kabul, killing nine people and injuring 12. Police said insurgents also attacked two convoys supplying Nato troops in the eastern province of Ghazni, killing four security guards.
The Taliban's official position regarding peace talks is that they will only negotiate once international forces leave Afghanistan, and that they will only talk to the Afghan government. But analysts say that stance appears to be changing.
I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice Robert Gates, US Defence Secretary
Diplomats have previously spoken of preliminary talks being held by both sides in the continuing conflict.
The UK said that with the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, it was time for the Taliban to "positively engage" in the political process, and that it supported Afghan efforts to reintegrate insurgents who were "prepared to renounce violence, cut links with terrorist groups, and accept the constitution".
In a separate interview published on Sunday, Mr Gates said the human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made him more wary of backing US military intervention.
"If we were about to be attacked or had been attacked or something happened that threatened a vital US national interest, I would be the first in line to say, 'Let's go'," Mr Gates told the New York Times.
"I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice."
Sanctions move
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan before being driven from power by US-backed forces in 2001. It had sheltered al-Qaeda members, including Bin Laden.
On Friday, the UN split a sanctions blacklist for the Taliban and al-Qaeda, to encourage Taliban members to turn their back on the Islamist organisation and join reconciliation efforts.
Before now, both organisations have been handled by the same UN sanctions committee.
The UN Security Council said it was sending a signal to the Taliban that now is the time to join the political process.By IndiaResists.com Team,
Arvind Panagariya, a trade economist who teaches at Columbia University, has been appointed by Narendra Modi as the Vice-Chairman of National Institution for Transformation of India (NITI) Aayog. The NITI Aayog is the replacement of the Planning Commission, and Arvind Panagariya is replacing Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Montek Singh Ahluwalia had a better deal than Panagariya does by at least one count- he headed a body that did not have an embarrassing name. Panagariya, on the other hand will be in-charge of an awkwardly titled aayog (commission) and an “Institution” (sansthan). Yes, the name doesn’t matter, but as you are about to find out, Arvind Panagaria is a Grammar-Nazi in more than one way.
In this post, we give the top 4 reasons why as vice-chairman of the NITI Aayog, he will harm and deform India.
Arvind Panagariya is an apologist for the Gujarat anti-Muslim Violence. He argued that they should not be called a pogrom.
In a letter to The Economist magazine, Arvind Panagariya, writing along with fellow-economist and modi-backer Jagdish Bhagwati, wrote that “You said that Mr Modi refuses to atone for a “pogrom” against Muslims in Gujarat, where he is chief minister. But what you call a pogrom was in fact a “communal riot” in 2002 in which a quarter of the people killed were Hindus—170 of them from bullets fired by the police.”
As Hartosh Singh Bal reminded everyone in an article, this is an inaccurate claim, because “of the 170 killed in police firing 93 were Muslims and 77 Hindus” and that Muslims constituted 9% of the population in Gujarat, but 80% of the killed in the riots.
Economists who can’t do basic maths and can’t verify simple facts should not try to correct others’ grammar, should they? Nor should they use their high profile positions as academics and intellectuals to whitewash crimes against humanity.
Arvind Panagariya thinks that there isn’t much malnutrition in India. He was proved wrong by several researchers. He never bothered to reply.
In a paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly, Arvind Panagariya sought to debunk the claim that India has more malnutrition than Sub-Saharan Africa. What got debunked, however, was his hocus-pocus economics. In responses in the EPW, several authors, from Angus Deaton of Princeton University to Rohini Pande of Harvard University weighed-in.
The summary response, penned by Gargi Wable, a professional nutritionist was titled “Methodologically Deficient, Ignorant of Prior Research”. Researchers are usually polite when they disagree, and if any other serious researcher had gotten such a review from the community of fellow scholars, they would have been embarrassed for life and apologised. Not Panagariya. Arvind Panagariya did not even bother to reply.
It is fitting that someone like Panagariya is working for Narendra Modi, who famously said that there is much malnutrition in Gujarat because girls are “beauty-conscious”.
Arvind Panagariya does not even understand the programmes and rights he seeks to destroy.
In his book with Jagdish Bhagwati, “Why Growth Matters”, Arvind Panagariya seeks to describe the NREGA to a reader who doesn’t know about it. He says, “The broad contours of the NREGA are easily defined. The program guarantees one member of every rural household, whether poor or not, 100 days’ worth of unskilled manual employment at a wage no less than that specified by the central government”.
But, he gets these “broad contours” wrong. NREGA guarantees employment to any adult person in rural India, not to any one member of every rural household. Part of the reason why Panagariya makes these basic mistakes is that he has never really studied these programmes at all. Arivnd Panagariya is known to other researchers as a trade economist, and he has never really written any serious paper on development programmes in India.
He wrote a highly spurious blog on the economics of NREGA, which was also criticised by economist for its many flaws (see here and here).To make such an economist the vice-chariman of a body that is supposed to develop and evaluate public programmes smacks of nepotism, rather than merit. Arvind Panagariya is being rewarded for publicly defending the “Gujarat Model”.
He wants to dismantle public health, social security, and education programmes. It seems that Arvind Panagaiya has never met an NREGA labourer, a pregnant women who went to deliver in a primary health center in rural India, or a child who goes to Anganwadi to eat, or a girl who goes to a primary school in a rural school and eats the mid-day meal. That’s probably why he is so keen to dismantle these lifelines for India’s rural residents.
These programmes sometimes don’t work well, but as many states have shown, can be improved. When they work well, they are deeply valued by rural residents.
But Arvind Panagariya does not understand the problems with these programmes, knows nothing about improving them, and shows little commitment to improving health or education in India.
Instead of trying to improve these programmes, Arvind Panagariya wants to replace them with untested and dubious ideas: cash transfers instead of food in the PDS and public works in the NREGA, education vouchers instead of better public schools and teaching, and private insurance and doctors instead of fixing India’s public health system.
If Arvind Panagariya succeeds in these goals, India could say good-bye to a reduction in poverty or decent health and education at least for the next five years.Share. Update: Well, now Adam McKay has taken himself out of the running.... Update: Well, now Adam McKay has taken himself out of the running....
Exit Theatre Mode
Update #3: Just when it seemed the Ant-Man director drama was over... It's not. Adam McKay, who'd officially been offered the job and begun negotiations to take over as director has now taken himself out of the running, THR reveals. They say it was his decision alone.
With Marvel saying Ant-Man would still make its July 17th, 2015 release date -- and production needing to begin soon for that to happen -- the pressure is on for Marvel to find a new director fast, hence all the quick updates occurring on this situation. As of last night, it looked like McKay was going to be that guy, but now the search continues...
Update #2: Well, it turns out the new Ant-Man director is kind of a big deal, as Ron Burgundy might say.
AICN first reported and now Variety has confirmed that Anchorman director Adam McKay is in "advanced talks" with Marvel Studios to replace edgar Wright as the director of Ant-Man. McKay has worked with Ant-Man star Paul Rudd on the Anchorman movies and has tackled the action-comedy genre before with The Other Guys.
Update #1: It now sounds like Rawson Thurber (We're the Millers) is the frontrunner to replace Edgar Wright on Ant-Man.
This latest update comes from The Wrap. The site points out that Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer, who is also up for the gig, just had a baby with his wife "and may be reluctant to take a demanding gig that will require such a big commitment." Plus, he's also being considered to direct Ghostbusters 3 for Sony. Original story follows...
Ever since Cornetto Trilogy filmmaker Edgar Wright split from the Ant-Man film, Marvel has quickly been looking to replace him so the studio can keep the movie on schedule for a July 17, 2015 release.
The Hollywood Reporter claims that the main group of directors meeting with Marvel to replace Wright include Rawson Thurber, Adam McKay, and Ruben Fleischer.
Thurber is known for comedy films, directing Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story as well as last year's surprise hit, We're The Millers. McKay also is known for comedies, directing the Anchorman films and The Other Guys, and has prior experience with Ant-Man star Paul Rudd. Finally, Fleischer has arguably a bit more genre diversity in his filmography, having previously helmed Gangster Squad and Zombieland.
That said, McKay reportedly is the frontrunner of the group, with chatter of Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies) also in the mix.
Wright, meanwhile, is in talks of directing the movie reboot of the beloved cult TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, starring Johnny Depp. He reportedly left the Ant-Man project after becoming frustrated with rewrites to the film that he co-wrote with Joe Cornish.
Exit Theatre Mode
Evan Campbell is a freelance news writer who streams games on his Twitch channel, talks about Nintendo weekly on the NF Show, and chats about movies and TV series on Twitter.It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life and Kitely by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library.
As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday May 18th
10:00 PDT: CatNYP! at Kitely
“A feisty changling girl helps a changling boy return to the “real” New York City from the parallel fairy world where they were both raised. The New York Public Library’s automated catalogue, called CATNYP, is a real lion and a library page is literally an animated piece of paper that retrieves books.”
With Shandon Loring at Lighthouse Point in the Seanchai region on Kitely.
13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: The Sign of Four Concludes
Tea-time at Baker Street sees Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell open the pages of the second full-length novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, which was originally published under the title The Sign of the Four.
In 1888, Mary Morston come to Sherlock Holmes seeking his assistance in two matters. The first is with regards to her father. Having returned safely from India in 1878, Captain Arthur Morston had arranged to meet his daughter at the Langham Hotel, London – but he had vanished from the hotel prior to ber arrival, and no trace of his whereabouts has ever been discovered. The second relates to a series of pearls he has received, at the rate of one a year, every year, from 1882 onwards. The pearls started arriving after she had responded to a strange newspaper query inquiring for her, and the last one had come with a letter, indicating she had somehow been wronged, and asking to meet with her.
Holmes discovers that the pearls started arriving shortly after the death of Major Sholto, a colleague of Arthur Morston’s from the army in India, and he is certain there is a connection between the two – a connection which appears to involve an Indian fortress and the names of three Sikhs and a man by the name of Jonathan Small. Then the subject of a treasure and links between it and Arthur Morston, Major Sholto and Sholto’s sons are all revealed …
Find out more by joining Cale, Kayden and Corwyn.
Monday May 19th, 19:00: The Chromium Helmet Concludes
Gyro Muggins completes his reading of Theodore Sturgeon’s 1946 classic short story.
Tuesday May 20th, 19:00: More Good Poems
With Kayden Oconnell.
Wednesday May 14th, 19:00: Flora and Ulysses
Kate DiCamillo’s second novel to win a prestigious Newbery Award (the first being The Tales of Despereaux in 2004), is at its heart, a comic superhero tale.
“The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him.
“What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.”
Join Caladonia as she completes her reading of this lighthearted tale of eccentric, endearing characters, engaging illustrated by K. G Campbell.
Thursday May 15th
19:00: Scylla and Charybdis
From the pages of Greek mythology come Scylla and Charybdis, two immortal and irresistible monsters who beset the narrow waters (though to be the Straits of Messina) traversed by the hero Odysseus in his wanderings as described by Homer in his epic Odyssey. Scylla, a supernatural creature, with 12 feet and 6 heads on long, snaky necks, each head having a triple row of shark-like teeth, was once human in appearance, according to Ovid. Her transformation, he claimed within his Metamorphoses, was the result of jealousy and witchcraft on the part of Circe.
Charybdis, on the opposite shore of the narrows, was said to lurk under a fig tree and drank down and belched forth the waters of the straits three times a day. The shipwrecked Odysseus barely escaped her clutches by clinging to a tree until the improvised raft that she swallowed floated to the surface again after many hours.
Join Shandon Loring as he takes us, as the saying goes, “between Scylla and Charydbis”.
—–
Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule. The featured charity for May-June is Habitat for Humanity: envisioning a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
Related Links
AdvertisementsMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Protesters have defied the curfew and begun setting vehicles and buildings alight
Egypt has extended its curfew to all cities as anti-government demonstrators in Cairo besiege key buildings, including the foreign ministry and the state broadcaster.
The headquarters of the governing NDP party has been set ablaze.
President Hosni Mubarak, facing the biggest challenge to his authority of his 31 years in power, has ordered the army onto the streets of Cairo.
Earlier, it was announced he would make a statement, but he is yet to appear.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said: "Every minute that goes by without the president making that address to the nation makes him look weaker and will convince people he is losing his grip."
At least 18 protesters - 13 in Suez and five in Cairo - were killed in the violence on Friday, medical sources said. That brings the death toll to at least 26 since the protests began on Tuesday.
An unconfirmed report from the Reuters news agency said as many as 1,030 people may have been injured on Friday.
Military helicopters
Across the country, tens of thousands of protesters turned out after Friday prayers and clashed with police.
Analysis Up until now, President Mubarak has enjoyed the support of the armed forces. He was, after all, a career air force officer suddenly catapulted to the presidency when Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981. But if these protests continue and intensify, there are bound to be senior voices within the military tempted to urge him to stand down. This is the most serious popular challenge to his 30-year rule that anyone can remember. Egypt's army: The deciding factor
The curfew is now in effect, but live television pictures from Cairo continue to show large crowds on the streets.
Correspondents in Cairo say military helicopters are circling overhead.
Some of those breaking the curfew targeted the state broadcasting building, which is guarded by the armed forces.
Also targeted was the headquarters of the ruling NDP party - a major symbol of President Mubarak's rule regime. The BBC's Wyre Davies reported from Cairo that there was no sign of the police or military as the building was enveloped in flames.
Demonstrators have been cheering for the army, while the latter is not getting into confrontations with the people, correspondents say.
Internet and phone services - both mobile and landline - have been severely disrupted, although protesters are using proxies to work around the restrictions.
Mobile operator Vodafone Egypt said in a statement that it was obliged by law to suspend services at the request of the authorities.
Reports say Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has been placed under house arrest. Earlier, he was soaked by water cannon and surrounded by police as he joined protesters on the streets of Cairo.
In Sinai, BBC Arabic said its sources reported that Bedouins were besieging a police station and armed men had taken control of the road leading to Rafah, in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
There seems little doubt the US administration is playing catch-up, and is in a very awkward position Mardell's America: Obama's caution on Egypt is winning no friends
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has appealed to Egypt to do "everything" to restrain the security forces, urging the government to reverse its block on mobile phone and internet communications.
She also said the protesters should not use violence.
The US counts Egypt as an ally in the Middle East and has so far been cautious about taking sides. However, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Washington would review its aid to Egypt based on events in the coming days.
Egypt is the fourth largest recipient of American aid, after Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel.
Meanwhile, the US is advising its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Egypt, and several airlines - including Egyptian and BA - have cancelled or rescheduled flights.
Inspired by Tunisia
The unrest follows an uprising in Tunisia two weeks ago, in which President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled after 23 years in power.
Egypt has many of the same social and political problems that brought about the unrest in Tunisia - rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption.
After Friday prayers, tens of thousands of people joined protests in Cairo and other cities to demand the end of Mr Mubarak's 30-year rule.
They shouted, "Down, down with Mubarak" and, "The people want the regime to fall".
At several locations, riot police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas, and by using water cannon. BBC Arabic reporter Assad Sawey, in Cairo, said he was arrested and beaten by plainclothes policemen.
"They took my camera away and when they arrested me, they started beating me with steel bars, the ones used here for slaughtering animals," he said.
The BBC condemned the assault, saying it was a deliberate attack by police against which the BBC would forcefully protest.
"It is vital that all journalists, whether from the BBC or elsewhere, are allowed to do their job of bringing accurate, impartial eye witness reports to audiences around the world without fear," said BBC Global News Director Peter Horrocks.
There were also reports of clashes between protesters and police in Alexandria, Mansoura and Aswan, as well as Minya and Assiut south of Cairo, and al-Arish in the Sinai peninsula.David Maxwell/Getty Images
As long as the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to struggle in 2014-15, speculation will continue to stir about All-Star Kevin Love's future with the team.
Continue for updates.
Love Comments on Future With Cavs
Sunday, Feb. 8
Dave McMenamin of ESPN passed along comments from Love on his future and the potential of joining the Los Angeles Lakers:
On Jan. 13, Love commented on his future in Cleveland, according to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com:
I think that we will figure it out here, so I don't plan on opting out or any of that. I plan on being here. As far as leaving my options open, I mean sure, it's always there. At the end of the day, it's always good to have something but no, I plan on being here. [...] I've said all along that I plan on being a Cavalier long-term. As we continue to evolve, my role will continue to evolve. It's still a process where I'm figuring it out.
Blatt Addresses "Max Contract" Comment
Monday, Jan 12
Dave McMenamin of ESPN and Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer provided a synopsis of what Cavs head coach David Blatt had to say regarding Love's future in Cleveland. He also addressed the "max contract" comment he made on Sunday:
The "max contract" comment stems from a previous quote from Sunday. Following the Cavs' loss to the Kings on Sunday, McMenamin provided a statement from Blatt, which might have been seen as a way to motivate Love:
Blatt got defensive when a reporter pointed out the Cavs' struggles despite still having two'max' players in the lineup in Love and Irving. 'Well, Kev's not a max player yet, is he?' Blatt responded. Blatt presumably was alluding to the fact that Love signed a four-year extension with Minnesota in 2012 instead of the maximum length of five years, but Love's yearly salary was still the maximum number allowed at the time. Love is expected to opt out of the final year of his current contract this summer to sign another max deal.
Love Unlikely to Sign Long Term?
Sunday, Jan. 11
Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal has an update from Sunday on Love's status based on what he's heard from executives around the Association:
Love is unlikely to sign long term this summer because of the salary cap. He is expected to opt out of his current contract at the end of the season for cap purposes, but he might only sign a one-year deal to line up for what is expected to be a significant cap spike in the summer of 2016. Love has said all the right things about re-signing with the Cavs this summer and the Cavs continue to insist he’s here long term. Executives around the league, however, continue to believe Love could leave Cleveland at the end of the season. We’ll see. There is still a long way to go.
The Cavs have underwhelmed this season and have floundered without LeBron James in the lineup recently, prompting further buzz about whether Love will stick around to see through a title contender in Cleveland.
Love has had a bit of an underwhelming start to his Cavs tenure, shooting under 45 percent from the floor this season. Cleveland.com's Dennis Manoloff analyzed Love's attitude toward the early adversity he's faced:
Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio relayed some recent words from Love that suggest he will indeed stick with Cleveland for the long haul:
Although fans do have some right to expect more out of Love as an individual, since he is such a big piece of the Cavs' potential championship puzzle, James is the key ingredient. There hasn't been enough time for James, Love and Kyrie Irving to be on the floor together and develop adequate chemistry to date.
General manager David Griffin also made some significant personnel moves as of late, trading away Dion Waiters and acquiring perimeter players J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert along with center Timofey Mozgov. When James returns to the floor, the rotation will be quite different.
Eight Years Ago, the Nuggets Traded Melo to the Knicks Two Years Ago, the Kings Shipped Boogie to the Pelicans ASG Will Be Competitive Again If the NBA Raises the Stakes Will Harden Burn Himself Out Before the Playoffs? When MJ Wore #12 After His Jersey Was Stolen Before a Game 15 Years Ago, LeBron, Wade and Melo Took Over All-Star Weekend 14 Years Ago, Iverson Dropped Career-High 60 Points The Kyrie and LeBron Bromance Is Back! Bats Have Become an Unexpected Attraction at Spurs Games KD Giving Back to His Hometown with Durant Center Four Years Ago, Klay Drops Record 37 Pts in One Quarter Remembering the Night Kobe Scored 81 Points Happy 37th Birthday Dwyane Wade Steph Is a Few Shots Away from NBA 3-Point History Can Harden Keep His Dominance Going? Steph Gifts Fan Who Asked for Girls UA Kicks with New Curry 6s Happy 34th Birthday to LeBron 👑 4 Years Ago, Kobe Passed Jordan on the NBA Scoring List Drummond and Embiid Reignite Rivalry Happy 24th Birthday to Giannis Antetokounmpo Right Arrow Icon
Blatt is also adjusting to the NBA for the first time and now has to reshuffle his lineups in a big way on the fly. It's going to |
the office of a high priest to God, and who had himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high priests. But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned. But as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king, desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified; nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrin without his consent. Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring him to punishment for what he had done; on which king Agrippa took the high priesthood from him, when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus, the son of Damneus, high priest.
Notice how much detail is in this passage that is characteristic of Josephus as a historian: it’s three times longer than the Testimonium, yet about a much less significant event (the tumultuous transition of the high priesthood from Ananus to Jesus); we are presented with the causes and effects and reasons and motives for nearly every actor’s decisions and moves in the story; it’s a narrative with a plot, and with a lot of detail that explains what is happening and why; it cross-references things a Gentile reader might not be familiar with, such as why Ananus being a Sadducee would cause him to act this way, it even includes a back-reference to inform the reader that Josephus discussed the Sadducee sect earlier—where we find he did indeed summarize their teachings.
This is all missing from the Testimonium.
The TF is inexplicably too brief for Josephus to have written it—covering far more astonishing and momentous claims, yet in a third as many words. It explains no one’s motives, explains none of the reasons for anything in it happening, and does not explain the teachings of this new sect being described. It has hardly any narrative plot, and it explains nothing a Gentile reader would need explained. It doesn’t tell you what Jesus or the sect of Christians taught. It doesn’t even tell you what he did (what deeds? what fulfilled prophecies? why was he killed? how did he appear or live a third day?). It also, notably, doesn’t mention James or any family of Jesus—at all, much less as being among the Christian followers who succeeded him; nor does it mention any Christians ever being persecuted—at all, much less why.
The Testimonium therefore has no knowledge of the James passage—it does not prepare the reader for it, or even seem aware it’s coming; and the James passage has no knowledge of the Testimonium—it doesn’t refer to it at all. Unlike the way Josephus refers to his previous discussion of Sadducees to explain the actions of Ananus, he doesn’t think to refer to any discussion of Christians to explain the fate of James. The specific violations James was accused of were wholly uninteresting and unimportant to Josephus. Merely that he shouldn’t have been killed, that it was too trivial a technicality of Jewish law to warrant it, a conclusion with which the Jewish elite all agreed—a strange thing if they are supposed to be persecuting, even outlawing Christians.
These are serious problems any defender of this text must contend with. But even besides that, no expert opinion on this is sound that is not informed by reading Carrier 2012, the latest peer reviewed research on this matter. There I demonstrate (and you can find that article reproduced in Hitler Homer Bible Christ):
This James passage was unknown to Origen (despite his explicit search of Josephus for Jesus material in his answer to Celsus). All claims to the contrary until now have been mistaken on that point.
Because in fact, it’s objectively evident that Origen mistook a story about James in Hegesippus as being in Josephus (a kind of mistake I document Origen sometimes made).
All other accounts of the death of James the brother of Jesus do not match this one in Josephus; they therefore had no knowledge of this passage being about the Christian James (Eusebius is the first author to ever think so; and the first to ever quote it from Josephus).
We know Acts used Josephus as a source text for historical color, yet the author of Acts never noticed this passage as being about Jesus Christ (which is inexplicable, given that if it was, then it shows Jews being punished for persecuting Christians, exactly the kind of thing the author of Acts strove to include; instead, Acts never mentions this James even being martyred).
If Josephus had written this passage as about the persecution of Christians, he would have explained things, as is his style consistently in all his historical writing; only a Christian would just assume all those obscure things were already known to the reader (like what a “Christ” was; that James was a Christian; that Jews sought to kill Christians; and why, we must then suppose, the Jewish elite and Roman authorities opposed the killing of James if he was a Christian).
The words tou legomenou christou, “the [one] called Christ,” is for these and many other reasons most likely a marginal note (by Origen or Pamphilus, or another scribe or scholar in the same Library of Caesarea), expressing belief rather than fact (possibly trying to find the passage Origen claimed he’d seen here but mistakenly saw instead in Hegesippus).
That marginal note was then accidentally interpolated into the manuscript produced or used by Eusebius (which would have been a copy of the one used by Origen), a very common form of scribal error.
Possibly by replacing ton tou damnaiou, “the son of Damneus,” in the same place. That same line is repeated at the end of the story. Repetition of that identical phrase a few lines after may have led a scribe to suspect the marginal note was correcting a dittograph (an accidental duplication caused by a previous scribe skipping some lines by mistake, starting at the “wrong” Jesus in the story). But more likely, that duplication is exactly what Josephus meant: Ananus is punished for killing the brother of Jesus ben Damneus by being deposed and replaced by Jesus ben Damneus.
All arguments against interpolation in print to date have assumed the entire passage was interpolated (not just the one phrase) and that it was deliberate (instead of accidental or conjectural). Consequently, none of those opinions is citeable. Because they have not taken into account this alternative theory of the evidence or the evidence in support of it.
Personally, I think it’s clear: Josephus never mentioned Christ here, either. And again, I think this would be readily admitted by any expert…were this not Christ we were talking about.
Concluding Example
I will conclude with an example of another problem plaguing opinions in this matter.
Any expert you cite in order to reckon a consensus on the authenticity of these passages not only has to be informed (having read and honestly considered all this new published work since 2008, as well as the overlooked work of Goldberg in 1995: see the bibliography on page 2 of my handout), but they also have to know what they are doing.
A classic example of failing at that is provided by Christian apologist Roger Pearse, who published a “rebuttal” to Louis Feldman (Feldman, the Testimonium Flavianum, Eusebius and the TLG) in which Pearse claims Feldman erred in noting that a particular temporal construction in the TF is un-Josephan but very much Eusebian. Pearse’s claim is based on checking the TLG (an essential resource for ancient historians; we all use it) and claiming to have found Feldman was wrong. But, well, what really ends up being shown…is that Pearse is incompetent. He put in the wrong search string!
Pearse incorrectly searched eis eti te nun rather than eis eti nun, evidently unaware that te is a particle that isn’t grammatically relevant to the phrase’s meaning (it’s more like punctuation in Greek, and means something like a very soft “and,” marking the relation of the clause to the surrounding sentence structure; it has its own meanings and other uses, but here it’s just a punctuator). The actual phrase is eis eti nun. When you search just the phrase in the TLG, without the incidental particle, it appears 99 times…93 of them in Eusebius alone! The other six are all post-Eusebian (one use each in John Stobaeus, Didymus Caecus, Procopius, Eustathius, the Chronicon Paschale and the Etymologicum Magnum). In other words, in the whole of Greek history, until after Eusebius, that phrase is uniquely Eusebian. It not only was never used by Josephus. It was never used by any Greek author ever. And yet Eusebius used it nearly a hundred times! That’s about as strong a stylistic marker as you can find. It’s almost alone proof conclusive that Eusebius wrote the TF (unless, again, Pamphilus did, and Eusebius adopted his liking for this phrase from Pamphilus).
If we add the particle te before nun, the only appearances in all of Greek literature are in Eusebius and the TF. That also doesn’t look good. Even the very similar phrase eiseti nun appears in Greek literature only up to the time of Polybius (who wrote in the 3rd century B.C.), 16 times in all, but never again in history—except by Christian authors. Clement of Alexandria being the first to pick it up (he uses it 3 times in extant writings). But the next Christian author to use it is…Eusebius! Who uses it a whopping 62 times. After that it appears occasionally in Christian writers over the centuries and into the Middle Ages. The idiom is never used by Josephus.
So Pearse’s response to Feldman is just an embarrassing error. When you use the TLG search engine correctly, you definitely confirm Feldman’s point: the use of that idiom in the TF is so bizarre it’s practically a dead giveaway for a Eusebian forgery.
Let this remind you to make sure that any expert you cite the opinion of is not only informed, but also competent. Also, to see even this single piece of evidence, and still think the TF is authentic, has to be proof positive you are irrationally biased—and you need to see to that.
-:-Angela Belcher has made prototypes of batteries from viruses.
Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for World Science Festival
Biological engineer Angela Belcher is genetically modifying viruses to create batteries that can be recharged thousands of times and then decay harmlessly
Katia Moskvitch: You’re making batteries using viruses—don’t they normally make us sick?
Angela Belcher: When people think of viruses, the flu often comes to mind. But there are also viruses everywhere, from in the ocean to inside the gut, that infect bacteria. Those are not harmful to humans. Viruses are basically genetic material with a protein coat. They need a host so they can use its molecular machinery to make copies of themselves.
The main virus I work with has a single strand of DNA in a protein coat and it is completely benign. It only infects a particular bacterial host—and doesn’t kill it, just slows it down as it uses the host to replicate itself.
KM: How did the idea to use viruses to grow materials for batteries first occur to you?
AB: I was inspired by how the abalone marine snail makes its hard shell using minimal organic material. It uses proteins to guide the incremental development of calcium carbonate in a geometric pattern. That gave me the idea to try to use biology to work with more than just the usual materials. A virus is a beautiful example of self-assembly of an ordered protein structure, and it’s also easy to manipulate genetically.
KM: Why do we need new types of batteries?
AB: Most of us use rechargeable batteries in our everyday lives—in cellphones, computers, hybrid cars and more. The main type on the market are lithium-ion batteries, which require highly reactive compounds to manufacture and take an environmental toll.
As we try to increase the amount of energy that can be stored and make batteries rechargeable for more cycles, not just any material will do: we need ones that are more abundant and more environmentally friendly. As you know, you can’t just throw a traditional battery away because many of the materials currently used, including cadmium and lead, can be toxic to the environment. That’s why we are focusing on rechargeable bio-batteries.
KM: How do you actually make these bio-batteries?
AB: To test if it would be possible to use a virus to grow materials for electrodes, I started with a tiny virus called the M13 bacteriophage, which has a long, tubular shape.
By inserting a specific gene, we spurred the virus to produce a protein coat that binds with compounds such as cobalt oxides and iron phosphates. The virus is long and tubular, so we were able to grow nanowires with these compounds, which we used in an electrode for a prototype lithium-ion bio-battery.
KM: Once you proved it was possible, how did you improve on these bio-batteries?
AB: We improved the power performance of electrodes made from iron phosphate nanowires by finding a genetic sequence for a virus that favourably binds to carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are highly conducting. To do this, we started with a billion different viruses and forced them to interact chemically with the CNTs – simply by mixing them in a test tube.
KM:How did you narrow it down from a billion?
AB: We selected the viruses that attached to CNTs, maybe a thousand of them, and washed the rest away. We then isolated those viruses and made copies of them by putting them into a bacterial host through infection—the normal virus-bacteria interaction. Next, we repeated the CNT-binding process with our selected viruses and chose the ones that bonded best to the CNTs.
KM: What distinguished the most useful virus?
AB: We were looking for the survival of the fittest, the one virus out of a billion that could develop a strong and specific interaction to not only coax iron phosphate nanowires to grow into a particular shape, but also to serve as a type of glue to bond those nanowires and CNTs, resulting in a more conductive composite.
Once we found the specific virus to bind the conducting material strongly, we again created copies and coated them with the nanowire compound—in this case, iron phosphate. Then we dried these composite nanowires, which incorporate iron phosphate and CNTs, and put them into a battery. The end result looks like a regular rechargeable battery, but either one or both of the electrodes are grown biologically.
KM: Can you explain the advantages of building batteries from viruses?
AB: A great thing about using viruses is that we can work with them at low temperatures, even at room temperature in some cases.
Another big advantage is that viruses are pliable. By changing the genetic code, we can make the same virus bind to different materials at once, and in this way make nanocomposites with a variety of properties. It can be really hard to control things on the nano scale, but at that level you have the advantage of being able to introduce new properties not available with larger materials.
KM: You’ve been making these prototypes for some time. What’s the latest?
AB: A typical battery has a cathode, an anode, an electrolyte that charged ions flow through and a separator to keep the two electrodes apart. When the positively charged lithium ions move from the anode to the cathode during cell discharge, an electric current is produced.
We have recently been working on lithium-air batteries, which are powered by reactions with oxygen in the air. We have demonstrated that we can greatly improve a lithium-air battery’s charge-storage capacity by using our genetically modified viruses to build nanowires to use in the battery’s cathode. This is because the virus-built nanowires have a spiky surface. Compared with wires made using traditional chemical methods, our spiky ones have a bigger surface area across which the electrochemical activity happens as you use or charge a battery.
KM: How well do your different types of batteries work, compared to what’s now available?
AB: Our bio-batteries are still experimental. We have been able to demonstrate really great performance but at the moment they don’t have the lifetimes to compete with commercially available batteries. We can only power small devices such as flashlights, laser pointers, watches and LED lights. For devices like cars and computers, which require significantly more energy and longer usage time, we would need to improve the power performance first.
We also want to make them rechargeable for thousands of cycles. Currently, we have batteries that are rechargeable for hundreds of cycles. Our eventual aim is to use viruses to not only power our everyday electronics but also the electric cars of the future.
KM: How do you dispose of bio-batteries when they can no longer hold a charge?
AB: The ultimate goal is to make them completely biodegradable. Our batteries are already greener because the materials we use to make the electrodes, including iron or manganese-based materials, are benign to the environment, unlike many of the materials currently used, such as cadmium and lead.
KM: hat other types of problems might viruses help us to solve?
AB: Biology is very good at solving problems through selection and evolution, so there is great potential when we apply biology to problems that are not normally seen as biological problems. Why not try to use evolution to come up with new solutions?
This article originally appeared in New Scientist.On a section of the apartheid wall in Occupied Palestine someone spray-painted a quote from Edward Said that says: "Since when does a militarily occupied people have the responsibility for a peace movement?"
It is worth considering the wisdom of this statement.
This month marks the 44th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinians are coming face to face with their worst nightmare: there may never be a Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his May address to the US Congress, told the world Israel does not believe that it is occupying Palestinian land and there would never be a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.
His speech received 29 standing ovations from the US Congress and overwhelming approval from the public and the political establishment in Israel.
See also:
Israel: Nationalist hate parade commemorates 1967'reunification'
Palestine supporters target Seacret
Palestinian activists and solidarity groups knew this was coming and understood Netanyahu’s speech as confirmation of the two-state solution’s demise. For years, Palestinians have warned that Israel was moving forward with the apartheid model put into place by the mastermind strategist, former Israeli PM and war criminal Ariel Sharon.
Sharon, who was found by the Israeli Kahan Commission Inquiry “to bear personal responsibility” for allowing the massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon 1982, began the project of building the notorious apartheid wall in the West Bank in 2002.
The route of the wall gave Palestinians a hint of what was to come ― a system of apartheid. In 2004, Sharon began plans to disengage Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Both the wall and the disengagement plan aimed at creating the demographic balance needed for Israel to realize its dream of annexing Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Former Palestinian independent MP Hanan Ashrawi told AFP news in 2004: “Sharon's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is a smokescreen, because he is consolidating settlement activity in the West Bank and completely modifying the demographic and cultural make-up of Jerusalem.
“The Gaza Strip was a demographic and security burden for Israel. By withdrawing from it unilaterally, Sharon is turning it into a large prison.”
Today, we clearly see the outcome of Sharon plan. Netanyahu can reap the benefit of ridding Israel of 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip while confining the Palestinians in the West Bank into Bantustans surrounded by walls, checkpoints, Jewish-only roads and security zones, which altogether annex more than 50% of the West Bank.
Netanyahu’s offer to the Palestinians, which includes land swaps in a demilitarized state, means Palestinians will only have fragmented bits of land divided up by the Israeli matrix system of apartheid.
It is astounding to see that, while all of this is happening, there still is no serious reaction from Israelis to protest their government’s blatant disregard for a peaceful resolution based on international humanitarian law, with two states living side by side.
Then again, there was never mass protests inside Israel during Gaza’s Cast Lead, when Israel bombarded 1.5 million trapped people for three weeks.
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy argued in a Haaretz article in March last year that the real problem is “rooted in the left's impossible adherence to Zionism in its historical sense”.
There is no realisation among Israelis that there “cannot be a democratic and Jewish state in one breath, one has to first define what comes before what ― there cannot be a left wing committed to the old-fashioned Zionism that built the state but has run its course.
“This illusory left wing never managed to ultimately understand the Palestinian problem ― which was created in 1948, not 1967 ― never understanding that it can't be solved while ignoring the injustice caused from the beginning.
“A left wing unwilling to dare to deal with 1948 is not a genuine left wing”.
Levy’s words ring true this year especially as the Israeli government issued a law banning the commemoration of Nakba (“the Catastrophe”, as Palestinians call the ethnic cleansing that came with Israel's founding in 1948) while also erasing the 1967 green line.
The weak and marginalised so-called Israeli Peace Camp, rather than challenging the policies of oppression, is still looking for Palestinians to help them make the peace by way of dialogue initiatives and peaceful protests.
With the exception of very few, they reject the Palestinian call for boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and claim that they reject it because it advocates for one state.
But BDS doesn’t advocate for one or two states, it only calls for Palestinian rights. If the so called peace camp invested a fraction of the time they do fighting BDS doing what they are supposed to do, challenging the one state reality that Netanyahu has imposed, maybe a two state solution would still be within reach.
Rather than criticise the Palestinian non-violent resistance model that the BDS is part of, the Israeli peace camp needs to be considering the very policies that Palestinians are resisting.
They need to understand that they are part of, or enablers of an establishment that denies Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms, and as such, they are not in a position to be dictating to the Palestinians their methods of struggle.
They need to be more concerned with changing the status quo in Israel by raising awareness about the atrocities that are being committed in their name.
The primary responsibility of Palestinians today is to form a strong non-violent unified resistance movement that can truly challenge Israel’s oppressive policies and ultimately bring down its system of apartheid. This movement can only be strengthened by the presence of strong global solidarity through the BDS model.
Those left-wing Israelis who claim BDS is counterproductive are simply prolonging the occupation because they have no real alternative to ending it.
Israeli peace activists do not need to dictate to the Palestinians how to run their resistance; they have their own work to do.
If they are truly worried about a one state solution, they need to organise and take to the streets to protest Netanyahu’s fatal blow to the two-state solution and to force their government to change its course.
After 44 years of occupation, what are they still waiting for?
[Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian-Australian writer and activist with Australians for Palestine.]Is the United States at war with Iran? If David Sanger’s account in his new book, “Confront and Conceal,” on President Obama’s foreign policy, is to be believed — and I find it very believable — we certainly are.
The stunning revelations by Mr. Sanger, The New York Times’s chief Washington correspondent, about the American role in using computer warfare to attack Iran’s nuclear program already have made headlines, and rightly so. He persuasively shows that under Mr. Obama, the United States government has been engaged in what one presidential adviser calls “a state of low-grade, daily conflict.”
The heart of this book is the chapter titled “Olympic Games,” which Mr. Sanger writes is the code name for a joint program of Israel and the United States to insert malicious software into the machinery of the Iranian military-industrial complex and so set back Iran’s ability to manufacture weapons-grade uranium. Specifically, in 2008 and 2009 the software threw off the balance of centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear enrichment center. It did so in a variety of unpredictable ways, making it at first seem like the problems were random or the result of Iranian incompetence. The key to getting inside the computers — which were not connected to the Internet — was to load the virus into thumb drives that Iranian nuclear technicians, perhaps unknowingly, would bring to work and plug into the computer systems there.
In one of the most impressive steps in the cybercampaign, the inserted software recorded the operation of the centrifuges. Then, as the computer worm took control of the machines and began destroying them, the software played back the signals of the normal operation of the centrifuges. “The plant operators were clueless,” Mr. Sanger writes. “There were no warning lights, no alarm bells, no dials gyrating wildly. But anyone down in the plant would have felt, and heard, that the centrifuges were suddenly going haywire. First came a rumble, then an explosion.” This is an account that long will be consulted by anyone trying to understand not just Iran but warfare in the 21st century. It alone is worth the price of the book.
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And that is a good thing, because the rest of the book — overviews of Mr. Obama’s handling of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Arab Spring, and China and North Korea — offers a solid but rather dutiful summary of this administration’s foreign policy. As I read it, I wondered if the author — in the course of working on a book to be titled something like “The Education of a President” — had come across the extraordinary material on the cyberwar against Iran.
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Those other spinach-laden sections are not bad, but they are not as compelling as Mr. Sanger’s guided tour of the anti-Iranian operations. He offers a healthy meditation on Mr. Obama’s heavy use of drone strikes in Pakistan, asking how such strikes differ from a program of targeted assassination, if at all. And throughout, Mr. Sanger clearly has enjoyed great access to senior White House officials, most notably to Thomas Donilon, the national security adviser.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Thursday called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “domestic terrorists” at an event sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, according to reporter Jon Ralston.
.@SenatorReid says Bundy “does not recognize the United States.” Calls armed folks who backed him ” domestic terrorists.” Wow. — Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 17, 2014
“What happened in Mesquite was domestic terrorism.” @SenatorReid — Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 17, 2014
“These people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not. They are domestic terrorists.” @SenatorReid clearly prepared that line. — Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 17, 2014
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has been in dispute with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing fees on federal lands. Because Bundy hasn’t paid the fees for 20 years, federal authorities began to round up his cattle earlier this month.
Over the weekend, Bundy gathered more than 1,000 people, some of them armed, to protest the BLM. Federal authorities backed off, and Bundy then declared victory over the government.
On Monday, Reid said that the showdown was “not over.”
“We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it’s not over,” he told Las Vegas TV station KRNV.
The conservative media has been hyping the standoff. Alex Jones’ website InfoWars called the “surrender” by the federal government “historic.” And Breitbart News called the showdown, “THE SAGA OF BUNDY RANCH — FEDERAL POWER, RULE OF LAW AND AVERTING POTENTIAL BLOODSHED.”
A writer for National Review compared Cliven Bundy to Mahatma Gandhi. And former sheriff Richard Mack likened Bundy’s militia to Rosa Parks and the federal authorities to Nazi soldiers.
This post has been updated.Lately, natural history museums have been under siege. They have been battling to remind society of their importance, to remain funded, and to prove the utility of old, dead things in this very technological 21st century. This war goes on even when so many biological subdisciplines are moving away from natural history and toward theories and models, when fewer people than ever are dreaming of a (dare I say it) romantic career as a taxonomist, and when funding is being increasingly directed elsewhere.
Flat-out magical. Photo of some the Smithsonian Institution’s bird collection by Chip Clark.
Arguably the biggest victim of this trend, as one might expect, is the small university museum. Universities, for much of their histories, have been central to the exploration of local flora and fauna. State land-grant universities in particular often have surprisingly large collections from a time when more resources (and public interest) were more invested in the natural historian. In times when the natural world was more ‘wild’ and was conceived as more romantic, natural history museums were the epicenter of its exploration by humans. There, exotic findings and novel discoveries were documented, and were revealed for the first time to an eager and curious public. Any university worth its reputation would have housed a natural history collection, even if small. And the big museums — like Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, New York City’s American Museum of Natural History, or London’s Natural History Museum — were (and are) flat-out magical.
Since the scientific revolution, great discoveries hail from the halls of natural history museums. Museums are the institutional home for taxonomy, where species are made available for study and conservation by the process naming. This process can often only be done using the veritable database that every museum specimen is, and in spite of some recent calls to use photos or other digital representations instead of museum specimens, this very recent article on the “Omani Owl” demonstrates why. In addition, museums have provided an intellectual milieu for some of history’s most eminent biologists.
One beautiful result of the natural history & taxonomic work that happens in museums: scientific illustration. Photo from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, famous for the failure of his proposed evolutionary mechanisms, only supported organic evolution as a concept for having had Paris’s National Museum of Natural History at his disposal. While his theories ultimately failed, he was among the first well-known academics to support the theory of organic evolution, an act which had tangibly influenced thinkers in England, including Charles Darwin.
Walter Rothschild drove the cataloguing of life in some of the Earth’s most remote places through the task of filling a museum, one that would become the largest zoological collection ever assembled by a private individual. Now split up, much of this collection — including 280,000 bird specimens — is still driving discovery at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).
This collection of 280,000 was fundamental to the success of Ernst Mayr. Mayr was ornithologist who spent much of his career as a curator and biogeographer at AMNH, describing 26 new species himself and cataloging many more in three detailed volumes (“New Species of Birds Described from 1938 to 1941,” “New species of birds described from 1941 to 1955,” & “New species of birds described from 1956 to 1965”). He would later go on to be an architect of the synthesis between genetics and evolutionary theory, along with developing the Biological Species Concept, modernizing avian systematics, popularizing evolutionary theory, and publishing 25 books and more than 300 publications. One must wonder what Mayr would have been without the American Museum of Natural History.More on Xbox One
Exclusive First Look at Xbox One
Close Up With Xbox One: Every Photo You Could Ever Want
How Xbox One Will Fight Sony, Steam, and Everything Else"If you have any voices in your head," Xbox general manager Leonardo del Castillo told us as we approached Microsoft's anechoic chamber, "you'll hear them in there." The room achieves outer-space-like absolute silence, and is one of the many places where the Xbox One evolved. We spent three days in Redmond learning not only what the Xbox One looks like and what it can do, but how it became a reality. Every part of designing a console — from hardware engineering to industrial design — is a huge undertaking, and spending so much time behind the curtain drives that home. Whether designing hardware components in-house, 3D-printing dozens of controller mockups, or just making sure the final product delivers as promised, the Interactive Business Division spent nearly two years getting everything just right. And since were were already there, we thought some photography might be in order. Enjoy. Above: A transparent mockup allowed the industrial design team to begin building options that would accommodate the Xbox One's particular component layout.
As the team narrowed down the look of the Xbox One, the look of the venting panel remained in flux; at left, a latticework version from before the diagonal pattern was finalized.
The componentry mockup.
The industrial design department experimented with overlaying multiple venting panels; here are a few 3D-printed options they played with.
A mockup of the Kinect's internals, along with some early design options.
Early design options for the Kinect sensor.
Discarded options for the Kinect sensor's design, including one with splashes of neon green. We kinda wish this one had made the cut.
The Kinect sensor can track up to six peoples' skeletons, depth maps, rotation, expression, motion force and even their heart rate.
As the team sorted through 3D-printed resin prototypes and considered nearly 200 design ideas, the controller's final form began to emerge.
An Objet 3D printer in Microsoft's modeling lab, running off a controller mockup — one thin resin layer at a time.
The controller's tripleshot buttons have three layers: a "liquid black" background, a 3D letterform, and an encasement of waterclear resin.
Tweaking the controller buttons = involved color studies.
From left to right: Corporate vice president Todd Holmdahl, general manager Leonardo del Castillo, and director of development Boyd Multerer.
General manager del Castillo with the Xbox One's exposed internals.
The motherboard.
The new Kinect sensor, laid bare.
The new controller undergoing stress testing in Microsoft's accessories lab. Fun fact: there's a house somewhere in Bellevue, Washington where Microsoft runs usability testing. It has four living rooms with four distinct arrangements (European, Asian, U.S., and U.S. "dorm room"), each outfitted with furniture and other media and communication devices. Sadly, we didn't get to see it.
How many button presses does it take to make a new Xbox controller break? At least 2 million, as it turns out.
Microsoft's anechoic chamber, where the Xbox One and Kinect were tested for noise emission, is one of the quietest places on the planet. For full acoustic isolation, the room is completely decoupled from the larger building surrounding it. If you've never heard true absolute silence before, trust us: it's unsettling.The general rule of Internet publishing is, the more content, the better. So I’m going to try to adhere to that going forward. I mentioned this last week, but I haven’t quite been able to settle myself yet. I think after this dinner tonight, I will be able to get all the way back to business. Expect work on TheWrestlingRetort.com to begin in earnest as well.
But before I go handle business tonight, I wanted to talk to you about the recent launch of Deepfreeze.it. It has sent corrupt journos into a frenzy. They seemed to be really pissed off that we’ve launched such an effective site. I can’t say I blame them, to be honest with you. They’re getting exposed in a major way. The site is very well designed and looks great. That makes it even worse for SJW scribes, because more people will use a slick site (I know, I need a redesign myself lol).
Here’s some of the reaction from the hacks in the gaming press:
https://twitter.com/atlasnodded/status/596392633704062976
(Muh photos LOL)
https://twitter.com/ChristiJunior/status/596310658964180992
https://twitter.com/thewtfmagazine/status/596251065818963969
It's not really a "hit list" if the contents of the website are true. http://t.co/IMQjWNkJoZ pic.twitter.com/yZqalGiyf9 — 🇦🇺 Gerard McDermott 👨💻 (@McDermie) May 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/GamingAndPandas/status/596170580090429441
This is just stuff I found from a cursory search of Twitter. I can only imagine what they’re saying on their privates accounts, and emails lists. You know it has to be twenty times worse. I say long live Deepfreeze, especially if it’s getting a rise like this out of those bastards. The site is working wonders.
Here’s some more reaction, before I finish up and go out |
than class-based. "Pillars... was going for a very Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale style and feel. With Tyranny, it’s a skill based system. As you use skills in the game they improve. They gain experience and ranks and your character levels up over time. I’ve played a lot of The Elder Scrolls and I’ve played a lot of Runequest as a pen and paper game.... I loved making this system because getting better by doing appeals to me as a player as well as a developer." "We tried to design the AI so the Stoneshields will hunker down and try to attack you with spears or swords if you get close enough," Heins says. "The Earthshakers and the Oath Bound will attack from a distance while the Iron Walkers take you out from close up. Depending on the encounter and which enemies are spawned, you’ll get different tactics from the units and have to adjust your strategy accordingly." But in order to survive the harsh world of Tyranny, in order to bring judgement to a frontier at war, players will have to deal with the leader of the Disfavored — Graven Ashe himself. The warrior, already several hundred years old, has been in the vanguard of Kyros’ armies for generations. And, just as some Greek city states who first fought against and later allied with Persia in antiquity, Graven Ashe is a freedom fighter who was forced to kneel long ago. "Somehow through that interaction Kyros won Graven Ashe’s loyalty," Heins says. "He’s one of the overlord’s most loyal generals leading the Disfavored, trying to fulfill Kyros’ dream of conquering the entire world under the peace of his law. He’s one of my favorite characters we’ve created so far in the game. "Graven Ashe is a couple hundred years old. No one knows why but becoming an Archon extends peoples’ life. Mages can live maybe 150 years just by the fact of using magic. Archons seem to live until they’re killed. No one’s seen them die of natural causes. They only die when challenged by another Archon or someone of equal power."Yesterday, a woman by the name of Gabrielle Toledano – evidently a human resources manager for EA games – wrote a rather confusing and deeply problematic op-ed for Forbes outlining why, in her estimation, sexism isn’t responsible for the dearth of women in gaming. To quote her opening remarks:
It’s easy to blame men for not creating an attractive work environment – but I think that’s a cop-out. If we want more women to work in games, we have to recognize that the problem isn’t sexism. …The issue I have is that the video game industry is being painted as more sexist than other male-dominated workforces. I know sexism exists, but the issue isn’t just in video games. And it’s not what’s holding us back.
Nonetheless, there are still too few women working in my company, so it’s clear there is an issue to fix. Rather than blame the majority just because they are the majority, I believe the solution starts with us – women.
Which is, frankly, one of the most flippant, useless and blithely ignorant summaries of the problem I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. For one thing, Toledano manages to contradict herself magnificently within the space of three paragraphs: because surely if sexism exists in gaming – which, as she plainly admits, it does – then it must constitute at least a part of the reason why women are so conspicuously absent. Instead of conceding this point even slightly, however, she dismisses it out of hand, and for no better reason than her dislike of the implication that gaming might be more sexist than other industries. This, at least, is a reasonable point: game developers are hardly alone when it comes to dealing with sexism, which problem is self-evidently one that affects the whole of society to varying degrees. But to say – and worse, to say casually – that such sexism as does exist in gaming must necessarily be either benign or irrelevant simply because it exists more prominently elsewhere, or because the extent of the problem is popularly overstated, is as irresponsible as it is inaccurate. This blithe attempt to handwave a serious problem is further compounded by Toledano’s assertion that sexism effectively constitutes “blaming the majority just because they are the majority”, a sentence nobody could write without having first elected to ignore the glaringly obvious: that the majority isn’t being blamed for being the majority, but for maintaining a culture of prejudicial dominance, whether due to ignorance, malice, laziness or a combination of all three. To summarise Toledano’s argument, then: sexism exists in gaming, but doesn’t impact negatively on women, because criticism of the majority is really only resentment of their status as the majority, and therefore disconnected from any rational complaint about their actions.
Right.
What, then, does Toledano see as the root cause of female under-representation in gaming? Her argument comes as a triptych: firstly, that female gamers have failed to identify themselves as such (which is both ludicrous and insulting); secondly, that the industry wants to hire more women (though how this admission constitutes a reason for their absence is anyone’s guess); and thirdly, that there aren’t enough women to hire (which is a partial explanation for her second point, but which nonetheless doesn’t explain why there are fewer female STEM graduates to begin with, which point she glosses over with a simple call for their being more widely encouraged).
Her closing remarks only serve to cement her total misunderstanding of the problem:
If women don’t join this industry because they believe sexism will limit them, they’re missing out. The sky is the limit when it comes to career opportunities for women (and men) in games. If we want the tide to turn and the ratio of men to women to really change then we need to start making women realize that fact… Sexism is an unfortunate reality of our times, but as women we must seek the power and ability in ourselves to change the dynamic. Cast aside the preconceptions, and look for the opportunities and places to make an impact. And I can tell you firsthand that in the video game industry women are not just welcome, we are necessary and we are equal.
From beginning to end, the piece reads as an oversimplified, insipidly cheerful and woefully pat exhortation for women to simply wade on in – you’ve only yourselves to blame if you don’t! Sexism exists, but you can overcome it with gumption and elbow grease! Follow your hearts, my darlings! Follow your star! Never mind that Toledano offers notone single fact in support of her claim that sexism isn’t so much as a tiny part of the problem despite acknowledging its existence, nor cites any specific policy, testimony or other useful data that might bolster her argument. Neither does she respond to the wealth of evidence and arguments which directly contradict it, despite linking to an article which lays out a detailed opposing case; instead, she leaves it totally unaddressed. Add these deficiencies to the self-contradictory and wholly unsupported nature of her assertions, and it’s hard not to wonder if her belief in the benevolent non-existence/unimportance of sexism as a factor stems entirely from not having experienced it herself, or from believing such sexism as she has experienced to have had no detrimental effect on either her wellbeing or career. That, of course, is only conjecture on my part; but if untrue, the only viable alternative would seem to be that, having suffered sexism in the past but subsequently overcome it, Toledano has elected to use her own success as a yardstick against which to gauge the determination and worthiness of every other woman in her industry, which is hardly reasonable. Whatever the case, the implication is equally unsatisfying: that as sexism hasn’t impeded her, it must therefore be incapable of impeding anyone else.
Allow me, then, to provide the evidence that Toledano does not. In November last year, under the Twitter hashtag #1reasonwhy, women employed in gaming collectively shared the myriad instances of sexism they experienced at work in order to highlight the extent of the problem, with multiple accompanying conversations about problems in the industry following soon after. Around the same time, a Penny Arcade report based on actual data showed howthe dearth of games starring female protagonists has become a self-fulfilling prophecy: such games, it was found, were given smaller budgets by publishers and marketed far less extensively than their male-lead counterparts, leading to critical neglect and low sales, and therefore contributing to the outdated notion that women don’t play games, and as such aren’t a viable demographic. There’s any number of prominent accounts of women in gaming being dismissed or discriminated against on the basis of gender; this Christmas, headlines were made by the presence of topless women at Gameloft’s holiday party; and though they point more to problems in the culture of game consumption than creation, it would be foolish to view either the infamous Aris Bakhtanians incident or the experiences of Anita Sarkeesian as irrelevant. As for the comparative absence of women in STEM fields, this is hardly a problem without a cause: brogrammer culture, entrenched academic gender bias and subconscious bias in hiring practices, to name just three of the major issues, all affect female participation.
Because what Toledano fails to comprehend is that gaming, like everything else, is an ecosystem – and right now, at every single level of participation, women are feeling the effects of sexism. Female gamers are sexualised, demeanedand assumed to be fakes by their male counterparts; those who go into STEM fields despite this abuse frequently find themselves stifled by the sexist assumptions of professors and fellow students alike; they must then enter an industry whose creative output is overwhelmingly populated with hypersexualised depictions of women and male-dominant narratives, and where the entrenched popularity of these tropes means their own efforts to counteract the prevailing culture will likely put them at odds with not only their colleagues, but also the business models of the companies and projects for which they work; as the #1reasonwhy discussion showed, many will experience sexism in the workplace – hardly surprising, given the academic correlation between the acceptance of misogyny in humour and culture and real-world tolerance for sexism and rape culture – while others will be excluded from it completely. All this being so, therefore, if a single progressive HR manager at a comparatively progressive company looks around and finds, despite her very best intentions that, there are few or no women to hire for a particular position, then the problem is not with women for failing to take advantage of a single company’s benevolent practices, but with the industry as a whole for failing to create a culture in which women are welcome, and where they might therefore be reasonably expected to abound.
In her excellent book Delusions of Gender, Cordelia Fine documents a phenomenon whereby some progressive parents, determined to counteract the sexist influences of prevailing culture, found themselves adopting a ‘biology as fallback’ position when, despite their best efforts at promoting equality, their children still conformed to gender norms. “Believing that they practiced gender-neutral parenting,” Fine writes, “biology was the only remaining explanation.” But as she goes on to point out, the actual explanation is far more complex: not only were such parents still prone to promoting unconsciously absorbed gender roles, but when ranged against the ubiquitous sexism promoted by wider culture, even their best efforts were overwhelmed in the child’s experience – no matter how many pink clothes and dolls a son was bought, if the majority of his peers were playing with trucks and dressing in blue, and if every presentation of normalcy he absorbed through stories, clothing, culture, advertising and other children suggested he should do likewise, then his experiences at home would still read as anomalous. Unable to accept this, however, parents persisted in blaming biology: their failure could only have been predestined, and not the result of wider social and cultural factors beyond their individual control, let alone indicative of a flaw in their methods.
Toledano, it seems to me, is committing a similar fallacy, adopting a fallback belief in female disinterest in order to explain the lack of women in gaming, and thereby discounting the impact of more pervasive and difficult issues, never mind her use of faulty logic. And the thing is, it matters: not just because of her status as a representative of a major gaming company writing in a prominent publication, and not just because it betrays exactly the sort of misunderstanding of sexism that inevitably helps it perpetuate itself; but because she’s created a cop-out piece for sexists and those who doubt their influence to wave about as definitive proof that really, the problem is women themselves – and, more specifically, feminist women, or women who demand change. By claiming to speak definitively on the matter – unveiling the “dirty little secrets” of women in gaming, to use her phrase, as though she’s boldly daring the wrath of some secret feminist conspiracy in order to say openly what sensible women have always known in private, but been too scared to admit in public - Toledano is using the supposed authority of her gender to claim, on the basis of not a single shred of evidence, that sexism isn’t an obstacle, because look! Here she is, a woman, admitting as much! And if a woman says it, it must be true! Which is, presumably, why she’s felt no need to sully her case by supporting it with facts; because surely, the act of merely presenting it must be evidence enough. Only, no, that’s not how it works. To modify a Biblical phrase, the greatest trick the patriarchy ever pulled was convincing women it didn’t exist – and in Toledano’s case, all too lamentably, it seems to have succeeded.About
Ember is a mystical element recently discovered in the world, leading to a magic fueled industrial revolution; Begin your rise to power by collecting as much ember as possible before your opponents! Align yourself with a faction and reap the benefits of each of their unique ways of destroying their enemies. Do you align yourself with the industrial Machinists who believe that Ember is simply an efficient fuel source? Or the Naturalists who want to use Ember to bring civilization back to the stone age? Do you brave the madness of the Archivists, who yearn for power at any cost? Or do you follow the Fundamentalists- who wish to destroy all use of Ember by fighting fire with fire?
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Whether you wish gather Ember through brute force, adaptation, insanity, or cunning, only those willing to go to any means to secure it shall control the power it holds.
Ember is a card game played with 60 faction cards, 4 emblem cards, 8 cards to keep track of your resources and tokens to go along with them.
The game begins with each player selecting a faction to represent, then drawing four cards from the central deck and placing 3 Ember into their pools. Players then decide who goes first and begin the game. Each player can play as many cards as they wish… so long as they have the Ember to pay for it. Cards come in three different types: Units, Structures, and Utilities.
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Units are the troops at your command, to send to battle, to keep close to defend yourself, or to send into the mines to collect precious Ember.
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Structures are stable buildings of new and old, that provide long lasting and ever-present effects. They are difficult to destroy, however they also don’t provide any defensive value.
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Utility cards are powerful but temporary bursts of magic that can alter the battlefield in your favor- Use them wisely.
Use each of these types of cards to gain control of the battlefield and gather Ember as quickly as possible- either by sending units to mine for it, or stealing it directly from your opponents. Keep an eye out for cards that match your faction too, as you can unlock abilities on them that no other player can use!
Age: 10+ Time: N/A #of Players: 2-4
The team at Red Octopus Digital Services has been working for over two years now on designing and refining Ember during our free time between work and school in order to make it fun, balanced, and have endless replayability. Unfortunately, we are at our limits when it comes to paying for mass physical production and final artwork- that’s why we’re reaching out for your help to take the final steps to meet our goal and get our game into your hands!
December 12th, 2017 – January 11h, 2017
The funds of Ember will be split with 50% going towards the production of the product, 25% to the remaining art, 10% to cover Kickstarter fees, and 10% to cover any issues we have during the process.
Visit our facebook page!Four police officers were injured in Brussels during an anti-terror raid linked to the November terror attacks in Paris, according to federal prosecutors. The gunman armed with an assault rifle was “neutralized,” but the hunt for other suspects continues.
“A suspect armed with a Kalashnikov was killed” when after a three hour standoff police finally stormed an apartment in the south of the city, prosecutors office said in a statement.
The incident took place during a routine a routine search, in which French police were also taking part. When the officers initially attempted to search the presumably empty premises “one or more people immediately opened fire on police the moment the door was opened by the security forces.”
The suspect then reportedly barricaded inside the apartment as police reinforcement, including a SWAT team and a helicopter, were deployed to the scene. Armed police have locked down the area, telling residents to stay indoors. All schools and kindergartens in the area were evacuated as police cordoned off a wide area around the building in the southern suburb of Forest.
The suspect was shot dead in a raid the took place around 4:00pm GMT.
According to Belgian media up to two suspects may remain at large with police continuing operations to locate them.
The investigation is indeed still taking place, Belgian PM Charles Michel said during a news conference but did not elaborate and did not confirm reports that two suspects were on the run.
"We have escaped a tragedy," Michel said, as none of the four wounded officers was seriously hurt. Other ministers said that two of the four injured policemen had been released from the hospital.
The ministers also pointed out that the raid was not meant to discover a lot of new revelations regarding the investigation into the Paris November attacks by Islamic State.
“This operation is connected to the Paris attacks,” a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutor told Reuters. However, French police assisting with the operation was a mere “coincidence” rather than an indication that the search had been expected to provide a breakthrough.
"A body was found during the search of the building in the rue de Dries. The identity of the dead person yet unknown, but in any case it is not Abdeslam Salah," said Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for the federal prosecutor.
The Forest neighborhood is close to Molenbeek, home of several people involved in the November 13 terror attacks which killed 130 people.
Belgian authorities are still on the hunt for suspects linked to the Brussels-based masterminds of the attacks. However, citing a French judicial source, a journalist for France Info tweeted that the operation is not targeting Salah Abdeslam, a prime suspect in the Paris attacks who is believed to have helped equip the gunmen and suicide bombers.A few days ago I was writing a piece to go with Gordon Bowden’s amazing video ‘Bombs, ‘Boiler Rooms’ Paedophiles & David (porky) Cameron.’ I was having trouble trying to explain in a couple of paragraphs how an inordinate number of sexual perverts inevitably find their way into the upper echelons of power. The answer to this conundrum inadvertently provides the answer as to why Western governments all over the world provide unconditional support to what is without any shadow of doubt the most evil country on the planet – ISRAEL!
As I pondered I thought about American politicians. Aside from the Clinton & Bush families, mass-murderers & traitors who’ve probably done more to ruin America than any other families, I wondered if there existed a similar ratio of sexual deviants in the US. I’d heard of these perverse initiations one had to endure if one was to become a fully-fledged member of the ‘Skull & Bones’ for instance. Apparently only those who performed disgusting acts were likely to climb the ladder of power. Cut a long story short – that’s why we’re in this mess; that’s why Israel can do no wrong. Even Genocide is acceptable!
Anyway I was thinking about the so-in-so’s on Capitol Hill which is a proper cesspit. It now all but seems qualification into this den of iniquity requires ever greater bouts of Israeli arse-licking. It’s positively sickening. I was thinking of some of the worst culprits & the one I felt gets the ticket is Lindsey Graham. Just listening to the bile emanating from this wretched specimen is quite something to behold. I remember thinking –
what the hell must they have on you?
Well I just came across this brilliant clip with Mark Dankof on Press TV. Fair play to Mark for not holding back as so many do. We’ve still got a mountain to climb but it’s certainly great to see more people stepping up to the plate to flat out accuse the Zionists of being the chief architects behind 9/11. Who needs to listen to hour long interviews when so much can be said in under 5 minutes? Well done indeed Mark.
http://presstv.com/Detail/2015/11/04/436314/US-Syria-Saudi-Arabia–IsraelPeter Xing, founder of Transhumanist Australia. Image by author
If you've heard of transhumanism, you probably first think of the people putting LED lights in their skin, magnets in their fingertips, and RFID chips in their arms. You might expect transhumanists to seem pretty, well, extreme. But Peter Xing, co-founder of Transhumanist Australia, doesn't fit the clichés.
For the past seven years, Xing has worked in business tax. He presents himself as a businessman with big dreams. Someone who believes society is accelerating so fast that people have become desensitized to the many possibilities available at our disposal.
It was at his workplace, Deloitte, that Xing first went "full nerd," after his research brought him into the world of artificial intelligence. In 2014, he dove deep into transhumanism, which he describes as the transformation of the human condition through technology.
Xing has made immortality Transhumanist Australia's biggest priority. The group has been petitioning for several months to get aging deemed as a disease and force governmental change. On one level, it has succeeded. The Science Party, after forming an allegiance with Transhumanist Australia, has agreed to include this anti-aging policy into its health strategy for 2017. Xing, also an executive member of the Science Party, says this is a big step in the right direction.
Not all transhumanists agree with the concept of immortality. But Xing is closely following in the footsteps of Zoltan Istvan, leader of the Transhumanist Party in the US and current independent presidential candidate. Last year, after watching Istvan's effective public relations campaign garner thousands of members, Xing decided to start his own official movement in Australia.
"Everyone is already connected through technology," Xing explains to me as we sit in one of the many meeting rooms at his high-rise office. "It has become an extension of our human brain, tapping into that collective knowledge of society."
While the concept of immortality feels as though it's verging on science fiction, Xing insists this resistance is misled. "It's very poetic to say there is a narrative arc with life and death," he says. "But it's a social construct. As society matures, we're starting to see this."
Xing tells me that recent scientific studies support the idea that aging is not a fixed certainty. Earlier this month, the lifespan of mice was extended by 35 percent after removing stagnant cells, a study that has the potential to be adapted to humans. Trials of Metformin also start this year, a drug that could possibly increase human lifespan to 120 years.
"For me, it is an existential risk. We will have a finite life if we don't encourage innovation toward the field of health span extension," Xing says. "One example is the Human Brain Project. These types of projects help find ways to kill Alzheimer's and other types of neurological diseases."
It's hard to fathom what the implications of age extension could be. The idea that we could live forever contravenes aspects of religion, culture, and ethics that we often think of as fundamental. There is also the question of how society will survive under the strain of an even larger aging population.
Xing, however, is confident that as society progresses, we will learn how to cope with any impediments. "People will look at resources and say, 'I can live indefinitely, why not have children later?'" he says. "We are also only a speck in the grand scheme of things. Eventually, for society to survive, we will become a multi-planetary species."
There are times in our conversation when Xing strays into the higher concepts of transhumanism that are beyond what I can understand or google. He notes that a counter argument to his movement is that society will become conservative, because old generations aren't dying and making way for new generations and new world views. "But we'll be constantly connected to the collective intelligence of everyone, so we will actually get fresh ideas," he assures me.
He speaks of mind uploading: "You could potentially do this by synthetically adding on neurons while slowly letting go of old ones, so that you're still conscious as part of the process."
As you would expect from an accountant, Xing has an organized five-year plan. He is gradually building up a membership base through collaborations at Deloitte, where he tells me bio-hackers, virtual and augmented reality enthusiasts, effective altruists, technology entrepreneurs, and space enthusiasts meet regularly.
On the political side of things, a party is already in the works for Transhumanist Australia. Its alliance with Science Party is to maintain influence until it has enough members to form its own party. He views the Science Party as a bridge between technological advancements and what society is ready for.
In the meantime, Xing says he is concentrating on eradicating the negative stigma that surrounds transhumanism. "We're trying to use the word as often as we can," he says. "To shy away from the concept is not accelerating the progress."
Xing is planning a gradual change to give society time to adjust. "It still has its danger, like what happened with the Nazis and eugenics. But that's when the moralities of society don't catch up to the technology. That's very important to address, and we want to bring it to the forefront."
"We don't expect to win the 2020 election. 2045 is the singularity date, where technology exceeds human intelligence. We've got a due date probably a bit before that."
Follow Eliza on Twitter.Resistance against a new Bakken crude pipeline stepped up this week with the arrest of 12 people on Thursday near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota.
"They're trying to lay a pipe across our water. They're trying to poison our future," said one of the people taking part in the action.
YouTube user UrbanNativeEra posted this video of the event:
The dozen people arrested—who were among roughly 200 protesters—face charges of disorderly conduct or criminal trespass, the Associated Press reports.
The fossil fuel infrastructure project in question is the roughly 1,100-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, which is slated to transport up to 570,000 barrels a day of crude from the Bakken fields in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois.
The "mega-pipeline" (it's nearly the same length as the Keystone XL), as Mother Jones writes Friday, recently received all the regulatory permission it needs to be constructed. Its approval may have been helped by parent company Energy Transfer Partners' strategy of having the pipeline route avoid federal lands—a lesson learned from TransCanada's denied pipeline.
As EcoWatch writes, the Dakota Access
would cross the Missouri River less than a mile away from the Standing Rock Reservation that stands in North and South Dakota. The Missouri River, one of the largest water resources in the U.S., provides drinking water for millions of people. The people of Standing Rock, often called Sioux, warn that a potential oil spill into the river would threaten the water, land, and health of their reservation.
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The problem with the Bakken pipeline, according to the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club, is straightforward: "Pipelines leak."
As such, it's been met with ongoing resistance. Thursday was the "second day of confrontation with private security and local law enforcement," Sarah Aziza writes at Waging Nonviolence, and as AP reported earlier this week, "at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers, American Indians have for months been staging a nonviolent protest at a'spirit camp.'" Native tribes also "have launched a campaign, called Rezpect our Water, against the pipeline. They've even set out on a 500-mile relay run in protest of the project," as ThinkProgress reported.
Environmental activists and other landowners have also joined efforts to stop the pipeline, and helping raise the profile of the fight are a number of actors, such as Leonardo DiCaprio taking to Twitter. Divergent series actor Shailene Woodley, meanwhile, took part in Thursday's action directly.
"I'll be here until we win, a week or a year. I'm out here because I believe clean water is a right for everyone," she said, according to the Bismarck Tribune. "I'm here because I'm a human being and I want to have children some day, so it's also my responsibility to make sure that all babies, all children have water," Woodley added.
"The end is when they (the pipeline) pack up and leave. I stand in solidarity with these people," she said.
Another protester taking party in the action said he was there to stand against "the black snake [...] for all the winged, for all the four-legged, the two-legged, the water, and the land. I am here. I am Lakota." He said the pipeline must be stopped "so our future generations can live on."
Twitter users continue to capture the resistance with the hashtags #DakotaAccessPipeline, #RezpectOurWater and #NoDAPL:
Tweets about #DakotaAccessPipeline OR #RezpectOurWater OR #NoDAPLWith one serial prowler already behind bars, awaiting sentencing, police say it appears another neighbourhood in the shadow of Western University has been worked over by a second.
Arrested last week last for trespassing, the latest suspect now faces 14 charges of voyeurism after student reports dating back a year about a man creeping around with a video camera.
Police found images of 15 women on electronic devices seized from the suspect’s home after his arrest and linked those to earlier complaints, London police Const. Ken Steeves said Tuesday.
“The initial complaints were that females saw what appeared to be a hand-held camera (pointing through) either their bedroom or bathroom window. That’s all we had initially — we didn’t have a suspect,” he said.
The first complaint came in to police a year ago, only a few months after the now-49-year-old serial prowler and sexual voyeur Bradley Priestap was convicted of 12 of 16 charges.
Priestap — nabbed red-handed by undercover officers — had preyed on female university students living off-campus in the area to the south of the university’s Richmond St. gates, in and around Huron St.
The latest complaints came from a different off-campus district, another student zone, with police warning residents east of Western’s Richmond St. gates, and north to King’s College, about reports of a prowler and to take precaution and call police about any suspicious behaviour.
After the first complaint last October, another report of a video camera in a window came in April 2014, and a third in July.
Steeves said police had “such limited information” at first, they didn’t want to unnecessarily alarm the community. “(But) as we got more complaints, then we realized this was an issue.”
Last Monday, police arrested a man with a video camera near Richmond and Cheapside streets, charging him with six counts of trespassing at night. They seized his camera and searched his east-end home.
In the week that followed, officers identified five females connected to prowling incidents ranging from October 2013 to Sept. 29, 2014, Steeves said.
Aside from those women, police have seen recordings of 10 other females, he said.
“These females should have the right to their own privacy. With that, we are encouraging people, especially females, to keep blinds closed at night, window coverings, windows and doors,” said Steeves.
Fourth-year Western student Lindsay Tarbutt lives on Barnard St. in a house with five other young female students.
“There was definitely a sense of relief,” she said of learning about the arrest.
Tarbutt’s neighbours are six young female students. The girls were “very aware of the situation,” she said, standing just steps away from King’s University College.
Tarbutt has lived in the area for four years and first heard about the prowler at the beginning of the school year in 2013 from a Facebook page for Western students.
In response to those incidents, as well as general safety concerns, Tarbutt and her roommates equipped their home’s windows with blinds sporting a patterned, textured film that prevents passers-by from seeing inside.
“I guess there wasn’t much more we could do,” she said.
Walter Figueiredo, 49, is charged with six counts of trespass by night and 14 counts of voyeurism.
jennifer.obrien@sunmedia.ca
twitter.com/obrienatlfpress
–with files from Dan Brown
— — —
THE CHARGES
6 counts of trespassing
14 counts of voyeurism
— — —
VOYEURISM
To make a visual recording of a person who is in circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy. For example, if the person is nude or engaged in sexual activity.The Best Youtube Channels for Developers
Youtube has been the best source of development content during my short stint as a dev. The below, is a finely curated list of fantastically passionate creators, offering up gold for the price of a 5 second advertisement.
Matthew Kjer Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 29, 2017
Primary focus: All things Javascript
Signature: “Goooooood Monday Morning”
Recommended videos: Worst Hello World app ever, Composition over Inheritance.
MPJ from FunFunFunction, is a glorious, wonderful oddity in the world of programming content creators. With a background in theater and programming, this former Spotify developer delivers highly engaging, personal and informative content. His videos are quirky, surprisingly funny and equal parts entertainment and education. The content ranges from in depth technical explanations of map, reduce and restructuring, to more high level concepts like composition vs inheritance and burnout. I entirely endorse his videos, so much so I became a patron of his last week. If you’re going to check out any video on this list, i’d highly recommend the worst Hello App ever ft React, Redux and so *shudder*, so much more.
Primary focus: P5js and Javascript
Signature: “Why not use p5js?”
Recommended videos: Pathfinding, Neural networks, Twitter bot
Daniel Schiffman, in a few words is utterly endearing. His tutorial on how to make a twitter bot was my first foray into connecting to an API, it was so easy and so well explained I ended up binge watching hours of his videos. He has some extremely interesting stuff on neural networks, path-finding algorithms as well as simple, easily digestible projects. One of the things I like most with Daniel is that he explains everything thoroughly with no expectation of prior knowledge (unless otherwise stated). A number of tutorials will gloss over or assume prior knowledge, leaving you with several tabs open trying to fill in the gaps. Daniel does an excellent job of ensuring the only resource you need to complete his task, is in his video. For those looking at starting out with Javascript, The Coding train should be your first port of call.
Primary Focus: All things React, Node and Javascript
Signature: Doo Doo Doo Dah Dum
Recommended videos: 30 days of Javascript, The Redux Series
Wes Bos is someone I owe entirely too much in terms of my career development. His React, Redux, Es5 and Es6 courses have helped me very quickly plug gaps in my front end knowledge. While a portion of his content is paid, he has some superb free videos on Youtube including his excellent Redux course and the infamous 30 days of Javascript challenge. I’ve never enjoyed learning so much, than when I was participating in the 30 day JS challenge. He provides you with the styling and static elements, while you follow along with his videos to build a JS Drum kit, animated CSS clock and much, much more. I’ve bought many of his online courses, all have yielded fantastic value.
Primary Focus: Everything Development.
Signature: “Hey what’s up, this is Scott.”
Recommended videos: Sketch and React
Wesbos’s partner in crime. I’m not entirely sure who’s Batman and who’s Robin but both are excellent sources of front end expertise (and break dancing). Scott has an overwhelming wealth of superb content, almost 1000 videos ranging from VS code tutorials, React, React Native, Meteor, Drupal, Magneto…. I’ll stop there. The videos are split into easily digestible blocks, and more focused on practical, functional application. Perfect for that moment when you have to learn Drupal 8 in a week and need some guided hands on experience. Thoroughly recommended.
As an aside, Scott and Wes also host my favorite tech podcast- “Syntax, tasty treats for Web Developers.” It has some sizable gold nuggets of information, with recent topics covering Accepting Money on the internet, How to slam dunk freelancing and CSS preprocessors & structuring CSS. Their dynamic is fantastic, stories entertaining and advice solid. 10/10 would recommend again.
Primary Focus: Computer Science. Bits and bytes to beyond.
Signature: 0011010000110010
Recommended videos: How not to store passwords, XSS, How Youtube works.
If you’re after for something a bit more computer sciency, perhaps something that delves into the real nitty gritty of some specific topics- Computerphile is your channel. |
way of notifying is [Australian Government website] MyGov," she said.
"I spoke to the administrators who advised, 'Oh whoops, we hadn't thought about that'."
COTA is working to lobby companies and the State Government to improve the system.
"We've been pretty horrified by the experiences we've heard," COTA's Victorian CEO Ronda Held said.
"We've had great response from the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages who's really keen to try and streamline their process, and also the Energy and Water Ombudsman of Victoria who's now working with the energy companies."
COTA is also hoping Australia will follow the lead of the United Kingdom, which has set up the "Tell Us Once" service.
The service allows grieving partners to notify multiple government agencies all at once, through one online form or phone call.
Companies, agencies defend their practices
The Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria has been working with utility companies to address problems customers have been facing after the death of a partner.
A spokesman said there had been improvements, and highlighted Melbourne's Yarra Valley Water as a leader in the field.
Yarra Valley Water has never charged fees to change account details and says it does not require a full death certificate.
Managing Director Pat McCafferty said the company had set up a program to support customers after a death, and the COTA findings had prompted further internal review.
"After extensive collaboration, we have made our process easier by allowing verbal confirmation and the ability to complete aspects online," he said.
Toll road operator CityLink said there were no costs associated with closing the account of a person who had died, and a partner did not have to provide any other information if they were listed as a contact on the account.
When partners were not listed, the account could still be closed on the spot if relevant contact details about the deceased person could be provided, CityLink said.
Telstra also said it did not charge fees or require death certificates.
A spokesman said the company had established a dedicated support team to make cancelling or transferring services as simple as possible.
Origin Energy said it also charged no fees to change an account name.
"Customers do not need to be thinking about fees, documentation or if their supply will stay connected," a spokeswoman said.
"We do everything we can to make these transactions quick and seamless so that customers can focus on what's important at a difficult time."
Topics: community-and-society, death, government-and-politics, melbourne-3000, vic
First postedSignificant improvements have been seen in monetary and credit dynamics in Euroarea since the ECB adopted an accommodating stance back in June (rate cuts, TLTRO, QE). Indeed, M3 money supply growth recovered from a lacklustre 1.1% yoy in May 2014 to a buoyant 5.3% yoy in April 2015, above its reference value of 4.5%. In June, monetary dynamics showed signs of stabilisation, with money supply rising by 5.0% yoy.
In July, money supply growth is expected to soften at 4.8% yoy, bringing the three-month moving average at 4.9%, due to the following effects, says Societe Generale.
Given the still weak actual loan demand, the improvements in monetary dynamics will support higher asset prices (everything being equal) rather than higher real GDP growth in the short term. However, medium term, there is a good possibility that the improvement in the outlook will give companies enough confidence to start investing and hiring again.A petition started last month is aiming to rid the world of the black silhouette targets most often used for target shooting because the campaign claims the targets contribute to trigger bias and gun violence.
The No More Black Targets campaign points to statistics showing young black men are three times more likely than white men to be shot by trained shooters. The campaign makes what they call “a disturbing potential correlation” between those statistics and the most popular training targets being the black silhouette.
The group, which is calling for the black targets to be banned, also claims that 69 percent of black men shot between 2015 and 2016 were non-violent and unarmed. They say unconscious bias is deadly and is contributing to gun violence. The group also points to research from the University of Illinois that concluded people are more likely – and quicker – to fire at black targets compared with white targets.
“The campaign seeks to eliminate the use of these targets, forever. In shooting ranges, in permitting and instruction environments, anywhere someone is learning to use a firearm,” the petition calling for the ban reads.
The group plans to deliver the petition to the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors. Thus far, the campaign has gathered 229 of the 500 needed signatures.
The campaign also came up with some alternative designs which, they say, show greater diversity. Additionally, those who support the campaign can go to the No More Black Targets website to design their own target “where there is more paint and less hate.”
In 2015, a Pennsylvania lawmaker unsuccessfully sought to ban the same targets, claiming the use of human silhouettes perpetuated violence.Romanian Air Force get three more F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft
The Romanian Air Force will receive another three F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft today. The reception ceremony will take place at the military base in Borcea, Calarasi county.
These are used Portuguese aircraft, which have been upgraded. The Romanian Air Force has thus completed the first stage in introducing multirole aircraft.
Romanian officials, including the Secretary of State for Defense and Planning Policy Mircea Dusa, took part at the aircraft delivery-reception ceremony in Portugal on September 27.
The acquisition is the result of a contract concluded in September 30, 2013, between the Romanian Government and the Portuguese Government, to acquire 12 multirole aircraft. The contract amounts to EUR 628 million, VAT included.
The first six multirole aircraft arrived in Romania in September last year, and another three were received in mid-December 2016.
editor@romania-insider.comFewer cliff swallows are being killed by moving vehicles.
Two cliff swallows at their nest under a bridge in western Nebraska. Over the last three decades, these birds have become increasingly less likely to get hit by cars. (Photo: Charles Brown) Story Highlights Cliff swallows' road deaths dropped during 30-year study
The birds that are dying on the roads have longer wings
Swallows' average wing length shortened by millimeters
Does a new study offer a bird's-eye view into evolution?
Fewer cliff swallows are being killed by moving vehicles because of evolution, suggests a study published online today in the journal Current Biology.
"These birds have been exposed to vehicles and roads for 30-plus years," says Charles Brown, the study's lead author. "During that time, they have evolved to avoid being killed by traffic. Evolution can happen very rapidly, and some animals can adapt to urban environments very rapidly."
The decrease in road deaths is likely because these birds have shorter wingspans, making them more agile fliers, or they are learning to avoid vehicles, Brown says.
In the western USA, cliff swallows, which live in colonies, have nests around highway bridges, overpasses and road culverts. They sit on roads to pick up gravel for their gizzards to help digest food and to sunbathe.
STORY: Bird group calls for halt to widely applied insecticide
The road kill index decreased from about 20 cliff swallows a year at the start of the study in 1983 in Nebraska to an estimated two birds a year by the study's end in 2012. This is only an estimate of those killed because more died but were not found.
The drop can't be explained by declines in the bird population or in traffic, the study suggests. The birds that continue to die on the roads have longer wingspans. Wing lengths vary between 104 mm (4.1 inches) and 115 mm (4.5 inches), Brown says.
Charles Brown is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Tulsa. (Photo: Valerie O'Brien)
"Longer-winged swallows sitting on a road probably can't take off as quickly, or gain altitude as quickly as shorter-winged birds, and thus the former are more likely to collide with an oncoming vehicle," says Brown, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Tulsa.
Geoff LeBaron, an ornithologist with the National Audubon Society, says shorter wingspan would allow cliff swallows to turn more quickly to avoid being hit by vehicles. "If the longer-winged birds are the ones being clobbered, then the shorter-winged birds are the ones passing on genes to the next generation," adds LeBaron, the society's Christmas Bird Count director, who was not involved in the study.
The study also found that the average wing length is shorter. In the 1980s, the average was 110 mm (4.3 inches); it dropped to 103 mm or 104 mm (4.1 inches) in the late 2000s, Brown says.
Brown says cliff swallows do learn from watching others so some may figure out how to avoid oncoming traffic. "Birds that have the ability to learn are more likely to survive and produce more babies," he says. "Over time, the population will have smarter birds."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/16vkdRuDUBLIN — Oscar Wilde still lounges, louche-like, on a boulder in Merrion Square. As always, the Liffey, a river crossed by bridges named for playwrights and patriots, lumbers its way to the sea. Grafton Street is packed with moneyed pedestrians. But Irish ayes are missing.
The Gathering, as they call this year, is a campaign backed by the government and the tourism industry to induce the clamorous clans of Erin to pay a visit here. Given that half the world is Irish and the other half wants to be, in Bill Clinton’s phrase, it’s an easy sell.
Yet, what should be a year of discovery, a diaspora of 70 million summoned to the home of their not-so-distant ancestors, is clouded by a bittersweet anniversary. Fifty years ago the last king of Ireland, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, came to the land of his great-grandfather Patrick. A few months later, he was gone, shot by an assassin in Dallas.
To look back now, at a time when Ireland and the United States are staggered by doubt, is to realize how much has changed in the half-century since he was here -- change, in too many respects, for the worse.OAKLAND (KPIX 5) — Despite resistance from neighbors, the City of Oakland took a big step Tuesday night to prevent another big fire like the one that devastated the Oakland Hills in 1991.
Firefighters have said for years that getting rid of certain trees could prevent a second Oakland Hills fire. “Reduce the threat of fire to residents who live in and about those areas,” said Vincent Crudele of the Oakland Fire Department.
But when the hard plans surfaced, people against the plan came out of the woodwork and launched the Save the East Bay Hills campaign.
“It’s going to be a logging operation, that’s what it is,” said Jack Gescheidt of the Tree Spirit Project. “We’re going to eradicate an entire species by hundreds of thousands in era of global warming, it’s insane.”
Crudele admits parts of the hillside will look different, but he won’t call it clear cutting. “Yes, there will be a cosmetic change to the look of the lands, but it will be gradual,” Crudele said.
It’s a 10-year project, one that Nathan Winograd of Save the East Bay Hills has big issues with. “There’s an ulterior motive,” Winograd said.
He believes this isn’t about fire prevention at all, saying it’s a push to only have native trees on the hillside, and clear out everything else. “No better way to describe them than biological xenophobes,” Winograd said.Former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, Katherine, a high-ranking city prosecutor, were arrested Friday by the FBI and indicted on 20 counts of criminal conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice.
Alana Robinson, acting U.S. Attorney for San Diego, described the alleged conspiracy as a “complex web of fraud, deception and obstruction by a husband and wife team so desperate to fund their lifestyle and maintain their self-professed status as Honolulu’s power couple that they swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks, credit unions and some of the most vulnerable members of the community.”
The Kealohas have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Four other current and former officers were arrested and charged in relation to the indictment, including Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen, Gordon Shiraishi, Derek Hahn and Daniel Sellers.
Here is a look at the indictment against the Kealohas and other alleged accomplices:
Count 1 (Conspiracy)
The indictment alleges that the Kealohas orchestrated a conspiracy to hide “their precarious financial condition,” as well as the fact that they diverted the trust funds of two minor children under Katherine Kealoha’s guardianship — identified as A.T. and R.T. — for their personal use.
At the center of the conspiracy was an alleged plot by the Kealohas and five accomplices — current and former HPD officials — to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, Gerard Puana, for the alleged theft of a mailbox at the Kealohas’ then-residence.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
The plot was part of an alleged scheme for the Kealohas to gain the upper hand in a family dispute against Puana and his 98-year-old mother, Florence, that involved a large sum of money.
The indictment alleges that, as part of the plot, the Kealohas and their accomplices deprived the Fourth Amendment rights of Puana, as well as fabricated, altered and concealed evidence. (The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unlawful searches and seizures of property.)
Counts 2-8 (Obstruction of Official Proceeding, and False Statements To A Federal Officer)
The Kealohas and their accomplices “corruptly attempt(ed) to obstruct, influence and impede the official proceedings” by making “false and misleading statements” on four occasions — either at the trial of Gerard Puana for the alleged mailbox theft or to the federal grand jury. They also allegedly made “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to obstruct their investigations.
Counts 9-16 (Bank Fraud)
In 2004, as the guardian of A.T. and R.T., Katherine Kealoha was instructed by the court to open trust accounts on their behalf. She set up two accounts, each containing more than $83,000, but failed to follow the court’s instruction to list her co-counsel as authorized signatory, leaving her as the only one overseeing the accounts’ transactions.
The indictment alleges that Kealoha then went on to defraud a bank to secure loans in the amount of more than $105,000 by using the accounts as collateral, pledging that the money would be spent on either “home improvement and tuition needs,” or “kid’s expenses.” But she allegedly used the loans for personal expenses and eventually liquidated both accounts.
Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat
The Kealohas also allegedly defrauded another bank to secure loans in excess of $3.7 million by “means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.”
The Kealohas’ schemes to secure the loans allegedly involved falsely claiming A.T. and R.T.’s accounts as their own assets, forging a document to make it look like they had a monthly rental income of $2,700 and falsely reporting identity theft to “explain away their poor credit history.”
The indictment also alleges that Katherine Kealoha took a total of $95,000 that Gerard Puana gave her for an investment hui and used more than $45,000 of it for personal expenses. She also allegedly set up an elaborate scheme in which she helped Florence Puana get a reverse mortgage on her home to buy a condo but used more than $92,000 of the loan for personal expenses.
Among the Kealohas’ personal expenses were more than $10,000 in payments for a Mercedes Benz and a Maserati, $2,000 for Elton John tickets and $3,000 in charity donations.
Counts 17-20 (Aggravated Identity Theft)
The indictment alleges that Katherine Kealoha, who also went by an alias, Alison Lee Wong, used another person’s identify to secure four of the loans she obtained through the bank fraud.
Kealoha Indictment (PDF)
Kealoha Indictment (Text)In 2012 President Obama instituted new, aggressive fuel economy standards for automakers selling cars in the United States. The executive branch—represented here by the Environmental Protection Agency, basically—mandated that every car manufacturer would have to have a fleetwide average gas mileage of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
The Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (CAFE to transit nerds) take the gas mileage of every car a company sells—from Yaris to Tundra, Verano to Enclave, Golf to whatever—and average it out. You want to build a gas-guzzling, smoke-pumping, V-18 for hauling a camper dragging a boat? You’re gonna need to sell a hybrid, too.
Yesterday, a technical assessment report from the EPA, National Highway Traffic Administration, and the California Air Resources Board took a look at those standards and said, yeah, car companies should be able to hit them. The technology is there, or will be.
But there’s a problem: Even if the car companies do, they don’t. Or at least, no one has any way to know if they do. Because the EPA’s test to make sure automakers are hitting their CAFE numbers—the sole federal, legal requirement that cars get more efficient—probably doesn’t work. At all.
“The test is fucked up big time,” says Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. “It’s akin to telling all parents that their kids are getting A’s on the exam, when they’re not.”
Flawed Testing
CAFE dates back to 1975, just half a decade after the Clean Air Act established the Environmental Protection Agency. To figure out if companies were adhering to the new rules, EPA started running cars through the emissions tests it had on hand—basically putting the car on a dynamometer, a kind of treadmill, and monitoring the results. Instead of just looking at tailpipe emissions for things like nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide, the agency started checking gas mileage, too. In 1977, consumers started seeing the results on window stickers when they were shopping for cars.
But the standards for testing, the so-called city and highway drive cycles, were as 1970s as a pair of plaid bell-bottoms. They assumed you drive 48 mph on the highway and never hit stop and go traffic, use the air conditioner, or drive when it’s colder than 68 degrees. The maximum rate of acceleration would take you from 0 to 60 mph—if you ever did such a thing—in about 20 seconds. The EPA drove like your grandfather.
That made for aggravatingly optimistic fuel economy numbers, so the EPA added new drive cycles to take into account higher speeds, winter driving, and AC use. And by 2008, the standards were better; a 2013 Consumer Reports study tested more than 300 cars, and found 90 percent landed within two miles per gallon of their EPA-approved ratings.
The updated cycles still have trouble evaluating newer technology: Hybrids and cars with turbocharged engines tend to do way better in the lab than on the road. And the software in today’s cars give automakers more control over how vehicles perform, so they could be programming the cars to do well on the dynamometer, regardless of what that means for real-world fuel economy. Still, it’s better than nothing.
Room for Improvement
Except it isn’t. The mileage reported on those window stickers? Probably fine. But when it comes to CAFE, the system is bonkers. When the EPA tests for CAFE compliance, it still uses that laughable two-cycle system. It’s got no choice: The 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act specifies that “the Administrator shall use the same procedures for passenger automobiles the Administrator used for model year 1975.” In other words: When it comes to enforcing the only law the demands cars get better for consumers’ wallets and lungs, the EPA tests like your grandfather.
The EPA is comfortable with the testing regimen, says a senior engineer who asked not to be named, per agency policy. If you’re worried about greenhouse gases and fuel economy, he says, the tests work. “We have complete confidence there’s direct evidence that those standards are giving us real world GHG emission reductions and fuel consumption savings.”
Even if you wanted to fix the rules to update CAFE testing, you probably couldn’t. Congress would have to approve changes to the process, and even if the governing body was in a regulatory mood, advocates for heightened tests might not want to bring it up. “Anytime you say, ‘Okay, let’s rewrite this law,’ then anything can happen,” says David Greene, a University of Tennessee Knoxville researcher who specializes in fuel economy. A Republican congress and regulation-averse industry could gut the law altogether.
Meanwhile, the EPA doesn’t know exactly how its CAFE testing correlates with actual results, because it has never done a comprehensive study of real-world fuel economy. Nor does anyone else. The best available data comes from consumers who report it to the DOT—hardly a scientific sampling.
Again, the EPA engineer I talked to said he didn’t think it was a problem. The agency looks at thousands of “real world activity profiles” to monitor the differences between the test conditions and how people actually drive. But not everyone thinks it’s enough.
“Since CAFE testing is done using the two-cycle system, it’s likely automakers are prioritizing technologies that do well in those conditions, without considering how they do in the real world,” says John German, a researcher with the International Council on Clean Transportation and one of the people who exposed the Volkswagen diesel scandal.
In other words, today’s CAFE testing regimen encourages automakers to build cars that would be great for a world that’s flat like Kansas, temperate like San Diego, and slow-moving like the Shire. A world that doesn’t exist.Andy Lee in his mega Chevrolet Camaro claimed victory in the first GTS race of the weekend at Sonoma after holding off a determined Michael Cooper in his Chevrolet Z28.
It took two rolling starts to get the race underway after John Allen stalled his Porsche Cayman on the first rolling start, so the whole grid went round again.
Lee will be pleased they did as he jumped into the lead from second place with Cooper slipping down behind the Camaro. Kia Racing’s Mark Wilkins hoped to capitalise on any mistakes in third place with his team mate Ben Clucas sitting fourth.
By the fifth lap of the race, Lee and Cooper opened up a substantial lead over third and fourth place who were preoccupied with keeping Andrew Aquilante in fifth place in his monstrous Ford Mustang.
However, Aquilante didn’t keep fifth for long as Jack Baldwin – in the GTSport Racing Porsche Cayman S – took the place off him at turns 7a/7b.
He then went on an absolute charge claiming fourth and then third in the space of a handful of laps – with Aquilante slip-streaming his way behind the Cayman to also move up to fourth all at the expense of the Kia’s.
They couldn’t move up to challenge the leaders as Lee and Cooper held an 11 second lead over the pair of chargers whilst still battling hammer and tongs amongst themselves. Eventually they would take the chequered flag with only 0.336 seconds between them.
“It’s been a crazy couple of years, we used to be on podium every race and you start to take it for granted a little bit,” said Lee. “And somewhere along the lines, changes in the team and changes in other things, we kind of lost it for a bit. It’s amazing to be back, it’s a great feeling.”
Thankfully for Cooper, his second placed finish in race one maintained his lead at the top of the GTS points table. He said: “Having two podiums in a row for the first time this year is very nice (Round 14 win at Miller Motorsports Park). I don’t know if we had anything for Andy today, and if we did we would have burned it down trying to get by him, and that just wasn’t worth it to me at this point in the year for points. With two races left, your mind set is a little different than if there was only one. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing, execute, make changes and just be smart.”“Wanna mess with the monks? Mess with ME first. Wanna rumble, now?”
A friend sent me this:
During the political crisis was that the Bedouins went into the secret mountain passes with their AKs to guard against anyone getting through to the Monastery, and also took over the checkpoints abandoned by the police, reverting to their 6th century role of guarding the Monastery as though the intervening centuries never occurred, and without even having been asked to do so by the monastic community, who were very moved when the Bedouins came and told them what they had done. There were some incidents in the nearby village, but things stayed under control, glory be to God. The nuns were called in from their hermitages, and that’s about all I know, except that I think things are pretty much back to normal now, if there is a normal.Your first job can be a grind. Many of us start out in gigs that we never thought we’d have to take, maybe because the job market is just too tough and we need to make ends meet so we can move out of our parents’ basement. For those of us who are lucky, the situation is temporary and a steppingstone to something we love, but for others it can be the start of many years of a career that we hate.
At least you have your health, right? Actually, it looks like the consequences of your unhappiness with your work may affect your physical and mental well-being — and perhaps sooner than you might think.
An analysis by Ohio State University’s Jonathan Dirlam and Hui Zheng, presented this week at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting, shows that job satisfaction in your late 20s and 30s appears to be linked to your health in your 40s.
The researchers’ data comes from 6,432 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in 1979. Through the years, the volunteers ranked how much they enjoyed their jobs on a spectrum from 1 — dislike very much — to 4 — like very much. They also reported back on various health indicators.
Dirlam and Zheng found a striking link between people who were less satisfied with their jobs in their 20s and 30s and those who had health issues in their 40s. That may seem intuitive, given that people tend to spend eight or more hours a day at work and dissatisfaction at work can create a lot of stress. As has been well documented, stress can have physical manifestations.
Among the specific health effects that the researchers noted among the less-than-happy group is that they had trouble sleeping and were more depressed and worried.
One interesting aspect of the analysis is that the health effect was not related to your happiness with your very first job or jobs but with how your happiness with your job changed over time. Those with increasing satisfaction fared better than those with declining satisfaction in terms of their health.
Dirlam, a doctoral student in sociology, explained that there appears to be a “cumulative effect of job satisfaction on health that appears as early as your 40s.”
Read more:
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Like our Health & Wellness page on Facebook for more science news about the ins and outs of the human body and mind, essays and advice. You can sign up here for our newsletter.Having caught your eye, I direct you to an article in the April 9, 2015 edition of the Grey Lady. It discusses attempts by various countries to boost domestic birthrates. The same issue had been considered earlier by Noah Smith. There are two questions lurking here. First, what is the optimal population size for a country? If the goal was to shrink the population then a declining birth rate is not a bad thing. Suppose the goal is keep the population fixed, because, say of pension obligations. Then, one wants a replacement birth rate of roughly 2 per couple.
If the birth rate is below the target, what should one do? Interestingly, I cannot recall anyone I have asked or read who does not turn to Government interventions of various kinds. Noah Smith, for example, only discusses Government interventions before concluding one should imitate the French. If the birth rate is below what is optimal for society, why doesn’t the market take care of it? Do we have a missing market? Is this a public goods problem? (If so, then, Mankiw who is often castigated for being a selfish beast, is, in this case, an unstinting provider of public goods, see here.)
Analogies are sometimes helpful (if biology is the study of bios, life; geology is the study of geos, earth, what does that make analogy?). Farmers plant crops and after a period, the fruits of their labor are harvested and sent to market. The Farmer must anticipate what will be demanded in the future to decide what to plant now. What if she plants turnips when what is desired are parsnips? This problem is solved with a futures market for parsnips (or turnips or pork etc). Why not a futures market for babies? Those who want warm bodies in the future to support them in their dotage pay for babies now. Swiftian, I know, but interesting to consider. Once one thinks about how to implement the idea, difficulties emerge. One might, for example, be concerned with moral hazard on the part of parents. However, these same difficulties are present even with various Government subsidies.Image caption It is believed the site near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders was home to a medieval village
The remains of a medieval village in the Borders have been uncovered during the laying of a new water main.
Scottish Water was carrying out the works at Philiphaugh on the outskirts of Selkirk.
It was laying new pipes between Howden and Yarrowford water treatment works when the discovery was made.
Initial studies suggested it was an Anglo-Saxon settlement, but closer inspection indicated it may have been the site of a medieval village.
It is not every day that medieval villages are found - most of them are known, this one was completely unknown Chris Bowles, Scottish Borders Council archaeologist
Archaeologists found evidence of a number of stone buildings with stone floors across the entire area, with cobbled sections in between.
It is over a sizeable area - which suggests there may have been a settlement on the site rather than an individual farm building.
Scottish Water spokesman Stewart Cooper said: "The Borders is of course a particularly historic part of Scotland.
"While projects of this kind by Scottish Water are all about improving Scotland's water infrastructure, they can often involve an element of digging and excavation - which can be fascinating when they help shed light on an area's past."
Scottish Borders Council's archaeologist Chris Bowles said it was an exciting discovery.
"We knew there had been something there, we just didn't know where it was," he said.
"Now we have the village, and it is quite an extensive village.
"We have got a really extensive area of maybe half a kilometre where we have had buildings right along the road running to the salmon viewing centre.
"It is not every day that medieval villages are found - most of them are known, this one was completely unknown."
Mr Bowles said the artefacts found on the site would now be taken away and examined more closely.
Carbon dating will be used to try to give a more precise timeframe for when the settlement was inhabited.© Gaurab Thakali
The letter that changed Maira Gutierrez’s life almost got tossed with the junk mail. Gutierrez, a then 24-year-old Californian, regularly donated blood at her employer’s blood drives and thought the Red Cross was just asking for donations. But when she ripped open that letter in 1997, she learned that she had been banned from ever donating blood again. Her blood had been tested as part of a pilot programme to screen donated blood for Chagas disease, and she had tested positive.
“At the beginning, I was just confused. What are they talking about? What is this? I had never heard of it. How did I get it?” Gutierrez says.
Her doctor didn’t know much more, either. He told her she had probably picked up the parasite that causes Chagas as a child in her native El Salvador. Frustrated with a lack of answers, Gutierrez turned to an infectious disease specialist. He told her (incorrectly) that there weren’t any treatments and she would just have to cross her fingers and hope she wasn’t among the roughly one-third of victims whose infections progressed to heart failure. Gutierrez went back and forth between doctors looking for answers and treatment for more than a year before she finally gave up.
“I had my physical. I was fine. I didn’t see anything, I didn’t feel anything. So I just assumed that if my physical was fine and everything was coming up fine, that I was fine. So I stopped trying,” she says.
Life went on. She got married and had two kids. Her career at Universal Studios advanced. As the diagnosis retreated further into the past, it seemed more and more like a bad dream. Then, in 2008, her sister called, hysterical. “Put on channel 11,” she said. “There’s a story about Chagas.”
By the time Gutierrez had flipped on the TV, the segment was over, but her sister had managed to copy down the phone number of Sheba Meymandi, the director of the Center of Excellence for Chagas Disease in Los Angeles. The next week, Gutierrez was in Meymandi’s office. Finally, she got answers – and treatment.
Gutierrez had almost certainly been infected with the Chagas parasite before she fled El Salvador’s civil war in 1981 at age eight. For nearly 20 years, the parasite had lurked silently in her body. Like nearly all people with Chagas, she had had no idea she was infected and had missed any opportunity for prompt treatment.
To Mejia, cases like this emphasise the need for better education and diagnostics for tropical diseases. Diagnosing someone with a parasite generally involves testing for antibodies against the organism or looking under the microscope to see the parasite in action, both of which are time-consuming and inexact. In comparison to other areas of infectious disease, which have largely moved to DNA-based diagnosis, work on most tropical diseases hasn’t kept pace. Mejia and Hotez hope to change that by creating cheap, easy-to-use diagnostic tools. Mejia spent three years building new tests from the ground up; a pilot study in Ecuador revealed that his tests were five times more sensitive than traditional microscopy at detecting Giardia parasites, which cause an infection called giardiasis.
Treatments, too, need to advance – something that Gutierrez, like many other Chagas sufferers, knows all too well. As soon as Meymandi confirmed her diagnosis, she started a three-month course of nifurtimox, one of the two available anti-parasitic drugs that can treat Chagas. Both cause serious side-effects, such as headaches, nausea, appetite loss, rashes and psychiatric symptoms. In her three months taking nifurtimox, Gutierrez lost 25 pounds.
She was fortunate that Meymandi knew how to get the drug in the first place. Drug manufacturers don’t believe the market for Chagas treatments is great enough to justify jumping through the regulatory hoops to obtain FDA approval, which means the agency hasn’t made them available by prescription, despite the fact that these medications are used safely around the world. This means that physicians can only obtain the drugs from the CDC via a special research protocol.
“Most physicians have a hard enough time…dealing with the preauthorisations that they need to get drugs from the insurance companies, let alone having to do all of this paperwork to treat one patient,” Meymandi says. Patients must also be monitored closely, which requires extra appointments for patients and extra paperwork for physicians.
Even then, the drugs aren’t always effective. Cure rates are almost 100 per cent if given soon after infection, but Gutierrez had been infected for at least 30 years and the drugs had no effect on the number of parasites in her body. “The CDC considers me a complete fail,” she says, and there is no other treatment to try.
She has now begun to develop early signs of heart failure. Although the only symptom so far is palpitations, Meymandi can see the channels in Gutierrez’s heart muscle where the parasites have eaten holes in her heart. Since no other treatments for Chagas disease are available, Gutierrez must live with the knowledge that she could die of a heart attack any day.
It is the nature of these diseases – neglected diseases, diseases of poverty, call them what you like – that they can go unnoticed for years, chewing away at the health of individuals and communities. As poverty, geography, climate and social factors combine to bring tropical diseases out of hiding once again in the US South, physicians, politicians and the general public have to take the warning signs seriously and recognise that the tools available for tackling tropical diseases are sorely lacking. With diseases like Chagas now known to be prevalent and transmissible within the USA, better awareness, better tests and better treatments are all urgently required. Otherwise, as Hotez says, the number of people affected and infected will only continue to rise as this perfect storm grows ever stronger.Northern Ireland licensing laws 'could block Irish Rugby World Cup bid'BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Northern Ireland's licensing laws could block the Irish bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, it has been claimed. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-licensing-laws-could-block-irish-rugby-world-cup-bid-34366191.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article31538995.ece/6d239/AUTOCROP/h342/DV2130850.jpg |
, the economy, grows.
The government’s proposed balanced budget law can help there: not because there is any special significance to annual budgets, or any great harm if a government runs a deficit here and there, but as an anchor, to prevent us from straying too far out of balance, too often. It’s no substitute for political will — a government that was truly bent on running deficits would just change the law — but like all laws, it can help to shape political will.
That leaves a choice between cutting taxes, as the government will shortly propose, and raising spending, as the opposition parties will doubtless prefer. (Always remembering that any projected surpluses embody current and planned Conservative spending reductions — the opposition can only promise to spend the former if they accept the latter.) In principle, the choice should be straightforward enough: pick the one that offers the greater social and economic benefits, at the margin, relative to its costs. In practice, these are almost impossible to measure, at least to everyone’s satisfaction.
Fortunately, there’s a way out of this dilemma. Whatever the government’s efforts at restraint, much of what it spends is still needless and counter-productive — subsidies to business foremost.
Likewise on the tax side: there remain many deductions and credits that are not only costly to the treasury, but distort investment decisions. How much less stark our choices would seem if we could agree, as a starting point, that any new spending should be funded out of cuts in existing spending, and any tax cuts funded by eliminating tax preferences.
I know, I know: fat chance. Fine. Let’s have a big, messy, mostly pointless fight over how to divide the surplus. It beats fighting over how to reduce the deficit.Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is calling on Greg Gianforte, a GOP House candidate in Montana, to apologize after Gianforte allegedly assaulted a reporter on Wednesday night.
"Greg Gianforte needs to apologize," Daines said on Twitter.
Greg Gianforte needs to apologize. — Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) May 25, 2017
Daines has campaigned for Gianforte, who is running for the state's only House seat in a special election Thursday.
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GOP Sen. Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Poll: 33% of Kentucky voters approve of McConnell Trump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign MORE (Ariz.) also told reporters during a press conference on Thursday that he doesn't think "there's ever any excuse to throw down a reporter."
Ben Jacobs, a political reporter for The Guardian, tweeted shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday that Gianforte "body slammed" him and broke his glasses.
Reporters at the scene also tweeted out their accounts of what they witnessed. A Fox News reporter later wrote that she and her colleagues saw Gianforte grab Jacobs by the neck and slam him to the ground. Republican outside groups have largely remained silent over the incident.
A spokesman for Gianforte offered a different telling of events, saying in a statement that Jacobs "entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg's face and began asking badgering questions."
"Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg's wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground. It's unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ," the statement said.The payday loan company, says its PR man, is like taking a black cab rather than a bus – the price difference is worth it. We talk to Wonga users about whether they regret their journeys
Wonga.com's corporate style is unremittingly cheerful. Apply for one of their online loans and, provided your application is successful, you'll get a series of happy messages, dotted with upbeat exclamation marks, giving an account of the progress of the loan. "Great news! The money will be with you in a jiffy." And a little later: "Great news! We can confirm £100.00 has just left Wonga and is winging its way to your bank account at the speed of light (well, extremely fast anyway)." Pay it back, and you'll receive a grateful text that tells you: "Thanks! We've just collected our Wonga repayment without a hitch and we're all smiles."
The company's TV and radio ads have a similarly light-hearted feel. On television, a trio of gurning puppet pensioners dance to house music and explain the attractions of the Wonga model. The company's other key advertising message is transparency, but these advertisements make no mention of the "representative" 4,214% APR applied to loans.
In the four years since the company launched, the business has soared and a total of around 3.5m short-term online loans have been made; the average loan is £260 and the maximum is £1,000, initially for a maximum of 30 days. Wonga's advertising spend has grown from approximately £22,000 in 2009 to £16m in 2011, according to the analysts AC Nielson MMS, and the brand is currently plastered over London's buses and the shirts of Blackpool and Heart of Midlothian football teams.
Wonga describes its concept as a convenient service for an internet-savvy group of consumers, the Facebook generation, people who are used to getting things fast, who feel "disenfranchised" from the traditional banking system. Loans can be made quickly on most smartphones and the money is often delivered to bank accounts in minutes. Staff believe that in time their services will have the same revolutionary impact on banking as Amazon had on the book industry.
Wonga argues that its success stems from a fast, hi-tech service, not previously available. Critics says it is down to extending expensive credit – at an interest rate of 1% a day – to people who are unable to get money through conventional, cheaper avenues. There is a huge disconnect between the Wonga management's view of these services and the view from beyond its headquarters, where campaigners against the rapidly growing payday loan industry describe them as "immoral and unjust" and "legal loan sharks".
There is an equally big gulf between the way it portrays its average customer ("young professionals who are web-savvy, fully-banked, have access to mainstream credit and a regular income"), 95% of whom, according to its customer surveys, feel "satisfied" with the service, and the characterisation offered by debt counsellors and MPs, who are seeing increasing numbers of customers winding up in financial trouble as a result of taking out payday loans. Citizens Advice reports a fourfold increase over two years in the number of people with payday-loan-related problems.
Last week, the Office of Fair Trading launched a review of the payday lending sector, looking at all the companies offering these short-term unsecured loans, which are usually repaid on the customer's next payday, in response to concerns that "some payday lenders are taking advantage of people in financial difficulty" and not meeting "guidance on irresponsible lending". The OFT said it aimed to drive out companies that are not fit to hold consumer credit licences.
Wonga does not expect to be one of the companies driven out of the market, and the company's advertising strategy tries to set Wonga aside from the myriad of evocatively named rival online companies that offer money if you Google payday loans: Kwikcash, Loans for Women, QuickQuid, Toothfairy, Payday UK, Payday Express, GetCashToday.co.uk and Peachy (which has a "representative" APR of 16,381%).
Controversial services
"Part of our job is to get people to understand that Wonga are the good guys," Darryl Bowman, the company's head of marketing, says, explaining why the company is investing "substantial amounts of money" on advertising.
It's not difficult to find people who have had bad experiences with Wonga.com, and when I explain that I've spoken at length to several very unhappy customers, the company's PR manager is sanguine, remarks that debt is an emotional subject, and says the company accepts that its services will be controversial.
But he suggests it would be a good idea if, for balance, I talk to some people who have used the service and have positive things to say. He emails over four names and numbers of customers who he's plucked from the website's feedback forum and who are willing to talk.
Unexpectedly, of the two who return my calls, neither turn out to be the web-savvy young professionals that the company believes it's catering to. Instead, both closely fit the image of vulnerable customers in real financial difficulty that the campaign groups are trying to protect.
One is a 47-year-old nurse, who was forced to borrow money when he had to go down to half pay because he was recovering from a work injury, and he had no other source of credit.
The other, Susan, is 53, unemployed and dependent on disability benefits. She finds that with the cost of living rising, her benefits sometimes don't stretch to the end of the month, and has taken out loans with Wonga to buy food, if she's caught short. She's a bit vague, but thinks she's taken out half a dozen loans with Wonga over the past few months.
"I think they're brilliant. I pat them on the back," she says. She has had problems with credit cards before, and doesn't have an overdraft, but Wonga gave her credit very swiftly.
Wonga's website talks in a typically breezy way of people having "Wonga moments", as if taking out the loan is a happy lifestyle choice. Perhaps, it suggests "you've just remembered your wedding anniversary with hours to spare … Don't worry, Wonga it!"
There's no mention of unwell, unemployed people borrowing money for food because the value of their benefits payments has depreciated as the cost of living rises.
Susan gets around £600 a month in benefits, and recently when she was struggling to pay back a large, overdue bill, she took out £400 with Wonga. She can't remember the term, but if she'd kept it for a month, Wonga would have charged her £130 for the service (£61 for a fortnight) – a huge extra chunk out of the £600 she has to live on. "You are going to have to pay a higher level of interest when it's quick money," she says, happy to accept the cost because no one else will lend to her. Anyone with a reasonable credit rating, and regular income, could get that money for a month for free on a credit card or interest-free overdraft.
It's an unfortunate choice of customer to have put forward. Part of Wonga's reputation rests on only lending to people in steady employment. "Sometimes we will make loans to people on significant benefits, but it is not something we do very frequently. It is very infrequent. I'm not going to say it doesn't happen," John Morwood, the company spokesman, says.
24/7 loans
The boom in the payday loan industry has come at a time when traditional forms of credit have become harder to access, and when the downturn has shrunk incomes. In the past few years, technological advances have made it possible for a growing range of lenders to supply money 24/7 to customers quickly, without any need for human contact – no phone calls, no demands for utility bills or proof of address; some organisations allow customers to make a request simply by texting over the amount they want and the number of days they want it for.
Because there's no need to talk to anyone or to explain what you want the money for, or why you're short of cash, much stigma and embarrassment has been removed from the exchange, and the service is becoming increasingly popular, despite the very high interest rates.
Wonga's staff are keen to position its service as more akin to bank overdrafts, than to rival payday lenders. "We believe that we are in sector on our own," Bowman says, in a basement boardroom at the company's headquarters in a grand house on the edge of Regent's Park in central London, its white stucco gleaming in the spring sunshine. Among a number of awards on display is one naming Wonga.com as last year's fastest-growing digital media company in Europe. "We see ourselves as an internet technology business first, and a finance business second," Bowman says.
Staff say 1 million people visit the site and "hundreds of thousands" of loans are made each month. The company's turnover trebled between 2009 and 2010, to £73m turnover, and Errol Damelin, the co-founder and chief executive of Wonga, is reported to have taken home £1.6m last year.
The company refuses two-thirds of all applications because it doesn't think the applicant will be able to pay back the loan. "The reason why we decline them is that we are a responsible lender and we make money when people pay us back. We want people to pay us back. Our model is not built around people not paying us back. Our objective and our need to be responsible are perfectly aligned," Bowman says.
The company says it does not do aggressive marketing and discourages people from rolling over their loans. The phrase "responsible lending" trips off Bowman's tongue repeatedly. "When people come to our website they have all the information presented to them in a very transparent, upfront way, and they are able to make a sensible decision about whether this product is right for them. We charge 1% interest per day, which is £1 per £100 borrowed. With us we tell you exactly what you're getting into, there is no small print, no surprises."
When asked if Wonga preys on the vulnerable, Bowman says: "If I was a Wonga customer, I would be insulted by that."
We only really get towards an answer in a roundabout way, when he says he opposes the idea of fixing a cap on the amount of interest companies can charge, because it would risk putting "responsible, regulated" organisations like his out of business, leaving the market open to illegal lenders. "What we don't want is for people to have to go to non-regulated lenders … illegal other options," he says. Here, for the first time is half an admission that this is a service for people who have nowhere else to go.
Asked if there's an uncomfortable dissonance between the breeziness of the brand and the desperation felt by their clients who accept their high interest rates because they have limited alternatives, Bowman laughs. "Maybe I've been brainwashed, but I just don't see it like that."
Staff appear frustrated by what they see as the paternalistic concerns of debt campaigners, and argue that their customers "aren't stupid", and are quite able to understand the interest rates they're signing up to.
Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, north-east London, who has mounted a robust campaign against the payday lending industry, says she believes, on the basis of conversations with Wonga's management, that it is trying to be responsible, in good faith, but somehow hasn't understood the fundamental nature of the market it is dealing with.
"The mistake they are making is to assume that people, when faced with a financial penalty, have the option to avoid it. In their mind they have the option of choosing not to extend a loan, when they see the costs. What they don't understand is that they are dealing with a clientele who doesn't have that choice." she says.
She dismisses the argument that Wonga's success comes from its frontier-breaking technology. "They need to think again about the idea that it is the technology that people are attracted to, rather than the credit. It is not about a future form of finance. The technology should not blind you to the rates these people are charged and the impact that has on people's financial stability. Once they've paid back the loan and interest and charges, their money runs out even quicker," she says.
The company has already attracted formal censure over its cheerfully casual approach to taking on debt; in January it was forced to remove a page from its website that suggested its loans had advantages over student loans (neglecting to mention its APR of 4,214% and the current student loan rate of 1.5%), and inviting students to borrow money from them for things such as holiday flights to the Canaries. The proposal was condemned variously as "cynical", "predatory" and "irresponsible". The Advertising Standards Authority took an earlier, equally jaunty ad off the air, ruling that the "light-hearted presentation of the ad was likely to mislead about the nature and implications of the product". Transport for London was criticised for a sponsorship deal it agreed with Wonga.
"The reasons Wonga exists are not funny reasons. People don't go to Wonga happy and cheerful. When you haven't got any money you haven't got any choice," a 29-year-old man, who works in recruitment, says. He asked not to be named, worried his parents might find out that he owes around £2,000 to half a dozen different online lenders, and is borrowing more each month to pay off the interest.
The company offices are filled with around 60 mostly young employees, dressed down in internet startup style. There's a personal trainer, employed to take staff running in the park for twice-weekly fitness sessions. A senior team dealing with people who can't pay back their loans are in another basement room ("Don't ask me why Moira has got a Barbie on her desk") but there are a further 100 people in a callcentre in South Africa, charged with ringing people to urge them to repay their loans.Staff say this is a fun place to work. Damelin's office has a starkly minimalist white office, with white leather sofas, without any papers (everything is digital) or really anything except a bottle of Evian, a bottle of Carex hand sanitising gel, and a huge print of Che Guevara.
These offices feel very far removed from the homes of the clients who are taking the loans.
Customers' stories
Four customers who gave detailed accounts of the severe difficulties that taking out a Wonga loan had caused them, all said they had turned to Wonga because they had no other way to get credit.
Yomi, 55, a council worker, saw his salary drop two years ago (after 23 years in the sector) from £46,000 to £28,000, when he switched from temping to a more secure post, anxious to ensure he had steady work at a time of rising redundancies. He took out a Wonga loan in October 2010, when the eldest of his six children began university and needed £900 to pay for his accommodation. Although his wife is also working, both have long, expensive commutes, and there was little left from his £1,700 monthly take-home pay after the £650 rent and £600 petrol had been paid. He had defaulted on his mortgage a few years earlier, and is unable to get a credit card or an overdraft from his bank. He went to Lloyds, Barclays, Nationwide and none of them were able to lend him the money he needed, so he tried Wonga.
"I started seeing these advertisements on television, for Wonga, on the buses. The idea that you could get a loan within minutes. The temptation was there to see what they could do for me. I wasn't looking too much at the small print," he says, talking in a side room in his office during a lunch hour, out of earshot of colleagues, who he thinks would be amazed to know about his payday loan problems. "I was surprised they didn't refuse me. The way I saw it at the time, I thought I am in financial turmoil and they are able to help me."
If you borrow £400 for 35 days, you accrue £145.48 in interest and fees, and £545.48 is taken out of your account automatically the next month. But Yomi was already having problems making ends meet before he took the loan, and there was no chance of his salary increasing the next month. So he had to take out a second loan to make ends meet until payday.
"When they take the money out of the account, that reduces your disposable income for the month; halfway through the month I had no money so I took out another loan with Wonga. Once you start it, you don't stop. Unless something happens, you have to go back to bridge the gap," he says.
Occasionally he would go to other online payday lenders to get new money to pay off Wonga and over the course of a year he deferred paying the Wonga loan back on several occasions. In the end he told Wonga he couldn't pay back, and they have entered into a debt repayment plan with him, freezing his interest. He calculates he has paid back around £1,500 in interest to a variety of different online and mobile phone lenders, because of his initial decision to take out the £400 loan.
The experience has been a profoundly unhappy one. "I worry about it all the time. Especially when we come to payday. I have sleepless nights. It made me start drinking for a stage until I realised that drinking was costing me more money. I haven't told my son. I'm trying not to push my anger on to my kids. I go into my shell, into my room," he says.
He is unsure about what he feels about Wonga, and blames himself as much as them; he's grateful they helped him pay his son's accommodation fees. "They are providing a service, you should give credit to them, but it is exploitative," he says.
When he sees the logo on buses and football shirts he thinks: "Yes, they are doing that because they are getting so much money from me." He recommends that people needing short-term cash should find a local credit union, such as the Waltham Forest Community Credit Union, which helped him out.
On the morning I meet him, an email has popped into his inbox, with the subject: "Yomi, does payday seem a long way off?" There's a picture of Wonga's three pensioner puppets, and a Wonga promo code offering him a £5.50 discount on fees if he takes out a new loan.
"Obviously that's not ideal," Bowman, Wonga's head of marketing, says when I show him a printout of the email. He says he can't comment on individual cases, but admits that it is never going to be possible to get all lending decisions right and he adds that the promotional email hasn't actually come from the Wonga, but has been sent out by an affiliate.
On the broader question of whether it's right to lend to people who have defaulted on their mortgages and have such a bad credit rating, he says the company's 7% arrears rate is "market-leading".
These cases represent lending that hasn't gone right. Working on a 7% arrears rate, around 245,000 of the total loans made by Wonga so far have resulted in the kinds of situations described by customers here. Bowman says: "Hands up, sometimes people slip through a net which we're constantly trying to tighten. In the vast majority of cases we do get it right."
Unlike some rival organisations, Wonga doesn't use bailiffs to force people to pay money, and has developed a "hardship team" to deal with clients who are unable to pay, but some clients have had difficulties persuading Wonga to stop taking payments out of their account.
Anthony Morgan, 33, a hospital cleaner, contacted Wonga last summer when he found himself unable to pay back around £560, a sum that had ballooned from a smaller loan taken out to buy presents for his three children. Staff explained said they would begin a debt repayment scheme, allowing him to pay back gradually, but the next day he found £800 had been wrongly taken from his account, leaving him with no money for the rest of month.
The company has subsequently wiped the debts, but Morgan remains angry at the experience. "They don't care that you are left with no money as long as they get theirs; that's the way [it] came across to me," he says. "They are a rip-off."
The company argues that these cases of people forced to come to Wonga because they have no option are unrepresentative and state that its internal research suggests that that 70% of people who use the product do have access to other forms of credit. It argues that people come to Wonga because they are happy to pay a premium for the "speed and convenience offered by an online service".
Why take the bus?
Asked why anyone would take out a loan like this if they had any other choice, Morwood, Wonga's head of PR, replies patiently: "It's a bit like me saying why would you take a black cab, when you can take a tube or a bus for the 10th of the price? It's not about price... There are times when jumping in a black cab and paying whatever the difference in price is worth it. It's not something you do every day." It's an awkward analogy because it seems to be missing the point that a great number of their customers are jumping into the taxi on the never-never, because they cannot afford the upfront cost of taking a bus.
John (not his real name), a 29-year-old who works in recruitment and earns £17,300, is probably more the kind of customer that Wonga thinks is typical. He borrowed money from them on several occasions to go out with his friends, most of whom earn more than him. Because of a previous bad debt, he has no overdraft or credit card.
"I couldn't get money any other way. I didn't want to borrow £80 off my parents just to go out and drink beer with my mates," he says. He saw Wonga advertised on television and laughed when he saw the APR, but he liked it when he tried it. "It didn't feel expensive. I know it is expensive, but when no one else it able to help you out, you have no leeway. If a company is able to lend you that money and they take £25 or £39 off you for it then that is absolutely superb," he says. He began taking out loans on his iPhone, as he walked into town to meet friends; the money would be in his account before he reached the cash machine.
"I would say I am bored this weekend, I have no money. I will take out £100, and see my friends and worry about paying on payday," he says. His Wonga limit quickly built up, allowing him to borrow more and more, to a total of £1,000. "It is hard to explain, thinking about it. I am not sure how it went from a few loans to a lot. It is weird. They are so easy to take out. When you are doing it, you don't realise the impact. You think, my friends are going out, I could go out too, and a few taps on the laptop... I would go to Wonga, max that out and then get £750 from another one. "
He liked the way there was no need to talk to anyone, no paper bills that his parents might see. "Because it's done online, there's no human interaction, it is a lot less difficult... it means that I can hide it. The online is a huge aspect of it. I wouldn't want to talk to somebody about it. The web doesn't ask questions. The website wouldn't judge me.
"I first noticed that I was getting into trouble when I had to get another payday loan to survive to the end of the month, rather than it being a bit of extra cash in my pocket. At the moment I am in dire straits. Since I have taken out one to help me survive the month, I haven't cleared them off. I've always had one or two a month rolling over."
When we talk he has no idea how much he owes. "I'd like to be able to say this much, but I honestly don't know. I could guestimate, £1,800-£1,900. I am under no illusion that I am the victim. I know I'm not a victim. I'm know I'm the idiot in the scenario." He no longer goes out with his friends, as he can't afford it.
"By the middle of the month, just before I go to sleep I will have a worry about it. By payday it is all I think about. It is all consuming. People notice that I get grumpy and miserable. It affects all of my life."
Tell your story
Have you taken out a payday loan? Share your experience in the comments below or contact our reporting team in confidence using this formThe Nice attack appears to be the most chillingly perfect demonstration yet of how devastating low-tech terrorism can be - and one that has particular ramifications for Australia.
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CodeProject
The first step to learning VR, is learning how to use one of the game engines that supports them. In the current market, we have 2 options: Unity and Unreal Engine.
I was told that Unity was more beginners friendly so I decided to pick that up. I installed the latest version of Unity along with Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition that came bundled along with Unity.
Great! Now that we have our toolkit installed, what’s next?
The first thing I did was that I started to go through the Unity’s Roll-a-ball tutorial.a
Here’s a summary of what I learned in the tutorial:
Setting up the Game
Scene
The scene tab gives you a 3D view of the world that you can move around in. In this tab, you can directly drag and drop the positioning of the objects that you inserted into Unity
Hierarchy
The hierarchy is used to display the Unity objects that you create and added into your scene.
Positioning
Since we’re working in a 3D environment, Unity has a 3D coordinate system: (x,y,z), if we were to select the sphere that was created in the tutorial, if you look at the the inspector on the right, you can see that we can change some of the transform properties such as position, rotation, and scale.
It appears that if we imagine something lying flat on a surface:
X = Horizontal movement
Y = Height movement
Z = Vertical movement
Material
If you want to change colors of your object, we have to create a material for our Mesh Renderer component that you can see from the picture above.
If you were to select the sphere, in the inspector under the Mesh Renderer component, you can select a material to apply on our object.
In the tutorial we created a new material in the project pane and made it’s color red. Then we applied it to our sphere to get the red sphere that you see above.
Roll a Ball
After the first video showed us how to setup the environment and use some of the tools available for the roll a ball tutorial, the next thing we learned is how to actually move the ball.
Rigid Body
The first thing we need to do is to add a RigidBody component to our ball object. What this does is that it makes the ball take part in Unity’s physics engine so that it’ll be affected by things such as gravity and when it collides with other properties
Looking at the code for this part of the video, we can learn a lot of information:
using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour { public float speed; private Rigidbody rb; void Start () { rb = GetComponent<Rigidbody>(); } void FixedUpdate () { float moveHorizontal = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal"); float moveVertical = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical"); Vector3 movement = new Vector3 (moveHorizontal, 0.0f, moveVertical); rb.AddForce (movement * speed); } }
The way scripts in Unity works is that they are attached to unity game objects that are in and we can grab any component information that’s attached to the game.
A great example is given in the example code you see above when we’re using the rigid component:
rb = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();
for when we want to access information from our RigidBody component.
Public variables
Before looking at the rest of the function, I want to point out that if you were to make a variable public in Unity script, that means you can set their value outside of the code under that script’s component in the Unity Editor.
Using the component system we can easily change the text and settings on the fly when you’re play testing your game!
Learning about Start and Update
So we have 2 functions that are being used in the code Start() and FixedUpdate(). Both of these are functions we’re inheriting from the MonoBehaviour object that controls how the game works.
Here are the more common methods I found
Start() – this is run only once when your GameObject gets created in Unity. It’s used for initializing your variables and creating the state of your GameObject when it is first created
The next parts are the updates method. Depending on what you might have worked on, the update function might take some time to wrap your mind around.
An update method is called once every time Unity renders a frame. You might have heard the term, frames per second? If we have 60 frames per second, which means our update function gets called 60 times every second.
So what’s a frame? If you have some knowledge of animation, you’ll know that an images is made of multiple images that are being replaced one after another. An image to illustrate my point is this gif:
This gif is actually made up of multiple images from a sprite map that is being looped through per scene.
From my basic understanding, this is extremely important for VR, if we want to avoid causing motion sickness, we have to make a game that achieves 90 fps
But anyways that’s a problem for the future, I don’t even know how to work with Unity! Going back to the update methods, we have:
Update() – this methods Is called every frame that the game runs in. I did my own investigation by inserting the code snippet Debug.Log("update: " + Time.deltaTime); to print out how much time has passed since the last update call and found that the time per frame isn’t consistent.
– this methods Is called every frame that the game runs in. I did my own investigation by inserting the code snippet to print out how much time has passed since the last update call and found that the time per frame isn’t consistent. FixedUpdate() – Similar to update, but this code runs at fixed times, which is good for physics calculations which we see in the code above. Printing the deltaTime, it appears that the FixedUpdate method is called every 0.02 seconds. Forcing 50 fps
Inputs and Vectors
Finally the last part of the code is the movement code. Unity comes with a handy set of api’s that make it easy to detect when the user is hitting on the keyboard.
We used Input.GetAxis, to get the movement when we hit the arrow keys to get the direction that is being hit and store those values in a vector.
If you remember a bit of physics from High school, you might remember that a vector is just a direction. So in our code, when we say we create a vector (x,y, and z location) it means that we’re creating a force that’s going in that x,y, and z direction that we specified…
…which is exactly what you see here:
rb.AddForce (movement * speed);
Moving the Camera
So that was a lot to learn about Unity already and we’re only in 3rd video of the series! So continuing on, after learning about moving the ball around, we now see that the game tab that we run doesn’t really move or follow the ball when we roll it around.
This was resolved by using a camera object, the view that you’re seeing in the game tab is from the camera.
So a nifty way to follow the ball is to make the ball a child of our ball, by dragging our Main Camera object on the hierarchy into the Sphere we made.
By doing this, we made our camera relative to our ball’s position. Unfortunately, when we move the ball around the camera follows.
To fix this we added the provided CameraController script to our camera:
using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; public class CameraController : MonoBehaviour { public GameObject player; private Vector3 offset; void Start () { offset = transform.position - player.transform.position; } void LateUpdate () { transform.position = player.transform.position + offset; } }
What was done was that we created the distance from the camera to the player in the Start() function and update our camera so that it is always that distance away in LateUpdate()
LateUpdate() acts the same way as the other update() however the difference is that it is the method that’s called when rendering a frame.
Setting up the Play Area
There wasn’t too much in this section, just learning how to setup our environment by moving around objects
Creating Collectable Objects
There also wasn’t too much here, we created collectible items that the player can roll the ball over, we created a script to make the ball rotate which we do by grabbing our GameObject’s transform component and modifying the rotation.
transform.Rotate (new Vector3 (15, 30, 45) * Time.deltaTime);
Note: Time.deltaTime is the time that elapsed since the last time we called Update()
Prefabs
However one interesting thing to note is that after we make the object we want, we can drag it from the hierarchy into the project pane on the bottom to create a prefab.
A prefab is a template or a clone of the object that you made. With this, we can create multiple instance of that same object.
The benefits of using prefab is that if you ever decide to change the components of the GameObject, instead of changing them one by one, just by changing the prefab, you can change all instance in one go.
Collecting the Pick-Up Objects
Now things are finally getting more interesting. In this section, we learned a variety of subjects involving colliders and how objects in the game interact with other objects.
From the previous video, we created these cube objects (which has their own rigid body) that we can collect, however if we were to roll our spheres into the cube, we would bounce back.
This problem will be addressed in this |
More than 300 religious leaders will send letters to President Trump on Sunday urging him not to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Politico reported.
The letters, which were organized by the Evangelical Immigration Table, will be sent to the president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.), according to the news outlet.
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The report comes as speculation mounts that Trump will repeal the Obama-era program, which temporarily extends deportation relief to people illegally brought to the U.S. as minors who applied for work permits.
Over 800,000 people brought to the country illegally as children have received work permits and deferral from deportation under the program.
Members of both sides of the aisle have urged Trump not to end the program, including Ryan and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant HatchThe FDA crackdown on dietary supplements is inadequate Orrin Hatch Foundation seeking million in taxpayer money to fund new center in his honor Mitch McConnell has shown the nation his version of power grab MORE (R-Utah).
The religious leaders' letters will also reportedly press Trump to work with lawmakers to pass legislation for the so-called Dreamers, who under the DREAM Act would have been provided many of the same protections. That measure was never approved in Congress after it was introduced over a decade ago.Though he was swept away by a deadly tornado and suffered two broken legs, he was determined to make it back home. And so he did.
That is the amazing story of Mason, a Terrier mix who was hiding in his family’s garage on April 27 in North Smithfield, Alabama when a storm picked him up and blew him away. His owners couldn’t find him and had about given up when they came back Monday to sift through the debris, and found Mason waiting for them on the porch.
“He’s got 2 broken legs and they’re distal radial ulnal fractures, they’ve not been able to be in alignment so neither one of them have healed so he had to crawl on 2 broken legs to get home,” said Dr. Barbara Benhart, staff veterinarian at the Birmingham-Jefferson County Animal Control Shelter.
Mason now rests inside the Vulcan Park Animal Care Clinic in Alabama where he’s awaiting surgery to repair his 2 badly broken legs.
“This is probably the most dramatic we’ve seen as far as an injury in an animal that’s survived this long,” said Phil Doster, a shelter worker. “For an animal just to show up on someone’s porch after this time was pretty remarkable, especially with the condition he’s in.”
Mason’s owners asked the shelter to take him because they’re not able to care for him while they try and piece their lives back together. But Mason’s amazing tale will be getting better thanks to the help of a donation from the Vulcan Park Animal Care Clinic.
“A man called and asked if there was anything he could do, last week, and this dog appeared today and so I called him, and never a hesitation, he offered ‘bring it on over and he’ll see what he can do,” said Dr. Benhart.
Now with a little luck and a lot of love, Mason may become a mascot for storm survivors on four and two legs.
“For an animal to go through what he’s gone through and not to be ugly, to be happy for any companionship is remarkable, we’re honored to be part of his recovery,” said Doster.
As of Wednesday night, Mason has been x-rayed and put on an IV. His vets at the Vulcan Park Animal Clinic plan to operate on his two broken legs Friday. They will use plates and maybe pins to help realign his bones. Doctors think it will be a long, but ultimately successful recovery.
The hope is that after he recovers, he can return to his original family. If not, the shelter says they will find a home for Mason to start his new life with new mobility.A small, microwave-detecting camera that can see through solid materials in real time has been developed. Soon, the device could be adapted and used in law enforcement and security where, among other uses, its inventors envision airport scanners that screen passengers for weapons or explosives as they walk by.
The camera features a one-dimensional aperture made from a copper-based metamaterial. Fashioned from plastics or metals, metamaterials behave in ways that ordinary materials naturally do not. Some can cloak objects. Others can reveal them. Here, scientists used the copper-based metamaterial as an aperture for microwaves, the telecommunications workhorses that populate the longer end of the electromagnetic spectrum. By connecting the aperture to an image-reconstructing computer, the researchers can capture information from a scene in real time, with no moving parts.
"They’ve made a very clever way of gathering the relevant information in the scene," said physicist Willie Padilla of Boston College, who was not part of the camera-building team. "And to do it in a novel way with electromagnetic metamaterials – that’s a key advance. There are no moving parts."
Detecting microwaves produces a very different view of the world than looking at it normally.
“You can see through certain materials that you can’t see through with optical light – such as clothing or wood. But at the same time, you can still see plastics, metal, skin,” said graduate student John Hunt of Duke University, co-author of a description of the device published today in Science. “Dust and fog and rain, things that might be in the air are essentially invisible at these frequencies.”
The metamaterial aperture shuttles microwaves reflected from a scene to a computer, which then reconstructs the scene using mathematical algorithms the team developed. The whole process takes just 100 milliseconds and requires no moving parts and no image compression – meaning that the camera could capture moving scenes in near real time, and without losing details.
Traditional cameras rely on lenses that guide light to detectors comprising millions of pixels. Human eyes use a similarly organized system: a light-focusing lens, plus light- and color-detecting rods and cones arranged on the retina. Because optical wavelengths are short, a detector array can fit in the back of an eye or a tiny camera.
Not so for microwaves, which can be one meter long.
These longer wavelengths have traditionally required bigger detectors that are slow, expensive to construct, and require continuous reorientation to capture targets. One of the most familiar examples is the much-maligned airport body scanner, which requires travelers to step inside and strike a pose while a detector-containing bar whizzes around, collecting images that are scrutinized by TSA agents.
The camera Hunt helped design is different. The metamaterial aperature is only 40 centimeters long and it doesn't move. It's a circuit-board-like structure consisting of two copper plates separated by a piece of plastic. One of the plates is etched with repeating boxy structures, units about 2 millimeters long that permit different lengths of microwaves to pass through. Scanning the scene at various microwave frequencies allows the computer to capture all the information necessary to reproduce a scene.
“With that, and some pretty interesting math, we’re able to make a picture of the scene that’s in front of us,” Hunt said.
In the current study, researchers aimed the camera at a room that had been muffled by microwave-absorbing foams on the walls and ceiling – and then studded with bright metal objects – “Little balls, basically,” Hunt said.
After turning on a nearby microwave transmitter, the team watched as the metamaterial aperture shunted microwaves bounced around by the metallic objects to the computer, which created a two-dimensional reconstruction of the scene.
"To my knowledge, this is probably the first example of metamaterials and compressive imaging in the same paper," said Kevin Kelly, an electrical engineering professor at Rice University who helped develop the first single-pixel camera.
To recreate a scene in three dimensions the team will need to build a two-dimensional aperture. That’s not far off, Hunt said. Then, the applications for such technology will be broad, he said, especially because the device is inexpensive to build, light, and portable.
“As a replacement to an airport scanner – you can just walk right past it,” Hunt said. "No more long lines." And that's just one idea. Adapting the system differently could yield a quicker baggage scanner. Embedding a microwave-detecting camera in the front of self-driving cars could help vehicles navigate scene-obscuring snow, rain, and fog. Embedding one in the wing of an airplane with one would eliminate the need for space-consuming radar imagers. Designing a hand-held, metal-detecting device could produce the ultimate stud-finder.
Lining the front of a police officer’s vest could help the officer detect concealed weapons – guns and knives – and distinguish them from cellphones.
"It will be exceptionally cheap," Padilla said. "You can indeed simply adhere it to a wall and it can perform imaging.”Chief Mark Saunders showed off a revamped website aimed at generating new tips in over 500 homicide cold cases.
Saunders, speaking at Toronto police headquarters, said homicide cases are always a "top priority" for the force.
"Each case is important to us, regardless of its age," Saunders told reporters.
The website allows users to search for information on investigations dating back to 1959. All you need, police said, is the victim's name or the year of their death.
Once you view information about a case, you'll also be given contact information for investigators.
In at least six cases, Saunders said, investigators have DNA they believe belongs to the killer but just need a name. In those cases, the chief said, once police have a name "those people will be going to jail."
Homicide investigators are also planning on releasing a series of videos highlighting various cold cases in the coming weeks, which will be designed to be shared on social media.
"Sometimes it's a matter of re-jogging people's memories," Saunders said.
The website also has a most wanted section, for cases where a suspect has been identified but never arrested.
Toronto police have had some recent success in solving cold cases. Last November, police charged a 61-year-old man with first-degree murder in connection with the killing of Surinder Singh Parmar, a case that took 25 years to solve.
Police already have a cold case unit that focuses on using new investigative techniques and scientific advances to re-evaluate evidence.
According to police cold case statistics, here are the number of unsolved homicides from recent years (police list unsolved cases from 2014, 2015 and this year as current investigations):West Ham United have been forced to shake up their under-pressure medical department after Andy Rolls, the head of sports science and medicine, joined Arsenal.
Losing Rolls is a blow for Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager, as the club try to sort out the injury problems that have been blamed for their struggles.
West Ham have wished Rolls well and have stressed his departure has nothing to do with Andy Carroll’s long absence. The club have also been missing Winston Reid since the start of November with an ankle injury and have been without Ravel Morrison, James Tomkins, James Collins and Mark Noble.
The medical department could also need to bring Lacina Traoré up to match fitness after he was granted a work permit to move on loan from Monaco until the end of the season, but he has not been playing because of the break in the Russian League. He moved to Monaco from Anzhi Makhachkala for £8.6 million this month. There are suggestions the striker may have a hamstring problem, but West Ham insist all the relevant medical checks will have been made once the move goes through.
Carroll made his first appearance of the season as a sub at Cardiff last Saturday, following an ankle injury picked up after his £15 million summer move from Liverpool.
“It has been a massive nightmare,” he said. “But now I am feeling really good and all I want to do is play. I can’t stand on the sidelines. It drives me crazy. But I am back and concentrating on getting match-fit. I just want to forget about the past months.A GBU-43B, or Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, the US military's largest nonnuclear bomb. Eglin Air Force Base via AP
A week after US forces dropped the 21,600-pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, called the "Mother of All Bombs," on a remote part of Afghanistan, American officials have released little information about the strike or its aftermath, and security forces in the area continue to block access to the site.
In a move reminiscent of Vietnam-era body-count assessments, Afghan officials have released estimates of the number of ISIS fighters killed in the MOAB strike, upping the total from 36 to 96 over the last six days.
Reports from the region indicate that several of the ISIS fighters slain were from neighboring countries.
An Afghan security source told the country's TOLO news agency that most of the militants killed in the bombing were members of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan or the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Alongside dozens of Pakistanis thought to have been killed in the strike, 12 Tajiks and 13 Indian nationals who had joined ISIS are believed to have been killed, according to TOLO.
Hindustan Times reported that an Afghan security official said 13 ISIS commanders were killed — at least two of whom were from India.
Officials in Kabul and New Delhi did not confirm those reports, and Amaq News Agency, ISIS' media outlet, said none of the terror group's fighters had been killed. After the blast, ISIS' local radio outlet broadcast a call-in show featuring men who claimed to be fighters in the area who were not affected by the bombing.
A screengrab from a video sent to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan shows unidentified Afghans claiming to represent a group called the Islamic Organization of Great Afghanistan, which they say is ready to fight for ISIS. Radio Free Afghanistan/ Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
At least 24 Indian nationals are thought to have joined ISIS in eastern Afghanistan. While two reportedly were killed in the weeks before the MOAB strike, relatives of the others say they have yet to hear from them.
ISIS branches in Afghanistan expanded in 2015 and had 2,000 to 3,000 members before Afghan military operations and US-led airstrikes checked their advances. Now there are thought to be about 700 ISIS fighters in the country, limited mainly to three districts in Nangarhar, the province where the MOAB was dropped.
The MOAB was deployed on April 13 to what was described as a cave complex used by ISIS fighters. The weapon, which explodes above ground, is meant to create pressure to destroy targets on the surface and just below it.
A spokesman for Afghan special forces said land mines and "pockets of resistance" on top of mountains had slowed operations in the area, according to AFP, whose correspondents were turned away from the site on Wednesday.
He did not specify if the resistance was being mounted by ISIS fighters.
The MOAB was dropped in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan. Google Maps/Christopher Woody
Capt. William Salvin, a US military spokesman, told Reuters on Wednesday that US forces arrived at the site the day after the blast and had left but continued to conduct operations in the area. He said "assessments are ongoing" and expressed "high confidence" that no civilians were harmed.
"Access has been restricted, but that's because it's a combat zone," he told Reuters. "We are in contact with the enemy."
Afghan officials and locals disputed suggestions that there was resistance in the area and questioned whether the MOAB was an appropriate response to the threat.
"We were and we are kept in the dark, and still we haven't been able to go to the site," one senior Afghan security official told Reuters. "We are confused ourselves, and we wonder what MOAB could have caused."
Zabihullah Zmarai, a member of the council in Nangarhar, told The New York Times that officials in the district where the bomb was dropped said neither Afghan nor US forces had arrived on the scene.
"It is not true that the members of US forensic are at the scene of bombing — no one is there," Jawid Salim, spokesman for the Afghan commandos, told The Times. "We are in the area and we see everything."
"Why the bomb with such a big destruction had such few casualties?" Naser Kamawal, another member of the Nangarhar provincial council, told The Times.
Dvidshub.net
"If there was some 90 Islamic State militants, then why were our own Afghan forces not able to eliminate them in a military operation — what was the need for using such a big bomb?" he asked.
Afghan government ministers have expressed concern that the lack of information about the strike could be exploited by ISIS.
The top US commander in Afghanistan has said the focus of the fight is militants inside the country.
"This operation is conducted on those enemy that are inside the borders of Afghanistan," Gen. John Nicholson, commander of NATO's Resolute Support operation, said after the bombing.
"We're very focused on those insurgents and terrorists who try to operate inside Afghanistan, and then we work with our diplomatic colleagues to work with our neighbors and other nations in the region to reduce the external support and the external sanctuary enjoyed by these enemies."
This post has been updated with comments from US and Afghan officials.Springtime means rain, which means umbrellas. Except, a few years ago I resolved not to carry an umbrella with me unless it was really pouring out. It’s rare that I’ll head out in the morning with one now, and since then I’ve found that in most cases when there’s rain in the forecast one of two things happens: either the rain never actually materializes, or if it does, there’s not enough of it to actually warrant an umbrella.
Inevitably though a real downpour comes and only a fool would venture outside without one. In those cases I’m reminded why I dislike the contraptions so much: they’re very poorly designed.
The other day, after a particularly hard storm in New York, I wondered if anyone had solved this problem, and had done so at scale. When I asked Twitter, I got a decent amount of replies but nothing totally definitive. There are a few companies, like Davek, making high quality umbrellas, and a few, like Senz, who have tried to reinvent the umbrella, and at least one crowdsourced project, Nubrella, that seems intent on turning the form into some kind of arty practical joke. Each undoubtedly has its merits, but there was no clear winner among the responses; moreover I didn’t really see that they solved the basic complaints that I have with today’s umbrellas.
So, for no better reason than blogs must publish things like ideas for improving umbrella designs, here are my ideas for improving umbrella designs:
A strap with a buckle. Part of the reason I don’t like to carry these things is because once wet, I have no place to put them. For smaller umbrellas, it would be so useful to have a strap that fastened with a snap buckle, so that I can hook it onto my bag.
A bag you won’t lose. It should be possible to integrate a durable bag that stays dry into the design of an umbrella. This would let you easily tuck away a wet, closed umbrella without the net effect of soaking all your other stuff.
A method for easily identifying your own umbrella. Imagine a varying graphic pattern on each umbrella handle, applied at the factory. One umbrella has two dashed stripes, another has a solid stripe and a red stripe, a third has a pattern of stars, etc. If each handle was unique — or unique enough that it would be very unlikely you’d ever run into another one with the same pattern, it would make life much easier when it comes time to fish yours out of a bucket full of umbrellas at a restaurant.
An electronic tracker. Integration with a Tile-like chip would solve one of the worst problems inherent to today’s umbrellas: they get lost all the time. You probably don’t want to be notified on your phone each time you stray too far from an umbrella, but this seems like it’s a problem that technology can solve elegantly.
A means to repair a broken umbrella. I’ve thrown away more umbrellas than I care to count simply because the cost of repairing them would have far outstripped their monetary worth. I think that’s a shame. When an umbrella part breaks, you should be able to take it to a local shop or send it to a specialist to get it fixed.
If someone built an umbrella like that, I might even carry it around when the forecast calls for it.
+The Edmonton Oilers are shrugging off a recent survey that suggests NHL players don't want to play in the city.
The ESPN survey of prominent sports agents done by reporter Craig Custance suggests that Edmonton is the city most often named by NHL players in their no-trade clauses.
But newcomer Derek Roy says he would argue against the impression created by the poll..
"As soon as you get here you feel welcome. It's a great organization, it's a great hockey town. Everything has been first class since I got here."
Goaltender Ben Scrivens called the results skewed.
"The teams that were at the top of the list were teams that weren't in the playoffs.
"I thought we landed some pretty good free agents last year," Scrivens said, pointing to Teddy Purcell, David Perron and Mark Fayne.
"They've been highly coveted free agents and they made a choice to come here."
Of the 10 agents polled by Custance, each named Edmonton as one of the least desirable cities for NHL players.
But Edmonton is not the only city the players are railing against — Winnipeg came in a close second place in terms of cities to be avoided, with Ottawa and Toronto coming in fourth and fifth, respectively.
The only American city in the top five list? Buffalo.
Vancouver was the only Canadian city that was not included on the "avoid" list.
"It's probably nothing that we didn't suspect, but to have it laid out like that with quotes from the agents just detailing what an awful place we all live [in] was kind of sobering, I thought," said Cam Cole, a sports columnist who covered hockey in Edmonton for 20 years.
"One agent called [Edmonton] a 'complete nightmare,'" said Cole. "That was the most sweeping indictment in the whole report, I thought."
"It's kind of been sloughed off as some kind of arctic hell hole."
Listen to Cole's full interview with Edmonton AM host Mark Connolly:
Can't compete with sunny skies, lower taxes
Some of the reasons given by players for avoiding Edmonton included:
The weather.
Too much travel.
Too much scrutiny.
The team's poor record.
Higher Canadian taxes.
University of Alberta sports management professor Dan Mason says Canadian fans can come off as a "little intense."
"Every play you make is going to be scrutinized and discussed," he said. "You're not going to be able to go anywhere in the city without being noticed. A lot of players would like to have a little more anonymity in their job."
Scrivens suggested some players love the limelight.
"Each player is their own person. A guy like [Montreal Canadien] P.K. Subban thrives under it."
Cole said Edmonton hasn't always had trouble attracting top-quality players, pointing to the Oilers' dream team streak when players like Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri were on the ice.
"There was no reluctance to play in Edmonton in those days, because they had a real good team, and they had no problem attracting free agents. I think that's probably the hidden component here."
But now?
"It's kind of obvious that nobody really wants to go somewhere they don't feel they have a chance to win — and Edmonton has looked like that place for a while now. They don't seem to be able to solve the performance aspect of the whole equation."
Cole said there is little the Oilers can do at present but start turning their record around, although he noted the deck is stacked against them, given the difficulty in attracting talented players.
"Let's just say, once you've got the choice, once you've worked towards and earned the right to determine where you're going to play and where you're not going to play, it's completely within your rights to say, 'I don't want to go there.'"
But Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish says the hockey landscape in Edmonton is changing.
"With the new building, with the emerging direction of the team and emergent talent level of the team, it's a much easier situation for us to sell.
"I know ESPN is based in Connecticut. It's a long way from Edmonton."The once-popular genre of “Dungeon Crawlers” has almost entirely died out in the recent decade. Aside from the elusive Diablo III, it almost seemed like there would be no more single-player focused games where players would travel from town to town in (usually) a fantasy-themed world, carving their ways through dungeon after dungeon filled with enemies, and continuously upgrading the equipment of their ever-evolving characters. The only option open to fans of the genre seemed to be to sign up for an one of the many MMORPGs, which have incorporated many of the elements once found in these games.
Runic Games, a studio formed of former Blizzard North and Flagship Studios employees, released Torchlight in October 2009. It was a game reminiscent of classic dungeon crawlers like Diablo, Dungeon Siege, and the Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance series… though it condensed these classics into a “light” experience. Still, the game became a tremendous success on the PC. Now, almost one and a half years after the game was originally released, the game has finally made it’s way onto the Xbox Live Arcade.
Seeing as most dungeon crawlers were specifically designed to be played with a mouse and keyboard, one might expect that a console-adaptation of such games would end up to be but a shadow of the original version. Developer Runic Games has addressed this issue by entirely overhauling the control scheme for the game, and making additional changes to several key-aspects of the game, which has resulted in an excellent downloadable title.
In short, this new control scheme handles surprisingly well. Players move around by means of the left analog stick, which now directly controls the character. The fact that you no longer have to press the mouse buttons a million times feels refreshing, and the game feels a lot more relaxed overall when played with the controller. Players can rapidly switch between two sets of four spells and abilities, meaning that console players are not merely a gimped version of their PC-counterparts. That is not to say the new control scheme doesn’t also bring a few new problems to the table: targeting enemies at longer range is pretty difficult, and the auto-targeting system doesn’t always pick out the most desirable targets from a larger crowd of enemies (like an explosive barrel next to a group of opponents). Additionally, some skills don’t seem to use this auto-targeting feature at all, and are fired in the specific direction in which you’re pointing the analog stick. This frequently leads to spells and abilities being misfired and missing their intended targets by a hair… simply because a thumbstick doesn’t allow for a great amount of accuracy.
Melee attacks have also been redesigned to some extent. Rather than directly striking a target of your choosing, players can only indicate in which direction the character should swing their weapon. When swarmed by enemies, this works just as well as targeting with the mouse. On the PC, however, players were able to automatically close in on their enemies if tried using melee attacks while out of range. Even though melee attacks move your character slightly forward, this feature is sorely missed when playing with the melee-oriented champion against a group of enemies that are using ranged attacks.
The in-game menus have also been redesigned. The inventory system has been changed entirely, and now simply allows the player to carry around 50 items (or stacks), rather than the more traditional inventory system utilized in the PC version. This is a great addition, and means you’ll be spending significantly less time on item-management, and more time on slaughtering the incredible amount of enemies that hurl themselves at your feet.
Not all menus are quite as easy to navigate, however. The inventory screen, which has different tabs for each category of items currently in your backpack, as well as those being carried by your animal companion, is difficult to navigate when you start using it. Luckily, navigating the inventory turns out to be quite efficient, after the initial confusion has worn off.
Gameplay itself has remained unchanged from the original. The game still takes you through 35 semi-randomly generated floors of a massive dungeon, which are tied together by means of the same dialogue and events as were found in the PC version. Smaller, new features include a new type of pet (though it isn’t nearly as charming as the Wolf and Lynx), a new armor set for each of the three characters, and a few more random quests that don’t tie in to the overall story arch.
Graphically, the game has been upgraded slightly, with some of the features that were set for Torchlight II having been included in the current version. All characters are animated fluidly, and the game maintains a steady FPS even during the most intense battles. Loading times, which were an issue for some players on the PC, have been shortened dramatically, generally not lasting more than a few seconds.
Overall, Torchlight is an excellent game, and probably one of the very best games currently available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The fact that the game is played with a controller, rather than a mouse and keyboard, makes the Xbox 360-experience quite a bit different than the PC-experience… but it feels good to be able to play this game from a comfy couch and not having to click the mouse a billion times before the credits finally roll. On the flipside, the Xbox 360 version does not support user-made mods, a feature that may be considered one of the PC-versions greatest assets.
Players who have not yet experienced Torchlight would do good to check this game out, as it is one of the highest-quality action/RPGs currently available on Xbox Live, and well worth the 1200 Microsoft points ($15, which is significantly less than the regular price for the Steam version of the game). Those who already own the PC-version will probably not find many new features in this latest version of the game, though even those who have previously fought their way through the dungeon below the eponymous town may enjoy replaying the game with the new, more relaxed, control scheme.HASAKAH (ANF) – ISIS gang Abdurrahim Xalit İbrahim captured by the YPG stated that Turkey continues to send arms, ammunition and jihadists to ISIS mainly through Jarablus and Til Rai. İbrahim noted that the Turkish aid to ISIS decreased because ISIS-Turkey relations got exposed and the border between ISIS and Turkey got shorter.
Captured by the YPG after the ISIS attack on Girê Spî, ISIS gang Abdurrahim Xalit İbrahim code-named Ebu İslam Xerip spoke to ANF. İbrahim was born in Aleppo, joined ISIS two years ago, stated that ISIS viewed Turkey as an ally. İbrahim said that his main duties were to give ideological and political education, recruit new gangs, and organize the gangs that arrived in Syria via Turkey. İbrahim was captured by the YPG in an office building near Siluk after the ISIS attack on Girê Spî.
Regarding the relations between Turkey and ISIS, İbrahim said that the two entities had shared ideologies and goals, and would never fight one another. İbrahim stated that ISIS viewed Turkey as an ally and the two entities collaborated numerous times in the past, so a war between Turkey and ISIS would never break out.
‘TRANSPORTATION WAS CARRIED OUT THROUGH GIRE SPI’
İbrahim highlighted the importance of the Girê Spî border gate for ISIS and said that the majority of supplies entered Syria through here. İbrahim said that ISIS used the Girê Spî border gate and secret underground tunnels to smuggle jihadists from all around the world into Syria, and the border gate served as ISIS’ lifeline because the majority of military and food supply transportation took place through here. İbrahim emphasized the friendly nature of Turkey-ISIS relations, and said that these relations continue today despite the YPG’s liberation of Girê Spî. İbrahim added that Turkey continues to send arms, ammunition and jihadists to ISIS mainly through Jarablus and Til Rai today, and the Turkish aid to ISIS decreased because the border between ISIS and Turkey got shorter.
‘TRANSPORTATION FROM TURKEY WAS OFFICIAL’
İbrahim stated that transportation from Turkey via Girê Spî, Jarablus and Til Ria was carried out officially, and nighttime was chosen in order to avoid coalition warplanes and press coverage. İbrahim said that couriers led the transportation of jihadists as part of the agreement ISIS had made with Turkey, and ISIS militants welcomed the incoming gangs 1 km away from the Turkish border and took them to Raqqa. İbrahim underlined that the Turkish state turned a blind eye to this route and never caused a problem, and the Turkish intelligence approved all of the border crossings.
‘JARABLUS AND THE REGION TO ITS SOUTHWEST ARE OPEN FOR US’
Captured ISIS gang İbrahim stated that ISIS sent petroleum, wheat and other materials to Turkey in exchange for arms, ammunition and supplies, and Jarablus became the only border with Turkey after the YPG’s liberation of Girê Spî. İbrahim said that Jarablus and the region to its southwest were open for ISIS, and the gangs have been using this area for logistical purposes. İbrahim noted that the YPG’s liberation of Girê Spî reduced the flow of goods and militants between ISIS and Turkey, but this flow continues today through Jarablus and Til Rai.
‘SENIOR ISIS MEMBERS IN CIVILIAN CLOTHES CARRIED OUT THE TRADE’
The captured gang stated that certain ISIS members were chosen to carry out the trade with Turkey, and hundreds of vehicles crossed the border everyday as part of this trade. İbrahim noted that ISIS gangs responsible for the trade with Turkey were senior administrators and wore civilian clothes, and ISIS sent petroleum, wheat and other materials to Turkey in exchange for arms, ammunition, supplies and the treatment of injured gangs in Turkish hospitals. İbrahim added that the trade between ISIS and Turkey became more secretive after the bombardment of petroleum tankers near the border and the exposure of Turkey-ISIS relations.I would like to express to you my great admiration for your position on the principles of your religion and for not being obsequious to the authorities in your stand for the protection of Islam.
Your ruling that a Muslim who passes through the magnetometers on the Temple Mount does not see his prayers received is a courageous one, in light of attempts by various parties to bend your faith.
By us in Judaism there is a concept called that “You can only rally one who will be rallied,” meaning that someone who is already doing a good thing can be expected to continue with another good deed.
Therefore, I urge you to expand your ruling in a way that applies not only to the Temple Mount, but also to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which only last week UNESCO defined as a Muslim site - where, as is known, magnetometers are located at the entrance to the compound. Your silence on the Tomb of the Patriarchs shows that even on the Temple Mount the Israeli government will eventually succeed.
It is inconceivable that Muslims will be humiliated in such a way and have to undergo checks by the Zionist occupation regime.
After dealing with the holy places, it is worthwhile to consider expanding the ruling to those magnetometers that symbolize the occupation. As is well known, these devices are located in all the government ministries, the Postal Authority, the National Insurance Institute, the hospitals and other public institutions frequented by members of the Muslim community.
How good it is that there are religious leaders like you who, through their courageous rulings, can move forward with them toward the desired peace and quiet (as exists these days on the Temple Mount).
If you do not expand your ruling to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, it will turn out that your entire decision has no religious significance, and you will have become just another politician and small-time terrorist.
Looking forward to building the Temple this year and hope that you will soon see the face of our righteous Messiah.The White House is asking Congress to dig deeper into whether communications of Trump associates were improperly picked up and disseminated during surveillance operations, after an ex-Obama administration official suggested her former colleagues tried to gather such material.
White House Counsel Don McGahn specifically cited Evelyn Farkas’ comments in a letter to the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee, as he invited lawmakers to view documents that apparently show surveillance of Trump associates during the transition.
The leaders of that committee have been openly – and bitterly – sparring over those documents, with top Democrat Adam Schiff, D-Calif., blasting Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., for viewing the files on White House grounds and unilaterally announcing their contents to the media. Schiff and others Democrats have demanded Nunes recuse himself from a related Russia investigation, but Trump allies have defended Nunes and say the real issue is improper surveillance during the prior administration.
'I had talked to some of my former colleagues and I knew that they were trying to also help get information to the Hill. That’s why you have the leaking.' — Evelyn Farkas
McGahn moved to flip the script in his letter to Nunes and Schiff, pointing to Farkas’ comments as an indication of “possible inappropriate accumulation or dissemination of classified information.”
Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of defense under then-President Barack Obama, discussed collection efforts by her colleagues during a March 2 interview with MSNBC. During the interview, Farkas, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and MSNBC analyst, said she was urging former colleagues and “people on the Hill” to “get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration.”
STRASSEL: DEM SPIN CAN'T HIDE EVIDENCE NUNES IS RIGHT
She said there were concerns that if Trump officials knew what they knew about “Trump staff dealing with Russians,” they would cut off access to the intelligence. She continued, “I had talked to some of my former colleagues and I knew that they were trying to also help get information to the Hill. That’s why you have the leaking."
