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production ended in the late 1980s. Hanford cleanup began in 1989, when a landmark agreement was reached between DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Washington State. Known as the Tri-Party Agreement, the accord established hundreds of milestones for bringing the Hanford site into compliance with federal and state environmental regulations.
After more than two decades of cleanup, considerable progress has been made at Hanford, reducing the risk the site poses to the health and safety of workers, the public, and the environment.
SITE OVERVIEW For more than forty years, reactors located at Hanford produced plutonium for America’s defense program. The process of making plutonium is extremely “inefficient” in that a massive amount of liquid and solid waste is generated while only a small amount of plutonium is produced. Additionally, all of the facilities and structures that were associated with Hanford’s defense mission must also be deactivated, decommissioned, decontaminated, and demolished. That environmental cleanup project is the work that approximately 11,000 Hanford employees are involved with today.
Crews responsible for Site cleanup are dealing with several different kinds of waste in a number of different forms, with many of the wastes being potentially harmful to people and the environment. Precautions have been taken so that the waste does not contaminate the air, the ground, the water table underneath the ground, the Columbia River, the people who are doing the cleanup work, or the people and environment near the Hanford Site.
Solid waste can be everything from broken reactor equipment and tools to contaminated clothing that a worker wore during the plutonium production activities. The solid wastes were buried in the ground in pits or trenches. Some of the waste was placed in steel drums or wooden boxes before being buried while some of the other waste was placed in the ground without a container to hold it. Depending on when the waste was buried, records about what was buried and where it was buried can be either very good, or in some cases, very bad.
Besides the millions of tons of solid waste, hundreds of billions of gallons of liquid waste was also generated during the plutonium production days. These liquid wastes were disposed of by pouring them onto the ground or into trenches or holding ponds. Unintentional spills of liquids also took place. Liquid wastes generated during the process of extracting plutonium from the uranium “fuel rods” were put into underground storage tanks. Just like with the solid wastes, while some records accurately describe the kinds of liquid wastes that were generated and where they went, some of the spills and the volume of the spills went undocumented.
Reactor buildings, support facilities, and auxiliary structures needed during the plutonium production days must also be cleaned up. For many of these buildings, the work requires crews to come in with bulldozers and other heavy equipment to bring them down. As some of these structures are either contaminated or were built using materials like asbestos, crews must take precautions to avoid being contaminated themselves or to avoid releasing contamination into the ground, the air, or the groundwater.
During cleanup operations, where the waste will end up after it is removed from the ground is based upon the kind of waste it is. A majority of the solid wastes, contaminated soil, and building debris will be taken to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility located on the Hanford Site. This facility, known as ERDF, is regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and is basically a huge landfill. ERDF accepts waste in disposal areas called “cells”. Cells are built two at a time, with each pair of cells measuring 70-feet deep, and 500-feet by 1000-feet at the base. 2.8 million tons of waste can be disposed of in each pair of cells at ERDF, and once each pair of cells is filled up the waste is covered with clean dirt and a soil fixative to ensure that the waste will safely and permanently remain in the landfill.
Some of the more hazardous chemical or radioactive solid wastes are not taken to ERDF. For example, the fuel rods that came out of the reactors but never had their plutonium extracted are stored in a facility called the Canister Storage Building at Hanford. Ultimately, these fuel rods will be sent for permanent burial at a national repository designed to accept these kinds of materials.
TRANSURANIC WASTE
Solid transuranic waste is the debris that is contaminated with plutonium or other materials that may remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. This waste, referred to as TRU waste, is securely packaged and is shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico where it will be permanently and safely buried.
LIQUID WASTE
Of the liquid wastes generated at Hanford, much of the waste that is currently stored in the underground tanks on the Site will ultimately be transformed into a stable, glass product in a process called vitrification. In order to vitrify the waste, it is mixed with glass forming materials and then introduced to high heat in order for the waste to bond with the glass. A facility is being constructed at Hanford which will perform this vitrification work. Once the vitrification process has taken place, the molten, glass-like material is poured into cylinders where it will cool and become solid. Ultimately, cylinders containing the most hazardous vitrified waste will be taken to a national repository for permanent burial. The cylinders with less hazardous waste are candidates for disposal in an Integrated Disposal Facility, or IDF. The development of an IDF at Hanford is currently being evaluated in the Draft Tank Closure & Waste Management (TC&WM) Environmental Impact Statement. Alternatives in the EIS evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with locating an IDF in the 200-West Area of the Hanford Site, or alternatively in the 200-East Area. No final decision will be made on the IDF (and no wastes will be disposed there) until after the final EIS has been issued and a Record of Decision (ROD) is published. The IDF would be regulated by the State of Washington Department of Ecology and/or US Environmental Protection Agency, based on the types of wastes that would be managed there to ensure that any waste disposed of at the IDF would not pose unacceptable impacts to the environment.
The liquid waste that had been poured onto the ground or held in ponds or trenches has long since evaporated or soaked into the soil on the Site. In doing so, the waste did contaminate some of the soil and is thought to have also created underground “plumes” of contaminants. A “plume” is kind of like an underground river where the contaminants join with the water that exists beneath the surface of the Earth. Many of these plumes move in varying speeds and move toward the Columbia River. Hanford employees are actively involved in projects designed to prevent any more of the contamination from reaching the river. Several different strategies are being used in that effort.
One strategy is simply to block the groundwater contamination from getting to the Columbia. Various kinds of barriers are placed in the ground which allows the clean groundwater to move through, while chemically altering any harmful contamination into a non-toxic form as it passes through. Another strategy is called “pump and treat”. Through this process, contaminated groundwater is pumped out of the ground and treated with chemicals. These chemicals serve to change the chemical makeup of the contaminants which render them harmless to the environment. Once the treatment of the groundwater is complete, the cleansed water is pumped back into the ground. Yet another strategy in dealing with groundwater contamination is called “biostimulation”. This is a new technology where crews pump materials like molasses and vegetable oil into the ground where tiny microorganisms in the soil eat the molasses and vegetable oil. The microorganisms then reproduce, and in doing so, they alter the chemistry of the groundwater and render the contaminants harmless to the environment. The process also prevents the contamination from moving any closer to the river.” http://energy.gov/em/hanford-site
Work done on some of the buried waste: http://web.archive.org/web/20160324114936/http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/TRU
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/0011hanf.pdf
“Federal Funds Authorized To Help Fight Washington State Wildfire
Release date:
June 29, 2000
Release Number:
HQ-00-096
Washington, DC — Federal funds have been made available by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help Washington State battle the uncontrolled Hanford fire located in Benton County.
According to the agency, the state’s request for federal fire suppression aid was approved early this morning immediately after it was reported that the blaze had destroyed 25 homes and was forcing the evacuation of residents in the communities of Horn Rapids, West Richland and areas of Benton City. The fire, which burned across the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, had consumed nearly 50,000 acres of land at the time of the request.
Under the authorization, FEMA will pay 70 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs that are above $1,061,941. The figure, called a floor cost, is derived through a formula based on the state’s five-year annual average cost for fighting fires.
Federal fire suppression aid is provided through the President’s Disaster Relief Fund and made available by FEMA to assist in fighting fires when they threaten to cause a major disaster. Eligible state firefighting costs covered by the aid can include expenses for field camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; tools, materials and supplies; and mobilization and demobilization activities.
Last Updated:
March 29, 2016 – 20:05”
http://www.fema.gov/news-release/2000/06/29/federal-funds-authorized-help-fight-washington-state-wildfire Why would they update this article from 2000 in 2016?
Related Links:
http://hoanw.org/reportspubs/legalmemorandumrefire.html
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/0011hanf.pdf
https://www.fws.gov/pacific/planning/draft/docs/wa/hanford/ale.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/20150120051913/http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/320-025_firerpt_e.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/20150120051919/http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/320-048_hanwautumfire_e.pdfMarion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen ( French: [maʁin lə pɛn]; born 5 August 1968) is a French politician and lawyer serving as President of the National Rally political party (previously named National Front) since 2011, with a brief interruption in 2017. She has been the member of the National Assembly for Pas-de-Calais's 11th constituency since 18 June 2017.
She is the youngest daughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and the aunt of former FN MP Marion Maréchal. Le Pen joined the FN in 1986 and was elected as a Regional Councillor (1998–present), a Member of European Parliament (2004–2017), and a municipal councillor in Hénin-Beaumont (2008–2011). She won the leadership of the FN in 2011, with 67.65% of the vote, defeating Bruno Gollnisch and succeeding her father, who had been president of the party since he founded it in 1972.[1][2][3] In 2012, she placed third in the presidential election with 17.90% of the vote, behind François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.[4][5][6] She launched a second bid to become President of France at the 2017 presidential election. She finished second in the first round of the election, with 21.30% of the vote, and faced Emmanuel Macron of centrist party En Marche! in the second round of voting. On 7 May 2017, she conceded after receiving approximately 33.9% of the vote in the second round.[7]
Described as more republican than her nationalist father, Le Pen has led a movement of "de-demonization of the National Front" to soften its image,[8] based on renovated positions and renewed teams, and expelling controversial members accused of racism, antisemitism, or Pétainism. She expelled her father from the party on 20 August 2015, after he made new controversial statements.[9][10] She has also relaxed some political positions of the party, advocating for civil unions for same-sex couples instead of her party's previous opposition to legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, accepting unconditional abortion and withdrawing the death penalty from her platform.[11][12][13] A vocal opponent of the United States and NATO, she has pledged to remove France from their spheres of influence.[14]
Le Pen was ranked among the most influential people in 2011 and 2015, by the Time 100.[15][16] In 2016, she was ranked by Politico as the second-most influential MEP in the European Parliament, after President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.[17]
Early life and education [ edit ]
Childhood [ edit ]
Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen was born on 5 August 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine,[18] the youngest of three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Breton politician and former paratrooper, and his first wife, Pierrette Lalanne. She was baptized 25 April 1969, at La Madeleine by Father Pohpot. Her godfather was Henri Botey, a relative of her father.
She has two sisters: Yann and Marie Caroline. In 1976, when Marine was eight, a bomb meant for her father exploded in the stairwell outside the family's apartment as they slept.[19] The blast ripped a hole in the outside wall of the building, but Marine, her two older sisters and their parents were unharmed.[20]
She was a student at the Lycée Florent Schmitt in Saint-Cloud. Her mother left the family in 1984, when Marine was 16. Le Pen wrote in her autobiography that the effect was "the most awful, cruel, crushing of pains of the heart: my mother did not love me."[21] Her parents divorced in 1987.[22][23]
Legal studies and work [ edit ]
Le Pen studied law at Panthéon-Assas University, graduating with a Master of Laws in 1991 and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in criminal law in 1992.[24] Registered at the Paris bar association, she worked as a lawyer for six years (1992–1998),[24] appearing regularly before the criminal chamber of the 23rd district court of Paris which judges immediate appearances, and often acting as a public defender. She was a member of the Bar of Paris until 1998, when she joined the legal department of the National Front.
Personal life [ edit ]
Le Pen was raised Roman Catholic.[25] In 1995, she married Franck Chauffroy, a business executive who worked for the National Front. She has three children with Chauffroy (Jehanne, Louis, and Mathilde).[22] After her divorce from Chauffroy in 2000, she married Eric Lorio in 2002, the former national secretary of the National Front and a former adviser to the Regional election in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. They divorced in 2006.
Since 2009, she has been in a relationship with Louis Aliot, who is of ethnic French Pied-Noir and Algerian Jewish heritage.[26] He was the National Front general secretary from 2005 to 2010, then the National Front vice president.[27] She spends most of her time in Saint-Cloud, and has lived in La Celle-Saint-Cloud with her three children since September 2014. She has an apartment in Hénin-Beaumont. In 2010, she bought a house with Aliot in Millas.[28]
Early political career [ edit ]
1986–2010: Rise within the National Front [ edit ]
Marine Le Pen joined the FN in 1986, at the age of 18. She acquired her first political mandate in 1988 when she was elected a Regional Councillor for Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In the same year, she joined the FN's juridical branch, which she led until 2003.
In 2000, she became president of Generations Le Pen, a loose association close to the party which aimed at "de-demonizing the Front National".[22] She became a member the FN Executive Committee (French: bureau politique) in 2000, and vice-president of the FN in 2003.[22] In 2006, she managed the presidential campaign of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She became one of the two executive vice-presidents of the FN in 2007, with responsibility for training, communication and publicity.[24]
2010–11: Leadership campaign [ edit ]
Early in 2010 Le Pen expressed her intention to run for leader of the FN, saying that she hoped to make the party "a big popular party that addresses itself not only to the electorate on the right but to all the French people".[3]
On 3 September 2010, she launched her leadership campaign at Cuers, Var.[29] During a meeting in Paris on 14 November 2010, she said that her goal was "not only to assemble our political family. It consists of shaping the Front National as the center of grouping of the whole French people", adding that in her view the FN leader should be the party's candidate in the 2012 presidential election.[30] She spent four months campaigning for the FN leadership, holding meetings with FN members in 51 departments.[31] All the other departments were visited by one of her official supporters.[32] During her final meeting of the campaign in Hénin-Beaumont on 19 December 2010, she claimed that the FN would present the real debate of the next presidential campaign.[33][34] Her candidacy was endorsed by a majority of senior figures in the party,[32] including Jean-Marie Le Pen, her father.[35][36]
On several occasions during her campaign she ruled out any political alliance with the Union for a Popular Movement.[37][38] She also distanced herself from some of Jean-Marie Le Pen's most controversial statements,[39] such as those relating to war-crimes, which was reported in the media as attempts to improve the party's image. While her father had attracted controversy by saying that the gas chambers were "a detail of the history of World War II", she described them as "the height of barbarism".[40][41]
In December 2010 and early January 2011, FN members voted by post to elect their new president and the members of the central committee. The party held a congress at Tours on 15–16 January.[42] On 16 January 2011, Marine Le Pen was elected as the new president of the FN, with 67.65% of the vote (11,546 votes to 5,522 for Bruno Gollnisch),[24][43] and Jean-Marie Le Pen became honorary chairman.
Controversy [ edit ]
Marine Le Pen received substantial media attention during the campaign as a result of comments, made during a speech to party members in Lyon on 10 December 2010, in which she compared the blocking of public streets and squares in French cities (in particular rue Myrha in the 18th arrondissement of Paris) for Muslim prayers with the Nazi occupation of France. She said:
For those who want to talk a lot about World War II, if it's about occupation, then we could also talk about it (Muslim prayers in the streets), because that is occupation of territory... It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of districts in which religious laws apply... There are of course no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is nevertheless an occupation and it weighs heavily on local residents.[44]
Her comments were widely criticised by media commentators across the political spectrum.[45][46][47] The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF),[48] the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM)[49] and the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA)[50] condemned her statement, and groups including MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples)[51] and the French Human Rights League (LDH)[52] declared their intention to lodge a formal complaint. The imam of the Great Mosque of Paris and former president of the CFCM, Dalil Boubakeur, commented that though her parallel was questionable and to be condemned, she had asked a valid question.[53]
Le Pen's partner Louis Aliot,[26] a member of the FN's Executive Committee, criticized "the attempted manipulation of opinion by communitarian groups and those really responsible for the current situation in France".[54] On 13 December 2010, Le Pen reasserted her statement during a press conference at the FN headquarters in Nanterre.[55][56][57] After Jean-François Kahn's comments on BFM TV on 13 December 2010, she accused the Élysée Palace of organising "state manipulation" with the intention of demonizing her in public opinion.[58][59]
On 15 December 2015, a Lyon court acquitted her of "inciting hatred", ruling that her statement "did not target all of the Muslim community" and was protected "as a part of freedom of expression".[60]
Leadership of the National Front [ edit ]
De-demonization of the FN [ edit ]
Marine Le Pen is often judged to be generally more moderate than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.[citation needed] Commentators have highlighted how her calm image contrasts with the stereotypes generally attributed to her political family.[61] At the beginning of her media rise, she often talked about her particular treatment as the daughter of "Le Pen" and of the 1976 attack (then the biggest bomb explosion in France since World War II).[61][62] It has been seen as a way to humanize her party.[61][63]
Marine Le Pen in the traditional Jeanne d'Arc march, 3 May 2007
For example, Bernard-Henri Lévy, a strong opponent of the FN, talked about "a far-right with a human face".[64] Journalist Michèle Cotta claims that the fact she is a young woman condemning racism and refusing her father's "faults" (notably his enjoyment of shocking other people) contributed to her strategy of de-demonization of the National Front.[65] References to World War II or to the French colonial wars are absent from her speeches, which is often looked on as a generation gap.[66] She distanced herself from her father on the gas chambers he famously called "a detail in the history of World War II", saying that she "didn't share the same vision of these events".[67] L'Express wrote that the expulsion of Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2015 was the completion of her endeavour. The opponents of the FN denounce it as a more-dangerous strategy because of its evident success.[68]
In a 2010 RTL interview, Le Pen stated that her strategy was not about changing the FN's program but about showing it as it really is, instead of the image given to it by the media in the previous decades. The media and her political adversaries are accused of spreading an "unfair, wrong and caricatural" image of the National Front. She refuses the qualification of far-right or extreme-right, considering it a "pejorative" term: "How am I party of the extreme right?... I don't think that our propositions are extreme propositions, whatever the subject".[69] However, the radical far-right (e.g., Minute, Rivarol, Patrick Buisson, Henry de Lesquen) reproached her for abandoning or softening her stances on immigration, gay marriage and abortion. In her speech in Lyon on 10 December 2010, she mentioned the fate of gays living in difficult neighbourhoods, victims of religious laws replacing the republican law.[70][71][72]
In 2014, the American magazine Foreign Policy mentioned her, along with four other French people, in its list of the 100 global thinkers of the year, underlining the way she "renovated the image" of her party, which had become a model for other right-wing parties in Europe after her success in the European elections.[73] At a European level, she stopped the alliance built by her father with some right-wing extremist parties and refused to be part of a group with the radical Jobbik or the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. Her transnational allies share the fact that they have officially condemned antisemitism, accepted a more liberal approach toward social matters, and are sometimes pro-Israel such as the Dutch PVV. French historian Nicolas Lebourg concluded that she is looked upon as a compass for them to follow while maintaining local particularities.[74][75]
While other European populists embraced Donald Trump's candidacy as US President in 2016, she only supported him by saying: "For France, anything is better than Hillary Clinton". However, on 8 November 2016 she posted a tweet congratulating Trump on his presidential victory.[76] Nevertheless, her strategy has difficulties as her image seems to remain controversial: Germany's Angela Merkel has said she "will contribute to make other political forces stronger than the National Front" and Israel still holds a bad opinion of her party.[77][78] Nigel Farage has said: "I've never said a bad word about Marine Le Pen; I've never said a good word about her party".[79]
Her social program and her support of SYRIZA in the 2015 Greek general elections have led Nicolas Sarkozy to declare her a far-left politician sharing some of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's propositions. President François Hollande said she was talking "like a leaflet of the Communist Party". Eric Zemmour, journalist for the conservative newspaper Le Figaro, wrote during the 2012 presidential election that the FN had become a left-wing party under the influence of adviser Florian Philippot. She has also relaxed some political positions of the party, advocating for civil unions for same-sex couples instead of her party's previous opposition to legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, accepting unconditional abortion, and withdrawing the death penalty from her platform.[80][81][11]
First steps as a new leader: 2011 [ edit ]
Supporters of Marine Le Pen in 2011
As a president of the Front National, Marine Le Pen currently sits as an ex officio member among the FN Executive Office (8 members),[82] the Executive Committee (42 members)[83] and the Central Committee (3 ex officio members, 100 elected members, 20 co-opted members).[84]
During her opening speech in Tours on 16 January 2011, she advocated to "restore the political framework of the national community" and to implement the direct democracy which enables the "civic responsibility and the collective tie" thanks to the participation of public-spirited citizens for the decisions. The predominant political theme was the uncompromising defence of a protective and efficient state, which favours secularism, prosperity and liberties. She also denounced the "Europe of Brussels" which "everywhere imposed the destructive principles of ultra-liberalism and free trade, at the expense of public utilities, employment, social equity and even our economic growth which became within twenty years the weakest of the world".[85] After the traditional Joan of Arc march and Labour Day march in Paris on 1 May 2011, she gave her first speech in front of 3,000 supporters.[86][87] On 11 August 2011, she held a press conference about the current systemic crisis.[88]
On 10 and 11 September 2011, she made her political comeback with the title "the voice of people, the spirit of France" in the convention center of Acropolis in Nice.[89] During her closing speech she addressed immigration, insecurity, the economic and social situation, reindustrialization and'strong state'.[90] During a demonstration held in front of the Senate on 8 December 2011, she expressed in a speech her "firm and absolute opposition" to the right of foreigners to vote.[91] She regularly held thematic press conferences[92] and interventions[93] on varied issues in French, European and international politics.
First presidential candidacy: 2011–2012 [ edit ]
Le Pen on 19 November 2011 in Paris announcing her presidential candidacy (top) and singing " La Marseillaise " at the conclusion of her presentation (bottom).
On 16 May 2011, Marine Le Pen's presidential candidacy was unanimously approved by the FN Executive Committee.[94] On 10 and 11 September 2011, she launched her presidential campaign in Nice.[90] On 6 October 2011, she held a press conference to introduce the members of her presidential campaign team.[95]
In a speech in Paris on 19 November 2011, Le Pen presented the main themes of her presidential campaign: sovereignty of the people and democracy, Europe, re-industrialisation and a strong state, family and education, immigration and assimilation versus communitarianism, geopolitics and international politics.[96][97][98] At a press conference on 12 January 2012,[99] she presented a detailed assessment of her presidential project,[100] and a plan to reduce France's debt.[101] At another press conference on 1 February 2012, she outlined her policies for the overseas departments and territories of France.[102] Many observers noted her tendency to focus on economic and social issues such as globalization and delocalisations, rather than immigration or law and order, which had until then been the central issues for the FN. On 11 December 2011, she held her first campaign meeting in Metz,[103][104] and from early January to mid-April 2012, she held similar meetings each week in the major French cities. On 17 April 2012, between 6,000 and 7,000 people took part in her final campaign meeting, held at the Zenith in Paris.[105][106]
On 13 March 2012, she announced that she had collected the 500 signatures required to take part in the presidential election.[107][108] On 19 March 2012, the Constitutional Council approved her candidacy, and those of nine competitors.[4] On 22 April 2012, she polled 17.90% (6,421,426 votes) in the first round, finishing in third position behind François Hollande and incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy.[5][6] She achieved better results, in both percentage vote-share and number of votes, that Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 2002 presidential election (16.86%, 4,804,772 votes in the first round; 17.79%, 5,525,034 votes in the run-off).[109]
Marine Le Pen during her presidential campaign, on 15 April 2012
First round results: candidates with the most votes by departments (mainland France, overseas and French citizens living abroad). Marine Le Pen came first in Gard.
Le Pen polled first in Gard (25.51%, 106,646 votes), with Sarkozy and Hollande polling 24.86% (103,927 votes) and 24.11% (100,778 votes) respectively.[6][110] She also came first in her municipal stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont (35.48%, 4,924 votes), where Hollande and Sarkozy polled 26.82% (3,723 votes) and 15.76% (2,187 votes) respectively.[111] She achieved her highest results east of the line from Le Havre in the north to Perpignan in the south,[112] and conversely she won less votes in western France, especially big cities such as Paris, overseas and among French citizens living abroad (5.95%, 23,995 votes).[113] However, she polled well in two rural departments in western France: Orne (20.00%, 34,757 votes)[114] and Sarthe (19.17%, 62,516 votes).[115]
Her highest regional result was in Picardy (25.03%, 266,041 votes),[116] her highest departmental result in Vaucluse (27.03%, 84,585 votes),[117] and her highest overseas result in Saint Pierre and Miquelon (15.81%, 416 votes).[118]
First round results: candidates with the most votes by municipalities in metropolitan France (dark gray: Marine Le Pen)
She achieved her lowest regional result in Île-de-France (12.28%, 655,926 votes),[119] her lowest departmental result in Paris (6.20%, 61,503 votes),[120] and her lowest overseas result in Wallis and Futuna (2.37%, 152 votes).[121]
A French sociologist, Sylvain Crépon, who analysed the social and occupational groups of the FN voters in 2012, explained: "The FN vote is made up of the victims of globalisation. It is the small shopkeepers who are going under because of the economic crisis and competition from the out-of-town hypermarkets; it is low-paid workers from the private sector; the unemployed. The FN scores well among people living in poverty, who have a real fear about how to make ends meet."[112] Crépon also analysed the increase of the FN vote in "rural" areas and the recent sociological changes in these areas made up of small provincial towns and new housing-estate commuter belts built on the distant outskirts of the cities: "The rural underclass is no longer agricultural. It is people who have fled the big cities and the inner suburbs because they can no longer afford to live there. Many of these people will have had recent experience of living in the banlieues (high immigration suburbs) – and have had contact with the problems of insecurity."[112] Commentators also pointed that there were more young people and women voting for the party in 2012.[112]
On 1 May 2012, during a speech delivered in Paris after the traditional Joan of Arc and Labor Day march, Le Pen refused to back either incumbent president Sarkozy or socialist Hollande in the run-off on 6 May. Addressing the party's annual rally at Place de l'Opéra, she vowed to cast a blank ballot and told her supporters to vote with their conscience, saying: "Hollande and Sarkozy – neither of them will save you. On Sunday I will cast a blank protest vote. I have made my choice. Each of you will make yours." Accusing both candidates of surrendering to Europe and financial markets, she asked: "Who between Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy will impose the austerity plan in the most servile way? Who will submit the best to the instructions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) or the European Commission?".[122]
Electoral progress: 2012–2016 [ edit ]
Following the increase in support for the FN in the presidential election, Le Pen announced the formation an electoral coalition to contest the June 2012 parliamentary elections called the Blue Marine Gathering. Standing as a candidate in the Pas-de-Calais' 11th constituency, Le Pen won 42.36% of the vote, well ahead of the Socialist representative Philippe Kemel (23.50%) and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon (21.48%). She was beaten in the second round with 49.86% and filed an appeal with the Constitutional Council, which was rejected despite noting some irregularities. Nationally, the FN had two lawmakers elected: Le Pen's niece Marion Maréchal and Gilbert Collard.
In 2014, Le Pen led the party to further electoral advances in the municipal and senatorial elections: eleven Mayors and two Senators were elected, with the FN entering the upper chamber for the first time.
France's regional elections in 2015
On 24 May 2014, the FN won the European elections in France, with 24.90% of the vote. Marine Le Pen came in first place in her North-West constituency with 33.60%. 25 FN representatives were elected to the European Parliament from France. They voted against the Juncker Commission when it was formed in July 2014. One year later, Le Pen announced the formation of Europe of Nations and Freedom, a parliamentary grouping composed of the National Front, the Freedom Party of Austria, Lega Nord of Italy, the Dutch Party for Freedom, the Congress of the New Right from Poland, the Flemish Vlaams Belang of Belgium, and British independent MEP Janice Atkinson, formerly of UKIP. Le Pen's first attempt to assemble this grouping in 2014 had failed due to UKIP and the Sweden Democrats refusing to join, as well as some controversial statements from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Le Pen sat on the commission for international trade. In 2016, Politico ranked her as the second most influential MEP after Martin Schulz.
In April 2015, Le Pen's father gave two interviews including controversial statements about World War II and about minorities in France, causing a political crisis in the FN. Marine Le Pen organised a postal vote to ask FN members to change the party's statutes in order to expel her father. J-M Le Pen pursued his movement and the justice cancelled the vote. On 25 August, the FN executive office voted to expel him from the party he had founded forty years earlier. Many observers noted Marine's dependence on her closest adviser, Florian Philippot, a former left-wing technocrat. The party instigated a purge to expel the members who had opposed the changes within the FN under Marine Le Pen's leadership.
Le Pen subsequently announced her candidacy for the presidency of the regional council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie in the 2015 regional elections, though she expressed her regret over the proximity of these elections to the next presidential election. On 6 December, she finished first with 40.6% of the vote, but the Socialist candidate (third with 18.12%) withdrew and declared support for her right-wing opponent Xavier Bertrand, who won with 57.80% of the vote. Her niece Marion also lost, by a smaller margin.
Second presidential candidacy: 2016–2017 [ edit ]
Marine Le Pen's 2017 campaign logo
Marine Le Pen announced her candidacy for the 2017 French presidential election on 8 April 2016, and from the start maintained high support in opinion polling. She appointed FN Senator David Rachline as her campaign manager. The FN had difficulty finding funding because of the refusal of French banks to provide credit. Instead, the NF borrowed €9 million from the First Czech-Russian Bank in Moscow in |
different. The strikingly tall, dark and handsome Morrison looked the part of rock star, while Manzarek, with glasses and comparatively close-cropped blonde hair, retained a more professorial look.
Inwardly, though, they were kindred spirits, as Manzarek discovered when Morrison read him the lyrics for a song called "Moonlight Drive."
"I'd never heard lyrics to a rock song like that before," Manzarek said. "We talked a while before we decided to get a group together and make a million dollars."
The band would make far more than that. The Doors, which also included guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore, has sold more than 100 million albums and their music has been re-released and repackaged multiple times over the years, been featured prominently in movies and holds an oft-debated place in rock history. Manzarek and Krieger reunited to tour as The Doors in recent years.
While Morrison, with his proto-celebrity lifestyle and tragic end, forever will remain the face of The Doors, you could argue Manzarek's keyboard work was every bit as important and helped balance some of the singer's more over-the-top moments.
His creepy organ line on "Light My Fire" adds a weirdo menace to what outwardly is a rock 'n' roll pick-up song. And his after-hours, lounge style on "Riders On the Storm" transforms that song into an epic unlike anything else the band ever did.
Manzarek is survived by his wife, Dorothy, his son Pablo and two brothers, Rick and James. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Also on HuffPostBelow is my column in USA Today on the controversy surrounding CNN’s handling of the creator of the Trump wrestling video. The episode shows the deepening tension between CNN and Trump. CNN has increasingly positioned itself as part of the “resistance” while Trump has used CNN as embodiment of all that is wrong with the media. While Trump has said that CNN has done itself serious damage in the controversy, polls show almost 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance as President. While ratings have been up and more people trust CNN rather than Trump, CNN’s journalistic image has been damaged in the relentless anti-Trump rhetoric from both political and legal contributors. Even under the recent poll, some 43 percent trust Trump more and CNN’s ratings continue to roller coaster. Ironically, CNN needs Trump and Trump needs CNN to continue their respective narratives. However, neither is a promising foundation for either a political or journalistic enterprise. It is a case of mutually assured destruction.
Here is the column:
CNN has reported that it has confirmed the identity of the creator of the controversial video that shows President Trump taking down someone with the CNN logo for a head. Like many, I was highly critical of the president for reposting the video on his Twitter account. That was both irresponsible and unpresidential.
What is curious is that CNN has withheld the creator’s identity while making a thinly veiled threat that it will release his name if he posts anything CNN finds disturbing or offensive. That is an odd role for a news organization. The news media do not usually put citizens on probation for exercising their free speech.
CNN announced that it had identified the Reddit user “HanA**holeSolo” who first shared the video that Trump reposted with the hashtags #FraudNewsCNN and #FNN. CNN said the man also posted images with racist and anti-Semitic imagery. He issued a long apology and removed all of the images.
“I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life. I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction from the subs on Reddit and never meant any of the hateful things I said in those posts,” he wrote. He said he was engaging in what he thought was satire or trolling fun on Reddit.
Like the poster, I am a fan of Reddit, which is known for its open forum and varied viewpoints. It is often caustic and funny. At times, it is offensive and disturbing. However, it is a genuine and largely uninhibited forum for free expression.
No, Trump’s wrestling tweet doesn’t ‘incite violence’
Yes, Donald Trump and other presidents can be charged with obstruction
The Trump video by the Reddit user was a typical satire on contemporary political events. It is not even clear whether it was meant as a celebration or a criticism of Trump. It simply swapped out the face of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Vince McMahon with the CNN gif.
It was the exercise of free speech. It was also news. While posting such a video on Reddit is not surprising or noteworthy, it took on an entirely new character when Trump reposted it. He has waged an intense war against the news media and CNN in particular. That makes the original poster’s identity newsworthy.
CNN, however, stated that it has decided to withhold his name … for now. He is a private citizen, the network said, who apologized, took down the offending posts and said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.
“CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.”
The last statement is particularly jarring. It sounds like CNN is putting a citizen on a type of media probationary status — threatening to reveal his name if it deems any posting as constituting “ugly behavior.” It puts a news organization in the position of monitoring free speech and deciding whether to ruin someone if he crosses some ill-defined line with CNN. It is the antithesis of what a news organization is supposed to be about.
If the man’s name is news, CNN can choose to publish it or not publish it. In reality, he is news only because his videotape was snatched from obscurity and paraded to the world by the president of the United States. It is the Internet equivalent of being hit by lightning. If the man posts an anti-media comment or gif, will CNN then declare it news and post his name? It is not clear how long this probationary period will run, let alone the standard for distinguishing between free speech and ugly speech.
Nor is there a clear rationale behind a media probationary status. Journalists will often withhold the names of sexual assault victims or minors. However, they don’t threaten to reveal those names if they fall to meet the news organizations’ expectations or standards in future conduct. Indeed, even when juries reject sexual assault claims, CNN continues to protect the names.
In this case, CNN is behaving like a media censor. The president arbitrarily selected this man and his gif. Now CNN appears willing to arbitrarily punish him.
It is the threat of future disclosure that is so concerning and dangerous. News is not supposed to be a weapon to be brandished to induce good conduct by organizations like CNN. Free speech and free press go hand in hand. Indeed, many reporters are protected more under the former right than the latter in legal controversies. Once a news organization becomes the manager of free speech, it becomes a menace to the free press.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.Thor
I woke up today with the headline of yet another politically related brutal and senseless killings of innocent civilians in my home country, Philippines, particularly in Maguindanao. " Philippine politician charged for murder " is the most popular news at Yahoo 7 (Australia) News beating the headline on politics regarding Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull over the Emmision Trading Scheme that is jeopardizing his leadership.
A witness claims to have seen Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr ordering killings and personally firing at convoy of journalists and political rivals. "He was the one who gave the instructions. He was among those... who killed the victims," Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera told reporters as she outlined the case against Ampatuan Jnr.
How would you react if you read these accounts? According to Devanadera "Even the private parts of the women were shot at. It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women. All the women had their zippers undone. The pants of some were pulled down... We have yet to determine whether they were raped. But it is certain that something bad was done to them." What a gruesome picture.
Watching Isang Bandila, a 30-minute TV Filipino News program at SBS yesterday afternoon, I saw Ampatuan shouting and putting the blame on one of the Muslim groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who are responsible for kidnap-for-ransom of many foreigners in southern Philippines. The news this morning says that the MILF denied the killings.
These brutal killings are certainly the acts of the devil that continue to feast on the lives of people seeking power, popularity, and political dynasty. The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) as the Bible says. Mind you, politics in the Philippines is just heating up. It is six months to go before the national elections. Demon possessed politicians are now mobilizing their goons, guns and gold (money) ready to unleash the sting of murderous intent causing death and suffering.
Is there hope for the Filipinos? Absolutely Yes! "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) May God comfort the grieving families of the victims of this massacre and embrace them with His loving arms. May Justice be served and all the perpetrators be penalized. God bless the Philippines!
Andal Ampatuan Jr in a jail cell in Manila after being arrested for ordering the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province. Photograph: Bullit Marquez/AP
Map locates Maguindanao province in the Philippines, where gunmen hijacked a convoy and killed at least 57 people
MAGUINDANAO PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES - NOVEMBER 24: Friends and relatives grieve at the scene of a massacre of at least 46 kidnap victims on Monday in Ampatuan town, on November 24, 2009 in Maguindanao Province, Philippines. Around 100 gunmen are reported to have hijacked the party, including the wife, sister and other relatives of Buluan's Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, en route to filing election papers for candidate Mangudadatu ahead of next May's elections. Mangudadatu's wife, sister and family members, Armed Forces of the Philippines, civilians and at least 12 media personnel are thought to be amongst those killed in the attack, believed to be politically motivated. The Ampatuan clan, political rivals, are being blamed for the kidnap, mutilation, rape and murder of the victims. (Photo by Jeoffrey Maitem/Getty Images)
Relatives wait as police recover dead bodies along a hillside grave in Ampatuan municipality, Maguindanao province, southern Philippines on Tuesday Nov. 24, 2009. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern provinces under a state of emergency, giving security forces free hand to pursue gunmen who killed at least 46 people in one of the country's worst election massacres. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Filipino villagers dig a shallow grave of victims at the scene of a massacre of a political clan, which included several journalists, on the outskirts of Ampatuan, Maguindanao in southern Philippines November 24, 2009. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern provinces and a city under emergency rule on Tuesday after 24 people were killed in the worst-ever election related violence in the country. REUTERS/Erik de Castro (PHILIPPINES CRIME LAW CONFLICT)
MAGUINDANAO PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES - NOVEMBER 24: A Filipino policeman conducts an investigation following the massacre of at least 46 kidnap victims on Monday in Ampatuan town, on November 24, 2009 in Maguindanao Province, Philippines. Around 100 gunmen are reported to have hijacked the party, including the wife, sister and other relatives of Buluan's Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, en route to filing election papers for candidate Mangudadatu ahead of next May's elections. Mangudadatu's wife, sister and family members, Armed Forces of the Philippines, civilians and at least 12 media personnel are thought to be amongst those killed in the attack, believed to be politically motivated. The Ampatuan clan, political rivals, are being blamed for the kidnap, mutilation, rape and murder of the victims. (Photo by Jeoffrey Maitem/Getty Images)
Civilians look on as police officers carry dead bodies on a dump truck along a hillside in Datu Ampatuan, Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two souuthern provinces under a state of emergency, giving security forces free hand to pursue gunmen who killed at least 46 people in one of the country's worst election massacres. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)Positive review scores are nothing new for the Yakuza series. The last five games have averaged at around an 80 Metascore, which is quite an accomplishment for its Japanese development team at SEGA.
The best part of it all is Yakuza has statistically improved over time. While its first release a decade ago fought for every one of its 800,000 units sold and a 75 Metascore, more recently the series has sold and reviewed better.
This crescendo has climaxed with Yakuza 0, which sits among a cast of two other titles (Gravity Rush 2 and Resident Evil 7) responsible for kicking off 2017. While the industry is used to waiting until late-February or March for something special, this year is proving memorable just three weeks in.
In this regard, Yakuza 0's role is important. 2016 was considered by many to be a disappointing year for gaming despite having a small handful of well-reviewed releases, a surprising number of which were first-person shooters. The expectations of 2017, with its new hardware launches and wide breadth of games, veer toward being unreasonable at this point.
While Yakuza 0 might not have made its way into many top lists for 2017, its reception has raised questions about why it wasn't taken more seriously. Currently averaging at an 85 Metascore, it's now the most well-received title in the franchise, outperforming Yakuza 5's 83 Metascore. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's also the best received title of the year thus far.
Our sister site PlayStation LifeStyle commended Yakuza 0 for its fantastic storytelling and varied content, with writer Paulmichael Contreras concluding, "Fans of the series will no doubt be thankful Sega took the time to localize Yakuza 0, and those looking for a good starting point for the series can begin with this excellent prequel". The title earned a handsome 8.5 in the review.
Gravity Rush 2 experienced similar success last week when its embargo dropped. Sitting at an 81 Metascore, it's also a PS4 exclusive that many reviewers adored.
Related: Gravity Rush 2 Review
As with previous generations, Sony's investment in first-party support is paying off several years into the generation. In the same way that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Killzone 2, and Demon's Souls took a few years to hit the PS3, the PS4 is now being swarmed with attractive titles across many genres.
If this is how two commonly overlooked titles can perform, we can only imagine how Nier: Automata, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Nioh, and other PS4 exclusives coming this year will fare, let alone the dozens of major multiplatform titles. And, of course, Resident Evil 7 comes out next week. This could just end up being 12 months for gamers to remember for a long time, especially if they own a PS4.Major developments in cold case murder of Irma Palasics: ACT police
Posted
There have been major developments in a cold case murder in Canberra 15 years ago, ACT police say.
On Saturday November 6, 1999, two men forced their way into the McKellar home of elderly couple Gregor and Irma Palasics.
The intruders bound, gagged and viciously bashed the couple and ransacked the home, stealing money and jewellery.
After the offenders left, Mr Palasics was able to free himself and phone police but Mrs Palasics, 72, died from her injuries.
Mr and Mrs Palasics were robbed in 1997 and 1998, and police suspect all three robberies are linked.
Police are renewing their call for public information about the murder, saying there have been major developments in the investigation.
But they are yet to publicly detail what new information has come to light to help their investigation.
In 2012 the couple's daughter Liz Mikita told the ABC two people died that night.
Her father, severely injured, traumatised and grief stricken, died within the year.
"They were virtually tortured that night," she said.
"They were viciously attacked and unfortunately mum didn't survive the attack.
"Dad didn't want to but he had to live it seems for some reason, I don't know what."
In 2012 ACT Policing announced they were seeking four teenagers who broke into the Woden Pitch and Putt in 2010.
Officers said there could be a forensic link between the aggravated burglary at the Pitch and Putt and the murder of Mrs Palasics.
Police continue to offer a $500,000 reward for information that leads to the resolution of the case.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, police, act, canberra-2600, mckellar-2617Bureau home > Publications > Australian Weather Calendar
2019 Australian Weather Calendar
The Australian Weather Calendar showcases Australia's amazing weather across our magnificent landscape—and has made a favourite Christmas gift for more than 30 years.
Thirteen carefully selected photographs from all corners of Australia, each capturing an authentic and breathtaking weather experience.
Simple explanations of the weather in the photographs by the Bureau’s experts, with full-colour diagrams.
One month to a page, with large daily squares to write your personal appointments and activities.
Daily squares marking Australian public holidays, daylight saving dates, moon phases, solstices and equinoxes.
Weeks that start on a Monday, making it easy to record weekend activities that stretch across Saturday and Sunday.
Monthly average weather conditions for 12 major cities—including average maximum and minimum temperatures and average rainfall.
The calendar also contains stories about how weather, climate and other environmental information support the well-being, prosperity and safety of all Australians.
The calendar is full-colour, spiral-bound, and designed to hang on the wall. It comes in two sizes: the traditional large format (594 x 420 mm), which features landscape photographs about A3 size; and a smaller format (220 x 310 mm closed, 440 x 310 mm open), with photographs about A4 size.
It's quick and easy to order the calendar— go to our online shop at shop.bom.gov.au, phone
1300 798 789, or see Mail-order sales for other options. We dispatch promptly and send it direct to your friends and family anywhere in the world.(Reuters) - IBM plans to move U.S. retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and shift them into new private insurance exchanges as a way of lowering costs for retirees.
A worker is pictured behind a logo at the IBM stand on the CeBIT computer fair in Hanover February 26, 2011. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz
IBM had selected Extend Health, which is owned by Towers Watson & Co, to provide retirees with new health options for medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage, the company said in a statement on Friday.
The plan, it said, offered IBM retirees more choice and better value than the company could provide through existing group plans.
IBM also said it was hosting meetings with groups of retirees across the country to inform them about the move to the country’s largest private Medicare Exchange.
While some retirees may be skeptical, studies showed that the majority of people have a more positive outlook once they were presented with the concept and understood the options available to them through these exchanges, IBM said.
Moving retirees to an exchange allows companies to reduce rising health care costs.
“IBM didn’t make this change to save money - it does not reduce our costs,” a spokesman said.
Projections indicate that healthcare costs under IBM’s current plans for Medicare-eligible retirees would triple by 2020, largely impacting retiree premiums and out-of-pocket costs for retirees, he said. With this move, he added, risks are spread across a much larger group in the private marketplace.
According to the website Alliance@IBM, an employee group, the plan will come into effect starting January 1, 2014.
IBM, the world’s largest technology-services company, has been reining in costs to ensure stable profits amid slowing demand for hardware.
At the end of last month most of its staff in its services and technology group was asked to take a week furlough at one-third of normal pay, according to Alliance@IBM.
The company took a $1 billion restructuring charge related to job cuts in its second quarter.
The cuts were taken mainly outside of the United States, a spokesman said at the time, adding about 60 percent were from IBM’s services division and 20 percent each from its hardware and software segments.
(The story corrects to say private. not public, exchanges and clarifies cost savings is for retirees. Adds quote from IBM spokesman.)The high-profile lobbying efforts of Barack and Michelle Obama weren't enough to land Chicago the 2016 Olympics. Widely thought to be one of two favorites for the Games, Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting by the International Olympic Committee Friday.
The IOC ultimately in the final round of voting over Madrid. Tokyo was eliminated in the second round.
Before the vote, each city made final pitches in hopes of swaying delegates. Rio and Chicago's presentations were particularly impassioned. Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle,, while Rio urged the IOC's members to be bold by taking the games to South America for the first time.
Tokyo presented itself as the best city for the athletes, safe and environmentally pioneering. Former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch made an unusual appeal for Madrid, reminding the IOC members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, "I am very near the end of my time."
Meet the 2016 Olympic City Contenders
The cities' final presentations represented the finishing line after years of hard work, lobbying, planning and hopes. They had 45 minutes and follow-up questions to sway undecided IOC members, of which there were many after a long, close and at times acrimonious race.
Chicago presented first, with videos and speeches - capped by Mr. Obama's plea. Mr. Obama used his stature as a statesman and his own life story for impact, recounting how he was moved around as a child and "never really had roots" but in Chicago, "I finally found a home."
Mr. Obama held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush, pledging that the "full force of the White House" would be applied so "visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people."
His wife tugged at IOC members' heart strings by discussing her late father, who had multiple sclerosis. She recounted sitting on his lap, watching Olympians such as Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci compete, and how her father "taught me how to throw a ball and a mean right hook."
"My dad would have been so proud to witness these games in Chicago," she said.
But their efforts went for naught.
"The president did everything he could to bring the Olympics to our country and we're obviously disappointed that we didn't win them," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said.
Burton said the president didn't regret making the personal appeal on Chicago's behalf.
"Any time the president has an opportunity to make the case for the country he's so proud of, he's going to do it," he said. "The easy thing to do would have been to sit by and not help our bid. But the president felt strongly about the opportunity to showcase Chicago and the United States and he took it."
Rio played up the wow factor of its fabulous scenery, with computer-generated bird's eye images of how venues would be spread across the city, with sailing in the shadow of Sugar Loaf mountain and volleyball on Copacabana beach. The governor of the central bank said Brazil's economic vibrancy should reassure IOC members, and the head of Rio state played down concerns over security.
But Rio's hardest sell was that the IOC could ignore South America no longer.
"It is a time to address this imbalance," Silva said. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country."
Rio bid president Carlos Nuzman, who is also an IOC member, added: "When you push the button today, you have the chance to inspire a new continent, make Olympic history."
Speaking for Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged that the city "will show the world how a major metropolis can flourish without detriment to the environment."
Madrid portrayed itself as a low-risk option, saying that 77 percent of the needed infrastructure for the games was already in place.
"This is a sure candidacy," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.
An uncomfortable moment for Chicago came when an IOC member from Pakistan, Syed Shahid Ali, noted that going through U.S. customs can be harrowing for foreigners.
Mr. Obama responded that he wanted a Chicago games to offer "a reminder that America at its best is open to the world."
The high drama will come when IOC president Jacques Rogge announces the name of the winner about an hour after the last votes are cast. He will break open a sealed envelope and declare which city has been awarded the games of the 31st Olympiad.
The winner gets huge prestige and billions of dollars in potential economic benefits, the losers just painful thoughts of what might have been.
Rogge doesn't vote and, as long as their cities haven't been eliminated, neither will members from Brazil, Spain and Japan. Three other members did not attend the session.
That left 95 voters in the first round, with more in subsequent rounds. In the event of a two-city tie in the early rounds, a runoff is held between the cities. If there is a tie in the final round, Rogge can vote or ask the IOC executive board to break the deadlock.Dan Can You PLEASE Stop Talking About Health Care: Ha! No. This is the week to push harder than we’ve ever pushed against this. McConnell is still trying to pass this abomination.
Worse still, he’s rushing because he knows it’ll blow up in his face if it takes too long. He needs to try and pass the Senate health care bill before the public or the CBO see it, so we need to triple-down on our calls to our Senators this week. Let them know that you’ll activate against them specifically if they vote for this, and tell ’em you’ve got a looong memory.
Nothing to See Here: Jeff Sessions has agreed to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow. Considering how loathe the Administration is to commit to anything, this comes as somewhat of a surprise, but don’t break out the bubbly just yet- his testimony is closed to the public. It’s doubtful that anything can be done to make this an open hearing, but it is telling that he’s only speaking his peace behind closed doors. Remember, he’s there to talk about that other meeting with Russian Ambassador Kislyak that he forgot to mention last time he was under oath; this should be a fairly straightforward thing to talk about before the public. I imagine it going something like this:
AL FRANKEN: “Hey Jeff, tell me again- how many times did you meet Kislyak?”
JEFF SESSIONS: “Uh, three, but you see-”
FRANKEN: “So you perjured yourself under oath last time you were here? lol, get rekt. Bake ’em away, toys.”
…And scene.
Look for the faces of the attending Senators as they leave. They’ve been telling before; they could be again.
The People’s Summit: This looked like it was quite the party, and I am immensely jealous I didn’t get to go. For those who weren’t sure what this was, it was a meeting of the country’s progressive activists and most prominent left-wing leaders. Personally I thought that Nina Turner did an especially good job at laying out a roadmap for progressive activism, though I don’t have time to detail all the other equally amazing speakers. The whole thing was crazygonuts and if I can go next year, I am certainly going to.
However.
One of the things I kept hearing were calls to “Draft Bernie”, and to my heathens who’re part of that movement… I gotta disagree. I feel like their heart is in the right place, but I also feel as though they’re missing a key point of Sanders’ message. This whole time, he’s been saying that this movement- Our Revolution- it’s not just about getting him specifically into the White House. Its about getting us engaged, growing a new generation of activists and leaders that’ll last long after he’s gone. I mean, the dude is gonna be nearly 80 by the time 2020 rolls around. Even if he’s still mentally sharp, he might not have the energy to put up with a job like the Presidency- but that’s OK! He’s sittin’ here screaming his lungs out telling us to do it! That if we follow his example and all learn to fight like he does, rather than relying on him to fight for us, then we’ll be infinitely stronger than we would be even if we did catapult him into the Oval Office.Grim Misadventure #115: Dressed to Necromance
And you may have missed our very exciting
Today, we are going to delve into a part of what made the Necromancer class art so awesome: the item set.
If looks could kill, a necromancer would wear them, then bring you back as a loyal minion.
So what makes this particular set so special? Apart from being totally badass, it also happens to be the Necromancers pure class Legendary Set akin to Markovians Fortress for Soldiers and Ulzuins Avatar for Demolitionists. Oh, and it used to belong to a relatively unknown aspiring necromancer named Uroboruuk
And should you manage to collect all five pieces, the following bonuses await you:
This is just one of 20 new sets coming with the expansion, on top of the 27 classic sets returning in Mythical form. I think it is fair to say that you will be all set this expansion.
Like knowing what is coming up next for Grim Dawn? Check back on 04/17/2017 for our next development update! Welcome back to Grim Misadventures, where every adventure is grim and adventurous. Last time, we had a pretty big reveal for you as we unveiled the upcoming expansions Second new mastery (8th overall), the Necromancer. This comes on the heels of our equally exciting new addition, the Inquisitor And you may have missed our very exciting patch v4.1.1.7 changelog, recently previewed (note: changelog subject to 100% revision for hopefully obvious reasons).Today, we are going to delve into a part of what made the Necromancer class art so awesome: the item set.If looks could kill, a necromancer would wear them, then bring you back as a loyal minion.So what makes this particular set so special? Apart from being totally badass, it also happens to be the Necromancers pure class Legendary Set akin to Markovians Fortress for Soldiers and Ulzuins Avatar for Demolitionists. Oh, and it used to belong to a relatively unknown aspiring necromancer named UroboruukAnd should you manage to collect all five pieces, the following bonuses await you:This is just one of 20 new sets coming with the expansion, on top of the 27 classic sets returning in Mythical form. I think it is fair to say that you will be all set this expansion.Like knowing what is coming up next for Grim Dawn? Check back on 04/17/2017 for our next development update! Attached Thumbnails
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***Waste of Souls***By Lord Ashcroft
This year, party politics will be dominated by the European elections. Though for most normal people the event will go all but unnoticed, one question will preoccupy the political class: how well will UKIP do, and at what cost to the Conservatives? But whatever tactical moves the Tories are tempted to make to minimise losses, they must keep their eyes on the real prize: the 2015 general election, now just 16 months away.
If the Conservatives want to govern without needing a coalition of parties, they are going to need a bigger coalition of voters. The latest phase of Project Blueprint, my research looking at the state of this voting coalition, shows it is far from impossible for the Tories to win outright. But to do so they will need the votes of everyone who supported them last time, plus practically everyone who is even prepared to think about doing so next time.
Tory Loyalists, who voted Conservative in 2010 and would do so again tomorrow, are united by their positive view of David Cameron, and think the party shares their values and has the best approach to the economy. Joiners, who say they would vote Tory tomorrow despite not having done so last time (two thirds of them having come from the Liberal Democrats), think similarly but are more likely to prefer coalition government and to say they may change their mind again before the election.
The numbers being attracted to the Tories are not enough to replace those going in the opposite direction. More than a third of 2010 Conservative voters say they would not vote for the party in an election tomorrow. These Defectors tend to have a low to middling view of Cameron, and doubt the Tories stand for fairness or are on the side of ordinary people. Less than one in five have gone to Labour or the Lib Dems; about half say they support UKIP (compared to just over a quarter in my poll of specifically Tory-held marginal seats last year) and a third say they do not know how they will vote or will not vote at all.
These Defectors are not necessarily lost for good. Despite their current voting intention more than half say they want a Conservative government. And dissatisfied though many of them are with Cameron, most prefer him to the alternative.
Then there are the Considerers, who did not vote Tory last time and would not do so tomorrow, but say they might do one day – yet must be brought into the coalition for a Conservative majority to be achievable. This group prefers Cameron to Miliband, and is more optimistic than most about the economy, but less likely than voters as a whole to trust the Tories on schools or the NHS.
In my research I found voters in all four of these groups saying, albeit sometimes grudgingly, that given the situation it found itself in the government had not done too badly. It had started to bring the public finances under control, and was moving in the right direction on welfare and immigration even if the results so far seemed meagre.
But none of this changed that fact that, for many of them, life was hard and showed no signs of getting any easier despite the recovery they kept hearing so much about. As far as the Tories’ hardworking people are concerned, where – to use a phrase from the archive of the party’s lexicon – are the proceeds of growth?
Showing convincingly that there is a better life to be had under the Tories will be hard. How to produce a sustainable recovery to the higher living standards of previous years when those living standards were fuelled by levels of private credit and state spending that were themselves, self-evidently, unsustainable? Gordon Brown made his voters feel more prosperous by putting money directly into their bank accounts in the form of higher public sector pay and a gigantic expansion of tax credits. This option is not available to George Osborne. Finding the connection between national and personal prosperity – and persuading people to be prepared to wait for it – is the key to the next election.
It will be some comfort to the Conservatives that few swing voters see Ed Miliband and Labour as a credible alternative. Many still think Labour’s instinct in office would be to resume unaffordable spending and reverse the steps the coalition has taken on welfare and immigration. Their main campaign theme, the cost of living, certainly matches the biggest economic concern of the times. But few voters we spoke to were impressed with Labour’s flagship proposal to freeze energy prices, thinking it unworkable or likely to lead to large rises immediately before and after its imposition. Accordingly, my poll found that while Labour were thought the best party on the cost of living, their lead vanished when it came to introducing practical policies that would work in the long run.
But drawing a contrast with Labour and highlighting progress on welfare, immigration and the macro economy, important though they are, will only take the Tories so far. It needs to be clearer what would be on offer under a new Conservative government. It is one thing to say don’t turn back, but we also need to know where we’re going.Tim Schafer has said that Brutal Legend 2 will eventually happen, although it’s not in development yet.
Appearing at E3 alongside Brutal Legend star Jack Black for an informal Q&A discussion, Schafer made some statements about a possible follow-up to Double Fine’s well-liked tribute to heavy metal. As reported by Gamespot, when audience members asked about Brutal Legend getting a sequel, Schafer said with some confidence, “someday we’ll make that game”. That’s not necessarily a firm promise, of course, but it’s a definite statement of intent.
Back in 2015, the Fig campaign for Psychonauts hinted at a possible future for Brutal Legend. Brutal Legend was an expensive game to make, though, and Schafer notes that a sequel would be expensive too, costing more than just a crowdfunding campaign could pull in. He made similar statements in 2014, after the release of Broken Age, stating the Jack Black might be up for it as well.
Brutal Legend 2 was in the planning stages years ago, until publisher EA cancelled it. The period after this cancellation has been referred to as the company’s ‘dark age’ in interviews, with the team having already invested heavily in the sequel that never came to be. Some day, though, we may still see it.
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foil packet and set it off to the side over your fire. You don’t want this to get too hot, just warm up throughout.
Step 3: Cook your meat.
We had some leftover smoked pork from a cookout earlier in the month. Whenever we have leftover meats, I seal it up and save it in the freezer. (Never know when the camping bug will hit). Slice the pork up into big chunks and toss it in the skillet over direct heat. Be sure not to empty or wipe out any of that delicious grease out. Smoked pork fat makes for a great seasoning for the eggs, while ensuring for an easier cleanup later. After the pork warmed throughout, I pulled it apart with tongs and let it go until it started getting nice and crispy.
Step 4: Cook your eggs.
Since we had 6 people, I kept this batch pretty simple and scrambled the eggs. (If you are feeling adventurous, the best way is to cook them is over easy so that yolk is nice and runny in the burrito). Scramble the eggs (about 2 per person) in the skillet and put it over a decently hot section of your fire. Every once in a while give it a nice fold to move everything around.
Step 5: Burrito Assembly.
So this is probably the most important step. Make sure you get just the right amount of everything you want in your burrito. You can skip some things or add some more, we won’t judge, but it is VERY important not to over stuff your burrito.
Burrito folding is one of those learned skills that take a little bit to master, so no worries if you mess a few up along the way. If it starts to fall apart on you, just change the recipe to “Campfire Burrito Bowls” and no one will know a difference.
Step 6: Wrap it in foil.
The trick to a correctly wrapped burrito is to have as little air as possible between your aluminum foil and your burrito. If your burrito is rolled too loosely, the foil acts as insulation and you’ll be waiting forever until you get that nice golden color of crispiness. Also, make sure your foil is nice and flat and not crinkly. Roll up your burrito gently and twist up the ends to make handles for flipping.
Step 7: Wait for it.
This is the hard part… (waiting for breakfast burritos is quite grueling to the hungry. Some take their burritos off prematurely, because the wait is too intense). Depending on how hot your fire is, it may take 10-15 mins before the burrito shell gets toasted all around. Every so often feel the outside of the burrito. This can be done with tongs or you’re at the risk of a finger or two. Flip your burrito every 5-10 mins until finished. When the burrito is finished, you should feel a firmness or crunchiness on either side of your burrito. If all else fails, just take it off and check it. If it’s not ready, put it back on!On the night of July 2, 2015, Tommie Woodward was doing what Tommie did on Thursday nights — shooting pool, playing shuffleboard, drinking beer, having a good time at Burkart’s Marina, a beer and burger joint in Orange, Texas. Sometime around 2 a.m. he decided to go for a swim in the murky waters of Adams Bayou.
Michelle Wright, the bartender on duty, became concerned upon hearing Tommie’s plans. A few weeks earlier, the bar’s owner, Allen Burkart, spotted an exceptionally large alligator patrolling the bayou. He immediately erected a “No Swimming” sign, which was disregarded. The people of Orange frequently swam with the reptiles, and even nicknamed two of them Cheeto and Marshmallow. Wright pleaded with Tommie, but he was stubborn, never backed down from anyone or anything. He was going swimming. Wright returned to her bartending duties. Tommie removed his shirt and billfold and, joined by his companion Victoria LeBlanc, tiptoed toward the water. At this point LeBlanc saw a big gator — maybe the same animal Burkart had encountered — emerge from beneath the dock. She alerted Tommie to its presence, who shouted back, “Fuck that gator!” and plunged into the bayou. Tommie was near a small island across the swamp when the gator got his arm. When LeBlanc jumped into the water to save him, he yelled for her to return to land. She obliged, then frantically ran inside for help. After dialing 911, Wright grabbed a flashlight, killed the lights to reduce the glare, and scanned the water for him. After five minutes or so — she’s unsure — Wright found him facedown near the pier. The gator quickly pulled Tommie under again. He resurfaced about 20 yards downstream, before disappearing into the darkness. Two hours later Tommie’s body was found with the left arm missing from the elbow down. His cause of death was drowning. Tommie Woodward was the first person to die from an alligator attack in Texas since 1836. Shortly after the start of the Runaway Scrape, the mass evacuation of Texans fleeing Santa Anna’s army during the Texas Revolution, an alligator killed a man identified as Mr. King in a bayou near the present-day Harris County border. Mr. King was leading his horses across water when an alligator thumped him with its tail and dragged him under. Luckily for Mr. King — and his friends and family — his death occurred before the advent of television and social media.
Facebook Photos of Tommie Woodward from his Facebook profile.
News of Tommie Woodward’s death went viral with articles on, among other places, BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, Fox News, and Gawker; the Associated Press picked up the story; it led the local TV news, of course. The local Beaumont Enterprise published a cautionary op-ed. The comment sections were busy and typically unsympathetic. The particulars — an animal attack, his famous last words, according to the police report — provided irresistible content.
“I was severely pissed off at a lot of people that I’ve never met before. I was mad at everybody.”
Some outlets used an image from Tommie’s Facebook page of him chugging a Miller High Life while wearing a T-shirt that reads “Classy Motherfucker”; a news anchor for KFDM, the CBS affiliate in nearby Beaumont, breathlessly noted “the hundreds and thousands of pageviews and hundreds of comments” that the story generated on its website. Another circulated photo portrayed Tommie as the epitome of dudedom: grungy reddish-blonde chin strap beard, middle finger up, wearing a goofy cowboy hat, wraparound Guy Fieri shades, and a “This Guy Needs a Beer” shirt. On Facebook, strangers littered Tommie's wall with comments like “lol rip dumbass” and “What. A. Dumb. Fuck.” A controversial hunt for the killer gator ensued, which only compounded the attention. Tommie’s friends and family refuse to allow his final actions define the 28 years that preceded it. He loved Van Halen, Marilyn Monroe, and Ken Griffey Jr. He was good with his hands. He enjoyed assembling computers, building sandcastles with his nephew, fishing, swimming, camping, and grilling. He had an adoring big sister, a mom, a best friend, and an identical twin brother, Brian, all left to wrestle not just with grief over a freak tragedy, but also the aftermath of public humiliation. “I was severely pissed off at a lot of people that I’ve never met before,” his sister, Tabatha, says. “I was mad at everybody.” But no one was affected like Brian was.
William Chambers for BuzzFeed News Brian Woodward
Within minutes of meeting last December in Beaumont, Brian Woodward ditches me inside a popular seafood restaurant and retreats to the parking lot. Moments later I find him standing beside his 1999 Dodge Ram 1500. “Come on,” he says, climbing into the driver’s seat. He blows into a Breathalyzer to start the car. “I don’t like people,” he tells me. “I walk in somewhere packed with people I don’t know, fuck you, I’m gone.” We drive to a Chili’s in Orange, the easternmost city in the state, where he now lives.
The area in Southeast Texas between Orange, Beaumont, and Port Arthur is referred to as the “Golden Triangle.” In 1901, a gusher in the Spindletop oil field in Beaumont blew for nine days, spouting an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil per day and transforming the region’s economy. The Texas oil boom was on. A century later, refineries and chemical plants are still big employers in the area. Brian worked at the shipyards upon moving into town. It was arduous labor, just as he liked it. A vessel needing repairs would be dry-docked. From there, Brian and his team, a tight, rowdy crew of ballbusters, would do anything from change rudders to remove the motor. He enjoyed going to work each morning, but soon realized that promotions at the shipyards were unattainable. “The only way you can move up,” he says, “is if someone dies.” We talk while he drives. “I can go to that shipyard now, ask for a job, and have it. You can’t find too many people that can outwork me. Pound for pound, you can’t beat my little ass. Tommie was the same way. He worked real hard. Most people nowadays, they’re not — they just don’t. Tommie lived with me and worked with me at the shipyards. Then I had to get out. I wasn’t making enough money." Brian worked on tugboats offshore for a while but didn't like being away from home. "I do AC work now. I install air conditioners in people’s homes — million-dollar homes, piece-of-shit homes.” Brian weaves between lanes on Interstate 10 hugging the 80 mph speed limit; his toolbox clangs violently around the backseat. The Breathalyzer beeps, and he blows into the black plastic tube. “Chicken Fried” by the Zac Brown Band plays on the radio. “Why are you grabbing the ‘Oh shit’ handle?” he says after noticing that I’m clutching the passenger side roof handle. “Are you scared?” Once at Chili’s, Brian orders a 10-ounce sirloin cooked rare. “If they sear it on each side and serve it to me bloody as hell,” he says, “I’d be happy with it.” He takes pride in having eaten things a lot of people wouldn't think to eat, especially during lean times. “You’ve ever eaten cat? It’s not bad,” he says. For a few months in high school, Tommie and Brian lived in a tent on the banks of the Meramec River. Food was scarce. “The cat kept hanging around — fat motherfucker. I said, ‘I was hungry, so I’m gonna go get it.’ It was more of a vendetta than anything because he kept shitting and pissing everywhere. So I set up a snare to get him. I got him, skinned him like a rabbit — put a stick up his ass all the way through his mouth and then put him over a fire.” How did it taste? “Oily, man. Oily.” He’s an active storyteller with a McConaughey-esque twang whose eyes gleam when he gets to the good parts. His nickname is Cowboy. Like Tommie, Brian is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, wiry, no more than 150 pounds after Thanksgiving dinner, and wears his long reddish-blonde hair in a monastic ponytail like a Greek priest. The only physical difference between the twins is the webbed toes on Brian’s left foot and a scar outside Brian’s left eye that runs behind his ear, the result of a January 2014 motorcycle accident; the discoloration around the wound makes it look like a tattoo. Brian suffered a fractured skull, broken femur, and shattered pelvis, and was placed in a weeklong medically induced coma following the crash, which also left him with memory problems. “That wreck fucked me up pretty good,” he says. “Tommie helped me. Moral support.” He chuckles quietly to himself. The Woodward twins were born on July 20, 1986, healthy, on their due date. Their mother, Kelley Creamer-Shibles, stayed home with the twins and Tabatha, one year, one month, and one day older than her brothers, while her husband Tom worked the assembly line at Chrysler. But the couple split when the twins were 3. An acrimonious divorce and custody battle followed. As teenagers living in Pacific, a small city 30 miles southwest of St. Louis, the twins' divergent personalities manifested: Tommie was the prankster, a social butterfly who made conversation with strangers; Brian was more reserved, sincere. For both, high school was an afterthought, and they dropped out after four years to work fast-food jobs.
“I never would have imagined Tommie going that way. An alligator. That’s just weird.”
Tommie’s peripatetic journey began when he abruptly joined a carnival, a perfect match for him, says his mom. “You know how when you go into a carnival, the people running the games are slick talkers? He was the same way. He could talk you into anything.” After returning to Pacific, Tommie moved to Arkansas to remodel Sonic Drive-In restaurants with his dad. Work was sporadic, creating tension between father and son. His best friend back home, Jimmy Matthews, would visit, but, Matthews says, the lack of employment tormented Tommie. It soon reached a breaking point. One day, Brian, now settled in Texas, arrived for a surprise visit. “He was going to live with a friend in the woods. I said, ‘Come with me to Texas. I got a place where you could stay. I got a job for you, too.’” Tommie lived with Brian, and Brian’s wife and son, for four years, and when he finally left, he moved into a house six blocks away. When Brian would visit, which was often, they’d start a fire in the backyard, throw horseshoes, and drink beer. Splitting three cases was an average night.
Jake Daniels / Beaumont Enterprise / AP Michelle Wright
“Three o’clock in the morning it was nothing to get a call from Tommie because he was missing me,” says Creamer-Shibles. “He’s like, ‘Mom, I love you.’ ‘Okay Tommie, I know you’re drinking. What’s up?’ ‘Nothing, I’m just calling to say hi.’ I would talk to him until he [went to sleep]. I guess it was that sense of security.” Tommie had “Mom” tattooed on his bicep when he was a teenager. The twins were regulars at Burkart’s Marina. “It was more of a family,” Michelle Wright recalls. “Everybody had each other’s backs.” Tommie had multiple roles within the clan. Depending on how much he drank, he could be the big brother or little brother. Sometimes he was the bar’s flirt, sometimes the billiards hustler. He loved to dance. He loved to make everyone smile. He also loved to swim in the waters off Burkart’s Marina, no matter the season or time of day. “I never would have imagined Tommie going that way,” Creamer-Shibles says. “For some reason, I always thought it was going to be some stupid car accident, not an alligator attack. That was the furthest thing from my mind. An alligator. That’s just weird.”
William Chambers for BuzzFeed News A view of Adams Bayou
It was 2:34 a.m. at the bayou when Michelle Wright dialed 911. Within minutes, fire and ambulance were dispatched. Orange Police Department arrived at 2:39 a.m. Game wardens from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department were contacted at 2:42 a.m. with instructions to get a boat into the water.
Once on the scene, the Orange PD handled the investigation as if it were any animal attack. A statement was collected from Wright. LeBlanc, who initially fled Burkart’s Marina, was interviewed once found down the road. It then became clear that Parks & Wildlife would not be conducting a search and rescue mission, but search and recovery. Warden Clint Caywood and Deputy Jason Guidroz found Tommie's body floating up against a bank next to a tree, approximately 200 yards down the bayou from Burkart’s. After the fire department retrieved the body, it was placed in a body bag and brought back to land where the justice of the peace declared Tommie deceased and prepared the death certificate. The game wardens still had work to do: Locate the alligator. Usually, game wardens set a line or traps and shoot the alligator once it’s caught. But lines take time to assemble. To expedite things, game wardens were instructed to hunt solely with their firearms. They didn’t find the gator on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday. By then, there were more boats in the water. “This is East Texas — there are a lot of country boys down here,” says Capt. Robert Enmon of Orange PD. “I believed that someone was going to find that alligator and kill it.”
One afternoon in June 2015, Kent Robnett, a 33-year-old construction superintendent from Orange, was returning home from Walmart when his dad called and told Kent to hurry into his kitchen. The kitchen overlooked Adams Bayou. Robnett dropped his groceries, ran, and gazed out the window. And there it was, a big gator tooling down the middle of the bayou.
Robnett was stunned. Having grown up on the swamp, he deemed himself an alligator expert of sorts. He knew that big gators didn’t get that big by being stupid. He also knew that swimming down a populated bayou in the late-afternoon sun were the actions of a stupid gator; gators that size hug the banks, avoiding the main cuts, avoiding humans. From his kitchen, Robnett could see that the gator’s face was littered with scars. Something, he thought, wasn’t right with that animal. As he watched the gator heading south, he thought of his children — a 14-year-old girl, 3-year-old girl, and 1-year-old boy — all of whom frolicked in Adams Bayou. Tommie Woodward died in those waters a few weeks later.
“I took it upon myself when I walked out of that bar. I knew I could get that gator.”
Robnett heard the sirens during the wee hours of July 3 and learned in the morning that Tommie, an acquaintance of his from Burkart’s Marina, was the victim. Like many locals, Robnett went to the bar later that evening. Coincidentally, he sat near Tommie’s friends and family. He eavesdropped on their conversation — and what he gathered was that they wanted that gator gone. “I took it upon myself when I walked out of that bar,” Robnett says. “I knew I could get that gator.” He stayed up all night rigging four lines using frozen chicken as bait. Robnett, who comes from a long line of hunters and trappers out of Southwest Louisiana, killed his first gator at age 10. “I love gators,” he says. “I have a lot of respect for those animals. I cared for them. We would never disrespect anything we harvest. But that gator had to go. He killed a man.” Over the weekend Robnett sat on his back porch watching the game wardens hunt near where Tommie's body was found. He questioned their tactics. The gator, Robnett said, wouldn’t return for seconds. He gave the game wardens 72 hours to find it. When Robnett ran his lines on Monday morning, he found a giant gator hooked in the first location he checked. The gator had worn that bank out to mud trying to escape. Not a tree, bush, or limb remained within a 20-foot circumference. Robnett looked closer. He recognized the gator. The scars gave him away. “When I looked right in his eyes and he looked in my eyes, a chill come over me,” he says. “I said, ‘Man, you motherfucker.’ His eyes were a mixture of tired and evil and all kinds of shit. I knew it was him. I had no doubt. I’m not one to go out and take the lord’s creatures, but I had no regrets or remorse at all in taking his life right there in that moment.” Robnett aimed his Glock.40-caliber pistol toward the gator’s head, shooting it at point-blank range. Once the hollow-point tungsten steel bullet pierced its skin, the gator thrashed with enough force to almost knock Robnett from his boat. Robnett then lit a cigarette and watched him bleed out. But the gator, Robnett says, “came back to life with a vengeance.” He shot it again. “That second time, I domed him twice,” Robnett says. “You don’t do that because the second shot will be off. You also don’t do that out of respect for the animal.” In all, Robnett put seven rounds into the gator. He went home, made a sandwich, and then called a friend to help load the gator into his boat. Robnett felt justified in his actions. “Do you know that show with Nicolas Cage, Treasure Hunt or National Treasure?" he asks. "You know that part where he quotes, not the Declaration of Independence, but he says, ‘People know that something is wrong and they have the ability to do something about it they are obligated to?’ Look it up on your computer.” I read the Nicolas Cage quote back to him. “If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.” “Yes, that’s exactly right,” Robnett says. “That’s what I did, man.” What he had also done was breathe new life into the tale of Tommie Woodward and the man-eating gator. Media attention had waned since Friday morning when the body was found. But, with his actions, Robnett provided a twist in the proceedings, fresh content for both the local news and the peanut gallery on social media. He also, inadvertently, entered the spotlight.
Jake Daniels / Beaumont Enterprise / AP Texas Game Warden Mark Nelson and others look at the body of an alligator at Burkart's Marina, Monday, July 6, 2015, in Orange, Texas.
Illegally killing an alligator is a class C misdemeanor, the equivalent of a parking ticket, and punishable by a fine up to $500. So as soon as he unloaded the gator near Burkart’s Marina, Robnett anonymously reported it to game wardens. Jake Daniels, a photographer from the Beaumont Enterprise, saw on Twitter that someone had shot the gator. Once he arrived at Burkart's Marina, he tweeted pictures of the bloody 11-foot beast. A crowd, eventually ballooning to more than 50 people, soon gathered. “It felt like a hunter’s atmosphere,” Daniels says. “It was like, ‘We got done what needed to get done.'”
Daniels’ photographs chronicled the scene: A man drinking a Miller Lite held open the gator’s jaws; a piece of wood propped open its mouth; another man sat on it. Selfies were snapped. Some folks even removed the gator’s teeth. As more news vans appeared, a man calling himself “Bear” gave interviews taking credit for the killing. The next part of the investigation was determining if this was the gator that killed Tommie Woodward. When game wardens finally arrived, they were joined by Harlan “Bigfoot” Hatcher, a licensed nuisance-control hunter, and the star of Swamp People, Seasons 4 and 5. "I just skinned the gator and opened him up,” he says in his thick Cajun accent. “I’m not no forensic coronary [sic] who do all that stuff. I’m a gator hunter, man.” Bigfoot and the game wardens then examined the contents of the gator’s stomach. After finding skin, nails, and fingers, they decided they had their culprit. Game hunters are allowed to sell the meat and skin for profit, but, in this case, the meat had gone bad, and Bigfoot refused to “sell nothing off someone’s misfortune.” He scooped and bleached the gator’s skull before giving it to the game wardens. He tanned the hide, which he keeps in storage. The only question left for the game wardens was whether to charge Bear with a misdemeanor — except, as you know, there was one problem: He wasn’t the killer. “I just thought I’d throw my name out there,” he told ABC 13. Robnett came forward two days after shooting the gator. He wasn’t prepared for the fallout. Robnett faced intense criticism from animal rights activists, and even claims that he was driven off Facebook. “There was some mean shit said,” he says. “At night I would stay up in the living room with my gun. People were coming by late at night throwing rocks at my house and shit.” But he had supporters, and an anti-gator contingent planned a benefit barbecue at Burkart’s in the event Robnett was fined. The decision went up the chain of command to supervisors in Austin, who ultimately ruled to give Robnett a written warning. “I think this was a twofold deal,” says Capt. Rod Ousley of Texas Parks & Wildlife. “One: It was a fatality. Two: The individual who killed the alligator got the right one. If he would’ve killed three or four alligators, it would’ve been a different story. He got lucky. He got the right one.”
William Chambers for BuzzFeed News
Brian Woodward was “happy as hell” when he learned Robnett got the gator that killed his brother. “I felt some kind of justice,” he says.
Brian is giving me a quick tour of Orange, Texas, population 18,500, home of the Stark Museum of Art, and the state champion West Orange Stark Mustangs football team. We ride past the drab civic necessities — county jail, municipal court, firehouse, AutoZone — before arriving at a one-level home on Rhode Island Street with junk strewn about the front yard. This was Tommie’s house. “I don’t know who lives here now. Don’t know, don’t care,” Brian says, peering out of his car. “They’ve trashed it. We kept it immaculate clean.” Brian lives a few blocks away on Texas Avenue. He wants me to see Tommie’s old possessions. “This is me,” he says pulling into his front yard. He’s renting while renovating the house he bought in nearby West Orange. “I spend a lot of time in Home Depot,” he jokes. A Lab mix named Princess, and Neenews, a Pomeranian mix, scamper near “Old Smokey,” Brian’s barbecue pit.
“It may seem weird for me to hang on to every little piece of him for me to remember, but I do.”
We walk through his kitchen, and into Brian’s room. In the corner stands a portrait of Tommie that their mom commissioned following his death. Brian picks it up, holds it at eye level, staring at the familiar face — his own face. “I sure do miss him,” he sighs. “He was a good guy.” He places it aside and begins rifling through the boxes stocked beneath. One by one, Brian unpacks his brother’s collectibles: Coors glasses, a Dodge hood ornament, a Ken Griffey Jr. baseball card, an old flashlight, a $1 coin crushed on the train tracks, a chunk of the flammable metal tungsten — “throw that in a fire and you’ll have one hell of a fucking fire” — a Skoal canister filled with wheat pennies, a baseball, Tommie’s toolbox, a roach clip, keys from the carnival, a box of chocolates with DFT (Don’t Fucking Touch) written on it, ChapStick, a handkerchief their father made when he was in jail, purple Crown Royal bags, and some old bottles. “It may seem weird for me to hang on to every little piece of him for me to remember, but I do.” He then puts everything back in the exact order that he unpacked it. I notice that he’s wearing Tommie’s work shirt. “Yes sir, it brings me good luck,” Brian says. He looks to his chest where his brother’s name is inscribed, and strides toward the door. “Let’s go visit the place where he passed.”
William Chambers for BuzzFeed News The former location of Burkart's Marina.
Burkart’s Marina closed in September 2016, less than a week before owner Allen Burkart died at the age of 84. A Korean War vet, Burkart was born and raised in Orange where he worked for his father’s plumbing business before starting a moving company. According to his obituary, “his lifelong dream was to have a marina on Adams Bayou.”
As a teetotaler, Burkart preferred that his namesake was not called a bar. So, after Hurricane Ike destroyed his business in 2008, he added shuffleboard tables and games, remaking it into a more family-friendly establishment. The mascot for the bar’s Facebook page was a cartoon alligator holding a beer, and wearing shades, an open shirt, cargo shorts, sandals, and a beaded necklace. The old man took Tommie’s death hard. “He was very emotional over it,” says Burkart’s granddaughter Angela Hoffpauir Cockerham. “My grandfather was embarrassed that it happened at his place of business. He also felt liable because it was his property.” (According to Texas DRAM laws, a person suing a bar must prove that they were a danger to themselves or others when sold alcohol. Brian says he would never sue. “That was like my family.”) On this late afternoon, a man stops us as we attempt to park on the property. “I don’t care who you are, motherfucker,” Brian mutters before exiting his car. He slams the door and turns on the charm. “How ya doing?” After a short conversation, Brian motions that we can enter the premises. We march down a ramp, past the “No Fishing” and “No Swimming Alligators” signs, and into the deserted bar. The view from the wooden picnic benches overlooking the bayou is breathtaking, a wild beauty from another world. Branches from bald cypress trees hang perilously overhead as the dimming sun gently reflects off the water. On a small island across the bayou, a majestic bird — an egret or osprey — swoops into the flat, boggy marshland hunting for prey. “I spent a many of years in this bar,” Brian says. “I started drinking here before I was 21.” He looks over the water, both hands deep in his pants pockets, and tells me about the night his brother died. Around 3 a.m. Victoria LeBlanc, soaking wet, agitated, apologizing profusely, knocked on Brian’s door. She told him that Tommie was missing. Finally, she admitted that he drowned. When Brian arrived at Burkart’s less than five minutes later, he didn’t get the information he was looking for. So he returned home, loaded a small boat into his car, and went looking for Tommie. He says that he found his brother’s body. “They wouldn’t let me bring him out of the water,” he says, his voice cracking. “They wanted me to leave him there, and I did.” Texas Parks & Wildlife game warden Clint Caywood denies Brian’s claim. “His brother was out there on a boat, but, no, he didn’t find him. Me and one of the Orange County sheriff deputies found him,” he tells me. “We had to keep his brother away from him.” Another way Brian’s story diverges from the official account regards Victoria LeBlanc. He tells me that LeBlanc and his brother dove into the water simultaneously, and that she retreated to land after the alligator’s tail brushed her. According to LeBlanc’s statement, she didn’t jump in until after the attack commenced. Looking for answers, we go to Michelle Wright’s house. Brian is silent for most of the ride into Bridge City, the next town west. We drive down a long flat road lined with lush greenery. With no radio or conversation, the Dodge’s engine thrums loudly. Twenty minutes later we are in Wright’s kitchen, where fresh-baked chocolate cookies cool on the table. “I still smoke in here?” Brian asks. “You could never smoke in here, not with him,” she says, pointing to her adult son, who’s sitting on the couch, eating ramen noodles and watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine. “He has asthma.” Brian slips the unlit Pall Mall into his pack. “Every time I think about it I want to cry,” Wright says. “I was wondering how I was going to do seeing you. I don’t see you that often anymore. You know, I once had a 15-minute conversation with your brother thinking it was you.” “A lot of people have done that,” Brian says, smirking. Wright says that on the night of the alligator attack she didn’t sleep until 7:30 a.m. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Tommie pulled under. The following days and weeks remained difficult, especially at work. It was months, she says, before she could enter the water. And then there were the trolls, who, recognizing her from the local news, bombarded Wright at Burkart’s and other bars with hurtful comments about her friend. She wants to clarify two things about that night: Tommie was intoxicated, but not hammered (“I’ve seen him a lot worse — a lot, lot worse”). She also insists that he never said “Fuck that gator!” in spite of the fact that LeBlanc, the only person within earshot of Tommie, told police that he uttered those words. Tabatha also thinks he said it. “When I heard about Tommie saying ‘Fuck that alligator,’ I was like, well, that sounds just like him,” she says. “Especially if he has a few beers in him.” That leaves the question of when LeBlanc first jumped into the water: Was it before or after the alligator attacked Tommie? “She’s the only person who knows what happened,” Brian says. Facebook messages and emails to LeBlanc’s Hotmail and Yahoo accounts went unanswered, and all phone numbers ascribed to her name were inactive. A few days after Christmas, I reached LeBlanc’s mother. “I haven’t heard from her in years. Someone said that she was now in Mississippi. She don’t have nothing to do with us,” she says. I ask if any family members still maintain contact with her daughter. “What part of she don’t have nothing to do with us don’t you understand? Nobody knows where she’s at.”
Jake Daniels / Beaumont Enterprise / AP
Had he been assailed by something like a pit bull — or even a grizzly bear — Tommie Woodward’s story may not have caused such a commotion. Alligators have a certain mystique befitting prehistoric beasts that can swim 30 mph, outrun humans on land, lift a small truck with their jaws, and even climb a fence. Alligators belong in Jurassic Park.
Chris Stephens, known to his friends as “Gator Chris,” has been obsessed with them since childhood. “Alligators have the strongest immune system in the animal kingdom — did you know that?!" he gushes. A nuisance-control hunter for Texas Parks & Wildlife in Harris and Fort Bend counties, he’s the man on call when someone in Houston finds a gator in their swimming pool. He would know what elements led to Tommie Woodward becoming Texas’s first fatality from an alligator attack since 1836.
“Everything that could have gone wrong did.”
“Everything that could have gone wrong did,” Stephens tells me. For starters, it was breeding season. During this period from May to September, both male and female gators become more aggressive and territorial. Another mistake Tommie made was swimming at night. Because of the nerve endings on their snout, alligators are stealth night feeders. Chemical receptors in the alligator’s mouth and jaw act like sonar in a way, allowing them to sense any chemical changes in the water alerting them to when food is nearby. Stephens, and other gator experts consulted, believe the most important factor was that the alligator lost its natural fear of humans once customers at Burkart’s Marina fed him. “Feeding a gator once can cause it to be a nuisance for the rest of its life because it trains them to think people have food. It’s like feeding a stray cat or dog," he says. "Now, when a gator hears footsteps on the dock, it thinks, Get ready, food’s coming.” Brian admits he fed Cheetos to the smaller gators. He says he didn’t know that feeding alligators was prohibited. More attacks are inevitable. Stephens points to the number of gators he caught in 2016: 150, a nearly 300% increase from the previous year. A week before Tommie's death, an alligator attacked a 13-year-old boy and his father at Mac Pond in Wallisville, Texas, not far from where Mr. King died in 1836. Both father and son were hospitalized. Then, in June 2016, an alligator killed a 2-year-old boy at Disney’s ritzy Grand Floridian Resort. The victim was building a sandcastle when a 7-foot gator bit his head and dragged him into a lagoon. With developments in Southeast Texas, Louisiana, and Florida springing up around bayous, lakes, ponds, and canals, we are intruding into the alligator’s natural habitat, creating more opportunities for encounters between man and beast.
Brian drowned his sorrows in Kessler whiskey following his brother’s death. He declined interview requests, didn’t watch the news or read the paper. Already a light social media user — he lurks, never posts, on Facebook and had never heard of Twitter until I mentioned it — he went completely dark during this time. "The whole public aspect did not bother me one bit because I am not a public person and didn’t allow negativity like that to bring me down," he says. "I didn’t view it. I didn’t want to be nowhere around it." And when reporters knocked on |
riere della Sera on Tuesday in a front-page article about the latest strike. "Today there is a payment for leaning over. Next they will be asking extra for putting on a leotard or standing on tiptoes."
The strike comes as generous funding to Italy's 14 opera houses is reduced. La Scala is one of the few to break even, but it has lost €7m in public subsidy this year thanks to austerity cuts.
"Without offending the nobility of art, is anyone looking at what is going on outside La Scala and feeling ashamed at these surreal events?" asked Corriere della Sera.
The theatre spokesman said problems behind the scenes at La Scala were usually ironed out at the last minute, just in time for opening night. "By the first performance things are perfect – it is a characteristic of La Scala and maybe Italy," he said. "But this time the demands made by performers were just too high."Portland police are investigating a drive-by shooting that occurred Monday night at Mount Scott Park in Southeast Portland.
Multiple reports of shots fired were reported at 9:38 p.m at Mount Scott Park located at Southeast 72nd Avenue and Harold Street.
Officers located evidence of gunfire, and witnesses told police that multiple rounds were fired into the park from a vehicle along the 74th Avenue side of the park.
Witnesses told police that 40 to 50 kids and teenagers were in the park at the time of the shooting, many of whom left the park before officers arrived on scene.
At this point, no gunshot victims have been located, and none have arrived at any Portland hospitals.
The Gang Enforcement Team is conducting the investigation.
Anyone with information about gang or gun crimes in the City of Portland is encouraged to provide information to the Portland Police Bureau's Tactical Operations Division at 503-823-4106. Tips on gun crimes can be emailed to GunTaskForce@portlandoregon.gov.
-- Kasia HallBy Phoenix of Elder Mountain (eldermountaindreaming@gmail.com) – I am a Molfarka and Szeptucha (pronounced: Shep-too-hah), a Wind Whisperer and Dreamer (Shaman). These all mean the same thing to varying degrees, so it gives me great pleasure to share and gather other wonderful information of the traditional Whispering and Shamanic Folk Healing rites from various sources and my own experiences as a Dreamer (shaman).
Along with my extensive practices, my ancestral lineages are from my families region of southeastern Poland at the Ukraine border. Most people learn shamanistic cultural ways from researchers, authors and conference circuit people who are wonderful writers and speakers but not life and soulborn initiated shamans.
I don’t really teach people to be shamans, that is impossible for real shamans, I don’t sing shaman songs because there are none, we are speaking of the shaman, not the voice of information of the one who holds a drum in their hand or the ceremonial person who gives their personal wisdom, or the sweat lodge person, or pagan ceremony leader…
We are speaking of one who masters silence and has lifelong sicknesses, soul sickness and the wrath of the souls shattered apart in the tradition, to reconfigure death and put the self back together. This is to overcome in order to leave the body naturally (without shamanic plant/drug) in order to reclaimed their own shattered life over lifetimes to return their medicines from the past. And then help others and their sicknesses that effects their mind, emotional body or physical body.
Shamans are very different than Medicine people (shaman practitioners) as shamans were rare on the planet a million years ago and they are rare still rare today The root all shamans is of course a healer but the realms of that reality, goes way beyond normal, even compared to the shamans who are whisperers. My grandmothers were of the ancient shamanic lineage but they too suffered from loss of original medicines. As by birth I am closer to the dreamers, which are the black shamans of Siberia and we all have ancestors who were shamans in our lineage way back, but that doesn’t mean the goal should be shaman, it means the goal should be healing the self if one wishes to attain the origin of self.
Once the Black Madonna was “regulated” by christian religions, the Slavic and Balkan people fell asleep and forgot she was a black shaman, because religion rolled her into the ‘mother goddess’ role, when her roots and origins had nothing to do with children in general, the imprint on our soul was branded and it hurt. To undo such branding of our soul, that hurts just as much to reclaim and remember who we are. The same process of corruption had occurred with Baba Jaga, the grandmother lineage of the winter goddess, who was a much more archaic shaman figure but now imprisoned in the fairy-tales of life. For those who wish to enter deeper into baba jaga here is an article you may wish to read: https://eldermountaindreaming.com/2015/08/23/baba-yaga-the-black-shaman/
Carpathian Shamanism, although given different names explained here, is a long ancestral lineage where Slovak, Poland and Ukraine meet. The root of the Whisperer as a shaman (not witch). Witch and Shaman really only have a few things in common but are very different, the first difference is paganism, the root of witches if a Dionysus cult foundation and that arrived late on the time-line (500 bce) compared to shamans in the non-pagan cultures such as shamans and dreamers. There maybe some similarities in objects or tools, but at the root its not the same. Witch was a derogatory term given to women, all women (shamans, witches, herbalists, midwives, seers, etc) by Christian religious men all over the world.
Mol’farka (and Molfars) are similar to Whisperer which is a folk healer (medicine-healer) and both are still from the past or modern times, all shamans are healers regardless of ancient and modern corruptions of descriptions. Since i have a blending of both (Poland-Ukraine border ancestors), one which switched borders back and forth over the eras, my ancestral heritage is shaman, not witch, and is why whisperers and molfars are connected to this lineage but most are not the depth of it because the era before the sixties did not support the awakenings. They are not exactly the same, but the root is connected through shamanism.
Mol’farka (Molfar) can whisper for the sick all the way to the more shamanic ends of whispering in ceremonial rights of what I can do, called Wind Whisperer, I can slay demons, bind them and send them back to the underworld with consciousness in waking or night dreaming. The traditions of shamans in the Slavic traditions have come from an ancient past of the Boyko (Бойко) which is a Polish and Ukrainian ethnographic group located in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine and Poland who have hidden in small villages women and men who still practice their folk traditions of shamanism. Although most whisperers, whats left of shamanism is closer to the Eastern Poles.
They inhabit the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine across such regions as the southern Lviv Oblast (Skole, Turka, Drohobych, Sambir and Stary Sambir raions), western Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (Dolyna and Rozhniativ) and parts of the northeastern Zakarpattia oblast (Mizhhiria), as well as the adjacent areas of southeast Poland and northeast Slovakia.
Parts of Southern Poland at the Ukraine border at one time were Ukrainian lands, and when the lands were divided, some far southern groups of Polish people have Ukrainian ancestral lineages like myself. The term “Ukrainian” replaced the term “Ruthenian” in Eastern Ukraine and became more common among Western Ruthenians/Ukrainians, including Boykos, as well. The name, “Boyko” is thought by some to originate in a pattern of speech, specifically the uses of the affirmative exclamation “bo-ye!”, meaning the only or because it is so.
On the grounds forming Boyko, there are Boykos with Lemkos and Hutsuls in an area that was known as White Croatia and with their dialect, language, folk costumes are almost equal with Dinaric Croatian and it is to be considered as Croatian ethnic group.
To the south or southwest live the Lemkos and to east or southeast live the Hutsuls, the two other highlander ethnic and more indigenous Ukraine people. In regards to both the corruption of ancient cultures from the kingdoms of religious military and pagan traditions, who like the religious took on a more male leadership, despite their destruction it had on the earlier pre-12th century indigenous people. The Molfarka (women) and Molfar (men) (мольфа́р) still exists of course but as I stated, all shamans are rare even in larger populated areas.
A Molfar is a lighter version of shaman, more like a medicine woman or medicine man, which are just called Carpathian Folk Healer. Most Slavs and Balkans call their gifted shamans Folk Healers and the terms can really be thought of as a lesser shaman, even the ones who are called Witch healers. In the more indigenous traditions of the Hutsul cultures or Rusyns etc., they still call themselves folk healers even if they have shaman tendencies. When religions arrived, the shaman name was eventually called witches or folk healer, because most healer shamans were women. That is why the traditions were lost and only left in the smaller Slav and Balkan indigenous villages.
Gifted healing abilities which tend to focus more on faith, combined with nature are much more powerful. This is what the whisperers and folk healers are. When you add personal healing and abilities of seership and herbalist gifts, and the inseparable relations with nature, this created a more supernatural soul healing effects. Shamanic ways still survive in Balkan and Slavic hearts or at least the ones who have the gifts themselves undeveloped. The faith healers of Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia etc. tended to mix both religion and natural holistic gifts together which made their healing for emotional body and mental body issues.
The few people who are born to enter a more advanced path of the shamans destiny, on top of the supernatural healing abilities, also added dreaming abilities to reconnect to the Slavic and Balkan earlier pre-religious shamanic tradition. As the pagans had risen to power which was the same time the religious men were rising to power, both excluded women, which excluded the origin of goddess cultures, which is the core of shamanism. Then with only male shamans, the whole shamanic traditions were corrupted under this influence.
Now that 2012 has come, the patriarchal pagan and religion cultures are on the down turn and the rising origin shamanic (but non drug or plant shamanism), can rise again. The opportunity to explore more self healing to reclaim and step into origin pre-religious traditions and pre-shaman plant traditions. Some of us like myself are doing it already and have 40 years of practice and purity and help those who wish to do shamanism through sobriety. If the new kids on earth find themselves dairy and lactose and wheat intolerant, so too will the true shamans returning be allergic to shamanic plants and shamanic drugs. That is an absolute because their ancient soul will reject them.
People who are of the Slavic and Carpathian and have “less religious influence” will be able to allow the more ancestral (prehistory) traditions and even those who had to move around the world and leave their country who are Slavic and Balkan, will find interest in such ancient traditions again and explore them like I did as I was entering adulthood. Because I was born a natural shaman, I, like all real shamans must undo horrific soul sickness with is an ancestral rite, in order to fulfill their destiny.
We don’t really understand the depth of our nature until after our forties but we can try to survive what happens to us as real shamans. When our shift really begins to open the second half of our life, then initiations of the shamanic realities can occur, but one must be free of any illusion causing substance, like alcohol, pot, shamanic plants etc.
This is when most people have to integrate the previous twenty years and bring their life into a much deeper respect for their spiritual path and the deeper understanding of the nature of our ancestral lineages and nature herself. Mother earth and even our souls do not reveal much to us in our twenties and thirties.
There are different names according to the respective cultures, such as in Poland the women shamans are sometimes called witches and also called Szeptuchami, the Polish & Belarus Folk Healers are called Whisperers (which some have undertones of shamanic gifts as well). Like their Ukraine Molfarka, Molfar neighbors, more Polish women are beginning to return to the roots of their ancient practices of healing that existed before the spread modern religion just as the men are returning to Paganism.
A commonality within all of these cultures is that the origin shamanic root base of all these cultures contain whispering. Many of the older women and men still have a devout faith in their Catholic or Christian faith healing traditions, but newer generations like myself do not and this allowed me to explore further without judgment or taboos of shamanism. I knew as a little girl that the religion tradition was not for me, even though
I was very spiritual and that my father had out of body experiences as well as myself – which made me respect all religious, pagans, native americans, and shamanic and goddess cultures equally, not in knowledge but in practices. The more open I was to all traditions of earth, the more I saw at the root of shamanism within them, lost but small gems which were hard to see until I became much more conscious and had much more dedicated awareness, they were all the same at the core.
The rarer Molfar and Szeptuchami are exorcists as well, but again the church took over this tradition and so not many have performed them because people will just go to a priest instead because of the lack of education. A whisperer works with sicknesses of the soul that effect the physical body, and things that effect the physical body are generally the last of the illness to appear. If one has a karmic issue, then the physical body might have isolated issues of sickness of the body without the mental or emotional issues. But even within that, the past life soul issues is basically what has caused the current reincarnations physical issues and this of course is called Karma. The emotional body and the blocks of the mental body cannot be separated and I teach my students that to touch this in another, they must be willing to touch it within themselves and open it up to be a powerful healer, regardless of whether they are fated to be a shaman or a healer.
The depth and mystery of ancient healing in my eyes is a seed within the self that can be nurtured and walked with as a living (healing) art, and why herbalists, ceremonial shamans must be completely dedicated to the devotion of their own path and also make small sacrifices. A shaman must make major sacrifices and doesn’t have a choice. Many wish to be my friend, but too many things will surface if I accept ordinary friendships as a shaman and I can only enter peoples spaces who need healing because of that. So, that is just one of the many sacrifices shamans must make and that is true of Balkan and Slavic shamans.
The Slavic Shaman like the Native American or Aboriginal Indigenous shamans (those whose souls are fated to be shamans) are able to step into and enter the energy of both the earth along with the magical living soul of all humans who wishes to become well. We can pass through the veils and enter the natural forces from the inner spaces in both time (our mundane life) along side the no-time (dreaming or dreamtime), if one is advanced beyond the mental body. A Whisperer who is also is a dreamer, can become one with the natural or nature’s forces and have a real relationship with the consciousness of nature herself if they can pass the life tests and purify karma of their dark past lives. Then a Whisperer or Mol’farka can enter the shamans realms.
Most people are aware of Kupala, or Ivana Kupala, the summer solstice rites. But before paganism, the sacred flower was an initiation rite during this solstice season and it was for women only, not maidens, but women and those mysteries and secrets I carry for my female apprentices. There are many folk legends of weather shamans and magic in shamanism of the Slavic and Balkan traditions, but I do not separate folk lore from shamanism or animism in many traditional Slavic folk magic stories because at the core, most of them are real and true.
I underwent the summer solstice traditions of the Slavic Vesta (the Sacred Flower of Immortality) initiations and that has nothing to do with men or marriage. Ancestral lore and legend at the core, if you cast out all the other pagan, or religious parts that are not needed which is about 95%. I have found in the supernatural world pre-cultural 4th century a shamanic reality and because as a dream walker I can access the past, I have seen and experienced the pre-patriarchal reality of our shamanic and dream culture past.
Men and women who are powerful healers, are fated by birth and they may not even know or understand this until their 30s or even 40s when they have some life skills and experiences already. Through many previous lives, soul accumulations of purified karma, a life of purity, and undergoing fated initiations adds to the Ukrainian Mol’farka (and those around the world like them) because for thousand of years as human beings, we have been able to enter the non-physical aspects of diseases or spaces in what is called dreams.
Viking, Medieval and Archaic Pagan magicians attributed these qualities to the gods, but in more archaic and advanced shamanic forms, some Szeptuchami and Molfarka possess the same qualities as their shaman counterparts, who connect to the natural power of nature, and their own more powerful higher souls. Humans don’t seem to understand that waking up spiritually gives us a view into our higher and multiple animism souls. All paganism and religion did was create a middle man between the god and goddess, removing it from our inner god and inner goddess called the higher self, the divine self. This too is part of shamanism.
Shamanism is completely opposite of traditional 12th -15th century magick which is based on controlling the elements or to use spells to control and manifest. Shamanism is the opposite which is about letting go of all control and power and let nature guide and teach. In Slavic shamanism, those who misuse spiritual power find sooner or later that ego, pride, power or being popular or famous in spirituality, has no real place in real mysticism or shamanism.
As an example, I was at a native american gathering in the Pacific Northwest for a peace ceremony, with some very powerful native elders who hosted many nations of tribes. I never really go to any of these things anymore since I turned 40 but something strong within me called me to go. I realized what it was, when I arrived, and saw a young Norse man about 35 years old and his girlfriend, who worked with the Viking pagan tradition and had been invited to be in the ceremonial with the elders.
I was just a visitor to this event and I had walked up to the young man and his girlfriend and said that the Native Americans do not treat their “sacred fires” like the Balkan or Slavic people do and shared with him how to respect their fire since he didn’t know. He was doing an energy healing on his girlfriend and throwing the residue into the fire an hour before the ceremony started.
As an elder, I was very shocked by his disrespect to my helpful information and his girlfriend became very fearful at those moments as she obviously understood that his ego had gotten in the way or that they were not really who they pretended to be. Since in his own country, pagan men rule and not many elder women have power over shamanic ceremony, rare do these older men ever invite grandmother to the power circles to lead the ceremonies. But this was not the case this day and during the ceremony when it was the Viking Pagan man’s turn to do his ritual in front of everyone in the greater circle, he happened to be directly facing me in the outer ring of people.
Since I am not a pagan, but a shaman, mystic and healer, I have never done one spell, nor influenced anything of individuals without their permission, because I carry very high ethics and values, nor do I wish to accrue karma from a whole life of paying karma off, plus I slayed my own ego from many circles of healing and healers I went to and elders I worked with when I was his age and honored them very much. During his 10 minute ceremony, there was a big cracking sound in the fire and it flamed up behind him, the same fire pit I tried to explain to him, and at that precise moment, his sacred bag around his hip fell to the ground. Then about a minute later his sacred Nordic Viking symbol necklace, flew off his body and landed about ten feet away.
I then saw the fear in his face, he was trying to stay focused but could not, he looked down (as he had his hands up praying to his gods with his eyes closed) and as he looked forward by the disturbances, he caught my eyes looking at him as he began to look away from the sky in his prayers. I put my hand in the prayer position and bowed and we locked eyes, without any facial expression nor intent except knowing that the youth are not powerful, they are victorious (over their own personal shadow if they work that instead of popularity and ego, which this young man worked from).
The intensity of really pure healers and really powerful shamans are sometimes ostracized in many pagan and socio-religious or socio-spiritual societies still, this happens to them most of their life, but this is for a good reason. Those who are dedicated to such practices will always endure because they are tested over and over again by fate and the shamans, molfarka, whisperers are given much more pain and severe consequences for their actions, much more than other healers or spiritual people.
True ancient paths are rarely attainable to their full extent without severe suffering, and the most difficult are very hard to attain, for a whole life must be dedicated to it. For the true shamans and folk healers, fate is absolutely necessary for advancement in mysticism and spiritual growth and the burning of karma. Who would chose such depth of pain for such a profession willingly? No one but the fated.
Contemporary shamans, plant shamans and most shaman practitioners are trained in schools, or by book writers or online including plant (drug) shamans, and they tend not to encounter those of us who are initiated by fire, rain, thunderstorms, or demons, demonic tests etc and therefor do not respond to the levels of responsibilities in an everyday way of life that whisperer and real shamans do. Believe me when I say, that is a blessing that they do not to suffer such horrific wrathful dismemberment and shadows sides of mysticism and the dark decades of the souls purification of shamans. Power that is grounded, disciplined, 100% sober and free from ego and a life of total dedication requires decades and lifetimes of purification. This shows the magical sides of Slavic shamanism at its best when taken seriously and the path is a do… or die.
The Belarus Whisperers
Babka Yanina, Belarus Whisperer (pictured above): “My husband was seriously ill for a very long time; nothing helped him. The doctors said that they could not do anything for him. I began to whisper in the water and gave him this water to drink – and then he got better. After this people from the neighboring villages and towns came to me and asked me to whisper in the water. Now I am very old and whispering takes a lot of energy. I have to go into the forest to gather strength. That makes me feel better and I can carry on.
Babka Yanina, Belarus Whisperer: “My uncle taught me to whisper. He was a powerful sorcerer. He knew words that you could say to paralyse a snake. I am able to heal tumours, fears, nerves and stammering. I attained my gift when I became blind.”
Babka Nadzeja, Belarus Whisperer: “My mother’s gift was feared because of the times she lived in: the Soviet government did not recognise anything holy. During the war I fought as a partisan against the Nazis, and then worked in the school. People would laugh at me when they found out about my gift but when they asked for help I could not refuse them. Sadly, I could not help my family, Whispers only can help strangers in our family tradition.”
Babka Stasia, Belarus Whisperer: “My Catholic family was very religious, but I lost my mother when I was three and my father when I was seven, and I became an orphan. Most whisperers are Orthodox not Catholic. When I was older my mother-in-law and two old women in my village taught me to whisper, and how to burn threads and use smoke (smudge) to heal people.“
Babka Fiadora, Belarus Whisperer: “I never went to school, not even once. When I was young times were hard, and children had to work. For 12 years I looked after cows in return for food. It was my grandmother who showed me how to use herbs and taught me to whisper. It was all word of mouth, because I can’t read. I only treat people when I know I will be able to help them.”
Babka Katia, Belarus Whisperer: “There was a communist in our village called Misha. One day he mowed the grass near the river and he was bitten by a snake. He became really ill and was close to death. He sent his wife to me, to ask for help. I was scared because he was a Communist. They disliked us believers so much; they mocked us, closed churches and sent priests to Siberia. But I could not say no, so I whispered in the water and he drank it and he got better. I don’t know if Misha ever believed in God but he knew the power of the word.”
Babka Vanda, Belarus Whisperer: Her eyes like shiny buttons, hair tucked beneath a headscarf, dressed in a floral-print blouse, told photographer Siarhiej Leskiec a story about her grandmother. She was thought to be a witch, Babka Vanda said, and the local priest had forbidden her from treating people—until, that is, he was bitten by an adder. She whispered words into the wind, and he was cured. She eventually passed that power, to heal through whispers, to Babka Vanda.
The Hungarian Lidercz and Táltos – Shamanistic remnants in Hungarian folklore
I wanted to add this last part, the Hungarian Lidercz, because comparative methods used in analyzing ethnographic data of Hungarian folktales, reveal some features of Hungarian folklore which are remnants of the older shamanistic beliefs. Táltos are remnants of Hungary’s pre-Christian shamanic pre-pagan culture, but are only in folklore today.
I read from a book translated from Hungarian to English, really described more paganism than it did shamanism. The Táltos is a woman in Hungarian mythology which means shaman, from the book “Magyar mitológia” Hungarian Mythology from 1854, a táltos is in direct contact with celestials and animism souls during the pre-natal period before incarnation. Once born, the Táltos has a special mission in life to help the souls of other members of her society and this a standard for all female shamans of Balkan and Slavic ancestral lineages. and it is by fate of her birth that she carries the shaman power.
All women who are destined to be shamans, are apprentices to life or elder shamans in their 20s, 30s and 40s and its not until they enter their 50s would they even dare to call themselves a shaman. This was true then and its true now. For real shamans the initiation processes are deadly and cause great grief and pain in childhood, adult years and even into elder stages. Understanding the differences between karmic purification pain and shamanic pain is an extraordinary difficult thing to do unless you have lived it and are still alive by elder.
There is a reason most of the cultural shamanism of Balkan and Slavic traditions are rarer and this is because these traditions were held by women and of course as women were pushed out by religious corruptions and pagan leadership of men, so too were their shamanic traditions. Only in the more or most remote areas and mostly hush hush do these traditions survive.
Some information about the Hungarian shamanic traditions were maintained from the deep past, possibly borrowed from Turkic peoples with whom Hungarians used to live together before having wandered to the Pannonian Basin; and maybe is an effect of Eastern influence thereafter (Cuman immigration).
Places where these remnants exist, like many Slavic and Balkan shamanism as well…
1. refrains of certain folk songs accompanying some customs;
2. certain motifs of folktales, e.g. sky-reaching tree, which was a specific belief among several Uralic peoples, having some resemblances to the world tree concept, but it was also related to the shaman’s tree and had some other peculiarities as well.
There are also people who filled in similar roles to those performed by shamans among other peoples: such as fortune-tellers, weather magic, finding lost objects, seers and herbal healers, but those too were later pagan traditions (except for herbal healers). These people can be related to shamanism (contrasted to the cunning folk of non-shamanistic cultures), because the former are recorded to go through similar experiences to expansion of consciousness, really are not those of many shamans.
The folk and oral traditions of those born with surplus amount of bones or teeth, illnesses and sicknesses of distortion and perception distortions (seeing things that are not there by normal people), dismemberment by a mythological, supernatural and celestial beings, recovering with enlarged increased capabilities, struggles with other shamans etc are all related features can be recognized in several examples of shamanism in Siberia. This is true of all shamans.
As Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic family, we can expect to find them among Uralic peoples. Some of them maintained shamanism until the modern times, especially the isolated location of Nganasan people enabled that shamanism was a living phenomenon among them even in the beginning of 20th century, the last notable Nganasan shaman’s work could be recorded on film in the 1970s. The original location of the Proto-Uralic peoples (and its extent) is debated.
The combined results of several sciences suggest that this area was north of Central Ural Mountains and on lower and middle parts of Ob River. This approach combined ecological, namely phytogeographical and paleobotanic (including palynological) data together with linguistic (phytonymic and comparative) considerations: the distribution of various tree species in Siberia and Eastern Europe (changing in time) was matched against the distribution of the respective tree-names in various Uralic languages (filtered with comparative methods, so that only names of Proto-Uralic or Proto-Finno-Ugric relevance be taken into account).”
The Polish Whisperers
Folk Healers of Eastern Poland by Marek Kępa
An elderly lady is wearing clothes that wouldn’t seem out of place in a peasant scene from a late 19th-century painting. She’s holding her hand over the head of a young woman as she utters a strange chant, one that’s hard to understand. Yet one can discern some of it. A little later she pours hot wax into a pot of cold water and presents the solidified contents, stating that getting rid of them will ease her guest’s problems. Then the elder puts a piece of cloth on the young woman’s head and burns a small amount of raw flax fibre on top of it – a procedure that’s equally spectacular as it is risk-free. Shortly afterwards, she says she’s done and wishes her guest good health.
The above isn’t an episode taken from some oneiric fantasy story. It actually happened, as documented in a film clip entitled Szeptunka z Podlasia (editor’s translation: The Whisperer from Podlasie). Filmed just a few years back by Paweł Kołaczkowski and Kaja Palusińska, this healing séance performed by the now-deceased Paraskiewa Artemiuk, a whisperer or folk healer who lived in Poland’s eastern region of Podlasie, is surprisingly an event from the 21st century.
Szeptucha – A white magic woman
Szeptucha (pronounced: Shep-too-hah) or sometimes szeptunka, which translates as ‘whisperer’ or ‘one who whispers’, is a term used to describe traditional Polish woman-healers practicing predominantly in Podlasie, and less noted in other parts of the country, e.g. Roztocze and Podkarpacie. Their story is closely linked to Poland’s eastern frontier, an area influenced by mysticism and, in its central part, by the Belarusian language. Due to the peculiar healing rituals the whisperers perform, they are sometimes compared to shamans and the really powerful ones are shamans but the tradition of folk peasant cultures just call them whisperers. But it ought to be said that the ‘magic’ they allegedly use is meant to be ‘white’ not ‘black’, aimed to do good, not wrong. Most importantly, and this is how the healers got their name, they pray for the health of their patients, whispering and otherwise uttering various Christian prayers of Orthodox provenance. These are delivered in a peculiar mix of Polish, Belarussian and Old Church Slavonic, which makes it hard for someone not privy to this composite dialect to understand them. Here’s an example of a whisperer’s healing prayer (translated by some learned soul) taken from a Polish Radio broadcast entitled Whisperers:
Evil ghost! Don’t wake the man up, don’t crush his bones, don’t dry up his blood, don’t touch the veins…From veins, from body, bones and eyes, from legs and hands and from urinary tracts take off herpes, psoriasis, stains and growths… It is believed that the ability to heal through whispering is a gift from God, a gift whose origin can be traced all the way back to Jesus, himself a healer who used words. But even though the whisperers are devout Orthodox believers, they do have pre-Christian folk chants in their medicinal repertoire. Moreover, they perform bizarre ceremonial actions during their séances, like the already-mentioned burning of flax and pouring of wax into water. Among the practice’s classic therapies, you can also find rubbing an ill body with a glass filled with wood ashes and neatly wrapped in a napkin.
Due to these near-pagan rituals, the Orthodox Church doesn’t approve of whispering, but not in a particularly stringent manner: for example, a prominent whisperer is known to have been admitted to a church choir.
Holding divine powers within and using it for healing
When He entered Capernaum a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible agony!’ ‘I will come and heal him,’ He told him. ‘Lord’ the centurion replied, ‘I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But only say the word, and my servant will be cured (…)’. Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, ‘I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith! (…) Then Jesus told the centurion, ‘Go.As you have believed, let it be done for you.’ And his servant was cured that very moment.But even though the whisperers’ faith is profound, it has its limitations. They believe that their prayers and rituals can treat only a handful of illnesses. For example, the full paralysis described in the biblical quotation, and other serious conditions, is out of their reach. This is probably because they were influenced by the restrictive religions of woman’s power, but those days are gone now in other parts of the world where Polish women have the freedom to go all the way in their shamanic gifts.
A being existing within the human body
So what are the conditions the whisperers believe they can treat? First off, there is przewianie or ‘the chills’ – shivers or even physical pain caused by a cold wind. Róża or ‘rose’ is a reddening of the skin, also a rash, though it oughtn’t be confused with similar official skin diseases like Erysipelas. Przestrach or ‘fright’ is a kind of agitation caused by an abrupt, unpleasant event.Urok which stands for ‘charm’, is when someone is, as the name implies, under the influence of a bad charm cast by somebody else. Finally there’s nerw-kołtun or the ‘nerve-plait’, a complex notion, explained in the following quote taken from an article published in Białostocki Medyk (Białystok Medic), the journal of the Medical University of Białystok, by ethnologist and whisperers expert Małgorzata Anna Charyton:This complex conviction encompasses traditional folk psychology modernised by the whisperers. (…) I’ve portrayed the plait – a folk illness that’s caused by the activation of an idle being existing within the human body. Historically, that being was called a ‘gościec’ [ed: guestlin]. Today the whisperers relate the disease-causing mechanism of irritation to nervousness, anxiety. The syndromes of this strange condition are said to include insomnia, abdominal pains and a general weakness of the body. Even if these descriptions don’t seem convincing from a medical standpoint, one should remember that the whisperers intention is to bring good into the world. They believe their gift is an obligation – since they’ve received it gratis from up above, they should share it with others here on Earth free of charge too. They haven’t invented all of this as a scam to obtain money.
In fact, a whisperer might even feel offended if you offered her |
has moved on a lot since this article - some methods may not work
{ // Versions "react-native" : "0.4.0" }
As a JavaScript developer, I would’ve never thought that I could make native mobile applications easily in JavaScript. Sure, we have tools such as PhoneGap, but wrapping our browser based application in native application leaves a lot to be desired.
It’s all changed now - the React team over at Facebook have released React Native. This not only allows us to use the React framework to create applications that utilise native mobile components, but it does that all in real time - meaning that we don’t have to recompile our applications as we develop on them - this makes it incredibly easy to create mobile apps! Luckily I got to preview React Native in its beta and even since then it’s progressed massively.
Please note that currently iOS is supported. You will therefore need to be running OS X with XCode in order to follow this tutorial.
If you haven’t had a chance to learn React, take a look at my tutorial to get started with it.
It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean we can write code once and use it everywhere. Trying to do that can be disastrous as the level of abstraction would be insane. Instead, React Native allows us to learn once, write everywhere.
Going back to 2004
If you have watched The Social Network you will remember FaceMash, the application that kicked off Facebook. For those who haven’t watched, 11 years ago (wow) Mark Zuckerberg created FaceMash, an application where you could view two people and rate which one is hotter. Each person would have a score (although the original algorithm is unknown, the movie shows the Elo rating algorithm being used) that reflected how “hot” they are.
Here it is in all it’s glory -
Let’s go full circle - we’re going to be recreating FaceMash in React Native. If you think it’s immoral to rate girls on their looks, feel free to change the pictures to something else that you find attractive (dogs, snippets of code, etc, I’m not judging you).
Creating our app
You can clone the start repo here if you wish. This isn’t necessary, however there different branches of the code at different stages just in case you get lost!
Houston, we have lift off
If you haven’t cloned the repo, we need to setup our base project. React Native allows us to quickly start up a project with the react-native-cli npm package CLI. If you don’t have it installed, quickly run
npm install -g react-native-cli
And then we can get started.
Navigate to a folder in the terminal and run
react-native init FaceMash
This will create our base application ready for us to dig in and add to.
Open it up
Launch XCode and navigate to the directory you created the application in. From here, we will need to open up facemash.xcodeproj.
React Native supports us working in both the iOS Simulator and our actual iOS devices.
I will be developing in the iOS Simulator as it allows more rapid application development - we can press Command + R to refresh the application when we make changes to our JavaScript, or we can be super lazy and enable live reloading via the developer menu (accessible via Command + Control + Z ). We can even debug our code in the Chrome developer tools.
If you wish to develop the application using your iOS device, you will need to be on the same network as your computer. By default, React Native will look at localhost for the JavaScript so you will need to point it to your computer.
We can do this by editing the AppDelegate.m file and changing localhost to our local IP. You can find this on OS X by Alt + Click -ing the wireless menu.
We can now run our application. The application will open in whatever target you’ve picked in XCode. When we click run, a terminal process will also spawn running npm start in the directory of our application. If you don’t wish to run the app through XCode, make sure you run npm start. This will create a local web server on port 8081 which points to our compiled JavaScript code and also watch and recompile our code on save.
I’m running the application in a simulated iPhone 6, running at a 50% scale.
There we go, we’ve got a blank canvas with so much room for activities!
Taking a peek
Let’s take a look at the code it takes to render what we can see in the screenshot above. Open up index.ios.js.
index.ios.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 /** * Sample React Native App * https://github.com/facebook/react-native */ 'use strict' ; var React = require ('react-native' ); var { AppRegistry, StyleSheet, Text, View, } = React ; var facemash = React. createClass ({ render : function () { return ( < View style = { styles. container } > < Text style = { styles. welcome } > Welcome to React Native! < /Text> < Text style = { styles. instructions } > To get started, edit index. ios. js < /Text> < Text style = { styles. instructions } > Press Cmd + R to reload,{ '
' } Cmd + Control + Z for dev menu < /Text> < /View> ); } }); var styles = StyleSheet. create ({ container : { flex : 1, justifyContent : 'center', alignItems : 'center', backgroundColor : '#F5FCFF', }, welcome : { fontSize : 20, textAlign : 'center', margin : 10, }, instructions : { textAlign : 'center', color : '#333333', marginBottom : 5, }, }); AppRegistry. registerComponent ( 'facemash', () => facemash );
You can close your mouth now - yes, that is all it takes to render our application. Looks familiar, doesn’t it?
React Native vs the browser
Not all of React Native matches what you would’ve been using with React in the browser. However, the differences between the two are so minuscule there’s no need to worry about them.
Instead of using block elements such as div or section, we use the View component in React Native. This maps over to the native iOS component UIView.
or, we use the component in React Native. This maps over to the native iOS component. All text must be wrapped inside the Text component
component No stylesheets - all your styling is written as JavaScript objects
We don’t need to worry about what is browser compatibility - ES6 harmony is supported out of the box as well as flexbox
Get to work
We’re going to start by clearing out the stylesheet and render function of our React component. Ideally, to get a basic feeling of React Native, we’re going to try and use as many different components as we can.
Let’s start off with the TabBarIOS component. You might recognise the TabBar component, used in some of the core iOS apps such as Clock and Photos.
index.ios.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 var React = require ('react-native' ); var { AppRegistry, StyleSheet, Text, View, TabBarIOS } = React ; var facemash = React. createClass ({ getInitialState () { return { selectedTab : 'faceMash' } }, render : function () { return ( < TabBarIOS > < TabBarIOS. Item title = "FaceMash" icon = { require ( 'image!facemash' ) } selected = { this. state. selectedTab === 'faceMash' } > < View style = { styles. pageView } > < Text > Face Mash < /Text> < /View> < /TabBarIOS.Item> < TabBarIOS. Item title = "Messages" icon = { require ( 'image!messages' ) } selected = { this. state. selectedTab ==='messages' } > < View style = { styles. pageView } > < Text > Messages < /Text> < /View> < /TabBarIOS.Item> < TabBarIOS. Item title = "Settings" icon = { require ( 'image!settings' ) } selected = { this. state. selectedTab ==='settings' } > < View style = { styles. pageView } > < Text > Settings < /Text> < /View> < /TabBarIOS.Item> < /TabBarIOS> ); } }); var styles = StyleSheet. create ({ pageView : { backgroundColor : '#fff', flex : 1 } }); // omitted code
Look at that! You’ll notice that the text is currently over the status bar, but don’t worry, we’ll fix that later on.
The TabBarIOS component uses TabBarIOS.Item for each of its children. We’re going to have three pages - the page where you rate people, a messages list and a settings page.
The TabBarIOS.Item must have one child. This will be the contents of the page that has been selected (you can see us setting selected to true/false depending on the state of the component).
Obviously, a tab bar wouldn’t look good without icons. There are a few system icons you can use, however if you use them the text of the tab also changes to match the icon. Instead, we can use our own icons. To import a local image asset in React Native, you can use require and prepend the asset name with image!.
I’m using icons that are available free, under the CC 3.0 licence, from flaticon.
Using Static Images
To add a static image for React Native, open up XCode. In the Project Navigator (the first icon on the left hand pane), open up Images.xcassets. All your images will sit here.
This allows us to keep all our assets under one name, whilst providing different images for both each resolution, and even device specific images.
Images must follow a strict naming convention. Use the asset name (such as messages or settings ) and append it with the resolution it should be displayed at. For instance, I’m building my application for an iPhone 6 so I would use the @2x resolution.
Once you’ve named your image file correctly, drag and drop it into the left hand page in Images.xcassets.
You can then use require('image!assetname') in React Native!
Back to the code
The next logical step is to set up our main component to allow switching between tabs. We can do this by just setting the state when the user clicks on it. TabBarIOS.Item allows us to give it an onPress property, which we can use to detect when a user taps on the tab.
index.ios.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 // omitted code var facemash = React. createClass ({ getInitialState () { return { selectedTab : 'faceMash' } }, changeTab ( tabName ) { this. setState ({ selectedTab : tabName }); }, render : function () { return ( < TabBarIOS > < TabBarIOS. Item title = "FaceMash" icon = { require ( 'image!facemash' ) } onPress = { () => this. changeTab ( 'faceMash' ) } selected = { this. state. selectedTab === 'faceMash' } > < View style = { styles. pageView } > < Text > Face Mash < /Text> < /View> < /TabBarIOS.Item> < TabBarIOS. Item title = "Messages" icon = { require ( 'image!messages' ) } onPress = { () => this. changeTab ('messages' ) } selected = { this. state. selectedTab ==='messages' } > < View style = { styles. pageView } > < Text > Messages < /Text> < /View> < /TabBarIOS.Item> < TabBarIOS. Item title = "Settings" icon = { require ( 'image!settings' ) } onPress = { () => this. changeTab ('settings' ) } selected = { this. state. selectedTab ==='settings' } > < View style = { styles. pageView } > < Text > Settings < /Text> < /View> < /TabBarIOS.Item> < /TabBarIOS> ); } }); // omitted code
Done! It’s that simple. Refresh your app by pressing Command + R in the iOS simulator (or recompile it via XCode if you’re developing on your device) and you’ll notice we can now tap between tabs, and the screen changes!
Although we haven’t written much code, you can check out the step-one branch, which also contains all the icons we’ve used for the tabs.
Let’s Mash
Let’s work on the FaceMash tab. We’re going to hit an endpoint to load our data using fetch. In the step-one branch, I’ve included a config.yaml file in the rest/ folder that we’re going to use to mock our endpoints using stubby. All the users in the endpoint/pictures were randomly generated at randomuser.me.
Open up your terminal and run
stubby -d rest/config.yaml
And let’s get started!
Create a new file in the folder named tabs/ called FaceMash.js and stick a basic React component in there -
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 'use strict' ; var React = require ('react-native' ); var { StyleSheet, Text, View } = React ; var facemashTab = React. createClass ({ render : function () { return ( < View style = { styles. container } > < Text > FaceMash tab! < /Text> < /View> ); } }); var styles = StyleSheet. create ({ container : { flex : 1, backgroundColor : '#fff' } }); module. exports = facemashTab ;
All we’ve got on this tab so far is a basic View component with some text inside of it. We’ve also got some basic styling for the View, to make sure that it takes up all available height/width. We’re going to add a header, purely for display purposes.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 // omitted code var facemashTab = React. createClass ({ render : function () { return ( < View style = { styles. container } > < View style = { styles. header } > < /View> < View style = { styles. content } > < Text > FaceMash tab! < /Text> < /View> < /View> ); } }); var styles = StyleSheet. create ({ container : { flex : 1, backgroundColor : '#fff' }, header : { height : 40, background : '#ff0000' } }); module. exports = facemashTab ;
Now we’re talking. However, this looks terrible as the status bar is black. Not to worry, we can change that using the StatusBarIOS API. When the changeTab function is called, we can check if the tab is the FaceMash tab. If it is, we’ll set the status bar style to 1 (white), if not we’ll set it to 0 (black).
index.ios.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 // omitted code var { AppRegistry, StyleSheet, Text, View, TabBarIOS, StatusBarIOS } = React ; var facemash = React. createClass ({..., changeTab ( tabName ) { StatusBarIOS. setStyle ( tabName === 'faceMash'? 1 : 0 ); this. setState ({ selectedTab : tabName }); },... }); // omitted code
Refresh and you’ll see a white status bar - sorted!
We can now get to hitting the endpoint and displaying our users. We’ll be using fetch, which is included for us in React Native by default.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 // omitted code var facemashTab = React. createClass ({ getInitialState : function () { return { list : [], currentIndex : 0 }; }, componentWillMount : function () { fetch ( 'http://localhost:8882/rest/mash' ). then ( res => res. json ()). then ( res => this. setState ({ list : res })); }, render : function () { return (... ); } }); // omitted code
The request will populate our state with the returned data. As the initial state is an empty array, we can check that in our render function and show the user a loading page whilst they wait.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 var { StyleSheet, Text, View, ActivityIndicatorIOS } = React ; var facemashTab = React. createClass ({..., render : function () { var contents ; if (! this. state. list. length ) { contents = ( < View style = { styles. loading } > < Text style = { styles. loadingText } > Loading < /Text> < ActivityIndicatorIOS /> < /View> ) } else { contents = ( < View style = { styles. content } > < Text > Loaded < /Text> < /View> ) } return ( < View style = { styles. container } > < View style = { styles. header } > < Text style = { styles. headerText } > FaceMash < /Text> < /View> { contents } < /View> ); } }); var styles = StyleSheet. create ({ container : { flex : 1, backgroundColor : '#fff' }, loading : { flex : 1, backgroundColor : '#fff', justifyContent : 'center', alignItems : 'center' }, loadingText : { fontSize : 14, marginBottom : 20 }, header : { height : 50, backgroundColor : '#760004', paddingTop : 20, alignItems : 'center' }, headerText : { color : '#fff', fontSize : 20, fontWeight : 'bold' } });
We will now have access to our data in this.state.list. We’ve also got what current index of that array we’re at in the state as the endpoint returns an array of objects - each object being two people that the user can rate.
As there are two people to pick from, both of which have the same data associated with them, we’re going to make a React component that will display their data.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 // omitted code var Person = React. createClass ({ render : function () { var person = this. props. person ; return ( < View style = { styles. person } > < Text > Person!< /Text> < /View> ) } }); var facemashTab = React. createClass ({ getInitialState : function () { return { list : [], currentIndex : 0 }; }, componentWillMount : function () { fetch ( 'http://localhost:8882/rest/mash' ). then ( res => res. json ()). then ( res => this. setState ({ list : res })); }, render : function () { var contents ; if (! this. state. list. length ) { contents = ( < View style = { styles. loading } > < Text style = { styles. loadingText } > Loading < /Text> < ActivityIndicatorIOS /> < /View> ) } else { var { list, currentIndex } = this. state ; var record = list [ currentIndex ]; var people = record. users. map ( person => < Person person = { person } /> ); contents = ( < View style = { styles. content } > { people } < /View> ) } return ( < View style = { styles. container } > < View style = { styles. header } > < Text style = { styles. headerText } > FaceMash < /Text> < /View> { contents } < /View> ); } }); var styles = StyleSheet. create ({..., person : { flex : 1, margin : 10, borderRadius : 3, overflow : 'hidden' } });
We’ve now got a component that mounts twice (once for each person), and the appropriate configuration passed through to it. We can now display the profile picture and the relevant user info.
Displaying external images
Unlike our tab icons, the images we are displaying for each user come from an external source. This isn’t a problem, in fact it’s even easier to display them than displaying static assets.
Instead of passing a require ‘d image through to the Image component, we just pass through an object instead. This object will have one property - uri, which points to the image we want to load.
As we’ve passed through the user information as a property named person, we can access the image URL via this.props.person.picture.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 // omitted code var Person = React. createClass ({ render : function () { var person = this. props. person ; return ( < View style = { styles. person } > < Image style = { styles. personImage } source = { { uri : person. picture } } /> < /View> ) } }); // omitted code var styles = StyleSheet. create ({... person : { flex : 1, margin : 10, borderRadius : 3, overflow : 'hidden' }, personImage : { flex : 1, height : 200 },... }); module. exports = facemashTab ;
There is also some styling needed - resizing images is incredibly easy. Similar CSS properties such as background-size can be applied to images in React Native, but we’re just going to put a height on it, and the image will be resized accordingly.
We can now add the rest of the user information.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 // omitted code var Person = React. createClass ({ render : function () { var person = this. props. person ; return ( < View style = { styles. person } > < Image style = { styles. personImage } source = { { uri : person. picture } } /> < View style = { styles. personInfo } > < Text style = { styles. personName } > { person. firstName } { person. lastName } < /Text> < View style = { styles. personScore } > < Text style = { styles. personScoreHeader } > WON < /Text> < Text style = { [ styles. personScoreValue, styles. won ] } > { person. won } < /Text> < /View> < View style = { styles. personScore } > < Text style = { styles. personScoreHeader } > LOST < /Text> < Text style = { [ styles. personScoreValue, styles. lost ] } > { person. lost } < /Text> < /View> < View style = { styles. personScore } > < Text style = { styles. personScoreHeader } > SCORE < /Text> < Text style = { styles. personScoreValue } > { person. score } < /Text> < /View> < /View> < /View> ) } }); // omitted code var styles = StyleSheet. create ({..., person : { flex : 1, margin : 10, borderRadius : 3, overflow : 'hidden' }, personInfo : { borderLeftColor : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.1 )', borderLeftWidth : 1, borderRightColor : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.1 )', borderRightWidth : 1, borderBottomColor : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.1 )', borderBottomWidth : 1, padding : 10, alignItems : 'center', flexDirection : 'row' }, personImage : { flex : 1, height : 200 }, personName : { fontSize : 18, flex : 1, paddingLeft : 5 }, personScore : { flex : 0.25, alignItems : 'center' }, personScoreHeader : { color : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.3 )', fontSize : 10, fontWeight : 'bold' }, personScoreValue : { color : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.6 )', fontSize : 16 }, won : { color : '#93C26D' }, lost : { color : '#DD4B39' } }); module. exports = facemashTab ;
You can check out the code up to here on the step-two branch.
Now we’ve got the users displaying, we can add our tab events that allow the user to pick who is hottest.
Tap tap
React Native offers us the TouchableHighlight component. This allows our View components to respond properly to touches. When it is touched, the opacity of the wrapped view is decreased. This makes our components “feel” touchable.
We’re going to wrap the person information section with this. In the future, we might want to make it so the user can tap the photo to see more pictures of that person.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 // omitted code var Person = React. createClass ({ render : function () { var person = this. props. person ; return ( < View style = { styles. person } > < Image style = { styles. personImage } source = { { uri : person. picture } } /> < TouchableHighlight > < View style = { styles. personInfo } > < Text style = { styles. personName } > { person. firstName } { person. lastName } < /Text> < View style = { styles. personScore } > < Text style = { styles. personScoreHeader } > WON < /Text> < Text style = { [ styles. personScoreValue, styles. won ] } > { person. won } < /Text> < /View> < View style = { styles. personScore } > < Text style = { styles. personScoreHeader } > LOST < /Text> < Text style = { [ styles. personScoreValue, styles. lost ] } > { person. lost } < /Text> < /View> < View style = { styles. personScore } > < Text style = { styles. personScoreHeader } > SCORE < /Text> < Text style = { styles. personScoreValue } > { person. score } < /Text> < /View> < /View> < /TouchableHighlight> < /View> ) } }); // omitted code
If your reload our changes and tap on the user information, you’ll notice it works - but it looks horrible. This is because we haven’t set a background colour on the view, meaning the whole component is darkened.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 // omitted code var styles = StyleSheet. create ({..., person : { flex : 1, margin : 10, borderRadius : 3, overflow : 'hidden' }, personInfo : { backgroundColor : '#fff', borderLeftColor : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.1 )', borderLeftWidth : 1, borderRightColor : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.1 )', borderRightWidth : 1, borderBottomColor : 'rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.1 )', borderBottomWidth : 1, padding : 10, alignItems : 'center', flexDirection : 'row' },... }); // omitted code
If you tap the info box now, it’ll work correctly!
TouchableHighlight offers us the same events that TouchableWithoutFeedback has. TouchableWithoutFeedback shouldn’t be used, as everything that can be tapped should provide some sort of visual feedback.
This means we can use onPress - which is called when the user has released the tap, but as long as it hasn’t been interrupted (e.g. moving their finger off of the tappable area).
We need to pass a property down to our Person component for when it is tapped on.
tabs FaceMash.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 'use strict' ; var React = require ('react-native' ); var { StyleSheet, Text, View, Image, ActivityIndicatorIOS, TouchableHighlight } = React ; var Person = React. createClass ({ render : function () { var person = this. props. person ; return ( < View style = { styles. person } > < Image style = { styles. personImage } source = { { uri : person. picture } } /> < TouchableHighlight onPress = { this. props. onPress } >... < /TouchableHighlight> < /View> ) } }); var facemashTab = React. createClass ({..., onPersonPress : function () { this. setState ({ currentIndex : this. state. currentIndex + 1 }); },..., render : function () { var contents ; if (! this. state. list. length ) { contents = ( < View style = { styles. loading } > < Text style = { styles. loadingText } > Loading < /Text> < ActivityIndicatorIOS /> < /View> ) } else { var { list, currentIndex } = this. state ; var record = list [ currentIndex ]; var people = record. users. map ( person => < Person person = { person } onPress = { this. onPersonPress } /> ); contents = ( < View style = { styles. content } > { people } < /View> ) } return ( < View style = { styles. container } > < View style = { styles. header } > < Text style = { styles. headerText } > FaceMash < /Text> < /View> { contents } < /View> ); } }); // omitted code
As you can see, there is now a onPersonPress property in our main tab component. We then pass this down to our Person components, and they then call it when the TouchableHighlight area has been tapped. We can then increment our index, and the view will rerender with the new set of people.
This is the final changes to the facemash tab. If you wish to go further with it, here are some ideas
Hit a REST endpoint when a user has been picked
Check if the end of the list has been reached, and display a message
Allow the user to click on the photos and see more
You can check out the final code for our facemash tab on the step-three branch.
Messages
We can now move onto the messages tab. This will function a bit like iMessage - a scrollable list of users, and clicking on one will navigate us to the chat view for that user.
Luckily, React Native gives us the ListView component. This allows us to have a simple, scrollable list (using ScrollView ) as well as efficiently displaying the list (only re-renders changed rows and limits row rendering to one per event loop).
To use a ListView, we need to have a data source. A data source allows us to have a custom function to check whether or not a row has changed (think of it similar to shouldComponentUpdate ) and we can then put our JSON data into it. The data source lives in our state object.
Create a new file in the tabs/ folder called Messages.js.
tabs Messages.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 'use strict' ; var React = require ('react-native' ); var { StyleSheet, Text, View, Image } = React ; var messagesTab = React. createClass ({ render : function () { return ( < View style = { styles. container } > < Text > Messages!< /Text> < /View> ); } }); var styles = StyleSheet. create ({ container : { flex : 1, backgroundColor : '#fff' } }); module. exports = messagesTab ;
You’ll also need to edit index.ios.js to point to the newly created component -
index.ios.js
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 // omitted code var MessagesTab = require ( './tabs/Messages' ); var facemash = React. createClass ({ getInitialState () { return { selectedTab : 'faceMash' } }, changeTab ( tabName ) { StatusBarIOS. setStyle ( tabName === 'faceMash'? 1 : 0 ); this. setState ({ selectedTab : tabName }); }, render : function () { return ( < TabBarIOS >... < TabBarIOS. Item title = "Messages" icon = { require ( 'image!messages' ) } onPress = { () => this. changeTab ('messages' ) } selected = { this. state. selectedTab ==='messages' } > < MessagesTab /> < /TabBarIOS.Item>... < /TabBarIOS> ); } }); // omitted code
As I mentioned above, we need a data source for our list view. This is accessible via ListView.DataSource. We’ll initialise one in our getInitialState.
tabs Messages.js
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2If you are of the of the opinion that email is dead or dying, think again!. Not only was email the most popular online activity of 2012, it also generated higher click-through and conversion rates as well as good ROI than all other channels. This trend is only going to continue as 56% of marketers plan to increase their email marketing budgets during 2013, which makes email the leading source of marketing investments.
“What about the whole mobile movement?” you might ask. That only seems to be fueling the popularity of email, now that people can send and receive email whenever and wherever they want.
If you weren’t convinced about how awesome email was before, the following infographic by the folks at Litmus may sway you. After looking through the infographic, let us know your thoughts in the comments – that is whether you agree or suggest other facets of marketing and customer care that you feel are better performers.
[Click here for full size version]
Category Content MarketingSalah Sukkarieh, a professor at the University of Sydney, expects that his new livestock-monitoring robot will resemble the RIPPA, above, another robot that he developed to aid farmers. The RIPPA precisely delivers small amounts of weed killer rather than spraying parts of a field that don’t need treatment. (ACFR)
An Australian professor is developing a robot to monitor the health of grazing livestock, a development that could bring big changes to a profession that’s relied largely on a low-tech approach for decades but is facing a labor shortage.
Salah Sukkarieh, a robotics professor at the University of Sydney, sees robots as necessary given how cattlemen are aging. The average age of a farmer in Australia is 52, according to the Australian Farm Institute.
Sukkarieh is building a four-wheeled robot that will run on solar and electric power. It will roam pastures alongside livestock and monitor the animals using cameras, thermal sensors and infrared. A computer system will analyze video footage to determine whether a cow is limping. Radio tags on the animals will measure temperature changes. The quality of pasture will be tracked by monitoring the shape, color and texture of grass. That way, cattlemen will know whether they need to move their herd to another field for nutrition purposes. He plans to run trials later this year and is aiming for the final product to cost about as much as an ATV.
Machines have largely taken over planting, watering and harvesting crops such as corn and wheat, but the monitoring of cattle has gone through fewer changes.
For Texas cattleman Pete Bonds, a former president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, it’s increasingly difficult to find workers interested in careers watching livestock.
“It’s 110 degrees and you’re wearing a coat and bull-hide leggings and no air gets through,” Bonds said. “Getting a good enough man to be able to go through that brush and take it, there’s not any of them left.”
But Bonds doesn’t believe a robot is right for the job. Years of experience in the industry — and failed attempts to integrate technology — have convinced him that the best way to check cattle is with a man on a horse. Bonds, who bought his first cattle almost 50 years ago, still has each of his cowboys inspect 300 or 400 cattle daily and look for signs that an animal is getting sick, such as a steer that doesn’t stretch when standing up.
A pilot investigation regarding the behavioral response of dairy cows to a robot. This work was done in collaboration with the Dairy Science Group, University of Sydney. (Australian Centre for Field Robotics)
Other cattleman see more promise in ground robots. Michael Kelsey, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, said a roving robot that stays with livestock 24-7 could be extremely useful given rising concerns about cattle thieves. Cattle tend to be located in remote locations and their value has risen, making them appealing targets.
Kelsey said that the younger cattlemen in Oklahoma are beginning to experiment with another type of robot — drones — to remotely check on the location of cattle. Some use a drone’s thermal sensor to pinpoint the location of a missing cow that could be hidden in the brush.
Kelsey said the drones don’t stress the animals because cattle tend not to look up. He mentioned there would be concern that a land robot could startle cattle, but he thinks that if one is carefully introduced, the animals would acclimate to it.
Sukkarieh’s plan for a robot goes a step further than the use of drones that Kelsey describes. His robot would be automated and operate independently, which would reduce labor costs. A cattleman would receive an occasional notification that a specific animal needed human attention.
But for some in the business, an influx of machines could remove some of the fun of raising livestock.
“A lot of times it’s the therapeutic side of what they do, going to check on their cattle,” said Tyler Dupy, executive director of Kansas Cattlemen’s Association. “If you inject robots into the mix, then they wouldn’t have any interest in doing it anymore.”Efforts to curb climate change must be twinned with programmes to cut poverty, warns a study of the threat posed by global warming to food security
The world must pair efforts to stabilise climate change with programmes to eliminate poverty if vulnerable people are to be kept from falling back into hardship as rising temperatures wreak havoc on food security and livelihoods, a report has said.
As many as 100 million people could slide into extreme poverty because of rising temperatures, which are caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank report said. The bank’s most recent estimate puts the number of people living in extreme poverty this year at 702 million, or 9.6% of the world’s population.
Climate change has led to crop failures, natural disasters, higher food prices and the spread of waterborne diseases, creating poverty and pushing people at risk into destitution, according to Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, released on Sunday.
Efforts to stabilise climate change should incorporate strategies to eradicate poverty, said Stéphane Hallegatte, a senior economist at the World Bank’s climate change group and co-author of the report. “The policies, the investments, the financing, all of that should be integrated. Otherwise, we’re just less efficient.”
Poor people need social safety nets and universal healthcare to sustainably eradicate poverty, according to the report. Programmes to lessen the impacts of climate change should not create new vulnerabilities and they should inform development policies by taking into account future climate conditions.
Tackling climate change is the key to producing enough nutritious food to beat hunger | Neven Mimica and Phil Hogan Read more
“When we [build] infrastructure, for instance, [we need] to make sure it’s in a safe place today but also in a safe place with sea level rise and the change in rainfall and so on,” said Hallegatte.
He added that the world needs to take urgent action to reduce the impacts of climate change if the sustainable development goal on eradicating extreme poverty is to be met.
“We really want to reduce poverty before people get affected by even bigger climate impacts. It’s easier to get people out of extreme poverty now rather than doing it later,” said Hallegatte.
Without proper planning, efforts to stabilise the impacts of climate change can undo decades of progress in lifting vulnerable people out of poverty, the study warned. Environmental taxes, designed to reduce emissions, can raise the cost of fuel and food, which hit poor people hardest.
“These same policies can be designed to protect, and even benefit, poor people – for instance, by using fiscal resources from environmental taxes to improve social protection,” the report said.
Ethiopia’s social protection and Rwanda’s health coverage have boosted long-term poverty reduction efforts in both countries, making it less likely that poor people will fall back into poverty as a result of climate change.
“In most cases, what we want is a package of policies – the climate polices themselves and additional policies to smooth the transition and to support poor people in the transition,” said Hallegatte.
Hallegatte is optimistic that world leaders will take urgent action to stabilise climate change, which he says will boost efforts to eradicate poverty.
This year, a series of high-profile meetings took place, creating a sense of gathering momentum around the battle against global warming. A key step was the adoption of the global goals – which set a 2030 deadline for the eradication of poverty in all its forms and sought to galvanise action to combat climate change and its impacts – at the UN general assembly in September.
This growing migration crisis is the canary in the mine on climate change | Mahmoud Solh Read more
Other milestones have included the Addis conference on financing for development and the Sendai conference on disaster risk reduction, while next month world leaders will convene in Paris for the 21st session of the conference of the parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“You can see there is a convergence – these conferences have been designed as a package and you can feel the urgency,” Hallegatte said.
But many challenges remain. According to the report, the world needs to find $1tn (£645bn) more each year to boost key infrastructure if the goals are to be met. Climate summits have in the past been thwarted by the US and China, which have been reluctant to sacrifice economic growth for reduced emissions.
Expectations for next month’s climate summit have been buoyed by fruitful talks held last year in Beijing, where China pledged to bring its emissions to a peak “around 2030”, and the US said it would cut its emissions by 26-28% of their 2005 level by 2025.
Hallegatte said: “Now there is the implementation, and that’s really the challenge – to translate this willingness to act into something that makes a difference on the ground.”My Experience
When I was growing up in the Church, long before my crisis of faith and eventually admitting I was an Exmormon, I discovered the famous Liahona-Iron Rod belief labels. I loved the idea; I could instantly see in my mind where the various adults and friends I had lined up between these two positions. I was a Liahona Mormon, no question, and I could easily see most of my Seminary teacher and other leaders as Iron Rodders. When I got older (probably in college) I realized the limitations of this particular schema; it's actually too limiting to place an individual into one of two groups. Everyone overlaps each position in various aspects of their life. But I continued to use the term because of its usefulness in providing a shorthand in discussions. "Liahona" may not fully describe a person, but it describes enough to give a rough picture. The same can be said for "Iron Rod".
Since then I've found another separation used, with the same limitations, in regards to how Mormons approach the difficulties of their religion against modern science and scholarship: the Chapel (or traditional) Mormons and the Internet (or non-traditional) Mormons. Unfortunately, these terms are often applied by those who don't feel they belong in either group and have some serious negative connotations. Unlike "Liahona" and "Iron Rod", the Chapel- Traditional distinction is usually applied in a divisive fashion meant to provide a negative view of another person. For this reason I try hard to refrain from using it, but it also continues to provide a cool short-hand in describing aspects of Mormon belief and approach.
In recent years, for various reasons, I have decided that I no longer believe the truth claims of the LDS Church. I was mentally a NOM for a while, but the mental difficulties of trying to support half of the truth claims of the Church without supporting the other half was a tiring exercise that ultimately was not sustainable for me. So I finally bit the bullet and accepted myself as an Exmormon. Around this time I found my browsing habits pulling naturally away from the traditional "Bloggernacle" towards the famous sites of the "Outer Blogness" (I love those names). Reading about others who had left the Church, some only mentally and others fully, filled me with a sense of camaraderie that I had been missing since I decided I no longer really "belonged" with my fellow Latter-day Saints. Most of these blogs approached the Church with a sense of caution and respect. Acid and flames were certainly given towards the very real failings and weaknesses of the Church. There exist many doctrines and practices within the LDS Church that are emotionally and mentally harmful to individuals, especially those who are effectively second-class citizens of "Zion": women, children, homosexuals, intellectuals, feminists, etc. But, on the other hand, most of these individuals were also able to give a textual "high-five" to what they saw as successes for the Church. Even in the midst of the difficulty of leaving---losing friends, family, respect---there was still an attempt to be objective about the subject.
I thought that this objective approach was the norm. I figured that most people who came to their beliefs through rationality and critical thinking would continue to apply that critical thinking towards their now lack of belief. I thought that people who had realized that most of their faith as a LDS was based on emotion would realize the dangers of continuing to depend on emotion. Just as many who left the Church held serious and honest beliefs before they left, so too was it often assumed that those who remained probably held similar honest beliefs that had simply not been closely examined. (And even now, I find the idea that all people within the Church don't rationally examine their beliefs to be far too simplistic; many do and still do not leave. I refuse to categorize them as simpletons or just plain evil. It can't always be that simple. Maybe for some, but I agree with Kathryn Schulz: that's probably just a mental coping mechanism to explain why others don't believe the way I do when they have similar data. It's important to reserve judgment toward myself that I still might be wrong about everything. I feel that certainty of any kind is dangerous, even a certainty that the truth claims of the LDS Church are false. I reserve the unlikely possibility that, given further evidence, I might have to one day change my opinion one way or another.)
One of the major helps in coming to terms with leaving the Church was the YouTube series "I am an Exmormon." More than simply a response to the LDS Church's media campaign ("I am a Mormon") these videos were heartfelt expressions of people who finally were able to find peace, happiness, and mental stability by leaving the Church. Those interviewed rarely showed hatred toward their former faith, but rather expressed that in acknowledging the failings of the LDS Church they had found the ability to fully discover who they were. The Church had provided a lot for them and they had grown as much as they could within it, but in leaving they were unhindered from developing even further. They are a beautiful series because they present a view of Exmormons that contradicts entirely that cultural view fostered within the Church of those who leave: instead of angry, they are hopeful; instead of bitter, they are calmer; instead of obsessed, they are loving. Those videos speak a wonderful truth: you can leave the Church and not leave who you are behind. You can retain the good within yourself because that good is not a product of the Church. It may have been fostered by the Church, but in truth the good within you is your own to take with you wherever you wish to go in life.
That's what I had hoped for in the Exmormon community. And, truth be told, I saw it in a number of individuals. Are you hurting because you've been abandoned, rejected, or misunderstood by your family and friends? Many will open their arms towards you in love; many of them have gone through the same thing. Are you still in the closet, dealing with frustration and anger? Again, so many people are out there who understand you and can help you through it. For a long time I thought that the infamous rejective phrase was unfair: of course people can't leave it alone! They have friends and family who are still within the Church. You can't simply cut those ties; it's impossible. And for so many TBMs the Church is part of everyday life. It comes up at work, home, and (of course) Church. It's difficult for them to know to avoid the subject around friends and family who no longer believe. So, duh! Of course some people can't leave it alone. But I've found that there are some for whom this way of looking at "not leaving it alone" isn't the entire story.
It's one thing to discuss facts; facts are discrete points. They can be debated, certainly, but on the whole they are usually not the object of discussion or debate themselves. Joseph Smith married multiple women, some of them already married to other men. The Book of Mormon contains chiastic structures. DNA evidence for the ancestry of the indigenous peoples of the Americas indicates they originated in Siberia and Central Asia through successive migrations beginning possibly as early as 25,000 years ago. There is a location in Saudi Arabia called NHM that has been in existence since at least 600 CE. The length of the scroll of Hôr was most probably only 150 cm long. These are simply facts; they exist apart from any theories. They do not have to say anything in and of themselves. There may be some disturbing implications that extend from them, but they are not, in and of themselves, arguments.
And yet I occasionally see people maligned and belittled who attempt to bring up facts that could be used in arguments that support Mormonism's truth claims, and I also see facts that could be used in arguments against truth claims used as arguments that somehow are supposed to mean something. That would be fine, but there is often a sense of decency and respect that appears absent to me. I could easily be wrong, but it often appears that some Exmormons feel justified in not being civil because we often receive anything but civility from many TBMs. However, the rules of a debate are not decided within the conversation itself. That's Fox News crap: let the loudest win and keep the rules changing faster than your opponent can keep up. That's not about discussion and understanding: it's about winning.
And I have to admit that I just don't get it, if that's really the case (and it may not be; that's just how it looks to me). I don't understand it. I know it can be different. I know many Exmormons who deal differently. However, even knowing that doesn't mean that the people I don't understand are wrong. It just means that I don't understand them. So, after a lot of thought, and in an attempt to be fair and promote understanding, I propose a new classification, this time of ourselves---the Exmormons. And the best way I can think of to do so is to use two films that are both awesome and exciting. So I propose the distinction between the Matrix Exmos and the Inception Exmos. Obviously any allegory or comparison will break down if you extend it too far, so let me explain it as far as I think it can go.
Matrix Exmormon
Tools of Choice: Under the Banner of Heaven, An Insider's Guide to Mormon Origins, The Book of Mammon, or anything that, while it strives to be accurate, is also hard-hitting and direct about the issues.
In the Matrix, humanity is enslaved in a particularly devious form of mind control by the machines who are exploiting them for their own purposes. However, while humanity as a whole doesn't even realize that they are being exploited and kept from the truth of their world, a small group of people who have been "unplugged" exist in a war against the machines in the hope of one day bringing down the Matrix and freeing humanity to live a life that is truly free from control. There's also a bunch of silly stuff like mechwarrior exoskeletons and an overabundance of trenchcoats, but on the whole that's the idea: a war between men and machines over the freedom of human minds. So, for the Matrix Exmormon the parallels are clear: the LDS Church exists because of the faithful support of its members; and the faith of the members is a faith both in a false worldview as well as in a dangerous set of principles. Mormonism denies full equality to women and has a history, not yet fully eradicated nor repudiated, of racism. The LDS Church consistently refuses to apologize for the crimes caused by its own inflamed rhetoric of the past (such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre) and refuses to acknowledge fault in the actions of its members today in actions that are cruel and bigoted towards many of the minorities of our society such as homosexuals and immigrants.
It spends billions on private ventures such as the City Creek Center and most of the top officials received "stipends" that mirror the salaries pulled in by heads of major corporations; meanwhile the amount spent on humanitarian aid worldwide over their entire history is a pathetic fraction of the amount the Church has spent in the past decade alone. Yet the Church continues to present itself as a champion to the poor and afflicted throughout the world. Their vast financial holding give them tremendous economic power in the Western US and the united actions of their members gives them tremendous political and cultural power, as seen in the involvement of LDS members in California's Proposition 8 decision; it is unlikely that LDS members would have mobilized with anything near the strength of cash and activism seen if church authorities in Salt Lake City had not actively encouraged it. The LDS Church, as an organization, donated very little to Prop 8 efforts, but instead asked for, and got without much question, the support of the members.
In the Matrix, the freedom fighters from Zion are engaged in constant battle with the machines. Every soul unplugged from the prison of the Matrix is a benefit, but the end goal is not to free everyone individually but instead to take down the seemingly monolithic organization of the machines and destroy the Matrix itself. For Matrix Exmormons, the end goal is not just to help individuals out of the Church, but to demolish the seemingly vast power that the Church currently controls by destroying the system of false beliefs they use to keep the members in line. And, just as in a war, the stakes are high. Facts and the arguments that employ them are not tools but weapons. Is someone starting to doubt the Church? Explain to them about Kinderhook, about Mountain Meadows, or the full extent of the Temple ban for blacks. Did the person listen? Yes? Then congrats, another human saved from slavery. No? Well, that just goes to show the level of control the Morg holds over its people. What about the hidden history, the financial dealings, the intellectual purges? The Church claims to be the only true church, but it's not. The leaders probably know this; they actively hide and distort. They employ their apologists to defend the claims with tenuous findings and reasoning and then use their influence to keep members from noticing. That's why it's okay if I'm a little sloppy in how I present my arguments, if I get my facts a little bit wrong: they do it too! This is war, man. Just as in the film, there is no middle ground. Those who attempt to work with the machines are nothing better than traitors. The end goal is what matters! This about freedom and slavery; there is no middle ground. The Church is unethical and corrupt, through and through. The reason that members of the Church are told not to trust Exmormons is because the leaders know the weaknesses we can present. They know the danger we pose to them. It's all about the power, the control, or the tithing. When the Church tells the young men to get married early, the ultimate goal is tithing. The religion and the beliefs are the tools to keep the members in line. I don't care if I offend people in the Church by what I say; it just proves that they're not ready to acknowledge the truth yet. I don't have to take a moral high ground against an organization that is evil and/or unethical.
I'm probably getting into the realm of parody, so I should probably stop here. Suffice it to say, while I'm trying to represent the views I see expressed online, I'm probably not doing a very good job because I am not a Matrix Exmormon. I'm an Inception Exmormon.
Inception Exmormon
Tools of Choice: Guns, Germs, and Steel, 1491, Who Wrote the Bible?, or anything else that doesn't explicitly discuss the Church but instead lays a foundation for personal introspection about the Church's claims and further discussion.
The film Inception does not adapt itself as well to the struggle of how an Exmormon deals with the LDS Church and its members. In Inception a small group of specialists who usually steal secrets from other people through their dreams are instead employed to try and plant an idea within another person. However, this "inception" of an idea has never successfully been accomplished before since individuals can usually recognize when the thought is not their own and reject it. Through the film, the team prepares for the inception by preparing intricately assembled dream-world through which they will take the target in an attempt to plant the idea subtly enough that the target will view the idea as their own. Of course, it doesn't go quite that smoothly, there are a lot of action shots, bizarre examples of dreamworld physics, and the threat of being lost in limbo. None of that really applies here, but the basic idea of the inception of an idea does.
To an Inception Exmormon, there is no vast organized conspiracy keeping those who believe in the Church in line. The Church is a product of itself. Perhaps there are some leaders and authorities who realize that the Church is not true, but on the whole the decisions and actions made by the Church are made by members who believe the truth claims. The nefariousness is not conscious, but is rather and accident of the Church's corporate structure and the corporate structure is itself an accident of attempts to organize the Church over the past century of growth. The LDS Church has problems. Its beliefs caused pain, damage, and limitations to its members and other people. Whatever the origins of the Church, whether or not Joseph Smith saw himself as a prophet or knew himself as a regular human, these questions are irrelevant to the Church today. It is true that most of the truth claims themselves currently depend on the authenticity of Joseph Smith as a prophet, but the behavior and actions of the Church today are expressed through people who have all been born in the 20th and 21st Centuries. While there are plenty of people who would be willing to pull the trigger if asked, there is nobody left alive today who was at Mountain Meadows and nobody today can bear the direct blame for the actions perpetrated there. The problem is that a Mountain Meadows, while unlikely, is certainly possible if it were requested by a high authority within the Church. And that is a problem that can be dealt with without the destruction of the LDS Church as an organization. There are other branches of the Latter Day Saint movement who have overcome many of the problematic issues caused by the Salt Lake church and it is not impossible that a future Salt Lake Church might look more like the Community of Christ looks today. For an Inception Exmormon, it's all about the well-placed idea. Fix the church through many well-placed ideas. Support those active members who have overcome the mental problems that plague most other members. Emphasize grace, emphasize environmentalism, emphasis egalitarianism, renounce war and proclaim peace. Close the malls and open the homeless shelters. While not likely, change is possible.
The same is true of the individual who might leave the Church. An Inception Exmormon understands that leaving the Church, as it currently exists, is probably the best decision for most Mormons (though not all Mormons; some might be better benefited by remaining); at least until the doctrines and practices change enough to soften the ills that the Church can cause. As with dealing with change in the Church, causing change with another person is accomplished through the well-placed idea. Presenting someone who is struggling with their faith with strong examples of the Church's falsity rarely accomplishes anything (though I need to acknowledge that it might on rare occasion). Just as in the film, people tend to reject an idea that isn't theirs. Helping someone out of the Church requires working with them on their level, whatever that level happens to be. There is no magic bullet; you cannot just present the Book of Abraham and watch the scales fall from their eyes. There are plenty of people who remain within the Church who know all of the dirt. They can handle the dissonance. The only real change can come individually from within by acknowledging the possibility that the Church might not be true. If you present data that is not entirely accurate then those bits of inaccurate data can be enough to cling to to reject the real facts that were presented. Attacking the individual's tribe by mistreating friends or trusted figures like GAs and missionaries will only tighten the bond the individual has towards his or her tribe. Instead the idea of the Church's falsehood must be presented carefully, honestly, and above all without an appeal to emotion. Telling someone how the Utah Boys Ranch is a terrible place (it is) and is actively populated through the efforts of stake and area leaders (it is) and then talking about how evil the LDS Church is for supporting such a horrible place is not going to accomplish anything. You cannot deal in such absolutes; telling someone that the Church is unethical for such-and-such just sets up a debate for why you're wrong.
Admitting that your opinion of the Church is negative because of such-and-such is a way of verbally telling them that they can hold a differing opinion and allows you to state the facts that back up your opinion or argument in a way that the facts themselves can be accepted as being true (because they are) and allows the individual to evaluate them for themselves (and, possibly, "incept" the idea to them of the Church's inability to explain the facts as they stand). It is not a war, and the default position to take with everyone is a cautious position of assuming honest intentions. You can assume that Church leaders are encouraging young men to get married because they are concerned for their eternal welfare, and you can also assume that they're simply concerned about the Church's bottom line of tithing income. Either way the results would appear the same, but one requires the devious actions of people focused on money and the other allows for people to be making honest decisions in line with the belief structure. Tithing money is the Lord's money and having more of it just means that the Church can accomplish the will of God that much better. It's easier to delineate battle lines between good and evil, or between rational and illogical, but humanity is more complicate than that. We are hard-wired through millions of years of organic and social evolution to belief in irrational things. The ultimate opponent for an Inception Exmormon is not the LDS Church but rather the genetic and social constructs that are no longer necessary in our modern culture. The war waged is not between artificial constructs like good and evil or corruption and ethics, but is rather a war within the minds of individual people to help train them in avenues of critical thinking to come to their own conclusions.
Limitations
I can guess what a few of you might be saying: the Inception Exmormon sounds a lot like a TBM to me. They "lie for the Lord", they only tell what they want to in order to further their goals. Inception Exmormons are willing to allow some falsehoods to continue in an uncertain attempt to help just one person. There are thousands who need help, who are stagnating and stuck; we can't go one at a time. And I don't feel the need to treat the Church with the same respect I'd give, say, the Episcopalians (or perhaps all religions are undeserving of objectivity). At least the Episcopalians are advancing social change; the Mormons do nothing to advance humanity.
Well, this is less of an invitation for everyone to be Inception Exmos and simply more of an observation of where I stand (and have seen others stand) verses where the majority seems to be. It strikes me as the response to seeing a spider in the home: you can kill it on sight with a single mighty kick, or you can put it under a cup and paper and carry it outside. Either way the goal is the same; and so it is with the Matrix Exmos and the Inception Exmos. I'm not sure how effective it is to argue that one approach is "better" than another for everyone. Certainly one approach is better for a particular individual. But the important thing in the long run is to acknowledge that the other side exists and to tolerate them. I cannot see myself, with who I am right now, being a Matrix Exmo. I dislike looking at the debate that way (which is probably why that side of the analogy needs a lot of work from someone who feels that way and can be fair to the viewpoint in ways I cannot be), but I do understand that some people think it's better to just rip the band-aid off all at once. Open the blinds! Roll down the windows! I may not agree with the methods (I don't see it as two side battling against each other, but just humans acting like humans), but I hope I can understand the underlying purpose: to help people. As long as I can keep that in mind I can tolerate Matrix Exmos. I may not like them much, but I cannot claim that they are wrong in their intentions. But trust me, I understand the pain, the guilt, the grief that LDS beliefs can cause.
Obviously this distinguishing needs some help on the Matrix side. I'd appreciate what I got right and what I got wrong (probably most of it); please understand that I meant well about a point of view I find difficult to comprehend. I need your assistance to clean it up properly. And I'd also be curious as to how many who would see themselves as Matrix Exmos (if I got the analogy wrong or overly stereotyped, you know what I meant by the viewpoint, right? Just pretend I said things the correct way and go with that) who saw themselves as Iron-Rodders or Liahonas when they were TBMs. And the same for Inception Exmos, where were you before it all came tumbling down or all finally became clear (to put it in a positive light)? I have my suspicions (Matrix = Iron Rod, Inception = Liahona), but I could be so very, very wrong of course. It could be that there's no equal divide between two points of view but rather than one view is a precursor that some hold before they move to the other view (but which comes first and which comes second and can they keep switching back and forth?). I'm very interested in things like that. Are you?Republican lawmakers questioned Judge Wendell Griffen’s impartiality after he lay bound on a cot following his ruling to halt executions
The judge who on Friday barred Arkansas from executing six prisoners in rapid succession followed his ruling by attending an anti-death penalty rally, where he lay down on a cot and bound himself as though he were a condemned man on a gurney.
Arkansas executions: health giant sues state as federal judge issues injunction Read more
Judge Wendell Griffen’s participation in the protest outside the Arkansas governor’s mansion sparked outrage among death penalty supporters, including Republican lawmakers who described it as judicial misconduct and potential grounds for Griffen’s removal from the bench.
Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge on Saturday asked the state’s highest court to vacate Griffen’s ruling and asked for a new judge to be assigned the case.
Griffen, a Pulaski County circuit judge, ruled against the state because of a dispute over how the state obtained one of its execution drugs. In an interview on Saturday, he said he was morally opposed to the death penalty and that his personal beliefs alone should not disqualify him from taking up certain cases.
“We have never, in my knowledge, been so afraid to admit that people can have personal beliefs yet can follow the law, even when to follow the law means they must place their personal feelings aside,” he said.
On Friday, Griffen granted a restraining order preventing Arkansas from using its supply of vecuronium bromide, one of three drugs it uses in executions, because the supplier said the state misleadingly obtained the drug.
The ruling came a day before a federal judge halted the executions on different grounds. The back-to-back decisions upend what had been a plan to execute eight men in 11 days, starting on Monday, because the state’s supply of one of the other execution drugs expires at the end of the month.
Griffen declined to comment on the demonstration or his ruling, saying he would address any questions about it at a hearing he scheduled for Tuesday.
Citing the judge’s participation in anti-death penalty events before and after issuing his ruling, attorney general Rutledge wrote on Saturday: “This court should put a stop to the games being played by a judge who is obviously unable to preside over this case impartially.”
Arkansas executions: drugmakers don't want their medicines used in killings Read more
Lawmakers have suggested the move may be grounds for the Arkansas House to begin impeachment proceedings, saying the demonstration and a blogpost Griffen wrote on the death penalty this week may amount to “gross misconduct” under the state constitution.
“He is outside the bounds of normal behavior for most judges probably anywhere in America,” Republican state senator Jason Rapert said.
It is also unclear whether the move would prompt action from the state’s judicial discipline and disability commission. Griffen, who served 12 years on the state appeals court, has battled with the panel over remarks he made criticizing George W Bush and the war in Iraq. The panel ultimately dropped its case against him.
Griffen said he would not consider a person’s participation in an anti-execution event enough, on its own, to warrant disqualifying a juror from a death penalty case. The question, he said, is whether the juror could set his or her personal views aside and follow the law.
“We do not require people to come into court with blank slates, either in their minds or their heart,” he said.Using a donated spy-satellite telescope would improve the science capabilities of a high-priority potential NASA mission, but such gains could come at a significant financial cost, a new report concludes.
The report, unveiled Tuesday (March 18) by the U.S. National Research Council (NRC), looked into the impacts of a proposed redesign for NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which the NRC deemed the top-priority large space mission in its 2010 astronomy and astrophysics "decadal survey."
WFIRST would launch in the early or mid-2020s to probe the mysteries of dark energy, hunt for exoplanets and study black holes, among other tasks. Its original design envisioned a telescope with a 4.3-foot-wide (1.3 meters) aperture. [Gallery: Declassifed U.S. Spy Satellites]
But NASA started |
Mairead replies: 'Hmmm.' Mick whispers: 'Good.'
it was said he then asks her: 'Do you know something? Have they got any evidence on you? They've got nothing on me, nothing.'
Mairead is heard to say: 'There's a fingerprint on the window.'
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Deadly blaze: Philpott surrounded by the six children whose lives were claimed by the fatal house fire
Mick replies: 'That's it. A few discrepancies, that's all it is. One with Shakey (Paul Mosley) about I said I was going out for a drive at night. I can't remember saying that, Vicky said you were stoned and I said we didn't smoke.'
He is then heard to say to his wife: 'I love you so much. Look at me. We will walk free and prove our innocence, right? And then we'll sort them out, promise you.'
Scene: Flowers are left outside the house where the children died in the fire
Mrs Philpott replies: 'Yeah, like I said, we can't even bury the kids.'
Philpott says again that 'they've got nothing' on him.
He is heard saying: 'Mick, my brief, said that for the judge to do what he's doing he's got to have some big balls because there's no evidence, they've got nothing, there's no, no petrol on me, on me trousers, no glass, you know the fireman said he put the window through.'
Mrs Philpott replies: 'I know.'
Philpott says: 'I said he f****** didn't, I did.'
His wife replies: 'Both of 'em and that front room window was open.'
Philpott says: 'Yeah, I can't understand that.' His wife agrees and says: 'No, I can't.'
Philpott then says: 'I said I was told by Jenny that the police had opened it.' He adds: 'No, we've got nothing to worry, just stick, just stick by what we've said.'
A few minutes later he asks his wife: 'You definitely sticking with the story?'
A second comment: 'I didn't mean to do it, on my life', has been disputed by the defence.
During the ten-minute conversation, Philpott is also heard to say 'they tried to blame me'. His wife says: 'I know.'
She adds: 'They said 'Did you pour the petrol there?', cause they said summat about erm... expert thingy.'
Philpott replies: 'Load of bu****it.'
His wife is heard to say: 'That's why the thingy said just no comment.'
Her husband replies: 'Yeah, that's right, don't say nothing now, don't say nothing.'
Philpott asks his wife: 'What did you say? You didn't do it?'
Accused: Mick Philpott, pictured with Mairead Philpott and another woman, is alleged to have 'gone on' about wanting a bigger house, the court heard yesterday
He then says: 'Don't you worry, we'll walk through it, I promise you that. Unless you want me to blab about it?'
His wife replies: 'No.' Philpott then says: 'It's your decision.'
Martin Barry, a forensics speech analyst called by the defence, said he had listened to the disputed recording'several thousand times'.
The prosecution allege Philpott can be heard to say: 'You definitely sticking with the story? I didn't mean to do it, on my life.'
Mr Barry agreed the comments 'definitely sticking with the story' and 'on my life' could be heard, but disputed the words 'You' and 'I didn't mean to do it'.
The expert told the court the comments were 'unclear' and 'obscured' by the noise of the van.
Covert: A prison van carrying Michael and Mairead Philpott (pictured) contained recording equipment but the defence say their voices were muffled by the sound of the engine
Audio: The Jury also heard a tape of a desperate 999 call made by the couple during the fire that claimed the lives of six children upstairs
A written statement was read to the jury from Detective Constable Baldish Chauhal, who attended Birmingham Children’s Hospital with the Philpotts to see their eldest son on May 12.
Duwayne was transferred to the hospital from Derby Royal Hospital following the fire and was fighting for his life on the intensive care unit, the court has heard.
In her statement, Det Con Chauhal said Philpott rushed out of the intensive care unit when the doctor told him the 13-year-old’s chances of survival were small.
Minutes later, Philpott was seen on the floor surrounded by family and friends.
In her statement Det Con Chauhal said: 'There was a commotion near the stairwell and someone saying Mick had fallen down the stairs.
'Mick was on the floor surrounded by family members and friends.'
She said Philpott indicated that he had hit his head on the floor after fainting and was taken for treatment.
Det Con Chauhal also said Philpott fainted following a press conference held for the media on May 16.
Evidence: Police revealed that when Mr Philpott visited his son Duwayne in Birmingham Children's Hospital he collapsed when he heard he might not survive
Fall: Philpott, pictured with his wife Mairead, also passed out after a press conference in Derby (pictured)
The jury was for the first time shown clips from the press conference, which was held by the couple five days after the blaze.
During the conference, led by Derbyshire Police, the couple thanked friends and emergency services staff for their attempts to rescue their six children.
Det Con Chauhal said in her statement that during a conversation before the conference, Philpott told her how he sang Elvis songs in his spare time and DJed.
She said he then grabbed a tissue out of her hand saying 'I need a tissue' before going into the room for the conference, the court heard.
The detective then described how Philpott fell to the floor in the corridor following the press conference and laid in the recovery position.
'After 10 seconds he opened his eyes and got up,' Det Con Chauhal said in her statement.
The court also heard the 999 call, which the Philpotts made to emergency services, for a second time.
THE PHILPOTTS' 999 CALL
Extracts from the eight minute long call to the emergency services made by Mairead and Michael Philpott on the night of the fire. Operator: Emergency, which service?
Mairead: Hello
Operator: Do you need Fire Police of Ambulance?
Mairead: All three please, my kids are in the bedroom, me house is on fire.
-
Operator: Right. Where are the kids? Do you know?
Mairead: They're upstairs in three bedrooms
Operator: They're upstairs in their bedrooms. Where's the fire?
Mairead: Here. It's - I don't know. It's at the front of the house somewhere.
Operator: It's at the front of the house somewhere.
Mairead: Yeah.
Operator: Can you hear, are there any flames there?
Michael: Smoke's everywhere.
Mairead: Oh my god please.
-
Operator: Talk to me.
Michael: I can't get in the bedroom mate.
Operator: Yeah.
Michael: I can't get in me bedroom and the kids are all upstairs six of 'em.
Operator: Is it a terraced house?
Michael: Please.
Operator: Er, yeah we've got some, we've got the police on their way, have you any idea what caused the fire?
Michael: I've no idea, we've just been woken up by the alarm. There's smoke everywhere.
Operator: There's smoke everywhere.
Mairead: The electric's gone.
Michael: Me electrics gone and all my babies are all upstairs.
Operator: You're alright, you're in the garden are you?
Michael: I'm round the back mate. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't get out.
Operator: Ok, what's your name please?
Michael: Michael, I'm the, the daddy.
Operator: Ok.
Michael: I can't get in.
-
Operator: Can, can you go through your neighbour's property and speak to our Police Officer out there?
Michael: I've got a ladder 'ere mate and I've smashed the window. I can't, I can't get in. There's no noise from my children. There's no noise from my children. There's no noise from my children.
Philpott, Mairead, and family friend Mosley, 46, are accused of starting the fire in a botched bid to frame Philpott's ex lover, Lisa Willis.
The trial has heard how Philpott, his wife, and 11 children lived together in a cramped council semi in Allenton, Derby, with Philpott's former lover Lisa Willis, 29.
But after Miss Willis walked out of the bizarre set up taking her five children - four of which were fathered by Philpott - with her, a bitter custody battle broke out.
Prosecutors say Philpott masterminded the fire, on May 11 last year, as part of a plan to set up Miss Willis and win residency of the young siblings.
But jurors have been told the plot went 'horribly wrong' - and resulted in the deaths of the six youngsters who remained with Philpott and Mairead, 31.
Yesterday their trial heard the trio also took part in a'rehearsal' of the fatal blaze weeks before tragedy struck.
They are alleged to have acted out how they would save the youngsters from the property once the fire took hold.
The jury of five women and seven men was also told that Mosley said Philpott had been 'going on about wanting a bigger house'.
Jade Philpott, 10, and her brothers Duwayne, 13, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five - all died as a result of smoke inhalation.
Philpott, Mairead, and Mosley, all of Derby, deny six counts of manslaughter.Mobilizing young voters has always been a vexing challenge; in a way it would be weird if teenagers entered adulthood with firm political priors and the same level of civic commitment to voting every two years that their parents have. What makes this pattern so troubling this election is that we’re just 16 years removed from a world history–changing lesson in what can happen when too many disillusioned young progressives vote for third-party candidates. We may be facing a situation where voters who were barely potty-trained during the 2000 recount never internalized the consequences of that election. And the question is, whose fault would that be?
There’s obviously no single reason so many young progressive voters at this point say they intend to vote third-party. As Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum noted, some of it is surely attributable to the bruising Democratic primary, during which millennials, overwhelmingly drawn to Bernie Sanders, were inundated with withering criticisms of Clinton, including the suggestion that the establishment had essentially robbed the nomination from them on her behalf. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post argues on the other side of the ledger that “Clinton and Democrats deserve the blame for failing to give millennials a compelling enough reason to vote for her.” And to buttress his point, it is true that until this week, Clinton and her surrogates were devoting more resources to recruiting Republican surrogates—part of an effort to fracture the GOP coalition—than to mobilizing millions of untapped youth.
But here’s a different theory, under which the very liberals who are laying the groundwork to blame millennials also share in the blame themselves. If 18-to 29-year-olds vote for third-party candidates in sufficient numbers to tip the election to Trump, it will be the consequence of a liberal failure to build an oral tradition around the Bush administration, from Ralph Nader’s vote haul in Florida through the injustice of the recount and the ensuing plutocratic fiscal policy; the 9/11 intelligence failure; the war of choice in Iraq sold with false intelligence and launched without an occupation plan; the malpractice that killed hundreds in New Orleans; the scandalousness that makes the fainting couch routine over Clinton’s emails seem Oscar-worthy; and finally to the laissez-faire regulatory regime and ensuing financial crisis that continues to shape the economic lives of young voters to this day.
It’s not that the abject failure of George W. Bush’s presidency has been forgotten, or that liberals somehow failed to mention how bad things were from 2001 to 2009. But the historic nature of the failure—the fact that historians place Bush at or near the top of their lists of worst presidents in U.S. history—perhaps hasn’t filtered down.
Here it’s useful to contrast the way Republicans scapegoated Jimmy Carter (who was not a great president, but more unlucky than genuinely incompetent or malevolent) to the way Democrats have treated Bush (among the worst presidents of all time)._____________________ _______ ____ ___ __ _
Art (c) Art (c), 2015
Characters (c)
Hello again!Not kiriban this time, but commissions!~All these cuties belong to ~ Humanization of his adorable pony characters x3You already saw Shayna and Wren (she didn't blast anything this time, but moment X's coming, I feel it), the rest 3 you never saw in my gallery before x3Dorothy, Misty and Light! Here they are!Dotty had 2 types of hairstyle, but I decided to put this one here, haha x3I'm not quiet sure about height, I made this line based on my (very bad) memory, so if I failed somewhere - I'm sorry! QuQ'''They were drawn on different periods for those.. 2 months?.. So you might notice some differences there. It's fine, it happens!For the fact that they're all turned to the one side - I really didn't notice it before. I drew/sketched them separately (Light were even originally turned to the right, I flipped him when decided that watch should be on his left hand) and had drawings to draw inbetween them. But I actually blame the fact that before I was like "stop drawing everyOC turned on the right, Satra! It's getting old!" and my brain was like "lolol, hands, go draw everything turned to the left!!".Another arts with those characters drawn by me:Hope you like this picture! Fav if you do, and +watch me to stay tuned!Love you! /freehugsAVENTURA, FLA. (WSVN) - - Police are investigating after an Uber driver shot and killed a person who was attempting to rob him in Aventura, early Sunday.
According to Aventura Police, an Uber driver, later identified as 29-year-old Namique Anderson, picked up a customer who lives just off the William Lehman Causeway to take him to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, just before 5 a.m.
Investigators said Anderson’s black Toyota sedan was cut off by a gray Dodge Caravan along the 3500 block of Northeast 192nd Street. “They made a U-turn underneath the causeway and were traveling on Northeast 192nd Street,” said Aventura Police Sgt. Chris Goranitis. “That’s when the Dodge Caravan cut them off.”
“The driver of the Caravan exited the vehicle. He had two firearms in his hand; he pointed them at the Uber driver and demanded items,” said Goranitis. “He threatened to shoot him if he didn’t [comply] with those demands.”
However, Anderson, who has a concealed weapons permit, went straight for his gun. “He shot that subject four times. He was pronounced deceased on the scene,” said Goranitis.
Area resident Andre Carpenter said he heard gunfire. “I just heard like five gunshots,” he said. “I was like, ‘It’s not the holiday,’ and I’m like, ‘Where did it come from?'”
Police said a passenger inside the Caravan jumped into the driver’s seat and took off.
No one else was hurt.
On Monday, police identified the subject as 24-year-old Kevin DeVincent Johnson. They said the suspect had robbed someone else an hour before his fatal shooting.
Investigators said Anderson acted in self-defense when he opened fire.
The shooting left area residents dumbfounded. “Honestly I feel really shocked. I can’t believe this has happened during the holiday season,” said Sandra Tuman.
Traffic was backed up along the Lehman Causeway all Sunday morning as detectives worked the scene.
“You have to be careful,” said Carpenter. “You have to be very aware of your surroundings nowadays.”
Police pulled Anderson and his passenger in for questioning.
Sunday afternoon, investigators recovered the Caravan in Broward County. They did not specify where they found the vehicle, but did say a tip led them to it after what they described as a random armed robbery attempt.
They have impounded the minivan, which was an overdue rental.
Investigators are interviewing a person of interest, but they did not specify whether it was the second person in the minivan.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Goranitis said he doesn’t believe Anderson was targeted because he was an Uber driver. “This appears that it was just a random crime of opportunity,” he said. “It’s 5 o’clock in the morning. There probably weren’t that many cars out.”
The Uber driver will not face any charges. “It’s a blessing that he was able to defend himself,” said Carpenter. “Unfortunately, someone lost their life but, you know, it’s just a bad situation. You’ve got to be careful.”
Uber company policy prohibits both drivers and passengers from carrying firearms.
Tuman, however, said that this is one case where the driver should get a pass. “That guy did what he had to do,” she said. “Obviously, he’s not going to get robbed by this guy.”
Uber has not replied to 7News’ calls for comment.
Copyright 2018 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Maker of sex lubricants moving to Las Vegas
A Southern California company that makes sex lubricants and massage oils, with such products as Boink N’ Oink bacon-flavored lube, is moving to Las Vegas next year.
Trigg Laboratories — whose main brand, Wet, is sold in more than 60 countries — said today it’s relocating its headquarters and manufacturing facilities from Valencia, Calif., to the south valley in July.
Backed by more than $200,000 in incentives from Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office, the company says it plans to lease 70,000 square feet in a new facility at 4220 W. Windmill Lane, just west of the Blue Diamond Road-Interstate 15 interchange. The property is under construction.
Trigg’s products, according to today’s news release, comply with U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations and “are gentle, long-lasting, sugar-free, condom compatible and kosher.”
“Sin City Gets Wet!” the announcement said.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development last month approved $214,500 worth of tax abatements for Trigg. The company said in its application that it would create the equivalent of 63 full-time employees here, with average hourly wages of $24.20, producing a total annual payroll of $3.17 million.
The largest share of the workforce, 26 positions, comprises production-line workers who will make an average hourly wage of $12, or $24,960 per year. The top annual wages belong to Trigg’s chief financial officer ($140,005), president ($299,998) and chief executive ($549,994), state documents show.
CEO Michael Trigg founded his namesake company in 1989, starting in a 1,000-square-foot facility. Today, he sells silicone products, water-based gels and liquids, and warming, flavored and sensation products.
The company says its “trading partners” include Walmart, Target, Walgreens and CVS, and it sells through “most adult boutiques and online venues,” according to documents available through the Office of Economic Development.Who are the crazy people who go to North Korea? My parents are some of those crazy people.
North Korea and its inhumanity is in the news yet again after the death of Otto Warmbier, the boy-next-door college student who was detained there after taking down a poster, returned home in a coma and died earlier this month.
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Why would anyone want to visit such an unpredictable and hostile place? Some want news footage that might have led to professional glory. Others want to evangelize their religious beliefs. Others may go to boost their reputations as a daring adventure traveler. Many of us cannot help but to think that those unlucky Americans detained there have some streak of compulsive insanity that they went in the first place.
My parents do not fit that stereotype. My father went because he missed the place. My mother tagged along.
My father’s life began on a family-owned peanut farm on the border of North Korea and China. He recalls expansive fields, communal living with extended family and endless cousins as playmates. He is nostalgic about running in the fields, seeing the horizon and playing practical jokes on the farmhands.
That ended suddenly. As a seven year old, he was sent to his uncle’s house and by foot, fled the invasion of communism and dictatorship by North Korea and its allies. As the eldest son of his immediate family, he was quietly sent by himself. His four sisters, younger brother, and parents remained behind to avoid bringing attention to their land-owning family. A year later, his penniless family caught up with him in the south, except for his brother who died of measles on the way.
My father became a surgeon and has lived in the United States since the 1960s. He listens to country music and has been an American citizen for 50 years. But he missed the land and the people of North Korea, which he always managed to see as separate from the brutal dictatorship. So four years ago, my father emailed me the name of his lawyer who managed his will, then he and my mother joined a medical mission originating in China, and crossed over the Tumen River into North Korea. I did not question their decision or try to stop them. I knew I would have no influence over them.
“Hosts” met them as soon as they arrived in North Korea. Each person was assigned a host. Some call them “minders.” They accompany visitors everywhere and direct every aspect of their movements. My father’s host even sat in on a few surgeries my father performed on high-ranking government officials and their families. I expected my parents to say that their minders were polite, efficient, offered rehearsed answers to questions and avoided friendship. Instead, my father had a very different story describing his surveillant who was not much younger than he.
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Over time, my father and his minder had developed some type of relationship I had not expected. My father’s ability to recall the North Korean dialect, but only in the familiar, informal vernacular, probably allowed a stunted and restricted type of friendship to begin. I am not sure the North Korean government would have approved.
They began to share meals and enjoy each other’s company. They shared childhood stories, talked about foods and flavors. They exchanged family stories, too, although it is not known if the minder’s stories were true. They drank alcoholic beverages together and sang childhood songs. On the last evening there, my father bought two very expensive bottles of spirits. They drank one together and he gave the other to his host as a gift. They sang more songs while swaying back and forth with locked arms. At the end of the night, his host held my father’s hands and cried. “You will come back, won’t you? Tell me you will come back.”
At this point in the story, I felt second-hand pain and sorrow through my father, who had started crying. He is a trauma surgeon. Refugees who become trauma surgeons rarely cry.
He had the chance to see his birthplace and its people one last time. But the resolution he had hoped for is impossible. My father left there with some survivor’s guilt. My father and his minder both started life in North Korea and sang the same childhood songs. The vast majority of people there are no different from us. The fact that my father escaped and his minder was trapped was an accident of fate. It would have been easier if his minder fit the stereotype. Instead my father left North Korea haunted by the humanity that still survives there.
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There will be no visit back to North Korea. He will never see the peanut farm of his fond memories. He will never again hold hands, laugh, cry or speak to the people who used to be his neighbors and friends. He is never going back. He cannot go back.Though reform of the US healthcare system is now considered common sense, the Democrats cannot and will not deliver. Only a mass independent political force—with single payer placed at the top of its agenda—is capable of winning this fight.
“A political struggle is in its essence a struggle of interests and forces, not of arguments.” – Leon Trotsky, Revolution Betrayed
Firing the opening shot in his new offensive in the battle for single-payer healthcare, Bernie Sanders presented his open-and-shut case in a New York Times Op-Ed piece:
“Do we, as a nation, join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee comprehensive healthcare to every person as a human right? Or do we maintain a system that is enormously expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic, and is designed to maximize profits for big insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, Wall Street and medical equipment suppliers?”
Although every sector of the capitalist economy without exception can be described as “enormously expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic, and designed to maximize profits for big [companies and] Wall Street,” the US healthcare crisis is unrivalled in its glaring absurdity as an expression of capitalism’s historical impasse. With annual revenues of $3.3 trillion, the healthcare industry accounts for nearly a fifth of US GDP.
Seven years after Obamacare was supposed to have solved the problem, some 30 million people are still without insurance and face financial ruin if their health takes a turn for the worse—over 60% of bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses. Over 5.6 million needed medical care in 2016 but had to forego it because they couldn’t afford it. Half of the $2 billion raised by the crowdsource site GoFundMe last year went towards efforts to cover people’s healthcare expenses. One study estimated that 45,000 deaths each year, or 123 per day, are the direct result of lack of coverage.
The single-payer movement’s fierce and energetic base of committed activists is driven in no small part by the horrific reality that people are losing their lives every day—not because of the limits of medical science or technique—but because it would reduce or eliminate the profits of health insurance companies to save their lives.
Battle lines being drawn
It therefore comes as no surprise that the life-or-death battle for universal healthcare is working its way to the forefront of the class struggle in the US, as a majority of Americans are warming up to the once radical-seeming idea of liquidating the private health insurance market in favor of centralizing and streamlining the function of guaranteeing health care coverage under the control of the state.
DSA demonstrators / Photo: Flickr
A June poll by Pew Research found that 60% of Americans—and 67% of those under 30—feel the federal government should be “responsible for ensuring universal health care coverage.” A more precisely worded poll by Kaiser Health Tracking conducted in the same month found that 53%—including even 24% of Republicans!—favor a national health plan in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan.
Meanwhile, the grassroots forces on the ground pushing for single-payer have gathered steam, growing to hundreds of organizations with membership in the millions, joined most recently by the Democratic Socialists of America’s robust network of activists spanning all corners of the country. Following a decision to prioritize the battle for single payer at its Chicago convention this summer, DSA’s commitment to deploy its energetic door-knocking, phone-banking, and canvassing foot soldiers opens the potential to step up this fight even further.
Perhaps more importantly, it also means that socialists, union members, and activists across the country are actively discussing, strategizing, and debating the route to single-payer victory—the tasks before us, and the obstacles that stand in the way.
As revolutionary socialists we are fighting for healthcare for all, not health insurance for all. Most Americans are not yet clear on the significant difference between these two proposals, and most single-payer campaigns are not explicit about it either.
So let us be clear: We fight for a single-payer system in which the insurance industry is abolished, the health care provision sector is nationalized, and the state pays for and provides universal health care, not a single-payer system in which the state merely pays for—i.e., subsidizes—private health providers.
What will it take?
Socialists have a critical role to play in providing the movement for single-payer with the unwavering backbone that only the outlook of class-struggle can provide. Never mind the fact-sheets and talking points: it is the most basic capitalist class interests—not a deficiency of persuasive data—that has stood in the way of implementing what millions now consider a no-brainer reform.
To begin with, we are faced with the task of prying a highly profitable, multi-trillion-dollar market from the grip of the capitalist class. In the rest of the “industrialized world”—which Sanders invites the US to join—it was not through the gracious civility of the capitalists that reform was granted, nor through the initiative of liberal capitalist parties. It was a hard-won concession forced on the capitalists with the threat of revolution, achieved through massive mobilization and old-fashioned class struggle, led by labour and the socialist and communist parties of the working class.
But unlike the major bankrupt industries that were nationalized in postwar Britain at the time the National Health Service was set up, US health insurance is a booming industry which just last year increased its income by 46%, netting $13.1 billion in pure profit. Not only is the health insurance industry parasitically enmeshed throughout the broader healthcare sector, its tentacles are also intertwined with the nerves and tissues of the Democratic Party, which received over $15 million in ‘donations’ from the insurance industry last year.
Faced with such a serious battle, the leading voices of the single-payer movement could do no greater disservice than to lull their troops into a false anticipation of an easy legislative victory. Removing this parasite will require, not so much a delicate surgery, but a battle to the death against a monstrous hydra and the entrenched political forces it controls.
Single-payer is by no means beyond reach—on the contrary—this demand clearly has the potential to become a galvanizing force for the labor movement. But the political path to victory is not through the Democratic Party, which serves at the pleasure of the markets, but in the creation of a mass socialist party of the working class, which, not coincidentally, is another common denominator in the rest of the so-called ‘industrialized world.’
A litmus test?
Even if the entire Democratic Party were to come on board, it’s no secret that Bernie’s Medicare For All bill has no chance of passing this Congress, controlled as it is by a Republican majority. Sanders has acknowledged as much, saying that the point of the bill is to “force a conversation.” This fact should figure into our strategic considerations. Spotting a golden opportunity to win “progressive” points without threatening their generous friends in the insurance industry, over half of House Democrats and 16 in the Senate have been more than happy to join Bernie’s “conversation”—several of them with an eye on the 2020 presidential primaries.
Bernie Sanders / Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Some have argued that this indicates a growing momentum of the “progressive wing” of the party and that, if supporting single-payer is upheld as a “litmus test” for progressive candidates, the Democrats really can be pushed to the left. However, to fall into this trap would be more than a disastrous waste of time, energy, and momentum—it would effectively derail and disorient the movement, as was shown this summer in California.
Originally drafted and championed by the California Nurses Association, the Healthy California Act was a legislative bill for a statewide single-payer system that had previously made it through the state legislature twice, only to be vetoed by Republican Governor Schwarzenegger. When the Democrats captured California’s House, Senate, and governorship, single-payer activists were confident that they had it in the bag.
A massive campaign involving 350 community and labor organizations and millions of volunteers mobilized support for the initiative across a state in which 70% of the population supports single-payer. Three weeks after it passed the state Senate, the bill was killed by the leader of the State Assembly, Democrat Anthony Rendon, arguing that the funding provisions were not clear.
Leaving aside the fact that Rendon himself received $150,000 from insurance and pharmaceutical companies, the episode is a clear example of the party’s priorities. When they had full control of the US Congress in 2009, it was Democrats—not Republicans—that blocked every attempt by Sanders, who should know better by now, to push Obamacare to the left by introducing language to expand Medicare or to allow the government to negotiate drug prices. We must learn the lessons of history or be forever condemned to defeat!
Who will pay?
The near-miss in California also foreshadows the maneuvers that Democrats will inevitably execute against any single-payer legislation that comes within range of success: present the funding issue as proof of a poorly thought out initiative, or resort to dubious inflated figures to argue its infeasibility. In doing so, they are merely regurgitating the talking points of the insurance lobby: it is unaffordable, it will cost trillions, savings on health costs will be cancelled out by increased taxation, etc.
These obstacles can only be swept aside by socialist arguments and a class-based program. If the capitalist politicians argue that something as basic as universal healthcare is not feasible within the limits of the system in the richest country on earth, we’ll be there to take those arguments to their revolutionary conclusion—by pointing out that capitalism is the root of the problem. Since the Democrats are in bed with the health insurance hydra, our task is to put all our strength towards the creation of a genuine mass political vehicle for our class—one that will allow us, by degrees, to wrest all capital from the capitalists, starting with the health insurance companies.
Does this mean postponing the fight for universal health care until we’ve built a new party? Not at all! It means arming ourselves to conduct this fight all the more consistently and implacably without political concessions or compromises, while soberly preparing for the challenges that lie ahead.
Neither the founding of a mass socialist party nor the abolition of the insurance sector and the nationalization of healthcare providers will be walks in the park. But socialists specialize in preparing the future and altering the course of history, not bemoaning the immensity of the task, or settling for what we are told is “practical.” Besides, along with favoring single-payer, a record 61% of Americans now say they want a third major party, and socialists are in a perfect position to tie these strings together!
Given the discontent in society, a mass independent political force would spread like wildfire throughout the country once it emerges and establishes its viability. The demand for single-payer could be placed at the top of the agenda—complete with crystal-clear funding provisions.
The combined assets of the life and health insurance industries amount to nearly one-third of US GDP at a staggering $6.8 trillion.
By seizing the assets of these parasitic profiteers, without compensation, as well as nationalizing and integrating all the insurance, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical companies, along with the hospital networks and clinics, into a single democratically administered health provider, not only would the cost of care be dramatically reduced, it would also be drastically simplified. A socialized national healthcare system would dispense with the monstrous bureaucracy and waste that doesn’t cover everyone and still costs 83% more per capita than the Canadian universal system, and double the cost of the British NHS.
In his appeal, Sanders elaborated further:
“We remain the only major country on earth that allows chief executives and stockholders in the healthcare industry to get incredibly rich, while tens of millions of people suffer because they can’t get the health care they need. This is not what the United States should be about.”
But as any socialist will point out, this is precisely what US and every other capitalism is about. That’s the problem. It is precisely the irresistible logic of taking the fight for universal health care to the end that makes this seemingly “common sense” reform such a threat to the capitalists.
If it is acknowledged that it makes no sense for a small minority to profit off the health and sickness of millions when the resources exist to provide treatment and care to all, what other conclusions will people begin to draw about this society? Why have a small minority of chief executives and stockholders enrich themselves at the expense of our access to education? Why allow real estate magnates to speculate on the housing market while 11 million workers are forced to spend half of their income or more to cover rent? Why should food production be organized according to the profit motive while there are people starving and undernourished?
The idea that we need a democratic plan for the entire economy could become very popular very quickly—because it’s an idea whose time has come. If socialists can bring a revolutionary socialist program into the multi-millioned ranks of single-payer activism, a genuine victory on this front and many others will be within reach, not only for US workers but for the workers of the entire world.The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. On 11 September 1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth.
Background [ edit ]
The Earl of Surrey had won a victory over the aristocracy of Scotland at the Battle of Dunbar. However, by August 1297 Moray and Wallace controlled almost all of Scotland north of the Forth, except for Dundee. Surrey marched north with an army from Wicker to relieve Dundee. The town of Stirling was the key entry point to the north of Scotland.
The main battle [ edit ]
The 6th Earl of Surrey arrived with his supporters at the narrow, wooden bridge over the River Forth near Stirling Castle and determined that he would be at a tactical disadvantage if he attempted to take his main force across there |
anti-terrorism bill, 50 per cent now disapprove of it, while just 38 per cent approve. It's a big drop from 82 per cent of respondents who supported the anti-terrorism bill in a February poll.
The controversial Bill C-51 was introduced by Steven Harper's Conservatives in January, in the wake of the Ottawa shootings of October, 2014.
Sixty-one per cent of respondents were opposed to provisions in Bill C-51 that would allow security services to infiltrate and track environmentalist groups, First Nations and pipeline protesters. Over half said they were opposed to the lack of parliamentary oversight included in the bill.
The new poll comes on the heels of a nationwide protest against Bill C-51 on Saturday, in which 70 demonstrations were organized in cities including in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Jamie Biggar, campaign director of Leadnow.ca, one of the organizing groups for the Vancouver protest, said it's a sign many people have realized the potential cost the bill would have on civil liberties.
"The collapse in support for the Conservative's anti-terror legislation shows that more and more Canadians are recognizing it for what it is: a reckless bill that gives spy agencies dangerous new powers without proper oversight or accountability," he said.
"They've heard that from security experts, former prime ministers, constitutional experts and, most importantly, they've heard that from their friends and neighbours. We've never seen a campaign light up social media like this one, and that peer-to-peer sharing is reaching millions."
In B.C., the disapproval rating for Bill C-51 was 61 per cent.
The poll results also revealed that while Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau supports C-51 with "added parliamentary oversight," a majority of Liberal voters nationally (66 per cent) disapprove of the bill.
“This poll should also prompt Justin Trudeau to reconsider his stance," said OpenMedia spokesperson David Christopher. OpenMedia is one of the organizations invited to speak before a committee hearing in Ottawa about C-51.
"With over two-thirds of his party’s supporters opposing this legislation, isn’t it time Justin Trudeau showed he can listen to Canadians, instead of backing government attempts to ram this extreme legislation through Parliament at breakneck pace?”Violent Protagonists and The Paradox of Emotion
Jonathan Sedarati September 27, 2012 11:00:13 AM EST
Kratos, Nathan Drake, Master Chief, Solid Snake, Cloud Strife, Ryu Hayabusa, Gordon Freeman, Samus Aran, Lara Croft, Marcus Fenix, Link and even Mario – all of these iconic video game characters have something in common. Besides the obvious fact I just mentioned (that they’re all video game characters), they all share a common trait: they use violence to achieve their ends.
Is the fundamental reason for this violent behavior merely a response to being victims of extreme circumstance? Or are our beloved heroes merely selfish thugs, lacking compassion and remorse of any kind? Kratos is a tormented soul, haunted by the deaths of his wife and child, who seeks vengeance via the destruction of those he deems responsible. Nathan Drake is a life-long adventurer, willing to lose everything and kill anyone who stands in his way, in the hope of discovering the most sought after treasures of the past. Mario repeatedly takes it upon himself to rescue the abducted Princess Peach, defeating everything Bowser can throw at him in order to reach her.
Games that explore unique worlds and tell compelling stories, like any other storytelling medium, have proven to be extremely popular. They place us in the shoes of characters and worlds that we could only dream of, and others that we hope never to see. A beautiful looking game world can quickly captivate a player, but in order to maintain their intrigue, the characters that inhabit that world must react in ways that are conducive to that world. When Kratos decapitates a Minotaur, we expect a different emotional reaction from him, compared to Nathan Drake shooting a fellow human, or Mario, jumping on top of an unsuspecting Goomba.
Mario games are always rated as suitable for a large age bracket, unlike games such as Uncharted and Gears of War, which are limited to a more mature audience. There is obviously a distinction between the content in these games. The reason for Mario’s broad acceptance being that the world, the environments and characters are so far removed from reality that most people aren’t so quick to equate them to things that exist in our world. On the other hand, when Marcus Fenix stomps through the skull of a Locust, resulting in an eruption of bodily fluids, the connection to our world is considerably more palpable.
A problem that arises in games that feature violent protagonists who are designed to represent real-life human beings (Solid Snake, Lara Croft), is that when a sane, emotionally stable person kills someone, it’s something they must live with for the rest of their life. It’s not something you can easily forget, especially if it’s outright murder, rather than in self-defense. Of course, I can’t speak from personal experience, but war is hell. I, nor most people, could ever come to understand the true horror of war, and we should think ourselves lucky for that. For those that do, though, it can have a devastating effect on the mind. You only have to look at the current suicide rates of U.S. veterans to understand this.
For violent protagonists in games to maintain a semblance of humanity that players can identify with, they must convey realistic emotional reactions. Many of the characters mentioned at the beginning of this essay kill hundreds – maybe even thousands – of human beings during their games, but how do they deal with their blood-stained histories? Nathan Drake shows very little, if any, remorse for the countless men he kills during his adventures. However, that fact alone isn’t the major issue. The problem arises when Naughty Dog and other developers try to convey a sense of humanity and emotional vulnerability in their characters, despite the fact that they’ve just left a graveyard of bodies behind them.
If a developer wants to create a psychotic, murderous protagonist with no remorse, they’re free to do so. But don’t expect me to feel sympathetic when things don’t go their way. With characters like Nathan Drake, there are conflicting signals given to the player, which stem from a paradox of emotion. On the one hand, he is a caring friend, who would gladly take a bullet for his life-long partner, Sulley. On the other hand, Drake repeatedly chooses to place himself and often his friends in life or death situations, where they will have to kill countless strangers, for the sake of treasure seeking; empathy and rational consequence clearly fly out of the window. It’s as if Naughty Dog (and many other developers) are asking the player to empathize with a protagonist when they are in a tough situation, such as when one of their friends is hurt; showing them a cut-scene featuring convincing emotional responses via their expensive motion capture animation. Then, only to say, “Right, we need you to go here, so to make it interesting we’re going to put a hundred strangers in your way. Kill all of them and you can progress.”
This dichotomy between cut-scenes and gameplay sends conflicting signals to the player about the motives and values of the character they’re controlling. The character players watch during cut-scenes and the one they control during the gameplay segments appear to be two separate people. It’s a designer double-think that limits the power of a narrative and the characters that drive it.
It is clear that the Uncharted franchise was inspired by famous Hollywood action movies such as Indiana Jones, which is fondly remembered as an over-the-top thrill ride, teetering on the edge of plausibility. Viewers don’t tend to expect fully realistic, three dimensional characters in this type of entertainment. Is it the case then, that the actions of violent protagonists in games can’t be congruent with what we in the real world would deem to be realistic emotional responses? Will the need to have the protagonist kill throughout a game always exist in order to make it ‘fun’, or is it possible to create an action-oriented game that truly reflects the emotional turmoil that results from acts of murder? What about a game that only gives the player an opportunity to act violently on very rare occasions, if at all? Could a game still be compelling if only one person died in the entire game? Surely the death of that person would be hugely significant to the game’s narrative.
The fundamental question of this essay, and thus the one I deem more important, is why the act of violence is such a popular solution to our fictional characters’ problems? Is it purely the most decidedly entertaining type of gameplay for a player to engage in? Do gamers just want to feel empowered, for lack of control in their own lives? Or are violent video games merely a reflection of the West’s addiction to war and conflict? Obviously the triple-A, big-budget titles that inhabit the current market serve a demand made by a large proportion of gamers and thus there are plenty of players supporting the production of violent games. But consumers rarely know what they want.
A great entrepreneur or business is one that proves this, by creating something beyond the markets’ imagination. Once people see a great new idea, they want it, but their desire is created by the entrepreneur or business. So is it the game companies that have identified and established video games as a primarily violent medium? Clearly they are giving a lot of gamers what they want, or what they think they want.
Arguably gaming has the highest concentration of violent content of any medium, even more so than the Hollywood film industry. Game creation is still a relatively infantile discipline though, so perhaps the industry will move beyond its addiction to killing in games.
Western culture often defines a hero via his/her physical might – how hard they can punch, how well they can shoot, how much punishment they can take. This archaic gladiatorial archetype is continually manufactured by both the games industry and Hollywood. Again, film-goers and gamers seem to want to see protagonists prove their physical superiority more than anything else. Heroism in the real world, however, is often the polar opposite to this paradigm. Those that have looked beyond violent methods to achieve change, opting to use reason and peaceful negotiation to communicate ideas, are some of humanity’s most treasured icons.
We don’t necessarily need to look to national icons, though, to understand heroism. Heroic acts can be found in every day life. A man/woman notices an oblivious teenager about to cross the street without looking and drags them back onto the pavement, a person in a supermarket notices a child being mistreated by an adult and speaks out against the abuser, a driver notices a broken down car in the middle of nowhere and stops to see if they can help the car owner; these are all acts of heroism in the real world and should be treated as such.
Now you may be thinking, “How on Earth can the act of helping someone fix their broken down car compete with an epic fist fight with your psychotic twin brother, on top of a giant robot you just destroyed?” The purpose of this discussion is not to say that violent, action-oriented gameplay has no place in the medium of games. However, game designers are selling themselves short. Gameplay centred around violence is only one out of an endless number of possible scenarios.
Rarely in games are players rewarded for avoiding violent situations. Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a cult hit that breathed new life into the survival horror genre. It put players in the shoes of a defenseless and shaken man who must navigate a tortuous environment, whilst trying to maintain a semblance of sanity. If players only enjoyed being empowered and feeling like a superior being, surely Amnesia should have failed.
The feeling of vulnerability in games is one that is often overlooked. Less is often more, regardless of the medium. The predictable progression ark whereby players become increasingly more powerful as they move closer to their overall goal has become stale and is largely a trick or illusion created by game designers. It is often the case that instead of gaining any noticeable improvement in skill, designers will merely tip the scales, or tweak the numbers. You are given a superior weapon, you can jump higher or take more damage. These are illusions of improvement that convince players that they’re making progress when really the gameplay is largely unchanged, requiring players to repeat the same actions, with only superficial differences.
The games industry has long enjoyed creating titles that put the fate of the world on the player’s shoulders. When a game asks a player to save the world, the solution is almost always war. A conflict that boils down to ‘us versus them’; “they’re coming to kill us and we need to fight back”. Compared to other storytelling mediums such as film and literature, the gaming industry seems to have pigeonholed itself. The opportunities to experiment with gameplay mechanics that don’t involve killing things in order to progress are being squandered. Rarely, if ever, do we see games discussing themes such as rape, child abuse, adultery, or abortion, which appear routinely in the aforementioned art-forms.
I accept that not all game designers are interested in ‘saying something’ in their games, or conveying a meaningful message or idea. Some designers just want to create crazy, exciting or purely epic situations for a player to enjoy. That’s fine. For those that do, I encourage an exploration of storytelling in games that doesn’t ask the player to empathize with a character, whilst simultaneously requiring them to massacre droves of NPCs, for fear of not being ‘entertaining’.The Catholic vote on abortion and Trump
On August 28, the Washington Post, via Aaron Blake, reported that “Trump has a problem with the Catholic Vote.” This raises the question: what is the Catholic vote? Romney got two percent more than Obama did of the Catholic vote.
As a Catholic, I do not understand how any true Catholic can vote for Obama and Hillary. While there are numerous issues, such as Hillary’s corruption, emails, Benghazi, and others that have been discussed at length here, if we analyze the election solely on abortion, then the issue of abortion should prevent any true Catholic from voting for Hillary. I would add that it should also prevent any Christian or Jew, because abortion is killing of an unborn child. It is basic Catholic teaching that abortion is evil. So if abortion, the killing of an unborn child, is evil, then there is no rational way for a Catholic voter true to his faith to vote for Hillary, because she supports abortion. We are killing an unborn child. This is not just a religious belief. It is a fact based on science and logic. There is no question that regardless of the term you use, it is an unborn child who is being killed. Hillary supports abortion and will support legislation to make abortion paid for by the taxpayers and will appoint Supreme Court justices who will uphold abortion as a constitutional right. Abortion “rights” is a central belief of the Democratic Party platform. Every Democrat politician must bow, and Catholic pols must genuflect to the Democrat sacrament of abortion. There is no diversity of opinion in the Democratic Party on abortion. The last Democrat to support life and oppose abortion was Governor Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, a Catholic, who was prevented by the Clintons from speaking at the 1992 Democratic Convention because of his pro-life beliefs. While Catholics, like any other religious group, may honestly differ on political issues such as tax rates, immigration, Obamacare, and fighting terrorism, there can be no honest difference on abortion. If you support Hillary, then you support the killing of an unborn child, because Hillary supports abortion. Catholic, and other Christian, Democrat politicians follow the Mario Cuomo excuse by saying they personally oppose abortion but will not impose their religious beliefs upon others. But voting for Hillary is voting for the candidate who supports abortion, thus you are supporting the existence and expansion of abortion. Voting is not the same as an elected politician passing a law to prohibit abortion. Moreover, since many states do prohibit the killing of an unborn child, except by abortion, politicians have imposed their belief that the killing of an unborn child is a crime. Thus, the Mario Cuomo excuse is only an excuse to allow abortion and provide cover for politicians.Buy Photo Senator Tim Kaine smiles while talking to other senators and their aides during a break from Chuck Hagel's Senate confirmation hearing Jan. 31, 2013, in Washington. (Photo: Katie Currid/The News Leader, Katie Currid/The News Leader)Buy Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C.- U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., will visit both Waynesboro and Staunton this Friday, March 31, his office announced Wednesday afternoon.
He's making the trip to discuss the impacts President Donald Trump's proposed budget would have on the Valley, according to the press release.
In Waynesboro, that conversation will focus on the threat it poses for seniors in the Valley, like the cuts the Meals on Wheels program faces in the proposed budget. He'll join with the Valley Program for Aging Services, which administers Meals on Wheels for the area, to meet with service providers and older Virginians for a "roundtable conversation" at 1 p.m. at 325 Pine Ave. in Waynesboro.
Then at 2:45 p.m. at 1249 Richmond Ave. in Staunton, Kaine will shift the conversation to the role of federal and state funds in supporting local infrastructure, economic development and jobs, as the proposed Trump budget calls for eliminating Community Development Block Grants, which is a program that gives state and local governments flexibility in determining what the funding priorities are for neighborhood revitalization and economic development. Staunton Mayor Carolyn Dull will join Kaine for that discussion, as she also briefs him on Staunton Crossing.
Read or Share this story: http://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2017/03/29/kaine-visit-waynesboro-staunton-friday/99799894/On 15 February the Italian coastguard launched an operation to rescue more than 2,000 migrants who were in difficulty between the island of Lampedusa and the coast of Libya. Anna Triandafyllidou writes on the pressure irregular migration is having on the countries of southern Europe. She argues that countries such as Italy and Greece are now facing a ‘triple crisis’ composed of irregular migration, stubborn unemployment rates, and high levels of poverty, which is feeding into the growth of anti-establishment politics.
In recent years, Greece seems to have functioned as a barometer for social tensions in Europe. The country’s economic crisis and potential exit from the euro has generated deep anxiety for the Eurozone, first in the period between 2010 and 2012, and again in the aftermath of the Greek election on 25 January. At the same time, Syrian asylum seekers’ squats in Syndagma square, which emerged in November last year – directly in front of the Hellenic Parliament – exemplified the failures of the EU’s asylum system.
Syrians were given international protection by the Greek state through a facilitated and rapid procedure, after a government decision in November. The asylum seekers themselves do not want this protection: they wanted to move on to other European countries where such protection comes with a set of integration measures (accommodation, training, family allowances) that would guarantee these families a future in the host country.
Ultimately, the squat was dissolved partly through negotiation and satisfaction of the refugees’ claims – the mayor of Athens, along with the national government, sought shelter for families and tried to integrate these people into the admittedly scarce social assistance programmes that Greece has been running in these austere times. It was also achieved partly through police intervention – effectively the asylum seekers were physically removed from Syndagma square by police forces one chilly December morning.
These events highlight the tough challenges that southern European countries, and particularly Greece and Italy, face. Asylum is a common concern for both northern and southern European countries, however southern countries are exposed to pressures at their borders because of their geographical proximity to zones of instability and conflict. Northern and western European countries, on the other hand, are the preferred destinations of asylum seekers.
Thus both groups of countries have a common concern to share this burden, albeit looking at the problem from different perspectives. Southern European countries simultaneously face the pressures of irregular migration and asylum seekers, which necessitates a way of effectively filtering applications. Northern European countries are more ‘protected’ from irregular migration because of their geographical position and hence face mostly the problem of processing applications rather than that of filtering them at their borders.
The problem of irregular migration in southern European countries
Four EU countries have taken the brunt of irregular migration arrivals and asylum seeker applications in the past 15 years: Spain, Italy, Malta and Greece. While Spain was a preferred route for irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-2000s, this western Mediterranean route is by now largely abandoned. Italy by contrast has been registering high numbers of arrivals of irregular migrants throughout the last ten years and ranks 12th in terms of its share of asylum seekers among the top ten receiving countries worldwide in the period 2008-2014.
In 2011, arrivals were related to the Arab spring: an estimated total of 25,000 Tunisians arrived at the island of Lampedusa in the first two months of 2011. An additional 20,000 sub-Saharan Africans arrived in the spring and summer of 2011 in Lampedusa and Sicily, fleeing the war and racial violence in Libya. Since 2013, though, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Syrian asylum seekers fleeing war in the region, leading to a huge upsurge in arrivals on Italian shores. The Mare Nostrum operation, run by the Italian government with the aim of intercepting migrant boats headed for Italy, saved over 150,000 asylum seekers and irregular migrants in the period between October 2013 and October 2014.
Greece also remains one of the main geographical points of entrance to the EU for Asian and African irregular migrants and asylum claimants travelling through Africa or Asia to Turkey and then crossing into Europe. Apprehensions of irregular migrants (including potential asylum seekers) at the Greek Turkish land and sea borders nearly doubled in the period 2007-2010, before decreasing from 2011-2013, only to pick up abruptly in late 2013, leading to over 72,000 apprehensions in 2014 (twice as many compared to 2013).
The three Mediterranean routes of irregular migration (and hence also of asylum seekers) function as communicating containers: when one route is stopped, another is under pressure. When this route is abandoned it is not because irregular migration and asylum seeking pressures overall fall but rather because the routes shift. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the Greek Turkish land and sea corridor was heavily under pressure, and in the last year we have witnessed another dramatic change as irregular migrants and particularly asylum seekers seek to cross from Libya or Turkey to Italy.
Loading asylum seekers or irregular migrants onto small dinghies, which in turn transfer them to cargo ships and then push them toward Italian waters is the latest strategy uncovered by the coastguard, migration experts and the media. The turbulent Middle Eastern context suggests that pressures for asylum seeking from the region and opportunities for smugglers to make money by ferrying people to southern EU shores will continue.
Irregular migration and anti-establishment politics in Greece, Italy and Spain
In this difficult international landscape, Greece, Italy and Spain are caught between a rock and a hard place: they face an international migration and asylum seeking management crisis, and an internal migration crisis – as migrant workers who are settled in the country face dramatic unemployment and increasing poverty often resulting in their loss of legal migration status. However they also face an increasingly angry electorate, tired of years of austerity and looking for a route towards economic growth and improvement of the social protection net (which was weak in the first place and has become nearly non-existent after five years of austerity).
Greece has experienced its own neo-Nazi moment with the rise of Golden Dawn in the last five years. Gaining seats for the first time in the municipal council of Athens in the 2010 election, Golden Dawn won 7 per cent in the 2012 national elections, and 6.3 per cent in 2015. In the lead up to the 2015 elections, the left-wing protest vote was nevertheless directed toward Syriza and other parties, including the centrist To Potami (The River), and the Independent Greeks (ANEL), who eventually entered into a governing coalition with Syriza. For now, the momentum behind Golden Dawn appears to have stalled.
The populist Five Star Movement led by Beppe Grillo in Italy has also become deflated to some extent. After a spectacular success in the 2013 election, internal discord and the allegedly ‘authoritarian tendencies’ of the party’s leader have led to disillusionment among some voters. In Spain, despite harsh austerity measures and dramatically high unemployment (like Greece) popular discontent has been channelled to new centre-left forces, chiefly Podemos, which more closely resembles Syriza than Grillo’s movement.
The challenge perhaps remains whether these political parties can manage to successfully channel popular discontent and citizen protest back into the political system, strengthening efforts aimed at socio economic and political reform rather than leading to anti-systemic populist or radical-right protest. Dealing with their triple crisis – increased migration and asylum pressures, rampant unemployment and de-regularisation of settled migrants, and increasing poverty for citizens – southern European countries and their governments undoubtedly face tough times ahead. Part of the solution to their challenges lies, however, with Europe, as national migration/asylum management and socio-economic reform are closely intertwined with EU policies in these areas.
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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
Anna Triandafyllidou – European University Institute
Anna Triandafyllidou is Professor at the Global Governance Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at the European University Institute.4th August 2015
New memory technology is 1,000 times faster
Intel and Micron have unveiled "3D XPoint" – a new memory technology that is 1,000 times faster than NAND and 10 times denser than conventional DRAM.
Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. have unveiled 3D XPoint technology, a non-volatile memory that has the potential to revolutionise any device, application or service that benefits from fast access to large sets of data. Now in production, 3D XPoint technology is a major breakthrough in memory process technology and the first new memory category since the introduction of NAND flash in 1989.
The explosion of connected devices and digital services is generating massive amounts of new data. To make this data useful, it must be stored and analysed very quickly, creating challenges for service providers and system builders who must balance cost, power and performance trade-offs when they design memory and storage solutions. 3D XPoint technology combines the performance, density, power, non-volatility and cost advantages of all available memory technologies on the market today. This technology is up to 1,000 times faster, with up to 1,000 times greater endurance than NAND, and is 10 times denser than conventional memory.
"For decades, the industry has searched for ways to reduce the lag time between the processor and data to allow much faster analysis," says Rob Crooke, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. "This new class of non-volatile memory achieves this goal and brings game-changing performance to memory and storage solutions."
"One of the most significant hurdles in modern computing is the time it takes the processor to reach data on long-term storage," says Mark Adams, president of Micron. "This new class of non-volatile memory is a revolutionary technology that allows for quick access to enormous data sets and enables entirely new applications."
As the digital world balloons exponentially – from 4.4 zettabytes of data created in 2013, to an expected 44 zettabytes by 2020 – 3D XPoint technology can turn this immense amount of data into valuable information in nanoseconds. For example, retailers may use 3D XPoint technology to more quickly identify fraud detection patterns in financial transactions; healthcare researchers could process and analyse much larger data sets in real time, accelerating complex tasks such as genetic analysis and disease tracking.
The performance benefits of 3D XPoint technology could also enhance the PC experience, allowing consumers to enjoy faster interactive social media and collaboration as well as more immersive gaming experiences. The non-volatile nature of this technology also makes it a great choice for a variety of low-latency storage applications, since data is not erased when the device is powered off.
Following more than a decade of research and development, 3D XPoint technology was built from the ground up to address the need for non-volatile, high-performance, high-endurance and high-capacity storage and memory at an affordable cost. It ushers in a new class of non-volatile memory that significantly reduces latencies, allowing much more data to be stored close to the processor and accessed at speeds previously impossible for non-volatile storage.
The innovative, transistor-less cross point architecture creates a three-dimensional checkerboard where memory cells sit at the intersection of word lines and bit lines, allowing the cells to be addressed individually. As a result, data can be written and read in small sizes, leading to faster and more efficient read/write processes.
3D XPoint technology will sample later this year with select customers, and Intel and Micron are developing individual products based on the technology.
Comments »Smokey Bear Vista Point in 1990, with Capitan Gap in the distance between the sign and Tahoe National Forest Fire Engine 731.
The Capitan Gap Fire was a 17,000 acres (69 km²) human-caused forest fire that broke out in the Capitan Mountains range within Lincoln National Forest, in Lincoln County, eastern New Mexico in 1950: beginning on May 4th.[1] It was named for Capitan Gap in the mountain range.
While a 24-man firefighting crew desperately dug firebreaks the wind shifted, and the fire jumped the line. The men buried themselves in the earth of a recent landslide, and survived the fire.
Smokey Bear [ edit ]
Also during the blaze, a bear cub who the men had previously seen ducking in and out of the forest survived the fire by climbing a tree and hanging onto the windward side with only singes and other survivable injuries. He was rescued by the firefighters and named Hotfoot, before filling the role of Smokey Bear.
Smokey Bear Vista Point overlooks some of the wildfire's site in Lincoln National Forest.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]U-20 MNT
CHICAGO (June 24, 2016) - U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team head coach Tab Ramos has named a 21-player roster for the upcoming 2016 U-20 Men’s NTC Invitational set to take place from June 26-July 4 in Carson, California.
The USA will face Costa Rica on June 29 at 6 p.m. PT, Panama on July 1 at 6 p.m. PT and finish up against Japan on July 3 at 3 p.m. PT.
The second annual U-20 Men’s tournament held at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson will be the second tournament of 2016 for Ramos and the U-20s as the USA recently competed in the 2016 Dallas Cup, defeating CF Monterrey Rayados (1-0), falling to Fulham FC (1-2) and drawing TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (3-3), with forwards Jeremy Ebobisse, Victor Mansaray and Emmanuel Sabbi and defender Aaron Herrera tallying for the USA.
Of the 21-player roster, nine play at the collegiate level, four play with MLS clubs, five compete abroad, two play with Development Academy clubs and one competes in the USL.
Five players - defender Marlon Fossey, midfielders Mukwelle Akle, Luca De La Torre, Weston McKinnie and forward Coy Craft - will join the U-20s for the first time in 2016, while Fossey, De La Torre and McKinnie receive their first U-20 MNT call-up.
The USA last competed in the inaugural NTC Invitational in 2014, drawing Australia 0-0 in the title match, and subsequently winning the tournament as the USA’s goal differential was better than Australia’s.
All six matches of the 2016 tournament will be streamed on ussoccer.com.
2016 U-20 MNT NTC Invitational Schedule
Date Match Time (All times in PT) Location June 29 Panama vs. Japan 3 p.m. | ussoccer.com Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Field 1 June 29 USA vs. Costa Rica 6 p.m. | ussoccer.com Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Field 1 July 1 Japan vs. Costa Rica 3 p.m. | ussoccer.com Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Field 1 July 1 USA vs. Panama 6 p.m. | ussoccer.com Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Field 1 July 3 Costa Rica vs. Panama 12 p.m. | ussoccer.com Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Field 1 July 3 USA vs. Japan 3 p.m. | ussoccer.com Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Field 1
2016 U-20 NTC Invitational Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Jonathan Klinsmann (University of California; Newport Beach, Calif.), JT Marcinkowski (Georgetown; Alamo, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (9): Hugo Arellano (LA Galaxy; Norwalk, Calif.), Marcello Borges (Michigan; Kearny, N.J.), Marlon Fossey (Fulham FC; Surbiton, Great Britain), Aaron Herrera (New Mexico; Casa Grande, Ariz.), Andrew Lombard (Northeastern; Montclair, N.J.), Tommy Redding (Orlando City SC; Oviedo, Fla.), Miles Robinson (Syracuse; Arlington, Mass.), Auston Trusty (Bethlehem Steel; Media, Pa.)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Mukwelle Akale (Villarreal CF; Minneapolis, Minn.), Luca De La Torre (Fulham FC; San Diego, Calif.), Weston McKinnie (FC Dallas; Little Elm, Texas), Eryk Williamson (Maryland; Alexandria, Va.), Jackson Yueill (UCLA; Bloomington, Minn.)
FORWARDS (5): Coy Craft (FC Dallas; Frisco, Texas), Jeremy Ebobisse (Duke; Bethesda, Md.), Victor Mansaray (Seattle Sounders FC; Des Moines, Wash.), Sebastian Saucedo (Veracruz; Casa Grande, Ariz.), Brandon Vazquez (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Isaiah Young (PDA; Berlin, N.J.)Like the Neapolitan Bourbons – benign by comparison – the leaders of the eurozone have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.
The cruel capitulation forced upon Greece after 31 hours on the diplomatic rack offers no conceivable way out the country’s perpetual crisis. The terms are harsher by a full order of magnitude than those rejected by Greek voters in a landslide referendum a week ago, and therefore can never command democratic assent.
They must be carried through by a Greek parliament still dominated by MPs from Left and Right who loathe every line of the summit statement, the infamous SN 4070/15, and have only agreed – if they have agreed – with a knife to their throats.
EMU inspectors can veto legislation. The emasculation of the Greek parliament has been slipped into the text. All that is missing is a unit of EMU gendarmes.
Such terms are unenforceable. The creditors have sought to nail down the new memorandum by transferring €50bn of Greek assets to “an independent fund that will monetise the assets through privatisations and other means”. It will be used in part to pay off debts.
This fund will be under EU "supervision". The cosmetic niceties of sovereignty will be preserved by letting the Greek authorities manage its day to day affairs. Nobody is fooled.
'Crucified' Tsipras capitulated to draconian measures after 17 hours of late night talks
In other words, they are seizing Greece’s few remaining jewels at source. This is not really different from the International Committee for Greek Debt Management in 1898 imposed on Greece after the country went bankrupt following a disastrous Balkan war.
A six-power league of bondholders, led by British bankers, impounded customs duties in the Port of Piraeus, and seized revenues from stamp duty, tobacco, salt, kerosene, all the way down to playing cards. But at least there was no humbug about solidarity and helping Greece on that occasion.
“It is the Versailles Treaty for the present age,” said Mr Varoufakis this morning, talking to me from from his island home in Aegina.
• What's next for Greece? Timeline of the remaining obstacles
•Greece deal explained: how it reached the final agreement
•Greece bailout: Eurozone summit was 'centimetres from crashing' before agreement reached
Under the new terms, Greece must tighten fiscal policy by roughly 2pc of GDP by next year, pushing the country further into a debt-deflation spiral and into the next downwards leg of its six-year depression.
This will cause the government to miss the budget targets yet again – probably by a large margin – in an exact repeat of the self-defeating policy that caused Greek debt dynamics to spin out of control in the last two Troika loan packages.
As the International Monetary Fund acknowledged in its famous mea culpa, if you misjudge the fiscal multiplier and force austerity beyond the therapeutic dose, you make matters worse. The debt to GDP ratio rises despite the cuts.
EMU leaders have an answer to this. Like Canute’s courtiers, they will command the waves to retreat. The text states that on top of pension cuts and tax increases there should be “quasi-automatic spending cuts in case of deviations from ambitious primary surplus targets”.
In other words, they will be forced to implement pro-cyclical contractionary policies. The fiscal slippage that acted as a slight cushion over the last five years will be not be tolerated this time.
"This goes beyond harsh to pure vindictivenes," says Nobel economist Paul Krugman of the EMU demands
And let us not forget that these primary surpluses never made any sense in the first place. They were not drawn up on the basis of macro-economic analysis. They were written into prior agreements because that is what would be needed – ceteris paribus – to pretend that debt is sustainable, and therefore that the IMF could sign off on the accords.
Nobel economist Paul Krugman says the EMU demands are “madness” on every level. “What we’ve learned these past couple of weeks is that being a member of the eurozone means that the creditors can destroy your economy if |
has all the Banksy characteristics in narrative, style and execution.
Continue reading for more detailed images on this new piece and then check back with us through the day for more updates.
Update 1: Piece is located on Hewlett Road.
Pics by Fragile, Josh Walls and Katie BowersThe middle-aged Sikhs, seated on plastic chairs in Matoi village's panchayat office, take dainty sips of Limca and try their best to ignore the tall, slender, 24-year-old woman dressed in a floral kurta, red salwar, blue and white polka dot dupatta and red flip-flops. Sandeep Kaur sits 10 feet away from the men, on the floor, chanting slogans from behind a cordon of burly policemen.
"The auction for 17 bighas [3.4 acres] of panchayat land reserved for scheduled castes is open," mutters Jasbir Singh Bhanju, Matoi's block development and panchayat officer (BDPO).
"Thieves!" Sandeep interrupts. "Thieves, thieves, thieves."
The Village Commons Land (Regulation) Act of 1961 allows panchayats to rent village land to the highest bidder on the condition that a third is reserved for the scheduled castes and auctioned separately. Yet, for years now, villagers allege and government officials privately admit, dominant Jat-Sikh farmers have subverted the process by bidding for the reserved lands through Dalit intermediaries.
This summer, auctions have been disrupted in at least five villages in Sangrur alone. On Friday, 12 people, including four women and seven policemen, were hospitalised in a clash between villagers and the authorities during the auction of 100 acres of reserved land at Balad Kalan, 20 km from Matoi. Punjab's Minister for Rural Development Sikander Singh Maluka is investigating the unrest in Sangrur as he fears the movement could gather momentum across the state, says his aide.
Thirty two per cent of Punjab's population is Dalit, the highest proportion in the country, and inter-caste friction is often sparked by rival claims to village resources. Yet, activists say, most violence slips beneath the radar until the conflict spirals out of control; in part, because the police are reluctant to register complaints under the and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.
In 2009, for instance, 1,300 mostly Dalit landless labourers were arrested when the administration cracked down on an agitation for homestead plots for poor families evicted from panchayat land. In 2003, two clashes broke out - one over the control of the finances of a shrine in Talhan, Jalandhar and the other over the right to till common land in Hasanpur in Sangrur.
In Matoi, a routine exercise in rubberstamping has turned into a public confrontation between dominant castes entrenched in Punjab's bureaucracy and the Ekta Club, a group of 10 young Dalit women, all aged between 18 and 24, who assemble each week at Sandeep's beauty parlour.
On the streets, a crowd of Jat men hums with quiet menace; at the auction, the of Matoi sits alongside Jat officials and Jat policemen. The two Dalits present say they are here to make bids with their own money.
Amarjeet Kaur, a homemaker, says she has sold her bridal jewellery to bid for the right to till this land for one year.
Why? "Just."
The other bidder, Parsha Ram, is a landless labourer who says he will take a loan - "at whatever interest rate" - to grow "something or the other".
The bid opens at Rs 7,000 per bigha. Parsha Ram offers Rs 7,100; Amarjeet looks to the Jat farmer sitting behind her and makes a winning bid for Rs 7,200 once he nods his assent.
"No Dalit has this much money," Sandeep says, "These people are stooges for the Jats. Stop the auction!"
But this auction is over. "There is no proof that upper caste Sikhs are behind this auction," Bhanju tells me before driving off in a red SUV, "There is no truth to these allegations."
Fifteen minutes later, a mob of lathi-wielding men bursts out from village sarpanch Jora Singh's home. I watch in horror as three Dalit men are thrown to the ground and pummelled with sticks, fists and kicks to the head. The police take their time before bestirring themselves.
"Now you know everything about our village," says Sandeep, shaken but defiant, "Now you know why we are fighting for our land."
But what will she grow on the land?
"Weeds."I have come accustomed to writing tournament reports the week after premier events, but unfortunately my showing at the North American World Championship Qualifier was not quite on par with the previous handful of events. So I am just going to briefly cover how my, near week, in Ohio went and how the current format is going to progress going forward.
I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a few days out in the Cleveland area attending tournaments run by ARG, and I must say – it was amazing. We had a fundraiser tournament on the Wednesday that I arrived and another normal local the following day. I was able to get in some valuable play testing on Wednesday with a Dino-Rabbit build similar to what I ended up using over the weekend. As a whole I must say I came back home to Boston wishing there was a local in my area like ARG. It was a fantastic atmosphere, from the players to the tournament itself.
Anyway, as I imagine you can tell – I played Dino-Rabbit again. The build I ended up using was only a few cards off from my build from Philadelphia, with minor tweaks here or there. I ended up bumping up to 42 cards to make room for a Compulsory Evacuation Device and cut the Grand-Mole for a second Spirit Reaper. From there I fit some Level Limit – Area B’s into my side deck and called it a day. Boring, yet simple and to the point. I thought it was the best deck going into the tournament. My assumption was somewhat off though, because I didn’t take into consideration how the metagame was adapting over the last month or so. Though I should point out, one of my best friends Jessy Samek took an identical build, side/main/extra to the Top 16, so it wasn’t the worst deck of all time.
I usually pride myself on being able to look at the format and determine what the best deck and builds are. My mistake with analyzing the format at the NAWCQ was that I hadn’t realized how players were shifting their understanding of the current Dino-Rabbit decks. The Macro Cosmos builds I had found success with in Chicago and Philadelphia had one fatal flaw in them – the lack of hand traps. Now I made the decision at both events to side cards like Effect Veiler, and at the end of the day I think I was able to get away with that because the format was at a point where Inzektors were still incredibly popular and you can just win off Macro Cosmos. The funny thing was, even at Chicago I suffered an early loss to Wind-Ups because of how vulnerable I was game one against the loop.
And therein lies the problem going into the event last weekend. My assumption that Chaos Dragons, Dino-Rabbit and Inzektors would continue as the top contenders was drastically off because I hadn’t taken into consideration how many players would copy similar deck lists to what I had been using at the last two events. Therefore, the Dino-Rabbit contingency at the NAWCQ was a relatively vulnerable crop of players to decks such as Wind-Ups, or even in the cause of Paul Copper – Hieratics. Witty players, such as the eventual champion Tyler Tabman, were able to monitor this development in the format and confidently play a deck which had seen relative little success over the course of the format. Wind-Ups were once considered the dominant force at YCS Atlanta, but have steady seen a decrease in popularity over the course of the last few months. To a point where players like myself, and many others, began cutting hand traps and dropping Maxx “C” from there decklists completely.
So now that the cat is out of the bag, how is the format going to progress? Well, first of all, it should be noted that there are no premier level events for the rest of the format. There is no YCS at GenCon this year, and therefore, we will be without major events to try and prepare the perfect meta call for. But regardless, there is still much Yu-Gi-Oh left over the summer and I think it is only fair to prepare accordingly.
With the rise in both the popularity of Wind-Ups, and price, it is only fair that we begin to adapt to that tread. It is finally time for me, and other Dino-Rabbit players, to mitigate the main decked Macro Cosmos to the side deck for good. I know a lot of players were on the fence about maining them in what they considered a metagame condensed with Chaos Dragons, but now that Wind-Ups have risen again in the ranks I cannot justify myself maining them now. Unfortunately I think it is time to consider maining copies of Maxx “C” again. Jerry Williams was able to top 16 at the NAWCQ with two copies of Maxx “C” in his main deck, so it is not out of the question to go back to maining them. He was also able to find room for two copies of Effect Veiler. The two/two split on Maxx “C” and Effect Veiler may be the way Dino-Rabbit players have to adapt to the change.
If we are about to head into a format where Maxx “C” becomes a main deck choice by a majority of the field, the same dynamic will begin to arise that led me to play Hero Beat at YCS Long Beach. The more dead cards in the main deck, like Effect Veiler and Maxx “C” the better decks like Heroes, and in the current format Chaos Dragons, become. The instinct of most players is to hop over to whatever deck has just done well, but when the deck is something like Wind-Ups and can cause such a riffle through the format, I think it is more appropriate to try and go one step beyond the thinking of everyone else. People around the globe are resleeving their Wind-Up Carriers, perhaps it is time to exploit the sudden need to main deck Maxx “C” again and go against the grain.
Discussion
commentsThe Movie (3.5/5)
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been 70 years or so since the Nazis surrendered to Allied forces in Europe during World War 2. Western society feels like it has, in some ways, come so far from those horrid years, in which Hitler and his regime marched across Europe, decimating pre-existing society and committing genocide against the Jewish people who lived on the continent, that it’s easy to forget the work that was done by people far greater and determined than I to make it that way. Luckily, every now and then a talented and dedicated filmmaker and his crew will step up to the plate, in order to immortalize their work through the power of cinema. The People Vs. Fritz Bauer is one of those productions.
The People Vs. Fritz Bauer follows the work of then District Attorney in Hessen, Fritz Bauer, during the late 1950s to pursuit and acquire justice for the SS members who had fled from Germany during the end of World War 2 in order escape persecution for their war crimes, specifically Adolf Eichmann, who orchestrated the movement of millions of Jews across Europe into death camps. It details his investigative work, as he pushes back against those who wish to cover up and repress the dark deeds that Germans committed during the war, as well as the restraints that he and his partner, State Attorney Karl Angermann faced from all sides as they sacrificed everything to see that Eichmann was captured. Together, they must push back against a regime that refuses to shed its last traces of Nazism, one that continues to condemn and intimidate those who don’t serve their interests, such as the Jewish community, and the Homosexual community.
This film is structured into essentially an A and a B plot, with the A grappling with the massive task of uniting multiple parties together under the most dire of circumstances to acquire Adolf Eichmann, and a B plot which really only hints at the persecution faced by the homosexual community under the new democratic government in West Germany at the time. I want to bring this up early, so that I can address the drastic shift in quality between these two plots, which I feel is the film’s main weakness.
The film’s main plot deals with the hunt for a dangerous war criminal, whose capture would be used by Fritz and his team to force West Germany to come to terms with its horrific past under Hitler’s control. It’s tightly scripted, engaging, and has this incredible weight to it that makes it feel incredibly important. It’s B plot, which is arguably just as important for a large group of people who were, at the time, heavily repressed by a backwards government, is shoved into 10 minutes of screen time It feels incredibly contrived and compressed to illustrate the issue of the absurdly oppressive laws set against the homosexual community in Germany, only to toss it aside in order to serve Fritz’s quest to hunt down and persecute the former SS members that were still large. It’s bizarre to me that a film that tackles a story of such historical significance would trivialize the plight of an entire people, and ultimately I would have preferred that it’s climax could have been produced in a different, more effective way.
Beyond that, if one is to only focus on the main plot, you’ll see a wealth of brilliance before you, as Fritz Bauer, played by German actor Burghart Klaußner is forced in desperation to turn away from the legal system in order to pursuit his version of justice. As a Jewish man placed into a position of authority, he is subjected to intimidation and push back from all sides as his own law enforcement peers attempt to do everything they can to keep Eichmann out of a German court. This part of the movie is expertly paced, well scripted, and rather exciting. It depicts Bauer and Angermann, played by Ronald Zehrfeld as heroes, willing to lay down their careers and even become criminals themselves in order to force Germany to face itself, a most noble of causes. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat as they play by their own rules to ensure that Eichmann is taken in, with the weight of the movie rested entirely on strong performances from both of these lead actors.
When the credits rolled, I was fairly impressed with just how entertaining, interesting, and effective director Lars Kraume was able to make the story of one District Attorney’s almost vengeful quest for justice against those who had committed unspeakable acts. The tightness of that story line just makes it even harder to accept the film as a whole, as it’s B plot just gets wasted and trivialized, tainting the production’s otherwise rock solid construction. That being said, I still feel The People Vs. Fritz Bauer is worth your time, as the historical significance of the events it depicts are without question.
The Video (5/5)
The People Vs. Fritz Bauer was mostly likely produced via a digital shoot, but there is little in the way of information regarding which camera system was used for capture, or what resolution it was mastered in. The film is presented in 1080p, in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. For the record, subtitles for the film typically hang at the bottom of the frame.
As is typical with digital shoots, The People Vs. Fritz Bauer looks very sharp, very clean, and very cold in terms of its color scheme. The film has a rather subdued style to it, one in which color is muted in favor of a more realistic depiction of the world, one in which the world is fairly overcast almost all of the time. Color aside, the digital image features excellent black levels, especially during the darker nighttime exposures, and excellent detail, especially in close ups. Watching this on my OLED LG 4K television, I found the image to upscale incredibly well, something that I cannot say about many Blu-rays in my collection. Overall, I was very impressed.
The Audio (3/5)
The People Vs. Fritz Bauer is presented on home video using a 5.1 DTS-Master Audio soundtrack in the original German language. English subtitles are provided.
In terms of sound design, the film is mostly driven by conversations in small rooms by a small number of people. There is often very little deviation from that, other than the occasional car trip, or rain storm sequence. Surround activity is minimal at best, and other than the occasional sound effect that pans to the stereo channels or some of the film’s score, this is a soundtrack guided almost exclusively by your center channel.
Special Features/Packaging (4/5)
The People Vs. Fritz Bauer has been released to home video by Cohen Media Group as part of it’s Contemporary Classics collection in a standard Blu-ray keepcase. The front features the release poster designed for the film’s theatrical release by Cohen, which has Fritz feature at the bottom of the frame smoking a cigar, with a number of the film’s supporting characters appearing out of the smoke from his cigar, laid against a Nazi symbol next to the film’s title. The back features a paragraph about the film, 3 character headshots, a list of features, technical information, and credits for the release. These are both surrounded by the typical red and black Cohen Media Group borders. Inside the case, there is a lovely shot from the film printed on the reverse of the case artwork, and a full color booklet featuring a cast list, chapters, and several photos from the film. As usual, Cohen does an amazing job packaging their releases, this one is no different.
Onto the features, of which there are three:
Making of The People Vs. Fritz Bauer – a 13 minute making of featurette in which the cast and crew discusses Fritz Bauer as a man, and how they went about depicting him on screen with all of the supporting characters surrounding him.
Deleted Scenes – 5 scenes excised from the film, mostly character development scenes for Bauer as a character, to help establish why he left Germany in the 30s, and how paranoid he’s become since death threats against him have increased.
Theatrical Trailer – the film’s theatrical release trailer, as prepared by Cohen for their domestic release.
Cohen always kills it in the packaging department, but the extras for this release are fairly less than satisfying unfortunately. I could have used a commentary, or some interviews, but such is life.
Technical Specs (click for technical FAQs)
Video
Codec: AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio
DTS-Master Audio 5.1 (German)
Subtitles
English
Runtime: 105 minutes
Overall (4/5)
I want to tell you to drop everything and settle in for a gripping, intense tale about one man’s drive to make Germany face it’s dark past through the eventual prosecution of SS leader Adolf Eichmann. To that however, I’d have to sidestep a really contrived and shoehorned implementation of a homosexual persecution story that forces me to do a double take. If you can look past this however, The People Vs. Fritz Bauer is a well crafted film, one that mostly does justice to bring the spotlight to the incredible achievements accomplished by Fritz Bauer as District Attorney. Cohen Media Group brings the film to home video with a picture-perfect video transfer, adequate audio, and phenomenal packaging. Could I have asked for a few more extras? Sure. Overall, I was satisfied with this release.It has no crime, full employment, cheap housing... and is owned by the lord of the manor. So is this the perfect English village?
Aside from the cows, there isn't much in the way of traffic here. There is a bus service, but it comes only once a week and goes as far as the bright lights of Blandford Forum. If you find yourself here for no reason, you are well and truly lost.
The traditional cliche for pretty little villages such as this is'sleepy'. But there's nothing bleary-eyed about the Dorset backwater of Chettle.
This is a village which defies every statistic and market trend. It has zero unemployment. Its businesses are booming. It has no problem with outsiders buying up second homes - because they are simply not allowed. Rents are way below the market rate.
Chettle: Is this the perfect English village?
This is the village the credit crunch forgot. Young couples are not driven out by property prices and there are as many children (22) as there are pensioners.
Everyone knows everyone and crime is virtually non-existent. The last intruder was driven off by a lady pensioner with a pick-axe handle. So what is Chettle's secret? The answer is enough to make a sociologist or a Labour MP weep.
For the past 1,000 years, this entire village and all the land around it - every last square inch of it - have been owned and controlled by the lord of the manor. And that is just how everybody likes it.
Before World War II, many landed estates owned entire villages. But death duties and demographics changed all that.
Today, it is thought that there are fewer than a dozen villages still wholly in private hands - Edensor and Tissington in Derbyshire, Heydon in Norfolk and a handful in the West Country.
Chettle is particularly interesting, though, because it owes its survival to the determination of a few strong-minded women. And now, after spending the best part of 1,000 years in blissful obscurity, it suddenly finds itself the subject of a new book, The Enduring Village.
So I have come to explore this pretty backwater to see how a Victorian squirearchy survives in the 21st century. But I do not find any forelocks being tugged. Indeed, if there was a contest to find Britain's perfect village, this one would have to be a strong candidate.
'I suppose you could call it benevolent feudalism. It certainly works and long may it last,' says John Sansom, 64, a tenant farmer who runs the same 300-acre dairy farm in Chettle that his father ran before him.
'The Bourke family owns this place and no one has a problem with that, because if it wasn't for them, most of us wouldn't be here.'
Like any village of a certain age, Chettle has a rich history of colourful characters, ups and downs, feuds and illicit liaisons (one former squire was a clergyman with three illegitimate children).
The Manor House: Chettle House is owned by Peter Bourke
But the similarities between Chettle and most other villages end there. All over rural Britain you find the same problems in village after village. First, the place becomes a target for retirees and second-home owners because it looks pretty. House prices rise and the younger generation has to head for the town.
Then, since everyone has a car to get to the supermarket, the village shop shuts down and, weekends aside, a ghostly atmosphere descends.
Chettle, on the other hand, is thriving. 'We have a very simple policy: we want people living here who have a good reason to be here, because that's what keeps it all going,' says Peter Bourke, 41, as we wander through the soaring hall of Chettle House, the magnificent Queen Anne mansion which stands at the heart of the estate.
It was Peter's great-great-aunt who saved this place from ruin and his grandmother who saved it all over again.
His aunt still runs the 1,200-acre estate, while Peter and his wife, Fiona, run the house.
In due course, Peter will inherit everything. But he is determined to run it all like the women before him.
'It's marriages that have saved this place,' he explains.
Since the mid-19th century, Peter's family - 'a perfect combination of lawyers, bankers and smugglers' - have controlled the village because they have owned every one of the 42 farms, cottages and flats here. And because the rents are a fraction of those charged by the other landlords in these parts, people are queuing up to become tenants.
Here, a pretty three-bedroom thatched cottage costs around £60 a week. On the open market, the same property would command £300 a week.
But it's not just a question of joining a housing waiting list. Priority for a home goes to anyone who works in the Chettle timberyard, the Chettle farms, the Chettle village shop or the Castleman Hotel (all owned by the Bourkes). After that, priority goes to anyone whose parents or grandparents lived in Chettle.
'Some families have lived here even longer than mine,' says 73-year-old Susan Favre (nee Bourke), Peter's aunt. She is the no-nonsense matriarch of the estate and general head of everything.
Chettle is full of beautiful old houses, but villagers pay only the minimum of rents
When a group of gipsies were spotted poaching in a field up the road, it was Susan who warned them off with a pick-axe handle. They have not been seen since.
Susan chooses the tenants - and evicts them, too. 'We expect people to live here. If they treat this place as a holiday home, then we won't let them stay. People need to live here to keep the shop and the whole community going.'
Of the eight villages in this area, Chettle is the only one with a shop - not bad for a place with a population of 90. And it's not just a well-stocked shop but a Post Office, too.
But much to Susan's fury, the Royal Mail want to shut down her Post Office counter and send villagers miles away to buy their stamps.
'Everyone will have to drive. So much for all that green rhetoric!' she snorts. A battle plan is being drawn up. It should be quite a battle. Equally unusual is the tiny 14th-century church. St Mary's - capacity 90 - is in tip-top condition. As lords of the manor, the Bourkes have the ancient right to appoint a vicar and they like to keep the church going.
Peter's father, Patrick, is the current lord of the manor, but also happens to be the organist. So the family grant a free house and telephone to a clergyman who will perform a service every Sunday.
'I originally came here for two years and, ten years later, I still can't believe how lucky I am,' says the Rev William Johnstone, 82, a retired missionary, as we dodge the sheep who are keeping the churchyard grass in order.
The church sits in the beautiful gardens of Chettle House with its lofty cedars, a picturesque grass tennis court and immaculate lawns.
Chettle has been owned and controlled by the Lord of the Manor for more than 1,000 years
But there is not a team of estate workers to keep it in order. When he is not working as a solicitor in Salisbury, Peter does all the gardening, ably assisted by Fiona and sons James, seven, and Sam, one.
It looks idyllic, but it is a hard grind to keep the place watertight and in the black. Peter and his family live in one part of the house while the rest is divided into five flats which are rented out to locals.
Fiona organises weddings, the couple belong to the Historic Houses Association and the house is open to the paying public on certain days. Some will recognise it as a location from the 2006 period drama film Amazing Grace.
When I drop by on a weekday evening, Peter has just dashed home from work to welcome the Blandford Forum Photography Club. Some of the visitors are a little surprised when the nice young couple serving the tea turn out to be the owners.
There is no 'them and us' in this village. It's all first-name terms, whether you are a Bourke or a bin man.
'If you are a landlord, you want your tenant to feel as if they own the place,' says Patrick Bourke, 71, who has recently retired to a converted stable block so that his son could take over the big house. 'If you lord it over people, they won't respect the property - or you.'
John Sansom is a typical tenant.
'Everyone's equal round here,' says the widower and grandfather, sitting on the lawn of the rambling Old Rectory, which he shares with various animals, including a 23-year- old goose called Lunch.
He bursts out laughing when I ask him if he has ever tugged a forelock. 'Look, I live in this big old house and Susan, who owns the village, lives in a cottage. It's a funny old place.'
'This is a brilliant community,' says another tenant, Netta Wase. 'I don't know what we'd do without Susan and her family.'
Back at the Castleman Hotel - formerly the estate's dower house - business is brisk. The place is managed by Teddy Bourke (Patrick's and Susan's younger brother) and the chef is his wife, Barbara.
The Castlesman family owned Chettle in 1903, when the staff were pictured outside the Lodge
Her cooking pulls in a full house from miles around. It's a charming old place with smart new rooms and a library decorated with family crests and a pirate flag captured by a swashbuckling Bourke ancestor.
A lawyer by training, Teddy is working as the barman tonight, but he knows many of the guests like old friends. He tells them to pour their own drinks, while he talks me through the story of Chettle and the women who have kept it going.
The village and the estate have hardly changed in size since the Domesday Book. In 1847, Chettle was bought by the Castlemans - a Dorset family on the up. By the Edwardian era, it had passed down to Edward Castleman.
He preferred hunting to managing his estate, and Chettle's fortunes were saved only by his marriage to the wealthy Jessie Morris.
When she died in 1937, he was left childless, elderly and alone. At the outbreak of war, his niece Esther Bourke and her young children came down to spend a few days with Uncle Edward.
'She came for the weekend. And she never left,' explains Teddy. While her husband, Leslie, went off to fight in the Far East and Uncle Edward grew frail, Esther ended up running the Chettle estate through the war.
'She was a strong woman. She wasn't born to the manor and I think that's what made her work all the harder,' says Teddy.
Leslie Bourke returned from the war seeking a divorce, while Edward Castleman died in 1946. Faced with hefty death duties, the obvious solution was to sell up. But Esther could not bear breaking up an estate she had come to love.
She auctioned off anything portable, from livestock to timber to works of art. It was just enough to keep the estate and the village intact.
'Everyone was telling her she was mad,' says Teddy. 'But that just made my mother more determined. The house was virtually empty, except for the 32 buckets we put under the roof whenever it rained.'
In time, Esther pulled Chettle back from the brink and, when she died in 1967, she left the big house to Patrick and the estate to Susan. In due course, it will be down to Peter and Fiona and their sons to steer it into the future.
It will be a substantial challenge to keep Chettle in one piece without selling parts of the village or raising the rents to commercial rates.
And yet, Peter is determined to keep it as it is. I point out that an estate like this, with all these houses and fertile acres, is worth at least £30 million. Why go through the stress of maintaining a Victorian idyll? Why not play the market or just sell?
Peter recoils, blinking in disbelief at the very thought. 'I can't imagine this place any other way,' he says firmly. 'Everyone likes it the way it is.'
Much as it will dismay the social engineers of the modern metropolitan elite, I cannot find a single villager who disagrees.
• The Enduring Village by Joyce Prince (Prince Publishing, £20).If you’ve ever walked past Grand Central Station on Lexington, you’ve probably never noticed the, New York’s only architectural rats.
The art deco Graybar Electric building was built in the 1920s, and as Graybar was originally a steamship company, the architects designed it with a maritime theme. Hence the mooring lines (the awning poles) of a ship securing the building to Lexington Avenue complete with its anti-rat funnels that deterred rats from stowing away on ships. This building has its own three evil cast iron rats climbing above the building’s entrance. Even more unusual and not so obvious are the rosettes that connect the poles are actually decorated with rat heads.
Who would have thought that the likes of CBS, Vogue and Vanity Fair would have once set up their offices in a rodent inspired building? Apparently as the years went by, one of the rats mysteriously disappeared. But in 2000, when the building was being restored, there were special instructions to “replace the missing rat”.
Thousands of New York commuters and tourists pass underneath these Graybar Rats daily, and never notice them. So the next time you walk down Lex, look up, and check out New York’s only cherished rats.blog | oilshell.org
OVM will be a Slice of the CPython VM
Today's post is a status update on OVM, the virtual machine that OSH and Oil will run on.
Recap
Earlier this month, I listed six problems with using CPython to implement shell. The OSH interpreter is currently ~12K lines of Python.
In Cobbling Together a Python Interpreter, I described a potential solution to these problems. Inspired by tinypy, I would assemble a Python interpreter to run OSH and Oil. I would reuse 8K - 9K lines of Python for the front end, and write an estimated 3K - 5K lines of C++ from scratch for the runtime.
Yesterday, I described a successful integration of the front end components.
Writing the VM is achievable, but it's not clear how long it will take. The biggest risk is probably that I've never written a garbage collector. Garbage collectors are hard to debug, and I've observed that each one is a unique research project.
This post describes an alternative plan:
Using the CPython VM as the basis for OVM. The experiments I've done to validate this approach. How it addresses the six problems with the Python interpreter.
(Aside: A few people on Lobsters doubted the original OPy plan, and I concede that they had a point. But they didn't suggest a better solution. Neither rewriting all the code in C/C++ nor shipping OSH as a Python program are good solutions. Leave a comment if you're unclear about this.)
Demo Code
In oil/cpython-slice on Github, there are shell scripts that build a stripped-down CPython 2.7 VM. It's messy, but it proves the concept:
I removed the CPython tokenizer, parser, and bytecode compiler. This computation can be done offline with the bootstrapped OPy Front End. The Lua VM can be shipped without its parser, and this is the same idea.
I statically linked the fcntl module, which we need to implement redirections, and removed all the dynamic modules from the build process. I disabled dynamic loading of.so files, because a shell doesn't require that. CPython's build system can be configured to statically or dynamically link each standard library module via the Modules/Setup file.
Initially, I was modifying Makefile.pre.in (the autotools input). After I gained familiarity with the build system, I wrote a shell script ( slice.sh ) to compile and link CPython/OVM with a single cc invocation. A debug build only takes 5 seconds.
I plan to further strip down CPython, guided by these analysis tools:
Code coverage using GCC and Clang. This example report shows that 20K of 73K executable lines were hit during a certain run of OSH. I plan to do this in a more rigorous fashion with the spec tests and OSH unit tests.
Code coverage in Python with coverage.py. In addition to removing native code, I also want to remove Python code, i.e. unused parts of the Python standard library. This will help me select the right files.
Bloaty McBloatface, a size profiler for binaries. I tried it this morning, and it was fast and helpful.
How the CPython Slice Addresses the Six Problems
Here I address the six problems in order of most-solved to least-solved:
Python 3's handling of unicode is awkward for a shell. For both OSH and Oil, I plan to Go's UTF-8 centric strategy, implemented in Python 2. That is, only a handful of operations like ${#s} and ${s:0:8} need to know about bytes vs. characters. Otherwise, the shell can pass byte strings from input to output unmolested. For example, a common input is the file system, and a common output is the argv array passed to exec(). If you have a use case where this doesn't work, or you require an encoding other than UTF-8, leave a comment.
The Python interpreter does things with signals that we don't want. I'm taking control of the Python VM, so this can be fixed by with different calls to the embedding API or patching the source. I noticed the Py_InitializeEx() function with its initsigs parameter while doing this experiment.
Shells are required on machines where Python isn't, like Android phones and other embedded devices. Bundling a stripped-down interpreter with OSH solves this problem. It's important to think of it as an implementation detail. From the build perspective, it should be indistinguishable from any other C program: download a tarball and run./configure && make.
The Python interpreter starts slowly. Python's baroque import mechanism is the main reason for this. Everything related to site.py can be stripped out of OVM, and sys.path will have a single entry. Also, we no longer have to look for.py or.so files. Everything will be.pyc files or statically linked. I'm really excited by this. Not just because Oil has no need for it, but because startup time has been bugging me for over a decade while working with Python!
A shell should be simpler and smaller than Python. Also, OSH should also be smaller than bash, which is ~150K lines. Right now my slice of CPython |
1931.
This post first appeared on Scroll.in.Client: “[Indian outsourcer] says he can do this site for $200. Why should I go with you?”
Me: “Has he done any work for you in the past?”
Client: Yeah! He did [Other Site] for me.
[I load the other site]
Me: “The entire site’s done in Flash.”
Client: “Huh?”
Me: “It’s a site for iPhone users.”
Client: “I know. Cool, huh?”
Me: “It’s a site for iPhone users… none of whom can see it…”
Client: “Huh?”
Me: “The iPhone doesn’t support Flash.”
Client: “Well it looks fine on my PC!”
Me: “Do you have an iPhone?”
Client: “No.”
Me: “…”
Client: “Tell you what, I’m just gonna go with [Indian outsourcer]. He seems like he knows what he’s doing and I’m not sure you do.”
Me: “Have fun.”Author: Soyen Park, Korea University
Since becoming India’s prime minister in May 2014, Narendra Modi has sought to make the country ‘open for business’. But while there is hope that his pro-business policies — often dubbed ‘Modinomics’ — will improve economic growth, aspects of India’s foreign trade policy seem at odds with the country’s aspiration for deeper engagement with the world economy. India wants to liberalise its industry and woo foreign investment. Yet it also wants to curb imports and protects its industries. These two contradictory messages have left foreign investors confused, increasing scepticism about the effectiveness of Modi’s policies.
Modi’s record on reforms deserves credit. Since its inauguration, the Modi government has undertaken a number of positive measures to restore investor confidence, improve the business environment and make India an attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). Retrospective taxation has been avoided, FDI norms have been relaxed and plans for a single window clearance system have been announced. Three major reforms — pertaining to labour, land and the GST respectively — are being held up in the upper house of parliament. But the government continues to make strides in other areas, including on arbitration and the bankruptcy code.
Modi’s sweeping efforts attracted US$44.29 billion in FDI during the fiscal year of 2014–1, which was up by 23 per cent compared to 2013–2014. The Financial Times claims that India is now the world’s most favoured investment destination, outpacing China and the United States.
While Modi’s omni-directional reforms to rejuvenate India’s industries have been welcomed, the simultaneous introduction of stricter trade protection measures have left foreign investors perplexed. But India’s pursuit of trade protectionism through non-tariff barriers is not new. According to the WTO, India is the world’s most prominent user of anti-dumping and safeguard measures. It implemented 534 anti-dumping measures (18 per cent of the world’s total) between 1995 and 2014 as well as 19 safeguard measures (13 per cent of the world’s total) between 1995 and 2015.
Efforts by the Modi government to accommodate the concerns of domestic industries are slowly undermining the confidence of foreign investors. In response to concerns raised within the domestic steel industry, the government imposed safe-guard duties and anti-dumping measures on imported steel products in September and December 2015 respectively. It is even considering imposing a minimum import price on steel products to curb imports, particularly those from China. Such measures carry the risk of both violating the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and undermining Modi’s promise of an open business environment.
The government’s apprehension towards free trade agreements (FTAs) further undercuts confidence in Modi’s commitment to liberalising India’s economy. The Modi government has stated numerous times that it will revisit and renegotiate existing FTAs since ‘some FTAs were benefiting the partner countries’ rather than India. India’s stance is concerning for both existing FTA partners and those that are still negotiating deals with India such as the European Union, Canada and Australia.
Given that chronic account deficits, particularly trade deficits, have long been considered one of the root causes of India’s economic malaise, India’s apprehension towards rising imports is not incomprehensible. But what the Indian government is overlooking is that India’s inflexibility could hamper Modi’s grand ‘Make in India’ policy. It is inevitable that foreign companies will import intermediate goods and parts necessary to manufacture products. This is particularly true when a country is in the nascent stage of developing its manufacturing sector — like India is. But the Indian government has been turning a blind eye to how imports and FTAs contribute to India’s manufacturing industry — and, in turn, its exports.
Internal incoherence within the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is partly to blame for India’s inconsistent and confusing trade policy. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, which is in charge of FDI and the ‘Make in India’ strategy, wants to open up India. But the Department of Commerce, which is in charge of bilateral and regional FTAs and multilateral trade arrangements, is more cautious. Better policy coordination, whether it is geared towards liberalisation or protection, would provide clarity and help foreign investors to prepare accordingly.
Since the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, discussions on the necessity of concluding bilateral and regional FTAs have surged in India. As India’s fear of being left out of global trade pacts increases, liberalisation will be more and more appealing. India’s likely endorsement of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, despite much domestic criticism, is one indicator of this progress.
As the World Bank noted and IMF Chief Lagarde hailed, India is a ‘bright spot’ in a gloomy global economy. Foreign investors are eager to engage with India’s rapidly emerging market. Developing a clearly defined trade strategy is critical if India is to make the most of this opportunity.
Soyen Park, a recent PhD graduate of Korea University, currently resides in New Delhi, India and carries out independent research on Indian economy.Gizmodo found a gem in its inbox earlier this week, when it received emails from Microsoft detailing the company’s plans to get press coverage for its new Skype chatbots.
The incriminating messages included a dossier on Fast Company reporter Mark Sullivan, who Microsoft hoped would interview its corporate vice president about the bot announcement. Here’s what it looks like:
The file includes notes on Sullivan’s areas of focus, his “writing style,” and the frequency of his coverage of Skype. The emails were mistakenly sent to Gizmodo by an employee at Waggener Edstrom, a PR firm that handles communications for Microsoft.
It’s not the first time the company’s been found keeping tabs on journalists. In 2007, Fred Vogelstein of Wired received an email from Microsoft and WE containing a 5,500-word dossier about himself.
To be fair, it’s hard to find a person who hasn’t accidentally hit ‘send’ or mistakenly CCed someone they didn’t mean to. It must certainly be interesting for Sullivan to learn what Microsoft thinks about him and his work. Gizmodo notes that he wasn’t mad about it.
I don’t assume that companies have files on me, but personally, I wouldn’t be upset either. As Vogelstein explained nearly a decade ago, high-profile interviews and stories will almost certainly involve both parties doing their research on each other’s backgrounds in order to come prepared.
Hopefully, this will serve as a reminder to us all to carefully check our email recipients before hitting ‘send’, and keep us out of trouble we can do without.
Microsoft Keeps Dossiers on Journalists and Sent Us One By Accident on Gizmodo
Read next: Everything you need to know about Snapchat geofilters (and how to build one yourself)Its partisan split skews much too far to the left.
Is there any reason to believe that Democrats enjoy an 8-point advantage in a state that consistently swings between the parties, mirroring the national vote? I don't think so.
Quinnipiac may also be missing a massive trend: It has chosen not to poll PA anymore at all, saying that it's "In the bag for Obama." Both campaigns clearly disagree, as they're both spending money and time in Pennsylvania in the closing days to capture it. It's a must-win for Obama, and a nice-t0-have for Romney.
Update: Public Policy Trolling gets in on the massive unnatural splits act too.
Update: Ed Morrissey has more here. Bottom line, the Q poll gets Obama into the lead by undercounting Republicans compared to 2008 turnout. That is simply not in line with the 2012 reality.Introduction
The inspector general of the Commerce Department should investigate whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has complied with ethics and disclosure rules on several fronts, according to a new complaint from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Citing a Center for Public Integrity investigation, the Washington, D.C. watchdog group is asking, among other things, that the inspector general look into possible conflicts related to Ross’s stake in Diamond S Shipping Group Inc., one of the world’s largest owners and operators of medium-range tanker vessels.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) also questioned whether Ross’s participation in certain trade matters violated conflict of interest rules, given his Diamond S Shipping stake.
The Center for Public Integrity in November reported that a Commerce Department spokesman said Ross had divested his stake in Diamond S Shipping following the investigation. The complaint notes that Ross “has yet to report a sales transaction for these assets.”
CREW additionally recommended that the inspector general probe ”omissions and irregularities” in Ross’s reporting of other assets, including stakes in the Bank of Cyprus and Navigator Holdings Ltd., another shipping company, and look into whether the commerce secretary has divested all the assets he agreed to divest.
“The CREW complaint is filled with errors,” said James Rockas, Commerce Department press secretary, in an email. “Secretary Ross has divested his holdings in the funds which own Navigator Holdings, Diamond S Shipping, and Bank of Cyprus, as well as other securities, even though the divestitures of Navigator and Diamond S were not required by the Office of Government Ethics.” Ross also submitted reports explaining the divestments, which the Office of Government Ethics will release “in due course,” Rockas said.
The complaint also cites reporting by Forbes on discrepancies between Ross’s required personal financial disclosure form and previous statements about the scope of his wealth.
“Taken as a whole, Secretary Ross’s conduct suggests a pattern and practice of ignoring, if not flouting, his legal and ethical obligations to disclose his interests and avoid conflicts of interest and raises concerns about whether he was deliberately trying to obfuscate the value of his extensive assets,” CREW communications director Jordan Libowitz said in a press release.
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New hope, new problem: Will Federal Election Commission shut down?
Liberals and conservatives agree: Ex-congressmen should put brakes on lobbying careers
Watchdog demands Federal Election Commission crack down on fine-dodging nonprofitThis week, Glee actor Chris Colfer sat with Time Magazine to talk about the nation-wide bullying issue, and how his character is an inspiration to teens across the nation. Chris told Time: “Its very strange to see how a television show about a bunch of singing and dancing kids, can have such an impact on everyone’s lives.” The topic was brought to light because he had mentioned it briefly during his Golden Globe acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor earlier this year.
During the interview, he also states that “I’ve tried being other people, but being myself just suits me best.”
Colfer, has definitely made his way into the hearts of America. The 20 year old actor was just placed into Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People List. Here he joins the ranks of Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama.
When he’s not singing and dancing on the hit show, he is writing. Colfer just inked a deal with the Disney Channel for a new pilot he’s writing titled “The Little Leftover Witch.” The story is based on a hit children’s book about Felina, a witch who is taken in by the Doon family after her broomstick gets busted.
The Disney pilot isn’t the actor’s first screenplay. Chris also penned a coming-of-age indie comedy titled “Struck By
Lightning” in which the actor will star. David Permut (“Youth in Revolt,” “Face/Off”) is also attached to the script as well. The comedy will begin shooting this summer while Glee is on hiatus.
I think we can expect a lot from this young actor, and we’re excited to see what he’s going to do next!Holograms may seem like a bold new frontier for the entertainment industry. But for Lady Gaga, the envelope-pushing performer in all things audio-visual, holograms are already passé. Hence her mind-bending Grammys homage to David Bowie on Monday night, which paid tribute to various phases of the icon’s five-decade career, courtesy of Intel computer graphics, interactive video, and robotics. Given that Bowie passed away only a month ago, though, how the hell did Gaga pull together such a feat in a matter of weeks?
“Lady Gaga had been speaking to Intel as early as September, brainstorming ways in which she could use technology to express herself in a way that had never been done before,” explained Paul Tapp, Intel’s director of technology, by phone last week. “She’s an amazing dancer and she really pushes boundaries with fashion. She said, ‘Help me to go beyond these standard constraints.’” So, this past fall, a team of engineers began working on the technology that Gaga envisioned using. But when Bowie passed in early January, Gaga began re-imagining her multi-media performance as a tribute to the icon.
“Bowie had tons of iconic looks throughout his very rich career,” Tapp said, “so Lady Gaga was curious how we could pay an homage to that. We introduced ‘living canvas’ technology to her, which allows her to basically have what we call digital skin—which has been used in tech art installations, but never before for a live performance.” The digital skin is projected onto Gaga as she performs so that it looks like her “makeup” is changing instantaneously throughout her six-song performance.
To create the makeup animation—essentially C.G.I. done live—Intel’s team created a 3-D scan of Gaga’s face by capturing her in about 12 different poses with complex scanning technology. The team then created 3-D motion graphics based on Gaga’s facial measurements and the Bowie looks she wanted to replicate.
During the performance, those graphics—essentially “replacement skin”—are projected onto her face live, like a mask, thanks to real-time face-tracking. (Five infrared-sensing cameras pick up on infrared markers placed discreetly on Gaga’s face.)
“Once we’ve got the tracking in place, those cameras and markers are telling the computer exactly what angle and rotation and axis her face is and her facial expressions,” explained Tapp. “Are her eyes opened or closed? Is her mouth happy or sad? Are her cheeks up or down? We have to track all of that with very intricate detail and then in real time we have to adjust that digital makeup that we’ve computer generated, get it sorted according to how her facial position is, and project it exactly to the right place at the right time.”
Viewers have probably seen this technology before,” added Teresa Herd, Intel’s V.P. of global marketing, “but it’s all been a special effect done after a film is shot. This is done in real time—it’s literally changing and morphing right in front of your eyes.”
Courtesy of Intel.
But the face-mapping projection is only one technological component Gaga incorporated into her Grammys segment. “She wanted to do a lot with space,” said Tapp. “She loves the cosmos. There’s obviously a lot of inherent beauty in the heavens, but it was more than that. She loves the kind of gravity and motion aspects of space as well. With computer graphics, you’re able to get some very rich, very photo-realistic, amazing looks, but we wanted to take that one step further and make those graphics respond to her. It’s not necessarily pre-rendered content. It’s content that actually reacts to how she’s moving onstage. Further more, we were able to project that content on to some very special materials, which make it appear like she’s hovering in space.”
Engineers also created a special accessory to give (or appear to give) her magical powers onstage. A bespoke ring tricked out with Intel Curie technology and holographic materials, Gaga’s ring allowed her to have real-time control of the stage, an L.E.D. wall, and the environment around her including a three-dimensional hologram of Bowie himself.
“The Curie ring gives her powers beyond her body and you’ll see that incorporated into this space, like a theme where stars and black holes all kind of come together under her control. We expect it to look very dramatic.”
The technology created for Gaga’s performance was so impressive and intricate that Tapp and Herd did not even reveal that robotic arms would appear onstage to move a grand piano until 35 minutes into a 40-minute conversation, almost as an afterthought.
“We’ve really tried to integrate robotics in a beautiful way creatively, and these are a rose gold,” said Tapp. It’s almost like an animate creature to some degree. We capitalized on that to do some unexpected motion effects with it live.”
In a statement issued seconds after Gaga’s performance, the pop star spoke about bridging music and technology at the Grammys. “I like to do things that integrate technology and art with powerful experiences,” she said. “I think that this collaboration with Intel has been very different than anything I have done before. They have really given me so much amazing technology to play with.”
Intel has a two-year contract with the Grammys, and will return with another technology-heavy performance next year.
Get Vanity Fair’s HWD Newsletter Sign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood. E-mail Address Subscribe? Less than three weeks after GOP Gov. Sam Brownback signed tightened rules for Kansas amusement parks, lawmakers who were spurred by the death of a colleague’s son are proposing to delay the law’s implementation.
The House Federal and State Affairs Committee met Thursday afternoon and passed tweaks to the new requirement that amusement rides be inspected by qualified, outside inspectors. They also voted to push off the implementation until July 2018. The law was set to go into effect July 1.
Republican Rep. John Barker, who chairs the committee, has called the old regulations some of the loosest in the country. He led a charge to change the law after Republican Rep. Scott Schwab’s son, Caleb, was killed last year on a water slide in Kansas City.
Barker said the Department of Labor asked for some minor changes and to delay the new law’s implementation. He said some local carnival operators were concerned they wouldn’t be ready to comply by July 1 and wouldn’t be able to run their rides.
The Department of Labor regulates amusement parks and will have to develop rules, regulations and permit processes in accord with the new law.
Deputy general counsel J.L. McFarland also said in a statement that the department asked lawmakers to delay implementation over concerns that some parks wouldn’t be able to come into compliance in time.
“We look forward to developing the necessary permitting and registrations systems so that Kansans are afforded the safety protections of the original bill,” McFarland said in the statement.
Brownback said he had heard that people were hoping to “adjust the law and its impact on rural, county-fair” groups.
Lawmakers nearly unanimously supported the stricter inspection requirements for amusement parks when the bill passed both chambers last month.
The new law requires that rides be inspected by a qualified inspector who is either an inspector certified by one of several national boards; a certified engineer with two years of experience in the amusement park field, at least one of those in inspections; or someone with five years of experience in the amusement park field, two of those in inspections. The new law also requires parks to report injuries.
Kansas’ previous law allowed parks to do their own inspections. That policy came under scrutiny after Caleb, who was 10, died last year on Schlitterbahn Water Park’s “Verruckt” water slide, a 17-story tower that was dubbed the world’s tallest.
Schwab declined to comment on the implementation delay. He stayed quiet on the bill until he gave an emotional endorsement on the House floor last month.
The Schwab family has settled for nearly $20 million with the park’s owners, the manufacturer of the raft that carried riders down the slide, a general contractor and a company that consulted on the slide.
The “Verruckt” waterslide remains closed and will be torn down at the completion of an ongoing investigation by the Kansas attorney general’s office.Cyndaquil Pattern
Head:
Head in Cream
1. MR: 6
2. Inc around (12)
3. [Sc, inc] around (18)
4. [Sc 2, inc] around (24)
5. [Sc 3, inc] around (30)
6. [Sc 4, inc] around (36)
7. Sc around 4 times
8. Sc 4, dec around (30)
9. Sc 3, dec around (24)
10. Sc 2, dec around (18)
11. Sc 1 dec (12)
Don’t close off and work on the head features, then after you have everything sewed on, stuff it.
Snout
1. MR: 5
2. Inc around (10)
3. Sc around (10)
4. [Sc, inc] around (15)
5. Sc around (15)
6. Finish off, put in the two stitches for the nostrils with black thread, then stuff and sew onto head
Stuff Head, Sew on the eyes with black yarn.
Start on the teal part
Row 1: Ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook and in next ch. (2)
Row 2: sc in both sc (2)
Row 3: 2 sc in each of sc across (4)
Row 4-5: sc in each sc across (4)
Row 6: 2 sc in first sc, sc in each of next 2 sc, 2 sc in last sc (6)
Row 7-8: sc in each sc across (6)
Row 9: 2 sc in first sc, sc in each of next 4 sc, 2 sc in last sc (8)
Row 10-11: sc in each sc across (8)
Row 12: 2 sc in first sc, sc in each of next 6 sc, 2 sc in last sc (10)
Row 13-32: sc in each sc across (10)
Row 33: 2 sc in first sc, sc in each of next 8 sc, 2 sc in last sc (12)
Row 34-41: sc in each sc across (12)
Row 42: dec, sc in each st for next 8 stitches, dec (10)
Row 43: dec, sc in each st for next 6 stitches, dec (8)
Row 44: dec, sc in each st for next 4 stitches, dec (6)
Row 45: dec, sc in each st for next 2 stitches, dec (4)
Row 46: dec, dec (2)
Body continued:
12. [Sc, inc] around (18)
13. [Sc 2, inc] around (24)
14. [Sc 3, inc] around (30)
15-17 Repeat around
18. Sc 3, dec around (24)
19. Sc 2, dec around (18)
Stuff
20. Sc 1, dec (12)
21. dec around and Finish off
Hands and feet: (make 4)
1. MC 5
2. Inc in each stitch (10)
3. Sc around (10)
4. Finish off
5. Stuff and sew them onto the body
Finally, you want to pin down the teal part to the body and sew it on
To make the flame, take red, orange, and yellow pieces of yarn, and sc them directly onto the back, making sure that both ends of the stitch are the same-ish length
Then, fray the yarn or leave it unfrayed!!!
send me your pics, and visit my store!!
www.etsy.com/shop/uchihacrush?…
Copyright 2016 uchihacrushRanking a lowly 211 out of 241 stories in DWM’s recent poll would imply that The Creature from the Pit isn’t a favourite of many. But apart from one (admittedly large) problem it’s difficult to see why.
The positives far outweigh the negatives – the jungle scenes at Ealing give the episodes a glossy sheen, Myra Frances is a gloriously hissable villainess, Tom’s on great form, Lalla looks lovely and there’s an entertaining guest turn from Geoffrey Bayldon.
The problem? Well you can’t really avoid it. Erato is a vast, shapeless blob that is said to stretch for miles. How do you realise that on Doctor Who’s budget in 1979?
The answer is, of course, that you can’t. So Erato looks like an inflatable green bag with a rude appendage. But the scenes in the pit are nicely lit and Erato’s green glow is quite eerie, so it’s not a total write off.
Producer Graham Williams was in no doubt that the special effects department had let the programme down and after transmission made this point in an internal memo. But it’s hard to imagine how this monster could ever have been successfully created, so you do have to wonder why this was never queried at the scripting stage.
New script editor Douglas Adams wasn’t terribly experienced, but Graham Williams had been around for a while and should have twigged that a mile wide green blob was simply asking for trouble. But whatever the merits and demerits of Erato, there’s plenty to enjoy in this story, so let’s take a closer look.
Chloris is a planet rich in vegetation but low on metal. The Lady Adrasta (Myra Frances) owns the only metal mine on the planet and therefore is able to rule with a reign of terror.
But the arrival some years ago of an ambassador from the planet Tythonus has threatened her grip on the planet. Erato proposed a trade – they have plenty of surplus metal but Tythonus is extremely low in vegetation which Erato’s people need in vast quantities.
Adrasta quickly understood that if she no longer had the metal monopoly then her power would dissipate. So she arranged to banish Erato to the pit and would henceforth throw anybody who displeased her down there.
Although transmitted third, this was the first story of Season 17 to be recorded, so it was Lalla Ward’s acting debut as Romana. Her performance here is subtly different as she was still feeling out the part. There’s some nice moments from her though – particularly when she confronts the bandits in their lair.
The guest cast is uniformly solid. Myra Francis manages to be gorgeous and deadly at the same time. Eileen Way (Karela) had appeared in Doctor Who’s first story back in 1963 and is good value as Adrasta’s right hand woman.
Organon (Geoffrey Bayldon) is a hapless astronomer who falls foul of Adrasta and found himself flung into the pit. Managing to avoid being crushed by the monster he has lived a lonely existence until the Doctor turned up. Bayldon, best known for Catweazle, sparks off Tom very well and their scenes together are highly entertaining.