Farkas parted ways with the White House in 2015 and defended herself on Twitter, saying she didn’t personally “give anybody anything except advice” on Russia information and wanted Congress to ask for facts.
She also told The Daily Caller she was not involved in circulating any intelligence, saying, “I wasn’t in government anymore and didn’t have access to any.”
But even if Farkas was not personally involved with any of |
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Distributors of electronic cigarettes fear that a bill making its way through Congress that would give the F.D.A. the authority to regulate tobacco could be used to put them out of business as well. The bill has passed the House and could be taken up by the Senate this week.
The only American study of electronic cigarettes, now under way at Virginia Commonwealth University and financed by the National Cancer Institute, deals not with the kind of safety questions raised by propylene glycol but rather with the amount of nicotine processed by the bodies of the products’ users.
Another study, conducted this year at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and financed by Ruyan, an electronic cigarette company, shows that users typically receive 10 percent to 18 percent of the nicotine delivered by a tobacco cigarette.
Smoking Everywhere, a Florida -based distributor of electronic cigarettes, sued the F.D.A on April 28, claiming that the agency did not have jurisdiction to refuse the imported devices.
“The F.D.A. has the power to regulate Nicorette gum and the like because it is marketed as a smoking cessation product,” said Kip Schwartz, a lawyer for Smoking Everywhere. But the company says its products are a cigarette alternative for adult enjoyment and make no claims to help smokers quit, Mr. Schwartz added.
Matt Salmon, a spokesman for the Electronic Cigarette Association, which represents six distributors, said e-cigarettes delivered nothing more than a mixture of nicotine and water vapor and emitted “no carcinogens.” The association declined to give sales figures, but said that “hundreds of thousands” of people used the products and that the average age of those users was the mid-40s.
“It’s a really good alternative for people who smoke tobacco,” Mr. Salmon said.
Edwin Schwab, who quit smoking regular cigarettes last year after trying e-cigarettes, likes them so much he has started selling them at a mall kiosk in Providence, R.I.
Mr. Schwab took his e-smoke along when he went out one night, he said, “and when everyone was smoking outside in the cold, I just stood in the warm bar, smoking.”SOCIAL services have apologised for a culture of failing to tell fathers about their children’s welfare.
A father, whose seven-year-old daughter lives with her mother, complained that East Sussex Social Services failed to notify him about his child’s welfare and that social workers had shown bias towards her mother.
After an internal investigation, officials admitted there had been a “considerable delay” in contacting the father and there was “a culture of staff not talking to dads” which was accepted as “poor practise”.
Children’s Services investigated the girl’s welfare after police were called to deal with her mother on a number of occasions.
But social services did not contact her father for almost two months, by which time the girl had been interviewed and an assessment made about her welfare.
The father, who The Argus is not naming to protect his daughter’s identity, said: “My complaint was upheld and they made a clear admission that they have a culture of not talking to fathers.
“I was not listened to and there must be thousands more non-resident fathers dealing with East Sussex Social Services in that same situation.
“They began an assessment about my daughter that I had no idea about.
“They made an assessment on my daughter based on untrue claims made by her mother that they didn’t ask me about.
“They were really biased against me and she made allegations they didn’t even give me the chance to respond to.”
A review of the father’s case last year found the assessment “fails to record the father’s view in any detail and contains factual errors and inconsistencies in testimonies”.
A spokeswoman for the council said: “In every assessment and investigation, our focus is the safety of the child or children and we will continue to work with parents to ensure their protection.”KIEV, Ukraine — President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine said Wednesday that the bulk of Russian forces had withdrawn from Ukrainian territory, a move that he said heightened the chances for a lasting cease-fire in the southeast.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting broadcast nationally, the president also announced plans to move ahead with a law intended to cement the wobbly truce, reached Friday.
Poroshenko appeared to be trying to create a sense of momentum around the peace process, though a final outcome remains the subject of arduous negotiations. The very law he discussed, for example, has been the source of widely different interpretations.
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“Based on the latest information I have received from our intelligence services, 70 percent of the Russian troops have moved back across the border,” Poroshenko said. “This bolsters our hope that the peace initiatives enjoy good prospects.”
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He noted the cease-fire remained shaky, accusing Russian-backed militias of trying to provoke Ukrainian forces. He sounded a hopeful note overall, saying the situation had “radically changed.”
The European Union was considering a timetable for imposing sanctions against Russia’s energy and banking sectors in an effort to compel the Kremlin to support the cease-fire more actively.
Federica Mogherini, Italy’s foreign minister and the European Union’s new foreign policy chief-designate, said Wednesday that Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, had told her the cease-fire was “basically holding” but asked for more European pressure on Russia. “He told me we need new sanctions,” she said.
She indicated that European countries were struggling to find a common position on when to actually impose the new sanctions. She said some countries wanted a new discussion by 28 leaders, which would in effect put matters back where they started when they met in Brussels Aug 30.
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In late August, Ukrainian troops were overwhelmed by separatists, widely believed to be backed by Russian forces, who reversed weeks of gains. The cease-fire agreement was reached soon afterward.
Russia has long denied sending arms or troops across the border. But NATO has said that at least 1,000 Russians were deployed in late August, and even a separatist commander said that up to 4,000 Russians, including active troops, had fought in Ukraine, although he described them as volunteers who were using their vacation time.
Poroshenko, who is due to meet with President Obama in Washington Sept. 18, also said he would introduce a law that would grant parts of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk temporary self-rule.
Even though representatives of the two main breakaway regions signed the cease-fire agreement, their goals are not always clear. Some leaders have said they would continue to push for independence. They began fighting five months ago to join Russia, although the Kremlin has never signaled it would take them.
“Ukraine has made no concessions with regard to its territorial integrity,” Poroshenko said. “There is no question of federalization or separation of any Ukrainian territory.”
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The president said that 700 Ukrainian prisoners had been released, with another 500 in custody. Most of those would appear to be soldiers, because a government spokesman said Wednesday that only 20 soldiers had been released so far.
Poroshenko gave no specifics about the bill on special status for the areas held by the rebels. The agreement reached Friday calls for Ukraine to move toward “decentralization,” first by adopting a temporary law that gives special status to certain districts.
Officials at the Foreign Ministry in Kiev declined to comment on Ukraine’s negotiating position. But a political adviser to Poroshenko said that each of the 12 points in the cease-fire protocol needed to be negotiated in detail, with the government focused first on silencing the guns and obtaining the release of hundreds of prisoners.Click above for a high-res gallery of the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel Concept
"The vehicle would require the tires to be adjusted every five years, but no material would need to be added or subtracted." Here's to the future. While you wait for it, have a look at the Cadillac WTC in the gallery of high-res photos below.
Here's another one from the world of unlimited conceptual design: the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel concept. Otherwise known as the Cadillac WTF. Created by Loren Kulesus, everything about the WTF has been created to last 100 years without maintenance. That's the reason for the element number ninety, thorium: to act as a nuclear fuel powering batteries that would power the car.Elsewhere, every major system is redundant in case of a failure. And the wheels don't have individual tires - in fact, what's located at each corner is one combined unit made up of six individual wheels. That gives you 24 wheels in total, and each wheel has its own induction motor. Said Kulesus,How to Launch a Million Dollar Business in 27 Days – Day 5: The One Page Business Plan
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If your business plan is longer than one page you’re wasting your time. Let’s get to it…
This is Day 5 in our Zero to Launch in 27 Days series. Yesterday, we laid out a few tidbits on how to instill trust with your website.
Today, we have to figure out the business plan.
Here’s the thing: Business plans are mostly bullshit!
Well, those monstrous documents that people usually think of when they think business plans.
Not that you shouldn’t spend time crafting out a strategy and planning well, that’s what we’ve been doing over the past 4 days. You just don’t need anything more than a simple one page document.
Super long 90 page Business plans are great for convincing banks to lend money, so I understand why folks pack them full of fancy pie charts and predictions.
Problem is they’re also great for leading folks to procrastinate, over-analyze, and do all those things that just kill actual progress.
My approach:
Create a one page plan with bullet points.
You need a simple document that you and your team can understand and keep an eye on going forward.
Yes, you should spend time planning out what you’re going to do. But if you can’t wrap up everything you’ve learned in a one-page document then you’re overthinking it.
My approach has always been the following: Create a one page plan with bullet points.
A simple plan is all you need
You can download this here.
You can simply capture the things that will be the foundation for the company (which we’ve covered in the last few days) and go from there.
For Lawn Tribe since we have already mapped out what our company is going to look like based on our competitive research my outline looks a little different and is focused more on the company experience.
Either way, the goal is a simple one page look at where you’re heading.
LAWN TRIBE BUSINESS PLAN
Lawn Tribe is a service driven Household company. We will:
Provide World Class service
Make it easy for clients to do business with us: Easy Online Booking with Flat Pricing
200% Guarantee: We fix it AND (Refund if client wouldn’t recommend us to a friend)
30 Minute On time guarantee window. Fast, friendly & expert customer service.
Provide service with no contracts. Clients can cancel anytime.
Focus on environmentally sound business practices
Initial Service Selection:
Lawn Mowing
Hedge work
LawnTribe is a service company that sells household solutions to simplify lives.
Customer Service Experience:
Fast, Accurate, Scheduling
Friendly, helpful, “Above and beyond Service”
Refer customers to competitors for jobs we are not able to do
Team Experience-What we do internally:
Performance based goals for teams-Teams compete based on Quality
Best performing teams get majority of clients
Service availability 7 days a week
Culture, core values, and customer service training
Interviews based on Core Values fit
LT Core Values
Deliver RA! Service (Ridiculously Awesome)
Underpromise and Overdeliver
Build in surprising experiences
Be adventurous and open-minded
Pursue Growth and personal improvement
Communicate Honestly
Build an enjoyable team spirit
Keep an eye on cost
Be passionate and enthusiastic
Be Humble
Make a simple business plan just like this using what you’ve learned from the previous days’ planning and brain exercises. We will add a bit more on what we will charge, and how we will get paid and other items in the days ahead.
Your plan is a living document
So the core things we have put together will form the basis of our company, but rest assured, by the time the 27 days are up, we would have mapped out all of this.
We’re going to get to this stuff, but we build in a more action oriented approach where everything we do is focused on getting moving. We’re not going to sit around for 6 months creating some beautiful 100 page report with charts and graphs.
And we’re not going to kill ourselves trying to pre-solve problems that we don’t even know if they only exist in our heads or not.
Nope!
At this stage in the game, action wins! And tomorrow, there is more action to come!
What’s Happening Tomorrow
Tomorrow we’re going to show how we make it easy for our customers to do business with us and reveal our competitive edge that catapults us ahead of the competition every single time.
Three things you can do to help this along 🙂This post will be talking about Game of Thrones. If you’ve not heard about it, it’s this pretty cool show based on an amazing (and sadly, unfinished) book series.
In the very first episode of Game of Thrones, a party of rangers from the Night’s Watch fall prey to the Others, the legendary White Walkers who figuratively dwell in myth and literally dwell in some frozen land far north of the Wall.
This set the stage for a conflict that has been slowly developing over the seasons, promising a large battle between humanity and an army of the dead.
I’m not here to talk about that.
Instead I’m here to talk about how nearly all of the major families, those who are busy squabbling over thrones and titles, already have undead champions in play. (Some of these undead champions blur the line into symbolism, but I hope you’ll forgive me for a little bit of dramatic license.)
Let’s start.
You Starks are hard to kill…
The direwolf-loving Starks are an obvious example, with Jon Snow murdered by his traitorous brothers in the Night’s Watch (they may have had good reasons to do so) and then resurrected following a ritual by Melisandre, the red witch who served the foreign deity R’hllor.
Jon didn’t necessarily come back with supernatural powers (that we know of) but Tormund Giantsbane has made claims that some wildlings now consider Jon a god. Jon has asserted (so far, successfully to everyone but /r/asoiaf redditors) that his death absolves him from his Night’s Watch oath (which would otherwise make his newly bestowed position of King in the North problematic.)
So the only immediate benefit in a second shot at life is getting (arguably) a free pass from his vows.
Unlike Jon, there is a Stark who holds faithfully to his Night’s Watch prime directive, despite his watch possibly ending with his death. If he’s even dead.
We don’t really know how to classify Benjen Stark. Is he mostly dead? Slightly alive? We just know that he was unwilling to return with Bran Stark to the Wall, because the Wall has anti-wight wards, and in Benjen’s cold-handed state those defenses would apply against him as well.
So Benjen continues a commando war against the Others, with a sweet flaming sickle-chain-flail weapon. What a guy! No one really knows about this death-defying Stark, kicking ass up north-of-North. Except for Bran and Meera, of course.
Speaking of Bran, his return to the kingdom of the North might be considered a symbolic return from the dead, since many in the North might still believe the fake news that Bran was killed by Theon Greyjoy.
Symbolically returning from the dead isn’t nearly as impressive as Jon or Uncle Benjen: Bran isn’t a solid example as an undead champion (at all), but Bran does bring a certain supernatural cachet to the team, being the new Three-Eyed Raven and all. He quite possibly could be the surprise champion of the series.
(Oh, I guess Jon Snow could also count as an undead champion for House Targaryen. But they already have that covered.)
Dragons and a Phoenix
Team Targaryen features someone who was written off as dead, but was born anew supernaturally. And with a newfound mythic aspect. Specifically, dragons.
Daenerys Targaryen entered a flaming pyre, a suicidal act as far as Ser Jorah Mormont was concerned. But like a phoenix she arose from the ashes.
We can debate if Daenerys literally died in the conflagration of Drogo’s funeral bonfire, but she certainly is further on the scale of death and resurrection than Bran is. The phoenix imagery helps since the fabulous magical bird of legend unambiguously dies and is reborn from its charred remains.
The Dothraki in attendance were certainly impressed by Dany’s fiery “rebirths”. It was even a more impressive trick the second time around.
Surviving such an inferno is a reasonable basis for legitimacy of power. That gets directly translated into military might with the addition of the awe-inspired Dothraki. (I wonder how they’ll feel about fighting wights, though.)
I have the Mountain…
Speaking of beautiful blonde queens who gained post-pyrotechnic political power, Cersei Lannister is currently atop the Iron Throne because she survived a firestorm of her own making.
Okay, unlike Daenerys, Cersei was not in danger of being burnt but I would not be surprised if she’d let a rumor grow claiming she’d actually been in the Sept to stand trial before the gods as expected, and the gods judged her innocent. By dramatically destroying her accusers.
(I have heard crazier stories of biblical destructions.)
Regardless if Cersei wants to claim divine or miraculous approval, she has as her right hand monster the mighty Gregor Clegane, who may or may not be undead.
I’m not interested in getting close enough to find out.
No matter how we classify Ser Gregor, it seems fair to say that just by walking around after getting a gut-full of envenomed spear by the Red Viper of Dorne, Clegane has cheated death.
What is dead may never die…
The hardcore Ironborn who ritually undergo literal drowning wouldn’t say that they’ve cheated death, but rather are devoutly sharing in the great victory of their deity, the Drowned God who defeated death.
We see this process explicitly with King Euron Greyjoy, another head-of-household who symbolically died and returned. (Not so symbolically, actually. They drowned his fratricidal ass.)
This might be the least supernatural of resurrections, or at least it is in the books where the Drowned God’s holy men are well-trained in CPR.
I’m not exactly sure what the show was trying to communicate with Euron first being held underwater, then his lifeless body laid out, and then the drowned priest in attendance (don’t call that guy Aeron Damphair, Aeron would never have supported a godless man like Euron to be king) just staring at Euron until the evil pirate spontaneously revived himself.
Apparently, drowning can be reversed with the strength of an observer’s regard? I can’t explain what the show was trying for.
Regardless, the Ironborn will probably be not that impressed with stories of Jon Snow’s resurrection or Dany’s flaming rebirths. Because many of them have already risen from the dead, reputedly harder and stronger than before.
Hanged Men and Ghosts
Speaking of crazy stuff, it’s time to round this out with House Baratheon.
The first raised-from-the-dead character (that wasn’t a mindless wight) in the story of A Song of Ice and Fire would probably be Lord Beric Dondarrion, the leader of the Brotherhood without Banners. Beric was granted royal authority to hunt down and stop the depredations of Gregor Clegane, who rampaged along the Riverlands as a smokescreen for Tywin’s preparation of breaking the King’s Peace.
While this task force was out in the field, King Robert died and Dondarrion’s men found themselves suddenly branded outlaws to be hunted down by Lannister forces. Arya eventually became a “guest” of these men, who told her that they were still king’s men. Just not King Joffrey’s men.
“We’d been sent out by the King’s Hand to deal with outlaws, you see, but now we were the outlaws, and Lord Tywin was the Hand of the King. There was some wanted to yield then, but Lord Beric wouldn’t hear of it. We were still king’s men, he said, and these were the king’s people the lions were savaging. If we could not fight for Robert, we would fight for them, until every man of us was dead.” — ASOS, Arya III
They were continuing to operate (from their point of view) under the auspices of King Robert (even if Ned was the one who gave them the task.) So I’m considering the Brotherhood without Banners #TeamBaratheon.
Lord Beric died fighting against the Mountain’s forces. And Lord Beric’s ally, the famous Thoros of Myr, miraculously brought Beric back to life. (Thoros was as surprised as any of them the first time this happened.) Through the course of the brotherhood’s guerrilla warfare against the Lannisters, Lord Beric has been killed and resurrected by Thoros well over a half-dozen times.
This hasn’t been a necessarily good experience for Dondarrion. Each time he returned, he was less of the man that he had been, which sounds correct since resurrection just seems like something that should have a cost. Especially in light of all the ways Beric died: horrible wounds of all sorts, and a hanging.
A hanged man who goes on to organize the hanging of men: it has a certain thematic resonance.
Lord Beric is from the Stormlands but he isn’t a Baratheon, so some might cast some side-eye on my reasoning for having him represent a supernatural champion of House Baratheon. Fine.
But there’s definitely a Baratheon who came back from the dead to win a great victory over treacherous enemies. I’m talking of course about Renly Baratheon.
What? I hear you ask. I appreciate your confusion.
This is pretty much a book detail, but if you went and interviewed some of the Stormlanders who retreated from the Battle of the Blackwater, they would swear to you that murdered Renly’s ghost led the Highgarden cavalry who’d joined with Tywin Lannister’s men to repel Stannis’ siege assault.
My hirelings betray me, my friends are scourged and shamed, and I lie here rotting, Tyrion thought. I thought I won the bloody battle. Is this what triumph tastes like? “Is it true that Stannis was put to rout by Renly’s ghost?” Bronn smiled thinly. “From the winch towers, all we saw was banners in the mud and men throwing down their spears to run, but there’s hundreds in the pot shops and brothels who’ll tell you how they saw Lord Renly kill this one or that one. Most of Stannis’s host had been Renly’s to start, and they went right back over at the sight of him in that shiny green armor.” — ASOS, Tyrion I
Renly Baratheon had famously distinctive armor (replete with an antlered helm) – and that suit of armor definitely showed up for the battle, obviously animated by Renly’s specter, looking to even the score with his treacherous brother. (Or maybe someone else was wearing it. That’s equally crazy, right?)
Even if Renly’s ghost didn’t literally come back from the beyond to strike back at his brother, people believed that Renly had, weakening Stormland support for Stannis.
Belief is a big deal. Not everyone has first hand experience in Jon Snow coming back from the dead, but they’ve heard stories. Some believe it.
Relatively speaking, only a few people saw Dany survive the bonfire that hatched her dragons, but it’s hard not to believe that she’s something special when she has dragons on her side.
Maybe belief is the element that will rouse the kingdoms to unite in reaction to reports of the army of the dead moving beyond the Wall. It’s easier to accept the reality of walking dead men when nearly every one of the great houses in Westeros has some family members or retainers who’ve died (possibly symbolically or fraudulently) and returned from the dead.
(To be fair, I’ve not even covered all of the undead who are in the books but didn’t make it to the show. But I don’t want to talk about that here, in case there are show watchers who one day want to read the books and be surprised.)
With the return of Game of Thrones this summer, maybe we’ll see how well the dead who lead the living deal with the Other-led living dead.
Just like the army of the White Walkers, Season Seven seems to be getting closer and closer, but sooooo slowly. Like it should have been here a long time ago.
OH NO! IT’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!
(Comments are always welcome. Super welcome! But if you want to talk spoilery Game of Thrones talk with me (also welcome) I’d invite you to visit my Safe Spoilers page on my backup blog. That way my non-book-reading friends won’t be shocked with foreknowledge.)
Images from HBO’s Game of Thrones (OBVIOUSLY.)
I make no claim to the images, but some claims to the text. So there.
If you liked this article, thank you! I have all of my Game of Thrones related articles on my handy-dandy Game of Thrones page should you want to read more but don’t want to navigate around my site.
© Patrick Sponaugle 2017 Some Rights Reserved
AdvertisementsI’ve tried my level damndest to ignore the latest Richard Cohen column controversy, because life is short and Cohen will stumble into another racial contretemps within six weeks or so. And I don’t like the idea of a columnist being Mau-Mau’d out of a job because he’s a casual bigot. The smarmy-sounding Fred Hiatt defense—that Cohen “isn’t afraid to take on subjects where culture and politics and emotion overlap”—isn’t entirely wrong. Past-their-prime white guys have opinions, too.
No, the problem with Cohen’s column was that he made an assertion about an entire class of people being racist, and did no work to prove it. Cohen claimed that people with “conventional” views might be spooked by Bill de Blasio’s interracial marriage and the social change it represents. “What I was doing was expressing not my own views but those of extreme right-wing Republican tea party people,” he told Paul Farhi. “I don’t have a problem with interracial marriage or same-sex marriage.” In an interview with the Huffington Post, he asserted that “I was expressing the views of what I think some people in the Tea Party held,” though “I don’t think everybody in the Tea Party is like that, because I know there are blacks in the Tea Party. So they’re not all racist.”
That’s still quite an assertion about a group of people Cohen didn’t even try to talk to for his column. He could have asked Tea Partiers whether they were bothered by Clarence Thomas’ marriage to a white woman, given that she took a (short-lived) role as a would-be Tea Party leader in 2009 and 2010. He could have asked about their reaction to FreedomWorks Outreach Director Deneen Borelli, whose husband, Tom, is white. Or, because anecdotal evidence is only worth so much, he could have “taken the Internet express” to Gallup.com and noticed that 85 percent of whites and 70 percent of elderly people are fine with interracial marriage. He could have shelled out for some current political science research, which suggests that “there is no difference between the racial attitudes of the general white population and self-identified tea party members.”
He could have. Instead, Cohen made up a claim about a bunch of conservatives probably holding circa-1960 racial views. It’s the sort of claim any columnist with sense or a work ethic would probably veto right away, but it jibes with a sterotype of conservatives, so even the publisher of the Washington Post gave it an attaboy.
Brilliant: richard Cohen on why Cruz beats Christie in iowa: http://t.co/Ofl85i5lf1 — katharine weymouth (@weymouthk) November 12, 2013
To their credit, conservatives haven’t made much of a “poor us!” fuss about the Cohen column. It’s offensive to them, sure. But what do they care about a dim-witted columnist who only gets read when he trips over his words like a drunk uncle tumbling over the wedding cake?Windham and Bennington counties may soon have a brand recognizable to both employers and tourists, thanks to the Southern Vermont Sustainable Marketing Strategy Project. The project is being paid for with a post-Irene disaster recovery grant from the federal Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
In March, project organizers hired the Denver, Colo. firm Atlas Advertising "to develop both a brand for Southern Vermont and a sustainable marketing mechanism for employers and tourism entities to utilize in leveraging their collective efforts to yield more effective results," according to a press release published on ibrattleboro.com by Laura Sibilia, director of economic development for the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. Sibilia noted:
"The Southern Vermont Sustainable Marketing Project has been named as a high priority project in economic mitigation plans for the announced closure of Vermont Yankee and as a Vital Project in the Southeastern Vermont CEDS due to be released on December 5th."
Atlas will present the results of its initial research at 6 p.m. this Thursday at the Wilmington Town Meeting Room. The public is invited to attend.As Mr. Kaine returned to finish high school, race through college in three years and enroll at Harvard Law, the Jesuits back in El Progreso administered to an ever more bloody region.
The Rev. Mauricio Gaborit, a Honduran priest, befriended Mr. Kaine during his initial trip in 1974. Father Gaborit said that after he had helped Nicaraguan refugees streaming over the border, two security officials told him he needed to leave the country if he wanted to live. He did, ultimately coming to study in America.
“I talked a little bit about this with Tim,” said Father Gaborit, who visited Mr. Kaine at his home outside Kansas City years later and corresponded with him through letters and late-night conversations. Father Gaborit shared his terrifying experiences, but Mr. Kaine, he said, was determined to return.
He “wasn’t a worried person,” Father Gaborit said.
Instead, Mr. Kaine was worried that he was rushing through life. While at Harvard Law, he arranged to volunteer again in El Progreso. His parents wondered if he was considering the priesthood, but he said he was seeking something else.
El Progreso seemed as far from Kansas City as it was from Rome. Priests wore short sleeves and had muddy boots. Bishops distinguished themselves with white guayabera shirts.
Upon Mr. Kaine’s return in 1980, the Jesuits told him his experience working in his father’s metal shop was more valuable than his legal knowledge. He was soon teaching carpentry and welding to 70 vocational students.
The Rev. Jack Warner, a priest with the mission, recalled Mr. Kaine as quiet and methodical, which came in handy for his record-keeping duties at the school. But Father Warner also described an atmosphere of fear in which the most basic advice was “be careful of who you are talking to — most particularly the Americans.”Khosrow I (known as Chosroes I and Kisrā in classical sources; 501–579, most commonly known in Persian as Anushiruwān (Persian: انوشيروان, "the immortal soul"));[2] also known as Anushiruwan the Just (انوشيروان دادگر, Anushiruwān-e Dādgar), was the King of Kings (Shahanshah) of the Sasanian Empire from 531 to 579. He was the successor of his father Kavadh I (488–531). Khosrow I was the twenty-second Sasanian Emperor of Persia, and one of its most celebrated emperors.
He laid the foundations of many cities and opulent palaces, and oversaw the repair of trade roads as well as the building of numerous bridges and dams. His reign is furthermore marked by the numerous wars fought against the Sassanid's neighboring archrivals, the Roman-Byzantine Empire, as part of the already centuries-long lasting Roman–Persian Wars. The most important wars under his reign were the Lazic War which was fought over Colchis (western Georgia-Abkhazia) and the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591. During Khosrow's ambitious reign, art and science flourished in Persia and the Sasanian Empire reached its peak of glory and prosperity. His rule was preceded by his father's and succeeded by Hormizd IV. Khosrow Anushiruwan is one of the most popular emperors in Iranian culture and literature and, outside of Iran, his name became, like that of Caesar in the history of Rome, a designation of the Sasanian kings.[3]
He also introduced a rational system of taxation, based upon a survey of landed possessions, which his father had begun, and tried in every way to increase the welfare and the revenues of his empire. His army was in discipline decidedly superior to the Byzantines, and apparently was well paid. He was also interested in literature and philosophical discussions. Under his reign chess was introduced from India, and the famous book of Kalilah and Dimnah was translated. He thus became renowned as a wise king.
Early life [ edit ]
Birthplace and family [ edit ]
Artwork of Khosrow's war with the Mazdakites.
Khosrow I was born in Ardestan, an ancient town which was built by the Achaemenids, close to the major city of Spahan. He was the third son of Kavadh I, and had three brothers named Xerxes, Zamasp and Kawus. Khosrow's mother was the sister of Bawi,[5][6] making Khosrow I related to the Parthian House of Ispahbudhan.
His father was involved with a group of Zoroastrians called the Mazdakites. The Mazdakites believed in an egalitarian society and many lower class peasants supported the Mazdakite revolution.[7] Kavadh, wanting to centralize power by taking power away from the great noble families, supported this movement. In 531, Kavadh, while on his death-bed, appointed Khosrow as his successor.[5]
War with the Mazdakites [ edit ]
However, upon Kavadh's death, the Mazdakites gave their loyalty to Kavadh's eldest son, Kawus, while the noble families and the Zoroastrian Magi gave their support to Khosrow I. Khosrow presented himself as an anti-Mazdakite supporter.[8] He, much like his father, believed in a strong centralized government. Khosrow met his brother Kawus in war and defeated him as well as his Mazdakite followers. Subsequently, Mazdak, as well as a majority of his followers, were executed for his heretical beliefs and Khosrow took the Sasanian throne.[9] At Khosrow's succession, Byzantium and Sasanian Persia were in open conflict with each other. Neither empire was able to get an advantage of the other, causing Emperor Justinian and King Khosrow to agree on a peace treaty in 531.[10]
However, in 531, Bawi, along with other members of the Persian aristocracy became involved in a conspiracy in which they tried to overthrow Khosrow I and make Kavadh, the son of Kavadh I's second eldest son Djamasp (Zames),[11] the king of the Sasanian Empire. Upon learning the plot, Khosrow I executed all his brothers, their offsprings, along with Bawi and the other "Persian notables" who were involved.[12] Khosrow I also ordered the execution of Kavadh, who was still a child, and was away from the court, being raised by Adergoudounbades.
Khosrow sent orders to kill Kavadh, but Adergoudounbades disobeyed and brought him up in secret, until he was betrayed to the shah in 541 by his own son, Bahram (Varranes). Khosrow had him executed, but Kavadh, or someone claiming to be him, managed to flee to the Byzantine Empire.[13] In 532, Khosrow and Justinian, emperor of the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire concluded Pax Perpetuum, or the Eternal Peace in hopes of settling all land disputes between the Romans and Sasanians.[14][15]
Reforms [ edit ]
Summary [ edit ]
Khosrow I represents the epitome of the philosopher king in the Sasanian Empire. Upon his ascent to the throne, Khosrow did not restore power to the feudal nobility or the magi, but centralized his government.[16] Khosrow's reign is considered to be one of the most successful within the Sasanian Empire. The peace agreement between Rome and Persia in 531 gave Khosrow the chance to consolidate power and focus his attention on internal improvement.[17] His reforms and military campaigns marked a renaissance of the Sasanian Empire, which spread philosophic beliefs as well as trade goods from the far east to the far west.
The internal reforms under Khosrow were much more important than those on the exterior frontier. The subsequent reforms resulted in the rise of a bureaucratic state at the expense of the great noble families, strengthening the central government and the power of the Shahanshah. The army too was reorganized and tied to the central government rather than local nobility allowing greater organization, faster mobilization and a far greater cavalry corps. Reforms in taxation provided the empire with stability and a much stronger economy, allowing prolonged military campaigns as well as greater revenues for the bureaucracy.[18]
Tax reforms [ edit ]
Khosrow's tax reforms have been praised by several scholars, the most notable of whom is F. Altheim.[19] The tax reforms, which were started under Kavadh I and completely implemented by Khos |
"We're always working with our partners on great new creative. It's highly speculative and premature to talk about Super Bowl ads and future campaigns for next year."
Adding the word "hatin'" to the slogan is risky for McDonald's given recent criticism over the quality of its food. In July, Consumer Reports named McDonald's burger the worst tasting of all the major U.S. burger chains. Some diners are turning to rivals because they view McDonald's burgers as too expensive for the quality, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.
"The slogan is a misdirected strategic response at several levels to the large number of adverse opinions about the firm's food and employment practices that have recently surfaced over the Internet," Kumar noted. "It appears to be a defensive tactic that seems to take a condescending approach towards those who may have taken an adversarial position to the firm or the brand."
Asked in a recent interview with CBS Sunday Morning about the Consumer Reports ranking, McDonald's chief executive Don Thompson noted that the company is "a big target."
"If you attack McDonald's, you'll get press. And so, you know, just about any and everyone will attack McDonald's for something," he said.Dragon Ball Z TCG Heroes & Villains Preview: Face Smash
Previews have begun for the Dragon Ball Z TCG Heroes & Villains set, and Panini America has given us TEN big previews to lay on you guys. Since we are a multimedia site, we’re gonna split up all the previews between on different outlets but we will deliver all cards to you in the coming weeks. You may have even already seen our first preview for Dragon Ball Z TCG Heroes & Villains when I guest hosted on Dragon Ball Radio this week. Here it is in case you missed it.
We discuss this card and all the other Dragon Ball Z TCG Heroes & Villains previews we have seen so far on their latest podcast as well as some of our concerns for the game, so click below to give it a listen.
And finally what you all came to see and probably skipped over all the other text I’ve written (including this sentence) to get to.
I’m sure you would all love to talk about this latest Dragon Ball Z TCG Heroes & Villains spoiler on the Official RetroDBZ Facebook Group.
Two down, eight to go. So where else will you be able to find our Dragon Ball Z TCG Heroes & Villains preview cards? I’m glad you asked. In the next few weeks…
We will reveal a Villain ally on this website.
Garrett will be talking about a Saiyan physical attack on his YouTube channel.
We will post two Black Style attacks (one energy, one physical) on our Facebook page.
I will be posting a Blue Style physical attack on my Instagram account @ArguablyTrue.
We will post a Red Style event and a physical attack on our Twitter page @RetroDBZccg.
Garrett will be posting a Namekian style drill on his Instagram account @Garrett_in_the_Hat.
So be sure to follow us on those different accounts to get all the previews. And please, if you would like to use any of the preview images then please use any “Share Button” features or give us a link. Previews are one of the few ways community sites can build massive traffic. That goes for any of the other preview sites too:
Panini DBZ Facebook Page
Dragon Ball Radio
TAK Games
DBZ Fanatics Gaming Network
and DBZ Top Tier
Later, BroZ!
Share this: Facebook
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TumblrFour years ago, North Carolina was thought to be in transition, a Southern state turning blue in President Obama’s “new America.” But at the close of its legislative session last Friday, the Tar Heel State showed its true hue: deep red.
Since the state’s legislative session began in January, lawmakers have blocked a Medicaid expansion under Obama’s Affordable Care Act, reduced access to federal unemployment benefits, cut the corporate tax rate, trimmed public-education funding, passed a bill that allows concealed weapons in bars and restaurants, tackled welfare reform, proposed a ban on Shari‘a, restricted access to abortion and enacted stricter voting laws.
It had been over a century since the GOP held both the legislature and governor’s mansion in the moderate state, but after Republicans seized control of both houses of the general assembly in 2010, drew redistricting maps that will help solidify their control on local and federal levels over the next several years, and elected the first Republican governor since 1988 last November, state lawmakers were poised to push forward with their new, conservative agenda.
And so they have.
Over the next 30 days, Governor Pat McCrory will see 60 bills come across his desk, after what has been one of the most dramatic shifts in the political leanings of a state during one legislative session in recent history. The governor has been openly critical of a few bills; he plans to veto a proposal to drug-test welfare recipients and opposes another requiring employers to verify the immigration status of their workers.
(MORE: Moral Mondays: Religious Progressives Protest North Carolina Policies)
But overall, the governor said Friday he has been pleased with the legislative session. “We’ve had more reform in this state government in the past six months than we’ve seen in the past 30 years,” McCrory said at a press conference.
Republicans across the state agree.
“What they’ve done this year is enact landmark legislation and advance freedom and chances for economic prosperity,” said Francis DeLuca, president of Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank in North Carolina. “These are fundamental reforms that we’ve needed for a while.”
While change has undoubtedly come, Democrats argue it has arrived at the expense of North Carolinians, many of whom have been expressing disapproval for the measures since the session began.
The most outspoken backlash against the policies has come in the form of Moral Monday demonstrations where protesters have been gathering at the capitol in Raleigh since April 29. More than 900 people have been arrested and thousands have gathered, led by local religious leaders, to express their distaste for the state’s markedly conservative agenda.
After the legislative session ended Friday, the protesters gathered for a Mass Moral Monday March to the state capitol where they held an Interfaith Social Justice Rally.
Republican leaders have written off the protests, going so far as to call them “Moron Monday” rallies for “aged hippies” in op-ed columns in local newspapers.
Gerry Broome/AP Capitol police keep an eye on Moral Monday protests outside the house and senate chambers at the state legislature in Raleigh, N.C., on July 1, 2013
Despite being shrugged off by Republicans, the backlash against decisionmaking in the legislature is growing, according to a recent poll. A July survey conducted by Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh-based polling firm, found that 49% of voters disapprove of the governor’s performance and 56% of voters disapprove of the general assembly’s performance. The governor’s approval rating is down 15 points from June, but the general assembly’s rating has not changed over the past month, according to Public Policy Polling.
“People are disgusted by what the Republican leadership has been doing to North Carolina,” North Carolina senate minority whip Josh Stein tells TIME. “There’s a real culture shock here — North Carolinians are inherently moderate people. We focus on the fundamentals,” Stein says. “They’re focusing on an extreme agenda that’s damaging to the state.”
Among the most controversial pieces of legislation are two bills that passed through the house and senate just days before the session came to a close.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, the state legislature passed a sweeping voting bill that reduces early voting by a week, requires voters to present photo identification at the polls, ends an early-registration program and nixes same-day voter registration. Critics say those policies will depress turnout from voters who typically lean democratic.
After failing to attach new restrictions on abortion to a bill that prohibits the application of “foreign law,” aimed at the specter of Islamic Shari‘a, state lawmakers added the language to a bill on motorcycle safety. (The legislation was lampooned by the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union as the “#motorcyclevagina bill.”) As a result of the legislation, those with government-administered insurance plans will not have abortions covered, except in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger. The Department of Health and Human Services is also authorized to apply the same standards it would to ambulatory surgical centers to abortion clinics, though they are not required to meet the standards.
McCrory signed the abortion bill on Monday, though he vowed he wouldn’t sign any restrictive women’s-health bills when campaigning in 2012. He also stated he plans to sign the voting bill.
While stricter voting laws and abortion restrictions are not uncommon in states with Republican-controlled legislatures, Sarah Preston, policy director for ACLU-NC, says North Carolina lawmakers are taking these measures to different levels. “North Carolina is pursuing extreme versions,” Preston says. “They’ve gone beyond what other states are doing.”
However, states like Florida and Texas, where Republicans have controlled the state legislature for over a decade, have been pursuing legislation like those proposed in North Carolina for some time.
In Florida, where Republicans have controlled the state legislature for nearly a decade, voters experienced long lines and excessive wait times at polling places in November 2012, a result of early-voting restrictions put in place by Governor Rick Scott. (Early voting was restored in February.)
Two weeks ago, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a law that puts a ban on abortions after 20 weeks and requires abortion clinics to operate under the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers (a similar provision was taken out of the final version of the North Carolina abortion law).
“I can’t think of any individual policy or proposal in North Carolina that is unprecedented,” said Tom Carsey, a distinguished professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “What’s surprising is the number of things that have happened in such a short period of time.”André 3000.
Did André 3000 Diss Drake on Frank Ocean’s New Album, Blonde
Is André 3000 Calling Out Drake for Using Ghostwriters?
André 3000 Alleged Shaded Drake on His Blonde Verse and Twitter Went Wild
André 3000 Was Definitely Talking About Drake
This is what you see — perhaps when you die — but also if you Googled “André 3000” yesterday.
The context: the tenth track of Frank Ocean’s new independently released album, Blonde, is “Solo (Reprise).” André 3000 is not simply on the song; he is the song, rapping for one straight minute. The verse-long track ends with this thought from André:
After 20 years in, I’m so naïve
I was under the impression
That everyone wrote they own verses
It’s comin’ back different and yeah that shit hurts me
I’m hummin’ and whistlin’ to those not deserving
I’ve stumbled and lived every word
Was I working just way too hard?
This is the part that started the Drake tizzy. The assumption: After a year of speculation surrounding Drake’s use of ghostwriters, André chimes in — with a diss.
If you first discovered Outkast with “Hey Ya,” focusing on this makes sense. But if you’ve been following André’s whole career, lines like this would not register shock: This type of self-reflective pseudo finger-wagging is part of what he’s been doing for more than a decade, often using his biannual guest verses as a summary of sorts, on what he sees happening in the hip-hop distance. (Also, Drake is hardly the only rapper using ghostwriters these days.) As he said on DJ Drama’s “Da Art of Storytellin’ (Part 4),” “I tell it like it is, then I tell it how it could be.”
It’s like that moment at a family gathering, when everyone is bickering — your mother with your aunt, two of your cousins, a father and son — and then, in the corner, the grandmother, the matriarch who has said nothing all day, stands up, causing everyone to freeze and pay attention. And, one by one, she reads everyone their rights, calls everyone out for being ridiculous, reminds everyone that she didn’t raise us to behave in such an uncouth manner, and then sits back down and says nothing, until next Thanksgiving.
Even since his earliest Outkast days, André Benjamin has been a champion of the long verse (see: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’s “Git Up, Git Out,” clocking in at 1:14). He started truly going solo with the form in 2003 on the final track of his genre-all album The Love Below, “A Life In the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete),” on which he told some of his life story in the form of rapping for four minutes and 40 seconds straight. Since 2006, he’s used his space as a featured artist to deliver André Benjamin State of the Unions, like his appearance on Future’s “Benz Friendz (Whatchutola)” in 2014, which dedicated numerous bars to having increasingly few cares about brands and shiny things. And when he’s not giving his societal two cents, he’s doing full lyrical workshops, as he did in 2015, joined his former mate Erykah Badu for “Hello,” delivering a verse in which he almost raps a circle around himself.
The fact that these long, densely packaged verses now only appear as rare guest spots has only increased his legend for some — the Salingeresque hermit leaving his house in the woods a few times a year, maximum, to bless another artist’s song like the Pope might, as a reminder to all that he’s still the among the all-time best, that he’s still watching us, and that he still has plenty to say.
To others, it’s a demotion — going from half of one of the most legendary duos in music history to someone who suddenly will pop up on a Kesha or B.o.B. song.
Some years ago, I got into an argument with a friend, who said that while André’s verses were impressive, in both scale and content, most rappers could put together something of similar quality if they had the time or means to only release one or two a year.
It’s an interesting, albeit wrong, opinion. Perhaps there is a yet-to-be discovered dimension in which Tyga would deliver a mind-bending, culture-shifting two minute verse if he had six months to work on it. Sarcasm aside, maybe if you gave Drake — already a rapper that can run-on sentence a verse into the 60-second range with the best of them — half a year to put out a verse, it would actually be a classic work. But these are simply speculations, because they — like most of their peers — would never make a habit of appearing, and then retreating.
The bigger point — and this is where André connects with Frank Ocean beyond their two collaborations — is the discipline, and the confidence, it takes to go at your own pace. One of the stories of the past year has been “Frank, where is our album?” There was also “Where are you, Frank?” and “Has anyone seen Frank?” and “Fuck you, Frank.” What’s under all of this: The consumer, assuming we deserve another Frank Ocean album, now. There’s an invisible egg-timer on production and as someone that makes things for people, you’re never supposed to be late.
When you are late, it’s taken to be disrespectful, and when you disappear, you’re thought to be crazy. Additionally, there’s an idea that a true correlation exists between frequency of output and quality of artist. The fact that you have made songs is often placed on a higher pedestal than whether you have made good songs.
This makes sense, in the beginning. No one wants a fluke. In any industry, it’s helpful to produce, to show consistency, to let people know you can make a good thing and then make another good thing — that your success was not an accident.
But what about after you’ve done that? What about the moment when it’s clear you are different? Why continue to play the game? Again, going back to the beginning with André, do you want your art to become reduced to this?
Did André 3000 Diss Drake on Frank Ocean’s New Album, Blonde
Is André 3000 Calling Out Drake for Using Ghostwriters?
André 3000 Alleged Shaded Drake on His Blonde Verse, and Twitter Went Wild
André 3000 Was Definitely Talking About Drake
I recently discussed this idea of output, of disappearing, and of fandom with Donald Glover, who raps under the name Childish Gambino. He said: “Art, it’s all valueless, unless it has value. That’s what me, what Frank [Ocean], what people are slowly figuring out. People are just going to take and take — it’s why people are beginning to opt out. If things are treated as valuable, I’d rather just give it to people, because it’s all made up. If you’re giving a mud pie to someone and they’re like ‘this is just a bunch of mud’ and then you give it to someone who is like ‘ooh, thank you for this pie,’ play the game with the person who is playing the game with you.”
The Glovers and the Oceans and the Benjamins of the music world make us uneasy. High quality multi-talents with both infrequent outputs and low profiles make us uncomfortable. We love them, but we’re jealous of them, and, possibly, deep down we hate them, because they’re doing what we all want to do: Opt out. The way they’ve decided to live reminds us of how wrong we’re all doing it. When people go against the grain of the system, it’s a reminder that we’re the robots — and the weirdos are the actual humans.
In hip-hop and R&B, the luxury of showing up when you want, doing something, and then disappearing indefinitely — blazing your own path — is not the norm. The only “do what you want” archetype that we’ve seen repeated is the rapper turned mogul — you can finally stop playing everyone’s game once you’re a half-billionaire.
But what André began doing, and the road Frank also seems to be headed down, has nothing to do with moguldom. It’s something else. It’s a risky road that is best described as playing a different game than everyone else, one that can have a high reward. Frank is currently being rewarded — with critical acclaim, with independence. As for André, you can have your personal opinion about his talents, his career, his legacy, but what is clearly factual, judging by the actions of someone like Frank Ocean, is that he’s the prototype.Sgt First Class Christopher Speer
Tuesday, February 05, 2008 Who Is SFC Christopher J. Speer?
"Six days before he received the wounds that killed him, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer walked into a minefield to rescue two wounded Afghan children, according to fellow soldiers. He applied a tourniquet to one child and bandaged the other, they said. Then he stopped a passing military truck to take the wounded children to a U.S. Army field hospital. Speer saved those children, his colleagues said.
...
Speer, a Special Forces medic, suffered a head wound during a search of the Ab Khail village in Afghanistan on July 27. He was evacuated to Germany, where he died Aug. 6. He was 28.
(Source)
Soldiers from Headquarters U.S. Army Special Operations
Command carry the body of Sgt. 1st Class Christopher
J. Speer from the Village Chapel in Pinehurst, NC
on Tuesday
On Tuesday, Speer was remembered as a capable and confident soldier with an unflappable sense of humor. When the chips were down, friends said, he could pick up his co-workers with a smile and a laugh. They remembered him as a loving husband and father who had a sparkle in his eyes whenever he talked about his family. Survived by Wife, Tabitha, two small children, Taryn and Tanner and brother Todd
Chaplain Keith Jackson escorts Christopher Speer’s wife, Tabitha, from the church. Todd, his older brother and fellow soldier, said Christopher Speer was a "hero, not only for his professional conduct, but his family life. There's not more you can ask.
"I look up to him."
Before deploying to Afghanistan, Speer wrote notes to his wife, Tabitha, and their two small children, Taryn and Tanner, Jackson said.
"You are always on my mind and forever in my heart."
He wrote a note to his children on a card that had two whispering puppies on the cover, Jackson said. One puppy said to the other, "Do you want to know a secret?"
The card said, "I love you."
Speer then wrote, "It's no secret how much I love you. Take care of each other.
"Love Daddy"
source)
"I was given the honor of not only knowing Chris, I spent the happiest years of my life with him. We married and had two beautiful children. Chris made all my dreams come true, it was as though he completed me. It has been two years and seven months since his death and I still find it hard to believe that he won't be coming home. Our Daughter is now almost six, she talks about her Daddy constantly, our Son who is three has so much trouble understanding why his Daddy won't be coming home! He asks for his Daddy daily, can he see me? Does he hear me? Can he hold my hand if I reach up to Heaven? Will he come home after he's done in Heaven? My Daughter and I do our best to answer his questions.
We miss you so much and love you more than any words could ever possibly express. I can see you in their faces, with each and every smile and silly little smirk. You are so alive in them both, it amazes me! We have a little three year old version of you, he becomes more and more like you every day. They both have your sense of humor and are always smiling.
We love you, you are our true HERO!
I Love You Today, Tomorrow and Forever!"
Tabitha
To read some of the other comments from those who knew and love this hero, is to get a small measure of the huge loss. You can find them
I heard last night that Tabitha is in GITMO. I am not sure if she will give an impact statement at this time, but I found this:
To read some of the other comments from those who knew and love this hero, is to get a small measure of the huge loss. You can find them here. I heard last night that Tabitha is in GITMO. I am not sure if she will give an impact statement at this time, but I found this:
is an American hero who was killed in August 2002. As I write here, the terrorist who is responsible for Speer's death sits in GITMO, having finally admitted in a military courtroom that he is the murderer most of us have always known he is. Today, he is not my focus. The husband, father, brother, son and hero is who I want to share with you.Christopher's widow has remained very low profile since her beloved husband was killed, but on the Fallen Heroes Memorial site, I found this:
...she plans to speak at his sentencing hearing, people close to her say. In a powerful indication of her unbreakable devotion to the man she married in 1997, she continued to pay the bill of his cellular phone after his death so she could hear him speak in voice mail, a confidante told Postmedia News. "Any time the children wish to talk to Daddy, we send helium balloons into the sky," she wrote in a 2005 affidavit about Taryn, now 11, and Tanner, who was not yet a year old when his father died from the wounds he suffered in the firefight in Afghanistan...(read more here)
Tabitha Speer and Sgt Layne Morris - who was injured in the fight that killed his friend, - launched a civil suit against the murderer's family:
...Tabitha Speer's victim impact statement painfully described the days after her husband's death and how she had told her two young children that their dad wasn't coming home. "Any time the children wish to talk to daddy we send helium balloons into the sky," she wrote. "The children talk to their daddy each night before they go to bed, gazing up at the stars." "Surviving every day without Christopher has been utter hell."... The Khadr family was ordered to pay $102 million, but patriarch Ahmed Said Khadr was killed by Pakistani forces in 2003, and the rest of the family has returned to Canada and live on welfare in a Scarborough apartment – so no money has been paid.At the Vice-Presidential debate last week, Joe Biden claimed that the American Medical Association sided with him, and against Paul Ryan, on the merits of the Romney-Ryan plan for Medicare reform. “Who do you believe?” exclaimed Biden. “The AMA [and] me? A guy who has fought his whole life for this? Or somebody [like Paul Ryan]?” Well, it turns out that the AMA’s key policy committee has come out in favor of premium support for Medicare, in a fashion that tracks closely with what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are proposing.
(DISCLOSURE: I am an outside adviser to the Romney campaign on health care issues. The opinions contained herein are mine alone, and do not necessarily correspond to those of the campaign.)
I’ve had my disagreements with the AMA, which like its cousin the AARP, generates hundreds of millions of dollars in income from our existing, wasteful health-care system, and often stands in the way of needed reforms. But this past weekend, the AMA’s key policy committee, the Council on Medical Service, voted to endorse a Medicare reform plan that shares key traits with the ones put forth by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
“The [AMA] policy identifies changes that must be made to strengthen the traditional Medicare program (i.e., restructuring beneficiary cost-sharing, including modifying Medigap rules, and changing the eligibility age to match Social Security),” the Council writes, “and expresses support for giving beneficiaries a choice of plans for which the federal government would contribute a standard amount (i.e., a ‘defined contribution’) toward the purchase of traditional fee-for-service Medicare or another health insurance plan approved by Medicare. The Council firmly believes that implementing a defined contribution system, with strong regulatory protections for patients, is a responsible and feasible approach to strengthening the Medicare program.”
Comparing the AMA plan to Romney-Ryan
Much like the old Ryan plan, the AMA proposal would let the government provide a specified subsidy—the “defined contribution”—to retirees’ health benefits, and let them choose among a range of plans. Unlike the old Ryan plan, but like the current Romney-Ryan one, the AMA committee endorsed preserving “traditional Medicare as an option” for seniors.
The AMA Council’s report states that it came around to this view not at the behest of Republican operatives or candidates, but after speaking with Bill Clinton’s former budget chief, Alice Rivlin, who along with Paul Ryan proposed a version of this plan. “Dr. Rivlin emphasized that defined contribution amounts should be sufficient to ensure that all beneficiaries could afford to purchase health insurance coverage, and that private health insurance plans should be subject to regulations that protect patients and ensure the availability of coverage for even the sickest patients.”
These principles are echoed in the Romney plan for Medicare reform, which guarantees that seniors will be 100 percent covered for the standard package of benefits that traditional, government-run Medicare provides today.
In that sense, the Romney-Ryan plan isn’t actually a “defined-contribution” approach but rather a “defined-benefit” one. The tradeoff is that defined-contribution plans have absolute fiscal certainty—you know how much the government will spend on Medicare, no matter what happens in the broader health-care world—whereas defined benefit plans guarantee that seniors will be covered for the same health-care services they are today, even if their cost goes up significantly.
The AMA plan wants Medicare premiums to keep growing
The Council’s report does a great job of explaining why premium support makes sense. “The [Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan], which covers federal employees, including members of Congress, is an example of a defined contribution system that works very effectively for plan enrollees, while also effectively managing program spending growth.” The report notes the bipartisan heritage of premium support for Medicare.
One key difference between the Rivlin-Ryan plan and the AMA approach is that the Rivlin-Ryan plan sought to grow the premium-support payments at GDP + 1 percent, even if health-care costs grew at a faster rate. The AMA suggests allowing the premiums to grow in line with health-care inflation. “Annual adjustments should be based on changes in health care costs and the cost of obtaining health insurance, rather than on gross domestic product (GDP) or other indexes that are not directly tied to health care costs.” This approach by the AMA echoes what Mitt Romney and the Wyden-Ryan plan recommend for Medicare, though the AMA did not specifically endorse the idea of competitive bidding.
It's understandable why the AMA came out with a plan. If Medicare payments keep growing at a faster rate than the economy, it stands to figure that doctors would make more money too.
The AMA has been on the wrong side of many, if not most, health-care issues over the past five years. The AMA supported Obamacare, including that law’s aggressive cuts to health-care providers. The AMA is constantly willing to sacrifice the public interest in the pursuit of “doc fixes” that preserve physician compensation. In this case at least, AMA has taken the sounder approach.
Follow Avik on Twitter at @aviksaroy.BROOKLYN, NS – A large quantity of drugs was seized on Highway 14 near Brooklyn, N.S., after the 18-wheeler it was being carried on was stopped by police.
Windsor RCMP conducted a traffic stop last Thursday that was part of an ongoing investigation.
The truck was searched and police seized 609.5 pounds of cannabis marijuana, 19,800 tablets of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3.9 pounds psilocybin (magic mushrooms), 47 methamphetamine pills, a small quantity of cocaine and methamphetamine and a 2007 Peterbuilt tractor and trailer.
Photos indicate the drugs were packed in plastic, then placed in large wooden crates on the flat bed of the truck with a tarp thrown over them.
The driver and lone occupant of the truck, 39-year-old David Joseph MacDonald of Frasers Mills has been charged with four counts of trafficking in a controlled substance and one count of possession of a controlled substance.
He appeared in court on Oct. 1 and is scheduled for another appearance at Kentville Provincial Court on Oct. 27.
The investigation is still ongoing.President Obama on Tuesday promoted a new, multibillion-dollar Power Africa initiative to expand electricity access as a “win-win” for investors and the continent.
Obama spoke in Tanzania after touring a formerly idled power plant brought online with aid from the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corp., as well as General Electric and Symbion Power.
“[T]his is a win-win. It’s a win for Africans — families get to electrify their homes; businesses can run their plants; investors can say if we locate in an African country, that they’re going to be able to power up in a reliable way. All this will make economies grow,” Obama said, according to a White House transcript.
“It’s a win for the United States because the investments made here, including in cleaner energy, means more exports for the U.S. and more jobs in the U.S.,” he said.
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The White House first announced the plan on Sunday.
The Power Africa initiative aims to eventually help to double power access in sub-Saharan Africa, with an initial target of bringing electricity to 20 million homes and businesses in coming years.
The administration is channeling $7 billion over five years in assistance through various U.S. agencies, including the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp., and says it has secured $9 billion in private-sector commitments.
Earlier in the day Obama played with a Soccket ball, according to pool reports — a soccer ball, developed by two women from Harvard University, that captures and stores energy produced during play that can be used to power lamps and other devices.
He said in the speech that “development isn’t just about big projects.”
“Some of you saw the Soccket — the soccer ball that we were kicking around that generates electricity as it’s kicked. I don’t want to get too technical, but I thought it was pretty cool,” Obama said.
“And this is developed by two young women from the U.S., so Soccket turns one of the most popular games in Africa into a source of electricity and progress. And you can imagine this in villages all across the continent,” he said.Samsung has finally launched its first smartphone running software based on Tizen Linux. The company has been working on Tizen-based phones for years, but has continually delayed their actual launch.
Now Samsung is launching its first Tizen phone. The Samsung Z1 is now available in India for about $91.
In case the price wasn’t a giveaway, the Samsung Z1 is an entry-level phone. It has pretty basic hardware for a smartphone in 2015, including a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel PLS display, a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage (plus a microSD card slot), and a 1500mAh battery.
The phone supports GSM networks, features 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS, and has a 3.1MP rear camera and 0.3MP front camera.
Customers that buy the phone for use on the Reliance Communications and Aircel networks will get 500MB of free 3G data per month for 6 months.
But it’ snot the hardware that makes this phone special. It’s the software.
The Samsung Z1 runs an operating system based on Tizen 2.3 and Samsung says Tizen requires less processing power and memory than Android, which lets you get a decent performance on lower-cost hardware. It should boot, launch apps, and load web pages quickly. There’s also an “ultra power saving mode” to help prolong battery life.
Samsung says you should get up to 8 hours of talk time or 7 hours of video playback from the phone’s battery.
The phone can run apps downloaded from the Tizen Store, comes with a Samsung app called “Joy Box” which includes free music, movies, and TV shows as well as access to live TV in India. And there’s a built-in antivirus service that scans new apps when you install them as well as SMS and email messages.
With modest specs, the phone’s key selling point might be its equally modest price. But it’s not like Samsung is the only company introducing low-cost smartphones.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Samsung’s first Tizen-based phone appeals to customers as much as it clearly appeals to Samsung. Right now most of the company’s mobile devices run Google’s Android software. Samsung has more control over the software and services that run on Tizen phones like the Z1… and the Tizen Store could provide a new revenue stream for the company.Source: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie
Updated at 7.52am
THE SECOND OF five planned national rail strikes is taking place today.
Pay talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) collapsed last month and a solution doesn’t seem likely at present.
Further 24-hour works stoppages are planned on Tuesday 14 November, Thursday 23 November and Friday 8 December.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie ahead of today’s strike, NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary said he’s “not hopeful” that a breakthrough will happen soon.
“The last day of strike action planned at present is on 8 December, there’s not much of a window between that and the end of the year to find a solution.”
O’Leary said the NBRU and the four other unions involved in the dispute have not yet made a decision about striking over the Christmas period, but it’s a distinct possibility.
Unite Regional Officer Willie Quigley said that over the past decade Irish Rail’s workforce has “fallen by over 20%, while productivity measured in revenue per employee has grown by a massive 42%. Yet workers have been subjected to a near decade-long pay freeze…
“Unless management returns to the negotiating table with a credible offer, and the authorisation to make that offer, it is quite possible that industrial action will continue into the Christmas season,” Quigley said in a statement.
But after just one day of industrial action, workers seem to have gathered little sympathy from the public. In an Amárach Research poll carried out for the Claire Byrne Live, the majority of people said that they didn’t support the ongoing strike action by staff at Iarnród Éireann.
Of the 1,000 adults polled, 58% said they didn’t support the industrial action, 25% said they did, and 17% weren’t sure.
But Greg Ennis, Siptu’s TEAC (Transport, Energy, Aviation & Construction) Division Organiser agreed with Quigley, saying: “If Irish Rail don’t put forward a credible pay increase, I won’t rule out an escalation of the dispute.
Every dispute is ultimately resolved, it would be better if it’s resolved without further disruption to the travelling public. Strike action is most regrettable and does inconvenience commuters, we accept that.
“But members have been left with no option but to exercise their franchise to take industrial action. They have spent 10 years seeking a pay increase and had to deal with two years of temporary pay cuts.”
‘Becoming insolvent’
Ennis laid the blame for the strike firmly at Irish Rail’s door, saying the WRC talks collapsed because the company pulled back from a proposal “at the 11th hour”.
A spokesperson for Irish Rail denied this was the case, telling us: “At no point in the talks at the WRC did Iarnród Éireann propose or accept any proposal in excess of the 1.75% increase we proposed.
A pay increase which results in the company becoming insolvent, such as the one being sought by trade unions, cannot in any way be described as credible.
“We have worked to protect employees’ pay during the past 10 years, and we ensured increments continued to be paid during that time. A temporary 25-month pay reduction was reinstated in full last October, resulting in average earnings of over €62,000 per employee.”
It’s understood that Irish Rail workers are seeking a pay rise in the region of 3.75%, in line with what some other |
ook, who doesn’t know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass.
They could go with this strategy, since the Republicans certainly will paint Comey in a similar way.
Comey has lied about the president, but he was smart enough to tell the truth about Lynch.
Should the Left run with the strategy of demonizing Comey, there will be fallout.
First, Lynch still may not get away with her crime. Ironically, Lynch committed the same crime the Democrats accused the Russians of: influencing an election.
Second, the Democrats’ demonization of Comey completely exonerates President Trump. And if they think the Democrats look bad now, wait until Trump begins marketing their new revelation.
Then, there is the media.
They have been reeling from rightful allegations of being “fake news.”
Comey confirmed this in his testimony, saying the media reports on Trump and Russian collusion were patently false.
The media will be back on trial, and again they will be convicted as “fake news.”
There is a very good reason Dem Senator Dianne Feinstein calls for an investigation into Loretta Lynch. Feinstein specifically wants to investigate whether former Attorney General Loretta Lynch pressured former FBI Director James Comey to cover for Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign.
“I think we need to know more about that,” Feinstein told host Brianna Keilar on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And there’s only way to know about it, and that’s to have the Judiciary Committee take a look at that,” Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said.
Feinstein hopes to get ahead of this scandal, for the sake of the Party.
She knows what comes next will be a self-inflicted and potentially mortal wound to the Democrats.80pc back web filter: poll
Posted
A new poll has found overwhelming support for the Government's internet filter, but an online rights group says that is because people do not know enough about the scheme.
The ABC's Hungry Beast program commissioned McNair Ingenuity Research to conduct the telephone poll of 1,000 Australians.
The poll found that 80 per cent support the filtering scheme.
The filter would block a list of refused classification websites, including child abuse material.
But an online rights group says a greater number of people would oppose the government's internet filtering scheme if they knew more about it.
Geordie Guy from Electronic Frontiers Australia says what many people do not know is that the list of blocked websites will be broad and non-transparent.
"In every situation where we are able to clearly explain what the Government's proposal is, we see overwhelming opposition to that proposal," he said.
The Government is planning to introduce legislation for the scheme in the Autumn sittings of Parliament.
Topics: internet-technology, government-and-politics, federal-government, information-and-communication, internet-culture, australiaThe U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month ruled that your employer has the right to monitor your text messages. That development falls in step with corporations increasingly monitoring employee’s phone calls, e-mails, instant messages and social network postings as USA TODAY reported in this cover story. George Orwell was prescient, albeit a few decades off. In this LastWatchdog guest post, Elizabeth Charnock, CEO of evidence analytics firm Cataphora, points out that employer-monitoring is a time-honored practice.
By Elizabeth Charnock
Given what I do for a living – conducting digital investigations of various types – I hear quite a bit of concern these days over the demise of privacy. I have to admit that much of it baffles me.
Perhaps this is in part due to my fondness for old movies. I love the classics for many reasons, but one of them is that they present many aspects of then-contemporary life in a non-self-conscious way. As such, they provide a window into what has changed, what has stayed the same and what, to paraphrase the French, stays the same the more it changes.
For example, in the 1949 classic “A Letter to Three Wives,†a young Kirk Douglas bemoans the corrupting influence of a new medium whose sole purpose is to influence the American public into believing that happiness can only be achieved through consumption. The medium in question? Radio.
Media change
The office mailroom is another staple of old movies. In the prehistoric days before email, interoffice mail circulated in manila envelopes with holes in them, secured by string. There were no cell phones in the ‘40s, hence the often used device of a character whispering into the phone, so their neighbors would be less likely to overhear them.
It is impossible to argue that privacy in the workplace has decreased since the days of the mailroom clerk. All that has really changed is the medium. While it could be said that lack of technology was behind that lack of privacy, it does not follow that more technology implies more privacy.
The truth is most people want privacy for “the good guys.†They don’t want privacy for terrorists, thieves, sexual predators and other “bad guys.†Which leads us to an unfortunate problem: the only way to separate the good guys from the bad is to empirically observe them.
Why employers watch
Taking that to the workplace, studies show that a majority of American corporations have deployed systems to monitor employee communication. Two reasons are behind this trend:
1. Many types of “bad†employee behavior can backfire on the company in the form of lawsuits, fines and damage to its reputation. In a challenging economic climate, employers are increasingly anxious to avoid such self-inflicted problems.
2. History shows us that incidents of employee fraud rise significantly during down times and employees have greater financial stresses.
For many, there is a big difference between a computer program scanning their communications looking for evidence of specific bad acts, such as sexual harassment, leaking company trade secrets or distribution of child pornography, and a human randomly reading emails and IMs. In the former situation, if you aren’t doing anything wrong, it is a non-event; in the latter, all manner of embarrassing or awkward things can potentially be brought to light.
Additionally, there is a common misconception that equates such automated monitoring with employers snooping on their employees to see who is goofing off. Or just for the heck of it. The truth is that few employers have the inclination, time or money to do this. Indeed, most employees simply aren’t interesting enough to merit it. And in the case of those few employees are, anyone looking for such information can satisfy their curiosity on Twitter or Facebook.
People say personal privacy has gone to hell because of these new social media sites. While I can see the point of this argument, I believe it too is misguided; I believe it’s more of an issue of the scope and the type of audience. For example, today someone tweets they bought a great new pair of sandals; in the days before social media, you would have just worn the sandals where the whole town or company could see them. The audience and reach may have changed, but the act remains the same.
A duty to keep up
Organizations have a duty to ensure their systems are not being abused. Since most communications are now digital, so must be the monitoring that is essential to avoid problems that have the potential to cripple an organization.
That said, it is important to acknowledge that monitoring systems can collect private information that the employer does not need to know. This is a risk employees take when they entrust personal information to a system that is owned by someone else. The employer, however, should also ensure that any sensitive information – whether it belongs to employer or employee – is appropriately handled.
No matter how good technology is, technology alone is never the complete solution. Companies should create and enforce policies that make it clear to employees what their duties are, what the employer’s obligations are and how they each affect the other. A little education can go a very long way to overcoming the distrust that arises when employers try a stealth approach to this very sensitive issue.
About the author: Elizabeth Charnock has experience in engineering management, management consulting, and restart management at companies including Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. Charnock holds a BS in Theoretical Mathematics from the University of Michigan Honors Program. She’s also the author of the upcoming book, e-Habits: What You Must Do to Optimize Your Professional Digital Presence, which will be available in August, 2010 from McGraw-Hill.
June 30th, 2010 | Guest Blog Post | Privacy | Top StoriesSen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has introduced a bill that would withdraw the FDA's approval of Zohydro. AP Some lawmakers are hurrying to ban a potent new painkiller that caused an uproar when it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration against the recommendation of an expert advisory committee.
Massachusetts is the first state that has succeeded in blocking sales of new pain pill Zohydro, and legislators in Congress are trying to revoke the FDA's approval of the drug.
Last month, Gov. Deval Patrick declared a public health emergency in light of a recent spate of opiate overdoses in the state. Patrick doesn't want Zohydro sold in Massachusetts until drugmaker Zogenix releases it in a tamper-resistant form that would make it harder to abuse.
In a statement to Reuters, Zogenix said the Massachusetts ban "only serves to unfairly restrict patient access" and will "add to patient suffering in the state." Zogenix called the drug ban an "unprecedented action."
Zohydro is being marketed as a way to treat chronic pain. The pills pack a dose of hydrocodone that's five to 10 times higher than Vicodin, and experts worry that the drug could be deadly and lead to another spike in opioid addiction.
Hydrocodone has effects that are similar to heroin. Zohydro pills could be appealing to addicts and opioid abusers looking for a quick and dramatic high that comes from crushing or chewing the pill to release all the hydrocodone at once.
Currently, the pills are not made with tamper-resistant technology that would help prevent abuse. Zogenix is working on a tamper-resistant version of the drug, but it might not be available until the end of 2016, according to Bloomberg.
New England is in the midst of a nasty heroin epidemic, but Massachusetts isn't the only state that's concerned about Zohydro.
Legislators in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Massachusetts have also introduced bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate that would withdraw the FDA's approval of Zohydro.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) (whose daughter is the CEO of competing drug company Mylan Inc., a major campaign contributor) and Reps. Hal Rogers (D-Ky.) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), co-chairmen of the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse, introduced the legislation last month.
"In southern and eastern Kentucky, we lost nearly an entire generation when crushable OxyContin was first prescribed, and I fear this crushable, pure hydrocodone pill will take us backwards with a new wave of addiction and tragic, untimely deaths," Rogers said in a press release. "While there isn't a silver bullet, abuse deterrent formulations offer common sense measures to curb the tide of overdose deaths in this country."The asset sales referendum kicks off on November 22…
by Gordon Campbell
Between November 22 to December 13, New Zealanders have a chance to state their opinion of the asset sales programme, in a postal ballot. The question at stake will be : “Do you support the Government selling up to 49% of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis Power, Solid Energy and Air New Zealand?” It may not seem like much. Yet the referendum will be a platform for anyone left feeling enraged that the Crown energy companies they own have been packaged up and semi-privatised for the sole benefit of a small group of wealthy investors, local and foreign….and with costly sweeteners and inducements tossed in, at the public’s expense. The referendum offers the last, best chance to speak out. Sure, Russell Brand and John Key would both see it as a lost cause – and that should be all the incentive we need, to get out and vote.
As in other citizens initiated referenda (CIR), the result will not be binding on the government. It does however, give us an opportunity to tell the government (and each other) what we think of a process that has steadily eroded any sales mandate that the Key government might try to claim it got from National’s election victory in 2011. Was there truth in packaging? Hardly. Back then, the political salesmen for the asset sales programme were promising returns of between $5-7 billion, predicting high levels of participation from ordinary “ Mum and Dad “ investors, and asserting that these partial sales made more economic sense than taking on a similar amount of debt. None of these claims have turned out to be true. Oh, and the political salesmen in 2011 never mentioned the massive transaction costs the asset sales process would entail.
In other words, it is simply not credible to claim that Election Day 2011 settled the asset sales issue once and for all -regardless of what has come to light afterwards, and despite the extra costs and subsidies that have emerged from under the rug. Besides, having 327,774 people (in a country of little over four million) sign a petition in a short space of time is pretty compelling evidence that significant opposition exists to the selldown. The reality is that hundreds of thousands of taxpayers object to the ownership rights of their assets being altered so that only a fortunate few can make a killing. The process also involves generational theft, in that future generations will be denied the full benefits of the assets they inherit from us. With that in mind, the claim that we have no right to revisit this matter between elections is pretty outrageous. ( It is exactly like being robbed, and then sworn to silence by the robber.) Besides, the number of signatures required in a tight timeframe (under the CIR rules) mean that this kind of review can’t ever be done on a whim.
Yes, the referendum will cost about $9 million. An offer was made to minimise the cost by holding the referendum at the next election in 2014, while suspending the asset sales until that could be done. The government refused. On one level, it doesn’t matter that the referendum result is not binding on the government. In a healthy democracy, the government would take heed of its outcome, or suffer the consequences at the next election of ignoring it. Bad mouthing the process – as the government has done so far – seems simply petulant. After all, the cost of this referendum is minimal when compared to the hundreds of millions in consultancy fees and other transactional costs that the government has seen fit to throw at the asset sales programme in order to get it in shape, and over the finishing line.
There are many reasons for voting against the asset sales programme, For clarity’s sake, I’ve treated them separately, but they’re interwoven.
1.The asset selldown transfers wealth, upwards. A common objection to the asset selldown is the obvious one : that relatively few people have the spare cash to buy shares. Even before the sales process began, the government knew that only a small proportion of New Zealanders ( between 10-15% at most) can afford to speculate on the stockmarket, and do so. This means that in the wake of the selldown, profits that formerly accrued to all New Zealanders have essentially been halved, and siphoned off to an affluent minority. Wealthy investors will become richer, the wealth held in common will decrease and income inequality (with all its social and physical ills) will increase. At the outset, Finance Minister Bill English did his best to hide this downside by talking up the possibility that as many as 250,000 New Zealanders would be lining up to buy shares in these assets, with most of them being ordinary” Mum and Dad” investors. In the end, only 112,000 investors bought into Mighty River Power and only 62,000 into Meridian.
The critics of this process are not limited to the have-nots. Brent Sheather – a self described “ rich capitalist” – is a senior financial advisor with Private Asset Management and a regular NZ Herald columnist on finance and investment matters. Exactly two years ago this week, Sheather wrote a devastating analysis of the economic illogic of the asset sales programme. In a subsequent interview with Scoop in late November 2011, Sheather expanded on those points.
Back then, Sheather had started with the basics :
A government can raise money by selling assets or issuing debt. The price we get for assets versus the cost of borrowing the same amount is a good place to inform a view as to whether we sell or hold.
What Sheather (and others) found was that – given our low levels of Crown debt and enduringly low interest rates worldwide in the wake of the global financial crisis – it would have made far more economic sense to borrow the $5-7 billion (while still retaining full ownership of the companies earmarked for partial sale and of all of the dividend flows they create) than for the Crown to sell a 49% stake in them. More on that, below. This week, I contacted Sheather again to see – two years down the track – how he was feeling about the trade-off that the Key government has made between debt, and the assets selldown.
Sheather remains critical. “Well, local investors who are buying Meridian and Mighty River Power are getting dividend yields of approximately eight per cent.” Roughly double what you get in the bank. Or as he adds, is roughly double the comparable yield from government bonds. “ So, on that basis, the government’s ability to service its debt is actually being reduced through the sale of these things, rather than enhanced.” Maybe so, but isn’t it a darn good deal for the people involved? “It is. But at a cost to the Crown and presumably to the ordinary taxpayer, which is what we suggested would happen, and happen it has.” Some people, I suggest, would still consider only part of that picture, would look at those dividend yields and conclude that New Zealanders should be encouraged to be in there, boots and all….
“That’s exactly right,” Sheather replies. “ And if New Zealanders as a whole, had lots of money they would probably be in there, boots and all. But at least half of the population doesn’t have any money left over every week, to save, anyway. As you say, its a darn good deal for everybody who does have money. But effectively, it is just re-distributing wealth from the average New Zealander, to wealthy New Zealanders.”
2 Asset sales did not revitalise the share market. Back in 2011, the Key government argued strongly that by putting some prize SOEs into an otherwise flat sharemarket, the government would be giving a real options and incentives to investors and a shot in the arm to the sharemarket as a whole. Allegedly, by offering a few Crown gems of this sort, the government would help to virtuously shift investment back towards productive enterprises, re-invigorate the stockmarket, and thereby lift everyone’s boat.
This was always a very strange argument. The centre-right Key government seemed to be suggesting that while governments can create companies worth investing in, the private sector (evidently) cannot. For his part, Sheather has seen no evidence that the asset sales programme really has motivated people to re-consider the sharemarket as an investment option. “Just from my perspective, from what I see, the only people who have bought Meridian have been people who were already into the stockmarket. As far as I can see, there has been no individuals saying oh, I’m not going to buy another house, I’m going to buy Meridian shares. The investors [in the asset sales] are people who have already acknowledged that the stockmarket is a good way of investing, and that housing isn’t the top of their priorities. I don’t believe there has been a huge shift from people buying residential properties to buying shares. In fact, we have had hardly any interest in Meridian. We would have had 10 times as many people ringing up about Mighty River as we have had with Meridian..” And to what did he attribute that? “Just the fact that Mighty River did so badly….And if they already had Mighty River, and were overweight on Mighty River, they should give Meridian a miss.”
In reality, the sharemarket hasn’t needed an injection from asset sales. In the five years ended in October, the New Zealand stockmarket has returned 12.9 % a year. It has been booming, but not because of the asset sales programme – more like, in spite of it. Sheather’s investment firm has the figures to back that up : Mighty River shares have been down 12.2% since launch, at a time when the market is up at an annualised average of 5.5%. The market’s stellar performers – Auckland Airport up by 35%, Fletcher Building up by 48%, Fonterra up by 31% and let’s not even mention Xero – only underline how abysmally poor Mighty River’s performance has been, albeit this is still early days.
In time, if Meridian and Mighty River (and Genesis and Air New Zealand in future ) do manage to turn around the sharemarket performance of the asset sales programme, this will not be thanks to the efforts of ordinary “Mum and Dad” investors. For political reasons, ordinary investors have been hyped into taking part in the early share floats, and to date, have been burned. “ As the sales process evolves you’ll see less and less participation by Mum and Dad,” Sheather says, “because they’ll have spent their money. So we’ll see more domination of the buyers by the institutional investors.” Those institutional investors and fund managers – both here and offshore – will reap much of the benefits from here on in, as the collective wealth of the less affluent majority of New Zealanders is further reduced.
3. The Cost of The Asset Sales Process is Eating Into Any Net Gains. The asset sales process hasn’t been done on the cheap. For the last couple of years, it has diverted much of the highly paid time and talent of upper management at the companies concerned, into readying them for sale. No exact figures can put on the direct costs (let alone on the oppportunity costs) involved, but it has been extensive. Treasury alone has spent at least $41 million on the Mighty River and Meridian floats alongside over $17.8 million by the companies themselves. Some of the relevant figures are here.
This is before we get into the Rio Tinto payoff, the inducement to Meridian investors, and the foregone dividends – which in the case of Mighty River Power, are running at an estimated $49 million and mounting, since the share float.
Point being – no wonder there are vocal cheerleaders for the asset sales process. In readying the state energy company for sale, any number of interested parties have stood to benefit from the consultants fees, the costs of devising ad campaigns to promote the sales, the cost of print and television advertising space and time…In addition, at least three other factors have also been pushing up the promotional price tag. These are (a) the poor initial outcome of the MRP share float (b) the profusion of energy companies now crowding the New Zealand sharemarket and (c) the uncertainties hanging over the Meridian float. These factors have combined to fuel an escalating spiral of costs.
For example : mid year, Rio Tinto received a $30 million gift from the government, in exchange for keeping the fate of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter ( a prime user of Meridian’s energy) off the front pages until the Meridian share float could be completed. As a further sweetener to enhance the Meridian deal, investors were offered an extraordinary “holiday” whereby they could pay half the entry cost now, still receive the full dividends immediately, and then decide in 18 months time to either pay the remainder or exit the deal, no questions asked, no refund required. This has simply been a welfare handout to the wealthy.
The Green Party has been keeping a running tab on the transaction costs of the asset sales programme, complete with a detail breakdown and links to the official source material, all of which is available here.
At time of writing, the total estimated cost was $244.9 million, a figure that – wrongly, in my opinion – includes the $9 million cost of the referendum. You can follow the further links and further information contained on the Costwatch site. There are major costs still coming down the pike. As in, the costs of (a) the upcoming Genesis and Air New Zealand floats, related advertising, sweetheart deals to induce participation etc and (b) the ongoing net profits/dividends losses to the Crown from MRP, Meridian and in time, Genesis and Air New Zealand. Interestingly the chart on the asset sales process that can be found at page 40 of the May 2013 Treasury Economic and Fiscal Update shows that over the course of the forecast period out until 2017, there is expected to be a $180 million impact from the sales on the OBEGAL ( ie. the operating balance before gains and losses). If anything, the analysis in that document may be somewhat rosy, given that the note on page 42 shows Treasury still assuming a $6 billion overall return from the asset sales proigramme as a whole ( it is $5 billion at most, and likely to be less) and that the forecasts of foregone profits and dividends used in the Treasury estimates were company supplied. Clearly, all these costs matter in their own right. We’re paying for them. They’re also highly relevant to any calculations that show whether it would have made more sense to borrow, than to sell. Which brings us to :
4. It Would Have Been Smarter to Borrow The Money Even supporters of the asset sales process tend to concede that the balance between the sell vs borrow options is a very close run thing, at best. Two years ago at the outset of the asset sales programme, there was ample evidence to that effect. Bear with me if I cite once again the calculations made by the NZ Herald’s Brian Fallow in late 2011. Here’s how I summarised his main points at the time:
NZ Herald business columnist Brian Fallow found the asset sales plan wanting, even after doing the sums in a way that bent over backwards to be fair to the government. Treasury has estimated that $5–7 billion can be earned from selling 49% of the government’s stake in the assets in question…. Fallow used a figure of 5% for the cost of borrowing, based on that being the average cost of government borrowing over the past five years. So 5% on that $6 billion would be $300 million. That’s one side of the ledger: the cost of borrowing.
Now for the other side – the dividends we forego by selling. Treasury forecasts of the dividends expected from the SOE energy companies up for sale. Fallow says, average out at $449 million a year over the next five years. The 49% share we intend to sell would therefore come to $220 million. Throw in $20 million for selling 23% of Air New Zealand and the dividends foregone would average $240 million a year – or 4 per cent of the $6 billion sale price.
That means we would barely come out ahead. Even if everything went absolutely as planned (which it subsequently hasn’t) we would still have been only $60 million in the black. “So we are talking about a difference of 1 percentage point between dividend yields and bond yields,” Fallow says. Margin of error stuff, in his opinion. And that’s after looking at the deals in the most generous of lights.
Nothing in the logic – or the outcome – of this exercise has been altered by Solid Energy’s collapse and virtual exit from the process. Or by the downturn in expected returns from an asset selldown that will now struggle – as the government has publicly conceded – to reach the $5 billion that was touted in 2011 as the worst case outcome. Crucially, this calculation omits the circa $250 million (and counting) cited just above in the transaction costs of executing the sales process, an unpleasant reality that pushes the exercise solidly into the red. In case that seems unduly speculative, note that Sheather himself did a similar debt vs selldown calculation (using lending criteria based on the cost of ten year government bonds) and came out with very similar indications that the selldown is basically…..economically illogical. Which brings us to –
5.The Energy Companies Will Suffer, Not Benefit From Greater Private Sector Involvement. One of the myths of the asset sales process is that the energy companies on the auction block (and Air New Zealand) will benefit from a bracing dose of private sector discipline and transparency. Historically speaking, this is absurd – given that private sector expertise drove Air New Zealand into a bankruptcy that required a government bailout, and created the Global Financial Crisis. Nor has the electricity market been exactly a boon to the New Zealand electricity consumer, in the period since then-Energy Minister Max Bradford introduced the first modern round of private sector disciplines.
No doubt, the glories of the market may sound inspiring at the Chicago Business School, or coming from the mouth of Rand Paul. They make little sense – and promote wasteful duplication and inefficiency – in a country as small as New Zealand, where markets rarely reach the critical mass required to enable competition to operate in the textbook fashion. More commonly, cosy duopolies and quasi-cartels emerge to prey on captive pools of consumers. At least, that’s what we saw here in the 1990s. Any deadening evils of government bureaucracy were more than matched by the sins of private sector management practices – as expressed in excessive CEO salaries, golden handshakes, generous share packages that rewarded short term measures to pump up the share price, consultancy fees, dubious labour practices etc etc
More to the point, the three state energy companies now in the firing line have been in no need of additional private sector disciplines. In the three years prior to 2011, these SOEs easily outstripped private sector performance. And their $1.7 billion return would have been even higher, as Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman pointed out at the time, if the SOEs in question hadn’t chosen to double their investment in new plant and machinery, in order to deliver even higher returns in future.
Now that the earning potential of our SOEs has been enhanced through this capital investment, the Crown can expect to see considerable growth in dividend streams from this point on. Treasury makes this point explicit in their last 2010 Annual Portfolio Report. They say the Crown should now expect to receive higher returns.
We have seen this before. Like our energy SOEs, Telecom had invested significant amounts of capital in building a modern telecommunications network in the years before privatisation. In the years following Telecom’s privatisation, dividend streams for its new private owners doubled, then tripled within six years. History now seems to be repeating itself with our energy SOEs. National has allowed the taxpayer to build up the asset, only to then on-sell it to the benefit of others.
“Those returns suggest the SOEs [were being] managed as well or better than stock exchange companies,” Sheather said in 2011, “because stock exchange companies {hadn’t] returned anything like that rate of return.” On average in the last five years ended in October 2011, the New Zealand stock market had returned minus 2 per cent per annum.” They’d lost money? “Yes, they’ve lost money. The world stock market in the same period was down minus 4.3%. So a 17.5 % rate of return [by the energy companies in question] was pretty good work.”
To be fair, those sky high rates of returns also reflected the SOEs ability to hike electricity prices on a captive pool of consumers. In recent years, energy prices have still been running at three times the rate of inflation, even while demand has been falling. That situation now bids to get worse. With the private sector now on board ( literally) in the wake of these semi-privatisations, the pressure to maximise the return to investors is only likely to increase. Since power prices are already at a level intolerable for many, the much-touted “private sector disciplines” may have to rig the game in other ways. In our 2011 interview, Sheather explained one possible method : “What they can do is use the famous venture capital saying – that there’s lazy capital there, the balance sheet isn’t being optimised. What we’ve got to do is pay out a special dividend to shareholders and take on more debt…”
Yikes. So rather than run the alleged risk of the government taking on more debt up front, we’re going to sell these things – and then satisfy the new private investors’ thirst for dividends later, by taking on more debt, half of which would then be owned by every taxpayer in New Zealand? “I would say that is inevitable,” Sheather replied.” The share market, he adds, usually responds to such special dividends by ramping up the share price even further. Managers then get rewarded, and – ultimately – the taxpayer is left to pay for the bailout, if and when the bubble finally bursts.
Not that you should expect to hear any tsunami warning on such a bubble : not from the politicians, stockbrokers, stockbroker clients, consultants. SOEs top management etc mentioned earlier, who all stand to clip the ticket on the asset sales process now, and for years hence. Blessedly for them, there will be stockbroker fees to be extracted on every occasion in future when Mum and Dad sell their shares. That’s because when it comes to the asset sales programme, as Bret and Jermaine would say, its always….business time!
6. Meridian is promising to pay out more in dividends than it makes in profits. To an outsider, this is about when things get really weird. As indicated above, discipline has already been in short supply during the asset sales process to date. As the Meridian prospectus notes ( page 17) the dividend payout is structured as follows:
The forecast dividend in respect of earnings in FY2014F of 10.5 cents per Share is based on forecast Free Cash Flow in FY2014F and represents a forecast dividend pay-out ratio of 80% of Free Cash Flow. The forecast dividend in respect of earnings in FY2015F of 11.5 cents per Share is based on forecast Free Cash Flow in FY2015F and represents a forecast dividend pay-out ratio of 80% of Free Cash Flow.
Talk about a sweetener. This does sound like an incredibly generous inducement. Sheather agrees. In fact, he adds, the prospectus indicates that in 2014 Meridian would earn 7.3 cents a share and would pay out 10.5! “The common practice around the world is for companies to retain 50 % of their profit. So really, if common practice in America was adopted, Meridian would earn 7.3 and payout maybe four.” All up, the dividend yield (on the $1.50 price) is around 9.0%. Pretty damn good, when you compare that with the circa 4% that the banks are offering.
Professional investors tend to assess the relative attractiveness of companies by comparing the price of a company to its earnings per share. This is known as the PE ratio. On this basis, Meridian does appear to be fully priced. (For the year ended June 2014 remember, the Meridian prospectus expects the company will earn 7.3 cents per share after tax. At $1.50 that is a PE ratio of 20.6 times (ie, price $1.50 : earning 7.3 cents per share). It is worth stressing the point about that 7.3 cents per share earnings forecast for 2014, given that during the same period Meridian plans on paying out 10.5 cents per share in dividends. This looks quite unusual. It will be paying out in dividends more than it earns.
Why would it be acting in this highly investor-friendly fashion? As Sheather says, most US companies routinely pay out only around 50 % of their profits – and keep the rest for r&d and caputal improvments and the like. They don’t pay out 80-100%. Presumably, Meridian is doing so to to try and lure in investors. “ There’s only one reason,” Sheather says, in agreement. “ It is far easier to sell to Mum and Dad when an investment its yielding eight or nine [per cent] than when its something yielding four [per cent].” Evidence from two US economists called Franco Mogdiliani and Merton Miller, he adds, indicates that the amount of money a company pays out in dividends doesn’t affect its value. “You can either retain all your profits or pay it all out in dividends, the value of the company isn’t affected. But behavioural economics says that people will buy something yielding eight as opposed to something yielding four. And the way the government has been able to affect this, is by paying out more in dividends than the company earns in profit.”
In sum, the politicians and executives, the fund managers and stockbrokers – and everyone else with a vested interest in clipping the ticket has been working the asset sales programme in every way conceivable, in order to attract as many players as possible. All’s fair, some would say. Another example has been that – mere weeks before the Meridian sale – Mighty River Power chose to launch a buyback of its shares.
From the outside, it did look more than accidental that – one month before the Meridian sale – the leadership of MRP should conclude that its best use of corporate cash and debt would be to buy back its own company’s stock, rather than spend it on say, research and development, or on the efforts of its sales team. “ Well if the stock is earning 10% in cash flow then maybe it is a reasonable option,” Sheather says. “ It is very common overseas. It has also been highly criticised overseas. Because it is a non-productive way of boosting your earnings per share. You can either boost earnings per share by boosting your earnings – or you can do it by reducing your shares…”
Exactly. To say the least, it doesn’t look a virtuous or energetic way of maximising your entrepreneurial efforts. “No, that’s right. It maximises earnings per share but not earnings as a whole.” So what would the political dimension of that buyback decision be, coming as it did barely |
Weekend : Bossing! (17th to 18th December)
There will be an increased chance of receiving rare drops and a 10% discount when buying instances... Giant Mole mass anyone?
>> Seasonal Miniquest : Christmas Never Dies! (Monday, 19th December)
The sequel to 'Blast from the Past', help Santa to find out wrong with the past and confront the perpetrator.
>> Winter Weekend : Minigames! (31st December to 1st January)
Great time to grind the Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza, as you'll have 600 daily bonus points to claim during this weekend.
>> Winter Weekend : Dungeoneering! (7th to 8th January)
Never has there been a better time to smash out some Dungeonering, as you'll be receiving double tokens from every dungeon! Get out there and buy those Gravites!
EDIT: Claim your free Reindeer-Terrorbird Mount here>>While most of these rewards are not available to claim for Ironpeople, the freebies from this can be claimed at any day of the month for regular accounts.>>Clan wars even over. Thanks to everyone who came, it was super fun!>>(Monday, 5th December)Without spoiling too much, expect a nostalgia filled plot as you travel from cupboard to cupboard, while unlocking some snazzy skilling areas along the way>>(10th to 11th December)This is a great opportunity to get some grinding done; expect more node spawns in the Runespan, more stable fishing spots, and double respawn rates for mining rocks and trees!(Artisans Workshop will give double experience for non-Ironman accounts during this time)>>(17th to 18th December)There will be an increased chance of receiving rare drops and a 10% discount when buying instances... Giant Mole mass anyone?>>(Monday, 19th December)The sequel to 'Blast from the Past', help Santa to find out wrong with the past and confront the perpetrator.>>(31st December to 1st January)Great time to grind the Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza, as you'll have 600 daily bonus points to claim during this weekend.>>(7th to 8th January)Never has there been a better time to smash out some Dungeonering, as you'll be receiving double tokens from every dungeon! Get out there and buy those Gravites!
Spoilers:
If you complete a Terrorbird Racing Lap in under 200 seconds, you will receive a Bright Reindeer Terrorbird Mount!
Here's a picture of me riding it
Remember the Snow Globe reward from the 2007 Chritmas event? Well it's coming back this year as a permanent reward! This item will fill your whole inventory with snowballs when used, which you can then throw at other players!If you complete a Terrorbird Racing Lap in under 200 seconds, you will receive a Bright Reindeer Terrorbird Mount!Here's a picture of me riding it
Oh! And I almost forgot: I will be holding a Winter Themed Photo competition!
All you have to do is take a screenshot of anything winter themed from Runescape and post it below! I will pick 3 winners with the most awesome/interesting/festive pictures on the 26th of December and will award smiley ranks in the FC to the chosen pictures' submitter
Everyone is welcome to join in on this!
Well, Thats all from me for now, I will keep you updated on any developments and events as we go,
Have a great holiday, and happy'scaping!
~ Mat That's right friends, get exited!This Winter December you'll have plenty do to in Runescape ranging from the awesome return of Terrorbird (Reindeer) racing to completing the new Christmas seasonal miniquests!Here's a quick look at whats happening this month!All you have to do is take a screenshot of anything winter themed from Runescape and post it below! I will pick 3 winners with the most awesome/interesting/festive pictures on theand will award smiley ranks in the FC to the chosen pictures' submitterEveryone is welcome to join in on this!Well, Thats all from me for now, I will keep you updated on any developments and events as we go,Have a great holiday, and happy'scaping!Mat
Last edited by Mat Mase on Sun Dec 04, 2016 9:41 pm; edited 3 times in total
Treemaid
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:33 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:33 am Thanks for collating all that exciting info for us Mase!
I'm looking forward to seeing some entries for the screenie competition too!
Mat Mase
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:38 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:38 am
https://secure.runescape.com/m=mtxn_rs_shop/index#category/Accessories/package/ReindeerTerrorbirdMount
You can find this in the Solomon's General Store Added a link to claim your free Reindeer-Terrorbird MountYou can find this in the Solomon's General Store
Treemaid
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:11 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:11 pm Pinning this for the season's duration.
Mat Mase
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:54 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:54 pm Cheers!
Ivar
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:28 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:28 pm I am already cold. I'm always up for Giant Mole, ofcourse. :-P
Will be a good winter!
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Alj780
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:00 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:00 pm
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:00 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:00 pm
(edit) BTW Awesome Piccy Alec! From discussion in FC, you can make as many submissions to the Winter Screenie competition as you like, so get posting(edit) BTW Awesome Piccy Alec!
Alj780
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:05 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:05 am I'll post some more if I run into any
The other places I could think ofI'll post some more if I run into any
Last edited by Alj780 on Fri Dec 02, 2016 10:58 am; edited 1 time in total
Mat Mase
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:16 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:16 am Wow, love these, keep 'em coming
Treemaid
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Fri Dec 02, 2016 9:35 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Fri Dec 02, 2016 9:35 am Those are great Al! Though I still prefer your first one I think. How about putting a space between the others to show them off better? It's sometimes hard to see where one ends and the other begins.
Alj780
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Fri Dec 02, 2016 10:58 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Fri Dec 02, 2016 10:58 am There
Treemaid
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Fri Dec 02, 2016 1:40 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Fri Dec 02, 2016 1:40 pm Ah! Can see them better now. And I've changed my mind about which of yours I prefer Al - I like the 9th one down on your second post best now.
Alj780
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 5:50 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 5:50 am
And here you see christmas where I live!
Here you see an Australian christmas at a holiday destination!And here you see christmas where I live!
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 7:39 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 7:39 am
Time to add some competition into the works, After doing that Christmas Tree with Tree HeHe
Decided to do one F2p style with just the classic red fires, Planned the Tree to fit in perfectly on the mountain around all obstacles and did the entire tree on my own which was a bit of a challenge but challenge completed.
Enjoy My Screenie
(P.s. the tree not too obvious due to the non flat nature of the hillside)
Looks Like all entries to this screenie competition are from Alec, Awesome job too love them all can't go wrong in a screenie when theres snow involved love your Aussie Interpretations too haha.Time to add some competition into the works, After doing that Christmas Tree with Tree HeHeDecided to do one F2p style with just the classic red fires, Planned the Tree to fit in perfectly on the mountain around all obstacles and did the entire tree on my own which was a bit of a challenge but challenge completed.Enjoy My Screenie(P.s. the tree not too obvious due to the non flat nature of the hillside)
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 7:45 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 7:45 am
Wow the effort, nice work Matko! Looks awesome
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:26 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:26 am Love the tree Matko! Amazing managing to do all those fires in time on your own!
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:57 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:57 am Treemaid wrote: Love the tree Matko! Amazing managing to do all those fires in time on your own!
yea I must admit had a bit of help from photoshop, just did portions and layered together, I know its cheating, but not possible on own otherwise needed to bank for more logs. yea I must admit had a bit of help from photoshop, just did portions and layered together, I know its cheating, but not possible on own otherwise needed to bank for more logs.
Desolare
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:03 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:03 pm
EDIT: I just realized that Alec already took a screenie of this place >_> War correspondent Desolare risking his life for the rest of the world to see.EDIT: I just realized that Alec already took a screenie of this place >_>
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:33 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:33 pm
Some people we're too happy me using Photoshop, so did a non Photoshop screenie entry to make everyone happy
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:35 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:35 pm Desolare wrote: EDIT: I just realized that Alec already took a screenie of this place >_>
Haha I think Alec took a Screenie in every possible winter location Haha I think Alec took a Screenie in every possible winter location
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 3:00 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 3:00 pm I apologize Matko, wasn't being serious x'D I actually really liked the tree
Iron Matko
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:22 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:22 pm Desolare wrote: I apologize Matko, wasn't being serious x'D I actually really liked the tree
All good no need for Apologies was planning to do multiple screenies anyways. Mat Mase gave no rules so decided to have some fun with it and love to use photoshop so couldn't resist. I never took your comment seriously, thought I timed my entry to the fc perfectly with that comment so just played with it haha. All good no need for Apologies was planning to do multiple screenies anyways. Mat Mase gave no rules so decided to have some fun with it and love to use photoshop so couldn't resist. I never took your comment seriously, thought I timed my entry to the fc perfectly with that comment so just played with it haha.
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Mon Dec 12, 2016 7:39 pm Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Mon Dec 12, 2016 7:39 pm
Go for it Matko and use Photoshop, Filters etc... whatever you like
(BTW Deso, resized your pic to prevent page warping - hope you don't mind ) Nice pictures guys, looking goodGo for it Matko and use Photoshop, Filters etc... whatever you like(BTW Deso, resized your pic to prevent page warping - hope you don't mind
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Tue Dec 13, 2016 9:34 am Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Tue Dec 13, 2016 9:34 am Canadian stuff i love winter
though the ice tends to make you slip onto your face
Giant lettuce
My good friends
heart to heart with the big guy
jsut a few i had saved. still thinking of a good winner worth one to submit lol jsut a few i had saved. still thinking of a good winner worth one to submit lol
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Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more! Subject: Re: Winter December: What to expect, competition and more!Washington, DC is owned by the Democratic Party, regardless of who is the President and what party has majority in Congress. More than 90% of Washington population votes for Democrats. Despite votes leak to the libertarian candidate, the nation has elected Trump. In the same time, the ratio of Hillary to Trump voters in Washington, DC has been more than 16:1. If Trump wants to make a real change, he needs to move most government operations from DC to the United States, and to hire new people with technical and managerial experience in the business sector. National Scientific Foundation (NSF), National Academy of Science (NAS), and NASA are the first candidates for drastic change that come to mind. EPA should be abolished, and its few useful functions might be spread among other departments.
Since some of the federal government and quasi-governmental organizations reside in Arlington, VA, one might want to consider Washington and Arlington together. The ratios of Democratic (including Naderite and Green) to Republican (including Libertarian) voters :
Year D/R ratio Washington Washington + Arlington 2016 16.3 : 1 9.1 : 1 2012 12.5 : 1 6.1 : 1 2008 14.2 : 1 6.9 : 1 2004 9.5 : 1 5.2 : 1 2000 10.1 : 1 5.1 : 1
(Updated)
NSF, NAS, NASA, AAAS, Science journal, and multiple scientific societies are headquartered in DC. Just like in EPA and IRS, their staff consists of Democrats, surrounded by Democrats, dining, drinking, and sleeping with Democrats, all immersed in the leftist echo-chamber. The “scientific” bodies are also soaked with the academic prejudices against conservatives and Republicans. Thus, it is not surprising that they have embraced Al Gore, and became carrier of Climatism.
George W. Bush did not have any chance against them, even if he tried. But he appointed John Marburger, a Democrat, as his Science Advisor in September 2001. John Marburger remained in the position until 2009, when Obama replaced him with radical John Holdren.
This is a follow up to my research paper The Solved Riddle of the 2016 Climate Change “Consensus Letter”, devoted to the latest “con census letter”, signed or not signed by political leaders of formerly respected scientific societies.
The following table (pre-2016) shows the raw data from http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/. Votes for candidates, other than Democratic and Republican, were added only when the candidate got more than 1%.
Washington, DC Arlington, VA (Nader) < Dems Republican > (none) (Nader) < Dems Republican > (Libertarian) 2012 267,070 21,381 81,269 34,474 1,178 2008 245,800 17,367 78,994 29,876 2004 202,970 21,256 63,987 29,635 2000 10,576 171,923 18,073 3,952 50,260 28,555Ico, the influential PS2 classic from the same team as Shadow of the Colossus, has been spotted running on a Vita.
Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida tweeted a picture of the game in action on a Vita with no comment beyond “!?”.
Yoshida can be a bit of a tease, but former Team Ico boss Fumito Ueda seems equally baffled (or in on the game), responding with a question mark.
Sony has made no announcements regarding bringing PS2 Classics to the Vita, with PSOne Classics only just beginning to go live on the new handheld. But it has made some noises about a remote play function allowing you to play PlayStation 3 games on the portable, and Ico was re-released for PlayStation 3 this year as part of an HD remake double pack with Shadow of the Colossus.Marriages between mainlanders and Hong Kongers have brought the two sides much closer, as statistics showed that more and more Hong Kong brides are interested in finding husbands in the mainland in the last three decades due to the booming economy and comfortable living environment.
The number of marriages between Hong Kong brides and the mainland grooms was 675 in 1986. The figure peaked at 7,685 in 2014 and stood at 7,136 in 2015, according to a report released by the Census and Statistics Department (CSD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in July 2016.
"More and more Hong Kong women are interested in marrying the mainland men due to the its abundant working opportunities, especially after the 2008 economic crisis which had a severe impact on the Hong Kong economy," Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University and expert on family planning policy, told the Global Times on Monday.
Yuan added that a decline in the Hong Kong economy also explained the decrease in the number of mainland women who have married Hong Kong men since 2008.
The number of the mainland women marrying Hong Kong men peaked at 28,145 in 2006 but declined to 16,154, the CSD report revealed.
Unlike the mainlanders who are still very traditional and pay much attention to family background, Hong Kong residents care about "Love Above All" when looking for partners, Liu Jin, chairman of Shenzhen-based matchmaking agency Golden Phoenix, told the Global Times on Monday.
"They hardly care about the other person's previous marriage or step-children and can be very devoted to the family," Liu said.
It is common for Hong Kong women to marry men from South China's Guangdong Province, which shares the same language and lifestyle, Liu Heping, a Shenzhen-based commentator, told the Global Times.
"Although my Guangzhou boyfriend and I grew up in different places, we listen to the same music, watch the same movies and receive the same messages, and we never feel any cultural difference between us," Yuqi, a Hong Kong woman who is studying in a university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News Agency in a Saturday report.
Yuqi said that if she gets married with her Guangzhou boyfriend someday in the future, she would prefer to settle in Shenzhen or Guangzhou rather than go back to Hong Kong and live in "cage homes."
Liu noted that Hong Kong and the mainland could perfectly complement each other through marriages due to their opposite sex ratio.
The sex ratio in the mainland was 105.06 males for every 100 females in 2016, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Meanwhile, the sex ratio in Hong Kong was 85.02 men per 100 females in the same year, according to the data provided by the CSD.A Texas health and sexual education teacher is accused of having sexual contact with a 13-year-old male student after he told her there was something wrong with his penis.
Marlene Mints, 31, is now on administrative leave from her position at Bessie Coleman Middle School in Cedar Hill, MyFox DFW reports.
The investigation began in late April, when a coach at the middle school was driving some students home, and one of the students brought up that he'd had sexual relations with Mints, according to an arrest warrant obtained by WFAA.
The boy, who was a student in Mints' sex-ed class, claims he was texting with Mints in January and he told her he was having a problem with his penis, and she replied she would have to see it to know what was wrong. The boy says he then went to the school, where Mints performed a sex act on him.
Investigators say Mints also had sexual relations with a high school senior. Mints allegedly texted the senior asking "if he liked white girls," then invited him to her home where she performed a sexual act on him, according to CBS DFW.
Maggie Roberts, whose niece goes to Bessie Coleman Middle School, told the station that she is "very disappointed and very surprised" at the allegations. Roberts said Mints is "a great teacher. Always friendly, smiling, willing to help."WASHINGTON ― In his final Senate press conference of 2016, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) renewed his pledge to start repealing the Affordable Care Act on Jan. 3 even with no replacement in sight, declaring that “surely” the GOP revision will wind up covering Americans better than Obamacare.
He declined to say when or how Republicans will pass their superior “replacement” plan.
“Eighty-five percent of Americans have coverage, and there’s still roughly 25 million who don’t,” McConnell told reporters Monday, understating the portion of the nation with health insurance by about six percentage points. And although some 28 million people still don’t have insurance, according to the Centers for Disease Control, that’s roughly 20 million fewer than before the landmark health law took effect.
McConnell, however, dismissed this progress. “If coverage was the issue, Obamacare was an abysmal failure,” he said. “Surely, we can do better for the American people.”
Exactly how Republicans intend to do better remains to be seen. It took House Republican leaders over six years to agree on a set of principles for replacing Obamacare, and they still have yet to flesh out those principles with numbers that would give a clear sense of what their scheme would mean in practice. Senate leaders, meanwhile, haven’t even gotten as far as a set of principles.
That uncertainty doesn’t seem to be giving McConnell and his allies pause, however. On Monday, McConnell made it clear he was committed to moving quickly on a repeal bill ― just as House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and officials from the incoming Trump administration have.
The process would start on Jan. 3, when the new Congress is expected to pass a bill rescinding Obamacare’s revenue and spending portions using the budget reconciliation process. The advantage of a reconciliation bill is that, by rule, Democrats can’t filibuster it ― which would make it possible for Republicans to pass the bill with their 52-seat majority.
The disadvantage of using reconciliation is that such a bill can only include measures directly affecting the federal budget. Repealing other aspects of Obamacare, including rules on how insurers operate, would require a separate step, as would passing an actual replacement. That would have to be done via regular legislation, which would require 60 votes.
“We will move right after the first of the year on an Obamacare replacement resolution, and then we’ll work expeditiously to come up with a better proposal than current law, because current law is simply unacceptable and not sustainable,” McConnell said.
Some Republicans have suggested taking as long as three years to craft the replacement. McConnell would not even commit to that strategy, and he repeatedly declined to discuss what a Republican-crafted health insurance system might look like.
“We’re going to move forward first with the Obamacare replacement resolution. What comes next is what comes next,” McConnell said. “In other words, legislatively, then we will determine what the replacement is going to be.”
Numerous experts, echoing warnings from health care industry groups, have said that repeal of the law could immediately throw Obamacare markets into turmoil, even if elements of the coverage expansion were kept in place for some period of time.
The concern is about insurers who have been weathering losses in the hopes of realizing future profits in the state marketplaces that Obamacare created. If those markets aren’t going to exist in a few years, neither will the profits, and insurers would have every reason to pull out now. They would be even more likely to stop offering coverage, experts have said, if the repeal bill strips out the law’s individual mandate ― because without that mandate, healthy people would be less likely to sign up for coverage, causing insurers to lose even more money.
Just last week, a report from the nonpartisan Urban Institute warned that the kind of repeal-and-delay strategy McConnell has in mind could, in a worst-case scenario, cause millions of people to lose coverage next year.
McConnell downplayed such concerns, insisting that stakeholders want the GOP to proceed.If you’re a developer working on porting an app to the Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform, or starting a new app, then you’ve likely been working with the Developer Preview for UWP on Xbox One tools. If so, then you’ll be happy to know that Microsoft has released the June 2016 version, and it’s bringing a few fixes and new functionality.
Here’s what’s new:
Mouse mode is now enabled by default Mouse mode is now enabled by default for XAML and Hosted Web Apps. We strongly recommend you turn this off and optimize for directional controller navigation. To learn how to turn mouse mode off, see How to disable mouse mode. For more information on how to build great apps for Xbox, see Designing for Xbox and TV. Extended UWP API surface area is now functional on the console Additional UWP APIs are now functional on the Xbox console. For more information about UWP API support, see UWP features that aren’t yet supported on Xbox. Background music and audio capabilities You can now play music and audio from an app that is running in the background. XAML improvements The following improvements have been made to the XAML platform: The focus rectangle is now styled for a television 10-foot experience.
Xbox sounds are now embedded in the XAML platform.
XY focus navigation between UI elements has been improved. You can now change the size of allocated developer storage on the console A new setting in the Dev Home app allows you to increase or decrease the size of the allocated developer storage on your console. For more information about changing the size of your allocated developer storage, see Introduction to Xbox One tools. WDP tool enhancements The following improvements have been made to the Windows Device Portal (WDP) Tool for Xbox: The tool includes additional console settings. For more information about console settings, see the /ext/settings reference topic.
Users can be signed in and out on the console. For more information about users, see the /ext/user reference topic.
You can now capture a screenshot of the console. For more information about taking a screenshot, see the /ext/screenshot reference topic.
The tool can deploy a loose file build of your app. For more information about loose file builds, see the /api/app/packagemanager/register reference topic.
Developer files on your console can be accessed from File Explorer on your development PC. For more information about accessing files through File Explorer, see the /ext/smb/developerfolder reference topic.
There are some known issues to keep in mind before updating, which are detailed here. Additional details are as follows:
If you are already enrolled in the UWP developer preview program and have activated Developer Mode on your Xbox One console, it will be automatically updated to the new build in the next day or so or you can start the update yourself by going to Settings | System | Console info & updates and clicking the button there. If the button is grayed out and says No update available, then you either are not currently in Developer Mode or you already have the June 2016 Developer Preview build installed. When the June 2016 Developer Preview build is installed, the OS version you will see in the Console info & updates page is 10.0.14352.1024 (rs1_xbox_rel_1606.160609-1700). If you are not yet enrolled in the developer preview program, now is a great time to check it out. You can find more information about how to enroll on the Getting Started page.
The ability to run Windows 10 UWP apps on the Xbox One is a tremendous value to the platform and its users. If you’re a developer and are developing apps to run on Xbox One, let us know in the comments what you think of the June 2016 update.
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Further reading: DevelopersJust three years ago, Michigan had the fourth-highest rate of unvaccinated kindergartners in the nation. But when a charter school in northwestern Traverse City reported nearly two dozen cases of whooping cough and several cases of measles that November, state officials were jolted to action.
Without much fanfare — or time for opponents to respond — they abandoned the state’s relatively loose rules for getting an exemption and issued a regulation requiring families to consult personally with local public health departments before obtaining an immunization waiver.
The new rule sidestepped potential ideological firefights in the state Legislature, which have plagued lawmakers in other states trying to crack down on vaccination waivers. The regulation had a dramatic effect. In the first year, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported that the number of statewide waivers issued had plunged 35 percent. Today, Michigan is in the middle of the pack among vaccination rates.
“The idea was to make the process more burdensome,” said Michigan State University health policy specialist Mark Largent, who has written extensively about vaccines. “Research has shown that if you make it more inconvenient to apply for a waiver, fewer people get them.”
Michigan’s experience demonstrates a way for governments to increase immunization rates without having to address religious or philosophical opposition to vaccines.
Use Our Content This KHN story can be republished for free ( details ).
For many years, opposition to mandatory childhood vaccines has served as a frequent rallying point for those who see immunizations as interference with nature’s intentions, rebel against them as government meddling in family affairs or raise concerns about their safety.
Vaccine advocates and health professionals regard these views as dangerous, noting that the drugs have dramatically lowered the number of serious childhood illnesses and that studies suggesting they are not safe have been debunked. They also note that vaccines’ proven effectiveness lies in “herd immunity”— the higher the participation rate, the greater the community’s protection against outbreaks of infectious disease.
Many states adopt strategies to curb exemptions “by making applications complicated to fill out or complete,” according to University of Georgia public policy expert W. David Bradford, who studies immunization. Some states require parents to notarize applications or have them certified by a physician before sending them in, and “generally speaking, anything that raises the opportunity cost [of exemptions] works to some degree,” Bradford said. “Michigan took it a step further.”
Increasing the number of vaccinated kids in Michigan, which has a Republican governor and Republican majorities in both legislative houses, took a degree of political finesse.
“Health and Human Services wanted to do something, but the legislative option wasn’t there,” Largent said. Instead, Michigan decided to use a strategy he calls “inconvenience.”
Since 1978, Michigan had required schoolchildren entering kindergarten and middle school to obtain vaccination waiver certificates from county officials. “Some counties allowed you to do it over the phone; in others you mailed in a form |
Qandeel, a figure who divided opinion with her social media presence?
On the sets of 🤐 #sabaqamar #Khi #characterrole #biopic #megaproject A post shared by Saba Qamar (@sabaqamarzaman) on Apr 22, 2017 at 5:13am PDT
“An actor is not defined by boundaries and I am not afraid at all,” she says. “Qandeel was a victim and a fighter and somebody needs to tell her story. She was a woman who went from place to place trying to find work for herself. She tried to work in transport, read devotional naats on TV but wherever she went, she was misused by people. It was only much later that she chose to make videos on the Internet. And she did all this and earned money and used it to support her family. Her family didn’t have any problems taking money from her but they felt that it was all right to turn around and kill her in the name of honor.”
Also read: Qandeel Baloch is dead because we hate women who don't conform
“Qandeel represented the double standards that exist in our society,” continues Saba. “She had the courage to expose how two-faced people could be. There were many people that condemned her in the name of religion but tell me, doesn’t religion tell us to abide by many things? How can we choose to selectively follow what we find comfortable and attack anybody who tries to break free from the norms that we choose to set.”
This is, of course, quintessential Saba. In an industry thronged by mundane ‘good bahus’ and girls next door, the actress has often opted to prove her acting mettle with roles that are experimental and even disturbing. Treading her own path, Saba has steered away from partisanship, openly denouncing an industry that she feels is plagued with favouritism.
Saba may be the best choice for this drama serial
Only recently, she openly boycotted the Lux Style Awards, where she had three nominations, on the basis that they had ignored her for many years before. Declaring that the awards lacked credibility, she had said that they didn’t deserve her attendance. Even when venturing into Bollywood, Saba doesn’t seem to have followed the typical route of serving as eye-candy opposite a bigshot co-star. If the Hindi Medium trailer is anything to go by, Saba gets the chance to hold her own against Irrfan and she’s managed to do it very well.
Saba will go on to play Qandeel and we’re guessing that the drama serial will hit some really hard home-truths. What of the threats that may follow? “Let them follow,” shrugs Saba. “Everyone has to die someday. I’d rather die after doing something worthwhile."
“I am so proud that I ventured out of my country with a ‘dhang ki (decent) film’. Of course I was excited to be working opposite Irrfan, but I didn’t feel the urge to scream ‘Oh my god!’ or behave like a fan-girl. If he’s an actor then so am I. Having said this, he is an incredible actor and has tremendous screen presence. There would be absolute flurry on the set when he was about to arrive. He used to be very amused by my nonchalance and called me Bindaas.”
“I saw the movie and it has the makings of a complete hit. While watching the first-half, I laughed several times. During the second-half, I cried. I am looking forward to its release.”
And then, Saba will go on to play Qandeel and we’re guessing that the drama serial will hit some really hard home-truths. What of the threats that may follow?
“Let them follow,” shrugs Saba. “Everyone has to die someday. I’d rather die after doing something worthwhile.Catholic Schools Could Lose Non-Profit Status if Court Rules Gay Marriage a Right
There was a moment today during the Supreme Court's oral arguments on whether gay marriage should be considered a right that should make all Catholics concerned with Catholic education and religious freedom stand up and take notice.
The great Ryan Anderson caught it as did The Register's coverage:
One of the more startling portions of oral arguments today at the Supreme Court was the willingness of the Obama administration’s Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, to admit that religious schools that affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman may lose their non-profit tax-exempt status if marriage is redefined.
Justice Samuel Alito asked Verrilli whether a religious school that believed marriage was the union of husband and wife would lose their non-profit tax status. The solicitor general answered: “It’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is it is going to be an issue.”
An issue? What does that mean for the 6,500 plus Catholic schools in the United States or the many Catholic colleges? If gay marriage becomes a right, can a Catholic school deny that right? It would appear not. Or it better pay up.
Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out the threat to religious liberty during his questioning. He said if a state decides to approve gay marriage, exceptions can be made for religious liberty. "If you let the states do it, you can make an exception," he said. "You can’t do that once it is a constitutional proscription."
It will be interesting to see how Catholics would respond to this? Will this be the issue that finally makes plain the true nature of the tolerance brigades? Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall famously said in 1819, "the power to tax involves the power to destroy."
Make no mistake, that is the end goal of many - the banishment of the Church from society and the eradication of Catholic schools. So many governments have tried to destroy the Church. Most of them aren't around anymore. So good luck with that.Snail mail is growing steadily less popular thanks to the internet, but people in the US still send lots of it every year — over 158 billion pieces of mail were handled by the US Postal Service in 2013 alone. As it turns out, the USPS has also been quietly spying on way more of the mail passing through its doors than previously acknowledged. A report from the agency's internal watchdog — the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) — found that USPS captured information from the outside of about 49,000 pieces of consumer mail in 2013 and turned much of it over to law enforcement organizations throughout the country, unbeknownst to the intended senders and recipients. This information reportedly did not include the contents of letters and packages, but rather was limited to the information appearing only on the exterior, such as names, addresses, and postmark dates.
The report on the USPS information capturing program, called "mail covers," was initially published to little fanfare over the summer and subsequently reported on by Politico, but is getting more attention now with an article appearing today in The New York Times that includes additional details.
"information from a mail cover often provides valuable investigative leads."
First some background: the mail covers program is hardly new, it's been in existence for over a hundred years, as The Times notes. It's also not as invasive as a full search warrant for the contents of mail, which the USPS also grants (although only for federal search warrants; state search warrants aren't accepted by the agency). In a guide for law enforcement agencies, the USPS explains exactly how the program works: a police officer/law enforcement agent needs to be already conducting an investigation into a suspected felony and have the names and addresses for their intended surveillance targets. The officer must send this information to the USPS through the mail or provide it verbally (in person or over the phone), along with a reason why the mail cover is needed. Then the USPS will begin capturing the information from the exterior of all the targets' incoming and outgoing mail for up to 30 days (although extensions are available). The USPS says that "information from a mail cover often provides valuable investigative leads," but adds that it "is confidential and should be restricted to those persons who are participating in the investigation."
However, as the OIG report found, there are numerous problems with the way the USPS has been running the mail covers program. For starters, the USPS has a mail cover app that apparently doesn't work very well and is blamed for the agency continuing to capture information from the mail of 928 targets even after the surveillance period was supposed to have ended. The USPS also appears to have started mail cover surveillance on targets without sufficient justification from law enforcement as to why it was needed, and some USPS employees didn't even keep the written justification on file like they were supposed to. And in a further failure of duty, several mail covers weren't started on time. Perhaps most troubling of all, the USPS doesn't appear to have been accurately reporting the total number of mail covers in its official records provided to the Times under Freedom of Information Act requests, which show only 100,000 total requests for mail surveillance between 2001 and 2012 (an average of 8,000 a year, way fewer than the 49,000 mail covers acknowledged in the OIG report). The USPS said it agreed with the findings of the OIG report and would work to implement changes, but for an agency already struggling with how to move into the future, the findings are hardly good news.Uber’s Xchange program offers short-term car leases to drivers who work for the company, catering to people who have been rejected by other lenders. But the program has critics who accuse the company of looting the pockets of its drivers.
In its relentless pursuit of growth, Uber needs new drivers, and many of those drivers need cars.
To help them get started, Uber began offering short-term leases since July through a wholly owned Delaware-based subsidiary called Xchange Leasing. It partners with auto dealerships, advertises to drivers, manages risk and even pays repo men to chase down cars whose drivers aren’t making their payments.
Xchange may be key to Uber’s continued expansion as it tangles with Lyft in the U.S. and competitors abroad.
Uber announced a partnership with Toyota last week to finance even more cars. This year, Uber said its financing and discount programs, which include Xchange, will put more than 100,000 drivers on the road. That requires dipping into the vast pool of people with bad or no credit.
In a deal led by Goldman Sachs, Xchange received a $1 billion credit facility to fund new car leases, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal will help Uber grow its U.S. subprime auto-leasing business and it will give many of the world’s biggest financial institutions exposure to the company’s auto leases. The credit facility is basically a line of credit that Xchange can use to lease out cars to Uber drivers.
Xchange, which caters to people who have been rejected by other lenders, isn’t intended to be a moneymaker, said an Uber spokesman. But it has plenty of critics who accuse the company of looting the pockets of its drivers.
The program is plagued by a lot of questions that surround other subprime-lending programs aimed at risky borrowers with bad credit. Is Xchange really offering good deals? Does it ensnare drivers with commitments they can’t meet?
“You can buy the car for what they’re charging you in weekly payments,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at personal-finance website Bankrate.com.
But for many drivers who sign up with Xchange, it’s their only option.
The terms of an Xchange lease run 28 pages. Drivers pay a $250 upfront deposit, then make weekly payments to Uber over the course of the three-year life of the lease. As the video promoting the arrangement puts it: “The best part: Payments are automatically deducted from your Uber earnings.”
At the end of three years, Uber keeps the $250 deposit to release the drivers from the lease. If they want to buy it, they’ll need to fork over the residual value of the car, which could run many thousands of dollars. Uber declined to provide an average figure.
Uber’s lease is more flexible than most subprime leases, the company said. After the first 30 days, a driver can return the car to Uber with two weeks’ notice, without any additional fees, apart from the payments they owe and the $250 they paid up front.
Many other leases charge drivers by the mile if they exceed a certain mileage threshold. Not Xchange, though; Uber wants to incentivize drivers to keep logging miles.
Drivers’ experience
Bloomberg News spoke to a half-dozen drivers who have leases through Xchange. For the most part, drivers saw Xchange as their only way to get a car. Xchange was a solution to Shawn Hofstede’s money problems at first.
Hofstede, 30, started driving for Uber in the Dallas-Fort Worth area last year, using his own car. But then, during an accident on his own time, he wrecked the car and was left without the income. “I was literally screwed,” he said. Then Uber emailed him about its financing options.
He leased a 2016 Toyota Corolla from Xchange in November, paying $155 a week. Two months later, Uber slashed fares nationally. Soon Hofstede had trouble keeping up with his payments. He went from making $200 in a weekend to $140 in a weekend, he said.
“It got to the point that I would drive just to meet my payment,” he said. “If you were short on your payment for a week it would roll onto the payment for next week. It starts adding up.”
Eventually, Hofstede stopped driving. The car was repossessed a few months later.
Bloomberg spoke to five auto-finance experts. Most said the leases are expensive, even predatory, compared with leases available to drivers with good credit.
“I’d say the cost is greater than the benefit for your average driver,” said Mark Williams, a lecturer at Boston University’s business school who reviewed the terms of a blank lease agreement provided by Uber, along with some average weekly lease payments and a driver-reported account. “The terms, the way they’re proposed, are predatory and are very much driven toward profiting off drivers rather than to facilitate an increase in drivers.”
Uber said the program isn’t meant to generate a profit, but to get more drivers in cars. They said the lease is structured so drivers can get out of it at any time.
Besides unlimited mileage, Uber’s lease also includes routine maintenance. The company also said returning the vehicle won’t impact a driver’s credit score, unlike other financing arrangements.
“They’re making it easier to walk away, which is a good thing, but they’re making it pretty expensive throughout,” said John Van Alst, a leasing expert at the National Consumer Law Center.
The average weekly payment for a lease on a new car was $96 during the last three months of 2015, according to credit agency Experian. That’s for everyone with all kinds of credit ratings.
A typical 2013 Toyota Camry L through Xchange runs $130 a week, according to Uber.
Xchange leases are generally comparable to the terms of other subprime and deep-prime leases, experts said. That means leases can run far above the car’s real value.
In a statement sent by Uber, Andrew Chapin, who runs Xchange, said: “Many Americans don’t have enough cash on hand to buy a car. Many others could be denied leases or charged high rates due to their credit quality, and could owe thousands of dollars in penalties if they break the contract early. Xchange provides access to high-quality cars with no restrictions on mileage (unlike most leases) and the ability to break the lease early with minimal fees.”
Taking bigger risks
In June 2015, Brandie Schmitt, 24, found herself broke in Los Angeles with what she called a “terrible” credit score. Five years earlier, a seizure put her in the hospital. Medical bills piled up, along with student debt for classes she never attended.
She worked at Papa John’s for a while, but then her hours got cut, and anyway, the two hour-plus bus ride to work was killing her.
After dropping $250 up front for her lease of a 2015 Honda Civic, she pays $160 a week to Xchange. If she keeps the car for the full three-year term, she’ll end up paying Uber $25,210. The Kelley Blue Book fair purchase price for a new 2015 Honda Civic SE in Los Angeles is $18,142.
Schmitt said she’ll need to pay Uber $5,000 or so more to buy the car if she wants to keep it at the end of her lease.
Schmitt was referred to Bloomberg News by Uber. She drives about 25 hours a week. In one week in May, she earned $604 for 28 hours of work, she said — a slightly better-than-average week. Uber took $160 for the car directly out of her paycheck, leaving her with $444.
“It’s been building my credit,” she said. “It’s expensive … but that’s because my credit isn’t that great.”
Uber’s program is willing to take bigger risks on lease applicants than most traditional leasing programs, the company said. It has more reason to believe that someone will be able to pay them back, because they’ll be making money driving for Uber, and the company gets their money before it pays the driver.
Chapin said catering to drivers with bad credit is intentional. “Just as Uber is changing the nature of car ownership for riders, it’s changing the nature of car ownership for drivers,” he said.
Muhanad K. started driving for Uber in September 2014 after having fled his war-torn home country. (He declined to share his full name or the country out of fear he could endanger his family abroad.) After a few months, his car broke down.
With a subprime credit score hovering around 570, Muhanad didn’t think he could get another car. He turned to Xchange. He pays Uber $183 a week for a 2015 Prius.
If Muhanad sticks with the lease for three years, he’ll end up paying Uber $28,798. Kelley Blue Book puts the fair purchase price of a 2015 Toyota Prius at $21,985.
To afford it, Muhanad started pulling longer shifts. Six days a week, he’d sign in to the Uber app at 7 a.m. and work until 11 p.m., limiting himself to a two-hour break.
“I just wanted to make money,” he said. “I come from a place where I survived hell, so this is nothing. But most people probably would not be able to handle this kind of stress.”The Danish-British security firm G4S recently confirmed in a letter its involvement in the Israeli occupation and violations of international law — reported on last month by The Electronic Intifada.
After the publication of The Electronic Intifada’s report on 15 December 2010, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre asked G4S to respond to the investigation as well as a 28 November 2010 article published by Press TV (“ ‘Firm sold torture instruments’”).
Within a week G4S replied, confirming that it had withdrawn from contracts providing security officers to residential settlements in the West Bank in 2002. “However, we continue to serve major commercial customers, for instance supermarket chains, whose operations include the West Bank,” the company stated (the letter can be downloaded from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s website).
G4S claims in its letter that the commercial clients in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank serve the general public. The company wrote that contracts include the provision of security officers to protect the premises of “commercial clients who serve the general public” in the occupied West Bank. However, G4S fails to address that Israeli settlements serve an exclusively Jewish population and are built illegally on occupied Palestinian land.
By providing security services to illegal settlement businesses, G4S facilitates Israel’s violations of international law. In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reaffirmed the illegality of the construction of the wall and settlement colonies in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. According to the ICJ, construction activities should stop immediately and the wall and settlements be dismantled.
G4S tries to downplay its involvement by stating that the number of security officers deployed in the West Bank is “generally less than twenty and currently stands at eight.” However, violation of international law remains a violation, no matter the size.
G4S further attempts to evade responsibility by stating that it does “not carry out police or military-style patrols anywhere in the West Bank.” The company provides security officers to protect police facilities “from time to time,” but they do not perform any kind of law enforcement or public security role, the company stated. G4S also confirmed it provided security equipment, including X-ray machines and body scanners, with associated maintenance services, to the Israeli police, prison service and Ministry of Defense. In its letter the company adds, “We do not control, nor are we necessarily aware, where this equipment is deployed as it may be moved around the country.”
The feigned ignorance about where the equipment is deployed is contrary to the detailed information mentioned in a G4S promotional brochure it distributed this summer.
In the brochure, published by the Danish watchdog DanWatch, G4S describes the supply of a perimeter defense system for the walls around the Ofer prison compound and the installation of a central command room to monitor the entire Ofer compound. In addition, the company writes it also provided all the security systems in Ketziot prison and a central command room in Megiddo prison (G4S delivers technology to Israeli prisons,” DanWatch, 21 November 2010).
G4S boasts that the three prisons can detain 2,700-3,700 “security” prisoners — the majority of whom are Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip illegally transferred to detention centers within Israel’s internationally-recognized boundary. International humanitarian law forbids an occupying power from transferring prisoners outside of the occupied territory and the conditions in Israeli prisons do not meet international legal standards. Accordingly, G4S’s involvement in the Israel Prison Service apparatus abets violations of international law.
G4S’s promotional material contradicts its claim that it does not know where its X-ray machines and body scanners are used. Who Profits? — a project of the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace — has also documented that G4S luggage scanning equipment and full body scanners are used at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank towns of Qalandiya, Bethlehem and Irtah. G4S also provided full body scanners to the Erez checkpoint at Gaza. Who Profits? told The Electronic Intifada that this information is published in G4S’s own website and brochures.
The ICJ affirmed in 2004 that Israel’s wall and checkpoint regime in the West Bank impede Palestinians of “the right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living” and are contrary to international law.
G4S also revealed in its letter to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre that it sells security equipment “with associated maintenance services.” In order to provide maintenance service, G4S presumably must know where the equipment is deployed. By providing maintenance service for years after the installment of the security equipment, G4S continues to facilitate Israel’s violations of international law.
Meanwhile, new research by Who Profits? shows that in 2009 G4S won a tender for providing central control rooms to all the prisons and detention facilities of the Israeli Prison Authority (“G4S Technologies will provide security systems for the prisons and the detention facilities of the Israeli Prison Authority,” G4S website). Therefore, G4S security equipment is deployed in every Israeli prison and detention facility.
G4S’s response to the revelations of its involvement in human rights violations shows the company is not heeding the responsibilities that come with its endorsement of the principles of the UN Global Compact. According to the first two principles of the compact — is a strategic policy initiative launched in 2000 for businesses that are committed to sustainability and responsible business practices — G4S should support and respect the protection of international human rights within its spheres of influence and make sure it is not complicit in human rights abuses.
G4S can expect to come under pressure from the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement until it untangles itself from Israel’s brutal occupation.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate.In Action Comics #5-6 (2011 series), Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert introduced us to a new version of the Adult Legion. The story itself was pretty nuts, but I enjoyed it. And the adult Legionnaires had new costumes in the story, modeled after Superman's New 52 costume, with the piping lines and such. Anyway, these were some of the few Legion costumes that Gene Gonzales had never drawn, so I commissioned him to draw them in his latest round of "Conventionless Convention Sketches". Gene has drawn Imra Ardeen many times before, and every time she looks fantastic. This is no exception. I love her pose, her hair, and the effect box behind her head showing her telepathic power. Simon Gough then got his color-stained hands on it, and made it even more gorgeous! I really love the reds and blues he used here. Thanks as always to Gene and Simon!
If you like this piece then please do go buy some digital comics featuring Gene's work and/or go commission him yourself.soul of a woman was created below…
It’s always helpful to have occasional reminders of the depraved, demonic nature of women’s sexuality, as demonstrated by the gleeful abandon with which the most desirable women hurl themselves at arrogant, cocky assholes.
There is no more expedient way to coax a woman to belie her own words than to entice her with the exact opposite of the kind of man she claims to desire.
Horse blinder status: REMOVED.
Some commenters are pointing out that the dude is good-looking. They’re missing the point. Evidence already exists that average looking men can clean up with confident asshole game. If anything, this post serves to belie the claims by women that assholes, however good-looking, don’t get the time of day from them. But we know better.ADVERTISEMENT
Mitt Romney and President Obama are locked in a "swing state rumble" over the economy, with Obama arguing that his policies will boost the middle class, and Romney countering that the president is leading the nation "off a cliff." But Romney's message is getting undermined by Republican governors in critical battleground states — including Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio — who boast about how well their states are doing. In speeches and TV ads that sound like campaign plugs for Obama, these governors are telling voters that their states are creating jobs, reducing unemployment, and growing the economy. Are they torpedoing Romney's claim that Obama's economic policies are poison?
These GOP governors are a godsend for Obama: Of course, swing-state GOP governors want Mitt to win, says Alec MacGillis at The New Republic. But to save their own skins, they're talking up job growth and corporate investment, kneecapping Romney's core message that the economy stinks. Even better for Obama, you can't "truthfully account for Ohio's comeback" without mentioning his auto bailout, or shed light on Virginia's rebound without talking federal stimulus.
"The great Republican swing-state dissonance problem"
Romney will have to resolve the clashing messages: These tensions have long been brewing, says Greg Sargent at The Washington Post. Ohio Gov. John Kasich recently said that his state had "made a lot of progress," a theme Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been hitting, too. But the conflict really came to a head when Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad openly called on Romney to stop hyping bad economic news in the Hawkeye State. Romney has to reconcile his message of national gloom with governors' state-based optimism, but that's going to be "a tricky one."
"GOP governor to Romney: Stop hyping bad economic news in my state!"
And, after all, GOP governors have earned the right to brag: Republican governors and legislatures have had real success creating jobs, say Ryan Lovelace and Melissa Quinn at The Daily Caller. A new federal report shows that GOP-run states have created 16 percent more jobs than states with Democrats in charge. Obama will say that his stimulus spending created jobs across the board, but while "the White House may swing a sledgehammer at unemployment, state governments wield finer instruments and operate closer to the local economies where employment grows or shrinks."
"Republican governors, statehouses linked to job creation more than Democrats"
Read more political coverage at The Week's 2012 Election Center.LONDON (Reuters) - Police arrested more than 160 people in east London on Saturday during rival protests by hundreds of anti-Islamist activists and thousands of counter-demonstrators near an area home to one of Britain’s largest Muslim communities.
Members of the right-wing and anti-Islamist English Defence League (EDL) listen to leader Tommy Robinson (R) during a rally in London September 7, 2013. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty
About 3,000 police officers were deployed to keep a group of 500 members of the right-wing English Defence League, or EDL, apart from a larger group of anti-racist protesters, including Unite Against Fascism.
Police formed lines across the streets to enforce a ban on the EDL marching to the borough of Tower Hamlets, which has a large Muslim community, and to keep the counter-demonstrators in their assigned area.
Police imposed the geographic restrictions on the EDL march as well as a time restriction, fearing a risk to public order. The EDL lost a court battle on Friday to overturn the ban.
A police spokesman said about 150 counter-protesters were arrested after a group broke away and headed towards Tower Bridge where the EDL march was to end.
He said 14 others, mainly from the EDL, were arrested during the day for violent disorder, possession of knives and fireworks, and one 30-year-old man for inciting others to break the conditions set for the protest.
The EDL said on its Twitter account that the group’s leader, Tommy Robinson, was arrested “for incitement”.
Despite the high number of arrests, the police spokesman said there were no serious clashes.
“The police presence did manage to keep the two groups apart,” he said.
Local MPs had written to police calling for the march to be banned, fearing a repeat of violent clashes in 2011 between the EDL, police and anti-fascist groups in Tower Hamlets.
They argued that the historical violence of EDL marches and heightened threats made against the Muslim community since the killing of British soldier Lee Rigby in a south London street in May posed a threat to community safety.
Two suspects, both British Muslims, face trial in November over Rigby’s killing.
Chief Superintendent Jim Read of London’s Metropolitan Police said the EDL and any counter group had a right to protest, but under conditions that would prevent any intimidation and public disorder.Google Nexus 6P H1511 32GB Smartphone (Unlocked, Aluminium) is rated 4.7 out of 5 by 128.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Lilu-bar-Lilu from A great phone for not a lot of $$ the 6P is not a new phone. By the time I write this review, it has been in the market for a few months now, and a lot has been said about it. All the reviews are right: It has a great screen, great camera, performance is great, it's fairly light, and all in all feels very high quality. The only drawback is the battery. even at 3250mAh, it doesn't last more than a day of continuous use (calls, data etc.), but the ability to get extra several hours of juice through a short charge is a great benefit. Plus I like how this phone is clean from all the useless apps carriers install in the phone you buy from them. This one has the pure android experience. The lack of external sd card is not really an issue for me.
Rated 4 out of 5 by Anonymous from Great phone with a few issues Pros: A nexus phone of course has the purest and latest Android experience. Feels and looks like a well built phone. The full metal body and extra weight give it a luxurious feel. The anodization is really nice. I have the graphite which is a very deep rich dark color. The screen is very beautiful although it also leads me to the cons. Cons: I had to return the first phone I received due to an issue with the screen having a pink hue on one section of it. The battery, at almost 3500 mah, is larger than most but with full usage it still doesn't have that much on time. I'm getting about 5 hours of continuous use from a full charge.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Anonymous from Wonderful Phone at a Decent Price I've had this phone for a couple of weeks now, and I can hands down say it's the best phone I have ever owned. It is a solid performer in all conditions and I have yet to have any lag/errors. Stock Android is amazing, even though I am still running Marshmallow; waiting for Nougat to become more established before updating. Pros: +Great 12.3 MP Camera +Timely updates from Google +Battery Life with Doze +Fingerprint sensor accuracy and location +Build quality and feel +Price (compared to the Google Pixel) +Beautiful screen +Front facing speakers: really helps with making you feel immersed in what you're watching/doing +No lag as of yet Cons: -HUGE size, almost doesn't fit in my pocket! Will take some time to get used to that -No expandable storage -No Camera OIS (optical image stabilization), doesn't matter to me though, I take more pictures than videos I would definitely still recommend this phone to anybody, due to it's great performance for a competitive price. It is definitely one of the best phones out there! Thank you B&H for the great service as well.
Rated 1 out of 5 by ChannelUp from Love the Design, Hate the fact it failed twice within 40-day Love the ergonomics of the phone. The touch butoon in the back and the sharpness of the camera. Unfortunately, i went through 2 of these is 40-days. Grateful for B&H's most excellent service. I also experienced Bluetooth cutting in and out with my Parrot MKI9100 bluetooth devise in my truck. Bluetooth also was also weak with the WAZE app that I depend on as I drive around all day long in between calls. I wish this phone was assembled by motorola instead.
Rated 4 out of 5 by Ed from Nice Display, Big Phone This phone is big, I was aware of that, but still hoping I could fit it in my car's cup holder. Will need to buy a car mount now, issue with that is the button placement is not in a good spot and most mounts will press the volume rocker or power button, which is very sensitive. So sensitive I'm looking for a case that recesses the button and rocker to deal with the sensitivity. Finger print sensor is great. Screen is nice with rich color. Camera is pretty good as well. Phone calls seems clear and of decent quality for both parties. A 5 or 5.2 inch Amoled Nexus device would be awesome. Overall pleased and will hang onto it.
Rated 5 out of 5 by turbosix from Not surprisingly the best Nexus yet! I really loved my nexus 5 and did not want to replace it. Recently it started to suffer from a sticking power button that happens to some phones from time to time. I used that to convince myself that it was finally time to pick up a 6P as a replacement. The phone is as fast as android gets. The camera is great and even without OIS the video is still good. Low light is probably only matched by the more recent S7/S7edge, but that comes with a premium (and touchwiz, puke). I'd buy this phone again in a heartbeat.
Rated 4 out of 5 by Anonymous from Good phone for the value I got the phone on sale for $449 (with $50 giftcard) and have used it for about 3 weeks now. Overall, the phone is great - big display, clear screen, fast processor speed, no problems sending/receiving calls. However, there are a few minor user experience issues I've found. For example, the photos you take and the screenshots you take are not accessible easily. My old Samsung Galaxy S3 had a much used Gallery icon on the main screen that accessed these. Also, the Swype method of texting I'd loved on my Samsung doesn't work as well on the Nexus 6P and I have to retry several times, which is annoying. But overall, I like my phone and will be using it for several years!Back in August we brought you the news that Pizza Hut in Japan was now under the control of four bossy cats. Along with millions of other pizza and cat fans, we couldn’t get enough of the adorable antics of Tenchō, Hime, Dora and Detch as they manned (catted?) the phones, were startled by the sound of the cash register, and rode a rumba around the store.
This week, the chain announced the emergency closure of its Pizza Cat store, citing the mysterious disappearance of the four plucky feline workers. Where could they have gone? And why? We did some detective work to try and find out.
Exhibit One is this video from Pizza Cat announcing the “emergency closure” of the store. On October 20, apparently, the team of furry friends suddenly disappeared.
▼ “But for those of you who need feline assistance,” the video reassures us, “they’ll come back anytime…Maybe.“
▼ Cutest “lost cat” posters ever?
What could be behind this mysterious vanishing? Well, by delving into Pizza Hut’s tweets from the week preceding the 20th, we found some clues about the gang’s movements.
▼ “Strange behaviour for cats, but…since the recent lunar eclipse, our Pizza Cat employees have been in a funny mood – we’re a bit worried about them. Keep your spirits up, guys!”
▼ “There’s only one week left of the Pizza Cat campaign, but this weekend, something seems to be bothering our feline employees… We know cats can be moody, but not long left now guys! Keep on truckin’!”
It seems the kitties had a funny feeling something was wrong before they disappeared! Could it be something to do with the unusual lunar activity? And what about that mysterious solar-flared pizza Tenchō is gazing at in the video? And the abandoned cat hat and bandana on the ground? Looks like we’ll have to wait and find out.
▼ That is one piping hot pizza.
Those “Pizza Cat!” deals we talked about last time are still until October 26, although the name has changed |
Parliament gets a say in an affair that's otherwise for Commission (to propose) and EU governments (to adopt) only.
But Schulz wrote that the talks about a freeze of payment commitments could start "at the earliest possible opportunity after the summer recess." As his statement implies, a potential suspension of EU infrastructure funding to Spain and Portugal will not be put before the commissioners on Wednesday.
Instead, the Commission will prepare a proposal on the funding cuts over the summer, said an EU official involved. Spain stands to lose access to as much as €1.2 billion and Portugal €500 million in structural funds, according to an EU diplomat. The endangered funds and loan programs for Spain fill three A4 pages.
Presidents only
It's worth noting that Schulz addressed his letter to Juncker, rather than responding to the Commission's representative who had written to him on July 14 to inform him of the Parliament's right to intervene in the Spanish-Portugal case. This happened to be the Commission's fiscally hawkish Vice President Jyrki Katainen, whom Schulz did bother copying in his response.
In return for the Parliament claiming its say in the EU's budgetary affairs, it's offering to team up with the Commission not to cut off funding for Spain and Portugal. Given the strong personal and working relationship between Juncker and Schulz, whatever funding-cut proposal the Commission eventually makes to the two EU countries, more likely to be soft than tough, it will need Schulz's stamp of approval.If potassium bromate is dangerous enough to be banned all around the world, why are we still eating it here in the U.S.? Perhaps the United States is way behind the times with not banning this ingredient.
Potassium bromate has been banned in many countries including the United Kingdom in 1990 and Canada in 1994 – that’s more than 19 years ago! Potassium bromate has been linked to cancer in laboratory animals, but we still use it in breads and baked goods here in the States.
What is Potassium Bromate?
Potassium bromate is a flour enhancer that makes dough stronger and allows for better oven spring, higher rising, and faster mixing times, according to King Arthur Flour – a company that does not use bromated flour. When used within the prescribed limits of 15-30ppm, it is cooked up in the baking process and leaves no trace in the actual bread product. However, if the recipe exceeds the appropriate amounts of potassium bromate, or if you don’t bake the bread at a high enough temperature or long enough, then there will be residual amounts of potassium bromate in the bread.
Cancer in Your Bread?
Countries around the world have banned potassium bromate because researchers have found that it causes cancer in rats. Researchers found the first cancer links in 1982; instead of banning the ingredient, the FDA encouraged bakers to stop using it voluntarily.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer reports that in several studies where mice, rats, and hamsters were given potassium bromate via oral administration, they produced renal and thyroid tumors. Since there was inadequate evidence in humans, potassium bromate is listed as a Group2B – this means that it possibly causes cancer in humans. Since we don’t have any long-term studies on humans, we don’t know the long term health effects for people. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that is it’s a probable cause for cancer, but cannot officially determine the cancer risk due to the lack of studies conducted on humans.
Avoiding Potassium Bromate
If you are in California, it’s fairly simple to avoid flour and bakery items that contain potassium bromate, since the state requires these products to have a warning label on them. If you live outside of California, you’ll have to read the ingredients list for potassium bromate or ‘bromated flour.’ King Arthur Flour and Bob’s Red Mill are two brands that do not contain potassium bromate. If you aren’t into reading the labels of every bread product out there, shop at Whole Foods – they say they will not sell products with potassium bromate, as it is considered, by the company, as an ‘unacceptable ingredient for food.’
What’s In Our Food?
Americans are starting to uncover what’s really in our food. From artificial coloring to genetically modified foods and even growth stimulants in our meat, we have a right to know what is in our food, where it comes from, and how it was made. If an ingredient causes cancer, and other countries agree that it’s not safe, then why do we still have it in the U.S. food system? Although we can’t control what grocers sell, if you’d like to change the contents of your local grocery store, vote with your money and purchase organic foods.
Resources:
International Agency for Research on Cancer. Potassium Bromate. (1999). Accessed March 21, 2013.
King Author Flour. Bromate Fact Sheet. Accessed March 21, 2013.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Bromate. (2013). Accessed March 22, 2013.
Whole Foods. Unacceptable Ingredients for Food. Accessed March 22, 2013.Several state agencies are looking at budget cuts for the coming fiscal year, and a reduction in services to Mississippians—from mental-health care to rehabilitation treatment—will inevitably put pressure on local communities and other support services to pick up the slack. In a tight budget year, cuts were perhaps inevitable, but prioritizing and spreading them across agencies are part of the budgeting process. Cuts to services that help society function in a healthy way will only hurt Mississippi's attempts to move forward out of its 50th rank, not help in any way.
Cuts to the Department of Mental Health's budget mean no more overnight chemical-dependency services for men in Mississippi state hospitals. Community-based health centers will have to make up the difference in services, if they can. But if long-term care is no longer available to those who depend on the state's resources to get it, where will those men go? We cannot properly address problems like homelessness or crime without acknowledging that access to a continuum of care is vital to decreasing those problems. Mental-health services provide a service to not only those who need them but also to the community. If services aren't provided, the community and quality of life for everyone suffer.
Cuts to the Department of Health mean decreased infant-mortality education in the state. Who will step in to raise awareness in order to drive down our state's high infant-mortality rate? Communities, hospitals and organizations such as the March of Dimes, which has a campaign to help keep babies alive, will have to step up.
We cannot properly address problems like our infant mortality rate, pre-term birth rate or high sexually transmitted infection rates by pawning off educational services on our communities and outside organizations coming into the state. The state should be held responsible for improving the sectors that keep us in last place so often. While enlisting help is not a bad idea, pushing responsibility onto financially strained communities cannot be the whole answer, either. The federal government will and has intervened when the state neglects to provide for its people. Although the state is finally getting a handle on its overworked foster-care system, the state's mental-health system is still the subject of a federal lawsuit, Troupe v. Barbour, which the U.S. Department of Justice is heavily involved in. In 2011, the DOJ found that Mississippi was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Going forward, we call on lawmakers to recognize how social services fit into the fabric of Mississippi society and our success. Rehabilitation programs are preventive measures—to keep our people healthy and get them back into society.
Infant-mortality education is a preventive measure—to educate new parents and preserve infant life in the state. We can't continue to kick the can down the road and then pay big to play defense in court later. Providing services now will prevent long-term strain on the state's budget, prevent legal recourse for not taking action, and begin to push Mississippi into a healthier and better future.The website for the television anime of ONE and Yuusuke Murata's One-Punch Man manga began streaming a television commercial in 30- and 15-second lengths on Sunday. Like the third promotional video last week, the ads feature the opening theme song "The Hero!! ~Ikareru Ken ni Honō o Tsukeru~" (The Hero!! Set Fire to the Furious Fist) by the anime song group JAM Project.
In the narration, the title character One-Punch Man introduces himself and notes that his hobby is being a hero. He reports that the anime adaptation of his misadventures will premiere in October.
The website also updated with details on character goods that Bandai Visual is selling now:
Oppai hoodie Rubber mobile phone straps Munageya shopping bag Hero Association mug
The original manga's story revolves around the titular super hero who has trained so hard that his hair has fallen out, and who can overcome any enemy with one punch. However, because he is so strong, he has become bored and frustrated with winning all his battles so easily.
The cast includes:
A man who underwent special training for three years and gained unrivaled powers. He took up being a hero as a hobby. Makoto Furukawa (Aldnoah Zero's Shigou Kakei, Golden Time's Banri Tada) as SaitamaA man who underwent special training for three years and gained unrivaled powers. He took up being a hero as a hobby. Kaito Ishikawa (Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet's Ledo, Haikyu!!'s Tobio Kageyama) as Genos
A young man who is a cyborg. He admires Saitama and becomes his apprentice. Yuuki Kaji (Attack on Titan's Eren, World Trigger's Osamu Mikumo) as Speed-o'-Sound Sonic (Onsoku no Sonic)
A self-proclaimed "strongest ninja" who takes on any jobs from assassination to being a bodyguard. He persistently continues to pursue Saitama. Aoi Yūki (Madoka Magica's Madoka, Sword Art Online II's Yuuki) as Terrible Tornado (Senritsu no Tatsumaki)
An S-class rank 2 hero. She is an esper who brings down her enemies with supernatural attacks. Her outward appearance is that of a little girl but she is in fact an adult. Kazuhiro Yamaji (Psycho-Pass' Jouji Saiga, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children's Cid) as Silverfang Hiroki Yasumoto (Yowamushi Pedal's Kinjō, Fairy Tail's Elfman) as King Takahiro Sakurai (Magi's Ja'far, Tokyo Ghoul's Uta) as Zombieman Katsuyuki Konishi (Hetalia's America, Fairy Tail's Laxus) as Tanktop Master Mamoru Miyano as Ikemen Kamen Amai Mask Saori Hayami as Hellish Blizzard (Jigoku no Fubuki)
Yūichi Nakamura (Fairy Tail's Grey, Valvrave the Liberator's Raizō Yamada) as License-less Hero, the hero with the heart of true justice
Kenjiro Tsuda as Atomic Samurai
Minami Takayama as Child Emperor
Tesshô Genda as Metal Knight
Youji Ueda as Drive Knight
Daisuke Namikawa as Pig God
Satoshi Hino as Superalloy Blackluster
Yuji Ueda as Watchdog Man
Kousuke Toriumi as Flashy Flash
Wataru Hatano as Metal Bat
Masaya Onosaka as Puri-puri PrisonerHyderabad: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested two key members of the Hyderabad IS module which they had unearthed last month.
"Yasir Niamatullah, chief of Hyderabad module, and Athaullah Rehman, a motivator who raised funds, have been arrested by NIA from here," sources in Telangana Intelligence Department told PTI.
"They are being produced in court on Tuesday," they said.
The NIA had on 29 June arrested five city-based persons on charges of their involvement in the terror module suspected to be linked to IS and conspiring to carry out bomb attacks.
On 1 July, they were remanded in police custody for 12 days.
The five — Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani alias Ibbu, Habeeb Mohammed alias Sir, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan — were arrested following a series of searches conducted at 10 locations in Old City area, with the assistance of Hyderabad Police.
In its remand report submitted to the court earlier, the agency had said that the five accused had acquired weapons and explosive material to carry out violent terrorist attacks and were in touch with IS.
Following its prior investigation, on 22 June, the NIA had lodged an FIR for "criminal conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India" by collecting weapons and explosive materials by targeting public places, religious sites and sensitive government buildings in various parts of India.
According to the agency, the gang was preparing improvised explosive devices for carrying out blasts, and was being guided by an online handler, suspected to be based in Iraq/Syria.
Along with the explosive materials, the NIA had recovered two semi-automatic pistols with ammunition, an air gun with telescopic sight and shooting practice target boards, a large number of digital gadgets including six laptops, about 40 mobile phones, 32 SIM cards, and a large number of hard disks, memory cards, pen drives and tabs during its search.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Story highlights Oscar Ortega taped a video pitch to Oprah Winfrey, released Friday by Idaho State
He accuses the U.S. government of being bullies and deceiving its citizens
"I was sent here from God to lead the world to Zion," he adds
His family says they saw changes in him:some worrisome, some good
Weeks before his arrest on a charge of attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama, an Idaho man taped a video pitch for Oprah Winfrey -- expressing his contempt for government, offering secrets to solving global problems and proclaiming himself to be "the modern-day Jesus Christ."
The video, released Friday to CNN by Idaho State University, features a man dressed in all black, with brown hair, a beard and a crucifix hanging around his neck.
"My name is Oscar Ortega from Idaho Falls, Idaho, and I feel like I am the perfect candidate to get cast on your show because not only do I have a solution to make a huge impact on this world with small changes to our daily lives, I also have with me the answer to worldwide peace," he states.
The previous Friday, a witness in Washington described to investigators hearing about "eight sounds of popping noise" and seeing "puffs of air" from a car that was registered to Ortega. One bullet hit a window on the White House but was stopped by bulletproof glass, the Secret Service said, while another was found on the White House exterior.
The president was in California that day, traveling with first lady Michelle Obama later that night to Hawaii.
The suspect, identified in court records as Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez of Idaho Falls, was arrested Wednesday in western Pennsylvania.
Many questions remain unanswered about the young man who faces the rare charge of trying to kill the president of the United States.
Public and court records shed some light on Ortega's background, as does a story that appeared Friday in the Post Register in Idaho Falls. So, too, does the video shot by Idaho State student Ramon Bailey in September, according to CNN affiliate KIFI.
In the video, Ortega alludes to having had "a taste of gang life... as a child," suggesting he's moved on.
He segues to a rant against the U.S. government, which he claims bullies other nations and has "deceived the American people so that (it) can steal other countries' goods, which is the oil."
"I have never felt so sure about something in my whole life. I'm willing to defend these words with my heart, my soul, flesh and bones," Ortega says. "Please do not take me as a joke or as a deception. I have never felt so sure that I was sent here from God to lead the world to Zion."
Later, he adds, "It's not just a coincidence that I look like Jesus. I am the modern-day Jesus Christ that you all have been waiting for" -- before "begging" Winfrey to put him on her show.
The "Oprah" show went off the air last spring. Still, Winfrey remains involved in the OWN network she helped create, and its website features "casting calls" for people who might want to get on air.
Ortega left his home in Idaho Falls in a black Honda a month ago, telling his family he was going on vacation for a week, according to the Post Register. The next time his family heard any news of his whereabouts was when investigators in Pennsylvania arrested him.
His sister, Yesenia Hernandez, told the Post Register that she noticed that her brother's appearance had recently changed. He used to cut his hair once a week, she told the paper. That's a contrast to the image of a young man with an unruly beard who has appeared on television screens across the country.
With long, tangled hair and a beard, Ortega wore a white jumpsuit and was handcuffed, his legs chained, as he entered a courtroom this week guarded by U.S. marshals.
"That's what started making me think there was something wrong," his sister told the Idaho newspaper. "I'd ask, 'Is it for the (mixed-martial arts) fighting?' He said, 'No. I'm just trying something different.' It was weird. Now he looks like, I guess, like a terrorist. It's like he's trying to play out the part."
Ortega's mother, Maria Hernandez, also saw changes in her son but told the Post Register that they were of a more positive nature.
Before, he would party a lot, and before his recent departure from Idaho, had been spending more time with his son, whose name is tattooed on his neck, his mother said. Ortega mentions his son in the video.
"A year ago, every Friday and Saturday night, he was out partying with his friends and not coming home at all," Maria Hernandez told the newspaper. "He started staying home on the weekends with his little boy.
"It was not like he was acting violent or getting drunk and all drugged up."
Ortega's relatives did not respond to CNN interview requests this week.
Public records show that Ortega had a series of run-ins with the law going back into his teen years. Some charges were for minor infractions, like failure to affix tags to a dog's collar and seat belt violations. He was charged at least twice with battery, but those charges were dismissed. In 2010, in connection with one of those incidents, he was convicted of resisting arrest.
Other charges included minor-in-possession of alcohol charges and even more traffic violations. In some cases, he was found guilty and paid fines, and others were dismissed.
According to an FBI affidavit, one witness -- identified only as "W-4" -- told investigators that Ortega "has increasingly become more agitated against the federal government, and is convinced that the federal government is conspiring against him."
He "wanted to 'hurt' President Obama and referred to him as 'the anti-Christ,' " the witness said.
Another witness, identified as "W-6," also quoted Ortega calling Obama "the anti-Christ." This witness told agents Ortega told him he "needed to kill him."
A third witness, "W-7," told investigators Ortega owned an "AK-47 like gun." His "opinions and comments regarding the government and President Obama have gotten worse" over the past year, the witness told agents.
"W-7 stated that Ortega-Hernandez believed President Obama is 'the devil,' and that Ortega-Hernandez 'will not stop until it's done.'" the affidavit said. "W-7 also reported that Ortega-Hernandez stated President Obama 'needed to be taken care of.' "A total of 230 officers will report to the city's most expansive district by year's end, up from 192 officers this summer, Sposato said. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Devlin Brown
CHICAGO — Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson will assign an additional 12 police officers to the Jefferson Park District by the end of the month, fulfilling his September promise to beef up the force, according to Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th).
A total of 230 officers will report to the city's most expansive police district by year's end, up from 192 over the summer, Sposato said.
The district saw 10 new officers added in October, then another 10 in November, the alderman said. On Tuesday, Johnson told district Cmdr. Bill Looney he'd get another 12 this month.
Johnson "kind of dribbled along with his promise there for a while, but now it's complete," Sposato said. "I'm thrilled, the commander's thrilled.... This was very much needed."
The 32 extra bodies don't include assignments making up for retirements and attrition, he added.
Facing a spike in reported crime, Sposato joined other aldermen on the Far Northwest Side in June to demand reinforcements from Johnson, coaxing the top cop to commit 20 more officers to the district by the end of the year.
With fewer than 200 officers charged to cover the 36 square-mile district, many residents reported feeling unprotected amid a citywide crime surge.
Robberies were reported 162 times in the Jefferson Park police district between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, compared to just 119 during the same period in 2015, according to city data. Meanwhile, 368 car thefts were reported in the district through October 2016, up from 290 the previous year.
Earlier this month, the City Council passed a 2017 budget including $60 million to hire 250 new officers, 92 new field-training officers, 100 new detectives, 37 new sergeants and 50 new lieutenants across the city's 22 police districts.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.Junior jihad: Spraying bullets from an AK-47, the four-year-old Al Qaeda fighter in Syria who should be in infants’ school
Video shows youngster opening fire twice to shouts of 'Allahu Akbar'
He is so small the gun barrel was supported by a section of road block
Alarming footage was released by a jihadist group fighting Syrian civil war
Other images show children aged nine to 15 training in black ski masks
UN peace talks collapsed last night and Assad government may not return
He is barely old enough to go to infant school, let alone fight in a savage civil war.
Yet this youngster, believed to be just four years old, is one of the latest ‘cub jihadists’ recruited for bloody battle in Syria.
He can be seen firing rounds from an automatic assault rifle in a shocking video that has emerged from the war-torn country.
Scroll down for video
Assault rifle: Alarming footage appears to show a child, believed to be four years old, shooting an AK-47 as the reliance on children on the Syrian bloodbath continues. The footage was posted online by a jihadist group
Children of war: The boy will have lived almost his whole life through the Syrian conflict, though with his high voice and chubby cheeks, he belongs more in infants' school than on a battlefield
Counter-terrorism officials say it is further evidence of how jihadists are grooming children to become fighters, as Al Qaeda factions strive to establish a Taliban-like Islamic state in Syria.
The disturbing footage was posted on YouTube and is believed to be that of a son of a jihadist from Albania who is one of thousands of foreigners fighting with Al Qaeda in Syria.
The youngster, who wears a black ski mask, can be seen firing shots from a black AK-47-style automatic assault rifle with a folding stock.
He is so small that the barrel of the gun has to be supported by a section of road block so that he can cope with its weight.
The child opens fire to shouts of Allahu Akbar – Arabic for ‘God is Greater’ – before an arm reaches down and retrieves the weapon.
Warfare: The footage comes amid warnings that up to 700 young British extremists are fighting in Syria
War games: The video shows the child smiling and talking in his native language with the adults filming him
CRISIS AS UN PEACE TALKS FAIL
Week-long peace talks collapsed last night amid a stand-off between rebels and the Syrian government.
The delegation of President Bashar Assad (right) refused to commit to return to UN negotiations in 10 days, as the opposition accused them of posturing and prolonging the bloodbath.
More than 130,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011 and activists claim 1,900 died during the peace talks alone. Opposition chief Ahmad al-Jarba said Assad was pressed by his Russian backers to take part in the talks but could not engage toward finding a real solution because 'he knows that would be his end.' He added: 'For us, [Assad's] family is finished from the memory of the Syrians, all that is left is blood, fire and terrorism. We will not accept for this man or anyone from his family to rule the country again.' Earlier, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said: 'We are here to find a political solution. We were unable to achieve that.' UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said progress was'very slow indeed'. He added: 'Nevertheless, during our discussions, I observed a little bit of common ground - perhaps more than the two sides realise or recognise.'
The video emerged as French President Francois Hollande yesterday claimed as many as 700 Britons are among extremists fighting in the Syrian civil war.
Speaking at a press conference after talks with David Cameron, the president said: ‘We have young people who live in our respective countries who are being manipulated, and they are going off to the combat areas.
‘Today we were exchanging figures – 600 to 700 young people are involved in each of our countries.’
That is almost double the most recent estimate by experts and comes amid ‘huge concern’ from security chiefs that the young jihadists will target Britain when they return from fighting in Syria.
The video of the four-year-old first emerged on January 21 on a YouTube channel operated by a jihadist who claimed to be based in northern Syria. It was entitled in Arabic: ‘A message from one of the cubs of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.’
The footage was removed after it was exposed by an American-based ‘anti-jihad’ activist who claimed it was evidence of child abuse.
Copies of the video, however, remained in circulation on other online channels.
Suspected British Al Qaeda fighters in Syria have been circulating other images showing children being trained to use deadly weapons in a jihad training camp.
The pictures showed children aged between nine and 15 in full battle dress and wearing black ski masks bearing the distinctive logo of Al Qaeda.
Many were seen holding Kalashnikov automatic assault rifles, tripod-mounted heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
The video of the toddler emerged just days after the European Union’s anti-terror coordinator warned that social media websites play a crucial role in recruiting foreign fighters to travel to Syria.
Shocking: More photos show children as young as nine at a training camp toting guns and wearing ski masks
Top counter-terrorism officer Sir Peter Fahy said British fighters arriving from Syria posed a threat to the UK
Gilles de Kerchove told the Home Affairs Select Committee that online messages, many posted by ‘narcissistic youths posing with AK-47 rifles, had contributed to an acceleration in the number of Europeans, including Britons, travelling to Syria to fight – with many falling in with extremist groups.
The issue – which has become a key focus for the security and intelligence services – was among topics discussed by Mr Hollande and Mr Cameron. Syria is proving a popular training ground for would-be jihadists.
Sir Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police – who leads the Association of Chief Police Officer’s ‘Prevent’ strategy on counter-terrorism – told the BBC this week there was ‘huge concern’ that Britons arriving back after fighting in Syria posed a threat to the UK.
Scotland Yard has also said its biggest concern is that some could return as terrorists.
In the past month, 16 people have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences after travelling between Syria and the UK.
This compares with 24 in the whole of 2013.
Footage: The images are released by jihadist groups to terrify enemies, but their origins are often unclearThe state Senate voted Thursday to overturn new paid sick-leave requirements in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and to block all Minnesota cities from raising the minimum wage or enacting other workplace rules.
The House passed a similar measure last month, as Republican majorities in both chambers push back against a growing list of local labor ordinances they say could hurt businesses and the state’s economy. The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 35-31, with just one DFL senator joining every Republican member in supporting it.
“As you can imagine, a patchwork of inconsistent labor standards from city to city and county to county, or both cities and counties, would be extremely confusing and a significant burden on Minnesota businesses, and especially small businesses,” said Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, the bill’s chief author.
DFL lawmakers, and a group of protesters who turned up at the Capitol for Thursday’s vote, say the measures are a move to strip decisionmaking authority from local government leaders — and the constituents they represent.
“What this should say is that this is the ‘Uniform Take Away the Voice of the People Act,’ ” said Sen. Erik Simonson, DFL-Duluth, taking issue with the title Republicans gave their measure: the “Uniform Labor Standards Act.”
The only DFLer to vote for the measure was Sen. Dan Sparks of Austin.
Highlights of bill • Blocks cities from raising the minimum wage or passing ordinances on paid sick leave, workplace scheduling or other benefits. • Is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016, so would undo sick-leave ordinances set to go into effect this year in Minneapolis and St. Paul. • Next, the House and Senate will work to finalize a version of the bill to send to the governor.
So far, Minneapolis and St. Paul are the only cities to mandate that businesses provide paid sick leave to their workers, though the city of Duluth is exploring the issue. Minneapolis elected officials are planning to take up a $15 minimum wage ordinance later this spring. The statewide minimum wage is $9.50 an hour for employers with annual gross sales or business of $500,000 or more, and $7.75 for businesses under that. There’s also a built-in yearly adjustment for inflation.
With Thursday’s approval by the Senate, lawmakers from both chambers will meet in conference committee to settle on a final version to send to DFL Gov. Mark Dayton. He said Thursday that he has “very significant concerns” about Republican efforts to limit the power of cities, especially on raising wages.
During the Senate’s floor debate, which lasted several hours, Republican Sen. David Osmek of Mound argued that it’s not about undermining the authority of city leaders. Instead, he said, it’s meant to stop cities from threatening the right of private businesses to decide how much to pay workers or whether or not to provide benefits.
“The most local control is what a business decides to do,” Osmek said to DFL lawmakers. “What you and others are advocating is to override the local control of the business.”
Republicans said they are particularly concerned that ordinances like the Minneapolis sick-leave mandate would require businesses based outside the city to comply with the new rules if they have workers in Minneapolis.
DFLers chided Republicans for bucking their party’s typical position in support of government decisions being made at the local level. Senators from Minneapolis and St. Paul described the lengthy processes that elected leaders in both cities went through before passing sick-leave ordinances, including months of public meetings and citizen work groups. Simonson said it was unfair for the Legislature to vote to stop local ordinances without doing the kind of substantial research on the topic that cities have undertaken in recent years.
Sen. Matt Little, DFL-Lakeville, a former mayor, said Minnesota government sets minimum standards for workplace protections and benefits, and shouldn’t get in the way of cities that want to do more. State lawmakers might not understand the needs of specific communities, he said.
“Every time, every step you take away from local governments, you are decreasing the power citizens have to make positive changes in their daily lives,” Little said.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, a top campaign supporter of Republicans in the Legislature, emerged as a leading advocate for the measure.
“We do not believe government at any level should dictate private-sector employee benefits,” Chamber President Doug Loon said in a statement.
Dayton said Thursday that he’s concerned that the Legislature’s votes on the issue could lock in low wages across the state. Dayton said he believes a minimum wage should be high enough to allow a full-time worker to reach the poverty line, which would amount to about $12.50 per hour.
“That’s a huge public policy and financial decision that’s being made and then imposed, and will be very hard to change,” he said.A Policy Scorecard
Due to concerns from civil rights groups about the increased potential for surveillance, leading departments have begun to include limits on their use of biometric technologies, like facial recognition, together with camera footage. In our initial release, only Baltimore’s policy addressed facial recognition. Since then, Baltimore County, Boston, Cincinnati, Montgomery County, Parker (CO), and Seattle have all followed suit. Additionally, Baltimore strengthened its policy since our first analysis.
None of the department policies we analyzed have a blanket limitation on officer review of footage before filing an initial written incident report. Only thirteen departments have partial prohibitions in place, for certain critical incidents like officer shootings. The vast majority of departments (55) allow officers unrestricted footage review.
Increasingly, departments are establishing explicit procedures that allow recorded individuals — like those seeking to file a police misconduct complaint — to view the footage of their own incidents. Four departments we analyzed — in Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Parker (CO) and Washington DC — now appear to provide special access to recorded individuals. These special access rights, tailored specifically for body camera footage, exist alongside state-level public records laws.
Even when departments have policies in place, over a third (28 of 68) don’t make them easily and publicly available on their department websites, which hinders robust public debate about how body cameras should be used. Many of the policies we analyzed were found externally on other websites.
As of November 2017, of the 69 “major city” departments in the U.S., 62 now have body worn camera programs with policies in place. Three of those major departments appear to have cameras on the ground, but have not released their policies to the public — Buffalo, Suffolk County, Tulsa.
Departments are moving quickly to deploy body-worn cameras, and are experimenting with a wide range of policies across each of the dimensions we examined. Departments that have a strong policy in one area often falter in another — every department has room to improve. At the same time, we are pleased to find examples of strong policy language currently in use for nearly all of our criteria. The positive policy language highlighted on this site should serve as a model to departments looking to improve their policies.
Of course, a department’s policy is only as good as how it is put into practice. Departments must ensure that their stated policies are followed and, when department personnel violate those policies, that the appropriate disciplinary measures are taken.
For each factor, we scored department policies on a three level scale. We awarded a policy a green check only if it fully satisfies our criteria — these are the policies that other departments should consider emulating if they are looking to improve their own. A yellow circle means that a policy partially satisfies our criteria, and that the department has room for improvement. A red ex indicates that a policy either does not address the issue, or a policy runs directly against our principles. In cases where the department has not made its policy public, we use a question mark as a placeholder for future review.
We evaluated each department policy on eight criteria, derived from our Civil Rights Principles on Body Worn Cameras. We believe that these are among the most important factors in determining whether the proper policy safeguards are in place to protect the civil rights of recorded individuals.
The policy landscape is shifting rapidly: Since our initial release, many departments have updated their policies multiple times based on their early experiences, and others have launched new body camera programs and policies. Our analysis is current as of the “last updated” date on each individual department scorecard. As we become aware of new deployments and policy changes, we will do our best to update our scorecard analysis. If you see anything that looks out of date, please let us know.
When we initially released our scorecard in November 2015, we examined the body-worn camera policies from 25 local police departments. Since then, we’ve expanded our scorecard to 75 departments, covering all major city police departments in the country that have equipped — or will soon equip — their officers with body cameras. We also added departments that have received more than $500,000 in DOJ grant funding to support their camera programs (as indicated by on the scorecard). In addition, we included Baton Rouge (LA) and Ferguson (MO) because of the national attention they have received after recent events, and Parker (CO) because of the promising policies they have adopted.
This scorecard evaluates the body-worn camera policies currently in place in major police departments across the country. Our goal is to highlight promising approaches that some departments are taking, and to identify opportunities where departments could improve their policies.
But accountability is not automatic. Whether these cameras make police more accountable — or simply intensify police surveillance of communities — depends on how the cameras and footage are used. That’s why The Leadership Conference, together with a broad coalition of civil rights, privacy, and media rights groups, developed shared Civil Rights Principles on Body Worn Cameras. Our principles emphasize that “[w]ithout carefully crafted policy safeguards in place, there is a real risk that these new devices could become instruments of injustice, rather than tools for accountability.”
In the wake of high-profile incidents in Ferguson, Staten Island, North Charleston, Baltimore, and elsewhere, law enforcement agencies across the country have rapidly adopted body-worn cameras for their officers. One of the main selling points for these cameras is their potential to provide transparency into some police interactions, and to help protect civil rights, especially in heavily policed communities of color.
While we are not fully satisfied with any department’s policy in this category, Oakland provides an example that we believe should be applied |
ile powder
For Cornbread Topping:
3 beaten eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups corn meal
1 1/2 cups sweet milk, evaporated
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp sugar
The filling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first six ingredients in large skillet, and brown the meat. Add corn, tomatoes, and chile powder. Cook together for 15 minutes. Transfer ingredients to a casserole dish.
The cornbread topping: In a separate bowl, combine all ingredients. Pour over meat mixture, and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until the top has browned.As the NBA glides into an era defined by position-less basketball, where those who are solid at everything are more valuable than those great in some areas and miserable in others, the point guard holds strong as the league's deepest scene. It's a timeless role, remaining arguably the sport's most important position.
In ranking every starting point guard in the league, several contextual factors were, to the best of my ability, ignored -- including contract value and team fit. It's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove a player from his surroundings, insert him into a vacuum, then start making comparisons.
Basketball is a team sport. Variables like teammates, coaches and systems really matter. But including them would muck things up, so treat this instead as a hypothetical draft that took place after everyone gets released from their current team. It's a theoretical exercise, but does a decent job figuring out who's better than whom as we head into the 2015-16 season.
To get there, I watched film; dug through statistics found on sites like Basketball Reference, NBA.com (which includes SportVU and Synergy) and Nylon Calculus; re-read my stack of notebooks that are filled with observations from the past few seasons; and hashed out a few ideas with fellow writers.
It's not perfect. No list can be. But enjoy, and let the arguments begin!
Tier 8: The ugly ducklings
30. Trey Burke, Utah Jazz
29. Isaiah Canaan, Philadelphia 76ers
28. Jose Calderon, New York Knicks
27. Jarrett Jack, Brooklyn Nets
How deep is the point guard position? Only four teams badly need one. If Dante Exum didn't tear his ACL over the summer, the list would be three.
If you have any NBA awareness whatsoever, you already know the 76ers are in desperate need at that (and almost every other) position. Nobody knows how their rotation will shake out, but Canaan seems to be the guy until Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten recover from their ACL injuries. Canaan attempted one three every 3.5 minutes with the Sixers last season. Steph Curry, who led the league in 3-point attempts, hoisted one up about every four minutes. Threes are rightfully en vogue, but Canaan's rate is still hilarious -- even if he made a decent amount of them, particularly in spot-up situations.
Canaan doesn't bring much else to the table, though. And he's a Sixer, which by law would normally rank him dead last in every NBA-related list that gets published online. But Utah's Burke is a special kind of bad. It took Utah a season and a half to go from "we just traded two first-round picks for Trey Burke!" to "Exum is everything!" Understandable. Burke's shot chart should be titled "stop what you're doing and go take a shower." He launches it from all over the place -- the mid-range, in the paint, from the corner, etc. -- and from nowhere is he respected. In addition to bad offense, last year the Jazz had a bottom-10 defense with Burke on the court, and they paced the entire league in defensive rating when he sat.
Speaking of terrible defense, let's talk about Knicks! Calderon is probably/definitely the least athletic starting point guard in basketball. He can't stay between his man and the basket. The outside shot is still well-reputed, and the guy plays within himself and intelligently, but that's about where his list of positive qualities end. Calderon posted the same True Shooting percentage as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist last season. Not great. But at least he doesn't detonate possessions with nonsensical decisions that would be jeered in a pickup game.
Across the East River, the soon-to-be 32-year-old Jack will drown as an iffy thinker who loses focus away from the ball on defense. He can't space the floor and is badly miscast as the lead guard on the Nets, basketball's blandest roster.
Tier 7: Young, awesome and very, very frustrating
26. D'Angelo Russell, Los Angeles Lakers
25. Emmanuel Mudiay, Denver Nuggets
24. Elfrid Payton, Orlando Magic
23. Marcus Smart, Boston Celtics
Four lottery picks. Two have yet to play a single NBA minute. Fun! Russell and Mudiay flashed varying degrees of potential in Las Vegas Summer League action, but neither should have a smooth rookie season. Mistakes and turnovers (lots and lots of turnovers) will splice between the occasional jolt of hopeful excitement. Both guys enter the league with at least one translatable offensive skill they can lean on immediately. That's good.
Elsewhere, despite air-balling several free-throw attempts and turning Orlando's offense into a 4-on-5 situation whenever he didn't have the ball, Payton managed to pinch a few triple-doubles out of thin air last season. He sprinkles helpful contribution on both ends of the court and his teammates respect him, but there's only so far he can go with that non-existent jump shot.
The Celtics' Smart enters next year with a heftier dose of optimism. He can conceivably leapfrog the next tier of point guards by season's end. Boston's most precious trade chip (that isn't a draft pick), Smart can defend three positions with rabid intensity, and his shot wasn't as bad as advertised coming out of college. He doesn't create off the dribble or make defenses that sag off him in the pick-and-roll pay for it, but if Smart can consistently get to the rim/free-throw line and improve his vision, he'll be a valid two-way star before his rookie-scale contract expires. (Those are big "ifs.")
Tier 6: A shooter's touch would be nice
22. Rajon Rondo, Sacramento Kings
21. Kemba Walker, Charlotte Hornets
20. Michael Carter-Williams, Milwaukee Bucks
Three-pointers are important, and none of these guys can make them. But of the lot, Carter-Williams and his two seasons of experience make him the odds-on favorite to actually improve next season. He all but abandoned his jumper after getting traded to Milwaukee, but replaced those looks with free throws and shots in the paint. He can impact the game in so many different ways, with ideal size that's utilized on the glass and in passing lanes.
Down in Charlotte it's a different story. Four years into a ho-hum career and we know who Walker is: an undersized, inefficient scorer who isn't improving. His turnover rate was fantastic last year, but that might be an aberration. And of the 50 players who averaged at least 16.0 points per game, Walker and Kobe Bryant were the only two who made fewer than 40 percent of their field-goal attempts.
But at least Walker can put the ball in the basket. For those who once enjoyed watching Rondo operate five steps ahead of his competition, with a raging fire in his belly only matched by an unparalleled range of physical and mental brilliance, all that's left is self-combustive pathos. Rondo's career either requires zero exposition or a never-ending supply, depending on who you're talking to. It belongs in a museum, and in 30 years that beautifully tragic body of work will be the subject of an intense, never-ending debate (mostly between me and everyone I talk to).
Rondo's ceiling and floor have never met. There were patches between the 2009 postseason and 2012 when he was one of the 10 best players in the world, second only to Chris Paul among floor generals. He now starts for the most dysfunctional franchise in the league, coming off the season from hell. But Rondo's supporters refuse to rule out the ever-slight possibility of him rising like a phoenix one last time. Maybe Vivek Ranadivé's three-ring circus is the perfect tent for him to stage a comeback, sort of like how Deadpool will let Ryan Reynolds be Ryan Reynolds.
Tier 5: The upper-middle class
19. Deron Williams, Dallas Mavericks
18. Reggie Jackson, Detroit Pistons
17. Ricky Rubio, Minnesota Timberwolves
16. Ty Lawson, Houston Rockets
15. George Hill, Indiana Pacers
14. Jrue Holiday, New Orleans Pelicans
13. Jeff Teague, Atlanta Hawks
You can rank these seven point guards in just about any order -- save a few ridiculous opinions -- and nobody will get too upset about it. More or less, they're all known commodities with pronounced limitations that put a hard cap on their respective ceilings. A few are young enough to make you think they're still developing and will fix those kinks, but it's more than likely that will never happen.
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Creating a better NBA postseason The NBA finally did the inevitable Tuesday. It essentially killed divisions by deciding playoff seeding will be… More» Take Williams as an example. I'm sure there are people who think he can finally resurrect his glory years, with pristine health and the good fortune of having Dirk Nowitzki as a teammate. But nah. That ship has sailed. On the flip side of that coin is Jackson, who enters training camp as a nightly starter for the first time in his NBA career.
Detroit's new franchise point guard assisted more than half his team's baskets -- and didn't let his True Shooting percentage drop despite a humongous surge in responsibility -- after burning every bridge on his way out of Oklahoma City. That's cool. And in Detroit, Jackson's player efficiency rating was higher than Eric Bledsoe, Kyle Lowry and Holiday's. But PER isn't everything. The guy can't really shoot and loves attacking (inefficiently) off the dribble. That's not a great combination.
Rubio and Teague have the same issue. A shaky jump shot is their crutch, but they make up for it with a combination of defense, vision, creative flair and speed. Lawson is a roadrunner in the open floor who posted a better fourth-quarter assist-to-turnover ratio than Chris Paul last season, but he's not shutting anybody down on the other end. Holiday could be a perennial All-Star and the top defender at his position, but his legs keep falling off.
Then there's Hill. It's no coincidence the Pacers point guard lands at 15 on a list of 30 players. Before last season he was the steadiest of hands. Some think he's not very good, and getting traded for dream-gobbler Kawhi Leonard skews perception. But Hill's 2014-15 production was top notch. In 43 games, he averaged 20 points, six assists and five boards per 36 minutes. ESPN ranked him sixth among point guards in Real Plus-Minus, and only Curry, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook were higher in Offensive RPM.
It's a small sample size, but Hill responded nicely to the challenges of an expanded role, which really makes you think some areas of his potential remain untapped. Probably not, but it's an itchy thought. He moves great without the ball, has a quick enough release and can defend two or three positions. That said, it's unclear how Hill directly makes teammates better. A majority of his assists are simple, smart passes that lead to open mid-range jump shots. An elite playmaker can probe and do more with less. Hill can't.
Tier 4: A tad too inconsistent for greatness
12. Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
11. Kyle Lowry, Toronto Raptors
10. Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs
9. Eric Bledsoe, Phoenix Suns
8. Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers
This tier is like the infamous cashmere sweater George deviously bought on sale as a gift for Elaine, knowing it had an unseemly red dot stitched into the fabric. These are all very good, legitimate All-Star-caliber players. They can either score at will, make impossible passes look easy, bottle up their defensive assignment or do all the above. But there's something wrong. An itch in the small of their game's back.
Lillard can't defend and had a sneaky-disappointing outside shot last year. Parker is perpetually injured. Lowry just cracked under the weight of his all-time highest usage percentage. Bledsoe would be in a higher group if not for his faulty jumper. Rose would be one of the very best players in the world if, well, everyone already knows why he isn't. Let's talk about him some more.
The 2011 MVP barely posted a better assist-to-turnover ratio than Shabazz Napier last season (no guards who appeared in at least 40 games had a higher turnover rate than the second-year guard).
What follows may not sound like the most important stat in the world -- it's not -- but in 2011 Rose dunked the ball 32 times. Since then? 18 dunks in three seasons. As an eternal optimist when it comes to injured players, I feel like Rose can still be an above-average starter in the back half of his career. It's not something I'd bet my life on, but his first step can still eviscerate just about every human being alive, and for whatever reason I value that over a field-goal percentage that would've dropped below 40 percent had Rose not made an unsustainable number of tough attempts in the paint last season.
Would you be really sad if a healthy Rose was the starting point guard on your favorite team? Probably not! That overview applies to all these guys, because everybody likes cashmere.
Tier 3: Deadly and appreciated
7. Goran Dragic, Miami Heat
6. Mike Conley, Memphis Grizzlies
The "underrated" label has finally unglued itself from Mike Conley's forehead. Everyone knew Conley was really good before he shredded the Golden State Warriors with a broken face and busted foot in the playoffs. He's one of the toughest players in the league, a pass-first contortionist with a neat bag of floaters that allow survival once he ventures into NBA forestry.
Conley's per-game numbers don't leap off the page -- they were arguably worse than Teague's a year ago -- but he can shoot threes, run an offense and defend like a mad man. He doesn't take anything off the table, which is a skill in and of itself.
Dragic belongs here because he's really freaking good. At the end of the day, players who can carve a path to the basket and consistently make positive things happen once they get there are special. Dragic finishes with the best of them. Last season, he was about 10 percent more accurate than James Harden in the restricted area, and after going to Miami he was a more lethal weapon driving to the basket than LeBron James.
The Heat will reshuffle its ecosystem to suit Dragic's game. That's the sign of a special player.
Tier 2: The forces of nature
5. Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers
4. John Wall, Washington Wizards
3. Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
I recently read a book called "All Involved" by Ryan Gattis, set in the heart of Los Angeles amidst the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict. A single story is thread through several vantage points, one seen through the eyes of a gang member who believes "swift is mercy."
This mantra reminds me of Irving, Wall and Westbrook, but especially the reigning scoring champion. Instead of delaying the inevitable, Westbrook attacks as soon as he can. There's no dilly-dally in his game. It's all thunder (no pun intended) all the time. He's so fast and deliberate and unstoppable. It's a chilling combination.
The coaching blueprint for stopping this tier runs parallel beside directions people follow when the sky turns green.
Tier 1: The Point Gods
2. Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
1. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
It's not easy separating Paul and Curry. Both are a fingernail below perfect. Paul is the best -- albeit aging -- pure point guard of his generation and Curry is the reigning MVP and NBA champion. As great as Paul is and will be for another year, at least, he's not as fatal as Curry, who deserves nothing less than the top spot.
Curry is an Empire State Building-sized monkey wrench. Many a San Francisco hotel pillow has been drenched in sweat from defensive coordinators who fever dream the night before a game at Oracle Arena. He's the greatest shooter who ever lived, and last season that meant it usually only took three quarters for him to take care of business.
Both are uber-special, all-time talents who are headed to the Hall of Fame. But there can only be one No. 1, and right now Curry owns the league.Metro will test four new 7000 series railcars at the Greenbelt station Monday morning, according to the Embassy of Japan.
Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae, members of Congress, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray are expected to join Metro officials at the unveiling.
The 7000 series, designed and manufactured by Kawasaki and built in Lincoln, Neb., will replace aging railcars and will be used on the Silver Line to Dulles International Airport. Metro initially ordered 528 cars -- 300 to replace the 1000 series, 100 to replace the 4000 series and 128 for the Silver Line. Metro would like an additional 220 cars to help provide all eight-car trains during peak service.
The new cars meet National Transportation Safety Board recommendations following the June 2009 crash that killed nine and injured dozens.128.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Well. This is awkward.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie loves to pontificate from on high about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton using a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. Christie has accused Clinton of not wanting the public to know what she’s doing, saying “She believes we don’t have a right to know. When I’m president of the United States, you have a right to know what your president is doing.”
So it’s kind of bad that hours after Chris Christie puffed that he was uniquely qualified to “prosecute the case against Hillary Clinton” in the Fox Business GOP debate, papers were filed in federal court accusing him of hiding thousands of documents.
… Including emails. A lot of them. 9,428 to be exact.
Andrea Bernstein and Matt Katz laid out the case in WNYC:
Christie’s legal team is inappropriately hiding thousands of documents related to the Bridgegate scandal, the two defense lawyers argued in briefs filed late Tuesday. Among the hidden documents, the lawyers say, are emails to and from the governor’s personal and work email accounts and a calendar entry from the week when an order was delivered to close lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013.
The reporters note, “At least 16 of those emails were sent from top Christie aides to former Port Authority appointee David Wildstein, who pleaded guilty in May to felony corruption charges for the politically-motivated lane closures, and Bill Baroni, the former top Port official who has pleaded not guilty in the case.”
So that’s troubling. But bear in mind these are filings being made in federal court by the attorneys for the two Bridgegate defendants.
All told, Christie’s taxpayer-funded attorneys at the Gibson Dunn law firm have withheld or redacted 9,428 emails and other documents. The reasons given include “campaign strategy” and “press strategy.”
There are also allegations of at least one email between Wildstein and Christie. Wildstein is an old classmate of Christie’s. There are allegations of meetings that took place and emails sent that suggest Christie knew more about Bridgegate than he admitted. There’s even a hard drive that was deliberately removed from the office.
But this right here is what could do Christie in, given that his strategy to success – and it worked – during the last debate was to pivot to attacking Hillary Clinton as often and as hard as he could. He positioned himself as the best Clinton attack dog. “Christie’s legal team, noted Michael Baldassare, the lawyer for Bill Baroni, ‘did not produce a single email on behalf of the Governor from a government email address.'”
The reporters note that unlike most governors, Christie keeps his calendar secret, which is also not so transparent. Worse, a redacted copy showed a meeting with a lobbyist related to the police lieutenant at the Port Authority who is said to have helped close the bridge. Christie also had phone calls with Neil Bush, yes, one of those Bushes – brother of the other guy running for president and brother to George W. Bush.
And the most damaging of all, “The court papers also reveal for the first time that Christie testified before a federal grand jury about the Bridgegate matter. A Christie spokesman could not immediately confirm that such testimony took place, or when.”
Chris Christie is going to have a very hard time “Prosecuting the case” against Hillary Clinton for using a private email server when he did the same thing. And if these allegations are true, if he refused to turn over documents, covered them up, had anything to do with the hard drive Wildstein took home after he was fired, he could be in some serious hot water.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Oct. 26, 2017, 7:14 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 26, 2017, 7:14 PM GMT By Agnes Constante
More than half of doctors polled in a new survey said that patients had made offensive comments about them regarding their age, gender, race or ethnicity.
Fifty-nine percent of all doctors surveyed reported an "offensive remark" relating to a personal characteristic, defined as age, gender, ethnicity/national origin, race, weight, political views, religion, accent, location of medical education or sexual orientation.
The survey, “Patient Prejudice: When Credentials Aren't Enough,” collected data from approximately 1,200 health care professionals — including physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician’s assistants. Released last week, it was a collaboration between WebMD/Medscape and STAT, a national health publication.
In a recent survey, a majority of doctors said they had heard negative comments about personal characteristics like their race, age, or gender from patients. John Fedele / Getty Images
Of health care providers surveyed, black and Asian-American doctors were most likely to report hearing biased remarks from patients, with 70 percent of black doctors and 69 percent of Asian-American doctors reporting offensive comments, the survey found.
Forty-three percent of Asian-American physicians reported patients making remarks about their ethnicity, the highest of all groups, while 39 percent of black doctors reported hearing comments about their race.
“The other big thing that came up was that age matters,” Arefa Cassoobhoy, senior medical director for WebMD and Medscape, told NBC News. “Younger physicians face more bias, and female physicians do. So it’s a triple whammy if you’re a young female Asian physician.”
But despite the discrimination experienced by medical professionals, nearly half of physicians said their institution doesn't provide training to handle bias, while 36 percent don't know if training is offered.
Dr. Farah Khan, based in Atlanta, said she had a patient in 2015 whose family made clear that they did not want an Indian physician. The situation was brushed under the rug, Khan said, and doctors were simply expected to move on.
Dr. Farah Khan said medical school did not prepare her for negative comments about her race from patients. Courtesy of Dr. Farah Khan
“That was really kind of a slap in the face," Khan said. "Less so because of what the patient and her family said, but a little bit also because it wasn’t handled very well by the administration at the time."
Having to deal with discriminatory remarks affects a doctor's ability to attend to patients, Khan added.
“To be in a situation where you’re armed with both the medical knowledge and the technical know-how to help patients, but then when you’re impeded by something you can’t do anything about, which is your race or your gender, it’s really, really disheartening,” she said.
Khan added that dealing with these situations was not covered in medical school.
Some universities are now taking steps to teach medical students how to handle offensive remarks and attitudes.
Dr. Fernando Mendoza, a professor of pediatrics and associate dean of minority advising and programs at Stanford University, told NBC News that faculty recently developed an unconscious bias training program that the university's school of medicine has begun instituting.
The program includes six lessons that cover race, LGBT issues, language issues, gender, mental health and spiritual care.
“We’re not going to be able to change the demographics of the United States,” he said. “The Census indicates by next year, half of all the kids in the United States will be minorities. If you’re a pediatrician, like I am, this is really important. We’re trying to push the idea that if we’re going to practice pediatrics, then we need to think about this diversity.”
The University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine has had a professionalism and humanism curriculum in place for more than 15 years. The program includes discussions, readings, and lectures on race and racism in medicine.
“Given the diversity of our patients in Philadelphia, as well as in the country, we see education in this area as critical to preparing future physicians to provide culturally informed and appropriate care,” Horace DeLisser, the school’s associate dean for diversity and inclusion, said in an email.
Cary Silvers, associate director of consumer insights and research for the survey, said that given the volume of patients doctors see per year, biased remarks are inevitable. While on average patients see about 19 different doctors in their lifetime, doctors see about 19 patients a day, resulting in approximately 2,367 annual visits, the study noted.
“It’s not that all patients are walking in doing this but based on the high volume, they’re going to see this is one of the elements that does happen from time to time,” he said.
In addition to documenting doctors' experiences, the WebMD/Medscape survey also looked at how patients experience bias. Of approximately 1,000 who were surveyed, 11 percent said they heard an offensive remark from a health care provider.
Cassoobhoy noted that bias in the patient-physician interaction is not common. But she said the findings in the survey are a great step in encouraging conversations about prejudice.
“We talk about protecting the physician-patient relationship and making sure that it's a relationship that’s strong and engaged,” she said. “One of the most important things is that our physicians shouldn’t have to experience these offensive remarks. And if they do, then let's address it and foster a community where this doesn’t have to happen.”
Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.Two members of the Senate's Tea Party caucus joined up with Sen. Lindsey Graham today to introduce the Social Security Solvency and Sustainability Act of 2011. Graham showed reporters a vintage 2005 copy of Congressional Quarterly, from the Bush era Social Security fight, reminding us that he'd tried to broker a compromise back then.
"It says,'maverick,'" he pointed out.
David Weigel David Weigel is a reporter for the Washington Post.
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The new plan, which has been scored by the Social Security administration, does not do much of what Republicans wanted in 2005. There are no private accounts. There are only cuts. It features a gradual increase in the retirement age, which goes to 70 by 2032, with an increase in the early retirement age to 64. The full retirement age is fungible -- it will be "indexed to increases or decreases in life expectancy." The big cost-saver, though, is the change to benefits that starts in 2018. After that point, benefits for people who make more than $43,000 "will be calculated at a lower rate as earnings rise."
Why no personal accounts? Paul, after all, had always been for personal accounts.
"As you've learned," he said, "I'm a moderate."
Graham explained that it was a matter of vote counts. "I can tell you things that won’t be on the table," he said, "personal accounts and raising taxes." And this sounded like a bit of pre-gaming for the only Social Security reforms we're hearing about before the president's setpiece speech.Image caption The Florida win confirms Barack Obama's convincing win
US President Barack Obama has won the presidential vote in Florida - widening his electoral victory margin over Republican rival, Mitt Romney.
The vote count in the only state which had not declared a result from Tuesday's election gave Mr Obama 50% to Mr Romney's 49.1%, according to Florida state department figures.
Mr Obama has now won 332 electoral college votes - Mr Romney has 206.
The slow count brought back memories of the bitterly contested recount in 2000.
The Sunshine State's famous "hanging chads" sparked a crisis in that year's Bush-Gore election, eventually leading to a Supreme Court ruling that installed George W Bush in the White House.
The figures released by the Florida state department suggest Mr Obama won 4,236,032 votes out of a total of 8,471,095 cast - 73,858 more than Mr Romney and well above the 0.5% difference which would have triggered an automatic recount.
The result will not come as a surprise to either President Obama or Governor Romney - it has been assumed that the president would win since late on Tuesday, says the BBC's Zoe Conway in Washington.
But it is significant nonetheless, our correspondent adds, as it further strengthens President Obama's negotiating position when it comes to doing deals with Republicans in Congress.
And because there are so many Latino voters in the state, the result will also reinforce the message that Republicans need to do more to win the Hispanic vote, our correspondent says.
Exit polls suggest that Florida's Cuban Americans voted for the Democratic party in record numbers.
Tax cliff
The newly re-elected Mr Obama has said the wealthy must pay more taxes under any political settlement to avert a looming budget crisis.
Image caption Obama is using his renewed mandate to address the budget deficit
He has urged Congress to act against the so-called fiscal cliff, a package of tax rises and spending cuts due early next year.
But in a duelling news conference on Friday, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said tax rises would not be acceptable.
Budget analysts warn the US will tip into recession unless a deal is struck.
Mr Obama has repeatedly called for the affluent to pay more, but such a plan is anathema to Republicans.
The fiscal cliff would see the expiry of George W Bush-era tax cuts at the end of 2012, combined with automatic, across-the-board reductions to military and domestic spending.
Queues and challenges
Florida's problems began even before election day, with lengthy queues reported during the early-voting period.
Democrats launched a legal challenge against a Republican-backed measure to limit the period during which voters could cast ballots before the election, from 14 days to eight.
They said it was a blatant attempt to suppress Democratic turnout - Florida's African-American voters have tended to cast ballots early in previous elections.
But Governor Rick Scott said the measure, passed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature in 2011, aimed to limit voter fraud.
The early-voting period officially ended last Saturday. Election supervisors in Miami-Dade and other counties did open up voting for several hours on Sunday.
But after being swamped by voters, one polling office in Miami-Dade County temporarily shut its doors. Some in line began to shout: "Let us vote!"
There was also a technical error with an automated phone system that told more than 12,500 voters in another county that the election was on Wednesday.
Florida was not alone in reports of lengthy election day queues. Voters waited for hours in states such as Virginia, New York and Washington DC.By Chung Ah-young
Competition for gaining admission to kindergartens in South Korea is getting fiercer and in some ways as competitive as the country’s notorious college admissions process.
The race for next year’s kindergarten admissions is expected to be more cutthroat than ever before, as parents with children aged three to five are turning their eyes from daycare centers toward kindergartens and preschools amid the ongoing dispute between the government and regional educational offices over the budget for free preschool programs at daycare centers.
Under the current system, preschools accept children through a lottery of applicants.
While many parents want public kindergartens where tuition is lower and teacher quality is guaranteed, the number of public preschools is only enough for about 10% of all eligible children.
For private kindergartens as well, competition is high as parents want to send children to preschools with a good reputation. Also, out of fear of not winning the lottery for any preschools at all, parents apply at multiple kindergartens, thus pushing up the competition rates.
Kim Si-kyung, 38, living in Gyeonggi Province, said she applied at four kindergartens for her three-year-old daughter, but she failed to win the lottery in three and is waiting for the last one.
“I have been looking for kindergartens with good facilities and affordable tuition. But the chances are very low. If my daughter fails to win admission into the last one, I will send her to a cram school called English Kindergarten despite the high tuition,” she said.
To ease competition, educational offices have changed admission policies every year, with none being effective. This year, they allow applications without limits.
“We are receiving an increasing number of calls from parents seeking admission compared to last year. Maybe they have been influenced by the possible budget withdrawal at daycare centers,” an official of a kindergarten in Seoul said.
While the central government pushes the regional offices to take responsibility for funding free childcare services at daycare centers, the latter say daycare centers are governed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and thus did not allocate a budget for the centers, adding they lack money. Only three out of 17 city and provincial education offices nationwide have set aside budgets for free daycare center programs.
They said the free program was one of President Park Geun-hye’s election promises and thus the central government should take responsibility.
“It is nonsense for the government to vow to boost the low birthrate on one hand, while it is worsening the situation by not funding childcare services on the other hand,” said the mother of a three-year-old daughter.
“The government only encourages parents to have a child without actions to support them. After giving birth to a baby, what comes next? It’s pathetic. That’s why many young women don’t want to have a baby,” she said.
In a bid to prevent the heated competition, the Seoul Metropolitan Council is seeking to revise a related ordinance allowing private kindergartens to charge application fees ― a measure scrapped in 2012.
But the news only angered parents further, as parents say that it will only aggravate their burden.Show full PR text
06 June 2011
Two Newest Members of the Award-Winning HTC EVO Family, HTC EVO 3D and HTC EVO View 4G, Make Debut Exclusively from Sprint on June 24
HTC EVO 3D, with America's first 4.3-inch, qHD 3D display and a powerful 1.2GHz dual-core processor, available for $199.99; HTC EVO View 4G brings the powerful HTC EVO experience to a 4G tablet for $399.99
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), June 06, 2011 - Two of the "must-have" gadgets of 2011 are getting ready to make their debut. Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced the June 24 availability of HTC EVO™ 3D and HTC EVO View 4G™ on America's Favorite 4G Network1. America's first 'glasses-free' 3D 4G device will be available for $199.99, and HTC EVO View 4G, the first 4G tablet in market, will be available for $399.99. Both prices exclude applicable taxes, and the devices require a new two-year service agreement or eligible upgrade.
Customers can pre-order HTC EVO 3D or HTC EVO View 4G at any participating Sprint Store with the purchase of a $50 Sprint gift card (per device). On June 24, Sprint Stores nationwide will open doors at 8 a.m. local time for customers to get a jump-start on purchasing these hot new devices.
Additionally, Sprint Premier customers will have the opportunity to purchase HTC EVO 3D online three days before the national launch, while supplies last. Qualifying customers will receive an email on June 21, or they can log on to their account at www.sprint.com on June 21, click "show me my rewards" and then "Sprint Premier Community" for more information.
"Sprint takes device innovation to a whole new level with the two newest members of the EVO family, HTC EVO 3D and HTC EVO View 4G," said Fared Adib, senior vice president – Product Development, Sprint. "HTC EVO 3D provides our customers the ability to capture and view content in 3D and share at 4G speeds; HTC EVO View 4G expands on the capabilities of tablets by introducing the digital pen, and allows our consumers to do more than they ever imagined was possible."
Glasses-Free 3D plus Sprint 4G
HTC EVO 3D takes the mobile multimedia experience to a new level, providing the |
type-1 diabetes in 2009. It was a devastating diagnosis, Platt says.
"This is something that you think about nonstop,” she said.
“You think about it when your kid is on the way to school, when your kid is at school, when your kid is at basketball practice. You never not think about it," said Platt, who also has twin 3-year-old boys.
“Things that are so easy for other families, like sending your kid to camp or sending your kid to a neighbor’s house or, god forbid, a sleepover — the level of work that it takes to make that happen is tremendous.”
Jonathan Platt and his mom Angie. Jillian Sipkins
About 5 percent of the 29 million Americans with diabetes have Type-1 diabetes.
Type-1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, caused when the body mistakenly destroys pancreatic cells that produce hormones like insulin and glucagon that control blood sugar. High glucose levels damage tiny blood vessels, which in turn can lead to blindness, heart disease, stroke and kidney failure. People can lose toes, feet or legs to amputation.
When levels fall too low, patients can pass out and even die.
Most people with type-1 diabetes must constantly check their blood sugar throughout the day, administering insulin according to what they are eating and how much they are exercising.
Wearable devices allow more automatic and continuous monitoring and insulin dosing, but until now, there has been no system on the market that coordinates the blood sugar monitor with the insulin delivery.
“This first-of-its-kind technology can provide people with type 1 diabetes greater freedom to live their lives without having to consistently and manually monitor baseline glucose levels and administer insulin,” said FDA’s Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, who directs the agency’s medical device branch.
“A mistake is fatal."
Parents of kids with type-1 diabetes say it is a condition that never gives them a break.
“My husband and I, for the past seven years, we woke up every night at 10, at midnight and at 3 a.m.,” Platt said. They had to check Jonathan’s blood sugar and force-feed him juice if it was too low.
“A mistake is fatal,” she said.
The device has made a huge difference for Jonathan and for the rest of the family, Platt says.The new device keeps Jonathan's blood sugar consistent, Platt said, even though it's not totally automatic. Users need to manually punch in insulin doses before most meals.
“It was like a fog lifted,” she said. “Academically and athletically, it was amazing -- the transformation. It made us realize what for seven years had been his normal.”
Jonathan took part in a trial of just a few dozen people to see if the device could be used safely. Based on the results, the FDA approved it for marketing.
“As part of this approval, the FDA is requiring a post-market study to better understand how the device performs in real-world settings,” the FDA said in a statement.
“While the device is being approved today for use in people 14 years of age and older with type 1 diabetes, Medtronic is currently performing clinical studies to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the device in diabetic children 7-13 years old.”
In the meantime, the agency let Jonathan keep using it.
Related: Artificial Pancreas Works in Real-World Experiment
“The whole house is just lighter because we are not as worried as much,” Platt said.
The device probably won't hit the market until spring, Medtronic says.
Mike Weinstein, JPMorgan senior medical technology analyst, says he expects a slow roll-out, with Medtronic offering the device first to customers using its 630G insulin pump device.
The current MiniMed 630G system ranges between $6,000 and $9,000, a spokesman for Medtronic said. The final cost will depend on a patient's health insurance plan, but the company says it does not plan to charge much more to add on the new MiniMed 670G system
Derek Rapp of the JDRF, formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, said the group will lobby for insurance companies to pay for it.
“We have been working for more than a decade to insure that both private and public insurers understand the benefits of both continuous glucose monitoring devices and (this device),” he said. “We want to make sure that people have access in a reasonable fashion to these life-improving technologies.”With Internet Explorer 9, developers can build new classes of HTML5 applications that were previously not possible. We’re having fun building sample web applications that provide a glimpse into the types of experiences that hardware acceleration provides. In this post, we take a closer look at Flickr Explorer, one of the samples that we released alongside IE9 Platform Preview #2.
Flickr Explorer is written using standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It uses AJAX to asynchronously search Flickr based on your search terms and display image results through an interactive and visually compelling experience. You can zoom in, pan around, and open each photo’s Flickr page with by control+clicking.
With Internet Explorer 9, Flickr Explorer is generally able to maintain a near real-time responsiveness of 52fps (52 frames per second). In contrast, other browsers struggle to maintain 4-8fps, which is barely 15% the performance that Internet Explorer 9 provides in this particular scenario.
As we discussed last month in a post on the Flying Images demo, we redesigned the core of Internet Explorer 9 to be fully hardware accelerated. Internet Explorer 9’s display rendering subsystem uses the GPU for all graphics and text on web pages. Internet Explorer 9 moves graphics work that has traditionally occurred on the general purpose CPU to faster, more specialized hardware. Internet Explorer 9’s JavaScript engine takes advantage of multiple-processor cores to background compile JavaScript into machine code. Internet Explorer 9 uses modern processor instruction sets across the entire product. Taken together, these changes enable computations to occur faster and in parallel, freeing the CPU to spend time performing other operations.
Let’s take a closer look at the CPU and GPU activity graphs collected while running the Flickr Explorer sample to see more hardware acceleration in action. These traces were captured while zooming in on a selected Flickr photo, and use the same machine and methodology that we previously discussed.
First, results from Internet Explorer 8 are shown below. Like we saw with the earlier Flying Images demo, Internet Explorer 8 utilizes an entire CPU core (50% of this dual core machine) to animate the images on screen. Internet Explorer 8 does not utilize the GPU in this scenario.
Internet Explorer 8 can barely make one screen update every 0.253 seconds, which results in roughly 3.9 frames per second (FPS). This is clearly a very poor experience for the user.
Next, let’s check out how the new Chrome 5 beta handles this task. As you can see below, it doesn’t fare much better than Internet Explorer 8. Chrome is able to update the screen every 0.222 seconds, achieving a frame rate of about 4.5 FPS. Again, this results in a very choppy and undesirable experience. Chrome also does not utilize the GPU in this scenario.
Safari 4 handles the demo similarly to Chrome, earning a slightly lower frame rate of 4.2 FPS. Again with Safari, the GPU remains unused while the CPU remains a bottleneck.
Next, let’s take a look at Firefox. We used the most recently Firefox nightly build, Minefield 3.7a5, for this analysis. Like each other browser tested, we ran Minefield in its default configuration (which means hardware rendering with D2D was not enabled). We will post comparisons with Firefox’s hardware acceleration when it’s on by default in their beta.
Firefox handles the demo much better than Chrome and Safari. The screen gets updated roughly once every 0.12 seconds, which results in a frame rate of about 8.3 FPS. While this is nearly double the score of Chrome, it is still quite slow and barely usable.
Finally, the results from Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 2 are shown below. We can see that, unlike with the other browsers, the CPU handles this task with ease and has periods of frequent rest where Internet Explorer and your applications can performance additional operations, while the GPU renders Flickr Explorer to the screen.
Internet Explorer 9 is able to update the screen once every 0.019 seconds on this mid-range configuration, which equals a frame rate of about 52 FPS.
When you play with the demo, the difference between Internet Explorer 9 and other browsers is crystal clear. While you can easily zoom in, out, and pan through the Flickr photos with Internet Explorer 9, it’s difficult to do this with the other browsers.
We’d like to extend a special thanks to the Flickr team for building such a simple, easy to consume services API. We were able to put this sample together in a couple of days using the same APIs that web developers program against today. The only difference is that we have higher expectations for the types of application that you can build through standard markup and these APIs.
We’re excited to see what new experiences web developers will create with IE9’s hardware acceleration!
Seth McLaughlin
Program Manager for IE PerformanceThe ad stated that religious minorities such as 'Christians, Hindus and Shias' are eligible to apply
PESHAWAR: An advertisement placed by the tehsil administration of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) in District Bannu for certain vacant posts has hurt the religious sensibilities of minorities.
The column in the ad stated that religious minorities such as ‘Christians, Hindus and Shias’ are eligible to apply.
It appeared in a local newspaper on Sunday issued by the office of the Tehsil Municipal Officer (TMO) for 14 sweeper vacancies with the permanent positions having Basic Pay Scale-2.
A separate column mentioned that all genders between a specific age group are eligible to apply.
Mostly Hindus and Christians are hired for positions such as these, however, this time around, the Shia sect has also been added to the list of minorities.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Bannu Tehsil Nazim Malak Ihsan said that there was a clerical mistake in the ad released to the newspapers. Ihsan added that the original ad was to state that ‘minorities are also eligible to apply’.
“We will issue a corrigendum in the newspapers about the clerical mistake in the ad.”
He issued an apology from the administration to minority groups.
Forced conversion is a crime, says PM Nawaz
When asked about the mention of the Shia sect, he reiterated it was purely a clerical mistake and nothing else.
Local Government Secretary Jamaluddin Shah took notice of the ad and has given the directive to suspend TMO Salim and Superintendent Iftikhar Uddin.
He also has given the order to probe the issue.
Local Council Board Secretary Khizer Hayat Khan has been made Inquiry officer of the case and is to submit a report within two days.
Shah clarified that ‘Shia’ had been written by mistake, instead of ‘Bashamool’ in the ad.
He added that strict action would be taken for those responsible for hurting Shia sentiments.
The ad went viral on social media after being published with categorical condemnation pouring in, mostly for adding Shia to the list of minorities.
“Why do ads [advertisements] in K-P… even speak of religion while inviting applications,” former Pakistani ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani tweeted.
Why do ads in #KPK #Pakistan even speak of religion while inviting job applications? https://t.co/7B7pDOtMI4 — Husain Haqqani (@husainhaqqani) March 19, 2017
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan also tweeted in response to the ad.
JUI-F in Bannu promoting disrespect & hatred amongst diff sects & religions. CM KP must act against spread of bigotry & discrimination in KP pic.twitter.com/IvlxEY76y4 — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 20, 2017
Benazir Mir Samad also tweeted saying that “specifying religion” for the job is unnecessary.
It's not abt Shia being included in the list but specifying religion for this job. There is totally no need! https://t.co/r0GzMHqnGE — Benazir Mir Samad (@BenazirMirSamad) March 19, 2017
Muhammad Jibran Nasir, a social activist and lawyer, told The Express Tribune that the JUI-F government in Bannu hiring sweepers based on religious and sectarian basis reflects how residents are taught that a certain sect is inferior to another.
“This isn’t the first time that ads for cleaning positions have reflected bigotry and superiority complex of the self-righteous in our government,” said Nasir.
The social activist said that ads such as this have always reflected how our society looks down upon the religious minorities and now a Muslim sect has also been included in the list in shameless exhibition.
Read full storyChase Utley, 37, said he would color his hair if Corey Seager hit two home runs. (Photo11: Gary Landers, AP)
DENVER -- Corey Seager will likely walk away with the National League’s Rookie of the Year award and might add the Most Valuable Player trophy to his collection, too. Yet the Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop’s proudest moment might be getting Chase Utley, his stoic 37-year-old teammate, to dye his hair.
It took a feat of Ruthian proportions.
“He’s been telling me for the past few months how I should dye my hair,’’ Utley said. “I told him, ‘Hey, it is what it is. It’s just not something I’m interested in doing.’ He said, ‘OK, how about this? If I hit two home runs tonight, you have to dye your hair.’
“I said, 'Sure, Corey. Done. Deal.' ’’
Said Seager: “I wanted him to go slick black, dark black, greased up, like the hair he used to have. So finally, the day before the game (Aug. 8 against the Philadelphia Phillies), I said, 'Dude, what is it going to take?’ I’m trying to swing over a guy who has done everything in baseball anyone’s ever wanted. He just kept saying, 'It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen.' Finally, 10 minutes before game time, I came up with the bet.’’
First inning, Seager homers off Phillies starter Zach Eflin deep over the center-field fence.
“Now, I’m a little panicked,’’ Utley said. “So I went to him the next inning, and I said, 'Hey, let me get involved in this bet. How about if I hit any home run, it cancels out one your home runs.' He said, ‘Sure, fine.' ’’
Third inning, Utley homers over the right-field wall, evening the score.
Seventh inning, Seager homers again, this time to right field, and he’s smiling the entire time he's circling the bases, barely able to hold his laughter.
“I couldn’t believe how happy he was,’’ Utley said. “I was trying to figure out where we stood in the bet, but I honored it, because I thought it was the right thing to do.’’
And one week later, there was Utley, with his hair dyed brown, and Seager taking pictures on his phone.
“I was so geeked up that day,’’ Seager said. “That was the most important game of my life. Really. Up to this point, it was the biggest.’’
Says third baseman Justin Turner, “It was the happiest I’ve ever seen Corey.”Uber’s crisis PR activities have returned to relative normality in Asia after the U.S. firm ran into fresh issues with government regulators in two countries this week: Hong Kong and Thailand.
The ridesharing giant has been fighting some serious corporate fires in the U.S. lately — around its toxic work culture, connections to a polarizing U.S. President and its CEO’s attitude to its drivers — but it is back to basics as UberX drivers in the two countries come under fire for operating in legal grey areas.
In Hong Kong, five UberX drivers were fined HK$10,000 (around $1,300) and banned from driving for 12 months after being found guilty of using their vehicles for commercial services, Reuters reported. The fines date back to a raid in August 2015, reportedly carried out following complaints from licensed taxi drivers. The drivers themselves bear the legal brunt of the case because of Hong Kong’s legal system, so the uncertain legal status of the service could deter other drivers from signing up.
“We are very disappointed with today’s court decision, which we believe goes against the best interests of riders, drivers and the city of Hong Kong itself,” Uber said in a statement.
“We have consistently sought to partner with authorities and other stakeholders to find solutions that enable ridesharing to flourish, and we will be submitting proposals for regulatory reform to the existing Government and the three Chief Executive candidates,” it added.
Meanwhile, in Thailand, authorities in both the capital city Bangkok and Chiang Mai, where Uber launched in late 2016, have also cracked down on so-called unlicensed taxi operators. A police sting in Bangkok netted at least 23 UberX drivers, the Bangkok Post reported, while local transport workers in Chiang Mai are said to be roaming the city’s streets taking photographs of drivers, which are then presented to authorities.
Ironically, authorities in Thailand have caught Uber drivers by posing as customers. That’s something that Uber guards against with its Greyballing program, the existence of which was revealed this month, but the company recently pledged to curtail its usage in relation to authorities.
Like Hong Kong, Thai law doesn’t forbid taxi app services — the government set up its own “All Thai Taxi” app and Grab’s licensed taxi service is legal — but it doesn’t permit consumer vehicles to be used for commercials purposes. That makes the legal status of UberX and Grab’s GrabCar private service murky at best, despite the fact that both services have operated in Thailand for more than two years.
In response, Uber has asked its customers and drivers in Thailand to sign a digital petition as a sign of their support.
“The government wants Uber to be regulated under the Motor Vehicle Act B.E.2522 (1979), which was drafted over 38 years ago when the concept of “ridesharing” and smartphone technology didn’t exist. By insisting on this, the country risks missing out on the full benefits that ridesharing brings to riders, drivers and cities. It also goes against the government’s ‘Thailand’s 4.0 initiative,’ which aims to make the country into a regional hub of technology and innovation,” Uber wrote on the website.
Grab, which offers UberX-like GrabCar, added a statement of its own on the situation in Thailand.
“We are working closely with the Department of Land Transport and local governments to understand how we can work together to support passengers and driver-partners in Thailand. Grab is appreciative of the support we have received over the years from the Thai government and people of all walks of life,” a representative told TechCrunch.
Last year, Thailand’s government banned motorbike taxi on-demand services from both Uber and Grab following complaints from Bangkok’s incumbent motorbike taxi industry. Grab has since pivoted its service to logistics in response, working with customers such as Rocket Internet’s FoodPanda and consumers. UberMoto, Uber’s rival service, was withdrawn entirely.
Asia has been a mixed bag of results for Uber. While the company competes fairly squarely with rivals like Grab (Southeast Asia) and Ola (India), it is in the process of selling its loss-making China business to rival Didi and recently “paused” its service in Taiwan following pushback from regulators.Illinois Route 47 is a largely rural north–south state highway that runs from the Wisconsin state border at Highway 120 near Hebron, to Illinois Route 10, just south of Interstate 72 near Seymour. This is a distance of 169.76 miles (273.20 km).[2] Route 47 is in primarily rural areas but in several suburbs of Chicago, such as Woodstock, traffic can be heavily congested.
Illinois 47 crosses most interstate highways in northern and central Illinois, but the largest towns that Illinois 47 serves are Huntley (at the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway), Yorkville (at U.S. Route 34), Woodstock (at U.S. Route 14), Lily Lake at (Illinois Route 64), Elburn (at Illinois Route 38), Sugar Grove (at U.S. Route 30), Morris (at Interstate 80), Dwight (at Interstate 55), Forrest (at U.S. Route 24), Gibson City (at Illinois Route 54), and Mahomet (at Interstate 74).
Route description [ edit ]
IL 47 through Morris
Illinois 47 overlaps Illinois Route 72 and U.S. Route 20 at Pingree Grove, a village approximately 60 miles (97 km) from Chicago; this concurrency is part of a so-called wrong-way concurrency, where one can be driving both west on Illinois 72 and east on U.S. 20 at the same time. Route 47 also shares concurrencies with Illinois Route 9 and Illinois 54 in Gibson City, U.S. Route 30 in Sugar Grove, U.S. Route 6 in Morris, Historic U.S. Route 66 in Dwight, and U.S. Route 150 in Mahomet.
In November 2013, a full access interchange opened at I-90 and Illinois 47. This replaced the partial access interchange that previously existed.
Future [ edit ]
The Illinois Department of Transportation is proposing to add lanes to several portions of Illinois Route 47, which eventually would make it a 4-lane road from I-80 in Morris to I-88 in Sugar Grove, and from I-90 in Huntley to north of Woodstock. A project to reconstruct the road to 4 lanes from Kreutzer Road to Reed Road through Huntley was completed in October 2011.[3] The Prairie Parkway study included engineering for 4 lanes from I-80 in Morris to Caton Farm Road south of Yorkville, and construction was underway of this section as of 2015. Engineering studies are underway for sections of Illinois Route 47 from Caton Farm Road to Illinois 71 in Yorkville, from Kennedy Road in Yorkville to US 30 in Sugar Grove, and from Charles Road to US 14 in Woodstock. A project providing additional lanes from Illinois 71 to Kennedy Road in Yorkville was completed in 2015.
In addition, an engineering study has been started by the village of Sugar Grove to reconstruct the I-88 interchange with Illinois Route 47 to full access. Currently, there is no eastbound access or westbound entrance at I-88.
Major intersections [ edit ]
Route map:
KML is from WikidataUber’s Smartphone-based taxi service has been decried as unsafe by taxi companies, derided as unfair by competitors and declared illegal by city bureaucrats. While the San Francisco-based company faces backlash in cities across North America, partially along with a taxi industry set on defending its market share, here in Toronto, one cab company is taking a different tack.
Beck Taxi driver Uththaradevan Rajesegarar demonstrates the new tablets being installed in Beck taxis that will soon work with a smartphone app. allowing passengers to order and track Beck Taxis much as they do with Uber. ( MARCO CHOWN OVED / TORONTO STAR )
Instead of trying to beat ’em, Beck Taxi has decided to join ’em. For the past several months, Beck has been testing a new app that would show passengers a map and give a real-time estimate for how long a cab would take to arrive, according to taxi fleet operator Sam Moini, who runs 30 cabs with Co-op, Crown and Beck. Passengers would know the taxi number before it gets there and could pay with a credit card on their phone, Moini said, while retaining the option of traditional payments, including cash, credit and debit cards in-car.
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“It’s kinda like (Uber), but more legal,” said Moini. Beck wouldn’t discuss any details about the new app because it hasn’t been officially released. Operations manager Kristine Hubbard confirmed the app had been built and was in the testing phase, but says it does not imitate Uber. “We’re a tech company; we can make a taxi app,” she said. “So I decided we’re going to build our own.” Meanwhile, Uber currently faces three dozen Toronto bylaw charges and an injunction to shut down its operations. Uber argues that it doesn’t need to be licensed because it is not a taxi service. But having the convenience of the Uber app with the peace of mind brought by the city’s biggest taxi dispatcher might end up being the best of both worlds.
“We want to make sure that customers understand we’re doing all we can to make sure they are satisfied,” Moini said. “You are told, ‘Oh, the cab will be there in five minutes,’ but you don’t really know where the cab is. This way, you know exactly where your cab is and exactly how long it will take to come to you.” Beck is rolling out the app at the same time as it is installing tablets in its cabs, giving drivers a similar interface as passengers would have on their phones.
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The tablets, which are already in 99 per cent of the fleet, display a real-time GPS-driven map that allows drivers and passengers to follow their progress, Hubbard said. Uber spokesperson Susie Heath said traditional taxi companies have tried to imitate their app in other cities, and they encourage it. “Riders and the community at large benefits from more competition, and Uber has helped drive change in an industry that hasn’t made efforts to adapt in decades,” she wrote in an email. Beck is the biggest brokerage in the city, with more than 1,900 taxis and 8.5 million radio dispatches per year. Hubbard stressed, however, that while their current app brings in about 1 million orders a year, the radio will remain the backbone of their business. “We want to make sure that the senior citizen who doesn’t have a smartphone is still going to be able to get to the grocery store,” she said.
Read more about:Poachers broke into a zoo in France and shot and killed one of its rhinos before fleeing the scene.
On Tuesday morning keepers at Thoiry Zoo, in the suburbs west of Paris, found the body of Vince, a four-year-old white rhino, in his enclosure with wounds to his head and one of his horns likely hacked off by a chainsaw, the zoo said in a statement on its Facebook page. His second horn was partially cut off, suggesting that the culprits may have been interrupted or were using defective equipment after they killed the rare animal on Monday night.
The act was carried out “despite the presence of five members of the zoological staff living on site and surveillance cameras,” the zoo said. “The entire staff is extremely shocked.”
The zoo has two other white rhinos who weren’t harmed. One of them, five-year-old Bruce, came to the zoo with Vince in 2015 as part of a breeding program involving about 250 rhinos in European zoos, reported the BBC. A video, shown above, captures Vince's arrival at the facility.
Thieves have stolen rhino horns from European museums in the past, but it’s believed that this is the first time a rhino has been killed at a zoo in Europe. In recent years planned attacks on zoos in general have increased, said Katherine Johnston, spokesperson for London-based Save the Rhino International, in an email.
View Images These two white rhinos escaped harm at France's Thoiry Zoo, where poachers killed another rhino.
“It’s very sobering to think that armed criminals are willing to break into European zoos to kill our rhinos,” she said. “This incident also shows how security is increasingly important for zoos in Europe, as well as for conservationists working in rhino range states.”
What just happened in Thoiry Zoo, she said, is “a new development in the poaching crisis which has escalated since 2008, and we need strong law enforcement to tackle this problem quickly.”
Tuesday’s gruesome event follows an attack on rhinos at an orphanage in South Africa, home to 70 percent of the remaining 21,000 white rhinos. Armed poachers broke into the Findimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage on February 22 and removed the horns of two 18-month-old rhinos, Impu and Gugu, after tying up staff members. One rhino was killed, and the other was later euthanized.
“If you work in this game and work in a facility like this, it’s a constant concern,” Karen Trender, who runs the orphanage, told local media at the time. “It’s something that’s on everybody’s mind at all times.”
White rhinos have been a conservation success story, coming back from the brink of extinction in the late 19th century. Now they’re severely threatened again because of an increase in demand for their horns in Vietnam and China. In those countries the horns are made into valuable carvings and erroneously used as a cure-all in traditional medicine. Roughly a quarter of South Africa’s white rhinos—by far the most abundant rhino subspecies—have been killed between 2008 and 2016.
It’s illegal to kill rhinos, and selling their horns between countries has been banned since 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), the 183-government body that regulates the global wildlife trade.
Last year France banned the sale of rhino horn and elephant ivory within its borders. China and Vietnam also prohibit the rhino horn trade, yet conservationists would like to see stronger enforcement, especially in Vietnam. As of September, Vietnam hadn’t yet launched a single successful high-level prosecution against illegal rhino horn traders.
As for the killing of Vince, an investigation was launched this morning."In probably many Arab capitals today, people are like, 'What is America doing?' " Kasich said.
But the anger Kasich voiced in a phone interview with The Washington Post was directed less at Trump than at White House aides over their handling and implementation of the executive order.
"Frankly, when I look at this, I think he was ill-served by his staff," Kasich said. "If I were the president, I'd be very upset with the staff — that they didn't say, 'Hey, wait hold on a second.' Because that's what executives do. They have people around them that help them to understand, 'Hey, your message is fine, but here is what's going to come from it.' "
When The Washington Post asked Kasich whether he was referencing White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, Kasich said, "No, no," and maintained that he was making a broader assessment and was "not interested in being a critic of the Trump administration" or commenting on specific advisers.
"I'm not sitting here wanting to be a clanging bell," he said. "I'm not sitting here trying to be a negative force against this administration."
Kasich declined to comment on chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon's elevation to a regular seat on the National Security Council's principals committee because he has not yet reviewed that decision.
"I'll have to look at it," he said. "I don't know the man."
The governor's comments followed Trump's Friday signing of an executive order that bans entry to the United States for refugees, migrants and foreign nationals from seven mostly Muslim countries. That order has triggered a furor and numerous protests.
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Protesters in cities across the nation rallied against President Trump's executive order banning U.S. entry for refugees, migrants and foreign nationals for 120 days. Here's a look at some of the protests that took place in airports and city squares across the U.S. after the order was signed. (Dalton Bennett, Erin Patrick O'Connor, Elyse Samuels, Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
Kasich said Trump "absolutely has a right to be concerned about the kind of people that are coming in. We have to vet. That's important, I agree with that," but reiterated that he believes the White House staff did not properly prepare for the many issues that have emerged since the order was signed.
"Do it right. Don't do something that you learn to regret or is reversed by courts. You have to be exact on these things. Perhaps this is part of a learning process for them. I don't know, but perhaps," he said.
Kasich said he was not surprised by how many congressional Republicans have been generally supportive of Trump or somewhat muted in their criticisms of Trump's order, due to the party's eagerness to work with Trump on a wide range of issues in the coming weeks and the fragility of those relationships.
"I just think it's natural when you're in Congress and the president of your party says something and you have a lot of things you want to get done. I think it's kind of natural for people to be somewhat reticent in criticizing the president," Kasich said.
"The party is my vehicle and not my master," he continued. "But I'm not here to criticize them. They all have to deal with it in their own way. I'm not interested in criticizing the Republican leadership."
Kasich wrote an op-ed article for Time magazine this month that underscored his traditionally Republican and hawkish worldview, one that values global institutions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Asked about the disruptive populist and nationalist rhetoric coming from Trump's White House, in particular from Bannon, Kasich acknowledged its ascent but cautioned the administration about embracing that ideology.
"There is a rise of global nationalism. We're seeing it in France. In Austria it sort of rose but didn't prevail. We're seeing some of it in the Netherlands right now. … But I think we have to be steady. We are the leader of the free world."
He added: "These international institutions have to evolve. They have refused to change, and when that happens, you get a chaotic situation, and that's part of this frustration and reaction all over the globe."
At the end of the interview, Kasich dismissed the suggestion that Trump's national security policies could prompt a major Republican figure to mount a 2020 primary challenge.
"That question is so out there it doesn't even dignify a response," he said. "It's very early in this administration. … Sometimes an administration has to get its sea legs and figure out how to function."
Robert Costa is a national political reporter for The Washington Post. He covers the White House, Congress, and campaigns. He joined The Post in January 2014. He is also the moderator of PBS's "Washington Week" and a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
Post RecommendsAlex Honnold’s plans were no secret. We all knew free soloing El Capitan had been on his mind since the beginning of his climbing career; we just never knew when or even if this crazy idea might ever become a reality.
At 9:28 a.m., Saturday, June 3, 2017, Honnold succeeded in free soloing El Capitan, becoming the first person ever to do so. His ascent of the 3,000-foot Yosemite monolith via Free Rider (5.13a) took 3 hours 56 minutes, but the actual feat itself was over a decade in the making. It involved thousands of hours of soloing on easier terrain. Thousands of hours of training and pushing himself sport climbing. And countless hours of visualizing what it might actually be like to head up on El Capitan with nothing more than a pair of shoes and a chalk bag.
A post shared by Jimmy Chin (@jimmy_chin) on Jun 4, 2017 at 9:01am PDT
For many climbers, particularly Honnold’s closest friends, the news of his audacious feat was met with a breath of relief that Honnold had actually survived. That quickly gave way to complete and utter astonishment. Already, I’ve seen climbers anoint this El Cap solo as the greatest achievement in sports—ever. But is it?
The answer, probably, is yes. Though to limit it as an achievement only within the world of “sports,” I think, is far too restrictive. First, it’s hard to even to call free soloing a “sport.” There are no other sports in which the penalty for even the most modest of errors is certain death.
Honnold’s progression to this point is as much a part of the story as the ascent itself. Now, in retrospect, it all seems premeditated in a sort of genius way. In 2007, a quiet kid from Sacremento, his face always partly shrouded by a hoody, burst onto the climbing scene by repeating the greatest free-solo of the 1980s: Peter Croft’s link-up of Astroman and the Rostrum. In 2008, Honnold free-soloed the Moonlight Buttress in Zion National Park, a feat that by itself would’ve cemented his legacy as the greatest free soloist of all time. Later that year, he soloed Half Dome. Then there was Sendero Luminoso in El Potrero.
Each of these ascents was a milestone. What’s most incredible is to now view them not only as milestones but stepping stones.
“For me, free soloing is all about preparation,” Honnold wrote in his book Alone on the Wall.
Indeed. How many times did Honnold climb Free Rider in preparation for this solo? Unlike Moonlight Buttress, a route that Honnold has never fallen on, the Boulder Problem pitch of Free Rider has spit off Honnold repeatedly. It’s an insecure V7 crux, 1,700 feet up the wall.
What was the moment that made him realize he could climb through these moves with enough certainty to justify the risk? After how many times of rehearsing the route?
And how many hours did Honnold spend thinking about free soloing El Capitan over the last 10 years? Visualizing each and every move.
The answers to these questions would be as utterly glib as asking Michael Jordan how he knew he’d hit a game-winning shot. Some things can’t be described. In fact, this interview with Honnold more or less proves this point.
The idea of being ropeless 2,000 feet up El Capitan is something many climbers have pondered while resting in El Cap meadow, smoking weed, and staring transfixed up at the granite monster towering over them. For most, those moments were nothing more than ass-puckering fantasies that would spur uncomfortable fits of laughter. For Honnold, it was a serious project to be tackled.
This may explain why these ascents are, in Honnold’s mind, “no big deal.”
Most climbers might describe the idea of free-solo |
fearful. Pawsteps lumbered on the ground, she could feel it vibrating through her body. Quickly, she hefted herself up with her hands under her chest, and stood upright, finding herself looking directly into the eyes of a massive Ursa charging straight at her.
There was no one word to describe how Yang was feeling: nervous by working with her girlfriend, embarrassed by her massive blunder, frustrated that she landed so poorly, and now there was an Ursa. This Ursa was doomed.
Yang needed something to take out her emotions on, and it looked like someone just offered to be her punching bag. Yang finished pushing the rest of the way to her feet and struck a fighting stance, preparing to meet the beast's charge.
With a roar that scattered birds for miles the Ursa closed the remaining distance between itself and Yang in three powerful strides. Yang cocked her arm back and planted her fist directly between the Grimm's eyes. She heard it's skull plate crack as it's momentum was arrested at the end of her strike.
The Ursa staggered back several paces and Yang took the
opportunity to engage her
gauntlets. As the golden weapons shimmered and snaked around her wrists, the Ursa reared back on its hind legs and bellowed once more, issuing a challenge to its clearly inferior opponent. Yang smirked and dashed at the exposed midsection. Two jabs and a cross backed up by Ember Celica's dust chambers had the Ursa slumped against a tree and fading into oblivion.
Pyrrha finished descending the cliff, javelin and shield in hand, ready to assist Yang but saw that it was far from necessary. Pyrrha had been waiting for an opportunity to go out in the wild and really prove herself to Yang. Sure she was a Tournament Champion and no one could best her in the ring, but Yang was a completely different kind of fighter.
She had plenty of experience out in the world, fighting real opponents with the intent to kill, fighting Grimm. Pyrrha couldn't hope to compare in those regards. So, she was hoping that today's mission would give her that opportunity. Apparently she had been wrong. Yang was still just so indomitably strong.
Panting with slow burning rage, Yang ran her hand through her fluffy mane of hair, before putting her hands on her hips to stare at the place the Ursa lay as it slowly dissolved away.
"Yang, are you okay?" Pyrrha ran forward, spinning her weapons to their spots on her back and grabbed the hand Yang had punched the Ursa with bare knuckle to check it for any sign of injury.
"Ah...yeah." Yang turned around, anger dissipated, replaced with nervousness once again. "Though I'm pretty sure my shoulder hurts more from...you know...stupidly falling down a cliff…" Yang reached her other hand behind her neck in a nervous reaction, but the first hand tightened its grip on Pyrrha's.
Yang knew her fall down the hill was far from elegant, her sore chin reminding her of her failed landing. Pyrrha probably thought she was an idiot, her inner mission to impress her had already failed and they'd barely been out here a few hours.
"Well, fall or no fall. You certainly handled that Ursa quite handily." Pyrrha stopped examining Yang's hand and resigned to simply holding it.
"I'm sure you would've done better, more graceful too…" Yang winced at the still burning image in her mind of the fall. Pyrrha was the one who was run into, and she regained her balance easily! Yang made a mental note to herself to work on her balance the next time she was training, and save the usual strength training for later.
Pyrrha glanced over Yang's body again to double check her for any sign of injury. She was both impressed and relieved to see that Yang was completely free of any visible scrapes or lacerations even after that huge tumble. She petted her free hand down Yang's arm and felt the firm muscle ripple beneath her touch. She leaned over, craning her neck to place a light kiss on Yang's cheek without pressing their bodies against each other.
"I'm just glad you're okay." Pyrrha sighed and lingered near Yang's face for just a moment before returning to even footing.
"Y-yeah…" Only grand pun master Yang Xiao Long could be rendered speechless by a simple kiss by none other than the Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos. It was enough for the blonde to completely forget her embarrassment just before, and allow herself some time to let her eyes rake up and down Pyrrha's body. She never ceased to be impressed or amazed at just how gorgeous this girl- no, her girlfriend was.
"Come on, we're a little behind on our time." Pyrrha looked up and checked the sun's location to gauge the time. "We're gonna need to hurry if we want to make it to the rendezvous in time."
"Pssshht." As if on queue, Nora's voice rang out over their shortwave radios, snapping Yang out of her fixation. Reception was too shotty out here to rely on scrolls so they had to carry an alternate form of communication for extended missions. "Come in everyone! Can you hear me?" Nora called out after having made the static noise to begin with.
"Yes Nora. We can hear you." Ren's calm response came like soothing water after the sharp pitch of Nora's words.
"So Blake and I got a little lost. It was totally definitely not my fault." Nora sounded like she was definitely the one at fault.
"I'm not sure if I believe you…" Jaune's hesitant voice broke in.
"She wanted me to track a sloth," Blake's monotone speech cut across like a knife. "There was no sloth to track."
"Of course." Weiss' exasperated voice now sounded off. "Well while you guys were chasing make believe animals, Ren and I are very close to where Ozpin instructed us to go."
Yang gently took the radio from Pyrrha, finally letting her small team be heard. "Ruby? Where did you and Jaune make it to?"
"Uhhh, I'm not sure really." Ruby's voice was nervous, worried almost." Jaune got chased pretty far by a Boarbatusk and I had to run after him. We got a little turned around. I think we're further away than where we started."
"Why don't we all make as much progress as possible, then camp for the night and gather at the rendezvous point in the morning?" Pyrrha offered a shred of civility to the quickly deteriorating conversation.
"Well. I see Ren and I will have a lot of time on our hands then, now won't we?" Weiss snapped over the radio. Her voice so sharp that it did cause a second or so of feedback.
"Alright Ice Queen, chill out." Yang chuckled quietly and shared a quick smirk with Pyrrha. "Pyrrha has a good plan. You and Ren just relax, do your nails, whatever. We'll meet you there tomorrow."
"You insufferable-" Weiss' voice was cut off by static from Ren taking the radio and his voice cut in.
"That sounds agreeable. We will see you all here tomorrow, please be careful."
"Weiss," Nora sounded...mad. "Don't you lay a hand on him. You hear me? I will ride a herd of Ursai in there if you so much as touch him. Do you hear me? Do you hear me Weiss?" Yang thought she could hear Nora's shouts even without the radio, and couldn't resist the opportunity to tease Weiss even more.
"It's okay Nora! Weiss will be too busy missing Ruby to focus on Ren!" Yang's cheery tease jumped in before Weiss could reply.
Embarrassed sputtering sounded from Ruby's end of the line, and Pyrrha held her hand over her mouth to hold back the laugh that threatened to spill out.
"Alright guys good work." Jaune stepped in since Ruby was apparently unable to form coherent thoughts at the moment, and Weiss was heard screaming high pitched threats against Yang from the background, Ren surely keeping the mouth piece a safe distance from the white haired heiress.
"Yeah, go team!" Nora shouted. The radio fell silent and Yang slid it back into the pouch at her hip.
"Well, that was certainly exciting." Pyrrha smiled wanly and glanced back up at the sun, dipping just behind a nearby ridge.
"I love our teams sometimes. Hey, think we should keep going a bit, or find some shelter?" Yang queried, following Pyrrha's gaze.
"Perhaps we should just crest the next hill. So we can start the next morning heading downhill." Pyrrha gestured to the top of a hill in the general direction they were headed. It was pushed up against a steep cliff face and promised to offer some type of shelter.
"Sounds good to me. I can even get us a fire going with a little Yang magic!" Yang smiled excitedly. This would be her chance to really show off for Pyrrha. What was better as a survival skill than the ability to make fires anywhere you needed them?
"That will be wonderful. It's really much colder than I thought it would be." Pyrrha shuddered just slightly and wrapped her arms around her bare shoulders, rubbing to try and heat the exposed skin up even slightly.
The pair made their way up the hill and glanced out over the forest floor now spread out before them. Just off in the distance, much further than would be reasonable to travel tonight, but closer than either had thought, was the clearing and the monitoring station they were to use as a rendezvous point.
"Lovely, so we just have to Yang out here, then trek down to the clearing in the morning." Yang nudged Pyrrha lightly with her elbow and her amazing joke pulled a small laugh from her even more amazing girlfriend.
"Oh Yang," Pyrrha sighed a little and waved a dismissive hand through the air, trying to dispel her own laughter. "Come, we have to find shelter or I might freeze to death. Even with a magical Yang fire."
Together they made their way slowly along the edge of the cliff where it met the ground. The quickly dimming light made searching a little difficult but together they were able to find a small cave entrance. It wasn't a gaping hole in the rock, but a small dugout they could push through one at a time. Inside the space opened up enough for them to stand and move around a little.
"Well, this is...cozy." Pyrrha looked around the small space.
"I mean, it's not huge but it's just for one night." Yang shoved a rather large rock off to one side to clear a bigger space for them to lay. "Plus, it's still better than being out there right?" Yang jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the small opening.
"We can't exactly light a fire in here though. The smoke will kill us before anything else." Pyrrha muttered and looked around the cave, trying to find some place they could lay down.
"Oh." Yang's face drooped, and she looked out of the little cave to the rapidly setting sun. All she wanted was to impress her girlfriend who had impressed her so many times before. Was that really too much to ask?
Pyrrha reached out and gently rubbed Yang's shoulder sympathetically.
"Another time Yang," she murmured. "Then perhaps you'll be able to show off your magic."
"We're still gonna be cold. It's not like we brought camping gear or anything." Yang chuckled under her breath and rubbed her head abashedly, "We were supposed to sleep at the monitoring station and all."
"Yes well, I suppose it won't be too cold in here." Pyrrha looked at the small opening and the sturdy rock walls. "We are protected from any possible rain at least."
"Yeah, we can rough it though. We're pretty strong, and if another Ursa comes, I'll take care of em'." Yang stood in a makeshift defensive stance, chest puffed proudly.
"Oh, my hero." Pyrrha stroked a single hand down Yang's arm and chuckled lightly. "Thank you, I feel much better about using rocks as pillows now."
"Well…" Yang stretched the word out. "You can always use me as a pillow." She stood back up straight, but kept her puffed out chest the same, and smiled cheekily.
"Yang." Pyrrha blushed and turned away slightly, holding her hand to her mouth.
"What!" Yang pretend to take offense. "I'm comfy! And my semblance will keep you warm! You did say you were getting cold earlier, right?"
"That is true," Pyrrha gave in a little, easily convinced. It's not that she was opposed to the idea. "Isn't that somewhat...inappropriate though? Even if we are dating."
"Depends on how you take it." Yang released her previous position and shrugged. "But suit yourself. Let's lay back over here."
Yang walked the smallest distance in their cave which was more of a fifteen foot deep hole in the side of a cliff. She eased down against one wall and stretched out as much as she could given the space provided. Once she was as comfortable as she was going to get, she beckoned Pyrrha over with a wave of her hand.
"I suppose it is for comfort and survival's sake." Pyrrha rubbed at her arm with her hand nervously, weighing the options in her mind. She walked slowly over to Yang's side and eased herself down onto the ground with her knees tucked up against her chest, sitting near Yang but not cuddling up against her. "You are pretty warm."
"You won't want to come near me in the summer," Yang laughed, her hands placed behind her head with her elbows sticking out. "I stop being warm, and just become really hot." She also turned her head to wink at Pyrrha, just for a second, before she went back to gaze at the stars that were just coming into view through the small opening.
"I'll keep that in mind." Pyrrha said softly and scooted a little bit closer. "I'm rather enjoying it right now though."
"You're the only person who I want to enjoy it." She murmured tenderly, leaving the flirting behind, and attempting to relax as much as she could, but inside, her heart was beating so fast that she was sure the Mystralian beside her could hear it.
"I'm not usually the jealous type but…" Pyrrha hesitated and scooted just a little closer to Yang, closing the gap between them, "I really appreciate that Yang." Pyrrha released her knees and curled up against Yang, resting her head against the blonde's shoulder.
Yang breathed out contentedly and leaned forward to press a kiss against Pyrrha's forehead and lingered for a moment before relaxing her head back in her original position on top of her hands. Now Yang was sure she could really hear her rapid heartbeat.
No one said anything anymore, they just listened to the sounds of nature they could hear from outside. Crickets chirping, pebbles tumbling down the side of the cliff they were temporarily residing in, and, of course, the wind.
It didn't bother Yang at all, she felt decently comfortable, and her semblance pulsed heavily through her body. In fact, the chill of the wind combined with the warmth of her body was a lovely combination for Yang.
Her heartbeat started to slow down, and her eyes began to slowly close as she gazed at the stars. Memories of adventures with her dad and little sister dancing through her head.
She wasn't sure how long they laid there, with her eyes closed and her mouth pulled into a small, pleased smile. She knew what pulled her out of her dreams though.
A small quiver shook her body, but it wasn't her own. She lifted her head just a little and noticed the red haired fighter next to her was sleeping on her side, facing away from Yang, shivering. It wasn't violent quaking, but clearly her girlfriend was not sleeping comfortably.
"Pyrrha?" Yang whispered concernedly, removing her hands from behind her head and sitting up carefully in the blackness.
Pyrrha jumped slightly in surprise, just enough to be noticed in the dark with the slight light from the moon and stars.
"Y-yes?" Her voice shook clearly, confirming Yang's thoughts, but she decided to ask anyways.
"Are you cold?" Silence answered Yang's question until she felt Pyrrha shiver again.
Yang followed her maternal instincts without hesitation and quietly crawled over to Pyrrha's body, comfortably resting her chest against Pyrrha's back. She wrapped her arm around Pyrrha's waist and used the other to prop her head up.
"Is...is this okay?" Yang suddenly found herself asking, wanting Pyrrha to be comfortable. She was uncertain, never having needed to ask before. But Yang was acutely aware of the fact that she was Pyrrha's first relationship and needed to take special precautions against doing anything that might make her uncomfortable.
An embarrassed, yet drowsy voice echoed in the darkness, and at the same time vibrated in Yang's chest from being so close to her. "Yes. Thank you."
The blonde let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding in, and relief flooded her senses. Pulling Pyrrha just slightly closer to her, Yang slid the arm that was propping her up under Pyrrha's head, and rested her chin momentarily on the red haired girl's shoulder.
"I'll keep you warm." Yang breathed quietly, lightly lifting her head off of Pyrrha's shoulder, and resting it gently against Pyrrha's back, pushing her forehead into Pyrrha's hair and inhaling the scent of her shampoo mixed with the smells of the forest.
Despite being in a cramped cave, in the middle of the forest, Yang felt much more comfortable and at ease than she had in a long time. Pyrrha just had that effect on Yang's mind and soul, that she hoped, would last for a long, long time. Little did she know, the feeling was mutual, and Pyrrha fell asleep within seconds of both Yang's arms and her warmth surrounding her.
It was safe to say, that even after they woke up, reunited with their teams and finished the mission that feeling would remain. It wasn't the last time they slept in such close proximity to each other, with gratefulness and comfort on both sides.
A/N - Ooh boy second chapter done and out there. We almost didn't make the deadline on this one….
Like we said, life. Working for me, and conventions for Zach. We were pretty good with this one though, at least in my opinion. If you notice anything wrong, it's because we had plans come up, but I hope it doesn't feel rushed.
Please let us know what you think too! We can't just write in a vacuum or it'll just be our crazy ideas bouncing off each other and who knows what that'll make.
Thanks for reading!
-Zach
~AnastasiaBoth embodied and symbolic accounts of conceptual organization would predict partial sharing and partial differentiation between the neural activations seen for concepts activated via different stimulus modalities. But cross-participant and cross-session variability in BOLD activity patterns makes analyses of such patterns with MVPA methods challenging. Here, we examine the effect of cross-modal and individual variation on the machine learning analysis of fMRI data recorded during a word property generation task. We present the same set of living and non-living concepts (land-mammals, or work tools) to a cohort of Japanese participants in two sessions: the first using auditory presentation of spoken words; the second using visual presentation of words written in Japanese characters. Classification accuracies confirmed that these semantic categories could be detected in single trials, with within-session predictive accuracies of 80–90%. However cross-session prediction (learning from auditory-task data to classify data from the written-word-task, or vice versa) suffered from a performance penalty, achieving 65–75% (still individually significant at p « 0.05). We carried out several follow-on analyses to investigate the reason for this shortfall, concluding that distributional differences in neither time nor space alone could account for it. Rather, combined spatio-temporal patterns of activity need to be identified for successful cross-session learning, and this suggests that feature selection strategies could be modified to take advantage of this.
Introduction
Over recent years, embodied theories of conceptual representation and language use (Barsalou et al., 1999) have challenged more classical symbolic accounts, particularly in their account of grounding—that is the mechanism in the mind of a language learner through which the abstract and usually arbitrary representations of language come to be associated with meanings out the world. BOLD activations which are independently known to be associated with a particular stimulus modality have been observed in response to different modalities—e.g., visual presentation of a manipulable object can elicit activity in motor regions (Pulvermüller, 2005), and auditory presentation of a concrete concept can activate areas in the visual pathway (Chao et al., 1999). However these broad patterns of neural activation cited in support of embodied theories are also consistent with more general mechanisms of spreading activation, and some may even be artifacts of experimental procedures (Mahon and Caramazza, 2008). It may also be appropriate to question some of our “ground-truth” assumptions about gross functional localization, when we consider that the same semantic category-specific activations can be seen in the “visual cortex” of congenitally blind participants, who lack any visual experience (Mahon et al., 2009).
In fact, the embodied and symbolic accounts may not necessarily be exclusive, as areas that show selectivity to perceptual processing in a particular modality may also perform other functions that have not yet been revealed by region-based analyses. For reasons of computational efficiency, it could make sense for a symbolic architecture to be arranged such that abstract properties are encoded in vicinity to the embodied activations to which they correspond. Similarly, it might be physiologically cheaper to use compact abstract representations for the default representation of concepts, while selectively recruiting embodied and perceptual detail as the activity or communicative task at hand demands.
Finer grained analyses of population encodings may be able to shed some more light on these questions than conventional contrastive analyses, which assume homogenous stimulus conditions and monotonic brain activations of a fixed scale and local topography (imposed both by spatial smoothing, and cluster-based evaluation of statistical power). Machine learning methods—often termed Multi-Voxel (or Multi-Variate) Pattern Analysis (MVPA), when applied to fMRI data—can discern more complex regularities in the data, such as small relative changes in activation across populations of voxels, in response to a range of conditions of interest. They are now becoming widely used in cognitive neuroscience, particularly for classifying higher cognitive states (Haxby et al., 2001; Spiridon and Kanwisher, 2002; Cox and Savoy, 2003; Mitchell et al., 2004; Davatzikos et al., 2005; Kamitani and Tong, 2005; LaConte et al., 2005; Haynes and Rees, 2006; Norman et al., 2006; O'Toole et al., 2007; Mourão-Miranda et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2009; Mur et al., 2009; Pereira et al., 2009, 2010; Raizada et al., 2010; Weil and Reesa, 2010), and using a variety of classification strategies (e.g., Support Vector Machines of various types; Bayesian methods; constrained linear and logistic regressions; k Nearest Neighbor). They have been used to classify trials of neural activity according to word, phoneme, and other linguistic categories (Mahon and Caramazza, 2010; Willms et al., 2011), and have been applied in particular to lexical semantics (Mitchell et al., 2008; Murphy et al., 2009, 2011, 2012; Chan et al., 2011; Pereira et al., 2011). Beyond demonstrating that brain activity can be linearly decomposed into a set of semantically interpretable basis images, Mitchell et al. (2008) and other work by the same lab (Wang et al., 2004; Shinkareva et al., 2008) established that this model can generalize across word sets, sessions, participants, stimulus modalities and languages.
Certainly such cross-learning is more challenging (Wang et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2009) and typically yields lower classification accuracies, perhaps due to differences in experimental paradigm, but also more prosaic discrepancies in the shape and timing of the BOLD responses across participants (Aguirre et al., 1998; Duann et al., 2002; Handwerker et al., 2004) and sessions (McGonigle et al., 2000; Smith et al., 2005). But assuming a shared semantic basis the similarity structure should show some consistency (Wang et al., 2004; Kriegeskorte and Bandettini, 2007a,b; Clithero et al., 2011; Haxby et al., 2011).
Returning to the question at hand here, if single concepts are activated via different modalities, a more sensitive analysis might reveal the finer grained population encodings that reflect activity that is specific to a particular presentation modality, and modality-neutral activity, including those specific to particular semantic categories. Considering embodied theories of semantic representations, based on sensory-motor systems, there may also be a further interaction with a particular orthography (Weekes et al., 2005). The written stimuli used here combine both Japanese scripts, kanji (ideograms whose forms have semantic content to a varying degree), and kana (which like other alphabets use arbitrary form-sound mappings). Note that it is widely accepted that the orthographic confounds (which are natural in Japanese with multiple writing systems—even flexibly and arbitrarily combining kanji and kana in a single word) share both semantic and phonological aspects without any problem.
In this paper we take a preliminary step in this direction, by examining the degree to which category-specific activations are shared across different stimulus presentation modalities. We present the same set of living and non-living concepts (land-mammals, or work tools) to the same cohort of Japanese participants, who perform a property rehearsal task (Mitchell et al., 2008) in two sessions: the first using auditory presentation of spoken words; the second a matter of days or weeks later, using visual presentation of words written in Japanese characters.
We first use a cross-validated classification strategy to identify the semantic category (mammal or tool) of single stimulus trials. A univariate feature-selection is used in conjunction with a regularized logistic regression classifier to reliably isolate the subset of voxels that are more informative for distinguishing between these two stimulus types. This single-participant, uni-modal analysis, together with a conventional General Linear Model (GLM) analysis, establish that the data correspond to established patterns familiar in the literature, and that our data contains enough information to discriminate these semantic classes. Next we attempt to decode category across modalities: that is by training on auditory stimulus data, and classifying orthographic stimulus data; or vice versa. While both yield highly significant classification accuracies, there is a clear performance penalty for cross-modal classification relative to uni-modal analysis. We perform several follow-on analyses to investigate whether this penalty is due to differences in timing, in location, or due to varying temporal-coding within similar regions.
Materials and Methods
In many respects our experimental paradigm replicates Mitchell et al. (2008), especially in that we adopt the same behavioral task which asked participants to silently rehearse semantic properties on presentation of the stimulus, the same slow event-related design, and the same principal scanning settings with a coarse whole brain image (3 × 3 × 6 mm) at a short TR of 1 s.
Participants completed two sessions, first viewing pictures while listening to the spoken word describing the represented object (the auditory condition), and next viewing pictures with an accompanying caption (the orthographic condition). They were asked to silently enumerate properties that are characteristic of the presented concept. The instructions actually used in the experiments are given in the supplementary materials.
Our analysis of the data used a category-decoding task, predicting if each trial presented an animal or artifact stimulus. The initial unimodal analysis was followed by a cross-modal analysis to identify the extent to which activations are shared across the two modalities of presentation. Follow-on analyses that varied the selection of temporal and spatial input were used to further elucidate the more limited overlaps in activations observed.
Materials
Each of the participants was presented on screen with a series of contrast-normalized gray-scale photographs of tools and mammals, using the E-Prime 2.0 software package. These items were selected from a set of stimuli previously used for predicting EEG activation patterns (Murphy et al., 2009, 2011). Twenty stimuli in each of the two classes were presented in random order without repetition in each run, and this presentation of 40 stimulus items was repeated six times, for a total of 240 trials. The same images were accompanied by the spoken presentation of their Japanese name in the first auditory condition session, and by a Japanese caption in the second orthographic condition session. Each trial was presented visually for 3 s, and in the auditory condition the spoken name started simultaneously with a visual onset and lasted approximately 2 s on average. Participants were asked to recall a word which represented a typical attribute or property of the object during the 3 s of the visual stimulus, which was followed by a 7 s rest period, during which the subjects were asked to fixate on cross mark displayed in the center of the screen. There were six additional presentations of a fixation cross, 40 s each, distributed just after each run to establish a BOLD baseline.
The concepts used were:
Mammals: anteater ( ), armadillo ( ), beaver ( ), camel ( ), deer ( ), elephant ( ), fox ( ), giraffe ( ), gorilla ( ), hare ( ), hedgehog ( ), hippopotamus ( ), kangaroo ( ), koala ( ), mole ( ), monkey ( ), panda ( ), rhinoceros ( ), skunk ( ), and zebra ( ).
Tools: Allen key ( ), axe ( ), chainsaw ( ), craft knife ( ), file ( ), hammer ( ), nail ( ), paint roller ( ), plaster trowel ( ), pliers ( ), plunger ( ), power drill ( ), rake ( ), saw ( ), scraper ( ), scissors ( ), screw ( ), sickle ( ), spanner ( ), and tape measure ( ).
Participants
Six volunteers (4 males, 2 female, age range 39–53 years) were recruited and scanned. All subjects were native-Japanese speaking subjects, right-handed and had no known history of neurological impairment. Ethical approval was obtained from the local Human Investigation Committee of the Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology at Tokyo Institute of Technology and the volunteers signed a written informed consent form. They were asked to perform an off-line property generation task for all items before each fMRI session, and reported refraining from coffee and alcohol from one night before. One subject was dropped from the study due to excessive movement (>2 mm) during the first auditory session. The remaining five (P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5) subsequently completed the second scanning session using the other stimulus modality condition (the orthographic condition).
Imaging Techniques
Images were obtained using a 3.0-T General Electric Signa scanner at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan with a 8-channel high resolution head coil. Scanning parameters were based on those of Mitchell et al. (2008). Functional scanning was performed using an echo planar imaging sequence with a 1000 ms repetition time (TR), 30 ms echo time (TE), and 60° flip angle (FA). Each volume consisted of 15 × 6 mm thick slices with an interslice gap of 1 mm; FOV: 20 × 20 cm; size of acquisition matrix, 64 × 64; NEX: 1.00. The parameter values of the anatomical scans were TR = 7.284 ms, TE = 2.892 ms, FA = 11 degrees, Band Width = 31.25 kHz, voxel size = 1 mm isotropic. Following settings used by Mitchell et al. (personal communication), we set oblique slices in the sagittal view with a tilt of −20° to −30° such that the most inferior slice is above the eyes anteriorly and passes through the cerebellum posteriorly.
Preprocessing and General Linear Model (GLM)
The fMRI data were preprocessed and analyzed using Statistical Parametric Mapping software, SPM8 (version 4290) (Friston et al., 1995). Pre-processing steps included motion correction, coregistration of functional and anatomical images, segmentation to identify grey matter, and normalization into standard Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space at a resliced voxel size of 3 × 3 × 6 mm. Further details of the SPM settings used are given in the supplementary materials.
For the GLM analysis the data was additionally smoothed using an 8 mm Gaussian kernel. A conventional GLM contrastive analysis was first performed as a data-validation step. Single-session analyses were made on four contrasts with FWE-adjusted p < 0.05: task > rest; rest > task; mammal > tool; and tool > mammal. A random effects analysis was also executed with respect to the 10 datasets of the five participants to confirm the tendencies found in each single subject analysis.
Multi Variate Pattern Analysis (MVPA)
Machine-learning analyses were performed using the PyMVPA0.6 package (http://www.pymvpa.org/; Hanke et al., 2009). The realigned, coregistered and normalized (but unsmoothed) functional images of each subject in each session were loaded and filtered according to the grey matter mask (i.e., non-cortical voxels were ignored) and were used for cross-validated trial-wise training and testing of the animal/tool distinction. As each stimulus was presented six times, six-fold cross-validation was used for the unimodal analysis: each stimulus was represented by exactly five trials in the training partitions, and by one test trial in the evaluation partitions, and each trial was tested exactly once. The classification accuracies reported are the simple mean of the 240 trial classification results (1 for correct; 0 for incorrect), which represents the proportion of trials whose semantic category was recognized correctly. For the cross-modal analysis the data was partitioned such that training was performed exclusively on the data of one modality, and testing on the other modality. Feature selection was performed strictly within the training partitions, taking the top 500 voxels according to an ANOVA-based ranking.
In terms of the choice of classification algorithm, functional MRI data is typically noisy, highly redundant, and has a large number of features relative to the number of training examples. In this study we aim to balance successful classification with sufficient interpretability, in terms of being able to identify which voxels/regions are informative for the distinction of interest. The penalized logistic regression (PLR) classifier we selected is well-suited since its regularization term deals with both high dimensionality and redundancy in data by spreading the learning load over groups of similar voxels; its logistic function is optimized to fit discrete data categories; and it makes similar assumptions of linearity to those of a GLM.
More precisely, the classifier uses L2-norm regularization (also termed ridge regression or Tikhonov regularization) by defining a penalty term to minimize the sum of the squared beta values (1), with a tuning parameter λ (here set to 1.0). This has the effect of sharing the distribution of learning weights w over X, the set of BOLD magnitudes recorded at each selected voxel. The discrete nature of the dependent variable (in our case, the category of animal vs. tool) is modeled with the logarithm of the odds ratio (2).
y = w X + λ w 2 ( 1 )
y = log [ p / ( 1 − p ) ] ( 2 )
Additional preprocessing steps that applied to the multi-variate analysis consisted of linear detrending and z-score normalization of each voxel time course to control for both global and local variations in baseline haemodynamic response. Trial-level images were computed by taking a simple average of four consecutive fMRI volumes, offset by 4 s from the stimulus offset (termed a “boxcar” model of the BOLD response; cf. Mitchell et al., 2008). Preliminary analyses indicated that this common averaging strategy was similarly successful to using a HRF-model-weighted average.
Results
GLM
The activations identified in the GLM analysis at the first and the second levels were approximately consistent with established areas of animal and tool specificity (Chao et al., 1999; Pulvermüller, 2001; Binder et al., 2009). Figure 1 represents a series of transversal slices combining the activation maps of the two contrasts (mammal > tool and tool > mammal) used for the random effects analysis of variance with GLM (p < 0.005, unadjusted) applied to the data of the five participants. As classification accuracy is a primary goal of our MVPA study, we chose a high temporal resolution (i.e., a shorter TR = 1 s, allowing us to include many time points), at the expense of spatial resolution, achieved with thick slices to still cover the great majority of cortex.
FIGURE 1
Figure 1. The activation maps of the two contrasts (hot color: mammal > tool; cool color: tool > mammal) computed from the 10 datasets of our participants. The apparently sharp cutoff of values in the most ventral slices was not due to the mismatch with the contours of the normalized space, but to the relative narrowness and the shape of the coverage extent (due to only 15 oblique slices as the result of TR = 1 s), which was the logical AND of the individual coverage spheres.
According to the output T-contrast of mammal > tool in our study, the mammal items, whose visual complexity was significantly higher than the other semantic category, showed a large area of strong activation in right temporal and occipital lobes (visual area). On the other hand, the tool area could be identified in left inferior parietal lobe and supra-marginal gyrus; more precisely, several loci in the sensory-motor area, which were related to the tactile images on right fingers, were marked for some participants in the parametrical maps of the T-contrast of tool > mammal, showing a tendency which was in line with the simulation semantics or embodiment theory (Barsalou, 1999, 2003; Glenberg and Kaschak, 2002; Vingerhoets et al., 2002; Feldman and Narayanan, 2004; Bergen, 2005; Rohrer, 2007; Wu and Barsalou, 2009; Devereux et al., 2010 |
ations for a given deep neural network.
Here’s a picture illustrating how the algorithm proceeds:
Universal perturbations for some common deep networks
Following the method above, universal perturbations are learned for the ILSVRC 2012 image dataset (training on the set denoted X in the table below), and then those perturbations are tested on a 50,000 image validation set – not used to compute the perturbation – to see how many of them it causes a classifier to fool. The experiment is repeated with for several recent deep neural networks used with ILSVRC 2012.
Observe that for all networks, the universal perturbation achieves very high fooling rates on the validation set. Specifically, the universal perturbations computed for CaffeNet and VGG-F fool more than 90% of the validation set.
The computed perturbations for the different architectures are shown below.
The universal perturbations computed using Algorithm 1 have … a remarkable generalization power over unseen data points, and can be computed on a very small set of training images.
Do universal perturbations generalise across networks too?
So we’ve seen that universal perturbations can be created for a given model, but does a perturbation developed for one model also fool different models? To a reasonably high degree, yes! The universal perturbations computed for the VGG-19 network, for example, have a fooling ratio above 53% for all other tested architectures.
This result shows that such perturbations are of practical relevance, as they generalize well across data points and architectures. In particular, in order to fool a new image on an unknown neural network, a simple addition of a universal perturbation computed on the VGG-19 architecture is likely to misclassify the data point.
Does fine-tuning on perturbations improve resiliency?
If you take the perturbed images that fool a classifier, and fine-tune training using them, you can reduce the fooling rate a bit. After five extra training epochs of VGG-F for example, the misclassification rate drops to 76.2% from 93.7%. However, repeating the process by computing new perturbations and then fine-tuning again seems to yield no further improvements, regardless of the number of iterations, with the fooling ratio hovering around 80%.
Why do universal perturbations work?
If you build a graph where the vertices are labels, and an edge from label i to label j indicates that the majority of images of class i are fooled into label j, then a peculiar topology arises.
In particular, the graph is a union of disjoint components, where all edges in one component mostly connect to one target label.
For example, many image classes are mis-predicted as ‘great grey owl’ or ‘pillow’ in the extracts below.
We hypothesize that these dominant labels occupy large regions in the image space, and therefore represent good candidate labels for fooling most natural images.
In another experiment, the authors compare the fooling rates of universal perturbations versus random perturbations and find that universal perturbations are dramatically more effective.
The large difference between universal and random perturbations suggests that the universal perturbation exploits some geometric correlations between different parts of the decision boundary of the classifier.
By exploring vectors that are normal to the decision boundary of the classifier for a given input image, the authors demonstrate the likely existence of a subspace of low dimension that contains most normal vectors to the decision boundary in regions surrounding natural images. In fact, choosing a random vector from this subspace gives a significantly higher fooling ratio (38% vs 10%) than an unconstrained random perturbation.
Figure 10 (below) illustrates the subspace S that captures the correlations in the decision boundary. It should further be noted that the existence of this low dimensional subspace explains the surprising generalization properties of universal perturbations obtained in Fig. 6, where one can build relatively generalizable universal perturbations with very few images.
A video demonstrating the effect of universal perturbations on a smartphone can be found here.Is the US Government Behind the Fake News Media Attacks on President-elect Trump?
Is the US Government Behind the Fake News Media Attacks on President-elect Trump?
Paul Craig Roberts
Eric Zuesse has brought to our attention that US intelligence officials have placed a story in Buzzfeed, “a Democratic party mouthpiece,” that the Russian government used fake news to get Donald Trump elected president. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/12/63755.html
According to Buzzfeed:
“US intelligence officials believe Russia helped disseminate fake and propagandized news as part of a broader effort to influence and undermine the presidential election, two US intelligence sources told BuzzFeed News.
‘They’re doing this continuously, that’s a known fact,’ one US intelligence official said, requesting anonymity to discuss the sensitive national security issue.
‘This is beyond propaganda, that’s my understanding,’ the second US intelligence official said. The official said they believed those efforts likely included the dissemination of completely fake news stories. …
One intelligence official said, ‘In the context, did Russia attempt to influence the US elections; the aperture is as wide as it can possibly be.’” ‘The real unanswered question is, why did they do it?’ the second US intelligence official said. ‘Is it because they love Donald Trump? Because they hated Hillary Clinton? Or just because they like undermining Western democracies?’”
Who are these US intelligence officials who are portraying the president-elect of the United States to be a “Putin stooge, a tool of Russia”? Once in office, Trump must investigate these hostile elements in US intelligence who are working to discredit the US president and the American people who voted him into office.
As one reader pointed out, those who debunk “conspiracy theories,” that is, explanations that they do not like, now have a conspiracy theory of their own: Vladimir Putin used independent American websites to elect Trump with fake news. Only voters living in a few large coastal cities were immune to the fake news.
In other words, the presstitute media has lost control over Americans’ minds to Putin.
With an opponent this powerful, neoconservatives better think a dozen times before fomenting any more tension with the Kremlin.
Open the link above to Zeusse’s column and look at the cover of Time magazine. This cover delegitimizes the presidential election. Which US intelligence agency planted this cover on Time? President Trump must have the Secret Service investigate this attack from inside the US government on the US President. Congress, both House and Senate, should immediately summon Time magazine to hearings under oath. This interference by US intelligence in American political life is illegal. Those responsible must be discovered, indicted, convicted, and sentenced. Otherwise fake news will displace facts as Americans are wrapped in a Matrix inside a Matrix.
Three hundred and ninety opponents of the US Constitution, who sit in the US House of Representatives, just passed a bill that voids the First Amendment to the US Constitution. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-02/house-quietly-passes-bill-targeting-russian-propaganda-websites
Title V of the bill establishes an interagency executive branch committee “to counter active measures by the Russian Federation to exert covert influence.” Russian manipulation of US media (a routine practice of the US government) to spread disinformation (fake news) is one of the “active measures by Russia” to be countered. In other words, websites that do not participate in the demonization of Russia and President Putin will be subjected to McCarthyite suspicions and accusations. Countering is an open-ended activity that easily extends to enforcement actions against suspected parties. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr6393/text
If this bill becomes law, it can be used to discredit and destroy truthtellers as agents of foreign intelligence. In other words, the message is: if you dispute our lies you are a foreign agent and subject to arrest or elimination.
This is the state of democracy in America today. More than any other country, the United States needs to be liberated. Can Trump do it?The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was supposed to ease doing business in India - a point that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have insisted during his meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP president Amit Shah yesterday.
Discussing the issues related to GST implementation ahead of GST Council meeting (underway at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi today), PM Modi asked Jaitley to ensure that GST rules were amended such as to make doing business easier in India.
It is expected that the GST Council today may approve some measures to make the compliance of GST rules easy and also give some relaxations to traders, small and medium enterprises, and entrepreneurs.
The GST Council has already tweaked GST rules several times over about 100 days of the new tax regime. Though, the frequent tweaks indicate existing confusion with regard to GST implementation but the government has explained it as teething troubles.Vandana Shiva, widely beloved by anti-GMO activists worldwide, is an author, feminist, environmentalist and anti-biotechnology leader who opposes modern agriculture. She is a frontrunner in the opposition to crops created with modern molecular genetic engineering, better known as Genetically Modified Organisms--an unscientific and arbitrary term, because the vast majority of the foods we consume have had their genomes altered in the field or in a lab. The anti-globalization camp touts Shiva, a physicist seemingly turned voice for the downtrodden Indian people and environment, as a hero.
At the risk of generalizing, people of Indian descent take pride in our community’s achievements (I am an American-born daughter of Indian immigrants myself). A “model minority” in the USA, the ethnic group makes up a disproportionate percentage of physicians, scientists, millionaires and Scripps National Spelling Bee winners. Whether they like to admit it or not, ask any member of the Indian diaspora--if he doesn’t take pride in some of this, he is probably lying. Problems with the model minority as a stereotype aside, flies on Indian-American dining room walls nationwide hear tales of nieces, friends, and cousins out-achieving and out-earning their counterparts.
That’s where the unanimous pride ends. There are prominent Indian-Americans who inspire controversy at the Indian dinner party, forging a deep chasm between the proud and the embarrassed. Take Governor Bobby Jindal for example: though he has ascended to one of the highest offices in the nation, some Indians wonder how a person of color and child of immigrants can rightfully reject the hyphenated title of “Indian-American.” Then, there’s film producer and director M. Night Shyamalan, best known for the thriller Sixth Sense: though most wouldn’t balk at his fortune and fame, many Indian and non Indian-Americans alike cringe at the predictable twist movie endings.
This brings us back to Vandana Shiva. Undoubtedly a controversial albeit prominent Indian public figure, the stately, self-proclaimed food activist and feminist rakes in big bucks to rival the incomes of doctors and business moguls, and does so on the premise of benevolence. Shiva’s website, which notes that Time Magazine honored the activist as an environmental “hero” in 2003, describes her as working alongside peasants; images of Shiva posing on Indian farms litter the internet. Demanding $40,000 a pop and round trip business class air fare from New Delhi for her promotional talks, she has achieved the deplorable yet amazing feat of appropriating her own culture. Though defined in varying ways, the term “cultural appropriation” usually describes the use and adulteration of elements of one culture by another. In Shiva’s case, she has managed to exploit and demean her own culture under the guise of standing up for her countrymen, as a means to advance her anti-biotechnology agenda.
Oozing “Indianness,” Shiva sports a massive bindi, the religious symbol turned largely ornamental accessory, far larger than what most Indian women would ever wear. With greying hair pulled back in a low bun and always wrapped in a saree, the activist exudes the “aunty” persona, a term of respect that Indian people endow to unrelated women in their parents’ generation. Despite her ostensibly endearing looks, Vandana Shiva's exotification of the country and India-as-victim messaging does her few favors in the Indian community, while her butchering of science has seen her earn monikers like “Luddite”, “dangerous fabulist” and even part of the “lunatic fringe.”
In Seeds of Truth, Shiva’s response to Michael Specter’s well-received 2014 profile of the activist in The New Yorker, she complained about the article’s description of a farmer with “skin the color of burnt molasses and the texture of a well-worn saddle.”
“In ways other than the obvious, Specter sounds like an Angrez Sahib (English Sahib) describing the ‘natives’ in 1943”, Shiva wrote. “One can only hope that he may overcome his disdain of non-white, non-industrial populations, Indian farmers, and farmers in general[.]”
Disdain? Perhaps the true disdain is Shiva’s, for farmers who speak out in favor of genetically engineered crops, in this case Narhari Pawar, who was quoted in Specter's story. Rather than lamenting the Indian farmers’ plight under the fist of the Big Bad Agricultural Biotechnology Industry, Shiva’s usual trope, the farmer spoke intelligently of Bt trait in his cotton crop.
“Why do rich people tell us to plant crops that will ruin our farms?”, Pawar asked. Specter’s piece continued to quote the farmer, “Bt cotton is the only positive part of farming. It has changed our lives. Without it, we would have no crops. Nothing.”
Big Bad Bt?
Shiva’s characterization of Specter as Angrez Sahib is, at best, a diversion from the reality that anti-GMO activists love to avoid—Indian farmers aren’t victims of agricultural biotechnology. At worst, she is pulling the race card, a deft maneuver common in the arsenals of popular misinformation vectors like Shiva, which I collectively call “The Deck of Deflection”, seemingly oblivious to her own racist pigeonholing of Specter as no more than a white foreigner.
Though she has repeatedly blamed farmer suicide on genetically engineered crops, specifically Bt cotton (the “Bt” denotes an insecticidal protein from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium, which kills boring insect larvae but is harmless to humans and beneficial insects), the assertion simply isn’t true. She also condemns companies like Monsanto for holding IP rights to patented seeds, leading to a "seed monopoly." Either Shiva, who promotes organic agriculture, isn't aware that there are thousands of patented crop varieties, many of which can be grown and sold as organic, or she is cleverly disingenuous.
“People like Shiva are taking away from the grassroots problems. Ag biotech is the least of the problems in India,” said Venkat Aditya, Cornell Alliance for Science Leadership Program Fellow.
Yes, Indian farmer suicide is a real phenomenon, but genetically engineered crops are not the cause of this incredibly complex national tragedy. Around one Indian farmer takes his own life every half hour, but the suicide rate has remained relatively steady despite the growing acreage of genetically engineered crops.
Aditya, who hails from southern Indian state Telangana, where a rash of farmer suicides have made recent headlines, said, “We have huge issues with irrigation, farm credit and market access for farmers. Ag biotech has been an immense help to the Indian farmer.” According to Aditya, there is a dire lack of commercial banks in rural areas, so farmers often turn to unregulated local lenders who charge astronomically high interest rates of up to 30-45%. The same predatory lenders often double as procurement agents, leading to low market prices, keeping farmers in a financial quagmire.
Predatory lending, unpredictable weather and drought are among the factors contributing to the farmer suicide epidemic; genetic engineering is not the culprit leading these men to take their own lives, leaving widows and fatherless children in their wake. India is currently the fourth largest country in terms of biotech crop acreage. Since the adoption of Bt cotton, Aditya explained, the nation has gone from being a net importer to a net exporter of the crop.
With bollworm and other pests wreaking havoc on cotton crops, Bt cotton first found its way to Indian farmland not forcibly from big western corporations, but from a black market supplying the demands of farmers who found the trait immensely beneficial. Faced with widespread planting of the crops, which anti-GM activists fought to keep illegal, the Indian government approved the first legal Bt cotton in 2002.
Now, a similar story unfolds with Bt brinjal (eggplant). Developed in India by Indians, it’s no wonder that there are accounts of the seeds, already legal in Bangladesh, being smuggled across the border into India. A staple in Indian diets, without Bt trait up to 70% of a brinjal crop is rendered unusable due to Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB) infestation, explained Dr. Balasubramanian Ponnuswami, the former Director at the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore, and one of the scientists who helped engineer Bt versions of four types of brinjal popular in southern India. (Incidentally, my mother’s family hails from Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu. I visit the city every few years, where most of my maternal relatives still reside.) When planting non Bt varieties, farmers are forced to spray heavy amounts of insecticides. With some farmers unaware of dangers of excessive pesticide residues to consumers and the environment, Ponnuswami recounted, several have resorted to using up to 60 different formulations up to every other day, a practice not recommended by the university.
Shiva, who vehemently opposes Bt trait and modern agricultural practices, is an environmentalist and champion of the Indian people in name only. After all, what benevolent activist would reject a technology that vastly reduces the use of harmful pesticides, and increases crop yield? Dr. Ponnuswami draws the comparison of Vandana Shiva to Goethe's Faust, stating, "Ms. Shiva, the modern day Faust, espouses the cause of the so called global organickers’ movement." We all know that Faust sold his soul, so in this case, is Ponnuswami's comparison of the organic industry to the devil apt? This is a story for another day...
The embarrassing Vandana Shiva
Dr. Rajini Rao, professor and Graduate Program Director at Johns Hopkins, whose research expertise is in ion transporters, said she is “embarrassed by the role of these prominent women of Indian origin, Vandana Shiva and Vani Hari, in propagating misinformation and anti-GMO hysteria.” The Indian-born scientist, who lived in Vandana Shiva’s birthplace of Dehradun for three years as a child, continued, “I think [genetic modification] is a useful technology that India cannot afford to reject, against scientific consensus for its safety.”
One of Shiva’s most embarrassing public declarations to date came in the form of a 2013 tweet declaring, “#MarkLynas saying farmers shd [sic] be free to grow #GMOs which can contaminate #organic farms is like saying #rapists shd have freedom to rape.”
Comparison of agricultural biotech to “rape” is deplorable considering the astronomical rate of sexual assault in India. As a self-proclaimed feminist, Shiva should know that the only thing that should be compared to rape is, well, rape. Mark Lynas, who made a splash at the 2013 Oxford Farming Conference when he publicly denounced his previous anti-GMO stance and vandalism, and has remained a prominent proponent of agricultural biotechnology, condemned Shiva’s tweet as “obscene and offensive.”
To me, an Indian-American daughter of immigrants, Shiva’s appropriation of her own culture is among the most obscene, offensive tactics in the activist’s repertoire. She reeks of “more Indian than thou”, which colors her mannerisms and shapes her messaging, effectively endowing her with a je ne sais quoi, leaving many non-Indian westerners accepting her without question as the voice of the Indian David against the Big Bad Biotech Goliath, while others presumably refrain from doubting her seeming authority for fear of appearing racist. A clever tactic, indeed.
This acceptance of Indian thieves of their own culture must stop. Farmers like Narhari Pawar, science advocates like Venkat Aditya, and scientists like Rajini Rao and Balasubramanian Ponnuswami are just a handful of folks fed up with the twisting of their culture by fellow Indians for no more than ideological, non evidence-based agendas. No doubt, they are but a representative sliver of those sharing the sentiment.
Dr. Vandana Shiva could not be reached for comment.
**Update posted at 12:30 pm ET 11/3/2015 - Vandana Shiva posted a response to the author's email, which can be found here.**
My book, “The Fear Babe: Shattering Vani Hari’s Glass House”, with co-authors Marc Draco and Mark Alsip, is available now. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter.This week marks the one-year anniversary of the attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people, including eight of the magazine’s staff. In typical Hebdo form, the magazine has chosen to mark the event with a provocative cover that features a bearded man representing God with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, accompanied by the text: “One year later: the assassin is still out there.” Their point? Little has changed.
While the cover has already come under fire for crossing the line, including a condemnation from the Vatican, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the fact that the cartoonists are right. Little has, indeed, changed: Charlie Hebdo is still suffering threats because they refuse to stop covering religion; the threat of extremism is still unchecked; and satirical media continues to offer the public a provocative view of the truth that we don’t get from mainstream media.
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While millions rallied in support of “Charlie Hebdo” after the attacks, it was also true that in the days following many condemned the satirists for crossing the line and for using humor in ways that were degrading and disrespectful. Their choice to depict the Prophet Mohammed came under fire, as did their grotesquely sexualized cartoons. They were often critiqued for their staunch atheist and secularist views.
While Charlie Hebdo might seem crass to U.S. audiences, it follows the humor genre found in Mad Magazine, South Park, The Onion and "The Simpsons;" and it follows in the tradition of French absurdist humor. It satirizes features of French life but focuses more than half of its humor on politics. According to Le Monde, which analyzed a 10-year breakdown of Charilie Hebdo's cartoons, only 7.3 percent of all of their cartoons ridiculed religion and only 1.3 percent of their cartoons featured Islam.
And yet, one year after some of their cartoonists were murdered for daring to draw the Prophet, they are still under fire for being intolerant of religion. The obsessive critique reveals two key issues: First, despite being attacked by terrorists, the Hebdo artists are still criticized for their worldviews more than the terrorists themselves; and second, leftist politics is caught in a tough bind when it comes to openly debating religion and conflict.
Charlie Hebdo director Laurent Sourisseau, who goes by the name Riss, dives right into this thorny issue in the editorial he wrote to accompany his cartoon on the new cover. He explains that before the attacks he and his colleagues never thought it would be possible to be assassinated for cartoons: “We saw France as a secular haven, in which it was possible to take [a] piss, to lampoon, to have fun without a thought for dogmas or lunatics.” He explains that one of their key mantras was “Fuck everything” — a position that simply means that nothing is sacred, nothing is taboo. The idea was to cross every line in an effort to use irony and satire to question the status quo.
But he points out that he now sees he was wrong about France. Not only were there people plotting to kill him and his friends; but they were also under fire from “embittered intellectuals, insipid columnists and jealous journalists who take the utmost care in making sure not to tread on dangerous ground by writing anything sincere.” They were attacked by the religious for blasphemy and by the media because they dared to raise issues that the media was largely avoiding. One of those issues was the link between religion and terrorist violence.
A weird consequence of this is that the secularism of Hebdo is often treated as more of a social threat than the religious convictions of the terrorists. And the reason for that, as Bill Maher has pointed out, is that we are more comfortable critiquing a group of comedians than we are asking tough questions about the role of Islam in contemporary conflict. As Maher puts it, we need to be able to talk about these issues without being condemned for Islamophobia just as we would want to talk about the religious ideology of the KKK.
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At the core of the dilemma is the question of how to square a politics of tolerance and diversity with a commitment to rational thought and critical thinking that derives from secularism.
The Vatican newspaper claims that, “In Charlie Hebdo’s choice, there is the sad paradox of a world which is more and more sensitive about being politically correct, almost to the point of ridicule, yet does not wish to acknowledge or to respect believers’ faith in God, regardless of the religion.”
But here’s the catch. Satirists like Hebdo's cartoonists or Maher don’t care about being politically correct. They see it is a form of censorship and restriction that cuts off productive and necessary debate. They follow the line of thought that considers religion as the “opiate of the masses.” And for that they are condemned.
It’s worth noting that Donald Trump can threaten to “scare” Pope Francis and get no reply. But Charlie Hebdo draws a provocative, ironic cover and gets chastised by the Vatican.
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This all points to the claim made by Riss that nothing has changed. The cartoonists are still attacked while the attackers roam free and the ideologies that buttress them go unchecked.
Meanwhile, as comedian Lee Camp reminds us, we continue drone strikes on terrorists groups that miss their target 90 percent of the time. Just as Hebdo mocks the prevailing atmosphere of conservatism, Camp wonders why policy continues to favor militarism when it has been consistently shown to fail. One year after the attacks on Hebdo there has been no significant policy shift in counter-terrorism; there have just been more civilian casualties.
In a brilliant “Redacted Tonight” bit that asks why the mainstream media missed covering the “drone papers,” Camp reminds us of the many ways that satire news has increasingly come to offer the public a much-needed source of information.
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If the comedy of Hebdo is tied to advocating anarchistic secularism, in the U.S. much of our satire has focused on stepping in for a compromised news media. But what all these comedians and satirical artists have in common is a core commitment to using the gutsy edge of satire to shake the public out of complacency.
Here in the United States we have a presidential campaign underway where two top candidates, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, have not had one of their fact-checked statements come back as true. And we have a TV news media dominated by Fox News, which cultivates loyal followers more than it reports meaningful information.
One year after the Hebdo attacks it is still satire that is most likely to help inform the public and encourage critical reflection. And that’s not just conjecture. We have data on how satire helps stimulate critical thinking and how those citizens who consume satire have higher aptitude on current issues.
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The catch, though, is that some will focus on whether the humor of the satirists is just mean — as seen in the Vatican critique of Hebdo’s cover. The trick is that satire communicates in the language of irony and sarcasm. It is not a straightforward form of communication and it is always open to interpretation. Those who feel like they are the butt of the joke react aggressively. When someone has interpreted satire as literal and cruel, telling them they didn’t get the joke usually doesn’t help.
Satire strikes a nerve, which is why it was cartoonists listed on the most wanted list for al Qaeda and not journalists. And it’s why satirists get smacked by the Vatican for crossing the line, but politicians get a free pass. It’s why drones can hit their target only 10 percent of the time, but more folks are worried about the political correctness of Charlie Hebdo.
Satirists don’t commit physical violence, but their ideas come under attack all the time. That is why satirists often feel like a greater threat than straight news reporters or loony politicians like Trump. Fox News lies and fosters a community of cult-like followers, but the world worries about comedians. As Riss explains in the new issue of Charlie Hebdo, it’s time to ask whether that makes sense.
Think about it. It was Stephen Colbert who finally showed the public that Ted Cruz is a fool. It was Bill Maher who dared to ask if we could talk about the ties between Islam and ISIS. It was John Oliver who managed to hamstring the televangelists. It was Lee Camp who dared to reveal the hypocrisy of the World Bank. It was Larry Wilmore and his staff who dared to say “Fuck Trump” and walk off their show in protest of his xenophobia. It is Michael Moore’s new film “Where to Invade Next” that has the guts to reveal that the military solution to political crisis has failed us. And it is “Charlie Hebdo” that is proving that the attack on secular satire is more vicious than the attacks on ideologues of all stripes
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Satire doesn’t just speak truth to power; it speaks ironic snark to power -- and that’s part of what can make it so offensive and so provocative. One year after the brutal attacks on Charlie Hebdo nothing has changed: Irony, snarky comedy, and sarcastic satire still remain our best weapons against political folly and media spectacle. And one year later, those same tactics still bother the hell out of those who don’t get the joke.Carlos works across the street from Powell’s books, so I often find myself waiting there for him to get off, a habit that is destined to bankrupt me. I sit at the bar in front of the windows facing the street and pretend to read. (Sometimes even actually reading). Sipping absently from my cherry, Italian soda and people watching.
An older black man with a serious expression brings armloads of books from the romance section and takes great care lining them up on a table. He is here nearly every time that I am and every time he can be found carefully lining up his finds before going back to the stacks to scavenge some more.
Portland is a place where people cultivate their eccentricities.
Earlier, a homeless man smelling strongly of urine stopped me on the street and started babbling at me in a string of sounds that didn’t quite evolve into actual words. The urgency of his expression and the way he implored with his hands gave me pause as I struggled to understand him. I felt badly, but all I could do was helplessly shake my head and say, “I’m sorry.” For what, I’m not quite sure. For being unable to communicate. For being unable to help. For being white, and middle classed, and spoiled. I politely disengaged and fled to the comforting refuge of the bookstore.
Inside I’m immediately put at ease. In my element. I love everything about books. I love the comfortable heft of one in my hand. The feel of pages against my skin. I love the smell of them. But mostly I love words. Stories. The worlds and adventures that they contain.
I credit my parents for nurturing this love of the written word. Reading is the only thing that the three of us had in common. After dinner in the evenings, my mom would sit at the kitchen table with a Diet Pepsi, reading some romance novel. Square jawed men in puffy shirts with arms around the waist of some Victorian woman who is all soft curls and heaving bosom. My dad would be sitting in his bed with a battered Louis Lamour western. And I’d curl up in my bedroom with my headphones on and some sci-fi epic in front of me.
Even though we were all in different rooms of the house, I always felt really connected to them on those evenings when we were all reading.
The first book I ever read (that wasn’t a picture book) was Charlotte’s Web. Having raised a pig of my own, I was especially touched (although Jo Jo’s fate was pretty grisly compared to that of Wilbur’s.) The first book I ever loved was The Hero and the Crown. I’ve read this book so many times since I was a kid that I can recite whole pages of it from memory. Since then there have been countless books that made me laugh. Those that made me sob like a baby. Books have transformed and transported me to universes of exploding creativity, and I will never be the same.
For Christmas last year, Carlos got me a Kindle. I smiled politely and pretended to love it, inwardly cringing because it would take away the tactile experience you get from a “real” book. After downloading my first e-book, a non-fiction work about quantum physics, I completely changed my tune. An e-reader can hold thousands of books at once. Because I usually read 3 or 4 books at a time, having the Kindle is like being able to take my entire bookshelf with me everywhere I go. It has since come to rival my iPhone as my most cherished possession.
In an age of nano-second attention spans, stumbling across another reader is like finding some lost member of a dying tribe. I see you in familiar places. Riding in buses. Sitting in coffee shops. Alone in a cafe. Browsing through bookstores. We may read different genres, but we understand each other. Life would seem so dull, so empty without all the stories and the words out there, waiting to be tasted and experienced.
What are you reading?
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A trainee lawyer hoping to become a barrister cried rape 11 TIMES to get out of taking her Bar exams, a court has been told.
Rhiannon Brooker is alleged to have falsely accused her boyfriend of repeatedly raping and assaulting her - claims which saw him arrested, charged and held in custody for 30 days.
But after investigating, detectives could not find any evidence that Paul Fensome, 46, had carried out the crimes and arrested 30-year-old Brooker.
It then emerged that she had used the allegations as "extenuating circumstances" in a failed attempt to dodge her exams, Bristol Crown Court heard.
She is now standing trial for 11 false claims of rape and nine of assault, two of which include imprisonment allegations.
Prosecutor David Bartlett said: "The prosecution says that one of the reasons for her false allegations was that she was living an active social life in Bristol and not doing the work required to pass the assessments, so she falsified the allegations in order to give substance to her extenuating circumstances forms."
The court heard how "confident and outspoken" Brooker took a Bachelor of Law degree at Birmingham City University before moving to Bristol in September 2010.
She attended the University of the West of England in the city in order to take her BVC qualifications to become a barrister.
But Brooker claimed Mr Fensome, who she met in Birmingham, objected violently to the move, and shortly before her went to Bristol, Brooker appeared at a convenience store where she worked with injuries and complained her boyfriend had assaulted her.
While at UWE she told fellow students she had been assaulted and raped and occasionally sported physical injuries, but had not reported the matter to police.
She claimed Mr Fensome forced her to have sex a number of times, and on one occasion she told a friend she had lost a baby because her boyfriend had punched her in the ribs, the court heard.
In March 2011 she was assessed by an independent domestic violence advisor, who tried to encourage her to involve police and log events.
She finally went to police in May 2011 following a visit to the Royal United Hospital in Bath but all the allegations were denied by railway signalman Mr Fensome.
The court was told allegations involving false imprisonment and assault at her home were countered with "cast iron alibis" from her boyfriend.
On other occasions texts from his phone, telephone cell site analysis and his work shift patterns all either undermined or disproved further allegations.
Mr Bartlett said: "Eventually the Crown dropped the numerous charges against Paul Fensome because, taken as a whole, the evidence showed that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.
"Expert opinion was obtained which suggested that those injuries of Brooker that were photographed were self-inflicted."
The court heard Brooker only sat the first four of her 12 assessments for her BVC course and persuaded the Extenuating Circumstance Committee to let her sit all at a later date.
However, she failed the exams because she went beyond time limits for the retakes.
After withdrawing her allegations Brooker confirmed they were false, and admitted that injuries seen by witnesses, including her friends and doctors, were self-inflicted, the court heard.
She denies 20 charges of doing an act tending, and intended, to pervert the court of justice between May 2011 and January 2012.
The trial continues.She may feel vindicated by the US midterms, but others believe Palin proved a liability on a night of historic wins for her party
There was no way Sarah Palin was going to see the election results as anything other than a "big darn deal" for Tea Party conservatives, Mama Grizzlies and – of course – her personal political brand.
Her first tweet of the new Republican era, sent just after midnight, said (in full): "As always, proud to be American! Thanks, Commonsense Constitutional Conservatives, u didn't sit down & shut up … u refudiated extreme left."
But by dawn, television commentators were arguing that rather than "refudiating" the extreme left, Palin may have been the spoiler that cost the Republicans the Senate on a night of historic gains.
There was also speculation that establishment Republicans, having harnessed the energy of Tea Party activists to take the House of Representatives with a historic 60-seat pickup, would now be looking to ensure Palin does not cost them an even bigger prize: the White House in 2012.
Palin's election-night scorecard was mixed. Her top Tea Party favourites – Christine O'Donnell in Delaware |
are earning millions of rupees from India by selling medicines. Cows are being slaughtered in front of us; before a cow is slaughtered, steam at 200 deg. temperature is sprayed on its body for separating its skin; then its neck is cut and all blood is removed after which it is slaughtered i.e. it is tortured before killing. Every part of cow’s body is being used by foreign companies to desecrate Hindus. Cow’s bones are used for preparing toothpaste; medicines are prepared from its blood; thus it is a ploy to desecrate Hindus. Every citizen should make a resolve to stop sale of cow, so also stop its slaughter.” Mr. Sunil Mansingh said, “Land remains fertile due to cattle; but the present Govenment is trying to destroy the same. The Government is also transferring about 7, 00, 000 acres of farmers’ fertile land to ‘SEZ’ projects and factories. Bangladesh is dependent only on India as about 15 to 20 lakhs of cattle is sent to Bangla Desh from India.” Mr. Milind Ekbote informed that government was exending 100 % concession for expenses towards local transport and export of cattle. Many religious leaders, Saints, organisations engaged in protection of cows, conducting research on the subject etc; rulers, people from Jain and other communities attended the program.HIBERNIAN will admit season ticket holders for free for the second leg of the Premiership play-off final as they seek to prolong their 15-year stay in the top flight.
The Edinburgh side will meet either Falkirk or Hamilton Academical in the two-legged play-off, with the Championship side at home in the first leg next Wednesday. The second leg will take place at Easter Road on Sunday 25 May, kicking off at 3:30pm, with prices slashed for non-season ticket holders.
A statement posted on the Hibs website said: “All supporters with a current 13/14 season ticket membership can attend the home fixture free of charge as part of their existing membership. For those without a 13/14 season ticket membership the admission prices are £10 for adults and £5 for concessions in all sections of Easter Road Stadium.”
Hibs midfielder Kevin Thomson believes he will be fit to play in the play-off final as he bids to shake off the thigh injury that saw him miss the last two matches of the regular league season.
The defeat by Kilmarnock on Saturday condemned Hibs to second-bottom place in the Premiership and Thomson admitted it was hard to watch his team-mates drop into the play-offs.
“It was massively disappointing not to be available for the Kilmarnock match – watching from the stands was a really frustrating experience,” Thomson said. “But I’m confident I will be fit enough to be available for selection for the play-off.
“There are two games left in order for us to keep the club in the Premiership and we will all be giving everything we can to make that happen.”
Falkirk and Hamilton drew 1-1 in the first leg of the play-off semi-final on Tuesday, and Accies manager Alex Neil thinks that whoever wins the second leg at New Douglas Park on Sunday will have the edge on Hibs in the final.
“The momentum is going to be with the Championship team because both teams have been in good form,” said Neil.
“Meanwhile, Hibs haven’t been in good form. I went and took in the Hibs game when they played Kilmarnock and they are low in confidence. They are not winning a lot of games.”The Seahawks' tight end position seemed pretty set coming out of the Draft. Seattle had incumbent starter Zach Miller still under contract following a monster two Playoff performances, second-TE-slash-quality-Miller-backup Anthony McCoy going into his contract year with things to prove and money to make, and third-TE-slash-developmental-freak-athlete Luke Willson to back them both up and learn the professional ropes. Of course, McCoy soon tore his achilles tendon and was placed on the injured reserve, bumping Willson up from a developmental project to a probable core player in year one.
McCoy played in 466 offensive snaps in 2012 (46% of Seattle's total offensive snaps) and while the Hawks may vary their use of two tight end sets going forward, it's likely the rookie will see a big chunk of action as the probable number two tight end. Of course, there's always the chance that 2nd year TE Sean McGrath will leapfrog the rookie Willson on the depth chart, or one of Darren Fells, Cooper Helfet, or Victor Marshall may surprise.
Here's the group:
# Name - POS - Height - Weight - Age
88 Fells, Darren TE 6-7 - 281 - 27
48 Helfet, Cooper TE 6-4 - 240 - 24
87 Marshall, Victor TE 6-4 - 225 - 25
84 McGrath, Sean TE 6-5 - 247 - 25
86 Miller, Zach TE 6-5 - 255 - 27
82 Willson, Luke TE 6-5 - 252 - 23
Luke Wilson, 6-5 - 252
Seattle has been seemingly searching for an athletic,'move' type of tight end to use in conjunction with the versatile and fundamental Zach Miller in their frequent two tight end sets. They tried to re-sign John Carlson but the Vikings offered him an ungodly amount of money so that idea went out the window. They traded for Kellen Winslow Jr but he rebuffed their contract renegotiation overtures. Seattle said "fine, whatever," cut him, and picked up Evan Moore, but Moore just never caught on with the offense and had a few drops before he was released as well. McCoy served as the move guy in 2012 and played fairly well in that role, but as we saw time and again, his open-field elusiveness as a ball-carrier is awful, and his downfield speed, while decent, left something to be desired.
Enter Luke Willson. Willson ran a 4.51 40 at 255 pounds at his pro day and from all reports at rookie camps and full-team mini-camps, that speed shows up on the field as well. Assuming that Zach Miller is healthy, Willson seems to fit the role as a moveable chess piece that won't be asked to block a whole lot in-line and instead will be used to motion around the formation, exploit match-ups and beat linebackers up the seam. It should be noted, of course, that Willson was the Miller-type player for Rice in 2012, staying in-line to block while Niners' future draft pick Vance McDonald ran all over the formation, catching passes and having more fun.
So, I'd guess that Willson is probably Miller's primary backup at the 'Y' spot too, regardless, but that's a big question mark.
Sean McGrath, 6-5 - 247
I don't know a ton about Sean McGrath's blocking potential, so projecting Willson as the primary backup is just a guess. McGrath really is the x-factor in this whole TE competition, and since I can't go back at this point and watch preseason games from last year, I don't have a whole lot to go off of for what type of player he is. I had a vision in my head of the former Henderson State tight end/longsnapper-turned-Seahawks-backup as a lumbering, fundamentally sound and thoroughly unexciting athlete, but his athleticism scores were actually really, really good, on second glance.
His agility numbers are actually pretty off the charts despite his rather pedestrian 4.78 40 (slightly slower than Anthony McCoy and Zach Miller): he ran the short shuttle in 4.16 seconds, an elite number for a tight end of 250+ pounds (would have been first among all tight ends in 2013 and 3rd in 2012), which shows a nice lateral explosiveness factor, and he registered a 35.5" vert, another good number. His three-cone time was an impressive 6.99 seconds. A sub-7.0 3-cone would have been 2nd best in 2013 at the Combine, among TEs, and would have been top-4 in 2012, his draft year. It would seem I wholly underestimated McGrath's physical-freak-of-nature factor. Intriguing, especially considering he's been getting a lot of buzz in OTAs and Mini-Camps.
Here's what Derek Stephens had to say after observing a few of Seattle's mandatory Mini-camps earlier this summer:
Sean McGrath looks a lot quicker than he did last year. He's not as sluggish off the ball or out of breaks, and appears to have been working on his route-running. He has always come off as pretty sure-handed, but his feet were suspect in my mind. Yesterday, I saw a difference there. I think McGrath is the clear-cut favorite for the 3rd TE spot, with a chance to play a lot as the 2nd TE, platooning with Willson as he learns the ropes.
McGrath, particularly considering there aren't a ton of spots to be 'won' on the offense, is one guy who could really surprise as a 'breakout' player in 2013. Or he might be a backup. Or he might be cut.
Cooper Helfet, 6-4 - 240
Helfet is another move-type tight end out of Duke. He's been on and off the practice squad the last year and will look to push Darren Fells and Sean McGrath for a roster spot, presumably. Helfet's athleticism numbers are also very good - he ran the 40 in 4.71 seconds and the short shuttle in 4.22 seconds at 6'4, 240 pounds. His 6.84 3-cone is absurdly fast, and is buoyed by his very respectable 24 reps on bench. The dude is an athlete. Seattle likes this.
In college, he was more of a receiver type than a real, in-line tight end, so his specialty will likely be as that 'joker' tight end type, and not so much as a potential backup to Zach Miller. Seattle tends to like guys for what they can do over what they can't do, and if Helfet can run better routes and catch the ball more consistently than McGrath or Darren Fells, he might just earn himself a roster spot over them.
Derek had this to say about Helfet, from Seattle's mandatory Mini-camp:
Cooper Helfet is the quickest of the tight ends, by first-look. He looks more like an H-back in terms of how he's built (lower to the ground), and comes out of his breaks with more suddenness than anyone else in the group. We saw some nice things out of him last year, so it will be interesting to see how much action he gets this year, with what appears to be a pretty open competition again with Sean McGrath for that 3rd TE spot.
Darren Fells, 6-7 - 281
Here's the consensus from the people I know that have watched Fells in practices: physically speaking, looks the part. Is a huge target at 6'7 and long arms, and has through the roof potential. Problem is, he drops passes. Let's see how he plays in training camp because if he shows consistency catching the ball (he is, afterall, playing ball for the first time in years after playing pro basketball in Europe), he might be an option for that 3rd TE. I see him more as a practice squad type though, which would give him a year to catch up to the game.
Victor Marshall 6-4 - 225
I don't know anything about Marshall other than he was an accomplished sprinter in high school. I'm guessing Seattle likes his size/speed ratio and want to see if he can play football too. He's a project type - likely upside is the practice squad, but we'll see.
More from Field Gulls:I’m putting together a small suite of tests of things that break in Python 3, and ways around it. Specifically, I’m trying to see if it is possible to write code that runs both in Python 2.6 and Python 3.0. The answer so far is a resounding No! But this is because only one thing: u” isn’t recognized in Python 3.
A quick explanation of the problem: In Python 2.5, there are two “stringy” types, str and unicode. The first one used for 8-bit strings and 8-bit binary data, the second for unicode strings. You differ between the two by marking the second type with a u in front, hence a unicode string is u’string’.
In Python 3, all strings are unicode. Hence, there is no need for the u” syntax to separate unicode strings from normal strings. Instead it has a byte-type, used for 8-bit binary data. These are separated by having a b in front of the byte type, b’data’.
Python 2.6 allows b” syntax as forwards compatibility. b’data’ is jst the same as just writing ‘data’ in Python 2.6. So in 2.6, both ‘string’, b’data’ and u’unicode’ is valid code. However, in Python 3, u” fails, which means that any 2.6 code that uses unicode will fail under 3.0.
Should we care? I mean, we are not supposed to write code that runs under both 2.6 and 3.0. Instead we are supposed to write code that works under 2.6 and the convert it to 3.0. Yeah, we are supposed to. This is correct. But I’ve been doing some tests, and the fact is, most straight python-code will run under both 2.6 and 3.0. The major hurdle is that the lack of u” support in 3.0 means that you can’t use unicode.
OK, it’s possible to get around. You can do this trick:
try: u = unicode except NameError: u = str text = u("This is unicode")
This runs under both 2.x and 3.0. But it’s pretty ugly. And this way it’s impossible to have anything else than ascii in the string, as the line u(“Här har vi unicode”) will in 2.6 attempt to convert the text-string “Här har vi unicode” to unicode with the ascii-encoding, which will fail.
Result: It’s practically impossible to get an application that needs unicode to run under both 2.6 and 3.0 unless you do the above ugly trick everywhere. And this is in fact pretty much the only hurdle. Others, as the print statement, turns out to not be a problem. print(“Hey, this works like %s” % something) works fine under both. The new “as” syntax when catching exceptions is supported in 2.6, and so on.
The things that does need a bit of special code that I have found so far is imports of renamed modules (like StringIO), and special casing of iterkeys(), xrange() if you really need them, and so on. But so far, the code that I typically write would be easily adaptable to run under both 2.6 and 3.0, except for the fact that I use unicode a lot, and that won’t work.
So, PLEASE, allow the u’text’ syntax in Python 3.0. If you do, all my compatibility worries are gone. You can get rid of it in 3.1 if you must.
AdvertisementsIsrael's foreign ministry confirmed that "an Israeli national was arrested in Poland," adding that "the consulate of Israel is dealing with the case."
According to an article to be published on Monday in Der Spiegel, the suspect, identified as Uri Brodsky, was arrested on arrival at Warsaw's airport on suspicions that he helped a member of the hit squad get a German passport in June 2009.
Mahmud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, was found dead in his hotel room near Dubai airport on January 20.
His wife has issued a statement asking "for the Mossad agent arrested in Poland to be handed to Dubai police to be tried there".
Dubai is the commercial hub of the federation of seven Arab emirates called the UAE.
Dubai police have released extensive surveillance camera footage they say shows the team of suspects from the hit squad they have linked to the Mossad. Al-Mabhouh had been drugged and then suffocated, Dubai police said.
Twelve British, six Irish, four French, one German and three Australian passports were used by 26 people believed linked to the murder, according to Dubai police.
In many cases, the documents appeared either to have been faked or obtained illegally.
The issue caused a diplomatic row in which the five countries whose passports were used, called in Israeli envoys for explanations.PoliZette The False Narrative of a Vindictive Trump His meetings with Romney, Cruz show a side of the president-elect the media do not want to be seen
At this time three weeks ago, the media hordes were getting ready to cover the incoming administration of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Fawning profiles of Huma Abedin, Bill Clinton, and John Podesta were all queued.
The press has a terrible relationship with the president-elect … But the bigger sin is they didn’t even try to understand the people in Trump’s column.
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And stories of an “awesome” campaign that slashed and undercut Republican businessman Donald J. Trump were all in the chute.
Then the world of the mainstream media collapsed.
Narratives were destroyed in seconds around 9 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2016. Like wet tissue paper, the tales ready to tell were pulled apart.
And on Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, a bleary-eyed media had to cover something that was previously unimaginable to them: President-Elect Donald Trump.
In a state of shock, but also possessing an immediate need to fill space and air time, the media were left to stand outside — and later, inside — the Trump Tower in Manhattan.
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[lz_ndn video=31650818]
The best indication that the media don’t know how to cover President-Elect Trump is not the constant negative nattering about the state of the transition. The best indication of incompetence is the media’s odd narrative about Republican Mitt Romney.
Romney is likely to meet with Trump on Saturday or Sunday to discuss … something.
But the media insist on over-hyping the event. The suggestion is that Trump is looking at Romney, a bitter foe in the 2016 presidential primaries, for secretary of state.
It seems as if every person meeting with Trump is only meeting about secretary of state. But that’s not always the case.
[lz_third_party align=center includes=https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/799657640431407106]
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Anything is possible, of course. But in this case, the media are missing the larger, better picture. Trump’s meetings with his former opponents show the media narrative about Trump as vindictive is just plain wrong.
Trump has already met with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who was Trump’s leading foe in the GOP presidential primaries. The race turned bitter toward the end, but Trump came out on top when Indiana gave Trump a win on May 3.
Cruz did not endorse Trump until late September — and was famously booed at the Republican National Convention.
The meeting with Cruz is fairly remarkable. Cruz could be under consideration for a number of positions. But first and foremost, it appears that Trump is wisely mending some fences with the Republican Party. This is not something the media want to confess.
Related: Trump Unity Tour Could Throw Off Needling Press
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The mainstream media, predominantly liberal, do not want to admit Trump may be good at diplomacy and relationships. Trump famously loathes the apology, they say.
Yet here Trump is, at Trump Tower, meeting with former rivals and even bitter critics. And the media are in the lobby, standing near the elevators — clueless as ever.
They hawk quick and easy stories about Romney being secretary of state, or Ted Cruz being a possible attorney general pick. All because they really don’t know.
The press has a terrible relationship with the president-elect, and deservedly so. They loathe Trump. But the bigger sin is they didn’t even try to understand the people in Trump’s column. They didn’t understand the ongoing economic struggle in the flyover counties. There’s no indication they will try to fathom it.
On Friday, The Washington Post’s media columnist, Margaret Sullivan, re-tweeted commentary linking the Ku Klux Klan with Trump’s cabinet picks. Sullivan was previously the public editor of The New York Times.
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They still don’t get it. Maybe they never will.
All they’ve got is Romney for secretary of state, Ted Cruz for attorney general, and David Duke likes Trump.
And so it goes.BENGALURU: Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software services company, paid salaries of over Rs 1 crore to 91 employees in India in fiscal 2017, significantly more than rivals Infosys and Wipro, according to data accessed by ET.About a quarter of these crorepatis — 22, to be precise — have spent their entire careers at the Mumbai-headquartered company.Infosys has 51 executives earning more than that threshold in India, about 16 per cent of whom have been with the company throughout their careers. Wipro has 61 such employees, about 27 per cent of whom have spent the entire span of their careers with the company. Of the 91 TCS employees earning over Rs 8.5 lakh a month, 13 had been with the company for only a part of the year."TCS is much bigger than Infosys or Wipro, and executive stability has been a defining factor for the company," an analyst with a Mumbai-brokerage told ET, requesting anonymity. "They also tend to promote from within. It is rare for an executive to come in from outside," he added.Unlike Infosys and Wipro, TCS does not disclose the number of executives earning over Rs 1 crore in its annual report. TCS did not respond to a request seeking comments. To be sure, executives based outside India earn significantly higher salaries that are denominated in foreign currencies. Two examples would be president Surya Kant, who runs TCS’ North America, UK and Europe operations, and Amur Lakshminarayanan, who oversees the Japan business. The data accessed by ET excludes employees based abroad. TCS, which closed FY17 with revenues of $17.5 billion, has over 380,000 employees compared with under 200,000 at Infosys and over 180,000 at Wipro.Interestingly, among the TCS crorepatis is a 70-year-old — Barindra Sanyal, who joined in 2003 from Tata SSL Limited. Sanyal, who is vice-president (finance), earned Rs 1.89 crore in the last financial year. "He has some skills the company needs and is also involved with the TCS Foundation," a company executive told ET.ET had reported in June that Infosys has over 1,800 employees in overseas locations who earn over Rs 1 crore. Of these, 150 were hired in FY17. Over 700 of the crorepati employees were recruited overseas after Vishal Sikka took charge as CEO, the data showed.A glance at TCS’ top leadership clearly shows the company’s preference for in-house talent. Former CEO N Chandrasekaran, now the Tata Sons chairman, was hired by the company straight from campus in 1987. Chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam, TCS’ human resources head Ajoyendra Mukherjee, presidents Pratik Pal and Debashis Ghosh — each of whom runs multi-billion-dollar units — also count TCS as their only employer. In addition to the 22 TCS lifers, 10 others — including current CEO Rajesh Gopinathan — have joined from other Tata Group companies.These employees happen to be among the top earners. Mukherjee, for instance, had a gross salary of Rs 4.65 crore in fiscal 2017. Pal, who heads retail, consumer products, transport and hospitality, took home Rs 3.44 crore. Ghosh, who is in charge of manufacturing, life sciences, and energy, earned Rs 3.29 crore.Krishnan Ramanujam, who was appointed president (business and technology services) in May, earned Rs 2.87 crore. Ramanujam was earlier with TCS Financial Services.TCS has followed a strategy of splitting large verticals and horizontals into smaller businesses, helping these units become nimbler and creating additional management capacity. Last year, Infosys announced that it would follow a similar model.Indian IT companies are staring at lower margins as they start hiring in larger numbers abroad in the wake of protectionist rhetoric in major markets. Onsite hiring in digital and design could cost a great deal more than these companies are used to paying till now."If the Indian firms are going to capture a significant portion of the digital market then they will have to aggressively hire across all levels. This will need to be accomplished in a red-hot employment market, likely driving up costs further," said Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of IT consultancy Everest Research.The actor was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 17 years, known for taking on the entire range of the playwright’s kings
Alan Howard, one of the most distinguished interpreters of Shakespeare’s kings, has died aged 77.
The actor is celebrated, first for his 17-year run with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and for a series of striking roles at the National Theatre throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
He began his career in 1958 at the Belgrade theatre in Coventry, before making the jump to the West End – soon he was embarking on his first major Shakespearean roles alongside the likes of Ralph Richardson and Judi Dench. He then joined the RSC in 1966, where as well as tackling formidable leads in Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra, he took on all of Shakespeare’s kings, including two versions of Henry V.
After he left the RSC, with whom he also toured to the US, Australia, Japan and throughout Europe, there were other major Shakespeare parts like Macbeth and King Lear as well as a crack at Tom Stoppard’s postmodern riff on the bard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Amid a series of major productions at the National Theatre and elsewhere, he variously appeared as blind prophet Tiresias opposite Ralph Fiennes in a stark take on Oedipus, played Vladimir in a Peter Hall-directed Waiting For Godot with Ben Kingsley, and performed in a stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alan Howard performs in a scene of Troilus and Cressida with Michael Pennington, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and David Suchet.
There were spells of TV and film work too, with his biggest on-screen role as the lover Michael in Peter Greenaway’s film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. A curio in his CV is that he played the voice of the ring in the Lord of the Rings saga. He was awarded a CBE in 1998.
Frances Barber was among those paying tribute on Twitter, writing that he was “a wonderful actor & a wonderful man.” He is survived by his wife, novelist Sally Beauman, and their son James.
Helen Mirren also paid tribute to Howard saying: “Alan Howard was a member of a very small group of actors who could truly be called a great classical actor. I do not know of another actor who could reinvent a line of Shakespeare time and time again with imagination and intelligence the way he could. He was always exciting and inspiring, always trying to find the material anew. He had prodigious talents to play with, a superb voice, an athletic frame, and a profound and subtle way of approaching the material.
“I often had the privileged position of being able to watch him from the wings of the theatre. This I would do, trying to learn something unlearnable. Because only Alan could be what Alan was.
“There was always a danger in what he did, a sense that he was performing a high wire act, in the way that a high wire act combines great technique with the danger of the unexpected. He is a huge loss to British theatre.”
• This article was amended on 19 February 2015 to correct the spelling of Tiresias.South Korea says it will restart propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the border with the North, following Pyongyang's claimed hydrogen bomb test.
The broadcasts will restart on Friday, South Korea's presidential office says, calling the North's bomb test a "grave violation" of an agreement in August between the two Koreas, which had aimed to ease tensions. At that time, the two traded artillery fire after Pyongyang had demanded a halt to the broadcasts.
Pyongyang has threatened to launch “strong military action” against loudspeakers broadcasting messages critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Yonhap news agency reports, citing South Korean President Park Geun-hye who said: “North Korea could carry out a surprise provocation at any time in the current confrontational situation on the Korean Peninsula and we should be prepared for it.”
"Our military is at a state of full readiness, and if North Korea wages provocation, there will be firm punishment," senior presidential national security official, Cho Tae-yong, said in the latest statement.
The Yonhap news agency announced it has decided to discontinue its “North Korea Newsletter” weekly service, making Thursday’s issue No. 395 the final one.
“We extend our gratitude to our readers for the deep interest and encouragement shown to the online service since its first publication in May 2008,” the agency wrote.
Seoul has already restricted access to Kaesong industrial park, the last significant joint project with Pyongyang providing jobs for 53,000 North Koreans.
The South Korean Unification Ministry’s new ban on entering Kaesong affects service providers and potential clients, who want to visit any of the 120 South Korean businesses operating in the North Korean border city. They are located in an industrial park, where small and medium-sized companies use cheap North Korean labor.
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The Kaesong industrial park is believed to be the last remaining significant project created by the two Koreas, at a time when Seoul and Pyongyang practiced rapprochement policies.
The announced limited access to Kaesong is Seoul’s first practical reaction to North Korea’s alleged thermonuclear test earlier this week.
Many international monitoring stations detected an unusual 5.1 magnitude seismic event on the Korean peninsula. It appeared similar to North Korea's last nuclear test carried out on February 12, 2013.
Yet so far there has been no official confirmation that the earthquake was caused by an explosion of a nuclear device and that radioactive emissions have been detected. When Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in 2013, it took more than 50 days to detect radioisotopes coming from underground after the explosion.
The alleged test has upset North Korea’s neighbors, with South Korea and Japan asking the US for confirmation of protection in case of conflict with Pyongyang.
President Barack Obama contacted the leaders of Japan and South Korea, reiterating "the unshakeable US commitment to the security" of both countries.
The UN Security Council should hold Pyongyang accountable for the announced nuclear test "by imposing a tough, comprehensive and credible package of new sanctions" on North Korea, Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, said in a statement issued shortly after an emergency UN session on Pyongyang's nuclear test announcement.
READ MORE: UN Security Council condemns N. Korea nuclear test, starts work on 'further measures'
The UN Security Council condemned North Korea's nuclear test in the strongest terms as a “clear threat to international peace and security,” and in light of “the gravity of this violation” pledged to pursue new international sanctions against North Korea.
At the same time, Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters it would be going “too far” to say Moscow supports new sanctions against Pyongyang, and that Russia has yet to see a UNSC draft resolution on the issue.BadBenny has made a name for himself as one of the best tanks in Europe throughout 2017 when Team expert, under his captaincy, broke into the top three of the EU HGC scene.
“It’s no surprise to anyone if I say I've always wanted to play with my fellow Swedes at Fnatic. I’ve huge respect for them all, so, when I got the opportunity to join, it was a dream come true” - Benjamin “BadBenny” Eekenulv
“I've always been an admirer of Fnatic as an organisation and its players. From what I've seen whilst in Heroes, it seems like all you could wish for in a home. They also have pretty nice merch!”
Ménè is undoubtedly one of the most experienced players in the Heroes of the Storm scene, having appeared at every World Championship since 2016.
No stranger to the organisation, Ménè started his professional gaming career in a six month stint at Fnatic having joined along with Breez in July 2015.
“Since I left Fnatic a few years ago, SmX, Quackniix and Breez grew up a lot in their ambition and, given that, I’ve always wanted to play with them again." - Thomas "Ménè" Cailleux
“I’m incredibly excited to play in 2018 HGC with this Fnatic lineup. I feel like, as a player, I can improve a lot with them.”Donald Trump’s choice of words when he said he can “grab [women] by the pussy” because he’s famous has been made into something of a joke for some. However, a recent incident in Connecticut reminds us this is something that really happens.
Christopher von Keyserling, a Republican member of the Representative Town Meeting in Greenwich, CT, was arrested and charged with fourth-degree sexual assault on Wednesday for doing literally what Trump described, The Westport Daily Voice reports.
On December 8, a woman told von Keyserling during a conversation in a town building that “it was a new world politically,” according to a warrant, which is supported by video footage from the building.
“I love this new world, I no longer have to be politically correct,” he replied. She said she couldn’t help him if those were his values, prompting him to insult her for being a union worker.
Then, she used an expletive toward him and retreated to her office, where he followed her. As the woman left the scene of their confrontation with a coworker, because she was feeling unsafe, he reached between her legs and pinched her crotch.
She told him to keep her hands off her or she’d punch him.
She said that he replied, “it would be your word against mine, and nobody will believe you.”
He was wrong. The woman reported von Keyserling to the police. The case heads to court January 25.
She almost didn’t go forward with the complaint, but after hearing similar stories about him from other women, she had to say something — especially after he tried to brush it off as a joke.
Since the election, we’ve seen a rise in racist and homophobic harassment, and it’s not hard to imagine how the current political climate could be used to justify sexual harassment as well.
Thankfully, von Keyserling’s alleged actions were recognized as more than “locker room” behavior.
Click HERE to read more from Refinery29.
Do you believe in super being called "God"? Yes
No View ResultsEditor's note: We published a new version of this story with updated information on Feb. 26, 2010. Read our more recent report, "GOP health care reform: A simple explanation, updated."
With the House of Representatives nearing a vote on the Democrats' health care reform bill, Republicans this week unveiled their own version, a much smaller bill (219 pages vs. the Democrats' 1,990) with a more limited scope. It relies on bedrock GOP principles of consumer choice, no tax hikes, limited government involvement and caps on lawsuits. But it would have limited impact. Where the Democratic bill is projected to reduce the number of uninsured people by 36 million by 2019, the GOP bill would reduce it by only 3 million.
We examined the Democratic plans with our article, Health care reform: A simple explanation, so here we'll take a similar look at the Republican bill.
Here's an overview of the Republican plan and how it differs from the Democratic version:
• More limited reach for the federal government. This is perhaps the biggest difference between the two bills.
Consistent with Republican complaints that the Democratic bills represents a government "takeover" of health care, the GOP bill has no public option — that is, no government-run insurance program, or anything remotely like it. Nor does the GOP bill include an expansion of the federal-state Medicaid health insurance program for the poor. The House Democratic bill has both.
The GOP plan has no health care exchange, the government-run marketplace for people who are now uninsured, and it has no Health Choices commissioner, the new post that would run the exchange. And consistent with Republican fears of government moving toward a system of deciding what treatments patients can receive, the GOP plan, unlike both the House and Senate Democratic bills, does not foster "comparative effectiveness" research that tries to determine which treatments are the most effective.
• No new taxes. Living up to a key Republican principle, the GOP bill would not impose any new taxes. By contrast, the House Democratic bill would impose a surtax of 5.4 percent on married couples earning in excess of $1 million annually, or individuals making more than $500,000 a year. Under the Senate Finance Committee bill, certain health plans that offer comparatively generous benefits would be taxed. Those taxes would go to subsidies to help low-income people buy health insurance and other health care expansions.
• No cuts to Medicare. Republicans, who have seized on proposed Democratic cuts to Medicare Advantage, would not touch the government health care plan for senior citizens. By contrast, both Democratic bills would cut Medicare Advantage and reduce the growth in Medicare payments by a total of roughly $400 billion over 10 years. Many of these cuts would involve Advantage plans, which are private plans operating under the Medicare system. These plans are reimbursed by the federal government at a higher rate, and Republicans maintain that seniors who belong to these plans would see reductions in benefits under the proposed cuts. But Democrats seeking places to cut costs see Medicare Advantage plans as a target, arguing that they are essentially subsidized to an unnecessary degree by regular Medicare beneficiaries and ordinary taxpayers. They have said the cuts in the growth |
ement to visit foreign armies such as ISIS as a contravention of Britain’s counter terrorism law.
In the 2010, the Conservative Party’s election manifesto claimed that “A Conservative government will ban any organisations which advocate hate or the violent overthrow of our society, such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and close down organisations which attempt to fund terrorism from the UK.” Cameron’s government did no such thing, allowing the likes of Mustafa to continue proselytising across the UK.
WATCH:Forbes’ Jason Evangelho sparked a new trend on twitter by posting a picture of himself cuddling with an AMD Radeon R9 Fury X. Quickly afterwards he issued a challenge to another twitter user, asking him to post a picture of himself cuddling with a graphics card. The chain of challenges continued until it reached AMD’s Roy Taylor who decided to donate $2 for every such photo posted on twitter.
Little did anybody know that this would soon become an actual “thing” that people do on twitter. The hashtag #GuysCuddlingWithVideoCards is now trending on twitter. Fans will do crazy things and hardware enthusiasts are the most well, enthusiastic. It was a fun silly thing when it started, now it has evolved into a charity gig which is cool.
Forbes’ Jason Evangelho And AMD’s Roy Taylor Start a Cuddling With Video Cards Charity Gig On Twitter
UPDATE :
Jason Evangelho recived a $10,000 donation in support of this movement.
I received a $10.00 donation supporting Extra Life! http://t.co/l5mtCaCjmm — Radeon Jason ✈️ E3 (@killyourfm) June 27, 2015
If someone hasn't created a "Women cuddling with graphics cards" Tumblr, I respectfully request that they do so immediately. — Radeon Jason ✈️ E3 (@killyourfm) June 19, 2015
I nominate @Sgt_Bilko88 for the next #GuysCuddlingWithVideoCards photo shoot. — Radeon Jason ✈️ E3 (@killyourfm) June 26, 2015
https://twitter.com/amd_roy/status/614568921408999424
.@killyourfm We would also like to join the movement #GuysCuddlingWithVideoCards with @amd_roy Same rules but with a $125 Max 🙂 <3 — Dawnbreakers (@bf_dawnbreakers) June 27, 2015
https://twitter.com/XDAGarwynn/status/614591925249638400
Both AMD and Nvidia fans have jumped on the #CuddlingWithVideoCards bandwagon and the num
ber of tweets is climbing quickly. If you want to empty Roy Taylor’s wallet all you’ve got to do is post a photo of yourself “cuddling” with your graphics card.
The donations will go to the @ExtraLife4Kids charity. You can visit the Extra Life website by clicking on this link.
Extra Life began in 2008 as a way of honoring a young lady named Victoria Enmon. Tori’s battle against acute lymphoblastic leukemia inspired the Sarcastic Gamer Community in a way that is difficult to describe. Members sent in video games and bought gifts to keep Tori’s spirits up despite numerous hospital stays and three bouts with the deadly disease. Tragically, we lost Tori to cancer in January 2008. Later that year, I asked my partners at Sarcastic Gamer if they would be interested in Extra Life, a 24-hour video game marathon to raise money for the hospital that treated and fought beside Tori. In 2008 and 2009 Extra Life raised a combined $302,000, 100 percent of which went directly to help kids like Tori at my local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital (Texas Children’s Hospital). While thousands of gamers, more than 100 websites and more than 12,000 donors were happy to support Extra Life, many expressed their desire to raise money to help kids closer to home. In what I can only consider destiny, in 2009 I left behind my radio career and went to work full-time for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals as a Radiothon Director. This life-changing event gave me unique insight into an incredible non-profit organization that helps kids all over the United States and Canada. I quickly realized that Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals would be the perfect solution to expand Extra Life into more communities. This year, when you sign up to play games for 24 hours this year, you won’t just be raising money for kids. You’ll be supporting LOCAL kids and their families. Kids right in your own backyard. All the money you raise for Extra Life 2015 will go directly to the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital of your choice. Do you want to have more fun than you can handle while helping some of the bravest (and smallest) warriors in your community? All you have to do is: Register and create your personal fundraising page. Try to get four friends or family members to sponsor you at $1 per hour ($24 each). Sit on your rear end and play all types of games for 24 hours. We will be putting in our game play on Saturday, November 7th, beginning at 8 a.m. I also encourage you to learn more about your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital and to meet some of the kids we’ll be working to help. — DocGet Weird with this Premiere of “Verne” by Maeth Share:
Maeth, a band that holds the distinction of being one of only two bands I’ve traveled to California to see live, is back with a brand new record. Stream “Verne”, your first taste of Shrouded Mountain rightchyea.
Maeth is a band to behold. This Minnesota post-everything crew captivates and destroys unsuspecting fools all across the country with their intense blend of prog and polyrhythm. Audiences in the Northern (read: shittier) part of the United States will get a chance to be blown away in person when the band launches a brief tour starting TONIGHT.
In celebration of Shrouded Mountain, the band’s upcoming full-length, we’re pleased to premiere this track. “Verne” opens up with Sam, the band’s guitarist and flautist, flauting away on his lonesome. A hypnotic guitar line joins and soon the rhythm section lurches into an unsettling groove. Thunderous vox and deft fretplay interlock as the band takes you on a mind safari. Get trippy, y’all.
Shrouded Mountain by Maeth
Shrouded Mountain is out October 28th. Pre-order it on a slick piece of wax from Minnesconsin records. Like Maeth on Facebook, then go see Maeth on tour at a venue near your area.
Did you dig this? Take a second to support Toilet ov Hell on Patreon!Slowly working report in a small company may be acceptable if its occurrence is occasional, but in a large enterprise, any degradation in performance while executing a database query or running a report is not welcome. As it is of high risk to affect a revenue generating application that could ultimately impact the business.
Such performance problems due to I/O bottlenecks are not acceptable and must be eliminated as quickly as possible.
System administrators know where to look – storage subsystems, network, and servers are investigated to find the root cause of slow performance. It is not uncommon to blame a storage array for performance issues.
“Not so fast…” Storage vendors are the first ones to be called to the rescue regardless of where the issue lies on.
Storage is not always the reason for poor performance. Storage systems are getting faster, bulking up on capacity and add-on features every cycle. Every storage vendor is talking about the speed of their solution. Some say it is all about low latency. Some say it is all about high throughput.
There is no argument that the newest media technologies helped to improve the overall storage subsystem performance. But even the fastest media can suffer and not deliver optimal performance if the application accessing it is poorly designed or written.
In this blog post, I want to share my recent experience with one of our customers running a heavy-duty SAP environment on physical Windows servers.
Hopefully, other customers and even vendors can benefit and learn from it.
Environment – SAP on MS SQL server 2008
The main application in the environment is SAP running on Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Overall the environment can be considered dated or even ancient.