Also skulking around the jungle are a group of inept bandits, lead by Torvin (John Bryans). There has been some criticism of this character over the years, so the viewer will have to decide if he’s a riff on a Fagin-like character or simply a broad Jewish stereotype – “My lovely boys”.
So while Creature has its flaws, if you can ignore the glowing green bag there’s plenty of entertainment here. Unloved for decades due to its feeble dinosaurs, in recent years there seems to be more appreciation for Malcolm Hulke’s Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974). So maybe one day the same thing will happen here and fandom will learn to stop worrying about Erato and love The Creature from the Pit.It’s not every class that sees students bursting through the doors, some literally screaming with excitement as they run to their seats. Of course, it’s not every class that ends with John Mayer playing The Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil.”
The Grammy-winner and former Berklee College of Music student held an intense two-plus-hour master songwriting class for a select group of six Berklee students, in front of a crowd of some 500 students, faculty, and staffers, in the college’s auditorium Friday.
Mayer is in town this weekend to play two shows at Fenway Park with Dead & Company — but if he ever retires from that gig, he has a solid backup career as a professor.
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“I love teaching,” Mayer, 39, told the Globe in an interview after the clinic. The son of an English teacher and high school principal, he added with a laugh, “I would 100 percent rather teach at Berklee than do ‘American Idol’ or something.”
Kelly Davidson John Mayer and Berklee student Danny Silberstein.
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Each student performed one original song, either on guitar or piano, with their lyrics projected on a screen behind them. Mayer responded in real time, often contemplating with hand on chin, at times boring holes into the ground, listening, thinking, tapping his fingers, or nodding his head at certain turns of phrase.
He often had a student play a song two or three times over: “Just one more time. We’re going to crack it.”
After Callie Sullivan performed her song, “The Sinner,” Mayer suggested she try one line in a different key. The change was noticeable, and left Sullivan smiling and the crowd cheering.
At other points, Mayer offered pointers and comments like:
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“You’ve got these great couplets... mixing colloquial speak with poetry.”
“Are you in A minor? There’s something about A minor that there’s really nice to write in... but there can be real emo feel to it.”
“This is where songwriting is like a crossword puzzle. It’s a code. It’s math. That’s why I always write with a whiteboard.”
“The song is so abstract — there’s room to grow the lyrics to be just as freaky.”
“See this line? There’s a whole other song there behind that line.”
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Mayer told the Globe after the show, “I wish we could’ve [broken] for lunch, and gone back out there. I love this.”
As for why he held the class?
“I see myself as a product of Berklee. I understand them so well because the school is a part of me. And kids trust someone who is in the real world doing it,” he said. “These kids are 20 years younger than me, playing music with the same heart and soul I was playing with in this same building 20 years ago. We’re all panning for gold in the same location. This is a building based on wild hope.”
Lauren Daley can be reached at ldaley33@gmail.comFortunately, research is available to help parents, teachers and school administrators do just that. In recent years, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists and educational psychologists have made a series of remarkable discoveries about how the human brain learns. They have founded a new discipline, known as Mind, Brain and Education, that is devoted to understanding and improving the ways in which children absorb, retain and apply knowledge.
Educators have begun to implement these methods in classrooms around the country and have enjoyed measured success. A collaboration between psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis and teachers at nearby Columbia Middle School, for example, lifted seventh- and eighth-grade students’ science and social studies test scores by 13 to 25 percent.
But the innovations have not yet been applied to homework. Mind, Brain and Education methods may seem unfamiliar and even counterintuitive, but they are simple to understand and easy to carry out. And after-school assignments are ripe for the kind of improvements the new science offers.
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“Spaced repetition” is one example of the kind of evidence-based techniques that researchers have found have a positive impact on learning. Here’s how it works: instead of concentrating the study of information in single blocks, as many homework assignments currently do — reading about, say, the Civil War one evening and Reconstruction the next — learners encounter the same material in briefer sessions spread over a longer period of time. With this approach, students are re-exposed to information about the Civil War and Reconstruction throughout the semester.
It sounds unassuming, but spaced repetition produces impressive results. Eighth-grade history students who relied on a spaced approach to learning had nearly double the retention rate of students who studied the same material in a consolidated unit, reported researchers from the University of California-San Diego in 2007. The reason the method works so well goes back to the brain: when we first acquire memories, they are volatile, subject to change or likely to disappear. Exposing ourselves to information repeatedly over time fixes it more permanently in our minds, by strengthening the representation of the information that is embedded in our neural networks.
A second learning technique, known as “retrieval practice,” employs a familiar tool — the test — in a new way: not to assess what students know, but to reinforce it. We often conceive of memory as something like a storage tank and a test as a kind of dipstick that measures how much information we’ve put in there. But that’s not actually how the brain works. Every time we pull up a memory, we make it stronger and more lasting, so that testing doesn’t just measure, it changes learning. Simply reading over material to be learned, or even taking notes and making outlines, as many homework assignments require, doesn’t have this effect.
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According to one experiment, language learners who employed the retrieval practice strategy to study vocabulary words remembered 80 percent of the words they studied, while learners who used conventional study methods remembered only about a third of them. Students who used retrieval practice to learn science retained about 50 percent more of the material than students who studied in traditional ways, reported researchers from Purdue University earlier this year. Students — and parents — may groan at the prospect of more tests, but the self-quizzing involved in retrieval practice need not provoke any anxiety. It’s simply an effective way to focus less on the input of knowledge (passively reading over textbooks and notes) and more on its output (calling up that same information from one’s own brain).
Another common misconception about how we learn holds that if information feels easy to absorb, we’ve learned it well. In fact, the opposite is true. When we work hard to understand information, we recall it better; the extra effort signals the brain that this knowledge is worth keeping. This phenomenon, known as cognitive disfluency, promotes learning so effectively that psychologists have devised all manner of “desirable difficulties” to introduce into the learning process: for example, sprinkling a passage with punctuation mistakes, deliberately leaving out letters, shrinking font size until it’s tiny or wiggling a document while it’s being copied so that words come out blurry.
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Teachers are unlikely to start sending students home with smudged or error-filled worksheets, but there is another kind of desirable difficulty — called interleaving — that can readily be applied to homework. An interleaved assignment mixes up different kinds of situations or problems to be practiced, instead of grouping them by type. When students can’t tell in advance what kind of knowledge or problem-solving strategy will be required to answer a question, their brains have to work harder to come up with the solution, and the result is that students learn the material more thoroughly.
Researchers at California Polytechnic State University conducted a study of interleaving in sports that illustrates why the tactic is so effective. When baseball players practiced hitting, interleaving different kinds of pitches improved their performance on a later test in which the batters did not know the type of pitch in advance (as would be the case, of course, in a real game).
Interleaving produces the same sort of improvement in academic learning. A study published last year in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology asked fourth-graders to work on solving four types of math problems and then to take a test evaluating how well they had learned. The scores of those whose practice problems were mixed up were more than double the scores of those students who had practiced one kind of problem at a time.
The application of such research-based strategies to homework is a yet-untapped opportunity to raise student achievement. Science has shown us how to turn homework into a potent catalyst for learning. Our assignment now is to make it happen.USA Today has become the latest newspaper to break with tradition by telling readers that Donald Trump is unfit to be President.
Throughout its history, America's only national daily paper has remained neutral, endorsing or criticising individual policies without ever recommending a candidate.
And though the newspaper stops short of supporting Hillary Clinton, it has become the latest newspaper to dismiss Mr Trump's qualifications and temperament for the highest office.
Several other newspapers which have always endorsed Republicans have also shunned the billionaire businessman, and advised readers to vote for the Democrat candidate.
Image: USA Today has broken with its traditional neutrality
USA Today's editorial board said: "From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week's first presidential debate, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents."
In a devastating critique, the newspaper described Mr Trump as a "serial liar" who is "erratic" and who has "coarsened the national dialogue".
It advised its readers that Hillary Clinton has her flaws, so they may want to vote for another candidate, but it concluded: "Whatever you do, however, resist the siren song of a dangerous demagogue.
"By all means vote, just not for Donald Trump."
Presidential debate in 90 seconds
Earlier this week, the Arizona Republic tore up more than a century of history and told its readers to vote for a Democrat.
The newspaper declared: "The 2016 Republican candidate is not conservative and he is not qualified."
The paper said that Senator Clinton's flaws paled |
The BRICS, once heralded as drivers of global growth, are all hanging on for dear life. Their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe, meanwhile, are tethered to the whims of their respective central banks for life support. And while there is talk of a recession in Europe or even in the U.S., Brazil and Russia are expected to see the light at the end of their recessionary tunnel by year's end.
Markets are pricing in crisis-mode, however. On the basis of the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Currency Index alone, investors perceive the big emerging markets as still being in the midst of a crisis, one that is more severe in fact than any they have undergone in the past—including the various EM-driven crises of the 1990s and early 2000s, and even the more recent global financial crisis. The Index is roughly 27% below 2009 levels.
For those who like an opportunity, this looks like there's some upside to be had here.
The BRICS are in a bad way, but they have learned from past mistakes. Until the IMF comes to town in Brazil, the government is trusted to be in control of its debt burden. Russia, meanwhile, is consistently conservative. It de-pegged the ruble from the dollar in 2014, helping it manage the fall in oil prices. When oil prices fell, the ruble fell even deeper, helping Russian oil companies maintain their markets.
Even China has moved to a more flexible exchange rate, widening the trading band for its currency in August 2015.
They "have learned the lessons of previous crises, and leveraged them to put themselves in a much stronger position
to successfully weather the latest set of shocks," says Michael Hasenstab, a fund manager for Franklin Templeton.
One reason why the BRICS have not yet required a bailout: dollar denominated debt. They're no longer drowning in it.
The financial crises in these countries have all been based on currency, weak local banking and sovereign debt
priced in dollars or euros. The most severe crises typically involve more than one of these causes. This explains why the BRICS boosted their levels of foreign exchange reserves after the last crisis in the early 2000s, and joined forces between their central banks to provide financial support when needed.
Hasenstab says in a 32 page report released last week that the most important step the big emerging markets have taken to reduce their vulnerability to crises, both foreign and domestic, is the deepening of their own financial markets. That means they don't have to rush to Citibank for funding anymore, unless its the home-grown subsidiary pricing its loans in the local currency.
The development of a reliable domestic investor base has benefited from the rise of a broad middle class. This is especially true in China and less so in Russia and India. The total assets held by domestic insurers and pension funds in emerging markets, including the BRICS, have swelled from just $2.3 trillion in 2005 to around $6 trillion in 2013, boosted by the expansion of the insurance sector in China and by pension funds in Brazil and Mexico.
For the BRICS, a transition toward more balanced funding has improved financial resilience and made them harder to force into the loving arms of the IMF.
Domestic institutional investors can be a stabilizing force when asset prices collapse to levels that are clearly out of line with fundamentals, Hasenstab writes. In the past, the lack of a strong domestic investor base magnified the consequences of financial volatility. When the West was out, countries like Brazil, South Africa and India, in particular, were out of luck.
The borrowing practices of these governments have also improved. According to the Bank for International Settlements, governments have raised their reliance on funding in local markets, with the share of international loans falling from roughly 40% in 1997 to a mere 8% in 2014, while the share of foreign holdings of local government debt has
increased to 25%, according to JP Morgan.
The increased importance devoted to attracting foreign direct investment in long term projects like energy and infrastructure instead of speculative investments has helped curb the risk of sudden capital outflows. It's much easier to sell out of Brazilian bonds, than it is to sell out of an entire Brazilian hotel chain.
China remains particularly hard to bring down. It has been butting heads more against the U.S. over the South China Sea, but their economy is so deeply tied to the U.S. that a weak China also ends up being bad for American companies, especially those that are just starting to export there.
China has been a stalwart within the BRICS. And while the political ties between the five countries are not as tight as those between the U.S. and European Union, they have proven that they can take their lumps when up against the ropes.
Over the last few years, the five countries created the National Development Bank, which was first seen as a challenge to the World Bank and IMF. Then China launched an even bigger project, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. It received immediate criticism by the U.S. Washington has abstained from becoming a member of the bank, while the U.K., Washington's biggest ally in Europe, is a member.
The BRICS have been seen as an alternative to a unipolar, dollar-centric world. But its latest development banks are all dollar denominated, for now. And while their economies are in varying degrees of crises, they have shown that the last decade of keeping clear of the IMF remains a policy none are willing to reverse. Until the IMF comes crashing into Brasilia or J-Berg, the BRICS are alive and will manage to grow in the current low-growth environment everyone is facing.Foreign Minister Stephane Dion’s official schedule has been very crowded of late. On Friday he was in Paris for a conference on “peacekeeping in francophone environments.” Global Affairs Canada — the new name given Dion’s ministry — was pleased to reveal that, together with France, Senegal and Bangladesh, Canada had duly reaffirmed its commitment to peacekeeping.
No sooner was that over than Dion was off to Brussels to join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his belated journey to sign a trade deal with the European Union, which was finally approved after some feverish last-minute diplomacy. The signing prompted a flurry of tweets as Dion proudly attended the “historic” moment.
Unfortunately, another important event somehow slipped past unremarked. In a transparent rebuke to its military activities in Syria, Russia was kicked off the UN Human Rights Council. Russia was beaten out by Hungary and Croatia, falling short by just two votes. The bluntness of the snub was evident in the fact Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — all bearing extended records of human rights abuse — remain on the council.
Canada was among the 193 General Assembly members with a vote. Traditionally, countries don’t reveal how they cast their ballot, to avoid any awkwardness within the UN’s polite diplomatic salons. In this instance, however, Dion was urged by former Liberal justice minister and human rights advocate Irwin Cotler to defy tradition and make public Canada’s position. It would, agreed Liberal MP Michael Levitt, “(shine) a light on the hypocrisy” of the council.
“We need to have a strong voice in making sure that Russia and Syria are called out on these actions,” Levitt said.
Dion evidently feels it’s better to leave the hypocrisy unlit, however. Though the narrowness of Russia’s margin of defeat — a single switched ballot could have changed the outcome — illustrates the crucial nature of each vote, Global Affairs declined Irwin’s advice. The Russian rebuke doesn’t even rate mention on its web site, though the ministry did find room to extend welcoming greetings to visiting ministers from Hungary and Bangladesh.
It may be that, amid the excitement of Paris and Brussels, the minister simply neglected to mention the vote on Russia. Unhappily, it appears more likely his silence was a deliberate reflection of Dion’s determination to appease Moscow in spite of the murderous pummeling its aircraft deliver to tens of thousands of innocent Syrians in the beleaguered city of Aleppo.
It is no secret that Russian President Vladimir Putin sees military adventurism as a means to resurrect Russia as a global power. A week ago the Kremlin unveiled details of Moscow’s new “Satan 2” intercontinental ballistic missile, which, with a range of 11,000 kilometres, “is capable of wiping out parts of the earth the size of Texas or France,” the state news outlet Sputnik boasted.
At the same time, NATO bolstered its presence across Eastern Europe as a warning to Moscow over its military activities in Crimea and Ukraine. Lithuania is preparing for the possibility of a Russian invasion, using a bulletin to citizens with advice on survival techniques. Nervous Poles have been joining volunteer paramilitary groups in growing numbers.
Dion prefers to remain aloof from such worrying actions, choosing to “re-engage” with Moscow after relations became strained under the Conservatives. He rejected pressure to adopt a law targeting corrupt Russian officials, arguing Canada already has adequate sanctions in place. Ottawa also indicated that co-operation will be stepped up on Arctic issues, arguing it is “rational” and “eminently sensible” to engage with Moscow in a region controlled 75% by the two countries.
Liberals may argue they are using both the carrot and the stick, “engaging” with Moscow while reserving the right to criticize. Canada recently organized a UN session aimed specifically at increasing pressure on Russia and its Syrian accomplice, President Bashar Assad. Pressed by its allies, Ottawa has agreed to contribute troops to a beefed-up presence in the Baltic.
As the old schoolyard ditty goes, however, words are unlikely to hurt a regime willing to drop barrel bombs on women and children while blowing hospitals into rubble. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon suggested recent attacks may constitute war crimes. Dion would serve Canadian interests better by putting more effort into bringing Russia to justice for its barbaric practices, rather than shielding it from public embarrassment over a human rights vote.
National PostBuy Photo Detroit Police stand near the entrance of an apartment at the Madison Estates on Wednesday May after a toddler was found dead inside an apartment. (Photo: Steve Perez / The Detroit News)Buy Photo
Detroit — The family of a toddler found dead in a Detroit apartment Wednesday after his mother was hospitalized said the woman “had some problems” with depression but was believed to be working with a social service agency.
The toddler’s mother was found in a Downriver crisis center, according to the Detroit Police Department. Police did not release the mother’s name, but family identified her as Deanna Minor. The boy has been identified as Aaron Minor.
“Deanna had some problems, but social services was supposed to be working with her,” said Minor’s grandmother, Beverly Mylum. “She was a loving and giving mother. I didn’t see any signs of abuse.
“She was going through depression for a very long time,” Mylum continued. “She just snapped. She was quiet. I have no knowledge of alcohol or drugs.”
Mylum described Aaron as an average toddler who was always well groomed. She said her granddaughter kept a clean home.
Mylum said the family is reeling from the loss of the boy.
“I’ve lost one and I know it’s painful,” she said.
Officials are not identifying the hospital providing treatment.
“The morgue is doing the autopsy and we’re still doing a very thorough investigation, but knowing where she’s at is reassuring that if need be, we can take her into custody,” Detroit police Officer Jennifer Moreno said.
The mother may never face charges, according to Assistant Chief Steve Dolunt, who said the woman appears to suffer from an unspecified mental illness.
"So even if we do find that this was a homicide, I don't know if we can charge," he said.
That decision would be made by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.
"I don't even know if the mother knows the child is dead," he said.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office said the death is being investigated as a homicide, police said.
"The boy's father has been incarcerated for quite some time, so he’s not being looked at as a person of interest in this case," Moreno said. Further details on his situation were not available.
The toddler was found around 2:40 p.m. Wednesday by a maintenance worker at the Madison Estates complex on the 4400 block of Trumbull, in the Woodbridge neighborhood, just west of Midtown.
“The maintenance man was servicing an apartment across the hall and certainly the odor caused him to check,” 1st Assistant Chief Lashinda Stair said Wednesday.
"The room was in disarray," Dolunt said. "Food (and) medicine, scattered about."
The maintenance worker called police to report the discovery.
The apartment was empty and there were no obvious signs of trauma, Stair said Wednesday.
Police believe the boy was dead in the apartment for more than a week, Moreno said. His exact age is unknown due to his recent third birthday.
“We don’t know if he expired before his birthday or after,” Moreno said. “I think we’re considering him to be 2 years old.”
Moreno declined to release the boy’s date of birth.
The boy's body was found one day after his mother was released from an Ann Arbor hospital where she was treated for a medical emergency, Moreno said. The woman was found May 17 unresponsive on the lawn at the apartment complex. Emergency personnel were called and she was taken to a Detroit hospital before being transferred to Ann Arbor.
She was released Tuesday and entered psychiatric treatment sometime this week, Moreno said.
It remained unclear Thursday what caused the woman’s collapse last week or if she alerted anyone that there was a child at home, according to Stair.
April Fowler, a neighbor, said she saw usually the mother walking with her son in his stroller every day. The woman has lived in the complex for about a year, Fowler said.
“She’s always been with her child,” the neighbor said. “It’s very alarming because we’ve seen her all the time.”
The last time Fowler said she saw the woman was last week, which would have been before the woman’s hospitalization.
“So many days went by and I wondered if she moved,” said Fowler, adding that she didn’t notice any crying from the apartment.
“A 2-year-old is going to cry,” Fowler said. “You would know the pattern of a baby who would not stop crying and it would make you stop and bang on the door. I never heard any cries and I had to walk that way several times.”
HFournier@detroitnews.com
(313) 223-4616
@HollyPFournier
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1ViFit6Elephant: An Ethereum-Based Platform That's Ready for Mainstream
A new crypto-project called Elephant (7elephant.org) plans on making the smart contracts platform Ethereum available to the masses. The intention of the project is to create an opportunity to run a business in a new way using the multifunctional platform. For close to six months the project’s developers have created a smart contract system, released its native tokens elCoin, and have developed an exclusive algorithm, which combines Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Transaction (PoT).
Also read: Gem Health Unveils Medical Management Blockchain Platform
Elephant Plans to Bring Ethereum to the Masses
The project is backed by the Ambisafe initiative, which develops cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions. The Elephant team says they have been steadily growing its platform for a few months now and have managed to attract an excess of 40,000 users since it was announced.
Its founders believe the new userbase is a “solid foundation for global promotion and development of crypto-technologies.” The protocol, which collaborates with the Ethereum blockchain, is a digital asset exchange, digital securities constructor and a capital-raising tool all in one. The website reveals a variety of things you can do with the application including chatting anonymously across the network, creating assets and securities, holding funds within the Elephant bank, and with more use-cases developing.
ElCoin uses two consensus algorithms within its protocol PoS and PoT, and each design implementation will occur after the network launch. The “Holder’s Reward” or PoS will take place every ten days with a minimum balance at least one (credit/debit) transaction in 10 days. An annual interest rate will post every ten days during 2,550 days after the project’s public release. The “Auction Reward” or PoT will forge automatically after 300 days of the network’s initial start with the drawings held every 100,001st transaction. The reward for PoT is 200 elCoins but only wallets with ten transactions during the period (from the 99991st to the 100000th transaction) are eligible to receive the auctioned tokens.
Elephant developers say elCoin is a “decentralized Ethereum-based digital currency.” Its token can be used for Elephant contracts held within the Ethereum network and is the contracts’ settlement unit of account. The platform will have a web-based wallet and Android application that uses the native currency. Transaction times will confirm in roughly 12 seconds, and fees will be low across the network. Elephant also has a nonprofit organization that will coordinate the project and promote the elCoin applications and startups.
Ethereum network transactions tripled when the team launched the Elephant platform on December 22, 2015, and the team believes it is one of the largest Ethereum projects to date. Elephant aims to offer the mainstream an entire suite of applications powered by the Turing-complete protocol. The creators believe the platform will help push through adoption barriers because its user-base doesn’t need to understand the technology that underpins the network.
The project has more initiatives planned for the platform and wallets for iOS, Linux, and OSX are in development. Elephant wants to follow through with the many cryptocurrency concepts described by promoters and visionaries. Ethereum – with its programmable language and smart contracts – is changing the blockchain environment. Elephant says its project will help define this emerging technology to the mainstream by offering a simple to understand and easy-to-use solution to the equation.
What do you think about Elephant? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Elephant’s website, EtherScan.io'Try again. Fail again," wrote Samuel Beckett as counsel to the unsuccessful. "Fail better." But for anyone not driven by a writer's restless urge to continue producing work even when it goes unrecognised, the alternative advantages of simply giving up should not be underrated.
There is a fine line between self-belief and delusion. An equation for calculating where the line falls: if x is the number of rejection letters you have received for your novel/film script/progressive rock opera; and y is the number of years you have lived in the childhood bedroom of your parents' house, and x+y>50, move on.
Too big to fail
The best careers in which to fail are ones that reward incompetence with a lavish payoff. For example, the current market rate for managing a world-class Premier League football team and failing to qualify for the Champions League is around £5m. For breaking a bank, you should expect something in the order of £10m-£20m. This should include a pension plated in solid gold.
Global finance is a particularly good area to fail in because the more vital your institution is to the national economy, the more money you get when it goes wrong. The first rule of receiving a massive taxpayer-funded reward for failure is to show absolutely no contrition. In the event that you are then vilified in public, wallow in martyred self-pity.
Public service failure
Another good way to grow too big to fail is to run a company specialising in winning outsourced contracts for essential public services. That way, the government has to support you regardless of whether the services you provide are rubbish. Failure in the public sector should be blamed on Tory cuts if you are a public sector employee and public sector employees if you are a Tory.
Schools are said to be failing when teachers do not spend enough time preparing for Ofsted inspections. Ofsted inspectors cannot fail. Failing schools are then put in "special measures", which means they can become academies. This automatically makes them successful again.
Failure in politics
Enoch Powell once said: "Political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure."
He also advised public speaking with a full bladder and warned that immigration could change the colour of major waterways, so his wisdom is open to question. Nonetheless, the rule is a sound one. It can be amended with the note that many political lives also begin with failure and have failure liberally dotted through their middles, too.
When MPs fail, it is customary for them to receive seats in the House of Lords. The correct title for ministers and shadow ministers who fail to become leaders of their parties is "one of the best prime ministers we never had".
Ministers who oversee failing policies should blame, in this order, the legacy of the last government, civil servants, negative media coverage.
Having shifted the blame, it is traditional to declare that lessons must be learned from failure.
To establish what these lessons should be, set up a commission of inquiry. Only do this if the inquiry is likely to conclude that the lessons should be learned by someone else.
In the event of a chancellor presiding over an economic policy that has failed, one option is to pretend that it has succeeded. This is called "sticking to the long-term plan".
Thus, for example, if every one of your growth forecasts and targets for deficit reduction have been missed, simply ignore the fact and state that your plan has worked. (Note: this technique works best with craven newspaper support and pathetic opposition.)
Failed state
A country run by a dysfunctional regime that doesn't buy arms from the UK or US.
Heroic failure
What Britain uses to bolster its national self-esteem in the absence of sporting triumph. Not to be confused with #epicfail, which is applied only to people humiliating themselves on the internet.
Rafael BehrAs job descriptions go, it is out of this world
Nasa has today begun searching for a new batch of astronauts who will be at the forefront of preparations to travel to Mars.
The agency said it will accept applications from December 14 until mid-February and expects to announce candidates selected in mid-2017.
And a range of professions will be considered, from military personnel to pilots, engineers, scientists and doctors.
The next class of astronauts can expect to fly on any of four different US vessels during their careers: the International Space Station, two commercial crew spacecraft currently in development by U.S. companies, and Nasa’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle.
Want to #BeAnAstronaut? Applications for our next astronaut class open on Dec 14! Info here: https://t.co/wVRg45d3Iq https://t.co/MGwlrDk2QK — NASA (@NASA) November 4, 2015
Want to #BeAnAstronaut, but not sure you’re qualified? We’ve debunked a few myths for you: https://t.co/FV9QG7xuUF pic.twitter.com/ivqdZe1VNZ — NASA (@NASA) November 4, 2015
“This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet,” said Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden.
“Those selected for this service will fly on U.S. made spacecraft from American soil, advance critical science and research aboard the International Space Station, and help push the boundaries of technology in the proving ground of deep space.”
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Future station crew members will continue the vital work advanced during the last 15 years of continuous human habitation aboard the orbiting laboratory, expanding scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies.
The work will include building on the regular six-month missions and this year's one-year mission, currently underway aboard the station, which is striving for research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space.
Nasa's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, now in development, will launch astronauts on missions outside lunar orbit where Nasa will learn to conduct complex operations in a deep space environment before moving on to longer duration missions on its journey to Mars.
“This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s human space flight program,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Nasa has taken the next step in the evolution of our nation’s human spaceflight program – and our U.S. astronauts will be at the forefront of these new and challenging space flight missions.
“We encourage all qualified applicants to learn more about the opportunities for astronauts at Nasa and apply to join our flight operations team.”
Photo: EPA/NASA
Nasa currently has 47 astronauts in the active astronaut corps, and more will be needed to crew future missions to the space station and destinations in deep space.
Astronaut candidates must have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. An advanced degree is desirable.
Candidates must be US citizens and have at least three years of related, progressively responsible professional experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Astronaut candidates must pass the NASA long-duration spaceflight physical.
To apply, visit http://www.usajobs.govFLINT, MI--On Saturday, the third annual Drop Fest, an electronic music an arts festival under the Greater Flint Arts Council's Parade of Festivals program, will return to Flint. Over 30 DJs from across the Midwest will play music on three stages in the downtown Flint area. The festival is managed, coordinated and executed by volunteers. Read below to see what you need to know. For more information, visit Facebook.com/FlintDropFest, or contact Drop Fest President and Founder Jerin Sage at 360-470-3802 or FlintDropFest@gmail.com.
Where is it?
Starting at noon, Flint Drop Fest will have performers on three stages: Riverbank Park is the Under The Radar Stage, the rooftop of the James P. Rutherford Parking Structure is the Peace Mob Media Productions Stage, and the University of Michigan Pavillion is the Strange Luv Stage.
Who is performing?
A new performance starts on the hour, every hour, from noon until 8 p.m. at every stage. The lineup for the Strange Luv Productions Stage, starting at noon: Jumangi & Ran De Herda; Gusto; J Flame; Stiverson; Nova; Dr. Strange; Bobby Conway; DJ Fixed. The lineup for the Peace Mob Media Productions Stage, starting at noon: Rico Del Sol; Mr. Busy "The Hardstyle Superhero;" Phnix; Captain Crunk & Dirty D; Dash R!ot; DJ Dock; Burli; Van Wheezy; Doctor Dubs. The lineup at the Under The Radar Stage, starting at noon: Brian Borsa; Strictly Business (A DJ Named Slickback & Broley Plur); Le Disco Nap (DJ Holographic & Future Focus); Jon Salem; Shawn Mint (Deep Cover); Steve Leroy (Deep Cover); Daniel James (Under The Radar); Kenneth Thomas. On the Under The Radar Stage, Strictly Business' set is from 1 till 2:30, and Le Disco Nap is from 2:30 p.m. till 4 p.m.
What else besides music?
Flint's Human Canvases Project will perform a live body painting throughout the day at Riverbank Park. The festival will also include vendors and event merchandise.ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says nearly 11,000 rape kits have not been submitted for analysis.
In a spreadsheet released on its website Tuesday, the FDLE tallied 10,900 kits that have not been tested. The data came from 262 law enforcement agencies around the state. Seven law enforcement agencies did not report data.
Rape Kits Remain Untested
The agency says the data is preliminary and agencies might update the information.
The figures mirror those nationwide as agencies across the U.S. struggle to process backlogs of sexual assault kits.
In 2009, a five month CBS News Investigation found a staggering number of rape kits had never been sent to crime labs for testing. At the time, the Jacksonville Sheriff's office said they didn't know how many tested or untested kits they had in storage.
The five month investigation looked at 24 cities and states and found more than 6,000 rape kits from active investigations waiting months, even years to be tested. On average at that time in 2009, it was six months in Rhode Island, Alabama and Illinois. It could take nearly a year in Missouri. Up to three years in Anchorage, Alaska. One state, Louisiana, had rape kits dating as far back as 2001 waiting to be tested.
Some sexual assault victims billed for rape-related medical tests
"It's absolutely astounding," said Sarah Tofte, Research Director at Human Rights Watch at the time. "What's the point of sending a rape kit to a crime lab for testing if you can't get to it for say, eight years?"
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting a more than $300,000 study on the number of untested kits and will present the findings to the Legislature in January.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has called for more funding in the next state budget to process the kits.While most Americans have a basic understanding of the Electoral College, far fewer of them know it’s an extraordinarily undemocratic system.
Did you know, for example, that it is mathematically possible to win an election with less than 22% of the popular vote even if only two candidates are running? Or that electors are not bound by the choice of the voters in their state?
Thanks to the current system, small states are given much more weight and candidates only bother to show up in a few tightly contested states. Everybody else really doesn’t matter.
As you wait for election results to come in, watch these three short videos to learn more about the Electoral College and the mess it is. And if you like chaos, you’ll be rooting for Trump and Clinton to each win 269 electors.
Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from electoral college map (CGP Grey / YouTube)
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Our Comment Policy Keep it civilized, keep it relevant, keep it clear, keep it short. Please do not post links or promotional material. We reserve the right to edit and to delete comments where necessary. Related printDAO Just Made History
While a huge segment of the planet is still struggling to grasp the various concepts revolving around the rapidly emerging cryptocurrency industry, those that do grasp said concepts are going on a wild shopping frenzy over the currencies.
Case in point, Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) recently launched a crowdsale for DAO tokens and nabbed over a hundred million dollars within a few weeks, making them the largest crowdfunded project in history.
How DAO Works
DAO, a platform developed by German company Slock.it, is a self-governing company built upon an irrefutable mathematical code that is free for everyone to use. It’s main mission is “to blaze a new path in business organization for the betterment of its members, existing simultaneously nowhere and everywhere and operating solely with the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code.”
It runs on the platform Ethereum, which in turn runs on a blockchain, essentially resulting in a system which allows fast and direct trade, and records all transactions for everyone to see in absolute transparency. People can make transactions without any intermediary, and will enable several capabilities not limited to trade. Ethereum uses Ether, the regulated “crypto-fuel” that powers the creation of DAO’s within the system, which the public can buy to exchange for DAO tokens.WASHINGTON — About 20 minutes after the Canadiens practice had finished Friday, Victor Mete was still on the ice at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex along with Charles Hudon and Alex Galchenyuk, shooting pucks at goalie Al Montoya.
The 19-year-old Mete probably could have stayed on the ice all afternoon.
“This was my dream my whole life, so now being able to actually live it is really good,” Mete said after he finally returned to the locker room. “Just being able to play around with the boys out there, shoot pucks and play games and stuff, it’s really cool.”
If Mete was nervous during his NHL debut Thursday night — a 3-2 shootout win over the Sabres in Buffalo — it certainly didn’t show. The 5-foot-9, 184-pounder logged 18:43 of ice time — including 2:44 on the power play — and finished plus-1. Mete also had his own personal fan club in attendance with his father, mother and sister among a group of about 40 family members and friends who had a loge at the KeyBank Center.
“They didn’t ask me for any tickets,” Mete said. “They took care of it themselves. It was really good to see the support I got. Almost all my family was there and I’m lucky to have them.”
Mete’s sister, Julia, is three years older than him and is one of the reasons he became such a fantastic skater. Julia was a figure skater and Victor used to skate with her on the family’s backyard rink and try to imitate her.
“I used to go watch her compete a lot also,” Mete said. “I used to do a lot of power skating as a kid, but I never figure skated myself.”
Mete started playing hockey at age 6. His father was also a defenceman as a kid, but Victor said the highest Joseph Mete played was at the minor-midget level with the Don Mills Flyers in the Greater Toronto Hockey League. Joseph is now general manager of The Venetian, a family owned banquet hall that specializes in corporate and social events. The Mete family has been in the hospitality business for more than 45 years.
Joseph, like Victor, grew up dreaming of one day playing in the NHL, but it never happened for him.
“He always encouraged me to play,” Victor said. “He said because he wasn’t able to live his dream of making it, he wanted to give me every opportunity to do it. He had a big impact … he would pick me up from school and bring me to some (hockey) camps that I didn’t even know there was.”
But no matter how many hockey camps he went to, how many power-skating lessons he took or how many times he watched his sister figure skating, none of that would help Victor grow taller. While his height has always been considered a disadvantage by others, Mete simply refused to listen. Even after he wasn’t put on the NHL Central Scouting list of players to watch heading into the 2015-16 season with the OHL’s London Knights. Even after he wasn’t selected until the fourth round (100th overall) by the Canadiens at the 2016 NHL Draft. Even after he was considered a serious longshot to make the Canadiens this season.
Mete just keeps beating the odds and Canadiens coach Claude Julien is getting tired of answering questions about the teenage defenceman.
“He’s just good, guys,” Julien told reporters in Buffalo after Thursday’s game. “You don’t have to explain why he’s good. He’s been good, and he keeps showing it and I don’t have to say more about him. He’s a good defenceman, I like the way he skates and moves the puck and, hopefully, he continues to show that.”
Mete was paired with Shea Weber against the Sabres with the veteran defenceman logging a game-high 29:30 of ice time, which earned him a day off from practice Friday. The No. 1 defensive pair will face a big challenge Saturday against the Capitals (7 p.m., CITY TV, TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690) and Alex Ovechkin, who had a hat-trick in Washington’s season-opening 5-4 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.
“I watched him a lot as a kid,” Mete said about Ovechkin, who broke into the NHL when the defenceman was only 7. “I’m excited … it should be a good game.”
The Canadiens didn’t check into their Washington hotel until after 2 a.m. Friday and Mete said he didn’t get much sleep with the adrenaline still pumping after his first NHL game. It helps his roommate is Artturi Lehkonen, who was a rookie last season.
“I seem to always be rooming with Finnish guys, even in junior hockey,” Mete said with a smile, referring to his London roommate Olli Juolevi, who was the Vancouver Canucks’ first-round pick (fifth overall) in 2016. “(Lehkonen) went through this last year, so he just said to take in all the experiences, take in everything and don’t take it for granted … but enjoy it.”
Mete was certainly enjoying himself at practice Friday.
scowan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/StuCowan1File this under things you may have seen suspected on the Internet, but now it's official: the logo for AMC's The Walking Dead has been gradually decaying each season since the show started.
That's according to the official website for Skybound Entertainment's The Walking Dead comics, which have created an animated GIF that moves the logo through have a decade of breakdown, as seen on the hit series.
You can check it out below. The Walking Dead returns with new episodes in October, but between now and then AMC will introduce fans to a new group of survivors in Fear The Walking Dead, a companion series set in Los Angeles in the early days of the apocalypse. That series will debut sometime this summer.
- - - Want a chance to win a Batman Arkham Knight Playstation 4 Bundle? Click here or the image below to enter!Former Philadelphia Eagles tight end James Casey is in the news. After being released by the Denver Broncos a couple weeks ago, Casey is now working out for the Carolina Panthers, according to several reports.
Veteran FB/TE James Casey worked out for #Panthers today. — Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) October 20, 2015
Hey, wait a minute... the Eagles play the Panthers this week. Clearly this is some sort of attempt by Carolina to get some extra insight on Philadelphia's offense. It's obvious that the 5-0 Panthers, who will be playing at home, are looking for any advantage to stop the dangerous threat of Sam Bradford and Philadelphia's offense.
Jokes aside, the Eagles themselves might be guilty of (perfectly legal) espionage as well. Last week the Eagles worked out former Panthers offensive lineman Brian Folkerts. Folkerts spent a combined 26 games on Carolina's roster in 2013 and 2014.
Sunday night's game will definitely be determined by which player is the better spy. Who do you have, Casey or Folkerts?
UPDATE: The Panthers are really bringing in the big guns here. It also appears they worked out Bradley Fletcher! |
prerequisites: Wraith patron, 9th level
You grab a humanoid creature within 5 feet of you. They must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Warlock spell save DC. If they fail, they are bent to your will, and serve you until death.
Additionally, when you are equipped with a Wraithbound Artifact, you may target up to 3 humanoid creatures within 5 feet of you.
Tombwalker
prerequisites: Wraith patron
On a successful dexterity saving throw, you teleport through an attacker, successfully evading their attack.
Additionally, when you are equipped with a Wraithbound Artifact, they suffer 1d4 radiant damage.
Wraithbound
prerequisites: Wraith patron, 15th level
To further your power, you have chosen to choose an item to bind the Wraith to.
This invocation can only be used once.Suspension of the rules in the United States Congress is the specific set of procedures within the United States Congress that allows for the general parliamentary procedure of how and when to suspend the rules.
U.S. House of Representatives [ edit ]
Overview [ edit ]
Suspension of the rules is a procedure generally used to quickly pass non-controversial bills in the United States House of Representatives.
A motion to suspend the rules is in order on Mondays and Tuesdays and towards the end of a session of Congress and may only be made by the Speaker of the House or their designee, though it is customary for committee chairs to write the Speaker requesting a suspension. Once a member makes a motion to "suspend the rules" and take some action, debate is limited to 40 minutes, no amendments can be offered to the motion or the underlying matter, and a 2/3 majority of Members present and voting is required to agree to the motion.
A suspension motion sets aside all procedural and other rules that otherwise prohibit the House from considering the measure—but the motion never mentions the specific rules that are suspended. Typically, a suspension motion is phrased as a motion to "...suspend the rules and pass the bill," and, if the motion is agreed to, the bill is considered passed by the House. A Member can also move to suspend the rules and take another action, such as to "suspend the rules and consider the bill," and the House shall take the proposed action if two-thirds of those voting are in favor of the motion.
Most often, bills "on suspension" are non-controversial legislation—such as naming Post Offices of the United States Postal Service or federal buildings—and nearly all bills that are considered under suspension rules have bipartisan support.
Suspension Calendar [ edit ]
These votes, under the rules, may only take place on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Under special circumstances, suspension votes may take place on Thursdays or Fridays, or other days, but that happens rarely and requires a separate vote of the House as to whether that should occur.
The 2007 U.S. Farm Bill was considered using such a procedure. Due to a procedural glitch, the bill was improperly sent to the President and in an unusual attempt to solve the problem, the House passed it again as H.R. 6124. Hence the House Leadership used the suspension calendar to do so.
Other examples of suspension bills in the 110th United States Congress:
H.Con.Res. 300 - Recognizing the necessity for the United States to maintain its significant leadership role in improving the health and promoting the resiliency of coral reef ecosystems, and for other purposes (Rep. Bordallo – Natural Resources)
S.J.Res. 17 - A joint resolution directing the United States to initiate international discussions and take necessary steps with other Nations to negotiate an agreement for managing migratory and transboundary fish stocks in the Arctic Ocean (Sen. Stevens (AK) – Natural Resources)
H.Con.Res. 325 - Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Mackinac Island State Park Commission's Historical Preservation and Museum Program, which began on June 15, 1958 (Rep. Stupak – Natural Recourses)
H.Res. 1074 - Honoring the 60th anniversary of the commencement of the carving of the Crazy Horse Memorial (Rep. Herseth Sandlin – Natural Resources)
H.R. 1464 - To assist in the conservation of rare felids and rare canids by supporting and providing financial resources for the conservation programs of nations within the range of rare felid and rare canid populations and projects of persons with demonstrated expertise in the conservation of rare felid and rare canid populations (Rep. Udall (NM) – Natural Resources)
U.S. Senate [ edit ]
In the United States Senate, Rule XVI prohibits amendments that propose general legislation to appropriations legislations. To prevent a point of order from killing the amendment, a Senator may offer a motion to suspend rule XVI, paragraph 4, essentially making the order germane. This motion requires a 2/3 majority to approve, meaning that it rarely passes. It should not be confused with a motion to waive the Budget Act, which requires a 3/5 vote to pass and applies to amendments that spend in amounts that exceed the levels set out in the annual budget resolution, as well as many other financial issues.
See also [ edit ]Story highlights Morano loved cookies and would hide some under her pillow
Leaving her abusive husband also led to a long life, she said last year
(CNN) Emma Morano, the world's oldest person and the last one known to be born in the 1800s, has died.
She was 117.
The Italian was born on November 29, 1899. She held the Guinness World Record titles for oldest living person and oldest living woman.
"She joined our celebrated hall of fame with her amazing achievement when she was announced in 2016 as the oldest living female, and was officially confirmed as the last person to be born in the 1800s," Guinness World Records said in a statement on its website.
It said it will announce a new oldest person after reviewing evidence.
Read MoreReconstruction of the original Taunton Flag, based on contemporary descriptions.
The flag of Taunton, Massachusetts, also known as the Taunton Flag and the Liberty and Union Flag, is the city flag of Taunton, Massachusetts, United States. The flag was first adopted in 1774 and has since been adopted as the flag of Taunton. It consists of a red ensign with the flag of Great Britain in canton with the words "Liberty and Union" on it.
History [ edit ]
The flag was first adopted on 21 October 1774 after the Sons of Liberty had forced out American Loyalists from Taunton.[1] Reverend Caleb Barnum proposed a plan for a symbol of defiance against British rule.[2] In commemoration, the Patriots erected a liberty pole, 112 feet (34 m) high, outside of the Taunton Courthouse and the house of Tory Loyalist lawyer Daniel Leonard.[2][3] On it, they raised a red ensign with the words "Liberty and Union" sewn onto it.[1]
The Taunton flag was one of the first rebel flags used within British North America to express dissension against the British government and The Crown.[4] It also initially symbolised underlying loyalty to the Crown as the Union Jack was viewed as the King's Colours.[5] The popularity of the flag grew due to the Boston Evening Post publishing it in a story.[6] The wife of William McKinstry, the only Loyalist permitted to remain, expressed her disdain for the Taunton flag and in response female Patriots dragged her from her house and forced her to march in front of the liberty pole where it was flying.[1][3] A later version of the Taunton Flag was created including the "Liberty and Union" slogan on a Union Jack.[7]
Present day [ edit ]
The flag of Taunton flies alongside the flag of the United States over Taunton Green in September 2016.
The current flag was adopted as the city flag of Taunton by a resolution of the Taunton City Council on October 19, 1974. It is not known what the original flag looked like; the current design is based on an incomplete contemporary newspaper description.[8]
The flag is flown in Taunton Green Historic District alongside the flag of the United States.[6][8] It also flies in front of Taunton City Hall and other city buildings, as well as many private homes.[8]
It was also symbolically raised outside the Old Colony History Museum in Taunton on the city's 350th anniversary.[2]
Each autumn, Taunton holds a Liberty and Union Festival to commemorate the events of October 1774, and to celebrate the Taunton Flag. [9][1]Viewpoint: Are black holes really two dimensional?
Vijay Balasubramanian, Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
The insights of a provocative connection between general relativity and quantum field theory, called the AdS/CFT correspondence, have been extended to rotating black holes that can occur astrophysically.
Illustration: Carin Cain Figure 1: (Left) Black hole spacetimes develop a “throat” leading to the horizon. (Right) The throat viewed from above. Quantum gravitational dynamics in some black hole throats can be “holographically” encoded in the dynamics of a lower dimensional field theory defined on the boundary of the throat. The radial direction of spacetime becomes an emergent geometric description of RG scale in the field theory. Red shading on the boundary indicates the nonlocal spread of data about a local bulk object in the boundary encoding. The depth of red shading indicates the fraction of information about the bulk object that is encoded at each boundary location. (Left) Black hole spacetimes develop a “throat” leading to the horizon. (Right) The throat viewed from above. Quantum gravitational dynamics in some black hole throats can be “holographically” encoded in the dynamics of a lower dimensional field theo... Show more
Illustration: Carin Cain Figure 1: (Left) Black hole spacetimes develop a “throat” leading to the horizon. (Right) The throat viewed from above. Quantum gravitational dynamics in some black hole throats can be “holographically” encoded in the dynamics of a lower dimensional field theory defined on the boundary of the throat. The radial direction of spacetime becomes an emergent geometric description of RG scale in the field theory. Red shading on the boundary indicates the nonlocal spread of data about a local bulk object in the boundary encoding. The depth of red shading indicates the fraction of information about the bulk object that is encoded at each boundary location. ×
General relativity makes the dramatic prediction that a sufficiently dense cloud of matter collapses to a black hole—a spacetime singularity surrounded by a horizon. A classical observer can enter a large horizon with no ill effects, but the causal structure of a black hole spacetime is such that she cannot return from beyond. Black holes have a mass ( M ), they can carry electrical or magnetic charge ( Q ), and can rotate (with angular momentum J ). But beyond these characteristics, they “have no hair,” i.e., they have no other distinguishing classical characteristics. To be gravitationally stable, the mass of a charged or rotating black hole must exceed a so-called extremal bound, e.g., rotating black holes, also known as Kerr black holes [1], satisfy the relation G M 2 ≥ | J |. Long a staple of science fiction, there is now a significant body of evidence that black holes, or at least objects very like them, exist in our universe at the centers of galaxies and as endpoints of stellar collapse.
One of the most curious properties of black holes is the enormous entropy that they carry. Gedanken experiments carried out since the early 1970s [2,3] have established that a black hole of horizon area A should respond to probes as if it were a thermodynamic object with an entropy S = A / 4 G N ħ, where G N is the Newton constant and ħ is Planck’s constant. (Here we have adopted units in which we set the speed of light and Boltzmann’s constant to 1 ). Thus a solar mass black hole (about 6 kilometers wide) should have an entropy that is 22 orders of magnitude greater than the entropy of the sun itself. We have known since Boltzmann, that entropy in a physical system is a manifestation of statistical degeneracy of the underlying states. Following Boltzmann then, a central question for a quantum theory of gravity is to explain how black holes contrive to have an underlying statistical degeneracy of e A / 4 G N ħ. Since the area of an astrophysical black hole grows as the mass squared, this is a truly staggering degeneracy. Measured by an apparatus with energy resolution Δ E, this implies a microstate level spacing proportional to Δ M ∼ Δ E e - A / 4 G N ħ. It has been argued [4] that the difficulty of resolving such minuscule differences in the ħ → 0 limit is the source of the apparent semiclassical paradox [5] of loss of quantum unitarity in black holes. Thus a key challenge to any quantum theory of gravity is to identify the “atoms of spacetime” that can explain such a spectacular growth in the number of microstates.
For a special class of highly symmetric, near-extremal charged black holes, this problem was solved in string theory by Strominger and Vafa [6]. With hindsight, we now know that a key ingredient in their solution was that the physics of near-extremal black holes is largely controlled by properties of the spacetime in the vicinity of, but outside, the black hole horizon. Within this so-called black hole “throat” (see Fig. 1, left) the geometry takes a universal form—it is an anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime, namely the same geometry as a solution to Einstein’s equations with a negative cosmological constant. In a celebrated paper, Maldacena argued that quantum gravity in every such spacetime is equivalent or “holographically dual” to a nongravitating, conformally invariant, quantum field theory (CFT) in a lower number of dimensions [7] (Fig. 1, right).
This idea, the AdS/CFT correspondence, has some analogy to optical holograms, where the image of a three-dimensional object can be stored nonlocally in a two-dimensional piece of film and then recreated with coherent light. In the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, spacetime itself is an emergent phenomenon, simply a convenient rewriting of the immensely complicated, strongly coupled physics of a conventional local quantum field theory defined on the boundary of spacetime (Fig. 1, right). The radial direction of spacetime appears as a geometric realization of the renormalization group scale of the field theory [8]. A black hole in anti-de Sitter spacetime is then simply described in the holographic dual theory as a thermal state (a gas with a temperature), whose statistical degeneracy explains the black hole entropy. The AdS/CFT correspondence has been such a powerful and productive tool, that for about a decade the bulk of the effort to understand spacetime singularities and horizons has revolved around black holes in anti-de Sitter spacetimes, at least amongst string theorists.
However, we do not live in a world with a negative cosmological constant, nor are astrophysical black holes highly electrically or magnetically charged as in the examples of Strominger and Vafa. How then do we apply the insights of the last decade to black holes in our universe? In a paper in Physical Review D, Guica et al. [9] point out that near-extreme rotating black holes certainly occur in nature (GRS 1915+105, with mass about 14 times the mass of the sun has J / G N M 2 > 0. 98 ), and propose that the dynamics controlling the statistical degeneracy and low-energy emission from such black holes is described “holographically” by a nongravitating, two-dimensional, conformal theory.
The argument does not involve string theory, or any other specific quantum theory of gravity. The authors observe, following earlier work of Bardeen and Horowitz [10], that extreme rotating black holes have a near-horizon “throat” of a certain universal form that controls the dynamical properties of low-energy objects orbiting the black hole horizon. Then, by examining the properties of this geometry far from the horizon, they argue that any quantum theory of gravity in this space must have the two-dimensional conformal group as its symmetry. Two-dimensional conformal invariance is an infinite dimensional symmetry group, and, as such, is very powerful and constraining. Assuming that it is realized in a unitary way, Guica et al. use the symmetry to obtain a key result: they immediately count the microstates of the extreme Kerr black hole, explaining its entropy. Further, it has been shown that quantum amplitudes for scattering of particles off the near-extreme Kerr black hole are also organized by the two-dimensional conformal group [11,12]. Specifically, classic results for these amplitudes in the relativity literature are precisely reproduced by simply assuming that they are given by correlation functions in a two-dimensional conformal field theory.
These results constitute evidence, bolstered by older work [13] that a two-dimensional conformal theory controls the dynamics of low-energy excitations orbiting in the vicinity of extreme Kerr black holes. Together, these works also suggest that the scattering amplitudes from a general charged, rotating black hole, not necessarily close to the extremal bound, could take the form of correlation functions in a two-dimensional field theory. Is this a hint that the entropy and low-energy dynamics of all black holes are secretly encoded in some two-dimensional theory? Suggestions along these lines were made by Susskind [14] on the basis of thought experiments involving strings propagating in the presence of black holes. The same suggestion was made from a completely different perspective by Carlip, thinking about black hole horizons as an unusual kind of boundary in a spacetime [15]. Given the universality of the formula for black hole entropy given above, it would certainly be compelling to have a universal explanation for its form. Thus the work of Guica et al. [9] raises a key question—are all black holes really two dimensional? Or, more precisely, are the entropy and thermodynamics of all black holes, including those that are astrophysically accessible, described by a two-dimensional effective theory that gives us a window into the quantum theory of gravity?The U.S. ambassador to Qatar announced she is stepping down this month amid tension between the two nations over terrorism funding.
Dana Shell Smith, a President Obama appointee who has held the post since 2014, announced on Twitter on Tuesday that she is resigning.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life and I'll miss this great country,” she tweeted.
QATAR TAPS FORMER US ATTORNEY GENERAL TO HELP EASE REGIONAL CRISIS
Though Smith did not give a reason for her sudden departure, she has been highly critical of President Trump the past few months. She also defended Qatar before the president made critical comments about the country last week.
As several Gulf nations sought to isolate last week Qatar by breaking off diplomatic relations with the country, Shell Smith tweeted an eight-month old memo from the U.S. embassy in Qatar lauding the country for its efforts to counter terrorist financing.
TRUMP SAYS QATAR MUST END TERRORISM FUNDING
A day later, Trump fired off a series of tweets accusing Qatar of funding terrorism and financing “radical Ideology.”
Shell Smith was one of the diplomats that the New York Times said was carrying out a quiet revolt against the Trump administration. After Trump fired FBI director James Comey, she tweeted: “Increasingly difficult to wake up overseas to news from home, knowing I will spend today explaining our democracy and institutions.”
She is a career diplomat who speaks Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Hebrew, according to her State Department bio.World Trade Center “tridents,” two steel columns that formed part of the building's structural support at the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York. The exhibitions and displays seek to pay tribute to the 2,983 victims of the 9/11 attacks.
World Trade Center “tridents,” two steel columns that formed part of the building's structural support at the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York. The exhibitions and displays seek to pay tribute to the 2,983 victims of the 9/11 attacks. Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
The museum serves as an oversized pit of self-pity and voyeurism, where visitors can feel personally touched by the deaths of people they didn’t know.
The museum serves as an oversized pit of self-pity and voyeurism, where visitors can feel personally touched by the deaths of people they didn’t know.
The museum serves as an oversized pit of self-pity and voyeurism, where visitors can feel personally touched by the deaths of people they didn’t know.
Once you pass security, which is as strict as at an airport, everyone inside the 9/11 Memorial Museum is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. The barking guards, now as fundamentally a part of American life as baseball and apple pie, are behind you and passing through this familiar indignity becomes part of the museum experience itself, which is all about sharp contrasts of mood and meaning, and the basic antinomies of life in a democracy that is also rapidly becoming a security state.
The museum itself is below ground. Visitors enter through an airy pavilion (designed by the innovative Norwegian firm Snohetta) built close to the two square and cavernous waterfall pits which are the official memorial to the destruction and death that came from the skies on Sept. 11, 2001. The impressive, ominous, and austere memorial designed by Michael Arad opened almost three years ago, in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. The museum opened last month, and is intended as an educational, experimental supplement to the memorial.
But it is far more than a supplement. It is structured like our memories of the day, a hellish descent into a dark place, where a tape loop of death and destruction is endlessly playing on every television screen in America. It also overwhelms — or more literally undermines — the dignified power of Arad’s memorial by inviting visitors to re-experience the events in a strangely, obsessively, narcissistically repetitious way.
This is, alas, the apotheosis of what the “experiential” museum has become in America. The exhibits, created by Thinc Design, extend many of the ideas better known from the work of Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the firm that created the displays at the Holocaust Museum and the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. The goal — achieved and surpassed — is to subsume educational material in an emotional narrative, punctuated by over-scaled, emotionally fraught objects, amplified by every architectural, cinematic, literary and religious tool available.
It is a stew of the basic metaphors of Western Civilization, and in the end you realize that this isn’t just a museum trying to be a quasi-sacred space for reflection, it is a new religion, fully articulated and perfectly adapted for our distracted, self-involved, media-saturated world. Sprawling over 110,000-square feet, with vast, cavernous spaces that reach down to the depths of the original footings of the old World Trade Center, this is the great, subterranean cathedral of America Militant, Suffering and Exceptional.
Mugs, T-shirts, scarves and other souvenirs for sale have triggered controversy at the National September 11 Memorial Museum. (Tom LeGro/The Washington Post)
Nothing is left to chance. First, visitors descend escalators past a photograph of the old World Trade Center towers, carefully juxtaposed with a stunning view through large glass windows of the newly risen Freedom Tower. Then light yields to darkness and another juxtaposition: Snatches of voices are heard in a burbling din of horror and confusion. The words — expressions of shock, anguish, dismay — are projected on vertical panels in multiple languages. Then another set of panels show photographs of faces silently wracked by the same emotions. This tightly controlled passageway leads to a stunning view into an enormous open space dubbed the “Foundation Hall,” with the original concrete slurry wall still in place. It has been buttressed by a new wall behind it, but the visual impact is powerful: The 64-foot tall structure, studded by support ties, still seems to hold back the ground water and the nearby Hudson, and offers visitors an ominous and monumental connection to the giant structures that were brought down by the terrorists of al-Qaeda.
Noise and silence; darkness and light; surface and depth; death and resurrection; a fortress-like wall holding back elemental torrents of grief — these are all emotional triggers, fundamental polarities of experience, deeply soaked in allegorical, spiritual and especially Christian meaning.
But the descent has only just begun. Lining wide ramps that bring you even deeper into the pit are stark reminders of the attack, a dedication marker placed when the building was constructed, images of the homemade flyers placed by people who lost loved ones, a much-degraded concrete staircase that was used by survivors to flee through the Vesey Street exit. The careful, almost minimalist placement of these objects mimics the display of sculpture in a contemporary art museum, but also the Stations of the Cross in a Catholic church. Just to drive the point home, as you reach the lowest level of the atrium, a quote from Virgil is emblazoned large on the wall: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”
Classicists have had a field day with this heavy-handed and utterly bizarre borrowing from “The Aeneid.” In its original context, the “you” refers to two young Trojan warriors — male lovers — who have just slaughtered enemy soldiers in their sleep. As one professor told the New York Times, “the quotation is more applicable to the aggressors in the 9/11 tragedy than to those honored by the memorial.”
The quotation is attributed to the “Aeneid,” but the name Virgil has particularly Christian overtones, from Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” where the pagan poet leads a spiritual tourist through hell and purgatory. In any case, this isn’t about literature, it’s a cheap invocation of the cultural authority of Virgil’s name to give a veneer of legitimacy to the theology of suffering and rebirth contained in the educational and memorial galleries you’re about to enter.
A labyrinth of suffering
Most of the educational material and the bulk of the museum’s “collection” are contained in a maze-like space that also requires lining up and waiting for entrance. Here we relive the events in detail, minute by minute. Because there were four planes, two towers and two horrifying moments of architectural collapse, the various timelines proliferate and overlap and replay the events from multiple perspectives. Repetition is the essential thing: We suffer the trauma again and again in a way that inflates our sense of participation in it. This isn’t history, it’s spectacle, and it engulfs us, makes us a part of it, animating our emotions as if we were there, again, watching it all unfold.
The sacrifice of first responders, their professionalism and selflessness, is central to telling the story of 9/11, as is the tragedy of lives cut short in the name of an obscene religious ideology. But the place to contemplate the nobility and sadness of that day is above ground, where the names of those who died are inscribed on the square rims of Arad’s memorial.
The museum display is about something different, an amplification of emotion that feels, at times, strikingly similar to religious ritual, to the perpetual reliving of the tragic moment that structures some versions of Christianity, especially the musical and theatrical Passion plays performed during Lent. The line between documenting the improvised spirituality that defines our contemporary habits of collective grief — the teddy bears and piles of flowers and candles brought to the site of loss — and reenacting those rituals for a ticket-buying, experience-craving, voyeuristic museum audience becomes fuzzy, and discomfiting. In one gallery, the designers have re-created some of the makeshift memorials, with pictures and flickering candles, which sprang up around Manhattan in the days and weeks following the attack. Dust collected from the site, stored in a plastic fruit-juice bottle, serves as both an odd historical object and a still-potent sacred relic.
Architecturally, the space feels like a catacomb, and small alcoves, like radiating chapels, display the more graphic and horrifying material (images of people jumping from a building engulfed by fire). One striking display is a shop window from a store called Chelsea Jeans, preserved with its $29.99 sale sign and cheap sweatshirts thickly coated with gray dust and ash, locked in a moment of perpetual, ghostly horror.
Catharsis and controversy
The atrocities of Auschwitz and the Cambodian prison of Tuol Sleng are memorialized in museums that have striking power because they are preserved on the exact site, in the same buildings, that witnessed so much suffering. But memorial museums remain a problematic hybrid form, with an unstable balance between education and emotion. Often they are activated not just by haunting reminders of the victim, but continuing anger at the perpetrator. Without exceptional restraint, they can catalyze new and ugly forms of nationalism.
It’s no surprise, then, that the designers of this museum have found themselves embroiled in controversy. Is it appropriate for a memorial museum to have a gift shop? Should it charge admission? Have they adequately distinguished the al-Qaeda perpetrators from faithful, peaceful Muslims?
Some of these crises, especially the gift shop debacle, could have been avoided; others were probably inevitable no matter what they did. The real problem here isn’t politics, however. It is the reigning ideology of museum design — in which the ideal is a museum “experience” akin to the emotive, manipulative, collectively aggrandizing power of a Steven Spielberg film — that propelled this thing into a monster of cultural self-indulgence.
Striving for catharsis and epiphany, they have created an oversized pit of self-pity, patriotic self-glorification and voyeurism, where visitors are allowed to feel personally touched by the deaths of people they didn’t know; where they can revel for a few hours in righteous grievance; where they repeat the pieties of our unresolved, pop-psych ideas about death and remembrance and rebirth and renewal. And maybe indulge thoughts of vengeance.
Not wrong, yet not quite right
This may explain the deep unease many people feel about the short film that covers the origins of the attacks, the history of al-Qaeda and Islamic radicalism. The film can’t be faulted factually. It clearly distinguishes the murderers of al-Qaeda from the vast majority of Muslims who were just as horrified as everyone else that day. But when you begin to think about the confused and overdramatized theology of the 9/11 museum, you realize that no amount of careful explication in one brief film, in one small passageway, can compete with the larger cosmology of American suffering, borrowed Christian symbols and Hollywood tropes of heroism that form the basic eschatology of this motley, raggle-taggle religious pageant. The museum doesn’t get the facts of Islam wrong; it simply leaves no room for anything that can’t be assimilated into an essentially Americanist and Christian world view.
Now it’s time to leave. There has been little discussion of how 9/11 actually changed America, how we are all under surveillance, our phones tapped, our e-mails collected, how security fears mean one can no longer enter the Supreme Court through its front door or step onto the west terrace of the Capitol. You’ve learned nothing about the overwhelming cost of two wars, the loss of civil liberties, the secret renditions, the systematic use of torture and the prison camps just out of reach of the once-vigorous U.S. Constitution. There is, however, a film in an upper level auditorium in which the political leaders of the United States emote about what an awful day it was, with George W. Bush claiming (counter to multiple intelligence warnings) that the events of 9/11 were “unimaginable.”
But nevermind. As you ascend the escalators, from darkness to light, you hear the faint sound of a bagpipe playing from speakers hidden somewhere in the walls or ceiling, and perhaps you feel an involuntary tug of Anglo-Saxon reassurance. And for a moment the whole thing feels silly, pompous and a bit ridiculous, like a Mel Gibson movie. If all of this has left a bad taste in your mouth, the Pavilion Cafe is on the second floor. The gift shop is to your left.
The 9/11 Memorial Museum is in New York City. For more information visit www.911memorial.org.The web is atwitter this week with yet another change to Facebook's privacy practices, which will allow your information to be shared with third parties. The examples being provided are things like:- If you go to imDB to research a movie, you'll see which of your Facebook friends have "Liked" it.- If you go to Pandora, it will suggest music based on the contents of your Facebook profile.Some may think that this can be controlled by strapping down application and privacy settings within Facebook and controlling browser options (like removing all cookies on exit), but I have been wondering for awhile how Pandora currently is overriding browser-level controls. What I mean is: I have a Pandora account, and I use Firefox for browsing. My browser is set to clear all history, saved information, form data, and cookies when I close--and sure enough, when I restart Firefox, all data has been cleared. When I browse to Pandora, however, it remembers who I am, which makes me think its stuff is based on IP address rather than cookies.Now imagine the merging of a) Facebook technology implemented on other sites with b) a shared record of your Facebook activity.The fluffy side of this advancement is a "better user experience" or quicker access to what you're looking for on other sites.The not-so-fluffy side: a more public record of your online activity, personal beliefs, and intimate information. If you're a big consumer of online porn, you might as well come out of the closet right now. (See related article: "Porn virus publishes web history of victims on net" by BBC on April 15.) If you suffer from depression and seek information about getting help, expect that to eventually be shared with potential employers and insurance companies. Anything you do on third-party sites may be given back to Facebook and spread there. Facebook's pitch may feel warm-and-fuzzy now, but you should think ahead five years: Every site will have this technology in their toolbox (just like blogging, RSS, embedded video, and analytics have become commonplace but once were state-of-the-art concepts hard to wrap our heads around), and it will expand from "Likes" to "Dislikes" and "Visits."Do you spend most of your time online? Would you rather send an email, text, or Facebook message than call or visit someone? Do measure your life in Likes, Views, Subscribers, Followers?If so, I highly recommend you watch a documentary called, which profiles Josh Harris, an Internet pioneer who has keen foresight about Internet technology (and seems to believe in a-like future for us all). He has been able to not only technically understand the global network we share, but also accurately forecast our collective use of it and its evolution. The picture he paints parallels his own life: In an attempt to connect more intimately with others, we're simultaneously detaching ourselves from one another and creating a cycle of escalating dynamics--an, if you ask me.Harris was at the forefront of web video, actually working before the curve--helping to establish the technology before users had an understanding or the necessary infrastructure to widely use it. With his dot-com fortune, he conducted social experiments that at the time seemed weird and meaningless but later served as examples of his ability to see our interaction on a different level than most of us do.For instance,, a project that housed around 100 people in a Big Brother-esque bunker with cameras, was funded and managed by Harris right around Y2K. In exchange for free food, housing, and entertainment, participants were required to have cameras on them all the time and be subjected to interrogations. Artists and alternative people clamored to be accepted into what they thought was performance art or an experiment in socialism; they even gave up very sensitive information just to get through the interview process, including sexual history, Social Security number, and preferences of relatives. What this "art project" turned out to be was a visionary's glimpse into our collective online future.I don't want to give away all of the film, but it's been replaying in my head ever since I watched it. Be sure to check it out if you care about Internet privacy or simply wish to live more connected to the world and people.At the same time, you should view these presentations about Facebook and Google Grid, which--while kind of dated--provide a better understanding of how this stuff all works together.Video: Epic 2015 (Google Grid) Video: Does What Happens in Facebook Stay in Facebook? Video: We Live in Public trailer Yes, there are some conspiratorial elements to these videos. Rather than thinking about these technical advancements as evil tools of a mad genius, tyrannical governments, or the Illuminati, I am more interested in the social aspects.I am naturally an introvert and workaholic, and I know there is comfort in using a digital technology to attempt intimacy. For a reserved or shy person, it's more comfortable to have a confrontation and or to communicate something tender via email; rejection, anger, disgust, or other negative responses are softer as black words on a white screen (or no response) rather than disappointed faces and harsh words sitting before you. It's also easier, faster, and more reparable to cut off (or connect with) someone digitally. By making things easier or less comfortable, are we losing some of what it means to be human?Most people have websites these days, and everyone is screaming for attention. They're pleading--via YouTube, Twitter, Facebook--to have someone, anyone notice. Instead of evaluating the value of whom is paying attention, people are focused on quantity--relying on an increased number of Views, Fans, or Followers to dictate their self-worth and decide whether they should expose even more of themselves online. Would your Likes mean so much if you knew they were all coming from child molesters, retarded people, or neo-Nazis? What about if they all were coming from Mensa members, celebrities, or experts in your field? Would that change your perception of who you are or the quality of what you're sharing on the web?So I ask, as I urge you to watchand think a about your web life: Are we social animals? Are we humans or are we machines? Are physical contact, in-person socialization, and privacy integral to our survival as a species?I don't |
for the position, so he might project as more than just a spot-up threat. He can score pretty much anywhere, and while his volume of threes was fairly low, the stroke looks like it will extend out. In general, the greater space the NBA game provides should help him thrive, and the team raved about Leaf’s feel.
“I think you saw a lot in this playoffs,” Leaf said of his fir with the Raptors. “Adding another guy who can score the ball from three levels. You have guys like DeMar and Kyle that can do that. But adding another guy that can do that and having teams having to run him off the line, and a guy who can penetrate and kick for others and make others better would add another dimension for them.”
Leaf also comes with the sort of pedigree the Raptors like, having been born in Israel while his father was playing professionally there. He grew up in California from there, but he’s suited up for Israel in Under-18 international events in the past (after being cut by USA Basketball), lending some additional experience, and his father transitioned from player to coach, keeping Leaf around the game full-time.
“Oh, totally. You can tell he plays the right way, not only in this setting but scouting him so much,” Tolzman said. “When it’s a decision-making and team-oriented basketball, he’s elite at that. Always seems to make the right passes, finds himself in the right spot. I think a lot of that probably comes from being around the game at such a young age and having the fundamentals kind of engrained in him of how to be an effective player maybe when you don’t always have the ball in your hands. He’s a classic example of he doesn’t need to be dominating the ball to have an impact on the game.”
And again, his freshman year really couldn’t have gone much better, with Leaf earning an All-American honorable mention and a First-Team All-Pac-12 nod. How the Raptors ultimately feel about him will probably come down to how he interviewed and how well his defense held up in the intense one-on-one setting.
Assorted
As a reminder, the draft takes place on June 22. We’ve got a long way to go. The adidas Eurocamp also goes down June 9-11, if you’re looking ahead to future drafts. You can keep up with any workout notes you may have missed here.
Bruno Caboclo was at BioSteel working out earlier in the day.
Canadian Dillon Brooks will headline Monday’s workout. There’s a session scheduled for Tuesday as well.
Leaf is not wearing Big Baller Brand, by the way, but “hopefully Lonzo hooks it up.”
I’ll be posting some things on my Instagram story throughout the process, if you want to follow along there, too.
*A NOTE ON THIS PROCESS: We’re going to hear a lot of names rumored or reported to be coming in/meeting/working out/etc. I’m not always going to pass them on, especially this early in the process. A lot of it is due diligence and doesn’t mean a ton, and they’re also just low-value posts (“Rumor: Player X to work out”). Sometimes there will be (good) reasons the team doesn’t want the names public or a player can’t come in (Visa or scheduling issues). If anyone does visit and there’s media availability, we’ll have you covered. Obviously, feel free to comment and discuss those rumors (Hoops Hype is a good source for rumor aggregation) in the comments/forums, I just may not always throw a post up. Closer to the draft, as we get into second workouts or if someone outside of Toronto’s range visits, that information becomes a little more important.60 minutes AHMSI appraisal fraud assignment attorney general auction fraud bailout Bank of America bankruptcy BOA borrower Chase Chris Koster countrywide credit bids credit crisis credit default swaps creditor disclosure discovery DocX Indictment Eviction evidence Fannie MAe FDIC Federal reserve Florida foreclosure foreclosure defense foreclosure fraud foreclosure offense foreclosures FORECLOSURE SETTLEMENT forgery fraud Freddie Mac Goldman Sachs HERS housing market housing prices insurance investors lender Lender Liability linda green LOAN MODIFICATION lost note LPS MERS Missouri modification Mortgage mortgage fruad mortgage meltdown mortgages note Obama predatory lending quiet title REMIC rescission RESPA RICO Robo-Signing securitization settlement standing strategic default TILA TILA audit trustee Wall Street WEISBAND Wells Fargo wrongful foreclosure
Freddy Mac, SunTrust Mortgage and Jerome LienhardIn an interview with a London financial trade paper in 1999,he said.The Treasury will not comment on Fannie and Freddie’s international marketing pitches, but in the past it has tried to rein in the two institutions.This is interesting, as Mr. Lienhard would later leave Freddy Mac where he served as Senior VP and Treasurer, in 2006 Lienhard moved to SunTrust Bank as, Senior VP and Treasurer over funding, treasury operations, portfolio management and asset liability management.Between Lienhard’s 2006 arrival and 2008, SunTrust’s loose “No-Documentation” underwriting practices among other things, forced Leinhard and others at SunTrust call the Treasury on November 14, 2008 and borrow $3.5 Billion in Tarp Funds allowing Lienhard's new employer, SunTrust to stay afloat…Mr. Lienhard once again was forced to the U.S. Treasury, this time for an additional $1.35B in taxpayer bailout funds. Of most interest, this occurred on December 31, 2008… Or just in time for hefty year end bonuses.When SunTrust was questioned on what $4.85 Billion in taxpayer Treasury funds are being used for, Barry Koling of SunTrust provided the following….said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Georgia based SunTrust Banks Inc. In total SunTrust received $4.85 Billion in taxpayer dollars by way of TARP funds.In March, 2011… SunTrust replaces the head of its Mortgage unit Mr. Sterling Edmunds Jr. with Jerome Lienhard as CEO. Leinhard job was to oversee SunTrust Mortgage Operations inclusive of retail, correspondent, wholesale, consumer direct and consumer banking cross selling channels.In that same year, SunTrust being one of the last two large banks still clinging on onto close to $5 Billion in TARP funds was able to repay these funds to taxpayers. But what about their shareholders??What many may not understand is the cost of those TARP funds. While SunTrust stripped it shareholder dividend payments to.01 cents per share, it simply utilized shareholder dividends by repurposing the revenue to pay 8% for the cost of the TARP funds.Is it not odd, that after Jerome Lienhard was downing the U.S. Treasury during his oversees trip back in 1999, while peddling Freddie’s US Taxpayer Backed Securitized Mortgages… He ended up at the front door of the Treasury with his hand out and begging for a “Bail-Out”…Another good deal for SunTrust leadership and another bad deal for SunTrust Shareholders…The Order of the Knights of Rizal (OKR) has asked the Supreme Court to order an inspection of Torre de Manila to determine if the condominium builder is complying with the restraining order that stopped its construction in 2015.
In a motion, OKR told the high court that an inspection is necessary following reports that DMCI Project Developers Inc. (DMCI-PDI) resumed the construction of Torre De Manila and is already on the finishing touches of the controversial building dubbed as the “biggest photobomber.”
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OKR said the inspection can be conducted by authorized technical personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), and other government agencies.
The restraining order was issued in 2015, stopping DMCI-PDI from continuing with the construction of the condominium. The restraining order was issued following the petition filed by OKR saying that Torre would ruin the sightline of the Rizal Monument at Luneta Park.
DMCI-PDI has filed several motions asking the high court to lift the restraining order, saying that the buyers have expressed their “extreme frustration and disappointment at the continued suspension of the Torre de Manila project.”
It added that it has incurred additional costs due to the stoppage of the project as well as job loss.
OKR also sought the demolition of the condominium.
Laws protecting Rizal Monument
“Torre de Manila building would… overshadow the entire monument, whether up close or viewed from a distance. No one can take photo of the Rizal shrine without also capturing the high-rise condominium at its back,” the petition stated.
The petition pointed out that the preservation of the Rizal Monument is mandated under Republic Act No. 4846 or the Cultural Properties Preservation and Protection Act; Republic Act No. 7356 which created National Commission on Culture and the Arts; and Republic Act No. 10066, the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 on the Protection and Conservation of the National Cultural Heritage.
“When Torre de Manila reaches the full height of 46 floors by the target date of 2016, it will completely dominate the vista and, consequently, substantially diminish in scale and importance the most cherished monument to the national hero. It will have the same effect for the view of the Luneta park. And this will be for all eternity,” it said.
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In its recent motion, Atty. William L. Jasareno urged the high court to specify a timetable for conducting the inspection, and preparing, finalizing and submitting a report on the result of the inspection, copy furnished the parties, all to be finished no later than two months from receipt of the order from this Court, unless otherwise ordered.
OKR also urged the high court to “require the production of document, supply of any relevant information, and direct assistance from any one, with advice that failure, neglect or refusal to do so may be reported to this Court for possible sanction.”
“Submit a thorough and objective report within a reasonable time that will state the following, among others and specify if any work was/has been undertaken after the TRO took effect last June 2015, and what is the full extent or coverage of such work, specifying the details and the inclusive dates thereof,” the motion added.
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#33B5E5 (or 0x33B5E5) is unknown color: approx Summer Sky. HEX triplet: 33, B5 and E5. RGB value is (51,181,229). Sum of RGB (Red+Green+Blue) = 51+181+229=461 (61% of max value = 765). Red value is 51 (20.31% from 255 or 11.06% from 461); Green value is 181 (71.09% from 255 or 39.26% from 461); Blue value is 229 (89.84% from 255 or 49.67% from 461); Max value from RGB is 229 - color contains mainly: blue. Hex color #33B5E5 is not a web safe color. Web safe color analog (approx): #33CCCC. Inversed color of #33B5E5 is #CC4A1A. Grayscale: #939393. Windows color (decimal): -13388315 or 15054131. OLE color: 15054131.
HSL color Cylindrical-coordinate representation of color #33B5E5: hue angle of 196.18º degrees, saturation: 0.77, lightness: 0.55%. HSV value (or HSB Brightness) of color is 0.9% and HSV saturation: 0.78%. Process color model (Four color, CMYK) of #33B5E5 is Cyan = 0.78, Magento = 0.21, Yellow = 0 and Black (K on CMYK) = 0.10.Every now and then the mumbo jumbo nation-states employ to fill in the awkward silences of diplomacy — the ordinarily necessary humbug of half-truth and hogwash — reaches a point that is, by conventional means, pretty well indescribable. Not quite a matter of outright lies, maybe, but something far more outrageous than rhetorical embroidery.
We reached that point last week in Canada’s formal responses to Beijing’s absurd conviction of Canadian missionary Kevin Garratt on phony espionage charges he had been held on since 2014, and his immediate deportation to Canada. We passed that point this week in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inaugural address to the UN General Assembly in New York.
It is bad enough that Canadians are expected to put up with rubbish emanating from the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion that is indistinguishable from the published opinions of the Canada-China Business Council and the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. It had already got to the point that Canadians were expected to believe Garratt’s arrest two years ago was not a vindictive confinement in retaliation for then-foreign minister John Baird’s audacity in noticing publicly Chinese hackers had penetrated the National Research Council in Ottawa.
Now, we’re expected to believe that there was no quid pro quo in Garratt’s return, that it is all one big amazing coincidence the Garratt problem was made to go away immediately before Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s arrival in Ottawa and the revelation that Canada has agreed to negotiate an extradition treaty with China. We are further expected to believe that China wants an extradition treaty to assist in its pursuit of embezzlers and absconding debtors, and it is just another big amazing coincidence that Beijing’s exertions in catching these criminals are indistinguishable from the strenuous means by which Chinese President Xi Jinping is carrying out a purge of his political enemies, both real and imagined.
We must be “open to the world,” Trudeau and Dion tell us. As if their enthusiasm for reopening a Canadian embassy in Tehran and allowing the return of Khomeinist spies to Ottawa has nothing to do with a hyperactive regime-friendly constituency in the Liberal party, lately led by Richmond Hill MP Majid Jowhari. As if the Iranian regime would admit its error in imprisoning Canadian feminist Homa Hoodfar on trumped-up charges, and immediately send her home, if only there was some nice Canadian ambassador in Tehran on hand to explain things.
At the UN this week, it was all well and good for Trudeau to boast about the 31,000 Syrian refugees Canada has welcomed since his Liberals were victorious at the polls last October. Never mind the Americans — who seem to have lost their minds altogether lately — the “anxiety” the Syrian catastrophe has induced among Europeans will not be allayed by homilies about diversity’s virtue or hectorings about the vice of rejecting people “who pray differently than we do.”
More than 500,000 refugees did not wash up on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula during last year’s 78-day federal election campaign — that’s how many refugees arrived on the beaches of Greece and Italy between August and October 2015. The causes and the consequences of this calamity, at the fulcrum of which is U.S. President Barack Obama’s gigantic hubris, are not exactly well served by a sermon delivered by an untested prime minister who is in the fortunate position of being able to “grow the middle class” in Canada by high-grading the Syrian refugees he wants from the UN’s refugee camps, the “doctors and lawyers, teachers and entrepreneurs” he lauded in his address.
But it wasn’t European opinion that mattered on Tuesday. Trudeau’s great “world stage” ambition is to come out on top over Ireland and Norway to be invited as a guest at the UN Security Council table during its 2021-22 gatherings. It doesn’t matter what the Europeans think, or what Syrians think. It matters what Moscow and Beijing think.
“But we’re Canadian. And we’re here to help,” he said in New York. But who are we helping here, exactly? No help has come to the dozens of civil-society organizations around the world, led by Syria’s heroic “White Helmets” workers, who have called on Canada to champion the cause of an internationally enforced Syrian no-fly zone. That is something Canada could do that might actually help. It is a “problem” that Canada could help solve.
More than 90 per cent of the nearly half-million civilian deaths in Syria, and far and away the lion’s share of culpability for the Syrian refugee crisis, are due to Bashar Assad’s death squads and barrel bombers, aided in recent months by warplanes dispatched by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just ballot-stuffed his way to stealing a fourth election.
The night before Trudeau’s address, UN officials ignored warnings from their own staff on the ground and sent a Red Crescent humanitarian aid convoy into rebel-held Eastern Aleppo. The Assad regime immediately announced its withdrawal from the latest fraudulent U.S.-Russian truce (after having violated it several times already anyway) and began a two-hour bombardment of the convoy, aided by Russian bombers. At least 20 aid workers were killed. No mention of that in Trudeau’s speech. No mention of the fact that two weeks earlier, more than 70 aid groups suspended their ties to the UN after the UN’s collaboration with the Assad regime’s ethnic cleansing and submit-or-starve strategy became untenable.
It was owing to his Security Council ambition that Trudeau avoided touching on the UN’s total abdication of its first and foremost responsibility in the matter of Syria, which is to stop the continuing genocide (it’s high time we call the horror by its proper name) that has driven nearly six million Syrians out of their country in the first place. It was not “because we Canadians are always polite” that the subject didn’t even come up in Trudeau’s remarks.
When one’s greatest “world stage” ambition is a non-voting seat on the Security Council five years down the road, one would not want to say anything to hurt the feelings of the veto holders in Moscow or Beijing. We get it. But let’s at least be honest about all this, please.
Enough of the “Canada is back” slogans already. Enough of the “Canada is a modest country” boasts.
Please. Just stop.
National PostWhy do we love the Buccaneers?
Happy Valentine’s Day, Buccaneers fans. We hope that you are waking up with that special someone, or at the very least, have the plans all set for tonight. Whether you are with someone or not, we will keep you warm with this post filled with Valentine’s Day love.
This morning, we are focusing the holiday love on the team that resides at One Buc Place. You all love this team, and you have your own reasons why. It could be that your parents loved the team and brought you up with the Bucs. You may have moved into the area and adopted them as your favorite. Or you might simply enjoy a team with a young developing nucleus.
Whatever it is, each of you have a reason why you love the Bucs. Well, on this Valentine’s Day, we decided to go round the table on this very subject. The next set of slides, each contributor to the Pewter Plank will talk about why they love the Bucs.
Let’s get started, cue the R & B music.In a recent tool gloat, dakremer showed off three lovely braces he’d purchased and said “Now I just have to learn how to restore this kind of thing”. WayneC was first to congratulate him and then proceeded to drop me in it (only joking) by saying “Brit has lots of experience in restoring braces”. Later in the comments dakremer said he would love to restore at least one of them to like new condition. Always a sucker for punishment, I agreed to do a blog on restoring a hand brace and I’ve selected the worst hand brace of the three I have waiting for love. Here’s how I see this blog going:
• Parts 1 to 4 – Cleaning and restoring a brace to ‘Like New’ condition.
• Part 5 – Tuning – Common problems and how to fix them.
• Part 6 – VIDEO – Showing variations in design and what to look for when buying a brace.
• Part 7 – VIDEO – Uses for a hand brace in today’s workshop.
• Part 8 – Auger bits and how to sharpen them.
Let me say at the outset, that the kind of brace we’ll be discussing is the kind your father and grandfather would have used prior to the advent of the electric drill and later the cordless drill. I won’t be discussing older metal braces such as the Spofford brace or Scotch brace, or any of the earlier wooden braces. No, the braces we’ll be looking at are the ones you are most likely to find covered in cobwebs at the back of a garage, in the rust pile at a flea market, or hanging on the walls of a trendy wine bar.
I should point out before we start that there are as many different approaches to tool restoration as there are people who restore old tools. For me, the most important thing is FUNCTION. A tool should work as designed and perform well. However I also like my tools to look nice, so a close second to function is that they are AESTHETICALLY PLEASING and TACTILE. I want my tools to say “Pick me up and use me”. With the vast majority of braces, this means removing some surface rust, a gentle clean, lubricating the moving parts and refinishing the wooden parts. I usually don’t try to get them to look like new. In fact, I like to leave a few war scars here and there to hint at the tool’s history.
All of the braces that I’ve restored in the past have been done in no more than 24 man hours, spread over a few days to allow multiple coats of finish on the wood. One other thing to note is that I won’t be using any power tools or machinery during this restoration. The metalworking hand skills you’ll see employed here, are basic skills that you would do well to practice. You should look at this restore as a worst case scenario. In reality, you probably WON’T need to employ all of the steps you’ll see me perform. Use your judgement as to which steps are appropriate for your brace restoration project.
So without further adieu, let me introduce you to RUSTY, an 8” sweep brace made by Skinner of Sheffield.
Skinner braces were not ‘high end’ tools, just simple workhorses that the working men of England would have used. As you can see, this one has certainly seen better days. By the way, that dark brown colour is NOT a nice patina, its rust. Let’s take a closer look at the ratchet and chuck. We’ve got RUST, scratches, RUST, dings and dents, RUST, paint splashes, and more RUST. OMG, what have I let myself in for?
The English beech wooden head and sweep handle aren’t actually that bad when you consider what the metal is like and they still retain most of their finish. I will be refinishing them however, in our quest for dakremer’s like new condition challenge.
Here you can see the aluminium end caps of the sweep handle which a number of manufacturers incorporated in their braces. You’ll only find it used on parts that don’t contribute to the strength of the brace, typically the sweep handle end caps and sometimes the ratchet selecter. Just remember to take it easy when you restore the aluminium bits, as it is a lot softer than steel.
Now we’ve had a good look at our subject, its time to dismantle it ready for cleaning. The first step is to unscrew the chuck until it is completely off. The jaws should come off with the chuck. Now insert a finger (whichever one will fit) or a piece of dowell in the business end of the chuck and push the jaws to the other end of the chuck housing (knurled end in this case). They should stick out just enough for you grab them with your other hand and gently wiggle them over the internal chuck thread and out of the housing.
Here you see the chuck and jaws removed. As far as I’m aware, all of the chucks found on braces of this era had two jaws. Some of them (like this one) had zig zag teeth to help the jaws align properly as the chuck was tightened. These are generally referred to as aligator jaws for obvious reasons. Alligator jaws can grip round, square tapered and hexagonal shanks. The jaws fit into the slot in the threaded portion of the ratchet mechanism which prevent the jaws from turning with the chuck housing. If you now stick your finger in the other end of the chuck housing (the knurled end in this case), you’ll feel that the internal diameter of the chuck reduces in size the closer you get to the end where the jaws would normally protrude. As the chuck is tightened, the curved sloping faces of the jaws ride on this internal surface, forcing the jaws together and gripping the bit tight.
Now let’s turn our attention to the Head. There are usually two or three screws securing the wooden head to the brace body. Unscrew them and the head should fall off in your hand. Be ready to catch it!
If it doesn’t, DON’T start hitting it with a mallet. Some heads are screwed on to the metal (like the one shown below), with the female thread being cut into the wood itself. Grip the metal part in one hand and the head in the other hand and unscrew the head. If it still doesn’t want to come off, it is probably best to leave it in situ, so put the screws back in and mask up the wooden head to prevent it getting damaged while you’re cleaning the metal.
For most braces, that is as far as you need to go in terms of dismantling them.
Now its time to commence cleaning, starting with the metal components. Its best to leave the wood until last, as cleaning metal can get messy and you’ll only spoil any finish you put on the wooden components. Everyone has their favourite way of cleaning metal and that’s fine by me as long as it works. Below, you can see the products that I generally use. A degreaser, 0000 steel wool, and a good general purpose light oil that lubricates, cleans and prevents rust. There is also a rust remover gel, a roll of absorbent paper towel, an old tooth brush, a scouring pad and a pin. I will also be using a soft wire brush (don’t use a stiff one) and some P240, P400, P600, P800, P1200 wet and dry paper. Just to reiterate what I said earlier, use your judgement to determine which of these things you need to use. Depending on the condition of your brace, they might not all be necessary for your restoration.
I start by cleaning the chuck and jaws. Before I attack the rust, I like to use a degreaser. Rust remover works better after degreasing. Give the can a shake and spray on the foam. Most degreasers are citrus based, so while the foam is working it’s magic, take a moment to savour that lemony limey odour.
After 5 minutes, I scrub the entire surface with a toothbrush (don’t forget the inside of the chuck).
Then I rinse them off in a bowl of water and dry them thoroughly with a paper towel.
Now its time to start tackling that rust. I’m using a gel, but you could also use a dip (if you’re in the US, try Evapo-Rust). Some people also favour electrolysis, citric acid or even naval jelly. There are lots of ways to remove rust, you just have to find what works for you. I liberally apply the gel inside and out with a toothbrush and leave it to work for 20 minutes (other products may differ).
When the time is up, I scrub the surface with the scouring pad and soft wire brush (yeah I know I need a new one), to remove all the rust that wants to come off. If it doesn’t want to come off, don’t force it.
Below you can see how the components looked after the first application of the gel. The rust has gone from the jaws, but the chuck will need another go. Heavily rusted components such as these, will usually require two of three applications of the gel before all the rust is gone.
I apply more gel and leave it to work for 15 minutes.
While the chuck is cooking, I examine the condition of the jaws. As you can see, the curved surfaces that ride on the inside of the chuck are badly scored and this will need rectifying.
I grabbed a flat file and filed the surface until all the marks were gone.
The ends of the jaws were also in need of attention, so I take the time to file those flat too.
There is another potential problem with these jaws. When they are at rest as shown below, there is a gap all the way along between the teeth.
They should look like this, without me having to hold it together. Since I’m not sure if this will affect their function, I decide not to do anything about it until the brace is reassembled and I’ve had a chance to see how it grips.
I put the jaws aside and scrub the chuck some more with the wire brush and scouring pad. Then I rinse it off and dried it. This is how it came out.
One side doesn’t look too bad, but the other side is a different story. Yes it’s the scourge of any tool restorer – PITTING. A little bit of pitting is Ok, but dakremer’s challenge is to get it like new, so it will have to go.
Using a small flat file, I file along the length of the three flats that are pitted, taking care to follow the curvature of the surface. I only remove as much metal as is necessary.
After about 10 minutes, the pitting has all but gone from the three surfaces, but now I have coarse file marks instead.
To remove the file marks, I draw-file the surface. For those of you who are not familiar with draw-filing, you apply a drop of oil to the surface, hold the file perpendicular to the surface with both hands. Then work it back and forth along the length of the surface until you have an even scratch pattern. Keep your hands close together and let your fingers ride along the adjacent surfaces to keep the file level.
Here you can clearly see the difference between the draw-filed surface on the right and the coarse filed surface on the left.
After draw-filing the other two surfaces, I put the file aside and turn to the wet and dry papers.
I start with P240 grit and work through the grits up to P1200 on each of the three surfaces. Sanding metal is the same as sanding wood. I work in one direction only and use each grit to remove the scratch pattern left by the previous grit.
I finish by polishing the surface with 0000 steel wool. I like the way it looks but the only trouble is, now I’ve polished the three faces that were heavily pitted, the adjacent faces look awful in comparison. At this point, as you can see from the reflection in the surface and the droplets of water, the good old English weather decided it was time for a coffee break.
There was nothing else for it but to do the other faces too and bring them up to the same standard. Same process as before.
So here’s the finished chuck – well almost. I’ve still got to smooth out the inside a bit to get rid of the roughness that caused the gouging on the jaws. I’ll show you how I do that in Part 2 where I’ll also clean the rest of the body. In the meantime, I’m off to buy a new wire brush.
Thanks for looking.
Andy
-- Andy - Old Chinese proverb says: "If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it."“A terrifically entertaining and chilling book.” ―William Georgiades, Slate
“The Wisdom of Psychopaths is an engaging and enlightening look at both the positive and negative sides of the personality characteristics that make up the diagnosis of psychopathy.” ―Michael Shermer, The Wall Street Journal
“[A] high-octane charge across the psychopathy continuum.” ―Kaja Perina, Psychology Today
“There's no denying it: we love our psychopaths….[and] in his entertaining new book…Dutton sheds some light on the stunning magnetism of the ethically challenged.” ―The Daily Beast
“It's hard not to like Dutton's book... Dutton, like [Norman] Mailer, is waging war against the bien-pensant. And I'm with him. Life would be more fun if more people cultivated their inner psychopath.” ―Ann Marlowe, Tablet
“Dutton deftly navigates through some disturbing subject matter, but his message is ultimately upbeat: Scientists may be able to learn a lot from the darker side of human nature.” ―Allison Bohac, Science News
“A convincing study... The admirable quality of this book is Dutton's refusal to accept easy answers in one of the more sensational fields of popular psychology.” ―Tim Adams, The Observer (UK)
“Dutton spins a solid yarn, turning what could easily have been a dry survey of psych research into entertainment.” ―Scott Olster, Fortune (CNN Money)
“The Wisdom of Psychopaths is a surprising, absorbing, and perceptive book. Kevin Dutton has amassed a great deal of knowledge about these charming, cold, fearless, emotionally indifferent people, who are so attractive in some ways and so appalling in others, and set it out in a briskly readable prose studded with gripping anecdotes. I found it altogether fascinating.” ―Philip Pullman, author of the bestselling His Dark Materials trilogy
“Dutton tackles an elusive, important, and much neglected aspect of the mind: our personality. He presents some highly original insights and does so in a provocative and humorous style―offering practical tips along the way for both ‘normals’ and ‘sociopaths.’” ―V. S. Ramachandran, Ph.D., author of the bestselling The Tell-Tale Brain
“Dutton has written a masterful, readable, and entertaining treatise on psychopathy and its manifestations in everyday life. Some of his ideas will generate debate and controversy, but he clearly has provided a thought-provoking book for those seeking to understand the ‘psychopathic' world in which they live.” ―Robert D. Hare, Ph.D., author of Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us and developer of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist
“The irrepressible Kevin Dutton has done it again! This time he has produced an irreverent romp through the bright side and dark side of the mysterious psychopath, and does a great job of mixing the scientific with the personal, offering readers an insider’s glimpse into the workings of fascinating persons―and fascinating personalities. Readers will come away both enlightened and entertained.” ―Scott O. Lilienfeld, Professor of Psychology at Emory University, President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy, and coauthor of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology
“If you’ve been keeping your inner psychopath locked up in the maximum-security unit of your mind, Kevin Dutton explains why giving him some fresh air from time to time may actually do you―and, more important, the rest of us―a world of good. Just give him this book to read and make sure he’s a literate, functional psychopath.” ―Jesse Bering, author of Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?PANAJI: Goa's sports and youth affairs minister Ramesh Tawadkar on Monday said the government was planning to set up centres to administer treatment to the LGBT youths to make them "normal".
He was speaking to reporters after launching the state government's youth policy."We will make them (LGBT youth) normal. We will have a centre for them. Like Alcoholic Anonymous centres, we will have centres. We will train them and give them medicines too," he said.The policy lists LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender) community among the stigmatized groups which need focused attention."As in the case of other target groups such as juvenile offenders, drug afflicted youth, marginalized or migrant youth, geographically disadvantaged youth, a detailed survey would be carried out of the LGBT community so that their problems could be specifically addressed," he added.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri's incoming government will likely attempt to improve the consistency and credibility of Argentina's policy framework, Fitch Ratings says. Easing FX financing constraints is a key factor in preventing destabilizing macroeconomic pressures and providing the new government with maneuvering room for future initiatives.
Fitch rates Argentina 'RD' and the election's outcome will not have an immediate impact on the nation's ratings. The most important credit issue for the new administration is to achieve a final resolution to the legal battle with holdout creditors that would allow Argentina to resume service on its restructured debt and potentially allow it to increase external sources of financing.
Argentines went to the polls yesterday for an unprecedented presidential election run-off. The initial official results point to the victory of Mauricio Macri from the Cambiemos Coalition with 51.4% of the votes. This electoral outcome effectively marks the end of the "Kirchner model" that has directed the economy of Argentina for the past 12 years.
The new president will face several external risks. The slowdown in China, weaker commodity prices and the expected continuation of the recession in Brazil are likely to weigh on the recovery in Argentine exports. Other Latin American currencies declines, (particularly the Brazilian Real depreciation), and relative stability in the peso have made Argentinian goods much more expensive in real terms. At the same time, external financing conditions have tightened in emerging markets.
Fitch expects the new government to undertake policy changes meant to increase the consistency and credibility of Argentina's policy framework. The incoming administration will face economic challenges that include balance of payments pressures, external and fiscal financing constraints, and rising macroeconomic distortions such as high inflation and widening spreads between the official and parallel exchange rate.
Pressures on international reserves have intensified in recent months due to the rigid FX policy of the outgoing Fernandez de Kirchner administration and increased uncertainty related to the electoral cycle. Even including a swap agreement with China, international reserves are down 20% since early October. Improved access to fresh sources of FX financing, strengthening of external buffers, and greater exchange rate flexibility are key to easing balance of payments pressure and mitigating external vulnerabilities.
Argentina's government debt is similar to its rated peers. Public-sector entities hold 61% of that debt, reducing short-term refinancing risk. However, higher fiscal financing needs (as a result of the widening of the government's deficit) have not been accompanied by an increase in financing sources. The sovereign receives some multilateral funding, but has been cut off from direct access to international capital markets for a decade, relying on |
replaced by metal knives acquired in trade through European contact. The implement, often referred to as a “scalping knife” in popular American and European literature, was not known as such by Native Americans, a knife being for them just a simple and effective multi-purpose utility tool for which scalping was but one of many uses.[11][12]
Intertribal warfare [ edit ]
Choctaw American Indians, in warpaint, bearing scalps, Alexandre de Batz, 1732
Author and historian Mark van de Logt wrote, "Although military historians tend to reserve the concept of 'total war'", in which civilians are targeted, "for conflicts between modern industrial nations," the term "closely approaches the state of affairs between the Pawnees, the Sioux, and the Cheyennes. Noncombatants were legitimate targets. Indeed, the taking of a scalp of a woman or child was considered honorable because it signified that the scalp taker had dared to enter the very heart of the enemy's territory."[13]
Scalping Knife and Sheath, probably Sioux, early 19th century,, probably Sioux, early 19th century, Brooklyn Museum
Many tribes of Native Americans practiced scalping, in some instances up until the end of the 19th century. Of the approximately 500 bodies at the Crow Creek massacre site, 90 percent of the skulls show evidence of scalping. The event took place circa 1325 AD.[14]
Colonial wars [ edit ]
Authorities of New Spain offered bounties on heads to suppress indigenous tribes in Durango as early as 1616.[15] The Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies offered bounties for the heads of killed hostile Indians, and later for just their scalps, during the Pequot War in the 1630s;[16] Connecticut specifically reimbursed Mohegans for slaying the Pequot in 1637.[15] Four years later, the Dutch in New Amsterdam offered bounties for the heads of Raritans.[15] In 1643, the Iroquois attacked a group of Huron pelters and French carpenters near Montreal, killing and scalping three of the French.[17]
Bounties for Indian captives or their scalps appeared in the legislation of the American colonies during the Susquehannock War (1675–77).[18] New England offered bounties to white settlers and Narragansett people in 1675 during King Philip's War.[15] By 1692, New France also paid their native allies for scalps of their enemies.[15] In 1697, on the northern frontier of Massachusetts colony, settler Hannah Dustin killed ten of her Abenaki captors during her nighttime escape, presented their ten scalps to the Massachusetts General Assembly, and was rewarded with bounties for two men, two women, and six children.[16] There were six colonial wars with New England and the Iroquois Confederacy fighting New France and the Wabanaki Confederacy over a 75-year period, starting with King William's War in 1688. All sides scalped victims, including noncombatants, during this frontier warfare.[19] Bounty policies originally intended only for Native American scalps were extended to enemy colonists.[15]
Massachusetts created a scalp bounty during King William's War in July 1689.[20] During Queen Anne's War, by 1703, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was offering $60 for each native scalp.[21] During Father Rale's War (1722–1725), on August 8, 1722, Massachusetts put a bounty on native families.[22] Ranger John Lovewell is known to have conducted scalp-hunting expeditions, the most famous being the Battle of Pequawket in New Hampshire.[citation needed]
In the 1710s and '20s, New France engaged in frontier warfare with the Natchez people and the Meskwaki people, during which both sides would employ the practice.[citation needed] In response to repeated massacres of British families by the French and their native allies during King George's War, Massachusetts governor William Shirley issued a bounty in 1746 to be paid to British-allied Indians for the scalps of French-allied Indian men, women, and children.[23] New York passed a Scalp Act in 1747.[24]
During Father Le Loutre's War and the Seven Years' War in Nova Scotia and Acadia, French colonists offered payments to Indians for British scalps.[25] In 1749, British Governor Edward Cornwallis created an extirpation proclamation, which included a bounty for male scalps or prisoners. Also during the Seven Years' War, Governor of Nova Scotia Charles Lawrence offered a reward for male Mi'kmaq scalps in 1756.[26] (In 2000, some Mi'kmaq argued that this proclamation was still legal in Nova Scotia. Government officials argued that it was no longer legal because the bounty was superseded by later treaties - see the Halifax Treaties).[27]
During the French and Indian War, as of June 12, 1755, Massachusetts governor William Shirley was offering a bounty of £40 for a male Indian scalp, and £20 for scalps of females or of children under 12 years old.[21][28] In 1756, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Robert Morris, in his Declaration of War against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered "130 Pieces of Eight, for the Scalp of Every Male Indian Enemy, above the Age of Twelve Years," and "50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman, produced as evidence of their being killed."[21][29]
American Revolution [ edit ]
In the American Revolutionary War, Henry Hamilton, the Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit, was known by American Patriots as the "hair-buyer general" because they believed he encouraged and paid his Native American allies to scalp American settlers. When Hamilton was captured in the war by the colonists, he was treated as a war criminal instead of a prisoner of war because of this. However, American historians have conceded that there was no positive proof that he had ever offered rewards for scalps.[30] It is now assumed that during the American Revolution, no British officer paid for scalps.[31] During the Sullivan Expedition, the September 13, 1779 journal entry of Lieutenant William Barton tells of patriots participating in scalping.[32]
Americans believed British officers paid their Indian allies to scalp American soldiers, c. 1812.
Mexico [ edit ]
In 1835, the government of the Mexican state of Sonora put a bounty on the Apache which,[33] over time, evolved into a payment by the government of 100 pesos for each scalp of a male 14 or more years old[citation needed]. In 1837, the Mexican state of Chihuahua also offered a bounty on Apache scalps, 100 pesos per warrior, 50 pesos per woman, and 25 pesos per child.[33] Harris Worcester wrote: "The new policy attracted a diverse group of men, including Anglos, runaway slaves led by Seminole John Horse, and Indians — Kirker used Delawares and Shawnees; others, such as Terrazas, used Tarahumaras; and Seminole Chief Coacoochee led a band of his own people who had fled from Indian Territory."[34]
Civil War [ edit ]
Some scalping incidents even occurred during the American Civil War. For example, Confederate guerrillas led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson were well known for decorating their saddles with the scalps of Union soldiers they had killed.[35] Archie Clement had the reputation of being Anderson's “chief scalper”.
Continued Indian Wars [ edit ]
In 1851, the U.S. Army displayed Indian scalps in Stanislaus County, California. In Tehama County, California, U.S. military and local volunteers razed villages and scalped hundreds of men, women, and children.[36][when?]
Scalping also occurred during the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864, during the American Indian Wars, when a 700-man force of U.S. Army volunteers destroyed the village of Cheyenne and Arapaho in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating[37][38] an estimated 70–163 Native Americans.[39][40][41] An 1867 New York Times article reported that "settlers in a small town in Colorado Territory had recently subscribed $5,000 to a fund ‘for the purpose of buying Indian scalps (with $25 each to be paid for scalps with the ears on)’ and that the market for Indian scalps ‘is not affected by age or sex’." The article noted this behavior was "sanctioned" by the U.S. federal government, and was modeled on patterns the U.S. had begun a century earlier in the "American East".[42]:206
From one writer's point of view, it was a "uniquely American" innovation that the use of scalp bounties in the wars against indigenous societies "became an indiscriminate killing process that deliberately targeted Indian non-combatants (including women, children, and infants), as well as warriors."[42]:204
Accidental scalping [ edit ]
President of Associação das Mulheres Escalpeladas do Amapá, ( Amapá Escalpeladas Women Association) during a reunion of Amazonia's Commission. Picture: Antonio Cruz/Agência Brasil
Accidental scalping has become a public health issue in Brazil along the Amazon River, where numerous boaters have been scalped after becoming ensnared by propellers or motors of unregulated watercraft.[43]
Image gallery [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]A hundred years ago, even fifty years ago, it did not seem urgent that we understand the relationship between business and a healthy environment, because natural resources seemed unlimited. But on the verge of a new millenniums we know that we have decimated ninety-seven percent of the ancient forests in North America; every day our farmers and ranchers draw out 20 billion more gallons of water from the ground than are replaced by rainfall; the Ogalala Aquifer, an underwater river beneath the Great Plains larger than any body of fresh water on earth, will dry up within thirty to forty years at present rates of extraction; globally we lose 25 billion tons of fertile topsoil every year, the equivalent of all the wheatfields in Australia. These critical losses are occurring while the world population is increasing at the rate of 90 million people per year. Quite simply, our business practices are destroying life on earth. Given current corporate practices, not one wildlife reserve, wilderness, or indigenous culture will survive the global market economy. We know that every natural system on the planet is disintegrating. The land, water, air and sea have been functionally transformed from life-supporting systems into repositories for waste. There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world. —Paul Hawkin,
THE ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE
ELEVEN INHERENT RULES
OF CORPORATE BEHAVIOR by Jerry Mander
The following list is an attempt to articulate the obligatory rules by which corporations operate. Some of the rules overlap, but taken together they help reveal why corporations behave as they do and how they have come to dominate their environment and the human beings within it.
The Profit Imperative: Profit is the ultimate measure of all corporate decisions. It takes precedence over community well-being, worker health, public health, peace, environmental preservation or national security. Corporations will even find ways to trade with national "enemies"—Libya, Iran, the former Soviet Union, Cuba—when public policy abhors it. The profit imperative and the growth imperative are the most fundamental corporate drives; together they represent the corporation's instinct to "live."
The Growth Imperative: Corporations live or die by whether they can sustain growth. On this depends relationships to investors, to the stock market, to banks and to public perception. The growth imperative also fuels the corporate desire to find and develop scarce resources in obscure parts of the world.
This effect is now clearly visible, as the world's few remaining pristine places are sacrificed to corporate production. The peoples who inhabit these resource-rich regions are similarly pressured to give up their traditional ways and climb on the wheel of production-consumption. Corporate planners consciously attempt to bring "less developed societies into the modem world" to create infrastructures for development, as well as new workers and new consumers. Corporations claim that they do this for altruistic reasons to raise the living standard—but corporations have no altruism.
Theoretically, privately held corporations—those owned by individuals or families—do not have the imperative to expand. In practice, however, their behavior is the same. Such privately held giants as Bechtel Corporation have shown no propensity to moderate growth.
Competition and Aggression: Corporations place every person in management in fierce competition with each other. Anyone interested in a corporate career must hone his or her ability to seize the moment. This applies to gaining an edge over another company or over a colleague within the company. As an employee, you are expected to be part of the "team," but you also must be ready to climb over your own colleagues.
Corporate ideology holds that competition improves worker incentive and corporate performances and therefore benefits society. Our society has accepted this premise utterly. Unfortunately, however, it also surfaces in personal relationships. Living by standards of competition and aggression on the job, human beings have few avenues to express softer, more personal feelings. (In politics, non-aggressive behavior is interpreted as weakness.)
Amorality: Not being human, corporations do not have morals or altruistic goals. So decisions that maybe antithetical to community goals or environmental health are made without misgivings. In fact, corporate executives praise "non-emotionality" as a basis for "objective" decision-making.
Corporations, however, seek to hide their amorality and attempt to act as if they were altruistic. Lately, there has been a concerted effort by American industry to appear concerned with environmental cleanup, community arts or drug programs. Corporate efforts that seem altruistic are really Public relations ploys or directly self-serving projects.
There has recently been a spurt of corporate advertising about how corporations work to clean the environment. A company that installs offshore oil rigs will run ads about how fish are thriving under the rigs. Logging companies known for their clearcutting practices will run millions of dollars' worth of ads about their "tree farms."
It is a fair rule of thumb that corporations tend to advertise the very qualities they do not have in order to allay negative public perceptions. When corporations say "we care," it is almost always in response to the widespread perception that they do not have feelings or morals.
If the benefits do not accrue, the altruistic pose is dropped. When Exxon realized that its cleanup of Alaskan shores was not easing the public rage about the oil spill, it simply dropped all pretense of altruism and ceased working.
Hierarchy: Corporate laws require that corporations be structured into classes of superiors and subordinated within a centralized pyramidal structure: chairman, directors, chief executive officer, vice presidents, division managers and so on. The efficiency of this hierarchical form (which also characterizes the military, the government and most institutions in our society) is rarely questioned.
The effect on society from adopting the hierarchical form is to make it seem natural that we have all been placed within a national pecking order. Some jobs are better than others, some lifestyles are better than others, some neighborhoods, some races, some kinds of knowledge. Men over women. Westerners over non-Westerners. Humans over nature.
That effective, non-hierarchical modes of organization exist on the planet, and have been successful for millennia, is barely known by most Americans.
Quantification, Linearity, Segmentation: Corporations require that subjective information be translated into objective form, i.e. numbers. The subjective or spiritual aspects of forests, for example, cannot be translated, and so do not enter corporate equations. Forests are evaluated only as "board feet."
When corporations are asked to clean up their smokestack emissions, they lobby to relax the new standards in order to contain costs. The result is that a predictable number of people are expected to become sick and die.
The operative corporate standard is not "as safe as humanly possible," but rather, "as safe as possible commensurate with maintaining acceptable profit."
Dehumanization: In the great majority of corporations, employees are viewed as ciphers, as non-managerial cogs in the wheel, replaceable by others or by machines.
As for management employees, not subject to quite the same indignities, they nonetheless must practice a style of decision making that "does not let feelings get in the way." This applies as much to firing employees as it does to dealing with the consequences of corporate behavior in the environment or the community.
Exploitation: All corporate profit is obtained by a simple formula: Profit equals the difference between the amount paid to an employee and the economic value of the employee's output, and/or the difference between the amount paid for raw materials used in production (including costs of processing), and the ultimate sales price of processed raw materials. Karl Marx was right: a worker is not compensated for full value of his or her labor—neither is the raw material supplier. The owners of capital skim off part of the value as profit. Profit is based on underpayment.
Capitalists argue that this is a fair deal, since both workers and the people who mine or farm the resources (usually in Third World environments) get paid. But this arrangement is inherently imbalanced. The owner of the capital—the corporation or the bank always obtains additional benefit. While the worker makes a wage, the owner of capital gets the benefit of the worker's labor, plus the surplus profit the worker produces, which is then reinvested to produce yet more surplus.
Ephemerality: Corporations exist beyond time and space: they are legal creations that only exist on paper. They do not die a natural death; they outlive their own creators. They have no commitment to locale, employees or neighbors. Having no morality, no commitment to place and no physical nature (a factory, while being a physical entity, is not the corporation). A corporation can relocate all of its operations at the first sign of inconvenience—demanding employees, high taxes and restrictive environmental laws. The traditional ideal of community engagement is antithetical to corporation behavior.
Opposition to Nature: Though individuals who work for corporations may personally love nature, corporations themselves, and corporate societies, are intrinsically committed to intervening in, altering and transforming nature. For corporations engaged in commodity manufacturing, profit comes from transmogrifying raw materials into saleable forms. Metals from the ground are converted into cars.
Trees are converted into boards, houses, furniture and paper products. Oil is converted into energy. In all such energy, a piece of nature is taken from where it belongs and processed into a new form. All manufacturing depends upon intervention and reorganization of nature. After natural resources are used up in one part of the globe, the corporation moves on to another part.
This transformation of nature occurs in all societies where manufacturing takes place. But in capitalist, corporate societies, the process is accelerated because capitalist societies and corporations must grow by extracting resources from nature and reprocessing them at an ever-quickening pace. Meanwhile, the consumption end of the cycle is also accelerated by corporations that have an interest in convincing people that commodities bring material satisfaction. Inner satisfaction, self-sufficiency, contentment in nature or a lack of a desire to acquire wealth are subversive to corporate goals.
Banks finance the conversion of nature insurance companies help reduce the financial risks involved. On a finite planet, the process cannot continue indefinitely.
Homogenization: American rhetoric claims that commodity society delivers greater choice and diversity than other societies. "Choice" in this context means product choice in the marketplace: many brands to choose from and diverse features on otherwise identical products. Actually, corporations have a stake in all of us living our lives in a similar manner, achieving our pleasures from things that we buy in a world where each family lives isolated in a single family home and has the same machines as every other family on the block. The "singles" phenomenon has proved even more productive than the nuclear family, since each person duplicates the consumption patterns of every other person.
Lifestyles and economic systems that emphasize sharing commodities and work, that do not encourage commodity accumulation or that celebrate non-material values, are not good for business. People living collectively, sharing such "hard" goods as washing machines, cars and appliances (or worse, getting along without them) are outrageous to corporate commodity society.
Native societies—which celebrate an utterly non-material relationship to life, the planet and the spirit—are regarded as backward, inferior and unenlightened. We are told that they envy the choices we have. To the degree these societies continue to exist, they represent a threat to the homogenization of worldwide markets and culture. Corporate society works hard to retrain such people in attitudes and values appropriate to corporate goals.
In undeveloped parts of the world, satellite communication introduces Western television and advertising, while improvements in the technical infrastructure speed up the pace of development. Most of this activity is funded by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as agencies such as the US Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Bank and the Asian-American Bank, all of which serve multinational corporate enterprise.
The ultimate goal of corporate multinationals was expressed in a revealing quote by the president of Nabisco Corporation: "One world of homogeneous consumption... [I am] looking forward to the day when Arabs and Americans, Latinos and Scandinavians, will be munching Ritz crackers as enthusiastically as they already drink Coke or brush their teeth with Colgate." Page 31
In the book, Trilateralism, editor Holly Sklar wrote: "Corporations not only advertise products, they promote lifestyles rooted in consumption, patterned largely after the United States.... [They] look forward to a post-national age in which [Western] social, economic and political values are transformed into universal values... a world economy in which all national economies beat to the rhythm of transnational corporate capitalism.... The Western way is the good way; national culture is inferior."
Form Is Content Corporations are inherently bold, aggressive and competitive. Though they exist in a society that claims to operate by moral principles, they are structurally amoral. It is inevitable that they will dehumanize people who work for them and the overall society as well. They are disloyal to workers, including their own managers. Corporations can be disloyal to the communities they have been part of for many years. Corporations do not care about nations; they live beyond boundaries. They are intrinsically committed to destroying nature. And they have an inexorable, unabatable, voracious need to grow and to expand. In dominating other cultures, in digging up the Earth, corporations blindly follow the codes that have been built into them as if they were genes.
We must abandon the idea that corporations can reform themselves. To ask corporate executives to behave in a morally defensible manner is absurd. Corporations, and the people within them, are following a system of logic that leads inexorably toward dominant behaviors. To ask corporations to behave otherwise is like asking an army to adopt pacifism.
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. —Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1914.
Excerpted from: IN THE ABSENCE OF THE SACRED: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, Sierra Club Books, 730 Polk St.. San Francisco, CA 94109.
from the Winter 1995, EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL which is published quarterly by Earth Island Institute, 300 Broadway # 28, San Francisco, CA 94133 Phone: 415-788-3666; FAX: 415-788-7324
earthisland@igc.apc.orgOf all the ideas I’ve heard to curb gun violence, one of most intriguing is also one of the least discussed.
It comes my way from a hyper-smart retired Navy commander who calls occasionally with suggestions. His latest: Require gun owners to carry liability insurance for the firearms they own.
Here’s how it would work. Before anyone could buy a gun or ammunition, he or she would have to acquire an insurance policy for it and present proof of that policy to the gun shop, gun-show dealer, or private seller. Current gun owners would also have to carry such insurance.
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Such a requirement would quite literally put a premium — a market premium — on sanity and safety.
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Consider the mentally disturbed young men who commit so many of these public massacres. What if they or their families had to buy insurance before getting a gun? Some likely wouldn’t even try. But even if they did, it’s hard to imagine a company selling liability insurance — particularly not for a military-style rifle like an AR-15 — to someone so obviously troubled. Yes, yes, gun folks, I know that a determined young killer could use a knife or an ax or a baseball bat instead. But there are crucial differences in degree of lethality, speed of injury infliction, and opportunity for potential victims to fight back or escape.
Such a requirement would also effectively close the gun-show loophole; if potential buyers didn’t have proof of insurance, it would be illegal to sell to them, plain and simple.
Now consider how an insurance requirement could change gun ownership. The more potentially lethal the weapon, the more a liability policy would cost. A hunter who wanted a pump-action shotgun or a lever- or bolt-action rifle — that is, firearms that don’t reload automatically after the trigger is pulled — would pay only a nominal fee. A traditional semi-automatic big-game rifle — a.308 or a.30-06 or a.30-30, say — with a limited magazine might cost just a little more to insure.
But if you want or own a military-style semi-automatic with features like a pistol grip, which lets you spray fire from waist-level; a collapsible stock, which makes a weapon easier to conceal; or a high-capacity detachable magazine, well, insuring one of those would be far more expensive. That expense would not only discourage ownership of those types of weapons; it would also be a disincentive to accumulating an arsenal of guns.
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To meet an objection before it’s made, this would hardly be a big imposition on sportsmen. Many states already limit the magazine capacity for hunters, usually to three shells for shotguns and five or six cartridges for rifles. Further, real hunters know that you usually don’t get more than one or two shots at a deer or elk or other game animal anyway.
An insurance requirement would also lead to more effective storage of guns and ammunition.
Some states already have safe gun-and-ammo storage laws. But since we don’t, and aren’t about to have government inspectors going into individuals’ homes, those laws are largely unenforceable. In contrast, an insurer would likely want proof that you have a trigger lock or gun safe or a lockbox for ammunition; the safer that storage, the bigger break you would get on your rates.
All told, then, such a requirement would use the mechanism of insurance to create incentives for safe, responsible, lower-risk gun ownership.
There are obviously issues that would have to be worked out. For example, such a requirement would conflict with the notion that any checks or preconditions for gun ownership must be instantaneous, for the gun buyer’s convenience. But why should that notion trump public safety?
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Nor would an insurance requirement be a stand-alone cure-all. Rather, it should be one part of a larger gun-policy package.
Consider how an insurance requirement could change gun ownership. The more potentially lethal the weapon, the more a liability policy would cost.
It’s probably too reasonable an idea for those uncompromising types who insist, contra the Supreme Court, that the right to own a gun is absolute and simply can’t be qualified or conditioned in any way. But as policy makers look for smart, practical ways to reduce gun violence, such a sensible marriage of right and responsibility should be on their radar screen.
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeScotLehighSince the map of the Middle East was drawn by the Sykes-Picot Agreement in the aftermath of World War I and the retreat of the Ottoman Turks in favour of the British and French, the lines demarcating the boundaries between states in the Arab region have never been successfully challenged, even in the heyday of pan-Arab nationalism.
Saddam Hussein's ill-conceived adventure in neighbouring Kuwait ended in catastrophe, costing him his regime, and eventually, his life. But two decades later, a small obscure group has, ironically, managed to achieve what the once mighty Iraqi army had failed to do in 1990. Declaring its dominance over huge swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, ISIL has effectively erased the long established frontier between the two countries, thus mounting the first successful challenge to the Sykes-Picot arrangement.
History abounds with shadowy extremist organisations, centred on deviant ideas - not always of a religious nature - eccentric megalomaniacs, or purely criminal objectives. ISIL is neither unique nor without precedent in this respect. What distinguishes the group is in reality neither its fanaticism, nor brutal methods, but the suddenness of its rise and astonishing speed of its territorial expansion. In the space of a few months, this once marginal faction has come to occupy the centre stage of international politics, threatening the existence of entire regional states and governments, redefining old political geographies, even managing to bring together sworn enemies around the shared goal of defeating it, from Iran and Qatar to the US and Gulf kingdoms.
Unexpected ascendancy
Endlessly churned out epithets about ISIL's theological origins, exclusionary takfiri (apostate) tendencies and religious legitimisation of its brutal methods are useless in the quest to grasp the causes of its unexpected ascendancy and rapid proliferation.
It is the changing geopolitics of the region that holds the answers here. What gave and continues to grant ISIL - and other violent anarchic groups of its kind - momentum and room for diffusion is the strategic and political vacuum generated by the retreat of US influence in the Middle East, and Arab Orient more specifically.
The US is no longer able to monitor and regulate the rhythm of events in that sensitive part of the world. The wave of exhibitionist pre-emptive strikes launched by the neo-cons ended in two consecutive military defeats and hasty retreats.
The limits of US military might were laid bare for all to see. Thanks to its superior firepower, it was able to topple regimes and dismantle existing structures, but was dismally impotent to rebuild them anew. And in the vacuum and trail of devastation it left behind, the US created a fertile soil for the growth of extremist violent groups, on the one hand, and of internecine ethnic and sectarian conflicts, on the other.
Another irony is that the Americans find themselves today compelled to return to the Middle East, having retreated from it in order to channel what remains of their might on the escalating threat posed by a rising China and respond to the challenges of the shift of wealth and influence eastwards. But Obama's US looks nothing like the one that had mobilised its fleets against Saddam Hussein a decade ago. Today, it reluctantly retraces its footsteps to the same battlefield, broken and bruised, full of caution and foreboding.
The geopolitical void that appeared with the decline of US power after Afghanistan and Iraq was further exposed with the Syrian revolution, as the US and its Gulf allies proved powerless to end the conflict conclusively in their favour, desperately jostling for control and influence with the Iranians and the Russians. And as in Iraq, radical jihadist groups swiftly moved in to fill the resulting political vacuum, finding an ideal social foster in long standing sectarian grievances.
Complex demographics
Today, we are witnessing the explosion of the complex demographics of Arab society. In colonial times, local administrations had managed tensions between its myriad traditional social configurations, religious, sectarian, tribal, and ethnic, via a policy of containment, dilution, or repression. This role was subsequently taken up by the post-colonial state within a process of superimposed pseudo-modernisation, and under the banner of a collective national identity that remained feeble and skin-deep.
Amidst the collapse of fragile post-colonial political structures in countries like Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, traditional bonds and identities have reasserted themselves again, but in a more raucous bloody manner. Sunnis, Shia, Kurds, Arabs, Muslims, and Christians, all turned against each other in a chilling spectacle of senseless self-mutilation.
This atmosphere of paranoid animosity, social disarray and political crisis was a potent incubator for Islamic radicalism, with its ideological fervour, excommunicatory tendencies, and puritanical dreams. Political grievances mingled with ethnic and sectarian grudges to produce the hatred ridden grandiose discourse of al-Qaeda, ISIL and their Jihadist likes.
Price of failure
Today, the region is paying the price for the failure of top-down modernisation and the disintegration of artificial post-colonial national borders and frail political edifices. And with the evaporation of the great hopes pinned on the Arab Spring of the possibility of change through peaceful means and popular protests, extremism and violence have reared their head once more. But as disillusionment and despair descend on the region and tighten their icy grip on its throat, this deformed ghoulish child of crisis looks uglier, deadlier and more vindictive than ever.
By renewing and bolstering old alliances with Gulf sheikhdoms and autocratic Arab regimes to thwart democratic political change; overseeing the return to military coups and cloaking them with legitimacy, the US and its European allies have sent Arabs a clear resounding message: "Ballot boxes are not for you! They are pointless as means of change. Their results are easily discarded and trampled upon. Violence and revenge are the way out of your bleak existence." Nothing could have rendered more credence and legitimacy to the rhetoric of ISIL and the jihadist cause.
Through its modern history, the Arab region has been an open index of the ascent and descent of global powers and a mirror of the great players' fluctuating fortunes. And in this strategically positioned part of the globe, power shifts have always come at a heavy price, paid in much blood and socio-political instability, be that from the Ottomans to the British in the wake of the World War I, or to their American heirs after World War II. The currently unfolding transformation is no exception. The wave of turmoil, chaos and misery it carries will most likely continue to engulf the region for years to come.
Soumaya Ghannoushi is a British Tunisian writer and specialist in Middle East politics. Her articles have been published in the Guardian, the Independent, Corriere della Serra and Alquds.Almost three million Android phones, many of them used by people in the US, are vulnerable to code-execution attacks that remotely seize full control of the devices, researchers said Thursday.
Until recently, the flaw could have been exploited by anyone who took the time to obtain two Internet domains that remained unregistered despite being hardwired into the firmware that introduced the vulnerability. After discovering the vulnerability, researchers from security ratings firm BitSight Technologies registered the addresses and control them to this day. Even now, the failure of the buggy firmware to encrypt communications sent to a server located in China makes code-execution attacks possible when phones don't use virtual private networking software when connecting to public hotspots and other unsecured networks.
Since BitSight and its subsidiary company Anubis Networks took possession of the two preconfigured domains, more than 2.8 million devices have attempted to connect in search of software that can be executed with unfettered "root" privileges, the researchers said. Had malicious parties obtained the addresses before BitSight did, the actors could have installed keyloggers, bugging software, and other malware that completely bypassed security protections built into the Android operating system. The almost three million devices remain vulnerable to so-called man-in-the-middle attacks because the firmware—which was developed by a Chinese company called Ragentek Group—doesn't encrypt the communications sent and received to phones and doesn't rely on code-signing to authenticate legitimate apps. Based on the IP addresses of the connecting devices, vulnerable phones hail from locations all over the world, with the US being the No. 1 affected country.
"The thing that scares us is a lot of these users will be unaware of the vulnerability, and they will never get an update," BitSight CTO Stephen Boyer told Ars. "This is full system compromise. This is at the root level. [Attackers with a MitM position] can do anything."
Kind of BLU
In a blog post published Thursday, BitSight researchers said they went to a Best Buy store and purchased a BLU Studio G phone and were able to perform an attack that exploited the backdoor. As a result, they were able to install a file they named system_rw_test in /data/system/, a file location that's reserved for apps with all-powerful system privileges. The researchers provided the following screenshot:
By observing the data phones sent when connecting to the two previously unregistered domains, BitSight researchers have cataloged 55 known device models that are affected. The most affected manufacturer is US-based BLU Products, which accounted for about 26 percent, followed by multinational Infinix with 11 percent, Doogee with almost 8 percent, and Leagoo and Xolo with about 4 percent each. Slightly more than 47 percent of the phones that connected to the BitSight sinkhole gave no indication who their manufacturer was. A list of specific models can be found in this advisory from the Department of Homeland Security-sponsored CERT.
The IP addresses of the connecting devices were based in countries all over the world, with the US being the top one, BitSight researchers told Ars. Update: Shortly after this post went live, João Gouveia, another BitSight researcher who helped uncover the rootkit, said in a tweet that he and his colleagues are "seeing lots of connections coming from all sorts of sectors, including healthcare, government and banking."
Given the large number of connecting devices with unknown manufacturers, the list of affected devices is sure to grow in the coming weeks. People who are technically inclined can check if a phone is vulnerable by monitoring its network traffic and looking for outgoing connections to the following domains, which are hardwired into the Ragentek firmware:
oyag[.]lhzbdvm[.]com
oyag[.]prugskh[.]net
oyag[.]prugskh[.]com
People who are concerned their phone may run the firmware may also contact the manufacturer. So far, according to both BitSight and the CERT advisory, only BLU Products has released an update that addresses the vulnerability. It's not clear if it will be installed automatically or |
more than likely intentionally sabotaged his CHIM experiment so that others would know how to not fail it.[UL 2] Lorkhan's failure showed the Aurbis that it was not possible for the original spirits to achieve states of existence such as CHIM, for they can not know the "joy of mortals,"[UL 4] the knowing that death is merely an illusion and merely a cycle to be broken.[4] The original spirits were immeasurable and infinite, only separated by their vanities and egos.[5][UL 8] Their infinite scale and ineffability made it hard for them to ponder their ends and limits, and thus, could not pinpoint their own individuality from the Aurbis.[6] This inherent omnipotence made it impossible for them to know the true joy of liberation that mortal spirits could experience from escaping their natural limitations.[UL 4] For this reason Lorkhan began to formulate the Mortal Plane as a way in which true transcendence could be achieved,[7] as only mortals have the ability to surpass all their boundaries, laws, and corruptions, put in place by immortal divinities. Mundus itself was designed to be a reflection of the Aurbis and, by association, the Tower.[UL 2][UL 4] Lorkhan's failure sent his consciousness adrift as an entity known as the Void Ghost that resides within the hidden The Serpent constellation where he tries to continue his goal of helping others reach states that exist beyond CHIM.[8][UL 9]
The only being who is known to have actually achieved CHIM is Vivec. Talos might have achieved CHIM. Vivec supposedly learned of CHIM after marrying and mating with the Daedric Prince Molag Bal.[1] Vivec wrote extensively on its nature,[UL 1] and used CHIM to banish Azura from the world during his trial.[UL 10] Talos might have achieved CHIM before ascending to godhood, how he did so is not entirely known. According to some sources, in an act of love, Talos used CHIM to effectively erase the jungles of Cyrodiil retroactively from all history,[9][10] being quoted as saying:[UL 3]
"You have suffered for me to win this throne, and I see how you hate jungle. Let me show you the power of Talos Stormcrown, born of the North, where my breath is long winter. I breathe now, in royalty, and reshape this land which is mine. I do this for you, Red Legions, for I love you." ―From The Many-Headed Talos
This quote is cross-referenced by Mankar Camoran's in his Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes which state:[2]
"CHIM. Those who know it can reshape the land. Witness the home of the Red King Once Jungled." ―Mythic Dawn Commentaries 3
The "Red King" might refer to Talos, and his jungled home would be referring to Cyrodiil.
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LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- The AR-15 is often used for hunting, recreation, or self-defense. Jason Wagner of Frontier Justice says it’s always been a popular gun. Since the Orlando shooting, there’s been a spike in sales.
“Seen an increase in semi-automatic rifles,” he said.
The AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle. The A-R actually stands for ArmaLite, the company that started producing it. To get one, buyers have to fill out an ATF form.
“We take that information and run it through the FBI NIX background check and it offers three responses: proceed, denied, or delayed response,” he said.
If given the proceed response, buyers can walk out with the gun within a day. The rise sales and quick turnaround is a concern for Damon Daniel of the ADHoc Group Against Crime.
“Anyone who I’ve talked to don’t even hunt with a semi-automatic weapons. We don’t need those kinds of guns to be sold to civilians on our streets,” Daniel said.
The spike in sales is caused by buyers feeling the need for self protection. Bren Brown says that’s why she stresses education. She says a children’s gun can be just as dangerous as an AR-15.
“This is an AR 15 chambered in 22 long rifle and this is the children’s weapon, exact same bullet,” said Brown.
Brown encourages buyers to arm themselves with knowledge before buying a firearm.
After a mass shooting, experts say people buy guns for two reasons: they're afraid and want to protect themselves or they're worried new legislation will restrict gun sales.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
June 29, 2017, 9:34 PM GMT / Updated June 29, 2017, 9:33 PM GMT By Josh Girsky, Dan Mangan, CNBC and Meg Tirrell
Self-described “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli made headlines for raising the price of a drug for AIDS patients over 5,000 percent, but that's not why he's in court this week.
Instead he faces eight counts of wire and securities fraud related to his time as portfolio manager of two hedge funds, MSMB and MSMB Healthcare, and as founder and CEO of a pharmaceutical company Retrophin.
In day four of the Shkreli trial, prosecutors called the daughter of a well-known pharmaceuticals executive Sarah Hassan to the stand to talk about her $300,000 investment in MSMB.
She said she received emailed statements showing a solid profit for her money and that she felt "betrayed" when she was informed that there was no money left in the fund after Shkreli's decision to close it. After months of Shkreli dragging his feet, Hassan said she received $400,000 in cash and 58,000 shares of Retrophin stock that she later sold for $900,000.
During cross-examination, Shkreli's lawyer Benjamin Brafman pointed out the fine print in Hassan's investment agreement. "This is what you reviewed with your lawyer and signed," Brafman said.
"This is also conflicting with what I was told," Hassan responded.
Brafman acknowledged during opening arguments in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday that jurors may find Shkreli strange, but added that "Martin Shkreli is brilliant beyond words."
RELATED: Martin Shkreli Built Hedge Fund Empire on ‘Lies,’ Prosecutor Says at Trial Start
"Maybe he's just nuts, but that doesn't legally make him guilty," Brafman said.
Prosecutor G. Karthik Srinivasan said that while Shkreli may have convinced his investors that he was a "Wall Street genius," he was in reality "just a con man."
“Like a Ponzi scheme"
Shkreli is accused by the SEC of treating two hedge funds and a pharmaceutical company he helmed as his "personal piggy bank," said U.S. Attorney Robert Capers in 2015, running them “like a Ponzi scheme.”
In a classic Ponzi scheme, named after 1920's con artist Charles Ponzi, a fraudulent investment operator promises investors returns but instead uses funds from later investors to pay returns to earlier investors, misleading them into thinking that the fund has made solid returns.
Columbia Law Professor John Coffee said that Shkreli’s case is a "variant on the classic Ponzi scheme." Instead of using money from a single fund to pay investors back, said Coffee, he's accused of using money from his pharma company to pay back his hedge fund investors.
Robert Capers, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, walks by a story board following a news conference after the arrest of former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli on Dec. 17, 2015. Spencer Platt / Getty Images
In the complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Shkreli is accused of "widespread fraudulent conduct," "material misrepresentations and omissions to investors and prospective investors," and misappropriating over $1 million in funds from MSMB, MSMB Healthcare and Retrophin, among other charges.
RELATED: FBI Arrests Pharma CEO Martin Shkreli on Securities Fraud Charges
Between 2009 and 2011, he allegedly spent approximately $120,000 of investor funds from MSMB on food deliveries, medical expenses and other items that were not chargeable under the terms of MSMB’s limited partnership agreement.
Shkreli is also accused by the SEC of attempting to short 32 million shares without having the ability to do so.
When shorting a stock, or betting against it, an investor has to borrow shares in order to sell them and buy them back later.
Shkreli allegedly told a broker that he had access to 32 million shares, but did not have nearly enough. The broker had to buy shares on the open market to close the gap “at a loss of over $7 million,” according to the suit.
The broker took Shkreli and MSMB to arbitration in an attempt to recover some of the $7 million, and settled for just over $1.5 million, according to the suit. Between January and March of 2013, Shkreli allegedly took $900,000 from MSMB Healthcare to help cover the cost.
The complaint states that "Shkreli had no right to use MSMB Healthcare's investor funds to pay the settlement."
In September 2012, Shkreli told investors he was liquidating the funds, and used Retrophin funds to pay back investors, many of whom were disgruntled because Shkreli could not pay them back with cash from MSMB and MSMB Healthcare. The suit says "Shkreli did not disclose to Retrophin's Board that the true purpose of these consulting agreements was to settle potential claims against Shkreli."
Just "an overly optimistic person?"
While the prosecution may have a straightforward path to proving that Shkreli’s claims to his investors and others were not factual, they will also have to prove that it was his intent to defraud.
Coffee said that the defense may try to show that Shkreli "is an overly optimistic person who truly believed his own statements."
Shkreli has continued to grab attention with various antics since his arrest, flaunting large purchases on social media, offering $40,000 to a Princeton student who solved a mathematical proof and getting his Twitter account suspended after harassing a female journalist.
“This is a defendant who is beyond the control of his own attorney,” Coffee said. “We’re all going to sit back and see if this turns into a circus.”
Not on trial for drug prices -- but might as well be
Though Shkreli's fraud trial is unrelated to his history of raising drug prices, it's not far from the minds of prospective jurors, who repeatedly mentioned it during jury selection, slowing down the process.
One prospective juror said “I have total disdain for the man” while another prospective juror indicated that he wanted to punch Shkreli.
"I'm sorry, judge," the man who wanted to punch Shkreli said. "Is he stupid or crazy? I don't understand."
By the end of Monday and Tuesday, more than 300 prospective jurors were questioned before the judge was able to seat 12 jurors with six alternates.''
An NBC News request for comment from Martin Shrkeli was declined by a spokesperson for his lawyer Brafman.
Regulators filed the securities charges three months after the story of how he raised Daraprim's price up from $13.50 a pill stoked national outrage.
Congressional hearings followed 6 months after the story broke, in February of 2016. Today the price of the drug remains at $750 per pill.The Browns have been deliberate during their latest offensive rebuild. It's time for them to let it rip and not hold back at QB.
That means giving rookie second-pick DeShone Kizer a real chance to start immediately as their hopeful future franchise passer.
There's no doubt Cleveland drafted Kizer because of his immense potential with his arm and athleticism, something he didn't fully reach while at Notre Dame under coach Brian Kelly. Talent-wise, even in his raw state, Kizer's versatile skill set is more appealing than what both Cody Kessler and Brock Osweiler can offer, now or later. The ability to quickly develop Kizer also is critical to tenure of coach Hue Jackson lasting beyond 2017.
MORE: Ranking the NFL's starting QBs
Osweiler was an afterthought in the battle right after his trade from Houston, given the move was primarily made to give the Browns a second-round draft pick and give the Texans a way out of an expensive mistake. But perhaps humbled from his crash and burn in Houston, Osweiler has been impressive in the offseason, showing the accurate arm once coveted by the Broncos. He also has been wise to lean on the fact that, at 27 to be, he has a big experience edge on the other two. That includes being familiar with a Super Bowl-winning locker room vibe from Denver.
But more respect from veterans and looking the part, as Osweiler does with his 6-7 frame, can take him only so far.
The Browns' scheme and supporting cast is built better for a mobile passer than it is for a big statue. Osweiler also has struggled with standing too long in the pocket and not getting the ball out quickly, which doesn't mesh with Jackson's QB requirements.
Osweiler is pretty much there to push the youngsters in presence only. He's more down with Kevin Hogan, who's in this competition in name only. This is Kessler vs. Kizer, and the second-year man from USC can officially start to worry about the trajectory of the competition.
Kessler has shown only limited improvement in arm strength, still his biggest weaknesses. He can handle dinking, dunking and checking down, and he can remain efficient with his shorter throws, the way former Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn did. But the Browns need to make use of youthful field-stretchers Corey Coleman and David Njoku, and Kessler is deficient in pushing the ball downfield. Further hurting Kessler vs. both the 6-4 Kizer and Osweiler is his lack of ideal size, something he can't change.
MORE: Best, worst of NFL decision-makers
That's why Kessler saw his hold on the first-team reps in OTAs and minicamp become more of a split with Kizer, with Kessler wilting. Kizer's football intelligence is doing him plenty of favors in picking up Jackson's offense quickly. He already has a better natural feel for the passing game, and every day in practice, he reportedly has gotten sharper with his rhythm and mechanics.
As the Browns are seeing Kessler and Kizer side-by-side, the rookie has made things even going into training camp. His upside already was undeniable in contrast to that of Kessler. While Osweiler is trying to re-grasp the basics, and while Kessler's throwing has hit a low ceiling, Kizer is showing a nice floor faster than expected.
Kizer is no stranger to the heat of a highly competitive preseason environment given his battles just to get on the field in South Bend. As the preseason pressure is dialed up, Kizer should respond well. Kelly not given him much of an endorsement likely also has accelerated Kizer's dedication to pleasing Jackson.
The Browns won't begin to get out of their rut by sticking with Kessler from the get-go. Throwing Kizer into the fire is developing into a much better plan.
He can and should be the man for Week 1 vs. Pittsburgh.Patrick Burwell
Digital Journal
December 5, 2008
Brannon Howse interviewed John Loeffler about his article on ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com on why SWAT police, armed for riot control weapons, packing automatic rifles and armored for a terrorist response stormed a family food cooperative in Ohio.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Agents from the State of Ohio Department of Agriculture with the S.W.A.T. team did not give any explanation to the family other than a warrant, did not provide them a phone call, did not charge the family with anything as they burst into their private home. But what they did do was make a big mess, taking over ten thousand dollars of merchandise with them, reported the IVN Bureau Chief.
Have we entered a new era of police brutality at the hands of our own government?
John said, “They kept guns trained on the parents, the kids, toddlers, from about 11 in the morning until eight in the afternoon.” Is this what we expect now from our government?
Read articleJudge and Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano sharply disagreed with President Trump and others who have called for the suspect in Tuesday's terror attack in Manhattan to be sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Speaking on Fox News's "Outnumbered," Napolitano said he “profoundly disagree[s]” with the president and others such as Sens. John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamHouse to push back at Trump on border Trump pressures GOP senators ahead of emergency declaration vote: 'Be strong and smart' This week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration MORE (R-S.C.), who have called for 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov to be sent to the military detention facility in Cuba.
"About Gitmo,” Napolitano said Wednesday, “this person, as horrific as he is, is a lawful American resident. He has the same rights, except for voting and running for office, as the rest of us."
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Eight people were killed and several more were injured when police say Saipov rammed a rented Home Depot truck into a crowd of pedestrians and a school bus. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Wednesday that there was no indication that Saipov was working with others in his attack.
When asked on Wednesday if he would consider sending the suspect to Guantanamo Bay, President Trump said he "certainly" would.
“I would certainly consider that, yes," Trump said. "Send him to Gitmo.”
Graham said during a press conference Wednesday that Saipov should be treated as a combatant of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“There’s ample evidence to suggest that these attacks were motivated by radical Islamic thought, that he killed in the name of radical Islam and that he is expressing his allegiance to ISIS, that he is acting as a soldier of the caliphate — and we should treat him as a soldier of the caliphate,” Graham said.
Napolitano, who was a New Jersey Superior Court judge from 1987 to 1995, said that sending a lawful resident such as Saipov to a military prison would be "inhumane."
"There is simply no provision for terminating his Constitutional rights by putting him in the hands of the military and taking him to Gitmo," Napolitano said. “If they send him to Cuba, it will be unfair, unlawful and unconstitutional.”
The FBI has taken over the investigations of the attack.(Image: JGI/Jamie Grill/Blend Images/Getty)
A US genetics company has patented a DNA-analysis tool that allows people to pick sperm and egg donors based on what kind of offspring they want. But this week, after enquiries by New Scientist, it posted a denial that it plans to use the technology for anything more than as an engaging way to allow customers to see what kind of traits their child might inherit.
The denial could reflect its customers’ angry reactions last year when the company, 23andMe of Mountain View, California, which bills itself as democratising the genome, had its first patent granted. But it could also reflect accusations that such genetic shopping comes perilously close to eugenics – or may not work as advertised.
Neanderthal heritage
23andMe sequences DNA from a saliva sample for customers who pay $99. It says it is “dedicated to helping individuals understand their own genetic information” in the 23 human chromosomes. The company currently tells its 400,000 customers if they have various elevated disease risks, where their ancestors came from, and how Neanderthal they are.
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In return, customers respond to surveys, allowing the company to do research associating DNA sequences with various characteristics, such as disease risk. Its first patent last year covered diagnostic and therapeutic applications of a gene it found was associated with Parkinson’s disease.
There was a negative outburst from people worried that the company would monopolise testing for the gene.
“There’s a tension between their claims to be open and transparent and the corporate need to find new revenue generation,” says Stuart Hogarth of King’s College London.
Flushed drinkers
The new US patent, issued on 24 September, covers the DNA-analysis method at work in 23andMe’s inheritance calculator, an interactive feature on the company’s website. This allows two customers to calculate the probability that their child will have certain phenotypes, or expressed genetic characteristics, produced by the various possible combinations of their genes.
It covers only six characteristics: eye colour; hard or sticky earwax; whether muscle fibres will be geared towards sprinting or endurance events; bitter taste perception; lactose tolerance; and whether offspring will flush when they drink alcohol. “It’s all just part of the fun of having a baby,” says 23andMe spokesman Donald Cutler.
The US patent, however, describes using the procedure as a “gamete donor selector” that allows a recipient to “[identify] a preferred donor among the plurality of donors”. For example, a woman could use it to select a sperm donor whose genes, combined with hers, are most likely to produce certain phenotypes in her baby. The phenotypes suggested range from eye colour to risk of diabetes to lifespan.
Eugenics fears
The ability to choose preferred donors worries ethicists. Although screening for disease is ethical, using DNA to select other characteristics edges close to eugenics, says Michael Sandel of Harvard University.
Lori Andrews, a law and technology expert at Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology, says sperm and egg donors are already screened genetically for known medical risks.
But researchers have so far found only weak associations between specific DNA sequences and phenotypes, such as intelligence, governed by many genes. “Is there really sufficient proof of the ability to predict traits such as lifespan through genetic tests?” asks Andrews.
If not, choosing a sperm or egg donor on the basis of genes thought to be associated with various traits could raise false expectations. If a resultant baby lacks the traits the parents expected, says Hogarth, there is likely to be disappointment. That raises the spectre of liability.
That might explain why the company now says that it has no plans to utilise the patent beyond the Inheritance Calculator – which covers only phenotypes controlled entirely by one or two genes.
Cutler says the company’s plans changed in the five years since it filed for the patent. He could not say how they might change in future, when genetic researchers hope to have found more reliable associations between genes and phenotypes.WASHINGTON—As part of its routine series of preparedness drills aimed at testing national security, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it had set free the five most deadly foreign terrorists in U.S. custody.
"Protecting the American people is our highest priority, so it is crucial that we periodically put our country's safeguards to the test," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said during a press conference. "Only by loosing these dangerous extremists on our infrastructure, landmarks, and chemical or nuclear facilities can we properly assess our vulnerability to terrorist attacks."
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"If the Empire State Building or Jefferson Memorial blows up, for example, then we'll know we have to make some improvements," she added. "It's all part of the process."
The terrorists were reportedly transported separately by helicopter to undisclosed locations across the country and supplied with clothing, $10,000 cash, and a list of contacts known for making statements about crushing the U.S. government. The DHS also confirmed that the terrorists, who vowed nothing would stop them from their ultimate goal of destroying all of America, received a $100 Home Depot gift card for incidentals and supplies.
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"To ensure the reliability of this exercise, not a single DHS employee or any federal or local law enforcement officers know where the terrorists are," Napolitano said. "We will give them a 48-hour head start before distributing their pictures and launching a nationwide search."
"In the meantime, we will have no contact with them, and will allow these talented and barbaric war criminals to do what they do best," Napolitano added.
Homeland Security officials said the drill will provide vital information on exactly how easily a hypothetical group of terrorists could exploit vastly underprotected and insufficiently funded areas such as Yosemite National Park, the Hoover Dam, most of the North American power grid, or virtually any U.S. port.
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The department's deputy secretary, Jane Holl Lute, who personally analyzed background information on each of the incarcerated terrorists, said the "final five" were selected for the high level of risk they posed to the United States, their experience developing and executing terror plots, and their knowledge of explosives, as well as their overall remorselessness and leadership qualities.
The group comprises alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; senior al- Qaeda member Abu Faraj al-Libbi; 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef; former al-Qaeda in Iraq commander Khaled al- Mashhadani; and 1998 U.S. embassy bomber Khalfan Khamis Mohamed.
"These terrorists are the absolute cream of the crop, I can assure you," Lute said. "No one else in American custody terrifies us more than these horrible, violent men."
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Prior to their release, the terrorists were reportedly deprived of sleep, starved, and tortured in hopes of raising their anger levels and provoking them to coordinate a strike suitable for challenging the nation's readiness, response, and recovery efforts.
DHS spokesman Roger Munns said there was no reason for concern, since all the terrorists would most likely be apprehended during routine traffic stops well before they conspired to attack national defense utilities or used weapons of mass destruction to murder millions of innocent Americans.
"Some of them will certainly attempt to infiltrate some of our more vulnerable nuclear power plants in Texas or North Carolina, but the odds of them succeeding are pretty low, if you think about it," Munns said. "Although, off the record, I really hope they don't go after Chicago's mass transit system, because, let me tell you, that whole thing would go up in flames real quick."
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NORAD Commander James A. Winnefeld, Jr. assured reporters that adequate security measures were in place to protect the American public and the plan would not fail as it did during the botched Sept. 11, 2001 security preparedness exercise.
"In our defense, we really didn't think it would be possible for them to hit both towers," Winnefeld said. "But with hindsight, I guess it's clear that we gave those guys way too much money and training."October 2, 2014 at 11:13 PM
What a stunner in Eugene Thursday night, where 23-point underdog Arizona threw a very big monkey wrench into Oregon’s national-championship plans with a 31-24 victory over the Ducks.
The Wildcats were plucky and deserving on both sides of the ball. They gained in the neighborhood of 500 yards and rendered the Oregon offense inconsistent. Simply put, Oregon looked very average against Arizona, nothing like the No. 2-rated team in the country.
Among the fallout:
— Amazingly, a couple of days into October, every Pac-12 North team has a loss.
— Arizona is now 5-0 and will surely make a move up the national rankings.
— Inspiring as it was for Arizona, it’s a shot to the chops for the league and its hopes for a spot in the first national playoff. Oregon was seen as the most likely team to get there. To do it, the Ducks probably now have to run the table, including winning the Pac-12 title game.
— Michigan State has to hate it as well. The Spartans were 19-point losers earlier to Oregon, and part of their hopes to crash the playoff rested with a strong performance all season by the Ducks.
— It puts a dent in the Heisman Trophy hopes of Marcus Mariota, who didn’t play poorly, but was stripped of the ball by Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright on Oregon’s would-be tying touchdown drive at the end.
— That titanic game next week at UCLA — Oregon versus the Bruins — suddenly has lost some of its luster.
Right now, the best team in the Pac-12 appears to be UCLA — a team that was seriously questioned before it blitzed Arizona Sate last week.
While Oregon’s offensive-line injuries are obviously having an impact, perhaps as big a shortfall for Oregon is its defense.
This week, Oregon’s ex-defensive coordinator, Nick Aliotti, now doing commentary on Pac-12 Networks, told John Canzano of the Oregonian he thought USC’s defense was playing “soft.” Funny, but that’s exactly what Oregon looked like against the Wildcats, giving up three long third-quarter drives to a redshirt-freshman quarterback, Anu Solomon.
The Ducks were unable to stop Arizona’s wheel routes by backs, twice busting coverages to leave them wide-open for huge gains.
Arizona was more physical, and the sputtering nature of Oregon’s offense was reflected on a third-and-goal play just preceding a field goal in the fourth quarter that left the Ducks behind 24-17. With the ball at the Arizona 7, Mariota handed off (on a curious call) to the back (I believe it was Royce Freeman), who was engulfed at the 5 by safety Tra’Mayne Bondurant and lineman Parker Zellers, while outside linebacker Cody Ippolito buried Mariota behind the line of scrimmage.
It’s a key weekend in college football with several important matchups. Nobody expected the show to start two days early.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
March 26, 2017, 6:51 PM GMT / Updated March 26, 2017, 6:51 PM GMT By Associated Press
Iran on Sunday sanctioned what it described as 15 U.S. companies, alleging that they support terrorism, repression and Israel's occupation of land that Palestinians want for a future state, likely in retaliation for sanctions earlier announced by the United States.
The wide-ranging list, from a U.S. real estate company to a major arms manufacturer, appeared more symbolic than anything else as the firms weren't immediately known to be doing business anywhere in the Islamic Republic.
A Foreign Ministry statement carried by the state-run news agency IRNA said that the sanctions barred companies from any agreements with Iranian firms and that former and current directors would not be eligible for visas. It also said any of the companies' assets in Iran could be seized.
"The sanctioned companies have, directly and/or indirectly, been involved in the brutal atrocities committed by the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestinian territories, or they have supported the regime's terrorist activities and Israel's development of Zionist settlements on the Palestinian soil," the IRNA report said.
Related: U.S. Hits Iran With New Sanctions for Ballistic Missile Test, Terrorism Sponsorship
The IRNA report referred to the sanctions as a "reciprocal act," without elaborating. They come after the Trump administration in February sanctioned more than two dozen people and companies in retaliation for a recent ballistic missile test.
The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday. They included ITT Corp., missile maker Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp. Denver's Re/Max Holdings Inc., a real estate company, also made the list.
Another firm on the list, truck maker Oshkosh, has worked closely with Israeli armored products maker Plasan, including on the Sand Cat armored vehicle that is used by several countries, including Israel. The Israeli Defense Ministry is reportedly seeking to buy 200 tactical trucks from the Wisconsin-based company.
Kahr Arms and Magnum Research, two sanctioned firms that share the same parent company, advertise.44-caliber Magnum and.50-caliber "Desert Eagle" pistols — a product line that previously has been made in Israel.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a photo released last week. AP
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian lawmaker said Iran would consider a bill branding the U.S. military and the CIA as terrorist groups if Congress passes a bill designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
Allaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted by Iranian state television as saying the move to further sanction the Revolutionary Guard goes against the 2015 nuclear deal Iran reached with the United States and other world powers.
Under the deal Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions. Since then, Boeing Co. has struck a $16.6 billion deal with Iran for passenger planes.0 20 undocumented immigrants arrested at local warehouse
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - FOX13 has learned new information about the raid and arrest of 20 undocumented immigrants hired to work at a logistics company.
PHOTOS: 20 undocumented immigrants arrested at local warehouse
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said its troopers were in charge of the investigation after they received a tip about the immigrants.
"This investigation was done because of identify crimes," said Sgt. Chris Richardson of the THP.
Trending Now:
Sgt. Richardson told FOX13 the 20 people arrested Tuesday night had fake driver’s licenses, social security cards and numbers and permanent residence cards.
"We had people who broke the law. It just so happens these folks in particular were Hispanics," said Richardson.
FOX13 reached out to Provide Staffing Services, LLC.
It is the company the suspected illegals used for employment.
Provide Staffing promises to provide "Reliable. Trustworthy. The staff you need."
Provide Staffing Services could face fines from the federal government.
The U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement websites warns employers can be finned if it can be proven they did, "Hire, recruit for a fee, or refer for a fee unauthorized aliens they know to be unauthorized to work in the U.S."
"We have 60 million undocumented people in this country, and for the most part they are all working," said Greg Diaz, executive director of Las Americas which is a faith based advocacy agency for immigrants.
FOX13 showed Diaz the names of the 20 people arrested Tuesday.
Diaz suspects the THP worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct the raid even though both agencies said that is not true.
"This morning, there are 20 families that woke up this morning without a dad or a mom," said Diaz.
Provide Staffing Services is registered with the Tennessee Secretary of State, but its business license with Shelby County expired and has not been renewed.
© 2019 Cox Media Group.There are so many profiteers, posers, and sharks in the marijuana industry it’s insane. The marijuana industry should be for people that were around for the struggle first, and everyone second in my opinion. That’s not to say that the industry should only be for activists and those hurt by prohibition, but I have always felt that activists and those harmed by prohibition should be given preferential treatment in the industry.
Certain ‘pillars’ of activism that I think are not open for debate include such things as no mandatory drug testing for marijuana in the marijuana industry. I was involved in an effort to call out a very prominent marijuana company that was proudly touting the fact that it required mandatory drug testing to ensure that employees had no THC in their system. It was a very big ‘line in the sand’ moment for veteran activists and industry members.
Fortunately the company worked with the activism community and came up with a drug testing policy that was built around ‘just cause’ instead of being a mandatory policy. I think we can all agree that intoxicated people (from any substance that intoxicates) should not be working with volatile chemicals. But also, I think we can all agree that just because someone is a cannabis consumer does not mean that they are automatically unfit for work.
I have always looked at that showdown, and the result, as a very good thing and wear it as a ‘badge of honor’ of sorts. I’ve received some high fives over the years for it, and it makes me happy every time. A lot of people don’t know that I was actually sued by my former business partner for my opposition to mandatory marijuana testing by the company in question because apparently he was trying to work out an ad deal with them. Apparently he valued the almighty dollar over a basic principle of activism? I’ll leave that up to history (and the activism community) to decide.
I plan on continuing to call out bad actors in the industry. A marijuana company that clearly has no rightful place in the marijuana industry, or at least doesn’t deserve the support of consumers and supporters, is Patriot Care, a marijuana company based out of Massachusetts. You may remember when Tom Angell broke the story that Patriot Care formed a group to directly oppose legalization in Massachusetts, which was very lame to say the least.
Tom Angell broke news today on Twitter that the company came out with some very harsh comments aimed at preventing people with prior drug convictions from being a part of the marijuana industry:
🢀 Marijuana dispensary says people w/ drug convictions can’t work in industry cuz they ignored “federal drug laws” 🢀https://t.co/8xbtes7uh1 pic.twitter.com/SSnfOs7GQs — Tom Angell (@tomangell) January 23, 2017
That is absolutely disgusting to me. These profiteers are essentially supporting prohibition with their position, and definitely are supporting institutional racism. Minorities are much more likely to be convicted of a drug offense, and therefore are much more likely to be barred from being involved in the marijuana industry in Massachusetts if Patriot Care’s proposed policy was to take effect. That alone is enough of a reason to boycott Patriot Care. I urge you to not only boycott Patriot Care, but to let them know exactly when you are calling for and supporting the boycott. You can contact Patriot Care at this link here, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.Throughout history, people have used religion to justify a myriad of injustices. In the United States, for example, some Christians used their faith to defend slavery and segregation, citing scriptural references as moral justification for the dehumanization and genocide of Black and indigenous people until, ultimately, the government intervened. Earlier today at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Christian Right once again attempted to justify injustice, asserting that religious freedom grants them the right to discriminate against LGBTQ people. But before gay wedding cakes were ever up for debate, we saw the Christian Right manipulate religious freedom to enable racial discrimination, too.
In 1970, Bob Jones University (BJU), a fundamentalist Christian school in Greenville, South Carolina, came into conflict with the IRS over issues of racial discrimination (at the |
" existed between the US and the USSR, harkening back to the mythical bomber gap and missile gap of previous decades. As it would turn out, this comparison was quite accurate, as the laser gap turned out to be equally mythical. Throughout, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was returning reports on the site that were quite accurate, and at odds with the DoD's public statements. The DoD presented only the worst-case assessments found in the public portions of the CIA's reports.[4]
With the ending of the Cold War, a delegation of US officials and experts were able to visit the site in July 1989. These observers noted a wide variety of evidence that the system—while intended to research the possibility of an anti-satellite laser capability—had never reached anywhere near the operational stage. The laser viewed by the US officials was extremely low-power, including the small size of the focusing optics and the uncooled director which would be incapable of handling a large laser. The lasers that they found were 1,000 times less powerful that the US's own MIRACL. The team dismissed the site as non-operational.[5]
When discussing the issue, Soviet officials were somewhat amused. They noted that the US public often had better information than their own military, and that excessive secrecy had led the Soviet citizenry to distrust the military's claims as to their own capabilities.[5]
Shuttle attack rumour [ edit ]
Terra-3 is the topic of a widespread claim that the IR laser was used to target the Space Shuttle Challenger during its 6th orbital mission on 10 October 1984 (STS-41-G). According to reports by Steven Zaloga, the Shuttle was briefly illuminated and caused "malfunctions on the space shuttle and distress to the crew," causing the United States to file a diplomatic protest about the incident.[6] This claim appears to have started with former Soviet officials, notably Boris Kononenko.[7] The crew members and "knowledgeable members of the US intelligence community" have denied that the shuttle was illuminated by the Terra-3.[8]
See also [ edit ]The White House today expressed concerns about a controversial cybersecurity bill that would authorize Internet companies to divulge confidential customer records and communications.
Opposition from the Obama administration -- which stopped short of a veto threat -- could imperil the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which is scheduled for a House of Representatives floor vote next week. CISPA is intended to improve computer security by allowing companies and government agencies to share sensitive information.
In a statement provided to The Hill newspaper, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said:
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.
Three months ago, the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, was defeated by a broad alliance of companies and civil liberties groups. But no such coalition exists here: the House Intelligence committee proudly lists letters of support from Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec, Verizon, AT&T, and Intel (which today called CISPA an "important step forward"). And over two dozen trade associations sent a letter to Congress today (PDF) applauding "greater sharing of information."
Civil liberties groups, on the other hand, remain steadfastly opposed to legal authorization for such broad information-sharing. The American Library Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the libertarian-leaning TechFreedom, and other groups launched a "Stop Cyber Spying" campaign yesterday -- complete with a write-your-congresscritter-via-Twitter app -- and over 670,000 people have signed an anti-CISPA Web petition.
What sparked the privacy worries is the section of CISPA that says "notwithstanding any other provision of law," companies may share information "with any other entity, including the federal government." That would trump state and federal wiretap and other privacy laws. (CISPA doesn't, however, require companies to turn over that data.)
The White House's National Security Council previously endorsed a different proposal -- known as the Lieberman/Collins/Rockefeller/Feinstein cybersecurity bill -- that would be more regulatory. And it, too, has been criticized for overly broad language.
CISPA authors House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the panel's senior Democrat, today said they "formally filed" the version of CISPA that their committee approved in December. That's the last step before a House floor vote.The railway ministry has announced new Suvidha trains to replace the Premium trains that were introduced last year to beat the summer rush. The first train, between Gorakhpur and Anand Vihar (Delhi), will run from July 13 to July 30.
A major disadvantage of the Premium trains was that tickets could only be bought online. However, the government plans to plug the gap with the new Suvidha trains. Here's all you need to keep in mind while making reservations in the new trains:
Only confirmed and RAC tickets will be issued on these trains.
Advance Reservation Period is maximum 30 days and minimum 10 days.
Tickets for the trains will be available at railway reservation counters as well as online (on the IRCTC website).
Fare for these trains is more than that of normal trains; the minimum fare being in the same range of Tatkal fare for the particular class. Fares would increase after booking of every 20 per cent of seats/berths, subject to maximum three times of Tatkal fare.
There are no concessions/discounted fares for children and senior citizens
Supplementary charges like reservation charge, superfast charge and service tax shall be levied separately.
Passengers have to produce an identity card during the journey for verification.
50 per cent refund of fare shall be granted up to 6 hours before the scheduled departure of the train or preparation of the chart, whichever is earlier. After that no refund shall be permissible.
Cancellation of the tickets is not permitted. However, in case of exceptional circumstances, full refund of the fare shall be granted across the counter or directly credited to the customer's account, depending on the mode of booking.
Booking for the bi-weekly Gorakhpur-Anand Vihar train started on July 8.Ashwini Bhatia / AP Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets a crowd in Dharmsala, India, on Oct. 25
Has the Dalai Lama really given up on hope that China might some day come around and agree to his proposal for some sort of (very) limited autonomy for his homeland, Tibet? That's what the 73-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader appeared to indicate during an Oct. 25 speech in his exile home of Dharamsala in northern India. "I have been sincerely pursuing the middle way approach in dealing with China for a long time now but there hasn't been any positive response from the Chinese side," he was quoted as saying. "As far as I'm concerned I have given up." That was, as an Associated Press report on the speech noted almost with shock "an unusually blunt" statement from a man whose well-known global public image revolves around preaching the compromise and non-violence that are central tenets of Buddhism.
But it appears that after decades of fruitless negotiations with Beijing as part of an attempt to gain some concessions for his homeland, the 15th Dalai Lama may have finally reached the end of his tether. "Mr. Patience has run out of patience," says Robbie Barnett, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York City. "It's really very serious indeed and a major disappointment, though not so much of a surprise. The Chinese must have know this was coming some of the responsible officials in fact must be very pleased that they have managed to provoke this reaction. Now they can say that it was the other side that broke off negotiations, and claim the moral high ground."
The eighth round of talks between Beijing officials and the Dalai Lama's representatives was scheduled for late October. It's not clear how the statements by the Dalai Lama will affect them. On the day after the speech, the Tibetan leader's spokesman Tenzin Taklha told reporters that the talks were set to go forward as scheduled, stressing the need to "keep the door to dialog open." Taklha also confirmed that the Dalai Lama had called a consultative meeting of exiled Tibetans for mid-November at which the group's approach to achieving their goal of a freer Tibet would be completely examined from the ground up. He said "everything will be on the table" for reconsideration except the fundamental principle of non-violence.
In March, anti-Chinese riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa did turn violent, leading to scores of fatalities on both sides. Chinese authorities swiftly sealed off Tibet and rounded up hundreds of suspects, some of whom reportedly remain in jail nearly eight months later. With access to the region still almost completely blocked, there have been only intermittent reports of further protests and alleged abuses and human rights violations by Chinese security forces attempting to quash the simmering dissent. Resentment against Beijing has exploded sporadically among the roughly six million Tibetans living in the mountainous region ever since troops of the People's Liberation Army invaded in 1951.
The Dalai Lama fled his homeland for exile in India in 1959, and has since become a familiar, maroon-robed presence on the world stage in a tireless, peripatetic campaign to win his homeland some degree of autonomy and preserve Tibet's traditional culture. This year he has found himself in an increasingly impossible situation since the riots in March, analysts and academics say. Younger and more radical forces among the some 100,000-strong exile community in India have increasingly called for a tougher stance against Beijing, particularly as reports of alleged further abuse, including arrests and shootings of demonstrating monks, have grown.
Sources familiar with the Tibetan stance say they have dropped almost all preconditions in talks with the Chinese and were seeking only a meeting between the spiritual leader and Chinese president Hu Jintao. but rather than soften their position, Chinese officials seemed to grow more aggressive since the middle of this year, most recently stating in July that the talks were not about the future of Tibet but about arrangements for the Dalai Lama's own future, including when he might be allowed to return to China. "That's exactly what caused the collapse of talks all the way back in 1985," says Barnett. "They must have known what would happen if they humiliated him that way again." Once they had returned to that phraseology, Barnett says the Dalai Lama had almost no choice but to repudiate them. Considering everything, he says, "the only real surprise is that it took so long."
(Click here for photos of the Dalai Lama at home.)A few weeks ago I was called by a friend. He told me a very interesting story. He was just googling some HTML tags and searched for img src and img src html. He clicked in Google to search for images with these keywords and was stunned what was shown next. Photos from scantily clad kids in the search results everywhere:
He also searched for img src and img src html on Bing and DuckDuckGo to see what would happen. Same results there:
Swim and sport photos or minors, beach photos, private intimate family photos, ‘sexy looking’ selfies of kids. Photos on which the skin is visible from thin and tight swim clothing. This is disgusting! It made me feel really bad that photos of these kids where collected by dirty pedophiles on the internet to pleasure their own pedophilic sexual desire. And Google facilitates all this with a neat interface.
What was going on here??
Why is Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo showing these almost naked photos of under-age kids when searching for some generic HTML image tag? This is very weird behavior! That friend called me to help trace what was happening here. So I started analyzing the situation to see if I could be of any help here.
The photos Google Images is showing originate from all kinds of different sites, such as usseek.com, pinterest.com, taipreschool.com and imagesbrazil.com. What I quickly found out, is that these images had one thing in common: in the description of the image the reference to imgsrc.ru was made. Apparently all these images originate from that site, and were copied to other sites that left the reference.
Disclaimer
Don’t visit imgsrc.ru as images hosted on this site can be classified as child pornography and this is illegal in most countries. The site also hosts malware.
TL;DR
By doing simple HTML tag search in Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo for ‘img src’ or ‘img src html’ you’ll get results of half naked children. The rabbit hole points back to a very large Russian image hosting company with 21.61 million visits per month.
Some interesting statistics arise:
8 categories are full of pictures of minors.
Those 8 categories host 4,361,962 pictures in 128,293 albums (73%).
57 categories host mostly normal photos.
Those 57 categories host 1,612,042 pictures in 47,413 albums (27%).
Let that sink in for a moment: 4.3 million photos of kids that pedophiles shared with each other. This is a very big operation going on here! 73% of all the albums on imgsrc.ru are pedophilic oriented.
This resulted in RTL News publishing the following story on national Dutch Tv about the phenomenon:
What is imgsrc.ru?
I opened up my browser and visited imgsrc.ru:
And immediately my anti-virus products displays a scary warning:
And shortly after:
This is not good! More on that later!
imgsrc.ru looks like an ordinary images hosting site. But when you click on the ‘kids’ category listed under ‘family’, you quickly notice some very pedo oriented descriptions in the names of the albums:
Also notice that all these albums where created in the last 8 hours. That’s quite some interaction going on here! I scrolled down the listed and a lot more albums appear:
Apparently there are 52,011 albums in the kids section, hosting 2,801,996 photos! That’s quite a lot!
Express.co.uk: Pedophiles raid social networks for children in family photos
The Sunday Express wrote the following article about imgsrc.ru in 2014:
“Pedophiles are raiding social networking sites for pictures of children on family days out. Photos taken by parents are being uploaded to a Russian website for perverts to leer at and make vile comments about them that will horrify the children’s families. [..] The sinister practice is legal as the photos are not deemed indecent, even though the comments show they are being used for sexual gratification. [..] Mr Danczuk, who has investigated child abuse in his own constituency of Rochdale, added: “These websites should be shut down immediately.” Fellow Labour MP Tom Watson, who is working with police to expose pedophile rings, said: “The operators of these giant photo-sharing sites need to deal with these issues promptly. “The police should track the authors of these sick comments. If they’re as brazen as this they are probably linked to other, illegal activity.” Peter Saunders, from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: [..] “There needs to be a special task force set up to smash these sort of rings at the source.” The National Crime Agency does monitor iMGSRC.RU and a spokesman said images are assessed “on a case-by-case basis” but if they are not explicit, there is little the agency can do. [..] In all iMGSRC.RU has 637,000 users and 38 million photographs uploaded, most viewed by normal decent people. However it has thousands of pictures of children, some that can only be seen using an encrypted password, posted every day despite a policy of “absolutely no child porn”. When contacted by the Sunday Express the website moderators refused to comment.”
Reviews of the site
On the dark web the imgsrc.ru website is described as following:
It looks like pedophiles use standard passwords to ‘protect’ their albums on imgsrc.ru that contain full nude child porn material. An abbreviation is used to indicate what the password is. This abbreviation is put in the album name so the in-crowd has easy access.
This post also shows that pedophiles exchange child porn images with each other via password protected directories on imgsrc.ru.
Some other comments I found on the internet that reference imgsrc.ru:
MiniScorch (2010): “full of child porn and other sik stuff”
Asgard01 (2011): “Avoid – The site had sick images of children.”
Michaelfromdenmark (2016): “I was looking at some google images, when a random site came up, http://imgsrc.ru/ I went on the site for fun, and I was like “okay well, there might be some good stuff on here”, but then I ended up finding a hell of a lot child porn, and other nasty stuff on there.”
Anonymous (2017): “Inappropriate for anyone [..] this site contains pictures of children in diapers and other content not appropriate for anyone.”
During my search it seems to be the case that the site has almost never been discussed by mainstream media.
United States sees imgsrc.ru as a child porn site
I found a lawsuit from December 14, 2015 in which someone got caught who wanted to exchange child porn content with an Australian undercover agent via contact initiated via imgsrc.ru. In the lawsuit the viewpoint of the United States towards imgsrc.ru is made clear:
“[..] The United States, Australia, and Russia are members of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty whereby member nations share information about internet traffic on websites including IMGSRC.RU, a Russian file-sharing site known to U.S. Homeland Security as a repository for child pornography. [..]”
In 2013 an end user of imgsrc.ru was also caught:
“[..] Manganelli’s email account was connected with an online photo and sharing website called iMGSRC, which according to the complaint is used to view and trade child pornography. [..]”
On May 5, 2015 Sander van der Werf wrote the following in his research about imgsrc.ru on his weblog:
“[..] IMGSRC.ru is a site which allows its users to upload pictures with the option to password-protect albums under the guise of protecting minors from pornography. To see the photos in those collections, users must ask each other for passwords.The site hosts a photo album titled “very sexy young teens,” marked with a nudity filter, and tagged with phrases such as “small,” “teen” and “young.” And it’s popular.“We’ve recently reached a population of 708,000 USERS with a total of 42,000,000 PHOTOS uploaded,” reads the homepage.Despite a policy of “absolutely no child porn” on the site, child pornography still surfaces, evidenced by multiple arrests. And though the site has a clear record of hosting child pornography, it claims to have rules: standard pornography must be deposited in password-protected folders because the photos could be viewed by minors—“which is no good,” the site reads.iMGSRC is hosted out of Russia, a country currently considering harsh pedophelia laws, including castration. But the website cannot be taken down without governmental action.A website can be blacklisted with an order from the Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media supervisory body, according to Russian politician Ilya Ponomarev. “If [a] site is blacklisted, nobody inside Russia can access it without special software,” Ponomarev says. But iMGSRC.ru isn’t on that list, and it’s accessible to anyone in Russia. [..]Of many child pornography arrests, several have have been tied specifically to iMGSRC.ru. [..]”
It seems no police force is going after the owners of the site, only a few end users have been caught from reading the media reports about imgsrc.ru.
The site exists since 2005. It’s almost 2018 now, and imgsrc.ru is still up and running …
Safety first! No more image downloads
Becoming aware of what the site in front of me really is, I thought it would be smart to configure my browser to stop downloading images. I don’t want to see – and store any child pornography related material on my hard disc. In Firefox this can be easily accomplished by visiting about:config and then change the permissions.default.image setting to 2:
That’s all! Now I can safely visit imgsrc.ru and do some more research about the site.
No contact details
The site looks really simple and amaturistic. Nowhere on the site is listed who owns it and who’s responsible for it. There is only a search bar, a FAQ, an album overview and list of all users. It looks very anonymous. The site has a Russian domain name and is visible in Russian and English.
Pedo pictures are everywhere
I clicked through all kinds of different image categories on the site to look at the album names. Some categories look like they’re full of pedo content:
How many pictures of minors are hosted?
There are in total 65 categories on imgsrc.ru in which albums can be placed. An album contains on average 34 pictures (in the ‘kids’ category). I’ve collected and calculated the total number of albums and pictures per category:
I’ve screened the album names to look for indication of pictures of kids and marked ‘xxx’ next to each category when it’s probably full of pedo material (see red rectangles in above tables).
Some interesting statistics arise:
8 categories are full of pictures of minors.
Those 8 categories host 4,361,962 pictures in 128,293 albums (73%).
57 categories host mostly normal photos.
Those 57 categories host 1,612,042 pictures in 47,413 albums (27%).
Let that sink in for a moment:
4.3 million photos of kids that pedophiles shared with each other. This is a very big operation going on here!
73% of all the albums on imgsrc.ru is probably pedophilic oriented.
Specific search for photos of minors
Pedophiles use shortcuts to describe the content of the album. A 15y boy or 15yo boy means a 15 year old boy. I was wondering how many albums contained photos of kids from 1 to 17 year old. I made use of the site’s search bar and searched for 17y, 16y, etc. The following statistics arise:
Now that’s weird! When I searched for 9y, than the search results don’t contain any results! Same for 8y up to 1y. Apparently there are no albums that contain 1y up to 9y in the album name, or the website filters those albums out in the search results. Which of the two would it be?
Creating in-depth statistics
To answer that question, I needed to create more insight into what exactly is hosted on the site. So I decided to analyze all the 52,011 album names in the ‘kids’ category. In order to get all those 52,011 album names, I needed to download 521 webpages, as each webpage contains 100 album names:
I used Burp Suite Intruder to automatically save all the 521 webpages. Via PHP en regular expressions I scraped all the album information from the gathered HTML files and generated statistics.
Searching for pictures of minors in harvested data
With this new gathered data I searched again for 1y up to 17y:
Look what we found here!
Search engine blacklists specific search term
It’s now proven that there are albums in the ‘kids’ category that contain the phrase 9y up to 3y. These albums weren’t shown earlier in the search results! This means the webmaster deliberately blacklisted albums that could contain images from children that are less than 10 years old. Why would this be done?
To hide these images more, because those are considered worse? Or does the webmaster has at least some moral and disapproves pedophilia involving kids that are less then 10 years old? There are significant less pictures from kids below 10 years old, compared to photos from kids from 10 years and older.
Update January 1, 2018
After publishing this article, people pointed out that the most logical explanation is that the search form needs at least three characters for search terms. Otherwise all albums may pop-up in the search results page.
Some more statistics
The ‘kids’ category has 2,801,996 pictures stored in 52,008 albums that are uploaded by 12,208 users.
100,669 pictures were stored in an album that have a name that contains 1y or a similar variant up to 17y. These photos were uploaded by 1,322 unique user names in 3,254 albums.
or a similar variant up to. These photos were uploaded by 1,322 unique user names in 3,254 albums. From those 3,254 albums, 1,076 were password protected (33%).
The ‘kids’ category represents 40% of the pedophilic oriented flagged categories on the site.
FAQ
The FAQ contains some additional insight into the daily operations of managing the users of the site:
They mention child porn specifically, because it’s their daily operation managing it. They apparently need to specify what is unacceptable child porn, such as “urinating, spanking, bound pics and alike”. It seems other less extreme form of child porn is acceptable? Such as all the images we saw in Google that fit in the grey zone? These, and also the dirty comments below them are not removed by moderators of the site.
How popular is this site?
Imgsrc.ru is the 873 most visited site in the world according to website traffic experts SimilarWeb:
Wow! This is one popular site! I didn’t see that one coming!
It has 21.61 million visits per month. The site is even more popular in the United States, as imgsrc.ru ranks as the 763 most visited site there (!).
Alexa is another respected company specialized in measuring website traffic. According to them:
imgsrc.ru is the 3,115 most visited site in the world
is the 3,115 most visited site in the world 0.0144% of global Internet users visit it.
It has 17.7 million visits per month.
In each visit on average 62 webpages are visited.
That’s 1,097,400,000 webpages per month.
Each visits takes on average 15 minutes.
19% of the visitors seems to originate from the United States, 14% from Germany and 10% from Russia:
As expected a lot more men (ca. 75%) than woman visit the site.
How many registered users does the site have?
Via the Internet Archive I’ve looked at the webpage on imgsrc.ru that lists the total number of registered users on the site. The webpage listed the following amount over the years:
imgsrc.ru has almost a million registered users. This is huge! During the last 11 years there seems to be a continuous flow of newly registered users.
Who are the owners of the site?
I stumbled across one of the biggest pedophile community sites in the world that aired in 2005. It’s running now for more that 12 years and apparently the FBI, Interpol and other police forces around the world were unable to take the site down. Only a few end-users of the site were prosecuted. Maybe because they can’t find the owner(s) of the site?
Let’s see if there is a way to deanonymize the owner(s) of the site!
Whois to the rescue!
The domain name imgsrc.ru was registered on April 14, 2005. The ownership information (also called whois information) is anonymized for imgsrc.ru since November 11, 2011. Luckily there is DomainTools.com that archives whois records over time. I have been digging through lots of records and created the following timeline. On the given date, the e-mail address was the new owner of imgsrc.ru:
On December 28, 2010 the e-mail address [email protected] became owner. That change only lasted for one day (!). Was this a hostile domain name takeover that was quickly reverted by [email protected]?
Other connected domain names
The following domain names redirect visitors towards imgsrc.ru:
imgsrc.su
imgsrc.co
imsgrc.ru
imgsec.ru
The images on imgsrc.ru are stored on subdomains of icdn.ru. Domain name is.pp.ru is used to link to icdn.ru. They used multiple webhosting companies to host all the images.
Infrastructure connected to imgsrc.ru:
77.247.178.171 dlp.imgsrc.ru
83.222.2.111 imgsrc.su
83.222.2.111 0xs.ru
83.222.2.111 imgsrc.ro
83.222.2.111 imgsrc.co
83.222.2.111 icdn.ru
83.222.2.111 imgsrk.ru
87.242.72.143 imgsec.ru
87.242.72.143 imsgrc.ru
87.242.72.143 xn--j1ajhzqe.xn--p1ai
87.242.72.203 eu.icdn.ru
87.242.72.203 s2.eu.icdn.ru
87.242.72.203 static.icdn.ru
87.242.72.203 imgsrc.net
87.242.73.60 imgsrc.ru
87.242.73.60 praha-2.imgsrc.ru
87.242.73.60 mh2.imgsrc.ru
87.242.73.60 teen-galaxy.net
If someone wants to blacklist these sites and IP addresses in website and DNS filtering services: that would be great!
E-mail addresses from owners
I’ve also digged through the whois records of those domain names and compiled the following list of e-mail addresses that were owner (in the past) of the given domain name:
Now we’re getting somewhere!
Deanonymization via Facebook
Two of the e-mail addresses of imgsrc.ru owners were easily deanonymized by searching Facebook for the profile that’s linked to a given e-mail address:
[email protected] is Anton Kovalenko, and
[email protected] is Zlata Fedulova:
Anton is also friends with Zlata on Facebook, so this confirms they know each other:
Zlata has a LinkedIn and Twitter account. Anton uses also Instagram.
Deanonymizing [email protected]
E-mail address [email protected] was at least one day owner of imgsrc.ru on December 28, 2010. This e-mail address is also used to register domain name jdwuzhere.ru. This domain name is used in the following profile on imgsrc.ru:
Notice that this user jd wuz here is created on January 11, 2006 – so also one of the first users of imgsrc.ru. I searched Google for hits on jdwuzhere and hit jackpot.
There’s a profile on FourSquare with username jdwuzhere. The first FourSquare account that jdwuzhere followed was zlata:
This is the FourSquare account of Zlata Fedulova, one of the other deanonymized owners of imgsrc.ru. Zlata’s FourSquare account has a link to Twitter account @zlatafedulova which has also the name ‘Zlata Fedulova’ set.
I’ve now confirmed that the FourSquare account of jdwuzhere is connected to account zlatafedulova, and thus indirect to imgsrc.ru. This is important, because the FourSquare account from jdwuzhere links to Twitter account @jdwuzhere. This Twitter account has set the same profile photo of an Instagram profile from user jdwuzhere. This Instagram profile displays the real name of the user: Vladimir Sopot (look at the right bottom of the screenshot):
The first Twitter account that was followed by @jdwuzhere was @imgsrc_ru:
There is also a Facebook profile with username jdwuzhere that’s from Vladimir Sopot:
Jdwuzhere is owner of imgsec.ru
[email protected] is owner of imgsec.ru, a domain name that redirects all traffic to imgsrc.ru. imgsec.ru resolves to the same IP address as imgsrc.ru: 87.242.72.143. This means that imgsec.ru is hosted on the same server as imgsrc.ru.
Mapping the relations
A hacker friend of mine validated this deanonymization research and drafted the following diagram to map the relations found:
With this overview in hand we can now conclude that the third owner of imgsrc.ru is Vladimir Sopot.
Three owners are busted, now the last one?
One of the developers of the site in Skinny Bravo. He’s the public figure behind the site.
Via the website www.archive.org it is possible to look how a website looked like in the past. The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that archives webpages on the internet. The following screenshot is from one of the first posts on imgsrc.ru by someone named Skinny in June 2006:
Skinny is also mentioned as ATR.skinny in the copyright statement in the site’s footer.
Skinny’s whois records
From almost the whole period between September 2008 until December 2010 the e-mail address [email protected] was linked as owner of imgsrc.ru according to archived whois records from DomainTools. This is probably also the e-mail address from the official imgsrc.ru‘s spokesperson named ‘skinny’.
Skinny Bravo has a profile on imgsrc.ru:
This profile is created on November 25, 2005 and thus must be one of the first profiles ever created on imgsrc.ru. Unfortunately the e-mail address associated with this profile is hidden.
Google cache got copy of Skinny’s e-mail address
This was not always the case. The Google cache of Skinny’s profile page on imgsrc.ru shows that at one time in history the e-mail address [email protected] was used by Skinny:
[email protected] is also the e-mail address used to register ownership of imgsrc.ru on December 29, 2010.
Skinny also has the e-mail address [email protected] and used this address to register ownership for imgsrc.ru
Internet Archive shows new e-mail address
The Internet Archive has a copy of a webpage from April 28, 2006 about an XML interface to imgsrc.ru:
It translates in English to: “Comments and suggestions about this XML interface can be sent to [email protected]” In the footer ATR.skinny & ATR.shaitan is shown as owners of the site.
Skinny’s Twitter profile
Skinny also has a Twitter profile @skinny_bravo but doesn’t use it:
The password reset function of his Twitter account reveals the following e-mail address that is linked as a back-up account:
is**@m**.** is probably [email protected], the e-mail address listed on imgsrc.ru in 2006 as owner of the site’s API.
Password reset of mail.ru reveals mail address
The password reset functionality of mail.ru reveals a back-up e-mail address for [email protected]:
The back-up address for [email protected] is ski*********@gmail.com, which probably is [email protected].
Findings about Skinny Bravo
ATR.skinny & ATR.shaitan are mentioned as owners in the footer of imgsrc.ru in 2006. The developer(s) of the API for imgsrc.ru used [email protected] Twitter account @skinny_bravo first tweet was about imgsrc.ru. The Twitter password reset functionality shows that @skinny_bravo used [email protected] The mail.ru password reset functionality shows that [email protected] Whois records show that [email protected] imgsrc.ru, imgsrc.su and imsgrc.ru.
Imgsrc.ru was already pedophile oriented in 2006
In Skinny’s profile on imgsrc.ru a link is visible to his weblog hosted on livejournal.com. This weblog doesn’t seem to contain any content. But it did in the past according to archived webpages by the Internet Archive:
In above post from November 2006 Skinny is complaining that people attack his site because of its “pedophilic orientation”. This confirms that it’s probably a pedophile site from the start, and not something from recent years.
Almost nobody wants to host imgsrc.ru
In October 2008 it looked like imgsrc.ru was dumped by their webhosting provider and had a hard time finding a new home. Skinny asked all kinds of webhosting companies to host his site, but got rejected by quite a few webhosters:
Imgsrc.ru started in 2006
The Internet Archive shows us also that imgsrc.ru started in 2005 and managed to stay alive over the years:
Dead end
Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything more useful on Skinny.
Deanonymization results so far
Since 2005 the owners behind imgsrc.ru remained anonymous. Until now. Some of them made critical mistakes in using the e-mail address and nickname associated with imgsrc.ru on social networks they use in their normal daily lives. I could deanonymize three owners of imgsrc.ru:
Zlata Fedulova Vladimir Sopot Anton Kovalenko
[email protected] and [email protected] still remain anonymous based on my open source intelligence hunting. That updated owner table of imgsrc.ru:
Back to the anti-virus pop-up
Remember the scary anti-virus notification I got when initially navigating to imgsrc.ru?
When this happened I immediately investigated what was going on. Kaspersky flagged a downloaded JavaScript file as a trojan horse (HEUR:Trojan.Script.Generic) when I first navigated to imgsrc.ru. The malware was loaded from:
hxxps://coinhive.com/lib/coinhive.min.js
This malicious file is included in every page on imgsrc.ru:
Second opinion
I’ve scanned the file with 67 virus scanners via VirusTotal.com:
12 out of 67 virus scanners mark the file as malware. Symantec classifies the file as PUA.JScoinminer. This file looks very sketchy!
Crypto currency miner runs in the background
The JavaScript code flagged as malware is from coinhive.com. According to their website the JavaScript does the following:
“Coinhive offers a JavaScript miner for the Monero Blockchain that you can embed in your website. Your users run the miner directly in their Browser and mine XMR for you in turn for an ad-free experience, in-game currency or whatever incentives you can come up with.”
Coinhive is a service that takes a commission of 30 procent and let’s users via JavaScript use the cpu of site visitors to mine the crypto currency Monero.
Malware Bytes says the following about Coinhive:
“Cryptocurrency miners [such as Coinhive, red.] are usually VERY resource intensive. This is because you are asking your system to do immense calculations it probably wasn |
For more on the poll and reaction from the candidates, watch CTV News at 6 Sunday and Monday and read The Calgary Herald on Monday for a look at some of election issues on the minds of voters.
With files from Chris EppImage caption Pit bull terriers were one of the types of dog banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act
Legislation designed to protect people from attacks by rogue dogs needs to be overhauled, an animal charity has said.
The Dangerous Dogs Act was introduced by Parliament 20 years ago after a vicious attack on a young girl.
The Blue Cross charity says the law is not working and it is time to shift the emphasis away from certain types of dog and place responsibility on owners.
The government has said it will make an announcement soon on measures for dealing with dangerous dogs.
Serious injuries
The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in England, Wales and Scotland banned the ownership of four types of dog bred for fighting.
The outlawed types are the pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, dogo argentino and fila brasileiro.
The act came into force in August 1991 after a dog attack in Bradford on six-year-old Rukhsana Khan which left her with serious injuries.
Any dog potentially can be dangerous, and conversely any dog potentially can be a safe and loving pet Richard Green, Chief vet, Blue Cross
But the Blue Cross said the legislation was still failing to protect children 20 years after being brought in.
The charity said that just last week a seven-year-old boy was mauled by a rottweiler in Essex.
The charity's chief vet Richard Green told the BBC: "Twenty years is a long enough time to see if a law is working or not, and that's the amount of time it's been around - and clearly it's not because we're still seeing large numbers of dog attacks.
"There's still a public safety issue here and I don't think that over those last 20 years that we've seen any improvements at all.
Owner responsibility
"The emphasis needs to change from certain breeds - which is what it is at the moment, just four of these banned breeds - to the people on the other end of the lead.
"Dog owners should be held responsible for the actions of their dogs, and they are largely responsible for the way their dogs grow up to behave.
"Any dog potentially can be dangerous, and conversely any dog potentially can be a safe and loving pet. Therefore the focus of the law and the emphasis needs to change from the dog to the owner."
The Blue Cross is backing a new Dog Control Bill proposed by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Redesdale.
The bill will be considered by the House of Commons following its third reading in the Lords after the summer recess.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) carried out a consultation on the issue of dangerous dogs last year and published the responses in November.
A Defra spokesman said: "Dangerous dogs and tackling the problem of dog attacks are very serious issues, and we're working with the police and welfare groups on the best possible measures for dealing with them. We'll make an announcement soon, but no decisions have been made yet."The rumors surfaced during the game, but Connecticut confirmed the news to the Hartford Courant over the weekend.
The student dressed as Cy, the Iowa State cardinal mascot, fell down some stairs during Friday night's game and suffered a broken arm.
The circumstances surrounding the incident, though, are unclear. The student does not plan to press charges.
"The police determined there was no physical altercation tied to the event and no charges were filed,” UConn athletic department spokesman Mike Enright told the paper. "Instead, it was determined that the injuries were caused when the student in the mascot costume tripped down the stairs. These facts were confirmed by the student mascot in an interview with police."
But the paper also tracked down the student on social media.
Iowa State student Zane Brugenhemke, who identified himself on his Facebook page as the mascot who was injured, said he was pushed by some UConn fans. "Fan pushed me out of the stands … eight foot drop onto concrete,” Brugenhemke wrote on Facebook, adding that he fractured his left ulna and radius. He said he’s scheduled to have surgery Sunday. Brugenhemke, who is an Iowa State student majoring in athletic training, also posted a photo of himself with his arm in a cast and held by a sling. He also noted that UConn fans “quickly rose to #2 on my most hated fan bases … breaking my arm isn’t a good first impression guys."
The student also posted a photo of himself with his damaged arm.
It's a bit of an awkward situation, but who knows why the student would tell authorities one thing and his Facebook friends another?
"Iowa State officials left (the) stadium telling us they were completely satisfied with the way the situation was handled," Enright told the paper.
UConn brought in a specialist to look at the arm and the mascot came back to Ames on the team's charter flight.
Iowa State officials did not respond to requests for comment from ESPN.com over the weekend.For all those supporters of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's war, many admire the exploits of the OSS in Europe. While historians for the allied legions adopt the account that circumstances dictated the creation and use of the British, Special Operations Executive, which Churchill proclaimed, to'set Europe aflame'; the precedent left a heritage of intervention that few ever warned about the nature of counter-offensive missions. Gathering intelligence on adversaries is valid and even necessary to defend your country. However, to establish contingents of lethal assassins is a fundamental departure from intelligence procurement. During World War II the American version of clandestine operations put into motion a competing and dangerous rival to the traditional role of military intelligence.
This development is examined in The Evolution of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
"America's entrance into World War II created an immediate need for intelligence to support the warfighter. While the Army and the Navy maintained their own intelligence capabilities, none were prepared to provide the kind of support needed. To bolster this effort, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was created in June 1942, under the recently established Joint Chiefs of Staff to succeed the Coordinator of Information. William Donovan remained in charge of the reorganized unit. In addition to assuming the analytical role of its predecessor, the OSS was chartered to carry out clandestine operations against the Axis powers on a worldwide scale. It was not, however, readily accepted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), who remained skeptical of the value of OSS activities, and the new unit faced strong competition from the FBI and the Army's intelligence organization."
"Source Statement - Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk recalled the 1941 state of the U.S.'s intelligence effort in testimony before a Senate subcommittee: "When I was assigned to G-2 in 1941, well over a year after the war had started in Europe, I was asked to take charge of a new section that had been organized to cover everything from Afghanistan right through southern Asia, southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. Because we had no intelligence organization that had been giving attention to that area up to that time, the materials available to me when I reported for duty consisted of a tourist handbook on India and Ceylon, a 1924 military attache's report from London on the Indian Army, and a drawer full of clippings from the New York Times that had gathered since World War One. That was literally the resources of the G-2 on that vast part of the world a year after the war in Europe started."
Since the resources and priories of the military were not focused on procuring accurate and worldwide reach to gather intelligence, it is understandable that the immediacy of wartime needs, FDR would want to by-pass the Army and Navy. Most know of the successful efforts of breaking the Japanese codes at the decryption center Station HYPO run by Capt. Joseph Rochefort, which proved so crucial at the battle of Midway. Such signal efforts became the stable of the NSA, which nominally is under the command authority of the United States Department of Defense. In accordance with Department of Defense Directive 5100.20, dated December 23, 1971, the Director of the NSA must always be a commissioned officer of the military services.
Contrast these functions with the post WWII establishment of the CIA.
"In 1946 President Harry S. Truman, recognizing the need for a coordinated postwar intelligence establishment, created by executive order a Central Intelligence Group and a National Intelligence Authority, both of which recruited key former members of the OSS. As in the days of the OSS, there were problems of distrust and rivalry between the new civilian agencies and the military intelligence services and the FBI.
In 1947 Congress passed the National Security Act, which created the National Security Council (NSC) and, under its direction, the CIA. Given extensive power to conduct foreign intelligence operations, the CIA was charged with advising the NSC on intelligence matters, correlating and evaluating the intelligence activities of other government agencies, and carrying out other intelligence activities as the NSC might require. Although it did not end rivalries with the military services and the FBI, the law established the CIA as the country’s preeminent intelligence service."
This maturation that placed the CIA as the go to intelligence source has allowed the apocalyptic ontogeny of the shadow government. Now anyone, who scrutinize the actual involvements that the CIA has fostered, must readily acknowledge that collective intelligence has not been the primary function of The Agency. A Timeline of CIA Atrocities by Steve Kangas provides a partial list of covert intrusions into the affairs of foreign nations.
Folks, these surreptitious operations require plausible deniability to protect the elitist "Skull and Bone" culture that masterminded the original purpose of this rogue fifth column. Yet the ultimate treason committed by these unaccountable traitors direct their lethal wares domestically. Violating their charter, the stench from any objective inquiry into CIA drug trafficking that has taken such a sever toll on our own citizens and their complicit involvement in the JFK assassination, are evidence that Langley's machinery of subversion seeks to control the actual directions of the U.S. government.
No person foresees JFK Wished He Could Splinter The CIA 'Into A Thousand Pieces And Scatter It Into The Winds'. Yet it could be possible to separate the functions the Central Intelligence Agency has historically persuaded. The clear line breached stems from allowing the CIA to conduct their own hidden wars. While the military has their own sordid record of failed and misguided policy endeavors, the waging of military conflicts should never be place under the auspices of a civilian mercenaries.
From the CIA's own site, the First CIA-Military Command Relationship Agreement.
"After CIA’s founding in September 1947, the National Security Council (NSC) gave the Agency responsibility for conducting covert action, clandestine collection, and paramilitary activities “in times of peace.” CIA’s covert capabilities included propaganda and economic warfare, sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures, and subversion against hostile states through assistance to underground resistance movements, guerrillas, and liberation groups.
The NSC specifically stated that “Such operations shall not include armed conflict by recognized military forces... or cover and deception for military operations.” Although the NSC ordered CIA to place its paramilitary activities under theater commanders in combat areas, it made no mention of subordinating the Agency to the JCS in wartime as had been done with the OSS during World War II. Nor did the NSC and JCS resolve the question of when and how a “theater of war” would be formally designated for purposes of operational control."
The CIA has conducted its own interventionism in foreign operations that are well beyond the authority of Congress. Be that as it may, in an age where Congress has abdicated its power to declare war; the unbridled Agency is an authoritarian syndicate of subterfuge and betrayal.
The military needs to be in command of any foreign adventurism. As lacking in traditional American foreign policy as this standard violates, armed services academy trained officers are a far better chain of command structure than careerist bureaucrats or power hungry politicians.
As disturbing as these circumstances are, the trend is even worse. ‘We Can't Spy … If We Can't Buy!’: The Privatization of Intelligence and the Limits of Outsourcing ‘Inherently Governmental Functions’ adds another layer of corruption that stems from handing out security clearances as bags of candy on Halloween.
"Though it lags behind the privatization of military services, the privatization of intelligence has expanded dramatically with the growth in intelligence activities following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. In a report published three days after those attacks, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence encouraged a ‘symbiotic relationship between the Intelligence Community and the private sector’. In addition to dollars spent – dominated by large items such as spy satellites – this has seen an important increase in the proportion of personnel working on contract. More than 70 per cent of the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) unit is staffed by contractors, known as ‘green badgers’, who also represent the majority of personnel in the DIA, the CIA's National Clandestine Service, and the National Counterterrorism Center. At the CIA's station in Islamabad contractors reportedly outnumber government employees three to one."
Disclosing "Top Secret" confidential items taint military personnel as well as government agencies. Names such as Jonathan Pollard, John Walker, Jr., Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames haunt anyone deeply concerned about authentic national security.
What is often missed with all the trumped up hysteria about Russian infiltration in the 2016 Presidential election is that the CIA pioneered the techniques of gaming election results and overthrowing obstinate regimes.
Real intelligence starts with securing our defenses, not maintaining or expanding a caustic empire. Loyal American citizens do not pledge allegiance to the CIA. Gen. William “Wild Bill” Donovan is rolling in his grave if he could see what his OSS has morphed into as the Central Intelligence Agency.Martin Shkreli made good on his promise.
The former pharmaceutical company CEO and hedge fund manager, who made headlines this year for increasing the price of Daraprim, shared a few songs from the Wu-Tang Clan’s album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. The group had only printed one copy and Shkreli bought it for $2 million earlier this year, saying he would share tracks with fans if and when Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency.
“If Trump wins, my entire unreleased music collection, including unheard Nirvana, Beatles, and of course, Wu-Tang, comes out, for free,” he tweeted in October.
After Trump won the election on Tuesday, Shkreli began live streaming the album on video app Hitbox at Periscope from his home.
See the clips, featuring the Wu-Tang songs below.Hi Jeffrey, thanks for'sitting down' with me today, it's not often I get to interview people who play such a big role in creating my new favourite animated series (sorry Futurama!). Did you know at a young age that you wanted to get into animated art direction? How did you get your start on this path? SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT. I knew from a very young age that Animation was a career I wanted to pursue. A career at Disney specifically. So for me to get that opportunity, and to be art directing there, meant a lot to me. I got my start by consuming mass amounts of animated movies in my childhood, and in later years discovering comics only fuelled that fire. Eventually I found out about Sheridan College's Animation program and that their animators typically went on to work at Disney, so that became my focus.
What projects have you worked on prior to Rick and Morty? Some of my previous projects include the television series like Gravity Falls, feature films such as "Book of Life", and Blue Sky's upcoming release "Ferdinand" (Summer 2017). As well as some illustration work for Vice's online content.
How would you describe your art style? My work in the past was not a far step from what I would typically do in my sketchbook, but these days I've embraced a more digital approach. Partially because of time restraints for personal art, but also because I think there is something visually interesting happening right now with digital tools, and I'm enjoying exploring that. I think the digital art world has spent the last 20 or so years doing everything we can to make digital tools look and feel like traditional ones, and now that we've achieved that it's time to start really embracing digital art in itself, without it having to replicate another look or feel. I think a lot of artists have began exploring this recently, and I can't wait to do more for myself.
You were born and raised in Toronto; did that impact your art in any way? Say, when you're thinking of cityscapes, do you ever throw a little bit of Toronto in your work? I spent the early years of my childhood in Toronto, then moved out to the suburbs until I left for Sheridan College. I'm sure both places effect my work greatly, but I can't say it's on conscious level. If I make a point of working that part of my life into my work it's usually in the form of a street sign or a friend's graffiti art.
What's your favourite animated TV show? Favorite animated show would have to be the Simpsons. followed closely by Futurama. I'm a huge fan of Matt Groening's creations, and eagerly anticipating his next project.
Via jeffreythompson.tumblr.com Mini comic for a film track by Janelle Monae as part of Pepsi’s Visual Album, “The Beats of the Beautiful Game”
Favourite movie? Anything by Kubrick.
What difficulties do you face in art directing a show that exists in the real world, outer space and multiple dimensions and is generally regarded as brilliantly insane by fans? The challenges of directing on Rick and Morty shifts daily. Every episode comes with a unique form of obstacles. So putting together a good team was my first big challenge on this show, as a majority of the past artists were unable to return due to the large hiatus between seasons. Thankfully, the crew came together great, I couldn't ask for better a team. Beyond that every episode asks a lot of our team creatively, as you will see when season 3 reaches the air, these episodes are the biggest and most ambitions to date. I definitely feel the pressure when it comes to pleasing such a dedicated fan base, but most of that pressure is alleviated by the amazing scripts that the writing team turn in, then the pressure converts to excitement and motivation.
Who is your favourite character from the Rick and Morty universe? Morty is my favorite character for sure. Having once been a 14 year old boy, a lot of his experiences and dilemmas are all too relatable.
Yes or no, are you Hungry for Apples? Haha, yes.
Also, there's a Facebook group called Rick and Morty Schwiftposting that had *a lot* of questions for you. Here's the top 3:
Do you realise just how large of a cult following the show has, while still on air? Was such a large following always expected? I think before a show hits the air it's impossible to gauge whether or not you have a hit or if you will ever amass a large audience. The best you can hope for is that you made something you are happy with, and hope others appreciate it just as much. But once you've put something out into the world, and with Rick and Morty now being in it's third season, social media has made it very easy for fans to let us know there are people out there who love the show.
Many other shows are doing crossover episodes these days, are there any plans for something like that in Rick and Morty's future? How would it work to share the universe with artists from another show for a week? Well currently we share the universe with artists from other shows all the time. There are designers and color artists that work on season 3 that have worked on shows like Adventure time, Gravity Falls, and Family Guy. Previously we did a small crossover with the Simpsons when we contributed to the opening couch gag. Aside from that, there are no plans for a crossover in season 3 though. Keep your eyes peeled and you may see some easter eggs from other shows this season :)
Is there any stylistic meaning behind the way the pupils are drawn, or is it just stylistic in that people hate drawing pupils? It's really just like that because it looks funnier. This style was carried over from Justin Roiland's earlier Channel 101 shorts. When the show got picked up he did redraw the characters to have a more polished finish, but decided everything was much funnier when it looked a little more shitty.
And last but not least, my buddy Jeph had one final question: BRING BIRDPERSON BACK! Not sure thats a question. Just know he's in a better place now.Despite breaking his clavicle in the San Diego Chargers' preseason opener, Ryan Mathews spent the last month telling us he'd be ready for Week 1.
On Friday, Mathews finally abandoned his optimistic personal timetable.
"I haven't been cleared for contact, and I think we're just going to wait this week," Mathews said, via U-T San Diego. "I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.... I just have to have the mindset right.
"I probably won't be playing in this game. But the next game, that's what I'm looking for now," he went on. "I don't know about the team, but me personally, now I'm looking for that (Week 2) game against Tennessee."
Mathews participated in individual drills for the first time this week, but the final hurdle will be taking contact on the shoulder area that was injured Aug. 9.
"They just want to be on the cautious side," Mathews said. "It's been a lot of hard work, but you can't do anything about it. You really can't. You've just got to do what you can do, cheer on your teammates as much as you can. Like I said, my goal is to try to be ready by next week."
It's worth noting Mathews remains very much on schedule in his rehab. The Chargers put him on a four-to-six week recovery period after he underwent surgery to repair the clavicle. Mathews had put himself on a three-to-four week timetable, but let's score this one for science.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @danhanzus.Sucker Punch makes big inFamous 2 announcement at GDC
Today at GDC, Sucker Punch made an announcement that they’ve been “waiting two years to make.” inFamous 2 will have the ability to play and make user-generated content. [UPDATE]: A video showing the missions creator is now posted after the break.
If you make a mission that is highly shared and rated in the user community, it will be put into the single-player game proper.
“What we saw as the biggest problem with InFamous was that, at some point, it ended…All of the good guys, all of the bad guys, all of the props that we built for the game — vehicles, weapons and other stuff — and then a whole bunch of special stuff we built just for making user-generated content. We figured we’d throw that all out there and let people create, because we think there are lots of people out there that dream of being a game designer, and this is our opportunity to give them the opportunity to share what they can do. To take all of this content we’ve built over the past two years and putting it together to make something we never thought possible.”, says Chris Zimmerman, director of development at Sucker Punch regarding this development.
The revealed mission types are: Defense, Escort, Search and Destroy, Survival, Shooting Gallery, Platforming, and Obstacle Course.
The best user-made missions will be marked similarly to the story missions in your game, if you have user-made markers turned on in your game, allowing you to load and play through them just as you would a normal mission.
Additionally, a public beta for InFamous 2 will be made available in April, with details on signing up for it to be made available on March 14.There is also a new-look template for evening/weekend viewing that puts a greater emphasis on picture stories and video. Greater emphasis on Canberra
Fairfax has long prided itself on producing the nation's leading political coverage. The new home page gives greater emphasis to our content out of Canberra. Clicking on the Federal Politics link will take you through to Fairfax's National Times for even deeper political coverage. Comment
We have a new comment strap and page to promote the Herald's leading opinion writers. This page is the place to find popular regular newspaper features such as Letters and Column 8.
Editor's picks
Things can move pretty fast on our website. What's considered a great read at 8am can all too quickly disappear from the top of the site, and sometimes right off the home page. The 'Editor's picks' section is about having a slower-moving area of the website dedicated to deep, engaging content. These could be feature articles, videos or interactive graphics. What you'll see is what you like
We are eager to bring you content relevant to you. This strip of feature images has new functionality built in that will allow stories to appear based on your past reading preferences. For now, you will get the same editor-chosen stories as everyone else. However, as you use the site over coming days and weeks, you will increasingly find topics you're more likely to want to read, according to your reading habits. For example, if you read lots of travel, you'll be more likely to find a travel story. Once turned on, this feature will also mean that once you've read a story, it will disappear from this strip when you return to the home page, ensuring you get as much fresh content to browse as possible. It's important to note these new features only apply to these few images. Editors will still be responsible for choosing and placing all other content on the site, including the news headlines.
What others like
We have a new enhanced section displaying the trending stories on our site over the past 24 hours, as well as the most shared stories on social media channels. The popular 'Most Read' links will still remain at the bottom of the website, pointing to the most popular stories and videos on the greater Fairfax network. Housecleaning
We have streamlined some of our sections, grouping together topics of interest that were previously in different sections of the website. For example, Money, Executive Style and My Small Business have a new home under the greater business section.
We have also cleaned out the navigation bar at the top of the site to make it easier to navigate on a desktop, laptop or tablet. Some topics that previously were listed up here can now be found under their overarching section. Eg click on Technology to get to Digital Life below. Loading Tell us what you think of the new site by commenting below. Or ask a question for editors to answer on Monday morning.Originally published at 10:18 pm CDT 8-3-2013
Beit Shemesh resident Batya Cohen writes in the Jerusalem Post about haredi harassment and the Egged Bus Company's frequent refusal to deal with it:
…[O]ur 19-year-old daughter finished her year of National Service in Pardes Katz. It was the last time she had to ride the 497 bus to and from Bnei Brak.
Without fail, every ride for the entire year meant enduring verbal harassment from haredi men and sometimes women for her refusal to sit at the back of the bus.
The bus drivers varied in their response. Some demanded that the perpetrators stop or leave the bus, while others ignored the problem. On one occasion she filed a complaint with the police.
Make no mistake: Harassment against women on public buses in Beit Shemesh is a daily occurrence, and a problem that we are suffering alone.A prolific writer, A. A. Milne published 35 plays, 6 novels, 3 books of verse, 3 collections of short stories, and several works of nonfiction, including sketches for Punch magazine, of which he was the assistant editor. Nevertheless, his fame rests on four books for children: two of whimsical stories about the stuffed animals in his son's bedroom (Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner) and two of verse (When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six). All are considered classics and have been included among the Children's Literature Association's Touchstone books as the best in children's literature, on the Lewis Carroll Shelf list, and on the Choice magazine list of books for the academic library. He also wrote Toad of Toad Hall, a play based on Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, and Once upon a Time: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups, both of which are sometimes included in volumes with the four classic works. Milne had a son, Christopher Robin, who served as the model for the little boy in his children's books.Donald Trump is more likely to keep America committed to Nato if more European countries follow the UK’s lead and increase their defence spending, Nato’s secretary general has said after talks with the British prime minister, Theresa May.
With Trump casting doubt on the value of Nato during the presidential election campaign, the secretary general of the transatlantic defence organisation, Jens Stoltenberg, called on countries to hand over more cash to secure the “transatlantic bond”.
Trump, who has promised to strengthen relations with Russia, also suggested the US might not come to the aid of an ally that did not meet the spending target of defence expenditure at 2% of GDP.
May, who backs calls for European nations to spend more, insisted the UK would remain a “cornerstone” of Nato.
In his talks with May, Stoltenberg praised the British for reaching the 2% target, saying: “By doing so you lead by example. It’s good to see that other allies are now following you and they are starting to increase defence spending.
“They still have a long way to go but are starting to move in the right direction. More defence spending in Europe is important for the transatlantic bond, for fair burden-sharing between Europe and the United States.”
May said Nato needed to focus on recognising “new threats as they emerge” and in particular cyber capabilities.
Britain is one of just four European members of Nato to hit the agreed Nato spending target. The others are Poland, Estonia and Greece.
Stoltenberg has tried to lower the temperature surrounding Trump’s interventions by saying it has been the position of successive American presidents, and almost almost all US politicians, that European countries need to do more to contribute to their own defence.
He has claimed calls to reverse cuts have been heeded and spending is slowly starting to rise.
Stoltenberg has calculated that if all Nato countries met the 2% target $100bn (£80bn) would be raised, equivalent to the combined budgets of the largest defence spenders in Europe: the UK and France.
But Stoltenberg will also be concerned by the impact of Brexit on European defence thinking. The high probability of the UK’s departure from the EU has given added impetus to European politicians calling for stronger EU defences.
After Brexit, non-EU allies will account for 80% of Nato’s defence spending. Three of the four Nato battlegroups to be deployed in Poland and the Baltic states will be led by non-EU allies.
Stoltenberg argues the imbalance means European countries cannot afford to be decoupled from non-EU Nato allies. But he says he is not opposed to greater EU defence cooperation, so long as there is no attempt to duplicate Nato assets or command structures.
The UK defence secretary, Michael Fallon, has also said the UK will try to halt any EU defence cooperation that undermines Nato, but at the same time in an interview with Le Monde this week stressed the need to continue Anglo-French cooperation, and allow sensible EU-wide defence initiatives.
May said after the talks: “I think as we look in the face of Russian aggression, of course here in the UK we are committed to our 2% of GDP being spent on defence, we are contributing troops to defence of eastern Europe with the Nato operations and our commitment is significant in all of these issues and we’ve agreed to maintain our nuclear deterrent.”The island nation of Palau has taken a bold step in a new direction towards conservation: requiring every incoming visitor to sign a stamped pledge in their passports to be good environmental stewards for the duration of their stay.
A Unique Kind of Paradise
Located in the western Pacific Ocean, the Republic of Palau is a collection of islands that is as beautiful as it is diverse. From coral atolls like Kayangel, to the tiny Rock Islands made entirely of limestone, to the magical underwater world of Jellyfish Lake, visitors to Palau get to experience many different definitions of paradise.
Like many other island nations in the Pacific, Palau relies on tourism as a primary driver of its economy. Each year, throngs of tourists come from all over the world to explore Palau. In recent years, the average number of visitors to Palau’s shores are almost seven times greater than the local population. However, as those numbers continue to grow, problems arise. Numerous examples of tourists disrespecting the natural and living ecosystems—largely out of ignorance—have been cited in the recent past.
Palau's Eco-Pledge
The Palau Pledge
View Images A portion of the the Palau Pledge, which is written as a poem, reads, "I vow to tread lightly, act kindly and explore mindfully." Photograph courtesy Havas Australia
On the evening of December 7th, when the routine flight from Guam landed in Palau, tourists and visitors were greeted to a much different arrival process than they were expecting. Instead of the typical entry stamp in their passports, they received a stamped pledge—resembling a five-stanza poem—with a set of vows to the youth of Palau. To enter the country, everyone must sign off on promises to “tread lightly, act kindly, and explore mindfully.”
In addition to the stamp itself, the Palau Pledge initiative comes with a mandatory in-flight video that educates all incoming visitors about their responsibility to be environmentally responsible, along with a checklist of dos and don’ts that is distributed upon arrival. To ensure that the Palau Pledge is more than just a superficial effort, there are national policies in place to strengthen the enforcement of environmental protection laws, including increased policing and reporting efforts.
Pull Quote Children of Palau, I take this pledge, as your guest, to preserve and protect your beautiful and unique island home. I vow to tread lightly, act kindly and explore mindfully. Palau Pledge, Republic of Palau, Immigration
At its core, this initiative aims to ensure that the youth of Palau inherit the same pristine natural resources that have existed in the country for countless generations. It also highlights the importance of striking a balance between development and conservation. President Tommy Remengesau Jr. is one of the leading voices behind this movement of environmental stewardship, both in Palau and worldwide. He believes that “It is important that our valued guests understand the values we Palauans place on our natural environment and its resources that have sustained us for millennia.”
Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Day
A foundational element within many conservation efforts in Palau is the concept of bul or fishing ban. This word represents a system of traditional Palauan resource management, used primarily by village chiefs in ancient times to manage fish stock. When the village observed a decline in the number of fish off of their shores, they would issue a temporary halt—or bul—of all fishing activity to allow for the marine life to flourish and replenish.
This video is now required in-flight viewing for all visitors to Palau.
Today, many locals feel that the Palau Pledge is a small but significant step towards shifting tourists’ attitudes about the value of the country’s natural and living resources. Though it is too early to tell, many are hopeful that the Palau Pledge can also serve as a tool to galvanize the local community towards the same vision of conservation—one that transcends generations, village lines, and political agendas.Plans by mobile phone operators to block adverts for customers across their networks are in doubt after the EU said they breached net neutrality legislation.
Updated guidelines issued by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec) this week state that advertising should not be blocked by networks, something that mobile operator Three has already trialled in the UK.
Net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers should treat all online content equally without blocking or slowing down specific websites on purpose, or allowing companies to pay for preferential treatment.
The EU ruling could eliminate a looming threat to publishers who are already struggling with the commercial consequences of growing numbers of people using software to block ads on their PCs or smartphones.
Berec’s new guidelines say that providers “should not block, slow down, alter, restrict, interfere with, degrade or discriminate advertising … unless the conditions of the exceptions … are met in a specific case.”
It is the responsibility of UK regulator Ofcom to implement and interpret the guidelines. However, the UK government has previously indicated it is sympathetic to publisher complaints about ad blocking. In March, the then culture secretary John Whittingdale described ad blocking as a “modern-day protection racket”.
Three would not comment on the new guidelines but has argued that it does not fall foul of net neutrality rules because it offers consumers a choice about whether or not to block advertising.
However, a response to consultation on the guidelines issued by Berec rules out that argument. It says: “Berec does not consider that end-user consent enables ISPs to engage in such practices at the network level.”
The intervention by the European commission on behalf of publishers comes just days after reports of proposals to allow news organisations to charge search engines such as Google for using snippets from articles in search results.
Germany’s Axel Springer, one of Europe’s most powerful media companies and publisher of the continent’s largest tabloid, Bild, has been vocal in pushing for clampdowns on ad-blocking and greater regulation of the way Google and others use its content online.
Three has not revealed the results of its 24-hour trial, and has not said when or if it plans to roll out an ad-blocking product for its customers.
The company, which also operates in Italy, is using technology provided by Israeli company Shine, which already provides blocking across the Digicell network in Jamaica owned by Irish tycoon Denis O’Brien.
One of Shine’s investors is Li Ka-shing, boss of Three parent company CK Hutchison and also a major investor in Facebook.
Facebook v Adblock: the anti-ad empire strikes back Read more
Facebook itself is engaged in a battle with ad blockers, and earlier this month introduced technology to combat them. However, it has been suggested that the move – which has already been partially countered by ad-blocking software companies – could fall foul of EU privacy legislation. These EU rules require websites to ask users for permission to have cookies, which |
, William Thomas Beckford and Francis Lathom were in-fact homosexual.
James Jenkins of Valancourt Books notes that;
“The traditional explanation for the gay/horror connection [at this time in Gothic writings] is that it was impossible for them [authors such as Lewis, Beckford and Lathom] to write openly about gay themes. So they sublimated them and expressed them in more ‘acceptable forms’ using the medium of a transgressive genre”.
Early Gothic novels with clear gay subtext include Lewis’s The Monk (1796) and Charles Maturin‘s The Fatal Revenge (1807) and Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). Somewhat later in 1872 the first lesbian Vampire novella Carmilla was written by Sheridan Le Fanu.
When Oscar Wilde released The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890 it shocked readers with its sensuality and overtly homosexual characters – in the same way Carmilla did 18 years previous. The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding the public morality.
Many have argued that there is even gay subtext in Bram Stoker‘s Dracula (1897) as the title character warns off the female vampires and claims Jonathan Harker, saying;
“This man belongs to me!”
The erotic metaphor of vampirism, inspired by Carmilla, has resulted in numerous vampire films since the 1970s strongly implying or explicitly portraying lesbianism – but mainly for sexual reasons – a cheap thrill for the predominantly male viewing audience.
James R. Keller writes in his 2000 book ‘Anne Rice and Sexual Politics: The Early Novels‘ that in particular;
“Gay and lesbian readers have been quick to identify with the representation of the vampire, suggesting its experiences parallel those of the sexual outsider” “Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!” – Dracula (1897 – Bram Stoker)
“Children of the Night” this term has always left an impression on me since the first time I read Dracula as an early teenager. As a 16 year old coming to terms with my own sexuality this quote provoked such a feeling in me that ‘the night’ provided safety, freedom and release!
This feeling resounded in me for many years even linking to my love of Lady Gaga‘s song Marry the Night where she sings;
“I’m gonna marry the night,
I won’t give up on my life,
I’m a warrior queen,
Live passionately tonight. I’m gonna marry the dark
Gonna make love to the stark
I’m a soldier to my own emptiness
I am a winner”. dsfghjkl
This feeling of safety and solace in isolation is often a major theme in the horror/gothic genre.
With the vampire having been a recurring metaphor for same-sex desire Anne Rice‘s ‘The Vampire Chronicles‘ (1976-2014) has reinforced the widely commented on relationship between the vampire and queer culture.
Early horror cinema, made when homosexuality was regarded at best as unspeakable, at worst as an abomination, embraced these sexual deviants as another means to unnerve their audiences. But these portrayals were not always unsympathetic.
Monstrous transformation or terror from society can serve as a metaphor for the isolation many LGBT viewers have felt. Many of these films were made when reference to homosexuality on screen was forbidden, yet shrewd directors and screenwriters were able to dodge the censors through suggestion and metaphor.
Though the Motion Picture Production Code prohibited LGBT characters or themes during its entire existence from 1930 to 1968, certain films pushed the envelope by showing what they could within the guidelines, coding it so that gays and lesbians could see it, but those who chose to ignore it still could.
Here are some of the stand out moments that shows the development of the ‘gay horror’ film and its underpinned themes.
In 1932 less than five years into the ‘talkies’ came The Old Dark House.
James Whale (whom was openly gay), plays with the then fresh (now in 2016 extremely overused) haunted house horror premise. The film sees a couple of newlyweds seek shelter from a storm at the old, dark house of the title, and are confronted with an eccentric man on the run from the police (Ernest Thesiger) and his religious fanatic sister (Eva Moore). Boris Karloff plays the monstrous mute butler, while something wicked lurks in a locked room above.
The results are wonderful, both funny and, at times, genuinely sinister. In a poignant moment at the end of the film, a homosexual relationship is suggested between two unlikely characters, while a key role of an ancient man is played by Elspeth Dudgeon, one of the earliest cinematic example of a woman donning male drag.
Three years later in 1935 James Whale directed The Bride of Frankenstein which was the first sequel to Universal Pictures’ 1931 hit Frankenstein – which was also directed by Whale.
In this sequel Boris Karloff’s creature again finds himself shunned by society for his despised condition, finding solace only in his relationship with a blind hermit. Meanwhile, his creator Dr Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is also enduring a night heavy in gay metaphor. Coaxed away from his wedding night bed by the flamboyant Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), Frankenstein is encouraged to create “a new world of gods and monsters” through the creation of a mate for the monster – The Bride (Elsa Lanchester).
In the decades since its release, modern film scholars have noted the possible homosexual reading of the film. Director James Whale was openly gay, and some of the actors in the cast, including Ernest Thesiger and Colin Clive, were believed to be gay or bisexual.
Although James Curtis, Whale’s biographer, rejects the notion that Whale would have identified with the Monster from a homosexual perspective, many scholars have identified a gay subtext interlocked through the film, especially a camp sensibility, particularly embodied in the character of Pretorius and his relationship with Henry.
In 1998 a drama film ‘Gods and Monsters‘ that recounts the final days of the life of Whale was released – winning an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. This film highlights many of the gay overtones that surrounded the making of ‘Bride of Frankenstein’.
In 1936 Dracula’s Daughter was produced by Universal Studios as a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula.
Dracula’s Daughter tells the story of Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), the daughter of Count Dracula and herself a vampire. Following Dracula’s death, she believes that by destroying his body she will be free of his influence and can live as a human. When this fails she begins to pose as ‘human’ and sadly for the Countess the corpses start to pile up.
The metaphor of trying to hide your true self in order to fit in with society’s standards may chime with gay audiences. The countess even seeks psychiatric help.
But it’s the attack on a pretty model (Nan Grey) which film theorists analyse the most, as, entranced by her semi-naked muse, Dracula’s daughter slowly moves in for the kill. Holden’s otherworldly performance is far more subtle than anything Lugosi produced, and all the more chilling for it suggesting something sexual than just the need to feed.
Fast forward seven years to 1943 when The Seventh Victim was released.
Directed by Mark Robson and produced by Val Lewton – who’s horror filmography included Cat People (1942) follows the hunt of a young woman (Kim Hunter) for her sister, Jacqueline (Jean Brooks), but what she unearths is a harrowing story of a woman menaced by devil-worshippers.
Purportedly, homosexual undercurrents run through the film, particularly in Jacqueline’s character and her relationship with Frances (Isabel Jewell); a cult member.
Due to these undertones, the film was featured in Turner Classic Movies Channel’s ‘Screened Out’, which celebrated gay and lesbian themes in classic Hollywood cinema. If these tones throughout the movie are truly there on purpose then this would be an extremely explicit film given the year it was released.
1963 sees Robert Wise directing, The Haunting shows that creeping dread and keeping the horrors hidden from the audience’s view is a very effective way of scaring the viewer – and preventing your film from dating badly through outmoded special effects.
A paranormal investigator persuades two women to help him explore the haunting of a sinister house – Eleanor (Julie Harris), a timid spinster plagued by guilt, and Theo (Claire Bloom), a hip young woman with psychic ability.
Unusually for its period, Theo’s lesbianism, and attraction to Eleanor, is openly snd sensitively depicted.
As written previously many gothic films wouldn’t exist without the inspiration of the stories of Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu, and his novel Carmilla, a tale of lesbian vampirism that pre-dates Dracula – which has inspired the most adaptations.
Hammer Studios adapted this deadly tale in 1970, casting Ingrid Pitt as a vampire feasting upon big breasted prey – definitely marketed for a straight male viewing audience!!!
The Vampire Lovers is a faithful adaptation of the 1872 novel, with strong performances and some genuinely startling scenes.
It was the first of three Hammer films featuring lesbian vampires which is known as the Karnstein Trilogy. This trilogy includes The Vampire Lovers, Lust for the Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1971).
Before production, the script of The Vampire Lovers was sent to the chief censor John Trevelyan, who warned the studio about depictions of lesbianism, pointing out that a previous lesbian film, The Killing of Sister George, had five minutes excised by his office. In response, Hammer replied that the lesbianism was not of their doing but was present in the original story by Le Fanu. Trevelyan backed down.
1972 brings us the wickedly dark humoured Divine in Pink Flamingos. This Black comedy displaying the tagline “An exercise in poor taste” and is notorious for its nudity, profanity, and pursuit of frivolity, scatology, sensationalism and skewed epistemology.
As it features a number of increasingly revolting scenes that centre on exhibitionism, voyeurism, sodomy, masturbation, gluttony, vomiting, rape, incest, murder and cannibalism, the film is considered a preliminary exponent of abject art – and could easily be taken out of the comedy genre and placed in horror territory if it wasn’t for Divine’s comedic abilities.
Directed, written, produced, filmed and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the “Trash Trilogy”, which also includes Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977).
Like the underground films from which Waters drew inspiration, which provided a source of community for pre-Stonewall queers, the film has been widely celebrated by the LGBT community. This, coupled with its unanimous popularity among queer theorists, has led to the film being considered “the most important queer film of all time”.
Pink Flamingos is also considered an important precursor of punk culture.
The depiction of Drag and Transvestites is not a new concept in horror but becomes more prominent during and post the 1970s which leads us perfectly to 1975 – I see you shiver with Antici….pation.
1975 brings us two camp cult classics; Thundercrack! & The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Thundercrack! is a pastiche rather than an out-and-out horror, although those who have seen Marion Eaton puking over her wig before fishing it out of the latrine may beg to differ. This wildly off-kilter gothic extravaganza could only have come from the pen of legendary underground filmmaker George Kuchar, who weaves a wicked tale of strangers who seek shelter in an old, dark house belonging to Eaton’s deranged spinster.
Kuchar blends comedy with pornography (both gay and straight – but mostly gay) and pitch-perfect parody of creaky horror conventions, from dramatic organ piano chords to ludicrously convoluted revelations.
Released in the same year as the not dissimilar The Rocky Horror Picture Show, it never quite achieved the cult status Richard O’Brien’s film would later enjoy, although Thundercrack! became a popular staple of London’s legendary Scala cinema and has since been known as a cult classic!
The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s cult following has become a world wide phenomenon proving that no one can resist a group of aliens from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania!!!!!! And don’t get me started on Tim Curry‘s legs!!!!!!!!
Now its time for the gayest horror blockbuster ever; as seen from its campy tagline “The Man of Your Dreams is Back”!!!!
It’s the 1985 cult classic A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Jesse (played by now out actor Mark Patton) is not having an easy time of it. When not wrestling semi-naked with his best frenemy Grady (Robert Rusler), he’s dodging the fearsome razor fingers of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund).
Unusually for a slasher – especially one from the 80s, all the victims are male – the closeted gym teacher (Marshall Bell) is killed naked in a shower after being brutally spanked with a towel, while poor Grady is sliced up in his boxers after Jesse has failed to consummate his relationship with his girlfriend, for reasons unspecified – which ‘screams’ unresolved sexual issues.
One scene that would have made the gay subtext more apparent, however, was toned down. Krueger was actually meant to insert one of his hand’s knife blades into Jessie’s mouth instead of merely caressing his lips with it as he does in the finished film, but Patton did not feel comfortable with it.
Whether prancing about solo to Fonda Rae’s ‘Touch Me All Night Long’ or screaming at the horror of it all (he does that a lot), Jesse is the Hollywood sissy personified. Which, ironically, makes for a unique hero in the annals of horror – it’s not a good film by any means, but it’s utterly unique and risk-taking.
In a 2010 interview with Attitude magazine, Englund said;
“[…] the second Nightmare on Elm Street is obviously intended as a bisexual themed film. It was early ’80s, pre-AIDS paranoia. Jesse’s wrestling with whether to come out or not and his own sexual desires was manifested by Freddy. His friend is the object of his affection. That’s all there in that film. We did it subtly but the casting of Mark Patton was intentional too, because Mark was out”.
Writer David Chaskin and other filmmakers involved with the production denied that the gay themes were intentional until Chaskin’s interview segment for the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010), admitting that the gay themes were intentional.
Patton also wrote Jesse’s Lost Journal about Jesse’s life after the film and dealing with his homosexuality;
“Jesse’s Lost Journal was conceived as my subtext writings while making the movie. I stay true to the film until late in the game and then bear off in a new direction, bringing Jesse up to date and letting you see he is quite alive and doing just fine”.
For more info head over to Mark’s site.
Check out our Interview with Marshall Bell here!!!!!
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, cult film director David DeCoteau began making ‘Horror for Women’ films like Voodoo Academy (1999) and The Brotherhood (2001) often featured attractive men in their underwear in homoerotic situations but never fully gay-themed storylines. These films quickly caught on with gay male audiences, to whom they were more often marketed, but with the safety of ‘Horror for Women’ label so as not to ‘out’ themselves at the local video store.
In 2004 production simultaneously began on two films marketed specifically for gay audiences as “Gay Horror”.
October Moon was directed by Jason Paul Collum and featured a deadly gay love triangle in the vein of Fatal Attraction (1987).
Hellbent was directed by Paul Etheredge and styled itself as a modern slasher film with a story of gay men stalked by a masked killer during a Halloween parade in West Hollywood, California.
Both films were released theatrically in September 2005 – with Hellbent being marketed at ‘The first gay slasher film’.
Since then, gay gothic films have flourished, and continue to break down barriers for instance ParaNorman (2012), was the first children’s film with an openly gay character and is full in gothic horror subtext, albeit with a PG certificate.
The connection of queerness and gothic horror has also crossed over into mainstream television such as Willow (Alyson Hannigan), the geeky lesbian witch from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003).
Other recent horror related shows with strong LGBT characters include several of the male vampires in True Blood (2008-2014), Audrey Jensen (Bex Taylor-Klaus) the bi-sexual artistic loner/potential murder suspect from MTV‘s SCREAM (2015-present) and a whole host of characters from American Horror Story (2011 – present) including Chad Warwick – Season 1 (portrayed by out actor Zachary Quinto), Lana Winters – Season 2 (portrayed by bisexual actress Sarah Paulson) and The Countess (portrayed by Gay rights activist Lady Gaga).
My final thoughts:-
Watching Buffy as a 11 year old borrowing my Aunties VHS’s (yes I’m showing my age) was my first taste of gothic culture on the screen….. I WAS HOOKED. Mix that with the excellent writing of Joss Whedon & Co, the ‘villains’ who where more like antihero’s and relatable characters (both within and outside the LGBT community). I wasn’t just hooked; it provided a lifeline to me that horror has provided to many in the LGBT community.
The feelings of isolation mixed with a disconnection from society can prove frightening and many of the great gothic horror works written about above, may have potentially been created due to these feelings of isolation, fear, forbidden passion etc.
To paraphrase Bram Stoker; if horror has taught ME anything, it is that we are all children of the night – so next time you feel low…stick on a horror movie and scream, shout and jump around till you are ready to face the world!!!!!!
AdvertisementsAl Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 17, 1899, to Neapolitan immigrants Gabriel and Teresa Caponi. Originally named Alphonse Caponi, his name was Americanized to "Al Capone."
In 1904, at the age of five, young Alphonse started his school career at Public School 7 in Brooklyn. School was tough for Capone. The teachers were not tolerant of immigrant children and often used physical force as a means of discipline. Capone always had a problem with authority, and by the time he entered sixth grade, his grades began to drop drastically. At 14, Capone started a fist fight with a teacher, was expelled, and never returned to school again.
Shortly after he was expelled, his father moved the family to 21 Garfield Place, in the neighborhood that would influence the direction of Capone's life and ultimately, his future. Capone joined two local street gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Among the members were Johnny Torrio and Lucky Luciano.
As a young man, Capone held many odd jobs, from a candy store clerk to a bowling alley pinboy. Capone entered organized crime when he went to work for gangster Frankie Yale, at his club the Harvard Inn. It was here that Capone received his nickname, “Scarface," after being attacked by a man for insulting his sister. It also was here that Capone was arrested for the first time.
While attending a dance in 1918, Capone met Mary “Mae" Coughlin. On December 4, 1918, she gave birth to their son, Albert “Sonny" Francis. Shortly after, they were married and Capone moved his family to Chicago.
Once in Chicago, Capone went to work for Johnny Torrio, an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo Mob. Soon after, the leader, Big Jim Colosimo, was murdered and Johnny Torrio took over with Capone at his side. By 1922 Capone had become a full partner with Torrio in his gambling houses, saloons, and brothels.
In 1925, after being seriously wounded, Torrio retired and Capone became boss. By then, rival gang members considered Capone ruthless, and posed little threat to his plans for taking over the Chicago “racketeering rights." Any rival gang posing a threat to his plans was either destroyed, or diminished greatly in size, leaving full reign to Capone.
Between 1925 and 1930, Capone controlled the majority of Chicago's vice industry, including speakeasies, bookie joints, brothels, horse and race tracks, gambling houses and distilleries. His reported income was estimated to be $100 million a year. Along with all his illegal holdings, Capone also held a large interest in Chicago's largest cleaning and dyeing plant chain.
Although Capone was responsible for several murders, he always had an alibi and was usually out of town when the killings occurred. The most notorious killing was committed on February 14, 1929, which became known as “The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." Capone ordered four of his men, dressed in police uniforms, to enter a garage on North Clark street. This was the headquarters of George “Bugs" Moran's bootleg operations and North Side Gang. When the Moran gang dropped their guns and put their hands against the wall, Capone's men gunned them down. Six Moran gang members and an innocent friend were shot. Moran, who was the intended target, was across the street at the time.
Although Capone both ordered and committed murders himself, he also had another side. Shortly after the stock market crash of 1929, he opened soup kitchens and arranged for local merchants to give away food and clothing to needy people, at his own expense.
Due to gangland's traditional refusal to press charges, Capone was neither charged nor tried for many of his crimes. In 1926 he was arrested for murdering three people, spent the night in jail and then was released due to lack of evidence. Capone's first jail sentence was in May 1929, but he was charged only for carrying a gun. By 1930, Capone topped Chicago's list of the 28 worst criminals and designated as “Public Enemy Number One."
In 1931, after years of criminal activity, Capone was indicted on twenty-three counts of income tax evasion. Judge James H. Wilkerson found him guilty on five of the twenty-three counts and sentenced him to 10 years in federal prison and fines in the amount of $50,000. He also was sentenced to one year in county jail for an earlier contempt-of-court charge.
In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta State Prison, where he quickly established himself as a kingpin within the prison and began taking control. In order to stop his influence, he was transferred to Alcatraz to finish out his sentence. Alcatraz was cut off from the rest of the world, and with no other gang members residing there, Capone soon found there was nothing over which to gain control. Capone tried to earn time off for good behavior by becoming the model prisoner.
During his stay at Alcatraz, Capone began to show signs of syphilitic dementia and spent the balance of his felony sentence in the hospital. On January 6, 1939, he was transferred to Terminal Island to carry out his misdemeanor sentence. On November 16, 1939, Capone was released from prison.
After a short stay in the hospital, Capone returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida, to spend the rest of his life in peace and quiet. Due to his dementia, his mind was rapidly deteriorating and he was no longer strong enough to run the outfit. On January 21, 1947, Capone suffered an apoplectic stroke and was hospitalized. On January 24, pneumonia set in and Capone died the next day.
Capone was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery between the graves of his father and brother until March 1950, when the remains of all three were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery on the far West Side of Chicago.
---- Selected Quotes ----
Quotes by Al Capone.
Regarding
You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.
Regarding Prohibition
I make my money by supplying a public demand. If I break the law, my customers, who number hundreds of the best people in Chicago, are as guilty as I am. Everybody calls me a racketeer. I call myself a businessman.
Comment in 1925
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Cicero Revisited by Douglas Deuchler.
Strategically located seven miles west of Chicago’s Loop, multifaceted Cicero is one of the oldest and largest municipalities in Illinois. In the late...
Only Yesterday by Frederick L. Allen.
Prohibition. Al Capone. The President Harding scandals. The revolution of manners and morals, Black Tuesday. These are only an inkling of the events a...
Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster by Jonathan Eig.
Based on newly released government documents and wiretaps, Get Capone tells the story how the nation's most-wanted criminal was really caught. This bo...Welcome to theScore's collection of 2016 MLS season preview content, where you'll find everything you need to know about what's shaping up to be a thrilling season.
Detailed team breakdowns, player rankings, predictions, and a bevy of other pieces that will have you more than prepared for the MLS season; it's all here.
Peruse, enjoy, and then walk into the office as the most knowledgeable MLS fan around.
Need to Know
Predictions
Individual Team Previews
Transfer dealings, lineup projections, and everything else you need to know about each club's upcoming campaign.
Eastern Conference
Chicago Fire
This year, the Chicago Fire shed itself of a number of key players, then added new pieces in an effort to avoid the Eastern Conference basement. Chief among those signings is attacking midfielder John Goossens, but will that be enough for new head coach Veljko Paunovic's side? We shall see.
Read full preview.
Columbus Crew
The Crew missed out on an MLS Cup win in 2015, after being shell-shocked by the team of destiny, the Portland Timbers. Gregg Berhalter will hope the mistakes of 2015 don't carry over into this campaign and his side will be looking for redemption, led by freshly-minted Designated Player Kei Kamara.
Read full preview.
D.C. United
Ben Olsen has quietly assembled a well-balanced team that has the potential to surprise the Eastern Conference once more. Largely being written off ahead of this new campaign, D.C. United will hope the role of underdogs serves them well in the first part of the season, before turning to the tag of favorites down the final stretch.
Read full preview.
Montreal Impact
Didier Drogba pulled the Montreal Impact up by their collective boot straps last year and in this, his swansong season, the Canadian club's faithful fans will hope he can replicate the ferocious rate of return he put up in 2015. With 11 goals in 11 games, Drogba dominated in his debut year; he'll hope to take his bow with an MLS Cup tucked underneath his arm.
Read full preview.
New England Revolution
Jay Heaps' side threatens to finally come together in meaningful fashion this season after a hiccup year in 2015. The 2014 MLS Cup-finalists will be looking to return to the big show but, marred by inconsistent runs of form, the Revs will need to overcome the long losing streaks that have plagued it in recent years.
Read full preview.
New York City FC
Andrea Pirlo. Frank Lampard. David Villa. The stars came to play in the Big Apple last year, and in 2016, under a new head coach in Patrick Vieira, New York City FC will look to turn that star power into tangible success. It won't be easy for this sophomore side but boasting that kind of talent certainly helps.
Read full preview.
New York Red Bulls
It's not even funny how much the Red Bulls dominated in 2015, such to the point that their +19 goal differential was far and away the highest of any club in MLS. This Red Bulls team will be without star defender Matt Miazga, though, after the promising young center-back was sold to English side Chelsea. How big a blow will that prove to be?
Read full preview.
Orlando City SC
While Brazilian icon Kaka made the headlines in the early parts of the 2015 campaign, it was rookie Canadian striker Cyle Larin who stole the show by years' end. The duo combined for an incredible 26 goals and that combination, anchored now by former AC Milan midfielder Antonio Nocerino in support, will be on full display for the Lions in 2016.
Read full preview.
Philadelphia Union
Devoid of the sort of spending power befit of the league's fattest cats, the Philadelphia Union have hedged their bets on C.J. Sapong and Tranquillo Barnetta for the 2016 season. Head coach Jim Curtin will hope only to avoid the Eastern Conference basement - anything else is a bonus.
Read full preview.
Toronto FC
Champions of the off-season, Toronto FC bolstered its defensive ranks ahead of the 2016 campaign with four MLS All-Star players in goalkeeper Clint Irwin, defenders Steven Beitashour and Drew Moor and Canadian midfielder Will Johnson. Those four, combined with the TFC trio of Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco will make their case for the MLS Cup this year.
Read full preview.
Western Conference
FC Dallas
Young, hungry and full of potential, FC Dallas could just be the most exciting team in MLS in the 2016 season. This group of largely Latin American footballers is highlighted by Fabian Castillo and Mauro Diaz, though some key off-season acquisitions have given depth where once there were limited options.
Read full preview.
Houston Dynamo
The Dynamo are in a period of transformation, having parted ways with long-time captain Brad Davis over this off-season. As such, Owen Coyle's men will have the added task of trying to establish a playing identity in 2016 while competing in a tough Western Conference that has only gotten stronger.
Read full preview.
Colorado Rapids
The 2016 season certainly can't go much worse for the Colorado Rapids than last years' offerings. Bolstered by a new key man in Shkelzen Gashi, the Rapids now have a new point of attack and will hope the Albanian can be the difference-maker needed to pull the team out of its miserable spell.
Read full preview.
LA Galaxy
The LA Galaxy have always pushed the boundaries on the league's salary cap and enter this season with what is essentially four Designated Players and a Targeted Allocation Money signing. Nigel de Jong is the big new pick up while Steven Gerrard will take his retirement tour to good heart, too.
Read full preview.
Portland Timbers
The 2015 MLS Cup winners look to repeat the impossible feat once again in 2016. This team, built on Caleb Porter's vision and crafted not with stars, but with serviceable team players, stormed through the playoffs last year on a hot vein of form but that task won't be as straightforward the second time around.
Read full preview.
Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake is banking on nostalgia this year, bringing back a few of its old 2009 MLS Cup-winning team to the current roster; Yura Movsisyan makes his RSL return but as this team ages even further, Jeff Cassar's team might soon be facing the fires as its old core starts to break down.
Read full preview.
San Jose Earthquakes
It's the Chris Wondolowski show as ever for the San Jose Earthquakes and while the pseudo-U.S. international striker continues to score on a consistent basis, there are questions about the team's quality in every other position. A returning star in Simon Dawkins helps answer some of those questions, though.
Read full preview.
Seattle Sounders FC
Obafemi Martins is out, Jordan Morris is in and Clint Dempsey is now the main man at CenturyLink Field. The Seattle Sounders, still without what was once a destined MLS Cup victory in their grasp, watched in horror as their bitter rivals Portland claimed the trophy. They'll be looking to keep the cup in Cascadia in 2016.
Read full preview.
Sporting Kansas City
It's pretty much business as usual for Sporting KC as head coach Peter Vermes addressed his team's one position of need: wingers. The club picked up two MLS veterans in Brad Davis and Justin Mapp and the two add plenty of talent and experience to this team of already-proven game winners.
Read full preview.
Vancouver Whitecaps
The Vancouver Whitecaps have acquired themselves a talented bunch of midfielders, with Pedro Morales and Matias Laba now joined by Christian Bolanos and Deybi Flores. Head coach Carl Robinson, a Welshman, will be turning to his English-to-Spanish dictionary as his Latin core continue turning heads in 2016.
Read full preview.
Betting Preview
In our 2016 season betting preview, you'll find odds on this year's race for the MLS Cup. theScore's Gino Bottero and Carlo Campo examine the bets that can beef up your wallet.
Other Preview ContentAbout
Shop and Volunteer! We are offering a variety of fun volunteer opportunities at our spring plant sales + all our volunteers receive a free lunch! Sign up here!
Several times each year, our support group — the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden — holds plant sale fundraisers at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery where our members and the public are invited to shop our one-acre nursery filled with tens of thousands of attractive, low-water, easy-care plants perfect for our region.
Most of these plants are grown on site, including the Arboretum All-Stars — our top recommended plants for Central Valley gardens. Our nursery staff, in addition to dozens of students and volunteers, propagate and grow the majority plants we sell. By shopping these sales, you support the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden's environmental leadership programs, the growth of our gardens and collections and the wide variety of free, educational events we offer the public.
In addition to all the plants we grow and nurture on site, at these sales you will also find a selection of indoor and carnivorous plants, exotic bulbs and more courtesy of the Davis Botanical Society, the support group for the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity and Botanical Conservatory.Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE is ramping up his rhetoric against Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE as the GOP front-runner looks beyond the primary to defeating the likely Democratic nominee in the fall.
If Trump and Clinton continue along their current trajectories, it will set up a savage battle between two candidates who appear to genuinely despise one another.
Nothing will be out of bounds.
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Trump has so far used his rallies and Twitter account as a testing ground for new attacks against his rivals.At a rally last month Trump floated the possibility of nicknaming the Democrat as “Incompetent Hillary.” He appears to have settled on “Crooked Hillary” going forward.Clinton will be the heavy favorite in a general election match-up between the two. Here’s a look at how Trump will go after Clinton to cut into her early lead in the polls.Trump’s branding of his rivals has been lethal so far.His attacks against Jeb Bush for being “low energy” haunted the former Florida governor. Trump also counts “Little Marco” Rubio as a vanquished foe, and he has delighted in explaining to supporters that there is no “g” in “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz.With “Crooked Hillary,” Trump has a nickname for his rival that could encompass decades of controversies surrounding Bill and Hillary Clinton, from Whitewater to foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.But the main focus here will likely be Clinton’s use of a personal email account and server as secretary of State.Expect Trump to continue hammering Clinton as someone who has, for years, operated by her own set of rules and is above the laws that govern ordinary citizens.Gen. David Petraeus will be a central figure in those attacks.Petraeus was fined and sentenced to probation for sharing classified information with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, with whom he was also having an extramarital affair.Trump has repeatedly argued that the investigation into whether Clinton’s home brew server exposed classified information is far worse than anything Petraeus was guilty of.Clinton will be looking to embrace the historic possibility of becoming the first woman president. Trump will be seeking to make that into a liability for her.This week, Trump alleged that Clinton’s gender is the extent of her appeal. He accused her of playing “the woman’s card” and said that if “Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.”That could be a tough sell from a candidate who has been accused of being a misogynist.The Clinton campaign has responded by distributing an official “Hillary for America Woman Card.” Furthermore, Trump is already facing attack ads from an anti-Trump group that put together a “Greatest Hits” collection of his past remarks about women.But there’s another angle here that Trump is likely to exploit.In January, after the first gender-centric spat broke out between the two front-runners, Trump quickly seized on’s past marital infidelities and allegations of sexual assault. He accused Hillary Clinton of bullying the accusers into silence or seeking to discredit them.Trump revived that attack on Friday, accusing Clinton of being an “enabler.”Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said Friday that the campaign would “absolutely” return to those attacks if the Clinton campaign goes after Trump as a sexist.That is a fight the Clintons would like to avoid.Vibram USA, the company that makes FiveFingers running shoes, has agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged the company made false and unsubstantiated claims about the |
990 ÒÆ [y¨ª] (=Òƶ¯ y¨ªd¨°ng) move; תÒÆ shift, transform; ÒÆÖ² transplant
991 °Ö [b¨¤] dad; °Ö°Ö b¨¤ba daddy
992 ÍÐ [tu¨] hold in the palm, rely on; ίÍÐ w¨§itu¨ entrust
993 ºé [h¨®ng] (=ºéË® h¨®ngshu¨«) flood, vast, <family name>; ºéÁÁ h¨®ngli¨¤ng loud and clear, magnanimity
994 Éý [sh¨¥ng] liter, rise, ascend
995 »ï [hu¨¯] <classifier for groups, crowds, bands etc.>, group of people. (=»ï°é hu¨¯b¨¤n) partner; ¼Ò»ï ji¨¡huo fellow
996 ¶© (F Ó ) [d¨¬ng] conclude (compare with ¶¨ d¨¬ng decide)
997 ºÁ [h¨¢o] long fine hair, milli-; ºÁ²» h¨¢ob¨´ not at all
998 ºü [h¨²] ºüÀê h¨²li fox
999 Õò (F æ ) [zh¨¨n] town, press down, calm, cool
1000 ´² [chu¨¢ng] bed; ´²µ¥ chu¨¢ngd¨¡n sheet; ºÓ´² river bed
1001 »¥ [h¨´] »¥Ïà h¨´xi¨¡ng each other; Ï໥ xi¨¡ngh¨´ mutually, reciprocal
1002 Ì× [t¨¤o] set, cover; ÊÖÌ× glove; Ò»Ì×Ò·þ y¨ª t¨¤o y¨©fu a (full) suit (of clothing)
1003 Âà [l¨·] (=ÂÃÐÐ l¨·x¨ªng) travel; ÂÃ¹Ý l¨·gu¨£n inn; ÂÃÐÐÉç l¨·x¨ªngsh¨¨ travel agency
1004 ÌÓ [t¨¢o] (ÌÓÅÜ t¨¢op¨£o) escape, flee
1005 Âî (F ÁR ) [m¨¤] curse; ÂèÂèÂîÂíÂð? M¨¡ma m¨¤ m¨£ ma? Does mama curse the horse?
1006 Êä (F Ý ) [sh¨±] transport, lose (compare with Ó® y¨ªng win)
1007 ³ª [ch¨¤ng] sing; ³ª¸è
1008 ¾¸ [j¨¬ng] Ë羸 su¨ªj¨¬ng pacify, appease
1009 ÃØ [m¨¬] ÃØÃÜ m¨¬m¨¬ secret; ÃØÊé secretary
[b¨¬] Ãس Peru
1010 ´Ê (F Ô~ ) [c¨ª] word; ´Êµä c¨ªdi¨£n dictionary; ¶¯´Ê d¨°ngx¨ª verb; ´Ê»ã c¨ªhu¨¬ vocabulary
1011 À§ [k¨´n] (=À§ÄÑ k¨´nn¨¢n) difficult, (F±) tired
1012 Àá (F I ) [l¨¨i] (ÑÛÀá, ÀáË®) tear; ÀáÖé teardrop
1013 Êì [sh¨²] cooked, ripe, familiar; ÊìϤ sh¨²x¨© know well
[sh¨®u] <colloquial variant>
1014 ²Æ (F Ø ) [c¨¢i] wealth; ·¢²Æ f¨¡c¨¤i get rich
1015 ¹í [gu¨«] ghost; (ħ¹í m¨®gu¨«) devil; ¹í×Ó gu¨«zi foreign devil
1016 ¹Ç [g¨³] (¹ÇÍ· g¨³tou) bone
[g¨±] ¹Çµ g¨±lu roll
1017 Éê [sh¨¥n] explain
{Compare with ¼× ji¨£ helmet and ÓÉ y¨®u from}
1018 Óû [y¨´] desire, wish; ÓûÍû y¨´w¨¤ng desire, lust
1019 Õ÷ [zh¨¥ng] journey; ³¤Õ÷ The Long March, attack, (Fáç) evidence, levy
1020 ˽ [s¨©] (˽ÈË) personal, (=˽ÓÐ s¨©y¨¯u) privately owned, be private, (=×Ô˽ z¨¬s¨©) selfish
1021 Îè [w¨³] (ÌøÎè ti¨¤ow¨³) dance
1022 Çï [qi¨±] autumn, fall; ´ºÏÄÇﶬ ch¨±nxi¨¤i¨±d¨ng the four seasons
1023 ¾Þ [j¨´] (=¾Þ´ó j¨´d¨¤) huge, gigantic
1024 Ó [y¨ªng] (»¶Ó hu¨¡ny¨ªng) welcome
1025 Ðã [xi¨´] ÓÅÐã y¨uxi¨´ excellent; Ðã²Å xi¨´cai scholar
1026 ¸ã [g¨£o] do
1027 ¶¡ [d¨©ng] 4th in a series, cubes (in food preparation), <family name>
[zh¨¥ng] ¶¡¶¡ zh¨¥ngzh¨¥ng clang, clank
1028 Îü [x¨©] inhale; ºôÎü h¨±x¨© breathe; ÎüÊÕ x¨©sh¨u absorb; ÎüÒý x¨©y¨«n attract
1029 Éó (F ) [sh¨§n] ÉóÅÐ sh¨§np¨¤n bring to trial; ÉóÎÊ interrogate
1030 ±é [bi¨¤n] all over, everywhere; ÆÕ±é universal, <classifier for repetitive times/occurrences>; ÔÙ˵һ±é! Z¨¤i shu¨ y¨ª bi¨¤n! Say (it) once more!
1031 ǽ (F ) [qi¨¢ng] (=ǽ±Ú qi¨¢ngb¨¬) wall
1032 Öì [zh¨±] vermilion, bright red
1033 Ê¥ (F Â} ) [sh¨¨ng] holy; Ê¥ÈË sage, saint; Ê¥µ®½Ú Sh¨¨ngd¨¤nji¨¦ Christmas
1034 ±Ü [b¨¬] (±ÜÃâ b¨¬mi¨£n) avoid; Ì t¨¢ob¨¬ escape, evade
1035 Ô¾ (F ÜS ) [yu¨¨] leap
1036 ¼É [j¨¬] envy, avoid, quit; ¼É»ä j¨¬hui taboo
1037 ×À [zhu¨] table; Ò»ÕÅ×À×Ó y¨¬ zh¨¡ng zhu¨zi one table
1038 Ö´ (F Ì ) [zh¨ª] hold in hand; Ö´ÐÐ zh¨ªx¨ªng carry out
1039 ±¯ [b¨¥i] ±¯°§ grieved; ±¯¹Û pessimistic; ±¯¾ç tragedy
1040 Óò [y¨´] (math:) field; ÁìÓò territory; Á÷Óò valley; ÇøÓò region
1041 Ïþ (F Ô ) [xi¨£o] dawn; (ÏþµÃ xi¨£ode) know
1042 Ū [n¨°ng] do; Ū³¼ n¨°ngch¨¦n court jester
[l¨°ng] ÀïŪ alley
1043 Íö [w¨¢ng] flee, lose, die
1044 ÇÅ (F ò ) [qi¨¢o] bridge
1045 ±² (F Ý ) [b¨¨i] generation; Ïȱ² older generation, ancestors
1046 ÉÁ (F éW ) [sh¨£n] (ÉÁ¿ª) get out of the way, flash; ÉÁµç lightning
1047 Òþ (F ë[ ) [y¨«n] hidden; ÒþÔ¼ y¨«nyu¨¥ faint, indistinct
1048 ¾¢ (F Å ) [j¨¬n] strength, energy, spirit
[j¨¬ng] Ç¿¾¢
1049 ÄÖ (F ô[ ) [n¨¤o] (ÈÈÄÖ) noisy; ÄÖÖÓ alarm clock
1050 ¿Ö [k¨¯ng] (=¿ÖÅ k¨¯ngp¨¤) I'm afraid; ¿Ö²À k¨¯ngb¨´ terror
1051 ѽ [ya] <sentence final particle like °¡ a>
[y¨¡] ah, oh
1052 ¸¶ [f¨´] pay
1053 ¾´ [j¨¬ng] (×ð¾´ z¨±nj¨¬ng) respect
1054 ¼à (F ±O ) [ji¨¡n] ¼àÓü prison; ¼à¶½ supervise
[ji¨¤n] eunuch
1055 Ìü (F d ) [t¨©ng] hall; ²ÍÌü c¨¡nt¨©ng dining room
1056 ¿â (F ì ) [k¨´] warehouse; Êý¾Ý¿â sh¨´j¨´k¨´ database
1057 Õð [zh¨¨n] shake, shock; µØÕð earthquake
1058 ²Ä [c¨¢i] (=²ÄÁÏ c¨¢ili¨¤o) material; ½Ì²Ä ji¨¤oc¨¢i teaching material
1059 ±ù [b¨©ng] ice; ±ùÏä b¨©ngxi¨¡ng refrigerator; ±ùÁ¹ b¨©ngli¨¢ng ice-cold; ±ùµº B¨©ngd¨£o Iceland; ±ùä¿ÁÜ b¨©ngqil¨ªn icecream
1060 ÐÑ [x¨«ng] become sober, wake up; ÌáÐÑ remind
1061 Çì (F c ) [q¨¬ng] Çì×£ q¨¬ngzh¨´ celebrate; ÇìºØ q¨¬ngh¨¨ congratulate; ÇìÐÒ q¨¬ngx¨¬ng rejoice
1062 ÂÌ (F ¾G ) [l¨¸] (ÂÌÉ« l¨¸s¨¨) green
[l¨´] (in some place names)
1063 ÍÈ [tu¨«] leg; ÍȽŠability to walk; ÍÈÍó×Ó ankle; ´óÍÈ thigh
1064 Êö [sh¨´] state, narrate; ÃèÊö describe; ÉÏÊö above-mentioned
1065 Ðì [x¨²] slowly, gently, <family name>
1066 ×ð [z¨±n] (×ðÖØ, ×ð¾´) respect
1067 Ó² [y¨¬ng] hard; Ó²¼þ y¨¬ngji¨¤n hardware
1068 ¶î (F î~ ) [¨¦] (Ç°¶î) forehead; ¶¨¶î quota
1069 Îó (F Õ` ) [w¨´] (=´íÎó cu¨°w¨´) mistake
1070 ½è [ji¨¨] borrow, lend
1071 ÄÉ (F ¼{ ) [n¨¤] receive, accept, enjoy, pay, sew
1072 ÕÛ [zh¨¦] fold; break; change direction
[sh¨¦] break
[zh¨¥] turn over
1073 ÊÛ [sh¨°u] sell; ÊÛ»õ sell goods
1074 ÒÅ (F ßz ) [y¨ª] ÒÅ´« y¨ªchu¨¢n inherit; Òź¶ y¨ªh¨¤n regret
[w¨¨i] give
1075 ±© [b¨¤o] violent, sudden; ±©Â¶ expose
[p¨´] (=ÆØ)
1076 ȱ [qu¨¥] (ȱ·¦qu¨¥f¨¢) lack, be short of; ȱµã qu¨¥di¨£n shortcoming
1077 ÃÔ [m¨ª] be lost; ÎÒÃÔÁË· W¨¯ m¨ªle l¨´ I am lost; ÃÔÐÅ m¨ªx¨¬n superstition, blind faith/worship
1078 ³ (F ô ) [l¨³] <family name>; (³ç l¨³m¨£ng) rude; dull
1079 ̽ [t¨¤n] (=̽Ë÷ t¨¤nsu¨¯) explore
1080 »õ (F Ø ) [hu¨°] (=»õÎï hu¨°w¨´) goods; »õ±Ò hu¨°b¨¬ money, currency
1081 ͯ [t¨®ng] ¶ùͯ ¨¦rt¨®ng children
1082 »º (F ¾ ) [hu¨£n] (»ºÂý hu¨£nm¨¤n) slow
1083 ΰ (F ¥ ) [w¨§i] (ΰ´ó) great, mighty; ºêΰ h¨®ngw¨§i, ÐÛΰ xi¨®ngw¨§i grand
1084 ¾ý [j¨±n] (=¾ýÖ÷ j¨©nzh¨³) monarch, sovereign, (=¾ý×Ó j¨±nz¨«) gentleman; ±©¾ý tyrant
1085 ׯ (F Çf ) [zhu¨¡ng] village; ׯ¼Ú zhu¨¡ngjia crops; ׯÑÏ solemn
1086 ·² [f¨¢n] ordinary; (·²ÊÇ f¨¢nsh¨¬) every; ·Ç·² extraordinary
1087 Σ [w¨¥i] ΣÏÕ dangerous; Σ»ú crisis; Σº¦ endanger
1088 ÉÕ (F ý ) [sh¨¡o] roast, cook, burn (compare with ³´ ch¨£o stir-fry)
1089 ²Ê [c¨£i] (É«²Ê s¨¨c¨£i) colour; ²ÊÉ« c¨£is¨¨ multicolour
1090 ÇÀ (F ) [qi¨£ng] rob; snatch; scrape
[qi¨¡ng] ºôÌìÇÀµØ
1091 ¿Ø [k¨°ng] (¿ØËß k¨°ngs¨´) accuse, (=¿ØÖÆ k¨°ngzh¨¬) control
1092 ÐØ [xi¨ng] (ÐØÌÅ, Ðظ¬) chest; (ÐØ»³) heart, mind
1093 Ï· (F ò ) [x¨¬] (Ï·¾ç x¨¬j¨´) drama, play; ÓÎÏ· y¨®ux¨¬ game
1094 ƪ [pi¨¡n] sheet of paper, piece of writing
1095 Ȥ [q¨´] interest, fun; ÐËȤ interest; Ȥζ interest, taste
1096 Êø [sh¨´] bundle; Êø¸¿ sh¨´f¨´ tie up; ½áÊø ji¨¦sh¨´ finish
1097 ν (F Ö^ ) [w¨¨i] call; Ëùν so-called
1098 ¸Å [g¨¤i] ´ó¸Å roughly, most likely; ¸ÅÄî concept; Æø¸Å spirit
1099 Éä [sh¨¨] shoot, fire, send out; ×¢Éä inject; Éä¼ý archery
1100 ¿Î (F Õn ) [k¨¨] lesson; ¿Î±¾ k¨¨b¨§n textbook
1101 ¶´ [d¨°ng] hole, cave
1102 Âé [m¨¢] hemp, (=Ö¥Âé zh¨©ma) sesame; Âé·³ m¨¢fan bother
[m¨¡] ÂéÂéºÚ m¨¡mah¨¥i dusk; ÂÒÂéÂé lu¨¤nm¨¡m¨¡ messy, disorderly
1103 ± [b¨¥i] cup; ¸É± g¨¡nb¨¥i cheers
1104 ͸ [t¨°u] penetrate, thorough; ͸¾µ t¨°uj¨¬ng lens; ͸Ã÷ transparent
1105 ÓÊ (F à] ) [y¨®u] ÓÊ¾Ö y¨®uj¨² post office; ÓÊƱ y¨®upi¨¤o stamp
1106 ÈÙ (F s ) [r¨®ng] (=¹âÈÙ gu¨¡ngr¨®ng, =ÈÙÓþ r¨®ngy¨´) glory, honor
1107 ¶® [d¨¯ng] understand
1108 Óµ (F í ) [y¨ng] embrace, crowd; Óµ»¤ y¨ngh¨´ support; Óµ¼· y¨ngj¨« crowded
1109 Ï× (F «I ) [xi¨¤n] donate; ¹±Ï× g¨°ngxi¨¤n contribution
1110 Ï´ [x¨«] wash; Ï´Ôè x¨«z¨£o bath, shower
[Xi¨£n] <family name>
1111 ÐÝ [xi¨±] stop, (=ÐÝÏ¢ xi¨±xi) rest; ÍËÐÝ retire; ÐÝÑøËù rest home
1112 ÆÈ [p¨°] compel; ѹÆÈ y¨¡p¨° oppress; ±»ÆÈ b¨¨ip¨° be compelled
[p¨£i] ÆÈ»÷ÅÚ p¨£ij¨©p¨¤o mortar
1113 ̾ (F @ ) [t¨¤n] sigh
1114 ¹· [g¨¯u] dog; ÁÔ¹· li¨¨g¨¯u hound; ·è¹· f¨¥ngg¨¯u mad dog
1115 ͵ [t¨u] steal; С͵ xi¨£ot¨u thief
1116 Òõ (F ê ) [y¨©n] opposite of Ñô y¨¢ng; Òõ³Á, ÒõÌì cloudy; Òõ°µ gloomy
1117 Æû [q¨¬] vapor, steam; ÆûÓÉ q¨¬y¨®u gasoline; Æû³µ q¨¬ch¨¥ car
1118 °Ý [b¨¤i] honor, worship; Àñ°Ý l¨«b¨¤i week
[b¨¢i] °Ý°Ý b¨¢ibai bye-bye
1119 ºá (F M ) [h¨¦ng] horizontal
[h¨¨ng] perverse
1120 ¹Ä [g¨³] beat, play, drum, arouse
[g¨±] ÅÖ¹Ä¹Ä p¨¤ngg¨±g¨± fat, plump, full, bulging
1121 ½¡ [ji¨¤n] ½¡¿µ ji¨¤nk¨¡ng health
1122 ºñ [h¨°u] thick, deep, kind, rich (food) (compare with ±¡ b¨¢o thin)
1123 Ç© (F º ) [qi¨¡n] Ç©¶© qi¨¡nd¨¬ng conclude and sign (treaty, etc); Ç©Ãû qi¨¡nm¨ªng signature
1124 µ¤ [d¨¡n] cinnabar, red; µ¤Ìï d¨¡nti¨¢n pubic region; µ¤Âó D¨¡nm¨¤i Denmark
1125 Âå [Lu¨°] name of a river in ºÓÄÏ H¨¦n¨¢n and ÉÂÎ÷ Sh¨£nx¨©
1126 º° [h¨£n] (=º°½Ð h¨£nji¨¤o, ºôº° h¨±h¨£n, ½Ðº° ji¨¤oh¨£n) shout, cry out
1127 ÈØ [r¨®ng] (=³Ç¶¼ Ch¨¦ngd¨±); ܽÈØ f¨²r¨®ng lotus, cottonrose hibiscus
1128 ÂÖ (F Ý ) [l¨²n] wheel
1129 °¶ [¨¤n] shore
1130 ÄÌ [n¨£i] breasts, milk
1131 µ [d¨¤n] thin, light; µÀ¶ d¨¤nl¨¢n (= dzÀ¶ qi¨£nl¨¢n) light blue
1132 ³± [ch¨¢o] tide; (=³±Êª ch¨¢osh¨©) moist; ¸ß³± g¨¡och¨¢o climax
1133 ѵ (F Ó ) [x¨´n] lesson
1134 Ô² (F A ) [yu¨¢n] round, circle; (sometimes used for Ôª yu¨¢n dollar)
1135 ¾í [ju¨£n] roll; ´º¾í spring roll (FÔ)
[ju¨¤n] volume, book, exam paper
[qu¨¢n] (=÷Ü qu¨¢n) curly hair
1136 ÊÍ (F á ) [sh¨¬] ½âÊÍ ji¨§sh¨¬ explain; ÊÍ·Å sh¨¬f¨¤ng release
1137 Öî (F ÖT ) [zh¨±] all, various, <family name>
1138 Ãî [mi¨¤o] wonderful, subtle; ĪÃûÆäÃî m¨°m¨ªngq¨ªmi¨¤o be baffled
1139 Ψ [w¨¦i] ΨÎïÖ÷Òå w¨¦iw¨´zh¨³y¨¬ materialism
[w¨§i] <expressing acceptance of a request/command>
1140 ¶á (F Z ) [du¨®] force one's way; ¶áÈ¡ seize, capture; Õù¶á fight for
1141 Öð [zh¨²] expel, pursue, one by one; Öð½¥ gradually; Öð²½ step by step
1142 Ñà [y¨¤n] (=Ñà×Ó y¨¤nzi) swallow (bird)
[Y¨¡n] <family name>
1143 ´ô [d¨¡i] stupid, silly, foolish, stay; ´ô°å d¨¡ib¨£n stiff
[¨¢i] ´ô°å ¨¢ib¨£n stiff
1144 ²â (F y ) [c¨¨] (²âÁ¿ c¨¨li¨¢ng) survey, measure; ¹Û²â gu¨¡nc¨¨ observe
1145 ÀË [l¨¤ng] (=²¨ÀË b¨l¨¤ng) wave (of water); ÀË·Ñ waste
1146 ³é [ch¨u] take out; shrink; whip; ³éÑÌ smoke tobacco
1147 ¸Ç (F Éw ) [g¨¤i] cover, shell; ¸Ç×Ó lid
1148 Æ« [pi¨¡n] slanting, leaning; stubbornly; unfortunately
1149 ÔÄ (F é ) [yu¨¨] experience, pass through, review; (ÔĶÁ yu¨¨d¨²) read
1150 ¹º (F Ù ) [g¨°u] (¹ºÂò g¨°um¨£i) purchase
1151 ; [t¨²] way, route; ǰ; prospect; ;¾ via
1152 ×Ý (F ¿v ) [z¨°ng] longitudinally; ²Ù×Ý c¨¡oz¨°ng operate; ×Ý¶Ô z¨°ngdu¨¬ column, file
1153 Ò® [y¨¦] <archaic interrogative particle>, (=Ò¯ y¨¦) grandfather
[Y¨¥] Ò®öÕ Y¨¥s¨± Jesus
1154 Ãþ [m¨] feel, stroke; ÃþË÷ m¨suo grope; ×½Ãþ zhu¨m¨ fathom
1155 ¹Ò (F ì ) [gu¨¤] hang, put up
1156 º½ [h¨¢ng] sail, fly; º½ÐÐ h¨¢ngx¨ªng navigate; º½¿Õ aviationSometimes in life, things don’t go as planned. And when you’re a skier on the Freeride World Tour (FWT), that can mean falling really, really hard down a massive mountain covered in unforgiving rocks. These incidents are no joke; people get seriously hurt out there.
But, these crashes are often worth reliving if the skiers involved get away unharmed. That’s why the FWT compiled its worst ones ever in an entertaining video, found above. Enjoy, use it as a reminder that no one’s invincible and please stay safe out there this season.
FWT-grams
Because in the end, fear is just an illusion… or not. Happy Halloween 🎃 #DROPIN Skier: @gskizy in @chamonix_france © @domdaher A video posted by Freeride World Tour (@freerideworldtour) on Oct 31, 2016 at 9:04am PDT
You like backflips in #gopro view? Join @dennisrisvoll on his winning run in @bergbahnen_fieberbrunn last March. #FWT #DROPIN A video posted by Freeride World Tour (@freerideworldtour) on Oct 30, 2016 at 9:10am PDT
@loganpehota about to stomp it in Haines, Alaska. #FWT #DROPIN © @jeremy_bernard_photography A photo posted by Freeride World Tour (@freerideworldtour) on Oct 21, 2016 at 8:07am PDT
@evawalkner's winning run in the fresh #pow of Haines #FWT #DROPIN #GoPro A video posted by Freeride World Tour (@freerideworldtour) on Oct 16, 2016 at 9:06am PDTWant more hot BPR News stories? Sign up for our morning blast HERE
The White House jumped on comments House Speaker Paul Ryan made in order to characterize Donald Trump as a racist. But using the Obama administration’s exact same logic, Obama would also be a racist.
Just last year the United States Department of Justice was sued after it forced an immigration judge to recuse herself from “all immigration cases involving Iranians,”according to the Daily Caller.
Trump has long been critical of U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is hearing a Trump University lawsuit in his San Diego courtroom. Trump claims that the judge’s Mexican heritage should disqualify him from the case.
The Wisconsin Republican disavowed Trump’s comments about Curiel to reporters at a Washington, D.C. event Tuesday.
“I regret those comments he made,” Ryan said. “It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
He went on to say that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s statements were “sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” but stopped short of actually calling Trump a racist.
Nonetheless, White House press secretary Josh Earnest latched onto Ryan’s comments like a drowning man to a life-preserver.
“Republicans — wrapped up their nomination process early,” Earnest said. “Apparently it was early enough to allow the Republican Speaker of the House to basically call the Republican presidential nominee a racist.”
However, the Obama administration apparently felt it incumbent to have a federal judge step down from hearing a case for the exact same reason — the judge’s national heritage.
The Daily Caller reported:
In 2015, immigration Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor sued the United States Department of Justice after it forced her to recuse herself from “all immigration cases involving Iranians.”
@DailyCaller @NobamaDotCom Ooohhh no! But Trump is bad for his comments? Oh hell no! Retweet the living crap outta this! — Beki (@beki007s) June 10, 2016
Earnest forgot two basic principle: Do a little research before you make assumptions, and people who live in glass houses should always avoid throwing stones.
Sign up for our morning blast HEREIn a statement on the huge state-sponsored salvage of private bankruptcy that was first proposed last September, a group of Republican lawmakers, employing one of the very rudest words in their party’s thesaurus, described the proposed rescue of the busted finance and discredited credit sectors as “socialistic.” There was a sort of half-truth to what they said. But they would have been very much nearer the mark—and rather more ironic and revealing at their own expense—if they had completed the sentence and described the actual situation as what it is: “socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the rest.”
I have heard arguments about whether it was Milton Friedman or Gore Vidal who first came up with this apt summary of a collusion between the overweening state and certain favored monopolistic concerns, whereby the profits can be privatized and the debts conveniently socialized, but another term for the same system would be “banana republic.”
What are the main principles of a banana republic? A very salient one might be that it has a paper currency which is an international laughingstock: a definition that would immediately qualify today’s United States of America. We may snicker at the thriller from Wasilla, who got her first passport only last year, yet millions of once well-traveled Americans are now forced to ask if they can afford even the simplest overseas trip when their folding money is apparently issued by the Boardwalk press of Atlantic City. But still, the chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it. At all costs, therefore, the one principle that must not operate is the principle of accountability. In fact, if possible, even the similar-sounding term (deriving from the same root) of accountancy must be jettisoned as well. Just listen to Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as he explained how the legal guardians of fair and honest play had made those principles go away. On September 26, he announced that “the last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work.” Now listen to how he enlarges on this somewhat lame statement. It seems to him on reflection that “voluntary regulation” was fundamentally flawed from the beginning, because investment banks could opt in or out of supervision voluntarily. The fact that investment bank holding companies could withdraw from this voluntary supervision at their discretion diminished the perceived mandate of the program and weakened its effectiveness.
Yes, I think one might say that. Indeed, the “perceived mandate” of a parole program that allowed those enrolled in it to take off their ankle bracelets at any time they chose to leave the house might also have been open to the charge that it was self-contradictory and wired for its own self-destruction. But in banana-republicland, like Alice’s Wonderland, words tend to lose their meaning and to dissolve into the neutral, responsibility-free verbiage of a Cox.
And still, in so many words in the phrasing of the first bailout request to be placed before Congress, there appeared the brazen demand that, once passed, the “package” be subject to virtually no more Congressional supervision or oversight. This extraordinary proposal shows the utter contempt in which the deliberative bodies on Capitol Hill are held by the unelected and inscrutable financial panjandrums. But welcome to another aspect of banana-republicdom. In a banana republic, the members of the national legislature will be (a) largely for sale and (b) consulted only for ceremonial and rubber-stamp purposes some time after all the truly important decisions have already been made elsewhere.
I was very struck, as the liquefaction of a fantasy-based system proceeded, to read an observation by Professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, of the Yale School of Management. Referring to those who had demanded—successfully—to be indemnified by the customers and clients whose trust they had betrayed, the professor phrased it like this:
These are people who want to be rewarded as if they were entrepreneurs. But they aren’t. They didn’t have anything at risk.
That’s almost exactly right, except that they did have something at risk. What they put at risk, though, was other people’s money and other people’s property. How very agreeable it must be to sit at a table in a casino where nobody seems to lose, and to play with a big stack of chips furnished to you by other people, and to have the further assurance that, if anything should ever chance to go wrong, you yourself are guaranteed by the tax dollars of those whose money you are throwing about in the first place! It’s enough to make a cat laugh. These members of the “business community” are indeed not buccaneering and risk-taking innovators. They are instead, to quote my old friend Nicholas von Hoffman about another era, those who were standing around with tubas in their arms on the day it began to rain money. And then, when the rain of gold stopped and the wind changed, they were the only ones who didn’t feel the blast. Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron, the former bosses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have departed with $9.43 million in retirement benefits. I append no comment.Get the biggest Newcastle United FC 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
Former Newcastle United favourite Robbie Elliott admits he can’t believe anything that comes out of his old club these days.
The born-and-bred Geordie, who enjoyed two playing spells with his hometown team, was left stunned by the lack of activity in the transfer market.
When it became clear on transfer deadline days that Newcastle were not going to conduct any business, he took to Twitter to vent his frustration.
“Funny how times change. I used to look forward to deadline day with excitement and anticipation. Now it just makes me sad and annoyed,” he wrote.
Elliott’s mood had not changed when he spoke to the Sunday Sun from his home in the United States, where he is a performance expert at Nike’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon, a job which includes working with the USA national football sides.
He said: “I don’t know what to believe any more in terms of what comes out of the club.
“In fact it’s getting to the stage where I don’t believe anything that’s said.
“It’s like the boy that cried wolf. They say one thing, such as they are going to sign players, and it doesn’t happen.
“We were told all summer that players would arrive, but you do start to wonder whether that was ever the plan.
“It’s just so disappointing.”
Elliott’s passion for Newcastle remains as fierce as ever and he feels for the supporters, of which he is one.
He said: “The only think that kept me going on deadline day was the Geordie humour.
“I think they had to find a funny side to it all or they would have rioted.”
But Elliott by his nature is an optimist.
He doesn’t agree that this season will be a struggle if Alan Pardew can get lucky with injuries and suspension.
The former left-back, who starred almost 200 times for the black-and -whites, said: “I actually think we are a good team. Even with just one signing in Loic Remy, we will finish mid-table.
“If the players can stay healthy, I don’t think that will be a problem.
“I still think we’ll be OK.
“Our full-strength team is top-quality. We are strong all over the pitch, but we just needed strengthened. I can’t believe the same mistakes are |
on banks laundering the proceeds from the illegal sale of drugs to the current context in Uruguay is likely to encourage, not prevent, illicit drug sales:
Fighting drug trafficking was one of the main reasons the Uruguayan government gave for legalizing recreational marijuana. Officials spent years developing a complex regulatory framework that permits people to grow a limited supply of cannabis themselves or buy it at pharmacies for less than the black market rate. Lawmakers hoped that these legal structures would undercut illicit marijuana cultivation and sales. “There probably isn’t a trade in Uruguay today that is more controlled than cannabis sale,” said Pablo Durán (a legal expert at the Center of Pharmacies in Uruguay, a trade group).
Despite that fact, the pressure continues to be brought to bear on Uruguay’s legal cannabis businesses. Banco República has already announced that it will close the accounts of the pharmacies that sell cannabis in order to safeguard its much more valuable dollar operations.
In other words, a state-owned bank of a sovereign nation just decided to put draconian US legislation before a law adopted by the Uruguayan parliament authorizing the sale and production of marijuana. The law’s prime sponsor, Uruguay’s former president, José Mujica, is furious. During a session of the country’s Senate, he accused the banks of directly attacking democracy. His successor, President Tabaré Vázquez, is far less enthused about the plans to legalize pot.
The potential implications of this issue extend far beyond Uruguay’s borders. For years opposition to the US-backed war on drugs has been building across Latin America. At the 2013 UN General Assembly Latin American leaders of all political stripes rose to the podium to take a stand against the war. They included Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Costa Rica’s Laura Chinchilla, Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina, Mexico’s then foreign minister (and now finance minister) José Antonio Meade.