All servers are physical Dell or HP running MS Windows Server 2008 R2. SQL version is 2008 SP1 CU1. Up until recently the storage system they used was Dell Compellent. There are two servers in MSCS configuration for production databases. There is a total of 7 production databases all located on the same D: drive (LUN).
Logs are stored on an independent LUN; QA and DEV are on separate dedicated servers.
It was curious to see the disk drives on Compellent were failing at an alarming rate – 2 to 3 a week!. This number is way outside of acceptable range. Dell Compellent was pegged at 12,000 IOPs and 750-800 Mb/s throughput. Latency was ranging from 5 to 20ms with spikes up to 100ms.
The Dell Compellent used ten dedicated “high performance” SSDs just for SAP.
Certain SAP queries are made directly to the production databases, and if multiple users were attempting to run reports at the same time, the environment would come to a screeching halt. When the customer made his decision to go with Reduxio HX550, the expectation was that it would be faster.
After all, it is five years younger, uses flash and other innovative technologies. Since the SAP database is the “cash register” for the customer, he felt that using Reduxio BackDating™ to protect his most precious data with one-second granularity was appropriate.
SAP I/O performance Bottleneck in production
After migrating the production SAP environment to Reduxio, few observations were made. One – the performance did not improve much, two – IOPS were unusually steady between somewhere around 8,000 and 12,000 with spikes up to 21,000.
More interesting was the fact that throughput was unusually high – over 500 MB/sec most of the time, day or night.
Nobody could explain what was the application doing all the time to create such load. SAP application is 99% read / 1% write, but it should not be reading that much data all the time. Graphs below are from StorSense™ – a cloud-based proactive monitoring system which is in constant surveillance of our full install base.
If any unusual condition is detected in any of our storage systems, it immediately reflects on StorSense™.
Our support personnel monitor the StorSense central console continuously and will investigate any unusual events reported.
Here is the view from the Reduxio UI. It is important to note that from the storage system’s perspective, the latency was still very low.
The user experience was still poor, and the customer second-guessed his decision to switch the storage vendors. Can you blame him?
Investigation
Any storage vendor would start the investigation by checking their own proverbial backyard. After all – what changed? You go from Fiber Channel (FC) to Ethernet (iSCSI) protocol, you replaced 8Gbps FC HBA with 10G Ethernet NIC, you are now using the Microsoft iSCSI software initiator – all this must have caused the problem, right?
Makes perfect sense.
You can get into the religious discussion about FC vs. iSCSI. Old school, IT guys, would tell you that iSCSI is not a real block protocol and that it is not reliable, etc. If you are interested in digging a little further, this blog on FC vs. iSCSI might prick your interest.
But we are here to find out what is wrong with this particular customer’s environment. So, as a reputable storage vendor, we started checking the best practices, the timeouts, the initiator settings, the MPIO configuration, we verified that the NIC driver they are using was up-to-date and seemingly everything else.
Then Check for Problems at the Application Level
We started to tackle the problem from an application level – understanding the problematic queries, improving the indexes on the SQL Server and so on. Little did we know, the application turned out to be much more complex than we anticipated. They have over 150,000 tables, lots of queries of different types that are running simultaneously and it’s not clear whether or not a single query is the culprit. We searched far and wide, looked in dark corners of Google, tried to describe symptoms in many different ways, but all to no avail.
Nagle Algorithm
Since we were looking into iSCSI, we came across something on the Microsoft community site talking about the “Nagle Algorithm.” According to Microsoft “the Nagle algorithm was originally implemented to prevent lots of very small TCP packets to congest the network by grouping them together and sending them at once. This increases bandwidth (fewer header bytes per user data) but at the cost of latency.” We thought – here is the “smoking gun” – this is exactly what is happening here – SAP with a bunch of small reads…
As good as it sounded, changing that registry setting requires a server reboot, and we could not afford to take an outage. Once you reboot, it takes the SAP database literally days to rebuild its cache, and you will see below that cache hit ratio was low anyway. So, we kept digging. There were some discussions about increasing the number of iSCSI sessions to help performance, but that had little effect.
Using SAP ST04 DB performance analysis transaction code
Unfortunately, I do not have historical data to be able to compare to as it was always assumed that the Dell Compellent created the performance bottleneck. With Reduxio as the main storage array, we started looking at what the SAP application was seeing and reporting.
There are SAP performance monitoring tools that you can use in a situation like this:
First, we started looking at the SAP ST04 DB performance analysis transaction code. According to SAP experts, the transaction code ST04 is used to show details of the database behavior and usage. It will show you both real-time and historical data.
Right away we knew something was not right. You want to see data cache hit ratio above 95% [meaning less physical read from disk]. This system showed less than 18%.
You want to see response times that are less than 15ms. We were getting 9,000 to as much as 35,000ms (!!) and D: drive utilization of 100% all the time. No wonder Dell drives were failing. In the end, you will see that it was not their fault.
The customer has a support contract with SAP consulting firm Secure-24. As a side note, these guys are fantastic – they know SAP inside and out and have a great customer-focused attitude. Here is what they saw:
When they got engaged, Secure-24 opened a support ticket with SAP and worked with us on collecting and analyzing performance data. They saw the response times for certain DB transactions to be unusually high.
The reports that should take seconds were taking multiple minutes at best.
There were also tables that had no indexes in them but would have benefited from adding indexes to them.
We suggested to the customer to open a support ticket with Microsoft. They recommended upgrading the OS, upgrading SQL to SP3 and suggested this was SAN problem. It was good advice but didn’t really help the customer or us since there was pressure to resolve it without any downtime.
Getting into the weeds with Wireshark
At this point it’s been a long time with no progress, so we decided to bring one of our best engineers onsite to do a SQL data collection and analysis of the application.
We installed Wireshark and took a TCP dump. What we found was that storage response to the SQL Server was always within acceptable levels – 2-5ms at most, as opposed to an average of 20-40ms according to both Windows and SQL Server. This information reaffirmed our conviction that the problem is not storage related.
But in good conscience, you don’t point fingers; you have to see it through.
We started looking at the queries that were running at any given time at the SQL Server level.
Here is the exact query we used to see if there are any “rogue” transactions.
SELECT sqltext.TEXT,
req.session_id,
req.status,
req.command,
req.cpu_time,
req.total_elapsed_time,c.client_net_address,t.pending_io_count
FROM sys.dm_exec_requests req join sys.dm_os_tasks t on req.session_id = t.session_id join
sys.dm_exec_connections c on c.session_id = t.session_id
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(sql_handle) AS sqltext
The result was surreal, there were 3-4 queries that were scanning a whole 80GB DB table, without indexing, and retrieved a single value!! And that value was constant!!
At first, we thought it’s a one-time thing. But after a while, it turned out that this pattern was recurring – after each of those queries finished (and it took ~10 minutes for each), another similar query would start running right away.
It took us a while to pinpoint the culprit, but it turned out to be a SAP Business Objects reporting application, which ran on a development server (which is used for developing reports before they go into production).
Yes, you heard that correctly.
Dev Environment was running against Production DB
The development environment was running against the production database, and nobody knew about it. Apparently, it was happening since 2012 when Business Objects was installed!!
We had a long call with a SAP Business Objects expert, hired by the customer, who couldn’t figure out why exactly those queries are running – it seems like they were running regardless of any report being executed – the report only needed to be “installed,” and those queries would run periodically.
Eventually, the person from SAP BO stopped those queries from being called – deleting the problematic reports from the server altogether (even though they weren’t being accessed).
After we had got the confirmation, and we tested it based on our assumptions, we finally resolved the issue.
The results were amazing.
Read throughput on Reduxio went to zero, at most of the times (see below). And everything was working blazing fast. Cache hit ratio went up to ever 99%.
This means that the entire workload of the database was cached at the SQL Server level, without ever going to the storage subsystem at all.
My favorite indicator is that after the problem was fixed, the disk drive with the highest latency from SAP perspective was the server’s internal C: drive.
Just a brief look at StorSense data showed that the storage was performing great.
IOPS were low, as well as throughput.
Here is what it looked like from Reduxio UI.
Interestingly, the top IOPS broke through the previous 20,000 to over 30,000 with relatively low throughput.
Takeaway
If you followed along, what actually allowed this problem to happen was a poor separation of PROD and QA / DEV environments. The customer was using the production database for development because that’s the only way to get the reports they needed to run the business.
Going forward, they can improve the business flow tremendously by utilizing some new features that Reduxio brought to them.
Instead of pounding the production database with reports and queries that may not always be very efficient, they now have the ability to create an instant clone of the entire production DB – and do it on demand. Once that clone is created, it gets mounted to a VM on their newly built ESX cluster.
The VM is running Windows Server 2012R2 with SQL2008 SP1. The Business Objects Universe is now pointed to the clone instead of production.
Together with the customer, we have concluded that this would be a better setup than SQL replication – it would be more lightweight in just about every component in the system (storage, network, CPU), and would even behave better.
In the end, we scripted the process of clone creation, attachment, and presentation.
Customer is happy, so are we.Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Bernie Sanders? campaign has been punished by the Democratic Party after his staff members used a computer glitch to peek at Hillary Clinton voter data. (FILES) This November 14, 2015 file photo shows Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders during the second Democratic presidential primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa. Bernie Sanders' campaign has been punished by the party after at least one its staffers used a computer glitch to peek at Hillary Clinton voter data. The Democratic National Committee on December 17, 2015 temporarily suspended the Sanders campaign's access to the party's voter database. AFP PHOTO/ MANDEL NGAN MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Bernie Sanders announced new locations for his upcoming events in Sioux City and Red Oak this week.
The new locations are expected to hold larger crowds, according to a news release.
The Democratic presidential hopeful will kick off a three-day tour of Iowa Monday, Dec. 21 in Sioux City, which will end in Council Bluffs on Wednesday.
Sanders' updated agenda is as follows:
Monday, Dec. 21
SIOUX CITY: 7 p.m., town meeting at Sioux City Convention Center, 801 Fourth St. Doors open at 6 p.m.. The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are encouraged.
Tuesday, Dec. 22
STORM LAKE: 10 a.m., town meeting at Buena Vista University, Harold Walter Siebens School of Business. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are encouraged.
CARROLL: 12:30 p.m., field headquarters opening at 820 West Eighth St. Doors open at noon. This event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are encouraged.
HARLAN: 4 p.m. town meeting at C.G. Therkildsen Activity Center, 706 Victoria St. Doors open at 3 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are encouraged
COUNCIL BLUFFS: 7 p.m., Pottawattamie County economic development forum at Iowa Western Community College, Kanesville Gym and Arena, 2700 College Road. Doors open at 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News Alert newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Alerts on breaking news delivered straight to your inbox. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-877-424-0225. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Alert Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
Wednesday, Dec. 23
RED OAK: 10 a.m., town meeting at Red Coach Inn and Restaurant, 1200 Senate Ave. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. This event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged.
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/1YuBNx9There is a thick accumulation of mucus in cystic fibrosis patients’ lungs that clogs the airways over time. This phenomenon leads to a growing cluster of bacteria in the pulmonary region, which often times triggers recurrent infections.
A recent study published in the Cell Host & Microbe entitled “Regional Isolation Drives Bacterial Diversification within Cystic Fibrosis Lungs” demonstrates that the same treatments used for CF patients can feature different levels of efficacy in treating bacterial infections depending on the region of the lung where bacteria settle. A collection of bacteria might begin with one bacterial lineage, but over time these clusters evolve, becoming isolated from each other and developing region-specific traits. These differences have been implicated in the increasing issue of antibiotic resistance.
In order to understand how this resistance to antibiotics and immune defense works in clusters of bacteria, a research group at the Washington School of Medicine collected samples of bacteria from different regions of cystic fibrosis lungs. The study revealed that even though there were different bacterial populations in various regions, all of them descended from the same bacterial strain. This finding suggests that in each lung region there were diverse bacteria with distinct properties. According to Dr. Peter Jorth, member of the research group, the relevance of this observation is that it showed that in each lung region, bacterial resistance to antibiotics and virulence varied and consequently this variation might affect patients’ health ad treatment options.
Moreover, after comparing the bacterial genetic code, it was clear that bacteria had differentiated locally after exposure to different environments in each region of the lung. Another model even followed Darwin’s evolution model.
It was also observed through DNA analysis that even though bacteria inhabiting different lung regions do not show evidence of one specific trait, they may have “genetic memory,” which allows them to trigger specific responses when coming in contact with particular environmental conditions. In order words, bacteria can strengthen their resistance to treatments by activating certain codes in their genetic memory.
The author of the study, Dr. Pradeep Singh, noted that “even when a single strain of bacteria causes a chronic infection, evolution with human organs can produce diverse families of related bacteria”. This is why after a treatment starts weakening one bacterial population, another bacterial sibling can begin to grow that is functionally stronger and resistant. It is their genetic code and memory that are able to allow them to react to the treatment and resist it.
The next step of the research will be to understand how bacteria develop this memory and design mechanisms to attack diverse bacterial populations in order to improve treatment efficiency.Over the weekend, I participated in one of those events that makes you feel good to be an American. Along with a close friend, I gave away the bride at a small wedding ceremony on Long Island. It was a secular wedding and most certainly mixed marriage. The bride was an Iraqi who had worked as an interpreter on the battlefield for American forces, first with the Marine Corps and then with US special forces. She had come to the attention of the terrorists, to the point where her parents were forced to move from Baghdad, and she had to find a safe haven somewhere. Our daughter, then in Iraq, heard about the case from military friends, and she found a way to have the young girl come to America, although the U.S. government was unwilling to foot the bill. But the necessary funds were raised, the necessary lawyers came forward to handle her case, and eventually she got her green card and found honest work.
FOOTNOTE: It took a lot of work and a lot of time to convince the government that people such as her should be embraced by this country. If they are good enough to risk their lives on the battlefield with our soldiers, they are certainly good enough to be offered sanctuary here when and if they become targets of our mutual enemies. Furthermore, they have unique cultural and linguistic skills that we badly need, but to this day the bureaucrats maintain ridiculous requirements (mistakenly imposed in the name of "security") that often make it impossible for these precious resources to work effectively with us. Thanks largely to Senator Santorum, the numbers of such people have expanded considerably, but there's much more that needs to change.
It wasn't easy for her (for one thing, she'd mastered "Marine English," which, while very colorful, isn't highly prized in the employment market), and America is a different kind of society, with many very different rules, than the one she comes from, but she's a determined woman, and if her luck holds, she'll be a terrific American.
FOOTNOTE 2: You may actually have seen her photograph; she was the one with the purple finger in the Oval Office with Pres. Bush on Iraqi Election Day.
She married a retired Marine who showed up for the ceremony in his dress blues, and for one glorious moment I thought that there might be enough Marines in the room to form an arch with their sabers, but no. It was all very simple and straightforward: they exchanged vows and rings, kissed in the appropriate Hollywood style, then ate and danced and went to bed early because -- what else? -- they were leaving first thing in the morning for Disney World.
I think they're both lucky. I love Marines -- as you know, we've got two of them in our family -- and I think he may have the strength and sense of humor necessary to build a truly multicultural home. And she always wanted to join the Corps herself, and -- who knows? -- she may yet get there, and bring her husband along with her. He comes from a fine and strong family -- his firefighting dad was one of the heroes of 9/11 -- and they will provide a classic example of the compromises and sacrifices that make marriage work. Let's hope. So far, so good. I can't wait to see the kids, who will be very photogenic.
I was asked to say a few words, which were these: this was a quintessential American wedding. A handsome Marine marries a beautiful Iraqi woman who is led down the aisle by two old Jewish guys.
Don't you think?Photo
The rapidly fading effectiveness of the pertussis booster vaccine may help explain recent widespread outbreaks of whooping cough.
The United States stopped using a whole-cell pertussis vaccine in the 1990s and began using an acellular version called DTaP. Five vaccinations are given during childhood, and a booster vaccine, called the Tdap, is given to adolescents and adults.
Researchers looked at 1,207 pertussis cases among children who had had the acellular vaccine in childhood. The study, in Pediatrics, found that when these children got the Tdap booster, it was 69 percent effective after the first year, then dropped to less than 9 percent two to three years later.
A new, more effective vaccine against whooping cough is needed, but according to the lead author, Dr. Nicola P. Klein, co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, a change in schedule might be effective until one is developed.
“We need to think about whether we should have a targeted routine of vaccines instead of an age-based method,” she said. “There are a number of ways to do this. We’ve seen epidemics every four years in California, so maybe every four years would work. Or we could vaccinate whenever there is an outbreak.”
Dr. Klein added that the vaccination of pregnant women is effective in preventing pertussis in newborns, and that all pregnant women should get the Tdap vaccine in the third trimester of pregnancy.↓ annonse
Befolkningsveksten på 11.200 personer er 4.100 færre enn i samme periode i fjor. Det er den laveste folkeveksten siden 2007.
Sammenlignet med 1. kvartal i fjor, gikk nettoinnvandringen blant statsborgere fra de typiske arbeidsinnvandrerlandene Polen, Litauen og Sverige ned med henholdsvis 28, 51 og 60 prosent i årets tre første måneder, opplyser SSB.
Samtidig som svensker, polakker og litauere står for den største innvandringen, er det imidlertid de som også i størst grad utvandrer.
Blant svenskene innvandret nær 1.100, mens 800 utvandret. Av polske statsborgere innvandret 2.600 og 900 forlot landet.
Til sammen innvandret nær 17.000 personer, mens 8.300 utvandret i første kvartal i år.
Hittil i år har det blitt født 14.100 barn, mens 11.500 personer har dødd. Fødselsoverskuddet har ikke vært lavere siden første kvartal i 2003.
Folketallet i Norge var per 1. april på 5.177.000 millioner. (©NTB)One of the reasons we love Macs is their excellent construction. Your new MacBook, Mac Pro, Mac mini or iMac will arrive beautifully put together, all smooth finish and unsurpassable build quality. On the flip side of this is an occasional, and fair, criticism. As you will find out if ever you need to open up your Mac to effect a repair or upgrade, they are difficult to get into.
In part this is because Apple has a justifiably famous attention to detail. Even internal screws and fixings are of the highest quality. And Apple uses famously tiny screws, in order that the finish of your device is as smooth as possible. But it also speaks to the fact that Apple is something of a control freak with regard to your experience of using its devices. It's by no means a bad thing: you pay a premium for a Mac that is perfectly specified and built, and in return you don't have to mess with the product that arrives.
The only problem is that sometimes you do need to upgrade and repair your Mac, and the very precision finishing of your Mac means that it is difficult to do so without damaging the screws (or your screwdriver). You need the right tools for the job. (See also: How to upgrade the CPU in your Mac.)
Here's something else you might like to do: How to create Automator Actions and How to use Automator on the Mac
Correct screwdriver for Mac: general advice
First, some basic rules. For one thing you get what you pay for with screwdrivers. This is not going to be a huge investment, after all. And for the difference of a few quid you could get a screwdriver that works without chewing up. Despite the marketing speak it is unlikely that the metal used for plating will make much of a difference here, and virtually all screwdrivers are made with a steel shaft. But you do get what you pay for. A high-carbon steel screwdriver will last longer, and is less likely to chew up in a tough screw.
Most importantly, when removing a screw you should never use a screwdriver that is too big. Too small will be difficult to use, but two big will damage the screw. And not only will that spoil the aesthetics and ruin the finish of your Mac, it will also make it virtually impossible to remove that screw in future. (See also: How to connect an a Mac to a TV.)
Correct screwdriver for Mac: which screwdrivers do I need to open up a Mac case?
Let's get into specifics. Because Apple doesn't encourage removing screws, there is no official guidance on this. What follows is based on researching third-party guides and forum threads, and my own experiments with an older MacBook.
Most online resources suggest that you need only a PH#00- and a T6 screwdriver. The former is Phillips 00 screwdriver, and the latter a Torx 0.6. I found that although the Torx screwdriver is fit for purpose, the PH#00 to be a little too big. For the reasons mentioned above I would go for a smaller Phillips PH#000 screwdriver.
So buy a Phillips PH#000 screwdriver, and a T6 Torx 0.6 screwdriver. Shop for something that is (unofficially) branded as an 'iPad-' or 'iPhone repair kit' and you should find that it is the correct size. The quality may not be amazing, however. (See also: Use an old iMac as the monitor for another Mac.)Ed Dobson reminds us that life isn’t over yet and that we don’t have to feel overwhelmed by the struggles we’re facing today. Difficult news can sometimes make us feel like our lives are over. Ed shows us that we don’t know the future, and that things may turn out quite differently from what we expect. When Ed was told that his life would be over in a few short years, he found his priorities drastically rearranged. He wanted to mend relationships that may have been broken. He decided that relationships were way more important than who was right and who was wrong.
It Ain’t Over
I was diagnosed with ALS in November, shortly before Thanksgiving. About a week later I was sitting on the porch of my house watching the first snowfall of the season. As I sat there I was beginning to sink into that darkness. I was thinking that this would be my last winter. I was thinking that this would be my last Christmas. I was hoping to make it to spring!
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Wikipedia: “…Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is a form of motor neurone disease caused by the degeneration of upper and lower neurons, located in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and the cortical neurons that provide their efferent input… The disorder is characterized by rapidly progressive weakness, muscle atrophy and fasciculations, spasticity, dysarthria, dysphagia, and respiratory compromise. Sensory function generally is spared, as is autonomic and oculomotor activity. ALS is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease with most affected patients dying of respiratory compromise and pneumonia after 2 to 3 years; although some perish within a year from the onset of symptoms, and occasional individuals have a more indolent course and survive for many years…”You meet a girl. She makes you horny. So you like her. But you know she’ll bug the fuck out of you. Sooner or later.
How do you not push that moment. When you are “good with women” you force yourself to make it happen too fast. You look for flaws in her to gird yourself. Make it so she can’t get to you. Love is a fight and you stay on top by loving the other person less. You get to where it’s like this right away. From the first date. First minute. You get girls so you can feel something. But you can only get girls if you feel nothing.
This girl, though. It felt like nature meant for us to breed. Her armpits smelled like our kids would be immune to some ancient parasite. I want to rut with her and fill her soft belly full of babies. I like her accent. Her eyes. But she will bug the fuck out of me sooner or later. The “game” part of you pushes for that moment. Too fast.
Don’t push it. And don’t pull it back. Just feel what you feel. But you tell yourself: snap out of it. This is fleeting bullshit, your mind says. You know it will end so end it now. There’s no free lunch and you can’t break even. Love is a made up story. If you like them they don’t like you.
What can you do. God is evil. She will bug the fuck out of me.
Sooner rather than later.IN-FORM Broncos fullback Jordan Kahu has broken down at the final training session and will miss Friday’s night’s southeast Queensland derby against the Titans.
Winger Lachlan Maranta will move to fullback for the Cbus Super Stadium clash with last-start winners Gold Coast.
The out-of-favour Daniel Vidot will be promoted from the Ipswich Jets Queensland |
debt-limit impasse by Aug. 2.
After Tuesday’s announcement of a Gang of Six deal, “there was a little bit of relief rally on Wall Street,” says Stan Collender, a budget analyst and partner at Qorvis Communications in Washington. “But it’s very complicated, and spending cuts are potential.”
And one thing Congress does not have is time. The Aug. 2 deadline, when the US Treasury will lose its capacity to borrow, is real, says Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Moreover, the first flush of excitement could soon run into partisan realities, says Mr. Collender. “Early press reports that 50 senators had already signed onto the plan turned out not to be accurate,” he says. “I suspect the longer the plan stays out there, the less it will have support. And in the Senate, the relevant number is 60" votes.
Groups at both ends of the political spectrum are already registering their concerns.
“The Gang of Six’s plan is a much grander version of kicking-the-can-down-the-road plans, because it’s mainly focused on procedures to put off decisions about what programs to cut now,” says Chris Edward, director of tax policy studies at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank. He adds that the tax hike in the plan is likely to be near $2 trillion over 10 years, but until details are released, it’s not clear.
Meanwhile, liberal groups such as MoveOn.org opposed elements of the plan that would cut benefits in entitlement programs. “MoveOn’s 5 million members are counting on [House minority] leader [Nancy] Pelosi, Senate majority leader Reid, and other Democrats to stand by their promise to reject any benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare,” said Justin Ruben, executive director, in a statement on Tuesday.After seeing a poor infographic re-posted, I briefly ranted on twitter:
Terrible presentation of data. The bars are OK, the rest is worthless. http://bit.ly/o76BOm @litmusapp #fb #li
I don’t mean to be harsh, but #infovis culture needs constructive critique to improve, not just reposting. /cc @visualizingOrg @litmusapp
To put my mouse where my mouth (well, keyboard) is, I present two quick & dirty re-drawings, with commentary, of the first two sections of the poor infographic.
(click for full-sized image)
In both of these sections, an aesthetically pleasing, but not-very-functional, donut graph has been used. In both cases, it’s the wrong choice, though for different reasons.
Taken individually, the donuts in the first section aren’t bad: they’re dealing with a few wedges, and fine-grained comparison between wedges in the same donut isn’t necessary. These individual donuts are good for a glance at the relative share of the total market, and do a perfectly good job of it.
However, the first section is showing time series data that spans all seven donuts. Time series data is often best shown with a line graph. (Of course the best practice varies, depending on what exactly needs to be revealed.)
My redraw:
(click for full-sized image)
In this case, where small differences are relevant, the line graph shows the sequential changes more easily than can be seen by comparing similar wedges between donuts. (This is why the wedges all need to be labeled; the differences are too subtle to accurately discern.) The line graph also shows the trends more clearly, for the same reason: it’s much more clear at a glance which values are larger and smaller than others in the series.
In the second section, a donut graph is also used. While it is intended to show fractions of a whole (thumbs-up!), it fails two main tests to be the right choice for this data:
it’s showing too many relevant wedges
many of the wedges are very similarly sized
(Another major, though unrelated, flaw is the choice to sort in an non-standard manner: alphabetically-by-parent-company-except-microsoft, and then not telling us what the sort order is.) The result is a visualization where the visual properties don’t much help us do the actual task at hand: comparing the share of each client.
My redraw:
(click for full-sized image)
Here is a simple bar graph. It’s not nearly as visually exciting, but it’s much easier to actually extract knowledge from. I’ve used the standard sort order, by magnitude, but you could easily sort alphabetically or by company as well.
In both cases, the original donut graphs sacrifice efficiency and their ability to inform for the sake of aesthetics and novelty. As I’ve said before, successful visualizations have all of these characteristics, and aesthetics shouldn’t trump function. To learn more about how to design visualizations well, check out Designing Data Visualizations.History is not fixed; like memory itself, it is an act of reconstruction.
Shiva Ayyadurai understands this. Ayyadurai has spent nearly six years publicly proclaiming himself the “inventor of e-mail.” But this claim about e-mail—as everyone but Ayyadurai’s supporters understand the term “e-mail”—isn’t true.
Ayyadurai did write a program called “EMAIL” for use by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now a part of Rutgers). He copyrighted the code in 1982. But Ayyadurai today makes the far more significant claim that he invented “the electronic mail system as we know it today,” even though his code had little impact beyond the university. Mainstream tech history books don’t even mention Ayyadurai—unless you count the several books Ayyadurai has written about himself.
On the ARPAnet, the predecessor to the Internet, electronic mail conventions were well-established by the mid-1970s. Dave Crocker, one of a group of ARPAnet pioneers despised by Ayyadurai, told Ars that he wasn’t just using e-mail by 1974—he was positively addicted to it, a full three decades before the smartphone.
Yet Ayyadurai is closer than ever to creating a world in which his version of history rules. In 2016, Ayyadurai sued Gawker, which had published a biting and widely read article critical of his claims. Several months later, with Gawker in bankruptcy proceedings after losing a defamation lawsuit brought by former pro wrestler Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea, the site agreed to pay Ayyadurai $750,000. Two articles about Ayyadurai were deleted.
Ayyadurai then moved on to a new target. In January 2017, he sued technology blog Techdirt and its founder, Mike Masnick. With the Gawker articles gone, Masnick was Ayyadurai’s most prominent remaining critic, having published more than a dozen detailed articles attacking his claims. According to the complaint, some of the sharp-toned Techdirt articles dubbed Ayyadurai a “fraud,” “liar,” and “charlatan.”
Now, Ayyadurai and Masnick are locked in an extraordinary conflict over the history of e-mail. Each believes he is fighting for real principles, like history and the nature of truth itself. Neither is likely to back down.
The history of Ayyadurai
Shiva Ayyadurai was born in Mumbai, India, in 1963. His parents had moved to the city from the south of India in search of better opportunities. Ayyadurai grew up as a city kid, but he had more than a taste of village life, regularly visiting his grandparents in the village of Muhapur, where they worked long days farming a small plot of land.
“I went to my friend’s house to play soccer, and his mother said, ‘You can’t come in,’” Ayyadurai told us. “She gave me water in a tin cup, not the glass cup that he got. I didn’t understand. My mother told me we’re considered Shudras by the upper castes. When she went to the village well, they’d say, ‘Shoo, shoo, Shudra.’ That was almost 49 years ago, and it still affects me.”
Ayyadurai left India on his seventh birthday, landing at JFK airport on December 5, 1970. He had never seen snow before. His family moved to New Jersey, where his father had found work. At first, they lived in a rough neighborhood in Paterson. Over the next several years, the Ayyadurais moved from one town to the next seeking better schools for their kids, ultimately settling in the wealthy suburb of Livingston.
“We were these two dark-skinned kids,” Ayyadurai remembered. “These kids had better clothes. There was a lot of, frankly, prejudice at Livingston High School. They hadn’t seen an Indian kid before. I was an outsider, but I would win every award.”
Shiva Ayyadurai is adamant about telling his story on his own terms. His biography, complete with an accompanying slideshow and a conspiracy narrative, was told to Ars over the course of more than three hours. It’s a story stuffed with hard work and its resulting triumphs: Ayyadurai learned all the math his middle school had to offer before taking classes in high school; he won “every award” at Livingston High School; he mastered seven computer languages in a summer; he excelled at baseball and soccer. And he invented EMAIL—which, he insists, means he also is the “inventor” of the e-mail we use today.
In the summer of 1978, Ayyadurai’s mother, Meenakshi Ayyadurai, took him to work with her at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), where she worked as a programmer.
“My son is smart,” she told her boss, Leslie Michelson, a 31-year old experimental physicist who was in charge of networking at UMDNJ.
“Every mother says her son is smart,” replied Michelson.
Michelson’s job was to help scientists use computers for their own research. Michelson and Ayyadurai worked on HP 1000 computers. These computers, mainly designed for engineering and manufacturing, were very different from the machines commonly in use on the ARPANet at the time.
“The ARPANet was not even there, in our radar,” Ayyadurai told Ars.
Michelson gave Shiva Ayyadurai permission to work on the school’s computer systems. Ayyadurai didn’t get paid, other than a free lunch in the cafeteria. He began to write an internal electronic communications program and worked on it throughout high school. He called the program EMAIL; ultimately, he said, it grew to support 500 users.
“I worked in the lab nearly every day and also at home on our kitchen table, often until 2 am,” Ayyadurai recalls in his 2017 book, All-American Indian: This Fight Is Your Fight. Overall, I wrote nearly 50,000 lines of code across a system of 35 programs to design and implement an electronic version of that mail system, and I named it “email,” a term never before recognized in the English language.”
A family friend encouraged Ayyadurai to apply to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he enrolled in 1981. The following year, after a conversation with MIT President Paul Gray, Ayyadurai registered his EMAIL program for a US copyright.
From that point, Ayyadurai’s personal history of e-mail leaps forward several years. Asked what programs his work might have influenced, Ayyadurai cited the 1988 e-mail program Eudora as an example of something that followed his invention, without any evidence that it borrowed from him.
(Contacted by Ars earlier this year, Eudora founder Steve Dorner said he’d never heard of Ayyadurai or his claims. “It's too bad my grandmother is dead, because she could easily put all this to rest, as she told everyone I had invented e-mail,” he joked via e-mail.)
But to Ayyadurai, that’s of less importance than the copyright he obtained.
“I was issued the first US copyright for EMAIL,” he said on The Alex Jones Show earlier this year. “I was officially recognized as the inventor of email.”
We ran this claim past William Roberts, associate register of copyrights at the United States Copyright Office. “His assertion, as you describe it to me, is not accurate,” said Roberts. That’s because copyright for a computer program simply registers the precise code of that particular program, making it illegal to copy without permission.
From 1982 until 2011, there’s scant evidence that Ayyadurai spoke publicly about his claim to have invented e-mail. He had been interviewed numerous times, including in The New York Times in 1998 on the subject of e-mail. Yet during those three decades, he doesn’t appear to have claimed inventorship.
According to All-American Indian, in 2011, his mother gave her son a suitcase of materials from the late 1970s and early 1980s relating to EMAIL. The cache included documents, illustrations, and Ayyadurai’s original source code.
Ayyadurai got in touch with a Time magazine reporter named Doug Aamoth. In November 2011, Time published a Q&A with Ayyadurai, titled “The Man Who Invented Email,” on its “Techland” blog. Aamoth introduced the piece by reciting Ayyadurai’s view that the 1978 EMAIL program was when “e-mail—as we currently know it—was born.”
Within weeks of the Time piece, Ayyadurai had splashed it across the top of his own website. (Aamoth, contacted earlier this year by Ars, declined to comment on the article.)
The Time story didn’t get huge readership—but Ayyadurai’s next PR score would make a bigger impact.The new U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS), released today, contains few surprises. After six years in office, the Obama administration will not change its basic course. Still, the document represents an important intellectual departure from past iterations—notably in its focus on “strategic patience,” its expansive definition of U.S. national security, and its explicit emphasis on the institutional foundations of world order.
The drafting of a National Security Strategy, which is mandated by Congress, is an inherently awkward enterprise. The document must simultaneously lay out a compelling vision of the world the United States seeks, instill confidence that the administration knows how to get there, and satisfy the bureaucratic interests of countless departments, agencies, and bureaus in the sprawling U.S. national security apparatus. The inevitable result is a document combining grand aspirations and intentions with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list of U.S. interests and initiatives.
At twenty-nine pages, the NSS is about half as long as the administration’s previous installment, released in 2010. Besides its welcome brevity, the new version is less starry-eyed than its predecessor. It concedes, at least implicitly, how hard it can be to translate internationalist visions into reality.
With only two years left, the administration unsurprisingly treats the new document as a vehicle to justify past choices and advocate for policy continuity. The NSS echoes well-worn themes: global integration is generating unprecedented threats as well as opportunities. Advancing peace, prosperity, and freedom requires the United States to lead by action and example, cooperating with partners to reinforce a rules-based international order. The country should leverage every instrument of national influence, including economic growth, and stay true to its values at home even as it advances universal principles abroad.
Those reading the document will search in vain for a pithy “Obama Doctrine.” Nevertheless, the NSS breaks new ground in its emphasis on strategic patience, its broad view of national security, and its preoccupation with world order.
A Plea for Strategic Patience
Back in 2010, the previous NSS declared that for the first time in history international affairs were dominated less by geopolitical competition than the need to manage common challenges. It also suggested that the global terrorist threat had crested. Both contentions proved premature. After six turbulent years in office, the administration is on the defensive on both counts. Resurgent great power rivalry and metastasizing jihadist terrorism have created a widespread impression that the world is spinning out of control (or “unraveling”)—which critics attribute to weakness in the White House.
The NSS acknowledges this new age of upheaval, but defends its policy choices under a guiding principle of “strategic patience.” Though the administration has increasingly used this term in reference to specific regions or crises, the NSS elevates it to a more general organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy.
After outlining the primary national security challenges, the president proclaims that “we must resist the over-reach that comes when we make decisions based upon fear.” This appears to be another response to the blistering criticism his administration has received regarding its policies in Syria and Iraq. “The challenges we face require strategic patience and persistence,” he continues, rather than short-term reactions to crises of the day. As the document reminds readers, the United States does not have the luxury of “orienting our entire foreign policy around a single threat or region.” Given its diverse interests and responsibilities, the country must be able to play on multiple chessboards at once, mobilizing a shifting constellation of partners depending on the task. The need to be able to pivot, in other words, extends far beyond Asia.
National Security, Redefined
The document marks the latest expansion of the national security lens well beyond a traditional focus on great power confrontation, regional instability, nuclear weapons, and (more recently) terrorism. The introduction produces quite a list of “top strategic risks,” which the document enumerates in no particular order of importance:
Catastrophic attack on the U.S. homeland or critical infrastructure;
Threats or attacks against U.S. citizens abroad and our allies;
Global economic crisis or widespread economic slowdown;
Proliferation and/or use of weapons of mass destruction;
Severe global infectious disease outbreaks;
Climate change;
Major energy market disruptions; and
Significant security consequences associated with weak or failing states (including mass atrocities, regional spillover, and transnational organized crime
This broadened conception of security pervades the NSS. Alongside the imperatives of “strengthen[ing] our national defense,” “reinforce[ing] homeland security,” and “combat[ting] the persistent threat of terrorism” is the need to “confront climate change” (“an urgent and growing threat to our national security”) and to “increase global health security” in the face of epidemics like Ebola. The United States must also “assure access to shared spaces…that enable the free flow of people, goods, services and ideas,” by maintaining the stability and openness of the world’s maritime and air space, as well as outer space and cyberspace.
Where the NSS falls short is in its failure to rank these very diverse concerns. The president writes of the need “to make hard choices among competing priorities.” But the document provides little guidance about the relative importance of the multiple interests it identifies. This is unfortunate, since the ostensible purpose of the NSS is to inform departments drafting their own strategy documents, including as the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Strategy (QDDR). There is also little discussion about how the strategy has shaped the national security components of the budget that President Obama submitted to Congress last month.
Bolstering World Order
The administration also includes a closing section devoted to the big-picture theme of “international order.”
Consistent with previous NSS documents, the 2015 version starts with separate chapters explaining how the United States will advance its “security” goals, its “economic” objectives, and its “values” (particularly by promoting democracy and human rights). But the final chapter, explaining how the United States will deter and respond to instability resulting from the misbehavior of influential states and the actions of malevolent nonstate actors, is novel. This compelling segment calls on the United States to “fortify” the institutional foundations of a rules-based order, while “help[ing] it evolve to meet the wide range of challenges described throughout this strategy.”
The thesis advanced here is both persuasive and optimistic. The global order, whose broad contours were defined in the aftermath of World War II, remains resilient. “Despite undeniable strains,” the strategy notes, “the vast majority of states do not want to replace the system we have.” Rather, what other countries are looking for is firm U.S. leadership, including a willingness to “exact an appropriate cost on transgressors” who violate international rules of the road.
The document explains how the United States should advance world order in specific regions, including the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. The instincts here are sound: the United States “welcomes the rise of stable, peaceful, and prosperous China,” and will continue to cooperate with that country on multiple fronts. At the same time, ongoing U.S. “rebalancing” will reassure U.S. partners in Asia and offer a hedge against possible Chinese aggression. The United States will also deepen its engagement with India, a partnership of unrealized but immense potential. In Europe, the United States reaffirms the importance of NATO as “the hub of a global security network,” and pledges to deepen its cooperation with the EU in countering Russian aggression in Ukraine, which has violated longstanding “international rules and norms.” The United States will “continue to impose significant costs” on Russia, but it will avoid a Cold War, keeping the “door open” to greater collaboration “in areas of common interests, should it choose a different path.”
In the enflamed Middle East, where the Obama administration’s policies have been least successful, the NSS seeks to make the best of a bad hand, while skirting the trickiest issues. The document concedes the uncertain outcome of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program but defends its pursuit of a peaceful resolution to this crisis, without taking any options off the table. Meanwhile, the administration does little more than repeat its past pledges to “degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL,” to support an inclusive and effective government in Iraq, and to equip moderate forces in Syria as a plausible alternative to the Assad regime and jihadi extremists. In notable omissions, the NSS devotes only a single sentence apiece to the fraught U.S. relationships with Turkey and Egypt, and the deteriorating situation in Libya—the latter held up, just a few years ago, as a triumph of multilateral cooperation.
What’s the Takeaway?
The ultimate question, as with all NSS documents, is how seriously one should take them as a guide to policy. The 2015 edition breaks new ground by elevating strategic patience to a guiding principle for U.S. national security policy and drawing attention to the institutional foundations of world order. On the other hand, the long-delayed document devotes nearly as much space to defending the administration’s record—whether ushering in “a new era of unparalleled global prosperity,” withdrawing major military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, or negotiating a “landmark agreement” with China on climate change—as it does outlining future plans. This gives the NSS a distinct valedictory feel, part of a legacy-building project. The perceived validity of these claims, of course, will depend heavily on partisan leanings.
Follow me on Twitter: @StewartMPatrickAnd this Wednesday's "Most Colorado Thing We Saw Today" is the annual snow removal on Trail Ridge Road.
It's the place where winter takes a stand in our state.
Fritz Prehn, a PhD student at the Colorado School of Mines, gave us an aerial look at the 2016 plowing operation with photos he took during a mountain flight lesson.
A Rocky Mountain National Park spokesperson says the plow driver is up to his eyeballs in snow. Drifts are up to 22 feet tall.
Plowing started two weeks ago. One crew starts in the East near Estes. The other starts in the West near Grand Lake. They meet in the middle, usually some time before Memorial Day weekend, once crews have cleared the highest continuous paved road in America, which National Park Colorado calls the highway to the sky.
The road reaches an elevation of 12,183 feet and 11 miles of it are above tree line at 11,500 feet. Trail Ridge Road stretches across 48 miles.
The park closed the road in October.
Copyright 2016 KUSAThe Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) have definitely gotten the Internet’s attention, but not in the good Elmo orders Taco Bell sort of way. This is more like Rebecca Black announcing she’s obtained the license to the entire library of The Beatles music.
The two bills have lovers of all things Internet immensely concerned, with many people claiming that if either one passes, the current everyday freedoms we enjoy, including unfettered access to Google, Wikipedia, and especially YouTube, would cease to exist as we know them. In reality, SOPA and PIPA target foreign websites that are pirating copyrighted content, but they do so in a broad way that most Internet experts agree would be damaging to the way the Internet functions.
The video game industry would potentially be hit particularly hard, as a major element of the gaming culture is sharing screenshots, streaming gameplay videos, and celebrating over 20 years of video game art and music. This is not only done on a consumer level, by millions of gamers around the world, but is also the backbone of all professional gaming coverage from sites like GamesBeat and countless others.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation writes, “Instead of complying with the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act], a copyright owner may now be able to use these new provisions to effectively shut down a site by cutting off access to its domain name, its search engine hits, its ads, and its other financing even if the safe harbors would apply.”
Many gaming companies have taken action to protest the bills. Below is a listing of all notable anti-SOPA gaming companies and how they’re fighting for what they believe in. And don’t miss our gallery of anti-SOPA protests today.
“Don’t just send a tweet or shake your head in anger. Do something.” –Good Old Games (gog.com)
Mojang
Minecraft creator Markus Persson announced via Twitter that he’d be taking down minecraft.net and mojang.com on January 18th to protest SOPA (the day the bill was originally set to be voted on, though that has now been delayed to February).
Persson acknowledged that a large part of Minecraft’s very viral success was due to players posting screenshots and videos of their in-game creations. Under SOPA, each and every one of them would potentially be at risk of having their sites closed down, something Persson, the legal copyright holder, obviously opposes.
“No sane person can be for SOPA,” Persson stated, speaking on behalf of Mojang. “I don’t know if we’re sane, but we are strongly, uncompromisingly against SOPA, and any similar laws. Sacrificing freedom of speech for the benefit of corporate profit is abominable and disgusting.”
Major League Gaming (MLG)
First MLG moved all 100+ of its domains off of GoDaddy, as did more than 30,000 other sites. It then announced it would be furthering its anti-SOPA stance by participating in the blackout on January 18, from 8am to 8pm ET. The entire MLG network will down during that period, and will be replaced by a short message with additional information about SOPA to “help educate our community members about the bill and what it could mean for them.”
Destructoid
Independent gaming blog Destructoid announced it will be joining in on the January 18 SOPA protest by blacking out its site, alongside MLG, Reddit, Wikipedia, and others.
Destructoid founder Yanier Gonzalez wrote, “If you think this blog post is annoying and not about videogames, wait until you can’t reach our site at all because you won’t have the power to decide what websites you can and cannot reach.”
Wikipedia
Wikimedia is not a gaming-only site, obviously, but it does play a major role in the way gaming content is spread and digested across the Internet on a daily basis. You may best know Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales from those mopey banners begging for your donations, but he’s opted to take a decidedly more fearsome stance on SOPA. “All US Citizens: #WikipediaBlackout means nothing unless you call your Senators. Do it now! Give friends the number too!” Wales wrote on his Twitter.
The English-language version of Wikipedia will go dark for 24 hours on January 18. The move is not entirely unprecedented, however, as the Italian version of Wikipedia ran a similar blackout protest in October against new libel laws.
Wales also defended the move on his personal Wikipedia page, and considered taking the blackout global as recently as yesterday. Unlike most other sites, where the decision to protest came down from on high, the Wikipedia blackout was proposed to and discussed by over 1,800 users in a 72 hour-period, with the “overwhelming majority” supporting community action against SOPA.
If you absolutely can’t cope without Wikipedia for one day, you can always download the entire site.
Epic Games
Dana Cowley, senior PR manager for Gears of War studio Epic Games, wrote on the official Epic forums to clarify the company’s anti-SOPA stance. “Epic Games supports efforts that would stop overseas websites profiting from pirating our games, but we have to do that in a way that’s compatible with freedom of speech and due process of law. Thus, we do not support the current version of SOPA.”
Cowley also noted that Epic Games is a member of the Entertainment Software Association, stating it was “working with legislators to refine the bill.” That may be sugar-coating it quite a bit, as the ESA is an organization that has come under heavy fire for its official support of SOPA.
ESA members Sony and Nintendo all quietly removed their names from a list of official SOPA supporters. This may or may not have had something to do with a petition with over 130,000 signatures telling fellow ESA member Electronic Arts to oppose Internet censorship.
Indie Gamers
Polish indie game developer Sos Sosowski, with the help of 48-hour game-making competition Ludum Dare organizer Mike Kasprzak, has put together the Stop SOPA Jam. The jam will protest SOPA on January 18 in a very unique way: by making games.
Anyone can join the Stop SOPA Game Jam by making an anti-SOPA game and uploading it tomorrow for public consumption. Minecraft’s Markus Persson has confirmed he will be participating.
Sosowski initiated the movement with a single tweet: “Let’s protest against #SOPA the best way we can! Make #antiSOPA games on January 18! Join the #sopajam! Let’s do this!”
“We are extremely disappointed in this misguided legislation.” –Mark Kern, CEO, Red 5 Studios
Red 5 Studios
Red 5 Studios, the developer of Firefall, an anticipated upcoming free-to-play massively multiplayer online game (MMO), has taken perhaps the most extreme anti-SOPA stance of them. Not only will Red 5 be protesting on January 18 by shutting down its official website, but also the ongoing beta for Firefall.
“We are extremely disappointed in this misguided legislation,” said CEO Mark Kern. “We are also ashamed of the ESA for supporting a bill which is clearly not in the best interests of gamers or the game industry.”
Firefall, which was the primary sponsor for last year’s PAX Prime event in Seattle (earning promotions and a massive booth front in center during the convention), has pulled all plans for this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). E3 is (arguably) the world’s largest annual gaming expo, and is run by the ESA.
Kern stated that Red 5 is not a member of the ESA, and never will be given its stance on SOPA. Instead, Red 5 has established the League for Gamers, a non-profit alternative to the ESA with the goal of “protecting gamers and developers from anti-industry legislation.” You can read more about the LFG in GamesBeat’s exclusive interview.
Kern also noted that bills like SOPA would be especially detrimental to smaller companies “who will not have the legal resources or lobbying presence to protect themselves from unwarranted shutdown.”
Story continues on the next page.
Top image via DestructoidMassachusetts backers of presidential hopeful Ron Paul lost this week their quixotic battle to serve as delegates to this month’s Republican National Convention when a national committee agreed that the state GOP had the right to nullify the Paul supporters’ victories in April caucuses in the state.
Now, the 16 Republicans who were disqualified are planning to appeal the committee’s decision Sunday, in a last-ditch attempt to be restored as delegates and alternates to the national convention in Tampa this month.
Paul’s supporters, known as Liberty delegates, were elected in many states and hope to make a strong showing at the convention. Though Paul is no longer campaigning for the Republican nomination for president, his supporters still hope that a strong presence will amplify the Republican congressman’s libertarian message and influence the party’s platform. Republicans have been concerned about mischief-
making at the party’s marquee event, though delegates insist that they do not intend to cause trouble.
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The Republican National Convention Committee on Contests ruled last week that Massachusetts had the right to replace the Liberty delegates who had defeated Romney’s preferred candidates in April caucuses. The caucuses take place each presidential election in Massachusetts congressional districts. Because he won the Massachusetts primary so decisively, Romney was the only candidate entitled to receive any of the state’s delegates at the national convention. But at least one elected delegate suggested the Liberty delegates might not support Romney.
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That led to concerns from the state GOP, according to the ruling by the committee on contests. As a procedural requirement, a state GOP “allocations committee” asked the delegates to file affidavits swearing to support Romney.
Some of the delegates refused, filed late, or rewrote the language of the affidavits as they saw fit. As a result, the state allocation committee decided there was just cause to remove the Liberty delegates and nominated 16 others to take their places.
The Liberty delegates contended that the allocation committee’s action was unfair because the party’s request for affidavits was not spelled out in state GOP rules. The would-be delegates also said they had already made their commitments to vote for Romney during the caucuses at which they were elected. The national ruling said that the state GOP allocations committee had the authority to demand affidavits within a set deadline.
The Massachusetts Republican Party “was confident that the allocation committee applied fairly the rules governing the delegate selection process for the Republican National Convention,” spokesman Tim Buckley said in a statement. “The RNC’s committee on contests and a federal judge clearly concluded that the MassGOP’s allocation committee was adhering to the rules in place.”
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Brad Wyatt, a spokesman for the Liberty delegates who was also disqualified, said Paul’s supporters were not trying to disrupt the convention.
“We’re trying to build a long-term movement here,” Wyatt said. “It would be an embarrassment to the liberty movement and hurt liberty candidates in the future. There’s no point, no goal to distract the convention whatsoever.”
Stephanie Ebbert can bereached at ebbert@globe.com Follow her on Twitter
@stephanieebbertA screenshot of Snoop Dogg’s “Lavender” video where he fires a gun at a clown that looks like President Donald J. Trump.
President Donald J. Trump steadied his Twitter crosshairs on one of Long Beach’s most famous exports Wednesday morning as he unleashed an early morning response to a new Snoop Dogg music video that shows the rapper shooting a clown—one with a striking resemblance to the president—with a fake gun.
Snoop Dogg (real name: Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.) released the new video for a song titled “Lavender” on March 12. The video has been viewed more than 2.3 million times since Sunday and has drawn condemnation from some of the president’s supporters and at least one United States senator.
“We’ve had presidents assassinated before in this country, so anything like that is something people should be really careful about,” Senator Marco Rubio told TMZ earlier this week. “I think people can disagree on policy, but we’ve got to be careful about that kind of thing because the wrong person sees that and gets the wrong idea and you could have a real problem.”
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The video depicts actors donning clown makeup playing out scenes of officer-involved shootings. In one scene (around the 3:05 minute mark) Snoop Dogg can be seen firing a fake gun at the head of a clown that resembles Trump. When the trigger is pulled a flag reading “BANG” comes out.
Earlier in the video the same clown is seen being hit over the head during a press conference being aired on a fictitious news channel. The lower-third identifies the clown as “Ronald Klump.”
Trump fired back in a tweet posted just after 4:00AM this morning condemning the rapper and speculating what the reaction would have been if a similar video had been made featuring his predecessor.
Can you imagine what the outcry would be if @SnoopDogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2017
Last year, Forbes listed Snoop Dogg as the 17th highest grossing rapper as he earned $12.5 million, with his net worth projected to be about $130 million. He is eligible to be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
The rapper responded Wednesday, throwing a considerable amount of shade posting a selfie with no caption on his Instagram account with numerous music awards in the background.
Threatening the president is a felony but requires several items to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, including the person in question who issued the threat, that the person understood and meant the action as a true threat and that the words or actions taken were done willingly.
The law does distinguish between “true threat” and idle chatter or something done in a joking matter. There’s no indication whether the music video will result in any legal action against the rapper.
Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @JasonRuiz__LB on Twitter.Image caption Ms Gillard said efforts to help Aborigines could not succeed without greater respect and recognition
Australia will hold a referendum on recognising its indigenous people in the constitution to improve conditions for its most disadvantaged community.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said there was a "once-in-50-year opportunity" to harness public and parliamentary support for greater recognition.
The 550,000 Indigenous Australians make |
any attempts to regulate carbon emissions. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has launched a series of climate initiatives, but is also a strong proponent of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas and has argued that any restrictions on the industry could weaken his state's economy.
Experts said that while this small group of policymakers represents a minority within the Democratic Party, they could have a big impact on the nation's climate agenda in the coming years.
Democrats and Republicans are expected to be nearly evenly matched in the Senate after the midterms. Global warming is an almost taboo issue within the GOP, and only a handful of Republican politicians have voted "yes" to climate action in the past. So, if Democrats want to pass any kind of global warming agenda in the next few years—something that political and environmental experts acknowledge is already a long shot before the 2016 elections—they must have their entire party involved.
"It is going to be very tough to build an environmental majority without all of the Democrats on board, including those from energy-producing states," said Heather Taylor-Miesle, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Action Fund. "Politicians can't say, 'I believe in climate change' and leave the conversation there. They really need to go to the next step to be productive pieces of the puzzle to ensure we are addressing this issue."
The possible deadlock couldn't come at a more critical time. World leaders will meet in Peru later this year and in Paris next fall to create and commit to a new international accord to fight global warming. The Obama administration has made it clear it is seeking a new treaty without legally binding emission targets, eliminating the requirement for Congressional approval. But even with this approach, the U.S. will have to create domestic global warming policies to reach its set emission goals and maintain its credibility within the international climate community.
Scientists warn that unless governments cut greenhouse gases in the next few years and limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius, catastrophic climate change will become a near certainty. This could mean decades or even centuries of more intense or frequent wildfires, droughts, extreme temperatures and hurricanes, as well as rising seas that could swallow huge swaths of the world's coastlines.
Recent polling indicates that climate change matters to voters on both sides of the aisle. Forty-eight percent of voters in New Hampshire—a swing state often seen as a microcosm of the nation—are less likely to vote for a candidate who denies climate change, according a recent poll by the League of Conservation Voters. Nearly 80 percent of voters 35 and under nationally said they are more likely to vote for someone who supports climate action, according to a second LCV poll. A 2013 survey by Stanford University showed that a majority of citizens in every state—including energy-producing ones—agreed that the U.S. should do more to address climate change and limit greenhouse gases from businesses and power plants.
However, climate change still fails to stir the American public as much as some other issues, said Walter Rosenbaum, an expert in environmental and energy policy at the University of Florida.
"When people are asked directly about climate in polling, yes, they indicate they care," Rosenbaum said. "But the issue is not a high priority when compared to things like education and taxes."
This has created a situation where many politicians hold climate beliefs at odds with their constituents'. In Kentucky, for example, 56 percent of voters say they believe the U.S. government should do more to address climate change, according to the Stanford survey. That number is 63 percent in West Virginia and 54 percent in Louisiana.
"The data suggests that there would be more public support for tackling climate change than the current members of Congress seem to recognize," said Dunlap.
Environmental groups that supported Democratic candidates almost exclusively for many years have started changing their tactics: They're choosing the best pro-environmental candidates no matter which side of the aisle they're on. The League of Conservation Voters, for example, endorsed two Republican politicians in recent months—Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Congressman Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey.
"For a long time, people just voted for the lesser of two evils," said Tim DeChristopher, an environmental activist and co-founder of the group Peaceful Uprising. "But party loyal is completely antithetical for political power for a movement and we started losing political power in Washington. People are starting to realize it isn't about just putting a Democrat into office. It should be about taking the worst politicians out of office, no matter their party."
The Money
Most of these anti-climate action Democrats come from states where the fossil fuel industry plays a significant role in the economy. Or in some cases, it used to—and still has enduring symbolic importance, as in Kentucky. Candidates can't appear to risk people's livelihoods. And they can't risk losing tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry.
Despite the steady decline of climate-skeptic Democrats in recent years, total contributions from oil and gas interests to Democrats have remained largely the same. Those few holdouts seem to be getting much more money from the fossil fuel industry than ever before.
Pryor of Arkansas, for example, received more than $111,000 from the oil and gas industry between 2003 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions. From 2009-14, he received $247,000. Begich of Alaska got $142,000 from oil and gas between 2007 and 2009. Since then, he has gotten more than $366,000.
None of these figures include so-called "Dark Money," campaign contributions from fossil fuel giants Charles and David Koch, and others, that are run through foundations and therefore don't have to be made public.
Not Set In Stone
Overall, races that are a lose-lose for climate action have become less common in recent years, said Jeff Gohringer, a spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters. Increasingly, there is a strong contrast between the candidates' climate views, with one understanding the severity of the climate issue and the other standing up for "the polluters who are funding their campaigns," he said.
Those remaining Democrats who don't support climate action now could be forced to change their views in the near future, several experts said. Climate change is becoming an increasingly salient issue across the nation, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of activists who gathered in New York City last month to demand that world leaders take action.
It has also been a prominent issue in several gubernatorial and congressional midterm races, such as those in Florida and Michigan.
Speaking at Yale University last week, the United States' lead climate negotiator said that climate change denial could become a political liability soon.
"We have all seen in recent years the abruptness with which hot-button issues can suddenly become the stuff of consensus," Todd Stern, the special envoy on climate change for the U.S. State Department, told students, faculty and members of the public. "I doubt, even a year from now, whether major political candidates will consider it viable to deny the existence of climate change."
If the American public's increasing concern doesn't change these Democrats' views, climate change itself may just do it.
"If we have a couple of really dramatic natural events or crises, like another Superstorm Sandy, that could serve as a platform for the climate regulatory advocates to mount a campaign," said Rosenbaum of the University of Florida.
Such a disaster could be just enough to spur action from the remaining Democrats and Republicans who have stifled it until this point.CerealKiller.495 Profile Joined May 2011 16 Posts #1 Poll: Which class do you plan on playing/playing the most?
Barbarian (191)
21%
Wizard (188)
20%
Demon Hunter (187)
20%
Monk (185)
20%
Witch Doctor (180)
19%
931 total votes (191)21%(188)20%(187)20%(185)20%(180)19%931 total votes Your vote: Which class do you plan on playing/playing the most? (Vote): Barbarian
(Vote): Monk
(Vote): Demon Hunter
(Vote): Wizard
(Vote): Witch Doctor
The purpose of this poll is to get a feel for what people are planning on playing since most have played the beta by now. The purpose of this poll is to get a feel for what people are planning on playing since most have played the beta by now.
Traeon Profile Joined July 2010 Austria 366 Posts #2 My impression so far of power/survivability
Demon Hunter > Barbarian = Witch Doctor > Wizard
Monk I haven't played yet.
As far as fun goes:
Barbarian > rest
theorybiscuit Profile Joined May 2010 Canada 117 Posts #3 Hardcore monkstyle. I can't see any other class that comes close in terms of survivability and party buffs (unless it's the WD), both of which are critical in HC. An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. ~Jef Mallett
Qwix Profile Joined October 2010 531 Posts #4 Completed the beta with Monk and WD thus far in this open weekend, really liked the unique new Monk class thus far and thinking of picking that up on start of retail.
iamPrower Profile Joined October 2011 United Kingdom 21 Posts #5 I've played all bar the monk, and without a doubt I will be going with Demon Hunter, just love everything about the class, might even set myself no damage playthroughs if I get that hardcore about this game, and with the DH it seems very possible.
Solai Profile Joined September 2009 204 Posts Last Edited: 2012-04-22 12:26:27 #6 I enjoy the monk the most. Brings a lot of utility, the generators feel awesome. Exploding Palm thus far is my favourite skill. So I will definetly go for the monk first, but I plan to play all classes.
Thats my order: Monk>DemonHunter>Witch Doctor>Barbarian>Wizard
Rokevo Profile Joined September 2009 Finland 1033 Posts #7 So far i've played DH, WD and barb. Out of those 3 DH is by far my favorite.
I'm gonna play some wizard today before I make up my mind (the monk doesnt interest me at all).
kleetzor Profile Joined April 2011 Germany 344 Posts #8 Im happy I plan on having the least popular classes as mains.
My first SC char will be a Barb, and I'll have a WD for hardcore.
Tdelamay Profile Joined October 2009 Canada 545 Posts #9 I have to admit the wizard is probably the weakess. Even in the rather easy beta I came close to dying. I originally planned to go with a monk, but I heard a little while ago that the female wizard was voiced by the same person that did Azula in Avatar the last airbender. Now that I know that, I can't avoid playing through diablo with the female wizard first - through hardcore! :D This road isn't leading anywhere...
Murlox Profile Blog Joined March 2008 France 1094 Posts #10 I like fast-hitting and shouting females. Taki, D2 assassin... so monk it has been this week-end, and monk it'll be if end up getting the game. Resistance ain't futile
Belha Profile Joined December 2010 Italy 2611 Posts #11 I'm only sure i'm not gonna play doctor. I'm a necro fan from d2 but doctor in the beta seems really disapointing character. Chicken gank op
DeCoup Profile Joined September 2006 Australia 1933 Posts #12 Demon Hunter mostly because I like the concept of having 2 resource systems and partly because of how positional they play. "Poor guy. I really did not deserve that win. So this is what it's like to play Protoss..." - IdrA
Yakota Profile Joined March 2010 Australia 101 Posts #13
Monk for me I like how on the diablo forum, monk is one of the least popular with barb as the most popMonk for me
kuresuti Profile Blog Joined December 2009 1364 Posts #14 I plan on playing all of them. Going to try Wizard first though and if I like Blizzard I will probably have it be my main character. Nothing like abusing the AI with mass AoE damage
Wurstbrot Profile Joined April 2012 Germany 89 Posts #15 Barb! That was by far the most fun for me. Wizard is also nice, but Monk and DH - so bad, baaaaaaaaad! Like no Damage at all at lowlevel and their Spells are mostly useless.
nonsequitur Profile Blog Joined July 2010 342 Posts #16 I'm torn between WD and DH. I want to play WD but I'm not quite sure how viable the pets will be in Inferno.
Pr0wler Profile Joined February 2007 Bulgaria 1959 Posts #17 WD seems really good to me. With 5 charges of that buff on 2 I had like 190+ intelligence... I mean, it jumped from 32 to 192 or something like that. That is kinda ridiculous :D Also the monk looked really powerful with all that blink around. My Quote:*[i]Max.255 Chars[/i]
Shockk Profile Blog Joined July 2010 Germany 2267 Posts #18 Monk. Perfect mix of non-stop action, up-front combat and utility.
HyunA Profile Joined July 2010 Romania 362 Posts #19 i'm gonna choose barbarian because of the pew pew
freetgy Profile Joined November 2010 1719 Posts #20 sorc all the way man
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About Pet Harbor: PetHarbor.com is a not-for-profit website. We are here to help connect the general public to the large amounts of data kept by the animal-care industry, which includes your local animal shelter, SPCA, Humane Society, county or city Animal Control, and many private animal-welfare organizations. Dedication: This website is dedicated to those people who work in animal shelters. Our society has given to them a difficult and often heartbreaking task. It is a daily struggle that is largely unseen by the general public, and no pats on the back are given -- rarely do they ever hear a simple 'Thank you'. Yet day in and day out they meet their challenge with compassion, dignity, and humanity. From we who notice, Thank You. Searching: Pet Harbor offers a simple step by step process to find animals across the US and Canada. Check back frequently, we're adding new shelters all the time.In January, Suze Orman, the blonde financial adviser who's all over TV telling you to cut up your credit cards, went on "Oprah" to discuss how to cope with the recession. Orman recommended not eating in restaurants for a month. The appalled National Restaurant Association pointed out that if every "Oprah" watcher took this advice, it would cost 53,000 jobs.
But what are we supposed to do? Hoard our pennies, or spend them? For decades we've been told -- correctly -- that we're a profligate people with a profligate government, all living beyond our means. Some day, they said (okay, okay, I, among many others, said) that we would pay for all this profligacy. Now the black day has arrived, and we're told that the best way out of this mess is for the government to shovel money out the door even faster than before, with preference given to projects that can spend it as quickly as possible.
There has been less emphasis on what we, as individuals, should do. President Obama ducked the question at his news conference last week. But logic suggests that we should be gluing those credit cards back together. The government is actually going to pay us to buy a new house or car. Borrow and spend, borrow and spend is what got us into this mess. Apparently, borrow and spend will get us out of it.
It sounds too good to be true, but it is true. By now we all know about the "paradox of thrift": If everyone stops spending because times are bad, times get even worse. An economist writing in the New York Times the other day addressed the wonderfully inverted problem of people who feel guilty about not spending enough. His advice: Don't feel guilty about saving money, because it's the government's job, not yours, to make sure that we spend enough. But what if you don't feel guilty about reckless borrowing and spending? What if you actually enjoy it? This has been a more common attitude in recent years. Is it still okay? Or does the medicine have to taste bad to be any good?
And can we rely on the government to spend enough? This also seems like a wonderfully upside-down problem. The answer is, apparently not. We're going to need a second stimulus package, probably a third chapter of the bank bailout, more for the auto industry and others. It's all going to cost at least two or three trillion. If it works, it will be money well spent. If it doesn't work, that means we should have spent more.
Trouble is, money well spent is still money spent. The reasons that made it a bad idea to run up all that debt haven't disappeared just because something even worse came along. Almost no one in Washington is talking about this. Since 1981, Republicans have run up massive deficits and Democrats have discovered fiscal responsibility. Now they're all having too much fun reverting to type. Republicans reject the Keynesian premise that the money is being well spent because it is being spent. Too zen for them, or something. For some Democrats, meanwhile, the very fact that a program is costly has magically become an argument in its favor.
But even if the stimulus is a magnificent success, the money still has to be paid back. The plan of record apparently is that we keep borrowing, spending and stimulating, faster and faster, until suddenly, on some signal from heaven or Timothy Geithner, we all stop spending and start saving in recordbreaking amounts. Oh sure, that will work.
There is another way. If it's not the actual, secret plan, it will be an overwhelming temptation: Don't pay the money back. So far, even as one piggy bank after another astounds us with its emptiness, there have been only the faintest whispers about the possibility of an actual default by the U.S. government. Somewhat louder whispers can be heard, though, about the gradual default known as inflation. Just three or four years of currency erosion at, say, 10 percent a year would slice the real value of our debt -- public and private, U.S. bonds and jumbo mortgages -- in half.
Anyone who regards the prospect of double-digit inflation with insouciance is either too young to have lived through it the last time (the late 1970s) or too old to remember. Among other problems, inflation works only as a surprise or betrayal. It can never be part of any public, official plan. Plan for 10 percent inflation, and you'll get 20. Plan for 20 and you'll need a wheelbarrow to pay for your morning Starbucks. But if that's not the plan, what is?
Michael Kinsley is resuming a weekly column in The Post. His e-mail address is kinsleym@washpost.com.No one ever said making an album in the studio was easy. In most cases, it involves balancing inspiration and craft with countless hours of tedious and painstaking labor — recording each tiny piece independently of the others, then trying to graft them all together in a way that simulates the chemistry of a stage show. The challenge that faced the Brooklyn band The Antlers at NPR's SXSW day party wasn't much easier: to reverse-engineer that process, to turn something painstakingly layered into a sound that resonates in front of a crowd. That takes as much practice as possible between a record's completion and the tours that follow.
The Antlers' new album, Burst Apart, doesn't come out until May, so it took a measure of fearlessness for the group to play the whole thing front to back at on Thursday at The Parish in Austin, Texas. As on 2009's gorgeous, grief-stricken Hospice, the songs from the new album land where intensity and grace collide; the collection may be mournful and slow, but it builds in epic fashion. On the live stage in Austin, frontman Peter Silberman and company tore through its new songs with little discussion or fanfare — the occasional trumpet infusion aside — choosing instead to let each piece stand, precariously but triumphantly, on its own.
Band Personnel: Peter Silberman - Lead Vocals, Guitar; Darby Cicci - Keyboards; Michael Lerner - Drums; Tim Mislock - GuitarRoy Plunkett was only 27 years old and had been working as a chemist at the Jackson Laboratory at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company for just two years when, in the spring of 1938, he made a discovery that brought him lasting fame. He had been trying to invent a new type of Freon, a class of compounds that in the 1930s were proving to be immensely useful as the principal gases in refrigerators and air conditioners. Today we call them chlorofluorocarbons, or cfcs, and know them to be a major culprit in depleting the atmosphere’s ozone layer, but back then they were miracle substances--safe, nonflammable substitutes for toxic and even explosive refrigerants.
On an April morning 58 years ago, the young chemist could not have suspected that he was about to discover a material with such strange and unexpected properties that they had hardly even been dreamed of, a material that would eventually become an indispensable part of everything from space capsules to heart valves to frying pans--and one that had absolutely nothing to do with refrigeration. Roy Plunkett was about to discover Teflon.
The importance of Plunkett’s story, however, lies not so much in the triumph of invention and commercialization as in what it suggests about the nature of invention itself. Invention is often thought of as systematic problem solving, the kind that supposedly goes on at the well-manicured campuses of corporate research laboratories. In fact, many important inventions arose, and continue to arise, from the creative use of an accident or mistake. This is a unique and somewhat neglected form of creativity, every bit as ingenious and awesome as the more deliberate sort.
Much of the act of invention is shrouded in mystery, to be sure. Even when people set out to act purposefully and rationally, they wind up doing things they did not intend. In principle, the accident or the unexpected obstacle that gives rise to a creative invention is not all that different from the unexpected traffic jam that forces us to drive through a new and interesting neighborhood, the pesky weed that turns out to enhance our garden’s variety, or the empty shelf at the supermarket that spurs us to improvise a new recipe. But in practice, events like Plunkett’s are far fewer, and we cannot help asking ourselves: What makes it possible to turn the unlooked-for chance into novel fortune? Not surprisingly, we find a subtle interplay of individual and surroundings: a mind supple enough to turn a screwup into a creative opportunity, and an environment that makes such creativity possible.
By the time plunkett started working at Du Pont, the most widely used form of Freon was tetrafluorodichloroethane, also known as refrigerant 114. This was manufactured by a joint Du Pont- General Motors company called Kinetic Chemicals, which supplied it exclusively to the Frigidaire division of gm. Despite the Du Pont-gm link, the chemists at the Jackson Laboratory were responding to the requests of other refrigerator manufacturers for an equally effective refrigerant that could be sold more widely. Plunkett and his colleagues were thus attempting to manufacture a Freon variant that would get around Frigidaire’s patent control of refrigerant 114.
Plunkett hypothesized (correctly) that he could start with a compound called tetrafluoroethylene, or tfe, and cause it to react with hydrochloric acid to yield the desired alternative. To test this idea, he decided to make a large quantity of tfe, hitherto a rare and little studied compound. Following suggestions in the chemical literature, Plunkett set up an apparatus to make a hundred pounds of the gas. When asked later Why a hundred pounds? Plunkett replied that he needed a good bit of the gas not only to test for refrigerant properties but also to conduct toxicological tests on animals, and a hundred pounds just seemed like a round number.
Because making this much tfe was a complex operation, Plunkett decided to get it out of the way first. A hundred pounds was a lot of tfe, and to store it he needed to round up all the storage canisters he could get his hands on. The most convenient ones to obtain were metal cans, similar to the cans now used for hair sprays, insect poison, and other products in which cfcs serve as a propellant. He set his canisters on top of dry ice so that the tfe inside would liquefy and the pressure inside the cans would be kept low. Precisely these steps set the stage for Plunkett’s surprising discovery.
On the morning of April 6, Plunkett and his assistant, Jack Rebok, set up the apparatus for inducing their gas to react with hydrochloric acid. They put a cylinder of tfe on a scale, opened a valve to release the pressure, and allowed the vapor to enter a heated reaction chamber. Then they released a stream of hydrochloric acid into the chamber. The two scientists had run this process so many times in the weeks before that they probably felt they could do it in their sleep, but on this day something went wrong. Once they had put the apparatus together and opened the proper valves, Rebok reported that nothing was coming out of the tfe cylinder. The heft of the cylinder told the men it wasn’t empty, and the scale confirmed that it should contain most of the original gas, but even with the valve opened completely, nothing at all came out. They stuck a wire through the valve to unclog it, but still nothing happened.
Exasperated but mystified, Plunkett and Rebok then took off the valve and turned the cylinder upside down and shook it. Small flecks of white powder came drifting out. Plunkett’s first reaction was frustration and disgust, for he instantly surmised what had happened: the tfe in the cylinder had polymerized.
In hindsight, this conclusion was pretty surprising. As Plunkett himself later recalled, the general wisdom was that a chlorinated or fluorinated ethylene couldn’t polymerize. Like the proverbial bumblebee that flew because it didn’t know it was aerodynamically incapable of flight, the tfe didn’t know it couldn’t polymerize and went right ahead and did so. Rebok, a high school educated laboratory technician, exclaimed, What the hell is going on, Doc? Worried that they may have lost much of their valuable tfe to this pesky, unexpected reaction, Plunkett and Rebok cut open several of the storage canisters and discovered more than a little bit of white powder: the tfe actually lined the sides of the cylinders with a slick white coating. Curious, Plunkett performed some basic chemical tests but was frustrated: the powder wouldn’t react with any of the basic reagents at hand. He confirmed that the material indeed contained fluorine, but he could hardly determine anything else at that point, so intractable was the substance.
As Plunkett later observed, I didn’t know anything about polymer chemistry itself. How, then, did he conclude so swiftly that morning in April that the tfe had polymerized--that its relatively small, simple molecules had combined into long, repetitive chains (and even elaborate webs and tangles) to form giant molecules--transforming the substance itself in the process from a gas to a solid? How is it that his mind was prepared to interpret this chance result? Despite his inexperience with the chemistry of polymers, Plunkett was a well-informed, up-to-date organic chemist, familiar with a range of organic reactions. He knew how simple organic molecules, or monomers, could string themselves together into giant chains. As important, he had also been trained to keep his eyes open to the products of his experiments, whatever they might be--especially when they were not expected. The company in which he worked, moreover, had already established a reputation for nurturing research and discovery.
Plunkett was well aware that, at Du Pont, he was surrounded by the best polymer chemists in the world. These were the same people who at that time were putting the finishing touches on the greatest triumph of synthetic polymer chemistry to date: nylon.
If Teflon was the prototypical accidental invention of the twentieth century, then nylon was its opposite: a designer material, the product of a clearly directed, hardheaded scientific research campaign. And the emergence of the two different materials from the laboratories of the same company within months of each other underscores the peril of trying to reduce technological creativity to a formula.
In an important way, the deliberation that led to nylon paved the way for the accident that gave rise to Teflon. A decade before Plunkett gazed in puzzlement at his white-coated canisters, Charles M. A. Stine, the director of Du Pont’s Chemical Department, had initiated a program of basic chemical research aimed merely at discovering new scientific facts. A key focus for this work was polymerization, and to guide research in this area Stine hired a young Harvard instructor by the name of Wallace H. Carothers and installed him in a new laboratory at the Du Pont research center on the outskirts of Wilmington, Delaware.
When Carothers started at Du Pont, chemists were just beginning to accept the idea of polymerization. For years they believed that molecules, because they were by definition building blocks of materials, could not themselves take on elaborate proportions. The tendency of many important organic materials, such as proteins or cellulose, to behave as macromolecules was commonly ascribed to another phenomenon entirely-- their tendency to form colloids, or clusters, when put in solution. In the 1920s, however, the German chemist Hermann Staudinger exposed the flaws in the colloid theory. Other German chemists began to produce potentially valuable polymers in the laboratory--materials such as polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride, familiar to us as common plastics. Small wonder, then, that Du Pont wished to understand and exploit this new kind of chemistry.
Within just a few years, Carothers and his team had established important new theoretical and practical foundations for polymer chemistry, and they quickly exploited this knowledge for potential new products. Among the first polymer reactions that the Du Pont team explored was a fairly simple one that combined esters--compounds made by causing an acid and an alcohol to react and removing the water by-product--into long chains called polyesters. As early as 1930, Carothers’s chief associate, Julian Hill, demonstrated how this work might yield new synthetic fibers, a major goal of Du Pont’s polymer research from the first. When he dipped a glass rod into a beaker of experimental polyester and drew it out, the material emerged like a long strand of taffy. Once cooled and pulled, the strand stretched to four times its original length and then suddenly would stretch no further. Years later, Hill spoke with amazement of the sensation of virtually feeling the molecules lock into place. This cold-drawing was the key to making strong synthetic fibers.
Polyesters were easy enough to make, but concocting one that had a high melting point (early polyesters melted in boiling water) took several decades of further research. In the meantime, the Du Pont chemists turned their attention to polyamides, compounds made from the reaction of an ester with ammonia. Polyamides, they reasoned, should polymerize much as the esters did, and at the same time should more closely approach the desired toughness of silk. They were correct: by May 1934 Carothers’s lab produced the first version of what was to become known as nylon.
Over the next nine months, the Du Pont team continued its systematic attack, surveying more than 80 different polyamides and narrowing the field to five promising commercial possibilities. Eventually, polymer 6-6 was deemed the best, despite a somewhat disappointingly low melting point of 505 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the properties of the new fiber were suited to making finer women’s hosiery, a development team went to work solving the inevitable host of problems, from manufacturing the polymer in high quantity to finishing, spinning, dying, and working the fiber itself. Finally, in autumn 1938 the company announced, with enormous public fanfare on the grounds of the soon-to-be-opened World’s Fair at Flushing Meadow in New York City, the first man-made organic textile fiber. Nylon, made solely from coal, water, and air, was as strong as steel, as fine as the spider’s web. Most significantly, perhaps, the material was hailed by the press as a stirring confirmation of Du Pont’s new advertising promise: Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry. There could have been no grander testimony to the power of systematic scientific research to transform life through invention.
Tragically, a year and a half before the unveiling of nylon and just two days past his forty-first birthday, the moody Carothers took cyanide in a Philadelphia hotel room. Although he had suffered from severe bouts of depression off and on for years, his suicide shocked his colleagues. Carothers was at the peak of his scientific influence and technical creativity, and his untimely end added mystique to his reputation of genius. That reputation, however, was well deserved. Nylon is an example of outstanding scientific and inventive creativity. Back in the late 1920s, when Carothers was just beginning his research for Du Pont, chemists were still debating whether polymers even existed. By the time he died, chemists held dogmatically to the opposite belief--that these giant molecules made up most of the entire organic world around us. The nylon that he never saw to market stood for the next 50 years as the single most spectacular instance of chemical invention, of the capacity of scientifically trained chemists to refashion the natural world as they wished, simply from coal, water, and air.
The high standard of research that Carothers maintained is perhaps best exemplified by a brilliant young chemist he recruited to help put nylon on a firm scientific footing. Paul Flory, by a remarkable coincidence, had been Roy Plunkett’s roommate at tiny Manchester College in Indiana and had preceded Plunkett to both Ohio State and Du Pont. But the similarities end there, for while Plunkett was to content himself managing problems in chemical production at Du Pont his entire career, Flory went on to become one of America’s most accomplished research chemists, receiving the Nobel Prize in 1974 for his work in polymer chemistry. Carothers apparently recognized this promise when he put Flory to work analyzing polyamide reactions in 1934.
To some degree, the contrasting reputations of these two scientists underscore how the prejudices and styles of science and technology were evolving in the middle of the twentieth century. Whereas Plunkett proceeded by luck and serendipity, Flory took the high road of theoretical and systematic methodology, upon which corporate research laboratories increasingly sought to rely. With his stature and influence in the scientific community, Flory embodied the growing prestige attached to theoretical science. Roy Plunkett’s relative obscurity showed how far technological creativity had come to be seen as an almost purely corporate, communal activity.
All of this, of course, lay in the future as Plunkett struggled to make sense of his laboratory failure in early April 1938. He thought the tfe had polymerized, but how could he test it? When heated, the tfe softened like a plastic, melted, and eventually went up in smoke. When he tried to dissolve it, it wouldn’t mix with any liquid available in the laboratory. Intrigued, he sent some of the flaky material to Du Pont’s Central Research Department. They made a bigger batch of the stuff and found that with some difficulty they could mold it. One of the first things they noticed was that it was extremely slick. A few more tests revealed that it resisted electric currents as well as it did most chemical action. In short, it was the slickest, most inert material they had ever seen. Although this seemed promising in a theoretical sort of way, Plunkett recalled, this stuff was going to cost so much that nobody was ever going to buy it.
Such thoughts, though, did not deter Plunkett from spending a few more months investigating what had happened inside his cylinders of tfe. Eventually he succeeded in figuring out what combination of temperature, pressure, and other conditions had occurred by chance inside the cylinders, and how to reproduce it. Once he was able to describe the polymerization reaction that yielded polytetrafluoroethylene, or ptfe, he filed a patent on Du Pont’s behalf. Still, the expensive, unwieldy material might have been quickly shelved had it not been for the outbreak of World War II and the crash project to build an atomic bomb. Producing the radioactive isotope of uranium that served as fuel for the bomb required handling enormous quantities of uranium hexafluoride, one of the most caustic and toxic substances known. Scientists needed something that would resist its corrosive action, and Plunkett’s ptfe (the name Teflon was not coined until 1944) fit the bill. Taking advantage of ptfe’s transparency to radar and its electrical resistivity, engineers also molded it into nose cones for proximity bombs. These wartime applications convinced Du Pont and others that the material’s special properties warranted the effort and expense of additional research to lower its cost and improve methods of production. It took more than a decade after the war ended, but eventually Teflon was made cheap enough for use in consumer products.
Roy Plunkett’s own involvement in developing the material he invented did not survive the war years. After all, he was not a polymer chemist, and so he was perfectly happy to take on other Du Pont assignments, although as the company continued to file patents around the world on his discovery, he was repeatedly called on to sign the applications.
Nobody doubts that nylon was a great feat of scientific creativity. But what of Teflon? Do we just chalk it up as a lucky fluke, falling outside the realm of creative technology? Or is it the fruit of another kind of creativity, one that, although perhaps harder to recognize at first glance, is as fundamental a part of the story of invention as the systematic campaigns that we are told about so readily?
Louis pasteur |
. And it's not hard to understand why. Just imagine if, say, France engaged in the kind of antics that we've seen in Washington lately. (Update: the situation has gotten so bad that nearly three-quarters of Americans lack confidence in lawmakers' ability to address the country's economic woes, according to an Aug. 11 Washington Post poll.)
In an interview with CNN, the man responsible for S&P’s downgrade, John Chambers, cited the events of August 2, when the country came within 10 hours of insolvency, as an example of the kind of brinksmanship that AAA countries simply don’t indulge in.
He also emphasized that Congress this summer has not been debating whether to spend more money; the spending decisions were made in April when Congress adopted the 2011 fiscal year budget (more than six months late). Instead, Congress was debating whether to pay the bills that it had already incurred. Among citizens, that kind of behavior can result in jail time or property seizure. As S&P has concluded, this is political lunacy, pure and simple.
Ironically, there’s no excuse for political lunacy in the world we currently live in. Solving America’s debt problem is within reach, just as it was under the Clinton administration when the country was actually paying down its obligations. These days, much of the data needed to understand the nation’s debt woes is literally at the finger tips of every citizen, in reports such as this one, from the hardworking nerds at the Government Accountability Office — a widely respected, non-partisan arbiter of federal facts and figures. The report lays out, in plain English, the causes and the size of the debt problem. Read it and you’ll learn, for example, that:
The trillion dollar deficits in President Bush’s last year and President Obama’s first two are attributable to “‘automatic stabilizers,’ helping to support the economy during a downturn by increasing spending and reducing tax collections.” These kicked-in without legislative changes. The deficits, therefore, “should decline as the economy recovers” (see page ii).
Obamacare is slated to actually save the country money. As GAO puts it: “The Affordable Care Act is projected to significantly lower Medicare spending and raise receipts… [although] there is uncertainty about whether the projected cost reductions in health care cost growth will be fully achieved” (see page ix).
Corporations sent a mere $179.6 billion to Washington in 2010, about 10 percent of what individuals paid in income and payroll tax (see page iv).
Closing the long-term budget hole would require a budget rebalance — through spending cuts and tax increases — at modest annual average of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product over the long term. But with debt piling up, failing to take action right away would dramatically worsen the problem (see page ix).
Elsewhere on the web, you’ll learn that America has one of the rich world’s lowest tax rates as a percent of GDP, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Only three upper-income countries – Turkey, Mexico and Chile — collect less tax revenue. Most collect far more. Germany, whose economy sizzles, collects over 50 percent more than the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S. taxes have dropped significantly, from 29.5 percent in 2000 to an estimated 24 percent in 2009.
When you look at the facts, suddenly, America’s fiscal problems don’t seem so dire after all — until you consider the political reality that most Republicans in Congress have signed a pact never to raise any taxes, even if it means destroying the nation's balance sheet in the process.
The problem is, America long ago abandoned its ties to a fact-based reality, in favor of facile and glossy truthiness. Who, after all, would spend a half hour reading a thoughtful document with numbers crunched by geeks when on YouTube, you can watch a Republican strategist's slick video showing Obama withdrawing trillions from an ATM, running up the national debt, never mind the facts?
More from David Case at GlobalPost: 7 Deadly Stories, a world awash in debt
Who would peruse the government's financial statements when you can watch camera-friendly Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann blame Obama for the “Standard and Poor” (sic) downgrade, saying that he “destroyed the credit rating of the United States through his failed economic policies, and his inability to control government spending by raising the debt ceiling.” Does Bachmann — currently a 2012 presidential frontrunner — understand the implications of her words? Does she understand that failing to increase the debt ceiling would have not only led to a downgrade, but also a default on America’s obligations, causing a serious global crisis and making everyone poorer?
Apparently not. Beginning in July, she ran TV ads vowing in no uncertain terms to reject the debt ceiling increase, regardless of the terms. That, even though two months earlier she had voted in favor of trillions in additional deficit spending — an impossibility without a debt ceiling increase.
There’s political lunacy for you. Unfortunately for anyone with savings, S&P and Egan-Jones had a point.
Follow author David Case on Twitter: Follow @DavidCaseReportKoide Hiroaki has dedicated his career to preventing a nuclear disaster in Japan. That disaster has now happened. As we learn in this wide-ranging and important interview, the accident often referred to as 3/11 was enormous and in many ways unprecedented. The full scope of the disaster is still unknown, but is clearly on the scale of Chernobyl, placing the amount of radioactive material released into the atmosphere possibly up to 1,000 times the Hiroshima bombing of 1945. Professor Koide's reporting in his many books, interviews, and radio programs is essential reading for anyone wishing to learn the nature and extent of the radiological event of March 2011 and beyond. But early in the interview we learn something else. For while in ways unprecedented, 3/11 is also a part of a historical series of nuclear exposures from the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert in July 1945, to the Castle-Bravo Lucky Dragon Incident of 1954, to Semipalatinsk, to Chernobyl, and to the next sure-to-happen event.1 In fact, while it is clear that the urgent social, political, and medical task right now is the acute contamination of land, air, sea, and bodies by the Fukushima dai-ichi meltdowns, as Prof. Koide says, as bad as Fukushima is, "a much greater event has already taken place." His immediate reference is the enormous amount radioactive material released in the atmospheric testing from 1945 to 1980.2
Though many decades in the past, these radioactive releases at the height of the Cold War continue to contaminate the entire globe. Originally, huge amounts of radioactive material, several times greater than Chernobyl or Fukushima, were released into the air and dispersed by the prevailing winds and jet stream before falling on the oceans and land contaminating huge areas of the earth-especially in the main test sites in the South Pacific, the US West, and Kazakhstan. But some of this released material breached the tropopause, the soft barrier between the troposphere and the stratosphere, escaping the troposphere before becoming trapped aloft in the stratosphere. Recently it has been discovered that major spring thunderstorms-and notably the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland- regularly rise high enough to breach the tropopause. Radioactive particles, mostly plutonium and Cesium-137, now decades old, attach to the storms and fall back to earth as a fresh contamination of material from atmospheric testing. As prof. Koide points out this means that the entire earth has been and continues to be exposed to radiation from these tests. Following the widely accepted model of radiation exposure as damaging at all levels-the linear, no threshold model (LNT)-it follows that this exposure led to a rise of damage to global health, especially childhood thyroid cancer, leukemia, and other health effects.3
But 3/11 is not only one in a series of radiation contaminations dating back to the birth of the atomic age. These nuclear disasters are also part of a larger historical series of toxic events dating back to the birth of the industrial age. Prof. Koide himself notes the parallels of his own work with the Japanese anti-pollution activist Tanaka Shōzō's (1841-1913) fight against the pollution of the Watarase and Tone rivers north of Tokyo by the Ashio Copper Mine in the 1890s. Fukushima must be seen in the context of these other toxic events, one in a series which, though the particular pollutant may have been different, all share a family resemblance: each names a particular site of industrial capitalist production that results in the contamination of a space that in turn requires the sacrifice of that region for future use and the loss of the means of life by any who live in the area. The list of these national sacrifice zones is long and growing: Ashio, Minamata, Grassy Narrows, Ontario, Hinkley, California, the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone, Bikini Atoll, the "downwind" sections of the Great Basin of eastern California, Nevada, and western Utah,4 Hanford, Washington and Ozersk, Kazakhstan,5 Chernobyl. The list now includes a region some 20km around Fukushima dai-ichi.
Tanaka Shōzō glimpsed the logic of the national sacrifice zone in 1902 when he fought against the Japanese state's seizing of the village of Yanaka and displacing its residents in order to build a flood control reservoir. For Tanaka, this enormous re-making of the Watarase and Tone rivers signaled no less than converting an entire watershed that had served as a centuries-long source of production and sustenance into a sink of contaminants: "If [the pollution] continues too long, the river's headwaters will trickle out from a poisoned mountain of foul rocks and polluted soil that wholly penetrates the water, forming a second [toxic] nature (dai ni no tensei o nashi); once this happens there will be no saving anyone."6 This event was the turning point in Japan's environmental history, one that was repeated across the globe in the 19-20th centuries. The insatiable drive for more powerful energy sources to fuel more economic growth is everywhere hitting barriers, creating more and more national sacrifice zones on larger and larger scales.
The growing toxicity of daily life stretches from the local and personal in the toxic working environments of computer production and waste disposal to the truly global. With global warming, ocean acidification, bioaccumulation of mercury, desertification, and countless other alarming trends we risk sacrificing the earth itself as these trends combine to make the earth less and less amenable to increased or even stable production of the means of subsistence. 2002 marked an uptick in global food prices that has continued to this day, reversing a centuries long trend of cheaper food-a trend that drove much of the economic progress since the nineteenth century. Global food prices in 2014 were 127% of 20027 and show few signs of stopping their rise. The implications for increasing toxicity and undemocratic politics in an era of unprecedented rising food prices are dire, as the motivation to dig deeper for water and nutrients will require even greater projects that demand ever greater chemical and energy inputs.
The Cosmic Horror of Hoshanō sekai
Even so the nuclear question remains special-a culmination or apotheosis of this longer trend. As we learn in the interview, a nuclear disaster is different from other contaminations. Because of the very nature of radiation, namely its spatial and temporal scales, in many ways we lack a language adequate to a world lorded over by radiation. The literary genre called Cosmic Horror of Algernon Blackwood or H. P. Lovecraft has long attempted to grasp the frightening realities of unleashing a force that operates on such a-human scales and temporalities as plutonium-239 (half-life over 24,000 years) or uranium-235 (half-life over 700 million years). The Horror writer and arch-pessimist Thomas Ligotti perhaps comes closest to describing the implications of unleashing truly astronomical forces into human everyday life when he writes: "Such is the motif of supernatural horror: Something terrible in its being comes forward and makes its claim as a shareholder in our reality, or what we think is our reality and ours alone. It may be an emissary from the grave, or an esoteric monstrosity…. It may be the offspring of a scientific experiment with unintended consequences…. Or it may be a world unto itself of pure morbidity, one suffused with a profound sense of doom without a name - Edgar Allan Poe's world."8 In our present of 2016 the sense of doom does have a name: Hoshanō sekai-Radiation's World. Radiation's World announces that the earth-or at least large parts of it-is no longer exclusively ours. We have rendered huge spaces of the planet off limits for time periods beyond any scale of recorded history.9 Parallel to but different than the rapacious depletion of the natural world from forests to cod stocks to fossil fuels that took millennia to build up but are consumed in decades, as we mine deeper temporalities in pursuit of open ended consumption we have also unleashed anti-human temporalities incompatible with continued production or consumption.10 It is these spaces that are now ruled by radiation and are no longer part of human society. Like the old Horror trope, we have unleashed forces that we cannot contain. But unlike Horror, there is no discrete monster to kill at the end.11 Pessimism is surely called for.
Though our world of cosmic horror may have a name, hoshanō sekai likely does not have a politics. At Ashio, Tanaka fought the re-engineering of the watershed by building different relations to the river in the doomed village of Yanaka, a politics he called Yanaka Studies (Yanakagaku). In the post-war period the physician and activist Harada Masazumi called his effort to rebuild the fishing village poisoned by methyl mercury effluent Minamata Studies (Minamatagaku). And globally there is the Salvagepunk movement to reclaim abandoned urban zones by reassembling of collapsing infrastructure from Detroit to the Parisian banlieuses.12 But the very nature of radiation thwarts this process. There cannot be an Atomic Punk. The 20 km zone around the Fukushima plant has been appropriated by radiation and will not be re-appropriated by humans for decades - the site itself remains off limits for much longer. Because the monitoring equipment was destroyed by the accident itself, the oft-cited maximum recorded doses of 25 mSv/yr cover only the first four months of the disaster and only include external radiation. Adding internal radiation through inhaling radioactive dust or consumption of radioactive food and water means the levels are necessarily higher. Further, current readings take only the readings in the air and not in the soil or water.13 A purely technical fix seems unlikely as even robots may not safely venture onto the reactor site, putting a pessimistic spin on the term post-human. The contamination has its own lifespan; it can only be moved and hopefully contained, in some cases for millennia. Populations cannot safely repopulate the area no matter what alternative politics they may practice. As prof. Koide and many others note, there is nothing to do but cede the ground to radiation and relocate.
Though a long planned Cold War prelude to the remilitarization of Japan, the new State Secrets Law of 2014 was predictably used first to control the information on the levels of contamination outside the 20km exclusion zone. And thus the long historical trend linking toxicity and undemocratic politics is renewed and extended. It is likely this very nexus of toxicity and undemocratic politics that is the source of the repetition compulsion at the core of the historical series of national sacrifice zones. Just as the existence of nuclear weapons requires a national security state, the existence of nuclear power presupposes appropriation of the kind resisted since Ashio. In short, the nuclear reactors instantiate a fundamentally untenable social relation to nature-and thus a fundamentally untenable social relation to life itself. What is called for is a new environmental regime based on an ecologically sound everyday life. This is Tanaka's Yanaka Studies. It is the physician Harada Masazumi's Minamata Studies, and it is a yet to be formed Fukushima Studies. But a Fukushima Studies must start, as Prof. Koide tells us, with the immediate end to nuclear power. Though radiation contamination does not have a technical fix, it may have a political one. As Prof. Koide says, Germany has done just this: declared an end to nuclear power.14 This is the necessarily political decision that can then be the basis of a new energy regime. This is not easy, but it is possible. The encouraging grassroots politicization of "electricity conservation" (setsuden) of recent years has shown the feasibility of just such a new energy regime in Japan, one without nuclear power or increased imports of polluting coal and oil. But this trend is countered by others. In the face of strong anti-nuclear protests, the Abe government has already restarted reactors in Kyushu, and just as Prof. Koide feared in his discussion of the 2014 LDP election, the government has plans to restart the others moving towards a Japanese energy regime hardly changed from before the Fukushima disaster. Prof. Koide's career was not able to prevent the disaster. But his message still points the way to a better future. With the popular mood turned into a political movement-a movement that the 2014 election shows is not yet currently on the horizon-a less toxic, more democratic society is surely possible. More, it is necessary.
Recommended citation: Robert Stolz, "Nuclear Disasters: A Much Greater Event Has Already Taken Place Robert Stolz", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 6, No. 2, March 15, 2016.This has been a big week for weird business news. Ikea rolled out veggie meatballs in most U.S. stores, Burger King sponsored the wedding of Joel Burger and Ashley King and “Price is Right” model Manuela Arbeláez accidently gave away a $21,960 car to a contestant. Here are some more odd stories that you might have missed:
Taco Bell on Fleek
Taco Bell is going Hipster. They’re trying to appeal to Millennials, hard. The Yum-brands owned company recently released a 1984-esque film bashing McDonalds breakfast food, created sriracha-inspired meals and even told the world via Twitter that they’re on fleek (that’s Millennial speak for on point).
Now the company has announced that they will start opening restaurants inside of shipping containers and…ready for this? Start a delivery service…Congratulations Taco Bell; you’ve just brought Netflix binges to the next level.
People of Walmart
Port Richey, a small city in the Tampa area of Florida has a crime problem and it all stems from the local Walmart. According to police statistics 46% of crime in the city comes from the super store. Police Captain Bill Fergison is sick of it. “We have some problems with shoplifting, pick-pocketing, some of the cars are broken into," he says. "We do have some domestic incidences, and some road-rage incidents in the parking lot." Police typically respond to problems at the store twice a day.
Police surveillance showed one 77-year old woman getting into a fight over a parking spot, hitting a man with her car and driving around the parking lot with him on the hood. Maybe she was just excited about the everyday low prices? Police are currently working with Walmart officials to come up with a crime reduction plan.
In a statement to Bay 9 News, Walmart officals wrote, “Our asset protection team does a great job in identifying people who break the law in our stores which demonstrates that Walmart is the wrong place to attempt these crimes. And while Walmart is effective at detecting these crimes, we will continue to collaborate with local police to focus on crime prevention."
Missing house
Hold on to your houses! But seriously…be careful. This week a family in eastern Washington was baffled to find that their vacation cabin was missing. “We drove up to the cabin and the cabin was gone, it was just an empty hole where it used to sit,” said owner Chris Hempel. “We’re just kind of at a loss right now. Like, seriously?” But fear not, just three days after the cabin went missing it was found a few miles away, stolen via flatbed truck by people who intended to live in it. Police say they have identified the likely suspects.
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Burger King perfume, adult preschool and Mr. T wants to redo your home: Weird business newsNearly one metric ton of methamphetamine was seized during a raid in Manila, Philippines. (AARON FAVILA/AP)
The Philippines has recorded its largest drug seizure in history, sequestering 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine worth nearly $120 million.
The seizures were conducted in a series of raids this month. At 2,000 pounds, the contraband weighs nearly 1 metric ton.
"It is not only the biggest haul for this year, but so far the biggest in history," said Vitaliano Aguirre II, the justice secretary, in Manilla Tuesday.
Aguirre noted that "this is the biggest bust by any enforcement agency." Anti-narcotics operations have led to the arrest of 10 suspects in the case, including three Chinese nationals.
In prosecuting his national drug war, Duterte has openly compared himself to Adolf Hitler, and mused about killing millions.
Some U.S. lawmakers last week wrote the Obama administration questioning the "legalities and appropriateness" of the $32 million in U.S. funding for security forces in the country, in light of recent developments.
"Recipients of our financial assistance must align with our values and ideals, including respect for human rights and the rule of law," Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. wrote in a Dec. 22 letter to the State Department's bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs.
The senators urged the U.S. to denounce "horrific violations of basic human rights" perpetrated by Duterte's government and extrajudicial death squads, and cited figures that perhaps close to 6000 have been killed in his drug war so far.INDIANAPOLIS -- An IMPD officer accidentally discharged a gun during the funeral for Southport police Lt. Aaron Allan, striking and injuring a Marion County Sheriff's deputy.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department dispatch said the woman, who is a deputy with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, was grazed by the bullet on her right leg.
The shot went off in the main seating area toward the end of the funeral inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse as officers were being escorted out to join the funeral procession.
IMPD said the two became entangled by being in such a tight space.
"You can see, if you get some keys down inside the holster, it could actually grab your trigger and defeat the safety when they stood up, being in close quarters. When they pulled apart the weapon discharged," said an official with IMPD.
An ambulance took the deputy to Eskenazi Hospital. The injury did not appear to be serious and she has been resting at home, according to IMPD.
The male officer was placed on administrative duty following the shooting, but once the investigation revealed it was an accident, he was allowed to work with the public again.A petition demanding officials in the United States Armed Forces value the religious liberty of cadets received more than 100,000 signatures and was then sent to the Air Force Academy on June 25th. American Family Association and Family Research Council together drafted the petition after there were reports of some kind of religious fanaticism at the academy. The petition addressed to Air Force Academy superintendent Lieutenant General Michelle Johnson seeks to restore religious freedom in the military and urges supporters to voice their opinions in favour of Air Force cadets.
“I trust the Air Force Academy to train up the best young men and women our nation has to offer to be prepared to faithfully defend my family, my community and my country. Part of that trust hinges upon the notion that the Academy would protect the religious freedom of the cadets we send it,” read the petition.
The petition also says if the academy whitewashes religion, it will lead to a culture of fear among cadets and the academy will fail to develop warriors.
“If cadets are taught to be afraid of Bible verses, how will they respond against terrorists who are willing to die for their cause?” continued the petition.
Over the last few years, people have debated over the level of religious freedom granted in the United States military, with conservatives saying military officials often punish subordinates for openly expressing their faith in Christianity and this highlights a growing culture of intolerance.
Sandy Rios, AFA director of government affairs said, “Military leaders need to be reminded they answer to the people of the United States, not a well-funded, demanding atheist. Now it's the Americans who send their sons off to war and embrace the God of our fathers time to be heard. Under the umbrella of the Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition, this is only the beginning. Simply put: We expect the Air Force Academy to immediately stop harassing and intimidating cadets from exercising their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion.”
According to Jason Torpy, president of Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, different organizations use the academy to instill fear among their constituents, which is why the voice of cadet officers is almost always lost. Most of the cadets want to solely focus on becoming Air Force officers and not getting involved in religious propaganda. While the military cannot ignore the needs of freethinkers, usually promoting the agenda of Christian evangelists, the Air Force Academy is not particularly good or bad in this regard, according to Torpy.Mar 06, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Georgetown Hoyas forward Otto Porter Jr. (22) looks to inbound the ball during the first half against the Villanova Wildcats at the Wells Fargo Center. Villanova defeated Georgetown 67-57. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
As a result of a hip flexor he suffered during a voluntary workout several weeks ago, Washington Wizards rookie Otto Porter missed five consecutive days of training camp, which came to a conclusion late this afternoon.
Porter has been dealing with various injuries throughout his time with the Wizards, starting with a right hamstring issue during Summer League which kept him out for the majority of time. Despite missing significant time during the summer league, having time to be around the actual team in a practice setting was probably more important for his development. Now that the Wizards training camp is over, Porter certainly missed a valuable opportunity to get familiarized with the team and the players he’ll play along side this season.
Even though the Wizards are set at the small forward position with both Martell Webster and Trevor Ariza competing for the starting spot, it’s important that Porter finds his way into the rotation in order to get accustomed to playing with John Wall and Bradley Beal. At the end of the day, the Wizards picked the Georgetown alumni because he fits seamlessly with their star studded backcourt, and if he cannot find time on the floor, his development could be stunted.
So, now what?
Otto Porter obviously couldn’t participate in contact drills or scrimmage with his teammates, but he was still able to shoot and do light workouts. Randy Wittman continued to apply his defensive and offensive schemes with the rest of the club despite Porter’s absence, so the assistant coaching staff has been working with Porter so he doesn’t fall too far behind. Porter sat on the sidelines and watched the rest of the team execute the plays and schemes he’ll be a part of during the season, but that could only go so far. Being on the court while the actual drills are happening is a lot different than simply watching them getting put to action, so let’s hope Porter is truly is a student of the game by learning through what he’s seen.
Porter has missed invaluable time to establish himself, especially as a rookie. The Wizards still have an open practice left for the fans this Friday night before they start their preseason, so let’s hope Porter will be ready by then. According to Randy Wittman, Porter is still listed as day to day and should be ready to go whenever the discomfort goes away.
It’s not time to push the panic button, but I am a bit concerned. Hopefully it’ll all go well.
What are your thoughts on Porter missing the entire training camp? Any worries? Let me know in the comment section below.In a statement, the company said it had a “serious negative operating cash flow” which raised “serious doubts” about its ability to continue as a going concern, and said it was taking steps, including pay cuts, voluntary redundancies and asset sales, to generate cash flow.
While Sharp is in the most serious trouble, the three companies’ woes are similar at the core.
All three make good quality, even cutting-edge products — but so do their overseas competitors, usually at lower prices. None of the three have managed to generate the brand pizazz of Apple, or the marketing muscle of Samsung Electronics. In addition, a stubbornly strong yen continues to sap their competitiveness, while Japan’s territorial dispute with China has hurt sales there.
The scale of the losses is the result of specific missteps, from huge investments in the wrong technologies to a reluctance to exit loss-making businesses. A manufacturing bubble here in the mid-2000s — fed partly by an unusually weak currency and Americans flush with cash from rising home prices — masked continued weaknesses in their business models and spurred the companies to take big bets that backfired.
When the global financial crisis brought that boom to an end in 2008, the three were saddled with excess capacity, bloated work forces and investments that they could hardly hope to recoup. And their refusal to make a big enough departure from the ways of their glory years is now making a comeback difficult.
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“Many investors are longing for reforms that will let all of the pus out,” Yuji Fujimori, technology analyst at Barclays Capital in Tokyo, said in a recent note to clients.
Sharp’s stumble, in many ways, has been the most humbling. It was the biggest beneficiary of the manufacturing bubble: from 2000 to 2007, its profits jumped 150 percent. Sharp’s high-end Aquos liquid-crystal display televisions — which it manufactured at state-of-the-art factories in Kameyama, in western Japan — were a runaway hit in the nascent flat-panel market. The spinoff Aquos cellphone topped Japanese sales rankings. Sharp’s solar batteries also sold briskly, helped by a bubble in green technologies.
The company’s success during this period seemed to validate Japan’s penchant for manufacturing their most important products in-house. In advertisements, Sharp showed off its cutting-edge factories.
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But even before the financial crisis, analysts were warning of an impending crash in prices of flat-panel televisions, which were fast becoming commodities that cheap upstarts could emulate. In 2008, the iPhone made its debut in Japan, the end of an era for Japanese-style cellphones. Chinese upstarts were starting to flood global markets with cheap solar panels and batteries. In consumer electronics, outsourced manufacturing became the norm.
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Still, Sharp did not change course. It built a new factory in Sakai, Japan, which could make 6 million large LCD panels a year — more than the size of the global market at the time. Sharp missed the smartphone wave, and its cellphone sales in Japan halved from 2007 to 2012. And in late 2011, the solar bubble burst, driving many solar power companies into bankruptcy and Sharp’s solar batteries business into the red. The unit has not turned a profit since.
Now, the Kameyama factories no longer make televisions but panels for Apple’s iPhones and iPads.
Panasonic, for its part, also bet heavily on plasma televisions in 2003, pouring some 600 billion yen into a series of factories in Amagasaki, not far from Sharp’s own plant. It also bet on solar panels and rechargeable batteries, buying Sanyo in 2009.
But with plasma now a fading technology and solar power struggling, Panasonic is saddled with major losses. Last year, it announced that a factory in Amagasaki was closing, less than two years after it opened.
Kazuhiro Tsuga, who took the helm at Panasonic this year, was blunt in describing his company’s predicament. “We are among the losers in consumer electronics," he told a news conference on Wednesday. He now promises to shift the company away from money-losing televisions and gadgets.
Of the three, Sony now seems the most prescient. Its executives have preached the power of networks and content since the 1990s, building up a vast catalog of music and movies to lure users to their devices. Sony has also moved to slash costs and jobs and sell off some unprofitable businesses, refocusing the company on digital cameras and imaging technology, video games and mobile devices. This quarter, the sale of its chemical products business, which made materials for LCDs and optical discs, helped alleviate losses. Sony is now making a push into the medical field with an investment in the endoscope maker Olympus.
Internal squabbling has quashed its efforts to marry its hardware and software, however, and it refuses to abandon one of its biggest money-losers, its television business, which has bled red ink for eight consecutive years.
“We intend to hunker down and build a profitable business,” Masaru Kato, Sony’s chief financial officer, told a news conference Thursday. “And where we can, we will chase new markets.”The era of mercurial Maple Leafs’ player Phil Kessel is truly over in Toronto. The right winger’s luxury College Park condo has sold for $3.325 million, $565,000 below the asking price. The 5,000 square foot apartment features five walk-outs to a wrap-around terrace overlooking panoramic skyline views; 10-ft. ceilings and a custom family room with a media wall. It sold with a private two-car garage.
“The condo is unlike any other condo in Toronto,” said listing agent Geoffrey Fulton of Keller Williams Referred Urban Realty. “Phil (Kessel) extended his contract when he was living in the condo and he didn’t choose to live anywhere else. He loved that condo. He scored about 400 points in 446 games there so I think he was pretty happy,” he said. Described "as a home in the sky... truly without rival," on the real estate listing, the open-plan, three-plus-one-bedroom condo features "custom controlled sunshades", a surround sound entertainment system and a six-piece, spa-like master bath.
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The chef's kitchen is outfitted with granite, marble and limestone and there are cornices throughout and coffered ceilings. Taxes for the property are listed at $15,000 Kessel, who will earn $10 million this year in Pittsburgh, won’t see much profit from the Toronto property he bought for $3.150 million in Oct. 2009, the year he joined the Maple Leafs. The condo was first listed last July when Kessel was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Initially it was priced at $4.1 million and then relisted at a lower $3.890 million. “This category of real estate can take up to a year to sell,” said Fulton.
Phil Kessel's three-bedroom College Park condo has sold for $3.3 million, half a million under the asking price. ( 761bay.com )
The unit features two separate terraces. Former Leafs' player Phil Kessel bought the Bay St. condo in 2009 and just sold it for $3.3 million.
Former Leafs' player Phil Kessel's condo has sold for $3.3 million. The 5,000 square foot unit features 10-ft. ceilings and panoramic views.
The custom family room features a surround-sound entertainment system and a media wall.
The living room features panoramic views of the city and custom controlled sunshades.
The 5,000 square foot condo features 10-ft. ceilings and panoramic views of Toronto.
The master bedroom features corner windows and access to a second terrace. The College Park condo was just sold by former Leafs' player Phil Kessel, who bought the unit in 2009.
The ensuite bathroom features twin sinks and a separate glass-walled shower.
The ensuite bathroom has a soaker tub and lots of natural light.
Read more about:Over the weekend, Republican Senate candidate Sharon Angle told the founder of the Christian Coalition that her campaign was part of God’s plan.
Angle is trying to build a wide coalition in Nevada between libertarian-leaning Tea Party supporters and social conservatives in an attempt to defeat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Conservative activist Ralph Reed asked Angle about her surging popularity in an interview posted to his website Tuesday.
“How do you explain all this?” Reed queried. “You’re now a national story, are you kind of overwhelmed by it all?”
“I believe that God has been in this from the beginning and because of that when he has a plan and a purpose for your life and you fit into that, what he calls you to he always equipped you for,” said Angle.
The Huffington Post‘s San Stein notes that Angle’s religion has been more a part of her campaign than other Tea Party candidates. “She is devoutly pro-life, arguing against abortion in cases of rape and incest because ‘God has a plan,'” reported Stein.
Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody described Angle’s effort to unseat Reid as a true “David vs Goliath” scenario.
“I think the reason is a calling,” she recently told a congregation at a church in Carson City, Nevada. “It’s interesting how when you have God in your life that he directs your path.”
This video is from Ralph Reed, uploaded to YouTube July July 13, 2010.Time to explain, briefly, the recent glut of carb-free recipes here at Salad Club: I try to follow the GI diet wherever possible which means no refined starchy carbohydrates like bread, pasta, potatoes, sugar and, very sadly, beer. As you may have guessed, however, I very rarely deprive myself of the things I love and there is |
chunks and encrypted (utilising self-encryption) before being stored at random locations selected by the network. Resources are not added to it by an IT administrator; instead nodes join the network anonymously, and are split into small groups at random without any central authority. Each node performs a number of different and clearly defined tasks. These groups, we call them close groups, change as nodes disconnect from and reconnect to the network. They work together making decisions (such as where to store data, who has authority to access data…etc…) on behalf of the network based on the messages they receive. The more technically minded can read in depth about that here.
The network also optimises itself by creating more copies of popular data increasing its availability in order that data requests are served more quickly. This feature also enables SAFE websites to actually speed up as they get more visitors. This is very much contrary to the status quo where we have become accustomed to websites slowing down, or even crashing in severe circumstances under the weight of user requests. Should the network split for any reason, for example through loss of power, it will merge as power is restored, and it will correct faults, such as detecting corrupt data chunks and automatically replacing them with good copies as a result of the networks ongoing data integrity checks.
Remove the middlemen
This design sounds complex, and at the implementation level it is, the dark bags under the eyes of our engineers are testament to that fact, but at a high level it is simple. An approach inspired by the humble ant whose millions of years of evolution influenced the network’s design. Ant colonies exhibit complex and highly organised behaviour without a central authority based on a simple rule set whereby each ant fulfils different duties based on the needs of the colony. Similarly, nodes (computers) on the SAFE Network function in a similar manner where network nodes perform different functions based on the types of messages they receive.
The ant colony shows us that this self managing and self organising behaviour is possible on a massive scale. But why should we try and emulate ants and remove central authorities from the management of our data? Surely for something as important as this, humans are required to oversee operations?
Photo David Higgins
Well, for a start humans are, well human. At our best we are creative, brilliant and passionate, but at our worst we get tired, emotional and we make mistakes. Many data breaches are caused by human error and attackers rely on human interaction to carry out attacks. Researchers at security company Rapid7 found a substantial decline in security alerts on weekends and public holidays which they attribute to less employees interacting with malicious emails, attachments, links and websites. This is in part a result of a lack of training and awareness, only 20% of companies provide cyber security training to their staff, and only 33% have formal policies in place to guide employees.
Human error has also played a significant part in problems with Silicon Valley’s best known companies. In 2011, developers at cloud storage provider Dropbox introduced a bug that left their 25 million client accounts unprotected for 4 hours. Dropbox were subsequently alerted to the problem by an external security researcher and fixed the authentication issue.
Late last year Twitter deleted the account of their CEO Jack Dorsey who lost 700,000 followers in the process citing an ‘internal mistake. Around the same time Facebook deleted posts addressing fake news by their CEO Mark Zuckerberg in error.
While the irony of these incidents can be amusing, they do expose a more serious issue. Not only are humans prone to mistakes, it also highlights that we are afforded access to our accounts and our data by the service providers. We do not really own our information in the true sense of the word. Access to our own data can be removed at any time by the providers either mistakenly or at the request of others.
Physical Security
Physical security plays a hugely important part in all of this. This is one of the major features that an autonomous data networks provides. In data terms, physical security is where the data cannot be: deleted, changed, corrupted, and/or accessed without your (the data owner’s) consent. Only by removing humans from the management of our data can physical security be provided, and is only possible when the storage locations are unknown to anyone but the network, and the user cannot be identified.
Any service where data is stored on servers, federated servers, owned storage locations, or on identifiable nodes, cannot ensure the security of data and brings us no closer to real unfettered ownership of our data. This also includes blockchain based solutions.
The SAFE Network provides physical security by ensuring that only the network knows where the data is and only the user can access it. Even MaidSafe staff don’t know who is on the network, where they are based, what has been stored and where the data is located. SAFE users make a deal with the network and only the data owner can delete or modify the original piece of data with the network verifying who has the right to access each piece of data.
Autonomous things are already starting to have a huge benefit across a number of industries and we are just scratching the surface in finding out how they can positively impact upon our relationship with our data. Rather than making data more secure, the human element unfortunately has the opposite effect and can lead to data loss, theft, inaccessibility and a fundamental lack of ownership.This time of year rings in the annual Mayfly spawning, where millions of adult mayflies come out of the Susquehanna River to mate, lay eggs and die. But not before they wreak havoc on the town of Columbia. Mayflies have a tendency to get liquored up and hit the local strip club before they mate. Thousands upon thousands of drunk, unruly Mayflies then take to the streets after they’re drunk and horny, mating in public, then passing out on sidewalks, cars, and people’s lawns.
“Every year these noisy heathens come out and make a mess of the town, we’re sick of it! The cops won’t do anything.” Said Eileen Ulick
Police Chief Denny Hitit spoke with POL: “There’s very little we can do, last year we went out and with cans of RAID and when that failed we resorted to flailing our batons around, even though it takes some of them out, it hardly effects their numbers. We’ve asked the state for millions of tiny handcuffs but they never seem to have the budget for it.”
This year’s cool weather is expected to double their numbers as the Mayflies won’t have to worry about window air conditioners blocking their way in and out of buildings.Mid-Range Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century
Alphabetical Index
Site Index
These cost more lives than the American losses in Vietnam (58,135), but not as many lives as five years of murder in America (119,700 killed 1990-94). Or another way of looking at it, each atrocity on this page killed roughly the same number of people as a single year of medical mistakes in the USA ( 44,000 to 98,000 ).
Dutch East Indies, Aceh War (1873-1914): 70 000 Clodfelter Dutch: 2,317 KIA + ten times that to disease Atjeh people lost 11,187 (1904-1907)
Hans Bakker [ http://www.uoguelph.ca/~vincent/hbakker/war.htm ] Dutch: 7,700 officers and soldiers died in battle or disease Schulten estimates 2,267 Zentgraaf est. 7,707 Acehnese guerilla fighters: 30,000-100,000, died of battle or diseases
] Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901): 115 000 Rummel: War: 10,000 Democide: 105,000 TOTAL: 115,000
Hammond: In North China, 32,000 Chinese Christians killed, plus 200 missionaries.
Small & Singer, battle deaths: China: 2000 Japan: 622 Russia: 302 UK: 34 France: 24 USA: 21 TOTAL: 3,003
Eckhardt: 13,000 civ. + 3,000 mil. = 16,000 Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902): 75 000 Pakenham, Thomas, The Boer War (1979): British killed in battle: 5,774 k British died of disease or wounds: 16,168 Black auxilaries killed: 2,000 Boers killed: 7,000 White civilians died in camps: 18-28,000 Blacks dead in camps: 12,000 [TOTAL: 66,000 ± 5,000]
(1979): Gilbert: 28,000 whites and "more than" 50,000 blacks died in the camps.
Encarta British: 28,000 Boers: 4,000 Civilians died in camps: 20,000 [TOTAL: 52,000]
Steve Attridge, Nationalism, Imperialism and Identity in Late Victorian Culture: Civil and Military Worlds (2003): British killed in battle: 7,792 kia British died of disease: 13,250 Boers killed: 6,000 White women and children in camps: 26,370 died Blacks dead in camps: 14,154 "official figure... now known to be wrong"; actually >20,000 [TOTAL: >73,412]
(2003): Trager, People's Chronology : 20,000 Boer women & children d. in camps.
: 20,000 Boer women & children d. in camps. Singer: 22,000 UK
Eckhardt: 13,000 civ. + 22,000 mil. = 35,000
COWP: 22,000 UK; 35,000 total
AWM: 606 Australian deaths Colombia (1899-1902): 100 000 War of a Thousand Days: Britannica : 60-130,000 Encarta : 60-130,000 Small & Singer: 100,000 Dict.Wars: 100,000 Eckhardt: 75,000 civ. + 75,000 mil. = 150,000
Somalia, Mohammed Abdulla Hasan (1899-1920): 100 000 Mad Mullah Jihad According to the Library of Congress [ http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sotoc.html ], this war caused the deaths of about one third of the northern Somali population. The 1911 Britannica estimates 300,000 people in British Somaliland, so the death toll might have been something like 100-150,000. (depending on whether the 300000 was estimated before or after the one-third had died) By summing the battle casualties in the campaigns that are descibed in the OnWar.com essay for the 1899-1905 phase of the war, I determined that the dervishes suffered some 11,700 casualties (K+W) fighting the British, which would come to around 3,000 KIA, plus another 1,000 killed in battle with the Abyssinians. The British lost something over 200 KIA.
Russia (1900-17): 95 000 Romanov Regime: Rummel blames Tsar Nikolai for 1,070,000 democides; however, his evidence is (by his own admission) not as solid as he would like, so take this number with a grain of salt. Also, 975,000 of these would be included among the dead from the First World War (many -- 400T -- being mistreated POWs, along with 75T Turks/Kurds massacred, 83T German deportees dead, etc.) so we only have some 95,000 democides which occurred independently of WW1. Some 2,000 of these were killed in Jewish pogroms. Eckhardt, civil conflicts in 1905-06: Pogrom, Russians vs Jews: 2,000 Peasants & Workers vs Govt: 1,000 James Trager, The People's Chronology (1992): Pogroms in Russia kill some 50,000 Jews by 1909 ("1905") OnWar.com: Pogroms in Russia (1903) k. 50,000 Jews NOTE: I can't find supporting evidence for these high numbers killed in the pogroms. Most individual events seem to have killed dozens, and very occasionally hundreds. "In the famous pogrom of Kishinev in 1903, there were 49 Jewish deaths out of a Jewish population of about 50,000; in Bialystok in 1906, 70 deaths out of about 48,000 Jews." ( http://www.west.net/~jazz/felshtin/redcross.html ) "During 1903 and 1904, 45 pogroms occurred, 95 Jews and 13 non-Jews were killed, and 4,200 people were severely injured." ( http://www.factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000418.html )
Herero War, German Southwest Africa (1904-07): 75 000 [make link] 1911 Britannica: 5,000 Germans, 20-30,000 Herero k
Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa, p.615: The Nama population was reduced from 20,000 to 9,800 [-10,200], the Herero from 80,000 to 15,000 [-65,000].
Mark Cocker, Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold (1998): 75,000 Africans
(1998): 75,000 Africans Eckhardt: 80,000 civilians
Robert Edgerton, The Fall of the Asante Empire: 1,400 Germans KIA Russo-Polish War (1918-1920): 100 000 Singer USSR: 60,000 Poland: 40,000 TOTAL: 100,000
Eckhardt: 100,000
Urlanis calculates 37,000 Poles KIA, and cites... Polish official commission: killed: 17,278 (Urlanis: "underestimation") dead: 30,337 missing: 51,374
Morocco (1921-26) 68 000 War in the Rif Eckhardt: 11,000 civ. + 29,000 mil. = 40,000 Small & Singer, partial Spain: 4,000 France: 25,000 Moroccans: unknown Stanley Payne, Politics and the Military in Modern Spain (1967): KIA from 1916 to 1927: 17,082 Spanish + 2,394 Regulares (Moors serving Spain, partial count) Clodfelter French: 10,000 d. all causes Spain: 50,000 d. all causes Rif rebels: 30,000 killed and wounded [TOTAL: ca. 67,500] OnWar.com Berbers: 5,000 France: 16,000 Spain: 15,000 TOTAL: 36,000
Manchuria (1931-33): 60 000 Singer: Japan: 10,000 China: 50,000 TOTAL: 60,000
Eckhardt: 60,000 Chaco War (1932-35): 100 000 [make link] Dictionary of 20C World History Bolivia: 50,000 Paraguay: 35,000 TOTAL: 85,000
Bruce Farcau, The Chaco War (1991), deaths from all causes Bolivia: 50,000 Paraguay: 40,000 TOTAL: 90,000
(1991), deaths from all causes Marley Bolivia: 57,000 Paraguay: 36,000 TOTAL: 93,000
Our Times : 100,000
: 100,000 Clodfelter Paraguay KIA: 12,000 Disease: 36,000 Bolivia: 52,397, incl... KIA: 25,000 Died as POWs: 4,264 [TOTAL: 100,397]
Small & Singer Bolivia: 80,000 Paraguay: 50,000 TOTAL: 130,000
John Gunther, Inside Latin America : 135,000
: 135,000 Eckhardt: 70,000 civ. + 130,000 mil. = 200,000 Israel (1948 et seq.): 65 000 [make link] Israel has been almost continuously at war throughout its existence. Here's the tally:
Wars: War of Independence, 1948 Singer: Israel: 3,000 Egypt: 2,000 Syria: 1,000 Jordan: 1,000 Iraq: 500 Lebanon: 500 TOTAL: 8,000 Eckhardt: 8,000 B&J Jewish military: 4,000 Jewish civilians: 2,000 8,000 Arabs TOTAL: 14,000 WPA3 Israel: 6,000 Arabs: 15,000 TOTAL: 21,000 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs ("Israel MFA"): 6,373 Israelis KIA [ http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00us0 ] 5 March 1991 AP Israel: 6,200 Arabs: 2,000 regular soldiers + thousands irregulars [MEDIAN TOTAL: 8,200] Suez War, 1956 WPA3 Egypt: 1,650 Israel: 189 UK: 22 France: 10 TOTAL: 1,871 5 March 1991 AP Egypt: 2,000-3,000 Israel: 172 UK, France: 82 TOTAL: 2,254 to 3,254 Hartman: Egypt: 2500-3000 Israel: 181 UK, France: 32 TOTAL: 2,713 to 3,213 Eckhardt: 1,000 civ. + 3,000 mil. = 4,000 Israel MFA: 231 Israelis KIA [MEDIAN TOTAL: 2,800] Six Day War, 1967 Singer Egypt: 10,000 Syria: 2,500 Jordan: 6,100 Israel: 1,000 TOTAL: 19,600 5 March 1991 AP Egypt: 11,500 Jordan: 6,094. Syria: 1,000 Israel: 777 TOTAL: 19,371 Hartman Egypt: 10-15,000 Syria: 1,000 WPA3 Arabs: 4,000 Israel: 983 TOTAL: 4,983 B&J Israel: 700 Arabs: 25,000 "casualties" Israel MFA: 776 Israelis KIA Israeli Defense Force [ http://www.idf.il/english/history/born4.stm ] Jordan: 800 KIA Egypt: 15,000 Sachar, A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, which would be 1996 Israel: 759 [MEDIAN TOTAL: ca. 16,600] Israeli-Egyptian War, 1967-70 Singer: Israel: 368 Egypt: 5000 TOTAL: 5,368 5 March 1991 AP : 721 Israelis Israel MFA: 1,424 Israelis KIA Eckhardt: 50,000 civ. + 25,000 mil. = 75,000 (incl. 6-Day War). [Without supporting evidence, I doubt 50T civilian deaths] [MEDIAN TOTAL: ca. 6,400] Yom Kippur War, 1973 WPA3 Egypt: 5,000 Syria: 3,000 Israel: 2,812 Other Arab: 340 TOTAL: 11,152 B&J Egypt: 5,000 Syria: 3,000 Israel: 3,000 Iraq: 200 TOTAL: 11,200 Sachar: Egypt: 7,700 Syria: 3,500 Israel: 2,552 TOTAL: 13,752 Eckhardt: 16,000 Singer: Egypt: 5,000 Syria: 8,000 Israel: 3,000 Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia: 401 TOTAL: 16,401 5 March 1991 AP Egypt: 15,000 Syria: 3,500 Israel: 2,569 Iraqi: 125 TOTAL: 21,194 Israel MFA: 2,688 Israelis KIA [MEDIAN TOTAL: ca. 14,900] TOTAL for these wars: Israel: 6,800-11,100 Egypt: 23,700-40,000 Syria: 5,000-11,500 Jordan: 7,100 TOTAL: Adding the above gives us 43,000 to 70,000 military (and up to 51,000 civilians, but we only have Eckhardt's estimates on this.) Other estimates for the total: [TOTAL of MEDIANS, above: ca. 48,900] CDI: 125,000 deaths (1948-97) Ploughshares 2000 : >100,000 in 1948, 1967, and 1973 wars. Plus, 12,000 people, including 500 Israelis, during 1978 and 1982 invasions of Lebanon Israel MFA: 20,093 Israelis KIA through 1997
Civil Strife: Israel vs. Palestinians: SIPRI 1997 : 13,000 killed (1948-96) B'Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in The Occupied Territories [ http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Total_Casualties.asp ] 9 Dec 1987-May 2003 (cross-ethnic killings only) In Occupied Territories Palestinians: 3544 Israelis: 532 In Israel Palestinians: 106 Israelis: 610 TOTAL Palestinians: 3650 Israelis: 1142 TOTAL: 4792 1st Intifada: 28 May 1992 [Glasgow] Herald : since Dec. 1987 904 Palestinians k by Israelis 88 Israelis k by Palestinians 473 Arabs k by Palestinians TOTAL: 1,465 9 Dec 1992 Irish Times : since Dec. 1987 1,121 Palestinians k by Israelis 103 Israelis k by Palestinians 535 Arabs k by Palestinians TOTAL: 1,759 2nd Intifada: 1 Oct. 2001 Chicago Tribune : about 650 Palestinians + 170 Israelis since 28 Sept 2000 Ploughshares 2000 : >1,500
East Germany (1949-89): 100 000 Communist Regime 27 Oct. 1991 LA Times : 100,000 died in captivity or were executed for political offenses in E.G. (citing an official report by the unified German govt.) 27 Oct 1991 Independent (London): 100,000 d., incl. 65,000 in or on way to post-war Soviet camps. Rummel: 70,000 democides, 1948-87 9 April 1990 UPI: 90,000 (acc. to Association for the Victims of Stalinism) or 56,000 (other sources) Germans k./d in Soviet detention camps after WW2. Mostly hunger. 23 June 1991 Chicago Tribune : 40,000 German political prisoners d. in Soviet-run camps after WW2 WHPSI : 6,162 political executions, 1948-52 12 Aug 2004 Agence France Presse: 1,065 died fleeing E. Germany; 227 died in Berlin, 190 after the construction of the Wall.
Congo Crisis (1960-64): 100 000 WHPSI : 14,003 deaths by political violence, 1958-67.
: 14,003 deaths by political violence, 1958-67. Dan Smith (1997): 100,000 killed in 1960 war.
Eckhardt: 100,000
Singer: 100,000, plus 50 Belgians (1960-67)
B&J: 110,000 (1960-64)
Dunnigan (1991): 100,000 to 110,000
Peter Forbath (The River Congo (1977)): at least 200,000 Iraq (1960s) Govt. vs. Kurds Eckhardt: 100,000 civ. + 5,000 mil. = 105,000 (1961-70) B&J 1961-66: 10,000 1968-70: 2,000 TOTAL: 12,000
Angola (1961-75): 80 000 Anti-colonial war Dunnigan (1991): 120,000 Hartman: 4,000 Portuguese 25,000 insurgents 50,000 civilians TOTAL: 79,000 "casualties" (killed only?) Eckhardt: 30,000 civ. + 25,000 mil. = 55,000 WHPSI (1958-77): 43,337
Atrocities: Dict.Wars: 20,000 Africans k. in 1961 revolt. Basil Davidson, In the Eye of the Storm : Angola's People : 300 Europeans k. by Kongo; 20-30,000 Africans k. by Portuguese, 1961 Hartman: 7,000 massacred by UPA Guerillas; 30,000 massacred in retaliation, 1961 Harff & Gurr: 40,000 Kongo, Assimilados were victims of repressive politicide, 1961-62
Mozambique, Anti-colonial war (1961-75) Hartman: 3,500 Portuguese 10,000 FRELIMO 50,000 civilians TOTAL: 63,500
Eckhardt: 30,000
WHPSI: 4,625 (1958-75) North Yemen (1962-70): 100 000 1984 World Almanac: 150,000
Singer: 100,000 (plus 1,000 Egyptians)
Eckhardt: 101,000
B&J: 100,000 (incl. 1,000 Egyptians + 1,000 Saudis, 1962-67)
5 March 1991 AP: 70,000 Nicaragua (1972-91): 60 000 Sandanista Rebellion (1972-1979) WPA3 : 10,000 30,000 ( Britannica ) 35,000 (Singer) Eckhardt: 25,000 civ. + 10,000 mil. = 35,000 40,000 ( Our Times ) 50,000 (Chomsky 1987) MEDIAN: 30,000
Contra Rebellion (1981-90): 30 000 WPA3 : 10,000 B&J: 25,000 (1980-95) 30,000 ( Washington Post, 6 Feb. 1990) Dict.Wars: 30,000 Eckhardt: 15,000 civ. + 15,000 mil. = 30,000 (to 1987) 30,000 ( 1990 SIPRI ) 57,000: ( Chicago Tribune, 27 July 1989) MEDIAN: 30,000
Philippines (1972- ) Guerrilla Wars 29 Jan. 2003 Philippine Daily Inquirer : Killed in Communist rebellion, AFP Intelligence Service report: Government forces: 9,867 (1971-2002) Communist rebels: 22,799 (1971-2002) Civilians: 10,672 (crossfire, 1969-2002) Total: 43,338 1990 SIPRI : 50,000 (Moro insurrection, Mindinao: 1975-1986) 1992 War Annual : 50,000 B&J: 60,000, Mindinao, 1970-95 Eckhardt (1972-87) vs. Muslims: 20,000 civ. + 15,000 mil. = 35,000 vs. Communists: 20,000 civ. + 15,000 mil. = 35,000 TOTAL: 70,000 CDI: 75,000 (Govt. vs. New People's Army and National Liberation Front: 1969-97) Ploughshares 2000 Mindinao: 100,000-150,000 since 1971 vs. NPA: 25,000 since 1969 TOTAL: 150,000 ± 25,000 D.Smith (1991): 80,000 ("20 years") Dictionary of 20C World History : 120,000 (Moro insurrection, Mindinao: 1969-1996)
Colombia (1970s, 1980s, 90s): 45 000 Govt vs Communist guerrillas Before 1990 27 July 1989 Chicago Tribune : 50,000 to 1989 ( War Annual 4 ): 70,000 killed, 1973-89 Dictionary of 20C World History : 80,000 (vs. drug cartels, 1986-90) After 1990 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News : 45,000 since 1986 Ploughshares 2000 : 40,000 since 1990 28 June 2001, Xinhua News Agency: 40,000 in past decade August 2000 International Enforcement Law Reporter : 35,000 civilian deaths and disappearances since 1987 20 January 2002 Austin American Statesman : 35-40,000 in past decade. 16 Dec. 1999 NY Times : 35,000 in last 10 years Washington Post (15 Jan. 1996): 17,000 deaths, 1990-94, acc2 to a report by the [Colombian] National Planning Dept. Whole length 1 July 2001, Xinhua News Agency: 200,000 k over 37 yrs 20 January 2002 Austin American Statesman : ca 200,000 Agence France Presse 6 May 2002: some 200,000 deaths in almost 4 decades 2 August 2001: 200,000 in 37 yrs 6 Sept. 2000: 120,000 deaths in 4 decades 13 July 1999, The Times [London]: 50,000 in 3 decades [MEDIAN: ca. 45,000] 10 September 2001 UPI: >40,000 in 37 yrs. 16 Jan. 2000 Toronto Star : 35,000 in 30+ years 17 Jan. 2000 Independent [London]: 30,000 in 35 years B&J: 30,000 (1965-95)
El Salvador (1979-92): 75 000 Govt. vs. guerrillas Total Deaths: Britannica : 70,000 24 Dec. 1989 Arizona Republic : 71,000 Clodfelter: 73,000, incl. 60,000 civilian (to 1990) B&J: 75,000 Compton's : 75,000 Encarta : 75,000 Our Times : 75,000 Dict.Wars: 80,000 Disappearances (included above): 9,000 (Grenville) Murders: 30,000 (1979-81, Chomsky (1987))
Sierra Leone (1991-2002): 75 000 Gov't vs. Revolutionary United Front B&J: 100,000 (1991-95) SIPRI 1997 : over 3,000 CDI: 30,000 (1989-97) 29 April 1999 AP : 14,000 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News : 15,000 (1991-96); 500,000 to 1999 Ploughshares 2000 : 20-50,000 27 June 2000 USA Today : perhaps as high as 75,000 18 May 2000 The Times [London]: 75,000 7 May 2003 Agence France Presse : 200,000 7 Oct. 2004 CNN: 50,000 [MEDIAN: ca. 75,000]
Algeria (1992-2002): 100 000 Fundamentalist Moslem Insurrection, govt. vs. FIS and GIA: CDI: 75,000 (1992-97) Washington Post, 13 Jan. 1998: 75,000 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News : 80,000 Dict.Wars (1999): 70,000 Ploughshares 2000 : 100,000 New York Times : 60-70,000 (15 Jan. 1998); 100,000 (27 Jan. 2000) 26 June 2003 Agence France Presse: 100,000+ 8 April 2004 Guardian : up to 150,000
Eritrea-Ethiopia War (1998-2000) 70 000 FAS 2000: 40,000 soldiers KIA
23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News : 50,000
: 50,000 9 June 2000 Chicago Tribune : 70,000
: 70,000 21 Dec 2005 BBC: 80,000
Ploughshares 2000: 70-120,000 mil. + civ.
List of Recurring Sources
to Table of Contents
Last updated Oct. 2010
Copyright © 1999-2010 Matthew WhitePolice say the person in this video dressed in full SWAT gear is wanted for questioning in connection to the killing of a 45-year-old fitness instructor and mother of three.
SEE ALSO: Ben & Jerry's co-founders arrested during protest at US Capitol
Terri "Missy" Bevers was found dead inside Creekside Church of Christ in Midlothian, Texas -- located about 25 miles southwest of Dallas.
See images of the victim and the suspect in the gallery below:
5 PHOTOS Texas mother of 3 found murdered See Gallery Suspect in SWAT gear sought after woman found dead in Texas church Photo courtesy: Facebook Photo courtesy: Facebook Photo courtesy: Facebook Photo courtesy: YouTube Photo courtesy: Facebook Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE
Police say Bevers was first seen at the church at 4:20 a.m. local time, getting ready to teach her 5 a.m. fitness class. The suspect in the SWAT gear was first picked up by motion-activated cameras at 3:50 a.m.
"I'm so sad about it. She was doing something she loved. She did it to help people. It was a business, but it was more than a business to her. It was a passion," Kelli Herron, a friend of Bevers, said.
Police are still unsure of a motive for the killing. They say it's possible she interrupted a burglary, as the suspect forced entry into the building, but they aren't ruling out the possibility that she was targeted after they discovered she had posted her class schedule on Facebook.
KDFW spoke with Bevers' husband, who said he was out of town when he first started receiving concerning phone calls from students in her class.
A $10,000 reward is now being offered for information on the suspect.
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Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, was a long-time columnist for Business Week, and continues to write columns in the Boston Globe and Huffington Post. In other words, he is an experienced American journalist. So when he writes that “Donald Trump has entered a new phase of autocratic weirdness... His rants at reporters display contempt for the role of a free press. He would govern like a spiteful tyrant, with all the awesome powers of a president of the United States – settling scores, punishing enemies, making impetuous, ignorant decisions” his words carry weight – or they should. After all, even among right-wingers he’s not alone in thinking like that about Trump.
“Donald Trump has entered a new phase of autocratic weirdness... He would govern like a spiteful tyrant, with all the awesome powers of a president of the United States – settling scores, punishing enemies, making impetuous, ignorant decisions”.
In an article in the Huffington Post Kuttner names a whole clutch of Republican Party notables who find Trump beyond the pale. “Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is one. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is a second. And the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, a third.... New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, chair of the Republican Governors’ Association and the rare high-ranking Latina in Republican politics, has traded gibes with Trump.... Jeb Bush has said he will not vote for either Trump or Hillary Clinton... Karl Rove has called Trump ‘a complete idiot’.”
To Kuttner’s disgust, however, a number of Republicans “who were savaged, slandered and humiliated by Trump” have nevertheless lined up to endorse him. This surprises Kuttner who calls them “craven.” He complains: “Do these people have no self-respect, and no concern for their country?”
I couldn’t say, but what I can say is that Kuttner’s wish for “one of these senior Republicans [to] break ranks and... give a major address warning against the menace of Trump as an incipient fascist” would mean them going against their class interests. And that’s just not going to happen.
As we have said before, Trump really is a fascist (never mind “incipient”). More middle class Americans are waking up to this and realising, as Kuttner has, that “Trump is a threat to the American Republic, as real as a terrorist attack or an invasion.... If, through a chain of mishaps, Trump actually became president and America’s first dictator, the more principled [Republicans] would be wracked with regret.”
Much good those regrets will do them then. Like the German bourgeois democrats who did not oppose the “street lout” Hitler because they thought he would save them from Bolshevism, they too will share in the catastrophe he will surely bring upon them.
Meanwhile, capitalism continues on its merry way. |
one simple handwritten note, "V.B. OK-returned-I think you had best keep this in your own safe FDR." Three days after Christmas in 1942, the "Manhattan Project" was officially authorized.
By 1945, the United States had a plutonium-based atomic bomb ready for testing. Called "Gadget," the experiment was set for the Trinity test site, so named by Manhattan Project leader Robert J. Oppenheimer in homage to the work of English poet John Donne. At 5:30 a.m. on a hot desert morning, the atomic age began. The bomb exploded and released 18.6 kilotons of unimaginable power. In a nanosecond, an orange fireball reached the heavens, followed by a column that quickly flattened into now-iconic image of the mushroom cloud. The test was a tremendous success—at least in the eyes of those hoping to use it as a weapon. It far exceeded expectations in terms of power as the blast released as much as three times more force than anticipated. It was reported that the fireball could be seen as far as 250 miles away. Soon, Julian Webb would discover the impact was felt much further.
While he was studying the Indiana samples, Webb got word that a particular production run of strawboard from a plant in Tama, Iowa was also contaminated and fogging the Kodak film it carried. While Tama was 450 miles from Vincennes, there were striking similarities. The two production runs of strawboard had been completed within a month of each other. Tama's radioactive spots also failed the radium test, meaning the cause was something else. Most telling, however, was that both mills sat next to rivers, with Vincennes on the Wabash River and the Iowa River cutting through Tama.
Webb found that the strawboard from both mills had a significant concentration of beta-particle radiation activity but little to no alpha-activity. (Beta-particle radiation can penetrate paper, human skin and are sometimes considered dangerous. Alpha-particle radiation is stopped by paper, easily absorbed and generally considered safe if not ingested). Additionally, photographic evidence allowed Webb to estimate the half-life of the artificial radioactive material he was seeking at approximately 30 days. The results corresponded to the presence of an artificial radioactive material he would later identify as Cerium-141, which is "one of the more prolific fission products of the atom bomb."
"If you are behind the curtain and sworn to secrecy.... You are not going to go there."
Furthermore, Webb concluded there was no possible way the straw could be the carrier of the containment, since it was stored in warehouses (and not outside) for a considerable amount of time prior to being used. Had the Cerium-141 gotten directly into the straw, it would have decayed by the time the straw was processed, rendering the radiation hardly detectable. This brought Webb to a frightening explanation: The contamination came from the river water. Additional evidence would fall in the rain. According to Webb, "stronger activity occurred in the strawboard" after periods of heavy precipitation, establishing that the radioactive material was being deposited via precipitation and came from a far-flung place.
While it is unclear whether Webb knew about the Trinity test when he was conducting his research in 1945, his report from 1949 is unabashedly clear: "The most likely explanation of the source of this radioactive contaminant appears to be that it consisted of wind-borne radioactive fission products derived from the atom-bomb detonation in New Mexico on July 16, 1945."
Keeping It Quiet
1950s H-bomb test. H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock Getty Images
Webb wasn't the only one who knew fallout could travel vast distances. As the years have passed, it's become increasingly clear that the United States government knew this fact early on. Immediately following the Trinity tests, the Manhattan Project's chief of radiological safety, Stafford Warren, warned that the tests needed to be conducted at least 150 miles from civilian populations. In 1948, U.S. Air Force Meteorologist Col. B. G. Holzman recommended establishing a new nuclear test site on the East Coast, rather than in the west, because western winds carry fallout across the continental United States. Despite this recommendation, the Nevada Proving Ground (later theNevada Test Site) was established in 1950 only a hundred miles from Las Vegas. According to a 1997 article for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists entitled "Worse than we knew," the reason for this reckless choice was that weapons labs were nearby, which would accelerate "the pace of the weapons development program."
Pat Ortmeyer was the coauthor of this article in which she and Arjun Makhijani dug deep into the National Cancer Institute's report that because of the Nevada nuclear tests, a vast majority of the American public was exposed to the cancer-causing radioactive element Iodine-131. "What is so appalling was that it was the system... that it was by design, to keep the public in the dark like that," Ortmeyer tells Popular Mechanics. "This was partly because of the context... we were at war... but when you look at the history of nuclear production, that's the norm... downplaying [health risks]."
Kodak shop in the 1950s Picture Post Getty Images
On January 27, 1951, the first atomic detonation at the new Nevada Proving Ground took place. Days later and 2,500 miles away, a Geiger counter at Kodak's headquarters in New York state measured radioactive readings 25 times above normal after a snowstorm. Declassified 1952 documents obtained by Popular Mechanics reveals that Kodak alerted the Atomic Energy Commission about this out of concern this testing would wreck its film just as had happened in 1945. The AEC responded that it would look into it, but assured Kodak there was little reason to worry, even allowing the company to issue a press release to the Associated Press stating that snow "that fell in Rochester was measurably radioactive..." but "there is no possibility of harm to humans and animals."
In March 1951, a frustrated Kodak threatened to sue the U.S. government for the "considerable amount of damage to our products resulting from the Nevada tests or from any further atomic energy tests..." Finally the company and the government came to an agreement. The AEC would provide Webb, by now the head of Kodak's physics division, with schedules and maps of future tests so that Kodak could take the necessary precautions to protect its product. In return, the people of Kodak were to keep everything they knew about the government's Nevada nuclear testing a secret.
"They were doing their jobs and perhaps simply didn't know any better."
The Cost of the Silence
Did Kodak have a responsibility to tell the American public about the fallout? Says Stephen Schwartz, an independent nuclear weapons expert and policy analyst who edited and co-wrote the book Atomic Audit for the Brookings Institution in 1998: "Did they have a moral or ethical responsibility? I think you could make a strong case that they did," he says. "But I wouldn't look at Kodak with today's eyes. They were doing their jobs and perhaps simply didn't know any better."
Ortmeyer agrees: "I think that the responsibility fell to the government...[Kodak] knew the impact it had on their film, but for them to speak out on a public health issue... that wasn't their field of expertise. I can only surmise that in the era of the Manhattan Project, if you are behind the curtain and sworn to secrecy.... You are not going to go there."
Kodak film fogged by radiation Oak Ridge National Lab
In 1997, the National Cancer Institute released findings that linked the Nevada nuclear testing to the release of Iodine-131 which can lead to thyroid cancer. In response, a Congressional hearing questioned why the government withheld such information. Led by Sen. Tom Harkin (who incorrectly said that Kodak discovered the radioactive fallout because of "corn husks," not strawboard), the hearing made clear that this was a public health crisis, and that every single American alive at the time was threatened by the radioactive fallout. Julian Webb knew this five decades earlier when he discovered traces of faraway weapons testing in America's water supply. Why no one told the American people remains a question today.
Special thanks to Pat Ortmeyer for providing materials for this story.
We contacted Kodak, who chose not to comment.Camera-trap footage shows rare, much-debated red wolf in the wild
The status of the red wolf – that reddish-brown canid of the American Southeast that's about midway in size and habits between a coyote and a grey wolf – has been in flux for decades, and these days it's up in the air on a number of counts. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is reconsidering its strategy for recovering the animal, among the rarest of the world's wild dogs, and meanwhile taxonomists continue to debate its position on the Canis family tree.
In light of all that political and scientific murkiness, it's a pleasure to watch red wolves just doing their thing in the wild. Camera traps maintained by the Wildlands Network conservation group have collected some great video in the heart of the wolf's precarious stronghold on northeastern North Carolina's Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula.
Footage courtesy of the Wildlands Network.
Ron Sutherland of the Wildlands Network told us all four clips here were taken in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, part of the 1.7-million-acre, five-county red-wolf recovery area that also encompasses Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and other federally managed holdings, state-owned lands, a government bombing range and private acreage.
Sutherland said the first video showed young wolves or possibly wolf-coyote hybrids, while the other three clips are most likely of the longstanding Milltail Pack.
The red wolf (Wa'ya to the Cherokee) once trotted over most of the American Southeast; where and how the boundaries of its range edged that of the grey wolf is one of many, well, grey areas of canid natural history in pre-Columbian North America. Weighing some 23 to 36 kilograms (50 to 80 lbs), red wolves were historically not only the grizzled chestnut colour that gives them their common name but also frequently black; early naturalists, for example, recognised a "Florida black wolf".
A red wolf in North Carolina's Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (US Fish & Wildlife Service)
Wade into the taxonomy of the red wolf – and of the genus Canis in North America, for that matter – at your own risk. It's a fascinating but thorny topic that's far from settled, and loosely speaking involves about five canines: the Eurasian-evolved grey wolf (which may have colonised North America in multiple waves) and the New World-derived red wolf, Algonquin (aka eastern or Great Lakes) wolf, coyote, and the so-called "eastern coyote" (frequently referred to as a "coywolf", though mammalogist Roland Kays takes some issue with that).
The species status of the grey wolf and coyote are firmly established; where the others fall in the Canis lineage is less settled, to say the least. A 2012 review concluded the red wolf, Algonquin wolf and coyote are likely relatives with a common ancestor; a 2016 genetic analysis, in turn, proposed red and Algonquin wolves derive from varying degrees of quite recent grey wolf/coyote hybridisation. Yet another assessment from last year, which scrutinised ancient canid remains from the American Southeast, suggested the red wolf may (a) have evolved from prehistoric coyote-wolf interbreeding, or (b) share a forerunner with the coyote.
Taxonomic inquiries such as this could have bearing on how the US government classifies and treats the red wolf as a conservation priority. (The USFWS continues to regard it as its own species.) But as many of the researchers who've lately studied red and Algonquin wolf genetics have pointed out, whether these wolves are hybrids, subspecies or distinct species doesn't detract from their "ecological authenticity" as apex carnivores in eastern North America. (The eastern coyote, too, certainly seems to be filling a significant ecological role in its freshly colonised range.)
As the authors of the 2016 study suggesting either long-ago hybridisation or unique lineage for the red wolf noted, "If red wolves have an ancient hybrid origin, it would not preclude the species from protection, and furthermore, it emphasises the dynamic nature of canid evolution."
“Whether these wolves are hybrids, subspecies or distinct species doesn't detract from their 'ecological authenticity' as apex carnivores in eastern North America.”
Genetic fingerprinting of the red-wolf line is complicated because of the very small founder pool. By the early 1800s, the lithe deer-, raccoon- and rabbit-hunting wolves of southeastern forests and swamps were already vanishing. By the mid-20th century they were mainly restricted to the Gulf Coast of southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana (earlier strongholds apparently included South Florida's Big Cypress and the Okefenokee Swamp on the Louisiana-Florida line).
The USFWS declared the red wolf endangered in 1967 and launched a recovery programme in 1973. Subsequently – with the future of the species in the wild deemed unlikely given habitat loss and interbreeding with coyotes – more than 400 wolf-like Gulf Coast canids were rounded up to initiate captive breeding. Only 14 of those several wild dogs were ultimately determined to be genetically "pure" red wolves, and the dozen of those that reproduced in captivity became the founders of today's population.
In 1987, red wolves were reintroduced to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge: the first attempt anywhere to reintroduce a large carnivore to its former range. The following spring, biologists documented the first wild-born red-wolf pups in North Carolina since the animal's extirpation.
Coastal North Carolina (as well as several southeastern islands where wolves are acclimated for release) has remained the outpost for wild red wolves in modern times; a 1990s reintroduction attempt in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the Southern Appalachians was abandoned after wolves dispersed outside park boundaries.
Last year, the USFWS announced a shift in its red-wolf strategy: restricting recovery efforts in the wild to publicly owned acreage in a single North Carolina county while attempting to double the captive population to 400. A number of conservation groups decried the announcement, and in September 2016, a judge barred the agency from removing red wolves that aren't directly threatening pets or livestock from private lands.
Earlier this year, the USFWS solicited public feedback on the changes it was proposing. An analysis of the 55,000-odd comments received, conducted by the Wildlands Network and several other conservation organisations, suggested 99.8% supported efforts to restore wild red wolves in North Carolina. The conservation coalition noted in a press release from this August that this support extended to the local level.
"Zooming in to northeastern North Carolina, more than two-thirds (68.4%) of the comments from the current five-county recovery region were supportive of the Red Wolf Recovery Program, undermining claims that local residents oppose red wolf restoration," they wrote.
You can read more about the USFWS's approach to red-wolf recovery here.
The presence of red wolves makes the Alligator River and Pocosin Lakes refuges especially impressive expressions of North Carolina's wild heart. To fully appreciate it, be sure to browse the camera-trap galleries of the Wildland Network's Flickr page: a rich cast of other characters from the Albemarle-Pamlico backcountry – including white-tailed deer, bobcats, and lots and lots of black bears – make cameos.
__
Top header image: Don Sniegowski/FlickrThis post has been corrected.
“OK, Glass: What are other people feeling?”
This is the thrust behind a new tool that helps kids on the autism spectrum understand other people’s emotions. The Autism Glass Project, as it’s called, uses Google Glass, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to recognize other people’s faces and give real-time feedback on their expressions, a challenge for many people on the autism spectrum.
Behind the project is the Wall Lab at the Stanford School of Medicine. They’ve already run a 40-person pilot in the lab, and earlier this week (Oct. 19) the team launched a 100-person trial version of the modified smart glasses for children and families to test at home.
The glasses use a video camera to compare what the user sees to expressions from large datasets of pictures of faces, then tells the wearer what they’re looking at: happiness, sadness, calmness, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, or surprise. The tool can also recognize new and recurring faces, and adjust to differences in race as well as in lighting.
Dennis Wall, an associate professor in pediatrics at Stanford, who leads the Wall Lab, told Quartz that the goal of the device is “to empower people with autism or families who are struggling with autism with digital devices and solutions they can take home with them and leverage on their own, in a way that’s intuitive and fits within their natural environment.” He hopes that the device will someday be a compliment to, and in some cases a replacement for, traditional behavioral therapies.
After a child uses the glasses, data about his or her interactions with other people can also be collected and sent to an Android app, which parents and caregivers may review.
The engineering behind the glasses is very close to being complete, but how it works with the app still needs some tweaking. “We’re really optimistic that this phase 2 will give us a sufficient dataset that will be massive and unique in a variety of different ways to prove the concept,” said Wall. “From there we’ll start to move it to a scalable ‘commercial’ phase—what a commercial phase looks like isn’t clear at all; we haven’t discussed it.”
Though Glass was taken off the market in January, Google has donated 35 pairs to the project.
Image by Kārlis Dambrāns on Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Correction (Oct. 21 9:47 am): A previous version of this post stated that Dennis Wall is an assistant professor in pediatrics at Stanford; in fact, he is an associate professor.Dave Hodge Host, TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge Follow|Archive
The Chicago Blackhawks are still in the running to win their third Stanley Cup in the past six years.
Let me take you back to the start of the 2010-11 season, when coach Joel Quenneville and the Hawks began defence of Chicago's first Stanley Cup title since 1961.
To demonstrate how NHL coaches move around, I will point out that Quenneville, during that season, matched wits and lines with the following: Lindy Ruff, Paul Maurice, Mike Babcock, Peter DeBoer, Todd Richards, Barry Trotz, Peter Laviolette, Todd McLellan, Dan Bylsma, Alain Vigneault and Bruce Boudreau.
So it has been a familiar matchup for Quenneville in the Western Conference final against Boudreau, and Quenneville will be very happy to see Vigneault on the other bench soon, for that would mean Chicago and the Rangers would be meeting in the Stanley Cup Final.
Anyway, back to all those coaches listed above - the coaches Quenneville knew in 2010 as Ruff of Buffalo, Maurice of Carolina, Babcock of Detroit, DeBoer of Florida, Richards of Minnesota, Trotz of Nashville, Laviolette of Philadelphia, McLellan of San Jose, Bylsma of Pittsburgh, Vigneault of Vancouver and Boudreau of Washington.
They're all still around, but you may have guessed where this is going - they're all in different places. Ruff is now in Dallas, Maurice in Winnipeg, Babcock in Toronto, DeBoer in San Jose, Richards in Columbus, Trotz in Washington, Laviolette in Nashville, McLellan is in Edmonton, and Bylsma (presumably) is in Buffalo, in addition to the aforementioned Vigneault in New York and Boudreau in Anaheim.
The list could grow if any of Randy Carlyle, Guy Boucher, Ron Wilson, Scott Arniel, John Tortorella, or Davis Payne should get hired in New Jersey, or if Claude Julien should move on from Boston.
We don't call it a coaching carousel for nothing. Thumbs are down every time a good coach is fired, and then up when they find new work, as so many of them do.
--
Next season, it'll be called a coach's challenge, and it is long overdue. Last night, it was a goalie's howl of protest, and it was of no use. I refer to Corey Crawford's legitimate complaint on Anaheim's second goal. A shot by Clayton Stoner that Crawford might have stopped beat the Chicago goalie because his catching glove was jarred by the aggressive moving screen of Ducks' forward Jacob Silfverberg.
It was undoubtedly hard for the referees to notice the contact, especially as it did not involve Crawford's body, but rather his equipment. Crawford could yell all he wanted and all he could get was sympathy. The coach's challenge would have made for an easy correction. Joel Quenneville, heeding Crawford's signal, would have challenged the goal based on goaltender interference and the Ducks' goal would have been wiped out. Lest you differ on that interpretation, no contact is allowed on Crawford as he sets up to make a save, never mind that he is reaching past the front edge of the crease, and never mind that Silfverberg isn't in the blue paint. Replay clearly showed a goal that shouldn't have counted.
Thumbs up when a rule finally exists that can get it right.In the shadow of the Imam Hamza mosque in the region of the ancient kingdom of Babylon, a carpet market that was once bustling is now almost empty.
The only visitor to Hamad al-Soltani's small shop in the city of Al-Hamza in central Iraq, some 175 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad, is a local tribal chief.
Nothing in the world can convince Sheikh Hazem al-Hiyali -- a Bedouin scarf on his head, hooded cloak over his shoulders and shawl on his neck -- to replace the traditional carpets he receives his guests on for imported versions.
Over the past few y ears, Iraq has been flooded with carpets from abroad -- but although they may well be much cheaper they are of a far lower quality, he insists.
Hiyali says he cannot bear to even imagine his "diwan", the traditional reception room where visitors sip tea and chat, without the long rectangular carpets adorned with geometric patterns.
Carpets for sale at a textile workshop in the Iraqi city of Hilla, a skill inherited from the Turkish during Ottoman domination more than a century ago. (photo by: SABAH ARAR/AFP)
"It is by the beauty of its carpets that one can judge a room," he tells AFP, running ring-covered fingers across the merchandise hanging on the walls of the shop.
"Our mothers and our grandmothers worked at home to weave" these carpets, says the tribal leader, his beard speckled with grey.
Lost language
Soltani, 32, inherited his carpet shop from his father.
He says older generations of women also embroidered saddles for camels and wove covers for their harnesses, but such items are sold nowadays only as decorations.
Mehdi Saheb spent 50 years working at a loom and can speak for hours about the rich history and intricacies of carpet manufacturing in Iraq.
As he talks, Saheb, 70, weaves in long-forgotten words from the past that are now unfamiliar to younger Iraqis.
Inherited from the Turkish used during Ottoman domination more than a century ago, they describe the different colours and types of wool used in this agricultural area where keeping livestock is widespread.
"Before, people came from abroad to place orders," he says, wearing a beige robe as he sits in his small house on the verge of a dusty road.
to place orders -- before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. (photo by: SABAH ARAR/AFP)
By "before", Saheb means before the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that sparked chaos and bloodshed which still roils the country.
"Every day, some twenty groups of tourists would come to visit the ancient sites" of Babylonia and other archaeological treasures, recalls former antiquities official Fall ah al-Jabbawi.
Now no tourists come to see this millennia-old heritage.
"There are only Iraqis left," laments Saheb, who throughout his working life embroidered patterns passed down from the different civilisations that once ruled this region.
Age-old symbols
s handwoven carpets are facing competition from cheaper carpets made abroad. (photo by: SABAH ARAR/AFP)
Circles, squares, and stylised animals or flowers: the symbols woven into Iraq's carpets can be traced back to the Babylonians who ruled there some 2,000 years before Christ was born, or the Assyrians who followed.
Meanwhile, certain motifs represent the Jewish Star of David or Christian crosses, and others, found in mosques, are said to be Islamic.
In many houses families jealously guard carpets passed down from their ancestors, while the offices of senior government officials or foyers of luxury hotels are often decorated with the traditional goods.
But on the markets, the majority of new models being purchased are now mass-produced in neighbouring Iran, Turkey or Syria.
About half as cheap as their Iraqi equivalents, the imports have slowly but surely made their way onto the stalls.
Shopkeeper Soltani still has carpets on display that are more than 50 years old, but he struggles to sell many of his wares.
An item that he once could have got more than $100 (85 euros) for, he now has to let go for just $20, he says.
In the rutted streets of the old neighbourhood nearby, the impact of the industry's decline can be seen.
Some 30 or 40 families who once made their living from weaving now struggle to scratch together $100 each month.
Once a source of pride, this testament to Iraq's varied heritage is now neglected and shunned, bemoans former carpet maker Saheb.
"Neither the state nor the private sector support the weavers," he says.Washington (AFP) - The State Department has approved the sale of US warplanes to Nigeria to aid its fight against Boko Haram militants, ending a suspension of weapons sales that followed a deadly Nigerian military strike on a refugee camp.
The State Department informed Congress late Wednesday it had approved the $593 million sale of 12 Super Tucano A-29 ground attack aircraft, a deal that includes supplying the Nigerian armed forces with ammunition, training and aircraft maintenance, a US official said.
The US Air Force last year supplied such aircraft -- bought from Brazilian plane manufacturer Embraer -- to the Afghan military to help it fight the Taliban.
"These aircraft offer improved targeting capabilities, allowing Nigeria to more effectively lead the fight against Boko Haram and the ISIS West Africa branch, while also potentially reducing risks of collateral damage and civilian casualties," said the US official, who asked not to be identified.
The training that the US intends to provide to Nigerian pilots "would help build the skills and procedures to effectively and responsibly operate the aircraft in accordance with international human rights law and the law of armed conflict," the official said.
The sale was initially unveiled in May 2016 but the Democratic administration of former president Barack Obama froze the deal just before handing over the reins of power to President Donald Trump in January, after the Nigerian military accidentally bombed a camp for people displaced by the conflict in the northeast, killing 112 civilians.
Congress now has 30 days to decide on whether to approve the deal. If no opposition is voiced, the administration can go ahead with the arms sale.
Boko Haram, which has allied itself with the Islamic State, has been leading a bloody jihadist insurrection in Nigeria since 2009 that has left at least 20,000 people dead and forced another 2.6 million people from their homes.
Thousands of women and girls have been kidnapped and forced into marriage with Islamist insurgents or made to carry out suicide bomb attacks.
Last week, the military was ordered to strengthen its response to Boko Haram after 69 people were killed in an ambush.By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Allegations of retaliation against a whistleblower at the National Security Agency have left its top watchdog fighting for his job, according to an intelligence official and another individual familiar with the case.
The case could offer some credence to Edward Snowden's claim that he could not have reported the government's domestic surveillance program without facing reprisals.
George Ellard, the NSA's inspector general, was placed on administrative leave after he refused to give the whistleblower a certain job assignment. The Project on Government Oversight, an advocacy group, first reported last week that Adm. Mike Rogers, director of NSA, had placed Ellard on leave and recommended that he be terminated. Ellard is appealing that decision.
Ellard received attention in 2014 for remarks at Georgetown University Law Center criticizing Snowden, the former NSA contractor who had leaked secret documents about the surveillance program. Snowden says he went public because he feared retaliation from his superiors if he had raised his concerns with them. Ellard said at Georgetown that Snowden could have safely come to him.
Ellard's case is the first to move completely through a process created by President Barack Obama in 2012 to ensure that intelligence employees can effectively report waste, fraud and abuse while protecting classified information. The directive prohibits agencies from retaliating against them or taking away security clearances or an employee's access to classified information.
The case stemmed from a whistleblower's claims of financial misconduct by NSA officials involving a conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
The whistleblower, in a brief email to The Associated Press, said that after he raised his concerns, his name was disclosed to Ellard in violation of rules intended to protect government employees who want to report misconduct.
The whistleblower said his email response had been cleared by the NSA. The agency declined to comment independently on the case. Ellard's attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
It's not clear who revealed the whistleblower's identity to Ellard. But the whistleblower said that after Ellard learned who he was, "I was denied an assignment within the NSA inspector general's office of investigations because of my whistleblowing." He sent the email to the AP on condition of anonymity because the case is still active.
Rogers' decision to recommend Ellard's dismissal followed an eight-month investigation by a panel of inspectors general at the CIA, Treasury and Justice Department, according to an intelligence official, who was not authorized to disclose details about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The trio was empaneled in October 2015 and issued its decision in May.
The Justice and Defense departments declined to comment on the decision.
Louis Clark, director of the Government Accountability Project, said he was happy that the process set up by Obama's directive was finally being used, but expressed disappointment that it has taken so long for it to happen. "It was so slow because the intelligence agencies are extremely hostile to whistleblowing," he said.
The fate of Obama's directive is uncertain. It will be up to Donald Trump, after he becomes president, to decide whether to continue it. Trump has said he doesn't trust the intelligence agencies, but it's not clear if that would make him more or less likely to protect whistleblowers.
Timothy Edgar, Obama's first director of privacy and civil liberties for the White House national security staff, says there is cause for serious concern about the future of whistleblowers.
"What we're left with, I think, is probably primarily the integrity and bravery of people in the bureaucracy, who, despite those obstacles are willing to say 'no' if they are involved in activities that they think are serious violations of the Constitution," Edgar said.
Associated Press writer Eileen Sullivan contributed to this story.
To Learn More:
New Whistleblower Protection Given to Public Employees by Supreme Court (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Obama Whistleblower Program Requires Whistleblowers to Register to be Protected (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Terrorists, Spies, Whistleblowers Treated the Same by Obama Administration (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Obama Anti-Whistleblower Program Requires Federal Employees to Report Suspicions of other Employees or Risk Punishment (Noel Brinkerhoff and Danny Biederman, AllGov)SALT LAKE CITY — Comcast announced Thursday it will not run a TV commercial that it determined demeans the LDS Church.
Activist Fred Karger paid approximately $2,000 to run the ad 54 times in Utah markets to kick off what he called "the biggest, loudest, most comprehensive challenge to a church's tax-exempt status in history."
Comcast issued a written explanation on Thursday, saying the ad did not meet its standards. The statement was issued by Tara Hunter, Comcast Spotlight's senior director of integrated communications.
The statement reads: "Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, reviews ads on a case-by-case basis for compliance with our guidelines. Upon review, the ad did not comply with our guidelines because the client was unwilling to provide substantiation for their claims and we do not accept ads that demean individuals or specific organizations. We offered to review any additional spots the client was interested in airing."
Karger said Comcast had scheduled the 30-second ad to run for seven days beginning on Wednesday, adding that a Comcast representative called him late Tuesday to tell him the company was reconsidering. Comcast informed Karger Wednesday night that it would not run the commercial.
"They told me the reason was that it was demeaning an organization," Karger said. "It's an accurate and fair spot, and I'm upset someone has quashed my free speech."
Hunter told the Deseret News that the company uses a case-by-case review process for potential ads, saying "there was never an approval nor a change of mind."
Karger previewed a longer version of the ad at a news conference on Tuesday, when he announced a campaign to build a case against the church's tax-exempt status. The longer spot makes claims about the total income of the church's for-profit businesses and makes allegations about practices and policies within the church. Reporters asked Karger to substantiate several claims made in the longer version of the ad, but he did not provide specifics.
He held out hope that Comcast CEO Bruce Roberts will overturn the decision.
"I sent a letter appealing to Mr. Roberts to do the right thing," Karger said. "I don't have the resources to take on the world's largest cable company."
Karger has opposed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on gay rights issues from New England to Hawaii since the 2008 Proposition 8 race in California.
Karger also purchased air time over a different cable system in St. George, but he wasn't sure Thursday morning whether those ads are airing.The original title of this post was going to be ‘Grant Dayton is Good Enough for the Eighth Inning.’ The whole point of the article was that he has a very good chance to be better than Joe Blanton was last year. However, Paul Swydan already wrote that article (more or less) for MLB.com and the research that I was using to write that article led to a different place: Grant Dayton has one of the best four-seam fastballs in all of baseball. It could be the best, depending on how you look at it.
That’s a bold claim, and the first place to look for confirmation is the radar gun, but there’s not much to see there. Dayton’s four-seamer averages just under 93 MPH, and the fastest he can get is around 95. That velocity is slightly above-average for a left-handed reliever these days, which says a lot about how baseball has evolved in the last ten years. And yet, Dayton can do this:
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All three strikeouts? Four-seam fastballs. That fastball is something special. That’s good, because he threw it 77 percent of the time overall, and was at an 85 percent rate by the end of the season.
Among relievers with at least 20 innings pitched in 2016, Dayton had the sixth-highest strikeout rate at 38.6 percent. He was one spot below Aroldis Chapman, and one spot above Craig Kimbrel. 35 of Dayton’s 39 strikeouts ended with that fastball. Only Sean Doolittle and Ryan Buchter ended a higher percentage of their strikeouts with a four-seamer last year.
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There are so, so many ways to show how special Dayton’s four-seamer was last year, so let’s start here: the components of what makes up swinging strike rate. Every dot on the chart below is a pitcher who threw at least 200 four-seam fastballs last season. On the horizontal axis is how often a batter swung at the fastball. On the vertical axis is how often a batter missed the ball when they did swing. A higher swing rate isn’t always better, but it can be if the batter misses a lot. Grant Dayton is shown in red.
Breaking the chart into individual leaderboards, here were the highest four-seam fastball swing rates last year:
Pitcher Swing Rate Rick Porcello 60.8% Grant Dayton 60.1% Sean Doolittle 59.3% Liam Hendriks 57.4% Blaine Boyer 56.8%
And whiff/swing rates:
The two axes can then be combined into whiffs/pitch (still just four-seam fastballs):
Pitcher Whiff/Pitch Rate Nick Vincent 20.0% Grant Dayton 19.8% Aroldis Chapman 18.4% Sean Doolittle 18.2% Carl Edwards 17.2%
The average swinging strike rate on four-seam fastballs last season was 8.7 percent. Dayton’s swinging strike rate was almost 20 percent. That’s better than an average slider. That’s why, as Swydan pointed out in his article, Dayton’s swinging strike rate was 26th of 511 pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched last season. What’s more impressive is that he did it without an above-average secondary pitch.
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As shown above, batters are extremely aggressive against Dayton’s fastball. He was very good at getting batters to chase it out of the zone (third-highest four-seam chase rate). Batters were equally aggressive in the strike zone (third-highest in-zone swing rate): over 80 percent of the time Dayton threw the ball into the PITCHf/x strike zone, batters swung, and Dayton hits the zone a lot. Combine the high zone rate and the high swing rate, and even after you subtract all of the whiffs there’s potentially a large number of in-zone fastballs to be put |
cache lookup is the same as for a non-parameterised query: SQL Server hashes the query text and looks up the hash value in the cache, still in a case- and space-sensitive fashion. But since the parameter values are not part of the query text, the same plan can be reused even when the input changes.
To make this really efficient there is one more thing you need to observe. Do you see that I've prefixed all tables in the query with dbo? There is a very important reason for this. Users can have different default schema, and up to SQL 2000, all users had a default schema equal to their username. Thus, if default schema for user1 is user1, and this users runs a query that goes " SELECT... FROM Orders", SQL Server must first check if there is a table user1.Orders, before it looks for dbo.Orders. Since user1.Orders could appear on the scene at any time, user1 cannot share cache entry with a user different default schema. Yes, in SQL 2005, it is perfectly possible that all users have dbo as their default schema, but it seems to be a bad idea to rely on it.
If you instead use stored procedures, it is not equally important to prefix tables with dbo. Microsoft still recommends that you do, but even if you don't, users with different default schema can share the same query plan.
From what I have said here, it follows that if you use dynamic SQL with EXEC() you lose an important benefit of stored procedures whereas with sp_executesql you don't. At least in theory. It's easy to forget that dbo, and if you leave it out in just a single place in the query, you will get as many entries in the cache for the query as there are users running it. Recall also that the cache is space- and case-sensitive, so if you generate the same query in several places, you may inadvertently have different spacing or inconsistent use of case. And this is not restricted to the SQL statement, the parameter list is as much part of the cache entry. Furthermore, since the cache lookup is by a hash value computed from the query text, I would assume that this is somewhat more expensive than looking up a stored procedure. In fact, under extreme circumstances, heavy use of dynamic SQL, can lead to serious performance degradation. Some of my MVP colleagues have observed systems with lots of memory (> 20 GB) when the plan cache has been so filled with plans for SQL statements, that there have been hash collisions galore, and the cache lookup alone could take several seconds. Presumably, the applications in question either did not use parameterised queries at all, or they failed to prefix tables with dbo.
So far, I've only talked about dynamic SQL in stored procedures. But in this regard there is very little difference to SQL statements sent from the client, or SQL statements generated in CLR procedures. The same rules apply: unparameterised statements are cached but with little probability for reuse, whereas parameterised queries can be as efficient as stored procedures if you remember to always prefix the tables with dbo. (And still with the caveat that the cache lookup is space- and case-sensitive.) Most client APIs implement parameterised queries by calling sp_executesql under the covers.
In the section on SQL Injection, I included an example on how to do parameterised queries with ADO and VB6. Here is an example with VB.Net and SqlClient:
cmd.CommandType = System.Data.CommandType.Text cmd.CommandText = _ " SELECT O.OrderID, SUM(OD.UnitPrice * OD.Quantity)" & _ " FROM dbo.Orders O " & _ " JOIN dbo.[Order Details] OD ON O.OrderID = OD.OrderID" & _ " WHERE O.OrderDate BETWEEN @from AND @to" & _ " AND EXISTS (SELECT *" & _ " FROM dbo.[Order Details] OD2" & _ " WHERE O.OrderID = OD2.OrderID" & _ " AND OD2.ProductID = @prodid)" & _ " GROUP BY O.OrderID" cmd.Parameters.Add("@from", SqlDbType.Datetime) cmd.Parameters("@from").Value = "1998-02-01" cmd.Parameters.Add("@to", SqlDbType.Datetime) cmd.Parameters("@to").Value = "1998-02-28" cmd.Parameters.Add("@prodid", SqlDbType.Int) cmd.Parameters("@prodid").Value = 76
In contrast to ADO, SqlClient uses names with @ for parameters. The syntax for defining parameters is similar to ADO, but not identical. This article is long enough, so I will not go into details on how the Parameters collection works. Instead, I refer you to MSDN where both SqlClient and ADO are documented in detail. Whatever client API you are using, please learn how to use parameterised commands with it. Yes, there is a tone of desperation in my voice. I don't know how many posts I've seen on the newsgroups over the years where people build their SQL strings by interpolating the values from input fields into the SQL string, and thereby degrading the performance of their application, and worst of all opening their database to SQL injection.
... and just when you thought you were safe, I need to turn this upside down. Recall what I said in the beginning of this section, that if the query is going to run for four minutes, one second extra for compilation is not a big deal. And if that recompilation slashes the execution time from forty minutes to four, there is a huge gain. Most queries benefit from cached parameterised plans, but not all do. Say that you have a query where the user can ask for data for some time span. If the user asks for a summary for a single day, there is a good non-clustered index that can be used for a sub-second response time. But if the request is for the entire year, the same index would be a disaster, and a table scan is better. Starting with SQL 2005 you can force a query to be recompiled each time it is executed by adding OPTION (RECOMPILE) to the end of the query, and thus you can still use sp_executesql to get the best protection against SQL injection. On SQL 2000 and earlier, it may in fact be better to interpolate critical parameters into the query string when you need to force recompilation each time.
For the sake of completeness, I should mention that SQL Server is able to auto-parameterise queries. If you submit:
SELECT OrderID, OrderDate FROM dbo.Orders WHERE CustomerID = N'ALFKI'
SQL Server may recast this as
SELECT OrderID, OrderDate FROM dbo.Orders WHERE CustomerID = @P1
so if next time you submit BERGS instead of ALFKI, the query plan will be reused. Auto-parameterisation comes in two flavours: simple and forced. Simple is the default and is the only option on SQL 2000 and earlier. With simple parameterisation, auto-parameterisation happens only with very simple queries, and, it seems, with some inconsistency. With forced parameterisation, SQL Server parameterises all queries that comes its way (with some exceptions documented in Books Online). Forced parameterisation is, in my opinion, mainly a setting to cover up for poorly designed third-party application that uses unparameterised dynamic SQL. For your own development you should not rely on any form of auto-parameterisation. (But in the situation you really a want a new query plan each time, you may have to verify that it doesn't happen when you don't want to.)
They say seeing is believing. Here is a demo that you can try on yourself, if you have SQL 2005. First create this database:
CREATE DATABASE many_sps go USE many_sps go DECLARE @sql nvarchar(4000), @x int SELECT @x = 200 WHILE @x > 0 BEGIN SELECT @sql = 'CREATE PROCEDURE abc_' + ltrim(str(@x)) + '_sp @orderid int AS SELECT O.OrderID, O.OrderDate, O.CustomerID, C.CompanyName, Prodcnt = OD.cnt, Totalsum = OD.total FROM Northwind..Orders O JOIN Northwind..Customers C ON O.CustomerID = C.CustomerID JOIN (SELECT OrderID, cnt = COUNT(*), total = SUM(Quantity * UnitPrice) FROM Northwind..[Order Details] GROUP BY OrderID) AS OD ON OD.OrderID = O.OrderID WHERE O.OrderID = @orderid' EXEC(@sql) SELECT @x = @x - 1 END
Then in SQL Server Management Studio 2005, press F7 navigate down to the list of stored procedures. Select all procedures. Then from the context menu select to script them as CREATE TO to a new query window. How long time this takes depends on your hardware, but on my machine it took 90 seconds and at the same time SQL Server grabbed over 250 MB of memory. If you use the Profiler to see what Mgmt Studio is up to, you will see that for each procedure, Mgmt Studio emits a couple of queries with the procedure name embedded. That is, no parameterised statements. Once scripting is complete, issue this command:
ALTER DATABASE many_sps SET PARAMETERIZATION FORCED
and redo the operation. On my machine scripting now completed in five seconds!. This demonstrates that the difference between parameterised and unparameterised can be dramatic. (And that Microsoft can not use their own products properly.) If you run SQL Server on your local machine, you can see this from one more angle, you can stop and restart SQL Server before the two scripting operations, and then use Task Manager to see how much physical memory SQL Server uses in the two cases. That difference lies entirely in the plan cache.
This particular issue have been addressed in SQL Server Management Studio 2008. SSMS 2008 has its own scripting issues, but they have nothing to do with the topic of this article.
Another advantage with stored procedures over SQL sent from the client is that less bytes travel the network. Rather than sending a 50-line query over the network, you only need to pass the name of a stored procedure and a few parameters. This gets more significant if the computation requires several queries, possibly with logic in between. If all logic is outside the database, this could mean that data has to travel up to the client, only to travel back in the next moment. With stored procedures you can use temp tables to hold intermediate results. (You can use temp tables from outer layers as well, although it may require some careful use of your client API.)
In this case, the dividing line goes between sending SQL from the client or running stored procedures. If the stored procedures use static SQL only, or invoke dynamic SQL does not matter, nor does it matter if it is a CLR procedure. You still get the gains of reduced network traffic.
This is not a question of security or performance, but one of good programming practice and modularising your code. By using stored procedures, you don't have to bog down your client code with the construction of SQL statements. Then again, it depends a little on what you put into those stored procedure. Myself, I am of the school that the business logic should be where the data is, and in this case there is no dispute that you should use stored procedures to encapsulate your logic.
But there are also people who like to see the database as a unintelligent container of data, and who prefer to have the business logic elsewhere. In this case, the arguments for using stored procedures for encapsulation may not be equally compelling. You could just as well employ careful programming practices in your client language and send SQL strings.
Nothing of this changes if you use dynamic SQL in your stored procedures. The stored procedure is still a container for some piece of logic, and how it looks on the inside does not matter. I'm here assuming that most of your procedures use static SQL only. If all your stored procedures generate dynamic SQL, then you are probably better off in this regard to do it all in client code. Then again, sometimes there is no other application than Query Analyzer or SQL Server Management Studio. (Typically this would be tasks that are run by an admin.) In this case, the only container of logic available is stored procedures, and it's immaterial whether they use dynamic SQL or not.
In a complex system with hundreds of tables, you may need to know where a certain table or column is referenced, because you are considering changing or dropping it. If all access to tables is from static SQL in stored procedures, you may be able find all references by using the system stored procedure sp_depends or query a system table directly. (sysdepends in SQL 2000, sys.sql_dependencies in SQL 2005 and later. In SQL 2008 there is also sys.sql_expression_dependencies.) I say may, because it is very difficult to maintain complete dependency information in SQL Server. If you drop and recreate a table, all dependency information for the table is lost. What I do myself is to regularly build an empty database from our version-control system, and since our build tool loads all tables before any stored procedure or trigger, I know that I can trust the dependency information in that database.
If you throw dynamic SQL into the mix – be that SQL sent from client, dynamic SQL in T-SQL procedures, or SQL generated by CLR stored procedures - you lose this opportunity. The alternative is to employ brute-force search, and if the construction of dynamic SQL is confined to some well-defined set of modules, this may work. If not, you may end up with a database where no one ever dares to drop or change a column or a table, and which eventually becomes unbearable complex and inefficient because of all the legacy baggage it's carrying around.
While the main dividing line here is between static SQL and any form of dynamic SQL, dynamic SQL in T-SQL stored procedures is probably the least harmful, as there is less code to search. You can even search the column sys.sql_modules.definition using SQL. Available since SQL 2005. In SQL 2000 you can search syscomments, but as the procedure text there is chopped into 4000-char slices, this is less reliable.
In any case, an occasional stored procedure that uses dynamic SQL is not likely cause the Armageddon I pictured above. But it is a good argument for being restrictive with dynamic SQL in any form.
One distinct advantage of writing stored T-SQL procedures is that you get a syntax check directly. With dynamic SQL, a trivial syntax error may not show up until run time. Even if you test your code carefully, there may be some query, or some variation of a query, that is only run in odd cases and not covered in your test suite.
It has to be admitted that the strength of this argument is somewhat reduced by the fact that T-SQL is not too industrious on reporting semantic errors. Because of deferred name resolution, SQL Server will not examine queries in stored procedures, where one or more tables are missing, be that misspellings or temp tables created within the procedure. Nevertheless, SQL Server does report sufficiently many errors, for this to be a very important reason to use stored procedures.
Another side of this coin is that when you write dynamic SQL, you embed the SQL code into strings, which makes programming far more complex. Your SQL code is a string delimited by single quotes('), and this string may include strings itself, and to include a single quote into the string you need to double it. You can easily get lost in a maze of quotes if you don't watch out. (In the section Good Coding Practices and Tips for Dynamic SQL, we will look a little closer on how to deal with this problem.) The most commonly used client languages with T-SQL - Visual Basic, C#, C ++, VBScript – all use the double quote ( " ) as their string delimiter, so dynamic SQL in client code or CLR stored procedures is less prone to that particular problem. Then again, in VB you don't have multi-line strings, so at the end of each line you have to have a double quote, an ampersand and an underscore for continuation. It sure does not serve to make coding easier. You are relieved from all this hassle, if you use stored procedures with static SQL only.
Somewhat surprisingly, one of the strongest arguments for stored procedures today may be that they permit you to quickly address bugs and performance problems in the application.
Say that you generate SQL statements in your application, and that there is an error in it. Or that it simply performs unbearably slow. To fix it, you need to build a new executable or DLL, which is likely to contain other code that also has changed since the module was shipped. This means that before the fix can be put into production, the module will have to go through QA and testing.
On the other hand, if the problem is in a stored procedure, and the fix is trivial, you may be able to deploy a fix into production within an hour after the problem was reported.
This difference is even more emphasised, if you are an ISV and you ship a product that the customer is supposed administer himself. If your application uses stored procedures, a DBA may be able to address problems directly without opening a support case. For instance, if a procedure runs unacceptably slow, he may be able to fix that by adding an index hint. In contrast, with an application that generates SQL in the client, his hands will be tied. Of course, as an ISV you may not want your customers to poke around in your code, even less to change it. You may also prefer to ship your procedures WITH ENCRYPTION to protect your intellectual property, but this is best controlled through license agreements. (If you encrypt your procedures, the DBA can still change them, as long as he is able to find a way to decrypt them. Which any DBA that knows how to use Google can do.)
In this case, it does not matter whether the stored procedure uses static SQL only, or if it also uses dynamic SQL. For CLR procedures it depends on many objects you have in your assemblies. If you have one assembly per object, installing a new version of a CLR procedure is as simple as replacing a T-SQL procedure.
(I should add that SQL 2005 offers a new feature that permits the DBA to change the plan for a query without altering the code, by adding a plan guide. This feature has been further enhanced in SQL 2008. This is quite an advanced feature, and I refer to Books Online for details.)
Writing dynamic SQL is a task that requires discipline to avoid losing control over your code. If you just go ahead, your code can become very messy, and be difficult to read, troubleshoot and maintain. In this section, we will look at how to avoid this. I will also discuss some special cases: how you can use sp_executesql for input longer than 4000 chars in SQL 2000, and how to use dynamic SQL with cursors, and the combination of dynamic SQL and user-defined functions.
When you write a stored procedure that generates dynamic SQL, you should always include a @debug parameter:
CREATE PROCEDURE dynsql_sp @par1 int,... @debug bit = 0 AS... IF @debug = 1 PRINT @sql
When you get a syntax error from the dynamic SQL, it can be very confusing, and you may not even discern where it comes from. And even when you do, it can be very difficult to spot the error only by looking at the code that constructs the SQL. Once the SQL code is slapped in your face, the error is much more likely to be apparent to you. So always include a @debug parameter and a PRINT!
As I've already mentioned, one problem with dynamic SQL is that you often need to deal with nested string delimiters. For instance, in the beginning of this article, I showed you the procedure general_select2. Here it is again:
CREATE PROCEDURE general_select2 @tblname nvarchar(127), @key varchar(10) AS EXEC('SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM'+ @tblname +'WHERE keycol = ''' + @key + '''')
(Again, I like to emphasise that this sort of procedure is poor use of dynamic SQL.)
SQL is one of those language where the method to include a string delimiter itself in a string literal is to double it. So those four consecutive single quotes ('''') is a string literal with the value of a one single quote ('). This is a fairly simple example; it can get a lot worse. If you work with dynamic SQL, you must learn to master nested strings. Obviously, in this case you can easily escape the mess by using sp_executesql instead – yet another reason to use parameterised statements. However, there are situations when you need to deal with nested quotes even with sp_executesql. For instance, earlier in this article, I had this code:
N' WHERE LastUpdated BETWEEN @fromdate AND'N' coalesce(@todate, ''99991231'')'
We will look at some tips of dealing with nested strings later in this section.
Another thing to be careful with is the spacing as you concatenate the parts of a query. Here is an example where it goes wrong:
EXEC('SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM' + @tblname +'WHERE keycol = ''' + @key + '''')
See that there is a space missing after FROM? When you compile the stored procedure you will get no error, but when you run it, you will be told that the columns keycol, col1, col2, col3 are missing. And since you know that the table you passed to the procedure has these columns you will be mighty confused. But this is the actual code generated, assuming the parameters foo and abc:
SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROMfoo WHERE keycol = 'abc'
FROMfoo
WHERE
FROM
This is also a good example why you should use debug prints. If the code looks like this:
SELECT @sql =' SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM' + @tblname +'WHERE keycol = ''' + @key + '''' IF @debug = 1 PRINT @sql EXEC(@sql)
It would be much easier to find the error by running the procedure with @debug = 1. (Obviously, had we included the dbo prefix, this error could not occur at all.)
Overall, good formatting is essential when working with dynamic SQL. Try to write the query as you would have written it in static SQL, and then add the string delimiters outside of that. T-SQL permits you to embed newlines in string literals (as testified by the example above), so in contrast to VB, you don't need a string delimiter on each line. An advantage of this is that your debug PRINT is easier to read, and in the case of a syntax error the line number in the error message may guide you.
You may prefer, though, to have a string terminator on each line. A tip in such case is to do something like this:
EXEC(' SELECT col1, col2, col3'+'FROM'+ @tblname +'WHERE keycol = ''' + @key + '''')
As you see, I have a space after the opening single quote on each line to avoid syntax problems due to missing spaces.
Passing table and column names as parameters to a procedure with dynamic SQL is rarely a good idea for application code. (It can make perfectly sense for admin tasks). As I've said, you cannot pass a table or a column name as a parameter to sp_executesql, but you must interpolate it into the SQL string. Still you should protect it against SQL injection, as a matter of routine. It could be that bad it comes from user input.
To this end, you should use the built-in function quotename() (added in SQL 7). quotename() takes two parameters: the first is a string, and the second is a pair of delimiters to wrap the string in. The default for the second parameter is []. Thus, quotename('Orders') returns [Orders]. quotename() takes care of nested delimiters, so if you have a really crazy table name like Left]Bracket, quotename() will return [Left]]Bracket].
Note that when you work with names with several components, each component should be quoted separately. quotename('dbo.Orders') returns [dbo.Orders], but that is a table in an unknown schema of which the first four characters are d, b, o and a dot. As long as you only work with the dbo schema, best practice is to add dbo in the dynamic SQL and only pass the table name. If you work with different schemas, pass the schema as a separate parameter. (Although you could use the built-in function parsename() to split up a @tblname parameter in parts.)
While general_select still is a poor idea as a stored procedure, here is nevertheless a version that summarises some good coding virtues for dynamic SQL :
CREATE PROCEDURE general_select @tblname nvarchar(128), @key varchar(10), @debug bit = 0 AS DECLARE @sql nvarchar(4000) SET @sql = 'SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM dbo.' + quotename(@tblname) +'WHERE keycol = @key' IF @debug = 1 PRINT @sql EXEC sp_executesql @sql, N'@key varchar(10)', @key = @key
I'm using sp_executesql rather than EXEC().
rather than. I'm prefixing the table name with dbo.
. I'm wrapping @tblname in quotename().
. There is a @debug parameter.
The main purpose of quotename() is to quote object names, which is why the default for the second parameter is brackets. But you can specify other delimiters as well, including single quotes, which means that any single quote in the input is doubled. Thus, if you for some reason prefer to use EXEC(), you can use quotename() to protect yourself against SQL injection by help of this function. Here is an example.
IF @custname IS NOT NULL SELECT @sql = @sql +'AND custname ='+ quotename(@custname, '''')
Say that @custname has the value D'Artagnan. This part of the dynamic SQL becomes:
AND custname = 'D''Artagnan'
There is a limitation with quotename(): its input parameter is nvarchar(128), so it does not handle long strings. A remedy is this user-defined function:
CREATE FUNCTION quotestring(@str nvarchar(1998)) RETURNS nvarchar(4000) AS BEGIN DECLARE @ret nvarchar(4000), @sq char(1) SELECT @sq = '''' SELECT @ret = replace(@str, @sq, @sq + @sq) RETURN(@sq + @ret + @sq) END
This version is for SQL 2000. On SQL 2005 and later, replace 1998 and 4000 with MAX, to make it work for any string length. Here is an example of using this function:
IF @custname IS NOT NULL SELECT @sql = @sql +'AND custname ='+ dbo.quotestring(@custname)
The result is the same as above.
On SQL 7, you would have to implement quotestring as a stored procedure. SQL 6.5 does not have replace(), so you are a bit out of luck there.
So with quotename() and quotestring(), do we have as good protection against SQL injection as we have with parameterised commands? Maybe. I don't know of any way to inject SQL that slips through quotename() or quotestring(). Nevertheless, you are interpolating user input into the SQL string, whereas with parameterised commands, you don't.
(I should add that I got the suggestion to use quotename() or a user-defined function from SQL Server MVP Steve Kass.)
Another alternative to escape the mess of nested quotes, is make use of the fact that T-SQL actually has two string delimiters. To wit, if the setting QUOTED_IDENTIFIER is OFF, you can also use double quotes( " ) as a string delimiter. The default for this setting depends on context, but the preferred setting is ON, and it must be ON in order to use XQuery, indexed views and indexes on computed columns. Thus, this is not a first-rate alternative, but if you are aware of the caveats, you can do this:
CREATE PROCEDURE general_select @tblname nvarchar(127), @key key_type, @debug bit = 0 AS DECLARE @sql nvarchar(4000) SET @sql = 'SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM dbo.' + quotename(@tblname) +'WHERE keycol = "' + @key + '"' IF @debug = 1 PRINT @sql EXEC(@sql)
Since there are two different quote characters, the code is much easier to read. The single quotes are for the SQL string and the double quotes are for the embedded string literals.
All and all, this is an inferior method to both sp_executesql and quotestring(), since you are not protected against SQL injection (what if @key includes a double quote?). But it would be OK to do for some sysadmin task (where SQL injection is not likely to be an issue), and it may be the best way to go on SQL 6.5.
There is a limitation with sp_executesql on SQL 2000 and SQL 7, since you cannot use longer SQL strings than 4000 characters. (On SQL 2005 and later, you should use nvarchar( MAX ) to avoid this problem.) If you want to use sp_executesql when your query string exceeds this limit to make use of parameterised query plans, there is actually a workaround. To wit, you can wrap sp_executesql in EXEC() :
DECLARE @sql1 nvarchar(4000), @sql2 nvarchar(4000), @state char(2) SELECT @state = 'CA' SELECT @sql1 = N'SELECT COUNT(*)' SELECT @sql2 = N'FROM dbo.authors WHERE state = @state' EXEC('EXEC sp_executesql N''' + @sql1 + @sql2 + ''', N''@state char(2)'', @state = ''' + @state + '''')
This works, because the @stmt parameter to sp_executesql is ntext, so by itself, it does not have any limitation in size.
You can even use output parameters by using INSERT-EXEC, as in this example:
CREATE TABLE #result (cnt int NOT NULL) DECLARE @sql1 nvarchar(4000), @sql2 nvarchar(4000), @state char(2), @mycnt int SELECT @state = 'CA' SELECT @sql1 = N'SELECT @cnt = COUNT(*)' SELECT @sql2 = N'FROM dbo.authors WHERE state = @state' INSERT #result (cnt) EXEC('DECLARE @cnt int EXEC sp_executesql N''' + @sql1 + @sql2 + ''', N''@state char(2), @cnt int OUTPUT'', @state = ''' + @state + ''', @cnt = @cnt OUTPUT SELECT @cnt') SELECT @mycnt = cnt FROM #result
You have my understanding if you think this is too messy to be worth it.
This very simple: you cannot use dynamic SQL from used-defined functions written in T-SQL. This is because you are not permitted do anything in a UDF that could change the database state (as the UDF may be invoked as part of a query). Since you can do anything from dynamic SQL, including updates, it is obvious why dynamic SQL is not permitted.
I've seen more than one post on the newsgroups where people have been banging their head against this. But if you want to use dynamic SQL in a UDF, back out and redo your design. You have hit a roadblock, and in SQL 2000 there is no way out.
In SQL 2005 and later, you could implement your function as a CLR function. Recall that all data access from the CLR is dynamic SQL. (You are safe-guarded, so that if you perform an update operation from your function, you will get caught.) A word of warning though: data access from scalar UDFs can often give performance problems. If you say
SELECT... FROM tbl WHERE dbo.MyUdf(somecol) = @value
and MyUdf performs data access, you have more or less created a hidden cursor.
Not that cursors are something you should use very frequently, but people often ask about using dynamic SQL with cursors, so I give an example for the sake of completeness. You cannot say DECLARE CURSOR EXEC() ; you have to put the entire DECLARE CURSOR statement in dynamic SQL :
SELECT @sql = 'DECLARE my_cur INSENSITIVE CURSOR FOR'+ 'SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM'+ @table EXEC sp_executesql @sql
You may be used to using the LOCAL keyword with your cursors. However, it is important to understand that you must use a global cursor, as a local cursor will disappear when the dynamic SQL exits. (Because, as you know by now, the dynamic SQL is its own scope.) Once you have declared the cursor in this way, you can use the cursor in a normal fashion. You must be extra careful with error-handling though, so that you don't exit the procedure without deallocating the cursor.
There is however a way to use locally-scoped cursors with dynamic SQL. Anthony Faull pointed out to me that you can achieve this with cursor variables, as in this example:
DECLARE @my_cur CURSOR EXEC sp_executesql N'SET @my_cur = CURSOR STATIC FOR SELECT name FROM dbo.sysobjects; OPEN @my_cur', N'@my_cur cursor OUTPUT', @my_cur OUTPUT FETCH NEXT FROM @my_cur
You refer to a cursor variable, just like named cursors, but there is an @ in front, and, as you see from the example, you can pass them as a parameters. (I have to confess I have never seen any use for cursor variables until Anthony Faull was kind to send me this example.)
A special feature added in SQL 2005 is that you can use EXEC() to run pass-through queries on a linked server. This could be another instance of SQL Server, but it could also be an Oracle server, an Access database, Active directory or whatever. The SQL could be a single query or a sequence of statements, and could it be composed dynamically or be entirely static. The syntax is simple, as seen by this example:
EXEC('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM'+ @db + '.dbo.sysobjects') AT SQL2K
SQL2K is here a linked server that has been defined with sp_addlinkedserver.
There is one thing that you can do with EXEC() at a linked server, that you cannot do with EXEC() on a local server: you can use parameters, both for input and output. The confuse matters, you don't use parameters with names starting with @, instead you use question marks (? ) as parameter holders. Say that you are on an SQL 2005 box, and you are dying to know how many orders VINET had in the Northwind database. Unfortunately, SQL 2005 does not ship with Northwind, but you have a linked server set up to an instance of SQL 2000 with Northwind. You can run this:
DECLARE @cnt int EXEC('SELECT? = COUNT(*) FROM Northwind.dbo.Orders WHERE CustomerID =?', @cnt OUTPUT, N'VINET') AT SQL2K SELECT @cnt
Note here that the parameter values must appear in the order the parameter markers appear in the query. When passing a parameter, you can either specify a constant value or a variable.
You may ask why the inconsistency with a different parameter marker from sp_executesql? Recall that linked servers in SQL Server are always accessed through an OLE DB provider, and OLE DB uses? as the parameter marker, a convention inherited from ODBC. OLE DB translates that parameter marker as is appropriate for the data source on the other end. (Not all RDBMS use @ for variables.)
As with regular EXEC(), you can specify AS USER/LOGIN to use impersonation:
EXEC('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM'+ @db + '.dbo.sysobjects') AS USER = 'davidson' AT SQL2K
This begs the question: is davidson here a local user or a remote user at SQL2K? Books Online is not very clear about this, but I did some quick experimenting, and found that what you are impersonating is a local user or login, not a login on the remote server. (The login to use on the remote server can be defined with sp_addlinkedsrvlogin.)
When you read the various newsgroups on SQL Server, there is almost every day someone who asks a question that is answered with use dynamic SQL with a quick example to illustrate, but ever so often the person answering forgets to tell about the implications on permissions or SQL injection. On top of that, far too many examples use EXEC() without any thought of query plans. And while many of these questions taken by the letter have no other answer than dynamic SQL, there is often a real business problem which has a completely different solution without dynamic SQL – and a much better one.
So, in this section I will explore some situations where you could use dynamic SQL. You will see that sometimes dynamic SQL is a good choice, but also that in many cases that it is an outright bad idea.
A common question is why the following does not work:
CREATE PROCEDURE my_proc @tablename sysname AS SELECT * FROM @tablename
As we have seen, we can make this procedure work with help of dynamic SQL, but it should also be clear that we gain none of the advantages with generating that dynamic SQL in a stored procedure. You could just as well send the dynamic SQL from the client. So, OK: 1) if the SQL statement is very complex, you save some network traffic and you do encapsulation. 2) As we have seen, starting with SQL 2005 there are methods to deal with permissions. Nevertheless, this is a bad idea.
There seems to be several reasons why people want to parameterise the table name. One camp appears to be people who are new to SQL programming, but have experience from other languages such as C++, VB etc where parameterisation is a good thing. Parameterising the table name to achieve generic code and to increase maintainability seems like good programmer virtue.
But it is just that when it comes to database objects, the old truth does not hold. In a proper database design, each table is unique, as it describes a unique entity. (Or at least it should!) Of course, it is not uncommon to end up with a dozen or more look-up tables that all have an id, a name column and some auditing columns. But they do describe different entities, and their semblance should be regarded as mere chance, and future requirements may make the tables more dissimilar.
Furthermore, when it comes to building a query plan, each table has its set of statistics and presumptions that are by no means interchangeable, as far as SQL Server is concerned. Finally, in a complex data model, it is important to get a grip of what's being used. When you start to pass table and column names as |
ora Welty’s narrative abilities because my teachers made us read her every year from seventh to twelfth grade, and I knew that Ms. Alexander’s Jubilee and “For My People” were way better or at least as good as anything Ms. Welty did. Ms. Welty was dope. She was. She layered her stories, and did white Southern characterization better than almost anyone ever. But Mississippi is the home of the best sentence creators in the world. How come Ms. Welty was the one who got all the shine when I was in school? Plus, I hated how it sounded when she said “nigra” on tape. What’s a “nigra”? A mix between a “nigga” and a piece of okra?
You are so crazy.
I’m a crazy nigra. My irrational hate of Ms. Welty’s work eased by the time I went to college. But then one of my teachers worked with Ms. Welty and this teacher accused me of plagiarizing because I used the word “ambivalent.” It was the second week of class and this woman literally said, “Ambivalent isn’t a word I can see you using.” When I went back to Millsaps to give a talk last year, I let her know that I was a better writer than her and she should be happy that I’m not ambivalent about talking to her wack ass.
You are so crazy.
Maybe. People on Facebook keep asking me what you think about Chokwe’s death. I say that you’re not ready to talk about it. I know that he meant so much to you and my father.
Have you talked to your father since Chokwe’s passing? My first date with your father was to the Republic of New Afrika House on the corner of Lynch and Dalton streets. I was eighteen. Across the street was my favorite chili dog restaurant, The Penguin. In any case, Chokwe was much respected and admired by your father. I was very new to the conversation but found it interesting. Inside the RNA House were tons of books, the smell of incense that I mistook for the smell of weed, and lots of candles. Later I would meet Chokwe and the late Imari Obadele. I actually adored Imari. The police raided the House around midnight and our date was over. Chokwe loved the name that we gave you. “Kiese Makeba.” We were so proud of that name. Chokwe spent his entire life using his skills to help dispossessed black people in the South and the Mid-West…
* * *
Black folks loving black folks in the South causes so much literal terrorism, yet black love is also the only place we could go to soothe the terror. Mama placed Mayor Chokwe Lumumba in a larger context of complicated freedom fighters committed to freeing the land. This was a part of our conversation that my mother made me promise not to share with the world.
* * *
…I do not want to believe that there was any foul play in Chokwe’s death, Kie. The possibility of that so disturbs me—to the point of having an existential crisis. All my life I have believed that people are basically good—this would change that belief.
Mama, I’m not sure how you can believe that people are basically good after all that we’ve seen. Remember when we were playing by Calloway and we ran after that man who just started destroying that woman’s face?
I do not want to talk about that, Kie. I still see that girl’s bloodied face and hear the sound of that man punching her. I think we would have killed him if we caught him.
No question. So how can you still believe people are basically good?
What’s the alternative, Kie?
There’s so much love and history of black excellence in our state, but the state’s structural commitment to black death is unparallelled.
The alternative is to accept that white supremacy and patriarchy don’t want us to ritualize the work of loving each other, which means white supremacy and patriarchy literally want us dead. We ain’t dead yet. We ain’t even got good at really loving each other and we still ain’t dead yet. So we just have to get better at the hard work of loving each other. That means loving at home, loving policy, loving institutions, loving economically, all that. Wait, would you raise a girl or boy in Mississippi or the South if you could do it again?
If I had to raise a child now—no matter the gender—I would probably not choose Mississippi. There’s so much love and history of black excellence in our state, but the state’s structural commitment to black death is unparallelled.
But if that’s true, why did you stay there so long?
I stayed there so long precisely because of the state’s commitment to black death and my commitment to my students. I loved my students because my teachers had loved and believed in me. Like you, I was only a few years older than my first class of students, so I was committed to advancing their life chances. I needed to do my part to ensure their sure-footedness in the next leg of their journey, whether they stayed in Mississippi or left.
What would you think if I moved back to Mississippi next year to teach and learn?
I do not favor this move. Would you be moving without a job? Would you be moving for reasons that could easily change? What’s happening with you? Has Vassar asked you to leave? Is this your decision? Why?
Damn, Mama. Why you trippin’? I’m just asking what you’d think of my moving back home to live and work.
And I’m asking you why you’re considering that after all you’ve been through.
Oh, boy. Okay, next question. Sometimes I wonder if I really had a chance to be anything other than a teacher, a student, and a writer after being conceived, born, and raised on a college campus. When I watched you teach, I didn’t think about how much love students share with you, or how you can really damage them if you’re not attentive, honest, and deliberate. I’ve been my best self when teaching and learning from students. There’s so much I didn’t think about regarding the relationships with students and teachers when I watched you. I remember kids asking me why your students lived with us sometimes. And I never thought the answer was because you loved them. But that really was the answer.
They loved me, Kie.
When I was a kid, I thought you loved them more than you loved me. But after a while, I didn’t care. That’s what I was trying to say in that letter to you in my essay book. I understood that you were changing the world, and being changed, one student at a time.
That’s true.
Let me ask you this: Would you whip me as much as you did if you could do it over again? No beef. Just asking.
I did not want you to destroy your life chances and I did not want racism to destroy you. That’s why I whipped you so much. As a child, you had enormous stubbornness, anger, and rage. And while you were able to channel it through sports and writing, it was never far from the surface. Sometimes I wonder if much has changed with you. I tried to establish rules and when talking did not help, I lost patience. I was nineteen when you were born. I am sorry, Kie. Please forgive me.
I get all of that, Mama. I really do. You were a baby with a baby. I remember men constantly asking me for my “sister’s digits” when we were in the mall. That shit made me so mad. Then you add on living in Mississippi. And being in academia, with all its crazy-making. And all the men who were trying to eat your heart meat. I get it. I’m telling you I get it. Do you think being a young black woman in Mississippi with a child impacted your relationship to money?
I never had a job or a bank account as a young woman and probably never learned to value money the way I should have. In any case, I earned $17,000 the year I began work at Jackson State. I immediately enrolled you in Christ the King. I think your father contributed $250 a month. After rent, your schooling, food, clothing, and utilities, there was very little left for purchases other than books. I feel like I never had enough money to give, spend, or save.
Teach my grandchildren to read, write, sing, and dance. Teach them what you value most—the power of dignity and the complexity of love.
I hear you. Can you tell me why you want to be a grandmother so badly?
Kie, sometimes I think you’re afraid to have kids or get married because of mistakes your parents made. Is that true?
* * *
I wasn’t ready to answer that question honestly. Family, community, and my grandmother are central in nearly everything I’ve ever created, but there are huge gaps in my fiction and nonfiction where textured mothers, fathers, and partners are supposed to be. There’s the thinnest line between parental terror, parental shame, and parental intimacy, and I’m trying to understand how my parents drew and toed that line, and what the consequences are for children when those lines blur. I guess I’m mostly reckoning with whether I have the imagination and will to draw something other than scary thin lines for my children, and my partner. Scary thin lines poke. And people aren’t ideas. People bleed. Then they scar. I don’t want to be an abusive parent or partner. I’m not sure people should have kids if they’re unsure whether they themselves are really worthy of love. Anyway, I’m working on it.
* * *
Maybe.
If you have kids, especially if you move back home, protect my grandchildren and teach them that life is a series of choices, and whatever we choose, we lose something. Make sure you have children with a woman you’re madly in love with. Don’t ever be a whoremonger. Teach my grandchildren to read, write, sing, and dance. They will probably have a good set of windpipes and great hand-eye coordination. They will also be very beautiful. Teach them what you value most—the power of dignity and the complexity of love. Don’t be afraid that you’ll mess up or that they won’t love you. Loving you is not hard. I wish I showed you that more.
I hear you, Mama. Okay, so are you gonna let me run all that other stuff you said I couldn’t run?
No, I’m not. Why would you want strangers without our best interest at heart to see that?
Thanks for talking to me, Mama.
Thank you for talking to me.
Ain’t got. Ain’t got. Ain’t got.
You are so hardheaded.
I love you, Mama.
I love you, Kie.Lately, I’ve heard a lot about people who possess kind natures and good qualities, yet who are haunted by feelings that shake them deeply from within. As one of my friends puts it, she feels shaky inside “at the very depth of her core.” So I would like to speak about how to relate to this shaky state of mind. I think one of the first things that happens is that people lose a tremendous amount of self-confidence when they feel shaken deeply at the core of their being.
There are many reasons why one might feel deeply shaken at the core of one’s being. But nonetheless I think the main effect of this feeling is that it makes a person quickly lose their basic self-confidence. As soon as you feel this way, you relate to it as a weak state of mind. Then what happens is you immediately identify yourself as a weak person. From this, we fixate ever more solidly on all that caused the feeling to arise—whichever concerns or worries, whatever anxieties or projections we had in the first place. So this inflames the feeling of shakiness even more.
In ordinary circumstances, when you have some concern or anxiety, it’s not that bad because you generally accept it as part of life. You may even understand that to feel concerned at times is actually good, and sometimes feeling a little anxious is just part of being a sensitive human being.
But when you become concerned and worried at a time when you are already feeling shaky at the depth of your core, the experience gets completely colored by the perception of yourself as being weak. Everything swells up out of that sense of weakness and overtakes your mind, leaving you feeling completely lost in your own craziness.
With a feeling of shakiness at the depth of one’s core, what you would normally consider to be merely ordinary states of mind feel instead like utterly losing control, or like going a little bit crazy. This feeling of going crazy is a double anxiety. Nothing else is really happening other than what normally happens in our regular state of mind. But when you’re feeling deeply shaken in the depths of your heart, there’s a sense of feeling like you are being attacked from those very depths just when you are feeling most vulnerable. And because you have identified yourself as being weak, you have already surrendered the best part of your own strength, the strongest part of your own mind.
I think it is this identification of being weak from the very beginning that triggers this “super anxiety.” Ordinarily, we would just accept such a state as a kind of normal temporary anxiety, but in this case, because of the self-perception of being weak, it blossoms into a super anxiety.
Of course nobody wants to be in this state of mind. If someone is a seasoned meditator who knows their mind, they can have a sense of humor about the activity of their mind and perhaps see all the different states of mind with some equanimity and without aversion to these uncomfortable states. They might be able to identify the causes and conditions that have brought about a particular state of mind. Looking at the causes and conditions—looking right into the eye of these particular states of mind—is interesting. We can see that they have a lot of “charge” or potential. And that charge sometimes can actually challenge the practitioner to become even more awake.
But for a person without this type of relationship to their mind, they will most likely feel great aversion to this state of mind. The aversion itself makes the state of mind even more intense and, furthermore, affects their nervous system. It is almost like electricity flowing from the heart throughout the rest of your body when you feel quite shaken and raw. Often people will describe their hands and legs going numb, or they become all sweaty, and lose their memory. They are in a kind of zone of their own. I know these things do happen.
This combination of the anxiety and the aversion and the losing of one’s self-confidence, along with the surrendering of one’s strength, and the admission of one’s own weakness, altogether feels as if you have been hit by a truck.
I hope everyone understands that all this is actually not so terrible, it is all just a state of mind. Yes, it is intense and it is difficult but, after all, it’s just another state of mind. I don’t think that whoever goes through this is actually in any danger of losing their mind. It takes more than that to lose one’s mind.
To remedy this process, there are three things that I feel confident will really work.
The first is to actually feel some faith—faith in the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha), or faith in whatever positiveness exists in the world, as well as the goodness inherent in sentient beings. Feel your basic faith in anything that warms your heart, which probably feels very cold and icy during those trembling moments when you are most shaky.
Faith provides some strength to that heart which is trembling and icy. Faith is very interesting. Faith is a choice we make. It’s not something beyond us, or a case simply of whether you have it or don’t have it. It’s a choice. One chooses to have faith.
The moment you choose to have faith in this situation you’ve made a decision. You can either swim in this icy water full of confusions, becoming more and more petrified in this experience, even allowing yourself to become like a block of petrified wood, or you can preserve your tender heart. In these moments, your naturally good heart can be warmed with faith in the greater existence of the world, whether it is the Three Jewels, or the goodness present in the world and in all people.
Something needs to warm your heart independently from what you are seeing only from your side. Once that happens, you feel immediately a certain relief and a sense of light coming through this darkness. That is why this choice to have faith can be so important.
Continues Next Week with Part 2: Accepting All Outcomes
Taken from Personal Link talk # 221 | Date of talk: 04-09-2006
Learn more about MSB's Lineage Training here.[Sponsored] The ultimate way to “Leave No Trace” is to forgo hiking entirely—but how could anyone resist Hong Kong’s scenic country parks? As the hiking season draws near, here are a few easy tips you can follow to make your hiking trip as traceless as possible.
Not everything that is natural belongs in nature
After snacking on an apple during your hike, you toss the core into the bushes, thinking it will decompose and fertilise the soil. Now imagine if the next hiker (and the one after that) did the same thing and discarded fruit remains on the trail—is a trail littered with fruit remains one on which you would like to trek?
Cosmetic considerations aside, food waste, including fruit remains, can emit unpleasant odours when rotting. It may also be ingested by curious animals, which may then suffer health consequences. Fruit remains may take years to decompose, and can affect the acidity of soil if they occur in great amounts.
And if they happen to fall on concrete or rock, this would hinder decomposition, resulting in more waste. Fruit remains may also contain harmful chemicals such as pesticides, which could enter the ecosystem through decomposition.
One way to avoid damaging the environment is by planning ahead and preparing. Part of preparing well is bringing sufficient food. You should go a step further to minimise the production of waste by avoiding overly packaged food, and always bring reusable water bottles, cutlery and towels.
Carry a reusable container with you to hold waste so you can dispose of it properly when you find a rubbish bin.
Make memories, not marks
Resist the temptation to inscribe surfaces you find on a trail—do not declare your love for your significant other on a rock, or express your political stance on a signpost. Leave what you find as is: resist the urge to remove plants, rocks and animals as souvenirs, because everyone should be able to enjoy and appreciate nature’s mysteries and surprises.
Create memories and note observations by capturing them with your smartphone camera. The TrailWatch app allows you to take photos while logging your treks in the application, making it easy to recall when and where the photos were taken.
You can choose to share your photos publicly with the rest of the TrailWatch community, keep them to yourself, or share them with your connections on social media.
When taking photos of wild animals, treat them with respect: keep your distance, do not disturb them and avoid sudden movements and direct eye contact. Back away if an animal reacts to your presence.
And whatever you do, never feed animals as this could threaten their health and change their natural behaviours. Keep your memories organised by categorising photographs of flower, fauna and other features using the preset categories in your TrailWatch app.
You can help protect Hong Kong’s country parks
The next time you see felled trees, large amounts of waste or other suspected damage while hiking, don’t just walk away. If you’re not sure what to do, TrailWatch may be able to help.
Using the “Incident Report” function, take a photo of the alleged damage. TrailWatch will be able to trace and verify the location where the photo was taken using GPS before contacting relevant government departments and organisations to follow up on your report.Breaking two days of silence on a libel notice from Premier Kathleen Wynne, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says he won’t “back down” on comments about her involvement in the $1.1-billion gas plants scandal. “They’re not going to silence us,” he said Sunday. “We’re not going to back down. Of course not.”
PC leader Tim Hudak and MPP Lisa MacLeod have been served with a libel notice by Premier Kathleen Wynne for saying she "oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction of documents." Hudak says he won't "back down" on the comments. ( RICHARD J. BRENNAN / TORONTO STAR )
Hudak was responding to a libel notice served Friday by Wynne’s lawyer over comments he made that “she oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction of documents.” His remarks came after Ontario Provincial Police revealed they are investigating former premier Dalton McGuinty’s last chief of staff, David Livingston, for breach of trust. Police allege Livingston got a non-government computer expert to wipe clean computer hard drives in the premier’s office using a special password that was in effect from Feb. 6 to March 20 of 2013, in the dying days of the McGuinty era and first few weeks of the Wynne administration.
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The allegations have not been tested in court and Livingston has denied any wrongdoing. Wynne has said Hudak’s comments are false and “defamatory” because there are no police allegations specifically about her. Police have said it is possible that hard drives were wiped after she came to power Feb. 11, 2013. A forensic examination is underway to determine that, and a detective has warned it could take “many months” for results. “I wish Kathleen Wynne would spend as much time thinking about creating jobs as she is spending time with lawyers,” Hudak said on Newstalk1010 radio. “Whether she likes this or not, this leads directly to the office of Kathleen Wynne,” he said of the scandal, which has dogged the Liberals since McGuinty scrapped gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election to save the seats of five area Liberal MPPs.
That election reduced the Liberals to a minority. Wynne is now hoping the New Democrats will allow her upcoming spring budget to pass, averting the spring election Hudak wants. The Tory leader said he will keep pressing the Liberals on deleted emails in a police probe prompted by complaints from two of his MPPS, who were concerned that a legislative committee investigating the scandal was not being shown all emails on it, as required, from the offices of McGuinty and former energy minister Chris Bentley.
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“We’re not going to be part of the coverup,” Hudak said. “We’re going to hold them to account. Police allege two of 24 computer hard drives seized from the premier’s office were wiped by Peter Faist, the computer expert boyfriend of Livingston’s former deputy, Laura Miller, who is now executive director of the British Columbia Liberal Party. Faist has, through his lawyer, denied any wrongdoing. MPPs have called him to testify before the legislative committee probing the scandal but no date has been set for his appearance. The NDP said the brewing legal battle between Wynne and Hudak should not sidetrack voters. “The squabble between Hudak and Wynne should not distract from the fact there was an attempt to cover up the $1-billion Liberal gas plant scandal. New Democrats intend to get to the bottom of this scandal and get answers for people,” said NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson. Despite saying she was “quite shocked” by the police allegations, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she has not decided whether to join with the Conservatives in defeating a spring budget, a move that would likely send Ontarians to the polls in late June. Hudak and other Conservatives have repeatedly urged Horwath to stop propping up a “corrupt” Liberal government. In the past two years, New Democrats have allowed budgets to pass in exchange for measures like a wealth surtax and lower car insurance rates.
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(CBS News) Most major medical studies that guide doctors and lead to new treatment advice are not as sound as patients might expect, a new study finds.
Got cancer? 10 secrets for better decisions
First of controversial bird flu papers published
The largest analysis of clinical trials to date looked at nearly 41,000 studies and found many fall short when it comes to producing meaningful evidence that should guide medical decision-making.
"Our analysis raises questions about the best methods for generating evidence, as well as the capacity of the clinical trials enterprise to supply sufficient amounts of high quality evidence to ensure confidence in guideline recommendations," study author Dr. Robert Califf, vice chancellor for clinical research at Duke University Medical Center and director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute in Durham, N.C. said in a university news release.
For the study, published in the May 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Califf and colleagues reviewed studies found on the website ClinicalTrials.gov that were downloaded in September of 2010. The site is a database managed by the National Library of Medicine to maintain past, current and planned clinical research studies and contains specifics on the study's methodology.
The impact of results found in clinical trials range from changing treatment guidelines for diseases such as cancer or heart disease, or determining how medical devices may help people with certain conditions. Ideally they are randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that randomly assign participants to receive a treatment or an alternate treatment (often a placebo) and control for factors that could bias the study.
The researchers looked specifically at trials related to cardiovascular, mental health, and cancer studies, and found 96 percent of the trials had 1,000 or fewer participants, while over 60 percent had 100 or fewer participants. What's more 66 percent of studies were conducted on a single site as opposed to at multiple research locations, the researchers found.
"There are 330 new clinical trials being registered every week, and a number of them are very small and probably not as high quality as they could be," Califf told HealthDay.
Cancer trials in particular were flagged by the researchers. They found cardiovascular trials, for example, were typically twice as large as cancer trials, with mental health trials falling in the middle. Additionally, a majority of cancer trials don't randomize their patients. Califf questioned to HealthDay if 65 percent of cancer studies don't randomize their participants compared with 26 percent of heart studies, should cancer research be done differently?
Dr. Kay Dickersin, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Drummond Renie, deputy editor of JAMA, commented on the findings in an accompanying editorial, saying more engagement is needed among everyone involved with clinical trials - including the test subjects, who should ask for a copy of the results.
"If all trial investigators and sponsors, as well as the regulators, were equally engaged, this might help further the universal adoption of trial registration," they wrote. It might "restore the public's confidence in investigators, sponsors, and the clinical trial enterprise."I have been preaching through the Book of Acts on Sunday mornings. It has been a blessing for me for all the reasons it is usually a blessing to be engaged weekly in sermon preparation and preaching to God’s people. One of the characteristic features of the Book of Acts is the blessed redundancy that characterizes Luke’s account of the earliest days of the church. That is, page after page, chapter after chapter the church is described going about what Jesus commissioned her to do. It is almost as if Luke is using the repeated examples of the church’s stewardship of the great commission to suggest that it is the unique calling of the church to make disciples of all the nations. And for all of man’s efforts to find more appealing organizations for the cause than the messy church, the Lord of the church has never rescinded his original commission.
I am thankful that The Gospel Coalition recently posted an article reminding everyone that the church is more important than TGC for indeed it is. The church matters more in God’s economy than any parachurch organization. That is not to say that parachurch organizations are wrong. I cannot think of any reason to suggest that the parachurch is fundamentally wrong. Surely we can all think of ways that some parachurch ministries have been a definite win for the church.
But I am also persuaded that for a parachurch ministry to be healthy and helpful it must understand its place. And since the parachurch is not an abstract entity but an organization of people, it is the people who lead the parachurch who must understand the place of their ministry. Those who run the parachurch must be on guard for runaway ambitions and the sneaking suspicion that they are somehow going to fix all that is wrong with the church. Knowing a few things about my own heart, I imagine that it is quite easy for those running a parachurch ministry to see themselves as outside or even over the church rather than submissively serving her.
I understand the pressure. It is exceedingly difficult to reign in one’s ambitions. The more employees an organization has and the more programs it launches the more money is needed to sustain the whole thing. So where does it go for money? To the membership of local churches, of course. The same local churches which often must live, financially speaking, from month-to-month. The same local churches which cannot afford to give their pastor a raise after years of service. The same local churches which simply cannot compete with slick and compelling media appeals from unaccountable organizations which promise to “reach the world.”
And if you think I am exaggerating the problem, if you think that church members will not reduce their support to their church in order to give to something with the power and promise of big evangelicalism then I would suggest you are being naïve.
Don’t misunderstand. I am not suggesting that it is wrong for a parachurch ministry to solicit donations. But with enormous ambitions come enormous budgets. And with enormous budgets come powerful appeals. And many local churches simply cannot compete with the grand claims made by some parachurch ministries. And personally, I have never seen grander claims than those coming from The Gospel Coalition.
I am not suggesting that TGC does not do good work. I have written before that I have benefitted from some of the work of TGC and I hold many of its board members in high regard. But I repeat my observation that TGC seems to be more of a denomination than simply a parachurch ministry. I have no idea to whom they are accountable. And this is a serious issue. What is the controlling authority at TGC? Who is looking over their shoulder? It is not a church or denomination.
TGC would so aggressively seek donations from men and women whose churches do not have wealthy people to issue impressive matching challenges. Pastors of local churches must constantly walk a fine line between calling church members to give faithfully and turning them off for “talking too much about money.” These local churches do not have a Director of Development on their payroll. They don’t have individuals committed to multi-year endowments. But it is nevertheless to these churches that our Lord has entrusted his great commission. It is true that the vast majority of churches cannot afford dope websites and world-class conferences with tens of thousands of dollars worth of stagecraft. But the local church is still the pillar and ground of the truth, the steward of the oracles of God, and the means God has appointed to reach the world. Therefore, it leaves me feeling rather sad thatfrom men and women whose churches do not have wealthy people to issue impressive matching challenges. Pastors of local churches must constantly walk a fine line between calling church members to give faithfully and turning them off for “talking too much about money.” These local churches do not have a Director of Development on their payroll. They don’t have individuals committed to multi-year endowments. But it is nevertheless to these churches that our Lord has entrusted his great commission. It is true that the vast majority of churches cannot afford dope websites and world-class conferences with tens of thousands of dollars worth of stagecraft. But the local church is still the pillar and ground of the truth, the steward of the oracles of God, and the means God has appointed to reach the world.
As far as I know my own heart I am not disgruntled about anything. But I am troubled. I am troubled by the fact that TGC is calling for the church to join them as they do what God has commissioned the church to do. I am troubled by what I see as a lack of transparency. I am troubled by what looks like runaway ambition. I am troubled by the fact that there has yet to be any explanation or apology from TGC for the several major blunders that, at best, sowed confusion among churches. I know I probably appear to some as being an annoying fly in the ointment. Who am I to question an organization that is doing so much good? Who am I to question such well known godly men? Good questions for sure. I’m small potatoes after all (I mean that). But given the size and ambitions of TGC; given their rather cloudy accountability I believe it is vital that there be pastors who are willing to ask some questions and offer pushback at times. So there will probably be more to come.Meet Terry Pegula, Penn State Benefactor
CHN Staff Report
Terry Pegula and his wife Kim live in Boca Raton, Fla. They are now known in college hockey circles as the benefactors that made Penn State's move to Division I possible. Terry Pegula graduated from Penn state in 1973 with a degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. In 1983, he started East Resources, Inc., and built it into one of the largest privately-held companies in the U.S.
Recently, Pegula sold land in the Appalachians to Royal Dutch Shell valued at $4.7 billion.
The husband and wife pair also founded Black River Music Group, which is located in Nashville.
Pegula spoke about why he wanted to make the $88 million donation that will help fund a new on-campus hockey arena at Penn State. And it started when he met with Joe Battista, the former successful club team coach who know works in fund-raising in the athletic department.
"I said to Joe, 'Why doesn't PSU have a hockey program?' And Joe began to inform me that money doesn't fall out of the sky from Harrrisburg for schools like Penn State to do projects like this. It probably would require a large lead gift followed by subsequent gifts to build a state of the art arena. And, bingo, I said, 'Why don't I work with the athletic department and see what we can do. Maybe I can help you raise money on this thing.' We had probably half a dozen meetings. The next day, (athletic director) Tim Curley called me and started our first meeting. And I quickly determined that the gift that was going to be required to pull this thing off was substantially higher than I thought."
"We are taught in Matthew 6 'do not lay up treasures on earth, lay them up in heaven.' I thought long and hard if I really waned to contribute this much money to a hockey arena — a treasure on Earth. Then I thought back to my days as a rink rat when my young son went to learn to skate, youth hockey. I helped coach the hockey team, and we built character in our players — our players showed up at their hockey games with their collared shirts and ties, and they were 9 and 10 years old — and I think I got my answer. We had subsequent meetings, then I finally got to meet (school president) Graham (Spanier). Graham is very passionate about this project. I was a little bit hesistant at first because I didn't know what his attitude would be. But I can say that Graham not only makes a good part time Nittany Lion mascot and baton twirler, but he's a heckuva university president and I thank him for all his efforts."
"We brought the project forward in 2010 this year. I met a fellow — my friend Cliff Benson — on the day he retired from Deloitte Touche in Pittsburg. I asked if he had anything to do in his retuirnement. He said I've got to be kidding me. He was aware of what we were doing with hockey. I live in Florida, we have an office in Denver, an office in Pennsylvania, an office in West Virginia, and I spend half of my time chaging my 16-year old daughter around the country with her tennis tournaments. I told (Benson) I need help or this won't get done. Cliff took the project under his wing and we stand here today with ink on paper."
Pegula said he recently was invited to attend a Penguins game by their ownership.
"I was intrdouced to everyone from Mario (Lemieux) down to the assistant coaches, and I couldn't believe how excited they were about this project. I couldn't even believe they knew about it. They said, 'I can't believe we're going to have a hockey program just to our east.' I thought that was pretty cool. Then... a kid named Sidney Crosby shoook my hand. He said, 'Mr. Pegula, this is a great thing you're doing for hockey.' And I thought that was pretty cool.'
"So maybe some day in these hills of Pennsylvania, maybe we'll find a Pennsylvania Sidney Crosby. And maybe he plays his youth hockey here (at the new arena), and plays his Division I hockey at Penn State. And his teammates will come from New York, New England, the Midwest, Canada, Europe — and I think that's awesome."First, consider the artist.
Ignore whether they are someone you know, someone unknown, or someone successful.
Forget what you know or think of them. Divorce the piece of art from them altogether. Isolate it.
How do you feel about now? Better, worse, or the same?
How we react to a piece of artis often tied up with how we feel about the creator. There are people whose work you love regardless, and others whose work you will always hate.
Remember that they, whoever they are, happen to be a human being.
Here is a relevant quote from Tim Urban:
'Every stranger, co-worker, friend, acquaintance, fling, customer service representative, driver, waiter, customer, client, neighbour, and person on the internet you come across:
- Has a family who loves them and vice versa
- Has hopes and dreams and regrets and frustrations
- Has as many thoughts going through their head at all times as you do
- Might be just a little sad all the time about a tragedy in their past
- Might be the most important person in someone else’s life
- Is just trying to figure out how to be happy'
This is in particular relevant when it comes to art.
Most of us who write, paint, sing or whatever, do so out of a need to make sense of our lives. It is an outlet, a form of catharsis, a vital means of self-expression. Most people do not do it for money, fame or even attention of any sort.
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tell you your duties as women. Girls should be married by 18 because, by the time they’re 25, they’ll become so strong-willed you won’t be able to tame them. ***
Cutaway of girls listening intently.
***
Chinmayee, a 14-year-old, at the Durga Vahini camp
Close-up of a girl blinking.
*** Aparna (continues): My mother didn’t give me permission to go to school. She said, “If you can read and write, that’s enough.” One evening, I looked at myself in the mirror and got slapped. I still remember her slap. ***
Over-the-shoulder shot of Aparna. Girls squatting on mats, listening.
Aparna (continues): Today, girls are educated, but their heads are in the clouds. Is it really necessary for you to leave your homes, just for your ego, and go chasing a career? Is that really necessary? Have we become so westernised? Erase these thoughts from your minds. ***
Cuts of close-ups of girls, wide, vacant eyes, furrowed brows.
Aparna (continues): We keep talking about equality of the sexes. It’s even written in the Constitution, but think about this. Can you really hide your natural weakness or character as a woman? Five thousand years ago a woman’s character was important. And that hasn’t changed. ***
A morning drill
Archival footage of women being beaten in public.
Super: Hindu extremists are also called the ‘Indian Taliban’. They often accuse women of defiling Hindu culture. Women have been beaten for being seen with a man...or for going to a bar. In 2009, members of an extremist group attacked women for drinking alcohol. Two victims were hospitalised. ***
Halfway through the film. Camp. Women receive defence training.
Trainer, male: You can break the arm, the elbow, the knee or even someone’s neck. So a girl weighing 100 pounds can break the arm of a 250-pound man in seconds. Times are changing, you must be prepared to deal with these times. First twist the hand. Then take his arm under yours, then a slight jerk. He’ll move his arm in a second and if you give him a real jolt you’ll hear the sound of bones breaking. One, release the shoulder, two, yes, three, four. ***
Prachi practises self-defence.
***
Interview with Hemanth Trivedi, Prachi’s father.
Hemant Trivedi (Hindi): Prachi has attended these camps since she was three. Now she’s 24.... She’s probably attended about 42 camps.... Because of this, she’s totally mature, grown up and trained. ***
Prachi practises self-defence.
Man: So one, cross block, here, cross blocking. With this hand. Two, twist the hand with the wrist locked. ***
Interview with Prachi.
Interviewer: Would you kill for Hindutva? Prachi: Yes. Any moment. Interviewer: Who? Prachi: Whoever goes against my religion. We’ll not go and try to kill anyone, but when they try to attack us, we are also not going to run away or hide. We are going to face them. And if needed, we have to kill. We won’t look here or there. We are going to kill them. Because that is not hinsa (violence)...that is self-defence, that’s what we are doing. Prachi’s father (Hindi): Nothing would make me more proud than my daughter giving up her life for Mother India. We would be extremely fortunate. There would be no one who would be more happy. But that’s in God’s hands. This generation is getting destroyed. Values are going down the drain. And where will we get our values? We can’t buy them at a bazaar or a mall. We get our values and culture from our parents. I’ve given her good values. If you plant a seed, then you expect a good crop.
By Namrata Joshi with Prachi Pinglay-PlumberSenator Antonio Trillanes IV on Friday took a swipe at some of his colleagues who he said have proven that that they are smarter than a grade one-achiever.
The “grade one-achiever” Trillanes was apparently referring to is confessed assassin-turned-witness Edgar Matobato, who has accused President Rodrigo Duterte of ordering the killings of several people when he was still the mayor of Davao City.
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READ: ‘DDS’ member: No one ordered me to pin down Duterte
“The inconsistencies, if any, were trivial as shown by the transcript. And, despite the badgering, Matobato was consistent about the events and other details he was sure about,” Trillanes said in a text message.
He was reacting to some of his colleagues who were questioning Matobato’s credibility, citing some “inconsistencies” in his testimony during the past hearings.
READ: Duterte allies grill hit man
“But I must admit, there was a language barrier and a few of my colleagues took advantage of that. Napakita nila na mas magaling sila sa Grade 1,” Trillanes added.
Matobato claimed that he had only finished Grade 1. IDL/rga
READ: Cleverly planted witness, or for real?
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MOST READShow Me The Body, ever ones to spring a surprise, have announced they’re releasing a new mixtape next week!
‘Corpus 1’ follows the band’s debut album ‘Body War’ from last year, and is coming out on the band’s own Corpus label on 24th March.
The mixtape is extremely guest-heavy, with input from NO LIFE, Princess Nokia, Denzel Curry and countless others. The band previewed the tape with new single ‘Trash’ at the start of the year. The track now has a new video.
View the full tracklisting and list of guests and listen to ‘Trash’ below.
01 Intro
02 Trash
03 You Thought What You Saw Was It (Feat. Eartheater)
04 Hungry (Feat. Dreamcrusher)
05 In A Grave (Feat. Denzel Curry, Eartheater, & Moor Mother)
06 Taxi Hell (Feat. Justin Flammia)
07 Just A Slither (Feat. Negashi Armada)
08 Haolgen (Feat. Mal Devisa)
09 Stress (Feat. Cities Aviv)
10 My Whole Family (Feat. Skunk Rott, Chris Wilson, & Pierre Botardo)
11 I’m On It (Feat. Casino Theo)
12 Spit (Feat. Princess Nokia)
13 Cyba Slam Fif World Dance Party (Uppa Echelon Dance Remix) (Feat. Yo Chill & Chip Skylark)
14 Everything Hate Here (Feat. Moor Mother)
15 Two Hands (Feat. Nolife)
16 Why You Lying (Feat. Babyglock & Tony Seltzer)
17 Proud Boys (Feat. Dedekind Cut)Image copyright Reuters Image caption More than five weeks after Storm Maria, most Puerto Ricans are still in the dark
The White House has distanced itself from a $300m (£228m) contract awarded to a tiny Montana firm to help reconstruct Puerto Rico's power grid.
The press secretary spoke out as President Donald Trump asked his Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke if he had any role in the Whitefish Energy deal.
Federal authorities have expressed "significant concerns" about the contract, and are reviewing it.
Some 75% of Puerto Ricans have no power five weeks after Hurricane Maria.
At Friday's daily White House briefing, questions persisted over why a little-known, two-year old firm with no experience of work on this scale was awarded the contract so quickly.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the "federal government has nothing to do with this contract".
She said they would look forward to the results of an ongoing audit.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico faces long road to recovery
The press secretary deflected a question about campaign donations made by a major Whitefish investor to the Trump campaign and allied groups during the 2016 election.
Ms Sanders also revealed that Mr Trump asked Mr Zinke at the White House earlier on Friday "just for clarification purposes" if he had any role in the process.
Mr Zinke "reiterated once again that we have no role - the federal government, and specifically he had no role in that contract", according to the press secretary.
Earlier this week, Mr Zinke's office acknowledged that he knows Whitefish Energy's chief executive - they hail from the same small town in Montana.
But he denied any involvement in the Puerto Rico deal, or taking any meetings on behalf of the company.
On Friday, Mr Zinke issued a new statement saying that "after the initial contract was awarded, I was contacted by the company, on which I took no action".
He said he welcomed an investigation by his agency's inspector general.
In a statement, Whitefish Energy said it would "cooperate with any and all information requests".
Image copyright Reuters Image caption More than five weeks after Storm Maria most light on the island is generator-driven
Claims by Prepa, the US territory's main utility, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) reviewed the deal have been contradicted.
The contract states that "Prepa hereby represents and warrants that Fema has reviewed and approved of this Contract".
It also says Fema "confirmed this Contract is in an acceptable form to qualify for funding from Fema or other US Governmental agencies".
But in an email to reporters on Thursday night, Fema denied that.
It said "any language in any contract between Prepa and Whitefish that states Fema approved that contract is inaccurate".
Fema also said it "has significant concerns with how Prepa procured this contract and has not confirmed whether the contract prices are reasonable".
Its review is ongoing, but the disaster agency warned that contracts not in compliance with their regulations "risk not being reimbursed by Fema for their disaster costs".
Critics have queried why Puerto Rican authorities did not seek aid from other public utility companies - as is custom during disasters.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Little-known Whitefish Energy has raised eyebrows for possible links to the Trump administration
It is unclear what would happen if Fema refused to pay.
Walt Green, a former director of the US National Center for Disaster Fraud, told BBC News it is "impossible" to say at this stage who is responsible for costs.
"Any dispute may result in appeals, administrative hearings and lawsuits," he added.
Puerto Rican authorities initially said Fema would pay for the deal.
They are now seeking to assure the public there is "nothing illegal" about the contract.
Prepa and the Puerto Rican government are saddled with massive debts. The power authority declared bankruptcy in July.
Neither Prepa nor the Puerto Rican governor's office returned multiple BBC emails requesting comment.
The US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Caribbean island, is also scrutinising the contract.
On Friday, top Democrats from that panel and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee sent a letter requesting the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general launch an investigation.
The correspondence follows similar requests from other members of Congress to the interior department's inspector general.
Puerto Rico's governor has also ordered an audit.The Xbox One is about to become a development platform for everyone. With this summer's anniversary update, developers creating UWPs will be able to turn their Xbox Ones into a development unit and use them to debug and test applications, and all they'll need is a Windows developer registration (a one-off $19 for individuals, $99 for corporations).
But there's one category of application that they won't be able to write: games. Microsoft already has schemes for creating games on Xbox, with its existing partner program and independent developer scheme, ID@Xbox. Any developers that want to submit UWP games will have to be a member of ID@Xbox. While that doesn't cost anything, it's also not open to everyone in the way that Windows developer registration is. Companies have to be approved for ID@Xbox and subsequently agree to an NDA.
This stands in contrast to desktop Windows, where UWP games are open to any developer and Microsoft is doing its best to actively encourage their development. The company is making UWPs in Windows 10 better for gaming in the Anniversary Update by giving developers control of v-sync and access to G-Sync and FreeSync, the adaptive frame rate technology from Nvidia and AMD, respectively.
Company representatives say that apps will be tested when they're submitted to the store to ensure that no regular devs try to sneak a game in.
While this is perhaps understandable for games that use Xbox One's bare metal virtual machine, as there's much more scope for misbehavior and hence a much higher quality bar, it is a strange decision for UWP programs that run in the console's Windows VM, and it introduces a rather peculiar wrinkle in the process. It means that developers of casual games may find themselves able to target every Microsoft platform except one: the device Microsoft has that's purpose-built for playing games. The implication here is that while Microsoft is keen for developers to create UWP games for Windows on the desktop, it'd much rather they create UWP apps for Windows on the Xbox One.
Turning an Xbox One into a development unit will be straightforward; there'll be a new app, "Dev Mode Activation," in the store that converts the console into a development system. This will reboot the Xbox in development mode. In this mode, regular Xbox apps and games aren't allowed (presumably as a way of protecting them from attempts to break out of the sandbox and attack or modify them), but Windows PCs can connect to deploy and debug new apps.
If you want to play games on the system, you'll have to flip the developer switch back off and reboot again.1.
I’m not good at analyzing Rockstar games. I’m not good at breaking them down and showing all of the pieces, holding each one up to my eye, judging it good or bad, and then parsing it all into a good and bad pile. I’m very vocal about never being immersed in games–I think that’s PR speak that the player community has absorbed as a truth–but when I play games developed by Rockstar, I do come away with a profound sense of world and identification with the protagonist character.
There’s a reason for this: it is built for me. The video game critical community spends a lot of time talking about how AAA video games as fantasies for white/straight/cis/able/middle class men, and that’s generally true for the kind of narratives and mechanics that get churned out by the industry. These narratives rarely connect with me; I don’t want to go to war, don’t want to subjugate women, don’t want to accrue capital, don’t want to lead a country, am not very masculine–I can rarely project myself into the fantasy because there’s no hook. It is never a fantasy for me.
Grand Theft Auto IV and now Red Dead Redemption do, though. The hook is in not the characters–although I was drawn to both Niko Bellic and John Marston in different ways–but in the reason that these characters are acting in their respective worlds. Nico Bellic was in America, and he had to get up and get out of the squalor that his cousin put him in from day one; he did some horrible things to make that work. John Marston had to do it for his family, for people he cared about; he was bound to the course of things because over there, somewhere, there were people depending on him. And if he didn’t do anything, everything he could, then those people would be, at best, imprisoned for life.
2.
AAA games since Bioshock have been in love with their own trappings. Being clever means being reflexive about how they are created, why things are structured the way that they are; in other words, why is the world shaped like a game? Bioshock quips “because you had to.” Bioshock Infinite turns it into “because you had to because it is always this way.” Spec Ops: The Line gives it a different inflection with “it is always this way because you expect it to be this way.”
I appreciate RDR because it doesn’t dodge the question of why the main character is doing horrible things like killing fifty citizens and then razing their town. It wasn’t because he was suffering from psychosis or because he was being mind controller or because *finger wag* the plaaaaayer expects it to be this way, you naughty player. It is because the most important thing in his life is the people he cares about and he is both capable of and willing to do anything, anything, in order to make sure that those people are safe.
3.
What would you do to protect the people you love? Not in the advertising copy, “what would you doooooo? Would you play a corridor shooter?!?” way, but in a The Road way. What is the limit of the human in the face of the annihilation of the only people you care about in the world?
4.
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, a fairly obvious key source work for Red Dead Redemption, is often cited as an apocalyptic novel; Red Dead Redemption is an apocalyptic game. The destruction of everything is at the center of the game: the wild horses are reigned, the indigenous people are murdered, the buffalo are overhunted, the wildlife and killed for sport, the people are brought under the caul of violent governments. The precise balance of violence is cut down with the destabilizing precision of machine guns and automobiles and the ever-running train.
5.
Everything broken, everything shattering around him, John Marston moves from place to place and does what he has to. John Marston is a hound. John Marston is a walking gun. John Marston has no pretensions about himself. He seems to be religious and resigned to an eternity in hell for the things he has done. John Marston never stops to think that he might already be in hell.
6.
The end of Red Dead Redemption caught me, caught something in my throat. Here we are, at the end of the story, eking out an existence in this land doomed to be destroyed with pavement or with the overriding decay of time. Here we see John Marston herding cattle with his son; here we see him killing men over fifteen cows.
John Marston relates to his son in the most distant way he can. There’s a buffer between them made of time and guilt and the dead, but John pursues his son’s love and trust. The motives of the game remixed: “what would you do for the people you love?” becomes “what would you do to make the people you love return that love?” We watch John Marston try so hard to make sure his son knows that he loves him. What makes it worse, so much worse, is that we know he succeeds.
7.
JACK: Is there anything you don’t like shootin’, Pa?
JOHN: Well I ain’t met the thing yet, but soon as I do I’ll let you know. You can even put it in one of them books you read.
JACK: Maybe I’ll do that–The Day John Marston Stopped Shooting.
JOHN: I ain’t no literary man, but I don’t think that’ll sell. People like shootin’ in them things.
JACK: I think you may be right there, Pa.
[*]
8.
My father was a rancher as a young man. My father is loud. My father can shoot a gun and understands the world as a product and a symptom of guns. My father tells a story about watching a friend die, shot in the head. My father is apart, separated from me by a buffer that I will never understand.
John Marston steps out of that barn and I think about my father, burning.
9.
Red Dead Redemption has its hooks in me, deep.
10.Official estimates suggest the amount of money loaned to students will balloon to a record level by 2047 before the Treasury starts to recoup the losses from graduates.
The disclosure – made in data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – will raise fresh fears over the Coalition’s controversial higher education reforms.
Student leaders claimed the system would create a “debt time bomb that ticks for many decades”.
From next year, students starting degree courses in England will be charged up to £9,000 a year in annual tuition fees – almost three times the current total.
Ministers have pledged to provide undergraduates with subsidised loans to cover the cost of university fees and living costs. Graduates only start to make repayments when earnings hit at least £21,000 and outstanding loans are written off after 30 years.
In the short-term, this means that the Government will be forced to pay out far more in student loans than they receive back from working graduates
But official estimates drawn up by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills now underline the scale of the financial black hole created by the new system.
Documents show that the amount of money loaned to students will reach a maximum of £191bn within 35 years of the scheme.
According to figures, 2047 will be the first year that graduates’ repayments – estimated at £10.4bn in that year – start to eclipse the annual amount paid out in loans to new students. This means that it will take until that time for the Government to start recouping its losses.
The estimated £191bn peak in student loans could pay for more than 20 Olympic Games.
It is also more that the gross domestic product of countries such as Ireland, Hong Kong or Nigeria.
Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: "It is clear that lending increasing sums in inflated fee loans will create a debt time bomb that ticks for many decades.
"The funding chaos ministers irresponsibly unleashed last year could have severe and unprecedented economic consequences for the nation for many years to come as the next generation find they have been left to pay through the nose for mistakes they did not make and a crisis they did not cause.”
Under the current system, students owe around £35 billion to the Government.
But the Treasury will be forced to lend more money to students from next year when fees rise as high as £9,000.
Estimates obtained after a Freedom of Information request show that the size of the loans bill will grow for 35 years. This is based on the Government paying out an average fee loan of just over £7,500.
By 2047, it is estimated that graduates’ repayments will start to eclipse the amount of money paid out each year in loans, gradually reducing the £191bn figure.
The Department for Business said in a statement: "At that point, repayments by borrowers… will exceed new loan issues.
"The total debt at that time is expected to be around £191bn after adjusting for inflation and is presented in 2011 prices.
"The projections are based on the new student support system and repayment regulations due to be introduced for students entering study from 2012/13 onwards and are updated on a regular basis.
"The numbers do not include any assumptions about potential changes to student support in the future.”NEW YORK — The label “War on Terror” may be out of style as a description of American counterterrorism strategy, but Wednesday in Rome an Italian court served notice that some of its more controversial practices — including the abduction of alleged terrorists known as “extraordinary rendition” — would not be forgotten as quickly as some Americans might prefer.
The court convicted two Italian intelligence officials, plus 23 American intelligence agents — all of them in absentia — of aiding the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian-born cleric from the streets of Rome. Among those convicted was the CIA’s Milan station chief at the time, Robert Lady, who received an 8 year sentence and, like the other Americans, will now be considered a fugitive from justice and subject to arrest on European extradition requests if they travel abroad.
For President Obama, who may privately welcome the verdict, the case merely sharpens the dilemma facing his administration as he moves on several fronts to reverse what he has described as the overzealous policies of his predecessor. One of his first moves as president was to outlaw the transfer of detainees to countries where they might be tortured. But the executive order fell short of banning rendition, and a “special task force” created to recommend policy changes has yet to weigh in.
Beyond the rendition issue, the president’s promise to close the prison holding “enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for instance, looks likely to take a good deal longer than the one year deadline Obama imposed. Some have complained the moratorium on transfers to Guantanamo has merely shifted the problem to notorious sites like the prison at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
More broadly, his pledge as a candidate to go after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan has led to an increased use of airstrikes in both countries, with a commensurate increase in civilian deaths.
The abducted man, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, was taken from Italy by U.S. intelligence agents and handed over to Egyptian officials, where court testimony indicates he was repeatedly tortured.
Italy, which among America’s European allies was more sympathetic than most to the broad “long war” strategy of the Bush administration, nonetheless became the first to challenge the rendition strategy when details of Nasr’s abduction became public.
Nasr, who was living in Rome in 2003, was suspected of involvement in terrorist plots in Europe. He was a known member of the Egyptian terrorist organization, Gamaat Islamiya, which had assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1981 and which murdered 58 foreign tourists at the Temple of Luxor in 1997.
The details of the decision to abduct Nasr remained vague throughout the trial, in part because the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that data on coordination between Italian spy agencies and the CIA was inadmissible.
But enough evidence existed to prove the abduction happened and to broadly implicate a range of American operatives. Other testimony established that Nasr had transited through Germany (an embarrassing revelation for a government which had been openly critical of the practice), and that he was tortured repeatedly upon his arrival in Egypt.
Within Italy, meanwhile, the ruling will revive controversy over whether the government of President Silvio Berlusconi — a close Bush ally — offered tacit or direct permission for the operations, and in a broader sense, whether it is in Italy’s national interest to help in such operations.
Privately, some Italian officials have noted that Italy had a large force of troops in Iraq at the time, and, as the home to the Vatican, presents a potentially attractive target for Al Qaeda or other Islamic militant groups.
Rendition had been a tool of intelligence agencies on both sides of the Cold War, most memorably in 1987, when U.S. warplanes intercepted an Egyptian airliner carrying Palestinians who hijacked the Italian liner Achille Lauro and killed a wheelchair-bound Jewish American. The airliner was forced to land at a U.S. airbase in Sicily, and the Palestinians were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths.
Few renditions involved such clear-cut figures, though. Since the Clinton administration, but especially since the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of people have been taken into custody without legal proceedings and transported to third countries, like Egypt, where legal guarantees are fluid and torture commonplace.
Dana Priest, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter who revealed details of the programs in a series of 2005 articles, found evidence implicating a half dozen EU countries as willing (if covert) participants in the renditions. Several others allowed flights carrying abducted prisoners to pass through their airspace. Besides Egypt, secret prisons where such “ghost detainees” were held existed in Jordan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Morocco and Pakistan.
Following Priest’s articles, President Bush acknowledged those prisons late in his term, after years in which top officials, including Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, denied their existence.RMNB reader Josh Robinson traveled from Ohio to see both Caps games this past weekend. Proudly holding up a handmade Believe In Beagle sign, Josh watched Jay Beagle score two goals and the Caps shutout their opponents 11-0. He also met Beags at Kettler. Josh describes his trip below.
It all started out as a joke. At the beginning of this season, I started howling at the television to make my roommate laugh whenever Jay Beagle would win a face off or do something spectacular. I noticed that I was howling at my TV more and more as the season went on. I quickly realized that Jay Beagle is a big deal.
Source: http://puckbase.com/stats/faceoff-percentage
So I hatched a plan to start a movement to get elite NHL Centerman Jay Beagle the praise he deserves. Thanks to Reddit users BlueMacaw and berch13 I was able to give the classic Beagle.jpg some new flair. I then combined these updated pictures with a phrase that every Capitals fan should recite for the rest of the season: Believe in Beagle.
Day One
My journey to spread the good word started on Friday afternoon. I carried the sign all the way through security at the Cincinnati airport to my parent’s place in D.C. I received a lot of puzzled looks on the way but mostly I got smiles and laughs out of the people I met.
My dad and I started the night at the Green Turtle. The laughs and smiles continued as we sipped down our Guinness. The doors to the stadium opened an hour before the game and we quickly made our way in to see the warmups. I could not have predicted the next couple of hours.
The first of my weird series of events started when I was walking out of the men’s restroom. A nice woman asked me for a picture with my sign which I happily took. As I walked away she yelled “Thanks for reading Russian Machine!” I yelled back “I love that site!”
My dad and I then made our way to the glass to see the warm ups. Another nice woman from the Capitals organization informed me that she saw my sign on Reddit. She then asked if we wanted to be on the Caps’ Snapchat. We happily obliged.
After enjoying the warmups, we made our way to our seats on the 400 level. Our trip up consisted of people yelling “Believe in Beagle” and wanting to get pictures with the sign. I made sure to take pictures for anyone that asked. When we got to our seats I noticed that we were seated right in front of the Charlie, tshirt guy himself (who also might be one of the nicest guys ever).
The game began and right away you could tell that the Caps were on their game. And then it happened. Jay Beagle scored 6 minutes into the first period. I lost my shit. Charlie (tshirt guy) then informed me that I need to check the RMNB site because they just wrote an article about me. I lost my shit yet again. Beagle ended up scoring again in the 3rd period and almost scored a hat trick at the end of the game.
My dad and I decided that the night wasn’t over yet and made our way to the Turtle. The walk to the Green Turtle consisted of more chants and more pictures. We then had the pleasure of meeting Courtney Laughlin (sorry again for referring to you as the Snapchat girl from Hockey ‘N Heels night). My dad and I volunteered mom for the next event in February and decided to call it a night.
Day Two
The next day started off a bit rough, but turned around quickly. My mom, dad, and myself made our way to the Capitals’ practice after I chugged some water. This morning was especially fun because my mom had never been to a practice before. I brought the sign along to try and get some more laughs.
A nice fan then informed me that I should get a picture with Jay and told me how to do it. Hanging out in a cold, damp garage was not fun and was honestly a bit weird, but the results were well worth it. I got to meet NHL centerman Jay Beagle in person.
My mom even took a selfie with him!
Jay, I’m not sure if you read RMNB, but if you do, thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your day to do this. You made my whole family’s day. You were also the nicest professional athlete I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. You called me and the sign your “good luck charm” and I went complete fan boy on you. (P.S. I’m sorry for hanging out by your car.)
The rest of day two was spent hanging out at the best pub on earth, Ireland’s Four Courts.
Day Three
The final day started where the previous day ended: at Ireland’s Four Courts. They have the best brunch in town (gotta work on the Bloody Mary’s though). Today was my day with mom. We headed to the Green Turtle and made sure to line up next to the door for quick access. I quickly dragged her down to the ice and sat us next to the tunnel where the players walk out of. She enjoyed her first NHL warmup almost as much as I had enjoyed my whole weekend.
The Caps went on to shut out the Flyers and Jay Beagle notched another point. I even got my mom to chant “Flyers suck!” whenever they started their own chants.
Sunday came to a close where I spent my evening at the airport bar defending Alex Ovechkin from the naysayers. I even got one final picture with an RMNB reader who recognized the sign.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone. Thank you to my parents for making this weekend possible and putting up with my school-boy-like-giddiness. Thank you to everyone who got a picture with the sign. Thank you to everyone who commented on Reddit or said that they recognized me from there. Y’all gave a lot of love and it was greatly appreciated. Thank you to RMNB for writing a very nice article about me and retweeting all of my goofy tweets. Finally, thank you to Jay Beagle for everything you did. You gained a fan for life.
I’ll sign this off by reminding everyone to, as always, Believe in Beagle.
All photos courtesy of Joshua Robinson.
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PinterestOnce a month, Steve Wright* gets a large envelope from his lawyers and goes into a whir. “Every month when that hits my desk, I just get this feeling in the pit of my stomach, like, ‘How bad is it going to be?’” says Wright, the founder and CEO of a New York-based ecommerce startup.
Invariably, the envelope contains a bill, a consequence of a patent lawsuit that has cost Wright’s startup more than $100,000 over the last six months. And that’s with a discount. While his lawyers are offering cut-price services, the number in that envelope each month is still so large that Wright has to wait until the rest of his team, five people in total, have left at the end of the day before he opens it. Then, alone in his office, the envelope’s force does its work. “You can’t hide the emotions,” Wright says, sitting in a Washington DC bar after a day of meeting with White House officials to discuss his plight. As the debate over patent reform gathers steam in Congress, Wright and his fellow developers want to make their voices heard.
Those envelopes have been finding their way to Wright’s three-year-old company because of a lawsuit filed by a patent assertion entity (PAE), otherwise known as a “patent troll.” Such PAEs are known for putting legal pressure on tech companies in order to extract financial settlements based on the alleged infringement of questionable, and usually broadly defined, patents. Wright says his company is not infringing on the patent in question, and he has argued as much with the guy from the PAE who brought the suit, which also involves a number of other defendants in a similar position.
Wright’s opponent didn’t respond kindly to his resistance. “You’ll stay in business and license from us, or you’ll go out of business,” he told him over the phone. “Either way is fine with me.” Wright was shaking while on the call, but continued to press his case. The litigant was unmoved. “Everybody says they don’t infringe,” he said matter-of-factly, “and everybody pays.”
The PAE was demanding a rolling royalty in perpetuity on two parts of Wright’s business. When Wright ultimately refused to cave, the man responded by email: “You’ve made a terrible strategic decision about yourself.”
Wright can’t really afford the lawsuit. His business has modest revenue, but not enough to cover this kind of expense. The company has been through a high-profile accelerator and, fortunately, received funding from an A-list venture firm. But it has already spent more than 10 percent of its funding on legal fees alone. Wright himself is not a rich man. He lives in a New York apartment with his wife and two kids, who go to public schools. He can’t afford to put any money into the kids’ college funds, and for the last year he has been taking a salary big enough only to cover taxes and daycare. His wife, a marketing consultant, pays for everything else. He believes that his company and its co-defendants can win the lawsuit, but he’s not sure if it can stay the distance through protracted proceedings. The PAE has already showing a talent for drawing out proceedings, which only makes that number in those monthly envelopes grow even bigger.
Wright has chosen to stay anonymous for the purposes of this story because he believes that if the patent-holder finds out he is fighting the suit in public, he may never decide to settle. In identifying himself and his company, he also runs the risk of attracting the attention of other PAEs, who might see the company as a “wounded bird,” an easy target. He has disclosed the suit to his investors and potential future investors. One client has asked about the case. He worries that it will affect his company’s ultimate valuation. These are the same reasons why so many other developers and startups under threat of legal action for alleged patent infringement are afraid to speak publicly about their cases.
Todd Moore, the founder of a three-man app development company called TMSoft, is also being sued by a PAE, ostensbily over the use of hyperlinks, to which the assertion entity claims to own a patent. Moore, who has published a defiant blog post outlining why he refuses to pay the “troll toll” for his popular White Noise app, says it’s critical that people like him and Wright speak out against such tactics, which he describes as “shakedowns.”
“I feel like if I don’t share this story there’s not enough people that will come forward,” says Moore. “It’s wrong what they’re doing,” he says. “I’m in a position where I can fight it. If I can show others that are facing similar lawsuits a way to get out of them, then that’s beneficial to everyone.”
Moore considers himself lucky because a lawyer is representing him pro bono. Like Wright, he’s also in Washington DC to talk to White House and Congressional staffers about patent |
-Arish in the northern Sinai, severing 20 megawatts of power to Rafah district.
He said the Egyptian authorities were repairing the fault.
The beleaguered Gaza Strip has faced an energy crisis for years. Even at full capacity, the Egyptian and Israeli electricity grids together with Gaza's sole power plant fail to cover the territory's energy needs.
Late last month the strip's 1.8 million residents were left almost entirely without power due to maintenance work on power lines from both Israel and Egypt and ongoing tax disputes on fuel for the enclave’s near-defunct power station.
Egypt, Israel, and the station provide only 230 MW of electricity, while Gaza-based think tank Pal-Think has estimated Gaza's needs to fall between 350 and 450 MW.
Gaza's power station has struggled to maintain its output due to fuel shortages and lack of funds -- both exacerbated by a dispute between Gaza's de facto rulers Hamas and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
Israel's crippling blockade has also severely limited fuel imports into the coastal enclave, and the UN warned last year that the Gaza Strip could become uninhabitable for residents in just five years if current trends went on unchecked.NASA announced its Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems, including three super-Earth-size planets in a "habitable zone."
Of late, NASA's Kepler mission has been very successful in discovering new planetary systems and earth-like planets. The latest additions to this list of achievements include a recent discovery of two new planetary systems, including three super-Earth-size planets in a "habitable zone."
The first planetary system has been named Kepler-62 and consists of five planets namely 62b, 62c, 62d, 62e and 62f. The other planetary system discovered has been named Kepler - 69 and consists of two planets namely 69b and 69c. Planets 62e and 62f from the planetary system Kepler-62 and planet 69c from planetary system Kepler-69 are the three super-Earth-size planets.
Among these newly discovered planets, two of them orbit a star that is cooler and smaller than the Sun. Kepler-62f is said to be the exoplanet closest to the size of the Earth as it is only 40 percent larger than the size of our planet. Though the size of this planet has been stated, scientists are yet to measure its mass and composition. It is believed to have a rocky composition, according to NASA.
"The detection and confirmation of planets is an enormously collaborative effort of talent and resources, and requires expertise from across the scientific community to produce these tremendous results," said William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California and lead author of the Kepler-62 system paper in Science. "Kepler has brought a resurgence of astronomical discoveries and we are making excellent progress toward determining if planets like ours are the exception or the rule."
Planet 62e is 60 percent bigger than the Earth while Kepler-69c is 70 percent larger than the size of Earth. Both these planets orbit in the habitable zone of a star similar to our Sun.
"The Kepler spacecraft has certainly turned out to be a rock star of science," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The discovery of these rocky planets in the habitable zone brings us a bit closer to finding a place like home. It is only a matter of time before we know if the galaxy is home to a multitude of planets like Earth, or if we are a rarity."
Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission Directorate.From Basement to Box, part 1: The Best Laid Plans
With the impending publication of Silent Fury I’m starting a series of posts so you can follow our progress as we work to take the game from where it is now to the ‘finished pre-publication game’ that gets handed to the publisher.
So after discussing things with said publisher, Silent Fury’s initial release is going to have a massive amount of content – way more than I thought it was going to have.
My brother and I have our work cut out for us. In just a few months we need to deliver the full and finished version of Silent Fury to Ad Astra Games for publication.
That delivery will consist of: Rules, Factions and Fiction, Ships, Scenarios, Art Assets, and Play Aids.
For each of them, I’ll talk about where we are now and what we intend to deliver, and our plan for bridging the gap between the two.
Rules
Silent Fury’s rules are in the best shape of all our deliverables. I think they’re well written and they have seen a lot of playtesting – not only from my gaming group, but from multiple groups of new players at conventions and two separate groups of blind playtesters (which I wholeheartedly recommend to any game designer). Mechanically, the game system is solid – it’s fun, it’s fast, and while the whole of it is a moderate-complexity game, each moving part is as simple and straightforward as I could make it.
It’s still not perfect of course. I know that lurking in the realms of possibility is an even better way to do mechanic X and a clearer way to write rule Y that I just haven’t found yet. We’ve reached the point where I have to acknowledge that it can never be perfect, but it is good enough – which is an easy thing to say and a hard thing to internalize.
Right now, the rules document contains the game rules, along with several diagrams and visual aids as well as a hefty amount of examples and a few design notes.
For the finished rules I need to revise the introduction, and we plan on adding even more visual aids and examples than currently exist to make things as clear as possible. I also plan on adding more design notes, and we’ll include a short ‘strategy guide’ section. I also need to remove some rules that will not be making it into the initial box game, both because they increase our already hefty component requirements and they haven’t seen enough playtesting. At least some of those will likely return later in expansions, which gives us more time to playtest them. We also need to add a table of contents and I would like to add a glossary as well.
There’s one little rules experiment with shields I want to try that could potentially affect the nature of a component, so that needs to happen soon, but that aside I’m done changing the rules (unless we find some serious issue through playtesting that needs to be fixed).
And finally, the rules need proofreading. The publisher will be taking care of editing and formatting the rules, but that’s no excuse for not finding as many typos, mistakes, and unclear or ambiguous wording or incorrect examples as I possibly can before I send them out.
So the plan for the rules is to get them mechanically complete ASAP so I have the definitive version I can give to playtesters. That needs to come first because when we’re testing ships and scenarios we need to be testing it with the final rule set, since if we change the mechanics then we could invalidate previous scenario playtests. Once I have the ‘master mechanics’ rules done we can slow down and take our time adding visual examples, design notes and so on.
When it comes to proofreading, I plan to sit down at least once every other week and read the whole thing again, from start to finish, treating typos and errors like elusive Pokemon. Gotta catch ’em all.
Factions and Fiction
While developing the game I prioritized function over form – I had a loose idea for the ‘Silent Universe’ this all takes place in and didn’t really expand on that, in part because since Silent Fury isn’t set in an existing setting, I was free to implement whatever game mechanics best served to make for an epic space battle, and I could go back and justify how that’s supposed to work in the fiction afterwards.
What that means is that for the fiction I’m starting from scratch. I now have a firm (and different from my original) idea of what the Silent Universe is like, and that’s about it so far.
As far as factions go, I’ve got the names of two, and Nathan and I are discussing the others.
The end goal is a whopping five factions – three of them Human, two of them Alien. The fiction in the game will be entirely separate from the rulebook – as a game system you can use Silent Fury to fight battles in other sci-fi settings, so the fiction that comes in the box will be in two places – one will be the associated stories and accounts that go along with the scenarios in the scenario book, and the other will be a set of class histories for the ship designs in the ship book. We’ll also talk about the factions themselves, and I think that’ll probably best be placed in the ship book since it’s a good place to talk about that faction’s ship design philosophy and offer some faction-specific tactical advice.
The fiction is something I’ll be trying to write in tandem with designing the ships and developing the scenarios, and sending to Nathan and playtesters for review and criticism.
There are a few additional mechanics we are planning on adding to give Factions some flavor beyond just different ship designs – right now we have ‘Battlesuits’ as a combat-focused special crew type, but I plan on giving each faction their own unique special unit. One faction will get the Battlesuit as theirs, and the others will each get something else. One thing I’d love to do would be to give the Aliens their own variant on the ‘Crew’ card so that their race behaves differently from Human crew, but that will depend on whether or not the extra cards required increase production costs too much (and on how well playtesting new mechanics like that goes – I will not add a ‘cool new feature’ to the game that isn’t well playtested.) Alternate crew cards for aliens could well be a kickstarter stretch goal, so I’ll be pitching that to Ad Astra.
Ships
We’re shooting for giving each of the factions in Silent Fury three unique warship designs.
Each of those ship designs will come with a variant – which will sometimes be a different version of that warship, but one of Silent Fury’s neat qualities is that we can make a lot of interesting designs that are not strictly warships and play some pretty creative scenarios with those, so we’ll be using the opportunity to sometimes make these variants be mining ships, freighters, and so on. History-wise the conversion can go in both directions – sometimes an old military vessel gets bought up by a cruise line and converted into an armed luxury yacht, and sometimes pirates are threatening your mining colony so you do the best you can to weld some armor and weaponry to your asteroid smelting ship.
So, number wise that’s (5 ships + 5 variants) x 5 factions = FIFTY ship designs!
It’s a damn good thing that whenever I designed a new scenario I had a bad habit of designing an entirely new set of ships for that scenario. It’s given Nathan a lot of practice at this.
We’re not starting from scratch either. While I haven’t been writing faction-based fiction, our more recent convention scenarios have featured faction-based ship designs – we’ve easily got five warships and a few variants thereof for two and a half factions. Those designs may need some tweaking but they’ll give us a big leg up on getting to fifty.
Designing ships and weapons in Silent Fury is easy for me – we have an internal spreadsheet with stats for both and I just fill it out and let Nathan do his thing. I’ll be designing a faction’s worth of warships every week and Nathan will get to them at his own pace, and I expect to have all fifty ships designed and put on ship sheets in two months at most – which we’ll need to do so we have enough playtesting time for…
Scenarios
Silent Fury is a scenario based game, and we’re going to shoot for including a scenario book with about 10 scenarios in it. That lets each faction have a scenario against every other faction, but I’m not ruling out having some 3 or 4 side ‘free for all’ scenarios that feature more than two opposing sides.
We’ve made more than 10 scenarios over the course of development, but given the new ship designs we need I can’t just throw them into the scenario book. I may adapt two or three of them for inclusion but most of the scenarios will be new creations, developed in tandem with the ship designs.
My plan is to write up at least some of the scenarios very early to give my playtesters something they can sink their teeth into. The more times each scenario can be playtested, the better it will be as a result.
Art Assets
Art Assets (like the art we use on the cards) are something the publisher will have final say on and will do on their end, but Ad Astra isn’t a huge company so any art that we do that Ad Astra doesn’t have to re-do will save time and money on the publication side. So as an ‘if we have some spare time’ measure Nathan will be re-doing the art for the back of the cards and other places where we previously used stock images, but this is a low priority item for us.
Play Aids
We’re going to include a quick reference card in the game (which you can check out an early version of here) and a ‘quick start’ guide that basically consists of a lot of visual aids and diagrams explaining the basics of how to play the game to first time players – the idea being that only one person needs to have read the actual rulebook – everyone else can get into the action just knowing the stuff on the quick start guide and Rulebook Master (the real hero of any gaming group – you know of whom I speak) can clarify and explain anything the players need as the game goes on.
We’ll be putting that quick start guide or some variant thereof online when we make it so we can get input from you guys on how clear it is and how comfortable you think you’d feel using it to jump right into the game. A big part of this whole game design process involves getting input from people like you who encounter one of these play aids for the first time and tell us what you think about it, because you are the intended audience – all feedback I get from you guys helps make the whole game better.
The quick start guide is going to have to come after the rules are finalized and we have at least a few of the scenarios written up and ships designed for them – I can revise a quick start guide in a day, but scenarios and ship design tweaks take longer because we need time to see how they actually work through play testing.One of the Liberal Democrats' most senior figures has boasted the party can defeat the government at will in the House of Lords and may "misbehave" by repeatedly changing laws to provoke reform.
Lord Newby, the party’s chief whip in the Lords, said the Lib Dems could force through “umpteen” changes to laws every day despite having just eight MPs because there are so few Tory peers.
He also pledged to join with Labour and give 16- and 17-year-olds a vote in the EU referendum despite the proposal being defeated in the House of Commons just weeks ago.
The comments will infuriate David Cameron amid fears his government’s agenda could be unpicked in the Lords despite winning an election majority.
The Prime Minister appointed 26 new Tory peers last month in an attempt to rebalance the second chamber, yet Labour and Lib Dem peers still enjoy a sizable majority.
While under the Coalition it was rarely an issue give the Lib Dems supported the government’s measures, the Tories now face a series of defeats given they now rule alone.
Addressing Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth, Lord Newby boasted that the party had already forced almost a dozen defeats on the Conservatives in recent weeks.
He rebuffed criticism that because there are just eight Lib Dem MPs the votes amounted to changing laws through the back door and listed new Bills the party was hoping to change.
“Without trying, we beat the government 10 times in a fortnight. This gave our group great satisfaction and I'm sure that it's a principle and policy that we will be pursuing again,” Lord Newby told Lib Dem members..
He also suggested the party could repeatedly defeat the government to try and increase the call for reform of the House of Lords.
“The challenge we've got is a slightly unusual one. We can beat the government any day, umpteen times, but we are not elected,”Lord Newby said.
He added: “Now of course reform, which is the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of the Lords, is what we are after so perhaps we might just misbehave.
“I know there are a number of people - not just here [at conference] but in the group – who rather like the idea. But it is an interesting challenge that we look forward to grappling with.”
Discussing the changes the party would attempt to enact in the Lords, Lord Newby pledged to drive down the voting age in the EU referendum to 16.
A senior Labour source told The Telegraph they will also back the change and predicted Mr Cameron will be defeated.
The move will infuriate Eurosceptic Tory MPs who voted down a similar move last year and fear adding teenagers to the ballot would help the campaign to keep Britain in Europe.
Lord Newby also said the party would attempt to “significantly” change the Tories trade union reforms – which he called “vindictive” and warned would “emasculate” unions – and the Conservatives’ ‘Right to Buy’ laws.2014 was arguably the best year for Buffalo restaurant openings since the Brits burnt the place to the ground over 200 years ago. Here are our picks for the best new restaurants of 2014. Some good, new places might be more suited to Best New Bars of 2014 -stay tuned. Food is obviously a key factor in choosing the best new restaurants, but not the only one. We also consider style, creativity, and the overall dining experience.
(716) Food & Sport
This Vegas style sports bar is true to it’s Buffalo Roots. One of a kind in these parts they offer a first class operation with food that is largely house made using a long list of products originating in the 716 area code. They have a huge video screen playing sports 24/7, really good “Buffalo” food and one of the best beer lists this side of Brooklyn. This place is a showcase for the future of Buffalo. Bring your visiting friends/relatives and show off. Try not to gloat too much.
> more info
Black Iron Bystro
This place is an eclectic set up in an odd ball area with really good creative eats and seating that will keep you wondering. Bryan Mecozzi was the sous Chef at Vera but the cuisine is more like early Mecozzi. The name and decor are testament to the blue collar neighborhood, and make for interesting table talk. They have recently added craft cocktails to the mix. The menu is hard to pin down because much of what they offer is on the daily special list. Regulars say the burger is great, lately on the regular menu, but ask for an extra napkin. The scallops are our favorite and the frog legs are a must try if you’re lucky enough to see them on the specials board.
> full review
The Black Sheep
With WNY roots Steve Gedra (chef/owner) and his wife Ellen (bread, desserts/owner) take local sourcing of products seriously. They closed down Bistro Europa and spent much of the summer restoring the old Golden Key Tavern on Connecticut. Customers now have room to spread out, a cozy bar upfront, and a patio out back. Unchanged is the neighborhood feel and the creative, full flavored cuisine of the Gedras. It won’t be easy but make sure to save room for dessert. The Sticky Toffee Pudding is our favorite – along with everyone else in Buffalo.
> more info
Bourbon & Butter
This place is only sort of new, but different enough to make the list. Located in Holtel Lafayette, the room served as the hotel/Mike A’s Restaurant bar. “Mike A’s” the people moved over and became Bourbon and Butter. All you really need to know is the food is outstanding. Based on the concept of “fine dining in a relaxed atmosphere with reasonable prices” this place pitches a shutout. The art deco decor works well with the creative cuisine. The craft cocktails, neat hotel, and valet parking are all gravy… or maybe it’s butter.
> full review
Buffalo Proper
Bringing together two of Buffalo’s top talents (food & drink) it’s hard not to get excited about this place. Jon Karel of Vera and The Revelry fame is hands-on offering craft cocktails that are second to none in WNY. Edward Forster is in the kitchen concocting all sorts of funky dishes that are sure to please the discerning diner. The beautiful old Laughlin’s building is a cool setup with two stories, porches galore and an open second floor where diners who don’t mind bar chatter can feel part of the action.
> more info
Dinosaur BBQ
OK, we know this is not a Buffalo original, and they were founded in a vastly inferior part of the state, but the place is cool. We’re not saying it’s the best BBQ in town, we’re not saying it isn’t (yet). We are saying that they offer darn good food, a neat side patio, a great location in the Theater District, and nice bar space with a good buzz. Our favorite is the BBQ Platter because you get a lot for your buck. The beer program is pretty sweet too with 18 on tap, a bunch by the bottle and tasting flights of beers.
> full review
Hydraulic Hearth
Another crown jewel of the Larkin success story, this place has an awesome bar running the length that welcomes drinkers, diners and the after work happy hour crowd. The brick oven pizzas are creatively crafted and wood fired to casual dining perfection. Try Mushroom or Spar’s Sausage. Tack on a flight of Community Beer Works brews, a unique appetizer like Swedish Meatballs or Cheese “Fondue”, and you can’t go wrong. The restaurant and bar, built by the Zemsky Family who orchestrated the rebirth of everyone’s favorite new district and food truck roundup, will soon showcase an outdoor beer garden to boot. This is simply the kind of cozy, neighborhood place you don’t want to leave.
> more info
Oshun
Brought to you by Jim Guarino Chef/Owner of Shango Bistro & Wine Bar, this place celebrates fresh seafood. Continuing with the 2014 theme of fine dining in casual comfort, Oshun offers a great downtown location, a terrific bar space, and fresh Oysters all day long- perfect for the weekday lunch, happy hour or romantic date. These guys aren’t afraid to bring the flavor or hang out over the edge of the culinary cliff. They offer interesting wines and some excellent turf with the surf. If you haven’t done the oyster sampling/comparison you haven’t lived, but we also loved the Jerk Chicken.
> full review
Pho Dollar
Located in the rapidly evolving west side neighborhood, Pho Dollar is the blood, sweat and tears of Vietnamese native William Mai. Restored by hand this proud entrepreneur, don’t let the humble exterior fool you, it shines from the inside. The staff is very helpful if you’re not sure what what is what and the food is not only authentic but regarded by many as the best Vietnamese in western New York. Try the Ban Xeo, Banh Mi Thit Heo Nuong or the Pho Tai, we promise you won’t regret it.
> full review
Trattoria Aroma @ North French
The Aroma Group rarely if ever fails to please. They know atmosphere, wine, good food and generally how to satisfy the customer. This stylish decor is their spin on the modern Tuscan Farmhouse with spectacular wood accents, and an open balcony, offering a truly unique dining atmosphere. The bar offers a good vibe, they have an outstanding wine selection and the food is of the type that people get on a plane to find. This is a top pick for the special weekday lunch. Any of the house-made pasta dishes are good, but it’s hard to beat the Lamb Shank.
> more info
Ulrich’s Tavern
Sure this is the oldest something-or-other bar in Buffalo, but it’s new again. In desperate need of some TLC preservationist Tom Eoannou bought the building, leased it to Sal Buscaglia of Snooty Fox, and they restored it to its former glory. Just what the doctor ordered. “A German restaurant with an Irish Pub” how could anyone resist? They still offer fine traditional German fare, good pub eats, an excellent beer selection, and maybe the best pub setting in town. Located at the edge of the booming Medical Campus the place is sure to have a good buzz most nights. We like the Oktoberfest (potato & sausages) with a side of potato pancakes.
> full review
Valle de Mexico
This place may not be for everyone. Maybe not for anyone over the age of 30. It’s located in South Buffalo in a neighborhood with a bright future, and the service end got off to a shaky start. However the food is authentic Mexican, not easy to find in these parts, and darn good at that. The tacos are simple yet extremely flavorful. The salsa verde impresses and the Mole Poblano Enchilada is surprisingly delicious in it’s rich flavor and texture. Bring good company or a book and expect the unexpected. If you love Mexican, this stop is a must.
> full review
Cugino’s
On the opposite end of the age spectrum this place is more suited to the mature Bridge playing demographic. They too have suffered some reports of time lapse, but much of their clientele has all day. On our visit the pace of service was adequate and the food outstanding. The northern Italian cuisine is top notch with some not-often-seen choices.
This is a perfect place to impress your mother-in-law for her birthday dinner.
> full review
Melting Point
If you’re not hanging out in Allentown you might not have noticed this little gem tucked away in the corner. You might think that grilled cheese sandwiches might not sound like they qualify for best of 2014 status but you’d be wrong. Try taking a bite out of No. 28 Brie, Gouda and Cheddar with Granny Smith Apple, Caramelized Onion, and a drizzle of Honey; or NO. 3 is your choice of three cheeses: cheddar, monterey jack, swiss, gouda, smoked gouda & provolone for $5. These guys have cheesy-goodness down to a science, and everyone loves a grilled cheese- especially at 4:00 a.m. The little shop is expanding so clearly we’re not alone in our appreciation.
> full reviewDAPHNE SUMTIMEZ, a drag queen, dances so vigorously that it looks as if she might bring the low-slung ceiling down. It is the last Friday night of This N That, a gay dive in Brooklyn, New York. Essentially a long brick tunnel, the venue has a bar running down one side and disintegrating leather banquettes along the other. Covered in sparkle, Daphne gyrates and does the splits; her diamante belt flies off, to the delight of her audience. A young man in a black skirt and cracked leather boots pounds the stage with appreciation. “We’re here, we’re queer and that’s what makes us family,” she sings in elegy for This N That over music from “Beauty and the Beast”. A fairy tale is ending.
Punters take their final photos of the wall beside the stage, where a mural depicts skyscrapers, warehouses, robots, a rainbow, a walking pizza slice and a joyful unicorn. “It’s gonna be turned into stores,” says one regular, in the smelly toilets where all genders pee together. “I heard a sports bar,” sighs another.
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For its regulars This N That was its own particular place; one in which to dance, hook up and be as outrageously camp as possible. But the experience of going out to a gay bar is an almost universal one for homosexual men and lesbians in the rich world. They are places that contain memories of first kisses or heart break; they are where people, often persecuted or misunderstood by others, made friends and felt accepted at last. As such, they became central points for gay people. This is why, when 49 people were killed by a homophobic shooter at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando in June 2016, it carried such an emotional burden. Thousands of people conducted vigils in their local gay bars in America, Britain and elsewhere. Outside the Admiral Duncan pub in London’s Soho, where a nail bomb killed three people in 1999, hundreds of people came together as they had that night, waving rainbow flags and holding one another in grief.
And yet despite their importance, gay bars are vanishing. A month before Daphne wiggled her hips at This N That the aptly-named One Last Shag, also in Brooklyn, shut down. Dozens of others have disappeared from cities over the past decade. At least 16 bars closed in London between 2014 and 2015, though the number is likely to be higher. The disappearance of these bars and clubs is upsetting to some past and present patrons. But their decline also points to a larger, and overwhelmingly positive, trend.
Places in which gay men and women can gather have long existed in different shapes and forms over the centuries. In 18th-century London taverns known as “molly houses” were places in which men could meet, dress in women’s clothes and conduct “marriage ceremonies” (although they were not technically brothels, sex often took place in them too). In the Weimar Berlin of the 1920s freewheeling transvestite shows, colourful drag revues and bars for men and women all jostled for attention, buoyed by a steady influx of foreigners escaping persecution elsewhere. In Paris gay life flourished in the decadence of Montmartre, with its Moulin Rouge cabaret and rows of smoky cafés and bars.
In America these bars popped up more and more after the second world war, during which millions of people, many of whom were from small towns or suburbs, were posted in big cities such as New York and San Francisco. When the war ended many gay people wanted to stay together. This is partly how homosexual districts, such as the Castro in San Francisco and Greenwich Village in New York, developed. In these neighbourhoods gays and lesbians had their own restaurants, book shops, church groups and newspapers.
Along with being places to hook up, the bars in these districts also let gay people try on new identities, says Jim Downs, a historian at Connecticut College who has written about the gay-liberation movement. Some men went to bars dressed as police officers or leather-clad motor bikers. Others preferred the “ballroom scene”, in which they wore extravagant dresses and competed to throw the wittiest put-downs at each other. Lesbians could be “butch dykes” or “femmes”. Hairy, burly men called themselves “bears”. Such subcultures still exist (“for bears and their admirers”, reads the slogan for XXL, a London nightclub).
More important, these bars were where many gay people finally felt they belonged. Andrew Solomon, a writer and psychology lecturer, writes about “vertical” and “horizontal” identities in his book, “Far From the Tree”. Vertical identities are those that come directly from one’s parents, such as ethnicity and nationality. Horizontal ones—such as sexuality—may put a child at odds with his family. For many homosexuals, the experience of going to a gay bar for the first time was a nerve-racking one, but also one in which they finally felt accepted, finding those with the same horizontal identity.
“This place got me through the most difficult part of the past eight years,” says Leigh Gregory, a patron of London’s Queen’s Head pub, which closed in September 2016. In Washington, DC, Judy Stevens, who has worked in gay bars for 50 years, “sits with the drinker when business is slow and you become friends,” says Victor Hicks, a long-time patron of bars in the city. “My partner and I actually went to her for her blessing when we first started dating. There was no one else’s approval we cared about above hers.”
Radical drinking
It is this sense of community that drew members of the gay-friendly Metropolitan Community Church together for their weekly worship, held at the Upstairs Lounge, a gay bar, in New Orleans every Sunday in the early 1970s. They gathered there to pray and sing together. On June 24th 1973, an arson attack on their congregation consumed 32 lives, including those of the assistant pastor and his boyfriend. Their death pose, frozen by the flames, showed them cradling each other.
From the start, the existence of these bars was precarious. Police raids were common: in Paris in 1967 412 men were arrested in one month. But rather than stop patronising them, many gay people used these bars as a space for resistance. “NOW is the time to fight. The issue is CIVIL RIGHTS”, shouted the text on a flyer that was distributed in bars in Los Angeles in 1952, to drum up support for Dale Jennings, a 35-year-old man who had been charged with soliciting sex from a plain-clothed police officer in a toilet. In 1966 a “sip-in” took place at Julius, a bar in New York’s West Village, in protest at a rule prohibiting bartenders from serving so-called “disorderly” clients. The most famous incident took place at the Stonewall Inn in New York in 1969, when its patrons (including Stormé DeLavarie, a butch lesbian from New Orleans who performed as a drag king) fought back against a police raid. The protest lasted for six days and sparked the start of the modern gay-liberation movement in America, which led to the repealing of homophobic laws and, eventually, to same-sex marriage.
In the rich world it is no longer raids that threaten gay bars; the biggest problem facing most is rent. These places are often in scruffier parts of cities. As cities become wealthier, and as pressure on space intensifies, they are squeezed out. In Brooklyn the Starlite Lounge, which had been open since the 1950s, faced a rent rise in 2010. The managers were forced to close despite a campaign to save it. Today the building is occupied by a local deli, the owner of which also says that his rent has become too steep. In London the Candy Bar, a lesbian venue, closed in 2014 after two decades of serving drinks to women in a dark, rather dingy space when its landlord increased the rent. In an ironic twist, the bar is now a lap-dancing club.
Another pressure is increased competition in the hook-up trade. Technology means like-minded people are just a tap away more or less wherever you are: mobile-phone apps such as Grindr for men and Her for women have eliminated much of the need to lock eyes across a crowded room. Instead potential partners can be found while at home or in the lunch-break at work by “swiping” to find people nearby. Some 2m men use Grindr globally. The app allows them to see and talk to other men who are online nearby, to either forge relationships or have casual sex. Other apps allow people to search for people in other countries, suddenly making the gay bar global. “The efficiency is unparalleled,” boasts Robyn Exton, the founder of Her, which has 1.5m users.
“We’re here, we’re queer and that’s what makes us family.”
But perhaps the biggest reason gay bars are disappearing is because of increased acceptance of homosexuality in the rich world. According to a study in September from Pew Research Centre, an American think-tank, 87% of those asked knew someone who was gay or a lesbian. One in five American adults say their views on homosexuality have changed over the past five years (most have become more accepting). Similarly in Britain, views on homosexuality have become markedly more tolerant. This means that many gay men and women, particularly youngsters, do not feel the need to congregate in one spot. In big cities such as London or New York they can display affection in many bars and pubs, while they frequently live in areas of cities that are more diverse. According to research by Amy Spring, a sociologist at Georgia State University, who looked at 100 American towns between 2000 and 2010, the vast majority of gay men (87%) and lesbians (93%) living with partners now live in neighbourhoods where gay and straight people increasingly live side by side.
This does not make the disappearance of gay bars in the West any less painful. Indeed, many gay people are trying to fight the trend. In 2015 campaigners managed to save the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a former Victorian music hall in London which hosts drag shows and cabaret nights, from demolition by getting the building listed as a heritage site. Similarly in San Francisco patrons of The Stud Bar formed a co-operative to raise money to secure the lease, after its rent increased 150% earlier this year. Many European cities are now appointing “night mayors” to try to prevent music venues, clubs and bars (both gay and straight) from closing in cities such as London and Amsterdam.
And while these places close down in the rich world, they remain as important as ever in the developing world. In Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal, a gay club night takes place at a particular restaurant every Sunday evening. “We dress up, cross dress, dance, dance, dance,” says Frank Mugisha, a gay-rights activist. “But you wouldn’t know about it unless you knew someone who goes,” he adds. These places are facing many of the problems that gay bars in New York or London experienced four decades ago. In August the Ugandan police stormed a gay and transgender fashion show, beating the participants and locking them up in jail for a night. Similarly in Yaoundé in Cameroon, where homosexuality is also illegal, police officers surrounded Mistral Bar in October, holding the patrons inside for some time before arresting all of them.
That such seemingly ordinary bars—often rather scruffy, with peeling leather seats and the sodden smell of stale alcohol—can offer so much to their patrons is perhaps remarkable. But it is the other people in the room who make them special. Many remember their first experience of going into a gay bar with affection: “I was…visiting my [gay] uncle in New York,” says Stavros, a 24-year-old from London. “It got to 1am one night and he said, ‘Let’s go out’. It just blew my mind. It was the first time I saw guys kissing. It was more than I |
) even stay only on mask in the beginning, while getting an even quicker blinkdagger.then upgrading the mask to vlads or whatever.never mind mate Awaken my child and embrace the glory that is your birthright. -[The Overmind]
Prev 1 91 92 93 94 95 371 NextWho invented electric Christmas lights?
Thomas Edison and Edward Johnson (1880 &1882) and Albert Sadacca (1917).
Thomas Edison, the inventor of the first successful practical light bulb, created the very first strand of electric lights. During the Christmas season of 1880, these strands were strung around the outside of his Menlo Park Laboratory. Railroad passengers traveling by the laboratory got their first look at an electrical light display. But it would take almost forty years for electric Christmas lights to become the tradition that we all know and love.
Before electric Christmas lights, families would use candles to light up their Christmas trees. This practice was often dangerous and led to many home fires. Edward H. Johnson put the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights together in 1882. Johnson, Edison’s friend and partner in the Edison’s Illumination Company, hand-wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs and wound them around his Christmas tree. Not only was the tree illuminated with electricity, it also revolved.
However, the world was not quite ready for electrical illumination. There was a great mistrust of electricity and it would take many more years for society to decorate its Christmas trees and homes with electric lights. Some credit President Grover Cleveland with spurring the acceptance of indoor electric Christmas lights. In 1895, President Cleveland requested that the White House family Christmas tree be illuminated by hundreds of multi-colored electric light bulbs.
On Christmas Eve 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began the country’s celebration of Christmas by lighting the National Christmas Tree with 3,000 electric lights on the Ellipse located south of the White House.
Until 1903, when General Electric began to offer pre-assembled kits of Christmas lights, stringed lights were reserved for the wealthy and electrically savvy. The wiring of electric lights was very expensive and required the hiring of the services of a wireman, our modern-day electrician. According to some, to light an average Christmas tree with electric lights before 1903 would have cost $2000.00 in today’s dollars.
While Thomas Edison and Edward H. Johnson may have been the first to create electric strands of light in 1880/1882, it was Albert Sadacca who saw a future in selling electric Christmas lights. The Sadacca family owned a novelty lighting company and in 1917 Albert, a teenager at the time, suggested that its store offer brightly colored strands of Christmas lights to the public. By the 1920’s Albert and his brothers organized the National Outfit Manufacturers Association (NOMA), a trade association. NOMA soon became NOMA Electric Co., with its members cornering the Christmas light market until the 1960’s.
Today we expect to see the holiday season become aglow with electric strands of light. Think of the variety and range of Christmas lights available in today’s market. We can be grateful to Thomas Edison, Edward H. Johnson and Albert Sadacca for illuminating our holiday season.
Further Reading Brenner, Robert. Electric lighting of Christmas trees. In Christmas past: a collectors’ guide to its history and decorations. West Chester, PA, Schiffer Pub., c1985. p. 156-169.
Brenner, Robert. Electric lights: some interesting variations. In Christmas revisited. West Chester, PA, Schiffer Pub., c1986. p. 100-111.
Brenner, Robert. Indoor electric lighting of our trees and homes. In Christmas 1960- present: a collectors’ guide to decorations and customs. West Chester, PA, Schiffer Pub., c2002. p. 41-44, 70-72, 103, and 157.
Brenner, Robert. Indoor electric Christmas lights of our homes and trees. In Christmas 1940-1959: a collectors’ guide to decorations and customs. West Chester, PA, Schiffer Pub., c2002. p. 53-66 and 154-170.
Brenner, Robert. Outdoor electric Christmas lights. In Christmas 1940-1959: a collectors’ guide to decorations and customs. West Chester, PA, Schiffer Pub., c2002. p. 66-68 and 171-173.
Brenner, Robert. Outdoor electric lighting. In Christmas 1960- present: a collectors’ guide to decorations and customs. West Chester, PA, Schiffer Pub., c2002. p. 45-47, 73-74, 104, and 157.
A Brilliant Christmas tree. How an electrician amused his children. I. New York times, Dec. 27, 1884. p. 5.
Seeley, Mary Evans. Season’s Greetings from the White House. Prologue, v. 28, Winter 1999: 304-313.
Sloat, Warren. The wizard of your Christmas tree. American heritage, v. 54, Dec. 2003: 36-40.
Turning on Christmas: history of electric Christmas tree lights. Newsweek, v. 74, Dec. 29, 1969: 8.
For more print resources...
Search on "Christmas," "Christmas decorations," "Christmas -- collectibles," "electric lighting," "incandescent lamps" or "light bulbs," in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.next Image 1 of 2
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A digital mapping company that allowed web surfers around the world to hunt the vast ocean waters for the vanished Malaysian jetliner was back up and running after an overwhelming response caused it to crash Tuesday.
Colorado-based Digital Globe has trained its five satellites on the Gulf of Thailand region—the last known whereabouts of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. The orbital units transmit photos and data of the vast area which viewers can scan on a website called Tomnod-- Mongolian for “Big Eye.” The hope is that millions of sets of eyes, with an assist from above, can help solve the mystery of what happened to the plane and the 239 people on board.
But a day after the initial images were posted online, the site required emergency maintenance to handle the large virtual search party. On Wednesday, it was back up, allowing visitors to scan thousands of miles of ocean for signs of the plane.
[pullquote]
“It’s a good reason to have our site crash,” a spokesperson for DigitalGlobe told FoxNews.com. “We did get an overwhelming amount of people responding. It has been going well. We are getting a lot of tags and will be uploading more images for people to search.”
Any computer user can log onto Tomnod and pore through thousands of high-definition images of a particular region and publicly "geotag" anything that raises suspicion. A computer algorithm is then used to determine whether certain areas are tagged more than others, and in-house experts follow any leads from the consensus tagging.
“Luckily, the imagery had been exhausted with searching before the site went down,” Luke Barrington, senior manager of Geospatial Big Data for DigitalGlobe said to FoxNews.com. “We have had six million map views. Half-a-million people have signed up, it’s a 100 times the response we’ve had before.”
Many of the searchers tagged pictures of what appeared to be oil slicks in images that were taken Sunday, but it was later determined that they were not related to the Malaysian airplane.
New images were expected to be uploaded later Tuesday that included a wider area, branching out from the gulf of Thailand to the West Peninsula of Malaysia and the Malacca Straits.
This is not the first time Digital Globe, which owns Tomnod, has used the site for a crowd-sourced search.
Last November, the company launched a campaign after Typhoon Haiyan in Southeast Asia in which users placed more than 400,000 tags on damaged buildings, homes, and other areas.
It also launched a campaign that same month to help with the search for an American family and crew aboard a vintage sailboat that vanished in the Tasman Sea last June.
David Dyche, was an experienced sailor who worked for a U.S. shipping company and was sailing the Nina from New Zealand to Australia with his wife, teenage son and four-member crew when they hit rough weather. The schooner wound up missing after damage to the sail left it adrift hundreds of miles from shore. An aerial search mounted nearly two weeks later turned up nothing.
As reported by FoxNews.com at the time, Tomnod had compiled more than 50 images from five satellites of the Tasman, with each image covering 620 square miles. The images have been viewed over 3.7 million times online, volunteer and virtual searchers. No definitive sign of the ship has been found.
“There are two key differences between the search for the Nina and the plane,” Barrington said. When I was contacted by the family members, the ship had already been missing for two months. It was a last resort almost.”
“This time when the Malaysia plane went missing I was getting messages from the Tomnod community asking when we were going live with maps,” he added. “They wanted to help right away.”
“To be culled in from the start…It’s showing now that this has the capability to be one of the first choices in search efforts.”Aaron Finch has labeled the Khettarama pitch a "poor wicket", after he struck a 46-ball 56 to set Australia on track for a three-wicket victory in the first ODI. Finch was only at the crease for the first 14.2 overs of the innings, but the ball was consistently raising puffs even during Sri Lanka's innings. Significant turn was also on offer - though Khettarama has long been a spin-friendly venue.
"I don't think I've ever played on a wicket that spun that much," Finch said. "It was a pretty poor wicket I think. For balls to be going through the top from the second over - Josh Hazlewood to Tillakaratne Dilshan - for the second over of the game, I think that was pretty poor. We played well to track down that total. It seemed like a different spinner was bowling every over. They've got plenty of options and we played exceptionally well with the bat to get across the line."
Finch also suggested the practice pitches Australia had used at Khettarama had played differently from the track prepared for match day.
"The ones next to it that we've been training on have been pretty good wickets. They started to spin a bit yesterday - late yesterday. I don't think I've seen any wickets that have spun to that extreme - particularly in a one-day game. I suppose the wickets that we trained on were probably not very similar, to be fair."
Among batsmen who made more than 25, Finch was the only one to maintain a strike rate higher than 90. He hit two sixes and seven fours in his innings, and his aggression got Australia well ahead of the required rate.
"I think the way that the game panned out, we noticed that as soon as the ball got a bit older, it started to spin quite big and it wasn't coming on to the bat. We just made a call to try and take on the new ball. Generally in the subcontinent that is the way to play. It came off today for a little bit, so it was nice to get the team off to a flyer. I think that's generally the way that games go on wickets that are so slow and low."
Mitchell Starc became the fastest bowler to 100 ODI wickets in this match, achieving the milestone in 52 matches, to beat Saqlain Mushtaq, who had got there in 53 games. Starc has been excellent through Australia's tour of Sri Lanka, having taken 24 wickets in the Tests as well.
"It's a fantastic achievement from Mitchell - he's been the best in the world for a number of years now," Finch said. "When he gets it right there's absolutely no one better around. We were aware of the record. We thought that he'd get it in the tri-series in the West Indies, in June, but he didn't get any wickets in the final."
Finch was also full of praise for James Faulkner, who took 4 for 38 in his 10 overs, despite Finch dropping a catch off his bowling. Finch had been fielding at deep square leg when he palmed a slog sweep from Kusal Mendis onto the boundary. Faulkner did eventually take Mendis' wicket.
"Faulkner was fantastic," Finch said. "When you've got three or four different kinds of slower balls, it's a huge advantage. You can always make sure it's turning away from the bat. He was a bit unlucky early - I lost one straight in the sun. He probably thought it was going to be one of those days, but he stuck to the basics well and kept doing what he's very good at."New wave pop-punk heroes State Champs are teaming up with AP to bring you the premiere of their new EP, The Acoustic Things. The EP features reworked tracks from their debut album, The Finer Things, as well as two new songs. It’ll be released October 7 via Pure Noise Records. (Pre-orders are on sale now.) Stream the EP in full below, and let us know your thoughts.
You can catch the band co-headlining the Pure Noise Tour this fall (kicking off today!) with Handguns and support from Forever Came Calling, Front Porch Step, Heart To Heart and Brigades. See the full list of dates below the stream.
State Champs dates:
10/3 – Bogies – Albany, NY
10/4 – Revolution Bar – Amityville, NY
10/5 – The Palladium – Worcester, MA
10/7 – La Sala Rossa – Montreal, QC
10/8 – Hard Luck Bar – Toronto, ON
10/9 – The Waiting Room – Buffalo, NY
10/10 – Agora – Cleveland, OH
10/11 – The Shelter – Detroit, MI
10/12 – Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
10/14 – The Garage – Burnsville, MN
10/15 – Gabe’s – Iowa City, IA
10/16 – Fubar – St. Louis, MO
10/17 – Jackpot Music Hall – Lawrence, KS
10/18 – Marquis Theatre – Denver, CO
10/19 – Loading Dock – Salt Lake City, UT
10/20 – The Shredder – Boise, ID
10/22 – El Corazon – Seattle, WA
10/23 – Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR
10/24 – Oakland Metro – Oakland, CA
10/25 – Chain Reaction – Anaheim, CA
10/26 – House of Blues – San Diego, CA
10/28 – The Nile – Mesa, AZ
10/29 – The Gasworks – Albuquerque, NM
10/30 – Red 7 – Austin, TX
10/31 – Walter’s – Houston, TX
11/1 – Tomcats West – Ft. Worth, TX
11/2 – The Conservatory – Oklahoma City, OK
11/4 – The End – Nashville, TN
11/5 – Woodland’s Tavern – Columbus, OH
11/6 – Altar Bar – Pittsburgh, PA
11/7 – Jammin Java – Vienna, VA
11/8 – The Barbary – Philadelphia, PA
11/9 – Webster Hall – New York, NYWomen In Venezuela Struggle To Cope Amid Economic Misery
An emaciated mother breastfeeds her toddler past weaning time, for lack of food. Women bear the brunt of coping with the economic misery after a decade and a half of socialist rule.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Soap, milk, rice, flour - the list of staples lacking in Venezuela is long. The government blames low oil prices and U.S. economic warfare. Critics blame 16 years of failed socialism. In Caracas, NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro found that women are bearing the brunt of the hardship. Those she interviewed wouldn't give their last names for fear of reprisal.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, BYLINE: The line outside the Unicasa supermarket in western Caracas is hundreds of people long. Xiomara, a smiling Afro-Venezuelan grandmother who's sitting on a plastic stool, says she's come prepared for the wait.
XIOMARA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: "Mamita," she tells me, "you have to bring your breakfast, your chair and an umbrella for the sun because we never know how long we have to wait." Most of the people waiting in the line are women. And some say they've been here since the middle of the night in the hopes of getting access to a shipment of butter and rice.
XIOMARA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: "The situation has us housewives juggling" - hacer malabares in Spanish - "to make ends meet," Xiomara tells me. To nods from the other women around her, she talks about how she fashions funny faces out of a traditional tuber eaten in Latin America called yucca for her grandchildren. It's to entice them to eat the same thing every night. Meat, vegetables are unaffordable or scarce.
XIOMARA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Xiomara tells me the crisis is much worse now. "And it's affecting all of us, but especially we women who have to feed our children," she says.
Outside a pharmacy in another part of town, there's another long line. I meet a mother of four, Solimar. When I ask her what the situation is like right now in Venezuela, she starts to cry.
SOLIMAR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: "Every day, I have to hit the streets to find what is needed," she says.
SOLIMAR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: She has some land, so she plants manioc and other staples. She says she's taken to making her own deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo.
SOLIMAR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Like many women, she says, she gets the recipes online. Her deodorant is made with bicarbonate of soda and some essential oils.
SOLIMAR: (Speaking Spanish, laughter).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Her mood improves and she jokes, "it's ecological, and you can raise your hands in the air and smell good."
I head high into the hills above Caracas to the poor barrio of Antimano, once a bedrock of support for former President Hugo Chavez and his socialist revolution. The first thing you notice about Andrys - she's a willowy mother of three children - is how emaciated she is. She tells me she's lost over 30 pounds recently. She weighs 90 pounds right now.
ANDRYS: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: "You can't get milk," she tells me, so she nursed her other child until she was 4. And she's nursing her 1-and-a-half-year-old continuously as well to give her the nutrients she needs, but it's wasting her away. Her malabares, or juggling to make ends meet, are many. Take disposable diapers. They're almost impossible to find. She shows me how she washes and reuses the outside of an old disposable diaper as a cover, and then she lines it with a dish rag.
ANDRYS: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: She says she used to use a plastic bag to stop the leaking, but it would burn her daughter's little legs. She says her husband works, so she's left to figure things out at home. As we're talking, her older daughter arrives with a bag of bread for lunch. The 10-year-old-girl has news. There might be soap in the shops in town later today, she tells her mom.
Andrys tells me she hasn't seen soap in a long time. They've been using jabon de tierra, or soap made from clay, to bathe. The children crowd around and ask for a piece of bread. Andrys hands it out to her three children and watches them wolf it down, but she eats nothing herself. Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Caracas.
Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.People surf the Web during the annual "Campus Party" Internet users gathering in Valencia July 28, 2009. REUTERS/Heino Kalis
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish criminals who stole bank details from computers around the world did not realize the power of the illegal network they had created which could have paralyzed an entire country’s computer systems, police said.
Police gave a news conference on Wednesday, a day after they arrested three people for what they believe to have been one of the biggest computer crimes ever detected.
They declined to identify the men, aged between 25 and 31, from small Spanish towns, whom they suspect of infecting more than 13 million computers with spyware.
Police believe the men were not expert hackers and bought their virus program on the black market before using it to take over other people’s computers in order to create a “botnet,” a network of enslaved computers.
“Fortunately this botnet of 13 million computers was controlled by someone who hadn’t realized how powerful it was,” Juan Salon, the head of the cybercrime unit of Spain’s Civil Guard Police, told a news conference.
The network would have had much more computing power than the one used in a notorious “cyber-attack” on Estonia, police said, adding that it could in theory have been used for a similar assault on a nation’s vital computer infrastructure.
Estonia accused Russia of being behind the 2007 attack, which swamped websites belonging to many of the country’s institutions, putting them out of action. “Thank God, their criminal mentality wasn’t very sophisticated,” said Salon, who said the men apparently tried to offer their botnet to criminal gangs for hire, but do not seem to have made huge profits although they made a comfortable living.
The criminals used the virus to infect machines — initially exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer browser — which then allowed them to record key strokes and login credentials. This botnet was known as “Mariposa” — the Spanish word for butterfly.
The leader of the gang was caught with personal details of 800,000 people, said the Civil Guard. Government institutions and companies had also been affected, it said, although it declined to give more details.Witnesses say Libyan troops have opened fire with machine guns and mortars on anti-government protesters in the city of Benghazi, killing an unknown number of people, including children.
Other witnesses have spoken of snipers firing at protesters from rooftops and there are widespread reports of mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa being brought in to attack protesters.
A doctor at a local hospital said he and his colleagues were treating hundreds of protesters.
Reports are difficult to verify because foreign journalists have been banned from the country, and local reporters have been barred from travelling to Benghazi reports the BBC.
Internet activity has now come to an abrupt halt in Libya, in what appears to be a deliberate attempt by the authorities to impose an information ban.
Residents say Benghazi and another eastern city, al-Bayda, appear to be out of government control.
Calls for regime change are growing louder in North Africa and the Middle East with protests also in Bahrain, Algeria, Yemen and Djibouti.
Benghazi, about 1000 km from the capital Tripoli, has been the main focus of the demonstrations against Colonel Gaddafi's 42-year rule. State media had warned of retaliation if the unrest continued.
The campaign group Human Rights Watch says at least 104 people have been killed in Libya since the anti-government protests erupted on Wednesday.
At least 15 mourners are reported to have been shot dead at a funeral in Benghazi on Saturday.
But one witness told Reuters news agency that many more had actually died, saying dozens, not 15, had been killed.
Unrest has spread to other towns and cities, but there have been no reports of major protests in Tripoli.Manchester, England (CNN) If Manchester City used to be the club boasting high-profile signings on provocative billboards, these days this northern English city's "noisy neighbor" is taking a more softly, softly approach.
Ahead of Saturday's Premier League derby against rival Manchester United, it's all about the grand scheme for a club that was once written off for having "a small mentality."
"It's been a bit like an iceberg coming out of the water," says Manchester City's chief infrastructure officer, Jon Stemp. "People only see the tip of it."
Given City were playing in England's third tier in 1999, the club's ascent to English football's top table initially necessitated the acquisition of players -- an investment of just under $1 billion since the Abu Dhabi United Group took over.
Within hours of the club changing hands, City had smashed the British transfer record for Real Madrid's Robinho. City's transfer policy was denigrated -- the new kids on the block were branded oil rich and regarded by many as no more than a billionaire's plaything.
But Sheikh Mansour and his team have never lost sight of the bigger picture...
You can win anything with kids
"People were measuring the investments in the short term without knowing there was a long-term plan coming," Stemp says.
Beneath the surface, greater plans have been afoot ever since Mansour declared in 2008: "We are building a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars."
In the heart of the Etihad Campus, deep within the area of Manchester known as "Sportscity," the 5,000-seater, 7,000-capacity Academy Stadium is the shining jewel in one of the finest youth complexes in the world.
The Academy Stadium is predominantly used by the Elite Development squad and Manchester City Women. "I like to think of us as pioneers... not just in England, but globally," says Man City and England Ladies midfielder Izzy Christiansen.
In fixtures against United last season, City went unbeaten in every age group, from the Under-9s all the way up to the U18s.
A 9-0 aggregate win at U14 level against the Red Devils will have been particularly galling for a club so proud of Ferguson's Class of '92 -- featuring the likes of David Beckham -- and the Busby Babes
In an age when many of the world's wealthiest clubs' academies are filled with many different nationalities, 75% of the players in City's Football Academy are drawn from the Greater Manchester area.
All in all, the club engages with "the best part of 50,000 young people in Manchester every year," according to former City goalkeeper Alex Williams -- now manager of club's City in the Community program.
Even United luminaries Robin van Persie, Phil Neville, Andrew Cole and Darren Fletcher have opted to send their sons to the Etihad Campus instead of the Trafford Training Center in recent years.
Stemp allows himself a contented smile. "Now, eight years on, you see the rest of the investment plan emerging."
The Mission
Part of the legacy of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the Etihad Stadium was the "first brick in the wall," according to Stemp.
Ever since, City plots its expansion in terms of "building blocks of eureka moments," from the transformation of blighted lands with the construction of the training complex, to the development of commercial opportunities around the East Manchester site.
Within a stone's throw of the Etihad, remnants of Manchester's industrial past are still very much visible -- disused gas holders dot the landscape while a canal runs side-by-side with the city's new tram network.
"East Manchester was all industrial, and therefore the ideal location for regeneration," Stemp tells CNN.
But 80 acres of contaminated brownfield land have been transformed by self-confessed "grass nerd" Stemp and his team; 46 acres now comprise managed grass and wildflower meadows; and more than 2,000 trees have been planted.
"It was very derelict," reflects Stemp, gesturing to the work the club has done. "We put our arms around the land and took control of it."
The final piece in the puzzle
As well as the physical building blocks, City officials believe coach Pep Guardiola is the final piece in a complex puzzle.
"I have no doubt about his positive impact," City's chief operating officer Omar Berrada tells CNN. "We've already expanded the stadium and we think (Guardiola) will bring the potential for continued expansion."
"Pep delivers a culture of success and style of play that will be developed across everything that we're doing here," Berrada says. "I'm sure that will have long-lasting effects."
Pep Guardiola already seems at home at the Etihad.
Berrada branded Guardiola "the best in the world" within days of his arrival in a reference to the success he brought to his former clubs, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
The Spanish coach's reputation is also helping lure the world's finest players to Manchester as the club bids to win its third Premier League title in six seasons.
Gundogan
Guardiola's first foray into the market was for Borussia Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gundogan -- a distinguished Germany international.
"To have this possibility is amazing for me," Gundogan tells CNN. "We have the best manager in the world, and day-by-day I recognize I have made the right decision."
Ilkay Gundogan began his career at VFL Bochum, going on to star for FC Nurnberg & Borussia Dortmund
The 25-year-old may have only been at the club for a matter of months, but he already perceives the investment transforming not just City, but the city.
"Everything is developing really fast. I love the mix between old buildings and the new buildings," Gundogan says.
"Manchester has a real charm."
Breaking the glass ceiling
If the acquisition of players of Gundogan's stature is no longer breaking news for a club that has come so far, Kelechi Iheanacho's breakthrough from the academy shows progress is being made in all departments.
Iheanacho had the Premier League's best minutes- per-goal ratio in 2015-16, scoring on average every 93.8 minutes.
Smashing through a glass ceiling that traditionally has proven so troublesome for young players aiming to make it in the world's richest league, the 19-year-old scored 14 goals in just 11 starts last season -- suggesting he has the mettle to become one of the most clinical finishers in Europe.
With key striker Sergio Aguero serving a three-match ban, Iheanacho could start against United Saturday.
"City were a club on the way up," Iheanacho tells CNN, reflecting on his perception of the team when he joined, shortly after winning the U17 World Cup with Nigeria.
"Coming from Nigeria where I was often unable to afford to watch the Premier League, I'm very proud to be playing here. It has been a great experience coming to Manchester."
Citizens beyond The Citizens
However, in an age of growing discord between fan and player -- as both Iheanacho and Gundogan earn tens of thousands of dollars per week -- how has the club's investment in its future served the rest of Manchester?
Working at Bonnie's Cafe near the Etihad Campus, Sheila Duffy has experienced first-hand the fruits of the area's regeneration -- as well as the potential pitfalls of gentrification.
"We had drugs, street crime, everything like that, and nobody cared because it was derelict," she reflects. "The swimming baths were closed down, the youth club was shut. There was nothing for the kids so they'd be hanging around on street corners."
Duffy acknowledges the "Sheikh up in his helicopter" may not have directly engaged with the man on the ground and his full English breakfast, but she's the first to admit her surroundings have changed dramatically -- a reference to the five and half acres of the Etihad Campus site donated to the local community.
Where the skeletons of Manchester's industrial boom once stood, a sixth-form college, leisure center, and cutting-edge medical institute now preside.
"It was a rough area of the city and now there's certainly a sense of hope... and I'm a Manchester United supporter!"
A 190m span bridge across Alan Turing way is emblematic of the connection between club and community.
Pep vs. Jose
If the foundations are in place, can City make good on the club's rich promise?
While Iheanacho may be a singular talent, his presence as a youth-team graduate in the Citizens squad currently remains similarly conspicuous.
Promisingly, Guardiola gave 22 young players debuts during his time at Barcelona -- many of whom, from Busquets to Thiago Alcântara, have gone on to enjoy great success.
But there is still some way to go before City emerges from United's shadow in this regard.
Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Phil Neville would all go on to become United regulars having progressed from the youth team under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Since 1940, almost 50% of all Manchester United players have come through the club's youth system. United has had at least one academy player in the squad in every first team game since October 1937 -- a run spanning 3,808 consecutive clashes.
Striker Marcus Rashford, already an England international at the age of 18, looks the latest in a long line set to benefit from that unwavering faith this year -- even if manager Jose Mourinho's commitment to youth has been questioned, and fellow "homegrown" player Paul Pogba required a $100M education abroad.
Except the envious glances toward Old Trafford have stopped.
Converging with its more illustrious counterpart on and off the pitch, City has finished above United in four of the past five seasons, and Mourinho looks like he has quite the job on his hands getting the better of his old rival Guardiola.Mark Lesieur and his family fought off an armed intruder in their Londonderry, NH home.
LONDONDERRY (CBS) – A Londonderry, New Hampshire family got the fright of their lives when an armed home invader made his way into their second floor bedroom wielding a knife.
“All of a sudden I could see a silhouette of someone wearing a black ski mask and black clothes,” said Mark Lesieur.
He and his wife Laura Jean had just gone to bed, but thought something was wrong when their dog Angie started barking. The intruder made his way through an open glass slider on the first floor.
“He told me to lie on the bed face down and do what I tell you to do,” said Lesieur.
WBZ-TV’s Beth Germano reports
Laura Jean said she started screaming as the man stood about five feet away. She said it was like a dream and it took her a few seconds to focus on the fact they were not alone in their room.
“I sat up to get my glasses and he said, ‘don’t reach for a gun’, and I said, ‘I don’t have a gun, what do you want. We don’t have anything’,” she said.
Mark Lesieur said he didn’t know if the intruder was just intent on robbing the family or something more violent.
“I thought he was going to kill us. No question if someone has a knife you don’t know what their intent is,” he said. Their 24-year-old daughter opened the door to her bedroom across the hall which suddenly distracted the intruder who ran toward the door as she barricaded herself inside.
That’s when Mark Lesieur made his move, wrestling the masked man down the stairs. He had grabbed the knife in the scuffle which sliced his hand and cut the tip of a finger.
The intruder took off telling the family he just wanted to get out, facing a family offensive he likely didn’t expect.
“You always fight until your last breath. Once they take control there’s nothing else you can do,” he said. By then Laura Jean had called 9-1-1 and the intruder knew police were on the way.
Why their home in the quiet neighborhood of townhouses was targetted, they don’t know. Laura Jean said she had seen a stranger walking around the neighborhood earlier in the night, and they had made eye contact.
“This intruder has violated my home,” she said. Police say they have no suspects at this time.Q: What is Competitive Mode?
Q: What is matchmaking?
Q: Where can I see my MMR?
Q. What are ranks?
Q: Where can I see my rank?
Q: You said something about medals?
Q: What happens if I leave a game in-progress?
Q: What happens if my internet connection drops or my game crashes?
Q: Is it possible to join a match in progress?
Q: Can I invite my friends into a Competitive Mode match?
Q. Should I avoid playing with lower-ranked friends because they will hurt my rank?
Q: How do I get access to Competitive Mode?
Q: Why do I need a phone number?
Q: What if I can't or don't want to provide a phone number?
Q: What are Competitive Mode's rules and restrictions?
6v6
no class or weapon restrictions
no random criticals
no team changes
fixed shotgun spreads
for symmetrical Control Point maps, best-of-3 or best-of-5 (higher ranks only) for Attack/Defense maps, stopwatch mode (fastest attacking team wins)
Q: Are there any minimum requirements to play?
A: Some of you TF2 lifers are as seasoned as vets get. You've stomped millions of pub players into the dirt. You've trick-stabbed, no-scoped and top-fragged through every map we've shipped (and the thousands we haven't). You've carried your team so many times you've got chronic back problems. For players like you with no mountains left to climb, there's. This is your way to finally get the respect you deserve. Designed as a new challenge for experienced TF2 players, Competitive Mode lets you rank up, track progress, earn medals and record your accomplishments in a results-based competitive experience.With Competitive Mode, every win ( |
Editors Note: There are four photos associated with this release.
The first passengers arriving into Edmonton, Canada were greeted by a breath of fresh air produced by the largest Living Wall inside any airport terminal in the world.
Artist Mike Weinmaster, of the design firm Green over Grey, gained inspiration from high altitude cloud formations to create the artwork of the main central Living Wall (also referred to as a Vertical Garden, Green Wall, Biowall or Plant Wall). For the upper walls, Weinmaster based his designs on famous Canadian paintings by The Group of Seven and Emily Carr. The colours, patterns and textures were not created using paint but instead by incorporating over 8000 individual living plants, representing 32 unique species.
The verdant masterpiece will continually evolve on the canvas to become more and more three dimensional. Some of the larger species (such as Lacy-Tree Philodendrons, Staghorn Ferns and Octopus Trees) will be allowed to grow up to 10 feet out of the wall.
In addition to being beautiful, the 1,420 square foot Living Wall adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide and other common indoor air pollutants. The plants thrive in their hydroponic, soil-free environment which closely mimics how they grow vertically in nature, such as on tree branches or next to waterfalls.
The Living Walls serves as both a work of botanical art and statement about EIA's commitment to sustainability.
Stantec were the architects and engineers that came up with the concept for incorporating a Living Wall into the design of this world-class Airport Terminal, and were responsible for integrating it into the project so that it enhances the overall passenger experience and substantially improves indoor air quality. It is the first major Living Wall to be built into the interior of a North American airport terminal.
About Green over Grey
Green over Grey is an award winning design firm that focuses on the creation of spectacular and eye-catching Living Walls throughout North America. Being the creators of the largest and most biologically diverse Vertical Garden on the continent the team brings an in-depth knowledge of incorporating sustainability into design. The company's list of clients includes Edmonton International Airport, ING Direct Bank, SAP Software, Perkins & Will Architects, Ivanhoe Cambridge, Desjardins, Westin Hotels, plus numerous others.
For more information visit www.greenovergrey.com.
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To view the fourth photo associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20120516-gog517p4ful.jpgImage copyright AP Image caption The European Road Cycling Championships are held annually
The French city of Nice says it will not host the European Road Cycling Championships, planned for 14-18 September, for security reasons.
Mayor Philippe Pradal said the event required a large police presence, but the southern city had not "received any guarantees" about their deployment.
It is the latest event in France to be called off after July's lorry attack in Nice in which 85 people died.
Lille, in the north, earlier cancelled one of Europe's biggest flea markets.
The Grande Braderie de Lille attracted 2.5 million visitors last year and had been due to be held on 3-4 September.
'Two possibilities'
"Given that it was an event that would have required a large police presence, and that we have not received any guarantees about their deployment, the cycling championships that Nice was due to hold in France's name are cancelled," Mayor Pradal said on Friday.
David Lappartient, who heads the European Cycling Union, confirmed that the event would not go ahead in Nice, the AFP news agency reports.
However, he added that the union still planned to hold the races on the same dates.
"We are working on two possibilities: one in France, the other outside France."
On 14 July, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the Tunisian driver of the lorry, ploughed into a crowd celebrating the Bastille Day holiday in Nice.
He was later shot dead by police.
So-called Islamic State later claimed one of its followers carried out the attack - the deadliest in recent French history.Growing up during the dawn of PC strategy games, playing everything from Dune II and Command & Conquer to Panzer General, took its toll on my teenage years. History classes only became worth paying attention to when it concerned old battles and famous generals, and I even had a period where I was convinced I was destined to become a battlefield commander when I grew up.
As I quickly learned when the PC real-time strategy genre became more competitive in the online age, the last place I should be is in a position where I command lives without a restart option. That itch for virtual battlefield control has never waned, however, and while the Total War games provide a good scratch, they are sorely lacking in enabling modern military prowess.
Almost 20 years later, I can finally fulfill my dreams of becoming a modern-era military commander in Wargame: European Escalation. And 20 years later, it's still painfully clear that I'm unfit for command.
Wargame: European Escalation (PC)
Developer: Eugen Systems
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Released: February 23, 2012
MSRP: $39.99
Rig: Intel E8400 Core2 Duo @3.0GHz, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD4830 512MB, Windows 7 64-bit
Eugen Systems impressed with their Act of War games and followed it up with the ambitious R.U.S.E.. This time around, they've left the accessibility of their previous titles far behind in favor of the kind of hardcore military RTS they've been waiting to work on. Wargame doesn't quite go as far into niche territory as a simultaneous turn-based strategy game with hexes does, but it's by all accounts a game geared toward the kind of military fetishists who thought the only good thing about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was when the AC-130 was told to use SABOT rounds.
This passion for military hardware, especially tanks, is evident on many levels of Wargame. Countless units and unit variations for NATO and Warsaw Pact forces have all been painstakingly recreated in full detail, but the level of dedication doesn't stop there. Set during an alternate-history period of the 1975-1985 Cold War era with a focus on conventional warfare, it quickly becomes clear just how serious Eugen is about its hardware and tactics.
Something that RTS titles generally fail at is bridging the gap between creating a game that is fun to play and easy to understand, and the intricate complexities that stem from a mindset of military power in the 20th century. Usually you have your tanks, infantry, and artillery that all do a pre-set level of mitigated damage against different types of units. Once you figure out how it works, you either mass powerful units and attack, or use whatever rock-paper-scissors system there is to counter opposing forces effectively.
It makes for a fun but unrealistic RTS like we've seen in games such as World in Conflict and Ground Control, but where Wargame differs is in the way it looks at what a military unit is. Instead of offering to build a few types of tanks that differ in their uses slightly, a tank in Wargame isn't simply a unit you use to shoot at things. It's a weapon platform first, and an armored and mobile one second. A helicopter? That's a flying platform for air-to-ground missiles, rocket pods, and machine guns. Nothing more and nothing less.
This way of thinking offers a fresh take on the strategy genre, supported by a plethora of different available units that all have their own weapons and statistics. Before long, you no longer think of infantry as a group of grunts that's only good against other infantry or capturing locations, but as a mobile anti-air or anti-tank weapon that just happens to be wielded by human beings. Likewise, a tank becomes a specific type of anti-armor gun that is able to drive around, preferably with as many other kinds of weaponry you can fit on it. There is still a counter-system in place, but it's all centered on individual weapon systems and their effectiveness versus armor and infantry -- weapons you can even turn on and off for each unit.
Once you've wrapped your head around this philosophy, you start to understand that Wargame is not a game of tank rushes or single-unit spam, but rather one that hands you a thousand pieces of machinery and wants you to turn it into the best-oiled war machine. Any armored column can rule the open terrain, but forests and hedgerows that litter the map can provide cover for tanks, AA guns, or infantry with their respective and highly specialized offensive capabilities.
Within a few missions you are forced to accept the merit in learning about weapon systems, as traditional RTS tactics lead to failure or Pyrrhic victories. For example, placing infantry with anti-tank missiles at the edge of a forest can completely obliterate armor at range, while infantry with RPGs in the middle of a forest has a smaller range to ambush anyone crazy enough to come close without scouting ahead; any infantry caught in the open, however, ends up as minced meat. What seem like paltry armored personnel carriers meant for transporting infantry can end up destroying your tanks with missiles at a huge range. Let them come close to your tanks, though, while keeping your units hidden in cover by manually turning off their individual weapons, and let loose salvos of doom to wipe out the pesky buggers. Add in varying levels of accuracy for ordnance and for units on the move -- as well as the ability to suppress, panic, and rout units using overwhelming fire -- and the military math starts to translate to the practicality of ambushing incoming forces from a static and hidden defensive position. It also means the enemy can do the same, and it often will.
In your mind's eye, maps in Wargame soon become segmented into sectors where any forest or hedgerow will arouse suspicion. There is no fog of war in the traditional sense, leaving you to rely on the line of sight from your units to define the level of battlefield intelligence you have on enemy positions. This makes recon units key to survival, and only after a sector is deemed clear enough should you attempt to move in with costly armor. Different designated zones on the map can be captured with expensive command units, who need to remain immobile within such a zone to take control of it. Each zone adds a resource trickle of income, and as long as you have a zone at the edge of the map, reinforcements can be placed anywhere and will take the fastest route to wherever you wanted them to go.
The resulting game of recon, offensive, and temporary entrenchment is something that tends to take a lot of time (or skill) to execute properly. The problem is that you can't always afford to take this slow-paced and calculated approach, since you tend to start with a limited amount of resources in many of the campaign missions. Capturing each new zone for the income increase required to support your grand strategy is a tense affair, as ambushes abound and a "shock and awe" tactic will simply turn your armor into scrap metal. Long-range artillery and MLRS are fun to use, but are highly inaccurate unless you provide them with nearby recon support. You can't just sit back and let your artillery shoot for an hour hoping for the best, either, as all units require supplies to repair, refuel, and restock ammunition. Supplies that need to be brought in by truck or helicopter, or from a nearby F.O.B. (Field Operating Base) which serves as a large supply depot.
Beyond the risk of losing your recon units as you try to scout ahead and look for safe passage, there is always a risk of running out of units. Each type of unit you unlock by spending command points, gained by completing objectives in single-player or by playing multiplayer, offers only a limited amount of those units to call in during a mission. Use them well, and they will gain experience to make them stronger and tougher -- and slightly more expensive to "buy" during the next mission. Lose a few of them, and you lose them forever. Lose all units of one type, and you simply can't bring them into play for the remainder of that campaign's chapter. It's a bit of an odd system, as there is a steep learning curve in Wargame that will inevitably make you lose a good amount of units before you learn how to use them properly, not to mention that it doesn't make sense for the Warsaw Pact to run out of T-72 tanks.
While you can choose to replay campaign missions in order to keep more units alive, another option is to just unlock a different or a more powerful unit type. It's a way to encourage the player to try out different units, perhaps, although newer model variations of the same unit are increasingly more expensive and can become a big drain on your resource pool. Another oddity is the lack of a "drag to aim direction" option for groups, as tanks have different levels of armor plating on their front, sides, and rear. They tend to turn the right way on their own without it becoming problematic, but given the amount of micromanagement that permeates the game all the way to ammo and fuel supply, it's a rather strange omission. There are a few other weird instances of balancing from a realism perspective, such as anti-air vehicles being able to rout a T-80b tank, or infantry shooting down armor-plated choppers using assault rifles. These are also the instances where you remember you are playing something meant to be entertainment, not a simulation.
All of this may make Wargame sound daunting given its complexity. At its core, though, it isn't all that hard to grasp for any strategy veteran willing to jump into it. You have to make a mental switch and adapt to its way of thinking, but it doesn't take long before you can look at any terrain map in an atlas or on Google Maps and notice prime ambush locations everywhere. If you ever wanted to bring out your inner Patton, this is without a doubt the best game you could play. However, it will kick your ass until you learn how to play it fast and hard.