Even Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, the United States’ staunchest ally in South America and third largest recipient of US military aid after Israel and Egypt, bemoaned that that his country, which received more than $3.5 billion in counter-narcotics aid between 2002 and 2011 and was frequently cited as a model by the Obama administration, “has suffered more deaths, more bloodshed, and more sacrifices in this war” than almost any other, with the obvious exception of Mexico.
By now it is painfully obvious, to all but those who financially benefit from it, that the US government’s heavily militarized War on Drugs has been a dismal failure. Despite the slaughter of over 150,000 people in Mexico in a war that no one is winning and just about everyone is losing, the drugs keep crossing the border, and in many cases in greater numbers than ever before.
Uruguay’s efforts to legalize marijuana could represent a sea change in drugs policy in a region that is being ripped asunder by the global narcotics trade. If successful, it could go viral as other countries, including Canada, set out to legalize marijuana. But if big global banks like Santander, Citi and Bank of America get their way, the scheme will be snuffed out before it even has a chance to make a difference. By Don Quijones.
One reason stands out, and it’s not the price of oil. Read… How Did Things Get This Bad This Fast for Oil Giant, Pemex?Trevor Cahill revitalized his career with the Chicago Cubs last season, and now he's eyeing a move to a division rival.
The right-hander is interested in pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates on a one-year contract, ESPN's Buster Olney reports.
Chicago took a chance on signing Cahill to a minor-league contract in August, and he quickly became a valuable member of their bullpen down the stretch, posting a 2.12 ERA and 0.76 WHIP with 22 strikeouts over 17 innings.
Once a promising starting pitcher with the Oakland Athletics, the 27-year-old's career took a nosedive in 2014 with the Arizona Diamondbacks after he experienced mechanical issues with his delivery. He then bounced around in the minors with the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers organizations before landing with the Cubs.
Ray Searage has a reputation as perhaps the finest pitching coach in the majors, and most recently helped turn around the career of southpaw J.A. Happ, who signed a three-year, $36-million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.A fog of drugs and war
More than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year took antidepressants, sedatives and other prescription medications. Some see a link to aberrant behavior.
"Jack Bauer told me this was going to happen — you guys are trying to kidnap me!" he yelled, as if he were a character in the TV show "24."
An earlier version of this story said that Bart Billings, a former military psychologist, hosts an annual conference at Camp Pendleton on combat stress. He now holds the conference at other venues.
Every four hours during the 19-hour flight, Burke swallowed a tablet of Dexedrine, the prescribed amphetamine known as "go pills." After landing, he went out for dinner and drinks with a fellow crewman. They were driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base when Burke began striking his friend in the head.
SEATTLE — U.S. Air Force pilot Patrick Burke's day started in the cockpit of a B-1 bomber near the Persian Gulf and proceeded across nine time zones as he ferried the aircraft home to South Dakota.
When the woman giving them a lift pulled the car over, Burke leaped on her and wrestled her to the ground. "Me and my platoon are looking for terrorists," he told her before grabbing her keys, driving away and crashing into a guardrail.
Burke was charged with auto theft, drunk driving and two counts of assault. But in October, a court-martial judge found the young lieutenant not guilty "by reason of lack of mental responsibility" — the almost unprecedented equivalent, at least in modern-day military courts, of an insanity acquittal.
Four military psychiatrists concluded that Burke suffered from "polysubstance-induced delirium" brought on by alcohol, lack of sleep and the 40 milligrams of Dexedrine he was issued by the Air Force.
In a small but growing number of cases across the nation, lawyers are blaming the U.S. military's heavy use of psychotropic drugs for their clients' aberrant behavior and related health problems. Such defenses have rarely gained traction in military or civilian courtrooms, but Burke's case provides the first important indication that military psychiatrists and court-martial judges are not blind to what can happen when troops go to work medicated.
After two long-running wars with escalating levels of combat stress, more than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year were taking prescribed antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs, according to figures recently disclosed to The Times by the U.S. Army surgeon general. Nearly 8% of the active-duty Army is now on sedatives and more than 6% is on antidepressants — an eightfold increase since 2005.
"We have never medicated our troops to the extent we are doing now.... And I don't believe the current increase in suicides and homicides in the military is a coincidence," said Bart Billings, a former military psychologist who hosts an annual conference on combat stress.
The pharmacy consultant for the Army surgeon general says the military's use of the drugs is comparable to that in the civilian world. "It's not that we're using them more frequently or any differently," said Col. Carol Labadie. "As with any medication, you have to look at weighing the risk versus the benefits of somebody going on a medication."
But the military environment makes regulating the use of prescription drugs a challenge compared with the civilian world, some psychologists say.
Follow-up appointments in the battlefield are often few and far between. Soldiers are sent out on deployment typically with 180 days' worth of medications, allowing them to trade with friends or grab an entire fistful of pills at the end of an anxious day. And soldiers with injuries can easily become dependent on narcotic painkillers.
"The big difference is these are people who have access to loaded weapons, or have responsibility for protecting other individuals who are in harm's way," said Grace Jackson, a former Navy staff psychiatrist who resigned her commission in 2002, in part out of concerns that military psychiatrists even then were handing out too many pills.Tennessee Lawmakers Want To Make The Bible The Official State Book
Tennessee lawmakers have passed a measure making the Bible the state's official book. But opposition is coming from an unexpected group: religious conservatives.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Let's talk a little bit about the importance of symbols. For that we go to Tennessee. Like most states, Tennessee has quite a few official state symbols - a state amphibian, a state official rifle. And there are no fewer than nine official state songs. Soon Tennesseans could add another state symbol. Lawmakers have sent Gov. Bill Haslam a measure that would make the Bible the state's official book. Chas Sisk with member station WPLN in Nashville is going to tell us more.
CHAS SISK, BYLINE: In many evangelical churches across the South, Wednesday night means Bible study.
BILL WATKINS: We're going to be looking in 1 Thessalonians chapter three tonight.
SISK: Last Wednesday night at the Crieve Hall Church of Christ in Nashville, about a hundred people turned out an hour-long lesson led by a pastor who reads the New Testament from a tablet computer. Out in the pews is Ruth Pickens. She's a faithful student of the Bible, but she's not so sure making it Tennessee's official book is a good idea.
RUTH PICKENS: I mean, most people that are churchgoing people and believe in God and they believe in the Bible, they already honor the book.
SISK: Tennessee lawmakers in both chambers have approved a bill that would make the bible the state's newest symbol. The idea has broad support. A poll taken last year shows 60 percent of Tennesseans favor the move. But some of the strongest opposition has come not from liberals or from civil libertarians. It's come from religious conservatives, people who say the good book is too pure to be placed alongside the state bird and the state tree.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BILL HASLAM: The Bible is the most important book in my life, and I think in the world. But that's very different than being the state's official book.
SISK: Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, has discouraged the idea since it was first proposed a year ago, though he hasn't said for sure yet whether he'll veto it. The state attorney general, Herbert Slatery, says the proposal is unconstitutional. He says it violates the Bill of Rights and goes against the Tennessee Constitution, which draws an even sharper division between church and state. The seeds of this debate go all the way back to the state's beginnings. Tennessee's founders believed strongly in the Almighty, but their piety was tinged with skepticism toward establish religion.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FERRELL HAILE: If indeed the Bible is God's inspired words, then we can do nothing to increase its value. But we can degrade it.
SISK: Republican State Sen. Ferrell Haile has been one lawmaker who's spoken out against the proposal. Opposition from conservatives like him forced its sponsor, an ordained minister named Steve Southerland, to perform a delicate dance.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEVE SOUTHERLAND: I can't make it a religious or history book. The Bible is what it is.
SISK: In the final debate last week, Southerland tiptoed around the issue of religion. Instead he focused on other reasons to make the Bible the state book. Southerland noted that Nashville's been a center for Bible publishing. And for generations, he said, Tennessee families have recorded births and deaths in their family Bibles.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SOUTHERLAND: What we're doing here is recognizing it for its historical and cultural contribution to the state of Tennessee.
WATKINS: It just seems like a fearful effort.
SISK: That's Bill Watkins, pastor of the Crieve Hall Church of Christ.
WATKINS: In my opinion, a fearful effort to stop the incursion of things that we don't always agree with. And I don't think we have to be afraid of anything.
SISK: And Watkins believes it's not needed. Once the measure reaches the governor's desk, he has ten days to decide whether to sign it, veto it or let it go into effect without his signature. For NPR News, I'm Chas Sisk in Nashville.
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.As the financial system in Greece comes to a screeching halt this week, a smaller catastrophe looms in Puerto Rico, where the government is likewise set for disputes with its creditors over how to pay the bills.
Gov. Alejandro García Padilla of Puerto Rico does not believe the commonwealth will be able to pay the $72 billion, Michael Corkery and Mary Williams Walsh report in The New York Times. That's a huge amount of money, about four times the amount that was at stake in Detroit's bankruptcy.
There's no short answer to the question of what went wrong in Puerto Rico, which the subject of a report commissioned by the García Padilla administration scheduled for release Monday. The authors include former World Bank chief economist Anne O. Krueger, and they don't mince words.
One point the report makes is worth considering for policymakers elsewhere in the United States. While labor organizers around the country along with most major Democratic politicians have said the federal minimum wage is too low, it seems clearly too high in Puerto Rico, at 77 percent of per capita income. That puts a lot of people with less education and fewer skills out of consideration for a job.
Economists trying to understand what a higher minimum wage would mean for the United States have examined Puerto Rico's history, and some have recommended a lower wage for the island, as Lydia DePillis has reported for Wonkblog.
The minimum wage is the same in the rest of the United States, of course, but it is just 28 percent of per capita income on average, since Puerto Rico's economy is so weak relative to the rest of the country's. There might well be room to increase minimum wages elsewhere without replicating the problems in Puerto Rico's labor market.
Still, if Congress does consider increasing the federal minimum wage again, lawmakers should take into account the consequences for the commonwealth.
Welcome to Wonkbook. To subscribe by e-mail, click here. Send comments, criticism or ideas to Wonkbook at Washpost dot com. Follow Wonkblog on Twitter and Facebook.
What's in Wonkbook: 1) Greek capital controls 2) Opinions, including Sullivan on gay marriage 3) Sanders is a threat, and more
1. Top story: Greek banking system shuts down
Greek banks are closed. "Greece shut down its banking system, ordering lenders to stay closed for six days starting Monday, and its central bank moved to impose controls to prevent money from flooding out of the country. The steps, a fateful climax to five years of debt crisis, put Greece closer than it ever has been to an exit from the euro and pushes the common currency itself into uncharted waters. The decision came after the European Central Bank—meeting in an emergency session Sunday—opted not to expand a lifeline of emergency funds that has been sustaining Greek banks while nervous depositors pulled their money out.... On Athens’s rainy streets late Sunday, many ATMs had already been emptied." Brian Blackstone, Nektaria Stamouli and Charles Forelle in The Wall Street Journal.
Chart of the day: Some €64 billion has already left Greece over the past year. Mark Whitehouse for Bloomberg View.
Parliament has called a national referendum on the latest proposal from Europe. "The parliamentary vote was held in the early hours of Sunday after 14 hours of rancorous debate in which opposition MPs accused Syriza of governing irresponsibly and betraying the country’s interests.... The government has given few details of how the July 5 referendum will be organised, other than suggesting that 'yes' and 'no' answers would reference a document listing Greek objections to fiscal and structural measures set by creditors in return for providing €15.3bn of bailout aid to Athens. But with the bailout due to expire on Tuesday, there will be no programme in place for Greek voters to decide on when they go to the polls." Kerin Hope in The Financial Times.
Stocks are falling worldwide. "Stocks fell sharply in Europe and Asia on Monday, and markets in New York appeared headed for a slump at the opening, as Greece’s financial difficulties spread worries about possible broader harm to the global financial system... Investors have been concerned by the probability that Athens will be unable to meet a 1.6 billion euro, or roughly $1.8 billion, loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund that is due on Tuesday, with uncertain consequences for Greece’s future in the eurozone and even in the European Union. While investors were clearly concerned about the events of the weekend, there was no sign on Monday of widespread panic." David Jolly and Keith Bradsher in The New York Times.
Tsipras has had enough. "Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras began leaning toward a risky referendum after creditors covered his proposed policies in red ink, said people close to him.... They marked up Greece’s policy document with deletions and amendments in red font, much like a teacher’s notes to a failing student. The policies the so-called troika of institutions wanted instead—including tough pension cuts—looked impossible for Mr. Tsipras to sell to his left-wing Syriza party back home. Greek officials say that when Mr. Tsipras also failed to get German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders to cut him some slack, he opted on Friday to let the voters decide.... The premier told Greece’s Parliament in the early hours of Sunday that Greeks could vote 'no' and still keep the euro, while boosting the government’s bargaining position." Nektaria Stamouli and Marcus Walker in The Wall Street Journal.
IRWIN: Could Greece somehow keep the euro? "A 'No' vote almost certainly means that the country will walk away from the euro and create its own currency (which will surely devalue sharply)... Capital controls that limit people’s ability to withdraw and move money out of the country are, it is safe to say, not a sign of a healthy currency union. It would be hard to call the dollar the national currency of the United States if laws prevented me from taking Maryland dollars and depositing them in a Virginia bank. The developments show how little power Mr. Tsipras and the Greek government really have if they want to keep using the euro currency, as their campaign platform called for and as is widely popular in Greek polls.... There may be a middle ground, too, in which Greece semi-exits the euro: Imagine keeping the currency but with such strict and permanent capital controls that Greek’s euros are actually a different currency from the one used in Paris or Rome." The New York Times.
KARABELL: The damage could be contained. "Assuming the ECB holds firm in its refusal to extend credit and the government in Athens leaves the euro zone, it comes down to this: Either Grexit will be only the first shoe to drop (groan) in the unwinding of the euro zone—and thus a major blow to the world economy just as policy-makers (the hopeful Obama administration among them) are banking on stable growth—or it will not.... My opinion, and that is all any of us possess about this particular future at the current moment, is that it will not. Financial markets may have a very rough few weeks. Greece may stay with the euro, and it may not. In neither case is this likely to be the beginning of the great unraveling. The world is too big, and the international buffers are just strong enough." Politico.
O'BRIEN: Europe's stance is political. "Greece and Europe really aren't that far apart on a deal. Europe wants Greece to cut its pensions more than it already has—which, in some cases, has been as much as 40 percent—but Greece only wants to cut them half as much and make up the rest with higher taxes on businesses. In other words, both sides agree how much austerity Athens should do, just not how it should do it.... This hardline stance is more about warning anti-austerity parties in Spain and Portugal that there's nothing to be gained from challenging the continent's budget-cutting status quo as it is about the €1.8 billion in pension cuts—not even a rounding error in the context of Europe's economy—that it wants from Greece." The Washington Post.
RAMPELL: It's time for Greece's creditors to acknowledge the inevitable. "Despite optimistic denials by our obstinate protagonists, a default of some kind is inevitable. The only question is when and how orderly it will be.... The private and public sectors are already behaving as if a default and exit from the euro are imminent, with actions that could well become self-fulfilling. Greeks are hoarding cash and sending their savings abroad; by a conservative estimate, Greek bank deposits have fallen by about 45 percent since their peak in 2009.... The government, meanwhile, has been financing itself by not paying its bills... Further tax hikes and spending cuts, as the country’s creditors demand, will only further reduce the government’s ability to pay." The Washington Post.
KRUGMAN: Greek voters should reject the terms and quit the common currency. "It has been obvious for some time that the creation of the euro was a terrible mistake. Europe never had the preconditions for a successful single currency — above all, the kind of fiscal and banking union that, for example, ensures that when a housing bubble in Florida bursts, Washington automatically protects seniors against any threat to their medical care or their bank deposits.... Cases of successful austerity, in which countries rein in deficits without bringing on a depression, typically involve large currency devaluations that make their exports more competitive.... But Greece, without its own currency, didn’t have that option.... Acceding to the troika’s ultimatum would represent the final abandonment of any pretense of Greek independence." The New York Times.
2. Top opinions
MATTHEWS: Obama is now among the most consequential presidents in U.S. history. "National health insurance has been the single defining goal of American progressivism for more than a century.... [Obamacare] established, for the first time in history, that it was the responsibility of the United States government to provide health insurance to nearly all Americans, and it expanded Medicaid and offered hundreds of billions of dollars in insurance subsidies to fulfill that responsibility.... It effected a massive downward redistribution of income. It's one of the most startlingly progressive laws this country has ever enacted.... When you consider the law in the context of 100 years of progressive activism, and in the grand scheme of American history, it starts to look less like a moderate reform and more like an epochal achievement." Vox.
FALLOWS: The president's eulogy is worth watching. "Obama’s eulogy [Friday] for parishioners of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston was his most fully successful performance as an orator. The president recited the words to Amazing Grace midway through the speech, before singing them at the end. Including these crucial, closing words: 'Was blind, but now I see.'... And from that point on in the speech, he consistently used the “we’ve been blind / but now we see” pairing to present all the policy points he wanted to discuss.... And on throughout the speech. We were blind to a problem; but now through God’s grace our eyes have opened; and we can see what we should do.... As a matter of political framing, it may not actually make a difference, but it’s as much as a political speech could possibly do to induce people to think about issues in a different way. Appreciate how this approach comes across, versus 'you were wrong, we are right.' " The Atlantic.
SULLIVAN: Proponents of gay marriage have at last won the victory they sought. "We lost and lost and lost again. Much of the gay left was deeply suspicious of this conservative-sounding reform; two thirds of the country were opposed; the religious right saw in the issue a unique opportunity for political leverage—and over time, they put state constitutional amendments against marriage equality on the ballot in countless states, and won every time.... I recall all this now simply to rebut the entire line of being “on the right side of history.” History does not have such straight lines. Movements do not move relentlessly forward; progress comes and, just as swiftly, goes. For many years, it felt like one step forward, two steps back. History is a miasma of contingency, and courage, and conviction, and chance. But some things you know deep in your heart: that all human beings are made in the image of God; that their loves and lives are equally precious; that the pursuit of happiness promised in the Declaration of Independence has no meaning if it does not include the right to marry the person you love; and has no force if it denies that fundamental human freedom to a portion of its citizens." The New Republic.
3. In case you missed it
Chinese stocks are plummeting. "Chinese equities swung wildly before ending Monday with another significant drop, as a rate cut from China’s central bank failed to slow the country’s stock market roller coaster. The Shanghai Composite sank as much as 7.6 per cent in early afternoon trading before closing the day down 3.3 per cent at 4,053, its lowest finish since mid-April. The index has now fallen 22 per cent from its June 12 high, putting it in technical 'bear market' territory and wiping more than $1.2tn off the total value of Shanghai-listed companies.... Some analysts had already sounded caution over whether the weekend rate cut from the People’s Bank of China would be enough to boost market sentiment." Josh Noble in The Financial Times.
Jeb Bush used his family name to win business. "Records, lawsuits, interviews and newspaper accounts stretching back more than three decades present a picture of a man who, before he was elected Florida governor in 1998, often benefited from his family connections and repeatedly put himself in situations that raised questions about his judgment and exposed him to reputational risk.... Five of his business associates have been convicted of crimes; one remains an international fugitive on fraud charges. In each case, Bush said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing and said some of the people he met as a businessman in Florida took advantage of his naiveté.... 'Jeb Bush had a successful career in commercial real estate and business before serving as Florida’s governor,' said Kristy Campbell, a Bush spokeswoman. 'He has always operated with the highest level of integrity throughout his business career.' " Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Tom Hamburger in The Washington Post.
Bernie Sanders is a real threat to Hillary Clinton. "Sanders — a self-described democratic socialist — has seen his crowds swell and is gaining ground in the polls on the formidable Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In New Hampshire, where Sanders was on yet another weekend swing, one survey last week showed him within 8 percentage points of Clinton. Sanders’s emerging strength has exposed continued misgivings among the party’s progressive base about Clinton, whose team is treading carefully in its public statements. Supporters have acknowledged privately the potential for Sanders to damage her — perhaps winning an early state or two — even if he can’t win the nomination. 'He’s connecting in a way that Hillary Clinton is not,' said Burt Cohen, a former New Hampshire state senator." John Wagner and Anne Gearan in The Washington Post.Fernando Alonso's popular participation in this year's Indy 500 has "reawakened" IndyCar's push to connect with an international audience, according to series chief Mark Miles.
Alonso was the star attraction of the 101st running of the famous race, which he contested instead of the Monaco Grand Prix. The Spaniard impressed throughout, qualifying fifth and running competitively until a Honda engine failure, and endeared himself to North American fans by embracing the event.
Miles says Alonso's participation had a huge impact on viewing figures in some key markets in Europe.
"I'm told by our broadcaster in Spain, which is Movistar, that their broadcast of the Indy 500 achieved nearly twice the audiences of their broadcast of Monaco," he told ESPN. "They've been pretty much on par in previous years, so it represents a very significant increase in attention and viewership. Then we know there was a very marked increase in audience in Italy and France as well."
In recent years IndyCar has explored the possibility of starting the season overseas -- Brazil was set to host the opener in 2015 but the event was cancelled. Miles thinks the interest generated by Alonso's participation at the Brickyard shows IndyCar can attract fans outside of North America even if it is not racing there.
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
"If anything it has reawakened us to communicating internationally. We have very broad television distribution, we have the same broadcasters in Italy and Spain as Formula One does but will be looking for opportunities for further exposure both broadcast and digitally. I think we can be a lot more effective at connecting with international audiences beyond those mechanisms and communicating with international media. I think when people see IndyCar, they love it. I expect we can make a lot more fans."
Miles is also open to exploring the series' options in Europe.
"We hadn't seen much of a possibility in Europe, simply because there are so few places where the climate is accommodating in February. But there's some places in the southern part of Western Europe which we should take a look at. But while most of the attention was in Spain and in Europe, Fernando's engagement wasn't lost on fans in South America and all over the world.
" So you take that, plus Takuma Sato being the first ever Japanese winner in a country where there's a significant automobile and racing culture... the sum of all that is likely to mean that we have a better chance of finding a couple of good opportunities to host the championship in terms of where to host events."GETTY The rare Blue Moon is a warning says pastor
"Prophecisor" Pastor Paul Begley has taken to YouTube to warn of the significance of the rare Blue Moon happening in the run up to the even rarer "tetrad" of four Blood Moons. Fellow preachers have been warning for months that the date of the last of four 'blood moons' over the past 18 months, due to occur on September 28, and following a papal visit to the US, will signal the second coming of Jesus Christ, before Armageddon. Two evangelists with huge followings in the states - Mark Blitz and John Hagee - claim after that date the world as we know it will be destroyed by major earthquakes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East and the possibility of a Third World War. Pastor Begley said he was concerned that tonight's Blue Moon could spell disasters in the run up to the prophesied apocalypse in September. A Blue Moon only happens when there is a second full moon in one calendar month - and so is unusual as the full moon cycle is normally 29.5 days.
YouTube Pastor Paul Begley
YouTube His TV show
He said in his video, on the channel he calls The Coming Apocalypse, which is also aired on some US TV channels, that after the first full moon this month on July 1, there were great fires in Canada, which sent so much ash into the air they made the moon "appear red." Having another "red moon" in the run up to the "blood moons" is a warning we cannot ignore, he suggested. He said: "The thing I find very strange about this is it happens to be happening in this four Blood Moon tetrad, and in such a prophetic time. "As we come towards the fourth and final Blood Moon - a super Blood Moon, we've got a Blue Moon." The pastor said the full moon in early July was the night of his first broadcast. He added: "There were forest fires burning in Canada that sent so much ash, but the jet streams did not blow them away like normal, but instead, God just let the smoke hang there, so when the moon came up it was blood red. "So it was un unscheduled Blood Moon. It should not have been red, but because of the ash and smoke in the atmosphere, it turned the moon blood red and it darkened the Sun, which is exactly what the Bible says in Joel Chapter two."
GETTY The last Blood Moon of the four happens on September 28
It is the prophetic events - the Iranian nuke deal, the rioting on the temple mount the last few days, the hostilty around radical Islam Pastor Paul Begley
He said verse 30 read: "And I will show wonder in the heaven and in the Earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke." "That sounds like the Canadian forest fire.: The verse continued "the Sun shall be turned into darkness." Mr Begley added: "It was that afternoon and the moon turned into blood - it did that night. An unscheduled Blood Moon. "So we were not supposed to have a Blood Moon, but we did, we had an unscheduled Blood Moon, and on this Friday (today) we are going to have a Blue Moon." He suggested the Blue Moon, coupled with "prophetic events" currently happening made it more significant. He said: "It is the prophetic events - the Iranian nuke deal, the rioting on the temple mount the last few days, the hostilty around radical Islam, the UN discussion of a two- state solution to be forced on Israel, there is so much happening right now - the supreme Court decision on gay marriage.
Blue moon - in pictures Sat, August 1, 2015 A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year: either the third of four full moons in a season, or a second full moon in a month of the common calendar. Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 12 The moon rises over people gathered on Glastonbury Tor
YouTube Mark Blitz
"Throw in an unscheduled Blood Moon and a Blue Moon and you have to just ask are these part of the signs that the Bible spoke about - 'we will see wonderous events in the heavens". Blitz and Hagee have been accused of peddling the false warnings in order to cash in on books they have penned about their predictions - one of which was turned into a movie. The Blood Moon tetrad began on April 15 last year, followed by another red-coloured lunar eclipse on October 8 last year, and a third on April 4 this year. Scientists and commentators have called for calm and pointed out how many false 'end of world predictions' have been made historically that have never materialised. Professor Gary Shogren, a former pastor who studied the New Testament at Aberdeen University, said: "You’ll never go broke predicting the apocalypse".On August 31st the Courthouse News Service announced that a California appeals court affirmed the lower court ruling that “Two and a Half Men” star Jon Cryer must keep paying ex-wife actress Sarah Trigger Cryer $8,000 a month in child support, even though the child is in Jon’s custody,
Sarah also had a child with David, her next husband. That marriage ended in divorce after Sarah was arrested for allegedly choking her two-year-old son.
Child Protective Services placed both children with their respective fathers. Subsequently, the Court reduced Sarah’s timeshare to near zero and ordered supervised visitation with her children.
Jon asked the Court to reduce his $120,000 voluntary child support settlement agreement to zero. Jon correctly, but unsuccessfully, argued that the money he paid should be put in a trust account for the child since it appeared Sarah was using it to pay her attorney rather than to support their son.
Later that year the court ordered Jon to pay Sarah $96,000 per year, even though $14,000 and change is California’s child support “Guideline” amount.
The court deviated from the Guideline because; (1) it would be in the “child’s best interest” for the child’s mom to have a place to live in if and when a reunification process occurs, and (2) dad could easily afford to still pay $96,000 which was a pittance compared to his $5.7 million a year salary.
Jon was also ordered to pay $20,000 of Sarah’s attorney fees. He was ordered to pay another $5,000 of her attorney fees after losing a motion for an accounting of monies paid Sarah since nothing in law requires a parent to account for how child support is spent.
After several more hearings, the court maintained it was in the best interests of the child for Sarah to continue receiving support so she would have a home for their son to return to.
Jon appealed.
He lost.
Jon was ordered to pay another $40,000 for Sarah’s attorney fees.
It appears the appeals court very selectively cited and misconstrued certain Family Code sections which supported the lower courts findings while omitting (or ignoring) other sections which supported Jon’s requested outcomes. *
The court basically said “give the poor woman some money, you have more than enough and can easily afford it”.
In the future this appellate opinion may be used to argue that any non custodial parent (especially mothers) should be entitled to the custodial parent’s earnings for no other reason than some unknown time in the future the non custodial parent may have to provide a home for a child.
It might also be used to argue that a deviation from the Guideline is appropriate merely under the child’s best interest because the court has broad discretion and the child should have similar standards of living regardless of which parent is the higher wage earner.
Justice Roger Boren said for the three-judge panel, “The court properly found that special circumstances existed, and its ruling was consistent with the objective of protecting the child’s best interest… understandably, Jon may have found the situation unfair, the primary focus must remain on the child’s well-being, not the parents’ feelings.”
CBS news reported Jon feared Sarah hired a hit man to kill him. She was arrested for child abuse (neglect). It certainly appears Sarah committed serious criminal acts; acts for which an activist court rewarded her thousands of dollars a month in alimony transparently disguised as child support. Jon is charged with no wrongdoing yet has to pay an abusive woman thousands |
glad to partner with organizations like the OTA to raise the security and privacy bar," said Bob Lord, director of information security at Twitter.
Of all sectors analyzed, the “Social 50” – comprising social networking, gaming and dating websites – outpaced all others in terms of average score and percentage of companies on the Honor Roll (50%). But, it also possessed the highest percentage of websites experiencing a data breach within the past year (18%).
American Greetings scored best among the Internet Retailer 500, a strong testimony of its management’s commitment to collaboration and data sharing. Netflix followed in second place, and then Christian Book Distributors, Sony Electronics and Ancestry.com rounded out the top five.
“These companies represent a broad spectrum, ranging from the fourth highest revenue earner among retailers to the 476th highest,” said Spiezle. “This validates that the Honor Roll is achievable by retailers of all sizes and that the criteria is not onerous or costly to achieve.”
Online merchants in general showed strong growth in email authentication, as 88% complied with recommended best practices. However, their privacy policies need improvement, as more than one-third of the sector failed in that regard.
FDIC 100: The banking industry continues to dominate all sectors in adoption of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a technology that establishes an encrypted link between web servers and browsers. Nevertheless, banks suffered the highest industry failure rate (65%) due to inadequate email authentication support and insufficient and vague privacy policies.
Meanwhile, the top 50 Federal Government websites (not factored into Honor Roll due to lack of privacy data) lag in all aspects of email authentication and SSL. On the bright side, these websites are devoted adopters of DNSSEC, a technology designed to prevent hijacking of the Domain Name System. The Fed 50 boasted a 92% implementation rate, reflecting a White House mandate.
News 50: Considering their collection of registration data, many news media sites are not complying with best practices or regulatory requirements. The low scores are attributed to several issues, including third-party data collection, indefinite data retention policies, and failure to encrypt their registration or login screens with SSL, leaving personal data exposed and ripe for abuse.
To put that in perspective, the 30.2% success rate among all evaluated websites actually constitutes a drop-off from 32.2% in 2013. But discounting the news sector, the overall percentage of Honor Roll members remained at par with 2013, at 32.1%.Asteroid hunters need a telescope to save Earth SCIENCE
Ed Lu, Chairman of the B612 Foundation, shows a model of the Sentinel Space Telescope during a news conference in San Francisco, Thursday, June 28, 2012. The group of ex-NASA astronauts and scientists on Thursday announced they plan to launch a privately-funded space telescope to search for small asteroids that may pose a danger to Earth. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) less Ed Lu, Chairman of the B612 Foundation, shows a model of the Sentinel Space Telescope during a news conference in San Francisco, Thursday, June 28, 2012. The group of ex-NASA astronauts and scientists on... more Photo: Paul Sakuma, Associated Press Photo: Paul Sakuma, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Asteroid hunters need a telescope to save Earth 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Los Angeles -- Who will protect us from a killer asteroid? A team of ex-NASA astronauts and scientists thinks it's up to them.
In a bold plan unveiled recently, the group wants to launch its own space telescope to spot and track small and midsize space rocks capable of wiping out a city or continent. With that information, they could sound early warnings if a rogue asteroid appeared headed toward our planet.
So far, the idea from the B612 Foundation is on paper only.
Such an effort would cost upward of several hundred million dollars, and the group plans to start fundraising. Behind the nonprofit are a space shuttle astronaut, Apollo 9 astronaut, former Mars czar, and deep space mission manager along with other non-NASA types.
Asteroids are leftovers from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Most reside in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter but some get nudged into Earth's neighborhood.
NASA and a network of astronomers routinely scan the skies for these near-Earth objects. And they've found 90 percent of the biggest threats - asteroids at least two-thirds of a mile across that are considered major killers. Scientists believe it was a 6-mile-wide asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
But the group thinks more attention should be paid to the estimated half a million smaller asteroids - similar in size to the one that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than 800 square miles of forest.
"We're playing cosmic roulette. We're flying around the solar system with these other objects. The laws of probability eventually catch up to you," said foundation chairman and former shuttle astronaut Ed Lu.
Added former Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart: "The current priority really needs to be toward finding all of those asteroids which can do real damage if they hit or when they hit. It's not a matter of if; it's really a matter of when."
Asteroids are getting attention lately. NASA nixed a return to the moon in favor of a manned landing on an asteroid. Last month, Planetary Resources Inc., a company founded by space entrepreneurs, announced plans to extract precious metals from asteroids within a decade.
Since its birth, Mountain View's B612 Foundation - named after the home asteroid of the Earth-visiting prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince" - has focused on finding ways to deflect an incoming asteroid. Ideas studied include sending an intercepting spacecraft to aiming a nuclear bomb, but none have been tested.
Last year, the group shifted focus to seek out asteroids with a telescope.
It is working with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which has drawn up a preliminary telescope design. The contractor developed NASA's Kepler telescope that hunts for exoplanets and built the instruments aboard the Hubble Space Telescope.
Under the proposal, the asteroid-hunting Sentinel Space Telescope will operate for at least 5 1/2 years. It will orbit around the sun, near the orbit of Venus, or between 30 million to 170 million miles away from Earth. Data will be beamed back through NASA's antenna network under a deal with the space agency.
Launch is targeted for 2017 or 2018. The group is angling to fly aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which made history last month by lifting a cargo capsule to the International Space Station.
Experts said the telescope's vantage point would allow it to spy asteroids faster than ground-based telescopes and accelerate new discoveries. NASA explored doing such a mission in the past but never moved forward because of the expense.
"It's always best to find these things quickly and track them. There might be one with our name on it," said Don Yeomans, who heads the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which monitors potentially dangerous space rocks.
Aside from the technological challenges, the big question is whether philanthropists will open up their wallets to support the project.
Nine years ago, the cost was estimated at $500 million, said Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center at Harvard University who was part of the team that came up with the figure for NASA.
Spahr questions whether enough can be raised given the economy. "This is a hard time," he said.
The group has received seed money - several hundreds of thousands of dollars - from venture capitalists and Silicon Valley outfits to create a team of experts. Lu, the foundation chair, said he was confident donors will step up and noted that some of the world's most powerful telescopes, including the Lick and Palomar observatories in California, were built with private money.
"We're not all about doom and gloom," Lu said. "We're about opening up the solar system. We're talking about preserving life on this planet."Horrible Hungary
Alchemy has three stages: understanding, deconstruction and reconstruction. This can be applied to motorsport as well. As the Model F1 season progressed, teams completed the understanding phase as they realize the potential of their cars. Of course, no one wants to reach the next two stages; unfortunately for them, the Hungarian Grand Prix provided the deconstruction stage. The Manor Mercedes team was no exception.
The team struggled with variance throughout the week, and Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado qualified 16th and 17th, respectively, as a result. The two began attempting to move their way up the field until disaster struck. On lap 20, Maldonado lost the rear end of the car in turn 6, spinning into the tyre barrier and forcing him to retire. Massa began falling back, losing positions to drivers like Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, and on lap 49, his brakes completely failed, pushing him into the Lotus of Sergio Pérez in turn 14 and forcing both of them into retirement.
Team principal macus16 expressed his frustration, calling the race weekend “utterly terrible” and “probably one of the worst [we’ve] had in mf1 all together”.
The full race results can be viewed here.
Next week, the Model F1 World Championship heads to the the national forest track of Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Hungry in Hungary
After the race, the Manor trio of *Manor Motorsport Weekly* head writer ZappaOMatic, macus16 and team jackman Labradooodle decided to join Maldonado in an important trip… to the supermarket. Stopping by at a local Tesco, the four bought some food for the team to (hopefully) cheer them up after a rough week, also making sure to buy some cases of beer to make it up to Mercedes for “borrowing” their kegs during last week’s beer party.
And yes, Maldonado bought some pasta.
AdvertisementsBy Christian Jarrett
Many of our relationships begin with that moment when our eyes meet and we realise the other person is looking right at us. Pause for a second and consider the intensity of the situation, the near-magical state of two brains simultaneously processing one another, each aware of being, at that very instant, the centre of the other’s mental world. Psychologists have made some surprising discoveries about the way that mutual gaze, or the lack of it, affects us mentally and physically and how we relate to each other. Here we digest the fascinating psychology of eye contact, from tiny babies’ sensitivity to gaze to the hallucination-inducing effects of prolonged eye-staring.
Our sensitivity to eye contact begins incredibly early. Infants of just two days of age prefer looking at faces that gaze back at them. Similarly, recordings of the brain activity of four-month-olds show that they process gazing faces more deeply than faces that are looking away; and at 7-months, infants’ brains process eye contact differently from averted gaze even when the eyes are shown for just 50ms – far too quick for any kind of conscious awareness.
Most children recognise the social significance of eye contact, but they seem to take it too far. At the age of three and four, for instance, they often believe that so long as they cover their eyes – thus preventing eye contact – that they will be completely hidden from view. In fact, children will often claim to be hidden even if they simply avert their gaze while another person looks at them.
Children with autism often show a noticeable lack of eye contact and part of the reason is their difficulty understanding the social significance of another person’s gaze, and that they find it difficult to infer other people’s mental state from their eyes.
As adults, locking eyes with another person immediately triggers in us a state of increased self-consciousness. Researchers showed this by asking participants to rate their own emotional reactions to various positive and negative images, some of which were preceded by a face staring straight at them, others by a face with gaze averted. Participants had more insight into their own emotional reactions (which were measured objectively through the galvanic skin response) after they’d made eye contact with a face. “Our results support the view that human adults’ bodily awareness becomes more acute when they are subjected to another’s gaze,” the researchers said.
In fact, eye contact is such an intense experience it even seems to consume extra brain power, making it difficult to perform other challenging mental tasks at the same time. This year a pair of Japanese researchers tested participants on a verb generation task while at the same time they looked at a realistic on-screen face that was either making eye contact with them or had its gaze averted. Making eye contact impaired the participants’ performance on the hardest version of the verb generation task, presumably because it consumed spare brain power that might otherwise have been available to support performance on the verbal task.
Unlike adults, who mostly know instinctively to break eye contact to help concentrate on what they’re saying, children will tend to maintain gaze even when asked a difficult question. Developmental psychologists have shown that children can benefit from being trained to avert their gaze to help them think things through more clearly.
Whether or not other people make eye contact with us changes the way that we think about them and their feelings. For example, we are more likely to remember faces with which we’ve experienced mutual gaze, and we consider displays of anger and joy to be more intense when shown by a person making eye contact. In fact, when a person or human-like entity (such as a human face morphed with a doll) makes eye contact with us, we assume that he/she/it has a more sophisticated mind and a greater ability to act in the world, such as to show self-control and act morally, and a greater desire for social contact.
Indeed, such is the importance of eye contact to socialising that we tend to form rather low opinions of people who persistently avoid our gaze, assuming that they are less sincere and, at least if they’re female, less conscientious. Conversely, we’re more likely to believe statements made by a person who looks us in the eye. Yet maintaining eye contact with too much intensity is seen as a feature of psychopaths.
To try to identity the optimum length of unbroken eye contact to make, psychologists recruited participants at London’s Science Museum and asked them to rate how comfortable they found different lengths of eye contact made by faces shown in video clips, ranging from between 100ms (a tenth of a second) to 10,300ms (just over ten seconds). On average, the participants were most comfortable with eye contact that lasted just over three seconds.
When it comes to deciding whether we trust another person, it turns out that it’s not only a question of how much eye contact they make, but also what we see in their eyes. Remarkably, it seems that we pay attention at a subconscious level to the behaviour of their pupils, and if they dilate – a sign of attraction and emotional arousal – we judge them to be more trustworthy, whereas if they constrict – a sign of fear or feeling threatened – then we judge them less trustworthy. Also, when we trust a partner with dilating pupils, our own pupils tend to mimic theirs and show similar dilation.
We think poorly of conversation partners who consistently avoid eye contact, but it is our feelings of belonging that are hurt when a stranger looks our way and deliberately avoids meeting our eyes – an experience captured by the German expression “wie Luft behandeln”, which means to be looked at as though air. Psychologists demonstrated this in a field study on their university campus, in which they subjected passersby to the “wie Luft behandeln” experience after which they reported feeling disconnected from others.
Thankfully we seem to have an inbuilt defence mechanism to avoid these feelings of disconnection when we’re already feeling rejected. Psychologists showed us this by prompting some participants to feel ostracised in a game of online ball passing, and then asking them to judge whether a series of faces were looking right at them or not. Compared with control participants, those feeling ostracised were more likely to believe that other faces were making eye contact with them, even if in truth their eyes were slightly averted.
And finally, it seems extreme eye contact can lead to some very strange psychological effects. If you and a partner look into each other’s eyes for 10 minutes while sitting in a dimly lit room, you are likely to experience odd sensations that resemble mild “dissociation” – a psychological term for when people lose their normal connection with reality. When the Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo tested these effects for a paper published in 2015, he found that participants experienced odd feelings of time slowing down, sounds seeming quiet or loud, and 90 per cent said they’d seen some deformed facial features, 75 per cent said they’d seen a monster, 50 per cent said they saw aspects of their own face in their partner’s face, and 15 per cent said they’d seen a relative’s face.
The meeting of minds and souls that occurs through eye contact can be a wonderful thing, but is perhaps best practised in moderation, or at least in full daylight!
—Animated GIF via Giphy.com
Further reading from The Psychologist
A window to the soul and psyche?
On not knowing the colour of a patient’s eyes
‘For me the eyes tell the story’
Christian Jarrett (@Psych_Writer) is Editor of BPS Research DigestWhite Widow Samantha Lewthwaite'smeared face in blood to flee Nairobi terror mall' BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Samantha Lewthwaite, the Northern Ireland-born woman dubbed the 'White Widow', slipped out of the Kenyan shopping mall after smearing blood over her face, security sources in the country have said. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/white-widow-samantha-lewthwaite-smeared-face-in-blood-to-flee-nairobi-terror-mall-29619912.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article29619918.ece/fe9c9/AUTOCROP/h342/WHITE-WIDOW-SAMANTHA.jpg
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Samantha Lewthwaite, the Northern Ireland-born woman dubbed the 'White Widow', slipped out of the Kenyan shopping mall after smearing blood over her face, security sources in the country have said.
They also revealed how Lewthwaite, who was born in Co Down, rented a unit at the Westgate Shopping mall months ago in preparation for last week's terror killing spree.
She hung up newspapers around the shop unit to conceal what was going on inside, pretending to be stocking up on goods.
Staff have told police in Nairobi they helped a woman fitting the description of Samantha Lewthwaite lift boxes into the shop unit.
Witness accounts reveal a woman closely resembling the 29-year-old mother of three was seen being led away among panicked survivors, her face and upper clothes splashed with blood.
Interpol has issued a "red flag" international arrest warrant for Lewthwaite, based on intelligence that she led the attack and escaped.
Shocking stories about the brutalities inflicted by the terror gang are beginning to emerge. Children were among those deliberately killed and there are reports that an infant was decapitated and the head thrown at Kenyan soldiers during the four-day siege.
It is now believed Lewthwaite was the leader of the 13 to 17 terrorists who carried out the attack, but slipped away while the others were cornered by Kenyan soldiers.
The reports strongly contradict some of the impressions given last week that Lewthwaite was merely a book-keeper or finance raiser for the al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali group, Al Shabaab.
Kenyan police have been searching for Lewthwaite since it emerged she took up residence there in 2011 after spending three years living under false identities in South Africa. They believe she had already established links with the Somali terror group Al Shabaab and married one of its senior figures. Her second husband was shot dead in a police raid in Mombasa last October, according to sources.
The Kenyan police believe Lewthwaite, who was born in Banbridge, but was brought up in Buckinghamshire where she converted to Islam in her teens, was the prime mover behind the Westgate Shopping Mall attack, a key target for the Islamist terrorists because it is Israeli-owned.
The police named Lewthwaite as an Al-Shabaab member last June after arresting another British-born member of the group, Germaine Grant. They believe Grant was the terror group's financier working under Lewthwaite. The police believe Lewthwaite was behind an attempt to spring Grant from prison in Mombasa where he is currently on trial for terrorist offences.
The Kenyan police believe Lewthwaite may have married another Londoner, Habib Ghani, who also joined the terror group in Somalia.
Ghani and an another US-born member of the group, Omar Hammami, were both shot dead during internal feuding at the start of the month.
In June this year Lewthwaite was named by Kenyan police in connection with a grenade and gun attack on the Jericho Beer Garden in Mombas, while customers were watching a Euro 2012 quarter-final match, killing three and injuring 30.
Lewthwaite was born in Northern Ireland after her father, Andy, married Banbridge woman Christine Allen. The family moved to Buckinghamshire in 1995 where their daughter converted to Islam at the age of 17 and changed her name to Sherafiyah. She married fellow convert Germaine Lindsay. She was pregnant when Lindsay took part in the July 2005 bombings in London in which 52 people died. Although not initially suspected, police later discovered that Lewthwaite had a key role in bomb-making and preparing the attack.
Details of last Saturday's bloodbath in Nairobi are still emerging with the expectation that the official death count of 67 will rise substantially. Part of the centre collapsed after an explosion under the roof-top car park. At least 60 people are unaccounted for.
There was still no clear picture of how many terrorists were involved. Sources suggest that up to seven may have been arrested and a similar number killed. The belief that Lewthwaite and others slipped away during the mayhem was underlined the day of the attack in which an eyewitness said he saw a man he described as Arab shooting then concealing his gun and walking out among fleeing shoppers.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that several former Irish Army Rangers are operating in east Africa, where one assisted in rescuing people from the Westgate Mall.
Mystery Irish ex-Army hero saved hundreds in terror attack at Nairobi mall
Irish army sources last week said at least six former Irish soldiers are known to be working for security firms operating in east Africa, most thought to be working on anti-piracy operations on board ships passing the Somali coast.
The ex-Army Ranger who last weekend assisted hundreds of people escaping from the shopping mall was alongside a former member of the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS), who runs a company providing security on board ships.
The ex-SAS man has been working in east Africa for several years, local sources say. It is likely that the former Irish soldier is in the same business.
Other former Irish soldiers have been operating in the region for years, some working for private companies and some providing security and logistics for charities operating in the highly volatile areas along the Somali-Kenyan border.
White Widow Red Notice: Interpol issues global arrest warrant
White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite may be using family as cover
Factfile
Samantha Lewthwaite was born in Banbridge, Co Down. She converted to Islam as a teenager and is the widow of one of the London suicide bombers. Dubbed the White Widow, mother-of-three is believed to be the mastermind behind the Nairobi Westgate mall massacre which claimed over 70 lives. A 'Red Notice' has been issued by Interpol making her world's most wanted female terror suspect.
September 24, 2013 -- Speculation is growing that the wife of Huddersfield suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay is involved in the Kenyan Westgate Shopping Mall terrorist attack. The British Foreign Office is investigating suggestions that Samantha Lewthwaite, nicknamed the “White Widow”, was among the al-Shabaab militants involved in the seige. Graphic shows profile of Samantha Lewthwaite.
Belfast Telegraph DigitalBack in the year 2000, then-Devils coach Larry Robinson came into the locker room, hot-headed and pissed off with the way his team played. The Devils, down 3-1 to the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals, were one step away from elimination. Wanting to make his point known, Robinson kicked a garbage can across the locker room, hammering home his point that the Devils were better than their played showed. That moment became a famous one in Devils history, as the team turned its play around and won three straight, becoming the first team since the NHL expanded to come back from a 3-1 series deficit.
Ten years later, the Devils face the same situation. The Flyers are leading the series, 3-1, and the Devils have been outplayed in three of the four contests. Coming into tonight, the team needs to find a spark. That may have come from general manager Lou Lamoriello.
According to Star-Ledger reporter Steve Politi, Lamoriello went down to the visiting locker room after the Devils’ uninspiring 4-1 loss Tuesday night. The general manager, angry at his teams play, lit into the coaching staff. He got so angry, he picked up a jar of jelly and threw it at the wall. The jelly jar smashed, with its contents covering the locker room. While none of the players were in the room, it got Lamoriello’s message across – this is a team built for a deep playoff run, not a one-and-done playoff surprise.
It’s these moments of frustration we haven’t seen from any of the players. And, while they’ve remained largely positive, it’s refreshing to see someone in the organization get just as angry as the rest of us. But the incident differs from Robinson. Remember, Robinson did this in front of the players, getting their attention. Lamoriello did this only in front of the coaches, so it’s a smaller audience. But I think it had the same meaning. This is the head of the team. Lamoriello controls what players sit in that locker room next season. When the head man isn’t happy, no one should feel particularly comfortable.
While it didn’t have the shock factor for all of the players, this should still get the players fired up. As I said, this is the guy who controls the contracts of the players in the locker room. He expects results, and these players aren’t delivering. The Devils should make a mental note with this. Lamoriello’s anger not only affects the coaches, but it has a trickle-down effect. I would expect this to be a contributing factor to a more spirited performance tonight.
Hell, maybe if the Devils win the series, we can bookmark the “Jelly Jar” incident as another great locker-room outburst in Devils’ history.
AdvertisementsNBN investing more in regional connectivity than international counterparts, report finds
NBN Co is investing more in regional connectivity across Australia than its international counterparts, according to a new report.
The report from Ovum, commissioned by NBN Co, found almost $7,000 is being invested per household on broadband in regional and rural Australia, or $4.5 billion in total; in second place is the US, where the Connect America Fund is investing around $3,200 per household.
Countries including Ireland, France, and Canada, meanwhile, are spending less than $1,000 per household on similar initiatives. Unlike other nations, Ovum added, Australia has prioritised connecting regional and rural areas.
“Australia is notable as one of the few, non-city state, markets where government broadband objectives extend to 100 per cent of the population. Of the other markets surveyed in our report, all have more limited ambitions for serving the last five most remote per cent of the population than Australia,” the report noted.
In New Zealand, for example, 2.5 percent of properties which were too difficult to reach were excluded from its Rural Broadband Initiative, in the UK upgrades have been rolled out to all but the most challenging five percent, and 10 percent of the Canadian market is not currently listed in plans for upgrades extending to 2021.
According to the report, NBN is also targeting higher minimum speeds than other countries.
“With a minimum available wholesale speed of 25Mbps for all end-users, irrespective of their location or technology platform, Australia has set the bar far higher than seen in equivalent markets such as the United States, the UK, Canada or France.”
The EU has, through its Digital Agenda, set a target of 30Mbps, while Canada is targeting 50Mbps for all premises, however just 90 percent of households will attain this speed by 2021.
The UK, meanwhile, has only committed to at least 24Mbps for 95 percent, with the remaining five percent offered a minimum of 2Mbps, though this may be improved through further funding. The New Zealand government aims to give 99 percent of the country access to at least 50Mbps, with the last one percent to be given access to a speed of at least 10Mbps.
Timed along with the release of the report, NBN stated today its fixed wireless service is now available to more than 500,000 households across Australia, however only 175,000 premises eligible currently have active services.
The fixed wireless service was launched in 2011, and is planned to reach more than 600,000 rural premises by 2020.
When the NBN is fully rolled out, the company stated that 69 percent of Australians living outside the major cities will have access to fixed line services – either fibre to the premises (FTTP) or fibre to the node (FTTN) – while 19 percent will have access to fixed wireless, and the remaining 12 percent to its satellite service.
Data released by the NBN recently found that a total of 4.6 million premises – 1.2 million of them in regional areas – were able to order a service across its network, though just over two million had active connections.
The Ovum report comes as it was revealed NBN Co bought more than 15,000km of copper wire, which Internet Australia chairwoman Anne Hurley told the Herald Sun” is the technology of yesterday.”
A coalition of 17 telecommunications and regional-focused interest groups a few months ago came together to lobby the government about improving communications in rural, regional, and remote Australia, with poor speeds and low data limits on the Sky Muster satellite service in particular a key issue.
The group called for “fair and equitable access” to the satellite services for those with a genuine need for the service, with access reflecting the residential, educational, and business of rural and regional Australia.
Image: Bill Morrow, CEO of NBN Co. Source: NBN Co.There’s a better than an average chance that everything you’ll read here is also available somewhere on the FuelRats website. But, writing these posts are as much a learning experience for me as it might be informative for you. And if my post stops one person from needing our services (or at the very least, makes it easier on us to get to them), it was more than worth it.
So … let’s start with key pieces of information that usually make rescues harder on us than they should be:
1. You Can’t SuperCruise To The Next System
Yes, sometimes people actually attempt this, even though the game tells them it might be days before they make the trip. Even if you give your game the time to get from the system you’re in to the next system over, it still won’t work – there’s a whole programming/code/game set of related reasons as to why, but just take my word for it: Don’t try it. If you do, and you run out of fuel, and then end up on emergency O 2, it will be unlikely that the FuelRats will be able to save you.
2. You Use Fuel Just Sitting There
This is why when you hit the FuelRats site we tell you to power everything off except life support. There’s a numerical indicator in “tons per hour” as to how fast you’re using fuel over the fuel bar.
3. The Game Does Not Pause
You can log out (and if you’re Code Red, we tell you to do so), but game time (which is very closely tied to real time) passes when you’re in the Galaxy Map, System Map, or Options Menu (if you were in game when you went to it). Even in Solo Mode, the game continues to move, and sometimes the controls continue to operate in a manner that’s unexpected when looking at certain screens other than the view out the front of your ship. Take this into account along with #2 above, and you can understand why a normal “out of fuel” situation can quickly become a Code Red.
Now, without further ado …
How To Avoid Running Out Of Fuel
This game is cruel, yo. There isn’t a handy manual out there, and if there was, it’d be pretty big. Various ships with varying configurations can have vastly different fuel tank sizes as well as jump distance capabilities. Where one ship might be able to make six long jumps on a full tank, it might be three or four short ones with another ship. So, here’s what we usually cover in a standard FuelRat debrief (you know, after we’ve attempted to, and hopefully successfully, rescue you):
1. Learn About Fuel Scoops
There’s a nice piece of kit you can add to your ship called a “Fuel Scoop”. You can use it (it deploys automatically and in SuperCruise) to pull fuel from some stars. You do have to be careful about potentially overheating and damaging (or destroying) your ship, but with a little bit of practice, it can become second nature to top off your tank using the star. So much “second nature” so that you forget …
2. Learn About Kruschev In A Bubble Bath
or “Mad Dog Lenin”. KGB-FOAM is how many of us remember the seven classes of stars that are scoopable. If you’re not paying attention, there’s at least a few non-scoopable stars that look just like scoopable ones, so be careful. When you first start powering up to HyperJump, the name and class of the star appears (all to briefly) in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. If you’re low on fuel, have a fuel scoop, and it’s not a KGBFOAM star, BUT the star you’re at is, maybe you should turn around and top off in the system you’re in before continuing on your journey.
3. Learn About The Galaxy Map
Particularly, the filtering and subtle indicators. Along with #1 and #2 above, it can make what seems to be an impossibly long journey through the Galaxy actually easily possible.
Fourth tab, highlight “Map”. Right at the top will be a “Filters” with a pulldown. In the image above, “Economy” is selected. The first option under that is “None”. Systems under the “None” selector are essentially unpopulated, and if you don’t have a fuel scoop, the only place to get fuel is at a system with a population (some form of economy). So, deselecting “None” will make a bunch of stars disappear and show you only the stars that have a place to get fuel.
Please be aware: there are entire regions of space where there are no populated systems in any direction for a significant number of Lightyears. Doing a journey to a system in the middle, or on the other side, of one of those regions without a fuel scoop is flirting with disaster.
Now, if you do have a fuel scoop, only certain stars will give you fuel. One nemonic for remember the stars that do is KGB-FOAM.
That’s not the “proper” order, but in the Galaxy Map, it’s the first seven stars listed under “Star Class” (per the above). You can deselect everything else and it will leave the stars that you can scoop fuel from.
You have the option in both cases for applying the filter to your route at the bottom. However, this can cause a long route to take even longer (or become impossible to traverse). Going through one unpopulated or non-scoopable system isn’t a bad thing. It’s when you don’t top off your tank beforehand that’s a problem, or if you’re unlucky enough to hit a long stretch of “no fuel” stars that’s a problem. So, you can use the above to plan you route; if you have a scoop, just keep an eye on your gauge and if it looks like you only have another HyperJump or two before you run out of fuel, you might want to check the Galaxy Map for the nearest star to scoop. Especially if the “preview” that comes up in the upper righthand corner when you’re getting ready to HyperJump to a system shows that it will not be KGB-FOAM.
Finally, when looking at a plotted route, if it’s long enough, the solid orange line might become dotted (see below). When the line becomes dotted, that indicates that you can’t go any farther than the solid line without refueling somehow. So, either through scooping or stopping at a system with an economy, you’ll need to fill your tank at some point before the line becomes dotted. Plan ahead – if you don’t, that last jump will get you stuck in a system, and you’ll be calling the FuelRats for help.
For those that travel without fuel scoops: I strongly advise you to get fueled up at least a hop before the line becomes dotted. It’s entirely possible that if the last system you’ll hit is populated, you could run out of fuel Supercruising to the station to get refueled.
Keeping all of this in mind should help prevent you from calling upon us. But …
How To Be An Ideal FuelRat Client
Well, there’s two cases here:
You’re not out of fuel, you just can’t make it to another system. You’re an easy case, because eventually you’ll show us exactly where to find you, even if you think you’re somewhere else, and we’ll likely be able to drop in on you without having to think much about it. You’re totally out of fuel and there’s a blue O 2 timer counting down, telling you you’re going to die soon. You are considered “Code Red” and that’s how I’m going to refer to this case.
When you call upon us, we’ll tell you how to do all of these things for your specific platform, but the more you know about how to do these things before you get to us, the more likely it is that we’ll be able to help you. Particularly for Code Red cases, time is life. For both cases, you should be aware of:
The system you’re in is a key piece of information, but often times we’re given the system that you last highlighted – most often, it’s the system that |
a viable method of creating controlled nuclear fusion.
Fusion ignition, the point at which a nuclear reaction becomes self-sustaining, is one of the great hopes for a new generation of clean, cheap energy generation. But while the reactions have been seen in the cores of thermonuclear weapons, it has yet to be achieved in a controlled manner in a reactor.
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One of the possibilities for developing the tech for real is known as the fast ignition process. This two-stage laser process first uses hundred of lasers to compress the fusion fuel -- a mixture of deuterium and tritium in a spherical plastic capsule -- and then uses a high-intensity laser to rapidly heat the compressed fuel.
It's by far the lowest-energy method of potentially creating nuclear fusion, but in order for it succeed, energy from the high-intensity laser must be directed straight at the densest region of the compressed fuel. Previously it wasn't known how to do this, but now a research team led by scientists and engineers at the University of California, San Diego and General Atomics has found a way.
The new monitoring technique finally provides a way of identifying exactly where energy from the laser travels when it hits the fuel.
To do this, copper tracers are added to the fuel capsule. When the high-intensity laser is directed at the target, it generates high-energy electrons that hit the tracers and in turn cause them to emit X-rays. These can be imaged to show where the energy from the laser is going once it's hit the target fuel cell.
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With the information provided by the X-ray monitoring system, the team has been able to see which fuel target designs and laser configurations produced the greatest efficiency when it came to delivering energy to the densest part of the target, achieving a record high of 7 percent efficiency: a fourfold improvement on previous fast ignition experiments.
Study co-author Christopher McGuffey, of the High Energy Density Physics Group at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering said that "before we developed this technique, it was as if we were looking in the dark. Now, we can better understand where energy is being deposited so we can investigate new experimental designs to improve delivery of energy to the fuel."
The paper notes that "our findings lay the groundwork for further improving efficiency, with 15 percent energy coupling predicted in FI experiments using an existing megajoule-scale laser driver," although this has yet to be tested experimentally. Team lead Professor Farhat Beg said that "we hope this work opens the door to future attempts to improve fast ignition".It's shocking to think that in this land of plenty, 17 million American children are living in poverty. That's nearly one in four.
For "60 Minutes" this Sunday, Scott Pelley went to Central Florida, where the homeless shelters have filled up, and a lot of children are living in cars or trucks.
A truck is the home of the Metzger family: Arielle, 15, and her brother Austin, 13. Their mother died when they were very young. Their dad, Tom, is a carpenter who's been looking for work since Florida's construction industry collapsed. When foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck with his last thousand dollars.
Living in their truck for the last five months has been "an adventure," Arielle says.
"Yeah, it's not really that much an embarrassment. I mean, it's only life. You do what you need to do, right?" Arielle asks.
The Metzgers blend in with more than 1,100 homeless students in the Seminole County schools. At Casselberry School, we met fifteen students who'd been living in cars.
"Well, I worried that someone would just break in and steal my mom's purse," said Jade Wiley.
Jade Wiley is eight years old. She spent three weeks living in her car.
"I thought I was going to be stuck in the car," Jade said, adding that "a nice lady named Beth," gave them money to get into a home.
Beth Davalos said she just delivered help provided by the community.
Beth Davalos runs programs for homeless kids in the Seminole schools. She helps find temporary shelter, but it's tough. Of all the homeless families in Florida, two thirds are living on the street.
"People are running out of resources. The unemployment runs out. Their savings run out, and before you know it, they find themselves living in their car because they ran out of all options," Davalos said.
The kids we met, like the Metzgers, clean up in gas stations or YMCAs, keep up appearances by day, and search for safety by night.
"Every time I see like a teenager or any other kid fighting with their parents or arguing with them, and like not doing what they're told it really hurts me. Because they could be in my shoes. And of course I don't want them to be in my shoes. But they need to learn to appreciate what they have and who they have in their life. Because it may be the last day they might have it," Arielle Metzger said.
Arielle and her brother Austin spend their days in the city library. The say education is their way out. Arielle plans to be a lawyer.
The full story on homeless children will be Sunday night on "60 Minutes."
Beth Davalos' contact information:
Beth Davalos, MSW LCSW
Families in Transition Program
Seminole County Public Schools
www.seminolehomelesskids.org
Tuskawilla Middle School
1801 Tuskawilla Road
Oviedo, Florida 32765On This Day - 4 November 1917
Theatre definitions: Western Front comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland. Eastern Front comprises the German-Russian, Austro-Russian and Austro-Romanian fronts. Southern Front comprises the Austro-Italian and Balkan (including Bulgaro-Romanian) fronts, and Dardanelles. Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres comprises Egypt, Tripoli, the Sudan, Asia Minor (including Transcaucasia), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, India, etc. Naval and Overseas Operations comprises operations on the seas (except where carried out in combination with troops on land) and in Colonial and Overseas theatres, America, etc. Political, etc. comprises political and internal events in all countries, including Notes, speeches, diplomatic, financial, economic and domestic matters. Source: Chronology of the War (1914-18, London; copyright expired)
Western Front
Raiding on Ypres and Arras fronts.
Artillery active north of Chaume Wood (Verdun).
French consolidate new positions along Chemin des Dames.
Southern Front
British troops arrive in Italy.
Political, etc.
Mr Lloyd George and M. Painleve leave for Italy.
General Tumanov succeeds M. Verkhovski as Russian Minister of War.Exactly how many people are killed by the police each year? This question has been asked with increasing urgency in the months since Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson last August. Brown’s death energized a movement to reform American police practices, in particular the use of deadly force. That movement, under the banner “Black Lives Matter,” has directed the nation’s attention to police killings of unarmed black Americans and spurred numerous efforts to estimate the scale of the problem.
Still, a full year after Brown’s death, the government is without a reliable system for tracking police use of force. Experts say given the nature of the phenomenon and the difficulty of measuring it accurately, it’s not likely we’ll have one any time soon. Yet recent developments, including new proposed legislation and a White House initiative, could make tracking police violence a whole lot easier.
The Department of Justice is mandated by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to “acquire data about the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers” and to “publish an annual summary of the data acquired.” William Sabol is in charge of the government arm ostensibly responsible for providing those numbers. As director of the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics he oversees the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
Sabol says the BJS is working to improve its knowledge of police behavior but can’t yet satisfy the public’s thirst for information.
“Policing involves a complex constellation of interactions between people engaged in a variety of behaviors,” Sabol said. “The BJS’s role is to try to characterize these incidents, measure them well and present the dependent variables for future analyses.”
Since Ferguson, the bureau has recommitted itself to moving forward on measuring not just police killings but all uses of force by police in the process of arrest, even yelling. “To get at questions of racial bias in policing, the BJS also plans to collect demographic data on the officers and civilians involved in these incidents, along with information about their interactions and the circumstances surrounding them,” Sabol said.
Gathering that data from the nation’s law enforcement agencies has proven no easy task. “Even if one takes something like a death, a death is ostensibly easy to capture, but when one says ‘death in the process of arrest,’ it introduces some subjectivity to the concept, and it presents measurement challenges,” Sabol said.
The BJS is not the only body attempting to measure police behaviors. For the past two years, UCLA’s Center for Policing Equity (CPE) has been working to develop the nation’s first database tracking national statistics on police behavior, including stops and use of force. That project, The Justice Database, has the highest volume of data among major nongovernmental efforts.
The Justice Database received funding from the National Science Foundation in 2013 to monitor police behavior and explore racial disparities in policing. So far, more than 40 national police departments and law enforcement agencies have signed on to report data. Its participating agencies represent more than half of all major cities and police more than a quarter of the nation’s population.
Police participation is one challenge to the research, but there are many others, CPE co-founder Phillip Goff said.
Indeed, there are about 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, the vast majority of which are small, with fewer than 25 officers, many of whom have no significant training in research methods or statistical analysis. Compounding that, codes used for police reports and the reporting instruments themselves can differ dramatically from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, creating challenges for analysis once the data is obtained.
“It takes a lot of brainpower to figure out how to collect and measure evenly and consistently across jurisdictions,” Goff said. “Because we’re getting data on pedestrian stops, vehicle stops, use of force and all other crime data, we need to make sure that we’re controlling for the right things.”
While the BJS and CPE are working to build systems that can comprehensively measure police behavior, news media has stepped in to satisfy the public’s desire for information.
Over the past few months, The Guardian and The Washington Post have published reporting projects that measure the number of civilians killed by police. The Guardian’s count for 2015 stands at 690, and the Post’s, which tracks deaths from police shootings in particular, is at 581. Both projects rely on data provided by news outlets, research groups, and the open-source reporting projects Fatal Encounters and Killed By Police.
The Guardian’s and Post’s projects have captured the public’s attention, but Sabol says they lack the rigor needed to provide lasting answers. The projects are, after all, works of journalism designed to offer estimates based on available data, not official measurements.
“The Washington Post and Guardian projects miss a lot of information,” he said. “And even the discrepancies between the two point out that the effort has to be multifaceted. No single collection in the effort is going to answer all the questions completely, so it then becomes the responsibility of an independent arbiter to try to make some sense of what this all means. That’s very complicated stuff.”
Before leaving his post as attorney general in April, Eric Holder said the federal government, his agency specifically, should be the one collecting “better, more accurate data” on police behavior. “The troubling reality is that we lack the ability right now to comprehensively track the number of incidents of either uses of force directed at police officers or uses of force by police,” he said. “This strikes many — including me — as unacceptable.”
In early June, Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey announced a new bill, the Police Reporting Information, Data, and Evidence Act of 2015. As written, the PRIDE Act seeks to push data collection efforts forward in part by mandating that states record and report to the DOJ every case in which an officer shoots, causes serious bodily harm to or kills a civilian. To encourage participation, the bill authorizes the creation of new federal grants. The PRIDE Act expands on an existing law that requires states to report shootings and uses of police force only when they result in a death. The bill is currently in committee.
“I’ll be interested to see how it moves through Congress,” said Goff, who is skeptical about the bill’s chances of becoming law. “Part of the reason legislation hasn’t moved forward is pushback from local law enforcement and reasonable concerns over the logistics of enforcement.”
The key to collecting reliable, comprehensive data is, of course, the participation of individual police agencies. Officers ultimately are tasked with recording instances where force is used against a civilian. Without their participation, it’s unlikely that the PRIDE Act would yield reliable, comprehensive data. For that reason, legislators might be shy about putting state governments on the hook.
“In principle, I agree that police departments should make the information public, but the language of the bill puts the onus on the state,” Sabol said. “There’s still a question for me of what the law requires versus the nature of the problem we’re trying to measure and where it actually resides.”
Perhaps following that line of reasoning, the White House has been taking quiet steps to rally resources around the sticking points in the data collection process. Launched to little fanfare in May, the Police Data Initiative is focused on shoring up the data collection and reporting efforts in 21 jurisdictions around the country, mostly major cities including Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Oakland, California. It’s something of a pilot program and is bringing together developers, police chiefs and researchers to develop better collection practices, high-tech reporting tools, and means for analysis and dissemination of data on uses of force, pedestrian and vehicle stops, and officer-involved shootings.
Jenny Montoya Tansey is director of safety and justice at Code for America, a nonprofit agency that develops open-source technology to help streamline government services and processes. Her organization is one of many involved in the Police Data Initiative and was enlisted by the White House to help create a best-practices playbook for data transparency, as well as software for the extraction and transfer of data from existing data sets and reports.
“In communities across the country, there is a broad consensus that our justice system is not working,” Montoya Tansey said. “They need the ability to increase transparency around the inner workings of the justice system, increasing accountability and making possible more productive public dialogue about these pressing issues.”
Like other efforts, private and public, the Police Data Initiative will likely take some time before it yields a framework for collection, analysis and dissemination of policing data that can be expanded across the nation’s many law enforcement agencies. Assembling key stakeholders, however, just might be the necessary first step to creating a comprehensive, sustainable system that can yield reliable data.
“I’d describe the Police Data Initiative as an attempt to get everyone to play in the same sandbox. It’s a good thing,” Goff said. “Private, public — we’re all taking on different chunks, and we’re going to have to answer these questions together.”Have you heard the news? USB Type-C is the future that is here right now. More and more laptops, tablets, and phones are shipping with the ultra-powerful port and the Microsoft Lumia 950, and Lumia 950 XL are on that list. Recently I sought to find the most powerful USB Type-C hub for Windows 10 Mobile. My investigation lead me to the MINIX NEO C. At $89 it is not cheap but is the only hub you will ever need for your phone. Bonus? Connect it up to your Dell XPS 13, Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S, or Huawei MateBook for even more features. Ports. Lots of 'em
In my quest to find the perfect hub for my Lumia 950 I was looking for one that would allow me to do Continuum and more. Specifically, starting with the latest Redstone releases for Windows 10 Mobile these phones can now handle full Ethernet connections via a USB Type-C adapter. That is not news and in fact, I demonstrated that feat a few weeks ago testing various hubs. So let's cut to the chase and I'll list the ports in this little beast. Minix NEO C Hub Gigabit Ethernet port
USB 3.0 x2
USB Type-C for charging
Full HDMI output (up to 4K supported)
SD card reader
TF (micro SD) card reader That beats the Microsoft Display Dock handily since you are also getting an Ethernet port, USB 3.0 ports (instead of 2.0), and SD and TF card slots all for $10 less than the $99 price point from Microsoft.
With those features all in one hub you can connect it up to a Lumia 950 or Lumia 950 XL and: Use Continuum on any display or TV with an HDMI input
Get 100+Mbps downloads over fiber optic Ethernet (if available)
Connect an external USB3.0 drive
Charge your phone
Add a wireless mouse and keyboard (USB dongle)
Edit photos or use music on an SD/TF card...all at the same time. At that point, the only thing holding back your full PC experience is the phone itself.
The build quality is also superb as the Minix NEO C is made of a light alloy/metal. It's not nearly as heavy as a Microsoft Display Dock, but the quality is approaching it. The bottom line Even for small tasks, the Minix NEO C is perfect. Did Microsoft just release a new Insider or cumulative OS update for your phone? Plug it into your Ethernet at home and enjoy blazingly fast downloads. I'm not kidding either about the speeds, as you can see my test results using the nPerf app or from my Continuum screenshot below:
It hit 108 Mbps. Not bad for a phone*. *Note: To use this particular Ethernet port you need at least Windows 10 Mobile build 14364. I also use the Minix frequently for transferring files to my phone. Nothing beats the speed of a USB thumb drive to add music, copy over some photos, add some documents, etc. With the full HDMI port and USB Type-C extra port you can use your phone in full Continuum mode while charging it at the same time. Perhaps my only complaint, if I had to make one, is the main USB Type-C connector is part of the device. I would have preferred a spare port here instead so that I could use my own USB Type-C cable to add some distance between the phone and the hub. With the cable attached, it's a little less pocketable, and your phone will only have a few inches of breathing room between it and the cadre of wires and USB drives. That is not a deal killer, but something to consider.Did you see a bunch of naked human feet all over your Instagram feed last week? Turns out Tom’s Shoes was donating a pair of shoes for every one of these posts. They ended up with nearly 300k posts and 300k pairs of shoes that are now going to humans in need.
DOG for DOG, a pet company that has a similar ‘Buy One, Give One’ model to Tom’s, for product sold, they donate food to dogs in shelters. Naturally they thought they’d like to continue in this spirit, only with furry dog paws of all shapes and sizes. Their aim? To fill up as many food bowls for shelter dogs as pawsible!
Some of your favorite Instagram dogs are already joining in and posting a paw with the hashtag #DOGforDOGpaws, each post equals a bowl of dog food for a pup in need.
Here are some of our favorite paws so far!
Jetta from @PawsandPaint gives a big black lab paw to her mama.
@LokiTheSiberianHusky shares gallery worthy pics of his lil pup paws.
@ChloeKardoggian shares some teeny tiny paws!
No more empty dog bowls! @OtterthePitBull nails it in his collar and tie.
@CodytheHuskyPup shares some nom-worthy puppy feet.
@HangingWithHugo puts his paws in the air, and yes, waves them like he does not care.
How can you get your pup’s paws involved? If you post a photo of your pup’s paws before June 2nd on Instagram, and add the hashtag #DOGforDOGpaws, DOG for DOG will donate a meal to a shelter dog. Let’s get those paws the air!
Featured image via @ChloeKardoggianBastian Schweinsteiger signed for a reported £14.4m in July
Three wins, seven goals, one defeat, two no-shows, 26 players and two transfer headaches.
That was the story of Manchester United's pre-season tour of the United States, which ended with a 2-0 defeat by Paris St-Germain in Chicago on Wednesday.
After watching all four tour games, BBC Sport assesses which players impressed, who has cause to worry and what shape United are in for the new Premier League season.
Who impressed?
Manager Louis van Gaal made little attempt to hide his plan for the new season. Nine players started every game. Goalkeeper David De Gea, presumably, would have done had he been fit for the first two matches and Morgan Schneiderlin still featured for 45 minutes as a substitute against PSG.
Midfielder Schneiderlin and fellow newcomer Matteo Darmian both did well. Reservations amongst some fans about 5ft 11in Daley Blind's ability to cope with the physical demands of being a central defender in England's top flight are evidently not shared by his manager.
Luke Shaw has dispelled the doubts over his fitness that surfaced on last year's pre-season tour and led to his omission from the England squad for the Under-21 European Championships.
Schneiderlin marked his debut with the winning goal against Club America and impressed throughout
Captain Wayne Rooney and new £31m forward Memphis Depay both scored and showed in flashes they can be effective together.
Of those who did not start regularly, goalkeeper Sam Johnstone played most often, even getting a run-out ahead of Sergio Romero at Soldier's Field on Wednesday.
Andreas Pereira was particularly impressive against PSG, Adnan Januzaj equally so four days earlier in that 3-1 defeat of Barcelona.
Who's playing catch-up?
To 'lose' one Argentine was unfortunate. For United to find themselves without two smacked of carelessness.
Neither Angel Di Maria nor Marcos Rojo took their flight to San Jose last weekend.
Van Gaal said on Wednesday he did not even know where forward Di Maria was, as PSG coach Laurent Blanc indicated talks over the winger's transfer to Paris were "close to the end".
Rojo's passport, though still in date, was not valid for entry into the United States.
Jonny Evans did make it, but might not have been missed even if he had not.
At 27, with 198 first-team appearances behind him, Evans now appears to be behind fellow Northern Irishman Paddy McNair in Van Gaal's defensive pecking order.
Media playback is not supported on this device Van Gaal's 'Mike' Smalling gaffe
Old Trafford insiders say the centre-back still has a future at the club. They did not say what as.
Chris Smalling, Juan Mata and Ashley Young almost certainly do, but that trio may not wish to analyse Van Gaal's treatment of them too closely.
Smalling, who signed a new contract three months ago, looks like being the victim of Van Gaal's desire to pair right and left-footed central defenders together.
That the manager got Smalling's first name wrong when the pair were sat together at a press conference does not imply the 25-year-old is uppermost in his thoughts.
Mata and Young were criticised within the outline of Van Gaal's argument that United need more speed and creativity.
As his manager bluntly pointed out, Mata "does not have high speed". Young's contract expires in 2016 and the club have shown little inclination to renew it.
Marouane Fellaini is paying the price for the red card at Hull on the final day of last season that rules him out of the opening three games of this campaign. The Belgian's involvement was restricted to 28 minutes against Barcelona.
Of the new arrivals, Bastian Schweinsteiger is the one who disappointed. The German World Cup winner looked short of fitness in the first two games, missed the third through injury and was substituted at half-time in Chicago when he faded following a bright start.
United assistant coach Ryan Giggs makes a point to Juan Mata in training. The Spaniard's 'lack of speed' means he is not a guaranteed starter under Van Gaal
Ssshhh... Don't mention Di Maria or De Gea
If Manchester United had got their way, the names of Angel Di Maria and David De Gea would never have been mentioned on this trip.
Instead, the pair were a continual presence even if, in Di Maria's case, he was not even there.
United have given up trying to entice the Argentine back into the fold. Now the more pertinent question should be 'what is taking you so long?'
When the transfer for their £59.7m record signing to join PSG goes through, United are likely to invest £22m of the proceeds in Spain forward Pedro. But as the 28-year-old has never been a regular for Barcelona, there are plenty who question the merits of that imminent move.
Having set down the non-negotiable marker of demanding Sergio Ramos in exchange for De Gea, Van Gaal raised the spectre of an embarrassing climb-down when he said the situation for the player and his club was "unfavourable" on Wednesday.
David De Gea's possible move to Real Madrid has caused uncertainty over the goalkeeper position
Could that mean De Gea spending the final year of his contract on wages agreed when he arrived as a skinny 21-year-old, looking anything but the world-class performer he has matured into since?
If so, Argentina number one Sergio Romero is a handy insurance policy.
Van Gaal's tough reaction to Victor Valdes's refusal to play an under-21 game has effectively ended the Spain keeper's United career.
Anders Lindegaard did not figure last season and is in the final year of his contract, while Johnstone, 22, is earmarked for a loan move to Preston if De Gea leaves.
Ajax's Jasper Cillesen remains the most likely replacement for De Gea and is still available to play in the Champions League group stage, despite being part of the Ajax side that drew 2-2 with Rapid Vienna in a third qualifying round tie on Wednesday.
How will United line up against Tottenham?
United face Tottenham in their first game of the Premier League season at Old Trafford on 8 August.
Four reporters who covered United's tour predict the starting XI:
4-4-1-1: De Gea; Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Shaw; Mata, Carrick, Schneiderlin, Young; Depay; Rooney. (Stuart Mathieson, Manchester Evening News)
4-2-3-1: De Gea; Darmian, Jones, Blind, Shaw; Schneiderlin, Carrick; Mata, Depay, Young; Rooney. (David McDonnell, Daily Mirror)
4-3-3: De Gea; Darmian, Jones, Smalling, Shaw; Carrick, Schneiderlin, Herrera; Depay, Rooney, Young. (Mark Ogden, Daily Telegraph)
4-2-3-1: De Gea; Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Shaw; Schneiderlin, Carrick; Mata, Depay, Pedro; Rooney (Ian Ladyman, Daily Mail)
Double training, down time, less travel
While double training sessions have been the order of the day, there has been some down time.
Midfielder Ander Herrera was accompanied by Juan Mata, David De Gea, Matteo Darmian and Antonio Valencia on a visit to the 'first Starbucks' in Seattle.
Jones and Smalling were among a party that visited San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, while NFL stars Jermain Kearse and Doug Baldwin showed off some of their skills at a United training session.
Van Gaal's increased influence was also evident in the tour schedule. Twelve months ago, the Dutchman was aghast at the amount of travelling his players were asked to do, not just from city to city, but from hotel to training ground.
This time United based themselves in Bellevue, in Washington state, rather than Seattle 10 miles away, due to its proximity to the training centre of the local NFL side Seahawks.
Soccer or football? Phil Jones and Daley Blind get to grips with some American Football gear
That was followed by eight days in San Jose, California, a couple of hours south of San Francisco.
Van Gaal had the match against San Jose Earthquakes moved to the 18,000 Avaya Stadium from Berkeley because he did not want to be faced with a round-trip of almost 100 miles. Organisers had to make refunds to fans who had already purchased tickets to watch the game at the 63,000-capacity California Memorial Stadium.
All United did on their final stop in Chicago was play a match against Paris St-Germain. Tuesday's training had been done prior to their arrival at 10pm. They were on their flight home 26 hours later.
Van Gaal's front-foot organising contrasts sharply with the light-touch commercial approach, largely because of a quirk in United's kit deals. Their 13-year association with Nike ends on 31 July, so their 2015-16 kit and associated apparel will not be revealed until Saturday.
By spending pre-season in the US for the third time in five years, United are solidifying their presence. Fans wearing their shirts were by far in the majority at all four games, including against Barcelona.
Pre-season Stateside? It's all the rage
If Manchester United are a sought-after presence, they have not been lonely on this side of the Atlantic for the past 17 days. Six other English clubs - Chelsea, Tottenham, Sunderland, Newcastle, West Brom and AFC Bournemouth - have also visited at some stage during that period.
The attraction is obvious: good weather, familiar language, relative anonymity and, most importantly, state-of-the-art training complexes.
Although Van Gaal complained about the state of the pitch at Century Link Field after United beat Club America on 17 July, he has found the remaining facilities to his liking.
And the fans have turned out in force: 46,857, 18,000 and 68,414 for their first three games.
The arrival in Major League Soccer of Didier Drogba, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo over the last month alone can only raise the profile of football in the US, meaning even more clubs will be attracted to the country as a pre-season destination.Last week, nearly 150 Religious Right leaders and activists signed on to the Manhattan Declaration, vowing to join together in an effort to stop America’s descent into a totalitarianism, and not surprisingly signers are comparing themselves to Martin Luther and those who resisted the Nazi’s
[Richard] Land said, “It was an honor and a privilege to be a part of the process that produced the document. It is a sterling and forthright declaration of first principles. To paraphrase Martin Luther: Here we stand; we can do no other.” … [David] Dockery said, “Not unlike the 1934 Barmen Declaration [the statement of the confessing church in Nazi Germany], the Manhattan Declaration is a clarion call for Christians of every tradition to stand together in biblical faithfulness for foundational matters of society and culture like commitments to life, marriage and family…. I pray that God will use this declaration among leaders and laity in churches, the academy and parachurch organizations to join hands together for the sake of the kingdom of God.”
On today’s radio program, James Dobson hosted Chuck Colson and Robert George to discuss the manifesto during which Dobson explained that if their values are “not preserved at this moment of destiny, this nation and most others in the Western world will fold and freedom itself will go down with it.” Saying we are facing a “defining moment in America and the Christian Church,” Dobson declared that the statement “deserves our most careful attention, I just want to emphasize that in every way that I can,” before asking George just what precipitated this document, to which George explained that it was basically the election of Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in Congress who are out to destroy traditional marriage and basic Christian values. Finally, Dobson stated that with the passage of hate crimes legislation, “it could get very costly to follow this Christ,” meaning that pastors and Christians are about the come under direct attack from the government, to which George responded that Christian “martyrs have [always] been called on to pay the ultimate price rather than to deny the Lord or to do what is evil in his sight”:
Eventually, Dobson turned to the supposed “monthly abortion premium” that Rep. John Boehner has been claiming is included in health care reform legislation, which Dobson vowed he would never accept, saying he and his wife Shirley would pay ruinous fines, go to prison, or even “leave this beloved country and spend the rest of our lives in exile”:Meizu's official entry on the Indian market has long been called for by local consumers, and finally the Chinese company has listened. One of the most prominent manufacturers originating in China, Meizu had reportedly been prepping for its arrival in India for some time, as evidenced by social media messages from as early as the beginning of February.
And what would be the best pioneer to mark the company's foray into the vast Indian market, if not the capable but bargain priced Meizu m1? The smartphone boasts a 5-inch display, with a somewhat unusual 1,280 x 768 resolution for a solid 300ppi density.
The Meizu m1 is equipped with a Mediatek MT6732 chipset with its quad-core Cortex-A53 processor clocked at 1.5GHz. A single gig of RAM is all you get at the moment, although a 2GB version may see the light of day to better compete with the updated version of the Xiaomi Redmi 2. the 8GB internal storage is easily expandable via microSD.
The m1 is more than adequately equipped in the camera department as well, with a 13MP main unit and a 5MP selfia snapper. What's more the m1 also brings quad-band LTE connectivity. All that is expected to come at the reasonable price of around INR7,000 (~$110) and should be available, starting in April.
ViaHealth Canada wants ideas on how to stop risky prescribing of the drugs fuelling Canada’s fastest-growing addictions.
In a call for proposals published Friday, the federal government said it’s looking for suggestions on how to make prescribing safer, including better training and education for the health professionals giving out these powerful painkillers – badly needed by some but fatal for others.
Global News analysis has found prescriptions for Hydromorph Contin, an opioid more potent, less regulated and more easily abused than OxyContin’s replacement, have skyrocketed in Ontario.
Publicly funded prescriptions increased from 25,600 in February, 2012 to 54,900 in June, 2014. All prescriptions – public and private – increased from 30,000 in May, 2012 to 66,000 in June, 2014.
At the same time, data from Ontario’s coroner indicates Hydromorph Contin’s active ingredient is killing more people each year.
The rise in Hydromorph Contin prescriptions worries health professionals on both sides of the border: In the United States, where hydromorphone’s considered the “champagne of opioids,” it’s far less easily available. Smuggled quantities of the pills south across the border from Canada would change that, they fear.
READ MORE: How pilfered Canadian pills are fuelling a U.S. health crisis
But Ontario has no plans to crack down on Purdue-made Hydromorph Contin in the same way the province made it tougher for physicians to prescribe OxyNEO.
READ MORE: Ontario has no plans to crack down on skyrocketing painkillers
Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose has made prescription drug abuse a personal priority since her appointment last summer. Ottawa came under fire the year before, when it approved generic oxycodone for sale in Canada, even though health experts and provincial health ministers said it would put a cheap, addictive and easily abused drug on the market.
Ambrose already considering requiring other as-yet-unspecified drugs be “tamper-resistant,” making them harder to crush, snort and inject.
READ MORE: Health Minister considers requiring drugs be ‘tamper-resistant’
“But, requiring tamper-resistant formulations of drugs is only one component of the comprehensive approach required to effectively tackle prescription drug abuse,” her call for proposals reads. ”One area in particular that has been identified for improvement is prescriber practices. Improved prescriber education will support appropriate prescriber practices.”
The call for proposals is two-pronged: improving existing guidelines, training and tools for prescribing, and developing new ones.
“Do we need specialized and/or mandatory training for prescribers?” it asks.
The question’s been pondered before and it isn’t without controversy: Many pain advocates fear putting too many barriers up will just mean physicians avoid prescribing opioids altogether, and the people who genuinely need them don’t get them. Others argue these drugs are powerful and potentially dangerous enough to require special training.
The deadline to apply for the $3.6-million initiative is Aug. 29.In an exclusive interview about her lawsuit, DeEtta Williams says officials know about pattern of assault at the California prison and ‘just don’t bother’ to stop it
DeEtta Williams is frightened every day. She stays inside as much as possible. She makes sure that she is rarely alone. She visits a therapist. She takes medication for anxiety. The man she said sexually assaulted her daily for six months is somewhere out there, and “he’s got nothing to lose”.
He raped her so often and for so long, the 45-year-old said, because she was serving time at the California Institution for Women and he was a prison guard there.
Female ex-inmates talk about prison abuse Read more
Williams has filed a federal lawsuit against officer Michael Ewell, |
to a single person?
Using these words can feel a little odd at first. When I came out to my team at work, I gave them examples to clarify how my preferred pronouns are used to make the transition easier.
Example 1: Catherine is a great musician, they should start a band.
Example 2: I can't get a hold of Jesse—can somebody call them for me?
Example 3: Peter loves their dog so much.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can't we just use the old ones?
Yeah, nah. It's really not difficult, and it's pretty annoying when people claim it is.
Imagine your name is Jack, but every time your boss speaks to you, they call you Jim, or Jennifer, or James. Or if you're a man and someone keeps calling you "Mrs." It may feel uncomfortable, or at least inaccurate. It's equally, if not more, frustrating to be constantly labeled as somebody else with regard to gender, so it's very helpful when people actually listen and act respectfully. If you can learn somebody's name, you can learn their pronouns.
What if I mess up and call someone the wrong pronoun?
Do your best! It can and will be initially awkward to misgender someone, but putting in effort to learn and get accustomed to a person's preferred pronouns is the best way to show you respect their identity.
So...which bathroom do you use?
Well, I would prefer to safely use whichever one is most readily available, as would most people, though certain lawmakers and general assholes would love to see that outlawed. When forced to choose between a men's room and a women's room, I typically use the women's restroom because it's the one that will garner the least amount of attention, negative or otherwise.
Everyone is different, of course, but the general consensus is that trans and non-binary people would just like to use the bathroom, period, with no bullying, threats of violence, or laws imposing our ability to do so.
Is it ever okay to ask non-binary people about "which parts" they have?
Just gonna go with a hard "no" on this one, though it's shocking how many people think it's okay to ask someone about what's going on in their pants. It would be weird if someone at a party spontaneously asked you about your junk, right? So maybe don't ask your trans and non-binary friends and acquaintances what's up with theirs. Thanks in advance.You might know the name DONTNOD Entertainment, but do you know Vampyr? People know DONTNOD Entertainment as the small studio in the heart of Paris behind the Life is Strange series. They plan to continue their success with their latest game, Vampyr. The title is set to release later this year and will be vastly different from Life is Strange. Instead of the modern day, Vampyr takes place in 1918 in London. Can the developers make the change in genre effective? We address this question in our preview of Vampyr.
Vampyr at E3 2017
DONTNOD Entertainment E3 showcase gives us a little taste of the new title. A little trailer and some snippets of gameplay for us to speculate on. The trailer shows the streets where a bloody war between vampire and humans is being fought. Humans are desperately fighting on the losing side in the dark of the night. With the sparse details we have, we know the protagonist is a vampire. One who as cliche as it is, doesn’t want to the blood of innocent citizens, opting instead to be a surgeon.
[E3 2017] Vampyr – E3 Trailer
Why should you care about this game?
Gameplay Preview
DONTNOD Entertainment’s first project “Remember Me” features fighting mechanics that are solid and flowing with combos for every encounter. The environmental movement is also key in progressing through the city utilising platforming and climbing mechanics. Vampyr also uses similar fighting styles coupled with demonic powers which aid you in combat. One power levitated a victim by suspending the victim’s arms and legs, then speared them through the heart. Using these powers will likely attract attention from bystanders, but could prove vital to succeed in combat situations.
The gameplay shown at an earlier date showed the protagonist walking around the city, interacting with humans as if he is one of their own, talking to them and trying to isolate them to feed on when there are no witnesses. Analysing who has the best blood and what the victim is like as a personality all factors into what the world impact of their demise shall be.
Life is Strange
Life is Strange features a brilliant story which captures you with intrigue. Max Caulfield discovers the power of reversing time and a girl has gone missing. Recently reconnected with her best friend Chloe, they try to solve the mysteries of Arcadia Bay. It’s one of the best story driven games that I have ever played. With this title behind the developer as experience, I have no doubt that Vampyr will have a breath-taking story that will leave you wanting more. Mechanically they differ further than ever which could hinder the storytelling. Considering the difference, Vampyr will need to involve a differential way of telling the story which could spell difficulty in maintaining the level of quality seen in Life is Strange.
Concluding Thoughts
Do I think DONTNOD Entertainment can pull off Vampyr into a success? Yes, I do. With the feedback from Remember Me leading to combat improvement and refinement. Careful collaboration with the writer of Life is Strange, could well make Vampyr a game that makes its mark on the industry from a technical and creative standpoint.
With five months to go until release, the developers have time left to make sure that Vampyr is the pinnacle of their ability. We’ll see whether the developers can adapt the semi-linear design of Remember Me into an RPG. Unlike the norm of the current RPG genre, a smaller space compliments the gameplaythey’re going for. Size will make all the difference here. With the size of real life London, it may be tempting to make the world too big. A larger map size would make the tactical influence of kills less influential due to a larger pool of irrelevant NPCs which won’t have an impact on the behaviour of the city population.
If you like games that require analysis and careful planning I think that you will like this game. Finding ways to isolate and feed upon unsuspecting victims will be a main point of the game. Especially when the whole city can react to the murder of the wrong person.
Graphically I think that this game will impress everyone that plays it. The design looks to fit the air and push the horror genre to a very high standard. Light sources are few and far between with darkness spreading over the sparsely populated streets of post-war London. A setting that is yet to prove itself to the industry.
I will certainly be watching this game closely.
Vampyr is now available via Steam and other online retailers for pre-order, releasing within November. An exact release date is yet to be announced.NEW DELHI: At a time when the judiciary faces flak for availing long vacations despite huge pendency of cases, Chief Justice RM Lodha has put forth a revolutionary proposal — to keep the Supreme Court, high courts and trial courts open 365 days a year.A short tenure of five months as CJI has not deterred Justice Lodha from thinking radically to improve the court management system to fight the monstrous backlog of over 2 crore cases. He has asked Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Biri Singh Sinsinwar to seek feedback from all stakeholders on keeping courts open round the year.Asked about the feasibility of the proposal, Justice Lodha told TOI, “It is not such a difficult task. There is not going to be any increase in the number of working days or working hours of any of the judges. At the beginning of the year, the judges would be required to tell the desk managing court sittings when they would like to avail vacations and holidays. Accordingly, a calendar would be prepared for arranging the benches in the Supreme Court and high courts to ensure that judiciary functions throughout the year.”At present, the Supreme Court has 193 working days, HCs 210 days and trial courts 245 days a year.Citing the example of the SC which has a sanctioned strength of 31 judges including the CJI, he said on all working days, on an average, 14 to 15 benches assemble to hear cases. “If we make this new arrangement for 365 days, it is possible that we might have 10 benches sitting every day throughout the year,” he said.In terms of productivity, the proposal makes huge sense as a tool to clear the backlog. If 15 benches hear cases for 193 days, it comes to 2,895 benches a year. But if 10 benches sit throughout the year, it would result in working of 3,650 benches, an increase of 26%.Justice Lodha said, “It is feasible and I am quite hopeful of this working out without increasing the existing workload on judges, who are overburdened. Judiciary over the years has become an essential service provider like hospitals and electricity or water department. These departments function 365 days a year. Then why not the judiciary?”The CJI said apart from helping reduce the pendency rapidly, this would provide immense opportunity to young advocates to test and hone their skills.When it comes to inbound marketing, your website design is crucial to achieving your lead generation and conversion goals. Inbound design is simple, intuitive, and has clear next steps for the visitor. By designing your website around these inbound principles and using features that keep your inbound marketing goals in mind, your company can create a killer website that is bound to boost your results.
How Your Website Fits into Your Inbound Marketing Efforts
Though your website may not always be the first point of contact for your leads and customers, it is still at the center of all your inbound marketing efforts. Each inbound channel feeds into your site, making it an important part of the conversion process. Though leads may first take notice of your brand on social media or through a gated content offer, they will eventually land on your site where they will need to be guided through the marketing funnel that turns visitors into leads and leads into customers.
It is vital that your website is designed for this inbound process. Not only should your website be designed with your target audience in mind, but it should be organized in a way that helps customers understand which products or services are right for them and what their next steps should be. Ultimately, great design also inspires visitors to share your site and brand with others, allowing you to increase your reach within your target market.
What Does Strong Inbound Website Design Look Like?
Though a site that’s visually appealing can certainly go a long way in attracting new customers to your brand, you will need to go beyond just developing an attractive website if you want to ensure that your site supports your inbound efforts. It may assist you to use a web design project management software to keep things on the right track. Below are just a few features of website design that keep the inbound marketing process at the forefront.
Built Around Buyer Personas
One of the most important tools in your inbound marketing toolkit is the buyer persona. These customer profiles help you better understand your ideal buyers, and help you make more strategic decisions when developing marketing content. Whether you have one group of target customers or three, it’s important to ensure that your website content resonates with these buyer personas.
Start with your homepage. Not only should the content on your homepage speak to your ideal customers, but it should also have a clear path for each persona to move to the next step. For instance, let’s say that your company offers services to both individual consumers and small business owners. Your homepage should make it simple for consumers and business owners to better understand where they need to go next on your website. In this case, you might have two different CTA buttons, one which leads to consumer services and one which leads to your business service page. Clearly defining the next step for the visitor helps you ensure that they are getting the information they need and taking the best next step based on where they are in the buyer’s journey.
In this example, a CTA offering a consultation is embeddd right in the Hero image. The next step is clear to the visitor.
After you’ve designed a homepage that provides a clear path for your target consumers, you will need to focus on creating compelling and informative content that speaks to your target customers’ greatest needs and challenges. With the buyer personas in mind, develop content that resonates with this audience. If your audience prefers shorter content full of real-life examples, then that’s what you’ll want to focus on. If they prefer video content then you’ll want to keep that in mind while developing and implementing your content strategy.
Developed with the Conversion Funnel in Mind
Part of what makes inbound marketing so successful is that it focuses on attracting and nurturing potential customers at the top, middle, and bottom of the conversion funnel. The ultimate goal of your website design is to drive conversions. With that in mind, you should develop your website content with a focus on Top of the Funnel (TOFU), Middle of the Funnel (MOFU), and Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) content.
Let’s start with TOFU. At the top of the funnel, consumers want to solve a problem or meet a need, so they look for information that can help them find the best solution. Most people start their buying journey online, so creating keyword-rich blog content can help you reach these consumers who are just starting to search for topics related to your products or services. This TOFU blog content should address the questions that top of funnel consumers tend to ask.
Once you’ve gotten the attention of potential consumers, you now need to create content that will help you qualify these prospects and eventually influence a conversion. This is where MOFU content comes in. Middle of the funnel prospects have already started to research solutions to their problem or need, and now they are looking to determine which solution is the best. While TOFU content is aimed at educating buyers about potential solutions to their problems, MOFU content shows why your brand specifically is the best choice. Use more detailed and in depth content like e-books and case studies to appeal to consumers at this stage, and make sure to capture lead information by asking visitors to fill out a lead form before they can access the content.
Offering content at every stage of the buying cycle ensures that your site’s visitors always have something compelling them forward.
Finally, bottom of the funnel prospects are ready to buy. Include offers like free trials and assessments on your website in order to attract BOFU consumers. Remember, though your ultimate goal is conversion, most of your site visitors will not be ready to purchase yet, so you will need to include TOFU and MOFU content in addition to these BOFU offers.
Designed with Personalized Features
Personalization goes a long way when it comes to conversion. By delivering the right message to the right visitor at the right time, you can better influence their purchasing decision. There are many advanced features and tools at your disposal to help ensure that your site serves visitors more customized content.
One of these features is Hubspot’s Smart CTAs. This tool helps you serve dynamic content to website visitors by allowing you to display a different CTA to each visitor based on criteria that you decide on ahead of time. Not only does this help you improve the visitor’s website experience, but it can also help you improve conversion rates by delivering the type of content that will resonate most with each visitor. For instance, a person visiting your site for the first time is more likely to be interested in an e-book than a free trial. With Smart CTAs, you can make sure that first-time visitors are getting the content they need, while those ready to buy are being guided in the right direction.
Another helpful personalization web design tool is the smart overlay, like Unbounce’s Convertables or Hupspot’s Leadflows. Though the basic premise is the same as a pop-up, these features allow you to create a more tailored experience for your visitor which is in line with your inbound marketing goals. With these targeted overlays, you can serve the most relevant offers to your audience based on a number of different criteria.
Pop-up CTAs can now appear after a certain length of time or other conditions, meaning they only appear to engaged visitors.
Includes Clear Calls-to-Action on Every Page
If you want to drive conversions then you need to tell your website visitors what to do next. Rather than leaving them up to their own devices, you should guide them to the next step with a compelling call-to-action (CTA). Whether this is a button or link, the CTA should be clear and specific so that there is no question what you want consumers to do next. In addition, you should make sure that the CTA aligns with the content in terms of which persona the content is written for and where they are in the funnel.
This CTA for an e-book about PPC comes at the end of a blog post about PPC best practices.
The exact CTA will depend on what type of content you are creating. For BOFU content, you might say, “click here to learn more” and guide readers to a page that provides a more detailed exploration of potential solutions to their challenge or need. While MOFU CTAs may encourage them to explore more information about your company. For those who are ready to buy, you may use a CTA like, “Sign up for your free trial now".
Uses Social Proof Where Applicable
Yet another way that you can ensure that your site is designed with the inbound experience in mind is providing social proof where you can. Many consumers respond best to actual data, and one way that you can use data to show your brand value is through case studies. With case studies, you are able to tell the story of how a consumer came to your brand, how your brand solved their challenges, and how they prospered as a result of this partnership. When you use data to back up these customer successes, you have a recipe for success.
Testimonies are also a powerful tool for influencing purchasing decisions. Ask some of your best customers for a testimonial that you can share on your site. Whether this is a simple quote or a video, the words of your actual customers can go a long way in showing prospects what your brand has to offer. If your testimonials are in text format, try to include an image of the customer as putting a face to the name helps build the credibility and impact of the statement.
Social proof such as testemonials are great way of showing potential customers that you mean business.
Final Takeaways
A website designed with your inbound marketing in mind is never really finished. You need to constantly A/B test, analyze, and refine your content and site design on a regular basis. Managing this ongoing process can be difficult, especially for companies that have a lot of other things on their plate. That’s why it is often a good idea to partner with an agency who can manage this for you. An inbound marketing agency knows what it takes to build and manage a site that is aimed at achieving your inbound goals, and they can dedicate the time necessary to doing it right.Don’t look for Tom Petty at the communion rail any time soon. The rocker doesn’t have a reputation for being a political activist in his music, but with a song set to be released next week, “Playing Dumb,” he implicitly takes on the Catholic Church for “covering up” the clergy sex abuse scandals, according to a new cover story in Billboard.
The magazine quotes the lyrics “For every confession that wasn’t on the level/For every man of God that lives with hidden devils” in prefacing comments from Petty about the tune — which appears as a bonus track on the Blu-Ray and two-LP vinyl editions of his new album, Hypnotic Eye.
Billboard writer Fred Schruers noted that Petty “arches an eyebrow at the digital recorder before him” when asked about “Playing Dumb.” But the singer didn’t hold back.
“Catholics, don’t write me,” Petty tells the magazine. “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have, but it can’t tell anybody it’s OK to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years… If I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club.” He says he “felt that I was being asked to play dumb” and believe “that ‘OK, well, they paid some money, so it’s all over.’ I don’t trust that.”
Petty also arches his eyebrow toward not just the Catholic Church but religion in general in the article, saying, “Religion seems to me to be at the base of all wars… I’ve nothing against defending yourself, but I don’t think, spiritually speaking, that there’s any conception of God that should be telling you to be violent. It seems to me that no one’s got Christ more wrong than the Christians.”
Most of the fans who buy Hypnotic Eye when it comes out Tuesday won’t hear “Playing Dumb,” due to its bonus-track status. (The double-LP configuration that includes the song is only currently for sale via Petty’s website, while the Blu-Ray is available through other outlets.) Billboard says Petty kept the song out of the main running order of the album not because it would be controversial but because it was “hard to sequence” with the other 11 tracks.
Much of the rest of Hypnotic Eye has a sociopolitical subtext, as evidenced by titles like “American Dream Plan B.” But the magazine also duly notes that Petty “won’t take the bait” when he’s asked to name names of the figures he might have in mind as targets, saying “it’s a political album that’s not really on either side” with themes that are “really more about morality than politics.”
He’s concerned with the hunger for power that occurs “the minute the badge goes on” — something he wryly says he observes even with concert security, let alone at the top levels of government — and a consolidation of wealth and power that “wipes out the middle class.” “I’m old enough to remember an America where if you were willing to be a fairly hard worker, you could support your family… Everybody was happy — not this 'Well, I’m not succeeding if I don’t have what these phony people, these soulless shells on TV, are wearing or doing.’”
But lest it sound like Hypnotic Eye will get dirgey in taking on clerics and Kardashians, advance reports describe the album as consistently hard-rocking. Heartbreakers guitarist and co-producer Mike Campbell reinforces that aggressive promise in telling the magazine that Petty sounds “really urgent and committed… he sounds like he did on the first and second albums.” Fans have already heard officially leaked sneak previews of five of the 11 tracks, all of which feature Campbell turning out gnarly riffs and leads.Even though the first set is only 6 songs, it finishes with a first-ever-played song. Second set has a few more unique moments, an excellent space, and a heartfelt setlist for the last Philly Spectrum Dead show ever. Jerry even milks the last drop vocally out of NFA. Thanks Charlie!
favorite favorite favorite
This show is not bad for '95, but I hesitate to call it good. Jerry is actually pulling out a few hot licks here and there. The Unbroken Chain is nice to hear songwise but unimpressive rendition-wise, and I am bummed that they never brought it out when Jerry could still play well enough to handle the transitions. The whole band seems to be slightly off today, Jerry not much more than everyone else; on other '95 shows, the rest of the band tends to play very well with Garcia lagging; here, he's almost leading.
- March 19, 2017HARRISON, NEW JERSEY – The drought is over, but as is always the case with the Canadian men’s soccer team, it wasn’t easy.
Canada not only scored for the first time at the CONCACAF Gold Cup since 2011, but it also registered a victory, picking up a somewhat nervous 4-2 decision over French Guiana on Friday night at Red Bull Arena.
Dejan Jakovic and Scott Arfield scored in the opening 45 minutes, while 16-year-old Alphonso Davies scored twice in the second half for Canada, who won in this competition for the first time in eight games.
Roy Contout and Slovan Privat scored two minutes apart for French Guiana, who had chances for a third to set the Reds’ hearts racing. But as a biblical rain poured down Canada breathed a massive sigh of relief when Davies added an insurance goal with five minutes left in regulation with a solid finish on an Anthony Jackson-Hamel pass.
“It didn’t really quite happen the way we wanted, but I saw glimpses of what I want from this team,” stated coach Octavio Zambrano, who admitted he was hoping Canada would score in the first 15 minutes and then control things from there.
“We had a breakdown at one point that we really needed to be cognizant of and need to examine. We will watch the videos on how we can correct it, but you can’t ask for everything in the first match.”
CONCACAF Gold Cup coverage on Sportsnet.ca Sportsnet.ca will have in-depth coverage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Gavin Day and James Sharman will be onsite and following Canada as it progresses through the tournament, providing regular articles and video reports. You can also follow both of them on Twitter for regular Gold Cup updates.
Any worries about Canada nearly seeing a three-goal lead slip away will easily be tempered by the emergence of Davies, who only recently received his Canadian passport. Even before scoring his first goal, there were flashes of the creativity that he has routinely displayed with the Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS this season. The teenager fits in at this level, that’s for sure, and given his age, it’s exciting to think about what else he can do as he grows older and gains more experience.
“At first when I went out there, I was a bit nervous,” admitted Davies, who earned his second cap for Canada.
“It was a new atmosphere for me. Coming out there and starting a game with my country. I was a little bit nervous. At the end of the game, I got more comfortable.”
At 16, he is the youngest player to score in Gold Cup history and he is already earning rave reviews from his more experienced teammates.
“He’s probably the most exciting kid— he’s still a kid— that I’ve ever played with and seen with my own eyes,” said Arfield, who put in possibly his best performance for Canada.
“By far he’s the most technically gifted, humble, modest young man that I think is going to go from strength to strength.”
Even though Canada controlled lots of the possession early on, it was lacking in the decisive moments. Given its goal drought at the Gold Cup, it was somewhat fitting that it took a fortuitous deflection off Jakovic for the Reds to finally score.
In the 28th minute, Arfield delivered a free kick from the right side and it was initially punched by Guiana goalkeeper Donovan Leon. However, the ball was directed into Jakovic’s ribcage and bounced into the goal. Jakovic didn’t look like he knew what was happening, but it didn’t matter.
Right before halftime, Junior Hoilett put a ball in from the right flank to Arfield, whose initial attempt deflected back to him. Arfield then composed himself and coolly finished from outside the penalty area.
Davies, already facing plenty of hype at his age, showed just a glimpse of his potential on the hour mark when he was sprung behind French Guiana’s back line from a Lucas Cavallini pass. Davies showed incredible pace to break away and score his first goal for Canada.
Then the wheels almost completely fell off for the Reds, as starting goalkeeper Milan Borjan left the game and was replaced by backup Maxime Crépeau.
Borjan came to punch a loose ball and crashed into a group of players and took a shot in the eye. Medical staff came out and looked to initially signal a substitution, but after a few more minutes, Borjan was up on his feet.
When walking through the media mixed zone after the game, Borjan indicated that he could see just fine despite a swollen eye, but before coming out, he ran to the sidelines and indicated that he wasn’t fine to continue.
“Perhaps, this time, it wasn’t the best. There was a little bit of confusion but he came out and he’s OK and has been examined,” Zambrano said. “I don’t foresee anything major but we’ll wait to see what the doctor has to say.”
Contout scored a header off a corner kick in the 69th minute and then two minutes later Privat was left alone a few yards out to score at the near post.
Canada will play Costa Rica in Houston on Tuesday.They have the House, they have the Senate, they have the presidency -- and nothing's happening. Nothing, that is, that Donald Trump doesn't do by himself (i. e. reversing Obama's executive orders and cutting regulations in general, reviving American global power, etc.).
The Republicans in the legislature are a disgrace. They can't get it together to compromise on anything and move forward -- no tax reform, no healthcare, no nothing. They are overwhelmed by a combination of overweening ego and rigid ideology -- a lethal cocktail. What their behavior is doing is creating an inevitable situation where they lose control of Congress and ultimately the White House to the Democrats, when they had everything handed to them. Evidently, the Republicans can't stand prosperity. Or maybe they really are the Stupid Party.
At the same time, the Evil Party today is worse than it ever was, an amalgamation of aging Marxist professors, snowflake Social Justice Warriors with an allergy to free speech, thugs in Guy Fawkes masks who smash windows and pick fights with just about anybody for no discernible reason, leftover identity politics exploitation hacks like Maxine Waters and equally leftover feminists, and, oh, yes, some rich Hollywood and media types who love to virtue signal their love for the common people while cavorting on a superyacht in Polynesia -- not to mention lying or moronic (you pick) politicians who still insist on claiming Trump is in collusion with Vladimir Putin! Do we seriously want to give control back to them?
That would indeed be moronic, but complicating matters, exacerbating the problem for the Republicans of all stripes, is that they are out of touch with their voters. The rank-and-file are far more pragmatic than they are. Those voters live in the non-D.C. real world where practically every sane person realizes the perfect is the enemy of the good. More that that, most grownups realize there is no perfect (outside of baseball pitching and maybe a couple of paintings by Vermeer). Running around trying to achieve it is fruitless. What you want to do is make progress -- and, obviously, not in the "progressive" sense, which is a ticket to national slavery. But that's what the congressional Republicans are courting by their intransigent behavior -- almost every one of them on all sides.
So my advice is this -- Easter's over. Do something! Now!
More specifically, face the following realities. Don't expect healthcare to be anywhere near perfect, ever. There will always be a supply and demand problem for the foreseeable future, no matter how it's formulated. Just try to make it better, see what happens, and then try to make it better again. Rome, as the cliché of clichés goes, wasn't built in a day. And even if you get what you think is perfect, I promise you it's not. So talk to each other and make an agreement, but be mindful of the following...Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic socialist from Vermont, pulled off an unexpected win in the Michigan primary on Tuesday night.
In perhaps his biggest win yet, Sanders took 50.1 percent of the vote, while Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who was expected to take the Rust Belt state by double digits, received 48 percent (at the time of publication), according to the New York Times.
NYT - nytimes.com
Sanders' performance was a major upset for the Clinton campaign, whose victory in Michigan was expected to deliver a blow to Sanders' chances for the presidency — given that many of the issues on which the Sanders campaign hinges resonate strongly with voters in the industrial state.
"We are in the midst of a very tight race," a somewhat baffled Sanders said in an impromptu speech in Florida before the results were called.
"What tonight means it that the Bernie Sanders campaign, the people’s revolution that we are talking about, is strong in every part of the country and frankly we believe that our strongest areas are yet to happen,” he said.
The win marks a milestone for Sanders, and breathes fresh air into his presidential campaign. Michigan, where Clinton had led the polls in the run up to Tuesday's vote, is a hotbed for issues like "unfair" trade agreements, a "rigged economy," and income inequality — all issues championed by Sanders in a Democratic debate on Sunday night in the city of Flint. The state also contains a large population of Black voters, who have largely been thought to support Clinton, however, it is too soon to know if Black voters propelled sanders to victory.
The victory gives the campaign proof that it has the chance to win over racially diverse states that will be crucial in the general election, the New York Times notes.
Clinton, however, still leads in the delegate count with 1,215 to Sanders' 566, and the former Secretary of State took home a win in Mississippi on Tuesday night.Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning Princeton economist and New York Times columnist, said Tuesday that the United States needs to spend on a scale similar to World War II in order to escape an extended economic slump.
"What we need is actually the financial equivalent of war," he said during a talk at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. "What actually brought the Great Depression to an end was the enormous public spending program otherwise known as World War II."
World War II boosted government spending to 42 percent of total U.S. output, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Krugman said that while a fiscal stimulus program does not have to be on the scale of World War II, ideally it would involve "useful" infrastructure projects such as repairing bridges and sewer systems and building a railway tunnel between New Jersey and New York.
He said that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though expensive, have not stimulated the economy because in comparison to the country's total output, "this is not big spending." The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan peaked at just 1.2 percent of GDP, while the Vietnam war was nearly twice as expensive, at 2.3 percent of U.S output, according to Bloomberg.
"We have not had the kind of aggressive policies either from the Fed or from the federal government that the depth of the crisis really calls for," Krugman said.
Krugman said he believes that the Federal Reserve should print more money to spur "above-average" inflation for five years, raising prices to bring down both unemployment and debt. The overhang of household debt has largely caused and prolonged the economic downturn, he said. The Fed's response so far has been "marginal," such as its recent decision to reshuffle $400 billion of its portfolio from short-term to long-term securities, Krugman said, since $400 billion would only make a dent in the multi-trillion-dollar U.S. bond market.
Krugman is not the only economist to advocate for inflation from the Federal Reserve to spur economic growth. Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff has said that moderate inflation could help save the United States from a lost decade by getting rid of some household debt. Rogoff told the Boston Globe that while it would be ideal for banks to forgive the debt of some homebuyers and renegotiate the debt of others, so far largescale renegotiation has not occurred, so inflation would be the next best option to enable consumers to reemerge from a mountain of debt and start spending again.
Krugman also warned that the possible breakup of the European Union and failure of European banks could have a devastating effect on American economic recovery, similar to that of the collapse of the major Austrian bank Credit-Anstalt in 1931, which "made the Great Depression great." Now, he said, the European Union has "no safety valves" to deal effectively with the sovereign debt crisis.
Last month, Krugman said half-jokingly on a television program that the United States would be well served to prepare for a fabricated alien attack.Image caption Shell has benefited from higher gas and oil prices, as have its rivals
Higher gas and oil prices have pushed up profits at ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell during the three months to the end of September.
Current cost of supply net income at Shell doubled to $7.2bn (£4.5bn), compared with $3.5bn during the same period a year ago.
At Exxon, meanwhile, profits increased by 41% to $10.3bn.
The cost of Brent crude was 48% higher in the quarter compared with the same period last year.
Higher oil prices also increased the price of gas in Europe and Asia. Shell produces almost as much gas as oil.
"Our profits pay for Shell's substantial investments in new energy projects, to ensure low-cost, reliable energy supplies for our customers and to create value for our shareholders," said Shell chief executive Peter Voser.
"Our third quarter results were higher than year-ago levels, driven by higher oil prices and Shell's performance," he added.
In the UK, the company recently announced it was investing in the deep-water Clair oil field west of the Shetland Islands, in a scheme operated by rival BP.
The company also completed the sale of the Stanlow refinery for a total of $1.2bn.
Exxon boost
Exxon said that capital and exploration expenditures reached a record $26.7bn for the first nine months of the year.
"We continue pursuing new opportunities to meet growing energy demand while supporting economic growth, including job creation," chairman Rex Tillerson said.
Production decreased 4% compared with the third quarter of 2010.
Shell said it had had a series of recent accidents.
In August, the company suffered a leak at its Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea of around 1,300 barrels.
In October, Shell declared a force majeure on some of its customers after a fire shut down its refinery in Singapore.TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
It’s not only welfare that makes it harder for the poor to climb the ladder of success. Well-intended laws, such as a minimum wage, hurt, too.
But most people don’t understand that. Even Republicans, according to opinion polls, support a higher minimum wage. A minimum sounds compassionate. It’s hard to live on $7.25 an hour.
But setting a minimum is anything but compassionate because that eliminates starter jobs. The minimum wage is why kids don’t work as |
The ultimate way to fight cults such as the Purity Movement? Free, forthright and unfettered speech about religion, liberally administered to those seduced by faith’s dark dogmas and to children, of course, who should be warned that pious perverts are lurking abroad, waiting to warp their minds with God-prattle and calls to “purity.”
Recall the damage religion does. Remember the radiant faces of the young in “The Virgin Brides.”
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If only for their sake, speak out. Thomas Paine would be proud.The Movie-Based Terminal Effect Not Yet Recreated by Hackers
Brian Barto Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 27, 2016
The Matrix’s “raining code” effect is loved by hackers, and for that reason, often recreated. However, much to my surprise, there is one 90s era hacker movie featuring a similarly intriguing effect that has not yet been recreated.
Text Decryption Effect (Sneakers, 1992)
In 1992, a group of security specialists were blackmailed into stealing a “little black box” capable of accessing nearly any encrypted data source, granting them virtually unlimited access to government and banking resources. No, this didn’t happen in real life. It happened in the 1992 movie “Sneakers”, one of my favorite movies as a young aspiring programmer. The movie holds up very well today, but as much as I’d love to wax poetic about how great it is, such is not what this article was intended for.
This article is about finally paying this movie tribute by recreating its famous text decryption effect.
It was done for the Matrix countless times. Why not Sneakers? Frankly I am shocked no one has done it yet. Shame on you, hacker community!
So, simply recreating precisely what we see above isn’t good enough. The effect needs to be functional, capable of taking input from the user if and when a menu is revealed. It also needs to be modular so it can be imported in to any program and applied to any string of text we wish to print to the terminal.
Here is an example of a standalone executable I built, called nms (acronym for “no more secrets”, a notable quote from the movie), that takes input from a shell pipe and displays it using the film’s famous text decryption effect.
Recreating the Decrypting Text Effect
Here is another example showing this effect on the exact text we see in the movie clip shown above. Additionally, in sticking with the functionality requirement, this version also accepts input from the user after the menu is displayed.
No More Secrets
If you’re interested in playing with this effect, or if you want to include this effect in to your project, see my github repository linked below. Instructions and examples are provided.
If you run in to any problems, please reach out to me on github. As always, I am open to any and all feedback.
Thanks!
Edit: When I originally posted this I was only using standard ASCII characters. Thanks to the helpful comments, I was able to identify the character set used in the movie and I’ve now updated my project.The weekend will bring varying, chilly weather conditions across the country.
Yle’s meteorologist Matti Huutonen forecasts a strong low pressure area will move southeast across the country during Saturday and Sunday. Last night, snowfall began from the west and moved towards the east.
There is a possibility of heavy snowfall of up to 10–20 cm in the area stretching from South Karelia to Kainuu and North Ostrobothnia.
In the east and west, temperatures will stay above zero on Saturday, and snow will quickly turn into rain. Drivers are warned of poor driving conditions, especially in central and eastern parts of the country.
Sunday will usher in gusty winds
On Sunday morning, western parts of Finland should expect gusty winds, which might escalate to storm readings in areas by the sea.
The new week will begin with freezing temperatures, with mercury dropping below zero through the entire country.About HSEE
HSEE 2018 - IIT Madras has released the result of HSEE 2018 on 15 May. HSEE 2018 (Humanities and Social Sciences Entrance Examination) was conducted on 15 April for admission to integrated development studies and English studies. The link to download the HSEE result 2018 has been provided on this page. Only the qualified candidates can download the HSEE offer letter 2018 from 16 May. The common merit list of the qualified candidates securing at least 50% will be prepared on the basis of HSEE scores. HSEE is the basis for admission to 46 seats offered by IIT Madras under two streams. However, these two streams will be allocated after the completion of first two years. To know more on HSEE 2018 result, dates, offer letter, merit list and more, read the article below.
HSEE 2018 is for admission into the two following courses, The first two years of the curriculum are common to all students, after which they branch out into one of the two streams
Integrated M.A. in Development Studies
Integrated M.A. in English Studies
Total Number of Seats: 46 (23 seats in each stream)
Latest Update: HSEE Result 2018 has been released and available to download here for the entrance exam.
HSEE 2018 Result Announced - Click Here
HSEE 2018 Dates
Events Date HSEE Online Application Process begins
14 December 2017 Payment of examination fee begins The last date of paying HSEE application and payment of fee 24 January 2018 HSEE Application Status Check 16 February 2018 HSEE Admit Card 14 March to 14 April 2018 HSEE Exam Date 15 April 2018
(10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) HSEE Result - Declared 15 May 2018 Dispatch of Offer Letters 16 May 2018
QUICK LINKSThe international coalition must take the same comprehensive approach to HTS as it is taking to the Islamic State.
CLICK ON ANY MAP TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD A HIGH-RESOLUTION VERSION.
In July 2017, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized the entire Syrian-Turkish border in Idlib province and the Syrian provincial capital of Idlib, to the detriment of its former ally Ahrar al-Sham (AS). The move came several months after the rebels fell in December 2016 to regime and allied forces in Aleppo, whereupon HTS committed itself to dominating the entire Syrian rebellion. In so doing, it sought to force its former allies to submit to its jihadist strategy, while basing itself in the Idlib area.
HTS Preeminence
On January 28, 2017, HTS was formed through the merger of several rebel factions associated with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra). These factions included Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, Jabhat Ansar al-Din, Liwa al-Haqq, and Jaish al-Sunna. In seeking to strengthen its grip on the rebellion, HTS failed, however, to integrate its main former ally, Ahrar al-Sham. As a result, many AS brigades defected to HTS, while others, such as Free Syrian Army remnants, Suqur al-Sham, and al-Jabha al-Shamiya (Levant Front), joined AS in order to gain protection from HTS. Despite absorbing its own new elements, AS did not bolster itself militarily, and the group's cohesion has suffered -- making it unlikely AS will be able prevent further defections to HTS.
Since 2014, the various Syrian incarnations of al-Qaeda have methodically eliminated the Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades in northwestern Syria by either killing or appropriating their members. The FSA has been reduced to a few thousand combatants today in the Idlib area, a winnowing to which AS contributed -- and noteworthy in light of the later AS-HTS split. In winter 2017, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda even attacked Jund al-Aqsa, an extremist faction alongside which HTS, and Jabhat al-Nusra before it, fought. The small jihadist group was thus forced to dissolve, with some of its members joining the Islamic State and others the Turkestan Islamist Party (TIP; previously known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement), a strong HTS ally. The TIP includes several thousand Uyghur fighters originally from Xinjiang, China (aka East Turkestan), who are fighting in Syria and living with their families between Jisr al-Shughour and Ariha.
Today, HTS constitutes the largest rebel group in both Syria and Idlib province. Of the 30,000 or so HTS combatants across the country, some two-thirds are situated in the Idlib area. Following military victories, HTS often attracts additional recruits. In particular, in July 2017, new AS brigades to join included Usud al-Islam (Lions of Islam), located in southeastern Idlib province; Usud al-Maarat (Lions of Maarat), based in Maarat al-Numan; and a group under the emir of al-Dana, a small town in northern Idlib. Further reinforcing HTS in Idlib have been fighters booted from previously rebel-held enclaves now controlled by the Syrian army, such as Zabadani, the al-Waar district of Homs, al-Qabun, Daraya, and others. Additionally, some 1,500 HTS fighters and their families might soon arrive from the Arsal area of Lebanon, where Hezbollah and Lebanese forces are conducting a campaign against Sunni jihadists. Only one notable HTS defection can be counted thus far: that of Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, which broke off to become an independent force in late July 2017.
HTS Nodes of Control
In assessing the strength of HTS, the group's fluid territorial presence can be deceptive. Indeed, HTS relies more on the potency of its network than on the accumulation of territory. This past July, the group chased rival groups from Idlib city as well as from smaller towns such as Maarat al-Numan, Saraqeb, and Atareb, all of which are former FSA strongholds. When occupying such communities, HTS notably practices discretion in order to avoid antagonizing locals.
In the southern and eastern sections of the province, HTS is satisfied with its past conquests of Syrian army military bases such as that in Abu Duhur. Finally, it retains strongholds near Aleppo (in the northwestern suburbs), Hama (Khan Sheikhoun), and Latakia (Jisr al-Shughour), from which it can probe opportunities for expansion against the Syrian regime. Other areas not populated by Sunni Arabs are more difficult to control. In broader terms, HTS does not seek territorial continuity but instead control of strategic points from which it can launch raids, including against villages such as Kafr Nabl, an anti-Islamist stronghold. Having elicited allegiance from local factions throughout the Idlib area, HTS can mobilize thousands of additional combatants, as in the Hama offensive against the Syrian army in spring 2017.
The main HTS stronghold, encompassing the border area with Turkey from Jisr al-Shughour to Bab al-Hawa, allows for unparalleled control of both cities and the countryside. A lone weak point can be found in the Turkmen-inhabited country north of Latakia, a small Turkish protectorate that uses the Yamadi crossing border. Overall control of the Syrian-Turkish border is fundamental to HTS assertion of power over the province and its ability to dominate other factions. Such control provides the jihadist group with a monopoly over the transit of humanitarian aid and any form of trade with Turkey. Indeed, whereas various groups engage in trade with government-held areas, humanitarian aid comes almost exclusively from Turkey, and feeding the area's two million inhabitants, nearly half of whom are internally displaced, is essential. Moreover, should other factions lose access to weapons from Turkey and the Turkish-controlled border area between Azaz and Jarabulus, they may turn to the Syrian government to avoid destruction if the status quo persists.
On August 22, HTS announced its consolidation of control over all local committees -- consisting of civilians who distribute public services and humanitarian aid from abroad -- of the "liberated zone." Curiously, this statement followed one by Turkey demanding the creation of an Idlib civilian body to manage humanitarian aid and border crossings, and threatening otherwise to halt humanitarian aid. HTS knows, however, that Turkey will not risk inviting hundreds of thousands of hungry Syrians to its border, an unmanageable influx. The first such arrivals would be internally displaced persons (IDPs), who would crowd the camps in dramatic fashion, seeking protection from Syrian regime bombardments.
Suicide Attacks and Potential Turkish Action
For Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, IDP camps constitute ideal recruitment sites where the group can exploit the misery of fragile populations. The jihadists, for example, recruited thousands of teenagers for use as cannon fodder in the August 2016 battle for Ramouseh, which allowed a temporary breach in the siege of Aleppo. Although unnecessary on the military level, the battle was intended to enhance the prestige of HTS, which had been reconstituted from JFS but had parted amicably with al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The terrorist organization now needs to constantly replenish its supply of suicide bombers, one of its best assets in the war. While drawing the admiration of other jihadist leaders, the suicide attacks also scare them because they know they are not immune. In his deployment of suicide attackers, HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani corresponds perfectly to the portrait of the "old man of the mountain" (al-Shaykh al-Jebel) described by Bernard Lewis in The Assassins. Specifically, HTS can count on the TIP to supply large numbers of suicide bombers indoctrinated in its children's training camps near Jisr al-Shughour. Uyghur suicide bombers have already performed on the frontlines during the battle for Ramouseh.
In observing recent developments, no state actor wants to see Idlib province become a jihadist factory. Turkey, in particular, could be spurred to intervene militarily, based on the terrorist threat and Ankara's geopolitical interests. To be sure, the Turks hold the priority of preventing the creation of an entity favorable to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) operating between Afrin and the Tigris River. Yet the future of Idlib is also part of Ankara's calculus, and developments there could weigh in favor of or against the Kurds. Indeed, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced his desire to create a Turkish protectorate in Idlib similar to the existing Azaz-Jarabulus corridor. Should the Turks act, their military plan might entail a strike into Syria extending about thirty-five kilometers, from Jisr al-Shughour to Bab al-Hawa, including the city of Idlib. Such a campaign would inevitably lead to a major fight with HTS, which occupies precisely the same area.
No Long-Term Plans for an HTS Emirate
Abu Muhammad al-Julani understands that once the Islamic State is defeated, the U.S.-led coalition, along with Russia, Turkey, and Iran, will turn its guns on his group. Depending on developments in the anti-IS campaign, and coordination among these external actors, Julani might have a year or two before his group's time comes. He thus understands that his principal goal is not to create a permanent Islamic emirate in the Idlib area but rather to establish a recruitment base for his army of jihadists, in accordance with the principles set out by Zawahiri: "The strategy for jihad in al-Sham [Greater Syria] must focus on a guerrilla war...Do not occupy yourselves with holding territory."
Such language explains why the international community must seek urgently to counter HTS, which grows stronger by the day, without awaiting the complete destruction of the Islamic State. International actors should not rely on moderate rebels, or Ahrar al-Sham, to achieve this goal. Indeed, the international coalition must pursue the same comprehensive approach to HTS in Idlib as it is taking to the Islamic State in Raqqa and elsewhere. Failure to do so now will entail far greater costs later.
Fabrice Balanche, an associate professor and research director at the University of Lyon 2, is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute.14
Paxton Rd
Sylmar, CA 91392
Weird how some didn't experience their car going up the hill in neutral. Back in the 80's my uncle brought us, didn't have a clue what we were doing. He stopped the car at the bottom of the hill it almost seemed like we were in a dip. He put the car in neutral and stuck his hands and feet out the window so we wouldn't think he was tricking us and the dam car rolls up the hill. But what really freaked me out was the shadows I saw at the Jewish cemetery when I returned as a teenager. Needless to say, that was the last time I went there and will most likely never return. Atleast I can knock that one off the list.
I was there in the early '70s when Gravity Hill actually did work and it was no optical illusion. (You put the car in neutral and it did roll uphill, but that was when cars were made of metal bodies--not plastic). 'Maybe the literal-magnetism has changed or shifted to a different location since then? Such a shift is possible since our orbit has elongated since then. I am disappointed in and yet informed by these reviews. Being that this Hill now seems like a rumored legend and that evil or bad doer entities have lobbed on to this location, I feel like maybe I should not go there which this is what makes me sad; I was hoping to take a group of old classmates there for nostalgic reasons and check it off some of our buckets' list.
So I went up there several years ago and was intrigued by that creepy house of wax looking bar..I knew there had been rumors of this being a KKK town but I'm an idiot and wanted to see for myself. By the time I even approached the door I was already greeted by a lady who said "we're closed" and then i replied "when do you open?" She gave me the craziest look and said I'd better get out of there. Like now. Loved the eerie feeling..but again, I'm an idiot. A fun place if you wna see how many time you can cheat death lol. Goodluck yall. Oh, and the hill itself doesnt work.
The last three times we tried to go to Gravity Hill, the police were checking ID's, and shining their lights in the car windows. It was a freakin' way to get busted. Not a good way to end a night.
I've been here on countless occasions to end a night, usually just to stop by that view on the round-about. I've been here with a few friends just to hang out at the cemetery. The whole place has an eerie feel to it. I once went beyond the cemetery, to where the residents live, on the dirt-road, you know past the sign that say "Now leaving Los Angeles County Area," I recommend you don't go back there. Other than that I have never had an encounter with any KKK/Aryan Brotherhood.
So..last time I went to gravity hills was like 7 years ago! I had gone with friends a couple of times before just to kill some time on those boring weekdays...but that last time scared the shit out of me and i never went back! As always we drove down the curvy road..we noticed that right off the bat there was a beat up older model truck (might have been a chevy..looks like those classic trucks) that was driving behind us. We noticed that they started to drive really close to us. So we started to drive faster. At one point they turned off their lights and began to tailgate us and began to yell things out of the truck. When we looked back we could see what we think were 2 men in white sweaters. My friend stepped on the gas and the truck sped up right behind us! And they continued to yell things out the window. There is one part of that road where you have to make a sharp turn..and we couldnt even lose them there. Luckily we had been there many times before so we knew the way to get out and end up by a park. Point is that as soon as we entered the lil road that leads into the park and into the bigger, more open streets..they stopped and made a U turn back into the gravity hills road. The driving had been so crazy that the car smelled like it was burned from slamming on the brakes trying to make the sharp turns and trying not to crash into anything. Anywho..I never went back.
I came here roughly 3 years ago and had a similar experience to Manny G. I thought the rumors of the location being an Aryan brotherhood meeting was stupid. I turned out to be wrong. Me and my friends came here on a Saturday night around 11pm. Passing the cementery onto the dirt road, me and my friends saw a ring of people holding up torches. Once we saw that and realized that we were no longer driving on paved roads, we decided to get out since we had a bad feeling. Once we made the U-turn, we were greeted by a muscle car that was waiting behind one of the cemetery buildings. The car high beamed us and then sped right after us trying to ram our car. We were lucky to make a right turn to avoid the speeding car behind us. Thank god muscle cars aren't that great on making turns. The Gravity Hill illusion doesn't really work but the atmosphere is spooky. I would recommend it to teenagers trying to kill a Friday night but the aggressive nature of the people who live in that region makes me say avoid this area. The hill is several miles away from any sense of society so it would be a tragedy to be stuck by the Gravity Hill. The home of residents there give off a really bad vibe.
Sorry but it was boring! My dad got us all hyped up to go experienced it and yeah sadly wasn't what I was expecting.
Legend has it that when you're on Gravity Hill your car is supposed to roll UP the hill instead of rolling down. Tried it in High School and found it not to be true obviously. Still a cool area nonetheless. It became one of my favorite spots to go out to and sit at midnight and hang out with friends. Cars rarely drive by so it's a good place to chill with a case on a warm summer night. ;) It's an OK place just for the fact that it's a local folklore
True story... Back in 6/6-96,, my cousins friends & I for some reason decided to go up paxton st to gravity hills,, about mid way up before cementary we all saw creepy movements along the road disappear into the bushes... Long story short we killed the lights on truck... Spooky ass hell i was in the back pitch black, wierd ass sounds, and then BOOM... Almost ran over a kkk dude... Started talking shit & then more came out the bushes, started throwing bottles @ them then they started whistling or howling and just like ants all came sorrounfing us tried to block the road barely got out of there,, I think trucked stalled... Story was there was some kind of meeting @ or near cementary... This is one story and i will stop here but it continues trust me... True story
Gravity Hill should be called Gravity Mole Hill, its pretty lame. I think the first time I went here I was 16 and buzzed so it was cool, I have sense been back sober at its pretty weak. You put your car on neutral and your car creeps up what seems to be a hill. The drive is actually the best part about coming up here, you pass an insane asylum, go through a little dessert, go up a windy path till you reach a Jewish cemetery. After you leave gravity hill you pass a redneck biker bar, where it is said KKK members hangout. Also its suppose to be dangerous to come to Gravity Hill at night because the KKK is rumored to hang out there and beat up minorities, luckily I have never been beaten up.
Oh boy the mysterious legends of the San Fernando valley. The rumors and myths that keeps this community entertained. About 2 years ago me and my friends went there, it was on a weekend night in the summer.The cemetery was creepy but I think there was a another car there but they didn't bother us (security guard?) we stayed for 5 minutes then continued to drive. The other car just stayed and took its time around the roundabout. Screw getting out of the car (not making the same mistake people make in movie lol) and it's just a nice trippy canyon drive at night for I think 15 minutes? Kills time if you're stoned with your friends. It's a very secluded community, gives a weird vibe why these people want to live so hidden.No kkk thank goodness! You guys can put baby powder on your bumpers and see if the stories are true! I recommend just staying in your car, it must annoy the residents who chose to live here for a reason. If you chose to walk around, be careful and try to not stand out
LAME... this is the jewish cemetery one, right? nothing cool happened... trust me... nothing cool happened - except our sheer disappointment - the one in altadena is better!While the act of defenestration connotes the forcible or peremptory removal of an adversary, and the term is sometimes used in just that sense, [6] it also suggests breaking the windows in the process ( de- also means removal).
The term originates from two incidents in history, both occurring in Prague. In 1419, seven town officials were thrown from the Town Hall, precipitating the Hussite War. In 1618, two Imperial governors and their secretary were tossed from Prague Castle, sparking the Thirty Years War. These incidents, particularly in 1618, were referred to as the Defenestrations of Prague and gave rise to the term and the concept.
Historically, the word defenestration referred to an act of political dissent. Notably, the Defenestrations of Prague in 1419 and 1618 helped to trigger prolonged conflict within Bohemia and beyond. Some Catholics ascribed the survival of those defenestrated at Prague Castle in 1618 to divine intervention.
A stuntman diving out a window
Self-defenestration or autodefenestration is the act of jumping, propelling oneself, or causing oneself to fall, out of a window. This phenomenon played a notable role in such events as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center, and other disasters. In December 1840, Abraham Lincoln and four other Illinois legislators jumped out of a window in a political maneuver designed to prevent a quorum on a vote that would have eliminated the Illinois State Bank. During the Revolutions of 1848, an agitated crowd forced their way into the town hall in Cologne and two city councillors panicked and jumped out of the window; one of them broke both his legs. The event went down in the city’s history as the "Cologne Defenestration".[20]
Self-defenestration is also a method of suicide. In the United States, self-defenestration is among the least common methods of committing suicide (less than 2% of all reported suicides in the United States for 2005).[21]
In Hong Kong, jumping (from any location) is the most common method of committing suicide, accounting for 52.1% of all reported suicide cases in 2006, and similar rates for the years prior to that.[22] The Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of the University of Hong Kong believes that it may be due to the abundance of easily accessible high-rise buildings in Hong Kong (implying that much of the jumping is out of windows or from roof tops).[23] Recent notables choosing this method of suicide include actor Leslie Cheung. Population density is such that it is not uncommon for the defenestratee to kill or maim a passerby upon arrival at the pavement below.
There is an urban legend in the U.S. that many Wall Street investors autodefenestrated during the 1929 stock market crash.[24] After the stock market collapse of 2008 this was alluded to by protestors brandishing a sign on Wall Street which said: "Jump, you fuckers!"[25]
Prominent examples of autodefenestration include James Forrestal, Gilles Deleuze, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and Elizabeth Hartman.Christian Whiton says whistleblowing website presents serious challenge to national security after leak of Iraq war logs
A Fox News contributor and former state department adviser has accused WikiLeaks of conducting "political warfare against the US" and called for those behind the whistleblowing website to be declared "enemy combatants" so they can be subjected to "non-judicial actions".
In an opinion piece on the Fox News site, Christian Whiton lambasts Congress and the White House for failing to tackle the leaking of hundreds of thousands of files about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and demands action.
"First and foremost, it is important to understand that this is a serious challenge to our national security," he writes. "It's not about government transparency or free speech, which is the claim WikiLeaks and its leader, a certain Julian Assange, are making. Rather, this is an act of political warfare against the United States.
"WikiLeaks is a foreign organisation that obtained these documents as a result of espionage and it means to use the information to thwart and alter US policy. Mr Assange said as much himself."
Whiton's demands follow the release by WikiLeaks last week of 391,832 reports dubbed the Iraq war logs, which revealed evidence of the systematic use of torture by the Iraqi government installed by the US.
The pundit accuses the Obama administration of falling "asleep at the wheel" and offers five courses of action:
• Indict Assange and his colleagues for espionage.
• Explore whether they can be declared enemy combatants, "paving the way for non-judicial actions against them".
• Freeze WikiLeaks' assets and impose sanctions on any financial organisation working with them.
• Allow the US cyber command to "prove its worth by ordering it to electronically assault WikiLeaks".
• Hold "meaningful" congressional hearings to discover how such a massive leak could have happened.
Whiton ends with the following plea: "How much will our information-collection capabilities have to be diminished, and how many of our friends and collaborators around the world must die, before President Obama and his friends on Capitol Hill start caring more about national security?"
Assange has also been attacked by the Times columnist Hugo Rifkind – albeit in far more moderate terms.
"I find Julian Assange … a frighteningly amoral figure," he writes today. "It's partly the concept of unredacted leaking in itself that makes a mockery of everything journalistic ethics ought to be.
"Indeed, it does worse: it takes the agonised deliberations that occur in every newsroom over what to publish, and what harm it might cause (which often get it wrong, but do at least occur) and casts them as partisan and Goebbels-ish. Assange himself embodies this. For him, every criticism is a smear, and every critic has an agenda, probably emailed over by the Pentagon. Frankly, it's insulting."Foreword: This exploration of SCP-2841-4 was carried out shortly after its discovery. Agent Luo Xing, Agent ████ ████ and Field Specialist Kelly Zhang were dispatched with standard gear and basic diving equipment. The operation was overseen by Site Director Xue Qing as part of the Project Hetu Luoshu. The following is translated from Chinese.
Interviewer: Dr. Xue Qing
Interviewee: Agent Luo Xing, operation leader
<Begin Log>
Dr. Xue: Hello, Agent Luo.
Agent Luo: Hi Doctor.
Dr. Xue: Please take a seat. I take it that you know why you’re here?
Agent Luo: Yes, the recording kind of broke half-way and I’m expected to give a briefing on the operation.
Dr. Xue: And for the purpose of the report, please start from the beginning.
Agent Luo: Before that, may I ask how ████ is doing?
Dr. Xue: He has fully recovered. Agent ████ will be transferred out of the Project soon enough, once the psychological evaluations are complete. You may begin now.
Agent Luo: Thank you, Dr. Xue. So on 20██/██/██, I led Agent ████ ████ and Field Specialist Kelly Zhang into SCP-2841-4. ████ was in charge of the video equipment and Kelly did the sampling and surveying of the surroundings.
We went through the pool and entered the extradimensional location without problem. We then moved onto the land and changed to normal gear. It was quite dark so we kept the headlights on, and ████ turned on night vision.
We were in an open field. There was clearly a sky above us, with stars visible. They hardly lit anything though. The ground just extended to all directions, and then dissolved into blackness. There was no sound, and now that I recall, no wind either.
The pool was pretty much the same as the one back here, same liquid as it comes through the portal. But there were these metal rods around the pool, where those bronze trees should be. I have no idea what kind of metal, and Kelly wasn’t able to scrape down any bits.
She was able to take samples of the ground though, all of which was covered in some weird sand that seemed metallic. We stayed at the site for a bit. ████ recorded the scene and helped Kelly take a few pictures.
[pauses]
Our job was just to map out the basics of the location. But we couldn’t communicate with the base there, and it was up to me to decide what to do. We were going to return, but ████ found something with his camera. It was barely visible, off in the distance. We figured it was some sort of tower, just extending upwards with its top obscured by the darkness.
Dr. Xue: So you decided to explore the premises?
Agent Luo: We’ve been there for 10 minutes tops, and already finished what we could do around the pool. We had our basic gear and weapons, so I figured it would be alright. Besides, the place seemed pretty dead at the time.
Dr. Xue: Continue.
Agent Luo: We left a strong light at the pool, and made marks as we went. With sand on the ground and no wind around, there was a clear track. We knew we wouldn't be getting lost. ████ led us towards the tower with the camera, and we hiked for 15 to 20 minutes before reaching it.
It was indeed a tower, and it was massive. Four sides, at least 100 meters each. We didn’t really realize that until we were up close. We still couldn’t see how high the thing was. Again, there was nothing else around, no sounds or movements.
Under the headlights, we found that the tower was partly golden and partly white, alternating between the two colors to form some sort of pattern. But we couldn’t quite see what it was. It must be gorgeous under the sunlight, as it shined even with the dim light we had. And again, like with the rods, Kelly couldn’t take any samples.
We didn’t find any entrance, but there was a set of stairs facing where we came from. It went around the tower, slowly winding upwards. It was clearly human-sized, nicely built even. There were railings, and we didn’t feel insecure stepping on them.
Naturally, we hiked upwards. This time it took even longer than the time spent getting to the tower. Kelly said it was a little over an hour and a half, but it felt longer. The stairs just continued on and on, and the height didn’t help us get a better look at the landscape. It was just too dark.
████ managed to get a few more good shots of the sky and a lot of close shots of the tower, but nothing else. The patterns on the tower kept changing, but they were just lines and shapes. Kelly suggested it must have been designed to be viewed from a distance. We tried talking but it felt too loud. Even as we ascended there was no wind. I’m not entirely sure how high we eventually got to.
But then, just as Kelly started to complain about it, we were suddenly there.
Dr. Xue: There?
Agent Luo: The stairs just ended, and there was suddenly this open platform. It was much smaller than its base, about 10 meters long and wide. We almost stumbled into each other. And there was light sources, candles, must have been hundreds of them.
It was like some sort of Chinese pavilion, or a small palace, but you get rid of all the walls and leave the pillars. It was clearly made of wood, like traditional buildings usually are, brightly colored, and with decorations here and there. The candles lit the whole scene up pretty well.
But we weren’t able to step forward. In the front of the pavilion, there was a golden throne. And there were two beings there.
Dr. Xue: You mean that they were not human?
Agent Luo: I’m not really sure. One of them seemed human enough, the one on the golden throne. A male, wearing traditional clothes with the pattern of a giant bird. He had this sun-shaped headwear on his head. As for the other being, it was some sort of weird dog?
Dr. Xue: Please elaborate on that.
Agent Luo: It was like a wolf, or a fox maybe? But it had no fur, just these scales on its body. It was quite unsettling. Not fish scales though, more like a reptile. Furthermore, it stood almost as tall as a human, on its hind legs. One of the front paws was rested on the male’s shoulder.
We all stayed where we were, at the top of the stairs. To be honest, we weren’t really expecting this, and it took a few moments to adjust to the new light sources. And then the creature just turned to look at us, its paw still on the man’s shoulder.
There were a few seconds where it just stared. And suddenly the thing emitted an ear-piercing shriek and we all stepped back. At the same time, the man on the throne just shot up. That’s when we noticed that there was a piece of white silk hanging from one of the beams. The man then climbed onto the throne, and placed the piece of silk around his neck. He said something, but none of us could understand. It seemed like some sort of weird dialect.
Dr. Xue: Hold |
illa!
Happy September!
I’ve mentioned before, but my daughter started kindergarten this year. She is only one week in, but I feel like we are already starting to settle into a routine. I’ve even managed to bribe her into making her bed each morning before school.
I had these grand ideas of how the days would go once she started school. I had dreams of waving goodbye to her at the bus stop, and then having 4 hours where I could be completely productive. With her away at school, the boys would play nicely together while I worked so that I could be done by the time she got home from school.
Boy – was I wrong!! Granted, we are only a week in, so I’m not giving up hope yet, but the minute Abbi gets on that bus, the boys both break out into super needy, clingy, can’t be satisfied boys.
MY LATEST RECIPES MY LATEST RECIPES
Productivity? What is productivity?
So instead of work, it has been cars and balls and bikes and blocks. And all of the other things that little boys do. Work is overrated anyway, right?
But the mornings sure do fly by. I feel like she steps onto that bus one minute, then the next minute we are already heading out to wait for the bus to bring her home.
She gets home around 12:30, so lunchtime has been a bit of a struggle for us. We normally eat at noon, but since Abbi isn’t home, I never know if I should just feed the boys first and Abbi when she gets home, or make them wait.
And let’s face it – I often put it off just because I don’t know what to make. We are seriously good with getting ourselves into a lunchtime rut.
I actually had a blogging friend text the other night, asking what we do for lunch. While my kids will normally be fine with good ol’ peanut butter and jelly, sometimes, I just want to change things up and make something that all of us will love.
So when we want to change things up, we make quesadillas. But not any quesadilla recipe will do!
This quesadilla recipe was created back when I went to Austin with Old El Paso. We had a little friendly cooking competition where I made a version of these quesadillas. That version also had some freshly roasted peppers from the farmers market, as well as some sautéed squash, but I wanted to keep things as simple as possible today. Something that would be easy and fast enough to make for lunch.
That time in Austin was the first time I had ever used Old El Paso’s Zesty Sour Cream Seasoning Mix. I totally fell in love. Not only would it make a killer dip, but it makes a pretty darn delicious quesadilla filling as well. The mix, sour cream, cheese, green chiles and cilantro are all combined and piled inside of Old El Paso tortillas and then grilled to golden brown perfection. And this quesadilla recipe really is perfection. Creamy and cheesy – what more is there to ask for??
If you want to serve these up for dinner, you could always add in some shredded chicken to make them a little more hearty. But no matter when you serve them, make sure you make extras. They will get gobbled right up!
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Creamy Quesadilla Recipe Prep Time: Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: Yield: 4-6 servings Print Pin Description Looking for something new to throw into the lunch routine? This quesadilla recipe is creamy and cheesy and not your typical quesadilla! Ingredients 1 cup sour cream
1 (1 oz) package Old El Paso Zesty Sour Cream Seasoning Mix
1 (4.5 oz) can Old El Paso Chopped Green Chiles
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (8.2 oz) package Old El Paso 6-inch tortillas (10 tortillas) Instructions In a medium bowl, combine the sour cream and the seasoning mix. Set aside about 1/4 cup of the sour cream mix. Stir in the green chiles and the cilantro into the bowl; mix well. Add in both cheeses. Spread about 1/3 cup of the mixture on a top of 5 of the tortillas. Top with the remaining 5 tortillas. Heat a griddle over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. Add the quesadillas to the hot griddle. Cook until the first side is browned, then very carefully flip the quesadilla to brown the second half. Let the quesadillas sit for 5 minutes before cutting and serving. Use the reserved sour cream mixture for topping the quesadillas or for dipping.
I am in a working relationship with Old El Paso, and this post has been sponsored. I’m so glad to be able to work with companies and organizations that I truly believe in. Thank you for supporting them, too.Featuring music by feeblethemighty
!¡, pronounced Not I, is a classic artillery game with a twist. Literally! Each team exist in the inverted space of the opposing team. When a shot blows a hole in the terrain of one team land is create in the other's space. The aim is to angle your shots in order to destroy the oppositions team. It is intended for two players, but there is a one player mode.
You can hold down [H] or [F1] at any time for on screen help. Hit [F] or [F10] to zoom in, this is useful when playing on a small monitor/laptop but will cause minor graphical glitches. Select one [.¡] or two [!¡] player from the title screen to start playing. Drag the grey targeting node to set the angle and power of your shot. Press [FiRE] when you are ready to shoot. Press [FLiP] to rotate the screen 180 degrees. Gravity always goes in the direct of the ground the current player is stood upon, even if the screen has been flipped. Select [EXiT] to end the current game. The primery control system is the mouse, but basic key controls are included.
Exit: Escape
Flip: Enter
Power up/down: T/G
Angle left/right: C/N, V/B
Move left/right: Arrow keys
Fire: Spacebar
Colour scheme: On the menu screen press; 1, 2, 3... 8, 9, 0
Download for Windows XP/Vista/7 | Mac(Intel) OS X | Linux
Hints, tips and feedback discussion.Greetings Citizens,
Star Citizen fans have set yet another record in crowd funding: $20 million pledged to make sure this game is made by developers instead of publishers. It’s especially fitting to me that we reach this goal today, on the anniversary of the release of the original Wing Commander. Thanks to the support of this incredible community, Star Citizen embodies everything I dreamed of doing with that series, and opens up the potential for so much more. Each of you has helped to make this possible and you are allowing us to create a game the way games should be created. Thank you!
At the $20 million mark, you unlocked the following stretch goal:
First person combat on select lawless planets. Don’t just battle on space stations and platforms … take the fight to the ground!
What this means is that we’re expanding the FPS mechanic we’ve already created for the ship boarding system to apply to more areas of the game. Join an ongoing battle on a contested world, launch an attack on a pirate base, come to the rescue of distant colonists and fend off Vanduul raiders … the possibilities are endless.
In addition to this stretch goal, we have an extra reward for the community: a fish tank decoration for your hangar! In the grand tradition of Starlancer, here’s a little bit of nature to break up your high-tech hangar. Your fish tanks will be added to your accounts very soon and will be included with the Hangar in an upcoming patch. Included in your fish tank is a rare gold Midas fish, found on the planet Cassel in the Goss System (pictured above). Star Citizen will allow you to add more fish to your tank by exploring distant planets and collecting new species.
In the last stretch goal letter, we asked the community to decide how to handle the funding counter after we reach $21 million. 87% of you voted to keep the counter going. That is one of the most clear cut answers we’ve had from the community. As a result, we will continue to announce stretch goals that reward our early backers and enhance the game in ways we had not originally deemed possible. The first of these goals, for the $22 million mark, is as follows:
Facial Capture System. We’ve researched a technology that uses a series of cameras to capture real heads and import them into the game. This will let the team more easily create a variety of realistic characters. In addition, the technology is mobile enough to allow us to take it on the road and capture select fans during special events! You can learn more about this technology at Infinite-Realities.
There has been some concern about “feature creep” with the additional stretch goals. You should all know that we carefully consider the goals we announce. Typically the stretch goals fall into two categories;
The first are goals that involve features we already have planned or have implemented, but we couldn’t create content because of budgetary constraints. The first person combat on select planets is a great example of this type of goal. We already have FPS combat as part of the game in ship boarding, and we already have most of this already functional thanks to CryEngine, as we essentially have Crysis3 functionality out of the box. But creating all the environments and assets to fill them is a huge task, so we were planning on not doing any planetside combat initially, simply because of its cost, with the idea that we would slowly roll it out once the game is live. But with the additional funds we can now afford to create some of this content earlier rather than later.
The facial capture system is an example of the second type, where we identify technology and equipment that will make the game better and allow us to be more nimble and economically efficient in continually creating content for the ongoing universe that we are aiming to support. The motion capture system and sound studio were goals that feel into this category.
But both types of goals are carefully considered — we don’t commit to adding features that would hold up the game’s ability to go “live” in a fully functional state. Also remember that this is not like a typical retail boxed product — there is no rule that all features and content have to come online at the same time! As you can see from the Hangar Module we plan to make functionality and content come on line as it’s ready, so you should look at the stretch goals as a window into the future of functionality and content additions we plan for the live game.
Hangar Additions
We also have another poll for the community. As you know, we are continuing to develop the Hangar Module. You have been incredibly helpful in identifying bugs for the team to fix … but hangar development isn’t going to stop there. The Hangar Module is the first brick that will lead to Star Citizen and we’re going to start expanding outward in a variety of different ways. In the short term, we’re filling out the hangar! That means more equipment, more interactivity and more areas designed to turn it from just a place to keep your spaceship into your personalized home.
We’re asking for what you would like to see next in three areas of the hangar: extra rooms (add more space to the hangar), decorations (add more objects to the existing space) and augmentations (let you customize the existing space). All of these are on the horizon in some form, but we want to base our development schedule around what the community most wants to see.
As always, thank you for your support. In the past year, this community has gone above and beyond in extraordinary ways over and over again. Your dedication, your creativity and your passion for Star Citizen continues to amaze us. Please keep spreading the word: you are making Star Citizen a reality.
-Chris RobertsAs we all know, various art forms have what they consider to be their canon. If we accept video games as an art, then it too should have its own canon.I submit undertale as canonical.For one thing, its genre is incredibly unique. It contains aspects of rpgs, but it also feels like the successful integration of shoot-em-up with puzzle. It's a remarkable achievement. Most people would not interpret undertale as a shoot-em-up, yet the majority of it's actual gameplay elements that require skill are just in that category. The clever twist is that you can use positional manipulation of the projectiles flying towards you in unique ways not conceived of before.Toby Fox figured out that every enemy and boss can feel like their own unique puzzle. The gameplay has a unique, standout feel reminiscent of portal, in that your brain is offered an assortment of puzzles that is offered within the confines of a common set of surprisingly simple rules.Another thing that is fairly unique is the very successful use of new game plus within undertale. While a game like Chrono Trigger made you want to play through a couple more times,. This is again, a unique experience not found in many other games.This game feels like it has its own unique stylization. In the same ways Basquiat, Pollock, and Salvado Dali had their own unique stylizations, undertale carves out its own niche with the context of unique gameplay configurations.I know it's a bit early to bring up undertale in the context of great games, and also in the context of canonical greats, but it's hard for me to not look at this game as not offering a unique niche in the same way games like symphony of the night, Portal, and Shadow of the Colossus, each had a unique approach to a genre that gave you this delicious sampling of the qualia of an art form. What makes this all the more impressive is that it was pushed out almost entirely by a single individual. This game did make me laugh. It made me feel sad at times, it made me think at times. It has an amazing sound track, and hearing it now generates this pleasureful nostalgia.I can't help but feel that history will be kind to this game. It really highlights the ability of individuals who are truly talented to still be able to enter the industry, in spite of market oversaturation. I hold out for more games like undertale to come, and for individuals to never give up on their dreams.In an interview with fighthype.com, Floyd Mayweather Jr. said he heard Conor McGregor weighs 164 lbs, and speculated that he’s going to miss weight.
That assertion is hilarious to anyone who has any knowledge of weight cutting, but some outlets are reporting on the claims like they’re legitimate. Let’s be really clear: Cutting from 164 lbs to 154 lbs will be incredibly easy for Conor McGregor. Only having 10 lbs to cut is an ideal situation, with the Irishman used to much larger cuts in the past to hit the 145 lbs limit.
I’ve shadowed McGregor’s nutritionist, George Lockhart, on a number of occasions, and I’m privileged to be writing a book on weight cutting with him. I’m going to break down in general terms how a weight cut is performed, and why McGregor being 164 lbs today—if that is his actual weight—is no problem.
The first thing to understand is that the “cut” portion of a fighter’s weight cut likely won’t even really begin until Wednesday. On Tuesday, the fighter will likely still be drinking around 2 gallons of water over the course of the day, which is more than the vast majority of people will drink in a given day.
On Wednesday, the fighter will drink around 1 gallon of water in the morning, and then have drinks of ice cold water when he’s thirsty throughout the rest of the day.
On Thursday, his water intake will be restricted. This means the only water he takes in will be small drinks when thirsty, not no water at all. In the evening the fighter will probably do one final workout to deplete the last of the glycogen from the muscles, and then have a hot bath right before bed.
The fighter should wake up on or close to weigh-in weight on weigh-in day, and any remaining weight will be lost in a hot bath or, if the fighter prefers, a little time in the sauna. With a cut as small as 10 lbs it’s unlikely any weight has to be cut on weigh-in day, though.
Obviously this general breakdown doesn’t cover food or electrolyte intake/restriction, but it breaks down why a fighter being 10 lbs over the contracted weight 3-4 days before weigh-ins isn’t an issue.
For perspective, the average UFC fighter cuts around 8-10% of their body weight the week of the fight, so the average 155 lbs UFC fighter will actually be close to 170 lbs come fight week. If McGregor is 164 lbs, he has a significantly smaller cut ahead of him than most UFC lightweights would.
Rather being being overweight, if McGregor is 164 lbs today, he’s actually at an ideal weight, and the cut won’t be any problem at all for his team.Page Content
$450,000 to implement the Western Australian Mountain Bike Strategy
Part of strategy is boosting female participation
New funding for mountain biking in Western Australia will drive the expansion of one of the world's fastest growing recreational activities.
Sport and Recreation Minister Mia Davies today announced $450,000 would be allocated to the Western Australian Mountain Bike Strategy over three years.
"We are blessed with amazing natural landscapes in WA and incredible trails to match," Ms Davies said.
"This funding will go to WestCycle - the State's peak cycling body - and the WA Mountain Bike Association to deliver recommendations from the strategy, released in May.
"One recommendation was increasing female participation, which currently sits at about 12 per cent. So some funds will go towards developing female-friendly strategies, like a program in Karratha which has successfully encouraged women to get involved in mountain biking."
In the first year, WestCycle will use the funds to:
employ a full-time project manager to deliver the identified strategy priorities
provide assistance to mountain bike clubs to ensure they grow and prosper
conduct a health impact assessment of the benefits of mountain biking in WA
investigate and develop strategies to grow children's participation
develop a standard for mountain biking guides to ensure positive and consistent experiences for those that undertake guided tours
develop a marketing plan to ensure maximum participation potential is reached.
Environment Minister Albert Jacob said about 120,000 mountain bikes were purchased each year in WA and almost half a million West Australians now owned a mountain bike.
"The Department of Parks and Wildlife is proud of the trails it has created, which showcase the natural beauty of our State," Mr Jacob said.
"Mountain biking is a healthy, family friendly activity that caters for a range of ages and levels. It also has important flow-on economic, social and tourism benefits, all of which the strategy aims to maximise."
Fact File
Two years in development, the strategy was funded and supported by the departments of Sport and Recreation and Parks and Wildlife and prepared by WA's peak cycling body WestCycle and the WA Mountain Bike Association.
For more information, visit http://www.westcycle.org.au/
Sport and Recreation Minister's office - 6552 5500Great shading - from sky blue to a deep blue. Quite lovely.
Work appropriate, safe blue.
Looks best in wet, broad nibs (in my opinion, anyway).
Doesn't wash away completely.
A pretty normal blue, if used with a fine/medium nib.
Although they're a bit pricy, I'm a fan of Montblanc inks - they're well-behaved and are easy to clean. This is another one I enjoy. I prefer the Blue Hour Twilight Blue, but I think this Sky Blue is really nice.
I received this item free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not compensated monetarily for my review. Everything you've read here is my own opinion.
Color: BlueBottle: 1 oz/30 mlPrice: ~ €17,40Where to buy: Appelboom - send an email to order if you want it ASAP, but it should be up soon! (discount code does not apply to Montblanc, but it does to other goods!)There's no vengeful slight that Trump isn't willing to make, even if that means demeaning holiday parties.
Once again finding a way to turn a traditionally collegial, bipartisan event into a petty display of partisanship, Donald Trump banned Jewish Democrats from attending the White House’s annual Hanukkah ceremony this year.
“It’s deeply unfortunate that the White House Hanukkah Party — a bipartisan event bringing together Jewish and non-Jewish leaders alike to celebrate the Festival of Lights since 2001 — has turned into a partisan affair under this administration,” Rep. Nita M. Lowey of New York said in a statement.
That meant the only two Jewish representatives who attended the ceremony were the two Republicans in Congress, Rep. Zee Zeldin of New York and Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee.
The annual event was scaled back in a huge way this year, with the White House cutting the party guest list down from 1,700 people to just 300, according to The New York Times.
He also excluded progressive Jewish leaders and activists who have been critical of him. American Jews are overwhelmingly Democratic and progressive. In 2016, 71 percent voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump.
The unsightly snub comes at a time when the White House is supposed to be working alongside Democrats in an effort to find a way to keep the government from shutting down in coming weeks. Banning Jewish Democratic members from parties seems like a strange way to build trust.
The unseemly rebuff is part of two larger trends unfolding at the Trump White House. One is to turn White House events into petty displays of partisan resentment.
Two weeks ago, when Trump was supposed to honor Native American who helped break Nazi codes during World War II, Trump instead used the opportunity to unfurl a racist slur against a Democratic senator who wasn’t even in attendance.
Secondly, Trump banned Jewish Democrats from a traditionally bipartisan event the same week he created a storm of controversy for wanting to essentially stage a photo-op at the civil rights museum opening in Mississippi on Saturday.
The NAACP has called on him to pull out of the event, with Derrick Johnson, head of the famed civil rights group, saying Trump’s attendance would be “an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement.”
Additionally, John Lewis, civil rights hero and Democratic congressman from Georgia, has dropped out of the event, along with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS).
In a joint statement, the two men pointed to Trump’s planned attendance. “President Trump’s attendance and his hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed in this civil rights museum,” they wrote.
Trump’s presidency has been defined, in part, by his ugly, public embrace of bigotry, from attacking professional football players for expressing their First Amendment right via silent sideline protests, to defending white nationalists after they rampaged in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Whoever thought holiday parties and museum openings would be turned into causes of political rancor?
Behold the ugly Trump era.GAME FACE HELP Close
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Which EA SPORTS titles support Game Face? The following titles currently are supported by Game Face: FIFA 16 (XB1, PS4, PC), FIFA 15 (X360, PS3, PC), FIFA 14 (XB1, PS4, X360, PS3, PC), FIFA 13 (X360, PS3, PC), FIFA 12 (X360, PS3), Madden NFL 15 (X360, PS3), Madden NFL 25 (360, PS3), Madden NFL 13 (X360, PS3, WiiU), UFC 2 (XB1, PS4), UFC (XB1, PS4), Grand Slam Tennis 12 (X360, PS3), NCAA Football 14 (X360, PS3).
How do I add or change the hair to my Game Face? Why does my hair look different in game? To add hair to your Game Face model, first select the “Edit” for the Game Face you wish to modify. From within the Edit section, you will be able to add hairstyles as well as different facial hairstyles. Please note that not all of the hair styles that appear in Game Face are available in every supported title. If you find that your hair does not match well in-game, we recommend that you do NOT add a hairstyle (or facial hair) to your head from within the Game Face app. Instead for the best results, create a "bald" Game Face and add hairstyles and facial hair to your head model from within the game’s regular “Create Player” features.
Why does my skin tone look different in my console title? Skin tone can vary between the web and the console/PC because of the skin tone of the character’s body in each title. Game Face will try and match the skin tones in order to avoid a noticeable seam where the textures join, which may result in your skin tone looking different. The lighting and texturing between the web and console/PC can also have a noticeable effect on the final output.July 10, 2013
Abbie Bakan and Sharon Smith spoke at the Socialism 2013 conference in Chicago at a session on "Marxism and Women's Liberation," where they critically examined approaches to these issues--focusing in particular on the theory and practice developed by organizations in the International Socialist Tendency (IST) led by the Socialist Workers Party-Britain (SWP). The following are edited versions of their talks. Bakan is the head of the Department of Gender Studies at Queen's University, in Kingston, Ontario, and a professor of Political Studies. Smith is the author of several books, including Women and Socialism, soon to be released in an updated edition, and Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States. a longtime member of the International Socialist Organization and author of the forthcoming book Marxism, Feminism and Women's Liberation.
From Karl Marx and Frederick Engels onward, the revolutionary socialist tradition has been committed to the struggle against women's oppression and for liberation. But there is a long history of discussion and debate among Marxists about theories of women's oppression and how to organize to struggle against it.
Abbie Bakan
MARXISM IS, of course, an extremely useful frame for explaining the nature and limits of present-day global capitalism and imperialism. At its best, creative Marxism offers a realistic strategy for envisioning a new world of human freedom.
But there is a strand of Marxism that, in its relationship to feminism, is troubling, and merits close analysis and theorization. I want to suggest a very simple argument--that the theoretical claim that there is grounds for a coherent Marxist approach that is for "women's liberation," while against "feminism," makes no sense. It is unclear and unhelpful.
A strand of Marxism, what could be termed Marxist Anti-Feminism (or MAF), has diminished the contributions of feminism in such a way that distorts, rather than advances, historical materialist analysis. In so doing, MAF hampers our understanding of both women's liberation and Marxism.
Alternatively, as Marxists, we would be better served to start from a position that looks at feminism as a positive--if diverse--contribution to an emancipatory project. From this perspective, we can build a constructive and creative dialogue between and within Marxism (or, more accurately, Marxisms), and feminism (or, again more accurately, feminisms).
At best, a Marxist theoretical starting point that rejects feminism is confusing. The risks of confusion are paralysis and divisiveness, creating an unnecessary chasm among like-minded activists and scholars.
But at worst, a Marxist rejection of feminism can open the door to a much more profound anti-feminism that defines an identifiable backlash. Sexist ideas and practices--including passive or active acceptance of historic discrimination against women--are clearly widespread. And the left is hardly immune from the impact. If feminism is rejected, it cannot be assumed that Marxist women's liberation will fill the vacuum. Commonly, instead--overtly or covertly--the ideas that serve best to reject feminism are gender discrimination, sexism and misogyny.
As Marxists, we would do better, I want to suggest, to embrace feminism and understand its various and contradictory components. Feminism has many definitions. It is reasonable, for the purposes of this discussion, to consider it to mean the theory and practice associated with the struggle for women's equality, rights and emancipation, or liberation. Marxists have unique insights to bring to feminism, of course, as we do to all approaches and ideologies. But we also have much to learn.
Feminism includes, centrally, an inherent cross-class tension, where socialist-feminism has been a key element, as has anti-racist feminism. A critique of bourgeois or liberal feminism, which works within and for capitalism, is part of, and not contrary to, a feminist approach. Feminist theory is a work in progress, and increasingly is referred to as "feminisms" because of the many strands and elements.
In the comments that follow, I focus on the dominant perspective advanced by the leading intellectuals and specific publications associated with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), UK, which serve as strong advocates for the MAF position. But this is not a unique or exceptional position in the Marxist movement.
Others adopt the view, in various ways. Take, for example, Paul Piccone (1940-2004), the founder and longtime editor of the journal Telos. Piccone is considered one of the most influential Marxist thinkers of the 20th century. He maintained that an effort to advance women's equality was not a way to challenge capitalism. He wrote in 1982 that "far from being the vanguard of human emancipation, the women's liberation movement is the rearguard of capitalist rationalization." Piccone maintained that feminism was not only unnecessary to Marxism, it was actually a part of capitalism, simply expressing the logical extension of the system.
But the SWP's mentorship regarding MAF is "the devil I know." And as the SWP version of MAF also signifies a sophisticated perspective that is not ambiguous in its rejection of feminism, it is reasonable to focus on these works as a case study.
The SWP endorsement of MAF is documented in a series of substantive texts. Tony Cliff wrote about this in a book titled Class Struggle and Women's Liberation: 1640 to the Present, published in 1984 by Bookmarks. The Bookmarks imprint is identified in this and other volumes to be "linked to the Socialist Workers Party, one of a group of international socialist organizations."
Lindsey German, now of Counterfire, was for many years a leading member of the SWP and worked as a full-time organizer, writer and editor, actively publishing on the subject of women's liberation. Her books include two editions of Sex, Class and Socialism, published in 1989 and 2004, and Material Girls, published in 2007, all with the Bookmarks imprint.
The close association of Lindsey German and Tony Cliff on this issue is indicated, not least, by Cliff's adoption of German's contribution to the history of debates on feminism in the SWP as part of his own memoirs, in his autobiography, A World to Win: Life of a Revolutionary, published in 2000. In a section of this work entitled "Setbacks," Cliff explains how he came to understand the women's movement in the 1980s as one of "retreat." Cliff explains a period of intense debate within the SWP over this time as a battle to resist a rightward pressure from the movements, particularly from the conservative pull of the women's movement.
The method articulated by Cliff is taken as a standard approach. The most conservative wing of the women's movement, or a particularly reactionary feminist theorist or concept, was taken to be universal of the entire movement. It is then challenged from a singular Marxist perspective, so as to reject feminism generally.
The critique of what Cliff dismissively refers to as the "so-called movements" was comprehensive, applied to anti-racist and gay rights movements as well as the women's movement. In Cliff's autobiography, he extends the analysis to a critique of what he terms "Black separatism" and the SWP's short-lived anti-racist publication Flame.
Earlier, in Class Struggle and Women's Liberation, Cliff had this to say about gay oppression: "It is tragic but true that the great majority of homosexuals never overcome the internalized guilt they are condemned to in present-day society." Cliff articulated an understanding of the links between the gay liberation and women's liberation movements, but this was a negative relationship: "The gay liberation movement, child of the women's movement, had an even weaker constitution than its mother."
The overall approach is claimed to be grounded in a linear continuity with the positions of Lenin, the Bolsheviks and the Comintern experience, and not least the views of Clara Zetkin. Cliff, to his credit, was particularly sharp in his formulations. The argument was presented without nuance. As Cliff put the case in Class Struggle and Women's Liberation: "Feminism sees the basic division in the world as that between men and women...For Marxism, however, the fundamental antagonism in society is that between classes, not sexes...There can be no compromise between these two views, even though some'socialist-feminists' have in recent years tried to bridge the gap."
The analysis was not only theoretical, but organizational. The SWP, and under its earlier name, the International Socialists (IS), included for a period of time a distinct publication written by and for socialist women, Women's Voice. It was first published in 1972, and in 1977, Women's Voice groups were formed. Cliff opposed these initiatives, but was initially in a minority.
The publication and the Women's Voice groups linked the SWP and the women's movement in Britain. But this was increasingly seen by the SWP leadership to be a negative relationship, with Women's Voice, as German put it, "itself becoming a bridge out of the party."
It should be stressed that this view was specifically associated with the SWP Central Committee theorists and leadership, and was highly contested among sections of the SWP membership over a period of years. These debates can be traced in part in the pages of the party's principal journal, International Socialism, through the 1980s.
But this approach was a core element of the training that many of us in International Socialist Tendency (IST) groups took very seriously. The argument was central to a series of discussions at IST meetings held in London over the 1980s and 1990s. Led by a unified argument from the SWP's Central Committee, of which Cliff was a part, we would often hear about what was termed the "problem of adaptation"; here, feminism was seen as a serious danger.
I kept copious notes, struggling to learn and to remember the central tenets of successful revolutionary organizing. Tony Cliff introduced an IST International Meeting in July 1989 as follows:
The Second and Third Internationals had not only, numbers, but also cadre.
- Quantitative and qualitative losses for us
-Every idea of past, rev socist tradition, were all eliminated, not just distorted, by Stalinism
-eg.: "dictatorship of the proletariat"--very difficult to talk about because of model of Stalinist and st. capist. dictatorship
...rev politics is about polemic
-same ideas re: lack of centrality of working class exist in other forms than Stalinism today: feminism, greenism
...feminism: easiest thing in the world to make concessions on
-academic Marxism: Michael Kidron, Eric Hobsbawm--they are disgusting...
Marxism had to be defended against the threat of feminism, so went the argument, with the same uncompromising fortitude that previous generations of socialists demonstrated in challenging Stalinism.
Regardless of the specifics of debates on the left, the conditions that generate women's oppression under capitalism continue.
The sweeping analysis of MAF is, in fact, inaccurate and cannot be sustained consistently. Certainly, the insistence on being for women's liberation while against feminism does allow for strong support for selected feminist initiatives in practice. But the basic tenets of an anti-feminist Marxism have left a trail of unclarity.
The linear reading of socialist history that ostensibly supports MAF is only one interpretation; it is unsupported by other studies, including those of Raya Dunayevskaya, and by more recent work, such as the translations of the congresses of the Communist International by John Riddell.
These inconsistencies are also embedded in the ideological critique of "patriarchy theory." Lindsey German, in her argument against feminism, draws heavily on the work of Johanna Brenner. However, Johanna Brenner supports a unitary Marxist and socialist feminism |
UK parent banks have to issue debt to capitalise subsidiaries elsewhere in the world.
Interest payments on the debt is often paid out of dividends from the subsidiary to the parent, but Woods is worried that this cash flow can be erratic, or even capped by local regulators, thereby threatening the stability of the parent bank.
Overseas subsidiaries may also be required by local regulators to have an “outsize” portion of the group’s capital, which might mean that some risky operations back home not being capitalised enough, Woods said.
“We need to be mindful of the risks this can create, and so today we are announcing a new approach, to ensure that UK banking groups are at least as strong as their parts.”
He is also expanding capital and liquidity reporting requirements for banks to make it easier to check if they are holding enough capital across the countries and currencies they operate in to get to “grips with an important geofinancial issue”.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
Another woman has come forward to accuse Donald Trump of inappropriate conduct.
Porn star Jessica Drake claims the Republican presidential candidate offered her $10,000 and access to his private jet to come to his penthouse hotel room following a golf event in 2006.
Drake, 42, spoke at a press conference on Saturday alongside her lawyer Gloria Allred.
She said that she met Trump ten years ago at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California - a year after he married his wife Melania.
She claimed he invited her to his suite after the tournament, and she went with some female friends.
(Image: REUTERS)
When they arrived, she said, he grabbed each of them tightly and kissed them. After they left him, one of his representatives called to invite her to his room alone, but she said she declined.
She claims Trump himself called and asked, "What do you want? How much?"
After she declined his invite, he eventually offered her $10,000, she said.
The presidential candidate's campaign slammed her allegations as "totally false and ridiculous".
"The picture is one of thousands taken out of respect for people asking to have their picture taken with Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump does not know this person, does not remember this person and would have no interest in ever knowing her," they said in a statement.
(Image: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian)
(Image: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian)
"This is just another attempt by the Clinton campaign to defame a candidate who just today is number one in three different polls. Anyone who would pay thugs to incite violence at a rally against American citizens, as was released on video, will stop at nothing. Just another example of the Clinton campaign trying to rig the election."
Drake is the 11th woman to accuse Trump of inappropriate conduct. Gloria Allred also represents two others.
At a rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, earlier on Saturday, Trump threatened to sue his accusers, saying "all of these liars will be sued" and alleging that they came forward "to hurt my campaign."
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Allred said that Trump's threat was "a new low," and said that if he were to sue, they will "welcome the opportunity to depose you."
Drake said that she came forward aware that "I may be called a liar or opportunist" because of her background.
She said she wanted to also support other women who have gone public, sharing: "I may be but a tiny grain of sand. But clearly this is an enormous beach."
Drake also showed a picture of she and Trump taken at the golf event.I’ve been reading Scott Atran’s work for years; I initially thought he was too soft on religion, but that he was still carrying out compelling, insightful research on what makes people turn to terrorism. His key message was that you can’t simply blame religion. There’s something about young men in particular that makes them susceptible to radicalization, and it’s a cop-out to blame it on Islam, or mental illness, or economic hardship. I first heard him talking about soccer clubs — how young men isolated from other communities would room together, and begin to drift, thanks to Islamic propaganda, into increasingly radical attempts to find purpose in their lives.
Atran’s war zone research over the last few years, and interviews during the last decade with members of various groups engaged in militant jihad (or holy war in the name of Islamic law), give him a gritty perspective on this issue. He rejects popular assumptions that people frequently join up, fight and die for terrorist groups due to mental problems, poverty, brainwashing or savvy recruitment efforts by jihadist organizations. Instead, he argues, young people adrift in a globalized world find their own way to ISIS, looking to don a social identity that gives their lives significance. Groups of dissatisfied young adult friends around the world — often with little knowledge of Islam but yearning for lives of profound meaning and glory — typically choose to become volunteers in the Islamic State army in Syria and Iraq, Atran contends. Many of these individuals connect via the internet and social media to form a global community of alienated youth seeking heroic sacrifice, he proposes.
This does not fit the media narrative. I’m sure you’ve noticed: the message they try to send is always that the terrorist, the mass murderer, is an alien outsider, someone wildly different from us — a lone wolf with a broken brain. His origin is incomprehensible, and we don’t try to understand it, but only to separate him from us, the normal people, and reassure ourselves that our social group is nothing like that.
Sarah Lyons-Padilla shares a similar view.
Researchers have long studied the motivations of terrorists, with psychologist Arie Kruglanski proposing a particularly compelling theory: people become terrorists to restore a sense of significance in their lives, a feeling that they matter. Extremist organizations like Isis are experts at giving their recruits that sense of purpose, through status, recognition, and the promise of eternal rewards in the afterlife. My own survey work supports Kruglanski’s theory. I find that American Muslims who feel a lack of significance in their lives are more likely to support fundamentalist groups and extreme ideologies.
She also sees what sets people on the path to supporting terrorism: the isolation of smaller communities from the larger, the fastening of blame on innocent groups. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What we really need to know now is, what sets people on this path? How do people lose their sense of purpose? My research reveals one answer: the more my survey respondents felt they or other Muslims had been discriminated against, the more they reported feeling a lack of meaning in their lives. Respondents who felt culturally homeless – not really American, but also not really a part of their own cultural community – were particularly jarred by messages that they don’t belong. Yet Muslim Americans who felt well integrated in both their American and Muslim communities were more resilient in the face of discrimination. My results are not surprising to many social scientists, who know that we humans derive a great deal of self-worth from the groups we belong to. Our groups tell us who we are and make us feel good about ourselves. But feeling like we don’t belong to any group can really rattle our sense of self.
Take a look at America. We fear Islamic terrorism, so the first thing we do is condemn all Muslims, displacing them from our selves, isolating them, divorcing from the True American community, and reinforcing the very sociological conditions that foster radicalization.
This isn’t just about Islam, though. This seems to be a property of young men in all sorts of conditions. Abi Wilkinson writes about the online radicalisation of young, white men. She’s been reading the Internet.
No, not the bit you’re thinking of. Somewhere far worse. That loose network of blogs, forums, subreddits and alternative media publications colloquially known as the “manosphere”. An online subculture centred around hatred, anger and resentment of feminism specifically, and women more broadly. It’s grimly fascinating and now troubling relevant. In modern parlance, this is part of the phenomenon known as the “alt-right”. More sympathetic commentators portray it as “a backlash to PC culture” and critics call it out as neofascism. Over the past year, it has been strange to see the disturbing internet subculture I’ve followed for so long enter the mainstream. The executive chairman of one of its most popular media outlets, Breitbart, has just been appointed Donald Trump’s chief of strategy, and their UK bureau chief was among the first Brits to have a meeting with the president-elect. Their figurehead – Milo Yiannopoulos – toured the country stumping for him during the campaign on his “Dangerous Faggot” tour. These people are now part of the political landscape.
It turns out that Algerian soccer clubs, the Red Pill subreddit, and Breitbart have a lot in common: they’re all gathering places for frustrated men, who then proceed to reinforce each other’s views, starting with vaguely unpleasant dissatisfaction with, for instance, women, to increasingly vicious and dangerous forms of propaganda. I think you might recognize this tendency many men have to top each other’s stories, to exaggerate their dominance. It leads to increasingly awful stories…and the men in these groups, rather than condemning or rejecting their claims, instead strive to repeat even more outrageous claims.
Reading through the posting history of individual aliases, it’s possible to chart their progress from vague dissatisfaction, and desire for social status and sexual success, to full-blown adherence to a cohesive ideology of white supremacy and misogyny. Neofascists treat these websites as recruitment grounds. They find angry, frustrated young men and groom them in their own image. Yet there’s no Prevent equivalent to try to stamp this out. Much has been written about financial hardship turning afflicted white communities into breeding grounds for white supremacist politics, but what about when dissatisfaction has little to do with economic circumstance? It’s hard to know what can be done to combat this phenomenon, but surely we have to start by taking the link between online hatred and resentment of women and the rise of neofascism seriously.
These communities create a kind of tension within themselves that seeks an outlet. In radical Islam, it might be to strap on a dynamite vest and kill yourself for glory. In the alt-right, it might be to raise a middle finger to the establishment and vote for Donald Trump. It’s arguable which is more disastrous for world stability.
We need to pay attention to how these radical movements develop. Avoid the cheap out of dismissing it as a consequence of the wicked other — it is us. White people are people, just like Muslims, and just as susceptible to being led down a dark path.
Speaking of introspection and examining ourselves, here’s someone else who was radicalized by a social movement — in this case, the dark side of atheism. Sam Harris, Dave Rubin, Thunderf00t, Christopher Hitchens…these guys are gateways to the normalization of hatred.
I was curious as to the motives of leave voters. Surely they were not all racist, bigoted or hateful? I watched some debates on YouTube. Obvious points of concern about terrorism were brought up. A leaver cited Sam Harris as a source. I looked him up: this “intellectual, free-thinker” was very critical of Islam. Naturally my liberal kneejerk reaction was to be shocked, but I listened to his concerns and some of his debates. This, I think, is where YouTube’s “suggested videos” can lead you down a rabbit hole. Moving on from Harris, I unlocked the Pandora’s box of “It’s not racist to criticise Islam!” content. Eventually I was introduced, by YouTube algorithms, to Milo Yiannopoulos and various “anti-SJW” videos (SJW, or social justice warrior, is a pejorative directed at progressives). They were shocking at first, but always presented as innocuous criticism from people claiming to be liberals themselves, or centrists, sometimes “just a regular conservative” – but never, ever identifying as the dreaded “alt-right”. For three months I watched this stuff grow steadily more fearful of Islam. “Not Muslims,” they would usually say, “individual Muslims are fine.” But Islam was presented as a “threat to western civilisation”. Fear-mongering content was presented in a compelling way by charismatic people who would distance themselves from the very movement of which they were a part.
Oh, man, that sounds so familiar. I felt the pull of this attitude myself, but at least was able to look ahead and see where it would lead me in the long run, to a belief in Western male exceptionalism that I find grossly repellent.
This morning, I got an email from someone who was in the same situation and got out. They warn of things to watch out for, that almost seduced them.
Here is a tactic to watch out for. They always justify given talking with these people as credible, by say “I disagree with what they say, but they’re nice people, not racist, bigots, sexist etc.” Sam Harris thinks Black Lives Matter are awful and playing Identity politics. I wonder if Martin Luther king would have been dismissed as playing Identity politics. Anyways just thought I would add to the tactics these people use to lure impressionable white guys like me to the alt-right movement.
Take a look at the NY Times. Combative, Populist Steve Bannon in an article that tries to claim that he’s not a racist. Yet at the same time, it reports that…
One of his three former wives claimed in court papers that he had said he did not want their twin daughters to go to school with Jews who raise their children to be “whiny brats,” a claim Mr. Bannon denies. In a 2011 radio interview, he dismissed liberal women as “a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools.” In a radio interview last year with Mr. Trump, Mr. Bannon complained, inaccurately, that “two-thirds or three-quarters of the C.E.O.s in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia.” He has sometimes portrayed a grave threat to civilization not just from violent jihadists but from “Islam.” He once suggested to a colleague that perhaps only property owners should be allowed to vote. In an email to a Breitbart colleague in 2014, he dismissed Republican congressional leaders with an epithet and added, “Let the grass roots turn on the hate.”
Not racist! Not misogynist! Just a “combative populist”.
The seeds were sown early on, and we dismissed them, and now they’re bearing fruit, while the media tries to pretend that there’s no problem at all.
Let’s not do that. Let’s look at that work on the origins of radical Islamic terrorism and appreciate that it’s not solely about those brown people over there, it’s about human beings like the ones right here.Baby on car
click to enlarge. Image: Sydney Hope For his birthday, Davide drove around with a "baby" in a baby seat, "forgotten" on top pf my car
Lots of people, especially parents, thought it wasn't funny, not at all!
The cops were notified, and the Daily Camera reported on it. It was picked-up by the wire services, and distributed to other papers.
Halloween lights
Image: Alek Komarnitsky Alek had a lot of people convinced they were turning the lights on and off on his Halloween display through his website
In reality, they were just switching between two images, one with the lights on, one with the lights off
The following year, people really could control the lights, but by now they didn't believe him
Halloween lights prank siteLast Friday, members of an Operating Engineers local union represented by National Labor Relations Board chairman Mark Pearce’s former law firm pled guilty to violating the Hobbs Act.
While the case is ongoing, the charges against the men who pled guilty included a myriad of criminal acts, including violence, sabotage, threats, intimidation and extortion against their victims–all of whom were non-union contractors or their employees.
The following [emphasis added] was released by the FBI:
BUFFALO, NY—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that three members of Local 17 of the International Union of Operating Engineers pleaded guilty before United States District Judge William M. Skretny to violations of the federal Hobbs Act Extortion statute and agreed to testify in the upcoming trial of their seven co-defendants.
Pleading guilty were:
Carl A. Larson, 50, of Boston, New York; Larson formerly worked as an organizer for Local 17
Michael Eddy, 44, of Gowanda, New York, a member of Local 17
George DeWald, 50, of Springville, New York; a member of Local 17.
Each defendant faces a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced in May 2014.
In pleading guilty, each of the defendants admitted that he participated in a campaign of threats, violence, and property destruction against non-union contractors in an effort to force those contractors to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with Local 17.
Larson pled guilty to trying to force an Orchard Park contractor and its owner to sign with Local 17 by threatening the owner personally and after the contractor’s owner was stabbed by another Local 17 member. On February 5, 2003, the contractor’s owner asked Larson, “What are the positives [to signing with the union]? You guys slash my tires, stab me in the neck, try to beat me up in a bar. What are the positives to signing? There are only negatives.” Larson responded by telling the owner that “the positives are that the negatives you are complaining about would go away.”
Eddy pled guilty to being part of a campaign of violence and intimidation against a Latham, New York contractor while the contractor was removing soil contaminated with coal tar from under the Waterfront School in downtown Buffalo during the summer of 2005. Eddy admitted to being present when members of Local 17 damaged a pickup truck being driven by the contractor’s project manager as he tried to enter the worksite and then “belly bumping” the project manager when got out of his truck to investigate. During this campaign, a Local 17 organizer obtained the project manager’s home address and his wife’s name and sent his wife a letter stating, “We would like for the job to run as smoothly as your wedding day did at [your wedding venue] and as smooth as [your husband’s] nights are in the Western New York region.
DeWald pled guilty to being a part of campaign designed to force a Frankfort, New York contractor who was the low bidder on the 2003 expansion of the Chaffee Landfill in Chaffee, New York, to sign a collective bargaining agreement with Local 17. DeWald admitted that on May 7 or 8, 2002, he and several other Local 17 members went to the Chaffee Landfill under the cover of darkness, where they put sand used for sandblasting into the engines and hydraulic lines of nine separate pieces of heavy equipment causing significant delays in finishing the job and over $240,000 in damage to the equipment.
All three defendants agreed to testify in the trial of seven remaining defendants, including former business manager and president Mark Kirsch; former business agents Jeffrey Peterson, Gerald Bove, and Thomas Freedenberg; and Local 17 members Michael Caggiano, Jeffrey Lennon, and Kennth Edbauer. The trial is scheduled to commence on Janaury 7, 2014, before Judge Skretny. The trial will be handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Anthony M. Bruce and Edward H. “Ned” White and Department of Justice Attorney Robert Tully.
The investigation of this case is being handled by the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Department of Labor Inspector General Scott Dahl, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian P. Boetig.
Sentencing is scheduled for May 7, 2014 (Laron); May 8, 2014 (Eddy); and May 9, 2014 (DeWald), at 9:00 a.m. before Judge Skretny.
It should also be noted that, prior to his installment to the NLRB, current National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Richard Griffin was the general counsel of the International Union of Operating Engineers, the parent union of Local 17.
Incidentally, despite the Department of Labor’s involvement in investigating this, this is one of those stories that the DOL will probably not issue a press release on.
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“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)
Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com.
Get LUR updates on Twitter.After suffering the loss of a sibling, one Texas family held a barbecue fundraiser to raise money for their brother’s funeral.
What began as a friendly neighborhood event took a turn for the worst after the family’s first customer, a neighbor, turned violent after being served some cold chicken. Although the family reimbursed the neighbor for the unsatisfactory meal, the man returned ready to fight after he found the remnants of the chicken thrown on his lawn.
A few punches were thrown leaving culprits with some bruises and bloody noses. Despite the injuries, the neighbor wasn’t finished teaching the family a lesson after the fist fight. The violent man shot the mother in the leg twice and the sister once in the leg. The mother, April Bautista, tells ABC 7,
“We started walking away and something told me to turn around. When I turned around he had gone inside the house and then comes back out and he had a gun. At first he shot up in the air and then that’s when he started shooting at us.”
The man went M.I.A. after the shooting and police are still on the lookout.
Turns out, this isn’t the first time violence broke out at a barbecue. Back in May, a woman’s eye was stabbed with a fork after taking the last rib at a barbecue.
[via ABC 7]Commission on Elections (Comelec) chief Andres Bautista on Thursday maintained that the integrity of the results of the May 9 national elections remains unaffected despite claims of election fraud hurled by the camp of vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Marcos’ camp earlier claimed that a new script was put in the Comelec’s transparency server to cut down the lead of the senator over administration candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo.
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However, contrary to the camp of the senator, Bautista said that a Smartmatic official only tweaked the script of the server to replace a “?” to “ñ” in a candidate’s name.
READ: Comelec asks Marcos: Present proof of fraud
“It is true that someone from Smartmatic corrected a script—from ‘?’ to ‘ñ’—but this does not affect the integrity of the numbers,” Bautista said in an interview aired over Radyo Inquirer.
Asked if there was a glitch in the transmission of the results, Bautista said that there was none.
“Wala pong glitch (There’s no glitch),” he said.
In a press conference on Wednesday, lawyer Francesca Huang alleged that the new script put in the server increased Robredo’s votes.
“We received unsettling information that at past 7:30 p.m. on May 9, 2016 Election Day, a new script or computer command was introduced to the transparency server—the very same server from which the PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) obtains its data for the quick count,” Huang said.
As of the latest unofficial tally, Robredo leads with a hairline margin of more than 210,000 votes over Marcos. RAM/rga
READ: Robredo maintains 200K lead over Marcos on day 3 of unofficial tally
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MOST READWhen Madonna released her album Erotica in October of 1992, she was called a slut, whore, and every other name used to demean women. She was even compared to Hitler. Madonna talked about the aftermath of the backlash while receiving an award from Billboard last December.
The book SEX, which was (incorrectly) seen as a pictorial accessory to the album, also caused a lot of backlash. It was at this point in her career that headlines ran day after day about Madonna’s career being over with. People were celebrating her alleged failures even though the book sold over a million copies worldwide while Erotica, which might not have lived up to sales of previous Madonna albums, still sold around six million copies.
The album actually earned some praise before the backlash really settled in. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars in November of 1992, calling it a post-AIDS album about romance. Entertainment Weekly, a magazine that had been so pro-Madonna throughout the early 1990s that some even joked they were on Madonna’s payroll, completely turned on Madonna with the release of Erotica. Music critic David Browne ripped on Madonna’s voice, her “coldness,” and her bad lyrics.
Erotica became known as the album that ended Madonna’s career. Of course, two years later, she released Bedtime Stories, which has sold around eight million copies worldwide and launched the longest-running No. 1 song of Madonna’s career,”Take a Bow.” Then, there was 1998’s Ray of Light, an album many consider the peak of Madonna’s career. However, 25 years later, Erotica is considered a classic. Some even say Madonna’s most maligned album (at the time) became a groundbreaking moment for feminism.
Both 'Sex' and 'Erotica arrived to seething criticism in October of 1992. [Image by Kevork Djansezian/AP Images]
This past week, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has recognized Erotica as one of the most revolutionary albums of all time.
“If Madonna spent the ’80s detonating sexual boundaries, then she doubled down on her provocative stance with the release of 1992’s Erotica. From the first track, Erotica celebrates the agony and ecstasy of sex and desire. To articulate her lustful vibe, the album blends sinewy hip-hop grooves and glittery club beats,” the narrator says in the video, which features scenes from the video of Erotica, which was banned.
While Madonna fans celebrate the album being recognized, the sexual imagery in the video (as well as the book) has continued to be divisive within her fan base. There are those who think Madonna made an absolute mockery of herself at the time. However, there are others who think that by exploring her sexual fantasies, Madonna was groundbreaking in giving the world hardcore sexuality from a woman’s point of view – something that was a definite taboo in 1992.
Madonna talked about the heartache she experienced in 1992 at a Billboard event in December of 2016. [Image by Evan Agostini/AP Images]
It’s important to note that the album Erotica, as a whole, isn’t aural sex; it deals with self-destruction, AIDS awareness (another taboo topic at the time), tolerance of homosexuals (even more taboo for 1992), and one who is yearning for love. It produced some minor hits. The title track was one of the highest debuting singles ever, but immediately dropped off the charts. However, “Deeper and Deeper” became a decent hit in January of 1993. When the third single “Bad Girl” only peaked at No. 36, even Madonna’s biggest supporter Kurt Loder at MTV did a segment which announced the end of her career. It was a truly dark time for Madonna and the supporters she had left.
There are fans that are begging Madonna to release an updated 25th anniversary edition of Erotica in time for the holidays. However, judging by the way she was treated when the album was first released, perhaps Madonna doesn’t want to invest in something that will only bring back horrible memories.
[Featured Image by Kathy Willens/AP Images]Inspiration for scrapbooking can be found in more places that just ads in our everyday life. I asked the design team to share their ways of saving ideas that inspire them and Amy & Wendy Sue delivered two awesome ideas.
Here's a peek at Amy's notebook where she keeps magazine clippings...
I like the mix of color ideas, sayings, and patterns. Just looking at this gives you a great idea of how Amy's eclectic style comes together.
Check out Wendy Sue's beautiful binder of ideas...
It's easy to see how Wendy Sue can whip up such amazing pages utilizing her great organizational skills. Such a good idea to keep a section for journaling prompts too!
When being creative is your full-time job, it can get a little challenging. The in-house Design Team has set up a big inspiration board in the offices to keep those ideas flowing. Everyone is encouraged contribute something that caught their eye. Here's a peek of what they've got hanging up right now...
Lots of cool pieces up there! Can't wait to see how these were incorporated into the new products this summer.
Do you have any tips for saving things that inspire you? We'd love to see!We're not sure how or why, but for whatever reason Acadiana has some pretty awesome jingles. Some of them are relatively new, and some have been around since the beginning of time. Check out our favorites and let us know if we missed any classics.
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1. A-A Bail
"Who you gunna call when you land in jail? WHO YOU GUNNNNNA CALLLL?"
The A-A Bail jingle is still relatively new in jingle years, but it has wasted absolutely no time in becoming an incredible example of jingle excellence. It's one of the few jingles that actually makes you turn up the radio. I mean, they got the knowledge AND the expertise...
"A-A Bail, call'em up"
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Facebook
2. Kart Ranch
Everybody loves Kart Ranch. Seriously. Everybody. There is not no one ever that does not love Kart Ranch. It's so much fun, you gotta go back.
If you've ever been "Racin' round, and round the track", you know that Kart Ranch is the closest thing Lafayette has to a theme park. That trip to Kart Ranch was by default the coolest middle school field trip you ever had. And seriously, why doesn't the woman who recorded the Kart Ranch song have a record deal? She might be the most recognizable vocalist in Acadiana. Put this track on iTunes. You know people would download it. You know why? Because... EVERYBODY LOVES KART RANCH!!!
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Cajundome.com
3. Cajun Heartland State Fair
You don't know how or why, but if you Go Go to the Cajun Heartland State Fair you WILL have Fun Fun. It's almost not even up to you.
Just like Festival International, Abita Strawberry, and the McRib, the Cajun Heartland State Fair only comes around once a year. Maybe that's why even after all this time the Cajun Heartland State Fair jingle still jams.
"It's great big fun with a Cajun flair".
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Facebook
4. KATC/KLFY
New teams assemble!
Who does it better?
KLFY with the smooth classic - "No matter where I go, it's still the best home that I know"
or
KATC with GMAs "Good morning, Acadiana, good morning, to you"
Every time I hear one of the two Acadiana news anthems I'm immediately teleported back in time to being 5 years old, sitting on the floor at my grandma's house while eating a big bowl of spaghetti with ketchup on it. Serious nostalgia. So who does it better? Who knows. Let's just hope they don't get crazy and try to change these classics.
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ButcherAC.com
5. Butcher Air Conditioning
Nobody is quite sure how long ago the Butcher Air Conditioning song was actually recorded. The thing has been around since the invention of the radio. All we know is that for as long as air conditioning has been a thing, Butcher Air Conditioning has had quality at the lowest cost.
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6. Diesel Driving Academy
The Diesel Driving Academy jingle isn't around anymore which is terrible news because for a moment in time, the Diesel Driving Academy jingle was 60 seconds of fury. If you missed your window in time to hear the Diesel Driving Academy song on the radio, check out the Youtube video and witness the passionate battle-cry that is the Diesel Driving Academy jingle.
1-800-551-8900. #neverforget
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missmamies.com
7. Miss Mamies
Way before you were old enough to gamble, you knew you were gunna love Miss Mamies.
_________________________________________________________________It’s always amazing how little attention social engineering attacks get when discussing enterprise information security risks. After all, it’s usually easier to get an unsuspecting employee to click on a link than it is to find an exploitable vulnerability on a reasonably hardened webserver. Social engineering attacks come from many different angles: from targeted e-mails, phone call pretexting, or acting like a service technician or other innocuous person to obtain access to the IT resources and data they seek.
But how do successful social engineering attacks happen in reality, when conducted either by ethical hacker penetration teams or criminal attackers? To get an answer, we reached out to a number of security professionals and ethical hackers who face, or perform, social engineering attacks as part of their job.
“Social engineering is one of my favorite types of engagements,” says Chris Blow, technical consultant at Rook Security, who has conducted many ethical social engineering attacks over the years.
How do social engineering attacks get started?
Often, the attackers first turn to social media sites, Internet searchers, and even jump into a few dumpsters to sort through documents to learn as much as they can about the target company. They’ll take the info that they learned and then employ that knowledge in some form of targeted attack, either in email, phone, or in person.
Mike Buratowski, vice president of cybersecurity services for General Dynamics Fidelis Cybersecurity Solutions, knows these tactics. “When we do breach assessments for companies, we often find proprietary information on the Internet. These might include a staff listing featuring personally identifiable employee information, who each person reports to, plus his or her job responsibilities and purchasing authorization. In those cases, companies are giving a social engineering attack legs, making it that much easier for attackers to tell a believable story,” says Buratowski.
That “believable” story is core to a successful social engineering attack. “At the end of the day, that’s what social engineering is all about – getting your victim to believe you and take an action, whether that’s opening an email or attachment, clicking a link, or even just plugging in a supposedly forgotten USB to find its owner,” Buratowski adds.
Blow recalls a penetration test in which the client asked for an email and phone social engineering aspect to the engagement. “During the pen test, I found his SSL VPN gateway. For the social engineering aspect, I revisited the gateway webpage to see if there was anything special about it. There wasn’t. So, I copied that page and hosted it with a very believable URL. The email that I wrote coincided with the fact that this area was having one of the worst winters in quite a long time:
“Due to the rise in inclement weather, we’re committed to our employee’s safety and are in the process of upgrading our remote access gateway so that everybody has the opportunity to work from home. Please click the link below to install the new software. You will be asked to enter your credentials before continuing.”
It worked. Within an hour, Blow had more than 60 percent of the employees giving him their logon credentials. “By the time the information security department figured out what was going on (about 90 minutes), I had more than a 75 percent success rate. These users comprised a sampling from every department including marketing, IT, and C-level executives,” he says.
Person-to-person cons
While emails and telephone calls are effective, sometimes it’s crucial that the attacker gets onsite and social engineers in person. “Over the years, I’ve posed as an AT&T technician, a UPS delivery man, an angry executive, and a lot of the other typical guises talked about in our industry. One of my favorites was posing as an exterminator,” explains Blow.
For that “exterminator” engagement, Blow had numerous physical locations he needed to breach quickly – before the different branches had time to discuss his activities with each other. “I had several ‘work orders’ printed and several executives listed in the description, along with the CFO’s signature. I’d taken the time to find out as much as I could about the people at these branches, but a lot of them didn’t have much of a digital footprint,” he explains.
That made it more challenging, but certainly not impossible. In the event he did have trouble getting in, Blow had someone at his company on the ready and prepared to support his front if an inquiry was made. Blow had other tricks up his sleeve, too, if needed, such as spoofing incoming phone calls. “What I wasn’t prepared for was to be stopped at the front desk at my first location and almost not make it past. Apparently, the company had been using another pest control company for more than 30 years and immediately said that I wasn’t ‘Bob.’”
Blow needed to think quickly, and he did. “I told them that they were subcontracting jobs over the next few months due to high demand of exterminators in the area. I was even nice enough to place a phone call to “Bob” (one of the employees at my company) and we made up a believable story,” he says.
After a few more minutes of talking with her and with the vice president at that branch, Blow was still denied. He told them that he would be back with more proof. Luckily for Blow, this branch was a pretty large campus, so he just snuck in another door and was able to get everything he needed without being questioned.
Once inside, “the rest of the folks there were really friendly and helped me get into locked rooms and even their server room,” he recalls. And, for that engagement, none of the remaining branches caused him such stress.
Think such social engineering engagements are unnecessary and don’t correlate to real-world attacks? Think again. Jon Heimerl, Solutionary's senior security strategist, recalls a number of social engineering exercises from recent engagements. Solutionary was hired to test a client’s social engineering resiliency following completion of a security awareness training effort. “I called a random number in the company’s phone number range and reached a voice mail of an employee who was out of the office on an extended vacation. I was able to call the company's helpdesk (number provided in the out of office voicemail) and pretend to be the employee with a sore throat, under |
lin.
And last year, GlassPoint returned from the region with another dust-resistant solution: put the solar in a glass house. Of course, this is best for smaller solar installations.
But a chemicals spin-out from the University of Leeds Chamelic, that is in the business of making high-tech poymer coatings, may have just come out with a much more market-ready solution for utility-scale solar.
Chamelic has developed an ultra thin surface treatment that can just be applied to the routine wash, that can repel dust for up to 8 weeks.
Tested in the similar fine dust desert in Arizona, the coating – which leaves no residue – performed miracles.
Independent measurements found that 100% of the light was still reflected back from the mirrors after application. In simulated harsh desert conditions, with temperatures of 30 degrees Centigrade, in dust storms with wind speeds of between 20 and 40 miles an hour, untreated mirror surfaces lost over 9% of production. Chamelic solution, in a water base, lost less than 2%, and in an alcohol base, lost less than 1%.
The company is eagerly looking forward to a commercial solar plant trial in harsh desert conditions. Got dust? Flagsol – meet Chamelic!
::Flagsol
::Chamelic
Related stories:
Masdar and Siemens Team Up to Develop Sand-Resistant Solar Panels
Desertec Begins: 500 MW Moroccan Solar in 2012
Martian Technology Proposed For Zapping Dust from Solar
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commentsNEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — How did you learn to become an adult? Typically, it involves some life lessons learned the hard way.
Now, as CBS2’s Lou Young reported, there are actually courses in growing up.
“As sophisticated diners, we cut one piece at a time and put it in our mouth,” etiquette expert Myka Meier explained.
As Meier puts it, cutting all your food at once, into little pieces, is for babies. So is asking someone for a date by text.
“Now it’s sending a little emoji with heart eyes that shows communication that they’re interested,” she said.
Meier teaches those life skills and many more in several wildly popular classes at the Plaza Hotel.
“Everything from social graces, business etiquette, networking, dining, advanced dining, we have wedding etiquette, dating etiquette,” she said.
Millennials are her biggest clientele.
“It’s a generation that’s growing up on tech devices so they are losing soft skills. They’re losing the face to face interaction, the eye contact, the body language,” she said.
Katie Brunelle and Rachel Weinstein are also in the business of teaching life’s lessons.
They’re hosting ‘adulting courses’ designed to school the thirty-something set in everything from cooking dinner to figuring out health insurance, and changing the oil in their car.
“Everyday things I know my parents could do, my grandparents could do, but when it comes to me, I’m like, I have no idea,” Sara Daigle said.
Experts said the fact that many young adults lack this basic knowledge may be the fault of their over-protective parents, but it’s never too late.
“Just because you learned something the hard way, doesn’t mean everyone else should,” Weinstein said.
One millennial was picking up a particularly useful life skill.
“Oh my gosh, probably interacting with other people,” she said.
The classes are in essence, training ‘millenial aliens’ how to live on the planet that the rest of us inhabit, but are they getting it?
“They’re learning, they get it, they love it,” Meier said.
The etiquette courses range in price starting at $75. Adulting classes will also be offered by webinar.6 million Sydneysiders by 2036: research
Updated
The New South Wales Government is predicting the state's population will exceed nine million within the next 30 years, with Sydney's population expected to grow by 40 per cent.
The new research, released today, also predicts the number of people in the state older than 65 will double in the same period, while the population of Sydney will blow-out by 1.7 million to 5.98 million.
The data shows Sydney will need an extra 636,000 houses by 2021 with the number of people per househould set to drop from 2.61 people to 2.51.
The annual number of births is forecast to rise by 18 per cent between 2006 and 2036.
People in NSW are also expected to live for longer with the average life expectancy for men set to rise from 79.1 to 85.6 years and for women 83.9 years to 89.1 by 2036.
The Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, says current forecasts for population growth will challenge planners at all levels.
"Whilst these types of population projections are not crystal balls, they do give us a very sound basis on which to make planning decisions," she said.
"The projection that New South Wales will have 33 per cent more people in 30 years is a big challenge, not just to state government agencies, but also to local councils."
Ms Keneally says the research will help Government keep up with demand.
"The fact is we need to continue to improve Sydney's road, its rail and its health systems," she said.
"When things get fixed, we want to make sure that they stay fixed, and the data I'm releasing today will help us to do that."
She says she is confident the current metropolitan planning structures will be able to cope with the increase.
Topics: population-and-demographics, community-and-society, urban-development-and-planning, government-and-politics, programs-and-initiatives, states-and-territories, sydney-2000, australia, nsw
First postedThe government has slapped Chevron with a $1.1 million fine for improperly claiming deductions for transporting oil in connection with some of its Gulf of Mexico leases.
The Interior Department announced the civil penalty today, nearly a week after Chevron paid the fine. The company also has corrected its previous inaccurate royalty reports, which were filed last year.
“It is imperative that companies report accurately and promptly pay all royalties due from energy production on federal leases,” said Greg Gould, the Interior Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary for natural resources revenue.“We intend to collect every dollar due.”
Chevron was cited for claiming deductions for transporting oil produced on the leases. Although similar deductions may be allowed for some federal offshore oil and gas leases, they are barred under legacy leases Chevron held that were initially issued by Louisiana in the 1940s. Those so-called “Section 6” leases were later converted to federal leases but retain provisions barring the oil transportation deduction.
According to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, Chevron included such deductions in a royalty report to the government early last year, and the agency denied the claim in April 2010. But Chevron later resumed claiming the deduction in subsequent royalty reports.
Companies that produce oil and gas on federal offshore leases pay the government royalties on the extracted energy.
In a statement, Chevron noted that the company “did not dispute the order.”
“We have paid the penalty and now believe we have put this unfortunate situation behind us,” Chevron said.
It is unclear how much Chevron improperly deducted in transportation costs. But the government said Chevron corrected all of the inaccurate reports it previously submitted.
The penalty is one of 10 that have been assessed by the federal Office of Natural Resources Revenue, since the agency was created within the Interior Department last October. The move was designed to separate the former Minerals Management Service’s conflicting missions of collecting revenue from offshore drilling while simultaneously policing the industry.
The ONRR also has recently collected bigger, multi-million-dollar penalties and settlements from Shell Oil Co., and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., in connection with other, unrelated disputes. The government also fined BP $5.2 million last year for misreporting.Bolts
First Half Philip Rivers (aka Dr. Jekyll)
Want to see a disturbing stat? Here is how Philip Rivers has performed in 2012, broken down by quarter:
1st Quarter: 135.2 QB rating, 67.1%, 712 pass yds, 8 TDs, 0 INTs
135.2 QB rating, 67.1%, 712 pass yds, 8 TDs, 0 INTs 2nd Quarter: 88.2 QB rating, 75.9%, 659 pass yds, 4 TDs, 5 INTs
88.2 QB rating, 75.9%, 659 pass yds, 4 TDs, 5 INTs 3rd Quarter: 79.3 QB rating, 64.4%, 354 pass yds, 1 TDs, 1 INT
79.3 QB rating, 64.4%, 354 pass yds, 1 TDs, 1 INT 4th Quarter: 56.5 QB rating, 63.0%, 478 pass yds, 2 TDs, 6 INTs
In case you were wondering, that's not good. As is his MO, Rivers was brilliant in the first half of this game. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers secondary looked like a high school defense against him. That same secondary was good enough to pick him off twice in the second half, as Second Half Philip Rivers (aka Mr. Hyde) took control.
Danario Alexander - 7 catches, 134 rec yds, 1 rec TD
The new Vincent Jackson! Just kidding, Alexander is more like the new Malcom Floyd. He's tall and talented, which means he'll perform on the field, but he's also very injury-prone. That means he's perfect for the Chargers. With the last two games, Alexander has cemented himself as the starting WR opposite Floyd. That's an impressive thing to do in your first month with a new team.
Corey Liuget - 5 tackles
It's not often than a defensive lineman leads the team in tackles. It's even less often that he does it in a game that he wasn't expected to play due to injuries. Another strong game in a strong second season for Liuget.
Dolts
Second Half Philip Rivers (aka Mr. Hyde)
What is wrong with El Capitan? Why does he make such terrible decisions? Why is his footwork so poor? Why does he seem to be regressing into a shell of despair instead of leading his team on the sidelines? Is it Norv's system? Have Norv and Rivers gotten too comfortable/lazy? Is it the fault of A.J. Smith and the offensive line? Or maybe the fault of Dr. David Chao and the losses of Kris Dielman and Marcus McNeill due to injury?
John Pagano
Heading into the 2012 season, my argument for why the San Diego Chargers might be better than they were in 2011 was Pagano and Melvin Ingram. The secondary was thin and had issues, but the pass rush would cover that up. The offense isn't as powerful as it was last season, but it would be evened out because the defense would be creating turnovers. Greg Manusky was obviously the problem, which meant that John Pagano was obviously the solution.
Well....just like Manusky and Cottrell and Rivera (I know, this one is debatable), Pagano hasn't been able to get a pass rush out of this defense. Shaun Phillips leads the team with 5 sacks, but has 0.5 sacks in the last four games. Donald Butler and Corey Liuget, who really aren't pass rushers, are second on the team with 2 sacks each. So much for the pass rush covering up the other holes on this roster.
Special Teams Blocking
Punts should never be blocked. Ever. The highest priority on every single punt is to make sure the Punter does not get hit.
Someone blew their assignment on that one, and Mike Scifres (arguably the Chargers' best player) will now probably miss a few games. He certainly didn't look like he was healthy enough to be punting in the second half of yesterday's game, despite the fact that he was out there punting.Table of contents
Introduction
This copywriting guide has been compiled to serve copywriters starting out in their careers. I doubt that an experienced copywriter reading this guide will gain much in the way of knowledge — although it might help to refresh a forgotten rule or memory.
It might also be useful for companies that are looking to hire copywriters. It will help them to understand what kind of work a copywriter will expect to carry out, what experience should be sought and what skills a copywriter will be able to bring to a company.
Most of what is written in the following comes almost entirely from experience, and it is in no way an “ultimate guide to copywriting”, as few things can be the ultimate guide to anything.
But it should help those wanting to know a little more about a niche and mostly unknown job.
What is copywriting?
Contrary to what some people might assume, copywriting has nothing to do with copyright laws.
At its most basic level, copywriting is the creation of words meant for public consumption. Traditionally copywriters wrote, and still do write, for advertisements vaguely similar to what you might see on episodes of Mad Men.
Since it was worked out that money could be made on the internet however, the average copywriter will partake in a variety of tasks and write for a variety of reasons, whether for direct advertising or not — although it does mostly root back to that.
Generally speaking, there is no precise definition of what a copywriter does, but you could argue that there are two kinds of copywriter:
A content writer will write to inform
A traditional copywriter will write to advertise
Both of these roles can work in offline and online fields — although the former does generally tend to work on the internet.
So what does a copywriter actually do?
As stated in the above, a copywriter creates words, often at an agency of some description, for clients of said agency, with the end result often — but not always — being lent to some sort of marketing campaign.
A typical writing day might consist of creating a guide, a news article, a blog, or ‘copy’ for the pages of a website. Depending on the task at hand, the copywriter might do this several times during a day, and for a variety of clients.
This requires a copywriter to write in a range of different styles and voices; the work may be tailored to a specific age range or gender, the client may want the copy to appeal to a certain socio economic group, or towards people with certain interests.
Typically a copywriter will create using an objective voice, and one that is largely stripped of opinion or humour — depending.
The majority of the time, a copywriter will never have their name attributed to any of their work.
All of this may seem rather stale and regimented, but a copywriter of decent calibre will be able to work on a variety of different projects, products and clients, ranging from some of the smallest in the world, through to the very largest.
Some copywriters don’t work for clients at all, as they work ‘in-house’, i.e. for a company, corporation or media outlet that hires someone to create its own copywriting.
This has both its advantages and disadvantages. In-house work comes with a more generous salary, and the perks can be greater ranging, but the work, as you can imagine, will be oriented totally around one company and industry.
This can be great if you work for top brands like Coca-Cola, Porsche, or Spotify — but not so much if your company manufactures toilet rolls or bathroom supplies.
What a copywriter can do outside of writing
Although the bulk of a copywriter’s day might consist of writing, there are a variety of tasks to perform, both pre and post copy.
If a copywriter happens to be writing on large campaigns, it is not uncommon for them to attend ideas meetings or briefings where plans are created for future work.
From here it is likely the job of the copywriter to research chosen topics brought up within these meetings. This may happen on a daily basis, depending on what they are writing, and will always happen upon the introduction of a new client.
Aside from proofing their own work, a copywriter might be asked to proof the writing of others. This could be from someone in their own team, to anyone in the company, including their direct manager or CEO.
Proofing is often hard as the reader must be meticulous and unforgiving in their work — there is simply no room for mistake.
A copywriter might also be expected to source images for their work.
A lucky copywriter or creative team might have a large bank of photographs to work with, or their employer might have subscriptions to services such as Shutterstock. A copywriter who is not so well off might have to depend on royalty-free images from places such as Creative Commons.
It is also becoming increasingly common for a copywriter at an agency to partake in a variety of social media tasks and campaigns.
This might make sense within a small agency, as a copywriter tends to be creative, easy-going with words, and will have an educated opinion about what kind of media will be relevant to a particular audience.
Preparing for work and a career in copywriting
As with any profession, starting out can be a difficult task and could actually be the hardest one of a copywriter’s career.
In the beginning fledgling copywriters often find themselves on internships or in work experience roles and are likely to partake in a lot of other free work.
The amount of free work a writer has to offer can depend on how prepared that person is come the day they start their career, which is more often than not at the end of university.
A degree is not strictly necessary
Although it can certainly help.
There aren’t really any full-time copywriting degrees available in the UK (websites claiming to be copywriting universities don’t count), but there are affiliated courses that often contain copywriting modules, which can help anyone looking to break into the field.
Many copywriters study highly related subjects such as journalism, English, and marketing.
Quite often however, they won’t start their degree with copywriting in mind, as it is an interest that is usually picked up along the way.
I’ve also met copywriters that have studied philosophy, history, film production, and American Studies, so there’s always room for a change of heart during or straight out of university, even if your degree is unrelated.
The only time a person might struggle is when they receive a third class degree, but even then, the majority of the time, experience usually holds greater weight than a degree, which is why it is a good idea to put experience before qualifications on a CV.
Gaining experience
Even with one of the best degrees it would be nigh on impossible to walk into a copywriting position with no formal experience.
That said however, this can be gained while at university itself, with many institutions offering opportunity for experience thanks to clubs, magazines and newspapers.
Additionally, the centre of opportunity for any budding copywriter would have to be the careers department. Here it is possible to gain advice, work experience, part-time work, and summer internships in practically any given field.
It is during these crucial stages of experience where a copywriter can do one very important thing; build a portfolio.
For those who find themselves unable to acquire a short position at a magazine or newspaper, worry not. You can choose to build up your own blog. Whether on WordPress or BlogSpot, find a relevant and unending topic that means something to you and write about it.
Building your portfolio
Copywriting examples are crucial for showing off your talent, whether it’s to gain more experience, or for heading into the world of work itself.
If you’re starting completely from scratch, as mentioned above, you could start your own blog or magazine, where you can put hard work into serious articles, and if possible, have them written in a variety of styles and personalities.
Another way is by approaching businesses from the cold air of the streets. This can be done fairly easily if you happen to know the owner of a company yourself.
Whether they are a friend, family member, or just a small business that you know really well, perhaps offer to write a free press release, brochure, or a little website copy.
You could even offer to write a couple of blog posts a month.
At the end of the day, you will be doing the company a favour and in the meantime, you will be building an archive of writing examples. It could even lead to something really great, like freelance work or contact with another company (for which you can charge a fee).
If you don’t happen to know any business owners, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with researching some start-up companies and hitting them up on the phone. Try and target businesses in multiple industries and don’t be put off if they don’t sound particularly “fun”.
Be honest, friendly, and offer to drop by to explain your position. The likelihood is that the majority of businesses will turn you away — but you only need one company to help grow your portfolio.
Some copywriters will print out a page of web copy from a company’s site and rewrite it, offering both versions in a face-to-face meeting.
It’s cheeky, but if you’re sure that you can do better than the last guy (that they probably paid for), it is definitely worth giving it a go.
Aside from creating your own website or blog, it’s also important to build a professional web presence.
Building your name online
As with any job in a digital market, it’s imperative for copywriters to have some sort of online presence, whether that’s through your own website, LinkedIn or a professional Twitter account.
Now more than ever, managers and business owners look to LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks to check on the digital lives of applicants. Depending on how you behave and conduct yourself, this could go either way.
By creating a LinkedIn profile, it gives business owners the chance to view your professional and academic history, as well as the projects that you have taken part in, what companies you have written for, and at the end of the day — what kind of person you might be.
Aside from this, it also gives you the opportunity to connect with other copywriters, so you can see what kind of information they share, whether they publish their own LinkedIn posts, and what kind of work might be available in your locality.
You can also join special copywriting groups and forums, where copywriters of all levels get together and share experiences, ideas and opportunities.
As for Twitter, this is also a great place to get your name about, as many copywriters like to be quite consistent in their social media approach.
Although it won’t be quite as effective as LinkedIn, if an employer was to search and find a well-kept account of knowledgeable tweets, retweets, and articles, it could just give you the boost that you need.
If like many, you’ve been keeping a more adventurous Twitter account, one that’s likely stocked with party pictures from university or college, it might be best to switch it to private and start a new account entirely.
In fact, SALT has created a social profile checking tool for this very purpose.
Types of copywriting
Just as there are many different forms of marketing, there are also many types of copywriting.
Sometimes a copywriter in a particular job, often in-house, will embark on only a handful of different kinds of copywriting.
Others, who might work freelance or in a digital agency, will have to turn their hand to a wide range of different copywriting tasks, with each one often written in its own style and for its own purpose.
Below is a list of different kinds of copy that a copywriter might be expected to produce throughout their career.
Advertising copy
By far one of the most well-known types of copywriting (largely thanks to what people see in films and on television), advertising copy is the writing of words in order to sell a product.
Although this might seem unexciting, quite a lot of creativity goes into advertising copy, whether on paper, the internet, or across billboards.
More than likely a copywriter in advertising will be tasked with creating memorable slogans, taglines and headlines. A great deal of work will go into just five to 10 words, which may sound easy, but the pressure of these situations can be intense.
Incidentally, before the release of Midnight’s Children, author Salmon Rushdie worked in this exact area of copywriting and came up with the slogans “Irresistibubble” for Aero, “Naughty but Nice” for ice cream cakes and “That’ll do nicely” for American Express.
Quite often a copywriter in this field will work heavily with members of the design team or art director to develop ideas in order to create a catchy and memorable advertisement.
As you can imagine, it is important for copywriters within this field to be highly creative and they must be able to come up with ideas in pressured environments, as at the end of the day, it is actually quite difficult to try and get someone to buy something that they don’t necessarily want or need.
If you want to know how to write for advertising, the father of creative copywriting, sometimes known as the original Mad Man, David Ogilvy, wrote seven commandments to ensure that your writing sells. Check them out here.
Website copy
As you can imagine, website copywriting involves the creation of words meant for website pages and blogs.
Here a copywriter may work in-house and could be employed to update the company website with new features, blogs and other media.
An agency copywriter might work for a web development, digital marketing, or SEO company and will more than likely work on a website that is in the early stages of creation.
Copywriters that work primarily with website copy tend to be specialised in this service and will know a tad more than just copy.
Often they will work around user experience and usability and will be aware of technical aspects including basic HTML, CSS and of course, SEO.
Again, a copywriter will be required to write in a certain tone of voice for each website that they work on.
They must also be highly mindful to the latest SEO tactics and follow search engine news — but this will be discussed below.
SEO copy
There are two aims that an SEO copywriter must achieve in modern SEO.
The first is that the copywriter must create appealing, interesting and engaging copy for the reader. The second is that it must also be beneficial for the website in terms of SEO, in that it must both perform and adhere to guidelines set out by search engines.
That said, SEO copywriting is hard to pin down, as some regard it as a different discipline to ordinary copywriting, but others feel that it works largely in the same way, which nowadays, it can do.
Unfortunately SEO has a questionable history when it comes to copywriting, as many years ago, the majority of SEO agencies created poor copy solely for the use of search engines. This copy would often be “stuffed” with keywords and a 500 word article or blog would be written in anything from 30 minutes to an hour (a process that would be repeated throughout the day).
The results of which would end in a poor level of copy production, despite working, for the purposes of SEO — for a while at least.
Since around 2011 however, Google and other search engines have implemented a range of algorithms that detect and punish websites with low quality, duplicate or manipulative copy.
This means that for over the past half a decade, SEO copywriters have moved away from low quality churn, and will instead focus on the target audience, by creating well-written, interesting and informative copy.
Technical copy
It is often said that the difference between a copywriter and a technical copywriter is that whereas a copywriter will persuade, a technical copywriter will instead explain.
But there is room for overlap.
Much of the time a technical copywriter will have to explain something in clear and concise language to an uninformed audience. Yet some of the time, they will have to write complex copy for clients who might just know more about the subject than themselves.
It is therefore important for a technical copywriter to be able to quickly research, understand, and explain any given subject in the fashion of an expert.
With this in mind, it is important for them to be able to consider and analyse any given point or suggestion without providing the audience the opportunity to voice criticism.
As with many forms of copywriting, a technical copywriter might be tasked with undertaking an array of projects and pieces including:
Article production
Website copy
Whitepapers
User manuals
Technical guides
Reports of any kind
For those considering a career in technical copywriting, it is important to understand that although there is still room for creativity and the opportunity to work on creative projects, that these might only be a small portion of the workload.
Another difference between a copywriter and a technical copywriter is the fact that a technical copywriter could be charged with a task that takes weeks or even months (which can be the case in regards to guides and whitepapers), and will not deviate from that work before the deadline is past.
A good technical copywriter should always be able to find work and can move throughout an array of industries. This rule can also apply to copywriters who choose to work in-house.
Email copy
Although there will rarely be such a job role for an “email copywriter”, depending on the role of a copywriter, they might tasked with creating a multitude of emails.
These emails will largely consist of marketing and promotional material (hence, email marketing), although occasionally, a copywriter will have to write about things such as membership updates and news bulletins.
In some circles email copywriting is frowned upon, as many people associate it with the production of spam. Although this might sometimes be the case, it does not necessarily mean that email copywriting is easy.
In fact, it is exceptionally hard, as it is the objective of the copywriter to create writing that grabs the attention of the reader, sells whatever offer is inside, and converts that reader into a sale or new client.
More often than not, these emails are tracked by the client or agency, who will then analyse the amount of people who have opened the email, how long they spent reading it and whether or not they clicked on any links found within it.
This information may or may not be reported back to the copywriter— depending on how well or poorly the campaign has gone.
Bourn Creative in Sacramento, California, has a pretty great breakdown of how to create a compelling and successful marketing email.
Press releases
Much like email copywriting, there is a need to catch the reader’s attention, make the content stand out, and inspire them into action.
Although the receiving end of email marketing largely consists of people who might not appreciate what is sent to them, press releases are sent to journalists, editors, magazines and newspapers — both online and offline.
Usually a copywriter who works for an agency would be promoting a news story, a creative campaign, or some research that their agency or client has conducted.
As much of the time, a great deal of work will have been involved in whatever the copywriter will be writing about (a creative campaign for example), it is important that every aspect of a press release is thoroughly scrutinised.
It is not unusual for a single press release, consisting of anywhere between 300 and 600 words, to have up to five or six hours spent on it.
Sometimes, it might also be the job of a copywriter to send the release to the desired publications. More often than not a copywriter will create a professional relationship with journalists and editors who have accepted and published releases in the past.
Usually they shall be provided with a bank of contacts that might be interested in a specific release. If they are lucky, a copywriter shall be able to access databases such as Gorkana, which also provides information on how certain journalists like to be contacted, and what times are best to send releases.
How to write a press release is featured later in the guide.
Radio copy
Much of the time a copywriter in radio will find themselves working in local radio stations where they will be writing for advertisements to be aired on the radio.
Like advertising copy, a radio advert will need to be easily understood, snappy, and have a core message that relates well with the target audience.
In the pre-production stages of writing, a copywriter must understand what is trying to be achieved on behalf of the client.
Quite often a story or plot will have to be incorporated into an ad, so it’s important that a radio copywriter is aware of how to create believable dialogues between characters.
Once that a script has been approved by the creative director, it shall then be sent off for recording in a studio.
SEO copywriting (extended)
As mentioned earlier in this guide, many people tend to think of normal copywriting and SEO copywriting as two separate fields. Although once upon a time (in and around the noughties), this might have been true, thanks to the decline in sloppy and questionable SEO tactics, the gap between them has now been largely filled — keyword research aside.
Words need to engage
That might sound obvious, but SEO is still moving away from a period of time where keyword stuffing and churn copywriting were the norm.
Nowadays, these kind of methods are indeed quite rare, but it’s still worth knowing what they are and why they should be avoided.
Modern SEO copywriting should be all about compelling content that will garner traffic and links. Whether the copywriting is to be placed on an interactive website, or a blog, the copy should still be worthy enough to increase trust and authority of the website.
Keywords should be naturally placed
Although they are not as crucial as they used to be, keywords are still important to SEO, but writing for humans is arguably more so.
Once keyword research has been conducted, it’s important to ensure that keywords are in the text, but only naturally so, and do not look strange or out of place to the human eye.
It is often considered a rule that if a reader can detect keyword manipulation, then so will Google and other search engines — so don’t try it.
If you can however, it’s worth placing a primary keyword (a core keyword that would represent the main purpose of a business) within the page title, and perhaps a secondary keyword in the introduction of a page or article.
But if you write well enough, it will probably be the case that keywords and even search terms will appear naturally within the text as you write, although it is worth keeping these things in check.
Articles and pages should contain links
When it comes to SEO copywriting, both inbound and outbound links are great, both for the reader and for SEO itself.
Outbound links will help support research and arguments within the text, and will provide a greater amount of depth for the reader. This should bode well with search algorithms as well, and may show that the content has been written to help users further explore a subject, should they wish.
As well as linking externally, if you happen to be writing a landing page or company blog, it might also be an idea to place a few internal links within the content.
This will better help users to navigate the website, establish an information hierarchy, and help spread page rank (or “link juice”, as it is sometimes referred to in the industry) around a website.
You can find a little more about internal linking here.
And while we’re on the subject, when it does come to linking through to other websites and pages, it is best to use up to four or five words per link (otherwise known as anchor text), instead of just one or two.
It’s always worth avoiding links that say “click here”, as it is deemed not descriptive enough for users, and you would also miss the opportunity to place a keyword within anchor text.
MOZ also has a pretty informative article on anchor text that is also worth checking out, as it explains anchor text best practice.
Encourage a call to action
Although you wouldn’t want to do this within all pieces of copy, such as when you’re writing news stories, it’s usually worth offering a Call To Action (CTA) at the end of a piece.
Not only will it add an acceptable conclusion to most blogs, it will also encourage readers to share or contact the website in which the content is hosted.
Typically a reader might want help, a problem solved, plain facts, or to save money. A CTA must resonate with the reader in regards to what they are searching for.
Actions such as “tell us what you think in the comments section” can also help discussions or debates on your article.
Look after your images
Images can be quite powerful in regards to getting extra traffic to a website. Personally, I like to use around two to three large images within 500-600 words of blog or article text.
Not only will the perfect image look great on a piece of content, but also, there are ways of making your website more discoverable by using them.
By implementing alt tags alongside a caption under a picture, you can make your content more accessible to screen readers and the images will be searchable in search engines.
It’s worth knowing that image filenames are also searchable in search engines, so try and keep it descriptive and in plain English:
Whereas the original image may have been given the filename “CLPUIMAGE1065.jpg”, it would be far better for search if it was named “leeds-canal-summer-calm.jpg”.
When it comes to providing images for products, try to think about how people will search for them and what patterns and variations are used.
It’s also worth considering file sizes in regards to images. Although large images are great, it’s worth keeping them below 2MB so that they do not slow page load times.
Google uses page load time as a ranking factor, and it’s important that a website doesn’t get bogged down with large image files.
Amazon for instance, found that if its pages slowed by a mere second, they lost $1.6 billion a year.
Writing for blogs
I have no doubt that a lot of people will want hints and tips on how to begin or write for their own blog.
That’s not what this chapter is about, but if you are interested in that kind of thing, this is a pretty great article to get you going.
This chapter will be centred on how to write for corporate blogs, as it is a task that will be given to the vast majority of copywriters at some point or another.
First things first
Whether you’re in-house and writing for your own company’s blog, or you are working for an agency or are freelance, the first thing you need to do is get a clear understanding of what the business does and what it’s trying to achieve with its blog.
This will of course vary between clients. Some will be happy with social shares, others will simply be pleased to have new and “exciting” content on their website.
A very few will want their blog to bring in cold hard sales. This can be tricky for a copywriter, as traditionally, they are not salespeople, and in my opinion, never should be.
But it is best to have a clear discussion with a client about what ideas they want to bring forward, what they expect the blog to achieve and what kind of brand voice they require.
Depending on the client, it is also worthwhile discussing subject matters that they would |
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Paper textures work well together with other organic textures like wood and fabric textures. You may also want to check out our other articles that cover different textures including wood textures, leather textures and, fabric textures. And do share this post with everyone if you found it useful.Australia Q4 Construction Work Sinks 3.1% On Quarter The value of construction work completed in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 3.1 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2018, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at A$51.092 billion. That missed forecasts for an increase of 0.5 percent following the 2.8 percent...
New Zealand Trade Deficit NZ$914 Million In January New Zealand posted a merchandise trade deficit of NZ$914 million in January, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday - marking the largest deficit on record for a January month. That was shy of expectations for a shortfall of NZ$300 million following the NZ$264million surplus in December. Exports...
New Zealand January Trade Deficit NZ$914 Million New Zealand had a merchandise trade deficit of NZ$914 million in January, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday. That missed expectations for a shortfall of NZ$300 million following the NZ$264million surplus in December. Exports added an annual 3.0 percent at NZ$4.40 billion, shy of expectations...
New Zealand Trade Balance On Tap For Wednesday New Zealand will on Wednesday release January figures for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Imports are expected to be worth NZ$5.0 billion, down from NZ$5.22 billion in December. Exports are seen at NZ$4.8 billion, down sharply from...
Hong Kong January Trade Gap Narrows Hong Kong's foreign trade deficit in January decreased from a year ago, with declines in both exports and imports, data from the Census and Statistics Department showed on Tuesday. The visible trade deficit narrowed to HK$10.3 billion in January form HK$31.9 billion in the same month of the previous...
Taiwan Industrial Production Falls For Second Month Taiwan's industrial production fell for a second straight month in January, figures from the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed on Tuesday. Industrial production fell 1.86 percent year-on-year in January, following a 1.06 percent decline in December. Economists had expected a 1.7 percent decline....
Singapore Manufacturing Output Falls First Time In 13 Months Singapore's industrial production dropped for the first time in over a year during January, data from the Economic Development Board showed on Tuesday. Manufacturing output fell 3.1 percent year-on-year following a 1.7 percent increase in December. Economists had forecast a 3.1 percent fall. The...
Hong Kong Trade Data On Tap For Tuesday Hong Kong will on Tuesday release January numbers for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In December, imports were worth HKD391.19 billion and exports were at HKD339.94 billion for a trade deficit of HKD51.25 billion. Singapore will...
Singapore Inflation Slows, Trims 2019 Forecast Singapore's inflation slowed marginally in January, and the price growth forecast for this year was trimmed, mainly due to the outlook for lower oil prices. Consumer price inflation eased to 0.4 percent in January from 0.5 percent rise in December, data from Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Trade and Industry showed on Monday. In November, price growth was 0.3 percent.
Japan Producer Prices Rise 1.1% On Year In January Producer prices in Japan were up 1.1 percent on year in January, the Bank of Japan said on Monday - in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous month. On a monthly basis, producer prices sank 0.5 percent after sliding 0.1 percent in December. Among the individual components, prices...
New Zealand Q4 Retail Sales Volume Advances 1.7% Retail sales in New Zealand climbed a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2018, Statistics New Zealand said on Monday. That surpassed expectations for an increase of 0.5 percent following the upwardly revised 0.3 percent gain in the three months prior (originally flat). Robust...
New Zealand Retail Sales Volume Climbs 1.7% In Q4 Retail sales in New Zealand advanced a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2018, Statistics New Zealand said on Monday. That surpassed expectations for an increase of 0.5 percent following the upwardly revised 0.3 percent gain in the three months prior (originally flat). By...
New Zealand Retail Sales Data Due On Monday New Zealand will on Monday release Q4 numbers for retail sales, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Retail sales were flat on quarter in the three months prior. Japan will provide final December figures for its coincident index and January results for producer prices. In November,...
Hong Kong Inflation At 5-month Low Hong Kong's consumer price inflation eased marginally in January to a five-month low, data from the Census and Statistics Department showed on Friday. The consumer price index climbed 2.4 percent year-on-year in January, following a 2.5 percent rise in December. Economists had expected a 2.6 percent...CNN's "Death Row Stories" examines the exoneration of New Orleans' John Thompson at 8 p.m. Sunday (April 6). The episode, titled "Rough Justice in the Big Easy," details Thompson's 1985 conviction for murdering hotel executive Ray Liuzza during an Uptown robbery, and then Thompson's decade-plus journey toward freedom. The large cast of characters in the episode includes Philadelphia defense lawyers Michael Banks and Gordon Cooney, local private investigator Elisa Abolafia and Harry Connick Sr.
The eight-episode series, narrated by Susan Sarandon and executive produced by Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side") and Robert Redford, debuted March 9. It was inspired, Gibney said during a Winter TV Tour interview, both by Thompson's case and the work he's done on behalf of fellow former inmates since his release.
Thompson runs the New Orleans-based Resurrection After Exoneration nonprofit. He also sued the Orleans Parish district attorney's office for prosecutorial malfeasance, legal action that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2011 reversed lower-court rulings for Thompson in the case.
"You could make a whole film about what John's done since his release, and it's very, very unusual," said Kenneth Levis, producer and director of the episode. "He's a remarkable guy, considering all that he went through.
"This is a case where the prison experience really did transform him. He became a leader in prison -- on the block, as they say - where he took a lot of the inmates, especially the death row inmates, under his wing, and realized he could be helpful to these people."
The series' theme is unfair application of the law, not re-investigating each weekly subject's actual guilt or innocence (though Levis said he came to believe that Thompson didn't murder Liuzza).
"You really find yourself on one side at one moment, and on another side at another moment," said Dave Snyder, supervising producer for the series. "We've definitely made a strong effort to be as objective as possible. It really shows you how murky it can get in some of the cases.
"Here you can have a room full of producers and associate producers and researchers, all of whom have been working on the same story, delving through legal documents for months on end. I'll look around the room as an executive producer and ask, 'Who thinks this person is guilty?' Some people will say yes and some people will say no. You'll say, 'Wow, and that's after putting this amount of effort into it.' That's how unclear this stuff can be. Which brings you to the idea of reasonable doubt and how important that concept is. These people are surely putting in - certainly in terms of hours spent -- a lot longer than juries, even. It gives you something to think about."
"That was one of our objectives, to try to present all sides of the story and let the audience decide based on what we presented," Levis added. "We withheld judgment, for the most part."
At least when it came to the exonerated prisoners. The episode is quite clear in its judgments about the actions of the local district attorney's office in this case. Connick, who left office in 2003, declined to be interviewed on camera for the series.
"We actually got Harry Connick to talk to us on several occasions, and he was actually very forthcoming over the phone, and very friendly, but absolutely refused to go on camera," Levis said. "He certainly is a unique figure, and a fascinating figure. He was very, very protective of his office, and would do almost anything to keep the reputation of his office in a good light.
"He was also seen, I think, as very, very devoted and very hard-working. He had a huge caseload, and he got a lot of convictions. But he was so zealous in terms of his pursuit (of convictions), particularly in the death penalty, that I think ultimately - my own personal opinion is -- it reflects poorly on him.
"Like one of our interviewees says (of the Thompson case), 'It wasn't just prosecutorial overreach. It was either deliberate malfeasance or just incompetence and not really being in control of the case.'"
Further reading about John Thompson:
A 2009 Thompson profile by Lolis Eric Elie @ NOLA.com.
Laura Maggi @ NOLA.com's story about the Supreme Court's decision in Thompson's case.
A 2011 column by Jarvis DeBerry @ NOLA.com about the decision.
Watch a preview clip:
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Got a TV question? Contact Dave Walker at dwalker@nola.com or 504.826.3429. Read more TV coverage at NOLA.com/tv. He's @DaveWalkerTV on Twitter, and Dave Walker TV on Facebook.The eerie sound of a pipe organ fills the air on Ocean City's boardwalk as families, couples and solitary fans enter the seaside ride filled with severed heads, torture chambers and other ghoulish delights.
Trimper's Haunted House is a vacation staple that has stood in the same location since 1964. But this boardwalk icon is far more than a nostalgic reminder of summers past. The house is an important part of the legacy of Bill Tracy, master of dark rides, those amusement park staples that ferry patrons through interiors where lighting, sound and creative displays are designed to amuse — or terrify.
Tracy made his career terrifying customers. He started with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus in the early 1950s and gained notoriety after designing floats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In the '60s and '70s, Tracy started creating attractions far outside the parameters of traditional amusement park ride displays. His displays, or "stunts," were more graphic than previous rides. There was no restraint when it came to the use of gore. Think women being sawed in half. Old Mother Hubbard eating her poor dog. The facade of Trimper's Haunted House is a classic Tracy design, featuring uneven roof peaks, crooked windows and a giant bat.
There are 82 projects credited to Tracy, and eight of them are still in use, including the Haunted House and Pirate's Cove in Ocean City.
In 2008, Brandon Seidl and Wayne Bahur launched a Bill Tracy website (billtracy.net) outlining Tracy's biography and career in the dark ride industry.
"He was kind of a mysterious guy," said Seidl. "[The information] wasn't easy to find."
Seidl also maintains a website about the Ocean City Haunted House (ochh.net), which he calls a "masterpiece."
The Haunted House received a much-needed face-lift last winter and now includes stunts from "Phantasmagoria" — a Tracy dark ride built in 1973 at Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, Okla. — and a brand-new batch of fresh scares. Notable stunts from "Phantasmagoria" include the giant "Buzzard," the "Green Lady" and the "Skull Waterfall."
Various modern stunts were purchased from Scarefactory, a leading manufacturer of haunted attractions, and include an "Angel of Death Zombiette," a "Grave Crawler Zombie" and a collection of severed heads.
According to Seidl, everything inside the Haunted House is 100 percent functional for the first time since the ride was built.
With the addition of modern stunts, the integrity of the Haunted House as a true Tracy dark ride may be questionable, but Seidl doesn't seem to think that Tracy would mind the updates.
"I think Tracy would appreciate it, and I say that because for his time, he was one of the greatest innovators in the amusement industry," said Seidl. "His mind was right up there with Walt Disney's for that time period."
When the ride was built, it was only a one-story attraction. According to Seidl, the second story was added in 1988 after Granville Trimper purchased the remnants of another Tracy attraction called Ghost Ship from the now-defunct Ocean Playland Amusement Park on 65th Street.
Clifford Hudson managed the ride beginning in 1977 and witnessed these drastic changes firsthand. His son Scott took over management in 1999 and calls the ride "his pride and joy." He operates the ticket booth, solves mechanical problems and generally does whatever needs doing.
For today's dark ride enthusiasts, the Haunted House has not lost its appeal, and the ride remains a popular boardwalk amusement. And so Tracy's legacy lives on each time the black, swinging doors send another coffin-shaped cart into the Haunted House.
Ocean City's Haunted House
Location: South end of the boardwalk, next to Jessica's Fudge House (Look for the giant bat)
Phone: 410-289-8617 (Trimper's rides)
Cost: $4 per person
Note: The ride usually runs on weekends only during October and November; call to check for hours and availability.Balloons are released in the sky at a 10th birthday celebration for missing girl Relisha Rudd at the Deanwood Recreation Center in Northeast Washington. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Celebrating what would be her 10th birthday, about 45 people gathered in the District on Saturday to release balloons for Relisha Rudd, who has been missing for 20 months.
“I’m always thinking about her,” said Shamika Young, Relisha’s mother, moments after watching a large collection of balloons rise into the cloudy, late afternoon skies at the Deanwood Recreation Center in Northeast Washington.
Next to her was Relisha’s grandmother, Melissa Young. With a tear on her cheek, she talked about one of the balloons falling back to the ground somewhere, and Relisha grabbing it.
“I’m praying that she will; hopefully she will,” Melissa Young said.
Relisha was last seen alive March 1, 2014, in the company of a 51-year-old custodian who worked at a homeless shelter where she lived with her family. Police said that man, Kahlil Malik Tatum, killed his wife and himself as the authorities were probing Relisha’s whereabouts. Police later classified their search for the young girl as a “recovery mission.”
Shamika Young, front, mother of Relisha Rudd, and her mother, Melissa Young, blow out the candles at the birthday party for the girl, who has been missing for 20 months. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Relisha’s birthday was Oct. 29. Many who gathered Saturday knew very well that Relisha could be dead. Finding her remains would be important, they said, as is holding out hope that she is alive.
The crowd watched a performance by six members of the StarrFire dance group, who ranged from about 8 to 13 years old. That Relisha could have been the seventh dancer wasn’t lost on those watching.
“This little girl stole my heart,” said Brenda Brown, who helped organize Saturday’s gathering. “We just can’t forget this child.”NEW CARLISLE, Ohio — A small Ohio news organization says one of its employees has been shot by a sheriff’s deputy who they say apparently mistook his camera for a weapon.
The New Carlisle News reports photographer Andy Grimm had left the office Monday night to take pictures of lightning when he saw a Clark County sheriff’s deputy performing a traffic stop in New Carlisle, north of Dayton.
Grimm tells the news organization that he decided to take pictures of the traffic stop. He says he got out of his Jeep and started setting up his tripod and camera when he was shot in the side.
Grimm was taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery. He’s expected to recover.
Dale Grimm, the paper’s publisher and Andy’s father, told Fox 8 News that Andy is “terribly sore, but in good spirits.”
He expected his son to be released from the hospital on Tuesday.
Dale Grimm said his son is very worried that the deputy might lose his job over the incident.
“New Carlisle is a small town,” Dale Grimm said. “Everybody knows everybody and everybody looks out for everyone else.”
“I am humbled by the outpouring of love and affection from the community for Andy,” he said.
The case has been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.Polls show that voters care about jobs and the economy, first and foremost. Perry can point to his record as Texas governor, one of the few states with a record of job creation during the recession. Whether he's responsible for that record is a debatable point, but politically, it is a clear winner. Second on the list is concern over government spending, and Perry's book is a virtual treatise against excessive federal spending.
Perry will have to address his views on entitlements, but his vulnerabilities on that front pale in comparison to Obama's vulnerabilities on the economy. Only 35 percent of senior citizens approve of the president's job performance, according to Gallup, one of his worst-performing demographic groups. With seniors so down on the president, it's hard to see Perry's book quote being a game-changer.
For a case study, look at two special elections that are coming up this month, one in a solidly-Democratic New York City district and one in a rural, Republican-leaning district in Nevada. In both elections, the Democratic candidates have lambasted the Republican nominees for supporting entitlement cuts and holding extreme views on the social safety net. In the decidedly liberal confines of Queens and Brooklyn, the Republican candidate has actually embraced such controversial views, and even said he opposed a bill that provided benefits to victims of 9/11.
The Democrats' attacks haven't resonated. Instead, dissatisfaction with Obama is so great that the Republican candidate in Nevada is poised to win in a landslide, and the Democrat is barely getting help from the national party. And in the special election race to replace former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner in New York, polls from both sides show a close race.
If the historic 2010 midterms demonstrated anything, it was a massive pushback against Obama's big government policies--the stimulus and health care reform in particular. Obama saw his 2008 election as a mandate for a more activist government, and his policies created a resistance that is still churning today. Grassroots insurgencies don't happen in a vacuum. But Democrats are still grasping at polls that show that the tea party is unpopular, even though the antigovernment sentiment that fueled the movement is as powerful as ever. The White House misread the tea party movement from the start, and it seems to be misreading it to this day.
Image credit: Jim Cole/AP
Just look at the president's decision last Friday to suspend antismog standards, something that goes against the environmental record his administration has proudly stood for. This was a profound concession: Obama is either conceding that excessive regulation can hamper economic growth, or he's acknowledging the political pitfalls of an activist government. And if the political pendulum has swung so much to the right that even Obama is cutting back environmental protection for the hope of economic growth, it suggests that Perry's antigovernment views aren't limited to cranky conservatives.A brave seeing-eye dog loyally leaped to the subway tracks when his owner tumbled off a Harlem platform Wednesday — and they both survived getting run over by a train, according to witnesses.
Cecil Williams, 60, was heading to the dentist when he felt faint about 9:30 a.m. on the uptown A train platform.
His guide dog, a black labrador named Orlando, was trained to keep him from going over the edge — and tried to hold him up. The dog was barking and trying to pull him, but Williams fell, according to witnesses.
Matthew Martin, 54, said that the dog never hesitated.
“He went down, and the dog jumped down,” he said. “He wasn’t pulled. He was kissing him, trying to get him to move.”
Straphangers shouted, alerting subway workers. A construction flagger told Williams to stay in the trough between the rails, authorities said.
Witnesses said they heard an express train approaching less than a minute after Williams plunged to the tracks, and tried to alert the motorman.
During the commotion, Orlando stayed by William’s side.
“He was definitely this man’s best friend. When the train was coming, the dog didn’t move,” said Ana Quinones, 53, of Morningside Heights. “The dog was loyal to his master. He tried to save him. He was trying to pull him away when he was too close to the edge. He risked his own life to save his owner.”
Authorities said the train operator slammed on his brake, but one and a half cars passed over Williams and Orlando.
Transit officers first pulled out the pooch, and firefighters rescued Williams using a backboard and neck brace.
The two were in a trough in the middle of the tracks, said Captain Daniel O’Sullivan from FDNY Engine 37.
Williams cut his head, but was not badly hurt, and Orlando was unscathed. He was treated at St. Luke’s Hospital.
“The dog saved my life,” Williams told the Associated Press from his hospital bed, his voice breaking. “I’m feeling amazed. I feel that God, the powers that be, having something in store from me. They didn’t take me away this time. I’m here for a reason.”
He said he will give Orlando a special treat, as well as affection and scratches behind his ear. He added that the seeing eye dog will retire soon, and he has to find a new home for him since insurance won’t cover a non-working dog.
His girlfriend Cynthia told the Post while walking Orlando near St. Luke’s that she was very grateful. “It is a miracle,” she said. “I’m very grateful to God.”
Former neighbor Peter Ayala, 38, said Williams has always depended on Orlando. “He was always with his dog, he really depended on his dog,” he said. “Holy God. I’m so happy that’s he okay. He could have been ripped to shreds on those tracks!”
Williams said he wasn’t sure why he fainted, but he does take insulin and other medications. He became blind 18 years ago from meningitis while he was working at a Brooklyn warehouse doing physical work.
“He was a real handyman,” said beverage importer Rachael Israeli, 62. “He could fix anything. He was strong as an ox, but he was also pleasant to be around. He never complained. He was just the sweetest guy.”
One week, Williams said he wasn’t feeling well and took off from work. “It turned out that he had contracted meningitis and became blind soon after that,” she said. “He had to stop working for us. It was heartbreaking to see a man who was so fit become blind. It was devastating.”
Israeli said her family has prayed for his health for the past almost two decades, and were sad to hear he had fallen this morning. “Thank God he had that big dog to look after him,” she said.
Additional reporting by Frank Rosario and Georgett RobertsMost business leaders think about security as a cost. It is hard to demonstrate positive returns on security investments, which makes it a “cost” issue. Even people who work with securing information often struggle with answering the simple and very reasonable question: “where is the business benefit?”.
What if you turn it around, and view security as a selling point? It may not be the driver of revenue growth today – but it may very well be an important prerequisite for growth tomorrow. Here are three issues that can help clarify why keeping your data and systems secure will be necessary for the days to come if you want your business to grow:
Your customers will not trust you with their data if you cannot keep it safe from hackers and criminals. The GDPR will even make it illegal to not secure customer data in a reasonable manner if you do business in Europe from 2018. If you don’t secure your customers’ data and also show them why they can trust you to do so, people will increasingly take their business elsewhere.
If you operate in the B2B world, the number of suppliers and buyers setting requirements to their supply chain partners is growing. They will not buy from you unless you can show that you satisfy some minimum security requirements – including keeping tabs on risks and vulnerabilities. This is true for engineering firms, for consultancies, for banks, for betting operators, for retail stores, and so on. You’d better be prepared to demonstrate you satisfy those requirements.
You will get hacked. Seriously, it is going to happen one day. Then you’d better be prepared for handling it, which means you need to have invested in security and trained for these events. It is like mandatory fire drills – if you don’t do them, our evacuation during a fire is less likely to be successful. Companies handling being hacked in a good way respond quickly, inform third-parties and the public in a way that has been thought out and tested up front, and generally limit the damage that hackers can do. This mitigates the risk that your customers lose all trust in you. You live to do business another day. The companies that haven’t prepared? Sometimes they never recover, or at least their short-term growth will be seriously threatened.
Viewing security as a growth component rather than a cost issue turns the discusssion around. It allows you to go from “reactive” to “proactive”. Securing your business is a core business process – this is the focus you can achieve, when security becomes a unique selling point rather than a budget constraint. Happy selling!This week Belgian theatre director Alexander Devriendt says that each major food company should be allocated a single letter to name their products.
“My idea to change the word is to make our life in the supermarket just that little bit easier.
Each major company will be allocated a single letter and they will have to name all of their major products starting with that letter. No more false names or washing products that sound like soup.
The letter will be the main thing on the package along with a very dry description of what the product actually is.
This will first of all find products in the supermarket and I would at least then from which company I am buying.
Actually I would have a clearer overview of how few companies make everything I put in my trolley. I probably wouldn’t even need all of the 26 letters in the alphabet. There will be an exception for very small companies – they will get a number to start their name with.
And no tricks form the major companies by dividing the production lines or something like that. As a punishment they get letter x or y.
So my idea to change the world is that we stop buying letters and more numbers.”
You can listen to Alexander discuss his idea with mathematician Ian Stewart and Physicist Lawrence Krauss in more detail on the BBC World Service programme The Forum, where you can also download more 60-second ideas.
If you have a 60-second idea or would like to comment on this story, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s new president visited victims wounded by the Mogadishu car bomb that on Sunday killed 34. President Mohamed Abdulahi Mohamed offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those who planned the blast.
The explosion hit a busy marketplace in the western part of the capital, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein.
“It was a horrific and barbaric attack only aimed at killings civilians,” he said from the scene of the blast.
Sabriye Abdullahi, an ambulance driver told The Associated Press that some of the injured victims died on their way to the hospitals.
“Many of them suffered extensive third degree burns and others were burned beyond recognition,” he said.
The blast from a car parked near a restaurant went off when shoppers and traders were gathered inside the market, said district commissioner Ahmed Abdulle.
Mohamed Haji, a butcher who suffered shrapnel wounds, pointed to a clothes shop devastated by the blast. “Someone had parked the car here and left before it was detonated,” he said. Pieces of wood and metal sheets on the ground were all that remained of the shop.
Women sobbed and screamed outside the market as rescue workers moved bloodied bodies and wounded victims into ambulances.
“It’s a painful carnage.” said Ali Mire, a government soldier who was helping a friend with shrapnel wounds
The powerful explosion was the first major attack since Somalia’s new president was elected on Feb.8. Although no group has yet claimed responsibility, it bears the hallmarks of Somalia’s Islamic extremists rebels, al-Shabab. In addition to visiting the wounded in hospital, President Mohamed condemned the blast in a tweet, saying that it shows the “cruelty” of al-Shabab.
A few hours before the blast, al-Shabab denounced the new president as an “apostate” and vowed to continue fighting against his government.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, in a statement condemning the attack, said that “Italy remains solidly on Somalia’s side in the process of the country’s stabilization.” He added that “together we will act so that the terrorists don’t succeed in stopping the path of peace and reconciliation that is underway.”
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Frances D’Emilio in Rome contributed to this story.“That a branch of revisionist studies has arisen since the mid-1990s does not mean that the consensus has been reversed; it merely means that the prior consensus has been challenged.” E conomists famously argue about everything. Even so, it used to be that economists across the board—whether left, right, or center—generally agreed that the minimum wage was ill-suited to help the poor. As we still teach introductory students in Econ 101, a price floor on low-skilled labor will (at least in the textbook diagrams) lead to unemployment among the very people minimum wage legislation allegedly helps. In addition to the textbook diagrams, economists also used to rely on a seemingly impregnable body of empirical studies backing up the claim that raising the minimum wage would throw unskilled laborers out of work. However, starting in the 1990s, this consensus began to unravel. A series of econometric studies, relying on new techniques for holding “other things equal,” challenged the existing orthodoxy. Once the researchers controlled for other trends, it appeared that in practice, modest increases in the minimum wage had a negligible impact on employment in the low-skilled and teen populations. Indeed, this revisionist literature has grown so influential that, recently, 75 economists—including seven Nobel laureates—publicly signed a letter to prominent federal politicians, urging them to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016. In this article, I explain why, even if the revisionist empirical studies are accurate, it still does not follow that the proposed hike in the minimum wage will be a boon for low-skilled workers. I also argue that, because critics have raised many troubling concerns about these studies, we should not accept them at face value. I conclude that economists should maintain the standard view that employers have a downward-sloping demand for low-skilled labor and that raising the minimum wage will tend to destroy job opportunities for many of those whom advocates of the higher minimum wage wish to help. Revisionist Studies Do Not Clinch the Case for Raising the Minimum Wage
Let us concede, for the sake of argument, that the new wave of research is correct, and that modest hikes in the minimum wage do not significantly impair teen (or other low-skilled worker) employment. Further, let us put aside any ethical or rights-based objections one might have to government interference in voluntary contracts between firms and workers. Even if we focus narrowly on low-skilled workers, it still does not follow that raising the minimum wage is necessarily a good idea. In the first place, there is the matter of degree. Careful analysts will often summarize the new research in a nuanced way, saying “modest” increases in the minimum wage appear to have little impact on employment. But the proposed increase from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour is a 39-percent increase, which can be hardly be characterized as “modest.” Such an increase, therefore, could well destroy teenagers’ jobs, notwithstanding the revisionist studies. There is a second, and independent, problem: Raising the minimum wage might represent a drastic harm to the most vulnerable and desperate workers if the specific employees who would be working for $10.10 an hour are different from those who would be working for $7.25 an hour. What could happen is that the higher wage would attract new workers into the labor pool, allowing firms to become pickier and, thus, to overlook the least-productive workers, who would remain unemployed or lose their jobs to more-highly-skilled workers. I illustrate this point by using a supply-and-demand framework in which I have made the demand for low-skilled labor very inelastic. In Figure 1 below, for diagrammatic simplicity, I assume that the initial market-clearing wage for low-skilled labor is $7.25 per hour. At this $7.25 wage rate, two million workers have jobs. Then, the federal government imposes a wage floor of $10.10 per hour. Because the demand for low-skilled labor is (by stipulation) very inelastic, the quantity of labor demanded falls by only 2,000 workers, a negligible drop of 0.1 percent. Economists running regressions on this episode would conclude—correctly—that raising wages by 39 percent had little impact on the absolute level of employment. Figure 1. The Effect of a Mimimum Wage ZOOM However, in our example, the supply curve (by construction) is a more typical shape, such that the large increase in the wage rate leads to a large increase in the number of workers seeking employment—500,000 in our scenario. There is now a significant amount of involuntary unemployment in the market for low-skilled labor; the unemployment rate would skyrocket. Even though (by construction) our hypothetical minimum wage has not significantly reduced total employment, it has, nonetheless, drastically impaired the functioning of the labor market. The “glut” of workers on the market means that non-price allocation mechanisms must come into play. Since there are now multiple applicants for a given job opening, employers can rely on other criteria, including racial and class background, to choose which worker gets the job. It is much more likely that an applicant will need to “know somebody” to get hired, and that teenagers from “respectable” backgrounds will be the ones to work at fast food restaurants, displacing teenagers who might be in more desperate circumstances. These concerns are not merely hypothetical. Even many economists in favor of the wage hike agree that raising the minimum wage will affect the turnover of workers. For example, one of the leading revisionist authors, Arindrajit Dube, says that in one of |
of states. She also in the early ‘70s established the Eagle Forum, a national “pro-family” organization with numerous state chapters. In addition to the issues mentioned above, the organization has over the years taken strong stands against abortion, gay rights (despite having a gay son), and attempts at gender equality in public schools.
But, as her statement calling for a widening gender gap in wages suggests, not only has Schlafly’s moment passed as a credible leader—she and other younger conservative women leaders, trapped as they are by the Republican Party’s free-market ideology, simply are unable to address the economic realities facing women today. When Schlafly emerged as a political activist in the ’70s, there still existed the possibility for many American families to function on one man’s salary. Furthermore, a key message of the emergent women’s movement of that period—which urged women to pursue careers—was met defensively by those who were “just housewives,” to use a phrase of that period. So Schlafly’s messages, which glorify women who stay home, raise children, and support their husbands’ endeavors, deeply resonated with many.
But, to put it mildly, the world of 2014 is very different, in both economic terms and cultural ones, from that of the 1970s. The stagnation in wages for most American workers means that most families need two paychecks, where once one would have sufficed. And, of course, there has been a continual rise in single-parent households, the vast majority of which are headed by women. There now exist many more households, compared to the 1970s, of same-sex couples, many of which are composed of two women—not to mention single women, without children, who also could hardly be expected to endorse the idea of a widening gap between male and female pay.
But the most visible women in the contemporary Republican Party are as helpless as Schlafly in acknowledging these realities. Both Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the highest ranking Republican woman in the House, and “rising star” Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have opposed raises in the minimum wage—though, much to observers’ amusement, the latter inadvertently made the case for a raise, failing to realize that her teenage years’ wage of $2.15 an hour, which she idealized in a speech opposing such a measure, in today’s dollars would be worth somewhere between $12.72 and $14.18.
In the lived reality of American women, reproductive issues and economic ones are deeply entwined. Women need access to reproductive services, among other reasons, to be able to participate in the paid labor force. And women, like their male counterparts, need jobs that pay a living wage. Phyllis Schlafly and the conservative spokeswomen who have followed her are woefully out of touch on both counts. Let’s hope that those who disagree with them show up for the midterm elections, as they did in 2012.A city-sponsored proposal would make it easier for building owners in dense areas to rent their excess parking to anyone — ranging from transit riders to drivers looking for a place to keep their car overnight.
Seattle officials have proposed a broad plan that would tap unused parking spaces in private lots and buildings to respond to the growing demand for parkingin the city’s densest neighborhoods.
Under the legislation, building owners in certain commercial and residential areas could rent their extra parking stalls to anyone, from commuters catching a bus to shoppers seeking short-term parking to people looking for a place to keep their car overnight.
The proposal by the city’s Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) outlines a bundle of potential changes to city code.
Learn more about Traffic Lab » | Follow us on Twitter » Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s thorny transportation issues, spotlights promising approaches to easing gridlock, and helps readers find the best ways to get around. It is funded with the help of community sponsors Alaska Airlines, CenturyLink, Kemper Development Co., NHL Seattle, PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company and Seattle Children’s hospital. Seattle Times editors and reporters operate independently of our funders and maintain editorial control over Traffic Lab content.
Current zoning laws do not permit owners of residential parking to offer their stalls to the public and permit only some commercial sites to share lots with housing complexes, if both uses are in the same building.
“We have recognized the challenge that people have in finding parking as the city grows,” said Kevin Shively, a senior policy adviser to former Mayor Ed Murray, who made recommendations that led to the parking proposal. “We’re looking to remove those barriers in the code today to make it easier for people to access that parking that’s already available.”
With thousands of newcomers flocking here annually, Seattle is adding cars as rapidly as people — driving intense competition for parking throughout the city’s core.
The number of vehicles owned by Seattleites reached 435,000 in 2015, a 12 percent increase from five years earlier, census data show.
For most areas of Central Seattle, including downtown, Capitol Hill and South Lake Union, researchers say just 7 to 30 percent of on-street paid spots are open in midafternoon, the parking proposal says. Available parking often remains tight, too.
Demand for parking will only increase, with the city expecting an additional 70,000 households and 115,000 jobs over the next 18 years.
Other recommendations in the parking plan include slightly expanding the area in which new residential projects near frequent transit service are not required to provide parking.
Those regulations, which date back years, aim to drive down development costs — a key to solving the city’s affordability crisis — and center on the idea that more renters with access to public transit go car-free. The regulations have generated concern among some neighborhood residents who say a lack of on-site parking forces tenants to find spots on the street, adding to congestion.
Anyone can comment on SDCI’s proposal or file a formal appeal through Thursday.
The department will present its final version to the mayor this fall, before sending it to the City Council for a vote. If approved, the changes could take effect as early as next year.
To support the proposal to open private garages to public parking, SDCI used a 2012 night survey by King County of more than 200 residential parking sites across the county, 95 of which were in Seattle.
The study found about one-third of parking spots in Seattle were unused, whether due to developers overestimating demand or tenants choosing cheaper places to park, the department said.
“Even during this overnight period, when everybody should theoretically be at home with their cars parked, about 35 percent of the existing supply of off-street parking out there is not used at all,” Shively said.
Researchers found a total of 567 open spaces at 10 complexes in the Capitol Hill, Ballard and Eastlake neighborhoods alone.
It is unclear how many building owners and developers would open their parking to the public. The property owners would determine rules lot by lot, such as cost per stall, hours of operation and security access.
The proposal does not say how much building owners could charge; market demand would drive prices. No more than 145 spaces per lot or garage could be available to the public.
Cities across the country with “progressive parking standards” like Seattle, SDCI spokesman Bryan Stevens said, allow for similar “shared parking” arrangements, including Santa Monica, California, Portland and Washington, D.C.
Transportation officials here launched a research project to explore the idea in 2014 as part of a federally funded push to find parking at residential buildings for park-and-ride commuters.
By 8 or 9 a.m. any weekday, many of Metro Transit’s 130 park-and-ride lots, totaling more than 25,000 parking spaces, are full.
“We were motivated to find other ways to get park-and-ride people access to their systems — multifamily buildings were sitting around transit spots,” said Dan Bertolet, a former planning consultant for King County Metro Transit and current researcher at the Seattle nonprofit Sightline Institute.
But some land-use codes, such as Seattle’s, make it difficult for commuters to park at those sites.
A 2017 public-private partnership between King County and Diamond Parking, which allows commuters to purchase reserved spaces at select Diamond Parking lots, is the county’s latest example of “shared parking.”
Daniel Rowe, a Metro planner managing the project, said SDCI’s proposal aims to allow park-and-ride users to find spaces at housing complexes without building owners having to go through a permitting hassle.
Other proposed changes include allowing property owners in some areas to make off-street space for up to three car-share vehicles, making bicycle parking requirements consistent across the city, and further reducing parking requirements for income-restricted housing projects, including those for people with disabilities.
The proposal also would require landlords to separate the cost of parking and rent in leasing agreements so tenants can decide whether or not, or to what extent, they pay for parking.
According to a study by INRIX, a Kirkland-based traffic-data and auto-technology company, Seattle drivers spend an average 58 hours each year looking for a parking space, more than triple the time for Americans on average.NATO is going invite Montenegro to join the alliance on Dec 1st. This reports the German newspaper ‘Die Welt’, citing high ranking NATO diplomats. Moscow has informed several NATO members that such a step would lead to a further deterioration of the relations between Russia and the military alliance.
On Dec 1st, NATO will also declare that the invitation of Montenegro does not mean an automatism for the further extension of the alliance. ‘Die Welt’ reports that the French government pleaded for such a statement. Paris is not interested in a expansion of NATO which would go too fast and too wide.
Meanwhile, NATO diplomacy is trying to reach agreements with Moscow over the coordination of flight movements and maneuvers. This was requested by the German government as the newspaper reports. (Die Welt, Nov 21)
During a visit in Serbia, NATO general secretary Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that Russia’s interference in this matter is not welcome and would be counterproductive. “The aspiration of Montenegro to become a member of NATO is something that is up to Montenegro and NATO to decide. No one else has the right to intervene or to interfere with that decision. If any effect, Russian interference more likely will reinforce our interest to invite Montenegro to become a full member of the alliance.” (WaPo, Nov 20)
There is little reason to believe that the French and German initiatives will reduce Russian concerns over a further NATO enlargement and relax geopolitical tensions. Montenegro’s access to the Mediterranean and its centrality in the Balkans is of strategic importance. If the information of the ‘Die Welt’ turns out to be true, at least NATO warships and yachts of Russian oligarchs will have to arrange in Kotor and along Montenegro’s coastline in future.
(wf)All images by Brandon Andersen. Used with permission
Some photographers love going to concerts to snap photos of their favorite performers on stage. But Brandon Andersen had a totally different idea. Upon going to the Vans Warped Tour, Mr. Andersen said that he wanted to do something different from every photographer on tour: and indeed he did. When he talked with the main photographer that he was interning for, he was recommended to do a portrait series. So he dug up a V-Flat that he hung on a fence, his 5D Mk III and a 24-70mm f2.8 L II then photographed musicians before and after their performances.
Mr. Andersen tells us that getting access to the musicians was actually the easy part because he had been touring with artists on and off for around two years. “I have made friends along the way. So on the first day I joined the Vans Warped Tour I knocked out some of the before and after portraits with friends that were performing.” states Brandon. “They loved them, told other artists and they were more than down to be in the project. I also had a copy of the portraits on my phone so I could ask an artist and show him/her on the spot, More than likely they were thrilled to be apart of it.”
More of the portraits are after the jump. But also be sure to check out Brandon on Instagram.Bachmann: Iran would use nuke against United States, Israel
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, took a hard line over the possibility of Iran building its own nuclear weapon, saying that all options should be open to the United States and other Western powers, including military action.
"I would have every alternative and option on the table, because Iran must never have a nuclear weapon," Bachmann said during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Because they have stated unequivocally, once they gain a nuclear weapon, they will use that weapon to wipe Israel off of the map and they will use it against the United States."
Bachmann, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, also said that if was important for American officials to heed the words of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad has threatened the United States, Israel and other nations opposed to Iran's nuclear weapons program.
"If there is anything that history has taught us in the last 100 years, it is this - when a madman speaks, we should listen," Bachmann said. "I take this threat very seriously."
Bachmann lashed out at GOP Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), who said during the last Republican presidential debate that fears of Iran's nuke program are overstated.
"The problem with Ron Paul is that his statements were very dangerous," Bachmann said.Fight Club Easter Egg - Subliminal Messages
I noticed in the beginning of the movie there are certain frames with hidden pictures. I believe i saw a lady in a red dress and a man standing off to the left. Tyler Banks talks about the hidden pictures later in the movie saying there are things hidden in movies all the time. People dont know they're there but they are. right before he discusses the cigarette burn feature.
User Rating: 4.4 4.4/10 with 336 votes Contributed By: Hyena on 10-19-1999 Reviewed By: Webmaster
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Please correct this Egg if you see errors.
Pictures and Videos
1. Tyler - at the copy machine 2. Tyler - in the doctor's office 3. Tyler - in the "first time i met the big moosie" scene 4. Tyler - the fourth is as Marla walks down the alley The fifth time you secretly see Tyler in the movie's beginning. The hotel welcomeing video.
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Fight ClubDo you have another one? Send us a picture or video of this Egg!May 22, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee interviews IndyCar Series driver Graham Rahal during Carb Day for the 2015 Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Some Indianapolis Colts will be enjoying themselves this Sunday, instead of strapping on their normal end-of-week gridiron gear. Both Colts quarterback Andrew Luck and punter Pat McAfee were helping to represent the team at this year’s Indy 500, hosted annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
When asked about the Indy 500, Luck was definitely excited to be ‘a fan’ at such a special event:
“Yeah, absolutely, I think it’s one of the great events of America,” said Colts quarterback Andrew Luck via the Indianapolis Star. “It’s so cool, it’s fun for us to be ‘a fan’ at things, and not always have to play. Stoked to be here.”
While Luck was enjoying himself in the festivities leading up to the race, McAfee was responsible for delivering the green flag, along with Indiana Pacers star Paul George and the help of 14-year old Riley kid Tori Gwyn. The delivering of the green flag is a tremendous honor and signals the start of the highly anticipated race:
Today will be the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 and is always an annual rite of Memorial Day weekend. It’s both a popular historic and national racing spectacle that Hoosiers can definitely be proud of. It’s great to see two Colts players in Luck and McAfee taking part in such a special weekend.
It shouldn’t be too long before we start to see them racing on their own field, although hopefully not so much in Luck and McAfee’s case. They’ll probably want to leave such racing to speedy players like T.Y. Hilton and Phillip Dorsett.
In the mean time, it has to be great for both Luck and McAfee to kick back, relax, and enjoy one of the greatest racing spectacles in sports this Sunday, just like the rest of us:The best-selling story of a boy's near-death experience is a fake, according to its co-author and subject.
Tyndale Alex Malarkey has retracted his story about going to heaven and returning.
The publishers of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, Tyndale House, confirmed to Christian Today that the book is to be allowed to go out of print following the revelations by Alex Malarkey.
Co-written with his father Kevin Malarkey and published in 2010, the book purported to tell the story of six-year-old Alex's experiences in heaven after a car accident in 2004, which included meeting and talking to Jesus.
Now, however, Alex – who was left quadraplegic by the accident – has written an open letter to booksellers including the Southern Baptist Convention's Lifeway business recanting his story and taking aim at other accounts of "heaven tourism", a genre that includes Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo and My Journey to Heaven by Marvin Besteman.
Addressed to "Lifeway and Other Sellers, Buyers, and Marketers of Heaven Tourism, by the Boy Who Did Not Come Back From Heaven", the letter says: "Please forgive the brevity, but because of my limitations I have to keep this short.
"I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.
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"I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.
"It is only through repentance of your sins and a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for your sins (even though he committed none of his own) so that you can be forgiven may you learn of Heaven outside of what is written in the Bible... not by reading a work of man. I want the whole world to know that the Bible is sufficient. Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough."
Alex's mother Beth, who is divorced from his father and who is Alex's caregiver, had previously disowned the book, writing on her blog: "It is both puzzling and painful to watch the book The Boy who Came Back from Heaven to not only continue to sell, but to continue, for the most part, to not be questioned." She claimed that he had not benefited financially from it, concluding: "Alex did not write the book and it is not blessing him!"
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution at its 2014 conference critical of 'heaven tourism' books, though they continue to be sold by Lifeway.
Kevin Malarkey was also approached to comment on this story.Less than two weeks after Oakland, CA-based BrightSource Energy filed papers for an IPO, the solar-energy project developer is scrambling to prevent a massive solar-thermal project under development in California's Mojave Desert from being derailed by an unlikely foe: tortoises.
A new study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) concluded that a mega-solar project under development would kill (or displace) scores of an endangered species of desert tortoise that call the Mojave Desert home.
The project includes three solar concentrating thermal power plants on federal land near Ivanpah Dry Lake in southern California's San Bernardino County.
Ivanpah 1 (100 MW) – West of Ivanpah Dry Lake near the Nevada border in California's Mojave Desert
Ivanpah 2 (100 MW) – 4.5 miles southwest of Primm, Nevada in California's San Bernardino County
Ivanpah 3 (200 MW) – Township 17N, Range 14E, and Township 16N, Range 14E
The completed plants would collectively cover an estimated five square miles of land with arrays of heliostat mirrors focusing sunlight on centrally-located power tower receivers. BrightSource recently secured a loan guarantee for $1.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy and aims to raise another $250 million through the planned initial public offering.
Although construction will continue on the first phase of the Ivanapah project, the BLM may still delay or pull the plug altogether on the project in response to a biological assessment concluding that the project would significantly disturb an endangered species of tortoises more than originally anticipated. The BLM's assessment estimated that the project would lead to the loss of nearly 1,000 tortoises. By contrast, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's analysis found that the project would disturb an estimated few dozen tortoises.
The BLM said the revised biological assessment would require the project developers to relocate tortoises to mitigate harms posed to the tortoises as required under the Endangered Species Act.
The Interior Department and Department of Energy are coordinating a plan to open 21.5 million acres of federal land for industrial-scale solar projects including large-scale PV and CSP plants. A large portion of the land targeted in the plan is in fragile desert areas that support rare and endangered plant and animal species. And while the developments are expected to have operational lifetimes of just 30 to 50 years, their impacts will be permanent, irreversibly converting the land to industrial zones. It remains to be seen whether other solar developments would be affected as none advanced as far as the Ivanpah project.Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight and part-time welterweight Nate Diaz thought a Conor McGregor rematch was a "crazy" idea when you consider that A) "Notorious" was finished by submission at UFC 196 and B) Jose Aldo never got a chance to get his crown back.
Just imagine how "Junior" must feel.
"No way," the Brazilian told MMA Fighting about the possibility of retiring without fighting McGregor again. "Only if he stops fighting. As long as he's in the UFC, this fight will happen. That's a fact. We will get the belt back and be champion again. We'll move up. The UFC will do this fight. It doesn't matter at which weight. I don't care."
Get in line.
McGregor won the featherweight title by smashing Aldo back in December; however, the Irishman -- along with starstruck promoters -- became intoxicated with multi-division "super fights" that resulted in chaos in both the lightweight and welterweight divisions.
But Aldo won't be getting a rematch unless he first beats Edgar at UFC 200 this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.
For more on that fight click here.Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has taken a slight lead over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the race for the presidency, according to a new poll.
In a new poll released by Rasmussen Reports, Clinton holds a 4-point lead over Trump, leading with 43 percent support to Trump's 39 percent.
Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson hauled in 9 percent backing, while Green Party nominee Jill Stein takes 2 percent. Five percent of responsdents are still undecided.
This is a change from Rasmussen's poll from last week, which showed Trump leading by a point over the former secretary, 40 percent to Clinton's 39 percent.
Clinton and Trump both appeared at the Commander in Chief Forum on Wednesday night, where the two answered questions about foreign policy and veterans affairs. They are each set to appear at the first presidential debate in less than three weeks at Hofstra University.
Overall, Clinton continues to lead in four-way polling matchups, topping Trump by 2.1 points according to the latest RealClearPolitics average.Windyty is a gorgeous weather map that’s overlaid with current temperature conditions, wind patterns, and can be customized to show as much or as little weather information as you deem necessary. You can add cloud cover, precipitation, and more, and there’s even an Android app to take it all with you on the go.
Last week we highlighted Ventusky, a similar service, but many of you noted that Windyty came first, and has a very similar look and feel. Windyty actually offers even more information, as well as a draggable pinpoint element that will show you conditions at a certain point on the map, a detailed local forecast for that point (including future conditions, precipitation maps, temperature gradients, and more) in a slide-out sidebar, and even webcams and weather stations in the vicinity of your pinpoint.
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If you want to see what the weather is like in a different location, just drag the pinpoint to another spot on the map, or search using the text bar in the upper left. At any point you can add layers for more information, remove them for a clearer picture, change the measurement altitude so you can see that the temperature, wind, and atmospheric pressure are at different points in the air. Plus, if you like the experience, you can download the free Windyty app for Android to get all of those features on your mobile device. Hit the link below to try it out.