The AI can be downright brutal at times, making continuous attempts to flank and ambush you. It certainly adds a lot of challenge to the campaign, but for some players this may prove to be too much. To give you an indication, I spent the better part of a day trying to pass a single mission with a dozen restarts to no avail. Especially during wide and open levels, it can be very hard to maintain recon and tactical superiority across the huge stretches of land, using the sparse resources you have. It's as if Eugen wanted to give you as much control over as large a map as they could get away with, and only later decided they couldn't give you the amount of units they would've liked to populate such a map, without completely overwhelming what a regular person's brain is capable of handling. As a result, you are continuously fighting against the odds to outwit an ever-mobile AI across the map with the units you have, and often not the units you would've loved to have. Still, the game is never unfair to you as every loss only makes you angry at yourself for making the stupid decisions that cost you the mission.
Although it would've been nice to have seen some more variety in the map geography, which consistently tends to look like your typical mainland European countryside, the emergent diversity from the terrain's features makes every map unique to multiple strategies and all kinds of natural defensive strongholds -- as long as you know where to look. This is something that translates well to multiplayer, too.
Using the game's default "score" system, a round of multiplayer revolves around scoring points reflected by the cost of both your own and your opponent's units; the first player to destroy enough units will win. A foe might go all out on expensive helicopters that could wipe out your expensive armor, but countering with cheap anti-air could then win you the game. Likewise, one opposing team member might focus on massing artillery to halt your offensive, but that doesn't mean you can't circle around with cheap and fast tank destroyers or APCs and tip the balance in your favor.
That is not to say that cheap units win the day, as more expensive tanks will easily destroy cheaper tanks in a jousting match of shells. It just means you have to master your weapon systems and the manner you deliver ordnance in the most effective way possible. The complexity at the tactical level also means that multiple attacks across the map can lead to an information overload for a player, enabling distractions to perform stealthy flanking maneuvers.
The combination of utilizing terrain, the vast amount of tactical methods to apply force through an almost ridiculous amount of different units, and the random nature of playing against a human opponent, means you could be playing Wargame for a long time to come before claiming you are any good at it. In case you not that competitively minded, a one vs. one skirmish mode lets you play against the AI, and a co-op vs. AI "comp stomp" mode is currently being worked on.
All of it runs remarkably well on my low-end rig, too, even on mostly high detail at a resolution of 1920x1200. There might be some minor slowdown at times on older rigs when you zoom in for a detailed look at the action, but since you'll spend most of your time zoomed out to a bird's eye view it never becomes detrimental to the gameplay.
Wargame: European Escalation is the closest you'll get to a full-fledged military simulation of the Cold War era of modern warfare that is still fun to play. It's a cold, calculated affair set in the last decades of the 20th century where the tradition of the Clausewitz style of military doctrine for large-scale operations was still relevant; a style rendered almost obsolete by postmodern 21st century asymmetrical warfare. There is no room for personal glory in the age of industrialized warfare depicted in Wargame, where war is won encounter by encounter, battle by battle, and in which the only human elements that remain are the effect of morale on performance and the personal affliction of losing a high-value unit.
In such a sterile environment, it can be hard to imagine there is any room left for personality, yet you still create your own personal stories through enacting your tactical prowess in the field. You will fondly remember that one time you ambushed a group of M1A1 Abrams tanks with your hidden Spetznaz troops, or that time you drew out a large enemy force with a feint and wiped them out with a pincer move. Even then, such user-generated tactical narratives only serve the greater purpose of victory at a strategic level. Such is the way of war from the command perspective; a way of thinking in movement vectors, weapon platforms, terrain, and statistics.
After two decades, Wargame: European Escalation finally does modern warfare right.
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Wargame: European Escalation reviewed by Maurice TanAn LL Bean order fulfillment center. Getty/Joe Raedle L.L. Bean has said that it likes to stay out of politics. But Linda Bean, granddaughter of the company's founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, is clearly an exception.
The 75-year-old frequent contributor to conservative causes made a $60,000 donation to a Trump-supporting PAC called Making America Great Again LLC, according to the AP.
One problem: individual donations to PACs registered as supporting one candidate are limited to only $5,000.
The group spent $66,862 in support of Trump overall.
The Federal Election Commission told the group it could face an audit or punitive action if it doesn't respond, according to a letter obtained by the AP. In response, the group says it will seek to re-register as a super PAC that is allowed to raise unlimited funds from individual donors. The PAC's chairman, David Jones, told the AP that he thought it was already registered as such.
The incident has brought on scrutiny of L.L. Bean, which is famous for its weatherproof shoes and outdoor gear. The brand is now facing a boycott by the "Grab Your Wallet" group, which has focused on avoiding products made by companies that support Trump, or by companies with owners who have publicly supported Trump.
L.L. Bean responded to the boycott in a Facebook post statement written by its executive chairman, Shawn Gorman, who notes that Linda Bean is only one of more than 50 family members involved in the company.
"No individual alone speaks on behalf of the business or represents the values of the company that [founder] L.L. built," the statement read. "L.L.Bean does not endorse political candidates, take positions on political matters, or make political contributions. Simply put, we stay out of politics. To be included in this boycott campaign is simply misguided, and we respectfully request that Grab Your Wallet reverse its position."Munson. Martin. Mariano. Mattingly. Mandela.
Wait, what?
During a triumphant visit by Nelson Mandela to New York in June 1990, shortly after he had been released from a South African prison, one of his most memorable stops was a rally and concert at Yankee Stadium, where he put on a team cap and jacket and proclaimed, “I am a Yankee.” To commemorate that moment and the life of Mandela, the South African leader who died last week at 95, the Yankees will place a plaque in Monument Park. It will be unveiled on Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, when the Yankees play the Chicago Cubs.
As David Waldstein’s story in the New York Times notes, Mandela will not be the first non-baseball figure to be honored in Monument Park. There are already plaques for masses celebrated in Yankee Stadium by Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. There is also a monument in honor of victims of the September 11th attacks. Now Mandela, who was probably a bigger Yankees fan than Benedict is. Just guessing.
At any rate, the weirdest thing about that entire story is the part where it says the Cubs will be in Yankee Stadium. That just seems odd.HEADSETS that monitor your brainwaves could allow hackers to empty your bank account, scientists fear.
High-tech helmets called electroencephalograms or EEGs are often used to diagnose epilepsy, but are beginning to appear on the toy and video game markets.
Getty Images 3 A recent study found that EEGs could easily be hacked and have prompted serious security concerns in the scientific community
You can buy devices that allow you control robotic toys or play video games using just your mind for just £100.
But a study recently proved that hackers could guess a user's passwords using these headsets to monitor victims' brainwaves.
And now scientists are concerned that EEGs could be used in a similar way.
Nitesh Saxena, associate professor in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, along with PhD student Ajaya Neupane and Doctor Lutfor Rahman, found that a person who paused a video game and logged into a bank account while wearing an EEG could have their passwords or personal information nabbed by malicious software.
"These emerging devices open immense opportunities for everyday users," Saxena told Phys.org.
"However, they could also raise significant security and privacy threats as companies work to develop even more advanced brain-computer interface technology."
EMOTIV 3 One example of a brainwave reader is the EEG from Emotiv.com
The researchers used two headsets to test their hypothesis - one clinical grade and one which can be bought online.
Both headsets monitored visual processing, hand-eye and head muscle movements to "learn" what numbers a person was thinking about.
They asked 23 people to type a series of randomly generated pins and passwords into a text box as if they were logging into an online account while wearing the EEG.
Their password-nicking software quickly learnt which number corresponded with a specific muscle movement or "brainwave".
Getty Images 3 EEGs are already used in clinical trials and for diagnosing brain ailments, but they are tipped to become a consumer gadget in the near future
Hackers could exploit this, they claim, by getting someone playing a game using a headset to enter a set of numbers shown on screen after pausing for a break.
The hidden program would prompt an annoying CAPTCHA-style box in which users type set of letters to prove "I'm not a robot" so it could figure out someone's signature brainwaves.
The team found that after 200 characters, algorithms could make a decent guess about what the person was thinking.
MOST READ IN TECH AND SCIENCE SPY GAMES Genius WhatsApp trick lets you read texts on iPhone WITHOUT sender knowing SNAP HAPPY Apple reveals the 10 BEST photos taken on an iPhone from around the world Revealed THIS SUCKS! The dodgy Android apps secretly'slurping' your battery life and mobile data HADRIAN'S BALLs Roman soldiers' very rude graffiti found on stones bound for Hadrian's Wall CLIMATE CLEANUP Hope for 'climate rewind' as scientists 'turn carbon dioxide into COAL' CORE OF THE PROBLEM? Apple engineer says pressure to design iPhone is reason I’m divorced
This could shorten the odds of a hacker's guessing a four-digit numerical PIN from one in 10,000 to one in 20 and increased the chance of guessing a six-letter password from about 500,000 to roughly one in 500, the study found.
And while it might seem like a lot of effort, if hackers send out this malicious code in batches and broke into a handful of people's bank accounts, they could still make themselves thousands of pounds in a very short amount of time.
"Given the growing popularity of EEG headsets and the variety of ways in which they could be used, it is inevitable that they will become part of our daily lives, including while using other devices," Saxena said.
"It is important to analyse the potential security and privacy risks associated with this emerging technology to raise users' awareness of the risks and develop viable solutions to malicious attacks."Jennifer Strange, a mother of three from suburban Rancho Cordova, died of apparent water intoxication hours after a failed attempt to win a Nintendo Wii video game system for her children in a promotion dubbed "Hold Your Wee for a Wii."
The Sacramento County Superior Court jury concluded that Entercom Sacramento, which operates KDND-FM (107.9) "The End," was negligent after ignoring several warnings that a morning show contest could have fatal consequences, according to KTXL-TV (Channel 40) in Sacramento.
A tape of the program, known as the "Morning Rave" on KDND, revealed that the potential fatal effects of drinking too much water were raised during the course of the contest, with one on-air host mentioning the 2005 death of a college student during a hazing ritual in Chico. A listener also called in to advise against the stunt.
Strange — one of 20 contestants — initially joked lightheartedly with the show hosts as she and the others chugged bottled water. But as the hours wore on, it came down to Strange and one other woman contending for the grand prize, and she admitted to having a splitting headache and feeling wobbly. Strange quipped on the air that "it looks like I'm pregnant again."
After finishing in second place, Strange rushed with contest winner Lucy Davidson to the station's bathroom to vomit. Strange called her employer to say she was too sick to come in and headed home. Her mother discovered her body that afternoon.
[Updated at 5:31 p.m.: Charles Sipkins, a spokesman for Entercom, said in a statement: “Jennifer Strange’s death was a tragedy. Our hearts go out to all of her loved ones, including, in particular, her husband and children. While legal restrictions preclude us from commenting further on the verdict, we respect the jury’s decision and hope that it will assist the Strange family in coping with its loss.”]
—Shelby GradBy Susan Petroni (Patch Staff)
Framingham resident and Realtor Lisa Zemack has pleaded guilty to negligent driving in a 2014 Milford crash, that killed an Upton woman, who was being transported via an ambulance.
Zemack, 62, of 19 Bonvini Drive, was sentenced to two years probation. Her driver's license was revoked for two years. She also was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service plus attend driver training and road rage classes.
Zemack was originally charged with motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation. The charge of vehicular homicide was dropped by a Worcester County judge in Milford District Court.
Killed in the crash was Karen Scott, 58, of Upton. The ambulance driver was also injured in the crash.
According to Milford Police, Zemack was driving a Mercedes sedan and failed to stop at a stop sign on Green Street, where it meets Route 140, on January, 22, 2014.
The ambulance was heading north on Route 140, from the Blackstone Valley Dialysis Center to Milford Regional Medical Center in Milford. The impact from the crash with the Mercedes caused the ambulance to rollover. It came to rest on a guard rail.
Milford Police published on its Facebook page a portion of surveillance film from a security camera at a store across the street, which had captured the crash.
Scott, lying in a stretcher, went into cardiac arrest and died. She was returning to a nursing center after receiving dialysis. Scott, a resident of Upton for 25 years, had worked as a certified nursing assistant and was a grandmother and mother of two.
***
Photo Credit: Milford Patch file photoThere are no white people. There are no black people. There are no red, yellow, brown, blue, purple, crimson or any other colour people. These are all socially constructed delusions. Delusions though with real, frightful, murderous, and genocidal consequences.
None of these facts have been hidden to us. There is a vast body of scholarly literature on the social construction of race, gender, and ethnicity.
In his monumental two-volume study, The Invention of the White Race (Revised edition, 2012), as early as in the 1960s Theodore W Allen had documented the manner in which the ruling elite in the United States had devised the category of "white people" by way of economic exploitation of the African slaves and the social control of the emerging polities. More recently, in her Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today (2013), Jacqueline Battalora has offered an examination of the enduring issue of race in the US tracing it back to when "white people" were invented through legislations and enactment of laws.
The problem with this scholarly body of literature is not only the fact that its erudite message does not get through the thick skulls of illiterate racists like Donald Trump's white supremacist supporters. The problem is that such archaeology of hatred does not erase the fact that a massive body of humanity has suffered precisely because they have been branded as "black" or "red," or "yellow" or "brown". Racially constituted to divide and rule, those colourful delusions have become social facts.
Central to all such socially constructed delusions are the relations of power they entail and sustain - whether colour-coded, classed, racialised, or gendered. "One is not born, but rather becomes a woman", Simone de Beauvoir declared in her path-breaking book The Second Sex (1949). In later, critical expansion of this idea, scholars like Judith Butler have shown how varied social practices are definitive to the social constitution of gender. The same is true about race or ethnicity. One is not born, we may extend de Beauvoir's insight, but rather becomes white, or black, etc.
OPINION: Have black historians been wrong all along?
The gross spectacle of racist terrorists in August in Charlottesville, US, and President Trump's unabashed siding with the proto-Fascist white supremacists have now brought this solid streak in American politics to global attention. However limited or extensive this "base" of Donald Trump's presidency might be, the politics of white supremacy has now become openly integral to the racial imagination of the US.
Taking their cues from their president and his chief advisers like (until recently) Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Sebastian Gorka in the White House, a small but increasingly vocal armed militia calling itself "white nationalists" (a euphemism for white supremacists) march with torches like the KKK, saluting like Nazis, and chant xenophobic and anti-Semitic slogans through Charlottesville. These are the driest and deepest layers of racial hatred from the time of the first slaughter of Native Americans, from the time of mass slavery of African Americans, now finding the right environment to come up to surface.
As a society and a polity, the US has never been cured, never been treated, and it has never resolved its murderous racist history. It has just kept shoving it under a thin veneer of liberal hypocrisy and bourgeois etiquette at home and projected it outward in the form of warmongering abroad. From the Korean, to Vietnam, to Afghan and Iraq wars the US invasions and occupation of other countries are underwritten by racial hatred. The Israeli occupation and systemic land theft of Palestine is an extended chapter in the same book.
The Racist Nexus of US/Israel
The affinity of neo-Nazi white supremacists for Zionism and Israel is a match made in the racists' heaven. Self-delusional liberal Zionists act surprised that a nefarious white supremacist like Richard Spencer has openly admitted on an Israeli TV show that Israelis "should respect him" for he is "a white Zionist". But the world at large is not surprised at all. Of course, he and his ilk are all "white Zionists" - a phrase that is in fact redundant. What the liberal Zionists do not wish to admit (for it exposes their own racism) is that the white supremacists' Zionism is integral to their anti-Semitism and vice-versa.
Struggle for racial justice must commence and continue with the full knowledge of how racial divides were socially manufactured and politically sustained before we can learn how to overcome them.
The roots of Zionism as the dominant ideology of a settler colony are in European white supremacy, evident in their much more universal colonial culture in Asia, Africa, and Latin America - to all of which Israel is now a last bastion.
Israel today is a perfect model, an aspiration in fact, for neo-Nazi white supremacists in the US and Europe. That these neo-Nazis are also anti-Semitic and Zionist is exactly the recognition that now stares American Jews in the eye.
Today, American Jews find themselves at a momentous crossroads where their historic struggles against racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism place them face to face with Israel and the racist ideology on the basis of which it was founded. Benjamin Netanyahu's son openly calling Black Lives Matter and the Antifa "thugs" and "scum" and dismissing the significance of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville speaks voluminously of the racist foundation of Israel. The young Mr Yair Netanyahu speaks openly and without the diplomatic finesse of liberal Zionists or the intellectual sophistication of a New York Times columnist. He says it as it is: the structural hostility of Zionism to any emancipatory civil rights movement, and its equally foundational affinity with xenophobic anti-Semites.
Today, Israelis have absoletely no moral authority, not an iota, to denounce the Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, for the neo-Nazis intend to do in the United States what the Zionists have already done in Israel: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is a model for the white supremacists in the United States. Mass expulsion of Palestinians, the massacre of Palestinians in Deir Yasin and elsewhere: those are the Zionist trademarks the Neo-Nazis hope and wish and strive to replicate in the United States.
OPINION: Charlottesville is America everywhere
"Charlottesville," as a result, "is moment of truth for empowered US Zionists," as it has been pointedly suggested, especially for those boldfaced conquerors of Palestine "who name their children after Israeli generals". The militant nexus of US/Israel is today the transatlantic prototype of racist white supremacy that sustains and advances the murderous myth of the white people civilizing the world.
The Almost Whites
The distinguished novelist and Nobel Prize laureate Tony Morrison has keenly observed: "All immigrants to the United States know (and knew) that if they want to become real, authentic Americans they must reduce their fealty to their native country and regard it as secondary, subordinate, in order to emphasize their whiteness."
But the question is not fealty to any "native country". The question is rather the systematic subordination of all immigrants, regardless of how they have been colour-coded, to the myth of the "white people" and the violent fantasies of their civilizing missions. No brown, black, or any other thus coloured person can ever be completely "white". But their trying to pass as white is a mechanism of humiliation and denigration they willingly play to presume they are part of the power structure and a more "normal" human being.
In How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America (1998), Karen Brodkin has put forward one line of argument as to how since World War II American Jews began to pose and perform themselves as "white". The practice is not peculiar to American Jews, of course. Upon their arrivals and one generation into a successful economic status, other recent immigrants, Muslims and Hindus alike, have also sought to posit and pass themselves as (almost) white.
Becoming white has always been the most potent way for racialised "minorities" to overcome their violently alienated personhood in order to become something they could (and should) never be.
Towards a Dialectic of Emancipation
By replicating and reenacting the racial politics of their European origin and now their US benefactors upon Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular, the Zionists are the living testimonials as to how racial hatred is manufactured and sustained as means of political domination. The term "Israeli Arab" invented by Zionists for Palestinians in their own homeland is the epitome of European racism carried to its most obscene colonial conclusions.
Struggle for racial justice must commence and continue with the full knowledge of how racial divides were socially manufactured and politically sustained before we can learn how to overcome them. The full acknowledgment of the murderous history of racism in the US and Europe is the first step towards dismantling it. No postmodern or poststructuralist dismantling of race can disregard the sustained history of racism as coterminous with capitalist modernity. It must acknowledge, sublate, in order to overcome it.
READ MORE: What is the alt-right and what does it stand for?
Here, we need a "double consciousness" of a different sort than the one WEB Du Bois famously theorised. This " |
they will be able to write off most of their employees’ salaries if they hire American,” the congressman said. “And thrifty and hardworking employees will have many other opportunities to supplement their income. They will enjoy free lodging in the servants’ quarters, free food left over from their employers’ meals and access to their employers’ surplus clothing.”
He added that those servants able to sing, dance, play music or otherwise entertain their employers and their guests would in many cases also be able to earn significant tips. He also noted that they would probably save most of their earnings because they would be on call to meet their employers’ needs at least six and a half days a week, and thus would have little opportunity to waste their money on frivolous pursuits. “An enterprising and frugal young person entering household service after high school or college should be easily able to save up enough money to marry another equally frugal member of the servant class by their mid to late 30s,” Cantor told reporters.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, under fire for helping cause the crash of 2008, took the unusual step of appearing at the news conference. “I am here today to represent employers, who strongly support this legislation,” he began. “After years of being unfairly attacked for exporting U.S. capital abroad, our support for this bill clearly demonstrates that both the executives in my company and the entire financial sector are committed to creating stable jobs for American citizens right here at home.”
Like Cantor and Boehner, Blankfein stressed that household employment would be a growing sector for years to come. “It is not only senior executives like myself who have a growing need for servants as our bonuses grow and we purchase new and larger residences and yachts,” Blankfein said. “I, for example, have two married children who recently graduated college and are starting life on their own. They too will soon be looking for nannies, chauffeurs and gardeners. Why, I estimate that as a result of this bill within five years my family alone will provide decent jobs for more than 200 Americans. And I want to emphasize that I and other successful people welcome this opportunity to ‘give back’ to America for all it has done for us!”
Blankfein added that “I also hope this will stop once and for all the scurrilous attack on Wall Street for paying its executives ever-greater bonuses regardless of company performance. By using our bonuses to employ Americans, we will be clearly creating far more jobs than those who would increase our taxes to pay for government programs that create a culture of dependence.”Back in January, I wrote an article about the importance of self-discipline, specifically, what self-discipline is and why you need it in the long-term. (You can read it here).
I didn’t, however, explain how to build self-discipline, step-by-step.
Before I discuss five practical strategies for building self-discipline, I want to clear up a common misconception: the difference between self-discipline and self-control.
Self-Discipline Vs. Self-Control
Self-discipline is about leaning into resistance. Taking action in spite of how you feel. Living a life by design, not by default.
But most importantly, it’s acting in accordance with your thoughts – not your feelings.
You might not feel like writing a blog post, running eight miles or waking up before dawn, but you know doing them is conducive to your happiness, wealth, and success in the long-term.
You never need to feel motivated when you know what must be done.
That’s self-discipline.
Self-control, on the other hand, is refraining from immediate gratification; it’s what Kelly McGonigal calls “won’t power”. “I won’t order dessert because I’m on a diet”. “I won’t watch Netflix because I have an essay to write”. “I won’t be unfaithful because I love my wife”.
If we want to increase our happiness and success in life and work, we need self-discipline.
Here’s how we build it.
How to Build Self-Discipline
1. Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals
Google co-founder Larry Page believes that the only true failure in life is not attempting the audacious. “Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it’s very hard to fail completely”, says Page, “that’s the thing that people don’t get”. [1]
Set, what Jim Collins, calls, “Big, Hairy Audacious Goals” (or BHAGs). After all, you can’t build self-discipline without knowing exactly what it looks like for you.
Is it waking up before 6:00 A.M.? Saying no to a doughnut offered in work? Or running every Tuesday and Thursday? Is it something else?
Exercise: Buy a pack of 4” x 6” index cards and write down ONE goal you’d like to achieve and on the back why you’re committed to achieving it.
But we know writing down our goals isn’t enough; we need a system to move us towards them. We need habits – and we need to make them tiny.
2. Build Tiny Habits
Tiny Habits are behaviors that are easy to do. Doing one push-up. Drinking one glass of water. Eating one portion of fruits and vegetables. Behaviors that, in other words, are so easy we can’t say not. But, unfortunately, they’re also behaviors we laugh at because of their simplicity.
Changing things is hard, but it’s especially hard when you need motivation. The problem is motivation ebbs and flows; it’s unreliable and when we need it, it’s seldom available.
“You need to pretend motivation doesn’t exist”, says B.J. Fogg, a research at the Stanford Persuasion Lab. To build self-discipline, make behaviors you want super simple to do – even if it seems laughable.
Remember: “Success starts at the bottom”.
3. Celebrate Small-Wins
Small wins come from committing to your Tiny Habits and stretching yourself, consistently—but you must recognize them.
Sadly, we live in a society where we’re conditioned to believe success is only significant when it’s big. But going for a run, resisting a temptation and saying no to a colleague when you’ve never done it before is big – if you permit yourself to believe so.
At the end of every day, write down three reasons why your day was awesome. This can be an email your received from a colleague thanking you for your covering them, getting a promotion or cooking a delicious meal for your spouse.
Give yourself the credit you deserve.
4. Choose a Power Word
Some habits are easier to say no to than others, even when they’re simplified. Take waking up as an example: it’s easy in principle, but hard in application.
I’m not a morning person, but every morning, when my alarm clock buzzes at 06:00, I wake up. Not because I have to, but because I choose to. I don’t feel like waking up, but I do it because I know, by doing it, I’m building self-discipline.
I hear my alarm clock and instead of hitting the snooze button, I say a word to myself, my power word: Discipline. I walk to my bathroom and repeat to myself, “Discipline. Discipline. Discipline”.
A power word is any word that evokes a positive emotional response in you when you say or hear it. Think of it as an affirmation, only summarized in one word.
“Discipline” for me, is a value; one that represents who I am and what I’m committed to. Choose one that you’d like to be described as and honor it taking action regularly.
Saying “Healthy” as you ignore discounted candy bars in the supermarket; repeating “Confidence” before you cold call a prospect; whispering, “Focus” before stepping out on the court. These are all examples of anchoring yourself to a word that empowers you.
Remember: let your values decide your behaviors.
5. Remove Roadblocks
If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
If you think you don’t need to plan, you’re mistaken.
“People who think they have the most willpower are actually the most likely to lose control when tempted”, writes Kelly McGonigal, author of The Willpower Instinct. [2]
The reason? We fail to predict when, where, and why we will give in.
So to build self-discipline, identify what your potential roadblocks could be and plan how you’re going to deal with them.
One practical strategy that’s useful is using an implementation intention or an “if/then” strategy.
An implementation intention invites you to consider what obstacles could affect your progress and consider how you could overcome them. “ If X happens, then I’ll do Y”.
For example, “If I feel tempted to surf online when I’m writing my essay, then I’ll turn on Stay Focused on my browser”.
Building self-discipline is a skill. And like most skills, it requires practice. So enjoy yourself and remember: practice makes perfect.Red
Secret Identity
Suspicion
Renown
Known (at least 3 friends in the hold) Well known (at least 5 friends in the hold) Resident (own property in the hold) Thane (become thane of a hold) Hero (complete either the Main Quest or Civil War)
Humanity
At 4 Humanity, you emit a mystical aura that gives a bonus to haggling and persuasion. At 3 humanity and below, people start to sense the maliciousness in that aura, and they become nervous and twitchy. You no longer have a bonus to persuasion but you gain a bonus to intimidation.
Risk
Risk = 5 + Suspicion - Humanity - Renown - Relationship Rank
Recognition
If you are recognized a second time, you may be banished from the Hold forever or have your home seized by guards.
Predators
Werewolves
Humanity
-2 when the Beast is hungry
-5 when under the effects of a Howl
-1 when using Wolf Senses
-1 at night.
Howls
Howl of Terror
Howl of Brotherhood
Howl of the Wolf Spirit
Using a Howl while Sated (see below) will make the werewolf hungrier sooner.
Night Speech
-100
12
Feeding on animals sates the beast for less time.
Harvest
Vampires
and regenerates stamina slowly or not at all
-1 per stage of vampirism after the first (max -3).
-2 for summoning undead or raising zombies (may be disabled through MCM).
-1 when outside in the daylight.
-1 when using hunter’s vision.
-5 when using the vampiric reflexes, vampiric invisibility, or mist form spells.
-5 when using the vampiric drain spell.
-2 when using other Blood magic.
Whisper of Soul Sight - Detect all creatures animated by souls in a large vicinity for 1 second. This is undetectable to civilians.
Whisper of Desire - Calm a humanoid or undead for 30 seconds. Humanoids can be fed off of while charmed in this way.
Whisper of Shadows - Turn invisible for 180 seconds as long as you remain crouched and move slowly. If the effect is broken, it can be recast by dropping into a crouch or waiting 3 seconds.
Whisper of Ages - Slow time for several seconds.
Whisper of Mists - Transform into mist.
Vampiric Drain - Absorbs health from living enemies and paralyzes them.
Vampiric Grip - Lifts an enemy into the air and boils their blood.
Summon Gargoyle - Imbues non-living material with blood magic, creating a golem to do your bidding.
Corpse Curse - Paralyzes a target for several seconds.
Vampire’s Servant - raises a zombie for 180 seconds. Does not count against your summoning limit (total of 2).
If you are detected using a vampire whisper or blood magic, local suspicion will increase by 2. If this increase causes suspicion to increase to >=5, an accusation check will be made instantly.
Night Speech
The effects of your werewolf howls scale with your speechcraft skill.
Corpse
Harvest
Predators is a role playing tool for werewolves and vampires. The aim is to reflect the healthy fear and wariness of the public around these cursed individuals.Predators is highly customizable. YOU decide if being a beast of the night is your most defining trait, or just one more supernatural ability. You decide if the need to feed the beast is a constant, overpowering hunger or merely a minor annoyance. You decide if Predators is merely a roleplaying tool or the most powerful game mechanic in the game.If you are upgrading from 3.x, cure yourself of your curse using the MCM and then upgrade. You may have to reset some of your custom settings. If you are upgrading from 2.x or before you will have to start a new game.text indicates that there is an MCM option to tweak or disable a feature. MCM options will allow a player to tailor how much your predator nature dominates gameplay. You can make being a werewolf your primary concern in the game or reduce the effects to a mere occasional nuisance.Werewolves and vampires must keep their identities secret or become outlaws. There are three new tracked stats, which are compared to calculate the player's risk of being discovered.The populace’s current level of concern that a werewolf or vampire might be living among them is measured by a new stat called Suspicion. This statistic is tracked separately for each hold and starts at 0 for most holds. Each time you feed on a humanoid, suspicion in your current hold will increase by 1 to a maximum of 5. If there is no vampire or werewolf activity in a hold, that number will decrease by 1 every 7 days. Suspicion represents a rough estimate that you might be accused of being a werewolf or vampire.Renown represents the level of trust and comfort the people of a hold have with you. There are 5 levels of renown:These levels do not stack, so if you become thane and also own a house you still only have 4 reknown, and you cannot gain 5 reknown without completing either the main questline or the civil war questline.Renown acts as a “buffer” against rising suspicion. Even if they are certain there is a werewolf or a vampire prowling the hold, the people wouldn’t think of accusing the hero who reunited the country.Vampires and werewolves now have a “Humanity” stat that measures how much their true nature shows through. Humanity starts at 5 (Unquestionable) and various factors cause predators to lose humanity points.Each time you speak to an NPC, your risk of being accused by that NPC will be calculated based on how well they know you, their current concern, your current humanity, and their relationship to you. The formula is:If your risk is >5, the NPC will accuse you of being a werewolf or vampire. This will set off an alarm and cause all guards and the NPC in question to turn hostile.If you have a renown of 3 or higher when you are accused of being a werewolf or vampire, you will lose the benefits of your current level of Renown in that hold. You can still increase your Renown, but never higher to more than 2. The people may be hesitant to accuse the Dragonborn of being a vampire, but if he’s already been proven to be one once he’d better not turn up again with glowing yellow eyes and pale skin.Both werewolves and vampires have far more advantages than they did before, though these abilities are derived heavily from those found in vanilla Skyrim.Werewolves have the following abilities:Werewolves take penalties to Humanity from the following factors:In werewolf form, werewolves can select a howl using the favorites menu just like Vampire Lords. Werewolves have access to three howls in both human and werewolf form:Howl of Terror and the Howl of Brotherhood are from the vanilla game. Howl of the Spirit Wolf grants etherealness for 8 seconds. The Howl of Brotherhood and Howl of the Spirit grant -5 to humanity for their duration. If you are seen using a Howl by a law-abiding citizen of Skyrim, they will immediately alert the guards that you are a werewolf. Wolves summoned by the Howl of Brotherhood do not count against your summoning limit.The effects of your werewolf howls scale with your speechcraft skill.Werewolves can toggle their wolf senses, allowing them to see in the dark and track the movement of blooded creatures from a distance by their scent, and non-living creatures by the sounds they make when they move. Using your werewolf senses incurs a -1 penalty to humanity.Werewolves can revert their form at any time, just like the Vampire Lord.Werewolves must consume the hearts of humanoids in order to remain sated. While sated, Werewolves gain +50% Magicka, Health, and Stamina regeneration in human form. While hungry, magicka regeneration is reduced by(this effect can be disabled or modified through the MCM).Feeding on a humanoid heart will make a hungry werewolf sated forhours. Feeding on subsequent hearts while sated will add 24 hours to the timer for each heart consumed. So you could conceivably eat 20 hearts at once and be sated for 20 days straight.In addition to being able to transform once per day at any time (by means of the vanilla werewolf greater power), werewolves can transform as many times as they want at night. “Night” is determined as the same times that vampires do not receive sun damage – 7pm to 5am.Werewolves can harvest hearts from sleeping or charmed victims, saving the hearts to consume later in order to stave off the Beast's hunger without transforming. Harvesting hearts increases Suspicion.Vampires are much more powerful mages with innate spellcasting ability. They pay for their vampiric spells with a corpse-like body that is vulnerable to sunlightVampires start with 5 humanity and take the following penalties:The vampire gains progressively more powerful Whispers of power as he progresses through the stages of vampirism:Vampire Whispers are completely silent.Vampires have telekinetic control of blood, which grows as their body becomes more desiccated.Vampires become more corpse-like the longer they go without feeding. Stamina regeneration slows and ultimately stops completely. However, power attacks also require significantly less stamina to execute.DrainVampires have the option of draining their victims entirely, killing them and feeding themselves at the same time.Vampires can harvest blood from sleeping or willing victims, killing them and granting a vial of blood for later consumption.If you're not afraid to swallow your technology, you may want to check out new tech cleared by the Food and Drug Administration this week that lets you ingest a digital sensor powered by stomach acid that alerts your doctors about your health and your treatment habits.
Proteus Digital Health
The technology consists of a tiny, silicon-based sensor that, at 1mm wide (roughly the size of a grain of sand), can be consumed via pills and pharmaceuticals and pass through the body much like high-fiber food.
According to the developer, Proteus Digital Health, once the sensor is swallowed, stomach fluids that come into contact with it provide enough power to relay a signal that documents exactly when it was taken. This data is transmitted to a battery-powered patch worn on the skin that detects the signal and records the exact time the sensor was swallowed.
The disposable patch, which has a life span of seven days, collects several metrics, including heart rate, temperature, and body position, and relays that information to a mobile-phone app. If the patient consents, this data is shared with caregivers and clinicians to help develop patient-specific and data-driven care.
Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of genomics at The Scripps Research Institute and author of "The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Healthcare," says in a news release that the digital health feedback system is an emerging technology that could improve not only a patient's adherence to a treatment regimen but also chronic-disease management: "The FDA validation represents a major milestone in digital medicine."
Proteus, which anticipated FDA approval at some point in 2012, is vague on cost, stating that it depends on "the context in which the system is being used." Time will tell if insurance providers will cover the system now that it has been cleared in the U.S. (it was previously OKed by European regulators), but until then, the novel technology seems most likely to be used in clinical settings.
Powered By You from Proteus Digital Health on Vimeo.Will Joseph Gordon-Levitt Play Batman In The Justice League Movie? By Sean O'Connell Random Article Blend Justice League movie, which continues to take shape.
The news comes from Justice League as the new Batman.” That’s massive news. And yet, for those who watched the end of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, they understand where this line of thinking is coming from. We watched Gordon-Levitt’s character, John Blake, assuming the role of Batman by walking into the Bat Cave, led there by a retired (and, amazingly, still alive) Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale). McWeeny says that those scenes led to speculation, which morphed into a conversation, which transitioned into a plan.
Here’s where it continues to get really interesting. McWeeny reports that Warner might want to get JGL into a Bat suit before the JLA movie gets underway. And he imagines a scene near the end of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel -- really the only D.C. property on the horizon – that sets up a Batman/Superman combo and leads to Justice League.
I know. Insane. But really, when you step back from the coolness of the announcement, it’s not that far-fetched. Nolan likely was helping Warner as they laid some groundwork for an eventual Justice League movie. The studio has to keep pace with Marvel and The Avengers, and there are no reasons to let Gordon-Levitt assume the Batman role if you’re not going to let him play it out in future movies.
We’ll have to wait for studio confirmation, but for now, what do you think of this news? It makes sense. But now that someone is actually reporting it, the news sends a shockwave that the geek brain still can’t quite process. But Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears to be a lock to play Batman in Warner Bros.’ plannedmovie, which continues to take shape.The news comes from HitFix ’s reliable Drew McWeeny, who says sources have confirmed that the actor “absolutely will be appearing inas the new Batman.” That’s massive news. And yet, for those who watched the end of Christopher Nolan’s, they understand where this line of thinking is coming from. We watched Gordon-Levitt’s character, John Blake, assuming the role of Batman by walking into the Bat Cave, led there by a retired (and, amazingly, still alive) Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale). McWeeny says that those scenes led to speculation, which morphed into a conversation, which transitioned into a plan.Here’s where it continues to get really interesting. McWeeny reports that Warner might want to get JGL into a Bat suit before themovie gets underway. And he imagines a scene near the end of Zack Snyder’s-- really the only D.C. property on the horizon – that sets up a Batman/Superman combo and leads toI know. Insane. But really, when you step back from the coolness of the announcement, it’s not that far-fetched. Nolan likely was helping Warner as they laid some groundwork for an eventualmovie. The studio has to keep pace with Marvel and, and there are no reasons to let Gordon-Levitt assume the Batman role if you’re not going to let him play it out in future movies.We’ll have to wait for studio confirmation, but for now, what do you think of this news? Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topWork out your salvation with diligence
—Buddha
What, me worry?
—Alfred E. Neuman
With the federal bail out of the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even a blind man can see that the economy is tanking at full throttle. More bank failures are imminent, likely including the investment house Lehman Brothers. The fall-out from the crashing housing market is far from over. House values are falling, credit is almost non-existent and "consumers" are getting flattened. We appear to be in for the worst economic and financial crisis in decades (Nouriel Roubini, RGE Monitor).
It is not my intention today to talk about the economic crisis. To understand that, you can visit iTulip, RGE Monitor or Chris Martenson, among others. This brief article is for those whose chief concern has been peak oil.
I conclude that peak oil will be pretty much off the radar in the next few years among the public, the media and politicians.
Oil Prices in a Recession
In my previous writings, I have stressed that all bets are off on oil production & price in a severe recession scenario. (A "recession" is when your neighbor loses his job; a "depression" is when you lose yours.) How does this affect peak oil scenarios going forward?
Here's the graph, marked up a bit as usual.
Figure 1 — Oil Prices in a Recession Scenario
No trend line is shown because the price trend no longer matters during the recession. I've been reluctant to make this forecast because I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary. A strong price signal was the best indication that Americans have a long term problem to solve, as we saw when oil spiked to $147/barrel.
Even as recently as August 18th, I still thought that the latest oil price slide was leading to an over-correction contrary to the 5-year trend. So much for wishful thinking. We should always adjust our conclusions as the circumstances change or become clearer.
I agree with most of Charlie Maxwell's recent price forecast (Barron's, September 8, 2008). I expect oil prices to dip down into the $75-$80 range by the 1st quarter of 2010, although this price floor may occur sooner in 2009 depending on how the economy is faring. The situation has little in common with the oil supply shocks of the 1970's and early 1980's when demand fell off sharply twice. This time around, global crude oil demand will remain fairly robust (above 72.5 million barrels per day) throughout the recession. All liquids demand will likely not fall below 85.5 million barrels per day.
Demand growth will slow in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) economies and in the Middle East, but will not become negative as it has in the OECD countries. Thus non-OECD demand will mostly compensate for slackening consumption in the advanced economies. Demand slumps within and outside the OEDC will thus not move in lockstep as they did in the 1970s and early 1980's because of continuing, albeit slower, economic growth in developing world (graphs left, in the first graph, OECD demand is in blue, world demand in red).
I am non-committal here about the length of the recession. I will assume that Nouriel Roubini's prediction that the recession will go on about 18 months is correct, contrary to Eric Janszen's view (at iTulip) that the downturn could go on much longer because it will take several more years to work out the housing and credit slumps. Janszen believes that only another bubble, this time in alternative energy, will allow us to break out the recession (ASPO-USA, February 13, 2008). He may be right.
Peak Oil Off the Radar
Oil demand will no doubt remain below global production capacity during the downturn if it's as severe as Roubini thinks it will be. Lower demand will lower the oil price. I stick by the forecast I made in Peak Oil Is A Done Deal (ASPO-USA, July 16, 2008), but that was a sustainable productive capacity estimate, not an actual supply forecast, a subtlety that eluded some of the people who read it.
It is not clear what floor price OPEC will defend, as explained in As Oil Prices Fall, OPEC Faces a Balancing Act (New York Times, September 4, 2008). OPEC wants to maintain revenues but can not afford to throttle back production too far to keep prices high—the cartel does not want to drive down OECD demand during a recession. OPEC's decision this week to cut about 500,000 barrels off current production merely rolls back increases made earlier this year when oil was over $135/barrel. I predict OPEC will actually defend $90/barrel oil when we get there, but will not be able to keep oil from sliding to its bottom at $75-80.
All these considerations essentially take the peak oil issue off the table in the next few years. I do not mean to imply that peak oil is a dead issue—far from it! But policy-makers and the "free" market are incapable of planning ahead and people generally are myopic. Only sustained high oil prices get their attention. Survival in a reeling economy is going to trump worries about a flat or declining oil supply causing renewed price escalation after 2010-11. Peak oil is going to be a hard sell under these circumstances.
The economic downturn couldn't come at a worse time for those who hold out some hope that meaningful policies will be implemented that cut America's oil dependency over the longer term. If the OECD economies start to recover in 2010, and that's a BIG IF, we will likely see a repeat of the 2007-08 oil price escalation in 2010-11. Paraphrasing the great Yogi Berra, it will be déjà vu all over again, but that's at least 2 years down the road.
Misguided Politicians Add to the Mess
Near the end of his 1st term, whoever is elected president will discover, much to his consternation and surprise, that changing our energy policies to fight global warming wasn't really the highest priority after all! If he wants a 2nd term, that is. The problem lies with the distinction—I should say the lack of a distinction—made between liquid fuels and renewable energy sources.
Everywhere you look, the mantra is the same: clean, green solar, wind, geothermal, etc. will cure our oil dependency. Renewables, which make up a negligible share of our total energy consumption, are meant to directly replace coal-fired power generation, not the liquids that fuel over 95% of our transportation.
Rarely mentioned is the pathway by which renewables replace petroleum. The assumed pathway is greater fuel efficiency via electric transport and biofuels, with an emphasis on plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs). I will ignore the empty Republican promise that we can drill ourselves of this mess. Other measures, like hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, large-scale coal-to-liquids production, or compressed natural gas vehicles, are non-starters.
Let's take a quick peek at the world in 2015—
2nd generation ethanol production (from cellulosic feedstocks) replaces less than 1% of our gasoline consumption (corn ethanol is at or near peak production)
plug-in or gas-electric hybrid cars & trucks (e.g. the Prius) make up less than 2% of all vehicles on the road
oil is $300/barrel ($250 in real terms) according to Charlie Maxwell—my own view is that economy will self-destruct with sustained prices over $200/barrel
Is the scaling for biofuels & partially electric vehicles any better in 2018 or 2020? Not much. The price will certainly be too high for many to be able to afford gasoline or diesel. Airlines? What airlines? Not for you, unless you're among the wealthiest few.
Obama has promised to rid us of Middle Eastern oil imports in a decade using the renewables pathway. Good luck. I'm wondering how we're going to replace imports from Mexico after 2012. John "Drill, Drill, Drill" McCain has proposed no coherent policy to reduce our petroleum dependency. See As Good As It Gets (ASPO-USA, July 2, 2008).1
So, how does the future look? First, we're entering a severe recession which forces oil supply concerns to take a backseat. Second, peak oil is already on the (far) back burner anyway because our presidential candidates and their advisers believe that global warming is the only problem related to energy that matters (ASPO-USA, May 7, 2008). Actually, what these people won't tell you is that $5-6/gallon gasoline is just fine with them because it cuts tailpipe CO 2 emissions through ruthless "demand destruction."
In the real world, however, concrete economic failures brought about by high oil prices will always trump more abstract climate change concerns. It's just a matter of time before oil prices change the political agenda, but it's going to be a while before that happens.
So if you were expecting anything to be done about America's oil dependency in the foreseeable future, you have my sympathy because it ain't gonna' happen. So much the worse for all of us farther down the road.
Contact the author at dave.aspo@gmail.com
Notes
1. The gun-toting, moose-hunting, "pro-life", anti-science, creationist, global-warming denying, small-town valuing, beauty-pageant runner-up hockey-mommy McCain chose as his running mate is not helping matters any. Sarah Palin was brought in as a cynical ploy to appeal to the Republican base, lure Hillary Clinton voters, and continue the "drill, drill, drill" fiction. Apparently, John McCain is so narcissistic that he thinks that he'll live forever, or at least through his term(s) of office should he be elected. Americans will surely get the government they deserve.Last week another nail was pounded into the coffin of free speech. And, once again, university students were wielding the hammer. Most regrettably, it happened on the Brantford campus of Wilfrid Laurier where I teach. The campus’ Criminology Students Association (CSA) had arranged for Toronto lawyer, Danielle Robitaille, to be the keynote speaker at their annual conference. Robitaille is most well-known for being part of the legal team that successfully defended former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi against charges of sexual assault.
Defence lawyer Danielle Robitaille (left) leaves court with Jian Ghomeshi (middle) and lawyer Marie Henein. ( Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star )
The keynote address was slated for March 8th but on March 7th the CSA informed its 800 student members that the event was cancelled. CSA leadership discovered that another campus group had “organized efforts to disrupt (Robitaille’s) presentation” and they became concerned “for group and personal safety.” The group planning the disruption call themselves Advocates for a Student Culture of Consent (ASCC). On a Facebook page they created they list their reasons for wanting the speech cancelled. The reasons all centred around the notion that because Robitaille had advocated on behalf of an alleged sex offender, Ghomeshi, anything she said, even her presence, could be traumatizing for those who had experienced sexual violence and anyone else sensitive to the issue. In their words: “WLU’s choice to amplify (Robitaille’s) voice has caused harm and makes us feel unsafe, invalidated and not believed.”
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Also explicit in their demands was the idea that they should be able to choose which topics are appropriate to discuss on campus and which are not. For example, they wrote: “During the (Ghomeshi) trial it was hard enough to find spaces momentarily free from these debates, but to actively choose to bring this debate to campus is very different and actively signals that this is up to debate when it is not.” Where would these students of the ASCC get the idea that it is legitimate practice to shut down views that they personally find offensive? Mostly from their professors. I am ashamed to say that many of my colleagues, almost exclusively in the Arts, Humanities, and the Social Sciences, are promoting a virulent brand of cultural Marxism (under the guise of social justice) that preaches any idea they deem “oppressive” is a legitimate target for censorship. Ironically, it used to be the case that the Liberal Arts programs of universities were the promoters of free expression, steeped as they were in the classical liberal tradition of John Locke, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mills. But now they’re leading the charge in the opposite direction. And it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Currently, the Arts and Humanities and to a lesser extent the social sciences are trying to combat a perception that our degrees are less valuable than degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (the so called STEM fields). It used to be the case that we in the “soft disciplines” could justify our existence by claiming our degrees teach students to think critically, a valuable skill in any career. The ability to think critically comes, we used to argue, from our students being exposed to competing ideas, wrestling with the logic and evidence of each, and then deciding which is best. Unfortunately, the truth of that argument is called into question when significant numbers of our students demand not to be exposed to competing ideas.
Despite having accomplished their goal of getting Robitaille’s speech cancelled, the members of the ASCC and their supporters did not emerge from their battle free from emotional scars. At least that is what one is led to believe when one reads the congratulatory message sent to the group by Laurier’s Diversity and Equity Office (DEO) — an official administrative body of the university with the mandate to “cultivate a culture on campus that respects and promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.” The DEO’s letter to the group, also found on the ASCC Facebook page, promised support because: “Though Robitaille cancelled her address, The Diversity and Equity Office recognizes that survivors and their support networks in our community have been impacted … We recognize the range of impacts this can have on members of our community, including impacts on feelings of safety and belonging.”
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As far as I know the DEO sent no support letter to the more than 800 members of the Criminology Students Association who had their event abruptly cancelled. I suppose the DEO thought those students could deal with their hurt feelings on their own. After all, in the real world, that’s what adults sometimes have to do. David Millard Haskell is associate professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Wilfrid Laurier’s Brantford Campus.Image copyright National Portrait Gallery Image caption Benjamin Sullivan celebrates with the subjects of his wining work - wife Virginia and 15-month-old Edith
Artist Benjamin Sullivan has said winning the BP Portrait Award after being shortlisted 13 times, is a "wonderful surprise and accolade |
way they want.
It was only a few weeks ago that several high-profile sites such as LinkedIn were caught not properly storing passwords, making it far too easy on the hackers who stole them to crack them. If major websites can't get password storage right, you can bet that most websites can't. I made a suggestion to websites everywhere to start advertising how they store passwords if they want to earn their customers' trust by demonstrating that they do it correctly. The idea was a big hit with end-users but I haven't seen any websites try it out yet. If most websites can't get password storage right, you can also bet they can't get storage of the actual content you are trusting them with right, either. The private documents that you stored with your favorite cloud service are probably not encrypted in a way that only your account can decrypt, if they're encrypted at all. The mobile app or website you use to access those documents may send your password and your files "in the clear," enabling that shady-looking person on the other side of the café to snoop on you. They may advertise that they use encrypted connections but then disable verification in the mobile app so as to "not complicate the interface." Someone could hijack your connection and the app would never notify you of the error. I have seen all of these problems in real-world cloud apps used by thousands of people.
If you follow any tech blogs, you've heard all these warnings before. Over the Independence Day holiday, however, I found a different kind of privacy violation in a fun little app that sounds like a great idea. The premise is this: your phone has a GPS in it, right? It's a messaging app which posts messages to other people running the same app who are physically near you. It does not have a username or password, so it's anonymous, or so the advertising information claims. Suggested uses are for chatting with your classmates, with other people attending the same event, or for organizing a political rally. The fact that you are physically present is all the "identification" you need to certify yourself to the other participants. In fact, this app hit it big with the Occupy protest movement, who read online or heard from their friends that it was an anonymous short-range messaging system.
Now, the first problem is that it is not obvious to everyone that this works by sending your current GPS location to a server somewhere out there on the internet, which is where the messages and their locations are stored. Many smartphone users don't realize that it's doing this – as I had several different people express astonishment and anger to me that the app in question was uploading their GPS co-ordinates to the internet and storing them. They wouldn't have trusted it if they knew that. Where is this app's privacy policy which explains how "anonymous" you are or aren't? As far as I can tell, it doesn't have one. This should be a giant, blinking red alert to anyone considering submitting messages and their geolocation to a service on the internet. What is it doing with that data? Who knows! They did not take a few minutes out of their time to explain to you, the person using their app, what they store or to whom the information is made available. It gets worse. The promotional materials for this app claim that its key feature is being able to set the visible distance on your message down very low, to keep it – and this is a quote from their website – "inside your occupy camp" for sensitive activities such as "whistleblowing." It seems perfectly reasonable for the end-user to expect that no-one outside the range they designate on their message could see it. Guess again! It only took me a few minutes to write a fake client app which pretended to be in New York, enabling me to see short-range messages posted in Central Park from the comfort of my home a few states away. The app does not warn you that it has no way to validate that the client's claimed geolocation is real, yet it assumes that it must be. It also has the disable-HTTPS-verification antifeature that is so common in mobile apps these days, making it easy to intercept users to spy on them.
The more I dug in, the worse it got. It claims in the FAQ that your mobile phone or tablet can be banned from posting if you post something offensive – yet they claim you are anonymous. Connect the dots: they can connect specific posts to specific devices. There is nothing anonymous about that whatsoever. The end result is that people with a genuine need for anonymity and privacy protections are trusting in an app that breaks every promise. I won't leave you hanging: the app is called Vibe. I dumped my notes on why it didn't seem safe to use at protests to my personal page and went to bed. When I woke up, dozens of people had questions for me, which is what prompted this long-form post: it's not about Vibe in particular. It's about how every app you use has the potential to abuse your data or be simply careless with it behind your back. When considering a new service, take a moment and check the privacy policy and the EULA. Your privacy is worth something – both to you and to third parties who may wish to advertise to you or spy on you. Don't give away your personal information to services that promise the moon in their marketing materials but aren't equipped to treat your property with respect.
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By Melissa Elliott Melissa Elliott is an application security researcher who has been writing loud opinions from a quiet corner of the Veracode office for two years and counting. She enjoys yelling about computers on Twitter and can be bribed with white chocolate mocha.OAKLAND — Get in your car, or better still, walk or bike south on Broadway starting near 31st Street, and you’ll pass Sprouts Farmers Market in a brand-spanking-new retail complex with a Sleep Train, Chipotle and a sign on an empty storefront alerting the public that Starbucks is coming soon. Nearby, a 435-unit apartment complex — one of the largest new buildings to break ground recently — is under construction at the site of a former Chevrolet dealership. Continue and you’ll spot two Mexican restaurants, Calavera and Agave Uptown. Just blocks apart, both specialize in Oaxacan cuisine.
A little over a year ago? None of these places existed except in the minds of their creators. Yet with amazing speed, a recent explosion in development is transforming Oakland’s main commercial street. New housing, shared working spaces, restaurants and bars, cafes, a bookstore, shops, art galleries, a jazz club and theater spaces have all sprung up in the last two to three years. The changes are both physical and cultural.
“I don’t even recognize it,” said Thelma Simmons, a retiree who lives in the Oakland hills. “I go out and eat in loud restaurants and sit next to people who are my grandchildren’s age.”
This is definitely not your grandmother’s Broadway. The historic Sears building — Uber’s future Uptown Station headquarters — is covered in a white plastic tarp as an extensive rehab occurs within. It may be the most heralded recent Broadway development. But there’s a lot more going on that reflects the tectonic shifts in Oakland as a whole.
“In the last few years, it’s really escalated much more quickly than I would have thought,” said Rachel Flynn, director of the city’s building and planning department. “This is a really exciting time for Oakland.”
Some of the most intense activity is concentrated from Grand Avenue to Interstate 580 in the Broadway-Valdez corridor, which city planners have been trying for years to turn into a retail destination. It encompasses Auto Row, a once-thriving economic area before auto businesses started pulling out, leaving empty showrooms and storefronts. There are also hot pockets further down, near Jack London Square, and on upper Broadway in Rockridge, where the 127-bed Merrill Gardens assisted living complex for seniors is under construction across from Safeway, which is undergoing its own multiphase expansion. Flynn said both higher residential rents and the willingness of companies to pay much more to lease office space downtown has fueled the building boom. The city has reaped the benefits in increased sales tax revenues, and local businesses are profiting from people spending money in Oakland.
Yet those are also the very same forces that have fueled fears of displacement among smaller businesses, nonprofits and people whose incomes aren’t enough to afford rents that are among the highest in the country. The homeless people panhandling outside new upscale restaurants shows the glaring contrast between the haves and have-nots.
“You’ve got folks who ride their bikes cuz it’s hip, and you’ve got folks who ride their bikes because they have to,” said Ashara Ekundayo, chief creative officer at Impact Hub Oakland, a community co-working space. Part of Impact Hub’s mission is to bring people together to help create solutions to issues such as the lack of affordable housing and the increasing lack of diversity in the city.
It was the first tenant to move into the Hive, one of several major projects by Signature Development Group. It’s a bustling cluster of shops, offices, restaurants and market-rate housing about four blocks up from Uber’s future home. A 459-square-foot studio apartment in the luxury Mason at Hive development rents for $2,527 a month.
The eclectic collection of businesses there include Numi Tea, Firebrand Artisan Breads and the Peoples Barber & Shop, where clients can sip bourbon while they get haircuts. The biggest draw is Drake’s Dealership, a sprawling beer garden and restaurant. Inside, you’ll find patrons — many from cities outside Oakland — throwing back Denogginizers and other signature brews from Drake’s Brewing.
“Hundreds of thousands of square feet of businesses that were vacant are now occupied, and that has put tens of thousands of people into the Broadway corridor,” said Michael Ghielmetti, Signature’s founder and president. “Foot traffic is key to this, whether it’s folks who live down here or who are visiting the office buildings that are filling up.”
The roots of the current boom began with the 10K Plan launched in 1999, when Gov. Jerry Brown was Oakland mayor. His ambitious goal was to bring 10,000 new residents downtown to create a lively, 24-hour downtown scene to replace the near ghost town that existed there after dark. There have been ups and downs, but since about 2012-13, that area has experienced a second rapid growth spurt.
Sonoma County restaurateur Octavio Diaz opened Mexican restaurant Agave six weeks ago on the ground floor of the Kapor Center for Social Impact, which had its grand opening in July in a unique, curved brick building at the intersection of Broadway and 22nd Street. The building had been vacant off and on for years.
“Business has been really excellent,” Diaz said. “We have to do some work with hiring and training people, but that’s the nature of the business.”
Kanna Perrot, store manager at the new Sleep Train, said she’s thrilled the mattress center has opened its first Oakland store. “There’s a lot of people walking around the streets, and it’s starting to feel more like the Oakland I used to visit as a child,” she said.
But Perrot has to commute from Hayward, because she can’t afford Oakland’s high rents. “That’s the unfortunate downside,” she said. “It’s a domino effect.”
Contact Tammerlin Drummond at 510-208-6468. Follow her at Twitter.com/Tammerlin.As proposed Canadian crude oil export pipelines struggle to get built, one project is gaining momentum — the First Nations-led, $16 billion Eagle Spirit Energy Holding Ltd. pipeline and energy corridor between Alberta and the northern British Columbia coast.
The project is twice the size of the Northern Gateway project rejected by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and has secured support from First Nations from Bruderheim, Alta., through Northern B.C., to Grassy Point, B.C.
Major Canadian oil producers including Suncor Energy Inc., Cenovus Energy Inc. and Meg Energy Corp. also want it to go ahead, while investment broker AltaCorp Capital Inc. has been lined up to organize financing. The pipeline’s right of way would be on an energy corridor that would be pre-approved by First Nations to also house gas
pipelines, hydro lines and fiber optic cable. The Aquilini Group of Vancouver is also a backer.
“It’s an exciting time here,” chairman and president Calvin Helin said in an interview. “We developed a model, particularly for the ocean, that has a higher environmental standard than the federal government is proposing anywhere else in Canada.”
The project’s major obstacle, however, is the federal government, specifically the tanker moratorium for British Columbia’s northern coast announced by the Prime Minister last November, at the same time as he cancelled Northern Gateway. The ban, now before Parliament, has the support of environmentalists who want to keep oil tankers away from the West Coast, particularly the Great Bear Rainforest ‘fiction’ they helped create.
Helin, a lawyer, said the forest covers the traditional lands of the Lax Kw’alaams of which he is a member, was invented by green activists who want it to be off limits to development and without Indigenous input.
He said First Nations would fight the ban in court if implemented because they weren’t properly consulted and because it would kill Eagle Spirit and other development options they may want to pursue.
The Prime Minister may have to re-think the moratorium if Eagle Spirit gains significant Indigenous support, said Ken Coates, Canada research chair at the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Public Policy, and senior fellow in Aboriginal issues at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
The project could turn out to be “the only one that has a significant chance of succeeding” because of its Indigenous leadership, he said.
If First Nations want to explore it, “it’s hard for the government to say we are not going to talk to you about it, because we are making decisions on your behalf,” Coates said. “That is old style. That is the way we used to do it.”
The project is an example of Indigenous support for natural resource projects that meet their environmental standards and offer them revenue opportunities.
Oilsands giant Suncor, the Fort McKay First Nation and the Mikisew Cree First Nation, both in Alberta, announced Wednesday the completion of the acquisition of a 49 per cent partnership in Suncor’s East Tank Farm Development for $503 million. The two First Nations independently financed the acquisition through $545 million, 4.136 per cent senior secured notes due December 31, 2041. The offering was structured and marketed by RBC Capital Markets.
“The deal represents the largest business investment to date by a First Nation entity in Canada, and not only demonstrates the great potential for partnerships between First Nations and industry but serves as a model for how First Nations can achieve greater self-determination through financial independence,” said Fort McKay chief Jim Boucher.
The Eagle Spirit oil pipeline would be about the same size as the Energy East project cancelled last month by TransCanada Corp., that proposed to transport one million barrels a day from Alberta to the East Coast.
It would have many advantages compared to other pipeline projects, but needs to resolve the tanker ban before applying for a permit, Helin said.
Its oil would be loaded on large tankers and head to markets in Asia three days faster than from Vancouver, the end point of Kinder Morgan Canada Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline, whose proposed expansion is struggling with opposition by environmentalists, municipalities and some First Nations. Its port would be located near the open ocean, making navigation safer.
Regulatory approvals for Eagle Spirit could also come faster, cutting costs for proponents, since the project has agreements in principle with all impacted First Nations and is guided by a Chief’s Council, Helin said.
The project would be less vulnerable to attacks by environmentalists that are giving other pipeline proposals a rough ride because First Nations that support it have rights to manage their lands.
In contrast to Eagle Spirit’s previously announced plans, which involved building a pipeline and an upgrader, the new version involves a pipeline that would carry bitumen until the upgraded product is available as well as the pre-approved energy corridor.
Bill C-48 would send the message that it is okay to have oil tanker traffic when it supports refinery jobs in Montreal, but not when it supports jobs in Alberta and Saskatchewan
Eagle Spirit first emerged about five years ago as an alternative to Northern Gateway, which was opposed by First Nations that felt environmental protection and benefits were insufficient. It’s modeled after the Alyeska pipeline between Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay and Valdez, built and operated with involvement from the state’s Indigenous people.
Its proposed energy corridor “would be environmentally the best thing to do for Canada,” Helin said. “It could concentrate all of activities, you can divide the areas of the pipeline into zones, so First Nations in different areas can be the people who maintain and look after the environment for those areas. It could provide a host of ongoing benefits to First Nations that isn’t dependent on government.”
While also intended to protect the environment from oil spills, Bill C-48: Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, is controversial.
In feedback to the House of Commons committee that is reviewing it, the Canada West Foundation said there are no such restrictions on tankers anywhere else in Canada and implementing Bill C-48 would send the message that it is okay to have oil tanker traffic when it supports refinery jobs in Montreal, Sarnia, Quebec City and Saint John, but not when it supports jobs in Alberta and Saskatchewan tied to the export of western Canadian oil to Asia.
The Lax Kw’Alaams said the proposed law “is an infringement of Indigenous land. It cuts our community off at the knees from any economic development related to the export of oil.”
Lax Kw’Alaams
The Gitwangak and Gitsegukla tribes, whose territories are located around the Skeena River in Northwestern B.C., said they have not been consulted and “are concerned that the loud voices of foreign environmental activists are dictating what activities we can undertake in our own traditional territory in an effort to deprive us of our constitutionally protected Aboriginal rights.”
For its part, West Coast Environmental Law, a law firm that champions green initiatives, said the bill has strong support among those “that have called for B.C.’s unique north coast to be permanently protected from oil tankers,” including Coastal First Nations and the six First Nations in the Yinka Dene Alliance. It says the ban should be strengthened so that it would be harder to allow exemptions.
Helin said the tanker ban should at least come with a compromise: a shipping corridor near the Alaska border so that pro-development First Nations like Lax Kw’Alaams can ship what they want in and out, and a tanker ban for those First Nations further south and for environmentalists that want the ban to stand. The shipping corridor wouldn’t be that far from the tankers that have been shipping Alaskan oil down the B.C. coast for decades.
Financial Post
ccattaneo@nationalpost.comWithout getting into any spoilers (in case you’re one of the three remaining Americans who has yet to see Avengers: Age Of Ultron), a scene that has generated much debate involves Chris Hemsworth’s Thor entering a cave with Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård). With only the briefest of explanations, Thor strips down to his skivvies, enters the cave lake, and then has some sort of vision and endures a whole electrical light show. To put it charitably, the response of most people watching the scene has been: “The fuck?”
Well, it turns out that was Joss Whedon’s response, too. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a new interview with the writer-director of Marvel’s two biggest films suggests that Avengers: Age Of Ultron was the studio-meddling straw that broke the superhero-rejuvenating artist’s back. Which simply means that neither Whedon nor audiences are as smart as studio executives, clearly.
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The cave sequence, it turns out, was demanded by the studio brass, who bravely kept it in long after most of the footage was cut by dint of test audiences wondering what the hell it was doing in the movie. Whedon had the same impulses, but was forced to keep it after the executives threatened to axe two of his key story beats: a stopover at a “safe house” that involves Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, and dream sequences for each of the Avengers. The final film is a result of contentious negotiations between the person who wrote, directed, and was the primary creative force behind the film, and a bunch of tangentially associated dudes who definitely know better.
Marvel executives, who—like all corporate executives—are famous for their visionary creative and artistic instincts, were dead-set on carrying out their synergistic franchise obligations. Unfortunately, they were stymied by Whedon, who again pissed all over the noble instinct to maximize profit via corporate groupthink by insisting that his film retain some semblance of personality. Referring to dream sequences he included in the film, Whedon says, “The dreams were not an executive favorite either—the dreams, the farmhouse, these were things I fought to keep. With the cave, it really turned into: they pointed a gun at the farm’s head and said, ‘Give us the cave, or we’ll take out the farm,’—in a civilized way. I respect these guys, they’re artists, but that’s when it got really, really unpleasant.”
Because threatening the writer and director of your film is always the best way to get results, Whedon says he eventually caved, even when—in a confusing turn—other studio notes temporarily led to the cave sequence being cut altogether, before of course being re-inserted. “I was so beaten down at that point that I was like, ‘Sure, OK—what movie is this?’,” says that man whose resume teems with bland, carbon-copy Hollywood product like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly. “And the editors were like, ‘No. You have to show the [events in the cave]. You can’t just say it.’” Thank God for those brave editors and executives, because now we have a movie that is less the result of one man’s megalomaniacal vision, and more the surefire formula for success that comes from the old saying, “Too many cooks always improve a meal.”
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Whedon had also hoped to include Spider-Man and Captain Marvel in the film, but was prevented from doing so by Marvel and Sony not agreeing on character-sharing terms until February (for Spidey), and by not casting anyone yet (for Captain Marvel). If you’d like to hear more stories from the man who almost ruined Marvel’s brave attempt at excising any artistic impulses from their 20-year marketing plan, the entire interview is up at Empire Film Podcast.Photo used with permission by Mark Probst
Burning Man has been gaining more and more press and attracting larger crowds in the past couple of years. The annual weeklong festival takes place in the deserts and is a place where artists and those brave enough venture out and test their own self-reliance. Many photographers also try to attend and document the happenings as they take place. Preparation isn’t simple though and to find out more we talked to photographer Mark Probst; who has been attending the festival for years. Be sure to follow him on Instagram when he attends this year, or feel free to check out his Flickr.
Phoblographer: We’ve heard that in order to go to Burning Man, one needs to prep for a very long time. You tasked yourself not only with shooting, but surviving out in the desert for a while. What kind of preparation and planning did you do and for how long?
Mark: I’ve had the good fortune to be part of a larger camp, where organization gets spread out between many people. In addition to that I’ve lived abroad until very recently, so for better or worse I wasn’t even able to help much. Basically, I’ve been freeloading off other people’s huge organizational efforts. Had I to go completely on my own, I don’t think I’d do it – way too much work.
Phoblographer: What kind of gear did you use to shoot this?
Mark: I went to BM for three consecutive years and had slightly different gear each time, much of which I don’t own anymore, so unfortunately I can’t give you a gear shot.
My mainstays were a Micro 4/3 system for most shooting during the day, and a Canon 5D (Mark I in 2009/2010, Mark II in 2011) with a wide angle prime (24mm f1.4 L in 2009/2010, 35mm f1.4 L in 2011) for the night shots. Both of those worked out well. Micro 4/3 is very convenient to carry around, which is important when you’re out in the heat on a bicycle, quick and easy to use, and gives great image quality, and the 5D with a fast prime is wonderful in the dark.
The main problem with doing the kind of shots I do at night is actually focussing. There’s very little light on most people’s faces, so trying to focus there won’t work in many cases. Almost everybody has some kind of light on them, though, usually around their neck, so you quickly learn to focus on that and adjust if possible.
Phoblographer: If you peruse Instagram, Tumblr, or 500px, you’re bound to find lots of Burning Man photos. You shoot very wide and get up close to your subjects for a more intimiate look that many photojournalists often go for. Did anyone else’s previous work inspire you when you went to photograph the various scenes that you did?
Mark: I don’t actually look at other photographer’s Burning Man work a lot. Most of my inspiration comes from photojournalism, as you rightly point out, and street photography. I shoot wide-angle because I want my photographs to be close to my subjects. At this point I’m so used to it that 50mm feels long.
Phoblographer: There is a lot of black and white/sepia in your images. Aesthetically, why did you choose to go for this look?
Mark: I used to photograph black and white almost exclusively, for the most part because I don’t understand color. I think I can appreciate good color photography, but I cannot produce it myself. Also, black and white tones and contrast attract me a lot – the useful tonal range is larger than in color photography. Lately my sense of color seems to have improved, as I find myself doing more color work, but I still enjoy black and white and find it easier to pull off. So, really, it’s mainly incompetence.
The reason for the sepia is just a general personal preference. I find neutral black and white too cold, so I like a bit of warm toning, both in my own work, as well as in other’s. LensWork, for example, has beautiful warm toning that I deeply admire.
Phoblographer: Your photos make Burning Man look like a giant refugee camp or something that you’d find out of that 80’s movie, “Dune.” How did you feel there? Despite being surrounded by so many people in the same situation, does a feeling of loneliness ever develop? Do people have their own cliques?
Mark: Answering your questions in reverse order: Most people come to BM as part of a camp, so right from the outset there’s cliques. Almost all camps are very open, however. You can just walk in, say hello, and you’ll typically be treated with great hospitality. People intermingle more than they usually would.
Speaking just for myself, loneliness does sometimes develop. Now and then I found myself wandering around the playa at night in a somewhat somber mood, a bit lonely, but still wanting to keep to myself. Those moods were more reflective of my personal situation at the time, rather than the mood at Burning Man. If you want interact with people at BM, there’s no time of day at which you can’t – you just need to reach out.
As for how I generally feel there, the progression is that on the first day, after the long travel and putting up the camp during the night and the first morning, I usually feel tired and pretty miserable, especially once the heat kicks in. I might go out at night and photograph, but it’s not much more than going through the motions. I go to bed early, and when I wake up on the second day I feel like I’m home and never want to leave again. That’s when the fun starts for me.
Phoblographer: With many other photographers always converging on Burning Man, how often do creatives get together and do photo walks of the areas?
Mark: There’s some photography workshops at BM, and I’m sure lots of photographers also team up outside of that, but I’ve never done it – I’d rather do my own thing.
Phoblographer: Your work seems to be a lot more about the people vs the vast architecture settlements that people set up out there. Do you describe yourself more as a people photographer?
Mark: I have lots of respect for all kinds of photography, including architecture and landscape, and can sometimes appreciate it, too, but I’m not interested enough in architecture and landscape myself to do any meaningful work. I take snapshots now and then, and sometimes they don’t turn out completely worthless, but I could never get into it seriously. I’m also not patient enough, I think.
I am, however, deeply interested in people, what they do, the ideas they have, how they behave, what they look like, how they interact, so that’s what most of my photography is about. In addition to that, almost all of my happiest memories are not about specific places or things, but about the people I was with.
Phoblographer: Did you make any friendships there that are still lasting?
Mark: Absolutely. I will spare you the story, but in my first year at BM I came in as part of this camp, YOUniversal, of about 30 people, none of whom I had met in person before. Three Burning Mans later and they are some of my closest friends, and feel like family. I just moved to the US from Austria, one of the reasons for which was to be closer to them.
Here are some more photos by Mark.
You can see more of Mark’s work at his website, his Flickr, or his Instagram.
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Also, please follow us on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.It’s that time of the year again. The college basketball regular season has ended, bringing us the most exciting tournament in all of sports. But before they cut down the nets and show One Shining Moment, let’s take a look at who accomplished what in the regular season this year. In the spirit of the statistical best and worst of the NCAA Football season I posted last December, we will take a look at every team in Division 1 and find a statistic that they were either best in the nation at, or worst in the nation (And sometimes even both!).
Here’s an overview of how it works:
I took some time (20ish hours compared to the FBS search which took only around 4) this week to figure out what every single one of the 351 D-1 basketball teams is ranked first at, or what they’re ranked last at. To clarify, if you are ranked first, it is the best in the category, so if it’s “Points scored,” first is highest. If it’s “Turnovers”, first is lowest. Most of them get pretty esoteric, but there are 351 damn teams, and not too many statistical categories to begin with. A * means that the team in question is tied in that particular metric (though usually only with one other team unless absolutely unavoidable). Where possible, I tried to have both a best and worst, but there are some truly mediocre teams out there, and I have a life (somewhat). 85 teams lack a “best” and 146 teams lack a “worst” which means that I generally went from “most significant” to “least significant” statistics, so if you have some random stat it generally suggests you didn’t have one more relevant. I’m sorry if you don’t like the statistic your team leads/lags the nation in. Also to clarify, any line starting with “individual” refers to one person on the team leading individuals in the nation.
Without further ado, here you have it. Be sure to leave your favorite in the comments, or tweet at us @AMSTS
Team Best Worst Abil Christian First half points per game Air Force Individual 3 point FG % vs top 50 ranked teams* Akron Home points from 3 pointers Home % of points by 2 pointers Alabama Individual turnovers per minute in away games Alabama A&M Opponent free throw % in home games Opponent turnovers per game in home games Alabama State Total FG attempts by opponents in conference games Albany Away free throws made per 100 possessions Three pointers made in non-conference regular season tournament games Alcorn State Defensive rebounds in non-conference games American U Opponent points from 3 pointers Opponent steals per defensive play in away games Appalachian St Team (not total, team) rebounds per game Opponent 2 point rate in away games Arizona Home average second half margin Arizona State Rebounds per game in non-conference regular season tournament games Arkansas Team triple doubles in non-conference games Arkansas State Personal fouls per 40 minutes by opposition bench players AR-Little Rock Opponent steals per game FGM per game in non-conference regular season tournament games Army Away defensive rebounds per game AR-Pine Bluff Individual steals per foul vs top 50 ranked teams Away points per game Auburn Opponent technical fouls Individual personal fouls by a guard in conference games Austin Peay Minutes played Ball State Most points scored in a conference game against a Top 100 RPI team Baylor Individual assists in home games Opponent assists per game at home Belmont 2 point % Individual turnovers by a guard in away games Bethune-Cookman Home blocks per game Opponent offensive rebounds per game in home games Binghamton Free throws made per minute by bench players in conference games Boise State Offensive rebounds by opposition bench players per minute in non-conference games* Boston College Individual free throws attempted by a center vs top 50 ranked teams Away second half points per game Boston U Individual turnovers per minute vs top 50 ranked teams Bowling Green # of points scored by bench in one game in non-conference tournament play Bradley Total points per game Brown Individual assist to turnover ratio vs top 50 ranked teams Bryant Points per shot by bench players in out of conference games Bucknell Turnovers per minute by opposition bench in conference games* Buffalo 3 Point attempts by opposition bench players per minute in non-conference games Butler Highest scoring game BYU FGA per minute by starters in conference games Cal Opponent non-blocked 2 point % Cal Poly Opponent 3 point % in home games Campbell Opponent assists per FGM in away games Canisius Offensive rebounds per game by starters in non-conference games Cent Arkansas Personal fouls per game by starters in non-conference regular season tournament games Average margin of victory in non-conference games Cent Conn St Number of wins* Cent Michigan Turnovers per possession Assist % by bench players Charleston Opponent points per minute* Charleston So Individual free throw attempts / field goal attempts for a center Home % of points from free throws Charlotte Individual steals per foul for a center vs top 50 ranked teams Chattanooga Number of wins Chicago State Individual FGA per minute Average margin of victory Cincinnati Away points per game of opponent Clemson Opponent 2nd half points per game at home Cleveland State Home free throws attempted per game Coast Carolina Biggest win by margin of victory Turnovers per game by starters in non-conference regular season tournament games Colgate Opponent 5 block games Colorado Most 5 block (by an individual) games by an opponent in conference games Colorado State FG attempts per game by starters in non-conference regular season tournaments Opponent overtime points per game Columbia Turnovers by starters in conference games Coppin State Away 2 point % Cornell Individual points per minute by a guard in conference games Away total rebounding % (Rebound rate) Creighton FGM per minute in games against non-top 100 RPI teams* CS Fullerton Block % CS Northridge Away % of points from 3 pointers CSU Bakersfield Individual blocks per minute 3 pointers made in conference play Dartmouth Individual points per minute by a forward in games against top 50 teams Davidson Most 40 point games by starters Dayton Number of 20 rebound games by opposition bench players* Delaware Opponent 2 point rate Opponent points from 3 pointers Delaware State Defensive rebounding % Denver Away free throw % FGA per game DePaul Individual 3 point FG % by a center Steals per game in non-conference regular season tournament games Detroit Individual free throw % vs top 50 ranked teams* Drake Individual true shooting percentage as a center in conference games Drexel 3 Pointers attempted per minute in non-conference regular season tournament games Duke Highest attendance for games as a visiting team Duquesne Personal fouls per game by bench players in conference games E Illinois Individual FGM per minute by a guard E Kentucky FG % by starters in non-conference regular season tournament games Individual turnovers by a guard E Michigan Individual offensive rebounds by a center in home games Opponent assists per FGM in away games E Washington Individual 3 pointers made by a forward in away games ECU Opponent personal fouls per game in conference games Elon Total shooting % by opposition bench players in non-conference tournament games played at home ETSU Triple doubles conceded by starters in non-conference tournament games* Evansville Away assists per FGM 3 pointers attempted per game Fair Dickinson 5 steal games by starters in non-conference games* Fairfield Individual 3 pointers attempted by a forward vs top 50 ranked teams Individual personal fouls vs top 50 ranked teams* FAU Opponent % of points from 3 pointers Individual personal fouls by a center in home games FGCU Individual most minutes played by a forward in home games Away three point rate FIU KenPom luck Florida Individual free throw attempts / FG attempts by a forward in home games Florida A&M Turnover % by starters in non-conference regular season tournament games Free throw % Fordham Offensive rebounds by bench players in conference games Fresno State Individual 3 point FG % in away games FSU 3 pt % by opposition bench players in non-conference tournament games with > 15 3 pointers attempted Furman Highest number of points by opposition starters in a game G Washington Offensive rebounds per minute by opposition bench players in conference games* Ga Southern Total rebounds by opponent's starters in conference games Gardner-Webb Individual steals per minute George Mason Defensive rebound % in non-conference games Steals per game Georgetown Individual fouls by a guard Georgia Offensive rebound % by bench players Georgia State 3 point attempts in non-conference games Georgia Tech Individual total rebounds |
with; he wanted you hooked by Rabbit, and it’s difficult for people in this day and age, especially women, to identify or feel sympathetic toward Rabbit. You can sense that Updike wants you to sympathize and empathize, but there’s very little grounds for doing so. And so I think it turns a lot of people off before they’ve begun. Which is a terrible shame, because if they began for example with “Rabbit Is Rich,” they would be hooked instantly.
And then you can end up with “Rabbit Redux,” which is one of the most powerful and disturbing novels that I’ve ever read. Really, an extraordinary work, and completely different from the other three Rabbit books.
The other suggestion I have for where to begin is a very slight, very sly, very beautiful novel, very short also, called “Of the Farm.” Updike himself had very mixed feelings about it because it was about his mother, and another instance of him writing his life before it happened. He wrote “Of the Farm” in 1965, while he was still married to his first wife, and while his parents were alive and living together. It tells a story of a man going back to visit his widowed mother on a farm that is obviously the farm in Plowville, and he has with him his second wife, and his son. As it happens, when Updike eventually married his second wife, his mother was widowed, and on his second visit to Plowville with his second wife, he brought with him also his new stepson, his youngest stepson. So absolutely recreating “Of the Farm.” It’s an astonishing moment for a biographer’s point of view. But from a reader’s point of view, it’s a gem of a book. Only four voices in it, and absolutely lovely.
You mentioned the way that women respond to Rabbit. Updike receives a lot of criticism from those who see misogyny in his books. Are those critics right?
This is a yes and no answer. There are obviously grounds for charges of misogyny and sexism. There’s a whole slew of female Updike characters who are dumb, or who are silly, or uninformed. He grew as he went along, and as he grew he became more aware of feminine perspectives. He learned to write from a feminine perspective. He learned to make his female characters actors in the world instead of passive sex symbols. If you take a look at Janice in “Rabbit, Run,” and then Janice in “Rabbit Redux,” and then Janice in “Rich,” and so on, until you get to “Rabbit Remembers,” you will probably see the evolution of feminism over four decades.
He was not insensitive to these criticisms. He responded to them as best he could. Not always successfully, because he was, as we discussed earlier, opposed to organized dissent against the powers that be, and the powers that be are of course patriarchal. He would embrace feminist ideas and make fun of feminists at the same time. The case in point of course is “Witches of Eastwick,” where he creates three fabulous, exciting women -- but of course he turns them into witches. And he had the audacity to say they were working women. They were witches. Not a response calculated to endear him to feminists. But the truth is, if you look at that book, it’s a meditation on the nature of female power and it looks at it open-eyed -- and sees that there’s a deficit of female power. It doesn’t celebrate that deficit; on the contrary, it can be said that it laments it.
So what is the legacy? One of the nasty reviews placed him in the second or third tier of American writers. Where does Updike belong as we look back on American letters in the second half of the 20th century?
At the top tier, without question. I mean, making lists of greatest writers is a stupid business. Ranking 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is stupid. To say that Updike would belong in the top five American men of letters, with “men” in quotation marks… he is one of the top, most important literary figures of the twentieth century, without a doubt.
There’s the undeniable breadth of his work. His poetry, which we haven’t touched on at all. Much better than almost anyone, even his fans, acknowledges. His criticism is first rate and will never go away. His short stories, almost everyone agrees, are among the best written in the second half of the twentieth century. At least six or seven of his novels belong on everyone’s shelf. And that’s a conservative estimate; I could easily make a case for a dozen of his novels.
That’s a huge amount of work that as far as I’m concerned belongs in the front rank. I haven’t in my book made a full-court press case for Updike’s greatness as a writer. My hope was that by reading his life and reading his work along with the life, that would become clear to the reader. I felt that to shout out my growing partisanship as I wrote the book would be an error. And it would just turn people off.
You can’t write 60 books without missing a few times. There are novels that I would not gladly re-read. There are novels I would not recommend anyone to read. But there is not a single novel that does not contain passages of beauty and passages of great interest. There are some books that nobody has paid any attention to for years – “Gertrude and Claudius” is totally charming, very clever. I sadly give it one sentence in the book. But when you’re dealing with 63 books, you can’t deal equally with all of them without trying the patience of your reader.
I re-read everything for this book, and I had read about a quarter of Updike before I started the book. I read the rest, and re-read what I had read before. I was never bored. I don’t think you could say that about any other living writer, any late twentieth century writer, except possibly Raymond Carver because he published so little. Certainly no one who published as fully has the kind of consistency and the kind of excellence Updike achieved.
Would I want to make the case for Updike being a greater writer than Philip Roth? Or a greater writer than Saul Bellow? I bristle at the whole idea. If I was forced to do it, I would say probably that they’re all neck and neck. There are books of Roth’s that I value above much of Updike’s, but neither of them have the breadth in terms of the criticism and the poetry and the mastery of the short story. Roth and Bellow, though they can write essays, and they can write short stories, are essentially novelists.
Updike was a quadruple threat, and there was another threat which no one knows about, and which I’m hoping eventually people will know about, which is his talents as a letter writer. And if and when that book is published, it’s going to be a whole ’nother arrow in Updike’s already crowded quiver.There are many suspicious features about Craig Thomson’s Health Services Union imbroglio, but notable among them are the apparently close links between HSU “whistleblower” Kathy Jackson and Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Peter Wicks uncovers a very tangled web.
Fair Work Australia vice president Michael Lawler; his partner, HSU "whistleblower" Kathy Jackson; and friend.
The major saga embroiling the Federal Government at the moment, besides the curious Peter Slipper and James Ashby affair, is the Health Services Union (HSU) debacle.
Firstly, let me start by saying that I do not endorse anyone spending over $6,000 on prostitutes on a union credit card — that is reprehensible behaviour. Nor do I endorse not declaring vast amounts of money to the Electoral Commission on election campaigns. However, these allegations are yet to be proved — and are vigorously denied.
In any case, I think I smell a rat.
Union whistleblower Kathy Jackson has been ripping into both the Labor Party and the former (until February 2012) President of Fair Work Australia, Geoffrey Giudice, for months now over the goings on within the embattled Union and the investigation resulting from her claims.
Kathy Jackson has caused the union movement untold damage and brought the Federal Government to the brink of collapse. One would assume that the public may be interested in knowing a little more about her and any conflicts of interest she may have.
One vital piece of information that is not widely known about her is that her partner is a man named Michael Lawler.
Who is Michael Lawler?
For starters, according to reliable sources, Michael Lawler is friends with a man named Tony Abbott. Apparently, the two of them socialise regularly. Conveniently, Tony Abbott is also the leader of the political party making so much ground out of the claims Michael’s partner is making.
Michael Lawler works for an organisation called Fair Work Australia, where he is a Vice-President on a salary of $400,000 a year. The only person higher than him at that organisation is Iain Ross, who just replaced Geoffrey Giudice – the one who Tony Abbott and Lawler’s partner Kathy Jackson were attacking daily – as President of Fair Work Australia.
On the 11th of October 2002, according to the FWA annual report, Michael Lawler was appointed Vice President of Fair Work Australia — although back then it was called the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Previously, Lawler was a barrister who made his mark representing employers in employment disputes. The man who appointed him to the AIRC was none other than Tony Abbott — who at the time was Employment and Workplace Relations Minister under John Howard’s Coalition Government.
On his appointment, Tony Abbott gave a speech praising Lawler in a remarkably personal and intimate fashion. Here is some of what he said that day:
“Intellect combined with common sense, compassion tempered by realism, ideals shaped but not dimmed by experience, some grasp of the nobility and waywardness that contend in every man: these, in my view, are some of the qualities which Vice President Lawler will bring to the demanding and often lonely life that lies before him.”
At a function to farewell Tony Abbott from his position as Employment and Workplace Relations minister the following year, Lawler was one of just four members of the AIRC to attend.
Independent Australia requested confirmation from Tony Abbott’s office about the relationship between the Opposition Leader and Michael Lawler, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
The Opposition always refer to Fair Work Australia as Julia Gillard’s “baby”, but Lawler was certainly Tony Abbott’s appointment.
Of course, all these things may be purely coincidental…
However, it does appear strange that Mr Lawler seems to have become involved in factional battles within the union on his partner Kathy’s behalf.
Carol Glen was the Victorian Divisional Secretary of HSU East for three years before resigning recently. At the time, Kathy Jackson was National Secretary of HSU East, and Michael Williamson was the General Secretary of HSU East.
Carol resigned due to the factional fighting within the union, particularly between Jackson and Williamson.
However, Jackson clearly did not want Carol to resign, as she feared that Williamson would replace her with a Divisional Secretary loyal to him.
Former HSU official, Carol Glen
This is the point where Lawler became involved in the factional battle within the Union, even though he was not a part of the HSU himself.
Carol Glen, in a written complaint to former Fair Work Australia President Geoffrey Giudice, alleges she received an “aggressive” phone call from Lawler, who told her:
“You can fuck off and take sick leave if you don’t want to do the work and still be paid, but you can’t resign.”
Michael Lawler did not work at HSU East, and this complaint went directly to his only superior in Fair Work Australia, Geoffrey Guidice.
Then, just a few days later, Lawler made corruption allegations against Carol to NSW Police and Strikeforce Carnarvon was born.
It is odd that this type of complaint would come from Lawler — as he was not part of HSU East or even a member of the Union.
As part of his complaint of corruption, Lawler made reference to a cheque that was being picked up by Carol — something he said she had mentioned in an email. The inference was that this cheque was some sort of pay off.
The Australian details the claims made by Lawler and the subsequent reaction by Glen:
Mr Lawler claims Ms Glen may have been given an inducement to give false evidence, noting that in a private email exchange with her partner in December, she had referred to a cheque she was going to pick up.
"I had ordered a bank cheque to pay my rent," Ms Glen said, questioning how Mr Lawler had obtained her emails. She says she finds it extraordinary that Mr Lawler, the second highest industrial judge in the land, would engage in such a campaign.
Mr Lawler's associate said it would be inappropriate for him to comment.
So, in fact, the cheque was a bank cheque ordered by Carol to pay her rent — totally innocent and unrelated to any Union business at all.
However, the question remains: how would Lawler know about the cheque? Given he mentioned a “private email exchange”, it would seem certain that he somehow had access to Ms Glen’s emails. So, how did Lawler have access to Glen’s private emails?
We don’t know, because as soon as he was asked about this detail, Lawler’s associate clammed up.
All decidedly suspicious.
On the 2nd May, police officers from the NSW Fraud and Cybercrime Squad raided the HSU East headquarters in Pitt Street, Sydney, in a much publicised operation.
However, my inside sources have pointed out a few anomalies about the official story of the raid that was reported in the press. Police were offered the option of using the service elevator and the rear entrance to the building to make things simpler, safer, and faster for officers — but this offer was rejected as the police were reportedly keen to use the main entrance, where the press had been assembled. Sources also state that the large number of boxes shown on TV being carried out by officers were all virtually empty — it was allegedly all done for show, to make it look like there were mountains of documents seized. Also, sources say, the story about HSU boss Michael Williamson trying to sneak out a back door with evidence was total rubbish — done presumably to implicate guilt. In fact, Mr Williamson left the office via the entrance the police were offered access to, as his car was parked in the car park opposite; the things he was carrying were taken by police as a routine part of the operation, as were his personal items — and probably a sandwich as well.
Of course, Kathy Jackson has acted very strangely for a so-called union boss.
In Melbourne, Jackson has hired Stuart Wood, a former Vice President of the HR Nicholls Society, as her lawyer. The HR Nicholls Society is a right-wing lobby group with close ties to the Liberal Party, set up as a think tank dedicated to Industrial Relations “reform”— much of which fed into the architecture of the Howard Government’s infamous “WorkChoices” policy.
It would seem valid to question why the Secretary of a union would hire a solicitor that is anti-union — and, indeed, one whose ideas you have apparently spent your whole working life fighting against. A quick look at HR Nicholls Society’s website shows just how close its ties are with the Liberal Party. Former Howard Government industrial relations minister Peter Reith is a board member, for example, and other notable names on the list of who contributes to this Society are Tony Abbott (there’s that name again), Eric Abetz, Peter Costello, Michael Kroger… the list goes on and on — even Andrew Bolt gets a mention.
Even more strangely, for a union rep, Jackson is due to be guest of honour and give a speech at the HR Nicholls Society annual dinner on June 12th. Strangely, Mal Brough – who has been accused of being implicated in the allegations against Peter Slipper – fronted the HR Nicholls Society only a week or two ago [note below video].
And, in yet another strange coincidence, Peter Slipper accuser James Ashby is using Kathy Jackson’s Sydney lawyers.
On the 14th May, on the Chris Smith programme on radio station 2GB, Kathy Jackson said that rumours of the Liberal party paying for her vast team of lawyers were rubbish. These lawyers, expensive lawyers, were all working for her for free – pro bono – she stated. Chris Smith, however, chose not to pursue the matter…
People can say whatever they like about Craig Thomson’s credibility and his explanation of events, however most people would find it totally unbelievable, and absolutely inconceivable, that these right wing lawyers, one of them from a Liberal Party aligned union busting “think tank”, would provide their services free to a union boss — especially one who pays herself a $270,000 salary.
So, it would seem there are many questions to be asked — and not just of Craig Thomson.
The mind boggles as to how someone who is a former employers’ barrister in their disputes with unions and was appointed to the AIRC by Tony Abbott as well as allegedly being a personal friend, is able to allegedly hack the emails of a Union official and then make a criminal complaint regarding this Union even while being the Vice President of the organisation actually in charge of investigating the same Union — as well as being the partner of the Union whistleblower most deeply enmeshed in the whole affair, who is soon to speak at a function for a union busting Liberal Party-aligned think tank, and who is being represented in all her actions against the union for free by the Liberal Party’s favourite lawyers — and yet none of this is widely reported in the media, or seemingly of any major interest to police?
Talk about conflicts of interest.
What is really going on here?
In my mind, all this puts question marks over the entire investigation — and makes me wonder about the Coalition's direct involvement. After all, George Brandis repeatedly kept pushing for more investigations. If nothing else, Jackson, Lawler, Abbott – and the NSW police – have some serious questions to answer.
I don’t know how deep this runs but, like I said, I smell a rat.
(This is an abridged version of a longer story on Peter Wicks' blog WIXXYLEAKS.)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia LicenseDairy farmers are under threat of automation under a new scheme proposed by an Irish state agency.
Ireland’s agricultural development agency Teagasc is testing ‘robot’ milkers on a herd of 70 cows, according to the Sunday Times.
The paper says the system that allows scores of cows to be milked without a farmer being present.
It has been piloted successfully by the agency at its working farm in Carlow according to the report.
The test comes ahead of the end of European Union milk quotas next year with Irish farmers aiming to produce 50 percent more milk by 2020.
The paper says the automatic milking machines are expected to help achieve this target.
The report reveals that the process kicks in when cows run out of grass in one grazing area and decide to move to a more plentiful zone nearby.
The paper says that in order to access the second grazing area, they must pass through the robot when a sensor will read the cow’s tag and detect if it has been milked in the past eight hours.
If not, it will locate the teats, attach milking paraphernalia and complete the process before letting the cow pass into the next field according to the report.
Bernadette O’Brien, a senior research officer at Teagasc, told the Sunday Times that automatic milking has been popular in mainland Europe since 1992 where the majority of feeding is done indoors.
She added that the problem with Ireland is figuring out how it would work outdoors.
O’Brien said, "Ireland and New Zealand are really the only two countries that operate an almost completely grass-based system."
Teagasc says that the machines, which cost approximately $180,000 each, will reduce physical labor and employee costs.
O’Brien added, “It will eliminate time-bound labor, by which I mean the person having to be in the parlor at the same time every morning and every evening.
“The type of labor is changed to more observing and checking data; ensuring that the system is running.
“The robot milks one cow at a time. It can operate for 23 hours per day.”
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/ireland/article1399567.ece
Dairy farmers are under threat of automation under a new scheme proposed by an Irish state agency.
Ireland’s agricultural development agency Teagasc is testing ‘robot’ milkers on a herd of 70 cows, according to the Sunday Times.
The paper says the system that allows scores of cows to be milked without a farmer being present.
It has been piloted successfully by the agency at its working farm in Carlow according to the report.
The test comes ahead of the end of European Union milk quotas next year with Irish farmers aiming to produce 50 percent more milk by 2020.
The paper says the automatic milking machines are expected to help achieve this target.
The report reveals that the process kicks in when cows run out of grass in one grazing area and decide to move to a more plentiful zone nearby.
The paper says that in order to access the second grazing area, they must pass through the robot when a sensor will read the cow’s tag and detect if it has been milked in the past eight hours.
If not, it will locate the teats, attach milking paraphernalia and complete the process before letting the cow pass into the next field according to the report.
Bernadette O’Brien, a senior research officer at Teagasc, told the Sunday Times that automatic milking has been popular in mainland Europe since 1992 where the majority of feeding is done indoors.
She added that the problem with Ireland is figuring out how it would work outdoors.
O’Brien said, "Ireland and New Zealand are really the only two countries that operate an almost completely grass-based system."
Teagasc says that the machines, which cost approximately $180,000 each, will reduce physical labor and employee costs.
O’Brien added, “It will eliminate time-bound labor, by which I mean the person having to be in the parlor at the same time every morning and every evening.
“The type of labor is changed to more observing and checking data; ensuring that the system is running.
“The robot milks one cow at a time. It can operate for 23 hours per day.”Email Share 83 184 Shares
April 7, 2015; Fast Company
How many of us currently working in the nonprofit sector have the skills that will be needed in the near future? The number of jobs in the U.S. nonprofit sector grew during the 2001-2010 period. During the same period, the number of jobs in the for-profit sector declined. A recent Fast Company article examined those statistics and asked the question, “What will it take to get a nonprofit job in 2020?”
Top of the list is “data-savvy skills.” Several trends play into the increase for data-friendly skillsets. Nonprofits can now collect data faster, cheaper, and more efficiently, and measuring social impact is becoming key to telling the nonprofit’s story.
Thomas Tighe, president of Direct Relief, an international relief agency, says, “If anyone can do infographics and 15-second videos after having analyzed data and also translate the findings into low-cost activities that demonstrate results—you are desperately needed today and will be worshipped!”
The ability to apply design thinking to solving social issues is next on the list. The example shared describes influencing behavior through the design or layout of public physical spaces.
Next, nonprofit employees will need the people skills to create cross-sector partnerships with “potential supporters in an increasingly sophisticated, constantly evolving market, similar to any private commercial enterprise,” according to Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen, a nonprofit investing in companies that focus on world poverty.
The nonprofit workforce is predicted to become even more diverse, and not only from a race or gender perspective. The ability to work and interact globally will bring a wide range of diverse backgrounds together. Also, Millennials will comprise almost half of the U.S. workforce in 2020. This generation of workers values the ability to blend social values into their daily work life to a much greater degree than those generations that came before. The emerging talent in the nonprofit work force wants a fast-paced environment, similar to that of a startup.
Fast Company gathered this info by interviewing several leaders of nonprofits on its list of the most innovative companies in the nonprofit sector. The data source has to be considered to affect the language and tone of the findings, but it appears what is being suggested is that nonprofits will need employees that have skills of analysis, presentation, and collaboration. They will need to be nimble and adaptive, able to move from task to task as needed and to work in diverse settings, etc. Stand back, folks…not much new here, except perhaps the importance of load of technology skills and the sometimes apparently insurmountable loan debt they may be carrying.
What suggestions do you have for attracting personnel into the nonprofit sector who have either specialized technology skills or high student debt?—Jeanne AllenMaybe this is why the US government is so certain Huawei is bad news: Snowdenistas at The New York Times and Der Spiegel have reported another communiqué from their source-in-exile – this time to the effect that the United States National Security Agency penetrated Chinese networking equipment vendor Huawei and monitored its communications.
The reports suggest an operation called “Shotgiant” tried to access Huawei source code with the intention of installing back doors the NSA could use.
Putting back doors in place was seen as a good idea because some NSA targets used Huawei kit. NSA officials also liked the idea of a back door as a way to determine if Huawei kit was sending any information back to China.
The NSA's attacks on Huawei are reported to have also yielded a tap on communications among senior executives.
The USA and Australia have restricted Huawei's ability to trade in their nations on the basis that the company represents a threat to national security. While the nature of that threat has never been detailed, if Snowden's latest leak is correct and being understood in the correct context we can at least see how the two nations might have reached the decision to make life hard for Huawei.
That the USA seems to have decided the best way to protect itself from the threat of state surveillance posed by Huawei by using state surveillance to compromise Huawei is, however, a rich irony. ®The sanctuary city of Chicago under Rahm Emanuel is suing the federal government. The reason is bizarre.
The Feds plan to withhold grants unless local law enforcement is allowed to cooperate with federal law enforcement to uphold immigration law, the law of the land. Chicago officials are being depicted as “fighting back” by bizarre news outlets like CNN.
Chicago isn’t even cooperating in the cases of criminal illegal aliens.
In other words, the city doesn’t want Chicago law enforcement to cooperate with federal law enforcement and they want the money anyway. That’s some kind of Chutzpah, but there is no doubt there are judges who will uphold the insanity.
The officials in Chicago should be in jail, not suing.
The lawsuit to be filed against the U.S. Justice Department on Monday is over new stipulations placed on federal law enforcement grant money requiring local police departments to assist in federal immigration actions.
Emanuel’s office issued a statement that the Trump administration’s “latest unlawful misguided action undermines public safety and violates” the Constitution. He said the city is challenging the administration “to ensure that their misguided policies do not threaten the safety of our residents.”
The Constitution does in fact require federal law be followed. States’ Rights doesn’t mean each state does whatever the hay they want.
“Chicago will not be blackmailed into changing our values, and we are and will remain a welcoming city,” said Emanuel. “The federal government should be working with cities to provide necessary resources to improve public safety, not concocting new schemes to reduce our crime fighting resources.”
Blackmail? They’re breaking the law!
In fact, Chicago’s seedy side is being run by illegal alien gangs.
Of course Emanuel and his minions are claiming they can’t buy the police the equipment they need without the grants.
This is insanity! Our country has gone berserk!Bristol has changed its trousers. On Monday 9 May, the city waved goodbye to former mayor George Ferguson and his famous red chinos and welcomed in Labour’s Marvin Rees at a swearing in ceremony by Bristol docks.
In the event Rees’ victory was surprisingly comfortable. He secured almost 30,000 more votes than his independent rival, winning 68,750 to Ferguson’s 39,577 in a race that many had said was too close to call.
However, the real story of these elections has been the significant rise in voter turnout. This time around 45 per cent of Bristolians voted – a sharp increase on the city’s first mayoral elections back in 2012 in which just 28 per cent of residents went to the polls. On that occasion Rees lost to Ferguson by a slim margin, despite being the bookies favourite.
Ladbrokes had Ferguson as the odds-on favourite last week, proving that Bristol’s bookmakers are as hapless as the rest of us when it comes to divining mayoral results.
Rees has inherited a city on the up. Bristol currently has a buzz about it which is in part thanks to Ferguson’s efforts to sell the city as a nice place to live and work. House prices are up, businesses are moving in and bright young things are staying on after finishing university here.
However, this tide has not lifted all boats, and Rees’ campaign focused on tackling deprivation in the city and helping those who had been left behind: people in the private rental sector forced to the edge by rising rents, and those in the poorest areas of the city who have not seen the benefit from Bristol’s flourishing arts and tech sectors.
Ferguson’s base of support was in more affluent northern suburbs with high turnouts, where his small-g green policies were appealing to Bristol’s liberal middle class voters.
Labour were always going to have to work hard to get the vote out in poorer wards where their support has traditionally been strongest, places like Easton and Filwood. They certainly did that, running a competent, well-resourced campaign across the city.
The highest turnout was from the wealthiest wards of Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze. But working-class Easton – where Rees is from – was up there alongside more affluent areas with 51 per cent of its eligible voters hitting the polls.
Does Rees’ victory and the increased turnout mean Labour were successful in their efforts, or merely that Ferguson managed to annoy a lot of voters? Did Bristol vote for Rees or against Ferguson?
There can be no doubt that one of the key reasons for the increased turnout has to be George Ferguson himself. He was a personality. Very visibly in charge of Bristol, Ferguson cultivated the image of a mayor who got things done and was not afraid to stick his head above the parapet. He came in for a fair amount of flak personally on things like 20mph speed limits and residents’ parking zones. Like him or not, Ferguson’s high-profile stint as mayor made people sit up and take notice of the position and its importance.
Ferguson’s campaign made much of Rees’ party affiliations, warning that voting for a Labour candidate would be a return to the bad old days of a council gridlocked by political infighting. Rees’ response was that Ferguson, an architect and entrepreneur, represented the Bristol “elite” and that Rees’ membership of the Labour Party was what had allowed people like himself, from a single-parent family in Easton, or Sadiq Khan, the son of a bus driver, to rise to elected office.
Throughout his campaign Rees has tried to show that he is more than a party frontman, and intends to abandon Ferguson’s individualistic leadership style in favour of a more democratic, party-backed version, including a cross-party cabinet. At the same time, winning Bristol has been a top priority for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who missed Sadiq Khan’s victory in London to congratulate Rees in Bristol.
Labour were keen to avoid a repeat of Rees’ defeat 2012 and put a lot into backing him, with activists out rallying support for Rees across the city. This effort has paid off for the party. But it remains to be seen whether this election means a return to the days of party politics and council infighting or a new mayoralty focused on sharing Bristol’s recent successes across its many communities.
This post was originally published on our sister site, The StaggersSome people are fans of the New England Patriots. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New England Patriots. This 2014 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group.
Your team: New England Patriots.
Your 2013 record: 12-4, featuring an AFC title game curb-stomping at the hands of the Broncos, who were themselves curb-stomped by the Seahawks in the Super Bowl two weeks later. Obviously, this means that if the Patriots had played the Seahawks, they would have lost 945-6. God, I would love to see that happen in a Super Bowl one day. I'd love to see Pats fans get all stammery and annoying just because Pete Carroll beat them senseless. HE'S NAWT REALLY A GOOD COACH! WE KNOW BETTAH!
Two of the Patriots' four regular season losses last season came down to ticky-tack ref calls, like this one:
Lemme tell you something: Nothing brings me more joy than a Pats fan bitching about the refs while having ZERO memory of the Tuck Game. I thought the refs were on our side! Eat shit, fucko. Next time, don't go pushin'.
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Your coach: Bill Belichick. FUN FACT: Whenever Bill Belichick trades a player for refusing a pay cut, Jim Nantz has to go wipe the ejaculate off the inside of his khakis. Belichick controls his players like a 19th century railroad magnate, and nothing pleases the hot take providers of America more. Every Tom, Dick, and Sully thinks a player who would dare play for another team besides the Patriots, or even consider getting more money in free agency, is unworthy of being a Belichick Man.
Such is Belichick's master manipulation of the media that he can make ANY move and have people searching for the hidden brilliance behind it. He can never just do something DUMB. There must be a subtle genius to trading away Logan Mankins for Tim Wright and a draft pick. Mankins is clearly washed up now. And Wright will clearly post numbers similar to Aaron Hernandez despite being as useful as a sack of flour in Tampa last season. The process is always the same. "This trade looks bad. But now that I remember Bill Belichick was behind it, IT'S A MASTERSTROKE."
Your quarterback: Tom Brady. I want those toilets shined so bright I can see my face in them, Tommy. I actually believe that Tom Brady goes home to Gisele and is basically her slave. After spending all week telling shitty receivers what to do and calling out blocking assignments for undrafted linemen, I bet he would like nothing more than to go home, relinquish control of everything, and let his wife kick his ass all over the place. Real Fifty Shades-type shit, with stiletto heels up his ass and everything.
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It's worth noting here that a shocking number of Boston fans LOVE calling Brady washed up, because they think he's a pretty Cali boy and not one of them, and they can only tolerate Brady when he's winning titles. The lack of affection is stunning. In any other town, Brady would be a god. But Pats fans hate being repped by a dude who does magazine shoots. No title means Brady goes back to being a FAG in their eyes again. They secretly can't wait for Janeane Garofalo to take over. NOW THAT KID LOOKS TOUGH!
What's new that sucks: Here comes Darrelle Revis, another free agency bargain that Pats fans get to lord over you as if they had orchestrated the move themselves. Brandon Browner is here as well, finally partnered up with a coach that will be able to hide his PED use effectively. This is a better defense than a year ago, which is good because the offense is the same shit you saw last season: a platoon of oft-injured backs plus a corps of shitty wideouts (Edelman, Amendola, Thompkins, Dobson, newcomer Brandon LaFell) that will be overpraised simply because Tom Brady is the one throwing them the ball. And Gronk.
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What has always sucked: My parents have lived in northern Connecticut for the past 23 years. Last summer, my sister decided to move back from the West Coast, because it had gotten too expensive and she wanted to be closer to my mom and dad (free day care!). After she moved her family, I thought to myself, You know what? Maybe we should move nearby, too. We could be closer to my whole family: my mom, dad, sister, brother, aunt, everyone! So I took my family up for a weekend and started scouting neighborhoods on the outskirts of Hartford, far away enough from New York to be at the fringes of Masshole country.
This wasn't a lark. This was something I had been seriously considering. It made perfect sense, from both a financial and personal standpoint. I drove around in the rain, looking at a few houses that were tucked back into the woods (New England towns are always shrouded in woods and seeming perpetual darkness) and checking out town squares. And then I drove by a local high school. I eased the car up the driveway and pulled around to the entrance, and outside there were four students in Red Sox hats. They were Massholes in spirit, even if we weren't technically in Massachusetts. They had the dirty stubble. They had the shitty hats. They had that typical asshole Boston sports fan look of arrogant misery. Looked like they had just punched out a packy store clerk for not having any Kodiak behind the counter.
And I thought to myself… NOPE. No fucking way. I had two sons and I wasn't letting them grow up to be THAT. I'd far prefer they grow up to become dipshit Maryland lax bros. ANYTHING is preferable. I ditched the idea on the spot. That's how much you motherfuckers suck. All those titles in every sport and you're all STILL unhappy. All the fucking time. If my team had three rings, I would skip around my neighborhood naked all day long, throwing cupcake sprinkles at everyone.
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But noooooo, not New England fans. No no no, they have to spend every last waking second bitching about all the additional titles they should have won. The Red Sox won a title last season—their third in the past decade—and yet they still bitch |
Mike Riis marched across Lincoln Financial Field amid his Denver lacrosse teammates’ revelry, a net snipped from one of the goals tucked into his shorts.
“It’s mine forever,” Riis beamed.
And Monday will always belong to the Pioneers, who claimed their first national lacrosse championship with a 10-5 victory over Maryland just six years after luring legendary coach Bill Tierney to the sport’s most westernmost outpost.
Wesley Berg scored five goals to earn the NCAA tournament’s most outstanding player honor and Ryan LaPlante made 13 saves for fourth-seeded Denver (17-2), which became the first school west of the Appalachians to win the championship in its 45-year history.
Denver had come close in recent years, falling in the semifinals in three of the past four years.
“Just like Wesley carried us on his back for a few games here, I feel like we were carrying a burden around and now it’s off,” Tierney said. “And now we move on.”
PHOTOS: University of Denver wins its first NCAA men’s lacrosse title
The Pioneers are known for their offensive diversity, but they rode a lockdown defense to seal Monday’s game. Denver never trailed, and held the sixth-seeded Terrapins (15-4) scoreless for 20:23 before the Terrapins tossed in a harmless goal with 32.6 seconds remaining.
“There was no way they were going to put up more than 10 goals in this game,” senior attackman Sean Cannizzaro said. “As long as we played OK and put up a couple goals, we knew we were going to win.”
Matt Rambo, Maryland’s leading scorer, had two goals and an assist as Christian Burgdorf marked him, while Carson Cannon helped hold midfielder Joe LoCascio to an assist and just three shots.
“For the 24 hours that we had, we were like, if we stop 1 (Rambo) and 5 (LoCascio), we’re going to win this game,” Riis said. “We stopped 1 and 5, and we did a great job.”
Faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste and midfielder Zach Miller joined Berg, LaPlante and Riis on the all-tournament team.
Berg, the hero of Saturday’s overtime semifinal victory over Notre Dame, quickly asserted himself with a goal 40 seconds into the game. He completed his hat trick in less than 10 minutes, and the Pioneers had the luxury of dictating tempo from that point.
Denver took a 5-3 edge into the break, then rattled off the first three goals of the second half to all but seal it. Berg scored the first and last goals of the day in his final collegiate game, an appropriate cap to a career featuring a school-record 188 goals and a central place in program lore.
“It takes a while to sink in,” Berg said. “Obviously we knew we had it with about 30 seconds left with Trevor winning the faceoff and us being up that many. When you win something like this it can take a couple of weeks to really set in and really sink in that you won it.”
Whenever it does, it will be appreciated by players who were part of the program when it was shuttled from club to varsity status and back. The Pioneers loudly signaled their intent in 2009 to become a lacrosse power when they hired Tierney, who won six national championships at Princeton.
Tierney’s seventh NCAA title is the most ever for a men’s lacrosse coach, and he is the first coach to win championships at multiple schools.
“When we recruited Coach Tierney, we talked about the Rocky Mountains being a good backdrop, that there is no ceiling,” athletic director Peg Bradley-Doppes said on the field afterward. “He is the perfect person to lead us as we made the leap. This is a celebration of not only this team, not only Coach Tierney, but absolutely the decades of young men who built it.”
This year’s group, though, will be remembered as the breakthrough team. And given Tierney’s track record, the Pioneers are probably far from finished.
“It’s been unbelievable to see the growth of this program since coach T moved out to Denver,” LaPlante said. “We’ve made it to the playoffs every year. This just took it to the next level, and it shows just how good of a coach and how good of a coaching staff we have and the support we have from the university.”
Footnote: DU will hold a celebration of its championship at the Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium Tuesday evening at 6 p.m.The best weekend of the football season is upon us. Thank God.
After the penance that was Wild Card Weekend and the depressing conclusion of the year-long San Diego root canal, football fans can sit on the couch over the next couple of days and watch the very best teams in the NFL slugging it out for the right to land in the NFL's version of the Final Four. The Texans are playing, too.
Each of the four matchups come with compelling subplots and a "Choose Your Own Adventure"-level host of options for how the games will play out. Let's look into the future and offer four possible Monday morning headlines.
My only rule: The headlines must be rooted in reality on some level.. even if it's only by a thread.
Tex message: Brady throws five touchdowns in absurd Patriots blowout
All Tom Brady wants right now -- the thing that would put a cherry on top of a ridiculous career that might not ever end -- is to be on the same riser as Roger Goodell when the Lombardi Trophy is presented next month at NRG Stadium. Just two more wins away from the Super Bowl and against an overmatched Texans team, the stars are aligned for one of Brady's best playoff performances -- which is saying something, considering he will have played two full seasons of them by Monday.
Quick aside:
I infamously predicted last summer on the Around The NFL Podcast that Brady would show signs of slight regression in this, his age-39 season. I was wrong. OK, I was really wrong. But I stand by my prediction that Brady won't remain this great forever. The inexorable march of time catches up to us all, and it will for TB12 and his magic pajamas, too.
Just not in time to save the Texans from doom.
Big Ben, Bigger Alex: Smith's fine day lifts Chiefs to AFC title game
The Chiefs continue to be overlooked. While the world trumpets the Steelers as the Patriots' only threat to another conference title, the No. 2 seed out of Kansas City waits its turn.
Alex Smith is a big part of that. At some point, Smith got tagged as the most game manager of all game manager-y quarterbacks. Throwing 15 touchdowns in 15 starts this season reinforced that. But the Chiefs enter the playoffs on a major offensive roll. In the back-to-back wins that closed the season and locked up the two-seed, the Chiefs averaged 35 points and 425 yards per game, as well as a saucy 6.34 yards per play.
Their underrated running game averaged 170.5 yards per contest in that stretch, but Smith has nicely supplemented that team strength thanks to his chemistry with both Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill.
And don't sleep on Alex Smith in January. The man is a sneaky assassin!
Listen to your friend, Melissa Etheridge.
Romo-mentum: Cowboys backup outduels Rodgers in instant classic
You don't like to put this type of pressure on a game -- the Football Gods could crumble under the pressure of expectation -- but this Packers-Cowboys matchup feels destined to be a game we remember, doesn't it? The resurgent, outrageously loaded (three All-Pros on the O-line!) and well-rested Cowboys welcome the Packers and Aaron Rodgers, who is now just three more stirring wins away from the greatest run a quarterback's ever had in [best Paul Maguire voice] the National Football League.
But with all possible respect for Rodgers, it still feels like the Book of Romo isn't closed this season. Tony Romo's journey from franchise centerpiece to dignified understudy has been the biggest soap opera of the NFL season. It's the storyline that produced a riveting press conference that still feels like it was taken off the editing floor of a Peter Berg movie.
Will that presser and his one touchdown drive in Week 17 be the end of his story as The Big Story in Dallas? I can't shake the feeling it won't. Which isn't to say I'm necessarily predicting an injury for Dak Prescott this week (that would suck) or a panic benching ordered down from the owner's box (this would be unfair, but kind of awesome), but it feels like one last twist is in the stars for the team identified by The Big Star.
Matt Ryan: Boring name, thrilling game, as Seahawks were made aware of
Let's just work under the assumption that our headline writer's wife left him the night before he went into work. Rough day at the office for Ken, something the Seahawks will relate to by the time the Falcons get through with them at the Georgia Dome. YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?
The Seahawks are battle-tested and worthy of their place in this tournament, but this team -- specifically this defense -- won't be able to handle what Matt Ryan and the Atlanta offense is about to bring. The heart of the problem is that the Seahawks are missing the heart of their defense: Earl Thomas. Seattle has been a mediocre team since Thomas was lost for the year with a broken leg in Week 13, and the secondary has been completely sapped of big-play ability in his absence.
The proof: Thomas was placed on injured reserve Dec. 6. The Seahawks have not had an interception since. Including last weekend's wild-card win over the Lions, Seattle has gone five straight games without a pick, tying a franchise record. The Earl-free "Legion Of Boom" has also become susceptible to the big play, and the Falcons just so happen to be the best home-run offense we've seen since Brady and Moss were playing catch in 2007.
And let's not forget the last time the Seahawks (3-4-1 away from the Clink this season) went on the road in a divisional playoff game to face a buzzy NFC South offense. It was just last year, actually. That Seattle team -- with Earl Thomas active and with two functioning legs -- went to the halftime tunnel down 31-0 to the Panthers.
Add it all up and Ryan is well set up for that thrilling game, despite his, um, boring name. Not such a bad headline after all, Ken. Allison still loves you. She needs time to figure some stuff out.Is this the most sexist TV program in history? The chat show where women strip off while two men critique their naked bodies
Creator Thomas Blachman claims that the female body 'thirsts for the words of a man'
Critics brand vile show, which uses derogatory comments about the female figure, as sexist and humiliating
Creator says this will open a debate about men's views of women's bodies without having to be 'politically correct'
Danish X-Factor judge retreats to New York home saying his country is 'ungrateful' and will 'wear down geniuses'
A Danish chat show where women silently undress as the male host and a guest critique their bodies has been branded humiliating and sexist by viewers.
The women walk on in a bath robe and then stand in front of the two men who are seated on an empty set with one harsh light.
Each model then removes her robe as host Thomas Blachman, who also created the concept, and his guest appraise their figures.
Scroll down for video
The degrading TV show sees women stand there in silence while two men appraise their bodies - with often humiliating comments
The women walk on in a bath robe, then undress in front Blachman and a studio guest, who critique the women
Some of the most puerile moments have included comments such as 'How's that p****' working out for you?' and 'Very animated nipples.'
Blachman, who is a Danish X-Factor judge, today defended his idea insisting he was actually doing women a favour as the 'female body thirsts for the words of a man'.
He also said his show - which has the eponymous title Blachman - was the work of a genius and had a higher objective of 'discussing the aesthetics of a female body without allowing the conversation to become pornographic or politically correct'.
He said: 'I told them the entire idea of the show is to let men talk about the bodies of naked women while the woman is standing right in front of them.
'The female body thirsts for words. The words of a man. And they went for it.'
He added that he wanted to'revise women's views of men's views of women.'
VIDEO Sexist? Watch a clip of the show and decide yourself...
Blachman claims it is the work of a genius and argues it has a higher objective of 'discussing the aesthetics of a female body'
'Artistic debate' Blachman (right) and his guest look like giggling schoolboys as they critique a woman's body in the vile show
Critics rubbished his claims highlighting an example on one show in which he said: 'I've always been an a** man.
Even before Blachman aired, it received massive media attention and has been widely criticised as being both sexist and humiliating for women.
Author Knud Romer said: 'The programs so-called intention of breaking down taboos or challenging stereotypes is rubbish.
'It's more like a claustrophobic strip club which only serves to cement classic concepts of male dominance.
'Basically, things like this should have been able consigned to the scrap heap of history years ago.'
One of the country's top bloggers and opinion-makers, Lotte Hansen, was also scathing, describing the show as 'an unsuccessful attempt to intellectualize the Roskilde County Show – the only difference being that the young fillies on view in Roskilde have been replaced by naked women.'
Hansen has started a campaign demanding DR cancel the show 'before this goes any further'.
Martin Lyngbo of the Mungo Park Theater said Blachman’s show 'institutionalizes already run-of-the-mill malechauvinistic thinking.'
An unrepentant Blachman, who has since retreated to his home in New York in the face of all the controversy, said: 'Ungratefulness is the only thing that can really wear down the few geniuses who reside in our country.
'Remember, I am giving you something that you have never seen before. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.'
DR producer Sofia Fromberg, who defended the project, said the show must go on and does not think that the TV critics should have the final say about what is good for men and women.
She added: 'We have a program that reveals what men think about the female body. Quite honestly, what is wrong with that?'Web startups are made out of two things: people and code. The people make the code, and the code makes the people rich. Code is like a poem; it has to follow certain structural requirements, and yet out of that structure can come art. But code is art that does something. It is the assembly of something brand new from nothing but an idea.
This is the story of a wonderful idea. Something that had never been done before, a moment of change that shaped the Internet we know today. This is the story of Flickr. And how Yahoo bought it and murdered it and screwed itself out of relevance along the way.
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Do you remember Flickr's tag line? It reads "almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world." It was an epic humble brag, a momentously tongue in cheek understatement.
Because until three years ago, of course Flickr was the best photo sharing service in the world. Nothing else could touch it. If you cared about digital photography, or wanted to share photos with friends, you were on Flickr.
Yet today, that tagline simply sounds like delusional posturing. The photo service that was once poised to take on the the world has now become an afterthought. Want to share photos on the Web? That's what Facebook is for. Want to look at the pictures your friends are snapping on the go? Fire up Instagram.
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Even the notion of Flickr as an archive—as the place where you store all your photos as a backup—is becoming increasingly quaint as Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, Box.net, Amazon, Apple, and a host of others scramble to serve online gigs to our hungry desktops.
The site that once had the best social tools, the most vibrant userbase, and toppest-notch storage is rapidly passing into the irrelevance of abandonment. Its once bustling community now feels like an exurban neighborhood rocked by a housing crisis. Yards gone to seed. Rusting bikes in the front yard. Tattered flags. At address, after address, after address, no one is home.
It is a case study of what can go wrong when a nimble, innovative startup gets gobbled up by a behemoth that doesn't share its values. What happened to Flickr? The same thing that happened to so many other nimble, innovative startups who sold out for dollars and bandwidth: Yahoo.
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Here's how it all went bad.
In the Beginning
Flickr famously began as a feature of another product. Husband-and-wife development team Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake had created a photo sharing feature for another product they were working on, Game Neverending. Butterfield and Fake were old-school Web types. The kind with low Metafilter user numbers and WELL accounts.
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And because they knew the Web so fluently, they soon realized that their real product wasn't the game: It was this secondary feature, the ability to share photos online. This was 2003, and photo sharing was still very much a novel problem for people. Flickr was born.
It was a hit. Bloggers especially loved it, as it solved an age-old photo hosting problem. (This was during the hoary old days of the Web when storage actually cost money.)
Two years later, in 2005, Butterfield and Fake sold their company to Yahoo, whose deep pockets promised great things for Flickr's users. It upped the monthly storage limit to 100MB for free users, and removed it altogether for pro accounts, for example. Yahoo had bandwidth and engineering to burn. Things were going to be great; things are always going to be great the first time you embrace a new corporate mother.
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When Startups Become Successes
Very few people manage to build successful startups. But when the one hits, it can change the status quo in an instant. Suddenly, those two elemental ingredients—people and code—become very valuable to the established companies that seem to reside on an untouchable corporate Mount Olympus. It would have to be an overwhelming compliment and sense of validation. How would you handle it? What if you made something beautiful and useful that changed the status quo? Would you sell it? Would you sell yourself?
That's the choice successful startup founders are faced with. Build something good, and the buyout offers start rolling in. But while selling out in most other fields of creative endeavor is frowned upon, it's a given on the Web.
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Maybe it shouldn't be. For every YouTube, there are horror stories of great people with great products, squandered in the yawning maws of uncaring corporate integration. Dodgeball gets lost in Mountain View. Beloved bookmarking services like Delicious become fields of information left fallow.
Some upstarts take an independent path. Consider Foursquare. Or Twitter. Or Facebook. Each spurned buyout offers, and none has ever been stronger. All managed to find a business model over time. Or even StumbleUpon, which only found its feet after its founder re-purchased his company from eBay and spun it off again as an indie.
It's no secret that for many entrepreneurs, the exit is always the goal. It's about the sellout before the first line of code is written. But for a select group, products are meant to be art. They are meant to literally change the world. And for those, selling out can be especially problematic.
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Flickr falls into that camp.
Integration Is The Enemy of Innovation
"Yahoo was a good fit initially," says Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, who left the company in 2008. "We had offers from various companies, including Google, and I honestly think that Yahoo was a great steward. It was a great steward of the brand. It was allowed to flourish. In the subsequent two years after the acquisition, Flickr blossomed."
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Yet even early on, there were signs that the transplant—which had seemed so successful at first—was going to fail. That the DNA didn't match. This was largely due to how this new appendage was grafted on by Yahoo's CorpDev department.
When a new startup comes into an established company, the first wall it typically hits is CorpDev, or corporate development: the group within a business that manages change. CorpDev is usually charged with planning corporate strategy—where a business will grow or shrink, the markets it will enter or exit, and what kind of contracts and deals it may strike with other companies. It often oversees acquisitions. It plans them. Approves them. And then it sets the terms.
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When a big company gobbles up a smaller one, often only a fraction of the money is handed over up front. The rest comes later, based on the acquisition hitting a series of deliverables down the road. It's similar to how incentives are built into the contracts of professional athletes, except with engineering benchmarks instead of home runs.
Corpdev sets these milestones. They reflect the reason for the acquisition, and how the company—in Flickr's case, Yahoo—can leverage them. They're baked into the deal, and an acquisition integration team begins working immediately to make sure they are met. Typically, they're very engineering-based, designed to integrate the smaller company's product into the enormous corporate machine.
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And because payment schedules are based on achieving those CorpDev terms, it means both companies have a vested (pun intended) interest in putting those milestones ahead of new features. They are a sledgehammer applied with great force to the feet of nimble development. Worse, they often completely ignore what made the smaller target valuable in the first place.
Take Upcoming, the calendaring site Yahoo bought not long after Flickr. It was a play to get local listings. Local data—especially in smaller cities or for smaller events—can be very hard to come by. Everyone ends up having the same stuff. But Upcoming's data was user-generated. It was different. Unique. Valuable.
The milestones for that acquisition were all based around integrating that local event data into Yahoo. Yahoo didn't care about Upcoming's users—the community that created the data. Yahoo's approach turned out to be completely backwards. The value of the the company was determined by the index itself, rather than how the index was built—which is to say, by the community.
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It was a stunning failure in vision, and more or less the same thing happened at Flickr. All Yahoo cared about was the database its users had built and tagged. It didn't care about the community that had created it or (more importantly) continuing to grow that community by introducing new features.
"We spent a lot of time in meetings with CorpDev just defending the product and justifying our decisions," said a former Flickr team member.
And so when Flickr hit the ground at Yahoo it was crushed with engineering and service requirements it had to meet as per demands of the acquisition integration team. Those were a drain on resources, human and financial. Even though many of the resources came from Yahoo, they were debited against Flickr. This created an untenable cycle that actively hampered innovation.
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"The money goes to the cash cows, not the cash calf," explains one former Flickr team member. If Flickr couldn't make bucks, it wouldn't get bucks (or talent, or resources).
Because Flickr wasn't as profitable as some of the other bigger properties, like Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Sports, it wasn't given the resources that were dedicated to other products. That meant it had to spend its resources on integration, rather than innovation. Which made it harder to attract new users, which meant it couldn't make as much money, which meant (full circle) it didn't get more resources. And so it goes.
As a result of being resource-starved, Flickr quit planting the anchors it needed to climb ever higher. It missed the boat on local, on real time, on mobile, and even ultimately on social—the field it pioneered. And so, it never became the Flickr of video; YouTube snagged that ring. It never became the Flickr of people, which was of course Facebook. It remained the Flickr of photos. At least, until Instagram came along.
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The Flickr team was forced to focus on integration, not innovation. This played out in two key areas.
Socially Awkward
Flickr's best feature isn't what you think. It's not photo-sharing at all. Just as photo sharing was a feature hidden within a game, there was another feature hidden within photo-sharing that was even more powerful: social networking. Flickr was, nearly a decade ago, building what would become the Social Web.
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The first point in Flickr's two point mission statement is to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them. Flickr had—and still has—excellent tools for this. Flickr was an early site that let you identify relationships with fine grained controls—a person could be marked as family but not a friend, for example—instead of a binary friend/not friend relationship. You can mark your photos "private" and allow no one else to see them at all, or identify just one or two trusted friends who may view them. Or you can just share with friends, or family. Those granular controls encouraged sharing, and commenting, and interaction. What we are describing here, of course, is social networking.
It's hard to remember, but back in 2005, Yahoo seemed like it had its game on. After losing out on search dominance to Google, it snapped up a bunch of small-but-cool socially oriented companies like Flickr (social photos), Delicious (social bookmarking), and Upcoming (social calendaring). There was a real sense that Yahoo was doing the right thing. It was, to some extent, out in front of what would come to be widely known as Web 2.0: the participatory Internet.
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But Yahoo's social success in those years was almost accidental. It wasn't (and isn't) a company with vision. Its founders Jerry Yang and David Filo's great contribution to the Internet? They built a directory of links and then sold ads on those pages.
It was a gateway, nothing more. This was hardly an innovative idea, or technically complicated to pull off. You don't have to write algorithms to build a portal. Yahoo was little more than an electronic edition of Yellow Pages.
The founders' influence on a company's culture is enormous, and Yang and Filo cared about business, not products or innovation. They didn't foster a culture of computer scientists, like Google's founders did, or cultivate hackers like Facebook. They grew a business culture. For many years that worked quite well—until Google came along. Suddenly nobody needed directories anymore. Why browse a hierarchy when you can jump directly to what you're looking for with a simple query?
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Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel had failed to buy Google in 2001, when he had the chance. Now Yahoo was so focused on winning search that it essentially surrendered social. In 2005, Flickr had far and away the best social connection and discovery tools on the Internet. Remember, back then Facebook was still very much a fledgling service, one that didn't even let you upload pictures other than the one in your profile. Yahoo, meanwhile, had existing internal social products, like Address Book and Messenger. Social was clearly the future. What Yahoo wanted, however, wasn't the future. It was to re-fight an old battle from the past. It was to beat Google.
"By the time we were looking at Flickr, Yahoo was getting the shit kicked out of it by Google. The race was on to find other areas of search where we could build a commanding lead," says one high ranking Yahoo executive familiar with the deal.
Flickr offered a way to do that. Because Flickr photos were tagged and labeled and categorized so efficiently by users, they were highly searchable.
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"That is the reason we bought Flickr—not the community. We didn't give a shit about that. The theory behind buying Flickr was not to increase social connections, it was to monetize the image index. It was totally not about social communities or social networking. It was certainly nothing to do with the users."
And that was the problem. At the time, the Web was rapidly becoming more social, and Flickr was at the forefront of that movement. It was all about groups and comments and identifying people as contacts, friends or family. To Yahoo, it was just a fucking database.
The first community problems became evident when Yahoo decided all existing Flickr users would need a Yahoo account to log in. That switchover occurred in 2007, and was part of the CorpDev integration process to establish a single sign on. Flickr set it to go live on the Ides of March.
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From Yahoo's perspective, there was no choice but to revamp the login. For one, Flickr had grown internationally, and it had to localize to comply with local laws. Yahoo already had tools to solve this, because it had already expanded into other countries. It offered a ready-made solution.
But moreover, Yahoo needed to leverage this thing that it had just bought. Yahoo wanted to make sure that every one of its registered users could instantly use Flickr without having to register for it separately. It wanted Flickr to work seamlessly with Yahoo Mail. It wanted its services to sing together in harmony, rather than in cacophonous isolation. The first step in that is to create a unified login. That's great for Yahoo, but it didn't do anything for Flickr, and it certainly didn't do anything for Flickr's (extremely vocal) users.
Yahoo's RegID solution turned out to be a nightmare for the existing community. You could no longer use your existing Flickr login to get to your photos, you had to use a Yahoo one. If you did not already have a Yahoo account, you had to create one. And you did not even log in on Flickr's home page, upon arriving, you were immediately kicked over to a Yahoo login screen.
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Although Flickr grew tremendously with the huge influx of Yahoo users, the existing community of highly influential early adopters was infuriated. It was an inelegant transition, and seemed to ignore what the community wanted (namely, a way to log in without having to sign up for a Yahoo account). This was the opposite of what people had come to expect from Flickr. It was anti-social.
And it very much delivered a message, to both users and to the team at Flickr: You're part of Yahoo now.
That message was also going out to Flickr's team. Flickr prided itself on customer care, which it considered a core part of community building. But Yahoo wanted to manage all that itself with its existing departments. One of Yahoo's goals was to move from a system of notice and takedown, to prescreening all the content members posted before it went up online. Flickr saw this as both a costly time-consuming task and one that could very well violate its members privacy, especially when talking about private photos. The Flickr team scheduled a meeting and headed down to corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale for an hour long presentation to make its case. Halfway through the meeting, the vice president who oversaw customer care for Yahoo looked at his watch, announced he had another meeting, and left. It was an open fuck you.
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For Heather Champ, who was Flickr's head of community at the time, the meeting was the beginning of the end. "I came out of that meeting knowing I couldn't continue in my role. I didn't want to stay and watch them dismantle everything we'd worked so hard to build."
By mid-2008, a year after the RegID debacle, it was clear to most everyone that Facebook was the big up-and-coming social network. What had been a plaything for college kids and high schoolers was suddenly the network your mom, your dad, your gym coach, and everyone else you'd ever met was sending you friend requests from. Microsoft was pumping money into it, and it was fast approaching 100 million users.
Inside Yahoo, which itself had a massive user base and multiple social products, some were already warning that it was going to be bypassed in social just as it had been bypassed in search.
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"I spent years at Yahoo trying to signal the alarm that Facebook was going to take over the adult market unless we stepped in and used our existing social networks to fight back," laments one former Yahoo engineer who worked on products at both the parent company and Flickr. "Obviously this never went anywhere for a multitude of reasons."
Yahoo had already tried to buy Facebook in 2006—for a billion goddamn dollars. And failed. Two years later Facebook was too big to buy. The only way to beat it was to come at it from another direction with a better product. Yahoo's best hope for that was Flickr. But by then it was too late.
"Flickr wasn't a startup anymore," explains the engineer, "people didn't really want to work that hard to turn the entire product around. Even if they had, Flickr [was] very techie hipster, many didn't use or like Facebook and considered it bland, boring, evil, poorly designed, etc., and were certainly not ready to fast follow it. Emphasis was put more on how things looked, and felt, rather than on metrics and on what worked. The whole experience was very frustrating for me all around, as I slowly watched Flickr and Yahoo fade into irrelevance."
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The Unstoppable Force And His Immobile Object
There's a difference between a missed opportunity and a complete fuck-up. When Yahoo failed to capitalize on Flickr's social potential, that was a missed opportunity. But if you want to see where it completely fucked up, where it just butchered Flickr with dull knives and duller wit, turn on your phone and launch the Flickr app. Oh, what's that, you don't have one? Exactly.
Flickr had a robust mobile Web site way back in 2006—before the iPhone even shipped. You could use it with your piece of crap Symbian phone, or the dinky screen on your Sony Ericsson T68i. But it was basically just a browser. If you wanted to get a photo from your phone to your account, you had to email it.
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And then in 2008, something happened that made the mobile Web a sideshow altogether: apps. The iPhone's App Store ushered in a new era that changed the way we interacted. People didn't want mobile web experiences that required them to skip from a camera app, to an editing app, back to the Web and possibly even over to email to upload and share an image. They wanted an app that did all those things. The Flickr team understood that. Unfortunately they couldn't do anything about it.
"Flickr was not empowered to build its own iOS app—or any other mobile app for that matter," laments one former Flickr executive. "You had this external team with strong opinions as to what the app should do."
It was here that the missions of the two companies truly collided, according to insiders. The Flickr app was a top-down decision, driven by Yahoo Mobile and its leader, Marco Boerries. The team at Flickr was iced out.
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Boerries had a grandiose vision for something called "Connected Life." It was to be a socially seamless mobile experience that brought all your Yahoo services together in the palm of your hand, and connected them with the desktop. It was nothing short of what Apple and Google and Microsoft are all trying to do today with their cloud strategies.
Boerries was a maniac. He'd built a word processing program called StarWriter as a 16 year-old kid, grew it into the StarOffice suite and sold it to Sun for $74 million in 1999. By 2004, he was running around Silicon Valley giving a demo that was literally making people gasp in wonder.
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He would walk into a room full of investors, pull out his crappy flip phone, and take a picture of the room. Then he'd pocket it, open his laptop and refresh the app running on his desktop. Suddenly, the visitors in the room would be confronted with their own skeptical faces. It was automatic. He then explained that he could do the same thing with any other type of data—emails, phone numbers, mp3s, whatever. Anything you did on the phone would be seamlessly reflected on the desktop, and vice versa. Basically, it was iCloud.
Yahoo bought his company in 2005 for something in the neighborhood of $16 million, largely to buy Boerries. A month later, it would buy Flickr.
Boerries was a genius, and, by all accounts, a nightmare to work with. One of the most frank depictions of this comes from Kellan Elliot-McCrea, Etsy's CTO who, in a past life, was the chief architect of Flickr. On Quora, he writes:
"Marco Boerries was without a doubt one of the most viciously political, and disliked Yahoo! execs and he reigned for 4 years over the Yahoo "Connected Life" team which had universal control over all native mobile experiences within Yahoo. Several Flickr internal attempts to build and ship native mobile experiences (going back to 2006) were squashed relentlessly."
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The Yahoo Mobile team was onerously slow to get an app out the door. Although the iTunes App Store launched in July of 2008, Yahoo Mobile let a year slip away before it released an official Flickr app. When it finally did roll out the long-delayed beast in September of 2009, it was beyond disasterous. The early reviews on the iTunes App Store read like pre-alpha test notes of the world's worst software.
"Not enough functionality to be useful" "it is SLOW and seems to slow down more with use" "Was very excited about this app only to be let down. Hard." "slow, buggy, terrible navigation." "everything is painfully slow"
Among other problems, it wouldn't let you upload several photos at once, you had to go in manually submit them one at a time. It was downscaling photos to 450 x 600, murdering image quality. Users had to log in via Safari rather than in the app itself. It was striping EXIF data from photos as they uploaded—precisely the kind of thing Flickr's photo nerds wanted to see.
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People. Fucking. Hated it.
The app landed like a pile of mud on a wedding gown. As one App Store reviewer put it, "For |
— The San Francisco 49ers need cornerback help, and Texas' Quandre Diggs is high on their list, per a team source.
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
— USC cornerback Josh Shaw had a good enough Shrine Game week that he was invited to Mobile for the Senior Bowl. My scouting sources tell me he's very coached up in interviews and isn't giving teams a real look at his personality and character.
— Washington linebacker Shaq Thompson has unique, rare athletic ability, and that has led to some teams suggesting he would be a better candidate at running back (a position he played some in college), per team sources.
— In talking to sources about the quarterback class, I've been told by several scouts that they don't have a top-100 grade on anyone other than Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.
— Cincinnati linebacker Jeff Luc and Yale fullback Tyler Vargas both wowed during weigh-ins, but neither followed up with impressive play on the field. Luc is simply too stiff and doesn't play with functional strength, while Vargas isn't a true blocker at fullback.
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
— "You guys were way off on him," is how one scout put the media perception of Wisconsin tackle Rob Havenstein. He's right. Havenstein looks like a top-100 pick and starting-caliber right tackle.
— Washington nose tackle Danny Shelton was my top-ranked player at the Senior Bowl, and he lived up to expectations. Shelton was held and grabbed so much that by Thursday morning he no longer had numbers on his jersey.
— Iowa's Carl Davis made himself a lot of money this week, but UCLA's Owa Odighizuwa was the second-best riser on defense this week. He's explosive off the line, very long and has the agility to be a threat with a shoulder dip or hip roll.
— The small receiver dominated this week. You'll hear a lot about Phillip Dorsett, but I also liked Jamison Crowder (Duke), Tyler Lockett (Kansas State) and Justin Hardy (East Carolina).
Five Up, Five Down
Each week, "Five Up, Five Down" will monitor the movements of players on my draft board.
5. DT Carl Davis, Iowa
Iowa's Carl Davis entered the 2014 season as a potential Round 1 player, and he backed that up with an awesome performance each day in Mobile.
Davis' film was inconsistent at times, but he played with fire with the Tennessee Titans looking on. His pad level, first-step quickness and ability to find the football were all eye-opening. Davis' snaps became appointment-viewing.
4. The University of Miami
How did The U post just six wins in 2014?
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
Wide receiver Phillip Dorsett was the most impressive player at the position this week, tight end Clive Walford was the best at his spot, middle linebacker Denzel Perryman is the highest-ranked player in Mobile at his position and cornerback Ladarius Gunter was the most impressive outside cornerback.
Al Golden can recruit, but this showing by the former Miami players is putting his coaching skills into question.
3. DE/LB Nate Orchard, Utah
The 2015 draft class is very good at edge-rusher, but after Bud Dupree (Kentucky) pulled out of the Senior Bowl, the top-end talent looked to be uncertain. Then Nate Orchard started practicing.
The Utah senior showed the same skills he used in dominating Andrus Peat of Stanford in their head-to-head matchup this season. He's able to convert speed to power and has the agility and flexibility to dip his shoulder and drive past blockers.
Orchard routinely beat up on T.J. Clemmings of Pitt.
2. OT Rob Havenstein, Wisconsin, and OG Laken Tomlinson, Duke
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
I wanted to highlight a few offensive linemen who really stood out this week. Wisconsin tackle Rob Havenstein played on the right side for the Badgers and showed an impressive array of agility, strength, technique and football IQ. You can tell he's been well coached and is NFL-ready.
Duke guard Laken Tomlinson is well-put-together, measuring in at 6'3 1/4" and 323 pounds. He's solid and very thick throughout his trunk. That size moves well when asked to pull, and he showed very good strength and anchoring skills in drills. He's a natural left guard.
1. ILB Jordan Hicks, Texas
A hip injury in 2012 and an Achilles injury in 2013 cut Jordan Hicks' time at Texas way down, but the athletic linebacker was the most impressive of all the inside linebackers here this week.
He's a naturally gifted athlete with the strength to fill against the run and the range to be a factor in pass coverage. Hicks looks like the new breed of agile, mobile inside linebackers who can stay on the field for three downs.
1. WR Ty Montgomery, Stanford
Drops, drops and more drops filled up my scouting notes on Ty Montgomery this week. He's not a refined or confident pass-catcher and fell out of too many routes. I even questioned his effort on passes over the middle during seven-on-seven drills and in team scrimmage sessions.
2. The Quarterbacks
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
Ugh. This was the worst group of senior quarterbacks I've seen during my time covering the Senior Bowl. All six quarterbacks struggled to make simple throws with ball placement, velocity and touch. Even simple things like taking the snap was a struggle.
I came into the week trying to separate Bryce Petty, Garrett Grayson and Shane Carden for my No. 4 quarterback spot and will go home even more unimpressed with the senior class of passers.
3. DE/LB Hau'oli Kikaha, Washington
Asking a defensive end to make the transition to a stand-up linebacker role is not easy, but Hau'oli Kikaha struggled to make plays in space all week. He wasn't explosive as a pass-rusher and did not impress in either individual or one-on-one drills.
He's a rusher only and looks like a liability in coverage and against the run.
4. WR Sammie Coates, Auburn, and WR Devin Smith, Ohio State
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
It was a tough week for the wide receivers in Mobile. With below-average quarterback play, it was tough for speedsters Sammie Coates and Devin Smith to wow scouts with their exceptional ability down the field.
Coates did play well in a red-zone drill Thursday afternoon, but both players were held back this week by situations in practice and poor quarterback play. Coates was not able to quiet concerns about his hands (he dropped too many easy passes), and Smith has yet to show he's more than just a deep threat.
5. OT T.J. Clemmings, Pitt
The hype surrounding T.J. Clemmings the athlete is real. He's long, lean and has very little softness to his body. But as a left tackle, Clemmings struggled this week. He's definitely a project more than a product at this stage of his development.
His punch needs work, and while his feet are very quick and fluid, he has to become a better puncher in pass protection and show more strength in the run game.
The Big Board
Senior Bowl week means moving players up and down my board after a live look at their ability. Here's an extended look at my top 50 players.
Updated Top 50 Big Board Rank Player School 1 QB Jameis Winston FSU 2 DL Leonard Williams USC 3 DE Randy Gregory Nebraska 4 QB Marcus Mariota Oregon 5 WR Amari Cooper Alabama 6 DE Shane Ray Missouri 7 T Brandon Scherff Iowa 8 WR DeVante Parker Louisville 9 WR Kevin White West Virginia 10 DT Danny Shelton Washington 11 DE Dante Fowler Florida 12 T La'el Collins LSU 13 SS Landon Collins Alabama 14 LB Shaq Thompson Washington 15 DE Bud Dupree Kentucky 16 LB Benardrick McKinney Miss. State 17 WR Devin Funchess Michigan 18 RB Todd Gurley Georgia 19 CB Marcus Peters Washington 20 CB Trae Waynes Michigan St. 21 DT Malcom Brown Texas 22 DE Eli Harold Virginia 23 T Cedric Ogbuehi Texas A&M 24 T T.J. Clemmings Pitt 25 OLB Vic Beasley Clemson 26 FS Gerod Holliman Louisville 27 T Andrus Peat Stanford 28 WR Jaelen Strong Arizona St. 29 DT Eddie Goldman FSU 30 DT Jordan Phillips Oklahoma 31 T Ereck Flowers Miami (Fla.) 32 CB Jalen Collins LSU 33 CB Alex Carter Stanford 34 DE Nate Orchard Utah 35 TE Maxx Williams Minnesota 36 DT Carl Davis Iowa 37 DE Owa Odighizuwa UCLA 38 CB Kevin Johnson Wake Forest 39 WR Devin Smith Ohio State 40 LB Paul Dawson TCU 41 WR Sammie Coates Auburn 42 RB Tevin Coleman Indiana 43 DT Michael Bennett Ohio State 44 RB Duke Johnson Miami (Fla.) 45 ILB Eric Kendricks UCLA 46 ILB Denzel Perryman Miami (Fla.) 47 RB Melvin Gordon Wisconsin 48 DE Preston Smith Miss. State 49 T Ty Sambrailo Colorado St. 50 DE Mario Edwards FSU Matt Miller
Parting Shots
10. I was told once that Bill Walsh could evaluate a player in one play, but I cannot. It's important to note with Senior Bowl coverage that one bad play (or great play) doesn't make the prospect.
Associated Press
A bad throw by a quarterback may draw your attention, but you owe it to the process to watch, and watch that player again, to see what causes the bad throw and if it's a consistent issue or just a bad ball. That goes for every position.
Too many people see one play, and that perception sticks with them when in reality, there's a reason it takes at least three games to have a solid view of a prospect.
9. You're going to see a lot of reports about "X team talked to Y player after practice" at the Senior Bowl, but here's an insider tip: That means nothing.
Each team assigns certain players to its scouts, and they're asked to check in after practice to confirm contact information, playing weight and small biographical details. A scout talking to a player post-practice may mean something, but it can also be an innocent bio check.
8. Accountability and credibility are very important to me, so I'm not hesitant or afraid to admit when I'm wrong about a player. Each week, I'll post my scouting notes summary and a ranking of a player I feel hasn't or didn't live up to my predraft expectations.
Grade: Top 35
Joe Robbins/Getty Images
"A solidly built edge-rusher with some inside linebacker skills, (blank) has the range and strength to be an impact on the corner. He was extremely productive at Alabama and has the natural tools to be a dynamic pass-rusher, especially in a 3-4 scheme. (Blank) is a potential late first-round player and a year one starter."
Courtney Upshaw, Alabama
7. And now for a player I hit on. A "hit" can be defined a few ways—a player ranked/drafted higher than the NFL viewed him is how I categorize a hit, though.
Grade: No. 20 overall, No. 4 position
Al Bello/Getty Images
"A big receiver who isn't as long or strong as he looks on TV, (blank) doesn't have great speed off the line of scrimmage and has not shown a full complement of routes during his time at Oklahoma State. He has serious off-field concerns, too, and when added to average speed and average hands, he's a scary gamble and shouldn't be a top-15 player."
Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma State
6. The Senior Bowl isn't just a job fair for the players entering the NFL, but for everyone involved with the NFL. Ride the elevator and you'll run into an out-of-work coach looking for a new gig. Go to dinner and you'll see scouts looking to get a meeting with a general manager for any openings in the front office.
If you sit in the stands at practice, you'll see plenty of media people looking for a new job or trying to make a connection for the next job. Which means if you want a job in the NFL, Mobile is the place to be during Senior Bowl week.
5. The way I grade prospects, it's safe to estimate 90 percent of their final grade comes from film study. So why is the Senior Bowl so important? For several reasons.
USA TODAY Sports
The Senior Bowl is often my first live look at a player, and there's no substitute for a live look at speed, technique and body types. It's also a chance to see small-school players or even FCS players I didn't have noted over the summer as draftable prospects. The Senior Bowl also serves as a great way to separate players with a similar grade—like T.J. Clemmings and Ty Sambrailo, for example.
As part of my draft study process, I'll go home from the Senior Bowl and add my handwritten notes to my digital notes on players. Those notes then become a full scouting report as the draft nears.
4. Senior Bowl director Phil Savage—a former NFL scout, scouting director and general manager—took to the podium before weigh-ins Tuesday morning to introduce and welcome scouts and media to the Senior Bowl. He also took time to note the players who he felt didn't "handle their business" in declining invites or dropping out of the game.
Savage implored scouts to "dig deep" on the following players: Corey Crawford (Clemson), Bud Dupree (Kentucky), Cam Erving (FSU), Rashad Greene (FSU), Brett Hundley (UCLA), Kevin Johnson (Wake Forest), Eric Kendricks (UCLA), Josue Matias (FSU) and Kevin White (West Virginia).
Players generally decline an invite if injured—like Brandon Scherff or Cedric Ogbuehi did, and they were acknowledged as respectfully declining—or because they are a top-15 player in the draft. The players mentioned above will definitely be asked at the combine why they weren't in Mobile.
USA TODAY Sports
3. One of the most important aspects of the Senior Bowl is the weigh-in portion, and not because we want to see 108 players walk across the stage in their underwear, but because it's important to get a true height and weight for the athletes. That's the only part I'm interested in.
Colleges (and high schools) are notorious for exaggerating the size of a player, so the Senior Bowl is where you find out that Ty Montgomery is actually 5'11" even though Stanford listed him at 6'2". You can't hide from the tape in Mobile.
2. Every time I do talk radio in Philadelphia, they want to know one thing: Can the Eagles trade up for Marcus Mariota? They can, but they shouldn't.
Trading away multiple first-round picks and multiple extra draft picks isn't worth the risk for a quarterback who fit Chip Kelly's college offense but would still be a work in progress in the NFL. Kelly has proved he can win with average quarterback play. He can't win with average cornerback play, though.
If the Eagles need to trade up, it should be for Trae Waynes.
1. I didn't talk to one person in Mobile who cared about the New England Patriots and this so-called Deflategate situation. In fact, everyone I asked about it politely told me to get lost because they were so tired of hearing about it on TV and talk radio. I agree.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
This is just everyone's chance to stick it to a coach who doesn't help the media and has made enemies with his record over the last 14 years.White supremacists are eminently punchable. It is difficult to watch and listen to someone spew ignorant, bigoted statements without feeling compelled to shut them up.
But just because white nationalists are puerile idiots who think the world belongs to the same race of people that invented ambrosia salad does not mean that it is okay to assault them. And it certainly doesn’t make it legal. But whether or not violence is a respectable or morally agreeable element of protest in today’s America, recent events have demonstrated that it is an element nonetheless, and it is best to be realistic about its application.
When, exactly, are you legally entitled to punch a Nazi? And if you punch a white supremacist or neo-Nazi, what should your immediate next steps be?
I spoke w/Corey Long abt using a can of spray paint a white supremacist threw at him, against them https://t.co/JqFmtYuizg #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/CIpcubkY9z — Yesha (@YeshaCallahan) August 14, 2017
First, some context
This weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white nationalists showed up and marched in an event they dubbed “Unite the Right,” and leftist counter-protesters, including members of Antifa, showed up in response. A bloody clash ensued.
One woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a white supremacist drove his car into the crowd of counter-protesters, and 19 others were injured. Deandre Harris was beaten by white supremacists right next to a police station, though Harris said no police officers came to his assistance.
And it’s no secret that in many parts of the country police departments and white nationalist groups are closely connected. Trump himself diverted funding from the study and dismantling of white supremacist organizations to focus on the threat of Islamic terror in June. So what can one do to combat the creeping tide of white supremacy when the foundations of our nation are steeped in it and our government is run by Nazi sympathizers, conspiracy theorists, and xenophobes?
Why do all white supremacists look like they smell of tooth decay and cigarettes that someone threw up?
Legally, there are a few self-defense options available. Civil rights lawyer and activist Dan Siegel spoke to Inverse about the legal parameters of self-defense, how to stay safe at a protest, and what to do if you are detained by the cops for your participation in demonstrations, violent or not.
Siegel, who practices in Oakland, California, said that it’s important to note that self-defense laws vary on a state-by-state basis, so what’s legal in one part of the country might not be in another. He spoke about the scenarios posed to him through the lens of California state law.
“But by and large … the law allows you to use ‘reasonable’ force to defend yourself or to defend other people from violence,” Siegel said.
This means that were you to come upon an individual like Harris being attacked by a group of white supremacists, “bystanders would be legally entitled to intervene and engage in force with their hands, or even with weapons to stop the assault on the individual who’s being attacked,” according to Siegel. Direct threats, especially if there is a weapon involved, are also in the clear, from a self-defense standpoint. “If someone’s pointing a gun at you, that is itself an assault, and you can defend yourself,” Siegel said.
But from there, the lines get blurrier. Verbal attacks, like the exchanging of slurs, do not justify escalation to a physical level. Escalating based on the mere presence of a weapon, like the guns displayed by militias in Charlottesville or during the Oregon wildlife refuge standoff, is also illegal. “I’m not sure if there are any particular rules about that in open carry states,” Siegel said. “But I imagine that the fact that someone is actually carrying the weapon would not be sufficient grounds for using force against that person.”
Here are some of the armed militia members attending the "peaceful" Unite the Right rally in #Charlottesville.
(Photo via @VSPPIO). pic.twitter.com/jA25n6PmbC — Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) August 12, 2017
Even legal violence that results in a protest, however, can result in detention by police. Siegel warns against resisting arrest. “People should realize that if they put up physical resistance to a police officer, it’s probably not gonna go well for them,” he said. “They have all the legal right plus the advantage of force to do harm to you in these situations.”
From that point forward, it’s best to clam up and lawyer up. “One of the strongest pieces of advice I could give people who are detained by the police is never talk with them,” Siegel said. He also warned against revealing too much information over the phone while in custody, as cops are able to record those conversations and use them as evidence.
And for general safety during a demonstration, Siegel recommends making sure that friends or family know where you’re going to be, and that you have legal and medical support available in case something goes wrong.
“One of the things I believe is that we should always operate from a position of strength,” Siegel said. “If there’s ten of them, there should be a hundred of us. I think there’s a lot of safety in numbers, and I think they can be overcome and driven out of whatever they’re trying to do if we are smart tactically and strategically, and that includes having numbers and being prepared with self-defense tactics, including, when necessary, lawful weapons.”
It’s clear that white supremacists are willing to use physical force to further their ideology and frighten their opponents, and it’s clear that they have only been emboldened by the government. So do your civic duty, tuck your thumb in front of your second and third knuckles, and the next time you see someone in WWII cosplay issue a threat, please punch your local Nazi.
If you are interested in donating to white supremacist assault victim Deandre Harris, he has a GoFundMe page open for his medical expenses.Carl Bernstein claimed on Friday there is "serious belief" in the FBI and Congress that there is an "active cover-up" to stymie any investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.
Citing FBI and Capitol Hill sources, Bernstein said on CNN that there is no definitive evidence yet of criminal activity resulting in indictment.
"There is serious belief in the FBI and in the congressional committees of the House and the Senate, that there here is an active cover-up going on involving, trying to keep investigators from finding out what happened in terms of the Trump campaign and Trump associates, near the top of the campaign and what happened in their associations with Russians," Berstein said.
Multiple congressional panels, as well as the FBI, are conducting separate Russia inquiries.
He was sparring with former Trump aide Jason Miller about another ex-Trump adviser, Carter Page, who reportedly is suspected of working as a foreign operative for or colluded with the Russian government.
Miller blamed the media for leaning on stories with "baseless allegations" citing anonymous sources.
Bernstein, best known for his investigative reporting that shed light on the Watergate scandal leading to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, defended the value of unnamed sources.
Though he said he didn't want to "belabor the example of Watergate," Bernstein said that "in Watergate, in the two years of stories we did at the Washington Post and also at the New York Times, there was not a single quoted source. It was all reporting based on anonymous sources."Image caption The court was told about a plan to kill Hazel Allinson at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester
A man who wanted to run off with a younger woman offered three men sums of money to have his partner murdered - and asked if she could be killed in hospital, a jury has heard.
David Harris, 68, denies three counts of soliciting to murder Hazel Allinson, a former TV scriptwriter on The Bill.
Jurors heard he asked if it could be done while she had surgery for cancer.
The Old Bailey heard he wanted her assets, including the £800,000 property they shared in Amberley, West Sussex.
The court was told Mr Harris approached London mechanic Christopher May in March 2016 and said: "I'm offering you £250,000 to kill my wife."
Jurors heard Mr May tried to warn Ms Allinson but missed her, and then Mr Harris approached a second man, Duke Dean, in October 2016, and offered him up to £175,000.
'Had run up debts'
The court was told Mr Dean alerted police who brought in an undercover detective to pose as "Chris", a third killer for hire, and a meeting was set up between Mr Dean, Harris and "Chris", in a bugged car in London.
The court heard Mr Harris suggested they kill his partner and make it look like a mugging or a carjacking.
Jurors heard a secret recording made by Mr May during another meeting, in which Mr Harris asked if Ms Allinson could be killed in St Richard's Hospital, Chichester.
He said: "She is going in. Her mother and her sister died last year of ovarian cancer so she is going in to have her ovaries out."
He then mentioned she would have five or six weeks convalescing and added: "I don't know if anything can be done then."
Jurors were told Mr Harris had run up debts by showering gifts on a younger woman Ugne Cekaviciute, whom he had first met in a brothel.
Mr Harris, who worked in TV production, claimed he was researching a "thriller" novel he had planned and had no plan to kill Ms Allinson.
The prosecution said Mr Harris wanted both the younger woman and the older woman's money.
The trial continues.When I was preparing my article "The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama" for publication, I had a conversation with a source from the intelligence agencies. A month before, he had spoken to me, on the record; now he was in a panic.
It wasn't that he had disclosed classified information; he hadn't. It was that, as he said, "everything had changed" in Washington, with the furor over the "leaks" that had resulted in the New York Times' two front-page stories on classified national-security programs, the first on targeted killing, the second on the Stuxnet computer virus. He had originally spoken to me when the Obama administration appeared to be on the verge of officially acknowledging a targeting program that had taken the lives of three American citizens, including that of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old who had never been accused of terrorism. He was calling me back to ask that I change any quoted reference to "the program" — because mere use of the word "program" might be construed to represent, in itself, acknowledgement that a program exists; and because the administration was under intense pressure to revert back to the first rule of the targeted-killing program, which is that you never talk about the targeted-killing program.
I told him that I'd do what I could for him, and did; I also told him that I thought he was being alarmist, and that surely nothing would happen to officials quoted uttering a word popular in Washington for its very lack of specificity. Now I'm not so sure, as the FBI has begun conducting a criminal investigation into the leaks that resulted in the Times's stories; as the leaks have become a Republican talking point; and as the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, has authorized legislation that would regulate the interactions between journalists and intelligence officials.
Now, let's be clear: The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama has leaked information about its lethal operations to its own advantage, as it realized early on the political utility of a president accused of being "soft on terror" decisively dispatching terrorists. But it has not leaked information about its lethal operations primarily for political advantage. Rather, it has leaked information about its lethal operations in an attempt to reconcile its promises of transparency with a program that gives it the power to decide, in secret, to summarily kill those identified as America's enemies. It has leaked information about its lethal operations because it understands that Americans have a compelling political and moral interest in knowing what the Administration is doing in their name. Indeed, it is said to have leaked information about a memo authorizing the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki to The Washington Post as a backdoor way of giving al-Awlaki notice of his impending execution and thus giving him something like due process.
But the main reason that the Lethal Presidency has leaked information about its operations is that journalists of diligence and talent have asked for it. The word "leak" is prejudicial: It is a political word rather than a reportorial one. It implies that journalists receive their information from sources of encompassing ambition and low motive; it implies furthermore that at some level journalists are doing their sources' bidding. But if my own experience is any guide, the "leaks" of the Lethal Presidency are the result of discussions not with manipulative officials, but rather concerned ones — that is, officials who recognize that the Lethal Presidency is constitutionally-challenging and morally problematic, and believe that at the very least Americans should be given the information they need to discuss it.
Which is why it is confusing to hear Mitt Romney operating in full witch-hunt mode — calling for the sources of the leaks to be "exposed" and all but accusing of them of being un-American — at the same time as the Senate has finally moved to fulfill its oversight responsibility and demand that the Obama administration provide that legal memos that justified its killing of American citizens without trial.
Is the problem with the Lethal Presidency the fact that Americans know too much about it or too little? Should we be concerned with the existence of a secret kill list or the threats to its secrecy? Is the answer to the prevailing dread that American instinctively feel in regard to the president stepping into the role of executioner more transparency or less — more journalism or less?
I answer from my own experience: For four months, I tried to find out what happened to Abdulrahman al-Awlaki. I never did. Nobody has. There have been no "leaks" about him. By the terms of the current debate, however, the silence regarding the death by drone of a 16-year-old American is what should be applauded. Indeed, by the terms of the current debate, any official who steps forward and finally reveals how Abdulrahman al-Awlaki died would be liable to criminal prosecution, not to mention the shrill castigation of the likes of Mitt Romney and John McCain.
But if as a journalist I would call him a source instead of a leaker, it's as an American I would call him a hero instead of a criminal.
MORE ON THE LETHAL PRESIDENCY OF BARACK OBAMA:
• PART 1: The Administration Killed a 16-Year-Old and Didn't Say Anything About It
• PART 2: America Targets People to Kill. Why Is Congress AWOL?
• PART 3: Secrets and World Ties: Obama's Killer Contradiction
• PART 4: What Happens When Assassination Replaces Torture?
• PART 5: Obama's Real Killing Problem... Is Our Problem, Too
• UPDATE: For Obama's Lethal Presidency, New Suit Aims at Justice
• FROM THE MAGAZINE: The Full StoryXseed games licenses quite a few Nihon Falcom titles and Falcom is a very PC friendly friendly company. Most gamers have always questioned why the localizations of the Legend of Heroes, Y’s and Brandish on the PC have all remained over in Japan while these franchises have proven to be moderately successful to bring over. This has led to quite a few fan localizations of games like Y’s 4 to crop up as the fanbase was waiting for a real PC release to come out.
Now according to some fans, Xseed has applied to put their titles on Steam. Two titles to be exact. When pressed, Tom Lipschultz had this to say: “The timing for our appearance in the Steam registry couldn’t have been much more perfect.” Currently Xseed has made big news with their localization of Mistwalker’s The Last Story and this would be a great way to bring more attention to their other titles.
Trails in the Sky was the first Japanese PC RPG I’ve ever seen localized in the west. I can’t see how it wouldn’t do well with a PC iteration.
Now this is all conjecture, with no real confirmation from any Xseed employees. However, we do have a sexy image of the Valve test below.Off the wall: The astonishing 3D murals painted on the sides of buildings by a trompe l'oeil artist
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At first glance, it looks as if some natural disaster has shaken away the walls of these buildings to reveal architecture hidden for thousands of years.
And at second and third glance, it looks like that too.
But these spectacular images are not the unexpected result of an earthquake.
Treasure trove: An Egyptian style mural adorns a wall in Los Gatos, California. Pugh paints people into the mural to heighten the 3D effect
Greek tragedy: But the Doric-style columns apparently exposed in this university hall are nothing but paint
The incredibly lifelike scenes are actually huge works of art, painted on the side of perfectly intact buildings. Even that woman peering into the ruin above is not real.
The paintings, which have fooled many, were created by John Pugh, who specialises in trompe l'oeil - or 'trick of the eye' - art.
He uses his skills to delude the viewer into seeing 3D scenes painted on flat surfaces.
The Californian-born artist said: 'It seems almost universal that people take delight in being visually tricked.'
His works can been seen all over the world, including in the artist's home state. The 'earthquake' work shown here is located on Main Street in the town of Los Gatos and was created following a genuine earthquake in 1989.