WindytyBoom! Dow Chemical CEO Announces New Plant in Michigan at Trump’s Grand Rapids Rally (VIDEO)
WINNING- WINNING- WINNING!…
Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris spoke at Donald Trump’s Thank You rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday night.
Liveris will head up Donald Trump’s Manufacturing Council.
During his speech Andrew Liveris announced Dow Chemical will invest a state of the art innovation center in Michigan.
Andrew Liveris: We’ve made a decision. We’re going to announce a state-of-the-art innovation center in Michigan. We’re going to put an R&D Center in place. This decision is because of this man and these policies. We could have waited. We could have put it anywhere in the world. Several hundred jobs on top of the thousands. We are not waiting. We are going ahead. We are going to use American hard work and American brains and we’re going to fight for the Dow company out of the USA… Mr. Trump, with the investments that you talk about. You’re paving the way with your administration with your policies to make it easier to do business in this country. Not a red tape country but a red carpet country for American businesses.
Wow! This guy can give a speech!
Andrew Liveris is TERRIFIC!MILWAUKEE — Josh Speidel was late. This happens a lot with Speidel, a redshirt freshman for the University of Vermont, who can be forgetful. The Catamounts coach, John Becker, flagged down Speidel in the breakfast room at the team hotel Wednesday morning, and moments later Speidel limped into the lobby and sat down for an interview, his left hand clamped on a right arm that refused to be still.
This is the player that Becker first saw as a strapping 16-year-old on an Amateur Athletic Union team in Indiana, the one who reminded him of the Notre Dame power forward Luke Harangody. Same build. Same buzz-cut. A little overweight, but so what? Speidel could score and rebound. Halfway through his senior year at Columbus North High School, the 6-foot-7 Speidel owned the school’s career scoring and rebounding marks.
“You could tell he was going to be really good,” Becker said. “He had a determination about him.”
And he is the same Speidel whom Becker saw lying in a hospital bed 25 months ago, in a coma, his skull fractured and his left side paralyzed.
Speidel had already committed to Vermont when a sport utility vehicle struck his 1999 Honda Accord on Feb. 1, 2015, as he pulled out of a fast-food drive-through. All the others involved in the accident — a teenage girl in his car, an adult driver and two children in the other — had only minor injuries or none at all. But Speidel’s head slammed into the door frame, severely injuring his brain.Every day isn’t always the best day, but when that happens, we have the power to turn it all around. It’s our responsibility to shake off a bad mood, and move onto greener pastures! Here are some ideas to help kick a rotten day to kingdom come…
Do something good for someone else, even though you may not want to. Do a favour, help them find something, give them an item which will help them in some way. Start the flow of positive energy.
Eat the best chocolate you can get your hands on. In bed. Or in the bath.
Turn up music you really love. Play it so loudly that it soaks in through your skin. Dance in your pyjamas. Feel the pain lift.
Have a romance in your head.
Volunteer.
Buy a remote control for your camera & dip your toes into the pool of narcissism.
Call a friend & ask them if they want to have a slumber party.
Throw yourself head-first into a creative project. Something that you’re excited about but which feels a little too big for you. You’ll be so consumed by it that it will fuel you for ages.
Do the splits. Or at least try. (Be gentle though!)
Sing. Loudly. Badly. Off-key. Whatever you like. It works. The last time I was on my way somewhere really nerve-wracking, I was in a cab. The radio was playing & I was so anxious that the only way I could distract myself was by singing along. Loudly. The driver probably thought I was a total nut but I didn’t care & it did the trick!
Cover your entire body in cocoa butter & fall asleep.
Drink 2 litres of fizzy drink (pop, soda, you know) & stay up until sunrise.
Write a list of things that you appreciate right now, in the present moment. Focus on each of them & let the love inside you well up. Even when things appear to be going really, really badly, there are always things to be happy about. (That’s one of the reasons why we do Things I Love Thursday — to help bring your attention back to the positive.)
Indulge in your “guilty pleasures”, whatever they are. (Old episodes of America’s Next Top Model, ginger ale, chocolate cake, romantic comedies, etc.)
Send a text message to one of the most interesting people you know — maybe someone you don’t know that well, just to say hello.
Order delivery food, just to bask in the glory of the fact that if you pay people, they will come to your door. With food. Warm, good food. What an age we live in, huh?
Look through old photos. With a friend if possible. If it’s an old friend, you can reminisce (“Oh my god, do you remember when we did that?!”), & if it’s a new friend, you can tell grand stories (“Well, let me tell you about this guy…”).
Listen to old Motown hits. Come up with dance moves. Wear something sparkly & work it out. (DJ Z-Trip’s Motown Breakdown is an excellent time, too.)
Write a gruellingly personal entry for your blog dissecting every aspect of the situation which has upset you so much. Post it, don’t post it, whatever, just get it out of your system.
Plan a holiday.
Write a ridiculous online dating profile & marvel at the people who come out of the woodwork. (“Oh, a threesome with you & your wife in New Jersey? Sign me up!”)
Spend an hour in your variety store of choice, set yourself a budget ($20?) & buy some junk. Lip treatments, candy, maybe an exfoliating scrub… Then go home & play with your new purchases. There’s a reason it’s called retail therapy, you know (though of course, it doesn’t last).
Wear a fake moustache all day.
Think up nicknames for all your friends, then send them each postcards to alert them.
Think back on the last really good sex you had. Think about it for an hour. Then do something else.
Go out for a milkshake.
Appreciate the dinosaur bones at your favourite museum.
Grab a friend, dress up like tourists & go & do all the really schlocky things on offer in your city. Take LOTS of photos, & be sure to flash the peace sign in 70% of them.
Stick little crystals on something you use every day. (Wallet, light-switch, key-ring, boots?)
Buy a new pair of sunglasses or non-prescription frames. It’s a super-easy (& often relatively cheap) way to evolve your look. Plus sunglasses make for excellent on-the-fly disguises.
Go to a yoga class. Surrender & breathe deep.
Put on your favourite pair of high heels & walk up & down your bedroom/hallway doing your best Miss J impersonation. Have a friend or neighbour who is willing to humour you offer critique. “Girl, you walk like a busted-down freight-train.”
Write multiple lists of everything you want. Material possessions, relationships, work, lifestyle, everything. Pin them up by your door so you see them all the time.
Go through Urban Dictionary & find some fun/ridiculous new words to add to your vocabulary.
Make yourself the biggest ice-cream sundae you’ve ever seen. Decorate it with hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, sprinkles, nonpareils, whatever you like. Take a photo. Give it a name (“Jane’s Orgasmatron Cardiac Arrest Sundae”). Devour. Maybe without using your hands. Take a photo of that too.
Get your eyebrows shaped.
Spend an hour in a department store sniffing perfume samples. When you find something you like, spray it on a card & drop it in your purse.
Try break-dancing.
Watch videos of flamboyant, successful people like Elton John or Michael Jackson & marvel.
Eat animal crackers.
Drink through a straw all day. If you get your hands on a straw which matches your outfit, so much the better.
Plan a party with a theme that makes you feel really, really happy.
Write a letter to yourself in the future. Then hide it. Maybe in the pocket of a coat you never, ever wear.
Leave the house wearing just fabulous lingerie underneath a coat. With heels. (Note: if you are a man you may get accused of being a flasher if you do this. The world is cruel sometimes.)
Pull a Kid CuDi & announce your retirement from the world of something. Like cooking, or vocal communication. Announce your unretirement whenever you feel like it.
Buy a harmonica & annoy the hell out of everyone while you learn how to play it.
Go wig shopping.
Choose a festival (SXSW? Burning Man? Coachella? Wave-Gotik-Treffen?) to go to, invite some friends, & start making plans.
Add diamantes to your manicure.
Hula hoop.
Buy some really good art for your walls. Posters, prints, original artwork or other. If you’re feeling impoverished, go to the library, check out some art books, then take huge, great quality photocopies at a copy shop.
Listen to Never Better by P.O.S. from start to finish & revel in what a great album it really is.
Load up your ipod & go for a walk through your favourite park.
Visit a cool toy store & make your friend a surprise package.
Reach out to the people who inspire you but who don’t know you exist.
Write the birthdays of your personal heroes in your planner & work out a way to honour them on that day.
Pie.
Colour your hair. (You can always dye it back.)
Notice where you hold tension in your body, & let it go.
Visit some kind of religious institution & observe a service.
Bake heart- or bunny-shaped cookies. Give them away.
Be graceful.
Be graceless.
Make a video diary.
Answer questions with questions.
Try on a pair of really, really expensive shoes & act like you’ll be back tomorrow, but you’re just going to go home & think about it. (Bonus points: take a photo of you in them. Often you will need to be stealthy about this but it’s worth doing.)
Record yourself trying to recite the alphabet while vigorously brushing your teeth.
Flirt with entirely inappropriate people.
Sing into your friend’s answering machine. (If you’re in the USA & use Slydial, it will take you straight to their voicemail.)
Pour pancakes in the shape of your initials. Eat them while watching aerobics on television.
Make friends with your neighbours.
Think about how great it would be to name a shaggy dog “Toupee”.
Go to an audition just for the experience.
Tell someone cute, “You’re cute”.
Sit in a sauna with a stack of fashion magazines & sweat it out.
Find a secret place with a great view. Like a tree, or a rooftop, or a hill.
Go & see a musical (or just rent one).
Be optimistic.
Buy ridiculous slippers.
Make a list of the things you want to do to celebrate the upcoming season.
Lie down in the sunshine.
Pretend to be a dancer in a music video as you perform mundane tasks. Jiggle your way from the bathroom to the kitchen, shake it while you wait for your toast to pop, booty bump while you pick an outfit.
Go to an aquarium & take photos of the jellyfish.
Watch movies you used to love as a child.
Book a karaoke room with friends & sing your heart out.
Make a list of practical, actionable ways you can improve your situation.
Start keeping a dream journal & write down their supposed meanings, too.
See if you can develop an appreciation for a band or a style of music you’ve never liked before.
Write a play.
Go to vintage stores looking for fabulous old typewriters.
Write the stuff you like about your body on your body with a marker.
Change your ring-tone to the sound of one of your friends laughing hysterically.
Watch videos of Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy.
Listen to Divine Harvest by The Mae Shi. Don’t be worried, everything will turn out fine. Don’t be worried, friend just put your hand in mine.
Take a nap with your head at the other end of the bed.
Walk around a garden centre & buy a colourful plant. Give it a name.
Go somewhere that people walk their dogs & make friends with some fluffy creatures.
Hug your friends.
Tell someone everything.
Believe that everything is always getting better.Facebook Twitter Reddit Google+
Go to the App store and search “Washington Beer.” The Washington Beer Mobile App is the top result. The Washington Beer Commission |
If you handicap to drive profits, instead of utilizing it as a leisure activity, then you know how humbling of an experience it is to have to meet your man early in the week. Paying your man is a subconscious jab reminding you just how personal money can be. The carousel of etiquette no longer turns and the jokes stop being funny when it hits your ego because you hit your bank account.
Coming to terms with losing money is tough, it’s even tougher when other people know you’re inflicting the Purge on your bankroll, and they’re profiting from it. On average, the local Cash and Carry agent who generously offers an account, generates upwards of 10 % or more on weekly losing action. A steady paying loser, who bets frequent in heathy amounts, will easily earn their Cash and Carry agents’ kid, a college tuition. When your local sees you as a square, they’re basically saying, “Thanks for the free money, asshole.”
The late Sunday afternoon text of “I’m going to need to see you this week,” is the start of your local’s initiation process to dubbing you a square. The week isn’t technically over and they already know you’re going to owe. The degenerate feeling one is left with after parsing the anxiousness of their bookie wanting to collect on them is only rivaled by that of deep depression. Money and pride should not go hand in hand, but let’s be honest, it’s hard to separate the two. When you meet your guy on Tuesday, it’s not about handing over money, it’s more about handing off a piece of your pride. That is why when you win against your local, it feels infinitely better than waiting for a check in the mail. Nothing beats walking in Thursday afternoon, and getting paid “fuck you money” from your man. Sometimes getting personal is an inevitable consequence to the business we’re in, we just have to deal with it.
Author: Christian CianciOfficials feel flushed with success after water conservation efforts prevented Super Bowl fans from adding to problems associated with a suburban Detroit sinkhole.
Macomb County public works chief Candice Miller warned Friday that thousands of football fans flushing toilets at halftime Sunday night could overwhelm a broken sewer line blamed for the sinkhole.
But she told radio station WWJ everything went OK on Sunday and that she believes efforts to conserve water in the affected communities "made the difference."
Crews are building a bypass to get around the broken sewer line in Fraser, but it's not ready yet. The line affects more than 300,000 people in 11 communities. The station says some people held back on flushing and some restaurants used paper plates to curb dishwashing water use.I guess it had to happen this way. The greatest social menace of the new century is not terrorism but drugs, and it is the poor who will have to lead the revolution. The global trade in illicit narcotics ranks with that in oil and arms. Its prohibition wrecks the lives of wealthy and wretched, east and west alike. It fills jails, corrupts politicians and plagues nations. It finances wars from Afghanistan to Colombia. It is utterly mad.
There is no sign of reform emanating from the self-satisfied liberal democracies of west Europe or north America. Reform is not mentioned by Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel. Their countries can sustain prohibition, just, by extravagant penal repression and by sweeping the consequences underground. Politicians will smirk and say, as they did in their youth, that they can "handle" drugs.
No such luxury is available to the political economies of Latin America. They have been wrecked by Washington's demand that they stop exporting drugs to fuel America's unregulated cocaine market. It is like trying to stop traffic jams by imposing an oil ban in the Gulf.
Push has finally come to shove. Last week the Argentine supreme court declared in a landmark ruling that it was "unconstitutional" to prosecute citizens for having drugs for their personal use. It asserted in ringing terms that "adults should be free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state". This classic statement of civil liberty comes not from some liberal British home secretary or Tory ideologue. They would not dare. The doctrine is adumbrated by a regime only 25 years from dictatorship.
Nor is that all. The Mexican government has been brought to its knees by a drug-trafficking industry employing some 500,000 workers and policed by 5,600 killings a year, all to supply America's gargantuan appetite and Mexico's lesser one. Three years ago, Mexico concluded that prison for drug possession merely criminalised a large slice of its population. Drug users should be regarded as "patients, not criminals".
Next to the plate step Brazil and Ecuador. Both are quietly proposing to follow suit, fearful only of offending America's drug enforcement bureaucracy, now a dominant presence in every South American capital. Ecuador has pardoned 1,500 "mules" – women used by the gangs to transport cocaine over international borders. Britain, still in the dark ages, locks these pathetic women up in Holloway for years on end.
Brazil's former president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, co-authored the recent Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. He declares the emperor naked. "The tide is turning," he says. "The war-on-drugs strategy has failed." A Brazilian judge, Maria Lucia Karam, of the lobby group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, tells the Guardian: "The only way to reduce violence in Mexico, Brazil or anywhere else is to legalise the production, supply and consumption of all drugs."
America spends a reported $70bn a year on suppressing drug imports, and untold billions on prosecuting its own citizens for drugs offences. Yet the huge profits available to Latin American traffickers have financed a quarter-century of civil war in Colombia and devastating social disruption in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia. Similar profits are aiding the war in Afghanistan and killing British soldiers.
The underlying concept of the war on drugs, initiated by Richard Nixon in the 1970s, is that demand can be curbed by eliminating supply. It has been enunciated by every US president and every British prime minister. Tony Blair thought that by occupying Afghanistan he could rid the streets of Britain of heroin. He told Clare Short to do it. Gordon Brown believes it to this day.
This concept marries intellectual idiocy – that supply leads demand – with practical impossibility. But it is golden politics. For 30 years it has allowed western politicians to shift blame for not regulating drug abuse at home on to the shoulders of poor countries abroad. It is gloriously, crashingly immoral.
The Latin American breakthrough is directed at domestic drug users, but this is only half the battle. There is no rational justification for making consumption legal but not the supply of what is consumed. We do not cure nicotine addiction by banning the Zimbabwean tobacco crop.
The absurdity of this position was illustrated by this week's "good news" that the 2009 Afghan poppy harvest had fallen back to its 2005 level. This was taken as a sign both that poppy eradication was "working" and that depriving Afghan peasants of their most lucrative cash crop somehow wins their hearts and minds and impoverishes the Taliban.
The Afghan poppy crop is largely a function of the price of poppies compared with that of wheat. The only time policy has disrupted this potent market was in 2001, when the old Taliban responded to American pressure by ruthlessly suppressing supply. Since the Nato occupation it has boomed, inevitably polluting Kabul politics and plunging western diplomats and commentators into hypocrisy over Hamid Karzai's corrupt regime. What did they think would happen?
The crop has shrunk because the wheat price has risen and the recession has dampened European demand. It will rise again. The policy of Nato and the UN's economically illiterate drug tsar, Antonio Maria Costa, of treating Afghan opium as the cause of heroin addiction, not a response to it, means trying to break supply routes and stamp out criminal gangs. It has failed, merely increasing heroin's risk premium. As long as there is demand, there will be supply. Water does not flow uphill, however much global bureaucrats pay each other to pretend otherwise.
The trade in drugs is a direct result of their unregulated availability on the streets of Europe and America. Making supply illegal is worse than pointless. It oils a black market, drives trade underground, cross-subsidises other crime and leaves consumers at the mercy of poisons. It is the politics of stupid. The incarceration (pdf) of thousands of poor people (11,000 in England and Wales alone) also deprives economies of a large labour pool.
As the Brazilian judge pointed out, the tide of violence associated with any illegal trade will not abate by only licensing consumption. The mountain that must be climbed is licensing, regulating and taxing supply, thus ending a prohibition now outstripping in absurdity and damage America's alcohol prohibition between the wars.
From the the deaths of British troops in Helmand to the narco-terrorism of Mexico and the mules cramming London's jails, the war on drugs can be seen only as a total failure, a vast self-imposed cost on western society. It is the greatest sweeping-under-the-carpet of our age.
The desperate politicians of Latin America have at last found the courage to grasp the nettle. Will Britain? According to the UN, it has the highest number of problem drug users in Europe. I imagine Gordon Brown and David Cameron agree with the Argentine supreme court, but they are too frightened to say so, let alone promise reform. In all they do they are guided by fear.
I sometimes realise that, if Britain still had the death penalty, no current political leader would have the guts to abolish it.Members of the Westboro Baptist Church Luke Phelps-Roper, 8, left, and Seth Phelps, 9, both from Topeka, Kan., picket outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. ((Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press))
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that pits a dead marine's grieving father against the Westboro Baptist Church, an obscure Kansas church that protests at soldiers' funerals.
Albert Snyder, the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, is asking the top court in the United States to reinstate a $5-million US penalty against the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka.
In court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the issue is whether the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to free speech, must tolerate "exploiting this bereaved family."
Died in Iraq
Snyder, of York, Pa., took legal action after church members picketed the funeral of his son, who died on duty in Iraq.
"My son and the hundreds of thousands of other men and women who have died for this country worked too hard to preserve our freedom of speech than to have it mocked and cowardly stood behind like this church does," Snyder said.
In 2006, church members picketed at Matthew Snyder's funeral, brandishing signs that read, "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."
The marine was not gay. However, the members of the church, who gained notoriety for using the same tactics at funerals for AIDS victims and who also oppose abortion, claimed his death was God's "punishment" for the United States' tolerance of homosexuality.
Snyder's father sued and in 2007, a jury ordered the church to pay $11 million. That penalty was later reduced to $5 million.
The verdict and penalty were later overturned on appeal.
On Tuesday, members of the church — who are predominantly from one extended family — demonstrated in front of the White House.
"[The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001] happened because it was a final warning from God," said church member Jacob Phelps.
Many legal scholars believe the top court will likely rule in favour of the church in defence of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
Snyder has the backing of 48 states, 42 U.S. senators and veterans groups. Several media organizations have sided with the church — on the basis of protecting First Amendment rights.NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), named Curiosity, as seen fully deployed on Friday, Aug. 12, 2011 during a media photo opportunity inside Kennedy Space Center's Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility in Florida.
Editor's Note: The following timeline was updated on March 8, 2016.
Getting to Mars has never been easy. In the time that humans have been sending probes to Mars, there have been devastating failures and incredible successes. Here's a timeline of all the attempted Mars missions — including orbiters, landers and rovers — by various space agencies.
Marsnik 1: USSR, launched Oct. 10, 1960 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft did not reach Earth orbit.
Marsnik 2: USSR, launched Oct. 14, 1960 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft did not reach Earth orbit.
Sputnik 22: USSR, launched Oct. 24, 1962 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft achieved Earth orbit only.
Mars 1: USSR, launched Nov. 1, 1962 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft's radio failed at 65.9 million miles (106 million kilometers).
Sputnik 24: USSR, launched Nov. 4, 1962 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft achieved Earth orbit only.
Mariner 3: U.S., launched Nov. 5, 1964 on an intended Mars flyby. The shroud encasing the spacecraft at the top of the rocket failed to jettison.
Mariner 4: U.S., launched Nov. 28, 1964 and achieved the first successful Mars flyby on July 14, 1965. The spacecraft returned 21 photos.
Zond 2: USSR, launched on Nov. 30, 1964 on an intended Mars flyby. The spacecraft passed Mars but its radio failed and it did not return any planetary data.
Mariner 6: U.S., launched Feb. 24, 1969 and successfully completed a Mars flyby on July 31, 1969. The spacecraft returned 75 photos.
Mariner 7: U.S., launched March 27, 1969 and flew by Mars on Aug. 5, 1969. The spacecraft returned 126 photos.
Mars 1969A: USSR, launched March 27, 1969. The Mars orbiter did not reach Earth orbit.
Mars 1969B: USSR, launched April 2, 1969. The Mars orbiter failed during launch.
Mariner 8: U.S., launched May 8, 1971. The Mars orbiter failed during launch.
Kosmos 419: USSR, launched May 10, 1971. The Mars orbiter achieved Earth orbit only.
Mars 2: USSR, launched May 19, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Nov. 2, 1971, but returned no useful data, and the lander burned up due to steep entry.
Mars 3: USSR, launched May 28, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Dec. 3, 1971. The lander operated on the surface of Mars for 20 seconds before failing.
Mariner 9: U.S., launched May 30, 1971. The Mars orbiter was in orbit from Nov. 13, 1971 to Oct. 27, 1972. The spacecraft returned 7,329 photos.
Mars 4: USSR, launched July 21, 1973. The failed Mars orbiter flew past Mars on Feb. 10, 1974.
Mars 5: USSR, launched July 25, 1973. The Mars orbiter arrived on Feb. 12, 1974 but lasted only a few days.
Mars 6: USSR, launched Aug. 5, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 but the lander failed due to a fast impact.
Mars 7: USSR, launched Aug. 9, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 but the lander missed the planet.
Viking 1: U.S., launched Aug. 20, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from June 1976 to 1980 and the lander operated from July 1976 to 1982.
Viking 2: U.S., launched Sept. 9, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from Aug. 1976 to 1987, and the lander operated from Sept. 3, 1976 to 1980. Combined, the Viking orbiters and landers returned more than 50,000 photos.
Phobos 1: USSR, launched July 7, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were lost in Aug. 1988 en route to Mars.
Phobos 2: USSR, launched July 12, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were lost in March 1989 near Phobos.
Mars Observer: U.S., launched Sept. 25, 1992. The spacecraft was lost just before arrival at Mars on Aug. 21, 1993.
Mars Global Surveyor: U.S., launched Nov. 7, 1996. The Mars orbiter arrived on Sept. 12, 1997 and transmitted its last communication on Nov. 2, 2006. The spacecraft returned more than 240,000 camera images, 206 million spectrometer measurements and 671 million laser-altimeter shots.
Mars 96: Russia, launched Nov. 16, 1996. The orbiter, two landers and two penetrators were lost after the rocket failed.
Mars Pathfinder: U.S., launched Dec. 4, 1996. The Mars lander and rover landed on July 4, 1997 and communicated with ground teams last on Sept. 27, 1997.
Nozomi: Japan, launched July 4, 1998. The Mars orbiter failed to enter orbit in Dec. 2003.
Mars Climate Orbiter: U.S., launched Dec. 11, 1998. The spacecraft was lost upon arrival in September 1999.
Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2: U.S., launched Jan. 3, 1999. The lander and two epentrators were lost on arrival in December 1999.
Mars Odyssey: U.S., launched March 7, 2001. The Mars orbiter arrived on Oct. 24, 2001 and is currently conducting its extended science mission. The spacecraft has returned about 350,000 images, mapped global distributions of several elements, and relayed more than 95 percent of all data from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
Mars Express/Beagle 2: European Space Agency, launched June 2, 2003. The Mars orbiter completed its prime mission in November 2005 and is currently on an extended mission. The lander was lost on arrival on Dec. 25, 2003.
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit: U.S., launched June 10, 2003. The Mars rover landed on the Red Planet on Jan. 4, 2004 for three-month mission to look for signs of past water activity on Mars. Ground controllers lost communication with Spirit in March 2010, and repeated attempts to awaken the rover failed. The rover far outlived its intended warranty, but NASA declared Spirit dead in May 2011.
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity: U.S., launched July 7, 2003. The Mars rover landed on Jan. 25, 2004 for a three-month prime mission in the Meridiani Planum region. The rover has currently logged more than 20 miles on the Red Planet and is now investigating the huge Endeavour crater. [Mars Explored: Landers and Rovers Since 1971 (Infographic)]
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: U.S., launched Aug. 12, 2005. The Mars orbiter began orbiting the planet on March 12, 2006. The spacecraft has provided data that include more than 25,000 images and 3,500 radar observations. The mission has returned more total data than produced by all previous Mars missions combined.
Phoenix Mars Lander: U.S., launched Aug. 4, 2007. The Mars lander touched down on May 25, 2008 and dug through Martian soil to confirm the presence of water ice beneath the surface. Phoenix's solar panels suffered severe damage from the harsh Martian winter, and communication with the $475 million lander was lost in November 2008. After repeated attempts to reestablish contact, NASA declared Phoenix broken and dead in May 2010.
Phobos-Grunt: Russia, launched Nov. 8, 2011 on a mission to the Mars moon Phobos. The $163 million Phobos-Grunt spacecraft's thrusters failed to fire in a maneuver that would have sent the spacecraft on to Mars. It became stuck in Earth orbit, and crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 15, 2012.
Mars Science Laboratory: U.S., lanched Nov. 26, 2011. The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover landed at Gale crater on Aug. 5, 2014. The rover is carrying 10 instruments that will enable it to dig, drill and analyze the composition of rock samples. Go here to read about Curiosity's biggest science discoveries so far.
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN): U.S., launched Nov. 18, 2013. The $671 million Mars orbiter was launched primarily to study the Martian atmosphere. Arrived at the Red Planet on Sept. 21, 2014. MAVEN is helping scientists understand how Mars lost most of its ancient atmosphere.
Mars Orbiter Mission: India, launched Nov. 5, 2013. The $73 million orbiter, which is also known as Mangalyaan, arrived at Mars on Sept. 23, 2014. Intended to explore Mars' surface features, mineralogy and atmosphere.
ExoMars Program: Europe and Russia, consists of two missions. First mission (orbiter and lander) scheduled to launch March 14, 2016. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will study the planet from above, while a small lander called Schiaparelli will test landing technologies. The second mission, scheduled to launch in 2018, consists of a rover that will drill 6.5 feet (2 meters) into the Martian soil. The combined cost of the program is about $1.6 billion.
Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.Now that ‘Storm in the Room’ has come and gone, I want to remind you of a line of dialogue from a very old episode.
Steven says this about Amethyst, which turns out to be true. We still see signs of it in the Amethyst arc where she pours herself into defeating Jasper. But I think this line is true for all quartzes.
Amethyst doesn’t wanna think about herself. She hates herself. It’s a miserable thing to think about. You can see the stark contrast with the Famethyst; they all have eachother to think about, which is why they’re so happy.
Jasper doesn’t wanna think about herself. Although she is full of herself, she’d rather be a part of anyone else. First Lapis, and then corrupted quartzes, if that’s what it takes.
Steven doesn’t wanna think about himself. He doesn’t wanna think about the expectations riding on him and all the horrible things he’s done and been through. He’d rather think about everyone else and what he can do for them.
And Rose was the same way. She didn’t wanna think about herself. She was always asking everyone else about themselves. Whenever she’s asked about herself, she either evades it entirely or delays it as long as possible. She dedicated herself to – quite literally – everyone else. Both the Crystal Gems, and the entire human race.
But it backfired. The rebellion caused a war, the war caused the destruction of so many gems (and maybe even humans), caused her to bubble Bismuth and shatter Pink Diamond, and who knows how many other awful, dreadful things.
She didn’t want that anymore. But she couldn’t escape it. She couldn’t just run away from it. But she couldn’t just NOT think about it.
Everyone around her was so unique, so full of life, so free of burdens … and she wanted that.
Rose Quartz wanted to be anyone other than herself.
She didn’t make Steven to escape her mistakes. She made him because she thought so little of herself. Because she knew, anyone in the world would be a better fit as the leader of the Crystal Gems than her.
She wanted to live life as someone who would know what to do. Someone who could be strong. Someone who could make the right decisions. Someone who could create good where all she created was bad. Someone that could set out to do what she never could; to save everyone. Someone that could be everything she wasn’t.
She can’t give Steven the answers because …
Steven is the answer.KENNYWOOD
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Abbreviation: KW)
Parques Reunidos
Park News - (8/8/18) While I'm not sure what happened, the local media filed a report about Kennywood confirming that the Thomas train ride is still closed due to the previous issues and that new "stoppages" took place on the Phantom's Revenge and Thunderbolt this week. I heard the Phantom one was just a train stopping on the lift hill, which isn't a big deal and just the ride's safety system working normally as it should, but I've no idea what happened on Thunderbolt.
According to the report, the issues with the Thomas train ride have the park making some adjustments to the rails on the track in locations where the train has been having issues navigating tight turns. Once the adjustments are complete, tested and re-inspected, the attraction will be able to reopen.
2018 - Thomas Town - (6/29/18) According to the local news the new Thomas Town attraction coming to Kennywood will not be ready to open until July 27th.
(6/21/18) A new video showing off some construction progress inside Kennywood's new Thomas Town area can be found below.
2019 - Steelers Country / The Steel Curtain - (2/7/19) A new construction update from Kennywood shows off a great look at the progress being made on Steel Curtain so far, where a lot of the lower level track has been installed while the ride’s very tall support structure is still being lifted into place. The ‘bridge’ looking track section over the water is especially stunning to see.
(1/16/19) A new construction report from Kennywood showing off the latest progress on The Steel Curtain coaster can be found here.
(12/17/18) A few more new pictures of Steel Curtain construction have been added here, showing off the first track sections we can see being installed to the structure from outside the park. Meanwhile Kennywood posted some pictures from the inside to Twitter the other day as they were installing the track for the final inversion.
Meanwhile some more details about Steelers Country were discussed in an update to Coaster101, including the kinds of experiences guests get to have inside beyond just the coaster. One is called the Two Minute Drill and essentially they tried to recreate the Top Golf experience, but with Footballs embedded with RFID chips. Each guest inside will also be given a wristband that will help track their experience and the points they earn at the various games.
?? We have a cutback! This will be the last of Steel Curtains nine inversions. Which one are you most excited for!? #SteelCurtain pic.twitter.com/2DkgpUmqYb — Kennywood Park (@Kenny_Kangaroo) December 15, 2018
A closer look at the coaster cars for Steel Curtain - just unveiled at #IAE18! pic.twitter.com/Ayle5vsb0R — Kennywood Park (@Kenny_Kangaroo) November 13, 2018CHICAGO — Jameis Winston, the star quarterback from Florida State who played under a swirl of controversy, was chosen first over all in the N.F.L. draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday.
Winston led the Seminoles to a national championship during the 2013 season and was considered, along with Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, to have the best chance of being chosen first.
Success has come quickly for Winston, the youngest player to win the Heisman Trophy, who was also drafted by the Texas Rangers. But he has been dogged by accusations that he raped a former Florida State student, who has since filed a civil suit against him.
Winston’s off-field problems proved to be a source of consternation for the N.F.L., which has tried to clean up its image as a league willing to tolerate violence and lawbreaking off the field. Several weeks ago, Winston met Commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss his future in the league.ROSEMONT, Ill. – After fighting a version of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson who was more than 40 pounds heavier than him in the Bellator 175 in the main event, Muhammed Lawal isn’t shying away from the heavyweights.
Lawal (21-6 MMA, 10-4 BMMA) was booked for a light heavyweight fight against new UFC signeee Ryan Bader at “Bellator: 180” at Madison Square Garden in New York City after he won a decision against Jackson (37-12 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) in their rematch Friday.
Lawal’s heavyweight bout against Jackson took place at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., near Chicago. The main card aired on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.
After his win, which came with 29-28 scores across the board, “King Mo” said he wants to fight Bader, then fight the winner of the “Bellator: NYC” co-main event between Fedor Emelianenko and Matt Mitrione.
“I’m cool with (fighting Bader),” Lawal said. “But at the same time, I wouldn’t mind fighting the winner of Mitrione and Fedor. I just want to bounce – I want both titles. I want two title shots. I want to fight for the 205 belt and heavyweight belt.
“… I just want to fight everybody. The more you keep on winning, the more title shots you’ll get, or you’ll have chances to get title shots. I’m just trying to fight and win at any weight class.”
Since losing his first fight against Jackson nearly three years ago in the company’s first foray into pay-per-view, Lawal has won nine of 11 fights.
For complete coverage of Bellator 175, check out the MMA Events section of the site.The unilateral nature of Mr. Obama’s announcement underscored the loss of trust between him and President Hamid Karzai, who has refused to sign a long-term security agreement with the United States. Any American deployments after 2014 will hinge on the Afghans’ signing the agreement, Mr. Obama said, though he noted that both candidates in the runoff election to replace Mr. Karzai have promised to do so.
Mr. Obama briefed Mr. Karzai by phone Tuesday morning, as well as leaders of three NATO partners with troops in Afghanistan: Britain, Germany and Italy. On Sunday, Mr. Karzai declined an invitation to meet the president at the Bagram base, north of Kabul, where Mr. Obama had made an unannounced trip to greet the troops.
A senior administration official said Mr. Obama was encouraged enough by recent developments in Afghanistan, particularly the first round of the presidential race, to avoid the “zero option,” which would have meant pulling out all troops at the end of 2014.
“The priority for General Dunford and his team has been to keep as many troops as possible in Afghanistan for the 2015 fighting season,” said Jeremy B. Bash, a former chief of staff at the Pentagon, referring to the commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr.
The White House did not say how many of the troops remaining after 2014 would conduct counterterrorism missions, but it would most likely be a small fraction of the 9,800. The Central Intelligence Agency has gradually reduced its presence in the country as it turns its attention elsewhere, and some of the Afghan militias that the C.I.A. created to fight militants in the south and east are being quietly disbanded.
The president is clearly driven by a determination to shift the focus of his counterterrorism policy from Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan to a more diffuse set of militant threats, some linked to Al Qaeda, that have sprung up from Syria to Nigeria.
On Wednesday, an official said, Mr. Obama will emphasize Syria’s growing status as a haven for terrorism and signal greater support for the opposition. Among the options on the table, officials said, is expanding the covert training program for rebels, currently run by the C.I.A. in Jordan — perhaps by bringing in the Pentagon to conduct the training.Hello Kickstarters!
Thank you again for all the continued support! We're really excited at the positive response to our current stretch goals. Before revealing our next stretch goal we want to act on a few of the suggestions the community has had.
First off, we are introducing two new tiers. At $90 we’ve created the Digital Tier that gives you everything from the $100 tier that is available in digital form. You get an alpha game access key, an alpha commander, the digital art book, and all of the previous rewards including the progenitor commander. Many of you have been asking for this tier as you don’t want to deal with physical items, but you still want alpha keys and commanders.
The second new tier is the $150 Planetary Tier. Anyone who backs at the $150 level and above will have their name immortalized in the planet naming system. Whenever a star system or planet is generated we automatically come up with names for the individual planets. Those names will be pulled from a list of the $150 and above tier supporters. When we send out the survey at the end of the Kickstarter we will be asking for the name you would prefer to use here. It can be a nickname or a real name as long as it’s not vulgar.
Everyone has been asking for t-shirt designs and we’re excited to finally reveal them. At the $100 tier you get a single t-shirt. You can add on as many as you want of the additional shirts by adding $30 to your pledge for each additional shirt. At the end of the Kickstarter you will receive a survey that allows you to specify types and sizes.
View a larger image of the Progenitor commander shirt here.
View a larger image of the Alpha Commander shirt here.
View a larger image of the Asteroid shirt here.
Look for a bigger update later this week when we unveil the next stretch goal!Usually when people worry about machines and work, they are concerned that automation will take away their livelihoods, not their lives. But a new lawsuit claiming a rogue robot is responsible for killing a human colleague reveals additional nightmarish possibilities.
In July 2015, Wanda Holbrook, a maintenance technician performing routine duties on an assembly line at Ventra Ionia Main, an auto-parts maker in Ionia, Michigan, was “trapped by robotic machinery” and crushed to death. On March 7, her husband, William Holbrook, filed a wrongful death complaint (pdf) in Michigan federal court, naming five North American robotics companies involved in engineering and integrating the machines and parts used at the plant: Prodomax, Flex-N-Gate, FANUC, Nachi, and Lincoln Electric.
Holbrook’s job involved keeping robots in working order. She routinely inspected and adjusted processes on the assembly line at Ventra, which makes bumpers and trailer hitches. One day, Holbrook was performing her regular duties when a machine acted very irregularly, according to the lawsuit reported in Courthouse News.
Holbrook was in the plant’s six-cell ”100 section” when a robot unexpectedly activated, taking her by surprise. The cells are separated by safety doors and the robot should not have been able to move. But it somehow reached Holbrook, and was intent on loading a trailer-hitch assembly part right where she stood over a similar part in another cell.
The machine loaded the hardware onto Holbrook’s head. She was unable to escape, and her skull was crushed. Co-workers who eventually noticed that something seemed amiss found Holbrook dead.
“The robot from section 130 should have never entered section 140, and should have never attempted to load a hitch assembly within a fixture that was already loaded with a hitch assembly. A failure of one or more of defendants’ safety systems or devices had taken place, causing Wanda’s death,” the lawsuit alleges.
William Holbrook seeks an unspecified amount of damages, arguing that before her gruesome death, his wife ”suffered tremendous fright, shock and conscious pain and suffering.” He also names three of the defendants—FANUC, Nachi, and Lincoln Electric—in two additional claims of product liability and breach of implied warranty. He argues that the robots, tools, controllers, and associated parts were not properly designed, manufactured or tested, and not fit for use.
“At all relevant times, technically feasible alternative design and engineering practices were available that could have prevented the harm without significantly impairing the usefulness or desirability of the automation system to users and without creating equal or greater risk of harm to others,” Holbrook’s family argues.
According to the US Department of Labor’s Occupation Safety and Health Administration, robots are “generally used to perform unsafe, hazardous, highly repetitive, and unpleasant tasks.” But despite any potential safety advantages, OSHA writes, ”studies indicate that many robot accidents occur during non-routine operating conditions, such as programming, maintenance, testing, setup, or adjustment. During many of these operations the worker may temporarily be within the robot’s working envelope where unintended operations could result in injuries.”
There are currently no specific workplace safety standards for the robotics industry, according to OSHA. As of 2014, the agency reported about 30 robotics-related deaths over a period of 30 years. But as the New York Times noted (paywall), the machine-inflicted death toll will likely rise as robots are increasingly engineered to be mobile, autonomous, and working freely alongside humans.Police vehicles are parked at the entrance as smoke billows out of the Sasago Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Koshu, Yamanashi Prefecture |
fast armed yacht Almaz (classified as a cruiser of the 2nd rank) and the destroyers Grozny and Bravy were the only Russian ships to reach Vladivostok. In The Guns of August, the American historian and author Barbara Tuchman argued that because Russia's loss destabilized the balance of power in Europe, it emboldened the Central Powers and contributed to their decision to go to war in 1914.
The battle had a profound cultural and political impact upon Japan. It was the first defeat of a European power by an Asian nation in the modern era.[50][51] It also weakened the notion of white superiority that was prevalent in some Western countries.[52] The victory established Japan as the sixth greatest naval power while the Russian navy declined to one barely stronger than that of Austria-Hungary.
In The Guinness Book of Decisive Battles, the British historian Geoffrey Regan argues that the victory bolstered Japan's increasingly aggressive political and military establishment. According to Regan, the lopsided Japanese victory at Tsushima:
...created a legend that was to haunt Japan's leaders for forty years. A British admiral once said, 'It takes three years to build a ship, but 300 years to build a tradition.' Japan thought that the victory had completed this task in a matter of a few years... It had all been too easy. Looking at Tōgō's victory over one of the world's great powers convinced some Japanese military men that with more ships, and bigger and better ones, similar victories could be won throughout the Pacific. Perhaps no power could resist the Japanese navy, not even Britain and the United States.[42]
Regan also believes the victory contributed to the Japanese road to later disaster, "because the result was so misleading. Certainly the Japanese navy had performed well, but its opponents had been weak, and it was not invincible... Tōgō's victory [helped] set Japan on a path that would eventually lead her" to the Second World War.[42]
Isoroku Yamamoto, the future Japanese admiral who would go on to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor and command the Imperial Japanese Navy through much of the Second World War, served as a junior officer (aboard Nisshin) during the battle and was wounded by Russian gunfire.
Dreadnought arms race [ edit ]
Britain's First Sea Lord, Admiral Fisher, reasoned that the Japanese victory at Tsushima confirmed the importance of large guns and speed for modern battleships;[54][55] in October 1905 the British started the construction of HMS Dreadnought, which upon her launching in 1906 began a naval arms race between Britain and Germany in the years before 1914.[56] The British and Germans were both aware of the potentially devastating consequences of a naval defeat on the scale of Tsushima. Britain needed its battle fleet to protect its empire, and the trade routes vital to its war effort. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, described British Admiral John Jellicoe as "the only man who on either side could lose the war in an afternoon."[57] German naval commanders, for their part, understood the importance Kaiser Wilhelm II attached to his navy and the diplomatic prestige it carried. As a result of caution, the British and German fleets met in only one major action in World War I, the indecisive Battle of Jutland.
Timeline [ edit ]
The battleship Mikasa, Admiral Tōgō's flagship at the battle of Tsushima, preserved as a memorial in Yokosuka, Japan
Other than the 20 wounded officers evacuated by a destroyer, Admiral Rozhestvensky's flagship Knyaz Suvorov was sunk with all hands
27 May 1905 (JST)
04:45 The Shinano Maru (Japan) locates the Russian Baltic Fleet and sends a wireless signal.
(Japan) locates the Russian Baltic Fleet and sends a wireless signal. 05:05 The Japanese Combined Fleet leaves port and sends a wireless signal to Imperial Headquarters: "Today's weather is fine but waves are high. (Japanese: 本日天気晴朗なれども波高し)".
13:39 The Japanese Combined Fleet gains visual contact with the Russian Baltic Fleet, and sends up the battle flag.
13:55 Distance (Range): 12,000 meters. The Mikasa sends up 'Z' flag. (Z flag's meaning: The Empire's fate depends on the result of this battle, let every man do his utmost duty.).
sends up 'Z' flag. (Z flag's meaning: The Empire's fate depends on the result of this battle, let every man do his utmost duty.). 14:05 Distance (Range): 8,000 meters. The Japanese Combined Fleet turns their helm aport (i.e. starts a U-turn).
14:07 Distance (Range): 7,000 meters. The Mikasa completes her turn. The Russian Baltic Fleet opens fire with their main batteries.
completes her turn. The Russian Baltic Fleet opens fire with their main batteries. 14:10 Distance (Range): 6,400 meters. All Japanese warships complete their turns.
14:12 Distance (Range): 5,500 meters. The Mikasa receives her first hit from the Russian guns.
receives her first hit from the Russian guns. 14:16 Distance (Range): 4,600 meters. The Japanese Combined Fleet begins concentrating their return fire on the Russian flagship, the Knyaz Suvorov.
. 14:43 The Oslyabya and Knyaz Suvorov are set on fire and fall away from the battle line.
and are set on fire and fall away from the battle line. 14:50 The Imperator Aleksandr III starts turning to the north and attempts to leave the battle line.
starts turning to the north and attempts to leave the battle line. 15:10 The Oslyabya sinks, and the Knyaz Suvorov attempts to withdraw.
sinks, and the attempts to withdraw. 18:00 The two fleets counterattack each other (distance (range): 6,300 m), and begin exchanging main battery fire again.
19:03 The Imperator Aleksandr III sinks.
sinks. 19:20 The Knyaz Suvorov and Borodino sink.
28 May 1905 (JST)
09:30 The Japanese Combined Fleet locates the Russian Baltic Fleet again.
10:34 Admiral Nebogatov signals "XGE", which is "I surrender" in the International Code of Signals used at the time.
10:53 Admiral Tōgō accepts the surrender.
Crossing the T: Japanese are in white, the Russians in red
The Knyaz Suvorov, Oslyabya, Imperator Aleksandr III, and Sissoi Veliky breaking off from the main battle
The first and second Japanese fleets sandwiching the Russian fleet
The Russian ships fleeing
On film [ edit ]
The 1969 film The Battle of the Japan Sea (日本海大海戦, Nihonkai-DaiKaisen) depicts the battle.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ During Nebogatov's court martial, his defense for surrendering his battle fleet was because his guns were out ranged by the Japanese guns
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Dr. John's Gris-Gris is among the most enduring recordings of the psychedelic era; it sounds as mysterious and spooky in the 21st century as it did in 1968. It is the album where Mac Rebennack established a stage identity that has served him well. A respected studio ace in his native New Orleans, Rebennack was scuffling in L.A. Gris-Gris was his concept, an album that wove various threads of New Orleans music together behind the character of "Dr. John," a real voodoo root doctor from the 19th century. Harold Batiste, another ex-pat New Orleanian and respected arranger in Hollywood, scored him some free studio time left over from a Sonny & Cher session. They assembled a crack band of NOLA exiles and session players including saxophonist Plas Johnson, singers Jessie Hill and Shirley Goodman, and guitarist/mandolinist Richard "Didimus" Washington. Almost everyone played percussion. Gris-Gris sounds like a post-midnight ceremony recorded in the bayou swamp instead of L.A.'s Gold Star Studio where Phil Spector cut hits. The atmosphere is thick, smoky, serpentine, foreboding. Rebennack inhabits his character fully, delivering Creole French and slang English effortlessly in the grain of his half-spoken, half-sung voice. He is high priest and trickster, capable of blessing, cursing, and conning. On the opening incantation "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya," Dr. John introduces himself as the "night tripper" and boasts of his medicinal abilities accompanied by wafting reverbed mandolins, hand drums, a bubbling bassline, blues harmonica, skeletal electric guitar, and a swaying backing chorus that blurs the line between gospel and soul. On "Danse Kalinda Boom," a calliope-sounding organ, Middle Eastern flute, Spanish-tinged guitars, bells, claves, congas, and drums fuel a wordless chorus in four-part chant harmony as a drum orgy evokes ceremonial rites. The sound of NOLA R&B comes to the fore in the killer soul groove of the breezy "Mama Roux." "Croker Courtboullion" is an exercise in vanguard jazz. Spectral voices, electric guitars, animal cries, flute, and moody saxophone solos and percussion drift in and out of the spacy mix. The set's masterpiece is saved for last, the nearly nearly eight-minute trance vamp in "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" (covered by everyone from Humble Pie, Cher, and Johnny Jenkins to Paul Weller and Papa Mali). Dr. John is brazen about the power of his spells in a slippery, evil-sounding boast. Congas, tom-toms, snaky guitar, and harmonica underscore his juju, while a backing chorus affirms his power like mambo priestesses in unison. A ghostly baritone saxophone wafts through the turnarounds. Droning blues, steamy funk, and loopy R&B are inseparably entwined in its groove. Remarkably, though rightfully considered a psychedelic masterpiece, there is little rock music on Gris-Gris. Its real achievement -- besides being a classic collection of startlingly deep tunes -- is that it brought New Orleans' cultural iconographies and musical traits to the attention of an emergent rock audience.The Bitcoin community may not exactly be dancing on the grave of Mt. Gox, the oldest and once-largest cryptocurrency exchange, which officially filed for banktrupcy in Japan Friday morning. But it's happy enough to step over Gox's corpse and go about business as usual.
As of Friday afternoon, Bitcoin's exchange rate with the dollar remained at close to $550 according to the Coindesk price index average across the currency's exchanges, virtually the same as the currency's exchange rate a week earlier despite Mt. Gox's sudden disappearance from the web Monday and final bankruptcy announcement four days later. In fact, the currency rose more than 20% from its lowest point after Mt. Gox's vanishing act, showing signs of relief after years of suffering from the exchange's outages, hacks, and delays rather than the catastrophe some predicted after Gox's demise.
"The Bitcoin community responds well when bad actors are removed from the system," says Ezra Galston, a venture capitalist with Chicago Ventures who has considered investing in Bitcoin startups but doesn't yet hold stakes in any. "Whether the price in a year is $400, $800 or $2,000, I'm not smart enough to predict. But there doesn't seem to be a huge risk of Bitcoin not existing in a year."
The last so-called "bad actor" to be removed from the Bitcoin economy, Galston argues, was the Bitcoin-based black market for drugs known as the Silk Road, whose takedown by the FBI in early October resulted in the seizure of more than 1.5% of all Bitcoins in existence. Although the Silk Road seizure spark an immediate 20% drop in Bitcoin's price, it quickly recovered to reach values over $1,000 per bitcoin just weeks later.
Though Mt. Gox's initial signs of distress took a similar chunk out of Bitcoin over the past weeks, shaving hundreds of dollars off its price, the worst is over, says Andreas Antonopoulos, chief security officer of Bitcoin wallet Blockchain.info. "The market had pretty much priced in Gox's failure," he says. He points to new entrants in the Bitcoin industry who he believes will offer more stable exchanges, such as SecondMarket, Circle and Coinsetter. "This was an amateurish and incompetently managed company...it will be replaced by competent operators who run better exchanges."
In fact, Antonopoulos and others blame Mt. Gox for no less than five prior crises in Bitcoin that often had much more dramatic effects on the digital currency's value. When the exchange was first hacked in the summer of 2011, the news led to the first Bitcoin sell-off, plummeting its price from $35 to just a few dollars. Antonopoulos argues that Mt. Gox's hour-long delays in trading in April of last year was the cause of the currency's second major crash from a value of $266 to around $50. Mt. Gox's problems had become frequent enough that to be "goxed" has become a verb in Bitcoin-speak, meaning to be "fooled or trolled repeatedly" according to the Urban Dictionary.
Compared with those earlier price drops, the latest from the final death of Mt. Gox seems relatively tame. But Gox's problems still highlight real problems with Bitcoin, namely the ease with which it can be stolen from companies that don't take strict security precautions. Mt. Gox says its problems stem from a hack that made off with 850,000 Bitcoins that belonged to its users, worth more than $450 million. That reminder that Bitcoins can be stolen from an insecure vault--like any cash or commodity--no doubt played into the currency's slide from earlier in the month.
But Bitcoin startups are wising up to the security measures necessary to keep thieves hands' off their coins. Mt. Gox has been criticized for improperly safeguarding its coins in "cold storage"--the majority of its savings should have been held offline, where it would be impervious to even the most clever hacker. Instead, as my colleague Kashmir Hill points out, it seems to have held them in "lukewarm storage" that allowed the private keys to leak onto Internet-connected systems; That's not a mistake other legitimate players in the Bitcoin economy are likely to repeat.
"This has been tragic for the people who lost money, but we're putting it behind us," Antonopoulos says. "The silver lining is that we won't be goxed again."
–
Follow me on Twitter, email me, anonymously send me sensitive documents or tips, and check out the new paperback edition of my book, This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers.Alberta will not pursue legal action against health professionals “lawfully carrying out their duties” in providing medical assistance in dying.
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service issued a directive Monday afternoon to all police chiefs and provincial Crown prosecutors that individuals such as nurses and nurse practitioners will not be prosecuted.
A Justice Department spokesman said that ruling falls in line with current prosecution services guidelines: “Crown prosecutors proceed with charges only where there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction and it is in the public interest.”
“Given the Supreme Court decision in the Carter case and the pending federal legislation, these criteria are not met,” the spokesman said in an email.
The College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta would not comment about the announcement, saying only that it would need to review the directive with its own legal team before providing its members with any recommendations.
While the federal government’s replacement legislation on assisted death makes its way through Parliament, Alberta will follow guidelines issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, which include: Two doctors must independently agree the patient meets all criteria set out by the Supreme Court; patient must be “competent throughout the process”; legal precedent recognizes mature minors as adults in their ability to consent, but recommends “a careful and conservative approach” to mature minors; doctors may refuse to provide an assisted death but have “an obligation” to provide patients with timely referrals to doctors who will perform the service; where capacity is unclear, or where a person is suffering from depression or other mental illness, a psychiatric or psychological consult is required; a period of reflection of 14 days from initial request to final consent is recommended.
With files from The Canadian PressIt’s become fashionable to sneer at Valentine’s Day and to mock those who celebrate it. So fashionable, in fact, that in 2011 Torie Bosch felt compelled to defend the day of romance. In honor of the holiday, the article is reprinted below.
Who doesn’t love a little something on Valentine’s Day? Gpointstudio/iStock/Getty Images Plus
I’m almost afraid to say it: I have plans for Valentine’s Day.
And I don’t mean ironic, anti-Valentine’s Day plans that attempt to reclaim the holiday for feminism, for singletons, for the smart and skeptical and disaffected. My longtime boyfriend and I have sincere, romantic plans. If I’m lucky, there may even be chocolate and flowers involved.
Among my friends and colleagues, admitting to enjoying Valentine’s Day is about as socially acceptable as including “obey” in your wedding vows: Both seem to demonstrate subscription to outdated, narrow-minded views of romance. For the quintessential example of this anti-Valentines sentiment, I turn to 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon, who said in a 2010 episode, “Valentine’s Day is a sham created by card companies to reinforce and exploit gender stereotypes.” The anti-Valentine’s Day crowd is so enormous—look at the movies, the books, and, most of all, the trend pieces and angry tweets—that feeling smug about seeing through the holiday is now akin to feeling superior about buying organic. And a strain of hypocrisy runs through anti-Valentine’s Day sentiment as well, in the form of the many profit-seeking ventures that capitalize on the Cupid hatred.
My objection isn’t so much about the single folks who find Valentine’s Day alienating, a reminder that they don’t have a partner. If you’re single and unhappy about that, of course it’s somewhat upsetting to see so many celebrations of romantic love. Instead, I’m talking about the couples who say they are “above” Valentine’s Day. You know what I’m talking about: those who sniff, “We think our love should be celebrated every day” or “I don’t need Hallmark to remind me that I love my wife.” They make a big deal out of not making a big deal out of Valentine’s Day.
In my experience, these Valentine’s Day opponents mostly see the holiday as something for the masses, a fake celebration crammed down our national throat. Their pride comes from their ability to resist marketing, and they wear their objections as an emblem of their savvy. A 2008 blog post on the site Credit.com goes through retail estimates of how much the “average consumer” will spend on Valentine’s Day, then says, “But then we’re not average consumers, right?” The anti-Valentine’s Day couple likes to remind you that they are not average consumers. Part of the Valentine’s Day hatred is not so much about actually disliking the holiday’s crass consumerism—there’s no rule that you have to overspend or buy a premade card—than fitting in with a culture of other smart, savvy, pop-culture-and-processed-food haters.
One of the biggest objections to Valentine’s Day is that it’s widely believed to be a recent invention of the greeting-card industry, with Hallmark taking the brunt of this anti-middlebrow wrath. The accusation is so pervasive that the company has posted on its Web site an article called “Just a Hallmark Holiday? Think Again!”
However, the anger at Hallmark and the charge that Valentine’s Day celebration is a relatively modern development are both mistaken. Hallmark deserves neither the credit nor the blame for our Valentine’s Day rituals. The company, founded in 1910, printed its first Valentine’s Day card in 1913. The holiday itself dates back many centuries before then; it is apparently another pagan holiday that Christians attempted to co-opt, by transforming the Roman fertility celebration Lupercalia into St. Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day cards have been around since at least the 15th century—the first was rumored to have been sent by a duke, held in the Tower of London, to his wife. Their popularity is nothing new, either: In 1917’s The Book of Holidays, Joseph Walker McSpadden quotes another writer who claimed that more than 1 million valentines were sent through the London general post office in 1832, and companies have been making valentines since around then. Presumably, some bloke has been grumbling about ye olde empty sentiment since at least 1829.
Jewelry companies, which are another target of anti-Valentine’s Day sentiment, are also accused of evangelizing the holiday in recent years to make sales, and that may be true. But men were buying Valentine’s baubles for their honeys long before the first Zales ever opened its doors in a suburban shopping mall. The 17th-century diaries of Samuel Pepys contain mention of a woman who received jewels worth several hundred pounds (in 1600s currency!) from her valentines.
Such outlandish expenses continue today, what with the special Valentine’s Day prix-fixe menus and lingerie that the anti-Cupid crowd loves to hate. I don’t think any couple should celebrate in a way that feels uncomfortable to them, and I certainly have no urge to pay for a prix-fixe meal myself. (No one will tell me what to order!) But you don’t have to abandon the holiday entirely just because some people like to get extravagant.
After all, Valentine’s Day hatred is frequently promoted by those who have their own profit motives—a rather hypocritical move, it seems. Here, I am referring less to the smug couples than to the single folks who shell out for products that celebrate their loathing of the holiday. A Chicago bakery offers anti-Valentine’s Day cookies, with phrases like “I faked it” and “Careful, I break easily,” for $2.95 each. There are anti-Valentine’s Day gifts, too; Daily Candy recommends spending $135 on a “single” ring for the left hand or a $110 fragrance set, alongside cheaper gifts for the Valentine’s Day loather. How is Bar Pilar’s anti-Valentine’s Day event less exploitive than the prix-fixe menus we all love to mock?
The worst part about Valentine’s Day hatred is the way couples sometimes claim that they are just too in love to need it. I know that every day should be about romance, that the calendar shouldn’t have to remind my boyfriend and me to take some time out and remember that we adore each other. (Yeah, it’s saccharine, but true.) But our calendars are filled with dates that remind us to spend time on something—holidays that encourage us to spend time with family and to remember religious tradition; birthdays to celebrate each person’s “cosmic specialness,” as a friend of mine likes to say. What’s wrong with Valentine’s Day fitting into that? Sometimes we do need a reminder to take time out and acknowledge each other.
Like DoubleX on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.Anti-Fascism is about defending minorities, not making Fascists bleed
Many of those who took offence at my description of events in Dover seem to centre around the theme that Antifa ‘stood our ground’, that we ‘fought back’ and ‘gave as good as we got’, or just showing pictures of various bleeding fascists and captured Fascist flags. None of this is untrue, everyone that was there by the second kettle showed incredible fortitude and bravery, and a willingness to fight back that I wished many more of my comrades shared, but this misses the point of what Anti-Fascism is.
Anti-Fascism is not about two groups of White men having a big fight in a carpark, and by counting the number of injured, the number of captured trophies or missiles thrown declaring the day a success. Success is counted by the degree to which Fascists were physically prevented from posing a threat to People of Colour, Sexual Minorities, Religious Minorities, from the Far Left, or anyone they confuse for being one of tfhe above. And did this happen in Dover?
No. National Front was able to march ‘where they wished’. If they had felt up for it they could have attacked people on the streets, and if they had done so I’m sure the police would have been as slow as ever to do anything about it. Some marked the fact that we delayed them for some time as a victory, but I struggle to see it. They were forced to stand around for a bit, but got to pelt Antifa with bricks twice, so probably quite enjoyed themselves for the most part.
I think perhaps some took my account of Dover as a critique of those who were there on the day, but this is not how I felt at all. Considering we were both outnumbered and also had to deal with the police doing everything to facilitate the Fascists I think the Antifa there on the day did the utmost they could have, but that doesn’t make it a victory. Refusing to acknowledge that we failed in Dover, that Fascists were able to make a clear threat to migrants, will just encourage the complacency that meant half empty coaches left London to go to the Demo.
AFN seems to pursue a propaganda strategy that focuses on bigging up what went well and minimising what didn’t, not an unusual strategy, but one I don’t feel like is working. Liverpool was obviously a massive victory, but such success didn’t really seem to bring a boost to the movement or certainly one that wasn’t reflected in the numbers in Dover, who seemed to be the hardcore of Antifa in the South of England. I feel that in situations of Anti-Fascist demonstrations minimising what went wrong will only encourage complacency.
The AFN statement that seemed to focus on ‘’Things went okay, but everyone needs to take Anti-Fascist demonstrations a lot more seriosuly’’ is not something which I can see working. If you want people who did not take Dover seriously to take it seriously then you need to make clear why they should, and if you did not make clear that we failed, and do so with evocative language, no one will be shocked out of their complacency.
We need to not only show why Fascists are a threat to us all, but why it is necessary for those outside the dedicated hardcore of Antifa to be out on the streets anywhere in this nation doing whatever is needed to stop Fascism.The Thursday Night Football package has been a big success for both CBS and the NFL. Ever since the creation of the new expanded primetime package into network primetime, the league has been able to place an added importance onto Thursday Night Football and get a ton of people to watch… in spite of the ghastly quality of play or uniform color combinations.
Thursday Night Football has delivered viewership numbers for CBS that has seen it fall in between Sunday Night Football on NBC and Monday Night Football on ESPN for the #2 NFL primetime series. The Week 8 Dolphins-Patriots game was the last CBS/NFL Network simulcast and it drew a healthy 17.5 million viewers.
The Thursday Night television contract is unique because through the first two years, the NFL signed one year contracts with CBS as opposed to inking a deal well into the next decade like their other television properties. When the NFL and CBS agreed to join forces for another year of Thursday Night Football back in January, it was a one year deal for 2015 with a league option for 2016. Obviously, the NFL would be wise to cash in once again on the Thursday night cashcow. And this time, there may be some more competition in the bidding process.
From the Hollywood Reporter, at least four reported networks have expressed interest – CBS, Fox, NBC, and Turner – at what could be double the rate:
Analysts predict a long-term Thursday Night Football arrangement could go for $600 million annually and potentially much higher when dealmaking begins in earnest in January. “Thursday night will sell for less than Sunday night, though how much less depends upon how fierce the competition,” notes Patrick Rishe, founder and CEO of analyst firm Sportsimpacts. CBS, Fox, NBC and Turner have signaled interest in the Thursday package. As the incumbent, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus would seem to have an advantage. (The net paid $275 million for the eight-game Thursday package last season and re-upped this season for about $300 million.) But the games are said to be a top priority for NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke. Certainly, NBC Sports under Mark Lazarus has been aggressive in acquiring and keeping live contests. Last year, the company agreed to pay $7.75 billion for six Olympics, locking up the Games through 2032. Turner Sports also has indicated a strong desire for Thursday Night Football.
Did you notice a network’s name missing there? One that has four letters? And no, it isn’t Nick.
Everyone in the sports world is going to make a run at Thursday Night Football except for ESPN? If that isn’t a glaring sign for the harsh economic realities facing Bristol, then what is? There would have been a time where ESPN would have written a blank check to the NFL to shut out the competition (like they did with the exorbitant Monday Night Football contract) but those days appear to be over now.
If ESPN isn’t serious about making a bid, then one would have to imagine CBS would still be a strong frontrunner. Both parties are very happy with how Thursday Night Football has turned out and the only thing stopping that relationship continuing would be an outlandish MNF-type bid from someone else. Turner hasn’t had the NFL since 1997 (did you know MARK MAY did commentary for the NFL on TNT before he became a college football troll?!?), but a few eyebrows were raised when TBS was seen on Twitter randomly promoting NFL content.
Elsewhere, NBC and Fox would be willing to give almost anything to get the Thursday Night package on either NBCSN or FS1 as live NFL games would be milestone moments for the young cable networks. The quickest way to gain NBCSN/FS1 relevance is to win the rights for Thursday Night Football… but one wonders just how excited the NFL would be to see their games used to prop up fledgling cable networks.
On top of all the drama on the television side, there’s also the possibility the NFL could stream games with Yahoo or another partner.
If it does go to a bid, and the NFL does agree to a long-term dance partner for Thursday Night Football television rights, it could significantly change the sports television landscape for many years to come. And it will also make the NFL much, much, much richer.
[Hollywood Reporter]COIMBATORE: In a shocking incident that smacks of the level of inequality that exists in our society, a 40-year-old dalit was bound to an iron pole and severely thrashed by non-dalits for walking through an agricultural land owned by the latter, near Udumalpet in Tirupur district.The arms of A Palani, of Chinna Bommansalai in Udumalpet, was tied behind his back and his legs were bound by the trousers he wore. He was then tied to a pole and beaten until he fell unconscious. Palani has been admitted to hospital. The incident that happened four days ago has come to light after human rights activists took up the issue. Police have registered cases against two men, but have not arrested them yet.The attack happened on July 9 at about 5.30 pm when Palani walked through the agricultural land belonging to Thirumalaisamy, a non-dalit, as it was a short cut to reach the next street. "As soon as Thirumalaisamy spotted me, he was furious and started threatening me. Though all villagers use the short cut through his land, Thirumalaisamy asked, how can a dalit walk on his land," Palani told TOI over phone from the hospital bed."I retorted saying that the land will not be spoilt if a dalit walks on it. Immediately, Thirumalaisamy and his son Senthilkumar started beating me. They tied my hands behind and bound me to an iron pole. They then started attacking me with wooden logs. I have cut injuries on my head and my teeth are also broken," Palani alleged.The duo assaulted Palani until he fell unconscious 30 minutes later. Thirumalaisamy then called an ambulance to send him to hospital.His wife P Lakshmi was allegedly driven away when she rushed there and questioned the non-dalits. Meanwhile, a police team from Thali reached the spot and arranged for Palani to be admitted to the Udumalpet Government Hospital."We have registered cases against Thirumalaisamy and Senthilkumar under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. But the two are on the run. We have formed special teams to nab them," deputy superintendent of police A Kanageswari, Udumalpet sub-division, Tirupur district. "The non-dalits levelled allegations that Palani entered the land to steal a rooster. But we have found out that allegation is false," she said.There are about 100 dalit and 1,300 non-dalit families in Chinna Bommansalai. "Dalits are not treated as equals, but never in the past was a dalit beaten up so badly," said S Rangasamy, an Arunthathiyar Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam functionary, who has planned to stage a protest against the attack on July 17.In a similar incident that happened in Coimbatore on July 12, K Rajeswari (38), a dalit woman from Anna Nagar near Perur was beaten up for entering the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department's land taken on lease by a non-dalit. Two men have been arrested and search is on for two more.M Thangavel, co-ordinator of Vizhuthugal, an NGO said discrimination against dalits continues in several villages in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts.Security footage shows the fire that destroyed a south Edmonton condo building early Saturday was deliberately set, says the developer.
The four-storey development near 10th Avenue and 173rd Street burned to the ground around 3:30 a.m., alarming neighbours and triggering the evacuation of eight nearby homes.
Fire crews had the blaze under control within an hour – however, the ruins continued to smoulder for much of the day.
In a statement released Saturday evening, Clay Hamdon with Cove Properties said cameras installed around the Essence development in Windermere recorded someone breaking into the building and setting one or more fires inside.
Hamdon said the company’s security team called 911, but added the fire was too advanced to contain by the time emergency crews arrived on scene.
"Cove Properties is devastated at the senseless loss of our Essence condo building in Windermere South, but grateful there are no reports of injury,” he wrote.
Of the 79 units within the building, 50 had been sold, with the first tenants set to move in during August.
Hamdon said the company plans to begin rebuilding immediately.
The developer is now working with police and fire departments as they continue their investigation.
A fire official has estimated the damage to the structure to be about $5 million.$15,000 Fall Circuit Calendar & Registration Update
With the $15,000 Fall Circuit fully in swing, we wanted to give a quick update for players still looking to get involved! The Fall Circuit consists of 4 independent Tournaments, all run on different days of the week.
Tuesday – $500 Tactics Tuesday Weekly
Friday – $500 SMITE Prime Weekly
Saturday – $1,000 HotG Fall Circuit Weekly
Sunday – $800 ESL Go4 Cup Weekly
We have also created a simple calendar for all players interested in competitive to follow along with, or add to their own personal calendars. This calendar informs players when Check-ins for each tournament begins.
Tournament Information and Registration
$500 Tuesday Weekly (Tuesdays)
Prize Distribution
1st: $200
2nd: $150
3rd: $100
4th: $50
5th-8th: 7 Card Packs
Tournament Dates
Tuesday, September 19th, 11:00am EDT // 3:00pm GMT
Tuesday, September 26th, 11:00am EDT // 3:00pm GMT
Tuesday, October 3rd, 11:00am EDT // 3:00pm GMT
Tuesday, October 10th, 11:00am EDT // 3:00pm GMT
Tuesday, October 17th, 11:00am EDT // 3:00pm GMT
Registration
Registration and full ruleset for the $500 Tuesday Weekly is done through our Tournament Discord Channel on the day of the tournament, and opens at 10:00 am EDT. A check-in form will be distributed by a tournament admin for all players who wish to compete to fill out. Games will begin after tournament admin approval at 11:00 am EDT.
Tournament Discord Link
$500 SMITE Prime Weekly (Fridays)
Prize Distribution
1st: $200
2nd: $150
3rd: $100
4th: $50
5th-8th: 7 Card Packs
Tournament Dates
Friday, September 15th, 5:00pm EDT // 9:00pm GMT
Friday, September 22nd, 5:00pm EDT // 9:00pm GMT
Friday, September 29th, 5:00pm EDT // 9:00pm GMT
Friday, October 6th, 5:00pm EDT // 9:00pm GMT
Friday, October 13th, 5:00pm EDT // 9:00pm GMT
Registration
Registration, rules, and check-in times for every SMITE Prime Weekly may be found at this link.
$1,000 Fall Circuit Weekly (Saturdays)
Prize Distribution
1st: $500
2nd: $250
3rd: $150
4th: $100
5th-8th: 7 Card Packs
Tournament Dates
Saturday, September |
demonstrates an intimate knowledge of the problems found in mother-daughter relationships. Lady Bird is a frank, honest, and achingly authentic look at the life of a girl who is a bit selfish, a bit manic, a whole lot of awkward, and entirely lost.
Living in Sacramento, Christine/Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) wades the awkward minefield that is Catholic school as her strict mother (Laurie Metcalf) and her fight daily, her dad (Tracy Letts) tries to be the good guy, her older brother and his girlfriend live in the home, and the family is poor while she goes to school with and in the upper crust of Sacramento. Developing themes centering around mother-daughter relationships, the changing of the times in a recently post-9/11 world (the film is set in 2002/2003), income disparity, depression, awkward adolescence, and homosexuality, Lady Bird may not be exactly a breathe of fresh air in execution as it covers much of the same ground as countless coming-of-age films that have been made before. However, as with The Edge of Seventeen, what makes Lady Bird stand out and truly resonate is the fact that this is not a girl’s life as seen by men. Instead, it is one written and directed by a woman with the film benefiting tremendously from Gerwig’s lived experiences. This film, at its core, feels like her life and this is what makes Lady Bird so impactful.
The theme that Gerwig works with that is perhaps most prevalent is the mother-daughter relationship. As Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf trade blows, sparring with one another over the most common issues, and quickly alternate between a loving pair to one that fights and then back again, Lady Bird hits a great emotional nerve. As people tell Lady Bird that her mother Marion loves her, as Lady Bird says her mom hates her, as Lady Bird laments that her mother loves her but does not like her, and then as she is caught in moments of honesty where she admits her mother loves her, the film creates this display of two headstrong women fighting due to their similarities rather than animosity. They love one another, but both feel insecure and awkward. They both hate their living conditions and struggle to express their feelings in a normal fashion, leading to their constant bickering. Marion wishes she could have provided Lady Bird with more, but cannot seem to get this message across. Lady Bird, through intuition, knows but through teenage angst fights against it and instead positions her mother as a person who limits her freedom, all while her mother looms over her waiting to discipline her for not putting away her clothes before leaving the house. Yet, at their core, the two love one another deeply and struggle to find the words to express this emotion. This mutual understanding, this tumultuous relationship, and excellent performances from Ronan and Metcalf, make Lady Bird ring with authenticity. However, it is the film’s writing that makes it so impeccably powerful.
Weaving together this relationship with the one between Lady Bird and the City of Sacramento, the film shows her expressed disdain for the city but, as Sister Sarah Joan (Lois Smith) points out in regards to Lady Bird’s personal essay, she loves the city. She may say she does not, but the way in which she writes about the city, the way she appreciates every little detail, and the way she pays attention, she unintentionally displays her affection for the city. In her words, “are caring and attention not the same?”. The same can be said for Lady Bird and Marion’s relationship, as they both pay attention to one another and though they may protest that they care, their constant hounding and guiding of one another’s actions demonstrate the level to which they do care. This similarly ties into one of the greatest problems demonstrated by Lady Bird. She never appreciates what she has, where she is, or what she is doing, until the moment is over. As her mother and her listen to an audiobook of The Grapes of Wrath in the opening scene, Lady Bird immediately wants to listen to the radio once the book is over while Marion asks to let the emotion of what they just listened to stick with them for a bit longer. This quickly turns into an argument in which Lady Bird laments that nothing happens to her or in the world, she does not live in a moment or in a place of any value as she would rather be on the East Coast. This phenomenon in which she believes nothing happens to her or that she has nothing is quickly countered through repeated imagery regarding 9/11 and the impending wars in the Middle East and the changes in society as a result of 9/11 (fear of being in New York, not being able to go to the gates in airports, namely). Gerwig’s camera consistently finds images of news coverage regarding foreign policy or shots of memorials for 9/11, which both captures the post-9/11 paranoia that ripped through the American public but also captures the fact that this is a moment. No, it is not the depression from Grapes of Wrath, but it is its own time and one that will be remembered, being poured over for years to come and being represented in films such as this one. Her problems with appreciating what is happening or what is going on further extends to her hometown of Sacramento and her friendship with Julie (Beanie Feldstein). Only missing Sacramento once she leaves for school and only missing Julie once she ditches her to hang out with cooler friends, Lady Bird is a girl who never appreciates what she has and always wants more, only realizing that it was enough for her when it is gone.
Of course, Gerwig uses Grapes of Wrath in more ways than just citing it as an example of one the many defined “eras” that people have come to recognize. Where Gerwig takes it a step further is in showing how the problems depicted in that era – poverty, fear, income disparity, and depression – are still prevalent today. Lady Bird’s father Danny uses antidepressants. Her mother is a psychiatric nurse. A priest at her school is depressed. Everybody is afraid in this post-9/11 world of what could come next. Lady Bird and her family live on the “wrong side of the tracks” as she fantasizes about life in her dream house in the rich side of Sacramento so much that she lies to her fake/new friend Jenna (Odeya Rush), claiming to live in that home. This parallel between the “haves” and the “have nots” is further established as Lady Bird and her mother visit various open houses, seeing the homes they cannot have. Lady Bird’s knowledge is demeaned by school counselors and her own mother, while all the adults around her encourage her to go to a state school because of her family’s financial issues. This is a city and a film about depression, about income disparity, and about the fear of what could come next when people already have so little. For Gerwig, she sees these parallels between the depression-era and the early 2000s that she grew up in, neatly weaving them into this film as a way to show the society and structure of Sacramento. Though technology has been upgraded significantly and the realization of the problems are different, the root cause of the problems are the same: fear, overwhelming sadness, and poverty.
Furthermore, Gerwig adds a great modern touch to the film through the character of Danny (Lucas Hedges). An awkward boy from a wealthy Irish Catholic family, Danny quickly becomes Lady Bird’s first boyfriend after they meet at theater try-outs. Though they fall head-over-heels for one another, Lady Bird is shocked to find Danny making out with a boy when she goes into the men’s locker room due to the long line in the women’s bathroom. Breaking up then and there, Danny comes back later to apologize to Lady Bird for what she saw and how he never meant to hurt her, leading to a scene that is certainly melodramatic but incredibly powerful. Collapsing into Lady Bird’s arms, telling her he is gay, and begging her to not tell his parents, Gerwig’s camera lingers on the moment as Hedges sobs violently, resting his shoulder on Ronan, and with Ronan gently caressing his back to comfort him. It is a stunning moment that, in a film not really focused on such social issues, may seem out of place. However, as both Lady Bird and Danny attend Catholic school, Gerwig uses it as a way to highlight the need for acceptance. Danny fears being accepted by his staunchly Catholic family, which is a battle fought by Lady Bird to some extent. As her brother Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues) had done before her, Lady Bird is rebelling. She turns her back on her parents, is embarrassed by her father, pretends to be rich, wants to go to school on the East Coast to escape her town, turns her back on Julie to hang out with the popular and rich Jenna, and she goes out with anti-economy musician rebel Kyle (Timothée Chalamet). For her, Sacramento, her family, this school, and her friends, are not where she is intended to belong. Thus, it is no wonder to see Lady Bird supporting Danny in his search to find out who he is and who he is meant to be with. In many ways, it is what inspires her to do her own internal search and gauge where she is meant to be, who she is meant to be with, and what she feels about those around her. It is a transformative and greatly adult moment for Lady Bird, flying in the face of the consistent immaturity she feels. It is also a moment that leads to her eventually realizing, as previously mentioned, that what and who she wants is right there for her in Sacramento, not in New York.
Though a lot of the problems in the established mother-daughter relationship stem from issues surrounding Lady Bird in school, it is also where many of the film’s shortcomings are found. Dealing with strict but sometimes cool nuns, being in an all-girl school, having relationship issues, and more, Lady Bird goes through this final awkward time of one’s formative years with every ounce of awkwardness one would expect. In bumbling about with Danny, naming stars, or her girlish expression when falling for him the first time she saw him, Lady Bird certainly endears herself to the audience as does Julie when she swoons over her math teacher. However, it is in these awkward endeavors that Lady Bird is so often underwhelming. The relationships with Danny and Kyle ring with the small details that make you know they are real – namely Lady Bird writing their names on her wall, only to then cross them out when they break up – and have all of the awkward forceful touches of a youth relationship- losing of virginity, “you know you can touch my boobs”, “if I marry Danny…”, and rushing to say “I love you” – that make them wholly endearing, funny, and entirely charming to watch. However, it is in these moments that Lady Bird often settles into the typical groove of many coming-of-age films that show these young kids wanting so badly to grow up but being too inexperienced and awkward about realizing this intention. Compared to the development of the mother-daughter relationship, the development of Lady Bird’s awkward time in Catholic school might be a realistic portrayal, but one that is never ground-breaking. It isn’t handled in such a way that is uniquely the vision of Gerwig, instead settling into genre clichés about the awkwardness of high school and coming of age. While I, likely many others, appreciate their inclusion in Lady Bird, it is hard to cite the film’s adherence to these clichés as anything other than a bit underwhelming. For a film being championed as so transcendental, unique, and exceptional, it seems a bit too eager to revert to clichés. When Gerwig focuses in on her more unique parallels regarding post-9/11 America, the subplot about homosexuality and what that moment means for Lady Bird, and the issues regarding Lady Bird and her mom, the film soars and reaches new heights. However, there is always a come down. The film retains its truthfulness in scenes such as Lady Bird ditching prom to hang out with Julie instead with both eating and fawning over their prom dresses, but is far too predictable and often feels “been there, done that” when it comes to cinema. Gerwig’s lens amplifies these moments and gives them a uniquely feminine twist- instead a young boy reading Playboy, we see Lady Bird flip through Playgirl– but stops short of turning the largely male-dominated coming-of-age genre on its head.
As with the themes in the film, it is often the acting of the film that elevates it above competing coming-of-age films. In her role, Saoirse Ronan demonstrates the same innocent maturity that has endeared her to audiences for years. Whether it was her roles in films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel or Brooklyn, Ronan has a great ability to both capture the youthful aspirations of her characters and their yearning for adulthood and new adventures. Far more hard-nosed and worldly than her doe-eyed character in Brooklyn, Ronan nonetheless demonstrates the same grace, nuance, and care in this role, capturing the very essence of who Lady Bird is as a person. This, perhaps more than ever, is shown when she yells at her mother towards the end of the film. Having gone behind her back to apply to a college in New York, Marion is refusing to speak to Lady Bird. Yelling at her that she knows she is ungrateful, that she does not appreciate her mother as much as she should, that she is a bad kid, and that she loves her mother more than words can truly express, Ronan captures the franticness, the passion, and the raw emotions that Lady Bird feels in that moment, making the scene land with power. Ronan doubles down on this dramatic turn by demonstrating great wit and charm in the film’s lighter or gooier moments as she jokes around with her pal Julie or as she falls in love with the new boy of the week. Though Lady Bird may not inherently be a character the audience would root for her due to her rebelliousness and youthful ignorance of those around her, Ronan turns this possibly unlikable character into one we grow to love and root for along the way, seeing past her rough exterior for the good-hearted and caring person she truly is at her core. She is wayward and unsure of where to go next, but she is not lost and simply needs guidance on where to go. Ronan’s ability to capture this is what makes her performance one of the year’s absolute finest.
Alongside her, Laurie Metcalf is brilliant as her mother, demonstrating this as she races to say goodbye to Lady Bird at the airport only to barely miss her at security. A grown-up version of Lady Bird, she means well but has no idea how to communicate it and, like many parents before her, fears seeing her daughter turn into a younger version of herself. Always frantic and concerned, Metcalf’s performance should earn her an Academy Award nomination and, should she win, it would be equally as deserved. In smaller roles, Tracy Letts shines, Lucas Hedges pulls on our heartstrings with an endearing awkwardness and wit that previously allowed him to steal the show and shine in Manchester by the Sea, and Timothée Chalamet’s charisma and natural “coolness” allow his against-the-system musician character to stand out as one of the more enjoyable supporting characters in the film.
An incredibly honest, feminine, and funny film, Lady Bird is a film that benefits greatly from the strong direction of Greta Gerwig and a great script that demonstrates deftness in developing its themes and managing to be both witty and uproariously funny – especially the running gag of the football coach directing the school play – without stealing the spotlight from the emotional drama on display. Lady Bird is a film about a girl trying to find herself in a world that is changing (homosexuality and technology), is afraid of the future (socially, politically, and technologically), and is unsure of where it is headed. Its personal touches from the experiences and life of Gerwig are noticed and appreciated, turning Lady Bird into a film that is largely a reflection of Gerwig’s own mind, ideas, and experiences. It is these personal touches that lend to the film’s great authenticity and, in turn, makes it such a powerful and resonating experience throughout.
AdvertisementsIt may feel like you are screaming into the void the next time you attempt to initiate a voice search on your computer by uttering "OK Google." With the latest iteration of its desktop browser, Chrome 46, Google has removed the ability to trigger a search with your voice on Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Since Chrome 35 was introduced in May of last year, you have been able to start a search without clicking or typing. You needed only to say, "OK Google" when you were viewing a new tab or Google's homepage. With Chrome 46 (version 46.0.2490.71, to be exact), you'll need to click the colorful microphone icon located in the right edge of Google's search bar to conduct a voice search.
According to VentureBeat, Google killed the feature because very few users were speaking to their computers. Privacy concerns were also an issue, with people worried Google was listening to conversations through their computer if "OK" and "Google" were said within close proximity to one another. With a full keyboard, I personally find it quicker and easier to search via typing than voice.
You can still use "OK Google" to start searches on mobile platforms and Chromebooks, VentureBeat reports. The feature still works on my Android tablet but only with the Google search app -- not with Chrome 46. And it doesn't work with either Chrome 45 or the Google search app on my iPhone.Australian missionary John Short detained in North Korea
Updated
An Australian missionary has been detained by authorities in North Korea for allegedly possessing religious material.
The ABC understands John Short, 75, was arrested at his Pyongyang hotel on Sunday after distributing Christian pamphlets.
His family says he could face up to 15 years' jail.
Mr Short's wife Karen says it was her husband's second trip to the secretive country and he was aware of the risks.
"My husband does what he believes is what God wants him to do," Mrs Short said.
"Without sounding strange, that's him, he's a man of faith.
"We're faith missionaries and he believed that we should care and not just talk but do something.
"He had some gospel tracks that he had written and they were in the Korean language."
Mrs Short says she has been told the charges against her husband are serious.
"Ultimately, we're in God's hands and that's how we look at it," she said.
She says the Australian Government is doing everything possible to help.
"The Foreign Affairs Department [says] 'this is an out-of-the-ordinary case for us'," Mrs Short said.
"She didn't say it's a first, but it's different and difficult for them to deal with."
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop says it is difficult for Australia to offer consular support to Mr Short because Australia does not have diplomatic representatives in North Korea.
"Our interests in North Korea are represented by the Swedish embassy and we have been in close contact with Swedish officials in Pyongyang to seek their assistance in confirming that Mr Short is well and that we can get as much information as we can from them," Ms Bishop said.
Diplomatic tensions following the release this week of a United Nations report detailing North Korea's crimes against humanity could make the situation more difficult.
The tour company Mr Short travelled into the country with says North Korean officials are not returning their calls.
Do you know more? Contact investigations@abc.net.au
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of, australia, hong-kong
First postedCooper Kupp was just a third-round pick, but based on the hype surrounding him this offseason, you’d have thought he was taken in the top 15 of the draft. The rookie has been just about everything the Rams hoped he would be – a good slot receiver with solid quickness and reliable hands – despite dropping a few passes that could have easily been caught.
Jared Goff has consistently gone back to Kupp week in and week out, though, which is great to see. That’s especially evident in the red zone where the rookie has been one of the top receivers in the NFL.
On the season, Kupp has been targeted 12 times in the red zone. That ranks fourth in the league, only behind Larry Fitzgerald, Dez Bryant and Davante Adams. He’s caught six of those passes, which is tied for fifth among all NFL players.
His 54.6 percent catch rate leaves plenty to be desired – Jordy Nelson and Zach Ertz have caught 77.8 percent, which is No. 1 among players with at least nine targets – but a few of those passes have been Goff’s fault. The two are still building a rapport with each other, which is sure to improve throughout the season and as the years go by.
Where Kupp excels is gaining yards in the red zone, where he ranks second with 62 yards on six catches. Three of those receptions have gone for touchdowns, as well.
To put into perspective just how frequently Goff looks Kupp’s way, consider this. He’s received 33.3 percent of the Rams’ red zone targets, which is fourth in the NFL. Only DeAndre Hopkins (40 percent), Bryant (38.7) and Brandon LaFell (37.5) rank higher than Kupp.
There’s still plenty of room for the rookie receiver to grow, which is a great sign. It’s now just a matter of him coming down with some of those tough catches in traffic.Follow @deadstatetweets
Creationist and Ark Encounter founder Ken Ham spent a lot of time boasting about how people from all over the world would flock to his theme park to gawk at its to-scale replica of Noah’s Ark.
In order to meet their goal to sustain the attraction in Williamstown, Kentucky, it was estimated that the park needed an average of 5,600 visitors per day. And while they barely reached around 10,000 visitors on the park’s opening weekend, it looks like attendance is not panning out.
According to drone footage recently posted to Facebook, the parking lot looks pretty much empty, save for a few dozen cars. The footage was reportedly taken on a Sunday about 30 minutes before the park was set to open at noon. Not a good look for a bustling tourist attraction.
“I believe you’re going to find all sorts of people from all walks of life with all sorts of religious backgrounds who are going to come here,” Ham said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the theme park back in July. “And even if they don’t share our biblical view, they can’t help but be impressed by the structure, craftsmanship and by the attention to detail of the world-class exhibits inside.”
The Ark Encounter has come under fire for requiring park employees and job candidates to sign a “statement of faith” affirming that they share Ham’s Christian worldview. The agreement was disclosed on the park’s website as a condition for employment.
“What we’re doing in using our religious preference is saying that people who work at Ark Encounter will need to testify that they’re Christian,” Ham told CBS News.
According to a 2015 study conducted by a consulting firm hired by Ham’s ministry Answers in Genesis, the project was expected to generate up to 21,000 jobs for the area over 10 years and up to $4 billion in revenue for Kentucky. CBS News reported back in in July that the same study projected that the park could draw between 1.4 million and 2.2 million visitors per year.
In order to meet that goal, those parking lots had better start filling up soon.
[Patheos]The 1700 block of Germantown Avenue might provide the apex of visual juxtaposition in the City of Philadelphia.
A fallen street lamp lies before a graffiti-covered wall, a facade topped with prison-style razor wire choked with shredded plastic bags.
The backside of the triangular-shaped property features a gigantic airplane mural and mounds of concrete and dirt, sitting adjacent to a small urban garden, a rusty gate, and another painted urban canvass.
A worker with makeshift shin guards and a weed-whacker chops down overgrowth inside the complex, pausing to speak with me about the artwork sprayed all over these walls.
“It’s been here as long as I can remember,” says Tito, who is 37 years old.
Across the street, there’s another block of graffiti on a separate property, this painting featuring the likeness of the late hip-hop artist, Big Pun.
“That’s the only one they don’t touch,” Tito explains, alluding to the unwritten, self-policing nature of the site’s users.
The other walls are a free-for-all, with artists painting over each other’s work, some even leaving their Instagram handles as a signature below their individual pieces. This entire complex is not only a canvass for graffiti, but the artwork is encouraged. Instead of tagging and taking off, they want people to know they were here.
That may or may not change by the end of the year, because the site is going to be transformed into an urban mixed-use facility by a development company called Stull Investment.
Stull CEO Chadwick Smith sat down with Philly Views to discuss those plans.
“The intention with the property is a three-phase development,” said Smith. “We see a great opportunity for a mixture of uses, especially with the zoning code that exists on that site, but also with the location in general. It’s the crossroads of Fifth Street, Cecil B. Moore, and Germantown.
“In our opinion, it’s a very unique location that already has foot traffic, and it’s a space that is already a destination because of those walls. Due to that, we want to activate it with community spaces and, in the short term, create a pop-up retail type of venue. We’re even working on a music space for that venue in the yard.”
Smith says the first phase will be a five-story, 30,000 square foot building with a first floor of retail space and 30 to 40 total units. Offices and residential living will be mixed into different floors. Stull also plans to headquarter its tech company at the location.
Phase two will be a similarly mixed seven-story building featuring modern “heavy timber construction,” a more sustainable and green building method.
The future of the graffiti walls is yet to be determined, but it’s a topic that Smith is prioritizing.
“It’s something that we thought, as a creative development company, that we would be able to save and find a way to pay tribute to,” Smith told Philly Views.
“The artists will most definitely continue to do what they’re doing. We work with them on our existing projects, as well as this one. Some of the (artists) you see on the wall, we’ll allow them to keep painting. We’ll have to determine what we do with the walls, and that will be a group decision.
“We want all of the community to be a part of that. If (the walls) come down, they’ll be put up in a new place, but we would like to save as much as we can. My opinion, personally, is that when you remove something like that, it’s hard to put it back.”
Neighborhood reaction, Smith says, is split.
In the past, artists have been allowed to use the walls as they wish, with the only requirement being that they clean up after themselves. The site’s previous owner set those guidelines when the agreement was reached many years ago.
Street rules have resulted in an authentic, community-driven process.
“It’s just an interesting dynamic, where it’s a 50/50,” Smith explains. “You have existing community members who have been here longer that aren’t as emotionally attached to the walls. Then we have newer community members who are very attached. It’s been interesting to see.
“We thought there would be a large majority of people in the ‘save the wall’ category. We thought that would be more than 70 percent. What we’ve realized is that it’s right around a 50/50 split.”
During our sit down, for whatever reason, I recalled my days as a skateboarder, frequently getting booted from public areas on the mean streets of Boyertown, Pennsylvania. Neighbors were annoyed with wax-covered curbs and authorities were annoyed with what they perceived as a teenage loitering and nuisance issue.
More than anything, we just wanted a place of our own.
Goofy or not, Smith says that same concept applies to 1700 Germantown.
“Exactly, it’s a location that artists use for practice,” he explains. “There aren’t (enough of those spaces). That’s what we want to be. That’s the logic behind it … coming here and trying something and it’s open and you can have freedom of thought and expression. That’s our brand and identity that we want to create, too, as a development and technology company.”
Phase one groundbreaking is expected to take place within six to nine months, though office space construction will likely begin sooner. Building permits for the location have also been filed.
In the meantime, the painting will continue.
“There’s a very positive vibe that already exists there, and a lot of it has to do with what was allowed from the beginning,” Smith said.
“To just take that away and throw up something brand new, I don’t think that pays the right tribute to what it is. We want to respect that.”
How does this make you feel?How many times have you typed an Instagram comment only to realise it is riddled with typos (thanks autocorrect!)? Maybe you’re just tired of bots and weirdos adding their views to your pics or possibly want to get rid of offensive comments. If you weren’t sure how to delete Instagram comments, we thought we’d give you a quick run through. Sadly there is no way to edit your views though. You will need to delete and start again.
How to delete Instagram comments on your Android:
Tap the little speech bubble as if you’re going to add a new comment.
Tap and hold the comment you want to delete and voila! options appear:
How to delete Instagram comments on your iPhone:
Click on the comment option beneath the photo and then swipe left over the comment you want to remove (a bit like Tinder right?). Some options will now appear. To delete click the trashcan and to report abuse select “Delete & Report abuse”. Oh and that little arrow next to the trashcan allows you to make an in-line reply.
How to delete Instagram comments on your Windows Phone:
This option isn’t available yet. You’ll likely need to use Instagram’s web option.
How to delete Instagram comments on the webpage:
Go to your instagram page (usually it is instagram.com/your user name). Log in, find the photo and comments you want to delete, hover your cursor over the comment and a small cross will appear next to it. If you click it you’ll then be able to select delete.Every filmmaker is different no matter how much experience they have or don’t have. However, every filmmaker could always use some help being better prepared and making their shots more effective. Here are 6 cheap add-ons to your production gear before your next shoot:
1. Have a Mini Camera Tripod
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Last month, Brian and I had to produce a Kickstarter video at an ice rink in Logan, Utah. We needed to attach a GoPro to a disk that was going to slide across the ice and smack into more disks. Unfortunately, our GoPro suction cup mount wasn’t going to work because the disk had a handle at the top. We ended up using our Pedco mini tripod as a mount. This tripod is light and small and has a velcro strap attached to it. really easy to strap it to anything, like a handle, or even a light stand or railing.
Initially, I was skeptical about how the shot was going to look, but afterwards I was impressed with the end result. Watch the footage in the GiF down below and make sure to check out the SlyDysk Kickstarter page.
As a side tip, getting a cell phone tripod adaptor can make the B-camera you need. Mobile phone cameras are improving with each new model so don’t feel anxious about not being able to afford the new Canon or Nikon DSLR.
Sometimes in filmmaking we need to find new ways to make every shot work. So go and make it work!
2. Tie a Washer To Your Tripod
Another trick you can do before going out on a shoot is to attach a washer to your tripod. I remember the hassle of going to shoots for college projects, and not having a nickel or penny to loosen or tighten the base plate on the tripod.
Why not just keep a penny in your camera bag? Yes, keeping a penny in your bag works fine, but you still risk losing it or scratching your camera equipment.
For our Allex tripod, an elastic band is tied to a washer, while the other end of the band is hung on the stabilizing handle. It’s easy to use and extremely reliable.
Now you won’t need to worry about bringing change or having to use your long finger nails to do the job because the washer will always be with you.
3. Get fold-up Headphones
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Nobody really like earbuds. They’re uncomfortable and they tangle up into an unbeatable mess, taking forever to unravel. It’s like a weird intimate relationship you don’t want to be in in the first place. So what I am getting at is – buy these cheap headphones for your next shoot you won’t regret it.
Why you might ask? Aside from the affordable price it’s collapsible feature is handy and saves space in your camera bag or gear luggage. You can put this in your backpack and whip out a moments notice when doing interviews or grabbing some ambient sounds. The audio quality is great and serviceable when running and gunning.
4. Have a USB Battery Pack
Having your phone charged is must if your doing long day shoots, especially, when they’re other people involved in the project. Buying a USB battery pack will be a life saver if you’re constantly having to communicate with others who may or may not be on location.
Sometimes we may have a USB port device in our gear bag already. For instances, we use the TASCAM DR-70D for recording crisp clean audio for our production shoots. For AC power, it uses USB. Also charging some cameras like the GoPro use USB as well. This battery can also be useful for charging your phone or any other USB device.
5. Business Card Holder in your Camera Bag
Keeping a good relationship with old clients and getting referrals from them is how you survive doing freelance video work. A good tip would be to purchase a business card holder and fill it with as many of you business cards as you like. Then put the business card holder in your gear bag, and don’t touch it; until you need to of course.
Let’s face it, when having businesses cards in your wallet you destroy them or you lose them over time. If it’s in your gear bag then you will never misplace or damage them because their protected by the casing. Having clean unscathed cards looks professional and it shows your a neat, standup person.
6. Get a Memory Card Holder
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Keeping everything organized is key to having an effective shoot as you may already know. This handy memory card holder has been great because it’s water resistant, durable, and compact to fit in your gear bag.
One trick to manage your cards is to put your empty cards on one side (like the yellow side) and then after you use them stick them on the other side. The downside to a setup like that is your holder now holds half as much, but the plus side is you are less likely to mix up which cards you already used.
Those are some of our cheap add-ons and tricks for your video gear. If you have any other gear add-ons your own please leave them down in the comments below and as always please subscribe to our blog post for production updates, tips and tricks, and film theory from Cinema Spice.By John Ruwitch
QIDONG, China, July 28 (Reuters) – Angry demonstrators occupied a government office in eastern China on Saturday, destroying computers and overturning cars in a violent protest against an industrial waste pipeline they said would poison their coastal waters.
The demonstration was the latest in a string of protests sparked by fears of environmental degradation and highlights the social tensions the government in Beijing faces as it approaches a leadership transition this year.
About 1,000 protesters marched through the coastal city of Qidong, about one hour north of Shanghai by car, shouting slogans against the plan pipeline that would empty waste from a paper factory in a nearby town into the sea.
Demonstrators rejected the government’s stand that waste from the factory would not pollute the coastal waters.
“The government says the waste will not pollute the sea, but if that’s true, then why don’t they dump it into Yangtze River?” said Lu Shuai, a 25-year-old protester who works in logistics.
“It is because if they dump it into the river, it will have an impact on people in Shanghai and people in Shanghai will oppose it.”
Several protesters entered the city government’s main building and were seen smashing computers, overturning desks and throwing documents out the windows to loud cheers from the crowd.
Reuters witnessed five cars and one minibus being overturned. Over 1,000 police – some paramilitary – guarded the city government office compound in lines.
At least two police officers were dragged into the crowd at the government office and punched and beaten enough to make them bleed.
On Friday, in an effort to stave off the protest, the Qidong city government announced it would suspend the project for further research.
But many protesters said on Saturday that postponement was not enough.
“If the government really wanted to stop this project, they should have done it right from the beginning. At this point they are too late,” said Xi Feng, a 17-year-old protester.
Local officials took steps to ward off the demonstration and residents received text messages and letters warning that any public demonstration would be illegal.
Environmental worries have stoked calls for expanded rights for citizens and greater consultation in the tightly controlled one-party state.
The outpouring of public anger is emblematic of the rising discontent facing Chinese leaders, who are obsessed with maintaining stability and struggling to balance growth with rising public anger over environmental threats.
The protest followed similar demonstrations against projects the Sichuan town of Shifang earlier this month and in the cities of Dalian in the northeast and Haimen in southern Guangdong province in the past year.
In Shifang, the government halted construction of a copper refinery following protests by residents that it would poison them. It also freed most of the people who were detained after a clash with police.
The leadership has vowed to clean up China’s skies and waterways and increasingly tried to appear responsive to complaints about pollution. But environmental disputes pit citizens against local officials whose aim is to lure fresh investment and revenue into their areas. (Additional reporting by Carlos Barria; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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reopened the investigation this week following the expose in which now 21-year-old Maranda Richmond detailed the incident.
In an apparent suicide note posted to Facebook at around 5pm on Wednesday, Mr Johnson denied the claims. “The accusations from NPR are false GOD and only GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be,” he wrote.
“AMERICA will not survive this type of judge and jury fake news. Conservatives take a stand. I LOVE GOD and I LOVE MY WIFE, who is the best WIFE in the world, My Love Forever!”
Mr Johnson had been under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to resign over the article, which painted him as a “preacher-turned politician” who cultivated a persona based on a “web of lies and deception”.
In a statement, Louisville Public Media said, “All of us at Louisville Public Media are deeply sad to hear that State Representative Dan Johnson has died, apparently of suicide. We grieve for his family, friends, church community and constituents.
“Our Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting released a report on Johnson this week. Our aim, as always, is to provide the public with fact-based, unbiased reporting and hold public officials accountable for their actions.
“As part of our process, we reached out to Representative Johnson numerous times over the course of a seven-month investigation. He declined requests to talk about our findings.”
State and federal politicians also issued statements.
“It is with great sadness that we have received confirmed reports of the passing of Rep. Dan Johnson this evening,” Republican representative David Osborne said. “Please keep his family in your prayers during this incredibly difficult time.”
Former Kentucky House of Representatives speaker Jeff Hoover said, “In America, those accused of wrongdoing are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
“Persons posting accusations on social media as truth, and those who are self righteous and indignant over mere accusations must do better. Personal attacks don’t have to be part of politics.”
Dan Johnson speaks to the media over sexual misconduct allegations 0:15 Kentucky Republican representative Dan Johnson speaks to the media over sexual misconduct allegations. Courtesy: Herald Leader
frank.chung@news.com.au
If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467 for 24-hour Australian counselling services.So much money is flowing into tax shelters that companies may have booked more profits in Bermuda than in China, the second-largest economy in the world.
The United Nations found that multinational firms from a sample of 26 developed economies reported more profit from holding companies in the tiny island of Bermuda ($43.7 billion) than in China ($36.4 billion). There’s also been a greater move toward the use of foreign holding companies.
“The proportion of investment income booked in low tax, often offshore, jurisdictions is high — and possibly growing,” the report said.
Companies around the world poured $221 billion into tax havens in 2015, with a greater portion of the money coming from China, Russia and Brazil, according to the report. Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands were among the biggest destinations for companies seeking tax shelters.
Also read: 5 things to know about the Panama Papers
The U.N. has been calling for more cooperation among countries on tax laws as a way to combat the use of tax havens. The euro zone recently tightened laws among member countries, and it may have caused multinational companies to pull money out of Luxembourg and Netherlands in the final three months of 2015.
“The persistence of financial flows routed through offshore financial mechanisms highlights the pressing need to create greater coherence among tax and investment policies at the global level,” the U.N. report said.
Yet the kind of far-reaching tax coordination long urged by the U.N. is unlikely given the benefits that accrue to some countries because of lower tax rates, a key component of attracting or retaining business.
Competition among countries on taxes can also have salutary effects, such as making sure taxes don’t get too high and choke off economic growth. Even in the U.S., the Obama White House has at least given public lip service to the idea that the corporate tax code is outdated and uncompetitive.
Also read: Pfizer scuttles Allergan deal after new anti-inversion ruling
Still, there’s no doubt countries lose billions in potential tax revenue because of widespread use of tax shelters as a matter of course. Tens of billions of dollars were poured into these tax havens in the first three quarters of 2015, triple the amount of the year before. Another annual record might have been set if not for large withdrawals in the last three months of the year.
The reason: many multinational firms used the withdrawn cash to pay off loans that part of a corporation in one country gave to another unit in a different country, the U.N. suggested. These cross-border loans are often structured to minimize taxes.
New investment in offshore tax havens in the Caribbean — namely the Cayman and Virgin Islands — fell again in 2015 to $75 billion. That’s down 42% from three years ago, but excluding a surprising surge in 2013, it’s in line with annual average over the past decade.
In 2013, inflows into these tax-sheltering islands set a record $132 billion, as companies moved cash around to fund a wave of large cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
Although the Caribbean has benefited heavily in the past from U.S. money, more cash is now coming from China, Russia and Brazil. The trio accounted for 65% of the investment flows to the Cayman and Virgin Islands last year. About 21% came from the United States.Amber Ellis
An Oklahoma woman was arrested after her boyfriend said she bit his penis as he slept following a drunken argument.
The victim said he and his girlfriend, Amber Ellis, had been drinking before they got into an argument while walking home to their Tulsa apartment.
The man said he complained about “how needy she had become,” police said.
They continued arguing at the apartment until the 31-year-old Ellis stormed off and slammed the bedroom door.
The victim said he fell asleep on the couch but awoke to find Ellis “biting (his) dick off,” police said.
He fought Ellis off but she hit him in the head with a laptop computer, investigators said.
The man received several stitches at the base of his penis and was treated for other injuries to his head, face, neck, fingers, and knee, authorities said.
Ellis was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and maiming.
She remains jailed on $25,000 bond.While many were happy (or somewhat apathetic) to hear that triple j were taking feedback on board and deciding to change the date of the Hottest 100, others, such as Triple M, have decided that this is an affront to all Australians and that something just has to be done.
Last month it was announced that, after years of discussion on the topic, triple j were going to change the date of their famous Hottest 100 countdown. After consulting with Australia’s Indigenous community and others who may take issue with the Hottest 100 being held on Australia Day, it was announced that the poll would now occur on the fourth weekend in January.
Despite the government’s vehement opposition towards the change, many have accepted this new decision with open arms. However, there’s still a small proportion of the Australian population who seem to have taken this decision to be an attack on Australian music itself.
Despite a somewhat contentious relationship with triple j in the past (which once resulted in the word “elitist” being flung towards the broadcaster), Triple M have today taken aim at the station’s “hipster” listenership and announced their own ‘Ozzest 100’, as The Music reports.
In an email sent out to Triple M subscribers today, the station stated their intentions of creating their own Australian countdown of songs to apparently fill the gap now left by the relocation of the Hottest 100.
“So, the taxpayer funded FM has decided that there’ll be no soundtrack for Australia Day. Let’s face it, that’s usually full of hipsters or kids making music on a Mac,” the email read.
“At Triple M, we’re going to give you what you’ve asked for. The perfect Australia Day soundtrack,” it continued.
“We want ‘Triple M’s Ozzest 100’ to include all the songs that define Australian music. That’s why we need your help to build it! Tell us about your favourite Aussie songs. We don’t care about a Top 40 chart position. who wrote it, or even awards. it’s just got to be Aussie.”
The station outlined that listeners have the opportunity to send through their top three songs by December 31st so that they can be tallied up for their own version of the countdown on January 26th.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Triple M have asked listeners to submit songs for a countdown, with numerous polls (all of which usually involve Cold Chisel’s ‘Khe Sanh’ ranking somewhere in the top two) occurring over the years. However, this time their new poll just seems like a cheap shot at a rival station.
Plenty of Twitter users were quick to jump in to disparage Triple M’s decision, with many agreeing that the station’s seemingly opportunistic choice to jump on January 26th is in poor taste.
triple m’s ozzest 100 is gonna be sick khe san, bound for glory and the holy grail will be repeated on loop eleven times between 67 ads — 🎄wheels🎄 (@wheelswordsmith) December 20, 2017
triple j: we’ve decided the date is insensiti-
triple m: FUCK YA CUNTS WOOOOO pic.twitter.com/jcQterdTXi — thomas violence (@thomas_violence) December 20, 2017
Triple M are hosting their own Hottest 100 on Australia Day. Tune in if you want to hear ‘Back In Black’ 100 times in one day. In all seriousness, way to solidify your status as a bogan radio station for boomers living in the wrong side of history. — Jimmy Kleiner (@jimmykleiner) December 20, 2017
Fuck You, Triple M. One day, your latest move is going to be seen as the block in social progress that it is. I hope this is the hill that your station dies on. — Robèrt (@RobIsDeafening) December 20, 2017
triple m doing an ozzest 100 like for fuck sake how many times do we need a compilation of acdc songs disguised as a countdown — paris 🦌🎄 (@edmures) December 20, 2017
While bands such as Midnight Oil, AC/DC, and Hunters & Collectors haven’t made a Hottest 100 since the ’90s, you can be sure that they’re going to make it into the ‘Ozzest 100’. If you haven’t had your chance to vote in triple j’s Hottest 100 yet, be sure to check out our voting guide and have your say in the biggest musical democracy in not only Australia, but the world.The leader of France's far-right National Front set the tone for her campaign for the French presidency, calling to fight an Islamist "offensive" and promising to hold a nationwide referendum on European Union membership if she is elected next spring.
At a rally in a small eastern village, Marine Le Pen focused on her favourite issues, such as national sovereignty, immigration control, Islamism and what she calls "savage globalisation".
The far-right candidate for the April-May election pledged to back the "France of the forgotten, the abandoned and the voiceless".
Polls suggest that she is increasingly likely to make it to the run-off in the presidential election
Ms Le Pen, who announced her presidential bid months ago, delivered her annual speech in Brachay, a hamlet of a few dozen inhabitants and the French municipality where she symbolically won the largest share of votes in the last election.
Along with the economy, the relationship between France's Muslims and non-Muslims has been a recurring theme as presidential hopefuls have kicked off their campaigns.
Ms Le Pen claimed she was right before all other presidential hopefuls because her traditional issues are now at the centre of the political debate and have found a "considerable resonance" among French voters.
Some politicians on the left say she is using the issue to encourage racism in France, yet polls suggest that she is increasingly likely to make it to the run-off in the presidential election.
Following the British precedent, Ms Le Pen promised to hold a nationwide referendum on whether France should leave or remain in the European Union if she is elected president.
"I will do it in France," she said and hailed the British who had "the courage to choose their destiny" by voting to leave the EU.
Referring to the controversy over local French bans on the burkini swimwear, she denounced a "relegation of women behind fabrics" and said that women should have the same right as men "to enjoy the French way of life on the beach and at school, in the street and at work".
She said she fears "dress segregation" will eventually pave the way for a "physical and legal" relegation of women.
"When are we going to have a ban on make-up? Then a ban (for women) to appear in public?" she asked.
The National Front leader also accused former French conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, one of her potential presidential opponents, of pledging allegiance to a hard-line branch of Islam after he reportedly met the Saudi King in Morocco last month.
Ms Le Pen branded the rise of Islamic fundamentalism as the "new totalitarianism of the 21st century" and suggested terrorists were hiding among migrants.
"The best weapon against terrorism is the ballot," she said.
Since January 2015, Islamic State group-inspired attackers have killed at least 235 people in France.
French citizens or French-speaking residents have committed the overwhelming majority of strikes, often employing suicide tactics alongside command of their home surroundingsGates and Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016.
On Monday morning, Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued the first indictments in his probe exploring Russian interference in the 2016 election, sticking Paul Manafort and Rick Gates with several serious charges, including money laundering and tax fraud.
Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager for a good chunk of 2016, and has long been reported to be in Mueller’s crosshairs. But who is Rick Gates?
Accounts paint a picture of a political operative who was all but attached at the hip to Manafort, working side by side with him as a consultant on many of the foreign transactions for which Manafort has become notorious. The New York Times reported in June that “as investigators examine Mr. Manafort’s financial and political dealings at home and abroad, they are likely to run into Mr. Gates wherever they look.”
The 45-year-old, who started out as an intern at Manafort’s law firm almost 30 years ago, collaborated closely with Manafort in Ukraine, where the pair worked to polish the image of the pro-Russian president Viktor F. Yanukovych, who was eventually driven from power. Manafort and Gates had deep financial ties with Yanukovych and a series of oligarchs in Russia and Eastern Europe, setting up a number of shell companies in Cyprus that would profit from the fruits of their pro-market political work. Murky financial transactions involving those companies are at the heart of Monday’s indictments, which allege that Gates transferred more than $3 million from offshore accounts, among other offenses.
When Manafort was recruited by the Trump campaign in March 2016 to help keep renegade delegates in line, he brought Gates with him. Gates became an important player on the campaign, striking up a friendship with Reince Priebus and managing many of the anodyne responsibilities of a political operation.
Manafort became a liability for the Trump campaign after it was revealed that he had accepted massive payments from Yanukovych, and he resigned as campaign chairman in August 2016. But Gates managed to stick around the president’s orbit. He landed a job at the Republican National Committee involving Trump campaign fundraising. After the election, he was recruited by Tom Barrack, a wealthy real-estate investor and confidant of President Trump, to help run the inauguration.
He then joined, and raised prodigious amounts of money for, a pro-Trump group called “America First Policies,” but was let go in March amid further reports about Manafort’s shady dealings in Ukraine.
And yet, in June, the Daily Beast reported that even as Manafort had been fatally tarnished by the Mueller investigation, Gates had “managed to wedge himself back into Trump-world” — even though the president did not like him personally, considering him a “hanger-on.” (Inadvertently underlining that point, Trump for weeks confused him with another “Rick.”)
Regardless of whether Trump could tolerate him, Gates found an important ally in Barrack. Post-inauguration, Barrack hired Gates as director of the Washington office of his Colony NorthStar company allowing Gates to continue to wield influence in the capital despite his dubious past.
But on Monday, it appears that his wily political maneuvering may have finally hit a wall.In this Super Mario Brothers-style game, players collect delegates and gold coins (of course) en route to the presidency.
If caucuses, debates, and a blimp won't do the trick for you, there's always one final electoral ploy available: gaming.
Daniel Williams, a developer who helped create RonPaulSwag.com, has taken to Kickstarter, the site that allows creative projects to crowdsource their funding, to solicit funds. Williams says of Ron Paul Swag, "For the last year or so, my partners and I have been dedicating ourselves to making liberty sexy." Evidently, they've given up and headed in the opposite direction: old-school video games.
We kid, we kid (seriously, back away from the send button on that angry email, Paul fans). The game actually looks pretty awesome. It's done up in the style of Super Mario Brothers, but with cooler music, a little Ron Paul character instead of Mario, and what appear to be George W. Bush heads instead of koopa troopas. The game will have 50 levels, plus 13 boss fights, one for each of the branch of the Federal Reserve. The gold coins stay the same, obviously, although the player also collects delegates on the way to the White House.
Williams' Kickstarter was successful in raising the $5,000, although he's still collecting additional funds, so it's hoped his game -- which he says will be free -- is available soon. Once launched, it will surely be the gold standard in political video games.We have a long tradition of multi-faceted diplomacy; those among us with a military bent may use the term "multiple avenues of approach." The Department of State represents only the most public of our approaches.
Unofficial emissaries abound in US history, from 1798's George Logan (who single-handedly negotiated a peaceful solution to a looming conflict between the US and France, and did so with no government imprimatur whatsoever) through FDR's use of Harry Hopkins as an unofficial emissary during WWII and JFK's employment of Norman Cousins for unofficial contacts with the USSR's Nikita Khruschev.
We also have a long history of conducting diplomacy via third-party nations and international organiations. Even today, we employ other nations to represent our interests before governments with which we do not enjoy diplomatic relations; Sweden represents our interests in North Korea, for example, while Switzerland fills that role in both Iran and Cuba.
Finally, there is the military option. Theodore Roosevelt famously said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," but it should be noted that he did both during his tenure. He certainly waved the "Big Stick" on numerous occasions (some of which remain questionable to this day), but he also leveraged that power to "speak softly" in brokering the peace that ended the Russo-Japanese War (and, incidentally, earned Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize).
Diplomacy, by defintion, involves all of these approaches.
To see several of these techniques in play, consider US-China relations during the Nixon Administration. Compare the declassified documentation of US diplomatic activity to the public rhetoric and military posturing of the post-WWII era. Keep in mind that the US was extremely concerned about the then-nascent Taiwanese independence movement, and that we had actually blockaded Taiwan in previous years (Seventh Fleet, 1950-1953) in order to prevent the PRC from retaking the island. In addition, the PRC's direct involvement in the Korean War was still fresh in American minds.
China had attempted the 'unofficial emissary' route early in this diplomatic minuet, when Mao invited American Edgar Snow to attend the May Day parade atop Tienanmen Square; no American had ever received such an honor, and Mao thought that this would be a signal to the US government. That approach failed, but he later used the opportunity for "ping-pong diplomacy" to make his point known.
Even as rapproachement neared, Mao Zedong himself stated privately that he fully expected the US to continue its anti-PRC rhetoric, just as that nation would continue its anti-US propaganda efforts. He admitted as much to Nixon himself, as described in Philip Short's Mao: A Life:
At his meeting with Nixon, Mao acknowledged this himself. "People like me sound like a lot of big cannons," he said. "For example, [we say] things like 'the whole world should unite and defeat imperliasm...'" - at which point he and Zhou laughted uproariously.
Nixon, in turn, used his visit to the PRC to pull that nation in as a third party (as opposed to an outright ally) with regard to the USSR; we now know that Kissinger delivered briefings to the PRC on Soviet military strength and disposition without the knowledge of the US intelligence community.
I would suggest that this period in US/China relations provides a solid example of "multiple avenues of approach" in diplomacy.
So, what does this all have to do with Syria? Well, I think it rebuts several of the arguments currently under discussion:
Was this entire affair scripted, from the outset, to develop in this fashion?
Did we plan, all along, for Russia to play the third-party role?
Was the military posturing just a bluff?
No government could anticipate the actions of the parties involved to such degree, and it would be foolish to make such an attempt with military action on the table.I don't think we considered it a certainty, but I do believe that we explored the possibility and kept it alive.No. I do believe, however, that it was both the plan of last resort and an inducement to other parties to assist in a resolution.
Do I believe that the US made concurrent approaches along multiple avenues, which included direct diplomacy, working with/through third parties, unofficial discussions and military posturing? Yes; to consider the alternative defies both our history and recent practice.
Do I believe that many Americans, including both Congress and the Executive Branch, are hoping and/or praying that the Russian proposal comes to full fruition? Absolutely.
Do I care who gets the credit? No, because it's ALL diplomacy.
(Pesonally, I think that German release of intelligence showing Assad's lack of centralized control over his CW stockpiles was the turning point in this regard; no government--particularly one with its own separatist movements of concern--wants to see CW munitions left unsecured.)
We should simply remain hopeful that the one avenue that has proven most optimistic seems to be prevailing.
While responding to comments, I found two good timelines of events in Syria: The AP's timeline:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
is restricted to events since the start of the Syrian uprising, while the BBC's:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
goes all the way back Syrian independence from the Ottoman Empire (whew!).
An evening on the Rec List - wow! Thanks to all those whose comments led to such interesting discussion...Israeli police believe former prime minister Ehud Olmert is the prime suspect in a burgeoning corruption investigation surrounding a major property development in Jerusalem, the Israeli press reported today.
Olmert, 63, cut short a trip to Europe and flew home yesterday in the face of growing questions about his role in the Holyland scandal, in which prosecutors believe hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes were paid during the planning and construction of apartment blocks.
Yesterday police arrested a former Jerusalem mayor, Uri Lupoliansky, in connection with the case. He is being held on remand, together with six others, one of whom is a long-time confidant of Olmert. None has yet been charged.
Israeli media said police believed Olmert was the main suspect, although they gave no formal comment on the case.
The case is focused on the time Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem, when Lupoliansky was his deputy.
Olmert was forced to step down as prime minister last year in the face of mounting corruption allegations and is being tried on separate corruption charges – although that trial was halted as soon as the Holyland scandal emerged this month.
Olmert has not been charged or questioned by police in the case and has protested his innocence. "I reject the innuendo and the suspicions it implies. They are baseless," he said.
The Holyland towers, which are under construction, were built despite widespread local protest and, standing on a prominent hillside in the city, are widely seen as an eyesore.
According to Israeli press reports, police have found documents that appear to show massive bribes were paid over many years to allow the project to go ahead, allowing developers to benefit from reduced taxes and administrative fees and to avoid the usual planning restrictions.
Lupolianksy's lawyer yesterday denied the allegations.“ISIS has and continues to target members of multiple religions and ethnicities for rape, kidnapping, enslavement and death,” Tillerson told reporters in presenting the report.
Tillerson said he was making the pronouncement to “remove any ambiguity” about previous genocide assertions made by his predecessor, John Kerry, who in March 2016, determined that genocide was occurring in Daesh-held areas but was criticized by lawmakers and religious groups for not declaring genocide was taking place earlier. Neither administration’s genocide determination carries with it any legal obligation for the U.S. or others.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the group is “clearly responsible for genocide” against Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Shiite Muslims in Syria and elsewhere. His comments were made as the State Department released its annual report on international religious freedom.
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration denounced Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, on Tuesday for carrying out “genocide” against Christians and other religious minorities in areas under its control.
“ISIS is clearly responsible for genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims in areas it controlled. ISIS is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups, and in some cases against Sunni Muslims, Kurds and other minorities,” Tillerson said. “The protection of these groups — and others who are targets of violent extremism — remains a human-rights priority for the Trump administration.”
The religious freedom report, which is mandated by Congress, covers 2016 and does not address the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily halt the admission of all refugees, many of whom are fleeing religious persecution. The administration has appealed challenges to the suspension of those admissions to the Supreme Court.
An appendix to the report covering refugees said admissions are “a vital tool” in addressing religious persecution and other human rights abuses. It said more than 70 per cent of the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted to the U.S. in 2016 came from five nations — Congo, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq and Somalia — where the report itself said that freedom to worship is under threat. Syria and Somalia are among the six mainly Muslim nations that are also included in the administration’s visa ban that is also before the Supreme Court.
Michael Kozak, the acting assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, said the administration is concentrating on trying to alleviate repressive conditions to reduce the need for people to flee their homes. He noted that many who have fled would prefer to return to their homes than move abroad. And, he noted that in Iraq and Syria specifically, it was preferable not to disturb millennia-old religious minorities.
“We don’t want to uproot communities that have been there for thousands of years and take them elsewhere,” he said.
In addition to Daesh, Tillerson and the report called out Bahrain, China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkey for persecuting, stigmatizing or otherwise restricting the rights of religious minorities.
“Religious persecution and intolerance remains far too prevalent,” Tillerson said, noting that some 80 per cent of the world’s population live “with persecution or limits on their ability to worship.”
“We cannot ignore these conditions,” he said.Constituency profile: #1 Bridgend/Penybont ar Ogwr
Laura McAllister Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 5, 2017
by Jeff Jones and Laura McAllister
Five weeks from the General Election, I’ll be adding a few interesting constituency profiles here on the blog. Now, aside from being my home patch and clearly the best place to live in Wales, it seems that the Bridgend seat has been elevated to “interesting” status in this election. That’s because of three things: first, its relatively small majority of 1,927 in the General Election of 2015 (a figure significant not just for its marginality, but also to Cardiff City fans in the constituency…); second, a set of potentially very interesting local council results; and third, the wider context of a stubborn and significant Conservative lead over Labour in the opinion polls.
This blog is jointly written with Jeff Jones, former leader of Bridgend CBC, Labour party councillor in Maesteg for over twenty five years and self-confessed party “maverick”. In Jeff’s words: “I passionately believe that one of the problems with the Labour Party in Wales is its failure to recognise that Welsh society has changed and is changing further. The unity of the graveyard is not the right response for a party that wants to survive in the 21st century.”
Over 30 years ago, in the 1983 General Election, to the surprise of many, the Tories won the newly-created seat of Bridgend. The new constituency had been carved out of parts of the old Aberafan and Ogmore seats, both of which had been solidly safe Labour seats since the 1918 election. But since 1987, Bridgend has consistently returned Labour MPs to Westminster and has been represented by Carwyn Jones, now First Minister, since the first Assembly elections in 1999. The recent YouGov/ITV/WGC poll had suggested that the Conservatives are once again in with a serious chance of winning Bridgend in the forthcoming General Election. That Teresa May visited Bridgend (albeit to address a closed audience of party activists seemingly shipped in from elsewhere) underlines Bridgend’s new target seat status.
The composition and demography of the constituency gives us some powerful clues as to why this is the case. Bridgend is, in many ways, not a typical south Wales seat. The seat takes its name from the old market town, but the constituency is much bigger than Bridgend town and encompasses an area that has been transformed over the past 50 years. In particular, the land close to the M4 motorway became a favoured location for new industry in the old Mid Glamorgan manufacturing boom, including giant sites for Sony and Ford. With its huge private housing estates, there has been a large population movement and many residents work in Cardiff and Swansea-20-odd miles east and west. In many ways, Bridgend looks more like a English North West or Midlands marginal than a traditional Welsh Labour seat.
And, it’s worth remembering that, even when Bridgend was part of the old Ogmore constituency which was dominated by Labour’s power base in the three valleys, Llynfi, Ogmore and Garw north of the M4, it had generated some 6,000 votes for the Conservatives.
It seems to us that less than five weeks from the election, there are striking similarities between 1983 and 2017. In 1983, Labour was led by an unpopular leader in Michael Foot. Its manifesto policies were notoriously labelled the “longest suicide note in political history”. Labour was also significantly weakened by the decision of some of its senior MPs to break away to form the SDP.
In Bridgend, there were also local factors which helped the Tories. The Conservative candidate, Peter Hubbard Miles, was a well-known local businessman and Porthcawl councillor. He gained local respect when he took court action to force the Tories to consider him as a potential candidate.
Labour had some grubby rows over candidate selection, whilst the SDP fielded a strong, local candidate, Russell Smart who himself was a former Labour Party member. Hubbard Miles was elected MP with a majority of 1,337 over Labour. Crucially for Labour, Smart polled over 9,000 votes and probably cost Labour the seat.
Back to the future and, in 2017, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn would appear to be even more unpopular than Michael Foot. If the polls are to be trusted, Labour’s policies on most issues, and with all age groups except the under 34s, are less popular than those of the Tories. In 1997, Labour polled 25,111 votes. In 2015, although Labour held the seat, sitting MP Madeleine Moon polled just 14,624, a majority of just 1,927. Given any Labour seat with a majority of under 10,000 might being presented as a potential Tory gain, this explains why attention is now on Bridgend, and from beyond Wales.
Like everywhere, Moon has a number of local issues to contend with. We gained an indication of how Bridgend voters are thinking in yesterday’s council elections where the Conservatives won a number of seats within the Bridgend constituency. So, what does this tell us about Labour’s prospects for the General Election? Only a fool would read across from local elections, but we predict that the local dimension might also be a powerful feature of many marginals in the next poll, thus generating some interesting results on June 9th. Overall, this means that Labour is right to be worried about Bridgend. In Brackla, which in many ways is the Bridgend constituency in microcosm, the Tories gained three seats from Labour in a four-member ward. The Tories also gained Litchard and seats in Bridgend town itself. We can assume that voters in these parts of Bridgend decided to back the Tories instead of independents, Plaid or Liberal Democrats. Labour can, however, take some comfort from the fact that it did retain councillors in its heartland areas. The locals suggest that, unless Labour mobilises its support more effectively, then the Tories could do what they did in the late 1970s and build on local election successes to snatch the seat at a General Election.
Jeff Jones says: “Those who know Madeleine Moon also know that she is a tough fighter who has confounded the odds in the past. No one expected her to win the Labour nomination when Win Griffiths retired. She is the sitting MP which is worth something and she hasn’t blotted her copy book with local voters. She also, in many ways, epitomises the new Bridgend; an outsider who moved here, and settled with her family. When I was Council Leader, we often clashed because she always pushed for more resources for Porthcawl, the part of the constituency where her family had made its home. Moon, who promised to serve for just two elections, probably hasn’t managed to accumulate much of a personal vote-not entirely her fault given Bridgend’s transient demographic these days. However, unlike in 1983, this time the Tories didn’t have in place a ready-made strong, local candidate with a good personal story to take advantage of Labour’s bigger problems. With the selection of an unknown candidate from outside the area, Karen Robson, Labour will seek to capitalise on the fact that Moon is the “local” and that the local Conservative party has had to select an “outsider”. How much this matters to electors is unknown in truth.
Moon is no Corbyn supporter. As a member of the Defence Select Committee, she has been very pro Trident and wants more money for the Armed Forces. These are perceived as real strengths that will help here with traditional Labour voters.”
Having said all of that, it goes without saying that “it’s not over until the fat lady sings”. Clearly, a lot will depend on turnout and how successful the parties are in getting out their support on June 8th. In the two 1980s elections, turnout in Bridgend was above 77%; by 2015, it had fallen to 65%. What polls can’t reflect is distinctive local cultures and party perceptions. There remains a significant antipathy towards the Tories amongst many voters in at least some parts of a seat like Bridgend. The over 45s at least, might live in a relatively expensive house on a private estate but will likely have close family connections with mining in the nearby Valleys. Mrs Moon has to hope there is residual loyalty to Labour, then she needs to get these voters out and might even need a record 80% overall turnout to be safe. Remember, Moon might have polled just 14,624 in 2015, but Labour has previously polled over 25,000 votes in Bridgend. This suggests that, if Moon can reawaken what used to be a solid Labour bloc and then mobilise this in key areas like Cefn Glas, Cefn Cribwr, Pyle and Kenfig Hill, she has a chance. But in order to win the ground war, Labour will need significant numbers of foot soldiers in Bridgend and the recent council election campaign shows that they are just not there. Labour probably needs to flood the constituency with workers, even if this means neglecting nearby formerly considered “marginal’ seats such as the Vale of Glamorgan.
Active Labour membership might be low, as in many Welsh constituencies, but successive election campaigns have enabled it to build up a pretty comprehensive record of where its supporters are. Although these voters are the key to Labour’s defence on June 8th, Moon also has to worry about where the 5,911 UKIP votes from the 2015 General Election might go. She can only hope that the majority of them do not transfer to the Tories as the only Welsh poll so far suggests they will.
So, this usually overlooked Welsh constituency can expect a few more visits from politicians and the UK media over the next few weeks. Bridgend is a symbolic seat, not least because its AM is the First Minister. Labour has now lost overall control of the Council. Losing the Bridgend seat on top would be a major psychological blow for Welsh Labour.
But who knows? Moon might just have enough to shine in the predicted Labour gloom on June 8th. The local election results in so far show that Labour can buck UK trends, although that is far easier at local level than in a General Election |
Statistics Canada’s mandatory long-form census was abolished in 2010 by the Conservative government despite protests from all sectors of society and testimony from the country’s two most senior statisticians, who claimed that the voluntary census would result in “useless” data. With the release of the data from the 2011 census, critics have confirmed that the low response rate and new methodology renders the National Household Survey incompatible with previous mandatory long-form censuses. The National Household Survey also compromises other StatsCan surveys which use the general census results as an anchor.
Background
Canada’s Constitution sets out a legal requirement for a census and places this responsibility in federal jurisdiction. Statistical information provided through a mandatory census is a low-cost source of reliable and robust information about how our society works, offering the best information for evidence-based policy making. The data collected through the census helps a wide spectrum of governmental and non-governmental bodies reliably pinpoint trends and areas of concern, allowing for policy decisions to be made based on accurate information or evidence.
The mandatory long-form census was implemented in 1971. Since that time, the census has been comprised of two census forms: a short form and a long form. The short-census includes 8 questions and probes basic household composition information. The long-form census includes an additional 53 questions, probing respondents on a variety of demographic, social, and economic subjects, including things like citizenship and immigration status, ethnic origin, religion, place of birth of parents, education, income and housing, child care and support payments, labour market activities, and unpaid/household work. This data is used to plan public programs and projects such as equalization payments, Employment Insurance benefits, the Old Age Security program, and the Canada Pension Plan. The data also has an impact on public transit and transportation infrastructure, health-care infrastructure, social services, and education.
The short form is sent to 100% of Canadians and is mandatory. Until 2010, the long-form was mandatory, and was sent to 1 in 5 Canadians, with the data extrapolated to the rest of the population. While it was mandatory, the response rate for the long-form census was approximately 94%, producing data from a non-biased sample of the population and serving as one of the most important planning tools in Canada. Because this data is considered representative, data from the mandatory long-form census has been used as an “anchor”, reducing the risk of bias in other StatsCan surveys.
Because of its breadth and high-response rate, the mandatory long-form census has been one of the most reliable data sources in Canada. Reliable statistical information about all parts of society also supports government decisions to fight poverty and reduce the marginalization of disadvantaged groups. Measuring equality requires good, long-term and repeated data in order to determine if we are making progress. Without it, we simply don’t know.
Long Form Census Eliminated
On June 28, 2010, the Harper government replaced the mandatory long-form census with a voluntary National Household Survey (NHS).
The government's justification was that it wanted to ‘protect privacy’. However it was difficult to reconcile this argument with the fact that all the data is depersonalized for statistical purposes, meaning that it cannot be traced to any individual. The former federal Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, had called StatsCan’s protection of privacy exemplary, noting that for the 20 years prior to the 2006 census, the office had received just 50 complaints, only some of which were about the mandatory long-form census. The government also described the mandatory long-form census as coercive. No one has ever been jailed for refusing to answer census questions, and the government still chose to keep the 2011 Census of Agriculture and the short-form census mandatory.
In addition to eliminating the mandatory nature of the census, changes were introduced to the types of questions asked and some questions, for example the unpaid work question, were removed. Because the mandatory long-form census was cancelled with very little notice, StatsCan was unable to properly test run the new questions and assess how people would respond to the new methods.
In addition to these changes, accessing data is now more expensive. Where detailed neighbourhood level information was previously free, StatsCan is now charging for this data.
Due to budgetary cuts, other StatsCan surveys have been cut or compromised, including the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, the National Population Health Survey, the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, the Workplace and Employee Survey, the Survey of Household Spending, the Survey of Intellectual Property and Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector, the Survey of Federal Intellectual Property Management, the Annual Survey of Service Industries and the Survey of Financial Security.
Opposition to the 2010 Changes to the Census
The elimination of the mandatory long-form census contradicted advice from experts and professionals, including statisticians, economists, business people, doctors, lawyers, police officers, faith groups, anti-poverty groups, scholarly societies and advocates for linguistic minorities. At least 370 organizations from a wide cross-section of Canadian society have expressed their displeasure with the government’s decision.
Economists and statisticians defended the value and integrity of the long-form census, and warned against the biases that would occur in a voluntary survey. In 2010, the head of StatsCan, Dr. Munir Sheikh, resigned in protest. He alleged that the government mischaracterized his opposition to the changes to the census. (See our page on Dr Munir Sheikh here). In 2012, StatsCan's high-profile chief economic analyst Phil Cross also resigned, saying that internal debate at StatsCan was being suppressed in relation to questions about the mandatory long-form census.
The Canadian Medical Association was alarmed by the abolition of the mandatory long-form census, saying the decision would negatively affect the collection and use of health information.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Conference Board of Canada and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce all urged the government to reconsider its decision. The business sector had long opposed such a decision, and actually quashed a previous attempt to get rid of the long-form census by the Progressive Conservative government in 1986.
Faith-based organizations, non-profit groups, and Aboriginal and Francophone groups all spoke out in support of the mandatory long-form census, and against the effects that its elimination would have on religious, linguistic and cultural minorities, as well as economically disadvantaged Canadians.
Scholarly societies such as the Canadian Library Association, Canadian Anthropology Society, Canadian Sociological Association and the Canadian Historical Association also cautioned that the loss of “comparable, longitudinal, long-form data” would undermine the usefulness of the data as well as the aggregate statistics drawn from it. The data from the NHS would have limited utility as a historical data source and the loss of data would make it more difficult to identify and track inequality.
Women’s groups also protested the removal of the question on unpaid work, stating that the loss of this time-use data in the general census will impact the reliability and utility of the General Social Survey. The loss of this data is important given that care work is predominately performed by women and that an aging population will increase the demand for more work of this kind. In addition, women’s groups expressed concern that replacement of the mandatory long-form census with the optional NHS could lead to the undercounting of vulnerable women and girls, insufficient data to conduct gender-based analysis of programs and policies, and insufficient data to evaluate the impact of programs and policies on the status of women.
Both the Canadian and Quebec Bar Associations opposed the abolition of the mandatory long-form census, in part because the loss of robust statistical data makes it more difficult to develop evidence-based arguments in equality law cases under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and hampers Canada's ability to evaluate whether or not it is meeting its international human rights law commitments.
The 2011 Results of the New Census
In 2006, the mandatory long-form census was sent to approximately one in five Canadian households with a response rate of 93.5%. The sampling rate for the NHS was set at one in three households, increasing the cost of the census by $22 million. The larger sampling size does not solve the issue of non-response bias. The response rate for the 2011 NHS was 68.6%, with much lower responses in many mid-sized cities, smaller communities and rural areas.
A number of communities had response rates lower than 25%, and a few communities had a response rate of zero. As a result, StatsCan sharply lowered the point at which results are suppressed at the neighborhood level due to a high non-response rate. In 2006, the point of suppression was 25%, but for the NHS, it was 50%. In spite of these changes to the suppression rate, StatsCan was nonetheless unable to report data for approximately 25% of the census subdivisions or municipalities. However, if the NHS were held to the standards of the 2006 census, the responses from 67% of Canadian neighborhoods would not be considered reliable, and therefore excluded. This suggests that the data may not be usable at the community level for planning purposes.
StatsCan had cautioned that the most significant source of non-sampling error for the NHS would be the non-response bias, which would have adverse effects on the quality of the data. As the response rate declines, the risk of non-response bias increases; the smaller the group that is surveyed, the less reliable the information. Crucially, the characteristics of people who tend not to reply to surveys are different from the characteristics of those who do respond. Amongst others, groups that tend not to respond to voluntary surveys include First Nations people, new immigrants, and recipients of needs-based payments from any level of the government. This means that the results are not representative of the population, overestimating and underestimating population counts of a number of groups. Media analysis indicates that the NHS underrepresents people on both income extremes, as well as those individuals who are most likely to need the very government services that rely on data generated from the census.
This low response rate confirms that StatsCan does not have the information necessary to conduct accurate critical assessments of Canada's economic and social needs. In addition to the low response rate, the new methodology renders the NHS incompatible with previous mandatory long-form censuses for comparison purposes, and the biases in the NHS will compromise other StatsCan surveys which use the general census information as a baseline.
Analysis of data from the NHS was released by StatsCan on five separate topics, in three waves. On May 8 2013, the first wave of analysis was released on Aboriginal Peoples, as well as on Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity. Analysis of Education and Labour Force was released on June 26 2013, and the final wave on Income and Housing was released, after some delays, on September 11 2013.
Release of the analysis has been accompanied by much criticism. The first wave of results was described as lacking depth and breadth, leaving serious gaps in a critical area of public policy, and with StatsCan noting itself in a footnote of the report on Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada, that some data was not in line with the administrative data from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In its September 11 release, StatsCan indicated that data users should “use caution” when comparing NHS income data to older data because of the high non-response rate, as well as changes in methodology. In an emailed statement in July 2013, StatsCan stated that in areas with smaller populations and for some population groups, “the response rate may be insufficient to provide a valid statistical picture.”
Reactions to the 2011 Census Data
Critics have expressed concern that the NHS represents movement away from evidence-based policy making and that the biases of the NHS could allow governments to justify a reallocation of money away from programs for members of under-represented groups. Critics have also expressed concern that the data could be more easily manipulated by people with agendas.
Dr Munir Sheikh, the former chief statistician of StatsCan has described the NHS as a waste of money and has stated that the data generated is largely useless. Opposition leaders have promised to bring back the long-form census if their parties form government.
In July 2013, the City of Toronto decided that it would not use the NHS to make any historical comparisons with the 2006 census. Other municipalities have expressed similar concerns, with the City of Vancouver still assessing how to proceed with the data. The President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the main lobby group for Canadian municipalities, is concerned that gaps in the NHS data will compromise infrastructure planning, as well as planning around affordable housing, transportation and bus routes, and programs for new Canadians.
Concerns have also been expressed at the provincial level. In July 2013, a spokesperson of the Ontario Finance Ministry remarked that they will be using “additional prudence in using data from the National Household Survey because of issues related to quality and comparability.” In October 2013, the Quebec government critiqued the elimination of the mandatory long-form census, saying that the NHS compromises factual and accurate knowledge of reality.
Researchers and statistics experts are concerned that NHS data on income produces “flawed data with harmful implications for public policy”. The president of the Canadian Economics Association has stated he will “stay away” from the NHS data when it comes to assessing trends on income inequality. Other researchers have found that the NHS income data does not align with annual tax-filer data.
A range of health policy experts, urban planners, and various consultants have stated that the data quality is worse than they anticipated, masking poverty and income inequality, and preventing analysts from accurately tracking historical trends. The Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy has called the data flawed, noting that it underrepresents the number of poor children in Manitoba and could lead to “misaligned funding” for a range of programs, including early childhood education programs and immunization campaigns. Her team will instead rely on data from the 2006 census. Those working in public health may have to collect data themselves, ultimately redirecting funding from programmatic activity to information collection.
Despite external critiques and questions raised by StatsCan staff, Wayne Smith, Statscan’s chief statistician, insists that the NHS is a “success” and has suggested that it is a “disservice to Canadians” to criticize the quality of the NHS’ data. Statscan’s former chief statistician, Dr Munir Sheikh, maintains that more attention needs to be paid to the issue of StatsCan’s independence from government interference.
There are indications that the government may be open to changes in future census forms. In contrast to its approach to the 2011 survey, the federal government has asked the National Statistics Council and other groups for advice on preparing the 2016 census.
Relevant Dates:THIS month, after a three-year investigation, Harvard University suspended a prominent professor of psychology for scandalously overinterpreting videos of monkey behaviour.
The incident has sent shock waves through science because it suggests a body of data is unreliable. The professor, Marc Hauser, is now a pariah in his field and his papers have been withdrawn. But the implications for society are not great; no policy had been based on his research.
This week, after a four-month review, a committee of scientists concluded that the Nobel prizewinning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has "assigned high confidence to statements for which there is very little evidence, has failed to enforce its own guidelines, has been guilty of too little transparency, has ignored critical review comments and has had no policies on conflict of interest".
Read Next
Enormous and expensive policy changes have been based on the flawed work of these scientists. Yet there is apparently to be no investigation, blame, suspension or withdrawal of papers, just a gentle bureaucratic fattening of the organisation with new full-time posts.
IPCC reports are supposed to be the gold standard account of what is - and is not - known about global warming. The panel boasts that it uses only peer-reviewed scientific literature.
But its claims about mountain ice turned out to be anecdotes from a climbing magazine, its claims on the Amazon's vulnerability to drought from a Brazilian pressure group's website and 42 per cent of the references in one chapter proved to be to reports by Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and other "grey" literature.
This week's review finds guidelines on the use of this grey literature "are vague and have not always been followed".
For instance, the claim that glaciers in the Himalayas would disappear by 2035 seems to have been based on a misprint (for 2350) in a document issued by a pressure group. When several reviewers challenged the assertion in draft, they were ignored.
When Indian scientists challenged it after publication, they were not just dismissed but vilified and accused of "voodoo science" by IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri.
By contrast, when two academics, Ross McKitrick and Pat Michaels, found a strong link between temperature rise and local economic development - implying that recent warming is partly down to local, not global factors - their paper was ignored for two drafts, despite many review comments drawing attention to the omission. It was finally given a grudging reference, with a false assertion that the data was rebutted by other data that turned out to be nonexistent.
We now know the back story of this episode: the emails leaked from the University of East Anglia include this from professor Phil Jones, referring to exactly this paper: "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow - even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"
(Note that the IPCC had appointed Jones as co-ordinating lead author to pass judgment on his own papers as well as those of his critics. Learning nothing, it has appointed one of Jones's closest colleagues for the next report. This is asking not to be taken seriously.)
These are not merely procedural issues. They have real consequences for science and society. All the errors and biases that have come to light in recent months swerve in the direction of exaggerating the likely effect of climate change.
According to economist Richard Tol, one part of the 2007 report (produced by Working Group 2) systematically overstated the adverse effects of climate change, while another section (written by Working Group 3) systematically understated the costs of emissions reduction. Indur Goklany, an independent science scholar, likewise noticed that the report had quoted a study that estimated the number of people at increased risk of reduced water shortage in the future as a result of climate change, but omitted to mention the same source's estimate of the number of people at decreased risk.
The latter number was larger in all cases, so that "by the 2080s the net global population at risk declines by up to 2.1 billion people".
This is not a new problem. The unilateral redrafting of IPCC reports by lead authors after reviewers had agreed them, and the writing of a sexed-up "summary for policymakers" before the report was complete, have discomfited many scientists since the first report. It is no great surprise that the experts who compiled one part of the 2007 report included three from Greenpeace, two Friends of the Earth representatives, two Climate Action Network representatives and a person each from the activist organisations WWF, Environmental Defence Fund and the David Suzuki Foundation.
Frankly, the whole process, not just the discredited Pachauri (in shut-eyed denial at a press conference this week), needs purging or it will drag down the reputation of science with it.
One of the most shocking things for those who champion science, as I do, has been the sight of the science establishment reacting to each scandal in climate science with indifference or contempt. The contrast with the thorough investigation of the Hauser affair is striking.
Three years ago, not having paid much attention, I thought IPCC reports were reliable, fair and transparent. No longer.
Despite coming from a long line of coalmining entrepreneurs, I'm not a denier: I think carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. I'm not even a sceptic (yet): I think the climate has warmed and will warm further.
But I am now a "lukewarmer" who has yet to see any evidence saying that the present warming is, or is likely to be, unprecedented, fast or tending to accelerate.
So I have concluded that global warming will most probably be a fairly minor problem - at least compared with others such as poverty and habitat loss - for nature as well as people.
After watching the ecologically and economically destructive policies enacted in its name (biofuels, wind power), I think we run the risk of putting a tourniquet around our collective necks to stop a nosebleed.
The Times
Matt Ridley is the author of The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (Fourth Estate).
Read NextShortly after the fall of Richmond as Lee was retreating to the west, he received a message from Ulysses S. Grant that attempted to impress the idea of surrender. Grant stated that Lee had to see the futility of further resistance, and his inability to hold out for much longer. Lee quickly responded that if he could only reach the Blue Ridge he could hold out for another twenty years. This was the greatest fear that the North had. The nightmare scenario that the South might simply refuse to capitulate; that they might take to the hills and wage a guerilla war that would last for a generation, and that the South would desolve into a vast array of military districts that the North would be forced to maintain.
According to Porter Alexander, the prospects of a guerrilla war were actually discussed at the top levels of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee called his top lieutenants together one last time, shortly before the surrender, and asked their advice. It was Alexander that encouraged Lee to disband the army, and order the men to take to the hills. Alexander said that Lee appeared to consider the possibilities, that it was as if “he looked into the eyes of temptation and, at the last moment, looked away.” Why did the South not engage in a long guerrilla struggle at the end of the war? Why did Lee not order it? Because Lee had seen the results of partisan fighting in Missouri and Kansas. Because he had seen enough blood spilled to last him a lifetime. Because he was tired of the death and destruction and mangled bodies that stretched to the horizon. Because even Lee knew when a cause was lost and because, more than anything, he simply wanted peace.ULTRAcomp Pocket Holster
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Holster Insert
HOLSTER FIT LIST GUIDE:
Glock 43/SIG P365
PN: M-HOLSTER-G43-01-BK
FITS: GLOCK® 43, SIG® p365, RUGER® LC9, RUGER® LC9S, KAHR P9, SCCY CPX-1, SCCY CPX-2, BERETTA NANO, KEL-TEC® PF9™, BERSA® THUNDER 380 PLUS MORE Glock 42
PN: M-HOLSTER-G42-01-BK
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PN: M-HOLSTER-LCP-01-BK
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M&P BODYGUARD 380
PN: M-HOLSTER-SWBG-01-BK
FITS: M&P® BODYGUARD® 380, DIAMONDBACK DB380, DIAMONDBACK DB9, BERETTA PICO, TAURUS® TCP 738™, REMINGTON® MODEL RM380 & ROHRBAUGH R9 SMITH & WESSON® SHIELD
PN: M-HOLSTER-SHIELD-01-BK
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PN: M-HOLSTER-938-01-BK
FITS: SIG SAUER® 938, COLT.380 MUSTANG® XSP, KIMBER® MICRO 9 & WALTHER PPK/S.380
SIG SAUER P238
PN: M-HOLSTER-238-01-BK
FITS: SIG SAUER® 238, SEECAMP LWS.25, SEECAMP LWS.32 & SEECAMP LWS.380, SPRINGFIELD 911.380 KIMBER MICRO 380
PN: M-HOLSTER-MICRO-01-BK
FITS: KIMBER® MICRO 380 & COLT.380 MUSTANG®
Holster Use
1. Obey the basic firearm safety rules and local laws.
2. Become familiar with the holster before wearing it.
3. Always insert the firearm into the Holster while both are OUTSIDE of your pocket.
4. With the firearm properly seated in the holster, insert the holster and firearm into your desired pocket.
FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE WARNINGS AND ESTABLISHED FIREARM SAFETY PRACTICES COULD RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH.
It is the sole responsibility of the purchaser or ultimate user of the Blue Force Gear ULTRAcomp ® Pocket Holster to comply with all federal, state and local laws and to be properly trained regarding the safe handling, possession and use of firearms.
Pocket Holster to comply with all federal, state and local laws and to be properly trained regarding the safe handling, possession and use of firearms. DISCLAIMER - BLUE FORCE GEAR hereby disclaims any liability or warranty, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, related to the sale and use of the BLUE FORCE GEAR ULTRAcomp ® Pocket Holster. The purchaser and/or user accepts the inherent risks of firearm usage and releases BLUE FORCE GEAR of all liability related to the use of the BLUE FORCE GEAR ULTRAcomp ® Pocket Holster.
- BLUE FORCE GEAR hereby disclaims any liability or warranty, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, related to the sale and use of the BLUE FORCE GEAR ULTRAcomp Pocket Holster. The purchaser and/or user accepts the inherent risks of firearm usage and releases BLUE FORCE GEAR of all liability related to the use of the BLUE FORCE GEAR ULTRAcomp Pocket Holster. NEVER place a loaded handgun in the BLUE FORCE GEAR ULTRAcomp ® Pocket Holster without first testing, in an unloaded condition, for proper fit and safe handling.
Pocket Holster without first testing, in an unloaded condition, for proper fit and safe handling. This BLUE FORCE GEAR Minimalist Pocket Holster is designed to fit a specific manufacturer make and model of firearm – NEVER utilize with a different make/model firearm other than the one identified on the holster.
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Pocket Holster. IMPORTANT – Make sure that the BLUE FORCE GEAR ULTRAcomp ® Pocket Holster is placed in an empty pocket completely free of any objects (like keys, pens, loose change, etc.) that might interfere or cause accidental discharge of your firearm.
– Make sure that the BLUE FORCE GEAR ULTRAcomp Pocket Holster is placed in an empty pocket completely free of any objects (like keys, pens, loose change, etc.) that might interfere or cause accidental discharge of your firearm. Do not use this product with any firearm in a cocked and locked condition, or with a live round chambered, as it could result in accidental discharge.
Do not attempt to cock a holstered firearm as it may cause accidental discharge.
Quick Draw Use
Watch more here! **Video is from a 3rd party during Shot Show 2016, technical details, such as pricing, may not be accurate.**
As with all Blue Force Gear, it is made with excellence in the USA and carries a limited lifetime warranty.Glory days for Swan after best treasurer accolade
Updated
Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is happy to be compared to US rocker Bruce Springsteen after being named 'the boss' of the world's finance ministers.
The award, born not in the USA but in Europe, was conferred on him by leading banking and investment magazine Euromoney on advice from global economic experts.
The only other Australian winner of the award was Paul Keating in 1984, who later famously called himself the "Placido Domingo of politics" as he launched his ultimately successful bid to wrest the keys to The Lodge from Bob Hawke.
Asked which maestro he would compare himself to on ABC News Breakfast this morning, Mr Swan said: "I'm not really into classical music".
"What I'm into is rock and roll and I'm a great Bruce Springsteen fan - so there you go," Mr Swan told interviewer Virginia Trioli.
His message? Clearly, 'I'm on fire' - although he said it wasn't quite time for him to don one of Mr Keating’s famous Zegna suits.
But he was happy to credit the former treasurer with economic reforms that modernised the Australian economy - and even tipped his hat, albeit obliquely, to his predecessor, Peter Costello.
"We've not seen an award like this in Australia for 27 years," he told AM.
"I think the award underscores the importance of long-term fundamental economic reform, starting 27 years ago with those great reforms of the Hawke and Keating era, and of course there were reforms during the period of the Howard government as well."
Euromoney said it has contacted Mr Keating for comment on Mr Swan's award, but had been greeted with a volley of expletives.
The magazine said the former treasurer "curtly offered what appeared to be travel advice, suggesting we visit some place called 'buggery'."
But he then cooled down, praising Mr Swan for "his ability to comprehend danger and act decisively to minimise it" in the wake of the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse.
"Keating singled out Swan's decisions to guarantee bank deposits and splash on stimulus as crucial in helping Australia to avoid recession during the Global Financial Crisis," the magazine said.
"If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Wayne Swan's treasurership brought us through this profound crisis," Mr Keating is quoted as saying.
The magazine said it contacted Mr Costello for comment - but he didn't have one.
Weathering the storm
The prestigious award came as Australia continued to weather the worst of the global financial storm.
Overnight the International Monetary Fund warned that the US and the eurozone were at risk of tipping back into recession, with chief economist Olivier Blanchard urging political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to "get their acts together."
But the IMF said Australia had enough economic firepower to avoid a recession, saying the Federal Government did not overspend in ensuring Australia avoided becoming a victim of the last financial crisis.
"No absolutely not, the Government's debt to GDP ratio is very low in Australia - very, very low," the IMF's Jorg Decressin said. "So much lower than in many other advanced economies that there is plenty of space to respond to future eventualities."
But despite Australia's strong economic performance, the Opposition reckons Mr Swan is dancing in the dark.
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce said he thought the award should be named after the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith.
"The award was true to form. Paul Keating got it before we got the recession we had to have," he told journalists outside parliament.
But acknowledging Australia has weathered the world's financial meltdowns of recent years, Senator Joyce said the success had "nothing to do with Wayne Maxwell Swan".
"The reason we never went into recession was that we were selling red rocks at a record price, iron ore, we were selling black rocks at a record price being coal."
Each year the Euromoney award honours the finance minister, treasurer or central bank governor whose decisions "have directly benefited both the performance and perception of their country's economic and financial achievements".
Mr Swan has presided over an economy which grew 1.2 per cent in the June quarter while most of the world's developed economies stalled, while unemployment at 5.3 per cent is roughly half that of the United States and Europe.
Australia also has a low level of debt and consumer confidence is also up - again, in contrast to that of other advanced economies.
Australia's economy has relied to a large degree on the health of China's manufacturing sector and the coal, gas and iron ore Australian companies provide to the Asian giant.
Mr Swan has had failures though. His mining tax proposal under the Rudd government was thwarted by an effective campaign by mining companies and was replaced by a far less lucrative minerals resource rent tax acceptable to the miners.
Mr Swan will be presented with the award in Washington next weekend.
As for the next election - Mr Swan will be standing. After all, he was born to run.
Topics: swan-wayne, federal-government, government-and-politics, business-economics-and-finance, australia
First postedWhat is the relationship between urban planning and air quality in China? Rapid growth and greatly expanded motor vehicle ownership and usage have contributed to serious air pollution across China. In 2013, 96 percent of key cities did not meet the national ambient air quality standard. In 2014 alone, Beijing endured more than 20 days with almost ten times the national ambient air quality limit, causing public health issues. Scholars from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently published a paper in the Journal of Planning Education and Research evaluating this question.
Based on evidence gathered from 157 Chinese cities, the study analyzed the effects of aspects of urban form metrics on concentrations of ambient pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO 2, SO 2, CO, and O 3). Six urban form metrics were calculated using data from nighttime light images, land use, LandScan population, Baidu points of interest (POI) and others sources. These are population density, degree of centering, land use mix, street accessibility, shape complexity, and urban continuity. Linear regressions were used to evaluate the effects of urban form metrics on concentrations of six air pollutants after controlling for socioeconomic factors such as GDP, industrial emissions and meteorology.
Examples of maps used in this study.
The study finds that greater population density, more centralized development and better street accessibility have a significant correlation with lower concentrations of air pollutants, and that higher levels of urban sprawl may have a negative impact on air quality. Population density is negatively associated with concentrations of PM2.5, PM10 and O 3, because higher densities may reduce per capita emission by decreasing automobile dependence and travelling distance. More centering and subcentering in urban areas help to improve air quality, because less centralized development may increase travelling distances between urban centers and different destinations. Better street accessibility could reduce traffic congestions and increase vehicle speeds, thus reducing vehicle emissions. Higher urban continuity is associated with higher concentrations of air pollutants, which may be caused by non-emission-based mechanisms such as urban heat island effect or pollutant dispersion.
Standardized B Coefficients of Variables for Population-Weighted Concentrations of Air Pollutants.
“The influence of urban form on pollution,” write the authors, “is comparable to the effects of other factors like weather conditions.” Although population densities of Chinese cities are much higher than American cities, urban sprawl is becoming increasing common in China. Cities with urban sprawl are more likely to contain higher levels of air pollution, which should draw wide attention from local governments and planners in China. “These findings indicate that urban form could play a modest, but important, role in improving air quality for Chinese cities.” Lessons from Chinese cities could provide some implications for urban planning in developing countries.
Open Access Until December 7th, 2017
Man Yuan, Yan Song, Yaping Huang, Shijian Hong, Liejia Huang, 2017. "Exploring the Association between Urban Form and Air Quality in China" Journal of Planning Education and ResearchLast month, Activision confirmed that, obviously, there will be a new Call of Duty coming this year along with Elite 2.0, and we learned through various leaks that CoD 9 will be subtitled Black Ops 2, release in November, and have zombies’ mode.
As Call of Duty 9, or Black Ops 2, nears completion, a new leak details various aspects of the multiplayer component of the game. The information was first leaked on the official Black Ops forums in a thread that was taken down, and its’ cached version is not available. Fortunately, another user on the forums started another thread, which was also killed off by Activision, but its’ cache survived.
As it is always with leaks of this kind, please bear in mind that this is only a rumor, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
You can find the latest Black Ops 2 news and rumors here.
Leaked Black Ops 2 Multiplayer Information:
This year, Call of Duty will return with it’s ninth installment with Black Ops 2. As expected it will be following Treyarch’s previous game Black Ops. It’s release date is set for the 6th of November.
Game Modes
Escort, a new game mode
> Similar to Search and Destroy however a live player must be escorted to one of three areas (or two depending on the map) without being killed.
>The match will have rounds, consisting of one life only.
Drop Zone and Kill Confirmed will return
Team Defender and Infected will not return
Pointstreaks
Will follow from Modern Warfare 3’s system
Larger emphasis on objectives
> A bomb plant is worth 2 points
> A neutral flag is worth 1, however an enemy flag is worth 2
> A flag assist capture is worth 1, a capture is worth 2
The Specialist Pointstreak has be modified
> 2 kills now gets you 1 perk
> The 4 th kill gets you 2 more perks
> The |
an ever-more-complicated game
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Calais Campbell, defensive end, Arizona. At an age (30) many edge players are going downhill, Campbell ascended Thursday night. In the win over San Francisco, he sacked Blaine Gabbert twice, once for a safety. His biggest play was an interception of Gabbert just before halftime when San Francisco led 7-0 and could have salted away the time before half and entered the intermission with an unlikely lead. But Campbell’s pick at the Niners 21 led to the tying touchdown before the half.
Vic Beasley, outside linebacker, Atlanta. For a first-round pick—and purported pass-rush savior for the Falcons—who had just five sacks in 20 career games entering Sunday’s fray at Denver, Beasley took a huge step in the Falcons’ victory. He sacked Denver quarterback Paxton Lynch four times (he got credit for 3.5, including a shared sack with Dwight Freeney that looked an awful lot like Beasley’s alone) and had seven tackles. Rushing from Lynch’s right all day, Beasley consistently beat the Denver right tackle—Ty Sambrailo, then Michael Schofield—with speed. Great time for a breakout game.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Jakeem Grant, punt returner/wide receiver, Miami. Bad times for the Tennessee special teams. A punt return for touchdown last week contributed to special teams coach Bobby April getting fired after four games. And on Sunday, Grant weaved through the beleaguered Titans punt unit for 74 yards, breaking or evading four players with good chances to tackle him. A terrific return by Grant, a 5'7" sixth-round rookie from Texas Tech.
Adam Vinatieri, kicker, Indianapolis. Amazing. A week after hitting a 53-yarder and a 49-yarder in a loss to the Jags, Vinatieri was five-for-five in a narrow win over the Bears, hitting from 54, 53, 26, 41 and 46, the last one his career-record 38th consecutive made field goal. The man is unreal. At nearly 44 years old, he’s made nine straight from 50 or farther.
COACHES OF THE WEEK
Bill Belichick, coach, New England. So routing the Browns by 20 in Cleveland isn’t the biggest win of his life. It’s not his biggest win of the last month. But it allowed Belichick to reach a heck of a milestone. He became the fourth coach in history to win 250 games (regular season and playoffs), and he did it in 22 years. Belichick, even with that shaky first five years of his career in Cleveland, is averaging 11.7 wins per year (counting this year as three-tenths of a season, seeing that we’re five games into the year). The other three coaches to exceed 250 win in their career—Don Shula, George Halas and Tom Landry—reside in Canton, where Belichick surely will be five years after he retires.
Anthony Lynn, offensive coordinator, Buffalo. Since Rex Ryan fired Greg Roman as coordinator and appointed long-time aide Lynn to run the offense, Buffalo’s running game has become one of the league’s most feared. The Bills ran for just 75.5 yards a game under Roman in 2016; that number has skyrocketed to 178.3 per game under Lynn—and Lynn has reinforced the fact that Buffalo will be a strong running team first and second, then a throwing team third. Excellent job so far by the understated Lynn, who has the respect of his players.
Kyle Shanahan, offensive coordinator, Atlanta. Returning to his childhood home, where he often accompanied his father (longtime Denver head coach Mike Shanahan) to work on Saturdays, Shanahan had the best game of his 12-year NFL coaching career. With Denver one of three NFL unbeatens entering Sunday, and with the best defense in football, Shanahan used multiple weapons in a 23-13 statement win for the Falcons. Atlanta gained 372 yards and kept Matt Ryan relatively clean with a good, diversified game plan.
• ALBERT BREER’S GAME PLAN: Kyle Shanahan and the Evolution of a Young Coach
GOATS OF THE WEEK
C.J. Mosley, linebacker, Baltimore. With Washington leading 13-10 midway through the third quarter, Mosley stepped in front of a Kirk Cousins pass and made an interception at the Washington 13-yard line. Mosley rumbled to the 1 and tried to stretch out the ball over the goal line … and promptly fumbled the ball into the end zone, where it went out of bounds. Touchback. Washington took the ball at the 20, drove for a field goal, and there was no more scoring. Washington won, 16-10. So instead of having the ball first-and-goal at the 1-yard line midway through the third quarter, trailing by three, Baltimore turned it over to Washington and blew the golden scoring chance that very well could have changed the outcome of the game. Terrible decision by Mosley.
Drew Kaser, holder/punter, San Diego. Another ridiculous way to lose a game for the Chargers. With two minutes left in the fourth quarter, down three, the Chargers had a makeable field goal … except that the holder, rookie Kaser, missed a snap that was right in his hands, a perfect snap, the kind of snap that in The Great Snaps of NFL History would have its own chapter. An absurd way to lose, befitting San Diego’s season.
* * *
Right Combination of the Week
Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback, and Sammie Coates, wide receiver, Pittsburgh. There’s no way the Steelers, without the explosive production of suspended wideout Martavis Bryant, could be a complete playoff team unless the prolific Roethlisberger found another gem of a receiver to complement Antonio Brown. He’s found one. Talk about the right combination—Roethlisberger and the angular second-year man from Auburn combined six times for 139 yards and two touchdowns Sunday in the win over the Jets. One thing Roethlisberger and offensive coordinator Todd Haley know is that any team can take any single player out of the game with blanket coverage. What the Steelers have done without Bryant—Roethlisberger’s number two threat for the past two years—proves how good this offense is, and how adaptable Roethlisberger is.
* * *
Stats of the Week
I
Odell Beckham Jr., has led all wide receivers in drama early this season, but not much else. He’s in a bit of a slump. After averaging a touchdown a game through his first two years, he’s had one touchdown in his past six games, dating back to the last regular-season game of 2015. Drawing a line of demarcation on the dry spell of Odell Beckham Jr.:
Rec. Yards Avg. Per Game TDs First 26 Games 2,701 103.9 25 Past 6 Games 413 68.8 1
II
David Price, 0-8 with a 5.64 ERA as a starting playoff pitcher in his career, is owed $187 million over the next six seasons by Boston.
* * *
Dr. Z Unsung Guys of the Week
Each week, in conjunction with Pro Football Focus, I’ll point out three players who played well but were under the radar. Paul Zimmerman would have loved this section. This week’s trio:
1. Steelers OT Chris Hubbard. Hubbard turned in a stellar performance in his first career start. On 52 pass-blocking snaps, Hubbard didn’t allow a single sack, hit or hurry of Ben Roethlisberger and earned Week 5’s best pass-protection grade.
2. Bills TE Charles Clay. Clay caught all five passes thrown his way, for 73 yards, and was even more impressive as a run-blocker against the Rams, posting the week’s best run-blocking grade (86.5) of any tight end.
3. Titans DL Karl Klug. Klug was a key part in the Titans defense hindering the Dolphins running game. He had the highest run-defense grade of any interior defensive linemen this weekend. He also added two quarterback hits and four hurries, on only 13 pass-rush snaps.
Go here to access PFF's grades on every NFL player.
* * *
Factoid That May Interest Only Me
Arizona actually will have two bye weeks this year. The Cardinals are in the midst of their first one. Coach Bruce Arians gave the Cardinals five days off after the 33-21 win at San Francisco last Thursday night. The Cards don’t play until next Monday night, so giving the players Friday through Tuesday off makes sense; it still gives Arizona six days to prepare for the next game. The real bye week comes precisely in midseason—in Week 9.
The first half of the Cards’ season, in terms of fits and starts, is one of the stranger ones I’ve seen. Detailing it:
• Five games in the first 26 days.
• No games in the next 10 days.
• Three games in the next 14 days.
• No games in the next 13 days.
The weirdness culminates with five road games in the final seven weekends.
THE MMQB: Like us on Facebook for extras you won’t see on the site.
* * *
On Your Night Table
Getty Images (2) :: Amazon
How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff
Recommended by Vikings punter Jeff Locke
The fourth-year player from UCLA graduated with a 3.89 GPA and majored in Economics. This book was written in 1954, but Locke says it has tremendous lessons for today—namely, don’t believe everything you hear. It is the biggest-selling statistics book in history, with more than 1.5 million copies sold. “I read this book and took so much from it,” Locke said. “The overarching point is: Don’t believe what you first hear or what you first see. Dig into the stats and find out the truth. It might be what you first heard, but it might not be either.”
Locke is watching the current presidential race—but not the same way as most Americans. He said he will not watch the debates, including last night’s, but rather will read the transcripts of the debates online, then check out the veracity of the candidates’ points by reading at least two of the fact-checking sites that parse every word said in the debates.
“Personally, I want to think as logically as possible,” Locke said. “That’s something that was reinforced with this book.”
You can buy How to Lie With Statistics here.
* * *
Tweets of the Week
I
It's probably fun to be a Canadian tonight. You get to come together with the @BlueJays. — Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) October 10, 2016
II
Paxton Lynch is not very accurate. He's got a gun, but it's not an accurate gun. — Aaron Schatz (@FO_ASchatz) October 9, 2016
III
Asked Jerry Jones about benching a possible 5-1 Dak Prescott if he beats Green Bay on the road for Tony Romo, he walked away — Clarence Hill (@clarencehilljr) October 10, 2016
IV
V
Snyder sending Garcon, Jean Francois and medical supplies to Haiti https://t.co/mNyCrLN39I — The Insider (@Insider) October 10, 2016
* * *
Pod People
From “The MMQB Podcast With Peter King,” available where you download podcasts.
This week’s guests: Drew Brees and Doug Baldwin. I love this episode. Lots of enlightening talk from two very smart people and players.
• Brees on his drive to win a second Super Bowl: “We won one, and that was in my ninth year in this league. Here I am in my 16th season. To win another one would be so meaningful because I feel it literally would be with two totally different teams. As I look at a guy like Peyton Manning, he won one is ninth year, and he won in his 18th year. Literally two different teams—once with the Broncos, once with the Colts—at two different stages of his career. [Tom] Brady won in years two, four and five—you can say that dynasty in New England. And then, listen, they had a ton of success since then, but he didn’t see another one ’til Year 15, 10 years later.”
“It’s interesting you know those years,” I said.
“Oh, I do know those,” he said.
• Brees on why he loves the concept of flag football for very young players: “I don’t think tackle football is necessary until you get to middle school or high school. I think there’s just not enough coaches to coach proper technique with pads on with kids in elementary school. That’s just the truth. I think kids have more fun in flag football … You will bring a lot more people to the sport by starting them off with flag football. You get them to fall in love with the sport, then you gradually evolve to the physical nature of the game.”
• Baldwin on the need for white players to join the anthem movement: “I think it is difficult for other ethnicities to understand it because it is hard to put yourself in the shoes of other ethnicities and to feel the experiences that they didn’t experience. It is important that other ethnicities, especially the white Americans, do take part in it and recognize that it is not just a one-sided thing. In order for us to find solutions we have to do it together, so it is vitally important that other races get involved.”
* * *
Photo Op
Peter King/The MMQB
Many who travel know this picture: It’s a life-size Franco Harris statue, grabbing a football just above ground level, as he did (or didn’t do, depending on whether you live in western Pennsylvania or northern California) in the famous Immaculate Reception game of 1972. It sits in the arrivals concourse of Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, next to a statue of George Washington, the father of our country, and I’ve always been taken with the fact that the regional powers-that-be think so much of the Steelers. Visitors must know of our Steeler pride! Great symbolism: Pittsburgh values patriotism and the Steelers, and not necessarily in that order.
* * *
Ten Things I Think I Think
Ben Roethlisberger currently leads all NFL quarterbacks with 15 touchdown passes. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
1. I think these are my one-sentence truths of Week 5:
a. If I could pick one running back for the next five years to center my running game around, it’d be David Johnson of the Cardinals.
b. Blaine Gabbert (42 career games, 56.1 percent career completions) is too inaccurate to be trusted to be a starting quarterback.
c. Please, please, please, Colts: Keep that roof open. It makes a lovely tableau for football games in Indianapolis.
d. There’s no quarterback in football throwing the deep ball better than Ben Roethlisberger, and I mean no one.
e. Bill O’Brien cannot be sleeping well, with the lack of quarterback production he’s getting from Brock Osweiler (70.2 rating, 29th in the league) through a very shaky five-game start.
f. After watching a good chunk of Tennessee-Miami, I would like to announce that the reports of the demise of DeMarco Murray have been greatly exaggerated.
g. Of course you should be smitten with the Raiders at 4-1, but no team can give up four touchdowns a game (27.4 points, to be exact) and not have that come back to bite them, and soon.
h. It’s entirely possible the best element of the 2016 Packers through four games, stunningly, is the front seven.
i. The Jets are a very tough watch right now, and there may be no more shocking statistic after five weeks than this one: New York’s opposing passer rating is 118.6.
j. It is a mark of the craziness of the National Football League that Denver Broncos fans are waking up this morning muttering: “Hope Trevor Siemian’s healthy enough to play quarterback Thursday night against the Chargers.”
2. I think there’s no logical reason for Chip Kelly to not play Colin Kaepernick on Sunday in Buffalo, unless Kaepernick is hurt or Kelly thinks Christian Ponder has passed Kaepernick on the mental depth chart.
• TOM HERMAN’S SOCIAL NETWORK: Albert Breer on the University of Houston head coach’s strategy for connecting with a new generation of players
3. I think I will always wonder if Larry Fitzgerald, with a competent quarterback for most of his career, could have challenged Jerry Rice’s all-time record for catches (1,549) or receiving touchdowns (197). Probably not. And Fitzgerald told me last month: “His records are unattainable.” But Fitzgerald, who is 33, is 500 catches and 95 touchdowns away from Rice. And seven of the 13 quarterbacks who he’s caught touchdowns from are: Shaun King, Richard Bartel, Max Hall, Brian St. Pierre, John Navarre, John Skelton and Matt Leinart. Six of Fitzgerald’s 13 years have been spent, mostly, with quarterbacks not named Kurt Warner or Carson Palmer. What would Fitzgerald’s numbers have been like with even, say, a middling quarterback for half of his career?
4. I think if I were an NFL owner, and I knew the Tom Brady legal fight sapped my team of $359,000, I’d be furious right now. Livid. How’d I get that number? Darren Rovell of ESPN revealed that the legal battle between the NFL and Tom Brady over his four-game suspension and subsequent court battle cost an estimate $23 million. Say that figure is true, or close. And say it got split down the middle between the league and the Players Association (though it probably cost the league more, because of the Ted Wells investigation). That means the owners in the NFL, effectively though not directly, each had a $359,000 stake in the legal action against Brady. I’d be telling Roger Goodell right about now: Please send a strongly worded letter and a $25,000 fine the next time, unless you’ve got overwhelming evidence that the public confidence in the game has been irrevocably harmed.
5. I think this is what a mobile, confident quarterback will do for you: On the first Buffalo touchdown drive of the game at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Tyrod Taylor had 6.12 seconds, a lifetime for a quarterback, to look and look and scramble left and look some more and fire a strike to Justin Hunter in the end zone for a touchdown. Beautiful patience and execution and decision-making by Taylor.
6. I think Brian Hoyer (.714 completion rate, 108.5 rating) is a great example of a quarterback who should have a job for a long time in the NFL—just not as a starter.
7. I think what I love about Matt Ryan’s game right now is that he’s not mesmerized by the notion that he has to get the ball to Julio Jones X number of times in a game, but rather simply passes to the open guy. Three men—Tevin Coleman, Devonta Freeman and Mohamed Sanu—each had more catches and more receiving yards than Jones in the 23-16 upset of the Broncos, and knowing Jones, he absolutely did not care. He knows his time will come next week, or the week after. Or maybe both weeks. Atlanta’s got such an egalitarian offensive society.
8. I think, not to overdo a story that has gotten far too much attention already, I have to say one thing about offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan of the Giants implying that there is something unmanly about a defensive player who will not play Odell Beckham straight up without using mental games: It’s ridiculous. “If a defender is very confident, if he has complete belief in his own abilities and if he’s a true competitor, why does he want to tip the scales?” Sullivan asked last week. “Doesn’t he want Odell to be at his best? … Why are they trying to rattle him?” Because that’s sports! If Mike Sullivan thinks it's somehow unfair or non-sporting to take advantage of a hothead on the other side of the field, he’d be the first coach I ever heard of who felt that way.
9. I think this was Jenny Vrentas’ reaction to the new stadium in Minnesota—I’m a bit of a stadium junkie, and I have not been to U.S. Bank Stadium yet—after I asked her to write a few lines about it Sunday because she was on hand for the win over Houston:
“Sunday afternoon was the perfect showcase for the $1.1 billion U.S. Bank Stadium. The MMQB hadn’t been up here for a regular-season game yet, though Emily Kaplan got a tour in the summer, and this week happened to be the Vikings’ first afternoon game in their new building. The futuristic stadium design works exactly as intended. The sunlight poured in through the transparent ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) roof, basking down on the field and half the stands. The five giant hydraulic doors that open toward the downtown skyline were pivoted open three hours before kickoff—probably for the last time this season, given that the Vikings aren’t home again until November, and well, the weather probably won't be so nice by then. The indoor-outdoor feel here is perfect for this city. For those who visited the old Metrodome, it’s a little surreal to see an uber-modern structure nearly double the size on virtually the same footprint. Your ears don’t pop when you walk inside, but the new 66,000-seat stadium certainly feels just as loud as the dome was, and perhaps even louder. In a wildly unscientific sample, a decibel app on my phone recorded noise levels around 100 decibels on a couple third downs—and that’s just sitting in the press box, high up in a corner and behind the stands. Before the game, ESPN’s Ed Werder reported that the Vikings actually have been practicing with simulated crowd noise for home games. In their first three games at U.S. Bank, the Minnesota offense has picked up seven false-start penalties, so this is something to which they’re still adjusting. Of course, any NFL owner who has opened a new stadium would agree on the best attribute of the Vikings’ new home: A 5-0 team.”
10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
a. Two years and six days ago:
b. Rutgers 26, Michigan 24, in Piscataway.
c. Upset this year? Not a chance. Michigan 78, Rutgers 0, Saturday in Piscataway.
d. Michigan held Rutgers without a first down for the first 50 minutes of the game.
e. Please, no charges of running up the score. Michigan didn’t. Rutgers is terrible.
f. I loved this Sunday New York Postism: “Rutgers holds Michigan to less than 80.”
g. Stanford has lost by a combined 86-22 the last two weeks. I bet not even Pete Thamel saw that coming.
h. Alec Baldwin was pretty darn good on “Saturday Night Live.”
i. No question about it: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s open on “SNL” was the best one I’ve seen in years. Maybe ever.
j. A highlight of every TV week is the CBS Evening News “On The Road” segment by Steve Hartman. Friday night’s piece on the good deed done by Philadelphia Orchestra classic trumpet player David Bilger is the story of the week, and the good deed of the week too.
k. My other story of the week: I had no idea that gangsters nearly ruined baseball in Taiwan a few years ago, but Ken Belson in The New York Times has a fairly haunting, extremely well-told story about the human cost of it.
l. Every signing happens for different reasons at different times. And Jon Lester and David Price signed in different years. But to think the Red Sox could have had Lester pitching in Cleveland on Friday instead of Price, and for significantly less money. History-altering decision for Boston, and a great call by the Cubs.
m. Rick Porcello/Price for Boston in Games 1 and 2 of the American League division series: 7.2 innings, 14 baserunners, 10 earned runs, 11.74 ERA.
n. I was in Citi Field for Madison Bumgarner’s ace performance Wednesday night. Though the Mets lineup looked like it was March 13 in Port St. Lucie (someone named T.J. Rivera batted fifth for New York), it was such a pleasure to watch a master at his craft. I love great pitchers pitching great in big moments. That’s Bumgarner.
o. Coffeenerdness: You do not want to drink the Citi Field coffee.
p. All hail Terry Francona, for his excellent managing job in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, bringing in his best reliever, Andrew Miller, in a 4-3 game in the fifth inning with the meat of the Boston order coming up. After a rough beginning, Miller struck out David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez and Xander Bogaerts in succession, and by the time he came out of the game, Cleveland had a 5-3 lead and only seven outs to go. The final: Cleveland 5, Boston 4.
q. Not exactly apples to apples compared to Francona’s decision, but in the ballpark: One day we’re going to learn why Buck Showalter called for six relievers out of the bullpen in an 11-inning wild-card loss to Toronto, and none of them was Cy Young candidate Zach Britton, the best relief pitcher in baseball. It makes zero sense. But as Showalter told Tyler Kepner of The New York Times, a manager can’t always say everything he knows about a situation, and there simply has to be something bubbling beneath the surface on this.
r. Beernerdness: White beers, wheat beers, pilsners … mostly my beers of choice for the past couple of months. I’m turning a blind eye to IPAs lately. Hope my taste for them comes back soon, and hope this is just a tasteless phase I’m going through.
s. Uber alert: For the first time in 36 years, we are car-free. And thrilled about it. After five years of being city-dwellers with a car, we decided that 83-minute “drives” in Manhattan to go 7 miles (which has happened) simply had to go. And so we’ll rent when we need a car, and take the subway and walk and ride a bike at other times, and be much happier.
t. Frankly, we should have done this three or four years ago.
u. Facebook Live is becoming quite the medium for The MMQB. Tell us what you think of our chats by sending us an email.
v. On the subject of great international causes, please help the people of Haiti, where there is so much death and destruction after Hurricane Matthew.
w. On the subject of great American causes, please help the people of the Atlantic coast reeling from the flooding.
x. Now for a great local cause, and I know what great things the Matt Light Foundation does for troubled youth: Light is auctioning off four seats in a Gillette Stadium box for the Patriots’ game with Cincinnati on Sunday, plus a great painting, and you can find out all about it here.
* * *
Who I Like Tonight
Carolina 23, Tampa Bay 13. This is your chance, Jameis Winston, to shake the balance of power in the NFC South. With Cam Newton (concussion) out of the Carolina lineup and Derek Anderson in, Tampa Bay has a shot to save a season going south. But if the Bucs lose to go 1-4 entering the bye and give Carolina the booster shot its sagging season needs, it’s going to be a long year. Two trends the Bucs must reverse: Winston has turned it over 10 times in four games (eight picks, two lost fumbles); and the 3.4 yards per rush average, whoever’s running it, is a loser’s game. The Bucs are likely without their top two backs, Doug Martin (hamstring) and Charles Sims (knee), and going against the Carolina front (3.5 yards allowed per rush) won’t help. Even with the Panthers missing Newton, I’ll be surprised if the Bucs can make this a game deep into the fourth quarter.
* * *
The Adieu Haiku
The Vikes, 5 and 0.
Mike Zimmer, coach of the year?
Heck! Zimmer for prez!
• Question or comment? Email us at talkback@themmqb.com.Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for praising Gov. Gen. Julie Payette in the wake of Payette's suggestion that "divine intervention" did not play a role in the creation of life on Earth.
"It is extremely disappointing that the prime minister will not support Indigenous peoples, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Christians and other faith groups who believe there is truth in their religion," Scheer said in a statement posted to Facebook.
"Respect for diversity includes respect for the diversity of religious beliefs, and Justin Trudeau has offended millions of Canadians with his comments."
Speaking at a science conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, Payette stressed the need for greater public awareness of scientific knowledge and noted, with some incredulity, that certain unscientific beliefs persist, including astrology and skepticism about climate change. She also made a reference to religious belief.
"We are still debating and still questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process let alone, oh my goodness, a random process," Payette said.
During a speech to a conference in Ottawa, Governor General Julie Payette made dismissive references to astrology, the notion of "divine intervention" in the creation of life, and those who doubt the science behind climate change. 1:01
Asked about the Governor General's statements on Thursday, Trudeau offered a general statement of support.
"We are a government grounded in science. Canadians are people who understand the value of science and knowledge as a foundation for the future of our country," he said.
"And I am extraordinarily proud of the strength and the story of our Governor General, Julie Payette, who has never hidden away her passion for science and her deep faith that knowledge, research and the truth is a foundation for any free, stable, successful society. And I applaud the firmness with which she stands in support of science and the truth."
Scheer did not directly criticize Payette. Asked whether Scheer would like the Governor General to apologize, a spokesman deferred to Scheer's statement about the prime minister.The mysterious bag that led to allegations of evidence tampering in the Patrick Kane rape investigation and, for a short time, suggested the investigation was compromised, was an "elaborate hoax" by the accuser's mother, the lead prosecutor said Friday.
The announcement came two days after the accuser's attorney alleged at a news conference that a bag that supposedly once contained the rape kit from the case had been anonymously left at her mother's home, prompting an investigation by county prosecutors.
But then in a seemingly more stunning turn of events, Attorney Thomas Eoannou retracted the allegation late Thursday, saying that he no longer believed the account provided by the mother. He announced he therefore was ethically obligated to withdraw from the case.
At a news conference on Friday, Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III said the bag was given to the accuser's mother when she accompanied her daughter to a local hospital to have a rape kit done on Aug. 2. She was the last known person to have the bag, he said.
Sedita methodically walked reporters through a detailed timeline and surveillance video, showing the chain of custody of the rape kit.
Video recordings, Sedita said, showed the kit was put in a box and never placed in bag.
"The evidence in the case wasn't tampered with nor was it compromised," Sedita said.
Sedita said he does not anticipate criminal charges from the hoax because it is not illegal to lie to a private lawyer, as he alleges the accuser's mother did in this case. The mother, he said, never reported to police or prosecutors that the bag had been left at her home.
She denies it was a hoax, he said.
The revelation that the bag was not in any way connected to the rape kit or to the Kane investigation, Sedita said, should not affect the continuing inquiry — unless prosecutors determine that the accuser participated in the hoax. That part of the inquiry was continuing.
"That's the important part," Sedita said. "That's what we have to find out."
Friday's news conference marked the first time Sedita publicly acknowledged the investigation into a 21-year-old western New York woman's claim that the 26-year-old Blackhawks winger raped her at his lakefront mansion last month. It also offered another signal that the case against Kane may be weakening, as Sedita would not commit to bring the case before a grand jury. Prosecutors canceled a scheduled grand jury proceeding in the case earlier this month and had told Kane's lawyer that they intended to reschedule it.
Sedita — who traditionally brings cases before grand juries even when he doesn't intend to prosecute — suggested his office could also close the case administratively, meaning without a grand jury presentation and, as a consequence, without any criminal charges.
"The question in my mind isn't when this case goes to a grand jury... it's if this case goes to a grand jury," he said.
To be sure, developments over the past two days suggested that the case against Kane had other significant frailties, including DNA evidence that Kane's attorney said favors the player's claims of innocence. Kane attorney Paul Cambria said a DNA analysis in the case found that samples taken below the accuser's waist contain more than one male profile. None of the DNA, he said, belonged to Kane.
Cambria suggested the evidence bag story was fabricated to downplay the DNA results after they became public a few days earlier.
"My client's career, my client's reputation, my client's liberty. All of those are involved here to the highest level," Cambria said. "Anybody who tries to corrupt the process and to take any one — or all of those things — away from him should be punished. There is no room in the system for this kind of hoax. It disrupts it to the core."
Even as he distanced himself from the case, Eoannou insisted the bag issue should not cast doubts on the woman's sexual assault allegation. The woman's family released a statement to Buffalo media late Thursday that said she wants the case to continue moving forward
The statement said there's no evidence the accuser knew about the bag before her mother gave it to her attorney.
"We have every intention of pursuing this case to a just conclusion," the statement said. "It must be emphasized that there exists no evidence or allegation that the accuser herself had any knowledge of the evidence bag until it was brought to Mr. Eoannou's office."
The Tribune has reported that Kane spent the night of Aug. 1 at SkyBar, a popular nightclub 15 miles from his Hamburg home, and he stayed past midnight with friends. An off-duty Buffalo police officer drove Kane, a male friend, the accuser and her friend to the player's home after leaving the bar.
Multiple sources have told the Tribune that the accuser's female friend — a college classmate — would offer testimony that would favor Kane rather than the accuser. An attorney for the friend said she would comply with any court order to testify.
The Blackhawks are scheduled to be in Montreal for a preseason game Friday, but Kane and other top players will not be playing. Cambria said he had not yet spoken to Kane about prosecutors' determination that the bag was a hoax allegedly perpetrated by the accuser's mother.
Jared S. Hopkins reported from Buffalo and Stacy St. Clair from Chicago.
jahopkins@tribpub.com
sstclair@tribpub.com
Twitter @jaredshopkins
Twitter @stacystclairBob Nastanovich has spent his entire musical life bookended between two difficult personalities: Stephen Malkmus, frontman of legendary indie band Pavement, and David Berman, frontman of the slightly-less-legendary Silver Jews.
Nastanovich met both men while attending the University of Virginia and wound up spending about nine years in Pavement before the group called it quits in 1999, and he performed fitfully with the Silver Jews before that band's 2009 demise. Because Nastanovich doesn't really sing, or write songs, or play an instrument with great proficiency (though technically he's a percussionist), he can't start a band on his own.
He can only hope Malkmus or Berman get their bands back together, which sometimes happens: An extremely reluctant Malkmus briefly reunited Pavement in 2010, and last year Nastanovich put a picture on Facebook that alluded to a Silver Jews rehearsal, though an actual reunion has yet to happen ("Bob pulled a prank," Berman later told journalist Jack Silverman).
If it were up to Nastanovich, Pavement would play a few times a year, mostly prestige gigs. "It would be somewhat lucrative without being obscene," Nastanovich figures, and it might obviate the need for him to work a day job.
Nastanovich lives in Des Moines, works a seasonal job at Prairie Meadows Racetrack as a chart caller for horse races (horse racing is, or at one time was, his real passion) and takes DJ gigs to get by in the offseason (he spins at the Owl Bar on Thursday).
In a recent phoner, Nastanovich (aka DJ Needastack), as friendly and forthcoming a former indie rock star as you're likely to find, talked about life in and out of Pavement and the Silver Jews. Following are excerpts from that conversation:
On whether Pavement fans come to his DJ gigs
I think it's a quarter Pavement fans. One great thing about Pavement fans is, they've always been pretty forward (about introducing themselves), and we've always been welcoming. We may be, like, the least intimidating band of all time in terms of the personnel.
On stumbling into life in a famous band
I'm not a musician. I can't write songs.... All I ever wanted was to be a roadie, so to end up in a band was a stroke of luck, and for it to be a successful band was even odder. When Pavement got bigger and bigger, I was like, I better get better at this. It' one thing to humiliate yourself in front of 80 people at a bar, but 800? I don't think I ever took any stage with any sort of confidence that |
Account information in order to show you advertisements or related information. An automated algorithm – similar to that used for features like Priority Inbox or spam filtering – determines which ads are shown.”
As I pointed out in my recent article, the risk of what Microsoft is doing is that it could backfire and make Microsoft look nasty and desperate. Instead of whining and running smear campaigns, why not just make better products? Why not just kick Google’s ass in the marketplace?
The problem with campaigns like this is that it looks like Microsoft considered that option, realized it was impossible, and went with the negative ads instead.
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How To Use MailChimp To Market Your Website
Website owners and online publishers are always looking for effective ways to drive more traffic to their site and market their content to existing users. Marketing automation is a great way to do this. However, very few sites invest in marketing automation tools (due to their high-cost). In this blog, I’ll show you how to use MailChimp as powerful, free marketing automation tool for your website.
Marketing automation is an absolute must for just about anyone involved modern marketing, yet very few websites have implemented the marketing processes that marketing automation systems support. In the post below, I’ll show you how I have successfully used a free MailChimp account to duplicate the most valuable processes provided by expensive marketing automation systems.
I have used just about every best of breed (BoB) marketing automation system on the market (Pardot, Marketo, Hubspot, Eloqua), and can I tell you that in most cases, website owners and publishers will be able to extract far more value out of the processes I will show below than they ever could from one of those big expensive enterprise systems.
If you’re looking for other tips (other than automated e-mail marketing for your site, try this piece on ethical content marketing)
The strategy for marketing your website using MailChimp
First off, it’s important to understand that there are a lot of features that marketing automation systems offer that cannot be fully duplicated using MailChimp alone. However, the effective and proven strategy I’ll lay out below — and show you how to implement later in the blog — will only require the basic out of the box functions of MailChimp.
Additionally, there are a vast number of additional features and strategies that you could do on top of this inside of MailChimp that we won’t dive into.
Here is a way that myself and others have used to effectively capture visitor e-mails, nurture them over time, and measure and improve communications with them over time.
Offer Value & Capture Contacts
Step 1 will include capturing user e-mails. MailChimp offers the ability for you to embed newsletter sign-up forms in hundreds of different locations on your website. However, you’ll see below that I actually recommend a different strategy offered by the service, an exit pop-up, which we will discuss more later.
The secret is offering your visitors the opportunity to have you proactively send them something valuable. Your return visitors are already coming back anyway. Why is this? Wouldn’t it be easier for you just to let them know when valuable new content is available?
Discover what that value proposition looks like, then make your call to action on your newsletter sign-up form intriguing and representative of why people come to your site (more examples for this later). You’ll be surprised how quickly your new list grows.
Market Your Best Content To These Users
Once you’ve started building this list, there are really two different ways you can approach this.
You can push new and intriguing content to this list on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. You can automate a series of regular content to these users based on your content a site purpose.
Both of these are good options. They just have different applications.
Pushing content to users is better for sites that may not have a specific purpose or agenda with the delivery of their content (i.e. news, niche info, reviews, etc.). This process will look like creating a regular newsletter or outreach e-mail on a regular schedule.
There are two ways I’ve seen this work. The first is sending out a regular aggregate newsletter that includes links to multiple news and info URLs on a subject related to interests of your audience. Our popular newsletter, 5 Bullet Friday (sign-up here), is a good example of this.
The other way I’ve seen it work is by having a figurehead or persona send out regular pieces of content. This might just be a normal looking e-mail that comes from a single person, directed to your audience, that advertises a single piece of content. It is usually designed to be more personal and is supposed to look as though the content is being recommended by an expert.
Only you can decide which approach might work best for your website; if you decide that you want to push content. Also, it’s worth noting that pushing content is a little more time-consuming as you have to make sure that you consistently are doing this and this can be a weekly or monthly process.
Automating the delivery of content to new list subscribers is actually how traditional modern marketers have approached marketing automation, but this approach isn’t relevant to all websites. This can work really well for educational sites, sites that promote or offer learning, or DIY content.
The fundamental premise behind this strategy is that you have several pieces of content that just about everyone who visits your site should/needs to read. This content should be thought of as the “101” content on your site.
The call to action on your subscription form for this kind of strategy should advertise that subscribers will receive a free weekly course, regular reminders, and or a basic education program around a certain subject or concept.
Below, I’ll show you exactly how to setup a campaign like this for all new list subscribers. Another good thing about this strategy is that it could actually be used in combination with one of the strategies above. You could push news and info updates while also auto-delivering content at the same time.
The most important thing to keep in mind when implementing both is that you do not want to spam your users. I find that sending content once a week is about as often as I’d prefer to content people; however, you may feel your audience is different.
Measuring and improving upon your marketing efforts
If you’ve read anything else I’ve written on this blog before, you’ll know that I’m really into data and testing. MailChimp allows you to A/B test multiple elements of your e-mails. You can test everything from who your e-mail comes from to subject lines, and even the e-mail itself.
I strongly recommend testing all 3 of these elements early on with your audience. This information can tell you a lot about your audience.
When testing, I learn a lot about how wrong I am. You can see in the image above that the clickthrough and open rate for one of my headlines in this campaign did much worse than the others. This was personally my favorite headline. If you don’t consistently test these things — and revisit them later on — you’ll never really know if you’re maximizing your success.
How to use MailChimp to execute this marketing strategy
I decided to structure this article by showing you first what we’d be doing — so that when we got into the execution phase — you would better understand how to customize these processes for your website. Below is a walkthrough on how to use MailChimp to as a marketing automation tool to capture, deliver, and measure a website marketing campaign for your site.
Step 1: Setup a MailChimp account and create a list
I’m assuming everyone reading this has the intellectual capability of figuring out how to create their own MailChimp account, so I’ll gloss over that part. Once you’ve created an account, you will need to create the list that will house the visitors we talked about above.
I won’t go into the complexity of how and why you may create multiple lists. Let’s just keep it simple for now and create a single list. At the top of your home dashboard, go to the top and select Lists. In the top right of the next screen, click Create List. Go through the wizard on the next screen and select all of your default information. Don’t worry about this too much, once you start creating campaigns, you’ll be able to test and alter a lot of this criteria.
Step 2: Selecting a sign-up form for your website
Once you’ve created your list, you can start embedding sign-up forms on your website. Unless you already have some kind of pop-up working on your site already, I recommend adding a subscriber pop-up on your site (or at least the news or blog pages of your site). This will help you build your list quickly (you can always be less aggressive once the list is larger).
If you already have a pop-up — or are irrationally afraid of it slowing down your site (it should not have much impact at all — and you should be measuring this objectively anyway) — you can opt. for a sidebar or content embedded form instead. However, you will not build your list near as fast as you would have with the pop-up form.
Step 3: Create and implement your sign-up form
I’ll operate as if we are creating a pop-up form; however, most of this still applies to other forms as well.
Once you reach the form creation wizard, you’ll want to customize the form with a genuine and intriguing call to action (CTA). You can see my example above. I think it’s always good to be human and let people know you will do your best not to spam them as well. Additionally, remember my tip above about writing a CTA that speaks directly to why people return to your site already. I also recommend making the button text a little more appealing than “subscribe”. In this case, I might make the button say “Deliver website tips to me”.
Once you have your form configured, it’s time to embed it on your website. Click on Generate Code.
Embed this code in the <head> of any pages you’d like for this pop-up to display on. For best subscription results, it’s best to have it display on all pages.
Once the code is loaded on your site, go back to the form wizard and click Publish.
Step 4: Create your first automated or push campaign
Once your list starts to grow, you’ll want to start using it to drive these engaged visitors back to your site. To create a push campaign click on Campaigns at the top of your MailChimp dashboard, then click Create Campaign. Select A/B testing campaign and then select your newly created list as the audience.
I recommend testing who the e-mail comes from first. Sometimes a personal name like Tom Jones will work better than a name like YourWebsite.com. However, the brand of your site might be so strong with your users that the name of your site may be way more attractive to them. You won’t know for sure unless you test this.
Over time you’ll want to test e-mail layouts and subject lines as well. MailChimp gives you the ability to run more than one test at once. I usually try three options with each test. There is typically a clear winner among three options.
Once you get into the design portion of your e-mail I would strongly encourage you to keep it simple. Additionally, make sure you look at what your e-mail will look like on mobile. In most cases, your subscribers will see this on their phone first.
Once you’re finished designing your e-mail, it’s time to schedule your push. There has been a decent amount of research on when to send e-mails, but I’ve found that every audience is a bit different. In the beginning, you’ll want to measure how campaigns do when they are launched at different times throughout the day or week.
How To Use MailChimp For An automated campaign
To set up an automated marketing program to your new list, return to the dashboard and select Automation at the top. Click Add Automation and select Custom from the array of options (unless something else makes more sense to you).
Once you’ve named your automation, you’ll be able to begin creating e-mails and selecting the details of the automated campaign. I recommend that all e-mails be spaced apart by at least a week and that they all come from the same person. You can adjust this based on data later on, but this is generally what works best.
The e-mail design tips listed under I gave for push campaigns also applies to these automated campaigns.
Once you’re finished designing a series of e-mails you’d like to deliver, click Next, and then Start Workflow.
Step 5: Measure your results
We talked about how to use MailChimp for testing and evaluation quite a bit above; however, it’s important to remember that you can always improve. Continue testing the elements of your campaigns to see their effect on…
Click through rate
Open rate
Unsubscribes
Spam violations
Use MailChimp to grow your site
I know this was a long post, but there is actually probably a lot more I could share about how this works. If you’re interested in learning more, I encourage you to listen and follow my podcast with my good friend John Cole.
Have you tried this, did it work, have additional questions? Leave them below and I’ll answer.The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 12th CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 22nd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The United States was the host nation.
The competition began on 7 July 2013 at the Rose Bowl,[1] and ended with the final on 28 July 2013 at Soldier Field,[2] with the United States defeating Panama 1–0. In this edition of the Gold Cup, Mexico was missing more than half of their usual starters due to them playing in the 2013 Confederations Cup prior to the Gold Cup. Despite not playing with their full squad, they successfully reached the semi-finals where they lost to eventual runners-up Panama with a score of 1–2.
United States won the tournament, which qualified them for a play-off match against the champions of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup, to decide which team would represent CONCACAF in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.[3] The playoff was played in a single match held on 10 October 2015, which Mexico won 3–2.
Participating nations [ edit ]
Champions Runners-up Semi-finalist Quarter-finalist Group Stage Failed to qualify Did not enter Non-CONCACAF member
Bold indicates that the corresponding team was hosting the event.
Venues [ edit ]
Thirty venues across the United States participated in the start of the stadium selection process with Soccer United Marketing, the event partner for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.[4]
CONCACAF announced the 13 host cities and venues for the tournament on 23 January 2013.[5] Each venue will host two matches, with the final being held at Chicago's Soldier Field:
Match officials [ edit ]
Each CONCACAF federation submitted a list of match officials to the CONCACAF Referee's Commission for the 2013 Gold Cup Tournament.
Squads [ edit ]
Each team can register a squad of 23 players; 3 of them must be goalkeepers. Any team that qualifies for the knockout stage may replace up to four players in the squad after completion of the group stage, where the new players must come from a provisional list of 35 players chosen before the tournament.[6][7]
Group stage [ edit ]
CONCACAF announced the groups, where the twelve teams were divided into three groups of four teams, and the match schedule for the 2013 Gold Cup on 13 March 2013.[2][8]
In the group stage, if two or more teams are equal on points (including among third-placed teams in different groups), the ranking of teams will be determined as follows:[6]
Greater goal difference in all group matches Greater number of goals scored in all group matches Greatest number of points obtained in group matches between the teams concerned (applicable only to ranking in each group) Drawing of lots by the Gold Cup Organizing Committee
This was changed from previous tournaments, where head-to-head record was used as the primary tiebreaker.[7]
Key to colors in group tables Teams that advance to the quarter-finals Group winners
Group runners-up
Best two third-placed teams among all groups
All times given are US Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
Group A [ edit ]
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Panama 3 2 1 0 3 1 +2 7 Mexico 3 2 0 1 6 3 +3 6 Martinique 3 1 0 2 2 4 −2 3 Canada 3 0 1 2 0 3 −3 1
Group B [ edit ]
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Honduras 3 2 0 1 3 2 +1 6 Trinidad and Tobago 3 1 1 1 4 4 0 4 El Salvador 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 4 Haiti 3 1 0 2 2 3 −1 3
Group C [ edit ]
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts United States 3 3 0 0 11 2 +9 9 Costa Rica 3 2 0 1 4 1 +3 6 Cuba 3 1 0 2 5 7 −2 3 Belize 3 0 0 3 1 11 −10 0
Ranking of third-placed teams [ edit ]
Group
Team Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
B El Salvador 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 4 C Cuba 3 1 0 2 5 7 −2 3 A Martinique 3 1 0 2 2 4 −2 3
Knockout stage [ edit ]
In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time shall be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.[6]
Final [ edit ]
Statistics [ edit ]
Goalscorers [ edit ]
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
Awards [ edit ]
Winners [ edit ]
2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup Winners
United States
Fifth title
Individual awards [ edit ]
Golden Ball and Golden Boot winner, Landon Donovan, in the USA vs. Panama final at Soldier Field on 28 July 2013
Notes
1 Award is shared between the three players. It was the third time that Landon Donovan has been the competition's top scorer and also the third time he has shared the award with others.
Tournament ranking [ edit ]
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Final result 1 United States (H) 6 6 0 0 20 4 +16 18 Champions 2 Panama 6 4 1 1 11 4 +7 13 Runners-up 3 Mexico 5 3 0 2 8 5 +3 9 Third place 4 Honduras 5 3 0 2 5 5 0 9 Fourth place 5 Costa Rica 4 2 0 2 4 2 +2 6 Eliminated in
Quarter-finals 6 Trinidad and Tobago 4 1 1 2 4 5 −1 4 7 El Salvador 4 1 1 2 4 8 −4 4 8 Cuba 4 1 0 3 6 13 −7 3 9 Haiti 3 1 0 2 2 3 −1 3 Eliminated in
Group stage 10 Martinique 3 1 0 2 2 4 −2 3 11 Canada 3 0 1 2 0 3 −3 1 12 Belize 3 0 0 3 1 11 −10 0
[ citation needed ]
(H) Host. Updated to match(es) played on 28 July 2013. Source:Host.
Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-out are counted as draws.
Official song [ edit ]
"Cups" by actress Anna Kendrick (from the film Pitch Perfect) is the official song of the tournament.[12]
Broadcasters [ edit ]
Marketing [ edit ]
In December 2012, Traffic Sports USA were awarded the rights to manage the marketing of the tournament, which continued a relationship between CONCACAF and the parent company Traffic Sports Marketing.[14] In 2015, this business deal led to charges in the 2015 FIFA corruption case, which identified bribes given from top Traffic officials to CONCACAF chairman, Jeffrey Webb.[15]
Game notes [ edit ]
7 July 2013 – A Guinness world record 566 mariachis performed at the half-time of the first round game between Mexico and Panama at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California.[16]Welcome back to Love and Comics!
This week we are taking a bit of a break from the Spider-Man covers to bring some romantic issues from the Black Panther series. This weekend was the world premiere of the Black Panther teaser trailer and with just over 4 million views and counting, it release has blown up the hype surrounding the Black Panther movie. As fans anticipate and wait for more footage, there is already speculation as to which characters will make their MCU debut into the Black Panther universe. Between friends, foes, and most certainly lover, there are so many characters that the series can bring into the cinematic world. This week we will take a look at the many covers and lovers of the King of Wakanda, T’challa aka The Black Panther.
Black Panther Vol 3 #14 (Black Panther and the Bride of the Panther)
Black Panther Vol 3 brought King T’Challa to the front line in 2005. With the last solo titled book making it’s run from 1998-2003, Vol 3 sets up the Black Panther for modern comic readers and fans. This series featured the Black Panther in story lines such as Civil War and Secret Invasion, but none as life-changing for King T’Challa as the “Countdown to the Wedding of the Century”. In this issue, King T’Challa reminisces about how he fell in love with his one true queen, the Goddess of the desert, Storm. In a beautiful and heart-breaking re-telling, the Black Panther gives us a short synopsis of how he fell in love with the desert thief of his heart. More details to their first encounters can be found in Storm Vol 2 so be sure to check out that series if you want to see some young versions of Ororo Munroe and King T’Challa.
Black Panther Vol 3 #15 (King T’Challa and Ororo Munroe)
Continuing the story line of the “Countdown to the Wedding of the Century” issue #15 follows the major cliff hanger left in the last issue. Last issue, the Black Panther reminisces about their break-up on the streets of Africa. Although those scars are still healing, the Black Panther knows in his heart that his true love is Ororo Munroe, aka Storm. He left Storm with a very important question last issue, “Ororo Munroe, will you marry me?” Just as Ororo is about to respond they are attacked by the Arabian Knight. In an almost hilarious battle sequence, King T’Challa begs and pleads his case for marriage to Munroe all while kicking the Arabian Knight’s ass in every other panel. She agrees to spend more time with him and soon enough they are off to Wakanda. She even meets his mother to which his mother explains to Ororo why she should wed her son, “Wakanda is a warrior culture. It takes a strong woman to lead and breed these strong men and here you are. A princess, street-tough. A warrior on a galactic scale. I have followed your adventures closely. You are a hero worthy of my son. There’s only one outstanding question: Do you love my son enough to be with him — forever?” Her answer is “Yes”.
Black Panther Vol 3 #16 (King T’Challa and Ororo Munroe)
In this issue the Black Panther and Storm make their “save the date” announcements to the entire world. They sent invites to the Avengers, the X-men, friends, and family. Unfortunately not everyone is excited for the Wedding of the Century, as ex’s of King T’Challa are now hell bent on stopping this wedding. One such ex is Princess Zanda of Narobia. Also on the list of surprised and baffled ex’s are Ororo Munroe’s past lovers: Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Forge. Another hilarious build-up with the theme of weddings, this issue shows the little details to a super-hero wedding, including the Fantastic Four’s The Thing worrying about whether he’ll fit in a tux. The issue ends with both Black Panther and Storm gathering one of the very few blood relatives that Ororo has, her grandparents. A heart warming reunion, Storm’s grandparents are a couple of tough retirees willing to kick the asses of some Hydra agents coming to kidnap them. Luckily for all parties, the two had no problem with using necessary force to incapacitate the would-be kidnappers.
Black Panther Vol 3 #17 (King T’Challa and Ororo Munroe)
The Wedding of the Century gets closer and closer as the story continues between King T’Challa and Ororo Munroe. In this issue the Black Panther and Storm hold a press conference in hopes of holding off the coverage during the day of their wedding. Amidst the conference are the events of Civil War, so news crews are hungry to find out what side either of them fall on. In the most politically peaceful way, they both answer by stating that they hope that their marriage shows peace between the two different parties and acts as a symbol for being united amongst differences. Also in this issue the respective bride and groom have their own versions of a bachelorette/bachelor party. During Ororo’s shopping night out, they discover that Princess Zanda has been going around New York posing as Black Panther’s fiancee and stating that she is to marry the young King. Storm definitely puts her in her place. Meanwhile, King T’Challa is out to Rio for a bachelor party. As an honorable King he decides not to partake in the usual festivities of a Bachelor party but tags along to support the men that have supported him in his decision to marry Storm.
Black Panther Vol 3 #15 (The Wedding of King T’Challa and Ororo Munroe)
Finally the time has arrived for the “Wedding of the Century”. Some major events are happening in this issue and such cosmic events cause high profile guests to arrive including Oprah, Prince, and the Watcher to name a few. As the guest begin to arrive King T’Challa tells Ororo one of the most important traditions of the Wakandan wedding: The journey into the celestial plane. The celestial plane is the reason why the Black Panther has his powers. In this moment both the Black Panther and Storm will come face-to-face with the cosmic entity that imbues him with his powers, The Panther God. Here, the Panther God will judge whether Ororo Munroe is worthy to be the bride and Queen to the King of Wakanda. Another great thing about this issue is the wedding dress design by Frank Cho. The issue goes into details into how they decided to design the famous wedding dress in an article titled “Divining the Design”. Also in this issue the Black Panther attempts to make a peaceful truce between Captain America and Ironman over the neutral soil of Wakanda. It does not end well and both parties must give their apologies for not being able to attend the “Wedding of the Century.”
Black Panther Vol 4 #5 (King T’Challa and Ororo Munroe)
Following volume 3 of the Black Panther is the continuation of the story between King T’Challa and now Queen Ororo. In this series the Black Panther faces death as he remains trapped in limbo. The Queen and T’Challa’s mother are on a mission to save their King from the confines of death and have enlisted the help of a witch doctor named Zawavari. Meanwhile, the major mantle of the Black Panther needs to be fulfilled and the person to step-up to such occasion is the sister of the Wakandan King, Shuri. Making her first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Shuri is being played by actress Leticia Wright. Director Ryan Coogler commented on the appearance of Shuri on EW.com stating that Shuri’s character will be a brilliant scientist and on par with the likes of Tony Stark. According to comicbook.com Leticia Wright is excited to showcase a young, black, and female scientist in her character giving new fans a refreshing hero to follow.
Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive Vol 1 (Lady Bullseye and King T’Challa)
At some point in Daredevil’s history, the mantle of protector to Hell’s Kitchen was taken over by King T’Challa. The series prior to the featured one above was titled Black Panther: The Man Without Fear. In this series T’Challa abdicated his throne and left his country of Wakanda. He was stripped of his power, wealth, and influence, and decides to take his remaining skills to the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. In an effort to prove himself as a guardian, the Wakandan King protects a board member of the Bank of Wakanda from an assassination attempt from Wilson Fisk. One of those assassins sent to kill said board member is the dangerous and deadly, Lady Bullseye. Although not an official romance exists between the two, Lady Bullseye and the Black Panther are drawn by famous artist Francesco Francavilla. Known for his work on After Life with Archie, Francavilla is one of the best artist across the comic medium. Known for his pulp-noir style, Francavilla has many accolades for being a NYT best-selling writer and artist and a comic influence throughout the medium.
Marvel Knights vol 1 “4” #21 (Black Panther and Susan Storm)
In an issue titled “Desperate Housewife”, Susan Storm gives a break down of what her typical day looks like. In this issue Susan Storm retells the story of her midnight skinny dip with the T’Challa the night they visited Wakanda. Told in the fashion of a Jack Kirby flashback, Susan Storms retells her secret story to a group of super-heroine gal pals. In her story Susan finds that Reed is too busy being a nerd and into his scientific work that she sets out to explore the Wakandan kingdom on her own. While exploring the palace of the Black Panther she is greeted by the handsome and mysterious King T’Challa. He takes her around to show her the natural beauty of the country. They both decide to jump in a natural pool where they are just on the verge of flirtation and intimacy when Susan Storm decides that there are some things she would regret if she had continued. After the flashback, Susan Storm returns to her normal life and comes home to her awaiting husband, Reed Richards. Even if Reed was too busy to call her all day, he arrives with flowers for their anniversary.
Black Panther Vol 3 #20 (King T’Challa and Medusa)
King T’Challa and Medusa are never actually a couple. The following 3 issues after the Wedding of the Century, put King T’Challa and Ororo Munroe on a diplomatic journey to Latveria, the Moon, and Atlantis. All of these events occur following Civil War, and as a Wakandan King and new Queen, their goal is to create as much diplomacy as they can. Unfortunately the Inhumans had other plans for the King. As they arrive they are greeted by the royal family. They attempt their best at a small talk dinner as Black Bolt is sent to investigate a ruin that the Black Panther had mentioned. Ororo and T’Challa find themselves unknowingly offending the royal Inhuman family and a battle breaks out until it is broken up by King Black Bolt himself. They were requested to be there by King Black Bolt himself and despite their different beliefs in ruling, the Inhumans ask the Wakandan leader to help them develop a chamber to allow Black Bolt to speak without destroying entire worlds. Their hope is to utilize the precious metal of Adamantium.
Black Panther Vol 2 #24 (Malice and T’Challa)
Definitely one of the many loves of the Black Panther is a character that might be unfamiliar, Nakia aka Malice. Nakia was a teenager when she was picked to be one of the future wives in training for King T’Challa. Obsessed with prince T’Challa, her passion for him only grew. Although not completely promised to be a wife to T’Challa, Nakia became very jealous of the Black Panther’s American Ex-girlfriend, Monica Lynne. This issue also featured another character making their debut into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Killmonger. The main bad guy for the upcoming Black Panther film is none other than Killmonger and is being played by Michael B. Jordon while Nakia is being played by Lupita Nyong’o.
Black Panther Vol 2 #24 (Storm and T’Challa)
Ending this series of Black Panther romances with where we started is none other than the one true love and Queen to Wakanda, Ororo Munroe aka Storm. The Black Panther and Storm are a comic couple that represents so much power, intimacy, and love. Between being two of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe, they found each other’s drive for justice and strong ties to culture to be their most attractive qualities. With a movie like Black Panther on the horizon, the amount of diversity and cultural awareness in movies is something that needs to be handled with respect and celebration. From the teaser trailer alone, fans are excited to see what Marvel will do right in the way of the fictional Wakandan culture and in general to Black culture and representation in the MCU. Be sure to check out the film which is scheduled to be released February 16th, 2018. Until then re-watch the trailer below and thanks again for checking out Love and Comics!
Thanks for the love and be sure to write in suggestions, comments, questions, or PDA’s here and on our Instagram @loveandcomicsATLANTA – The Atlanta Humane Society received a special shipment full of furry, precious cargo early Friday morning, straight from Houston.
It took over 14 hours, but they finally arrived.
“We hit a couple of rainy spots. The guys in the truck had a couple of bug problems, so it's been a long trip,” Ashley Steffey, who traveled with the truck from the Austin Humane Society, said.
(Atlanta Humane Society)
When Hurricane Harvey slammed Houston last week, animals were one of many types of victims throughout the city. Now, The Atlanta Humane Society is stepping up to help more than 100 four-legged survivors of the deadly storm crashing down on Texas.
The local Humane Society greeted the arrival of 110 adoptable animals from the Houston SPCA between early Friday morning. The animals were en route to Georgia from Texas overnight.
“The cats are doing great. We're OK. We're running on adrenaline, I think,” Steffey said.
PHOTOS | Animals from Houston arrive in Atlanta
PHOTOS | Houston pets arrive in Atlanta
The animals that were shuttled across the country by the SPCA of Texas and Austin Humane Society, were not animals that were displaced by the hurricane, lost from their families or were strays found on the streets during the hurricane. These animals were already adoptable animals at the Houston SPCA before Hurricane Harvey hit.
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But their move will give more space in the Houston shelter for animals that have been displaced by the storm.
“Every kennel these guys freed up is a place the displaced animals from the hurricane can. This is a huge help because all those kennels are open for the guys that are coming in,” Steffey said.
Volunteer travels the country to help animals in need
Heather Harris, an emergency veterinary technician from Killeen, Texas, helped drive animals from Houston to Atlanta.
She works Happy Feet Rescue and has a ranch of her own about four hours from Houston.
It's been non-stop.
“We were up at 5 a.m., went to bed at 2 a.m., up again at 5:30 a.m., sleeping in the front seat of a truck… doing everything we can.”
Last week, she said, she sent a text message to a man whom she’s never met and who runs Safe Canine Transports in San Antonio, Texas. She found him via a post on Facebook. He was going to rescue and transport animals to safety from Hurricane Harvey.
“I said, ‘I have all this experience…’ [he] said, ‘Yes, I'll take you.’ He said, ‘Meet me in Pipe Creek, Texas,’ which is right outside of San Antonio, at 3 a.m.”
So, she packed up her stuff and went to meet a guy in, what she called, the middle of nowhere in the early morning, by herself to help animals.
“We drove into Houston and begged them to let us through the barricades into Katy, Texas. We were driving through floodwaters. We were getting turned around. We were going the wrong direction on empty freeways, but going through floodwaters. We had no plan in place, but to try to find animals to pull out.”
She took to Facebook and asked for boats. Within hours she had a boat.
The group’s first truck was flooded and they had to walk about a quarter of a mile in waist-deep water to another truck.
But it’s been a long road to Atlanta.
“I left Sunday night from Lampasas, Texas. I've had one shower which was last night and I've had eight hours of sleep in that whole time and that wasn't a continuous eight hours of sleep.”
So, why in the world does she do it?
“It's the animals. We're saving lives. It's adrenaline. It's emotion. It's… I don't know. Hot Dr. Peppers, hot Monsters, lots of water. Volunteer efforts are crazy-amazing. That's the only word for it. Just crazy.”
While she was busy helping animals, the community was helping her and her team along the way.
The generator that was in truck that was flooded, which was a huge asset to their mission. But, again, she turned to Facebook.
“Fifteen minutes later we had three brand-new generators delivered to us. How does that happen? I mean, just amazing the people.”
“It's for the animals. it's what we do. |
taken one partner home for a visit with his immediate family. “I don't hide or deny that I am gay in any of these worlds, but I know where I am more welcome.”
Peter’s sentiment recalls Lagunas, who said he was proud of his identity but doesn’t bring it up if he can help it. Navigating the immigrant world and experience as a minority within a minority compounds an already hard existence, and adds difficulties all its own. As Peter said, “It took me a while to get to this place. It's a hard truth in life that coming out doesn't just happen once in life. It's awkward enough in a normal setting but put it in the context of a different culture and set of values. It becomes a more formidable beast.”
Now imagine Lagunas’ position when he was undocumented. While he said that most whites he had encountered were accepting of him as a gay Latino, he added, “Yeah, they were cool if they didn't know [about my undocumented status].” Undocumented immigrants, like LGBT people, are constantly faced with the necessity of, or the opportunity to, come out. When you’re both, it must seem inescapable.
“I think Americans take a lot for granted,” Benji said. “However, you don't know what you don't know. They have not experienced the hardships and discrimination that we often experience in Mexico.” It’s equally true that we don’t know the hardships, both in terms of social isolation and exclusion and of internalized guilt, immigrants face when they come here.
And yet, while there are real difficulties, there are real rewards. “I came to the United States to find work and make money,” Benji said. “I never expected to find love like I did. That has been the greatest surprise of all.”
For those who are in the country illegally, either having entered without inspection or having gone out of status, there are a few options for remaining in the country legally:
Path 1—Asylum. The process is complicated, requires experienced legal assistance, and rarely leads to a grant of asylum. Asylum must be requested within a year of entry.
Path 2—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This program, initiated by Obama in 2012 and expanded in 2014, allows illegal immigrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday (before 2010) to apply for a renewable two-year work permit and exemption from deportation. No path to citizenship.
Path 3—Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). Part of Obama’s November 2014 Executive Action, DAPA offers protections similar to DACA for parents of children legally in the U.S. Renewable every three years, no path to citizenship.
Path 4—U-visa. Congress created the U nonimmigrant visa for crime victims who assist law enforcement with the prosecution of the crime are eligible to apply. This confers a documented status and therefore may open other legal avenues.
Glossary:
“Entry Without Inspection”: The act of entering a country without examination by customs and immigration.
“Undocumented Immigrant”: A person who enters the country without the appropriate permissions (visa).
“Out of Status”: A person who entered the country with the appropriate permissions, but whose status has subsequently changed. Generally the visa has expired and the person chooses to stay without appropriate permission.
SOURCE: Paula Auerbach, attorney
photo credit: Chris WalburnPaul Ryan has a message for all of us who are now free of the bondage of pre-existing conditions exclusions: Suck it.
Washington Post:
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says in a new interview that it would be too costly for Republicans to reinstate some of the more popular provisions of Obamacare if and when the law is repealed, but that Republicans should look for alternatives.
The former GOP vice presidential nominee was asked on Bloomberg's "Political Capital with Al Hunt" about whether Republicans would keep provisions like requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions, keeping kids on their parents' insurance until they are 26 years old and barring insurance companies from having different rates for those whose jobs include physical labor.
The first two provisions are among the most popular parts of Obamacare, which as a whole is not popular. But Ryan says such provisions would also drive up the cost of insurance too much.
"If you look at these kinds of reforms, where they've been tried before — say the state of Kentucky, for example — you basically make it impossible to underwrite insurance," Ryan said, according to an advance transcript. "You dramatically crank up the cost. And you make it hard for people to get affordable health care."SYDNEY AIRPORT earns more money per passenger and provides worse service than any airport in the country, the consumer watchdog has found.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's annual airport monitoring report typically features criticism of service at Sydney. But yesterday's report was particularly harsh and went close to suggesting the airport was abusing its monopoly.
According to the commission's figures, Sydney Airport made more than $14 a passenger in the 2009-10 financial year. That was an 8 per cent increase on the previous year and comfortably the highest margin in the country.
But the airport also recorded the worst ranking on the commission measure of service quality, which takes into account the views of passengers, airlines, and the customs and quarantine officers that work there.
The commission chairman, Graeme Samuel, said Sydney Airport stood out compared to other airports that had responded to concerns about service quality.Today, Google announced an expansion to its Play Store with its new Android Excellence program. Curated by Google’s editorial team, Android Excellence features rotating collections of apps that deliver a superb Android user experience, utilize many of Google’s “best practices,” and “have great design, technical performance, localization, and device optimization.” Broken down into two categories of apps and games, Android Excellence appears in Google’s newly revamped Editor’s Choice section.
The announcement comes after Apple’s recent WWDC debut of its overhauled App Store, with a new interface and shifted focus on discovery and how-tos. It also has a new way to highlight apps — the App Store’s upgraded landing page will feature one new app a day, opening possibilities for up-and-coming developers and encouraging daily visits.
While Google’s Android Excellence program is more extensive, the lists will only be updated quarterly, a move that might not serve users as much as it does developers (who can reap exposure for months). Also a bummer — there are no descriptions to explain why editors select apps for Android Excellence, the way they do for other Google Play categories, like “5 Travel Apps for Your Next Adventure.”
Regardless, if you want to see what Google deems the best of the best, Android Excellence kicks off today in the Google Play Store. Below, their first round of selects.
Android Excellence Apps
Android Excellence GamesThe patient is the priority. This is Dr. Feriduni’s guiding principle. Dr. Feriduni’s team is focused on providing patients with the best possible results. He listens to your wishes, and understands your goals, and devises a plan to address your concerns with the minimum amount of risk. All treatment start with an intensive consultation, including a discussion of all the treatment methods (both surgical and non-surgical) that might be suitable for that particular patient. Dr. Feriduni’s philosophy is one of a “holistic” approach. He is known around the world for being an expert in both symmetry and a focus on aesthetics. Each individual is different. Finding the right combination and approach is unique to each patient, and essential to achieve the most natural-looking outcome. The shape and appearance of the head and face are of great importance. They are the things people focus on, in any interpersonal interaction. A natural-looking full head of hair frames an individuals presence to the outside world. Only an experienced hair surgeon with years of experience can perfectly apply all of these elements to your outcome. Dr. Feriduni was recommended to HairLossTalk.com by countless individuals in the industry as the best hair transplant doctor in […]Submitted by the Event Organizer
Considered one of the country’s original outdoor festivals, the North Beach Festival celebrates its 64th anniversary in historic North Beach.
2018 North Beach Festival
Saturday & Sunday, June 16-17, 2018 | 10 am to 6 pm
Grant Avenue and Columbus Avenue, San Francisco
FREE
The festival site includes numerous quaint streets in the heart of the district including Grant Avenue, Green Street, Vallejo Street and Columbus Avenue.
The 2018 event will feature over 125 arts and crafts booths, gourmet food booths, two stages of live entertainment, Italian street painting, beverage gardens, a kids’ chalk art area and a blessing of the animals.
Kids’ Chalk Art Area: Let your kids creativity shine in North Beach and buy a square and street chalk at the kids chalk art area on Vallejo St. between Grant Ave. and Columbus from 10 am to 6 pm on both days.
Let your kids creativity shine in North Beach and buy a square and street chalk at the kids chalk art area on Vallejo St. between Grant Ave. and Columbus from 10 am to 6 pm on both days. Blessing of the Animals: The animal blessing at The National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi (610 Vallejo St) will take place from 2–3 pm both days during the festival.
>> View the full 2018 Entertainment SchedulePeter Quinter was a U.S. Customs Service attorney in Miami in the early 1990s. His job: enforcing the embargo against Cuba, making sure people and products didn’t illegally make their way to the island.
Flash forward some two decades. Quinter, who left the government in 1994 and went into private practice, is leading a delegation of 37 lawyers on a trip to Cuba organized by the International Law Section of The Florida Bar. They’ll meet with Cuban lawyers and academics and learn about the island’s business and legal system. The group leaves Wednesday for the four-day trip.
Quinter, a shareholder at GrayRobinson and head of the International Law Section, and his fellow lawyers will be discussing the new rules of the game under the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba announced by President Barack Obama and Raúl Castro on Dec. 17.
“It is a flip for me,” said Quinter, who early in his career cracked down on Americans who tried to skirt the embargo by sending products to Mexico or Panama and then to Cuba, or who traveled to Cuba via other countries. “Now I’m going to Cuba for the first time, and I’m interested to see what it’s really like.”
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Under the opening, not only can more Americans travel to the island than at any time since the embargo was phased in during the early 1960s but they are allowed to import some products and services from private Cuban entrepreneurs, participate in joint ventures to improve Cuba’s antiquated telecommunications system, and send exports to Cuba destined for the fledgling private sector.
So far, there have been a handful of announcements by U.S. companies of new Cuba-related ventures, but little concrete business has transpired. Still, there is one group that’s already cashing in: the lawyers.
From taking clients on scouting trips to Cuba and advising them on what they can and cannot do under the new rules to helping them submit applications for ferry service, registering trademarks, researching old claims and even working on the deal that brought Airbnb to Cuba, South Florida lawyers have been in the thick of the new Cuba business.
“Clients now have a change in perspective on Cuba,” said Pedro Freyre, chairman of the international practice group and a partner at Akerman. “Before, they worried about doing something that was not allowed. Now, they are worried about being left behind.”
Family ties to the island, Spanish-language fluency, proximity, and experience with Cuban affairs and international law have made the local legal community a natural place to turn to for advice on Cuba and U.S. laws related to it.
“Many practitioners are first- and second-generation Cuban Americans. I think the firms in Miami are the best positioned nationally to take advantage of what’s going on,” said Yosbel Ibarra, who came to the United States from Cuba as a 6-year-old in 1980 and is now co-chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Latin American and Iberian practice group.
It’s not the first time in the past few decades that local lawyers have trained their sights on Cuba. This is at least the fourth go-around, said Carl Fornaris, a Greenberg Traurig attorney who specializes in financial matters.
In the early 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of Cuba’s economic lifeline, many analysts were betting the collapse of Cuba and the end of the embargo couldn’t be far behind. The business of getting ready to do business with Cuba became almost a cottage industry.
The getting-ready-for-Cuba era ended abruptly on Feb. 24, 1996, when Cuban MiGs shot two small Brothers to the Rescue planes out of the sky and an angry Congress and president approved the embargo-tightening Helms-Burton Act.
But a provision of Helms-Burton that allowed U.S. citizens to sue foreign investors trafficking in confiscated Cuban properties in federal court once again started to send clients — both potential plaintiffs and European and Canadian companies that were concerned they might be sued — through lawyers’ doors.
Some lawyers jokingly called Helms-Burton the “full employment for lawyers act.”
Local firms set up practices to help families recover assets, but since then, U.S. presidents have routinely invoked waivers, suspending enforcement of the lawsuit provision every six months.
In the meantime, that hasn’t stopped clients who claimed they suffered at Cuba’s hands from filing civil suits and piling up judgments worth billions of dollars after winning their cases by default because Cuba has chosen not to defend itself.
There was also an uptick in clients seeking legal advice in 2006 when Fidel Castro became ill and some expected his imminent death. “There wasn’t as much legal activity for this one,” Fornaris said.
Now, almost nine years later, Fidel Castro is still alive, and his brother Raúl is firmly at the helm of the Cuban government.
“Now we’re once again seeing the mobilization of the legal community akin to what we saw in the early 1990s,” Fornaris said.
Jim Whisenand is one lawyer who has stuck with Cuba business since the early 1990s. Whisenand, who did a lot of work during the transition in Eastern Europe, as well as on large privatizations in Poland, thought his expertise would transfer well to Cuba in 1991 as the economy soured and it appeared a government transition might be near at hand.
While Whisenand said he’s seen a lot more interest in Cuba by both U.S. and foreign companies since Obama began rolling out his new Cuba policy, he still likens the U.S-Cuba relationship to a giant funnel, with the U.S. representing the broadest part of the funnel and Cuba the end of a spigot “about the size of a pinhole.”
“They control the pinhole, and it moves very slow,” he said. “It takes a lot of patience to do things in Cuba.”
Pursuing opportunities in Cuba isn’t for everyone, he said. “If you want the same safeguards and regulations of investing in New York or Miami, then you should be investing in New York or Miami.”
Cuba, he said, is a “frontier market, and by definition, you’re on the frontier.”
Freyre and fellow Akerman lawyer Augusto Maxwell say their Cuba work falls into four categories: OFAC-licensed companies allowed to do business in Cuba under exceptions to the embargo; clients making professional research trips to Cuba; third-country clients who have operations in the United States and don’t want to trip over U.S. laws and regulations regarding Cuba; and companies that see potential in Cuba after the embargo is lifted and are taking this time to prepare.
The pair travels regularly to Cuba on behalf of clients and sometimes accompanies them on fact-finding missions. Under the new regulations, they no longer need to apply for licenses for such trips or abide by strict per-diem expenditure limits.
“The client interest has really taken us by surprise. Not a week goes by that we don’t have a new prospect or two, three, four, five prospects,” Freyre said. “It doesn’t let up, and now the inquiries are coming from significant players.”
Much of the interest is coming from the travel industry, Maxwell said. He represented San Francisco-based Airbnb in its recent launch in Cuba. It now has more than 2,000 listings of private Cuban residences that provide lodging.
Twenty years ago, Freyre said, it would have been very difficult for such a business opening toward Cuba to occur. “The debate about the opening goes on in Miami, but it has not been acrimonious or personal the way it was in the past. Some folks don’t like it, some don’t like it and live with it, and there are also those who like it.”
Meanwhile, he said, there’s an appetite for legal advice as people grapple with what it all means. “Folks are adjusting and trying to understand the new rules of engagement,” he said.
With Cuba expected to be removed from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in less than a week, Ibarra, of Greenberg Traurig’s Latin American and Iberian practice group, said he’s already seen more interest by Mexican, Spanish and Central American companies in doing business with Cuba. Because the United States saw Cuba “as a bad actor,” they didn’t want to run afoul of U.S. regulations or risk potential problems with financing, he said.
Removal from the list “takes the scarlet letter ‘A’ off of Cuba,” Ibarra said. “Mexican and Central American clients have said that now is the time to go and cut a deal in Cuba before the Americans can really come in.”
Ibarra said he sometimes has to rein in American clients’ enthusiasm for the possibilities in Cuba and “remind them that the embargo is still very much there” and that the “Cubans might not want to do business to the extent you want to do business.”
Even though the new policy allows U.S. banks to open correspondent accounts in Cuba and permits authorized Cuba travelers to use credit or debit cards issued by U.S. financial institutions, banks have been cautious.
“We’re not seeing banks hungry to set up deals or units dealing with Cuba,” said Fornaris. “Banks in Miami and generally don’t want to engage in transactions with Cuba when there are still gadzillions of regulatory hurdles to jump. So they are waiting until there is additional regulatory liberalization or a lifting of the embargo.”
Pompano Beach-based Stonegate Bank is an exception. It said last week that it would become the banker of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and its employees. The Interests Section had been without a bank for more than a year.
Even though relations with Cuba were frosty for more than a half-century, many U.S. companies have kept their trademark registrations current in Cuba with an eye toward the day when they could once again do business with the island.
Jorge Espinosa, who has registered trademarks in Cuba for Citrix and Arm & Hammer, among others, said he’s received a lot of inquiries about trademark registrations since Dec. 17.
“There’s still a level of insecurity of where things are going in terms of trademarks,” he said. One of the problems is that companies in the United States defend their trademarks and brands by using them, and that hasn’t been possible in Cuba.
“Companies are still trying to get informatio,n and they’re a bit cautious about making big investments to get their brands registered at this point,” Espinosa said. When it comes to doing business in Cuba, he said, it’s important to remember that “everything hasn’t changed yet.”The following is an overview of the television ratings for the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Stanley Cup Finals in both the United States and Canada.
American television [ edit ]
NBC's coverage (2006–present) [ edit ]
The following table shows the ratings for each game of the Stanley Cup finals. The numbers in parentheses represent number of viewers (measured in millions).
ABC's coverage (2000–2004) [ edit ]
Fox's coverage (1995–1999) [ edit ]
Most watched games [ edit ]
Most watched Stanley Cup finals games (1966–present) [ edit ]
Source: [1]
May 18, 1971, Montreal-Chicago – game seven, 12.41 million, 20.6 rating CBS May 11, 1972, Boston-NY Rangers – game six, 10.93 million, 17.6 rating CBS May 10, 1973, Montreal-Chicago – game six, 9.41 million, 15.2 rating NBC June 15, 2011, Boston-Vancouver – game seven, 8.54 million, 4.8 rating, 8 share NBC April 30, 1972, NY Rangers-Boston – game one, 8.51 million, 13.7 rating CBS May 12, 1974, Boston-Philadelphia – game three, 8.30 million, 12.5 rating NBC June 9, 2010, Chicago-Philadelphia – game six, 8.28 million, 4.7 rating, 6 share, NBC May 7, 1972, Boston-NY Rangers – game four, 8.26 million, 13.3 rating CBS June 24, 2013, Chicago-Boston — game six, 8.16 million, 4.7 rating, NBC June 15, 2015, Chicago-Tampa Bay – game six, 8 million, 4.4 rating, 8 share, NBC[36]
Stanley Cup game seven viewership history (1966–present) [ edit ]
As per Fang's Bites.
May 18, 1971, Montreal-Chicago, 12.41 million, 20.6 rating CBS June 15, 2011, Boston-Vancouver, 8.54 million, 4.8 rating, NBC June 12, 2009, Pittsburgh-Detroit, 7.99 million, 4.3 rating, NBC June 9, 2003, Anaheim-New Jersey, 7.17 million, 4.9 million households, 4.6 rating, ABC June 9, 2001, New Jersey-Colorado, 6.95 million, 4.268 million households, 4.2 rating, ABC June 7, 2004, Calgary-Tampa Bay, 6.29 million, 4.5 million households, 4.2 rating, ABC June 14, 1994, NY Rangers-Vancouver, 5.44 million, 3.28 million households,[37] 5.2 rating (6.9 rating when including MSG network),[38] ESPN June 19, 2006, Edmonton-Carolina, 5.29 million, 3.3 rating, NBC May 31, 1987, Edmonton-Philadelphia, 2.14 million households, ESPN
Canadian television [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]article
You will find more statistics at Statista.
Continue Reading Below
Marijuana has been nearly unstoppable this year.
Heading into Election Day, residents in nine states were set to vote on marijuana initiatives or amendments within their states. Five states had been looking to legalize recreational marijuana, whereas residents in four states were voting on medical cannabis initiatives or amendments. Out of these nine states, the lone dissenters were found in Arizona, where Prop 205 lost by a mere 2%. Aside from an exceptionally close win in Maine, marijuana initiatives handily won in every other state. As it stands now, and as you can see by the map above, 28 states, along with Washington, D.C., have now legalized medical cannabis, while the number of recreational-legal states doubled following this election to eight from four.
The sky seems to be the limit for the pot industry. Investment firm Cowen & Co. is estimating that growth could average nearly 24% per year through 2026. This would transform today's $6 billion legal pot industry into a $50 billion juggernaut in a decade. That would represent about a quarter of the size of the alcohol industry if these growth projections come to fruition.
In order for cannabis to continue growing like a weed, it'll need new avenues with which to expand. It's possible that President-elect Trump could legalize medical marijuana since he has gone on record and thrown his support behind pot's medical use. However, the real growth is to be made from the recreational side of the business, and to this end, Trump has favored the status quo of allowing states to decide marijuana's fate on their own. In other words, with eight states (and Washington, D.C.) now able to legally sell recreational marijuana to adults ages 21 and up, the attention turns to which states could be next in line to legalize recreational weed.
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Image source: Getty Images.
Four states that could legalize recreational marijuana next
Though it's completely up to interpretation at this point, the following four states look the most likely to attempt to legalize marijuana next.
Arizona
Although Arizona was the only one of the nine states whose ballot initiatives failed, it's also one of the most likely to legalize recreational marijuana. Why? Because history suggests so.
Though the marijuana industry is quick to point out its numerous victories, there have been ample instances of failure in recent years. California's Prop 64 passed overwhelmingly in 2016, but a similar measure designed to legalize recreational marijuana in 2010 failed. Similarly, Oregon's residents passed a recreational marijuana initiative in 2014, but this was only after a similar push failed in 2012. Arkansas, which just approved Issue 6 to legalize medical cannabis for 17 ailments, initially failed to approve a medical marijuana ballot initiative four years prior. The same can be said in Florida, which failed to pass a medical marijuana amendment in 2014 but passed Amendment 2 in 2016 for medical pot.
In other words, failure happens from time to time, but history suggests that after marijuana advocacy groups focus their efforts on states that had narrow defeats, they turn into victories relatively soon thereafter. Arizona's Prop 205 only lost by 2%. Meanwhile, cannabis' approval rating keeps climbing in national polls. Given some time, Arizona could be a strong candidate for recreational legalization.
Image source: Pixabay.
Rhode Island
Following the approval of recreational weed in the neighboring state of Massachusetts this year, Rhode Island could very well be the next state to consider legalizing adult-use pot.
There are certainly a number of incentives in place for lawmakers in Rhode Island to strongly push for legalization. To begin with, Rhode Island residents can hop over to Massachusetts to purchase legal marijuana beginning in 2018 when it'll officially go on sale (though recreational marijuana becomes legal on Dec. 15, 2016). This creates a potential problem with Rhode Islanders bringing an illegal drug back into the state while Rhode Island collects no tax revenue in the process.
Additionally, a National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that Rhode Island of all states has the highest percentage of people over age 12 (16%) who have consumed cannabis over the past month in the United States... for the second consecutive year.Obviously, lawmakers don't want marijuana winding up in the hands of minors, and that's one reason why Rhode Island's lawmakers haven't legalized recreational pot yet. However, this national survey provides pretty irrefutable evidence that Rhode Island could benefit from the tax revenue generated by a law legalizing recreational weed.
Gov. Gina Raimondo (D-RI) recently suggested that she would take a long look at a possible legalization measure, with Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello pointing out that he's ready to take up legislation in 2017.
Image source: Pixabay.
Vermont
Vermont is a particularly intriguing state since any legalization efforts would have to come from the state's legislature since it lacks the initiative and referendum process. However, Vermont has long had a tendency to lean toward progressive policies, which could bode well for the future of recreational pot's legalization.
Last year, Vermont actually came pretty close to legalizing recreational marijuana through the legislative process. Senate Bill 241 passed muster in the Senate, but it wound up falling short of the votes it needed in Vermont's House of Representatives in April. According to a poll from VPR in Feb. 2016, 55% of Vermonters favored the idea of legalizing recreational marijuana compared to just 32% who opposed it.
Arguably the trickiest aspect of a future approval in Vermont is that the state's biggest cheerleader of Senate Bill 241, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT), is on his way out of office and is being succeeded by Lieutenant Gov. Phil Scott (R-VT). Scott is a Republican, and Republican lawmakers generally take a more conservative approach to legalizing marijuana. In short, Senate Bill 241 could require some modifications before Scott and members of the Vermont House of Representatives will sign off on it. The VPR poll suggests support from Vermonters is there, but we'll have to wait and see how things play out once the next legislative session begins in January.
Image source: Pixabay.
Hawaii
Lastly, tropical vacation destination Hawaii could soon become a legal recreational pot state. Some of the best candidates to legalize recreational weed are those that have had medical marijuana infrastructure in place the longest or legalized medical marijuana many moons ago. Hawaii wound up approving medical cannabis in 2000, meaning there's ample reason to believe its legislature would have a good handle on regulating the recreational marijuana industry.
Also, according to the Hawaii Drug Policy Action Group, Hawaiians strongly approve of the idea of taxing and regulating legal weed. In a Jan. 2014 poll, the survey showed that 66% of 400 surveyed Hawaiian voters favored the idea of legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana. This was up 9 percentage points from 2012, and it was considerably higher than the 37% who favored similar legalization back in 2005.
Like Vermont, Hawaii is part of the two dozen U.S. states where there is no initiative and referendum process. This means all proposals, including recreational legalization, would be voted on by the state's legislature. The good news here is that Hawaii's congressional politics are typically dominated by Democrats, which generally have a favorable view of the responsible expansion of recreational marijuana.
One of the more interesting hurdles Hawaii might have to overcome (should it legalize recreational cannabis) are high energy costs. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Hawaii has some of the highest energy costs in the country, and growing marijuana is highly energy intensive. Since Hawaii also has a very strict greenhouse gas emission policy, the inner workings of a large-scale recreational marijuana industry could be tricky.
A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.
Sean Williamshas no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen nameTMFUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.
The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.Last week Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, once again reiterated the company's belief that people have a right to privacy and security, and that the cost of free-as-in-paid-for-by-your-data services isn't always clearly understood. Those for who believe the conversation about privacy and security is the most important of our generation appreciated someone as powerful and influential as Cook giving it the spotlight it deserves. Those who believe the advancement of technology requires the relinquishing of previously held beliefs about privacy and security, however, reacted harshly. The problem is, many of them also reacted in a way that's just plain wrong.
Here's a study from the Annenberg School of Communications about how marketers are misrepresenting consumers and opening us up to exploitation:
It's equally vital to understand that everything has a cost. That cost can be in money, or it can be in time, data or attention. Apple products tend to cost money. That's easy to understand. Building something from scratch tends to cost time, which is also easy to understand. Giving up data and attention is different. There's no cash leaving a wallet, or a clock ticking away to show us the value of the time we're spending. Maybe if we were forced to watch all our emails and phone numbers and URLs and credit card numbers scroll by as we "spent" them it would be more apparent. But the way it is now, humans are really good at mortgaging our future security for our present convenience, and data and attention often seem like no price at all.
It's vital to understand that privacy and security, while often mentioned together, are not one and the same. Privacy demands security, but security does not demand privacy. Historically, privacy has often been violated in the name of security.
By misrepresenting the American people and championing the tradeoff argument, marketers give policymakers false justifications for allowing the collection and use of all kinds of consumer data often in ways that the public find objectionable. Moreover, the futility we found, combined with a broad public fear about what companies can do with the data, portends serious difficulties not just for individuals but also — over time — for the institution of consumer commerce.
A majority of Americans are resigned to giving up their data — and that is why many appear to be engaging in tradeoffs. Resignation occurs when a person believes an undesirable outcome is inevitable and feels powerless to stop it. Rather than feeling able to make choices, Americans believe it is futile to manage what companies can learn about them. Our study reveals that more than half do not want to lose control over their information but also believe this loss of control has already happened.
This debate isn't just raging over Facebook and Google either. How many people are aware that unless location is disabled Instagram can make it trivial for someone to find where you live? Or that Uber wants to start tracking you even when you're not using the company's app, or that PayPal wants to opt you into spam and telemarketing whether you like it or not.
The truth is you can have incredibly good, incredibly powerful services that also are completely secure and maintain our privacy is every way that matters. If a service is missing features or is buggy, that has nothing to do with privacy or security. That has to do with it missing features and being buggy.
If someone says Apple is buggy because of privacy and security, they're technically wrong. If someone says Apple won't be competitive in the future because of privacy and security, they're conceptually wrong. Privacy and security aren't a limitation. They're a foundation.
Look at handoff. For years cloud companies have synced data. Draft an email on one device, and it would near-instantly be saved to drafts on every other device logged into the same account. Last year Apple did one better — they synced activity. Draft an email on one device, and the email client on every other device within reach would populate with that same email, in that same state.
With data sync, if you wanted to switch devices, you'd have to go get the other device, find the requisite app, navigate to the proper folder, open the email, and then scroll to where you left off. With handoff, you'd just pick up the device, swipe/click, authenticate if needed, and keep on typing.
The truth is, you can have incredibly good, incredibly powerful services that are also completely secure and maintain our privacy is every way that matters.
Because you have to be within reach (Bluetooth range), you don't have to worry about someone at work accessing the email you're drafting at home, or someone on one side of the house snooping on the web page you're browsing on the other side.
It's private, it's secure, and conceptually it's better than what the data-centric companies had offered. It also doesn't require that activity be sent to and stored on someone else's servers.
By contrast, when I first got my Nexus 5 and it asked if I wanted to use Google Now, I said "yes." Then it asked for permission to track my web history, and I said "no." At that point it told me I couldn't use Google Now. Which is BS. I could easily use everything about Google Now that doesn't require my web history, which is an incredible amount. But Google wants that data so, at least back then, it was all or nothing.
That's where I see the difference. Apple could provide similar services where if I declined to allow access to any specific data, it would happily exclude that data and provide me whatever it still could based on on whatever I was comfortable sharing.
What's more, just like fingerprints and credit cards never leave the hardware, any data I deem strictly private could stay on the device but still be accessed on that device.
Apple has, in the past, been extremely reluctant to keep and operate on customer data on the company's servers. Yet because Apple understands the concept of "nearline," where local and online data can co-exist within the same service, they could apply that concept to customer data as well.
If I don't want to go to the cloud, the cloud can come to me.
If I don't want to share something with Apple's servers but it's on my phone, they don't have to bring me to the cloud. They can bring the cloud to me. If I don't want to share my web history, they can calculate the result on the cloud, then check my local device for matches right before displaying it on the screen.
None of this interferes with "machine learning." Apple already asks for permission to do just that with Siri and Maps and other services today, and they can ask to do it with future services tomorrow. They can just do it in a way that respects privacy and security, and with a business model that's funded by me directly, not by a third party because of me.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden recently said this to the New York Times:Socialism and the global economic crisis
6 October 2011
Three years into the severest world economic crisis since the 1930s, stock markets around the world are once again tumbling as the capitalist system plunges into depression.
In the wake of the September 2008 financial meltdown, governments injected trillions of dollars of public funds into the banks, robbing the state to cover the bad debts of the bankers and speculators. It is estimated that, virtually overnight, the bank bailouts increased national indebtedness by an average of |
: 70 percent white, 20 percent black, 5 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian.
In the Senate race, exit polls showed Kaine won 62 percent of Hispanics and 92 percent of African Americans, as well as 63 percent of voters younger than 30. Levar Stoney, the former Virginia Democratic Party executive director who works for gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe, said the key for Democrats is “making sure these individuals get off the couch and come vote in off-year elections.”
It’s unclear which voters will show up in 2013, when McAuliffe is expected to run for the Democratic gubernatorial nod while Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling battle for the Republican nomination. (Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said Tuesday night that he would announce by Thanksgiving whether he would also jump into the governor’s race.)
During a CNN appearance Wednesday, McDonnell said the election results were particularly worrisome in Northern Virginia.
“We’re losing the exchange as you see up there in Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun, so we’ve got to do a better job in explaining to people why the conservative view of America is better for them and their pocketbooks,” McDonnell said.
Not all Republicans were as concerned. On the conservative Virginia blog Bearing Drift, Shaun Kenney noted that the White House and both chambers of Congress simply stayed put.
“Nothing was lost tonight folks,” Kenney wrote. “Everything remained tangibly the same. Just like the week before when you felt good about America.”
Laura Vozzella contributed to this report.The legal battle between ZeniMax Media and Oculus VR has a verdict from the jury. In the first of many questions put to the jury, they decided Oculus did not misappropriate trade secrets.
The jury, however, also decided that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey failed to comply with a non-disclosure agreement he signed, as did Oculus by extension. Oculus and its co-founders Luckey and Iribe were found to owe ZeniMax $500 million as a result of copyright infringement and “false designation.” We’ve uploaded the full 90-page document the jury filled out here.
Oculus released a statement vowing an appeal:
The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax’s trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor. We’re obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today’s verdict, but we are undeterred. Oculus products are built with Oculus technology. Our commitment to the long-term success of VR remains the same, and the entire team will continue the work they’ve done since day one – developing VR technology that will transform the way people interact and communicate. We look forward to filing our appeal and eventually putting this litigation behind us.
ZeniMax released a statement as well threatening an injunction:
We are pleased that the jury in our case in the U.S. District Court in Dallas has awarded ZeniMax $500,000,000 for Defendants’ unlawful infringement of our copyrights and trademarks, and for the violation of our non-disclosure agreement with Oculus pursuant to which we shared breakthrough VR technology that we had developed and that we exclusively own. In addition, the jury upheld our complaint regarding the theft by John Carmack of RAGE source code and thousands of electronic files on a USB storage device which contained ZeniMax VR technology. While we regret we had to litigate in order to vindicate our rights, it was necessary to take a stand against companies that engage in illegal activity in their desire to get control of new, valuable technology. The liability of Defendants was established by uncontradicted evidence presented by ZeniMax, including (i) the breakthrough in VR technology occurred in March 2012 at id Software through the research efforts of our former employee John Carmack (work that ZeniMax owns) before we ever had contact with the other defendants; (ii) we shared this VR technology with the defendants under a non-disclosure agreement that expressly stated all the technology was owned by ZeniMax; (iii) the four founders of Oculus had no expertise or even backgrounds in VR—other than Palmer Luckey who could not code the software that was the key to solving the issues of VR; (iv) there was a documented stream of computer code and other technical assistance flowing from ZeniMax to Oculus over the next 6 months; (v) Oculus in writing acknowledged getting critical source code from ZeniMax; (vi) Carmack intentionally destroyed data on his computer after he got notice of this litigation and right after he researched on Google how to wipe a hard drive—and data on other Oculus computers and USB storage devices were similarly deleted (as determined by a court-appointed, independent expert in computer forensics); (vii) when he quit id Software, Carmack admitted he secretly downloaded and stole over 10,000 documents from ZeniMax on a USB storage device, as well as the entire source code to RAGE and the id tech® 5 engine —which Carmack uploaded to his Oculus computer; (viii) Carmack filed an affidavit which the court’s expert said was false in denying the destruction of evidence; and (ix) Facebook’s lawyers made representations to the court about those same Oculus computers which the court’s expert said were inaccurate. Oculus’ response in this case that it didn’t use any code or other assistance it received from ZeniMax was not credible, and is contradicted by the testimony of Oculus programmers (who admitted cutting and pasting ZeniMax code into the Oculus SDK), as well as by expert testimony. We will consider what further steps we need to take to ensure there will be no ongoing use of our misappropriated technology, including by seeking an injunction to restrain Oculus and Facebook from their ongoing use of computer code that the jury found infringed ZeniMax’s copyrights.
ZeniMax CEO Robert A. Altman also released a statement:
Technology is the foundation of our business and we consider the theft of our intellectual property to be a serious matter. We appreciate the jury’s finding against the defendants, and the award of half a billion dollars in damages for those serious violations.
ZeniMax first accused Oculus of theft of its technology shortly after the announcement that Facebook was to acquire the startup back in 2014 for $2 billion (now thought to be $3 billion). It claimed that the Oculus Rift VR headset was built using its own technology and that John Carmack, the legendary game developer formerly of ZeniMax-owned id Software, had used its resources to offer essential help in developing the Rift.
Carmack does have ties to the Rift dating back to 2012, when creator Palmer Luckey sent him an early prototype that Carmack would demonstrate at that year’s E3 running id-made Doom 3: BFG Edition. The help Carmack offered Oculus during this time and the dispute of what code was made available to Oculus made up much of the trial.
The verdict comes after a trial that saw figureheads at Facebook, Oculus, and ZeniMax take the stand. Most notably, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, answered questions. He stated that “Oculus products are based on Oculus technology.”
We also saw the emergence of Luckey, around four months after he fell off the radar following the revelation he had helped fund a political propaganda campaign. Luckey was insistent that he had built the Rift on his own, despite claims from ZeniMax that he lacked the knowledge to do so. Former Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe also gave his account of the origins of the company, and Carmack himself took to the stand to defend himself.
Garrett Glass is a freelance writer based in Texas. He spent the last few weeks following the case for UploadVR.
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It’s becoming very clear that the real thrust behind the anthropogenic global warming movement is the systematic denial of cheap, efficient energy for the poor world so that they never attain a standard of living that developed countries have long been enjoying. Bill Nye confirms it in a debate with Marc Morano on FOX.
Image cropped from www.mrctv.org/videos.
In a FOX News debate here Bill Nye keeps repeating that the big problem today is that the planet is inhabited by more than 7 billion people. Yes it’s a grave problem that so many people are living, he would like us to think.
At the 9:30 mark he says the problem is that poor people “are using more energy than they ever used to use“. Yet Bill Nye has no qualms whatsoever about his comfortable and prosperous life, which is in large part due to the exploitation and amazing use of the energy he now says has to be denied to the poor.
Marc Morano’s shocked reaction is palpable: “Who is Bill Nye to tell them they cannot have more carbon-based energy?“.
If the global warming fraudsters ever got their way with energy policy, the chances are high we’d see a mass die-off and extremely violent uprising. People with nothing to lose usually react like they’ve got nothing to lose. Thankfully, the poor aren’t listening: India, China and many developing countries are building fossil fuel power plants faster than ever.
Even in rich Germany the government is scaling back on green energies because the population here is so angered over the high energy prices and the false promises made.
Moderator John Stossel at the end adds: “This idea that politicians can fix the climate strikes me as arrogant.”
It is. No one has that kind of power. Anyone claiming they do is either totally ignorant or just a plain fraudster.Costco Wholesale in St. John's is looking at pulling up roots from Stavanger Drive and moving to Danny Williams's Galway development.
"Costco officials have contacted our department of planning, development and engineering to discuss a possible move to Galway," says St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe.
It's a rumour that's been burning its way through St. John's, but hasn't been confirmed by Danny Williams's company DewCor.
The city says it has yet to receive filed documents from Costco, formally requesting a move to the Galway development. (CBC)
"Unfortunately, I am unable to confirm or deny any specifics. DewCor are in discussions with several potential retailers for the Galway development," said DewCor spokeswoman Elizabeth Williams.
"We prefer to not comment on speculation."
City of St. John's officials said they have not yet received written applications from Costco that would need to be filed to build in the Galway area.ABSTRACT
The effectiveness of diatomaceous earth (DE) as a treatment against parasites and to increase feed efficiency and egg production of organically raised free-range layer hens was evaluated in 2 breeds of commercial egg layers [Bovan Brown (BB) and Lowmann Brown (LB)] that differ in their resistance to internal parasitic infections. Half the hens of each breed were fed diets supplemented with DE (2%). Their internal parasite loads were assessed by biweekly fecal egg counts (FEC) and by postmortem examination of the gastrointestinal tract. Supplementing DE in diets of LB hens, the more parasite-resistant breed, did not significantly affect their FEC and adult parasite load. However, BB hens treated with dietary DE had significantly lower Capillaria FEC, slightly lower Eimeria FEC, fewer birds infected with Heterakis, and significantly lower Heterakis worm burden than control BB hens. Both BB and LB hens fed the diet containing DE were significantly heavier, laid more eggs, and consumed more feed than hens fed the control diet, but feed efficiency did not differ between the 2 dietary treatments. Additionally, BB hens consuming the DE diet laid larger eggs containing more albumen and yolk than hens consuming the control diet. In a subsequent experiment, the effectiveness of DE to treat a Northern fowl mite (Ornithonyssus sylviarum) infestation was tested. Relative to controls, both breeds of hens that were dusted with DE had reduced number of mites. The results of this study indicate the DE has the potential to be an effective treatment to help control parasites and improve production of organically raised, free-range layer hens.
INTRODUCTION
Consumers are increasingly concerned with the safe and ethical production of their food. The demand for organically produced animal products, including organic poultry eggs, has been steadily increasing (Berg, 2001; Patterson et al., 2001; Kouba, 2003; Oberholtzer et al., 2006; Bejaei and Cheng, 2010). This has led to an increase in the production of both free-range and organic poultry in many countries. In organic poultry production, standards ban the use of synthetic chemicals and require birds to have access to the outdoors. However, free-range production of poultry has a higher risk of parasitic infections (Permin et al., 1999). In organic farming, the routine uses of prophylactic medications are not allowed. Heavy loads of external and intestinal parasites can pose health implications for the hens such as impaired weight gain and growth, decreased egg production, increased mortality, and possibly anemia (Reid and Carmon, 1958; Ruff, 1999; Permin et al., 2006). Therefore, an effective and safe method is needed for the treatment of parasites in organic animal production.
One proposed treatment to control external and internal parasites is to add diatomaceous earth (DE; Macy, 2000) to the diet of production animals (Canadian Organic Growers, 2000). Diatomaceous earth consists of fossilized diatoms and is made up of almost pure amorphous silicon dioxide. Diatomaceous earth has been recognized as an effective insecticide. It works mainly by absorbing the waxy outer cuticle of insects upon contact, causing death by desiccation (Quarles, 1992; Fields, 2000). To a lesser extent, the abrasive property of DE also aids in the damage of the cuticle (Quarles, 1992; Korunic, 1998). It is commonly used as a protectant against invertebrate pests in grain storage. Diatomaceous earth has been shown to decrease the number of ectoparasites in Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) nests (Dawson, 2004) and to reduce poultry red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) survival in vitro (Maurer et al., 2009). Diatomaceous earth with less than 7% composition of crystalline silica is generally recognized as a safe food additive in Canada and the United States (Fields, 2000). For controlling internal parasites, DE is often promoted by testimonies and product claims to be effective and safe for livestock, but little scientific research has been preformed to judge its efficacy. It has been suggested that DE may provide trace minerals that help the host cope with parasite burdens (McLean et al., 2005). The use of DE to control internal parasites in ruminants has been tested with mixed results (Fernandez et al., 1998; McLean et al., 2005) and no research has been performed to evaluate its efficacy in poultry.
It has also been claimed that feeding DE to laying hens can increase feed efficiency and egg production (Eshleman, 1966). Mathis and McDougald (1995) found that feeding DE significantly improved feed conversion in broilers. In the present study, we evaluated the effectiveness of DE as a supplement against external and internal parasites of organically raised free-range layer hens and at the same time evaluated its effects on egg production and egg quality. Two commercial breeds of brown-egg-laying hens, Bovan Brown (BB) and Lohmann Brown (LB), were used for the experiment. Previous studies have shown that LB hens are genetically more parasite resistant than other breeds (Permin and Ranvig, 2001; Gauly et al., 2002, 2008).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study was conducted at the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems of the University of British Columbia (UBC; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) and was conducted during the summer and fall months. Hens were maintained in accordance with the guidelines of the Canadian Council of Animal Care, and all procedures were approved by the UBC Animal Care Committee (certificate no. A08–0110).
Source of DE
The source of DE used in this study was Red Lake Earth (Absorbent Products, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada), which contains 65% DE and 35% montmorillonite. This product was chosen because it is approved for use in animal feeds in both Canada (CFIA registration no. 999094) and the United States (FDA registration no. 10370895308) and is listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute (Eugene, OR).
Experimental Birds
A total of 57 BB and 62 LB hens, both commercial brown egg layers, were used in this study. These were obtained as 1-d-old chicks from local commercial hatcheries. Chicks were raised in floor pens at the UBC farm and fed ad libitum with an all-purpose certified organic poultry grower mash (In-Season Farms Inc., Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada). Chicks were beak trimmed shortly after hatching and vaccinated for Newcastle and bronchitis at 2 wk of age.
At 11 wk of age (first week of May 2008), all birds were wing-banded and divided into 4 treatment groups: 29 BB and 31 LB were placed in the experimental groups, and 28 BB and 32 LB remained in the control groups. The experimental groups were fed diets supplemented with 2% DE. All 4 groups were transferred to hen houses that provided at least 0.2 m2 of floor space and 0.25 m of roost space/bird. The pasture was sectioned by an electric fence. Birds were given daily access to pasture, with about 7.5 m2/bird, from approximately 0830 to 2100 h. Feed was provided only in the pasture but was refilled every morning and emptied at night to discourage rodents. Water was provided ad libitum inside the hen house via a nipple drinker system and outside via a bell waterer. At 18 wk of age, all hens were switched from the grower mash to an organic layer mash (In-Season Farms Inc.; Table 1), and the experimental groups continued to receive DE supplements in the diet. The hens were also given access to dust baths and shelters in the pasture. The groups receiving DE in the diet were also provided with DE mixed in their dust baths (20%) and in the shavings in the nest boxes (10%).
Nutrient composition of layer diet (as fed basis)1
Table 1 Item Control2 DE3 Moisture (% as fed) 11.8 ± 0.3 10.2 ± 0.6 Protein (% DM) 18.1 ± 0.3 18.9 ± 0.6 Fat (% DM) 6.1 ± 0.8 5.3 ± 0.3 Carbohydrates (% DM) 62.3 ± 2.5 59.6 ± 2.2 Ash (% DM) 13.7 ± 1.5 16.1 ± 1.9 Gross energy (kcal/kg) 3,757 ± 18 3,617 ± 94 Item Control2 DE3 Moisture (% as fed) 11.8 ± 0.3 10.2 ± 0.6 Protein (% DM) 18.1 ± 0.3 18.9 ± 0.6 Fat (% DM) 6.1 ± 0.8 5.3 ± 0.3 Carbohydrates (% DM) 62.3 ± 2.5 59.6 ± 2.2 Ash (% DM) 13.7 ± 1.5 16.1 ± 1.9 Gross energy (kcal/kg) 3,757 ± 18 3,617 ± 94 View Large
Table 1 Item Control2 DE3 Moisture (% as fed) 11.8 ± 0.3 10.2 ± 0.6 Protein (% DM) 18.1 ± 0.3 18.9 ± 0.6 Fat (% DM) 6.1 ± 0.8 5.3 ± 0.3 Carbohydrates (% DM) 62.3 ± 2.5 59.6 ± 2.2 Ash (% DM) 13.7 ± 1.5 16.1 ± 1.9 Gross energy (kcal/kg) 3,757 ± 18 3,617 ± 94 Item Control2 DE3 Moisture (% as fed) 11.8 ± 0.3 10.2 ± 0.6 Protein (% DM) 18.1 ± 0.3 18.9 ± 0.6 Fat (% DM) 6.1 ± 0.8 5.3 ± 0.3 Carbohydrates (% DM) 62.3 ± 2.5 59.6 ± 2.2 Ash (% DM) 13.7 ± 1.5 16.1 ± 1.9 Gross energy (kcal/kg) 3,757 ± 18 3,617 ± 94 View Large
Parasite Study
Fecal Egg Counts and External Examination.
Forty hens (10 hens/diet per breed) were randomly selected and repeatedly examined at biweekly intervals between 16 and 28 wk of age (June–September 2008) and again at time of killing (33–38 wk of age; October–November 2008). Fecal collection was performed by placing hens into raised, individual wire cages with wax paper below before feeding in the morning. Typically, hens excreted within 10 to 20 min of being placed into the cage. Approximately 4 g was collected into preweighed 50-mL centrifuge tubes. Hens were then visually examined for any signs of external parasites before being returned to their enclosures. Particular attention was paid to the legs, comb, wattles, inside the mouth, under the wings, and under the vent area. Fecal samples were transported to the laboratory, where they were weighed, preserved in 10% formalin using a 1:1 ratio of volume to fecal mass, and refrigerated at 4°C until being examined (within 1 wk).
Parasite eggs were quantified using a modified Wisconsin sugar flotation method (Cox and Todd, 1962; Cox and Lemiski, 1989). The formalized samples were diluted with distilled water to 35 mL, vortexed, and centrifuged at 500 × g for 7 min. Most of the supernatant was then decanted, and Sheather’s solution (specific gravity = 1.2) was added at a volume 11.5 times the mass of excreta. This mixture was then homogenized with a glass rod, vortexed, and the contents were inverted several times immediately before loading into both chambers of a McMaster slide. The slide was left to stand 2 to 3 min before viewing under a light microscope. Parasite eggs were identified according to Soulsby (1982), Foreyt (2001), and Zajac and Conboy (2006).
Because no external parasites were detected in all the hens in 2008, a supplemental study was conducted in 2009 when heavy infestation of northern fowl mites occurred. A total of 26 BB and 35 LB hens in their second laying cycle (82 wk of age) were used. All hens were naturally infested with northern fowl mites (Ornithonyssus sylviarum) at the start of the experiment. Hens were housed as described in the 2008 study (see previous) and were fed a certified organic poultry layer mash (In-Season Farms Inc.) that was not supplemented with DE.
Each hen was individually weighed and scored for mites (see below) independently by 2 investigators (DCB and YJR). Hens were then divided into 2 experimental groups, each containing equal numbers of both breeds, and placed into adjacent pens. After 4 d, to allow hens to adjust to new pen mates, hens were individually dusted with either fine sand (control group) or DE (experimental group) and returned to the appropriate pen. Hens were dusted by placing them into a bin and rubbing either sand or DE into feathers on the thighs, abdomen, back, and vent area. The roosts, nest boxes, and floor litter were also dusted with either fine sand (control group) or DE (experimental group). One week later, hens were individually weighed, scored for mites, and dusted again. The roosts, nest boxes, and floor litter were also dusted. Individual hens were again weighed and scored for mites 1 wk later.
Hens were scored for degree of mite infestation using 2 methods. First, a subjective visual score (0–5) based on the presence and concentration of mites was independently assigned by the same 2 investigators. Second, a piece of tape (approximately 3.5 cm × 5 cm) was used to collect mites from the base of the thigh feathers on one side of each hen. Taped mites were then examined and counted under a dissecting microscope. Many of the birds were heavily infested and emaciated; it was felt that subjecting the birds to further stress was unwise. Hence, blood samples were not obtained for hematological and immune parameters.
Phytohemagglutinin Skin Test.
At 31 to 32 wk of age, the immune status (T cell-mediated immunity) of all 40 focal hens was assessed by the phytohemagglutinin (PHA) skin test (Cheng and Lamont, 1988; Kean and Lamont, 1994; Smits et al., 1999). Briefly, a small patch of skin on the web (patagia) of both wings was plucked and marked. The hens were injected with 50 µg of PHA (L8754, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) in 50 µL of Dulbecco’s PBS (D8537, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) into the marked site of one wing. The marked site of the other wing was injected with the same volume (50 µL) of Dulbecco’s PBS to control for nonspecific inflammation. The thickness of the wing web of each marked site was measured 3 times immediately before injection and again 24 h after injection with microcalipers (accuracy 0.01 mm). Wing web swelling was calculated as the difference between the thickness of the wing web before and after (24 h) injection. The cell-mediated immune response (wing web index) was calculated as the difference in wing web swelling between the PHA-injected and saline-control sites.
Postmortem Examination.
Between 33 and 38 wk of age, all 40 of the focal hens (10 from each group) that were closely followed with FEC were killed and a postmortem examination was performed to assess the adult parasite load. After an overnight fast, 3 to 4 individual hens per day were randomly selected and placed into cages for collection of their excreta. They were then transported to the laboratory, weighed, and killed by decapitation. Trunk blood was collected into heparinized vacutainers (Becton Dickinson and Co., Franklin Lakes, NJ). The gastrointestinal tract was exposed and segmented into the esophagus, crop, proventriculus, ventriculus, small intestine, cecum, and rectum. Incisions were made to expose the contents, and any visible parasites were extracted with forceps. Contents in the organs were flushed under tap water over a 60 mesh sieve with 250-µm aperture. Retentate was then backwashed into a Petri dish and further examined for more worms under a stereo microscope. All extracted parasites were preserved in 70% ethanol. Adult parasites were viewed under stereo and light microscopes and identified according to Dunn (1969) and Grist (2004).
Blood smears were made from the trunk blood collected. Smears were allowed to dry and then stained using a Hemacolor staining kit (EMD Chemicals Inc., Gibbstown, NJ). Differential white cell counts were conducted using 1,000× microscopy. For each blood smear, 100 white cells were counted and the heterophil:lymphocyte (H:L) ratio was determined.
Production
Between 16 and 32 wk of age, BW of individual hens and pen feed intake were measured at 4-wk intervals. Body weight was measured in the morning before the hens were released into the outdoor pens, and hence before the hens were fed. Daily egg production per pen was recorded for 5 d/wk. Once every 4 wk, between 20 and 32 wk of age, all the eggs laid on 1 d were collected, weighed, and stored overnight at 4°C. Eggs were broken out onto a level glass surface and the height of the albumen was measured using a standard tripod micrometer. The yolk was weighed and its color was measured with a Roche yolk color fan scale. Shells were washed, dried, and weighed. The albumen mass was then calculated by difference.
Between 33 and 38 wk of age, 10 hens from each group were killed and a postmortem examination was performed to assess the adult parasite load (see previous section) and bone mineralization. The BW, egg production, and egg quality were again measured at 38 wk of age.
Statistical Analyses
Data are reported as means ± SE and were analyzed using JMP statistical software (version 7, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Individual FEC and worm counts were transformed by log 10 (count + 1) transformation before statistical analysis to normalize the distribution. The BW of individual hens, transformed FEC, and mite scores were analyzed by 2-way ANOVA with repeated measures. Differences between treatments and breeds in the number of hens infected with worms and in the transformed worm counts were assessed by Fisher’s exact test. Wing web index, H:L ratio, egg production, and egg size were analyzed by ANOVA. Relationships among parameters were assessed by simple correlation. Significance was accepted when P < 0.05.
RESULTS
Effect of Dietary DE on Internal Parasites
FEC.
Eggs from 1 protozoan, Eimeria spp., and 3 helminths, Ascaridia spp., Hetarakis spp., and Capillaria spp., were identified in the FEC. Eimeria FEC were highest at the start of the experiment and subsequently declined by the second fecal exam (P = 0.00004; Figure 1). Control BB hens tended to have higher Eimeria FEC than DE-treated BB hens, but DE did not affect Eimeria FEC in LB hens (breed × diet interaction, P = 0.07).
Figure 1 View largeDownload slide Effect of dietary diatomaceous earth on fecal egg counts of Eimeria spp. in free-range organic laying hens. Two breeds of commercial brown-egg-laying hens, Bovan Brown (circles) and Lohmann Brown (squares), were fed a certified organic layer mash supplemented with (filled symbols) or without (open symbols) diatomaceous earth. Hens were killed (S) between 33 and 38 wk of age.
Figure 1 View largeDownload slide Effect of dietary diatomaceous earth on fecal egg counts of Eimeria spp. in free-range organic laying hens. Two breeds of commercial brown-egg-laying hens, Bovan Brown (circles) and Lohmann Brown (squares), were fed a certified organic layer mash supplemented with (filled symbols) or without (open symbols) diatomaceous earth. Hens were killed (S) between 33 and 38 wk of age.
Control BB hens had significantly (P = 0.003) higher Capillaria egg counts than DE-treated BB hens (Figure 2). However, the same difference was not observed with LB hens. As the season progressed, Ascaridia egg counts increased significantly (P = 0.02) in BB hens regardless of dietary treatment, but no significant increase was observed with the LB hens (Figure 3). Ascaridia egg counts in LB hens remained low throughout the season. The FEC of Heterakis remained low throughout the season and did not differ between LB and BB, nor were they affected by dietary treatments.
Figure 2 View largeDownload slide Effect of dietary diatomaceous earth on fecal egg counts of Capillaria spp. in free-range organic laying hens. Two breeds of commercial brown-egg-laying hens, Bovan Brown (circles) and Lohmann Brown (squares), were fed a certified organic layer mash supplemented with (filled symbols) or without (open symbols) diatomaceous earth. Hens were killed (S) between 33 and 38 wk of age. Significant differences (P < 0.05) between treatments are indicated by asterisks (*).
Figure 2 View largeDownload slide Effect of dietary diatomaceous earth on fecal egg counts of Capillaria spp. in free-range organic laying hens. Two breeds of commercial brown-egg-laying hens, Bovan Brown (circles) and Lohmann Brown (squares), were fed a certified organic layer mash supplemented with (filled symbols) or without (open symbols) diatomaceous earth. Hens were killed (S) between 33 and 38 wk of age. Significant differences (P < 0.05) between treatments are indicated by asterisks (*).
Figure 3 View largeDownload slide Effect of dietary diatomaceous earth on fecal egg counts of Ascaridia spp. in free-range organic laying hens. Two breeds of commercial brown-egg-laying hens, Bovan Brown (circles) and Lohmann Brown (squares), were fed a certified organic layer mash supplemented with (filled symbols) or without (open symbols) diatomaceous earth. Hens were killed (S) between 33 and 38 wk of age. Significant differences (P < 0.05) between treatments are indicated by asterisks (*).
Figure 3 View largeDownload slide Effect of dietary diatomaceous earth on fecal egg counts of Ascaridia spp. in free-range organic laying hens. Two breeds of commercial brown-egg-laying hens, Bovan Brown (circles) and Lohmann Brown (squares), were fed a certified organic layer mash supplemented with (filled symbols) or without (open symbols) diatomaceous earth. Hens were killed (S) between 33 and 38 wk of age. Significant differences (P < 0.05) between treatments are indicated by asterisks (*).
Postmortem Examination.
Postmortem examinations are summarized in Table 2. Only adult Ascaridia spp. and Hetarakis spp. nematodes were recovered. Although Capillaria spp. eggs were detected in some of the excreta collected on the day of the postmortem examinations (Figure 2), no adult Capillaria worms were recovered (likely small enough to pass through the sieve screen). Ascaridia was found predominantly in the upper portion of the intestine and on few occasions in the rectum, and once in the cecum of a bird. Heterakis was found only in the cecum.
Comparison of adult nematodes recovered after postmortem examinations between hens supplemented with diatomaceous earth (DE) and those on the control diet1
Table 2 Item Bovan Lohmann Control DE Control DE Ascaridia spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 70 30 50 Worm burden3 14.6 ± 9.0 17.5 ± 4.8 5.0 ± 3.5 2.6 ± 1.0 Heterakis spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 30 60 70 Worm burden3 20.2 ± 10.5 1.7 ± 0.7 3.3 ± 0.8 10.4 ± 2.6 Item Bovan Lohmann Control DE Control DE Ascaridia spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 70 30 50 Worm burden3 14.6 ± 9.0 17.5 ± 4.8 5.0 ± 3.5 2.6 ± 1.0 Heterakis spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 30 60 70 Worm burden3 20.2 ± 10.5 1.7 ± 0.7 3.3 ± 0.8 10.4 ± 2.6 View Large
Table 2 Item Bovan Lohmann Control DE Control DE Ascaridia spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 70 30 50 Worm burden3 14.6 ± 9.0 17.5 ± 4.8 5.0 ± 3.5 2.6 ± 1.0 Heterakis spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 30 60 70 Worm burden3 20.2 ± 10.5 1.7 ± 0.7 3.3 ± 0.8 10.4 ± 2.6 Item Bovan Lohmann Control DE Control DE Ascaridia spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 70 30 50 Worm burden3 14.6 ± 9.0 17.5 ± 4.8 5.0 ± 3.5 2.6 ± 1.0 Heterakis spp. Birds infected2 (%) 70 30 60 70 Worm burden3 20.2 ± 10.5 1.7 ± 0.7 3.3 ± 0.8 10.4 ± 2.6 View Large
The number of hens infected with Ascaridia and Heterakis did not differ between breeds, nor was it affected by DE treatment. When comparing the worm burden, BB appeared to be more susceptible to Ascaridia infections than LB given that significantly (P < 0.05) more BB were infected and tended (P = 0.10) to have a higher mean worm burden than LB.
PHA Skin Test and H:L Ratio.
Wing web index and H:L ratio did not differ between breeds nor between treatments (Table 3) and were not correlated (r = −0.21; P = 0.15). Both parameters were also unrelated to FEC and worm burden (data not shown).
Comparison of phytohemagglutinin (PHA) skin test and heterophils: |
trops thrown from the vehicles disabled some of the Mexican Military vehicles. The Aircrew returned to the jon boats and observed the boats traveling down river and met the original maroon Ford F-250 pickup. While DPS Air 108 was observing the jon boat, another jon boat arrived at the same location. The first boat left traveling up river and met other suspects.
The Mexican Military in helicopter and ground units were guided to the location as DPS Air 108 advised where the suspects were located. The Mexican Military then engaged the suspects and a gun battle ensued with several suspects struck by Mexican Military fire. One suspect was taken into custody.
DPS Air 108 was able to make radio contact with the Mexican Military Helicopter guiding the helicopter and ground units to the last known location of a suspect hiding in the brush.[/box]
Three days before the report was published, Stratfor’s Fred Burton was telling his colleagues a whole lot more about that dead body. His e-mail included three photos that later appeared in the intelligence report, taken from the U.S. side of the border. He described the suspect as “Killed in action.” [Email-ID 1359232, May 3, 2011]
Private Spies’ Inside Knowledge
Stratfor analyst Korena Zucha assumed the Mexican military helicopter had flown into American airspace, and asked Burton whether it was normal for Mexican forces to operate in U.S. territory.
“All the time, we fly our birds into (Mexico) and vice versa. Don’t tell Alex Jones or Glenn Beck. The (Customs and Border Patrol) do not fly after dark or weekends,” Burton responded.
The re-imagining of the U.S.-Mexico border drug war as a counter-insurgency operation has proved to be a post-9/11 bonanza for private spies like Stratfor and other contractors.
Stratfor, for much of the period covered by the WikiLeaks cache (2004-2011), was plugged into restricted knowledge from government intelligence entities in Texas, including the Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center and the Austin center.
The career of Fred Burton, Stratfor’s expert on Mexican drug cartels, exemplifies the revolving door between government security agencies and private security contractors that has become the norm since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002.
Before Stratfor, Burton spent more than a decade at the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, reading floods of cables describing threats against embassies worldwide. And now, he’s getting law enforcement information before a lot of the law enforcement community.
The counterinsurgency campaign is unquestionably erasing the lines between law enforcement and the military—and even countries. With what amounts to a low-level, unacknowledged war being fought on America’s doorstep, sorting out the tangled interests in play—including whether the public truly benefits—seems a high priority.
THUMBNAIL: Mexican Military Helicopter Over U.S. Soil
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Our Comment Policy Keep it civilized, keep it relevant, keep it clear, keep it short. Please do not post links or promotional material. We reserve the right to edit and to delete comments where necessary. Related printThe Congress today launched a full-scale attack on Amitabh Bachchan daring him to endorse Gujarat chief minister's "role" in the 2002 riots as Narendra Modi joined the battle dubbing critics in the party as "Talibans of untouchability".
Modi's taunts of Congressmen in his blog angered Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, who said the chief minister is "very, very frustrated" in the wake of his marathon grilling by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT going into Gujarat riots.
There has been bad blood between Congress and the actor, who was once a Congress MP and was close to the Gandhis, and things came to a head after his presence in a Maharashtra government function in Mumbai last week.
At the AICC briefing, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari questioned Bachchan's role as brand ambassador of Gujarat.