The temple-like interior apparently exposed features jaguar gods, regarded as the creators of earthquakes by the Mayans.
Wonder wave: John Pugh's Mana Nalu mural in Honolulu. Fire crews rushed to save the children from the mighty wave - before realising it was an optical illusion
Blurring the lines: A mural entitled Art Imitating Life Imitating Art Imitating Life, at the Cafe Trompe L'oeil, in San Jose, California
Another picture is of Taylor Hall at the California State University, Chico, where Pugh studied. The mural features Doric-style Greek columns behind the seemingly shattered wall and is called Academe.
Another work, featuring a colossal wave about to crash on to a pavement in Honolulu, Hawaii, took two months of studio work to plan and a further six months to execute with the help of 11 other artists.
It features Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of the Hawaiian Islands with Duke Kahanamoku - the ultimate father of surf.
The scene is so realistic that just as it was near completion, it attracted the attention of the fire brigade, which stopped its truck in the middle of traffic.
Mr Pugh said: ''They jumped out to rescue the children in the mural. They got about 15 feet away and then doubled over laughing when they realised what it was.'
Having a cow: Valentine's Day, a mural unveiled during the Global Mural Conference in Twentynine Palms, California
Trick of the eye: John inserts a passer-by into the mural painted in Santa Cruz, California, entitled Bay in a Bottle, who is watching the ocean scene
Take a pew: This looks like a nice spot to rest your weary feet on a sidewalk in Sarasota County Health Center, Florida
Artist's impression: John Pugh hard at work. He is currently working on murals for a police station in California and a recreation centre in Calgary, Canada This is the desired effect and Pugh enjoys the community-bonding properties of his public works. He works on a large scale in public and residential areas and his paintings can be seen all over the world from New Zealand to Hawaii - with many telling a story of the area where they are positioned. Pugh is used to people's amazed reactions when they pass his murals.
He said: 'They say "wow did you see that. I thought that was real."
'Public art can link people together and stimulate a sense of pride within the community.
'These life-size illusions allow me to communicate with a very large audience.
'It seems almost universal that people take delight in being visually tricked.'
Pugh is currently working on a mural for a police station in California and also one for a recreation centre in Calgary, Canada.John Minchillo/Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — One sign inside Lucas Oil Stadium read: "We just assume you're cheating right now."
Another sign, "Cheaters exit here," was draped over the tunnel where the Patriots entered and exited the field. When Patriots players saw the sign, they complained, and the sign soon disappeared.
AJ Mast/Associated Press
Colts fans were indeed salty. Outside, before the game, there were fans with deflated footballs. There were "Tom Brady sucks" signs. "Belichick cheats" signs.
In the media leading up to the game, there was a sense that this was an impending beatdown. A Patriot payback against the whistleblowers. This game was going to be ugly.
But something strange happened along the way. There was Colts pride. And maybe Patriots anger. But no coalescing of the two into anything we expected. Or, really, anything of significance.
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
What we got, instead, was the same Patriots beating of the Colts. All of the offseason drama resulted in the same pecking order. The Patriots are clearly better than the Colts. That is the final lesson from all of this. The most important of all. The Colts haven't made any significant gains on New England, and as long as Tom Brady is the quarterback and Bill Belichick is the coach, they won't.
In the end, there were no deflated footballs. There was no trash talk. No anger on the field. Just the continuing Patriots march toward another Super Bowl. And once again, they left the Colts in their non-deflated wake.
The way New England is playing, maybe that march will end with another perfect season. It's possible. They have that look. We've seen it before.
The Colts actually led at halftime and kept the game close. The Patriots ended up winning, 34-27, and this wasn't the complete atomization everyone expected. It wasn't as close as the score suggested, either. But it wasn't a killer.
The Colts played with smarts and aggression, but at times they flirted with rank desperation, such as the fourth-down fake-punt, swinging-gate play that will go down as easily one of the worst play calls in the history of professional, college or Pop Warner football.
That call made the butt-fumble look like The Catch.
That play also almost guarantees Chuck Pagano's |
indeed throughout the world. They have replaced the local Mom and Pop stores which were locally owned and from which profits circulated among local enterprises many times instead of going to Wall Street in one fell swoop. The co-op movement represents a shift back to local rather than international corporate ownership and a movement away from the concentration of wealth to a more democratized distribution of wealth.
There is no reason why a local co-op could not provide the same services as does a WalMart or a Home Depot or a Walgreen’s or a Fry’s electronics, companies which have metastasized themselves worldwide resulting in a concentration instead of a localization of wealth, for after all, all they are doing is buying products wholesale and selling them retail. It’s not rocket science. It just takes an ability to unload trucks and stock store shelves. Computers do the rest including even checkout!
There are many examples of successful co-ops already in existence.There are a number of worker owned businesses in the state of Ohio, for example. In 1977 a very large steel mill in Youngstown was closed down resulting in 5000 workers losing their jobs. Long story short: the workers and the community got together and put the steel mill back into operation as a worker owned enterprise.
There is a support system for the establishment of worker owned businesses at Kent State University called the Ohio Employee Ownership Center. They provide assistance to workers who want to own their own factories and stores and other businesses. Many successful businessmen, aided by favorable tax benefits, now sell their businesses to their former employees when they retire.
Gar Alperovitz reports in his book, “What Then Must We Do?” the following information:
As time has passed, new priorities and another set of alliances have begun to develop. Now, all of the linked worker-owned companies are very, very green by design. For instance the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry [part of Evergreen Cooperatives, a group of worker-owned businesses launched by Cleveland’s largest foundations and anchor institutions] operates out of a LEED Gold-certified building and uses (and has to heat) around one-third the amount of water that other commercial laundrys use and heat. Evergeen Energy Solutions is poised to install twice as much solar capacity in the coming period than currently exists in the entire state of Ohio. And Green City Grocers Cooperative – a three-and-a-quarter acre hydroponic greenhouse (the largest in any American city) – currently produces some three million heads of lettuce a year along with hundreds of thousands of pounds of herbs. (Two new cooperative businesses are scheduled to come online each year as the building processes continue.) Then there is Organic Valley, the $500 million leader in the organic dairy industry, which is also a cooperative of family farms.
It should be obvious that worker owned co-ops are very involved in the communities in which they operate unlike international corporations whose only allegiance is to the bottom line. In fact they can be sued by their investors if they should have the audacity to deviate from the bottom line and try to do some good in local communities.
Co-ops come in many different organizational forms from credit unions with very little democratic participation to forms in which worker owners are directly involved in decision making. For example, there is the B corporation, legal in California but not in every state, which allows the corporation to not be totally addicted to pursuing the bottom line. These corporations are allowed by law to be do gooders in the communities in which they operate. Patagonia Corporation, the outdoor apparel and sporting equipment retailer, is an example
More than 130 million Americans – 40% of the population – are members of one or another form of cooperative. Some of these are agricultural and electrical co-ops dating back to the New Deal in the 1930s. The outdoor recreational company, REI, is a co-op as is hardware purveyor ACE Hardware. In Madison, Wisconsin there is a worker owned cab company, Union Cab, with over 200 worker/owners and annual revenues of over $7 million. I could go on and will in another article.
In San Diego there is the Market Creek Plaza, a $23.5 million cultural and commercial project anchored by a shopping center. The initial public offering was limited to neighborhood residents who are accumulating wealth as the share price goes up.
A total of 415 investors representing 600 residents and other non-profit and for-profit organizations purchased shares at the outset. A new neighborhood foundation owns another 20% of the shopping center thereby providing a funding stream for future community wealth-building efforts. The Jacobs Foundation which initiated the project intends to exit in 2018 with ownership to be split among community residents and the neighborhood foundation.
There is also The Village at Market Creek. From their website:
The Village at Market Creek was given Gold status because it demonstrates what can happen when residents own the vision and are involved in the decision making process from the beginning. The Diamond Neighborhoods of southeastern San Diego are among the most culturally-diverse communities in the nation. Located just minutes from San Diego’s thriving downtown area, these neighborhoods have endured decades of disinvestment. Once defined by widespread blight, this community is undergoing a resident-led renaissance.
As the result of a unique partnership between neighborhood residents, the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI), and a large network of local and national investors, these abandoned sites are being transformed into a thriving commercial, residential, and cultural center known as The Village at Market Creek.
Good things are happening in San Diego, around the country and indeed around the world. The Mondragon Corporation, the grandaddy of all co-ops located in Spain’s Basque Country, has over 80,000 owner employees, annual revenues of over $14 billion euros, assets of $35.8 billion and operates 257 businesses and co-operatives worldwide. More on Mondragon here.
So the co-op movement is a step by step approach to build economic democracy and widely distributed wealth ownership from the ground up. It is a movement well under way and expect to see a lot more reported here in future editions of the San Diego Free Press.Criticism erupted when the State of Texas recently announced a $1.6 million grant to a network of 27 medical providers affiliated with The Heidi Group—because founder Carol Everett has been a pro-life advocate. Now the abortion lobby, with an assist from mainstream media, has attempted to halt the grant.
Carol Everett, Founder and CEO of The Heidi Group, has been on both sides of women’s health issues. She used to serve as director of five abortion facilities; since founding The Heidi Group in 1995, her team has helped thousands of women in unplanned pregnancies make positive, life-affirming choices.
Today, The Heidi Group is one of Texas’ largest health care networks for low-income women. Yet mainstream media, taking cues from the Texas Tribune funded by Planned Parenthood, has spread false allegations and misinformation since Texas announced its grant on August 10. Now Everett sets the record straight on what services The Heidi Group provides and its goals in receiving the Texas grant.
Carol Everett has been involved for decades in leading women’s health efforts (Photo: The Heidi Group)
Bound4LIFE: In recent weeks The Heidi Group has received attention for providing services in a new state program, Healthy Texas Women. What is this program and how does it work?
Carol Everett: The Healthy Texas Women program helps women who are at 200 percent of the federal poverty level with annual physicals and necessary health care for one year.
The number of sick women we are seeing is staggering. Estimates of 50,614 women will be seen and 8,947 in a secondary program. Our goal is to find a way to serve 100,000 Texas women with quality health care.
Keep up with the latest pro-life news and information on Twitter. Follow @LifeNewsHQ
Bound4LIFE: Why have certain media outlets criticized The Heidi Group receiving a grant for this program, and what is your response?
Carol Everett: We are doing what needs to be done or the media wouldn’t be targeting us. It never ceases to amaze me why the media is always looking for the negative side to every story and not listening to real experts in the field of women’s health.
When asked what we offer, we respond that The Heidi Group offers quality health care in a respectful environment by medical professionals across Texas. The media’s other agenda to discredit us is because Planned Parenthood wants to get the money we have been granted.
The media purports that Planned Parenthood is the only organization that can serve these women, but just look at what we’re doing. For decades low-income women have only been served in urban settings, not rural areas. The Heidi Group serves 70 counties, 41 of which are rural.
We will not be deterred, though, and will continue to reach out. For instance, the Panhandle area of Texas has never been served before and medical professionals affiliated with The Heidi Group are now offering services there.
Photo for illustration purposes: Texas Heart Institute / Flickr
Bound4LIFE: Carol, for those who may not know your background, please share how you became involved in the pro-life movement.
Carol Everett: After having my own abortion, I couldn’t justify what I had done. But I found a way to soothe my conscience by selling abortions to women. I evolved in the abortion industry, first working for abortion clinics. I quickly saw the profit and a way to make a lot of money.
I took the best abortionist I could find and opened our own abortion clinics. If we performed 40,000 abortions a year at $25 commission per abortion, becoming a director over five clinics would make me a millionaire. It was all about the money.
In 1983, the Lord of Life and God of the universe intervened and sent a Godly man to share the Gospel with me. One day I prayed the sinner’s prayer with him, never expecting a change. By the time I returned to the clinic, I found everyone crying. I’m sure this had happened before, but I never saw it. One by one, I took the girls back to my office and talked them out of having abortions. Hours later, I fell to my knees and prayed a heart prayer asking God’s forgiveness.
Within a few days, we were investigated by a local television station for selling abortions to women who weren’t pregnant. It hit the national news. God got my attention and hit me with His two-by-four. I knew that God had answered my prayer and was turning me in a different direction.
I never intended to become a pro-life activist, but in 1984 I started speaking and learning about the wonderful work the pro-life movement was doing. I continue to speak and work to save these precious lives.
Bound4LIFE: When was The Heidi Group founded, and how has it expanded since then?
Carol Everett: The Heidi Group was formed in 1995. We started in a small home—with me and two other people—but soon evolved to an office, helping pregnancy centers and women. Today, working closely with 27 medical providers across Texas, we have morphed into the well women health care business.
Bound4LIFE: You were instrumental in the passage of Texas law HB 2, including the drama that unfolded in the Texas State Capitol in 2013. Is there a single moment from the years-long HB 2 drama that stands out to you?
Carol Everett: So many moments during that time are memorable. It was breathtaking to walk into the Texas Capitol building and see God’s people coming for the first time to support such important pro-life legislation. It was impossible not to cry.
That single moment was the most encouraging thing I’ve ever been a part of. I was never fearful, because the presence of our Lord was so strong. You could feel His presence.
Bound4LIFE: Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down key components of the original law, do you see a way forward for the Texas Legislature?
Carol Everett: I believe that the Texas Legislature will be very careful about what they pass in the next session. The Legislature will probably be tweaking established law, but I do not anticipate they would walk away from supporting the pro-life issue.
Carol Everett speaks on the sanctity of human life at a public event (Photo: Paul Jeffrey / Flickr)
Bound4LIFE: Many Christians nationwide have become involved in the movement to save lives in the womb. What is your perspective on the value of prayer as pro-life advocacy?
Carol Everett: Prayer passed HB 2 and prayer will pass future legislation. For so long, prayer was forgotten, as many relied on their own power instead of on God.
I so appreciate what Bound4LIFE and their supporters do in praying before the Supreme Court and what they will continue to do. This organization is an example for us all.
Bound4LIFE: In this critical election year, what do you foresee nationally for the pro-life cause?
Carol Everett: Of the two candidates running, we have one who wants to pay for abortions if elected president—and wants to expand abortions through the ninth month. Look at the evil in that. Every believer must stand up, vote, and pray as never before with humble and contrite hearts.
Pro-life issues have almost been sidelined by the many other issues of immigration, jobs and national security. We are at a critical juncture with respect to the balance on the Supreme Court. The most important issue to me, first and foremost, is life. If we vote scripture, we win and God wins.
LifeNews Note: Debby Efurd is president and co-founder of Dallas-based Initiative 180 and its program of recovery, Peace After the Storm. She is the author of the new book Go Tell It! which releases on September 1. reprinted with permission from Bound4Life.Excerpts from Press Call with Reps. Elizabeth Esty, Pete Aguilar, and Gun Violence Experts discussing Donald Trump and the NRA
From:DNCPress@dnc.org To: DNCPress@dnc.org Date: 2016-05-20 17:10 Subject: Excerpts from Press Call with Reps. Elizabeth Esty, Pete Aguilar, and Gun Violence Experts discussing Donald Trump and the NRA
For Immediate Release May 20, 2016 Contact: DNC Press - 202-863-8148<tel:202-863-8148> Excerpts from DNC Press Call with Reps. Elizabeth Esty, Pete Aguilar, Brady Campaign President Dan Gross, and Gun Violence Prevention Advocates discussing Donald Trump at the NRA Leadership Forum This morning, Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, Congressman Pete Aguilar, Brady Campaign President Dan Gross, and gun violence prevention advocates held a conference call to discuss Donald Trump's appearance at the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum. Below find excerpts as prepared for delivery. Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (CT-5) Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut is in my district. I am sickened and horrified that in the three-and-a-half years since those shootings, nothing has been done to combat gun violence. I lay the blame on the NRA and the Members of Congress who are beholden to them. Despite the fact that 90 percent of Americans supported action on gun reform after the Newtown tragedy, the NRA and their allies worked to defeat the bill by spreading rumors and falsehoods. Meanwhile, news of shootings across the country still dominate the headlines. Both of our Democratic presidential candidates have proposed solutions to address this crisis, and President Obama's executive actions earlier this year addresses this crisis by expanding background checks, effectively enforcing the laws already on the books, increasing mental health treatment, and funding research for gun safety technology. Congressman Pete Aguilar (CA-31)... We have held so many moments of silence for those lost to gun violence. We have prayed for their families, and we have vowed to take steps so that this would never happen again. Our words are empty if our actions don't back them up. No single reform could have stopped the tragedy that unfolded in San Bernardino, but that's not an excuse to ignore the need for a national discussion around gun safety.... I don't know how officials at the NRA or the Republican Party sleep at night, knowing that we can and should do more to protect our communities. There's an emptiness to our unanswered prayers for change when we don't take steps to work for the type of change that we want. I don't want to hold another moment of silence - I want Congress to work towards a sensible solution and I want the Republican Party to realize that they answer to the American public, not the NRA. Dan Gross, President of the Brady Campaign...As the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump has made gun violence in America a campaign trail punchline. In January, the front runner speculated that he could "stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody" without hurting his popularity.... Make no mistake: this presidential election represents a critical crossroads for this issue and for our collective safety. Lives are literally at stake. The choice between Democrats and Donald Trump will be a referendum on gun violence in America - and the result will make a big difference either helping to fight or fuel the problem.... As he prepares to address the National Rifle Association as today's keynote speaker, I challenge Donald Trump to stand by the 74% of NRA members who want expanded Brady background checks and I call on him to support Senator Schumer's recently introduced Brady Bill 2.0 that expands background checks to all gun sales. Po Murray, Chair of the Newtown Action Alliance I have lived in Sandy Hook for 17 years. I am a mother of 4 children, all graduates of Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooter lived in my neighborhood. I lost my neighbors and our children's teachers. The entire community was and continues to be heartbroken. We made a promise to take action to end gun violence.... Donald Trump appeals to the worst elements in our country. If he were elected president, we should be afraid of the toxic combustion that could result from his hateful rhetoric plus his reckless views on guns.... It's crystal clear that Donald Trump stands with the NRA and the gun industry---not the families of Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Columbine or others impacted by gun violence. America will not be great without meaningful common sense gun measures. More and more American families are touched by gun violence every single day. We need the voters to elect a President who will prioritize and lead on the issue of gun violence prevention to make America safe again. Tom Mauser, father of Columbine victim Daniel Mauser and spokesman for Colorado Ceasefire What's most disturbing to me about Donald Trump is his view on background checks. At Columbine, where my son was killed, background checks were an important issue.... What are we going to do about the 33,000 plus gun deaths and 70,000 plus gun injuries that we suffer every year?... I'm looking forward to an election where we really put the question to him: why do you not support the 90 percent of Americans, Mr. Trump, that support stronger background checks? ###Evangelical leaders have more backbone than cowardly members of the GOP and are standing by Donald Trump because they know what’s at stake in this election. Trump may have said some nasty things but it was over a decade ago. Hillary has a lifetime of flaws and corruption which make her a horrible choice for America.
Reuters reports, via Yahoo News:
Evangelical leaders stick with Trump, focus on defeating Clinton
Leaders of religious conservative groups largely stood behind Donald Trump on Saturday, the day after vulgar sexual comments he made about women surfaced online, but some expressed concern that the U.S. Republican presidential nominee’s remarks could depress evangelical turnout on Election Day.
Trending: CNN Panelist Rips Congresswoman: “Stop Blaming Trump For All Racism” (VIDEO)
Most evangelical leaders did not condemn Trump, and instead pointed to an urgent need to prevent Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton from winning the presidency, reshaping the Supreme Court and implementing liberal policies.
The latest blow to Trump’s campaign came after a 2005 video surfaced of the then-reality TV star talking on an open microphone about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman. Vice presidential running mate Mike Pence said he could not defend Trump’s words.
Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, said Trump’s “grossly inappropriate language” does not change the choice facing the country in the Nov. 8 election and that “I continue to support the Trump-Pence ticket.”
“Hillary Clinton is committed to enacting policies that will erode religious liberty, promote abortion, make our country less safe, and leave our borders unprotected,” Bauer said.
The Republican Party could learn a thing or two from these people.CCTV however accused Samsung in being discriminatory to its Chinese customers in the way it handled the recall. The broadcaster said that while Samsung issued a video apology to U.S. users, all Chinese consumers got was a 200 word statement.
"Samsung Electronics said they wanted to be an enterprise that's favored by the Chinese people, however it's not easy for China to like them. Samsung also wants to be the enterprise that contributed to Chinese society, but contribution requires sincerity instead of arrogance," CCTV wrote.
"Samsung made it look like they are fixing their mistakes, but in fact they are hold double standards on the recall of its products. With a less than 200 words statement, Samsung excluded China from the markets where Note 7 would be recalled and replaced. Samsung's discriminative policies have caused significant dissatisfaction among Chinese consumers."
CCTV's condemnation is likely to hinder Samsung as it looks to continue momentum in its smartphone division in China. Samsung, like Apple, is also trying to boost its presence in China, a market it once dominated but has now fallen behind local players such as Huawei and Oppo.
Earlier this week, Samsung said it had received around 60 percent of recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices in Europe with a similar figure returned in the U.S. and South Korea. In Europe, the company also said the Note 7 would go back on sale from October 28.
- Additional reporting by CNBC's Haze Fan."You're going to feel like quitting. You're going to struggle. You'll have days where you'll wonder, 'what's it all for?'
You'll have days when people attempt to break you down, or challenge your intelligence, skills, and right to be where you are. You'll have moments when you question your own abilities, and perhaps your sanity - but you'll rise.
You'll rise because your strength as a nurse is not determined by one grade, one shift or one job - it's an ongoing journey of learning, honor, humility and a chance to make even the smallest difference in the lives of your patients."
Don't ever give up on achieving your dreams to be a nurse. Keep pushing forward, no matter how hard it is. Nursing is not an easy major. You will have very little, if any, time to do anything other than study. But just think about how great it will feel to connect with a patient, pray with them, and even save his or her life.
This will make all of the late night studying, weekly breakdowns, countless cups of coffee, and tests so hard all you want to do is cry, worth it. To see a patient's face light up when you walk in his or her room will make your heart melt and you'll know you chose the right major.
The kind of nurse you will be isn't based on a test grade, it's based on your heart for the people you are caring for. You may have failed a class, but don't let that ruin you. Try again and keep pushing toward your goal. Don't allow others around you to drag you down and tell you that you aren't good enough to be a nurse.
Show them how strong you are and that you will never give up.
There will be days when all you want to do is quit, I know I question my major more than once a week; however, there is a patient out there that needs you and your caring heart. You can do this, have faith in yourself that you can move mountains.
I will say that you definitely must have a heart for nursing.
Personally, I want to be a Pediatric Oncologist and work at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Just the thought of those precious children going through the hardest part of their lives, keeps me going so that I can be there for them. I want to be a light to my patients and their families during a dark time. When I feel like giving up, I just think about how many lives I have the chance to touch and I keep on going.
So when you feel like giving up, just think about your future patients and how you can make a difference, even if its only for one person. I love the quote from Katie Davis that states, "I will not change the world, Jesus will do that. But I can change the world for one person. So I will keep loving, one person at a time."
Even though this quote is about foreign missions, I believe it fits the mold for nursing as well.
Nurses have the opportunity to change the world for people every day. Just remember that, smile, don't give up, and keep pushing toward your goal.The undefeated Eagles have cruised to two easy victories over arguably the worst teams and defenses in the league. On Sunday, they face their first true test of the Carson Wentz era against the Steelers, and they'll need all hands on deck, especially Dorial Green-Beckham's.
The second-year wideout has caught just four balls for 32 yards since joining the club in the offseason from Tennessee. Green-Beckham's inability to master the playbook and his questionable work ethic soured his relationship with the Titans, who felt it prescient to swap the wideout for a young offensive lineman.
Green-Beckham isn't Wentz's favorite target yet despite Philadelphia's thin receiving corps; he ranks sixth on the team, behind tight ends Zach Ertz and Trey Burton, with six targets. But the Eagles are looking to get the promising, if not disappointing, wideout more involved in their attack on Sunday, especially in the red zone.
"He's coming along really well," coach Doug Pederson said Friday, per the Philly Voice. "We're giving him a little bit more each week. He's understanding things a little bit better and processing the information better. Again, this is something as we go forward we'd love to obviously get him a little more involved from a standpoint of getting more targets thrown in his direction.
"We actually had DGB targeted a couple of times from a play call standpoint in the red zone, it's just that the play design went to the other side of the field; I think Carson went the other way."
Green-Beckham is six-foot-five, so he's a natural fit to be a top red-zone target for the young Wentz. However, in Philadelphia's four red-zone possessions on which it has scored touchdowns, only one has been through the air, and it went to Burton.
If he wants to live up to his pre- and post-collegiate hype, Green-Beckham will have to become an all-around weapon for Philadelphia, and that starts with knowing the offense, something he has yet to fully achieve.
"Right now, I'd say I'm around 80 percent," said Green-Beckham, on his knowledge of the playbook. "75 to 80 percent of the playbook, which is a lot. Every week I try to prepare myself and come in and look more into the playbook, try to figure out more concepts. So when it's time to put those plays in, I'm already ahead of everybody and I already know what I need to do. So when it comes time to ask questions, I'm asking the right questions on those particular plays."Story highlights Louis Corbett, 12, may soon lose his vision due to rare disease
He attended a Celtics game Wednesday night, thanks to generous donations
The New Zealand boy got thunderous applause at the game
Just like any other night in the NBA, the starting lineups of the Boston Celtics and visiting Golden State Warriors were introduced over the public address system.
But Wednesday wasn't just any night at Boston's TD Garden. And the loudest ovations were not for members of either team.
Louis "Louie" Corbett, 12, who is rapidly losing his eyesight due to retinitis pigmentosa, was in the house to fulfill his final seeing wish: watch his beloved Boston Celtics play a game.
"Welcome Louis!" flashed on all four sides of the Jumbotron to thunderous applause.
"I'm quite excited to be here for the game," Louie told CNN affiliate WCVB
JUST WATCHED Boy sees favorite team before going blind Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Boy sees favorite team before going blind 00:51
JUST WATCHED Boy sees THIS before the world goes dark Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Boy sees THIS before the world goes dark 02:55
While the reason for his long journey from Auckland, New Zealand, was distressing, the circumstances that brought two communities on opposite sides of the planet together were extraordinary.
Louie's progressive disorder will eventually deteriorate his vision.
Faced with the grim reality that he will soon lose the ability to see the world around him, his parents wanted to give their youngest of five children an international sightseeing tour.
"This year we're going to try and fill his world with as many beautiful images as we can," his mother, Catherine Corbett, told CNN.
Louie was instructed to make something of an ocular bucket list -- things and places he'd like to see for the first, only and likely last time.
He picked places such as the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the Empire State Building and, in a sign of the times, Google headquarters in California.
But the thing he wanted to experience the most wasn't a landmark or a national park. An avid sports fan, Louie wanted to take in a game. And not just any game -- the Boston Celtics.
"For some reason, he really got hooked on American basketball," his mom said. "He cares about nothing else. He is really quite passionate about it."
Making the list was the easy part. Getting there, however, would be trickier. With Louie's eyesight rapidly fading -- by 50% in the past year alone -- the trip was going to have to be soon. Like, matter-of-weeks soon.
Warren Casey, the CEO of a Boston-based software firm, stepped in with a hefty donation and the promise to raise even more.
The fact that Casey's company is based in Boston -- the very place Louie was headed -- had nothing to do with why he got involved.
"That was a random coincidence," he told CNN. "I did it because the Corbetts are my next-door neighbors."
Casey makes the 24-hour-plus trek from his Auckland home to his office in downtown Boston every six weeks. He got Air New Zealand to pick up Louie's airfare tab and donated his own points as well.
Casey and his partners at Ceiba Solutions agreed to pay for the trip no matter how much was raised while friends and strangers from opposite sides of the planet donated about $25,000 in just four weeks.
"It is so touching," Catherine Corbett said. "People are just so supportive."
The fundraising campaign soon picked up steam on social media, reaching strangers far and wide.
"Somebody Tweeted me an article about this boy in New Zealand and told me I should read it," said Corinne Grousbeck, who lives outside of Boston.
Grousbeck is the incoming chair of the trustees at the Perkins School for the Blind, one of the oldest schools for the visually impaired in the country. Her son, 21-year-old Campbell, was blinded by a condition similar to Louie's.
"I completely understood where the Corbetts were coming from in wanting to build a visual memory bank for (Louie)," Grousbeck said. "It's an incredibly difficult thing to have to go through."
But that wasn't the only coincidence; Grousbeck's husband just so happens to own the Boston Celtics.
"Of course when I read about how he was a big Celtics fan, I knew that we had to have him come for a game," she said.
The coincidences didn't end there.
When Grousbeck learned that the Corbetts would be coming to Boston for their game on March 5, she realized she would be unable to give Louie her seats because she had given them away.
"March 5th had coincidentally been scheduled as Perkins School for the Blind Night at the TD Garden (home of the Celtics)," she said. "We'd already given away our seats to the school's students, families and donors."
While Grousbeck made sure Louie and his family had great seats -- practically on the Celtics bench -- she says the real show was the Perkins chorus singing the national anthem.
"I think for a 12-year-old like Louie, for him to be able to watch visually-impaired kids perform the national anthem on a national stage, for him to see what blind people can achieve, that's going to give him the lasting memory," she said.
And his Boston trip was filled with other coincidences as well.
He spent the day Tuesday at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, whose cutting-edge ocular research may one day turn Louie's "farewell to vision" tour into simply one heck of a trip.
Those odds might be long, but smart money wouldn't bet against Louie. He seems to have serendipity on his side.A British Army soldier on duty in Afghanistan (Picture: Getty)
Joe Glenton, a former soldier in the British army, has served his country and risked his life in Afghanistan.
He’s also been called a coward. The reason? After returning to Britain after his first tour of Afghanistan, he became a conscientious objector (CO) and refused to go back.
‘It’s not like you make a choice to be a conscientious objector,’ he said. ‘It’s something that develops over time and goes against the grain of your being.’
Glenton, now 31 and author of Soldier Box, published today, was 23 when he went to Kandahar in 2006 as a logistics specialist and driver.
He’d joined the army, he says, like many, to earn money, as ‘a way out of a boring lifestyle and menial labour’ and also to serve his country, ‘the idea of Britain as a force for good, liberty and democracy’.
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His tour lasted seven months. His experiences changed how he saw Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan.
‘We knew civilians were being bombed and how the war was being conducted,’ he said. ‘It was conducted in a climate of racism and indifference to the Afghan people, completely at odds with how it’s sold at home. I came back and because of those things, I thought, “No, this isn’t right”.’
Today is Conscientious Objectors Day. Conscientious objection – the right of an individual to refuse to perform military service on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience or religion – is illegal in many countries, including South Korea and Turkey.
Glenton was the first British soldier to publicly refuse to go to Afghanistan. He raised his conscientious objection with his chain of command but says his superior officer called him ‘a coward, a malingerer’.
His request was rejected and he was told he would go back to Afghanistan. Glenton claims to have been bullied and harassed. ‘I also had post-traumatic stress at the time, so I was at a low ebb,’ he recalled.
‘They were determined to send me and I was determined not to go. I’d done as much as I could in that situation. As is often the case with a lot of guys, I went AWOL.’
Glenton spent two years on the run before handing himself in. He was sentenced to nine months in prison (mainly on charges related to going AWOL and talking to the media), served five, and has now left the army.
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Conscientious objection wasn’t an easy option but he says he was too disillusioned with both the reasons for the war and the way it was being conducted to continue.
‘We’re told we’re going there to help young girls get an education or to build infrastructure or really hackneyed stuff like security there equals security here.
‘Let’s look at probability. Does the US, with Britain in tow, go to Afghanistan to help women go to school or is it because there is, for example, 90 billion barrels of oil in the Caspian?
‘Is it human rights or is it because Afghanistan is in a strategic location with borders with China, Pakistan and Iran? Are we spreading democracy or is this power politics? It’s a new veneer on a very old practice.’
The argument sometimes made against conscientious objection is that if soldiers start picking and choosing which conflicts they’ll be part of, the whole military system breaks down.
But Glenton argues that argument only works if governments uphold their part of the bargain.
‘There’s a point past which statesmanship has failed – à la Afghanistan, à la Iraq – where obviously the government aren’t going to do the right thing. Are they the people to be saying what’s right and wrong? Is Tony Blair, for example, going to lecture anyone on morality and ethics? Or David Cameron?’
Ben Griffin from Veterans For Peace served in the SAS in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan before being posted to Baghdad.
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‘During my eight years in the army, I held strict beliefs about the role of British soldiers,’ he said.
‘Whilst serving in Iraq, I was involved in operations that were contrary to those beliefs. I also saw that we were the cause of a great deal of harm. I refused to continue serving in Iraq.’
Like Glenton, Griffin questioned both the legality of the war and the way it was being conducted. He was discharged from the army.
‘It’s often people who’ve never experienced war that label conscientious objectors as cowards or traitors,’ he said.
‘War is illegal, irrational and immoral. When soldiers realise this, some decide to resist. This resistance can take many forms: refusing to follow certain orders, avoiding killing by firing high, forming unofficial truces with the enemy, going AWOL, applying for CO status.
‘It takes great courage to resist war and punishments often follow. In the UK, Malcolm Kendall-Smith, Joe Glenton and Michael Lyons all served prison sentences for refusing to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. These people aren’t cowards. They’re heroes and their stories should be celebrated.’
It is not just an issue for British troops. Conscientious objectors from the US to Colombia to Israel risk serious consequences.
This week, 19-year-old Natan Blanc was jailed for the tenth time in six months for refusing to enlist for compulsory military service in Israel.
‘According to international standards, everyone has the right to change their beliefs,’ said Hannah Brock from War Resisters International.
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‘That means if someone who’s voluntarily joined the armed forces develops a conscientious objection, like we’ve seen from many US soldiers around Iraq – many of whom are now in military prisons, like Kimberly Rivera, a pregnant mother-of-four who is in prison in Colorado for ten months – they also have the right to claim conscientious objector status, just like those who are conscripted into the armed forces.’
She added: ‘Conscientious objection, as well as being a moral imperative for many people, can also be political strategy.
‘Conscientious Objection is a way to say, “No, violence is not the answer”. Many COs |
d — Kelly Dodd (@RHOC_KellyDodd) December 1, 2016
@NicoleJackovich I am old!! But I'm not dressing like I'm going to Coachella!! Look at the way she dresses! It's gross! — Kelly Dodd (@RHOC_KellyDodd) December 1, 2016
The newbie Housewife then threw major shade when she claimed Tamra uses the performance enhancing drug HGH (human growth hormone).
@wendymau6 @NicoleJackovich she goes to Dr. Lee and Shoots up HGH!! Proven fact! — Kelly Dodd (@RHOC_KellyDodd) December 1, 2016
Tamra competed in (and won!) a Musclemania fitness competition earlier this year, and any sort of performance enhancing drugs are a big no-no at these events. Competitors may even be subjected to a series of drug tests in order to compete. Below an excerpt from their official drug policy:
Because the Musclemania World Championships and Figure Universe are natural bodybuilding and ladies figure events, at the discretion of each regional event promoter, the Top 5 Finalists in each Division or Weight Class may be subject to a drug test by urinalysis and/or polygraph methods immediately following their performance at the Finals. At the America, World and Universe Championships, all competitors will be asked to provide a urine sample and be subjected to thorough urinalysis testing.
No word yet from Tamra regarding Kelly’s claims against her.
Some speculate that Kelly’s nasty twitter rant is nothing more than a ploy to keep the drama going between seasons. The cast hasn’t been confirmed for season 12 so it’s possible Kelly is working to secure herself a spot.
I’m always up for a good catfight between Housewives, but it seems Kelly might be taking things just a bit too far. Then again, some would argue that’s the reason she makes such a great addition to the cast.
I can almost guarantee this party is just getting started so stay tuned!Image caption Antonis Giakoumatos: "I feel like I'm waiting to die."
She stands idle, tied ashore, her hull slowly rusting.
The Penelope should make a daily crossing from the port of Rafina, outside Athens, to the beautiful islands of Andros, Tinos and Mykonos. But since the summer, she has been stuck, the crew refusing to sail as they have not been paid for months on end.
The ship is named after the wife of the ancient Greek figure Odysseus. She is said to have waited patiently for his return from the Trojan war. But the patience of these workers is fast running out.
Around 20 have occupied the boat, living on board for fear of losing their jobs altogether if they abandon ship. And so they stay on a deserted shell with no electricity or running water, the kitchens dark and closed up, passenger lounges with rows of vacant seats.
In one corridor, a sign proudly reads: "Your perfect holiday starts here". The irony is not lost on the desperate workers.
"The situation here is very difficult," says Antonis Giakoumatos, the first officer. "We stay in a ghost ship. I feel very sad and angry because I don't have the money to go and see my wife and children."
Image caption The Penelope's crew have not been paid for months
I ask what the atmosphere was like on board when the ship sailed.
"It was very good. I would see the passengers' smiles and know I was doing my job well. Now it's empty. I feel like I'm waiting to die here."
The crew - and the BBC - have tried to contact the company, Agoudimos Lines, but to no avail. The assumption is that it is in financial trouble and so is withholding salaries, confident that workers would rather this than have no job at all.
Knock-on effect
The employees of the Penelope are some of the one million private sector workers in Greece who go unpaid. The Labour Institute of the Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) found this week that one in every two companies was not paying its staff on time.
Much of the focus in Greece's financial crisis has been on public sector cuts but this is the other side of the story - private companies crumbling from a drop in demand. And Platon Tinios, an economist at the University of Piraeus, says the two are linked.
Image caption Workers at the Hellenic Shipyards have not been paid in over a year
Image caption Shipyard worker Kostas Hatzopoulos says he is surviving on loans and handouts
"The public sector is exporting its problems to the private sector," he says. "When the state is squeezed - as it has been frequently - the easiest thing is to postpone payment to suppliers. Hence a liquidity problem in the private sector."
Can the Greek economy ever achieve robust growth after years of recession if the private sector is hobbled in this way, I ask?
"I don't think so," he replies. "But there's another problem: banks have stopped lending or, when they do so, it's at very high interest rates. So companies try to economise where they can, and delaying payments to workers is the easiest form of finance."
Across Athens at the Hellenic Shipyards, it is an even worse story. The 1,200 workers have not been paid since April 2012. The cranes are halted, vast floating docks lie rusting in the water - one of Greece's key industries paralysed.
"It's been my job for 33 years," says Kostas Hatzopoulos as he looks out at the old machinery.
"It was my life, my experience, my technical knowledge. Now I've had to survive by borrowing money from friends and asking for food from the Church."
Here, it is partly corruption to blame. The shipyard was previously owned by a German company, HDW, now part of ThyssenKrupp.
In 2000, the Greek government signed a murky contract to pay the owner to build and modernise Greek naval submarines at the shipyard. The cost - at almost 3bn euros (£2.5bn; $4bn) - was hidden from Greece's deficit figures so the country could join the eurozone.
Company tactic?
Since then, the defence minister involved, Akis Tzochatsopoulos, has been jailed for taking kickbacks on the deal.
Image caption The cranes at the Hellenic Shipyards rest idle
In 2010, a majority stake in the shipyard was bought by Abu Dhabi Mar, an Emirati company, expecting payments for the order to be honoured.
But with the financial crisis, Greece's formerly vast defence budget - its military spending was the highest in the EU, as a proportion of GDP - was cut down to size.
Now the contract has not been paid and so the company has withheld salaries. Abu Dhabi Mar refused to talk, as did Greece's ministry of defence, but a coalition MP, Makis Voridis, insists the firm has reneged on its obligations.
"They haven't done the work they're meant to be doing and so the state will not pay," he says.
"I think they're using the social problem of leaving workers unpaid to push the state to give money that is not owed. We must solve the problem but in a way that respects taxpayers' money."
Regular protests by the shipyard workers have failed to break the deadlock but they are just some among so many now, deprived of the safety net of a stable job.
Greece already has record unemployment of over 27% but that does not include the million or so unpaid workers.
It is a story you simply would not expect to hear in a European Union country in 2013. But then, in today's Greece, there is just so much that shocks.a new giant flag donations welcome
following a fans vote across various media earlier this season the winning design for a new giant flag was sussex by the sea. Following feedback and positive suggestions the final design is attached below.If you would like to donate towards the cost of this flag please sendpayments to. If you dont have paypal you can donate via bank transfer or with cash. Pm us here or dm us on twitter for details.We currently have £1010. As an idea a 12m x 9m flag would cost around £1200, a 14m x 11m flag would cost around £1600 and a 16m x 12m around £2000. The flag would be produced in the uk. Cheaper options have been explored but we are not happy with the quality and as such we would not want to go down that route.The flag will have a fire safety certificate and would have storage.If you are able to donate please send paypal payments to nskbha@gmail.com well update the running total here and via twitter. Any additional funds raised could be used for a new semi-permanent north stand banner.Up the albion14MP Altek Leo to hit it off in Europe in an Android outfit
It's a good day for cameraphone lovers. First the N8 starts shipping and now Altek announce that their 14MP optical zoom enabled Android smartphone will hit Europe. And its bringing HD recording too, so it might just be what a lot of people were waiting for.
Altek Leo is the first smartphone to offer a 14MP camera with 3x optical zoom and HD video recording. There are also a xenon flash and a LED video light on board, which makes the handset a must for everyone hoping to leave their digicam at home in favor of their cell phone.
The rest of the Leo specs sheet also looks really impressive. The handset comes with a 3.2-inch WVGA multi-touch display and runs Android 2.1 (Eclair). Connectivity is taken care for by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, as well as full range of network data transfer options (GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G with HSPA). Built-in accelerometer, digital compass a microSD card slot complete the list of the Altek Leo extras.
The Altek Leo will hit European shelves in Q1 of 2011 but its pricing is still unknown.
Source[This post has been sponsored by the PRIMP Network. All opinions are my own.]
As featured in the September 2016 Giveaway from Inspirations & Celebrations, the BeBe & Bella Probiotic skincare line is one of the best anti-acne skincare treatments to hit the market. It’s gentle on sensitive, acne-prone skin, yet effective in clearing up existing breakouts and preventing future blemishes, which is why it helps to create luminous skin.
BeBe & Bella Probiotic Skincare
During my meeting with the company’s CEO (Allison Krebs Bensch) at the Cosmoprof Beauty Convention in Las Vegas (in July 2016), she shared with me the story of how her family-owned business came to be. With a background in pharmaceuticals (focusing on nutritional supplements and probiotics), Allison (and the company’s co-founders, her mother, Rose, and sister, Linda) started researching the health and beauty benefits of probiotics, which is what led them to developing BeBe & Bella.
“The idea was sparked to harness the full potential of the probiotics and its components as the basis of a skincare regimen…and BeBe & Bella was born! As a crucial element, BeBe & Bella includes probiotic supplements as part of its skincare regimen. Beauty truly does start from within and the balanced internal health of a person will be reflected in a luminous complexion.” As a family-owned business, these pioneering women strive to deliver quality products that truly benefit their customers.
Having struggled with acne as a teenager, for the past 20 years, I’ve made it my mission to do extensive research and test dozens of anti-acne products and treatments, to not only solve my own acne problem, but to also help other women in their quest for beautiful, luminous skin.
In addition to learning about the efficacy of laser light therapy (as an overall acne-prevention tool) and doing spot-treatments on existing blemishes (using salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide products), I’ve personally learned the benefits of using probiotic-based skincare (as a daily skincare regimen).
That’s why I got excited to discover the BeBe & Bella skincare line earlier this year.
Since beautiful skin starts within, it’s essential to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, drink a lot of water, and take supplements that are designed to boost your body’s ability to regenerate healthy cells and minimize inflammation. That’s why BeBe & Bella developed skin lightening and skin care supplement capsules that promote luminous skin, which are designed to be used in conjunction with the topical skincare products.
To achieve maximum results, BeBe & Bella encourages you to use the complete line of BeBella® products, in a specific layering order.
The recommended regime is as follows: start by using the acne-fighting Facial Cleanser, then the deep-cleansing and balancing Toner, apply the soothing Facial Essence (which is comparable to a serum, but lighter in texture), followed by the nourishing Eye Cream and then finish with the Hydrating Night Cream.
Throughout the day, the Facial Essence Stick (shown above) can be used to boost hydration and minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
The BeBe & Bella scientific team has developed a proprietary formula that combines these innovative, powerful ingredients for maximum anti-aging effects, that also helps to naturally prevent and heal acne, resulting in luminous skin.
Probiotics are touted for their ability to help balance the bacteria in the digestive system. When applied topically, probiotic-based skincare can boost skin-cell turnover, enhancing the skin’s protective moisture barrier, and reversing photo-damage to the skin.
BeBella’s skincare secret lies is in its two patented, cutting-edge anti-aging ingredients: Probiotic + Yeast Propagate Technology. The highly-effective skincare products encourage faster cell turnover, enhance the skin’s protective moisture barrier, and fight off free radicals by utilizing a skin-friendly yeast complex.
Inspirations & Celebrations’ readers can save money on BeBe & Bella skincare when they use the coupon code: PRIMP20 (no expiration date), by visiting the BeBe & Bella website.
BeBe & Bella Skincare Starter Kit Giveaway
If you’d love to have luminous skin, then you’re in luck, because you have the opportunity to win the BeBe & Bella Starter Kit (valued at $80) shown above. The starter kit includes a stylish BeBella cosmetic bag and 5 must-try samples (facial cleanser, facial essence, hydrating night cream, purifying facial toner, and eye cream).
To enter, follow the easy instructions listed in the Gleam-powered giveaway widget shown below. A random winner will be chosen on January 7th, and contacted via email. To be eligible to win, entrants must be age 18+ and USA residents.
Don’t miss the opportunity to earn 5 bonus entries by sharing this fabulous giveaway with your friends (by email and social media). The viral share link option can be found in the list of entry options below.
To learn more about BeBe & Bella and the probiotic-based skincare and supplement line they’ve developed, visit their websiteThe data that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden holds could, if released, lead to deaths, the agency's outgoing director says.
Gen. Keith Alexander said in an interview aired Tuesday on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that the possibility that more information coming from Snowden could cost people their lives represents his "greatest concern."
"Do you know what he has?" host Baier asked the general.
"We have a good assessment of what he has, yes," Alexander said.
"And is there a lot more damaging to come?"
"Yes, especially to our military operations and those who are serving overseas," Alexander replied.
Alexander said he was "hugely disappointed" when he learned that Snowden, who was entrusted with sensitive information, began leaking NSA data last summer.
"I think this will haunt him for the rest of his life," Alexander said. "Here's a young guy who made some huge mistakes."
When asked what he would do with Snowden were he granted 15 minutes alone with him, Alexander said he wouldn't attack the former analyst, but instead might reveal to him the damage he's caused the agency, "so he knows the damage -- the significant damage to our nation and to our allies."
Alexander also said the reforms pushed by President Obama, which would require the NSA to prove more direct links from terrorists before acquiring data from telephone companies, are sensible.
"The approach that we put forward... is one that would limit what we get, so it does away with the business record FISA database as we know it today, and we would now work with the telecommunications company on specific numbers that have a terrorist nexus and get only that data," Alexander said. "This is an approach that I think meets the intent of protecting our civil liberties and privacy and the security of this country."
Also in the interview, Alexander addressed concerns raised by former President Carter, who on Sunday said he uses snail mail to communicate with foreign leaders for fear his emails are being monitored.
"We're not [monitoring the emails]," Alexander said. "So he can now go back to writing emails. The reality is, we don't do that. And if we did, it would be illegal and we'd be... held accountable and responsible."Code: ------------------------------------- | FIFA 18 SWITCH | FIFA 18 PS4 | |---------|-------|---------|-------| | Weekly | LTD | Weekly | LTD | |---------|-------|---------|-------| | 13,244| 13,244| 50,325| 50,325| | 5,218| 18,462| 11,250| 61,575| | 3,806| 22,268| 6,847| 68,422| | 2,644| 24,912| 3,459| 71,881| | 2,344| 27,256| 2,511| 74,392| | 2,000| 29,256| 1,933| 76,325| | 1,833| 31,089| 1,567| 77,892| | 1,711| 32,800| - | | | 2,278| 35,078| - | | | 2,356| 37,434| - | | | 4,256| 41,690| - | | | 6,683| 48,373| - | | |---------|-------|---------|-------|
I'm not sure how this happened, but it did.Source: DengekiThe Switch version has been outselling the PS4 version on a weekly basis for almost two months now, and it's also on the rise thanks to the holiday season. In the longer run, the Switch version might even overtake the total sales of the PS4 version. I'm shook.Yes, it's a small drop in the ocean compared to sales in Europe, the main market for FIFA, but this proves that there's a market for FIFA on Switch, and it's bigger than some would think. Maybe next year, with a bigger install base and budget, FIFA 19 Switch will perform even better.Congrats to EA for getting the ball rolling.AN UNPRECEDENTED war of words between Donald Trump and Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s nominee for the presidency in 2012, set the tone for the Republican primary debate held on March 3rd at the beloved Fox theatre in Detroit. “His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader,” said Mr Romney in a speech he gave at the University of Utah on the same day. He called Mr Trump “a phony” who is “playing the American public for suckers”, a man whose “imagination must not be married to real power”. The Republicans’ nominee in 2008 joined in, declaring his “many concerns about Mr Trump’s uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national-security issues”. John McCain was echoing the worries of dozens of conservative defence and foreign policy officials who had written an open letter asserting that Mr Trump’s “vision of American influence and power in the world is wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle”.
After winning seven of the 11 states at play in Super Tuesday on March 1st, Mr Trump is the undisputed front-runner in a race that has dwindled to just four contenders. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, all but dropped out on March 2nd, leaving Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich in the arena to fight the real-estate tycoon whose ascent has sent shivers down the spine of the Republican establishment. Belatedly, the GOP’s grandees are putting up a robust defence, which was reflected in a debate that focused largely on Mr Trump. The three Fox News moderators of the debate—including Megyn Kelly, Mr Trump’s nemesis in the network’s first debate of the season—even came up with slides and other props to show how Mr Trump’s fiscal plans don’t add up and how he frequently contradicts himself on foreign policy.
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After a week of trading insults and put-downs, Mr Trump and Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida, had expressed the desire to have a proper policy debate. It wasn’t to be; the debate descended into an undignified brawl between angry men. Mr Trump said he was taking back his description of Mr Rubio (whom he otherwise insisted on calling “Little Marco”) as a “lightweight”, but complained about a joke Mr Rubio made about his allegedly small hands. “He referred to my hands,” Mr Trump said, lifting his arms to show them to the audience. “If they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem.”
The only candidate who benefited from the sharp descent below the belt was John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, who has largely abstained from personal attacks in all of the 11 Republican primary debates. Coming across as the only adult on the stage, Mr Kasich had possibly his best debate so far. Whenever he talked, the other candidates seemed to be nodding in agreement. The message was his usual mix of common sense with a reminder of his considerable experience in government and his solid record in Ohio. He talked about Ronald Reagan rebuilding the army and pointed out that he worked with him: “I was there. I knew Ronald Reagan.” Going further than Mr Rubio, who said he would send special forces to fight Islamic State, Mr Kasich said a significant American presence on the ground was needed in Syria, Iraq and even Libya, as part of a broad international coalition.
Immigration was again a central topic. Ms Kelly asked Mr Trump about an interview he gave to the New York Times in January, in which he is said to have shown flexibility on some policies, in particular about his proposal to deport more than 11m illegal immigrants. She suggested he had also told the Times that aspects of the much-ridiculed wall he plans to build on America’s southern border might be negotiable—and then challenged Mr Trump to make the audiotape of the interview public. Mr Trump refused Ms Kelly’s offer, though he admitted that on immigration there has to be some “tug and pull and deal”. As for his determination to build the wall, he claimed that he was not very flexible at all.
Mr Cruz’s main contribution to the evening was a barrage of attacks against Mr Trump. He made much of lawsuits filed by former students of the now-defunct Trump University. In one of three pending suits against Mr Trump, the school is accused of “engaging in specific fraudulent, deceptive and illegal acts”. Mr Cruz also enumerated the number of cheques that Mr Trump had written to Hillary Clinton—four in the 2008 presidential race alone—to prove that Mr Trump is not really a conservative. Mr Trump retorted he had made all these donations to the Democrats’ front-runner at the time because it was good for business.
The most comical moments of the evening were provided by Mr Cruz, trying to get Mr Trump to shut up. “Count to ten, Donald,” he advised at one point. At another moment, he said “breathe, breathe, I know, Donald it’s hard, but breathe”, as if to quieten his rival. Mr Rubio wondered whether they could continue the debate when their yoga session was over, to which Mr Cruz replied that he hoped there wouldn’t ever be yoga on stage. “At least he is flexible,” said Mr Rubio about Mr Trump.
Michigan’s and Detroit’s financial troubles made an appearance in the debate, albeit in passing. Mr Rubio said that he respected the state’s governor, Rick Snyder, for having taken responsibility for the scandalous lead-poisoning of the tap water in the city of Flint. Mr Cruz sang praise of Detroit’s past glory as an arsenal of democracy and the Silicon Valley of its day. He blamed 60 years of leftist policies for its subsequent descent into the financial abyss.
However rowdy their exchanges, at the end of the debate the other contenders affirmed that they would back Mr Trump if he were to become their party’s nominee. Mr Kasich added that he would do it even though sometimes Mr Trump made it a bit hard. Asked whether he would support the GOP nominee, Mr Trump raised an eyebrow and asked “If it’s not me?” Then, somewhat hesitantly, he said he would back whoever becomes the nominee.
Mr Trump was the main target of hard questions during the debate and remained on the defensive for most of the evening, yet afterwards he said that he had expected the debate to be much tougher. In spite of the strong headwinds from his party’s establishment, Mr Trump has reason to feel confident. The latest polls from the Detroit Free Press, the city’s leading daily, predict that he will continue his winning streak at the next primary election, on March 8th, when Michigan goes to the polls. Mr Trump has 29% of the state’s expected votes, compared with 19% for Mr Cruz and 18% for Mr Rubio. In a triumph of hope over experience, on March 3rd the Free Press endorsed the man who ought to be regarded as having won the debate: John Kasich.In a major step in understanding how the nervous system and the immune system interact, scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have identified a new anatomical path through which the brain and the spleen communicate. The spleen, once thought to be an unnecessary bit of tissue, is now regarded as an organ where important information from the nervous reaches the immune system. Understanding this process could ultimately lead to treatments that target the spleen to send the right message when fighting human disease.
Mauricio Rosas-Ballina, MD, working with colleagues in the laboratory of Kevin J. Tracey, MD, figured out that macrophages in the spleen were making tumor necrosis factor, a powerful inflammation-producing molecule. When they stimulated the vagus nerve, a long nerve that goes from the base of the brain into thoracic and abdominal organs, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) production in the spleen decreased. This study complements previous research performed in Dr. Tracey’s laboratory, which showed that stimulation of the vagus nerve increases survival in laboratory models of sepsis.
The findings were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Many laboratories at The Feinstein Institute study the immune system in health and in disease. Every year, about 500,000 people develop severe sepsis, a syndrome triggered when the body’s immune system wages an attack on the body that is well beyond its normal response to an invader. Sepsis kills about 225,000 deaths in the United States each year.
A hundred years ago, the spleen (located in the upper quadrant of the abdomen) was thought to be only reservoir for blood. It has only been in recent years that scientists discovered that the spleen is a manufacturing plant for immune cells, and a site where immune cells and nerves interact. The spleen defends the body against infection, particularly encapsulated bacteria that circulate through the blood.
The hope is to modulate other immune functions like antibody production through the spleen (via vagus nerve stimulation) as a way to modify the course of infections and possibly some autoimmune disorders.
Dr. Rosas-Ballina began following the winding path of the vagus nerve to establish the route it follows to reach the spleen. He was trying, without much luck, to find fibers of the vagus nerve in this organ. And then he went a little further south to the splenic nerve, the nerve that innervates the spleen. Their results indicate that the vagus nerve inherently communicates with the splenic nerve to suppress TNF production by macrophages in the spleen.
According to the prevailing paradigm, the autonomic nervous system is anatomically and functionally divided in sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, which act in opposition to regulate organ function. “The division between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems is not clear cut,” said Dr. Rosas-Ballina, explaining that the vagus nerve (the major parasympathetic nerve) acts through the splenic nerve to modulate immune function. He said that results of this study suggest that there may be two separate ways the brain communicates with the spleen to regulate immune function. This points the way to a possible solution for treating sepsis. It may be more effective to take advantage of the central nervous system to control cells of the spleen. This way, “you know where the treatment is going,” said Dr. Rosas-Ballina.Turkey is prepared to “open the gates” and allow hundreds of thousands of refugees on its soil into Europe, the country’s president threatened on Thursday, as he denounced the West’s ‘shameful’ contribution to the crisis.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan goaded EU leaders, saying they had not delivered the €3 billion (£2.3 billion) in aid his government was promised in exchange for halting the tide of refugees.
In a combative address in Ankara, he said the Turkish government was being taken for “idiots” by Brussels and insisted he was “proud” of leak minutes of a high-level meeting with EU leaders, in which he had threatened to flood Europe with refugees.
It came as Nato deployed a taskforce of battleships to the Greek coast to collect intelligence and, for the first time, return any stranded refugee vessels they intercept directly back Turkey. Royal Navy vessels could join the force, the Defence Secretary indicated.
Refugees from Syria, many of whom told the Telegraph they had fled Russian airstrikes, queue up to receive food at charity kitchen in Kilis, Turkey (Sam Tarling/The Telegraph)
Turkey is struggling to cope with more than 2.5 million refugees on its soil.
Under a now unravelling “dirty deal” organised by the European Union’s leadership and backed by the British government, Mr Erdogan was to be offered €3 billion in aid, in exchange for halting the flow of boats.
Turkey would enact stringent border controls on the west coast in exchange for allowing Turkish citizens to visit EU member states later this year without visa restrictions.
But the cash has been delayed by wrangling among European leaders, and several thousand migrants a day still make the short crossing over the Aegean.
"I am proud of what I said. We have defended the rights of Turkey and the refugees. And we told them: 'Sorry, we will open the doors and say 'goodbye' to the migrants'," Mr Erdogan said.
He claimed the UN has spent less than half a billion dollars in the crisis, and demanded more countries take in migrants, adding: "Shame on you! Shame on you!"
In recent days, the UN, EU and other organisations have called on Turkey to take in Syrian refugees fleeing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Russian air strikes on its southern border.
Tens of thousands have fled from Aleppo after Russian war planes continued to bomb Aleppo in support of a regime offensive to capture the Syrian city. Mr Erdogan said his government was preparing for an exodus of 600,000.
"In the past we have stopped people at the gates to Europe, in Edirne we stopped their buses. This happens once or twice, and then we'll open the gates and wish them a safe journey, that's what I said.
He went on: “The €3 billion is not in our budget. Where has it gone?"
"We do not have the word 'idiot' written on our foreheads. Don't think that the planes and the buses are there for nothing. We will show patience up to a point and then we'll do what's necessary."
In a move that will further inflame relations, Greece on Thursday confirmed it wants Turkey declared as a "safe third country" - a move that would allow it to send back asylum seekers picked up in the Aegean.
"No decision has yet been taken" but "it is being looked at", a source said.
Separately, the UN heaped pressure on central Europe to end its steadfast opposition to taking in refugees.
"It is time for the leadership in xentral Europe to set a strong example and commit to helping families fleeing war and human rights violations, irrespective of their nationality or religion," the UNHCR's regional representative for Central Europe, Montserrat Feixas Vih, said.
Nato announced on Thursday that it would send a taskforce comprising boats from Germany, Canada, Greece and Turkey to conduct surveillance and rescue stranded craft off the Turkish coast.
Michael Fallon, the British Defence Secretary, said it was a “thoroughly welcome move” that would “save lives” and “break the gangs”.
“This is a big step forward and we are looking urgently now at what contribution we can make to it,” he said.
He insisted the vessels will return any migrants rescued to Turkish soil, and therefore will not encourage crossings as was feared to be the case on the Mediterranean off Italy.
“This is the first time we will see a group tasked with returning migrants. That hasn’t happened before so that’s quite an important development.”
On Thursday, the father of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose lifeless body washed up on a beach came to emblemise the crisis, was accused in court of having driven the fated boat.
Muwafaka Alabash and Asem Alfrhad, suspected people smugglers, went on trial in Bodrum, Turkey, accused of causing the boy’s death.
Photo: Independent Doctors Association via Sam Tarling
Abdullah Kurdi had been “driving the boat” at the time, Emin Haydar, a Syrian survivor of the sinking, told the court.
"The real criminal here, the organiser, is Abdullah Kurdi, who became a hero on television but did not even testify," said Mr Alfrhad.
Mr Alabash said he had been told before coming to Bodrum to "'find Abdullah Kurdi, he does the migrant smuggling'. I found him in Bodrum. Everyone knew him. His collected money from his people."
Mr Kurdi and his family denied the claims, made at the time. The two accused men, who deny the allegations, face 35 years in jail if convicted. The case continues.166 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit
After a very brief and accidental release last week, ILMxLab’s trailer for the Star Wars experience subtitled ‘Trials on Tatooine’ – a room-scale experiment in the Star Wars universe – is here and we’ve got the full trailer for you.
The experimental arm of the special effects division of Lucasfilm – Industrial Light and Magic – now owned by Disney, have made some over the last 12 months with its concerted focus on bringing the beloved Star Wars franchise to the immersive realm.
Most recently, the ILMxLab team brought their experimental Holo-Cinema to Sundance, with an experience built around the Star Wars and Jurassic Park universes. Now, at GDC 2016, xLab has released the trailer for their HTC Vive Star Wars experience Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine.
Let us know what you think in the comments section, we’ll have lots more from ILMxLab at GDC soon.The Washington Capitals’ Bruce Boudreau was the National Hockey League’s coach of the year in 2008. A week ago, he reached 200 victories faster than any coach in league history. But Monday, he lost his job, a casualty of his team’s lackluster performance and his strained relationship with his star player.
Boudreau was fired by General Manager George McPhee shortly after 6 a.m. Later in the day, former Capitals player Dale Hunter was named his replacement.
A career minor league coach before taking over the Capitals on Thanksgiving 2007, Boudreau rose in prominence and prestige over the past four seasons, an affable over-achiever who coached the team to the best record in the league’s Eastern Conference twice in four seasons. But after the team’s third straight playoff disappointment last May and recent slide over the past month that included eight losses in its past 11 games, it became apparent the man once known as a “players’ coach” was no longer connecting with many of his players, most notably Alex Ovechkin.
“Sometimes [a coach’s message] just wears out,” McPhee said. Coaches “do everything they can to get a team going and they coach well for a while but — and I’ve said this before — it’s like having the same teacher for five years. How would you like to do that in high school? It would be hard.”
Following another early playoff exit by the Capitals this past spring, many, including former players, criticized the team for being too accommodating to its stars. But Boudreau’s attempts to bring accountability to the team served only to single out players such as Ovechkin and Alexander Semin and further the locker room divide.
Reached by phone Monday afternoon, Boudreau said, “I’ve had better days.” He then asked to be given a day or two before commenting on his dismissal.
Though Ovechkin claimed as recently as Monday “I have good relationship with him,” the most public indication of a rift between the star and Boudreau came Nov. 1 during a game against Anaheim. With the Capitals trailing 4-3 with 62 seconds left, Boudreau benched Ovechkin, considered the game’s most talented player as recently as a year ago, while the team made a last-ditch effort to tie the score.
The move worked in the short term — Nicklas Backstrom tied the score in regulation and won the game in overtime (with an assist from Ovechkin) — and the next day, both Boudreau and Ovechkin played down its significance, and what appeared to be Ovechkin’s profane reaction at the time. But the episode offered a glimpse at an unhappy player struggling to recapture his form and a coach failing to reach him effectively.
With the coach and the star player at odds, the rest of the team was in effect forced to choose sides. And with that divide increasingly manifesting itself on the ice, culminating with unsightly losses to the New York Rangers this past Friday and the undermanned |
distinguishes their country from all other nations, and that has remained unchanged from Wilhelm II to Angela Merkel? And if you do come up with something, was it also there back in the days of Goethe, of Martin Luther and of Frederick Barbarossa?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest What will happen when computers replace people in an increasing number of jobs? … Alex Proyas’s I, Robot from 2004 Photograph: Allstar
The Preamble of the European Constitution (2004) begins by stating that it draws inspiration “from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, democracy, equality, freedom and the rule of law”. This may easily give one the impression that European civilisation is defined by these values. Countless speeches and documents draw a direct line from ancient Athenian democracy to the present-day EU, celebrating 2,500 years of European freedom and democracy. This is reminiscent of the proverbial blind man taking hold of an elephant’s tail and concluding that an elephant is a kind of brush. Athenian democracy was a half-hearted experiment that survived for barely 200 years in a small corner of the Balkans. If European civilisation for the last 25 centuries has been defined by democracy and human rights, what are we to make of Sparta and Julius Caesar, the Crusaders and Conquistadores, the Inquisition and the slave trade, Louis XIV and Goebbels, Lenin and Mussolini?
European civilisation is anything Europeans make of it, just as Christianity is anything Christians make of it. And they have made remarkably different things of it over the centuries. Human groups are defined more by the changes they undergo than by any continuity, but they nevertheless manage to create for themselves ancient identities thanks to their storytelling skills. No matter what revolutions they survive, they can weave old and new into a single yarn. Even an individual may knit revolutionary personal changes into a coherent life story: “I am that person who was once a socialist, but became a capitalist; I was born in Senegal, and now live in France; I married, then got divorced; I had cancer, and then got well again.”
Similarly, a human group such as the Germans may come to define itself by the very changes it has lived through: “Once we were Nazis, but we have learned our lesson, and now we are peaceful democrats”. You don’t need to look for some unique German essence that manifested itself first in Hitler and then in Merkel: this radical transformation itself makes the Germans who they are.
Isis, too, may uphold an allegedly unchanging Muslim identity, but their story of Islam is a brand new tale. Yes, they used some venerable Muslim texts and traditions to concoct it, but if I bake a cake from flour, oil and sugar that have been sitting in my pantry for the past two months, does it mean the cake itself is two months old? Conversely, those who dismiss Isis as “un-Islamic” or even “anti-Islamic” are equally mistaken: Islam has no DNA. Just as with Christianity, Islam is whatever Muslims make of it.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Isis wrecked the ancient site of Palmyra in Syria. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/Tass
Yet there is an even deeper difference distinguishing human groups from animal species. Species often split, but never merge. About seven million years ago, chimpanzees and gorillas had common ancestors. This single ancestral species split into two populations that eventually went their separate, evolutionary ways. Once this happened, there was no going back. Since individuals belonging to different species cannot produce fertile offspring together, species can never merge. Gorillas can’t merge with chimpanzees, giraffes can’t merge with elephants, and dogs can’t merge with cats.
Human tribes, in contrast, tend to coalesce over time into larger and larger groups. Modern Germans were created from the merger of Saxons, Prussians, Swabians and Bavarians, which not so long ago wasted little love on one another. The French were created from the merger of Franks, Normans, Bretons, Gascons and Provencals. Meanwhile across the Channel, English, Scots, Welsh and Irish gradually came together (willingly or not) to form Britons. In the not too distant future, Germans, French and Britons might yet merge into Europeans.
Mergers don’t always last, as people in London, Edinburgh and Brussels are well aware these days. Brexit may well initiate the simultaneous unravelling of both the EU and the UK. But in the long run, history’s direction is clear-cut. Ten thousand years ago humankind was divided into countless isolated tribes. With each passing millennium, these merged into larger and larger groups, creating fewer and fewer distinct civilisations. In recent generations the few remaining civilisations have been merging into a single global community. Political and ethnic divisions endure, but they do not undermine the fundamental unity. Indeed, some divisions are made possible only by an over-arching common structure.
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The process of human unification has taken two distinct forms: weak heterogeneous unification and strong homogeneous unification. The weaker heterogeneous form involves creating ties between previously unrelated groups. The groups may continue to have different beliefs and practices, but are no longer independent of each other. From this perspective, even war is a bond – perhaps the strongest bond of all. Ten thousand years ago, no tribe in America had any quarrel with Middle Eastern enemies, and no African clan bore grudges towards any European. In contrast, during the second world war, people born on the shores of the Mississippi went to their deaths on Pacific islands and European meadows, while recruits from the heart of Africa fell fighting among French vineyards and Alpine snows.
Historians often argue that globalisation reached a first peak in 1913, then went into a long decline during the era of the world wars and the cold war, and recuperated only after 1989. They fear that new conflicts may again put globalisation into reverse gear. This may be true of economic globalisation, but it ignores the different but equally important dynamics of military globalisation. War spreads ideas, technologies and people far more quickly than commerce. War also makes people far more interested in one another. Never had the US been more closely in touch with Russia than during the cold war, when every cough in a Moscow corridor sent people scrambling up and down Washington staircases. People care far more about their enemies than about their trade partners. For every US film about Thailand, there are probably 20 about Vietnam. The global “war on terror” simply continues the process of military globalisation.
Nowadays, the global unity of conflict is perhaps most apparent on the internet, where Isis and the drug cartels are rubbing shoulders with Google and Facebook, and YouTube offers funny cat videos alongside instructions on how to make bombs. Islamic fanatics, murderous drug dealers and geeky hackers don’t exist on unrelated planets; they share the same global cyberspace. All are thrilled by the blockchain technology that gave us the bitcoin; all count on easy accessibility via ubiquitous smartphones, and all are antagonised by national governments attempting to wrest control of the net.
Yet the world of the early 21st century has gone way beyond the heterogeneous unity of conflict. People across the globe are not only influenced by one another, they increasingly share identical beliefs and practices. A thousand years ago, planet Earth was home to dozens of different political models. In Europe you could find feudal principalities vying with independent city states and minuscule theocracies. The Muslim world had its caliphate, claiming universal sovereignty, but also experimented with kingdoms, emirates and sultanates. The Chinese empire believed itself to be the sole legitimate political entity, while to its north and west tribal confederacies fought each other with glee. India and south-east Asia contained a kaleidoscope of regimes, whereas polities in America, Africa and Australasia ranged from tiny hunter-gatherer bands to sprawling empires. No wonder even neighbouring human groups had trouble agreeing on diplomatic practices, not to mention international laws. Each society had its own political paradigms, and found it difficult to understand – let alone respect – alien political concepts.
Today there are nearly 200 sovereign states, which generally agree on diplomatic protocols and common international laws
Today, in contrast, a single political paradigm is accepted everywhere. The planet is divided between nearly 200 sovereign states, which generally agree on the same diplomatic protocols and on common international laws. Sweden, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay are all marked on our world maps as the same kind of colourful shapes; they are all members of the UN; and despite myriad differences they are all recognised as sovereign states enjoying similar rights and privileges. Indeed, they share many more political ideas and practices, including at least a token belief in representative bodies, universal suffrage and human rights. When Israelis and Palestinians, Russians and Ukrainians, or Kurds and Turks court global public opinion, they all use the same discourse of human rights, state sovereignty and international law.
The world may be peppered with various types of “failed states”, but it knows only one paradigm for a successful state. Global politics follows “the Anna Karenina principle”: healthy states are all alike, but every failed state fails in its own way, by missing this or that ingredient of the dominant political package. Isis stands out in its complete rejection of this package, and its attempt to establish an entirely different kind of political entity – a universal caliphate. But it is unlikely to succeed precisely for this reason. Numerous guerrilla forces and terror organisations have managed to establish new countries or conquer existing ones, but they have always done so by accepting the fundamental principles of the global political order. Even the Taliban sought international recognition as the legitimate government of the sovereign country of Afghanistan. No group rejecting the principles of global politics has so far gained lasting control of a significant territory.
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In pre-modern times, humans experimented not only with diverse political blueprints, but with a mind-boggling variety of economic models. Russian boyars, Hindu maharajas, Chinese mandarins and Amerindian tribal chiefs had very different ideas about money and taxation, and none was even aware of the existence of such a thing as “the economy”. Nowadays, in contrast, almost everybody believes in slightly different variations on the same capitalist theme, and we are all cogs within a single global production line. Whether you live in Mongolia, New Zealand or Bolivia, your daily routines and economic fortunes depend on the same economic theories, the same corporations and banks, and the same currents of capital. When finance ministers or bank managers from China, Russia, Brazil and India meet, they have a common language, and can easily understand and sympathise with their counterparts’ woes.
When Isis conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq, it murdered tens of thousands of people, demolished archaeological sites, toppled statues and systematically destroyed the symbols of previous regimes and of western cultural influence. Yet when Isis fighters entered the banks and found stashes of US dollars covered with the faces of American presidents and English slogans praising American political and religious ideals, they did not burn these dollars. For the dollar bill is universally venerated across all political and religious divides. Though it has no intrinsic value – you cannot eat or drink a dollar bill – trust in the dollar and in the wisdom of the Federal Reserve is so firm it is shared even by Islamic fundamentalists, Mexican drug lords and North Korean tyrants.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Doctors all over the word will dispense similar medicines made by the same drug companies Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Yet the homogeneity of contemporary humanity is most apparent when it comes to our view of the natural world and of the human body. If you fell sick in 1016, it mattered a great deal where you lived. In Europe, the resident priest would probably tell you that you had made God angry, and that in order to regain your health, you should donate something to the church, make a pilgrimage to a sacred site, and pray fervently for God’s forgiveness. Alternatively, the village witch might explain that a demon had possessed you, and that she could cast the demon out using song, dance and the blood of a black cockerel. In the Middle East, doctors brought up on classical traditions might explain that your four bodily humours were out of balance, and you could harmonise them anew with a proper diet and foul-smelling potions. In India, Ayurvedic experts would offer their own theories concerning the balance between the three bodily elements known as doshas, and recommend a treatment of herbs, massages and exercises. Chinese physicians, Siberian shamans, African witch doctors, Amerindian medicine men – every empire, kingdom and tribe had its own traditions and experts, each espousing different views about the human body and the nature of sickness, and each offering its own cornucopia of rituals, concoctions and cures. Some of them worked surprisingly well; others were little short of a death sentence. The one thing that united European, Chinese, African and American medical conditions was that everywhere at least a third of people died before adulthood, and nowhere did average life expectancy exceed 40.
Today, if you are taken ill, it makes far less difference where you live. In Toronto, Tokyo, Tehran or Tel Aviv, you will be taken to similar-looking hospitals, where you will meet doctors who learned the same scientific theories in not-too-different medical colleges. They will follow identical protocols and use identical tests to reach very similar diagnoses. They will then dispense similar medicines made by the same drug companies. There are still some minor cultural differences, but Canadian, Japanese, Iranian and Israeli physicians hold much the same views about the human body and human diseases. After Isis captured Raqqa and Mosul, it did not tear down the hospitals; rather, it launched an appeal to Muslim doctors and nurses throughout the world to volunteer their services there. Presumably, even Isis doctors and nurses believe that the body is made of cells, that diseases are caused by pathogens, and that antibiotics kill bacteria.
And what makes up these cells and bacteria? Indeed, what makes up the entire world? Back in 1016, every culture had its own story about the universe, and about the fundamental ingredients of the cosmic soup. Today, learned people throughout the world believe exactly the same things about matter, energy, time and space. Take, for example, Iran’s nuclear programme. The whole problem with it is that the Iranians have exactly the same view of physics as the Israelis and Americans. If the Iranians believed that E=mc⁴, Israel would not care an iota about their nuclear programme.
Churchill wasn’t more western than Hitler; their struggle defined what it meant to be western at that moment in history
People still claim to believe in different things. But when it comes to the really important stuff – how to build a state, an economy, a hospital, or a weapon – almost all of us belong to the same civilisation. There are disagreements, no doubt, but then all civilisations have their internal disagreements – indeed, they are defined by these disagreements. When trying to outline their identity, people often make a grocery list of common traits. They would fare much better if they made a list of common conflicts and dilemmas instead. In 1940, Britain and Germany had very different traits, yet they were both part and parcel of “western civilisation”. Churchill wasn’t more western than Hitler; rather, the struggle between them defined what it meant to be western at that particular moment in history. In contrast, a!Kung hunter-gatherer in 1940 wasn’t western, because the internal western clash about race and empire would have made little sense to him.
The people we fight most often are our own family members. Identity is defined by conflicts and dilemmas more than by agreements. What does it mean to be European in 2016? It doesn’t mean to have white skin, to believe in Jesus Christ, or to uphold liberty. Rather, it means to argue vehemently about immigration, about the EU, and about the limits of capitalism. It also means to obsessively ask yourself “What defines my identity?” and to worry about an ageing population, about rampant consumerism and about global warming without really knowing what to do about it. In their conflicts and dilemmas, 21st-century Europeans are very different from their early-modern and medieval ancestors, but are increasingly similar to their Chinese and Indian contemporaries.
Whatever changes await us, they are likely to involve a fraternal struggle within a single civilisation rather than a clash between alien civilisations. The big challenges of the 21st century will be global in nature. What will happen when pollution triggers global climate changes? What will happen when computers replace people in an increasing number of jobs? When biotechnology enables us to upgrade humans, extend lifespans, and perhaps split humankind into different biological castes? No doubt, we will have huge arguments and bitter conflicts over these questions. But these arguments and conflicts are unlikely to drive us apart. Just the opposite. They will make us ever more interdependent, as members of a single, rowdy, global civilisation.
• Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow is published by Harvill Secker. ynharari.com2016 season preview: Seattle Seahawks
By Gordon McGuinness • Jul 26, 2016
[Editor’s note: This article was originally published on July 26, 2016.]
The Seattle Seahawks have been perennial contenders in the NFL over the past four seasons, making it as least as far as the divisional round every season, including hoisting the Lombardi trophy once, and coming within one pass of repeating as Super Bowl champions the following year. They’ll be expected to contend once again this season, even with the Arizona Cardinals proving to be the best team in the NFC West in 2015. With a roster loaded with talent on offense and defense, the Seahawks will be confident that they can push the Cardinals harder in 2016 and reclaim their throne at the top of the division.
[More: Be sure to check out PFF’s ranking of all 32 NFL QB situations, offensive lines, running back units, receiving corps, secondaries, and defensive front-sevens. Catch up on all the team previews here.]
Russell Wilson a top-five NFL QB entering 2016
Quarterbacks: Fifth in PFF’s season preview rankings
Russell Wilson earned the sixth-highest passing grade among NFL QBs in 2015, at 85.5. He struggled somewhat in that regard in the playoffs, but over the full regular season and postseason, he threw 38 touchdowns to just 11 interceptions. He was incredibly dangerous when opposing defenses blitzed him, completing 111 of the 181 passes he attempted for 1,633 yards, 21 touchdowns, and three interceptions on such snaps. He did a lot of damage with his legs, too, racking up 644 yards on the ground (including the playoffs), second-most on the team. 445 of those yards came on 63 quarterback scrambles, but he was tough to handle of designed runs, too, averaging 8.1 yards per carry on 19 runs off right end.
Young, unproven talent fills Seattle’s backfield
Running backs: 13th
It’s a statement of the overall strength of the roster, but this is the Seahawks’ second-weakest unit heading into the 2016 season. Potential future Hall-of-Famer Marshawn Lynch has retired, leaving the talented—but relatively untested—Thomas Rawls as the team’s top running back heading. Rawls’ 81.1 overall grade was 12th among running backs in the NFL last season, as he forced 26 missed tackles on 147 carries (including the playoffs). Despite this impressive rookie production, it’s important to consider that he’s still inexperienced, with less than 150 NFL carries under his belt. The Seahawks added three rookie in the draft in Notre Dame’s C.J. Prosise, Arkansas’ Alex Collins, and Clemson running back Zac Brooks, so they obviously believed they needed to bolster the position following Lynch’s retirement.
Seahawks’ receiving corps continuing to rise
Receiving corps: Fifth
Once referred to as “pedestrian,” Seattle’s group of wide receivers and tight ends are now among the best in the NFL. Tight end Jimmy Graham didn’t produce his best season in 2015, but still earned the seventh-best receiving grade among tight ends. The Seahawks will be hoping to utilize him better in the red zone in 2016, though, with his two touchdowns in 2016 the lowest output of his career. At 91.1, Doug Baldwin earned the seventh-best overall grade among wide receivers, and has really grown as a player the last few seasons. In 2015, he forced 18 missed tackles on 78 receptions, and scored 14 touchdowns in the regular season. Tyler Lockett was one of the best rookies in the league last year, and is poised to be one of the top big-play threats in the NFL next year, both on offense and as a returner, after forcing eight missed tackles on 51 receptions as a rookie.
(PFF Fantasy Insight: Lockett is one of Brandon Marianne Lee’s top breakout candidates at WR this season. That said, Baldwin was maybe the league’s most efficient fantasy receiver in 2015, and isn’t going anywhere, offering extra value in best-ball formats.)
Despite spending first-round pick on Ifedi, Seattle owns NFL’s worst O-line
Offensive line: 32nd
As talented as the Seahawks are as a team, their offensive line is the worst in the league. Four of their five projected starters had an overall grade of 49.9 or lower last season, with the only player who didn’t grade so poorly a year ago being rookie first-round draft pick Germain Ifedi (Texas A&M). Quarterback Russell Wilson graded positively on throws under pressure in 2015, and he’ll likely to need to do the same again in 2016 unless this unit can improve massively in a very short span of time.
Defensive front-seven the biggest strength for Seahawks entering season
Front-seven: Second
While their offensive line is the worst in the league on paper, their defensive line and linebackers are up there with the very best. DE Michael Bennett plays across the defensive line depending on the defensive package, and has emerged as one of the premier pass-rushers in the NFL, registering 11 sacks, 17 hits, and 63 hurries across the regular season and postseason. He’s joined on the D-line by Cliff Avril, who recorded 12 sacks, 17 hits, and 44 hurries himself last season. At linebacker, K.J.Wright earned the sixth-highest overall grade at the position in 2015, racking up 65 tackles resulting in a defensive stop (including the playoffs).
Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas continue to shine as perennial defensive stars
Secondary: Fourth
The star here is obviously Richard Sherman, third-highest graded cornerback in the league. He allowed just 48.4 percent of the passes thrown into his coverage to be caught in 2015 for 433 yards and two touchdowns, breaking up nine passes and picking off two more. At safety, Earl Thomas ranked third at the position in terms of overall grade last year, with only Minnesota’s Harrison Smith and Philadelphia’s Malcolm Jenkins earning higher marks. Thomas is coming off the highest-graded year of his career, tying his career-high of five interceptions in the regular season.SHARE
By of the
Washington — Wisconsin's Russ Feingold is expected to be the only Senate Democrat voting against the hotly debated financial reforms backed by President Barack Obama when they are put to a final vote in the coming days.
Feingold's stand has made it more difficult for his party to muster the 60 Senate votes it needs to pass what is a huge priority for the White House and frustrated some progressive groups who are his natural allies.
His position on the issue is unique in the 100-member Senate.
All the measure's other opponents in that body are Republicans. Feingold is the only senator opposing the bill from the progressive side of the debate and the only one who is arguing that the new regulations are so timid and easy on Wall Street that passage would do more harm than good.
"It doesn't do the job, and I'm not going to be part of basically defrauding the American people into thinking it does," said Feingold in an interview that underscored his pointed differences with his own party on a reform package intended to prevent a repeat of the catastrophic financial meltdown of 2008.
Heather Booth, director of a huge left-of-center coalition pushing for passage, told a radio talk show June 30 that Feingold was effectively "standing with Wall Street and against Main Street" by voting no.
In the interview, Feingold leveled the same charge against some of the bill's supporters.
"The most progressive elements know this is a bad bill," Feingold said. He described some of the bill's progressive backers as "pseudo-progressives," late-comers to the issue or groups financed by powerful interests who want to "paper over the real problems in order to say they've solved it. They are not trying to get at the core issues."
Despite some good things in the bill, Feingold said, it fails to fix the most important problems: Financial institutions that are "too big to fail" and the breakdown of old boundaries between different entities such as commercial banks and investment houses. The third-term senator is not alone in those criticisms; a number of analysts have made similar arguments.
But other Senate Democrats dissatisfied with the bill have concluded it's the best they are going to get. Only one, Maria Cantwell of Washington, joined Feingold in opposing its initial Senate passage in May. But Cantwell is now supporting the bill after new enforcement language was added on derivative trading.
"Sen. Cantwell actually functioned quite differently from Sen. Feingold," Booth, a leader of the liberal coalition supporting the bill, Americans for Financial Reform, told Baltimore talk radio host Marc Steiner at the end of June.
"We think she has provided real leadership and was deeply engaged and wasn't just doing arm-chair philosophizing about what might be in a bill," said Booth, whose organization includes a who's who of labor, consumer and liberal advocacy groups.
Half a loaf
Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a member of that coalition, said the bill could be better but that some reform is better than no reform.
"I guess where we come down is if Sen. Feingold had a strategy by which... voting it down will lead to better reform later, we'd be very interested in that, but we don't see that at all," said the group's director Robert Kraig. He said the bill provides major new consumer protections, makes trading of risky derivatives more transparent and guards against abusive mortgage practices.
"We would prefer in this case to see a more pragmatic judgment (by Feingold) that what we can get now is worth getting," he said.
Kraig said "there's extreme frustration among the national (progressive) groups" over Feingold's opposition. He said among Wisconsin groups, there's "more of realization that when Feingold digs in on an issue, there's only so much you can do."
Indeed, Feingold is portraying his stand as an example of his independence, as he faces a potentially tough re-election fight in a sour political climate for Democrats. He says his position is consistent with long-held concerns about concentration of finance, noting he was one of eight senators to vote against a key 1999 bill that allowed consolidation among commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies and investment firms.
"I'm sympathetic to his point of view.... The bill is not perfect. Many concessions were made to Wall Street," said Michael Greenberger, a former commodities regulator who has been working with two coalitions backing the bill, including Booth's group. But Greenberger called the bill a building block that gives regulators better tools than they had before the meltdown, provides ammunition to address the too-big-to-fail problem and, if properly implemented, "can head off future conduct that is destructive to the economy."
Feingold said he had talked to the White House about his opposition to the bill but not to Obama, who touted the measure during a recent visit to Racine as "reform that will prevent a crisis like this from happening again."
The same day Obama was in Wisconsin, Feingold published a piece on the Huffington Post website ripping the measure, saying, "This bill caves to Wall Street interests, it doesn't meet the test of preventing another financial crisis, and it won't get my vote."
GOP opponents
Most Republicans who oppose the bill do so for very different reasons.
Feingold's two GOP opponents, Dave Westlake and Ron Johnson, both have said they would vote no on the financial reforms. Both cited what they said was too much regulation and new bureaucracy, and both said the bill fails to correct what they regard as a key factor in the financial crisis - problems with mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Westlake said that when government exercises "an artificial influence" on the marketplace, "supply and demand can't find its natural equilibrium."
Johnson, considered the GOP front-runner, said he agreed with Feingold that there has been "way too much concentration" in the financial industry, but added that was a problem that should have been tackled through the anti-trust laws.
"I'm not reflexively anti-government," Johnson said. "I do look to the federal government to provide effective regulation in terms of anti-trust to make sure large entities don't engage in monopolistic practices."A drone has been equipped with feathers to increase its precision during flight. The bio-inspired device can spread or close its wings while flying, making it easier to maneuver and more resistant in high winds.
When they need to change direction, increase their speed or counter headwinds, birds alter the configuration of their wings. To steer, for example, they spread one wing and slightly retract the other. By adjusting their wingspan in this way, they create a calculated imbalance that causes them to turn. Up to now, only birds could do this so effectively.
After observing birds in flight, researchers from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems had the idea of building an energy-efficient winged drone capable of changing its wingspan, flying at high speed and moving through tight spaces. Their research has just been published in the Royal Society journal Interface Focus.
Dario Floreano and his team wanted to develop a bio-inspired drone that could meet various aerodynamic requirements. It had to be capable of flying between obstacles, making sharp turns and coping with strong winds. By changing its geometry mid-flight, the drone can meet all these criteria. The moving part is located on the outer wings. It works like a bird's quill feathers, which are the large feathers at the edge of the wing.
"We were inspired by birds: they can radically transform the size and shape of their wings because they have an articulated skeleton that is controlled by muscles and covered in feathers that overlap when the wings are folded," explained Matteo di Luca. The drone also has feathers that it can fold and overlap like a fan.
One of the many challenges was in designing and building the complex morphing mechanism, in other words, mimicking nature to construct the drone. "It is extremely difficult to find the right balance between aerodynamic efficiency and the weight of the device," explained Stefano Mintchev. The wing is composed mainly of composite materials in order to maximize strength while reducing overall weight.
Morphing wings that can adapt to the environment and weather conditions are also an important issue in aeronautics. Engineers are still trying to find the ideal replacement for the rigid wings and ailerons of planes. For Floreano, the head of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, this is a promising project: "With the foldable wings, we discovered that we didn't need ailerons to help the drone turn. By changing the wingspan and surface area during flight, we could make it turn automatically."
This winged drone therefore opens up new possibilities. Because of its ability to adapt, it could prove very efficient at low altitude, in an urban environment where winds change rapidly.
This work was funded by NCCR Robotics.
Reference
Di Luca M, Mintchev S, Heitz G, Noca F, Floreano D. 2017 Bioinspired morphing wings for extended flight envelope and roll control of small drones.
Interface Focus 7: 20160092.Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho insists he intends to make good use of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s versatility at Old Trafford this season.
The Armenian has already played in four different positions this season and Mourinho has indicated that he’ll continue to change his tactics to capitalise on his ability.
He’s been remarkable since his return to the first-team and when the 28-year-old was first played down the middle he completely opened up the game, replicating the effect against Walter Mazzarri at Old Trafford.
Speaking prior to the game, Mourinho claimed he’ll be changing his tactics to try and surprise opponents.
“I will use him everywhere I need,” he said. “I played him left-back. He is ready, his mentality has changed, his profile of a player does not change, but the mentality and approach changed. He is ready to play for us.
“What we did last weekend is something we will try and do more and more. Start with a system, try to surprise the opponent, then the team is ready to go back and to change during the match.
“You can only do that with maturity, with some work with time and some knowledge with what your players can do. During the week we trained for both things. I don’t need to change players just change the roles on the pitch.
“So be ready, so after five, 10 or 20 minutes we are going to change so I think we have more and more capacity to try to do these things to try and surprise opponents and create difficulties during the match.”
Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic form our best front four, showcasing a range skills to link up play and get the ball forward into attacking positions.
At the heart of the side, Mkhitaryan has proven that he’s capable of orchestrating the play and there’s no doubt that we’ll see more him in that position.NIH review finds nondrug approaches effective for treatment of common pain conditions
U.S. study reviews trial results on complementary health approaches for pain relief; aims to assist with pain management.
“Our goal for this study was to provide relevant, high-quality information for primary care providers and for patients who suffer from chronic pain.”
Data from a review of U.S.-based clinical trials published today in Mayo Clinic Proceedings suggest that some of the most popular complementary health approaches — such as yoga, tai chi, and acupuncture — appear to be effective tools for helping to manage common pain conditions. The review was conducted by a group of scientists from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health.
Millions of Americans suffer from persistent pain that may not be fully relieved by medications. They often turn to complementary health approaches to help, yet primary care providers have lacked a robust evidence base to guide recommendations on complementary approaches as practiced and available in the United States. The new review gives primary care providers — who frequently see patients with chronic pain — tools to inform decision-making on how to help manage that pain.
“For many Americans who suffer from chronic pain, medications may not completely relieve pain and can produce unwanted side effects. As a result, many people may turn to nondrug approaches to help manage their pain,” said Richard L. Nahin, Ph.D., NCCIH’s lead epidemiologist and lead author of the analysis. “Our goal for this study was to provide relevant, high-quality information for primary care providers and for patients who suffer from chronic pain.”
The researchers reviewed 105 U.S.-based randomized controlled trials, from the past 50 years, that were relevant to pain patients in the United States and met inclusion criteria. Although the reporting of safety information was low overall, none of the clinical trials reported significant side effects due to the interventions.
The review focused on U.S.-based trial results on seven approaches used for one or more of five painful conditions — back pain, osteoarthritis, neck pain, fibromyalgia, and severe headaches and migraine — and found promise in the following for safety and effectiveness in treating pain:
Acupuncture and yoga for back pain
Acupuncture and tai chi for osteoarthritis of the knee
Massage therapy for neck pain with adequate doses and for short-term benefit
Relaxation techniques for severe headaches and migraine.
Though the evidence was weaker, the researchers also found that massage therapy, spinal manipulation, and osteopathic manipulation may provide some help for back pain, and relaxation approaches and tai chi might help people with fibromyalgia.
“These data can equip providers and patients with the information they need to have informed conversations regarding non-drug approaches for treatment of specific pain conditions,” said David Shurtleff, Ph.D., deputy director of NCCIH. “It’s important that continued research explore how these approaches actually work and whether these findings apply broadly in diverse clinical settings and patient populations.”
Read more about this report and find graphics at nccih.nih.gov/pain_review.
About the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH): NCCIH’s mission is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. For additional information, call NCCIH’s Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit the NCCIH Web site at nccih.nih.gov. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold challenged the Russia hacking narrative, claiming that we still have no idea how Democratic National Committee emails were hacked during the election last year.
“There is still some question as to whether the intrusion at the DNC server was an insider job or whether or not it was the Russians,” Farenthold told CNN.
“I’m sorry. The insider job — what are you referring to?” CNN host John Berman pressed. “Because I hope it’s not this information that Fox News just refused to be reporting.”
Berman was referring to a retracted Fox News story that stated that DNC staffer Seth Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks before his murder in July 2016.
“Well again, there’s stuff circulating on the internet. My questions is —” Farenthold answered.
“What? What is circulating on the internet?” Berman interrupted. “What is circulating on the internet that you think is worthy of a congressional investigation? Because the DC police are investigating this, and so far they haven’t there is any there there.”
“Yet the DC police nor no federal investigator has ever had a look at the DNC computer,” Farenthold claimed. “We are relying only on the report of somebody that the DNC contracted to examine their computer.”
The FBI and |
column and I have a style suited to this. I also have a good, large diaphragm mic. Can you give me any tips about EQ and Compression?
-Daryl
Hi Daryl,
Proper compression is fundamental to an intimate and airy sound because it keeps the track right up in your face in those intimate moments and backs the level off when the singer’s volume exceeds the compression threshold. You’ll need pretty quick attack and release times, too, so that the listener can’t hear the compressor turning down and then back up again. Exactly where you set them depends on the singer and the song. Listen!
Using EQ can help create an airy sound by simply boosting the “airy” frequencies (typically somewhere between 6- and 10-kHz) but the real way to achieve a high-quality vocal sound has much more to do with everything else in this post than simply EQ boost.
Reverberation provides a cue to the brain that the sound is in an acoustical space. Applying more reverberation makes the sound feel farther away from the listener within that space. If you want the vocal to feel very close to the listener, either don’t use reverb or use a little of a warm hall just to add some subliminal polish. It should typically be just enough so that you can tell when it goes away but not so much that you’re aware of it. Also, don’t use a patch with much high-frequency content because it conflicts with the intimate components of the vocal sound wave.
In a live application all of the above considerations are in play. However, you need a mic with a condenser capsule that’s capable of reproducing the complexities of the vocal sound accurately. The mic also should not induce a lot of rumble, handling noise, low-frequency feedback. There are really great condenser mics available from all the major microphone manufacturers. The mic you choose depends on all of the variables that are unique to your situation.
Mics designed for live application typically have a presence boost somewhere in the high-frequency range and a roll-off in the lows. To accentuate the airy quality in an individual voice, the presence peak that is built-in to the mic needs to accentuate that individual—that’s why it’s important to try different mics.
-Bill
Bill Gibson is the author of 30+ books about recorded and live sound, including his most recent six-book series, The Hal Leonard Recording Method by Bill GibsonWhile Americans have heard of the section of Nevada most associated with the search for extraterrestrial life and a government conspiracy to cover up the existence of aliens, the National Security Archive at George Washington University has obtained declassified documents that "finally" confirm the land's existence.
␎ George Washington University obtained this recently declassified government map showing the government property known as Area 51, the first time any government document has acknowledged the existence of the famed spot. Click here to view a larger version of the map. (Courtesy George Washington University)
WASHINGTON – Newly declassified government documents acknowledge the existence of Area 51.
While Americans have heard of the section of Nevada most associated with the search for extraterrestrial life and an alleged government conspiracy to cover up the existence of aliens, the National Security Archive at George Washington University has obtained declassified documents that “finally” confirm the land’s existence.
The documents detailing the history of the U-2 spy plane were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Although redacted, the records include numerous references to Area 51 and Groom Lake, including a map of the area, according to the university.
National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson reviewed the history in 2002, but all mentions of Area 51 had been redacted. Richelson says he requested the history again in 2005 and received a version a few weeks ago with mentions of Area 51 restored.
Officials have acknowledged in passing the existence of the facility in central Nevada where the government is believed to test intelligence tools and weapons.
According to CNN, “Area 51 has also been referenced in government documents in the past, though this newest release is the first that acknowledges its existence and location in a purposeful way.”
Richelson believes the new document shows the CIA is becoming less secretive about Area 51’s existence, if not about what goes on there.
The documents also name the pilots who flew U-2 missions, mission names and details of flights over Russia, India and China.
Read more about what GW obtained here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.“Everyone thought it was very strange at first, and people tend to resist what they don’t understand”
– Zahid Shah, founder of Kashmir Freerunning and Parkour Federation.
Parkour is an activity that involves reinterpreting the world around you–looking at it in terms of angles and surfaces with the help of which you can propel yourself forward, using only your body and your immediate surroundings. Rooted in the same discipline from which military obstacle course training stems, it’s ironic then that this is the feat of intense physical endurance that seems to have taken Kashmir’s youth by storm. Guaranteed to leave spectators slack-jawed with its impressive combination of running, climbing, gymnastics, vaulting, swinging and mid-air somersaults, the activity has found a striking number of practitioners – also known as traceurs - amongst the youth in Srinagar, the summer capital city of India-administered Kashmir, over the past few years.
The first local traceur, Zahid Shah, 22, began trying his hand at parkour about two years ago. With a background in martial arts, his torrid affair with free-running began after watching an episode about the athletic discipline on National Geographic and he found himself revelling in the lack of rules he associated with it. A couple of YouTube videos later, he started practising it himself at a local playground, much to the amusement and fascination of onlookers in the city.
“Everyone thought it was very strange at first, and people tend to resist what they don’t understand,” he said, speaking to Homegrown. “Luckily, my family has always been very supportive of what I want and slowly, the curiosity grew and a couple of others expressed their interest in training under me.”
Kashmir Free Running and Parkour Federation (KFPF) was founded by Shah, and has twelve members today – training together to navigate their way through different kinds of terrain.
“Be it Kashmir or Bombay, there is a lot of stress in our lives today and people need to find the means to handle it – ek zariya chahiye sab ko. Instead of getting involved with drugs and violence, this is how we find our catharsis,” explains Shah. “I want to help those in the next generation get into parkour, too.”
Shah oversees the training of the KFPF members himself – first on water, at Dal Lake, to avoid injuries, and then on land, when he deems them ready. He very proudly announces that no one has suffered major injuries during this training, although he suffered some minor ones when he was learning by himself. Even when they begin with freerunning, the members make it a point to support each other through the learning curve.
“I would really like to collaborate with others in the discipline,” says Shah. “I have a few friends in Delhi who practise parkour as well, and I know a practitioner in America, Luke Alderth, but due to financial constraints we haven’t been able to so far. Inshallah, we have been getting a lot of recognition lately and the interest surrounding parkour is growing. I hope we’ll be able to do this on a larger scale soon.”
Photographer Tamim Ahmad (follow him on Twitter: @babatamim) traced the journey of these traceurs in action and this incredible photo-story ensued; scroll on to view a few stunning images, which was first seen on Al Jazeera.
Photographed by Tamim Ahmad for Al Jazeera
Photographed by Tamim Ahmad for Al Jazeera
Photographed by Tamim Ahmad for Al Jazeera
Photographed by Tamim Ahmad for Al Jazeera
Photographed by Tamim Ahmad for Al Jazeera
Words: Aditi Dharmadhikari Image Credit: All photographs by Tamim Ahmad for Al Jazeera
Feature image credit: FacebookFlorida’s Elected Officials’ Score Low Grades in Twitter Sociability, Forgetting the ‘Social’ in Social Media.
Landmark Twitter study released: Politicians talk too much, listen too little
Ozean Media releases the landmark study of Twitter usage of Florida’s elected officials including Federal, Statewide, & State Legislature officials. OMG! Don’t Forget: It’s Social Media: A Report Card of Florida’s Elected Officials Use of Twitter is the most comprehensive review of Twitter usage by Florida’s politicians to date.
“Overall, Republicans earn a C and Democrats an F in twitter usage; however, when we grade on a curve Florida’s Republican officials perform better than the Democratic officials. The good news is there is room for dramatic improvement,” said Alex Patton (@alex_patton), the study’s author.
Questions:
The study researched over a two week period set out to answer the following questions:
Are Florida’s elected officials using Twitter?
Is there a digital divide that separates Republican and Democrat elected officials in Florida?
How are Florida’s elected officials using Twitter?
are Florida’s elected officials using Twitter? Which of Florida’s elected officials could be considered to be embracing Twitter?
be considered to be embracing Twitter? Are there recommendations to be made to Florida’s elected officials in their use of Twitter?
The study represents the most comprehensive look at twitter usage of Florida’s elected officials, aggregating data from multiple sources and comparing the data to twitter superstars such as the University of Florida, President Obama, and Justin Bieber.
Findings of Study:
As a whole, Florida’s elected officials are using Twitter in greater percentages than the general public.
Florida’s elected Republican officials are using social media more than Florida’s elected Democrat officials – 57% of Republican elected officials are active users (defined as at least 1 status update in past 7 days) to 34% of Democrat elected officials.
Republican elected officials are doing significantly better than Democrat elected officials using twitter. If not for Florida’s Democratic Congressional Delegation — more specifically @DWStweets who alone accounts for 85% of the number of followers for Democrat elected officials — Florida’s Democrat elected officials would have little social media reach.
Florida’s elected officials score well on influence, on authority; however,
Florida’s elected officials score very low on outreach.
. A handful of Florida’s elected officials are embracing Twitter. They are:
category Twitter name name district party USREP @RepDennisRoss Dennis Ross 15 Republican USREP @DWStweets D Wasserman Schultz 23 Democrat USREP @treyradel Trey Radel 19 Republican STSEN @Rob_Bradley Rob Bradley 7 Republican STSEN @DwightBullard Dwight Bullard 39 Democrat STREP @sethmckeel Seth McKeel 40 Republican STREP @repclayingram Clay Ingram 1 Republican STREP @JimmyPatronis Jimmy Patronis 6 Republican STREP @mattgaetz Matt Gaetz 4 Republican STREP @jasonbrodeur Jason Brodeur 28 Republican
“Bottom line, when you look at how Florida’s politicians are actually using Twitter, they are forgetting the ‘social’ in social media. The vast majority of Florida’s elected officials appear to be misunderstanding or misusing Twitter by using it as primarily as a broadcast media channel,” continues Mr. Patton.
“For Florida’s elected officials to truly realize the power of Twitter and social media, they must embrace the social part by talking with people, not only talking to people,” concludes Alex Patton.
The study, an executive summary, the study’s methodology, and complete data-set are available for download below.
All are invited to comment on the report using the Twitter hashtag #socialgrade.
Downloads
Press Release
Download Press Release (filetype: pdf)
Study
Download Complete Study (filetype:pdf)
DataSet
Download dataset (Excel Sheet –.xlsx)
Download dataset (Excel Sheet –.xls)
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There are reasons that any modern example is likely to resemble the status of Legendre's constant. Most (but not all) interesting numbers admit a polynomial-time algorithm to compute their digits. In fact, there is an interesting semi-review by Borwein and Borwein that shows that most of the usual numbers in calculus (for example, $\exp(\sqrt{2}+\pi)$) have a quasilinear time algorithm on a RAM machine, meaning $\tilde{O}(n) = O(n(\log n)^\alpha)$ time to compute $n$ digits. Once you have $n$ digits, you can use the continued fraction algorithm to find the best rational approximation with at most $n/2-O(1)$ digits in the denominator. The continued fraction algorithm is equivalent to the Euclidean algorithm, which also has a quasilinear time version according to Wikipedia.
Euler's constant has been to computed almost 30 billion digits, using a quasilinear time algorithm due to Brent and McMillan.
As a result, for any such number it's difficult to be surprised. You would need a mathematical coincidence that the number is rational, but with a denominator that is out of reach for modern computers. (This was Brent and MacMillian's stated motivation in the case of Euler's constant.) I think that it would be fairly newsworthy if it happened. On the other hand, if you can only compute the digits very slowly, then your situation resembles Legendre's.
I got e-mail asking for a reference to the paper of Borwein and Borwein. The paper is On the complexity of familiar functions and numbers. To summarize the relevant part of this survey paper, any value or inverse value of an elementary function in the sense of calculus, including also hypergeometric functions as primitives, can be computed in quasilinear time. So can the gamma or zeta function evaluated at a rational number.Directions
1Put your slow cooker on high. Then open and drain 2 cans of Jackfruit (17oz or 20oz cans). Jackfruit in brine works best.
2Rinse the jackfruit and pick out any seeds and place into the slow cooker
3Sprinkle the paprika, old bay, your pork rub, sugar (I'll add my favourite recipe to the site soon, but you can find plenty of awesome pre-made pork rubs that are vegan) These rubs should have paprika, sugar, salt, a little chilli, as a decent base. Stir into the jack fruit so it's all covered.
4Pour in your liquid smoke. This is made from natural smoke and is a great ingredient. I use a bit of apple wood and a bit of mesquite, but hickory is amazing too. Stubbs does amazing liquid smoke.
5Add in 1-1.5 cups of vegetable stock.
6Chop your onions up fine and stir in. Add in a tablespoon of garlic paste
7Cook on high for 3.30-4 hours. Stir occasionally
8After 3 1/2 to 4 hours, pull it apart with a fork, or smoosh it a bit so it takes on the texture of pulled pork. Add a few squirts of BBQ sauce and cook for another 45mins to an hour
9Place under the grill for about 10 minutes to crisp it up a little.
10Serve up on a bun with some more BBQ sauce and add some coleslaw if you like to give it a bit of crunch.Rockville, Md., the city home to the recent immigrant high school rape scandal, is considering declaring itself a sanctuary city to hide illegals.
Although Rockville police have had a long-standing policy neither to question suspected illegals about their immigration status, or to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, the city is now considering the process of formalizing that informal standard by becoming a sanctuary city.
Rockville City Councilmember Julie Palakovich Carr introduced an ordinance in early March in response to President Donald Trump’s pledge to beat back illegal immigration.
Carr forwarded the ordinance at a hearing March 6 overflowing with local residents, including those in favor of turning Rockville into an official sanctuary city, and those vehemently against.
But the discussion has now become much more complicated, as recently, two immigrants, Henry E. Sanchez from Guatemala, and Jose O. Montano, from El Salvador, were charged Thursday for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl at Rockville High School.
The charges include first-degree rape and first-degree sexual offense.
The girl told police that Montano pushed her into the boys’ bathroom and into a stall, at which point Sanchez joined him and the two took turns sexually assaulting her.
It’s unclear why Sanchez and Montano, 18 and 17 respectively, are allowed in the ninth grade at the high school and a spokeswoman for the school refused to explain the situation to The Washington Post.
What is clear, however, is that Sanchez has a “alien removal” case against him currently pending.
Montano is being charged as an adult, despite being a juvenile, because of the gravity of the allegations.
And according to Montgomery County Assistant States Attorney Rebecca MacVittie, Sanchez is a “substantial flight risk.”
That both are a flight risk is precisely why the judge in the case said they must be held in custody without bond until their next court hearing. Montano’s hearing is set for March 31 and Sanchez’s is set for April 14.
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Slack API Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 2, 2016
Imagine a mild-mannered onboarding app — it’s instructive, interactive and reactive, and in this case it is built on Slack. If you watch the GIF below you can find just that! An onboarding app that updates its training message after the user completes each step of onboarding. Here’s the hitch: this app isn’t built with the RTM API, and it isn’t polling Slack for updates — it’s built with something lovely and new, the Events API.
Demo App
The Events API is a new way to build apps that respond to activity as it happens, in Slack. Previously, the only way to make apps that respond to activity outside of Slash Commands or Message Buttons was to use the RTM API. The RTM API opens a websocket for every team connected and gives developers a fire hose of data. Slack is built with the RTM API, so it’s not going anywhere, but the RTM API usually provides too much data and too many websockets for developers to manage in a pleasant, productive way.
The Events API, on the other hand, is a tidy way to build with simplicity and scalability in mind. If the RTM API is a fire hose, the Events API is a watering can — easy to wield and useful. Instead of an endless stream of data, the Events API allows you to subscribe to only the events required for your app, delivered to you via HTTP.
This means you can make a simple single-event-driven app with much less work — for example, an app that tracks reacji (Slack’s emoji reactions) only requires subscribing to reaction_added or reaction_removed. It also means you can build for scale — if your app is installed by 30,000 teams, you still only subscribe to the events you’ve built for, no more, no less.
Today the Events API handles dozens of events, and we’ll continue to add more. You can get started using these steps:
1. Enable Events API support for your Slack App
There’s a new tab in town when configuring your Slack apps labeled “Event Subscriptions.” There you’ll find a toggle allowing you to turn on Events API support for your app. Or turn it off. And on again. So you can pause your subscriptions if you want.
2. Configure your server to verify and process Events API requests
We won’t send a team’s events just anywhere. First, we’ll need to verify the veracity of your connection by sending your SSL-enabled URL a confirmation code, which you’ll need to send back to Slack. The verification process is somewhat like an unfunny knock knock joke that you may have to facilitate with some light programming.
After this little handshake is complete, your specified URL will become the happy recipient of all the events you end up subscribing to. What you do with the events as you receive them is up to you and your application’s special purpose.
3. Subscribe to the events you want your application or bot user to observe or respond to
With your request URL figured out, you’ll need to choose which events to receive. You’ll find a simple interface for selecting those subscriptions on the same configuration page used to set up your request URL.
Though we haven’t talked about the OAuth scopes that correspond to specific event subscriptions, know that after saving this page you’ll begin receiving your requested events from teams that are already set up with those scopes.
And if you’re the proprietor of a bot user, you’ll find that the `bot` scope you already requested affords your bot authorization to subscribe to a collection of useful event types you may already be familiar with from the RTM API.
4. Secure the right permissions for your app
If you’ve had a Slack app for awhile, you’re likely already requesting the OAuth scopes you need to work with the Events API.
But if you’re building a new application, or if there are events you want to subscribe to associated with OAuth scopes you aren’t yet requesting, then you’ll need to negotiate them with the Add to Slack flow before your subscriptions will activate.
If you’re subscribing on behalf of a bot, you’ll only need the `bot` scope.
In any case, your application will only receive event subscriptions on behalf of the users, channels, and conversations it has directly been granted access to.
5. Eventually, process and respond to requests
Once you have everything set up, you’ll begin receiving events at your configured URL matching your subscriptions, as incited by team activity.
Your URL will need to understand the format of these events, based on the same event types already flowing through the RTM API in JSON. When dispatched by the Events API, events are wrapped with additional metadata helping you contextualize and validate an event’s provenance.
Bot users would take this opportunity to respond to certain trigger phrases and conversational transactions. An emoji reaction tracker might take it upon itself to cross-post a recently reacted-to message to a channel dedicated to those iconic messages. What will your app do?
Ever optimistic, the Events API wants you to acknowledge receipt of each event with a friendly HTTP 200 OK response. The Events API will also retry failing requests up to three times using an exponential backoff technique that will help you reach the nirvana of eventual consistency.
That’s all there is to it. If you want to see how we built the opening onboarding app, we’ve open sourced it, enjoy! We’ll be back with a tutorial and some overviews of how to use the Events API with the hosting provider of your choice. Any questions or comments? Let us know @slackapi.Microsoft today published a short blog post stating that it feels that recent government changes to how it reports surveillance activities are insufficient. Calling the decision by the federal government to publish more information on the quantity of consumer data requests relating to national security each year “a good start,” Microsoft claims the Constitution demands more progress.
Microsoft cites the founding document several times in its post, also declaring that it believes that it has “a clear right under the U.S. Constitution to share more information with the public.”
In a rare moment of solidarity, Microsoft name-checked Google, saying that the two companies agree that more must be made legally allowable to disclose. Both companies are in litigation with the government for the right to share more about what they are forced to hand to the government. Specifically, Microsoft wants to disclose how often user content such as the content of an email is demanded.
Revelations from documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to journalist Glenn Greenwald showed that through a program called PRISM, the United States government requested hefty amounts of user data from large Internet companies.
There are gag rules around what can be said regarding government data requests. This stifles discussion, debate, and functional oversight of the government by its ultimate leaders, the citizenry. Microsoft and Google are also likely not particularly excited about sharing their private user data with intelligence agencies.
Microsoft, citing a “failure of [its] recent negotiations” promises to press forward with its lawsuit “in the hope that the courts will uphold [its] right to speak more freely.” The company claims to have met with the government on six different occasions. Microsoft indicated that its suit was filed in June.
You don’t often see a company worth hundreds of billions go full philosophy, but Microsoft went there (this appears to be a trend at the company – I’m looking at you, Frank):
The United States has long been admired around the world for its leadership in promoting free speech and open discussion. We benefit from living in a country with a Constitution that guarantees the fundamental freedom to engage in free expression unless silence is required by a narrowly tailored, compelling Government interest. We believe there remains a path forward that will share more information with the public while protecting national security. Our hope is that the courts and Congress will ensure that our Constitutional safeguards prevail.
Microsoft is not always on the right side of privacy issues. However, in this case it is, and that is worth noting. Also, the combined Google and Microsoft legal budget is formidable. Perhaps progress will be made.
Top Image Credit: Amit ChattopadhyayA cross-section of Wall Street analysts have raised the alarm regarding Walt Disney's leading cable channel ESPN and its subscriber loss problem.
ESPN represents 75% of Disney's cable revenues and a weak ESPN channel can be disastrous for the entire company.
How will Disney cope with this unfortunate trend?
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) has been one best-performing stocks in the Dow Jones over the past couple of years. This year has not been any different with Disney stock up 26% YTD. But this type of performance might now be in danger, with Disney's cash cow ESPN continually losing subscribers and revenue. Cable networks are Walt Disney’s most important revenue and income segment, contributing about 44% of revenue and 58% of the company’s operating income. ESPN is the most important member of the cable network, representing 75% of Disney’s cable revenues. A crumbling ESPN therefore has real potential to take a severe hit on Disney’s top and bottom lines.
Although Disney CEO Bob Iger has largely been downplaying ESPN subscriber loss, some analysts believe the problem could get far worse in the coming years. Fund manager Eric Jackson is one of the analysts that think ESPN subscriber and income loss will not moderate as many believe but will instead get worse as the quarters roll on. Jackson pointed to Disney’s past SEC filings that suggest ESPN subscribers peaked at 99 million in 2013, and have now fallen to 92 million as per Nielsen’s current estimates. Jackson estimates that ESPN is receiving $650 million less in affiliate fees and $250 billion less in advertising revenue than it did just two years ago. Affiliate fees refers to the fee that cable providers such as Comcast pay ESPN for rights to broadcast the channel.
Is The Problem That Bad Really?
There is no question that Disney is feeling some heat from cord-cutting as consumers prefer other distribution channels such as Netflix, which is increasingly competitive, while other subscribers select ‘‘skinny’’ bundles of channels that exclude costly ESPN. ESPN is also being plagued by another problem that Jackson did not talk about rising programming costs which are squeezing margins. ESPN programming costs have risen about 50% in four years to $4.50 per subscriber in 2015.
Source: Wall Street Journal
But that’s just one side of the narrative. The other side is that ESPN’s affiliate fees per subscriber have actually been growing and helping Disney to offset loss of revenue from lost subscribers. Disney’ Media Network recorded a healthy 27% Y/Y increase in operating income to $1.82 billion, which the company chalked up to higher affiliate fees and better ad rates.
Disney talked about this during its fourth quarter and full-year earnings call:
At Media Networks, growth in operating income in the fourth quarter was driven by an increase in cable, while Broadcasting results were in line with the prior-year quarter. Growth in cable operating income was driven by ESPN and, to a lesser extent, worldwide Disney channels and higher-equity income from A&E. The increase at ESPN was driven by the benefit of the 53rd week and higher affiliate and advertising revenue. Programming costs were relatively flat in the quarter, as higher costs for a full quarter of the SEC Network, additional U.S. Open tennis rights, and contractual increases for Major League Baseball and the NFL were offset by the absence of rights costs for NASCAR.
Domestic cable affiliate revenue was up 17% in the quarter and up 8% excluding the benefit of the 53rd week. Ad revenue at ESPN was up 5% in the quarter. Two factors affected the comparability of ESPN's ad growth in the quarter, the 53rd week and the absence of the Men's World Cup. We estimate that ESPN's ad revenue was up 9% when you exclude the net impact of these two factors.
So ironically affiliate fees and ad revenue, the two ESPN revenue components that Jackson talked about, are actually doing quite well. ESPN’s affiliate fees remain the highest for any channel by a wide margin--ESPN affiliate fees clocked in at $6.55 per subscriber per month during Disney’s fiscal 2015, and is expected to cross the $7 mark in 2016.
Source: Forbes
Where Else Can Walt Disney Get Its Growth From?
The good news is that while Disney’s cable segment is likely to remain under some pressure in the coming quarters due to cord-cutting, Disney’s other revenue segments such as Studio, Parks and Entertainment, and Consumer Products remain in the pink of health. Disney has enjoyed a blockbuster year with box office hits such as Inside Out, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cinderella, Inside Out, among others having set box office records. Disney has predicted that Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is to be released in December this year will realize movie product sales of $5 billion, thereby smashing the current record of $2.8 billion set by Cars 2 in 2011. Disney has turned the screw on its licensing partners and will now take a 20% royalty on movie product sales, about double the normal rate.
After growing its EPS by 16% in 2015, Disney expects EPS to increase 10% in 2016. Meanwhile the consensus is for the company to grow earnings by 14.1% CAGR over the next five years. Walt Disney therefore remains a prime long-term holding.So, the amalgamates. Monsters melted together forming some sort of abominations who are sure to give people nightmares the first time through. The first one we meet upon entering the True Lab is the one we’re gonna talk about here.
The memoryheads.
Now, why them? Well.. Because no matter how I try to look at them, I can’t see them as amalgamates.
When seeing an amalgamate, the first question you tend to ask yourself is “what monsters are they made of?” as this will be needed to know how to spare them.
Now, I must ask you this: What monster are the memoryheads made out of? Because, sure, looking at them, we can kind of … See some faces melted together, and things melted together does sounds like an amalgamate but… That’s the only thing they have in common.
Also pay attention to how they are spared: You need to use your cell, and then refuse to join them. Isn’t that strange? Usually, to spare amalgamates, you have to do actions that remind them of who they were before. But here? It is actions that we never had to do before.
I would also like to point out what happens if you try to attack them:
First of all, that’s creepy. Second of all, no monster ever does that. They are the only ones who do.
When hitting other amalgamates, you tend to miss. But not… Like this. Not with creepy messages appearing in red.
The messages are the following, by the way:
Don’t worry about it.
Absorbed
I’m lovin’ it.
But it didn’t work.
nope
FAILURE
MISS
It’s strange, it’s creepy, and it’s something never seen before, and that never repeats in the future.
It is also interesting to point out that in the very end of the True Lab, you are surrounded by the amalgamates encountered before. Counting the memoryheads, you encounter 5 enemies in the True Lab, however…
Only 4 amalgamates are present on this cutscene.
The memoryheads are also never seen outside of the one battle we have against them, while we do meet every amalgamate in the different zones, spending time with their loved ones when going through the underground again after finishing the true lab.
So, the question is: Who are the memoryheads?
The answer is simple: They are parts of Gaster.
So, let us look at the actions we can have with the memoryheads again, shall we? We have CHECK, CELL, STAT and ITEM. Cell is the right answer as it will make you take out your cell and hear voices through the receiver. Check will prompt the flavor text to say “no data available”, Stat will actually give you the monster’s stat, and Item will prompt them to put a piece of themselves in your inventory.
Isn’t that last one very strange? And it sounds familiar.
Very familiar.
Wasn’t Gaster scattered through time and space, and didn’t one of his follower have a piece of him?
Interesting indeed.
Those memoryheads can break themselves into pieces that they can give to you… Just like how Gaster seems to have been “broken into pieces” as one of his followers holds a piece of him.
What about the other actions? Because “no data available” is the very first and only time that the flavor text has nothing to say about a monster, it is the first time that there is no available data about a monster. Which is frankly surprising, because it is able to comment even on the other amalgamates…
But it wouldn’t be surprising, for the flavor text, to not have anything to say about someone like Gaster, who doesn’t exactly exist to begin with, wouldn’t it?
The fact that it quite literally does not have a name until you hear voice through the Cell’s receiver is also quite strange, isn’t it?
What the flavor text does know, however, is that the memoryheads “smell like batteries”, which is interesting, if we think of Gaster’s story. You know, former royal scientist, created the core, who is a gigantic machine who pretty much produces magical electricity, “fell into his creation” (implies the core)… Maybe someone who fell into such thing would indeed smell like batteries to a kid.
Another thing I’d like to point out is what its attack look like, because, seriously…
That face… doesn’t it remind you of a very special someone?
You can’t tell me there is no resemblance.
And if it is indeed Gaster, the fact that they invite you to join them is… Interesting, to say the least.
The literally only thing that goes against this theories? They do not speak in wingdings. Otherwise, it all fits.Have you ever wondered what ketamine, speed and Prozac really look like? You may or may not be familiar with the sensory experience of the various legal and illegal substances, but we're pretty sure you've never sat down with a microscope and pored over the celestial images that are hiding inside.
Speed
Enter German artist Sarah Schönfeld, who's performed a similar experiment in her project "All You Can Feel." Whether depicting methamphetamine, heroin or ecstasy, her images present an astonishing side of pseudo-alchemy, the result of sprinkling psychotropics and neurotransmitters onto photographic negatives and subjecting the swatches to the typical photographic process. What remains are tumbling landscapes, planetary scenes and crystallized universes, dancing about in a manner eerily similar to the feelings you might associate with each respective substance.
Ecstasy
So what moved the Berlin-based artist to take a deeper look at the mystical world of drugs?
"I worked in the club Berghain for many years," she explained, "and my father has been on Haldol [or Haloperidol] since I was born, so I was kind of surrounded by the question of what substances do to your character and soul."
Ketamine
See a preview of Schönfeld's zoomed-in "photographs" -- presented in a book by the same name -- below and let us know your thoughts on her unique science adventure in the comments. To see more of her work, check out her website here.
Heroin
LSD
GHB
Crystal Meth
MDMA
Caffeine
Cocaine
OpiumMan in camouflage pants holding a gun (Shutterstock)
Three Seattle schools ordered students to “shelter in place” after a man opened fire with a handgun in the area and tried to lure several children into a car, police said late on Tuesday.
Police responded to reports of gunfire in the Washington state city’s Brighton neighborhood, south of downtown, around the time students usually leave school for the day, the Seattle Police Department said in a statement.
The man was also trying “to lure several children into his car”, according to separate reports received by the department.
Local media reported there would be heightened security on Wednesday at the schools, which lock exterior doors during a “shelter-in-place” process, and that there had been no injuries.
Police arrested the 33-year-old man and recovered a loaded handgun after he was indentified by a witness.
He was being booked into King County Jail for “numerous crimes”, police said.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Louise Ireland)Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording Awarded for Quality disco recordings Country United States Presented by National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences First awarded 1980 Last awarded 1980 Website grammy.com
The Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording was an award presented at the 22nd Grammy Awards in 1980. The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards,[1] are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".[2]
Gloria Gaynor and producers Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren won the Best Disco Recording award for the song "I Will Survive". However, because of a backlash against |
oppose Donald Trump in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday night
A woman who did not want to be identified is dragged back from the street during a rally against Donald Trump in Indianapolis
A man is seen carrying a sign that reads, 'no human being is illegal #notmypresident', among many other protesters in downtown Indianapolis
Protesters hold signs during an election protest in Lafayette Square Park in front of the White House, Saturday, Nov. 12
Washington DC was another city where protesters marched against President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday night. Pictured are two women holding anti-Trump signs
Crowds of people are seen on both sides of the street outside a hotel in downtown Indianapolis during anti-Trump protests on Saturday night
Protesters against President-elect Donald Trump chant in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on November 12, 2016
In Las Vegas, hundreds marched through the strip carrying signs with similar messages as the protests continued
Massive crowds of protesters took tot he streets in Las Vegas - joining a host of other cities across the country to stage demonstrations
The massive crowd of anti-Trump protesters marched along the Strip on Saturday night, many carrying signs and banners
Demonstrators gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday to protest against Donald Trump's election victory over Hillary Clinton
A crowd of protesters staged a rally outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City on Saturday
Demonstrators gather in protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah
A man at the protests in Salt Lake City wears a hat that reads, 'Immigrants Make America Great'. It mocked Donald Trump's campaign slogan
A man is arrested outside the Indiana State House in Indianapolis during a rally against the election of Donald Trump on Saturday night
Jocelyn Dominguez, 9, sits on the shoulders of her father Moises during a rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump in Indianapolis on Saturday night
After getting her Trump sign knocked out of her hand, Kelly Cummins (L) yells at a protester marching against the Republican's election win
Protesters are seen in Miami, Florida, upset with Republican nominee Donald Trump's election win on Tuesday over Hillary Clinton
Protestors attend a rally in Wynwood, Miami to protest against President-elect Donald Trump
Meanwhile in New York, Liberal film-maker Michael Moore made it to the fourth floor of Manhattan's Trump Tower in his bid to confront President-elect Trump and call on him to step down, before he was stopped by Secret Service guards.
Moore, who had been a vocal critic of Trump during the election, joined thousands of people in protesters in Manhattan on Saturday morning, before he managed to get inside Trump Tower.
After making his way into the Donald's Central Park skyscraper, Moore attempted to get to Trump's office.
Kansas City, Missouri, was another city that saw more protests against Donald Trump on Saturday. An anti-Trump crowd is seen in the city
A demonstrator who painted her face in the colors of the American flag holds up a sign heading, 'Stop Trump', in Kansas City on Saturday
People attend a protest against the election of President-elect Donald Trump Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, in Kansas City outside of City Hall
People protest against the election of Republican candidate Donald Trump in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday afternoon
A large crowd of demonstrators hold anti-Donald Trump signs during a Missouri rally against the President-elect
Donald Trump supporter Kern Carlos Huerta stands in front of the Utah State Capitol building doors as demonstrators protest against the election of Republican nominee
Film-maker Michael Moore has called on Donald Trump to step down as President-elect before he even takes office, after joining in protests in New York City
The award-winning film-maker managed to scale Trump's famous escalator, however he was stopped from going any further by security guards on the fourth floor.
Moore was then escorted back down to the lobby, however before he left he wrote a note to Trump.
'Mr. Trump. I’m here. I want to talk to you,' the note read.
Moore then left the building and tweeted: 'I'm in the middle of thousands -tens of thousands?- of American voters outside Trump Tower demanding he step aside. He got the least votes.
Michael Moore holds up his phone to broadcast his appearance at an anti-Donald Trump rally in New York on Saturday
Moore scaled the famous escalator inside Trump Tower in an attempt to reach the President-elect's office, but he was stopped by security
Moore's face is seen on the screen of his phone, while standing among a crowd of thousands of protesters in New York
'I was able to get into Trump Tower & deliver him a message: "You lost. Step aside." SS took the note I wrote up & went 2 give it to him.'
Moore broadcast his journey into Trump Tower on Facebook Live.
After leaving the building, he spoke with protesters outside for more than an hour.
British right-wing politician Nigel Farage arrived at Trump Tower shortly after Moore left. He was allowed up to Trump's office.
Filmmaker Michael Moore walks inside Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016
Moore is seen leaving a note for Trump before he left the Tower. The note reads: 'Mr Trump. I’m here. I want to talk to you'
After being escorted out of the building, Moore tweeted about the note he wrote Trump
Michael Moore talks to a film crew as he is blocked exits to an elevator inside Trump Tower by Secret Service officers
Demonstrators hold signs during a rally outside Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, Nov. 12
Thousands of protesters march up Fifth Avenue to Trump Tower to protest against President-elect Donald Trump, in Manhattan
About 2,000 protesters have been marching along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan shouting "not my president" and other slogans.
The protesters rallied at New York's Union Square on Saturday before picking up steam and taking their cause into the street and toward Trump Tower.
Fifth Avenue was crowded with protesters for blocks. Police lined both sides, following along on foot and on motorcycle, but the group remained peaceful.
There were protests in other parts of the country as well, with the largest taking place in Los Angeles, where several thousands marched.
New York police officers block demonstrators during rallies outside Trump Tower in Manhattan on Saturday night
Protesters are seen in the streets of New York during an anti-Trump demonstration on Saturday night
Ellen Marius, right, and Majo Orozco chant slogans as they demonstrate during a rally outside Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, Nov. 12
There were also protests against Trump in Los Angeles on Saturday, with thousands seen marching through the streets downtown
Anti-Trump demonstrators hold a U.S. flag upside-down as they march in a rally in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, to protest against President-elect Donald Trump
Protesters were denouncing his campaign pledge to deport people who entered the US illegally and his crude comments about women.
Cheers, chants and flag-waving mark Saturday's procession, which stretched for blocks through the Civic Center.
No arrests were made even though the train of demonstrators occasionally snarled traffic.
The mood seemed enthusiastic rather than angry. There are no reports of vandalism or fire-setting, which have marred previous demonstrations around the nation.
Earlier in the day, Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway was seen at Trump Tower in New York.
She spoke briefly with reporters before taking an elevator to the President-elect's office.
A protester is seen walking along the street in New York carrying a sign during an anti-Donald Trump rally on Saturday
Protesters carry American flags, one of which was modified to include the 'Peace' Symbol, during demonstrations against Donald Trump in New York
Chong Cha demonstrates with her dog, Zuzu, during a rally outside Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016
Kellyanne Conway was seen earlier in the day arriving at Trump Tower for meetings with the President-elect
British far-right politician Nigel Farage visited Trump Tower on Sunday shortly after Moore left. Farage was allowed up to meet with Trump
Moore came under fire last month for calling Trump supporters 'legal terrorists' in an interview with Rolling Stone.
In the interview, he said Trump would 'blow up the system' and his voters would 'participate in the detonation'.
Moore also compared Trump to a pedophile, saying voters had to protect America from the GOP nominee the way children should be protected from molesters.Is Rod Liddle’s column in today’s Sun the most disgusting attack on disabled people yet? Here are some choice quotes:
“My New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to become disabled. Nothing too serious, maybe just a bit of a bad back or one of those newly invented illnesses which make you a bit peaky for decades – fibromyalgia, or M.E.”
“And being disabled is incredibly fashionable. The number of people who claim to be disabled has doubled in the past ten years.”
“I think we should all pretend to be disabled for a month or so, claim benefits and hope this persuades the authorities to sort out the mess.”
“It has become easier to claim those benefits, partly as a consequence of the disablement charities who, out of their own self-interest, insist that an ever-greater proportion of the population is disabled.”
Mindblowing.
[update id=”me-association” time=”12:32″ text=”Dr Charles Shepherd, the medical spokesperson for the ME Association, said: “This is a disgusting and inaccurate attack on people with M.E. Rod Liddle should get his facts right. The condition is recognised by the World Health Organisation after first being described in the Lancet in 1955.””]A family of five just lost everything in a fire, and turned to Reddit’s Personal Finance community for advice on how to rebuild their lives. Reddit user 1020304050, a former insurance claims adjuster, came through with insider tips on creating a home inventory after a casualty loss. His comments are required reading for not getting screwed when filing a claim.
He writes, “I used to be the guy who worked for insurance companies, and determined the value of every little thing in your house. The guy who would go head-to-head with those fire-truck-chasing professional loss adjusters. … Our goal was to use the information you provided, and give the lowest damn value we can possibly justify for your item.”
There are specific ways to get what your possessions are really worth.
Here’s what we learned.
Be as specific as possible.
1020304050 writes that the running joke in his office was that if any of them had to file a claim, “we’d be claiming everything down to the 3/4 used up roll of toilet paper next to the toilet.” They know that partially used items count. Be exceedingly specific.
For instance, if all you say was “toaster”—we would come up with a cheap-as-fuck $4.88 toaster from Walmart, meant to toast one side of one piece of bread at a time. And we would do that for every thing you have ever owned. We had private master lists of the most commonly used descriptions, and what the cheapest viable replacements were. We also had wholesale pricing on almost everything out there, so really scored cheap prices to quote. To further that example: If you said “toaster – $25”, we would have to be within -20% of that… so, we would find something that’s pretty much dead-on $20.01.
If you said “toaster- $200”, we’d kick it back and say NEED MORE INFO, because that’s a ridiculous price for a toaster (with no other information given.)
If you said “toaster, from Walmart”, you’re getting that $4.88 one.
If you said “toaster, from Macys”, you’d be more likely to get a $25-35 one.
If you said “toaster”, and all your other kitchen appliances were Jenn Air / Kitchenaid / etc., you would probably get a matching one.
If you said “Proctor Silex 42888 2-Slice Toaster from Wamart, $9”, you just got yourself $9.
If you said “High-end Toaster, Stainless Steel, Blue glowing power button” … you might get $35-50 instead. We had to match all features that were listed. I’m not telling you to lie on your claim. Not at all. That would be illegal, and could cause much bigger issues (i.e., invalidating the entire claim). But on the flip side, it’s not always advantageous to tell the whole truth every time. Pay attention to those last two examples.
List every damn thing.
Again, the more meticulous you are, the better.
Remember to list fucking every—even the most mundane fucking bullshit you can think of. For example, if I was writing up the shower in my bathroom: Designer Shower Curtain – $35
Matching Shower Curtain Liner for Designer Shower Curtain – $15
Shower Curtain Rings x20 – $15
Stainless Steel Soap Dispenser for Shower – $35
Natural Sponge Loofah – from Whole Foods – $15
Natural Sponge Loofah for Back – from Whole Foods – $19
Holder for Loofahs – $20
Bars of soap – from Lush – $12 each (qty: 4)
Bath bomb – from Lush – $12
High end shampoo – from salon – $40
High end conditioner – from salon – $40
Refining pore mask – from salon – $55 I could probably keep thinking, and bring it up to about $400 for the contents of my shower. Nothing there is “unreasonable,” nothing there is clearly out of place, nothing seems obviously fake. The prices are a little on the high-end, but the reality is, some people have expensive shit—it won’t actually get questioned. No claims adjuster is going to bother nitpicking over the cost of fucking Lush bath bombs, when there is a 20,000 item file to go through. The adjuster has other shit to do, too. Most people writing claims for a total loss wouldn’t even bother with the shower—it’s just some used soap and sponges—and those people would be losing out on $400.
If you don’t have a solid paper trail, look for photo evidence of your most expensive items.
All hail the iCloud.
Some things require documentation & ages. If you say “tv – $2,000″—you’re getting a 32” LCD, unless you can provide it was from the last year or two w/ receipts. Hopefully you have a good paper trail from credit/debit card expenditure / product registrations / etc. If you’re missing paper trails for things that were legitimately expensive—go through every photo you can find that was taken in your house. Any parties you may have thrown, and guests put pics up on Facebook. Maybe an Imgur photo of your cat, hiding under a coffee table you think you purchased from Restoration Hardware. Like… seriously… come up with any evidence you possibly can, for anything that could possibly be deemed expensive.
It may be useful to hire a loss adjuster.
Also known as claims adjusters. These are independent consultants who normally take a percentage of the final sum obtained.
The fire-truck chasing loss adjusters are evil sons of bitches, but, they actually do provide some value. You will definitely get more money, even if they take a cut. But all they’re really doing, is just nitpicking the ever-living-shit out of everything you possibly owned, and writing them all up “creatively” for the insurance company to process. Sometimes people would come back to us with “updated* claims. They tried it on their own, and listed stuff like “toaster”, “microwave”, “TV”.. and weren’t happy with what they got back. So they hired a fire-truck chaser, and re-submitted with “more information.” I have absolutely seen claims go from under $7k calculated, to over $100k calculated. (It’s amazing what can happen when people suddenly “remember” their entire wardrobe came from Nordstrom.)
Use “trigger words” on your claims.
Do your research on insurance loopholes.
I remember one specific customer… he had some old, piece of shit projector (from mid-late 90s) that could stream a equally piece of shit consumer camcorder. Worth like $5 at a scrap yard. It had some oddball fucking resolution it could record at, though—and the guy strongly insisted that we replace with “Like Kind And Quality” (trigger words). Ended up being a $65k replacement, because the only camera on the market happened to be a high-end professional video camera (as in, for shooting actual movies). $65-goddam-thousand-dollars because he knew that loophole, and researched his shit.
Read the entire conversation about insurance claims in the original Reddit thread. Then start making an itemized list of your stuff before, God forbid, disaster strikes.Comin’ up in the world don’t trust nobody / Gotta look over your shoulder constantly
Since we all know who the favourites are, tons of previews with same names out there, same riders interviewed every year, I thought I could spend a few words for those who are rarely mentioned but might become heroes for a day (more than a day, actually).
Leigh Howard
First time in a long time (maybe ever) he’s leading a team in an important race. Had some incredible results in the past in races with similar parcours and started this season really motivated. If IAM fully back him (as they said), Howard should be honoured to be led-out by Reynes, Kluge and Haussler.
Ramunas Navardauskas
Maybe not so underdog, but as the field is stacked, he’s not the first that comes to mind speaking of favourites. Pretty moody rider, has proved to be really strong (when he wants to) in difficult and long races, thinking at last WC and the Bergerac stage of the ‘14 Tour de France in particular.
Sep Vanmarcke
Dear Sep is trying to fly a bit under the radar. Maybe he’s thinking at Sanremo as a training but, as his form is surely there, I’m not entirely convinced by his quietness. Has always been a good sprinter, given the type of rider he is, and proved to be strong last week at Paris-Nice. Can launch an attack or join one and be very dangerous in a reduced sprint.
Matteo Trentin
Etixx already outlined its hierarchy, backing Gaviria with Stybar free to do his thing. But. If Gaviria fails in his first Monument, the next in line is Trentin, in my opinion. Not only there for a sprint, if you remember last year’s Sanremo, Oss was in a late move with Geraint Thomas, and I can totally see Trentin doing what Oss did and following moves in the final, if things get serious. Fantastic domestique, always needed a win to gain awareness, found 3 nontrivial ones (twice at the Tour plus last edition of Paris-Tours) recently.
Fabio Felline
Growing constantly, has been one of the most exciting Italians to watch these seasons. Always been a puncheur-ish rider, maybe preferring sprints in his early years, now seems to have lost a bit of speed in favour of climbing. Was pretty good at the end of Paris-Nice and terrific in Andalucia. In case race is harder than expected, with groups all over the place, he is one of the fastest guys on the line, maybe the fastest with Gallopin.
There might be a lot more than 5 to talk about, to be fair, but I like the chances (as dark horses) of these guys. Milano-Sanremo has always been a selective race; it’s not very easy to find a surprise in last editions’ podiums, but sometimes Ciolek happens, and I would be really happy to see a less renowned rider win the Classicissima.
(pic via @gruberimages)Downtown Revitalization Coming Soon to Plattsburgh Video
PLATTSBURGH, NY - The City of Plattsburgh is one step closer to getting a makeover in its downtown.
City officials recently submitted plans to New York State for it's revitalization project; Plattsburgh secured $10-million from the state.
Some of the work proposed includes turning the Durkee Street parking lot into a multi-use building and park.
The plans have been in the making for nearly 20 years.
"You know we started this process looking at 15 plans over 18 years all of those plans had merits and things that still hold true but we never had the support or push from the state so to varying degrees we were unable to carry them out but now we have this wonderful opportunity," said Community Development Director Paul DeDominicas.
The approval process is being described as speedy-- if the plans are approved, construction should begin this summer.Sea Shepherd – the globally renowned environmental organisation with its southern base in Australia – has just upped the ante in the fight to prevent illegal whaling with an announcement yesterday that construction will begin immediately on a state-of-the-art vessel aimed squarely at frustrating Japan’s ongoing attempts to strip our ocean of whales.
The ship is as scary looking as it is technologically advanced, and will be built in Vietnam before being based at Sea Shepherd’s Williamstown port in Victoria, for operations during the 2016-17 whaling season.
The announcement follows a donation worth 8.3 million Euros ($11.2 million AUD) from the postcode lotteries in the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom (the Dutch Postcode Lottery contributed a whopping 7.5 million Euros).
Adam Burling, spokesperson for Sea Shepherd Australia told New Matilda it was a “game changer” in the defence of the ocean’s gentle giants.
“It’s a huge breakthrough for Sea Shepherd,” Burling said. “Never in our whole history have we been able to get access to a new ship – we’ve just never been able to afford it.
“Most of the ships we’ve operated have been pretty old, so this is a game changer for us. It will not only add to our fleet, but spearhead the campaign to stop whaling in the southern ocean.”
Currently Sea Shepherd has six ships in its international fleet. Three of those are based in Australia – the Sam Simon, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker.
All three ships have served Sea Shepherd well, and will continue their operations. But the newly planned ship will take Sea Shepherd’s activism – and capacity – to a whole new level.
“The big thing about this ship is the speed, and the technology that will come with it,” said Burling.
“Both in terms of their maritime history, and ship building, Japan is world renowned and they have state-of-the-art fleets.
“We’ve been up against ships that are faster and better equipped than ours, and while we’ve still achieved incredible results with an older fleet, this changes everything.”
Sea Shepherd describes the Southern Ocean as “one of the last regions of untouched natural beauty on the planet”. It’s been fighting illegal whaling and fishing around Antarctica since 2002, and has saved more than 5,000 whales from slaughter.
The whaling season officially operates from December until early March, but this season has seen a break, after Japan’s defeat in the International Court of Justice last year. Burling says the break is only a brief hiatus.
Japan is preparing a new submission to the International Whaling Commission, and again arguing that it’s whaling is for scientific purposes (as in, scientifically speaking, this whale meat is delicious!’) – the same claim rejected by the ICJ. Its latest proposal indicates Japan intends to continue whaling for at least another decade.
In fact, the Japanese fleet is already back in the Southern Ocean, planning its next hunt.
“They’re down there now doing ‘non lethal research’… They’re looking at whale migratory patterns and krill movements, so that they can come back next year,” said Burling.
“In the words of Captain Peter Hammarstedt, (in charge of Sea Shepherd’s global fleet and captain of the Bob Barker) they’re basically bank robbers casing out the bank for the robbery they’re planning next year.”
But notwithstanding a break in the whale hunt, there’s never really any lull for Sea Shepherd in its fight to protect our oceans – this year the organisation launched Operation Ice Fish, which is specifically targeting illegal fishing operations.
“Sadly, there’s no shortage of work for Sea Shepherd in terms of policing international maritime law, and taking on some of the most destructive activities on the planet against the ocean and its creatures,” Burling said.
For the last 40 days, the Bob Barker has been trailing an Interpol-wanted vessel named ‘Thunder’, operating in waters south of Australia. It’s one of six known vessels currently suspected of illegal fishing in the southern ocean. The target of the poachers is the Patagonian Toothfish.
Bob Barker interrupted the hunt by the Thunder, and forced the crew to dump more than 45 kilometres of illegal gill nets (which contained more than $2 million worth of Toothfish). A second Sea Shepherd ship, the Sam Simon, joined the operation to clean up the nets, while the Bob Barker continues to shadow the vessel, which has ceased fishing for now.
The Sam Simon is also involved in the shadowing of three vessels spotted by the New Zealand Navy two weeks ago near the Ross Sea (off the coast of Antarctica). The NZ Navy wasn’t able to board or arrest the crews, so the Sam Simon is expected to take over the monitoring of the vessels, and to interfere with any attempts to fish.
A bit about Sea Shepherd and its Fleet • Sam Simon is a former Japanese fisheries vessel. It was bought ‘undercover’ by Sea Shepherd from the Japanese, who expected the ship to be converted and used a luxury yacht. It’s named after one of the original creators of the cartoon, The Simpsons. • Steve Irwin is a former Scottish coast guard patrol vessel, and named after the famed Australian wildlife lover. • Bob Barker is a former Norwegian whaling ship (an icebreaker), named after the American game show host and philanthropist. Barker’s wife donated money for a helicopter to operate from the ship’s deck. • All of the ships are ice class vessels, however the Bob Barker is particularly suited to the Southern Ocean, with a reinforced hull. • Between 30 and 40 crew volunteer on each ship during operations. In the last campaign launched by Sea Shepherd from its Australian base, 120 people were active from 21 different nations, although half the crew were Australians. • Much of the funding for Sea Shepherd in Australia – including its Antarctic operations – comes from smaller donations from Australian families. You can help support the work of Sea Shepherd by visiting their site here.Owned by 1,000 Farm Families
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We honor your purchases with our commitment to honor quality and collaboration among Cooperative Programs, Stewards and our Farmers. Meet the farmers who are the Agri-mark Board of Directors.Along with music, it is perhaps theatre that has the longest and most intricate entanglement with Nepal’s socio-political history and transformations. Sometimes overtly political and dramatic, other times satirical and comedic, theatre has long mirrored Nepali society, warts and all. From the dramatic literary work of Bal Krishna Sama to the explosion of theatre groups and artists that the Capital is currently witnessing, theatre, though often beset by censure, has come a long way.
In celebration of this long and storied history, and the vibrancy of Nepal’s contemporary dramatic arts scene, the Nepal International Theatre Festival raised its curtains on Monday. Eight theatre groups—Mandala Theatre, Theatre Village, Theatre Mall, Shilpee Theatre, Actors’ Studio, Katha Ghera, One World Theatre, and Sarwanam Theatre—have come together to host a series of both foreign and domestic plays that are being screened across the Valley and in Pokhara, Janakpur and Biratnagar. The event, centred around the theme ‘Theatre for Social Transformation: An Artistic Voyage’, recognises theatre as the staging ground not just for artistic work but work that aims at socio-political change.
Theatre is just one facet of Nepal’s thriving arts and culture sphere. Even as the International Theatre Festival takes place, an International Film Festival is taking place alongside it, screening short films, features and documentaries from across the world. And in just a few days, the Art and Literature Festival will take place, hosting dozens of writers, artists and intellectuals in the Eastern border town of Kakkarbhitta in Jhapa. Just last December, the Nepal Literature Festival—a carnivalesque gathering of writers, thinkers, artists, journalists and politicians—took place on the shores of Phewa Lake, Pokhara.
The sheer number of festivals happening across the country reflects how much the arts is thriving in Nepal. Even if politics might be moribund, the arts are vibrant and are winning accolades globally. From music to theatre, from film to dance, Nepalis, a majority of them young, are exploring and experimenting, and in the process, reflecting new ways in which society can see itself. The arts scene is not closeted; it is growing past borders and boundaries. The festivals being hosted are international in nature, with participants from across the world. Rajan Khatiwada, director of Mandala Theatre, says the theatre festival is being organised so that “Nepali theatre personnel benefit from a wider worldview and exposure” and “an opportunity for everyone to share and listen to each other”.
This blossoming, however, has largely taken place independently of the government. Despite the few grants that are available for film, music and theatre, most ventures have been privately-funded with artists going independent. The Nepal Pragya Pratisthan, or Nepal Academy, the public body charged with promoting the arts, culture and literature has done little of significance. The Cultural Corporation, which hosts the National Theatre, has largely been inactive on the theatre scene, except as a public venue that can be hired for events. The Nepal Arts Council, perhaps the most active of the public arts and culture bodies, has been a lone public patron of the arts, hosting photography, fine arts and visual arts exhibitions.
The theatre festival is being organised at a time when there is a fear that open expression could potentially come under threat. Creative platforms like these festivals are venues where dissenting and controversial views can be aired and engaged with. The arts are not about agreement; they are about opposition and conflict and an understanding that can arise from two divergent points of view coming together. This is what Nepal’s booming arts and culture scene has facilitated. The arts could always benefit from more patronage, both public and private, but more than that, it must be allowed to enjoy artistic freedom, bereft of censorship.Thiruvananthapuram: Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai in his audit report filed in the Supreme Court on the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple has reportedly said that at least 266 kg gold went missing from the temple vaults.
According to media reports, of the 893.44 kg gold which was taken out from the underground vault for the renovation of the temple including gold-plating its gopuram, at least 266 kg of gold went missing.
The report also says that the vault was opened 82 times.
It was in April 24, 2014 the Supreme Court appointed former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai to supervise special audit of property of the temple, which is facing charges of financial irregularities.
The Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, situated at the heart of the city, has six vaults, most of which are underground and are filled with priceless articles.The debate about raw diets for pets is an ongoing “hot button” topic in veterinary circles. There is also a less heated but still vigorous debate about cat nutrition in particular and what form and composition constitutes the optimal diet for our pet cats. I have previously written about raw diets extensively, and I still hold the opinion that there is little reason to believe they are superior to cooked diets, including commercial pet foods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
The theoretical arguments advanced for using these diets are weak and often simply a form of the appeal to nature fallacy. “Natural” is not synonymous with “optimal,” so even for cats, which are obligate carnivores and often still actively predatory, actual experimental evidence is needed to justify the claim that the natural diet of raw, live small prey, or other raw diets promoted as equivalent, is better than the alternatives. This is even more true for dogs, who have been so deeply altered by breeding and association with humans from their wild ancestors that it is a stretch even to claim there is a “natural” diet that domestic dogs should be eating.
While the benefits of raw diets remain unproven, there are legitimate concerns about risks, including infectious disease, parasites, and potential dangerous from specific components of some diets, such as bones. These risks do not yet appear dramatic, but they need to be weighed against benefits which can be substantiated by real research, which does not yet exist.
One recent study has compared a commercial kibble with both cooked and raw alternatives in a few cats, and some raw diet advocates are suggesting this is evidence in favor of the benefits of raw diets. Having looked at the study, I think it is an interesting beginning in terms of comparing different feeding options, but I am not convinced it provides significant evidence to support most of the claims made for raw pet diets.
K.R. Kerr, B.M. Vester Boler, C.L. Morris, K.J. Liu, and K.S. Swanson. 2012. Apparent total tract energy and macronutrient digestibility and fecal fermentative end-product concentrations of domestic cats fed extruded, raw beef-based, and cooked beef-based diets. Journal of Animal Science: 90: 515-522.
The study was nicely designed, though this also meant labor intensive, which likely contributed to the small sample size. Nine cats were each fed three different diets in rotation; a beef-based raw diet, the same diet cooked in a microwave to the standards for food safety recommended by the USDA, and a high-protein commercial dry diet. The cats ate each diet for 21 days. The last 4 days of each period, all feces and urine was collected for analysis, and on the last day a blood sample was taken.
The nutritional composition of the three diets was complete and roughly equivalent, though the ingredients of the commercial kibble were significantly different from the ingredients of the other two diets. And of course the moisture content of the dry diet was significantly less than that of the others.
The only difference among the diets in terms of the bloodwork was a higher creatinine (a measure of kidney function, hydration, and protein metabolism) and triglyceride (a fat) in cats eating the cooked and raw fresh diets than in those eating the commercial dry diet. Though these values differed between the diets, they were within the normal range for all cats.
Interestingly, there were no differences in the urinalysis values between any of the diets, and all the cats had very high urine specific gravity measurements (>1.064). One of the arguments for feeding fresh or canned diets is that the increased fluid content should improve hydration and reduce urine specific gravity, which is hypothesized to be useful in preventing and managing kidney disease. However, despite having water available at all times, the urine specific gravity was extremely high in all of these cats, and there was no difference between the kibble and the fresh diets.
Any interpretation of these numbers is speculative given the small size of the study, but one would expect the fresh diets to lead to lower renal bloodwork values and lower urine specific gravity than the kibble, particularly if they are to have any protective benefits against kidney disease. This data seems to undermine this hypothesis.
The amount the cats were fed was adjusted regularly to maintain an ideal body condition, so no differences in the effect of diet on body condition could be evaluated. Cats on the dry diet did eat more, in terms of volume and calories, than cats on the other two diets (which were not different from each other). This agrees with the finding that the dry diet appeared to be less digestible than the other two diets (which again did not differ from each other).
The various measures of digestibility showed the dry diet to be between 4.2% and 11.7% less digestible than the cooked and raw fresh diets. However, as the authors state, “All diets tested in this experiment were highly digestible,” so the real-world significance of this isn’t clear. Presumably, a cat would have to eat a greater quantity of a less digestible diet and would produce more stool, but it is unclear how great a difference this might be or whether it would have any health implications.
Stool quality is often a marketing point for raw diet advocates. In this study, stool quality was evaluated on a 5-point scale:
1 = hard, dry pellets
2 = dry, well-formed stools
3 = soft, moist, formed stool
4 = soft, unformed stool
5 = watery liquid that can be poured
Cats on the dry diet had a higher score (average =3.3) compared to the other diets (which did not differ significantly at averages of 2.8 and 2.9). The ideal score is 3.0, so all of the diets generated a normal fecal consistency. Oddly, the dry diet appeared to lead to moister stools than the higher moisture content diets, which is the opposite of what one might expect.
A number of fecal compounds were measured, but the only conclusion drawn from the differences seemed to be again that the dry diet was less digestible and so led to greater colonic bacterial metabolism than the other two diets. However, the measurements were consistent with normal values seen in healthy cats. The health implications of this are unclear.
So what conclusions did the authors draw from these data?
Although the raw and cooked beef-based diets were more digestible than [the dry diet], all diets were highly digestible in this experiment. Few differences in serum metabolites were detected Urine variables did not differ among diets. All scores of fecal consistency were within a desirable range, but cats fed [the dry diet] had greater scores Carbohydrate fermentation was similar for all diets. Fecal |
-of-state cans.
National Post
• Email: thopper@nationalpost.com | Twitter: TristinHopperfrom http://www.starcraft2.com/launcher/patch-notes.htm --patch notes are once again available at this location as of 4:15 KST
StarCraft II Beta � Patch 8 (version 0.10.0.14803)
The latest patch notes can always be found on the StarCraft II Beta General Discussion forum.
General
Korea
Added support to display the game rating information on the login screen.
Balance Changes
TERRAN
Thor
Build time decreased from 75 seconds to 60 seconds.
Siege Tank
Build time decreased from 50 seconds to 45 seconds.
Marauder
Concussive Shells now require an upgrade.
Barracks Tech Lab
Concussive Shells upgrade added.
Concussive Shells upgrade costs 100/100 and takes 80 seconds to complete.
PROTOSS
Void Ray
Changed to only have 2 damage levels instead of 3. Still takes the same amount of time to fully charge.
Base damage changed from 2 (+4 armored) to 5.
Powered-up damage changed from 8 (+16 armored) to 10 (+15 armored).
Armor value decreased from 1 to 0.
Cost increased from 200/150 to 250/150.
ZERG
Roach
Burrowed move speed decreased from 2 to 1.4.
Armor value decreased from 2 to 1.
Hydralisk
Life decreased from 90 to 80.
All the changes I wanted :swoon:Dortmund made a 20-million euro bid for the 27-year-old earlier this month, but Leverkusen refused to budge over their superior valuation for the central defender, who picked up an injury in his side's 2-1 defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday.
He can leave the club for a pre-agreed fee of 12-million euros next summer, but Voller said Leverkusen still would not consider letting him depart for less than what they felt is his current market value.
"Omer understood immediately that it was not down to us that the deal didn't work out, but Borussia Dortmund have every right to say they are not going to match our valuation," Voller told Sport1 television.
"It happens and nobody is angry about it. You've got to agree with the other club, and we simply couldn't agree with Dortmund.
"We owed it to him that we would listen to any offer, and he had this offer from Dortmund, but it didn't work out."Share
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Is Cheerleading A Sport?
Johnny Campbell was the first to cheer the football team in 1898 in Princeton. Cheerleading is almost 100 years old when most of the cheerleaders were men. Now 98% of cheerleaders are females. The estimates tell that around the world there are more than 4 million cheerleaders. Cheerleaders are generally in the age group of 5 to 13 years. Most of the cheerleaders are gymnasts and 12% are dancers. In US 80% schools have cheerleading squads. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders is the most famous squad. Football is most popular sport for cheerleading. Cheerleading is no doubt a dangerous sport as it involves injuries like broken bones, busted lips and serious injuries. Though cheerleading is to rouse the interest of match watchers, cheerleading in itself is a competitive sport. The competitive cheerleader must be a high level gymnast as she is to perform without any safeguards.
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In an unusually harsh major foreign policy address, Philip Gordon, a special assistant to US President Barack Obama and the White House coordinator for the Middle East, appealed to Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make the compromises needed to reach a permanent peace agreement. Jerusalem “should not take for granted the opportunity to negotiate” such a treaty with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has proven to be a reliable partner, Gordon said.
“Israel confronts an undeniable reality: It cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely. Doing so is not only wrong but a recipe for resentment and recurring instability,” Gordon said. “It will embolden extremists on both sides, tear at Israel’s democratic fabric and feed mutual dehumanization.”
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Delivering the keynote address at the Haaretz newspaper’s Israel Conference on Peace, Gordon reiterated Obama’s position that a final-status agreement should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps.
The administration is aware that Israel is facing threats on several fronts and Obama remains committed to Israel’s security, he said, speaking on the day that Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to counter rocket fire from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Indeed, mere hours before Gordon addressed the conference, hundreds of participants were forced to quickly evacuate the event hall and enter a safe room after an alert signaled a missile approaching Tel Aviv. After about 10 minutes, participants returned to the hall and the conference resumed.
“The United States will always have Israel’s back. That’s why we fight for it every day at the United Nations,” Gordon said. But as Israel’s greatest friend and strongest defender, Washington should be allowed to ask some fundamental questions, he added.
Specifically, Gordon went on: “How will Israel remain democratic and Jewish if it attempts to govern the millions of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank? How will it have peace if it’s unwilling to delineate a border, end the occupation and allow for Palestinian sovereignty, security and dignity? How will we prevent other states from supporting Palestinian efforts in international bodies, if Israel is not seen as committed to peace?”
The administration was disappointed that the last round of US-brokered peace negotiations failed and that currently “we find ourselves in an uneasy pause,” Gordon said. “At the same time we have no interest in a blame game. The unfortunate reality is that neither side prepared their publics or proved ready to make the difficult decisions required for an agreement. And trust has been eroded on both sides. Until it is restored, neither side will likely be ready to takes risk for peace, even if they live with the dire consequences that resolve from its absence.”
The “past few weeks” show that the inability to resolve the Israeli-Palestinians conflict “inevitable means more tension, more resentment, more injustice, more insecurity, more tragedy and more grief,” he said. “And the sight of grieving families, Israeli and Palestinian alike, reminds us that the cost of this conflict remains unbearably high.”
In his 25-minute speech — which marked the first time a senior White House official had directly addressed the Israeli people since Obama’s March 2013 speech in Jerusalem — Gordon rejected any alternatives to the two-state solution. He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume peace talks with the PA, suggesting that Abbas is the best Palestinian leader Jerusalem could hope for. “Israel should not take for granted the opportunity to negotiate such a peace with Abbas, who has shown time and again that he’s committed to non-violence and co-existence and cooperation with Israel.”
At one point in his speech, Gordon appeared to directly contradict an assessment Netanyahu made last week regarding Israel’s security needs vis-à-vis its eastern border.
Referring to deliberations retired US General John Allen held with IDF officers regarding ways to secure Israel’s border with Jordan, Gordon said that Allen’s plans include “a full range of contingencies, including rising threats that we see around the Middle East.” Allen was likely referring to the territorial gains made in recent weeks by the radical terror group Islamic State (formerly known as ISIL or ISIS).
“The approaches that are being discussed would create one of the most secure borders in the world along both sides of the Jordan River,” Gordon said. “By developing a layered defense that includes significantly strengthening the fences on both sides of the border, ensuring the right level of boots on the ground, deploying state of the art technology, the comprehensive program of rigorous testing, we can make the border safe against any type of conventional or unconventional threat — from individual terrorists or a conventional armored forces.”
On June 29, Netanyahu declared that one of Israel’s central security challenges was to “stabilize the area west of the Jordan River security line.” In this part of the West Bank, the prime minister said, “no force can guarantee Israel’s security other than the IDF and our security services… Who knows what the future holds? The ISIS wave could very quickly be directed against Jordan,” he said at a conference in Tel Aviv.
Israel would thus have to maintain long-term security control of the territory along the Jordan River in any future accord with the Palestinians, the prime minister said. “The evacuation of Israel’s forces would most likely lead to the collapse the PA and the rise of radical Islamic forces, just as it did in Gaza. It would also severely endanger the State of Israel.”
In his speech at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv, Gordon also referred to the hail of rockets that rained down on Israel throughout the day from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. “The US strongly condemns these attacks. No country should have to live under the constant threat of indiscriminate violence against innocent civilians,” said Gordon, whose administration was heavily criticized by the Israeli government for quickly agreeing to work with the new Hamas-backed Palestinian unity government when it was established last month.
The administration supported Israel’s right to defend itself against these attacks, he added. “At the same time, we appreciate Prime Minister Netanyahu’s calls for acting responsibly and we in turn call on all sides to do all they can to restore calm and to protect civilians.”– A veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart for his service and his family walked into their new home in Stapleton on Saturday, one that doesn’t come with a mortgage.
Operation Finally Home and builder Wonderland Homes gave U.S. Army Sgt. Marco Dominguez a brand new home in a celebration, that was at times, emotional.
“This is just, this is too much,” said Dominguez.
Dominguez served two tours in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where he was seriously injured and awarded two Purple Hearts, five Army Achievement medals and three Army Good Conduct medals for his service.
He found out earlier this year that he would be getting a brand new, custom-built house, mortgage free.
“It’s awesome,” said Dominguez. “There’s nothing like this. There are no words to explain this.”
The Dominguez home is the first one in Colorado to be completed by Operation Finally Home.
Organizers say the non-profit’s goal is to help military heroes transition to the home front by addressing one of their most pressing needs: a home to call their own.
“Today we want to thank everybody that lent a hand that put this project together,” said a volunteer with Operation Finally Home.
“This does not even come close to repaying you for your sacrifice, so thank you, thank you so much.”
Dominguez and his family are new to Denver from San Antonio, Texas. He calls the move and the new home an exciting new chapter for him and his family.
“It just has this vibe of a new chapter in life, a new beginning,” said Dominguez.WA election: Flux the System micro-party puts up 26 fake independent candidates
Updated
Flux the System, a micro-party which is using self-styled preference whisperer Glenn Druery as a consultant, is running 26 fake independent candidates for the Legislative Council in the WA election.
Key points: Flux is one of five micro-parties who struck a preference deal in bid to win seats
Preferences from Flux 'independents' flow to other micro-parties
Campaign director Daithi Gleeson says candidates trying to capture'stray vote'
The candidates have been listed as independents on ballot papers for the election but "are our candidates", Flux the System campaign director Daithi Gleeson said.
In the North Metropolitan region, for example, the candidates include Doubleview personal trainer Raoul Kawusu Conteh Smith and Success machine operator Michael Carey.
They are listed as part of an "independent" voting ticket above the line on the region's Legislative Council ballot paper.
The party is running more disguised candidates than official ones, of which there are 24 between the upper and lower houses.
"It's part of our strategy to run a group of independents to maximise our chances of electoral success," Mr Gleeson said.
With the WA Electoral Commission estimating that fewer than 5 per cent of voters mark every box below the line, an above-the-line vote is powerful in the WA system.
Voters only have to mark one box above the line or must number every box correctly below the line.
The fake independents are the latest example of the tactics being employed by new micro-parties like Flux in a bid to maximise their chances of winning a seat and capitalising on the protest vote against bigger parties.
Flux is part of the so-called "Druery grouping" — along with the Daylight Saving Party, Family First, Fluoride Free WA and the Liberal Democrats — that has arranged preference deals to give each party a strong chance of winning one designated Legislative Council region.
The deal, organised by Mr Druery, has given Family First candidate Henry Heng the strongest chance among the group of winning a North Metropolitan seat.
This is reflected in Mr Smith's voting ticket, where preferences flow to Family First, then to Fluoride Free WA, the Liberal Democrats and Flux.