"I'm going to ask Mr Bachchan a direct question. I want to ask him as the brand ambassador of Gujarat, does he condemn the role of Narendra Modi and his government in the pogrom that took place in 2002 or does he endorse it?....what does he say about the Guajrat massacre and fake encounters that took place since Modi took over."
Tewari said if he (Bachchan) was sensible and right-thinking, he should come out strongly and condemn the riots and "after that I will see for how long does he remain a brand ambassador."
His party colleague and information minister Ambika Soni attacked Modi saying "I can understand that Modi is feeling very, very frustrated because for the first time in 63 years, a chief minister elected by the people is being made to stand before a Special Investigating Team for about 10 hours in a question-answer session."
This, she said, has apparently frustrated him to use the word Taliban in a "light and flippant" manner. "Those who have been victims of Taliban, know what Taliban is. He has used the word Taliban so lightly. He should make such statements with some seriousness."
Coming out in support of Bachchan, Modi attacked Congressmen for objecting to the actor's presence at a Maharashtra government function in Mumbai.
"These Talibans of untouchability have lost all their sensibilities in their pursuit of anti-Gujarat attitudes. They may well in future tell us not not eat even salt. They may even ban the eating of Amul butter and milk and order our young people not not to wear denim jeans. And guess why? Because Gujarat produces these things."
Party spokesman Manish Tewari also reminded Bachchan that Modi has been likened to Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who has been accused of genocide.
Asked to comment on BJP's demand for making Bachchan a brand ambassador for the Commonwealth Games, Tewari said it is for the Commonwealth Games Committee to decide whom to make its brand ambassador.
He said that Congress does not believe in the "politics of personalities".
"There is no boycot of anybody. We do not believe in the phraseology of boycott," Tewari said when asked whether Congress leaders will henceforth boycot all functions attended by Amitabh Bachchan.
At the same time, he parried a question on whether the party high command has directed chief ministers not to attend any such function saying, "all these questions are peripheral.
"This issue came up in the context of Amitabh Bachchan becoming the brand ambassador of Gujarat... if you are inpublic domain and have agreed to endorse something in public,it becomes your duty to air your clear opinion on other issuesassociated with it as well.
"You cannot sweep under the carpet all the obnoxious records of human rights violation there. The real question is where does Amitabh Bachchan stand on the issue of Gujarat riots," he added.
Tewari also downplayed Amitabh's claim that his son Abhishek's posters were removed from the venue of WWF's Earth Hour event in New Delhi on Saturday evening, which was attended by chief minister Sheila Dikshit. "If any institution organises a programme, it is for them to decide whose photo or video clip they want to put up. Only they can answer why they did not put any particular photo or video. This was not a programme of the government or any political party," Tewari said.Hillary Clinton looks on during a meeting on April 22, in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. | Getty 2016 Clinton plots swing-state ambush for Trump She's already organizing a shadow general election campaign.
Donald Trump all but claimed the GOP nomination Tuesday by routing Ted Cruz in Indiana. Hillary Clinton stumbled, failing once again to finish off Bernie Sanders' long-shot Democratic primary challenge.
But even in defeat, Clinton continues to execute a hard turn toward November — and the coming war with Trump. Over the past two weeks, Clinton has been quietly accelerating her swing-state operation, organizing what amounts to a shadow general election campaign at the same time she is fending off a rival who insists he'll continue to fight until the Democratic convention in July.
Story Continued Below
In recent days, the Clinton campaign has finalized a series of senior hires around the country, expanded the size of her central swing-state planning team in New York, and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been transferred to strategically important state parties from the Democratic National Committee. She’s also scheduled a series of public speeches and private meetings in states that will be crucial to her general election campaign.
Many of the moves had been in the works since early spring, when campaign officials began the process of hiring swing state operatives and more closely coordinating with state parties — the building blocks of the fall campaign’s field organizing infrastructure.
According to operatives and elected officials in eight battleground states, the switch flipped after Clinton’s 16-point win in New York last month — and Trump’s own romp there. In the days after that April 19 victory, some of Clinton’s state directors — who had previously operated only informally and without the campaign’s imprimatur — started meeting with local political leaders and planning the fall fight.
Clinton staff and allies have been careful about the public side of the pivot, wary of angering Sanders and his legions of liberal supporters by seeming to dismiss his chances of winning the nomination. But behind closed doors, the swing state teams are snapping out of what former New Hampshire Democratic Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan called the “holding pattern,” after weeks of internal grumbling about the amount of effort and resources dedicated toward fending off Sanders’ increasingly long-shot bid.
Campaign finance rules have complicated the situation. Until the convention, the campaign is limited to using only money designated as primary election dollars, and the campaign has yet to start raising general election dollars.
“They have to be careful, because it’s a fine line between gearing up for the general and offending Bernie Sanders voters,” explained John Morgan, an Orlando attorney and longtime Democratic donor supporting Clinton. “You cannot start running, because if you start running and acting presumptuous, you alienate people who are 18 to 30'' years old.
Still, in recent days the campaign has tapped state directors in a series of swing states, according to local Democrats: Brian Zuzenak, director of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s PAC, in Virginia; Troy Clair, chief of staff to Rep. G.K. Butterfield, in North Carolina; and Chris Wyant, Barack Obama’s 2012 Ohio director, in that state.
In addition, Clinton’s campaign has hired Meg Ansara, a former regional director for Obama working in the Midwest and the South, to work with Marlon Marshall, a top political staffer, on the battleground state team in Brooklyn.
These moves come alongside four more state-director hires announced in recent days in the key swing states of New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada and Florida.
After months of keeping top surrogates and supporters abreast of the campaign’s progress with periodic conference calls, the campaign has begun setting up its new state directors with local political leaders as they start formally organizing. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told POLITICO that he met with new Colorado director Emmy Ruiz on Saturday, one day after her name was publicly announced.
Meanwhile, Clinton has already started returning to swing states whose primaries have already passed, even as she has maintained a brisk travel schedule in the upcoming primary states. She spoke in Ohio on Tuesday during an Appalachian tour after delivering an NAACP address in Detroit on Sunday. In recent weeks, she also visited Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado and Michigan for closed-door campaign fundraisers. Her husband, Bill Clinton, and daughter, Chelsea Clinton, have also had events in Florida and North Carolina on their schedules, according to fundraiser invitations reviewed by POLITICO.
The Clintons make private political stops with party officials and influencers on these trips, note local Democrats, who say that’s in addition to regular phone calls between top political staffers in Brooklyn and state party operatives to discuss their field organizing and financial operations.
Those moves fit with the campaign’s intention to rely heavily on coordinated campaigns with the state parties, a plan first mapped out by Marshall to local leaders at the DNC’s summer meeting in Minneapolis in August.
Some state operations — particularly those in states where a Senate seat is up for grabs, such as Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have already built up large teams, even before they are further expanded with campaign staffers moved over from primary states.
“The conversation has really begun already in New Hampshire,” explained New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose home state also has a House seat and the governor’s mansion up for grabs. “I think there will be coordinated campaign offices that will be opening throughout the spring, so people will be hired, and that will be done with the party, but — with the focus on the presidential race — the campaign will weigh in."
In Florida, over 50 field staffers are already on the ground, said state Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arceneaux — and more are being hired by the day. In Ohio, which started ramping up its field program last fall, roughly 60 organizers are spread around the state, with more joining this week. And in Colorado — where the coordinated campaign has been up and running for over a year, and where a number of staffers, including coordinated campaign director Lisa Changadveja, are former Clinton aides, noted party chairman Rick Palacio — roughly 60 workers are expected to be up and running by mid-May.
In Nevada, local Democrats expect to see an extra emphasis on driving turnout among the growing Latino vote there, especially with the possibility that Catherine Cortez Masto — running to replace retiring Minority Leader Harry Reid — could be the first Latina elected to the Senate.
“The last election, two years ago, there was a bad voter turnout among traditional Democratic constituency groups, [and] I don’t anticipate that that would be the case in this particular election,” said former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller. “The level of interest will be heightened [among] Hispanic and other ethnic voters, and other constituency groups that Mr. Trump has seemed to criticize, or have positions that are not appealing to them. I expect they will turn out in larger numbers."
In Colorado, where Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet is up for reelection, Hickenlooper said he, too, is watching for a high Hispanic turnout.
“We’re pretty moderate in the way we vote, and [we support] somebody like Hillary Clinton, who has, over the last 30 years, laid out a moderate position" — for example, "she’s pro-business but wants the highest environmental standards,” the governor explained.
To fund the operations, the DNC in April transferred roughly $200,000 each to the committees in Ohio, Virginia and Florida, and chipped in to other states, too — using money raised by the controversial Hillary Victory Fund — according to a person familiar with the transfers.
That kind of investment comes on top of the $125 million in swing-state ad reservations that have already been made by the main pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA — $90 million in television ads and $35 million in digital efforts. The first $20 million worth of television reservations in the target states is scheduled to run immediately following California’s June 7 primary.
The Sanders candidacy, however, looms over these efforts.
Clinton’s challenger, whose path to the nomination has all but disappeared, has re-sharpened his anti-Clinton rhetoric in recent days, including in a Tuesday night speech in Kentucky before the Indiana race was called, apparently bristling at her pivot toward the general election as she’s all but stopped talking about Sanders on the campaign trail.
While Clinton has said she wants to start bringing Sanders’ backers more solidly into the fold, some of her more prominent supporters are beginning to worry that the campaign isn’t turning quickly enough toward Trump.
“Bernie Sanders, especially in light of this week, is now becoming the new Ralph Nader of 2016, he’s now talking about a contested convention,” said Morgan, the Florida donor. “Every day that goes by when [Clinton] has to appease him and his supporters is a great day for Donald Trump."While perhaps not the most publicized recent development regarding the European Union, in recent weeks the political bloc has pushed forward with its plans to severely curtail gun rights across its 27 member states. On June 10, the European Council endorsed a version of the proposed changes to the European Firearms Directive pushed by the European Commission late last year in the wake of terrorist violence. The European Parliament still has a chance to weigh in on the issue, with a final vote scheduled for later this year.
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the EU’s quasi-legislative (and simultaneously executive) branch, the European Commission, expedited plans to set new minimum gun control thresholds for its member states. The centerpiece of the new restrictions is a provision that severely restricts civilian ownership and use of semi-automatic firearms, by placing many of these types of guns in the same category as fully-automatic firearms. Other proposed changes include a new rule placing a five-year limit on firearm license validity, and a requirement for a medical examination for prospective license holders.
The European Commission adopted the proposed changes to EU firearms law on November 18, 2015. The measure is now being considered by the European Parliament, and falls under the jurisdiction of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), led by Chair Vicky Ford of the UK. The European Council, is not a legislative body, but “sets the EU’s policy agenda,” and as such, its decisions can have a significant effect on ongoing legislative efforts. For an overview of the EU’s byzantine legislative procedure, click here.
While Dutch Justice Minister and European Council President Ard van der Steur has touted the European Council’s position as a “fair balance between an internal market for allowed firearms on the one hand and enhancing the security of EU citizens on the other,” the most onerous of the European Commission’s restrictions remain intact, or in some cases have been elaborated upon.
The European Council proposal curtails civilian ownership of semi-automatic handguns and long-guns by placing the following types of firearms and magazines into the same regulatory category as fully-automatic weapons:
short firearms which allow the firing of more than 21 rounds without reloading, if a loading device with a capacity exceeding 20 rounds is part of the firearm or is inserted into it
long firearms which allow the firing of more than 11 rounds without reloading, if
a loading device with a capacity exceeding 10 rounds is part of the firearm or is
inserted into it.
Loading devices, apt to be fitted to centre fire semi-automatic or to repeating firearms, with the following characteristics:
a) loading devices which can hold more than 20 rounds;
b) loading devices for long firearms which can hold more than 10 rounds.
The proposal provides narrow exemptions for owning these firearms. In order to acquire and possess these firearms, gun owners would need to meet the EU’s definition of a valid “target shooter.” Under the proposal, there are several criteria an individual must satisfy to be considered a “target shooter,” including the following:
a satisfactory comprehensive medical and psychological assessment of the target shooter's reliability…
provision of proof that the target shooter is participating in shooting competitions recognised by an official shooting sport organisation of that Member State or by an internationally established and officially recognised shooting sport federation
a certificate from an officially recognized shooting sport organisation confirming that:
i. the target shooter is a member of a shooting club and, has been regularly practising target shooting in it for at least twelve months, and
ii. the firearm is necessary for a shooting discipline recognised by an internationally established and officially recognised shooting sport federation
There is also a minor exemption to the semi-automatic restrictions for countries that employ a militia system for national defense, which would to allow for civilians to possess a firearm used during their term of service.
While various countries have taken issue with certain aspects of the legislation, the Czech Republic and Poland have been staunch opponents of EU efforts to further curtail the rights of their citizens. In a Reuters article published just prior to the European Council adopting their position, Czech Interior Minister Josef Chovanec expressed his concerns. Chovanec noted, “We do not have a problem with the directive as a whole, but we will want to rework it so it does not amount to disarming Czech citizens.” An official with Czech gun rights group LEX, described his countrymen’s opposition to the restrictions by describing a phenomenon that has also been observed in the U.S. The official told Reuters, “Sales of weapons that may be banned are not falling but growing… [t]hose people are certainly not buying them in order to hand them over after the ban.”
As previously noted, it is still up to the European Parliament whether to accept or reject the European Commission’s and European Council’s proposals, or to amend them. On June 14, the European Parliament’s IMCO debated amendments to the current proposals. To date over 1,000 amendments to the legislation have been offered.
According to a media account of the meeting, some committee members described the current legislation as “unworkable,” and Ford contended, “The first text from the Commission was poorly worded and we need to make sure that the legislation is practicable.” MEP Philippe Juvin of France registered his concerns for law-abiding gun owners, stating, “Hunters and shooters are not terrorists. They don't commit terrorist acts and we shouldn't be making life more difficult for these people. What we should be doing is terrorizing the terrorists.” MEP Roberta Metsola of Malta expressed a similar sentiment, cautioning against a “knee jerk” reaction to terror, and noting, “We have to ensure that people like shooters and hunters do not become targets themselves.”
IMCO is set to vote on amendments to the European Commission’s proposal on July 14. Following IMCO’s input, the European Parliament is set to vote on the legislation November 22.
MEP Pascal Durand of France described the current parliamentary battle over gun control as “one of the most sensitive” of the term. The comment reveals that gun owners, regardless of nationality, are a motivated group that cherishes our rights. The concern voiced by several MEPs tasked with scrutinizing the European Commission’s oppressive proposal is encouraging and will hopefully lead to a less restrictive piece of legislation, or an outright rejection of the Commission’s proposal.Share. Kevin Feige quashes rumors of adapting Hulk's famed gladiator storyline. Kevin Feige quashes rumors of adapting Hulk's famed gladiator storyline.
Rumors of a Planet Hulk movie have been circulating pretty much since the credits rolled on the first Avengers -- and rightfully so. Not only was Mark Ruffalo's jade giant arguably the standout character of that movie, but Planet Hulk is also one of the best Hulk storylines out there. More recently, speculation of a "Hulk in space" movie has surfaced, leading some fans to conclude that Planet Hulk is imminent. The question is, would Marvel really make a whole movie featuring just Hulk, sans Bruce Banner (and, by extension, Ruffalo)?
Earlier this week, IGN's own Roth Cornet spoke with Marvel head Kevin Feige in advance of the release of Guardians of the Galaxy and mentioned the persistence of the rumors, asking if it might be a challenge to adapt that storyline -- if the studio ever did -- given that many fans are responding to Ruffalo's Banner, who would not be utilized in a Planet Hulk film. "Well that's why there are no plans for Planet Hulk anytime soon," Feige laughed.
Exit Theatre Mode
"I think what's cool about the Planet Hulk story is it's all Hulk," he said. "He's a gladiator, he's fighting all these creatures on another world. Yes, some of those creatures show up in [Guardians of the Galaxy], which makes people think, 'Oh, maybe it could exist.' And maybe it could exist, someday. I don't think that's the first place we would go though for the very reason that you stated, which is, if we were ever able to do a standalone Hulk movie, 60 percent of the fun would be seeing Mark Ruffalo leading a Marvel movie -- and that's what we would do if we ever went down that road."
It's worth noting that, while Feige said there were no immediate plans to tackle Planet Hulk, he did not entirely rule out the idea of "Hulk in space" or a Banner/Hulk-led film, meaning that may still be on the table in some fashion.
Feige continued, "After the first Avengers, Iron Man had his own movie, Thor had his own movie, Captain America had his own movie, and Widow and Fury were in The Winter Soldier. So it was really about, frankly, saving somebody so that the only place you could get Hulk between Avengers movies is the next Avengers movie, so [director Joss Whedon] could continue to play with that in [The Avengers: Age of Ultron]. Where we go after that, we'll see."
Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.
Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN.Thursday, March 25, 2010
The island of New Moore, an uninhabited territory near the Bay of Bengal between India and Bangladesh, has vanished, according to Indian scientists.
The island, located south of the Hariabhanga river, has been claimed by both Bangladesh and India for almost thirty years, since it first appeared in the seventies. The School of Oceanographic Studies in Calcutta commented that the disappearance of the island was confirmed by satellite imagery.
"There’s no trace of the island anymore. After studying satellite images, I reconfirmed this from fishermen," said Sugato Hazra, the director of Jadavpur University’s school of oceanography studies. According to the Times of India, the island only appears above the water surface if there is an unusually low tide. "What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking has been resolved by global warming."
Hazra commented that, until 2000, sea levels in the area increased approximately three millimetres annually, but in the past year the figure was augmented to about five millimetres. The director said that ten other islands in the vicinity of New Moore were in danger of being submerged as well.
Hazra attributed the island's disappearance to global warming, saying: "Coastal erosion and rising temperature in the Bay of Bengal between 2000 and 2009 led to the Purbasha island getting submerged. Temperature in the region has been rising at an annual rate of 0.4 degree celsius."
In 1996, another isle nearby, Lohachara, was submerged beneath the waters, displacing its inhabitants; meanwhile, the Ghoramara island had lost about half its land, Hazra said. "We will have ever larger numbers of people displaced from the Sunderbans as more island areas come under water."
According to officials, eighteen percent of the Bangladeshi coastal land will be submerged if sea levels increase by one metre by 2050, and twenty million people will be displaced.
Sources11. Maybe I’ll join you and your friends on the ride today. You guys aren’t doing that pace line thing again, are you?
12. Spandex, Lycra, what’s the difference?
13. No, no, I didn’t mean that. YOU could totally pull off a white and beige kit. I just don’t know if, you know, it’s the best thing for the team.
14. Aw, sweetie! You’ll always be King of the Mountain to me!
15. I ride, too! Every Monday and Wednesday. This one time, in spin class…
16. Maybe this winter we could park the car in the garage? Honey?
17. Are you fast enough to pull off those white shoes?
18. Great finish! I love how you all come in a big clump like that. It makes it so exciting!
19. I got you a new jersey! I couldn’t decide between club fit or race fit, so I just went with club fit to be on the safe side.
20. Forty miles? Wow, OK. See you in, like, an hour and a half?
21. As a tax payer, I just don’t know if bike lanes are where we should be putting our money right now.
22. Check the dryer.
(For 1 - 10, see how not to romance a cyclist part I http://krcblog.tumblr.com/post/94374573632/how-not-to-romance-a-cyclist)FIRST came a report on September 1st that the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) had been monitoring the phone calls and e-mails of Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, and other senior officials. Then came evidence that the NSA appeared to be spying on Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company. An angry Ms Rousseff demanded explanations, an apology and a guarantee that these “illegal practices” would cease, as a condition for going ahead with a long-planned state visit to Washington next month. Although Barack Obama said he understood the concerns raised by Brazil, more explicit contrition was apparently not forthcoming in a 20-minute phone call on September 16th. The two leaders announced the “postponement” of the visit.
But with no date rescheduled, that looked more like cancellation. Thus the first international result of a stream of revelations from Edward Snowden, a fugitive NSA contractor, about the agency’s industrial-scale snooping (relayed in this case via a Brazilian television programme), has been a further deterioration in the often-awkward relations between the two largest countries in the Americas.
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Few in Brazil were surprised by Ms Rousseff’s decision. In the circumstances “being seen in an evening gown with President Obama” risked seeming “submissive and weak”, according to Oliver Stuenkel, an international-relations specialist at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, a university. Two things magnified the risk: the possibility of further revelations from Mr Snowden’s trove of documents, and a presidential election in a year’s time at which Ms Rousseff, who is less popular than she was, will seek a second term. Furthermore, Brazil had no big issues to negotiate during the visit and some in Latin America will applaud Ms Rousseff for standing up to the United States.
The short-term cost of the spying row looks greater for Mr Obama. Brazil is mulling a bid from Boeing to provide its air force with 36 Super Hornet jet fighters. Officials might now prefer rival bidders from France or Sweden. Then there is the interest of American energy companies in bidding for a slice of a giant deep-sea oilfield at an auction next month. Brazil’s energy regulator says the integrity of the auction has not been compromised by the snooping on Petrobras. But nationalist members of Brazil’s congress may not agree.
The revelations have also triggered a debate in Brazil about the way the internet operates. What really worries the government is that the “huge vulnerabilities in its protection systems online were left exposed”, according to Rubens Barbosa, a former Brazilian ambassador to Washington. Brazil “has one of the most vulnerable and unprotected internet infrastructures in the world”, according to a recent paper by IPEA, a government-linked think-tank.
Officials are now talking about laying fibre-optic cables to Latin American countries and Europe so that Brazil’s international online traffic bypasses the United States. They also plan to tackle the country’s shortage of internet exchange points, which makes eavesdropping easier. They have ordered Brazil’s post office to launch a free encrypted e-mail service to try to compete with Gmail and others. Petrobras said it would spend 21 billion reais ($9.5 billion) over five years to improve its data security.
Ms Rousseff has urged the Congress to approve a long-proposed regulatory code for the internet. Telecoms companies resist this, because it enshrines network neutrality, which would prevent them from charging more for premium content. Its supporters say the code would make it easier to punish, if not prevent, online spying. The president also wants the bill to include a requirement that Brazilians’ electronic data be stored in Brazil and not abroad.
One risk for Brazil from the spying row is that it prompts protectionism: in the 1980s a military government barred the import of computers in a failed attempt to foster a local industry. The difference, according to Matias Spektor, a Brazilian professor of international relations at King’s College in London, is that the proposed code is the subject of a fierce democratic debate. An internet providers’ lobby, which includes Microsoft and Google, says the code would further raise the high costs of using the internet in Brazil.
American officials say in private that only the naive were astonished to hear that the NSA monitors other governments. Some in Washington will see the cancellation of the first state visit by a Brazilian president since 1995 as a disproportionate reaction. It may confirm their view that Brazil is a perennially difficult partner.
Ironically, Ms Rousseff has taken some pains to improve the relationship with the United States, damaged by the efforts of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, her predecessor, to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr Spektor thinks that no Brazilian president could have gone ahead with the visit in the circumstances. Nevertheless, he sees in the spying affair “a very unhelpful confirmation of very deep-rooted fears that the United States is out to stop Brazil from rising”.
Those fears, which American officials say are groundless, are much more intense in Brasília than in the country at large. Policy has become more nationalist under the left-wing Workers’ Party, in power since 2002. One result is that Brazil’s relations with the United States are more distant than those of many other emerging powers, such as India, South Africa or Turkey. That is odd, since the two countries are important trading and investment partners.
Mr Barbosa insists that the affair will not prevent both sides continuing with business as usual. But it is unlikely that the newly arrived American ambassador in Brasília will be invited to present her credentials to Ms Rousseff soon. However justified, the cancellation of the president’s visit represents an opportunity forgone.Over My Dead Body 2 Japanese release date set
PS Vita sequel sets sail on July 17.
Ore no Skikabane wo Koeteyuke 2, or Over My Dead Body 2, will launch for PS Vita in Japan on July 17, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia announced.
The game will cost 5,800 yen at retail and 5,184 yen via download. A first-print limited edition including a copy of the game, a PS Vita pouch and design sticker, original strap, and cleaning cloth, will cost 7,800 yen.
Pre-orders will include a special comic book featuring interviews with game designer Shoji Masuda and other staff members. First-print buyers will receive a download code for a “Rare God” to use in-game.
A trial version demonstrating the game’s various systems will be released on April 24. A demo that lets you play the beginning of the game will be released in early July. That progress will be transferable to the full version when it launches.
Watch three new TV Spots below.
Thanks, Game Jouhou.Season two constructors will be able to develop some suspension components.
The Spark-Renault suspension had come in for criticism over summer testing and the first four races, with many convinced that the parts were too fragile for the weight of the car and the rough nature of the temporary street tracks being used. Upgrades brought to Miami appear to have largely solved the issue, although Mahindra Racing’s Bruno Senna suffered two front suspension failures at that event.
Now, it seems that season two manufacturers will be able to design parts of the rear suspension. At present, the rear suspension interacts with the transmission casing, but the transmission is one of the units open for development. It’s likely that constructors will be permitted to revise those parts of the suspension that interact with the transmission – which may include the rear wishbones.
The FIA has published updated technical regulations for Formula E (Formula E technical regulations 2015), which include detailed specifications for suspension.Syracuse Truce is a partnership of law enforcement, social services, and the citzens most affected by the violence.
"Syracuse Truce" is an innovative collaboration between law enforcement and community service agencies to reduce gun crime and gang violence. If someone in your group engages in gun violence, the entire group will be held responsible.
Community members from across Syracuse have joined with city, county, state, and federal officials to group related gun violence. Syracuse Law Enforcement has identified the street groups who are responsible for much of the city's violence. Several dozen neighborhood leaders and activists are delivering the message to these groups:
The level of violence in our city is unacceptable and it must stop!
Consequences for those who won't stop will be severe.
Immediate help is available for those who choose a different way of life!!
The message is clear:
THE KILLING MUST STOP!
Law Enforcement has new rules and punishment is severe.
But, there is help if you want it.Buy Photo Louisville City FC professional soccer team owner Wayne Estopinal answers questions during an unveiling of the team's new kit for fans gathered at Louisville Slugger Field in downtown Louisville where the team will play their home matches. Mar. 26, 2015 (Photo: Brian Bohannon, Special to the C-J)Buy Photo
Louisville City Football Club owner Wayne Estopinal said he was pleased, though not too surprised, to see the results of an American City Business Journal study saying Major League Soccer would best fit here as a major professional sports franchise.
ACB Journal this week assigned "capability ratings" to cities based on population, economic capacity, facilities and existing sports in markets, among other factors. Out of 100 possible points, the study rated Louisville a 70 for the NHL, 73 for the NFL and 78 for the NBA. For MLS, it was a perfect score -- 100.
"We felt that with the past experiences we've had with other markets and pro soccer, with a lot of hard work, Louisville could be in discussion" for MLS expansion, Estopinal said.
The local architect years ago invested in a minority share of the Orlando City Soccer Club, which moved from the United Soccer Leagues to MLS in 2015. Louisville City FC took Orlando City's place in the USL, and the two clubs now share an affiliation.
All along, it has been Estopinal's goal to build up a fan base in Louisville and take a similar leap up the US Soccer ladder. Of course, others are hoping to do the same. USL added 10 franchises this year, winding up with 24 in all.
One major obstacle involves building a soccer-specific stadium. Given what's happened this week, "It's definitely driven home we can't last long at Louisville Slugger Field," |
Martin will be looking to round out his development in the coming weeks.
"I think continuing to learn the game, continuing to talk with everyone I can and soak up as much knowledge as I can is key, because it is a big step from Triple-A to the big leagues," Martin said.
Entering his second Major League Spring Training, Martin is enthused to pick up more tips from closer Craig Kimbrel and some of the other veteran relievers.
"Keep working on a routine, that's what I took from last year," Martin said. "All those guys in the bullpen in Boston, when I was there in Spring Training, I just sat there and listened. Craig Kimbrel had his own routine. Junichi Tazawa had his own routine. Everyone had their own routine. Robbie Ross [Jr.] had his own routine. Just kind of take bits and pieces from each one, and whatever works for me, go from there."The week of practice leading up to the 2013 Senior Bowl gets underway on Monday.
The roster for the event is filled with NFL draft prospects. Here are five players for Detroit Lions fans to watch more closely.
Mike Gillislee, RB, Florida
If Lions general manager Martin Mayhew is looking for a burner, Gillislee might be the fastest running back in the draft. After seeing limited action his first three seasons with the Gators, he became the team's primary back in 2012, rushing for 1,152 yards and 10 touchdowns on 252 carries.
Gillislee will likely run a sub-4.5 40-yard dash, proving he has the speed to get the edge, but at 5-foot-11, 210 pounds, he also has the bulk to run between the tackles. Additionally, he's shown the strength and ability to effectively pick up blitzing linebackers.
Margus Hunt, DE, SMU
Hunt's profile has been growing all year and is peaking at the right time thanks to a dominant performance in the Hawai'i Bowl. In SMU's 43-10 win over Fresno State, the defensive end had three tackles for loss, two sacks and two forced fumbles.
Hunt is a freak athlete and measures in at 6-foot-8, 280 pounds. The former champion discus thrower from Estonia only began playing football in 2009, but he's rapidly improved each season. He finished his college career with 17 blocked kicks, two shy of the NCAA record.
If the Lions don't select a defensive end in the first round, Hunt could be an option in the second.
Khaseem Greene, LB, Rutgers
Greene is a more traditional 4-3 outside linebacker than many of the prospects in the draft. He's a little undersized (233 pounds), but so was Ray Lewis coming out of Miami.
Greene is always around the football, tallying 277 stops over the past two seasons, including 26.5 for a loss. He's also shown the ability to generate turnovers, intercepting six passes and forcing 12 fumbles in four seasons for the Scarlet Knights.
Both of Detroit's starting outside linebackers, DeAndre Levy and Justin Durant, are free agents. Depending on the team's offseason priorities, the Lions could certainly be looking for a replacement for at least one of the two in the draft.
Will Davis, CB, Utah State
The Lions' roster is stockpiled with young cornerback since the the team selected three in the 2012 draft. Still, there's a need for additional depth and talent at the position, especially if the team is unable to re-sign Chris Houston.
Davis is one of several intriguing prospects on the Senior Bowl roster. He has good size, standing at six-foot and weighing 192 pounds. He showcased his play-making ability as a senior, intercepting five passes and leading the NCAA with 22 pass breakups.
A hard-working talent who seemingly emerged out of nowhere, Davis played just one year of high school football and two seasons at Utah State after transferring from a community college. His senior season was his only one as a starter.
I strongly recommend reading more about Davis in this story from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Jonathan Cyprien, S, Florida International
We originally had South Carolina's D.J. Swearinger in this slot, but he was removed from the Senor Bowl roster late.
We switched to Cyprien, an interesting small school prospect from the Sun Belt conference. He has good size for the position, standing six-foot and weighing 210 pounds. He led his team in tackles (93) and interceptions as a senior (four).
In the video posted below, you can see the potential, both on his range coming across the field for an interception and with a massive hit to dislodge a completion across the middle.
You can also see the flaws, including a bad angle and missed tackle, drawing a personal foul for leading with his helmet, and not locating the football in coverage, giving up a short touchdown pass on a fade route.
Still, as a late-round safety prospect, Cyprien could be a good fit. His size and tackling ability should allow him to contribute on special teams early.Share this article on LinkedIn Email
John Surtees, who has died at the age of 83, will be remembered quite simply as one of the true greats of motor racing history.
The epitaph by which he will be most widely remembered, of course, is his unique achievement: the only man to win premier-class world championships on both two and four wheels.
His sole F1 title was clinched in a thrilling final-race showdown in 1964, when he became the fifth driver in history, and the second Brit after Mike Hawthorn, to claim an F1 world championship for Ferrari.
But it was on motorcycles - his first and always true racing love - that the Surtees legend began. In the second half of the 1950s he established himself as the world benchmark on two wheels, and at times was almost unbeatable.
Seven world titles, three in the 350cc class and four on 500s, came thick and fast. Frustrated by Norton's lack of investment and ambition, he switched to MV Agusta for 1956 and the relationship bore fruit immediately as he claimed his first 500cc crown. It was also the start of a life-long love affair with Italy, where he will forever be remembered as Il Grande John - 'Big John' Surtees.
Born into a bike-mad family on February 11 1934, a teenage Surtees made his first motor sporting appearance in a sidecar beside his father, before the dad-and-lad duo took British motorcycling by storm in the early 1950s.
By '55 he was considered worthy of Norton factory machinery before he made the headstrong decision to quit the biggest name in the British business and take a chance on MV with an instinctive, gut-feel decision that would become a career trademark later in life - for better, but more often for worse.
His motorcycling career statistics are astonishing. Between 1951 and '60 Surtees claimed 250 race wins from 352 starts. Along with that first 500cc title in 1956, he would secure a hat trick of class doubles: six world titles in three years from '58 to '60 - and his fame spread beyond motor racing.
In 1959, Surtees won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and remains the only motorcyclist to have claimed the accolade.
The idea of switching to four wheels had already been put to him, but John was initially sceptical. He was a motorcyclist through and through, and had no interest in cars.
But by 1960 the lure had more appeal. MV's insistence that he could only ride the Italian bikes left him with too little racing and too many weekends free. But the agreement with Count Agusta didn't stretch to four wheels... "The first car race I ever saw was the one I was in!" he would often recall in later years, with that trademark wide smile.
Surtees found himself pitted against Jim Clark in a Formula Junior race at Goodwood, only for a rookie error to cost him a chance of victory. Lotus boss Colin Chapman took note and snapped him up to race in F1 - a rise beyond comprehension for drivers in the modern era.
And Surtees was competitive from the start. Armed with Chapman's Lotus 18, he finished second at the British Grand Prix - his second world championship start! - and led the Portuguese GP convincingly later in the year at Oporto, until the road circuit's tramlines caught him out.
The year ended on a sour note, when he was caught up in a row with Chapman and Innes Ireland, Lotus's first grand prix winner, over the honour of driving beside Clark in '61. Typically, Surtees walked even though it was Ireland who had been sacked. He couldn't have known he'd already driven the most competitive car of his F1 career and the world unknowingly lost the chance to see two of the period's great racers go head to head.
A year in a Yeoman Credit Cooper and a 1962 season in a Bowmaker Lola, both teams managed by Reg Parnell, allowed Surtees to continue to showcase his potential, even if the ultimate results didn't follow. Ferrari had already come calling, but Surtees had judged he wasn't yet ready for the red cars so early in his career.
Enzo warned he wouldn't ask again - but did exactly that at the end of a difficult season in '62. John moved to Maranello for his fourth season on four wheels, with his first F1 world championship win coming in style at the Nurburgring in the summer.
Another victory the year after at the German GP and glory at Monza helped set Surtees on the way to that title showdown in Mexico City in 1964. Racing in the unfamiliar white and blue-striped colours of NART (North American Racing Team), Surtees prevailed after Clark's Lotus failed and team-mate Lorenzo Bandini allowed him through to the second place he needed to be champion.
Surtees would remain at Ferrari until 1966, a year in which a second title beckoned - only for typical Machiavellian Italian politics to scupper his chances. The relationship with team manager Eugenio Dragoni had long been sour.
Following a calculated and brilliant wet-weather victory in the Belgian GP at Spa, Surtees lost his temper at Le Mans when Dragoni insisted that Ludovico Scarfiotti - nephew of Fiat's Gianni Agnelli - should start the race. Surtees would never reveal the details of his ensuing row with Enzo in Maranello - but his time at Ferrari ended there and then. The pair would later vow to remember the "good times" rather than the bad.
Surtees jumped to Cooper and with Maserati V12 power he won in Mexico and still ended up second to Jack Brabham in the world title, despite his team switch.
For 1967 he headed to Honda and showed the typical bullish leadership to corral the Japanese manufacturer into using a converted Lola Indycar to breakthrough success. With the so-called 'Hondola' he'd claim the Italian GP at his beloved Monza - his last world championship success.
An unhappy spell at BRM led him to the decision to head down a new route: that of team entrant and constructor. The Len Terry-designed Surtees TS7 would herald the start of John's third motor racing career - and one that would be marked overwhelmingly by disappointment.
Fellow bike legend and four-wheel convert Mike Hailwood would claim a European F2 title in a Surtees in 1972, but grand prix success would elude the team. Financial problems and rows with sponsors would grind John down through the 1970s and by '77 he'd had enough - physically and mentally. He disbanded his team officially the following season and sold his FOCA entry to Frank Williams.
For years he wanted little to do with car racing. Success in property brought financial security and he found happiness with his second wife Jane, who bore him two daughters and an only son - Henry.
The motor racing bug bit again, unexpectedly, as his boy discovered the sport that his father had left behind. A family friend introduced Henry to karting and the young lad returned to declare: "Daddy, this is what I want to do!"
Surtees found himself cast as a karting father and a new chapter in motorsport began. Henry showed promise and by 2009 had risen to the ranks of the FIA's reborn Formula 2 championship - only for tragedy to strike at Brands Hatch. An errant wheel from another car would cruelly end Henry's life, leaving his family heartbroken.
The motorsport world assumed John would never be seen at a circuit again. But incredibly Surtees found the strength to turn his pain into a reason to carry on and return to the world that had given him so much - only to rob him of his precious boy.
The Henry Surtees Foundation would become John's life and the charity would raise thousands for air ambulance services and head injury research. Out of the worst possible tragedy, Surtees found the strength to carry on into his ninth decade - and his incredible energy would make him a familiar and popular figure at Goodwood and classic car events around the UK.
In his later years Surtees appeared to come to terms with his place as a cherished hero of motor racing's golden age and would speak happily and at length about his years on bikes and in cars. The Can-Am success in Lola T70s, the grand prix and sportscar successes at Ferrari, the love affair with Italy... the stories were recalled with a clarity of mind and energy to shame those of half his age.
John Surtees, CBE, OBE and MBE, is survived by his wife Jane and his beloved daughters Edwina and Leonora - and bequeaths a colossal legacy to motorsport that will never be forgotten.Revealed: How health chiefs plan to put fluoride in half our water supply to halt tooth decay
Nearly half our drinking water could have fluoride added to it under a'secret' Government plan.
Dental health chiefs want to add the chemical to 40 per cent of England's water supply to combat high levels of tooth decay.
But critics said the'mass medication' of water without the population's consent was an invasion of their human rights.
Concerns: Fluoride has been linked to a range of diseases
They also accused dentists of being in denial about the dangers of fluoride, which has been linked to diseases including brittle bones and cancer.
Dental experts, however, said there is overwhelming evidence that adding fluoride to water helps reduce tooth decay, with children the biggest beneficiaries.
Fluoride, which is tasteless and odourless, occurs naturally but is also found in drinking water supplies - usually at levels too low to affect dental health.
At present, only 10 per cent of tap water has fluoride added - in the West Midlands and the North East.
Although plans to add the chemical to more of the nation's water supply were first announced by Health Secretary Alan Johnson in February, the scale of the Government's intentions has remained under wraps until now.
In an interview with Dental Tribune magazine, chief dental officer Barry Cockcroft said: 'We only need to fluoridate 40 per cent of the country. Greater Manchester is currently considering it and there are many other areas that are looking at it.'
But he dismissed the'scaremongering that says it causes cancer'.
'A total of 170million people in America drink fluoridated water and it is the most litigious country in the world,' he said.
But Peter Mansfield, a Lincolnshire-based GP and expert on the effects of fluoride, said: 'It does work a little bit, but nothing like as much as dentists say it does, and it causes as much damage as it does good.
'You are robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is a very flawed science.'
Caroline Lucas, of the Green Party, said the European Convention on Human Rights states individuals have the right not to be medicated without their consent.
The party is taking legal advice on a possible challenge.
She said: 'Putting fluoride in everyone's water amounts to mass medication, which would contravene human rights and medical ethics.'
The Government,which has earmarked £42million to pay for the scheme, has agreed to pick up the costs of any legal claims.
The Department of Health said water companies would only start fluoridating water following consultation with local people.In less than a year, Yorkton, Sask. could be home to one of Canada's biggest cash crops.
Canopy Growth Corporation purchased an old dairy producers building located on York Road in early spring 2017. This location is now known as "Tweed Grasslands," and is licenced by Health Canada to grow marijuana for medical purposes.
“It is a perfect location for a cannabis facility, both by virtue of the way that it was constructed and the power service ability and various utilities to the building,” says Andrew MacCorquodale, Head of Operations, Western Canada, Canopy Growth Corporation.
The first batch of product from the facility has been cut and dried. The company is now waiting for Health Canada to inspect the harvest and approve it can be used for sale. If approved, the facility is destined to become a large producer of indoor grown cannabis.
“We're rapidly expanding, hoping to get to about 90,000 square feet of production within this facility,” MacCorquodale tells CTV News.
The company hopes to have the facility upgraded and ready for July 1, 2018, when recreational marijuana is set to become legal in Canada.
“It's going to mean a lot of dollars in the local economy so that kind of expansion is something we haven't seen in many businesses recently,” Bob Maloney, Mayor of Yorkton says. “Certainly do I have concerns? Yes, I do. I mean when you look at legalization, if you ask me to vote for it, I'd vote no. But you know you have to put on your business suit.”
Tweed Grasslands has been working with the City of Yorkton and the local RCMP since the idea began in 2013, following changes to medical marijuana legislation.
“We felt very welcome in Yorkton. We haven't had any issues what so ever, and we now employ quite a few people from Yorkton or the surrounding area,” MacCorquodale says.
Hiring local has always been a desire for the company, and that’s a big plus for the mayor.
“If it's a business entity, that means they pay taxes, they create jobs. From that point of view, I really don't view it as anything different than any other business,” Maloney says.
Even bigger names are starting to invest in Canada's future marijuana market. Constellation Brands, the company that owns alcohol labels like Corona beer and Kim Crawford wines, recently purchases a 10% stake in Canopy Growth Corporation for $245-million. The partnership could lead to new products, like cannabis infused drinks and elixirs. This kind of market potential could lead to more growth in Saskatchewan.
Currently, only about 20 per cent of the facility is being used for production. Once expansion is complete, they plan to have about 80 employees in Yorkton.127 Improper use of public electronic communications network E+W+S+N.I.
This section has no associated Explanatory Notes
(1)A person is guilty of an offence if he—
(a)sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or
(b)causes any such message or matter to be so sent.
(2)A person is guilty of an offence if, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, he—
(a)sends by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that he knows to be false,
(b)causes such a message to be sent; or
(c)persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network.
(3)A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.
(4)Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to anything done in the course of providing a programme service (within the meaning of the Broadcasting Act 1990 (c. 42)).
[(5)An information or complaint relating to an offence under this section may be tried by a magistrates' court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland if it is laid or made—
(a)before the end of the period of 3 years beginning with the day on which the offence was committed, and
(b)before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the day on which evidence comes to the knowledge of the prosecutor which the prosecutor considers sufficient to justify proceedings.
(6)Summary proceedings for an offence under this section may be commenced in Scotland—
(a)before the end of the period of 3 years beginning with the day on which the offence was committed, and
(b)before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the day on which evidence comes to the knowledge of the prosecutor which the prosecutor considers sufficient to justify proceedings,
and section 136(3) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (date when proceedings deemed to be commenced) applies for the purposes of this subsection as it applies for the purposes of that section.
(7)A certificate of a prosecutor as to the date on which evidence described in subsection (5)(b) or (6)(b) came to his or her knowledge is conclusive evidence of that fact.]The look.
A slight tilting of the head, a subtle raising of the eyebrows -- an unmistakable expression of disapproval.
It's not quarterbacks who most fear Eric Weddle, even though they never throw in his direction. It's not opposing receivers either, even though the Chargers safety regularly slaps injunctions on their stat lines.
No, the helmet-and-pad-wearing folks who fret Weddle most are his own teammates.
And it's all because of that look.
"It's not even like he's mad or fiery, he just looks at you like he's disappointed," said Chargers cornerback/safety Marcus Gilchrist. "It's just a look that says 'come on, man, you're better than that.'"
Off the field, Weddle is a proud father-of-three with a fourth child on the way. On the field, whether it's in the middle of a packed stadium or within the confines of Chargers Park, he is equally patriarchal.
The added responsibility placed on the 28-year-old this season -- such as the reps at linebacker or frequent special-teams appearances -- has been well-documented. But what's been just as critical is his ability to groom a secondary whose trunks are noticeably short on rings.
"He's not working with a bunch of veterans," Chargers cornerback Shareece Wright said of Weddle. "But the expectations are still high."
If Weddle chose to never help his teammates -- to never tutor the up-and-comers or coach the newbies -- he would still be a crucial asset to this football team. An All-Pro selection in each of the past three seasons, Weddle leads the Chargers in tackles (47) and seems to have a restraining order against flying footballs.
Passes simply don't float his way. Magnet targets like Cowboys tight end Jason Witten, an eight-time Pro Bowler who was held to 43 yards receiving vs. San Diego, tend to evaporate when he's on the field.
But you don't need this article to tell you that. Weddle will tell you himself.
"I shut everyone down I play against. That's the realistic part," said a grinning Weddle. "Nobody's caught the ball on me, and if they do, it's short of the sticks."
Unfortunately for the Chargers, there are other places teams can throw. And while fellow members of the secondary can try and follow Weddle's lead, they can't necessarily replicate it.
Wright and Gilchrist are regular starters for the first times in their short careers. Fifth-year veteran Derek Cox came over from Jacksonville while fellow cornerback Johnny Patrick was in Buffalo last season.
Even Crezdon Butler has played in five games this year, which matches his career-high. In other words, Weddle has become about as close to a player-coach as you can get.
He enjoys the role, though. He likes teaching and takes pride in his pupils' progress. It's just that every now and then, he'll notice a brain lapse and let the culprit know about it in his infamously non-verbal manner.
"The look used to be a lot worse," said Weddle, noting that it was more pronounced and accompanied by hand motions. "I've worked on my deficiencies to become a better teammate. It's just the mental stuff that gets me irritated. Mental errors are unacceptable."
Despite the facial displays of disgruntlement, teammates have embraced Weddle's leadership. They know he has their best interests in mind and that he wouldn't have those vexed glances if he wasn't so enamored with the sport.
As Patrick said, "a lot of people like what comes with football but don't like the game itself. Eric loves football."
Besides, it's not like the Chargers are the only recipients of the look. Weddle's kids get it, too.
The one difference?
"With them," said Weddle, "it comes with a yell."Gaming is a visual medium, and it's amazing to think how much information we have to take in almost instantly to play games. Especially in action games, we need to be able to quickly take notice of subtle movements and the state of numerous dials and displays that show us how well or poorly we're doing in the game. To do that, we have to be able to absorb a large amount of color information. What does that soldier's uniform look like? Is that a red or green mark above an alien's head? Is he on my side, or is he an enemy? Now imagine that much of this crucial information was removed from a game; the challenge of dealing with situational awareness would increase very quickly.
That challenge is precisely the one faced by people who are colorblind, which is a rather common genetic problem. A reader named Tim McDaniel contacted us about this matter, and his examples were thought-provoking. "One specific gaming example that always frustrates me is Battlefield 2142. I love the game, but the flags of the two teams are not distinct enough on the HUD, at least to me. I honestly can't tell you what color they are. Red, green, yellow, brown?" he told Ars. "I usually end up trying to distinguish them by brightness because one looks slightly brighter to me, but that is so slight it's still tough."
Your eye differentiates color by using three sets of cones that register red, green, and blue. When one or multiple sets of cones become less sensitive, you begin to have problems telling certain colors apart. Some people can go through their entire life not knowing there is anything wrong with their eyes, as a specialized visual exam is needed to test for specific forms of colorblindness. Others have deficiencies so pronounced they have to rely on the position of the active light at traffic signals instead of being able to tell the difference between red and green at a glance. There are many different forms of color-blindness, but the most common involves difficulty distinguishing shades of red and green (plus related colors).
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo as seen by someone with normal eyes and
by someone with Deuteranopia (a red-green color deficit)
These colors often convey critical information in games. "In many first-person shooters, you'll come across closed doors with lights on the doors that indicate if they are locked or not. These are usually red or green, and I often can't tell the difference. This is a minor annoyance usually, but if it's the difference between life and death, frustrating," McDaniel told us. "Countless puzzle games that rely on matching colors are unplayable to various degrees. Even Hexic, a great game which gets it mostly right in letting you turn on shapes to augment the colors, still has the deadly 'bomb' tiles that only differ in color." He's not alone, either. While studies don't agree on specific numbers, color blindness affects somewhere between four and eight percent of the male population. Inheritance of red-green colorblindness is linked to the X-chromosome, so women are much less at risk than men.
Mario and Luigi are nearly indistinguishable to someone with Deuteranopia in New Super Mario Brothers multiplayer
What can developers do? The fixes are relatively simple to implement. Any time color-specific information is used as a game mechanic, give multiple options for those colors. A simple shift to different hues, or even a drastic increase in contrast between two colors would make these issues go away for color blind individuals. Patterns and shapes can also be used to great effect; a flag with wide stripes across it would be fix the issues people experience in games like Battlefield 2142. Even though there are simple solutions to a problem that affects a large number of gamers, it's usually not on the "short list" of concerns, as McDaniel points out. He should know, he works on video games himself.
"I work at Aspyr, and was one of the
Engineers on the Windows port of Guitar Hero III. In Guitar Hero, the notes are
colored, but I never used the colors, relying only on position, even
when first learning to play. Does anyone use the colors?" he asked, semi-rhetorically. "I wouldn't
know."Entrepreneurs and investors are quickly seeking to capitalize on what has been coined the “Green Rush” to the cannabis market. Those who finance, develop, produce and sell cannabis or cannabis derivatives should be cognizant of the intellectual property rights that are available in such products, as well as the risks of violating the rights of others. Plant breeders’ rights (PBRs), patents and/or trade secrets may be relevant to the protection of a cannabis product and its method of production.
Branding and other related aspects of cannabis products may be protected through other forms of intellectual property such as trade-marks and industrial designs, which are not discussed in this article.
Plant Breeders’ Rights
The only way to protect exclusivity in a cannabis plant in Canada is to obtain the grant of a PBR for a “plant variety” under the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act (PBRA). To obtain a PBR, an applicant must not only demonstrate that the variety, such as a strain, is “new”, but also that it is clearly distinguishable from all other varieties, stable in its essential characteristics and sufficiently homogenous from one generation of the plant to the next.
In general terms, a variety is considered “new” if the propagating or harvested material of the variety has not previously been sold for a prescribed period that varies, depending on the variety and whether the sale is made within or outside Canada, but is at least one year before the filing of the application.
A PBR only protects the specific variety of cannabis for which it is granted. To date, only a few cannabis varieties have been protected. There are issued PBRs and pending applications for varieties of hemp and a pending application for a variety of marijuana identified as “Big C”.
A holder of a PBR has the right, in Canada, to exclude others from selling, producing, exporting, importing, making repeated use of, conditioning, and stocking the propagating material of the protected plant variety for 20 or 25 years, depending on the type of plant. In the United States, similar protection is offered under the Plant Variety Protection Act for sexually reproduced or tuber-propagated plant varieties, and under the federal Plant Patent Act for plant varieties that reproduce asexually.
Enforcement of a PBR against infringement is subject to several exceptions. A person may use the propagating material of a protected plant variety for private non-commercial purposes, for experimental purposes or to breed a new plant variety. Additionally, “farmers’ privilege” allows a farmer who has legitimately obtained a protected variety to save seeds or other propagating material and replant the variety from one year to the next without infringing the PBR.
Patents
A patent may be obtained in Canada for a new, useful and non-obvious invention. The owner of a patent is granted the exclusive right to make, use, sell, offer for sale or import the patented invention in Canada for 20 years from the date of filing. Like a PBR, a patent enables its owner to exclude others from the market or grant a licence to exploit the rights for consideration.
To be eligible for a patent in Canada, the subject matter must satisfy the definition of “invention” under the Patent Act. To do so, it must qualify as an art, process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or an improvement thereon. A patent may be available to protect a novel product containing a cannabis derivative as well as cannabis-related processes and methods, including those related to the extraction of cannabinoids and the production of edibles and concentrates. However, a cannabis plant per se is not patentable in Canada.
Canada has excluded plants and other “higher life forms” from patent eligibility. This differs from the United States, which allows utility patents to be obtained in respect of higher life forms, including various strains of cannabis. Despite cannabis being illegal in most of the United States, there is no prohibition on obtaining a patent for a cannabis plant or a related product, method or process. In fact, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has already issued a patent for a hybrid cannabis plant having certain characteristics that are patently distinguishable from known strains.
Since the United States allows certain cannabis plants to be patented, there is some concern that patents may be issued for strains that have been “available to the public” – albeit through an underground market – for a period that would render them obvious or not novel, and therefore not patentable. In light of the legal restrictions on cannabis in the United States, these strains may not be available for searching by the USPTO in its assessment of an invention. In order to combat this concern and ensure all known varieties are in the public domain, at least one entity has solicited public participation to archive existing cannabis strains.
In Canada, although a patent is not available for “higher life forms”, including plants, a non-naturally occurring and non-multicellular organism is eligible for patent protection. This includes isolated cells, cell lines, cell cultures and isolated genes that have been genetically modified. However, cannabis genes, cells and cell lines derived from traditional breeding methods, such as selection or cross-breeding, are ineligible for patent protection.
Additionally, a person who obtains a patent in respect of a transgenic cannabis gene or a genetically modified cannabis cell line may indirectly protect the cannabis plant variety itself since certain activities, such as using or selling seeds containing the patented gene or cell, would constitute infringement of the patent right.
Furthermore, since the breeders’ exceptions and farmers’ privilege discussed above would not apply to a patented invention, obtaining a patent would result in a much more robust protection for the patent holder. Thus, using genetic engineering techniques to develop strains of cannabis may provide a significant business advantage over traditional breeding practices.
Trade Secrets
If a new cannabis strain, derivative, method of production or related processing technique is kept confidential, it may be protectable as a trade secret. Protectable information includes any technical or commercial information that is not publicly available and has value because of such confidentiality. It is not necessary to obtain any registration or have a written, or even an oral, agreement to protect a trade secret.
To maintain protection, seeds and other propogating material need to be kept strictly confidential. Trade secret protection would be lost if the composition of the strain or the processing technique could be reverse-engineered or independently developed. Also, absent any contractual provisions to the contrary, anyone who legitimately acquires propogating material of the strain would be free to reproduce the plant.
The greater the efforts made by a person who possesses the information to protect it from disclosure both within and outside its organization, the greater the likelihood that a court will consider the information to be confidential. Information that can be properly acquired elsewhere within the relevant trade or industry, or that is disclosed with authorization by a person in rightful possession, would not be protected.
The receipt of a trade secret in circumstances of confidence imposes a duty on the recipient not to use that information for any purpose other than that for which it was conveyed. Circumstances of confidence exist where the recipient knows, or reasonably ought to know, that the information is confidential. A trade secret may be licensed for use by others.
Best Practices
A business that develops a new cannabis variety, a product that contains a cannabis derivative or a method or process relating to cannabis should, at a very early stage, consider whether PBR, patent or trade secret protection may be available and suitable for any aspect of the plant, its production or any of its derivatives. A business should also consider whether a search of intellectual property rights held by others in those jurisdictions in which it intends to make, use or sell products should be conducted to ensure that any such activities will not violate the rights of others.
If you have any questions about intellectual property rights related to cannabis, please contact any member of our Intellectual Property group.
For other cannabis-related inquiries, please contact Alexis Levine, Chris Nyberg or any other member of our Cannabis group.Buy Photo Nuclear power is not only nonpolluting but reliable, supplying electricity around the clock, Wolfram writes. (Photo: David Coates / The Detroit News)Buy Photo
Nuclear power accounts for more than 60 percent of the nation’s carbon-free energy, but in the past few months, due to an abundance of low-cost natural gas, utilities have announced plans to shut down six safe and efficient nuclear plants. And many other plants are at high risk of early retirement.
Nationally, and in Michigan, there has been growing concern about carbon emissions and how to address the issue. While the focus has been on “renewable sources” such as emission-free solar and wind power, it is important to remember that nuclear power is not only nonpolluting but reliable, supplying electricity around the clock. In Michigan, three nuclear plants produce 26 percent of the state’s electricity. It is important to think about how to coordinate the expansion of solar and wind power with the U.S. fleet of nuclear plants.
A problem is that nuclear power has a high fixed cost so it is economically susceptible to sudden drops in the price of electricity. The recent drop in the price of natural gas has put some plants, in particular those in New York and California, in danger of shutting down. This is causing stress on the power grid. It also increases the amount of carbon emissions, as this power will be replaced at least in the near future with natural gas-fired plants.
What’s adding to the problem is the intermittency of solar and wind power. Neither is of value on days when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. As the amount of power generated by these intermittent sources expands the grid will require more advanced energy storage in the long term and the ability of base line power plants to ramp up and reduce power in the short term.
So as greater use is made of renewable energy sources, |
ively intertwined. And they arise from basic research: many are launched from studies that are undertaken to further our knowlegde of the world around us, and not originally intended to result in commercial applications. And 2) The Arizona angle. Not only did Benyus point out how the desert itself is full of organisms surviving under adverse conditions and so is a perfect system to study and learn from, but also how many people in biomimicry are working at Arizona State University. Over and over, she mentioned names of scientists, teachers, and students who were sitting around us in the audience. While this made me proud of ASU, it was painful too in light of the ongoing budget crisis created by partisan factions in the Arizona state legislature. Even as we sat there listening to all the social, economic, scientific, and environmental advances ASU personnel are making in schools and departments from Design to Chemistry, money was being ripped away short-sightedly from those very programs and people in the name of fiscal responsibility.
Bad bad bad monkeys — what are the politicians thinking? “Monkey see monkey do” — biomimicry and its educational foundations and commercial development — deserves staunch support, for the good of the future. And Arizona, with its universities already deeply involved in such research, could be a leader in biomimicry studies and industry. But only with a well-nourished educational system. As Benyus said, the defiinition of the success of a species is not whether its offspring survive, but whether its 10-thousandth generation survives. To do that, a species must take care of where its offspring will live. This is what a bird does when it builds a nest, this is what nature does on both a grand and a small scale: “Life creates conditions conducive to life.” That is the lesson for individuals, for people in charge of policy and states: it is the lesson for the ages.
But in the interest of happy thoughts, I’ll leave you with this final fact, humorous visual image, and new word: Supposedly, the “stiction” of a fully engaged gecko could support 200 pounds. Imaging suspending a porky politician — by his waist of course — from the ceiling, with a just a gecko! How sustainable is that?
Photos: I’m uncertain whom to credit the great photo of Ms. Benyus and a very large milipede to. But in case this applies, I will credit AskNature.org, a project of The Biomimicry Institute. The photo of the Thorny Devil is from Wikipedia, and is by Wouter. The female hummer is a Black-chinned girl on a nest built above a footpath at the Nature Conservancy’s Hassayampa Preserve near Wickenburg, AZ, by A. Shock.NBC’s The Voice this Monday dominated all comers, drawing 13.9 million total viewers and a 4.9 demo rating (per adjusted finals), even while dipping from last week’s season highs. (Read Michael Slezak’s recap.)
Leading out of that, Revolution returned from its preemption with 6.2 mil and a 2.0, down two tenths from its last fresh episode (per finals).
RELATED | May Sweeps/Season Finale Scoopapalooza: More Than 100 Spoilers on Revolution, Bones and Many Other Shows
ABC’s Castle scored its second-largest audience of the season — 11.7 million viewers — and a 2.3 rating (per finals), up 15 percent week-to-week and soundly beating Revolution for the 10 o’clock win. Dancing With the Stars opened ABC’s night with 13.6 mil/2.1, ticking down a tenth.
RELATED | Castle Recap: Kate Questions Rick About Their Future
Over on Fox, Bones (6.9 mil/2.0) ticked up a tenth, while the penultimate episode of The Following (7 mil/2.4) saw gains of 10 and 14 percent.
RELATED | The Following Recap — [Spoiler] Dies
The CW’s Oh Sit! (860K/0.3) dropped 12 percent from its Season 2 premiere, but 90210 rose 8 percent and a tenth to 600,000 whole entire viewers and a 0.3 rating.
Want scoop on any of the above shows? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.There are few anime that have such a massive cachet as the sprawling multiple timeline Gundam mythos. So when Yoshiyuki Tomino - the original showrunner for the classic Mobile Suit Gundam - was announced as returning to the fold, pretty much everyone did a happy dance.
This new series, Gundam G no Reconguista, is set in the Reguild Century and features the plight of the eminently likeable Bellri Zennam. A young Capital Guard recruit, he stumbles across a mysterious new mobile suit called the G-Self, piloted by a rather snooty lady by the name of Aida Surugan. Tomino says he wanted to do a new Gundam series that focused on the relationship between an older sister-type character and a younger brother allegory, so it's clear the character dynamic is currently leaning towards that.
While this is ostensibly in a new timeframe, the Reguild Century is a continuation of the classic Universal Century. This is a very big deal, as much of the alternate timeline series have received a mixed reception over the years. So going back to and continuing the classic Gundam timeline is a smart move.
As with all Tomino anime his approach to narrative is an ad-hoc one, in that important plot points are mixed in with everyday chatter and events basically stumble along. This may sound disastrous but Gundam has endured as long as it has based on the unique nature of Tomino’s characterization and narrative.
The reason this setup has always worked well is that real life is rarely as neat in a narrative sense. It also forces the viewer to pay closer attention, drawing them into the world-building more. Figuring out what has brought characters to current events makes you feel part of the story in a way that few anime ever have.
Now, not everyone is a fan of this approach. For instance Toshio Okada from Gainax holds a particularly dim view of Tomino’s new Gundam show, criticizing it for being bizarre and difficult to follow. It's also a bit odd that, for a show aimed at kids, it airs past midnight.
All that aside though, there is one thing that I am definitely appreciating about G no Reconguista; its gorgeous hand-drawn animation. For a TV series the sheer amount and quality of hand drawn animation is absolutely fantastic. Considering most modern anime use a lot of CG (and this series does use a bit), the bulk of the important footage is all done by hand. In truth, CG is actually no less expensive to make compared to hand drawn animation and it’s now coming down to more of a stylistic decision rather than a financial one.
I only hope more series and films follow suit.
Regarding other series, G no Reconguista is not the only new Gundam series currently being aired on Japanese television. The other is Gundam Build Fighters Try, which is a follow on to last year’s madly successful series about kids battling with their newly built Gundam model kits.
To give a quick bit of background, one of Gundam’s most successful merchandising arms is its model kits. Called “gunpla”, which is short for “Gundam plastic model”, the first Gundam Build Fighters took these kits and put them in a fictional battling tournament; where kids who have built the best Gundam prevail. This new series picks up the action 7 years later and features new characters as they enter into the new Gunpla Battle Championship.
As you can imagine this has been wildly popular and a huge money spinner for Bandai. Especially because much of the designs featured in Build Fighters are actually based on excess stock that wasn’t selling. Plus it allowed older fans to enthuse over classic designs being given a new breath of life.
Build Fighters is also bleeding over into games as well, with games like the upcoming Gundam Breaker 2 taking the gunpla fascination further; where players can build their own Franken-mecha from disparate parts of various mobile suits seen in the anime. I’ll be covering the Gundam Breaker games some more too, as the new game will be out in Japan this December on PlayStation 3 and Vita.
Follow me on Twitter and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii. Read my Forbes blog here.Kalypso Media has today announced that its latest strategy game, Tropico 5, has been refused a retail release in Thailand by the country’s Board of Film and Video Censors. According to Thailand’s Ministry of Culture, Tropico 5 contains content not appropriate for the current situation the country faces, however it was not revealed what content exactly that is.
Simon Hellwig, Global Managing Director Kalypso Media Group stated, ‘We are disappointed to hear that Tropico 5 will not be released in Thailand. Tropico 3 and 4 both enjoyed successful releases in the country and although the Tropico brand does have a realistic political element to it, the scenarios and content are all delivered with a certain trademark tongue in cheek humour.’
Stefan Marcinek, Global Managing Director, Kalypso Media Group added ‘Our distributor has been working hard to gain approval for the release, but it seems that the Board of Film and Video Censors deem some of the content too controversial for their consumers. This does sound like it could have come from one of El Presidente’s own edicts from the game.’
Source: *Press ReleaseCrowdfunding platform Kickstarter launched without much fanfare in the UK earlier this week, with around a dozen video game campaigns popping up with pound sterling targets attached to them.Perhaps surprisingly, no big-name UK studios chose to delve into Kickstarter on day one, following the examples set by the likes of Double Fine, Obsidian and Revolution Software (the latter of which is in fact based in the UK, but circumvented the platform to launch with a dollar target earlier this year.)Initial impressions from those UK game projects that have been submitted suggest that a number of studios have perhaps skimmed over the top-funded game titles on Kickstarter, and subsequently set their sights a little too high with a long way to go until they reach their targets -- although those involved are staying positive about the outcome.Peter van der Watt, managing director at Blazing Griffin, has a Kickstarter campaign going for The Ship: Full Steam Ahead, a sequel to the original 2006 first-person murder party game. His team is looking for �128,000 ($206,874) in two months, and is taking the wait and see approach -- and with less than 100 backers in 24 hours, the studio may well have to put Plan B into effect."I think that at this stage it's simply too early to gauge [whether the Kickstarter will succeed]," says van der Watt. "We've given ourselves the target of two weeks to determine the likelihood of succeeding or surpassing greatly and will make any decisions based on the data up till that point in time.""I think we went in with a reasonably realistic view of what we hoped we could raise," he adds. "I don't feel there would have been much benefit to everyone involved in going lower. We definitely didn't want to over promise and under deliver!"Of course, Blazing Griffin has the advantage of building off of past work. Maia is the first solo effort from Simon Roth of Machine Studios, and he's looking for �100,042 ($161,688). Despite not really having a big name to pitch to potential backers, Roth has already managed to raise over 10 percent of the target, in part thanks to a retweet fromcreator Markus Persson."The launch of the service needed a bit more fanfare," says Roth. "There was little coverage and they flipped the switch at midnight. The only mainstream press covering it failed to champion the service, and were a bit negative."Even so, Roth remains optimistic, although he's not 100 percent sure whether he has set his sights correctly. "By my estimates we should manage it by the skin of our teeth," he adds."50 percent of our target audience is American, so a pound value is very alien to them and has been a slight issue with a number of backers," he notes. "I think setting our sights above the 100k mark was important though, on a psychological level, as it makes a project seems genuine and lets backers know we have designed a realistic budget."Whileis definitely looking like one of the front-runners, other Kickstarter campaigns from the UK aren't looking so destined for success. The Sui Generis RPG from Bare Mettle Entertainment is looking for �150,000 ($242,505) and has raised less than 2 percent of its target in the first 24 hours.Elsewhere, Paul Firth's mmoAsteroids has gained some traction on Twitter, yet has only seen six backers. Clearly there is an element of interested parties spreading news of a title, yet being not so quick to empty their wallets.Kinesthetic Games is another studio with a favorable background, but one that has perhaps once again set its sights a little too high. The team of Ex-Lionhead and Codemasters staffers is looking for �200,000 ($323,340) for Kung Fu Superstar, a tactical combat game that has seen less than 100 backers and around 4 percent of its target in 24 hours."We have a lot of faith in our game and in our ability to see it through, so we're optimistic that the Kickstarter community will share that faith," says Kostas Zarifis, game director at Kinesthetic. "We spent a lot of time and effort budgeting, so we're confident that what we're asking for is right for what we're trying to do with the 'Kickstarter version' of our project."By 'Kickstarter version', Zarifis is referring to, a sort of preview version that will be built before the full game. In fact, to receive the full version of, backers have to put down at least �40 ($67)."We are codenaming the Kickstarter game," he explains. "It'll be available on PC only and it'll be sort of like the 'Season 1 Pilot' of thesaga. Provided that goes as well as we plan for it to, we will then build on that success to make the game available on additional platforms with additional content."Zarifis notes that the many benefits of using Kickstarter for his studio's upcoming set of games are obvious."It can only mean great things for both the local and global development scenes as well as the end gamer. More ways for creative people to be able to realise their creations means more good games in the market. Monopoly kills creativity and diversification."For now, I find myself dubious of the UK games industry's current presence on Kickstarter. Many devs are seemingly failing to understand that you need a prior internet presence and community if you're going to aim for the stars with your target, and the majority of the game projects I found while skimming the new projects category are being far too ambitious.Simon Roth's suggestion that the pound sign is putting Americans off also rings very true with me. To add to that, it could very well be working in a negative manner at a psychological level -- any U.S. backers will have to translate the pounds to dollars first, and will then be left with a larger figure, potentially putting them off, as silly as it may sound.But of course, it's extremely early days, and we'll have to wait a couple more weeks to really gauge the full picture. For now, I would urge those UK studios planning to launch a Kickstarter in the next few weeks to skim through some of the smaller past Kickstarter successes, and consider whether the target they're considering is really in line with past expectations.Bayern Munich gave Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso a fitting send-off with a comfortable win over Freiburg.
Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has said the club will not be bullied by the financial muscle of English clubs into paying a €100 million transfer fee, amid speculation they are interested in signing Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez.
Rummenigge's comments come as Bild reported that Bayern will refuse to match the €20m annual salary that Arsenal have offered the forward to renew his contract.
It was reported earlier this week that Bayern have identified Sanchez as their top summer target, with the club asking Chile teammate Arturo Vidal to vouch for his international colleague's quality.
Sanchez, 28, has one year left on his current Arsenal contract and has not yet agreed an extension to remain at the Emirates.
Alexis Sanchez scored 24 Premier League goals for Arsenal in 2016-17.
In addition, according to reports in Chile, Sanchez's agent Fernando Felicevich visited Munich to celebrate Vidal's 30th birthday on Monday and for initial discussions about his client joining the German champions for a reported €58m fee and €13m annual salary.
Discussing the prospect of the Premier League's wealth leading Bayern to pay €100m for a player, Rummenigge told Suddeutsche Zeitung: "You don't have to get involved into every bit of nonsense the English start. It's not like they only drive on the wrong side of the road."
Bayern have already added Hoffenheim duo Niklas Sule and Sebastian Rudy to their squad ahead of next season and Rummenigge confirmed they will make more signings.
"Of course we are not finished yet," Rummenigge said. "We have a clearly defined plan of action. At our level, quality is the top priority."
Rummenigge added that he regrets Philipp Lahm not taking up a sporting director role with Bayern after his retirement but said: "We will definitely keep the door open for Philipp.
"I can well imagine he'll be itching to get going again after relaxing for three or six months.
"He's an intelligent lad who knows the club in and out. He also has the necessary authority and would understand what this task involves."
According to Rummenigge, it was "never planned" to fill the role from July 1.
Mark Lovell covers Bayern Munich for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter: @LovellLowdown.Josh Lowensohn/CNET
Although Tim Cook has hinted in the past that Apple is looking at other product categories, the company's chief executive on Thursday left no doubt about his plans to look elsewhere.
"There will be new [product] categories," Cook told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday. "We're not ready to talk about it, but we're working on some really great stuff."
Cook went on to say that any "reasonable" person would expect Apple to be looking to break into other product categories.
There have been near-constant rumblings over the past few years that Apple would be breaking out from computers, music players, tablets, and smartphones, and getting into all-new product categories. Speculation abounds that the company will unveil a new television and could soon launch a wearable device believed to be known as the iWatch.
Despite attempts at prodding, the Journal was unable to get Cook to say exactly what new products his company is working on. He also declined to say when the new product categories might be unveiled.Hillary Clinton's closest allies were shocked when news of her private email use first broke in March 2015, emails published by WikiLeaks on Tuesday show.
John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chair, and Neera Tanden, co-chair of Clinton's transition team, complained in an exchange written the day after the publication of the New York Times story that exposed her email use that Clinton's team should have made the server public more than a year earlier in order to avoid such a distraction during the presidential election.
"Why didn't they get this stuff out like 18 months ago? So crazy," Tanden said. Podesta agreed that their refusal to do so was "unbelievable."
"[I] guess I know the answer," Tanden replied. "[T]hey wanted to get away with it."
Click for more from The Washington Examiner.The following is a translation of a post my wife, Mrs. Jiwaku, made to Facebook. It was just too priceless not to translate and share in English. A word about the contents of the list:
These aren’t things that one mom once said: they’re things we’ve heard time and again, and which, when we hear them, always cause us to flinch a little… to the complete bafflement of the people–mostly moms–saying them.
So, no, we’re not cherry-picking the really crazy stuff… all the below is from the solidly average, not-extreme-by-general-standards parents. (Yes, mostly moms, because that’s who mostly manages the day-to-day stuff related to their kids’ educations. And yes, solidly middle-class expat Korean families.)
And now, Mrs. Jiwaku has the floor…
1. “My kid is totally passive, he can’t express himself [in Korean], can’t think logically, and isn’t interested in anything at all. Could you please fix those problems?”
(Because that’s totally achievable in two hours a week. Maybe your kid doesn’t need English lessons, just psychotherapy!)
2. “I know nagging is really unhelpful and bad for my kid, but I just can’t control myself.”
(If you can’t manage that little bit of self-control, why did you go and have children in the first place?)
3. “My oldest kid doesn’t seem to have a lot of academic potential. Should I just give up on her and invest in my younger kid instead?”
(Does someone need to totally “give up” on life because they’re not good at school?)
4. “No matter what, please ALWAYS give my child a LOT of homework.”
(If they have tons of school homework AND tutor homework, when are they supposed to sleep? And how are they supposed to process what they’re learning?)
5. “Feel get to get angry with my kid, and be as harsh as you like. I don’t mind!“
(Is this really your kid? Now, imagine him saying the same thing to the staff when he deposits you in that nursing home someday…)
6. I don’t push my kid as hard as other moms do! It’s only two hours of cram school every weekday after school.
(So, quick calculation… 8 hours of school + 2 hours of cram school + 1 hour of school homework + 1 hour of cram school homework = 12 hours a day of academic work. Could you handle that everyday for even one week straight?)
7. “Please don’t teach my kid in a ‘fun’ way, but in a ‘studious’ way.”
(What the hell is “studious” study? Are you saying learning shouldn’t be enjoyable?)
8. “My kid’s too fat!”
(Try sitting at a desk for twelve hours a day without eating healthy food at mealtimes, and see how you do. Also, how the in hell can you go around saying that about your own kid?)
Other comments:
Can we arrange more lesson hours? I can’t stand to see my kid just relaxing at home.
Oh, vacations are awful. I can’t wait till the first day of school.
I’ll include the original Korean text beneath the cut, for those who want to see what Mrs. Jiwaku originally wrote. (She helped with and approved this translation above, however.)
영어레슨을 하면서 부모들에게서 들은 황당한 말…
1. 우리애가 소극적이고 감정표현을 잘 못해요. 논리적으로 생각을 할 줄 모르고 관심있는것도 전혀 없어요. 그런걸 해결해주세요.
– 영어레슨이 아니라 의사에게 상담이 필요한 아이를 나에게 대려와 일주일에 2시간 영어 공부를 하면서 심리치료를 하라는 겁니까…
2. 잔소리를 안 하는게 좋은건 알지만, 그게 제 맘대로 안되요.
– 그 정도도 마음대로 안되시면 애는 왜 가졌어요?
3. 우리 첫째는 공부는 정말 아닌가봐요. 얘는 포기하고 둘째에 투자해야 하나요?
– 공부를 못하면 인생을 포기해야 하는건가요?
4. 무조건 숙제 많이 주세요.
– 학교 숙제도 많은데 학원 숙제 많으면 언제 잠을 자고… 또 배운것에 대해 이해는 언제 합니까?
5. 혼내주세요. 막 심하게 하셔도 되요.
– 자기 자식 아닙니까? 반대로 아이가 당신을 양로원에 맡기면서 그런말 한다고 생각해보세요.
6. 저는 정말 안시키는거에요(월요일부터 금요일까지; 매일 2시간 레슨).
– 학교 8시간 + 레슨 2시간 + 학원숙제 1시간+ 학교숙제 1시간 = 12시간 인데요… 저렇게 일주일이라도 하실수 있겠어요?
7. 노는 공부말고 공부같은 공부를 가르쳐주세요.
– 공부같은 공부가 무엇인가요… 배움이 재미있으면 안된다는 건가요…
8. 우리애는 너무 뚱뚱해요.
– 밥도 제때 못먹고 12시간 책상에 앉아 공부해봐요. 그리고 그런말을 한점 부끄럼없이 자기 자식에게 합니까?
기타: 레슨시간 늘려주세요. 집에서 저렇게 가만히 있는 꼴 못보겠어요.
애들 방학해서 너무 싫어요. 빨리 개학했으면 좋겠어요.Samsung Galaxy Note 5 available in titanium silver and pearl white from 26 Sep
More than a month after its availability, Samsung recently announced that the Galaxy Note 5 will come in two new colors - Titanium Silver and Pearl White. They will also come with 32GB and 64GB storage options, as well as retail for S$1,088 and S$1,188 respectively from Saturday, 26th September.
The recently announced Gear S2 smartwatch will be available for pre-order on the same day (11AM) til 27th September, 9PM. Consumers have to place a S$50 deposit and select their choice of collection point from any Samsung Experience Store or selected consumer electronics stores on 2nd October.
In addition, the Keyboard Covers for the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ are now available at S$108. You can purchase them from the telcos, Samsung Experience Stores, major consumer electronics stores and authorized retailers.
Source: Samsung Mobile SingaporeBill collectors in Canada often use aggressive tactics to chase consumers, sometimes even managing to reel in payments when no credit was owed in the first place.
Some practices — such as daily phone calls, threatening language, accosting friends and relatives, or contacting debtors during late-night or early-morning hours — amount to illegal behaviour, depending on the province or territory.
A CBC News investigation found that employees at one U.S.-based debt-collection firm operating in Ontario and Quebec knowingly contacted non-debtors. The company was fined in two provinces for violations and was the subject of hundreds of complaints over several years, with one former worker saying that consumers have been pressured in the past to make payments just to stop being badgered.
But Bruce Cran, the B.C.-based president of the independent Consumers' Association of Canada, said it's not always best practice to hang up on credit agents or simply ignore them. One smart way for people to protect themselves against harassment is to know their rights.
"The time's come when people are looking for clarification because they're getting annoyed," he said. "Some of these debts we're talking about are so small, like $38 from eight years ago — it's ridiculous."
Here are a few questions you should know the answers to (the rules in Canada vary, so links to specific provincial laws are provided at the bottom of this story):
When can credit agencies contact you?
Getting unexpected visits or phone calls from a debt collector can be stressful enough. Many provinces try to protect Canadians from being solicited at inconvenient times.
Collection firm no-no's: Trying to collect a debt without first notifying you in writing or making a reasonable attempt to do so.
Recommending or starting legal or court action to collect a debt without first notifying you.
Communicating with you or your family such that the communication amounts to harassment, or calling to collect a debt at certain prohibited times (which vary from one province or territory to another).
Implying or giving false or misleading information to anyone.
Communicating or attempting to communicate with you without identifying themselves, saying who is owed the money and stating the amount owed.
Continuing to demand payment from a person who claims not to owe the money, unless the agency first takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the person does, in fact, owe the money.
Contacting your friends, employer, relatives or neighbours for information, other than to get your telephone number or address. An exception would be if any of these people have guaranteed the debt or if you have asked the agency to contact them to discuss the debt or, in the case of your employer, to confirm your employment, your job title and your work address. — Source: Canadian Consumer Handbook
Cran said one person in London, Ont., complained to the Consumers' Association of Canada when she was jolted awake at 3 a.m. by knocking and shouting outside her home.
"This woman had this debt collector banging with his fists on the door, calling out details of the particular debt that she had, and insisting that she pay it," Cran said. "And when he left, there was a large piece of paper with the details of the debt tacked to her door."
The rules in most provinces state that credit agencies are prohibited from contacting consumers between the hours of 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Those hours are a little more flexible in Alberta, which allow firms to contact people from 7 a.m. up until 10 p.m., as well as in Newfoundland and Labrador, which allows contact from 8 a.m. up until 10 p.m.
Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. law won’t allow collection agents to call a suspected debtor before 8 a.m., and Manitoba restricts calls or visits before 7 a.m.
Sundays are also partially prohibited days in most provinces, as are statutory holidays.
How often can collection firms contact you?
Cran said it's not uncommon for some Canadian collection firms to get their agents to phone or visit debtors daily, including on Sundays.
Yukon Territory legislation mentions that agents must not make calls with such frequency that it could be considered harassment.
But in Ontario, debt collectors can't email, leave voice mail or speak in person with the consumer more than three times in one week after the first conversation with you. The only permissible means of communicating is by regular mail. Alberta and Nova Scotia have a similar "three strikes" rule limiting the amount of contact from collectors within a seven-day consecutive period.
"One of the things you can do in B.C. and most other provinces is inform these people that they're not to contact you, but they can only contact you by mail," Cran said. "After you've done that, they're not allowed to phone you."
Some provinces — such as Ontario, B.C., Quebec, Alberta, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia — have laws stating that contact must cease if the consumer has "properly disputed" the debt owed. A person can contest the debt in writing and send a registered letter to the agency informing the firm that the case can be taken up in court.
Can the debt collector lie or threaten legal action?
Consumers' Association of Canada president Bruce Cran says heavier fines could help act as a deterrent. (CBC)
Deception could be part of an unscrupulous collection business's arsenal of dirty tricks.
Nearly every province or territory has a consumer protection law specifically addressing the use of bogus legal documents or false information to mislead the debtor.
Misinformation can run the gamut from lying about the amount of debt owed to pretending to be someone different (for example, posing as a lawyer) to threatening to sue when the collection firm has no intention or authority to do so.
As far as verbal abuse goes, Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are among the provinces that state that collection agents cannot use profane, intimidating, or "coercive" language when dealing with debtors. Alberta and Northwest Territories also mention that collection agents may not threaten physical harm.
Can they ask other people about you?
In general in Canada, collectors can’t approach a debtor's family, friends or employer, though Cran said he's heard of agents showing up in public venues to accost a debtor about outstanding bills.
"They'll find out where you congregate, maybe after lunch or after work where you’ve gone to have a beer, and they’ll approach you in front of friends — anything to embarrass you," Cran said.
New Brunswick's regulations state that a collector can’t threaten to embarrass a debtor with information about credit woes.
There are a couple exceptions to rules prohibiting communication with friends, family and co-workers.
For example, the agent may, in some cases, contact a target debtor’s acquaintances in order to track down a mailing address. There might also be exceptions for speaking with a neighbour or family member who has agreed to act as a guarantor for the repayment of the debt.
More information on provincial and territorial laws pertaining to collection agencies:Libyans said US helicopter came in with guns firing, creating panic and wounding onlookers after F-15E Strike Eagle crash
US forces sent into Libya to rescue two downed American airmen botched the mission by shooting and wounding friendly villagers who had come to help, witnesses have said.
Libyans who went to investigate the US warplane's crash site said that a US helicopter had come in with guns firing, creating panic and wounding onlookers, some of whom had to be taken to hospital; one 20-year-old man is expected to have his leg amputated.
The villagers said they had been searching for the plane's missing airmen to welcome them and help them.
A member of the Libyan rebel forces at the site of the crash, Omar Sayid, a colonel of the military police, told Channel Four News: "We are disturbed about the shooting, because if they'd given us a chance we would have handed over both pilots. This shooting created panic."
The airmen ejected from their F-15E at 10.30am local time on Monday after what the Pentagon described as "equipment malfunction"; it had not been shot down. The airmen's parachutes opened and they landed at separate locations in rebel territory, near Bu Mariem, 24 miles east of Benghazi.
One hid in a sheep pen before being found by rebel forces, hugged, given juice and food, and taken to Benghazi. The other was picked up by US marines. Both are back in US hands, with only minor injuries.
One villager who saw the crash, Mahdi Amrani, told AP: "I saw the plane spinning round and round as it came down. It was in flames. They died away, then it burst into flames again."
Although the US military refuses to confirm or deny reports of any shooting, villagers told reporters that the American rescuers strafed the field where one airman had landed, and villagers had been injured.
Hamid Moussa el-Amruni, whose family owns the farm where the US plane's weapons officer had hid, told AP that he himself had wounds in his leg and back from shrapnel. He was using a crutch, but said he held no grudge, believing the incident to have been an accident.
A team of 12 marines was sent to rescue the two aboard two large Osprey helicopters launched from the USS Kearsarge, a large assault ship off Libya.
Channel Four's Lindsey Hilsum spoke to the villagers, and visited Jala hospital in Benghazi where some of the injured were treated. Among them was Hamad Abdul Ati, 43, who had bullet and shrapnel wounds. He said he was puzzled rather than angry, and did not understand why the Americans had been so aggressive in their rescue mission.
"We consider that whoever is shot down or a prisoner of war, we should save him and hand him over," he told Hilsum from his hospital bed. "But another plane shot at me and Hamdy, my son. I have shrapnel in my hand."Hospital staff said that Hamdy, aged 20, wa s having an operation to amputate his leg.
"Why did this happen? My car is destroyed, my home is damaged. We would have just picked the second pilot up and put him wherever he wanted in a safe place. Even the other one, we had a celebration for him," Abdul Ati said.
Reporters said the villagers had showed no animosity after the incident; instead, they expressed gratitude for the US-led coalition, which they said had saved them from massacre by Gaddafi's forces.
The downed plane is the first confirmed loss on the US side. The F-15E Strike Eagle was based at RAF Lakenheath but had been flying out of Aviano airbase in Italy; it was totally destroyed.
One board the USS Kearsarge, the commander of the US naval flotilla stationed off Libya did not respond to questions on whether civilians had been shot by US marines. "I have no knowledge of reports," said Rear Admiral Peg Klein. She said that the F-15E pilot had been picked up by one of the Osprey helicopters and brought to the USS Kearsarge.
The second member of the F-15E's crew, its weapons officer, was "recovered by the people of Libya and treated with dignity and respect", said Klein. A US officer had earlier said he was now in US hands.
Klein declined to give any furtherdetails about the crew, beyond saying: "These jets go several times the speed of sound, they eject and it is fairly traumatic.
"We are solely focused on those two crew members being cared for. It is a thorough process. We want to evaluate them to make sure they are OK."
Admiral Samuel Locklear, the US commander co-ordinating coalition operations from aboard USS Mount Whitney in the Mediterranean, declined to deny that the marines had opened fire.
He merely said that the rescue had been executed as he would have expected, "given the circumstances"; an investigation was under way.Recently I've engaged in debates with some folks about the ongoing situation in Ukraine. During those debates some people have implied that in order to have a clear understanding about the geopolitical conflict in Ukraine, one most not rely on one-sided sources of information.
I agree. I'm actually a New York Times subscriber, and I also frequent other news site like The Financial Times, The Economist, Bloomberg, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among many others.
But here's the interesting thing I often notice when I visit mainstream news sources: I'm getting incomplete, one-sided information, for the most part.
Case in point... Tonight I read a few articles in The |
which are completely separate from our selves), but Grant wants us to know that women are not objectified by the men who treat them as bodies which exist for their consumption, they are objected by people who point this fact out! So. New rules. From now on, pointing out oppression makes you the oppressor. Pretend that oppression is actually empowering, and you, friend, are now empowering the previously oppressed. Yay!
On one hand Grant seems frustrated by what she calls the “end men’s demand’ rhetoric” because, well, it’s not those poor men’s faults they ‘desire’ to buy sex, on the other she is right on. As she points out, men buy sex from women because women need to survive. And, often, women who need to survive have no other choice but to sell their bodies to men who want to buy them. This is indeed why women who are marginalized in our culture are overrepresented in survival sex work. And this is indeed what men take advantage of when they pay for access to these women’s bodies. A man knows you need the money and so he takes advantage of that need by paying you to use your body. And that’s how exploitation works.
You use your power to your advantage in order to exploit another’s need.
The reason, Melissa, that people fixate on ‘male demand’ is (based on my understanding of this, from having actually spoken to people who do desire to end prostitution and not just from having watched CNN and from following Ashton Kutcher on Twitter) because this is where the violence and the abuse and the exploitation comes from. Men.
Interestingly, Grant blames the media and politicians for making this mistake, though here in Vancouver, it is apparent that governments often leave the men out of the equation. When the City of Vancouver released a report on the survival sex trade in the city, a meeting was held and one of the biggest criticisms, according to some attendees, was the lack of focus on the root of the exploitation. i.e. the people who are doing the exploiting. i.e. men.
When it is men who are doing the buying, the exploiting, the abusing, the raping, the assaulting, it would make sense to focus on them when looking at a way to end said abuse, yes?
In an article published in the Vancouver Sun, written by Andrea Woo, Jenessa Greening was quoted as saying at the meeting yesterday:
“The most notable gap is the lack of reference to who is abusing the power imbalance — those who are violating these women, those whose actions are initiating and exacerbating the long-term, devastating impact these women will experience.”
So, Melissa Gira Grant, I do believe there is good reason to address demand. I also believe that when a man buys a girl or a woman to have sex with, that girl or woman is a human being. And whatever he does to her body, he does to her, as a human being. Sex is attached to the body and the body is attached to the human.
Tags: abolition, feminism, Misogyny, Sex Work, the survival sex trade, Vancouver, Violence Against WomenABCL 1.5.0 released
We are please to announce that we have released the Sixth Edition of the Armed Bear Common Lisp implementation as ABCL 1.5.0. Due to the lack of a publicly available Java 5 implementation, with this release we drop support for that platform, and henceforth support running on Java 6, Java 7, and Java 8. In addition to consolidating eight months of bug fixes, the following notable features are now also present in the implementation. The compiler now records more complete debugging information on the SYS:SOURCE symbol property. ABCL-INTROSPECT offers improved inspection of backtraces to the point that local variables may be inspected in Lisp debug frames. Patches to SLIME to use this feature are in the process of being merged into the upstream repository. The OBJECTWEB system allows the user to disassemble JVM bytecode via dependencies managed by Maven. JSS now contains a syntax for accessing Java static and member fields. For declaring dependencies on Java artifacts ABCL-ASDF, we have added an experimental syntax to address JRE/JDK artifacts via the ASDF:JDK-JAR class, as well as the ability to more finely control Maven dependencies with the ASDF:MVN-MODULE class. A complete list of [changes][] may be viewed in the source repository. [changes]: http://abcl.org/svn/tags/1.5.0/CHANGES Binaries for this release may either be downloaded directly from http://abcl.org/releases/1.5.0, retrieved from the distributed Maven POM graph, or run from Docker via docker run -it easye/abcl:1.5.0 Many thanks to all who have contributed to nurturing the Bear's execution of conforming ANSI Common Lisp on the Java Virtual Machine. -- "A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare to it now."Please enable Javascript to watch this video
An eighth grader in Northern California allegedly received detention after recently offering a fellow student some of his lunch.
Weaverville Elementary School student Kyle Bradford, 13, gave a friend some of his chicken burrito on Tuesday because the student didn’t like the cheese sandwich being served by cafeteria officials that day.
"It seemed like he couldn't get one, a normal lunch, so I just wanted to give mine to him because I really wasn't that hungry. It was just going to go in the garbage if I didn’t eat it," Bradford told CNN.
Although Bradford’s mother said he should not have been punished for being compassionate, he received detention.
“By all means the school can teach them math and the arithmetic and physical education, but when it comes to morals and manners and compassion, I believe it needs to start at home with the parent,” Sandy Bradford told KRCR-TV.
The punishment was doled out because of a policy that prohibits students from exchanging meals in an effort to avoid issues with allergies, according to officials with Trinity Alps Unified School District, which includes Weaverville Elementary School.
“Of course if students are concerned about other students not having enough to eat we would definitely want to consider that, but because of safety and liability we cannot allow students to actually exchange meals,” district Superintendent Tom Barnett told CNN.
Bradford said he would share his lunch again if a friend asked him to, CNN reported.
The school was in Weaverville, a community in Trinity County.The only problem was that the representations were historically inaccurate.
Modern Western Christians have carried these images over into their own depictions of Jesus. Pick up a one of those bright blue “Bible Story” books in a Sunday School classroom and you’ll find white Jesus waiting for you, rosy cheeks and all. Or you could survey the light-skinned Jesus in any number of modern TV or film portrayals, including History Channel’s hit series The Bible.
Interestingly, the Bible is far less descriptive on the matter of Jesus’ skin color than we are. Christian scriptures say very little about Jesus’ physical appearance. They do not comment on his nose, eye color, skin pigmentation, or hair. The glaring exception is Isaiah 53:2, which prophesies that the messiah won’t be much to look at, another fact that places the Bible at odds with the “well-groomed surfer-dude Jesus” who's often put forth.
If the Bible is silent on the matter of Jesus’ skin color, does it really matter that Megyn Kelly says Jesus is white?
Yes, actually.
As some historians and theologians have posited, the silence of the Scriptures on the issue of Jesus’ skin color is critical to Christianity’s broad appeal with people of various ethnicities. In a world where race often divides communities and even churches, the Biblical depictions of God’s son positions him as one who can bridge those divides.
For this reason, one American Presbyterian minister in the 1880s warned his flock not to trust popular images of Christ:
If He were particularised and localised—if, for example, He were made a man with a pale face—then the man of the ebony face would feel that there was a greater distance between Christ and him than between Christ and his white brother.’ Instead, because the Bible refused to describe Jesus in terms of racial features, his gospel could appeal to all. Only in this way could the Church be a place where the ‘Caucasian and Mongolian and African sit together at the Lord’s table, and we all think alike of Jesus, and we all feel that He is alike our brother’.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Advice for Living” column for Ebony in 1957, the civil-rights leader was asked, “Why did God make Jesus white, when the majority of peoples in the world are non-white?” King replied, “The color of Jesus’ skin is of little or no consequence” because what made Jesus exceptional “His willingness to surrender His will to God’s will.” His point, as historian Edward Blum has noted, is that Jesus transcends race.
Those warnings hold just as true for believers today. Within the church, eschewing a Jesus who looks more like a Scandinavian supermodel than the sinless Son of God in the scriptures is critical to maintaining a faith in which all can give praise to one who became like them in an effort to save them from sins like racism and prejudice. It's important for Christians who want to expand the church, too, in allowing the creation of communities that are able to worship a Jesus who builds bridges rather than barriers. And it is essential to enabling those who bear the name of Christ to look forward to that day when, according to the book of Revelation, those “from every nation, tribe, people, and language” can worship God together.
Until that day arrives, though, can someone please tell Megyn Kelly that Jesus is not white?The pastrami burger at American Dream in Huntington Beach is small but mighty. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Caramelized onions, Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Thousand Island dressing, bacon and wild arugula are stacked in the A Burger at A Restaurant in Newport Beach. (File photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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The Sancho burger at Brew Kitchen Ale House in Los Alamitos is made with freshly ground beef, roasted jalapenos and bacon. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The cowboy burger at Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern is a classic cheeseburger with a massive onion ring in the middle. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Andrei’s in Irvine serves a classic power-lunch burger and hand-cut fries. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The burger at Salt & Ash in Placentia is made with a pretzel bun and house-made pickles. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The burger at Juliette in Newport Beach comes with confit tomato, onion jam and pancetta. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Hanna’s in Rancho Santa Margarita serves a classic steakhouse burger with cheddar and bacon. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
At Mission Viejo’s Pub 32, the burger is sandwiched between a pretzel bun with arugula, pickled onions and Irish cheddar. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A burger with arugula and bacon is served in gastropub setting at Royal Hen. Look for the London red wrought-iron gate on Balboa Island’s main strip in Newport Beach. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)
I have a rule about burgers: Don’t eat bad ones. Actually, I have a few rules.
Rule 1 >> If it doesn’t require extra napkins, the cook screwed up. The meat must be fresh, fatty and very lightly packed. Violate this, and it’s over.
Rule 2 >> Don’t overcook it. When quality meat is properly handled, there should be no fear of cooking it medium-rare. Meat that’s not safe to serve medium-rare belongs in the trash. Eat something else.
Rule 3 >> Burgers are often better with cheese, but not always. The quality of cheese counts just as much as the meat. If you wouldn’t serve this cheese on a platter at a cocktail party, then why would eat it on a burger? Oh, and please make sure it melts. Nobody wants cold cheese.
Rule 4 >> The perfect bun is brioche, mostly. Bread should never be the dominant flavor or texture. That’s why soft, supple brioche is usually best. However, not all brioche is created equal. At several otherwise fine restaurants lately, I have sampled “brioche” buns that were as dense as bricks.
Rule 5 >> As for everything else — lettuce, tomatoes, onion, maybe a pickle or jalapeño — simpler is almost always better. A burger with 23 ingredients is not a burger; it’s a crime.
Thankfully, lots of restaurants get it right.
Narrowing the list to 10 keeps getting harder. This list is highly subjective, although it is based on extensive research. So here they are: the 10 best burgers of 2017.
Related Articles Best french fries of 2017 in Orange County
1. Burger of the Year: Royal Hen
It’s not on the menu at Royal Hen, but the burger is always available to anyone who asks. And it’s my burger of the year. Chef Tim Goodell is the guy who created 25 Degrees burger bar in Huntington Beach (with additional locations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Bangkok), and the burgers from there have always been among the best. This one’s even better, a heavy handful of freshly ground, loosely packed beef that’s cooked until medium-rare and as juicy as a water balloon. It’s topped with arugula, tomato confit and crisp pancetta. The bun is perfect brioche. Cost: $17. Bonus: outstanding fresh-cut fries. 311 Marine Ave., Newport Beach; 949-873-5603, theroyalhen.com
2. The American Dream
The burgers at American Dream are smaller than just about everything else on this list. But they pack more flavor than most. The best of the bunch is the pastrami burger, a ground chuck patty topped with thick, salty pastrami along with cheddar cheese, horseradish cream, yellow mustard and a brioche bun. Cost: $14. Bonus: This place makes the best fries in Orange County. Pacific City, 21058 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach; 714-374-1330, theamericandreamhb.com
3. A Restaurant
Like any good steakhouse, A serves one heck of a burger ($17): a half pound of top-quality beef, blue cheese, bacon, arugula, thousand island and a toasted brioche bun. It’s off menu so you’ll have to ask for it. Bonus: The fries are perfect. 3334 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach; 949-650-6505, arestaurantnb.com
4. Hanna’s Restaurant & Bar
The ground beef comes from Pat La Frieda, one of the finest butchers in America. A half-pound of that beef is loaded up with caramelized onions, sharp cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato and thousand island. Cost: $16. Bonus: superb fries. 22195 El Paseo, Rancho Santa Margarita; 949-709-2300, hannasprimesteak.com
5. Pub 32
Pretzel buns are tricky because they run the risk of getting in the way, but this one is surprisingly supple. It soaks up a lot of juice. And this burger definitely needs a sponge because it dumps a bucketload of juice every time you bite into it. The meat is dry-aged Angus — with a hefty dose of fat — cooked perfectly medium-rare. Also between the bun: Irish cheddar, mixed greens, heirloom tomato and housemade pickles. Cost: $14. Bonus: massive twice-cooked potato wedges. 23962 Alicia Parkway, Mission Viejo; 949-716-0687, pubthirtytwo.com
6. Juliette Kitchen + Bar
Prepare for a gusher. This one is extra drippy. The outstanding beef is stuffed into a buttered and griddled Portuguese bun with tomato confit, caramelized onions, aged cheddar, pancetta, Little Gem lettuce and mustard aioli. Cost: $17. 1000 Bristol St. North, Newport Beach; 949-752-5854, juliettenb.com
7. Salt & Ash
The pretzel bun here, too, is unusually soft and pillowy, which is important because this is a giant burger that is already a struggle to stuff into an average-size mouth. The bun does not complicate this task. They grind the meat in-house and top it with bacon-onion jam and housemade pickles. Cost: $15. 1390 N. Kraemer Blvd., Placentia; 657-444-2701, saltandash.com
8. Andrei’s
The burger at Andrei’s in Irvine is a classic. The beef patty is a mix of freshly ground chuck, short rib and brisket, with Havarti cheese and onion jam atop a crunchy layer of iceberg lettuce, dill pickles and a slice of tomato. And the fries? The fresh-cut, twice-fried Kennebec potatoes are perfect in every way. Cost: $17. 2607 Main St., Irvine; 949-387-8887, andreisrestaurant.com
9. Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern
Any one of the many burgers on the menu at Jimmy’s could have made this list, but the best is probably the Cowboy Burger, which comes with a big, fat, deep-fried onion ring in the middle, plus cheddar cheese, thick-cut bacon and housemade barbecue sauce. The patty is sublime Japanese Akaushi beef, which refused to be contained by its bun. Cost: $18. 25001 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point; 949-388-8900, j-fat.com
10. Brew Kitchen Ale House
It’s probably no coincidence that there’s a Jenny Craig office next door to the Brew Kitchen in Los Alamitos. Just about every other person who walks through the door here ends up ordering a burger, a mix of freshly ground chuck and brisket. And these are not diet burgers. The best of the bunch is the Sancho, which is topped with a couple of roasted jalapeños, caramelized onions, bacon, avocado and ancho-chili mayo. Cost: $13. 10708 Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos; 562-431-3900, brewkitchenalehouse.comWashington (CNN) Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has opened up a 9-point lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and is closing ground on the Democratic front-runner in Iowa, according to an NBC News/Marist poll released Sunday.
Sanders is leading Clinton 41-32, up a whopping 19 points from a similar poll in July. And Clinton's support dropped by 11% in Iowa over the same time.
Clinton has been plagued by continued questions over her use of private email while at the State Department, contributing to voters' lack of trust in her. Though she leads Sanders in national polling, the "drip, drip, drip" nature of both congressional and federal inquiries into her email practices are having an effect on her candidacy.
Vice President Joe Biden, who has been publicly mulling a run, has been staying steady at 12% support in New Hampshire and 16% in Iowa.
The poll also shows Republican front-runner Donald Trump maintaining commanding leads in both of the early nominating states -- 29% in Iowa and 28% in New Hampshire.17 November 2016
We humans walk with our feet. This is true, but not entirely. Walking, as part of locomotion, is a coordinated whole-body movement that involves both the arms and legs. Researchers at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have identified different subpopulations of neurons in the spinal cord with long projections. Published in “Neuron”, the results show that these neurons coordinate movement of arms and legs and ensure a stable body posture during locomotion.
The locomotor pattern consists of a highly controlled sequence of muscle contractions, which are controlled by neuronal circuits in the spinal cord and the brain. The research group of Prof. Silvia Arber at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research now reveal that specific, long projecting neurons, traversing our spinal cord, form an important basis for the coordination of fore- and hindlimbs. These neurons couple local networks over long distances and thereby ensure posture and rhythm of our body during locomotion.
Neuronal circuits in the spinal cord reflect walking pattern
Even though humans rose from the quadrupedal position to stand on their feet during evolution, coordination and alternation patterns of the four limbs are still needed in order to move efficiently as in all other quadrupedal species. “We showed in a mouse model that the diametric movement of fore- and hindlimbs is reflected in neuronal circuits of the spinal cord”, says Ludwig Ruder, first author of the study. Thus, axons of most excitatory neurons cross the midline of the spinal cord and contact contralateral networks. In contrast, inhibitory neurons project predominantly on the same side of the body. The diagonal and mirrored pattern of the excitatory neuronal connections is very interesting when observing the coordination of arms and legs in a runner as Usain Bolt. “During running, not only do his legs move, but synchronously and diametrically also his arms – in complete coordination with each other”, says Ruder.
Long projecting neurons control whole body parameters of locomotion …
To demonstrate the importance of long projection neurons in the spinal cord for the walking pattern, the researchers selectively eliminated those neurons. “Upon inactivation of spinal long projection neurons that couple local networks, not only is the stability and speed during running impaired, but also the coordinated fore- and hindlimb movements fall apart at higher speeds”, says Ruder. Interestingly, local movement patterns within a single limb remain however unaffected. This reinforces the specific role of long projecting neurons in the regulation of whole body movement.
… and distribute information of the brain
In a next step, the research team observed that the neurons with long projections broadcast their signals throughout the spinal cord and receive extensive input from various brain regions. This organization of long projection neurons and their connections places them at an important intersection between integrating information from the brain and distributing it in the spinal cord.Apparently life really does imitate art. Just weeks before the release of Harmony Korine's beach-babes-with-handguns movie Spring Breakers hits theaters, a woman in Daytona Beach for spring break had a two-hour armed standoff with police inside her hotel room.
The problems started on Wednesday when Heather Beaver, who is 21, started yelling at her boyfriend at a biker bar after she discovered he had been cheating. The two got in a fight at the bar, but Beaver ultimately went back to her room at the Sun and Surf motel alone.
Beaver found her boyfriend's gun, and begin threatening suicide. Police responded to a call reporting the out-of-control woman. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports she was asking to see her already deceased mother one more time before she killed herself.LAS VEGAS—For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.
A research associate conducts a health assessment on a desert tortoise at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, in Las Vegas. In part because of the housing crash, federal funds are running out, and hundreds of the tortoises will be euthanized. ( Isaac Brekken / AP ) Research associate Pamela Flores conducts a health assessment on a desert tortoise at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas. ( Isaac Brekken / AP ) A 90-hectare refuge area in Las Vegas will stop taking new tortoises in the coming months. Most that do arrive in the fall will simply be put down, late-emerging victims of budget problems that came from the same housing bubble that put a neighbourhood of McMansions at the edge of the once-remote site. ( Isaac Brekken / AP ) A tortoise sits in the shade at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas. ( Isaac Brekken / AP ) Tortoise pens at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas. The reserve is scheduled to be shut down due to lack of funding, and hundreds of endangered tortoises euthanized. Says a Fish and Wildlife co-ordinator, “It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil." ( Isaac Brekken / AP ) A tortoise crossing sign pinned to the wall at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas. ( Isaac Brekken / AP )
Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It’s been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. And wildlife officials have set the species up on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas. But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it. Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they’ve been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.
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“It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery co-ordinator Roy Averill-Murray during a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered reserve at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley last week. Biologists went about their work examining tortoises for signs of disease as Averill-Murray walked among the reptile pens. But the scrubby 90-hectare refuge area will stop taking new animals in the coming months. Most that arrive in the fall will simply be put down, late-emerging victims of budget problems that came from the same housing bubble that put a neighbourhood of McMansions at the edge of the once-remote site. The Bureau of Land Management has paid for the holding and research facility with fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat on public land. As the housing boom swept through southern Nevada in the 2000s, the tortoise budget swelled. But when the recession hit, the housing market contracted, and the bureau and its local government partners began struggling to meet the centre’s $1 million annual budget. Housing never fully recovered, and the federal mitigation fee that developers pay has brought in just $290,000 during the past 11 months. Local partners, which collect their own tortoise fees, have pulled out of the project. “With the money going down and more and more tortoises coming in, it never would have added up,” said BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton.
Back at the conservation centre, a large refrigerator labelled “carcass freezer” hummed in the desert sun as scientists examined the facility’s 1,400 inhabitants to find those hearty enough to release into the wild. Officials expect to euthanize more than half the animals in the coming months in preparation for closure at the end of 2014. The desert tortoise is a survivor that has toddled around the Southwest for 200 million years. But ecologists say the loss of the conservation centre represents a harmful blow in southern Nevada for an animal that has held onto some unfortunate evolutionary quirks that impede its coexistence with strip malls, new homes and solar plants.
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Laws to protect the panicky plodders ban hikers from picking them up, since the animals are likely dehydrate themselves by voiding a year’s worth of stored water when handled. When they’re moved, they nearly always attempt to trudge back to their burrows, foiling attempts to keep them out of harm’s way. They’re also beset by respiratory infections and other illnesses. No more than 100,000 tortoises are thought to survive in the habitat where millions once burrowed across parts of Utah, California, Arizona and Nevada. The animals were once so abundant that tourists would scoop them up as souvenirs. Many quickly realized the shy grass-eaters don’t make ideal pets. (For one thing, they can live for 100 years.) And once the species was classified as threatened on the endangered species list, people rushed to give them back. Former pets make up the majority of the tortoises at the conservation centre, where they spend their days staring down jackrabbits and ducking out of the sun into protective PVC piping tucked into the rocky desert floor. Most of these animals are not suitable for release, either infected with disease or otherwise too feeble to survive. Averill-Murray looks as world-weary as the animals he studies. He wants to save at least the research function of the centre and is looking for alternative funding sources. “It’s not the most desirable model to fund recovery — on the back of tortoise habitat,” he said.Ancient piles of broken stalagmites found deep inside a cave in France were made by Neanderthals about 176,000 years ago, way before modern humans were around. This is the first time archaeologists have concluded that our cousins ventured underground and built complex constructions. The structures are proof that Neanderthals were pretty smart and organized, according to the study authors. The meaning of these constructions remains a mystery, but for at least one archaeologist they suggest that Neanderthals may have been religious.
"The date of 176,000 years ago is just mind-blowing."
Since Neanderthals were discovered in the 1800s, archaeologists have debated about just how "evolved" they were. Archaeologists assume that Neanderthals built dwellings, but no well-preserved ruins of such dwellings have ever been found. The only remnants of Neanderthal constructions are disputed and date no later than 50,000 years ago. Today’s study, published in Nature, is the first one to analyze well-preserved structures built by early Neanderthals. The structures are so complex that they resemble those made by modern humans, adding to the theory that Neanderthals were quite intelligent and had some modern human behaviors.
"The date of 176,000 years ago is just mind-blowing," says Brian Hayden, a Neanderthal expert at Simon Fraser University, who did not take part in the study. "There’s no question that they were Neanderthals and that they were using the site."
Neanderthals are among our closest extinct human relatives. They lived between about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago in Europe and parts of Asia, where they were eventually replaced by Homo sapiens. For many years, archaeologists have thought of Neanderthals as pretty backward, but recent discoveries are changing the tide. We now know that Neanderthals used fire, made sophisticated tools, wore clothing, and were skilled hunters. But very few tools and artifacts made by Neanderthals have been found, others aren’t well preserved. That makes it hard for archaeologists to know much about these predecessors of modern humans. Today’s finding suggests a high level of sophistication, Hayden says. "If you’re going that far in[to a cave]," he says, "you need to establish a whole series of things in order to make that possible: you have to have some sort of lighting apparatus, it requires forethought, it requires planning, it requires of sorts of other things, organization so that you can actually do that."
In today’s study, the researchers describe several structures that were found inside Bruniquel cave in southwestern France, about 330 meters from the cave’s entrance. The site was discovered in 1990, but it wasn’t thoroughly analyzed until 2013. The ancient structures are made of more than 400 pieces of stalagmites, similarly sized, piled up, and arranged in two circles. The researchers also found signs of fire on the structures, as well as burned bone fragments. By analyzing the stalagmites as well as the calcite that grew on top of them, the researchers were able to date the site to about 176,500 years ago. At that time, only Neanderthals lived in Europe.
Building such big structures inside a pitch-dark cave involves planning; it means that the Neanderthals used some sort of torch for lighting and that they were organized enough to coordinate a group of people to break the stalagmites and erect the structures. That suggests "that the Neanderthal group responsible for these constructions had a level of social organization that was more complex than previously thought for this hominid species," the study says.
We already knew that Neanderthals made glue as far back as 200,000 years ago
For some, that statement smacks of hype. We already knew that Neanderthals had pretty complex behaviors, says Marie Soressi, faculty of archaeology at Leiden University. Archaeologists found that Neanderthals made glue, for example, as far back as 200,000 years ago. They used a technique called distillation, which requires a pretty good control of fire temperature and underground ovens without oxygen, Soressi says. "That’s a very complex process for me and maybe even more complex than breaking stalagmites and piling them up," she says. "I’m not sure I agree with this statement that they make in the paper. I understand their point, but I also think that we have evidence for Neanderthals having very complex behavior at about the same time."
Dominique Genty, one of the study authors, agrees with Soressi, but says that the study is the first one to prove that early Neanderthals built elaborate constructions in a cave well before Homo sapiens did. "It’s a different kind of proof of social organization," Genty says.
What’s more interesting about the structures, which are some of the earliest ever made, is the mystery surrounding their purpose, Soressi says. The constructions were found inside a dark cave, so they couldn’t be the foundation of a hut, says Paola Villa, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. The researchers also couldn’t find signs, like tools and human bones, that people lived there. For some, like Hayden, that’s pretty clear evidence that the structures have some sort of symbolic or ritual function. "You can’t just argue for anything else," he says. "In one blow, it establishes Neanderthals as having some sense of religion.... Why would anyone go 300 meters into a deep, dark cave and set up a string of stalagmites in total darkness? Why would you do that? If not for religious or some sort of ecstatic experience."
"In one blow, it establishes Neanderthals as having some sense of religion."
Others aren’t so quick to draw conclusions. Wil Roebroeks, a professor of Paleolithic archaeology at Leiden University and a leading researcher on Neanderthals, says we can’t know for sure what the function of the structure is. "The fact that it was preserved deep in a cave might signal ‘ritual’ to some, but as for Upper Paleolithic art, deep cave settings are prone to preservation of what is destroyed by weathering in the open, and we should not let preservation steer our interpretation," he wrote in an email. "One could even envisage that groups of Neandertal teenagers explored this underground environment deep in the cave (as teenagers tend to do), building fires, breaking off stalagmites and gradually turning them into the structures that 175,000 years later made it into Nature. But that is pure speculation, again, nobody knows…"
The study authors seem to agree. Though the study suggests that the structures could represent some kind of symbolic or ritual behaviors, it makes clear that’s impossible to say for now. "We don’t know what was its use, we really don’t know. No idea." Genty says. "It’s still a mystery."
this woolly mammoth changes the course of human historyBased on an analysis of thousands of pages of documents and years of research, Physicians for Human Rights shows that the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program constituted an illegal, unethical regime of experimental research on unwilling human subjects, testing the flawed hypothesis that torture could aid interrogators in breaking the resistance of detainees. In “Nuremberg Betrayed: Human Experimentation and the CIA Torture Program,” PHR researchers show that CIA contract psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen created a research program in which health professionals designed and applied torture techniques and collected data on torture’s effects. This constitutes one of the gravest breaches of medical ethics by U.S. health personnel since the Nuremberg Code was developed in the wake of Nazi medical atrocities committed during World War Two.
Delving into the role health professionals played in designing and implementing torture, the report uses newly released documents to show how the results of untested, brutal torture techniques were used to calibrate the machinery of the torture program. The large-scale experiment’s flawed findings were also used by Bush administration lawyers to create spurious legal cover for the entire program.
PHR calls on all medical and scientific communities to convene a commission to lay out what is known about the torture program, including the participation of health professionals, and urges the Trump administration to launch a criminal investigation to get a full accounting of the crimes committed by the CIA and other government agencies.Get the biggest Liverpool FC 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
Liverpool full-back Jose Enrique's proposed return to Newcastle United has fallen through.
The North East outfit made an approach to sign the Spanish defender, who has no future under Jurgen Klopp at Anfield.
However, the 30-year-old has been unable to agree personal terms with his former club.
He will train with Jurgen Klopp's squad tonight having signalled his intention to stay at Anfield until the end of the season.
Enrique is out of contract this summer and Liverpool were keen to get him off the books.
But he earns around £65,000 per week and Newcastle wouldn't be prepared to match that figure. Enrique was also looking for a longer deal than the one of the table.
(Image: James Maloney)
Enrique cost Liverpool £7million from Newcastle in the summer of 2011.
He has since gone on to make 99 appearances but his career has nosedived in recent years.
From the heights of winning the League Cup and playing in the FA Cup final in 2012, he has featured in just 12 league games over the past three seasons due to injuries and loss of form.
Enrique was told by Brendan Rodgers to move on last summer but ignored that advice as he snubbed |
these two red, luminous objects, you will find Saturn, much fainter but just as steady in its brightness as Mars. Mars, Saturn, and Antares will be slowly descending behind the Sun as they come into alignment. And how might this event show up in your life? As with anything astrological, the possibilities are vast. But Mars, Saturn, and Sagittarius represent a specific archetypal field, one that will be quite distinctive.
Mars is the archetypal warrior--but deeper, it represents the archetypal field governing primal desire, getting what we want from life, fighting for our right to what we want and our right to life. Mars symbolizes the “fight or flight” response ubiquitous to any sentient being with the ability to run or defend itself. And also, Mars is the sex instinct. It’s deep, red color evokes passion and primal thirst--craving, wanting, desiring. It is an archetype that is reactive and impulsive; it doesn’t think things through.
Mars is also out of bounds (through the end of Oct.), beyond the Sun’s highest declination in the sky. While Mars is inherently autonomous from the ego (if you’ve acquainted yourself with your sexual instincts you know what I’m talking about), it is even more so when out of bounds. So, while you may notice your inner Mars on overdrive lately (creating a deeper awareness of addictive tendencies, violence, hostility, or rage), it presents a unique opportunity to rise above these destructive qualities. Why? Because Mars out of bounds is a time to detach our primal instincts from ego-driven motivations.
We might say, it’s an opportunity to channel our Mars-like passion toward something above and beyond what we’re used to. It gives us a chance to gain objective insight into these “lower” manifestations of Mars, allowing us to gain perspective about a deeper purpose they could be utilized to achieve. And along comes Saturn, the archetypal task-master. Saturn is the God of time, it represents the archetypal field dealing with discipline, focus, hard work, structure, and great works. Saturn is restrictive and presents us with obstacles, challenges, limitations, and the harsh lessons of reality.
If Mars is about impulsive action, Saturn is the braking mechanism. In the brain, Saturn has a resonance with the prefrontal cortex which deals with impulse control, and interestingly, this brain region isn’t fully matured until we’re in our late twenties, after a full cycle of Saturn around the horoscope (the infamous Saturn return). So, if you find yourself coming up against a wall, presented as a limitation, rethink your strategy or realize that you need one. If your impulsive behaviors have been on autopilot lately, it might be time to reel yourself in and channel your enthusiasm toward productive activities that require discipline, focus, and long-term planning. The combination of these two archetypes is difficult to integrate. Mars wants the freedom to explore all of the possibilities it desires, but Saturn says, “No! Make a choice and commit to something”.
Saturn can present Mars with some harsh realizations about reality, but can also assist this archetype in uncovering its ability to focus its passion toward more rewarding and long-lasting achievements. How will you focus your passion over the next several days? You may already be considering it. Conversely, Mars can temper Saturn’s overt, practical focus by adding some adventure and life force back into the current narrative. If you have been under the dark spell of Saturn, ready to give up, losing the will to move forward, depressed, over-burdened by some overwhelming limitations, Mars can help by rejuvenating your passion or willingness engage with life.
Both Mars and Saturn are square to Neptune, too. Those things that are failing or collapsing may be giving way to new visions and the awareness of deeper realities more aligned with your spiritual purpose. This brief window in time also offers a deeper glimpse into our delusions and self-deceptions. If you strive to remain realistic without losing the will to live, this configuration will give you access to a new way of relating with those things you never thought could work together. Take advantage of this launching pad; it will assist you in carrying out your ideals in the real world. Remember that a reservoir of strength and courage lies deep within you. It’s more available to you now than ever. How far will you take it?
You did not come to Earth without a guide. Evolutionary Astrology is a powerful tool for self-discovery and an exceptionally helpful guide in times of uncertainty, crisis or stagnation. Click here for reading options and pricing.I don’t know about you, but after spending last week watching the Norsemen watch the grass grow just outside of Paris, I was ready for a little ak-shun this week!
Ragnar’s genius plan: We will stare at Paris longingly until they take pity on us and open the gates.
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Fortunately, this week they got their viking on and stormed the walled citadel, visions of glory, guts and plunder dancing through their little Scandanavian heads. How well did they score?
Glory
Floki was super-pumped about leading this raid with the gods being so clearly on his side!
“Hey, gods! I totally killed that christian guy just for you! Toot! Toot!”
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Although things started out pretty promising for the raiders from the north, events took a dark turn when none of their tried and true tactics (aka run as fast as you can and kill anything in your path) failed and viking bodies started pile up at the foot of Paris’ walls.
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Unfortch for the Vikings, it seems as if the gods were actually not really paying attention right that very minute (they may have lost interest a little during all the grass-growing-watching as well),
Little known fact: Odin suffers from wicked ADHD
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resulting in Floki becoming trapped in a burning habittrail of his own devising after fleeing from the carnage.
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Hey, Flokes, let me take a moment to French-splain something to you: If a city has been attacked enough times that they felt the need to encircle themselves with giant stone walls, it stands to reason they’ve thought through a few contingencies. Like going over the wall,
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or storming the gate, or beating down the doors. They’ve pretty much thought all of this stuff through about 200 years before you guys showed up! So don’t beat yourself up too much. Except do – because you killed Athestan for nothing!
Guts
What the vikings lacked in achieving glory, they more than made up for in guts!
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Yeah, not that kind of guts. I’m talking about the kind of guts smeared down the Paris walls. And the guts floating in the water. And the guts being burned alive to a crisp in burning oil. So much guts!
Wow, the french REALLY did not like this guy’s hat.
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And speaking of guts, why you tearing my guts out Vikings on History!
Bjorn – noooooooo!!!!!!!! I totally thought he was dead! I mean, he did have 2 freaking arrows sticking out of his back and he had fallen about 40 feet from the parapet, and plus you guys are a bunch of sick, sadistic bastards who keep killing characters that I really like, so you can kind of see why I would have thought that!
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Kidding! Kidding. I love you guys, but stop killing the folks please! Unless it’s Erlandur, because he is a gigantic dick.
Plunder
While the Norsemen were unable to sample the spoils inside the walls of Paris, it doesn’t mean everyone missed out on the plundering!
Earl on Earl Plundering
Kalf of the recently applied hair extensions dragged Lagertha kicking and screaming away from the raid in the tunnel, saving her from a right shish-kebobing. He came around to collect on all the fuzzy feeling Lagertha must be feeling for him only to be informed thusly:
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Kalf’s upper-brain was a little circumspect in the face of this threat, but Kalf’s lower-brain clearly did not agree:
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Guess which brain won?
Booty proclaimed plundered
Yep. I know some of y’all don’t like my man Kalf, but I’m looking forward to watching Lagertha murder him slowly...with her magnificent lovin’!
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Eye Plundering
Princess Gisla channeled her inner-Joan of Arc, and rallied the Parisian troops with a lovely table runner and a fiery speech from the ramparts.
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Making Rollo go something like this:
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which caused Gisla to react like this:
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According the Seer, climb him you shall my medieval Gallic sister! Woohoo!!!! Rollo is finally getting a storyline this season that does not involve him feeling super-sorry for himself or engaging in very unsexy mud wrestling!! This is going to be awesome to watch this unfold gloriously before the season ends in 2 episodes!
WHAT! Only 2 more episodes? How could you Vikings! There is still so much to find out! Will the 6 vikings left alive be able to take Paris on the next round? What will be the bloody result of Ragnar’s patience? Should we be worried about how much Ragnar is talking to dead-Athelstan? Should we be more worried about the fact that Ragnar appears to be bleeding internally?
Don’t you dare kill him you fistful of assholes!
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And, as always, how are we going to survive until next season?!!!!
Tune in next week when Gisla does this:
sourceCLOSE Fans got a chance to meet the Tigers at TigerFest Saturday. Video by Kirthmon F. Dozier/DFP
Tigers outfielder Justin Upton signs autographs at TigerFest on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017 at Comerica Park. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, DFP)
Justin Upton is probably going to be a Detroit Tiger for a long time.
Last winter, the leftfielder signed a six-year, $132.75 million deal. Included in the deal was an opt-out clause after the 2017 season, which many speculated could be exercised, given Upton’s age, ability and the amount of cash that teams were spending on free agents.
A year later, and things have changed. And while it’s entirely too early to speculate on Upton’s opt-out clause, it’s not too early to forecast a murky market for next off-season’s free agents.
In his latest analysis on ESPN.com, baseball insider Buster Olney checked in with a number of agents who believe this winter’s free-agent happenings – which have been underwhelming as a whole – will continue on the same course next year.
Some reasons Olney points out: Teams seem to be treating Major League Baseball’s luxury tax limit like a hard salary cap; free agents being forced to settle for one-year deals this season will flood the market once again next season; and big spenders – like the Tigers – are cutting back to avoid further luxury tax penalties.
Upton, 29, would be due $88.5 million over the final four seasons of the deal. He struggled during his first season in Detroit but turned in a career-high 31 home runs with a strong September. His numbers will likely improve this season, but probably not enough to garner a better deal on the open market.
The highest-priced free agent this off-season was Yoenis Cespedes, at four years and $110 million. Cespedes is two years older than Upton. There remains the chance that Upton – who is still in his prime – could have a big season and test the free-agent market again.
But for a number of reasons – many of them out of his hands – it seems likely Upton will be staying put.
Related:
Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech.
Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!(Citizen Star News) - 2015-05-01
Update: Official YouTube and COMM-LINK... shiny!
Highlights
Bugsmashers is not gone, but will be broken into its own show released on Wednesdays.
Todd Papy is determining what the next Deep Dive Design post will be.
Interview with John Schimmel (aka Mark Twain according to Ben) coming next week. He’ll talk about what it’s like to live with Chris Roberts.
Reverse the ‘Verse was moved to Friday, so they can answer questions about Around the ‘Verse, once everyone’s had a chance to watch it.
There will be an episode of Wonderful World of Star Citizen this month.
Space toilet paper stays dry at all times. It's actually a sponge. There is no toilet "paper" in the future.
Working on a post about FPS to talk about all the things being done to make FPS cooler, Travis is wrangling assets, coming early next week.
Starfarer - Soon, without the ™
Rene Vasquez - Tech Designer working on Pirate Swarm (Soon™). Also working on balance.
See Also
COMM-LINK
Reddit Discussion
StarCitizenBase DiscussionBitPay: Building the Global Payment Network from the Ground-Up
February 4, 2014 By: Stephanie Wargo
Laying the Foundations
Imagine the anxious feeling you had when you came up with an idea. Whether it worked or not, that anxious feeling remains.
Starting a business is that feeling amplified ten times. Every business owner remembers that point, knowing there was no turning back. Driven by passion and a strong belief in their ideas, entrepreneurs forge ahead.
Building a successful startup requires passion, along with the obvious plan for execution, but for many the idea stage is as far as it gets. The most common mistake regarding this, is establishing what the need is within the industry – if there is no need, there is no business.
For Bitcoin companies there has always been a need. Since its introduction in 2009, bitcoin startups have been popping up all over, from coast to coast and country to country.
Although it was hard to predict where Bitcoin would go, many of today’s leading entrepreneurs were supported by a large community of Bitcoin fanatics that believed in the future of the digital currency.
The technology spoke for itself and was capable of a lot of things outside of being a peer-to-peer payment system. This is where global payment networks were born.
Building a payment network from the ground up requires a holistic look at the market that few would ever think of.
When dealing with new technology, not to mention one on the basis of a highly disruptive currency, it comes with many challenges.
Banking Regulations
For payment processors like BitPay, banking regulations are often the biggest challenge to overcome.
Because Bitcoin is not regulated by any central banking institution, banks are often reluctant to provide services. In fact, many Bitcoin companies have been forced to switch banks because of this.
However, many banks have adapted quickly to the changing market and decided to educate their key personnel, before jumping to conclusions.
International Business Laws
Establishing a global payment network means expanding throughout the globe.
These new opportunities deliver a host of international business challenges, revolving around country specific laws, rules and regulations.
Overcoming this requires establishing relationships in every country, which means traveling constantly.
The Bitcoin community is centered on helping grow Bitcoin, and as such, will work closely with Bitcoin businesses looking to expand into their specific area.
The same cannot be said for the banking industry.
Scalability
As with any startup, a looming challenge is scalability and establishing a way your company can grow in a sustainable and cost effective manner – even if you double your revenue in one month.
In Bitcoin businesses, specifically payment processors; you need to be prepared to hire staff to take on an exponential growth in demand, which is hard for most to grasp.
The most successful businesses break boundaries while following the rules. Currently, BitPay is the only payment processor that is completely compliant with all FinCEN regulations.
Having a knowledge of international laws and banking regulations is pivotal for payment processors, because they are across the world in every aspect of Bitcoin.
The challenges Bitcoin has faced since 2009 have helped create the global payment network we see today.
About the Author:
Stephanie Wargo is VP of Marketing for BitPay. She has almost 20 years of experience in financial services and payments, where she led the growth of student loans and prepaid debit products.Airports Say More Travelers Are Faking Need For Wheelchairs Just To Get Through Lines Faster
The law requires that airlines provide free wheelchair assistance to anyone who requests it; no documentation or evidence of injury required. And a growing number of unscrupulous travelers are taking advantage of this system, faking injuries and disabilities to get preferential treatment at security checkpoints and at the gate.
“We’ve handled maybe 100 wheelchairs a year. Now there are some times where we can handle 100 wheelchairs in a day,” the Westchester County Airport Manager tells CBS Miami about the recent uptick in wheelchair use.
Granted, some of this increase is due to a larger number of passengers who actually need wheelchairs to get around the airport. But a rep for the United Spinal Association estimates that around 15% of wheelchair requests at airports are now being made by people looking to speed things up.
“People who don’t really need special assistance or have a disability sometimes do say they’re a person with a disability to go through that special line or to the head of the line to get through security quicker,” says the rep.
The airlines and airports say there isn’t much they can do; not providing the wheelchair could result in huge fines. However, some do acknowledge the existence of so-called “miracle flights.”
“It’s a phrase that’s coined by a lot of the flight attendants,” says the Westchester airport manager. “They see a person come on with a wheelchair and when they get to the destination, for some reason, they actually are able to walk again.”
Of course, even that is not clear evidence of a bogus wheelchair request, as some people do not always require a wheelchair.
Those that are taking advantage of the system may not think they’re hurting anyone with their ruses, but one special needs advocate and mother of a disabled child tells CBS that such deception has a ripple effect.
“When people abuse the system it makes it harder for my child to access the accommodations that he needs,” she explains. “And it’s frustrating and it’s rude.”
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Even If You’re In A Hurry At The Airport It’s Still Not Cool To Fake The Need For A WheelchairA boy's temperature is recorded at an airport in Nigeria. Reuters/Afolandi Sotunde
30 years ago, tuberculosis ripped through New York City's low-income neighborhoods. The experience could translate to Lagos, Nigeria, as it struggles to battle Ebola.
“It does look like a gargantuan powder keg for infectious disease." That’s how one health official describes the situation in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa’s largest city, where new infections of the Ebola virus have recently been detected. “[Lagos] is massive—21 million people with a massive population density,” says Dr. J. Stephen Morrison from the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Nigeria’s coastal metropolis has a much different geography from the rural settings in which past Ebola crises have played out. Never before has a megacity like Lagos played host to the virus. Keeping potentially infected individuals isolated and under surveillance—vital during an outbreak—is nearly impossible. It’s feared that living conditions in crowded areas without the benefit of reliable sanitation could help spread the disease at rapid pace (click here for an interactive map that shows how Ebola has spread).
A similar situation once unfolded in a U.S. metropolis—New York City. And that the lessons we learned from reining in that epidemic could offer some guidance for Lagos. Over a 14-year span during the 1980s and early 1990s, New York City battled its own pandemic of infectious disease: tuberculosis. According to The New England Journal of Medicine, the number of TB patients in NYC over the course of those years nearly tripled. By 1991, the city's infections accounted for 61 percent of all TB cases in America—despite the fact that NYC represented only 4 percent of the country’s population at the time. Several strains of the disease even became drug resistant, hindering the ability of health workers to treat the infected. Ultimately, the epidemic cost the city over $1 billion. How did a modern megacity like New York become paralyzed by an illness found most commonly in the developing world? It infiltrated through holes in the city’s most vulnerable communities. According to the same report from The New England Journal of Medicine, minorities, the poor, and people living with HIV/AIDS were most susceptible to contracting TB during the outbreak. In central Harlem, where 41 percent of residents were living below the poverty line in 1980, there were 222 TB cases per 100,000 residents. According to the World Health Organization, that’s a higher prevalence than rates found in present-day Haiti, Afghanistan, and Sudan. Thirty-three percent of TB carriers in NYC in 1993 were already battling HIV/AIDS. Those with the fewest resources were the most susceptible to contracting and spreading the disease.
There are differences, of course, in the transmission of these diseases. TB is an airborne disease, while Ebola is contracted through person-to-person contact. Nonetheless, there's an important lesson to be drawn from New York’s experience with TB: Make it a priority to protect low-income areas and people whose immune systems are already compromised. “If [the Ebola virus] does trickle down to a population that sleeps three to a bed, it’s likely to spread much quicker,” says Dr. Dan Bausch of Tulane University, a tropical disease specialist that recently returned from West Africa. Right now, almost every individual infected or suspected of infection in Lagos has been a hospital worker. That’s a good thing, says Bausch: Those people are likely to be middle-class workers with formal housing who can be easily isolated. It’s estimated, however, that 70 percent of Lagos residents live in slums, packed into small spaces. If Ebola hits these communities, the scenario becomes much more problematic, Bausch says. “This is when the issue of population density does come into play. Then you have a really bad situation.” Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... To mitigate this risk, Lagos needs to double down on preventative health measures for low-income populations. In the midst of New York’s crisis, the city increased TB funding tenfold, from $4 million in 1988 to $40 million by 1994. That funding supported TB screening for the homeless and expanded single-person housing for those infected with HIV. Two new clinics and 300 additional health practitioners were also put on the city’s payroll to specifically treat the disease. Nigeria’s megacity is facing a unique situation and a distinctly separate disease from the one that struck New York. But a crucial parallel can be drawn: Resources must be expanded for those most vulnerable to infection. Hopefully, it can happen more quickly in Lagos than it did in New York.About
Risks and challenges
Main concern is Time, Game rules and design, I have given a specific timeline to complete the tasks for the board game but this is my first time designing a board game i have only really gotten information about how to go about starting and creating one through Youtube Videos, and Game blogs from previous Board game Designers and Board Game Kickstarters, hence why I chose $50,000 as the Kickstarter goal since previous kickstarters seem to average around that price in order to complete the project. the Next Challenge is Game Design I want to make the look and feel of this game the best and even though i Like the Designs of my Cards and board if something better in looks and design comes along i will have to change it but i can present it to the backers if they like the designs or not through blogs and videos so that's fine. Rules will need to be finalized by end of this year and must undergo rigorous Play tests to get the rules perfect and I know a few people on groups from Facebook and Meetup willing to help play test my game so hopefully that will help with the game designs and rules.Many around the blogosphere said that the Chromebook Pixel is nothing but a hoax. Well, they were wrong, and today we can show you the proof, courtesy of Francois Beaufort.
In case you don’t know, Francois Beaufort is a Chrome OS developer who revealed many interesting tidbits about the project in the past, including the upcoming notification center, and the existence of the Chromebook Pixel, known internally at Google as the Link.
Today, Beaufort produced a fragment of Chrome OS documentation that seemingly confirms the Chromebook Pixel. The document discusses the behavior of the “lightbar”, which is a four-color indicator that will inform the user about the remaining battery life.
Quoting from the documentation:
At Startup or wake from sleep, Google colors cycle in. While running, > 25% power level in the battery: All blue, in a breathing effect (cycle up and down 30%). While running, <= 25% power level in battery: Same as above, but with red Shutting down, or going into sleep: Cycle out the Google colors (Note: the effect is only visible for S0->S3, because shutting down kills power to the lightbar before we can react). While sleeping: Similar to now, but only using Blue and red for battery indication as above.
Now, if you’ve watched the alleged leaked video, you can see that the lightbar is featured at around the 1:15 mark. So the video ties in with the code present on Google’s own website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=d2dhMKSKGBg
Moreover, the documentation that Francois Beaufort provided also confirms the existence of the backlit keyboard, which is also shown in the video.
There’s a slight chance someone went through Chromium source code and picked up information which they used to create the video. We can’t say that the Chromebook Pixel will look exactly like the render in the video, but it’s becoming clear that the “concept” was, at a minimum, inspired from reality.
Regardless of what you think about the crazy backstory of the video, which involves hackers and a mystery Russian company, the evidence (including the domain name registered in October by Google’s domain firm) keeps piling up in favor of the Chromebook Pixel.The weeklong farce in the Chhattisgarh capital has ended with the media getting what they had campaigned for a government order saying no more dance floors, hookah bars and late night parties in city hotels.
It began with a five-star hotel organising a rain dance party last month. Next day, papers ran a full-page photo feature on the "rave party". Channels aired "exclusive footage" of boys and girls present, caring little about their privacy. 'Ashleelta ka nanga naach (naked dance of vulgarity)', 'Jaam chhalke (drinks spilled over)'..., screamed headlines. Papers and channels not present during the party obtained visuals from others and joined in.
Soon the BJP and its women's wing entered. The Congress mayor, a woman, swooped down on the opportunity. Applications were submitted to top police officers and women's commission to "rein in elements that pollute the Chhattisgarh culture".
Pressured, the police acted swiftly. TV channels present during the party for coverage were summoned to submit the event's CD. The identification of "miscreants" began. "Every culprit will be jailed," the police threatened.
Media stepped up the "cleansing campaign". Youths were called to thanas, girls summoned and given instant bail, boys taken to courts. Some even spent a night or two in central jail. A T-shirt a boy wore at the event became a victim. "We spotted objectionable words written on a T-shirt. We identified the boy, seized the shirt. Search is on to trace the shopkeeper," a senior cop was quoted as saying. The T-shirt remains in the maalkhana of a thana.
None of course cared to discern what was "rave" about the party. Drugs were not involved, nor was there public nuisance. It was a private gathering inside a hotel and TV footage did not show anything criminal under sections of the IPC the youths were booked under. They simply danced, that's all. For drinks the hotel had the requisite licence.
... contd.
ALSO READ Degrees of irresponsibility
Please read our terms of use before posting commentsThe Federal Communications Commission on Friday is expected to release the tentative agenda for its September meeting, which will include two key wireless-industry items. One deals with how much spectrum wireless carriers can hold in each market, and the other proposes rules for enticing broadcasters to give up their spectrum for auction to wireless companies.
Among the most highly anticipated items on the agenda for the FCC's Sept. 28 meeting will be the agency's proposed rulemaking on how to structure the "incentive auctions" authorized by Congress as part of a payroll tax cut package passed in February. The proposal is aimed at freeing up more spectrum to meet the nation's growing demand for wireless broadband. Wireless carriers argue that they are running out of spectrum needed to fuel the plethora of wireless gadgets Americans are using, from smartphones to tablets.
The FCC is aiming to finalize the order by mid-2013 and hold its first auctions in 2014.
"In freeing up spectrum for wireless broadband, incentive auctions will drive faster speeds, greater capacity, and ubiquitous mobile coverage," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. "These are essential ingredients for innovation and leadership in the 21st century economy where smartphones and tablets powered by 4G LTE and Wi-Fi networks are proliferating, and the mobile Internet becomes more important every day. Over the last few years, the U.S. has regained global leadership in mobile innovation -- and we must not let up now."
The FCC will be seeking comment on how to design the incentive auctions, which are aimed at persuading TV stations to give up their spectrum, share spectrum with another station, or volunteer to give up their higher-quality UHF spectrum in exchange for a VHF channel (which doesn't reach as many viewers). The spectrum legislation called on the FCC to conduct two kinds of auctions: a reverse auction aimed at seeing how many TV stations are willing to participate in the incentive auctions and a forward auction for wireless carriers that want to buy that spectrum.
The FCC is proposing several ideas for designing the auctions. They include a "descending clock" auction, which would see how many stations might be willing to give up their spectrum at one price, an FCC official said Thursday. If more stations are willing to participate than are needed to meet demand in a particular market, the price would fall over time until the number of participating stations reaches the necessary level.
Another possible plan would be to conduct both the reverse and forward auctions at about the same time, which might involve trying to match stations willing to participate with wireless firms that need spectrum in the markets where those broadcasters operate.
An issue that the FCC will be seeking input on is whether the commission should establish a "reserve price" for the reverse auctions that would set the maximum amount broadcasters could seek for giving up their spectrum.
Wireless carriers, along with technology companies that build products and services that run on those wireless networks, lobbied Congress for two years to pass incentive-auction legislation. CTIA, the wireless-industry trade group, said it was "pleased" the FCC was beginning the process of implementing the incentive-auction legislation.
"We appreciate that the commission will take a thoughtful, thorough, and efficient approach in this proceeding so the unused and underutilized spectrum is reallocated to its highest and best use in an accelerated timeframe," said Steve Largent, CTIA president and CEO, in a statement. "The FCC is taking a vital step that will foster continued growth in the U.S. while encouraging wireless innovation that will have a significant impact on many additional sectors of our economy, including education, health care, transportation, and energy."
Broadcasters have said they are open to the incentive auctions but want the FCC to build safeguards into the process to ensure stations that do not participate are not harmed. The FCC official said the proposed rules will provide more information on the protections for broadcasters but declined to outline the details.
A related proposed rulemaking the FCC also will be taking up at the September meeting could affect which wireless companies participate in the incentive auctions. The FCC is seeking comment on the rules related to how much spectrum each wireless company can hold in a market.
The proposed rulemaking will ask the public whether the commission should retain the case-by-case approach it currently uses when evaluating spectrum transactions or if it should move to a more standardized approach. The FCC also will seek input on whether the commission should consider the quality and type of spectrum a carrier has when evaluating its spectrum holdings.
The FCC's current "spectrum screen" process has drawn criticism from a wide range of wireless companies -- from the biggest providers such as AT&T to smaller rivals such as Sprint.
"The current spectrum screen fails to distinguish between the utility of different spectrum bands for wireless broadband communications," Sprint spokesman John Taylor said. "We are pleased that the commission plans to consider improvements to its spectrum aggregation regulations and we look forward to participating in these discussions."
An FCC official said the commission wants to complete action on the spectrum-screen issue before it finalizes the incentive-auction rules.A crazy game that neither side truly deserved to win.
Arsenal’s side was largely as expected – injuries in the centre of midfield meant Jack Wilshere was deployed alongside Abou Diaby, who played a more conservative role than he likes. Laurent Koscielny made his debut alongside Thomas Vermaelen, whilst Marouane Chamakh also started.
Liverpool played a 4-2-3-1 with Steven Gerrard deep alongside Javier Mascherano and Joe Cole as the link player. Milan Jovanovic played an industrious, Kuyt-esque role on the left, ahead of Daniel Agger in an “unfamiliar” left-back role.
Arsenal started the better in terms of possession and territory, keeping the ball well, but struggling to create chances thanks to Liverpool’s back four who played well, and defended relatively deep.
Although in theory the two sides were playing the same formation, broadly 4-2-3-1, there were noticeable differences in how they operated. Arsenal played higher up the pitch and pressed more intensely, with the two wide players practically alongside Samir Nasri even when they didn’t have the ball. Liverpool’s wide men sat deeper, forming two banks of four and leaving Joe Cole in something approaching a free role, with few defensive responsibilities.
Difference in the performance of playmakers
Indeed, getting Cole involved in play was Liverpool’s biggest problem in the first half – in stark contrast to Nasri, who was probably the game’s central figure before half-time. Nasri completed 25 passes in the first half, compared to Cole’s 7 (below). That central player is pivotal in the 4-2-3-1, generally given the freest role on the pitch, and consequently responsible for a large part of his side’s creativity. To write off Cole’s chances of succeeding in that position would be foolish, but for all the hype about him playing in supposedly his best position, we must remember that never before has he consistently played good football in that position; he reached his heights when wide under Jose Mourinho. This is a new challenge for him.
Despite Chamakh being recruited to give Arsenal an aerial threat, something they lacked last season, he wasn’t particularly successful in this aspect of his game today – of the five aerial duels he contested against Liverpool’s centre-backs, he was unsuccessful on every occasion. He, like Cole, struggled to get into the game, and this summed up each side’s failings. Liverpool couldn’t get their playmaker involved so couldn’t create, whilst Arsenal couldn’t get their goalscorer involved so couldn’t find someone on the end of their moves.
by Guardian Chalkboards
One might have expected Cole’s red card to change the game, but as basic a point this may seem, the fact that he was so uninvolved meant that it mattered far less than many other first-half dismissals do. Even when Cole was on the pitch, Liverpool were looking to the other three attacking players more immediately – Gerrard hit a couple of terrific Xabi Alonso-esque passes out to Dirk Kuyt on the right, and the midfield playing quick, long balls over the top for David Ngog also seemed to be a tactic, although the Frenchman wasn’t timing his runs well enough to beat the linesman’s flag.
Liverpool continue to defend solidly
Since Cole was not particularly involved in defending, that aspect of Liverpool’s game didn’t change, although it allowed Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere more time on the ball deep in midfield. And Liverpool went ahead almost immediately in the second half, when Wilshere’s poor touch presented the ball to Mascherano – he passed forward to Ngog, who finished from a tight angle.
Arsenal then played awfully for the next 15 minutes despite the extra man advantage – they were unable to work the ball into the final third, despite Liverpool being content to sit deep. Roy Hodgson used his wingers very defensively and Liverpool slowed the pace of the game whenever possible. The organisation they showed will be credited to Hodgson, a manager obsessed with refining positioning on the training ground, but it also had hallmarks of Benitez’s reign, when Liverpool frequently defended solidly despite going down to ten men.
The stats back up a tremendous defensive performance from three of the back four – Carragher won three out of four tackles, Agger won four out of four, and Skrtel won five out of five. Only Glen Johnson remains unconvincing, and it was his error in thumping the ball into the stands that indirectly led to Arsenal’s equaliser.
Arsenal push forward
Arsene Wenger was happy to concede his 3 v 2 midfield advantage (clearly feeling Arsenal would dominate possession anyway) as he brought on Theo Walcott and used him as a central support striker rather than in a wide area. He was unable to utilise his pace, though – Liverpool’s deep defensive line denied him space in behind, and Arsenal instead looked to play the ball into wide zones.
Here they found little joy – their two full-backs attempted nine crosses but didn’t find an Arsenal player once, and the deadlock seemed more likely to be broken through Nasri or substitute Tomas Rosicky from a central role. Liverpool were defending deep, but not particularly narrow when compared to, say, the way Tottenham dealt with Arsenal towards the end of last season. Nasri had a thunderous shot that was blocked by Skrtel on route to goal, whilst Rosicky’s wonderful footwork ended with a stabbed |
’s season, Roberto Martinez has declared.
The Blues striker has only found the back of the net four times so far this term, after struggling with injury and mixed form.
But Martinez predicts his club record signing is poised to flourish in the New Year and maintain a hot streak until the end of the campaign.
He said: “I think Rom is going to hit his best levels in January. Then I think he’s capable of maintaining it until the end of May. I’m happy with his attitude and the way he works. He knows the responsibility he has for us and brings a lot of desire.
“He is so unpredictable with his type of play. He can be strong and powerful. He can hold the ball up well. Against Lille he was very sharp and penetrating and his link-up in the final third was really good.”
Lukaku, 21, seemed back to his best in Everton’s last Goodison Park outing, when he shone against Lille in the 3-0 Europa League triumph which saw the Blues consolidate their lead of Group H.
But the £28m man had less of a sustained impact in the following 1-1 draw with Sunderland last weekend in the Premier League.
Martinez, though, retains total faith in a forward who scored 15 top flight goals while on loan last term.
“He was unfortunate to have a goal disallowed (against Lille) which was very close,” said the Catalan. “For a striker to have two goals disallowed and then be involved in a very good performance going forward is pleasing.
“It was nothing we didn’t expect from him though. He has started to be fresh now and ready.”
Martinez added that he is equally excited about his other attacking options. He added: “Samuel Eto’o will always contribute with his experience and vision every time he’s on the pitch, and Steven Naismith hasn’t dropped his level. His work-rate is phenomenal and his intelligence allows him to be used in different formations.
“We’ve got good attacking options. I think Christian Atsu will be an important player for us in second half of the season. Kevin Mirallas will be back from injury soon. It’s important everyone is ready to help us on the pitch and the attitude has been perfect so far.”Kubrick. Napoleon. Two outstanding generals in their own fields, a marriage of subject and auteur that director Stanley Kubrick believed would be “the greatest film (n)ever made.” But endless preparation, research and writing would, not for the last time, leave him behind the competition. In Dino De Laurentiis’ rival picture, he met his own Waterloo.
The idea of a filmography of Napoleon Bonaparte first germinated in Kubrick’s mind in the early 1960’s, and percolated during the lengthy post-production period on 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was not impressed by previous film versions of the little Emperor’s life, saying of Abel Gance’s 1927 silent mega-epic, “I found it to be really terrible. As far as story and performance goes, it’s a very crude picture.” He saw Napoleon’s life as “an epic poem of action.” His relationship with Josephine de Beauharnais “one of the greatest obsessional passions of all time. He was one of those men who move history and mould the destiny of their own times and generations to come.”
Kubrick’s then backers MGM financed two years of exhaustive research and script writing. What he wanted, he got. Both he and Napoleon were extremely bright, yet academic failures, seemingly aloof from society, achieving success on their own terms, dazzling others with their brilliance. Napoleon’s comment in his memoirs could have been written by Kubrick of himself: “It is very difficult because the ways of those with whom I live, and probably always shall, are as different from mine as moonlight from sunlight.”
Immediately he hired Napoleon authority and biographer Felix Markham, appointing him “overseeing historical director”. He bought the rights to his book, using it as a template for his screenplay. Markham supplied a small scouting party of twenty students who were set to work compiling an exhaustive and extensive catalogue of the fifty major characters in Napoleon’s life, in chronological order, colour coded for quick and easy reference. They also filed 17,000 slides of period costumes, art, equipment and so on.
An assistant was dispatched “to the front”, following in the conqueror’s footsteps across Europe, taking photographic references, even gathering soil samples from the Waterloo site to be matched when shooting the battle elsewhere. The film was to be a three hour epic of one man’s life, budgeted at $5 million with a 150 day shooting schedule – 2001 had easily outstripped this figure and took three years in total to complete. However, Kubrick had many cost saving measures in mind, some ingenious.
He believed the battle scenes could be shot in Romania and Yugoslavia, where he could get between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, at $3 to $5 per man. “I wouldn’t want to fake it with fewer troops, because Napoleonic battles were out in the open, a vast tableau where the formations moved in almost choreographic fashion, “ he said. Yet for the aftermath of the battle of Austerlitz, a weeping Tsar Alexander I by the roadside implies the human cost. Ridley Scott adopted the same method with a frozen soldier in his micro-budgeted debut, the Napoleonic set The Duellists, to suggest the savage winter of the Russian campaign.
All those troops had to be clothed, and the solution for background figures was a New York tailoring firm and their paper uniforms, which each had “a 300 pound breaking strength, even when wet,” for one to four dollars each. “We have done film tests on the uniforms, ” Kubrick wrote, “and from a distance of thirty yards or further away, it looks marvellous.”
He intended to rent authentic period palaces in France and Italy, saving money on dressing as many were already furnished in the correct style. His Front Projection method developed on 2001 would help create convincing wider shots. Star names were a drag on the authenticity, he believed. Names batted around for the lead included David Hemmings and Ian Holm, the latter going on to later portray a comically height sensitive Napoleon in Terry Gilliams’s Time Bandits. However, he did hope to entice Audrey Hepburn out of semi-retirement as Napoleon’s paramour, Josephine, sending her a flattering letter, to which she responded personally, regretfully turning him down.
It isn’t likely she would have accepted though – Kubrick’s script has the lovers first meet at an orgy, and their passionate couplings and falling outs have an air of farce amid the drama elsewhere. Nearly every sexual coupling takes place beneath mirrored ceilings. There is a naivety too about the scripts bookending with the Citizen Kane Rosebud like motif of Napoleon’s teddy bear. Surely an anachronism?
Kubrick’s brother in law Jan Harlan said “Stanley was besotted with the story. He was a political beast and fascinated with human folly and vanity. Napoleon was the perfect study for that. ” Harlan insisted the draft script in circulation was an outline, not the finished shooting script. “Stanley was not a great writer. He had no false pride in this area and hired writers to help him.” Jean Tulard, France’s leading Napoleon scholar says, “Reading the screenplay, it’s impossible to tell whether Kubrick likes Napoleon or loathes him.” Kubrick believed Napoleon was undone by his passions. Harlan:”He believed Napoleon might have learned to control himself better had he played chess. Stanley thought if you are too emotional, you lose.”
Sometimes, however, it is better to advance with the heart. Over analysis lead, as stated earlier, to Kubrick being pipped at the post by De Laurentiis’ Waterloo in 1970, starring Rod Steiger. It didn’t do very well and MGM’s money men got scared, so Napoleon was dropped. Kubrick later channelled what he had learned into Barry Lyndon, including the use of special Zeiss lenses, used by NASA, that could film longer in fading light, even by candlelight, creating ravishing images, akin to a “moving Gainsborough painting.” He hoped to return to the subject, but never did. In 2009 The Taschen Press, who had published The Stanley Kubrick Archive, released a ten book Russian doll-like massive tome, Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Film Never Made, reproducing all the research materials, annotations and the script.
Many directors have been linked to resurrecting Kubrick’s script, but nothing has ever been formally announced. Until now, that is. Steven Spielberg has told French television station LE JT De Canal+ that he is developing a television mini-series based on Kubrick’s first script: “I’ve been developing Stanley Kubrick’s screenplay — for a miniseries not for a motion picture — about the life of Napoleon. Kubrick wrote the script in 1961, a long time ago.” See him speak on the linked clip around the 9.14 mark.
Meanwhile, the ghost of Abel Gance must be having a quiet chuckle. Kevin Brownlow’s restoration of the silent film will screen at The Royal Festival Hall on Saturday 30 November (all eight hours of it!). Details can be found here.
Originally posted 2013-03-04 17:22:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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An experienced ghost hunter captured what he claims is a chilling picture of a haunting figure BEFORE beginning a tour of an old asylum.
Phillip Barron said he has taken hundreds of photos over the years but have never seen one so vivid he wasn’t able to debunk.
The 45-year-old told how the ‘ghost-girl of Newsham Park’ has caused a stir on Facebook as none of the other people in the image recognise the figure.
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He said: “We always begin our ghost hunts with a picture of the group, I have done this many times and this is exactly what I did. I took the picture on my phone and just put it in my pocket, I didn’t even look at it.
“It wasn’t until the next morning, after it had been posted to Facebook with other pictures from the night, that I saw it.”
(Image: Haunted Happening/ Phillip Barron)
Phillip, who hosts events for Haunted Happenings, says he has been ghost hunting for around 12 years and finding the truth is a key part of the process.
He said: “I have never come across anything like this before, of course we tried to debunk this straight away.
“We asked everyone who was there if they remember this person, but they don’t.”
(Image: Haunted Happenings)
(Image: Haunted Happenings)
The team Phillip works with has no idea who the ghoulish shadow could be despite it being the site of a sanatorium from the 1800s and a mortuary.
Newsham Park Hospital is often considered one of Liverpool’s most haunted buildings and since its closure in 1992 the building has fallen into a state of disrepair.
(Image: Haunted Happenings)
(Image: Haunted Happenings)
First built in 1869 the grade II listed structure was put on the market in 2007 for £1.5m after plans to turn it into flats were met with resistance from local regeneration campaigners.
Inside, it is littered with broken beds, commodes and trollies from its time spent as a hospital.
(Image: Haunted Happenings)
On the top floor, an attic is lined with cupboards - which were used as ‘naughty’ cupboards to lock misbehaving children inside.
The winding staircases come with ‘anti-suicide’ grills and lead to seemingly endless treatment rooms and laundry rooms.
Phillip has been ghost hunting at Newsham around 20 times, he added: “I have seen shadows, and people have had strange feelings, but nothing like this.
“Newsham is a fascinating building and when we tour, we guide the guests, but they all experience different things.”Health Canada has updated its website, indicating that it has awarded the 44th ACMPR license to Ontario-based First Access Medical, which is owned by Beleave, Inc. (CSE: BE) (OTC: BLEVF). The company’s 14,500 sq. ft. facility in Hamilton is capable of producing 550K grams of dried cannabis per year, and it will be adding a 60K sq. ft. hybrid greenhouse, according to its recent corporate presentation.
The approval follows a pre-license inspection more than two months ago. Beleave, which was halted before trading opened today, has increased dramatically over the past year and has a fully-diluted market cap of C$76mm based upon the close of C$2.23 on May 18th.
Get ahead of the crowd by signing up for 420 Investor, the largest & most comprehensive premium subscription service for cannabis traders and investors since 2013.
Breaking News by Alan Brochstein, CFA Facebook | LinkedIn | Email Based in Houston, Alan leverages his experience as founder of online communities 420 Investor, the first and still largest due diligence platform focused on the publicly-traded stocks in the cannabis industry. With his extensive network in the cannabis community, Alan continues to find new ways to connect the industry and facilitate its sustainable growth. At New Cannabis Ventures, he is responsible for content development and strategic alliances. Before shifting his focus to the cannabis industry in early 2013, Alan, who began his career on Wall Street in 1986, worked as an independent research analyst following over two decades in research and portfolio management. A prolific writer, with over 650 articles published since 2007 at Seeking Alpha, where he has 70,000 followers, Alan is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a frequent source to the media, including the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, and Bloomberg TV. Contact Alan: TwitterFredrik's music
I started composing MIDIs in 1999, and it has remained my second biggest hobby after programming. My main influence is video game music (Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, and others), and indeed many tracks are intended as music for some (imagined) game. I also draw inspiration from jazz and jazz fusion (e.g. Chick Corea), Bach, heavy/power/progressive metal and rock music in general. I compose everything by score editing, i.e. I don't record anything with a keyboard. I mainly use Cakewalk 3.01, which is ancient but works beautifully for plain MIDI editing (unlike many newer programs). I recently also started using Sekaiju which is very nice.
As of November 2013, I have created some 1700 MIDI files with a total playing time of 29 hours (that includes maybe 10% alternate versions and duplicates, though). Perhaps a hundred of these are more-or-less complete tracks, a few hundred are good starts (melodies or intros I'm happy with, in need of being extended to proper compositions), and a majority are just scribbles. This page lists a selection of presentable tracks that are completed or reasonably close to being completed. Even if I "complete" a piece (and I tend to have trouble getting there!), I usually find something to change later. Thus everything is really a work in progress.
Recordings
For listening convenience, I'm providing audio renditions recorded on a standard laptop soundcard (look further down on this page for the source MIDI files and comments about each track). There are some glitches. Many of these MIDIs will sound (much) better with a fancy SoundFont or a good hardware synth, but that tends to be hit or miss, at least without a lot of tweaking.
MIDI files and info
MIDI file Piano roll Length Updated Style Comments dark_realm.mid pdf 2:46(L) 2014-10-26 Orchestral Zelda-style. Composed in 2010 and 2012. cavern.mid pdf 1:07 2014-10-26 Orchestral A dark place. altitude.mid pdf 2:40 2014-10-26 Orchestral A windy place. cliff.mid pdf 1:47 2014-10-26 Orchestral An even more windy place. tarpit.mid pdf 1:07 2014-10-26 Orchestral An unusual place. cabal.mid pdf 1:51 2014-10-26 Orchestral ending_triumph.mid pdf 1:29 2014-10-26 Orchestral A very old piece, from around 2000. mansion_of_the_twilight_pickle.mid pdf 4:35(L) 2014-09-27 Other Music for an unfinished Doom level. legend.mid pdf 2:21(L) 2013-12-03 Other Cute. Early 2000s. map.mid pdf 1:07(L) 2013-12-03 Orchestral Intermission music for a game. Pretty. Mid-2000s. ethereal.mid pdf 1:14(L) 2013-12-03 Orchestral Early 2000s. fanfare1.mid pdf 0:11 2010-03-28 Orchestral Just a short jingle. fanfare2.mid pdf 0:07 2010-04-04 Other Another short jingle. fanfare3.mid pdf 0:16 2014-10-26 Other mupp.mid pdf 0:39 2014-10-26 Other A looney tune. old_man's_tale.mid pdf 2:05(L) 2013-12-03 Rock Uphill both ways through the snow. Music for an unfinished Doom map, early 2000s. hopla.mid pdf 3:09(L) 2013-11-25 Jazz It has a catchy refrain. Composed around 2009. lurking_for_prey.mid pdf 2:03(L) 2013-11-25 Jazz/Other Boss music. Composed around 2005. melon.mid pdf 6:32 2013-11-25 Jazz Gently rolling along. Composed around 2003. sunset_caravan.mid pdf 4:20 2013-11-25 Jazz/Orchestral Prelude to Orange Jungle. Composed around 2002. black_hole_rift.mid pdf 6:34 2013-11-25 Electronic An experiment with a wall-of-sound buildup. Composed in 2001. escape_from_evil.mid pdf 6:36(L) 2013-11-25 Electronic Soundtrack for a Doom map. Composed in 2000. magitek.mid pdf 4:00(L) 2013-11-15 Rock/Jazz Vaguely influenced by the Magitek Factory music (and some other themes) in FFVI. Composed around 2012. pine_dance.mid pdf 6:11 2012-04-12 Strings One of my most ambitious works, arranged for a string quartet. Has a story structure with multiple themes, transitions between light and dark moods, plenty of counterpoint, and some interesting harmonies. Composed between July 2010 and April 2012. desert_wizard.mid pdf 1:56 2013-11-15 Other Fantasy character theme. Composed in the early 2000s. boss_blaster.mid pdf 5:19 2012-10-01 Rock A hectic, weird boss battle. It goes to a second stage at 2:25. Composed in 2010. spiral.mid pdf 2:13(L) 2014-10-26 Experimental It goes round and round. The second half is essentially an inversion of the first half. rain_clouds.mid pdf 4:16 2014-10-26 Orchestral Weather imagery: rain droplets entering at 0:40, sunlight breaking through clouds at 1:15, a hard rain at 2:30, and warring thunder giants at the end. Made around 2004, possibly earlier. the_bog.mid pdf 2:40 2012-05-12 Orchestral Ambience for an unpleasant place. One of my first attempts at something resembling an orchestral arrangement, made in May 2001. jovial_dungeon_terror.mid pdf 3:11 2013-11-16 Other Silly castle music. Early 2000s. galleon.mid pdf 1:10(L) 2013-11-16 Pirate Happy pirate theme, around 2004. attack.mid pdf 2:47 2012-05-20 Orchestral Star Wars-style battle. Composed in 2001. jupiter.mid pdf 2:11(L) 2013-11-16 Orchestral King of the Gods (or pompous as such). Composed in 2005, with later modifications. lullaby.mid pdf 0:57 2013-11-14 Cute A simple melody and one of my first compositions, written down in February 1999. glimmer.mid pdf 0:55 2013-11-14 Orchestral A pretty crescendo. Composed around 2004. merchant.mid pdf 1:40(L) 2013-11-15 Other Theme for one of those characters in RPGs who set up shops set up in the strangest of places... the_magnificent_lamberto.mid pdf 5:18(L) 2013-11-15 Other Theme for a brilliant illusionist. Composed around 2010. orange_jungle.mid pdf 3:12(L) 2013-11-17 Other Simple but atmospheric. Composed around 2003. cubular.mid pdf 2:52 2013-11-15 Other Conventional chords are overrated. Composed 2012-2013. regal.mid pdf 4:43 2012-03-17 Piano A theatrical, somewhat silly piece. Probably not physically playable on a single piano. Composed around 2003 (possibly earlier). kwerpex.mid pdf 3:41 2014-10-26 Rock I have no idea what a kwerpex is, but it supposedly sounds like this. Nice guitar melody. Composed in 2000. bbg's_jazz.mid pdf 2:53 2012-03-15 Jazz Straight-up swing. This piece is quite old (very early 2000s), and that considered, the arrangement is not too bad. locomotive.mid pdf 4:42(L) 2013-11-14 Rock A very jolly song. Made in 2010. omega.mid pdf 3:09(L) 2013-11-16 Rock/Electronic Music for an unfished Doom map. ready_to_frag.mid pdf 2:28(L) 2013-11-14 Metal Music for a Doom map. Written in 2001, with later revisions to the solos. coecits_title.mid pdf 0:59 2008-09-03 Other Soundtrack (title screen) for the Doom map Castle of Eternal Carrot in the Sky (COECITS). Composed in 2001. coecits_level.mid pdf 2:40(L) 2011-10-30 Other Soundtrack (main theme) for COECITS. Composed in 2001. coecits_ending.mid pdf 0:33 2007-10-27 Other Soundtrack (ending) for COECITS. Composed in 2001. cargo.mid pdf 2:03(L) 2008-07-06 Rock/Electronic Soundtrack for the Doom map Vrack 3. Composed in 2003. ledge.mid pdf 2:49(L) 2013-11-14 Rock/Electronic Music for an unfinished Doom map. tarantula.mid pdf 2:47(L) 2013-11-14 Metal Music for an unfinished Doom map. fzero.mid pdf 1:20(L) 2013-11-14 Rock/Electronic Imagined as track music for an F-Zero style game. Late 2000s. corkscrew.mid pdf 2:26(L) 2013-11-16 Metal Imagined as track music for an F-Zero style game. Composed in 2003. cirka.mid pdf 0:40(L) 2005-09-16 Circus Joke music. Circa 2000. hurg.mid pdf 3:32(L) 2011-06-18 Rock Not quite serious, but groovy nonetheless. Early 2000s.
Note: (L) indicates that the current version of the track is meant to loop.
Copyright
All music provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.Five hundred years ago, under the The Bavarian Purity Law, or Reinheitsgebot, brewers were restricted to three ingredients to make beer: water, barley and hops. Later yeast was added to the ranks of the beer essentials. Purity, consumer protection and the economy were in the 16th-century law-makers’ best interest, but thankfully today’s craft breweries are inspired and allowed to create brews that push ingredients and consumer tastebuds beyond the limits.
Earlier, TVO.org asked brewing historian Matthew Bellamy five questions about Canada’s brewing past, and its intrinsic connection to Canadian identity, which largely involved big brewers such as Labatt and Molson. But what about the rising popularity of craft beer? Trade association Beer Canada puts the number of licensed brewers in the country at 640 in 2015. Jordan St. John, historian, beer buff and co-author (with Robin LeBlanc) of The Ontario Craft Beer Guide, answers five more questions about Ontario’s craft beer history and future.
When was the last craft beer renaissance?
The craft beer renaissance most reflects a 19th-century brewing industry where small local breweries became industrialized and grew larger to supply a growing populace. At that time there weren't really national brands. Imagine large regional breweries that could only sell beer as far as the train would take it.
What led to the boom that the craft beer industry is experiencing?
I have a theory that people have a fiercely held irrational and subconscious tendency not to like being told what to do. What craft beer is partially about – although I don't think people necessarily realize it – is the ongoing war between two capitalist systems.
First, picture a market without craft beer, when there were 10 breweries or so left in Canada in 1981. How many products did they make? The basic beer and a light beer and some holdover brands. The large brewers began closing, consolidating plants, reducing labour and streamlining their processes. It is the kind of cost-cutting that occurs when you're an enormous, unwieldy corporation that is answerable to shareholders. The logical end result is a single product designed to offend as few people as possible, ultimately, it has to be marketable. Big beer became very much a global corporate machine geared toward profit extraction.
Now, imagine you're the consumer and you live somewhere where there's a beer store. You're never going to meet the CEO of Molson or Labatt. They are not going to take the time to explain to you what's in the beer or why you should drink it. Your buddy up the road who is starting a brewery? He's got time to talk to you. He's got a small business that isn't answerable to shareholders. He employs people locally. Instead of extracting profit from the community, your buddy who owns a brewery is investing in the town. It's a part of creating a robust local economy.
How does craft brewing change the economy?
If you look at bits of the rust belt in the U.S. there are entire towns being revitalized by craft brewing. If you can employ 20 people you're making a difference. If you can employ 200 people you're a solid citizen. It's not like people are drinking more, but they're making a choice to drink better and drink local and not only does the beer taste better — most of the time — but it actually has the indirect benefit of bolstering the community. Not just economically, but in social ways. People are meeting each other in brewery taprooms and having conversation in ways they didn't sitting at home with a two-four.
Why do so many craft breweries have this underdog narrative?
Starting a huge brewery is expensive. Starting a small brewery is not really.
Consider the scale you're talking about and the entrenched distribution system: it's not just underdog, it's ant and elephant. For perspective: the largest purely craft brewery in Ontario is Steam Whistle. They are only making a fourth of a percentage point of the total volume of the beer in the country.
The reason craft brewers are underdogs is because the system is rigged against them. Some would say that's intentional. More realistically, I think it's just a holdover of bad policy that is going to self-correct in the long term. They're not underdogs. They're Lilliputians. Meanwhile, every day a craft brewer wakes up and stares down [billion-dollar profits of big breweries] and they're winning.
How have they overcome what you call bad policy and a rigged system?
The Beer Store was designed in 1927 to be a co-op. The reality is that because of long-term 20th-century mergers and acquisitions, it is actually controlled by three companies that are headquartered overseas. All of the Beer Store's policies reflect the outside ownership. The rules are in favour of large, homogenous brands that never change. Late 20th-century behemoth brands like Budweiser and Coors and Canadian and Blue that survived the corporate streamlining process and have giant advertising campaigns behind them.
Craft breweries make interesting beers on a seasonal basis. The distribution model is not remotely equitable. They have to rely on the LCBO or grocery stores, but more frequently they sell out of their front door. With 440 locations of The Beer Store and advertising budgets larger than some country's GDP stacked against them, they're winning.
It might just be a societal revolt against [corporate marketing]. Maybe the preference for craft beer is an internet generation thing where people are carefully curating their own experience. Diversity and individualism are strengths. What does it say about you if you have the option to choose from among 500 interesting, disparate products and you choose the same thing your dad drank and never experiment?
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Read: Here's how beer ties into the Canadian identityThis week HBO premiered, The Defiant Ones, the 4-part documentary about Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, which features rare footage, never-before-heard stories and new interviews from Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, NAS and a lot more.
Looks like the documentary boosted the album sales of Dr. Dre and Eminem. Dre’s 1992 classic The Chronic holds #6 on iTunes Hip-Hop album sales, which tops Jay’s recently released 4:44 album at #7. Other albums that are charting in Top 100 are:
#6 – Chronic – Dr. Dre
#10 – The Marshall Mathers LP – Eminem
#11 – The Slim Shady LP – Eminem
#12 – The Eminem Show – Eminem
#13 – Compton – Dr. Dre
#17 – 2001 – Dr. Dre
#32 – Recovery – Eminem
#33 – Curtain Call: The Hits (Deluxe) – Eminem
#35 – Straight Outta Compton – N.W.A.
#39 – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 – Eminem
#67 – Encore – Eminem
#87 – Curtain Call: The Hits – Eminem
#89 – N.W.A. Greatest Hits – N.W.A.
Some classics are also back in the Top 100 Hip-Hop Songs charts:
#31 – Forgot About Dre – Dr. Dre, featuring Eminem
#33 – The Next Episode – Dr. Dre, featuring Snoop Dogg
#41 – My Name Is – Eminem
#45 – Boyz-n-the-Hood – Eazy-E
#47 – Nuthin’ But a G thang – Dr. Dre, featuring Snoop Dogg
#50 – The Real Slim Shady – Eminem
#54 – I Need A Doctor – Dr. Dre, featuring Eminem & Skylar Grey
#69 – ‘Till I Collapse – Eminem, featuring Nate Dogg
#78 – Without Me – Eminem
#82 – Rap God – Eminem
#84 – Still D.R.E. – Dr. Dre, featuring Snoop Dogg
#94 – Eminem – Not Afraid
#95 – F**k The Police – N.W.A.
#97 – Love The Way You Lie – Eminem, featuring RihannaNEW DELHI: Two days after the BJP suffered a shocking defeat in Bihar, the veterans in the party have hit out at the leadership.A joint statement by LK Advani Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha has sought a thorough review of the BJP's defeat in Bihar assembly elections, stating that the party failed to learn lessons from the fiasco in Delhi assembly elections.The brief but strongly-worded statement says that the party has been "emasculated" in the last one year and was being "forced to kow-tow to a handful".Interestingly, the letter which was released on Tuesday evening (November 10), was actually dated November 11."The review should cover the way the party has been forced to kowtow to a handful and how its consensual character has been destroyed," the statement says, adding, "the review must not be done by the very persons who have managed and have been responsible for the campaign in Bihar."The BJP bigwigs asserted that the principal reason for the latest defeat was the way the party has been 'emasculated' in the last year.The BJP managed to win only 53 seats in the just-concluded assembly elections.On Monday, senior party leader Arun Jaitley refused to pinpoint the blame for loss on any one leader and had said that it was a 'collective loss' for the party.Before the statement was released from the residence of Joshi, a former BJP president, former union minister Arun Shourie and former RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya were closeted with Joshi.(With inputs from agencies)HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government has received a shocker with the central government flatly refusing to provide financial support to the prestigious Sagaramala project, which needs about Rs 25,000 crore. The AP government will now be forced to scout for funds from other sources.Sagaramala is a series of projects aimed at improving the coastline and inland waterways to give impetus to industrial development. It is expected to reduce the cost and time for transport of goods through waterways. AP has the second longest coastline extending over 974 km.The AP government has been seeking funds for the project which included funding for six new fishing harbours.The state government even constituted a state-level Sagaramala committee with the chief minister as the chairman and finalised a port policy and a maritime concept plan, but the Centre turned down the state's plea.The ports' department identified nearly 20 projects that needed about Rs 25,000-crore investment.The main components included port-led modernisation (Rs 330 crore), port to rail connectivity (Rs 8, 180 crore), port to road connectivity (Rs 18, 503) crore, and coastal community development (Rs 3,089 crore).AP even proposed setting up a mega interchange hub near Amaravati, and distribution parks near Machilipatnam, Visakhapatnam and Nellore. Logistic parks and truck terminals were also proposed in all districts.The Union government is reportedly planning to constitute a national-level Sagaramala authority to oversee projects in different states.FARGO, N.D. – Radio FM Media and the North Dakota State University athletic department today announced Jeff Culhane has been named the next radio "Voice of the Bison" and sports director for KQWB-AM BISON 1660.Culhane, 33, is completing his third year on the West Virginia Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG, following six years on the Husker Sports Network in Lincoln, Neb. He is a native of Mitchell, S.D., and a graduate of Dakota Wesleyan University."We are thrilled to have Jeff join the team at Radio FM Media as the new voice of the Bison," said Nancy Odney, COO. "Jeff is a big time play-by-play announcer and one of the top sports radio hosts in the business. His passion, experience and leadership will be invaluable as we enter a new era of sports radio with the debut of BISON 1660 AM."At West Virginia, he hosted the pregame and postgame shows for football and was the lead play-by-play voice for baseball and women's basketball. He called the 2014 West Virginia spring football game, and filled in on West Virginia men's basketball broadcasts.Culhane was IMG Radio Network's national play-by-play voice for the 2016 American Athletic Conference men's basketball championship, where he called the four-overtime game between Cincinnati and Connecticut."The pool of candidates was very reflective of the high-profile nature of this position. Jeff quickly rose to the top based on his experience and in-depth knowledge of Bison athletics," said NDSU athletic director. "We are very excited to have him join the Bison family."At Nebraska, he hosted and produced the three-hour talk show "Sports Nightly" and hosted the "Big Red Reaction" football postgame show. He called Nebraska baseball for four years, filled in as a color analyst for men's basketball, and hosted the call-in show with former NDSU and current Nebraska head coach Tim Miles."North Dakota State fans will love the passion and professionalism that Jeff will bring to Bison sports," said University of Nebraska play-by-play voice Greg Sharpe. "He has, through his associations with Nebraska and West Virginia, been a part of two programs that dominate the state's landscapes and with his familiarity with NDSU's rich tradition he is a natural fit."Culhane got his start in broadcasting at the University of South Dakota, which followed time as a student-athlete at Dakota Wesleyan University, where he played football and baseball.Culhane will start in June and will begin planning for the August launch of BISON 1660 AM. He will call the Aug. 27 football season opener with analyst Phil Hansen and sideline reporterwhen North Dakota State hosts Charleston Southern.Sol Bamba signed off from his loan at Leeds United with |
2,566 53 South Boston 60301 3,076 52 Abington 520100 6,458 52 Braintree 419200 5,002 52 Braintree 419600 6,766 52 Abington 520201 3,952 52 Pembroke 508200 6,031 52
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Italian American:[25]
City or Neighborhood Census Tract Population % Italian Johnston 012402 2,486 63 Cranston 014501 5,179 58 Johnston 012500 5,490 57 Johnston 012200 7,187 57 Providence 011902 4,780 55 Cranston 014800 5,591 55 Saugus 208102 3,343 51 Cranston 014300 4,716 49 Cranston 014600 6,991 49 Cranston 014502 4,096 48 Johnston 012300 6,656 48 Johnston 012401 6,950 48 Stoneham 337102 5,042 45 Stoneham 337202 4,849 45 Revere 170200 4,564 45 Revere 170502 2,818 43 Cranston 013900 2,992 43 Revere 170300 9,040 43 North Providence 012103 2,965 43
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Portuguese American:[26]
City or Neighborhood Census Tract Population % Portuguese New Bedford 652800 3,277 72 Fall River 640600 4,450 69 Dartmouth 653203 5,005 65 New Bedford 652400 2,664 64 New Bedford 652000 2,676 62 Fall River 640500 5,165 60 Fall River 641200 2,803 59 New Bedford 650500 3,141 58 Fall River 640901 5,071 58 New Bedford 650400 3,773 57 New Bedford 652500 2,589 56 East Providence 010400 6,661 55 New Bedford 652300 2,870 54 Fall River 641000 2,419 54 Fall River 640300 3,693 53 Westport 646101 7,356 53 Fall River 640700 2,900 53 Fall River 640400 2,682 53 New Bedford 650101 5,753 53 Fall River 640100 5,358 52
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with French or French Canadian listed as first ancestry:[27]
City or Neighborhood Census Tract Population % French Woonsocket 018500 2,831 66 Woonsocket 017700 3,518 61 Woonsocket 017500 3,128 59 Woonsocket 017800 2,514 58 Burrillville 013001 3,479 56 North Smithfield 012802 2,391 54 North Smithfield 012803 4,776 53 Burrillville 013002 7,539 53 North Smithfield 012801 4,800 52 Manchester 002300 3,758 52 Woonsocket 017900 3,049 51 Burrillville 012900 4,937 50 Manchester 000202 2,297 49 Manchester 002100 4,782 49 Woonsocket 017600 2,560 49 Manchester 002600 5,746 48 Manchester 002200 3,232 47 Woonsocket 018400 6,527 47 Blackstone 747101 5,110 47 Woonsocket 018000 2,680 46
Other [ edit ]
Greater Boston has a sizable Jewish community, estimated at between 210,000 people,[28][29] and 261,000[30] or 5–6% of the Greater Boston metro population, compared with about 2% for the nation as a whole. Contrary to national trends, the number of Jews in Greater Boston has been growing, fueled by the fact that 60% of children in Jewish mixed-faith families are raised Jewish, compared with roughly one in three nationally.[28]
The City of Boston also has one of the largest LGBT populations per capita. It ranks fifth of all major cities in the country (behind San Francisco, and slightly behind Seattle, Atlanta, and Minneapolis respectively), with 12.3% of the city identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.[31]
Higher education [ edit ]
Harvard University (top) and bottom) are both widely regarded as in the top handful of universities worldwide for academic research in various disciplines.[15] ) and MIT ) are both widely regarded as in the top handful of universities worldwide for academic research in various disciplines.
A long established center of higher education, the area includes many community colleges, two-year schools, and internationally prominent undergraduate and graduate institutions. The graduate schools include highly regarded schools of law, medicine, business, technology, international relations, public health, education, and religion. Greater Boston contains seven R1 Research Institutions as per the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. This is, by far, the highest number of such institutions in a single Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States.
Selected statistics [ edit ]
Changes in house prices for the Greater Boston area are publicly tracked on a regular basis using the Case–Shiller index; the statistic is published by Standard & Poor's and is also a component of S&P's 10-city composite index of the value of the residential real estate market.
Major companies [ edit ]
References:[32][33][34][35]
Sports [ edit ]
Annual sporting events include:
Transportation [ edit ]
Interstates [ edit ]
U.S. Routes [ edit ]
State Highways [ edit ]
Bridges and tunnels [ edit ]
Airports [ edit ]
Rail and bus [ edit ]
The MBTA district, with Commuter Rail lines in purple
The first railway line in the United States was in Quincy. See Neponset River.
The following Regional Transit Authorities have bus service that connects with MBTA commuter rail stations:
Ocean transportation [ edit ]
Geography [ edit ]
Climate [ edit ]
Climate data for Concord Municipal Airport, New Hampshire (1981−2010 normals,[a] extremes 1903–present)[b] Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 72
(22) 74
(23) 89
(32) 95
(35) 98
(37) 101
(38) 102
(39) 101
(38) 98
(37) 92
(33) 80
(27) 73
(23) 102
(39) Mean maximum °F (°C) 50.8
(10.4) 53.7
(12.1) 66.6
(19.2) 81.5
(27.5) 88.7
(31.5) 92.0
(33.3) 93.1
(33.9) 91.8
(33.2) 87.7
(30.9) 78.5
(25.8) 68.7
(20.4) 56.0
(13.3) 95.5
(35.3) Average high °F (°C) 30.8
(−0.7) 34.9
(1.6) 43.8
(6.6) 57.4
(14.1) 68.9
(20.5) 77.4
(25.2) 82.3
(27.9) 80.9
(27.2) 72.6
(22.6) 60.5
(15.8) 48.4
(9.1) 36.3
(2.4) 58.0
(14.4) Average low °F (°C) 10.4
(−12.0) 13.8
(−10.1) 22.5
(−5.3) 32.7
(0.4) 42.6
(5.9) 52.5
(11.4) 57.7
(14.3) 56.1
(13.4) 47.4
(8.6) 35.8
(2.1) 28.2
(−2.1) 17.2
(−8.2) 34.8
(1.6) Mean minimum °F (°C) −11.2
(−24.0) −8.2
(−22.3) 0.8
(−17.3) 19.4
(−7.0) 28.1
(−2.2) 37.9
(3.3) 45.4
(7.4) 42.0
(5.6) 31.8
(−0.1) 21.2
(−6.0) 11.1
(−11.6) −2.8
(−19.3) −14.6
(−25.9) Record low °F (°C) −35
(−37) −37
(−38) −20
(−29) 4
(−16) 21
(−6) 30
(−1) 35
(2) 29
(−2) 20
(−7) 10
(−12) −17
(−27) −24
(−31) −37
(−38) Average precipitation inches (mm) 2.70
(69) 2.62
(67) 3.27
(83) 3.41
(87) 3.66
(93) 3.69
(94) 3.74
(95) 3.18
(81) 3.38
(86) 4.04
(103) 3.72
(94) 3.20
(81) 40.61
(1,033) Average snowfall inches (cm) 18.1
(46) 12.3
(31) 11.1
(28) 2.8
(7.1) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) — 2.6
(6.6) 14.5
(37) 61.4
(156) Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 10.8 9.5 11.5 11.8 12.4 12.7 10.9 9.8 9.3 10.1 11.2 10.9 130.9 Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 8.2 6.5 5.3 1.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.9 6.6 29.7 Average relative humidity (%) 67.9 66.0 64.8 62.0 65.0 70.9 71.8 74.5 76.3 72.8 73.3 72.3 69.8 Mean monthly sunshine hours 162.8 171.8 210.5 223.2 258.4 274.3 295.8 261.9 214.7 183.4 127.8 134.8 2,519.4 Percent possible sunshine 56 58 57 56 57 60 64 61 57 54 44 48 56 Source: NOAA (relative humidity and sun 1961–1990)[37][38][39]
Climate data for Boston (Logan Airport), 1981−2010 normals[c], extremes 1872−present[d] Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 72
(22) 73
(23) 89
(32) 94
(34) 97
(36) 100
(38) 104
(40) 102
(39) 102
(39) 90
(32) 83
(28) 76
(24) 104
(40) Mean maximum °F (°C) 56.4
(13.6) 57.7
(14.3) 67.6
(19.8) 80.7
(27.1) 87.3
(30.7) 92.1
(33.4) 94.9
(34.9) 93.3
(34.1) 87.9
(31.1) 79.1
(26.2) 70.5
(21.4) 61.3
(16.3) 96.2
(35.7) Average high °F (°C) 35.8
(2.1) 38.7
(3.7) 45.4
(7.4) 55.6
(13.1) 66.0
(18.9) 75.9
(24.4) 81.4
(27.4) 79.6
(26.4) 72.4
(22.4) 61.4
(16.3) 51.5
(10.8) 41.2
(5.1) 58.8
(14.9) Daily mean °F (°C) 29.0
(−1.7) 31.7
(−0.2) 38.3
(3.5) 48.1
(8.9) 57.9
(14.4) 67.7
(19.8) 73.4
(23.0) 72.1
(22.3) 64.9
(18.3) 54.0
(12.2) 44.7
(7.1) 34.7
(1.5) 51.5
(10.8) Average low °F (°C) 22.2
(−5.4) 24.7
(−4.1) 31.1
(−0.5) 40.6
(4.8) 49.9
(9.9) 59.5
(15.3) 65.4
(18.6) 64.6
(18.1) 57.4
(14.1) 46.5
(8.1) 38.0
(3.3) 28.2
(−2.1) 44.1
(6.7) Mean minimum °F (°C) 4.1
(−15.5) 8.5
(−13.1) 14.7
(−9.6) 30.7
(−0.7) 40.8
(4.9) 49.6
(9.8) 57.3
(14.1) 55.4
(13.0) 45.8
(7.7) 34.9
(1.6) 24.2
(−4.3) 11.1
(−11.6) 2.3
(−16.5) Record low °F (°C) −13
(−25) −18
(−28) −8
(−22) 11
(−12) 31
(−1) 41
(5) 50
(10) 46
(8) 34
(1) 25
(−4) −2
(−19) −17
(−27) −18
(−28) Average precipitation inches (mm) 3.36
(85) 3.25
(83) 4.32
(110) 3.74
(95) 3.49
(89) 3.68
(93) 3.43
(87) 3.35
(85) 3.44
(87) 3.94
(100) 3.99
(101) 3.78
(96) 43.77
(1,112) Average snowfall inches (cm) 12.9
(33) 10.9
(28) 7.8
(20) 1.9
(4.8) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) — 1.3
(3.3) 9.0
(23) 43.8
(111) Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 11.3 9.8 11.6 11.2 12.0 10.9 9.6 9.4 8.6 9.4 10.6 11.6 126.0 Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 6.7 5.3 4.2 0.7 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 0.8 4.6 22.4 Average relative humidity (%) 62.3 62.0 63.1 63.0 66.7 68.5 68.4 70.8 71.8 68.5 67.5 65.4 66.5 Mean monthly sunshine hours 163.4 168.4 213.7 227.2 267.3 286.5 300.9 277.3 237.1 206.3 143.2 142.3 2,633.6 Percent possible sunshine 56 57 58 57 59 63 65 64 63 60 49 50 59 Source: NOAA (relative humidity and sun 1961−1990)[41][42][43]
Climate data for Providence, Rhode Island (T. F. Green Airport), 1981–2010 normals,[e] extremes 1904–present[f] Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 69
(21) 72
(22) 90
(32) 98
(37) 96
(36) 98
(37) 102
(39) 104
(40) 100
(38) 88
(31) 81
(27) 77
(25) 104
(40) Mean maximum °F (°C) 57.2
(14.0) 58.3
(14.6) 68.4
(20.2) 80.3
(26.8) 86.2
(30.1) 91.3
(32.9) 94.5
(34.7) 92.3
(33.5) 87.0
(30.6) 78.1
(25.6) 70.0
(21.1) 60.8
(16.0) 96.2
(35.7) Average high °F (°C) 37.4
(3.0) 40.3
(4.6) 47.8
(8.8) 58.6
(14.8) 68.4
(20.2) 77.5
(25.3) 82.8
(28.2) 81.4
(27.4) 74.2
(23.4) 63.3
(17.4) 53.2
(11.8) 42.3
(5.7) 60.6
(15.9) Average low °F (°C) 21.0
(−6.1) 23.6
(−4.7) 30.0
(−1.1) 39.6
(4.2) 48.6
(9.2) 58.4
(14.7) 64.2
(17.9) 63.2
(17.3) 55.3
(12.9) 43.9
(6.6) 35.7
(2.1) 26.3
(−3.2) 42.5
(5.8) Mean minimum °F (°C) 2.9
(−16.2) 7.7
(−13.5) 14.7
(−9.6) 28.8
(−1.8) 36.9
(2.7) 47.1
(8.4) 55.0
(12.8) 52.4
(11.3) 42.2
(5.7) 31.2
(−0.4) 21.7
(−5.7) 10.4
(−12.0) 0.9
(−17.3) Record low °F (°C) −13
(−25) −17
(−27) 1
(−17) 11
(−12) 29
(−2) 39
(4) 48
(9) 40
(4) 32
(0) 20
(−7) 6
(−14) −12
(−24) −17
(−27) Average precipitation inches (mm) 3.86
(98) 3.29
(84) 5.01
(127) 4.36
(111) 3.55
(90) 3.64
(92) 3.29
(84) 3.60
(91) 3.92
(100) 3.93
(100) 4.51
(115) 4.22
(107) 47.18
(1,198) Average snowfall inches (cm) 9.0
(23) 8.5
(22) 5.5
(14) 0.6
(1.5) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 0
(0) 1.5
(3.8) 8.7
(22) 33.8
(86) Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 10.9 9.7 11.9 11.3 12.0 10.9 9.4 9.0 8.7 9.4 10.1 11.6 124.9 Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 5.7 4.6 3.5 0.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.6 3.9 18.7 Average relative humidity (%) 63.9 63.0 62.9 61.4 66.6 70.1 71.0 72.5 73.0 70.2 68.9 67.0 67.5 Mean monthly sunshine hours 171.7 172.6 215.6 225.1 254.9 274.1 290.6 262.8 233.0 208.7 148.0 148.6 2,605.7 Percent possible sunshine 58 58 58 56 57 60 63 61 62 61 50 52 58 Source: NOAA (relative humidity and sun 1961–1990),[45][46][47]
See also [ edit ]
Greater Boston League, a high school athletic conference in Massachusetts
Notes [ edit ]
^ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010. ^ Official records for Concord were kept at downtown from September 1868 to April 1941 and at Concord Municipal Airport since May 1941; snow records date from December 1942. For more information, see ThreadEx ^ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010. ^ [40] Official records for Boston were kept at downtown from January 1872 to December 1935, and at Logan Airport (KBOS) since January 1936. ^ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010. ^ [44] Official records for Providence kept at downtown from November 1904 to May 1932 and at T. F. Green Airport since June 1932.
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Even Bloomberg had to wait.
“What is this — the 1800s?” “I better get an iPad mini at the end!” “This is the line for gas, right?”
Odds are if you vote in New York City today, you’ll hear some variation of these jokes. To be fair, over the last seven days, New Yorkers might have spent more time collectively waiting in line than any week since the Great Depression, and only a sliver of that was by choice. From the Apple store to makeshift bus shuttles to gas stations, the waits have been interminable and endlessly Instagrammed. In fact, the only thing that hasn’t faltered throughout these trying days is people’s unabashed willingness to broadcast their (in a some cases, justified) impatience to the world.
Yes, the lines at the polls are long: There was, as you may have heard, a huge hurricane last week that upended the organization of many polling stations and required some last-minute improvisation. Even without a natural disaster days before the main event, we live in a city of 8 million people, half of whom are registered voters — there was always going to be a wait.
One difference this time around is that not-unique anticipation of standing around a high-school gym before filling in a few bubbles can be documented exhaustively by the millions of people plugged into to an array of linked social media profiles. Just in case you thought you and your neighborhood were alone in your frustration:
Incredibly long voting lines in Brooklyn this morning: instagr.am/p/RschaKi3CG/ — Adam Henry (@viewofadam) November 6, 2012
That was the longest line I've ever waited in for anything. #vote — Dustin Blanchard (@dblanchard) November 6, 2012
Voting line in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Bkln, took ~3 hours but scanning was fast & unproblematic. cc @nytmetro — Stephanie Clifford (@stephcliff) November 6, 2012
District 16 line here moving at a crawl while others moving fast. People angry, only one set of voting books sent. #chelsea #nyc — Patrick LaForge (@palafo) November 6, 2012
Voting at PS 234 in NYC taking hours. People giving up on line. I know NY doesn't matter but hang in there people! — Campbell Brown (@campbell_brown) November 6, 2012
NYC voting. Line down an entire avenue and up a block. #elections twitter.com/DougJossem/sta… — Doug Jossem (@DougJossem) November 6, 2012
The poll workers in NYC's 35th district are abysmal. Line around the block and no one in voting booths. Mass confusion. — jennifer long (@jennifer_k_long) November 6, 2012
Overheard while on line to vote in a no drama NYC site: I feel like I'm voting in Afghanistan" Ugh yfrog.com/hwzssucj yfrog.com/h36czhej — Sandra Guzman (@SandrasEpigram) November 6, 2012
Now, there are plenty of patriotic individuals standing around with a smile, fully aware of the fact that exercising their right to vote is a wonderful privilege, that there are people still suffering and in line because they have to be, and that texting your friends while standing beats being at work.
To everyone else, relax — it’s almost over. And civic duty aside, at least at the end of the voting line, you don’t have to spend any money.Alberto Contador has said that he would ban the use of power meters in races in order to provide for more aggressive racing. In a wide-ranging interview with Marca, the recently-retired Spaniard also revisited and reiterated his call for a salary cap to be introduced in professional cycling. Related Articles Contador to ride Japan Cup Criterium - News Shorts
Contador: Being stripped of 2010 Tour and 2011 Giro was a 'tremendous injustice'
Mollema: It's a pity for cycling that Contador retires
Alberto Contador: The real star of the Vuelta
Although Contador will line up at the Japan Cup and a criterium in Shanghai later this month, he effectively signed off on his professional career with stage victory atop the Angliru on the final weekend of the Vuelta a España, where he finished fourth overall in Madrid.
Contador was one of the principal animators of the Vuelta, but throughout the three weeks winner Chris Froome's imposing Team Sky squad succeeded in tempering the aggression of most of his rivals, as they did for much of July's Tour de France. Contador maintained that riders were dissuaded from attacking by the information emanating from their power meters.
"The earpiece restricts invention less than the power meter, which I'd eliminate from use competition," Contador told Marca.
"If you're going up a climb and you know that you can't go over 400 Watts and Sky are at the front of the peloton going at 400 Watts, you don't dare to attack because you'll blow up inside two kilometres. But if you don't see the numbers, your sensations might lead you to attack. Riders block themselves when they see the numbers, especially on gradients of six or seven per cent."
During a rest day press conference at the Vuelta, Contador said that he believed cycling should introduce a salary cap for fear the rising costs of running a top-level team would dissuade sponsors from entering the sport. Speaking to Marca, he also pointed out that big-budget teams could dominate certain races.
"If a team has four times the budgets of others, it will have a lot of riders who could be leader on other teams. With teams like that, the race gets blocked and doesn't break up," Contador said.
More on this story:
Contador's initial comments on the salary cap were met with scepticism by his old teammate Lance Armstrong. "Pfft.. Easy to say in his final press conference," Armstrong wrote on Twitter.
Contador insisted that his impending retirement and his calls for a salary cap were not linked.
"It has nothing to do with it," he said. "The wage limit can be high, but not stratospheric. A leader can have a high salary, and then you can make a good and competitive team around him, and balance things much more in the races, like they're doing now by having eight riders [instead of nine – ed.] in the Grand Tours."
Although Contador's attack on the road to Fuente Dé in 2012, which netted him Vuelta victory on his return from his doping ban, is often viewed as the stand-out performance of his career, the Spaniard said that he had gleaned equal pleasure from ultimately unsuccessful raids, such as his long-range attack on the Alpe d'Huez stage of the 2011 Tour, or his attack on the final stage of this year's Paris-Nice.
"It [Fuente Dé] was beautiful because it had a very big prize, the stage and the overall, but there have also been similar attacks that did not have the same end, yet I enjoyed them as much as that, and so did the public," Contador said.
"There was the attack on the Télégraphe, five kilometres into a stage with another 100 kilometres to go [in 2011 – ed.] or the attack from distance this year on the Croix de Fer [on stage 17 of the Tour – ed.], or even when everyone expected me to attack, like at Paris-Nice. They may have not have had a finish like Fuente Dé, but for me they were just as satisfying."Atlas Copco, a provider of various productivity solutions, today said it has expanded its existing facility here by opening a new manufacturing unit.
The company, in a statement, said it invested Rs 80 crore in the expansion of the factory, doubling the capacity of the existing plant at Cherlapally here.
Atlas Copco is a manufacturer of mining equipment, compressors, construction equipment and industrial tools.
The new unit includes a world-class research and development test centre for the company's rock drilling products, which would help its Indian customers increase their productivity, the statement said.
The expansion at the plant, which already employs over 200 people, will generate about 35 additional jobs, it added.
In the coming months, the Hyderabad plant is scheduled to introduce new products. These include rotary products for oil and gas applications, drilling consumables for surface mining applications and for innovative deep hole drilling machines to cater to Indian and African markets.
Atlas Copco's Business Area President Mining and Rock Excavation Technique Helena Hedblom said the new unit will help strengthen the company s customer delivery process.
"It will ensure development of competitive products at a faster pace. This is also in line with our continued focus on the government's `Make in India' initiative," he said.
As part of its strong focus on India, Atlas Copco, in 2013, invested Rs 100 crore in its compressor plant at Chakan in Pune, the statement added.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)There’s a new mix of power and excitement in the Blues team for Thursday’s opening match of the Investec Super Rugby competition against the Rebels in Melbourne.
The front five, with only 19 Blues caps between them, have impressed in their pre-season win against the Chiefs last week. While they may have a handful of Blues appearances, two of them are proven performers with prop Pauliasi Manu and new captain Jimmy Tupou boasting 91 Super Rugby appearances between them.
Manu, who returns to the Blues after four years at the Chiefs, anchors a scrum with North Harbour prop Sione Mafileo and Northland captain Matt Moulds, who gets a start after an apprenticeship behind All Blacks Keven Mealamu and James Parsons.
Tupou, with 37 appearances for the Crusaders, takes over the reins as captain in his first outing for the Blues, with co-captains Parsons and Jerome Kaino not considered for selection this week.
The front five started well against the Chiefs, with coach Tana Umaga looking for a go-forward platform from his pack to provide a foundation for a young backline.
Tupou’s co-captain at Counties-Manukau, Augustine Pulu, also makes his Blues debut after 51 caps for the Chiefs and playing for the All Blacks Sevens side last year.
Ihaia West, Piers Francis, Melani Nanai and Matt Duffie were backline regulars last year, while young All Black Rieko Ioane starts at his preferred spot as centre, with Otago’s Michael Collins, another to impress in pre-season, making his Super Rugby debut at fullback.
There are three All Blacks in the Blues’ reserves in Charlie Faumuina, George Moala and the explosive Rene Ranger, back after a long-term ACL injury last year.
Players not considered for selection include Parsons, Kaino, Patrick Tuipulotu, Billy Guyton, Declan O’Connell, Stephen Perofeta and Sonny Bill Williams.
The team is:
Pauliasi Manu, Matt Moulds, Sione Mafileo, Jimmy Tupou, Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, Steven Luatua, Blake Gibson, Akira Ioane; Augustine Pulu, Ihaia West, Melani Nanai, Piers Francis, Rieko Ioane, Matt Duffie, Michael Collins.
Reserves: Hame Faiva, Sam Prattley, Charlie Faumuina, Scott Scrafton, Murphy Taramai, Sam Nock, George Moala, Rene Ranger.It's October – which means this month we're headed back into the Upside Down, for another dose of Stranger Things. Season 2 of the hit Netflix sci-fi show arrives on 27 October – and in the new issue of Empire, on sale Thursday, we have eight pages of coverage direct from Hawkins, Indiana. Among our exclusives: the below never-before-seen image of Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), visiting her son Will (Noah Schnapp) in hospital. They're joined by new character Bob Newby, played by bona fide Goonie Sean Astin. Take a look – and click |
, picked her up and drove her to his family home in rural George County to commit the murder. Vallum told the Sun Herald he hit Williamson with a stun gun, stabbed her repeatedly and beat her over the head with a claw hammer until she died. He buried her under some debris on the property.
In an exclusive jailhouse interview, Vallum said he didn’t know Williamson was a transgender girl, but friends and family of the teen saw them together and said Vallum knew Williamson’s gender identity. In addition, they said, Williamson had openly discussed her fear of being killed if the Latin Kings found out about her relationship with Vallum.Evangelistsa Reader
Join Date: 18 Aug 2013 Posts: 33 Threads: 0 Thanked 40 Times in 20 Posts
Re: A little collage of Sandy Hook victim Joey Gay
The body language of these two allegedly grieving parents is extremely unusual. I think that just this one photo alone tells us what an awful lie this story really is - a grand hoax.
"He’s sitting on the couch next to Michele in their new living room, with its handsome mantel and fireplace. There are floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and the couple notes that they’ve been able to put books in the lowest shelves for the first time in years. Their Newtown home had been “Joey-proofed.”
FROM HERE -
Elegy without end for a wordless child
Ten weeks after the Newtown massacre claimed Joey, their 7-year-old joy, a local couple reflects on loss and the power of faith. If there really are other children why would they not appear in a photo of the Gay parents (made for publication)? If this happened to you would you be sitting all alone on a couch in your home without your'surviving' children present? The lack of an appearance of their other children at a time of such awful tragedy is bizarre - right?The body language of these two allegedly grieving parents is extremely unusual. I think that just this one photo alone tells us what an awful lie this story really is - a grand hoax."He’s sitting on the couch next to Michele in their new living room, with its handsome mantel and fireplace. There are floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and the couple notes that they’ve been able to put books in the lowest shelves for the first time in years. Their Newtown home had been “Joey-proofed.”FROM HERE - http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2013...IiK/story.htmlHumans are social animals, and feelings of attachment, connection and empathy are the glue that binds societies together. Before an infant’s immune system is fully operational, before a baby can even use its hands, it recognizes its parents’ voices, responds uniquely to human faces and even, incredibly, smiles back.
Yet, some people, often as the result of traumatic experiences or neglect, don’t experience these fundamental social feelings normally. Could a machine teach them these quintessentially human responses? A thought-provoking Brazilian study recently published in PLoS One suggests it could.
Researchers at the D’Or Institute for Research and Education outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, performed functional MRI scans on healthy young adults while asking them to focus on past experience that epitomized feelings of non-sexual affection or pride of accomplishment. They set up a basic form of artificial intelligence to categorize, in real time, the fMRI readings as affection, pride or neither. They then showed the experiment group a graphic form of biofeedback to tell them whether their brain results were fully manifesting that feeling; the control group saw the meaningless graphics.
The results demonstrated that the machine-learning algorithms were able to detect complex emotions that stem from neurons in various parts of the cortex and sub-cortex, and the participants were able to hone their feelings based on the feedback, learning on command to light up all of those brain regions.
Jorge Moll, the lead researcher, told Singularity Hub that the participants weren’t beating the system by faking feelings, because that would lead to its own fMRI pattern. They were learning to feel a particular emotion more completely.
Moll tried the system out as the researchers were setting the experiment up and told us what it was like.
“One can clearly ‘grasp’ the feeling and its effect on the feedback at some point. I used a personal memory involving my little kids, and found that it worked best if I focused on the hugging act; that gave me the best stability of the feeling state and the best response from the visual feedback,” he said.
Here we must pause to note that the experiment’s artificial intelligence system’s likeness to the “empathy box” in “Blade Runner” and the Philip K. Dick story on which it’s based did not escape the researchers. Yes, the system could potentially be used to subject a person’s inner feelings to interrogation by intrusive government bodies, which is really about as creepy as it gets. It could, to cite that other dystopian science fiction blockbuster, “Minority Report,” identify criminal tendencies and condemn people even before they commit crimes.
But its most immediate application would be as a therapeutic aid to help people with personality disorders and other hard-to-treat mental health problems. By themselves, brain scans cannot diagnose mental illness. But in the hands of a mental health provider, if the system found a lack of empathy — popularly considered the hallmark of a sociopath — it could identify people in need of help before the criminal justice system does. Learning to recognize and control feelings could also help addicts of all stripes.
That’s the use case the researchers envision.
“I see it first being further developed for simpler application — such as for increasing well-being, personal growth and for improving interpersonal relationships/attitudes in non-clinical populations — and then being tested and adapted for clinical settings,” Moll said.
The Brazilian approach is not the first to attempt to identify human emotions with computer intelligence. Singularity Hub has reported on visual algorithms that detect simpler emotions, such as disgust, fear and joy, based on facial expression. Those also came out of work to coach people who struggle to understand and respond to otherwise universal emotional communiqués — specifically, children with autism. The algorithms eventually also became a tool in the ad man’s arsenal. A voice-based emotion detection system informs some customer service departments.
The new study closes the loop, teaching machines how to identify human emotions from an fMRI and, in turn, having them teach the humans to control their own emotional responses. Whether that will lead to “Blade Runner” or timely help for the Elliot Rodgers of the world will depend on the social and legal norms societies set up in the meantime.
Photos: D’Or Institute for Research and Education, National Institutes of HealthMonterosso and Vernazza were the first two villages which sprang up in the 11th century among the set of five in present times connected by narrow cliffside natural trails which are collectively known as Cinque Terre literally meaning five towns lying across the Ligurian Riviera which wasn’t connected externally till recently by vehicular road and were dependent on only mules & water at first and through railways at a later stage of its development. The other three human settlements (Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore) shaped themselves during the military and political supremacy of the Republic of Genoa which are also responsible for the development of Corsica from around 1300 to 1700. The attacks of the Turks in the 16th century forced the local population to reinforce their old forts and built new defence towers which subsequently also led to the decline of the settlement on a comparative scale till the 19th century when railways connected it with other parts of the region which allowed people to escape the isolation of their region
on one hand leading eventually towards
the abandonment of the local traditional activities in some healthy manner on the other.fk
Joined: 12 Jul 2014
Posts: 6
Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 3:12 pm Post subject: NFSHS widescreen aspect ratio fix
Download
https://bitbucket.org/fk/porsche-graphics-hacks/downloads/nfshs-widescreen-1.0.zip
All source code can be found at
Installation
use the 3D Setup utility to pick your 3D renderer of choice (though for High Stakes, I recommend voodoo2 + nGlide even more strongly than for NFSPU)
create a new directory 'Drivers' (the name is important) in your NFSHS installation directory
move the files 'd3da.dll','softtria.dll' and 'voodoo2a.dll' from the root of your NFSHS directory to the new 'Drivers' subdirectory
extract the contents of the archive into your NFSHS installation directory
install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 x86 Redistributable using the included 'vcredist_x86.exe' installer
using the included 'vcredist_x86.exe' installer make sure the game is set to fill your screen, rather than run in 4:3 with black bars at the sides:
with the Direct3D renderer (or the software renderer), this is likely configured in your monitor's menu or your graphics driver settings
for voodoo2 and nGlide, set the screen resolution to 'By desktop' and aspect ratio to 'Fit to screen' in the nGlide configurator
for another Glide wrapper, look for similar settings in its configuration dialog
NOTE that this patch doesn't actually add support for widescreen resolutions to the game itself! It still relies on a later stage in the "bringing it to your screen" process to horizontally stretch the game to fill a widescreen display (this might be your monitor, your graphics driver or a Glide wrapper). Instead, this patch assumes that at some point, the game's 4:3 image is stretched to fill your monitor and pre-emptively compensates for that (the target aspect ratio is determined based on your desktop resolution; this can be overwritten, see the readme). If this horizontal stretching never happens, everything looks silly; that's why there's a step in the installation instructions to make sure that it does!
Also, like with the PU patch, the top and bottom parts of the 3D scene are effectively cut off, i.e. you see less at widescreen aspect ratios than at 4:3. I think it's not a big deal and a reasonable trade-off. I've applied the tricks I already used on NFSPU to High Stakes now, and the result is the game not being horizontally stretched when running at widescreen resolutions:All source code can be found at https://bitbucket.org/fk/porsche-graphics-hacks NOTE that this patch doesn't actually add support for widescreen resolutions to the game itself! It still relies on a later stage in the "bringing it to your screen" process to horizontally stretch the game to fill a widescreen display (this might be your monitor, your graphics driver or a Glide wrapper). Instead, this patchthat at some point, the game's 4:3 image is stretched to fill your monitor and pre-emptively compensates for that (the target aspect ratio is determined based on your desktop resolution; this can be overwritten, see the readme). If this horizontal stretching never happens, everything looks silly; that's why there's a step in the installation instructions to make sure that it does!Also, like with the PU patch, the top and bottom parts of the 3D scene are effectively cut off, i.e. you see less at widescreen aspect ratios than at 4:3. I think it's not a big deal and a reasonable trade-off.The Indian media loves bad news and that is making everyone negative – this is what well-known cricket columnist and commentator Harsha Bhogle thinks.
Harsha had been in news lately after being dropped from the panel of commentators for the ongoing season of IPL. Many in the mainstream media had linked his removal to “rising intolerance” alleging that he was dropped because he was not someone who’d say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.
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Your average celebrity will milk such a situation and play along with the media, trying to be in the thick of such controversial and negative news for as long as possible, but Harsha Bhogle believes otherwise. He believes in being positive and making others feel positive in the process, and wishes the Indian media could also feel that way.
Recounting his visit to Mussoorie on Wednesday for a corporate speaking program, Harsha Bhogle said that he could see “immense positivity” in the corporate India.
“People are planning big things because they believe they can be achieved.” Harsha shared his observations on his Facebook page.
“And yet the media is still telling me how wrong things are. Maybe it is the people they invite; people who need to say things are bad. Maybe they should invite hard working Indians and ask them if they are positive about India,” he further argued.
“I am not asking for a saccharine view of things but a perspective from people who are doing remarkable things too,” Harsha clarified, but reiterated that “Twelve people screaming simultaneously from caged windows isn’t the only picture of India.”
This is not for the first time that Harsha has come up with such observation. In December last year too, in another Facebook post, he had pointed out that many journalists were obsessed with negativity and confrontational approach.
Harsha’s observations are important because a large section of media is indeed hell bent upon portraying an image of India where nothing is going right.
While it’s the duty of media to report and highlight shortcomings of the society and the government, we’ve seen that often they are resorting to half truths or plain lies to push a particular narrative. Our media lies list is where you can find plenty of such examples.
Share This Post and Support:American lives are controlled by the thuggishly mediocre. The best measure of their control is this: when called out on their mediocre thuggery, they can comfortably double down.
Ahmed Mohamed, a bright and curious ninth-grader in Irving, Texas, learned that to his regret this week.
Ahmed made a clock. He likes to make thing and repair things and tinker with things, apparently. Last weekend he built a digital clock out of a circuit board and a power display and a digital display. There is, I suppose, a chance that I could do that without electrocuting myself, but I wouldn't bet on it.
In his head, Ahmed lives in an idealized world he learned about in robotics club: a world where individuality and curiosity and initiative are appreciated. Or at least he did. But this week he found out that he actually lives in a different world, a grim real world controlled by school administrators and cops who are deeply suspicious of individuality, if not openly hostile. Ahmed lives in a world where children's lives are limited by the stupid, ineffectual fear of the petty and the ignorant. He lives in a world where school administrators strip-search thirteen-year-old girls to look for ibuprofin and suspend eight-year-olds for making pretend finger-guns while playing cops and robbers. He lives in a world where police arrest seven-year-olds for bringing a nerf gun to class and perp-walk twelve-year-olds in front of their peers for writing "I love my friends" on a desk with a marker.
In that world, Ahmed's clever clock didn't earn him admiration. It earned him a trip to the principal's office, a contemptuous and skeptical interrogation by an officer of the Irving Police Department, a suspension, and a trip in handcuffs to a juvenile detention center — because a circuit board with a time display must be a bomb, or at least intended to look like a bomb.
Actually nobody thought the clock was a bomb. The school didn't think it was a bomb. The police admitted they never thought it was a bomb. The police admitted Ahmed never suggested it was a bomb, or that he meant for anyone to think it was anything but a clock. But grown-ups detained, interrogated, arrested, and handcuffed Ahmed because they couldn't conceive of why a kid would build his own clock:
“We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.” Asked what broader explanation the boy could have given, the spokesman explained: “It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”
Did the putative adults pestering Ahmed do it because his name is Ahmed Mohamed and he's brown? Maybe. “Yup. That’s who I thought it was,” said one officer mysteriously upon seeing him. But on the other hand, this is the era of zero tolerance and of institutionalized paranoia and of petty little people using fear to hold on to power. This is what our kids' lives are like, and we've decided to accept it. Schools are safer now than before, but we've decided to feed on the fear the media feeds us and accept that they are more dangerous, justifying harsher treatment of kids. Kids are safer than ever, but we've consented to being constantly terrified about various menaces to them. Cops are safer, but we've decided to accept their narrative that they are the targets of an unprecedented war, and hand them the power they say they need.
My mother was a school administrator, and there are many decent and concerned school administrators. But to be blunt, school administrators were generally not the kid who built his or her own clock at 14. (Cops were generally the kid who beat up the kid who built the clock.) There are two ways for school administrators to deal with the unfamiliar, the unknown, the different: they can try to learn about it, and even nurture it, or they can react to it with fear and suspicion. We've told school administrators and police "we choose fear, and we want you to choose fear too."
Cops and school administrators are utterly confident in our support when they abuse someone like Ahmed. You can see it in the response of principal Dan Cummings:
I recommend using this opportunity to talk with your child about the Student Code of Conduct and specifically not bringing items to school that are prohibited. Also, this is a good time to remind your child how important it is to immediately report any suspicious items and/or suspicious behavior they observe to any school employee so we can address it right away. We will always take necessary precautions to protect our students.
In other words, faced with a freakish overreaction by the school, and the suspension and detention of a student for building a clock that nobody ever thought was dangerous, the school's response is to remind students that some items are prohibited (even though nobody says the clock was), and to exhort students to report "suspicious" items and behavior. In response to a public saying "you're paranoid," the school's response is "you're goddamn right I am, and you should be too."
When I was a kid, schools and cops generally didn't do anything about bullying. Now they profess to be very concerned about it, and there are elaborate programs in place that purport to combat it. But educators and cops either don't grasp, or don't care, that their culture of fear encourages bullying. Detaining and humiliating a geeky kid who built a clock, and following up with a self-justifying "if you see something, say something" warning, sends an unmistakable message: different is suspicious. That's a bully's attitude, too.
We're expected to give cops and administrators the benefit of the doubt. I don't: I think they are like any other human beings. There are some good and some bad. Some care, and some are doing what they do to increase their own power. But even the well-intentioned who participate in a culture of fear are blameworthy. To them, I say this: you say you're trying to protect our children. But instead you've devoted your career to making the world a worse place for them.
Last 5 posts by Ken WhiteRepublican Rep. Joe Walsh and Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth used the final face-to-face meeting of their campaign Thursday night to stress differences over the future of Medicare, a program she said should be a “guarantee” but one he said “would end as we know it” unless reformed.
Meeting for a half-hour on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight,” the two candidates in the 8th Congressional District displayed a vastly more civil attitude to each other than during their previous get together this month.
Still, the hopefuls also had several combative moments, particularly over entitlements and abortion rights.
Duckworth and Walsh are vying Nov. 6 to represent parts of the northwest and west suburbs in one of the most closely-watched and bitter campaigns in the nation.
Walsh, the tea party icon known for controversial statements, said his election to Congress in 2010 was part of an effort “to help educate the American people” about the excesses of government under Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration.
Duckworth defended herself against Walsh’s prior criticism that she had used her military service for political purposes. “I am proud of my military service,” said Duckworth, who lost both legs in an Iraq War helicopter crash. “It is part of who I am.”
But the centerpiece of the discussion involved the future of Medicare and Walsh’s support for a House Republican-backed budget plan authored by the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville, Wis.
The Ryan budget plan would leave the government-funded health care plan for the elderly in place for those age 55 and older, but offer those 54 and under a choice of the current system or a federal subsidy to purchase health care coverage.
Walsh lashed out at Duckworth’s support for Obama’s signature health-care overhaul and contended it would cut $716 billion from Medicare, money trimmed from anticipated growth in the program.
But Duckworth quickly noted that the House GOP budget backed by Walsh also would eliminate $716 billion from the program.
“Mitt Romney proposes to keep those funds in Medicare,” Walsh responded. The answer emphasized the contrast between the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee’s spending plan and that of the presidential candidate.
Duckworth repeatedly accused Walsh of wanting to “put seniors out on the streets with a voucher” for health care.
The House GOP budget plan, she said, “would end Medicare as we know it.” But Walsh responded, “If we don’t end it as it is, it’s going to end as we know it all by itself.”
The two candidates also clashed on abortion rights.
Walsh said he was against abortion “without exception,” including rape, incest and in cases in which the life or health of the mother was in jeopardy.
Asked by reporters after the debate if he was saying that it’s never medically necessary to conduct an abortion to save the life of a mother, Walsh responded, “Absolutely.”
“With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance,” he said. “... There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.”
Walsh is running on his record and outlined his philosophy by saying he “generally tried to make a rule when I went to Washington that I was going to try to cut government spending wherever I could.”
Yet the one-term congressman also acknowledged voting for millions of dollars in government funding to sponsor NASCAR stock cars, saying he felt it was a valuable recruitment tool for the military.
With only weeks remaining in the contentious campaign, both candidates were asked at the outset to say something they respected about the other.
Duckworth said she believed Walsh “loves this country” and said that attitude, properly applied, could “go a long way” in serving the people of the district.
Walsh said Duckworth’s “sense of duty” in moving forward from her war injuries to run for Congress was “incredibly noble.”
Tribune reporter Bob Secter contributed.
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deldeib@tribune.comImage caption GPs say they have seen a big increase in patients seeking letters of support for benefit claim appeals
UK welfare reforms are having a significant impact on GP practices in Scotland, according to the body representing Scottish doctors.
BMA Scotland said GPs were being "flooded with additional avoidable work" as patients seek support regarding benefit payment appeals.
It has labelled the UK government's approach "flawed" and called for changes to the system.
A group of Glasgow doctors has urged GPs to refuse to write support letters.
BMA Scotland said changes to the way benefits are decided and paid are resulting in more patients going to their GPs seeking letters of support to back up their appeals.
Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of the BMA's Scottish General Practitioners Committee, said: "The UK government's flawed approach to benefits reform and changes to the Work Capability Assessment are flooding GP practices across Scotland with additional avoidable work.
"GPs have been dragged into this process because of badly thought out policy and poorly designed systems which are impacting on general practice and having a serious effect on our patients and our relationship with our patients.
We are not in a position to administer nor to police the benefits system Glasgow Local Medical Committee
"We have been calling for some time for the UK government to make changes to the system so that the necessary information is sought at the initial assessment stage to avoid patients having to appeal inappropriate decisions."
Dr John Ip, secretary of the Glasgow local medical committee and a GP in Paisley, said he used to be asked to write one or two such letters a week for patients, but over the last year this had increased to one or two a day.
The committee has advised GPs not to respond to these sort of requests.
It said: "We are not in a position to administer nor to police the benefits system.
"GPs are not resourced to provide this service. Time taken up with paperwork is time taken away from direct patient care.
"There are contractual and agreed methods for GPs to provide medical information to the Department for Work and Pensions."
'Informed decision'
The Department for Work and Pensions said additional evidence from GPs was not a requirement for an appeal.
A spokeswoman added: "Having the relevant medical evidence when someone applies for Employment and Support Allowance is vital to ensuring we are able to reach an informed decision on someone's capacity for work.
"If the DWP requires further medical evidence it will be requested by a healthcare professional working for Atos Healthcare, which GPs are required to complete as part of their terms of service.
"If a claimant appeals their ESA decision at an independent tribunal they can submit any extra evidence which they feel may help their appeal. But it is important to note that this is not a DWP requirement."Joey Covington, Jefferson Airplane Drummer, Dead at 67
Joey Covington, who replaced Spencer Dryden as Jefferson Airplane’s drummer in 1970 and wrote and sang the band’s final hit single, “Pretty As You Feel,” was killed in an automobile accident in Palm Springs, Calif., on Tuesday. Covington, 67, was driving alone at the time and died instantly when his car veered off the road and struck a retaining wall head-on. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, according to his longtime partner, singer-songwriter Lauren Taines.
Born Joseph Michno in Johnstown, Pa., in 1945, Covington taught himself to play drums and moved to Los Angeles in 1967. The following year he met Airplane singer Marty Balin, and two years later Covington was invited to audition for the band. He became a member of the Airplane’s inner circle but was not immediately asked to join their ranks. In the meantime, he began jamming with Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady informally, a side project that would soon develop into the nascent Hot Tuna. Covington was invited to play percussion on the Airplane’s 1969 Volunteers album and, the following year, when Dryden was booted from the band, he became the Airplane’s newest recruit, bringing a harder thrust to the music, which was becoming increasingly electrified and jam-centric.
For some time Covington worked with both Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane. He ultimately left Tuna and is featured prominently on the Airplane’s 1971 Bark album, both as drummer throughout the recording and as author and vocalist on “Pretty As You Feel,’ a song that evolved out of a jam that also included Carlos Santana and drummer Michael Shrieve. The single reached number 60 in Billboard, the last Jefferson Airplane single to chart. Covington also contributed “Thunk,” a freewheeling, a cappella Frank Zappa-esque oddity, to Bark.
Bark is also notable in that it includes the violin work of “Papa” John Creach, an African-American who was already 50 when Covington met him in 1967. Covington introduced Creach to the Airplane, who inducted him into the band in the fall of 1970. Creach remained with the Airplane until the band’s 1972 demise and subsequently played in both Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship, which morphed out of the Airplane.
Covington was let go from the Airplane in April 1972, six months before the band’s dissolution, replaced by the group’s fifth and final drummer, John Barbata. Covington remained part of the Airplane family, however, recording an album, Joe E. Covington’s Fat Fandango, which he released on the band’s Grunt label in 1973. Covington’s involvement with the members of his former group dwindled in subsequent years. In 1976, he co-wrote the hit single “With Your Love” for Jefferson Starship, but he increasingly spent the bulk of his performing time in various configurations of musicians bearing names such as the San Francisco All-Stars. He gigged regularly until the end of his life, primarily in Southern California.Alcohol consumption was the cause of nearly one in 10 deaths among U.S. adults from 2006 to 2010, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These numbers confirm that alcohol continues to be a leading cause of premature death across the nation.
The CDC found that over half of all alcohol-related deaths were due to excessive consumption, or binge-drinking. The majority, 69 percent, of these deaths occurred among adults between the ages of 20 and 64. Men accounted for 71 percent of total deaths, while children under the age of 21 accounted for only five percent.
The percentage of deaths attributable to excessive alcohol consumption varied state by state, a fact the CDC suggests reflects differences in the pricing and availability of alcohol, as well as access to medical care. In light of the results of this report, the CDC is calling on policymakers for a “more widespread implementation of interventions recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force.” These recommendations include raising the price of alcoholic beverages by increasing taxes, increased liability for commercial retailers and placing regulatory limits on the alcohol outlet density.President Mohamed Morsi has defied Egypt's top court and its powerful military council by ordering the country's dissolved parliament back to work.
Morsi issued a decree on Sunday withdrawing the decision of Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) last month to dissolve parliament, which came after the Supreme Constitutional Court found that the legislature had been elected using an unconstitutional method.
The decree states that Morsi decided to restore the elected People's Assembly, which was voted into office over three months beginning in November, and reconvene it in session to begin issuing legislation again.
The Muslim Brotherhood's political party won nearly half of the assembly and Morsi, though stepped down from a leadership position in the Brotherhood, is still a member.
The decree appears to be an attempt by Morsi to bring parliament back without directly contradicting the supreme court.
Rather than address the court's decision, which stated that parliament should be dissolved, Morsi cancelled the subsequent move by the SCAF, at the time the acting executive power, to implement the court's decision.
Military-Brotherhood rivalry
For the past month, the Brotherhood has argued that the court's decision was wrong and the SCAF had no legal right to dissolve parliament.
It was unclear on Sunday night whether Morsi had consulted with the military or other political powers before issuing his decree.
High-ranking Brotherhood members said they had not been personally consulted, the SCAF convened an "emergency meeting" to discuss it, and the court said it too would meet on Monday to evaluate the decree.
In a possible nod to the court, Morsi's decree also called for new parliamentary elections to be held within 60 days of the adoption of a new constitution for the country, which is tentatively expected late this year.
A constitutional assembly selected by the erstwhile parliament has been formed and has begun the work of drafting the constitution.
The Brotherhood's parliamentary victory alarmed many secularists, liberals and members of the Christian minority, who seemed to be generally pleased when the parliament was dissolved. Some prominent secular politicians, including Mohamed ElBaradei, criticised Morsi's decision on Sunday.
Egypt's top court handed down the controversial decision to dissolve parliament a day before the second round of the presidential election, which pitted Morsi against former regime official Ahmed Shafiq.
The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for political parties to have contested the one-third of parliamentary seats reserved for candidates running as individuals.
The ruling prompted allegations that the court was acting as an arm of the military council, which has sought to constrain the powers of the rising Muslim Brotherhood.
Those allegations grew when, two days after the ruling and minutes after polls closed in the presidential voting, the SCAF issued a unilateral package of constitutional amendments limiting presidential powers and giving itself the role of the dissolved parliament.
Morsi's decree did not state whether SCAF would lose those self-prescribed legislative abilities once the dissolved parliament returns to work.
Unanswered questions
Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said it remained unclear whether Morsi was challenging the generals or had worked out an agreement with them beforehand.
"It is a very interesting move because there are questions as to what exactly the decree means... is this a true act of defiance on part of the new president against the generals, or was this a decision that was taken after consultation, and in co-ordination with, these generals," she said.
"It is very difficult to tell at this moment how this decision came about given all the legal complexities involved."
The Brotherhood has argued that the SCAF had no right to dissolve the parliament "and therefore this seems to be an administrative correction of what they believe was a previous erroneous administrative decision," Rageh said.
The Brotherhood said parliament's dissolution should be put to a popular referendum.
Under Egypt's interim constitution, approved by referendum after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak, no institution is given authority to dissolve parliament, and no rules are stated governing such a situation.
The president is given the power to call parliament into normal session.A sushi restaurant chain has made a $10,000 donation to avoid legal action for producing false pay records during a Fair Work Ombudsman audit.
The Fair Work Ombudsman said Shinobu Sushi Bar Pty Ltd provided false records during an audit of the outlet at Park Beach Plaza in Coffs Harbour.
Shinobu Sushi Bar provided false records during an audit of the outlet at Park Beach Plaza in Coffs Harbour. Credit:Georgia Willis
Fair Work inspectors visited 40 sushi outlets across northern NSW, Newcastle, the Central Coast, the Gold Coast in Queensland and Canberra to check if workers on student and 417 working holiday visas were being paid correctly.
The Fair Work Ombudsman said Shinobu Sushi Bar, which also had outlets in Adelaide and Rockhampton, admitted it did not keep records and provided false records to inspectors.There were many concerns on the defensive side of the ball for the Buffalo Bills coming into this game. They haven’t been unable to stop offenses in the last few games and, given the type of offense and weapons on the Kansas City Chiefs offense, the game plan needed to be stellar.
Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and his staff didn’t disappoint. They came up with some simple tweaks in the personnel and play calls that allowed the defense to disguise, but to also play fast. The first order of business was to stop the run.
This was going to be a feat in and of itself, given the Chiefs’ penchant for pre-snap shifts, motions, and diverse personnel looks. One of the major issues the Bills had versus the Saints was when they utilized Y-motion. The linebackers struggled to align properly, and were consequently gashed. This game, they were prepared.
The predominant defensive personnel grouping was nickel. That’s why, even though the Chiefs are in 21 personnel on 2nd-and-7, slot CB Leonard Johnson is still in the game. That’s why, prior to the snap, Hughes bumps down a gap so that Johnson isn’t responsible for any of the interior gaps. On the snap, Hughes shoots the inside gap as soon as he reads zone blocking, and he takes away any bounce read by RB Kareem Hunt on the outside zone run. Milano, who is aligned as the Will LB, ‘fires his gun’ and takes away any cutback. Penetration by the linebackers in the run game has been sorely missed, and they didn’t hesitate to shoot gaps this game.
I expect Milano’s snap numbers to be a lot higher vs. #Pats pic.twitter.com/Ifmiac2msb — Cover 1 (@Cover_1_) November 28, 2017
Defensive end Jerry Hughes had one of his best games versus the run this season. He was the Bills’ highest graded run defender, and he finished with three solo tackles, one assisted, and three stops, on top of three QB hurries. The Chiefs are in 21 personnel and they attempt to use motion to get movement from the linebackers, but they end up running a sweep into the boundary. Hughes stabs outside, but then quickly reads the zone blocking scheme and the sweep coming in his direction. So he changes his course, shoots the inside gap of LT Eric Fisher, and blows the play up for a 10-yard loss.
When it came to the run game, LB Preston Brown had the biggest turnaround compared to prior weeks. Here, he reads the zone blocking scheme, then shoots the gap before the center can pick him up. This type of penetration stops a running back before he can even diagnose rushing lanes.
Brown didn’t hesitate to shoot gaps this game. pic.twitter.com/XIsaRaakh5 — Cover 1 (@Cover_1_) November 28, 2017
He was good versus zone blocking and gap runs, as well. Check out how quickly he diagnoses the down blocks and the pull by the guard, leverages the running back, recognizes the entry point for the back, attacks downhill, and meets the back in the hole. It’s another example of him taking away any and all options for a talented back in Kareem Hunt. This is textbook stuff by Brown.
Brown appeared to line up shallow, about 3 yards off the line of scrimmage and diagnosed running back entry points really well vs. the #Chiefs. pic.twitter.com/RndcP9praL — Cover 1 (@Cover_1_) November 28 |
’s something here for everyone.
Pie Controls in GravityBox
Everyone’s favourite Paranoid Android feature is back, available to use in other Android Nougat based ROMs! Swiping in from any side you define, you can access some device information and the back, home and multitasking buttons. No need to enable on screen buttons at all!
Miscellaneous Tweaks in GravityBox
In the other primary section there are a lot of features to play around with. With charging sounds, LED controls, screen recording, smart radio, button backlight volume key controls and a whole lot more, you’ll never be stuck for choice.
You can find the module on our forums, or simply click the button below. As mentioned you’ll need Xposed, but many would deem the hassle of installing Xposed worth it just to get access to GravityBox.Jess Phillips has said the anti-feminist men’s rights group handing out leaflets to Birmingham Yardley voters are “weak” misogynists.
The Society to Establish a Minister for Men’s leaflet is asking voters in Ms Phillips’ constituency whether they really want a “feminist as your MP”.
The poster, which contains a number of quotes from women about feminism, urges people to support the society to “protect your sons… and your grandsons from feminism”.
Ms Phillips has shared images of the poster, which says:
“Ladies, pass this leaflet to a friend who has a male in her life whom she loves – her husband, son, father… Gentleman, do you really want to vote for someone who seriously dislikes you?”
Ms Phillips suggested the group was intimidated by women.
“These are very weak people who are obviously scared of women who speak up,” she told i.
“Perhaps they don’t have anyone who loves them, which I suppose is a pity.”
The politician branded the leaflets “misogyny”.
So this misogyny is being put through doors is Yardley. Lawyer up people So this misogyny is being put through doors is Yardley. Lawyer up people pic.twitter.com/yoPX56KLxO — Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) — Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) June 5, 2017
‘Normal feminist behaviour’
The poster claims that Ms Phillips was “laughing and sniggering” when Conservative candidate Philip Davies spoke about suicide among young men.
“Perhaps they don’t have anyone who loves them, which I suppose is a pity.” Jess Phillips
“Laughing and sniggering at these personal tragedies is a horrendous insult to the parents of young men who have sadly taken their own lives. This shaming of, and disrespect for, young men and boys is normal feminist behaviour. Is this what you want from your MP?” it reads.
The society, chaired by Swayne O’Pie (the author of Why Britain hates men: exposing feminism), also claims that feminism “receives special legal protection to insult men and boys at will”.
Neither of these claims are true and Jess Phillips has said she “really really” does care about men’s mental health.
Mr O’Pie told i : “This is nothing vindictive against Jess Phillips [or] certainly against her being an outspoken women.
“I came up here [Birmingham Yardley]… because I was homeless and a single parent with three sons and we had to live in a church for 12 months. One of my three sons tried… suicide twice and it was that which upset me when she was laughing and sniggering at the fact that Philip Davies wanted to have a committee specifically on male suicide.
“We [the group] are anti-feminist but not anti-women. It’s not at all misogynistic.”7-24V input with reverse polarity protection and power switch
Alternatively, can be powered over USB
Optional external servo power (6-24V)
10A 5V switching regulator
5A 3.3V regulator
Selectable digital pin power (3.3V or 5V)
Fully Integrated Hardware
3-axis accelerometer / 3-axis gyroscope with temperature sensor (LSM330DLC)
2 channel H-bridge motor driver - 5A per motor (MC33932)
LCD port with contrast adjustment (16x2 character LCD included)
Buzzer with software volume control
2 push-buttons and 2 software controlled LEDs
Software Specifications
Program in either C or C++ with wireless programming support over XBee or Bluetooth
Monitoring: battery voltage, motor current (per channel), motor fault detection, USB host over-current fault, servo power voltage
Completely open source libraries with easy to read documentation
Full set of library functions for each aspect of the Aithon board
Libraries written on top of ChibiOS/RT which is a fast, open source, real time operating system
Compared with Arduino We've compared the various features and capabilities with the three main Arduino models: Uno, Mega, and Due. The chart below summarizes this comparison. Comparison Between Aithon and Popular Arduino Boards As shown above, the Aithon board has 2x the clock speed and RAM of even the fastest Arduino (Arduino Due). Also, with Arduino, if you require anything more than direct access to I/O pins, external board or shields are required. The shields required to give the Arduino Due similar capabilities to the Aithon board would cost over twice that of the Aithon board. Even with these shields, many features would be missing. Everything on the Aithon board is fully integrated. Libraries for each part of the board will be standardized and work together flawlessly, without any special configuration necessary. Our Progress
The board design for Aithon started in late 2012 with more features being added consistently over an extensive development period.
Initial Layout Brainstorming
The first prototype of the robotics board was assembled early this year. As is always true with first prototypes, there were many challenges that had to be overcome.
First Prototype - Partially Assembled
Here is what the revision 1 board looks like with more components on it.
Aithon board rev. 1 with screen
We have since made a second revision of the board with countless fixes and improvements. The second revision is what's shown in the video and images at the top of this page. We are waiting for the third revision to arrive from manufacturing.
Recently, members from the Aithon team used the board on a robot which they entered into a local autonomous robotics competition. The video below is of a practice run of this robot.
Accessories
Bluetooth Module - This will be a module based on the Roving Networks RN42 and will plug directly into the Aithon board
Motor Driver - Has two channels of up 1.2A each for controlling two additional DC motors. The motor voltage can be up to 15V. The board has screw terminals for battery voltage and motor outputs as well as three digital inputs per channel (one PWM and two direction pins).
Power Supply - The wall adapter will provide 2A of current at 5V to power the board over USB. We will do our best to provide it in your local plug, but can commit to providing standard US and UK plugs (110-240V).
Why Kickstarter?
The primary use of the funding we get from Kickstarter will be for a production run of Aithon boards. We have included an amount in the budget to allow for a small quantity pre-production run in order to validate the board assembly process with our manufacturer. This pre-production run will begin soon after the Kickstarter has ended.
Once we are completely satisfied that the boards meet our high standards, we will start the process for the production run. This starts with acquiring parts and getting them shipped to the manufacturer where they will be fully manufactured and assembled. Once we receive them back from the manufacturer, we will be loading our custom bootloader onto each board and running a series of quality assurance tests on the boards before packaging and shipping them to backers in September.
The TeamIt's easy to jump on the "down with big soda" train, seeing as more and more evidence links Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and their thousands upon thousands of products with obesity, aggression, and health problems galore. But did you know that back in the day, soda's leading lady, Coca-Cola, was in fact produced, and marketed, as a health tonic?
Because we obviously can't get enough of soda, we took a tripdown memory lane to discover just how America's sugary drink of choice came to be. Coca-Cola, which was first served in 1866, today has more than 40 percent of the market share of sodas. But the drink has a long, twisting road as to how it came to be.
We got a peek at Mark Pendergast's the third edition of the book For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It, that gives an in-depth picture of the cultural and societal factors that made Coca-Cola into what it was. From the "nerve tonic" it was originally sold as to the intoxicating soda it is today, Coca-Cola was eventually crowned the queen of all sodas, even amid the competition. "Coca-Cola is the world's most widely distributed single product, available (legally) in every country in the world except North Korea and Cuba," said Pendergast in a Q&A. "It is the second best-known word on Earth, after 'OK.' In the vast sweep of human history, Coca-Cola has not been around that long, and no one can predict far into the future. But I do not foresee another brand becoming as iconic any time soon." We'd have to agree.
1. Fact #1
Coke is the world’s most widely distributed product, and is sold in more than 200 countries — that’s more countries than there are in the United Nations.
2. Fact #2
When Coca-Cola first appeared on the market in the 1860s, it was marketed "nerve tonic," made to help ease the woes of modern civilization. More and more people were displaying signs of what was called "neurasthenia," or neurotic and psychosomatic symptoms. Coca-Cola would change all that.
3. Fact #3
Coca-Cola, at the time, was said to cure opium and morphine addiction — and even Sigmund Freud was a believer. Freud was excited by Coca-Cola because he said it cured him of periodic depression and gave him a sex drive. That explains a lot.
4. Fact #4
When Coca-Cola came out, coca was being made into tablets, wine, liqueurs, hypodermic injections, and coca-leaf cigarettes.
5. Fact #5
Ever wondered where the "cola" part of the name came from? The kola nut, it turns out. The kola nut, found in Africa, where it had been an integral part of life for centuries, was said to have lots of medicinal effects, and the alkaloid better known as caffeine.
See all 10 facts at The Daily Meal
More from The Daily Meal
Coke Versus Pepsi: Taste-Testing the Brands
Americans Lose Thirst for Coca Cola
Which Country Drinks the Most Coca-Cola
Soda Decline May Signal Healthy ChangeThe Bristol meeting concluded a few hours ago, and I just posted my trip report on isocpp.org:
This afternoon in Bristol, UK, the ISO C++ standards committee adopted generic lambdas, dynamic arrays (an improved version of C99 VLAs), variable templates, reader/writer locks, make_unique, optional<T>, standard library user-defined literals, and a number of other language and library improvements – and approved the result as the feature-complete Committee Draft (CD) of Standard C++14 to be distributed for its primary international review ballot.
In addition to completing the C++14 CD document, the committee also made progress on three additional important parallel specifications that are on track to be published around the same time as C++14:
File system library (draft), based on Boost.FileSystem version 3.
library (draft), based on Boost.FileSystem version 3. Networking library, small at first and regularly extended.
library, small at first and regularly extended. “Concepts Lite” language extensions (draft), to express template constraints and improve template usability and error messages.
Together these mark the C++ committee’s main planned deliverables for 2014. …
To provide just a sampling [of C++14], here are a few quick examples of some of the newly added features…Pin 0 Shares
Spanish court order won’t stop declaration.
(ANTIWAR.COM) — Spain’s Constitutional Court does not appear to be having much luck stopping an imminent Catalan declaration of independence. After ruling on Thursday that the regional parliament won’t be allowed to meet on Monday to declare independence, Catalonia looks to be doing an end around: they’re going to make the announcement Tuesday.
Spain has been struggling to find roadblocks to put in the way of the independence declaration by Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, but suspending a Monday session that was never even officially announced appears to have been useless. Catalan officials say Puigdemont will be addressing parliament Tuesday at 6 p.m., and MPs are expecting he’ll be submitting the declaration to the assembly at the time.
Catalan MPs say the text of the declaration is still being debated, but that at this point there’s no reason to expect any further delays. Spanish courts are unlikely to have time to try to block another session of parliament before it takes place.
Catalan voters overwhelmingly approved secession over the weekend, and a violent crackdown by Spanish police has only added to calls to quickly split from Spain. Spanish officials insist the referendum didn’t count because the courts forbade it. Catalonia’s leaders, however, maintain that the vote was valid and will stand.
By Jason Ditz / Republished with permission / ANTIWAR.COM / Report a typo
This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.
Pin 0 SharesDarwin and Natural Selection
Captain Fitzroy was interested in advancing science and was especially drawn to geology. He had a surprisingly good library of over 400 books onboard the Beagle that he made available to Darwin. It was during the beginning of the voyage that Darwin read the first volumes of Charles Lyell's "Principles of Geology" and became convinced by his proof that uniformitarianism provided the correct understanding of the earth's geological history. This intellectual preparation, along with his research on the voyage, was critical in leading Darwin to later accept evolution. Especially important was his 5 weeks long visit to the Galápagos Islands in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. It was there that he made the observations that eventually led him to comprehend what causes plants and animals to evolve, but he apparently did not clearly formulate his views on this until 1837. At the time he left the Galápagos Islands, he apparently still believed in a traditional Biblical creation of all life forms.
Following graduation from Cambridge in 1831 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Darwin was clearly more interested in biology and geology than he was in a clerical career. Fortunately, John Henslow was able to help him secure a berth on a British Navy mapping expedition that was going around the world on what would ultimately become a nearly five year long voyage. Initially, Darwin's father refused to allow him to go but was eventually persuaded by Charles and even agreed to pay for his passage and for that of his man servant on the journey. They sailed two days after Christmas in 1831 aboard the survey ship H.M.S. Beagle with Darwin acting as an unpaid naturalist and gentleman companion for the aristocratic captain, Robert Fitzroy. Darwin was 22 years old at the time, and Fitzroy was only 4 years older. The Beagle was a compact 90 foot long ship with a crew of 74. There was little space, even for the captain. Darwin shared a cramped 10 X 11 foot cabin with two other men, a cabin boy, and their belongings. Because of the Beagle's design and small size, it was generally thought by naval men that it was ill suited for the rough seas it would encounter, especially at the southern tip of South America. Darwin frequently suffered from sea sickness on the voyage. Fortunately, he was able to spend most of the time on land exploring. In fact, he was at sea for only 18 months during the nearly 5 years of the expedition.
Having given up on a medicine as a future career, Charles Darwin's father then sent him to Cambridge University in 1828 to pursue an ordinary degree program with the goal of later becoming an Anglican parson. In Cambridge his life's direction continued its radical change. He became very interested in the scientific ideas of the geologist Adam Sedgwick and the naturalist John Henslow with whom he spent considerable time collecting specimens from the countryside around the university. At this time in his life, Darwin apparently rejected the concept of biological evolution, just as his mentors Sedgwick and Henslow did. However, Darwin had been exposed to the ideas of Lamarck about evolution earlier while he was a student in Edinburgh.
At his father's direction, Charles Darwin started university at 16 in Edinburgh, Scotland as a medical student. He showed little academic interest in medicine and was revolted by the brutality of surgery being performed without pain relief. Anesthesia was not used for operations until 1842. Darwin dropped out of medical school after two years of study in 1827. However, his knowledge of natural history was incidentally enriched in Edinburgh by the teaching of Robert Grant, a noted professor of anatomy and an avid marine biologist. At Grant's suggestion, Darwin also became a member of Plinian Society for student naturalists at the University of Edinburgh.
Charles Darwin was born into a moderately wealthy family in Shrewsbury, England. His father, Robert, had the largest medical practice outside of London at the time and his mother, Susannah Wedgwood, was from a family of wealthy pottery manufacturers. She died when Charles was only 8 years old. Thereafter, he was raised mostly by his father and doting older sisters. Charles grew up in comparative luxury in a large house with servants. However, this was a socially conservative time in England that set narrow limits on a young man's behavior and future possibilities. The constraints on women in Darwin's social class were even greater. Most were given only enough education to efficiently manage the homes of their future husbands and raise their children. Young men were expected to go to university in order to prepare themselves to become medical doctors, military officers, or clerics in the Church of England. Most other occupations were considered somewhat unsavory.
M ost educated people in Europe and the Americas during the 19th century had their first full exposure to the concept of evolution through the writings of Charles Darwin. Clearly, he did not invent the idea. That happened long before he was born. However, he carried out the necessary research to conclusively document that evolution has occurred and then made the idea acceptable for scientists and the general public. This was not easy since the idea of evolution had been strongly associated with radical scientific and political views coming out of post-revolutionary France. These ideas were widely considered to be a threat to the established social and political order.
On returning to England, Darwin and an ornithologist associate identified 13 species of finches that he had collected on the Galápagos Islands. This was puzzling since he knew of only one species of this bird on the mainland of South America, nearly 600 miles to the east, where they had all presumably originated. He observed that the Galápagos species differed from each other in beak size and shape. He also noted that the beak varieties were associated with diets based on different foods. He concluded that when the original South American finches reached the islands, they dispersed to different environments where they had to adapt to different conditions. Over many generations, they changed anatomically in ways that allowed them to get enough food and survive to reproduce. This observation was verified by intensive field research in the last quarter of the 20th century.
The Galápagos Islands have species found in no other part of the world, though similar ones exist on the west coast of South America. Darwin was struck by the fact that the birds were slightly different from one island to another. He realized that the key to why this difference existed was connected with the fact that the various species live in different kinds of environments.
Today we use the term adaptive radiation to refer to this sort of branching evolution in which different populations of a species become reproductively isolated from each other by adapting to different ecological niches and eventually become separate species.
Darwin came to understand that any population consists of individuals that are all slightly different from one another. Those individuals having a variation that gives them an advantage in staying alive long enough to successfully reproduce are the ones that pass on their traits more frequently to the next generation. Subsequently, their traits become more common and the population evolves. Darwin called this "descent with modification."
The Galápagos finches provide an excellent example of this process. Among the birds that ended up in arid environments, the ones with beaks better suited for eating cactus got more food. As a result, they were in better condition to mate. Similarly, those with beak shapes that were better suited to getting nectar from flowers or eating hard seeds in other environments were at an advantage there. In a very real sense, nature selected the best adapted varieties to survive and to reproduce. This process has come to be known as natural selection.
Thomas Malthus
(1766-1834)
Darwin did not believe that the environment was producing the variation within the finch populations. He correctly thought that the variation already existed and that nature just selected for the most suitable beak shape and against less useful ones. By the late 1860's, Darwin came to describe this process as the "survival of the fittest." This is very different from Lamarck's incorrect idea that the environment altered the shape of individuals and that these acquired changes were then inherited.
Nineteenth century critics of Darwin thought that he had misinterpreted the Galápagos finch data. They said that God had created the 13 different species as they are and that no evolution in beak shape has ever occurred. It was difficult to conclusively refute such counter arguments at that time. However, extensive field research since the early 1970's has proven Darwin to be correct.
In 1798, Thomas Malthus, an English clergyman and pioneer economist, published Essay on the Principles of Population. In it he observed that human populations will double every 25 years unless they are kept in check by limits in food supply. In 1838, Darwin read Malthus' essay and came to realize that all plant and animal populations have this same potential to rapidly increase their numbers unless they are constantly kept in check by predators, diseases, and limitations in food, water, and other resources that are essential for survival. This fact was key to his understanding of the process of natural selection. Darwin realized that the most fit individuals in a population are the ones that are least likely to die of starvation and, therefore, are most likely to pass on their traits to the next generation.
Who Was Charles Darwin?--video clip from PBS 2001 series Evolution
requires RealPlayer to view (length = 6 mins, 26 secs)
An example of evolution resulting from natural selection was discovered among "peppered" moths living near English industrial cities. These insects have varieties that vary in wing and body coloration from light to dark. During the 19th century, sooty smoke from coal burning furnaces killed the lichen on trees and darkened the bark. When moths landed on these trees and other blackened surfaces, the dark colored ones were harder to spot by birds who ate them and, subsequently, they more often lived long enough to reproduce. Over generations, the environment continued to favor darker moths. As a result, they progressively became more common. By 1895, 98% of the moths in the vicinity of English cities like Manchester were mostly black. Since the 1950's, air pollution controls have significantly reduced the amount of heavy particulate air pollutants reaching the trees, buildings, and other objects in the environment. As a result, lichen has grown back, making trees lighter in color. In addition, once blackened buildings were cleaned making them lighter in color. Now, natural selection favors lighter moth varieties so they have become the most common. This trend has been well documented by field studies undertaken between 1959 and 1995 by Sir Cyril Clarke from the University of Liverpool. The same pattern of moth wing color evolutionary change in response to increased and later decreased air pollution has been carefully documented by other researchers for the countryside around Detroit, Michigan. While it is abundantly clear that there has been an evolution in peppered moth coloration due to the advantage of camouflage over the last two centuries, i t is important to keep in mind that this story of natural selection in action is incomplete. There may have been additional natural selection factors involved.
Dark moths on light colored bark are
easy targets for hungry birds but are
hidden on pollution darkened trees. The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation--an example of natural
selection in mice. This link takes you to a video at an external website. To return
here, you must select this page again. (length = 10 mins, 25 secs) Evolution in Action--an example of natural selection among salamanders in California
This link takes you to a video at an external website. To return here, you must select
this page again. (length = 3 mins, 20 secs) Toxic Newts- - the evolutionary arms race between predator and prey driving evolution
This link takes you to a video at an external website. To return here, you must select
this page again. (length = 5 mins, 28 secs)
Darwin's use of the phrase "survival of the fittest" is frequently misunderstood. Many people assume that "the fittest" refers to the strongest, biggest, or smartest and most cunning individuals. This may or may not be the case. From an evolutionary perspective, the fittest individuals are simply the ones who have the combination of traits that allow them to survive and produce more offspring that in turn survive to reproduce. In fact, they may be relatively weak, small, and not particularly intelligent. What makes an individual fit all depends on the environment at the time and the combination of traits that are most suited to flourishing in it. In the case of Darwin's finches, specialized beaks provided the advantage. However, in a changing environment, it is often the versatile generalist who has the greatest success.
Darwin did not believe that evolution follows a predetermined direction or that it has an inevitable goal. His explanation that evolution occurs as a result of natural selection implied that chance plays a major role. He understood that it is a matter of luck whether any individuals in a population have variations that will allow them to survive and reproduce. If no such variations exist, the population rapidly goes extinct because it cannot adapt to a changing environment. Unlike Lamarck, Darwin did not believe that evolution inevitably produces more complex life forms and that the ultimate result of this process is humans. These were shocking, revolutionary ideas even for scientists who accepted evolution.
Darwin did not rush his ideas about evolution and natural selection into print. He first concentrated his efforts on writing the account of his around the world voyage on the Beagle and analyzing the many preserved animal and plant specimens and extensive notes that he brought back with him. This occupied him for more than 10 years. An additional factor that may have held him back from publishing his ideas about evolution was the widespread Christian evangelical fervor in England during the 1830's and 1840's. He could have been charged with sedition and blasphemy for widely publishing his unpopular theory.
After returning from the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin settled down in England, married Emma Wedgwood (his wealthy first cousin), raised a large family, and quietly continued his research at his newly purchased country home 16 miles south of London. In 1842 he wrote a 35 page summary of his theory about evolution. This was expanded to a 230 page manuscript in 1844, but it was not published and apparently was only known to a few people in British scientific circles. Darwin busied himself over the next two decades establishing his reputation as an important naturalist by growing and studying orchids, pigeons, earthworms, and other organisms at his home. He spent 8 of these years studying and writing about barnacles that people had sent him from around the world.
Emma Darwin
1808-1896
Down House--Charles and Emma Darwin's country
home where he wrote his major publications and
their family lived contentedly for 40 years. Charles Darwin
1809-1882
It was not until he was 50 years old, in 1859, that Darwin finally published his theory of evolution in full for his fellow scientists and for the public at large. He did so in a 490 page book entitled On the Origin of Species. It was very popular and controversial from the outset. The first edition came out on November 24, 1859 and sold out on that day. It went through six editions by 1872. The ideas presented in this book were expanded with examples in fifteen additional scientific books that Darwin published over the next two decades.
Alfred Wallace
1823-1913
What finally convinced Darwin that he should publish his theory in a book for the general educated public was the draft of an essay that he received in the summer of 1858 from a younger British naturalist named Alfred Wallace, who was then hard at work collecting biological specimens in Southeast Asia for sale to museums and private collectors. Darwin was surprised to read that Wallace had come upon essentially the same explanation for evolution. Being a fair man, Darwin insisted that Wallace also get credit for the natural selection theory during debates over its validity that occurred at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University in 1860. We now know that Darwin deserves most of the credit. In 1837, one year after he returned from the voyage on the Beagle, he made detailed notes on the idea of evolution by means of natural selection. At that time, Wallace was only 14 years old. In addition, it was Darwin's book, rather than Wallace's essay, that had the most impact on the Victorian public. Darwin not only described the process of natural selection in more detail, but he also gave numerous examples of it. It was his On the Origin of Species that convinced most scientists and other educated people in the late 19th century that life forms do change through time. This prepared the public for the acceptance of earlier human species and of a world much older than 6000 years.
Darwin and Victorian Culture--interview with Darwin's biographer, James Moore
This link takes you to an audio file at an external website. To return here, you must click
the "back" button on your browser program. (length = 8 mins, 5 secs)
Gregor Mendel
1822-1884
Both Darwin and Wallace failed to understand an important aspect of natural selection. They realized that plant and animal populations are composed of individuals that vary from each other in physical form. They also understood that nature selects from the existing varieties those traits that are most suited to their environment. If natural selection were the only process occurring, each generation should have less variation until all members of a population are essentially identical, or clones of each other. That does not happen. Each new generation has new variations. Darwin was aware of this fact, but he did not understand what caused the variation. The first person to begin to grasp why this happens was an obscure Central European monk named Gregor Mendel. Through plant breeding experiments carried out between 1856 and 1863, he discovered that there is a recombination of parental traits in offspring. Sadly, Darwin and most other 19th century biologists never knew of Mendel and his research. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that Mendel's pioneer research into genetic inheritance was rediscovered. This was long after his death. He never received the public acclaim that was eventually showered on Darwin during his lifetime.
Charles Darwin's convincing evidence that evolution occurs was very threatening to many Christians who believed that people were created specially by God and that they have not changed biologically since that creation. The idea that there could have been prehistoric humans who were anatomically different from us was rejected for similar reasons. However, Charles Lyell's geological evidence that the earth must be much older than 6,000 years along with the rapidly accumulating fossil record of past evolution convinced educated lay people in the 1860's to think what had been unthinkable earlier.
Boucher de Perthes
1788-1868
Archaeological confirmation of the existence of prehistoric Europeans had been accumulating since the 1830's. However, until the late 1850's, it had been widely rejected or misinterpreted. Much of this evidence had been collected by Jacques Boucher Crèvecoeur de Perthes, a customs officer in northern France during the early 1800's. His hobby was collecting ancient stone tools from deep down in the Somme River gravel deposits. Since he found these artifacts in association with the bones of extinct animals, he concluded that they must have been made at the time that those animals lived.
Prehistoric artifact incorrectly thought
to be a "lightning bolt remnant"
Boucher de Perthes tried to publish his findings in 1838. They were rejected by all important scientists and scientific journals. The prehistoric stone tools usually were dismissed as being only "lightning stones" (i.e., the remnants of lightning bolts). However, by 1858, his claims were beginning to be accepted by some enlightened Western European scientists. Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species the following year convinced even more educated people that Boucher de Perthes had been right.
Darwin's popularizing the idea of evolution also made it possible for scientists to begin to accept that some of the makers of Boucher de Perthes' prehistoric tools had already been discovered and that their bones were in museums. These bones had been found in several Western European countries during the first half of the 19th century. However, they had all been dismissed as being from odd looking modern people. During the 1860's, some were correctly determined to be from an earlier species or variety of people who had lived during the last ice age--i.e., long before recorded history. We now know that these ancient people were mostly Neandertals, who lived about 150,000-28,000 years ago.
NOTE : Charles Darwin was an active collector of plant and animal specimens and a prodigious note taker on the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. By the time the ship returned to England in 1836, he had accumulated 5,436 plant and animal specimens that had been dried or preserved in alcohol. He had 368 pages of notes on plants and animals as well as 1,383 pages of geological observations. In addition, he had a 770 page diary that was the basis for his later popular book of his narrative on the voyage ( " Journal of Researches Into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World, Under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N. " ).
NOTE : From the time that Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" in 1859 on up to the present, the presumptions of many people led them to misread the title. They assumed that it was "On the Origin of the Species". The implication of inadvertently adding "the" is that his book was about human evolution. In fact, that was not the case, though it had implications for human evolution. It focused on non-human animals and the mechanisms of evolution. He did not pointedly address the question of human evolution until the publication of his 1871 book "Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex".
NOTE : The phrase "survival of the fittest" was apparently first used in 1851 by the influential British philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) as a central tenet of what later became known as "Social Darwinism." He misapplied Darwin's idea of natural selection to justify European domination and colonization of much of the rest of the world. Social Darwinism was also widely used to defend the unequal distribution of wealth and power in Europe and North America at the time. Poor and politically powerless people were thought to have been failures in the natural competition for survival. Subsequently, helping them was seen as a waste of time and counter to nature. From this perspective, rich and powerful people did not need to feel ashamed of their advantages because their success was proof that they were the most fit in this competition. Despite misgivings by Alfred Wallace and other naturalists, Charles Darwin began to use "survival of the fittest" as a synonym for "natural selection" in the 5th edition of Origin of Species, which was published in 1869.Guest essay by David Archibald
The most accurate method for predicting the amplitude of the next solar cycle is to use the strength of the solar polar magnetic fields at solar minimum. But with solar minimum likely to be three years away, who can wait that long?
The strength of the solar polar magnetic fields at solar minimum is a very accurate indicator of the maximum amplitude of the following solar cycle, as per this graph from Dr David Hathaway of NASA:
Up until late 2014, solar polar magnetic field strength was still quite weak as shown in this graph of the history of that parameter by solar cycle from the last four solar minima:
Over the last year the solar polar magnetic fields of Solar Cycle 24 have strengthened to almost the level of Solar Cycle 23 at the same stage. But for the previous two cycles, they also weakened a bit from this point. All things considered, the amplitude might be around 40 at solar minimum, which may be three years away. That in turn corresponds to a maximum amplitude for Solar Cycle 25 of about 55.
There is another methodology that derives a similar result. The following graph plots up sunspot area for the northern and southern hemispheres of the Sun from 1874:
What is apparent is that the two hemispheres have different drivers. The northern hemisphere had a consistent rate of increase in amplitude from Solar Cycle 12 to Solar Cycle 15. The southern hemisphere had the opposite trend but with a step-like change. During the 8,000 year peak of solar activity in the mid-20th century, the hemispheres had very similar amplitudes. They started diverging again from Solar Cycle 22. The northern hemisphere is weakening faster than the southern hemisphere. If they both maintain their established trends for one more cycle, then we can predict the maximum amplitude for Solar Cycle 25 (assuming we get the year correct). By this method an maximm amplitude of 56 is derived if the hemispheric peaks are aligned. As this method relies upon the disciplined decline evident over Solar Cycles 22, 23 and |
it was raised at a meeting between the commission’s investigators and then-deputy Saudi foreign minister Nizar Madani. From what Nizar said, it looked like Princess Haifa believed that money was intended to cover the medical costs of Basan’s wife, who had thyroid issues, and the family’s living expenses.
6. FBI’s 80,000 secret files
A Florida federal judge, meanwhile, is poring over some 80,000 documents pertaining to the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks, deciding whether or not they should be released to the public. These papers are currently in the possession of the FBI. The pages were uncovered when journalists and former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) requested to see FBI documents related to the alleged Saudi role in 9/11, leading them to find these thousands of files. Until then, only 35 pages’ worth of data on the subject were known to exist.
FBI has 80,000 files on possible Saudi links to 9/11 – report https://t.co/bSu92mMvRLpic.twitter.com/YEdOn6icDk — RT America (@RT_America) May 12, 2016
7. Florida Saudi family’s suspected role
These papers focused on a wealthy Saudi family living in an upscale, private community near Sarasota, Florida: Abdulazzi al-Hiijjii, his wife Anoud, and their three small children. Neighbors had mentioned to the FBI that the couple were “aloof,” according to the Daily Beast. They also told the Tampa Times that Anoud was “religious,” and that Abdulazzi was a student who “would come over for a cigarette and a drink and to get away from that praying every two hours.”
8. The Saudi family mysteriously disappears
Two weeks before the 9/11 Attacks, al-Hiijjii and his family abruptly left their Florida home. According to the FBI investigation, the home looked as if they’d left in a hurry. Toys were floating in the pool, food was left in the refrigerator and out in the kitchen, cars were parked in the garage, and an empty safe was left open.
READ MORE: ‘Americans need to tell their government to declassify 28 pages of 9/11 report’
FBI agents didn’t begin a probe until April, 2002, based on repeated calls from the family’s concerned neighbors. The family is suspected of having links to 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and two of his co-conspirators.
9. The secret 28 pages
Out of the nearly 850-page 9/11 report, only the 28 pages dealing with Saudi Arabia remain classified. The government previously defended the decision by citing the need to protect the sensitive sources and methods of investigation.
In the past month, however, the argument has recently shifted toward disparaging the documents’ content. Despite that, advocates of declassifying the documents, such as Graham, say the government’s justification does not hold water.
10. Saudi Arabia blackmailing
Strained by the Iranian nuclear deal, relations between the Washington and Riyadh risk souring should the US go ahead and release the documents. In April, Saudi Arabia threatened to sell some $750 billion in US assets if the bill passes, fearing it could leave the country vulnerable in US courts.
Iran ordered to pay $10.5 billion for 9/11 by US judge https://t.co/QbAiuTCokvpic.twitter.com/faRllisZ7D — RT America (@RT_America) March 10, 2016
Families of 9/11 victims have tried to sue Saudi Arabia in court over the country’s possible role in the attacks before, but US law grants foreign governments protection in domestic courts.I was made aware of a trio of rather noteworthy stories last week all of which I found dovetail nicely on topic together. The first was Tweeted to me about the new advent of artificial ovaries and how overjoyed our feminine-concerned social order was that ‘infertile‘ women might have a better chance of conception. The report’s subtitled perspective was, ostensibly, about how making a synthetic home for a woman’s egg-producing follicles could improve fertility after chemotherapy and help women with endometriosis conceive:
Women can become infertile after cancer treatment as the ovaries and the egg-making follicles they contain are vulnerable to chemotherapy, especially for leukaemias, brain cancers and lymphomas. Removing and freezing ovarian tissue beforehand to reimplant after treatment can help women conceive, but there is a risk that this tissue will reintroduce hidden cancer cells.
Call me a cynic, but I think if a woman’s had a cancer serious enough to warrant chemotherapy I’m not sure her capacity to conceive a child is really her most important concern. A noble reasoning to be sure, but another paragraph down and we get to the real reason for the excitement:
“It may be used by women who want to delay having babies or postpone the menopause“ The method could benefit other women, too. “When fully developed, this technology may be used in women who want to delay having babies for social reasons, or who want to postpone the menopause,” says Claus Andersen at the University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ah yes, the Holy Grail of bioengineered gender equalism – a safe and effective means of perpetuating a woman’s fertility well beyond all reason and concern for healthy parenting would otherwise mandate. Nowhere is it mentioned, or are we to politely consider, that women’s real reasons for wanting a safe way to extend their fertility has less to do with ‘infertility’ concerns and a lot more to do with their difficulties in optimizing Hypergamy.
Earlier this year I wrote an essay entitled Assurances in which I argue that women will demand that society and science accommodate and insure their indefinite fertility while they sort out why it is they can’t seem to find the right (and Hypergamously cooperative) guy with which to start a family. I began that article by outlining the recent worker’s benefit of ‘egg freezing’ some larger companies were offering in order to entice (executive level) women to work for them – women, we are meant to presume, are so absorbed by their careers that they need to dedicate their most fertile years to their professional aspirations. All in order to stay on an equal footing with hyper-competitive men of course:
The latent purpose of developing technology to freeze a woman’s eggs, for instance, is to cheat (or give the impression of being able to cheat) the otherwise natural process of fertility that women are beholden to. The latent purpose of every pop-cultural trend that contributes to the perception that women can realistically exceed the window of their fertility is offered as an assurance that women have more time than would be naturalistically expected to optimize Hypergamy. Ostensibly, the message for women is the cliché of ‘having it all’ – reassuring women that they can have a rewarding career and make a significant difference in their lives and the lives of others as well as realistically having a meaningful family experience later in life. The unspoken hindbrain message is that a woman has more time to optimize Hypergamy.
I took a lot of criticism for being so presumptuous in that assertion. How dare I suggest that professional women didn’t deserve to be afforded the same opportunities men, who peak in their own SMV well after women’s prime fertility years have passed, had in life, career, and family. The thoroughly modern women of today weren’t forestalling pregnancy because of any personal misgivings or difficulties in attracting Mr. Right, these women needed to freeze their eggs to have more time to develop their careers, don’t you know.
The Real Reason Women are Freezing their Eggs
Turns out, not so much. Actually not at all,…
They are often portrayed as hard-hearted individuals who are putting motherhood on hold in order to climb the career ladder. But women who freeze their eggs are actually waiting for a man who is perfect father material to come along. Researcher Kylie Baldwin, who asked a group of women why they froze their eggs, said: ‘I think they were looking for a hands-on father. ‘And it was the absence of this particular type of potential father, not just the absence of any partner, that led them to freeze the eggs. ‘It’s not just about not having the right partner, it’s about having the right dad for their child.’ Interestingly, some of the women were in a relationships – but froze their eggs because they didn’t believe their partner was father material and were hoping someone better would come along.
I should add a side note here and point out the importance these women place having “the right dad for their child.” It’s so important that they’d expect a scientific miracle to give them enough time to find this very important father. However, I’d encourage my readers to compare and contrast this to the complete lack of importance men are expected to place on their own roles as the biological father of a child with regard to raising a child that is not his own. You see, while a woman will freeze her eggs in order to find the perfect hands-on Dad to breed with, men are told that even when a child is not his own he shouldn’t concern himself with his own self-importance in breeding or raising that kid.
This study was an interesting confirmation of the assertions I’d made in Assurances – Women want an assurance of Hypergamous optimization. Egg freezing isn’t about medical concerns or even professional sacrifices; egg freezing is about Hypergamy and women’s increasingly diminished ability to satisfy it later and later in life. In the manosphere and in my book Preventive Medicine there’s an understanding that women’s Party Years, the years she rides the “cock carousel”, are dedicated to the pursuit of Alpha Fucks – her prime directive is generally focused on a short term breeding strategy. Women’s entitlement extends to the point now that they demand science extend this period and assure them they will have ample time to complete their quest for Beta Bucks, motherhood, provisioning and parental investments indefinitely, or at least as long as men might be able to live up to their peak SMV qualifications.
The women were predominately middle-class and highly educated and were aged 38, on average, when they had their eggs frozen. Mrs Baldwin, a sociologist, said: ‘I asked them about what their motivations were and I would say none of the women underwent the procedure for career reasons. ‘Instead, it was very often down to their perception that it was not yet the right time for them to be pursuing motherhood for one reason or another.’
And, as you might expect, what article about women’s struggle in finding the right guy would be complete without shaming men for their reluctance to participate in playing the roles the Feminine Imperative demands they play in order to fulfill women’s sexual strategies?
The comments about men’s reluctance to commit echo some made by one of Britain’s leading fertility doctors earlier this year. Professor Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said: ‘There is a notion that young men are not committed to relationships in the way they have been in the past. ‘Childhood for some men is being extended into 20s and 30s when they’re not committing to a relationship.’
Again, it’s childish men’s fault that women have been brought to egg freezing science. This then brings us full circle to NPR’s recent story about economists “puzzlement” over why men are leaving the workforce in droves.
“I wasn’t going to go back to work. It was almost going to just be a nice transition into retirement for me — a very early retirement. I mean, I’m only 36 years old,” he says. And if he does go back to work, he worries about the prospects. “Things move really, really, really quick [in IT], and I’m worried that if we can’t make it work, that I’m going to go looking for a job and they’re going to say two years out of it, ‘Sorry, brother, you don’t have what it takes to work here anymore,’ ” Rekkedal says. Tara Sinclair, chief economist for job-search site Indeed.com, says brawny jobs are being replaced by brainy ones, and that trend doesn’t favor men.
How’s that for an interesting social cycle?
There’s a common refrain you read in both the femosphere as well as religious bloggers about the state of extended adolescence they believe men are extending today. I even wrote about this ridiculous impression of men’s clinging to juvenility in Are You Experienced.
Men forestalling their “adulthood” – a characterization that is entirely dependent on how well a man aligns with women’s imperatives – by dropping out, or otherwise not preparing to be a potential provider for a family a woman deems is at last necessary to her, are considered ‘kidults’ or extending their adolescent years. Professor Adam Balen in the egg freezing article says men are extending “childhood” into their 20s and 30s.
Ironically, you’ll find the most ardent critics of extended adolescence in the writings of Man-up-and-marry-those-sluts religious male bloggers intent on virtue signaling their acceptability to women who will benefit most from their ‘manning up’ and overlooking their Party Years indiscretions.
On the other hand, women wishing to forestall motherhood – a characterization which used to imply a woman’s entrance into adulthood – are never characterized as “extending their childhood.” Women who opt to delay marriage can always fall back on the unacceptability of ‘most men these days’ to excuse their own extension, or they are “focusing on their career.” Women can never be cast in any way other than Strong and Independent®. In fact, this is the first, default presumption we make about a never-married or never-mothered woman.
The Daily Mail article about the truths of women’s reasoning for freezing their eggs puts the lie to this presumption. Women’s latent purpose in egg freezing is to extend fertility until their ideal Alpha man arrives in their lives.
Then, of course the blame become circular on men – men not accepting the role that open Hypergamy expects them to already be aware of and accept wholesale makes him guilty of extending his childhood. Women then blame their spinsterhood on a lack of acceptable ‘adult’ men.
There is never any incentive for personal insight on the part of women, not even when she’s far past her reasonably fertile years, to say nothing of her capacity to intersexually compete with her sisters for those acceptable men. Nowhere is there an afterthought that acceptable men would actively avoid her or find her unacceptable for his own long term investment.
Advancing Gender Dynamics
Finally, we need to add to this the obscene amounts of on-tap social validation women enjoy today. I’m not the first author to recognize or write about this, but there is a very real psychological dynamic that humans in this era have had to deal with which no other previous generations had to consider. Our capacity for technological advancement has progressed so quickly over the past century (and 16 years) that human beings are scarcely capable of understanding what these advancements imply to us as a society and largely as a species.
One reason I believe evolutionary psychology will always have a place in the manosphere and Red Pill discussion is because it aids us in understanding how our minds have evolved and what we can expect from ourselves, or cultures our intersexual dynamics in the context of how we’re experiencing these technological advancements. I had a reader tell me once about how appalled his grandmother was at the idea of a sperm bank when they first appeared. Today it’s part of the scenery, but when they appeared it was scandalous to the mindset of that era’s acculturation. Fast forward from the 1960s to now; in just over half a century think of the tech advancements we have with us today that we take for granted, but our grandparents would marvel over. Now think about how those advancements are interpreted by our hindbrains in so short a time.
Communications technologies, and now a social media explosion, affect our very plastic, yet feral hindbrains in ways that our new globalizing culture can’t keep pace with. I bring this up, because it’s important to consider how women’s feral selves are affected by an instantaneous attention and affirmation that previous generations of women craved, but never dreamed of having this kind of facility with.
As the conversation is won’t to do on this blog’s comment threads, the topic du jour picked up on the merits, or lack thereof, of monogamy vs. legal marriage vs. pLTRs (primary long term relationships or ‘plural’ long term relationships as the term fits). I’ll be addressing this in the next post, but I’ll foreshadow a bit with this; sifting through one of his usually long comments, this bit from YaReally stuck with me (emphasis mine):
“But even if your Game is as tight as YaReally’s, try interesting a modern young chick in commitment. Go ahead. You’ll be in for a shock. A woman in her prime years is so high on a never ending validation train that she’s sure it will never end. Why should she commit? There’s no incentive to do so. She always branch swings to better, and better is always available before she’s even tired of what she’s got.” You hear them say “I wouldn’t give up my social media for that dream guy”, but you don’t hear why they won’t. The “why” is what we’re up against. They are conditioned to think they will never hit the wall, Amy Schumer at 45 gets the rich doctor in the end, they have endless offers of commitment and monkey branch higher and higher up the tree in their prime. I have fuckbuddies who’ve disqualified high status guys. and rich jacked 6-pack dudes for like one or two errors. My favorite was one who disqualified a guy because the area of medicine he picked to specialize in wasn’t EXCITING ENOUGH. So she interpreted that as him not having enough ambition. She turned him down for such a silly reason. But why wouldn’t she? She has dates lined up anytime she wants with guys as high value or higher than him around the block whenever she wants. If she takes care of herself the attention train won’t stop till 35+. Why would she want to limit her Hypergamous options by settling in her early 20s? That’s why those girls look at you funny when you suggest giving up social media. They can’t comprehend any reason TO. It doesn’t compute.
In a globalizing culture where both science and social order is predicated on the satisfaction of women’s imperatives, why indeed would any woman believe she isn’t entitled to it all? Both technology and social reengineering have placed women into a position where their hindbrains cannot hope to interpret the experiences they afford, much less have the attention span necessary for the insight to process how they should best cope with changes they’re scarcely aware of or take for granted.
This post is the first in a series detailing the contrast between how our evolved biological natures conflict and cope with the changes our rapid advancement demands of us, and how our intersexual and social relations are changing as a result of it.
Like this: Like Loading...2017 is the break out year for fishing games on the Playstation 4. After a long drought, PS4 is finally receiving some love, with 4 official fishing games releasing this year. Fishing Planet, Dovetail Games Euro Fishing, Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV and Rapala Fishing Pro Series have already been released. I figured it was time to create an updated top list of the best PS4 fishing games released so far.
NOTE: This article was last updated on November 3rd, 2017.
1. Fishing Planet
– Available For Free on the PlayStation Store
Fishing Planet is currently my favorite fishing game on the PS4. This is a fantastic addicting free to play simulator. Once you learn how to catch fish for money and experience efficiently, you will probably become addicted to buying upgraded gear and traveling to new locations. There is optional in-game purchases (real money) of Bait Coins that allow you to buy special gear faster and unlimited licenses. I loved the game so much I ended up buying some Bait Coins here and there to help me progress a bit faster (Paid for a few unlimited advanced licenses and Lucky Starter pack). Currently there is over 70 species of fish to catch and 12 different locations to unlock and fish at. The graphics are amazingly realistic considering the game was created using the Unity game engine. Playing in first person view is very satisfying, and gives you that realistic feel, being able to see your rod and reel while you fish your bait or lure. The gameplay is amazing. Different lures and baits presented in certain ways catch different species of fish at different times of the day. So the gear you need to bring before heading out to a location is very important. The scheduled online competition events are fun and if you manage to rank in the top 3 the pay off for you will be huge. It’s not perfect, grinding money to pay travel fees will bother players that are not patient enough. However the system works well enough to keep most players happy. The developers have mentioned more locations, lures and deep sea fishing update is possibly coming in the near future.
Gameplay Trailer:
2. Dovetail Games Euro Fishing
– See It On Amazon
In many ways Dovetail is similar to Fishing Planet. It’s a great fishing simulator that focuses on realism. Features a 3rd person view with great graphics using the Unreal 4 Engine. If you like these sort of games you should pick this one up also along with Fishing Planet. I can’t say which one you will like better between the two. Some people prefer Fishing Planet, while others prefer Euro Fishing. I personally enjoy Fishing Planet more just because the amount of gear, locations, and North American fish species to catch. Fishing Planet is a bit more addicting and fun to me and overall an beefier game than Euro Fishing. One of Euro fishing’s biggest strong points is the gameplay and fish spawn points. The fishing patterns are random and more technical then other games. Going after massive boss fish is also really fun. I just hope the developers continue with new locations and fish species to further my interest in the future. As of right now updates are fairly frequent and DLC is priced reasonably so I am pleased with that.
Gameplay Trailer:
3. Fishing Master (PS4 VR)
– Available on the PlayStation Store
A full fledged PS4 VR fishing game featuring over 200 fish species to catch, over 50 lure combinations to try and 9 locations to fish at. The graphics are very realistic. The fish and water all look amazing, and the VR makes it all feel as real as possible. This one might take a little bit of time to get used to, as the areas you fish at seem a little restricted at times. It also lacks a little bit of strategy and depth. Trying to catch all the fish species might become a little boring and the tournaments don’t add too much to the gameplay. It’s kind of simple to hook up and catch fish, but if you are into arcade style fishing gameplay, you won’t mind it at all. If you have PS4 VR and love fishing, this is a must pick though!
Gameplay Trailer:
4. Final Fantasy XV
– See It On Amazon
Yes Final Fantasy is not considered a fishing game, it’s a Japanese Role Playing Game. However there is a number of lakes, rivers and ocean areas you can go fishing at. The arcade style fishing gameplay is surprisingly fun, with many different species to catch and gear to buy. Keep catch fish to upgrade your characters stats. If you are trying to master angling in this game there is a bit of strategy to it. In Final Fantasy XV fishing is a bonus addition added to an already great game.
Gameplay Trailer:
5. Rapala Fishing Pro Series
– See It On Amazon
Oh a new Rapala fishing game built from the ground up for PS4 and Xbox One. I am very excised about this one. I loved the Xbox 360 version of Rapala Pro Bass Fishing. It was a perfect combination of simulator and arcade style gameplay. Very fun to play and the fishing guide announcer was cool most of the time also. Too bad this one won’t be receiving a fishing controller though. I loved reeling in the big ones and using more power strike with the fishing controller.
Updated Mini Review: Rapala Pro Series was released on October 24th, 2017. The game is a big flop. I am disappointed. No cool announcer, boring gameplay, weird controls when trying to land fish that force you to use D-Pad directions and clay like graphics. This really reminds me of the phone game they released. On PS4 or Xbox One much more is expected though. The fish look stiff but are designed ok. Overall it seems very rushed. For now I guess you should probably stick to Rapala Pro Bass Fishing on Xbox 360 or PS3 for a better Rapala fishing games series experience.
* Fishing Games Coming Soon To PS4 *
– Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV (PS4 VR)
– Release Date: November 21, 2017
– See It On Amazon
The fishing in Final Fantasy XV was so great I guess Square Enix decided to create a mini fishing game dedicated to PS4 VR. From the early looks of the gameplay, this one looks like it will be a blast to play.
* Bonus * Other PS4 Games You Can Go Fishing In
These games also have a little fishing in them (Click the following links To See fishing gameplay videos), including Stardew Valley, NieR Automata, Everybody’s Golf, Ark: Survival Evolved, YAKUZA 0, Persona 5, Minecraft and Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag.
What’s your favorite released or upcoming fishing Game On PS4? Please let me know in the comments below!While I wasn’t diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum condition called Aspergers Syndrome until I was almost 18 years old, looking back over a journal my mother kept during my childhood many of the diagnostic criteria were there from a young age.
From as early as age four my mother made records of various obsessive repetitive behaviours I would engage in, and the considerable distress that not being able to fulfil them would cause.
From hand squeezing patterns to jumps every set number of steps, bleeping noises to rocking on the floor, I seemingly needed to engage in sensory patterns to calm myself.
This is often referred to within Autistic Spectrum diagnosis as stimming. It can cover behaviours from small tapping motions up to full body twists, turns and rocking.
It’s often a response to sensory overload. As a person with Aspergers I often struggle to filter out unimportant sensory information. In a room full of people talking I might struggle to focus on one nearby and loud voice because of quiet distant noises, a light buzzing, someone breathing, an oven fan spinning and more.
When all sensory information is always present, having something routine to focus on, control and predict when it comes to sensory information can be incredibly helpful.
Over the years I learned ways to manage many of these behaviours in ways that were deemed socially acceptable. Having a trio of cylindrical magnets I could switch between a line and a cluster formation was much easier to explain than rotating my hands in large circular motions.