'It's their choice': Druery
Mr Druery said he did not advise Flux the System to list the candidates as independents, but said he had discussed "pragmatic ways of being elected" with parties running in the WA election.
"I show them where boundaries and pragmatic electoral boundaries may exist," he said.
"They have to work within those boundaries. Of course it's legal. But ultimately if any of these groups choose to do this, it's their choice."
Mr Druery also said that it was not a new phenomenon for a party to run independents in a bid to win more votes.
"All sorts of groups have done this over the years. It's not reinventing the wheel," he said.
Flux's strategy is however at odds with its platform of stopping backroom deals and making political decisions more democratic.
"By distributing power away from brokers, middle men and partyrooms, Flux makes backroom deals difficult and ineffective," the party's website says.
"Instead of convincing political operatives, lobbyists will have to convince us, the Australian people."
Mr Gleeson, who contacted the ABC after it approached Mr Carey and Mr Smith for interview, said the pair were not actively campaigning and were listed as independents rather than Flux candidates in an attempt to capture "the stray vote".
He said he did not think it was unethical to not identify the candidates on ballot papers as Flux representatives.
"It's a means to an ends. It's next to impossible for small parties and independents to get up," Mr Gleeson said.
"We have set out on this campaign with the objective of getting elected. If we felt what we thought what we were doing was wrong, we would not do it."
Fellow independent concerned
Mr Carey and Mr Smith are two of 18 voting tickets listed above the line on the region's ballot paper.
These tickets include another independent, an "A Albert", who has been difficult to track down.
The only details provided by the WAEC are that the candidate has a silent address, is a "BBU business owner" and has directed their top preferences to Druery grouping parties — with Family First top of the list.
Mr Heng said he did not know A Albert and the preference flow was not arranged by his party.
The lack of information on candidates like A Albert has raised the suspicions of others on the campaign trail.
Another independent running for the North Metropolitan region, corporate law specialist Joe Ruzzi, said he had tried without success to find out more information about them when trying to decide the preference flows on his voting ticket.
"My gut feeling is that some of these independents may be stooges," he said.
Mr Ruzzi said he disliked the system of voting tickets and would like to see them abolished, but had submitted one because in the current system "if you are going to make a difference, then you have got to be above the line".
Topics: minor-parties, elections, government-and-politics, perth-6000, wa
First postedIn case you thought Dave Chappelle was the only big-time comedian finding a lifestyle in rural Ohio, then you haven’t been keeping up with what Drew Hastings has been up to in Hillsboro. Hastings not only moved to the rural town of 6,600 outside of Cincinnati several years ago, but also began investing in the city personally and professionally, renovating real estate, writing a newspaper column, and this week, winning the election to become the town’s next mayor, as a Republican.
Here is a local TV report from WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. Roll it.
Hastings, 57, was born in Casablanca (yes, Morocco), but grew up in Ohio and has lived in the state for all but a few years when he tried living in Hollywood.
And according to his mayoral campaign site, here are a few of the things he has done since relocating to Hillsboro in 2005:
2006 – Raised $5000. For the Colony Theatre by doing a benefit performance. 2007 – Purchased the abandoned Armory building and put it back into marketable condition for a business to locate into. 2007 – Purchased the Bell’s Opera House and did a total renovation of the 1st floor commercial storefronts and began looking into ways to pursue renovation of this important landmark. 2009 – Purchased the former 5/3 bank building on the corner of Main and High Streets. Undertook giving the building a major facelift to highlight Hillsboro’s main intersection and show how “do-able” it is to make uptown a desirable destination. 2010 – Formed the Hillsboro Uptown Renaissance Project, a non-profit corporation to serve as an economic development vehicle for uptown re-development and the total renovation of the Bell’s Opera House. 2010 – Purchased the abandoned former City/firehouse building to eventually develop into a retail/dining complex through investor participation.
Hastings produced a one-hour stand-up special, Drew Hastings: Irked and Miffed, which aired on Comedy Central in 2008.Long Island City’s massive shrine to graffiti culture is being whitewashed. According to the outdoor exhibit’s official Twitter account, the space was buffed last night by the building’s owner — with cops present to fend off art-loving hooligans — representing a huge symbolic defeat in the ongoing struggle to prevent 5Pointz from going the way of luxury condominiums.
5 pointz is gone, painted white overnight by the owner..with police protection — 5 Pointz (@5PointzNYC) November 19, 2013
I repeat 5 pointz is gone..painted white over night we almost got arrested — 5 Pointz (@5PointzNYC) November 19, 2013
“5Pointz is the world’s largest display of graffiti art, and it’s a global social hub,” Eric Felisbret, the author of Graffiti New York, told New York Magazine last month. “Now that it looks like that’s going to disappear, I’m not sure where the movement’s going to go.”
Here’s the sad work in progress, which just became the number one target in the city for a fresh coat of new graffiti:
Confirmed 5 Pointz graffiti Mecca was painted over last night pic.twitter.com/tweDokQR2Y — Stephen Nessen (@s_nessen) November 19, 2013Now playing: Watch this: Intel's Project Alloy headset cuts the cord
The best virtual reality can be a pain to set up. You need a pricey PC, a fancy headset and great motion controllers, and you'll still be tethered by a cord. But Intel's Project Alloy wants to throw those limitations out the window.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich kicked off his Intel Developer Forum (IDF) on Tuesday with a bold claim: "Merged reality will be one of those fundamental shifts that's going to redefine how we work, how we're entertained, and how we communicate."
What's "merged reality," you ask? It seems to be an Intel term to describe a VR experience that uses depth-sensing cameras to bring elements of the real world into a completely cordless VR headset.
Project Alloy is the prototype version of that headset, and it already seems to work at a very basic level. In a demo on the IDF stage, the company showed how users could walk around a rudimentary virtual space and interact with objects using their own hands.
Enlarge Image Intel
While the presenter struggled a bit, the headset's integrated Intel RealSense cameras let him bend each of his fingers in virtual reality, push a lever, and use a real-world dollar bill to carve a virtual golden statue spinning on a virtual pottery wheel. Rival cordless headsets like Microsoft's HoloLens and the Meta 2 are still struggling to track your hands, so the demo seemed reasonably impressive.
Don't get too excited, though. Intel doesn't plan to actually produce a consumer VR headset. As usual, the chipmaker is trying to sell these technologies to partners, and it could be quite a while before they do. Intel says even partners will have to wait for the Project Alloy headset until the second half of 2017.
Besides, there's a reason why the best VR headsets still have tethers today: it takes an awful lot of CPU and GPU power to make a virtual world feel real.
Intel didn't offer a price or specifically name any partners for Project Alloy.
(If you think "Merged Reality" sounds a lot like Microsoft's "Mixed Reality" or Magic Leap's "Cinematic Reality," or even just plain ol' augmented reality, you're not alone. -- read about the differences here -- but Intel CEO also has a whole blog post about what he believes "merged reality" should mean.)(Editor’s Note: After this story was published, a city of Roseville spokesperson provided us with the following statement:
“This is a very complex situation evolving over several years. At its heart, this is a zoning issue. It is completely inaccurate to characterize the City of Roseville as banning dancing. No individual has ever been arrested, including Mr. Travis, for violating the dance ordinance. Mr. Travis’ arrest was the result of an altogether different situation. From the beginning of this, the City of Roseville has simply reacted to numerous citizen complaints about activities at The Station.”)
ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — A Roseville business owner is suing the city for false arrest in a battle over the city’s dance permit ordinance.
Roseville Station owner Len Travis was jailed in 2012 for a misdemeanor violation of Roseville’s city dance permit ordinance, all because he allowed his customers to dance.
His restaurant sits outside of a specially zoned entertainment district, which the city says means no dancing inside.
But a judge overruled the citations, and the city lost its appeal.
The city claimed in 2008 that it sent a notice informing the property owner that it had lost the ability to operate under a legal, nonconforming status since the operation of a nightclub violated Roseville Municipal Code.
But now Travis is suing the city for false arrest.
From the lawsuit: “The defendants by arresting Mr. Travis without a warrant and without probable cause or reasonable suspension and then by confining him did falsely arrest and imprison him.”
Travis’ lawyer Jeff Kravitz says the city is going a step further in claims against the city.
“In Roseville, they don’t like freedom.”
He contends the city’s stance on dancing is anti-American.
“Why do people believe that in a free society, that in a restaurant, the owner of the restaurant cannot make a decision to allow people to dance to music being played on the radio? he said.
In the meantime, Travis says there will be dancing.
The city of Roseville opted not to comment on this story.Hello everybody,At the beginning I would like to thank you for all support I am receiving. It really motivates me to paint more. I only wish it wasn't January with exams and projects deadlines.The painting began to emerge from a single quote that happened during breakfast conversation. "Some thugs areliving like a wolves in packs hunting among normal and honest people". In such hierarchy there is always alpha male chosen as the leader of a group. Let's add that it was first day that snowed this year and my dog had really great fun running around. From that point I was waiting for an image to pop into my head. One of the most important aspects of the composition was to depict immediacy of action. It was clear that this scene needs dynamism to support the tension of wolves in charge. What left is mixing mentioned elements together and organizing them in certain flow of lines and shapes. Steps anyone?Thanks for watching,Mateusz OzminskiThe Obamas have arrived back at their $4.3 million new Washington D.C. home after a well-earned break on Virgin billionaire Richard Branson's private island.
The former first couple flew out of paradise on Thursday after ten days in the Virgin Islands - with no children and no work obligations.
They have now returned to their nine-bedroom home in the elite Kalorama neighborhood - which is just two blocks from Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's new $5.5million pad.
Their beaming smiles as the boarded the jet on the isle or Tortuga were a far cry from the tensions left behind in Washington DC, where President Trump on Thursday eased a sanction on Russia, said he wouldn't rule out military action against Iran, insulted the U.S. deal with Australia, and started the National Prayer breakfast with a prayer for Arnold Schwarzenegger's Apprentice ratings.
The Obamas arrived at the airport in Tortola on a red helicopter
Mrs Obama had the same straw hat on on Thursday that she wore to lunch Tuesday
The Obamas were accompanied on the journey with what appeared to be a few aides
They appeared to pose for a photo with someone before they boarded the jet
Michelle Obama beamed as she greeted a man on the tarmac, followed by her husband
Island vibes: Mrs Obama has been favoring t-strap sandals and the same straw hat on vacation
The former president had the top buttons of shirt undone - but long trousers instead of his holiday shorts of Tuesday
The Obamas left on the same jet, seen left, that they arrived on last Monday
Obama, seen boarding, has no doubt been enjoying a few weeks with no presidential duties
They flew from Palm Springs to Tortola on it last Monday
The Obamas arrived at the Tortola airport via a red helicopter. They then made their way back to Washington, and returned to their home just blocks away from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
A motorcade was seen pulling up to the house, while signs dotted the road on neighboring lawns welcoming the former first family home.
The pair have been staying on one of Richard Branson's private islands, believed to be the eco-resort island of Moskito, which the Brit owns in addition to Necker, where he keeps a home.
The pair holidayed in the Caribbean without their daughters Sasha and Malia, who had joined them their first weekend after leaving office for a few days in Palm Springs, California.
Sasha is believed to be back in DC where they former first couple will live as she finishes high school, and Malia is in New York on her first week of an internship working for Harvey Weinstein.
The former first family are seen walking away from a red helicopter on Beef Island, Tortola
The pair holidayed in the Caribbean without their daughters Sasha and Malia, who had joined them their first weekend after leaving office for a few days in Palm Springs, California
The couple looked relaxed as they walked across the tarmac with staff carrying their bags
The Obamas' motorcade was later seen pulling up to their DC home, bringing their vacation to an end
The pair arrived back at their new home just blocks away from Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's property
Several signs were spotted on their neighbors' lawns, welcoming them to the neighborhood
The Obamas happily posed up with some locals who asked for a photo on Tuesday - with their billionaire host Richard Branson as well. Obama had his hat backwards and a huge grin
No doubt locals are thrilled for the souvenir of a photo with the Obamas
The Obamas have had a couple's vacation, as their daughter Malia, seen here on Thursday, is in New York starting her internship with Harvey Weinstein and daughter Sasha is in high school
On Tuesday the Obamas posed up with well-wishers on Tuesday on a lunch out, despite the fact all employees on Branson's island were reportedly been banned from even carrying a smartphone while the first couple are in residence.
During day eight of their tropical vacation, the Obamas enjoyed the afternoon with their billionaire friend on the island of Anegada having lunch at the local beachfront restaurant Cow Wreck Beach Bar.
The former first couple, who traveled from a long weekend in Palm Springs to the islands on Branson's private jet last Monday, were first spotted on the island in photos obtained by DailyMail.com.
The former president, who wore shirts, smiled and engaged with onlookers
Staff on Moskito Island claim they had been hosting Obamas.
An unnamed source told a local paper the Obamas and their entourage were staying there, and staff members were not allowed to walk with any phones to work for the duration of the visit and are subject to searches from the US Secret Service.
Staff were also subject to frequent Secret Service checks.
The former president’s delegation numbers about one hundred and includes mostly Secret Service officers and other aides for the former First Couple, according to the paper.
One lucky couple eating at Cow Wreck at the same time grabbed this selfie with Obama...
... snapped just as the former president helped himself to some more grub
Backward cap Barrack seems to be getting used to the low key life of the islands
Late on Tuesday video emerged of the couple smiling and waiving as they made there way with Branson to a helicopter, so not all cameras are the enemy.
The couple kept it casual, as they both sported shorts, sandals, hats and sunglasses during their outing on Tuesday.
Barack cheerfully said hello to those standing-by and replied 'thank you so much' to a man who told them to have a nice holiday.
Happy: During day eight of their tropical vacation, the Obamas were carefree and upbeat as they enjoyed the day
All smiles: Barack and Michelle were caught on video waiving to people who were standing behind security guards as they walked together with Branson on the sand towards a waiting helicopter nearby
Relaxed: The couple kept it casual and relaxed, as they both sported shorts, sandals, hats and sunglasses during their outing on Tuesday
The Obamas are eight days into their tropical holiday in the British Virgin Islands, and today enjoyed lunch with Richard Branson and daughter Holly
The former leader of the free world has remained almost silent about his successor after nearly two full weeks.
But on Monday the former President released a statement through a spokesperson, rather than directly through his Twitter account, in response to Trump's travel ban.
That seemed a million miles away as the former president, outfitted in a black Nike sports shirt, hat and his favorite Oliver Peoples sunglasses, enjoyed the lunch for four.
'President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country,' according to a statement released by his post-presidential office.
'Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake,' Obama said.
On Tuesday they made it off Moskito Island with their billionaire host Richard Branson for a lunch, one day after releasing about Trump's travel ban via a spokesperson
The former President wore a black Nike shirt and and turned his baseball hat backwards for the outing
Wife Michelle kept her braids covered up by a white straw hat. Her husband wore flip flops
Obama, who said he would jump into the political fray when 'core issues' are at stake, invoked 'comparisons to President Obama's foreign policy decisions.'
'With regard to comparisons to President Obama's foreign policy decisions, as we've heard before, the president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion,' according to the statement.
Michelle, meanwhile, dressed in white for the tropical sun.
She wore her hair braided and sheltered her head under a white hat.
The former First Lady was photographed sitting down and chatting with Branson's daughter Holly, 35.
It's not known when the Obamas will return stateside from their holiday
The Obamas posed with BVI Immigration Officers at Terrence B Lettsome International Airport in the British Virgin Islands last Monday night after flying inTalk about rare... Sacramento now has two albino deer believed to be from the same mother.
Video of first albino deer was taken about eight months ago. It could be seen walking along I-5 near the Sacramento Regional Sanitation District's Bufferlands which is a 2,100 acre wildlife reserve.
Video of the second Albino deer was captured in August by a hidden tail camera. Bufferlands Natural Resource Supervisor Bryan Young says there is not a picture of both albino deer together but staff has confirmed there are two of them.
"Yes, the one we were keeping an on last year it did turn out to be a buck. It has antlers but, the one we caught on this recent video is obviously a fawn. " said Young.
The location of the Bufferlands makes it difficult for deer to enter or leave the reserve. Interstate 5, a new shopping mall and several homes act as a wildlife fence.
Young believes the small deer population could be one reason for the rare offspring.
"I am not sure but, I have to assume it has something to do with genetics. We have a very small population of deer on the property, only a handful, so it's very possible that the same pair that produced the original albino deer also produced another one. " said Young.
The Bufferlands are off limits to the general public and there's no trespassing.
But on October 14, the staff will be opening the gates and letting people come in to walk the trails. That may be your only chance to see the albino deer.
Copyright 2017 KXTVby ‘WheresOurBlessing’ commentor at TUT
Many ignorant, brainwashed people have contemptuously called me a “Holocaust Denier”. The following is the response I give, to those who will listen:
Excuse me, but I don’t “deny” ANY “Holocaust”… Do you?
I fully accept the account of the brave and famous Russian writer and historian, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was often called “The Conscience of the 20th Century”; who served eight long years in the Soviet Gulag prison system, when he reports in the book he published in the year 2000 entitled “Together For Two Hundred Years” that, in the Soviet Holocaust, 66 million innocent Gentiles, mostly Christians (and it being a full ELEVEN TIMES the number of Jews claimed to have been killed by the Germans in WWII), were kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered in a wide variety of cruel, wanton, and horribly inhuman ways in the thousands of monstrously evil Gulag concentration camps at the hands of the Jewish Bolshevik “Ivan the Terrible” Cheka corps.
I freely acknowledge the fact that on February 13 & 14, 1945, in the quintessential Holocaust of the non-military city of Dresden, more than 700,000 phosphorus bombs were dropped on 1.2 million helpless people, which produced a firestorm that was called a “Single Column of Flame”, where the temperature in the center of the city reached 1600 degrees centigrade, and in which approximately 500,000 German women, children, elderly, wounded soldiers, random citizens, and even all of the animals in the city zoo were slaughtered by concussion and fire in a single night.
I absolutely recognize that more people died there in Dresden, in that one big flame, than the estimated total of 246,000 helpless people who died in two other quintessential Holocausts, the senseless, wantonly murderous, abominable, and unnecessary atomic attacks upon the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
I openly avow the virtually forgotten Holocaust endured by the passengers and crew of the Wilhelm Gustloff, an unarmed German passenger liner which was torpedoed and sunk in the freezing waters of the Baltic Sea, 13 miles off the coast of Pomerania on January 30, 1945, as it carried, besides it’s men and crew, some 73 wounded soldiers, 373 members of the Womens’ Naval Auxilliary, and some 9,000 German civilian refugees – mostly women and children – who were all fleeing in terror from East Prussia in the advance of the Red Army, and where only a few hundred lived to tell the tale, making it the deadliest disaster in maritime history, killing nearly ten times the number who died on the Titanic.
And I fully admit that, as tallied and reported by the International Red Cross, a grand total of 271,304 people – not all of them Jews – died in all of the German concentration camps, combined, by the end of World War II – a Holocaust which was solely the result of typhus epidemics and starvation caused by the Zionist controlled, allied carpet bombings of supply routes and centers all over Germany that made it impossible to transport food and medical supplies to prisoners, soldiers, and civilians alike.
I certainly do not deny the Holocaust of the over 1,000,000 German post-war, non-combatants who were rounded up, detained without any food, water, shelter, or medical care, and purposely, and systematically killed through starvation and exposure in 1945-46 under the supervision of the allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, in the largest outdoor concentration camp this side of modern-day Palestine, or the concurrent Holocaust of the wholesale cold-blooded rape and murder of untold hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of women and children as the communist Red Army of the Soviets also took its “revenge” upon the defeated Germans.
I do |
end up like Mami-san..." Homura: "We don't know what's waiting for us there, so for now let's go back and calm down a little." Madoka: "Yeah, that's a good idea..." Homura: "Then if we wait a day, maybe Tomoe-san will come back." [scene change to another street scene] Homura: "I'm sorry, Kaname-san." *I told Kaname-san that we shouldn't go...* *But I must go investigate!* *Not just Tomoe-san's disappearance, but also the secrets the city holds...* *I will pin down these mysterious phenomena and determine the truth!* "I'm off to change fate, Kaname-san..." A5.2.2 [First, an overlooking view, then the train station in Kamihama] Homura: "So this is Kamihama City..." (It looks normal to the eye. Is it really that dangerous?) "Tomoe-san is somewhere in this city..."???: "Homura-chan!" Homura: "Eh!?" [Madoka shows up] Homura: "K-Kaname-san!?" "Why are you here?" Madoka: "There was something of about you, Homura-chan." "I wondered if you were planning on going to Kamihama by yourself..." "Then, when I went to the station, I saw you get on a train." "So I rushed to jump onto the next train to Kamihama!" "I'm so glad I followed you." Homura: "Kaname-san... Um, I..." Madoka: "I'm glad you were concerned about me..." "But I'm just as concerned about you, Homura-chan!" Homura: "!?" Madoka: "So please don't go on your own in secret, okay?" "..." Homura: "Kaname-san... Um... I'm sorry." "Also..." *Kamihama is a dangerous place, so in truth I didn't want to bring Kaname-san along.* *But to have her coming for me make me feel so reassured...* "Thank you." Madoka: "Don't worry. Let's go search for Mami-san together!" Homura: "Yeah! I won't go off on my own anymore." Madoka: "Hehe, I'm glad." "Homura-chan, you're always the hard-working solitary type." Homura: *It's so strange that whenever I'm with Kaname-san...* *I feel just a bit stronger than usual.* Madoka: "We'll definitely find Mami-san, and all three of us will come home!" Homura: "Yeah, let's all get home safely." A5.2.3 [on the street in Kamihama] Madoka: "So there is more than one rumor in Kamihama..." Homura: "Then we won't be able to figure out which one Mami-san was investigating." "All we can do is narrow down the possibilities one by one..." Madoka: "In the first place, Mami-san might have been searching for the human-shaped witch instead of rumors..." "But for now, we have no leads on anything but rumors..." Homura: "Yeah, we'll investigate rumors and simultaneously ask about Tomoe-san." Madoka: "Okay." "Then, let's go look for that rumor we just heard about!" Homura: "Yeah." [Homura notices something magical] Homura: (This magical response! A witch!?) (Huh? Isn't that thing stuck into a wall...?) (It's a grief seed!) (Oh no, it's hatching!) "Kaname-sa..." [she gets pulled into the witch barrier] Homura: "Huh? Did I..." "Get pulled into a witch barrier..." <Kaname-san, can you hear me? Kaname-san? Kaname-san!> "..." "It didn't work. It seems that telepathy doesn't work in this witch's barrier." "I've gotta get out and meet up with her..." [a familiar says some gibberish] Homura: "A familiar!? Why right now?" [she transforms] Homura: "Get out of my way!" [back on the street] Madoka: <Homura-chan!? Where are you?> "..." (She's not responding... Something must have happened...) (I felt it for just an instant before, but there was the response of a witch...) (Maybe Homura-chan is in the witch's barrier?) [she searches for it] Madoka: (There's no magical response...) [she's now by the radio tower] Madoka: (If it's not nearby, then that means the barrier is moving...) [she senses something] Madoka: "!?" "Is this a witch's response?!" "Where is it..." "Is it... atop that radio tower?" (But... Homura-chan...) some guy: "..." Madoka: (That person with a witch's kiss is going into the radio tower?) (...Oh no, I can't let him be!) (I'm sorry, Homura-chan! Wait just a bit!) [in the witch's barrier] [a familiar makes a crazy noise] Homura: (Now!) "With this bomb... Take this!" [it explodes] Homura: "pant... pant..." [the barrier dissolves] Homura: "I got out..." "I need to contact Kaname-san quickly." <Kaname-san? Kaname-san! Where are you? Kaname-san!> "..." "She's not responding..." "Has she gone out of the range of telepathy?" "Or maybe she got swallowed in a barrier like I did..." (This is Kamihama City, a place where witches gather...) (I should have foreseen this possibility!) "I've gotta save her! Hold on, Kaname-san!" [cut to the top of the radio tower] Madoka: "There it is, the witch's barrier..." "I'm by myself, but I've gotta beat it quickly!" something: *step... step... step...* Madoka: "Huh? Someone's coming!?" woman: "..." Madoka: "Wh-what are you doing!?" [she transforms] Madoka: "Oh no, she's going to fall! I've gotta stop her!" [the scene cuts to Iroha on top] woman: "..." [she jumps] Iroha: "NOOO!!" [she reappears] woman: "..." Iroha: "Huh? She didn't fall?" Madoka: "Sigh... I made it in time..." Iroha: "A magical... girl?" Madoka: "Huh?" [battle] [cut to a less busy street] Homura: (Kaname-san! Where are you?) (Kaname-san is probably fighting... I've gotta search for the presence of a witch...) (Where?) (Where are you!?) [cut to a restaurant] Felicia: "The truth behind the rumor of the radio tower." Tsukuyo: "No way, you've noticed what we're doing over there!?" [back outside] Homura: (I can't find her... I can't find her anywhere...) [back inside the restaurant] Tsukuyo: "Ahem, that was quite an impressive leading question..." Felicia: "Woah, she totally self-destructed!" [back outside] Homura: (If I can't sense a witch near here, then how far could she have gone?) (If she didn't head towards town, then... should I look over there?) (Ahh, I need to find her quickly... Kaname-san is in danger...) [back inside the restaurant] Felicia: "Come on, tell us what you're doing!" Tsukuyo: "I certainly cannot answer that!" [she disappears] Felicia: "Ah, she made a break for it!" Tsuruno: "Let's chase her, Felicia!" Felicia: "Yeah!" [back outside] Homura: (I should have looked over there! I'm sure Kaname-san is there...) Felicia: "Heeey! You over there!" "Catch her!" "She dined and dashed!!" Homura: "Eh!?" Felicia: "Hurry up, catch her!" Homura: "Uh, you mean... me?" Felicia: "Hur-ry-up!" Homura: "Um, uh..." (Why now!?) (I have to be looking for Kaname-san...) (But there seems to be some trouble... I need more time to think!) [she transforms] Homura: "A-alright!!" Felicia: "Ehh!? A magical girl!?" Tsukuyo: "You're a magical girl!?" [fade to gray] Homura: *This is how I met the Kamihama magical girls who were investigating rumors.* *Apparently, their friends were working with Kaname-san...* *Having learned that, I went with them in order to meet up with Kaname-san.* [by the radio tower, in the evening] Homura: "Kaname-san!" Madoka: "Homura-chan!" Yachiyo: "I'm amazed that they happened to be friends." Iroha: "It's a small world." Homura: "Kaname-san, did you find Tomoe-san?" Madoka: "No, I didn't..." "Homura-chan, you weren't able to find her either?" Homura: "Yeah, I went looking all over but..." Madoka: "I see..." Iroha: "......huh?" "Tomoe-san?" Yachiyo: "Mami?" Tsuruno: "Tomoe Mami!?" Felicia: "Mm, who's that?" Madoka: "Huh? You know her?" Iroha: "More than just know her..." Tsuruno: "Yeah!" "She was under the impression that Iroha-chan was a witch in human form!" Madoka: "Eh!?" "So when she warned us to watch out before coming here..." "She was referring to Iroha-chan!?" Homura: (This Iroha person is the witch in human form that Tomoe-san warned us about?) (She looks like a normal person, but she's actually a witch...?) (It looks like Kaname-san trusts her, but what should I do...) Homura: "...Umm, are you sure she's not a witch?" Madoka: "Ho-Homura-chan!" Homura: "But... you never really know..." Yachiyo: "If you're that afraid, then you don't have to work with us." "If that's the case, then we'll just go search for the *rumor*." "You two can focus on searching for Tomoe Mami-san." Homura: "..." Madoka: "It's okay, Homura-chan!" "I've been with Iroha-chan and nothing happened!" "Also, we beat a witch together." Homura: "If that's the case..." "Okay, I got it." "I'm sorry for doubting you. Can we still work together?" *In this dangerous city, having more allies is better...* *There are so many uncertain factors, so in order to protect Kaname-san...* *I will try trusting you, Tamaki Iroha-san!* *Kaname-san trusts you... so it's probably fine...*
RAW Paste Data
Two Chance Encounters A5.2.1 [at Mitakihara Middle] Homura: "Kaname-san, Mami-san, in Kamihama..." Madoka: "Yeah, something must have happened in Kamihama..." "She hasn't come to school today..." Homura: "...It's okay!" "Tomoe-san, of all people, would be alright!" Madoka: "Yeah... that's right." "Mami-san has to be fine!" Homura: "Yeah, maybe she is at home." Madoka: "Ah, home..." "Oh, Homura-chan! Why don't we visit Mami-san then?" "She might actually be there!" Homura: "Yeah, we should go and check." [fade to black] Homura: *But after school, when we went to Tomoe-san's place, it was empty.* [on the street] Madoka: "Mami-san..." Homura: (She still hasn't come back... Something must have happened...) Madoka: "She didn't go to school and she didn't return home.." "There must be something wrong. I wonder what happened to Mami-san?" Homura: "I don't know either..." (We won't know what happened to Tomoe-san unless we go to Kamihama...) Madoka: "Homura-chan, I think I want to go to Kamihama." Homura: "Huh? Kaname-san?" Madoka: "If Mami-san has gotten into some kind of trouble..." "Then we definitely have to save her!" Homura: (...But I can't let Kaname-san go!) (If Tomoe-san couldn't get back, then I mustn't allow her to go!) "No, hold on, Kaname-san!" Madoka: "But why, Homura-chan? I really want to go..." "If Mami-san is there, then we have to go save her!" Homura: "If Kamihama is such a dangerous place that even Mami-san can't make it back..." "Then there's nothing we will be able to do to help." Madoka: "That's..." Homura: "If even you don't make it back, Kaname-san, I'd..." Madoka: "Homura-chan..." "That's right." "If I went, I'd end up like Mami-san..." Homura: "We don't know what's waiting for us there, so for now let's go back and calm down a little." Madoka: "Yeah, that's a good idea..." Homura: "Then if we wait a day, maybe Tomoe-san will come back." [scene change to another street scene] Homura: "I'm sorry, Kaname-san." *I told Kaname-san that we shouldn't go...* *But I must go investigate!* *Not just Tomoe-san's disappearance, but also the secrets the city holds...* *I will pin down these mysterious phenomena and determine the truth!* "I'm off to change fate, Kaname-san..." A5.2.2 [First, an overlooking view, then the train station in Kamihama] Homura: "So this is Kamihama City..." (It looks normal to the eye. Is it really that dangerous?) "Tomoe-san is somewhere in this city..."???: "Homura-chan!" Homura: "Eh!?" [Madoka shows up] Homura: "K-Kaname-san!?" "Why are you here?" Madoka: "There was something of about you, Homura-chan." "I wondered if you were planning on going to Kamihama by yourself..." "Then, when I went to the station, I saw you get on a train." "So I rushed to jump onto the next train to Kamihama!" "I'm so glad I followed you." Homura: "Kaname-san... Um, I..." Madoka: "I'm glad you were concerned about me..." "But I'm just as concerned about you, Homura-chan!" Homura: "!?" Madoka: "So please don't go on your own in secret, okay?" "..." Homura: "Kaname-san... Um... I'm sorry." "Also..." *Kamihama is a dangerous place, so in truth I didn't want to bring Kaname-san along.* *But to have her coming for me make me feel so reassured...* "Thank you." Madoka: "Don't worry. Let's go search for Mami-san together!" Homura: "Yeah! I won't go off on my own anymore." Madoka: "Hehe, I'm glad." "Homura-chan, you're always the hard-working solitary type." Homura: *It's so strange that whenever I'm with Kaname-san...* *I feel just a bit stronger than usual.* Madoka: "We'll definitely find Mami-san, and all three of us will come home!" Homura: "Yeah, let's all get home safely." A5.2.3 [on the street in Kamihama] Madoka: "So there is more than one rumor in Kamihama..." Homura: "Then we won't be able to figure out which one Mami-san was investigating." "All we can do is narrow down the possibilities one by one..." Madoka: "In the first place, Mami-san might have been searching for the human-shaped witch instead of rumors..." "But for now, we have no leads on anything but rumors..." Homura: "Yeah, we'll investigate rumors and simultaneously ask about Tomoe-san." Madoka: "Okay." "Then, let's go look for that rumor we just heard about!" Homura: "Yeah." [Homura notices something magical] Homura: (This magical response! A witch!?) (Huh? Isn't that thing stuck into a wall...?) (It's a grief seed!) (Oh no, it's hatching!) "Kaname-sa..." [she gets pulled into the witch barrier] Homura: "Huh? Did I..." "Get pulled into a witch barrier..." <Kaname-san, can you hear me? Kaname-san? Kaname-san!> "..." "It didn't work. It seems that telepathy doesn't work in this witch's barrier." "I've gotta get out and meet up with her..." [a familiar says some gibberish] Homura: "A familiar!? Why right now?" [she transforms] Homura: "Get out of my way!" [back on the street] Madoka: <Homura-chan!? Where are you?> "..." (She's not responding... Something must have happened...) (I felt it for just an instant before, but there was the response of a witch...) (Maybe Homura-chan is in the witch's barrier?) [she searches for it] Madoka: (There's no magical response...) [she's now by the radio tower] Madoka: (If it's not nearby, then that means the barrier is moving...) [she senses something] Madoka: "!?" "Is this a witch's response?!" "Where is it..." "Is it... atop that radio tower?" (But... Homura-chan...) some guy: "..." Madoka: (That person with a witch's kiss is going into the radio tower?) (...Oh no, I can't let him be!) (I'm sorry, Homura-chan! Wait just a bit!) [in the witch's barrier] [a familiar makes a crazy noise] Homura: (Now!) "With this bomb... Take this!" [it explodes] Homura: "pant... pant..." [the barrier dissolves] Homura: "I got out..." "I need to contact Kaname-san quickly." <Kaname-san? Kaname-san! Where are you? Kaname-san!> "..." "She's not responding..." "Has she gone out of the range of telepathy?" "Or maybe she got swallowed in a barrier like I did..." (This is Kamihama City, a place where witches gather...) (I should have foreseen this possibility!) "I've gotta save her! Hold on, Kaname-san!" [cut to the top of the radio tower] Madoka: "There it is, the witch's barrier..." "I'm by myself, but I've gotta beat it quickly!" something: *step... step... step...* Madoka: "Huh? Someone's coming!?" woman: "..." Madoka: "Wh-what are you doing!?" [she transforms] Madoka: "Oh no, she's going to fall! I've gotta stop her!" [the scene cuts to Iroha on top] woman: "..." [she jumps] Iroha: "NOOO!!" [she reappears] woman: "..." Iroha: "Huh? She didn't fall?" Madoka: "Sigh... I made it in time..." Iroha: "A magical... girl?" Madoka: "Huh?" [battle] [cut to a less busy street] Homura: (Kaname-san! Where are you?) (Kaname-san is probably fighting... I've gotta search for the presence of a witch...) (Where?) (Where are you!?) [cut to a restaurant] Felicia: "The truth behind the rumor of the radio tower." Tsukuyo: "No way, you've noticed what we're doing over there!?" [back outside] Homura: (I can't find her... I can't find her anywhere...) [back inside the restaurant] Tsukuyo: "Ahem, that was quite an impressive leading question..." Felicia: "Woah, she totally self-destructed!" [back outside] Homura: (If I can't sense a witch near here, then how far could she have gone?) (If she didn't head towards town, then... should I look over there?) (Ahh, I need to find her quickly... Kaname-san is in danger...) [back inside the restaurant] Felicia: "Come on, tell us what you're doing!" Tsukuyo: "I certainly cannot answer that!" [she disappears] Felicia: "Ah, she made a break for it!" Tsuruno: "Let's chase her, Felicia!" Felicia: "Yeah!" [back outside] Homura: (I should have looked over there! I'm sure Kaname-san is there...) Felicia: "Heeey! You over there!" "Catch her!" "She dined and dashed!!" Homura: "Eh!?" Felicia: "Hurry up, catch her!" Homura: "Uh, you mean... me?" Felicia: "Hur-ry-up!" Homura: "Um, uh..." (Why now!?) (I have to be looking for Kaname-san...) (But there seems to be some trouble... I need more time to think!) [she transforms] Homura: "A-alright!!" Felicia: "Ehh!? A magical girl!?" Tsukuyo: "You're a magical girl!?" [fade to gray] Homura: *This is how I met the Kamihama magical girls who were investigating rumors.* *Apparently, their friends were working with Kaname-san...* *Having learned that, I went with them in order to meet up with Kaname-san.* [by the radio tower, in the evening] Homura: "Kaname-san!" Madoka: "Homura-chan!" Yachiyo: "I'm amazed that they happened to be friends." Iroha: "It's a small world." Homura: "Kaname-san, did you find Tomoe-san?" Madoka: "No, I didn't..." "Homura-chan, you weren't able to find her either?" Homura: "Yeah, I went looking all over but..." Madoka: "I see..." Iroha: "......huh?" "Tomoe-san?" Yachiyo: "Mami?" Tsuruno: "Tomoe Mami!?" Felicia: "Mm, who's that?" Madoka: "Huh? You know her?" Iroha: "More than just know her..." Tsuruno: "Yeah!" "She was under the impression that Iroha-chan was a witch in human form!" Madoka: "Eh!?" "So when she warned us to watch out before coming here..." "She was referring to Iroha-chan!?" Homura: (This Iroha person is the witch in human form that Tomoe-san warned us about?) (She looks like a normal person, but she's actually a witch...?) (It looks like Kaname-san trusts her, but what should I do...) Homura: "...Umm, are you sure she's not a witch?" Madoka: "Ho-Homura-chan!" Homura: "But... you never really know..." Yachiyo: "If you're that afraid, then you don't have to work with us." "If that's the case, then we'll just go search for the *rumor*." "You two can focus on searching for Tomoe Mami-san." Homura: "..." Madoka: "It's okay, Homura-chan!" "I've been with Iroha-chan and nothing happened!" "Also, we beat a witch together." Homura: "If that's the case..." "Okay, I got it." "I'm sorry for doubting you. Can we still work together?" *In this dangerous city, having more allies is better...* *There are so many uncertain factors, so in order to protect Kaname-san...* *I will try trusting you, Tamaki Iroha-san!* *Kaname-san trusts you... so it's probably fine...*The number of Americans older than 65 years old is projected to more than double in the next 40 years. Cognitive changes associated to aging can affect an adult's day-to-day functioning. Among these cognitive changes, reasoning, episodic memory, working memory, and processing speed decline gradually over time. Early memory changes include a decline in both working and episodic memory. The aim of the present study was to determine whether chronic (up to 75 days) daily administration of wild blueberry extract or a wild blueberry full spectrum powder would help prevent memory failure associated with aging in tasks involving various forms of memory. Both blueberry ingredients were used in a study comparing young mice (6 months old) to aged mice (18 months old). At this age, mice exhibit memory decline due to aging, which is exacerbated first by a loss in working and contextual (episodic-like) memory. Contextual memory (episodic-like memory) was evaluated using the contextual serial discrimination test. Working and spatial memory were evaluated using the Morris-Water maze test and the sequential alternation test. Statistical analysis was performed using an ANOVA with the Bonferroni post-hoc test. Supplementation with wild blueberry full spectrum powder and wild blueberry extract resulted in significant improvement of contextual memory, while untreated aged mice experienced a decline in such memory. Only the wild blueberry full spectrum powder significantly contributed to an improvement of spatial and working memory versus untreated aged mice. These improvements of cognitive performance may be related to brain oxidative status, acetylcholinesterase activity, neuroprotection, or attenuation of immunoreactivity.
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.× Grandmother ‘chose’ death over Trump and Clinton, obituary reads
RICHMOND, Va. — The family of a beloved grandmother used her obituary to make a political statement about the country’s current state of affairs.
“Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday, May 15, 2016, at the age of 68,” her online obituary read.
Messages left with Noland’s family about the obituary have not yet been returned.
While no other political references were made in the obituary, Noland was remembered a loving mother and grandmother.
The Danville native graduated from Freeman High School in 1966 and the University of Virginia School of Nursing in 1970.
“A faithful child of God, Mary Anne devoted her life to sharing the love she received from Christ with all whose lives she touched as a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, friend and nurse,” the obituary continued.
She is survived by her husband, sister, brothers, three sons and 10 grandchildren.
A visitation was scheduled for Tuesday night at Trinity United Methodist Church in Henrico. There will be a memorial service Wednesday at 1 p.m.(Photo credit: Chuck Johnson)
“Blast Off,” the first song released by fusion threesome Trioscapes, impressed the hell outta us when it dropped just two months back. Since then we’ve been buzzing with excitement, counting down to the May 8th of Separate Realities via Metal Blade. This is different music for metal fans that choose to think a bit differently. And that’s why we like it so much.
Trioscapes bassist Dan Briggs, who also happens to play in a band called Between the Buried and Me, took some time to chat with me a couple of weeks ago in what would become his record-setting fourth interview with MetalSucks. This time we focused on Trioscapes — how the group came together, Briggs’ all-time favorite jazz and fusion artists, the making of Separate Realities and future plans for touring — but don’t worry, we also saved some time to chat BTBAM (he shared some tantalizing descriptions of what’s in store for the next record). Our chat follows.
I think you’re already the all-time record holder for number of MetalSucks’ interviews.
[Laughs] It’s been a little while though, right?
I don’t remember. Maybe 2 years, 1 year. I don’t fucking know, man. I lose track. I think this is, at least, your 4th one. Congrats! [Laughs] So, Trioscapes. Are you stoked?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a really fun group. I’m really excited now because it’s finally coming out. It’s always an exciting time when you’re working on material for months and months, and you’re finally to be able to hear it and talk about it. Any record, with any group. It’s nice.
Talk a bit about how the band came together and the different people involved, and all the steps leading up to the album release.
The way we got together wasn’t very planned out. I had the summer off for the first time in seven or eight years. I had booked a show in the town that I live in for a friend’s band. As luck would have it, no one around town was able to play. I’d been tossing around the idea to do something with Walter Fancourt, the sax player, and ultimately with Matt Lynch, the drummer. I woke up one morning and had that Mahavishnu Orchestra song “Celestial Terrestrial Commuters” in my head. It’s a weird thing to wake up to. I was like, “You know, I want to call these guys right now.” It was like 10 A.M. and I asked them “are you doing anything on June 22?” “No.” “No.” I was like “you know this song?” “Yes, but I don’t know it know it.” “Okay, cool. Would you like to jam it?” “Sure.” “Would you like to try to do some other stuff?” “Sure.”
At first I was just putting together a group for this one thing. Then I was going through even more covers of things that we might be able to do, pretty much all ’70s rock fusion stuff. I remembered a couple of original tunes that I had laying around, and those became “Blast Off” and “Curse of the Ninth.” I submitted them to Walter and then we started bouncing ideas off of each other. I went to Georgia and started jamming with our drummer, and before I knew it, we had a half hour’s worth of music. We played the show, then got together one more time to finish up the album. We recorded it in October in between Between the Buried and Me tours. We’ve been playing some weekend jaunts in the Southeast pretty much every month since then. I’ve been busy with Between the Buried and Me writing a new album for them, but Trioscapes are going to kick it up pretty hard after that comes out. I’m excited.
That’s awesome. For people who haven’t heard the music yet, how would you describe it?
That’s kind of a hard thing to do. We didn’t know what we sounded like at all at first. I didn’t know what heavily distorted bass was going to sound like mixed in with tenor saxophone – I had no idea what it was going to sound like. Even after recording, each song on the record is kind of its own thing. Some kind of lean towards being more fusion-y, whatever that means – jazz meets rock meets metal meets whatever. You could say a song like “Curse of the Ninth” is post-rock at times. A song like “Gemini’s Descent” is kind of like a nod to ’80s King Crimson. It’s all over the place, man. I don’t know what the hell it is. It’s experimental, progressive rock fusion, whatever.
Do you think this is something that will appeal to fans of Between the Buried and Me. How do you think it’s going to be perceived by those fans?
Yeah, I do. The focus of this group is just music. Over the years, Between the Buried and Me has expressed itself as sort of a musicians’ band. It’s kind of appealing to other musicians, which is great because we all strive constantly to get better at our instruments. That’s part of what makes us who we are and has helped us progress over the years. I think this is a pretty easy transition for people who are into Between the Buried and Me.
Do you expect some people will be like, “Oh, what is this crap? There’s no songs. It’s not heavy enough” blah, blah, blah?
[Laughs] I don’t really worry about that shit. I feel like I’ve noticed enough peoples’ responses to the songs or videos that have been posted so far, such as “oh cool, you’re doing a jazz project” or whatever. I think it’s funny that people in the metal/rock world, the second that they hear saxophone in an instrumental setting, it becomes jazz. Jazz to us is a funny thing. I don’t know what defines jazz as being jazz. To me it’s like sort of like a certain sound but sort of not. It’s kind of loose but so is the term “progressive”. It’s kind of funny to me. I’ve seen some reviews from publications who lean more towards jazz, but that word never comes up in those reviews.
Do you have any formal training in jazz yourself?
I do, but I don’t consider myself a jazz-head at all. I appreciate a lot of jazz artists, but I lean more towards the fusion side of things – the more experimental side of jazz. I can listen to earlier Coltrane stuff. It’s really the stuff in his later career when he got pretty wild and started doing 20-minute long pieces that I love the most. That stuff is almost more classically inspired.
Who would be some artists you would recommend for people to check out who are discovering this kind of music through Trioscapes and are looking to get more into the fusion-y type stuff?
I think one of the obvious ones that shares our exact same instrumentation, the only band that popped into my head when we started jamming (although I don’t think we sound like them), is this band called Zu. They’re an Italian band. They’re on Mike Patton’s label, Ipecac Recordings. They’re fucking phenomenal. Their instrumentation is really cool. It’s bass, drums, sax. The saxophone player plays a baritone and plays it with a lot of distortion on it. When you listen to the record, half the time you can’t tell what’s bass and what’s saxophone. What’s going on? It’s just a cacophony of really aggressive music. I fell in love with it a couple of years ago when their last record, Carboniferous, came out. I have never heard anything else like it. I think that’s a good, modern example.
For the older stuff, if people don’t know John McLaughlin’s catalogue from the ’70s, you have to get into Mahavishnu Orchestra, you have to listen to the Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire. When you listen to that stuff and realize that it’s from ’71 or ’72 or whatever, that’s the beginning of playing really aggressive, raw, loud music. People in rock at that time weren’t using those skills. They weren’t playing that fast. They weren’t trying to play in unison between guitar and violin. Countless bands from today could use them as an influence – the Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me, and The Mars Volta. John McLaughlin is just a beast.
When I first heard what you guys were doing, one of the first bands that I thought of in an extremely modern context is T.R.A.M. Are you familiar with them?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Good buds.
I figured. It’s kind of cool that within three or four months of each other, there are basically two jazzy, fusion-y metal records coming out.
It’s funny because we took Animals as Leaders out on their first tour a couple of years ago. We didn’t see them for a while after that because they were working hard and doing a million tours, but we were finally able to get back together this past fall. It was like “how have you been doing? What have you been doing?” “Oh we started this fusion thing and we cover Mahavishnu Orchestra and we have a saxophone.” “Wow, I started this fusion thing with a saxophone. We covered Mahavishnu Orchestra.” It was the weirdest chance thing. We’re very much on the same wavelength. Animals and our band go together really well and I think T.R.A.M. and Trioscapes go together really well. It’s one of those crazy, weird kind of chance things.
Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Maybe it says something about the state of where progressive, heavy music is going right now? Certain people who are a certain caliber of musician are looking to branch out a bit and that’s the next logical way.
I think it’s cool because whatever the definition of progressive metal is right now… maybe our two bands will help people who are interested in Between the Buried and Me and Animals as Leaders for the aspects that they each bring be open to new kinds of music. Maybe they could get into what’s influencing us and the music that we’ve grown up with that’s part of our musical makeup. Those guys are along with us and we’re neverending, evolving musicians. It’ll never stop.
Yeah, absolutely. To what extent do you feel like you can’t necessarily evolve within the confines of what is expected from a Between the Buried and Me?
I think when people hear what we’ve been writing for the last few months, they’re going to realize that we have evolved |
. Urine. You have to think about privacy. You have to think about discomfort."
When Diamandis announced the Ansari X Prize back in 1996, not only was it was illegal in the US to send a commercial rocket into space, there was no regulatory authority for such an idea.
Diamandis had to ask Nasa and the Federal Aviation Authority to create one. The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize faces similar challenges.
There are also regulatory hurdles confronting the Tricorder X Prize. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plays a czar-like role in dictating which medical technologies enter the marketplace. When Jones and Diamandis finalised the Tricorder concept, they made sure to contact the FDA. "There's never been a device this complex," Jones says. "But the actual prize doesn't require a commercialised, FDA-approved product. Just one that works."
Do you really want unmitigated, real-time access to your body's data? Might it create a population of unfathomably detail-orientated hypochondriacs? Could information be a gift or a curse? Will doctors become mere intermediaries between our bodies and machines? Instead of six years of training, will they require six months?
De Brouwer thinks a lot about such questions. He views Scanadu as part of the digital era's three-pronged information revolution.
This first goal is to create citizen doctors. Then, perhaps, he'll turn his attention to government and then education. A concern, however, is whether Scanadu might become another Starlab. The company was started with an initial $2m in seed funding, and has continued to attract investors. By the end of 2013, it aims to have taken three products to market. However, some VCs find Scanadu challenging due to its plan for a multi-pronged product line:
Tricorders for the medical establishment, for consumers, paediatrics and parents. Scanadu's business model has evolved to target "spit and polish" Tricorders that aim to execute existing ideas better, such as measuring physiological traits (Scanadu SCOUT), testing for upper respiratory infections (Project ScanaFlu) and checking urine for diabetes, kidney failure and pregnancy (Project ScanaFlo).
Diagnosis is a 20th-century word, it's obsolete Walter De Brouwer
But whereas Starlab was a patent farm, Scanadu is manufacturing products; whereas Starlab believed anything was possible, Scanadu has a discerning attitude towards new technologies; whereas Starlab was headquartered in a former embassy building on the outskirts of Brussels, Scanadu rents space in a former naval barracks on the campus of Nasa Ames Research Center, down the street from Singularity University. And whereas Starlab was the creation of unbridled optimism, Scanadu was set up by a man who seems to have learned from his mistakes. De Brouwer knows Scanadu is a tough sell. Investors love to throw money at single-purpose technologies that come out of storied institutions and can do one large market test reliably. But Scanadu is, as yet, unproven in the market.
On the day Wired was supposed to meet him last summer, De Brouwer had a heart scare, prompting Scanadu's medical consultant, Jamison Feramisco, to run an ECG with a prototype of the Scanadu SCOUT. De Brouwer caught a flight back to Belgium for a proper check-up, as he has no US health insurance. When he returned to the US, Wired met him at his house in Los Altos, California. He was alone, sitting on a sofa in front of an enormous flat-screen TV that took up an entire wall. There was no other furniture. He was unshaven, and he was wearing black sunglasses.
In Belgium, the doctor had given De Brouwer an ultrasound and a cardiac stress test. If a middle-age heart scare typically instills the fear of advancing age, for De Brouwer it only affirmed what he already believed: that the advice dispensed by doctors, otherwise known as a "diagnosis", was not nearly as valuable as most people think. "He puts me on the machine, puts on the gel, takes the ultrasound," De Brouwer says mockingly. "And all he says is, 'Yep, yep, OK, yep...'"
These days, his son Nelson has problems with syntax and universal knowledge, and the right side of his body is paralysed.
When De Brouwer was in the ICU, he made a discovery that deepened his conviction about why medicine will undergo radical change.
There were other children in the ICU, and De Brouwer realised that the only way he could be useful -- either to Nelson or himself -- was to indulge a kind of therapeutic energy by trying to help the parents. The strangers traded tips and tricks about the significance of the machines' oxygenation readouts, about what to do in case of a blood clot. They created a network. "I forgot my own situation," he says. "Helping is therapeutic, it helps you forget your own misery. "Diagnosis is a 20th-century word, it's obsolete," he says. "A carbon-based unit with a degree and residency duty has pronounced a verdict protected by a community of brethren about a number of government-audited procedures that have been documented by the pharmaceutical industry. The new word is'recommendation'. If my child is sick, I want to compare him to other children with the same illness. And then I will talk to a doctor, if necessary."
Like many X Prize competitors, Scanadu is building on existing technology, while developing proprietary tech (with a claimed 38 patents at time of press), diagnostic algorithms and techniques such as hyperspectral imaging in diagnosis. Can all this bring us a step closer to a Star Trek future, where data is the doctor? We can't be sure, but someone has to boldly go there.
Other contenders for the X Prize:
Micah Atkin
Chief scientist, MycroLab
The Australian startup has developed a "lab on a chip", a handheld device based on the "microfluidics" principle. It can conduct a variety of lab tests including DNA sequencing and diabetes diagnosis within an hour. Its simplicity means that it can be used in the field with very little training needed.
Stephen Johnston
Codirector, Biodesign Institute
Johnston's finger-prick blood test takes an "antibody signature": a sample of the antibodies in your blood that can indicate exposure to diseases. The test would provide a wellness report on one's immune system. The US Department of Defense has awarded Johnston $30 million to deploy the device.
Graham Ewing
CEO, Montague Healthcare
Virtual Scanning technology detects changes in the type of light reflected by the eye -- colour imbalances signal the presence of specific proteins, such as glycated proteins associated with diabetes. The cognitive colour-perception test may also determine other pathologies.
Anita Goel
CEO, Nanobiosym
The company has built Gene-RADAR, a handheld device that can read unique genetic fingerprints. This means it can instantly detect a range of diseases based on their DNA or RNA signatures, from samples as small as a drop of blood or saliva, with no need for a lab. Each Gene-RADAR test costs $10 (£6).
Michael Barnathan
CTO, Living Discoveries
Living Discoveries' device will integrate passive data from photos, videos and sensors -- so it can detect symptoms such as an abnormal gait, a key indicator of Parkinson's disease. Its AI can analyse and integrate this data to produce a customised health report and even send real-time alerts to doctors.
Earlier X Prizes
The Ansari
X Prize
The original X Prize, launched in May 1996, aimed to create a private space-flight vehicle. The prize was won, on October 4, 2004, by the Scaled Composites' Tier One project using the SpaceShipOne craft, designed by American Burt Rutan. His team was awarded $10 million. Over $100 million was invested in new technologies in pursuit of the prize.
Google Lunar
X Prize
The prize will go to the first team to land a robot on the Moon, have it travel 500m over the Moon's surface and successfully send video, images and data to Earth. It was announced at the 2007 US Wired NextFest and offers $30 million in prizes. Twenty-five teams are taking part. The prize expires when the money's won, or at the end of 2015 (whichever's first).
The Progressive Insurance
Automotive X Prize
The engineering competition was launched in 2007, to create a fuel-efficient "clean" car that gets 2.35l-per-100km efficiency, produces under 140g per km CO2 emissions, and could be mass marketed. There were several winners, announced on September 16, 2010, including Edison2, which won the $5 million Mainstream Class prize for its Very Light Car.
The Archon Genomics
Advertisement
X Prize
This challenges teams to sequence 100 whole human genomes of 100 centenarians within 30 days, with an accuracy rate of at least 98 percent, and at a cost of no more than $1,000 per genome. The "100 Over 100" target aims to identify genes that protect against disease, while giving researchers clues to health and longevity.
Prize announced in October 2013.
Jesse Sunenblick is a writer based in Mexico. He's working on a book about the limits of human knowledge in the information ageDIY Anamorphic Lens
What is an Anamorphic Lens
When you watch a movie, you've probably noticed those black bars along the top and bottom of the image. Movies are produced in various "aspect ratios" (the ratio of the width:height of the image). Some movies are produced in 16:9 aspect ratio. If you watch these movies on an older non-HD television (which has a 4:3 aspect ratio), then you will get black bars above and below the image. If you have a newer HDTV with a native 16:9 "wide screen" then you won't get any black bars since the aspect ratio of the HDTV matches the aspect ratio of the movie. However, some movies are produced in 2.35:1 "Cinema Scope" format. When watching a 2.35:1 movie, even on your widescreen HDTV, you will still get black bars on the top and bottom of the image.
Currently, there are no televisions or projectors that have a native 2.35:1 aspect ratio. But there are several ways to remove these black bars to get the full Home Cinema Scope experience.
First, of course, you need a 2.35:1 aspect ratio screen. You can buy screens in this aspect ratio, or make one yourself. Some people just paint a large wall or piece of material that hangs on the wall. In my case, I stretched "black out" fabric over a large screen-door frame. You can buy the metal strips that go around the edge of a screen-door at the hardware store. Just mount these strips to a large sheet of plywood, then stretch the black-out fabric just as if it were screen-door mesh. It makes a great screen.
Once you have a wide enough screen, the easiest way to eliminate the black bars is to zoom your projector so that the black bars are projected above the top of the screen and below the bottom of the screen. Essentially, you just zoom out until the width of the image fills the width of your screen. If you have a dark-colored wall, or cover it with black felt, then you'll never notice the light-spill over the top and bottom of the screen.
I used this method for years and it worked fine. The problems with this method is that you are enlarging the entire image, making the pixels larger, and are wasting the brightness and resolution from the black bars which are still being projected above and below your screen. Also, newer projectors often cannot zoom an image enough to fill the screen, and might also require lens shift adjusting to center the image vertically on your screen.
The solution to this, and the best way to achieve Home Cinema Scope, is using a special lens in front of the projector called an "Anamorphic Lens". An "Anamorphic Lens" will stretch (or compress) an image in one dimension (vertically or horizontally). Most projectors have a "zoom mode" that stretches the image vertically and eliminates the black bars. Rather than projecting "black" and wasting those pixels, all vertical pixels are used for the movie image itself. This vertical stretch will cause people and objects on the screen to look tall and skinny. However, once the projector is displaying the full image vertically, you can then use an Anamorphic Lens to stretch the image horizontally to restore the correct aspect ratio.
That's a lot of words! Let's look at some pictures to understand this better:
Normal 2.35:1 Movie on a 16:9 widescreen HDTV
This is what you are probably used to seeing on your HDTV. Those annoying black bars on the top and bottom. Now let's project this onto a 2.35:1 screen:
Normal 2.35:1 Movie on a 2.35:1 Cinema Scope screen
(click for larger image)
Yes, I can hear you already: "This is even worse!" Now you have black bars on the top and bottom AND on the left and right! Patience...this is just the beginning. Now, let's activate the projector mode that stretches the image to fill the entire vertical height of the screen. On my Infocus Screenplay 7205 projector, this mode is called "Letterbox":
2.35:1 Movie on a 2.35:1 screen in Letterbox "stretch" mode
(click for larger image)
This stretch is just coming from the projector's "Letterbox" mode. No lens is used yet. Notice that C3PO and R2D2 look stretched (tall and skinny). This is what the lens will fix. When an Anamorphic Lens is placed in front of the projector, we get this final image:
2.35:1 Movie on 2.35:1 screen in Letterbox stretch mode with Anamorphic Lens
(click for larger image)
Now that's looking nice! No black bars at all. And since the full vertical resolution of the projector is being used, the image remains nice and bright and sharp. Static images really only provide part of the story. I can't convey the emotional immersion that results in watching the full Cinema Scope image rather than the first image that only utilized the middle of the screen. It feels like the same difference between watching a movie on TV vs watching it in the theater.
Of course, the downside to using a 2.35:1 screen is that when you watch 16:9 format material (or regular 4:3 format television), then you have black bars on the left and right of the image instead of the top and bottom. This kind of setup is called a "Constant Image Height" (CIH) because the height of the image remains the same no matter what you are watching. This is exactly how normal movie theaters work. The image is always the same height, but the theater has retractable curtains on the left and right side of the screen that they can use to adjust the width of the screen depending upon the aspect ratio of the movie being shown. You can add curtains to your own home theater to provide the same feature. In my case, I just live with the black bars on the left and right. But masking the left and right bars with curtains is much easier than masking the top and bottom black bars in a normal HDTV setup.
Making an Anamorphic Lens using Prisms
Most people who want a Home Cinema Scope setup simply purchase a commercial Anamorphic Lens, or purchase a high-end projector that already has such a lens attached. But these lenses typically cost over $1000. You might think that it would be very difficult to make your own Anamorphic Lens. You'll be surprised to learn that making your own Anamorphic Lens is actually a very easy DIY project (even easier than making your own 2.35:1 screen).
The secret is "prisms". If you remember back to your high school science class, a prism is often used to split a beam of light into a rainbow (think of the cover of the "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd). Whenever a beam of light hits a surface, some light is reflected, and some light is "refracted" (or bent). Notice that as the beam of white light hits the surface of the prism, each color is refracted (bent) a different amount. Then, when each color hits the second edge of the prism (on the right), each color is bent even more.
Now, imagine putting two prisms next to each other, but reversed so that the second prism takes the rainbow from the first prism and converts it back into a white beam of light. With two prisms, you put a white beam in, and you get a white beam out. But by adjusting the angles of the prisms relative to each other, you can bend the outgoing beam of light and essentially magnify it. This is exactly how an Anamorphic Lens works!
There is a wonderful web site that uses a Java Applet to demonstrate how prisms work: NTNUJAVA Virtual Physics Prism site
Anamorphic Lens using 2 Prisms
Where to get Prisms
There are several ways to get a prism the size that you need. Many people have made their own prisms by cutting glass to make the surfaces, then seal the glass together to make a hollow prism, and then fill it with water or mineral oil. You can make very large prisms in this way. However, most home theater owners don't like the idea of potentially leaking prisms hanging from the ceiling in front of their projector. Sealing these glass prisms so that they do not leak over a long period of time can be difficult.
Fortunately, an inexpensive solution is available. Several companies now manufacture crystal "award" plaques. These crystal plaques are meant to be engraved with some award and then sit on your desk or a shelf. They are wedge-shaped, with the base of the plaque larger than the top of the plaque. If you look at the side profile of these crystal wedges, they match the picture of the prisms shown above. They come in several sizes, such as 4"x6" (measuring the front face that you would normally have engraved) up to 6"x7.5".
There are several sources for these prisms. In the U.S., I have used Massillon Plaque. In Australia you can use EvRight. If you call your local award plaque company, they can probably point you to other sources. At the time that I purchased the small prisms, they were about $29 each (without engraving). Be sure to call the company to find out if blank wedges are available. Also, the blank wedges are usually cheaper than the prices listed on the web site, since they don't need to charge you for any engraving.
These are not plastic or acrylic. They are very heavy, crystal glass. I don't think they are "lead crystal", but are some modern variation. I've even heard some people say that it's the same stuff they make spacecraft windows out of. What's important is that they are optically very clear and the surfaces are very flat and uniform. It's important to get two identical prisms, since the second prism needs to cancel the rainbow created by the first prism. If there are differences in the prism angles, or if the surfaces are not perfectly flat, then you will get more "chromatic aberration" (which will look like blurring at the edges of the screen).
Initial Testing
If you are planning to build your own Anamorphic Lens, I recommend that you just purchase a couple of prisms and then start playing with them. It's impossible to provide exact construction dimensions and angles because each projector setup will be slightly different. The angle between the two prisms will depend upon the throw distance of your projector, and the size of your screen. So, if possible, just put your projector on a table and place the prisms in front of the projector. Then start playing with the angles. In my case, I placed the prisms on a piece of paper, and when I had the prisms adjusted, I just traced the outline of the prisms onto the paper as a template for construction (more on that later).
Just set up the prisms in roughly the configuration shown in the 2-prism diagram above. As you adjust the angle of the first prism, you will be adjusting the right-edge of the image on the screen. As you adjust the angle of the second prism, you will be adjusting the left-edge of the screen. I placed some tape on my screen (the blue painters tape that doesn't leave any marks or residue) and make marks for the proper 2.35:1 size. Then I just adjusted the prism angles until the image expanded to hit the marks.
In fact, it's so easy to set this up and align it, that it's even possible to use these prisms for temporary setups where you just put the projector on the coffee table, then place the prisms in front of it. It's not perfect, but it works easier than you might think. But after a few minutes of playing with the prisms you will get the hang of it. The initial results are so impressive, that you might be tempted to just start watching movies already! Trust me...you'll want to watch your entire collection of 2.35:1 movies all over again!
Building an Enclosure
Playing with the prisms on the coffee table is fun. But eventually you are going to want to mount these prisms in some type of enclosure that you can place in front of your projector. In my case, my projector hangs from the ceiling. So I needed an enclosure that could also hang from the ceiling. The type of enclosure that you need will really depend a lot on where you have your projector mounted already.
Because we are building a "horizontal stretch" lens, you do not need to move your current projector. Some people like to make a "vertical compression" lens (which you can also make using two prisms) and then move the projector so that it projects the full width of the 2.35:1 image, and then use the lens to compress the image vertically to fit on the screen. Some people feel that you get a better quality image using vertical compression, but I didn't want to move my existing projector location, and I also wanted a way to move the lens out of the way when I'm not watching 2.35:1 movies.
Enclosures can be built out of a variety of materials. The most common materials seem to be either aluminum or wood, depending upon your preference (and what tools you have available). I made my own enclosure out of 1/2" MDF because it is cheap and easy to work with. My design was based upon the original "Aussiemorphic Lens" from Mark Techer. His blog provided my initial inspiration. Ideas from many people in the DIYAudio.com forum were also used. In particular, I wanted to be able to easily adjust the prism angles once they were inside the enclosure for fine tuning then lens.
To start, I needed to attach bolts to the top and bottom of the prism which would be used as rotation points. Just gluing a flat-head bolt to the prism doesn't work very well. However, if you first cut a triangle of plexiglas (or other material...some have just used cardboard), then you can drill a hole in the plexiglas, countersink it for the screw head, then place the screw between the prism and the plexiglas and epoxy the entire piece of plexiglas to the prism.
Remember that the "top and bottom" that we are gluing screws to are really the left and right edges as shown in the picture of the award plaque sitting on a desk. When placed in front of the projector beam, these become the top and bottom edges within the enclosure. The screws fit into holes in the top and bottom of the enclosure with wing nuts. Loosening the nuts allow the prisms to be rotated to adjust the alignment.
It is also very important to mask the sides of the prisms. As I mentioned earlier, whenever a beam of light hits a surface, part is refracted (bent), but part is reflected. With these glass prisms, a reflection from one surface is only about 4% of the main beam intensity. A double-reflection is only about 0.1% of the main beam intensity. However, in a dark theater, even a 0.1% reflection is visible on the screen. Most of these reflections exit from the two ends of the prisms. I just used black electrical tape to mask the ends.
Once each prism has a bolt plate glued to the top and bottom, then it's time to make the enclosure itself.
The enclosure is shown from the top (upper-left picture), with the projector at the top and the screen towards the bottom. The bottom-left diagram is looking from the screen towards the projector through the box. The enclosure really is a fairly simple 4-sided box. As shown in the bottom-left view, the top is screwed to the sides, while the bottom is glued and held to the sides using splines (or biscuits if you have a biscuit-joiner). I tried to minimize screws and only use them where it was necessary, since the top needs to be removed to change or clean the prisms. But MDF doesn't hold screws very well, so biscuit joints and glue work best.
The top view also shows the tentative position of the prisms (looking down on the prisms). The circles represent the screws that were glued to the top and bottom of the prisms. The inside of the enclosure is lined with black felt that is glued to the MDF using a spray adhesive (rubber cement also works well).
Once the enclosure is built, then you need to decide how to mount it in front of your projector. In my case, my projector is flush mounted with the ceiling. Since I wanted to be able to remove the lens from the front of the projector, I designed a "sled" which attaches to the ceiling via two drawer slides. The sled itself is just another piece of MDF, painted white to match the ceiling. To attach the enclosure box to the sled, I made a U-shaped bracket using oak. This bracket needs to be stronger than MDF, so a hardwood like oak or maple would work well. An aluminum bracket would also work well. The bracket is slotted to allow adjustment on the sled, and also adjustment to the enclosure.
OK, time for some real pictures of the actual enclosure mounted on the ceiling. I apologize for not having any pictures during the actual construction...I didn't have my camera yet.
The side image shows an extra bit of felt glued to the back of the enclosure near the projector. This prevents some of the reflections generated by the prisms from getting out and reduces the light spill onto the walls. An additional piece of felt is actually glued to the back of the box with just a circular cutout for the projector lens. You can see the wing nuts on the bottom of the enclosure box that are used to adjust the prism angles. You can also see the wing nuts on the side which are used to attach the bracket to the box, and the slots where the bracket is bolted to the white sled. If you look closely, you can see the plexiglas that is epoxied to the top of the prism. You can also see the black electrical tape that covers the wide end of the prism (on the right side of the prism in the first image).
Here is the enclosure moved to the side of the projector:
This gives a better view of the "sled" which is attached to the ceiling using two drawer slides. To move the lens out of the way, I simply push the entire lens assembly to the left. The ceiling is low enough that it is easy for me to just reach up to move the lens. If you had a higher ceiling, then you could attach a cord to the sled to drag it left or right. The drawer stops prevent the sled from being moved too far in one direction or the other. You can actually build the sled even better and can completely hide the drawer slides even when the lens is moved out of the way. I got my upside-down directions messed up, which is the only reason the drawer slides show. But at least it makes the picture easier to understand.
Notice that the bracket is designed to allow the lens box to tilt up and down. A slight tilt is needed to improve the geometry of the image. You will get pin cushioning in the corners of the image, and by tilting the entire lens you can minimize this geometry distortion and make it more uniform on the top and bottom of the image. I actually zoom my image out just a bit so that the pin cushioning is masked by the black felt around the outside edge of my screen.
Performance Tests
Uniformity
When watching movies, you will be amazed at the performance of this lens. The last Star Wars image shown above is an actual picture using this lens. However, if you connect a computer to the projector and start playing with test images, then you will learn a bit more about the potential short-comings of this DIY lens. But before I discuss these details, I can't stress enough how minor they really are. It's easy to get depressed when looking at test images. The test images are useful to try and improve the design, but the overall result of watching movies is much more positive than you might think looking at the test images.
The first issue is the uniformity of the aspect ratio. Converting a 16:9 image to a 2.35:1 image requires a 133% stretch. However, if you put a grid onto the screen and actually measure the rectangles, you will discover that the rectangles in the center of the screen are 127%, and the rectangles on the right and left edges of the screen are 142%. The perfect 133% stretch only occurs in the left-center and right-center of the screen. It is uniform from top to bottom. It is only left-to-right that shows the aspect ration change.
Fortunately, the human eye is not sensitive to these kind of changes in aspect ratio. Even when moving an animated circle around the screen, it is very difficult to detect the aspect ratio changes to the circle as it moves left and right on the screen from the normal viewing distance (about 10 ft from the screen in my case, which is closer than most for a 124"x53" screen).
Also, according to reports from people who own commercial Anamorphic Lenses, the commercial lenses suffer from the same aspect ratio non-uniformity.
Chromatic Aberration (CA)
A larger problem is the color problems at the edges of the screen. As we know, the first prism is splitting the light beam into a rainbow. If the second prism can't precisely undo this, then you won't get a white beam on the screen. And in fact, it is impossible for a flat prism surface to perfectly correct the rainbow from the first prism because the light beam is actually a spherical wave and not a flat wave. So, as you move towards the right and left edges of the screen, the light beam starts to get split more into a rainbow. This gives a slightly colored edge to some objects. Here are some very close up pictures of the test grid in the middle of the screen, and then on the right edge of the screen:
Notice how the horizontal lines are still perfectly black in both images. However, the vertical grid lines are black in the left image, but look like rainbows in the right image. If you look closely, you will see that the black line is blue and has a yellow edge on the right side of it. This makes the image look blurry. Notice that you can actually see the DLP pixel structure in these images, and that the rainbow is about two pixels wide. Now here is a full view of the same grid on the entire screen:
(click for larger image)
Note that the geometry pin cushioning and the change in brightness across the screen is caused by the digital camera and not the lens or projector. But you can still tell that the left-most and right-most parts of the screen are a bit blurrier than the center of the image.
This chromatic aberration can be reduced by using four prisms instead of two. You essentially "double" each prism by putting another prism next to it in the exact same orientation. Essentially you are making two prisms with a larger internal angle. This allows you to reduce the angles of the prisms relative to the light beam, resulting in less bending of the light. The less the light beam is bent, then the smaller the rainbow on the edges.
At normal viewing distance, the eye cannot really detect the rainbow itself. It's very hard to see any color edges on objects in movies. The only real effect of this problem is that it makes the image on the left-most and right-most parts of the screen slightly blurrier. While this is noticeable when using a computer image, it really isn't very noticeable during movies. However, this is certainly something to be improved in these lenses and something the commercial lenses do a better job of correcting.
Reflections
As mentioned before, each time a beam of light hits a surface, it is both refracted (bent) and reflected. In a dark theater, these reflections can be quite visible and quite distracting if you don't do something to get rid of them. Fortunately, the majority of reflections are at angles that can be easily blocked by the enclosure. When you first play with the prisms without an enclosure, however, you will be able to see all of the different reflections around the side and back walls of your room.
Fortunately, all we need to worry about are reflections that end up on the front screen. As it turns out, there is a single reflection from the 2-prism lens that can appear on the front screen. This reflection occurs just as the beam of light is exiting the final surface of the final prism. The light reflects internally within the prism, then reflects again on the first surface of the same prism, resulting in a beam that hits the screen near the first beam. Fortunately, since this is a double-reflection, it's intensity is approximately 0.1% of the main beam intensity. Also, given the geometry of the lens shown in this article, only the right-most part of the image is reflected onto the left-most part of the screen. Given the low intensity, you can only see this reflection when there is a bright object on the right side of the screen and the left side of the screen is very dark. In some cases, you might see a dim reflection of credits at the end of some movies, since they are moving (making the reflection easier to detect) and are typically bright white letters on a black background. However, this reflection is so dim that I wasn't able to get a picture of it in my camera. And most movies do not show this reflection at all. The best test case I have for demonstrating the reflection is the very opening of the James Bond Goldeneye movie, where the white spot light moves from left to right (the trademark James Bond opening where the white spotlight turns red and then zooms into the actual first action scene). When the white spotlight is on the right-most part of the screen, you can see a dim reflection on the left side of the screen.
Using more prisms to reduce chromatic aberration unfortunately provides more surfaces to generate reflections. A 4-prism lens has several other reflections that can hit the screen. I find myself more sensitive to reflections and less sensitive to chromatic aberration, so I prefer the 2-prism lens. But you might want to play with four prisms to see what you think yourself.
Unfortunately, the only way to reduce this reflection is to coat the prisms with some sort of non-reflective coating, without effecting the optical clarity of the prism. Such coatings are very expensive and are something you can expect on commercial lenses, but difficult to achieve for DIYers.
Conclusions
I cannot stress enough how immersive a constant-image-height (CIH) theater can be. If you can remember your first thrill at having a large "movie theater" in your home, going to a 2.35:1 screen with CIH will give you that same thrill all over again. I had thought for the past five years that just zooming the projector was good enough (and it was certainly better than just a 16:9 screen). But using an Anamorphic Lens instead of just zooming the projector is simply an amazing difference in picture quality. When I tell people about CIH, I always warn them that it's almost a curse: once you have experienced a CIH theater, then you never want to go back to a simple HDTV or 16:9 screen again.
Fortunately, thanks to many DIYers, it is possible to construct your own Anamorphic Lens fairly easily and inexpensively. It has certainly been one of the most satisfying projects I have ever done for my theater. I'll leave you with an image that just seems to express my happiness with this lens.
Acknowledgements
I owe my thanks to many people who have contributed ideas to this project. Most of these people have contributed to the very long forum thread on the DIYAudio.com site. If you are serious about a DIY Anamorphic Lens, then you own yourself to spend the hours it will take to read this entire thread. Mostly I want to thank Mark Techer and his Aussiemorphic Lens blog, not to mention his many early posts about building water and oil prisms before the crystal wedges were discovered. Then I should thank Steve Scherrer for his discovery and post of the U.S. source for these prisms, and for his ideas on attaching screws to the prisms to make them adjustable. Also, thanks to dvarma who posted a PDF link to his description of an enclosure that used a drawer slide to attach it to the ceiling, which was an inspiration to my own enclosure bracket.
I wish the best of luck to anyone who attempts this project. Rather than contact me directly, I encourage you to post questions and your own experiences to the DIYAudio.com thread mentioned above so that you can get help from everyone in that forum and help inspire others to built their own CIH Theater.
MikePDespite the departure of the Cheetah Forces, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has been heavily reinforced by Hezbollah, who has recently aided their advance at every flank surrounding the Kuweiris Military Airbase in east Aleppo.
Effectively, the Syrian Arab Air Force has been able to resume military operations from the Kuweires Airport as their jets are able to reach sufficiently high altitudes prior to encountering ISIS anti-aircraft guns.
During the past week, the Islamic State has been forced to concede several villages in the eastern Aleppo countryside largely due to being outmanned by the SAA contingents.
Recently, ISIS has launched several failed offensives against the government-held towns of Al-Safirah, Tall Aran & the Aleppo supply route along the |
with the educational purpose of the institutions. Cheering on Brown's soccer teams; the precision and artistry of Columbia's national powerhouse fencers; the speed and stamina of Cornell's cross country runners; the 17 League football titles won by Dartmouth; an early morning workout on the Charles River for Harvard's crews; basketball games at Pennsylvania's storied Palestra; Princeton's lacrosse teams; the beauty and challenge of the layout at Yale Golf Club. These are just some of the elements that have helped the Ivies foster a wonderful, rare spirit of competition, excellence, and camaraderie for athletes, spectators, and alumni. Located on the campus of Princeton University, the Ivy League (still known officially as the Council of Ivy Group Presidents) continues to grow under the leadership and direction of Executive Director Jeffrey H. Orleans. Since taking the post in 1984, Orleans has become a respected voice on the national scene of intercollegiate athletics. (Editor's Note: Portions of this text appeared in the first Ivy League Football Guide in 1954 and were written by William H. McCarter, Director of Athletics at Dartmouth College from 1937-54.) Timeline 1945 - The first "Ivy Group Agreement" was signed. It addressed only football and affirmed the observance of common practices in academic standards, eligibility requirements and the administration of need-based financial aid (no athletic scholarships). The agreement also created the Presidents Policy Committee - which included the eight Presidents; the Coordination and Eligibility Committee, made up of one senior administrator from each school to which the President or Provost would naturally turn for support and advice on athletics; and the Committee on Administration, comprised of the eight directors of athletics. February, 1954 - The Ivy Group Agreement was reissued to extend its philosophical jurisdiction to all sports. This is most commonly accepted as the league's founding date; however, the first competitive season did not take place until 1956-57. December 21, 1969 - Clayton Chapman, Assistant Athletic Director at Cornell, was named the first Executive Secretary. The Executive Secretary's assignment was determined by whoever was the Chair of the Ivy Presidents. March 9, 1971 - The Presidents of the Ivy Group institutions unanimously approved freshman eligibility on varsity teams except in the following sports: baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing and soccer. December 15, 1971 - The Presidents approved unanimously the motion forwarded by the Ivy Deans: "The Ivy Group rules of eligibility shall not be construed to discriminate on grounds of sex." July 7, 1973 - The Policy Committee agreed to appoint a full-time coordinator for the Ivy Group. December 12, 1973 - Ricardo Mestres, a Vice President at Princeton, attended his first Presidents meeting as the permanent Executive Director of the Ivy Group. December 18, 1974 - The prohibition against freshmen playing on varsity teams was removed for lacrosse, crew and soccer. May, 1974 - The Ivy Group officially begins League championships in women's sports. Radcliffe-Harvard women crew won the first official women's Ivy championship. March 25, 1975 - Freshman eligibility in ice hockey is approved on a three-year trial basis. March 27, 1976 - James Litvack, a Princeton faculty member, became the second Executive Director of the Ivy Group. A joint committee was formed to make specific recommendations so that Ivy rules could be applied equitably to both men and women. The joint committee also considered rules for number of contests, length of seasons, etc., for women's teams. February 16, 1977 - The Presidents approved a 10th game for football, which had a limit of nine until that point. August 24-26, 1977 - The Presidents adopt the name Council of Ivy Group Presidents. The Coordination and Eligibility Committee became the Policy Committee. December 7, 1977 - The Council accepted the Policy Committee's recommendation of a four-year extension of freshman eligibility in hockey and a new four-year period of freshman eligibility in basketball, beginning with the 1978-79 season. Following that four-year period, freshman eligibility in those two sports was made permanent. December 4, 1981 - A special convention of the NCAA creates the I-AA football division. Ivy League members began play in that division the following September. September, 1984 - Jeffrey Orleans, a Yale graduate and legal counsel for The University of North Carolina, was appointed the third Executive Director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. June 17, 1986 - Orleans announced the appointment of Constance Huston as the Group's first Assistant Director. She headed the Group's compliance and public information functions. June 20, 1989 - The Council approved the creation of the position of Assistant Director. That allowed the functions of compliance and public information to be split. Constance Huston (Hurlbut) was promoted to Associate Director and continued her compliance duties. Later that summer, Charles Yrigoyen III was named Assistant Director, and assumed information and championships duties. June 19, 1990 - The Council approved an annual all-star game in football. Later that year, a team of 40 Ivy League seniors played in the first officially sanctioned Epson Ivy Bowl in Yokohama, Japan. The Ivy League team played a team of Japanese college and university all-stars. (The annual game ceased after 1996). June 28, 1991 - The Council agreed to freshman eligibility in the sport of football, beginning with the 1993 season. December 17, 1991 - The Council approved the Policy Committee's recommendation for 12 sessions of spring practice in the sport of football, beginning in 1994. Previously, Ivy teams were allowed only one day of practice in the spring. February 24, 1993 - Carolyn Campbell was hired as Senior Associate Director when Constance (Huston) Hurlbut left to become Executive Director of the Patriot League. June, 1994 - The Council approved the appointment of a Senior Women's Administrator to the Policy Committee. May, 1998-April, 1999 - The Ivy League held a year-long celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Women's Championships. Among the many aspects of the celebration during the school year were campus events to commemorate the anniversary, a traveling photographic mural with an accompanying timeline that visited all eight schools and a two-day symposium in April at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Marriott with almost 300 invited guests. The League's Silver Anniversary will be remembered in print with the November, 1999 publication of Silver Era, Golden Moments, a coffee-table book with more than 200 pages of written and photographic history. Whence The Name "Ivy League"? This article is reprinted from Columbia College Today with the permission of the editors and of the author, Robert Harron, Former New York City newspaperman and more recently assistant to the president of Columbia. Cas Adams, mentioned here, died in 1957. Have you ever wondered how our American language grows? Sit still for a minute and I'll give you an example. The time was Thursday afternoon, October 14, 1937. The setting was the sports department of the New York Herald-Tribune. Assignments were being made for coverage of the leading college football games of the week. The late George Daley, sports editor, and Irving Marsh, assistant sports editor, were making up the list. To Stanley Woodward, even then a veteran and brilliant football writer, went the Pittsburgh-Fordham game at the Polo Grounds in New York. This was the game New Yorkers wanted most to read about, which was reason enough for Woodward to cover. He was then and is now one of the ablest writers the gridiron has produced in his years; and his years as a sports writer go back to about 1920. When the other staff men got their assignments, Caswell Adams drew the Columbia-Pennsylvania game at Columbia's Baker Field in New York. Now, Mr. Adams, who is in these days the erudite boxing expert of the New York Journal-American [Editor's note: Remember this was written in 1956], had no quarrel with either Columbia or Pennsylvania. Both, in his considered judgment, were and are splendid old institutions of higher learning. He was, however, able to restrain with relative ease his enthusiasm for football as played in that day by a number of teams representing the more venerable centers of higher education in the East. This was in the heyday of Fordham University as a major football power; and Mr. Adams is a Fordham man. Briefly, Piquantly, without rancor, he expressed his views to the editor. "Whyinell," he inquired, "do I have to watch the ivy grow every Saturday afternoon? How about letting me see some football away from the ivy-covered halls of learning for a change?" He did not press the point. There was a Friday night boxing match coming up in Madison Square Garden, and he had an advance story to write. He forgot the matter. But Stanley Woodward, at a nearby typewriter, did not forget. He had heard a new phrase. Ivy-covered? Ivy group? Ivy League?" These old schools of the East did not like leagues. They had long shunned the conference idea. Stanley likes to ruffle them occasionally and chuckled when he did so. Why not call these colleges the "Ivy League"? Woodward wrote the weekly football review for the Herald-Tribune on Monday mornings. It was a review read with care by football men, including and especially football coaches. I recall one coach who was accustomed for several seasons to inquire of Stanley each week what game he was to cover. The coach would then forego scouting arrangements for that game. He knew Woodward's Sunday story and Monday morning technical analysis would tell him and his strategists all they needed to know about any rival. So a few days later, though not on the Monday morning immediately following, there crept unobtrusively into a Woodward football essay the phrase "...and in the Ivy League..." as introduction to a discussion of what was happening on the fields of the East's oldest colleges which, even then and without a semblance of formal grouping, were natural and traditional rivals. Set down alphabetically, they were, of course, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale. The phrase caught on. Other writers soon picked it up. Then football enthusiasts began to use it in conversation. Before long even some of the academicians began to adopt it. Few who used it knew, or even wondered, about its origin. Now it has indeed come into the language. To opportunistic advertisers it is a phrase which carries the connotation of smartness in the wearing apparel of young Americans of college age. A national network radio show of some popularity made its own adaptation. To the high school senior choosing the school he hopes he attends there are two groups -- The Ivy and the others. Educationally it has come to be actually a useful phrase, with scope reaching far beyond the confines and the campuses of the eight to which it was first so lightly and so aptly applied. It represents now in the public mind an educational philosophy that is old and established, but modern, too, and independent and unafraid. At first many believed it carried a connotation of smugness, conservatism, wealth. More and more are learning each year that this is not true. When applied to athletics, Ivy League --- I guess the quotation marks can be dropped now --- implies a definite state of mind and set of principles, not at all the monopoly of the old Eastern colleges, but certainly the result in large part of their leadership. It is a state of mind in which intercollegiate sports competition is a completely integrated phase of the undergraduate liberal arts education; in which eligibility standards are reasoned, exacting, and honorably observed; in which the so called "athletic scholarship" is non-existent; in which academic officers assume full responsibility for sports administration. All-American football players may be relatively few in the Ivy League in the future, but competition is rugged and exciting. It will be the competition of boys who play, not of downtown Boosters Clubs and recruiting organizations. It will be competition free of the troubles which still beset many of the younger but strangely more old-fashioned institutions in many parts of the country. I saw Cas Adams not long ago at Baker Field, where Columbia College, the undergraduate college of 2,300 men in Columbia University ; plays the only major football left in New York City. I asked him if his contribution of an idea and, with Stanley Woodward, of a phrase to the American lexicon has brought him formal scholarly recognition from one or more of the institutions included in the now officially constituted Ivy League. He said no. December 1963 Be sure to visit the Ivy League's website, IvyLeagueSports.com, for more history and information on the Ivy League! Order Status View Cart Contact Us Privacy Policy Customer Care Size Chart Mailing List Your Account Ivy League Multi-Media Wholesale Opportunities About UsComic Artist Randy Queen Now Claims Post About His Abuse Of Copyright To Stifle Criticism Is Defamatory
from the censoriousness-by-any-means-possible dept
Dear Eschergirls and Kim,
I would encourage you to put a stop to all of this. I have no problem getting legal involved for defamation, and for your various allegations on your takedown notice thread, and am happy to send a formal cease and desist letter from my lawyer.
Instead of simply removing the content you do not have the right to electronically distribute, you wish to push further, and publicly challenges my right to protect the perception of my IP as it exists today.
At this point, I will ask you to please move along, as no good will come of this.
Additionally, instead of taking shots at art someone did 18 years ago while they were still learning - which are no longer representative of their current art style or direction for their character - I encourage you to spend your time and energy on creating your own characters and comics which you can mkae your own personal sacrifices to bring to the world.
Sincerely,
~R
perception
So, this morning we wrote about comic artist Randy Queen sending copyright notices to Tumblr to make a bunch of posts disappear, which were critical of his work. The take downs were for the Tumblr Escher Girls, which tracks and highlights the ways in which women are portrayed in popular media (frequently comics) -- basically highlighting the ridiculous manner in which women are often drawn. Queen apparently wasn't too happy about it and issued copyright takedowns to Tumblr, despite the strong fair use defense. The Escher Girls blog posted what was, frankly, an incredibly even-handed post about the situation, just letting people know what was going on. The author specifically noted no desire to fight back or attack Queen, but just to let people know. It appeared that Escher Girls had no plan to even file a counter notice.Still, apparently just that post was too much for Queen. Ami Angelwings, the owner of Escher Girls tweeted out this morning that Queen is now threatening to sue her for defamation over the post. Here's his email:If you can't read it, it says:Where to start? So, we go from bogus attempts to stifle criticism via copyright law, to then trying to stifle discussion of that stifling by bogus defamation threats. Someone really doesn't like being criticized apparently.Anyway, it's difficult to see how there's anything close to defamation here. Queen is a public figure and this was pure criticism of his artwork and then a factual explanation of a takedown he or his people sent. To show defamation he'd first need to show what was false (and notice that his email provides no example of any false statement -- only that he doesn't like the opinions being expressed) and that it was done with "actual malice" which seems desperately unlikely here. Perhaps, rather than "threatening" to "get legal involved," Queen would have been better served speaking to a lawyer who might disabuse him of his apparent notion that "stuff I don't like about me" is "defamation."Second, concerning the copyright arguments. Queen ought to familiarize himself with fair use. Again, this was a pretty clear case of fair use. They were using very small snippets of his comic work, clearly for the non-commercial purpose of criticism. It's almost exactly what fair use was designed for.Third, Escher Girls was not "publicly challeng[ing]" Queen's right to "protect the perception of my IP." You. Perception is an individual thing. At most, he might be able to make a claim that he had a legitimate right to do a takedown, but even so none of that wouldstop Escher Girls (or anyone else) from then discussing the takedown notice and what happened. Queen already appear to believe copyright provides him more rights than it does (since he doesn't seem to understand fair use), but to take that even further and pretend itallows you to policeof his work is really far out there. Again, he might want to "get legal involved" earlier in the process, before he makes even more ridiculous statements.And, indeed, "no good will come of this" sounds about right, but it was Queen who probably should have "moved along" rather than trying to (1) abuse copyright law to pull down criticism and now (2) abuse bogus defamation claims to try to silence a blog post about his abuse of copyright law.
Filed Under: censorship, copyright, criticism, dark chylde, defamation, escher girls, fair use, free speech, randy queen2014 studio album by The Gaslight Anthem
Get Hurt is the fifth and final studio album by American rock band The Gaslight Anthem. It was released on August 8, 2014, by Island Records. It marks their first album on Island Records, which absorbed the band and its previous label, Mercury Records.[1]
Produced by Mike Crossey and inspired by vocalist and guitarist Brian Fallon's divorce from his wife of ten years, the band was influenced by artists whose albums represented "career shifts".[2][3]
Writing [ edit ]
The band announced on July 4, 2013, via their Tumblr site, that they were "Working on new songs for a new Gaslight Anthem album in 2014."[4] Fallon cites Pearl Jam's No Code album as an influence and inspiration for the album.[5]
In an interview with Rolling Stone published May 23, 2014, Fallon described the album as "completely different than anything we had ever done before. Instead of going that extra step of just adding some organ or some background vocals, this time we actually really changed up a lot of the sounds."[6]
In a posting on the band's official website fans were informed to "Get ready for some things you've never heard this band do!"[7]
Recording [ edit ]
On March 10, 2014, the band entered Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, to record their fifth studio album.[8][9] The band stated on April 14 that they had arrived at the "last week in the studio" of recording the album.[10]
Release and promotion [ edit ]
On June 16, 2014, the band announced the title of the album and released a teaser video with a snippet of a new song (later revealed to be the album's opener "Stay Vicious").[7] On August 5, the entire album was made available to stream via iTunes Radio.[11] Get Hurt was released in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2014, by Virgin EMI Records, and in the United States on August 12, 2014, by Island Records.[12][13] The album was originally scheduled to be released one week later than its eventual release date.[14]
The band performed "Get Hurt" on Late Show with David Letterman on August 18.[15] In support of the album, the band toured North America and Europe during the summer and fall of 2014. Dates included Jimmy Eat World, Against Me!, Bayside, and Deer Tick, as well as festival stops at Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Ottawa Folk Festival.[7]
Singles [ edit ]
The lead single from the album, "Rollin' and Tumblin'", was released on July 1, 2014.[16] The second single, "Get Hurt", was released on July 8, 2014.[17] The third and final single, "Stay Vicious", was released on July 28, 2014.[18]
Critical reception [ edit ]
Get Hurt received mixed reviews from music critics. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average of ratings from mainstream critics, gave it a score of a 62, based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[19]
In Absolute Punk, Craig Manning wrote, "It's disheartening that the album isn't the game-changing record Fallon promised, and it's too bad that it doesn't have the thesis-statement cohesion of albums like The 59 Sound and American Slang. But the songs are still great, the production is still excellent, and the performances of the band members have rarely been in finer form."[20] Clash magazine's Mischa Pearlman rated the album seven out of ten, calling it "rock 'n' roll of the purest kind."[22] Tim Jonze of The Guardian gave the album two stars out of five, saying "Get Hurt is nothing but the same old overblown rock sound with every dial turned up several digits past 11."[24] Gregory Heaney of AllMusic rated the album four stars out of five, writing, "Get Hurt shows that so long as they're passionate about their music, it doesn't matter where the band are getting their inspiration from, because genuinely caring about something is always compelling."[21]
Commercial performance [ edit ]
Get Hurt debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 33,000 copies in its first week.[29] The album also debuted at number one on the Alternative Albums and Tastemaker Albums charts, at number two on the Top Rock Albums chart, and at number four on the Digital Albums chart.[30][31][32][33]
Track listing [ edit ]
All tracks written by Brian Fallon, Alex Rosamilia, Alex Levine, and Benny Horowitz, unless otherwise noted[34].
No. Title Length 1. "Stay Vicious" 3:33 2. "1,000 Years" 3:38 3. "Get Hurt" 3:43 4. "Stray Paper" 2:48 5. "Helter Skeleton" 3:13 6. "Underneath the Ground" 4:05 7. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" 2:50 8. "Red Violins" 3:20 9. "Selected Poems" 2:53 10. "Ain't That a Shame" 3:02 11. "Break Your Heart" 4:20 12. "Dark Places" 3:44 Total length: 41:15
Deluxe edition bonus tracks No. Title Length 13. "Sweet Morphine" 4:17 14. "Mama's Boys" 4:01 15. "Halloween" 3:11 Total length: 52:44
iTunes Store deluxe edition bonus track No. Title Length 16. "Have Mercy" 3:21 Total length: 56:05
Best Buy deluxe edition bonus track No. Title Writer(s) Length 16. "This Is Where We Part" Fredrick Björk, José Dominguez Lopez, Thomas Åberg, and Fredrik Georg Eriksson 3:54 Total length: 56:33
Personnel [ edit ]
Credits adapted from AllMusic:[35]
Charts [ edit ]
Release history [ edit ]Shares of Rite Aid (RAD) spiked in morning trading, which industry contacts attribute to the publication of a new report on the company and Walgreens (WBA) published by CTFN at 11:04 am ET. After the report, which is available to CTFN subscribers only, Rite Aid shares are up 18c, or 5.7%, to $3.28. Reference Link
RAD
WBA RAD Rite Aid $3.11 -0.005 (-0.16%) 05/31/17 JEFF 05/31/17
NO CHANGE Target $95
JEFF
Buy Walgreens has upside with or without Rite Aid, says Jefferies Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut believes shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) have upside with or without the successful closing of the Rite Aid (RAD) acquisition. If the FTC blocks the deal, Walgreens is likely to put through a "sizeable" repurchase, Tanquilut tells investors in a research note. If the deal is approved, the analyst continues to expect earnings accretion beginning in 2018. The analyst finds it "difficult to handicap the odds" of an FTC approval. Nonetheless, he remains a buyer of Walgreens at current share levels. Tanquilut has a Buy rating on the name with a $95 price target. Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut believes shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) have upside with or without the successful closing of the Rite Aid (RAD) acquisition. If the FTC blocks the deal, Walgreens is likely to put through a "sizeable" repurchase, Tanquilut tells investors in a research note. If the deal is approved, the analyst continues to expect earnings accretion beginning in 2018. The analyst finds it "difficult to handicap the odds" of an FTC approval. Nonetheless, he remains a buyer of Walgreens at current share levels. Tanquilut has a Buy rating on the name with a $95 price target. 05/31/17 COWN 05/31/17
NO CHANGE Target $5
COWN
Outperform Cowen believes Walgreens will pursue Rite Aid even if FTC acts to block merger Cowen analyst Charles Ryhee said the FTC decision on the merger between Walgreens (WBA)and Rite Aid (RAD) is too difficult to call, but he believes although Rite Aid will struggle on its own its value to Walgreens is significant. He also believes the value is well above the deal price range and so expects Walgreens will litigate the decision in an attempt to win an approval. Ryhee reiterated his Outperform rating but lowered his price target to $4.70 from $6.75 on Rite Aid shares. Cowen analyst Charles Ryhee said the FTC decision on the merger between Walgreens (WBA)and Rite Aid (RAD) is too difficult to call, but he believes although Rite Aid will struggle on its own its value to Walgreens is significant. He also believes the value is well above the deal price range and so expects Walgreens will litigate the decision in an attempt to win an approval. Ryhee reiterated his Outperform rating but lowered his price target to $4.70 from $6.75 on Rite Aid shares. 06/13/17 BARD 06/13/17
NO CHANGE Target $96
BARD
Outperform Walgreens Boots Alliance Q3 results will include deal contingencies, says Baird Baird analyst Eric Coldwell noted Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) will report Q3 results on June 29 and its focus will be on ramping wins in the U.S. and the start of Alliance Rx. He also believes there will be an update on the Rite Aid (RAD) deal and although he would prefer the deal to close, he is prepared for contingency plans, which may include a stock buyback. Coldwell maintained his Outperform rating and $96 price target on Walgreens shares. Baird analyst Eric Coldwell noted Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) will report Q3 results on June 29 and its focus will be on ramping wins in the U.S. and the start of Alliance Rx. He also believes there will be an update on the Rite Aid (RAD) deal and although he would prefer the deal to close, he is prepared for contingency plans, which may include a stock buyback. Coldwell maintained his Outperform rating and $96 price target on Walgreens shares. 06/22/17 06/22/17
NO CHANGE
Leerink sees 30% chance that Walgreens gets approval to buy Rite Aid Leerink analyst David Larsen said he expects to know if the FTC will sue to block Walgreens's (WBA) deal to buy Rite Aid (RAD) by July 7 and estimates 30% odds of the deal clearing the FTC, which he believes to be higher than the consensus view of the deal's approval chances. However, the FTC's recent subpoena to Humana (HUM) appears to be meant to determine if there are regions in the country where Walgreens would be a "must have" in some of Humana's Part D networks, which is "not a good sign" for the deal, Larsen tells investors. Leerink analyst David Larsen said he expects to know if the FTC will sue to block Walgreens's (WBA) deal to buy Rite Aid (RAD) by July 7 and estimates 30% odds of the deal clearing the FTC, which he believes to be higher than the consensus view of the deal's approval chances. However, the FTC's recent subpoena to Humana (HUM) appears to be meant to determine if there are regions in the country where Walgreens would be a "must have" in some of Humana's Part D networks, which is "not a good sign" for the deal, Larsen tells investors. WBA Walgreens Boots Alliance $76.34 -0.03 (-0.04%) 06/06/17 WELS 06/06/17
NO CHANGE WELS
Amazon may be the next threat to drug pricing, says Wells Fargo After CNBC recently reported that Amazon (AMZN) is considering going into the prescription pharmacy business in the U.S., Wells Fargo surveyed nearly 2,900 U.S. adults and found that 54% of those polled said they would use or would probably use "Amazon Pharmacy." While the e-commerce giant has not confirmed its U.S. pharmacy interest, if it did enter the market analyst David Maris believes it could see fast adoption and "usher in a new age of price transparency." Maris also wonders if pharmacy "may be just the beginning" and if Amazon eyes the "even larger prize" of fully integrated digital healthcare. Publicly traded large-cap pharmaceuticals companies include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol-Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY). Publicly traded retail pharmacy operators include CVS Health (CVS), Walgreens (WBA), Fred's (FRED) and Rite Aid (RAD). After CNBC recently reported that Amazon (AMZN) is considering going into the prescription pharmacy business in the U.S., Wells Fargo surveyed nearly 2,900 U.S. adults and found that 54% of those polled said they would use or would probably use "Amazon Pharmacy." While the e-commerce giant has not confirmed its U.S. pharmacy interest, if it did enter the market analyst David Maris believes it could see fast adoption and "usher in a new age of price transparency." Maris also wonders if pharmacy "may be just the beginning" and if Amazon eyes the "even larger prize" of fully integrated digital healthcare. Publicly traded large-cap pharmaceuticals companies include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol-Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY). Publicly traded retail pharmacy operators include CVS Health (CVS), Walgreens (WBA), Fred's (FRED) and Rite Aid (RAD).A fall into outright deflation in the coming months will force the Bank of England to delay a rise in interest rates until 2016, one of the UK’s most influential economic forecasters has warned.
The continued collapse in oil prices will see inflation average just 0pc in 2015, giving way to a gradual tightening of policy only in the first three months of next year, the EY Item Club is expected to say on Monday.
Consumer prices are likely to turn negative in the middle of the year, pushed lower by the collapse in global commodity prices, according to the forecast.
The sliding cost of oil “should persuade the Monetary Policy Committee to err on the side of caution, and keep interest rates on hold until the first quarter of 2016”, the EY Item Club will say.
The think-tank will also revise up its forecast for GDP growth to 2.9pc from 2.4pc for 2015 as “low inflation will have a reflationary effect on the economy”.
The collapse in global commodities will put more spending power into the hands of consumers, jolting the British recovery back to life, said Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club.
“The deflation we are seeing is unequivocally good for the UK,” said Mr Spencer. “It will lower the cost of energy and transport, which will also help prices fall right across the economy.”
But below-target inflation is also likely to put the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee in a bind.
Projections made by the Bank in its November inflation report suggested a rate hike would be likely in the autumn of 2015.
But figures from last week showed consumer prices rose at their slowest-ever level of just 0.5pc in December, forcing Mark Carney, the Governor, to pen a letter of explanation to the Chancellor.
The EY Item Club now thinks Mr Carney will have to continue explaining the undershoot for many months to come, as inflation will fail to exceed the 1pc mark until 2016.
Weak inflation will make it “very difficult for the MPC to sell a rate hike to the public”, added Mr Spencer.
“The MPC is almost certain to ‘look through’ these low inflation numbers in the same way that it looked through the very high inflation figures driven by the surging oil prices of 2011 and 2012,” the report will say.
Sluggish wages will be one of the beneficiaries of disinflationary forces. Incomes are expected to grow at their strongest level in nearly seven years, EY will say.
Wages and salaries will rise by 3.5pc this year while real disposable incomes will be up by 3.7pc, they estimate.
Although the falling cost of food and energy is a boon to British shoppers, low inflation in the single currency will see growth prospects in the eurozone go “from bad to worse”, EY will say.
Figures from December showed the single currency area had already fallen into deflation.
All eyes will now be on European Central Bank president Mario Draghi to announce a plan to stimulate prices when the ECB holds its monthly meeting on Thursday.
Mr Draghi is expected to unveil a move into full-blown quantitative easing, as the ECB looks to bolster its balance sheet by €1 trillion (£763bn) and prevent a permanent descent into deflation.
Worries about falling prices in Switzerland were also heightened after the country announced the end of its de facto peg with the euro last week.
The Swiss franc rose as much as 30pc against the single currency when its three-year currency ceiling was abolished in a shock move on Thursday.
Meanwhile, consumer prices in the US also indicated a fall into deflation. Month-by-month inflation fell by 0.4pc from November to December, the biggest decline in the CPI since December 2008.Real Name: Unknown
Aliases: None Known
Wanted For: Murder, Attempted Murder
Missing Since: March 28, 1987
Case Edit
Details: During the mid 1980s, a suspected serial killer murdered at least six women along the New Hampshire/Vermont border. It is believed that he also attacked a pregnant woman named Jane Boroski, but she miraculously survived, despite being stabbed twenty-seven times. He attacked all of the women in the Connecticut River Valley near Route 91 in both Vermont and New Hampshire.
Cathy Millican, the first known victim, was found murdered in New London, New Hampshire on October 24, 1978. The next victim, Mary Elizabeth Critchley, was found murdered on August 9, 1981, in Unity, New Hampshire. Then, Bernice Courtemanche, a seventeen-year-old nurse's aide vanished on May 30, 1984 in West Claremont, New Hampshire. It is believed that she was abducted while hitchhiking to her boyfriend's house. On April 9, 1986, her remains were found in Kellyville, New Hampshire. Another nurse, Ellen Fried, vanished after calling her sister from a pay phone in West Claremont, New Hampshire on July 20, 1984; her remains were also found in Kellyville, New Hampshire on September 19, 1985.
Eva Morse, a single mother, was hitchhiking from work in Charlestown, New Hampshire when she vanished on July 10, 1985. A logger found her remains on April 25, 1986 in Unity, New Hampshire. In Saxtons River, Vermont, the killer changed tactics to murder Lynda Moore during a home invasion on May 15, 1986. A thirty-six year old nurse named Barbara Agnew was missing for two months in Hartford, Vermont before she was found dead near Advent Hill Road in Hartland, Vermont on March 28, 1987. Not only had they all been stabbed in similar geographical areas; all had their throats slit.
At around midnight on April 6, 1988, Jane Boroski, then twenty-three and seven months pregnant, was returning home from a county fair when she stopped at a vending machine next to a market near Winchester, New Hampshire. After returning to her car with her drink, a man appeared next to her door, asking about the pay phone. He then opened her car and began to attack her. He pulled out a knife and claimed that she had hurt his girlfriend. However, she denied this. She tried to run and he chased her and stabbed her twenty-seven times.
Afterward, the attacker got in his car and left Jane to die. She crawled back to her car and managed to drive to her friend's house two miles away. En route, she was disturbed to find that she was right behind the attacker's car. When she got to her friend's house, he stopped for a second and then drove away. Fortunately, both she and her unborn baby survived.
With the investigation at a standstill, detectives brought in criminal psychologist John Philpin to develop a profile of the killer. He made several trips to the area where Bern |
grew up listening to classical music, and my early memories include Bach and Mozart. But it wasn’t until my early teens, when I had my first Stravinsky experience – head-spinningly disquieting in the percussion-driven conclusion of The Rite of Spring – that I started to move in a more modern direction. A world opened up and I discovered postwar modernists such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio, who all place percussion at the front of their palettes. I remember being drawn to how inventive and picturesque some of their scores could be, so much so that Stockhausen’s Kontakte – which uses wildly graphic notation – became my bedroom wallpaper. I took so much inspiration from the boundaries being pushed, the maverick quality of much of the music, and the excitement of a movement taking hold.
Premiering my first percussion concerto (by Errollyn Wallen) at the BBC Young Musician of the Year concerto final in 1994 gave me my first opportunity to collaborate with a composer and kicked off a lifelong love affair with new music. Studying at the Royal Academy of Music I pretty much centred on orchestral playing (which led me to work freelance in the London Symphony Orchestra, aged 19), but I also started to seek out solo works and present solo recitals – then a rare thing for a percussionist. In 1996, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra took me under their wing and asked me to play James MacMillan’s percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. It’s a work of huge power and emotional impact: it’s been performed more than 500 times (around 150 of them by me) and it has a firm foothold in the orchestral canon.
I have premiered dozens of works, and the most striking thing about them is the vast range of styles they cover. From Louis Andriessen’s Tapdance, which requires me to imitate charleston tap shoes, to Harrison Birtwistle’s sinister and spiky The Axe Manual, which piles up layers of instruments, tuned and untuned. Percussion has given me the good fortune to have been able to work with the very best composers in their fields, from the late American master of modernity Elliott Carter to the ever-youthful and energetic Steve Reich, the father of minimalism and a true friend of percussion, who often places a percussion group at the heart of his works. His new chamber piece written for me, Quartet, is scored for two vibraphones and two pianos.
New works are emanating from every continent and culture, and the Chinese composer Tan Dun is another such inspiration. Of his several solo percussion works, one features water percussion (and waterproofs), while another features instruments made of paper. I never quite know what the next featured instrument will be, and a well-known composer recently sent me several videos of himself performing on a certain metallic bookcase which he felt had much potential: indeed it does.
Increasingly well known for its lyrical qualities, percussion has always held a great dignity for me. Many of the works I have launched have become known for their heartfelt character, often intensely melodic rather than driven by rhythm alone. Percussion works have also drawn on jazz, Latin and, in particular, pop music. Joe Duddell’s Ruby touched many at its BBC Proms premiere in 2003. When I told Joe it reminded me of Poulenc he said that the section in question was inspired by Radiohead’s OK Computer!
The percussion community is now huge, and a plethora of fantastic new pieces are leading us in a giddying array of directions. My travels constantly reveal fresh talent, and giving masterclasses is a joy, as new works are presented by an emerging generation all over the world. I started out not knowing what to play, and now it seems as if I will never have time for everything that I want to programme. Metal Wood Skin is a superb snapshot of where we are – where we’ve come from and, indeed, where we’re heading.
• Metal Wood Skin: The Colin Currie Percussion festival continues until 11 December. The next concert is a tribute to Steve Martland on 11 November. Venue: Southbank Centre, London.Above, police arrest Samuel Nyanteng, a native of Ghana. He’s not an illegal immigrant—he’s a US immigration officer.
In less than one year, two immigration officials stationed in NJ have been charged with violating the laws they swore to uphold. One was a Hispanic immigration official who brought in a Hispanic illegal alien girlfriend, and one was a Ghanaian-born US immigration officer who brought in an illegal from…Ghana, of course.
From NJ.Politicer.com
Deportation Officer charged with harboring undocumented girlfriend. By Max Pizarro 04/09/15 11:30am “Arnaldo Echevarria, 37, of Somerset County, is charged by criminal complaint with one count of harboring an illegal alien and one count of making false statements.”
According to the charge Echevarria, didn’t just look the other way, he lived with and went into business with an illegal who in turn hired other illegals in their joint venture. His paramour entered the US illegally by appropriating the identity of a Puerto Rican to get a Pennsylvania ID.
Echevarria may have come under suspicion when he ran computer checks on his girlfriends and shadow employees’ aliases. On the other hand illegals now regularly inform on their employers, confident that they will not be deported as per Obama administration policy.
If sustained, these charges mean that Echevarria had so little respect for the internal controls of Homeland Security that he felt safe in letting them know he was the owner of a largely cash business which tends to hire illegals.
From NJ.com:
Immigration Official charged with illegally bringing person into U.S. from Ghana. Bill Wichert/ NJ Advance Media for NJ.com on August 06’, 2014 at 6:57pm
was taken into custody at about 6a.m. when detectives executed a search warrant at his Leslie Street home. Prosecutors allege that Nyanteng submitted fraudulent documents and knowingly made false statements to immigration authorities in order to bring another person into the United States from Ghana. A naturalized American who was born in Ghana, Nyanteng performed administrative support duties, said USCIS spokeswoman Anita Moore.” At the time of his arrest, Nyanteng was in line for a promotion, prosecutors said. Before working for Homeland Security, Nyanteng worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, Prosecutors said.
Nyanteng, 33,Along with the many examples from our border with Mexico, these cases point to a dangerous trend in American life. We increasingly rely on populations we can’t trust to keep track of each other. Or should I say keep track of themselves? Is it any surprise they let us down?
Point 1: Clearly, our civil rights era legal structure makes it impossible to appoint people without racial/ethnic/religious skin on the game to protect us from their kinfolk. Public servants stop being our servants in any respect long a go. There is no longer a justification for us to see Federal Employees as stakeholders in our common fate.
Entrusting jobs in Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to people from other continents is in itself, a betrayal of Homeland Security and public trust.
Point 2:Alien culture wins out over-all. Repeatedly, we can see that the low trust cultures our supposed protectors bring with them trumps any oath of office they took. It’s difficult to come away from these and similar cases with the feeling that the accused felt any sense of betrayal. For them, our society is just the big piñata, and they are just swinging for the goodies.
These particular individuals, living in New Jersey, are surrounded by both illegal immigrants and the culture that promotes mass immigration. Note, Echevarria is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Agarwal.
Point 3:The low opinion of our nation and history held by our elites is clearly taken as a tacit permission by these latecomers to treat the rest of us with similar disdain. An old saying has it that, “There are no bad soldiers, only bad officers.” I doubt that applies here, for surely, a Federal Government headed by amoral minority opportunists can be trusted to lead by example. And it is precisely that example we see in these cases.In 1981, Boyd K. Packer gave a BYU fireside where he said:
“Remember: when you see the bitter apostate, you do not see only an absence of light, you see also the presence of darkness. Do not spread disease germs.”
This is not surprising, as those who leave the LDS Church have been demonized since its beginning, when Joseph and Brigham would order members of a Mormon vigilante group known as the Danites to kill those who apostatized.
Sidney Rigdon, in a letter he once wrote to to Orson Hyde, said, “…it was the imperative duty of the Church to obey the word of Joseph Smith, or the presidency, without question or inquiry, and that if there were any that would not, they should have their throats cut from ear [to] ear.”
Said Elder John D. Lee, “Punishment by death is the penalty for refusing to obey the orders of the Priesthood. I knew of many men being killed in Nauvoo by the Danites. It was then the rule that all enemies of the Prophet Joseph should be killed, and I knew of many a man who was quietly put out of the way by the orders of Joseph and his apostles while the church was there.”
By contrast, Boyd K. Packer’s words about ex-Mormons seem tame! But that doesn’t mean they don’t still have enormous power over Church members, most of whom have lived their whole lives being taught that apostates wanted to sin, got offended, or just weren’t strong enough to “live the gospel”. Nowhere in Mormon teachings is there room to believe that people leave the church because they determined, against the desires of their heart, that it wasn’t true. Any evidence that contradicts claims made by the LDS Church is deemed “anti-Mormon literature” (or the new favorite, “slanted”), just as evidence that contradicts claims made by the Church of Scientology is considered “suppressive”. Such labels allow church members to reject the validity of evidence that doesn’t confirm their beliefs, and avoid the pain of cognitive dissonance.
Though many modern Mormons are becoming more tolerant of those with different beliefs—even those who leave the LDS Church—we still have a huge stigma to overcome. I spent hours chatting with an active Mormon online yesterday, who was determined to believe that I deliberately slant evidence when using it in Zelph content, and who ascribed motives to my criticism of Mormonism that don’t exist. He spoke to me with far less respect that I spoke to him (because my criticism of the Church justified it, apparently), calling me a “bigot”, “not normal”, “not funny”, “just as bad” as a white supremacist, and liking tweets that said I was the worst of the millennial generation and need to be “called out” for what I “truly am”. He told me I’m “immoral and tacky”, while also making it clear that he didn’t think I had a right to call out what I think is immoral. I’m human, and it hurt, especially as I had tried so hard to facilitate constructive dialogue with him. (We actually did have some more constructive dialogue once we started talking one-on-one, thankfully.)
I criticize Mormonism because I believe in the words of J. Reuben Clark, who said “If we have the truth, it cannot be harmed by investigation. If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed.” The fact that Mormonism is demonstrably false aside (at least according to what I consider valid methods of truth determination, I.E. not feelings), I call out the Church because I don’t believe in a god who would let racism run rampant from the very top of his “true church” for 150 years under the pretense of “divine will”, yet who thought Joseph marrying teenagers was important enough to get going within a few years of the Church being founded. (Conveniently with no revelation until Emma found out.) I don’t believe in a god who leaves our “heavenly mother” completely out of the narrative, despite teaching women that they’re in charge of raising children. (Just not the most important ones?) I don’t believe a church is led by a god when its leaders have to be knowingly dishonest to perpetuate a false narrative. (Joseph Fielding Smith lying about the seer stone and saying it was an “anti-Mormon lie” when he had it in the Church’s vault at the time, for example.)
Having your character constantly called into question (not even called into question—just flatly denounced) because you’re following your conscience really hurts, especially when you’ve already had to deal with the grief that comes after your religious worldview collapses. Ex-Mormons have to give Mormons the space to share their beliefs, or they wouldn’t be able to maintain any Mormon relationships, but we are expected to keep quiet about our thoughts on the Church, because negativity—even that which seeks to correct misinformation and prevent ongoing harm—is seen as evil contention in Mormonism, which does not accept criticism from “outsiders”.
When Mormons start realizing that ex-Mormons and those who criticize the LDS Church can be good people with good intentions, their narrative starts breaking down. Developing compassion for those who lost their faith after encountering new evidence is fatal for Mormonism, because in order to perpetuate the narrative that the Church is true, believers must think that losing one’s faith is a choice that is made with bad motives.
The best thing ex-Mormons can do is change the narrative about themselves—by not making Mormons feel attacked or like they need to defend their beliefs, by opening up constructive dialogue when appropriate, and by fostering and maintaining positive relationships with believers. We won’t always be able to change people’s minds about us, but we can try. At the end of the day, we’re all just human. We all hurt the same. We’re all (usually) trying our best with what we understand and have experienced. Peace requires tolerance of those with different beliefs, and in the Mormon/ex-Mormon community, I think that tolerance needs to start with ex-Mormons, because we are the ones who have experienced both sides of the coin, and can therefore (usually) empathize with Mormons better than they can empathize with us.
Be a safe space for Mormons, but when they ask you about your disaffection, don’t be afraid to tell them that you wanted the Church to be true—that you researched with the bias that it was. Let them know how much you cried out in prayer wanting God to take away your doubts—to give you some kind of answer to the endless evidence indicating that your beliefs were based on fallacies. Be open with them about the pain you experienced as you lost your faith through research, and how hard you tried to make it all work. Try to help them understand a world that they don’t understand, while using your understanding of their world to be non-threatening. Remember how you felt when you were in their position. Ex-Mormons have a lot of work to do if we’re going to change a narrative created by 200 years of teachings that liken us to “disease germs”. See the humanity in others and let them see the humanity in you.These photos and videos provide a detailed look at this project’s development.
Appearance and function match the final product, but is made with different manufacturing methods.
Looks like the final product, but is not functional.
Demonstrates the functionality of the final product, but looks different.
A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:
The DUO Travel is for hobbyists who want a device to program on-the-go, and is completely programmable without any external peripherals.
DUO Travel Hardware
The DUO Travel features a 16 by 2 character LCD, a 14 button keypad, an ATMega328, and 32 KB of EEPROM for program storage. The ATMega328 contains 32 KB of flash for firmware storage and 2 KB of SRAM.
The DUO Travel is powered by a standard 9-volt battery. When powered on, the DUO Travel draws 15 mA, and has an estimated battery life of 36 hours.
As an optional configuration, you can purchase the DUO Travel screwed into a hinged plastic case. The dimensions of the case are 5.5" by 4" by 1.4".
DUO Travel Software
The default firmware installed on the DUO Travel is DUO Travel OS. This firmware lets you write programs in a proprietary language called DUO Travel Code. This language is designed to be robust and easy-to-use.
DUO Travel Code features include:
Multi-character variable names
Arithmetic operators with order of operations
Floating point numbers, mutable strings, and lists with dynamic length
Custom function declaration
Global and local scope
Math functions and file manipulation functions
Here is an example DUO Travel Code program which displays prime numbers:
Why Kickstarter?
The DUO Travel has already been fully designed and is ready for production. I need a large number of preorders to keep the price of components low. Your funding will go directly toward the parts shipped in each computer.
DUO Travel website: http://ostracodfiles.com/travel/main.html
User guide: http://ostracodfiles.com/travel/DUO%20Travel%20User%20Guide.pdf
My email address: esperantanaso@gmail.comSee the news? No Man’s Sky got its first content update since launch. It’s called the Foundation Update and it includes the ability to build bases and acquire a massive space freighter.
While the internet yelled, memed and decided to raise money for cancer research, Sean Murray and Hello Games were hard at work. They said they would be, but the notion that the studio was built on a house of lies and false promises made that claim less than reliable.
No Man’s Sky‘s hype and launch, but they’ve managed to stay away from all of this anger for the most part. Instead, folks are really upset with Sean Murray and Hello Games. Sure, Murray promised the world one thing and delivered something that was lesser than, but Sony propped Murray up on their shoulders through all of the pre-release hype. I can’t really blame the fans. I personally think that Sony played a huge part in the whole debacle that surrounded‘s hype and launch, but they’ve managed to stay away from all of this anger for the most part. Instead, folks are really upset with Sean Murray and Hello Games. Sure, Murray promised the world one thing and delivered something that was lesser than, but Sony propped Murray up on their shoulders through all of the pre-release hype. Sony gave No Man’s Sky a concert at E3. Sony spent a lot of money on this, and they wound up pointing blame at Murray and walking away
But, yes. Hello Games over-promise and under-delivered with No Man’s Sky. They said they would work on content after they had the game stabilized, and here they are. The content is out.
Hello Games, thanks for the patch!
Is this the game they promised? Not yet, but it is better than what we had at launch. Players can actually leave their mark on the universe. They can set up bases, they can set up waypoints, they can actually automatically gather resources with fancy robots, they can buy their own freighters.
Check out any of the fan communities online, and you’ll find a large presence of praise. Gamers are happy. Sure, there are some out there saying things like “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” They seem to be the minority here. And that’s great for Hello Games and No Man’s Sky.
Hello Games has said that the Foundation Update is literally the foundation of the game moving forward. If this is the foundation, No Man’s Sky could be a really great game in a few years. We all know that the game sold like gangbusters at launch. It had a high price tag, the game was arguably more expensive than it should have been, but it sold really well. The team has the money to make this the game it should be. Yes, they’re a small staff. It’s just that they seem dedicated.
They could have taken the money and retired. They didn’t.
That’s what’s impressed me most about all of this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the gaming world so singularly focused on hating someone like they’ve hated Sean Murray, not counting the gamergate stuff, and he took all of that hate and put it into making something. It seems to me that Hello Games could have easily taken the money and stopped working. Murray and his company could have retired. They made that much money. They didn’t. In spite of all the hate and negative energy, they went out and developed more No Man’s Sky content. And it’s free. That’s a far cry from the picture of greed painted by gamers.
I’m not saying that this update absolves the team of all their wrong doings. I personally believe that No Man’s Sky was a victim of over-promising and over-hype, though not all of the blame lies on Hello Games. However, they certainly enjoyed the benefits. And they have been far too quiet in the run up to this release.
The new content will go far to make gamers happy. I want them to go further. I want No Man’s Sky to be even better. I want this to be the sci-fi game that meets my dreams. Is that possible? We’ll see.
For now, I’m going to focus on building a ridiculous base and harvesting resources again. That sort of sounds fun right now.5 Pack Special Offer!
The Intertap Flow Control Faucet is a forward sealing stainless steel faucet similar to the Perlicks. It has a modular, threaded spout which can fit a variety of different attachments including a growler filler or a stout spout.
In normal rear-sealing faucets the entire faucet has to drain of beer. In forward-sealing faucets the faucet keeps beer in it so the inside doesn't have a chance to get sticky, making cleaning much easier. It also reduces the chance of off flavors transfering to your beer while you pour.
Other forward sealing faucets use a floating o-ring, which is just as sanitary but requires the o-ring to move inside the faucet body in order to seal correctly. This can become a problem as the faucet ages. Intertap faucets use a sliding shuttle that guides the o-ring into the perfect position every time.
The threaded spout easily unscrews from the faucet and can be replaced by a growler filler or stout spout quickly and easily. Pour a pint and then fill a growler in no time at all.
Made of stainless steel and comes with a lever to control the flow of your beer.
Generation 2 Version of this faucet.Introducing Conner Production’s latest free FCP X Template: Puff. Puff allows you to make a beautiful swirl of colors with your text. It’s visually impressive, but not distracting. Check it our below, and then download for free.
Easily customize orientation, colors, and color intensity.
Specs: 1080p HD, 29.97 frames per second
How to install/use: Just run the simple installer, then open up final Cut Pro X. You will find it under Title Templates, then “Conner Productions.” Just drag it onto the timeline and enjoy! Also, easily customize all of the colors and more right from inside Final Cut. If you need help, just contact us, and we will help you out.
Song: New Day – Unknown Prophets
Download:
(Having trouble downloading? Try using a different browser or turning off AdBlock/Ghostery)Enjoy! Please let us know below in the comments if you have any questions or feedback.You don't want to mess with Lea DeLaria.
The outspoken lesbian actress who has received critical acclaim for her role on "Orange Is The New Black" was caught on camera this week telling off a subway preacher while riding the subway in New York City. The actress was not happy about being forced to hear his rhetoric and refused to let the evangelist continue. TMZ obtained a tape of the incident.
"You have no right! Go to another train," DeLaria tells the preacher. "Get off this train. Other people believe other things and have every right to believe other things on this planet and in this world. We do not have to be force-fed this man's religious beliefs. Jesus never said for you to do this -- ever!"
But the best part might have been when she informed him, "Don't come at me because I went to f**king Catholic school for 12 years and I know every line."
WERK.In no other system of government might a libertarian so enjoy the satisfaction of his principles, as in that of a sagacious king.
The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men’s weapons,
the more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever people are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers. Therefore the sage says: I take no action and people are reformed.
I enjoy peace and people become honest.
I do nothing and people become rich.
I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life. – Tao Te Ching 57
There is nothing complicated about subsidiarity. The sagacious king understands that the less he does to interfere with the people, the greater his revenues will be. In any other system than monarchy, the competition among the oligarchs – who are always with us – for state revenues will push taxes and regulations ever higher, impoverishing and depraving the people.
The satisfaction of the libertarian impulse, then, can lie only in the repudiation of libertarianism. Only if the King has unchallengeable authority to let go, or not, will there be any definite letting go.
What happens then?
A small country has fewer people.
Though there are machines that can work ten to a hundred times faster than man,
They are not needed.
The people take death seriously and do not travel far.
Though they have boats and carriages, no one uses them.
Though they have armor and weapons, no one displays them.
Men return to the knotting of rope in place of writing.
Their food is plain and good, their clothes fine but simple, their homes secure;
They are happy in their ways.
Though they live within sight of their neighbours,
And crowing cocks and barking dogs are heard across the way,
Yet they leave each other in peace while they grow old and die. – Tao Te Ching 80FILE PHOTO: Fighters of the Manbij military council, take an overwatch position in the southern rural area of Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria June 1, 2016. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian government forces have taken over positions from a U.S.-backed militia in the northern city of Manbij on part of a frontline with Turkish-backed rebel forces, in line with a deal brokered by Russia, the militia’s spokesman said on Monday.
“The handover has taken place..,” Sharfan Darwish, the spokesman for the Manbij Military Council, told Reuters. Earlier on Monday, he said around five villages were included in the deal.
The villages west of the city of Manbij have been a focus of fighting since Wednesday between Turkish-backed rebels opposed to the Syrian government, and the Manbij Military Council, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG group.
Turkey’s campaign in Syria is aimed at driving Islamic State from its border and preventing expansion in the area by the YPG, which it regards as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that is waging an insurgency against Ankara.
The U.S.-allied militia said last Thursday it would hand back to Syrian government control villages on a front line where it has been fighting Turkish-backed rebels.
That followed an agreement with Russia to pre-empt an attempt by Turkish-led forces to take the city.
The Manbij Military Council, part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), captured the area around Manbij from Islamic State militants last year.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
“End Times” prophet Ed Hindson appeared on VCY America’s Crosstalk last week to talk about the Rapture, that point in the End Times when Christians float up into the air to meet Jesus, and the United States.
This is a discussion, just to be clear, about something that doesn’t exist (the Rapture), and which is very much tied up in Christian persecution fantasies, and something that does exist (the United States), but which has nothing at all to do with the persecution of Christians.
In other words, this is like hosting a talk on the Zombie Apocalypse and the United States. But you must understand, before we go on, that in the eyes of these fake Christians, the Rapture is every bit as real as the American persecution of Christians, fake or otherwise.
Hindson claims that “The United States would be incredibly impacted by the Rapture because there are more professing Christians here than perhaps any other place on the planet.”
Well, we would be impacted by an alien visitation, too, or a zombie apocalypse. And yes, some would say that in the so-called Religious Right the United States already has a zombie problem.
But hey, as long as we are entertaining fantasies, imagine the real estate deals the rest of us will enjoy post-Rapture. I’m starting to like the sounds of this Rapture thing. I mean, more than zombies. Hard to enjoy your real estate while zombies are trying to eat your face.
So is Hindson liking it. A lot. Take a listen to what the “disappearance of millions” would entail, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:
What would happen, I think, in the United States is the sudden Rapture of believers would leave this country totally secularist, totally atheist, totally in the hands of anti-Christian forces, and it would decimate the economy, the banking system, even the military, the police system. It would throw this country into chaos overnight. Now, it would throw any country into chaos, but the larger percentage of born-again believers, the larger percentage of the chaos.
Hindson won’t share the good news with you, but I will: the crime rate would also drop, divorce rates would drop, and use of pornography would drop. You starting to feel me on this Rapture thing?
Some might say, hey, the United States isn’t even mentioned in the Book of Revelation, otherwise known as the Apocalypse of John. Why is the United States, the fruition of all God’s plans for the world, not mentioned in the Bible he wrote for white Americans?
Unless you try to view the Babylon of the End Times as America, there’s no indication that America’s there anywhere [in the Bible]. So, is she totally destroyed? Possibly, but not likely. It’s more likely that she’s decimated by the impact of the Rapture, and the power then shifts to Europe, because I think the Bible makes it clear the Antichrist will arise out of the old Roman Empire in Europe.
That’s right. America will be Raptured away. It’s like Calgon, only holy, not secular, but will presumably feel just as good.
Yes, my brain hurts too.
Honestly, this is just so painful, it makes you wish you had stayed in bed, blissfully unaware.
The reason the United States is not mentioned in Revelation is because there was no United States when the book was penned. The reason the Roman Empire figures prominently in Revelation on the other hand, is that it was written in the Roman Empire with the Pagan Romans as the bad guys.
Revelation is supposed to have been written during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, at the end of the first century CE. Domitian is supposed to have persecuted the Christians, a claim like all claims about persecution of Christians which rests on some very dubious evidence.
Historian Paul Keresztes indulges in common persecution fantasies when making the following startling assertion:
At the time of Domitian’s Terror, Asia had a sizable Christian community in the predominately Greek and Jewish population. The non-Christian mobs zealously complied with Domitian’s desire for Imperial worship. They demanded the punishment of the ‘atheist’ Christians, who abstained from the cult. Leading Christians were probably thus punished, some put to death, others, such as John, the ‘author’ of the ‘Apocalypse,’ banished.[1]
Keresztes seems to be reading a great deal into our sparse sources by arriving at this level of detail. Keresztes is using the assumption of persecution of Christians under Domitian to date these writings and they therefore prove nothing.
W.H.C. Frend, sounding altogether too much like David Barton, also makes appeal to the Apocalypse of John, noting that it “suggests the possibility of anti-Christian outbreaks in Asia”. He sees in Rev. 13:16-17 “the existence of boycotts and trade sanctions directed against the Christians in the towns” as well as “the banishment of some of the leading Christians to penal settlements in the Aegean Islands.”[2]
But in speaking of the The Book of Revelation and the First Epistle of Peter, to which many apologists also appeal, T.D. Barnes says that “The execution of Christians in Asia Minor, which are attested in Revelation and the so-called First Epistle of Peter need not have involved any reference to the emperor.”[3]
J.E.A. Crake issues a stronger caution:
It is very precarious to try to use the Apocalypse of John for historical evidence. Apart from the difficulty of dating the book, a difficulty that applies to some other writings of this period, the nature of the work itself is to conceal any obvious reference to contemporary history. The natural procedure is to use our knowledge of history to identify allusions in the book; it is almost impossible to reverse the process without arguing in a circle.[4]
So other than demonstrating that he has a fine imagination, Keresztes, also like Barton, proves nothing. Even Frend, who says that “Domitian was not a man to tolerate religious deviations” cannot summon up much enthusiasm for a Domitianic persecution, concluding that “the persecution of Domitian does not appear to have amounted to very much.” For Frend, “When one discounts the senatorial prejudices of Tacitus and Suetonius, the emperor stands out as a shrewd but jealous-minded ruler, a strong upholder of public right and the state religion, whose prejudices and fears for his own safety increased with age.” [5]
Waters also finds the evidence of persecutions less than compelling. “One cannot doubt that Christians would meet wth Domitian’s disapproval on two counts: first, he had a genuine concern for the traditional Roman religion which was regarded with intolerance by Christians (and strict Jews); second, he insisted on formal compliance with the rules of loyalty to the princes. As with the philosophers, the conflict, real or apparent, with established authority was the main point at issue.” For these reasons “both Jews and Christians found it easy to dislike Domitian” with the result, Waters says, that the “Christian writers, basing their case on a very small quantity indeed of factual evidence, proceeded to develop a tradition of a full-scale persecution.”[6]
BINGO.
But persecution fantasies aside, Hindson has a bigger problem than the missing United States. There is the missing Rapture itself. The Rapture isn’t in the Bible.
In fact, in eighteen hundred years of Christianity, nobody heard of the Rapture until John Nelson Darby developed the idea in the 1830s, an idea that was then passed along to C.I. Scofield in the early 20th century. Scofield put it in the footnotes of the Scofield Reference Bible. Bible readers then read the Bible very much as they do now, which is to say, little or not at all, and assumed what they found in the footnotes to be true.
Actually reading the Bible, of course, would have proven that the Rapture is nowhere to be found in Scripture.
Seriously, we might as well talk about what would have happened at Stalingrad if the Germans had had a Balrog. Our time would be no more wasted. This obsession over the Rapture is silly but hardly surprising from a group that has weaponized the Prince of Peace, demonized the poor he embraced, and extolled the rich he condemned.
Yet it consumes the imaginations of millions of Americans who duly make cranks like Tim LaHaye (author of the Left Behind series) rich. And their fantasies affect the rest of us because these misguided fools want to redirect our lives and activities to fall into accord with a fantasy theology that would startle Jesus every bit as much as Paul or any of the early Church fathers.
And yes, these people want to run this country.
I think the one bright spot in all this, and the one thing atheists and the Religious Right have in common, is that they can both fantasize about a post-Rapture America ruled by atheists.
Notes:
[1] Paul Keresztes The Imperial Roman Government and the Christian Church. I. From Nero to the Severi (Berlin, 1980), 272. We find Sulpicius Severus repeating this tale about John in his Chronica, ch. 31: “Then, after an interval, Domitian, the son of Vespasian, persecuted the Christians. At this date, he banished John the Apostle and Evangelist to the island of Patmos. There he, secret mysteries having been revealed to him, wrote and published his book of the holy Revelation, which indeed is either foolishly or impiously not accepted by many.” The tradition is earlier repeated by Eusebius (EH 3.18) and before him by Irenaeus, whom he cites in this regard (Against Heresies, 5.30.3).
[2] W.H.C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford: Blackwell, 1965), 156-157.
[3] T.D. Barnes, Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 150.
[4] J.E.A. Crake, “Early Christians and Roman Law” Phoenix, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring, 1965), 64.
[5] Frend, 158, 161.
[6] H. Waters, “The Character of Domitian,” Phoenix 18 (1964), 74-75.
If you’re |
in silence for a while. Mum was chewing on her lip, as she sometimes did when wondering whether to say something or not.
"I thought she had shut us out," Petunia spoke at last. "It was like she was... drawing away. We were close as children, but that just stopped when she came here. I know it was partly my fault, I was jealous, but she never tried to get close to me either, anymore. When she got home for the holidays, she just hung out with that greasy boy who lived down the village. Or she went and stayed with friends for weeks. We rarely saw her. How could I even have known that she still loved me?"
"That's... it's normal. I'm sorry, mum, it shouldn't be like that, but it's the standard thing that happens to people here. It's painful to be too close to your Muggle relatives. Because they can't be in your world, you will always have to keep secrets from them. And then they die when they are what a wizard would consider to be middle-aged, and it's easier to just not think about that. It's like the way people with a chronic or lethal illness suddenly find themselves with far fewer friends than they used to have, so many people just can't deal with it, and that's bad and inexcusable, but it's just what most people do. You know I'll never act like that, mum. But you also know I'm a bit... different from most people. I always think about bad things that might happen, so I can avoid them. And I guess Lily just wasn't like that. But she did love you."
There was a short silence. Then: "You think we have a chronic illness?"
Harry wondered briefly whether she had really picked up anything else he had said. He could talk to his father about this sort of thing, but mother didn't know all the psychology involved.
He shrugged helplessly. "Not really, but I suppose you can compare it to that. In fact, the effect is probably stronger. Everything in the wizarding world is sort of implicitly pushing us to stay away from Muggles. If a witch or wizard marries a Muggle, one of them is going to be an outcast in the community they live in – it's usually a really bad marriage, apparently – so you don't want to risk falling in love with one. If someone you care about is hit by a car on a busy junction and dying in front of your eyes, you aren't even allowed to do the trivial spells that will save them if it risks breaking the International Statue of Secrecy, because you'll be sent to Azkaban for that. So you see... it's easier to draw away..." He trailed off.
Petunia was looking at him ponderously. "You're very scared of Azkaban."
"I'm not really," Harry shrugged. "But I'm angry that it exists at all. It's horrible and that place should be destroyed like the remnant of the Middle Ages that it is, but I don't have the power, not yet, I can't go there and destroy it without killing myself..." His voice caught.
"Why are you even thinking about that?" Mother grabbed him by the shoulder and gently turned him towards herself. "You are eleven years old. If your government is committing atrocities, that's not your fault, Harry!"
"Of course it's my fault. There is no one else here who could be responsible for anything."
"Harry!"
"No, mum," he smiled sadly. "The government is broken and corrupt. The courts are insane. The whole system is completely medieval, they've just ignored everything that happened since the Dark Ages. Even the people who are supposed to be the good guys aren't rational, and there's not enough of them to even start the debate about things like not torturing prisoners to death. And the people here look up to me as a leader, and I have certain powers that would make it possible... I'm not convincing you, am I?"
"You are a child. It's not your responsibility to take care of adults, it's their responsibility to take care of you."
"Who says it's just about adults?" Harry muttered darkly.
Petunia's face paled. "Are there children in Azkaban?"
"Forget it. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."
"That's what's wrong, isn't it. That's what has you so traumatized that your Professor insisted that we came immediately. That's why you keep bringing it up. Someone you know is there. Or you have been there..."
"Mum, really, it's okay. I want Azkaban torn down regardless of who's in it."
"You promised that you wouldn't act like this, Harry. That you wouldn't shy away from us because we are Muggles. Are you going to tell me the truth?"
Ouch.
"Fine," Harry sighed. "Yes, you guessed right, if for the wrong reasons. Hermione's in Azkaban."
"Hermione?" Her eyes widened with horror, and her hands flew to her mouth. "That sweet girl we visited over Christmas?"
"I told you, the courts are insane and medieval. She's innocent of course. Someone tried to kill Draco, a friend of mine who's noble, like a duke's son or something, and they framed Hermione for it. And then the Wizengamot, that's like the highest magical court in Britain, voted to send her to Azkaban for ten years. Don't look that horrified, mum, she's not suffering like the others there, she's... kept apart from the other prisoners, because she's so young, so it's just that she's locked up in a cell." If anyone read mother's mind, or she talked about it, Harry could always claim that he had only been trying to reassure his mother.
"She's not in that... depressed state?"
"No. I don't think so."
"But she's in jail. For ten years. And not a youth prison with classes and psychological help."
"No."
"What did her parents say?"
"I'm not sure they know, actually... They weren't invited to the trial, and I haven't asked Professor McGonagall what she told them."
Petunia looked baffled for a moment. "That's just unacceptable! Isn't there any way to appeal?"
"Not unless we can prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that she's innocent. They don't really do innocent until proven guilty here. Or unless I can convince Draco's father, at least, who doesn't seem like he wants to be convinced very much. That, or I have to persuade Dumbledore to let me pay the five million pounds worth of magical money to buy her free, but that would mean going into debt, and he isn't going to let me." He kicked at some clumps of grass.
"Five million pounds?" she repeated.
"Yeah. That's what Draco's father demanded to let her go. A hundred thousand galleons, and that's more than twice as much as what James Potter left me."
"But Harry... if you were in a jail like that, and your father and I could get you out for five million pounds, we'd do that. We wouldn't hesitate a second to take out a mortgage and spend the rest of our lives paying it off. And Dr. and Dr. Granger are far richer than we are, I think their house alone might be worth about a million pounds."
Harry halted in his tracks.
I didn't think of that.
Why didn't I think of that?
It wouldn't be a great solution. There would still be an enormous debt, and Hermione's parents would probably demand that she return home if they paid that much for her. Plus, Hermione was innocent, no one should have to pay for her. But still...
Why did I consider killing two thirds of the Wizengamot to save Hermione from the Dementors, and not something as simple as asking her parents for the money?
"Nice thing to ask them," he muttered. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Granger, do you have five million pounds to spare to save your daughter from this crazy jail she got put in for a murder she didn't commit?"
"They would want to be asked! Harry, this is what parents are for!" She looked stressed. "You said you wouldn't, Harry. You wouldn't stop thinking of us just because we're Muggles and have this... this chronic disease if you want to call it that. But even if you still love us, you're not thinking of Muggles as people who can help you. You didn't, and apparently Hermione didn't, and your teachers didn't..." She stopped herself, then sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, it's not your responsibility to save Hermione, so you shouldn't have to think about that. But your Professor McGonagall really, really should have. Can you tell me where her office is, so I can talk to her?"
"I will talk to her." He didn't say that he was going ask McGonagall to arrange the deal, but he'd better discuss it at least before mum took the initiative.
"Harry..."
"No, please. She'll take me more seriously. And I know a bit more of the politics involved."
Petunia sighed. "Fine. But I am telling your father."
Harry nodded. It was probably best to ease them into this part before he'd have to tell his parents about Voldemort.
"She's not in."
Harry turned his head. He had just knocked on Professor McGonagall's door. A ghost was floating towards him. Harry recognized it as Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor House ghost.
"When will she be back?"
The ghost looked concerned.
"I don't know. Later today, probably. Hopefully. There was an emergency. She told me to excuse her, if anyone came looking for her or the Headmaster."
Harry's heart sank. "What kind of emergency?"
"There has been a large magical attack on Muggles in Easingwold. Two Muggleborn Gryffindors live there." He bobbed up and down nervously, his head wobbling on his shoulders. "They were home for the holidays. She's gone to see whether they or their families need help. The Headmaster has also gone there, to help clear up the mess."
Quirrell.
What on earth was he up to?
"How large are the casualties?" His mouth was dry. He had thought of saving his parents, but the entire rest of the world was quite unprotected from whatever the Defense Professor was planning.
"Hundreds of deaths, when she got the news." Nick answered. "Over a thousand wounded."
Crap.
Harry walked away, not bothering to even look where he was going.
It is a sad truth that the human mind just doesn't know how to deal with scope. If the average person sees a video of a single person dying, they might be shocked. A hundred, or even a thousand deaths, is just a number. So Harry's mind wasn't reeling in absolute shock at the revelation of a magical attack on a village full of innocent Muggles. Instead, it retained all its normal functionality, and employed this on maximum efficiency for blaming Harry.
Quirrell – Lord Voldemort – had left the school, saying he would "update his plans".
One day later, hundreds of people had died in a magical attack. Harry didn't know how, or why, but it probably wouldn't have happened if Quirrell had still been in Hogwarts.
Hundreds of human lives. Each and every single one of them as valuable as Hermione, as Mum and Dad.
Could I have stopped this?
If only he had engineered a potions accident yesterday, before having to face Quirrell.
If only he'd been smarter, and not given away his suspicions.
If only he had done the sensible thing and left after arranging a delay to think about things. Dumbledore had his own Time-Turner, he could have contacted Moody and done their checks earlier.
If only he'd attacked Quirrell when the man left, when he'd basically admitted that he was plotting a dark plan. The idea had not occurred to him at the time, but if he'd drawn his wand and cast a spell on Quirrell, their magic would have resonated out of control again, and that would have stopped him. It might theoretically have killed them both, but Quirrell could have stopped that by turning into an Animagus, and he wasn't likely to risk both their lives.
If only.
We have decisively failed to prevent any deaths during our quest, the voice of Slytherin was saying icily. Will you stop trying to live by the code of Batman now?
Killing Quirrell was never a real choice, Gryffindor pointed out. No one died because we tried to live the ideals of the enlightenment.
Yet, Slytherin bit back. But that's only a matter of time.
We don't even know whether this was Quirrell, Hufflepuff pointed out. It could be unrelated... The voice trailed off as the other parts of Harry glared it into silence.
This sort of thing was normal, ten years ago, Slytherin continued, as though there hadn't been an interruption. It is, apparently, what Voldemort does, for whatever reason he might have. If we get a chance to kill him, and subduing him would have a higher chance of failure, are you going to hesitate?
Harry didn't know what Easingwold looked like, or what had happened, but it was easy enough to let his imagination fill in the details. A large crater with purple smoke billowing up from it. Corpses, scattered around. Collapsed houses. Children screaming. Limbs torn off.
Nothing is worth that war beginning again even one day earlier than it must, Dumbledore had said, when Harry had yelled at him for his approach to the bullying problem in Hogwarts. Dumbledore knew, first-hand, what it meant to lead a war. He had killed people in the last war, probably innocents as well as Death Eaters, and he had let Professor Snape torment students and turned a blind eye to bullying. All to prevent this sort of thing.
We can do better than that, Gryffindor whispered in his ear. Dumbledore did what he felt he had to, but we will find a better way.
How? Slytherin bit.
To that question, however, the Boy-Who-Lived had no answer.
"It was an army of Inferi."
Most children were gone for the Easter holidays, and so the dinner tables hadn't been abound with rumors for once. Thus, after dinner, Harry had sat himself down by Professor McGonagall's office invisibly, and waited for her to return. It was almost midnight when she did, but she let him in without argument.
"Voldemort – it must have been him – has made every single corpse in the local graveyard rise up, and attack anyone they encountered. Worse, he put a spell on them so those people the Inferi killed also became Inferi."
"They must have thought it was the zombie Apocalypse," Harry muttered. "Couldn't they hide?"
"Oh, they did. Unfortunately, Inferi are stronger than the humans they once were. They ripped doors off their hinges, smashed through barricades. Those few Muggles with weapons tried shooting at them, or chopping their limbs off, but the only thing that helps against Inferi is fire, and there were only two people in the town who knew that."
"The Gryffindor students?"
Professor McGonagall nodded. "Gabrielle and Rosaline Collins. Fifth- and third-year of Gryffindor. Fortunately Quirrell – Voldemort," she looked pained at this, "had taught them how to handle Inferi. Gabrielle went outside and cast Incendio, visible for all Muggles to see, and yelled at them to use fire. Nobody protested the appearance of a witch in their midst, this time. But then of course all the Inferi turned on her, and she hadn't learned to Apparate yet..." Professor McGonagall looked hard. "Some of the villagers helped with torches, and her parents dragged her inside a circle of fire they managed to draw up, contained by Rosaline, but her wand had broken and she was heavily wounded. She's in St. Mungo's now. The healers say she'll probably live, but they aren't sure whether they'll be able to regrow her legs."
Harry swallowed. "How did you find out?" he whispered.
"Rosaline has a half-blood friend, Lana Wistington. She called her by telephone. Lana used the Floo network to contact her mother, who works at the Ministry. Mrs. Wistington was in a meeting, but Lana yelled as long as she had to until someone came, and told them. That was Arthur Weasley, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, so after warning Amelia Bones, he notified Albus at once. It didn't take long for qualified wizards to arrive on the scene after that." She sighed deeply. "The most heavily wounded Muggles are treated in St. Mungo's; for the others we brought healers to the local hospital. We hope that we got all the Inferi, and there aren't any left shambling through the nearby woods."
Harry winced at the idea. It would only take one to cause another outbreak. "How are they going to keep this one a secret?"
"When I left, a quarantine had been called. They're still working on the exact stories, and no one has been Obliviated yet, but to the outside world the story for now is that there is a highly infectious virus, so absolutely everyone has to be kept out, or in. A lot of the houses have been destroyed in the fires Muggles made after Gabrielle's warning, so they're probably going to use a massive fire in the story, torch the graveyard, and also burn all the other corpses with... unusual wounds. The Muggle prime minister has been notified. But it's going to be extremely hard to cover this one up properly, Albus is saying there'll be conspiracy theories for decades even with full government co-operation."
Harry nodded. Even if you could stop the Muggle government from interfering, there was no way the rest of the population wasn't going to be worried about the sudden appearance of a new virus that required the quarantining of a whole town. Medical researchers would be all over the place once the quarantine got lifted, and preferably before.
"Anyway," she resumed. "It looks like he is striking at Muggles. For what reason, I don't know. Even if he knew of the Collins sisters, it seems unlikely that this would have something to do with them. Whatever he might be up to next, I guess that it is a good thing that we brought your parents here, where they are safe."
Harry nodded. Not that one set of parents should matter compared to the hundreds who died today. But to him, they did.
"Speaking of parents... Professor, my mother is probably going to want to talk to you when she next sees you. I told her about Hermione, and she pointed out that Hermione's parents would probably pay a hundred thousand Galleons for her."
Her eyes widened. "Are they that rich?"
Harry shrugged. "The Muggle economy works a little differently from the magical one. They'd probably have to take out a loan, but five million pounds is all in all not that much."
"I am not sure the goblins would readily convert so much money at once," she said, frowning. But she appeared to really consider the matter. "And Lord Malfoy will not be available for non-urgent matters this week. Also, I fear that if we ask her parents to pay that much for her, they will want to take her home."
"And home is not safe for her," Harry added.
"Exactly. Strange thought it feels to say this, she might be safer in Azkaban than with her parents, if Voldemort is striking again."
"I'm not sure Azkaban is safe," Harry said quietly. "It is not that hard to break in, if you can bribe or threaten someone who can cast the Patronus charm. All he needs to do is go there, and cast Avada Kedavra. Or better yet, if he suspects, drop a line to Lucius Malfoy that she got help."
Professor McGonagall blanched. "Surely he wouldn't..."
"Wouldn't he? Unless I am very mistaken, he is the one who struck at her in the first place. She might not be important enough for him to make the effort, but we don't know what he wants."
"Well. I shall definitely discuss with Albus. He will need to inform the ministry about Voldemort soon enough, and your testimony about Quirrell might be enough additional evidence to get her case reconsidered. But yes. If all else fails, I will make it clear to Albus that we are going to buy her out."
-o-o-o-o-o-
Author's Note: Sometimes I write text that I end up not using. Copied below is the original end of the conversation between Draco and Daphne, which was removed because (1) it wasn't actually advancing the storyline, and (2) a longer discussion on this subject already occurred in chapter 85. It adds yet another theory for what could have happened to Draco (seriously, the Aurors missed a lot of possibilities). I actually briefly entertained the idea of an alternative spin-off where Harry suggests a public duel between Draco and Hermione to test experimentally whether the confessions are true in this regard – however, I cannot really see Harry taking that risk, as that would set up a "Draco won the duel = Hermione is guilty" scenario in everyone's minds.
"Quite," he said dryly. "You've accused approximately the entire political spectrum of Britain. Was that all?"
"Well..." She bit her lip. "There is one more person who might have been involved, but..." She trailed off.
"Who?" He pressed.
"Your father."
"What?"
"I knew you wouldn't want to believe this, and it is also just a possibility. But your father, like my parents, watched Saturday's battle. You humiliated him."
Draco felt his cheeks burn. "I am well aware of that. But there was a good reason, I was tired, and I took immediate steps to set the situation right."
"Did your father know that?"
Draco didn't answer.
"The point is, you humiliated your House and his politics in that battle, and that's right after you allied yourself with Granger and the rumors that you're also helping her against Flint and the others... if he decided that this was inappropriate behavior for the Malfoy heir, he could have asked Professor Snape to interfere. Snape is a teacher, and he's powerful, he could have pulled that off just one night after the battle."
"No." Draco's voice was icily cold. "You do not know my father, and you do not know me, Miss Greengrass. My father would never do such a thing. If you have nothing further to say, I would ask you to please leave my room."
"There is another possibility. Would Snape act in your father's interest without your father's permission?"
"What do you mean?"
"Perhaps you didn't win your duel with Granger after all. She is powerful. I know, because I have fought by her side many times. If Snape was watching your duel, he might have interfered to make you both remember a different outcome. And you told the Wizengamot that you were then going to defeat her publicly the next day, right? Snape wouldn't want you to try that, if he'd seen you lose the first time. So he had to stop that battle from happening. Perhaps he was planning to save you right before you died, but Quirrell beat him to it."
"There's no way he would do that without telling father about it!" Then, thinking quickly, he added: "And I resent the implication that I lost from Granger in a fair duel. Or that my father would play along with a scheme like that."
"You conceded the possibility, when you challenged Granger to a midnight duel rather than a public one," she bit viciously. "And if he told your father, are you sure your father would tell you? You're too young to be an Occlumens."
Father had removed some memory from him, as it could be used to blackmail the family...
"All right," he said. "I will need to think about all this. Thank you, Miss Greengrass, for your advice." She stood up gracefully from the chair, and left the room.Is Ignorance Truly Blissful?
Do a quick search of “Ignorance of Geography” on Google and you’ll be served thousands of articles discussing how illiterate Americans are when it comes to Geography. We’ve all read these articles — 63% of young Americans can’t identify Iraq on a world map — so I won’t bore you with more numbers. Although as a Geographer I personally have a hard time ignoring the almost steady stream of ignorant statements on the news or on social media that appear whenever an event happens outside of the United States.
Take for example the Boston bombing in April 2013. Soon after the public learned that the Tsarnaev brothers hailed from Chechnya, many took to the twitter-verse to make sure their voices were heard.
Whether or not the retweets and favorites were meant to be ironic or not is up for debate. What can’t be debated is the long list of people who tweeted very similar opinions regarding the erroneous origin of the brothers. Ignoring the fact that they got the country wrong perhaps they should also know that Czechoslovakia dissolved in 1993.
Media dictating Content
Perhaps this is the case because Americans are shielded from much of the world’s news. Turn on CNN (Aka Malaysian Airline, Ferguson, and Trayvon Martin central) and you’re lucky to see anything broadcast that occurred outside of North America. Apparently Time Magazine also feels we don’t need to know what’s happening. Back in December 2011 Time produced two separate covers based on the geographic distribution of their magazine.
While the rest of world was getting an education on the Arab Spring, U.S. audiences were being told that Anxiety is actually good for you. I get it though. We are a capitalistic society. Money drives content. If CNN decided to make just 25% of their content global, they would lose a good majority of their audience.
Mark Twain once said that “God created war so that Americans would learn geography“. This appears to be somewhat accurate. Although the recent conflicts in Ukraine leave me to ponder. In a recent Washington Post poll, 2,000 people were asked to find Ukraine on a map. They found that only one out of six Americans can find Ukraine on a map, and that this lack of knowledge is related to preferences: The farther their guesses were from Ukraine’s actual location, the more they wanted the U.S. to intervene with military force.
Looking at the map, most thought that Ukraine was located somewhere in Europe or Asia, but the median respondent was about 1,800 miles off. Some even thought Ukraine was in their own country?!?
So how are we doing in 2014? Not much better. The other day I found out there’s a few places in the U.S. that are so lacking in geography knowledge, its costing people their jobs. A school in New Jersey had notified parents that two students from an east African nation had enrolled. They were supposed to begin classes the next week; however, after backlash from parents, those kids are now being kept out of school. The school nurse sent a letter to staff members saying that the students moved from the east African nation of Rwanda and are starting class next week. Even though it’s far away from the Ebola outbreak, the school was going to take precautions, by taking the African students temperature three times a day for the next 21 days.
Oh man I’ve many more like these. I think you get the point.
How to Lie with Maps
Africa is also dealing with HIV/AIDS. However having a trusted organization like the World Health Organization (WHO) offer a map that shows most of Africa aggregated together struggling with the high prevalence rate doesn’t help convey the data correctly. South Africa suffers from a much higher prevalence than does some of the equatorial African countries. This map does a very poor job in conveying this information correctly.
Africa is apparently a Country
Let’s close out by staying in Africa. With the ongoing fight against Ebola, other parts of the second largest continent are also feeling the effects of the disease. A recent survey conducted by Safaribookings.com of 500 tour operators found that they are experiencing a 20% to 70% drop in forward bookings because of fear of Ebola. Last time I checked there are travel warnings for countries experiencing an Ebola outbreak; not those on the other side of the continent. In fact, Sierra Leone’s capital of Freeport, one of the cities hardest hit by the disease, is closer to Paris than it is to Johannesburg, South Africa. Although, should distance really be a considered factor?
Take a look at the above map produced by Safaribookings.com. They are presenting distance as their argument to not cancel your safari this year. Although the first rule of geography is indeed in play in areas around the outbreak, it does not hold water when modern transportation infrastructure is factored in. The map tries to argue that because the safari countries are farther way (even more than Europe), that it’s safe to keep your reservations. However all they need to mention is that destinations farther away (New York/Dallas) are easier to travel to and therefore are essentially more susceptible to the disease. The first rule of geography states that nearer things are more related than distant things; however, if distant things take less time and effort to travel to, then this rule should be ignored.
We continue to look at Africa as one country. This not only hurting business but may ironically affect the lives of the very animals that the safari companies are exhibiting. Safari operators are not wealthy people. They rely on the income that their business generates. If they are not getting paid they are not eating. If they are not eating they will resort to poaching.
I created this infographic to help people understand two things: Africa is huge and events in Western Africa should not impact the economy in the south of the country. Even though the U.S. is much further away, modern transportation options are making it easier for the disease to spread. Epidemiology studies investigate their causes (Fruit bats/Bush Meat) and spread (geography). However the spread of Ebola, this globalization should be a measured factor when calculating the spread of diseases.
EbolaSafariWestAfrica
Perhaps a solution is for the educational system in the U.S. to reevaluate their funding?At Fourth Avenue looking toward Astor Place, Arthur Leipzig took this black and white shot of the street and trolley tracks slick with rain from what looks like a cold, dreary downpour.
The image captures the strange beauty of the city under dark, rainy skies, as well as a provocative moment during an ordinary New York day: pedestrians going on their way, the glow of a single traffic light, parked cars that have accumulated snow.
Leipzig, a wonderful photographer of New York’s moods and moments, passed away last Friday.
The New York Times wrote that “his goal was to capture people — their personalities, problems and potential — at a particular moment in the rush of time; making artfully lighted and carefully rendered portraits was not for him.”
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Tags: Arthur Leipzig, New York in the 1940s, New York Photo League, New York streetcar tracks, Rain 1945 photo, rainy New York photosOnly people as blinkered as Obama, Power, and Kerry could think otherwise, unless they, too, so despise Jews and Israel that they willingly accept the fiction that the UN is an impartial body trying to bring peace to the area. This week, with the connivance of the usual bastard nations and with the surprising addition of New Zealand (whose main export, wine, should be boycotted in disgust) rammed through a resolution to ban settlements outside the 1967 borders of Israel. They did this despite unprecedented efforts by president-elect Trump to keep the resolution from being considered. At his behest, Egypt postponed the effort to consider the resolution, only to have the administration succeed in conniving with New Zealand and the Palestinians to get it back on the agenda.
In the Jewish calendar it’s the year 5777. That’s how long we date our history. The United Nations has lasted a mere seventy-one years (arithmetic corrected) Founded to promote world peace, it has devolved into a corrupt, anti-democratic, anti-Semitic den of thieves, where a “cartel of Bronze Age backward” nations regularly gets resolutions passed to attack the only democratic, modern state in the Middle East while ignoring genocide, despotism, slavery, and ethnic and religious persecutions that take place in their own lands.
Now, it’s time for the feckless Jewish Democrats to wake up though it seems they have been terminally hoodwinked -- seduced by social justice warriors into supporting actions that only promote war. Will the scales fall from their eyes? Will it take the selection of anti-Semite Keith Ellison as head of the DNC to do the trick? It will be yet another miracle as great as defeating the Seleucids and the election of Trump if they do -- for it is clear that their allegiance is not to the truth or their religion or the best interests of their country and the world. It is to the left and its search for ever more power, including the power to blind us to the obvious with falsehoods.
Those who voted for him a second time either didn’t pay attention or like the anti-Israeli J Street adherents didn’t care.
Obama intended to and, in fact, did go on to make a stupid but dramatic call that Israel return to the indefensible 1967 borders.[snip] Because the president's comment lends support to the anticipated effort to get the U.N. Security Council to mandate an Israeli return to the 1967 borders, the Obama plan is more than silly and faithless -- it would mean Israel's destruction. And any suggestion that some international peacekeepers could protect Israel after a massive shift of its population to forty-year-old boundaries is beneath consideration.
The preamble to this week's Obama epic foreign policy blunder was the president's comment on May 10 in Austin that there was a "Teutonic shift" taking place in the Middle East. To me, the grandiose albeit risibly erroneous description signaled that Obama's narcissistic needs needed stoking with some bold new initiative which no one but such a genius as he is could imagine. The following day, someone in the White House brain trust corrected the transcript to read "tectonic shift," but the writing on the wall was clear, even though White House spokesman Jay Carney denied it.
For those Jews who voted for Obama twice, this action should not come as a surprise, though I suppose they weren’t paying attention. As far back as 2011, I noted what was happening.
Given that the decision to abstain came on the day before Chanukah, which celebrates both the defeat of the Syrian-Greeks who tried to abolish the Jews’ freedom of religion and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago, the move was particularly offensive.
David Goldman reflects: “Obama just destroyed the Democratic Party, which has splintered into a far-left hulk attended by people who would rather be somewhere else. By the time the next Democratic president is elected, Barron Trump will have turned that eyesore at 42nd St. and the East River into a hotel.”
It would be a hoped for miracle if the UN is forced to move or shutter its operations.
It remains to be seen how many Democrats, if any, will go along with this. To be sure, senators Blumenthal and Schumer, doubtless more attuned to their re-election chances than anything else, had urged lame duck Obama to veto this, but will they walk the walk when it comes to taking action against the UN and those who supported the resolution?
"Any nation which backs this resolution and receives assistance from the United States will put that assistance in jeopardy," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Friday in anticipation of the vote.
Senate Republicans threatened to "suspend or significantly reduce" funding for the United Nations and any American allies who support a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction in disputed Palestinian territory.
President-elect Trump has promised a new approach to the UN after January 20 and Republicans are threatening UN funding cuts as a result of this resolution:
To indulge the Palestinians on the matter of ethnic cleansing of Jews from Judea and Samaria is unprecedented in international peace negotiations, and utterly and despicably hypocritical on the part of the majority of Security Council members.
Just as important is the Jewish presence in what would have been a Palestinian state, if the Palestinians had wanted to have a state in 1999 or 2008. That ship probably has sailed; chaos in the region around them makes it impossible de facto to create a Palestinian state today. If the Palestinians wanted peace, then they would tolerate a Jewish population in their putative state, just as Israel embraces a 20% Arab minority. The fact that the Palestinians demand a state entirely Judenrein ("clean" of Jews) betrays hostile intent.
Wars end when one side knows that it has lost and is willing to make peace. The Arab side refuses to accept that it was defeated in four wars and various insurgencies. Arafat walked away from Ehud Barak's peace offer in 1999 without a response and Abbas refused to even consider Olmert's similar offer in 2008. Like the Duke brothers in "Trading Places," the Palestinian Arabs think they can re-trade the Israeli War of Independence, go back in time, erase the historical record, and reclaim victory. If you lose and refuse to make peace, you pay a penalty, and the normal penalty is loss of territory. For opportunistic reasons (placating Muslim trading partners and restive Muslim populations) most countries indulge the Muslim fantasy that defeat is inconceivable and therefore reversible. That simply leads to more futile violence.
Indeed, for years the U.S. position has been that only direct talks between the two parties will resolve their differences. Refusing to veto this resolution and choosing to abstain after working hard to have it back on track before Obama’s term ends defies both long-term policy and common sense.
The resolution undermines what sentient people must acknowledge is the only path to resolution—direct negotiations between the two interested parties.
Moreover, the resolution is conspicuously silent on Israeli concerns. There’s no demand, for example, that the Palestinians acknowledge Israel’s very right to exist.
It implicitly prejudges the disposition of East Jerusalem — one of most contentious issues dividing the parties — by characterizing Israeli construction as settlement activity, a stance Israelis reject. The resolution would demand an absolute halt to construction in East Jerusalem, even in the Jewish |
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