In recent months, I’ve replaced many of my smaller stimming patterns with a Fidget Cube (first a knock off, now an official version).
The Fidget Cube has become somewhat of a popularised talking point well outside of the diagnosed mental health community in recent months. It’s a small plastic cube whose various sides provide sensory tools to interact with.One side features a switch that clicks between two positions. One side features five small clickable buttons. One side contains a rotating metal ball and some gears to rotate. It offers a variety of controllable sensory actions for a variety of needs in one small and unobtrusive design.
While it felt to me almost purpose designed exclusively as a tool for people like me to manage their stimming in a way that was unobtrusive and stylishly presented, they have taken off far more widely outside the diagnosed mental health community as a valid relaxation and anti-anxiety tool.
For someone fighting a life long battle with stimming, I have an uneasy relationship with the Fidget Cube. It is helping normalise stimming behaviour to many, while also giving a false sense of understanding that can at times lead to dismissal of the necessity of more intense stimming in high pressure situations.
So, let’s look at the positives. While most people picking up Fidget Cubes right now don’t seem to be people who have had long term issues with needing to stim to manage sensory issues, their increased presence, media attention and ubiquity has helped to normalise the idea that sometimes engaging in repetitive sensory behaviour can be a way to reduce anxiety and stress. It has shown people that a specific item someone carries with them might be an important item for stress reduction, even if it looks on the surface like a colourful toy for children.
On a surface level, it normalises stimming. In reality, it only normalises a very small bracket of stimming behaviours, those already manageable in societally acceptable ways.
While I can replace my trio of cylindrical magnets with a fidget cube and have my small scale repetitive hand motion sensory needs met with a device people recognise, a Fidget Cube will never replace my more intensive stimming needs. A fidget cube may help keep a bout of rocking on the floor or hitting violently at the sides of my own head at bay, if I end up needing to do either of those, a Fidget Cube will never do the job. The Fidget Cube for me is preventative of larger meltdowns, not curative once they occur.
I recently had an issue on a bus where I ended up having to rock back and forth. A nearby passenger asked me what was wrong and I explained my condition and my need for certain repetitive moments to work through an Aspergers Meltdown.
She asked if I had heard of the Fidget Cube, and explained to me that it would be a much less obtrusive way for me to manage that obsessive need.
The Fidget Cube is the hot new cure for all repetitive motion needs, and as such it’s now the poster child for non autistic people to recommend how we could better manage our conditions.
How we can keep our condition less visible.
How we can treat our conditions in a more normalised way.
It’s a double edged sword. I’m thankful for the increased awareness of stimming behaviour in general but I fear long term how it may leave those not effected with Autistic spectrum disorders with a false idea of their place within our lives.
Still, I’m incredibly glad it exists. Being able to normalise my preventative actions is incredibly positive.Alcoholic nerds rejoice because now it is entirely possible to go out for a drink at the Green Dragon Inn, a popular watering hole for residents of The Shire in The Hobbit. Totally one-upping the Denny's Hobbit-themed menu, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key recently cut the ribbon on the Green Dragon Inn, the newest site in Hobbiton — a 10-year-old film-set-turned-tourist-attraction Hobbit village located in Matamata, NZ. According to Sunshine Coast Daily, the Green Dragon is indeed a working pub built by an 80-person crew that will offer visitors a choice of beer, wine or cider.
That said, since the Dragon Inn is part of the larger tourist site, it doesn't seem as though one can just stop in for a pint whenever they want. Per the official site, "From 01 December 2012 all tour groups will now visit the Inn as part of their tour and have the opportunity to walk inside and partake of a liquid refreshment." So anyway, what is that liquid refreshment? A Facebook page reveals a bar menu of Girdle Fine Ale, Sackville Cider, Oak Barton Ale and Southfarthing Ginger Ale. Take a tour in the gallery above.
· The Green Dragon [Hobbiton Movie Set Tours]
· Hobbiton pub is officially open for business [Sunshine Coast Daily]
· All The Hobbit Coverage on Eater [-E-]Bernie Sanders will conclude his “Come Together and Fight Back” tour with Tom Perez this weekend—a political roadshow that’s taken the Vermont senator and the Democratic National Committee chair to more than half a dozen red and purple states across America since Monday. The goal of the tour, Sanders’s office said earlier this month, was “to begin the process of creating a Democratic Party which is strong and active in all 50 states, and a party which focuses on grassroots activism and the needs of working families.” But the tour was also meant to bridge divides between the Democratic establishment, as represented in last year’s primary by Hillary Clinton, and Sanders’s insurgent progressive wing.
In its push for Democrats to “come together,” the tour has been a decisive failure. Sanders supporters booed Perez in Portland, Maine, on Monday. On Tuesday, Sanders, a longtime independent and self-described democratic socialist, made headlines for reaffirming that he still doesn’t consider himself a Democrat. (His comments came in a joint interview with Perez that also exposed enduring messaging rifts between them.) The week got worse on Wednesday, when Sanders told The Washington Post that Georgia Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff is “not a progressive,” and again on Thursday, when the tour mates were criticized for campaigning for Heath Mello, an anti-choice mayoral candidate in Omaha, Nebraska.
The negative press coverage of the tour is precisely what Democrats didn’t need after strong showings in special elections in Kansas and Georgia. “Sanders, Perez unity tour is off to a bumpy start,” CNN reported. “All week, two prominent figures on the left have been traveling the country on a Democratic Party unity tour, except there has not been too much unity,” said NPR. At a rally in Florida, NBC News concluded that “it was clear among Latino attendees there is still much work to be done in order to bring the Democratic party together before the next elections.” VICE News declared: “So much for unity: the Democrats are falling apart on the ‘come together’ tour.”
It’s no surprise that the Sanders-Perez tour hasn’t gone smoothly. The Democratic Party remains bitterly divided, and as the New Republic’s Brian Beutler argued on Thursday, “there is nothing obvious on the horizon that will prevent the basic Clinton-Sanders rift that sunk the party in 2016 from reemerging again and again.” A weeklong tour—even one that unites America’s most popular politician with the DNC chair he opposed—won’t magically resolve a fundamental disagreement about what the party should stand for.When running vSphere 6.5 deployments in default (recommended) mode, VMware Certificate Authority is its own root certificate authority. Everything fine and secure with this configuration, but your browser displays a warning because the root certificate is not trusted.
I made a little script (VBS) that pulls the CA certificate from a vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller and adds it to the local trusted root certificates store. When the root CA is trusted, browser warnings are gone.
Just save the source to a file with a.vbs extension, or download the.zip package which includes the file. The script asks for the vCenter FQDN, pulls the certificate archive, extracts it and adds the certificate to the local root store.
The script is configured to elevate permissions. When UAC is enabled, it asks for permission.
Supported OS
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 10
Download: add-vcenter65-root-ca.vbs
Source: GitHubNRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre speaks at a news conference in December 2012. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
Read more in Slate about gun control.
On Wednesday afternoon, shortly before Manti Te’o’s girlfriend became the only story in sports, new Washington Nationals outfielder Denard Span brought his fans in on a conspiracy theory.
“I was watching some controversial stuff on YouTube about the sandy hooks thing today!” he tweeted. “It really makes u think and wonder.”
Anybody paying attention to the dark corners of the Internet—i.e., most of the Internet—knew what Span was watching. In one week, a 30-minute YouTube video titled “The Sandy Hook Shooting—Fully Exposed” has been viewed 10,000,000 times. It uses text, narration, and mournful music to annotate found footage and websites, “proving” that the murder of 26 people in Newtown, Conn., may have been propagated then covered up by government operatives with an agenda.
I don’t know how to approach conspiracy theories anymore. Four-odd years ago, in my first piece for Slate, I profiled the “birther” activists who were petitioning to overturn Barack Obama’s victory, because they thought he was born in Kenya. I naively expected the birthers to lose their cases and move on. Many lawsuits later, I watched the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party transform the state’s Electoral College vote into a gripefest about Barack Obama’s troubling birth certificate.
But the Sandy Hook “truther” movement isn’t quite like birtherism, or like vintage 9/11 trutherism. Both of those manias grew out of partisanship. As my colleague Jeremy Stahl proved, 9/11 trutherism flourished thanks to “general unhappiness with the war in Iraq and a small but deep strain of Bush hatred.” Birtherism mushroomed when conservatives got desperate about ousting Obama.
Gun massacre trutherism isn’t tied to election results. It bubbles over after every massacre. Sandy Hook is moving public opinion like no massacre since Virginia Tech—and its truther movement, naturally, is growing faster. Every shooting that involves a mentally ill loner invites speculation that the loner was programmed by the government. After the mass casualties at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, Alex Jones’ InfoWars, a conspiracy news hub that got a recent boost from CNN’s Piers Morgan, asked readers to consider the shooter’s “work as a graduate student in a government-funded neuroscience program that specifically researched altered perception of time and reality.” The completely different circumstances of the Virginia Tech attack led to a theory that “black ops” were behind the shooting.
Every post-shooting conspiracy theory follows a script. The viral Sandy Hook video is just an unusually good example. It begins with hasty interviews from the day of the massacre, men-on-the-street spreading rumors that led the news but were debunked and would have been forgotten without the magic of online video. (This happened at Virginia Tech, too—a confused caller told Fox News that more shots were being heard on the campus long after the massacre.) Later, it suggests that Gene Rosen, a senior citizen who comforted kids fleeing the school, is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, faking the whole thing. The evidence? He’s awfully compelling, and someone named “Gene Rosen” is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Other Sandy Hook truthers have “proved” that Emilie Parker, a 6-year old victim at the school, is still alive. She’s not. It’s her sister who’s been photographed since the massacre.
But what’s the point of debunking any of this? The theories don’t spread because they’re credible. They spread in part because of the confirmation bias of worried gun owners. And that’s actually been eg |
his death. It's included in Venezuela's Bolivarian constitution.
It mandates "the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality, without discrimination or subordination of any kind."
Gott said Chavez made sure a civilian would replace him when he died. "Maduro is not Chavez," he explained. "(T)hat would be too much to ask."
"But he is a clever and sophisticated politician with much experience." Chavez believed he was the right leader to succeed him.
He made sure potential Pinochets would be marginalized and avoided. Like other progressive figures before him, he'll be remembered for his anti-imperial reformist legacy.
Gott called him "the power of example." He rejected neoliberal harshness. He championed Bolivarian fairness.
Washington tried throughout his tenure to oust him. Chavez believed dark US forces wanted him dead.
He once said "If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the president of the United States."
"I will not hide. I'm going in the streets with you. I entrust myself to God, but I know that I have been condemned to die."
When first diagnosed with what he called a "very strange" bout of cancer, he believed Washington bore responsibility.
Other Latin American leaders perhaps not coincidentally had cancer. They survived, not Chavez. Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had thyroid cancer.
Former Brazilian President Lula Da Silva had throat cancer. Current President Dilma Rousseff battled axillar lymphoma.
Others affected included Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos (prostate cancer), and Paraguay's Fernando Lugo (lymphatic cancer).
Chavez once said "(w)ould it be so strange that they've invented the technology to spread cancer and we won't know about it for 50 years?"
"Fidel always told me (to) take care. These people have developed technologies," he said.
"Take care what you eat, what they give you to eat. They inject you with I don't know what."
Chavez went where few leaders ever dared. He risked his life doing it. He died for what he believed in. He gave Venezuelans what American's can't imagine.
Including real participatory social democracy. Jimmy Carter calls Venezuela's electoral process the world's best.
It shames America's sham system - a one-party sate with two wings serving monied interests, not popular ones. Ordinary people have no say whatever.
All Venezuelans are guaranteed suffrage at birth. It's constitutionally mandated. They're automatically registered free of charge.
They have government of, by and for everyone. They're beholden to rule of law principles.
Police state laws are verboten. Democratic ones rule. No one's above the law. Democracies operate this way.
Venezuelans get vital social benefits. Oil revenues provide them even at today's lower prices.
They include education to the highest levels, quality healthcare, subsidized food and housing, land reform, respect for indigenous rights, job training, micro credit, affordable electricity and cooking gas, gasoline at 5 cents a liter, and other social, economic, and political benefits.
Americans get neoliberal harshness, force-fed austerity, growing poverty, high unemployment, painful underemployment, unaddressed homelessness and hunger, as well as a government beholden solely to wealth and powerful interests.
Chavez institutionalized progressive change. Maduro's challenge is preserving Bolivarianism - knowing Washington wants him eliminated like Chavez.
His credentials are impeccable. Why Chavez believed he was the right leader to replace him.
He's entrusted with preventing dark US forces from returning Venezuela to its bad old days.
It's not easy beating Washington at its dirty game. Chavez succeeded for 14 years.
Maduro's tenure began as interim president in March 2013 before Venezuelans elected him in April to lead them.
He battles ongoing US political and economic destabilization efforts - war by other means by any standard.
He foiled Obama's coup to oust him. He knows it won't be last time he's targeted for removal.
He faces constant US scoundrel media propaganda war. New York Times editors viciously attack him with a blitzkrieg of Big Lies.
On March 5, their latest broadside wrongfully accused him of "blaming and punishing scapegoats for his own failings."
They bashed him for shrinking US embassy staff from over 100 to 17. It's a nest of spies. A previous article by this writer urged kicking them all out.
Major US human rights abusers are banned from entering Venezuela - including GW Bush and Dick Cheney.
Times editors disgracefully mocked Maduro - calling his legitimate long overdue policy changes "theatrics." Hopefully stiffer ones will follow.
State terror is official US policy. Times editors support what demands rejection. They're in lockstep with all US direct and proxy wars of aggression.
They consider turning nations to rubble, slaughtering it people, stealing its resources and enslaving its people democracy building.
They mock legitimate journalism. They represent wealth, power and privilege. They want fascist governance replacing Maduro. They want what Venezuelans won't tolerate.
Chavismo lives! Maduro's job is preserving what Chavez instituted and taking it to the next level.
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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III ".
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.When it comes to airport travel, most people see it as a necessary evil; whether it be meeting a client located in another city or the means of getting yourself to a small island in the Caribbean for a well deserved vacation. As much as we need airplanes to get from point A to point B, there are so many things about air travel that we just can’t stand. And without further ado, here we have our list of the top 15 things that most people absolutely hate about either airports or commercial airplane travel:
1. Checked Baggage Charges
2. Airport Security Lines
3. Flight Delays
4. Lack of Power Outlets
5. Last Minute Gate Changes
6. The Middle Seat
7. Stuck on the Runway
8. Your Seat Doesn’t Recline
9. Your Stuck Next to a Talker
10. Crying Babies
11. Not Being in First Class
12. Waiting in Line to Get Off the Plane
13. Missing Your Connection
14. Lost Baggage
15. Unstaffed Gates & Understaffed Customer Service Desks
Is there something you hate about airport and plane travel that we missed on our list? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
Image & Video Sources:Sick of getting your lands blown up when you're playing G/R Tron? Perhaps you need a backup plan. Is killing all of your opponent's permanents a reasonable strategy? I certainly wouldn't mind giving them a taste of their own medicine.
This deck foregoes for a little more explosiveness. and cost eight instead of the magical number of seven, but and assist with that. If you're not able to set up Tron because of disruption or a draw that didn't pan out, and can also help cast an early.
Even you don't have Tron, your opponent likely won't have many permanents (or life points) after an connects. In a pinch, can sub in. If you're facing down a Burn deck, perhaps is the correct creature to put onto the battlefield, even if it's less explosive.
finally joins in the deck, but it's more out of necessity than anything. needs to be cast on turn two, and either artifact is perfects for accomplishing that. Once is on the battlefield, you should have no trouble finding green mana.
I like this deck because, although it gives G/R Tron more ways to be inconsistent, it also allows the deck to keep a wider range of hands which had previously been a problem. The package also gives you a way to beat combo decks or decks that were typically faster than Tron. Decks like Affinity could beat a turn-three or Wurmcoil, but they can't really beat a turn three or four Emrakul attack.Feeling more temptation than usual? 'Tis the season, and here's how to recognize and respond to it:
The Lord said to satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on him.” – Job 1:12
I don’t know about you but ever since I returned to the Church, I tend to feel like Job during Lent. I feel like God lets the devil a bit off his leash and things tend to get chaotic in my spiritual life!
Jesus was tempted in the desert. And Lent is a time of desert. According to the Catechism, during “the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” So it makes sense that we might feel more temptation in this time as well. But God does not allow anything that he cannot use for good; he can even use temptation and attacks from the devil for our conversion, transformation and holiness.
Here are some attacks that I have come to recognize and the responses that I have found helpful. Have you experienced any of these temptations this Lent?
1. The Temptation to Distraction
Purity of heart is to will the one thing. — Søren Kierkegaard
Lent can very quickly become about doing way too many things or nothing at all. The devil wants us to either drown in penances or feel discouraged right away and give up. The thing is that Lent should be about God, not our activities, as well-intentioned as they may be.
It is better to ask God to help us focus on one key thing during Lent, and then despite our failures, ask him for the grace to persevere.
2. The Temptation to Judge
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels. — Saint Augustine
If we are naturally more disciplined or strong-willed than those around us, there is a temptation to spend Lent patting ourselves on the back and comparing ourselves favorably to others. This is exactly what the devil wants. He wants us to think we are better than other people and to grow in pride, which is precisely what we should repent of during Lent.
If we have this tendency, or are experiencing it this Lent, the best antidote is to choose a penance that is absolutely impossible to achieve perfectly and that challenges our tendency toward pride. This helps us to realize that Lent is not about being perfect, type-A, judgers. It is about realizing that even with the natural gifts that God has given us, we are still sinful and very much in need of grace.
3. The Temptation to Self-Improvement
Lent can very quickly become only about losing weight or ending some bad habit that has become an irritation in our lives, rather than growing close to God. And the devil would love for Lent to be all about us. But this is not what Lent is about.
As Father Anthony Gerber pointed out in an excellent post on this subject: “Lent is … about failing miserably—about you reaching that third week of doing the difficult, of choosing the nails and thorns of love… But then denying Jesus for a few pieces of silver, of comfort, of selfish, selfish self-love. And in that moment, you’re going to be brought to your knees and you’re going to lift your arms to the heavens and say, ‘Lord, I cannot do this by myself! Lord, help me! I’m so bad at love!’”
We are usually good at loving ourselves, and bad at loving others. This is why it’s important to choose penances that will help us to grow in selfless love.
4. The Temptation to Division
Where does division come from? The devil! Division comes from the devil. Flee from internal struggles, please! — Pope Francis
Division is one of the devil’s favorite tools in his toolbox. He just loves to get between Christians and cause rivalries, confusion, jealousies, anger, and paranoia. The devil wants us to look at other Christians and see the enemy rather than recognizing that the only real enemy among us is the devil (and ourselves when we let him work on us).
So, of course, during Lent the devil may try to incite division among Christians in our homes, in our parishes, and even online. If you read material online from various sources, a good question during Lent (and really at any time) would be: “Does this material help me to love my fellow Christians more, or does it lead to division?”
Recently deceased Supreme Court justice and faithful Catholic, Antonin Scalia, once said: “I attack ideas. I don’t attack people.” This is a sign of character. And it is a distinction that is increasingly lost in our society. If what you are reading or writing online focuses on attacking people rather than working for unity in Christian love, it may be the tool of the devil to keep you (and others) from growing in the spiritual life.
5. The Temptation to Discouragement
Temptations, discouragement, and unrest are the wares offered by the enemy. – St. Padre Pio
The devil likes nothing more than to make us as miserable as he is. And he knows that if we are feeling discouraged we are likely to be less cooperative with God’s grace. So, during Lent the devil can tempt us to feel like giving up on living the penitential spirit of the season. He can make us feel like we are constantly failing and just no good at this. The thing is – no one is “good” at Lent. If you think you are, you are not choosing the right penances.
So, when we feel discouraged, it is an opportunity to thank God with loud shouts of joy for saving us from our mediocrity and sin. It makes no sense to be lost in discouragement if we really believe the Gospel message. Even in Lent, we know that Jesus has died, yes, but he has also risen, and joy and grace is available now for us to be transformed. And thank God for that!
###
There are many more ways the devil can attack during Lent. And there are many ways to fight back. If you have any ideas to add from your own personal experience, from Scripture or from the Saints, please feel free to add them to the comments!
Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, is the author of The Prodigal You Love: Inviting Loved Ones Back to the Church. She recently pronounced her first vows with the Daughters of Saint Paul. She blogs at Pursued by Truth.Still responding to the National Security Agency surveillance revelations, Google is reportedly preparing to help users beef up Gmail security with end-to-end encryption. The search giant is working on a way to make Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption easier to use for Gmail fans, according to a report by Venture Beat.
The idea that Google would be working on email encryption is surprising since that would threaten the company's ability to scan email messages for keywords to insert ads—a fact the Venture Beat report acknowledges.
Perhaps the company merely wants to make PGP easier to use for the small sliver of people who might actually want more privacy with their email. But as a regular feature for all? Not likely.
PGP explained
PGP relies on public-private encryption key pairings that make it all but impossible for someone other than the intended recipient to read an encrypted message.
Say Sally wants to send Bob a message. Once she's done composing it, Sally uses Bob's public encryption key to encrypt the message turning it into a bunch of garbled nonsense. Then only Bob can decrypt the message using his private key.
An attacker would have to spend an impossibly long time guessing combinations to decrypt the message, making it, as we said, nearly impossible.
There are ways around decryption such as stealing private keys or hacking into a PC once the message has been decrypted. But for the most part, public-private keys offer a reasonable amount of privacy.
PGP problems explained
The only problem is that employing PGP—or its open source alternative GNU Privacy Guard (GPG)—is not at all user friendly.
There are attempts to make encryption easier already such as the Thunderbird extension Enigmail and the browser plug-in Mailvelope. But so far only a relatively small number of users have been willing to try these easier solutions.
With millions of Gmail users, Google could widen the PGP/GPG user base considerably if it wanted to—but end-to-end encryption offers some big problems for a mainstream service like Gmail.
The biggest difficulty for any user, whether novice or advanced, is to keep your private key secure. If your hard drive containing your keys crashes, for example, there goes your private key along with the hope of ever reading messages encrypted with it.
If you're trying to manage encrypted email on your PC, smartphone, and a tablet, that means your private key will have to reside on all those devices. Transferring a key around could result in losing control of it if you send the key to yourself via email, your device gets hacked, or you lose an unencrypted flash drive containing the secret data.
A simpler solution for Google might be to hang on to everybody's keys on a third-party server. That way, the user doesn't have to deal with private keys and reading email across devices is that much easier.
But once Google has your private key the company can technically read your email, making the whole point of using encryption somewhat pointless, especially if the NSA or other three letter agency comes knocking—see Lavabit's woes.
Follow the money
Then there's the previously mentioned email scanning Google loves to do so it can insert ads based on keywords into your messages.
Perhaps Google could employ some kind of JavaScript magic in the browser that lets it scan messages once they've been decrypted. But Google would still have to send that post-decryption data to its servers to figure out which ads to display.
Once that happens your private messages are landing on Google servers, where they would could once again be available to law enforcement or surveillance agencies with the right paperwork.
Email encryption is nice a dream for Gmail, but the hassles of key management and ad delivery mean PGP/GPG would probably never be more than a feature buried in Gmail Labs, where only the most dedicated advanced users would find it.
If you're interested in trying out email encryption with a public-private key pair, check out our tutorial on how to use the Enigmail Thunderbird extension.Few things undermine the foundations of a just society more than people who have been granted the power to prosecute acting not on the basis of the facts and the law, but out of political motives.
To which Mika Brzezinski says... meh. On today's Morning Joe, there was a discussion of the possibility that Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby overcharged the police officers in the Freddie Gray case. And a clip was played of Mosby repeating the politically-correct phrase of the moment: that the rioters were not "thugs." After which Brzezinski declared: "I watched her speaking and I was thinking, gosh, it seems political. Not sure I care. I'm really glad her voice is at the table. I'm really glad that she's there."
The irony of her own words were obviously lost on Brzezinski. Mika fails to understand that the "justice" she claims to want is negated when the prosecutor's motivations are political.“I don’t think I will find a job like the one I have here,” he says. Alonso now works for a major auto company, and he is afraid that in Spain all he will find is “a boring job with no prospects, like the one I had before.”
A native of Salas de los Infantes, a village in the northern Spanish province of Burgos, Alonso has joined one of the largest communities that formed in Britain during the economic crisis.
Now, as a result of the Brexit negotiations, the British government has studied this group closely for the first time, and found that over half of Spanish workers in the UK work in education, health and finance.
They are not creating incentives for young people to return to the country Marta Flores, teacher
According to the British Office for National Statistics, of the 116,000 Spanish citizens living in the UK in 2013 to 2015, 25,400 were under 16 or over 64 years old (22%), 68,200 were working (59%), and 5,500 were unemployed (5%). There were 6,100 students (5%) and 10,100 were otherwise economically inactive (9%)
The report notes that “of all Spanish citizens working in the UK, 78% were working in three industrial sectors: public administration, education and health (19,400 – more than half in the education sector), banking and finance (17,000) and hospitality (16,700).
“There is a lot of demand for teachers, especially in London,” says Guadalupe R. P., a 41-year-old psychology graduate who moved to England in 2012 on a scholarship and studied to be a language teacher at the high school level. After two months of studies and seven months working at a local school, she decided to stay.
Anxiety in Spain’s British community There were 296,600 British nationals living in Spain on January 1, 2016, according to the British government. That is a drop of 12,205 people since 2011. Michael Harris, vice-presidente of an anti-Brexit group called Eurocitizens, says that the numbers continue to drop. “A significant number has already returned,” said Harris, noting that the community is experiencing “concern, anxiety and uncertainty.”
“There are no civil service examinations in the UK, and you can work at a primary school without a teaching degree, as is the case for me,” she says. “In Spain, without a degree, I could only work in the private sector, and I could not sit examinations to be a public school primary teacher.”
Carlos Martínez, a 27-year-old preschool teacher who has been in Britain for five years, agrees. “I left Spain because of how hard it was to work in the private sector, and because you had to sit examinations to access the public school system. This entails a huge effort that in no way guarantees that you are going to be successful.”
The Spanish community in Britain keeps growing. According to the latest figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in early 2017 there were 13,281 more Spanish residents in the UK than in 2016. That is a 13% increase in just a year, and a 100% increase from 2009, when there were just 57,770 Spaniards in the country.
And authorities believe that many more unregistered Spaniards may be living in Britain. “In absolute terms, Britain is the place that registered the greatest growth of the Spanish community in the last year,” says an INE report.
Now, the Spanish and UK governments are waiting to see if and how Brexit will influence this trend. The ONS report is the first in a series of analyses of foreign communities aimed at quantifying the impact that Brexit will have on these individuals.
“In my case, I’m not scared of Brexit because there is a demand for teachers. I think that in our sector, there is no cause for concern, just like the health sector,” says Guadalupe.
Marta Flores, a 26-year-old teacher from Córdoba, would like to return to Spain. “But I don’t see that happening in the short term,” she says. “They are not creating incentives for young people to return to the country.”
English version by Susana Urra.According to a post on Sydney Indymedia, an attempt at starting a new anarchist-run squat has been thwarted by NSW riot police.
Ideally the building could have been transformed into an open social centre, and we could have publicly announced our presence immediately with banners hanging down from the roof, celebrated with an opening party, created a public free shop, communal kitchen and free school. Unfortunately, due to Australia’s draconian trespass laws, and the lack of militant resistance, squatters have no legal rights. Any squat that publicly announces itself or is discovered by security or police, must generally prepare for an immediate eviction. Police have the right to evict, arrest and charge anyone squatting an abandoned building without even consulting with the owner.
Source: Sydney Indymedia via disaccordsHackers have broken into Adobe's files and stolen data related to 2.9 million users and the popular Adobe Creative Cloud software, the company and Internet security experts announced Thursday.
"Very recently, Adobe's security team discovered sophisticated attacks on our network, involving illegal access of customer information as well as source code for numerous Adobe products," Adobe's chief security officer, Brad Arkin, said in a blog post.
"Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems."
The stolen data was said to include customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates and other information relating to people's orders.
It appeared that no decrypted credit or debit card numbers were taken, according to Arkin.
"We deeply regret that this incident occurred," he said. "We're working diligently internally as well as with external partners and law enforcement to address the incident."
Adobe was resetting the passwords of customers whose information was taken and alerting people whose credit or debit card numbers were swiped.
The California-based company was also investigating the theft of source code crafted into its products and said it didn't believe it increased the risk of hackers' breaking into programs people use.
Adobe makes widely used computer programs suh as Acrobat, Reader, Photoshop and ColdFusion, a Web application development tool.
Brian Krebs of the website KrebsOnSecurity said in a blog post that it appeared the same attackers recently struck data brokers and the National White Collar Crime Center, which helps agencies and organizations involved in the investigation and prosecution of cybercrime.
Krebs and fellow Internet-security expert Alex Holden alerted Adobe to the breach, which they said happened in August.
It remained to be seen whether those breaches exploited Adobe software.
Al Jazeera and Agence France-PresseSh*t Non-Addicts Say
When you're sober, many people just have no clue where you're coming from. Here are five not-so-informed things "normies" normally say to me—and how I attempt to respond.
When you get sober, you find yourself having to explain your situation to a number of different people in your life—people who often know very little about addiction and recovery.
The fact that you’ve gone to rehab, or have put down the bottle, or are announcing that you now know you have a problem with substances can be very disconcerting to these people. They don’t understand why anyone—let alone someone they know—would make such a dramatic and insane-sounding decision.
Maybe they’ve been drinking alongside you for the past 10 or 20 years, and see your change as a terrifying threat to their very way of life. Maybe they always assumed they’d only encounter words like “sobriety,” “rehab” and “ninth-step amends” in Augusten Burroughs memoirs or obscure Anne Hathaway movies. Maybe they’re your parents, and never fancied themselves the sort of people who would give birth to, and then raise, an addict. Or maybe they think that recovery is just south of Scientology: Oh, no, they’ve gotten her—am I next?
I actually find it cute when people call AA “classes,” because I like to imagine them thinking we’re all sitting at desks taking notes.
Of course, plenty of people don’t react this way. Plenty of people saw that look on your face as the birds started chirping those mornings, or noticed the way you’d sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly take an axe to your life. But the number of people who never noticed these things—or who may have noticed but still changed their tune once you actually changed your ways—is astounding. Because of this, and the necessity of explaining your situation to new acquaintances too, sober people end up responding to certain familiar statements and questions over and over again. In no particular order, I’ve listed below—and considered my answers to—five of the most common.
1) Oh, you didn’t have to go to those classes, did you?
I actually find it cute when people call AA “classes,” because I like to imagine them thinking we’re all sitting at desks taking notes while a professor type breaks down alcoholism and addiction from the front of the room. From what I can tell, these are people whose familiarity with AA is based on having heard that if you get a DUI, you’re court-ordered there. AA, to them, is roughly synonymous with jail. If you explain that you do indeed go to those “classes” and that you in fact call them "meetings," you may well be met with a look of pity or horror. Adding that no one’s forcing you to be there and that you go because it makes you feel good may only cause that look to intensify.
It can thus be fun to respond with great enthusiasm to these people—to say things like, “Yes and it’s the highlight of my day!” Or, even better, “It’s the main thing in my life”—because it will pretty much guarantee that the person will never bother you with this question again since they will be too busy running away from you. I’ve found that the quickest way of all to end this conversation is to respond, “I do; want to come with me sometime?”
2) Not even wine? (Or, alternatively: Not even pot?)
Now, I relate to people who don’t understand why, if you had a problem with cocaine, you need to also stop doing those things with which you allegedly never had a problem. I was once one of them. And I think the best way to explain why you don’t take Oxys when meth was your problem—or why you gave up alcohol when you were addicted to crack—is that it’s all the same. I firmly believe that if you’re a true alcoholic or addict, and you put down your substance of choice but not another addictive substance, you will then abuse that other substance. I also believe that there’s a high probability that you do, in fact, abuse those other substances already, but that your primary devotion to one drug makes your abuse of those others seem relatively minor.
The best expression I’ve heard to explain what it is to quit one drug but not another is that “It’s like switching seats on the Titanic.” But I’ve also learned that non-addicts just making conversation don’t tend to get this if you share it with them.
3) Wait, you’re still going to those meetings—even after all this time?
This one, like the question about “classes,” makes the assumption that meetings are a total drag. I get it; I imagined before I went to meetings (and even after checking out a few before I was ready) that all people did there was talk about how much they wanted to drink. I had no idea that the addicts in there were often not discussing alcohol or drugs at all, but how to live with a brain that had told them that consuming lethal amounts of it was a good idea. I didn’t understand that these were people gathering in order to support each other through the sort of life problems that everyone, alcoholic or not, must confront. I certainly didn’t get that meetings could be hysterically funny; even though people were laughing in the meetings I went to before I was ready to really hear the message, I decided they were all losers with weird ideas about what was funny. But I’ve found that explaining all this tends to make non-addicts' eyes glaze over.
The best response, I’ve found, is to compare it to the gym—to explain that working out every day for a year and then stopping wouldn’t do much for you five or 11 years later. But that still doesn’t seem to erase the dumbfounded looks entirely.
4) You must have so much willpower!
The willpower issue is an interesting one. It feels strange to write this—since I know that it isn’t the case for everyone—but for me, for the most part, the desire to drink and use excessively went away a long time ago, and the years since have only shown me how much better I feel without those things. If being sober was about willpower, I’d be fucked—and anyone watching me eye and then demolish a brownie sundae or BLT could immediately glean that. That isn’t to say I've never been tempted. Even just a couple of years ago, when I was in Indonesia with some ridiculously heavy (but not alcoholic) drinkers whose lives all seemed to be perfect, and I was sad and lonely and dying to do anything I could to connect, I absolutely wanted to drink.
Still, the fact that most of the time I don’t even think about something I couldn’t stop doing—couldn’t, in fact, leave the house and face people or even breathe the air outside without doing—feels miraculous. I have noticed, though, that using words like “miracle” in this context can get you categorized in some people’s minds as some sort of religious zealot. Point is: I get why this willpower thing doesn’t make sense to people; I just don’t have the easiest time explaining it.
5) It must be so hard...
If, when people say this, they mean that life is hard, they’re right. Life is hard for everyone at times. But I find that sobriety is only quote-unquote "hard" when I’m in situations like the Indonesia one I just described. Usually when you’re around a lot of heavy drinkers or drug users, there tends to be someone whose drinking or using is so obnoxious or self-destructive that it serves as a strong reminder of why you don’t do it anymore. When everyone looks fabulous and almost like it’s their very drinking that makes them so fabulous, that is hard. It’s also rare.
I’ve gone through incredibly difficult times since getting sober—experienced emotional pain as great or even greater than I experienced pre-sobriety. But I’m 100% clear that a drink or drug is only going to make that pain worse. Yes, I have to go to meetings and take calls even when I’m not in the mood and do humbling things that can sometimes feel humiliating, and write down more in notebooks than I did even as an angsty teen. But it’s not exactly hard; it’s just a lot of work.
So what I tend to say to people in response to this is that what I was doing before—hiding and isolating and feeling depressed as I chased a drug that had been making me feel terrible for years—was hard. This, in comparison, is easy.
Fix columnist Anna David is the author of Party Girl, Bought, Reality Matters and Falling For Me. She served as The Fix's Executive Editor for over two years. Her previous columns have tackled subjects like catching alcoholism, no-good doctors, AA-haters, being a so-so sponsor and the unpredictability of making amends.Kathy Hamelin's 75-year-old mother ran out of groceries two weeks ago.
All Hamelin could do for her mother was put in an order at the food bank.
"It's painful that I can't do anything to help my mom," Hamelin said. "She gave me this beautiful amazing thing called life and I can't do anything to help her because I have no money myself."
Hamelin, 59, was laid off in April from her job in a Fort McMurray oil camp and has been on an unsuccessful search for work ever since.
On Monday, she was among the hundreds of people at Giovanni Caboto park for the Edmonton and District Labour Council's annual Labour Day BBQ — a free event.
The irony that so many were out of work on Labour Day — a holiday celebrating the achievements of workers — was not lost on Premier Rachel Notley, who was also in attendance.
"It's a wonderful demonstration by the labour movement to sort of reach out and support people who are otherwise struggling," Notley told reporters.
"We understand people are hurting right now and we have to do whatever we can to support them."
Premier Rachel Notley speaks to reporters about job creation at the Edmonton and District Labour Council's annual Labour Day BBQ at Giovanni Caboto Park. (Trevor Wilson/CBC)
Unemployment rate reaches 22-year high
The unemployment rate in Alberta has been on the rise since the price of oil dropped last year. It's been going up steadily as of March, when it was 7.1 per cent.
Data released by the government last week established a new 22-year high — 8.6 per cent as of July.
The NDP's promise of job creation in the spring budget feels empty for people like Hamelin.
"I have been sending out resumes like crazy. I'm even willing to work as a babysitter. I'd do private housekeeping," she said. "From making $25 an hour, I'd being willing to make $12, $15 an hour."
But Hamelin said she hasn't gotten any responses, never mind any interviews.
You want this province to stay strong and be something [we're] proud of. You know what, give us a reason. - Kathy Hamelin, looking for employment
"If there's only one promise if she could keep, that should be the number one, the number one promise," Hamelin said. "You want this province to stay strong and be something [we're] proud of. You know what, give us a reason."
Notley cited the laundry list of initiatives the government is working on, including the $34-billion infusion in infrastructure over the next five years that she estimates will create about 10,000 jobs annually.
She said that businesses receiving additional investment will be recruiting workers too, but it will take time.
"I get it. It would be great that we had 100,000 jobs right there right now. We're working as hard as we can on it," Notley said.
"Obviously, there's more to be done. Obviously, we'd like to see the price of oil come back up. Obviously, we'd like to diversify the economy, but you can't fix 40 years of one path in 15 months."
roberta.bell@cbc.ca
@roberta__bellA college student who was given an outpouring of community support after she complained about receiving anti-gay notes has been charged with writing the messages herself.
Alexandra Pennell was videotaped sliding one of the notes under her own door by a hidden camera set up by Central Connecticut State University police, according to an arrest warrant.
Pennell, 19, has pleaded not guilty to charges including falsely reporting an incident, fabricating evidence and making a false statement. She was arrested on May 2, and the charges were first reported Monday by WTIC-AM.
Hundreds of students rallied in |
back into our archives to find some of the posts from that night. This first article was our real-time event blog I wrote as we rode out the storm here at KOMO Plaza. It's followed up by the Associated Press story that was written Friday afternoon -- the afternoon after the brunt of the storm on Dec. 15, 2006. Many of the deaths from the storm hadn't been reported yet and some occurred in the days after the storm.
I'd also invite you to read local storm researcher Wolf Read's excellent post that has all the weather geeky details about the storm.
The storm that fizzled as it approached our region on Oct. 15, 2016 was originally calculated to rival this storm's strength, which I also hope sheds light on why local meteorologists were very concerned about that storm.
LIVE BLOG FROM DEC. 14-15, 2006 (Reverse Chronological Order)
FRIDAY DECEMBER 15:
6:30: Sea-Tac Airport now allowing both arrivals and departures, but with limited service and flights are being staggered.
6:15 p.m.: Governor Chris Gregoire has proclaimed a state of emergency in 17 Western Washington counties because of damage caused by the windstorm that blew through the state. The proclamation covers Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, Lewis, King, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, Wahkiakum and Whatcom counties.
The proclamation allows state agencies to use their resources to assist local communities in their recovery efforts, and authorizes the Washington National Guard to activate its resources if needed.
5:30 p.m.: Power outage at Sea-Tac Airport knocks out radar. All outgoing flights suspended; incoming flights allowed to land.
5:20 p.m.: Puget Sound Energy Update: Power has been restored to about 100,000 customers. About 600,000 still without power
4:40 p.m.: Some planes damaged at Boeing Field due to wind.
4:27 p.m. Snohomish County PUD update: They are down to 45,000 without power, mainly concentrated in the south and east.
Hardest hit include Edmonds, Canyon Park and Maltby.
4:15 p.m.: The Crow's Nest marina at Tacoma reports that five boats sank, several others are partially submerged and
as many as 50 were damaged in the windstorm.
4:05 p.m. The All My Children episode that will be pre-empted at noon Friday will air 3:00-4:00am Saturday morning, December 16.
3:55 p.m.: WSU King County Extension Web site provides forest storm damage information for homeowners and landowners: http://www.king.wsu.edu/forestry/windstorm.html
3:13: Seattle City Light power update: 34,000 customers have been restored and 121,000 customers and 52 feeders are still without power. Seattle City Light expects to have an additional 41,000 customers restored by midnight Friday. By Saturday midnight, we expect to have another 50,000 customers restored. Unfortunately, there are pockets of outages that may last several days due to the amount and severity of the damage caused by the wind and downed trees. Areas that are particularly hard hit are Burien, Lake Forest Park, Shoreline, Madison Valley, Madrona, Rainier Valley, Skyway, Richmond Beach, parts of West Seattle, Normandy Park, and Tukwila.
1:30 p.m.: 520 Bridge reopens to traffic.
1:45 p.m. Puget Sound Blood Center donor centers are open, normal hours, through the weekend. At least eight mobile blood drives, half of those scheduled Friday, were canceled as a result of the storm.
1:22 p.m.: Swedish Providence Campus in Seattle is running on emergency power. All clinics are closed and elective surgeries have been canceled. ER remains open.
1:17 p.m.: Crews in Grays Harbor aiming to turn power back on for most people by 9 p.m. tonight. Crews do say, however, few may be without power until Sunday, possibly even Monday.
1:10 p.m.: 75,000 customers - and no longer 100,000 - in Tacoma have no power.
12:59 p.m.: 67,000 customers still without power in Snohomish.
12:20 p.m.: The Guemes Island Ferry reportedly broke loose from its moorings early this morning and drifted down Guemes Channel to Curtis Wharf. Crews have retrieved and returned the ship since.
10:51 a.m.: The storm has claimed a fourth life. Police in McCreary tell the Aberdeen Daily World that a 28-year-old man was crushed to death in his sleep by a tree that snapped during the storm and crash-landed on his trailer.
10:19 a.m.: Police: a Montesano police car and a Grays Harbor deputy's car were damaged by flying debris after a roof blew off a car dealership during the storm.
9:28 a.m.: The city of Olympia reports it has opened its Emergency Operations Center to deal with widespread storm damage.
9:01a.m.: NW Trek near Eatonville has closed for today and the weekend due toppled trees that are blocking the entrance and a power outage at the park.
8:43 a.m.: Garbage and recycling was being collected on a normal schedule in Seattle this morning, with only minor slowdowns reported in areas where streets or alleys have been blocked by storm debris.
8:07 a.m.: About 100,000 residents in Tacoma have no power. The outages are said t be scattered all over the city's service area.
7:52 a.m.: Mercer Island residents urged to stay home. Severe winds have caused fallen trees, downed power lines and power outages throughout Mercer Island. It is very likely that Mercer Islanders will not be able to leave the Island.
7:46 a.m.: Power outages as of now: Puget Sound Energy: 700,000, Seattle City Light: 171,000, Snohomish PUD: 95,000, Grays Harbor: 22,000.
7:45 a.m.: SR-20/Deception Pass Bridge reopens.
6:20 a.m.: Tacoma Narrows Bridge reopens.
5:58 a.m.: King County Emergency Management says at least 300 trees fell across roads during the windstorm. Metro Transit trolleys are not running. Flooding has damaged the West Point sewage treatment plant.
5:30 a.m.: Some road closures from the DOT:
SR 18 Westbound at Tiger Mountain: debris blocking all lanes
US 2 Westbound at Gold Bar -- debris blocking all lanes
SR 900 eastbound just east of May Valley Road, debris blocking all lanes
SR 530 at mp 50.5, debris blocking all lanes
SR 525 southbound at mp 16, debris blocking all lanes
SR-524 at 55th Ave, debris blocking all lanes
SR-169 southbound at 152nd Ave SE, debris blocking all lanes
SR-20 Sharps Corner to Mt Vernon, power out to all signals
SR-20 at Deception Pass, debris blocking all lanes
SR-11 at Ershig road, debris blocking all lanes
SR-9 at mile post 34, debris blocking southbound lane
4:46a.m.: DOT shut down Hwy 20 between Cornet Bay Rd in Island County to Deception Pass in Skagit County.
3:00 a.m.: Seattle City Light reports 160,000 people - or 50-percent of customers - are without power. No critical services are in the dark. Crews are being dispatched to restore service at locations where it is safe to work.
3:00 a.m.: A window at Sea-Tac Airport gets blown in by the wind. Airport officials vacate concourse "C" out of fear of further structural damage. Officials also report power outages in concourse "A" and south satellite, as well as a number of unspecified flight delays.
2:00 a.m.: North I-405 is closed at the West Valley Highway (Renton) due to downed trees across the freeway. (reopened later)
1:59 a.m.: One lane of southbound I-509 is back open at Seatac after a semi used a tow rope to break a tree and clear the road.
1:58 a.m.: Police shut down Seattle blocks around 5th and Madison where a metal beam fell from a building under construction and crushed several cars. No reports of injuries.
1:30 a.m.: SR 530 is closed in both directions in Darrington. Trees have fallen on power lines near the roadway.
1:00 a.m.: Sea-Tac reports gust of 69 mph. Sets record for highest gust ever recorded at airport, topping 64 mph gust from Inauguration Day Storm on Jan. 20, 1993
12:45 a.m.: DOT closes Tacoma Narrows Bridge for first time in its history due to high winds. Truck blown over on midspan.
12:10 a.m.: As of 8pm Thursday, all AMTRAK passenger train service between Seattle and Portland has been suspended for 48 hours, due to a mudslide at Titlow (just south of Tacoma) and numerous fallen trees along the route. Amtrak's Sounder route and routes north of Seattle will continue. Freight routes are also still running. Amtrak train service between Seattle and Portland will resume on Dec.16th at 8pm.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14th
11:20 p.m. Tacoma reports gust of 69 mph. Everett to 66, Alki to 67, Seattle to 54, to name a few.
10:55 p.m.: Seattle City Light reports 29,000 people without power.
10:30 p.m.: National Weather Service reports: Highway 3 closed north of Poulsbo due to fallen trees. Trees down on SR 522 near Paradise Lake Road. Highway 12 blocked near Rochester.
10:24 p.m.: Area police agencies are asking that people take the following steps: 1) For Power Outages, call your energy provider 911 dispatchers cannot speed the return of power, and the call volume is very high. 2) Dark Intersections. If signals go dark, it becomes a 4-way stop. They will not send an officer to direct traffic. There simply aren't enough. Slow down and take your time. 3) Flooding. They are aware of the flooded roadways. Unless leaking into a building, they do not need a call. Even if a home is being flooded, it will be some time before assistance can get to you. 4) Down Power Lines. Unless they are live, i.e. "Arcing and Sparking," call PSE or your specific energy provider. 5) Bad traffic conditions. Police have access to the traffic cameras, and are aware of the road conditions. There is very little that can be done, and several callers have tied up emergency lines to argue will call takers over something they cannot control.
Please do not call 911 unless it is truly an emergency. Fires, in-progress crimes, injury accidents, and so forth will take priority over weather related incidents. People should stay home unless absolutely necessary, as driving is more likely to make them part of the problem, rather than the solution.
10:16 p.m.: 520 Bridge reports gust of 63 mph. DOT is shutting down the bridge now.
9:31 p.m.: Viewer report: Trees fell into dorms "Q" and "R" at The Evergreen State College
9:21 p.m.: Latest information from Tacoma Fire Department: 4112 S. Steel St.—tree fell on car w/ occupants in it—no one was injured. 3564 E. Roosevelt (Lister Elementary) tree fell through one of buildings. 200 Norpoint Way, huge tree fell across road. 8400 E. D. St—110,000 volt line fell on the ground, started pole on fire, as well as setting a stop sign and grass on fire.
9:06 p.m.: Tacoma reports gust to 60 mph. Everett to 53. Seattle to 47.
9:00 p.m.: Tree on two cars on Camano Island—on Coho Lane
8:35 p.m.: Pierce county officials urge residents to stay home.
8:28 p.m.: DOT closes Hood Canal Bridge due to high winds.
7:58 p.m.: Snohomish County emergency dispatch says they are getting too many 911 calls for people reporting power outages. You should not call 911, but only call your power company. The only reason to call 911 for a power outage is if the power is out in a home where the person has a life threatening problem or illness.
7:28 p.m. : Police in Pierce County report two weather-related fatal wrecks. A man tried to avoid a falling tree, rammed into another and died from injuries. In the second incident, a tree fell onto a pickup with two occupants, killing one and throwing the other out of the car. That person was airlifted to the hospital.
6:55 p.m.: The DOT says a detour is now available on I-5 in Lewis County at State Route 508, just north of the closure. Trees are down, blocking the roadway.
6:46 p.m.: Viewer report: A 100 ft. tree came into his house in Federal Way.
6:45 p.m.: Viewer report: Kirkland Parkplace Cinemas parking lot flooded.
6:40 p.m.: Seattle City Light reports about 5,000 people without power in the Sheridan Beach and South Seattle areas.
6:38 p.m.: Puget Sound Energy reports about 12,000 without power in the Kitsap County/Thurston County and Port Orchard area; Bothell/Cottage Lake/Kirkland area. Scattered outages in Pierce and Thurston County.
6:30 p.m.: Viewer report: Travelers going southbound on Sandpoint Way approaching Magnuson Park are running into water gushing over the road as it comes down the hill from the Inverness area. This is forming a river that reaches up to the doors on smaller cars (some have flooded out and are being pushed by higher centered cars). All of this happens at a dark area of the road and drivers are in trouble before they realize what is happening.
6:30 p.m.: 31101 116th Ave SE, Auburn: Trees into several moblie homes.
6:30 p.m.: Reports that I-5 is now clear of standing water. Some problems with standing water on some I-405 on-ramps remain.
6:25 p.m.: 500 block of 30th Ave. E, Seattle: A woman was critically injured after she got trapped in a basement of her Capitol Hill home as water began to flood into the room and the door got jammed shut. Neighbors heard her scream and called 911. The water flooded to the ceiling and firefighters were not able to get access. They had to cut a hole in the floor above to pull her out, but she was under water for an estimated 8 minutes. Medics were performing CPR on her as they rushed her to Harborview.
6:15 p.m.: The southbound lanes of I-5 in Lewis County are closed south of Chehalis because of trees across the freeway. There is currently no detour, and no estimated time of reopening. The closure is just south of the intersection with State Route 508.
5:58 p.m.: SR-99 reopened; water drained. Mercer Street closed due to standing water under SR-99 overpass.
5:52 p.m.: Issaquah Pine Lake Rd: Tree fell into the power lines and across the road. This is near the entrance to Klahanee and SE 37th. Power out in area.
5:51 p.m. : The Coast Guard has closed a number of river bar entrances on the Washington and Oregon coasts, which means that
vessels cannot sail over the bars without permission.
5:39 p.m.: Everett has wind gust to 53 mph. Hoquiam reports gust of 55 mph.
5:36 p.m.: Report of power outages in Woodinville.
5:16 p.m.: Standing water blocks parts of SR-99 near Mercer Street and Battery Street Tunnel.
5:15 p.m.: More standing water reported on I-5 north near the Convention Center and near Spokane Street.
5:08 p.m.: Two trees down on SR-16 in Kitsap County (near Bremerton) -- one near Bethel Road and the other near Segwick Road -- is blocking all eastbound lanes.
5:05 p.m.: Weather has forced the cancellation of the passenger only service between Seattle and Vashon for the remainder of Thursday Dec. 14
4:55 p.m.: All lanes of northbound I-5 at Mercer Street closed due to standing water on the freeway.
4:35 p.m.: A mudslide moves down towards Elliott Ave on Queen Anne Hill near the area of W. Olympic Place and 9th Ave N.
2:30 p.m.: DOT warns it might close 520 Bridge at 11 p.m. if winds are stronger than 50 mph.
ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE PUBLISHED DEC. 15, 2006
SEATTLE (AP) - A one-two punch of howling windstorms and heavy rains left at least three people dead and more than 1 million homes and businesses without power across Western Washington early Friday.
One woman died after being trapped in the flooded basement of her home, while falling trees killed two others.
The Evergreen Point floating bridge across Lake Washington east of Seattle remained closed early Friday and numerous other highways were blocked because of high water or windblown trees. The Hood Canal floating bridge and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge were reopened early Friday after being closed Thursday evening.
"We're asking everybody to stay home," Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said. "There isn't a place in east Pierce County that's not dangerous."
About 50 residents of Sunrise Assisted Living of Edmonds were evacuated after a tree came crashed through the third floor about 2 a.m., knocking out the fire main and flooding the building, Snohomish County emergency management officials said.
Residents were sent to other facilities operated by Sunrise in the area, many to one in Snohomish where employees were working through a power outage. No injuries were reported.
Hazardous material shipments were prohibited on Interstate 5 through Seattle and on some other major routes because of power outages, and one of the concourses and the south satellite terminal at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were without electricity. Airport spokesman Robert Parker said he expected some flights to be canceled.
Seattle public schools and numerous suburban and outlying school districts with more than 300,000 students were closed Friday, as was The Evergreen State College in Olympia.
In Seattle, firefighters cut a hole in the floor to pull Kathryn Fleming, 41, out of her flooded windowless basement after neighbors heard her screaming that she was trapped, but she was pronounced dead after being taken to Harborview Medical Center.
"Somehow, the door shut, and she couldn't open the door because of the water pressure," Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said.
In Pierce County, Harold J. Fox, 47, of Eatonville, was killed Thursday when a tree fell on his vehicle on State Route 7 near Roy, the Washington State Patrol said, and a woman died and her husband was critically injured when a tree fell on their pickup truck after they stopped because of fallen trees southeast of McKenna.
About 700,000 customers of Puget Sound Energy, the state's largest private utility, were without power early Friday and about three-fourths of the circuits were down in the company's nine-county service area, spokesman Roger Thompson said.
Other outages affected about 171,000 customers in Seattle, 120,000 in the Snohomish County Public Utility District north of the city, 70,000 to 80,000 to the south in Tacoma and 22,000 in the Grays Harbor PUD on the coast.
"If it's not the largest (outage), it's close to it," Seattle City Light spokeswoman Suzanne Hartman said.
The hardest hit area was King County, which includes Seattle, where drenching rain accompanied the first wallop as the storm hit Thursday afternoon, slowing commuters to a crawl. The winds picked up again around midnight.
"That second one is when we saw the greatest number of outages, after midnight," said Dorothy Bracken, a Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman.
Repair crews were waiting for the winds to subside after daybreak before beginning to assess the damage and restoring power, and some are likely to be in the dark for three she said.
"They've been defeated in doing that because of the continued strong winds... they never died down," she said. "It's just not safe."
Puget Sound Energy already had 50 to 60 two- and four-person repair crews from areas as far away as California and Nevada for a total of more than 180 crews primed to begin work following an earlier, less damaging wave of storms that hit Wednesday.
Outages from the earlier storm were all fixed before the one began Thursday, and the extra crews were kept rather than sent home, Bracken said.
Even with the outside help, though, some customers won't have their lights back on for days, he said.
Some of the outages were caused by lightning, an unusual circumstance in the Puget Sound region.
As the storm system passed over the region, "we've had some embedded thunderstorms that dropped impressive amounts of water," said Dennis D'Amico, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Winds gusted to 74 mph at the Hood Canal floating bridge, which links the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas, 63 mph at the Evergreen Point floating bridge, one of two linking Seattle with the suburbs east of Lake Washington, 70 mph at Westport on the coast and more than 50 mph in downtown Seattle.
Rain drenched Qwest Field in Seattle shortly before the NFL game between the Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, leaving standing water on the field. About half an hour before kickoff, a power surge briefly knocked out electricity to the large video screens at each ends of the stadium.
Nearly an inch of rain fell in one hour at the weather service's north Seattle office. A record rainfall of 2.17 inches was set in Seattle for the date, breaking the old record of 1.24 inches on Dec. 14, 2002.
In the 24 hours ending at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the Weather Service said the Mason County city of Shelton recorded 2.19 inches of rain, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport received 1.09 inches, Olympia had 1.53 inches, Hoquiam on the coast had 1.83 inches, and Maple Falls in the Cascade foothills east of Bellingham had 1.46 inches.
The Coast Guard closed a number of river bar entrances on the Washington coast - including the Columbia River, Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay and the Quillayute River entrances - meaning vessels could not cross the bars without permission.
"The bars will remain closed until search-and-rescue capabilities are restored," the Coast Guard said in a news release.
East of the Cascade Range the same storm system battered the northcentral part of the state with high winds and heavy snow.
More than 10 inches of snow fell by late Thursday night in Okanogan County, where widespread power and telephone outages were reported and cellular phone service also was down in many areas. The entire Methow Valley was dark, and the sheriff's office in Okanogan switched to emergency generators for a time.Intriducing our popular double monk but this time made using our luxurious & precious Brown genuine crocodile leather! Our production of crocodile shoes is very limited.
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Our shoes & boots are Goodyear Welted following traditional techniques by skillful artisans. This monks are made to last and to just get better looking & more confortable over the time. As all our shoes, this monk is fully calf leather lined & made using full grain vegetable tanned leather insoles.
Goodyear welted on our contemporary ELTON last, that is perfectly balanced for the double monk style. Finished with our newly introduced JR leather sole for an added durability, confort & beathability, as the rest of our leather soled shoes featuring a convenient close channel sole stitching.
A pair that for sure will make you stand out!
Shipping: OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017Everything's USB Powered Anyway, right? Replaces your existing wall outlets with one including two extra USB charging ports
Supplies up to 2.1 Amps through each USB Port!
Made for US 110v only households only
Look around you. Chances are pretty good there are at least half a dozen things within arm's reach of you that are plugged into a power outlet. Your laptop, your tablet computer, your phone... even that awesome pair of wireless headphones need to be charged. Everything gets plugged in, though some of the smaller devices have charging interfaces that double for data ports.
Your cellphone, for instance, probably recharges over USB. The manufacturer was kind enough to give you a wall-outlet dongle that converts the 110 volts coming out of your wall outlet into 5 volts of USB power. That's fine, but you'll either lose an outlet with that adapter, or you'll misplace the dongle, and you'll have to plug into your computer, and that's not always convenient.
So some enterprising engineers at Fastmac realized how easy it would be to just build the transformers right into the wall outlets! Put 2 USB ports in the wall plate next to the 110 volt sockets, and you've doubled the versatility of your power line. We just happened to get a hold of a handful of these outlets, and brought them to you because, well, we think they're pretty awesome.
Note that you need to use your considerable brains to install these outlets. Please learn everything you can about replacing wall outlets before even thinking about performing this kind of electrical work. Electricity is dangerous, and you could electrocute yourself, set the house on fire, or ruin your sensitive electronics if you do something wrong. This is srs bznz, so don't cut corners. Tell you what, just do yourself a favor and watch this video. It'll only take a minute. We'll wait.
Once you've followed the instructions, you should be able to enjoy some USB power coming right out of your wall. It's the future, man.
FeaturesAfter bankrupting the motor company he started, André Citroën could no longer afford to spend summers in Deauville. For years he had rented one of the largest villas, the Villa Abeilles ‘villa bees’ for the season, gambling away small fortunes at the casino with the Aga Khan and Jean Patou, breaking away occasionally to be photographed with his delightful wife. Unfortunately developing the Traction Avant automobile ruined André’s bank balance and his health. He lost Citroën to the main creditor Michelin in 1934 and died after a short illness in 1935.
In Deauville the party carried on without him and without a backward glance. By 1936 rich summer visitors were looking forward to a new extravaganza to distract them from the troubles of the world. It would pass right by André’s summer home.
The automobile Grand Prix was coming to Deauville.
Rise of motor racing
During the 1920’s and 30’s the dangerous, glamorous new sport of motor racing was wildly popular. Drivers were heroes and towns that hosted their battles made fortunes from the fans. Deauville was an expert at entertaining it’s wealthy visitors – rumours are the race track was built before the church – so looked to exploit this new entertainment.
Bringing automotive Grand Prix to Deauville
The team that brought the idea to Deauville were Marcel Letarouilly a shop owner in the town, André Misonnier who owned a decorating business and was a friend of driver Philippe Etancelin and Armand Esders a rich industrialist and government advisor. Armand was well known for his collection of rich man’s toys; he owned a Rolls-Royce, a Hispano-Suiza biplane and a Bugatti Royale that infamously had no headlights as he refused to drive at night. Andre had bankrolled the local aerodrome and was friends with Ettore Bugatti, who often visited the town.
This dream team of investors created a non profit making Association to run the event. They soon secured sponsorship from Le Matin newspaper.
The first Deauville automotive Grand Prix would take place on 19 July 1936.
Imperfect plans
A track was drawn up along Boulevard Eugène Cornuché in front of the grandest villas then back along the seafront. The organisers contracted Entreprises Morneau to upgrade the road surface to a budget of FF95,200. Intense discussions took place across the town as agreements to close roads, host advertising and place fencing around the track were negotiated to everyone’s advantage. The French Ministry of the Interior to the Calvados Region sent detailed instructions on how to run the event and a fee of FF20,000 was put aside for policing (FF3000 payable in advance).
The race would start at the marina end of Boulevard Eugène Cornuché, in front of grand villas with Trouville in the background. Racers would first drive past the casino along a road then fairly straight, but now altered to curve around the park. They would then come to the first of two sharp corners before another straight back to the marina, alongside Le Planches, the boardwalk next to the beach. The circuit covered 2.4 miles.
As the Grand Prix approached race teams took over all the garages in Deauville. They were granted two days of practise between 7am and 8pm then on the third day took part in a two hour qualifying session between 3pm and 5pm.
Demand for allocated race tickets was fierce but not everyone was pleased about the new Grand Prix. At the Normandy Hotel a guest checked out early, annoyed by the sound of the cars during practise prompting a strong complaint to the Association from the manager.
A swarm of bees
By race day Deauville was packed ‘as if invaded by a swarm of bees’ said a local paper. A large wooden fence was constructed around the track, not for safety but to keep out non-paying spectators. Fake tickets were printed and sold, swelling the crowds around the track to uncomfortable levels.
As they surveyed the new circuit both drivers and spectators expressed their dismay. The roads were unusually narrow for a Grand Prix, and the sharp corners that looked potentially lethal.
The drivers
The Association were delighted to have secure top names in racing. Motor Sport magazine later reported:
“A good entry had been received, two Ferrari Alfa-Romeos, to be handled by Farina and Dreyfus, Wimillie’s Bugatti, Lehoux’s 2-litre E.R.A., Chambost’s, McEvoy’s, cholmondeley-Tapper’s and Raph’s Maseratis, and Alfa-Romeos entered by Charles Martin, Sommer, Austin Dobson and de Villapadierna. The officials decided that r’s brakes were not up to their work, and he was refused permission to start.”
French favourite Marcel Lehoux
The race begins
Motor Sport review of the race, August 1936
Then…catastrophe
Motor Sport review of the race, August 1936
Race results
Broken down race cars, crash victims and their wreckage were dragged from the track so the race could continue. Only three cars completed the 100 lap race.
Jean-Pierre Wimille in the Bugatti T59 3.3 engine in 2hrs 57mins and 44s. Speed 77.73 mph. Charles Martin in an Alfa Romeo Tipo B 2.9 engine in 2hrs 59mins and 11.6s. Speed 76.89 mph. José de Villapierna in an Alfa Romeo Tipo B 2.9 engine in 2hrs 59mins and 47.6s. He also took the fastest lap in 1m38.8s.
Raymond Sommer’s Alpha Romeo Tipo B rear axle broke (again). Guiseppe Farina crashed the Alpha Romeo 8C1935. Robert Benoist crashed the Bugatti T59. Rene Dreyfus’s supercharger on the Alfa Romeo 8C failed. Marcel Lehoux fatally crashed the ERA B. and Raymond Chambost fatally crashed a Maseratie BCM spl.
The Deauville track would never be raced again.
Not for the feint hearted, this clip shows footage of the race and Lehoux’s fatal crash.
Rumours and the end for Deauville’s Grand Prix
Jean-Pierre Wimille collected his trophy to muted applause. Rumours were already spreading through the crowds that one of their heroes had not survived his crash and another was seriously injured.
Local shop keepers engineered traffic jams to keep people in the town but there was little appetite for celebration. The promoters were left with a FF200,000 loss.
Forgotten heroes
On 26 October 1937 a ceremony was held in Deauville to commemorate the lives of Marcel Lehoux and Albert ‘Raymond’ Chambost. Shortly afterwards a bronze sculpture of the two drivers, paid for by Journal l’Aero, was placed on the edge of town along Boulevard du Mer. It is no longer there.
The Deauville automobile Grand Prix of 1936 was rarely ever mentioned again.Must-See Skywatching Event of 2015: Total Solar Eclipse on March 20
On March 20, 2015, a small portion of the earth will experience a total eclipse of the sun. This solar eclipse will be the first total eclipse since November 3, 2013.
Even though the audience will be small, the solar eclipse will be one to remember and hopefully produce some spectacular images to share with the public. If you are in Europe, this is your prime time to catch a LIVE view of this event!
The Audience
The shadow of the solar eclipse will start at the southern tip of Greenland and move counterclockwise toward the northeast, moving by the United Kingdom and Iceland. The shadow will then move over the Faroe Islands and then on to the Norwegian Island group, Svalbard. As it reaches the North Pole, the shadow will leave the earth entirely.
The Faroe Islands are actually 18 large Islands grouped together. They make up over 500 square miles (more than a thousand kilometers). Here, more than 50,000 people may get the chance to view the full splendor of the eclipse. The greatest view, however, will be north of the Islands, in the Norwegian Sea. Fishermen will have up to 2 minutes of total solar eclipse!! In fact, the shadow of the eclipse will measure about 90 miles (150 kilometers long).
The shadow of the eclipse will make a last stop north of the Faroes at a Norwegian Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. An Island group called Svalbard, with a little more than 2,000 in population, will be the last to see the eclipse before the event has ended. One Island, in particular, Barentsberg on Spitzbergen, will have the opportunity to view a full 2 minutes and 20 seconds of the eclipse at 10:11 GMT. Other than research stations around Greenland, Nunavut, and Nord, Svalbard is the northernmost land before reaching the North Pole.
The only deterrent for a grand view of this event would be the weather. Unfortunately, there is only a 20 percent chance of clear skies for Svalbard and a little more than 30 percent for Spitzbergen. The transition from winter to spring always calls for difficult skies, but there is a small chance conditions could be surprising.
Populations of Europe, Asia and Africa can glimpse a large partial eclipse as well. To catch a view of at least 90 percent of the eclipse, you will have to be located in Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden. Partial eclipse shadows, between 50 and 80 percent, can be viewed across the mid-European continent.
Unusual dimensions
The reason for the unusual dimensions of the eclipse is because the moon will be the closest to the earth in its orbit (perigee), only about 222,192 miles (357,584 kilometers). Since the shadow is passing over the arctic as it reaches earth, an oblique pattern will shape the eclipse.
Catch a Glimpse!
If you cannot see the eclipse in person, which is preferable, then you can catch this live show online. Slooh Community Observatory, beginning at 4:30 a.m. EDT will broadcast the event. The Virtual Telescope Project will air the live event which may possibly be viewed on Space.com.
To find out where and when, check EclipseWise and remember, be very careful when viewing! Enjoy!
SharesSupport Rocky with RMNP Group License Plates
The Conservancy administers the official Rocky Mountain National Park Group Special License Plate, which is available to Colorado-registered vehicle owners. It does not replace the standard Colorado state license plate but is a voluntary fundraising option through the State of Colorado’s Group Special Plate program.
100% of your license plate donation ($30 minimum) supports vital projects and programs in the Park. For example, in 2017, these funds helped to launch a new Conservation Corps program ‑ the High School Leadership Corps. This program engages students in conservation projects, leadership development, and environmental education during an immersive two-week internship experience in the park.
With thousands of Rocky Mountain National Park plate sets already on the road, this initiative has already raised well over $150,000 for Rocky.
Thank you!The bill's sponsor predicts the state could net "upwards of $15 million" in new revenue, but the ACLU of Rhode Island says the legislation presents "extreme risks to privacy."
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Fast-moving legislation that would allow the state to use electronic license-plate readers to nab "out-of-state drivers'' traveling Rhode Island highways without insurance is slated for a |
mid-priced hotels received $900 million in financing from Bear as part of a complex $4.1 billion loan package.
The Fed is now in the middle of two lawsuits arising from the Extended Stay bankruptcy. The Fed also stands to incur substantial losses as a result of the bankruptcy.
In one lawsuit, the Fed has joined with Bank of America and Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo, in suing Extended Stay’s owner, David Lichtenstein, on a $100 million loan guaranty. The litigation is similar to the one the Fed has brought against the former owners of the Crossroads Mall.
In the other case, the Fed, Bank of America and Wachovia are all trying to defeat a claim for damages brought by one of Extended Stay’s more junior lenders.
A subsidiary of the Carlton Group, a New York-based real estate investment firm, is suing the Fed and the two banks, claiming the more senior lenders “colluded” and “conspired” against the interest of the junior lenders in the weeks leading up to the bankruptcy filing.
The Fed has declined to comment on any of the litigation. But in court papers, the Fed denies Carlton’s allegations and has moved to dismiss the case.
The danger for the Fed isn’t losing any single court case. It’s the problem of getting bogged down in litigation — something that is better suited for a bank creditor, not monetary policy makers.
Yet the longer the Fed holds onto these wasting commercial real estate assets, the greater the likelihood becomes of additional litigation to protect the Fed’s dwindling economic interest.
Maybe this why the Fed, according to The Wall Street Journal, is worried that banks haven’t moved fast enough to recognize losses on commercial real estate mortgages and related securities. The Fed knows from its own experience just how much more pain there is to come from commercial real estate. So here’s a suggestion: Maybe it’s time to strike a deal with JPMorgan to take the Maiden Lane portfolio off the Fed’s hands and let it assume the litigation risk. Or the Fed can have BlackRock go out and try to sell off some of these distressed assets.
The Fed appears to be looking at significant losses on some of Bear’s commercial real estate deals. The last thing we need is for Bernanke to become a landlord of struggling strip malls across America.Photo
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont will address a convocation next month at Liberty University, the evangelical school where the firebrand Senator Ted Cruz kicked off his own presidential campaign.
Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va., was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and has been a requisite stop for many Republican presidential candidates over the years, and for some Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the state. But it is not typically a place that Democratic primary candidates have sought to visit.
“Liberty University was kind enough to invite me to address a convocation and I decided to accept,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement his spokesman provided. “It goes without saying that my views on many issues — women’s rights, gay rights, education and many other issues — are very different from the opinions of some in the Liberty University community. I think it is important, however, to see if we can reach consensus regarding the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality in our country, about the collapse of the middle class, about the high level of childhood poverty, about climate change and other issues.”
He added: “It is very easy for a candidate to speak to people who hold the same views. It’s harder but important to reach out to others who look at the world differently. I look forward to meeting with the students and faculty of Liberty University.”Steve Rogers is back in action as Captain America just in time for Civil War II. Check out a preview of May 18's Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, along with a glimpse at the Captain America: Steve Rogers FCBD story.
And read series writer Nick Spencer and editor Tom Brevoort's live press conference about the title here.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS #1
NICK SPENCER (W) • JESUS SAIZ (A/C)
Cover by JESUS SAIZ
VARIANT COVER BY STEVE EPTING
ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
YOUNG VARIANT COVER BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
AGE OF APOCALYPSE VARIANT COVER BY Paul Renaud
HIP-HOP VARIANT COVER BY TBA
CAPTAIN AMERICA 75TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT COVER BY TBA
He’s back! The original Sentinel of Liberty returns, with a new shield, a new team, and a new mission! And he’s not the only one who’s back! Like the saying goes-- cut off one LIMB, two more will take its place! HAIL HYDRA!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99Dr. Miranda E. Wilkerson debunks myths by exploring our heritage
“I found an interest in how people speak, how people identify with certain things, how the mind works.”
“German-Americans were profoundly patriotic and inspired by American culture, and saw themselves as good Americans. They did not see speaking German as a barrier to being good Americans.”
“We can look at the current public discourse about immigrant groups, compare it to historical records and ask ‘do these views bear out from a historical viewpoint?’ They really don’t.”
By Jennifer TruesdaleImagine living in a small Wisconsin town in 1910. You rise early every day to see that your children are off to school before heading into town to begin your day as a merchant, cabinet maker or stonemason. You make a comfortable living for you and the three generations of family living under your roof, which was typical of the time. You are an active, productive member of your church and community, know your neighbors, feel a sense of civic duty and ultimately, you are proud to be an American. Life is good.Now, imagine that you do not speak English.Indeed, you speak only German. When your grandparents arrived at Ellis Island decades before, they spoke only German. And your American-born children, third-generation immigrants, speak only German.According to Dr. Miranda E. Wilkerson, assistant professor of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Columbia College’s main campus, you are much like the quarter of adult residents in this southeastern Wisconsin town of Hustisford who spoke only German, even though more than 75 percent of these lived in the U.S. for at least 30 years. Why? Because the culture of the time didn’t demand that they do.“I found an interest in how people speak, how people identify with certain things, how the mind works,” Wilkerson says of what inspired her to study linguistics. With her Ph.D. in applied German linguistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and extensive training and certification in teaching English to speakers of other languages, she serves as the college’s ESOL coordinator. This year she received one of six faculty summer research grants, which allowed her to dig deeper into a subject that fascinates her: how cultural stereotypes espouse language acquisition with the idea of good citizenship.Wilkerson has been researching how 19th and early 20th century German immigrants learned English and how language acquisition affected their integration into American society. The research, done collaboratively with Joseph Salmons at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that American-born second- and third-generation German immigrants were slow to learn English because they were not marginalized socially, geographically or economically, or considered by their Anglo-American counterparts to be poor citizens for not speaking English. On the contrary—they were able to lead full, productive, successful lives without it.“German-Americans were profoundly patriotic and inspired by American culture, and saw themselves as good Americans,” says Wilkerson of her research. “They did not see speaking German as a barrier to being good Americans.”Fast forward one-hundred years, however, and it is safe to say that public opinion has changed greatly. Wilkerson’s research is timely and relevant against today’s backdrop of fervid U.S. immigration policy debates, which include dialogue about making English the official U.S. language and a citizenship requirement. Supporters of the modern English-only movement believe American culture is threatened when English is not the primary language, which is the subject of an ABC News article published in June, in which Wilkerson’s research is highlighted.The article compared Wilkerson and Salmons’ research to a 2012 Pew study, which examined how quickly today’s Latino immigrants are learning English. The Pew study found that 92% of American-born second-generation Latinos speak English “very well,” and that third generation Latinos are almost completely English-monolingual or bilingual, agreeing with Wilkerson and Salmons that today’s immigrants are actually acquiring English much faster.“A lot of Latinos are immigrating today, and pockets of German immigrants one-hundred years ago present many similarities,” Wilkerson says. “We can look at the current public discourse about immigrant groups, compare it to historical records and ask ‘do these views bear out from a historical viewpoint?’ They really don’t.”To Wilkerson, this debunks the myth that the idea of being a good American is synonymous with speaking English. Her research on the demographics and social patterns under which English was first acquired in the U.S. is just part of a growing sector of linguistic research in this area. And the findings are pointing to how the truth found in American historical records should be kept well in mind as we move forward in shaping our heritage. Read Wilkerson and Salmons' research cited in the ABC News article, “Linguistic Marginalities: Becoming American without Learning English” published in a 2012 issue of Journal of Transnational American Studies.by BRIAN NADIG
Resurfacing the tennis courts at Wilson Park and bike lane improvements on Lawrence Avenue are among the nine projects that tentatively will be on the 45th Ward participatory budget ballot, in addition to a question asking what percentage of funds should be spent on side-street resurfacing.
Alderman John Arena is one of four aldermen who use a community vote to decide how most of the ward’s $1.32 million in discretionary funds for infrastructure improvements, which are referred to as aldermanic menu funds, should be spent. Funded items in 2013 included pigeon abatement, a community garden and an artificial-surface field at Beaubien School.
Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh said that information on each proposal will be presented at three project fairs which will be held April 22 to April 26 and that the vote will occur on Saturday, May 10, at Wilson Park, 4630 N. Milwaukee Ave. About 635 ward residents voted in 2013, and this year the voting age has been reduced from 16 to 14, Brugh said.
One of the proposed projects calls for planting 150, 300 or 450 trees at a cost of $514 per tree. Brugh said that the funding recommendation was based in part on concern that the area was losing trees due to the emerald ash borer infection.
Other funding requests include $150,000 for pigeon abatement at several viaducts, $10,000 for upgraded lighting at a viaduct near Pulaski Road and Avondale Avenue, $35,700 for improved lighting at a viaduct at Irving Park Road and the Kennedy Expressway, $70,000 for widening bike lanes on Lawrence Avenue between Long Avenue and Cicero Avenue, and $25,000 for decorative fencing at the north end of the pedestrian bridge over the Kennedy Expressway near Austin Avenue.
Also on the ballot are requests for $20,000 for metal neighborhood identifiers for the Jefferson Park commercial district and $100,000 for a new playground at Independence Park. The playground proposal, which would require additional funding from the Chicago Park District and other sources, was on last year’s ballot but did not get enough votes.
A proposal to resurface the tennis courts at Wilson Park also will be on the ballot. The estimated cost of the project is $158,000, but the park district has committed to providing about $91,000 for the project.
The projects listed on the 2014 ballot were determined with the help of a committee of volunteers who took suggestions at community workshops, Brugh said. Unlike last year, the amount of ward funds available for projects which fall under the jurisdiction of taxing bodies other than the City of Chicago is capped at $100,000, including improvements at parks and schools, he said.
As in 2013, voters this year will decide how $1 million of the discretionary funds will be spent, while the remaining $320,000 will be reserved for cost overruns, emergency infrastructure needs and additional side-street resurfacing. Brugh said that in 2013 all of the $320,000 that was initially set aside was spent on street resurfacing.
Voters will be asked what percentage of the $1 million should be spent on street resurfacing. Brugh said that with the effect that the harsh winter has had on area streets, he would not be surprised if the percentage is higher than last year’s 54 percent.
Brugh said that changes in the ballot are not expected but are possible. He said that a recommendation for a skateboard park was not included because it would have cost several million dollars and that no community murals were included in part because of new city rules, including an insurance requirement.Sen. Susan Collins, pictured in September, said Sunday that her colleagues should step in to address Obamacare exchanges, after President Donald Trump ended key subsidies for the program. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Collins and Pelosi disappointed that Trump ended Obamacare subsidies
A pair of key lawmakers on each side of the aisle criticized President Donald Trump on Sunday for ending subsidies that help low-income Americans afford health care under the Affordable Care Act.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was “disappointed” by the president’s actions and urged Congress to “step in” with its own plan for Obamacare.
Story Continued Below
“The debate in Washington has been whether or not to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the future. What the president is doing is affecting people's access and the cost of health care right now,” Collins said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I don't agree with his decision on the subsidies that help low-income people afford their deductibles and co-pays.”
On Thursday, Trump announced he was immediately ending cost-sharing subsidies that reduce the cost of health insurance for low-income individuals. The move could prompt insurers to raise rates or pull out of Obamacare exchanges entirely.
While some Republicans like Collins didn’t agree with this action, Democrats were overwhelmingly against the action.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was the week the president “went rogue.” She also said it’s “a little far down the road” to sit and talk with the president about a plan forward because he doesn’t seem to understand or care about how his actions affect people.
“Why would he hurt people and say, 'Now that I've taken the American people hostage, let's talk,'” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“When he speaks, he does not speak from the basis of knowledge," Pelosi added. "That's why it's so hard to deal with him.”
POLITICO Pulse newsletter Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.Epic of Manas Manas monument in Bishkek Original title Манас дастаны Written 18th century Language Kyrgyz language Subject(s) A series of events that coincide with the history of the region in the 17th century, primarily the interaction of the Turki-speaking people from the mountains to the south of the Dasht-i Qipchaq and the Oirat Mongols from the bordering area of Jungaria Genre(s) Epic poem Lines Approximately 500,000
The Epic of Manas (Kyrgyz: Манас дастаны, ماناس دستانی, Kazakh: Манас дастаны, Kazakh: Манас легенда, Azerbaijani: Manas dastanı, Turkish: Manas Destanı) is a traditional epic poem dating to the 18th century but claimed by the Kyrgyz people to be much older. This opens the possibility of Manas having spoken a dialect of Turki similar to that of the Kazakhs and Nogay people today. The plot of Manas revolves around a series of events that coincide with the history of the region in the 17th century, primarily the interaction of the Turki-speaking people from the mountains to the south of the Dasht-i Qipchaq and the Oirat Mongols from the bordering area of Jungaria.
The government of Kyrgyzstan celebrated the 1,000th anniversary of Manas in 1995. The eponymous hero of Manas and his Oirat enemy Joloy were first found written in a Persian manuscript dated to 1792-3.[1] In one of its dozens of iterations, the epic poem consists of approximately 500,000 lines, and while Kyrgyz historians consider it to be the longest epic poem in history,[2] the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata and the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar are both longer.[3] The distinction is in number of verses. Manas has more verses, though they are much shorter.
In 2009, a parliament member suggested its nomination for the "longest epic story in the world" because “the great heritage of Kyrgyz people should find its place in the world history.”[4]
“The end of oral epics in Central Asia has been prophesied since the nineteenth century... Nevertheless, we can observe a surprising vitality of oral performance and oral traditions among the Kyrgyz.” Manas still plays "an important role in Kyrgyz cultural identity".[5]
Narrative [ edit ]
manaschi performing part of the epic poem at a yurt camp in A traditional Kyrgyzperforming part of the epic poem at a yurt camp in Karakol
The epic tells the story of Manas, his descendants and his followers. Battles against Khitan and Oirat enemies form a central theme in the epic. The epic is divided into three parts, each consisting of a loose collection of episodic heroic events.
The Epic of Manas is divided into 3 books. The first is entitled "Manas", the second episode describes the deeds of his son Semetei, and the third of his grandson Seitek. The epic begins with the destruction and difficulties caused by the invasion of the Oirats. Zhakyp reaches maturity in this time as an owner of many herds without a single heir. His prayers are eventually answered, and on the day of his son's birth, he dedicates a colt, Toruchaar, born the same day to his son's service. The son is unique among his peers for strength, mischief, and generosity. The Oirat learn of this young warrior and warn their leader. A plan is hatched to capture the young Manas. They fail in this task, and Manas is able to rally his people and is eventually elected and proclaimed as khan.
Manas expands his reach to include that of the Uyghurs of Moghulistan on the southern border of Jungaria. One of the defeated Uighur rulers gives his daughter to Manas in marriage. At this point, the Kyrgyz people chose, with Manas' help, to return from the Altai mountains to their "ancestral lands" in the mountains of modern-day Kyrgyzstan. Manas begins his successful campaigns against his neighbors accompanied by his forty companions. Manas turns eventually to face the Afghan people to the south in battle, where after defeat the Afghans enter into an alliance with Manas. Manas then comes into a relationship with the people of mā warā' an-nār through marriage to the daughter of the ruler of Bukhara.
The epic continues in various forms, depending on the publication and whim of the manaschi, or reciter of the epic.
History [ edit ]
The epic poem's age is unknowable, as it was transmitted orally without being recorded. However, historians have doubted the age claimed for it since the turn of the 20th century. The primary reason is that the events portrayed occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries. Central Asian historian V. V. Bartol'd referred to Manas as an "absurd gallimaufry of pseudo-history,"[1] and Hatto remarks that Manas was
"compiled to glorify the Sufi sheikhs of Shirkent and Kasan... [and] circumstances make it highly probable that... [Manas] is a late eighteenth-century interpolation."[6]
Changes were made in the delivery and textual representation of Manas in the 1920s and 1930s to represent the creation of the Kyrgyz nationality, particularly the replacement of the tribal background of Manas. In the 19th century versions, Manas is the leader of the Nogay people, while in versions dating after 1920, Manas is a Kyrgyz and a leader of the Kyrgyz.[7]
Attempts have been made to connect modern Kyrgyz with the Yenisei Kirghiz, today claimed by Kyrgyzstan to be the ancestors of modern Kyrgyz. Kazakh ethnographer and historian Shokan Shinghisuly Walikhanuli was unable to find evidence of folk-memory during his extended research in 19th-century Kyrgyzstan (then part of the expanding Russian empire) nor has any been found since.[8]
Recitation [ edit ]
Manas is the classic centerpiece of Kyrgyz literature, and parts of it are often recited at Kyrgyz festivities by specialists in the epic, called Manaschi (Kyrgyz: Манасчы). Manaschis tell the tale in a melodic chant unaccompanied by musical instruments.
Kyrgyzstan has many Manaschis. Narrators who know all three episodes of the epic (the tales of Manas, of his son Semetei and of his grandson Seitek) can acquire the status of Great Manaschi. Great Manaschis of the 20th century are Sagymbai Orozbakov, Sayakbay Karalaev, Shaabai Azizov (pictured), Kaba Atabekov, Seidene Moldokova and Yusup Mamai. A revered Manaschi who recently visited the United Kingdom is Rysbek Jumabayev. Urkash Mambetaliev, the Manaschi of the Bishkek Philharmonic, also travels through Europe. Talantaaly Bakchiyev combines recitation with critical study. Adil Jumaturdu has provided "A comparative study of performers of the Manas epic." [9]
There are more than 65 written versions of parts of the epic. An English translation of the version of Sagimbai Orozbakov by Walter May was published in 1995, in commemoration of the presumed 1000th anniversary of Manas' birth, and re-issued in two volumes in 2004. Arthur Thomas Hatto has made English translations of the Manas tales recorded by Shokan Valikhanov and Vasily Radlov in the 19th century.
Today [ edit ]
Picture of the alleged burial site of the eponymous hero of Manas
Manas is said to have been buried in the Ala-Too mountains in Talas Province, in northwestern Kyrgyzstan. A mausoleum some 40 km east of the town of Talas is believed to house his remains and is a popular destination for Kyrgyz travellers. Traditional Kyrgyz horsemanship games are held there every summer since 1995. An inscription on the mausoleum states, however, that it is dedicated to "...the most famous of women, Kenizek-Khatun, the daughter of the emir Abuka". Legend has it that Kanikey, Manas' widow, ordered this inscription in an effort to confuse her husband's enemies and prevent a defiling of his grave. The name of the building is "Manastin Khumbuzu" or "The Dome of Manas", and the date of its erection is unknown. There is a museum dedicated to Manas and his legend nearby the tomb.
Influence [ edit ]
Translations [ edit ]
Manas has been translated into many languages. The Uzbek poet Mirtemir translated the poem into Uzbek.[11]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
External literature [ edit ]Islamic State fighters say constant airstrikes drove them out of Kobani -CNN
Two purported ISIS fighters interviewed for a news agency working in ISIS-held territory have given the same reason for the militants’ retreat from the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani: the constant pummeling by coalition airstrikes.
On Monday, Kurdish fighters declared that they had released the city on the border to Turkey from ISIS’ grip after 112 days of fighting.
The efforts of the Kurdish fighters — known as the YPG, or People’s Protection Units — on the ground were backed by an extensive campaign of airstrikes by the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS.
And according to the interviews given to ISIS aligned Amak news agency in Syria, it was those airstrikes that won the battle for Kobani, referred to by the fighters as Ayn Al-Islam.
“Recently, we have withdrawn from Ayn Al-Islam bit by bit, because of the airstrikes and deaths of a number of our brothers,” said one of the two fighters, his face covered apart from his eyes.
He points to a scene of destruction behind him but vows that ISIS will persist, “and this is the message we send to Obama.”
The second fighter, interviewed by Amak stood near a road sign reading Ayn Al-Islam. He said ISIS forces had raided 360 villages around Kobani, from which the defenders “ran away like rats.”
But the reason behind their withdrawal from the city, he said, “is that we no longer had places to hold there. We were inside Ayn Al-Islam and we occupied more than 70%, but the airstrikes did not leave any building standing, they destroyed everything.”
His horror of the airstrikes was apparent.
“I swear by God, their planes did not leave the air, day and night; they did airstrikes all day and night. They targeted everything. They even attacked vehicles; they have not left a building standing.”
ISIS assault on Kirkuk
ISIS is on its heels after the loss of Kobani and an offensive by Kurdish Peshmerga — armed fighters who protect Iraq’s Kurdish region — around Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and a focal point for all sides in the conflict.
But on Friday, the Sunni extremist group launched an assault on Iraq’s oil-rich city of Kirkuk in what may be an attempt to divert Kurdish troops from Mosul.
A report by Rudaw, a private website dedicated to presenting news from a Kurdish perspective, said at least 30 ISIS fighters were killed in the assault and 15 captured.
Casualties on the other side included Brig. Gen. Shirko Fateh, the highest-ranking operational commander of the Peshmerga brigade located in Kirkuk.
Deaths in Kobani
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based opposition group, from October 6 to Monday the fighting for Kobani killed 979 ISIS combatants, 324 YPG fighters and 12 rebels backing the YPG.
Thirty-eight more ISIS militants died in attacks using booby-trapped vehicles or bomb belts, and the ISIS shelling of Kobani killed 12 civilians, SOHR said.
“On the other hand, hundreds of (ISIS) militants died during U.S. and Arab allies’ airstrikes on the city and its countryside,” the group said.
However, the success of the coalition airstrikes in Kobani will be hard to replicate elsewhere.
There are almost no civilians left in the city of Kobani, and most residents left early on when the fighting started, especially in the contested areas close to the frontline.
This meant airstrikes were fairly straightforward, with the coalition able to target one side and avoid civilian casualties. The frontline was well defined, so it was clear where the ISIS and Kurdish fighters were.
A more challenging situation is when airstrikes seek to target ISIS inside populated areas like Mosul in Iraq, Raqqa in Syria and other cities under ISIS control.
Here the effectiveness of airstrikes is limited because of the risk of casualties among civilians. When coalition airstrikes hit cities in Aleppo, in northern Syria, civilian deaths were reported last year.
By Laura Smith-Spark and Yousuf Basil, CNN.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, cnn.com
Comments
CommentsDonald Macleod served as professor of systematic theology at the Free Church of Scotland College in Edinburgh for more than thirty years. He is author of The Person of Christ and most recently Christ Crucified
Donald Macleod served as professor of systematic theology at the Free Church of Scotland College in Edinburgh for more than thirty years. He is author of The Person of Christ and most recently Christ Crucified
At the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (Mark 15:34)
Up to this point, the narrative of the crucifixion has focused on the physical sufferings of Jesus: the flogging, the crown of thorns, and his immolation on the cross. Six hours have now passed since the nails were driven home. The crowds have jeered, darkness has covered the land, and now, suddenly, after a long silence, comes this anguished cry from the depths of the Savior’s soul.
The words are an Aramaic-tinged quotation from Psalm 22, and although Matthew and Mark both offer a translation for the benefit of Gentile readers, they clearly want us to hear the exact words that Jesus spoke. At his lowest ebb, his mind instinctively breathes the Psalter, and from it he borrows the words that express the anguish, not now of his body, but of his soul.
He bore in his soul, wrote Calvin, “the terrible torments of a condemned and lost man” (Institutes, II:XVI, 10). But dare we, on such hallowed ground, seek more clarity?
Against All Hope
There are certainly some very clear negatives. The forsakenness cannot mean, for example, that the eternal communion between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit was broken. God could not cease to be triune.
Neither could it mean that the Father ceased to love the Son: especially not here, and not now, when the Son was offering the greatest tribute of filial piety that the Father had ever received.
“Jesus did not merely feel forsaken. He was forsaken; and not only by his disciples, but by God himself.” Twitter Tweet Facebook Share on Facebook
Nor again could it mean that the Holy Spirit had ceased to minister to the Son. He had come down upon him at his baptism not merely for one fleeting moment, but to remain on him (John 1:32), and he would be there to the last as the eternal Spirit through whom the Son offered himself to God (Hebrews 9:14).
And finally, the words are not a cry of despair. Despair would have been sin. Even in the darkness God was, “My God,” and though there was no sign of him, and though the pain obscured the promises, somewhere in the depths of his soul there remained the assurance that God was holding him. What was true of Abraham was truer still of Jesus: Against all hope, he in hope believed (Romans 4:18).
Truly Forsaken
Yet, with all these qualifiers, this was a real forsaking. Jesus did not merely feel forsaken. He was forsaken; and not only by his disciples, but by God himself. It was the Father who had delivered him up to Judas, to the Jews, to Pilate, and finally to the cross itself.
And now, when he had cried, God had closed his ears. The crowd had not stopped jeering, the demons had not stopped taunting, the pain had not abated. Instead, every circumstance bespoke the anger of God; and there was no countering voice. This time, no word came from heaven to remind him that he was God’s Son, and greatly loved. No dove came down to assure him of the Spirit’s presence and ministry. No angel came to strengthen him. No redeemed sinner bowed to thank him.
Bearing the Curse
Who was he? He cries out in Aramaic, but he doesn’t use the greatest of all the Aramaic words, Abba. Even in the anguish of Gethsemane, distraught and overborne though he was, he had been able to use it (Mark 14:36). But not here.
Like Abraham and Isaac going up to Mount Moriah, he and the Father had gone up to Calvary together. But now Abba is not there. Only El is there: God All-mighty, God All-holy. And he is before El, not now as his Beloved Son, but as the Sin of the World. That is his identity: the character in which he stands before Absolute Integrity.
“He stands where none has stood before or since, enduring at one tiny point in space and time, all that sin deserved.” Twitter Tweet Facebook Share on Facebook
It is not that he bears some vague relation to sinners. He is one of them, numbered with transgressors. Indeed, he is all of them. He is sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), condemned to bear its curse; and he has no cover. None can serve as his advocate. Nothing can be offered as his expiation. He must bear all, and El will not, cannot, spare him till the ransom is paid in full. Will that point ever be reached? What if his mission fails?
The sufferings of his soul, as the old divines used to say, were the soul of his suffering, and into that soul we can see but dimly. Public though the cry was, it expressed the intensely private anguish of a tension between the sin-bearing Son and his heavenly Father: the whirlwind of sin at its most dreadful, God forsaken by God.
His Anguish of Soul
But no less challenging than the torment in Jesus’s soul is his question, “Why?”
Is it the why of protest: the cry of the innocent against unjust suffering? The premise is certainly correct. He is innocent. But he has lived his whole life conscious that he is the sin-bearer and has to die as the redemption-price for the many. Has he forgotten that now?
Or is it the why of incomprehension, as if he doesn’t understand why he’s here? Has he forgotten the eternal covenant? Perhaps. His mind, as a human mind, could not be focused on all the facts at the same time, and for the moment the pain, the divine anger, and the fear of eternal perdition (the cross being God’s last word) occupy all his thoughts.
Or is it the why of amazement, as he confronts a dreadfulness he could never have anticipated? He had known from the beginning that he would die a violent death (Mark 2:20), and in Gethsemane he had looked it in the eye, and shuddered. But now he is tasting it in all its bitterness, and the reality is infinitely worse than the prospect.
Never before had anything come between him and his Father, but now the sin of the whole world has come between them, and he is caught in this dreadful vortex of the curse. It is not that Abba is not there, but that he is there, as the Judge of all the earth who could condone nothing and could not spare even his own Son (Romans 8:32).
The Cup Is Drained
Now, Jesus’s mind is near the limits of its endurance. We, sitting in the gallery of history, are sure of the outcome. He, suffering in human nature the fury of hell, is not. He is standing where none has stood before or since, enduring at one tiny point in space and in one tiny moment of time, all that sin deserved: the curse in unmitigated concentration.
“The Cup is drained and the curse exhausted, and the Father now proudly holds out his hands to the spirit of his Beloved Son.” Twitter Tweet Facebook Share on Facebook
But then, suddenly, it is over. The sacrifice is complete, the curtain torn, and the way into the Holiest opened once and for all; and now Jesus’s joy finds expression in the words of another psalm, Psalm 31:5. In the original, it had not contained the word Abba, but Jesus inserts it: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
We have no means of knowing what intervened between the two cries. We know only that the Cup is drained and the curse exhausted, and that the Father now proudly holds out his hands to the spirit of his Beloved Son.In chapter 5 of Ontology Revisited (Routledge, 2012), I undertook to show how Humeanism structures the contemporary free will problematic. In the paper attached below I set out what happens to the architecture of the problematic if one replaces the presumptive Humean metaphysics with a powers-based metaphysics. [Note: by “a powers-based metaphysics” I mean one involving powers-to-do that are had by things that are powerful; not “powers” or “potencies” conceived in terms of sequences or patterns of sequences. I make no claim that a revamped sequence-based ontology will change the terms of debate. For further discussion of this point, see “Whose Powers? Which Agency?” in Groff and Greco, Powers & Capacities in Philosophy (Routledge, 2012).]
Jonathan Webber has kindly agreed to offer some comments in reaction to the paper in due course. I hope that others will too. But feel free (or compelled, as you like) to share your thoughts about the issue even if you don’t read the paper. I mean it.
For people new to the topic, two important books in analytic philosophy on powers and free will are Personal Agency (Oxford, 2008), by the late Jonathan Lowe, and Persons & Causes, by Tim O’Connor (Oxford, 2000). Brian Ellis has written some on the issue, though not at length. I cite him in the paper. Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum are currently at work on a book, and have several papers forthcoming. Jonathan Lowe also contributed a wonderful chapter on his concept of the will to Powers & Capacities.
Here’s the link to the paper. “Sublating the Free Will Problematic: Powers, Agency and Causal Determination.” (If there is something legal that I am supposed to say about intellectual property, consider it said.) Powers and Free Will, April 2013, for PCD, 2
AdvertisementsAfter three and a half months of downtime Demonoid's tracker is now back online. The unexpected revival of the tracker is the first sign of life in weeks and suggests that the Demonoid team is working |
to Britain’s military, police and secret services.
GCHQ starts its yearly autumn recruitment program on Tuesday, and is reportedly hoping to hire as many as 80 new apprentices aged 18 and upwards.
Civil liberties groups and privacy rights campaigners throughout the UK and beyond have questioned the legitimacy of GCHQ’s invasive practices. They point particularly at an alleged mass surveillance program called Tempora. Documents leaked to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden allege the program facilitates UK intelligence officials' access to private email messages, information entered on social networking sites such as Facebook and telephone calls. While UK authorities have not denied the existence of the program, they are unwilling to comment on its operation.
Global hacktivist collective Anonymous also criticize GCHQ, emphasizing the government spy base persistently compromises Britons’ privacy rights.LEWISTON — University of Southern Maine President Theodora Kalikow on Friday rescinded the 12 faculty layoffs that had prompted weeks of protests, saying she’s open to alternative plans for finding up to $14 million in cuts.
“Those retrenchment (layoff) notices are off the table for now,” Kalikow said Friday afternoon at the USM Faculty Senate meeting. She said she made up her mind at 2 p.m., just as the meeting began, and didn’t even have time to tell the affected faculty.
Additional Photos University of Southern Maine President Theodora Kalikow announced Friday that she is reversing the decision to lay off 12 faculty members. 2014 Press Herald File Photo/John Patriquin Protests like this one Thursday followed the decision to lay off 12 University of Southern Maine faculty members. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer Related Headlines Students, faculty say protests played key role in USM policy reversal
The room erupted in applause and backslapping as she revealed the news.
The surprise announcement came as the Faculty Senate unveiled a draft 27-point proposal for alternative cuts and about two dozen students traveled to Augusta to lobby state lawmakers. The students met with members of the Portland delegation and the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee.
Also, the faculty union sent a grievance letter to the administration Thursday challenging the layoffs.
But Kalikow said none of those things played a role in her decision, saying she had been out of state and didn’t know about the union letter and had not read the Faculty Senate proposal. And while she praised the students for their activism, she said that did not play a role in the reversal, either.
Kalikow said she didn’t see herself as “caving” in to pressure, but didn’t say exactly what changed her mind.
“The faculty made a good case that they had possibly better ideas,” she said. “This was a difficult decision, but it’s best for USM for the faculty and administration to be more tightly involved in these crucial decisions.”
The Faculty Senate is due to submit its alternative cuts to Kalikow by May 5, but its plan doesn’t include estimated cost savings so it’s not clear how it would close the budget gap. Faculty members say they expect to have calculated the various proposals’ savings by early next week.
“They have a couple more weeks to give me better alternatives,” Kalikow said. “The long-term goals remain the same.”
Kalikow said the laid-off faculty members are safe at least until October, when another layoff notice could go out.
“It may turn out that they will get fresh letters,” she said, adding, “I have no idea what might happen.”
Kalikow did not reverse the decision to eliminate about 35 staff positions.
“This is a victory for students, for faculty, for Portland, for all of us,” student organizer Marpheen Chann-Berry said. “But there is another victory still to be had – fixing state funding for public universities.”
Last month, USM officials announced the layoffs as part of an effort to cut $14 million from the school’s $140 million budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. USM’s budget crunch is part of a $36 million funding gap in the University of Maine System caused by flat state funding, declining enrollment and tuition freezes.
The layoffs at USM prompted weeks of protests, including two rallies that drew more than 200 people and an aggressive social media campaign.
Although Kalikow said that didn’t play a role in her decision, several people said it must have been a factor.
“I think what happened today was the result of pressure from students, the letter (from the union) and lots of faculty discontent,” said Mark Lapping, a professor at the Muskie School of Public Policy and a former USM provost.
“I think this could be a new beginning,” Lapping said of the faculty and administration working together. “It’s got to become ‘our’ dilemma, not ‘their’ dilemma. … We’ve got to collectively solve these problems in a transparent and non-coercive environment.”
The students’ actions included drafting emergency state legislation seeking to freeze the cuts and analyze the system’s financial data, publishing several analytical pieces picking apart the fiscal argument for the cuts, and media-messaging that got the attention of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and philosopher and liberal hero Noam Chomsky.
While the students were keeping up high-profile protests, behind-the-scenes discussions and diplomacy continued between faculty members and administrators.
Luisa Deprez, chairwoman of the sociology department, said Friday that she was part of a four-person team that has been meeting in recent weeks with campus officials and the system chancellor to “lessen the impact of what was initially proposed.”
“There’s no doubt about the fact that this is a dire financial situation,” Deprez said, adding that she felt “relief” at Kalikow’s announcement.
“I feel terrific. I think (Kalikow) offered a message of hope and provided the kind of leadership this university needs,” added Deprez, who has taught at USM for 38 years.
About two weeks ago, Kalikow restored one threatened program – recreation and leisure studies – by folding it into the nursing program.
Still scheduled to be closed are the American and New England studies graduate program, geosciences, and the arts and humanities major at Lewiston-Auburn College, which is part of USM. If those programs are eliminated, seven professors could be laid off.
Budget cuts are happening systemwide. At the flagship campus in Orono, officials cut $10 million from its $249 million budget, mostly by leaving positions vacant and laying off about seven non-faculty employees. University of Maine at Augusta officials announced that they would cut 24 positions, end several degree programs and drop two sports teams.
Chancellor James Page said he supported Kalikow, and that it was her decision to make.
“We’ll all be watching closely what happens,” he said.
“(Page) is in favor of giving the Faculty Senate some chance to have more detailed feedback,” Kalikow said. “Now it is up to them to work with me and for me to work with them.”
One of the dozen laid-off professors was in the audience when Kalikow made the announcement.
“At this point nothing surprises me,” observed associate professor of musicology Paul Christiansen, who said he believes that the grievance letter prompted the decision. “This should have never happened in the first place.”
The alternative cuts proposed by the Faculty Senate include ending the use of outside consultants, eliminating middle-management administrators and consolidating the three campuses of the University of Southern Maine. There is no dollar figure associated with the list of 27 proposals, but Faculty Senate Chairman Jerry LaSala said he believes they can find the same cost savings that were in Kalikow’s proposal.
“We’ve created time to do it right,” LaSala said. “I think making $7 (million) or $8 million (in cuts) is entirely plausible.”
LaSala said members of the Faculty Senate expect to have calculated the possible cost savings and revenue figures by early next week.
“The reason we are working so hard on this is because we, the faculty, are deeply concerned that cuts of this magnitude will hurt enrollment and wind up costing us more money than we save,” LaSala said, noting that several proposals would bring in revenue. “Making money is far more beneficial than cutting. We all agree we can’t cut our way to success.”
“This is our chance to get it right,” said Jeanne Munger, an associate professor in marketing.
The full list of proposed alternate cuts can be read here.
Noel K. Gallagher can be contacted at 791-6387 or at:
[email protected]
ShareSOQUEL >> After a nine-hour search, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Watsonville man early Tuesday on suspicion of first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with a double shooting that occurred on North Rodeo Gulch on Monday.
Jose Ramos, 31, was arrested on the 3000 block of Porter Street in Soquel at 11:15 p.m. Monday.
Ramos is suspected in the shooting death of Santiago Avalos Sanchez, 28, of Soquel.
Sanchez died in a hospital hours after the shooting occurred at 2:30 p.m. Monday, according to Sgt. Chris Clark of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.
Ramos is also suspected of shooting Maria Ponce Rocha, 32, of Watsonville, in the back. As of Tuesday morning, she was in critical condition, Clark said.
Ramos knew Rocha, Clark said. However, a motive for the shooting remains unclear.
“Right now we honestly don’t what they were doing there. Any attempt at establishing motive would be speculation right now,” Clark said.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies pursued a lead to the arrest location on Porter Street, Clark said. They found Ramos in possession of methamphetamine and a methamphetamine pipe.
A wrapped object was also found near Ramos and is being examined by forensic criminalists to determine if it is a gun or other item, according to Clark.
After the shooting, Ramos allegedly fled in a white Honda rental car registered in his name, according to Clark. A witness reported hearing six gunshots, although Clark could not confirm this.
Multiple shell casings were discovered at the scene of the shooting. Both victims also suffered multiple gunshots, Clark said.
“An autopsy is under way on Mr. Sanchez.” Clark said. “We will release the manner and cause of death in a few days.”
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies and CHP officers closed Soquel Drive and North Rodeo Gulch Road during the investigation Monday.
At the scene, a dark blue Honda Accord that had been driven by one of the victims had crashed into a road sign on North Rodeo Gulch Road.
Jose Luis Ramos was arrested for the murder of Santiago Avalos Sanchez, attempted murder of Maria Ponce Rocha and was booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail. Ramos’s bail is currently set at $2 million dollars. Clark expects the suspect to be arraigned by the end of the week.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information to call 831-471-1121.Tech startups are launching an effort to persuade the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to change its net neutrality rules.
Major Silicon Valley startup accelerators Y Combinator and Techstars, as well as startup advocacy group Engine, are circulating a letter asking FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to leave in place the net neutrality rules passed under former Chairman Tom Wheeler in 2015, formally known as the Open Internet Order.
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The Hill and other outlets have reported that Pai is expected to reveal his plans to curb at least some portions of net neutrality, including a provision that allows the FCC to regulate broadband providers, by the end of May.
In the letter, first reported by Axios, the groups express concern about Pai’s reported plans.
"In 2015 the Federal Communications Commission put in place light touch net neutrality rules that not only prohibit certain harmful practices, but also allow the Commission to develop and enforce rules to address new forms of discrimination,” they wrote.
“We are concerned by reports that you would replace this system with a set of minimum voluntary commitments, which would give a green light for Internet access providers to discriminate in unforeseen ways."
The groups argued that Pai’s potential moves to alter the rules could be an existential threat to the startups that they support.
“The success of America’s startup ecosystem depends on more than improved broadband speeds. We also depend on an open Internet — including enforceable net neutrality rules that ensure big cable companies can’t discriminate against people like us. We’re deeply concerned with your intention to undo the existing legal framework.”
The groups plan to send the letter to Pai's office on May 1.
Y Combinator President Sam Altman penned a blog post in March voicing his support for net neutrality’s reclassification of broadband companies as common carriers. This reclassification gives the FCC the jurisdiction to regulate internet service providers.
“The internet is a public good, and I believe access should be a basic right,” Altman wrote. “It seems best to keep it regulated like a common carrier. Doing this allows the government to ensure a level playing field, impose privacy regulations, and subsidize access for people who can't afford it.”
Other groups have also been readying themselves for the forthcoming fight over the rules. Earlier this week, tech trade association the Internet Association — which lobbies on behalf of companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon — met with the FCC to support the net neutrality rules in their current form.
Pro-net neutrality consumer groups have begun to take preliminary steps like calling on their supporters to advocate for the rules at lawmaker town halls during the Congressional recess.My personal take on the mega and admittedly I’m quite proud of it. Sitting at a complete 7555 pFLOPS this craft is a true beast to encounter on the battlefield. The frame uses some concepts from regenerators in that it is hollow and as a result quite fast. Unlike regenerators though there’s a heavy frame underneath that’s backed up by numerous TX-1 EP providing a great deal of structural rigidity. The craft can sustain a monumental amount of damage. The rear wheels descend further than the front do giving the craft a natural tilt presenting more of the EP to the enemy.
Seven TX-1 SMGs provide a tremendous amount of firepower all of which have wide firing arcs. All seven guns can fire forwards and up making it a fierce anti-air platform. As a bonus it should fit in a standard bay making it all the more appealing.
All in all I’ve loved using this craft in combat as it’s proven to be able to put up a solid performance in all situations. As an aside the name is a bit of a joke referencing how critical players typically are of megabots. Hopefully you’ll find this one acceptable.
This build is very complex so additional photos are available hereWith the Affordable Care Act now in full effect, the conservative propaganda factory is working overtime to produce and publicize Obamacare horror stories, real or imagined. So with the federal government, the states, private insurers, hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies scrambling to assist the six million newly insured so far, the GOP's media water carriers are decrying enrollment snafus, delayed surgeries, emergency fixes in the states, and even national drugstore chains providing a month of prescriptions to customers whose proof of insurance is in limbo. (Breitbart went so far as to suggest that Walgreens and Walmart might be offering that customer service in order to do data mining for Uncle Sam.)
As it turns out, these furious conservatives are suffering from a particularly acute case of selective amnesia. Just eight years ago this week, the calamitous launch of President Bush's Medicare prescription drug program left over six million previously insured seniors without coverage. Hundreds of thousands more could not get their medications as problem-plagued government computer systems, confused insurers, and undertrained pharmacists left subscribers panicked and helpless. But unlike today's sabotage of the Affordable Care Act by Republicans in Congress and in the states, Democrats at all levels helped the Medicare Rx program whose design they opposed.
As the Washington Post reported in January 2006:
Two weeks into the new Medicare prescription drug program, many of the nation's sickest and poorest elderly and disabled people are being turned away or overcharged at pharmacies, prompting more than a dozen states to declare health emergencies and pay for their life-saving medicines.
Please read below the fold for more on Bush's Medicare drug rollout issues.HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Two men impersonating police officers burst into a northwest Madison County home Sunday night, robbing the couple inside and injuring the man, authorities said.
The two men, dressed like police officers, knocked on the door of a mobile home near Alabama 53 and Ready Section Road in the Toney community around 10 p.m., said Madison County Sheriff's Investigator Chad Brooks. When the occupants opened the door, the robbers pushed their way inside, hit the man in the head with the gun, tied the man and woman up and robbed them, Brooks said.
The two robbers got away with about $200 in cash, Brooks said.
All Madison County Sheriff's deputies are required to carry a department-issued identification card with them any time they are working, even if out of uniform, Brooks said.
"It's always best to verify who you're talking to before opening doors," he said.
The two robbers did not identify themselves as officers, Brooks said, but they were wearing the clothes.
"Police impersonation is extremely rare," he said. "It's a felony offense beyond anything else, and it's a very serious offense."
Brooks said the sheriff's department takes impersonation seriously because of the harm it can cause. It breaks down the barrier of trust in the community and puts plain-clothes officers at risk, he said.
"This is the only case we have where someone represented themselves to be a police officer," Brooks said. "It's a concern, and we are actively working it."Peter Kwasniewski
I don't know how it is where you live, but here in Wyoming there is snow on the ground and it's bitterly cold outside. This is a time of year when one might understandably dream of summer and of lingering in the great outdoors when it's pleasant to do so (well, minus the mosquitoes and other little reminders that we were expelled from Eden). My thoughts therefore turn to a few magnificent photos of Masses celebrated outdoors, submitted by two readers some time ago but neglected by me until this wintry moment. The first six photos are obviously really far out-there outdoor Masses, and all the more impressive for the beauty and reverence with which they are conducted. The last three are of Mass done in some sort of car-accessible park structure, but once again demonstrating "the way to do it right" -- including, one might add, the ad orientem position.In Fight Against Islamophobia, Muslim Americans Focus On The Ballot Box
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joel Rose/NPR Joel Rose/NPR
After Sept. 11, 2001, there was a spike in hate crimes against Muslim Americans. Now, on the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks, Muslim leaders say Islamophobia is cresting once again. A string of recent murders in New York City has left the city's Muslim residents on edge.
In the last month, three Bangladeshi immigrants wearing traditional Muslim dress were killed on the streets of Queens. One of them was the imam at Al-Furqan Jame Masjid, a modest storefront mosque in a working-class neighborhood called Ozone Park.
"This neighborhood is still scared, everybody's scared," says Bazlur Rahman, one of a few dozen other men gathered for afternoon prayers at the mosque this week. "A lot of Muslim people don't come to the Masjid because they are scared."
Imam Maulama Akonjee and an associate were walking home from this mosque on a Saturday afternoon when they were both shot from behind, execution-style, on a busy street.
The suspect is facing murder charges, though prosecutors declined to charge him with a hate crime, which can be difficult to prove.
But to Bazlur Rahman, it's hard to see this any other way. The imam had an iPhone and a significant amount of cash in his pockets when he was killed. The alleged killer didn't take either.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joel Rose/NPR Joel Rose/NPR
"He had like $1,000 in his pocket," Rahman says. "If you say it's mugging, money is there, phone is there. And somebody comes behind and just shoots two people in Muslim dress. So I will say absolutely, hate crimes."
Just over a week ago, a Bangladeshi woman in traditional Muslim dress was stabbed to death on her way home from work in Jamaica Hills, Queens. Prosecutors say the suspect confessed to the committing crime "in the course of an attempted robbery."
But again, community leaders are skeptical because none of her possessions were taken.
"In the last month, there have been three murders of people who are visibly Muslim, and we don't know why," says Ali Najmi, a lawyer in Queens. "Whether we can prove it in court or not, we think that there is a causation. That's what a lot of people on the ground are feeling, that it's related."
The killings are related, Najmi and others say, to the heated rhetoric of the presidential race.
Republican nominee Donald Trump says he saw "thousands" of Muslims celebrating in New Jersey on Sept. 11, 2001. There's no evidence that Trump's claim is true. But Najmi says those words can still have real effects.
"He's the one beating the drum," Najmi says. "He's one riling people up. He's the one that's saying he's going to ban Muslims. He's the one that's saying we can't trust these people."
But some Muslim leaders say there may be another consequence of Trump's rhetoric — one the candidate himself probably didn't intend.
Azra Baig hands out voter registration forms after Friday prayers at Masjid Al-Wali, a large mosque in central New Jersey, where politics hasn't always been a priority for Muslims. Many are first- or second-generation Americans, whose families came from countries where voting may be just a token exercise.
"They are going through their own struggles, getting acquainted in this country and working hard for their children who are born here," says Mahmood Alam, a board member at the mosque. "So getting into the politics is the last thing in their mind."
But Muslim leaders hope this year will be different. In New Jersey, they're making a push to register voters ahead of the November election. And they're using Donald Trump's words as motivation.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joel Rose/NPR Joel Rose/NPR
"He's having the opposite effect of, I guess, what was intended by using all this hateful rhetoric," says Shariq Ahmad, one of the organizers of the New Jersey Muslim Voters Project. "I think what you're going to see this time around is a political awakening for the Muslim American community."
But that awakening can only happen one new voter at a time. At Friday prayers in Edison, Azra Baig was busy.
"I gave out dozens of voter registration forms," Baig says. "So I think we still have a lot of work to do."
Baig and others are planning a registration push across New Jersey on Monday during the Eid al-Adha holiday.In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Adly Mansour, right, greets Jordan's King Abdullah II on his arrival to the presidential palace, Saturday, July 20, 2013. Jordan's King arrived in Egypt's capital on Saturday for a short visit -- the first visit by a head of state to Egypt since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt is reevaluating its relationship with Syria following the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, the country's foreign minister said Saturday.
In his first public comments since becoming Egypt's top diplomat, Nabil Fahmy said Cairo continues to support the Syrian uprising but that Egypt has no intention of supporting a jihad — or holy war — in Syria.
"Everything will be re-evaluated," Fahmy told reporters in Cairo.
Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah met with Egypt's new leaders Saturday in the first visit by a head of state to Cairo since the popularly-backed military coup. A statement from Egypt's presidency said the king voiced his support for the "national choices" made by Egyptians during a meeting with interim President Adly Mansour, the country's army chief Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi and other high-level officials.
Jordan's government had been concerned with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and disruptions to gas exports due to militant attacks on the pipeline in the northern Sinai Peninsula. The Jordanian offshoot of Egypt's Brotherhood has driven street protests against the government in Amman.
Jordanian officials are wary of the region's wave of uprisings that began in 2011.
Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member who came to power after the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, had made supporting the Syrian opposition in its fight against President Bashar Assad a cornerstone of his foreign policy. Cairo also is the official headquarters of the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group.
Just weeks before Morsi was deposed on July 3, a senior presidential aide said authorities would not prevent Egyptians from traveling to Syria to join the rebel cause.
Morsi also attended a rally on June 15 in which hard-line clerics called on Sunni Muslims to join the fight in Syria. Speaking at the rally, Morsi announced he was severing diplomatic ties with Damascus.
The foreign minister said Egypt is seeking a political solution to the three-year crisis in Syria, which has killed more than 90,000 people, according to the United Nations.
"Egypt supports the (Syrian) revolution and the Syrian people's right to live in dignity within the framework of a democratic system and we will work to achieve that goal," Fahmy said.
While in office, Morsi launched an initiative with the aim of finding a regional political solution.
Since Morsi's ouster, his critics have accused Syrians living in Egypt of participating in the protests calling for him to be reinstated. Television networks critical of Morsi aired allegations that his Muslim Brotherhood backers were paying Syrian refugees to take part in pro-Morsi protests.
Cairo's new military-backed interim government swiftly imposed travel restrictions on Syrians, who for decades were able to enter Egypt without a visa.
The main Syrian opposition coalition has criticized the shift toward those seeking refuge in Egypt from the war, calling on authorities to ensure that "Syrian people living in Egypt, under such dire circumstances, are not used to achieve certain political ends."
The arrest of at least six Syrians accused of taking part in violent street clashes further fanned the flames.
Clashes have erupted into violence several times since Morsi's ouster, killing more than 60 people. The most recent incident occurred Friday night in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura when unidentified assailants opened fire at a Muslim Brotherhood-led march, sparking a melee that killed three female protesters, authorities said.
Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi and Vice President Mohammed ElBaradei condemned the incident in separate posts on Twitter, vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice.
El-Beblawi described it as "a reprehensible crime that shames humanity." ElBaradei asked: "When will we learn that violence aggravates problems and does not solve them?"
No arrests in the shooting had been announced Saturday. Senior health ministry official Khaled el-Khatib said that doctors were examining the bodies of the slain protesters Saturday.
The Brotherhood identified the victims and said they ranged in age from 20 to 45 years old. The group says two were killed by gunshot and one died after suffocating on tear gas.
The Brotherhood said the assault "sheds light on the bloody nature of dictatorship and the police state under a military coup." The group had called for Friday's protests to demand Morsi be reinstated and to increase pressure on the new leadership.Share Facebook
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If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.
— Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene III, 59-62.
[And now for something completely different… Back in 1995, we published a three-part article by Luciano Floridi in which he looked into the future of the Internet. After a reader ran across the article and drew my attention to it, I asked Professor Floridi if he would like to tackle the topic yet again. He did, and you can now read his thoughts about how we can expect to see the Internet weave its way further into our lives. -Adam]
Eleven Years Ago — In 1995, I was invited to give a keynote speech at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, to celebrate UNESCO’s 50th anniversary (UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). On that occasion, I was asked to predict what sort of transformations and problems were likely to affect the development of the Internet and our system of organised knowledge in the medium term. That speech turned into an article, a synthesis of which was published by TidBITS in three parts (see “The Internet & the Future of Organized Knowledge”; for a non-abridged version see “The Internet: Which Future for Organised Knowledge, Frankenstein or Pygmalion?”). They say there are only two kinds of predictions: wrong and lucky. Mine was lucky, and so I thought I might tempt fate once more.
This time, however, I shall not be concerned with the system of organised knowledge. Rather, I shall focus, more generally, on future developments in digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their impact on our lives. And since there is no merit in predicting the obvious, I will avoid issues such as rising concerns about privacy and identity theft, spamming, viruses, or the importance of semantic tagging, online shopping and virtual communities. I will, instead, seek to capture the new worldview that might be dawning on us.
Digital ICTs as Reshaping Technologies — In order to grasp the scenarios that we might witness and experience in the near future, I need to introduce two key concepts: “infosphere” and “radical reshaping.”
“Infosphere” is a word I coined years ago on the basis of “biosphere,” a term referring to that limited region on our planet that supports life. By “infosphere,” then, I mean the whole informational environment made up of all informational entities (including informational agents), their properties, interactions, processes, and relations. It is an environment comparable to, but different from, “cyberspace” (which is only one of the sub-regions of the infosphere, as it were), since the infosphere also includes offline and analog spaces of information. We shall see that it is also an environment (and hence a concept) that is rapidly evolving.
By “radical reshaping,” I mean a very radical form of change, one that not only structures a system (e.g., a company or a machine) anew, but also fundamentally transforms its intrinsic nature. In this sense, for example, nanotechnologies and biotechnologies are not merely changing the world in a significant way (as did the invention of gunpowder) but actually reshaping our world in that both enable us to create fundamentally new substances that didn’t previously exist and enable us to interact with and manipulate the world in previously unimagined ways.
Using these concepts, my basic claim can now be formulated thus: digital information and communication technologies are radically reshaping the very nature of the infosphere, and therein lies the source of some of the most profound transformations and challenging problems that we shall experience in the near future, at least as far as technology is concerned. In the rest of this article, I mean to clarify and substantiate this simple claim by highlighting three fundamental trends in the reshaping of the infosphere and some of their significant implications.
#1: The Rise of the Frictionless Infosphere — The most obvious way in which these new information and communication technologies are reshaping the infosphere concerns (a) the transition from analog to digital data and then (b) the ever-increasing growth of our digital space. Both phenomena are very familiar and require no explanation, but a brief comment may not go amiss.
In a 2003 study on information storage and flows, Lyman and Varian write that “Print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media produced about 5 exabytes of new information in 2002. Ninety-two percent of the new information was stored on magnetic media, mostly in hard disks. […] Five exabytes of information is equivalent in size to the information contained in 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress book collections.”
Although the production of analog data is still increasing, the infosphere is becoming more digital by the day. A simple example may help to drive the point home: the new Large Hadron Collider that is being built at the CERN to explore the physics of particles will produce up to 1.5 GB of data per second, or an estimated 5 petabytes of data annually, a quantity of data hundreds of times larger than the Library of Congress’s print collection (estimated at 20 terabytes) and about as large as Google’s whole data storage, reported to be approximately 5 petabytes. (If you’re having trouble with these units, a petabyte is 1,024 terabytes, and an exabyte is 1,024 petabytes.)
This radical reshaping of the infosphere is largely due to the fundamental convergence between digital resources and digital tools. One of Alan Turing’s most important intuitions was that, in our radically reformed infosphere, there is no longer any substantial difference between the processor and the processed, so digital tools deal effortlessly and seamlessly with digital resources in a way that simply wasn’t true in the analog world.
The convergence of digital tools and resources potentially eliminates one of the most long-standing bottlenecks in the infosphere and, as a result, there is a gradual erasure of friction, the forces that oppose the flow of information within a region of the infosphere. Reducing friction in the infosphere thus reduces the amount of work and effort required to generate, obtain, process, and transmit information in a given environment, by establishing and maintaining channels of communication and by overcoming obstacles in the flow of information such as distance, noise, lack of resources (especially time and memory), amount and complexity of the data to be processed, and so forth. Given a certain amount of information available in a region of the infosphere, the lower the friction in it, the more accessible that amount of information becomes.
Because of their “data superconductivity,” information and communication technologies are well known for being among the most influential factors that affect friction in the infosphere. We are all acquainted with daily aspects of a frictionless infosphere, such as spamming, and concepts such as micropayments, which become possible only when there is no friction in the transmission of payment information between parties. Three other significant consequences are:
We have no right to ignore information. It will become progressively less credible to claim ignorance when confronted by easily predictable events (e.g. as George W. Bush did with respect to Hurricane Katrina’s disastrous effects on New Orleans’s flood barriers) and painfully obvious facts (e.g. as British politician Tessa Jowell did with respect to her husband’s finances in a widely publicized scandal).
There will be vast common knowledge. Because of the amount of information available on any given topic, we will have no right to claim ignorance, not just because the information was available, but because everyone else will know that the information was available.
From these two consequences, it follows that, in the future, we shall witness a steady increase in the responsibilities of our information agents, whether they be people, companies, or bots that seek out information on our behalf.
The upshot is that information and communication technologies are making humanity increasingly accountable, morally speaking, for the way the world is, will, and should be. That’s a huge change from times not so long ago when all-powerful gods were deemed responsible for every otherwise inexplicable event, and it forces us to accept ever more responsibility for our own actions in every sphere.
#2: The Global Infosphere Is Becoming Our Ecosystem — During the last decade or so, we have become accustomed to thinking about our online lives as a mixture between an evolutionary adaptation of people to a digital environment, and a form of post-modern, neo-colonization of the digital environment by people. This is probably a mistake. Information and communication technologies are as much recasting our world as they are creating new realities. The threshold between here (analog, carbon-based, off-line) and there (digital, silicon-based, online) is fast becoming blurred, but this is as much to the advantage of the latter as it is of the former. Adapting Horace’s famous phrase, “captive cyberspace is conquering its victor.”
The digital is spilling over into the analog and merging with it. This recent phenomenon is variously known as “ubiquitous computing,” “ambient intelligence,” “The Internet of Things,” or “Web-augmented things.” It is, or will soon be, the next stage in the digital revolution.
Basically, the increasing digitalization of both artifacts of the physical world and of our entire social environment suggests that soon it will be difficult to understand what life was like in pre-digital times (to someone who was born in 2000, the world will always have been wireless, for example) and, in the near future, the very distinction between online and offline will become blurred and eventually disappear. To put it dramatically, the infosphere is progressively absorbing all other spaces. Let me explain.
In the fast-approaching future, an increasing number of objects will be able to learn, advise, and communicate with each other. A good example is provided by RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification), which can store and remotely retrieve data from an object and give it a unique identity, like a barcode. RFID tags can measure less than half a millimeter square, and be thinner than paper. Incorporate this tiny microchip in everything, including humans and animals, and you have created what I’m calling “ITentities.” This is not science fiction. According to a report by market research company InStat, the worldwide production of RFID tags will increase more than 25-fold between 2005 and 2010 and reach 33 billion. Imagine networking these 33 billion ITentities together with all the hundreds of millions of PCs, DVDs, iPods, and other digital communication devices available and you see that the infosphere is no longer “there” but “here.” And it is here to stay.
Nowadays, we are used to considering the space of information as something we log in to and log out from. Our view of the world is still modern or Newtonian: it is made of “dead” cars, buildings, furniture, clothes, which are non-interactive, irresponsive, and incapable of communicating, learning, or memorizing. But what we still experience as the world offline is bound to become a fully interactive and responsive environment of wireless, pervasive, distributed, a2a (anything to anything) information processes, that works a4a (anywhere for anytime), in real time. This interactive digital environment will first gently invite us to understand the world as something “ |
said in an email response: "The United States is in full compliance with the INF treaty. Russian claims to the contrary are false and meant to deflect attention from Russia's own very clear violation."
According to U.S. defense experts, the Aegis ship-based system can use cruise missiles but the ground system is not designed for it.
"Aegis Ashore doesn't have that software (for cruise missiles) and the other technical things needed," said Gary Schmitt, co-director of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank. "It's very clever on the Russians' part because a hole is a hole, so prima facie it can look like you can do something like that."
Also, Russia has previously claimed the U.S. was in violation of the INF treaty with regard to Aegis ground-based defense systems in Romania and Poland. And, the U.S. also has made the case in the past that Moscow too violated the landmark arms control treaty by deploying nuclear-capable, ground-launched cruise missiles.
Russia, meantime, said the anti-ballistic missile system in Japan would have consequences for Moscow-Tokyo relations.
"We see this move by Japan as running counter to efforts to ensure peace and stability in the region," Zakharova said. "Such actions by Tokyo are directly at variance with the priority task to build trust in the military-political sphere between Russia and Japan and will negatively influence the general atmosphere in bilateral relations, including negotiations on a peace treaty."
Meantime, former CIA official Klingner predicts that Japan will likely see more North Korean missile tests in the new year. Some missile tests this year by the nuclear-armed secretive regime have flown over Japan while others have landed within Japan's so-called exclusive economic zone.
For example, in September the North Koreans fired a missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The incident resulted in authorities issuing a so-called J-Alert over people's cellphones to warn them about the potential dangers and to take cover.
Last month, President Donald Trump suggested the Japanese should have shot down the missiles fired over their territory with U.S. technology.
Klingner said the Aegis system, though, is designed for inbound missiles as opposed to something flying overhead.
"Going over Japan is something that would exceed the capabilities of the missile defense systems," he said. "So it's like a shortstop watching a fly ball go over his head in the outfield."
Looking ahead, Klingner expects the new year will result in more missile tests by the North Koreans, including at least one intercontinental ballistic missile test perhaps "a distance in the Pacific." He also noted that Pyongyang threatened earlier this year to fly a missile over Japan toward the U.S. territory of Guam but didn't do it.
"I don't think it's going to be any quieter next year than it was this year," Klingner said.Burning effigies has been a State of the Nation Address (SONA) protest tradition for as long as we can remember. Not only is it as clear an expression of the people’s dissatisfaction as you can get—done properly, an effigy can be a work of art that sparks discussions and fosters critical thought.
Just last week, photos and videos of the “Trump fascist spinner” made the rounds on social media and even got featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “Comparatively, our protests here suck. I mean, where did they get that giant Trump fidget spinner? That’s amazing!” Kimmel said.
Created by UGATLahi Artist Collective, the 13-foot effigy depicted Trump with four arms spinning in the shape of a swastika, holding money and weapons to symbolize America’s economic and military dominance over Southeast Asia. It also had a comparatively small Duterte crouching behind Trump while making his signature fist salute.
UGATLahi has been making and burning effigies at the SONA and other political events since the ’90s. One of their earliest creations is “Erapzilla,” which was made during the protests against the Estrada administration in December 2000.
According to Paolo Magtira, art director of UGATLahi, the first step in conceptualizing an effigy is to hold educational discussions about a specific issue they want to protest. “These discussions are important in the creative process as we need to be able to understand the concepts and variables at play about the issue,” he explains.
After that, the artists hold brainstorming sessions and come up with sketches during UGATLahi general assemblies. It takes about a week to come up with a final concept, and two to three weeks of actual production before the effigy is finished. Although this time frame can vary, depending on the members’ availability (most of them are students) and the complexity of the effigy.
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“Carpenters are an integral part of the construction as they are knowledgeable and skilled in planning the intricacies of the effigy,” Magtira adds. “After the completed structure, the artists are responsible for the aesthetic qualities of the work through painting. Planning is important and it starts with the previously mentioned educational discussions to adequately equip the workers with an understanding of the issue behind the effigy. Overall, carpenters and artists work hand in hand to bring tangibility to the concept created on paper.”
While Magtira believes that effigies are a way to inspire people to take a stand regarding political issues, he emphasizes that the effigy isn’t supposed to be the focus of attention. “The movement and the actual protest are what it's all about. That's the entire reasoning behind the effort and the practice of burning it,” he explains.
An effigy of former President Marcos at the December 2016 International Human Rights Day protest
“The art is merely a component of the entire effort to make the people see the current situation that we as Filipinos are collectively involved in. Art is the most direct way to appeal to the masses due to its easily understood visual components; people can easily form their own perspective by just seeing the visual interpretation of the issue.”
When asked whether all members need to share the same political stance, he says, “UGATLahi is an artist collective that makes art for the sake of the masses and the mass movement. As a group, we will never be on the wrong side of the struggle if we always side with the plight of the oppressed and underprivileged; we create art to protest social injustice and the repressive nature of the ruling class. All productions have to first go through educational discussions. It is during these talks that we tackle the issues and problems that currently fall on the country. These discussions are catalysts that can lead to awareness and unity between our members.”
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Magtira adds that anyone with artistic inclinations is welcome to join UGATLahi. “The only requirements for joining are (1) an understanding that the type of art that UGATLahi creates sends a message and is for the benefit of masses and (2) a willingness to sacrifice time and effort in order to achieve our goals of creating the aforementioned art for the masses,” Magtira says. “If anyone is interested, you can contact us on our Facebook page.”More than 400 scripted, primetime shows aired in 2015, so how can anyone winnow that array down to the 10 best programs?
Trick question: It’s not possible. Not for me, anyway. After years of writing up Top 10 rosters (and sometimes fudging the numbers with ties), I cry uncle. For my sanity, my year-end best-of-TV list has to contain 20 entries. (Some of these entries are discussed in a new Talking TV podcast with Hitfix critic Alan Sepinwall.)
Even with that expanded roster, it was once again very difficult to come up with the list you see here. Hence the creation of more lists: Here’s my list of the year’s best new shows, and I’ve also published a rundown of the best returning shows of 2015. All told, around 50 shows and dozens of TV providers will be represented in these lists (which, I should add, don’t even contain all the great, good, pretty good, decent and not-great shows I watched this year; these were just the list-worthy contenders).
Faced with a smorgasbord of options, it’s only appropriate that a food-related word kept occurring to me as I wrote up this list: Umami. Beyond sweet, salty, sour and bitter, food aficionados have come to appreciate a fifth basic food descriptor. It’s hard to pin down what “umami” is, but most definitions describe it as a savory richness — a complex flavor that isn’t easy to describe but enhances a dish and makes it truly come alive.
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There’s so much variety in the TV landscape that there’s no way to define what makes these shows special. Some shows are just bursting with umami.
“The Americans,” FX: Every year, it seems impossible for this drama about Soviet spies to get better. But every year, it becomes more evocative, exciting and emotionally rich, because it continues to find new and even more effective ways to tie espionage plots to stories of relationships in danger. “The Americans” has figured out how to deftly combine moral dilemmas with bittersweet tales of loyalty and disappointment, and this fiendishly addictive show keeps making it look easy. (I wrote about season three here and here.
“Black-ish,” ABC: This reliably good sitcom got better this fall, as its cast and writers locked into even more entertaining grooves. The whole cast is outstanding, but Tracee Ellis Ross is giving a performance that, in its game physicality, multi-layered tenacity and cheerful intelligence, makes her seem like a modern-day Judy Holliday. Sometimes Rainbow Johnson has five different reactions in a scene, but they all make sense and they’re never just for show (and at least three of them are hilarious). “Black-ish” weaves cogent, necessary and truthful statements about race and class into many of its scenes and premises, all of which gives it extra heft and energy, but it’s also a warm-hearted family comedy that has a lot to say about human nature and middle-class American life. It’s terrific.
“BoJack Horseman,” Netflix: One of TV’s most interesting sub-genres revolves around depression, being annoyed by people who do improv (or who are connected to the media industries in any way), and the fact that being in a relationship in Los Angeles or New York is not for the faint of heart (see also “Togetherness,” “You’re the Worst,” “Casual,” “Girls” and “Master of None”). “BoJack” hits all those notes and yet it’s so much more than the sum of its cumulatively affecting parts. This sharply observed animated show unites the surreal, the goofy and the profound, and makes the adventures of a depressed horse and his odd collection of friends and frienemies absolutely mesmerizing. (Also, what most people don’t realize is that it’s actually a show about Diane Nguyen and Princess Carolyn. Fact.)
“Catastrophe,” Amazon: Instantly captivating and almost indecently charming, this sweet and saucy show is part of a wave of rom-coms that eschew fake sentiment and rote formula and end up with knockabout, human-scale stories that are winningly rich and real. Someone put season two in front of my eyeballs right now, please and thank you.
“Fargo,” FX: If this show had only given us Nick Offerman as a drunk Libertarian lawyer, that would have been enough. If it had only given us Bokeem Woodbine as a philosophical gangster and Jesse Plemons as a butcher who seems to be made out of a slab of meat, that would have been enough. But this year’s edition of the tart drama gave us all those wonderful things and much more, including a tragicomic performance from Kirsten Dunst that is every bit as precise and impressive as Billy Bob Thornton’s work last year. “Fargo” is likely to win a bunch of awards again in the next awards cycle, and that’s just swell, you betcha, because even if it is a little chilly or clinical at times, its cast is tremendous and it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
“Fresh Off the Boat,” ABC: It’s unfair to single out one person from this very strong ensemble, but I’m going to do just that: What did we do with our lives before Constance Wu was on our screens every week? Her comic timing and detailed characterization are joys to witness, but there are so many more “Boat” elements to savor. Randall Park’s deft performance as an enthusiastic and loving dad is tremendously endearing as well, the show’s kids are sharply observed characters in their own right, and the comedy’s writing, which weaves pointed social and cultural commentary into a well-crafted sitcom framework, is reliably excellent. New one-hour dramas at the broadcast networks have been frequently disappointing in the last few years, but in the realm of comedy, the broadcast networks haven’t lost their mojo, and “Boat” is proof of that.
“Hannibal,” NBC: Every year, this drama got better and better at creating nightmarish dreamscapes, to the point that this year, its mood of surreal fantasia seemed familiar and even comforting at times — and that in itself was a little unsettling. Few shows in TV history have been better at creating enthralling atmospheres; “Hannibal” doesn’t necessarily lay out stories as much as it weaves spells. From the lush interiors to the perfect clothes to the mouth-watering (and terrifyingly sourced) food, every element of this show is part of a seduction, which is exactly the point — and also the problem. Hannibal’s core idea — that one should live in devoted service to specific aesthetic and philosophical ideals — sounds good, but in practice it’s a brutal, sociopathic nightmare. When the pursuit of aesthetic ideals is not accompanied by compassion and empathy, well, you get Hannibal Lector. Though it faded a little in the home stretch, “Hannibal” once again found enthralling ways to explore a Jungian terrain of horror, beauty and twisted love. It was beautiful while it lasted.
“The 100,” CW: I’ll crib from a (non-spoilery) piece I wrote after the show aired its second-season finale: “I’ve rarely seen a program demonstrate the kind of consistency and thematic dedication that ‘The 100’ has shown in its first two seasons.This is a show about moral choices and the consequences of those choices, and it’s been laudably committed to those ideas from Day 1. …Who do you become if you sacrifice others in order to survive? When do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? When is taking a life — or many lives — justified? …What gives ‘The 100’ a particularly rich flavor on the character front is that very few people on the screen are in a position to judge anyone else. No one occupies the moral high ground. There is blood on the hands of just about every person on the screen.” It’s not the only piece I’ve written about the show, but I’ll stop now and remind you that the first two seasons of the drama, which returns Jan. 21, are on Netflix.
“Inside Amy Schumer,” Comedy Central: In a year in which an varied array of half-hour shows did exceptional work, Schumer’s wickedly funny show stood out, not just for classic sketches like, “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer” and “Last F—kable Day” but for a host of other moments that delivered Schumer’s smart, raunchy brand of feminism in memorable and hilarious ways.
“Jane the Virgin,” CW: This show is basically perfect, and if you don’t agree, I will fight you (not with fists — with emojis, of course). My thoughts about this show’s technical, aesthetic and emotional mastery — all of which place it in the highest tier of television accomplishment — are here and here.
“The Leftovers,” HBO: By moving the show lock, stock and knitted brow to Jarden, Texas, and injecting a new array of characters and conflicts into the show’s rich brew of supernatural, mundane and profound events, “The Leftovers” raised its game significantly in season two and turned itself into essential viewing. In “The Leftovers,” showrunner Damon Lindelof unites the heartfelt and finely honed commercial storytelling moves he used on “Lost” with a wilder and weirder set of concerns, and the result is a show that’s entertaining, sincere and movingly abstract. Let’s hope the show, like Kevin Garvey, keeps on returning, despite the odds. My thoughts on the season are here and my recent interview with Lindelof is here, here and here.
“Mad Men,” AMC: “What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons,” Don Draper declared in the “Mad Men” pilot, and the show spent seven seasons revealing what a liar he was. Don — or Dick — absolutely believed in love, to a degree that was self-destructive and delusional at times. Time and again, he lunged at love and sex and money to fix what was broken inside him, and despite all those bad choices, he finally ended up realizing that people did love him, and that he might be capable of love as well. Don Draper, you magnificent bastard, I miss you and all your ad-industry friends, and I always will. (My thoughts on the show’s finale are here and here.)
“Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” Netflix: This bracing drama dwelled on the fallout from abuse and sexual assault, and in doing so, it broke with many of TV’s most deplorable traditions when it comes to those subjects. “Jessica Jones” didn’t show us the rapes its title character endured: It simply accepted that they happened, it depicted the aftermath from her point of view, and it showed how infuriatingly hard it was for Jessica to get anyone else to believe that her attacker was a dangerous sociopath who needed to be stopped. It’s not that violence against women should never be shown on TV, but like many viewers (male and female), creator Melissa Rosenberg was tired of assaults being casually used as prurient sideshows meant to signal “grittiness,” and she went out of her way to avoid cliches and superficial scenarios in this surprisingly complex Marvel drama. The quality of the show’s pacing and characterization falls off in the final few episodes of the season, but “Jessica Jones” works like gangbusters before that, and it’s to be lauded for its smart use of atmosphere, whipsmart dialogue and film noir conventions. Star Krysten Ritter, it should be said again, did tremendous work.
“Master of None,” Netflix”: Very few series emerge this fully formed and assured, and it was simply a blast to watch “Master of None” plunge straight into challenging territory with vigor, wit and irreverent curiosity. It ended up being one of the funniest and most vital shows of the year, in part because it was willing to explore ideas and points of views that TV typically relegates to the sidelines.
“Mr. Robot,” USA: An exceptionally ambitious meditation on technology, voyeurship and the mediated life we all live now. If Rami Malek had not imbued the lead character with depth, intelligence and finely calibrated suffering, in addition to sly wit and steely resolve, the show simply wouldn’t have worked. Also doing terrific things: Christian Slater, who was restrained when he needed to be but who also unleashed the glorious Full Slater when necessary; the show’s directors, who played with point of view and perspective in ways that enhanced every frame; and supporting players like Michael Cristofer, B.D. Wong, Stephanie Corneliussen and Martin Wallström. Now that “Hannibal” is over, we’ll have to rely on Corneliussen and Wallström to take up the mantle of “TV’s most terrifying couple.” (Further thoughts on the show’s first season are here.)
“Rectify,” Sundance: It’s not just one of the best dramas of 2015, it’s one of the best TV dramas of all time. Each season, the show’s characters are ever more richly realized and each encounter is more movingly chronicled. Standout performances from Clayne Crawford, Adelaide Clemens, J. Smith-Cameron and J.D. Evermore enhanced the poignant and incisive third season, and as always, Abigail Spencer and Aden Young were incredibly committed and impressive as Amantha and Daniel Holden. Seriously, “Rectify” offered up a perfectly realized season of television this year, one with a boundless heart and yet a clear-eyed view of limits and the necessity of compassion. If you love “Friday Night Lights,” “The Leftovers” or “Enlightened” and haven’t seen this, well, you know what to watch next. If you do watch the show, check out this interview with creator Ray McKinnon.
“Transparent,” Amazon: One of “Transparent’s” greatest qualities is its deceptiveness; at first glance, it seems like nothing more than a sharply observed indie comedy about the overly privileged members of Los Angeles family, but then it quietly gathers its strength and emotionally sucker-punches you in the best possible way. It can be enjoyed on so many levels: As a wry family comedy; as a meditation on inheritances and the damage done by secrets, lies and willful obliviousness; and an artful exploration of what it’s like to feel both deeply alone and joyfully connected. The new season arrives Dec. 11; here’s my review.
“Unreal,” Lifetime: Many TV shows find it difficult to supply viewers with one complicated, morally questionable female character, but “Unreal” found a way to give us two, and Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer dug into their roles with inspiring gusto. Also impressive: The show explored the tropes and cliches of dating reality shows without serving up condescending judgments of those who participate in or watch those programs. The word “game-changer” gets tossed around a lot, but “Unreal” did truly change the game for Lifetime, which wasn’t in the conversation about ambitious television until this show arrived.
“Wolf Hall,” PBS/Masterpiece: From my review of the canny adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novels: “This Masterpiece drama has intelligent observations to make about about how people in power — kings and queens, but they might as well be studio executives, CEOs or presidents — want their dirty work done without having to be reminded of just how dirty and deceitful it can be. Powerful people… believe they are better than they are and try to ignore the fact that people are being kneecapped (or worse) just offstage. Doing something for the greater good is easier if you make other people bear the moral cost of repugnant but debatably necessary acts. [Mark Rylance’s] Cromwell silently bears that weight — in his posture, in his delivery, in his eyes, Rylance makes you see what carrying that burden does to the man.” Not only that, the hats on this show were incredible. The cast, the writing and the direction was very good, but “Wolf Hall’s” hat game was next level.
“You’re the Worst,” FX: This nimble show was one of my favorite shows of 2014, so imagine my surprise when it easily surpassed the accomplishments of its first season. Thanks to a first-rate cast and smart writing, “You’re the Worst” is not only consistently funny and smart but also deeply emotionally engaging and even tear-inducing at times. Despite having interviewed the show’s creator and cast, I still don’t know how they did that.
The latest edition of the Talking TV podcast features TV critic Alan Sepinwall and myself discussing the new edition of his book, “The Revolution Was Televised,” and talking about some of the entries in our 2015 Top TV lists. That podcast is here and on iTunes. Several recent Talking TV podcasts with myself and Ryan McGee delve into “Transparent,” “Jessica Jones” and other shows on this list.OSU Construction Update: New Arena, Cannon Drive Relocation and More
Renderings provided by The Ohio State University.
Construction never stops on Ohio State University’s main campus. Here’s an update on some of the latest projects.
Construction of the Covelli Center began in July and is scheduled to be finished in May of 2019. Although the arena was originally planned for the corner of Fred Taylor Drive and Ackerman Road, its new location is just north of Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
The project also now includes the Jennings Wrestling Facility – OSU’s plans originally called for two separate buildings, but they were combined to cut costs. Housed in the new facility will be the men’s and women’s volleyball and gymnastics teams as well as the fencing and wrestling programs.
The new location required the demolition of six buildings in the family-oriented Buckeye Village apartment complex. OSU had sought proposals in January to develop a 10-acre site on Kenny Road meant to at least partially replace the Buckeye Village units, but a developer has yet to be selected and an OSU spokesperson was not able to provide an update on the current status of the project.
Work has started on the Cannon Drive relocation. The first phase of the project, which will both straighten and raise Cannon from King Ave to Herrick Drive, and also open up about 12 acres of land for new buildings, started earlier this month and will continue through the fall of 2019. Visit OSU’s website for the latest updates on traffic, bus route and parking impacts.
Design Group has been selected as the architect of a major redesign of Postle Hall, which sits at the corner of West 12th and Neil Avenues. Daniel Hedman of OSU’s Office of Administration and Planning said that the project will incorporate a renovation of part of the existing building as well as a new four-story addition that would face Neil.
“The new building design features classic brick facade and limestone accents,” he said. “Timelines and full details will be further informed during the design phase.”
Renderings provided by The Ohio State University.
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About the Author Brent Warren is a staff reporter for Columbus Underground covering urban development, transportation, city planning, neighborhoods, and other related topics. He grew up in Grandview Heights and has a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning from OSU.
Tags:We’ve all laughed at Jeff Foxworthy’s clever “You might be a redneck” jokes, but firearm crime is no joking matter, and there are a lot of people committing “gun crimes” every day without even knowing it. Whether you know all about guns and gun laws, or you don’t even own a gun, you might be a gun criminal. American gun laws are so convoluted and the definitions so elastic that even the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ official website omits some prohibitions and fails to clearly explain others.
As I pointed out in a previous column, it is likely that former representative, now gun control crusader, Gabby Giffords, who, along with her husband makes a show of being a gun owner while calling for more restriction, is probably legally prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition. In other words, they probably are gun criminals.
It can be assumed that during the time after she was horribly shot – by a deranged Democrat – Gabby’s husband, Mark Kelly, was probably assigned a power of attorney to manage her affairs, and that she was, and possibly still is, considered legally incompetent and therefore unable to sign contracts or enter into legal agreements.
According to the Veterans Affairs health-care system and the FBI, a determination of legal incompetence qualifies a person as “adjudicated mentally defective,” resulting in loss of the right to firearms. The VA so designated some 200,000 veterans, many of whom were not nearly as seriously impaired as Ms. Giffords, and reported their names to the FBI as “prohibited persons.” For them to get their rights back, these veterans would have to renounce their disability benefit and prove to a VA doctor that they are no longer mentally impaired. Then they would have to petition for restoration of rights, but their petition could be turned down.
The only difference between these vets and Gabby Giffords is that no one reported Gabby to the FBI as a “mental defective.” But it doesn’t matter whether or not someone has been added to the FBI’s database of prohibited persons. It is the condition, not the reporting of it, that matters. According to the law, anyone “who has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution” is prohibited from possessing guns or ammunition, just like anyone under indictment or convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, or anyone who is a user of a controlled substance.
As Gabby and her group pushes for expanded background checks and more comprehensive reporting of mental-health records to the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System, or NICS, she should be held to the same standards as our injured veterans under VA care. With that in mind, veterans have been told that it would be a crime for their spouse to maintain firearms in the household, even if the veteran didn’t have access to them. Under that standard, Gabby’s husband would not be allowed to have guns either, at least not in the house.
And taking the logic further, if, as the VA says – and has been acting on for about 20 years – a legal finding of incompetence equates to “adjudicated mentally defective” under federal gun laws, then not only are Gabby and Mark breaking the law, but so are the parents of developmentally disabled adults if they have guns in the house or take their kids out to plink with.22s, and so are the guardians of folks with Alzheimer’s if they let them handle firearms.
The current system is all or nothing. There is no scaled or limited application. Either you are prohibited or you are not. If you are prohibited, any contact with, or access to a firearm is a felony, and so is providing or facilitating such contact or access. There is no provision for supervised range visits, or access under controlled circumstances. Someone who kited a check is under the exact same prohibition as someone who committed murder. Someone who eats pot-laced brownies to soothe the nausea of cancer treatments is treated just like a meth dealer.
The only thing that keeps trauma victims like Gabby Giffords and our disabled veterans from being snatched up and sent to prison is the kindness and common sense of police and prosecutors. Selective enforcement is no solution to bad laws. Just because these laws are rarely enforced against nice people doesn’t mean they never will be. Just look at the way New York City’s ban on “gravity knives” has been enforced and abused. That’s gotten so bad that even the Village Voice is finally complaining about the bad law.
The sad fact is that it’s much easier to catch regular people inadvertently breaking gun laws than it is to catch real criminals. And now the Obama administration is pushing a whole new raft of abusive regulations to circumvent Congress and restrict guns and gun owners even further.
As more “minor adjustments” are made to our nation’s gun laws by Congress, bureaucrats and judges, it becomes easier and easier to inadvertently break these laws. The cruel joke is rapidly changing from; “If you or someone in your household possess firearms … you might be a gun criminal,” to “If you are ever around guns … you probably are a gun criminal.”
Media wishing to interview Jeff Knox, please contact [email protected].Perth Glory’s first home game of the Hyundai A-League 2015/16 season this weekend will kick-off with more than just three points on the line.
Glory faces off against New Zealand rivals Wellington Phoenix at nib Stadium and both teams will be playing for a new trophy.
The two clubs have joined forces to form the ‘Long Distance Derby Cup’ which acknowledges the 5255 kilometre trek between the two cities- the longest road trip in world football.
Glory captain Richard Garcia applauded the move, saying the initiative had been a long time coming.
“We have derbies in AFL, State of Origin and in the A-League all mainly on the East Coast. The distance between our two teams is something that needs to be honoured and celebrated in the competition and I think it’s fantastic both teams have put their heads together and have come up with something like this the players and the fans can get excited about”.
Glory and the Phoenix will play each other three times during the season. The Cup trophy winner will be decided by the team which gathers most points over the three rounds. If the points are equal after the series, goal difference will be used to determine the winner.
Phoenix captain Andrew Durante also praised the Cup concept.
“You have the Sydney Derby, the Melbourne Derby and the F3 Derby between Central Coast and the Newcastle Jets,” he said.
“In the tradition of derbies those clubs are close together and this will be a derby with a difference. We might be over 5000km apart but there is a bit of a bond between us and Glory because of it” he said.
The match kicks-off at 4pm.
Tickets to the match, can be purchased HERE
#WestvsRest(MintPress) – On the Catholic Church’s World Day of Peace, Pope Benedict laced his annual mass with a message regarding the detrimental impact of unregulated capitalism, calling for an end to the ever-growing gap between rich and poor throughout the globe, describing it as a threat along the same lines as terrorism.
Over the last 30 years, America has seen a growing divide between rich and poor — the very trend the pope was warning against. Between 1979 and 2007, the top 20 percent of earners saw income increases of 65 percent — those on the bottom 20 percent saw just an 18 percent increase, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In Italy, the income inequality gap grew 33 percent in 20 years, as of 2008, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
“Although the world is sadly marked by hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism, as well as by various forms of terrorism and crime, I am convinced that the many different efforts at peacemaking which abound in our world testify to mankind’s innate vocation to peace,” the pope said, according to an English translation provided by Vatican Radio.
Those pockets of tension in the U.S. were escalated with the Occupy Wall Street movement, from which the phrase, “We Are the 99 Percent” was created — one that references the growing gap between the top 1 percent of earners and the rest. Yes, it seems Occupy protesters and the pope could see eye-to-eye on this one.
“I think Occupy Wall Street served a function in that it brought to the attention of the American public two things … the distortion of our economy and inequality,” Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told Reuters in October.
According to the CBO, the top 1 percent in America saw a 275 percent increase in income between 1979 and 2007. While created as Occupy Wall Street, the movement was adopted in 951 cities and 82 countries throughout the world.
The Vatican and wealth
While the pope’s message has been received by those who see it as a boost to the progressive, pro-workers movement throughout the world, others question whether the Vatican, an organization that saw a revenue in 2010 of $356 million should be one to discuss income inequality, especially considering the poverty seen today in Rome. Roughly $15 million of that revenue was generated through churches around the world.
As the Vatican takes in an extraordinary amount of money, it was operating in the red up until 2011. This, according to Theology and Economics professor and renowned author, Daniel Flint, negates the perception that the vatican is a rich, extravagant operation. Funding, Flint told MintPress News, is needed to protect the historical and artistic documents and artifacts — treasured not only among Catholics, but also by scholars (who are still petitioning to have access to the Vatican library).
The British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) indicated in a 2011 report that the Vatican’s budget is also spent on covering activities of the pope and the Vatican’s broadcast operations, which include the airing of Vatican Radio in five continents.
The Vatican made a decision to release its documents in 1981, allegedly to combat the sentiment that it was wealthy.
Applying the message to American politics, union fights
The pope’s message was nothing new, yet it came at a time of national debate over the economy and the role of labor unions in the U.S., with America fresh off the controversial right-to-work bill passed in Michigan — a model bill sponsored by corporate donors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
While presumably giving workers the right to choose whether to pay union dues, the bill is blamed for weakening the bargaining system of employees in the long run. The pope’s comments regarding capitalism raise the question: If asked specifically about the role of workers unions, what would his response be?
“There’s no doubt whatsoever that this pope and all the popes over the last century have been for labor rights, for unions,” Flint said.
Conservative Catholics in the U.S. may have cringed to hear that unregulated capitalism is to blame for the growing divide in economic inequality.
A 2011 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed the divide between Catholic voters on the left and right side of the aisle were split, with 49 percent identifying as Republicans and 42 percent as Democrats. While not a black and white issue, the debate over bills like “right-to-work” typically divide between the two major political parties, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats against.
Sen. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is an example of the political trend. A known Catholic, Ryan touted a voting record that did not favor unions – he opposed the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress. The legislation was championed by union supporters, as it allowed workers to choose to form unions, without the threat of termination.
This puts Americans, specifically Catholic and other Christian sects, in an interesting predicament, especially when creating a political belief intended to mirror spiritual convictions. Yet it’s not the first time the Catholic Church has faced the issue — and not the first time parishioners have taken stances in defense of both sides.
And while there’s still debate among people of the faith, the pope’s most recent World Peace Day message is as old as the church itself. A letter written by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 echoes the sentiment of the pope’s New Years Day Message.
“In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen’s guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place,” he wrote. “Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion |
first time. We might have talked about it in the lead up to the Poirier fight too,” he recalled.
“I think it was mostly based on the potential pay-per-view buys the two of them could accumulate. It was also seeing both Conor and Floyd and how big they were and how well they handled the spotlight.
“Floyd stood out from all of the other boxers and Conor stood out from all of the other MMA guys. I was thinking about what an amazing fight it would be too.
“I always knew that Conor’s main skill was his stand up. That has been his strength and he looks on a different planet to anyone else in MMA when he is letting his hands go.
“I just thought that against Conor, Floyd wouldn’t be able to be as defensive as he is against other fighters because Conor would bring it to him and make him fight no matter what.”
The boxing community has openly mocked McGregor’s skillset based on his open workout ahead of the T-Mobile Arena fight. For Lobov, the conventional approach to boxing is outdated.
“Boxing is stuck in the past. If Conor went in and beat up every boxer in the world, the boxing people would say, ‘that’s just Conor, he’s special.’
“They do this for every single fighter. First they ridicule him, then when he beats everyone they do a complete 180 and talk about special the guy is.
“They did it with Mayweather too. Whenever someone has an unorthodox approach, different to what a standard boxer would look like, they write it off as being bad. They never seem to look at the normal approach to boxing and think that it might be slightly outdated.”
The camp has been united in their prediction of a McGregor knockout. Despite the many who feel a win for the UFC lightweight champion would be the greatest upset in sporting history, Lobov wouldn’t even consider McGregor winning an upset.
“It’s hard for me to even see it as an upset,” he said. “A lot of people can’t measure skill, it’s a very hard thing to comprehend. Everyone is only seeing a guy that’s a boxer and that has never been beaten taking on a guy who hasn’t boxed before.
“It’s not as simple as that with Conor. Look at boxers hitting pads and look at MMA fighters hitting pads, it’s the same thing. Conor knows how to fight and he knows how to box. He has been boxing professional boxers for his whole life, he has had almost 50 amateur boxing fights.
“This is nothing new to him. People are talking like this is a cricket player trying to play basketball. It’s nothing like that, these are very similar sports.”OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), December 08, 2017 - To ring in the holidays and toast the release of 50 more Pokémon from the Hoenn region, Sprint (NYSE:S) is giving the gift of $100 in PokéCoins to anyone who signs up for Sprint Unlimited.
’Tis the season to switch, Trainers! This offer kicks off today, and the math makes sense – $100 equals 14,500 PokéCoins, which gets a Trainer everything they need to maximize their game play and fill up their Pokédex. The $100 in PokéCoins can be exchanged for up to 3,600 Poké Balls, 480 Max Revives, 145 Premium Raid Passes or 96 Incubators.
And it gets even better: When a Trainer (or anyone who appreciates a reliable network and the best value in wireless) switches to Sprint, they can get four lines of unlimited data, talk and text for $25 per month per line and a fifth line free.1 That means Trainers can play Pokémon GO as much as they like, enjoy HD streaming for video, music and games and get 10GB of mobile hotspot data all for an unbeatable value.2 Sprint’s unlimited data plan also includes the premier video streaming service, Hulu, and a six-month trial of streaming music with Tidal.3
“This is an amazing and valuable gift for all the U.S. Trainers out there,” said Roger Solé, Sprint chief marketing officer. “When you switch to Sprint, you can enjoy all the benefits of Unlimited – including $100 in PokéCoins plus you can watch your favorite TV shows on Hulu and listen to streaming music with Tidal. This holiday season, Sprint is delivering the services you want most from your wireless company.”
Here’s how to get your $100 in PokéCoins from Sprint:
Activate a new line of service in a Sprint store.
Ask a sales representative for your FREE Pokémon GO gift – $100 in PokéCoins.
You will receive a text message with instructions on how to redeem.
Today’s news is part of Sprint’s unique relationship with Pokémon GO. One year ago, Sprint became the exclusive U.S. wireless partner of Pokémon GO and transformed Sprint stores into PokéStops and Gyms. Trainers can visit Sprint stores and engage with the hugely popular location-based game.
The Sprint 4G LTE network covers 306 million people across the U.S., providing game play from Seattle to Miami and everywhere in between. This year Sprint has the most improved network with national average download speeds up 33 percent year-on-year.4 And in more than 25 of 99 top markets, Sprint’s average download speeds have increased from 40 percent to more than 100 percent.5
About Sprint
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served 54 million connections as of Sept. 30, 2017, and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
1 Savings until 1/31/19; then $60/month for line 1, $40/month for line 2, and $30/month/line for lines 3-5. With AutoPay discount applied within two invoices HD video streams up to 1080p, music up to 1.5Mbps, gaming streams up to 8Mbps. Data deprioritization during congestion. Excludes taxes, surcharges and roaming. See website for details.
2 MHS reduced to 2G speeds after 10GB/month.
3 One Limited Commercials plan per Sprint account. Tidal: pay $9.99 per month after trial for Tidal Premium.
4 Average download speed increase based on Ookla’s analysis of Speedtest Intelligence data comparing Sept. 2016 to Sept. 2017 for all mobile results.
5 Average download speed increase based on Sprint’s analysis of Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence data comparing third quarter 2016 to third quarter 2017 for all mobile results.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171208005258/en/Please enable Javascript to watch this video
(Bartlett, TN) An Arlington woman landed herself behind bars Wednesday after police said she accidentally texted a lieutenant to buy drugs, instead of an intended drug dealer.
The lieutenant with the Bartlett Police Department had met Karly Bradley a few months ago when looking for help locating a suspect.
Capt. Marlon Jones said that lieutenant "gave her his phone number, and said if the guy comes back, give me a call.
Apparently she kept that number. A couple of days ago, she sent him a text message on his city issued cell phone, wanting to buy some Xanax."
The incident report stated she had sent a mass text message that read: "U got stix?"
That lieutenant's number was included in the recipients of that message. He arranged to meet her at the Kroger gas station U.S. 70, around the corner from the Bartlett police station.
On Wednesday, police said she drove to the meeting point, where officers arrested her.
"Not only did she want to buy drugs from him, she wanted to sell him a Schedule III drug," Jones said.
Police found Suboxone on her, which she had communicated she would sell to the supposed dealer. Suboxone is used to treat heroin addiction.
She later told police she needed the Xanax to calm her nerves, because she was taking care of a relative's infant child.
She also told police she thought that Bartlett police phone number belonged to "an old dope boy named G."
Bradley is charged with simple possession/casual exchange, possession of a Schedule IIII drug, with intent to distribute the drug.Here at CH, indigo is our muse (we’ve even dedicated a Gift Guide to it this year) but sometimes, the final product can’t tell the entire story on its own. Natural indigo blue is not an easy color to achieve, is the takeaway from our conversation with BUAISOU, a unique collective that not only grows and harvests indigo leaves in Tokushima, Japan but also does the actual dyeing—merging two distinct crafts. From farm to fabric, it’s a long-term, attentive process likened to making wine—and requires hands in every step of the way—at the end of which emerges a vivid spectrum of shades. The blue’s boldness pierces the soul, and so does the vision of these artisans. This week, we visited BUAISOU’s small but airy first-floor studio where co-founder Kenta Watanabe shared how their vat of fermenting sukumo dye comes to life in Brooklyn.
Watanabe is, in fact, a former “salaryman” (the Japanese nickname for someone who works in an office) who changed gears after taking an indigo dyeing workshop in Japan. It’s the reason why BUAISOU hosts weekly introductory workshops—which took place in director (and helpful translator) Sayaka Toyama’s Bushwick living room until they moved into a studio space earlier this April. There’s no better way to appreciate the living beauty of indigo than by plunging your arms deep into the dark abyss.
But first things first: BUAISOU’s indigo comes from their Tokushima farm, where the plants are harvested in the summertime. The leaves are separated from the stems, then dried. Over autumn and winter, the leaves are gathered into the nedoko, or “bedroom,” where they will compost for a few months. The BUAISOU team pours water and turns the gigantic pile once a week for even decomposition and, as the weather turns cold, covers the pile with straw mats to keep the fermentation process going. Come spring, this concentrated indigo in the form of “sukumo” is ready to become liquid dye.
Watanabe and co-founder Kakuo Kaji apprenticed under sixth-generation sukumo master Osamu Nii, whose much larger farm is only five minutes away from BUAISOU’s, and who was featured in Catherine Legrand’s stunning book “Indigo.” Nii, for example, advised exactly how much water to add and how they should stir the piles—there’s much more skill involved than what meets the eye. He still frequently walks over to check how their nedoko is doing; class is never concluded.
Watanabe notes how few sukumo masters are left in Japan. After cheaper synthetic indigo was developed and became more popular, what used to total in the thousands has dwindled down to a number countable on both hands. One difference between Nii and BUAISOU, he points out, is that their teacher only farms and makes the composted sukumo, which he sells to dyers. BUAISOU, wanting to keep everything in-house from start to finish, aspires to master two separate crafts: sukumo-making and indigo-dyeing.
Dried indigo leaves smell of tea—and it’s drinkable. The clumps of fermented sukumo, in contrast, have an earthy scent, like soil. There are only four ingredients: wheat bran (a sugar to feed the bacteria), limestone powder (aka calcium hydroxide), a blend of wood ash and hot water (a highly alkalized lye), and the sukumo. Mix it all together in a vat, and after 10 days of stirring at a consistent temperature of 72-72°F, the living (and continuously fermenting) batch is ready to impart luminous blues. It will last around two months before it’s time to make another.
What differs between dyers is the ratios of each ingredient used. Also, many dyers use sake in lieu of wheat bran, but the latter is actually an older recipe—created during a time when sake was quite precious.
Sinking his arms into the vat, Watanabe soaks a square cotton fabric in the indigo dye. A few minutes later, he pulls it out—and it’s green. But the color quickly oxidizes to blue right before our eyes. Traditionally, the Japanese have identified 48 different shades of natural indigo and have given each its own name. Every year, the sukumo harvest will vary in which group of shades turns out most “beautiful,” whether it’s the lighter, middle or darker blues. A garment might be re-dipped up to 30-50 times to reach the darkest blue. “When a vat is young, it is very strong,” says Watanabe. The palest shades of indigo, which require just one or two dips, can only be achieved right before a vat “dies.”
“I get excited about the surprise,” says Watanabe of the dyeing process. “A lot of people ask is, can you make this color. But that’s not our point. Every single piece will be a different color and you should enjoy it, rather than having the same thing.”
“It’s our goal to make jeans, 100% dyed in sukumo,” says Watanabe, noting that they might be the first brand to do so. They hope to begin production next year and are happy with taking their time. Thus explains the name, BUAISOU, which refers to the name of a country house owned by Jiro Shirasu—one of the first Japanese public figures to be photographed wearing American jeans. “With regular jeans, each yarn is not completely dyed; only the surface of the yarn is dyed. Sukumo uniquely can dye to the core. So how it fades is completely different from regular jeans,” says Watanabe, giving the example of how boro fades.
Despite how challenging it is to make each batch of dye, this precious sukumo was created to be shared. In addition to teaching traditional techniques like shibori, katazome (stencil-dyeing) or Japanese batik, BUAISOU offers appointments where you can bring your own garments to be dyed. Breathe new life into your white shirts sporting a stain or two, even tired old bedsheets. Unlike synthetic indigo, natural indigo can not only strengthen fabric but also (incredibly) doesn’t bleed or transfer—so you can toss it in the laundry with whites. (Dyed pieces can sometimes yellow over time in the sun due to the remnants of scum, but a wash in hot water will help remove it.) BUAISOU’s enthusiasm for upcycling and re-adding value makes us appreciate their work even more.
There are a few different ways NYC residents can get hands-on with BUAISOU, especially before the end of the year. Every Tuesday at 7PM, they host two-hour Introduction to Sukumo Indigo-Dyeing class. This Saturday, 19 December, there’s a special furoshiki-making session at Atelier Courbet from 12-6PM (inquire by email to shop[at]ateliercourbet.com). And finally, they’re holding open studio hours from 12-6PM on 18, 20, 21-23 of December; walk-ins are warmly welcome to join their holiday card-making sessions. BUAISOU’s studio is located at 117 Grattan St #101, Brooklyn, NY 11237.
For those outside of the city, BUAISOU just launched their webshop, where they’ll be adding dyed pieces on a regular basis. They are often collaborations with other Japanese artisans.
Tokushima indigo farm images courtesy of BUAISOU; slideshow images by Josh Rubin; images of Brooklyn studio by Nara ShinChelsea have won all four games Oscar has scored in this season
Chelsea stay four points clear at top of table
Costa returns after four-game absence
QPR's Austin scores his fifth league goal of season
Hoops have lost four of last five league games
Leaders Chelsea moved nine points clear of title rivals Manchester City as a sublime finish by Oscar helped overcome a determined QPR at Stamford Bridge.
The Brazil midfielder lashed home a first-time low, angled drive with the outside of his boot from 12 yards after being set up by Cesc Fabregas.
Charlie Austin levelled when back-heeling Leroy Fer's shot into the net.
But Eden Hazard's penalty, after the Belgian was fouled by Eduardo Vargas, won it for Chelsea.
Premier League champions City will reduce the gap to six points if they beat neighbours United in the Manchester derby on Sunday.
Media playback is not supported on this device I didn't enjoy Chelsea win - Mourinho
Jose Mourinho's side head to Slovenia for Wednesday's Champions League group game against NK Maribor unbeaten in 15 games in all competitions this season.
They also have Diego Costa leading the attack again, the Spain international showing flashes of his best form against QPR on his return from a four-game absence.
Chelsea, though laboured, dominated possession and would have won by a more handsome margin but for several saves from Robert Green.
Ex-Tottenham striker & BBC pundit Garth Crooks: "Who did Cesc Fabregas replace at Chelsea? For all his goals, nobody is talking about Frank Lampard any more. Fabregas is not only laying goals on but transforming Chelsea's style of play. They are strong and formidable but they are also easy on the eye. No wonder Roman Abramovich stood up and applauded. Not even at Inter Milan or Real Madrid did a Jose Mourinho side play football like this."
Their winner came with 15 minutes remaining, Hazard sending goalkeeper Green the wrong way from the spot after Vargas's foul.
It was hard on tireless QPR, who thought they had secured a point when Austin provided a moment of inspiration to divert Fer's shot, which was going wide, past Thibaut Courtois in the 62nd minute.
The main talking point of a highly competitive London derby was Oscar's goal-of-the-season contender in the 32nd minute.
Media playback is not supported on this device 'Harsh penalty' disappoints Redknapp
It came soon after England international Green asked referee Mike Jones for the floodlights to be switched on as he was struggling to see clearly.
But he could do nothing as Oscar beat home with an early shot after Fabregas wrong-footed Yun Suk-young, his ninth assist in 10 league games since his £30m summer move from Barcelona.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho:
"My team didn't play well or well enough or so well as I was expecting. I was expecting more."
On Oscar's goal: "The goal is not impossible in a very talented boy.
"For 90 minutes I think he was our best player. Not for the goal, but for the dynamic, for the intensity, for the transitions. He was always sharp."
QPR manager Harry Redknapp:
"It's difficult to come here because Chelsea have so much talent, so much ability, so much strength.
"I felt we deserved something for how hard we worked. When you work that hard and don't lie down against the best team in the country, for that we deserved a point.
"We have to work as hard as that every game if we're going to pick up points and get out of trouble."
Chelsea and QPR players observed a minute's silence before kick-off in what was the last game at Stamford Bridge before Remembrance Sunday
Defender Branislav Ivanovic, who has two league goals for Chelsea this season, wasted a great chance when the game was goalless
Oscar has 15 Premier League goals since joining Chelsea in the summer of 2012
Charlie Austin has scored 24 league goals for QPR since the start of last season - including play-offs - 18 more than anyone else
Eden Hazard has converted all eight penalties that he has taken in the Premier League£1 solar rescue plan gets cross-party backing
A plan to'save the solar industry' by adding £1 on to consumer bills has received support from a cross-party coalition of 30 MPs.
The plan, proposed by the Solar Trade Association, would significantly reduce the cuts suggested by the Government in its consultation on the Feed-in Tariff.
The review, which will close on Friday 23 October, seeks to reduce subsidies for small-scale solar to around £7m over the next three years.
The STA is instead asking for £95m over the next three years, equivalent to an extra £1 a year on average household energy bills from 2019.
Specifically, the STA’s proposal calls for higher tariffs than those proposed by Government, with higher and more flexible caps on the total amount of solar that can be deployed and an improved mechanism to continually bring support levels down.
In return, the industry said it can deliver enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 875,000 homes. The STA also claims the plan would allow the solar industry to become subsidy-free and preserve up to 20,000 jobs.
Compromise
The proposals garnered cross-party support from over 30 MPs yesterday at an action day outside the House of Commons including Sir David Amess (Con), Caroline Flint (Lab), Caroline Lucas (Green), Callum McCaig (SNP) and Tom Brake MP (Lib Dem).
STA head of external affairs Leonie Greene said:“This emergency plan represents a compromise agreement which, given the current crisis, aims to find a way forward that is acceptable for both the Government and the solar industry.”
“The fact that this plan costs just £1 per household shows just how affordable it could be to adopt steady, gradual reductions in support for solar.”
“Solar is close to grid parity, but it is not there yet. The Government’s 98% cut in the overall budget for solar would derail the industry at the last hurdle and waste the millions of public investment in solar to date.”
Debate
The Government has stated that the cuts are needed to protect consumer bills from an over-deployment of solar energy.
Earlier this week utility company Good Energy published a report showing that solar and wind generation is already helping to reduce wholesale electricity costs with a reduction of £1.55bn on power prices in 2014, thereby offsetting much of the cost of supporting the renewable technologies.
The proposed cuts have also dealt a heavy blow to investor confidence in the market, with three solar businesses, Mark Group, Climate Energy and Southern Solar, having already gone into administration over the last few weeks making over 1,200 people across the country redundant.
The STA has estimated that up to 27,000 jobs in the solar sector and its supply chain could be at risk if the proposed reductions in tariffs go ahead.
Brad AllenYet another piece of evidence that our world is not as unique as we feared: There's a solar system out there that's like ours in one extremely vital respect, according to a group of scientists from MIT and the University of California at Santa Cruz.
The solar system, Kepler-30, has planets that travel along regularly aligned orbits. At the center of this solar system is the star Kepler-30a, with three planets traveling around it. The planets, dubbed Kepler-30b, 30c, and 30d, each follow orbiting paths similar to the ones Earth, Mars, or Jupiter travel as they dance around Sun.
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Stable planetary orbits are exciting, as astronomers think stability of orbit is key for the existence of life. These planets are located within the Lyra constellation, the same constellation that holds the fictional planet K-PAX from the Kevin Spacey movie of the same name.
Aligning planets
Researchers made the discovery while sifting through data obtained by the Kepler Space Telescope. The Kepler Space Telescope currently takes data on over 150,000 stars, with most astronomers gleaning the data in hopes of discovery exoplanets.
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While analyzing the data from Kepler, the researchers honed in on a Sun-like star, Kepler-30a. By observing the location of several sunspots on Kepler, the scientists determined the alignment of the planets orbiting the solar system Kepler-30.
Co-author Joshua Winn spoke conservatively on linking the discover to our solar system:
We've been hungry for one like this, where it's not exactly like the solar system, but at least it's more normal, where the planets and the star are aligned with each other. [...] It's the first case where we can say that, besides the solar system.
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In an official press release from NASA, Winn added:
It's telling me that the solar system isn't some fluke. [...] The fact that the sun's rotation is lined up with the planets' orbits, that's probably not some freak coincidence.
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Big differences
The newly discovered exoplanetary solar system Kepler-30 is not a carbon copy of ours, however. There are only three planets circling Kepler-30a versus the eight (or nine if you are a Pluto stalwart) circling our Sun.
The size of the planets orbiting Kepler-30a is under debate, with their complete orbital period needing additional study. Regardless, the discovery of the Kepler-30 system is exciting, possibly putting us one step closer to determining the conditions necessary for life or maybe — just maybe locating some distant friends in the universe.
Check out the full article, Alignment of the stellar spin with the orbits of a three-planet system, published this week in Nature. Image of the Kepler Space Telescope are from the NASA Ames Research Center. Images by Cristina Sanchis Ojeda/Ames Research Center.WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday launching a commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression, building upon his unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.
The White House said the president’s “Advisory Commission on Election Integrity” would examine allegations of improper voting and fraudulent voter registration in states and across the nation. Vice President Mike Pence will chair the panel and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will be vice chair of the commission, which will report back to Trump by 2018.
“We can’t take for granted the integrity of the vote,” Pence said in a statement. He said the commission would “review ways to strengthen the integrity of elections in order to protect and preserve the principle of one person, one vote because the integrity of the vote is the foundation of our democracy.”
Trump has alleged, without evidence, that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in his 2016 election against Democrat Hillary Clinton. He has vowed since the start of his administration to investigate voter fraud, a process that has been delayed for months.
Last November, Kobach said he supported Trump’s assertions that he would have won the popular vote if “millions” of people hadn’t voted illegally.
Democrats and voting rights groups called the panel a sham, arguing there are few, if any, credible allegations of significant voter fraud. They warned that the panel would be used to lay the groundwork for stricter voting requirements that could make it more difficult for poor and minority voters to access the ballot box.
“The sole purpose of this commission is to propagate a myth and to give encouragement to Republican governors and state legislators to increase voter suppression,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who challenged Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said it was a “clear front for constricting the access to vote to poor Americans, older Americans, and — above all — African-Americans and Latinos.”
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the commission would be bipartisan and composed of about a dozen members, including current and former state election officials and experts.
“The president is committed to the thorough review of registration and voting issues in federal elections and that’s exactly what this commission is tasked with doing,” Sanders said.
The panel will aim to ensure confidence in the integrity of federal elections while looking at vulnerabilities in the system and the possibility of improper voting and fraudulent voter registration and voting, officials said.
The commission will include two Republicans, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, and two Democrats, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner and Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap.
Christy McCormick, a former Justice Department attorney and a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, will also be on the panel, and others will be named soon.
Trump repeatedly alleged that the election system was “rigged” during his campaign and later argued that massive, widespread fraud kept him from winning the popular vote. Trump won the presidency with an Electoral College victory even though Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes.
Voting experts and many lawmakers, including House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, have said they haven’t seen anything to suggest that millions of people voted illegally. The Utah Republican said his committee won’t be investigating voter fraud.
But in a lunch meeting with senators in February, Trump said he and former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte would have won in New Hampshire if not for voters bused in from out of state. New Hampshire officials have said there was no evidence of major voter fraud in the state.
Michael Waldman, president of the New York-based Brennan Center for Justice, said the commission was formed to “find proof of the president’s absurd claim” about millions of people voting illegally. He noted that it came in the aftermath of Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday.
“He fired the person investigating a real threat to election integrity, and set up a probe of an imaginary threat,” Waldman said.
Trump had previously identified Pence as the person to oversee the commission. Kobach advised Trump’s transition team and has been a leading GOP proponent of tighter voting regulations.
The secretary of state championed Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship requirement as an anti-fraud measure that keeps noncitizens from voting, including immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Critics contend it suppresses voter turnout, particularly among young and minority voters, and that there have been few cases of fraud.
After the announcement, the American Civil Liberties Union said it had filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information on what the Trump administration was using as the basis for its voter fraud claims.
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On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDCNEW DELHI: Five terrorists were killed as security forces successfully foiled an infiltration bid from Pakistan-occupied(PoK) into Machil sector of north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Monday.Troops monitoring the area noticed suspicious movement along the LoC and immediately challenged the intruders. Five terrorists were shot down in the ensuing gunbattle.Security forces have recovered weapons from the scene. The identity and affiliation of the terrorists is being determined."Five weapons have been recovered from the slain terrorists. The operation is still going on in the area," Defence ministry spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said.On July 23, another infiltration attempt was foiled by the Army in the very same area.Meanwhile, security forces have launched a cordon and search operation in Pulwama district's Pinglena village, following specific inputs about presence of terrorists.This year, the Army has foiled a total of 22 infiltration bids along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, and 38 armed intruders have been eliminated in such operations.It's fair to say Soundtracking might not exist without Clint. That's because the genesis of the idea formed when Edith saw him performing his film scores at the Largo in Los Angeles back in 2012.
And 5 years later, here we all are!
After his band Pop Will Eat Itself disbanded in 1996, Clint was introduced to the business when Darren Aronofsky asked him to score Pi. The pair have collaborated several times since - as part of total body of work comprising around 50 films.
During the course of the conversation, you'll hear extended extracts of Clint's work on High Rise, Moon, Pi, Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream. But we begin in the iconic venue in which this interview took place - Air Studios in London - with the main theme from the very first score he recorded there...German UN Envoy on Islamic State's Rise
'We Simply Can't Give Up on Libya'
With the situation rapidly deteriorating in Libya, the UN's special representative to the country, Martin Kobler of Germany, is pushing for a unity government in a last-ditch effort to halt the Islamic State's march there. He warns that time is running out.
AFP Heavy black smoke rises from an oil facility in Libya's Ras Lanouf region following an attack by the Islamic State last month.
Interview Conducted By Juliane von Mittelstaedt
Martin Kobler is one of Germany's top officials dealing with crisis zones around the world. He's also one of the country's leading diplomats at the United Nations. The 62-year-old has led UN missions in Afghanistan, in Iraq and most recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN appointed him in November to lead its support mission for civil war-torn Libya, where he is seeking to bring the country's divided factions together into a unity government. December's Skhirat agreement aimed at establishing that government of national unity marked his first success in the position. So far, however, it has done nothing to stop the spread of the Islamic State (IS) in the country.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Kobler, your job right now -- to bring unity and peace to Libya, as you already did in eastern Congo -- isn't exactly an easy one. Which mission do you find harder?
Kobler: In Eastern Congo we were dealing with a region that had no state authority, just as we are seeing in Libya now, only the situation here is far more complex. The country is under militia rule, there are two parliaments and governments, in the west and in the east, and the Islamic State is spreading in the areas between. Libya is very fragmented -- far more so than eastern Congo.
SPIEGEL: Many have written Libya off as being a new Syria, a country entangled in a barely comprehensible conflict between militias, partly under IS control, a "failed state" which can no longer be saved.
Kobler: We simply can't give up on Libya. There are 6 million people living there and we need to help them. Of course, the presence of IS there is also a threat to Europe. Libya is an Arab country, an African country, but also a country with very close ties to Europe. My goal is to prevent Libya from becoming the next Syria. That will require the political process that we have initiated -- and which is now finally beginning. But we will not be able to save Libya without the Libyans.
SPIEGEL: It took over a year of negotiations under the tutelage of the United Nations in Skhirat before a deal was reached in December, but now the internationally recognized parliament in Tobruq just voted against the unity government. Do you not see this as a bad sign?
Kobler: I see it differently. Tobruq did in fact recognize the agreement. They may have rejected the concrete composition of the government, but they did so within the scope of the agreement. What needs to be discussed now is what the cabinet should look like and how the number of ministers can be reduced from 32 to 17. That was one of the points of criticism. But that is a political process.
SPIEGEL: Ultimately, the negotiations always collapse because of details like that. Is there really a serious intention of working together?
Kobler: There are now three urgent reasons for a political agreement. The first is the spread of IS. The second is the miserable condition of living: 2.4 million Libyans are reliant on humanitarian aid, with 1.3 million requiring food assistance -- and this in a rich country! The third is the financial situation at the central bank, whose reserves have shrunk enormously, from $280 billion (251 billion euros) in 2011 to just $50 billion, largely due to the drastic decline in oil production. It is a question of time before Libya runs out of money. All these things put pressure on the politicians.
SPIEGEL: Yet the divided parties still seem to be fighting each other more than IS.
Kobler: Yes, unfortunately. To my Libyan dialogue partners, who discuss commas in agreements and bring legal arguments into play, I say this: That is all important, but IS doesn't discuss commas -- it is capturing new territory each day. Last week, its fighters reached the oil terminal at Ras Lanuf. If things keep going like this, they will soon capture it. But the awareness that people need to be coming together to counter this threat is still lacking. My fear is that the political process will progress more slowly than the military process.
SPIEGEL: Can IS in Libya still be defeated, even with an agreement?
Kobler: Yes, but there isn't much time left. We are seeing it expand its sphere of influence from Sirte on the coast to the east, west and south. There are already bridgeheads and cells in the south, and if Islamic State is allowed to join forces with terrorist organizations in Niger and Chad, then it will be very, very difficult to push it back. We are already now witnessing a closing of ranks of IS with criminal groups from sub-Saharan states that are controlling the human-trafficking business, which IS plays an increasing role in.
SPIEGEL: IS has recently been weakened in Syria and Iraq, which is apparently why it is shifting its activities to Libya. Is the country becoming its operations center?
Kobler: It's obvious that the military pressure against IS in Iraq and Syria can lead to Libya becoming a new gathering place for terrorists. Most of the 2,000 to 3,000 fighters in Libya today are already foreigners.
SPIEGEL: The US is considering conducting air strikes in Libya against Islamic state. What would that achieve?
Kobler: I am not familiar with these plans. Ultimately, however, it is the Libyans who must fight against IS. As the past has shown, air strikes alone do not defeat terrorists. This is a battle for oil fields and refineries, a battle for cities and strategic positions -- and for that you need ground troops. But I see no readiness on the part of the international community for that kind of engagement. That's why a unity government as well as a strong security infrastructure needs to be built up quickly. The Libyans themselves must go into battle against IS. If they then choose to accept help from abroad, it will be a sovereign decision made by this government. But they have to take the first step.
SPIEGEL: So far there have only been militias in Libya. How are they supposed to defeat a highly organized IS?
Kobler: The army has to be completely rebuilt -- otherwise it can't work. Libya isn |
34th Street Partnerships, business organizations — provided shelter, food and counseling and put its residents to work clearing other homeless people from bank vestibules. While taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars, the partnerships paid their homeless employees $1 to $1.50 an hour.
In 1998, a federal judge ruled the program violated labor law. The partnerships had to pay more than $800,000 in owed wages to former employees.
"We don't have indentured servitude in this country anymore, do we?" said Doug Lasdon, a New York City homeless advocate involved with case. "We need to weed these programs out."
Legal or not, New Beginnings' work therapy raises ethical questions.
"People who are homeless are desperate," said Nan Roman, president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "It's not an equal, typical relationship between a landlord and a tenant. … It should err on the side of protecting the homeless people who are more vulnerable in the relationship, and making sure their rights are preserved."
'CREATIVE DEPOSITS'
Ada Miller was there at the beginning. Disabled after surgery, she was on the verge of homelessness when Atchison offered her housing in 2002. Atchison soon asked Miller, an experienced secretary, to help manage his new program's finances.
In a 29-page sworn statement to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in June 2008, Miller described New Beginnings as a program conceived with good intentions that went awry. Miller went to law enforcement because she saw Atchison do "several illegal things," a report states, and "she does not want anything to do with anything that was illegal."
Atchison devised a "creative deposit" plan, Miller wrote, that allowed him to take public grant money intended for construction and use it for other things.
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In 2007, the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County provided New Beginnings with a state grant of up to $360,000 to build an 11-bed home for homeless children who had aged out of foster care.
The Homeless Coalition normally requires an organization to spend its own money, then bring receipts to get grant money for reimbursement. With this project, however, New Beginnings didn't have enough money to get started, so the Homeless Coalition fronted the first $75,000 in grant money. To get more, New Beginnings had to submit receipts verifying the money was used for construction.
For the construction job, Atchison turned to a former New Beginnings resident — Earl "Butch" McPhillips, a recovering crack cocaine addict and alcoholic. According to Miller's complaint, when Atchison paid McPhillips with grant money intended to cover construction costs, McPhillips donated some of it back to New Beginnings.
EVE EDELHEIT | Times
Earl "Butch" McPhillips
Another New Beginnings employee — Victoria Denton — told the FDLE she witnessed Atchison submit fraudulent receipts to the Homeless Coalition to validate expenses.
The FDLE subpoenaed New Beginnings' bank records, but reports don't indicate if agents reviewed them. The Times found transactions that support Miller's statements.
In summer 2007, records show, Atchison twice paid McPhillips $40,000 in grant money to cover construction costs. Both times, McPhillips immediately made $40,000 donations to New Beginnings.
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McPhillips submitted handwritten receipts to the Homeless Coalition to validate his expenses. The receipts included $30,000 for demolishing three buildings, $9,500 for "site clearing" and $5,000 for "tree removal." The Homeless Coalition accepted them.
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Initially, Atchison and McPhillips told the Times that Miller had lied. "Like I ever had $40,000," McPhillips said.
When told records showed he twice made $40,000 donations, McPhillips acknowledged he overbilled the Homeless Coalition. Rather than give the money back, McPhillips donated it to New Beginnings.
"Yeah, PT (Atchison) gave me a check, and I put it where it needs to be," said McPhillips, 65. "I wasn't in it for the money. … These people saved my life. What's my life worth?"
The house got built, and under budget, Atchison said. New Beginnings used only $311,000 of the grant, which Atchison said was a bargain.
The Times sent bid documents for the project to Michael Cook, a professor at the University of Florida's Rinker School of Building Construction. Cook found it odd the Homeless Coalition did not require Atchison to get multiple construction bids, a common practice.
"When there's public money involved, some sort of competitive bid-type process is usually required," Cook said, "to make sure taxpayer's dollars are protected."
Cook, who specializes in project estimating, said the job could have been done for about $230,000, or about $80,000 less than New Beginnings spent.
Officials with the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative, the new name for the agency that oversaw the grant, said that grant did not require multiple bids. In an email, agency CEO Antoinette Hayes Triplett said her staff is reviewing all documents associated with this grant and "will determine whether further actions are required."
'WHAT I SAW WAS WRONG'
It is not unusual for drug and alcohol recovery programs to supervise residents' finances to make it harder for them to relapse.
But the way Atchison controls his residents' finances has prompted complaints to law enforcement and to the Times that New Beginnings kept money meant for its impoverished residents.
Denton, the other New Beginnings employee who went to the FDLE, said she witnessed Atchison open homeless residents' mail, take Social Security checks and deposit them in New Beginnings accounts, and use food stamp cards to buy food for himself.
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In a recent Times interview, Denton stood by her statement. She went to authorities, she said, because she feared she could get arrested for what she witnessed.
"I don't lie. What I saw was wrong," she said. "If a check comes in, it doesn't matter if it's your name, my name, or Timbuktu's name, it's going in his (Atchison's) name."
Other former New Beginnings employees also told the Times that Atchison took money from Social Security checks and food stamps provided by his homeless residents and kept more than residents actually owed for room and board.
"He would say, 'They're drug addicts, they're alcoholics, they're just going to spend it on cigarettes and booze,' " said Lee Hoffman, the formerly homeless minister who worked for Atchison off and on from 2007 to 2010. "The only way they get any of it is if they complain hard enough."
Atchison said all the mail for New Beginnings' properties is delivered to his office and he deposits Social Security checks into New Beginnings accounts to cover program costs. He said he never kept more that what the residents owed.
"I've saved a lot of lives by opening mail," Atchison said.
In July 2008, Bradley Boyce went to Tampa police after spending seven months at New Beginnings. He said that when he was ready to leave, he asked for his money.
"There was no money," a manager told him. Irate, Boyce kept complaining until he got a check for $1,200 — which bounced.
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A Tampa police officer learned the FDLE was investigating New Beginnings and contacted Agent Barbara Smith, who told him she "has not uncovered anything criminal or of concern," the report states.
The Tampa officer closed his case without seeking charges. Boyce called back and said Atchison finally paid him.
Boyce "is happy now," the officer wrote. "He still thinks that there are things going on that are shady and should be looked at."
The FDLE closed its eight-month investigation in November 2008 without seeking charges. FDLE's Smith wrote that claims against Atchison were either untrue or didn't rise to criminal activity. She could not be reached for comment.
Miller, the woman who first went to the FDLE, remains frustrated.
"The pastor deserved to be held accountable," she said. "I did my part as a citizen, and the ball was dropped."
DUBIOUS CREDENTIALS
On Atchison's application to run Hillsborough's homeless shelter, he cites a 1992 doctoral degree in theology from Berean Bible College.
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In interviews with the Times, Atchison said Berean was based in Missouri, then Colorado. When asked for the diploma, he produced one with a different location — Long Beach, Calif. — and a different date — 1996.
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The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit that performs degree verification, has no record of Berean College. There was a Berean Christian College in Long Beach in the 1980s and 90s. It closed and was reincorporated in Colorado before closing again.
To Atchison, questions about his doctorate are irrelevant. No New Beginnings employee has a college or graduate degree in a field related to counseling addicts or the mentally ill.
"There's really no class that teaches you how to deal with what we've got here," he said.
To illustrate his point, Atchison introduced James "Beetel" Ellis, who runs New Beginnings' emergency shelter. Ellis has several ministerial degrees but dismisses their value.
"They don't count for credits or nothing," he said.
What qualifies him to run a homeless shelter and counsel its residents? "My experience running a motorcycle gang for 25 years," Ellis said. "I've pulled every hook, crook and crime there is. So when they try to pull it on me, I call them on it."
EVE EDELHEIT | Times
Pastor James "Beetel" Ellis, director of New Beginnings Emergency Shelter
The counseling provided at New Beginnings consists of Bible study, led by Atchison, and nightly recovery meetings at his church, including Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
"We kind of go to each other for counseling," said Austin Wheaton, 21, who has bipolar disorder and came to the program this summer.
EVE EDELHEIT | Times
Austin Wheaton
For some, New Beginnings' counseling worked.
In 2010, Steve Eavenson came to New Beginnings from a mental health facility. The homeless sex offender, who said he was sexually abused as a child, was an alcoholic and had considered suicide. He finally sobered up at New Beginnings.
"This place absolutely saved my life," said Eavenson, 58. Years later, he still works 40 to 50 hours a week for New Beginnings, never expecting a paycheck. The roof over his head Atchison provides is enough.
"He's one of the reasons I stay," Eavenson said. "I've heard a lot of preachers. But when I heard him, it was like he was speaking to me."
EVE EDELHEIT | Times
Steve Eavenson
Others feel exploited by the loosely organized counseling and mandatory work.
James Kelly, an admitted pain-pill addict, stayed at New Beginnings for a few weeks in 2012. He said he left after not getting paid for the hours he worked at Rays games.
"You have to work for them, and they drug test you," said Kelly, 34. "I guess that's what they call counseling."
CHANGE ON THE WAY
New Beginnings is one of three agencies applying to run Hillsborough County's proposed homeless shelter, a contract potentially worth $1.6 million annually. The competition includes the Salvation Army and DACCO, a facility that treats people with substance abuse problems and mental illness.
If New Beginnings gets the shelter contract, and some other grants, Atchison wants to increase his salary.
"I should be making $100,000-plus a year," he said. "And not apologizing for it. I deserve it.
Atchison also wants to start paying his employees.
"I've been feeling bad," he said. "For 15 years, all these people have worked their butts off, and have nothing.... And they are all happy…. Oh, Pastor Tom, you saved my life, I'll do anything for you. … But it shouldn't be that way. We want to start giving people a future."
EVE EDELHEIT | Times
Times news researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Contact Will Hobson at [email protected] or (813) 226-3400. Follow @TheWillHobson.Today the Virtual SAN team at VMware released a content pack for Log Insight. This expands on the fairly basic, single dashboard provided in the vSphere content pack, which is a combination of VSAN and VVOLs, which is really just a glorified “is it running” dashboard. The content pack contains useful information and a way to easily visualize common problems in a VSAN deployment. Since I made a feature request around this on the VMware Log Insight forum I figured I would do a quick run through of what is provided in the content pack and my opinions on it.
Host State Information
The first dashboard covers the state of the hosts themselves. It covers good to know information, such as hosts that are currently in maintenance mode or hosts performing destroy jobs or role initializations. These metrics are really helpful for when there is a problem, but there aren’t any widgets that display metrics for healthy hosts. I believe in having at least some sort of complete representation of the data being ingested, partly so that you know it is working and partly because I like seeing data and the aesthetics of Log Insight are pleasing to the eye. It is also nice to be able to get some reassurance that nothing is going wrong. It is also the first dashboard in the pack, and it is a little disconcerting to see no data show up.
Diskgroup Failures
Diskgroup failures show failures specifically related to diskgroups. This will show things like disks being offline or in permanent failure, suggesting a disk failure. The last two widgets at the bottom of the page show failures to create components based on two common issues, lack of capacity and maximum components reached. This should help diagnose and alert under-provisioned clusters quickly and easily. Be sure to reference the sizing guide for a VSAN cluster so that you don’t have to see any data in these widgets.
Networking
Networking is a fairly basic dashboard that shows network creation and networking connectivity failures. Network connectivity failures are an obvious metric, if your VSAN hosts can’t talk to each other there is a problem. This would have been helpful for me a few weeks ago. Network creation will give you information about hosts that are coming online, which can help with maintaining and auditing the security of your VSAN network. If you see any data in this widget and you aren’t in the middle of performing a deployment or cluster upgrade you probably have a problem.
Congestion
The Congestion dashboard has some great information for diagnosing performance problems. These widgets will tell you if you have any SSD congestion, which I assume in an All-Flash configuration would still just be the caching tier drive. This will tell you if you have under-sized your deployment in regards to your flash to magnetic disk ration, or if you are having a large spike of load on your VSAN cluster. The final widget shows number of events of device latency. Note that this widget will show information for all the disks in a VSAN cluster, not just the disks contributing to the VSAN datastore. This could be useful for locating potentially failing disks which are having issues delivering the IOPS that they are rated for. It could also be used to diagnose disks that are not rated well enough to handle the workload that is on VSAN, and be used to demonstrate the impact of cheaper drives on a VSAN cluster. There is a lot of good information for troubleshooting in this dashboard.
Object Configuration
Next is my favorite dashboard. Object Configurations. This has a lot of really good data that can assist the diagnosis and troubleshooting of various issues that can occur with a VSAN cluster. The widgets have to do with various actions on the objects of the file system. This includes creation, repair, rebalance, and votes rebalance. For those unfamiliar with VSAN I’ll go into some more detail on these different actions. Repairs can occur when a host fails, leading to a rebuild process. Seeing a large spike in repair operations can be an indicator of this. Rebalance actions occur when the disks of a VSAN cluster become full. You can trigger a proactive rebalance from the Ruby vSphere Console, but outside of that you should not be observing to many rebalance operations. If you are observing constant rebalance actions, then that means that your VSAN disk capacity is not large enough to support your environment. This helped me visualize the impact that this is having on a current customer. If you see constant activity on this widget it is time to invest in more disks. Paired with the rebalance widget is the cleanup widget, which displays cleanup operations performed after a rebalance.
Decommissioning
The Decommissioning dashboard is hopefully something you should not have to use very often. As the name implies it displays events related to decommissioning a VSAN cluster. This includes entering maintenance mode, and failing to do so. The decommissioning of disks, and the failure of that. Hopefully you never see this one populated when you don’t expect it to be.
Configuration Failures
The final dashboard is Configuration Failures. These widgets are meant to display issues with the configuration, again as the name implies. These configurations have to do with the VM policies and whether there is enough physical hardware to satisfy the requirements of the policy created. Insufficient fault domains, insufficient space, generation failure, disk assignment, and RAID tree depth are all related to whether or not there are enough hosts or enough disks to handle the VM policy. Fault domains are directly related to the number of hosts in the cluster. To resolve any events found in this widget you will need to add more hosts to increase the number of fault domains. Insufficient space is what it sounds like, and requires more disks, or more hosts with more disks. The same is true of generation failure and disk assignment.
RAID tree depth is kind of a non-obvious term that I’ll explain quickly. This is related to the stripe width of an object. This is set in the VM configuration policy, and dictates how many disks the VM objects should reside on. E.g. if you have a VM and specify the stripe width should be two, then VSAN will stripe the vmdk over two disks.
The final widget is the “Cannot connect to owner” widget, which is related to networking issues. You can see events generated in here when a switch dies, or if you are first configuring the cluster if you don’t have the VLAN settings correct, or the vmkernel assigned for VSAN traffic is not assigned properly.
Overall I think the VSAN content pack is excellent. It provides an excellent way to monitor and alert on VSAN related issues, as well as visualize issues that are impacting your environment. If you want to get even deeper into VSAN monitoring with performance metrics you will need to grab a vRealize Operations Manager deployment and deploy the VSAN content pack for that. You can also package the two products together with vRealize Operations Insight to get the full depth and breadth of your ability to monitor VSAN performance, top to bottom.
AdvertisementsOn my first day of law school, I heard the repeated cliché that law school teaches you to “think like a lawyer.” Not one of my classmates knew what it meant. It just seemed like something to say.
But I now know that the saying has real meaning — and it is at the heart of why the legal profession is in so many ways far behind. To “think like a lawyer” means to base your thinking on precedent and history. Ideas and customs are presumptively good because they exist; the longer it’s been that way, the harder it is to change. As a profession, we’re bad at deviating from the course because we’re trained to do precisely the opposite. The bar for change is staggeringly high.
Legal technology and the tortoise
Basing past decisions on precedent and history is usually a good thing in the law. You want both your lawyer and the law to be stable and predictable. But it comes at a cost: innovation is slow to take hold in the legal profession.
Indeed, slowing the pace of technological innovation has in some cases been fully embraced by the legal profession. In Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts’ recent report on the federal judiciary, he uses the fable of the tortoise and the hare to recommend the “deliberate” pace at which courts adopt new technology. And this isn’t the first time the fable was invoked positively by the judiciary; sculptures of the tortoise and the hare are perched atop the Supreme Court building just above its imposing columns. According to Justice Roberts, the courts “have proceeded cautiously when it comes to adopting new technologies” and have chosen “to be late to the harvest of American ingenuity.”
The hare on the far-left of the Supreme Court’s east pediment. The tortoise is on the far-left.
The analogy would work if we were, like the tortoise, “winning the race,” so to speak. To me, another principle is more applicable: “Justice delayed is justice denied.” The state of technology in law is dire, and it affects things as fundamental as access to the text of the law itself. The laws that every citizen is expected to abide are locked behind steep paywalls in expensive private databases. You can’t get access to court documents through the government’s PACER service without paying fees that add up quick. And the delivery of legal services is so expensive and inefficient that the average patent case costs $2.8 million, and only around 20% of people in state courts can afford to have a lawyer.
Open sourcing the law
All this is happening when spreading information more efficiently has taken hold in every other corner of technology.
The internet has made possible an explosion of liberated information and knowledge creation.
Wikipedia is the greatest collection of human knowledge ever amassed; Twitter is the pulse of the world, communicating in real-time everything happening now; and I never go out to eat without checking Yelp. Even more amazingly, the software upon which most of the web runs is built using “open source” code — that is, software that was written for free by thousands of people, each doing their own part.
There is no legal analog to open source code; the collaboration and information sharing that has transformed nearly every other area of digital life is near-nonexistent in the law. Legal work and thinking is siloed, solitary, private — which means when you pay your lawyer to represent you, a large part of their time is spent doing redundant work and reaching the same conclusions as hundreds of others. There isn’t a shared pool of knowledge to tap into in the law.
You will be represented less well and for a greater expense than if we lived in a world where information was shared.
This is bad for everyone: lawyers, clients, and the public.
Think Different
Then how did I, trained to “think like a lawyer,” come to care? I don’t fit the typical profile of a lawyer: I grew up programming, and have been deeply immersed in coding culture for literally as far back as I can remember.
I had the good fortune of growing up in Silicon Valley at the dawn of the Internet. My dad started a web business in the early ‘90s in our garage. My family had an Atari, Apple II, and a Condor, and my garage was filled with Sun Unix servers. It was a playground for me to experiment, tinker, and build. To me, coding was magical; you could turn encoded computer instructions into fantastic graphics, games, or homework aids.
I’ve been hooked since then. Through law school, clerking, litigating — I’ve remained, in many ways first and foremost, a hacker at heart.
The hacker’s mindset is, in many ways, diametrically opposed to a lawyer’s.
I grew up next door to Apple’s headquarters, which at the time proudly displayed five-story tall banners that said “Think Different.” It was a simple statement, but the sentiment permeated the culture of the region. The culture of code is one of innovation, where the best ideas are in the future.
An example of Apple’s Think Different campaign that ran around 2000.
“Think Different” is a far cry from “think like a lawyer.” I entered the legal profession thinking more like a hacker than the attorney I was trained to be. And, after some time practicing as a lawyer, I did something un-lawyerlike. I broke with precedent and created something new: Casetext. Together with other lawyers and engineers, Casetext is bringing to the law the same principles that have liberated information and made possible massive collective efforts in every other area of knowledge.
Casetext takes a new approach to discovering and understanding legal information. We started by making U.S. law free, and we’ve put it on a platform that empowers attorneys to collaborate and share their insights about the law. Their contributions are linked to millions of judicial cases and statutes on a research platform that’s easy to use and free to the public. Roughly 250,000 users search the law on Casetext each month, and since we launched the website’s legal community architecture in late 2014, tens of thousands of attorneys are tapping Casetext’s network for insights related to their practice areas.
The logic behind this approach is simple. The old way of doing things misses the most valuable source of legal knowledge: the legal community itself. Lawyers already share insight about the law publicly to demonstrate thought leadership and grow their reputation. By creating a place to write commentary on the law linked to the resource people already use to find answers to their legal questions, we’re able to collaborate with the legal community to create an insightful, free resource for lawyers and the public. And we’re disrupting an $8 billion legal research market in the process.
A hacker’s approach to law
We’ve seen an explosion of interest in community-driven solutions to making law more widely accessible and understandable. But our effort is young, and we have a lot of room to grow; we have taken a few steps into a miles-long journey. We hope that as this movement grows, we’ll collectively build a resource that can lift the profession the same way open source coding has lifted the field of software.
The legal community isn’t fated to stagnation. “Thinking like a lawyer” doesn’t have to truncate innovation. Attorneys everywhere are committed to serving their clients well and using resources wisely, and there’s a widespread understanding that access to justice is a mission and a collective responsibility we all share. The challenge is how to promote innovation in the law without losing our distinctive commitment to certainty.
I don’t have all the answers, but I consider myself lucky to see the world through two very different but complementary lenses. As a hacker, I’m prone to push the envelope and try new things until finally we’ve found something better than the status quo. As a lawyer, I’m obligated to mitigate risks and protect predictability.
But I don’t think these two views of the world need to be at conflict; each has its proper place in the law. We need to “think like a lawyer” to protect our precedent-centered view of legal practice. At the same time, we must foster a future-oriented view of the profession. We can’t forego innovation in a $100 billion industry and legal system in which millions of people’s rights, money, and even freedom are at stake. There may be a place for the tortoise in the halls of the Supreme Court, but when it comes to ensuring that the legal profession is as efficient and effective as it ought to be, we need to finally think different.
This is what we’re doing at Casetext. If you want to join the effort, we’re hiring.The dethroning and disgracing of Harvey Weinstein has touched off an important and potentially radical change in our national culture. It has emboldened women to impose accountability on powerful, sexually abusive men, and strengthened a presumption that these kinds of accusations—vivid, specific, broadly sourced, at least partially on the record—are the truth.
We are all already better off for it.
But this development is progressing alongside a different, countervailing change to our political culture, pulsing outward from the diseased heart of the conservative media, where empirical reality is disdained unless it’s useful, and lies and bad faith are treated as morally neutral instruments of advancing political goals.
These cultural forces collided in Alabama last week, after the Washington Post published an account of the sexual depredations of Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who now stands credibly accused of sexually abusing a 14 year old girl when he was 32. Nearly the entire country processed the revelations with immediate and increasing horror. The exception has been a large and increasing right wing faction that believes things like racial equality and progressive taxation are worse than child molestation, and justifies its value system by imagining that the mainstream media is a political enemy of conservatism. These clashing heuristics are the source of inconsistent assertions—like that the accusations against Roy Moore are false, and also that his predatory past is overblown. They generate morally depraved phenomena, like the 29 percent of voters who say they are now likelier to support Moore than they were before.
Propaganda merchants are feeding this right wing cohort—smearing Moore’s accusers and attacking the foundation of the “believe women” movement, by stipulating that women frequently fabricate abuse allegations for money, fame, or political advantage.
“Few and Far Between” … this is quite a segment. Watch pic.twitter.com/rN9PPZYBH5 — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 10, 2017
Unfolding against the backdrop of the post-Weinstein revolution, the Moore scandal exposes the conservative propaganda machine in the ugliest and most discrediting possible fashion. But these cultural changes are all but destined to collide with one another in the opposite direction, in a way that exploits both the beneficence of the “believe women” campaign, and the even-handedness of the mainstream media. It is a collision we as a political culture are not equipped to handle, the consequences of which are almost too awful to contemplate.
Imagine it’s September or October 2020, and out of nowhere multiple women accuse the Democratic presidential nominee of sexual abuse, but instead of surfacing in a meticulously sourced story in a news outlet with a healthy tradition of careful reporting, it runs in a blind item on Breitbart.com. Or imagine such a story about a current Democratic candidate or leader landed in such an outlet tomorrow.
Breitbart is notorious for amplifying hyperbolic and fabricated stories meant to undermine Democrats, pluralism, the entire liberal project, but they tend to specialize in fostering conspiratorial paranoia and racial panic (think Benghazi, and Shirley Sherrod). Their situational obsession with sexual misconduct isn’t typically built on fabrication, but deployed in the midst of real scandals to portray liberals as hypocrites and to damage Democrats (think Anthony Weiner, and Weinstein) or to portray minorities and immigrants as degenerates.
But there is no reason to believe that Breitbart (and right wing media in general) wouldn’t blend the two genres.
We saw what form this might take a year ago, when Steve Bannon, the Breitbart impresario who chaired Donald Trump’s campaign, responded to the unearthed videotape of Trump boasting about committing sexual assault by parading Bill Clinton’s accusers around the second presidential debate.
There is more than a kernel of truth at the bottom of the idea that Bill Clinton was a sexual deviant, or that he deserved more social and legal censure than he endured, but it is also farcical to imagine that Bannon and Breitbart were first and foremost interested in seeking justice. They ran factually questionable counter-ops in bad faith, to neutralize Trump’s liability, suggesting Hillary Clinton was, through her loyalty to Bill, similarly tainted. The psychological sabotage at the debate was an ancillary benefit. Now, Bannon has dispatched two minions to Alabama, to better smear Moore’s accusers. In Bannon’s world, conservatives in good standing are incapable of degeneracy, but white liberals and people of color are defined by it.
By extension, if future allegations appear in the right-wing agitprop press, they will be tainted by their unreliable narrators. The question of whether or not Breitbart or Sean Hannity actually had the goods on anyone would become subsumed into factional fighting and epistemological crises. The believe-women effort would be undermined, potentially twice over. First, because many people will understandably distrust allegations of misconduct if they’re ginned up by the bottom-feeders of Breitbart. Second, because if the accusations unravel, the believe-women movement will have sustained a terrible blow by failing on its own terms. (If you think Breitbart would be above framing a debunked sex abuse scandal they themselves fabricated as a reprising of the UVA or Duke lacrosse controversies, you are blissfully unacquainted Breitbart.)
The broader media, by contrast, would be as fixated upon the factual question as on the superficial similarity between knee-jerk conservative defenses of Roy Moore and liberal misapprehensions about the trustworthiness of right wing propaganda. Both sides aren’t the same, but the false parallel will be too delicious for many journalists to ignore.
It is taken for granted at this point that the next Democratic presidential nominee will become the focal point of bad faith conspiracy theories, amplified by the right wing noise machine. But it is only in the realm of sex abuse that liberals will have committed in advance to lending credence to accusations of wrongdoing. “Believe women” is an important movement, but it also obligates its adherents not to dismiss thinly-sourced allegations out of hand, even when they appear in outlets that have torched their credibility—and that impulse will be magnified by the mainstream media ethic of manufacturing symmetry between partisan teams.
I can’t imagine a more straightforward way to force liberals into a toxic cycle of recriminations. Obviously, as in the cases of Weiner and Weinstein, liberals don’t reflexively circle wagons around accused abusers, but propagandists thrive on the proliferation of doubt, and in this case the doubt would stem from the far right’s inherent lack of credibility. We underrate—as in haven’t considered at all—how low the rot of bad faith in conservative media could drag the rest of us, the whole country, all on its own. But the test of it is almost certainly coming.President Donald Trump waited until after publicly accusing his predecessor of wiretapping his campaign headquarters to ask aides how Barack Obama would have been able to obtain a warrant to do so, the New York Times reported Thursday.
According to the Times’ article, which chronicled Trump’s steep learning curve in the Oval Office, the President did not understand the system that governs the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Obama would have needed to ask his Justice Department to request a FISA warrant to eavesdrop on a U.S. building like Trump Tower, which the court would have only granted if there was substantial evidence that the individuals that would be under surveillance were working as agents of a foreign power.
In his explosive pre-dawn tweets on March 4, Trump alleged that Obama had his “wires tapped” ahead of the election.
Despite a total lack of evidence, Trump’s aides backed that wild claim, with White House counselor Kellyanne Conway telling “Fox and Friends” that as President, Trump “has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not.”
The administration’s story evolved over time, with Trump later saying he didn’t mean that he was literally wiretapped, and that it didn’t necessarily happen before the election.Mar 1, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Patric Hornqvist (72) celebrates with teammates on the bench after scoring a goal against the Washington Capitals in the second period at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season over 3/4 completed, the team finds itself in a position to shake up the standings and dictate their own playoff picture.
64 games into the 2015-16 Penguins’ season, the team finds itself far from their projected position. The team shouldn’t be clinging to the second wild card spot. They shouldn’t be struggling to score goals. And they shouldn’t be losing to bottom-dwelling teams.
Between coaching changes and trades, it has been a season of uncertainty for the Penguins. However, one thing is certain, the Penguins are in a position to make major moves by seasons’ end. Here’s why.
Remaining Schedule
The Penguins have a schedule that puts them in great control of their eventual playoff standing. Nine of the team’s final 18 games are against teams who are currently not in the playoffs. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will win, but they will be playing inferior talent.
Additionally, 14 of the next 18 games are against Metropolitan Division opponents. This can be both a blessing and a curse. The Penguins can solidify a playoff spot and even rise out of the wild-card position, or they could find themselves on the outside looking in.
The remaining schedule is only favorable if the Penguins can string wins together. However, it does give them a chance to make serious inroads if they are successful.
It would be much better if the Penguins could face the Islanders, Panthers, Lightning, or Rangers in the first round rather than the Capitals.
Health (For Now)
The Penguins, as usual, have had their fair share of injuries this season. However, for the time being, it doesn’t appear to affect their end-of-season and playoff pushes.
Eric Fehr and Beau Bennett, both of whom have been injured for some time, should return to the lineup soon. This should help bolster depth that is so important for playoff teams.
In addition to those returning from injuries, the Penguins’ trades have also helped their depth. The additions of Carl Hagelin, Trevor Daley, and Justin Schultz help the Pens’ talent and also offset the losses of Kevin Porter and Ben Lovejoy.
Unfortunately for the Pens, this is one area they don’t have control over. So far, however, the Pens are far better off then they were last year and previous seasons when they are making a playoff run.
Talent
This may seem strange considering the Penguins’ position in the standings but they are still one of the most talented teams in the league. Many of the teams the Penguins play are simply less skilled. If they don’t out-play them, they should be able to out-talent them.
The team is not only talented, it is experienced. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Marc-Andre Fleury have all seen the good and bad of Penguins playoffs. Learning from their playoff failures could lead to potential success this season.
This knowledge can help the Penguins against younger teams, such as the New York Islanders and teams that lack playoff experience, like the Florida Panthers.
The Penguins have been a team of ups and downs. They have gone on streaks, they have fired coaches, and they find themselves in positions most fans wouldn’t expect.
All of that being said, the Penguins are in control for these last 18 games. The combination of weaker teams and division opponents means they can make real noise in the playoff picture.
That control is a |
evidence, shows the victim — identified by police as 20-year-old Sherman Edwards — presenting as a woman, with long hair and carrying a light brown purse. And just hours after the homicide, Tiffany told investigators the gunman attacked Edwards after getting mad that Edwards identified as transgender — staging an ambush in a hotel hallway. Prosecutors have arrested and charged a suspect, Henry Gleaves, with murder.
“If a person gets mad at you for being transgender and then comes back and kills you because his pride was crushed, and he was interested in someone he thought was a woman, it’s a hate crime,” said a woman who was at the scene of the shooting.
A transgender woman of color who has been attacked in the past due to her gender identity, Tiffany asked that her last name be withheld for this article. “If a person gets mad at you for being transgender and then comes back and kills you because his pride was crushed, and he was interested in someone he thought was a woman, it’s a hate crime.” Tiffany said Edwards “died a woman” and had used female pronouns for several years, but not around Edwards’ mother. “Her mother wasn’t accepting of it.” When BuzzFeed News spoke with police department spokesperson Dwight Mitchell on Jan. 28, he said simply, “As far as I am concerned, that was a man that was shot. It was always a man,” despite widespread confusion about the victim’s gender identity. “It’s obviously a man, right? He doesn’t have a female name. I am not going to get into a debate about if he was transgender or not.” When it came to the question about whether the victim’s gender identity played a role in the homicide, Mitchell said, “That was never a factor with us.” Since January, the case has raised concerns among LGBT advocates and anti-violence experts that the homicide may be part of a national pattern of homicides against transgender women of color. Six transgender women of color in the United States were killed in the first two months of 2015, the highest rate recorded in two months. This case would make the seventh such confirmed homicide this year. As advocates and anti-violence experts search for reasons the killings appear to be increasing, they have questioned if the victims were attacked due to their actual or perceived gender identity. While advocates have tried to understand the spike in killings around the country, the cases have also fueled outrage for their mishandling by police and media. In several cases, including this one, the challenge of searching for a root cause of the violence is made more complicated by police misgendering the victim — meaning the public is unaware if the victim presented as transgender at the time of the homicide. When police departments misgender victims, they make finding those answers difficult — if not impossible.
Image via Jefferson County Circuit Court. Tiffany speaking to a Louisville Police Department detective hours after the shooting.
Among the records contradicting the Louisville police’s insistence that Edwards identified as male is a videotaped interview conducted by a Louisville police detective shortly after the shooting with Tiffany, who recounted what had happened. The gunman was apparently a stranger, Tiffany explained in the videotaped interview, which was reviewed by BuzzFeed News. He had come to meet the victim at a room in the Fern Valley Hotel that Edwards was sharing with Tiffany and two other women. Edwards likely met him online, Tiffany said. Two minutes after the man arrived, Edwards tried to avoid potentially surprising the man by saying, “‘Well, you know I’m a tranny,’” Tiffany continued. “The dude said, ‘What the fuck?’ and he left.” A few minutes after the man, who Tiffany said left the room angry, had gone, Edwards and the group of women went to the parking lot, heading out to buy cigarettes. Edwards had forgotten ID, though, and returned to the hotel to get it. In the interview, the detective used male pronouns to ask about Edwards and Tiffany used male pronouns in reply. “When Papi opened up the door, he got shot,” Tiffany explained. “We think [the gunman] gonna shoot all of us ‘cause we know Papi a tranny.” Edwards crawled into the parking lot, coughing blood, and died at a hospital later that morning. The detective made clear during the videotaped interview he understood the point of conflict, in the witness’s opinion, was Edwards identifying as transgender. “They start talking, Papi tells him that he is a transvestite, dude is like, ‘What the fuck,’ and leaves,” the detective confirmed. Tiffany replied, “Yeah.” Later the detective asked why Papi identified as transgender to the man: “Do you think that’s why Papi did it, to kinda get it out there to begin with?” Tiffany confirmed yes, and the detective said, “OK.” The detective also described the situations by saying, “Papi lets [the man] know about his condition.” “Papi, he don’t like telling people he a tranny either,” Tiffany told the detective. “It’s scary, you know what I’m saying? I’m a tranny myself … I used to get my ass whooped for it.” Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Tiffany said she made it clear to police Gleaves acted out of anger in response to Edwards’ gender identity. “It’s common for people to get mad, especially if it is in front of a group of people,” she said about the motive for attacks on transgender women. “Tell them you’re a tranny; they will get mad and retaliate in front of a group because they didn’t want people to think differently of them.” The Fairness Campaign, a Kentucky group, has been tracking the case as a member of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which issues the country’s definitive reports on hate violence. Transgender women of color were victims of 67% of all hate-motivated homicides against LGBT people in the United States in 2013, according to a May report from the coalition. Thirteen transgender women were killed in the U.S. in 2014. “The homicide was alarming in and of itself,” said Fairness Campaign director Chris Hartman in a phone interview. “But given that fact that Edwards was presenting as female that day, it adds to the grave and staggering statistic of transgender or gender-nonconforming people of color who have been murdered across the country already. It’s disturbing that it happened here, and I’m really anxious to see the outcome and understand the motivation of the suspect so we can fully grasp what was happening that night and prevent it in the future.”
Via whas11.com / Via whas11.com This undated mugshot posted in January on WHAS led some to believe Edwards identified as a woman, while media and police called Edwards a man.
In January, some media outlets reported Edwards was a transgender woman, based on what appears to be a mug shot circulated online in which Edwards is wearing long hair and makeup. However, family and friends of Edwards, as well as police, told BuzzFeed News that he was a gay man who sometimes dressed in drag. Edwards maintained a Facebook page in which he presented as cisgender. The latest evidence filed with the Jefferson County Circuit Court shows police had ample evidence at the time that even if Edwards did present as a gay man in some settings, Edwards presented as a transgender woman the day of the homicide. Edwards also used a woman’s name, at least with some people. There was also suggestion from a key witness this may have been the motive for the killing. WLKY provided BuzzFeed News still frames of surveillance footage taken seconds before Edwards was shot, which also came from public records, further showing Edwards presented as a woman at the time. WLKY also aired portions of the detective’s interview with Tiffany. Police had provided those documents to the court as part of their evidence file. Nonetheless, the police continued to insist in interviews with BuzzFeed News that there was no indication the victim identified as transgender. “No, it was not” a hate crime, police spokesperson Mitchell said on Jan. 28. In a second interview that day, he said it was possible Edwards could have worn women’s clothing occasionally, but there was no indication he was transgender and he did not know if Edwards wore women's clothes when killed. “As far as I am concerned he had a man’s name,” Mitchell said. “There was nothing to say he was living as a woman.” He said several times that according to Edwards’ family, Edwards identified as male. A family member who spoke with BuzzFeed News previously said Edwards did not identify as transgender. After BuzzFeed News obtained public records suggesting the homicide may have been motivated by the victim’s gender identity, that police did have a female name for Edwards, and that Edwards was, in fact, dressed as a woman at the time, Mitchell refused to elaborate on his previous statements.
“It’s obviously a man, right?" a police spokesperson said. "He doesn’t have a female name. I am not going to get into a debate about if he was transgender or not."Oakland protesters march in solidarity with Baltimore
Roughly 50 protesters gathered at the Oakland Federal Building Monday evening to march in solidarity with Baltimore demonstrators who protested police handling of a man who died of a spinal injury while in custody.
In Baltimore, rioting protesters grew violent, hurling rocks at police, burning their cars and destroying storefronts.
The Oakland protest remained peaceful into the night, though it eventually doubled in size, and demonstrators said that was still not big enough.
“We're not going to get justice until people are in the streets,” said Timothy Akaamka, a march organizer who took to the megaphone ahead of the march through downtown Oakland. “If we want to see an end to this violence, we need to change the whole system.”
Jabari Shaw — who fled federal agents in Oakland last month after they mistook him for a violent suspect — said that what happened to Freddie Gray in Baltimore is not an isolated incident.
“The same thing that happened in Baltimore has happened in Ferguson, in Miami — in every city that has black people,” Shaw said to cheers from the crowd. “We stand in solidarity and say no more.”
The peaceful, diverse crowd marched past police headquarters, where officers in riot helmets stood watch.
The only tension arose when the crowd, which had grown to nearly 100, made its way past a freeway on-ramp on Brush Street near Seventh.
Seemingly caught unaware, more than a dozen California Highway Patrol officers on motorcycles zipped through the crowd to block access to the freeway.
When the officers formed a line, Marc Anthony Calloway, 30, a counselor at the Healthy Oakland social services agency, tried to engage them in conversation.
“So what are your thoughts on police brutality?” he asked each one, moving down the line.
Some deflected, referring him to a sergeant or police spokesperson. Others didn't answer.
“Their silence speaks words,” Calloway said. “Us being out here is the first step. Getting them to speak on it is the next.”
From there, the crowd turned left on Seventh and marched through west Oakland, where they distributed literature to curious residents who came out of their houses. The marchers invited the neighbors to join the march before heading back toward downtown. The marchers were largely law-abiding except for some who spray-painted windows.
By 8:30 p.m., the crowd gathered in the dark at 14th and Broadway for a makeshift sit-in.
“We're here to show the people in Baltimore that you can shut it down,” Akaamka said. “If you put down the rocks and shut down the system's means to capital, I guarantee the city would respond. Those cops would be in jail tomorrow.”
Around 9:30, organizers called an end to the march and spoke of returning Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Many left, but a small group continued north on Telegraph where the windows of the Dogwood bar and another business were smashed. Police followed the group and declared an unlawful assembly on the 2500 block of Telegraph around 10 p.m.
Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.comBitcoin holders are offering the virtual money for $124 on the online exchange Mt.Gox, down from $829 two weeks ago, following its decision to halt withdrawals earlier this month.
Tokyo-based Mt.Gox, one of the first exchanges for the virtual currency, said in a statement yesterday that it’s still working to resume Bitcoin withdrawals for clients. The digital currency is currently trading at $566 on London-based Bitstamp and for $553 on BTC-e in Bulgaria.
The interruptions are the latest setback for Bitcoins, which have also come under scrutiny by India, China and Russia. Those governments have sought to ban or limit the use of the virtual currency, which exists as software and isn’t controlled by any authority.
“Since traders can’t get their Bitcoin out of Mt.Gox right now, the price is discounting a probability that they will never be able to get their Bitcoin out,” Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc., wrote in an e-mail.
The inability to remove funds from Mt.Gox is raising concerns that hackers might have gained access to deposits, Luria said. Other exchanges were crippled by an Internet-wide hacking attack that shut down marketplaces across the Web this month. Some have since resumed operations.
Mt.Gox didn’t return repeated requests by e-mail and phone for comment. The company also said in the statement that it had relocated its office due to security concerns.
“The move, combined with some other security and technical challenges, pushed back our progress,” Mt.Gox said in the statement.
Missing Money
Kolin Burges of Britain flew from London to Tokyo on Feb. 13 and has been protesting outside the Mt.Gox headquarters since then. He said he has 285 Bitcoins at the exchange that he can’t withdraw, and isn’t buying its claims of technical issues.
“Other exchanges do not have this kind of problem,” Burges said in an interview. “I do not believe that technical problems are the cause of all these delays.”
He has a sign that says “Mt.Gox where’s our money” in Japanese. He confronted Mt.Gox Chief Executive Officer Mark Karpeles to ask him if the site still has everyone’s Bitcoins. Karpeles didn’t reply, an online video of the exchange showed.
Mt.Gox, one of the largest online exchanges where Bitcoins are traded for dollars, euros and other currencies, has had other stumbles. Mt.Gox temporarily halted or delayed withdrawals several times last year.
Trapped Funds
While Bitcoins can be used to buy everything from Tesla Motors Inc. cars to Gummi bears, they have also become a speculative investment, with the price soaring to more than $1,200 last year from $12 at the beginning of 2013 as it gained mainstream attention.
John Beltzer, 54, said he plans to grab his eight Bitcoins and close out his account at Mt. Gox as soon as he can. Beltzer, who runs a charity called Songs of Love Foundation, said he was told by Mt.Gox that hackers penetrated his account. There’s $45 in cash and the Bitcoins in the Mt.Gox account that are trapped and may be devalued, he said.
“I’ll never deal with them again,” Beltzer said.
Mt.Gox clients will probably move their funds to rival exchanges once they’re able to access their Bitcoins, said Jered Kenna, a Bitcoin investor.
“The times when Mt.Gox came back, there weren’t a lot of good options,” Kenna said in an interview. Now, “their chances of a comeback are much lower.”
Compliance officers at Singapore-based exchange itBit Pte Ltd. have been working nights to screen people who want to become customers, said Antony Lewis, the company’s head of business development. ItBit has received multiple inquiries from Mt.Gox users, who are starting to refer to Bitcoins deposited there as GoxCoins that are trapped in a “Japanese walled garden,” he said.
“They are cheap, but if you buy them, you risk not being able to get anything out,” he said.SCENE from THE GREEN MILE. Warner Brothers image.In the film The Green Mile, sympathetic guards grant death-row inmate John Coffey’s last-meal request: meat loaf, cornbread, mashed potatoes with gravy, okra and peach cobbler. They also honor his request to see a “flicker show,” something he’s never seen. They take him to a movie theatre where he’s mesmerized by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat.
But that’s Hollywood, not real life.
In real life, it seems, last-meal requests are not honored, according to Brian Price, a former Texas inmate who cooked hundreds of last meals for those about to be executed. While the news media would publish the often-extravagant meal requests, Price said he was instructed to cook meals using only the ingredients on hand at the prison kitchen commissary. A request for lobster was met with frozen pollock. He’s written about his experiences in Meals to Die For. First published in 2004, the latest executions have spurred renewed interest in Price and his book.
Some Texas lawmakers have condemned the practice of last-meal requests, saying it wastes taxpayer money and shows too much compassion, the Houston Chronicle reports. Now, those about to be executed get the same meal all the other prisoners get. Price says such lawmakers are looking at the publicized requests, not the actual meal the prisoners get. He has offered to honor last-meal requests, making the meals in his restaurant or paying for them.
Other states have different practices. In Louisiana, for example, it is customary for the warden to dine with the prisoner at the last meal, and the warden occasionally will pay for it personally.
All this week, we have been looking at facts about the death penalty that may surprise you. Other than what we’ve seen in movies, I suspect most of us don’t know much about the widely varied policies on last meals.
What’s your opinion about last-meal requests?
Should they be granted—or denied?
Do you have any fresh ideas for last meals?
Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue on American values.PHOENIX, Feb. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Tempo Creative, the leading web design and inbound marketing firm serving the greater Phoenix area, is proud to announce that they are now accepting Bitcoin as payment for their services.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140204/LA59016LOGO)
Bitcoin is the largest crypto currency on the market today, with millions of bitcoins in circulation and an estimated total market value of over $11 Billion US Dollars. It is the Internet's fastest-growing crypto currency and a force in online payment systems. Bitcoin caught on because of its emphasis on privacy and impenetrability. Users can send and receive bitcoins in near-anonymity from anywhere in the world.
The shared global ledger, distributed across all Bitcoin servers, ensures that it's impossible for any one user to cheat the system. This ledger also makes chargeback fraud impossible, as bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed. As further protection, the entire system is backed with military-grade 256-bit shared-key encryption protocols, which are effectively unbreakable.
For a company like Tempo Creative, which works with top-tier firms around the world, Bitcoin made perfect sense.
"Tempo Creative is about helping firms embrace awesome new Internet technologies that will grow their business," said Josh Dolin, Founder. "Tempo can't do that unless we're actively enhancing our own offerings, and that made Bitcoin a perfect payment alternative for our services. Through Bitcoin, we can reach more customers while offering a better value, which is key to online success."
Charmon Stiles, VP of Marketing & Sales, agreed: "Transaction fees are becoming an issue with online commerce, with more businesses and governments looking for their cut. Bitcoin bypasses all this with a stripped-down, high-tech encrypted system that moves money around with efficiency. We are confident this will give businesses even more reason to work with Tempo Creative."
About Tempo Creative
Tempo Creative was founded in 2001 by Josh Dolin, a published author and veteran of digital marketing. In the decade that followed, he built up a team of some of the best and brightest in online marketing. Dolin, and his entire staff, remains committed to helping businesses of all sizes discover Internet technologies that help build their bottom line and ROI.
Contact Information:
Tempo Creative
8700 E Pinnacle Peak Rd, Ste 105
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
Phone: 480-659-4100
Email: josh@tempocreative.com
www.tempocreative.com
SOURCE Tempo CreativeNanothermite
This page is to discuss the scientific facts about thermite and nanothermite.
Nanothermite was first developed at Los Alamos National Laboratories, under the supervision and security of the same Bush Connection CIA front company which had security contracts with the Port Authority of NY to install "Security Upgrades" inside the WTC leading up to 9/11.
These factors combined solidify nanothermite as a key piece of the 9/11 puzzle. Other demolition theories or debunkers who try to turn the 9/11 Truth Movement away from research into nanothermite as effectively working to undermine the Truth Movement and lead them in the wrong direction, away from the vital informatio outlined in the above two paragraphs.
See "9/11 Suspects: Explosive Connections" video on YouTube.
Thermite and Concrete Demolition
The pre-9/11 nanothermite patents we've found indicate that it is capable of far more than what the mainstream media has implied through their fraudulent portrayal of evidence and arguments... Also many researchers have found some suspicious connections between the companies that filed these patents and certain WTC Tenants... showing further indications that nanothermite is a solid lead, while the plethora of disinfo out there distracting you away from the nanothermite evidence, was probably hoping you didn't find this... Or that they could distract you with disinfo before you did find this...
L. Paul Bremer was on the international advisory board for the Japanese mining and machinery company, Komatsu. At the time, Komatsu had been involved in a joint venture agreement with Dresser Industries, the oil-services/intelligence front in which Prescott Bush Sr. and George H. W. Bush got their start with Neil Mallon. The Komatsu-Dresser mining division operated from 1988 to 1997. In July 1996, it patented a thermite demolition device that could "demolish a concrete structure at a high efficiency, while preventing a secondary problem due to noise, flying dust and chips, and the like." - Kevin Ryan's "Demolition Access to the WTC"
Taku Murakami, US Patent 5532449 - Using plasma ARC and thermite to demolish concrete, http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5532449/description.html
Thermite as a demolition agent
Debunking claims made by National Geographic, and Myth Busters about the capabilities of thermite as a demolition agent
The experiments in this video completely debunk the claims made by National Geographic, Myth Busters, and many of the older "debunking" websites, that claim thermite can't be used to cut vertical steel columns.
Obviously it can...
Jim Miegs of Popular Mechanics has said several times that thermite can't be used in demolitions even calling the idea "ridiculous" on Fox News.
Then we found something even MORE "ridiculous", in an issue of Popular Mechanics from Nov 1935 - Page 657:
Skyride Tower Felled by Melting Steel Legs
Intense heat was employed by wrecking engineers in toppling the 3,000,000-pound east tower of the Skyride, a major attraction of Chicago's Century of Progress. Huge overshoes in the form of cupolas made of steel and lined with firebrick were constructed around two legs of the tower and filled with 1,500 pounds of thermite, a mixture of aluminum and iron oxide. When fired by electricity the thermite generated a temperature of more than 5,000 degrees about the two legs, melting the ten-foot sections almost instantly, causing the tower to tip and then to crash. A microphone attached to the tip of the tower broadcast the noise of the fall by radio, and the spectacle was viewed by a crowd estimated at more than 100,000. The west tower had been wrecked several weeks earlier with dynamite. The 628-foot twin towers, the cables which supported the cars passing between them and the elevators cost more than $1,750,000 to erect.
So why is Jim Miegs making up lies about thermite, and not addressing real evidence and arguments?
Nanothermite (as a demolition agent)
US Patent 6183569 - Feb 6 2001
"Components such as Beryllium and lead oxide might yeild more substantial thermal energy but also have toxicity problems associated with their general use." - Source: Page 11 left colums, second to last paragraph. Beryllium causes cancer, and Lead causes nerve damage.
Battelle (the company that filed this patent) has connections to 9/11 and the anthrax attacks. It managed national labs like those where nanothermite was first made, as well as Fort Detrick, where the anthrax originated. Arden Bement, the NIST director, was a Battelle director too. See Kevin Ryan's Article for more info: http://journalof911studies.com/volume/2008/Ryan_NIST_and_Nano-1.pdf
The explosive propulsion agent used in this patent which forces the molten thermite plasma ejection through steel columns, is a compound called "nitrocellulose".
From Page 11 (middle of the left column:
"Nitrocellulose is preferably used in the composition, but could also be substituted by another suitable, high-temperature application explosive, to provide the propellant component of the composition."
Military use and capability of thermite grenades
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/weapons/a/thermite.htm
Page 61 of the "CIA Explosives for Sabotage Manual", Paladin Press - Boulder, Colorado
Link to the US Army Field Manual on Incendiaries: http://farmmanualsfast.com/Incendiaries.pdf
Nanothermite (from wikipedia ~2011)
Nano-thermite, also called "super-thermite",[1] is the common name for a subset of metastable intermolecular composites (MICs) characterized by a highly exothermic reaction after ignition. Nano-thermites contain an oxidizer and a reducing agent, which are intimately mixed on the nanometer scale. MICs, including nano-thermitic materials, are a type of reactive materials investigated for military use, as well as in applications in propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics.
What separates MICs from traditional thermites is that the oxidizer and a reducing agent, normally iron oxide and aluminium are not a fine powder, but rather nanoparticles. This dramatically increases the reactivity relative to micrometre-sized powder thermite. As the mass transport mechanisms that slow down the burning rates of traditional thermites are not so important at these scales, the reactions become kinetically controlled and much faster.
Uses
Historically, pyrotechnic or explosive applications for traditional thermites have been limited due to their relatively slow energy release rates. But because nanothermites are created from reactant particles with proximities approaching the atomic scale, energy release rates are far improved.[2]
MICs or Super-thermites are generally developed for military use, propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics. Because of their highly increased reaction rate, nanosized thermitic materials are being researched by the U.S. military with the aim of developing new types of bombs that are several times more powerful than conventional explosives.[3] Nanoenergetic materials can store higher amounts of energy than conventional energetic materials and can be used in innovative ways to tailor the release of this energy. Thermobaric weapons are considered to be a promising application of nanoenergetic materials. Research into military applications of nano-sized materials began in the early 1990s.[4]
Types
There are many possible thermodynamically stable fuel-oxidizer combinations. Some of them are:
In military research, aluminium-molybdenum oxide, aluminium-Teflon and aluminium-copper(II) oxide have received considerable attention.[4] Other compositions tested were based on nanosized RDX and with thermoplastic elastomers. PTFE or other fluoropolymer can be used as a binder for the composition. Its reaction with the aluminium, similar to magnesium/teflon/viton thermite, adds energy to the reaction. [5] Of the listed compositions, the Al-KMnO 4 one shows the highest pressurization rates, followed by orders of magnitude slower Al-MoO 3 and Al-CuO, followed by yet slower Al-Fe 2 O 3. [6]
Nanoparticles can be prepared by spray drying from a solution, or in case of insoluble oxides, spray pyrolysis of solutions of suitable precursors. The composite materials can be prepared by sol-gel techniques or by conventional wet mixing and pressing.
Similar but not identical systems are nano-laminated pyrotechnic compositions, or energetic nanocomposites. In these systems, the fuel and oxidizer is not mixed as small particles, but deposited as alternating thin layers. For example, an energetic multilayer structure may be coated with an energetic booster material. Through selection of materials (the range of which includes virtually all metals) and size scale of the layers, functional properties of the multilayer structures can be controlled, such as the reaction front velocity, the reaction initiation temperature, and the amount of energy delivered by a reaction of alternating unreacted layers of the multilayer structure.[7]
Production
A method for producing nanoscale, or ultra fine grain (UFG) aluminum powders, a key component of most nano-thermitic materials, is the dynamic gas-phase condensation method, pioneered by Wayne Danen and Steve Son at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A variant of the method is being used at the Indian Head Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Another production method for nanoaluminum powder is the pulsed plasma process developed by NovaCentrix (formerly Nanotechnologies).[8] The powders made by both processes are indistinguishable.[9] A critical aspect of the production is the ability to produce particles of sizes in the tens of nanometer range, as well as with a limited distribution of particle sizes. In 2002, the production of nano-sized aluminum particles required considerable effort, and commercial sources for the material were limited.[4] Current production levels are now beyond 100 kg/month.
An application of the sol-gel method, developed by Randall Simpson, Alexander Gash and others at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, can be used to make the actual mixtures of nanostructured composite energetic materials. Depending on the process, MICs of different density can be produced. Highly porous and uniform products can be achieved by supercritical extraction.[4]
Ignition
Nanoscale composites are easier to ignite than traditional thermites. A nichrome bridgewire can be used in some cases. Other means of ignition can include flame or laser pulse. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is developing super-thermite electric matches that use comparatively low ignition currents and resist friction, impact, heat and static discharge.[1]
MICs have been investigated as a possible replacement for lead (e.g. lead styphnate, lead azide) containing percussion caps and electric matches. Compositions based on Al-Bi 2 O 3 tend to be used. PETN may be optionally added.[10][11] MICs can be also added to high explosives to modify their properties. [12] Aluminium is typically added to explosives to increase their energy yield. Addition of small amount of MIC to aluminium powder increases overall combustion rate, acting as a burn rate modifier.[13]
The products of a thermite reaction, resulting from ignition of the thermitic mixture, are usually metal oxides and elemental metals. At the temperatures prevailing during the reaction, the products can be solid, liquid or gaseous, depending on the components of the mixture.[14] Super-thermite electric matches developed by LANL can create simple sparks, hot slag, droplet, or flames as thermal-initiating outputs to ignite other incendiaries or explosives.[1]
Hazards
Like conventional thermite, super thermite usage is hazardous due to the extremely high temperatures produced and the extreme difficulty in smothering a reaction once initiated. Additionally, with nanothermites, composition and morphology are important variables for safety. For example, the variation of layer thickness in energetic nanolaminates can allow control of the reactivity of it.[7]
The thermite reaction releases dangerous ultra-violet (UV) light requiring that the reaction not be viewed directly, or that special eye protection (for example, a welder's mask) be worn.
In general, super thermites are extremely hazardous to handle because of it high sensitivity to electrostatic discharge (ESD) that is usually less than 15 micro joules.
A method of reducing ignition sensitivity and improving handling safety of nanothermites has been developed which replaces the metal oxide nanoparticles with carbon nanofibres filled with manganese oxide (MnO 2 ).[15]
See also
References
External links
Evidence for the use of thermitic materials on 9/11
There is a variety of evidence which follows the scientific method and suggests the use of thermite on 9/11. Thermal hot spots, the reports of molten steel, and other more scientific evidence as well.
Appendix C of the FEMA Report (first and last page)
The Mysterious Eutectic
Some common lies and misconceptions about the properties and abilities of thermite and it's relation to the 9/11 WTC Demolitions:
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Abstract: We have discovered distinctive red/gray chips in all the samples we have studied of the dust produced by the destruction of the World Trade Center. Examination of four of these samples, collected from separate sites, is reported in this paper. These red/gray chips show marked similarities in all four samples. One sample was collected by a Manhattan resident about ten minutes after the collapse of the second WTC Tower, two the next day, and a fourth about a week later. The properties of these chips were analyzed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The red material contains grains approximately 100 nm across which are largely iron oxide, while aluminum is contained in tiny plate-like structures. Separation of components using methyl ethyl ketone demonstrated that elemental aluminum is present. The iron oxide and aluminum are intimately mixed in the red material. When ignited in a DSC device the chips exhibit large but narrow exotherms occurring at approximately 430 °C, far below the normal ignition temperature for conventional thermite. Numerous iron-rich spheres are clearly observed in the residue following the ignition of these peculiar red/gray chips. The red portion of these chips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic.
INTRODUCTION
The destruction of three skyscrapers (WTC 1, 2 and 7) on September 11, 2001 was an immensely tragic catastrophe that not only impacted thousands of people and families directly, due to injury and loss of life, but also provided the motivation for numerous expensive and radical changes in domestic and foreign policy. For these and other reasons, knowing what really happened that fateful day is of grave importance.
A great deal of effort has been put forth by various government- sponsored and -funded investigations, which led, in large part, to the reports released by FEMA [1] and NIST [2]. Other studies of the destruction have been less well publicized but are no less important to the outstanding obligation that remains to the victims of that tragedy, to determine the whole truth of the events of that day [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]. A number of these studies have appropriately focused attention on the remaining physical material, and on available photographs and video footage, as sources of evidence still in public hands, relating to the method of destruction of the three skyscrapers. The collapses of the three tallest WTC buildings were remarkable for their completeness, their near free-fall speed [11] their striking radial symmetry [1], [12] and the surprisingly large volume of fine toxic dust [13] that was generated. In order to better understand these features of the destruction, the authors initiated an examination of this dust. In June 2007, Dr. Steven Jones observed distinctive bi-layered chips, with both a red and a gray layer, in a sample of the WTC dust. Initially, it was suspected these might be dried paint chips, but after closer inspection and testing, it was shown that this was not the case. Further testing was then performed on the red/gray chips in an attempt to ascertain their composition and properties. The authors also obtained and examined additional samples of WTC dust which had been collected by independent observers on, or very soon after, 9/11. All of the samples examined contained these very small, peculiar red/gray chips. Previous studies discussing observations of the WTC dust include reports by the RJ Lee Company [14], the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) [15], McGee et al. [13] and Lioy et al. [16] Some of these studies confirmed the finding of iron-rich microspheres, which are also peculiar [5], [8], [11], [13], [14],[15] but the red/gray chips analyzed in this study have apparently not been discussed in previously published reports. It is worth emphasizing that one sample was collected about ten minutes after the collapse of the second Tower, so it cannot possibly have been contaminated by clean-up operations [17].
MATERIALS AND METHODS
1. Provenance of the Samples Analyzed for this Report
In a paper presented first online in autumn 2006 regarding anomalies observed in the World Trade Center destruction [6], a general request was issued for samples of the WTC dust. The expectation at that time was that a careful examination of the dust might yield evidence to support the hypothesis that explosive materials other than jet fuel caused the extraordinarily rapid and essentially total destruction of the WTC buildings.
It was learned that a number of people had saved samples of the copious, dense dust, which spread and settled across Manhattan. Several of these people sent portions of their samples to members of this research group. This paper discusses four separate dust samples collected on or shortly after 9/11/2001. Each sample was found to contain red/gray chips. All four samples were originally collected by private citizens who lived in New York City at the time of the tragedy. These citizens came forward and provided samples for analysis in the public interest, allowing study of the 9/11 dust for whatever facts about the day might be learned from the dust. A map showing |
department has adopted from the Department of Homeland Security. In the spring, he posted a brief note that officers would be tabling outside Clough Commons during final exams, with treats as well as safety tips for those studying late at night. One commenter took the opportunity to give a commendation.
“I have so much respect for the GTPD,” the user said. “You are always looking out for us. I know it’s your job, but your incredible commitment to the task is enormously commendable.”
A few officers and a student assistant help monitor the account, with Moss being the primary poster. He’s found that people speak more directly when they have anonymity, creating a sort of pressure relief valve for campus and providing an opportunity for police to chime in and provide additional information when possible.
Lately, while doing in-person presentations, Moss has noticed students asking questions based on Reddit threads. Students often will post descriptions of situations playing out on campus, asking others for more information.
Most posts are related to general questions or issues, but more serious issues bubble up as well. In a situation where a student was posting about potentially harming himself, Moss reached out through a private message, to which the student responded, enabling Moss to refer him to campus resources where he could get help.
In general, the Reddit community has been a goldmine of information for GTPD about the goings-on around campus.
“It helps us find out about things we otherwise may not see,” Moss said. Though many Reddit users thrive on anonymity, Moss doesn’t mind it being known that he’s the one at the keyboard; he likes students to have an idea of who they’re talking to.
The Crime Prevention unit oversees all of GTPD’s social media accounts and shares relevant information with the rest of the department. The training unit keeps in close contact for access to knowledge that could be beneficial in training new officers. They consider Reddit a way to read the “pulse” of campus."This community created campaign throws you deep in the back woods to face thousands of zombies as you battle your way to a helicopter rescue. Don't let the water or waves of zombies sweep you away to your death."
Cold Stream is the third DLC for Left 4 Dead 2. It was announced in a blog post on February 16, 2011.[1] Cold Stream was released on March 22, 2011 in beta form on Steam, and it was officially released in its final form on Steam on July 24th, 2012. Cold Stream was released on the Xbox Marketplace August 3rd, 2012 for 560MSP.[2]
Cold Stream is unique in that every chapter ends with a gauntlet crescendo event leading to the safe room. The finale, Cut-throat Creek, is also a hectic gauntlet event going through the entire chapter, like The Bridge from The Parish. Cold Stream is also noted for relatively few calm spots compared to other Left 4 Dead 2 campaigns.
Below is a complete list of video walkthroughs of the final versions of the 4 levels, with the first two levels in one video:
Contents show]
Released in Cold Stream Edit
Only for Left 4 Dead 2 Edit
Cold Stream, a community-made campaign from the creator of the 2 Evil Eyes community campaign.
, a community-made campaign from the creator of the community campaign. Ports of Death Toll, Dead Air, Blood Harvest, and Crash Course.
Play all Mutations anytime you want.
STREAM CROSSER Survive the Cold Stream campaign on any difficulty.
The Xbox 360 version of the Cold Stream DLC has no unique achievements added to the game.
Beta Edit
Cold Stream was released to the public on the official servers on PC/Mac via beta release on March 22, 2011 for play testing and bug-seeking, such as finding nav-mesh bugs, navigational issues, hit box problems, missing zombie ladders, art problems, and more.
An in-game bug reporter was activated at the same time allowing players to send feedback and bug reports. This feature was announced by Valve to be extended eventually to work with other community campaigns. But strangely, there's no "Report Bug" button in the main menu or the in-game menu, which requires writing "bug" in the Developer Console yourself.
Players can also post feedback on the official forums in the Cold Stream section. Development of Cold Stream can also be followed on Valve's official twitter account located here.
Notes Edit
Sometimes the Survivor Bots will fail to get on the chopper ladder at the end and fall out of the map
Earlier revisions of the campaign featured models re-used from the Garry's Mod map gm_forest, amongst content from other games. The game files in "left4dead2_dlc3" contained models and textures for ex. "gm_forest." Since the SteamPipe conversion on July 2, 2013, many un-sourced models were removed before Cold Stream was officially released. The models can be downloaded from GameMaps.com.
map gm_forest, amongst content from other games. The game files in "left4dead2_dlc3" contained models and textures for ex. "gm_forest." Despite the fact that it is an official map, and though parts of the campaign reference the Left 4 Dead campaigns made by Valve, Cold Stream is not part of the official Left 4 Dead canon, and as such, does not fit in with the central storyline in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.
campaigns made by Valve, Cold Stream is part of the official canon, and as such, does not fit in with the central storyline in and. The campaign has several artifacts recycled from other Left 4 Dead campaigns, having the SOS painted sign and the News Chopper 5 Helicopter from No Mercy, the elevator from Hard Rain, graffiti from all of the campaigns, and the military jets from The Parish.
campaigns, having the SOS painted sign and the News Chopper 5 Helicopter from No Mercy, the elevator from Hard Rain, graffiti from all of the campaigns, and the military jets from The Parish. In-game character dialogue is notably sparse, being largely confined to repetitive one-liners recycled from Left 4 Dead 2. Similiar to other custom campaigns, this campaign simply doesn't use variating dialogue and is all the same.
. Left 4 Dead tropes encountered in this campaign include a high-level bridge crossing, rescue helicopters, aerial bombing of a freeway overpass, radio-for-rescue, climbing tanker trucks, a crescendo event maze and cabins in the middle of a forest.
tropes encountered in this campaign include a high-level bridge crossing, rescue helicopters, aerial bombing of a freeway overpass, radio-for-rescue, climbing tanker trucks, a crescendo event maze and cabins in the middle of a forest. In reply to a Twitter post on May 4, 2011, Valve explained that they are experimenting with moving community campaigns over to the Xbox 360, along with Cold Stream.
Cold Stream features Swamp Fever's Mud Men and The Parish's Riot Infected.
Since the release of Dead Air for Left 4 Dead 2, Cold Stream has its own intro theme music and re-uses The Parish's beta horde theme, a decision largely suggested by players from the forums. Prior to this, Cold Stream re-used Swamp Fever's intro and horde music; although deemed fitting for this campaign, they were eventually replaced by the soundtracks mentioned above.
, Cold Stream has its own intro theme music and re-uses The Parish's beta horde theme, a decision largely suggested by players from the forums. Prior to this, Cold Stream re-used Swamp Fever's intro and horde music; although deemed fitting for this campaign, they were eventually replaced by the soundtracks mentioned above. An achievement called STREAM CROSSER was added. Valve said that if 20,000 players get it they would be rewarded. This goal was achieved almost four hours after the achievement was released according to the L4D blog, and the reward was to release the Dead Air campaign to Left 4 Dead 2 early, which was on July 22, 2011.
was added. Valve said that if 20,000 players get it they would be rewarded. This goal was achieved almost four hours after the achievement was released according to the L4D blog, and the reward was to release the Dead Air campaign to early, which was on July 22, 2011. Significant changes were rolled out in the July 2011 update. Among the more notable revisions were wholesale (and most welcome) changes to the Memorial Bridge chapter and ultimate Finale sequences. Common Infected spawning behaviours were now more credible and had tighter sequence linking whilst the number of Special Infected was refined in to enhance the "surprise factor" during gameplay. In addition, the revised Cut-throat Creek chapter saw the introduction of an innovative visibility-reducing mist effect.
In the game files, the rescue helicopter from the Parish Finale can be found in a folder called "bunny". This helicopter however has an unfinished crashing animation, which was cut from the final release.
During the intro, an Infected may attack Ellis, but deal no damage.
Cold Stream is the only campaign poster not to feature the Survivors or the campaign's tagline.
The Last Stand was not included in this DLC, making it the only campaign from the first Left 4 Dead not to be playable in its sequel without being modded into the game.
not to be playable in its sequel without being modded into the game. This is the only campaign where no Witches spawn in any chapters. However, there are exceptions on some Mutations. Also, on rare occasions, witches will spawn during a Versus game. (Confirmed on Xbox 360)
There is evidence to suggest that this campaign takes place in New Jersey. In the final chapter, there is a map in the Safe Room depicting Union County, with cities like Roselle and Elizabeth marked as well as the NJ Transit railroad line.
The helicopter in the Beta version seems to be modeled after the US Army Huey model.
Gallery EditMIRAMSHAH: The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have elected hardline Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah as their new chief, a week after former supremo Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan.
“Fazlullah is the new TTP chief,” TTP caretaker leader Asmatullah Shaheen said at a press conference at an undisclosed location in northwest Pakistan.
“The decision was taken at a shura (council) meeting today,” foreign news agency AFP quoted Shaheen as saying. “The supreme shura has also elected Sheikh Khalid Haqqani as the deputy chief of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.”
TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid also confirmed the announcement. “Following proper consultations... we chose our senior commander Mullah Fazlullah as our new ameer (leader),” he told news agency Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The election of hardline commander Fazlullah further dampens expectations of any peace deal between the insurgents and the Pakistani government.
“There will be no more talks as Mullah Fazlullah is already against negotiations with the Pakistan government,” said the spokesman, rejecting the idea of any further peace talks.
Heavy gunfire was reported in celebration in Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal area, following the announcement of the new chief.
Mullah Fazlullah: A brief profile
Fazlullah, whose men shot teenage schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai last year, led the Pakistani Taliban’s brutal two-year rule in northwestern Swat valley in 2007-2009 before a military operation retook the area. He fled across the border to Afghanistan and is now believed to operate from Nuristan province.
Nicknamed Mullah Radio for his fiery radio broadcasts in Swat valley, Fazlullah is considered hardline even within the Pakistani Taliban movement itself.
The killing of former chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Friday came as the Pakistani government said representatives were prepared to meet the TTP with a view to opening peace talks.
The drone strike triggered an angry response from Islamabad, with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar accusing Washington of sabotaging peace efforts.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was more measured, but said his government was committed to seeking peace through dialogue and stressing that an end to bloodshed could not be achieved “by unleashing senseless force”.
Sharif came to power in May partly on a pledge to hold talks to try to end the TTP’s bloody insurgency that has fuelled instability in the nation.
In September he won the backing of major political parties in an APC to begin peace negotiations with Taliban insurgents.
The TTP, an umbrella organisation grouping numerous militant factions, has killed thousands of soldiers, police and civilians since 2007 in its campaign against the Pakistani state.CHANDIGARH: Amid the prevailing tension between India and Pakistan over ceasefire violations along their border, Pakistani Rangers on Saturday refused to accept the sweets offered by the BSF on the occasion of Eid.Border guarding forces of the two countries have been following a tradition of exchanging sweets on festivals at the International Border in Jammu and along the Attari-Wagah border in Amritsar in Punjab. Border Security Force (BSF) Deputy Inspector General in Amritsar, M F Farooqui, told reporters that their gesture of giving sweets on the occasion of Eid was not reciprocated from the other side along the Attari-Wagah border."We give sweets on Eid every time. The Rangers have not accepted it today. We always want to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border," he said.However, the BSF did not offer any sweets to their counterparts along the IB.A senior BSF commander at its headquarters in Delhi told PTI that the force did not "offer" Eid sweets along the IB to Rangers as a mark of protest against the ongoing spate of ceasefire violations along this frontier and also the LoC which have claimed few lives and injured many in the last few days.In the wake of repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistani Rangers, India has warned Pakistan of "effective and forceful" response to unprovoked firing and cross-border terrorism.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
An up-and-coming ladies football player has died aged just 20 on the first day she was due to return to pre-season training.
West Ham United Ladies starlet Katie Sheppard is believed to have taken her own life just hours before she was due to return to footballing duties after taking a break for university, the Evening Standard reports.
The former Charlton Athletic midfielder - who aspired to emulate her footballing hero Scott Parker - made four first-team appearances for West Ham Ladies in 2012/13 before concentrating on her university studies.
She was found dead at the family home in Sidcup, Kent, on July 2.
Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are not looking for anyone else in connection with her death.
The lifelong Hammers fan has been described as a 'talented and popular' member of the club, where she was expected to fully break into the first-team this season.
Katie had taken a short break from football to study for a degree in Sports Therapy at the University of Kent, which she started last year.
Tributes have flooded in to Katie, who was fulfilling a lifelong dream of playing for West Ham.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, coach Julia Setford, 34, who signed Katie from the Charlton Athletic School of Excellence, said: "We don’t know what has happened.
“Katie was a massive character and we didn’t know there was anything wrong.
“She spoke to the girls on a regular basis. That’s why what happened is such a shock. We’re all struggling to come to terms with it at the moment.”
In a statement, West Ham Ladies said: "It is with great sadness they we have to report the untimely passing of Katie Sheppard.
"She had played for the Ladies team for the past two seasons, a true Hammers fan and season ticket holder at Upton Park. We send our condolences to all her family and friends at this sad time."
The footballing world also expressed its shock over social media at Katie's untimely passing.
Katie's family have requested that football players attending her funeral next Tuesday wear Charlton Athletic or West Ham tops in her memory.
As a youth player at Charlton, Katie answered a questionnaire which was published on the website where she cited her dad as her biggest inspiration.
She said: "He is the one who takes me to and from games and will always be honest in telling me about how I played and how to progress."
Asked about her ambitions, she added: "To get a scholarship to the USA and continue to play out there."
For confidential support contact Samaritans on 08457 909090 or click here.[Haskell-cafe] technical thoughts on stack
I’ve watched the recent back-and-forth about stack with quite a bit of interest (as many of us have). The discussion inspired me to take another look at stack. Here are the results of that foray. First, a disclosure: While I have appreciated the emergence of a new build tool for Haskell, I have never much liked stack. One of my chief goals in taking another look is to understand better why I do not like it. My task: Set up a Haskell environment on a new machine (a Mac). This machine has no Haskell infrastructure on it. My approach: 1. `brew install haskell-stack`. Success. At this point, I do not have a Haskell project I wish to build. Instead, I really just want the ability to run Haskell expressions in GHCi. So I skip `stack new` and go straight to 2. `stack setup`. This succeeds, but prints out some interesting messages along the way, including > Did not find.cabal file for servant-yaml-0.1.0.0 with Git SHA of 71c0a55d0a877954d9590e285c0eb861ace2d8cc > Right Nothing At the end, I am helpfully told > To use this GHC and packages outside of a project, consider using: > stack ghc, stack ghci, stack runghc, or stack exec > So I then 3. `stack ghci`. My computer’s first reaction is to say > Run from outside a project, using implicit global project config > Using resolver: lts-6.17 from implicit global project's config file: /home/rae/.stack/global-project/stack.yaml > Error parsing targets: The specified targets matched no packages. > Perhaps you need to run'stack init'? > Warning: build failed, but optimistically launching GHCi anyway > which doesn’t make me feel all that comfortable, but then I am indeed delivered to the GHCi prompt, which works as expected. Done with GHCi, I quit. I then want to double-check which version of GHC I got, so I 4. `stack ghc --version`. This command reports > Invalid option `--version’ Grumble. It seems I can’t interact with GHC directly. ———— At this point, I am reminded why I dislike stack: **It’s optimized for a different workflow than I use.** And I think this fact (repeated by others’ experiences) is why a segment of our community has not celebrated stack as much as other segments have. We all have different workflows. From what I understand about it, stack is great for a project-based workflow. In this workflow, you are working on a Haskell project. You are happy to specify settings in.cabal and stack.yaml files. And you really want your build to work in the future and on other machines. In my experience, stack is not great with a compiler-based workflow. In this workflow, you aren’t quite as organized perhaps and do not have all your settings written. You also want the ability just to compile a file without changing any configurations. You want to be able to start GHCi with a nice set of libraries with which to experiment. I definitely like a compiler-based workflow. I’m sure that many of you prefer a project-based workflow. The great news here is that we have a choice: use stack for a project-based workflow, and don’t use it when you want a compiler-based workflow. No one needs to convince others about personal preferences. But there is one nagging issue: what do we suggest to newcomers? The downloads page right now is not serving us well. (I was legitimately scratching my head at first trying to figure out how to provision a new computer.) Sadly, I don’t see a good option presenting itself. Both potential approaches (The Haskell Toolchain vs. stack) have (in my opinion) serious shortcomings. A. The Haskell Toolchain (that is, what’s currently called the Haskell Platform Minimal) does appear to lack a “here’s what you do first” tutorial. Forgive me if I’ve missed it. It’s also right now quite hard to discover — you have to choose the oft-maligned Haskell Platform link before you are told that there is a minimal variant. B. stack sets up GHC in a way that either 1) requires a project-based workflow with a stack.yaml file or 2) issues a bunch of somewhat-scary warnings every time GHC is invoked outside of a project. Furthermore, stack prohibits direct interaction with GHC (as in `ghc --version`). There’s more good news here! Both of these problems are really easy to fix. To fix (A), someone just has to write the tutorial. To fix (B), stack just needs a new option so that `stack setup` installs a system GHC. Perhaps it would even be sufficient for `stack setup` to clearly tell the user where ghc is installed and what to add to their PATH. I also think, if readers agree with my conclusions about workflows, we should consider writing up criteria that potential users should consider when choosing what workflow to start with. We’ll need to have a tighter recommendation for those with no experience programming, but most developers should be able to recognize what workflow they prefer and choose accordingly. Of course, there’s a bit of bad news: If both (A) and (B) are fixed, then we’ll really be in a quandary about which installation procedure to put first. Perhaps we should incentivize fixing (A) and (B) by saying whichever one happens first gets to be featured first on the page? :) So: Does my characterization of workflows resonate? Have I perhaps identified part of the burning black heart of the reason behind the vitriol of late? Should we fix (A) and (B)? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Richard -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard A. Eisenberg Asst. Prof. of Computer Science Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr, PA, USA cs.brynmawr.edu/~raeIndia, Pakistan and China–three neighbours that are part of one of the most volatile regions in the world in terms of border security and international territorial conflict. India is flanked by a security threat from the east and west by China and Pakistan. While Pakistan’s military is in the hands of unpredictable generals obsessed with Kashmir, China’s military expansion has taken the world by surprise.
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India’s military prowess is growing every year. It continues to face threats on both the eastern and western fronts from Pakistan, China, internally through militancy, Maoists and terrorist outfits. At such a time, India prepares for the most adverse situations and is in the process of a large military modernisation and overhaul. India has been fast developing new military technology, acquiring what is required, manufacturing weapons, aircraft, naval vessels etc to make India’s military a strong force to handle these threats. India’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program has also caused concerns for India’s adversaries. Adding to this, the increased pace of acquisitions and commissioning of defence equipment shows that India is wary of the threats and wants to upgrade and bolster the military as much as possible.
READ | What is India’s military strength?
READ | What is China’s military strength?
READ | What is Pakistan’s military strength?
Globalfirepower.com data shows where the three countries stand in terms of their military might:
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is the defence service force of China. PLA was formed in 1972 and it comprises ground forces, naval forces, artillery, armed police and air force. Chinese law mandates mandatory military service for its citizens and the bulk of the force is made of personnel in the age bracket of 18-49 years. Due to the huge number of volunteers the PLA gets each year, it has never had to enforce conscription. Despite being the largest Army, it is not the most modern force in the world considering the budget it allocates for defence. In 2017, Chinese defence budget allocation was $152 billion.
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The Pakistani threat is increased by virtue of its ever increasing engagement with China. As the forces attain higher interoperability with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor in the works, the security situation on the western front now becomes even more serious. The country has had close ties with China since the 1960s and both countries are actively involved in military technology exchange and development of weapons systems. It sources the bulk of its military equipment and supplies from the US and China.Just waking up Sunday morning gotta thank John
Turn on the TV, Russell Wilson and the Hawks are on
No buzzin' alarm clocker, no shock jocker
And the Titans were playin' with no Jake Locker
I got drunk last night but had no hangover, homey
Check my phone, didn't send any texts saying "come over, I'm lonely!"
Game is on, turn the volume of the crew real low
Thinkin' to myself "Will I live to see a Super Bowl?"
His first snap of the game and Russ hits Willson for 14
Prepare myself to watch another murder scene
Things start slow, first quarter losin'
Grabbed the bottle of Jack cause I had to start boozin'
2nd Q startin' from their 26
First 12 to Golden, then 8 more to Marshawn Lynch
It ain't a real breakfast without a Russell scramble
Then 28 to Dougie Fresh, the world's best gamble
Finally a 1-yard run, not a tackler in sight
Always give it to Beast Mode cause he can go alllll night
Checked my Twitter feed and I'm tweetin':
"That field goal attempt fell apart faster than Jodie Sweetin!"
Go against Lynch and you know dude gets live
Just fucked around and caught a pass for 55
Punches in one more TD, 20-10 and I gotta say
That was fuckin' scary but Sunday was a good day
Seahawks vs Titans Win Probability Chart (via Pro-Football-Reference)
PFR's chart doesn't start at 50/50 (as a real Win Probability Chart shouldn't, since we do know things before games start) and they have Seattle starting out as 83.40% to win. That was over 94% as they lined up to kick a field goal before halftime, but Maraghost (Happy Halloween) pulled a highlight that rivals anything in Jose Canseco's career and it was a full 26% drop.
The Titans made it a cool 50/50 split early in the third quarter but were never really favored to win the game at any point.
Big Play!
The Seahawks had them right where they wanted them on Wilson's 55-yard pass to Marshawn Lynch, which was worth +15.6% in the win column.
"Cool" and "Fool" of the Week
The 155 total yards of Marshawn Lynch were the most he's had in a game since Week 4 of last season against the Rams (also 155 total yards) and he scored twice. He gained 55 yards on a single catch, despite not having 55 receiving yards in any one game since Week 8 of 2011 against the Ravens (58) and the 78 receiving yards is a career-high.
"Cool" of the Week: Marshawn Lynch
Lynch's 0.32 WPA and 8.6 EPA led the team. K.J. Wright did a great job of filling in for Bobby Wagner and isn't a concern in the middle.
"Fool" of the Week - Golden Tate
I hate tot do it to one of my favorite players and an underrated talent around the league, but not a good performance for Tate. Besides just gaining a paltry 4.7 yards per target, critical plays directed at Tate were unsuccessful:
1 10:10 3 5 50 Russell Wilson pass incomplete short middle intended for Golden Tate (defended by Alterraun Verner) 0 0 1.36 -0.06
1 3:26 3 3 SEA 39 Russell Wilson pass incomplete short middle intended for Golden Tate (defended by Alterraun Verner) 3 0 0.76 -0.78
3 12:47 2 3 SEA 41 Russell Wilson pass complete short left to Golden Tate for -3 yards (tackle by Coty Sensabaugh) 10 7 1.6 0.5
Not that Sidney Rice saved any face this week. That situation is getting uglier and uglier.
For Tennessee, Ryan Fitzpatrick looked quite the fool while linebacker Moise Fokou forced two fumbles. He had forced two fumbles in his entire career (2009-present) before that.
Put My Heart In a Blender: Inside-Outsiders DVOA Update
The Seahawks stayed in second place in DVOA but slipped a bit from ninth to tenth in Offensive DVOA.
As you can see, three of Seattle's first six opponents rank top 10 in DVOA right now. However, the Jaguars are tracking as the worst team through six games of all time, the Texans are 29th and the Titans are 20th so the past schedule difficulty ranks only as the 28th hardest in the league.
Not uncommon for good teams though, the Broncos rank 32nd, the Chiefs rank 31st.
Playoff and Super Bowl Odds
Seattle's odds of making the playoffs actually went down 0.5% from last week. Their Super Bowl odds remained the same. (And the Giants closed the gap significantly on Jacksonville for the number one pick.)
The Seahawks are 84.5% to win their division, tops in the NFL. They are also 76.1% to get a bye week, also the highest mark in the league.
Stat of the Week
There is a 15% chance that the Broncos and Seahawks meet in the Super Bowl according to FO, more than twice as likely as any other scenario. There's also a 5.3% chance that Pete Carroll faces his old team, the New England Patriots and a tiny 0.3% chance that he faces the Jets.
However that's still a far-cry from the odds that there is a Super Bowl XL rematch, only a 0.1% chance.
I wonder why so low...
Week 7 Opponent
The Arizona Cardinals aren't all that bad, ranking 17th in overall DVOA. They jumped up by seven spots this week despite losing to the 49ers. The real problem is once again offense, as they ranked seventh on defense but 24th on O.
Carson Palmer might be an upgrade over Ryan Lindley and John Skelton but that's saying exactly as much as you think it is. He is currently 32nd in DYAR, behind players like Christian Ponder, Matt Schaub, Josh Freeman, and Matt Cassel. He's behind all of the Vikings quarterbacks!
They still do quite well on defense, ranking seventh overall in defense DVOA and sixth against the run, which should help keep things interesting on Thursday.
But hopefully not that interesting. The Cards rank 21st on special teams and if the Seahawks field goal unit doesn't do all the scoring for Arizona we'll be just fine.
Russell Wilson Stats Update
Week 6 - 23-of-31, 74.2%, 257 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, 8.3 YPA, 8.3 AY/A, 98.5 QB rating, 10 rushes for 61 yards
The Russ Bus has carried it 10 or more times in four of his last five games after having done so only once during his rookie season.
In the pantheon of Russell -
It was only the fourth time in his career that Russell was held scoreless and the first time this year. It was the first time that he was held scoreless and also didn't throw an interception. Speaking of which, Russell broke a streak of four straight games with an interception!
On the season - 97-of-158, 61.4%, 1,254 yards, eight touchdowns, four interceptions, 7.9 Y/A, 7.8 AY/A, 92.6 QB rating, 60.91 QBR, 17 sacks, 50 rushes for 294 yards and no touchdowns, 234 DYAR (as passer) ranks 12th, DVOA ranks 11th, QBR ranks 11th, 76 DYAR (as runner) ranks 2nd among QBs.
The Seahawks have faced the 11th-toughest schedule in terms of the defenses they've faced, per DVOA.
Around the League
- In one game, Nick Foles was better than Peyton Manning has been all season! Foles scored four touchdowns in his start against Tampa Bay on Sunday and currently ranks first in DVOA and second in QBR. That will definitely last.
- Blaine Gabbert has a QBR of 1.8. The next lowest qualified QB (Freeman) has a QBR of 26.8. Matt Flynn has a QBR of 3.1.
- The Jaguars are 32nd in expected points contributed on offense with -104.76. The Giants rank 31st at -45.24.
- Philip Rivers falls out of the pace for 5,000-yards club, leaving Manning, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Aaron Rodgers. Seems like Ryan will fall out eventually without Julio Jones.
- Jimmy Graham was held without a catch this week against the Patriots and still leads the league in receiving yards.
- Eli Manning is the seventh player in NFL history to throw at least 15 interceptions through six games and the first to do it since 1986 (Dan Fouts.)
- The Seahawks are 5-1, tied for best record in the NFC! Without Percy Harvin!UFC women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm wants to keep active, but the promotion has other plans.
Holm KO'd former champ Ronda Rousey Nov. 15 at UFC 193, but UFC president Dana White plans to keep her shelved for a rematch targeted for July 9 at UFC 200 in Las Vegas Nevada.
Holm's manager Lenny Fresquez pitched Holm making her first title defense to Miesha Tate in the meantime, but White sarcastically shot that idea down Tuesday.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan understands White's motivation for keeping Holm on the sidelines, but he doesn't have to like it.
"If Ronda's going to be out for this long amount of time, why rush her?" Rogan said Thursday on his podcast. "You're talking about July? We're in December. Seven months. She just said in an interview that she's not going to be able to eat an apple for six months. Forget about taking impact. How is that going to happen in July and have her be at her optimum?"
Rogan would much prefer seeing Rousey take her time re-tooling her game, allowing Holm to become an even bigger star while building to an eventual rematch.
"I haven't talked to anybody, but this is my personal opinion," said Rogan. "Holly Holm could be a f***ing monster. She could be a monster on the level of any champion in combat sports, any in the UFC. If Holm goes on to dominate the way Ronda dominated and she gets in there and knocks out 'fill in the blank' and head kicks her into oblivion everyone will be like, 'Holy s**t we've got a new one!' Ronda didn't become Ronda immediately. She did it over a series of spectacular victories. If Holm strings a few of those together you've got another gigantic dynamo.
"Then, when Ronda's ready to come back and she's 100 percent healed and healthy and has made some corrections, really worked on fixing whatever holes were exposed in her game, then you have this monumental super fight. If Miesha wins then you've got a crazy f***ing love triangle."
Rogan believes this strategy would only help to build more dynamic stars, rather than cannibalize them for a short-term gain.
"I think the long game is if Holly gets even better, if she gets even more recognition and Ronda fully heals up. You also give Miesha a chance to take that title. You run a risk, but I think even if Tate beats Holly and [Holm and Rousey] have a five-round, non-title fight while Miesha's got the strap, that s**t would still be bananas. Gigantic.
"Everybody makes money. You get more high-level, marquee matchups."
5 MUST-READ STORIES
Scrum. At UFC 194 open workouts, Conor McGregor discusses why he doesn't feel like a UFC employee, if he respects Jose Aldo, and much more.
'Handcuffed.' Conor McGregor says UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is being "forced into this."
'My mind is blown.' Urijah Faber, Max Holloway, Tony Ferguson and others weigh-in on the fact that Jose Aldo is actually a betting underdog to Conor McGregor.
Thug. Rose Namajunas submits Paige VanZant in a dominating performance to kick off the UFC's weekend slate of fights.
'Working together will take him to the next level.' Firas Zahabi discusses Sage Northcutt's second win at UFC Fight Night: Namajunas vs. VanZant, what he thought of the stand-up, George St-Pierre's training camp, and more.
MEDIA STEW
UFC 194 open workout highlights.
Jose Aldo's UFC 194 open workout.
Octagon interviews with Rose Namajunas and Sage Northcutt.
McGregor says he'd like to go back and forth between featherweight and 155 pounds.
Chris Weidman doesn't think he'll get the credit he'll deserve for beating Luke Rockhold.
First Take debates the fairness of making Holm sit out and wait for Rousey.
Episode 3 of Joe Lauzon's fight week vlog.
Long watches.
UFC Fight Night: Namajunas vs. Vanzant post-fight press conference
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UFC 194 Aldo vs McGregor, TUF Finale Edgar vs Mendes & UFN Rose vs Paige Care/Don't Care Preview
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TWEETS
Congrats.
@rosenamajunas & @ |
ixon: So how does it go Nick? I've got to be a nom for a while? Forbes: Just a little while bro. You'll get 'em quick.
Proposed restrictions on bikie gang members
The laws allow control orders to be placed on organisation members. They would ban them from associating with each other, restrict them from holding certain jobs, even visiting certain areas.
Bill Potts, the solicitor representing the Finks, says the laws are draconian.
"What we are going to see is that states around Australia effectively following this case will move to introduce similar legislation and follow the course which is followed here," Mr Potts said.
"So if the Finks' case fails, then we will expect bike groups around Australia effectively banned."
It is understood that with the case so close, bikie bosses have ordered calm but violence has flared up.
Last month Bandido Leonard David Toalei had to be tasered and batoned into submission after allegedly firing a shotgun round in a taxi and attempting to hijack a milk truck.
In May, a bikie allegedly bashed a lifeguard at Burleigh after his wife was asked not to walk her dog through a flagged area.
And Finks and Nomads also brawled at the Cooly Rocks On festival in Coolangatta. Eight were charged with affray, including former NRL player Antony Watts.
Mr Potts says he does not see a day when there will be a Gold Coast without bikies.
"I think what happens is we've all driven ourselves into a lather of concern and we now have to question whether we should ban all bike groups," he said.
"I think the answer to that clearly is no, and in any case the banning of one is a step too far."
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, police, surfers-paradise-4217
First postedThe Fukushima nuclear accident released radioactive materials into the environment over the entire Northern Hemisphere in March 2011, and the Japanese government is spending large amounts of money to clean up the contaminated residential areas and agricultural fields. However, we still do not know the exact physical and chemical properties of the radioactive materials. This study directly observed spherical Cs-bearing particles emitted during a relatively early stage (March 14-15) of the accident. In contrast to the Cs-bearing radioactive materials that are currently assumed, these particles are larger, contain Fe, Zn, and Cs, and are water insoluble. Our simulation indicates that the spherical Cs-bearing particles mainly fell onto the ground by dry deposition. The finding of the spherical Cs particles will be a key to understand the processes of the accident and to accurately evaluate the health impacts and the residence time in the environment.In 2012, after the last election, we knew there were no longer any openly non-theistic members of Congress with the loss of Rep. Pete Stark. We also knew that there were 10 members of Congress (all Democrats) whose religious affiliations were “Unspecified.”
Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA) was one of them.
Last night, Huffman appeared on The Colbert Report (for the “Better Know a District” segment) and Stephen Colbert grilled him on the ambiguity of that label. He may have even gotten the Congressman to admit he’s not religious…
Colbert: I see you’ve listed your religion as “Unspecified.” Huffman: Yes. Colbert: Would you like to re-specify as Roman Catholic? Huffman: No… Colbert: Door’s always open. Huffman: … nothing against Roman Catholics and I love your new Pope… Colbert: Thank you very much. “Unspecified.” C’mon, grow a pair. What is it? What is it? Are you an atheist? Huffman: I–I don’t know… Colbert: Agnostic then? Huffman: Perhaps… Colbert: What is an Agnostic but an atheist without any balls? Huffman: [Awkwardly nods] Colbert: [Smiling] I see you’re choosing not to specify your response to that “Unspecified.” I’ll just put you down for heathen-slash-hellbound.
I know he only said “Perhaps,” but that may be the closest any sitting member of Congress has been to admitting s/he’s not religious in more than two years.
I’ve asked Huffman (or at least his staff) to clarify his beliefs. It would be incredibly important to millions of non-religious Americans to know that there’s at least someone in Congress who is openly non-religious.Here's what you need to know...
The main problem with CrossFit is the WOD – the workout of the day that's performed at high speed. CrossFit wants to focus on strength, speed, endurance, and everything else. The current CrossFit methodology misses the mark, but it can be fixed. The way to do this is to categorize movements as either "high skill" or "low skill."
You're probably already thinking that this is going to be ten minutes of CrossFit bashing. It's not. That's not helpful or useful to anyone, and it's been done to death. What I want to do is to help find a middle ground by keeping the best aspects of CrossFit and getting rid of the things that hurt people.
A few observations about CrossFit, three positive and two negative:
CrossFit has shown a lot of people a door to exercise that isn't paved with single body-part machines and treadmills. Lifting real weights is cool and becoming more mainstream, as Mark Rippetoe and others here at T Nation have mentioned before in CrossFit: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly
People who do CrossFit generally look like they're having a good time and that's great because exercise should be enjoyable.
In general, regular people who do CrossFit are what we might describe as being "in pretty good shape."
The injury rates in CrossFit are way too high.
The purpose of exercising is to make you better, not worse.
Additionally, it seems that the focus of CrossFit is very highly geared toward conditioning over strength. This is partially true due to the focus on moving as fast as possible most of the time, often against the clock.
However, the pendulum swings both ways and a lot of the criticism CrossFit gets for being too conditioning-focused is from people who are lazy or perhaps intimidated by high levels of conditioning. There's nothing wrong with doing conditioning and there's certainly nothing wrong with doing a minimal amount of conditioning. Open your mind to the fact that both have value that depends on your individual goals.
99 Problems, But the WOD is the Worst
The main problem with CrossFit is the WOD – the workout of the day that's performed at ludicrous speed. Speed in itself isn't the problem. I've competed in most sports at this point (including martial arts, highland games, soccer, etc.), and I know for a fact that speed kills, but the parameter for determining whether you should do something is simple: "Can you do it well?"
If you can do it well, do it. If you can't, don't. CrossFit wants to focus on strength, speed, endurance, and everything else – and so do I. What's better than possessing all the athletic qualities and making your body a force to be reckoned with? Problem is, the current CrossFit methodology misses the mark, but it can be fixed. The way to do this is to categorize movements as either "high skill" or "low skill."
High Skill: You must do this movement with little to no fatigue, lower repetitions, and adequate rest.
Low Skill: Go fast and lots of reps. Get after it, you lazy SOB. I'm giving you the green light.
For most of us, handstand walking and back flips are "high skill," so it doesn't make sense to have them as part of a WOD. It's also pretty easy to make the argument that the Airdyne bike or battling ropes are safe enough to do at almost any intensity, though vomiting is always a possibility. Dragging a tire attached to a belt would probably also fall under this category, too.
The Olympic lifts, however, are another matter. You might think I'm going to spout off some BS about how high-rep Olympic lifting is dangerous... and you'd be half right. It is, for most people. Some, however, have achieved such a high level of skill in Olympic lifting that they can basically do however many reps they want and they won't be in any danger. The same could be said for handstand walking – for some of us.
I'm at the point where I could do handstand walking and hang cleans for high reps in a fatigued state and I'd be just fine, but I wouldn't ever put those in a program for any of my students. As such, a WOD should be tagged with the proper High Skill or Low Skill label. That way, trainees know what they're getting into and they can enhance their skills in a safe environment until the O-lifts become "low skill." Then those lifts will be much safer for a WOD.
There's no need to dismiss CrossFit entirely and abandon their brand of high intensity and conditioning just because most people do it wrong and take it too far. It's good to sweat and move fast; just make sure you have a good risk/reward ratio and you only go balls-out and get after it with low skill maneuvers for your metabolic conditioning workouts.
Here are a couple of examples of low-skill WODs that I'd feel comfortable prescribing to almost anyone:
Example #1:
Exercise Sets Reps A Power Snatch 5 3 B1 Push-Up 20 B2 Row 20 B3 Airdyne 1 min.
Repeat B1, B2, and B3 for 10:00
Example #2:
Exercise Sets Reps A1 Deadlift 5 5 A2 Single-Arm Push Press 5 10/arm A3 Sled Drag 5 1 min.
These examples are a bit more rigorous than I personally would do, but in general, these would be appropriate for anyone who's adept at push-ups, rows, Airdyne, and push presses. In general, though, if your workout is low skill, you're good to go and you should let your creativity guide your WODS.
The goal of course, is to have fun, and get better every day. If you can do that with handstands and back flips and high-rep O lifts, and you can do them well, then more power to you.The story of two state-school educated boys who dream to scale the heights of Oxbridge university politics, the nursery slopes for Westminster. Both are passionate Conservatives.
The story of two boys with a dream to scale the heights of Oxbridge university politics, the fabled nursery slopes for Westminster.
Both Chris Monk, 19 and Joe Cooke, 21, are passionate about politics and have been Conservatives from a tender age. Now they face an academic term that could make or break their future political careers. Despite the three-piece suits and plummy vowels, both are state-school educated and see themselves as outsiders in the Oxbridge social and political scene.
When Joe tries to effect change and bring about reform in the society, he comes head-to-head with 88 years of tradition. Will he eventually turn his back on a life in politics? And will Chris have the knowhow to impress the members of the political elite he aspires to?A former adjunct instructor at Central Michigan University is suing a student for parodying him on Twitter, setting up a legal battle between @levittlaw and @levittlawyer.
Todd L. Levitt (or @levittlaw), a criminal defense lawyer in Mount Pleasant, Mich., discovered in mid-April that a “Todd Levitt 2.0” (or @levittlawyer) had sprung up on Twitter, sharing posts such as “In lieu of class tomorrow students must listen to the song ‘Ten Crack Commandments’ by Biggie Smalls and write a three sentence reflection” and “Buying me a drink at Cabin karaoke will get you extra credit, but it's not like that matters because you're guaranteed an A in the syllabus.”
An early attempt to identify the behind only yielded the tweet “My favorite #badass movie of all time is ‘Catch Me If You Can.’ ”
When Levitt later discovered Zachary Felton, a student and IT worker in the College of Business Administration and the son of finance and law professor James Felton, was behind the account, he was livid. “See you all in court and hell mother fuckers,” he said in a tweet, telling faculty members in the department to “grab some Vaseline where I’m sending them."
Levitt in late April deleted all the tweets from his account, but Felton captured a series of screenshots in an online album. The fake account is still visible, although it has not tweeted since April 29.
In a complaint filed in the Isabella County trial court, Levitt is suing Felton for several counts of defamation as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress, tortious interference with business relations and unfair competition.
Calling the account “an extreme and outrageous unprovoked attack against [Levitt] in which [Felton] relentlessly endeavored to destroy [his] reputations,” Levitt is seeking more than $25,000 in damages. He received “dozens” of phone calls from concerned clients, according to the complaint, which notes that two potential clients “refused to do business” with him after seeing the fake account.
Felton and his attorney, Gordon M. Bloem, are challenging those claims, saying that Levitt did not suffer any financial setbacks, and that the fake account is protected by the First and 14th Amendments. While Felton joked about legal advice, teaching, drug use and drinking, the response states all the tweets “were constitutionally protected as parody or caricature, were truthful or in the nature of rhetorical hyperbole.” The fake account tweeted at least twice to identify itself as a parody.
The complaint also states that “[Levitt] could not continue as an adjunct professor,” but in a March 31 email -- obtained by Bloem -- to Richard L. Divine, professor and chair of the marketing and hospitality services administration department, Levitt said he would “not be in a position to teach” even though he was scheduled to do so in the fall.
Levitt declined to comment for this article, referring the request to attorney Ghazey H. Aleck II, who did not respond.
The case may come down to whether Levitt’s work as a lawyer and instructor means he should be considered a public figure, which would make it much more difficult for him to prove that Felton libeled him. In a defamation lawsuit, public figures have to prove the person behind the controversial statements either knew they were false or blasted them out without bothering to double-check -- a term known as actual malice. Parody and satire have also been recognized as protected forms of speech when referencing public figures.
If Levitt were to be considered an ordinary citizen, however, he would only need to prove negligence.
In the response, Bloem often makes the case that the “well-known attorney” is a public figure. Beyond his presence on social media, Levitt has represented several Central Michigan students in court and appeared in a number of publicity stunts on campus. On Valentine’s Day, he gave free cab rides to about 100 students, and about a month later, he did the same with a rented van as he shot a pilot episode for a reality show titled “In Todd We Trust.”
Central Michigan did not respond to a request for comment.
Levitt also hosts a weekly radio show, and his YouTube channel is a mix of clips from the studio and antics on campus and around the state.
“You know who I am -- Todd Levitt, right?” Levitt asks a man on the street in one of his 72 YouTube videos.
“Todd Levitt?” the man says.
“Badass lawyer?” Levitt adds.
“Badass lawyer.”
“From where?”
“From Detroit.”
“That’s right, brother,” Levitt says.
The case is awaiting action from the court.Paul Rowley said his side would act immediately if offered a spot in the Championship
Newly-formed Toronto Wolfpack would be ready to step in and take Bradford's place in the Kingstone Press Championship if given the chance, says head coach Paul Rowley.
The Rugby Football League caused a stir by offering the defunct Bulls the chance to stay in the second tier of the professional game under new ownership rather than starting at the bottom of the pyramid, as the Wolfpack are doing in League 1.
The Canadian newcomers are gearing up for the start of the season in March, using training facilities in West Yorkshire, but Rowley says they would be keen to start in the Championship if the opportunity arose.
"We weren't sounded out and nor were any of the Cumbrian clubs," Rowley told Press Association Sport.
"We fully supported starting at the bottom, I think that's right.
"But, if you are asking me if we would take the opportunity, absolutely yes, we would go now. I know that Barrow would do the same, I'm not too sure about the other two, Whitehaven and Workington, although I'd be surprised if they refused it.
Former Super League and World Club champions Bradford Bulls have been liquidated after a bid to save the club was rejected Former Super League and World Club champions Bradford Bulls have been liquidated after a bid to save the club was rejected
"The whole situation is confusing and not consistent with messages that have been given out previously when other clubs have been in similar situations. It creates unrest and debate.
"The one thing we all agree on is that we all want Bradford strong and safe but we do with Sheffield and York and other clubs as well so it's no different. The rules need to be laid down early and then nobody can complain.
"Who knows but if someone asks us the question, then we're ready. But really the option, if it's going to anyone, should go to the Cumbrian clubs - two got relegated and one missed out on promotion.
"That's what I believe but, if someone wants to give it to us, we'll take it."
Toronto have signed former Salford prop forward Adam Sidlow from Bradford to take their number of full-time players to 22, not including three trialists who came from the club's scouting mission in Jamaica and North America.
"It's not enough for the rigours of the season," admitted Rowley. "We're thin in some areas.
"But we've set ourselves a budget and we want to stick within that. We're pretty much done but we'll keep looking."
Wolfpack will play the second of two opposed training sessions with Halifax on Saturday and one against Huddersfield next week before playing friendlies against Hull and Wigan.Telecom analyst Eimon Hoey has a rather pessimistic view on the prospects of new competitors entering an already crowded and competitive telecommunications market, dominated by three incumbents.
"Do these guys have a chance? The entrants? The answer is no," Hoey told CBC News. "Unless the [industry] minister is willing to change 30 to 40 years of bad policy."
Despite government efforts to create a more competitive playing field, the top three — Bell, Rogers and Telus — still control about 90 per cent of Canadian cellphones while the three more recent market entrants — Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Wind Mobile — are all up for sale.
Telus has already made a $380-million bid to take over Mobilicity and the deal passed numerous regulatory hurdles, including approval by Mobilicity's bondholders. But on Tuesday the federal government announced that it won't allow Mobilicity to transfer its wireless spectrum to larger rival Telus, which means the companies' $380-million takeover is nixed as currently constructed.
"Our government has been clear that spectrum set aside for new entrants was not intended to be transferred to incumbents," Industry Minister Christian Paradis said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa.
It's unclear whether Telus will still be interested in buying Mobilicity for its brand and customer base.
Meanwhile, Rogers and Quebec-based Videotron announced a network sharing agreement last week that would include the option of allowing Rogers to acquire Videotron's Toronto spectrum licence.
And, with Calgary-based Shaw Communications Inc. saying earlier this year it had abandoned its cellular network plans and worked out a deal for Rogers to purchase its unused network spectrum, observers question whether it's at all possible for a new national competitor to go head-to-head against the incumbent carriers and carve out their own slice of the Canadian telecom pie.
'Writing on the wall'
"I think the writing is on the wall, the prospects are clearly dim," said telecom analyst Carmi Levy. "Almost without exception, all the newcomers are struggling to boost their subscriber numbers.
"As a result, we can expect other dominoes to fall before this is all done," he said.
Many analysts commend the government for its attempts to open up the market. Back in 2007, Ottawa announced that it would auction off a portion of the wireless spectrum specifically to new wireless company entrants in a bid to foster more competition in the industry.
But, as Levy says, the government did not do enough to ensure those new players would survive long term.
"They simply opened up this spectrum and assumed the free market would be enough to sustain them. But clearly in a market as heavily regulated as this, free market economics aren't enough," he said.
Although spectrum was reserved for new companies, the cost of the wireless highways are enormous, saddling new investors with huge capital costs.
"Before you've even signed up your first customer, you're already on the hook for billions of dollars worth of spectrum," Levy said. "Therefore you have to bring in deep-pocket investors who are willing to survive the long haul until their customer base grows to the point that they can survive."
Market saturated
The auction also came at a time when the market was already quite saturated, said analyst Troy Crandall of MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier.
"The problem is that these new entrants were so late to the game that the penetration rate was so high in Canada and they were entering a mature market already," Crandall said, adding that the Canadian market may only have room for one additional competitor.
"For a competitor to come in now, I'd probably say yes, it would be extremely difficult unless they were able to come in with some niche-like product that the market doesn't currently have," he said.
But Levy said consumers must also bear some responsibility for the dearth of cellular choice.
"Canadian consumers, for all their complaining about lack of choice in wireless and telecommunication services, when push comes to shove, they tend to stick with what they know and, as as result, they have clearly, over the last three years, been relatively hesitant to try anything new," he said.
Yet the problems go deeper than that and can be traced back decades, Hoey said. Back in the mid-1980s, the government failed to project the growth in telecom subscribers, and handed out free spectrum to the incumbents and their predecessors, Hoey said, allowing them to avoid huge startup costs.
"From the policy perspective, it's a mess. It's a mess because Industry Canada awarded itself the obligation to create winners and losers," he said.
This initial allocation of spectrum, along with foreign investment rules, tied up potential capital, and has discouraged more players in the market, Hoey said.
Mobilicity, Wind and Public Mobile are on the block, "largely because of access to capital," he said.
Not a 'ghost of a chance'
Unless Industry Minister Christian Paradis makes some bold moves, like regulating the incumbents on rates and service and removing all foreign investment rules, there's not a "ghost of a chance" of redeeming the system, Hoey said.
Some analysts are a bit more optimistic. Canada has lifted some restrictions on foreign investment in firms with less than 10 per cent of market share by revenue. The government is also set to auction off another batch of spectrum in November, with no one company able to buy more than one of four blocks of available spectrum.
As for competitors against Rogers, Bell and Telus, some companies have been able to enjoy success in regional markets, like Videotron in Quebec and Eastlink in the Maritimes.
Also, Naguib Sawiris, whose company financially backed Wind when it started up, recently purchased Manitoba-based Allstream, leading to speculation that the Egyptian billionaire could make a play to reclaim Wind.
"This isn't somebody who doesn't know the barriers, doesn't know the issues, doesn't know the problems of Canada's marketplace. This is somebody who has actually studied it very well," said analyst Iain Grant of The Seaboard Group consulting firm. "So I think what comes out of this is a totally revitalized Wind. Which happens to fit in perfectly with the government's mandate to increase competition."
Grant said there have been mistakes made when it comes to issues like roaming conditions, tower sharing and spectrum allocation, but that the government has learned a lot over the last five to six years.
"Paradis came out in March saying the government will consult with the industry with the view of changing some of those rules. Would it have been better to have done that three to four years earlier? Yes. But government isn't known for its lightning speed."When Ubuntu burst onto the scene nearly a decade ago, it defined itself with its choice of name. The word 'ubuntu' means 'we are who we are because of other people'.
With that ethos as its guiding principle, you might expect that the Ubuntu distro would focus on community development, sharing credit and trying to foster a sense of togetherness among its users and developers. The communal philosophy offered part ownership in a distribution for anyone who participated.
From the beginning Ubuntu was focused on community. It appointed Benjamin Mako Hill, the former Debian member and contributor, to the role of community manager for Ubuntu. This role later went to Jono Bacon, who writes for us regularly and is serious about the task of bringing people together to create something special.
There's a strong tendency among free software projects for the loudest shouters to be heard the clearest. Ubuntu, from the outset, tried to ensure that everyone would be heard. While other distros' forums could be unwelcoming for new users, with newbies unhelpfully told to 'RTFM' (read the f***** manual), the Ubuntu forums encouraged all to contribute and share their knowledge with others, rather than just show off. It sounds idealistic, utopian, and it was, but some felt that some contributors were more equal than others.
One of the highest-profile complaints came from kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman, kernel maintainer for the stable branch, who had identified a disparity between contributions from Canonical and other developers.
In a speech at the Linux Plumbers Convention in 2008 he criticised Ubuntu for not contributing more to the Linux kernel, saying that, of the 100,000 kernel patches made in the preceding five years, only 100 of these came from Canonical, creating the strange situation whereby the world's most popular Linux distribution contributed only 0.1 per cent of the work needed to keep the kernel going.
In the same period, Red Hat contributed 11.9 per cent of the patches, and Novell, makers of SUSE, contributed 7.3 per cent. More recent figures from 2012, compiled since the release of Linux kernel 2.6.36, reveal similar stats. Red Hat, SUSE, Samsung (via its work on Android), IBM, Google, AMD, Nokia, and even Microsoft, all contribute more to the Linux kernel than Ubuntu does.
Four years later, in 2012, Kroah-Hartman complained that "Canonical uses me as a gatekeeper of what bugs get fixed in their kernel package and sent to their customers. There's so much wrong with this, I don't know where to start..."
Launchpad
In 2004, soon after Ubuntu's launch, Canonical announced a development platform to host software projects. It included lots of features important to developers, all rolled up in an attractive and convenient portal. Ubuntu would be just one of thousands of projects that would be stored, updated, tracked, planned, and managed using Launchpad.
Other project hosting sites had their problems, and Launchpad was designed to solve them. However, despite its avowed open ethos, Canonical kept its web development code closed for five years - only migrating to the Affero GPL in July 2009 (the Affero licence closes a loophole that exists in the standard GPL - when code is running remotely via a web server, it's not actually being distributed, so the GPL doesn't apply. Affero fixes this, to keep web apps open).
Four years - and a lot of criticism - after the service was first unveiled, Launchpad was open source software, but the perception remained that Ubuntu preached one thing and practiced another.
Desktop dissent
Ubuntu makes fundamental design changes, but were they necessary?
Ubuntu grew in popularity on the back of the GNOME desktop. Its fusion of Debian with a streamlined package selection, and a predictable release schedule, plus the most recent stable release of the GNOME desktop, was good not only for Ubuntu, but also for GNOME.The danger posed by the Global Jihad is immediate and deadly and our government should take all possible precautions to keep Americans safe. The Center for Security Policy (CSP) released the Secure Freedom Strategy to Defeat the Global Jihad Movement to provide an approach that uses all aspects of U.S. power to stop this growing danger to our way of life. There are many facets to the threat, but one of the most compelling is the entry to this country of Sharia Supremacists who work to place their totalitarian ideology above any man-made law including the U.S. Constitution.
The existing immigration laws provide ample authority to ban sharia-adherent individuals under exclusions for totalitarian ideology and the President should provide guidance to the responsible agencies to do so. CSP has produced a white paper detailing the rationale and legal basis for this policy in the following white paper:
Stop Importing Jihadists: Making Sharia-Supremacism a Bar to Immigration and Naturalization
Stop Importing Jihadists- Executive Summary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 27 June 2016
NEW POLL FINDS AMERICANS WANT TO STOP IMPORTING JIHADISTS, CENTER OFFERS PLAN FOR ACCOMPLISHING THAT SECURITY GOAL
Washington, D.C.: A new poll suggests that large majorities of Americans agree with the common sense proposition that we should stop importing jihadists. A murderous attack in Orlando heightened concern that we already have too many here.
A public opinion survey conducted this month by Opinion Savvy found that 71% of respondents support “identifying foreign supporters of Sharia law prior to their admission to the United States.” Of those favoring such identification, 80% believe Sharia-supremacists should not be admitted into the country.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump put this issue on the political map last year by calling for a temporary pause in admissions of Muslims until a way can be found to determine whether they are potential terrorists. He cited troubling findings of a 2015 poll of U.S. Muslims conducted for the Center for Security Policy. Twenty-five percent of respondents believed “violence against Americans here in the United States could be justified as part of the global jihad” and fifty-one percent believed “Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed by [Islam’s totalitarian] Sharia” code, rather than the Constitution.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has mused publicly about how to differentiate between would-be Muslim immigrants who pose a threat and those who do not. He has suggested applying his proposed restriction to all would-be immigrants from certain countries tied to terrorism.
One of Mr. Trump’s top advisors, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, however, argues that defining test should instead be adherence to Sharia. On Fox News Sunday, Speaker Gingrich said: “I would apply a test for Sharia and a test for loyalty to ISIS rather than geographic test, because we’re fighting people all over the world who are dangerous to us. So, it’s hard to say which countries really are the Islamic terrorist countries.”
In an appearance last Thursday on Fox News, Center Executive Vice President Jim Hanson made a similar point:
It would be smart right now to pause immigration from jihadist controlled or influenced areas and take a look at whether or not letting anyone who is Sharia adherent Muslim— which is a totalitarian ideology not the religion — has any business coming in this country ever. We can ban totalitarian ideologues from entry with existing laws. And it’s probably time to do that and stop bringing in more jihadists into the United States….
…The Sharia adherence is the important thing. It’s not all Muslims. There are plenty of Muslims willing to live in peace. But the ones who follow Sharia, which is a large number, it’s a third to half worldwide, have no way to follow the Constitution because they’re required to place that above any man-made law. So they’re not going assimilate. It’s not a question of their parents or internet or ISIS or anything. That’s what they taught and that is what they follow. That leads them to jihad and leads to dead bodies. We got to stop it.
The Center for Security Policy released today a white paper describing how such a filter could be applied and statutory changes that would facilitate its implementation:
“Stop Importing Jihadists: Making Sharia-Supremacism a Bar to Immigration and Naturalization.”
It calls on presidential contenders, candidates for other offices, elected officials and citizens of this country to evaluate and implement this important paper’s recommendations.
For more information contact:
Alex Vanness
vanness@securefreedom.orgShare. "When we actually announce something, we’ll use our current logo." "When we actually announce something, we’ll use our current logo."
Bungie has confirmed that rumors of a Destiny game for Vita are untrue.
Responding to an image circulating the internet that shows a “Destiny of Spirits” logo including Destiny imagery, Bungie confirmed to IGN that the image is fake and -- responding to an old Bungie logo at the bottom -- told IGN “when we actually announce something, we’ll use our current logo."
The image (via PSU) appears to have been created in response to a trademark filed by Sony last month for Destiny of Spirits, though that title -- if it ever sees the light of day -- is owned by Sony and not affiliated with Bungie.
Destiny, meanwhile, will hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 next year. For much more on Destiny, see the new details Bungie revealed last week and expect much more info to come at this year’s E3 in June.
Exit Theatre Mode
Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.Wilshere pips Kasami to Goal of the Month award as fans are spoiled for choice with October's sensational strikes
MATCH OF THE DAY VOTE
1. Jack Wilshere - 50%
2. Pajtim Kasami - 28%
3. Daniel Sturridge - 8%
4. Ravel Morrison - 3%
5. Luis Suarez - 3%
6. Aaron Ramsey - 2%
7. Willian - 2%
8. Fabio Borini - 2%
9. Jonathan De Guzman - 1%
10. Steve Sidwell - 1%
Jack Wilshere's stunning team goal for Arsenal against Norwich City has been chosen as Match of the Day's October Goal of the Month - despite major competition from Pajtim Kasami's Marco van Basten-like volley.
In a month of eye-catching strikes, which included Daniel Sturridge's inch-perfect chip against West Brom and Ravel Morrison's magnificent solo effort in West Ham's win at Tottenham, Wilshere's was named the best by Match of the Day 2 viewers on Sunday night.
The England midfielder finished off a slick passing move to give the Gunners the lead against Chris Hughton's side on October 19, a game they went on to win 4-1.
Here, Sportsmail takes a look at the contenders which pushed Wilshere's strike all the way.
1. Jack Wilshere (Arsenal v Norwich, October 19) - 50%
'Simplicity itself' screamed the TV commentator as England midfielder Wilshere rounded off the slickest of passing moves with an assured finish. I'd have thought intricacy itself might have been more appropriate for a blinding succession of one-touch flicks and passes that would have unlocked the tightest of defences.
Jack's the lad: Wilshere completed a fine Arsenal move in their win over Norwich at the Emirates Stadium
2. Pajtim Kasami (Fulham v Crystal Palace, October 21) - 28%
Comparisons to some of the volleys Marco van Basten used to execute in his prime are not misplaced. Kasami was already running away from goal when he dashed to meet a long through ball from Sascha Riether, and his instant chest control seemed to take him even further away. It hardly mattered, as the dropping ball was lashed across a diving Julian Speroni into the far top corner.
Volley good show: Pajtim Kasami scored a stunning goal as Fulham ran riot against Crystal Palace
3. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool v West Brom, October 26) - 8%
Brendan Rodgers has made few more inspired signings than Sturridge, as demonstrated by this brilliant piece of improvisation. He seemed to be drifting away to the left of goal, and there appeared to be little on, when, without even looking up, he floated a chip towards the far corner. Boaz Myhill scarcely seemed to be off his line but was powerless to prevent the deftest of chips from nestling in the corner of the net.
Laying down his chips: Daniel Sturridge scored his side's fourth goal against the Baggies with a cute effort
4. Ravel Morrison (West Ham v Tottenham, October 6) - 3%
A run that started well inside his own half finished with a goal delirious West Ham fans were talking about long into the night. The former Manchester United forward hardly even seemed to be sprinting, as he strode past Jan Vertonghen and skipped past Michael Dawson before dinking a shot over advancing keeper Hugo Lloris. It was the sort of individual brilliance that comes so easily to him, when his mind is on the job.
Solo effort: Ravel Morrison stunned Spurs as he skimmed past a host of players en route to a wonderful goal
5. Luis Suarez (Liverpool v West Brom, October 26) - 3%
After opening the scoring against West Brom, Luis Suarez proved his ability in the air with an improvised header from the edge of the Baggies' area. Powerful and perfectly-placed into the top corner, the Uruguayan's effort was too good for Boaz Myhill to stop.
Knee-sy does it: Luis Suarez ended up with a hat-trick against West Brom following a phenomenal display
6. Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal v Norwich, October 19) - 2%
Arguably the Premier League's player of the season so far, Aaron Ramsey netted his most eye-cat ching goal of the campaign with an individual effort at home to Norwich. Wilshere's |
searched
On Tuesday, former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was among six people arrested by Operation Weeting officers on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Mrs Brooks, her husband Charlie, News International head of security Mark Hanna and three other men were later freed on bail until April.
Addresses connected to the arrests were searched by police.
Mrs Brooks was arrested under Operation Weeting last July on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, before being released on police bail.
She has also been arrested on suspicion of corruption as part of the Operation Elveden investigation into corrupt payments to police.RFE/RL
A.C. has spent her life striving to be perfect, in looks and behavior alike.
As a child in southern Moldova, she was friendly and well-behaved. At medical school in Chisinau, she spent her evenings over her books, rather than partying late into the night with her friends.
And now, at 33, she cuts a striking figure, with glossy black hair and a broad, engaging smile. "If people stare at me," she says, "it's only because they like how I look."
Ask for her documents, however, and the image of perfection starts to unravel.
A.C. is a transsexual, born with the physical characteristics of a male. Eight years of hormone therapy have raised her voice and softened her features. But on paper, she is still a man - a fact she's confronted with every time she's asked to show her passport or ID card.
A photo of A.C. (RFE/RL)
"If you need to make some payments, for the phone or for power for your apartment, you need to show the bank your identity card," she says. "Otherwise they cannot make the payment. To open an account or get a Visa [credit] card, you need a passport. If you have a problem or troubles, for example, with an ATM, or you lose your card, you need to go to the bank and give them an explanation. And if you're in a dress, with makeup, it's a little bit strange, you know?"
A.C., who asked that her full name not be used, has spent years petitioning Moldovan authorities to alter her name and gender designation on her documents, even submitting to psychiatric evaluations in hopes of bolstering her case.
But late last month, she received the devastating news that her application had been rejected a final time. Having exhausted her options at home, A.C. must now take her complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), where her case could take years to resolve.
Slow But Steady Progress
Discrimination against sexual minorities remains rife in Moldova. In 2012, together with Russia, it was ranked the lowest of 49 European countries in terms of rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
But, in the past year, the country has shown slow but steady progress that may put Moldova at the forefront of LGBT rights in the post-Soviet region.
In June 2012, the ECHR ruled that Moldova's ban on a 2005 gay-rights demonstration was a violation of human rights. This January, a sweeping anti-discrimination law came into effect, formalizing the protection of labor rights for LGBT members. And on February 14, a small group of activists quietly staged the country's first legal pride march, a milestone made all the more remarkable by the fact that it was conducted with full police protection.
Anastasia Danilova, the executive director of GenderDoc-M, Moldova's main LGBT organization, was among the participants.
"A representative from the Internal Affairs Ministry invited someone from our organization to a meeting to discuss what path the protest would follow and assured us that the safety of the participants would be guaranteed," she says. "In the end, there were eight participants in the march, and 15 or 20 policemen around them."
Activists say they hope the small-scale march sends a positive signal to people who still remember the vicious crackdown on a city pride event in 2008, when a bus carrying LGBT activists was attacked by hundreds of antigay protesters as police stood by and watched. A second march is planned in the Moldovan capital on May 19.
LGBT rights have struggled to find their place on human-rights agendas in the former Soviet Union, where homosexuality and gender nonconformity, criminalized under communism, still carry a deep social stigma.
But in Moldova, groups like Gender Doc have matched a savvy legal offensive with gentler tactics to ease LGBT rights into mainstream public debate. This includes the launch of Egali, an online video project in which ordinary Moldovans, both gay and straight, speak frankly to the camera about their coming-of-age challenges.
WATCH: 'Live A Free Life' campaign reaches out to gay Moldovans
The initiative has been so successful that Egali has been selected to host Eastern Europe's first official affiliate of It Gets Better, the prominent U.S.-based campaign aimed at preventing suicide among LGBT youth.
The modest progress in Moldova is seen as a sharp contrast to developments in neighboring Russia and Ukraine, where authorities are pressing a range of measures -- including a ban on so-called homosexual "propaganda" -- seen as a massive setback for the LGBT rights movement.
Moldova's pro-European government, in place since 2009, has so far prevented the country from following suit. But last month's dismissal of the government over corruption allegations has raised the specter of early elections and a return of the Communist Party, which has already threatened to introduce its own Russia-style propaganda law.
In the meantime, the West has sought to leverage its current influence to push LGBT rights onto Moldova's reform agenda.
U.S. Embassy officials have been vocal in their support for the Moldovan LGBT community, and the EU made the antidiscrimination law a precondition for a much-desired visa-liberalization regime.
A Constant Struggle
Ulrike Lunacek, the co-president of the European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBT Rights, says sexual-diversity rights are high on Europe's agenda in Moldova.
But she warns that government instability in Chisinau and opposition efforts to repeal the antidiscrimination law could easily derail current gains.
"There's a constant struggle, because LGBT rights are something that raise a lot of concerns and protests in many countries," she says. "[This is] especially [true] in the ex-Soviet countries, where homosexuality was always seen as a Western deviance, and where [LGBT rights] are now seen as something imposed by the European Union. They argue, 'It's something the EU is imposing on us, it's not our values.' And I think that has to be tackled."
A.C., for one, has watched the changes in her country with a mix of hope and despair. Her document impasse, among other things, means she is unable to vote if Moldova is forced into early elections.
She is also unable to pass through customs, ask a policeman for help, or find official work in her trained profession. All those things require airtight documents. A trained anesthesiologist, A.C. currently works off the books for a friend with a private clinical practice. "I have no rights," she says heavily.
A.C. hopes to eventually travel abroad to receive the sex-reassignment surgery that would complete her physical transformation from male to female. But she says she would never leave Moldova for good. She's initiated plans to build a pharmaceutical plant to produce low-cost medicine for cancer patients. And she hopes to someday marry and raise a family.
"I'm a smart woman, I can make a lot of beautiful things happen here in Moldova," she says, her voice starting to shake. Without documents, however, any plans for the future remain indefinitely on hold.
"It's only a formality, but it's something that's very important for me," she adds. "I'm not a person who stays in jail or uses drugs. I'm a normal person, but they cannot accept such things. Me and my friend who is in the same situation, we are good people. We have diplomas. We have a lot of things going on in our lives. Why can't they accept it? We're not from the street."Ticketmaster sets off on its own with $750 million debt
There comes a time when you have to dust yourself off, move out of your mom's basement and strike off into the wide, scary world on your own. For many people, this time is called "college," for others it's known as "canceling your World of Warcraft subscription." For plucky swashbuckler Ticketmaster, it's it's something along the lines of getting dumped.
The ubiquitous ticket vendor, perhaps most (in)famous for its often-inexplicable surcharges that end up doubling the cost of admission, was recently let go by its parent company LAC/InterActiveCorp, and has to operate independently, starting in 2009. Here's the catch: Ticketmaster is $750 million in the hole.
Ticketmaster says it'll take this opportunity to change its business model. Among the ideas on the to-do list include a bigger international presence, offering ticket resales to complete with StubHub and eBay, and helping to support and market artists who are increasingly turning to ticket sales as their main source of revenue.
Let's hope this moment turns downright Dickensian: Ticketmaster will fling open its window on Christmas morning, happy to be alive, ready to do good in the world of live music. Dream big.
Related links:
Ticketmaster.com
News: Ticketmaster to split with LiveNation
Got a news tip for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.Update: Obama reportedly wants war over within three years
“President Obama is sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan but plans to conclude the war and withdraw most U.S. soldiers within three years, senior administration officials told CNN Tuesday,” the cable news network reports.
A Huffington Post/AP report notes, “By laying out a rough timeframe and some dates for when the main U.S. military mission would end, as well as emphasizing stepped-up training for Afghan forces, the president was acknowledging the increasingly divided public opinion over continued American participation in the stalemated war.”
Huffington Post’s Dan Froomkin blogs
The latest reports are that Obama will announce a general time frame for withdrawal tonight: In three years –before the end of his first term –most troops will be out. That’s an exciting and ambitious target. But if it turns out to be just an unsupported best-case scenario, then his promise is just so many words. To make the case that the war in Afghanistan will truly end in three years — or ever — Obama tonight would need to announce not just a time frame for withdrawal, but a detailed timeline — along with unambiguous benchmarks. And he would need to say precisely what happens if the benchmarks aren’t met – i.e. if things don’t go according to plan.
Because things in Afghanistan never go according to plan. Otherwise, there will be much more in the speech for neocons and other warhawks than for the majority of Americans who would prefer withdrawal over escalation. As Gideon Rose, the managing editor of Foreign Affairs, put it to me in an interview yesterday: “They’ll get the troops — and you’ll get some nice rhetoric.”
Froomkin added:
Otherwise, there will be much more in the speech for neocons and other warhawks than for the majority of Americans who would prefer withdrawal over escalation. As Gideon Rose, the managing editor of Foreign Affairs, put it to me in an interview yesterday: “They’ll get the troops — and you’ll get some nice rhetoric.”
Original story follows:
After months of debate, President Barack Obama will spell out a costly Afghanistan war expansion to a skeptical public Tuesday night, coupling an infusion of as many as 35,000 more troops with a vow that there will be no endless U.S. commitment. His first orders have already been made: at least one group of Marines who will be in place by Christmas.
Obama has said that he prefers “not to hand off anything to the next president” and that his strategy will “put us on a path toward ending the war.” But he doesn’t plan to give any more exact timetable than that Tuesday night.
The president will end his 92-day review of the war with a nationally broadcast address in which he will lay out his revamped strategy from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He spent part of Monday briefing foreign allies in a series of private meetings and phone calls.
Before Obama’s call to Britain’s Gordon Brown, the prime minister announced that 500 more U.K. troops would arrive in southern Afghanistan next month — making a British total of about 10,000 in the country. And French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose nation has more than 3,000 in Afghanistan, said French troops would stay “as long as necessary” to stabilize the country.
Obama’s war escalation includes sending 30,000 to 35,000 more American forces into Afghanistan in a graduated deployment over the next year, on top of the 71,000 already there. There also will be a fresh focus on training Afghan forces to take over the fight and allow the Americans to leave.
He also will deliver a deeper explanation of why he believes the U.S. must continue to fight more than eight years after the war was started following the Sept. 11 attacks by al-Qaida terrorists based in Afghanistan. He will emphasize that Afghan security forces need more time, more schooling and more U.S. combat backup to be up to the job on their own, and he will make tougher demands on the governments of Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.
“This is not an open-ended commitment,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “We are there to partner with the Afghans, to train the Afghan national security forces, the army and the police so that they can provide security for their country and wage a battle against an unpopular insurgency.”
On a few of the bigger questions most on the minds of increasingly restive members of Congress and the public, such as how much the additional $30 billion to $35 billion cost will balloon the already skyrocketed federal deficit, how long the U.S. commitment will continue and how it will wind down, Obama was expected to make references without offering specifics.
Gibbs said detailed discussions on costs would be held later with lawmakers.
Even before explaining his decision, Obama told the military to begin executing the force increases. The commander in chief gave the deployment orders Sunday night, during an Oval Office meeting in which he told key military and White House advisers of his final decision.
At least one group of Marines is expected to deploy within two or three weeks of Obama’s announcement and will be in Afghanistan by Christmas, military officials said. Larger deployments will begin early next year.
The initial infusion is a recognition by the administration that something tangible needs to happen quickly, officials said. The immediate addition of Marines will provide badly needed reinforcements for those fighting against Taliban gains in the southern Helmand province, and also could lend reassurance to both Afghans and a war-weary U.S. public.
—Full story continues below—President Barack Obama winks after speaking about the National Security Agency and surveillance techniques in January 2014. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
The House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday that would strip the government of the statutory authority it says allows for dragnet collection of U.S. phone records. The limited reform threatens to undermine courtroom efforts to have such activities branded unconstitutional.
Legal scholars say at least three of six major lawsuits against the program likely would be doomed if the USA Freedom Act passes the Senate and becomes law, including an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that won a groundbreaking ruling last week from a federal appeals court panel.
A stalled lawsuit filed jointly by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and the group FreedomWorks also would face probable dismissal, as would another from Idaho neonatal nurse Anna Smith that an appeals court panel heard in December.
A rash of lawsuit dismissals would deprive citizens not only of the satisfaction of possible rulings that President Barack Obama and his predecessor ordered violations of their constitutional rights, but would limit potential tracks to Supreme Court review of a 36-year-old precedent the government says allows it to collect huge amounts of data provided by ordinary Americans to businesses.
The decision in Smith v. Maryland, the government says, means that Americans have no expectation of privacy over information they voluntarily share with businesses, allowing the government to collect it without warrants based on probable cause.
The decades-old case involved records of outgoing phone calls made by a criminal suspect in a limited timeframe, but its possible applications have proliferated as Americans increasingly rely on smartphones and the Internet.
Generally, courts do not dismiss lawsuits if the challenged behavior is voluntarily ended and capable of repetition, but legislation ending the collection likely would be seen as a permanent resolution by judges, legal scholars say, scuttling lawsuits that do not seek damages.
The three judges who handed a win to the ACLU – finding the phone record collection exceeds the authority granted by Section 215 – acknowledged in their ruling the case may soon be mooted.
“[W]e are not unmindful that a full debate by Congress of the appropriateness of a program such as that now operated by the government may result in the approval of a program with greater safeguards for privacy, or with other limitations, that are not now in place and that could alter or even moot the issues presented by appellants,” the judges wrote.
“In the last Congress, for example, a bill to authorize a modified version of the telephone metadata program, supported by the Administration, passed the House of Representatives,” they wrote, referring to the Freedom Act.
Law professors Martin Redish of Northwestern University, Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia and Richard Fallon of Harvard University, who are experts on mootness, told U.S. News last year, when the Freedom Act last advanced in Congress, many of the lawsuits are likely to be dismissed if legislation ends the phone record collection.
Fallon said suits that request damages or deletion of records might be able to continue. But Redish and Laycock pointed out requests for damages may fail, leading courts to dismiss the surviving lawsuits without addressing the underlying claims.
“It’s pretty inconceivable that the Supreme Court would hear one of these cases after a statute makes them moot,” Laycock said.
Lawsuits that do seek damages include legal activist Larry Klayman’s challenge, which won the first, and thus-far only, District Court ruling against the program, and two lawsuits from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Klayman’s lawsuit was considered by an appeals panel in November, after the Supreme Court declined a request for speedy review. The cases from EFF, which assisted Klayman and Smith in their appeals, remain in District Court.
Many privacy and civil liberties advocates say Congress should let Section 215 expire – which may itself moot the cases – fearing its continued existence with Freedom Act modifications would allow for more creative and secret reinterpretations by authorities.
Editorial Cartoons on the NSA View All 107 Images
The passage of legislation that would reauthorize or modify Section 215 – scheduled to expire June 1 – is not guaranteed, particularly in the Senate, where many members sympathetic to NSA programs oppose the Freedom Act and where NSA critic Paul says he’ll filibuster efforts to renew the provision.
The Obama administration says it would not continue the bulk phone record collection under a separate legal authority if Congress passes the USA Freedom Act. But the government’s ability to do so quietly – and arguably constitutionally – may remain possible.
Updated on May 13, 2015 : This story has been updated to reflect passage of the USA Freedom Act in the House of Representatives.America, as a nation, has had a difficult time coming to terms with what happened on September 11th, 2001. In a coordinated attack, three planes were hijacked and driven into key structures leaving 2,996 people dead and countless other injured. The rest of us, who simply watched it all happen from afar, simply had to watch while it felt like the world fell apart. How we’ve chosen to cope with that has been a bit strange, from jokes about “never forgetting” to insane conspiracy theories.
Time heals all wounds, though, and sure, while 9/11 conspiracy theories and the “never forget” jokes have further softened the blow of what was one of the worst things that most of us had to witness in our lives, happening live on television, it’s not quite something that should be commemorated in a soda endcap at a Walmart.
Yet, here we are, living in a post-9/11 world, fifteen years later and a Florida Walmart has made a soda display of a flag with the twin towers, a sign hanging from above claiming “We Will Never Forget.” That sign is emblazoned with both the Coca-Cola and Walmart logos and… What? The American flag is carefully crafted from stripes of red and white, by way of Coke and Diet Coke sleeves, with the blue coming by way of what looks to be some sort of blue soda box (the logo isn’t clear) mixed with those Diet Coke sleeves. Then, standing proudly in front of that flag are two mighty towers, built from Coke Zero cases.
The worst part is that someone spent hours and hours of their life on this, then put that “never forget” sign above and was really proud of it. Someone in Florida went home from work, kicked back after a hard day’s work and was like, “You know what, I just did my country proud,” while the rest of us are sitting here, confused. While none of us have particularly high expectations for Walmart to be classy, this is just an entirely different level.
(Via BuzzFeed)Charlie Adam
Stoke have signed Liverpool midfielder Charlie Adam and Blackburn's French youngster Steven Nzonzi.
Adam, 26, who joined the Reds in a £9m move from Blackpool in July 2011, is thought to have cost £4m.
Charlie Adam factfile Born: 10 December 1985
Makes 86 appearances for first club Rangers
Has loan spells at Ross County and St Mirren
Helps Blackpool win promotion to the Premier League in 2010
Joins Liverpool in a £9m move in July 2011
Has won 16 Scotland caps
The Scotland international, who has also played for Rangers, has signed a four-year deal.
Frenchman Nzonzi, 23, also signed a four-year deal for an initial £3.5m that could eventually rise to £5m.
He had not featured for Blackburn this season after making it clear he wanted to leave the club following their relegation.
Nzonzi joined Rovers from French side Amiens in 2009 and made 97 appearances for the Ewood Park club, scoring three goals.
Stoke manager Tony Pulis believes the addition of Adam will make a significant improvement to his team's attacking options.
He said: "It's no secret that we've been looking to bring more goals to the squad and Charlie is a fantastic signing in that respect.
"Not only will his creativity and his eye for delivering a pass be a great asset to us, he scored 12 goals for Blackpool in the Premier League two seasons ago."
Adam added: "This club's on the up and it's great to be a part of it. I can do this club proud and I'm looking forward to the chance of playing in front of their passionate supporters."Is Donald Trump shutting Americans out of his presidency?
The White House comment line is shut down. New signatures aren’t being counted on petitions posted on the White House’s website. Federal agencies are not allowed to respond to requests.
Americans aren’t just failing to get their voices heard. The administration, too, is failing to provide information to them.
Transcripts, executive orders and news releases aren’t being posted online. Social media accounts, including Flickr, Pinterest and Tumblr, are no longer in use. Sending information to the Federal Register, the daily journal of the U.S. government, is delayed.
On Friday, a national research watchdog group condemned the administration for removing thousands of documents relevant to enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act from the Department of Agriculture’s website. The removed documents included reports on fines, official warnings, inspection reports and annual reports.
“This is clearly a calculated move to protect from public scrutiny criminal entities who regularly break federal laws, endangering human health,” said Michael A. Budkie, the executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, an Ohio-based nonprofit that monitors U.S. research facilities for animal cruelty.
“Even at the height of disagreement this has never happened,” said Maryanne Cottmeyer, 72, a retired federal worker from outside Olympia, Washington, who has called the White House comment line daily since Trump was sworn in, with no success. “They don’t want to hear.”
On Monday, text of @potus' executive order made Friday night banning travel is still not on the @WhiteHouse website. Sent to @FedRegister? https://t.co/KuXlBONIEx — Alex Howard (@digiphile) January 30, 2017
Cottmeyer, a self-described moderate Republican who has called the comment line for more than a decade, wants to speak to someone at the White House about Trump’s decision to pull out of the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which she thinks will hurt her state’s economy.
But when she calls 202-456-1111 she gets a recording: “Thank you for calling the White House comments line. The comment line is currently closed. But your comment is important to the president.” It then refers her to www.whitehouse.gov/contact – or Facebook, where the White House is accepting comments on its posts, but not messages.
SHARE COPY LINK For the first time, the White House press briefing also took questions via Skype. Lars Larson, a conservative talk show host, was among the first group of people to ask a question at a White House presser without being in Washington, D.C.
“The more you know the worse it looks,” said Robert Weissman, president of the watchdog group Public Citizen. “We have a president contemptuous of democracy.... I think the totality of measures you are describing are reflective of a president and administration who are uninterested in public input.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. But White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has praised the administration on several occasions for its transparency efforts.
“It’s far too early to sound the alarm bells,” said Ben Marchi, a Trump supporter and longtime Republican operative. “If they are slower to ramp up constituent services in deference to getting straight to work I think the American people will understand that.”
Marchi cites Trump’s handling of his Supreme Court selection – releasing a list of 21 candidates – as proof that Trump is already more transparent than former President Barack Obama was.
Others say a decline in public interaction shouldn’t be a surprise from an administration led by a person who’s advocated for secrecy and feuded with the media.
I remain hopeful that the administration will see the importance of keeping the public and Congress informed, but it remains to be seen. Sean Moulton, Project on Government Oversight
He kept the names of those who’d donated millions of dollars to his inauguration festivities a secret. He failed to release his tax returns, a common practice for presidential nominees for four decades. He even threatened to investigate how journalists have received classified information.
The White House hasn’t explained why the interaction between the federal government and the public has dwindled.
Is it intentional? Is is because staffers are overwhelmed? Is it incompetence?
“I don’t know because no one is telling us,” said Alex Howard, deputy director of the Sunlight Foundation, which pushes for transparency in government. “I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt but the problem is they had two months to get ready,” he said, referring to the time between the election and Trump’s inauguration.
In many cases, Obama’s administration left behind the mechanisms for Trump’s staff to use, including many social media accounts beyond Trump’s favorite, Twitter, and places to post items online. But the Trump administration isn’t using them.
The White House YouTube account, for example, is sometimes used to show Trump at events, but sometimes it isn’t. White House staff still transcribes the president’s remarks and the press secretary’s briefings but the transcriptions are not always posted online or sent to the media.
Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s health research group, said the Food and Drug Administration had not issued any Federal Register notices for nearly two weeks. “This is unprecedented, in my experience,” he said.
The Trump administration immediately revamped the White House website to include bios of the new president and vice president and their wives. It also eliminated references to gay and lesbian issues and global warming, and took down the Spanish-language website. After some criticism, Spicer told reporters in one of his first briefings that “We’ve got the IT folks working overtime” to rebuild the website for the new administration.
It had surprised some by keeping the We the People page, launched by the Obama administration in 2011 as a way to give the public a voice on what issues the White House should tackle. About 38.5 million signatures appeared on more than 473,000 petitions during Obama’s tenure.
Since Trump took office, more than two dozen petitions have been created, including those urging him to release his tax returns and put his businesses in a blind trust, but many people have complained on Facebook that their signatures are not being counted. An administration official with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly said while signatures on petitions are being recorded, the volume of participants may be overtaxing the system.
The White House has not said how it intends to respond to what’s posted there; under Obama, a petition that received 100,000 signatures would get an official response within 30 days.
EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE
When is it enough? At some point, the level of transparency exceeded any modern president. incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told CNN in December
Since Trump became president, some agencies have been ordered to halt external communications altogether, according to organizations that monitor these efforts. They include: the Environmental Protection Agency, ordered to halt news releases and social media posts; the Department of Agriculture, told to send send reporters’ questions to the secretary’s office; and the Department of Health and Human Services, barred from sending some correspondence.
Sean Moulton, open government project manager at the Project on Government Oversight, said bans on communication might violate the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012, which bars agencies from creating policies that restrict employees from reporting waste, fraud and abuse, especially to Congress or inspectors general.
“I’m hoping they can get a better handle on it,” he said. “I remain hopeful that the administration will see the importance of keeping the public and Congress informed, but it remains to be seen. It’s still a question mark.”
Patrice Tomcik, 46, an activist from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, who worries about the release of methane that comes from fracking and is a member of the group Moms Clean Air Force, which is monitoring the government’s development of methane rules, said she was in regular contact with the EPA during the Obama administration, even meeting with Administrator Gina McCarthy. She said her group would continue to push to get its voice heard at the EPA.
“I am extremely sick to my stomach about what’s going on, extremely fearful,” Tomcik said. “This is not the America I know.”A heartbreaking opinion piece by a climate alarmist
This opinion piece is perhaps the first essay by a climate alarmist that I have ever read and that I would label as "heartbreaking". Adjectives like "cynical", "self-serving", and "hypocritical" come to us much more frequently.
[Only this paragraph that you're reading was added in the evening. I think that the previous paragraph written in the morning of European time makes it clear that Sellers is *not* one of the widespread alarmist people who deserve, according to my opinions, the adjectives like "cynical" etc. On the contrary, I wrote that he deserved the adjective "heartbreaking". I will demand the apology from Seth Borenstein of AP who has absolutely distorted the previous paragraph.]
Piers Sellers (60) has done lots of things in his life. One of them was spacewalking around the International Space Station. If I had to make a guess, I would think that this was the most unhealthy activity that has led to a recent diagnosis: the acting director of NASA's center for climate alarmism suffers from an incurable disease in a late stage. First U.S. woman astronaut Sally Ride has died at (similar) age of 61 of the very same pancreatic cancer. You may say it's a coincidence; or you may also realize what the cosmic radiation does to our DNA and how well the Earth's atmosphere helps to shield this radiation in comparison with the space suits, for example. My guess is that in 50 years, the number of cases will be so large that this cancer will be called the "astronauts' illness".
We're told that he has tidied up certain things, threw a party, and wanted to decide how to spend the remaining time on Earth. Mt Everest and nice beaches don't seem attractive. So instead, he's looking forward to return to his office at NASA to work on some climate alarmist tales. He assumed that he was young enough to become a witness the Climate Armageddon. Now when it's unlikely, he at least summarizes how important for climate alarmism the year 2015 has been.
Wow. Just wow. This calmness and the continuing focus on irrelevant stupidities is something that I find hard to imagine. This man has to be a true believer in his religion. Maybe the strength of his faith would win over almost all staunch Christians and most of the Muslims, too.
Would you speculate about the question whether some change of the largely ill-defined global mean temperature from an ill-defined base to an ill-defined moment will be 2.0 °C or 2.3 °C? This man does. The minimum error margin isn't much lower than 1 °C, however, and even 40 °C of warming would be way safer than the disease he's been diagnosed with. I think that most people would think how many months of life await them.
Despite his previous hopes, he won't become a witness of any existential dangers caused by the "global climate change". But that has nothing to do with the disease because neither will any person who is living at this moment. Even if the temperatures in 2100 will be higher by 3 °C than today, and they won't, it won't represent any serious challenge for the people who will live in 2100. Worries about the climate are rationally indefensible and most people do this pseudoscientific stuff professionally because they want to get decent salaries for very little work and no valuable work and they want to enjoy the advantages.
If someone is doing this stuff and spreading these alarming stories about the climate due to his true beliefs, he'll be disappointed. The truth is that the climate alarmist martyrs won't even get the 72 Swedish blonde virgins when they die, as the Muslim terrorists are promised.
Sellers dedicated one long paragraph to "the year 2015 in the climate hysteria". It's been the "warmest year by far". Well, not that the ranking is important but the satellites showed it as the 3rd warmest year, by far cooler than the warmest one, 1998. But maybe Sellers, an acting director at NASA, shares the belief with some other climate alarmists that satellites don't exist or they can't be useful to address such questions. At any rate, the year 2015 was not interesting in the climate science or the climate hysteria "cause". It was just another year of excuses and misinterpretations. The year 2016 will also be just another year in which climate alarmism very slowly dies away, too – while certain people increasingly unrealistically work on escalating this hysteria instead.
Sellers' text is so unbelievably detached from "what you would expect to be important" that I could imagine that it was – and who know, maybe even his disease was – masterminded by the climate alarmist sect in order to create a moral symbol. Maybe the true believers have gathered and picked a martyr who will strengthen the idea that the climate alarmists aren't just a bunch of dishonest parasitic hypocritical crackpots and scum but that they also include many believers who are ready to place their totally irrational faith above their own lives.
The story has surely convinced me. In the New York Times opinion piece, his true belief in all these irrelevancies and fantasies – something he has wasted much of his professional career with – is manifesting itself in innocent ways. But such a fanatical belief must be very dangerous in other contexts, right? In Michael Crichton's State of Fear, the climate ecoterrorists have organized "fake natural catastrophes" to increase the people's fear of climate change. I can surely imagine that people of Sellers' type and level of a belief could start to do such things.
At any rate, I wish him to get as much pleasure from life as he can.The campaign against Proposition 23, the California ballot initiative that would suspend the state’s global warming law, took in more than a half million dollars in contributions this week. Meanwhile, fundraising by the oil companies backing the measure was so lackluster it prompted a plea for help from the petrochemical industry.
“A defeat for Proposition 23 in California could energize environmental fanatics around the country and in Washington to match California’s destructive policies with their own versions of AB32,” wrote Charles T. Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, in an email first reported by The New York Times. “We’ve raised about $6 million so far, but unfortunately in California’s expensive media market this is not enough to win the fight against environmental zealots led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who seems hell-bent on becoming the real-life Terminator of our industry.”
“I am pleading with each of you,” Drevna continued, “for our nation’s best interest and for your company’s own self-interest, please contact me and tell me how much you can contribute to this critical effort as soon as possible. Nov. 2 is drawing near.”
The Texas oil companies backing the initiative made news recently when they secured a $1 million donation from the billionaire Koch brothers, who bankroll various right-wing causes. But the only sizeable donation to the Yes on 23 campaign this week came from Tower Energy Group, a Southern California-based petroleum wholesaler, which contributed $100,000 on Monday. Meanwhile, according to campaign finance records, the anti-Prop 23 forces have been having a pretty good few weeks.
On Monday, Susan Packard Orr, yet another daughter of David Packard, the late co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, contributed $250,000 to the No campaign. She joins her two sisters who have given a total of $201,895 to the effort to defeat Prop 23.
On Wednesday, William Patterson of SPO Partners, a Marin County, Calif., private investment firm, also gave $250,000. The California chapter of the Audubon Society stepped up with a $100,000 donation last week. Earlier in the month, Environment California, a non-profit, made a $100,000 contribution |
four weeks, 67 per cent agreed. At the start of the mental health summer program, 65 per cent said it was important to eat healthy foods. At the end, 92 per cent agreed. At the start of the mental health program, only 32 per cent of students said “I can deal with stressful things” but that rose to 58 per cent by the end. At the start of the mental health program, 62 per cent of students said “I go to people I trust if I need help,” but that rose to 75 per cent by the end.
Read more about:RAHM EMANUEL had perhaps the toughest week of his political career last week. This week will hardly be any better, judging from its start. On the morning of December 7th, Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened an investigation into whether the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has engaged in “a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal law”. The DOJ will pay particular attention to the CPD’s use of deadly force, racial, ethnic and other disparities in its use of force and its accountability mechanisms, said Ms Lynch.
Also today the CPD’s head of detectives, Constantine Andrews, resigned. His resignation came on the heels of the sacking on December 6th by Mr Emanuel of Scott Ando, the head of the Independent Police Review Authority, a watchdog that has lost credibility thanks to its apparent tendency to proclaim the fatal shooting of suspects by police officers justified under nearly all circumstances. Mr Ando’s departure followed Mr Emanuel’s dismissal on December 1st of Garry McCarthy, the chief of police he appointed in 2011.
More heads may roll as Mr Emanuel tries to contain what has turned into the biggest crisis of his political career. The crisis was triggered by the much-delayed release of a police car’s video at the end of November that shows the fatal shooting in October, 2014, of a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, by Jason Van Dyke, a white police officer who had been the subject of numerous citizens’ complaints in the past for the use of excessive force and racial slurs (none of the complaints had let to any punishment of Mr Van Dyke). The public is outraged by what many see as a shameless cover-up of a murder for reasons of political expediency. Mr Emanuel ran for re-election earlier this year and received 58% of the black vote; his critics claim that he would not have been re-elected had the Laquan video been public before the election. The perceived code of silence of Chicago cops is another source of anger of the public. It was further fueled over the weekend by the revelation that at least five police officers corroborated Mr Van Dyke’s account (disproved by the video) that Laquan McDonald was moving towards him and threatened him with a knife.
Until recently Mr Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s first chief-of-staff, was widely considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, who may be lured away from Chicago by a cabinet post if Hillary Clinton becomes president next year. Though he has been the subject of controversy before thanks to his famously prickly manner and his pronounced penchant for the rich and powerful, he has never before been in such hot political waters. Led by Jesse Jackson, a black activist, around 400 protestors marched yesterday in Chicago demanding Mr Emanuel’s resignation. #ResignRahm has become a popular hashtag on Twitter. In an unusually harsh editorial, the New York Times, usually a Rahm-friendly newspaper, said last week that Mr Emanuel had “demonstrated a willful ignorance when he talked about the murder charges against the police officer” who shot McDonald by seeking to depict the cop as a rogue officer. And that he showed “a complete lack of comprehension” when he fired Mr McCarthy, not because he failed in his leadership role, but because he had become "a distraction".
Mr Emanuel had initially opposed a DOJ investigation calling it “misguided” but he changed his tune after Ms Clinton called for such a federal probe last week. (When asked about Mr Emanuel, Ms Clinton said that she still had confidence in the mayor of the city she was born in because “he loves Chicago” and he “will do everything he can to get to the bottom of these issues”.) Mr Emanuel now maintains that Chicago welcomes the DOJ investigation and pledged the city’s “complete cooperation”.
The weeks and months ahead will be a tough test for Mr Emanuel. In an op-ed piece published in Chicago’s two biggest dailies Mr Emanuel wrote that “at the end of the day, I am the mayor and I own it. I take responsibility for what happened and I will fix it”. Trouble is also brewing on other fronts. Later this week the Chicago Teachers’ Union is likely to vote for a strike. Chicago is broke and Mr Emanuel doesn’t know whether he will receive help from the state government to keep Chicago’s public schools afloat because Illinois still does not have a budget for the current financial year.
Mr Emanuel has cancelled a fundraiser for his re-election to a third term, planned for this week. Though his fund-raising skills are legendary, even he would have found it tricky to persuade donors to part with their money for a politician whose credibility has taken a huge hit.A man accused of driving a car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Virginia was fascinated with Nazism, idolised Adolf Hitler and had been singled out at school for his "deeply held, radical" convictions on race, a teacher has said.
A man accused of driving a car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Virginia was fascinated with Nazism, idolised Adolf Hitler and had been singled out at school for his "deeply held, radical" convictions on race, a teacher has said.
James Fields also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer said.
Victim Heather Heyer. Photo: REUTERS
In high school, Fields was an "average" student, but had a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Mr Weimer, his social studies teacher at Randall K Cooper school in Union, Kentucky. "Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy towards Nazism, that idolisation of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy," Mr Weimer said.
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"It would start to creep out." Police have charged Fields (20) with second-degree murder and other offences for allegedly driving his silver Dodge Challenger through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville on Saturday, killing a 32-year-old woman and wounding at least 19 other people.
White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” clash with counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo: Getty Images
A Virginia State Police helicopter sent in a large-scale police response to the violence then crashed into woods outside the town, killing both troopers on board. Read More: One dead, dozens injured and Trump under pressure as white supremacists, neo Nazis and anti fascists clash in Virginia Fields had been photographed hours earlier carrying the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the white supremacist hate groups that organised the "take America back" campaign sparked by the removal of a Confederate statue.
Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The group denied any association with Fields, even as a separate hate group that organised Saturday's rally pledged on social media to stage future events that would be "bigger than Charlottesville". The mayor of Charlottesville, political leaders, activists and community organisers around the US planned rallies, vigils and education campaigns to combat the hate groups.
Rescue workers assist people who were injured when a car drove through a group of counter protestors at the "Unite the Right" rally Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
They also urged US president Donald Trump to forcefully denounce the organisations, some of which specifically cited Mr Trump's election after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric as validation of their beliefs. Federal authorities are holding a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
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Mr Weimer said school officials had singled out Fields when he was in the 9th grade for his political beliefs and "deeply held, radical" convictions on race and Nazism. "It was a known issue," he said.
Read More: 'I am forever proud of her' - Mother of victim who died after car rammed into anti-white nationalist protesters in Virginia He said Fields left school for a while and when he came back he was quieter about politics until his senior year, when politicians started to declare their candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. Mr Trump's proposal to build a border wall with Mexico was particularly appealing to Fields, Mr Weimer said.
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He said Fields also admired the Confederacy for its military prowess, though they never spoke about slavery. As a senior, Fields wanted to join the army and Mr Weimer, a former officer in the Ohio National Guard, guided him through the process of applying, believing that the military would expose him to people of different races and backgrounds and help him dispel his white supremacist views. But Fields was ultimately turned down, which was a big blow, Mr Weimer said.
Mr Weimer said he lost contact with Fields after he graduated and was surprised to hear reports that he had enlisted in the army. "The Army can confirm that James Alex Fields reported for basic military training in August of 2015, said army spokeswoman Lt Col Jennifer Johnson. "He was, however, released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015."
Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, said on Saturday that she knew her son was going to Virginia for a political rally, but had no idea it involved white supremacists. "I just told him to be careful," she said, adding she warned him that if there were protests "to make sure he's doing it peacefully". "I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a white supremacist," said Ms Bloom, speaking from Maumee, Ohio, where she had lived with her son until he moved out a few months ago.
In a photo taken by the New York Daily News, Fields was shown on Saturday with half a dozen other men, all wearing the Vanguard America uniform of khakis and white polo shirts. The men held shields with Vanguard America's black-and-white logo of two crossed axes. The Confederate statue of Robert E Lee was in the background. The Daily News said the photo was taken at about 10.30am on Saturday, just hours before authorities say Fields crashed his car into the crowd at 1.42pm.
The Anti-Defamation League says Vanguard America believes the US is an exclusively white nation and uses propaganda to recruit young white men online and on college campuses. In a Twitter post, the group said it had handed out the shields "to anyone in attendance who wanted them" and denied Fields was a member. Saturday's chaos erupted as neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacist groups arrived for the rally.
Counter-protesters were also there and the two sides clashed, with people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and unleashing chemical sprays. Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, police in riot gear ordered people out of the streets, and helicopters circled overhead. Then, as the counter-protesters marched a few blocks from the statue, the Dodge Challenger tore into the crowd, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer as she was crossing the road.
Hours later, the helicopter crashed, killing the state police troopers. Mr Trump criticised the violence in a tweet on Saturday and called for "a swift restoration of law and order". "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," he said. But the "on many sides" remark angered critics, who said he failed to specifically denounce white supremacy and equated those who came to protest against racism with the extremists.
Press AssociationNov 29, 2013 - DeeJ
This week at Bungie, we are thankful.
As these words manifest as pixels on our blog, our studio is quiet and dark. This place, usually so alive with activity and bustling with the frantic energy of creation, is in slumber. Our team has scattered across the globe to spend quality time in the arms of family and friends. Each of us will be grateful for unique things in our lives, but there are reasons to be thankful upon which we can all agree.
We’re thankful that we have a chance to put our talents to something we find meaningful.
We’re thankful that our passions are recognized and so deeply rewarded.
We’re thankful for risk, and the chance to dream about the impossible.
We’re thankful for a clean foundation onto which we can build a brave new world.
We’re thankful for new and sharper tools to help us get the job done.
We’re thankful for a chance to learn and to grow under the challenges that we face every day.
We’re thankful for the people who keep our front door safe.
We’re thankful for refrigerators stocked with energy drinks, and cabinets brimming with cured meats.
We’re thankful that every member of this team can make a meaningful contribution to our work.
We’re thankful for mighty partners to help us tell this new story to the world.
We’re thankful for the chance to make new friends, and delight the old.
We’re thankful that we’re making a game that we want to play, every day.
We’re thankful for each other, and the way we inspire one another to do our best work.
We’re thankful to have come to a place where fans can become employees.
We’re thankful for the ancients who forged a legacy, the newbies who are carrying it forward, and everyone in between to remind us of what’s at stake.
We’re thankful for those rare moments in which we can make the real world a better place.
We’re thankful for the gamers who keep this industry alive.
We’re thankful for a community whose raw and unbridled enthusiasm drives us to create something worthy of it.
And, we’re thankful for a little time off – a break from all this action, and a chance to spend it with our other families and friends. Our team will be back next week, along with another proper Bungie Weekly Update. Until then, we take some time to reflect on our good fortune, and the rare opportunities that lie before us.
Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are.
Love, Bungie.Denver Broncos Head Coach Gary Kubiak spoke earlier today at the AFC Coaches Breakfast and touched on second-year tight end, Jeff Heuerman.
#broncos Kubiak said has big plans for TE Jeff Heuerman. See him as complete TE. Hasn't ruled out bringing Owen Daniels back — Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) March 22, 2016
Heuerman missed his entire rookie season because an ACL injury that he suffered early in the offseason. The Broncos had big plans for him last year and still do heading into the 2016 season.
Kubiak told reporters that they are counting on Jeff Heuerman "big time" in 2016.
"We’re counting on him big time." said Head Coach Gary Kubiak "You look at us releasing ‘O.D.’ and you never know what can happen there down the road—but when Jeff came in he was very impressive. We feel like Jeff can be a total tight end. He’s not just a receiver. We think he has the ability to do both catch and block. He’s a very confident young man and he comes from a winning program. We are counting on him a great deal along with Virgil Green. It’s a big offseason for him and he’s worked really hard. He’s really been ready to go probably since a few months ago."
There is a lot to like about Jeff Heuerman, and I think he will be a welcomed addition the Broncos offense next season.
He can do it all.
He can do everything a Gary Kubiak tight end is asked to do. He was one of the better blocking tight ends in the 2015 draft class, he can attack the seam, he is athletic enough to split out wide, and can even line up in the backfield as a fullback/H-Back.
With the Broncos releasing veteran Owen Daniels, the Broncos will need Heuerman to step up next season. Right now he and veteran Virgil Green are penciled in as your starters at tight end. I would expect the Broncos to add a tight end through the draft as well.
The other good news on Heuerman was his health. Kubiak said that he is ready to go for the OTA's here in a few weeks.
I am excited to see what Heuerman can do in a Broncos uniform.
Here is some highlights of what Heuerman can do when healthy.Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. Countries in Africa are sorted according to data from the International Monetary Fund. The figures presented here do not take into account differences in the cost of living in different countries, and the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's currency.[1] Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference to the standard of living of its population.[2]
Some countries may have citizens that are on average wealthy. These countries/regions could appear in this list as having a small GDP. This would be because the country/region listed has a small population, and therefore small total economy; the GDP is calculated as the population times market value of the goods and services produced per person in the country.[3][4]
These figures should therefore be used with caution.
Comparisons of national wealth are also frequently made on the basis of purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries. PPP largely removes the exchange rate problem, but has its own drawbacks; it does not reflect the value of economic output in international trade, and it also requires more estimation than nominal GDP.[5] On the whole, PPP per capita figures are more narrowly spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.[6]
>200 100-200 50-100 20-50 10-20 5-10 1-5 <1 Map of Africa by 2008 nominal GDP (billions USD):
Map of Africa by 2017 nominal GDP per capita (USD)
The 2017 estimates are as follows:[7][8][9]
See also [ edit ]The Padres have signed former closer Jose Valverde to a minor league deal, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy tweets. San Diego has also signed lefty Scott Elbert and righty Marcos Mateo.
Valverde made the Mets’ Opening Day roster last season, but after a combustive two months in their bullpen, the Mets released him in late May. He has struggled in each of the past two seasons, posting ERAs over five in both and giving up ten home runs in 40 total innings. Valverde’s last full season came in 2012, when he posted a 3.78 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 for the Tigers. The 36-year-old has 288 career saves with the Diamondbacks and Astros in addition to the Tigers and Mets.
The 29-year-old Elbert was a first-round pick of the Dodgers all the way back in 2004. He had two effective seasons of relief for them in 2011 and 2012, but had Tommy John surgery in 2013 and missed most of the next two years. The Dodgers outrighted him in early November, and he became a free agent.
The 30-year-old Mateo pitched for Triple-A Iowa in 2014, posting a 3.86 ERA, 10.4 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 37 1/3 innings of relief. He last appeared in the big leagues with the Cubs in 2011.OTTAWA–Industry Minister James Moore’s office intervened to cancel a $420,000 contract for outside advice on trade negotiations and the manufacturing sector, less than 24 hours after the request for proposals was initially posted. The request for proposals was issued Monday morning, indicating Industry Canada needed external contractors to advise the department on trade negotiations with Japan, Korea and other Pacific nations, specifically relating to the automotive manufacturing sector.
A spokesman for Industry Minister James Moore, above, says, "There are more than enough civil servants with the expertise to provide" advice on trade negotiations with Japan, Korea and other Pacific nations. ( Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo )
But a spokesman for Moore said Monday evening that the request was not approved by the minister’s office and would not proceed. “There are more than enough civil servants with the expertise to provide this analysis,” Jake Enwright, Moore’s press secretary, told the Star by email. “This contract is being cancelled.”
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Ottawa initially planned to spend as much as $420,000 over three years to identify “risks and opportunities” facing the struggling Canadian manufacturing sector in free trade negotiations with Korea, economic partnership talks with Japan, and broader Trans-Pacific Partnership discussions. In the request for proposals, Industry Canada noted the Pacific countries have a particular interest in the automotive manufacturing sector, including mass transit imports and exports. The consultants would have been asked to find a way to turn that interest to Canada’s advantage. New Democrat trade critic and MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) said he found it “shocking” the Conservatives would appeal for external help so late in the game — particularly when an agreement on the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union had been reached. “We’re dealing with one of the sophisticated manufacturing economies in the world, and they’re seeking advice now? At this point?” Davies said Monday. “Frankly, I’m a little flabbergasted.... They’ve put haste over competence repeatedly throughout the handling of this file.” Industry Canada planned to use the external advice to augment their in-house work, and to guide future trade negotiations.
“The expert advice sought through this contract will complement the work of Government of Canada officials, providing access to a full range of perspectives and insights into best negotiating practices going forward in international trade discussions,” the request for proposals reads. The now cancelled call for external help came as employment in Canada’s manufacturing industry declined. According to recently released figures from Statistic Canada, the manufacturing industry lost approximately 41,600 jobs across the country in 2013, a decline of 2.3 per cent. The industry’s slump helped drag down employment gains in the Canadian economy, which added just 102,000 jobs — 0.6 per cent— over the past year.
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Trade has long been a centerpiece for the Conservative government’s economic platform, which has in turn been the centerpiece of their electoral platform. In year-end interviews with several media outlets, Prime Minister Stephen Harper lauded the recent free trade deal with the European Union. “I think everybody who’s a serious analyst recognizes it’s overwhelmingly in the best interest of the country even though if a couple of sectors would have preferred somewhat different outcomes,” Harper told Global News in December. Jim Stanford, an economist with Unifor, said the union has “major concerns” about what a free trade deal with Korea would have on Canada’s automotive industry. Accusing the federal Conservatives of having an “ideological predisposition” toward free trade, Stanford said he does not expect the trade deals will help the domestic industry. “(The European Union, Japan, and Korea) have all followed an export-led strategy. In Canada, we don’t have any home-grown auto makers. We depend wholly on foreign companies coming here and setting up their plants, and those plants are based entirely on serving a North American market, not a global market,” Stanford said. “There’s virtually no upside to our industry here. There’s virtually no way we could expect Canadian auto sales to grow to Korea, to Japan, and to Europe.... All three of those jurisdictions have huge sales into Canada.” In a prepared statement, a spokesman for International Trade Minister Ed Fast said the government remains committed to increasing trade in the Asia Pacific region. “As always, Canada will only sign agreements that reflect Canadians’ best interests,” Rudy Husney wrote in an email. The decision to cancel the consulting contract departs from a larger trend under the Conservatives to rely on private sector advice, rather than the public service. The Star reported in December that the reliance on private contractors for government work has sharply increased since the Conservatives’ election victory in 2006, with spending on external professional services jumping from $7.8 billion that year to more than $10 billion a year over the past four fiscal years. Over the past seven fiscal years, the Conservatives have spent a total of $67 billion on outside help.Back in January 2015, the Indian liberal ecosystem on social media erupted in loud jeers against Science and Technology minister Dr. Harshvardhan for stating the well established fact that Pythagoras Theorem had been known in India long before Pythagoras.
The vast majority of fake news aims to turn lies into truth. The Left pulled off a veritable coup that day. It managed to spin truth into a lie.
Propagandists always have their eyes on science. Because science occupies such an exalted place in our collective psyche, we must forever be watchful of attempts by political lobbies to seize and control what is put out before the public in the name of science.
It is thus with extreme alarm that one must take note of the so called “March for Science” scheduled for August 9 in various Indian cities; a program that outlines its aims as follows :
As everything with the Indian ‘liberals’ is, this one too is not original. The idea is copied from a “March for Science” that took place, mostly in the US, in April this year and was portrayed by some as an anti-Trump activism. However, let us look at the Indian context and facts about this “march”.
Article 51 A : a diabolical spin on Science
That the aim of this march is political is immediate from the appeal to the spirit of Article 51A, i.e., the Fundamental Duties listed in the Constitution. This article was not part of the original Constitution, but was added by Indira/India Gandhi in the 42nd Amendment of 1976 at the height of the Emergency.
The democratic Constitution was supposed to empower the citizen with Fundamental Rights. These rights were gutted during the Emergency. Instead, Article 51A became the intellectual core of the Emergency, because it shifted the onus to the citizen, who must submit to the almighty state by means of Fundamental Duties.
And for good measure, Article 51A starts out by demanding that the citizen show respect to symbols of the state such as the Flag and the Anthem (wonder how leftists would feel about that today?). And by requiring every citizen to strive for excellence so as to keep raising the nation as a whole to higher levels.
As for the specific line that the “March for Science” folks are referring to, here it is in full:
“…. to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”
And now listen to Leon Trotsky describe the New Soviet Man that the Communists wanted to engineer :
“Man will make it his purpose to master his own feelings, to raise his instincts to the heights of consciousness, to make them transparent, to extend the wires of his will into hidden recesses, and thereby to raise himself to a new plane, to create a higher social biologic type, or, if you please, a superman.”
Suffice to say that science cannot flourish in the spirit of Article 51A, which was intended to emphasize obedience to the state rather than freedom of the individual. That a “March for Science” would make this relic of the Emergency the centerpiece of their thinking suggests that it is little more than a show of yearning for the return of the absolute power of the old Nehru Gandhi establishment.
China celebrates its past, India denigrates
When the Left stood their ground on the lie regarding Pythagoras theorem, it was obviously banking on their years of groundwork in the education system, sowing an inferiority complex deep into the minds of Indians. To the point that they were reasonably confident that the majority of educated Indians would reflexively reject any possibility of their own ancestors having produced anything of slightest value.
The Chinese on the other hand, have learned from the disaster of Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” 1958-1962, when the Communist Party tried to “modernize” the nation by cutting it off from its ancient roots. Among other things, it led to the death of an estimated 200-500 lakh people (no typo there!) Today, the Chinese take great pride in their ancient culture and achievements.
In 2015, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize in medicine for her treatment of malaria that has saved millions of lives across the world. The key chemical involved was Artemisinin, which was discovered when Tu Youyou and her colleagues delved into medicinal herbs used by the Chinese for thousands of years.
Who’s to say that there aren’t similar gems hiding in the treasure trove of ancient India? We’ll probably never know because ancient Indian science has been stigmatized by liberal discourse to the point that our best minds will automatically be discouraged from investigating it.
And for the record, the Chinese knew about Pythagoras theorem as well much before Pythagoras. The Chinese boldly proclaim this to the world, as seen in this logo on the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
I suppose there is no Huffington Post in China to turn their history into lies. Anyway…
Infusing science with anti-semitism
Looking at the “Appeal by Scientists” here on the website of the Breakthrough Science Society that is organizing the march, a telltale fact that emerges is that one of the “scientists” making the appeal is JNU professor Ayesha Kidwai. It is a disturbing fact that Ms. Kidwai is involved with the “Indian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel”.
Those who want to slice up and divide knowledge (including scientific knowledge) based on the race, gender or nationality of who finds that knowledge cannot be seen as anything but enemies of science.
Does a scientific fact become less true if an Israeli person were to discover it? Should such a truth be boycotted? Is it not a foolish endeavor to try to boycott truth? How is this compatible with the spirit of scientific inquiry?
What kind of “scientist” would refuse to engage with a scientific idea because it came from someone in Israel?
Additionally, it must be noted that Ms. Ayesha Kidwai is not even a scientist (see official JNU profile here), but is still included in the list of “scientists” making the appeal. The only possibility that remains is that Ms. Kidwai has been included for purely political reasons, making the motives of the “March for Science” absolutely clear.
It should also be noted that passing off non-scientists in the disguise of scientists is standard operating procedure of pseudo-scientific and anti-scientific initiatives.
Selective outrage
In keeping with the Left’s agenda of colonizing science, there has been a concerted effort to give widely publicity to superstitious / unscientific views expressed by members of the ruling BJP and its wider ideological parivar. As seen in the case of Pythagoras’ Theorem, the eagerness to drive this agenda has often overshadowed basic fact checking.
However, the left generally stays silent when it comes to supporting real science on the ground … such as the time they could have come out and supported the BJP government in Maharashtra in requiring Madrasas to teach Math & Science. But they didn’t. Because votes. Minor children missing out on a chance to learn science be damned.
The left wing’s love for science appears to exist only at the media propaganda level. For instance, Prime Minister Modi’s remarks on Ganesha and plastic surgery have been magnified into some kind of legendary anti-science statement. Leaving aside the established fact that plastic surgery may well have existed in ancient India (as grudgingly conceded later by some liberals), the fact is that political parties and politicians engaging with unscientific thinking is not new.
In early 2013, Shashi Tharoor had launched the “Tiranga bangle” along with fellow Congress MP Navin Jindal.
The “Tiranga bangle” claimed to work wonders for treating everything from arthritis to gout to carpal tunnel syndrome. In keeping with the noblest traditions of pseudo-science, little was disclosed about the scientific mechanism behind the “miracle bangle”, except informing us that it had been designed with “tri-vortex technology from South Africa”. At that time, Shashi Tharoor was even MoS for Human Resource Development, but his participation in propagating pseudo-science did not become an issue.
One could go on and give several other examples, but the grand daddy of unscientific remarks by top Indian politicians would be Pandit Nehru saying that the whole world sleeps at the stroke of the midnight hour in India instead of realizing that many parts of the world experience broad daylight when it is night over here! Again, Pandit Nehru’s famous words are often read with pride, with no admission of the astonishing scientific error contained therein. And yeah, don’t tell me I am indulging in literalism here, because I’m just adopting ‘liberal techniques’.
When it comes to the Left parties, the situation is even more grim. Based on their reading of Marx, the Communists have long opposed the Big Bang theory, which is the prevailing, well accepted cosmological model for the universe. Here is the official website of the CPI(M):
The “so called Big Bang Theory” an “idealistic and creationist view of the world”? Calling on the “working class” to defend Marxist thinking by proving that black holes do not exist?
This sounds like an extract from the Mad Hatter talking in Alice in Wonderland, but unfortunately this stuff is coming from the website of the CPI(M). Ironically, the same CPI(M) often claims to take the lead in protecting “scientific temper” and the so-called Science Rakshaks in the media and intelligentsia generally have little to say about the Communist war on science.
Now, I don’t know if Marx ever said that the Big Bang theory is wrong. Even if he did, it wouldn’t matter because he was not a physicist. But like any religious fundamentalist, the Communist takes a Boko Haram like approach to science, rejecting outright any idea that in his imagination appears to contradict something in his holy book. And calls upon the working class (i.e., the faithful) to defend their faith.
For those interested (and amused) by the silliness of asking the working class to fight black holes, the abstract of this paper [pdf] written by a historian of science at Aarhus University in Denmark describes lucidly why Communists went nuts opposing the big bang theory.
Maligning the scientific method and individual scientists
Being the current Vice Chancellor of JNU, Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar (who is also a professor of Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi) is one of the prime targets for the liberal left. This hilarious hit-job which appeared in the DailyO, makes a desperate effort to malign his character.
What? Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar boasts on his blog about lying to his students? What is the author talking about? I guess we are supposed to take the accuser seriously because it happens to be some Ashok Swain, a professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Uppsala University in Sweden (for the record, he is someone who was earlier found pushing a narrative that coincidentally aligns with Pakistan’s anti-India policy, but let us forget that as of now).
However, clicking on the link to Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar’s blog reveals this hitjob to be an example of shocking scientific illiteracy on the part of the ‘liberal’ author who tried to malign him. Prof. Jagadesh Kumar was talking in the context of physical equations which often contain an approximation along with an error term. The word “lies” was just a cute term he was using to describe approximations and to emphasize their importance in science. Anyone who has taken high school calculus should be able to understand this concept.
However, in the world of left liberals, maligning individual scientists as well as scientific method is not an ethical concern when it comes to advancing a political agenda. Oh, and do you now get it when I said earlier in this article that literalism was a liberal technique?
In earlier cases, we have seen that even the most eminent scientists haven’t been spared the sword of the liberal agenda. For instance, a 2002 article by Sagarika Ghose written at the time Dr. Kalam was nominated for President, claims to have discovered a connection between atomic scientists, Hindu chauvinism, sexism and even casteism. Other gems include the finding that “science is particularly compatible with religious fundamentalism” (you read that right!) and that Osama bin Laden becoming a terrorist may have something to do with his engineering background in college.
Is calculus a rape manual?
Since both science and liberalism are global in their outlook, it forces us to take a wider view to understand how the left has tried to impose its worldview of science.
Extreme examples include left-wing animal rights groups going to the extent of bombing homes of scientists who are accused of cruelty to anything from lab mice to insects. Often, these are scientists carrying out vital researches into boosting agricultural productivity or developing life saving medicines. This University of California scientist got his house firebombed for being cruel … to fruitflies!
On the other hand, the environmental lobby, a pet darling of the international left, has often provided a safe home to all kinds of anti-scientific thinking. Mixing science with politics, the 9/11 attacks were another situation when major elements of the left aggressively pushed for science denial. By the way, here is a video of ‘youth icon’ Kanhaiyya Kumar pushing for 9/11 conspiracy theories on the basis of fake science documentaries he watched on YouTube :
This may be a bitter pill for leftists to swallow, but scientific truth once established leaves no scope for “dissent”, least of all for “counterarguments” based on politics. No Azaadi from truth. Sorry.
However, one of the most outrageous yet least reported forms of anti-science propaganda comes from within the feminist movement. Is it possible for the human mind to become so muddled by ideology that high school mathematics looks like it is related to rape? Please hear out top feminist |
the patient is moved to the ambulance, still with her hands over her face. Just after shining the bright camera light on the patient's face Playford is confronted by a San Diego firefighter.
“He ran up, grabbed my camera and my arm at the same time and knocked me backward,” Playford said in a telephone interview with Photography is Not a Crime.
According to Playford he kneed the firefighter in the groin. Another San Diego firefighter intervenes and separates the two men.
Playford has been in other altercations with public officials over his right to record. His attorney, Edward Peruta, contacted the fire department.
In a letter Deputy Chief Stephen Ricci told Peruta that the matter was under investigation and asked to be provided a copy of Playford's video of the incident.
Playford said the female in the gurney was from the Game of Thrones HBO television series.Why is Ted Cruz so successful at bullying the Republican Party? What we’re seeing, in part, is a cost of going post-policy for mainstream conservatives.
I’ll start with the dynamic that may send Republicans over a cliff – with Republicans in Congress threatening to shut down the government (or possibly default the government by failing to extend the debt limit) unless Democrats surrender the Affordable Care Act – something which apparently absolutely no one, including the Republicans involved, believe will work. Instead, most people, and especially those Republicans who lived through Newt’s Folly back in 1995-1996, are certain that the GOP will bear most of the blame if there is a government shutdown.
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So if most Republicans think it’s a lousy idea, why did the House just pass a Continuing Resolution that takes exactly the path that Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and their allies at Jim DeMint’s Heritage told them to take?
The dynamic that drives much of what congressional Republicans do is very simple: They are terrified of being labeled squishes, RINOs or, even worse, liberals. In any objective sense, of course, this is nonsense; polarization in the House is at record levels, meaning that there’s a clear divide between even the most moderate members, with the most liberal Republican easily more conservative than the most conservative Democrat. Nevertheless, politicians are paranoid by nature, and in a world in which conservative Utah Sen. Bob Bennett was defeated for renomination, there’s enough evidence available in recent memory for them to act on that paranoia.
In practice, what that means is that mainstream conservatives try to avoid allowing any distance between themselves and whoever can plausibly call themselves “True Conservatives” and get away with it.
But here’s where “post-policy” comes in.
Remember, Republicans have mostly just given up on developing real, conservative public policy. We saw that in the 2012 campaign, in which Mitt Romney couldn’t be bothered to come up with a tax plan that came close to adding up. We’ve seen it in the failure to come up with a “replace” bill on healthcare reform as part of their promised “repeal and replace” plan. Unlike in Ronald Reagan’s era, or even Newt Gingrich’s era (or perhaps more to the point, unlike in Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton’s presidency), there’s no conservative policy agenda beyond just rejecting everything Democrats want.
Simply put: When you’ve reduced your entire movement to saying “no” to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, is it any surprise that whoever shouts “NO” the loudest will wind up defining what counts as “conservative”?
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Indeed, if you happen to be a demagogue running for president on the platform that you are the only True Conservative and everyone else is a squish or a RINO or a secret liberal, then the best plan is to find the most convoluted, self-destructive, but nevertheless very loud way of saying “no.” Which is basically what Ted Cruz and his allies have done with the demand that Republicans tie keeping the government open to defunding the ACA.
See, it doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine if Republicans approached the budget deadline this year with a substantial policy program. Perhaps they would have already passed a tax reform bill, or an immigration bill that they wanted to pass, even if it wasn’t what Democrats wanted. Perhaps it would be a comprehensive energy bill (and not just a slogan, which is what the Keystone pipeline basically is). Maybe they would have come up with a housing plan. Maybe all of those. They would have run on those programs in the first place, spent a lot of time and energy on them; they would have argued that those programs were what conservative action was all about in 2013. Not just members of the House, either; conservative think tanks and GOP-aligned interest groups would have invested resources in those programs. Many of those in the GOP-aligned media would have spent the year, and perhaps the campaign last year, talking about conservative innovation and conservative vitality and how that agenda, blocked by Obama and the Democrats, truly defined conservative thought.
Under those circumstances, Republicans really would have had something positive to fight for in the budget showdown, rather than just threaten to hold their breath until they turned blue unless Democrats repealed the ACA. But more important, cranks who suggested that strategy would have far less of a claim on being the real True Conservatives. Republican politicians would have a way to fight back – yes, they could say, we’re all against Obamacare, but real conservatives are fighting for X, Y and Z.
But there is no X, no Y and no Z. And that’s part of the reason why when Ted Cruz (or Rush Limbaugh, or anyone else who can plausibly claim to be a True Conservative) tells the party to head for the cliff, they start in that direction and may well still go right over.Top secret documents leaked by former contractor Edward Let-It-Snowden reveal a previously unknown NSA program code-named SANTA (Securing America's Noel Toy Allotment). A key component of the SANTA program is the use of hidden recording and transmitting devices in Elf on the Shelf dolls. The Elf on the Shelf dolls allow the NSA to secretly monitor citizens from inside their own homes.
Via the SANTA program the NSA has been able to collect highly personal data about millions of America's children, including but not limited to
When they are sleeping
When they are awake
Whether they've been bad or good
Additionally, the children are asked to name each Elf on the Shelf, which serves as a subversive psychological exam. Although the details of the NSA's criteria are not fully known, examples in the leaked documents indicate that naming an Elf on the Shelf "Bob" or "George Washington" or "Eagle" results in a rating of "nice." Naming an Elf on the Shelf "Osama" or "Saddam" or "Death to America" will result in a household being flagged as "naughty" likely leading to a drone strike.
Since the program has become public many have criticized SANTA's spying as a violation of civil liberties, an example of unlawful monitoring, and a gross abuse of power. Others, however, feel the scope of the SANTA program is too limited.
"The biggest weakness of SANTA is that it only monitors families who celebrate Christmas," said one Republican lawmaker. "It turns out a lot of people don't even celebrate Christmas. At all. Can you imagine? Those are the people we should be watching."
The best way to avoid being monitored is to boycott the Elf on the Shelf product. If, however, you already have an Elf on the Shelf in your home you can wrap it in aluminum foil to prevent it from transmitting data to SANTA.
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You can also find Kim Z. Dale on Twitter and Google+ and like Listing Toward Forty on Facebook.The ISIL Takfiri terrorists’ financial chief has been killed by a roadside bomb while traveling in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a report says.
“ISIL Finance Minister Mohammed Zaalan al-Afari was killed in a booby trap ambush on the Gayara-Mosul road after he took part in the opening of a women’s prison for those not committed to sexual jihad,” Saeed Mamuzini, a media officer of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) 17th branch in Mosul, was quoted by Rudaw as saying on Tuesday.
According to the private online newspaper published in Erbil, Afari was a former Iraqi army officer who joined the Takfiri ranks in 2004 and allegedly had close ties with ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the slain al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“Alongside Afari four other militants were killed by the booby trap,” said Mamuzini, adding that the Mosul Independent Youth group have claimed responsibility for the attack.
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July 19, 2016, 4:52 AM GMT / Updated July 19, 2016, 10:06 AM GMT By Benjy Sarlin
CLEVELAND — Melania Trump sought to show husband Donald Trump’s softer side on the first night of the Republican Convention, a jarring contrast with a raft of other speakers who described a violent America besieged by crime, illegal immigration, and corruption.
Melania Trump's speech was widely praised at first, but was marred by plagiarism charges after observers pointed out a section on family values strongly resembled a similar passage from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech — almost word for word at points.
Related: Did Melania Trump Plagiarize Michelle Obama in Speech?
Donald Trump himself made a surprise appearance to introduce "the next First Lady of the United States," his third wife and an accomplished former model and jewelry designer who emigrated from Slovenia.
Mrs. Trump avoided personal stories about their courtship, relationship, and family life, but described Trump as a loyal husband, father, and boss who was more empathetic than he appeared.
"He’s tough when he has to be, but he’s also kind and fair and caring," she said. "This kindness is not always noted but it is there for all to see."
Related: Melania Trump Skewered for 'Plagiarized' Speech
She said his vision for America, which is frequently accused of exploiting white resentment, included prosperity for "Hispanics and African Americans and Asians and the poor and the middle class."
In a heartwarming moment, she led the crowd in cheering former Senator Bob Dole, the only former Republican presidential nominee attending the convention this week.
Mrs. Trump’s gracefully delivered speech was a rare light note in an otherwise intense night filled with dark depictions of America and calls for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted and jailed.
The slogan of the night was "Make America Safe Again" and convention speakers offered a long list of dark scenarios that they warned only Trump could prevent.
Full Coverage: The GOP Convention Is Underway in Cleveland
The tone was influenced by a trying month that featured two high-profile police shootings and two deadly attacks on police that left five officers dead in Dallas and three officers dead in Baton Rouge. A man driving a truck killed 84 people in Nice last week, just over a month after a gunman killed 49 people at a gay club in Orlando.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered the best-received speech of the night, an impassioned address warning of threats from Syrian refugees, illegal immigrants, and crime.
"There’s no next election: This is it," Giuliani said. "There’s no time left for us to revive our great country."
Much of the first hour was devoted to the September 11, 2012 attack on Benghazi. A number of speakers blamed then-Secretary of State Clinton for failing to prevent the attack on the compound and for not acting decisively to stop it once it began.
"I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son, that's personally," Pat Smith, whose son Sean Smith was killed that night, told the audience in an emotional speech. Smith added that Clinton "deserves to be in stripes."
Multiple investigations into the attack, including a recently released report by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, found security failures but did not hold Clinton responsible for wrongdoing.
Retired Lt. Gen. Michel Flynn, who Trump considered as a running mate, addressed a mostly deserted arena as the audience emptied out of the stands once Mrs. Trump finished her remarks and never returned.
"War is not about bathrooms or political correctness, Flynn said. "War is about winning."
Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a rising star in the party and Iraq veteran, closed the event along with Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, who served as a Navy SEAL in Iraq, and a group of other former military servicemen and servicewomen.
"Terrorists from ISIS are in every one of our fifty states," Ernst said. "They will use whatever weapons they have: guns, trucks, knives, poisons, and bombs to kill innocent people."
Reinforcing the themes of the evening, Trump called into Fox News during Smith’s speech for an interview with Bill O’Reilly in which he said he might direct his Attorney General as president to investigate Black Lives Matter rallies.
"I've seen them marching down the street essentially calling death to the police and I think we're gonna have to look into that especially in light of what’s happening with these maniacs going and shooting our police," Trump said.
Monday’s lineup notably included a number of black and Latino speakers who reinforced Trump’s criticism of Black Lives Matter activists and undocumented immigrants.
One of the biggest cheers of the night came when Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke, who is African American, celebrated the "good news" that a Baltimore officer was acquitted this week on charges connected to the death of 25-year old Freddie Gray, who suffered fatal spinal damage while handcuffed in a police van.
"Someone with a nice tan needs to say this: All lives matter," Colorado Senate candidate Darryl Glenn, who is also African American, said.
Another section featured three speakers who lost family members to crimes perpetrated by migrants living in America without authorization, each identified with a label on the convention screen that read "VICTIM OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS."
There was also some low-wattage star power. Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson and actors Scott Baio and Antonio Sabato Jr. addressed the crowd. All three mostly stuck to light, uncontroversial, and brief remarks – onstage at least. Speaking on CNN later, Baio stood by a tweet calling Clinton an obscene sexual epithet while Sabato told ABC that he believed President Obama was "absolutely" a secret Muslim.
While the speakers tried to focus on uniting Republicans against threats at home and abroad, the convention was marred by infighting between the Trump campaign and its critics on the right.
On the floor of Quicken Loans Arena, delegates from Colorado and Iowa walked out in a dispute over the rules after unsuccessfully demanding a roll call vote on rules that would unbind delegates and allow them to vote against Trump.
The Trump campaign also fought a daylong war of words with the popular governor of Ohio John Kasich, who is not attending the convention and is one of several former 2016 candidates who have not endorsed Trump.
"He’s embarrassing his state, frankly," top Trump adviser Paul Manafort said of Kasich on MSNBC’s Morning Joe early Monday. He went on to call Kasich "petulant" for not speaking at the convention at an event hosted by Bloomberg News.
Kasich, in turn, said in an interview on NBC Nightly News that Trump’s positions and rhetoric made it impossible for him to attend the GOP gathering.
"He'd have to change everything that he says," Kasich said. "We can't be attacking Muslims and Hispanics, and trying to shut down trade, and not caring about the debt. Those are all problems for me."Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted its first Atlanta Falcons game -- an exhibition against the Arizona Cardinals -- Saturday to some rave reviews.
NFL fans will get their first live-action views of the future site of the 2019 Super Bowl when the Green Bay Packers visit Atlanta Sunday, Sept. 17, for a nationally televised game. The rematch of last season’s NFC Championship that closed down the Georgia Dome, will make a much bigger stage than an August exhibition game.
But before then, the Sporting News has ranked the league’s venues ahead of the season. The NFL’s newest facility didn’t outranked some of its more storied homes. It didn’t even list better than some of the most recently built stadiums.
This is how they fall from worst to best (notes on NFC South facilities):
31. FedEx Field (Washington Redskins)
30. Oakland Coliseum (Oakland Raiders)
In their first season away from San Diego, the Chargers will call the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., home. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
29. StubHub Center (Los Angeles Chargers)
28. Soldier Field (Chicago Bears)
27. Los Angeles Coliseum (L.A. Rams)
26. Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Dolphins)
25. EverBank Field (Jacksonville Jaguars)
24. Bank of America Stadium (Carolina Panthers)
It just went through some necessary upgrades, but in relation to a lot of the revved-up, newer stadiums, it’s definitely from the 90s.
23. FirstEnergy Stadium (Cleveland Browns)
22. Paul Brown Stadium (Cincinnati Bengals)
21. New Era Stadium (Buffalo Bills)
20. Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay Bucaneers)
The pirate ship is cool, but with a bunch of new stadiums opening, it has become more middle of the pack.
19. Nissan Stadium (Tennessee Titans)
18. M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore Ravens)
17. MetLife Stadium (N.Y. Giants & Jets)
Falcons will play their first game at Gillette Stadium since 2009. (Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
16. Gillette Stadium (New England Patriots)
15. Sports Authority Field at Mile High (Denver Broncos)
14. Lucas Oil Field (Indianapolis Colts)
13. Ford Field (Detroit Lions)
12. NRG Stadium (Houston Texans)
11. Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia Eagles)
From the stands to the suites, a look inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium on opening night. (Erica A. Hernandez/AJC)
10. Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta Falcons)The Georgia Dome wasn’t too old, but it got outdated in a hurry. This will be a big improvement just across the street.
9. U.S. Bank Stadium (Minnesota Vikings)
8. University of Phoenix Stadium (Arizona Cardinals)
7. Levi’s Stadium (San Francisco 49ers)
6. Mercedes-Benz Superdome (New Orleans Saints)
The last old-school dome standing anywhere in any sport. One won’t find a better indoor party, an extension of the spirit that is New Orleans.
5. Heinz Field (Pittsburgh Steelers)
4. Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City Chiefs)
3. AT&T Stadium (Dallas Cowboys)
Falcons will return to Seattle to face Seahawks at CenturyLink Field in the 2017 season. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
2. CenturyLink Field (Seattle Seahawks)
1. Lambeau Field (Green Bay Packers)A shortage of mental health resources is putting undue stress on hospital emergency departments as holding areas for some of the most vulnerable patients they serve.
It is no surprise to anyone working in a hospital that emergency departments have become the de facto dumping ground for patients in psychiatric distress.
An online survey released this week of 1,716 emergency physicians from across the nation paints a grim scene of psychiatric patients waiting long hours, and even days, for an inpatient psychiatric bed.
The results of the poll were presented this week at the American College of Emergency Physicians' annual meeting, ACEP16/Scientific Assembly in Las Vegas.
"Three-quarters of emergency physicians responding to our poll reported seeing patients every shift who required hospitalization for psychiatric treatment," ACEP President Rebecca Parker, MD, said in a conference call with journalists on Monday.
"The problem is that once the decision to admit is made, it can be nearly impossible to find an inpatient bed for these patients."I know the exact moment in the interview I lost the job for a boutique app firm in downtown Austin. They wanted to see some of my code, and, of course, they understood I couldn't show them anything from my current or past companies. But that shouldn't be an issue, certainly I can demonstrate any one of my numerous side projects that I no-doubt have in progress.
But I have no side projects. I have no presence on github. I have no open-source projects with which I whittle away my evenings. I have exactly zero pull requests for any of the latest sexy codebases all the cool coders are in on. I don't mess around with exercises in Haskel. And I loathe hackathons.
And when I said I have no side projects to show, what they heard - what interviewers hear - is: I am not the best. I am not a passionate developer. I don't spend the necessary time to keep on top of my education and skills. That development is "just a job."
And to some degree this is true. I am not the best. I have met some of the best, and we are fundamentally different creatures. If I may make an analogy, back in my distance running days I could consistently get in the top 5-10% of finishers, but the differences between me and the elites was the difference between me and the bottom 1%. I was a passionate runner. I ran 50+ miles a week. I pushed myself to excel. To excel within the boundaries of the time and life-balance I had set for myself. To achieve elite status would take a life sacrifice that I wasn't willing to make. It would mean running at the expense of all other experiences.
There is a small group of people for whom code speaks. They discovered more than a job, they discovered a calling. Code is a craft and they are artists. For every one of those folks there are thousands of amazing, solid developers that will write circles around 90% of the other CS graduates. But they aren't "the best."
When companies say they want "passionate developers" that are coding in their free time, when companies say they want "the best," I get nervous. It's a myopic approach to team building. It's a subtle way of requesting human machines.
I've made it a point to add to my resume and online profiles the other things about which I am passionate. The silly art project that I launched in Austin. My dog business. Running, painting, writing. It's important to me that these attributes be valued by my workplace. If they value it in me, then they value it in others, and that speaks volumes about the company culture.
The world is catching up to this reality, bit by bit. The Bay Area, Seattle, NYC - these may be the hottest, hippest areas to have your startup or giant conglomerate, but you severely limit your pool of potential candidates to a tiny puddle of people that can live in these cities. I have four children. I own an entire separate dog playcare business with my wife. I am an active member of the local art community. There is no way I could ever live in one of these other cities. And while some companies are realizing that I am not an edge case - Facebook, Google, Amazon, they all have a significant presence in Austin specifically because they've drained the talent elsewhere - too many places are still convinced that "the best" lives to code. That "the best" is attracted to your company because you have a nap room, work 80 hour weeks and have a ping pong table. That "the best" is happy to drink into the Earth every Friday and has absolutely no evening or weekend plans. Ever.
I did not get the job at the boutique app firm in downtown Austin. I have no code side projects to show you. On Thursday evenings I go to a life drawing studio and spend three hours with other artists sketching a variety of poses from our model. Most evenings after I've made dinner and spent time with the wife and kids, I sit down and knock out 2,000 words on my fifth novel (and like the four abominations that preceded, it will sit in my Pile of Shame, never to be seen by another human being.) Weekends I hike. I dive deep into art. I am a passionate developer because I am a passionate person. But I have no code here to show you.In a tire manufacturing landscape thick with companies that are over a century old, the world's biggest tire maker is a relative upstart with just fifty years under its belt. The Lego Group, yes, Lego, makes more rolling stock than anyone, molding 381 million wheels each year, with sizes as small as a half inch and going up to 4.2 inches in diameter.It turns out tires are an integral part of the Lego success story. Lego had been producing kits for more than a decade before the 1962 debut of set #400. That kit included the first version of the now-familiar Lego tire and quickly became a best-seller, accounting for 820,400 sales all on its own in 1967. Before the Lego wheel arrived on the scene and kicked off its revolution, cars in the Lego realm were pre-molded affairs, and some clever children created 8-bit-looking wheels with the Lego bricks themselves.With such a long history of building beloved toys, you'd think Lego would tie up with a manufacturer of car tires and put the Lego brand on tires we can put on our daily drivers. Make ours Z-Rated, please.Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
michael.curie@nasa.gov
Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
nicole.cloutier-1@nasa.gov
Michael CurieHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1100Nicole Cloutier-LemastersJohnson Space Center, Houston281-483-5111
RELEASE : 11-036
NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly Resumes Training For STS-134 Mission
HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Mark Kelly will resume training as commander of the STS-134 space shuttle mission on Monday, Feb. 7. With the exception of some proficiency training, Kelly has been on personal leave since Jan. 8 to care for his wife, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in a Tucson, Ariz. shooting."I am looking forward to rejoining my STS-134 crew members and finishing our training for the mission," Kelly said. "We have been preparing for more than 18 months, and we will be ready to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station and complete the other objectives of the flight. I appreciate the confidence that my NASA management has in me and the rest of my space shuttle crew.""We are glad to have Mark back," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "He is a veteran shuttle commander and knows well the demands of the job. We are confident in his ability to successfully lead this mission, and I know I speak for all of NASA in saying 'welcome back'.A news briefing will be held at 2 p.m. CST today at Johnson to discuss Kelly's return. The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television.Questions will be taken from reporters at Johnson, NASA Headquarters and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Participants will include:-- Mark Kelly, commander, STS-134-- Peggy Whitson, chief, Astronaut Office-- Brent Jett, chief, Flight Crew Operations DirectorateBecause of winter weather conditions, Johnson will be closed until noon. However, the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 is staffed to receive calls from journalists requesting credentials.On Monday, Feb. 7, NASA TV will broadcast video b-roll of Kelly's first training session with his crew at 11:30 a.m. CST. Additional b-roll of his first day of training will air at 3 p.m. The training sessions will not be available for filming by news media.Astronaut Rick Sturckow, the backup commander for the mission, will resume his role as the deputy chief of the Astronaut Office. For more information about the STS-134 mission and crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
Kelly's biography can be found at:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/kellyme.html
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
- end -
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Back to NASA Newsroom | Back to NASA HomepageCAMBRIDGE, MA – The smallest aerial drones mimic insects in many ways, but none can match the efficiency and maneuverability of the dragonfly. Now, engineers at Draper are creating a new kind of hybrid drone by combining miniaturized navigation, synthetic biology and neurotechnology to guide dragonfly insects. The system looks like a backpack for a dragonfly.
DragonflEye">, an internal research and development project at Draper, is already showing promise as a way to guide the flightpath of dragonflies. Potential applications of the technologies underpinning DragonflEye include guided pollination, payload delivery, reconnaissance and even precision medicine and diagnostics.
“DragonflEye is a totally new kind of micro-aerial vehicle that’s smaller, lighter and stealthier than anything else that’s manmade,” said Jesse"> J. Wheeler, biomedical engineer at Draper and principal investigator on the program. “This system pushes the boundaries of energy harvesting, motion sensing, algorithms, miniaturization and optogenetics, all in a system small enough for an insect to wear.”
DragonflEye has been a team effort between Draper and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at Janelia Research Campus to create new optogenetic tools that send guidance commands from the backpack to special “steering” neurons inside the dragonfly nerve cord.
Research at HHMI—led by Anthony Leonardo, Janelia Research Campus group leader—has led to a deeper understanding of “steering” neurons in the nervous system of the dragonfly that control flight. HHMI is applying techniques in synthetic biology to make these “steering” neurons sensitive to light by inserting genes similar to those naturally found in the eye.
Draper is developing tiny optical structures, called optrodes, that can activate the special “steering” neurons with pulses of light piped into the nerve cord from the dragonfly’s backpack. Traditional optical fibers are too stiff to be wrapped around the tiny dragonfly nerve cord, so Draper developed innovative flexible optrodes that can bend light around sub-millimeter turns. These optrodes will enable precise and targeted neural activation without disrupting the thousands of nearby neurons.
“Someday these same tools could advance medical treatments in humans, resulting in more effective therapies with fewer side effects,” said Wheeler. “Our flexible optrode technology provides a new solution to enable miniaturized diagnostics, safely access smaller neural targets and deliver higher precision therapies.”
Draper’s work on the DragonflEye program builds on its legacy in autonomous systems, microsystems, biomedical solutions and materials engineering and microfabrication. This deep expertise extended previous Janelia Research Campus work in energy harvesting and miniaturization to create the insect-scale autonomous navigation and neuromodulation system.
DragonflEye provides opportunities to put technology on some of nature’s most agile insects. For instance, honeybees, whose population has collapsed by half in the last 25 years, could be equipped with Draper’s technology to assist with pollination. One of nature’s greatest pollinators, honeybees contribute more than $15 billion to the value of U.S. agriculture every year. Draper’s tiny guidance system could help stem the loss of pollinators by monitoring their flight patterns, migration and overall health.NEW YORK (Reuters) - France’s foreign minister said on Monday there was an urgent need to tackle the crisis in the Central African Republic and called for strengthening an African peacekeeping force.
France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius attends a news conference after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, September 17, 2013. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Laurent Fabius warned that a lack of international response risked destabilizing the entire region.
Land-locked, mineral-rich Central African Republic has slipped into chaos since northern Seleka rebels seized the capital Bangui and ousted President Francois Bozize in March. U.N. officials and rights groups say both sides may have committed war crimes.
“It is absolutely urgent to act. We are facing a serious security situation and we don’t want to let this serious situation degenerate and through contagion make the situation extremely complicated in the entire region,” Fabius said.
Fabius is hosting a summit on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on September 25 to discuss the crisis, which he said needed to send a clear message.
Former colonial power France - which intervened earlier this year to oust Islamist rebels from another one of its former colonies, Mali - has been reluctant to get directly involved in the crisis. It has urged African nations and the African Union to do their utmost to resolve the crisis among themselves.
But while the African Union plans to deploy a 3,600-strong peacekeeping mission - known as MISCA - in the country, incorporating a regional force of 1,100 soldiers already on the ground, it is unlikely to be operational before 2014.
The African Union has asked financial, logistical and technical support from the United Nations and senior U.N. officials recommended last month that the U.N. Security Council approve this request.
The African Union and United Nations planned to send experts to the Central African Republic to assess exactly what was needed and U.N. diplomats said that on the basis of those reports the Security Council would respond with a resolution.
U.N. envoy to Central African Republic, retired Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, and U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic both last month signaled to the Security Council that the AU force would not be enough to combat the crisis in the country, which borders six other states.
“We want to pass the message that it is imperative to strengthen the MISCA,” Fabius said.
France has a small force in Bangui securing the airport and its local interests. French diplomatic sources said earlier this week Paris would be ready to provide logistical support and increase its troop numbers to 700-750 men if needed.
Michel Djotodia, who swept to power at the head of the rebellion, was officially sworn in as the country’s president last month but he has failed to contain waves of looting and killing by gunmen.
Djotodia earlier this month sacked the head of the armed forces after days of clashes with fighters loyal to Bozize killed 100 people.
CAR is rich in gold, diamonds and uranium but decades of instability and the spillover from conflicts in its larger neighbors have left the nation’s 4.5 million people mired in cycles of crises.
A mix of local rebellions, banditry, ethnic tensions and spillover of conflicts from neighbors have long undermined efforts to stabilize the landlocked former French colony.Nearly a month after Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" was sold for $450 million, the buyer has finally been revealed.
Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism confirmed Monday it purchased the most expensive painting in the world.
The painting has been the topic of speculation since an anonymous buyer phoned in the record-breaking bid at a Christie's auction in New York on November 15. It is one of fewer than 20 authenticated da Vinci paintings in existence.
That speculation intensified last week after the Louvre Abu Dhabi -- the Paris museum's first outpost outside France -- said it would exhibit the work but declined to comment on the owner.
The New York Times reported last week that the man behind the purchase was a little-known Saudi prince named Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan al-Saud, an associate of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia has since said the prince was acting as a middleman for the United Arab Emirates, a key ally in the region.
"His Highness Prince Badr, as a friendly supporter of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, attended its opening ceremony on November 8th and was subsequently asked by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism to act as an intermediary purchaser for the piece," the Saudi embassy in Washington said in a statement.
Related: Saudi Arabia lifts 35-year ban on movie theaters
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is part of the emirate's plans to diversify its economy away from oil. The government of Abu Dhabi said it had been eying the piece for a long time and felt it could not let this one get away.
"We had a strategy in mind, we worked very closely with the broker, we bid on it," said Mohamed Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism. "We felt that in our lifetime we most likely will not see another da Vinci," he told a conference in Abu Dhabi.
"Salvator Mundi," which depicts Jesus Christ in Renaissance clothing, will be displayed alongside another da Vinci painting, "La Belle Ferronnière," which is currently on loan from the Louvre in Paris.
Abu Dhabi has not yet said when "Salvator Mundi" will make its first appearance in its new home. Art experts expect it to become a huge draw.
"It is a coup for this one-month-old institution to welcome the world's most expensive painting," said Myrna Ayad, director of Art Dubai, an annual fair. "It's wonderful to think that in a relatively short amount of time, the UAE has positioned itself as the region's cultural capital."
Related: Dubai's art market is hotter than ever
Countries across the region, including the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been investing heavily in the arts and culture, building new museums and hosting exhibitions. That's encouraging a new generation of art lovers.
Sotheby's says the number of Middle Eastern clients participating in its global sales has risen by 76% over the past five years. The venerable auction house opened its first gallery in the region in Dubai in March.
Christie's, which has been in Dubai for more than a decade, has sold more than $215 million worth of art since then.
Built on a man-made island in the UAE capital, the Louvre is part of the city's drive to transform itself into a cultural hub.
In a 30-year deal worth a reported €1 billion ($1.18 billion), the French Louvre assists with exhibition management, offers advice and lends artworks to its Middle Eastern franchise. The new museum currently houses a permanent collection of 600 artworks, with a further 300 on loan from Paris.
-- Alanna Petroff and Oscar Holland contributed to this report.The B.C. Government has launched a civil lawsuit to seize two more Hells Angels clubhouses, this |
force by an ICE agent in Detroit, although the agency has come under criticism for raids of schools, including an elementary school, in the Southwest neighborhood. Meanwhile, in Texas, ICE officers have been accused of multiple cases of sexual assault of women held inside immigrant detention facilities.
According to ICE spokesperson Khaalid Walls, the agent involved in Monday’s shooting has been placed on administrative leave “consistent with the agency’s Use of Force Policy.” United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade issued a statement saying the office was “closely monitoring the investigation.”
Meanwhile, for Detroiters and communities across the United States, the shooting has highlighted the less visible but nonetheless increasingly active and pervasive role federal law enforcement agencies have assumed in policing operations.
“In Detroit, there’s been a significant buildup of Homeland Security,” Miller said, adding that the number of Border Patrol agents has ballooned from 40 to 400 over the last decade.
He continued: “This recent shooting and killing, I’d argue, is a natural result of this buildup.”Commentators have ranged far and wide looking for historical precedents in their efforts to describe the rise of Donald Trump. Some rifle through the American experience, citing the cases of Andrew Jackson or Barry Goldwater; others rummage through the European experience, turning up the instances of Benito Mussolini or Silvio Berlusconi, Jean-Marie Le Pen or even Adolf Hitler. This makes for a club as exclusive as Mar-a-Lago, but where one mostly wears jackboots and black uniforms rather than white shoes and lime green pants.
One of the most intriguing members to this club, it appears, is Niccolò Machiavelli. From the conservative Weekly Standard and Forbes to the liberal Huffington Post and Washington Post, pundits tell us that The Prince explains The Donald’s success. (And when it is not The Prince, it is modern distillations of Machiavelli’s book like Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power.) This claim seems straightforward. The real estate magnate’s proclivity to present lies as truths, his penchant to instill fear among both supporters and opponents, his push for power for the sake nothing other than power: all of these are traits seemingly drawn from Machiavelli’s little book.
Such comparisons, however, give Trump too much credit and Machiavelli too little. While he may well be a Republican, Trump fails miserably at being a republican. As Maurizio Viroli makes clear in his short, sharp, and sobering How to Choose a Leader: Machiavelli’s Advice to Citizens, the GOP’s presidential nominee would have horrified the Florentine political thinker — not because he has grasped Machiavelli’s advice — he hasn’t — but because he scorns Machiavelli’s values.
A professor of politics at Princeton and the University of Texas, Viroli had already written several scholarly works on the life and work of Machiavelli, including an earlier version of this book published in Italy in 2014, where the specter of the buffoonish, yet brutal Berlusconi hovered over the original edition. It was just one year earlier, in 2013, that the billionaire media magnate and longest serving prime minister since WWII had finally fallen from power. By then, his career, which had transformed Italian politics into a reality television show replete with financial and sex scandals, had left deep and lasting scars in the Italian political landscape.
Trump was still an orange blip on our radar screen when Viroli revised his book for an American audience, yet the political theorist nevertheless anticipated the strangeness of our present moment. More strangely, given Machiavelli’s bad reputation, Viroli also shows, in clear and convincing language, why the author of The Prince, far from being the source of our ills, instead offers a cure.
Let’s begin with, well, the hands of a political leader. Midway through The Prince, Machiavelli declares that we must judge politicians by the hands, not the eyes. Not by the size of their hands, mind you, but by the work of their hands. In other words, a politician’s vows are verbiage until he proves otherwise. Take Pope Alexander — please, Machiavelli might have added sotto voce — a sceptered wheeler-dealer whose lies were as legion as his bastard children. Alexander “never did nor ever thought of anything but to deceive, and always found a reason for doing so.” No one swore oaths with greater flourish, Machiavelli observes, and no one broke them with fewer qualms. And yet, Alexander’s fibs never failed him for a simple reason: “He knew the weakness of men in that particular.”
We are as weak now as we were then. We still want to believe, and not the small stuff. We want, instead, to believe the big stuff. The bigger the lie, the greater our satisfaction; the greater our satisfaction, the deeper our credulity. Yet Machiavelli, contrary to popular belief, does not applaud this sort of dissimulation. Instead, he agonizes over it. Time and again, he urges citizens to exercise their reason, to beware of leaders who appeal to their passions. In troubled times, he warns, citizens turn against minorities within their countries by turning them into scapegoats. This reflex, in turn, lifts to power those who promise to protect the people against their imagined enemies. The enemy of my enemy is not just my friend; he is my leader.
How do we guard the republic — just another way of saying we, ourselves — from ourselves? Machiavelli would urge us, first, to commit ourselves to the essential virtues. Whether Machiavelli was an atheist is still debated, but also still irrelevant. The pagan virtues of ancient Rome and Greece — courage, strength, justice, and compassion — that Machiavelli praised were, he believed, also the foundations of the Christian religion. Just as there are good and bad Christians, so too is the case with atheists. An “atheist” inspired by these virtues, no less than a Christian (or Jew or Muslim), would make for an honorable leader. What Machiavelli feared, instead, was a leader who scorned both the pagan and religious varieties of these particular virtues. The sort of leader, one imagines, who mauls scripture while his followers maul opponents.
Machiavelli believed “glory” to be a great and good thing. In the pursuit of glory, individuals not only raise themselves, but they also raise their nations. Such was the case with ancient Athenians like Pericles and ancient Romans like Cato. But — and this is his second point — Machiavelli distinguished between those who seek glory and those who thirst for power. Whereas the former benefit the nation, the latter benefit only themselves; the former devoted to honor and the latter merely to a brand.
Is it not possible, though, to pursue both a personal brand and the people’s security? Why not, especially if the brand name loudly brandishes the threat of torture and terror, trade wars and real wars in order to secure his country? After all, this seems to be one of Machiavelli’s major points: “Where the very safety of the country depends upon the resolution to be taken, no considerations of justice or injustice, humanity or cruelty, nor of glory or of shame, should be allowed to prevail.” Machiavelli was not alone to believe that when the nation is truly endangered, leaders must set aside moral and religious scruples to defend it. If they refused to do so, their scruples would remain intact, but their country, not so much. As Abraham Lincoln demanded to know when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 1861: “Are all the laws but one [i.e., habeas corpus] to go unexecuted, and the government itself to go to pieces, lest that one be violated?” But a careful reading of both Lincoln and Machiavelli’s words force us to measure the distance between their stance and that of a leader who believes we should go, as Trump said, “much harder” than waterboarding suspected terrorists — even if it isn’t effective. As he shrugged: “If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway.”
Machiavelli is even more severe with the republic’s citizens than its leaders. It is, he wrote, the duty of citizens to “keep their hands on the republic.” Once again, the size of the hands is irrelevant. As Viroli argues, Machiavelli means voting, but also participating in political debate and engaging the issues as beings fully endowed with reason. While Machiavelli was criticizing the apathetic response of his fellow Florentines to political and financial corruption spawned by the Medici family, his warning is timeless. It comes with a jolt to recall that Machiavelli was a sincere democrat and republican (both, importantly, with lower case letters). As he wrote in his Discourses on Livy, citizens “seldom find that after hearing two speakers of equal ability urging them in opposite directions, they do not adopt the sounder view, or are unable to decide on the truth of what they hear.”
This belief was put to the test in 16th-century Florence and, well, it was found wanting. Come November, it may be found no less wanting in 21st-century United States. Much will depend on whether American citizens follow through with another civic duty Machiavelli lists in The Prince. He reminds his readers that common sense helps us distinguish among various troubles, and that whatever else we do, we must “choose the lesser evil.”
¤
Robert Zaretsky is LARB’s history editor. His most recent book is Boswell’s Enlightenment, and his A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning was published by Harvard in November 2013. He also teaches at the Honors College at the University of Houston.LAS VEGAS — “They won’t even approach me. It’s almost like they’re scared.”
The ravishing brunette in front of me is in her early to mid 20s. Her makeup is flawless; her hair is a case study in the perfect Victoria’s Secret-model blowout. She, along with hundreds of other models on the 2014 International CES show floor, is a variation on the definition of physical perfection.
On condition of anonymity, she’s tentatively talking to me about her experience at CES. She’s a University of Nevada, Las Vegas biology major and is married. She, like the majority of her peers, was booked to work the show through a modeling agency.
Why, aside from her obvious good looks, is she modeling? “I don’t have to work a 9-to-5, so it doesn’t affect my schoolwork.”
It makes total sense. She’s smart enough to take advantage of what her mama gave her and use it to improve her life, career, and future. She chooses, in a specific time and space, to morph into a well-informed, friendly object, more often photographed than spoken to, at countless conventions and other events throughout the always-full calendar of Las Vegas.
I ask her how the CES conventioneers treat her. As opposed to attendees at other shows, she says, most of the men and women here are shy but respectful. Would she classify them as desperate nerds? She laughs a bit nervously. “I guess so,” she says.
“And then you get the creepers who like to take photos without asking.”
That’s a pretty common complaint among the models. But they also seem to get why that happens: pure, bone-shaking intimidation.
Even I, a lady reporter, feel nervous walking up to these women. Even though I see them as well-rounded people with wonderful senses of humor, friendly attitudes, and formidable brains, their startlingly pretty appearances manage to form roadblocks of social anxiety. I can’t help but stammer and speak in a string of Freudian slips, awkward malapropisms, repetitious salvos, and incomplete sentences.
If I, a lady reporter who falls just on the lucky side of cute, have sweaty palms about approaching the models of CES, imagine how the male attendees must feel.
Again and again, the models tell me the same thing: As compared to other cons, CES is awash with nervous men. They don’t approach except to shyly ask for a photo.
One has to wonder: If CES attendees feel intimidated by a booth spokesperson, why is that spokesperson chosen to do the job? Why not let the models dress down, adopt girl-next door makeup, and actively demo the products instead of standing around in heels waiting for the next photo opp?
The four-time CES model I speak to next has some truly spectacular photo-opp stories. When attendees get courageous, they get out-and-out kinky.
“You kind of wonder where your picture’s going to end up,” she says. “I had someone ask to take a picture just of my feet. One guy asked to take a picture of me while I was wearing nude fishnets. Then, after he took the photo, he wanted to talk to me about his pantyhose fetish.”
We laugh, and I observe that she’s become a sort of sex therapist by virtue of her presence as a sexualized entity at the show.
“I do promotional modeling full-time,” she tells me, “five to 60 hours a week. During convention season, there’s a job every day.”
The CES makeup this year has shifted, she says. She estimates that three quarters of attendees are Asian businessmen — manufacturers, buyers, etc.
“It seems to be an older crowd this year,” she continues. “They’re more respectful. The younger ones in previous years used to ask for my number a lot.”
One of the most interesting women I spoke begins with a pitch — something I hoped for during these interviews.
“I guess you could call me a model-preneur!” she jokes. She’s actually familiar with VentureBeat, a tidbit that temporarily blows my mind. It’s a small world, after all.
“I love my techies,” she says. “I love seeing all the gadgets. I haven’t gotten to wander around yet. Maybe Thursday afternoon.”
She tells me that she’s a print model. She’s constantly flying around the world, living the hard-won, grueling model life.
“But I want to make my own app — for models.” We chat about the (actually really interesting) details, which I promise not to reveal in print, lest someone rip off the idea.
Some CES in the future, she plans to come back to the show floor to pitch her app to the other models. “We all know each other, you know,” she says.
During my show-floor travels, I confirmed my hypothesis that the so-called “booth babes” are worthy of so much more than objectification. But these women surprised me with some of their insights, namely that sexualizing them is bad for business.
A nameless, hot object is something you want to look at. But to get to know the person and the product she represents, you have to see her as a person.
I hope, in spite of the realities around me, that a main CES trend in years to come will be the tapering-off of the “booth babe” and the rise of a new kind of model on the trade show floor.India's total external debt declined to USD 456 billion at the end of December from end-March 2016, says a Finance Ministry report.
"India's external debt stock fell by USD 29.0 billion (6.0 per cent) to USD 456.1 billion, at end-December 2016 over the level at end-March 2016," an official statement said.
The decline in external debt during the period was due to the fall in long-term external debt, particularly the fall in NRI deposits reflecting the redemption of FCNR (B) deposits and decline in commercial borrowings with fall in both commercial bank loans and securitized borrowings, it said.
On a sequential basis, it said, total external debt at end-December 2016 declined by USD 28.1 billion (5.8 per cent) from the end-September 2016 level.
The maturity pattern of India's external debt indicates dominance of long-term borrowings. At end-December 2016, long-term external debt accounted for 81.6 per cent of India s total external debt, while the remaining 18.4 per cent was short-term debt.
Government (Sovereign) external debt stood at USD 90.7 billion at end-December 2015 while non-Government debt amounted to USD 389.5 billion, it said.
While long-term debt at USD 372.2 billion, declined by USD 29.4 billion (7.3 per cent) at end-December 2016 over the level at end-March 2016, short-term debt increased marginally by 0.5 per cent to USD 83.8 billion.
The valuation gain (appreciation of the US dollar against the Indian rupee and most other major currencies) was USD 7.3 billion.
This implies that excluding the valuation effect, the decrease in external debt would has been lower at USD 21.7 billion at end-December over end-March 2016.
The shares of Government (Sovereign) and non-Government debt in the total external debt were 19.6 per cent and 80.4 per cent respectively, at end-December 2016, it said.
"The share of US dollar denominated debt was 54.7 per cent of the total external debt at end-December 2016, followed by the Indian rupee (31.1 per cent), SDR (5.9 per cent), Japanese yen (4.4 per cent), Euro (2.7 per cent), Pound Sterling (0.7 per cent) and Others (0.5 per cent)," it said.
Many key external debt indicators of India show improvement at end-December 2016 over end-March 2016, it said.
Besides, total external debt falling by 6.0 per cent during this period, the foreign exchange cover for external debt increased to 78.7 per cent from 74.3 per cent and the ratio of concessional debt to total external debt increased to 9.2 per cent from 9.0 per cent, it said.
Though, the share of short-term debt (original maturity) in total debt increased to 18.4 per cent from 17.2 per cent during this period due to rise in trade related credits, the share of short term debt (residual maturity) in total external debt fell to 41.4 per cent from 42.6 per cent, it said.NEW YORK—On the first day of its Connect developer conference, Microsoft announced that it is joining the MariaDB Foundation, the group that oversees the development of the MariaDB database.
Connect is Microsoft's other annual developer conference. The company's big conference, Build, takes place each spring and covers the breadth of Microsoft-related development, from Windows to Azure to Office to HoloLens. Connect has tended to have something of an open source, database, and cloud spin to it. At Connect last year, Microsoft announced that it was joining the Linux Foundation. In years prior, the company has used the event to announce the open sourcing of Visual Studio Code and, before that,.net.
MariaDB is a fork of the MySQL database that's developed and maintained by many of the original MySQL contributors. In 2008, Sun Microsystems bought MySQL AB, the company that developed and created MySQL. In 2009, Oracle announced its plans to buy Sun, creating fear in the community about MySQL's future as a successful, community-developed, open-source project. To ensure that the database would continue development in spite of the purchase, the MariaDB fork was created in 2009. The subsequent development of MySQL arguably justifies those fears; while Oracle still publishes source code, the development itself happens behind closed doors, with minimal outside contributions.
To prevent MariaDB from suffering the same fate, the MariaDB Foundation was created in 2012. This foundation owns the copyright to contributions and its goal is to ensure that the project remains driven by the user community.
The MariaDB Foundation aims to address one of the common problems with open-source projects: attracting and enabling new contributors. Contributing to open source projects can often be an intimidating and difficult experience. Fixing a bug or adding a feature usually requires some familiarity with the codebase to know which part of the code needs to be changed. Once this has been done and the development work has been completed, there's then work to get the work accepted as a contribution; matching the coding standards of the project, passing the review process, justifying design decisions, and more. The MariaDB Foundation does this outreach in an effort to lower the barriers to entry.
Monty Widenius, the co-creator of MySQL and CTO of the MariaDB Foundation, says that this has been very successful; over the last year, MariaDB has received more community contributions than MySQL did over its entire lifetime. Sustaining this kind of outreach requires money; Microsoft, joining the foundation as a platinum member, will help this work continue.
Microsoft's involvement will also boost the level of Windows-specific expertise involved in MariaDB's development. MySQL has always supported Windows, but core developers, including Widenius, are primarily Linux developers, with most optimization and design catering to that operating system. Microsoft's Windows expertise should, over time, result in an improved experience on Windows.
Widenius tells us that Microsoft has already started to make contributions, with Azure being the focus. In addition to announcing the membership of the MariaDB Foundation, Microsoft said that it will soon offer a preview of Azure Database for MariaDB. This will be a fully managed, cloud-hosted version of MariaDB.Exclusive: The flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey has left thousands homeless in the greater Houston area but there also is rising concern about a biological lab in Galveston that houses deadly diseases, notes Joe Lauria.
By Joe Lauria
Concern is rising for the safety of a biological lab containing deadly diseases on Galveston island, which has been hit by the massive storm devastating southeast Texas.
The Galveston National Laboratory on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch contains samples of hundreds of viruses, insects and microbes, which could spread extreme danger if they were to escape. There are several Bio-safety Level 4 labs at Galveston. BSL-4 is the highest level precaution taken for work with agents that can be transmitted through the air and cause fatal diseases in humans for which there are no known cures.
According to its website, the high security national bio-containment lab’s mission is to develop “therapies, vaccines, and diagnostic tests for naturally occurring emerging diseases such as SARS, West Nile encephalitis and avian influenza – as well as for microbes that might be employed by terrorists.”
There has been almost no news from Galveston as journalists have reported being blocked from reaching the island because of severe flooding. There has been no reporting at all on the condition of the lab. A call to the laboratory on Tuesday immediately went to voicemail.
The lab’s website says “plans are in place to shut down and secure all laboratory operations if a hurricane landfall is predicted near Galveston.” It says that “this shut-down and decontamination can be done quickly, with all work in the facility ceasing, the lab locked down, and all infectious agents and biological and chemical material placed into safe and secure storage.”
A 2008 article in The New York Times about the laboratory said, “Each time a hurricane approaches the island, scientists will have to stop their experiments and exterminate many of the viruses and bacteria they are studying.”
Uncertain Warning
It is not clear how much warning the Galveston lab had. Last Wednesday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tweeted that “remnants of Trop. Storm Harvey have regenerated into a Tropical Depression.” On Thursday NOAA tweeted about “rapidly strengthening … Tropical Storm #Harvey as it moves toward #Texas.” Later on Thursday it upgraded the storm to a hurricane. On Friday it was declared a Category 2 hurricane on the same day it surged to Category 4 and made landfall.
The lab says that its $174 million facilities have been constructed to withstand a Category 5 storm. The eight-story buildings containing the labs have pilings into the earth 121 feet deep. All the lab facilities are at least 30 feet above ground, high enough to withstand even the most severe flooding, the website said. The building is supposed to survive 140 mph winds.
The National Weather Service has called this storm “unprecedented” and “beyond anything experienced” before. The storm has so far dropped 48 inches of rain on Houston, a record for a single storm in the continental U.S. About half a million people will need help from the federal government to recover.
With electric power out to at least 100,000 customers in southeast Texas, there is fear that electricity going out at the lab would release the pressure needed to contain the deadly bugs in their secure storage containers.
“State-of-the-art systems built into the design of the GNL help protect workers and prevent any release of infectious agents,” the lab says on its website. “Double and triple redundancies in equipment and systems help ensure that if an unexpected failure does occur, a backup is in place to maintain safety.”
Generators Need Fuel
The lab has back-up electric generators. In the event of a power failure, the Galveston National Laboratory “will have primary power plus independent backup power provided by multiple generators that are tested regularly,” the lab’s site said.
But the generators run on fuel that would have to be replenished. It is not known if the lab is accessible to emergency crews to refuel the generators, which are stored on the roof, according to the 2008 Times piece.
“As I see it the existential problem is this: What happens if and when the fuel for the back-up generators runs out?” asked University of Illinois professor Francis Boyle, an expert in biological weapons. “The negative air pressure that keeps (the) bugs in there ends. And (the) bugs can then escape.”
Boyle drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention. He said in an email that he believes the Pentagon should send a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical control team to Galveston to secure the lab.
The lab says it maintains “impeccable, explicit, and transparent safety standards at all levels of biological containment, consistent with federal laws and guidelines.” But Boyle points out a legal difference in language between being “consistent” with the law and being “compliant” with it.
“This is a typical lawyer’s dodge,” said Boyle, an international lawyer. “For example, Bush Jr. repeatedly stated that he would treat detainees ‘consistent with’ the Geneva Conventions, and not ‘in compliance with’ the Geneva Conventions, thus setting the basis for their abuse.”
In a 2103 incident, the Galveston lab lost track of a lethal hemorrhagic fever virus sample. It is not believed to have escaped the facility, however. The release of hundreds of samples because of a power failure could present a different scenario.
Labs Hit by Hurricanes
There have been examples of severe storms causing widespread damage at bio labs. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Tulane University School of Medicine “lost years of research,” according to the journal Nature Medicine. “Tulane University … sat stranded in floodwaters for weeks,” the journal reported. “When the backup generators failed, so did the freezers and refrigerators. In the sweltering heat of a New Orleans summer, it didn’t take long for the contents to spoil.”
The world’s largest collection of lymphoma samples from rhesus macaques infected with simian immunodeficiency virus was lost.
When Hurricane Ike struck Galveston in 2008, some labs on the University of Texas Medical Branch campus “lost backup power, which meant that freezers thawed,” the journal reported. It took three to four years for the university to recover. Galveston National Laboratory survived Ike, a Category 2 storm, without any damage.
When the Laboratory was built many people questioned the wisdom of putting BSL-4 labs in the path of hurricanes. “The University of Texas should consider locating its biohazards lab away from Galveston Island and out of harm’s way,” Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, told the Times a month before the lab opened in November 2008. “As destructive as it was, Hurricane Ike was only a Category 2 storm. A more powerful storm would pose an even greater threat of a biohazards release,” Kramer said.
“It’s crazy, in my mind,” Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer in Houston, told the Times. “I just find an amazing willingness among the people on the Texas coast to accept risks that a lot of people in the country would not accept.”
Joe Lauria is a veteran foreign-affairs journalist. He has written for the Boston Globe, the Sunday Times of London and the Wall Street Journal among other newspapers. He is the author of “How I Lost By Hillary Clinton” published by OR Books. He can be reached at joelauria@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @unjoe.Musically, this is one of those very few perfect albums. I discovered them on Pandora, and immediately became a huge fan. However, there is one glaring problem with the CD. The "2:54" isn't actually printed on the album cover. It's a big sticker that's completely attached to the plastic wrapping, which you can't see until you remove it. Fortunately, I was able to salvage it and stick it on, although the edges are now in bad shape. I've never seen anything like that, and I can't imagine why they did it. I guess it's not a huge deal, but if I'm trying to find a CD in the car, it's much easier to actually see what I'm grabbing if I haven't memorized what the cover looks like.
Like I said, the music is perfect, and the problem with the case itself doesn't bring my opinion down.U.S. flags fly with Chinese flag outside the White House. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
(CNSNews.com) - The money the U.S. government owes to foreign entities rose to a record $5.2923 trillion in June, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Wednesday afternoon.
In May, the U.S. Treasury had owed $5.2581 trillion to foreign entities. On net, in June, the U.S. government borrowed an additional $34.2 billion from foreign entities in order to fund U.S. government operations.
The U.S. government’s indebtedness to foreign interests has grown by 72.3 percent during President Barack Obama’s term in office. In January 2009, when Obama was inaugurated, the U.S. government owed $3.0717 trillion to foreign entities, according to the Treasury Department. That has increased by $2.2206 trillion—or 72.3 percent—to the record $5.2923 trillion reported for yesterday.
Entities in the People’s Republic of China remain the largest holders of U.S. government debt. Entities in Japan, however, are on track to eclipse the Chinese as the top holders of U.S. government debt.
In June, the Chinese held $1.1643 trillion in U.S. government debt, up slightly from the $1.1640 trillion in U.S. government debt the Chinese held in May. However, Chinese ownership of U.S. government debt hit an historical peaked of $1.3149 trillion in July 2011 and has been on a generally downward trend since then.
Entities in Japan, by contrast, have been consistently increasing their ownership of U.S. government debt. In June, the Japanese owned $1.1193 trillion in U.S. debt. In May, they owned $1.1089 trillion in U.S. debt. A year ago, in June 2011, the Japanese owned only $881.5 in U.S. government debt.
Although the Chinese maintained their place as the top foreign owners of U.S. debt in June, they are not the top owners of U.S. debt in the world. That distinction belongs to the U.S. Federal Reserve, which according to its July monthly report, owned $1.667 trillion in U.S. government debt in June.
As of the end of June, the total debt of the federal government was $15,856,367,214,324.44. However, of that debt, $4,812,182,369,712.78 was money the federal government owed to itself (i.e. money the Treasury had borrowed from federal trust funds such as the Social Security Trust Fund, etc.). The Treasury calls this type of debt “intragovernmental” debt. The remaining $11,044,184,844,611.66 the federal government owed as of the end of June was debt held by the “public.” This is debt in the form of Treasury securities the government is obligated to pay off in cash.
The combined $6.9593 trillion that U.S. Treasury owed both to foreign entities ($5.2923 trillion) and the Federal Reserve ($1.667 trillion) at the end of June, equaled about 63 percent of the federal government’s debt held by the public.A couple from South Africa received an escort from the Miami police marine patrol as they completed a massive voyage which put them into the record books. (Source: CBS4)
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A couple from South Africa received an escort from the Miami police marine patrol as they completed a massive voyage which put them into the record books.
Just after noon Riann Manser and Vasti Geldenhuys arrived at the Miamarina at Bayside Market Place, making them the first to row from mainland Africa to mainland North America.
“The City of Miami is honored to welcome these two courageous adventurers as they touch U.S. soil for the first time in our City,” Mayor Tomas Regalado said in a statement.
The duo left Morocco on December 30th with no support boat. The made the grueling 8,500 kilometer crossing of the Atlantic in a seven meter ocean rowing boat named the “Spirit of Madiba” after Nelson Mandela.
Manser said the idea started a year ago when his girlfriend expressed interest in going to New York.
“I jumped at the opportunity and I said yes, we will go to New York but we’ll do it my way and here is the way,” said Manser.
The journey had its ups, and surely had its downs for the couple.
“I call it angry because the seas are so huge,” said Geldenhuys. “The boat capsized. We fell out of the boat. Riaan got separated from the boat, he caught the fishing line. If he hadn’t, he would have been lost at sea.”
But the good times on the journey couldn’t be ignored.
“But there were highlights too, wildlife, whales joining us for hours, dolphins by the hundreds, catching awesome fish,” said Manser. “Bonding with Vasti and knowing her better than I have in 14 years.”
Other boaters who happened to come across the couple couldn’t believe what they were doing.
When the pair finally pulled up to a pier at Bayside after 105 days at sea, the euphoria set in.
“It’s like you’re doing something amazing in your life and that’s what people should do.”
But when asked if they would do it again. The response?
“Never. Never”
<strong>RELATED CONTENT:</strong>A Muslim school has failed an Ofsted inspection after investigators found extreme books in its library promoting stoning to death.
The watchdog’s inspectors said they discovered three texts promoting inequality of women and illegal punishment during a ‘brief visit’ to Jamiatul Ummah School in Tower Hamlets, East London.
The books found at the all-boys private secondary school - which has annual fees of £3,400 - also undermined the rule of British law, according to inspectors in a report published two weeks ago.
Fail: Ofsted inspectors said they discovered three texts promoting inequality of women and illegal punishment during a ‘brief visit’ to Jamiatul Ummah School (pictured) in Tower Hamlets, East London
The school, which insists it ‘condemns all forms of extremism unequivocally’, said it has removed the texts following the inspection and is carrying out an audit on the rest of its materials.
The report said: ‘The concern is that during a very brief tour of the library inspectors found three books that undermine the active promotion of the rule of British law and respect for other people.
‘The books promote inequality of women and punishments, including stoning to death, which are illegal in Britain and which do not reflect the school’s ethos of tolerance and integration.
‘Staff have not been sufficiently vigilant about the availability of inappropriate texts in the library or sufficiently aware of the potential for unwittingly promoting extreme views.’
Inspection: The books found at the all-boys private secondary school (above) - which has annual fees of £3,400 - also undermined the rule of British law, according to inspectors in a report published two weeks ago
Response: The school, which insists it ‘condemns all forms of extremism unequivocally’, said it has removed the texts following the inspection and is carrying out an audit on the rest of its materials
The unannounced investigation at the school, which teaches 158 boys aged 11 to 16, was carried out on November 25, and is the third inspection Jamiatul Ummah has failed since October 2014.
DAMNING VERDICT ON SIX SCHOOLS A series of damning reports on six London schools - including Jamiatul Ummah - where students were said to be 'vulnerable to extremists and radicalisation' was released in November 2014. Inspectors said the curriculum at Jamiatul Ummah was too narrow, with too few chances to promote personal, social and health education, citizenship or careers. There was a good range of opportunities for students to study and practise their Islamic faith, the report said. But it added: 'In other respects students are not provided with a broad and balanced curriculum. Students do not have opportunities to learn about music or art [or] design and technology.' Ofsted warned it was failing to comply with legal requirements for making checks on staff, putting students' safety at risk. Despite these concerns, inspectors did find that students said they felt safe in the school and bullying was rare. It added that pupils' behaviour was good, and that youngsters were pleasant and polite. In response, the school said it was 'profoundly disappointed' by the report, and it was committed to improvement.
The library has been locked since July 2015 but inspectors said students previously had access to the books.
In response, a school spokesman said: ‘Our position in respect to extremism is very clear, we condemn all forms of extremism unequivocally and this is recognised by Ofsted.
‘We recognise the concerns raised by Ofsted in respect of three books in the library, however, as Ofsted rightly noted, the |
deities of Maya mythology. According to Carlos Morales-Aguilar, a Guatemalan archaeologist from Pantheon-Sorbonne University, the city appears to have been planned from its foundation, as extraordinary alignments have been found between the architectural groups and main temples, which were possibly related to solar alignments.[11] The study reflects an importance of urban planning and sacred spaces since the first settlers.
Stucco friezes at El Mirador that adorned the banks of a water-collecting system.
An additional feature of El Mirador is the quantity and size of causeways, internally linking important architectural compounds, and externally linking the numerous major ancient cities within the Mirador Basin during the latter part of the Middle and Late Preclassic periods. The causeways are commonly referred to as sacbeob (the plural form of sacbe, meaning "white road" in Mayan, from sac "white" and be "road"). These are raised stone causeways raising 2 to 6 meters above the level of the surrounding landscape and measuring from 20 to 50 meters wide. One sacbe links El Mirador to the neighbouring site of Nakbe, approximately 12 km away, while another joined El Mirador to El Tintal, 20 km away.
While the city and the sister centers of the Mirador Basin thrived between 300 BCE and the Common Era (CE), apparently, the site was abandoned, as were nearly all other major sites in the area, by about 150 CE. A large wall, which must have been as high as 3 to 8 meters, had been constructed on the entire northern, eastern, and southern portions of the West Group of the city prior to its abandonment in the terminal Preclassic period, suggesting a possible threat that had been perceived by this time.[12]
Another aspect that may have led to the downfall of the system, was soil erosion due to deforestation. The Maya were fond of plastering buildings, houses, floors and even ceramics with layers of lime plaster called stucco. This plaster created a nice smooth surface which facilitated painting. With this stucco, the Maya created many astonishingly beautiful artifacts, as well as smooth-walled pyramids and 'paved' roads. But a darker side to this production became evident when consumption started to evolve into conspicuous consumption. The production of lime needs a large amount of wood. Archeologists have calculated that for the production of 1 ton of lime cement, 5 tonnes of limestone and 5 tonnes of wood were needed. Also, dry wood was not suitable due to the large fluctuations in temperature, as a stable temperature was needed to properly burn the limestone. To accomplish this, green wood was needed. So the Maya cut down every available green tree in the area.[6]
Excavations in and around the bajos (swamps) revealed the effects of deforestation. When trees vanish, the soil becomes loose and is easily transported by water (e.g. rain). Also, water flows downhill, and the only places in the Basin where it could flow to, were these bajos. The nutrient-rich muck that was so vigorously imported from the bajos was now buried under a 2 to 3 metre thick layer of sterile clay. This cut-off the driving force behind the sustainable agricultural fields. When you cannot replenish your crop fields, more and more harvests start to fail. In the end the failing crop fields led to starvation and collapse of society.[6]
In the Late Classic period, ca 700 CE, portions of the site were reoccupied on a more modest scale, with small structures nestled among the ruins of the great preclassic center. The largest structure from this time period is scarcely more than 8 meters high, and many of the preclassic building were plundered for stone materials for construction and lime making. The Late Classic occupants however, were noted scribes and artists.[13] The area of the Mirador Basin is the only known source of the "codex-style ceramics", a particularly fine polychrome ceramic consisting of black line drawings on a cream colored background. The Late Classic occupation was brief, and by about 900 CE, the area was again nearly completely abandoned, and remains so until the present time.
Today [ edit ]
Richard D. Hansen, an archaeologist from Idaho State University, is the current director of the Mirador Basin Project, and according to his discoveries here, he thinks that the more than 45 mapped sites in the Mirador Basin may have formed the earliest well-defined political state in Mesoamerica.[14]
Exposed stonework at El Mirador in 2000
Although containing striking examples of Preclassic Maya civilization, the remote location of El Mirador has prevented it from becoming a popular tourist site. Major plans by the current government of Guatemala include El Mirador as an important center of the Cuatro Balam Conservation and Development project.
Threats to Mirador [ edit ]
This large concentration of Preclassic Maya cities in Mesoamerica is threatened by massive deforestation, looting, and destruction caused by equipment used in logging road construction, which itself facilitates intrusive settlements.[15] The Mirador Basin in the far northern Petén region of Guatemala is known for its abundance of sites, many of which are among the largest and earliest in the Maya world. Of 26 known sites, only 14 have been studied; an estimated 30 more await discovery. By the time scholars get there, looters may already have plundered them:
"Trafficking in Maya artifacts is big business. George S. Stuart of the National Geographic Society has suggested that 1,000 pieces of fine pottery leave the Maya region each month, not an unreasonable estimate in light of the site damage observed. The most sought-after finds are codex-style ceramics, Late Classic (600–900 CE) black-line-on-cream pottery depicting mythological and historical events. Looters are often paid between $200 and $500 per vessel. Collectors may pay more than $100,000 for the same pieces in a gallery or at auction. At even minimal prices this amounts to a $10-million-a-month business in stolen cultural property. Collecting Precolumbian art is often viewed as a justifiable means of preserving the past. It is, in fact, a destructive and sometimes violent business, as attested to by the recent assassination in Carmelita of Carlos Catalán, a local chiclero who had become a staunch opponent of looting in Petén."[16]
Since 2003, California-based non-profit organization Global Heritage Fund (GHF) has been working to preserve and protect Mirador.[17] In an October 2010 report titled Saving Our Vanishing Heritage, GHF listed Mirador as one of 12 worldwide heritage sites most "On the Verge" of irreparable loss and destruction, citing deforestation, fires, major logging, poaching, looting, and narcotics trafficking as major threats to the region.[18]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Hi Everyone this is Boke. I wanted to start out as a subber, and Blue was kind enough to let me use her website (and post the episode for me because my computer broke down). This was supposed to be a practice episode for me, so there are a few problems with the subs’ formatting and maybe some typos, sorry about that. I want to say a big thank you to Blue, and also to all the other posters who encourage me to do this.
This episode of Nogibingo!2 is a Munekyun battle, “mune” meaning chest and “kyun” being that butterfly-like feeling you get when something terribly romantic or exciting happens. There will be three rounds with three members competing to show just how cute they can really be, and the judgement will be handed down by the lenient Nakada, the strict Kawago and the old man character Ikoma. At the last minute we’ll also see two members emerge from the onlookers to take the challenge themselves, who will it be?
Enjoy!
Softsubs (.ass): [BokeSubs] Nogibingo 2 EP11
Original Air Date: 3/21/14
Featuring: Hashimoto Nanami, Ikuta Erika, Noujou Ami, Matsumura Sayuri, Etou Misa, Akimoto Manatsu, Takayama Kazumi, Nishino Nanase, Wakatsuki Yumi, Ikoma Rina, Nakada Kana, Fukagawa Mai and Kawago Hina
Translated/timed/subbed/etc. by: Boke
Follow Boke on twitter if you’d like!: @bokesubsShadow of War PC Patch Notes v1.06
Free Updates and Features (Included in the patch)
Endless Siege: Defend your fortresses against Sauron’s forces as the Dark Lord tries to reclaim Mordor in the Endless Siege.
Rebellion: Crush the Rebellion that sweeps Mordor as your followers band together and try to overthrow you.
Enhanced Photo Mode: Capture every battle and siege and apply new filters, frames, and textures with the Enhanced Photo Mode update.
Slaughter Tribe Nemesis Expansion DLC (Now available for purchase)
Slaughter Tribe: The Uruks and Ologs from the Slaughter tribe are coming, bringing their own unique weapons, fighting style and a new fortress theme to Mordor.
Tribal Showdown: Face down Captains from the Slaughter tribe in Tribal Showdowns, with each showdown bringing unique challenges to complete.
Tribal War Band: Aid your ally and defeat your nemesis when facing off in the new Tribal War Bands quests as Captains from the Slaughter tribe bring their own forces to clash.
Legendary Gear Set: The Slaughter tribe brings their own Legendary gear set with new upgrade challenges. Accomplish these and bring your power to new levels!
Blood Ambush: Repel Captains from the Slaughter tribe in a Blood Ambush as they’ve learned that safety in numbers provides quite an advantage.
Additional Fixes
Fixed a number of issues where the player could encounter an infinite loading screen.
Addressed a number of instances where Talion could get stuck within specific objects, which would force the player to have to restart the game.
Fixed a few issues where Talion could fall outside of the environment, which would force the player to have to restart the game.
Fixed a few issues where a message that reads “Invalid ID” could appear in specific instances.
Fixed an incorrect tutorial message for poisoning a nearby barrel that would ask the player to hold the button rather than press the button.
Followers will no longer die from bleed out if they are on a fortress wall that gets destroyed; they will now safely teleport to the ground.
The following content and features will be added to your game upon purchase of the Slaughter Tribe Nemesis Expansion DLC. Please note that if you currently own the Expansion Pass, this content is included with your pass.Buy Photo Boudin (Photo: Advertiser file photo)Buy Photo
Three Cajun food retailers — Don's Specialty Meats, The Best Stop Supermarket and Romero's Grocery — have been ordered to pay more than $586,000 for labor law violations.
The news comes just nine months after another Cajun food business, Billy's Boudin & Cracklins, was ordered to pay more than $130,000 in back wages and penalties.
Investigators with the U.S. Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division recently found that Don's, The Best Stop and Romero's owed more than $571,000 to employees for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The businesses face another $14,746 in penalties for willfully violating the law, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Here's a breakdown by business of what is owed:
Don’s Specialty Meats: Will pay $480,313 in back wages and liquidated damages to 133 workers.
Will pay $480,313 in back wages and liquidated damages to 133 workers. The Best Stop Supermarket: Has paid $56,386 in back wages and liquidated damages to 36 workers. The employer was also assessed $10,819 in civil money penalties for willful violations.
Has paid $56,386 in back wages and liquidated damages to 36 workers. The employer was also assessed $10,819 in civil money penalties for willful violations. Romero’s Grocery: Has paid $35,053 in back wages and liquidated damages to 33 workers. The employer was also assessed $3,927 in civil money penalties for willful violations.
BACKGROUND: Scott boudin biz owes $138,000 in back wages, penalties
The Cajun food retailers violated labor law by:
Failing to pay workers for all hours they worked, including 15 minutes spent before and after scheduled shifts counting cash drawers.
Deducting wages from workers’ pay illegally for cash register shortages which effectively brought their wages below the required federal minimum wage.
Paying straight time rates, in cash “off the books,” for overtime hours worked.
The Department of Labor would not disclose what prompted the investigations or disclose if other Cajun food markets are currently under investigation.
Many investigations begin with anonymous complaints, but sometimes a group of businesses in a region will be examined, according to Juan J. Rodriguez, who works in the Department of Labor's public affairs office in Dallas.
"In addition to complaints, the Wage and Hour Division selects certain types of businesses or industries for investigation," Rodriguez wrote in an email to The Advertiser. "The division focuses its enforcement efforts on low-wage industries, for example, because of high rates of violations or egregious violations, the employment of vulnerable workers, or rapid changes in an industry such as growth or decline. Occasionally, a number of businesses in a specific geographic area will be examined."
Romero's Grocery co-owner Kenny Suire said he had to sell off investments to pay what he owed.
"Our business is very slow with the economy," Suire said. "I didn't have the money here, and none of my employees felt that I owed them anything. Every one of them said they didn't want the check because they're paid fairly, but they had to take it by law."
Romero’s Grocery, operating as SHYY Inc., disguised wage payments as “reimbursements” to employees to avoid paying overtime and provided federal investigators with falsified time records to falsely show they had paid workers as required by federal law, according to the press release.
Suire said he asked his employees to arrive 15 minutes early before clocking in so they wouldn't be rushed. Because he paid for employee breaks, Suire figured "it paid for itself."
"None of these businesses around — including us — are out there to take away from employees," Suire said. "We all do what's best for our employees while doing what's best for ourselves too. I know we all learned from this. We don't want the public to think we're not paying people. We pay our employees right. We didn't do it legally, but we paid them."
RELATED: Don's owner 'overwhelmed' by fire, community response
Investigators determined that the violations committed by The Best Stop and Romero’s Grocery were willful, prompting them to extend the period of time covered by the investigation.
Don’s Specialty Meats made illegal pre-employment arrangements with workers to only pay for a specified number of hours on payroll checks and to pay for the remainder of their hours in cash, all at the workers’ regular hourly rates, even if overtime was worked, according to the press release.
Don's owner Mark "Aubrey" Cole declined to comment for the story.
Calls made to The Best Stop were not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
In addition to paying back wages, liquidated damages and penalties, all three employers entered into enhanced compliance agreements with the department to resolve the investigations.
They agreed to provide annual training for managers on complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act, and to provide FLSA handy reference guides to employees at the time of hire, among other terms.
Read or Share this story: https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2016/12/01/3-local-food-retailers-ordered-pay-571k-back-wages-penalties/94734784/For just £2.50, buyer of winning ticket for Friday night’s draw will bank biggest-ever jackpot to be offered in Britain
Someone like you: winner of £168m EuroMillions jackpot will be richer than Adele
A very, very lucky person could be propelled to 671st place on Britain’s rich list – for the price of a £2.50 lottery ticket.
At £168m, Friday night’s National Lottery draw is the biggest-ever jackpot to be offered in the UK. A single winner would become richer than the chef Jamie Oliver, the multiple F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton and the singer Adele.
Irish ticket lands almost €89m in Euromillions lottery Read more
The record-breaking prize has accumulated after no player in Europe managed to match all five numbers and two lucky stars in Tuesday’s £167m draw. According to the competition’s rules, the prize fund can go no higher than €190m – £168m at Friday’s exchange rate – where it will remain for four more draws.
If nobody matches all seven numbers on the fifth, the prize money will roll down to the next tier of winners where there is at least one winner, most likely those who match five numbers and a single lucky star.
But if a single ticket scoops the top prize – at odds of about 140m to one, according to the EuroMillions website – it would create the UK and Europe’s biggest ever winner.
Players have been urged to buy their tickets early, with a 200% boost in sales expected for the draw. Camelot estimates that more than 26,000 tickets could be sold every minute in the hour before the draw closes at 7.30pm.
“The extraordinary sum would be life-changing whether won by an individual or syndicate, and we have plenty of champagne on ice ready to celebrate,” said Andy Carter, the National Lottery’s senior winners’ adviser.
“It would enable them to transform their life, as well as the lives of their friends and family, and we are ready to support them from the moment they claim.”
The current record holders are Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in North Ayrshire, Scotland, who won £161m in 2011. UK winners have scooped five EuroMillions jackpots so far this year, with the biggest won by an anonymous ticketholder who banked £87m.Allegri: ‘Didn’t try to keep Pogba…’
By Football Italia staff
Juventus Coach Massimiliano Allegri admits he “did nothing” to try to keep Paul Pogba - “when the club told me the numbers…”
The French midfielder left the Bianconeri last summer to return to Manchester United, with the English club paying €105m plus another €5m in bonuses.
Allegri has given an interview to Sky about his career, and following his words about Leonardo Bonucci and the Champions League final, he spoke about his arrival in Turin and transfers.
“I was helping my daughter move from Milan,” Allegri recalled when asked about being appointed.
“It was at a time when I seemed to be destined for the national team. At five I got a call saying the President [Andrea Agnelli] wanted to talk to me. Then I saw a message saying [Antonio] Conte had resigned and I understood.
“I was happy, because I thought there was a lot more the team could do, particularly in Europe.
“Conte did well, but the credit goes to everyone, starting with the club, because it’s hard for a Coach to do it all himself.
“The hostile reception? The fans were rightly tied to Conte because he’s got them back to winning, I analysed the squad in a calm manner.”
Then after his first season Carlos Tevez, Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal were all sold…
“Tevez and Pirlo made a choice, Vidal was a market opportunity that Juventus decided to exploit, along with me. The year after was different.
“All three years were different, the first year we just had to grow in Europe without disturbing anything.
“Then in the second year with 10 new players, the veterans didn’t recognise the dressing room, it took time to start again in a different way.
“I didn’t ask for [Gonzalo] Higuain, but I did give directions and I said it was necessary to improve.
“Pogba or Paulo Dybala? Dybala’s game is easier on the eye, but Pogba is extraordinary because he has physicality and technique.
“I did nothing to keep Pogba, also because when the club told me the numbers…”Campaigners in Greystones, Co Wicklow, are seeking a judicial review over the siting of a proposed McDonald’s restaurant in the town.
Residents want a "no fry zone" and say it is disgraceful the multi-national wants to build a fast-food outlet within 300 metres of three schools.
There are also a number of large housing estates nearby.
McDonald’s wants to build a drive-through restaurant on land in Blacklion, Greystones, which is currently owned by supermarket chain Lidl. It is beside the Greystones/Bray road.
After an initial hearing McDonald’s resubmitted a planning application which included a health and fitness area.
An Bord Pleanála has now decided to let the development go ahead.
Objectors said they have no issue with McDonalds coming to Greystones, but do not want it on the site currently proposed.
The site is close to Temple Carrig Secondary School, Greystones Educate Together National School & Gaelscoil na gCloch Liath.
Catherine Sadlier, principal of the Educate Together School, said some of the children's classrooms will be looking out directly on McDonald’s if it is built.
She said she is very disappointed with permission being granted for the development.
In a statement, McDonald's Ireland said it has engaged extensively with Wicklow County Council in advance of obtaining planning permission.
It said the investment of €2m will create 60 jobs in the locality.
It also said that McDonald's often seeks to locate new restaurants close to large retail outlets which are appropriately zoned in accordance with planning guidelines, while at the same time having the capacity to facilitate a drive-through.
Proximity to schools is not a factor in assessing suitable locations for new restaurants, it said.
But Basil Miller, one of the objectors, disagreed, and quoted from an online CBS news report from America from 11 December last year which he said shows that McDonald’s said it wants to be in schools.
Lidl, which owns the land where the restaurant is going, said no final decision has been made as to what to it is going to do.
Also against the proposal are residents groups of three housing developments in the direct vicinity - Blacklion Manor Residents Committee, Redford Park & St Crispins Residents Association & Rathdown Park Residents Association.
The three sitting North Wicklow TDs, Anne Ferris, Simon Harris and Stephen Donnelly, are also against it, as are all six councillors across five parties in the Greystones Municipal District Council.Luckily for us, there are a lot of awesome things out there that Uncle Sam amazingly hasn't taken away from us yet. Read this article, and then go and pick up one of everything while you still can!
Drugs, artillery emplacements, napalm, prostitution - sometimes it seems like the best things in life are illegal. For some reason, the fascists who control this country don't believe in your God given right to smoke meth and man a 155-millimeter Howitzer.
7 Flamethrowers
Holy Shit, Really?
Yes. There are currently no federal laws governing or restricting the ownership of flame-throwing devices. Some states have laws restricting possession of flamethrowers, with violations only considered to be misdemeanors, but 40 states have absolutely no laws whatsoever concerning flamethrowers. Only in America would a device capable of launching rivers of fire at people be less regulated than marijuana.
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Careful with that pot, it looks dangerous.
Where Can I Get One?
You can sometimes find professionally made flamethrowers being sold by private buyers online, some for as little as $300. Also, if you're unsure on how to use your new device, but you want the source of your advice to be batshit insane, you could pick up Ragnar Benson's delightful read, Breath Of The Dragon: Homebuilt Flamethrowers, which we can only hope comes with a cellphone with the numbers 9 and 1 already dialed.
What Should I Do With it?
Actually using your flamethrower is somewhat more difficult than acquiring it. It seems that lawmen these days have rules about when and where you're allowed to shoot gallons of flaming fuel. We recommend making friends with someone who owns a few acres of land out in the country and then going hog wild. If you accidentally start a wildfire, don't fret: Flamethrowers are just as good at stopping fires as they are at starting them. Just burn everything around the fire to cinders, and it won't have anywhere to spread!
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Holy Balls, Why is it Legal?
Cracked cannot overstate the importance of destroying the horrifying bee menace. As a potent combination of "deadly" and "too small to shoot," the Africanized Honey Bee is quite possibly mankind's most dangerous enemy. Enter the flamethrower: your first, last, and only line of defense against the black and yellow hordes. In 1968, Brazilian firefighters armed with flamethrowers defended a group of children from the onslaught of buzzing death. This is apparently not an uncommon happening in nations fighting off the advancing bee legions.If you asked Aaron Draplin how he gets so much done, he’ll pretty much tell you that he doesn’t know any other way. Outsiders can easily attribute the designer’s success to “hard work” but they’d be severely understating Draplin’s maniacal blue-collar hustle as he has painstakingly built his career, brick-by-brick, into a wide-ranging empire.
The Portland-based designer has his hands in a wide range of projects—like creating top notch logos for clients, making merch for his favorite bands, or getting designers fired up at his 40-plus speaking dates per year. And if client work for folks like Nike, Burton, and President Obama weren’t enough, Draplin has a healthy portfolio of self-commissioned work and businesses— like his brand of notebooks (Field Notes) and the Draplin Design Company (or DDC)—that generate just as much revenue as the logos he is known for.
We sat down with Draplin to find out how he keeps the DDC factory floor operating at full capacity day and night, his lucky break that started his series of “speaking fiascos,” and his successful transition from employee to freelancer where he tripled his wage in one year.
—
You do a lot of things beyond just sitting in front of your computer hammering out logos and Powerpoints for your clients. How do you break it all up through your year?
I’m slowing down with the logos…. and I do Field Notes, maybe a couple of days a month. The speaking gigs take a lot of time and it’s fun to be on the road. The good thing is, I can get a lot done on the plane. Everyone wants to take you out for a drink but I don’t even really drink; I’m kind of saving that for some point later in my life maybe!
So I’ll go back to the hotel room and work… A normal day is to just rip down to my shop. I always have a list of things to do in my Field Notes and I tackle what’s at the top of the list. If it’s a logo, then I’m doing that… I’m just trying to enjoy this (and make a shit wag of money of course). I take care of a lot of people with this stuff—will I slow down? I guess so, but I don’t really know how to.
How did you decide you were going to become a professional designer?
I started living my wild life at 19 when I decided to leave Michigan and head out West to Mt. Bachelor to snowboard full time. When I was 22 it was my fourth winter as a snowboarder and it was fun, but I asked myself, “Was I really making leaps in my life?” I was into design and had already gone to work in Alaska to save for a computer and I had friends who worked for snowboard companies making graphics, but those guys had gone to design school. So I went to design school as I felt that you needed to have a degree to even get hired, which of course is total bullshit.
So I went to design school as I felt that you needed to have a degree to even get hired, which of course is total bullshit.
However the blessing there was that going to school allowed me to go and spend two years and have this incredible discourse about design. Some of it was very fluffy and some of it very elite, but some of it was also very down-to-earth where it was confirmed to me that it was how I wanted to make a living. It taught me that I was ready to go.
Does coming from an action sports background affect your aesthetic?
I’d like to think that what I did what was appropriate for that world. Riding snowboards really pushed me to make things that I wouldn’t really make, but those things were right for their line … Designers should have styles, but when clients call you, do what is appropriate for them. If it works out that it happens to be your style, then great. If not, then you have to go and figure out new territory.
You worked full time for a studio job before going into the contract world, what was that like?
I did studio work just long enough— two years—to get freaked out because we were spending so much time talking about shit, making a lot of design, and then debating it in meetings and it was kind of wasteful. It’s not their fault, it’s just the process. It just scared me and I thought, “I don’t want to be in the situation where I don’t like what I work on, so I’ve got to jump out.” We’d play ping-pong all day and it was awesome but at the end of the day I thought, “What am I doing?” We’d still have to be in there at 9 a.m. just to try to sneak out of there by 7.30 p.m. and I was like I could have come in from 12 to 4 and just slayed it and gone home! It’s what inspired me to go out on my own. Because when I went out on my own I could just build the day to whatever I wanted it to be.
I went out on my own I could just build the day to whatever I wanted it to be.
What does the staff of D.D.C (Draplin Design company) consist of?
It’s me! Well, my girlfriend Leigh does the shipping, but otherwise it’s me. All the management, all the billing, all the check cashing, oh God, I love cashing those fucking checks!… All the behind the scenes work is me, account management to janitorial services! To answer your question, why is anyone doing design work? We are doing it for the love of it, sure. That’s why I value my side projects like Field Notes and my thick line posters, but why am I making these logos? Because you make fucking money!
You talk about making a plan and sticking to your plan. Did you have a plan at the beginning, and do you still have a plan now?
The planning is really this: Is my rent paid? Yeah. Is my car payment paid? Yeah. Is my insurance paid? Yeah. Then what happens when you have all that paid off and you kind of go, “There’s no more house and car payment and everything is in the positive”? You have this level of freedom, an internal freedom where you can be like, “Why don’t I make some really cool posters? What’s the risk? If they don’t sell I’ll give them to my buddies!” And then they started to sell.
And then there’s the first time someone likes what you do and then comes and says, “Come speak to us.” And then suddenly I’m on a plane making this presentation and they dug it! That was the first time speaking at an event and I was filling in for legendary graphic designer David Carson, a big name.
And suddenly then I’m making room to do the merchandise for all these speaking tours I am doing. Then that takes off, I have now done over 180 speaking dates, 42 last year alone. It’s kind of scaring me. It’s nice to have the money coming in but now I have to make room for less logos just to handle the merch. There is no planning for that, it just sort of happens.
How do you judge success for a project, whether it’s client work for Target or merch for a friend’s small music gig?
Did I meet their brief? Did they love it? Do I love it, selfishly? Does it work in context? That’s my bar. Can I make them something that makes them feel successful with what their message is? A lot of that comes down to the client. Are they happy with it? Done.
How far do you push clients, to get your way?
Here’s you how you make a good logo: You show them good shit. Seriously, if you give them bullshit then they are going to find a way to be bummed. But if you sense that you have put your best foot forward and show them work you think is awesome and they kill it, then get out and drop the client. Because it’s not going to get it any better. Push it through a couple of rounds and then say, “You know what guys, I’m not the right fit. I’m going to go and take naps instead of doing this.”
How close is the viral video you made—”Make a logo in 15 Minutes” (above)—to your actual process?
Sometimes you have to sketch, sketch, sketch and sketch and sketch and sketch. You have to put in the work. You have to put the muscle in… It’s not necessarily reality but it’s fun to see, but that is the normal process. Sometimes you nail one right away and other times it takes a couple of weeks and you show a bunch of stuff.
You’re on record saying that designers should be wary of certain business professionals: telemarketers, TSA agent, transportation security, pickpockets, DMV professionals, horse thieves, tax collectors, and web-developers. Why web developers?
It’s a joke: Web developers are going to inherit the world. Whatever stupid app web developers are already developing that is going to die tomorrow and won’t work for me later on tonight, they make the money from that. Can I laugh at the relationship that a web developer holds over a graphic designer? Yes, I can. Because they hold the keys and wield them the way they want… But I’ve got tons of buddies who are web developers and they love that joke. Because those guys make a shit ton of money, as they should.
Did you have a moment when you felt like you hit the big leagues?
There’ve been some clients like Nike, or when I worked on the Mr. Obama thing … But it’s tough because the taste in my mouth wasn’t all that good, because the bigger the job, the more complicated it is. It’s more like whatever amalgamation of whatever I did that stacked up allowed me to pay off my house, that’s when it feels like the big time! It’s like a soft explosion in me, it really snuck up on me. I just thought, “You have made a living doing what you like and it’s going really good, so do not fuck this up!” I didn’t feel like I made it because of one job but because of all the tiny steps. By hopefully going the extra mile, and when someone complained about something I adjusted it…No questions asked.
I just thought, “You have made a living doing what you like and it’s going really good, so do not fuck this up!”
What is your advice for a young designer that would want to follow in your footsteps?
A stringent diet of pizza. It’s so hard to answer that stuff…There’s no battle plan, but just be prepared and be thankful for every job that you get.…Sometimes I see that my buddies aren’t doing any work, and that resonates. I makes me think, “Oh man, how could I ever say no to another logo gig?” It makes me appreciate every single job.At 8 pm on 16 October last year, the English-language entertainment channel Star World aired an episode of the classic American cartoon sitcom The Simpsons. In it, Marge Simpson’s older sisters, the twins Patty and Selma, kidnap Richard Dean Anderson, a Hollywood actor famous for playing MacGyver, the resourceful inventor. At one point, Selma forces Anderson to autograph her breasts. Later, he escapes his captors, in true MacGyver fashion, by rigging a bra to a rope and sliding down it, out the window.In Delhi, these scenes caught the attention of a “monitor” in the office of the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre, or EMMC, a government organisation that keeps track of television content in India. Deciding that the episode contained objectionable matter, the monitor drafted a complaint against the show.
While making out a complaint, EMMC monitors are to note the date and time of the telecast, and write a brief description of the offending material. Specifically, their job is to watch for violations of the Programme Code, which, under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, governs what may and may not be shown on Indian television. But one monitor I spoke to, who has worked at the EMMC for six years, described the task more broadly, as “writing down anything that could make the audience uncomfortable.”
At the end of a day’s work, each monitor emails his or her complaints to a “compilation team” of senior supervisors. In all, that team usually receives between 2,000 and 4,000 such complaints every month. These “rough violations” are then reviewed, and narrowed down to a final list of “gross violations.”I have already explained why NSA-style wholesale surveillance data-mining systems are useless for finding terrorists. Here's a more formal explanation:
The surveillance is, however, useful for monitoring political opposition and stymieing the activities of those who do not believe the government's propaganda.
Floyd Rudmin, a professor at a Norwegian university, applies the mathematics of conditional probability, known as Bayes' Theorem, to demonstrate that the NSA's surveillance cannot successfully detect terrorists unless both the percentage of terrorists in the population and the accuracy rate of their identification are far higher than they are. He correctly concludes that "NSA's surveillance system is useless for finding terrorists."
And here's the analysis:
What is the probability that people are terrorists given that NSA's mass surveillance identifies them as terrorists? If the probability is zero (p=0.00), then they certainly are not |
a prop mod in the first place? That said, this year Cruors get a two point reduction due to the Blood Raiders sponsoring the tournament. Two points for a Cruor versus four points for a Malice, is it really worth doubling the points?
The first ever kill by a Malice was a T1 fit Kestrel by Gavjack Bunk of HYDRA RELOADED, who accounts for the vast majority of Malice killmails in non-tournament play, with the next significant pilot being that of Tinkerhell, renowned unique user. So far, four have been lost, all of which in tournament play. Three of the four were lost in a single match of the first New Eden Open, brought by XXXMity in their fight against Ronin and Pixies. Unfortunately, the tournament ships were insufficient to win them the match and they all perished. The last Malice lost was just under a year later in 2013 during ATXI, in the first game of match 123, Exodus. Vs. HYDRA RELOADED. Hydra lost their Malice but won the match, was it worth 130B? They went on to win second place, granting them the Chremoas which we’ll visit later, so I’ll go for a yes on that one. Another notable appearance is when Pandemic Legion brought FOUR of them in their match against Rote Kapelle. Despite losing the match they did not lose any of the Malices they fielded.
In tournament play:
ATX Pandemic Legion vs. Rote Kapelle – loss
NEOI Expendables vs.Guiding Hand Social Club – win
NEOI XXXMity vs. The R0NIN and Pixies – loss (Kwark forgot to turn his links on, a 300B Isk mistake)
ATXI HYDRA RELOADED vs. Darkside. – win
ATXI HYDRA RELOADED vs Exodus. – win
ATXIII Warlords of the Deep vs. Black Legion. – win
ATXIII The Camel Empire vs. Agony Empire – win
ATXIII Warlords of the Deep vs. The Methodical Alliance – win
ATXIII Pandemic Legion vs. The G0dfathers – win
ATXIII The Camel Empire vs. Exodus. – win
ATXIII The Camel Empire vs. Pandemic Legion – win
ATXIII Warlords of the Deep vs. The Camel Empire – win
That final match being the grand finals of the last Alliance Tournament. In ATXIII the Malice was so prevalent because it synergized beautifully with the double TFI core team that was so popular in the first two weekends.
Probability of Malice sighting this year: 3 out of 5 (it would be a 4, but I think the point cost in comparison with the Cruor drives it down a little)
Vangel – 110B
Amarr Cruiser Bonuses (per skill level):
4% bonus to all armour resistances
20% bonus to Energy Vampire and Energy Neutraliser optimal range
10% bonus to Energy Vampire and Energy Neutraliser falloff range
20% bonus to Energy Vampire and Energy Neutralizer drain amount
Role Bonus:
50% Bonus to Rapid Light Missile, Heavy Missile and Heavy Assault Missile Launcher rate of fire
50% bonus to Armour Repairer amount
The Vangel is the bastard love child of a threesome between the Sacrilege, Curse and some demented Gallente engineer, which then went on to murder its parents and anyone else who it damn well pleased because good luck trying to stop this unholy bastard of Amarr engineering. Forget the Bhaalgorn, if bloody Omir is flying into battle he’ll be in one of these. Not only does it self-rep 50% better than an equivalent fit Deimos, it has twice the base cap AND crazy-powerful nos to keep the reps running.
Well, nearly.
The RoF mega-bonus means that you don’t get much bang for your buck when using the missile system of choice, rapid lights. Further, filling the resist holes for a reasonable tank as well as making use of the mids as well as having strong damage from HAMs and strong neuts is really awkward to fit due to needing 2 BCUs to get real damage, which eats into your somewhat restricted CPU. Further, you are quite slow even without a plate, which means getting in range to apply your damage can be difficult.
The first ever kill with the Vangel was made on the 29th of July, 2011 when Shiroi Okami of HYDRA RELOADED killed the dual-rep Myrmidon flown by BecBop of Rainbow Unicorns From Space. After that, you could see it in the hands of Ninja Unicorns With Large Horns, Tinkerhell of Nocturnal Romance, Bluemelon of Rooks and Kings (at the time), then Taya Greathame of Snuff Box decided on July 22, 2012 to fill his killboard with Vangel kills by killing a bucket-load of unfit Rifters in Sujarento. Two pages of zkill worth. Since then it’s had a fair number of outings, mostly in the Placid/Syndicate area by the usual suspects. Really, if you want to go hunting for limited issue ship sightings, the north-west is the place to be. Thus far there have only been two Vangel losses, the first by Count MonteCarlo of HYDRA Reloaded to Stain Empire Tornados in Uemon, the second by Calsys of Darkside, to a small group of Light Style battlecruisers in a wormhole.
In tournament play:
NEOI Expendables vs.Guiding Hand Social Club – win
The Vangel is so close to being amazing but for the fact that CCP forgot that it’s usually useful for ships to actually have a noticeable damage output.
Probability of Vangel sighting this year: 1 out of 5
ATX 2012 – Cambion and Etana – Won by Verge of Collapse, Second place: HUN Reloaded
The Cambion and Etana are probably the strongest reward ships CCP has ever given as prizes for the AT, if not in their own right, certainly as a synergistic pair.
Cambion – 160B+
Caldari Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
4% bonus to all shield resistances
Assault Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Light Missile and Rocket Launcher rate of fire
Role Bonus:
115% bonus to kinetic Light Missile and Rocket Damage
50% reduction in module heat damage amount taken
The best way I’ve heard the Cambion described is if you copy-pasted the stats of the Drake onto a Merlin hull, and then made it fast, really fast. Imagine a Garmur went to the gym and pumped steroids for three years, then followed that with a decade mastering the art of fucking up your life at a Shaolin monastery. With just a T2 MWD, no speed mods, links or implants, you’re going 3.2km/s before you overheat. Some of the fits used in previous ATs have reach 27k EHP, or you can fit to to have some 700 DPS local tank. You thought the Svipul was cancer? Think again. The heat bonus means you can heat all the things, certainly through a 10-minute AT match without much worry for burning out your modules. It makes for an incredibly sturdy part of your support wing for holding down opposing ships, either to screen or grab something for your DPS ships to bring their armaments to bear on.
The first ever kill with the Cambion was made by Nameless Reaper of Kraken, killing the Punisher of menstrual madness on the 18th of September 2012. Outside tournament play, the core pilots of the Cambion are (unsurprisingly) Tinkerhell, Blumelon, Rudex X and Bob FromMarketing amongst others. Thus far, despite their relative high use to other tournament ships, only four have been lost, all of them in tournament settings. The first was DHB Wildcat of whistleblowing fame, who lost the first ever Cambion in NEOI to The Reputation Cartel, though his team, the Goggle Wearing Internet Crime Fighters did go on to win the match. The next one went down to Pandemic Legion in ATXI, flown by Duncan Tanner of HYDRA RELOADED, snatched away in the final seconds of the match. The last two went down only last year in one of the the most expensive matches in tournament history, the massacre that was Pandemic Legion vs The Camel Empire in ATXIII in which a total of four AT prize ships went down (one Etana, one Moracha and two Cambions).
In tournament play:
NEOI Goggle Wearing Internet Crime Fighters vs. Asine Hitama’s Team – loss
NEOI Goggle Wearing Internet Crime Fighters vs. The Reputation Cartel – win
ATXI HYDRA RELOADED vs. Pandemic Legion – win
ATXI HYDRA RELOADED vs. Exodus. – win
ATXIII Warlords of the Deep vs. The Tuskers Co. – win
ATXIII Warlords of the Deep vs. Exodus. – win
ATXIII The Camel Empire vs. Pandemic Legion – loss
Given the “one unique” rule, and the fact that you would tend to run Cambions in pairs with an Etana to help them not die, I think they’re much less likely to be seen this year compared with previous years.
Probability of a Cambion sighting this year – 3 out of 5
Etana – 160B+
Caldari Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):
160% bonus Remote Capacitor Transmitter range
20% bonus to Logistic Drone transfer amount
62% bonus to Remote Shield Booster optimal range and falloff
Logistics Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):
17% reduction in Remote Shield Booster and Remote Capacitor Transmitter activation cost
Role bonus:
50% reduction in Remote Shield Booster CPU requirement
50% reduction in Remote Capacitor Transmitter powergrid requirement
40% reduction in module heat damage amount taken
Can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device and Covert Cynosural Field Generator
People forget that the Etana was in fact the first prize ship to be a covops, not the Chremoas/Moracha pair of the following year. The Etana is essentially a pirate faction Basilisk, with more slots, fitting, cap, speed etc etc etc.The only place it’s worse than a Basilisk is that it has a lower sensor strength. This naturally means that it synergises perfectly with the Cambion and drastically improves the defensive capability of any shield AT team that decides to take their wallets out. Given that we don’t have ETs this year, the nigh-unkillable mobile Etana-Tinker is dead, making the Etana a less likely sight. That said, the Etana doesn’t have to be scared of facing a multi-AT ship team blasting it to pieces making it actually a little less scary to risk fielding in that regard.
Tracking the use of the Etana is a little more difficult compared to other uniques as it is a logistics ship, and therefore does not show up on killmails. I may very well miss certain instances of it being fielded in tournament play due to this, so if you see that I have missed one, please comment and I’ll update the list!
I am reliably told that the use of Etanas on TQ has been primarily through members of Verge of Collapse “skynetting”. The first kill however, in an Etana by Rengas of VoC was a Tengu in Wicked Creek, which seems to have been a good old fashioned BlOps drop. The zkill list here is unsurprisingly short, though it looks like some of the Black Legion. Boys had some fun roaming with one fit with officer jams in northern lowsec. Thus far, five have been lost, all of which were in tournament settings, the links to which you can see below.
ATXI HYDRA RELOADED vs. Pandemic Legion – win
ATXI Verge of Collapse vs. Darkside – loss
ATXI HYDRA RELOADED vs. Exodus. – win
ATXII The Camel Empire vs. Pandemic Legion – win
ATXIII Pandemic Legion vs. Shadow Cartel – win
ATXIII The Camel Empire vs. Pandemic Legion – loss
ATXIII The Camel Empire vs. Pandemic Legion – win
Probability of an Etana sighting this year – 4 out of 5You must have heard numerous things about chicken coops as and when you decide to buy them. But do you know the reality as to what constitutes a great chicken coop? How the construction has to be, and what are essential features that you need? Where do the cost cuttings need to stop? Well, the buck stops here. Right now, starting this moment, you shall no longer be in the darkn regarding the best chicken coops in the market and how to choose them accordingly.
See, you must have gone through a catalogue of products on a specific supplier’s website and thought to yourself “This seems so confusing!” But, it seems confusing only because you yourself haven’t assessed the requirements of the hen species that you have. Or the dimensions that are perfect, for that matter. Start with the size of your species. Once you go through different online communities and see what other coop owners have got to say, you will understand that there are certain aspects of chicken coops that quite a few of them are concerned about. Some cheap chicken coop might look great and cut slack on the durability front, while another might be great in terms of durability and maintenance, but be bland in terms of the looks. Considering the flock size you have and the hens species and behavioural preferences, you will need appropriately sized chicken house.But there is one aspect that you will need to keep in mind as well. Even if you buy a ready-made chicken coop, it is normally delivered in a flat-packed structure that you will have to set up. The setup is easy though and you will probably get the instructions along with it from most suppliers. This flat-packed setup is so, because there are certain transportation constraints that the coop goes through.The chicken coop is designed in such a manner that the interiors are comfortable for the hens and they have proper ventilation as well. You can also look for a chicken coop that has an integrated chicken run so that you don’t have to worry about letting your hens out to roam around a bit. Long-term maintenance costs have to be factored in as well, and rather than going for the looks, you might want to choose the affordable options if yours is a big poultry farm.Here at Cocoon Chicken Coops, we strive to create great products that match our levels of expertise. We, in fact, have a range so varied, that regardless of you being a domestic or a commercial customer, we shall have a model suited to your needs. It’s not just without a reason that we have become one of the largest suppliers of the chicken house for end customers and poultry farmers alike. Go ahead and check out our range of affordable options and you will be surprised by the level of flexibility they offer!Art by Greg Harrison
Everyone knows the song “Happy Birthday to You“–the Guinness Book of World Records says it’s the most recognized song in English. Most of us sing it several times a year, for free. So it may surprise you that Warner Chappel music owns the rights to the song and charges thousands of dollars for its use in public. They make $2 million a year in royalties from TV shows and filmmakers. But now WFMU and the Free Music Archive are trying to set birthdays to music anew, for free.
The Birthday Song Contest seeks a few new Happy Birthday songs that are simple and catchy, with great earworm potential that can be sung in restaurants, bowling alleys, and even in TV shows and movies – free of charge.
It’s a great way to say Happy Tenth Birthday to Creative Commons. Songwriters can add their new birthday ditties to a national repository of alternate Birthday songs. Submissions are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license. The deadline for submitting songs is Jan 13 at 11:59pm ET. The judges include Lawrence Lessig, Jonathan Coulton, and members of Deerhoof and Yo La Tengo. They will select 3 winners to be announced on 1/29/2013. More info here.
The song was originally written in 1893 by two sisters, but wasn’t copyrighted until 1935. If you want to go academically deep on its copyright history, check this paper. The video below highlights replacement birthday songs used on TV and film over the years as they try to save a few thousand bucks by not singing the song that everyone knows.
Happy Birthday Alternatives in Film and Television from Free Music Archive on Vimeo.For Twitter, finding anomalies — sudden spikes or dips — in a time series is important to keep the microblogging service running smoothly. A sudden spike in shared photos may signify an "trending" event, whereas a sudden dip in posts might represent a failure in one of the back-end services that needs to be addressed. To detect such anomalies, the engineering team at Twitter created the AnomalyDetection R package, which they recently released as open source. (Late last year Twitter released a separate but related R package to detect "breakouts" in time series.)
Finding spikes and dips is relatively easy when they are extreme enough to extend beyond the natural seasonal variation in the time series. (Twitter calls these "global anomalies".) The real trick is in identifying "local anomalies": small variations on the seasonal trend, but which don't extend beyond the usual range of values.
The AnomalyDetection package uses the Seasonal Hybrid ESD (S-H-ESD) algorithm, which combines seasonal decomposition with robust statistical methods to identify local and global anomalies. The package can also be used to detect anomalies in non-time-series (unordered) data, though in this case the concept of "local" anomalies doesn't apply. You can find out more information about the package and how it's used at Twitter at the link below, or install it from Github for use with R.
Twitter Engineering Blog: Introducing practical and robust anomaly detection in a time seriesAre You Poor in Spirit?
Be-Attitudes (Part 1)
By: Rev. Joe Kramer
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
– Matthew 5:3 (NKJV)
Today we start a small devotional series on the “Be-attitudes”. This will not be a super in-depth technical study, but something you might want to keep in mind. The question a lot of people ask when I take a look at some of these “well known” passages is, why? Well they are “well known” for a reason; because they change our minds and hearts to a loving and passionate God and change our lives in our inner most beings.
When looking at this scripture each attitude is actually contrary to what you would think. To the natural man these statements don’t make sense, but to the spirit in our beings they resonate with us; just like a tuning fork when it is struck.
The first word we come to is “Blessed;” this word in the Greek, which we translate as blessed, means “great,” and it pertains to both the inner man and outwardly. Remember what Jesus said about cleaning the inside and the outside would be clean? He meant that if you allow God to clean the inner man then that would be manifested outwardly for all to see (Luke 11:39). The be-attitudes are about the inner being of humanity, how we are and how we respond to God.
The first attitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” When the Bible speaks about the poor it usually refers to them that are closest to God? Why? Because the poor have nowhere else to turn, so they turn to God, whereas the rich usually don’t have anything to do with God (This is not always the case, but generally in scripture this is how it is referred). Notice what is attached to the poor in this verse. It says “poor in spirit.” This means that this kind of individual is spiritually bankrupt, needy, in desperate straight and knows that they need God.
What is God’s response to those who are keenly aware of their spiritual destitution? He promises them the best kingdom of all “the kingdom of heaven.” Here they will find fulfilling joy and promises in the Lord; here the weakest, poorest individual on the earth can be rich in their inner being before a Holy and Loving God. Have you ever met an individual that was very poor, but yet so vibrant and full of life? Unfortunately today these kinds of people are few and far between, but I have met some; the interesting thing is those I have met have the most special, deep, and wonderful relationship with God out of anyone I have ever met. Yes they were poor, but they knew where their help comes from. They knew in the inner most core what it was like to have a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.
Do you need to be poor physically to gain the kingdom? No! I believe Jesus is telling us that unless we come to God with this keen awareness of our poverty in spirit, we can’t have the kingdom of God. Jesus uses the poor and the rich to illustrate what He is conveying. He is using something we see every day, and showing the tendencies of each group, to bring to our attention the spiritual truths.
Notice that this be-attitude is the first one listed. Most scholars will say that it doesn’t matter that this is the first one listed because the book is not linear, but all attributes are active at the same time. I personally don’t think it is an accident it is listed first. I believe it is listed first because the other attitudes are built upon it.
How about you today? Are you keenly aware of your spiritual poverty (depravity)? Do you realize that you need Christ? Maybe you need to ask God to show you your poverty. Maybe it has been a while since you have prayed that God would show you. Well today I ask (Christian and non-Christian alike) you to get down on your knees and ask for God to show you the depths of your poverty and ask Him to forgive you and break you of, you. Will you today? The choice is yours.
AdvertisementsLISTEN: Mariners 2B Robinson Cano on leadership, fun in Seattle Your browser does not support the audio element.
When Robinson Cano was a New York Yankee and saw the Mariners on the schedule, he had a specific idea of how the series would go.
“We play four games, we’re gonna win three,” Cano told “Brock and Salk” Wednesday from the Peoria Sports Complex. “The only one we’re going to lose is because Felix (Hernandez) is pitching. I’m being serious. He has to go 120 pitches, nine innings to win a game. If they’d bring him out in the seventh, eighth inning, you know something can happen. Especially when we come to Seattle.”
Prepare for the Mariners’ new defensive alignment: The trap
Cano, who is starting his fourth year with the Mariners, says the script has changed in Seattle, and that he expects a jump from a group he said played “really good” in 2016.
The Mariners’ expectations have been high ever since 2014, when Cano signed a 10-year, $240 million contract that would keep the All-Star second baseman in Seattle until he’s 40. After a good first year and rough second season, Cano had a resurgent 2016 campaign, slugging a career-best 39 home runs and posting a.290/.350/.533 slash line.
Cano credited manager Scott Servais and the coaching staff for pushing for players’ personalities to shine. Cano said he is having fun, describing the excitement of the Wild Card race last season as among the top five favorite moments of his career.
To that end, Cano was asked about stories out of New York over the past few years that indicated Cano wasn’t happy in Seattle and/or regretted his decision to leave the Bronx.
His response: “They say that because I wasn’t doing good. That doesn’t say I’m not happy. I wasn’t happy in ’08 when I didn’t start the first half really good in New York. I mean, this is what I always say: I love baseball. This is a major league team, so we’re in the big leagues. The way I’ve been treated by fans, owners, front office, managers, I mean, it’s been really good. I love to be here and I love what Jerry (Dipoto)’s doing – putting the pieces together so this team can win a championship.”
Adding to the fun is the major acquisition from this offseason: shortstop Jean Segura. Cano and Segura have been friends for years.
“I told him, at first you will be around me so you get to know everyone and then leave me alone, please,” Cano joked. “… He’s a great, great kid. One thing that I love about him, he listens. I think as players, when you listen, you can get far in this game.”
Along with introducing Segura to the fun-loving gang, Cano said he’s grown personally since coming to Seattle. He said he considers himself a better leader than when he arrived from the Yankees.
“Now I have more time here; now I know where I’m going, I know where I have to go, I know everyone in here,” he said. “And then the thing that Scott is doing, you get to know everyone.
“Our goal is guys to feel comfortable, part of the family, help us to win games,” he said. “Knowing there’s time to joke around, there’s time to do whatever you want, there’s time when you have to focus and play the game.”
Other highlights from the conversation:
His view of the media: “This is the way I look at the media side: You guys have a job to do. Sometimes as a human being – not a player, but a human being – sometimes you don’t want to talk. You go home, you see your family: ‘Hey, hello,’ then you go to your room, use your phone or lay down, you don’t want to talk to people. But I understand that we’ve got to take a moment to talk to the media every day because that’s their job and I think the only way as a player, we’ll get mad when there’s like rumors that are not true. But besides that, I don’t mind to talk to the media. … I would say, if you are nice to the media, they will be nice to you.”
On his natural ability: “Honestly, I don’t do anything to work on my hands. … I’ve been blessed that I’m able to play this game that is so relaxed, not try and do too much, just be myself. Because I think this game, if you be yourself, you learn what kind of player you are. You’re always going to be in your comfort zone no matter the situation.”
On what to expect from Felix Hernandez: “Honestly, physically he looks really good. Way different guy. I saw him pitch yesterday, his feet was moving really good. His fastball was there. I hope everything goes well for him.”
On not planning to retire anytime soon: “No, no, no, no no, not yet. Whenever the time, I don’t want to say after this contract or before or whatever. Whenever the time comes, I’m gonna be ready to go home. That’s why I try to give this game so much and it’s not even – I don’t want to talk about that yet.”
On Seattle’s offseason trades: “I would say most of the trades that Jerry made this offseason – pretty impressive.”Mailman School of Public Health researchers are forecasting the spread of Ebola in West Africa in an effort to help medical professionals better treat patients and contain the disease.
Environmental health sciences professor Jeffrey Shaman developed a computer model last month to organize the limited amount of available data about the spread of Ebola in order to determine practical ways to deal with the virus.
Right now, the model is able to forecast the cumulative infection rate and mortality rate up to six weeks in the future. Computed forecasts are published online on a weekly basis to help medical personnel decide how many beds, nurses, and medical personnel will be needed in a given week.
"It's a very dangerous disease—it is very destabilizing. It has completely eroded whatever public health infrastructure, medical infrastructure there were in those countries," Shaman said last week. "Many of the nurses and doctors are dead—they died of Ebola. So you don't have people who are capable of taking care of anyone."
With medical personnel and other caregivers dying from Ebola in affected regions of West Africa, making sense of the data beforehand is key to containing the epidemic, according to Shaman.
Shaman noted that Ebola's high fatality rate—according to the World Health Organization's Nov. 21 situation report, there have been 5,459 reported Ebola deaths in eight countries—overwhelms the medical professionals in these countries. Considering the epidemiological history of West Africa, where diseases like meningitis and tuberculosis are not uncommon, the impact of Ebola on the medical system becomes even more important.
"All they are doing is Ebola, all Ebola all the time," Shaman said.
[Related: Columbia Med Center doctor tests positive for Ebola after returning from West Africa, city officials confirm]
Wan Yang, an associate research scientist who helped Shaman develop the model, said that the benefits of forecasting using models include being able to understand the dynamics of Ebola transmission and planning intervention measures.
Shaman's model is a form of the compartmental model, known in the field of epidemiology for its simplicity.
"It is parsimonious, which means it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles on it," Shaman said. "We understand what's going on a lot more easily because of that."
The compartmental model divides the population into several sectors: individuals who are susceptible to the pathogen, others who are being affected by it, and others who have recovered from it.
With statistical algorithms, a simulation method uses data supplied by the World Health Organization to calculate factors such as the length of the incubation period.
Knowing the incubation period—the time during which an infected person does not show symptoms and is not infectious—is instrumental to understanding the transmission of Ebola, Shaman said.
According to Yang, the model has two main strengths: First, it emulates the variability inherent in the real world by accommodating for three varying potential scenarios, producing a separate forecast for "improved," "no change," and "degraded" cases.
[Related: Columbia Engineering, Mailman faculty and students team up to look for Ebola solutions]
"Second, we simultaneously use three data streams—incidence, mortality, and case-fatality rate—in the inference and forecasts," she said.
But these advantages do come at a cost. While the model's simplicity makes the data easier to understand, it is "a little dubious in terms of its veracity," Shaman said.
As global attention converges on the epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have also generated their own models for forecasting the spread of Ebola. The complexity of these other models, however, also has its drawbacks.
"The trade-off is that if you go with a complex model to describe a system, generally people are making it up from whole cloth," Shaman said. "You are making up the processes. You are making up what [individuals] are doing all the time."
Instead of imposing unknown parameters onto the model, Shaman's model takes what he describes as an "agnostic" position, letting the data speak for itself.
Shaman said they focused on Ebola because of the urgency around the disease.
"It was here, it was timely, and it was a crisis," Shaman said. "But there is a limit that we can do, given how little we understand the disease and where we sit right now."
news@columbiaspectator.com | @ColumbiaSpeThe only thing better than a good death in a movie, is a good line immediately before it. Some lines have achieved immortality in their own right. Here is a brief sample, in reverse chronological order. It is not, and cannot be, complete. There are many, many more. Please add them in the comments. WARNING: Contains spoilers.
10 Jack Dawson Leonardo di Caprio, Titanic (1997)
The Line: Never let go.
After the ship sinks (uh – you did know that, didn’t you), Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) scrambles onto a door which can only support one person and Jack remains in the freezing ocean. He assures her that she is going to survive, and die an old lady in her bed, before he succumbs to hypothermia.
9 William Wallace Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995)
The Line: Freeeedom!!!
After the deaths of his father and brother, and later his wife, at the hands of the English, William Wallace becomes involved in the Scottish uprising against King Edward I of England. After some military successes, he is betrayed to the English, taken to London, tried and convicted of high treason. As he is undergoing public execution by torture, the magistrate offers him a quick death in exchange for a plea for mercy.
8 Thelma and Louise Thelma and Louise (1991)
The Lines: Thelma: Go!
Louise: You sure?
Thelma: Yeah … yeah.
Two girl-friends’ weekend out turns into a nightmare after one of them shoots and kills a man attempting to rape the other. On the run from the police, led by the gruffly sympathetic Detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel), the pair are cornered near a large cliff. The final scene is well-known to most movie fans. The lines may be less familiar.
7 Hans Gruber Alan Rickman, Die Hard (1988)
The Line: What was it you said to me before? “Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker!”
Not quite as classic as Detective John McClane’s (Bruce Willis) line in the first place. McClane is a New York cop who has been caught up in an “exceptional” robbery disguised as a terrorist attack in Los Angeles. He has survived everything that the suave criminal mastermind and his gang have thrown at him. He confronts Gruber and a henchman with just two bullets left in his gun. They hesitate just long enough to give him a chance.
6 Roy Batty Rutger Hauer, Blade Runner (1982)
The Line: I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.
Batty is the leader of a group of replicants (bioengineered or biorobotic beings who serve as soldiers and slaves in off-world colonies) illegally on Earth. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a jaded ex-police officer who once specialized in “retiring” replicants, is coerced into tracking and killing them. After dispatching three of them, he confronts Batty in a cat-and-mouse chase. Batty saves Deckard’s life just before his pre-programmed four-year lifespan runs out.
5 Colonel Kurtz Marlon Brando, Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Line: The horror… the horror…
Colonel Walter E Kurtz, a member of the US Army Special Forces in Vietman, has gone insane and is commanding a native army deep in the Cambodian jungle. Captain Benjamin L Willard (Martin Sheen), a deeply troubled special operations veteran, is dispatched to find Kurtz and to “terminate [him] with extreme prejudice”. After a hazardous journey, Willard and his last remaining crew member arrive at Kurtz’ camp. Willard attacks Kurtz with a machete, and he dies whispering words taken from Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, on which the movie is based.
4 Rabbi John Cleese, Life of Brian (1979)
The Line: STOP IT STOP IT! Now look! No one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle, understand? Even, and I want to make this absolutely clear, even if they do say “Jehovah”.
Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman) and his mother Mandy (Terry Jones) are attending the stoning of a man condemned for blasphemy. In attempting to explain himself, he utters (not) the divine name again, and the crowd begins throwing stones. The rabbi attempts to restore order and is himself set upon by the crowd.
3 Obi-Wan Kenobi Sir Alec Guinness, Star Wars [IV: A New Hope] (1977)
The Line: You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) joins forces with Obi-wan Kenobi to rescue a beautiful princess, who turns out to be his long-lost sister, and battle an evil warlord, who turns out to be their long-lost father and Obi-wan’s long-lost protegee.
2 HAL 9000 Douglas Rain, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Lines: I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a…fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January, 1992. My instructor was Mr Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.
[Dave: Yes, I’d like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me.]
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy all for the love of you. It won’t be a stylish marriage, I can’t afford a carriage. But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.
HAL is the controlling brain of the Discovery One spaceship, bound for Jupiter on a top-secret mission. Due to a conflict in his programming, HAL becomes erratic and kills four of the ship’s crew. The remaining crew member, David Bowman (Keir Dullea), disconnects HAL’s circuitry.
1 Charles Foster Kane Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (1941)
The Line: Rosebud…
This is the first line of the movie, and the film proceeds in two directions, one tracing Kane’s life and the other showing a reporter’s search for the meaning of the enigmatic utterance. The intriguing thing is that Kane is alone when he dies, so no-one hears his dying word.
Bonus Michael Corleone Al Pacino, The Godfather: Part II (1974 |
the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & [valor], and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.
Another book published by the House in 1977 highlighted the symbolism behind the stars and stripes of the flag: "The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun."
In addition to the historical symbolism behind the colors of the flag and the stars and stripes, the U.S. flag is the most recognizable in the world. The hardiness, valor, perseverance and justice that Charles Thompson so movingly described is exactly what our flag represents every time it flies. “These colors never run” is a saying that has held for decades. So, why do we run away from the elements of the flag when discussing our home jerseys? We shouldn’t. Those colors mean so much to our country’s history and we should embrace them — all of them — as a soccer nation.
White as the home jersey color lacks creativity and inspiration.
First, let’s discuss the color options individually and break them down, starting with white.
There are some people who would say that our jersey identity has already been established by wearing white at home. It’s true that throughout time, you can see that even with some of the very subtle or even drastic changes to our national team jerseys, white has been the predominant color. Still, it’s the drastic design changes from cycle to cycle that leads people to believe that identity is lacking.
So, what about wearing solid white at home or even white with navy shorts? There aren’t very many teams that wear white at home, only 41 teams. In CONCACAF, the United States is only 1 of 5 teams that wear white at home currently. Still, the identity of white jerseys has been claimed by European traditional soccer powers, namely England and Germany.
USA’s run to the Round of 16 of the 2010 World Cup was one where they faced only teams that had white as their home jersey color: England, Slovenia and Algeria in the group stages, and Ghana in the Round of 16. It was the first time in World Cup history where a team faced only opponents that wore the same color home jersey.
In 2014, the United States faced Germany and Ghana, who each had white home jerseys. The USMNT’s 1998 group also featured two other teams that wore white primaries: Germany and Yugoslavia. In fact, since 1990 there has only been one World Cup where the U.S. did not face a team that wore white at home: 1994, where we wore the vertical red stripes as our home jersey.
Moreover, white home jerseys have failed to generate fan interest. In the past few jersey cycles, it’s been very rare that the home jersey has been more popular than the away jersey. When the home look has been more popular, it’s been because of the design that the jersey has been deemed the people’s choice (2012 Waldos, 1950 Sash, 2006 vertical sash, 2013 Centennial). Sometimes it’s because of incredible moments that happened while the team was wearing that jersey: 1950 upset of England, beating Mexico and the run to the quarterfinals during the 2002 World Cup, or Landon Donovan’s goal against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup.
While many people love the look of the Centennial — and despite the jersey's standing as one of the most popular U.S. Soccer jerseys ever — the look was great mostly because of the Centennial crest. That crest is not returning, so there’s no need to return to that look especially when it would look forced and would be void of the inspiration the Centennial contained.
Still, even with a white nominal primary jersey, more often than not the team will wear the away jersey at home or throughout a major tournament like the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Let’s make that change official. Nike’s jersey templates have looked much better on the more colorful away jerseys through most cycles in the modern U.S. Soccer era (1990-present), and shirts that are predominantly red and/or blue have been more popular with fans. U.S. Soccer should make the move away from wearing white at home.
Red as the home jersey color is popular, but isn’t unique.
Next, wearing red at home has long been a popular option among supporters of the United States. Dating back to the days of Sam’s Army and then the American Outlaws, wearing red in the supporters section has been something diehards of the team have longed to expand to the rest of the home crowd.
Some of our best jerseys have been primary red: the 2006 third jersey, famously known as the Don’t Thread On Me jersey, as well as the 2011 third jersey, which seemed to recreate the DTOM look in the style of the 2010 World Cup jersey cycle. Wearing red at home is still a popular option to this day.
Still, to create a unique look, a red jersey doesn’t do it. More than 75 FIFA sides wear red at home, including eight in the CONCACAF region. Several of those teams — Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica, Panama and Canada — are teams that we face often. Globally, most of the teams that wear red at home are located in Asia, where red is considered a power color, and in Europe.
Now, just because more than a third of the world’s soccer nations wear red at home doesn’t mean we can’t do the same. Still, there is a way to employ the red while still having jerseys that stand out from the large pack.
Navy is better as the away jersey color.
There have been times that the United States have worn blue as their primary jersey, most notably the first World Cup in 1930. Most times, though, blue has been the color of choice for America’s away jerseys. In recent years, that blue has been lighter than the navy blue that features on our flag.
There have even been occasions where the team has gone away from blue as an away color, opting for dark gray or, in the case of the 2016 away jerseys, predominantly black with red and blue sleeves. There is some historical significance of wearing blue, with the Revolutionary Army that fought for and won our independence wearing blue coats, a tradition that carried all the way through the Civil War.
Despite the significance of the navy blue in our flag and U.S. seal — vigilance, perseverance and justice — wearing navy would likely be better suited on the away jersey. The away jersey can be one that Nike takes risks with since the identity will rest in the home jersey, the one that fans will mostly wear the day of the game.
America’s true soccer identity is defined by the Waldos.
With solid white, red, or navy out of contention, that leaves a particular design that would scream America while not venturing from the flag colors and giving US Soccer (and Nike) a chance for an identity to be created without sacrificing creativity between jersey cycles. Ladies and gentlemen, that design is the white and red horizontal stripes, or the hoops.
The 2012 home jersey, affectionately known as the Waldos for obvious reasons, is hands down the most AMERICA jersey we have ever produced. It also remains among our most popular jerseys, with diehards scouring the internet for the chance to find an old gem. It sticks to our incredible flag features and employed each color of the flag in all their significance: the red and white stripes with navy blue numbers, navy blue shorts and either white or white/red hooped socks with a navy trim.
This isn’t the first time we’ve advocated for the Waldos We’ve been pining for them since before they even left
There are only eight teams in the world that have a truly recognizable jersey feature that they maintain from cycle to cycle: Peru (white with a red diagonal sash), Argentina (white/baby blue vertical stripes), Paraguay (white/red vertical stripes), Croatia (white/red checkerboard), Guatemala (blue with a white diagonal sash), Puerto Rico (red with red/white vertical stripes), Liberia (white/red vertical stripes or hoops), and Malaysia (yellow/black vertical stripes).
Of those teams, Argentina, Croatia, Paraguay and Peru are the most recognizable. Malaysia and Liberia have recently abandoned their normal striped jerseys for solid black and red, respectively. Instantly, the U.S. hoops will be a jersey that will be identifiable from anywhere. Everyone knows what an Argentina jersey looks like, or Croatia or Paraguay. This is a chance for the United States to stand on that same ground.
With the many different designs of U.S. jerseys over the years, people wouldn’t know walking down the street what team you were representing when wearing a jersey. The 2012 hoops was the first jersey since 1994 (where the legendary Stars and Stripes jerseys completed our look as hosts for the 1994 FIFA World Cup) that anyone walking down the street or sitting in a bar or looking in the stands on TV would know exactly what team that jersey represented. It’s a perfect use of the flag elements, identifying the hardiness, valor, perseverance, vigilance and justice that the flag represents.
Having a consistent home look will allow for the team to take some risks with their away jersey. One year they could do navy with a sash, like they did during the 2010 World Cup. Maybe they can take it back to 1994 with the Stars jersey (though opting for navy blue instead of the denim blue).
In milestone years (think 2030 for the 100th anniversary of the World Cup, 2050 for the 100th anniversary of the greatest upset ever, or 2063 for the USSF’s 150th anniversary), they can unveil a jersey design that ties in that commemorative moment.
In the end, here is what would be my preference for our jerseys:
Home jersey – white jersey w/ red/white hoops, navy trim, navy numbers, navy shorts, red/white hooped socks
– white jersey w/ red/white hoops, navy trim, navy numbers, navy shorts, red/white hooped socks Away jersey (even years) – navy jersey w/ white sash, white numbers, white shorts, navy socks
Away jersey (Gold Cup years) - red jersey w/ navy hoops, white numbers, red shorts, navy socks
Using this, you would have a constant home jersey that can serve as the main identity, while the away jersey can change and take some chances while still maintaining the flag colors.
It will take a nation to implement this identity. Utilize the fans to inspire the masses.
So, won't the red and white hoops be hell for Nike’s creativity, you ask? It shouldn’t be. It doesn’t seem to affect them in creating new jerseys for Croatia, which always features the checkerboard design. Each time, they manage to slightly alter the design so that it’s fresh but still maintains their traditional look. Argentina and Paraguay have always had their stripes, but, again, Adidas has been able to still keep their look fresh every 1-2 years while making sure that a 2016 jersey keeps the same traditional look of a 2008 jersey.
The hoops for the United States can be done in several ways. The stripes can be thicker or thinner. They can number 13, matching the flag, or they can have fewer. The back can be predominantly white or red. The stripes can undulate or they can be straight. Numbers can be navy with navy shorts or they can be red or white depending on the back. The stripes can be slightly diagonal or they can be straight across the torso. The jersey can have a Henley collar, a polo collar, or have a normal crew neck (I always prefer the latter). It will be easy for Nike to fit the design within their various jersey templates as they already do with several big name clubs and national teams.
Over time, the hoops should become the jersey the team and fans always wear at home. Even if fans can’t afford the cost of the home jersey, there are plenty of places to get striped shirts or flag t-shirts that can be worn on gameday to the stadium or to the bar. The main concern in confirming the hoops as part of the official U.S. Soccer identity is whether we will succeed in getting fans to wear the home jersey to matches. Of course we can. While we Americans are proud of our right to express ourselves freely through our outfits, we are also a nation that has come together in other sports to create a particular atmosphere intended to intimidate the opposing team.
There are several instances in other sports of teams successfully lobbying their fans to wear a particular color to games. Some do it for rivalry games, some do it for every game. Others make it a playoff tradition. However it’s done, we have sports where as many as 100,000 people can coordinate to wear the same thing on a given day or a combination of colors to create a pattern in the stands. We have whiteouts, blue outs, blackouts or even color coordination within sections.
These traditions add to the identity of the team or school. In North Carolina, fans know whether they root for Duke or UNC based on the color blue they are wearing. Fans of the Golden State Warriors know their “Strength in Numbers” slogan includes wearing yellow at each home game. Each time the Miami Heat make the playoffs, fans know that each home game is a white out and their most popular jerseys are the home and alternate white jerseys that fans know they will want to wear during a playoff run. Finally, college football Saturdays see millions of fans around the country wearing their team’s home colors to games or even around town so that other people know without hesitation which school they represent. We can do this in supporting our national team, too.
Outfitting the entire stadium in the same colors isn’t a stretch. U.S. Soccer normally announces matches a couple months in advance, sometimes longer. This would have to remain consistent, as the more time allotted for communication about plans for the match, the bigger the reach. For bigger tournaments like last summer’s Copa America Centenario, the CONCACAF Gold Cup, or the World Cup, fans have advance notice of when matches will take place months in advance. Then, the team can mount a push for fans to wear the main home jersey to the match. There are endless merchandise possibilities for U.S. Soccer as well. They can create replica shirts in the pattern of the home jersey, give out scarves for people at the matches or rally towels modeled after that style, anything to create a sea of hoops.
Anyone can get a cheap flag shirt, whether it’s at a souvenir shop in D.C, or online. The point to hammer home will be to wear hoops to the game. It should become ingrained in every fan that on gameday, you wear the home jersey. The identity can only prosper if it’s a priority each match and if U.S. Soccer creates the product necessary to allow fans the chance to create the identifying atmosphere. Wear your old jerseys or your U.S. Soccer shirts in various colors whenever you want, but on gameday, represent and show support by wearing your hoops, united as one.
The establishment of this identity won’t happen overnight, but it must start with the U.S. coming out with jerseys that announce the adoption of this new identity. 2018 seems like a perfect time to do that. From there, it will take coordination at each match (possibly with free shirts or scarves for all match attendees) and merchandise to reflect the new tradition. They can’t deviate or give up on the goal. They can’t give in to superstition or sentimental desires. They must persevere in getting the idea to stick and become a no-brainer among not just current U.S. supporters but the next generation of kids and young adults who are just now starting to watch and dream of attending matches.
Let’s sum it all up.
With a fan base that pledges allegiance to the flag, belts God Bless America every 50th minute and sings the national anthem with more pride than any nation on earth, it’s about time we have a jersey identity that allows us to represent even when our national teams aren’t taking the field.
The Waldos are what we want. The Waldos define us. And while it will take some time for it to sink in, I look forward to being in the stands for the opening match of the 2022 World Cup, when the USMNT emerges from the tunnel with an entire nation behind them wearing the horizontal stripes of our flag. I equally look forward to the 2023 Women’s World Cup, where the USWNT emerges as the two-time defending champions and their raucous fans take over the stadium creating an epic display of U.S. pride.
Maybe then, we can finally realize the incredible power the last two lines of our Star-Spangled Banner employs in a crowd that holds it tightly to let the world know that the Americans are here: “O! Say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"“We aren’t looking at him outside as a corner.” Those are words spoken from San Francisco 49ers GM Trent Baalke shortly after the team selected DB Jimmie Ward in the first-round (No. 30) of the 2014 NFL Draft.
Ward was considered a bit of a ‘tweener.’ Due to not having prototypical size [5-10, 193] to play strong safety, but yet displaying the toughness of one, Baalke and his scouting department believed Ward’s best chance for early success would be relishing the nickel role.
“As a young guy you can’t learn the safety position, the nickel position, and the outside. You’ve got to concentrate somewhere. So, initially, he’s going to be focused on the nickel position and the safety [strong and weak] position,” Baalke said.
The road to success is unforgiving in the NFL, and Ward was no exception. In only his second NFL game, Ward found himself lined up across two-time All-Pro WR Brandon Marshall. At 6-4, 230, the size difference proved to be too much for the diminutive yet versatile defensive back.
Three times the Bears targeted Marshall inside the red zone, and three touchdowns resulted. That essentially set the tone for the remainder of Ward’s rookie season. Ward would be placed on IR (injured reserve) just eight weeks later, but not before finishing the year with 20 tackles and 2 PBUs.
Then came year two.
Haunted by the Chicago Bears game, Ward vowed he learned from his rookie mistakes. “Brandon Marshall,” said Ward back in December 2014. “That’s all I gotta say. I’m going to leave it at his name. That’s all I’m going to say.”
And Ward lived up to his word.
After ranking third-worst on the team in pass coverage (-2.6) by Pro Football Focus his rookie season, Ward did a nice 180 degree turn in 2015. In one of the biggest improvements for defensive backs, Ward quickly went from laughing stock to bonafide shutdown corner.
Ranked as the 3rd best cover cornerback (+6.6) by Pro Football Focus during the final five-game stretch, Ward limited quarterbacks to a stingy 38.8 quarterback rating. However, despite the recent success, Ward re-hashed that horrendous game against the Bears just one year later, as it will forever be in the back of his mind.
#49ers GM Trent Baalke on drafting DB @ward_jimmie: “Don’t mistake the size for a lack of toughness…DYNAMITE comes in all packages.” — Ryan Sakamoto (@SakamotoRyan) May 19, 2016
“Coming off last year, I really had a let-down year, got hurt [jones fracture]. I’ll never forget that Chicago game. It was my welcome-to-the-NFL game. I’m just trying to help my team out any way possible,” Ward said back in December 2015.
Ward would finish his sophomore season with 57 tackles (6 for loss), 1 interception (returned for TD), and six PBU’s.
So what’s in store for Ward in the all important year three? Expect Ward to pickup right where he left off, as a premier shutdown corner.
During our annual pre-draft interview, Baalke alluded to the fact that times have changed in terms of a player’s development citing a three-year window.
Ward is living proof of that ideology.
“A year ago [rookie season] we heard how Jimmie Ward was a bust. Well look at the last eight games of this season [year two] and tell me how Jimmie Ward’s playing,” Baalke said.
The numbers don’t lie. Ward was the third best cornerback in the NFL during the final five-game stretch with an overall Pro Football Focus grade of +7.6.
While Baalke said the team was not initially banking on Ward being an outside press cornerback, it appears that Ward is slowly making that transition all while exceeding Baalke’s expectations. During the first practice of OTAs, Ward was seen taking first team reps opposite of CB Tramaine Brock.
Do you think Baalke is surprised? I don’t think so, as Baalke spoke highly of Ward’s versatility in his post draft press conference.
“Dynamite comes in all packages. And this is a young man that’s proven that he’s been able to hold up physically, play a physical style of football and also have the rare traits to be able to go down and cover. So, there’s just a lot of versatility to his game, and the fact that he can play it physically and play it mentally is extremely important.”
With the 49ers trying to return to their winning ways, you can count on Ward playing a vital role in making that a reality. A player who has shown significant progress while learning multiple positions — it appears the 49ers may have struck gold, despite earlier reports.
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49ers Pickup FS Eric Reid 5th Year OptionRupert Murdoch used an after-dinner speech to the world's most powerful finance ministers to argue against the widespread quantitative easing adopted by central banks, arguing the policy was increasing the gap between rich and poor.
The News Corporation chairman last week addressed the G20 finance ministers – who were in Washington DC for the annual meeting of the International Monetary fund – at a private dinner hosted by Treasurer Joe Hockey.
Low interest rates and governments printing money push up the price of assets, rewarding the wealthy owners of assets, Mr Murdoch told his high-powered audience.
Mr Murdoch's attendance at the dinner prepared by Serge Dansereau of Sydney restaurant Bathers' Pavilion and held at the Library of Congress has been reported, including the fact the media mogul made it with only minutes to spare.
However, the contents of his address have remained confidential until now.Bomb kills 19 people near a checkpoint, days before city is to host the World Economic Forum on Africa
The death toll from a car bomb that exploded on a busy road in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, has risen to 19, police have said.
The bomb was detonated on Thursday at a congested checkpoint near a bus station where two weeks ago an explosion claimed by the Islamic extremists Boko Haram killed at least 75 people.
The latest attack comes days before Abuja is to host the World Economic Forum on Africa, with the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, among the guests. The government is deploying 6,000 police to protect the event, which attracts world leaders, policymakers, philanthropists and business leaders to discuss Africa's economic growth prospects.
Witnesses said a car laden with explosives drove close to the checkpoint and a man jumped out and ran as it blew up. The explosion was followed by several smaller ones as other cars caught fire and ignited.
Lines of traffic are normal at the checkpoint, where soldiers and police have been searching vehicles since the 14 April bombing.
Police superintendent Frank Mba said on Friday that the death toll had risen to 19, with as many wounded being treated in the hospitals. Six cars were destroyed in the blast, he said.
Two unexploded IEDs were found at the scene, according to a security official. Militants in Nigeria often time secondary explosions to target rescuers and others drawn to a bombing.
While there was no immediate claim for Thursday's bombing, it bears all the hallmarks of Boko Haram. The group wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, which it claims would halt crippling corruption that keeps 70% of the people in Africa's richest nation impoverished.
Hours after the 14 April bombing, which wounded at least 141 people, Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 250 teenage girls at a school in the remote north-east, which is their stronghold. About 50 of the girls escaped their captors but 200 remain missing.
President Goodluck Jonathan told a May Day rally in Abuja earlier on Thursday that the perpetrators must be brought justice. "We shall triumph over all this evil that wants to debase our humanity or obstruct our progress as a nation," he vowed. "Those who want to re-define our country to be seen as a country of chaos will never succeed."
Last week, he assured the Chinese ambassador that the hundreds of delegates expected at the World Economic Forum on Africa "will not have a problem with security during the summit".The Hurd: GNU's quest for the perfect kernel
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When Richard Stallman founded the GNU project in 1983, he started building a completely free Unix-like operating system bit by bit. Over the years, the GNU system got a compiler (GCC), a C library (glibc), a build system (make), a shell (Bash), an editor (Emacs), and so on. However, it wasn't until May 1991 that the project announced they would start working on a kernel, the last missing piece of their free operating system: the Hurd (note the article in the name, and that "Hurd" is the phonetic equivalent for the English word herd).
By then, Linus Torvalds had already started working on his Linux kernel, which he would announce in August of that year. In his now famous debate with Andrew Tanenbaum on the newsgroup comp.os.minix, he wrote (in January 1992):
If the GNU kernel had been ready last spring, I'd not have bothered to even start my project: the fact is that it wasn't and still isn't. Linux wins heavily on points of being available now.
Ted Ts'o, one of the earliest Linux developers, made a similar remark:
I am aware of the benefits of a micro kernel approach. However, the fact remains that Linux is here, and GNU isn't --- and people have been working on Hurd for a lot longer than Linus has been working on Linux.
So, with all due respect to the project's mission and philosophy, we should be happy that the Hurd wasn't ready in 1991, because in 2010 it still isn't (at least for production use). Reading the history of the Hurd (for example in the article that The H published in late June), a comparison to the everlasting development of the video game Duke Nukem Forever is not completely far-fetched. A release has been promised several times, but the development schedule has been postponed even more and the architecture has been completely redone several times.
No vaporware
So what is the state of the Hurd? Is it vaporware, like Duke Nukem Forever? Fortunately not: the code exists, there is still work going on (for instance as part of Google Summer of Code), and there are even some relatively functional Hurd distributions. Let's look first at the code and the current architecture, and then at the Hurd distributions.
The current architecture of the Hurd is a set of "servers" running on top of the GNU Mach microkernel. These servers implement file systems, network protocols, authentication, processes, terminals, and other features that traditional monolithic kernels implement in the kernel itself. The Hurd servers implement clear protocols that formalize how the different components of the Hurd kernel interact, which is designed to reduce mutual trust between components. To transfer information to each other, the servers use Mach's interprocess communication (IPC) system. Collectively, these loosely coupled servers implement the POSIX API, with each individual server implementing its part of the specification.
Both the logo and the name of the Hurd project reflect this architecture. The logo is called the Hurd boxes, and it shows some boxes (the Hurd kernel's servers) connected by arrows (Mach's IPC messages). The name is, in hacker culture tradition, a recursive acronym. Thomas (then Michael) Bushnell, the primary architect of the Hurd, explained the meaning like this:
It's time [to] explain the meaning of "Hurd". "Hurd" stands for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons". And, then, "Hird" stands for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth". We have here, to my knowledge, the first software to be named by a pair of mutually recursive acronyms.
For readers that want a technical overview of the Hurd's architecture and some critiques on the decisions made, your author points to the paper A Critique of the GNU Hurd Multi-server Operating System [PDF] by Neal Walfield and Marcus Brinkmann, published in ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review in July 2007. The two have also written a forward-looking proposal for how a future GNU Hurd might be architected: Improving Usability via Access Decomposition and Policy Refinement.
To fix some of these shortcomings of the Hurd while preserving the main design goals, there's already a Hurd-ng project in the works, although it is mostly research oriented. For a time there was an effort, led by Walfield and Brinkmann, to port the Hurd from Mach to the L4 microkernel family, but it never reached a releasable state. The two also considered the Coyotos microkernel, but eventually Walfield moved on to working on a new microkernel Viengoos, about which he published two academic papers.
Hurd distributions
Over the years, a couple of Hurd-based distributions have been born, all of them spin-offs of an existing Linux distribution. In March 2003, Jon Portnoy started a Gentoo GNU Hurd system, but it was abandoned at the end of 2006. There was also a Hurd live CD at superunprivileged.org, but it appears to have stalled in December 2007. Luckily, two Hurd distributions are still active projects: Debian GNU/Hurd and Arch Hurd.
Debian GNU/Hurd is an active subproject of Debian, in development since 1998, but it is not officially released yet ("and won't be for some time", according to the project's home page). Debian GNU/Hurd is calling for help in the development of the distribution, which amounts mostly to porting software. About 67 percent of the Debian packages have been ported to the Hurd kernel, and the Hurd project has a compilation of common porting problems and their solutions. It's interesting to point out that the GNU Hurd developers rely on Debian GNU/Hurd and endorse it on their web site. The last official release of the Hurd without the Debian parts was 0.2 in 1997. On the Hurd project's status page they explain:
That Debian version closely tracks the progress of the Hurd (and often includes many new features), so little would be gained by creating an official pure Hurd release.
People that want to try Debian GNU/Hurd can install the most recent version, called Debian GNU/Hurd L1, or run the live CD that Justus Winter created. There's also a Qemu image made by Jose Luis Alarcon Sanchez (and made smaller by Samuel Thibault), which makes it easy to test Debian GNU/Hurd virtualized with KVM. All these versions work on x86 and x86_64 (in 32-bit mode) PCs. There's also some information about the first steps after installation, such as getting networking running and configuring X, and the GNU/Hurd user's guide is focused on the Debian flavor.
Another Hurd-based distribution, which started in the beginning of 2010, is Arch Hurd (with a logo that is a nice blend between the logos of Arch Linux and the Hurd). This project attempts to bring the spirit of Arch Linux (a minimalist and bleeding edge operating system) to the Hurd kernel. With just four developers, the project has managed to develop a basic Arch Hurd system in a couple of months.
Recently a live CD and installer has been written and, as expected from an Arch project, there is extensive documentation about installing Arch Hurd using the live CD and installing from within another distribution. Xorg 1.8 has already been ported and, while there are not many graphical programs yet, the system has the Openbox window manager and the XTerm terminal emulator.
Because the Hurd runs on Mach, hardware compatibility for these distributions depends on what Mach supports. Currently, GNU Mach uses a maximum of 1 GiB of RAM. Video card drivers are the ones from X.org, but if they depend on a special Linux kernel interface, only the VESA driver works. Sound cards and USB are not supported yet.
Google Summer of Code
The Hurd has been active in the Google Summer of Code project for some years now, sometimes as part of the GNU project, sometimes on its own. This year, the Hurd is participating with three projects under the GNU umbrella.
Jeremie Koenig, mentored by Samuel Thibault, is working on adapting the Debian Installer to produce up-to-date Debian GNU/Hurd installation images. Currently Debian GNU/Hurd is installed either using outdated CD images, or from an existing Debian GNU/Linux system using the crosshurd package.
Emilio Pozuelo Monfort, mentored by Carl Fredrik Hammar, is fixing compatibility problems exposed by projects' test suites when executed on the Hurd. This doesn't sound like an exciting task, but it is needed: test suites for programs like Perl, Python, GNU coreutils, and glib regularly fail on the Hurd because of shortcomings in the Hurd's implementation of system interfaces.
A third GSoC project, mentored by Sergio López, is being done by Karim Allah Ahmed: his goal is to bring the virtual memory management in The Hurd/Mach closer to that of other mainstream kernels, like Linux, FreeBSD, and XNU (the kernel of Mac OS X). He will look at those implementations to see if he can come up with improvements and optimizations for the Hurd.
Conclusion
All in all, the easiest way to currently run a Hurd system is by installing Debian GNU/Hurd. The system runs virtualized in Xen or Qemu, or on a physical system, provided that the hardware is supported by Mach. The lack of sound and USB support obviously means that it is of limited use for desktop users, but on the Hurd status page there is a testimonial of someone that has been using the Hurd for most of his everyday work for two years, so it is possible if your demands are low. A cursory look with apt-cache search by your author on his Debian GNU/Hurd installation in KVM confirmed that there's actually a lot of software available, including graphical programs.
Installing the Hurd is still not as simple as in the Linux world, but there are projects working on that. Although the Hurd is clearly not ready yet for general use as a desktop system, for people that are interested in the GNU operating system, now is a good time to give it a try.West prepares rhetorical grounds for unrest in Myanmar should Suu Kyi lose elections.
Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post
Without so much as a shred of evidence to explain why, citing no polls or rationale, the Western corporate-media has prematurely declared Wall Street-London proxy Aung San Suu Kyi the winner in a limited parliamentary election in Myanmar, still referred to by its colonial nomenclature of “Burma” by Western power,s as well as Suu Kyi herself.
Photo: Soros-funded Mizzima proudly reports Myanmar “pro-democracy” leader Aung San Suu Kyi phoning-in to the 2011 “Liberal-Progressive” Clinton Global Initiative confab, fully-funded by big-oil, big-banks, and other elements of the corporate-fascist Wall Street-London combine.
Associated Press’ article titled, “Myanmar’s Suu Kyi poised to win parliamentary seat,” is yet another example of election outcomes preemptively decided by the West in order to call any result contrary to Western desires a “fraud.” This has been seen in the lead up to Thailand’s July 2011 elections, as well as recent elections in Russia that saw Vladimir Putin brought back into power as president.
Even in cases such as in Russia where every poll indicated Putin was sure to win, most likely in the first round of elections and by a significant margin, the West still used this ploy to cast doubt on the veracity of electoral outcomes.
Image: From SSI’s 2006 “String of Pearls” report detailing a strategy of containment for China. While “democracy,” “freedom,” and “human rights” will mask the ascension of Aung San Suu Kyi to power, it is part of a region-wide campaign to overthrow nationalist elements and install client regimes in order to encircle and contain China has been long underway.
Leading the charge is a network of poseur NGOs funded and directed by the US State Department through its National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its subsidiaries, in particular Freedom House. It should be noted that despite the “progressive” and “humanitarian” veneer used by these organizations, their boards of directors are veritably filled with overt warmongers, certified Neo-Conservatives, corporate-financier directors, corporate-lobbyists, and both current and former members of the US State Department itself.
It is important to keep the true nature of this false “humanitarian-front” in mind when reading articles out of Freedom House, like the recent, “Burma Election Is Test of Progress,” which is already wringing its hands over its NGO front being ejected from Myanmar ahead of elections. Freedom House director David Kramer who has more recently openly plotted to support the destabilization of Russia in the wake of Putin’s uncontested reelection, admits that poll monitors are not in place to observe the elections – casting further doubts on corporate-media headlines declaring Suu Kyi a winner of a parliamentary seat prematurely.
The Freedom House piece clearly backs what it calls “the primary opposition party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy (NLD).” It is clear that Su |
are always just about to happen, only just averted – in Powell's words, they had the information it would happen, but there was too much information to handle, to filter.
So, too, the field of protest: the frontline forces are vicious but are always only just in time to prevent an event. Unexpected events, like the unrest on the first of Britain's student protests, the Melbourne taxi drivers' protest which shut down the city, the 'Anonymous' DDoS attacks on Wikileaks' persecutors, the flash mobs which periodically hit major cities, can flare up out of nowhere, taking the state completely by surprise. Emerging like a snake from the spaces of quiet suffering, they pose a constant threat of 'unknown unknowns' the system cannot handle. The closer insurrection is to these unpredictable modalities of protest, the less it can be pre-empted, and the more the vast space behind the front lines is open to it.
This provides opportunities for exciting events. But there is also a certain danger in the upturn. Anarchists are not affected by who's in power, but the wider field of potential resisters clearly are, and this in turn affects things like the numbers resisting and the general level of energy. This ultimately seems to affect anarchists too. Take the situation in Britain. Today, there is a wave of militant resistance to the new Tory government's cuts programme, with impressive actions in London. Yet it is strange that this has come only now. Things were no better under Blair. Then, a militant opposition emerged (in events like J18 and Mayday), precisely because the broad constituency of resistance was decomposed by Blairism's clever use of incorporation and lesser-evilism. Now, because of a recession and a Tory government, the masses are moving once again. But the future does not lie with those who will be quieted by a change in government. The future lies with those who do not compromise – which is to say, with the network of bands. The danger we face today is the reabsorption of the bands into a movement of resistance hegemonised by the mass. The opportunity is that people can be drawn from the mass into the network of bands by the experience of struggle.
Texts like The Coming Insurrection are charismatic. They resonate on the basis that they make claims which appeal to the reader, subjective truths which are otherwise hidden. Insurrections, too, are charismatic. And it is impossible to know in advance how resonant they will be, given their exclusion from public discourse by the dominant system. Resonance with the hidden transcript, or with psychologically repressed material, or with groups denied a voice, is hard to predict. Insurrection is also expressive. 'Instrumental action relates to only one sphere of the lifeworld, another sphere being... [the] expressive'... [T]he pursuit of expressive authenticity is a form of protest against disenchantment, which is brought about by the rationalization of the lifeworld' (Routledge and Simons 476). The replacement of instrumental with expressive orientations should be one of an insurrection's goals. There is something inherently appealing in meeting state violence with a counter-attack, something which is missing in other responses, for all their usefulness and bravery. 'It is high time for them to understand that we refuse to put up with this abuse any longer' (Black Block Papers, p. 80).
The experience of the excluded and the right to be angry
'We can no longer even see how an insurrection might begin... our sense of the war in progress [is dulled]... We need to start by recovering this perception' (CI)
'No one can honestly deny... this was an assault that made no demands... and it had nothing to do with politics' (CI)
The intensity of experience sustains insurrection beyond its specific goals. Above all, insurrection is a question of intensity. In bourgeois rhetoric, intensity and violence fuse into one another. Intensity is frightening to the system because it does not take part in the politics of inclusion, it does not sell itself to power. The images of the “violence” of insurrection thus fuse real attacks with imaginary violence, with the state's fear of its own collapse.
There are of course dangers of insurrection slipping into roles and reproducing the system's violence, but these dangers are overplayed by critics. Insurrection is not at all a masculine thing, a performance of social roles – it is all about the right to be angry. Similarly, activism of whatever kind if not above all a publicity stunt, not a performance for the mass or state gaze, but something else, an expressive action, an act against or in radical antagonism with the state, imposing costs on it. Fighting the police as enemies stands in the tradition of indigenous warfare, of "popular defense" in Virilio's sense, not the modern warfare which exterminates the enemy as irreducibly evil or which closes space to prevent action.
Another criticism we can safely ignore is the leftist objection that insurrection is an action of a minority, and that images of insurrection are alienating to the majority. Insurrection is performed to bring about a better world, it is not performed for the gaze of the Other. There is no reason insurrectionists need to be accountable to the majority; we are the excluded, those who are not part of the community, so the majority is not part of the same collective as we are. Why should the excluded always be the ones expected to dialogue, compromise, appeal to others? The system has made clear it has no time for such things. It is putting itself further and further from any possibility of dialogue. Leftists tend to assume that capitalist power is nothing but the alienation of our own power. This is true, if the “we” is cast broadly enough (it is alienated life), but it is not maintained by the insurrectionists, the people who resist; it is maintained by others, whose positions are incommensurable with ours. They are not simply seduced by false consciousness or forced to alienate their labour; they actually desire the present system. Hence, we should not imagine that all of this will dissolve in the event that individualism is replaced by collectivity and struggle. For one thing, insurrectional struggle is on a certain level very much individual.
But more crucially, the structural analysis underpinning this view is flawed. Leftism makes excuses for people's reactionary ideologies by taking a starting point of ideological submersion as axiomatic, and imagining community or struggle to be a messianic antidote; if anarchists criticise people for being reactionary, they're prone to call us'moralistic' (meaning we have our own ethical principles, instead of a historical teleology). Of course, insurrection often transforms those who are a part of it, and many people go through moments of revelation in the face of police brutality. Yet insurrectional bands are most often formed from prior individual refusals; the refusal constitutes the community, it does not result from it. On the contrary, movements which start out as reformist or reactionary do not miraculously become insurrectionary simply because people come together. This is because the real basis of revolt resides in desire, not community. People are not simply products of ideology and subjectification until they miraculously break its spell in revolt; the system needs hooks in desire to draw people in. People vary in the degree to which their desires resist this process of attraction. The facts that the social relations have to be continually reproduced, that fetishism is incomplete and can break down at any point, that systems left to their own devices go into entropy, do not at all affect the fact that the system will not collapse while those who desire it exert dominance over those who do not.
The included (including people who are exploited, but nevertheless identify with the system) have betrayed insurrection time and again. In doing so, they have harmed their own position as well as ours. If the included do not care enough about the most basic rights and needs of the excluded, or do not have the power to force the system to concede - why on earth should the excluded hold back, out of concern for their approval? In any case, the mass doesn't think, it just reacts. Greek “public opinion” supported unrest while it happened, then fell on board with the government line. British “public opinion” was massively against Thatcher at the height of crises, only to return to her at elections. We need a more constant compass than this. The Coming Insurrection is right: there is no prior community, no “we”, only the affinity of those who are linked in aspirations and actions. The ground of resistance is not the community or the majority, but each person's right to be angry and to resist, based on our difference, our refusal, and our non-renunciation. We shouldn't feel a need to form links with others who have no desire to form links with us. Against alienation, yes: alienation from ourselves, from others who resist, from the environment... but separating ourselves from reactive force and those who bear it is not alienation, it is autonomy. In Clastres' account, indigenous groups maintain autonomy by separating not only from the state form but even from one another, to defend the autonomy of each group. We need to get past the simplistic association of separation with alienation. Of course we can, and should, ask how, if at all, we can bring over some of the people who aren't resisting to our side. But we must not subordinate our will to theirs, nor imagine we're doing good by indulging their self-limiting aspirations or their reactionary beliefs, in other words, by compromising on our own desires. We aren't all in it together
Short of the final collapse of state and capitalist power, the maximum effect of insurrectionary actions occurs when it is nevertheless pushed back, rendering the effects of such actions cumulative, and expanding open or liberated spaces. These strategic effects are difficult to produce, and can only come from a fusion of the brain with the heart: using expressive actions to produce instrumental improvements, which in turn reinforce the expressive states productive of further action. Strategy comes easy to organised movements because they can turn mobilisations on and off. It is harder for expressive movements and bands, but it is still possible, because expressive affects have triggers and varying intensities.
Insurrection rejects the state's claimed monopoly on force, largely because it pursues a diffusion of all forms of social power. The mainstream attitude to violence in the global North is like the Victorian attitude to sex. There is at once an emotionally invested prohibition, replete with condemnations and silencings, and an attempt to restrict its legitimate expression to a confined proper context in which enjoyment and excess are excluded... and a proliferation in practice, from structural violence to police brutality to organised crime. The ridiculous outrage about insurrectional violence is not only hypocritical – it isn't really about violence at all. It's about what are known as 'feeling rules', in particular, a prohibition on feeling angry against the system.
A qualification, however. There is a lot of talk in The Coming Insurrection about events, decisions, subjective truths and so on. This is a big theme in French philosophy today, probably lifted from the work of the Maoist Badiou, and can be traced back to the debate between the fascist Schmitt and critical theorist Walter Benjamin. The problem with the use of decisionism in insurrectionism is that the act of decision, the'sovereign decision' as Agamben calls it, is constitutive of the state. Hence why Schmitt, the founder of this concept, could still be a fascist. We need to be clear on how our anti-politics is different from that of the statist suspension of the ethical, the sovereign decision. For Agamben, this distance is created by being all-inclusive and immanent, which is to say, it rejects normativity, it diffuses ethics. For Virno, by a kind of decision which is not sovereign, but which simply emerges from a distributed network. For Benjamin, in the difference between a violence which founds law and a violence which destroys law, which is to say, which diffuses power. I think, too, that the Invisible Committee's version is different: we do not make the decision, it takes hold of us. It 'will occur to us rather than being made by us'. What these views have in common is diffusion, the replacement of concentrated relations with diffuse relations (ethics for Agamben, process for Virno, violence for Benjamin). Decisionism is associated with the concentration of power, and hence is part of statist reason. We need instead a diffusion of the power to decide.
Insurrection and band societies
'the decomposition of all social forms is a blessing. It is for us the ideal condition for a wild, massive experimentation with new arrangements, new fidelities' (CI)
'We're setting out from a point of extreme isolation... FIND EACH OTHER. Attach yourself to what you feel to be true. Begin there' (CI)
'All affinity is affinity within a common truth' (CI)
There is a special kind of group which is the agent of insurrection. I have variously seen it called a band, neo-tribe, neo-sect, bund, pack, fused-group, subject-group. Anarchist groups are, at least partially, band societies. For some, in all or most aspects of life; for others, as the most emotionally intense aspect of lives also lived less intensely in other political forms. As Virilio observes (Speed and Politics, p. 4), street insurrection reproduces the raiding party of our ancestors. Anthropologists such as Ingold have shown that bands are fundamentally different from societies in the usual sense. The band involves a way of constructing social relations which does without the usual hierarchical props. It is absolutely immanent to everyday life. Militant resistance gets its power from its articulation in everyday life, not only in the moments of insurrection themselves, but in the full set of autonomous practices of which they are a part. (What is sometimes attacked as 'lifestyle activism' is actually the embodiment of this immanence). The band as a social form seems to reappear wherever organisation isn't fully implanted. Bands seem to come naturally to children. Anarchists, and far-leftists too, usually end up in bands, even when they want organisations (like Makhno for instance).
Anarchist bands are somewhat distinct from indigenous band societies, being rather closer to the 'bund'. Schmalenbach's account of the sect or 'bund' suggests that it achieves a social form irreducible to community and society, held together by a special kind of emotional bond he terms 'communion'. Immediate emotional experiences (often produced through ritual) hold together such groups without the mediation of abstract identities or organisations. Existing without a basis in ascriptive ties such as kinship, the bund cannot exist independently from the social acts which constitute it. It must constantly be re-enacted, or disappear. It is thus an absolutely immanent form of social life. Acts of insurrection constitute insurrectional bands, playing the function of ritual. Bands are counterposed to rational, linear history (since are based in immediacy of affective fusion, not representation).
Perhaps the most commented-on discussion in The Coming Insurrection is the critique of milieus and the argument for communes. Milieus are constituted by the problematic aspects of many activist groups, such as informal hierarchy. They are deemed reactionary because they betray truths and are only concerned with their own'sad comfort'. In contrast, communes arise when people find each other and forma common path. A multitude of communes could replace all the various institutions of the dominant system, forming an entire counter-society. 'The commune is the basic unit of partisan reality. An insurrectional surge may be nothing more than a multiplication of communes, their coming into contact and forming of ties'.
This raises the question of the transition between the two. When do milieus turn into affinity-groups and vice-versa? The difference seems to be defined in terms of their animating social logic and emotional formation. Crucially, communes are defined by 'the spirit that animates them', 'the density of the ties at their core', and not by 'what's inside and what's outside them'. This defines them in distinction both from right-wing networks and from states and other hierarchies. It also establishes them as very close to the categories of band, pack, neo-sect, fused group, subject-group, and bund. A 'truth' is here associated with the intense, immediate emotional connection at the heart of these kinds of groups. The loss of this leads to a'milieu' as direct connection is replaced by some kind of normativity.
In other words, insurrectionists, communes, are always bands. But not all bands are insurrectionist. Formally, all band societies are rather similar. But they differ in how their identity is constructed. The autonomous kind of band should be distinguished from those types of'sect' and 'neo-sect' which claim to be the one true way, viewing themselves from the start as something akin to a universal church. Band societies can be reproduced only if they coexist with other bands in a terrain of multiple voices and horizontal connections.
Networks and the everyday
'The maintenance of the self in a permanent state of deterioration, in a chronic state of near-collapse, is the best-kept secret of the present order of things' (CI)
'We count on making that which is unconditional in relationships the armor of a political solidarity as impenetrable to state interference as a gypsy camp' (CI)
If the band is the basic unit of insurrection, networks are necessary to reproduce it across time and space. In The Coming Insurrection, it is argued that we can no longer find each other in sites such as the factory; instead, affinity is formed through everyday insubordination. It has long been argued that coming-together as affinity-groups is already an act of insurrection; Hakim Bey, for instance, views it as defiance of the capitalist distribution of time. The Coming Insurrection stands in this tradition of emphasising affinity.
Major insurrectional events involve bands, but also swarms. The band coexists with the swarm; swarms emerge when bands come together for an event. Movements over time switch between swarms and bands. When swarms decompose, bands tend to come to the fore. A swarm may arise when a number of bands coalesce. The transition between the two requires a degree of critical literacy, dialogue, inclusiveness, avoidance of silencing. Inclusive networks are the means to make bands into swarms and swarms into bands.
If everyday life forms a site in which insurrection can be built, it follows that insurrection is not limited to those acts the system demonises as 'violent'; it also encompasses an entire range of 'nonviolent' approaches: building links among excluded groups and bands, reconstructing subsistence economies,'social weaving', emotional healing, forming bands and networks which create their own values, the construction of autonomous spaces. The strategies proposed by authors such as Colin Ward and Hakim Bey, or autonomist strategies of 'exodus', of defecting from capitalism and withdrawing life-energies and creativity from it, are not counterposed to those of insurrection, but operate as its everyday level, its condition for reproduction. In practice, insurrections emerge from, and extend, networks of power and meaning already operating in everyday life, often submerged or hidden. (This also suggests that insurrection is in continuity with, not entirely separate from, resistance). It is easy enough to find useful things to do, other than actually fighting the system on the frontlines. But this cannot be a substitute for insurrection. Ultimately, the state will respond with violence to the recomposition of forces it cannot control, and the recomposed bands will either have to deal with dispossession or fight – and defeat – the state. We need to radicalise the idea of diversity of tactics as it applies to protests, embracing interdependency and the insufficiency of each actor to the total struggle as part of a broader radicalisation of interpersonal relations. Not everyone can fight the police; not everyone can forego fighting the police.
Insurrection should thus be part of a broader process of reclaiming life from capitalism and the state. This is not to say, however, that unrest short of a final destruction of the system is unnecessary or unproductive. Small, apparently ineffectual insurrections, often deemed ritual protests by researchers, become crucial means for building the subjectivities, repertoires of action and 'action spaces' which prepare for insurrections which can bring down the system. An event like the Greek insurrection of 2008 is made possible by the more ritualised showdowns of the November anniversaries and other events all year long.
Place
'to keep the riots going for a month, while keeping the police in check – to do that you have to know how to organize, you have to establish complicities, you have to know the terrain perfectly' (CI)
The relation to territory also changes: instead of possessing territory as in state projects, insurrection increases the density, circulation and solidarities of communes, rendering the territory 'unreadable, opaque to all authority'. This requires a proliferation of existential territories: 'the more territories there are superimposed on a given zone, the more circulation there is between them, the harder it will be for power to get a handle on them... Local self-organization superimposes its own geography over the state cartography, scrambling and blurring it: it produces its own secession'. The text portrays this, not as a return to local slowness against state speed, but a surreptitious overtaking of the state. Territory should here be understood in relation to the distinction in geography between places, which are sites of meaning for participants, and space. Capitalism is premised on spaces which are not places, 'non-places' such as airports, hotels and supermarkets which resist being turned into local places.
The reconstruction of local space creates which is sometimes termed 'homeplace', a type of place in which people feel emotionally secure and at ease. The imposition of non-place also imposes generalised insecurity and anxiety. Place, or existential territory, exists in the dense indigenous relations to particular local ecosystems, the detailed spatial knowledge and sense of belonging to a locality of inner-city and banlieue rebels, even (in a mediated way) in the worker's relationship to the factory. The current phase of capitalism (and not necessarily earlier phases) seeks to replace the experience of place with a mixture of 'telepresence' (virtual images) and non-places in which people are controlled and equivalent. In this phase, the restoration of place can be a means to restore autonomy which has been lost by localities. Of course, caution is needed here to distinguish the autonomous construction of place from exclusionary and oppressive types of local identity (such as nationalism and racism), and from a purely defensive orientation to place (such as rural conservatism and working-class nostalgia). An autonomous relationship to space is a localising relationship but also an immanent relationship counterposed to the transcendence of any particular spatial imagining. It is, in the Zapatista slogan, 'a world where all worlds fit'.
Section 2: The power of insurrection
'to know that a certain coexistence will end soon, that a decision is near' (CI)
'any loss of control would be preferable to all the crisis management scenarios they envision' (CI)
Insurrection has power when acts are available to insurrectionists which are not available to hierarchical power. The state tries to destroy such advantages, both through recuperation, bringing in approaches which begin outside, and through repressive countermeasures. Insurrections often arise in a cyclical way. The emergence of a new tactic to which the system cannot respond generates new forms of insurrectional power. These new tactics create cracks in the dominant system, which attract other people amd groups who were formerly disempowered. The tactics reproduce virally. In contrast, downturns in militant activity occur when existing forms of action seem to have stopped producing powerful effects.
The motor of change is the instability of the existing order's ability to 'govern' or 'command'. This relies not primarily on its ability to suppress, but on the persistence of obedience. Each insurrection disrupts or destroys the system's ability to command. Each time, the system will either collapse or recompose. So far, it has recomposed. Of course, neither insurrectionists nor statists can foresee the other's ability to invent new tactics or weapons. So both new insurrections and new recompositions of the system are unpredictable. A final collapse of the dominant system will occur when the system cannot invent new responses or weapons quickly enough to contain the ability of an insurrection to undermine command. This also leaves the question of how to reconstruct spaces outside command once the system has collapsed, or while it is collapsing.
Asymmetrical conflict
'The police are not invincible in the streets, they simply have the means to organize, train, and continually test new weapons. Our weapons, on the other hand, are always rudimentary, cobbled-together... [and] don't have a hope of rivaling theirs in firepower, but can be used to hold them at a distance, redirect attention, exert psychological pressure or force passage and gain ground by surprise' (CI)
The tactics and techniques which form weapons of insurrection and repression, as well as the literal weapons, are constantly innovated on both sides. The Coming Insurrection plays up the state's research capacity to generate new weapons. This is, indeed, a serious problem, though the state tends to develop new weapons modelled on old ones, new weapons which do the same things in slightly different ways (is there really a world of difference between microwave beams, LRADs, water cannons, tear gas and shooting in the air?) In contrast, it suggests the improvised weapons of insurrectionists are necessarily inferior, and implies they do not develop. This is not necessarily true. Firstly, activists through time have innovated a whole range of tactics which later catch on, such as the various innovations in lock-ons, tree-sits and tunnelling in the 1980s. Secondly, there are a great many actors – from smaller state powers to organised crime networks and armed opposition groups – doing research into undermining asymmetrical power. These actors often discover things that are later used in insurrections. Molotov cocktails were invented by the Soviets as a cheap way to fight an invading army. The Internet was originally invented by, of all people, the US military, as a defensive measure against massive assault, before being taken up by hacktivists (consider the Operation Payback actions for instance). Thirdly, age-old knowledge can be rediscovered, as when activists borrow consensus decision-making from indigenous groups. We should look for new vulnerabilities, and tools which exploit such vulnerabilities. In China, the next big wave of asymmetrical technologies are already emerging, in forms such as electromagnetic pulse weapons which take out enemy technologies, and cheap micro-satellites which destroy satellite surveillance. In Iraq and elsewhere, insurgents are pioneering the use of mobile phones as triggers, and even making moves into remote-control and robotics. How many of these measures will eventually have insurrectional uses? Already a remote-controlled graffiti machine has been created. We can expect to see the constant innovation of new asymmetrical techniques for as long as domination persists.
Raising costs
To defeat or push back states strategically, it's helpful to understand how they think. This is not easy: they think in a way which is so alien to non-renunciated life that it is hard to understand. It helps to think of the state as an instrumental machine: it functions in large part on cost-benefit rationalities. Costs are the Achilles' heel of repression. They ultimately constrain states, because they can interfere with states' abilities to pursue other activities, or the competitiveness of their capitalist tax-base. States want control, but on the cheap; and they will usually choose between tolerance and repression based on which costs more. Actually, their thinking is more complicated than this, for several reasons. Firstly, they'll sometimes bear a large immediate cost (such as the expense of the Battle of Mainzerstrasse) in the hope of future benefits (such as a smaller, more demoralised squatters' movement). Secondly, the 'cost' of the destruction of the system is for the state infinite, and justifies any cost. Thirdly, states sometimes seem to react to incalculable costs (such as moral panics) in unpredictable ways.
If done right, imposing costs allows statists (and capitalists) to be pushed back a bit at a time, cornered, disempowered, and reduced to a much less threatening position. Roughly speaking, this works as follows. If the costs are high enough, states can usually be prevented from repression. For the costs to be high enough, they need to be higher than the costs of toleration. The state may or may not choose to invest in'speculative' repression, which aims mainly to alter the future balance of forces. It is less likely to do this, the less disposable income it has. Hence the reason insurrections are usually more effective during economic downturns. The state's reasoning will also be affected by activist responses. The less easy activists are to demoralise, the less beneficial the gamble of speculative repression will seem. Spaces crucial to insurrection can be imposed on states. States will concede a lot rather than risk collapse. Most often, these concessions feed back into recuperation. But they can also be used to carve out autonomous zones. Think of examples like autonomous student spaces in pre-neoliberal Japan, squatting in 1980s Germany and Holland, the Zapatista zone in Chiapas, de facto self-governed shanty-towns in major Southern cities, or university asylum in Greece. These are not recuperated spaces, but autonomous spaces the state was/is forced to tolerate.
We can see this statist reasoning across a number of cases. In the case of the UK animal rights movement, the state did not intervene to save various small operations such as Hillgrove Farm, but was prepared to go to very extreme lengths (from government financial bailouts to bogus trials) to protect HLS itself, viewed as central to an accumulation strategy based on biotechnology. The German squatters' movement was highly successful in the 1980s, mainly by imposing costs – a squat eviction would be met with militant protests, fierce squat defence, and the formation of new squats. This position was reversed in the early 1990s, and some cities are now squat-free. This is partly due to recuperation (most of the old 1980s squatters were legalised), partly to just-in-time policing (the tactic of attacking squats the moment they're formed, is costly, risky, often effective, but vulnerable to just one or two failures rendering it unsustainable; it is only viable because of the mass legalisations of squats and reduced numbers in the movement). Hence, the state reduced costs of repression, but also took on more costly repression – which can be made sense of in terms of rapidly rising real-estate prices in most of the affected cities.
This allows us to upgrade our sense of our own effectiveness. It must be remembered here that what seem like positive things for the state, such as jailing an activist or fencing in a summit, are actually immensely costly. States regularly spend millions on summits. The Toronto G20 summit reportedly ran to an $850 million bill. Jail costs $20,000 per prisoner per year in running costs alone. In the case of the London Mayday protests, the'successful' repression of Mayday 2001 through mass 'kettling' cost £20 million in pre-emptive business closures alone, compared to a £500,000 total cost of Mayday 2000, deemed unsuccessful because of property damage. (The state gamble – which ultimately succeeded – was that this cost would be worth it if demoralisation and fear caused the annual protests to fizzle out). Protest often imposes costs, even when it seems to be effectively repressed. It should be added that Southern regimes often operate on a different basis, mainly because they rely on forms of repression which are less effective, but lower-cost.
This calculation on the state side can be used to modulate insurrection. Reducing the costs of autonomous activity to a point where they are small enough to be tolerated is not an option, as it increases disempowerment. There are exceptions in terms of selectivity: indirect targeting of smaller firms in campaigning against a major company, and squatting lower- rather than higher-value buildings, are two examples. Another option is to actively nibble away at a target in cumulative ways, which never cross the threshold where repression becomes cost-effective, but which add up to the collapse of the target. Usually, however, insurrection implies that ordinary action imposes extensive costs, and cutting these costs is impossible without betraying insurrection.
Raising the costs of repression, on the other hand, is viable. For this to be done, each movement needs, so to speak, capacity held in reserve. This can be achieved in two ways. Firstly, it would be helped by being less 'hyperactive', doing fewer things but doing them better, while staying ready to respond to a crisis. Secondly, it would be enabled by links between movements, such that repression of one band which was already fully-stretched produced responses from completely different bands which were not part of the same mobilisation. Hence, effective networking around issues of repression can be an effective way of preventing it. Either way, keeping in reserve a capacity to respond to repression is crucial to preventing it. Keeping up a high level of movement composition – strong connections, sustainable emotional forces – contributes to preventing repression. In Manipur, the Meira Paibis provide an example of a'reserve' force constantly on watch for repression, something like a vastly extended Copwatch scheme, patrolling for hours each day on the lookout for state forces, ready to sound the alarm if abuse occurs. Overcommitting to the moment, at the expense of failing to keep forces in reserve to respond to new developments, impedes the ability of insurrections to handle repression. Activist bands and affinity-networks need to find ways to distribute activity sustainably through time, avoiding overcommitment and burnout.
Another way to think about insurrection is in relation to the SHAC model. This puts a particular inflection on permanent attack: there is still constant action, constant attack, drawing on expressive modalities, but it is varied in intensity and target, to increase its instrumental power. The model is often misunderstood as operating on a human level, as 'intimidation'. Primarily it operates at the level of the basic logic of capitalism, which is instrumental and inhuman: it imposes costs. Capitalists make decisions to disinvest, because the risk of suffering losses outweighs the profit which can be made. This has proven very effective in pushing HLS to the point where it can no longer function in the capitalist market. SHAC's vulnerability is that, while it imposes costs on animal abusers, it is open to retaliation by the state, on which it does not, on the whole, impose costs. It can be predicted that people will apply this kind of strategy across a range of issues, and especially, apply it to create the conditions of permanent attack: to prevent the state from repressing, to corrode its repressive capability, to carve out autonomous zones, to retaliate against state atrocities. This would in turn enhance its existing uses too, rendering the likes of SHAC less vulnerable to state repression.
One way to sustain movements in the face of repression is to turn repression itself into a source of anger, and hence of further action. This is shown in certain Southern contexts where killings by police (of activists or of ordinary people) lead almost automatically to responses: police stations attacked, mass protests called, and so on. In Iran during the 1979 Revolution, the tide was maintained because activists' funerals, held after a delay, became a site of renewed resistance, spreading into new demonstrations. In Kashmir today, when police kill, protests always follow. Even in America, police killings and deaths in custody sometimes spark unrest, such as the recent Oakland uprising. Is it possible to duplicate this kind of response in contexts where the violence used is not usually lethal? If it happened, it would probably turn a particular event (such as conviction) or the use of a particular tactic (such as 'kettling' or abuse in custody) into a trigger for protest or for other actions.
Analysing summit protests
The response to summit protests shows the strategic situation clearly. The police effectively lost in Seattle, Prague and Washington, partly because they were unable to hold space, partly because the images went against them, and partly because real disruption occurred. Police responses have followed a standardised model, and have ranged from the relocation of summits to fortified out-of-town encampments, through the use of pre-emptive arrests, “kettling”, and attacks on convergence sites, to a general increase in brutality. There are three strategic rationales to this response. Firstly, it aims to disrupt protest in general (not only militant protest), the apparent purpose being to reclaim media space by showing the police on the attack (rather than delegates besieged, or police being routed). The goal here is to hegemonise the media space. Secondly, it aims to make activists feel powerless, to disrupt devices such as the creation of temporary homespaces at convergence sites and the division of protests into zones to modulate risk, to deploy weapons designed to produce pain and disorientation, and to produce situations of frustration and sheer terror. These measures aim to break morale. Thirdly, the relocation of summits changes little in spatial terms, but reframes a forced outcome as a choice. Previously, it seemed like a defeat that summits occurred under siege, and protesters occupied the surrounding town; now, it seems like a deliberate strategy. This created dilemmas for activists. The previously highly effective'swarming' tactic had to be abandoned. Morale-boosting symbolic victories became less likely.
This response occurred because the state did not wish to concede the space it had effectively lost with the rise of summit protests; it preferred to try to seize back this space through fascistic measures. The state thus gives up many of the deep supports of its existence, the ideology of legitimacy which disguises social war and keeps up an appearance of civil rights. This is, once more, an effect of 'just in time' policing: the state has all its forces on the frontline, and no deep support behind it; it has given up the trenches and fieldworks the maintenance of which would formerly have provided security in the event of a frontline defeat, but which restricted what the state could do on the frontline. This basic vulnerability is often missed in critiques of the effectiveness of such protests today. This said, it creates certain problems. The expected effect of such measures would be to reduce overall numbers, make it less likely that first-time protesters will attend, but also to increase militancy among protesters, who will become increasingly angry with the repression. This seems to be what has largely happened. The gap which needs to be addressed on our side is that, if such protests no longer self-recruit so easily, there is an increasing need for other kinds of bridges into everyday life, to bring new people into activism. Protests can no longer be expected to self-recruit.
Hitting the infrastructure of |
of drugs present.
That’s important, because while Illinois used to define impairment as having any amount of cannabis or other controlled substance in the body, last year lawmakers raised that minimum threshold to 5 nanograms per milliliter in the blood, and 10 ng/mL in other bodily fluids.
But the Illinois State Police crime laboratory is not certified to give such precise measurements, and local police agencies say it can take months to process a request. Therefore, police sometimes send samples to private labs, which can be quicker but also costlier.
That’s where the new field test comes in. For drivers who submit to a blood draw, Carol Stream police plan to ask them also to volunteer for the mouth swab, not for use in court, but simply to compare its accuracy to the lab test. The department plans to conduct at least 100 comparisons over the next year, beginning around March.
Testing devices can cost $3,000 to $6,000, but the manufacturer of the unit in question, a German company called Protzek, will provide it for free to the village. Officials claim its accuracy is comparable to state-of-the-art laboratory techniques.Church-Key Announces Release of Bloody Wanker Pale Ale
CAMPBELLFORD, ON – Church-Key Brewing has announced the release of a new beer that gives a North American twist to a classic UK style.
Bloody Wanker is a 4.8% abv and 64 IBU ale described as follows:
A British chap moves to North America. The polite well mannered bloke becomes bigger, bolder and more of a Bloody Wanker! This can happen with beer too. We took a sessionable pub ale and added some big, in your face hops. The use of Falconer’s Flight gives Bloody Wanker a tropical blood orange zest, and juicy fruit bitterness that plays well against the sweet Maris Otter floor malt.
Bloody Wanker is available now on draught at select licensees in Ontario, and in 650 ml bottles at the Church-Key retail store while supplies last.Bug#727708: init system other points, and conclusion
To: 727708@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Bug#727708: init system other points, and conclusion
From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 16:10:10 -0800
Message-id: <87r48vnqql.fsf@windlord.stanford.edu>
Reply-to: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>, 727708@bugs.debian.org
In-reply-to: <21183.21942.130759.900867@chiark.greenend.org.uk> (Ian Jackson's message of "Sat, 28 Dec 2013 22:50:30 +0000")
References: <21183.21942.130759.900867@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
We seem to be at the point of the process where at least those of us who did early investigation are stating conclusions. I think I have enough information to state mine, so will attempt to do so here. This is probably going to be rather long, as there were quite a few factors that concerned me and that I wanted to investigate. The brief summary is that I believe Debian should adopt systemd as its default init system on Linux. There are two separate conceptual areas in which I think systemd offers substantial advantages over upstart, each of which I would consider sufficient to choose systemd on its own. Together, they make a compelling case for systemd. This position would have substantial implications for upgrade paths and for non-Linux ports; I'll discuss a bit of that below, but most of it in the separate branch of this bug report that Ian opened on that topic. Below, I first discuss the other choices before us besides systemd and upstart. Then I look at a straight technical comparison between the two init systems, and finally look at issues of maintenance, community, ecosystem, and portability. The three main criteria on which I was evaluating both systems were technical capabilities, surrounding ecosystem, and portability. The latter two turned out to be deeply entangled, so I discuss them together. 1. Other Choices First, other choices besides systemd and upstart. There were three replacement init systems proposed to the Technical Committee to replace sysvinit, plus the existing status quo. The third option, OpenRC, is a more conservative and less revolutionary change than either systemd or upstart. It continues to use the existing sysvinit init process but replaces the startup script management with a more robust shell library and additional features. I think the OpenRC developers are great people and I wish them all the success in the world with their project, but I just don't think it's ambitious enough for Debian's needs. If we're going to the effort of replacing init systems and changing our startup scripts, a bare minimum requirement for me is that we at least address the known weaknesses of the sysvinit mechanism, namely: * Lack of integration with kernel-level events to properly order startup. * No mechanism for process monitoring and restarting beyond inittab. * Heavy reliance on shell scripting rather than declarative syntax. * A fork and exit with PID file model for daemon startup. My impression of OpenRC is that it is not attempting to solve these issues in the same way that systemd and upstart are. To the extent that these issues are on the OpenRC roadmap, it's not as far along as either systemd or upstart is. It's difficult to evaluate since the OpenRC documentation is rather sparse and lacks the comprehensive manual available to both systemd and upstart, which is itself a sign of a lack of project maturity. I don't think that switching to OpenRC offers enough clear benefit over the status quo. That raises the other obvious option: sticking with sysvinit. I've made my position on this fairly clear in other threads, so I won't reiterate it here at length. The short version is that I turned to other tools to manage daemons years ago because sysvinit was simply inadequate, and my feeling on that hasn't changed. The model of fork and exit without clear synchronization points is inherently racy, the boot model encoded into sysvinit doesn't reflect a modern system boot, and maintaining large and complex init scripts as conffiles has been painful for years. Nearly every init script, including the ones in my own packages, have various edge-case bugs or problems because it's very hard to write robust service startup in shell, even with the excellent helper programs and shell libraries that Debian has available. A quick perusal of /etc/init.d/skeleton and the complex case statements and careful attention to status codes required for a proper init script makes this case clear. I think the choice of a default init system for Linux is a choice between systemd and upstart. We would be doing ourselves and our users a disservice to stick with the status quo, or even a moderate update of the status quo to add a simpler service definition. The limitations have been well-known for years, and I think it's telling that most other operating systems, even fairly conservative ones, have moved away from the System V init script model. The last option that was before us was supporting multiple init systems. I consider this a variation on a transition plan, with a possibly infinite time horizon, and will discuss this separately when I talk about transition plans. 2. Core Service Management Functionality As reported to this bug, I did a fairly extensive evaluation of both upstart and systemd by converting one of my packages, which provides a network UDP service, to a native configuration with both systems. While doing so, I tried to approach each init system on its own terms and investigate what full, native support of that init system would look like, both from a Debian packaging perspective and from an upstream perspective. I also tried to work through the upgrade path from an existing init script with an external /etc/default configuration file and how that would be handled with both systemd and upstart. I started this process with the expectation that systemd and upstart would be roughly evenly matched in capabilities. My expectation was that I would uncover some minor differences and variations, and some different philosophical approaches, but no deeply compelling differentiation. To my surprise, that's not what happened. Rather, I concluded that systemd has a substantial technical advantage over upstart, primarily in terms of available useful features, but also in terms of fundamental design. 2.1. General Impressions systemd feels like a software package that has been used and pounded on in a wide variety of real-world situations, and has grown the flexibility and adaptibility that is required to make a wide variety of use cases work. upstart, on the other hand, has a minimal design and a ready escape to shell scripting, which may have discouraged directly tackling a broader array of use cases. Regardless, there are a bunch of cases that systemd handles cleanly with simple configuration that would require shell script fragments or other workarounds in Ubuntu, which in turn makes the startup configurations less reliable and harder to debug. I was quite impressed throughout the process of developing systemd unit files. Every time I realized I needed some piece of functionality to configure the daemon properly, systemd already had it. 2.2. Major Functionality Gaps Here are the major pieces of functionality that I think would have to be added to upstart for rough feature parity: * Socket activation, by which I don't mean lazy start of daemons, although it enables that, but init management of socket setup so that daemons can start in parallel. This has been discussed elsewhere on the thread, but I want to note here that systemd's approach is bold and innovative. We've had multiple discussions in Debian lists in the past where people have felt somewhat depressed or discouraged about Debian's lack of innovation or unwillingness to tackle sweeping improvements. After having studied and implemented socket activation, I think this is one of those opportunities, and we should not pass it by. There are a variety of advantages to socket activation that have been discussed elsewhere, and I'm not going to repeat them all here. But one I want to call out is the advantage for an enterprise systems administration environment. Right now, in order to configure bind addresses or IPv6 behavior for my services, I have to dig into the individual configuration syntax or command-line flags of each separate daemon, and often there's no easy way to set these parameters without making intrusive changes to daemon startup. Socket activation lets me manage all of this through a simple configuration override that I drop into /etc via (for example) Puppet, and the syntax is the same for every service that uses it. It would obviously take quite some time to get there, but that's a really nice vision of the future, and one that would make a real difference for Debian use cases I care about. upstart has a socket activation protocol, but it would need an almost-complete redesign in order to be used the way that systemd's can be used. It doesn't support passing multiple sockets (required for complex daemons, some IPv6 scenarios, and binding to multiple but not all interfaces), it doesn't support IPv6 at all, it doesn't support UDP sockets, and its configuration syntax is inadequate to represent the parameters that would be useful in a real-world case. It also doesn't separate the socket configuration from the daemon configuration, which makes it harder for a local systems administrator to control binding behavior without changing other properties of daemon initialization. * Integrated daemon status. This one caught me by surprise, since the systemd journal was functionality that I expected to dislike. But I was surprised at how well-implemented it is, and systemctl status blew me away. I think any systems administrator who has tried to debug a running service will be immediately struck by the differences between upstart: lbcd start/running, process 32294 and systemd: lbcd.service - responder for load balancing Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/lbcd.service; enabled) Active: active (running) since Sun 2013-12-29 13:01:24 PST; 1h 11min ago Docs: man:lbcd(8) http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/lbcd/ Main PID: 25290 (lbcd) CGroup: name=systemd:/system/lbcd.service └─25290 /usr/sbin/lbcd -f -l Dec 29 13:01:24 wanderer systemd[1]: Starting responder for load balancing... Dec 29 13:01:24 wanderer systemd[1]: Started responder for load balancing. Dec 29 13:01:24 wanderer lbcd[25290]: ready to accept requests Dec 29 13:01:43 wanderer lbcd[25290]: request from ::1 (version 3) Both are clearly superior to sysvinit, which bails on the problem entirely and forces reimplementation in every init script, but the systemd approach takes this to another level. And this is not an easy change for upstart. While some more data could be added, like the command line taken from ps, the most useful addition in systemd is the log summary. And that relies on the journal, which is a fundamental design decision of systemd. And yes, all of those log messages are also in the syslog files where one would expect to find them. And systemd can also capture standard output and standard error from daemons and drop that in the journal and from there into syslog, which makes it much easier to uncover daemon startup problems that resulted in complaints to standard error instead of syslog. This cannot even be easily replaced with something that might parse the syslog files, even given output forwarding to syslog (something upstart currently doesn't have), since the journal will continue to work properly even if all syslog messages are forwarded off the host, stored in some other format, or stored in some other file. systemd is agnostic to the underlying syslog implementation. * Security defense in depth. Both upstart and systemd support the basics (setting the user and group, process limits, and so forth). However, systemd adds a multitude of additional defense in depth features, ranging from capability limits to private namespaces or the ability to deny a job access to the network. This is just a simple matter of programming on the upstart side, but it still contributes to the general feature deficit; the capabilities in systemd exist today. I'm sure I'm not the only systems administrator who is expecting security features and this sort of defense in depth to become increasingly important over the next few years. Here again, I think we have an opportunity for Debian to be more innovative and forward-looking in what we attempt to accomplish in the archive by adopting frameworks that let us incorporate the principles of least privilege and defense in depth into our standard daemon configurations. There are also a plethora of minor features and tuning available in systemd but not in upstart. None of this is as significant as the points mentioned above, and none of it is as difficult to implement, but it's not currently implemented, and I think it speaks to systemd having been tested against a broader array of use cases. 2.3. Event vs. Dependency Model There is one UI design difference between systemd and upstart that's less clear-cut, but which I think will surprise people. systemd is built around familiar dependencies between services, and starts services in dependency order. There are some twists, such as allowing a service to create a reverse dependency (make another service depend on it), but it's the basic design that's familiar to any packager, or to users of languages like Puppet. upstart, on the other hand, uses a message bus model: services are started when particular events are received, and dependencies are expressed by listing the events required to trigger startup (or some other action). Conceptually, both of these designs are equivalent. They both construct a DAG that's used to order service startup. However, upstart complicates matters by having two types of messages on its message bus: signals and methods (technically, there are also hooks, but the distinction doesn't matter for this point). Signals behave like the typical asynchronous message bus event, or like a dependency: they trigger services to start, but the service issuing the signal does not care whether anyone listens or not. Methods do not; methods are effectively synchronous calls and the service issuing a method event waits until the method event has been acted on before continuing. The UI problem with this approach is that it creates a pitfall with rather noticable consequences. If someone ever confuses a signal event and a method event and starts a service on a method event instead, it is then very easy to block startup of some fundamental system service because its method event never completes due to deadlock. This is made somewhat more likely by the fact that method events are the default in initctl emit commands, whereas signal events require a flag. Again, this is not a fundamental issue with either system; either representation is mathematically convertable into the other. But it's difficult to mess up dependencies in quite the same way. One can create cycles, but unless one is modifying the dependencies of core services, it's hard to create a cycle that involves a core service. upstart provides a way to shoot oneself in the foot by blocking startup of a core service by listening to the wrong type of event. This model doesn't, so far as I could find, offer any clear advantages over a dependency structure in compensation. 2.4. Configuration File Model There is one place where I came into this evaluation preferring the upstart design over the systemd design, and came away with a continued preference, but a more mild one: the configuration file model. systemd uses an /etc overrides /lib model, where all unit configurations are installed in /lib and only local overrides and some configuration goes into /etc. upstart uses the (more familiar to Debian) model where the daemon configuration is a conffile in /etc. Both approaches have real advantages, but I think the upstart approach has slightly more. The systemd model means that one no longer has to add various guards to daemon configurations to allow for the possibility that the package has been uninstalled but not purged. Those continue to be necessary with upstart (and continue to be written in shell; systemd actually has a nicer language for doing this, even though it's not needed). However, the upstart approach makes it easier to preserve and merge local changes with upstream changes. In the systemd model, the local administrator has line-by-line granularity on overrides of systemd unit configurations, which while solving much of the problem does not help with the specific case of wanting to change the flags passed to the daemon. If the package later changes the flags in some orthogonal way, it's easy for the system to miss that change. This is something that, under systemd, will probably require development of new tools to warn the adminsitrator of what's happened. upstart avoids this problem by having the whole configuration be managed as a conffile. I think the upstart approach is better, but I think the drawbacks of the systemd approach could be mostly overcome with some fairly simple Debian tools. 2.5. Summary I think the technical comparison between upstart and systemd as both projects exist today substantially favors systemd, at both the feature and design level. When picking between both products as they currently exist on the basis of their current capabilities and future adaptibility, I have no qualms about picking systemd. 3. Ecosystem and Portability One of the primary concerns from the start of this conversation has been around portability of any new init system. One advantage of the extreme simplicity of sysvinit is that it's extremely portable; this advantage continues to be shared by OpenRC. Both of the more-functional init systems are Linux-specific. However, upstream attitudes towards portability differ. This ties directly into the development models of both systemd and upstart, the community momentum, and the larger surrounding ecosystem. 3.1. Ecosystem Reality Check One of the points that I think may have been obscured in the discussion, but which is important to highlight, is that basically all parties have agreed that Debian will adopt large portions of systemd. systemd is an umbrella project that includes multiple components, some more significant than others. Most of those components are clearly superior to anything we have available now on Linux platforms and will be used in the distribution going forward. In other words, this debate is not actually about systemd vs. upstart in the most obvious sense. Rather, the question, assuming one has narrowed the choices to those two contenders, is between adopting all the major components of systemd including the init system, or adopting most of the major components of systemd but replacing the init system with upstart. Either way, we'll be running udev, logind, some systemd D-Bus services, and most likely timedated and possibly hostnamed for desktop environments. I think this changes the nature of the discussion in some key ways. We're not really talking about choosing between two competing ecosystems. Rather, we're talking about whether or not to swap out a core component of an existing integrated ecosystem with a component that we like better. Now, I am generally on the side that says loose coupling of ecosystems is an inherent good. However, I don't agree that it's such an inherent good that we should disassemble things just for the sake of having disassembled things. At feature parity, and absent any compelling reason to swap components, I think we should take the path of least resistance and use the integrations that other people have already developed. Debian has more than enough hard integration problems to solve without creating new ones for ourselves unnecessarily. But that's the key word: unnecessarily. If we do have a reason for doing this, we should seriously consider it. Therefore, I believe the burden of proof is on upstart to show that it is a clearly superior init system along some axis, whether that be functionality or portability or flexibility or maintainability, to warrant going to the effort of disassembling a part of the systemd ecosystem and swapping in our own component. 3.2. Portability This is a difficult topic to clearly discuss, since it is, in essence, all future speculation at this point. I should state up front that, in making these sorts of decisions around free software projects, I have a relatively high future discount rate. In other words, I give substantially less credit to something that does not exist now but could exist in the future. I don't discount it to zero, but I do discount it relatively strongly. Others may not. I do this because free software projects and volunteer projects are inherently unpredictable. The free software world is stuffed to the gills with roadmaps that never actually happened, through no fault of any of the people involved. It's easy to agree that something would be a good idea, and another matter to actually drive it through to completion. Right now, neither systemd nor upstart work on non-Linux platforms. Therefore, right now, adopting either of them means that we either jettison our non-Linux ports or adopt a transition plan that retains support for sysvinit scripts. Right now, there is minimal difference between the two projects in terms of portability; they both make extensive use of Linux-specific APIs and have hooks for Linux-specific actions. However, there is a porting effort for upstart to kFreeBSD underway, and the current upstart maintainers have indicated more interest in portability than the systemd maintainers. That's been a point of significant friction over systemd (and was, in the past, also a point of friction with the previous upstart upstream, although that's subsequently changed). So there is a real advantage for upstart here, but it's one that has to be discounted because it's potential future work that could happen, but which is certainly not guaranteed to happen. Another point worth considering here is that the best way, from Debian's perspective, of porting either project to kFreeBSD or the Hurd is to implement the currently Linux-specific interfaces on those platforms in some fashion. (An inotify and epoll API that uses kqueue under the hood, for example.) To the extent that this is possible, it benefits both upstart and systemd equally, as well as many other programs in the archive that are written to currently Linux-specific APIs. This is an approach that's been common for years in different porting scenarios; I use it myself to maintain compatibility with both MIT Kerberos and Heimdal in the Kerberos-related packages I maintain. Finally, note the ecosystem point above. To maintain feature parity across Debian's ports, there already appears to be widespread agreement that components of systemd will have to be ported, particularly logind and possibly some of the other services. Now, that's not quite the same thing as porting the init system: it's possible those components use fewer Linux-specific interfaces (I've not checked), it's possible that alternative implementations of the same functionality can be provided (which IIRC is what happened with udev in some fashion), and not being able to run major desktop environments is not the same thing as not being able to boot. But I do think it blunts some of the porting argument. The non-Linux ports are going to have to port, fork, or replace systemd components anyway, regardless of the choice of init system, or drop out of feature parity with the Linux ports. So, in short, I consider portability to be a possible benefit of upstart, but I'm inclined to discount that advantage for several reasons. One, it's not yet actually materialized and still may not, and two, systemd porting looks like it's going to be on the table regardless. I therefore think that we should deal with this issue through how we structure a transition plan, rather than taking it as a reason to choose upstart over systemd. More on that in another message. 3.3. Project Momentum One of the reasons why I'm leery of the future portability argument for upstart, and one of the reasons why I'm leery of upstart in general, is that I'm quite worried upstart will prove to be a blind alley. I think there are several reasons to be concerned here. None of them is persuasive in isolation, but taken together I think they raise significant cause for concern: * Red Hat adopted upstart but never did a wholescale conversion, and then abandoned upstart in favor of systemd. Obviously, one should not put too much weight on this; Red Hat is a commercial company that has a wealth of reasons for its actions that do not apply to Debian. But I think it's still worth noting that the only non-Ubuntu major adopter of upstart backed away from it. * upstart is older than systemd but has significantly fewer features. Now, the danger of this sort of metric is that features can be added as "padding" without any real significance or advantage. But having spent serious time with both systems, I don't believe that's the case here. systemd is not adding extraneous features; rather, it's adding significant, useful functionality and real-world adaptability, and upstart is trailing despite being an older project. * systemd has a broader community. SuSE and Red Hat are both converting, there is significant interest across the general Linux community, major upstreams of Debian such as GNOME and KDE are adopting systemd support (and in some cases even requiring it), and systemd is tackling significant problems, such as logind, that everyone agrees need to be solved. By comparison, upstart is effectively used only by Ubuntu, and there isn't the same sort of enthusiasm or attempts to tackle broad problems happening at present in the upstart community so far as I can see. This is reasonable if upstart is mature and mostly complete software, but that was not my personal experience. * There appears to be some direct tension between GNOME upstream and upstart, not mostly due to upstart itself but because of corporate direction at Canonical. Again, this can easily be overstated. But I do think that Debian will want to continue to support GNOME going forward, and doing that with upstart will clearly require more work within the project than doing that with systemd. This is another case where we shouldn't shy away from the work if it's necessary, but we also shouldn't adopt unnecessary work. Over the past few months, I've also put out some feelers to other colleagues, and the uniform reaction I got in response is that systemd is a better technical solution than upstart. I think this speaks to the general momentum around systemd, and will directly affect our ease of integration in the future. I know that after my personal experience with both projects, I'm excited to add systemd support to my projects as upstream, and not particularly enthused about upstart from an upstream perspective since it doesn't offer me any clear benefits. 3.4. Summary I'm concerned that, if we adopt upstart, in two or three years we'll end up wanting to do the same thing that Red Hat did, back out, and switch to systemd. That would be a huge amount of wasted effort. Even worse would be to end up in that situation and decide that the conversion is too much work, and then just settle for an init system that is harder to integrate and provides less functionality. I remain unconvinced of the long-term growth curve of the upstart project. I don't think it's going to be abandoned completely, at least unless Ubuntu decides to switch (which seems unlikely at the moment) or Canonical dissolves (which also seems unlikely). I do think there's a significant danger that it will stagnate and fall behind in terms of desired features, particularly since this appears to already be happening. I don't have faith in the path that takes upstart from where it is now to something with feature parity with systemd as it is now, let alone something that's clearly better than systemd. And I think Debian as a project should be aiming for better, not merely sufficient. The portability issues are significant. However, I don't think they provide a clear advantage to upstart. It's possible that they will in the future, at which point the ecosystem argument becomes much more difficult and much narrower. But the fact remains that we'll be using large components of systemd across the distribution anyway, which means that swapping out the init system doesn't add as much portability as one might hope, and increases our integration burden. I think we should make wise decisions about which areas we want to invest project effort. I dislike investing significant project effort in catch-up efforts that, when complete, merely get us back to where we would have been if we'd chosen a different solution. I don't think that's wise stewardship of project resources. I want to see Debian focus its efforts on places where we can make a real difference, where we can be leaders. That means adopting the best-of-breed existing solutions and building on top of them, not reinventing wheels and thereby starting from a trailing position. 4. Conclusion If I'm correct in my analysis of the community and ecosystem dynamics, I think upstart needs to show that it is a significantly better technical choice than systemd in order to warrant the additional project work that will be required to build on top of upstart. Given feature parity, I believe we should adopt systemd so that we can focus our efforts on interesting new problems rather than on redoing integrations that other people have already done. My personal analysis did not show that upstart was significantly better than systemd, or even at feature parity. Rather, I believe it is currently trailing systemd substantially in multiple areas, some of which will require significant design changes. Given that, I believe systemd is the clear choice, despite the portability issues that we will incur by choosing it. However, I think that means we need to be very careful about how we handle a transition. I intend to comment on that in a separate message (which will probably be tomorrow given how long writing this message took). -- Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>The General Services Administration has announced a new blockchain initiative to promote emerging technology adoption.
In an effort to promote its Emerging Citizen Technology program, the General Services Administration (GSA) has announced a federal blockchain pilot initiative. The goal of the program is to cater to citizen inquiries about government-related services, ultimately handling the job of customer service representatives.
The program’s lead, Justin Herman, tells Federal News Radio in an interview:
“We’ve started talking with agencies. We’ve started working with companies. We’ve started just listening and going around and starting to identify what are those business cases and those needs that distributed ledger systems that blockchain provides and those technologies provide – How can that impact government?”
Herman explains that the initiative was kick-started through talks with US agencies that have all co-signed increase use of blockchain technology, however, despite the progressivism of these various “pockets” in the US government, Herman explains there is a lack of efficiency when it comes to emerging technology adoption. The GSA hopes to apply itself as a mediator.
“What we’ve got to do is make sure that we’re opening up and articulating our business cases in a way that effectively and efficiently open us up for US businesses to provide these emerging technology solutions,” said Herman
According to Federal News Radio, GSA is working alongside 30 agencies to explore how they can integrate their data into artificially intelligent smart devices, such as Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, Google Assistant, and IBM Watson.
Furthermore, this summer, the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service and the State Department’s Office of Global Partnerships will hold a forum to discuss emerging technologies and implementation of pilot programs. According to Herman, the project is currently in “discovery mode” which involves government being open to suggestions from businesses interested in providing emerging technology solutions.A laptop that's hard to type or point with isn't much of a help when you're getting things done away from your desk. But you can fix and replace your keys and touchpad rather than take a big credit card hit.
Photo by Brymo.
This post is part of a week-long series on laptop repairs and upgrades that focuses on the fixes that can keep a laptop usable after the inevitable breakdown of one part or another.
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Bad Keyboards and Trackpads
Similar to losing your screen, an unworkable keyboard or pointing device can be overcome with a cheap USB or Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo. If you're intent on keeping your system portable, and you don't want to spring for a tiny Bluetooth mouse, you've still got options:
Clean out and de-stick your keys:
If you've got a laptop where the keys can be popped out, perhaps with a little bit of tug, you should set aside the time to:
Take a picture of your keyboard layout, so you can easily reassemble.
of your keyboard layout, so you can easily reassemble. Gently remove the keys, taking care not to pull too hard if a key isn't easily popping out—there may be a metal hook that needs sliding just a few inches to fully release the key.
, taking care not to pull too hard if a key isn't easily popping out—there may be a metal hook that needs sliding just a few inches to fully release the key. Gather the keys in a fine mesh bag, cheesecloth, or unneeded pantyhose.
Run the keys in the dishwasher, whether along with your dishes or in a separate cycle.
Remove and dry the keys on paper towels, then gently return them to their original positions.
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On a MacBook, the keys don't necessarily look like they should be removed, but they're built in fairly similar fashion to most keyboards, just with a little more design. Here's how to pop them off:
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If you can't quite get at your individual keys, there are other means of cleaning out the dark nether-regions between keys. You can try a hair dryer (set on cool), clear tape or Post-It Notes, or simply some spare white printing paper.
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We've also previously posted a link to Computing.net's hardcore keyboard cleaning regimen. It involves rubbing alcohol, tweezers, Super Lube Dry Film spray, and other tools, and the author suggests needing two hours for the whole shot. But if your keyboard is starting to grate on you every day, it's probably worth the effort, and far less time than if you'd had to work for the cost of a new laptop.
Touchpads/Trackpads
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They're far more tricky to clean and repair than keyboards, due to their touch-sensitive nature, calibration, and location in the computer's chassis. Still, where there's a will, there's a way.
If the issue is that your trackpad looks and feels gross, try Adam Dachis' new favorite tool: the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. A little scrubbing with that soft brick, and you'll find out just how much hand oil and other gunk has built up around your touchpad.
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If the trackpad on your device is unresponsive or inaccurate, and you don't want to make do with a wireless mouse, you can take a shot at replacing it, or its equally likely conspirator, the trackpad control cable.
• MacBooks: All-things-repair site iFixit has both the parts and the how-to guides you need to replace your Mac trackpad. Here's the MacBook Pro unibody model TrackPad and its instructions, but take note that iFixit considers it difficult to repair components in this section of the MacBook—mostly because it requires a more thorough disassembly of your system. That's not to say you can't do it, and others have done it. Being the modern age, they've also posted videos of how they did it:
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• Windows/PC laptops: Your manufacturer controls how easy or difficult it is to service or replace a touchpad, and that's just the way it goes. On a modern ThinkPad, for example, the front top section of the computer's bottom half snaps off easily when you've removed the labeled screws for memory access, and implementing a cable or trackpad replacement is fairly simple. Google around with your specific model number ("replace touchpad hp pavilion 8gt7"), and consider learning more of your favorite program's keyboard shortcuts, as a kind of triage in the meantime.
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So ends our series on trying to save laptops to get the most for your money out of them. How have you saved your own laptop's keys or pad? Share your success stories or cautionary tales in the comments.In an email blast sent out this evening, Apple has began notifying early Apple Watch pre-order customers of their order progress with a vague message that reads “we’re working on your order.” The email appears to only be sent to pre-order customers with first wave April 24th to May 8th delivery dates that have not yet been charged and have orders still processing, suggesting recipients should not expect launch day deliveries.
Earlier this week Apple began charging some pre-order customers as orders updated from processing to preparing for shipment. While it’s unclear until Friday, it seems to email blast is targeted toward customers that have launch day delivery ranges that haven’t seen order updates and likely won’t see Friday deliveries.
The development is somewhat perplexing as earlier today Apple began charging customers with May and June delivery dates and updating orders from processing to preparing for shipment while earlier orders remain unchanged. Apple Watch shipments thus far have varied based on factors like model, band configuration, and size rather than the order in which purchases were placed.
You can view the full email below:The moon will appear high in the night sky A full moon has occurred closer to the Earth than it has done at any time for the past 15 years. The Moon's elliptical orbit means its distance from the Earth is not constant. It was a little over 350,000km away as it passed over the northern hemisphere, about 30 |
fashion. He was then taken to the 441 Military Intelligence Detachment where he slept on the Commanding officers couch, under guard. The following morning, I spoke to him in my office at 10th Special Forces Group Headquarters. I informed him of the surveillance and of what I knew had occurred to his wife. He knew at that point that SP4 Peters and Pvt. Aarhus had been involved in the murder and he began to talk to me. 37. Pvt. Tyree admitted, on 31 Jan. 1979 in my office to me, that his wife had been killed, he felt, because of a set of diaries she kept. Tyree explained that SP4 Peters and Sp4 Rosario were named throughout the books as being involved in illegal matters on and around Ft. Devens. I knew Rosario had been alleged to be involved in such matters and knew the information could be true. Then Pvt. Tyree admitted that his wife knew of Operation Watch Tower and Orwell, as he had seen it in her diaries the previous night. Pvt. tyree swore he didn't reveal the Operations to her and I believed him. Tyree didn't know where the diaries were at this time. 38. Upon Pvt. Tyree leaving my office, I initiated contact with Mass. State Police Lieutenant J. Dwyer, of the Middlesex District Attorneys Office. Lt. Dwyer had cooperated previously on Operation Orwell and understood the urgency of the situation and Lt. Dwyer notified me that during a search of the Tyree apt. he discovered the diaries behind the refrigerator with a note to the family of Elaine Tyree. He did not disclose the contents of the note. 39. Shortly before noon on 2 Feb. 1979, I received a telephone call from Lt. Dwyer indicating he would drop off the diaries belonging to Elaine tyree at my office. Upon receipt of the diaries I reviewed them, noting much of Operation Watch Tower and Orwell was written about throughout the many pages of the diaries. 40. After my review, I contacted Col. Moore of the U.S. Army Liaison in Washington D.C., and notified him of the scope of the issues involved in the murder of Elaine Tyree. I did notify him at that time of the possibility that arms and narcotics trafficking played a role in her murder. Due to security issues surrounding Operation Watch Tower and Orwell, I did not indicate how the arms and narcotics trafficking figured in the murder of Elaine Tyree, however. 41. Despite repeated warnings to stay out of the investigation and to remain silent, Tyree was arrested on 13 Feb. 1979, after attempting to bring about the arrest of Pvt. Aarhus The surveillance SAT reported that an armed confrontation between Pvt. Tyree and SP4 Peters occurred prior to the arrest of Tyree. 42. During Feb. 1979, Pvt. Tyree was arraigned on the pending civilian criminal charges. It was too risky to allow a military court to review the charges against Pvt. Tyree with Operation Orwell still ongoing and Senator Garn's office requesting a full investigation. Pvt. Tyree therefore had to stand before a civilian court of law on the criminal charges. 43.Prior to the arrest of Pvt. tyree, Lt. Dwyer approached me and insisted on knowing whether or not Tyree had ever served in Vietnam. I suspect Lt. Dwyer was attempting to learn if Tyree's involvement in the military operations elsewhere were being covered up the way Operation Watch Tower was. I replied in the negative, that Tyree had never been in the Republic of South Vietnam. I then contemplated for the first time that Tyree might go public on Operation Watch Tower and Orwell because I had not come forward. Based on that conclusion, I gave orders to erase certain parts of his military records. 44. Actual information erased included the attendance of Pvt. Tyree at certain service schools and references to overseas service. I ordered all records to be erased that linked Pvt. Tyree to Operation Watch Tower or Orwell. Service schools and badges I know were erased were " Paper Flash Special Forces Qualification," "Crewman's Aviator Wings," " Canadian Airborne Badge," and "Master Parachute Badge." I also gave orders to disenfranchise Pvt. Tyree from Special Forces. I wanted no one standing up for him and in the process dragging the information concerning Operation Watch Tower into the public eye. 45. Unbeknownst to him, Pvt. Tyree underwent a hearing on the criminal charges in a local courthouse, under surveillance of Operation Orwell. I learned through transmissions that Tyree only spoke of defense issues with his attorney, but never mentioned Operation Watch Tower or Orwell. In the process of Pvt. Tyree's hearing, a state police officer from Lt. Dwyer's office discovered the state courthouse was under surveillance. This led to the arrest of the senior Court Officer Ira Kiezer, who took full responsibility and never mentioned my office. 46. After the hearing concluded, the presiding judge in the Tyree matter found no reason to bind Tyree over for the trial on the murder of his wife. I found myself faced with the possibility that Pvt. Tyree, upon release, would become angered at my decision to disfranchise him. So I approached Lt. Dwyer who informed me that an indictment had already been secured for Tyree and that he would stand trial for the charge of murder. Lt. Dwyer expressed concern that there would not be enough evidence to warrant a guilty finding against Tyree. Lt Dwyer indicated that the only person with enough credibility was SP4 Peters. I could not inform Lt. Dwyer that Peters had been the person responsible for Elaine Tyree's murder. 47. After weeks of consideration, I concluded that the security of Operation Watch Tower and Orwell came first and AR 340-18-5 strictly prohibited the disclosure of intelligence gathered pursuant to that regulation. 48. On 29 Feb. 1980, Pvt. Tyree was convicted of murder and will spend the duration of his life incarcerated. I could not disseminate intelligence gathered under Operation Orwell to notify civilian authorities who actually killed Elaine Tyree. 49. The current intelligence on Archbishop Romero (El Salvador) indicates he is in receipt of physical evidence supporting several allegations that the U.S. is currently with Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama covertly training and sponsoring freedom fighters attempting to overthrow the current regime in Nicaragua; that these freedom fighters are also being supported from funds arising from Operation Watch Tower in part; that Mr. Robert D`Aubuisson (El Salvador) secretly aided the freedom fighters by allowing U.S. Advisors to train the freedom fighters inside El Salvador, that D`Aubuisson was contacted by Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil prior to the freedom fighters being trained inside El Salvador. This information made it necessary to protect Operation Watch Tower and Orwell regardless of the costs. 50. I have been in communication with Lt. Dwyer. In Nov. 1979, after some prodding, Lt. Dwyer and the Middlesex District Attorney went to the Mass. Supreme Court and attained a ruling that prohibits any court but the Mass. Supreme Court from ordering the arrest of suspects in the Tyree murder. I am told that this is without precedent and that normally any court can issue arrest warrants for suspects in a murder. This will ensure that only Tyree and Aarhus are arrested for the murder and that SP4 Peters will not have to be subjected to having to defend himself on the witness stand. That also could bring the about the entire matter being made public as by this time, I'm sure SP4 Peters is acutely aware that something is afoot, or he would have been arrested when the hearing in the local courthouse was held. 51. I mailed the diaries of Elaine Tyree to a post office box number in Langley, Virginia, per instructions of Edwin Wilson who contacted me by telephone concerning the diaries. Wilson also notified me of the intelligence on Archbishop Romero. 52. I reviewed the diaries prior to mailing them. The diaries contained most of the information on SP4 Peters, as Pvt. Tyree indicated they did. I suspect that this was the motive for Peters' killing Elaine Tyree. The diaries contained no mention of Pvt. Tyree or his alleged illegal dealings. I suspect that Elaine Tyree only wrote in the diaries relating to soldiers other than her husband, who were involved in illegal activities in and around Ft. Devens. 53. The diaries kept by Elaine Tyree mentioned certain personal entries that can corroborate the fact that I saw the diaries, that they exist, and that the information contained within them is accurate. There were numerous entries relating to Elaine Hebb Tyree's family in Maryland and her friends in the army. 54. Jan. 1978 entry: "Rosemary got a job with the FBI and has to be in Washington D.C. by Jan. 31, 1978. Cindy and Edie got out of the hospital today (Thursday)." 55. From reading the entry on Cindy and Edie I suspect the actual date of their release from the hospital was 12 Jan. 1978. But no specific date was given, nor was the hospital named that they were admitted to. 56. Jan. 1978 entry: "Rosemary will be leaving for Wash. D.C., on Sunday. I may ride back with her." 57. From reading the entry on Rosemary driving to Washington, I suspect the actual date Rosemary left the Hebb family home in Cumberland, Maryland to travel to Washington, possibly with Elaine Tyree, was 29 Jan. 1978. No actual date was given in the diaries, nor was there further mention whether or not Elaine Tyree actually rode `back with her.' 58. Nov 1978 entry: "SP5 Scott had a little baby girl. She was due in July. I remember her back before she came to Ft. Devens." 59. From reading the entries on SP5 Scott which begin to appear in the diaries around April 1978, I suspect this female was a member of a unit Elaine Tyree was assigned to either at Ft. Lee, Virginia, or at Ft. Mc Clellan, Alabama. In either case, this is an intimate fact obviously known only to elaine Tyree, as no one else would need or knowledge about when another female friend gave birth, and the gender of the baby born to that female friend. 60. Jan.-Feb. 1978 entries. "I've been running around with Heidi Urban. We go all over together when I don't have duty. Oh, yeah, Diary, Pat Imbu left in mid-January." 61. From reading the entries on Heidi Urban the main fact appears obvious is that Elaine Tyree is then at Ft. Lee, Virginia. That Pvt. William Tyree is not present as he is at Ft. Devens. Mass. Other that Elaine and Heidi, no one, specifically not Pvt. Tyree or myself could know that Elaine and Heidi are `running around together' at that time, unless these facts are represented in the diaries maintained by Elaine Tyree in her own handwriting. Elaine Tyree was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, Quartermaster School. 62. Nov. 1978 entry: "Dear Diary, my brother Steven who has been stationed in England for a over a year, is coming home on the 20th for good." 63. From reading the entries on Steven, I learned that he is currently assigned to an Air Force Base in England and that Elaine Tyree got along well with him. 64. rom further consideration and reading entries on SP5 Scott., I conclude that Elaine Tyree knew this female at Ft. Lee, Virginia, in the sense that both Scott and Elaine Tyree underwent the same training there. I don't gather from the entries that SP5 Scott married or had a name change between her duty at Ft. Lee, Virginia, and Ft. Devens, Mass., but I could be forgetting of overlooking the numerous personal entries in the diaries in an attempt only to view data pertinent to Operation Watch Tower or Orwell. 65. Nov. 1978 entry: "Peters came by the apartment today. Bill spoke with him in the front room while I was washing dishes. Peters is thinking about buying a new truck. Bill asked Peters if he was going to have Dennis Testagrossa steal this new truck and burn it so Peters could collect the insurance the way Peters had the last time? Peters laughed and said the payments are better on this truck than the one he had Testagrossa steal from the parking lot of Carlin's Bar. This was the first I knew that Peters was involved in the stealing of his own truck. Peters told me Bill was not involved because at the time Bill was under too much attention." 66. To date, I have not actually seen proof that Pvt. Tyree was involved in illegal activities. I have seen ample proof that he is foolish and eager to do things his way, since Pvt. Tyree's involvement in the March 1976 Watch Tower incident with the 40-50 armed Colombians. 67. I have detailed pertinent events in this affidavit should something happen to me. The lug nuts have been loosened on my car tires twice in the past week. I have had someone tamper with my car once and I have received telephone calls at my home where no one answered at the other end. I have seen other men involved in Operation Watch Tower meet accidental deaths after they were also threatened. 68. Sgt. John Newby reported that he had received threats just prior to the parachuting accident that claimed his life in Oct. 1978. It was at that time that (then) SP4 Tyree began to report threatening phone calls. I saw a pattern and still believe that a pattern exists. 69. I gave Col. Baker the original copy of this affidavit. I have true copies to Hugh B. Pearce, and to Paul Neri of the National Security Agency and instructed each person to deliver this affidavit to the authorities in the event something occurs to me. 70. I believe the friends I have entrusted with the original and copies of this affidavit will place the National Security of the United States and American interests in Latin America first, and if circumstances allow, will bring this affidavit to the attention of the authorities in the event something occurs to me. 71. During the conversation with Edwin Wilson I was informed of the sensitive data related to Archbishop Romero. He also spoke to me concerning operation Watch Tower and the geopolitical climate in Latin America and the need to maintain security. Ifiedified him that I had requested to release intelligence gathered from Operation Orwell to civilian police authorities involved in the Elaine Tyree murder and that the Staff Judge Advocate's Office had denied the request. 72. Edwin Wilson explained that Operation Watch Tower had to remain secret and gave these reasons: (1) If it became public knowledge it would undermine present governmental interests as well as those in the future. (2) There are similar operations being implemented elsewhere in the world. Wilson named the "Golden Triangle" of Southeast Asia and Pakistan. Wilson stated in both areas of the world the CIA and other intelligence agencies are using the illegal narcotics flow to support forces fighting to overthrow communist governments, or governments that are not friendly towards the U.S.. Wilson named several recognized officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Korea, Thailand and Cambodia as being aware and consenting to these arrangements, similar to the ones in Panama. (3) Wilson cited the military coup in Argentina in 1976, the coup in Peru in 1976, the fall of the Somoza Government in Nicaragua in 1979, and the growing civil war in El Salvador as examples of the need for operations like Watch Tower. As these operations funded the ongoing effort to combat communism and defeat actions directed against the United States or matters concerning the U.S. 73. Edwin Wilson explained that the profit from the sale of narcotics was laundered through a series of banks. Wilson stated that over 70% of the profits were laundered through the banks in Panama. The remaining percentage was funneled through Swiss banks with a small remainder being handled by banks within the U.S. Wilson indicated that a large portion of the profits are brought into the banks of Panama without being checked. I understood that some of the profits in Panamanian banks arrived through Israeli couriers. I became aware of that fact from normal conversations with some of the Embassy personnel assigned to the Embassy in Panama. Wilson also stated that an associate whom I don't know also aided in over seeing the laundering of funds, which was then used to purchase weapons to arm the various factions that the CIA saw as friendly towards the U. S. The associates name is Tom Clines. Wilson indicated that most of Operation Watch Tower was implemented on the authority of Clines. 74. I was notified by Edwin Wilson that the information forwarded to Wash. D.C., was disseminated to private corporations who were developing weapons for the Dept. of Defense. Those private corporations were encouraged to use the sensitive information gathered from surveillance on U.S. Senators and Representatives as leverage to manipulate those Congressmen into approving whatever costs the weapons systems incurred. 75. Edwin Wilson named three weapons systems when he spoke of private corporations receiving information from Operation Orwell. (1) An armored vehicle. (2) An aircraft that is invisible to radar. (3) A weapons system that utilizes kinetic energy. I got the impression this weapon was being developed either for use by Nasa or for CBR purposes. I wrote down what I recalled at the time and it is attached. 76. Edwin Wilson indicated to me during our conversation while entailed the dissemination of Operation Orwell information and the identification of the three weapons systems, that Operation Orwell would be implemented nationwide by 4 July 1980. 77. As of the date of this affidavit, 8,400 police departments, 1,370 churches, and approx. 17,900 citizens have been monitored under Operation Orwell. The major churches targeted have been Catholic and Latter-Day Saints. I have stored certain information gathered by Operation Orwell on Ft. Devens, and pursuant to instructions from Edwin Wilson have forwarded additional information gathered to Wash. D.C. 78. Per orders from Edwin Wilson, I did not discuss the implementation of Operation Orwell with my staff or others outside of the personnel assigned to surveillance. The only matter discussed with Operation Orwell personnel was what the SATs needed to know in order to carry out their mission. Certain information was collected on suspected members of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group. Among those that information was collected on were Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter. Edwin Wilson indicated that additional surveillance was implemented against former CIA director George Bush, who Wilson named as a member of the Trilateral Commission. I do not have personal knowledge that Ford, Carter or Bush were under surveillance. 79. I spoke to Col. James N. Rowe on 5 March 1980. I specifically requested that Col. Rowe communicate with several contacts he has within the CIA. I asked Col. Rowe to check out Edwin Wilson. I had two concerns. The first was that Edwin Wilson may pose a threat to National Security by disseminating classified information on the CIA's activities to personnel without a clearance or a need to know that information. Edwin Wilson, during his conversations with me, outlined information that was classified and to which I had no need to know. Information that pertained to the activities of the CIA in the U.S. and Latin America. I've related such conversations with Wilson herein. The second concern I had was the issue of his authority and connection to Thomas Clines. I was told repeatedly that Clines was the agent in charge and that Wilson worked with Clines. Col. Rowe indicated that he would make inquiries I requested and would contact me with that information as soon as he had something. Col. Rowe indicated that it would be 60 to 90 days before he would speak to the CIA contact that was most apt to have knowledge of the information I requested. I agreed to meet Col. Rowe on Ft. Bragg the next week in June in the event Col. Rose received documentation relating to the information I sought. 80. On 7 March 1980 Col. Rowe contacted me. During the course of our conversation Col. Rowe informed me that his initial inquiries with CIA contacts confirmed that Edwin Wilson was working for Thomas Clines at the times in question. Col. Rowe indicated that Edwin Wilson was under scrutiny by the CIA at that time but had not been given the details of the circumstances surrounding the events of that matter. Col. Rowe also indicated that there was an Israeli aspect to the matter involving Edwin Wilson and Col. Rowe provided the name of David Kimche as being the Israeli most likely to be involved with Edwin Wilson. In regards to my concerns that Edwin Wilson posed a possible threat to national security or to the inner working of the CIA, Col. Rowe indicated that off the record, that was a concern of several people to whom he had spoken. Col. Rowe also indicated that he would be in receipt of documentation by the first week of June which listed Edwin Wilson's involvement in several operations. I specifically asked Col. Rowe if he had the names of any of those operations at this time and his reply was in the negative. Col. Rowe did indicate that it was his understanding that each operation had basically the same characters involved and Col. Rowe named two other individuals involved with Edwin Wilson. Col. Rowe named Robert Gates and William J. Casey as officials who had been named in the documentation he would acquire prior to our scheduled meeting on June 1980. 81. On 7 March 1980 after my conversation with Col. Rowe, I made inquiries through Paul Neri and Pentagon contacts and was informed that David Kimche had ties with the Israeli Intelligence Agency known as "The Mossad." I also asked that I be provided a photograph, if any existed, of David Kimche. I requested such a photograph to determine if Kimche was the unidentified male Israeli national who met the aircraft fling into Albrook Air Station during Operation Watch Tower. In addition, I sought whatever photographs existed on those who were known associates of David Kimche for the same reason. 82. In March 1980 I received three photographs from Army Intelligence contacts at the Pentagon. Amongst the three photographs were two individuals I recognized. David Kimche's photograph had been shown to me by a friend, Col. Robert Bayard just prior to his murder in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977. According to Bayard, Kimche was due to meet with him later. Shortly thereafter, I was informed through the normal lines of communication that Col. Bayard was murdered. As of this date his murder remains unsolved. The photograph of Kimche that Col. Bayard had appeared to be a surveillance photo. There is no doubt that Kimche was the person Bayard named as being in the photograph. According to Col. Bayard, Kimche was due to meet with him to discuss a matter that related to Col. Bayard's previous duty in the U.S. Army and assignment in the CIA. 83. Thee second individual I recognized from the three photographs I received, was listed as Michael Harari. I was informed that Michael Harari is listed as a senior Mossad agent. Harari was the un identified male Israeli national that met the aircraft which flew into Albrook Air Station during Operation Watch Tower. He was the one who gave Edwin Wilson two briefcases full of U.S. currency in various denominations. The briefcases were given to Edwin Wilson at the end of operations in March and Feb. 1976. It is my understanding from Pentagon contacts, that Harari's activities in Latin America are well known, including his drug trafficking endeavors. I was also informed from those same contacts that the Pentagon on the orders of several Washington VIPs have gone to great lengths to keep the activities of Harari a secret. I have begun preparations to meet with David Kimche or Michael Harari while in Europe on annual NATO exercises. I intend to verify that Harari was the individual who gave Edwin Wilson the briefcases while at Albrook Air Station during Operation Watch Tower. 84. I was told from Pentagon contacts, off the record, that CIA Director Stansfield Turner and former CIA Director George Bush are among the VIPs that shield Harari from public scrutiny. Those Pentagon contacts further indicated to me their knowledge that Operation Watch Tower was implemented and of my involvement in that operation. This was the first time that U.S. military authorities confirmed to me that the Operation occurred and gave their approval. I also learned that Harari was a known middleman for matters involving the U.S. in Latin America. Harari acted with the support of a network of Mossad personnel throughout Latin America and worked mainly in the import and export of arms and drug trafficking. 85. As further means to corroborate this affidavit, on 9 Feb. 1979, I spoke to Col. Rittgers concerning the release of Pvt. Tyree from Walter Reed Medical Center in Wash. D.C., where he had been admitted on 5 Feb. 1979. Col. Rittgers notified me that Pvt. Tyree had fully recovered from the depression which was brought about by the murder of Elaine Tyree. Col. Rittgers indicated that upon arrival at Ft. Devens later that day, he would interview Pvt. Tyree to determine for himself if Pvt. Tyree felt he was in any real danger. 86. I also spoke to Captain Gruden who was the Commanding Officer of the 409th Army Security Agency Company, Augsberg, Germany. The telephone call was brief and I inquired into what information PFC Tina Gregory might be expected to give in support of Pvt. Tyree's trial defense. The surveillance of the civilian court house in the early stages of the criminal proceedings against Pvt. Tyree indicated PFC Gregory could have knowledge of Operation Watch Tower since PFC Gregory and Elaine Tyree were very close friends. I was not able to learn much from Cpt. Gruden who was leaving his office when I called. In order not to attract attention to the value of the information PFC Gregory may or may not have, I passed the entire phone call off as being interested on the part of Pvt. Tyree who was in my command. SIGNED UNDER THE PAINS AND PENALTIES OF PERJURY ON THIS 11TH DAY OF MARCH 1980 (Signed) Edward P. Cutolo
Colonel
Infantry Commanding -- www.copi.com/articles/Guyatt/cutolo.html -- www.wethepeople.la/cutolo.htmNext Chapter >
Back At It
I realize it’s been quite a while since the last update on Project EcoBoost – my 2015 Ford Mustang daily driver. When we last talked about this, I’d just fitted a set of 20-inch RAYS Volk Racing TE37 Ultras and new Nitto tires – and then things went kind of quiet. The car actually sat in my garage for a whole month while I was working in Japan, and once I returned I was eager to continue with the modifications.
After first doing some basic power upgrades which I covered earlier this year, along with the aforementioned wheels, my next goal was to start tackling the suspension.
In comparison to the previous Mustang chassis, Ford did a fantastic job with the suspension and handling on the new S550 – thanks in large part to the move to an IRS setup. But there’s always room for improvement, right?
Actually, right after picking up the car one of the first things I did was reach out to our partners at KW to see what they might have in the works for the new Mustang. Early searches of the forums showed that many people were installing lowering springs to drop the ride height, but there was little in the way of full coilover kits available.
Not surprisingly, I found out that KW and its partners were indeed developing suspension parts for the new Mustang, but it would be some time before they were available. Quality is always worth the wait though, and as I was going to be out of the country for a while anyway, there were no complaints on my end.
Not long after I got back from Japan, I got word that Project EcoBoost’s coilovers were on the way and that they’d be one of the first production sets out there. My set would actually be Roush brand coilovers made by KW – the latest collaboration between the two companies. Given KW’s experience constructing high quality suspension setups and Roush’s expertise building wicked-fast Mustangs and kicking ass in motorsport, this seemed like a very solid combo.
I happen to live pretty close to KW’s massive new North American headquarters in Central California, so rather than fitting the parts in my cramped garage I asked if we could do the install at KW’s shiny new facility.
Not only is this place a distribution center for the KW products built at the main factory in Germany, it also includes local production and assembly, R&D, marketing and everything else you’d expect from one of the world’s top parts makers.
This is also the place that handles suspension development and maintenance for race teams across America – including many Formula Drift competitors. I was very impressed with what I saw.
On The Lift
Anyways, back to the car. I drove the Mustang into the roomy service bay where KW North America performs their measuring and prototyping.
The specific Roush coilovers I’d be using are the three-way adjustable models, but in addition to these KW will also be releasing its own coilover setups for the S550, so Mustang owners will soon have a lot more options when it comes fitting suspension upgrades.
Here’s an image of the stock front strut and spring setup next to the Roush coilover. Roush specced, the spring rates on this setup are perfect for weekend track days while still being totally comfortable for a daily driver – exactly what I was looking for.
After removing the front brake calipers and rotors, the front install was pretty straight forward. I was again reminded how nice it is working on a clean, new car rather than one covered in grime.
The rear install was slightly more involved, mainly because we loosened the rear subframe to get the factory springs out. All of this had me very glad that I didn’t try this install in my garage without a lift.
Here’s a shot of the new rear springs with their adjustable collars. As you can see, these things are heavy duty.
And a view of the stock rear shock next to the new Roush piece. The adjustment knob is located at the bottom for easy access.
With the subframe loosened, the rest of the install went smoothly. With a couple of KW’s finest handling the heavy lifting and me taking photos along the way, it took around three hours to get everything on.
Here’s a shot of the rear springs installed and ready to go just prior to refitting the wheels and putting the car back down on the ground.
Impressions
While the Roush coilovers are three-way adjustable, I decided to initially leave the damper and ride height settings to what they were out of the box. I was told the factory settings have a nice balance of performance and comfort and I was curious to see how they’d feel.
As for the initial ride height, the car was far from slammed at the original settings but they did a nice job of closing up the wheel gap the car had with TE37s and the stock suspension.
One of the things I like most about the S550 compared to the old S197 is the wider, lower stance the car has. Fitting the new coilovers has helped things get even better in this department.
Immediately after finishing up the install, I took the car in for a proper alignment and then hit the road to see how she felt.
The coilovers have only been in for a couple of weeks, and while I haven’t yet had the chance to hit the track or to really wind out on a mountain road, my initial impressions are quite positive.
The new Mustang had already left the previous versions in the dust when it came to control, but the new suspension along with the 275 Nittos on each corner has only made the car feel even more planted.
The car still rides very well too, and that’s important because comfort on long road trips is one of the big reasons I chose the Mustang over the FR-S I had prior.
Yes, it’s certainly a bit firmer than it was with the stock suspension, but unless you’ve felt the two setups back to back, I think it would be hard for most people to notice the difference.
And of course, if I do head for the race track or a day out in the canyons, I can use the adjustability to firm things up even more. For now though, I’m quite digging the balance.
I’ve had Project EcoBoost for six months now, and I couldn’t be happier with it. With the increased power, more aggressive noise, wicked set of wheels and added grip I think it does an even better job of being the affordable turbocharged sportscar we’d been hoping for.
What’s next for the car? Well, I’ve actually got a few odds and ends sitting in my garage that still need to be installed, so you can expect to hear about those soon. From there I’m thinking about moving to the exterior for some subtle upgrades. As with everything else I’ve done so far, it should be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for more Mustang adventures.
Mike Garrett
Instagram: japanifornia_media
mike@speedhunters.comDiplomatic Reality: As In Egypt, U.S. Often Relies On 'Useful Autocrats'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
As the crisis in Egypt continues, there's a certain sense of deja vu for many who follow U.S. foreign policy.
Once again, an American president and his diplomatic aides are walking a difficult line. They're caught between the natural desire to support the demonstrators demanding democracy and freedom, and long-standing U.S. support for an autocrat (in this case, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak).
This hour, All Things Considered co-host Robert Siegel asked Joshua Keating, associate editor of Foreign Policy magazine, whether it is inevitable that the U.S. will often have allies who fall "embarrassingly short of our standards of democracy or human rights?"
"I do," Keating replied. "Unfortunately it's been a reality throughout U.S. history" that at times the nation needs the help of foreign dictators.
"If you look at one of the most famous alliances with an autocrat we've ever had," he continued, "the U.S. probably would have a hard time winning World War II without the help of the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin, one of the worst mass murderers of 20th Century."
Among the problems that creates (as now in Egypt), Keating added, is that "these guys don't last forever, and often when they face major challenges to their influence the people on the streets remember who's been supporting these governments and providing them with weapons for years and years."
Robert Siegel speaks with Joshua Keating
Here's part of the conversation Robert had with Keating. Later, we'll add the as-broadcast audio:
Much more will be on today's edition of ATC. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show.Following Sunday's 2-0 home defeat to Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana first leg, Sevilla coach Jorge Sampaoli lamented his side's already gruelling schedule.
Goals from Luis Suarez and Munir El Haddadi separated the two teams, but Barcelona could feel aggrieved they did not score more, continually penetrating in possession at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Sampaoli was left frustrated by the ease of which Luis Enrique's side attacked in the transitional phase, as evidenced with the second goal when Munir ran into space unmarked and had time to pick his spot, following Lionel Messi's well-weighted pass forward in the 81st minute.
"We showed a lot of enthusiasm but we need to show more football than enthusiasm. Today we were inaccurate in passing. We will continue working to be strong," Sampaoli said.
"In the second half we ran more than we played. It activated the opponent's counter-attacks. These kinds of teams make you pay for mistakes. They deserved the victory."
Sevilla had a severely depleted squad for the first leg, with Daniel Carrico suspended, while key players in Michael Krohn-Dehli and Benoit Tremoulinas battle injury.
Following Tuesday's UEFA Super Cup loss to Real Madrid after extra time, captain Vicente Iborra was rested, with Wednesday's second leg at Camp Nou to be Sevilla's third match in eight days.
While the former Chile coach conceded the schedule has been tough on his side at this early stage of the season, he believes the three-time defending Europa League champions will bounce back.
"We're coming from 120 minutes against Real Madrid, and we have several casualties. The calendar has hurt us a bit, and we're feeling the weight of fatigue," he said.
"You have to evaluate everything very well. Hopefully [Wednesday] we will play a more dignified role."Steve McClaren masterminded a 10th successive Derby County win over Leeds United in his first game as manager.
McClaren was named Rams boss last week and, although he inspired a superb comeback against Ipswich in midweek, this was his first game in charge.
Chris Martin's strike and Johnny Russell's cool finish put the hosts in control early on.
And although Jason Pearce's header made it 2-1, Will Hughes sealed a deserved victory with a classy late shot.
A decade of Leeds pain Leeds were in the Premier League when they last took three points at Pride Park, courtesy of a 1-0 victory in April 2002, when Lee Bowyer scored the winner
Former England manager McClaren chose to watch from the stand as the Rams continued where they left off on Tuesday, when they came from 4-1 down to draw 4-4, with a sparkling attacking display that secured a first home league win of the season.
The hosts, who move up to 10th in the Championship, almost went ahead inside four minutes when Hughes lobbed just over the bar following a scuffed clearance from goalkeeper Paddy Kenny.
Leeds should have gone ahead soon after, but Rodolph Austin blazed a shot over from eight yards, and they were made to pay as the Rams scored twice in three minutes.
Craig Bryson and Martin combined well for the latter to drive home the opening goal from 10 yards - and it was quickly 2-0 courtesy of a flowing team move.
Derby broke up a Leeds attack and the excellent Hughes played in Martin, whose backheel set up Russell to net with a low shot across Kenny.
The visitors were back in the game in the 45th minute when home goalkeeper Lee Grant failed to get to a cross and the ball dropped for Pearce to head into the unguarded net.
The home side's superiority remained after the interval as Leeds, who are 13th in the table, struggled to cope with Derby's attacking quality.
But they had to wait until 12 minutes from time to wrap up the victory when Bryson found Hughes and the teenager glided past a challenge before guiding a shot into the top corner from 15 yards.
Derby County manager Steve |
rather tart. Perfect for my dad and me, but my mother complained (“why can’t you make it the way I like it? Why do you always have to make things like this so tart?”)
Mom knows she’s welcome to bake anything she wants the way she likes it, so this conversation didn’t go very far. But check your berries if and when you make this recipe.
Add more or less sugar depending on your preference and how sweet the fruit is.The film-maker and co-founder of virtual-reality storytelling app Vrse predicts a big future for the medium, but admits he has more questions than answers
“It’s weird: you do a TED talk on something, and people think that you suddenly have a lot of answers around the topic. I feel like I have a lot of questions, not a lot of answers.”
Filmmaker Chris Milk is mulling over his role in plotting the potential for virtual reality (VR) technology beyond games, having delivered a TED talk in March 2015 heralding VR as “the ultimate empathy machine”.
Milk and his VR app Vrse and VR production company Vrse.works have been putting his ideas into practice with short VR documentaries including Clouds Over Sidra, which focuses on a refugee camp in Jordan, and Waves of Grace, telling the tale of an Ebola survivor in Liberia.
“Every time we build something new, more of my questions get answered, even if a few more questions come up. It feels like we’re getting better at it each time, and this is an evolving medium and an evolving process,” Milk says.
He was in the UK to deliver a speech about the creative potential of VR to the BFI London Film Festival, as well as to show the company’s films at the Power to the Pixel: The Cross-Media Forum exhibition in London.
That process includes figuring out the language of VR films which – perhaps surprisingly, given that by definition viewers control where they look in a scene rather than filmmakers – still requires composition skills.
“It’s just a different kind of composition. Rather than trying to contain something in a frame, it’s about where you are placing the viewer’s consciousness in space, and how they relate to that space, and the choreography of people moving around them,” says Milk.
In other words, while you decide where to look, a VR film’s director still decides what your initial viewpoint is on a 360-degree scene, which means they can ensure certain things are out of eyeshot until you turn.
In a horror VR film or game, that might mean a scene starting with a view of an empty room, with a monster lurking, ready to scare the willies out of you when you turn around.
In Milk’s documentaries, it’s more subtle: a scene in Clouds Over Sidra where you start by looking at a line of boys sat on the floor, before following their gazes to see the main subjects of the scene: a pair of wrestlers.
Another example: when Milk placed his 360-degree camera in the middle of a classroom for Waves of Grace, the children were unsurprisingly tempted to stare at the strange contraption in their midst. Which, when you’re watching, feels like they’re all staring at you.
“When the protagonist breaks the fourth wall by looking at the camera in a movie, it’s generally been used for comedic purposes, rather than feeling like they’re looking into your soul,” says Milk.
“As a species, the look of another of our species into our eyes has a great power. It can mean a lot of different things: aggression, love. But there’s a power to it for sure, and that power is translated in VR when it happens.”
Hence the “empathy machine” talk, with Milk hoping that the films being made by Vrse and others will help people to realise that not only is VR good for more than games, but that it can be a powerful storytelling tool rather than a gimmick.
“When people ask whether virtual reality will be a real thing or just the next 3D, what I always say is ‘take a headset, walk outside and the next person you meet, put it on them and see what the reaction is’,” he says.
“That reaction will speak to how this is really the next great platform for storytelling and art and human expression. It’s just that most people haven’t had that opportunity to try it yet.”
It is just as early days for the creators and companies making VR films, as they figure out its language – often while wrestling its technology into shape.
For Vrse, that includes working on the tools to deliver its films to people online and within apps, as well as the tools used to shoot and edit.
Milk is also keen for even more experimentation with all kinds of filmmaking, including those that might not be considered high-brow.
“In the long term, we do need to create a library of things that is not just about having 500 Citizen Kanes, because not everybody wants to watch Citizen Kane, and the people that do don’t want to watch it all the time,” he says. “They want to watch Scream or whatever. Sometimes people want to watch things other than high art.”
Even so, Milk has grand ambitions for virtual reality as a new medium for filmmaking – and beyond. In fact – and this is part of the reason he made a good TED talker – he is not afraid to map out a hugely ambitious future for VR.
Vrse has made a series of virtual-reality films.
“Ultimately, what we’re talking about is something really much bigger than an artistic medium. Right now, this is about a format that is interfacing with two of your human senses in such a realistic way that your consciousness interprets the medium as a virtual ‘reality’,” he says.
“But think about how the technology scales, to the point where you’re eventually incorporating other senses at further and further levels of fidelity. What you’re talking about at some point is more than a medium, but is fundamentally an alternative level of human consciousness.”
This may sound like the kind of rhetoric that characterised the ultimately unsuccessful wave of virtual-reality technology in the 1980s, as well as its rebirth in virtual worlds like Second Life in the 2000s.
Milk went on to explain that his point was more that as VR improves, if its impact on our senses is as powerful as he hopes, there’ll be important debates to have about how this new medium’s creators shoulder the responsibilities of that power.
He stressed that this is some way in the future. “In terms of an altered state of human consciousness being on the horizon, right now we’re still in the darkness of night, poking around with flashlights and trying to find our way there,” he says.
“As I said, I’ve got a lot more questions than answers about how we actually get there.”
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When Amazon-owned Goodreads launched its discount ebook service last month, I wondered whether Amazon would find reasons to prune back its competition.
The first to lose its affiliate status with Amazon was Fussy Librarian, which went under the axe the week before Goodreads announced. At the time it looked like that was an isolated incident, but now it has been followed by two more sites, Pixel of Ink and eReaderIQ.
Fussy Librarian continues to operate, but the fate of the other sites is less certain.
Pixel of Ink announced today that they have shut down. They didn't give a specific reason, but did say that "due to changes in the eBook world and in our life, it is time for us to move on, and Pixel of Ink must now end".
I'm still following up with PoI, so I can't tell you the specific reason for its closure, but I do know that it wasn't the only casualty. eReaderIQ has made a similar, albeit more detailed announcement today. They've posted a notice on their homepage to the effect that:
As of June 10, 2016, eReaderIQ is no longer eligible to participate in the Amazon.com affiliate program. What this means is that we are no longer able to monetize this site simply by having users click on our links. Because of this, we will need to rely on our users' support to keep the site running. Our short term goal is to generate enough user support to cover the costs of operating the site.
The notice goes on to ask for donations, and say that the site may relaunch as a subscription-based service in the future.
I spoke to eReaderIQ founder Christian Hupfeld on the phone this evening, and he told me that Amazon terminated the site's affiliate account for various violations of Amazon's ToS.
Like Fussy Librarian, eReaderIQ offered an email service where users could be notified of deals in the Kindle Store, and it also had a Chrome extension. Both are violations of Amazon's ToS, but rather than give the eReaderIQ a chance to correct the violations Amazon has instead cut the site off.
And that's not all.
Hupfeld told me that Amazon didn't just disable eReaderIQ's affiliate account; they also terminated all of his other unrelated affiliate accounts with Amazon sites in other countries (Italy, Germany, etc) even though they had nothing to do with eReaderIQ.
He has effectively been blacklisted by Amazon.
And he's not the only one, nor will he be the last. Hupfeld told me that another ebook site had also been blacklisted, even after it cleaned up its act and tried to use other affiliate accounts, and as the weeks go by we will surely hear of additional sites shutting down.
Amazon's affiliate system is one of the retailer's great strengths. It's easy to use, and gives websites a financial incentive to send their visitors to Amazon.
This system, and the bevy of ebook sites that grew up around it, helped make the Kindle the biggest ebook platform by giving it lots of cheap advertising.
But now that Goodreads has its own discount ebook service (and now that Amazon has no ebook competitors left), apparently the retailer has decided that it no longer needs the help of the ebook sites.
And so after turning a blind eye to rules violations for many years, it has now decided to crack down.
That is certainly Amazon's right, but let's not pretend that Amazon is motivated by anything other than a desire to squash their competitors.
Amazon has demonstrated in the past that they can take a milder approach if they so choose. Remember, in 2013 Amazon took steps to discourage these same ebook sites from promoting the download of free ebooks.
eReaderIQ, for example, was generating one hundred free ebook downloads for each ebook purchased, and then was profiting off the affiliate fees generated when a free ebook downloader went on to buy other items. This cost Amazon money without generating any real sales for Amazon, which is why Amazon took action.
Even though these sites were violating Amazon's ToS at the time, Amazon didn't ban any of the sites, but they did hit the sites in the pocketbook and force them to start promoting more paid ebooks deals and fewer free ebooks.
But that was back when Amazon still needed the ebook sites to keep the Kindle on top. Now that Amazon has no real competition in the ebook market, the sites are superfluous.
And they have been given the boot.
image by Akira OhgakiWEST BEND -- The Washington County Administrator painted a grim picture of their future.
An analysis shows in five years, they could be facing a $5 to $11 million deficit.
"It would end up being just under a third of our total property tax budget which is huge," said Joshua Schoemann, Washington County Administrator.
This has leaders like Schoemann thinking out of the box. This includes dissolving county lines and completely merging with Ozaukee County.
The grim outlook is why he has come up with possibly merging with Ozaukee County.
"I know that if we go down this path, that guys like me don't have a job but I'm good with that," said Schoemann.
We spoke to a couple who have spent most of their 46 years together in Washington County to get their thoughts.
"We'll they gotta do something if you can't make your expenses," said Vernon Rauch.
"I don't see where you're gaining anything by getting yourself tied up with another situation. Take care of our own problems. You're just absorbing their problems then!" said Jean Rauch.
The Interim Ozaukee County Administrator did not seem phased by the idea at all.
"To combine counties that would certainly generate some headlines..." said Jason Dzwinel, Interim Ozaukee County Administrator.
Washington County has already saved $300,000 by merging their health department with Ozaukee. They have also saved about $100,000 in taxpayer money merging with the Waukesha County Medical Examiner.
"We're all in this together," said Dzwinel.
The Washington County Administrator sent a letter to four of its neighboring counties, letting them know about their fiscal health status.
Ozaukee's Board Chair plans to bring up that letter and possible options for the future at Thursday's board meeting.
"I think consolidations are going to happen all over the place," said Lee Schlenvogt, Ozaukee County Board Chair.
There are three other options the Washington County Administrator offers:This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Juicy, incredibly flavorful grilled chicken is easier than you might think; especially when it starts with a marinade loaded with flavor from beer, garlic, and a sprinkling of herbs. This simple Beer and Garlic Chicken Marinade has become a staple in our house over the past few years. The chicken turns out absolutely perfect; tender and juicy every time.
I used beer in a marinade for the first time when I made the Smoky Chicken and Bacon Burgers almost five years ago. (And yes, those burgers are every single bit as amazing as they sound!) We loved the flavors so much I immediately started playing with a larger batch marinade recipe for grilled chicken.
Here’s a tip for NON-BEER drinkers: I’m not a fan of beer myself and I don’t much like the taste or smell of it at all. I do however, LOVE this marinade. If you do not typically have beer in your house (and don’t want to buy a six-pack just to try a new recipe), I have a tip for you. If you’re lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe’s, they sell individual bottles of beer for less than $1. (You can thank my awesome little sister for that tip.)
We like to grill a good bit of extra chicken each time we are grilling and then keep it in the fridge for easy lunches, like the salad pictured here. I frequently double this marinade and will grill a huge batch of chicken all at once. We’ll quite happily eat it all week by itself, over salads, and in sandwiches and wraps.
Print Beer and Garlic Grilled Chicken Servings : 6 -8 servings Ingredients 1 11 oz bottle dark Mexican beer
3 tablespoons sesame seed oil
5 large cloves of garlic minced, approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3-4 pounds chicken I typically use 9-10 boneless skinless chicken thighs Instructions Place the chicken in a gallon size zip-close bag or an airtight container. Stir together the marinade ingredients and pour over the chicken. Seal and turn the bag or container to coat the pieces evenly. Let rest in the refrigerator for 12-36 hours. I try to marinate chicken for a minimum of 24 hours most of the time, because the longer time makes a huge different in the flavor. When ready to cook the meat, let the chicken rest on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour prior to cooking. Preheat the grill to medium heat. For boneless skinless chicken thighs, cook the meat 6 minutes on each side. Then increase the heat closer to medium-high and cook an additional 4 minutes, as needed. Enjoy! Notes FREEZER MEAL: Combine the marinade and chicken in a gallon size zip-close bag and freeze them together. When you are ready to cook the chicken, thaw in the refrigerator, allowing the marinade to work it's
flavors throughout the meat. Once thawed, cook as described above.
{originally published 1/9/12 – recipe notes and photos updated 5/9/16}
Here are some more marinade recipes you might like:
Very Green Grilled Chicken by Kalyn’s Kitchen
Chipotle Chicken Marinade by Barefeet In The Kitchen
Make Ahead Chicken Marinades by Life As Mom
Lemon Soy Marinated Chicken Breasts by The Lemon Bowl
Mojo Marinade by Barefeet In The Kitchen
Honey Buttermilk Roast Chicken by The View From Great Island
Cilantro Lime Chicken by Simply RecipesFormer Pro Bowl linebacker Shaun Phillips signed a one-year, $1 million deal Saturday with the Denver Broncos, joining a team he called "the good side now" after spending the first nine years of his career with the San Diego Chargers.
The free agent, who will be coming off a season in which he logged 9.5 sacks and 33 tackles, will help the Broncos fill a pass-rushing void left after the departure of Elvis Dumervil to the Baltimore Ravens.
"I was excited about how the guys welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like they wanted me there," Phillips said, according to The Denver Post, referring to his visit to Broncos headquarters before deciding to sign.
Phillips, 31, has 69.5 career sacks -- second on San Diego's franchise list behind Leslie O'Neal's 105.5 -- including 11.5 in 2006 and 11 in 2010, when he went to the Pro Bowl.
He has registered 473 tackles, 20 forced fumbles and six interceptions in 136 career games with the Chargers, who chose Phillips in the fourth round of the 2004 draft, 98th overall out of Purdue.Scientists at the University of California, Davis, detected the H1N1 (2009) virus in free-ranging northern elephant seals off the central California coast a year after the human pandemic began, according to a study published today, May 15, in the journal PLOS ONE. It is the first report of that flu strain in any marine mammal.
“We thought we might find influenza viruses, which have been found before in marine mammals, but we did not expect to find pandemic H1N1,” said lead author Tracey Goldstein, an associate professor with the UC Davis One Health Institute and Wildlife Health Center. “This shows influenza viruses can move among species.”
UC Davis researchers have been studying flu viruses in wild birds and mammals since 2007 as part of the Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance program funded by National Institutes of Health. The goal of this research is to understand how viruses emerge and move among animals and people.
Between 2009 and 2011, the team of scientists tested nasal swabs from more than 900 marine mammals from 10 different species off the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California. They detected H1N1 infection in two northern elephant seals and antibodies to the virus in an additional 28 elephant seals, indicating more widespread exposure.
Neither infected seal appeared to be ill, indicating marine mammals may be infected without showing clinical signs of illness.
The findings are particularly pertinent to people who handle marine mammals, such as veterinarians and animal rescue and rehabilitation workers, Goldstein said. They are also a reminder of the importance of wearing personal protective gear when working around marine mammals, both to prevent workers’ exposure to diseases, as well as to prevent the transmission of human diseases to animals.
H1N1 originated in pigs. It emerged in humans in 2009, spreading worldwide as a pandemic. The World Health Organization now considers the H1N1 strain from 2009 to be under control, taking on the behavior of a seasonal virus.
“H1N1 was circulating in humans in 2009,” said Goldstein. “The seals on land in early 2010 tested negative before they went to sea, but when they returned from sea in spring 2010, they tested positive. So the question is where did it come from?”
When elephant seals are at sea, they spend most of their time foraging in the northeast Pacific Ocean off the continental shelf, which makes direct contact with humans unlikely, the report said.
The seals had been satellite tagged and tracked, so the researchers knew exactly where they had been and when they arrived on the coast. The first seal traveled from California on Feb. 11 to southeast Alaska to forage off the continental shelf, returning to Point Piedras Blancas near San Simeon, Calif., on April 24. The second seal left Ano Nuevo State Reserve in San Mateo County, Calif., on Feb. 8, traveling to the northeast Pacific and returning on May 5. Infections in both seals were detected within days of their return to land. The report said exposure likely occurred in the seals before they reached land, either while at sea or upon entering the near-shore environment.
The research, led by scientists Goldstein and Walter Boyce at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s One Health Institute, was conducted with collaborators Nacho Mena and Adolfo García-Sastre at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who sequenced the virus isolates and characterized their phenotypic properties.
“The study of influenza virus infections in unusual hosts, such as elephant seals, is likely to provide us with clues to understand the ability of influenza virus to jump from one host to another and initiate pandemics,” said García-Sastre, professor of microbiology and director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine.
The research was funded primarily through the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, a program supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and the Tagging of Pacific Predators program, a project of the Census of Marine Life.
About the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
As a top veterinary school internationally, and a leader in preventive medicine and wildlife health, UC Davis has an extensive research and training record in the fields of epidemiology, surveillance, zoonotic diseases, comparative medicine, diagnostics, wildlife pathogens and conservation, food safety, disease prevention and outbreak response. The school has trained more than 800 international veterinarians from 75 countries, including hot spots in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Its One Health Institute and Wildlife Health Center manage One Health programs for people and animals ranging from the Pacific Northwest to Africa’s Congo Basin and Rift Valley.Sean Davidson, CTV Toronto
A man is in life-threatening condition after being shot downtown, Toronto police say.
Paramedics received a call for a shooting in the area of Dundas and Sherbourne Streets at approximately 2 p.m. At least six police cars and the canine unit were called to the scene, where they found an unidentified man suffering from gunshot wounds.
The victim was rushed to nearby hospital where he remains in life-threatening condition.
Police have released a vague suspect description saying they are looking for a black male, standing at six feet or taller, wearing a black hoodie.
"We're still trying to figure that out... the investigation is in preliminary stages right now," Toronto Police Sgt. Steve Campbell told CTV Toronto's Zuraidah Alman.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5100.Caribou & Reindeer
Caribou and reindeer are members of the Deer family. They are Caribou when wild in North America and Reindeer when in Europe and Asia. Most of the reindeer are now domesticated although small groups of wild reindeer do exist in some areas. Being deer both Caribou and Reindeer shed their antlers every year, unlike any other deer, the female also grows antlers but unlike the male, who sheds his fine antlers after the rut, she keeps hers through the winter in order to be able to defend any work she has done digging for food in the deep snow. In this way she can protect both her unborn calf and the youngster at heel at a time when food is hard to find and the best armed individual has a right to it, no matter who dug for it. They are also useful if she has any encounter with a predator, heavily pregnant she is equipped to fight rather than flee. The antlers are bone, covered in velvet as they grow, they are warm and softish at this time and some groups harvest them for their high value as Panty, used in the Far East as an aphrodisiac and also by indigenous groups, for medicinal purposes. When the antlers have hardened the animals rub the velvet off them, sometimes leaving traces of blood on the antler and ribbons of skin hanging from them. Both Reindeer and caribou have hollow hair that is an excellent insulator, inside their noses is a very efficient heat exchanger, warming the cold air on its way in against the hot air being breathed out, they have a similar system with the blood in their legs. They have very noisy feet, the tendons in their feet click, so a combination of the grunts they make to communicate and the clicking of their feet as they walk is very distinctive.
Migration
The Barren Ground Caribou are grouped in herds across Alaska and Arctic Canada, these groups migrate through the their own territories every year not intermixing. In the spring they move north out of the trees, on the way the females calve and then the herd continues northwards to the summer pastures. Biting insects are a real problem during the summer months and the caribou resort to sitting on snow patches or standing in water to escape them. A couple of months after giving birth, the herd starts to move south towards the winter pastures, pausing a the tree line for the rut, when the animals mate. Then they stay in the shelter of the trees for the coldest months.
Reindeer follow a similar pattern from winter to summer pastures and back again, but where and when they stop to feed will be decided by the herders who have ancestral grazing lands which need to be managed carefully in order not to be overgrazed. In Siberia, whole families move back and forth across the tundra following their reindeer herds. In some parts of Scandinavia, mostly Finland and Sweden the reindeer are ranched, in summer they graze on grass but during the winter they are fed on bagged animal food with a supplement of branches and lichen.
Diet
During the winter the caribou and reindeer eat lichens as these remain edible if not highly nutricious, during the winter months, one benefit of this is that because the lichen are low in protein, the animals need less water for the digestive process, a huge bonus when all water is tied up in snow and ice. Caribou and reindeer produce an enzyme which helps them to digest the lichens. Frequently they need to dig for them through a layer of snow. In the summer months reindeer have a wider range of food available to them and they eat grasses and sedges, berries, twigs of birch and willow, and they just love mushrooms. Reindeer herders anywhere will tell you that moving the herd south in a good mushroom autumn will be complicated by an animal raising its head then trotting off to find the mushroom it has just scented.
Range
Reindeer Caribou and Man
The reindeer in North America are caribou, and they are found right across Arctic North America, in the north of the Canadian archipelago and in Northern Greenland there are the endangered Peary Caribou, these are smaller than barren ground caribou and nearly white. There is a population of reindeer in Alaska and Western Canada. In the 1890’s the Alaskan government introduced domesticated reindeer from Europe to Alaska to stave off starvation, the experiment wasn’t really a success, but in the 1930’s the Canadian government purchased 3,000 of these animals and on a spectacular journey that took 5 years, 2,370 reindeer were delivered to the Canadians at the Mackenzie Delta. We met an Eskimo in Shishmaref who still herds reindeer, but they are very low maintenance because he keeps an eye on where they are using his computer and the satellite tags the animals are wearing, he rarely needs to visit them. In some areas this is causing problems as the domesticated animals breed with the wild herds of caribou. The wild reindeer in Norway are in the south by the Arctic Circle, but the largest numbers in Scandinavia are in the north with the Sami. Reindeer are herded right across the north of Siberia by a variety of native groups. In Spitsbergen there is a population of very short legged, round reindeer and there are even reindeer in South Georgia in the South Atlantic
It is possible that the reindeer was the first cloven hoofed animal to be domesticated and they features in a lot of the early cave paintings. The native people of the Arctic have certainly hunted them for a long time and the meat, antlers and very warm skins have an important place in the culture of the Inuit of Canada and Alaska. In Russia, although they were hunted by groups like the Nganasan, more recently theyare mostly herded, although there are wild reindeer in many places in Siberia. The largest reindeer aer found in Tuva by the Mongolian border and some people think that this is the region that reindeer originated from. Apart from man, the chief predator of reindeer are wolves but lynx, wolverine and Eagles can also take animals.
Links
Reindeer herding in the NWT
Reindeer in Alaska
Text © B & C AlexanderTiger Woods is no longer using crutches, a walking boot or a razor. He hasn't hit a full golf shot in 47 days and has no idea when he will practice, much less play in another tournament.
All he could say with certainty Tuesday was that he would not return until he was fully healthy.
"Usually, I set a timetable when I want to come back and play when I've had injuries before," Woods said at the AT&T National, which benefits his foundation.
"This one is different. I'm going to learn my lesson from what I did at The Players and apply it this time and come back when I'm 100 per cent. I don't know when that's going to be.
"That's kind of the frustrating thing about it right now is I don't know."
While he did not rule out the British Open, which starts July 14 at Royal St. George's, he made it sound as though he would miss another major championship.
"I wouldn't go over there just to show up," he said. "I'd go over there to win the golf tournament.
"So I need to, obviously, get my body ready so I can practice and, eventually, play."
Woods has not played since May 12 when he withdrew after nine holes from The Players Championship. That was his first tournament since suffering "minor injuries" to his left knee and Achilles from an awkward stance in the pine straw in the third round at the Masters.
He said it was borderline whether he should have played at the TPC Sawgrass, a decision he now regrets. Had he skipped The Players, Woods said he would be playing now.
So what was he doing at Sawgrass?
"I've played in pain before and I've played injured and I've played through it and I've been very successful at it," Woods said. "There has been a number of years where I've been hurt more than people could possibly understand and I've played and I've won.
"I just felt that it was good enough to give it a go and I did. And I hurt myself."
Woods has gone through four knee surgeries since his freshman year at Stanford. He tore knee ligaments while jogging in the summer of 2007, and finished the year winning five of six tournaments, including a major. He won the U.S. Open in 2008 for his 14th major on one good leg. And after injuring his right Achilles in December 2008, he won seven times the next season.
But there was something about this injury — perhaps the state of his game or the clock ticking on his career — that caused him to stop being so stubborn when it comes to his health.
He said this injury wasn't even as bad as some of the others.
"But I hurt myself again," he said. "It's time to actually have a different approach. It's time."
Woods still believes he has time on his side, especially when it comes to his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' record 18 professional majors. He remains stuck on No. 14, and he can't get closer if he's not playing.
"He won when he was 46, right?" said the 35-year-old Woods. "I've still got some time.
"I feel pretty confident of what my future holds and very excited about it. I'm excited about coming out here and being ready to go, instead of trying to kind of patch it, which I've been doing for a while."
He's not doing much of anything at the moment. Woods watched the U.S. Open and was amazed at how Rory McIlroy matched his record by building a six-shot lead after 36 holes, then continued to crush his competition in winning by eight shots.
With shared parenting of his two kids, he has watched more cartoons than he ever did as a child.
"What's actually really tough to watch now all the time is Dora [the Explorer ]," he said. "That song is just brutal."
And for the first time in public, he was sporting a full beard, though nothing that compares with Lucas Glover.
Woods said he has been able to putt, and that's about it for his golf. He said he spends every day in the gym trying to get stronger, not just work on the left knee and Achilles, but his entire body. He said there are as many as three sessions a day, although they rarely last more than an hour.
"We're testing it every day to see what it feels like," he said. "You try and push it as far as the leg will go and then, if it doesn't feel any good, then you bring it back. And each day it's gotten better.
"We haven't had any setbacks, which has been good. But still, it's not as explosive or as strong as I'd like to be."
And that means no golf — at least for now.
Woods is leaving that to everyone else, and there have been some special performances. Luke Donald has risen to No. 1 in the world, McIlroy is up to No. 3 while Woods has tumbled to No. 17, his lowest spot in more than 14 years.
Justin Rose, the defending champion at Aronimink, says Woods' absence is still noticeable.
"The way he plays the game, he plays it with a lot of intensity," Rose said. "I think people like to see him win.
"He seems to win in dramatic style more often than not. So that's I think what people like to see.
"He puts on a good show. Everything that goes around him at a golf tournament is a little more high atmosphere, high energy."
Assuming he misses the British Open, the next tournament Woods typically plays is the Bridgestone Invitational, which starts Aug. 4 and precedes the final major championship of the year. The FedEx Cup playoffs are after that, although only the top 125 qualify and Woods is at No. 114 — and not moving up because he's not playing.
Woods, however, said he would be surprised if the year ended without him playing again. This isn't a repeat of 2008, when he missed the last six months of the year after reconstructive knee surgery. He said his knee and Achilles are getting better.
"I'd be very surprised because I'm progressing," he said.SRDJA TRFKOVIC writes at Chronicles that the great preponderance of the hundreds of thousands of “asylum seekers” arriving in Europe are Muslim:
The Third Muslim Invasion of Europe is entering its mature stage by sea, just like the previous two onslaughts. The difference is threefold. The invaders are not armed warriors but “asylum seekers.” They can count on a massive infrastructure of Islamic centers and coreligionists to welcome them. And there is no political will to resist them.
Europe’s southern maritime frontier is as porous as America’s on the Rio Grande. Last year 220,000 African and Asian illegal immigrants landed on northern Mediterranean shores. None have been sent back. E.U. border-agency chief Fabrice Leggeri says that up to a million are currently poised to leave Libya alone. It is an eminently Muslim invasion: African Christians making the crossing, a minority, are routinely thrown overboard by their jihadist-minded fellow passengers.
The conquest proceeds unchecked because the elite class does not want it checked. “How can it be that we are daily witnessing a tragedy?” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wondered after a boat crammed with hundreds of people overturned off Libya’s coast last April. “Europe can do more, and Europe must do more” to improve rescue missions, declared Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament. Europe must mobilize more ships, more aircraft, French President François Hollande said. “Words won’t do anymore,” Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told a rally. Pope Francis, addressing a crowd in Saint Peter’s Square, called on political leaders to “act decisively and promptly to prevent similar tragedies.”Release date:September 8, 2017
Studio:New Line Cinema (Warner Bros.) Director:Andy Muschietti MPAA Rating:R (for violence/horror, bloody images, and for language) Screenwriters:Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman Starring:Jaeden Lieberher, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Nicholas Hamilton, Bill Skarsgård Genre:Thriller, Horror Official website:ITthemovie.com| Facebook| Twitter| Instagram
Plot Summary:
"IT" tells the story of seven young outcasts growing up in the township of Derry, Maine, who call themselves the Losers’ Club. Each of them has been ostracized for one reason or another; each has a target on their back from the local pack of bullies…and all have seen their inner fears come to life in the form of an ancient shapeshifting predator they can only call It. For as long as their town has existed, Derry has been the entity’s hunting ground, emerging from the sewers every 27 years to feed on the terrors of its chosen prey: Derry’s children. Banding together over one horrifying and exhilarating summer, the Losers form a close bond to help them overcome their own fears and stop |
hat in the ring for the founder of his alma mater, who blamed September 11 on gays and accused them of trying to "recruit" children; Ambrosino says liberals like Bill Maher have slandered the Moral Majority founder and says, in Falwell's defense, that the guy with the "big fat smile" probably wouldn't have had him stoned to death if he'd known about Ambrosino's sexuality. Ambrosino also defends the views of ex-gay therapists and same-sex marriage opponents, whom he says aren't motivated by bigotry. In The Baltimore Sun, Ambrosino went after the guys in "butt-less chaps and high-heels" at gay-pride marches who earn society's prejudice with their "hypersexual antics": “I think there is a subversive power in living out my gay life in a way that seeks to emphasize the common ground I share with straight communities,” he wrote. “I don't want to participate in an event that seeks to highlight how countercultural I am.” Unsurprisingly, the religious right has been thrilled to find an acolyte among the fallen.
Gay intellectuals like Andrew Sullivan or Jonathan Rauch may occasionally ruffle queer folks' feathers for going against the grain when it comes to hate-crime laws, say, or the right of for-profit businesses to turn away gay customers. But Ambrosino should not be thought of in this mold. Whereas Sullivan's and Rauch's positions are thoughtfully staked out and stem from nuanced views about the role of government, Ambrosino's iconoclasm amounts to heedless self-promotion. His gross distortions of mainstream gay views and stunning lack of fluency in the basic language of gay equality reveals him to be little but a feckless provocateur. His mischaracterization of 20th-century philosopher Michel Foucault—Ambrosino warps the philosopher’s idea that sexuality is a “social construct” to justify his view that gays choose their sexuality—has gotten him called out by academics. But his use of nonsensical phrases like "intersexed crossdressers" (intersexuality, a medical condition, has nothing to do with cross-dressing) and penchant for referring to transsexualism as a "sexual choice" (it's not about sexuality) show that his lack of familiarity with his subject matter runs even deeper.
So the big question: Why has a string of editors, culminating with Klein, given this guy a platform? In an interview on Wednesday evening, Klein told me he hadn't read the pieces that had kicked up so much dust before bringing Ambrosino on but did so once he began facing criticism for the hire. “I don’t want to pretend that I have the context and the background to perfectly or authoritatively judge this debate," Klein said. "But when I read his pieces, I didn’t come away with the impression that he holds an iota of homophobia.” “Homophobia”—which activists too often use as shorthand to describe anti-gay views that don’t necessarily stem from fear—may be the wrong word for it. But even a cursory read through Ambrosino's writings should raise red flags. Klein, though, seems mystified by the blowback. He acknowledges that he is new to the process of staffing an enterprise like Vox. “I gotta be honest,” he said. “With a lot of this stuff, I’m trying to figure out what success means.”
It’s unclear what role Ambrosino will play in Vox’s coverage of LGBT issues; Klein stressed that he hired Ambrosino as a writing fellow, part of a training program for young journalists. But the fact that the hiring process failed to raise any questions about Ambrosino's journalism raises questions about the kind of oversight he’ll receive at Vox. Plus, as a gay-rights advocate and friend of mine remarked, only half in jest, “After that he’ll have a star-studded résumé and free rein to antagonize us for years!”
Klein has come under fire for the lack of racial and gender diversity among Vox's announced hires, and his decision to hire Ambrosino shows how much he has to learn about genuine diversity. Klein told me he found Ambrosino's background as a gay Christian compelling and is trying to cultivate "ideological diversity” as well as gender and racial diversity at Vox. While he has a number of female hires in the pipeline, Klein said he is struggling to find racial minorities for the venture, adding: “I also want to say, other kinds of diversity are important—ideological diversity." I asked Klein what he meant by ideological diversity. “It’s not that I have a quota that I need Republicans,” he said; he just doesn't want a staff where “everybody thinks the same way.” This is a noble impulse, and varying viewpoints certainly do enliven intellectual debate. But Ambrosino’s views aren’t merely different; they’re ill-informed and dishonest. The grand irony here is that Klein himself has made a career out of being a centrist wonk who’s careful with facts.
Vox's decision to hire Ambrosino shows why it's so important to have diversity not just among writers but also among the management at journalistic institutions. As Klein admits, he’s not the best judge of journalism on LBGT issues. Which is sort of the point: Not having a gay person in Vox’s leadership—someone who is familiar with the fault lines and sensitivities of the debate—leaves editors vulnerable to making tone-deaf decisions. If Klein wanted a smart young voice on gay rights, he had scores of brilliant, journalistically sound, responsible queer journalists to choose from—Slate’s Stern comes immediately to mind, as does Metro Weekly’s Justin Snow. Perhaps Klein didn’t know where to look, but given the promise and resources of Vox, it's incumbent on leaders like him to do more than post job openings online; if you want diversity, you have to work at it. Cheap traffic, on the other hand, is low-hanging fruit.
Ambrosino fits a mold the bright new media loves: He's a nerdy white kid whose contrarian views stir the pot. There is no question, especially given the sketchy quality of Ambrosino's work, that the allure of having someone gay parrot anti-gay views has led editors to look at him and think, "interesting." His formula is tired, if effective: He throws bombs into the gay community, and his editors call the explosion a debate. It's disappointing, to say the least, that a journalism venture with the tremendous promise and resources of Vox Media is relying on that cheap trick.
ADDENDUM: Ezra Klein has taken issue, via e-mail message, with my characterization of his reading of Ambrosino’s work prior to hiring him: “I read most of the stories of Brandon's that became controversial prior to the hire," Klein writes. "I didn't read everything he's ever written, of course, but the impression your story appears to have given folks—that I read nothing he did before hiring him—is wrong, and I'd appreciate a clarification.”
The story accurately reflects the notes I took during my interview with Klein. Here are the relevant notes, quoting Klein's answer to my question about his familiarity with Ambrosino's controversial stories before the hiring:
The piece about Brandon’s experience at Liberty University was a personal narrative that showed the way people who have a pretty bigoted worldview react with more compassion when confronted with a person. The TNR piece, read today—it seemed to be saying that the exclusion of gay people is wrong no matter what reason their gay is. Seemed to me incredibly strong argument against morality of discrimination in any context. These things have clearly raised alarm bells that speak to a debate that I am not always in. Definitely didn’t read them, but when I did didn’t come away with the impression that he holds an iota of homophobia.
Klein has elaborated in a post on Facebook that he read "a lot of" of Ambrosino’s previous published work before hiring him and gave him an extensive writing test that required him to write eight news articles and two explainers—more than 5,000 words.
*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this piece stated Ambrosino's age as 23. He enrolled at Liberty University in 2003, which would make him 27-28.Trampers Urged to Complete an Outdoors Intention Form
Mountain Safety Council Urges Trampers to Complete an Outdoors Intention Form
The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council, praises Estonian tramper Mr. Andre Lipand for having an outdoors intentions process in place after being rescued from the Mount Aspiring National Park at the weekend.
Mr. Lipand had set off on a solo trip on the Young-River-Gillespie Pass-Wilkin River circuit and planned to walk and raft his way through extremely dangerous terrain. Unfortunately he encountered difficulties trying to raft the gorge and became bluffed and unable to move.
Luckily, Mr. Lipand had left details of his proposed trip also known as ‘Outdoors Intentions’ with a friend, indicating where he was going and when he was expected to finish his trip. When he did not arrive home as organised, his friend raised the alarm with the police resulting in Wanaka Search and Rescue being called in. The fact notice had been left of his intentions, meant that the time taken to rescue Mr. Lipand was considerably reduced.
The Mountain Safety Council advises that when venturing into the outdoors you should always use the Outdoor Safety Code. Rule number two states ‘Tell Someone’ and an easy way of doing this is to complete an ‘Outdoors Intentions’ form on which you can put down all the details of your proposed trip. This form can then be left with a trusted person who can contact the police, if you do not return home at the designated time.
“The use of the Outdoors Intention form will always save time in a search and rescue situation, and possibly lives. Having all of the information in one place helps searchers to trace your route and find you or work out where you might have struck trouble,” said Chris Owens, Bushcraft Programme Manager for the NZ Mountain Safety Council
“However we recommend that you effectively plan your trip, talk to locals and know your limits to minimise the risk and avoid having to call out Search & Rescue in the first place,” he added.
You can download a free Outdoors Intentions form from the NZ Mountain Safety Council website. www.mountainsafety.org.nz/Resources/Resource_List.asp?t=1&cat=9
The Outdoor Safety Code.
Following the 5 simple rules will help you stay safe and have an enjoyable experience in the outdoors.
1. Plan your trip.
2. Tell someone your plans.
3. Be aware of the weather.
4. Know your limits.
5. Take sufficient supplies.
For more information about Outdoors Intentions, The Outdoor Safety Code and outdoors training and education please visit www.mountainsafety.org.nz
ENDS
© Scoop MediaWe all know the feeling. You're sleepless in the sad hours of the night or stumbling around early on a hazy weekend morning in need of something to read, and that pile of unread books just isn't cutting it. Why not take a break from the fire hose of Twitter and RSS and check out our weekly roundup of essential writing from around the web about technology, culture, media, and the future? Sure, it's one more thing you can feel guilty about sitting in your Instapaper queue, but it's better than pulling in vain on your Twitter list again.
Grab the entire list as a Readlist.
On Silicon Valley
Paul Goldberg surveys how Facebook, Google, and Apple's massive new starchitect-designed headquarters are changing the Valley and the cities around it.
Vanity Fair: Paul Goldberger - The Shape of Things to Come
Would the Pyramids, say, have made a good office building? A symbol, yes, but a building, no. And Apple’s spaceship, which is expected to hold 12,000 workers, is just as inflexible. You can’t make it bigger, certainly, if you need to expand. And you can’t really argue that the building will encourage collaboration, since, with its circumference of nearly a mile, even workers on the same floor can be as much as half a mile apart. Because the purity of the shape was valued above all else, the large auditorium that Apple wanted was placed underground in a separate structure—a mini-spaceship beside the mother ship.
On Tower One
Justin Davidson visits the World Trade Center, looking back on a decade of construction, power struggles, and grief.
New York: Justin Davidson - A Visit to the Top of the World Trade Center
A year later, Tower One had evolved into an immense festive skeleton arrayed in multicolored lights like some kind of mutant lawn ornament. On stormy days, the wind roared through the open floors, producing an unearthly shriek that could be heard for blocks. The building was still raw, hopeful, and wild.
On 'The Walking Dead'
Following a massive binge-watch, Emily Nussbaum reviews The Walking Dead.
The New Yorker: Emily Nussbaum - Utter Rot
AMC’s zombie show, “The Walking Dead,” on the other hand, has been grinding on for forty-three hours, something I can attest to, because I watched every episode in less than two weeks. Binge-watching has become a popular way to enjoy television, but with a show as flawed as “The Walking Dead” it’s a dangerous drug, all spike-and-crash, as gorgeous surges of critical hope are blown apart and revealed as wishful thinking. In this way, it’s not all that different from an actual zombie apocalypse.
On David Agus
Amy Wallace profiles doctor and author David Agus and his fight against cancer.
Wired: Amy Wallace - Steve Jobs’ Doctor Wants to Help Us All Live Longer
For his part, Agus isn’t really trying to defy anyone. To him it’s all part of a single plan. That’s because Agus isn’t just trying to build a career, make a pile of money, or get famous; he’s trying to beat cancer. And he knows that even as he searches for breakthrough treatments and refines state-of-the-art clinical care, these accomplishments alone will not achieve this goal. Agus believes we can conquer this devastating disease only if individuals take ownership of their health. They can’t do that if they don’t know how. So he has taken it upon himself to educate them, one rule at a time.
On blogging
As part of Nieman Jounralism Lab's fantastic ongoing journalism series, Jason Kottke considers the future of the blog.
Nieman Journalism Lab: Jason Kottke - The blog is dead, long live the blog
Instead of blogging, people are posting to Tumblr, tweeting, pinning things to their board, posting to Reddit, Snapchatting, updating Facebook statuses, Instagramming, and publishing on Medium. In 1997, wired teens created online diaries, and in 2004 the blog was king. Today, teens are about as likely to start a blog (over Instagramming or Snapchatting) as they are to buy a music CD. Blogs are for 40-somethings with kids.
On telemarketing
Alexis Madrigal reports on the bizarre half-human, half-computer systems used by some telemarketing companies.
The Atlantic: Alexis Madrigal - Almost Human: The Surreal, Cyborg Future of Telemarketing
Such conversations happen millions of times a year, but they are not what they appear. Because while a human is picking up the phone, and a human is dialing the phone, this is not, strictly speaking, a conversation between two humans.
Instead, a call-center worker in Utah or the Philippines is pressing buttons on a computer, playing through a marketing pitch without actually speaking. Some people who market these services sometimes call this "voice conversion" technology. Another company says it's "agent-assisted automation technology.”
For more great longreads, visit our friends at Longreads.
Have any favorites that you'd like to see included in next week's edition? Send them along to @thomashouston or share in the comments below.Most of the money will go not to television and radio advertisements, but for canvassing, social media and other organizing efforts intended to bring pressure on lawmakers from their own constituents, drawing in part on lessons the teachers learned from defeating candidates backed by well-financed charter school advocates in the Democratic primary last fall.
“We think the ad wars make people feel disenfranchised from the process,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. “We want to do the grass-roots work — training people on speaking to community groups, going to civic associations, block associations, lawmakers. We want the lawmakers to hear from their real constituents, as opposed to the people that usually lobby them.”
Indeed, an early radio ad script from the group does not mention Mr. Cuomo at all. Instead, it assails “bankers, brokers and money managers” on Wall Street for collecting record pay and bonuses in the midst of a state fiscal crisis.
Such a message contrasts starkly with past budget-battle advertisements. One memorable advertisement run by 1199 two years ago to protest Medicaid cuts featured a blind Bronx resident asking of former Gov. David A. Paterson, who is himself legally blind, “Why are you doing this to me?”
Photo
A second coalition, called Growing Together New York, and joining dozens of labor, environmental and community groups, will focus more directly on opposing Mr. Cuomo’s cuts, while also agitating for the extension of the income-tax surcharge. The coalition will be spearheaded by New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, a liberal advocacy organization whose backers include CSEA, formerly the Civil Service Employees Association, the largest union of state workers, and New York State United Teachers, the statewide teachers’ union.
A press release announcing the coalition’s formation last week emphasized that it was “not looking for a confrontation with the governor” but instead “a healthy exchange of ideas.”
“We’re mobilizing, and we have a ground strategy,” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness. “We’re taking the show out on the road, much as the governor has with his budget.”
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Mr. Deutsch added, “We want to engage the governor in a dialogue here, and I don’t know if an ad war is the way to do that.”
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Both coalitions argue that the debate over New York’s budget crisis has unfairly scapegoated public workers while virtually ignoring the role that Wall Street risk-taking, and the accompanying financial collapse, played. They also say that what Mr. Cuomo has described as an epidemic of overspending is as much a revenue crisis driven by tax cuts for the wealthy from the Pataki era.
The shift in tactics reflects, to some extent, Mr. Cuomo’s efforts to both woo and fracture his opponents, hoping to avoid the kind of joint assault from teachers, health workers and state employees’ unions that ultimately wore down Mr. Paterson and past governors.
Last week, Mr. Cuomo proposed major cuts to Medicaid, school aid and the state work force, while inviting unions to come to him with their own proposals to save money. At the same time, he has amassed a $5 million war chest of his own, money Mr. Cuomo has said he will spend on advertisements only if he is attacked first. He has helped organize a coalition of business groups, called the Committee to Save New York, with plans to spend at least $10 million this year defending his proposals to cap property taxes and rein in spending.
Mr. Cuomo also struck a deal last summer with the Working Families Party, long a potent attack force for unions on fiscal issues, to appear on their ballot line in exchange for their pledge to support his agenda, including his promise not to raise or impose new taxes. The deal did not prevent them, union officials said, from advocating for an extension of the surcharge, an existing tax.
“We are working right now with the governor’s folks on the Medicaid redesign team, and we’re hoping to come up with some creative ways to save money,” said Kevin Finnegan, the political director for 1199.
Some union officials and their allies say the change in strategy also reflects a recognition that the traditional winter ad wars are not without cost to themselves, both in dollars — 1199 alone has spent as much as $10 million a year out of a joint fund with the Greater New York Hospital Association — and in public relations backlash.
“We have had enormous experience with the old way,” said Kenneth E. Raske, president of the hospital association. “The old way leaves a sour taste in our mouth, too. We’ve seen what happens in the past. We didn’t like the process and we didn’t like the outcome. You get some restorations, but you still end up with some difficult cuts.”Connacht Rugby has today confirmed that outhalf Steve Crosbie and centre Tom Farrell have been added to the senior squad for the remainder of the 2016/17 season. Loosehead prop Peter McCabe has also joined the province on a loan deal from Munster Rugby.
23-year-old outhalf Steve Crosbie, who can also play in midfield, joins the province on the back of a short term contract with Munster where he made two appearances for their ‘A’ side in the British & Irish Cup last month. The former Ireland under-20’s player originally came through the Leinster academy system and made two Guinness PRO12 appearances at the beginning of the 2014/15 season.
The Connacht coaching team have also boosted their options at midfield with the addition of 23-year-old Tom Farrell who joins from English Championship side Bedford Blues where he made 12 appearances this season. Having played with Lansdowne RFC, Farrell came through the Leinster Academy and also represented Ireland at under-19 and under-20 level. He joined up with his new team mates at the Sportsground on Monday and was today added to the European Rugby Champions Cup squad for the province.
24-year-old McCabe has also joined the province on loan from Munster Rugby and as cover for current front row injuries. The Cork-born prop impressed on a number of occasions for Munster ‘A’ after making his B&I Cup debut in the 2015 quarter-final against Doncaster Knights. He made his senior debut in the Guinness PRO12 this season, coming on as a replacement against the Ospreys and a week later starting in the friendly against the Maori All Blacks at Thomond Park.Motorbike bursts into flames in'shocking' hit-and-run in Melbourne's east
Updated
A motorcycle has burst into flames after being struck and dragged in a hit-and-run crash at Mitcham, in Melbourne's east, leaving the driver with life-threatening injuries.
Witnesses said a black four-wheel drive sped down Glenburnie Road about 4:15pm, failed to give way and hit the motorcycle which was travelling on Orient Avenue.
The motorcycle was dragged up to 60 metres and was trapped under the four-wheel drive, which had been stolen.
The driver then reversed and fled the scene and the motorbike burst into flames.
Resident Denyse Ward said it was a shocking scene.
"[It was] unbelievable, just something you never ever want to witness," she said.
"I would hate to have been right up close with it because I stayed back and [it was] unbelievable."
Police said the driver fled and the car was later found abandoned nearby on East Link at Scoresby.
Witnesses said up to five youths were seen running from the car.
Police believe they went on to rob a home at Scoresby and steal a white Toyota Camry.
The police helicopter has been brought in to search for the individuals, while the motorcycle rider is in a critical condition at the Alfred Hospital with life-threatening burns.
Victoria Police Detective Senior Sergeant Gerard Clanchy appealed to those involved to give themselves up.
"This is a terrible tragic event for the motorcycle rider. He's just riding as he normally should and out … comes a black BMW… [it] does not give way. It's a tragic incident," he said.
"We are searching for them … and they will be caught but it's in their interest to come forward."
Topics: road, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, mitcham-3132, melbourne-3000
First postedFrom The Cutting Room Floor
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland Also known as: Elmo in Grouchland
Developer: Bonsai Interactive
Publishers: NewKidCo (US), Ubisoft (EU)
Platforms: Game Boy, Game Boy Color
Released in US: 1999
Released in EU: 2000
This game has a hidden developer message.
This game has unused graphics.
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is a game based off the 1999 movie of the same name.
Developer Message
Starting at 40000 in the European ROM:
Hello There Pilgrim... If you have hacked this ROM, you no doubt are reading this text. This game is basically a 2 Meg. Game. However, Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, has decreed that the smallest ROM they will produce for the Gameboy Color is 8 Meg. -- Now, what to put in that empty 6 Meg.? So, the developers of the game decided to put.GIF pictures of themselves into the game. Why not? Might as well fill the void with something entertaining. See if you can retrieve them from this ROM. If you do, you win the prize. Please call (609) 466-2092 (in New Jersey, USA) if you have been able to view the two.GIF pictures, located in the rest of the upper 6 Megs of this ROM. We will have a nice reward for you... Good Luck! Roger W. Amidon September 28, 2000
Unused Graphics
True to the developer's words, there are two.gif files hidden at 80000 and C0000 :
The first picture is of programmer Roger Amidon and his two sons. The second picture presumably has some of the other developers, but their identities are currently unknown.I’m in Iceland for the term—on sabbatical, with my family, giving my kids a sense of ~America, writing tons of law-geek stuff—and watching an amazing political battle brew in the upcoming parliamentary elections (October 29). Turns out, democracy has problems everywhere—except that here, an extraordinary citizens movement is doing something about it.
Some background: You’ll remember the financial crisis of 2008. That crisis hit Iceland hard. So hard that tens of thousands marched on the Parliament banging pots and pans (aka “The Pots & Pans Revolution”), and demanding change.
Some linked that crisis to a failure of Iceland’s constitution. And they responded to that failure by launching a process to crowdsource a new one. At first, the process was not connected to the government. But then the Parliament embraced the movement, and gave it form. A thousand people (randomly selected) would identify the values of the new constitution. Then a constitutional council would be elected to draft a constitution based on those values.
More than 500 ran. Twenty-five were elected. And for four months, they worked to draft a new constitution—in public, posting their version on Facebook, and taking comments from around the world. The Parliament then put the draft up for a vote (non-binding, asking whether there should be a new constitution “based on” the Council’s draft). Four years ago, more than two-thirds of those voting approved the draft. (Blueberry Soup is a wonderful documentary about the process.)
And then, amazingly, Parliament did nothing. The bill to adopt a constitution “based on” the draft stalled. Everyone (in Parliament at least) seemed to forget it.
But when the Panama Papers scandal broke, and the Prime Minister resigned, the people of Iceland were reminded that there was still a government to fix. And so an amazing citizens movement in Iceland started to develop, to press the issue to the center of these elections.
I’ve been able to watch this movement unfold. And as a “fix democracy first” sort of democrat, I’ve been watching with great admiration (and a bit of jealousy). The leaders of this movement are all non-politicians. There are politician heroes, too, like Birgitta Jónsdóttir of the Pirate Party, and Katrin Jakobsdóttir of the Left Greens, but the real activists here are not people running for anything. They are just citizens trying to get a government that knows for whom it works — because after four years of ignoring a referendum, that’s apparently an open question.
A few days ago they launched a social media campaign to frame this election around this issue. The message of the campaign is a clever remake of a familiar meme: “Can you [as in the Parliament] hear us [as in the people] now?” Four videos (two in English, two in Icelandic) set the terms of the debate, plus the first 2 of 10 (in Icelandic) discuss the top 10 problems the new constitution will solve. The English versions are below.
The campaign asks voters — “whether on the right or left”—to vote only for parties that commit “to making the ratification of a new constitution based on the draft of the constitutional council a priority in the next parliament.” So far, the four key opposition parties have made that commitment — the Pirate Party, Left-Green, Social Democrats, and the Bright Future party. There’s a great chance those four will constitute a majority in the new Parliament.
If this movement takes off, it has a powerful potential—in Iceland and internationally. The Icelandic Constitution Society (which is running the campaign) has promised to spend the money they raise on rallying Iceland to this cause. But anything raised beyond what’s necessary will go to democracy work internationally.
Imagine the frame of this campaign — Can You Hear Us—applied to democracies globally? (I’ve already reserved CanYouHearUs.US). My favorite line from the longer of their ads: “While we are local, democracy is global. Let’s show them what that means.”
This could be a rare victory for democracy reform this election cycle—and one that could inspire many elsewhere.
It’s already gotten me.
Lawrence Lessig is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. A version of this article was previously published on Medium. This edited version is published under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.This article is over 2 years old
Legal experts say case of African man, who was secretly deported from Melbourne last week, ‘exposes the lie that the government’s policies are some sort of humanitarian crusade’
Refugee deported to Nauru had arrived in Australia on cruise thinking he had valid visa
A refugee who was secretively deported from Melbourne to Nauru in the middle of the night last week arrived in Australia by cruise ship almost two years ago believing he had a valid visa.
The fact he was sent to Nauru despite not arriving via an illegal people smuggling venture exposed government policy as a “lie”, a human rights lawyer said.
The man, who is from an African nation, was removed from the Melbourne immigration transit accommodation on Thursday night without warning and without being able to contact his lawyers.
Man secretly deported to Nauru from Melbourne detention centre, say lawyers Read more
He had arrived in Australia in early 2014 as a passenger on a cruise ship on the understanding that he had a valid visa.
He was detained as an unauthorised maritime arrival after stating he wished to claim asylum, and was sent to Villawood detention centre in Sydney. A few months later he was transferred to Nauru via Darwin, and has since been granted refugee status.
The government argues its offshore processing policy – which has seen a dramatic reduction in asylum seekers vessels reaching Australia – discourages people from making dangerous journeys, and undermines the business model of people smugglers.
“It’s not an illegal boat,” he told Guardian Australia from Nauru. “You can’t get on a cruise ship if you don’t have a visa. It is a legal boat.
“I came here because I have a problem,” he said.
He has since returned to Australia on three occasions for medical treatment, each time sent back without warning, but he said Friday’s deportation was the worst instance, as he was restrained and prevented from contacting his lawyer.
“Punishing a man who arrived on a cruise ship exposes the lie that the government’s policies are some sort of humanitarian crusade,” said Daniel Webb of the Human Rights Law Centre.
“If this was really about safety, then the government would focus on developing safe and orderly paths to protection for people seeking asylum instead of needless punishing them.”
The man said he was woken when officials came into his room at about 1am on Friday morning and restrained him, without allowing him to dress.
“They said, ‘come on come on’, I said, ‘Why? I don’t understand.’ They said, ‘you don’t ask us anything’. They handcuffed me. ‘You have to tell me why,’ I said. I am not a criminal.
“They just come to handcuff you and carry you by force. I cry and cry and cry.”
When he begged to speak to his lawyer, officials called their office switchboard, despite the hour, he said.
“I said no, you cannot call someone from one o’clock,” he said.
“[I told them] that’s the office number, not her mobile. I have her mobile number, it’s in my diary. I can go to my room and get my diary and call her. They said we are going to transfer you to Nauru.”
Webb said the Australian government had a legal duty to facilitate a person’s access to legal assistance, and “calling a switchboard at 3am before bundling a terrified man on to a chartered plane doesn’t cut it”.
“A government confident its actions are decent and lawful doesn’t secretively deport people on chartered jets in the middle of the night without any meaningful chance to speak to their lawyers”.
The man told Guardian Australia he was confused and scared for his life during the deportation. No one told him why he was being deported and he said he remained restrained and shirtless for the whole journey from Melbourne to Nauru.
He and a number of guards were the only people on the charter flight, he said, estimating the plane could have seated more than 100 people.
Government to launch 'free speech' inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act Read more
The shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, said he was not aware of the specifics of the case but the man’s claims were “troubling and concerning”.
“What’s concerning is the manner in which he was treated, if that’s true. I’m not across all the facts but I would certainly raise the issue with the minister,” he said.
The Department of Immigration and the minister, Peter Dutton, were contacted with questions.
The department said while it did not comment on individual cases “when an individual is transferred to Australia for medical treatment they are returned to Nauru once their medical treatment is complete and they have no medical reason to remain in Australia”.
“Individuals are informed of this process prior to their transfer,” the spokesman said. When asked for clarification of how much notice they receive, the spokesman declined to answer and cited “operational reasons”.
The department did not respond to other questions.Bryce Harper. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Bryce Harper and the Nationals avoided a grievance hearing over his 2015 salary with a deal late Sunday night, when General Manager Mike Rizzo and Harper’s agent, Scott Boras, completed the details of a two-year, $7.5 million contract that covers his 2015 and 2016 salaries.
Boras, in New York in anticipation of Tuesday’s now-unnecessary hearing, stopped by a New York Supreme Court hearing regarding the longstanding dispute between the Nationals and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and later explained what happened between the Nationals and Harper, and the star player’s absence from NatsFest on Saturday in Washington.
“I’m glad there’s a resolution to it,” Boras said of the settlement. “I think both sides think it was fair.”
Harper, Boras and the Nationals had been at odds over how his salary would be determined because of a rare dispute over the contract he signed as a first-round draft pick in 2010. Boras believed Harper had the right to opt out of his prescribed 2015 salary ($1.5 million) and into baseball’s lucrative arbitration system. The Nationals contended his contract did not include the ability to opt out because such language had never been included in the deal. Instead, under the settlement, Harper will make $2.5 million in 2015 and $5 million in 2016.
Over the weekend, Harper did not attend the team’s annual NatsFest fan rally Saturday, citing “matters out of my control.” General Manager Mike Rizzo said he was “disappointed” in Harper and declared Harper had stayed away because of the pending grievance. In Boras’s words, this is why Harper didn’t attend:
“The union has witness preparation,” he said. “They have all things you can do to prepare a player for arbitration. And frankly, that proceeding would have been affected by this hearing because all kinds of national reporters and such would have shown up to that. The fan fest purpose would have been, in many ways, certainly interrupted because of the attention Bryce would have had and the amount of press that would have showed up to discuss this matter not what the intentions of the fan fest were. So from a legal perspective and out of respect for the fan fest itself, you didn’t want to bring a distraction to that event.”
Asked specifically about Rizzo’s comment, Boras said he couldn’t address it and felt that Harper handled himself well throughout this process. As far as any potential animosity created by either side, Boras believes the Nationals and Harper came to a positive agreement for the future. Harper isn’t eligible for free agency until after the 2018 season.
“Part of the resolution for both sides is that you resolve something amicably among yourselves so that you continue to work together,” Boras said. “That was achieved.”
Because Harper skipped NatsFest, Boras said he and the Nationals are hoping to plan an event for later this winter in which Harper will come to Washington to meet with fans. Boras said “Bryce wants to do” this.
“We’re going to try to work this out with the Nationals, and he’s going to try to be there for the fans,” Boras added.
— Adam Kilgore contributed.This video is no longer available
This video was hosted on Vidme, which is no longer in operation. However, you might find this video at one of these links:
Video title:
F1 2012 |
of his inauguration by dozens of House Democrats.
Yet the dread Trump inspires is about far more than obnoxious tweets — and, by the way, the media and everyone else will have to figure out when Trumpian tweets are important and when they are distractions from far more urgent matters.
Trump’s disdain for the democratic disposition we like our presidents to embrace was on display when he dressed down CNN’s Jim Acosta at that news conference last week. Trump’s tone, style and sheer rage (whether real or staged) brought to mind authoritarian leaders who brook no dissent.
Speaking of autocrats, Vladimir Putin’s engagement in American politics on Trump’s behalf continued Tuesday when he called reports that Trump had been compromised by Russian intelligence “total nonsense” designed to “undermine the legitimacy” of Trump’s presidency. Putin accused those spreading the information of being “worse than prostitutes,” adding: “They have no moral boundaries.”
You know we are entering a strange time when Putin, many of whose enemies wind up dead, is lecturing Americans about “moral boundaries.” Then again, Putin must have been grateful when Trump told the Times of London recently that he still considers NATO “obsolete.” Wrecking both NATO and the European Union, which Trump also demeaned, are central Putin objectives.
We still do not know exactly what ties Trump and his enterprises have to various Russian interests because he won’t disclose basic financial information, including his tax returns, as his predecessors did.
1 of 33 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × These Democratic lawmakers are boycotting Donald Trump’s inauguration View Photos They say they are declining to attend in protest of the president-elect’s worldview and his criticism of civil rights icon John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia. Caption They say they are declining to attend in protest of the president-elect’s worldview and his criticism of civil rights icon John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) Beyer tweeted: “I just told hundreds of my constituents that I will not be attending the Inauguration Ceremony this coming Friday.” John McDonnell/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
In the meantime, Trump’s refusal to truly separate himself from his businesses means that ethical conflicts could well start on Day One of his presidency. It is not paranoid to wonder whether foreign leaders will have ways of influencing Trump that we will know nothing about.
[Five policies Trump might get right]
It is hardly reassuring that the Republicans who lead Congress are far more eager to attack those who want more transparency from Trump than to demand it of the man who is about to control our nation’s fate.
Lewis stirred controversy when he declared that he did not see Trump as a “legitimate” president because of the Russians’ intervention. One definition of “legitimate” is “lawful,” and here we have, on the one side, Trump legally winning the vote of the electoral college and, on the other, the lawless act of stealing emails.
Another meaning of “legitimate” is “conforming to or in accordance with established rules, standards, principles.” So far, Trump has flouted all of these, and that is far more important than a debate about a word.
Whatever Trump may be, he is, for so many of his fellow citizens, legitimately terrifying. This is a terrible way to feel on a day that is supposed to observe, as John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address 56 years ago, “not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom.”
Read more from E.J. Dionne’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.By Michel Brekelmans
While Chinese manufacturing is yet to fully embrace industrial automation, forward-thinking businesses and players are positioning themselves to take advantage of the potential growth opportunities of Industry 4.0, or the Internet of Things.
What is Industry 4.0?
The fourth industrial revolution is the move toward advanced industrial devices, systems and services that will deliver less costly, more efficient use of assets and increase business value. These outcomes are achieved by analyzing data to improve decision making about the use of resources. Industry 4.0 solutions will typically link the physical and cyber world through cyber-physical systems (CPS). Examples of CPS-driven solutions are self-learning robots, predictive maintenance, self-reconfiguring machines, and smart environment recognition.
Like the previous three industrial revolutions, Industry 4.0 heralds a new stage in industrial manufacturing which will disrupt existing markets and competition and demand new requirements of businesses’ staff and infrastructure.
Toward Industry 4.0: China’s growth potential
Before China can step into the fourth industrial revolution, it needs to transform its automation. China needs to fully implement automation in production processes, including data collection and analysis, which makes China an attractive market for industrial automation businesses.
Penetration rates of industrial automation in China lag behind other developed markets. The low rates of industrial robot density in China compared to Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States offer growth potential for prospective industrial automation market companies.
The growth potential for industrial automation in China is supported by:
Chinese government measures to shift the manufacturing focus toward technology-intensive industries by promoting the use of robotics. In addition to providing loans and tax incentives to high-tech manufacturing industries, China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011 to 2015) targeted the intelligent manufacturing equipment industry. The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) has set a target of establishing a complete system and industry chain for intelligent manufacturing equipment with a total market value of more than RMB 300 billion. This will increase support for industrial and service robotics and drive the technology and high-end manufacturing industries. The Made in China 2025 plan has a 10-year goal that emphasizes innovation. Looking ahead to 2049, the Chinese Government’s long term plan is to transform China into a leading manufacturing power to rival Germany, Japan and USA.
Rapidly rising labor costs. Dramatic increases in labor costs pressured many manufacturers to move operations to lower-cost countries (eg, Vietnam) or look at ways in which they can reduce their dependency on manual labor. This will drive demand for industrial automation in manufacturing.
Labor Productivity Goals. Chinese manufacturers are under similar pressure to increase labor productivity to stay competitive. An assessment of China labor productivity metrics shows industrial sector workers leading the way compared to workers in the Agriculture and Services sectors. As manufacturers look for different solutions to continue to improve labor productivity, the advantages offered by industrial robotics will be on their radar.
Increased capacity and capabilities of international and domestic players. Multinational companies and domestic manufacturers are investing in (and generating) increased capacity and capabilities in China and this will assist in driving market growth for industrial robotics. These investments in manufacturing facilities draw attention to the limited number of domestic robotic manufacturers in China (though there are several planned domestic industrial robotics bases with the target of increasing capacity and capabilities). Automation suppliers are actively promoting their solutions through marketing and training, which raises awareness and increases demand.
China’s Growing Market for Industrial Robotics
China’s industrial robotics market has grown significantly to become one of the major global markets. As demonstrated by Figure 2, annual installation volume increased steadily from 15,000 units in 2010 to 57,000 units in 2014. Further increases are forecast to 2018. Figure 2 also reflects the dominance of foreign players in China’s industrial robotics industry, with more than 70% market share. However, a breakdown of foreign and domestic companies’ market shares according to end-industry reveals some interesting trends. Multinational companies have a strong presence in the automotive industry, whereas domestic players are stronger in the electrical/electronics sector.
Domestic players face a number of challenges in securing a greater share of China’s industrial robotics market, including:
Limited scale in manufacturing (only very few companies can manufacture over 100 units per year);
A technology gap compared to multinational companies’ robots (eg, higher frequency of manufacturing errors and more maintenance requirements for domestic robots);
High costs for core components (domestic players need to purchase core components from multinational company manufacturers);
A lack of research and development and innovation (which reduces domestic players’ competitiveness); and
High software development costs.
Recently, Chinese home appliance giant, Midea, announced plans to acquire a 49 percent stake a leading German industrial automation company, KUKA, for 4.5 billion euros. KUKA is one of the largest manufacturers of industrial robots with strong presence in automotive industry, which accounts for half of its revenue in 2015. Midea plans to leverage KUKA’s capability and experience to enter the industrial robotics industry and so become one of the overnight leaders in China.
Taking the lead in industrial automation: China’s automotive sector
The most advanced Chinese industrial automation sector is the automotive industry. A variety of applications within the Chinese automotive market (eg, welding, grinding, assembly and dispensing) have been automated with flexible robotics systems. Demand for automation in the Chinese automotive sector is expected to grow at around 7% per year through to 2019 (though this is slower than other market segments due to higher existing penetration). Robotic density in the automotive sector rose by 29% between 2011 and 2013 on the back of increasing labor costs and government subsidies geared towards creating safer workplaces
Within the Chinese automotive end market, there are various entry points for robotic systems integrators across the manufacturing value chain. Highly fragmented, smaller systems integrators may enter the market to provide solutions for Tier 2/3 suppliers, while systems integrators (some with building capabilities) and robotic line builders may service Tier 1 suppliers or original equipment manufacturers (‘OEMs’). These possible entry points all have varying levels of customer concentration and growth outlooks. For example, OEMs represent the largest segment for robotic systems in China, but they are already significantly automated and tend to have entrenched relationships with line builders. For Tier 1 suppliers the assembly processes of sub-components are not extensively automated, but as labor cost pressures and quality demands from OEMs grow, robotic adoption should increase. For example, automated laser welding systems have recently started replacing older spot and arc welding systems (particularly among auto seat suppliers). And buffing and grinding applications for components such as transmission boxes are likely to grow as well.
When it comes to hiring a systems integrator in China’s automotive sector, the primary differentiator for OEMs is technical background and capabilities, which minimize project risks. On the other hand, component suppliers – particularly domestic suppliers – are primarily cost-conscious in approach. Secondary considerations in selecting a systems integrator are prior project experience as well as track record and reputation.
Significant entry barriers exist in the form of preferred vendor lists for OEMs and foreign suppliers, technical/specialization requirements for OEM’s, and the prevalence of low-cost domestic systems integrators who can meet suppliers’ requirements. Apart from automotive OEMs, competitive intensity is relatively high due to less complex robotic systems demands and high fragmentation.
Conclusions: Lessons to be learned from the automation of China’s automotive sector
China’s automotive industry demonstrates that China’s manufacturing sector will embrace industrial automation sooner rather than later. Leading, agile players will position themselves for the opportunities on offer as the fourth industrial revolution (‘Industry 4.0’) and the ‘Internet of Things’ (‘IoT’) take hold in China. Looking ahead, it is the combination of connected machines and big data analytics which will cut manufacturing and service costs. The greatest benefits delivered by the IoT will be applications that capture and analyze the vast amount of data generated by automated systems. Future investment will focus on developing applications to add value to the industry-specific use of industrial robotic systems.
For those players wanting to take advantage of the opportunities from a rapidly-automating Chinese manufacturing sector, an effective IoT strategy is crucial. There are a number of important guiding principles to develop an effective strategy. In essence, an organization should contemplate what it currently does and what it wants to achieve, assess the options for building an IoT solution, and determine the related organizational implications.
About the author: Michel Brekelmans is a managing director and co-head of L.E.K. Consulting’s China practice based in Shanghai. L.E.K. Consulting is a global management consulting firm that uses deep industry expertise and rigorous analysis to help business leaders achieve practical results with real impact. For more information, contact [email protected].Suzanne Fields' Aug. 14 column, "Atheists in search of utopia," is contemptuous toward people who don't happen to share her particular metaphysical beliefs. "Atheists," she writes, "by definition believe in nothing, and anyone would find it hard to make something of nothing."
This is a common misconception. An atheist myself, I do not "believe in nothing." I have a very strong set of positive beliefs. I believe in human beings and our ability to use our brains to grapple with life's problems. I believe in principles of morality that are a product of both our evolutionary background and our use of reason in learning the best way to live among others.
Utopia? Surely it's religion, not atheism, that peddles utopia -- the idea of some benevolent Man in the Sky, and life after death, in some beautiful place no less.
I believe in truth; I believe in reality. I do not believe in fairy tales.
Fields quotes David Hart that today's atheists "lack the moral intelligence and courage of their forefathers in faithlessness, and thus purchase their atheism cheaply."
If by this he means we no longer risk burning at the stake, thank goodness for that progress, but otherwise it's a gross insult. Atheists I know (unlike many in religion) don't accept things on faith; we make the effort to figure things out for ourselves. I'd call that the very embodiment of moral intelligence. And I think it takes more courage to face the reality of the human condition than to hide from it with false comforts.
Fields mocks that "atheists think of themselves as nonconformists," whereas unbelief has ancient roots. I am not an atheist just to be different from others. It's to be rational. And, yes, such rationality does have deep philosophical antecedents.
Like that astonishing Roman intellect, Lucretius, whom Fields quotes: "to such heights of evil are men driven by religion."
And she retorts that they are likewise "driven by disbelief," invoking the "viciousness of the secular Leninists, Trotskyites and Stalinists." They disbelieved in Fields's God, but the zealotry of their belief in their ideology, and their leader worship, made this a religion by a different name. And just as Christianity burned multitudes of dissenters, so communists shot multitudes with the same moralistic intolerance. Both those utopian worldviews are polar opposites to the rational humanism I adhere to, which honors every human being, and their freedom to find their own paths. These are the ideals of the Enlightenment, and could not be more dissimilar from communist tyranny.
As I look out at the world, I see the steady advancement of this sane, humane, rational approach to life, and I am confident that it will make a better world than one where people are bewitched by religious faith.
Frank S. Robinson lives in Albany.The pain of infidelity can be gruesome, but there is no excuse for resorting to violence. A woman has been arrested for killing her husband for cheating on her. Tyra Holmes, 26, found text messages on her husband Michael’s cell phone and the messages appeared to be from another woman. This led her to finally figure out that he was doing things he shouldn’t be doing in her marriage, leading her to take his life.
The incident occurred after the two got into an argument over the source and nature of the messages, with her eventually going into the kitchen and grabbing a knife. He grabbed her at the top of the staircase, trying to get her under control. That’s when she stabbed him in the chest.
“You stabbed me,” he said. Realizing what had just happened, the husband and wife told each other, “I love you.”
Shortly after being stabbed, the man died in the hospital. Holmes has been arrested for first-degree murder in the death of her husband Michael, who died at the age of 35. The woman is being held without bail.
“He was good to her and his kids and she murdered him for a senseless reason, a senseless reason, she took the life of my brother for a senseless reason,”Alexis Jewell, Michael’s sister, said to NBC Miami.
Holmes says that she blacked out after she raised the knife to her husband. But she admitted that she stabbed him and simply couldn’t control her actions. Her sister took the kids initially, because Holmes feared losing custody. She was accused of neglect last fall. But the kids are now in foster care, as the two year marriage ended in tragedy.
If this happens to you, seek help before you do something you’ll surely regret. The kids always suffer the most. Here are some tips on how to handle jealousy so you don’t do something you’ll regret.Benjamin Eisenstadt, the innovative Brooklyn businessman who set Americans to shaking their sugar before sweetening their coffee and then shook up the entire sweetener industry as the developer of Sweet 'N Low, died on Monday at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He was 89 and a major benefactor of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.
The cause was complications of bypass surgery, his son Marvin said.
Considering the scope of his eventual philanthropy, Mr. Eisenstadt, a Brooklyn resident who gave millions to Maimonides, followed a circuitious path to business success.
Mr. Eisenstadt, who was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, seemed headed for a brilliant career as a lawyer, but his timing was off. He graduated first in his class from St. John's University law school in 1929 -- just in time for the Depression. Taking a job at a cafeteria his father-in-law operated in Brooklyn, Mr. Eisenstadt later ran a couple of cafeterias of his own, eventually finding a measure of success by opening one in 1940 on Cumberland Street, in the Fort Greene section, just across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which became a boom town in World War II.
When the end of the war turned the Navy Yard into a ghost town and left him bereft of customers, Mr. Eisenstadt, recalling that his uncle had once operated a company that filled tea bags, turned the Cumberland Cafeteria into the Cumberland Packing Company, transforming it into a tea bag factory, one that was never a threat to Tetley or Lipton, and which limped toward oblivion in 1947.
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Faced with yet another business failure, Mr. Eisenstadt had the brainstorm that changed the way Americans dispense sugar. The same equipment that injected tea into tea bags, he realized, could be used to put sugar into little paper packets.HONG KONG -- Cosmetic makers and hotel operators fell across the board Tuesday on the South Korean stock market on media reports that the Chinese government is sharply limiting travel to the country.
Travel agencies in mainland China have been ordered by multiple provincial governments to decrease the number of tourists to South Korea by more than 20% from year-earlier levels, according to an online article from JoongAng Daily, a South Korean newspaper. Citing sources from the South Korean Embassy in China and other people familiar with the matter, the paper says travel agents have until the end of the month to turn in plans for reducing tourism. Authorities are also reportedly seeking to curb cheap travel packages and restrict shopping trips on the peninsula to just one per day. Violators would face fines.
Analysts say this may be a retaliatory act against South Korea for its July decision to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, a U.S. anti-missile system, within its borders.
On Tuesday, shares in South Korea's two biggest cosmetic makers, Amorepacific Group and LG Household & Health Care, fell 7% and 8%, respectively. Luxury hotel operator Hotel Shilla also slipped 7%. South Korea's benchmark Kospi index dipped 0.5% to 2,037.
South Korea took in 5.98 million Chinese tourists last year, who spent approximately $13.9 billion in the country, according to data cited by JoongAng Daily. A 20% drop in tourism would equate to a loss of 3 trillion won ($2.64 billion), leading the paper to note an "impact is certain."This is the crossover that I had no idea that I wanted. Darth Vader and Batman. Inspired by Malmey Studios’ awesome Darth Knight costume that was going around last year, custom modeler John Harmon is responsible for this action figure mashup of Gotham’s guardian and the Dark Lord of the Sith.
According to John, his Darth Knight figure uses the body from a Dark Knight Movie Masters Batman figure, and the head, lightsaber, chest plate, and other pieces from a Star Wars Transformers Darth Vader action figure. After that he took the ears from the Batman head and grafted them onto the Vader head, and sculpted over them to blend them in with the sculpt of Vader’s helmet. The paint job, with silver accents, really completes the whole piece.
The question is, is he a good guy or a bad guy now? It doesn’t matter. This figure is completely awesome. I want to see Darth Knight in his own movie now.
[via Geekologie]The conductor has confronted Hungarian politicians on the streets and orchestral conventions in the concert hall. Ahead of their Prom, Iván Fischer explains how he created one of the world’s finest orchestras
Musicians dislike the C-word – “a career, no I never give that a thought,” they will protest – but in the great Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer’s case you suspect it is true. “I never consider mountain peaks to be reached,” he tells me in his soft, careful, accented English. “It has never been in my mind that I want to achieve certain things. If I achieved anything in terms of career, it was an accident.”
Fischer says he tries to avoid much of what being a high-profile conductor implies. “About 90% of what a conductor represents are things I don’t like. I just like a very small fraction of this profession, which is the music. The rest – the glamour, the power, the hierarchy, the routine of how to work with orchestras – is something I don’t feel comfortable with. I never had a feeling that this was what I wanted to do. I bear it because I have to, but it’s not something that attracts me. The last profession I would choose is conducting.”
We are meeting at Fischer’s large, quiet house in a suburb of south-west Berlin. As well as being founder and music director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer is now also music director of the Konzerthaus in Berlin. He has had one or two run-ins with Hungary’s rightwing government recently, and living in Berlin with his wife and two sons gives him a bit of breathing space, though he remains utterly committed to his Budapest orchestra, which he will be bringing to the Proms on 26 August.
Sometimes when you go to a famous orchestra, you feel as if your only role is to be impressed by it
We are in a sitting room filled with Fischer’s scores. A Beethoven sonata is open on his piano; he likes to play whenever he can. Fischer keeps his jacket on throughout the interview – very Mitteleuropean, not grand in that old maestro-ish way but still quite formal. He is 65: getting on in life but less so in conducting. In the past decade he has returned to composition, writing eclectic works for voices and orchestra. He says he wishes he had made the decision to balance conducting and composing earlier in his career.
“I came back to composing very late,” he explains. “Conducting sucked me in. I won a conducting competition when I was 25 [the Rupert Foundation competition in London in 1976], and there were offers, offers, offers. Of course it felt like an attractive thing, because I thought: ‘Maybe the next concert will be very enjoyable.’ But even then as a 25-year-old I was purely interested in the music, and not the profession itself. The role of imagining and developing a piece and training a group is attractive, but not putting on tails and going out there.”
Fischer does very little guest conducting these days, though he has maintained his relationships with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. He only wants to work with great orchestras, I suggest, but he questions the term “great” and the assumption that conductors will want to cultivate them. “People assume that conductors love to wave their hands in front of great orchestras. I don’t belong to that club. The so-called great orchestras – the old, great orchestras – like to preserve certain musical values such as their sound. They think: ‘This is us, this is our trademark.’ Now a conductor comes and he has limited influence on the so-called great orchestra. So they attract conductors who love to wave their hands while not changing anything. Sometimes when you go to famous orchestras, you feel as if you are working with a prima donna singer who has her sound, and your only role is to be impressed by it. I would much rather go to an orchestra that is receptive to my ideas because I can then create something.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fischer campaigning in Budapest
So why carry on with, say, the Berlin Phil? “I’ve known them for over 20 years now. I know individually each one of them, they’re wonderful musicians. I’ve figured out a way to work with them, but it has its limitations. You would never want to do it long term.”
Better to work with your own orchestra, and that is what he has done with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which he co-founded with fellow Hungarian conductor Zoltán Kocsis in 1983. “I believe in long-term work,” says Fischer. “It’s like a psychoanalysis that lasts a few years compared with a one-time consultation with a patient. After 30 years something serious starts. We know each other inside out; we trust each other; there is a complete confidence.”
What Fischer wants to avoid above all is a sense of routine. “We work with intensity and in a very personal way. It is more like the way a string quartet works. I don’t say to the principal cellist: ‘Please a little softer.’ I would say: ‘Come on Peter, what the hell are you doing?’ It’s a different communication, much more personal. I immediately notice when their level of focus or concentration is not what it should be. I work much more like a theatre director would work with actors.” The fact that the great majority of the musicians in the orchestra are Hungarian and have emerged from the country’s vibrant musical tradition adds to their sense of commonality of purpose.
The Budapest Festival Orchestra is Hungary’s greatest cultural export, but had its grant from the city council slashed recently, a move that was interpreted as punishment for Fischer’s criticism of the country’s authoritarian and nationalistic government. The €640,000 budget cut meant a reduction in the orchestra’s outreach programme, which had sought to take music into schools and nursing homes. “Iván Fischer is beginning to lose his self-control,” said Budapest’s mayor, István Tarlós, when the orchestra dared to protest about the budget cut.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Watch Fischer and the BFO perform the first movement of Mahler’s Symphony No 1
“We get most of our subsidy from the state,” says Fischer, “and that is unaffected. I am very pleased that the government has maintained that support, which is worth about €4m. They understand the value of the orchestra to Hungary. What is interesting is the difference between the government and the city. One politician understands the value; another one doesn’t.”
Fischer says the city never explained the reason for the sudden reduction in subsidy in the middle of the orchestra’s season. “Everybody can cut subsidies, it’s their right to do that, but we also have the right to protest. We arranged a big public demonstration, and many people came into the streets of Budapest. It was a fantastic wave of sympathy, and we hope the mayor will change his mind because this is not the policy of the Hungarian government.”
Though Fischer dislikes the reactionary nature of Viktor Orbán’s government and the growth of antisemitism in the country, he nevertheless feels he can do business with them. Unlike pianist András Schiff, who has vowed not to return to his native Hungary in the current illiberal climate, Fischer is trying to work for change from within. “It’s a country where you can argue, discuss, raise your voice, have differences of opinion, and I will keep criticising things which I disagree with.”
Fischer is Jewish, and his political views are refracted through his family experience. His grandmother was killed in Auschwitz; his grandfather was beaten to death in Buchenwald; his parents had to hide out in Budapest for the duration of the war. “Do we really want to go back to this nationalist past, where nations turned against each other and religions turned against each other?” he asks. “This is the history of Europe, and the reason I believe in the integration of Europe, so that finally we become a family of nations who have peace with each other. That is more important than anything else.” Music, he believes, can help bring that dream about.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pianist András Schiff has vowed not to return to Hungary in the current political climate.
Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer
Despite the challenges of Hungary’s “illiberal democracy” (Orbán’s chilling phrase) and the fact Fischer prefers Berlin as a tolerant place in which to bring up his children and where he enjoys his job in the city, he anticipates working with his Budapest orchestra for the rest of his life. The orchestra he founded is his lifelong passion; he also sees it as a “laboratory” for orchestras of the future, offering flexibility, openness and a group of players that he encourages to develop as portfolio musicians rather than spending their lives as fixtures with the orchestra.
“If you are a member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the great thing is that you are allowed a much more versatile musician’s life,” he explains. He wants “individualists” rather than “obedient, uniform soldiers”. “For the future of music, it is better to develop the symphony orchestra as a more flexible organisation that can embrace other musical styles. Now, we have a symphony orchestra that looks more or less like the one in Richard Strauss’s time. It’s already 100 years old. I don’t really think it will stay the same 100 years from now. The idea of a symphony orchestra must develop over time or it will become a museum.”
He wants his ensemble to be able to play everything. “The conventional symphony orchestra leaves baroque repertoire to the period instrument orchestras and contemporary music to the specialised groups,” he says. “Because we encourage the individual interests of musicians, we have a period instrument part of the orchestra, we have a chorus, we have a group playing Transylvanian folk music, another group working on jazz improvisations.”
The aim is to keep both musicians and audience on their toes. He is known for his innovations: concerts where the audience chooses the pieces, which means they are played without rehearsal; encores in which the orchestra abandon their instruments and sing instead; operas where he does the staging himself (admittedly with mixed results). Every convention must be challenged.
Today's top orchestra and conductor? The critics have spoken; here's my list Read more
The Prom, which will include three pieces written in the final year of Mozart’s life, showcases Fischer’s love of innovation. For the Requiem, he prefers to seat musicians and singers together. “When I mix the singers with the instrumentalists, the instrumentalists are much more aware of the text,” he explains. “They don’t see it as notes, but as doubling of a vocal line. That produces a unity of playing and singing which for me is essential.”
His close identification with the Budapest Festival Orchestra raises the tricky issue of what happens when he is no longer there. “It’s always difficult if there is a founder conductor who has completely made an orchestra according to a personal vision,” he admits. “If I go, somebody would need to take over, but I would hope that person will change it completely.” He says it would be unwise for him to have a hand in choosing a successor. “If I identify him or her, then I want to clone myself.”
For the moment he appreciates the irony that the orchestra he created because he was dissatisfied with “great” orchestras is now itself seen as one of the world’s finest. “I was very pleased that we could break into this old club,” he says of Gramophone magazine placing them in the global top 10. “We are the newcomers on the list, and it’s unbelievable how successful it has become in 30 years. But I hope we are not like the famous old names, because we must stay experimenting and ever-changing.” Always a laboratory; never a museum.
• The Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Prom is at 7.30pm at the Royal Albert Hall, London SW7, on 26 August. bbc.co.uk/proms.Rick Santorum said that “America is suffering from a pandemic of harm from pornography,” and accused the Obama administration’s Justice Department of favoring “pornographers over children,” in a statement on his campaign website.
The former Pennsylvania senator argues that "current federal 'obscenity' laws prohibit distribution of hardcore [obscene] pornography on the Internet, on cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TV, in retail shops and through the mail or by common carrier."
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“The Obama administration has turned a blind eye to those who wish to preserve our culture from the scourge of pornography and has refused to enforce obscenity laws,” the statement read in part. “While the Obama Department of Justice seems to favor pornographers over children and families, that will change under a Santorum administration.”Some argue that obscenity is a First Amendment issue and, often, it's the courts that determine whether something is obscene and violates the law.Throughout the campaign, Santorum, a devoted Catholic, has touted his socially conservative positions.He hasn't made any notable mention of the pornography issue on the campaign trail, and it's one of several position papers he's given on the issue section of his campaign website.The statement on pornography did not have a timestamp, so it’s uncertain when it was released.“A wealth of research is now available demonstrating that pornography causes profound brain changes in both children and adults, resulting in widespread negative consequences,” the statement noted. “Addiction to pornography is now common for adults and even for some children. The average age of first exposure to hardcore Internet pornography is now 11. Pornography is toxic to marriages and relationships. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking.”The statement said that if elected, Santorum would appoint an attorney general who would vigorously enforce federal obscenity laws.The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Beijing: Taiwan's voters go to the polls on Saturday in a historic vote widely expected to see opposition candidate Tsai Ing-wen become the island's first female president. It may also signal the end of an uneasy eight-year rapprochement with mainland China.
Ms Tsai, the 59-year-old leader of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, holds such a sizeable lead over rival Kuomintang candidate Eric Chu – pre-election polls have had her consistently ahead by at least 20 percentage points – that her party's victory is barely considered in doubt.
While the election campaign has largely been fought on domestic issues – how to revitalise Taiwan's back-peddling economy, and provide better starting wages and employment prospects for university graduates – Ms Tsai has found it hard to shake the view, particularly from overseas, that a DPP win could reintroduce uncertainty into the often fraught ties with Beijing.
"I have made it clear … that, once elected, I would immediately start communicating with our diplomatic allies and with China," Ms Tsai said during a campaign rally in Kaohsiung this week. "I know that stability across the Taiwan Strait is in our shared interests. I would do my best to maintain that stability."Share On more Share On more
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
1. Her stepsisters, Caro and Other Caro, would've gone to Coconut Grove without her. 2. Her evil stepmother, Madreslaysis, would've yelled at Cinderella if she dared to clean while her favorite novela was on. (She can't get enough William Levy, after all.) 3. Cinderella would befriend lizards and small wild parrots. 4. The prince's ball would take place at Vizcaya, Miami's very own palace. 5. Cinderella's lizard and parrot friends would've made her a lovely dress, using sewing materials from her cookie tin. 6. But her stepsisters would call her "some randa," ridicule her dress, and force her to stay home!
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed "Oye, Cindy. You can't do that somewhere else?" hissed Madreslaysis.
7. Cinderella would cry onto her pillow, and the Miami humidity and tears would make her hair totally frizzy. 8. Her fairy godmother would appear: Celia Cruz! 9. Celia's salsa remix version of "Bippity Boppity Boo" would, of course, feature Pitbull and DJ Khaled. #dale #lionorder 10. Celia would transform a plain old malanga into a beautiful stretch limo with diamond rims fit for a princess! 11. For a dress, Celia would've spun palm fronds into a shimmering fabric to make a bodycon dress with plunging neckline. So chic! 12. Celia would have deftly transformed one of Cinderella's lizard friends into a chauffeur for her beautiful new limo.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed "¡Azuc-- ¿Pero que clase de porquería tienes puesto, mijita? We must fix this," said the Fairy Godcelia.
13. Cinderella's little parrot friends would become her entourage, all dressed in brightly colored mini-dresses. 14. As for Cinderella's shoes, well…Celia would've conjured a dazzling pair of diamond heels. One of a kind, bro! 15. "Now, fíjate," Celia would warn, "you have to return home before midnight or else you're going to be left with a real arroz con mango." 16. As Cinderella rode off into the night with her limo and entourage, DJ Laz would blast on the radio. WHAT A NIGHT! 17. At the palace, the prince would be so bored, staring at all the viejitos playing dominos and smoking cigars. 18. Cinderella would be stuck in traffic for a bit because, after all, she's trying to head out in Miami on a weekend.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed "Damn. We're fine as hell!" the entourage tweeted.
19. The evil step-Caros would try to get the prince's attention, grinding to reggaeton on the dance floor, but the prince |
approval or be part of your life.
Fuck....
We all miss you so much...it was always a given in my mind we would all spend more time together when we got older, we would play more music and love and be loved like we dreamed...this was your time and you shared it with us...thank you.
You were too much...
Your talent was jaw dropping...your songs, lyrics, your voice...how could you have all 3...
And then, the not so obvious...your wicked sense of humor and your playfulness...
all of us are heartsick and we will never get over losing you.
We hope you're in peace and that your particles are mutating and transforming in harmony with nature. We wish your family our utmost condolences and sympathies.
We love you Chris,
Happy Birthday"
Words by: StoneJeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party in September 2015, and (following a vote of no confidence and a leadership challenge) re-elected to the same post in September 2016. In February this year, many of those who had re-elected him expressed disappointment at his effectively unconditional support for Theresa May’s invocation of the Article 50 process to leave the European Union; perhaps to placate them, Corbyn subsequently called for a demonstration in support of those who would suffer the most from EU withdrawal, but then failed to turn up.
Part of the public rationale for Corbyn’s three-line whip on the Brexit vote was that if the party opposed it, then that might lead to a loss of support in predominantly working class constituencies in the North and the Midlands that had voted Leave by large margins: constituencies such as Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central, where the party nevertheless went on to lose vote share in by-elections later the same month.
But despite all this — despite Brexit, which Labour Party members and voters had overwhelmingly voted against, and despite what was arguably the worst by-election performance for an opposition party since the late 19th century — Corbyn’s supporters in the Labour Party are still for the most part Corbyn’s supporters in the Labour Party, and they’re not going anywhere — and neither, therefore, is the man himself.
Asked whether Corbyn’s continued leadership of the party was a good thing, the answer from sidelined deputy leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, was pragmatic: "It doesn’t matter; that is the situation." This impasse will not endure forever: Prime Minister Theresa May has called for an early General Election, and Corbyn (who has been asking for one since December last year) has given his support. But in the six weeks that we have left until the Labour Party is overwhelmingly (and perhaps irreparably) crushed, it may perhaps be worth reflecting on how it got into this appalling mess.
1. A hostile takeover
The best way to find out what a particular group thinks is to survey a random sample of about a thousand of its members — and this is exactly what Ian Warren of Election Data has done, by commissioning a YouGov opinion poll of the Labour Party. Warren’s poll found striking differences between party members who joined before Corbyn became leader and party members who joined afterwards. Among the former group, 28% approve and 62% disapprove of his leadership, but among the latter, 69% approve and 20% disapprove. The poll also found Corbyn’s leadership to have the approval of only 47% of those members who voted Labour in 2015, but of 73% of those who voted for other parties at that time. Both of these findings support the view of Corbynism as a hostile takeover of the Labour Party.
The party has long been attractive to such takeovers because, since the early 20th century collapse of the Liberal Party, it has consistently been one of the two most dominant parties in the British parliament. However, it was recently made more vulnerable to takeover by rules changes that gave anyone who joined the party or registered as a supporter an equally weighted vote in its internal elections.
Corbynism is the exploitation of that vulnerability in order to increase the influence of a particular faction within the Labour Party. This faction is sometimes referred to as Labour’s "hard left" wing, to distinguish it both from the party’s "centrist" wing (think Tony Blair or Harold Wilson) and the "soft left" that lies between the two (think Ed Miliband or Neil Kinnock). However, it is perhaps more useful to refer to it as the party’s "Bennite" faction. This emphasises its long-term leadership by Tony Benn, father of Melissa Benn, the author; Hilary Benn, the decidedly non-Bennite MP whose sacking from the shadow cabinet prompted the 2016 leadership challenge against Corbyn; and Stephen Benn, the 3rd Viscount Stansgate.
Although originally a centrist, Benn converted to Marxism in the 1970s, acquiring a devoted following among the more radical elements that were by then flowing into the party membership. He was never successful in his attempts to become party leader or deputy leader, but Benn was responsible for the party’s adoption of its most radical manifesto ever: a programme of industrial nationalisation, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and withdrawal from the EU’s predecessor organisation, the European Community. When Michael Foot, a representative of the party’s "old left" (think Aneurin Bevan or Richard Crossman) led Labour into the 1983 general election on this manifesto, it received its worst defeat since before the Second World War. Foot resigned as leader of the Labour Party and was replaced by Neil Kinnock, a left winger who had not supported Benn.
With the party under Kinnock’s leadership, Benn and his associates — such as Ken Livingstone, who had become leader of the Greater London Council in 1981, and Jeremy Corbyn, who was elected to parliament for the first time in that fateful 1983 election — were unable to prevent the expulsion of their allies in Marxist-Leninist groups such as Militant (originally known as the Revolutionary Socialist League), and were increasingly sidelined from the late 1980s onwards. Their defeat seemed cemented in 1995 when Tony Blair amended Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution to replace its commitment to public ownership of industry with a commitment to unspecified "democratic socialist" ideals, subsequently rebranding the party as "New Labour" and (together with his then-ally, Gordon Brown) leading it to an unprecedented run of three general election victories in 1997, 2001, and 2005.
However, the balance of power shifted with the party’s demoralising 2015 defeat under its "soft left" leader, Ed Miliband. Following Miliband’s resignation, Corbyn — at the time, a largely forgotten Bennite — secured sufficient nominations from fellow MPs to gain a place on the leadership ballot. In accordance with rules changes agreed under Miliband, the ballot was put to members, registered supporters, and affiliate members of the party, whose ranks were swelled by large numbers of people joining specifically in order to vote for Corbyn. Corbyn’s victory was convincing, although it is noteworthy that – despite the influx of new members – he was not the first choice of 50.4 per cent of party members.
After winning this internal election, Corbyn swiftly moved to install his allies at the top of the party. His long-term friend, John McDonnell — another Bennite, who once described Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky as his "most significant" influences — was appointed to the most senior shadow cabinet position, and a number of Marxist-Leninists from outside Parliament were given important posts within the party. Labour centrists often refer to Communists as "Trots", i.e. Trotskyists (that is, supporters of revolutionary proletarian internationalism as represented by the Fourth International). However, the prevailing ideological climate of Corbyn’s circle tends more towards the other primary stream of European Marxism-Leninism, i.e. Stalinism (that is, support for the totalitarian Soviet state as well as — for unclear reasons — its gangster capitalist successor state, the Russian Federation).
The antifascist blogger, Bob from Brockley, explains as follows:
Corbyn has had a weekly column in… the Communist Party of Britain’s Morning Star, and he has used that column to promote a basically Cold War second camp worldview, most recently in promoting Kremlin lies about Ukraine…After leaving Oxford, Seumas Milne [whom Corbyn appointed as the Labour Party’s Executive Director of Strategy and Communications] cut his political teeth in a group called Straight Left, whose USP in the small but crowded market of the far left was that it thought most other Communist groups were insufficiently appreciative of Stalin’s achievements.
Let’s not get carried away, though: whatever the political background of the Labour leader and his circle, there is no need to assume that all those who voted for him are current members of revolutionary Communist organisations. Some sort of Communist influx has undoubtedly occurred, especially within Momentum (the "grassroots" pro-Corbyn organisation founded and owned by Corbyn’s old friend, Jon Lansman, and now riven by conflict between its Trotskyist and Bennite wings. As Colin Talbot has argued, there are very large numbers of aging ex-Communists who may have "turned to Corbyn as the political equivalent of going out and buying a Harley".
But Corbynism appeals to a wider (but not that much wider) group of mostly middle class people whose primary cultural identification is with "the Left". Such people are keen to support Corbyn because they see him as one of their own: a vegetarian pacifist who has never been interested in the tedious work of winning elections and scrutinising legislation but who has (as he told Nigel Nelson in the middle of his first leadership election campaign) "always [been] passionate about justice, the environment, and war and peace", and who, in his youth, "got arrested in most countries [he] visited for demonstrating".
Although Corbyn was originally elected with broad support from existing members of the party, his power base within it now primarily consists of people who joined it in order to re-shape it in his image and their own. These people might best be thought of as "socialism fans", and are quite different from traditional Labour Party members and voters. They are people who joined the party not because they agreed with its goals and wanted to help it achieve them, but because they identified with the culture of Leftism and sought an active form of cultural participation — much as theatre buffs might join an amateur dramatics club, or history enthusiasts might join a medieval re-enactment society.
The difference between those who joined the party in order to help its representatives get elected to local and national government and those who joined the party in order to place and keep Corbyn at its helm is as stark as (and in many ways parallels) that which George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier describes between, on the one hand, "the warm-hearted, unthinking Socialist… who only wants to abolish poverty", and, on the other hand, "the foaming denouncers of the bourgeoisie, and the more-water-in-your-beer reformers… and the astute young social-literary climbers… and all that dreary tribe of… sandal-wearers and bearded fruit-juice drinkers" who flock to "Socialist" organisations and drive away ordinary working class people who might otherwise be inclined to join or vote.
It is not just that members who voted for Corbyn in 2016 (i.e. after and despite the bad opinion polls, the dreadful showing in the May elections, the loss of the referendum, and the vote of no confidence from those it was Corbyn’s job to lead) are — as Warren’s YouGov poll shows — far more likely than those who voted against him to engage in low-investment forms of political activity, such as sharing campaign messages on social media, and far less likely to engage in high-investment forms of political activity, such as delivering leaflets or knocking on doors.
It is that they have a very different idea of what the Labour Party is for. They view it not as a party of parliamentary government or opposition but as an opportunity to engage in demonstrations, protests, marches, and rallies — as well as thrilling social media battles against insufficiently radical Labour MPs (and their supporters). These are the people for whom Corbyn was speaking when he said: "We’re all in power. We just don’t realise it. We have the power to speak, to influence, to demonstrate, to demand."
Engagement with the business of parliament is irrelevant — perhaps even an impediment — to the socialism fan’s enjoyment of such "power". Thus it seems unsurprising that, of those who voted for Corbyn in the 2016 election, only 11 per cent consider "understanding what it takes to win an election" to be among the two or three qualities most necessary for a Labour leader (compared to 55 per cent of those who voted against them), while 30 per cent and 31 per cent respectively consider "mov[ing] the party to the left" and "tak[ing] on powerful interests" to be among them (compared to 2 per cent and 6 per cent of those who voted against him).
The conflict between socialism fans and people with a more direct interest in electoral politics plays out again and again in social media. For example, when Owen Jones last month asked Corbyn supporters on Twitter what they thought of the prospect of an early election, he was told that "transforming the Labour Party" was "never a short-term project". The Corbyn supporter who supplied this answer seemed indifferent to Jones’s objection that the "decimation of Labour" would be the result.
A few days after I observed the above exchange, a Labour Party who had once held the post of Political Education Officer within his CLP used the relatively less public platform of a Facebook group to inform me that it did not matter whether the party lost votes as it turned towards socialism, because votes for a party that was (on his view) insufficiently socialist were no different from votes for the Conservative Party or the Liberal Democrats. As he continued: "I want Labour to be firmly socialist", "I think New Labour must be permanently exterminated", and "the important thing is having Labour as a socialist party and eradicating New Labour for good".
One might wonder what end could be achieved by transforming Labour if it could not then be elected to government? But that is the wrong question: the eradication of Blair’s legacy is an end in itself. This is recognisably the same politics advocated by Corbyn-supporting journalist Paul Mason in conversation with the more sceptical Carole Cadwalladr:
"In America, he says, ‘what the Occupy generation chose to do was to occupy the Democratic party and that’s effectively what [we] have chosen to do here: to occupy the Labour party. … We, on the left of the party, didn’t want this fight. But it’s like what General Sherman said in the American civil war: “You’ve chosen war. We’re going to give you all the war you can take" …I want to lay waste to the whole neoliberal hierarchical tradition that Blairism and Brownism represented’."
We see more of the same in the following, by the influential left-wing author, Richard Seymour, who laid out his vision on Twitter:
1. Regarding "pessimism", a few points of order. The most plausible outcome of Corbyn's leadership has never been socialist triumph. 2. The party apparatus and the wider terrain (media etc) was always going to be set against him. 3. The electoralist goals of Labour would always conflict with the goals of regrowing the grassroots, winning socialist arguments. 4. Because the latter work on a long timeline, whereas elections are short-term, responsive to news cycles, parliamentary squabbles, etc. 5. Even winning an election wouldn't be triumph, because it's a question of what kind of country you govern -- political economy, etc. 6. The best hope for Corbynism was/is that it would transform Labour, democratise it, make it a mass campaigning party. 7. A party capable of organising social power beyond electoral arena -- but that means taking short-term losses, esp middle class votes.
Winning elections is not an objective; losing votes is not a problem; the goal is to transform Labour: to take it out of electoral politics, to refocus it on the exercise of "social power", and above all, to democratise it, i.e. to put it under the control of anyone who wants to join it, rather than those of its representatives who have been elected to parliament or to local and regional government by the general public and who do the day-to-day work that this involves. If that goal is ever achieved, it is hard to imagine what the party would do next. Those who share a desire to take it over do not necessarily share much else in common, besides a hatred of Tony Blair. In fact, the most likely outcome would be a series of splits, for example between those who wish to abolish private property and those who only want to nationalise the railways.
Corbyn’s leadership can be advocated by liberal environmentalists and revolutionary Communists, as well as by mutually opposed sub-groups of the latter, because his own ideology is impossible to pin down beyond a commitment to a "socialism" that he defines only in the vaguest possible terms. "You care for each other, you care for everybody, and everybody cares for everybody else", (another gem from Nelson’s interview) is his clearest statement yet of what the word means when he uses it.
What manner of policies for the governing of a country could one derive from such a position statement? Almost any — which means that all those who wish to, can imagine that Corbyn would govern in accordance with their own preferences. But the defining feature of Corbynism is that it is only incidentally concerned with the outside world. It is primarily a politics of coalition between members of the self-identified "Left", who will be able to work together only as long as there is no goal beyond the defeat of Labour’s centrist and soft left factions.
For example, the Stop the War Coalition, whose president was Tony Benn until 2014, whose chair was Corbyn until 2015, and which retains Corbyn’s full support, is felt by many people to be a front for Britain’s largest Trotskyist organisation, the Socialist Workers’ Party or SWP (of which the above-quoted Richard Seymour used to be a member). It seems oddly unbothered by the savagery of Daesh/Islamic State. Meanwhile, the Morning Star is unbothered by the equally barbaric Kremlin-backed Assad regime and likewise retains Corbyn’s support.
What rational sense can this make? It’s not just that these are groups that no reasonable and humane person would want anything to do with. It’s that Trotskyists and Stalinists were at each other’s throats even before Stalin had Trotsky murdered — and that Daesh and the Assad regime are at war. Similarly, Corbyn can insist that "women deserve… unflinching support in the face of violence and abuse", yet ignore his own feminist supporters when they demand that he distance himself from Stand up to Racism over the well-documented willingness of the SWP (for which it is, of course, yet another front organisation) to cover up allegations of sexual violence by its own senior members. Because all the associated speaking and demonstrating and demanding (to return to Corbyn’s above characterisation of the kind of "power" that he and his followers appear to understand themselves to wield) is covered by the umbrella of an amorphous Leftism with no need for ideological coherence, relatively substantial numbers of socialism fans can be recruited to the support of often rather nasty groups even as the majority of the population is repulsed.
Corbyn, with his vague passion for "justice, the environment, and war and peace", is the ideal figurehead for this cultural or aesthetic Leftism and its cynically tactical coalitions - an apparently blank canvas onto which socialism fans can project their fantasies. Since 2015, his own saintly figure has been the focus of perhaps the largest coalition of all, devoted to the single issue of getting the Labour Party out of the government business by installing him as its leader and keeping him there. As the rest of this article will argue, it scarcely matters how particular Corbyn supporters might choose to define their politics, because they all speak the same language in support of this shared goal.
2. The commonplaces of Corbynism
Here is a quote amalgamated (note the ellipses) from three comments that a single individual made on a mutual friend’s Facebook post on 27 February 2017. Between his posting of the second and third comments, I commented that the Labour Party is not primarily a socialist party but has "always had room for socialists — provided that they can reconcile themselves to electoral reality".This comment of mine is referenced in the third of his:
"A centrist-Labour would now be what was once considered right wing. Corbyn is hardly hard left, but mainstream politics has lurched so far to the right it’s normalised the right doctrine and neoliberalism. As Raymond Williams scarily predicted, the values and ideas are of neoliberal capitalism are so normalised it appears to be the only way, the way it’s ‘always been’. … If the only viable choice is a right leaning Labour party, or an extreme right Tory party, dictated mostly by the right wing and corporate owned media, then really democracy and decency are already lost. …‘Electoral reality’ is exactly what Raymond Williams warns about. This is the way it is, there’s no room for change. Corbyn represents a genuine difference. If the choice is between Extreme Tory and Tory-Lite, then what is even the point? Corbyn has repeatedly been on the right side of history, and his policies have genuine popular appeal and yet it’s increasingly clear the media control what people see and hear."
There’s nothing special about the above, but that’s the point: the most striking thing about it is its sheer predictability. Although not all attempt to understand contemporary politics by reference to the work of Marxist literary critics who died three decades ago, Corbynites say more-or-less the same thing on a daily basis, both on social media and off it. For example, the day after the above Facebook comments were made, the aforementioned Morning Star bluntly asserted that "people understand Jeremy’s message to be true" in an editorial published under the headline "The only political leader offering radical change". An article published later the same week in Socialist Worker — the official newspaper of the aforementioned SWP — argued that "Corbyn’s 'hard left' policies seemed normal inside the Labour party when he first became an MP in 1983" but "n]ow they are regarded as very left wing", and, as a result, "most of the media have waged a vicious campaign to undermine Corbyn".
Like those articles, the Facebook comments above are assemblages of what rhetoricians call topoi or "commonplaces": ideas or themes that are — within a particular culture — frequently revisited and rarely challenged. Within particular groups, people adopt the same ways of speaking, which imply the same ways of thinking. The following are clearly recognisable as the kinds of things that Corbynites say:
Jeremy Corbyn’s policies are what the public really wants. Jeremy Corbyn only seems to be "hard left" because the Labour Party has moved to the right, leaving him behind. Without Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party would be virtually indistinguishable from the Conservative Party and there would be no point voting for it. Jeremy Corbyn is different from other politicians. Jeremy Corbyn brings change that powerful forces seek to prevent. Jeremy Corbyn has always been "on the right side of history". If members of the public think they don’t want Jeremy Corbyn, that’s only because of the malign influence of the media.
The only thing missing from the above list is the assertion that Jeremy Corbyn is actually very popular with the British public. If you haven’t heard such lines before, then you haven’t yet met the people who joined the Labour Party in order to get Corbyn into the leader’s office and keep him there — the people for whom Corbyn’s leadership is the only good thing about the Labour Party — the people for whom supporting Corbyn is the very point of being in the Labour Party.
Taken literally, these ideas are a mixed bag. There is never any clarity as to what Corbyn’s "difference" from other politicians consists in, nor as to why it should be considered a good thing. The nature of the "change" he is said to bring is similarly nebulous. The grand-sounding claim about "the right side of history" only means that he voted against the invasion of Iraq. And while some of Corbyn’s policy positions are potentially popular with voters, those are positions that are shared across the Parliamentary Labour Party, including by centrist MPs. As for the idea that Corbyn originally represented the mainstream of the Labour Party, that is true only in the limited sense that his entrance into Parliament was via the disastrous 1983 election, which the party fought on a manifesto that was largely the handiwork of one of its most left-wing MPs.
But the power of commonplaces arises from repetition, not from rational consideration in relation to empirical evidence. Indeed, their very point is that they are never subjected to critique, serving instead as accepted starting points for trains of thought that reliably loop back to the point of departure. For Corbyn’s supporters, a good argument is an argument both founded upon and re-affirming Corbynite commonplaces, while a deceptive or mistaken or otherwise Blairite argument is an argument that does not.
3. The culture of the Left
One of the most interesting aspects of these commonplaces is their ability to circulate between groups that might otherwise appear to have fairly fundamental disagreements, including supporters and opponents of Britain’s membership of the European Union, as well as both Stalinists and Trotskyists. This is because they have their roots in the culture of the 21st century British Left — which is shared across multiple left wing groups and left-identified individuals unaffiliated with any specific group — rather than in any particular political analysis — which is the sort of thing that socialists and Communists will feud over until the end of time (hence the virtually microscopic size of all British parties to the left of Labour).
Here, for example, is an editorial published nearly two years before the above social media comments in Solidarity, the official newspaper of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty or AWL, a Trotskyist organisation formerly known as Socialist Organiser, membership of which is proscribed for Labour Party members:
"The huge support for Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for Labour leader is a reminder that what seems like an overwhelmingly dominant right-wing ‘consensus’ in bourgeois politics can be limited and unstable. It shows that large numbers of people, including working class and young people, still want a politics that is different to, and to the left of, the consensus of neo-liberalism."
We can read this and the more recent quotations we have already seen almost as a single text. Left politics, identified with Corbyn, are positioned as "different to", "offering radical change" from, or "represent[ing] a genuine difference" with regard to a "normalised" or "consensus" position described as "neoliberal" or "bourgeois" and identified not only with the Conservative Party ("Extreme Tory") but also with all Labour MPs not overtly affiliated with their party’s left wing ("Tory-Lite"). This politics is not really "hard left"; rather, it is "popular", "understood to be true" by "people", and supported by "large numbers of… working class and young people", such that any apparent lack of enthusiasm from the general public must be explained, whether explicitly or otherwise, by conspiracy theories — for example, involving "a vicious campaign" waged by "the media", which has "control [over] what people see and hear".
The latter is particularly important because it functions as an alibi for the failure of the rest. For example, while I was writing this, a message was posted to a popular Labour Party Facebook group using a reference to Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent to support the argument that it is not the Labour leadership but the media that need to change. "Labour politics is fine," the poster concluded, and if "a political party that clearly represents the interests of the vast majority of the population cannot obtain the commensurate backing", this can only be explained through media bias.
To accept this line of reasoning is to accept then the Labour Party will never again win elections because it cannot change the media, but to assert that its future defeats won’t matter, because they won’t be the party leader’s fault. If indeed one regards elections in which the general public participates as in any way important – which many enthusiasts of party democracy apparently do not.
Such thinking goes all the way to the top of the current party, with Corbyn’s closest parliamentary ally, McDonnell, informing two journalists at the Guardian — a newspaper that was intensely critical of Blair (especially over the war in Iraq) and that publishes numerous pro-Corbyn commentators — that because their employer "became part of the New Labour [i.e. Blairite] establishment… you feel dispossessed because your people are no longer in power" and therefore collude in the media’s attempt "to destroy a socialist who is trying to transfer power from the establishment to the people". Corbynite commonplaces all the way.
4. "Working class politics"
But what is "the establishment" and who are "the people"? In practice, the former simply means whoever held positions of influence in the Labour Party before Corbyn’s election as its leader, and the latter simply means the Bennite faction of the Labour Party and its allies in various left-wing organisations, some of whose members are banned from joining Labour.
On the subject of organisations proscribed for Labour members, I turn now to an editorial published just after Corbyn’s re-election as Labour leader in The Socialist, the official newspaper of the Socialist Party or SP: another Trotskyist organisation that formerly practised entryism under the name of Militant but subsequently shifted to competing against the Labour Party in local and parliamentary elections, latterly in partnership with the SWP as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition or TUSC (from which the SWP recently withdrew in order to focus its efforts on supporting Corbyn). The editorial, which also writes of ‘huge enthusiasm for Corbyn’s pro-worker platform’ argues as follows:
"The battle against Labour’s right is not simply a battle between two wings of a party. Behind them are the class interests of the different participants. The right ultimately represents the capitalist elite, which was delighted with the Blairite transformation of Labour into a party that could be relied on to act on their behalf, and is fighting to turn the wheel of history back to that situation."
It’s worth thinking about this carefully. Its scope is the Labour Party itself (from which ex-members of Militant are banned), and its concern is with whether the party shall remain in the state to which it was transformed by Blairite Labour MPs for the benefit of the "capitalist elite" or shall be re-transformed by Bennite Labour MPs for the benefit of… well, who, exactly? The idea appears to be that Corbyn’s leadership will deprive the "capitalist elite" of the tool that the Labour Party supposedly became under Blair. The Labour Party does not have to win elections for that goal to be achieved. Indeed, it could simply vanish – or fragment into micro-parties indistinguishable from the rest of the British far left.
The image of heroic struggle within the Labour Party is given graphic form in a drawing on the cover of the issue of Solidarity from which I quoted previously, which shows workers (standing on the left, of course!) cheering Corbyn on while senior Labour Party figures (including Blair himself with a badge that reads "Tony Tory") and obese, drunken journalists (naturally standing or sprawled on the right) hysterically condemn him as an "extremist" or a "disaster". The drawing is captioned "The Socialist who stood in a Labour leadership election", and accompanying front page headlines are "Back Corbyn’s campaign" and "Fight for working class politics", while the article quoted above carried the slightly different headline, "Back Corbyn, fight for working-class politics!" From Corbyn’s mouth come vague, policy-free statements of rejection: "I don’t agree with austerity" and "I oppose attacks on the working class and the poor!"
This is, I would suggest, the sum total of the Corbynite project: the installation at the head of the Labour Party of a "socialist", i.e. a person upon whom Marxist-Leninists can pin hopes, and who makes statements aligning himself or herself against right-wing policies (such as "austerity") and with "the working class" and "the poor". What do actual "working class" or "poor" people think of this? They certainly aren’t very keen to vote for it.
In contrast to all the above, and without claiming that it typifies the views of any particular group, I offer the following report of a working-class individual’s discourse on Corbyn, simply to remind my readers of what the Labour Party might look like to those who turn to left-of-centre politics in hope of what George Orwell characterised as "better wages and shorter hours and nobody bossing you about" as opposed to the revolutionary’s "vague threat of future violence":
My Mum, brought up working class in a railway worker’s house, got a phone call today from the Labour Party about her direct debit being cancelled. She gave them both barrels about how Corbyn was a traitor to the working class by dooming Labour to opposition and bringing about a further decade of Tory government. She said that she would not give another penny to the party until Corbyn had gone. She told the person on the phone that the best government she had ever known was the Blair government and that Gordon Brown saved the world only for this Jeremy Corbyn "tosser" to put it all at risk. I would like to apologise to the poor bugger who made that phone call as well giving a big shout out to my Mum.
(Taken from the Labour’s Future Facebook group)
Unheard of talk! Blair’s government the best that a "working class" person had ever known? Perhaps the National Minimum Wage and the Sure Start Centres and the extra billions for education and the National Health Service counted for something after all. And Corbyn a "traitor to the working class"? The latter accusation is more typically levelled at Labour Party centrists such as Blair and Brown — the "Tory-Lite" leaders who (we are frequently informed) took the votes of working class people for granted while selling out their interests for the sake of "neoliberal capitalism".
Although Trotskyists, Stalinists, and Bennites alike tend to present Corbyn as the champion of "working class politics", it should be recognised that his programme has very little to offer working class people in the here-and-now. Even in the fantasy scenario of a Corbyn-led government, the hoped-for benefits to the working class would still be indirect: rather than implementing policies to the direct material benefit of actual working class people, a hypothetical Prime Minister Corbyn would — according to the AWL — implement policies to facilitate the working class’s fulfilment of the destiny assigned to it by classical Marxist theory, i.e. the overthrow of the capitalist order and the institution of social ownership of the means of production and exchange, which an elected government could not achieve even "if it wanted to". In the real world and at the present moment, in which the proletariat does not yet acknowledge its revolutionary future role, actually existing working class people are of interest only insofar as representations of them can be conscripted in support of arguments over who will lead the Labour Party.
Meanwhile, those same actually existing working class people repay the compliment by taking little or no interest in the Labour Party. A survey carried out before the 2015 General Election and again in December of the same year found that both before and after the increase in party membership driven by Corbyn’s leadership campaign, over 75 per cent of Labour members lived in households headed by someone in an "ABC1" occupation, i.e. that less than one in four would ordinarily be classified as working class. In socio-economic if not in cultural and political terms, the new membership was indistinguishable from the old membership. The fight to transform Labour from a party seeking to achieve limited although concrete reforms through engagement in the work of local and national government into a social movement more interested in exercising "the power to speak, to influence, to demonstrate, to demand" is therefore probably best understood as a form of middle class identity politics (the identity in question being "left").
The immediate beneficiaries of Corbynism are not working class people per se, but members of "left" political organisations or factions either (a) seeking power within the Labour Party, or (b) directly competing with it in their efforts to win votes in elections and/or to recruit members. Some of those people are working class, but most are not. The Morning Star responded to last summer’s challenge to Corbyn’s leadership with an editorial headlined "Justice must be won for the working class", in which it argued that "[t]he cumulative anger and frustration that’s been building in working-class communities across these lands over the last few decades has found an outlet" in support for Corbyn and opposition to his detractors in the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Given the historically low vote share of candidates for Corbyn’s Labour Party in the strongly working class constituencies of Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central last month, such assertions should not be taken literally. Retaining Corbyn as Labour leader wins no justice for the working class; it only consolidates power within the Bennite faction of the Labour Party and provides members of Trotskyist and Stalinist organisations such as the SWP and Communist Party of Britain with a path to greater influence within the Labour Party and greater esteem within the wider Left. The anger and frustration that really troubles the Morning Star is that felt within the revolutionary socialist sects that take themselves to be the guardians of the best interests of the working class of Marxist theory and feel aggrieved that the UK’s largest left-of-centre party is not run by the most left-of-centre people in the UK.
5. They, Daniel Blake: the great spoken-on-behalf-of
One of the defining moments of Corbynism was the release of I, Daniel Blake: a critically-acclaimed BBC Films movie about a tragic working class welfare claimant. It was directed by Ken Loach, a long-term friend of Jeremy Corbyn and the creator of an hour-long promo video in support of the latter’s re-election as party leader. I, Daniel Blake had such an impact on Corbyn’s followers that many of them renamed themselves "Daniel Blake" on Twitter in perhaps the quintessential statement of socialist fandom. "We are all Daniel Blake" was another popular slogan, and — coincidentally — the headline of an article that appeared in the same issue of The Socialist as the editorial quoted above. Following the unprecedented drop in Labour’s vote share in the Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central by-elections last month, Loach wrote in defence of Corbyn’s leadership in a Guardian article saturated in Corbynite commonplaces.
The article begins with Loach’s recollections of his own visits to Stoke-on-Trent and Whitehaven (the centre of the Copeland district), promoting I, Daniel Blake with Labour Club screenings organised by activists from Momentum, the privately-owned pro-Corbyn organisation briefly discussed above. Having pointedly criticised Labour activists outside Momentum by commending the behaviour of the Momentum activists in question as "a model of how Labour activists should work" and recalled audience complaints of " |
news of Jayalalithaa’s death.
Her admission to hospital in September for dehydration and fever inspired weeks of vigils, rioting and self-harm by fervent supporters.
Doctors said she had been recovering well and was scheduled to return home until she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest on Sunday evening.
Her biographer, the novelist Vaasanthi Sundaram, told the Guardian that Jayalalithaa was “the most colourful, dynamic and determined woman politician that one has ever seen.
“She relentlessly challenged the male-dominated, sexist politics of Tamil Nadu that worked relentlessly to block her every step of the way,” she said.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jayalalithaa in 1967 Tamil movie Naan.
Jayalalithaa had been a glamorous and prolific Tamil film star for nearly two decades when she entered politics in 1982, joining the party of her mentor, MG Ramachandran, himself a former screen star turned chief minister.
Ramachandran’s death in 1987 left a deep split in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party, but Jayalalithaa emerged from the leadership struggle with a grip on the party that only tightened over the next two decades.
As the state’s first female opposition leader, she was once physically attacked in the chamber by MPs from a rival party, emerging with torn clothing and a promise never to return “until conditions are created under which a woman may attend the assembly safely”.
In 1991, she became Tamil Nadu’s first female chief minister to serve a full term, the first of four eventful stints running the south Indian state, including one that ended with her imprisonment on corruption charges in 2014 followed by her release and return to power one year later.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jayalalithaa Jayaram in 1999, after a meeting with Sonia Gandhi, then president of the Congress (I) party, in New Delhi. Photograph: Tekee Tanwar/EPA
In office, she pioneered alternative energy and water harvesting schemes and reduced the rate of female infanticide by creating centres where parents could anonymously hand over baby girls.
She also became synonymous with generous welfare policies, including programmes to distribute wedding jewellery and cheap meals to the poor, always carefully branded to bolster the cult of personality that formed around her.
Hero worship is a rich seam in south Indian culture: actors, politicians and even armed bandits regularly become the subject of quasi-religious devotion. Jayalalithaa played on this tendency expertly, said AR Venkatachalapathy, a Tamil Nadu historian and analyst.
“She intervenes in very cultural aspects, such as giving food away. It’s not just calories – food has a great cultural value. If a person gives you food, you are indebted to that person,” he said. “That bond is not an economic bond, it’s a cultural bond... People feel as if they are eating Amma’s food.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Supporters of Jayalalithaa Jayaram react outside the hospital to the first report of her death. Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
Her supporters’ devotion would swell each February on her birthday: this year’s celebrations, from which she was notably absent, included the distribution of free meals, gold rings to newborns and mass tattooing of her likeness on the arms and bodies of party members.
But she could never shake accusations of corruption, some of which were proved in court. A raid on one her residences in 1997 unearthed 800kg of silver, 28kg of gold, 750 pairs of shoes and more than 10,000 saris.
Rumours of her ruthlessness also abounded. A US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks described her as “the consummate autocrat” whose “total domination” of her party was legendary.
Colleagues were said to refer to her only as “Amma”, “Madam” or “our leader”. “Senior AIADMK leaders, especially men, used to physically prostrate themselves before her to demonstrate their obeisance,” the leaked American cable reported.
“She has become a cult figure – Mother – Amma, the giver and the redeemer,” Vasanthi said. “It was the party’s compulsion to project the leader as supreme, and she fitted the role. She was imperious, enigmatic, and unforgiving.
“It became her obsession to defeat her enemies and win her battle. She seemed to challenge even the messenger of death who stood at her door more than two months ago,” she said.
Jayalalithaa’s remains will be taken to Poes Garden, her official residence. The Tamil Nadu government has announced a three-day mourning period.American Atheists has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a teenager who says she’s been perpetually harassed by public school officials for remaining seated during the Pledge of Allegiance.
17-year-old Mo (not her real name) spent the past few years at Klein Oak High School in Klein, Texas exercising her right not to stand during the Pledge. Her teachers and her principals, completely ignoring the law that says she’s allowed to do that, constantly punished her for her decision. In some cases, when another student bullied her, they did nothing serious to put a stop to it.
You really have to see the allegations to get a sense of what she had to deal with:
As a freshman, Mo was written up (a form of punishment) by her World Geography teacher for remaining seated. When she told the principal what happened, the principal defended the teacher by saying he was allowed to write her up “because of his military service.” That teacher was never disciplined. In fact, on another occasion, he temporarily took away Mo’s phone because of her “lack of respect” for the Pledge. (The lawsuit also notes he read Bible passages to the students on multiple occasions.)
The following year, in journalism class, Mo’s teacher repeatedly told her to stand for the Pledge when she chose not to. That teacher even reported Mo to her guidance counselor… who also told her to stand. Neither adult was ever disciplined for “singling [Mo] out in class for peacefully and non-disruptively engaging in free speech.”
Last year, when Mo was a junior, her protest resulted in a classmate standing up and calling her a “bitch.” That same student later posted pictures on Snapchat, including one with the caption, “Like if you don’t respect [our] country then get the fuck out of it[.]” Despite a forced apology in front of the principal, that same student later told another classmate (within earshot of Mo), “There’s the bitch that sits for the Pledge.”
It didn’t get any better this past January when Mo was placed in the same sociology class as the bully. Trying to prevent another conflict, the principal removed Mo from the class… essentially, punishing her for what the bully was doing.
That led Mo’s mother to withdraw her from Klein Oak for a few months and pursue homeschooling instead, despite expenses eventually totaling more than $10,000.
That brings us to her senior year which is happening right now.
Are things better? Not even close. Mo came back to Klein Oak a few months ago and was back in that sociology teacher’s classroom. The bully (presumably passing the class last year) wasn’t there, but the teacher was apparently eager to take on that same role.
According to the lawsuit, he told students “that sitting for the Pledge was a privilege, not a right, and that people who sit for the Pledge are unappreciative and disrespectful, stating that all they do is take from society.” He also, on another occasion, “compared people who refuse to say the Pledge to Soviet communists, members of the Islamic faith seeking to impose Sharia law, and those who condone pedophilia.”
How the hell did this go from badgering, to bullying, to batshit crazy?
And how much of this nonsense should a student have to go through before enough is enough?
Mo and her mother, LaShan Arceneaux, aren’t waiting any longer to find out.
The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment that [Mo’s] rights were violated, compensatory, exemplary, and punitive damages against the individual defendants, legal fees, and an order that the Klein Independent School District immediately inform school employees of their obligations under the Constitution as they relate to student participation in the Pledge of Allegiance. American Atheists has retained Randall L. Kallinen as local counsel. He has extensive civil rights and church-state separation litigation experience in Texas. “Students do not lose their right to Free Speech at the schoolhouse steps,” said [attorney Randall L.] Kallinen. “The right not to be forced to stand for the Pledge has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court since 1943.”
American Atheists says this is a violation of the First Amendment (free speech, establishment of religion, and free exercise of religion), the Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection), and the Fifth Amendment (due process). The District’s actions, they say, also violate Texas law.
It is absolutely appalling that so many teachers in that building failed to respect Mo’s right to remain seated. It’s also appalling that the administrators did nothing significant to stop teachers and students from bullying and harassing Mo over her decision.
This wasn’t an isolated incident. This is a pattern that has repeated itself many times over. And the law was always on Mo’s side.
It’s easy to just blame this on “Texas,” but that’s not an excuse for public school officials to be ignorant or dismissive of the law. How on earth does the District even try to defend its actions?
We’ll find out soon. They had more than enough chances to make things right. Now it’s up to a judge to decide what their punishment should be.
(Image via Shutterstock)Another day, another shooting spree in the U.S.
In a tragedy that has become all too common in the states, 26-year-old Christopher Harper Mercer opened fire yesterday on Oregon’s Umpqua Community College campus armed with several handguns and one long gun. The most recent reports indicate that ten people lost their lives and many more were injured. While much of the response was predictable and repetitive — promises of prayers, political battle cries from both sides of the aisle regarding gun control, etc. — there is one specific detail of the story that has featured prominently in media coverage across the board. As the Washington Post reports, Mercer may have been targeting Christians explicitly:
In one classroom, he appeared to single out Christian students for killing, according to witness Anastasia Boylan. “He said, ‘Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second,’” Boylan’s father, Stacy, told CNN, relaying his daughter’s account while she underwent surgery to treat a gunshot to her spine. “And then he shot and killed them.” Another account came from Autumn Vicari, who described to NBC News what her brother J.J. witnessed in the room where the shootings occurred. According to NBC: “Vicari said at one point the shooter told people to stand up before asking whether they were Christian or not. Vicari’s brother told her that anyone who responded ‘yes’ was shot in the head. If they said ‘other’ or didn’t answer, they were shot elsewhere in the body, usually the leg.”
As members of the media and armchair detectives scrambled to learn more about the man with an axe to grind with Christians, another tidbit came to light that seemed to solidify this story as one of Christian persecution. On a free dating website called Spiritual Passions, Mercer identified himself as “Not Religious, but Spiritual” on his profile. He was also listed in a group on the site called “Doesn’t Like Organized Religion.” As the profile made the rounds last night, the dominant narrative was that an atheist had targeted Christians in an act of terrible violence.
But is that really why Mercer did what he did? That question may seem scoff-worthy on face, but given the influence of such events on cultural and political conversation in this country, its consideration is not without merit.
We’ll put aside for the moment that the only stories supporting this theory have been secondhand accounts relayed by shaken up loved ones of survivors. We’ll look past the fact that the memories of trauma survivors are often unreliable, and that similar stories in the past — such as the alleged martyrdom of Cassie Bernall at Columbine — have been discredited because of that very problem. For the moment, we’ll give folks the benefit of the doubt and assume that Mercer really did ask people whether they were Christian before attacking.
There are still major problems with the atheist-persecuting-Christians narrative.
Right out of the gates, let’s address the insistence that Mercer was an atheist, a contention largely based on his dating profile. There is literally no basis for that argument. For starters, Spiritual Passions is not an atheist dating site, as many have claimed; they cater to a wide variety of believers who identify as spiritual. On their homepage, they describe themselves as:
A free online dating & social networking site specifically for spiritual singles. While the term ‘Spiritual’ means different things to different people, anyone who identifies as spiritual is welcome here. Whether you view your spirituality as a way of defining your religion, or as way of defining yourself outside of organized religion, you can find others here, who share similar points of view. We welcome members identifying with Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Mysticism, Taoism, Wicca, as well as those who are Non-denominational and those Not Religious, But Spiritual, Sign up now to enjoy free spiritual chat, message boards and email.
Nothing about this site screams “atheist.” But beyond the actual purpose of the site, Mercer does not describe himself as an atheist at all. While he was no fan of organized religion, he still identified as spiritual. This was not some atheist on a killing spree.
But just because he was on a site that served as a safe haven for spiritual people seeking romance doesn’t mean he didn’t have a bone to pick with the religious. If the stories are to believed, Mercer — atheist or not — was obviously targeting Christians, right?
That might be true. But unlike the Charleston shooting, there is no manifesto or obvious ideological commitment that universally points to a single motivation. As such, we’re left to reconstruct his worldview from the clues that he left along the way. We may never have firm answers… but a review of the hints he left point to much different conclusions than an anti-Christian agenda.
Frankly, the most consistent thing about his digital footprint is glorification of violence.
First off, Mercer did not ascribe to any formal religion, but his dating profile did link him to the occult and the “left-hand path.” This combination is most frequently associated with “dark magic,” with a heavy emphasis on rejecting moralism and social convention while engaging the taboo. Are all practitioners of the occult (or even the left-hand path) violent? Of course not. But the rejection of moralism combined with the “dark” associations do propose a world in which violence is acceptable. There’s a reason right-hand practitioners view left-hand adherents as evil.
So was this a “Satanist” attacking Christians? Even that doesn’t make much sense. He might not have called himself a Christian, but he was a proponent of groups who committed atrocious acts in the name of God. His email handle and frequent username was “ironcross45” — a reference that is most commonly associated with a war medal issued during WWII by the Nazis, whose belief in Christian dominance was well-articulated by Hitler himself. His MySpace page was littered with videos and propaganda supporting the IRA — the Catholic paramilitary group that used terrorist tactics to obtain Irish independence from Britain.
The fact that he was a fan of two groups that used Christianity to justify murder doesn’t quite fit the story of a young man persecuting Christians, but it does lend credence to a different theory: that Mercer was a young man obsessed with violence.
Even when you take faith and religion out of the mix entirely, Mercer’s online personas were fascinated with high-profile shootings. His recent activity on the Kick Ass Torrents website involved uploading a video about Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza. He publicly praised Roanoke TV gunman Vester Lee Flanagan in a blog post, urging viewers to go check out the “good” footage on YouTube before romanticizing the status of such shooters, stating:
On an interesting note, I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more your’re in the limelight.
This was a guy fixated on acts of mass violence. Given that his religious preoccupation was as focused on destruction as these missives, it’s not really that questionable to argue this wasn’t about Christian persecution at all, but yet another example of Mercer’s twisted worldview.
To be fair, his motivation could also be far more specific. The night before the shooting, an anonymous user posted on the /r9k/ board on 4chan, warning those in the Northwest not to go to school the next day. Some users advised him to be careful not to alert the authorities about his intentions via online activity, and when news of Mercer’s attacks broke yesterday, the thread spread rapidly. Though the post has not been confirmed as Mercer’s, 4chan users are largely convinced that it was.
There’s an even more insidious twist to that 4chan post, though. You might notice the poster’s use of “Pepe the Angry Frog” and the subsequent replies referencing “beta uprising.” If you’re unfamiliar with the culture of these message boards, that might not mean much to you, but this specific combination signifies subscription to an ideology that believes the sexual revolution created feminists who were only attracted to so-called “alpha males,” leaving betas out in the cold (and rather bitter). The “uprising” is the idea that once the “betas” collectively realize this “inequity,” they will rise up and restore the balance. The attitude in this cultural cesspool is that men are owed sex, and when it’s denied to them, it’s because women are the problem. On /r9k/, such perspectives are par for the course.
Think the 4chan thread and its location are a weak link to such ideology? Consider the fact that Mercer described himself as an “involuntary virgin.” Consider the fact that this is the same guy who wished people a “happy Elliot Rodger day” in reference to the misogynist’s shooting spree in 2014. There’s much more evidence pointing to the idea that this shooting had something to do with a self-identified beta male trying to claim dominance over mainstreamers he perceived as alpha males or cruel females than anything involving atheism.
Even if you don’t think these were the actions of an incredibly violent man or a man fixated on rectifying some imaginary gender inequity, it still doesn’t mean this was Christian persecution. As is the case with most tragedies like this, there is the ever-present spectre of mental illness in the background. While mental illness does not make people inherently dangerous, and the assumption that mental illness is to blame for all such acts of violence is offensive and damaging, this is one instance where mental illness likely did play a role in the shooter’s decisions.
As the New York Times reports, former neighbors recounted stories about the mother going door to door with noise and pest complaints, explaining that her son had “mental issues” that necessitated consideration and action. Other neighbors recalled Mercer’s reclusive nature, punctuated by angry and disproportionate outbursts as he aged. While the full history of his mental health has not yet been disclosed, his history and mother’s own admissions suggest that something was wrong.
The point? There’s a lot more to this than the anecdotes about Christian targeting suggest. Combine mental illness with what we’re learning about his violent ideologies and you’ve got a recipe for disaster that has nothing to do with religious persecution.
Based on what we’ve learned so far, blaming his supposed atheism requires acceptance of a lot of flimsy evidence, while other possible motivations are readily available.
Let’s be clear: what happened in Oregon yesterday is incredibly tragic. Yes, let’s mourn the lives lost and celebrate those who showed courage under fire. But before you assert that this is somehow proof of some contrived “War on Christianity,” you’d do well to take a step back and take a look at the whole picture. This isn’t the smoking gun you thought it was.
(Image via Shutterstock)It’s not often that I wire over a thousand dollars to European banks for the privilege of screening an obscure western. And, yes, more than one bank was involved because the exhibition rights were held in Germany (Beta Cinema GmbH), while the actual owner of the 35mm print resides in Switzerland (Kinemathek Le Bon Film). My interest in Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence (aka: Il Grande Silenzio, Le Grand Silence, The Big Silence, 1969) was sparked by my interview with Alex Cox on March 13th of last year, in which he referred to it as “maybe the best western of all time.” That was the kind of glowing recommendation that made me want to screen it at the film series I program to share with my general audience, but my initial attempts at finding someone in this country that had a print fell short of any decent leads.
When I refer to The Great Silence as “an obscure western” I should perhaps add the words “to the uninitiated.” The film is regarded by many critics as the best of the non-Leone helmed Westerns, and you can find over 50 reviews for it on IMDB. During its original release it was poorly received in Italy, but it did decent business in France and was a big success in Germany. In the U.S., however, 20th Century Fox gave it a premature burial. “The studio boss, Daryl F Zanuck, took against he picture: according to Corbucci, he swallowed his cigarette while watching it.” (Alex Cox, 10,000 Ways To Die) Perhaps this might account for the omission of The Great Silence from The Overlook Film Encyclopedia by Phil Hardy dedicated to The Western, but it’s still a strange and glaring absence given Hardy’s otherwise exhaustive tome. Corbucci is not overlooked in Ephraim Katz’ Film Encyclopedia, which offers this concise two-sentence overview for the Italian director (b. 1926 – d. 1990):
A former film critic, he entered the industry as an assistant director, graduating to director in the early 50s. His early films were melodramas and occasional comedies, but he later specialized in pseudohistorical spectacles and stylish spaghetti Westerns, sometimes using the pseudonym Stanley Corbett.
In his book on Westerns, 10,000 Ways To Die, Alex Cox devotes 10 pages to The Great Silence, but in an effort to match Katz’ piercing brevity above, I found these words by Alex from his DVD intro to also sum things up in two short (and in my view more colorful) sentences:
Corbucci’s trademark style is very messy. It’s got lots of zooms, shaky cam, prostitutes fighting in mud or snow, the usual Corbucci stuff… but somehow he pulls out all the stops on this one to make a very unusual and disturbing film.
Outside its original theatrical run and specialty screenings, The Great Silence could only be found as a truncated Region 2 DVD by Imagica, but in 2004 it received a Region 1 DVD release in by Fantoma that includes a five minute video introduction by Alex, an alternate ending, and an original theatrical trailer. You can also rent it on Netflix (it’s not yet available for streaming), and I had every intention of screening it at home… until I saw that the Film Forum was screening a 35mm print last June as part of their retrospective on Spaghetti Westerns. I knew Alex had been flown out there to introduce the June 7th screening of The Price of Power (1969, directed by Tonino Valerii), so I figured he could get me the email to whoever I should talk to at the Film Forum. This led to my being forwarded useful information from Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, as well as a gentleman at Cinema Nova in Brussels who had all the contact info needed to acquire The Great Silence.
It was while talking to the private collector and owner of the film, Thomas Oehler, that it became clear that the 35mm print in question was the only one he had. The lending contract specified (and this was news to me) that the print was dubbed into English but also had German and French subtitles. The lending contract also contained a lot of boiler-plate language that any reel-to-reel house used to screening archive prints should know to do, all of which is in the service of doing everything possible to protect the film from any further damage.
Thomas let me know that The Cinefamily in L.A., would be screening the film before me in September. The Cinefamily did a great job of highlighting the fact that this was the “only surviving 35mm print,” as can be seen from this screen grab of a trailer they put up on Vimeo:
When friend and fellow die-hard cinephile, Toby Leonard, who programs the Belcourt Theater, saw that I’d put The Great Silence on my fall schedule, he suggested that I alert other exhibitors to this opportunity to show this rare print before it’s returned to Switzerland. This I did, and the happy results mean that now people in Portland (Oct. 17), Cleveland (Nov. 3), Montreal (Nov. 24), and Nashville (Dec. 2) will have a shot at seeing this rare title on celluloid before it returns to Europe.
As soon as The Cinefamily was done with their screening, I contacted them for an update on the shape of The Great Silence print, mainly as I was keen to know what aspect ratio it was. The lending contract didn’t include this information, and the internet provided conflicting reports. Mark Robinson then provided a very concise and accurate print report, which ended with this: “There are scratches (both heavy and light) throughout the entire film. I’ve graded it a ‘D’ on our scale. But personally I feel it is acceptable. We have run far worse without complaint.”
I will admit to being somewhat concerned at the idea of screening a film print that had been given a “D” grade. How can that be acceptable? But Mark was right, and the color was still mostly strong, and we also screened the film (twice) with no complaints. Better than that: customers came wearing cowboy hats, clapped at the end, and we had almost twice as many people on the second day as we did on the first – so the word of mouth was good.
Below are some images, as taken from the projection booth, of what our customers saw. I’m using three shots to represent “the good, the bad, and the ugly,” albeit in reverse order.
The Ugly – and in this case I’m not only talking about Kinski’s portrayal of the brutal bounty hunter Tigrero, but rather I’m referring the heavy wear-and-tear that was especially visible in scenes with snowy landscapes and, of course, near the heads-and-tails on every reel:
The Bad – which included moments with light scratching, not to mention the two sets of subtitles:
The Good – with strong, vibrant and warm colors, and deep blacks so rich you can barely tell where the matting begins.
As a small exhibitor struggling to stay alive in the face of huge changes in the cinematic landscape, I sometimes wonder if all the efforts required to put on a moving picture show in our current digital age is worth the trouble. The big changes orchestrated by the studios have criminally imperiled the existence of a thousand independent film exhibitors across the nation, and it continues to get harder every year to compete with the mountain of distractions available to us at the push of a button.
At the same time, I can’t help but recall a parenthetical note that Peter Schjeldahl inserted into his article from the September 24th New Yorker on the Warhol exhibit at the Met, titled “Going Pop: Warhol and his influence”:
(But here’s a pet peeve: the current practice of screening Warhol’s films as DVDs is like hanging reproductions of paintings. The medium matters.)
I could have spared myself a lot of aggravations by screening The Great Silence on DVD, on a nice scratch-free transfer without German and French subtitles, but as I think of reproductions and facsimiles, and reflect on why the medium matters, allow me to contribute two twice-removed reproductions of my own.
On the left you have a screen grab from the DVD of The Great Silence, and on the right you have a screen grab of the same shot of Jean-Louis Trintignant as photographed from the projectionist booth. The DVD is clean, free of the distractions of age, and well-worth watching (of course), but when I see Trintignant’s gaze from the shot captured from the film it carries with it the authenticity of its time. I hope I’m not alone in appreciating the small miracle of this act of people watching the same and original film print that unspooled before audiences in Europe over 40 years ago, in a shared moment, in a large venue, as 24 frames flicker past the light of the projector.
The act of projecting the same physical object in 2012 that was projected in 1969 is something that will never happen in a multiplex, especially now that most of them have tossed aside their 35mm projectors. This reinforces the point that small, and locally programmed, independent arthouse theaters are completely different animals than their larger brethren, the large, entertainment complexes built for the purpose of reaping profits from overpriced concessions. The former film venues are moving picture museums that are preserving the machines that allow you to see films in the same way as they were seen by those who preceded us. You would think the big studios would have appreciated keeping a few of those around rather than killing them off in large numbers, but that’s exactly what they are doing by refusing to keep the 35mm format alive.
Is there really only one surviving 35mm print of The Great Silence? If you were to refine the wording to include “the only surviving 35mm print that is currently available for public exhibition” you get closer to the truth. Quentin Tarantino recently wrote an article for The New York Times that spent most of its time heaping praise on The Great Silence and it’s pretty clear that his upcoming film, Django Unchained, owes much to Corbucci. I’d guess Tarantino has some nice Corbucci film prints in his private collection, but I’d also understand he reluctance to share them. His article can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/magazine/quentin-tarantino-django.html?_r=1&
To end on a fun note, I’m including here a link to the video introduction that I had Alex film for our screening of The Big Silence. We shot it a few weeks ago in his backyard. Alex stepped into his storage shed, put his camera on a tripod, and gamely dressed up in Kinski-inspired garb to stump for this film for which he is a clear champion. As he makes clear in his book, one of the remarkable ideas paraded by The Big Silence is this notion “that sometimes, even though you know you’ll fail, you still do the right thing.” As a small independent exhibitor who is trying to raise the exorbitant funds required to equip my venues with the Digital Cinama Package now required by the studios, I can’t help but feel like the suits behind this digital steamrolling are acting like Klaus Kinski’s band of lawless killers, whereas the fate of the film series I program is dangerously close to that of Silence.
http://vimeo.com/50101903ADB highlights long-term commitment, partnership with Timor-Leste
News Hour:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), through its Timor-Leste Resident Mission (TLRM), organized an event today to celebrate the institution’s 50-year anniversary working on Asia and the Pacific’s development, while affirming its long-term commitment and development partnership with Timor-Leste.
The event was opened by James Lynch, Deputy Director General of ADB’s Pacific Department, together with Paolo Spantigati, TLRM’s Country Director. Key government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, media, private sector representatives, civil society, and other development partners also attended.
“Since our first operations in Timor-Leste in 1999, ADB has worked closely with the government to promote inclusive economic growth, contribute to poverty reduction, assist capacity building of public institutions, and support sustainable economic development,” said Mr. Lynch.
ADB has been helping Timor-Leste lay stronger foundations for a sustainable non-oil economy by improving transport connectivity and expanding access to clean water in urban centers, while helping the government develop an integrated system for technical education, prepare for ASEAN membership, and implement reforms to develop the financial sector.
ADB is already helping boost economic opportunities, reconnect communities, and reduce poverty in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Timor-Leste through a range of initiatives, including infrastructure development, microfinance assistance, private sector development, as well as skills and knowledge-building.
ADB assistance helped the Institute of Microfinance Timor-Leste become the country’s first locally owned commercial bank, which now helps the Government of Timor-Leste upgrade the bank’s core banking system and institutional capacity, as well as diversify its products and services to ensure that it can operate sustainably. ADB will also support Banco Nacional de Comércio de Timor-Leste’s (BNCTL) to introduce mobile phone, internet, and SMS banking services.
To mark ADB’s 50th anniversary and ADB’s long-term development partnership with Timor-Leste, a photo exhibit was launched at the event, reflecting ADB’s contribution to the country’s development journey to date.
Like this: Like Loading...FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- If there was ever a time for Darrelle Revis to endure his worst game as a New England Patriot, Saturday wasn’t it.
Nearly automatic all season long, expectations were high for the role Revis would play in the team’s first playoff game. Instead, Revis contributed to a woeful defensive start and committed two costly penalties.
Darrelle Revis allowed a first-quarter TD to Steve Smith Sr., but it was the last time the receiver touched the ball on Revis' watch. AP Photo/Elise Amendola
While the Patriots ended up beating the Ravens, 35-31, the overall performance on the defensive side was largely troubling.
“They came out fast, they jumped really fast,” Revis said. “You’ve got to give them credit -- their game plan was very well thought out on how they wanted to attack us. That’s what they did.”
Indeed, the Ravens came out firing, scoring on their first two drives. The first was a clinic in precision, as quarterback Joe Flacco hit four different receivers on five plays to march 71 yards for a touchdown. Revis’ errors began to surface on the second drive.
First, there was a 13-yard pass from Flacco to Marlon Brown on the right side that appeared to initially catch Revis off guard. Three plays later, Flacco found his top target, Steve Smith Sr., in the end zone after Smith beat Revis inside to get open.
For most of the game Revis was tasked with containing Smith, lining up opposite him at the line of scrimmage 52 times out of a total of 77 defensive snaps charted (including penalties). To Revis’ credit, Smith’s touchdown grab in the first quarter would be his last as he finished the game with three catches for 44 yards.
“He was very tough. He’s always tough,” Revis said. “It’s playoffs; there’s a lot on the line and I’m sure he has the will to want to win, but it was great. He caught a touchdown earlier in the game and after that he got erased.”
Although Revis was able to lock Smith up, Smith was able to bait Revis into committing his two key penalties.
The first came toward the end of the second quarter. With the Ravens driving and with time running out, Flacco went deep down the sideline to Smith. In coverage, Revis tried to force Smith out of bounds with an arm bar, drawing a 20-yard pass interference penalty that put Baltimore just outside the red zone. Three plays later, the Ravens had their third touchdown of the half.
Revis wasn’t a fan of the call.
“I didn’t do it,” he said. “I played the ball right. Refs made the call and that’s it. But I definitely don’t agree with the call.”
The second call against Revis was less debatable -- holding on Smith in the third quarter. And the timing was terrible as the penalty negated a strip sack and fumble recovery for the Patriots inside the Ravens’ 5-yard line. Instead, the Ravens retained possession and drove down the field for what was the go-ahead field goal.
“It’s a tough game,” Revis said. “There were a lot of penalties, a lot of scrapping out there. Push and tugging, back and forth. Receivers push off and that’s what it is.
“I pulled, he pushed off, I pulled. So they called it.”
Drawing penalties isn’t usually something Revis is haunted by. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Revis committed four penalties during the regular season -- two defensive holdings, one defensive pass interference and one illegal contact.
For his career -- including playoffs -- Revis had five defensive holding penalties, three pass interference penalties and four illegal contact calls prior to Saturday.
“I don’t care. I’m playing aggressive,” Revis said, further addressing his pass interference penalty. “That’s just what it is. Like I said, we don’t have that much of an advantage anyway with our new rules and all that.... I’m not complaining. If I get a pass interference, it is what it is. If any of us do, there’s a lot of football to play. We’ve got to focus on the next play.”
Having survived against the Ravens, the Patriots turn their attention to either the Broncos or Colts in the AFC Championship Game. With a victory in that game meaning a trip to the Super Bowl, the Patriots will need their best players to perform to expectations.
That perhaps applies to nobody more than Revis. As Saturday showed, when he struggles, so does the rest of the defense.We’re setting the record for the most puns in a post title with this one!
Origami cats are a curious thing. I’ve come across a lot of really fantastic origami lion and tiger models. Even some panthers, leopards and other large cats.
House cats on the other hand are much harder to find. I don’t really know why that is but my theory is that it must be much harder to make natural |
the Cocaine trade. Of that £1 billion a year, $750,000,000 never left the US. It was instead given to companies such as Lockhead Martin and other big companies who then went on to make a fortune out of the war on drugs.” Jeffery Robertson QC pointed out: Quoting one of Costa’s own recent reports that stated that “250,000,000 people take illicit drugs and less than 10% have any problems which means about 225,000,000 people take drugs for pleasure or to relieve pain” without issue.
Richard Branson speaking as part of the Global Commission on Drugs on behalf of 15 ex South American Presidents:
Described how the war on drugs is “an unmitigated failure” and how “in Portugal 10 years ago they decriminalised drugs and they have reduced the number of heroin addicts by 50%”…, “they have managed to stop an enormous amount of people breaking and entering”, “the number of people under 18 taking drugs has gone down for all drugs”. The most important thing is there is a no sign of a major increase Read the Global Commission on Drugs report in full below (PDF), read a further detailed analysis of the Portuguese situation here.
Russell Brand describes how (by criminalising drugs):
“You exacerbate and enhance the problem, I am a recovering drug addict and I know that drug addiction is an illness it is a disease, so by crimanalising that, you criminalise a large section of the population, you malign them and stigmatise them, you generate more crime, you create a criminal culture and speaking from the perspective of a sufferer, it’s simply not helpful”.
Vicente Fox, Former President of Mexico (2000):
Once described the war on drugs as the “mother of all battles” but now believes that it is “most urgent that we stop the war that has got 60,000 young kids killed.. among them many innocents, among them hundreds of policeman and hundreds in the military… the loss and the cost is incredible, the fear, the loss of hope for the future. This has put a heavy economic burden on the nation, the loss of tourism, the loss of foreign investment, the loss of our pace of growth. When I was president, the economy was 25% larger than the Brazilian (economy), today the Brazilian economy is 50% larger than the Mexican economy”. Robertson QC, comments how Mexico was placed under: “pressure from the White house, in 2006 not to decriminalise small amounts of cocaine or cannabis”
*Health warning: Mexican authorities have been accused of “under-reporting homicides and manipulating the data“.
Johann Hari:
“When you criminalise a really popular substance it doesn’t vanish, you transfer control from doctors and pharmacists to armed criminal gangs.. which are absolutely on the side of the war on drugs”. Hari describes how the head of Mafia Cruenza, one of the largest old drug cartels was caught on wire-tap stating his view that “this war is an absolute sham which keeps all of us in business”. Hari goes on to state that “any country which enforces the war on drugs has a significant rise in homicide rate, after alcohol prohibition ended in the US, the homicide rate fell by 20% and never rose to the same level until prohibition was enforced in the 70’s. China is currently detaining half a million addicts in what are effectively Gulags, torture is absolutely widespread.. that’s the face of the war on drugs in the largest country in the world.. Russia has the fastest rising HIV rate in the world because when you crack down on heroin addicts, they hide their needles, they don’t throw them away – they share them. The war on drugs is the biggest friend the HIV virus ever had”
Elliot Spitzer, former Governor or New York leads the debate against the motion along with Barry McCafferty, former director of US National Drug Policy Control:
Responding with the claim that they have reduced drug consumption by a third over the past three decades. Both Spitzer and McCafferty emphatically claim they “we do not incarcerate just for use, it is the violence that attends that use that sends people to jail” but admit a “discracefully high encarceration rate, 2.1 million people behind bars”. They admit that they estimate 80% of people behind bars have a drug problem but completely ignore the argument that this is a result of prohibition. Misha Glenny later directly accuses Spitzer and McCafferty of outright lying, asserting “that the number of people arrested in 2009 (in the US) for non-violent drug offences was 1,600,000”.
Ed Vulliamy:
Continues Spitzer’s staggering ability to ignore all the arguments addressed so far, stating “the one thing that stands a chance of throttling all the misery” is to address drug profits through the banking system. He appeals to the audience shouting he wants to see “the bankers in the cells” but in a double act that has clearly been well perfected beforehand a grinning Spitzer interrupts him so he doesn’t have to provide any explanation of how this could ever work in practice.
Dr. Theodore Dalrymple (former prison doctor):
Challenges the idea that the relationship between crime and drugs is as simple as presented, arguing that the crime rate in Portugal has increased (Dalyrymple later cites Eurostat for this claim. Eurostat note that over the same period, comparable countries such as Italy and Spain have also seen rises in crime, suggesting that the rise in crime in general is not related to drug use.)
Sandeep Chawla, Deputy Executive Director UN Office for Drugs and Crime:
States that “while crime rates may come down, public health costs would go up”. In a spectacular failure to understand the notion of a debate, Chawla both ignores the fact that his statement about crime directly conflicts with his compadre Dalyrymple’s statement a moment earlier and goes on to blindly ignore all of the prior evidence based discussion about public health costs to the contrary. Chawla makes the good point that there is a prescription drug epidemic in the US but negates this with the weird argument that “tobacco use has gone up” when this is patently not the case.
Peter Hitchens enters the debate with a stream of bile and bigotry vilifying drug users and calls Russel Brand a “selfish kid”. Hitchens argues the case with Brand and shows his true colours (just in case we didn’t know them already).
Antonio Maria Costa Former Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime:
“Stop all drugs wars.. In 2012, we celebrate a dreadful anniversary.. 150 years from the end of the Opium wars. When the west, our countries, forced China to consume drugs. At that time, greedy investors, it was the East India Company as you recall, wanted to make money by poisoning the Chinese with Opium. China opposed this, our countries won the war and forced the Chinese to consume drugs for a century, tens of million died in China from addiction, war and famine. The tragedy of drug legalisation we forced on China dwarfed what is happening in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia etc. To conclude, when I hear drug investors in Europe and North America advocating drug legalisation behind the fig leaves of a campaign to stop the war on drugs I cringe and I say stop all drugs wars whether fought by bullets or by bombs, investors greed can be as harmful as Mafias guns. Drugs have come from both sides of the aisle, therefore vote no, against this motion.” This is a strange argument to make in the context of the modern day situation for a number of reasons, notably the East India Company was effectively a front for the British imperial government of that era.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Former President of Brazil, Head of Global Commission on Drugs:
I was surprised when hearing the previous case (Antonio Maria Costa) because in our case in Latin America.. people have been killed by the war on drugs, it is a complete failure of what the war was supposed to do – control cartels, as the president of Colombia just said before me. Our democracy is being undermined by powerful cartels.. We must explore legal and social models of regulation of drugs.. The point is that in Portugal they are being successful in reducing the number of people that are using drugs”.
Dr. Bernard Koucher, Former French Foreign Minister, Former French Health Minister:
“We have lost the war on drugs.. the drug consumers are more numerous and the consumption is higher.. we acted the same way against alcohol and tobacco, what was the result? Alcohol consumers were not so high after the end of prohibition, we had to enforce the mafia and we did, it was a stupid war. It has taken 40 years to convince anyone we are right about Tobacco but now (we have), it must be under the control of the state.”
David Eaglemen, Neuroscientist:
“What’s clear is the reason that we are losing the war on drugs is because we are attacking supply and that’s like a water balloon, if you press it down on one place it comes back somewhere else. We need to be addressing demand, the brain of the addict. At this point we know a great deal about the circuitry and the pharmacology of the addict’s brain. There are familiar pharmacological treatmets that obstruct the effect of the drug – you can block the high.. you can recruit the immune system to sop up the drug and there are new methods that use real time feedback via brain imaging… we can train a person how to deal with the craving. We could do a great deal with neuroscience with that money (the $40,000,000,000 spent on the war on drugs in America last year).”
Geoffrey Robertson, Human Rights Lawyer quoted former opposition candidates who have changed their views since winning office:
David Cameron: “I beg the labour government not to return to the war on drugs” (House of Commons, 5th December 2002) Barack Obama: “The war on drugs is an utter failure”. Before he became president and dedicated $40,000,000,000 a year to fighting it.
Julian Assange, Wikileaks (Via video link from house arrest):
“Any situation that has clearly come to an impart where there is a clear failure needs experimentation and trials with models around the world and there have been steps to do that but we have seen that the US through it’s diplomatic force has been exercising it’s force to prevent these trials.” View the relavent cables here. “We must have basic principles.. we as individuals have a right to our own self determination, we have the right to freedom of thought, we have the right to freedom of speech, provided we do not engage in some sort of violence to others, these are our rights to do what we will with our own thoughts and own bodies and this is sacrosanct. The state should not intervene with these rights. In order to keep our freedom of thought we should have the right to control our own mental states. (Drugs) give some people extra creativity and this is something that we need accross the world. We should look to marijuana as an example, this is a drug that is about as addictive as potatoes, yet it has been swept up in to this war on drugs. We have to remember we really do have a war on drugs and like all wars it is irrational, it is a raquet and there are industries that fight and lobby to keep the money flowing.”
References:
Jahangir, A. Fuentes, C. Gaviria, C. Zedillo, E. Cardoso, F. Papandreou, G. Shultz, G. Solana, J. Whitehead, J. Annan, K. Arbour, L. Cattaui, M. Llosa, M. Caspers-Merk,M. Kazatchkine,M. Volcker, P. Branson, R. Dreifuss, R. Stoltenberg, T. (2011). War On Drugs. Report Of The Global Commission On Drug Policy. (PDF)
HUGHES, C., & STEVENS, A. (2012). A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs Drug and Alcohol Review, 31 (1), 101-113 DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00383.x
Eurostat: Portugal Crime Figures (PDF)
Follow Simon on Twitter RSS, or join the mailing listFor as long as I can remember, I’ve felt like an outsider. Shunned in social situations, I have a shameful quality which has stopped me reaping all the benefits of my cis privilege.
I don’t like football.
It’s taken a long time to come to terms with the fact I would never truly belong in the world of LadBible and Gillette Soccer Saturday, but I feel I need to speak out for the silent minority of people like me.
We live in a world where we are bombarded by inside jokes and people idolising men who, without their feet, would only be qualified to litter pick on the side of the M1.
It’s tough – one of my closest mates at uni has told me he can’t ever completely trust me because I don’t like the sport. Countless others have told me they think people who don’t like football are odd.
I feel abandoned when those around me who ought to know better feign an interest in the Proletariat’s ugly equivalent of fox hunting.
Guys I once considered my friends have left me behind, waxing lyrical about Yaya Toure’s assists and talking in impenetrable riddles about aggregate goals and offside rules, throwing out enigmatic phrases like “dare to Zlatan”.
As a result of my unconscious choice not to care about 22 overgrown yobs with 2 GCSEs between them, I’m left out of conversations in the pub, ignored when trying to make friends with other blokes and struggle in networking environments.
The sad Dapper Laughs dominated pop culture of today rejects my attempts to bring up the standard of conversation from the hooligan addled, overpriced circlejerk of “the beautiful game” and rewards me with humiliation at the hands of my peers.
Every time I utter a contrived, sufficiently vague comment like “he looks like he does football good”, a little piece of my soul dies.
I’m tired of being made to feel inadequate just because I’d rather talk about literally anything else, than work out who Sol Campbell is and why he’s a Judas.
In my opinion, liking football beyond the age of about 11 is the equivalent of watching CBeebies at uni – juvenile, mundane and a waste of a perfectly good brain.
Why anyone fetishises a game laciking the strategic depth of American Football, the raw physicality of rugby or the aesthetic of beach volleyball is truly beyond me.
But bizarrely I’m the one whose ostracised, cast out like a round of applause at an NUS conference, and I think it’s unfair.
I know there are others like me, and it’s time for us to step out of the shadows of budget lager and boorish hooliganism.
Let’s stop pretending to support a team when we’re forced to make a choice, let’s finally admit we don’t give a shit about Harry Kane’s season and let’s bring back normal conversation, free from banal chat, to the pubs of this great nation.Over 1 trillion yuan ($163.4 billion) will be allocated to the fight against air pollution in Beijing amid a newly-issued five-year action plan, dubbed the strongest since 1988, an official in the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection said Monday.
However, only 200 to 300 billion will come from the government.
The rest of the money will be taken from enterprises and other organizations, Wang Xiaoming, director of the publicity department of the bureau, told the Global Times, adding that the contributing enterprises would be those responsible for air pollution.
Over the next five years, the plan calls for the cutting of the concentration of PM2.5 particles (airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter) to a level of around 60 micrograms per cubic meter. This would represent a decline of about 25 percent compared with the 2012 level, according to the Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (2013-17) released on September 12.
Of all the plans, this represents the most comprehensive since 1988, when the city started to tackle air pollution, Fang Li, deputy head of the bureau, said at a press conference Monday, The Beijing News reported.
"One trillion yuan is a large investment into combating air pollution," said Ma Jun, director with the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, adding that transparency would need to be a key component of the plan.
The action plan includes eight pollution reduction projects with 84 specific tasks, divided among 42 bureaus and 23 enterprises in 14 districts and two counties of the city, and outlines the specific people responsible and the timetable, the China Economic Weekly said in a report on Monday.
The plan also calls for the city to cut coal consumption by 13 million tons.
Although 13 million tons is not a small amount, this will not have a significant influence on the city due to the large coal consumption of industrial bases in the surrounding areas, Wang Tao, a resident scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy, told the Global Times Tuesday.
The measures to reduce coal consumption should be carried out on a regional basis in coordination with surrounding areas like Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong provinces, and without efforts by these areas, the city alone cannot tackle the pollution from burning coal, Wang said.Fri Feb 14 Stony Plain 2 at Bentley 6 Sat Feb 15 Bentley 3 at Stony Plain 0 Mon Feb 17 Stony Plain 2 vs Bentley 3 O/T at Red Deer Sat Feb 22 Bentley 2 at Stony Plain 0
Alberta Semi Finals Stony Plain Eagles vs Bentley Generals Bentley wins Best of Seven Alberta Semi Finals 4-0 Advance to Alberta Finals
Fri Feb 14 Fort Saskatchewan 3 at Innisfail 6 Sun Feb 16 Innisfail 4 at Fort Saskatchewan 5 Fri Feb 21 Fort Saskatchewan 1 at Innisfail 4 Sat Feb 22 Innisfail 4 at Fort Saskatchewan 3 O/T Fri Feb 28 Fort Saskatchewan 4 at Innisfail 5
Alberta Semi Finals Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs vs Innisfail Eagles Innisfail wins Best of Seven Alberta Semi Final 4-1 Innisfail advances to Alberta Finals
------------------------------------------ Ontario ACH Semi Finals Brantford Blast vs Whitby Dunlops Brantford wins Best of Seven ACH Semi Finals 4-2 Brantford advances to Allan Cup.
---------------------------------------------------------- Ontario ACH Semi Finals Stoney Creek Generals vs Dundas Real McCoys Dundas wins Best of Seven ACH Semi Finals 4-0
Fri Mar 28 Shellbrook 1 at South East 2 Sat Mar 29 Shellbrook 2 at South East 4 Sun Mar 30 Shellbrook 2 at South East 3 Overtime
Rathgaber Cup Saskatchewan vs Manitoba Shellbrook Elks vs South East Prairie Thunder South East wins series 3-0 South East advances to Allan Cup
Mckenzie Cup BC vs Alberta Powell River Regals vs Bentley Generals Bentley wins series 3-0 Bentley advances to Allan Cup
Goals by Period Clarenville 1-0-4 5 Kenora 0-0-2 2 Photos Game Three Box Score Game Three
Goals by Period Brantford 1-0-1 2 Clarenville 2-2-2 6 Photos Game Five Box Score Game Five
Goals by Period Bentley 2-0-1 3 Brantford 1-0-1 2 Photos Game Seven Box Score Game Seven
PENALTIES Period 1 Clarenville - Rodi Short - (Head Contact) (CTH), 2 MIN, 3:14 Clarenville - Rodi Short - (Head Contact) (Misconduct) (M71), 10 MIN, 3:14 Dundas - Ryan Christie - (Interference) (INT), 2 MIN, 7:39 Clarenville - Mike Dyke - (Slashing) (SL), 2 MIN, 9:54 Dundas - Ryan Christie - (Hooking) (HKG), 2 MIN, 17:44 Clarenville - Chris Hulit - (High Sticking) (HS), 2 MIN, 19:57 Period 2 Dundas - Greg Stewart - (Tripping) (TR), 2 MIN, 3:15 Dundas - Matthew Smith - (High Sticking) (HS), 2 MIN, 3:52 Clarenville - Andrew Sweetland - (Checking from Behind) (Game Misconduct) (GM50/51), 0 MIN, 12:41 Clarenville - Andrew Sweetland - (Checking from Behind) (GM50), 2 MIN, 12:41 Period 3 Dundas - Dave Bowman - (Interference) (INT), 2 MIN, 4:04 Clarenville - Doug O Brien - (Hooking) (HKG), 2 MIN, 6:54 Dundas - Matthew Smith - (Cross Checking) (CC), 2 MIN, 9:42 Dundas - Simon Mangos - (Hooking) (HKG), 2 MIN, 15:25 Overtime (no penalties) 2nd Overtime (no penalties)
Sat, Feb. 21 Innisfail 1 at Okotoks 4 Sun, Feb. 22 Innisfail 6 at Okotoks 3 Sat, Feb. 28 Okotoks 4 at Innisfail Eagles 5 Sun, Mar. 1 Okotoks Drillers 0 at Innisfail 3 Sat Mar 7 Innisfail 4 at Okotoks 0
Alberta Semi Final Two 2nd Okotoks vs 3rd Innisfail Innisfail Wins Best of Seven Semi Final 4-1 Okotoks games at Scott Seaman Sports Rink Innisfail at Innisfail Twin Arena
Fri Feb 20, 8:30pm Fort Saskatchewan 2 vs Bentley 8 Sat Feb 21, 7:30pm Bentley 3 vs Fort Saskatchewan 1 Fri Feb 27, 8:30pm Fort Saskatchewan 5 vs Bentley 2 Sat Feb 28, 8:00pm Bentley 5 vs Fort Saskatchewan 2 Fri Mar 6, 8:30pm Fort Saskatchewan 2 vs Bentley 7
Bentley wins Best of Seven Semi Final 4-1 Bentley Games at Eckville Arena Fort Saskatchewan at JRC
Sat Mar 14 Innisfail 2 at Bentley 5 Sun, Mar 15 – Innisfail 3 at Bentley 4 Sat, Mar 21 – Bentley 4 at Innisfail 3 Sun, Mar 22 – Bentley 4 at Innisfail 1
Alberta Best of Seven Final Innisfail Eagles vs Bentley Generals Bentley wins Best of Seven Final 4-0 Bentley advances to Allan Cup
Fri Mar 27 8:00 PM South East 5 at Rosetown 0 Sat Mar 28 8:00 PM South East 4 at Rosetown 0 Sun Mar 29 3:00 PM South East 6 at Rosetown 3
Rathgaber Cup Manitoba vs Saskatchewan South East Prairie Thunder at Rosetown Red Wings South East wins Best of Five 3-0 South East advances to Allan Cup
Herder Memorial Trophy 2014-2015 Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts vs Corner Brook Royals Winner will be eligible for 2015-2016 Atlantic Canada Provincials Grand Falls-Windsor Wins Best of Seven Final 4-0 Sat, Feb 28th Grand Falls-Windsor 4 at Corner Brook 0 Sun, Mar 1st Grand Falls Windsor 5 at Corner Brook 2 Sat Mar 7 Corner Brook 2 at Grand-Falls Windsor 5 Sun Mar 8 Corner Brook 2 at Grand-Falls Windsor 3 Overtime
There are two new teams in the Ontario ACH for 2016
The Hamilton Steelhawks and Thorold Athletics
http://www.thoroldathletics.com
South East 2016 Allan Cup Webpage is online
http://www.allancup2016.com
Tournament All Star Team
Forward - Colin Circelli Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts
Forward - Cam MacLIse,Bentley Generals
Forward - Del Cowan,South East Prairie Thunder
Defence - Griffen Nyren,Bentley Generals
Defence - Ryan Bonni,South East Prairie Thunder
Goal- Steve Christie, South East Prairie Thunder
Bill Saunders Memorial Trophy for MVP of the 2015 Allan Cup
#35 Steve Christie, South East Prairie Thunder
Allan Cup Semi Final Game Ten
Fri Apr 17 20:00
South East 4 Clarenville Caribous 1
South East advances to Allan Cup Final
Goals by Period
Clarenville 1-0-0 1
South East 2-1-1 4
Photos
Box Score
Period 1
South East Prairie Thunder - Riley Dudar (Del Cowan) 0:50
Clarenville Caribous - Chad Denny (Andrew Sweetland, Matt Bragg) 5:56
South East Prairie Thunder - Del Cowan (power play) (Shawn Limpright, Blair MaCaulay) 14:51
Period 2
South East Prairie Thunder - Dustin Hughes (Justin Kurtz) 18:52
South East Prairie Thunder - Nick Cowan (Riley Dudar, Del Cowan) 1:51
Allan Cup Quarter Final Game Eight
Thurs Apr 16 20:00
Clarenville Caribous 2 Dundas Real McCoys 1
Clarenville advances to Semi-Finals
Goals by Period
Dundas 0-1-0 1
Clarenville 1-1-0 2
Box Score
Period 1
Clarenville Caribous - Stuart MacRae (Ryan Deseroiser, Jordan Escott) 11:01
Period 2
Dundas Real McCoys - Mike Amodeo (Curtis Campbell, Jordan Foreman) 12:41
Clarenville Caribous - Matt Bragg (Matt Stephanision, Mike Dyke) 14:55
Period 3
(no scoring)
Seeding after Round Robin
1.Bentley
2.South East
3.Clarenville
4.Grand-Falls Windsor
5.Dundas Real McCoys
6.Lameque
Allan Cup Round Robin Game Six
Wed Apr 15 20:00
Bentley Generals 4 Lameque Au P'tit Mousse 1
Bentley advances to Semi Final
Goals by Period
Bentley 0-1-3 4
Lameque 1-0-0 1
Boxscore
Photos
Lameque Au Ptit Mousse - Cole Hawes (Jeff Willson, René-Guy Haché) 7:14
Period 2
Bentley Generals - Cam Maclise (Giffen Nyren, Torrie Dyck) 0:52
Period 3
Bentley Generals - Kyle Sheen (Curtis Austring, Alex Macleod) 1:33
Bentley Generals - Scott Kalinchuk (Cam Maclise, Taggart Desmet) 3:14
Bentley Generals - Josh Smith (Taggart Desmet, Cam Maclise) 4:4
Allan Cup Round Robin Game Four
Tues Apr 14 20:00
Bentley Generals 3 Clarenville Caribous 2
Goals by Period
Clarenville 0-1-1 2
Bentley 0-1-2 3
Boxscore
Photos
Period 1
(no scoring)
Period 2
Clarenville Caribous - Stuart MacRae (Mark Lee, Ryan Deseroiser) 9:12
Bentley Generals - Taggart Desmet (Don Morrison) 10:08
Period 3
Clarenville Caribous - Dustin Russell (Matthew Thomey, Matt Quinn) 6:06
Bentley Generals - Cam Maclise (Giffen Nyren, Cody Esposito) 13:46
Bentley Generals - Torrie Dyck (Brett Thurston, Cam Maclise) 15:41
Allan Cup Round Robin Game Two
Mon Apr 13 20:00
Lameque Au P'tit Mousse 1 vs Clarenville Caribous 5
Goals by Period
Clarenville 2-0-3 5
Photos Game Two
Box Score
Period 1
Clarenville Caribous - Dustin Russell (Matthew Thomey) 4:05
Clarenville Caribous - Matthew Thomey (Dustin Russell, Matt Quinn) 4:17
Period 2
(no scoring)
Period 3
Clarenville Caribous - Matt Stephanision (Andrew Sweetland, Matt Bragg) 8:24
Lameque Au Ptit Mousse - Phil Nazair (Jeff Willson) 13:02
Clarenville Caribous - Matt Stephanision (Matt Bragg) 14:57
Clarenville Caribous - Andrew Sweetland (Matt Stephanision, Matt Bragg) 18:06
Eastlink Event Centre all set for 2015 Allan Cup
Renwick Cup
Best of Three Ontario Championship
Kenora Thistels vs Dundas Real McCoys
Dundas wins Best of Three Ontario Final 2-0
Dundas advances to Allan Cup
Fri Apr 3 Kenora Thistles 3 at Dundas 5 Box Score
Sat Apr 4 Kenora Thistles 2 at Dundas 5 Box Score
Sun Apr 5 Kenora Thistles at Dundas(If Nec) 11:00 AM
Best of Seven Ontario ACH Final
Robertson Cup
Dundas wins Best of Seven Ontario ACH Final 4-2
Dundas advances to Ont Championship vs Kenora Thistles
Tues Mar 17 Dundas 5 at Brantford 4 Overtime
Thurs Mar 19 Brantford 1 at Dundas 4
Fri Mar 20 Dundas 1 at Brantford 4
Sun Mar 22 Brantford 3 at Dundas 6 Photos
Tues Mar 24 Dundas 3 at Brantford 4 Overtime Photos
Fri Mar 27 Brantford 2 at Dundas 4
Ontario ACH Semi Final One
1st Whitby vs 4th Dundas
Dundas winsBest of Seven Semi Final 4-2
Wed, Feb 25 Dundas 3 at Whitby 0
Fri, Feb 27 Whitby 5 at Dundas 6 OT
Sat,Feb 28 Dundas 3 at Whitby 2
Fri, Mar 06 Whitby 5 at Dundas 1
Sat, Mar 07 Dundas 1 at Whitby 7
Fri, Mar 13 Whitby 3 at Dundas 8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ontario ACH Semi Final Two
Brantford wins Best of Seven Semi Final 4-1
2nd Brantford Blast vs 3rd Stoney Creek Generals
Fri Feb 27 Stoney Creek 2 at Brantford 5
Sun Mar 1 Brantford 4 at Stoney Creek 7
Fri Mar 6 Stoney Creek 5 at Brantford 10
Sun Mar 8 Brantford 5 at Stoney Creek 4 Overtime
Fri Mar 13 Stoney Creek 2 at Brantford 3 Overtime
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Jan 1,2015
we have received official
notification that the Powell River Regals have withdrawn from
Allan Cup comptetion this season.
The Alberta Chinook League winner will represent the Pacific at the Cup
OHA MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 21, 2014
Welland Whalers Cease Operation
CAMBRIDGE, ON - The Allan Cup Hockey League announced today, that they had been advised by the Welland Whalers that they would not be operating this season due to a shortage of players.
The Whalers entered the League for the 2012-13 season and also competed during the 2013-14 season.
Director of Hockey Operations for the team, Tim Toffolo, informed the ACH group on a phone call last night stating that he had exhausted every option possible to invite players to attend training camp, but to no avail.
ACH Commissioner, Brent Ladds, said that the League was disappointed to hear that the Whalers had folded.
“At a time when we are attempting to build the League with more franchises, the withdrawal of Welland, was not something that we had anticipated. They were a great addition to our League,” said Ladds.
The ACH League has met and re-drawn the 2014-15 schedule, as a result of the withdrawal of the Whalers. The League has chosen to continue with a 24 game unbalanced schedule, one game of which was already played on October 18th, between Stoney Creek Generals, and the Norwood Vipers.
The new schedule will be posted to the ACH web site by Monday, October 27th, 2014.
In the interim, the Stoney Creek Generals will replace the Welland Whalers on October 25th in Whitby
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Ticket Information
2015 Allan Cup Tickets
Early Bird Tournament Packages until Dec 23rd
Early Bird Tournament Packages are now on sale at an early bird price of $180 (taxes & surcharge included) until December 23rd.
- After Dec 23rd, the tournament package price is $200
Tournament package price is $200 Reserved Seating
- Packages include tickets to all games including the Championship game
- Packages can be purchased by calling the Clarenville Events Centre box office at 709-466-4105 ext 222 and pay via credit card
General Admission Packages
-General Admission (standing room) packages will also be available for purchase staring in January. Price is $140 (taxes & surcharge included)
Single Game Tickets
-Single game tickets (If available) will not go on sale until tournament time
Allan Cup Semi Finals Game Ten
Fri Apr 18 19:30
Dundas advances to Allan Cup Finals
Dundas Real McCoys 4 Kenora Thistles 0
Goals by Period
Kenora 0-0-0 0
Dundas 0-2-2 4
Photos Game Ten
Box Score Game Ten
Period 1
(no scoring)
Period 2
Dundas - Jason Ward (unassisted) 10:54
Dundas - Ryan Christie (Nick Smith, Jason Ward) 18:35
Period 3
Dundas - Ryan Christie (power play) (Nick Smith, Jason Ward) 4:39
Dundas - Simon Mangos (power play) (Nick Smith, Jason Ward) 15:01
PENALTIES
Period 1
Kenora - Sean McAslan - (Cross Checking) (CC), 2 MIN, 2:00
Dundas - Ryan Christie - (Roughing) (RO), 2 MIN, 3:56
Dundas - Jason Ward - (Head Contact) (CTH), 2 MIN, 11:31
Dundas - Jason Ward - (Head Contact) (Misconduct) (M71), 10 MIN, 11:31
Kenora - Marlon Gardner - (Slashing) (SL), 2 MIN, 13:52
Kenora - Ryan Donald - (Interference) (INT), 2 MIN, 19:40
Period 2
Dundas - Simon Mangos - (Hooking) (HKG), 2 MIN, 14:34
Period 3
Kenora - Tyler Wooddisse - (Interference) (INT), 2 MIN, 2:55
Dundas - Justin Davis - (High Sticking) (HS), 2 MIN, 5:26
Dundas - Matthew Smith - (Roughing) (RO), 2 MIN, 5:54
Kenora - Jon Poirier - (Delay of Game) (Bench Minor) (DG), 2 MIN, 5:54
Dundas - Adam Deleeuw - (Goalie Interference) (INTGT), 2 MIN, 9:06
Kenora - Trevor Socholotuk - (Cross Checking) (CC), 2 MIN, 14:10
Dundas - Blair Stayzer - (Head Contact) (CTH), 2 MIN, 18:20
Dundas - Blair Stayzer - (Head Contact) (Misconduct) (M71), 10 MIN, 18:20
Allan Cup Quarter Finals Game Eight
Thurs Apr 17 19:30
Kenora Thistles vs South East Prairie Thunder
Goals by Period
Kenora 1-0-2 3
South East 1-0-1 2
Photos Game Eight
Box Score Game Eight
SCORING SUMMARY
Period 1
Kenora - Justin Bowers (power play) (Trevor Socholotuk) 8:46
South East - Riley Dudar (Tyler Dittmer) 16:40
Period 2
(no scoring)
Period 3
South East - Terry Yake (Riley Dudar, Blake Forsyth) 0:41
Kenora - Matt Miller (Ryan Donald) 3:39
Kenora - Sean McAslan (power play) (Jeff Richards, TJ Sakaluk) 13:57
PENALTIES
Period 1
South East - Anders Strome - (Hooking) (HKG), 2 MIN, 1:46
South East - Justin Kurtz - (Hooking) (HKG), 2 MIN, 8:31
Kenora - Matt Miller - (Goalie Interference) (INTGT), 2 MIN, 10:33
Period 2
South East - Dale Butland - (Hooking) (HKG), 2 MIN, 2:05
Kenora - Jeff Richards - |
financial year, 90 per cent of them Indigenous
Labor says the system is broken and Indigenous people have no access to a better way of life
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion says participants are finding jobs
The Community Development Programme covers about 35,000 people — the vast majority of whom are Aboriginal.
Under the scheme, people must work 25 hours a week to receive their unemployment benefits.
But figures released to a Senate committee showed:
More than 20,000 participants were fined last financial year
About 90 per cent of those found to have breached the program were Indigenous
People were fined on 146,654 separate occasions
The Northern Territory recorded more penalties than every other jurisdiction combined
Northern Territory Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said the figures prove the program is broken.
"It's clearly not working, it's a system that's in a mess and there needs to be an urgent change to the way certainly Indigenous people are being impacted on the ground in terms of this program," Senator McCarthy said.
"So many families in the Northern Territory are going hungry, we have no access to a better way of life, they are being impacted in terms of being able to care for their children."
An Australian National University report said the scheme was having a devastating impact.
Scheme supported 'by the communities themselves'
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion makes no apologies for people being breached for not meeting their obligations, a spokesman for the minister told the ABC.
"It is important to recognise that the CDP is focused on providing jobseekers with an incentive to turn up to their activities — to give them a sense of purpose and to develop skills that can help them gain jobs," the spokesman said.
"The CDP is co-designed with communities to provide support for disengaged community members to get work experience and transition into jobs.
"The programme has placed participants into more than 11,000 jobs since July 2015 — a key indicator it is working."
Waiver provisions are also in place to ensure that financial penalties do not cause undue financial hardship, the spokesman said, adding that more than 90 per cent of eight-week non-payment penalties are waived.
Earlier this week, Senator Scullion told the ABC that: "I absolutely reject some of the allegations that have been made in the report."
He said the scheme was "supported by not only the cultural authority in these communities but by the communities themselves".
Topics: federal-government, unemployment, welfare, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-policy, australia, nt
First postedIn the 48 hours immediately following the GOP debate, Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign raised over a million dollars. His performance during the debate included some significant comments directed at the moderators that resulted in the highest score pollster Frank Luntz has seen in his career conducting debate focus groups.
The Business Insider reports:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had arguably the most memorable moment from Wednesday night’s Republican primary debate on CNBC when he slammed the moderators. But for Frank Luntz, the veteran GOP pollster who ran a focus group during the debate, the results were clear. “I have been doing this since 1996 and tonight is a special moment. I’ve never tested — in any primary debate — a line that scored as well as this,” Luntz said after the debate on Fox News’ “The Kelly File.”
The line in question:
“Let me say something at the outset: The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” Cruz said. He then did a retelling of some of the moderators’ questions to the various candidates on stage. “This is not a cage match,” he declared. “And you look at the questions: ‘Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?’ How about talking about the substantive issues people care about!”
Watch:
With such a successful debate, Cruz is now facing increased scrutiny about one issue that is important to Republican primary voters: his accomplishments in the Senate (or to some, the lack thereof).
Special Report‘s Bret Baier posed the question as submitted via Twitter:
@BretBaier @tedcruz Why should we elect a 1-term Sen who can't get along w/ own party & hasn't had real accomplishment in elective office? — Peter J. Carlson (@viscountofni) October 29, 2015
He begins his answer by noting that he “ain’t your guy” if you want someone who is fine with the status quo in Washington and will “go along to get along.”
Baier notes that Cruz has led fights against ObamaCare, Obama’s executive amnesty, and the EPA, yet these things are still around. Cruz quickly points out that he led the fight against the Schumer, Rubio, et al.’s Gang of Eight and, standing alongside Jeff Sessions, effectively stopped amnesty. Baier responds, “so a block is a legislative win?”
Cruz goes on to note that he was instrumental in blocking gun control legislation after the Sandy Hook shooting, and he points out that he successfully fought against Obama’s move to ban all flights to Israel by pointing out that this would effectively be an economic boycott.
Watch:
Asked how he can work with Congress given that he is seen as a divisive figure in Washington, Cruz points out that anyone who is not divisive has never stood against the status quo in Washington: “that’s how you are not divisive, you don’t ever take principled stands on anything.”
He then goes on to note that President Reagan was initially loathed by the GOP establishment because he primaried Gerald Ford in 1976. Indeed, Reagan refused establishment GOP appeals to drop out in order to “unite the party.” Reagan, Cruz says, changed Congress and changed Washington because he “took his case to the American people,” a strategy that Cruz adopted early on.
Watch:
You can watch the entire interview here.
It remains to be seen whether or not Republican primary voters will think that blocking bad legislation is an accomplishment or if they believe that he can amass the type of grassroots support that made Reagan such an effective leader, but if his fundraising and rising poll numbers are any indication, it would seem that many already do.PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. - A roomful of senior citizens fell under the spell of Tim Canova, a law professor giving Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz her first Democratic primary challenge in more than two decades, while breakfasting on pancakes at a restaurant overlooking the golf course in Century Village.
"He swung my vote," Richard Radzville, 74, said after Canova's two-hour question-and-answer session Thursday morning. "I was going to vote for Debbie. But it's like he said --- maybe it's time for a change."
Like dozens of others in the room at the retirement community, Radzville said he had consistently voted for "Debbie," as she is known throughout the heavily Democratic Broward County congressional district she's represented for six terms.
But political newcomer Canova --- a Nova Southeastern University professor who has roots in South Florida but moved into the district four years ago --- has struck a chord in a race many people are equating to a referendum on onetime presidential opponents Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
"A new day is going to dawn on politics in Florida. It's going to happen right here where we live. To win this election is going to send a message nationwide, and the eyes of the nation are on this district," Canova, 56, told the crowd. "My opponent keeps bringing in insider politicians to campaign for her, and we're still going to beat her because this is a people's campaign, of, by and for the people."
Canova has the backing of Sanders, but Clinton, an enormously popular figure in the district, has heaped high praise on Wasserman Schultz, who until recently served as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, dropped in at the congresswoman's campaign office in Davie this month.
Wasserman Schultz is also supported by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who will join Wasserman Schultz for services Sunday at a black church in Pembroke Pines.
The day before Canova's event at the retirement community, Wasserman Schultz appeared at a park near a Weston library, flanked by a cadre of local mayors who lauded her service and decried the national focus on the race.
"It is very important that this race not be hijacked by national rhetoric and name-calling and get bogged down. We need to focus on local issues, like flooding, like climate change, those issues that our congresswoman knows about," Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper told a reporter.
Two Republicans are also in the race, but the winner of the Aug. 30 primary in District 23 in one of the most progressive regions of the state is virtually guaranteed a post in Washington.
Canova accuses Wasserman Schultz of being beholden to "special interests" for receiving contributions from corporations and having the backing of political "super PACs" that have spent heavily on campaign ads supporting her.
Wasserman Schultz counters that nearly all of Canova's contributions come from outside of Florida, something he freely admits.
"I certainly understand that I've got a national donor base," Canova said in an interview. "The reason that I've got ordinary folks around the nation donating is because they're angry with what she did as a failed leader."
Wasserman Schultz stepped down as head of the Democratic National Committee last month after leaked internal party emails raised questions about her impartiality in the presidential primary between former Secretary of State Clinton and Sanders, a Vermont senator. The emails are believed to have been obtained by Russian hackers.
The WikiLeaks scandal, which emerged just days before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, was a shot in the arm for Canova.
But the emails lack resonance for many Broward County hardcore Democrats, including those who remember Wasserman Schultz from her days in the state Legislature.
Howard Sternberg, an 86-year-old Kings Point resident, reflected the allegiance to Wasserman Schultz shared by many current and former constituents, including Jewish voters with strong ties to Clinton.
"She's looking out for the interests of the people who live here. She took care of the people in the district. She showed up. She talked to us. As far as I remember and recall, she was a great person for the seniors here and that was very, very important," Sternberg said.
When told of Sternberg's praise, Wasserman Schultz pointed out that she hasn't represented the Kings Point retirement community since she served in the state Senate more than a decade ago.
"The people of this district, like every district, they literally aren't asking me about emails when I'm at community forums and on the street and at Publix. Actually, a lot of them are asking me, 'Debbie, how are you doing?' " Wasserman Schultz, 49, said in an interview after the Weston appearance. "This election is going to be decided by people who live here, on the issues that matter to them every day."
Canova has criticized his opponent for failing to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal --- which he said will cost American jobs but which Obama has endorsed --- and refusing to take a stand on a proposal that would legalize medical marijuana in Florida. He's also made an issue of Wasserman Schultz's stance on Social Security, something that resonated with the elderly crowd on Thursday, and on payday lending, which targets low-income borrowers.
But Wasserman Schultz enjoys a local --- and national --- reputation as a liberal who's championed abortion rights and increases in the minimum wage while blasting Republicans as part of her role as head of the Democratic National Committee.
"If all you did was read the national media, you'd think that Debbie is this despised character," Democratic strategist Steve Schale said in a recent telephone interview. "But she's served 24 years as an elected official. She's built real and meaningful relationships in that district. She's tireless. I don't think anybody would say Debbie's lost touch."
News Service of FloridaWith the completion of the World Cup, player development has become the topic of conversation within the community. So I went to the fellow I know best, who trained my nephews and was instrumental in helping me set my focus on “serving soccer junkies” since I began this effort in 2005, to discuss the topic.
Jeremy was named General Manager of the St Louis FC USL Pro team on May 1st. Since then he’s been very visible in the community as well as spending his time crisscrossing the country scouting players for the March 2015 opening.
There are only two Clubs in the country, the Richmond Kickers and now SLSG, who have a USL Pro team at the top of their development pyramid. US Soccer has recognized the need for a Pro Development pathway as a significant factor with a special category for Best Overall Club in their Annual Development Academy Awards:
For the overall awards, the Philadelphia Union was named the Best Overall Club in the East Conference. FC Dallas earned the same distinction in the Central and the award went to the LA Galaxy in the West. To be considered for this award, a club must have a U-12 through Pro Development pathway.
We sat down Friday over a beer (because Beer and Soccer go together) at Llywelyn’s Pub in Soulard to discuss the topic. You can hear the entire conversation below. Here’s a short summary:
Jeremy has paid his dues in reaching this point in his career. We cover his time with the Chicago Magic where he worked with USMNT Goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who was a defender at the time, as well as Ned Grabavoy and Chris Schuler who are now in Major League Soccer. He returned to Springfield SC where he captured two Missouri State Cup titles with the 90-91 age group in 2007 and 2008, the first titles won in Missouri by a non-Metro (STL and KC) Club. The first win, as U16’s, came against a Scott McDoniel coached St Louis SC squad.
He joined Dale Schilly at Metro United in 2009, shortly before the merger, becoming the SLSG Illinois Director of Coaching and U18 Academy Head Coach. Prior to his Club experience, he worked as an assistant at both Missouri State in the late 90’s where he worked with Matt Pickens, and he assisted Kevin Kalish at SIUE for two years on his arrival here in Collinsville.
The decision to purchase a franchise and establish St Louis FC, with a cost of over $1M in cash, time and investment is a significant one for any club. I had questions about whether it is the best use of the money given alternatives for investment in other areas.
Jeremy addresses the topic in-depth, noting how the opportunity presented itself and the decision-making process internally that led to moving forward. We discuss the relationship between Major League Soccer and USL Pro and it’s impact so far, with Tommy Meyer (SLUH/Indiana) as a specific discussion point. Jeremy also emphasizes the opportunity it offers young men from 17-23 that want to continue their development outside of college soccer, holding Jay DeMerit up an example of a player who had to create his own model to reach the professional ranks and the US Men’s National team.
Alumbaugh emphasizes the opportunity it offers every player in the region to discover what a professional training environment is really like. By being nearby, it will mean more players will be exposed and will be better able to assess their desire to reach the next level. He also addresses the “Pay to Play” conundrum.
With funding being such a significant topic, we covered several bases. Alumbaugh mentioned Dan Flynn’s comments at the Is the US Becoming a Soccer Country panel held in early May. Flynn, a SLUH alum, is the Secretary General (GM) of US Soccer. He brought up funding coaches at middle school ages as critical and Jeremy talks about the steps he is taking in that area.
That led to the topic of how overseas clubs earn cash by being a net provider of talent to larger clubs. For Everton, their world class training facility was funded after Wayne Rooney was sold to Manchester United. Jeremy believes that this possibility is very real in the US. I offer a link to an in-depth story on the topic as it relates to Jozy Altidore below the audio interview link. Check it out if you are inclined.
Wrapping things up, just a note that We’ll be able to see the MLS Homegrown All-Stars on Monday August 4th as part of the All-Star Game week events.
Let me know what you think in the comments or send me a tweet at @SoccerSTl
Are U.S. Youth Clubs Leaving Money on the Table?
This article aims to educate US youth soccer clubs on the FIFA training and solidarity payments, highlight the structural, cultural and legal obstacles in US youth soccer, and lists the high-profile example of training compensation and solidarity payments that could have been due to US youth clubs that trained Jozy Altidore.If you stuck around for the end credits of The LEGO Batman Movie, you might have noticed the names of two people credited as executive producers on the picture. They are Michael Uslan and Benjamin Melniker. Nothing odd there, apart from the small matter of them having absolutely nothing to do with the film. To the best of our knowledge, they had no conversation with director Chris McKay and his team at any time before, during or after the production. But they did pick up a cheque and a credit for their troubles.
Having people listed as executive producers who are ‘hands off’ is nothing particularly fresh, and we looked at just what an executive producer does in this article here.
But what’s interesting about Uslan and Melniker is that they’re credited on every Batman movie since 1989. That includes the assorted animated movies that have gone straight to disc – Batman: Year One, Batman: Under The Red Hood, for instance – as well as the higher profile features. Thus, Uslan and Melniker were executive producers on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, as well as Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.
In all, the pair are listed on just shy of 40 Batman productions. All the more remarkable, because they were only hands on in any degree on just one of them. As you might expect, there’s a bit of a story behind this, one that goes all the way back to Uslan’s younger years, some four decades back.
For Michael Uslan was a long-term Batman fan, so much so that his autobiography – that’s well worth a read – is titled The Boy Who Loved Batman. It was published in 2011, and he’s also credited as being the first to teach an accredited course about comic book folklore at an American university.
Along with Benjamin Melniker, Uslan acquired the rights to bring Batman to the movies back in the late 1970s. As he put it in an interview with Comics Alliance, back then: “nobody else on the planet wanted them.” In his 20s, therefore, the self-confessed comic book geek found himself striking a deal with DC Comics. His chutzpah, foresight and passion would eventually be rewarded.
Uslan originally approached Richard Maibaum and Guy Hamilton – the duo behind several Bond films – to help realize Batman, and Tom Mankiewicz was on screenplay duties at one stage. Furthermore directors became interested and drifted due to commitments elsewhere, with Ivan Reitman and Joe Dante both considered.
But the problem for Uslan and Melniker is that their influence had diluted. As the Los Angeles Times noted, the pair weren’t told that the 1989 Batman movie – directed by Tim Burton, and starring Michael Keaton – was going into production until the year before. And the reason for that stemmed back to 1979.
The Deal
Back then, having just got hold of the rights, the young Uslan needed help getting a film together. Thus, he entered into an agreement with a company called Casablanca Productions in November 1979, that gave Uslan and Melniker $400,000. The deal, in turn, would cost the pair their input.
Casablanca Productions was owned by Peter Guber, who in 1980 would migrate it into Polygram Pictures, effectively merging one business into the other. Guber then would broker a separate deal with Warner Bros for Batman, which would clear the path to Tim Burton’s movie. That deal was signed in 1981, and come September of 1988, filming was set to begin on Batman in London.
Uslan and Melniker weren’t alien to the development work, but Warner Bros was reportedly keen for them to take a back seat. At the studio’s behest, the pair reluctantly moved from being producers to executive producers, and thus signed a written amendment to their initial deal with Casablanca Productions in 1988. That deal would entitle them to $300,000 in "fixed compensation" for Batman, and a $100,000 deferment when an unnamed revenue target was hit. More details on it can be found in court papers, here.
Furthermore, they would be entitled to 13% of the net profits from the movie (‘net’ proving to be the crucial word here).
On top of the money paid to them for Batman, Warner Bros also wrote a check to Uslan and Melniker for $700,000, that would cover two further motion pictures, in this case proving to be Batman Returns and Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm. As a Superior Court of California ruling in 1994 would reveal, Warner Bros was also obliged to cover "similar financial obligations" on each additional Batman picture.
Just consider that a second, then. On those near-40 Batman movies since 1989, Benjamin Mulniker and Michael Uslan were seemingly paid a six figure sum it seems by Warner Bros, without having to do a thing. That’s the benefit of having foresight in 1979, at a time when nobody else was interested in making a Batman film. To be clear: we're not begrudging them here. Uslan took a risk and followed his heart. Batman has been a part of his professional life ever since.
Along with the money has also come a credit, which is where we come to the detail behind the question at the top of the article. Accepting that even on 1989’s Batman the pair’s creative input was ultimately limited (their key initial suggestions being mainly to go for a Batman film more serious in tone, and to show the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents – again, far bolder suggestions when they were made than they would be today), they’re still listed as executive producers. As I understand it, the pair have had no creative input of note into any of the Batman films outside of that 1989 production.
Their credit, though, was cemented when they took Warner Bros to court in the aftermath of Batman’s sensational box office results. The pair sued the studio for $8 million they believed they were owed as part of their net profit deal. Warner Bros, in turn, argued that the 1989 Batman film hadn’t made any net profits, in spite of it being one of the top ten grossing films of all time at the American box office as the case was being heard. In fact, according to this AP report from 1992, Warner Bros was arguing that it had lost $20 million on the movie.
The court, though, found in the studio’s favour, throwing out Uslan and Melniker’s case, with Judge David Yaffe not finding enough evidence to take it to a jury trial.
But that didn’t affect the core agreement Melniker and Uslan had with the studio. And while the pair haven’t reportedly seen their net profits realised (even by the late '90s, those net profits were mounting to zero), they do still retain executive producer credit, and they do bank a tidy sum every time Warner Bros puts a new film involving Batman into production. With seven Batman releases in total in 2016 – and that doesn’t include Suicide Squad, even – that’s not, in hindsight, too bad a return. It's why their names are on the credits of The LEGO Batman Movie, and it’s also why you’ll still be seeing their names on many Batman films to come, whether they even know the films exist or not...Seeking Asylum is a five part Global News series focusing on asylum seekers’ journey from entering the country to the challenges of starting a life in a new country.
A better life and an easier path to full citizenship are what most Somalis living in Minneapolis associate with Canada.
“Canada is the dreamland. The paradise for Somalis right now,” Saciido Shaie, a Somali-American living in Minneapolis, said.
She had no idea her friend was planning to walk across the border until he called her from Winnipeg last month.
“I’m like ‘you’re crazy, no you’re not in Canada’ and he’s like ‘no, I am in Canada,’” she said.
WATCH: Saciido Shai, a Somali-American living in Minneapolis said Canada is a dreamland for many Somalis. She says her friend, who was denied asylum in the United States, made the trek to Canada as going back to Somalia, “was not an option.”
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According to Shaie, her friend was denied asylum in the United States. Rather than risk being sent back to Somalia, he decided to illegally cross the border to try and seek asylum again, this time in Canada.
Shaie said going back to Somalia is not an option.
Currently there is a sever drought threatening millions of people across Somalia. In March, the United Nations said 1.4 million children in that region were at ‘imminent risk of death’. For Somalians – it’s the third famine they’ve had to cope with in 25 years.
READ MORE: Why refugees are choosing to cross over in Manitoba instead of Saskatchewan?
Shaie’s friend is one of dozens of Somalis who have walked across the border from the United States into Manitoba in an attempt to seek asylum, by far the largest national group among the hundreds who have crossed the border so far this year.
WATCH: What is Minneapolis’s ‘Little Mogadishu’?
President Donald Trump’s proposed travel ban and immigration crackdown have struck fear and anxiety into the Somali community.
“That is causing a lot of people to actually seek help somewhere else because this country all of the sudden kind of became not welcoming,” said Amiin Harun, a Minneapolis immigration lawyer.
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READ MORE: Donald Trump’s revised travel ban is going to a higher court
Cedar-Riverside (also known as ‘Little Mogadishu) is a densely populated, mostly Somali neighbourhood in Minneapolis, where there’s a strong belief that Canada is a haven for refugees.
“Everybody knows Canada, everybody has a relative in Canada and we are a very connected community where everybody is everybody else’s cousin,” Abdirizak Bihi, the director of the Somali Social Advocacy Centre, said.
RELATED: By boat, taxi and on foot, latest asylum seeker into Manitoba describes long journey
He knows a member of the community who plans to abandon his asylum case in Minnesota and instead try in Canada.
“He is planning this week to walk in the snow to Manitoba and seek refuge in Canada,” he said.
After the fear inspired by the Trump presidency, many Somalis in Minneapolis bring up Justin Trudeau’s tweet from late January about welcoming refugees when asked why Canada is such an attractive destination.
RELATED: Are asylum seekers walking across the border into Canada actually breaking the law?
Statistics released by the federal government on March 20 show 5,520 people made refugee claims in January and February. If that pace of asylum seekers continues, it will mean upwards of 33,000 refugees claims filed in Canada in 2017 – almost 40 per cent higher than 2016.
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Of the 5,520 people who made refugee claims, 1,134 were intercepted by Royal Canadian Mounted Police as they crossed the border illegally.
However, the perception that it’s easier to get into Canada isn’t realistic.
LISTEN: Inside Minneapolis’ ‘Little Mogadishu’, the Somali capital of America by 680 CJOB’S Keith McCullough
If a claimant has abandoned their asylum case or been rejected in the United States, it’s unlikely a Canadian immigration court would rule in their favour.
RELATED: Overwhelming majority of Canadians say refugee rules must change: Ipsos poll
Neither Bihi’s friend who is planning to give up on his case in America nor Shaie’s friend who has already been rejected in the United States have a good chance at gaining status in Canada.
Which makes the dangerous trek from Minneapolis to the Manitoba border even riskier.
VIDEO: Global News’ coverage of asylum seekers crossing into Canada
Asylum seeker describes long journey to Canada from Somalia Chinese asylum seeker thanks Winnipeg’s Salvation Army for keeping doors open as it reaches capacity RAW: Emerson fire chief breaks down morning call to rescue 17 asylum seekers From refugee to Canadian citizen: a Ugandan tells the story of his 1972 journey to Winnipeg Recent asylum-seekers open up to Global News in exclusive interview Manitoba town where asylum seekers are crossing adjusting to attention
With files from Reuters
© 2017 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.At Computex this year, the MSI booth featured a range of new motherboards branded ‘ECO’, with the emphasis on minimizing power output while still retaining a level of functionality. Today we received the official announcement for the range, which will initially encompass three models: the H97M ECO, the B85M ECO and the H81M ECO. Each of these models will be in the micro-ATX form factor, offering one PCIe 3.0 x16, two PCIe 2.0 x1 and one PCI slot. At this point in time all the PCBs are in black, rather than the white edition we saw at Computex which might come at a later date.
All three models use a simple power phase design without the need for a heatsink. As none of these chipsets support CPU overclocking, MSI only has to deal with TDP allowances. In our initial Computex coverage, reader TiGr1982 commented that these motherboards should throw up an image at boot if an S or T low power processor was not detected – it would be interesting to see if MSI would implement such a feature.
Each motherboard uses Intel NICs, USB 3.0 and six SATA 6 Gbps, except the H81 which uses two SATA 6 Gbps plus two more SATA 3 Gbps ports due to chipset limitations. The H81M ECO also uses only two DRAM slots, whereas the others have four. MSI is branding its ECO range as a 40% power saving, while retaining 100% performance and stability. The main feature to help this is their ECO Center Pro software, which allows users to switch off ports and slots not being used. For example, PCIe slots with no cards, or disabling USB ports/NICs/fan headers as required thus saving extra milliwatts.
MSI’s overclocking motherboards over recent generations have included an OC Genie button on board, and for the ECO range this turns into the ECO Button which helps reduce power usage. The button is also toggled in the BIOS, and MSI retains its Military Class rating for these new products.
The ultimate ECO board might be a severely stripped down mini-ITX motherboard with the bare essentials, with an integrated processor and DDR3L, however for custom build PCs there has to be that balance of configurability and power saving. MSI is focused on small business, data center and system integrators for its range.
I am currently awaiting release dates and pricing for these new models. Product pages are not available online yet, but I will update this post when I have links and information.
Addition:
Just got word of MSRPs for North America. The H97M ECO will be $90, and the B85M ECO will be $75. It looks like the H81M ECO will be for SIs only or for other markets.After a few months of closed beta testing in the UK, Sony’s cloud-based gaming service, PlayStation Now, is heading into an open beta phase as of today, letting you dip into a selection of PlayStation 3 games, whether you own the console or not.
Funnily enough, you’ll actually be able to stream PS Now games to the PlayStation 3, in addition to its more natural home as a window into backwards compatibility on the PlayStation 4 and as a neat feature on certain Bravia TVs and Sony Blu-ray players. In fact, purchasers of specific 4K Bravia TVs before the end of August will be able to claim a free DualShock 4 and 30 day rentals of six games. These include Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, The Last of Us, Motorstorm Apocalypse, Everybody’s Golf, Ratchet & Clank: Nexus, and Lemmings.
For the rest of us, we have to pay to rent a title for between 48 hours and 30 days, with prices ranging from £2.99 to £7.99, which can feel very, very pricey when you can pick up a game so many of these games on the cheap and play them natively on a PS3. Of course, that’s something that Sony struggled with in the US almost a year ago, and we will see subscriptions added in the UK later this summer, likely in line with the $19.99 per month/$44.99 for 3 months pricing that is in place in North America.
Source: press releaseThe 68th Little League Baseball World Series is currently underway in Williamsport, Pa. And while Mo'ne Davis has already made history and Erick Figueroa has already, well, shown up, Ruy Martinez deserves some attention as well. The second baseman for Mexico stands 4-foot-8-inches tall. He looks significantly younger than the 6-foot-4 Figueroa (even though the 13-year-old Martinez is the same age as his counterpart from Puerto Rico). Look at this photo for proof.
The one at left just went yard to deep center field. #SizeDoesNotMatter #LittleLeagueWorldSeries pic.twitter.com/89sFFgcgcQ — Bill Speros (@billsperos) August 18, 2014
But in an elimination game in the International bracket Monday against Australia, Martinez had himself a day. The infielder went 3-for-3 at the plate and helped Mexico win 6-2. But it was his third hit, a mammoth blast to straightaway center field, that was truly impressive. Next up for Team Mexico is Team Latin America out of Venezuela on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET.
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Follow @YSportsMinute on Twitter along with the Yahoo Sports Minute Facebook page.(CNN) Hillary Clinton saw Bernie Sanders' New Hampshire blowout and raised him one in South Carolina.
Riding the strength of her support among African-Americans to a resounding victory in the Palmetto State, Clinton seized the momentum in the Democratic presidential race -- winning her third of four early-state contests just three days before the race goes national on Super Tuesday.
Here are five takeaways from South Carolina's Democratic primary:
Clinton's going national
It was a bumpy ride through the early states -- but Clinton's firewall of minority support held, helping her seal a close contest in Nevada and then turn South Carolina into her first dominant win of the 2016 race. Headed into Super Tuesday, the confidence Clinton's campaign had after October and November is back.
"Tomorrow, this campaign goes national," Clinton said in her victory speech. "We are going to compete for every vote in every state. We are not taking anything and we are not taking anyone for granted."
The South Carolina win is especially important because of what it means for the 11 Democratic contests that are on tap for Tuesday.
Clinton is eyeing six Southern states with heavy minority populations as a way to lock in a clear delegate advantage. She's hoping for big wins in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas.
Sanders, meanwhile, has his home state of Vermont locked in, and he's hoping for wins in Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Oklahoma.
Clinton's South Carolina blowout effectively guarantees that Sanders will have to scrap for those states -- and would struggle to expand his playing field, leaving Clinton's six targets intact.
Clinton's minority support
South Carolina's electorate climbed from 55% African-American in 2008 to 62% in 2016. And the vast majority of those voters -- 84% -- backed Clinton, according to exit polls.
The former secretary of state isn't messing around in courting black voters: She had Morgan Freeman narrate campaign ads. She had strong allies like South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn on her side. She has leaned hard into her alliance with the White House, saying Saturday night she wants to "build on the record and accomplishments of President Obama." She has contrasted sharply with Sanders on issues like gun control and portrayed him as a one-note candidate concerned only about income inequality.
To underscore her support on issues important to African-Americans, Clinton highlighted the role that five mothers of black victims of gun violence who campaigned alongside her in South Carolina.
"They all lost children, which is almost unimaginable. Yet they have not been broken or embittered. Instead, they have channeled their sorrow into a strategy and their mourning into a movement," she said.
Two more important exit poll findings: Most voters say race relations haven't improved in recent years -- and very few Democratic voters trust Sanders more than Clinton on race-related issues.
Sanders' not-quite revolution
It's not like Sanders woke up Saturday morning expecting a win.
He practically conceded the state on the eve of the Nevada contest by declaring it was "on to Super Tuesday." He spent the day in Texas and Minnesota instead. He didn't even plan a speech after the results were announced.
But perception isn't quite reality: Sanders' investment in South Carolina reveals a campaign that was hopeful his message of tackling economic inequality and reforming the criminal justice system would both make the state competitive and show he could win minority voters in other Democratic primaries.
He invested $2 million in advertisements, some featuring Spike Lee. His campaign had nearly 200 staffers in the state. And he opened 11 South Carolina offices.
The results revealed two big problems for Sanders. One is that he hasn't made the inroads he'd hoped for among African-American voters. Almost as significantly, he couldn't turn out the young voters age 18-29 who are the single strongest constituency of his campaign. Those voters made up just 13% of South Carolina's electorate, according to early exit polls, after comprising about one-in-five in other early-voting states. Disinterest among young voters is a particularly troubling sign.
Sanders, however, kept the race close among white voters, losing just 53% to 47%. And he won two in five voters age 44 and under -- not good, but |
however, we can revitalize our global food system, ensuring healthy soil, healthy fields, healthy food and healthy people.
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Susan Sarandon
Daryl Hannah
Robert Kennedy Jr.
Frances Fisher
Ed Begley Jr.
Amy Smart
Tommy Hilfiger
Vani Hari (Food Babe)
Adam Gardner
Raj Patel
Wendell Berry
Alain Braux
Rachel Parent
Daniel Bissonnette
Alicia Serratos
Alice Waters
Paul Hawken
Anna Lappe
Philip L. Bereano
Howard Vlieger
Devon G. Peña, PhD
Ken Roseboro
Bob Streit, CPCS, CCA
Peter Defur PhD
Robyn O'Brien
Evaggelos Vallianatos
Chensheng (Alex) Lu, PhD
Miguel Robles
Temra Costa
Will Allen
Dr Joseph Mercola
Dr Michelle Perro
Carole Bartolotto, MA, RD
Dr Margaret Flowers
Dr Andrew Weil
Sayer Ji
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Melissa Diane Smith
Mamavation/ ShiftCon
Allergy Kids Foundation
Mom's Voices
Friends of the Earth US
Waterkeeper Alliance
Organic Consumers Association
Sierra Club
Food & Water Watch
FarmAid
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
Rachel Carson Council
Food Democracy Now
Cornucopia Institute
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[Posted by Worldmeets.US Dec. 7, 8:39am]I am so excited because Adam bought me The Non-Dairy Evolution Cookbook by Skye Michael Conroy for my birthday. The first recipe I’ve tried so far is the Mediterranean Herbed Feta because I had all the ingredients on hand. Overall, I was really happy with how it turned out, but I will say that I don’t think it’s exactly the same as real feta and I’m ok with that. The texture is really nice. It’s firm enough and does crumble in a similar manner to real feta cheese, but it is also a bit creamier than the real thing, which I don’t mind at all.
The taste is really good, although I don’t think it tastes exactly like feta, it does get very close though, especially with the added herbs. At first, I was worried about the tofu flavor coming through in the mixture because I could taste it once I blended all the ingredients together. I’m not a huge fan of the flavor of plain tofu, but after the cheese firmed up in the fridge over 8 hours, the flavor really started to develop and the herbs and lemon juice masked the flavor of the tofu very well. I would definitely say that you’re going to get the best results the longer you refrigerate it, so be patient.
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I did really like how this cheese turned out, but I wouldn’t really recommend eating the cheese by itself. I tried it on top of a delicious roasted butternut squash salad and on top of a veggie pizza and it was great on both. It was also really creamy and delicious spread on some crackers. I would definitely recommend trying this recipe because it’s very straight-forward and not very complicated and the results will definitely impress you.This has come up in conversation a few times recently, so I thought that I would post this old piece.
Why, indeed, do normal people believe ridiculous things? We have heard much from John Loftus about the OTF – the Outsider Test for Faith – which essentially illustrates that religion is a (geographical) accident of birth. It claims that if believers used the same critical powers they use to assess, and dismiss, other religions and their claims, then they are obliged to turn those critical faculties on their own. If they did, John would claim, then they would surely end up dismissing the claims of their own religion (this is a simplistic view of the OTF, no doubt).
What is interesting to me here is not so much the fact that people do special plead their own religion in this way (though that is incredibly interesting and important in itself), but how this comes about. I will put forward a theory which is fairly well accepted anecdotally, and see what you think. I will use an example which I experienced the other night which should show the theory with clarity.
So the other night, at an informal philosophy group meeting, one new member of our group professed to being a Christian (of sorts). She believed, it turned out, in the biblical accounts of Noah’s Ark. Before I continue, I am going to look at Noah’s Flood critically in order to show that it can easily be dismissed with the sort of fairly average critical abilities we use every day to assess and delineate the ridiculous from the plausible:
1) Omni-God did it because we were a sinful world. We still are; therefore, it didn’t work.
2) The account is a reworking of Tablet XI of the Gilgamesh, written some 1000 years before the Bible. Some verses are verbatim, or close to.
3) If the deluge destroyed all, why do we have the writings and journals of people before, during and after the deluge?
4) There is internal contradiction from the spliced accounts – 2 of each or 7?
5) 8 people looking after the world’s biggest zoo is ridiculous.
6) The ark is physically bigger than a wooden vessel can be made, apparently by 50%.
7) Clearly the gathering of all the animals is impossible – micro-organisisms, polar bears, penguins, condors, glow-worms (how did they get there?)
8) Ark’s reported dimensions would have to be considerably larger to fit the animals.
9) Population of 8 could not rebound in the fashion claimed. Simply not possible.
10) Rainfall would have to be 6 inches per minute. Again, not possible. A category 5 hurricane gives 6 inches per hour which is impossible to sustain over 40 days.
11) The weight of the water would have disastrous consequences on the earth’s crust, emitting noxious gases and eruptions, leading to potentially, a boiling sea! In all probability, it would have imploded in some way.
12) There is no geological evidence for any of this.
13) There are reefs that have been undisturbed in the world for 100,000 years. These would have been crushed and destroyed. They were not.
14) Lots more evidence of fossil, radiometrics and isotopes etc. mean that the flood clearly never happened.
15) How the hell did Noah actually get all the animals on the ark without them trying to eat each other / the family etc?
16) Asexual animals and hermaphrodites not accounted for
17) Ventilation / food / faeces problems on ark
18) Carnivores?
19) DNA pool? no trace of this through DNA analysis (ie we know we came from Africa)
20) All sea fish would have died from influx of fresh water.
21) All plants that do not rely on the seeds of Noah to survive would die. There are many plants that reproduce in many ways other than seeds.
22) Explaining it away as a local flood is contradictory to genesis, and would also not kill all the humans who were so evil. Liquids find their own level, and so a local flood of that magnitude and description is physically impossible.
I could go on (I have a list about the flood as long as my arm) – you get the idea.
So we have a situation where at least some, possibly many, Christians believe the flood myth to be factually true. Why is this? Why and how do they fall short of fulfilling the OTF? The arguments here are hardly incredibly in depth or out-of reach to the average individual. Getting all of the animals of the world to the ark is enough to dismiss it.
There are two reasons for this:
1) they do not question such claims
2) they do question the claims, but settle for siding with the more embedded, less consequential claim for their worldview, due to cognitive dissonance.
Both of these phenomena are as a result of childhood education, of cultural memories as I will show.
As anyone who works in education can tell you, children are gullible. I have stood in front of thirty 10 year-old children and have told them, in all seriousness, that I am the most intelligent person in the world. They believed me unquestioningly. It was scary. They actually thought I knew everything there is to know.
So we have a situation where, from birth up through all their formative years, children, both at home and at (certain) schools, are fed cultural myths such as Noah’s Flood as factual stories. The problem here is critical, terminal often. What is happening is that children are fed improbable and implausible stories before they are taught how to rationalise and how to sort the implausible from the plausible, the patently ridiculous from the scientifically verified. These children are at the most educationally vulnerable point in their lives. And who are the people they trust the most? Who are the elders in their lives whose truths they take on unquestioningly? Their parents and grandparents, and their teachers and schools. The children have no hope of being able to decipher whether such truth claims (as in Noah’s Flood) are probable or not. They don’t even think to question such claims.
It is only after these cultural memories are embedded that children learn about life, about science, about how to tell a lie from a truth, about the notion that you can’t trust everyone, even those close to you.
Forward-wind five, ten, fifteen, twenty years and to a lady in a pub talking philosophy and religion. I say to her, “Do you believe in the flood myth of the Chinese [where I explain such claims] or the creation myths of the Aborigines [likewise]?”
Of course, the answer is an almost derisory “no”.
“Why? Why the special pleading for your Christian myth? I can personally see no difference between the two.”
I explain many of the above points to which she says, “Oh, I didn’t realise” or some such similar apology. When asked why she believed that myth over the others, she had no answer, and realised that. She left that night with a few more questions than she came with. What was doubly amazing is that she claimed not to have read the Bible for many years since it had been “shoved down her throat” as an adolescent. So here we have a “Christian” believing wild myths without even properly understanding the Bible, and at the same time dismissing, out of hand, other very similar claims.
The point is, is that people often don’t question received stories told as fact from their childhood. They use the future critical faculties they pick up on other religions, but as the OTF argument goes, they do not apply them to their own embedded, culturally inherited stories. These myths, whether Noah, the 10 plagues, the Genesis Creation, the Tower of Babel or Matthew 27, bypass the vetting process by point of fact of being embedded before the process was learnt. It is like a computer with viruses which eventually gets a virus scanner. But the virus scanner can only pick up new viruses which come onto the system, rather than already existing ones. Those pre-existing viruses last the life of the computer. Unless it has a motherboard break-down, goes to the shop, and gets refitted with new, decent software. In short, it has a mid-life crisis.
The second option is also prevalent. Many Christians do learn to be critical and do apply that vetting process to their embedded learning. However, cognitive dissonance means that the disharmony of having an embedded story and associated worldview with also having evidence against both of these triggers procedures in the mind which seek to harmonise these conflicting beliefs.
What happens, of course, as we all know, is that the stronger, more desired belief wins out. Not on account of the strength of the evidence, mind you, but on account of the desire for it to be true. The theist ends up discounting the evidence out of hand, or creating wildly ad hoc reasons as to how the evidence can fit in with so-called biblical “facts”. I have been involved in such discussions with theists who offer the most incredible harmonisations and reasons as to how the flood myth could be true. All they do is destroy their epistemological credibility whilst producing some of the most amusing mental contortions known to intelligent man.
Obviously, there are difficult questions for the theist who actually discounts such myths (as symbolic or similar). It is a potentially slippery slope as to discerning what is myth, what is allegory and what actually happened in the Bible.
This childhood indoctrination (since that is what it is), a theist might respond, is merely a genetic fallacy. By knowing how something comes about, it does not necessarily discount its truth value. No, not necessarily. But it does illustrate double standards, and it does illustrate how the case for the historicity of such accounts is built on very shaky cognitive foundations.It's a hot topic and just about everyone has a strong opinion on it.
The SNAP program, better known as food stamps, took a major hit with more than 5-billion dollars in cuts nationwide.
Critics say the program is a failure.
Supporters argue there is nothing wrong with lending a helping hand, making it a hotly debated issue in the Texas legislature.
"When parents are working hard families are working hard and yet they still aren't able to provide for their families, somethings broken there," State Senator and Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Wendy Davis told Action 4 News.
Earlier this year, State Rep Terry Canales of Edinburg introduced a bill into the legislature that would prevent a SNAP balance from rolling over from month to month.
The bill came after an Action 4 News investigation revealed a SNAP account balance of more than $7,000 dollars.
Although the bill made it into the legislature and our investigation received network television coverage, the gubernatorial candidate had never even heard of it.
"I'm not familiar with the balance rolling over. Um, I do think obviously where people are receiving assistance for their food or health services it shouldn't be in excess of what they need," said Davis.
Families who rely on the assistance are now seeing a 5 percent cut to their benefits.
"I think a lot of people underestimate the hard working people that are having to rely on social services in order to make ends meet for their family," said Davis.
She believes, if Texas would accept the Medicaid expansion, the outcome would be a healthier workforce and more jobs.
In turn she says, less Texans would have to rely on assistance to make ends meet.
The republican candidate Greg Abbott has said Medicaid expansion would make it too expensive for the federal government to reimburse Texas.Ordinarily the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is in the business of stopping diseases rather than spreading them.
When it comes to mosquitoes, though, the foundation is funding an approach that aims to spread a disease among mosquitoes that would prevent those bugs from spreading Zika and other diseases.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Susan Desmond-Hellmann showed off a kit at Code Conference on Tuesday that looks like a Chinese food take-out box that contains female mosquito eggs that have been infected with a bacteria. When these insects are born, they will produce offspring that is unable to transmit a variety of diseases, including Zika.
Part of the reason the foundation is focused on this approach is that Zika itself wasn't on anyone's radar as far as serious disease threats. Past outbreaks caused only flu-like symptoms and not the birth defects and other serious issues that the current Zika outbreak is causing.
"Zika wasn’t on anyone’s list," Desmond-Hellman said.
By contrast, Ebola was seen as a potential bioterrorism risk so the global health community was at least a "tiny bit" prepared for the 2014 outbreak. Even Ebola had in the past been limited to just 2,000 cases.
The Gates Foundation has been funding the Australian researchers behind the STD approach for more than eight years, originally to halt the threat of Dengue fever, though the same approach should also help fight the spread of Zika, as well as Chikungunya, another serious mosquito-borne disease.
Our signature events sell out quickly. Sign up for our mailing list.AMBALA: Former Congress MLA Ram Kishan Gujjar and two others were held guilty by an Ambala court on Tuesday for abetting suicide of a journalist in 2009. Additional sessions judge Sanjeev Arya pronounced the order in the case. The quantum of sentence will be announced on March 2.Pankaj Khanna, a journalist of Naraingarh town, had committed suicide by consuming poison on June 10, 2009. In his suicide note, the journalist had alleged that Ram Kishan and two of his associates had harassed him and police had booked him in a false case on his direction.On the complaint of journalist’s father Yashpal Khanna, police had registered a case against Ram Kishan and two others under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) IPC. After investigation, police had given a clean chit to Ram Kishan. However, Yashpal moved the district court requesting that the name of Ram Kishan be included in the FIR. Ram Kishan challenged the matter in the high court, which dismissed the appeal.One of the big stories of 2013 was the health of one of the all-time icons of heavy metal, Motorhead frontman Lemmy Killmister. Between suffering from diabetes, a defibrilator installed, dealing with a bout of hematoma, and cancelling a few tours, 2013 was not the best year for the metal god.
In a recent interview with NY Times, Lemmy said he's given up whiskey and cigarettes and only drinks wine now. We were optimistic. Turns out, it's not that easy for Lemmy to change his ways.
In the cover story of February 2014 issue of Decibel Magazine, Motorhead's manager Todd Singerman gave an update on Lemmy's condition, and it's hard to get an old dog to change its ways:
"[Lemmy's] been up and down," says Singerman. "He's got a really bad diabetic problem, and it changes on a daily basis. A lot of it is just fighting the bad habits, the things that he's not supposed to do anymore. He's stopped smoking, but he probably sneaks Jack and Coke here and there. He'd be lying to you if he said he stopped. He's been trying to substitute it with wine, and I'm sure he's slowed down on the speed. He thinks wine's better than Jack, but it's still got tons of sugar, you know? He doesn't grasp that he's just trading one demon for the other. That was the compromise with the doctors, by the way — trade the Jack for the wine. But he doesn't tell them he's drinking two fucking bottles, either. These are the battles we're up against. Keep in mind, he's been doing all this stuff on a daily basis since Hendrix. And it's coming to roost. It's sad for him, because he's gotten away with this stuff for all this time. "I made them cancel [the European tour], because Lemmy's not ready," Singerman explains. "He didn't wanna cancel. But what was gonna go down is what happened in Europe over the summer. See, he fucked up in Europe. He was supposed to rest for three months, and he refused. He ended up doing that show [Wacken Open Air in August], which he wasn't supposed to do, and it ended up being 105 degrees "Out there. He's playing direct in the fucking sun. The only thing I'm proud of him for is stopping when it didn't feel good. That was smart of him. The bottom line is that he needs to find a balance and then live that balance for a few months. But we can't find the balance yet. He has great days and then he fucks it up. And when you fuck up, you go backwards."
Well, at least Lemmy is trying! It must be hard to live life at full speed, never hearing the word "stop" or "no" and then one day realizing, oh wait, my body is broken down. We hope Lemmy continues to take the steps to bring him to the road to sobriety and long life. Heavy metal needs Lemmy!
[via Blabbermouth]
Related PostsMore than five thousand air, sea and ground troops take part in a multinational NATO maritime exercise BALTOPS in the Baltic Sea to demonstrate the resolve of allied and partner forces to defend the Baltic region near Ustka, Poland June 17, 2015. Reuters VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — With fighter jets roaring overhead, NATO has inaugurated a military center in the Lithuanian capital amid growing regional concerns over Russia's military presence, sparked by the fighting in Ukraine.
Lithuania, which like its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, was occupied for nearly five decades by the Soviet Union, has published a manual on what to do if war breaks out and volunteers are signing up for the Home Guard in record numbers.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg joined Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Thursday to open the alliances' force integration unit, one of six in an eastern expansion of the partnership.
The alliance says that Moscow has increased its military air activity near the Baltic countries' borders with a growing number of intercepts conducted by NATO fighter jets.Shares
It’s no secret that we here at Science-Based Medicine (and many scientists and skeptics with a knowledge of basic chemistry and biology) have been very critical of Vani Hari, better known to her fans as The Food Babe. The reasons for our criticisms of her are legion. Basically, she is a seemingly-never-ending font of misinformation and fear mongering about food ingredients, particularly any ingredient with a scary, “chemically”-sounding name.
Not surprisingly, as the Food Babe has gained prominence her antics have attracted more and more criticism for her toxic combination of ignorance of chemistry coupled with fear mongering. The criticism started with science and medical bloggers and leaked into the mainstream press, most recently in the form of a recent NPR blog entry entitled “Is The Food Babe A Fearmonger? Scientists Are Speaking Out” that liberally quotes from yours truly and our fearless founder Steve Novella, as well the professor and chair of the Horticultural Sciences Department at the University of Florida, Kevin Folta, who in October complained about the Hari being invited to speak at his university, where she didn’t take questions after spewing her usual disinformation. Indeed, her most recent foray into fear mongering, an attempt to attack Starbucks for its pumpkin spice latte because it not only contains “no real pumpkin” but also contains a “toxic dose of sugar,” and—brace yourself—uses dairy from “Monsanto milk cows fed GMO,” failed.
With a book and media tour scheduled for early 2015, apparently the Food Babe is feeling the heat and has finally responded to criticism on Saturday in a rather long post entitled “Food Babe Scam: My Response To The Attacks On Me and Our Movement“. Utterly predictably, she started with a quote commonly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Never mind that Gandhi almost certainly never actually said it. Rather, Nicholas Klein of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America did. It’s also a misquote of what Klein did say. What Klein actually said was, “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”
Yes, they did build monuments to Gandhi, but I highly doubt anyone will be building monuments to The Food Babe, either now or many years from now. Her response to criticism is worth examining, however, because her defense itself reveals the many flaws in science and reasoning that led to the criticisms in the first place.
The Food Babe, redux
To be honest, I only became aware of Ms. Hari relatively recently, as in just this year, although apparently she’s been at it around three years now. Basically, her technique is simply and pithily described by a word that appears to have been coined by Trevor Butterworth but is one that I wish I’d thought of first, namely quackmail. Her M.O. is always the same, with minor variations. First, she identifies a scary sounding chemical in a food item. Then she publicizes it to her generally scientifically-ignorant readership and urges them to bombard the food manufacturer or restaurant with complaints and requests to remove said chemical from their product. Up until recently, she has tended to be very successful at this.
One prominent example of The Food Babe’s quackmail (and the one that first brought the Food Babe phenomenon to my attention, thanks to Steve Novella) was her campaign to get Subway to stop using the benign ingredient azodicarbonamide in its bread, a chemical that she characterized as the “yoga mat chemical,” the implication being that, by eating sandwiches made with the bread Subway makes, you’re somehow eating plastic, with the no doubt intentionally-planted mental image of sweaty bodies leaving their residue all over it. Steven Novella discussed the utter ridiculousness of this claim not once but twice, not to mention myself and a certain friend of the blog. It turns out that azodicarbonamide is what’s known as a maturing agent. Basically, when it’s added to flour, it makes bread dough rise better. It also improves the handling properties of dough, yielding drier, more cohesive dough that is more pliable, holds together better during kneading, and machine better. Moreover, azodicarbonamide is barely even in the final product. Once flour is wetted with water, the reaction of azodicarbonamide with the constituents of flour is rapid. By 45 minutes, there are only trace amounts left.
A second prominent example is one that I discussed extensively, namely Hari’s assault on beer, an assault that led me to dub her the “Jenny McCarthy of food.” You can read the details in the link, but basically her “reasoning” if you can call it that, was to borrow a page from the antivaccine manual and engage in some fear mongering about propylene glycol as “antifreeze,” even though according to brewmasters it isn’t even in the final product. Then, when called on this, Hari conflated propylene glycol alginate, which is used in beer as a stabilizer for foam control, and propylene glycol, even though the two are not the same chemical—or even close to the same chemical—structurally. But hey, the shared words “propylene glycol” must mean they’re the same chemical, right? Only if you have no knowledge of organic chemistry and didn’t bother to look up the chemical structures of the two. Amusingly, propylene glycol alginate is derived from seaweed; in other words, it’s pretty “natural” by Food Babe standards.
The Food Babe doesn’t limit her scientific ignorance just to food ingredients, however. For instance, she has promoted the unsupported claim that microwave cooking is evil and robs foods of their nutrients, even using vitalistic language about food being “alive” and microwaves “killing” it, as well as promoted misinformation about the flu vaccine cribbed straight from the antivaccine movement. Most recently, science bloggers have dug up an old post from The Food Babe in which she expresses her view about healthy traveling. As Steve Novella put it, her advice contains some major howlers. Perhaps the one that made me laugh the most was this:
The air you are breathing on an airplane is recycled from directly outside of your window. That means you are breathing everything that the airplanes gives off and is flying through. The air that is pumped in isn’t pure oxygen either, it’s mixed with nitrogen, sometimes almost at 50%. To pump a greater amount of oxygen in costs money in terms of fuel and the airlines know this! The nitrogen may affect the times and dosages of medications, make you feel bloated and cause your ankles and joints swell.
Apparently Hari doesn’t realize that normal air contains close to 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with the rest made up of carbon dioxide and other trace gases. Thus, even if Hari’s claim that airplane air contains 50% nitrogen were true, airplane air contains nearly 30% less nitrogen than she normally breathes every day. Yet she seems to think that the airlines are “diluting” their oxygen with 50% nitrogen in order to save money. Personally, I think it’s a good thing that the airlines don’t use 100% oxygen for obvious reasons, not just because of the potential for fire and explosions, but because 100% oxygen is toxic to the lungs. Also, airplane air is recirculated every 3 minutes or so and is highly filtered.
The scientific ignorance on display in that article was so epic that, not long after science bloggers started deconstructing it (Folta amusingly parodied it in a post entitled Deadly Aviation Pretzel Gas: Foodbabeliness in Action), Hari removed it from her website and changed her robots.txt file so that Archive.org no longer archives her site. Indeed, it’s been reported on various Facebook pages that she appears to be engaging in quite a bit of sending embarrassing articles like her travel article down the old memory hole. Perhaps this is in anticipation of her higher media profile in 2015 after her book is released, which looks to be more of the same, given the Amazon.com blurb that starts out with, “Did you know that your fast food fries contain a chemical used in Silly Putty?”
No, but if The Food Babe is all worked up about it, somehow I doubt it’s an issue.
The Food Babe responds to critics. Unfortunately, misogyny, too.
When I first saw Hari’s response to her critics over the weekend, I had to wonder: Why now? After all, she’s remained largely silent in the face of scientific criticism, which in retrospect was probably the smartest thing she’s done over the last year. After all, look at how much more ignorant she looked after responding to criticism about “antifreeze in beer” when it was clear that she didn’t know that propylene glycol alginate was nowhere near the same chemical as propylene glycol. I had to wonder whether it had anything to do with the NPR article about her, although the article reported that Hari’s publicist said Hari wasn’t speaking to the media until her new book is released. I can’t help but wonder whether that was the final straw after she had an op-ed published in The New York Times that provoked considerable criticism and the backlash that resulted from her being featured on the cover of Experience Life magazine, which published a puff piece about her and her “activism.” The backlash was epic, and rightfully so.
And, in her response, she admits as much:
Part of the reason I am responding now is because their messages have started to infiltrate the mainstream media. Seemingly reputable news organizations like NPR (in a blog post titled “Is The Food Babe A Fearmonger? Scientists Are Speaking Out”) even linked to the hate groups – quoting one of their spokespeople and repeated their ridiculous and biased messages as if they have any merit.
Just as Hari is complaining about ad hominem attacks on her, she’s using ad hominem attacks and poisoning the well to fire back. Clearly, self-awareness, thy name is not Food Babe. Also, apparently Science-Based Medicine is a “hate group.” Clearly, when Hari asserts that it’s about the movement and it’s “not about me,” it really is all about her.
In any case, it’s clear that Hari is feeling harried, a sentiment that is obvious early in her response:
With this much game-changing activism and success in a short period of time, it comes as no surprise that some powerful corporate executives and some “independent” voices they help to finance, disagree with our work. An intelligent debate is welcomed, but not all the discussion has been civil. There’s a group of aggressive scientists, biased doctors, skeptics, agribusiness publicists, lobbyists (and their anonymous webpages and social media sites), along with in some cases, well intended but misinformed people (influenced by propaganda) attacking our work, other consumer advocacy groups, my partners, my friends and me, personally. Did you think the powerful chemical companies and food giants of the world were going to let us waltz right into their world and turn it upside down?
No – they won’t and, as I expected, the people who wish to keep the status quo are attacking me personally while simultaneously trying to discredit the entire Good Food Movement.
This is, of course, simply a variation of the pharma shill gambit, in which the food industry replaces big pharma as the shadowy evil corporate cabal that is obviously behind all criticism of The Food Babe, because, obviously, no one who isn’t being paid by the food industry could ever find reason to criticize Hari. Or so Hari apparently seems to think. It’s a very arrogant position to take; Hari is so sure of her righteousness that if you oppose her, you’re either part of the evil food industry cabal or a sheeple who’s been deceived by that cabal. It’s also a convenient excuse not to engage seriously.
There is one aspect of this that must be acknowledged, however, and that’s misogyny. It’s one thing to attack Hari’s ideas and claims. That’s such a “target rich” environment that one could write about it over and over and over and there would still be copious material to refute with science. It’s fair game to call her scientifically ignorant, because she provides copious evidence that she is, in fact, scientifically ignorant with virtually everything she writes. It’s even fair game to create pro-science parodies of her, like Chow Babe, Science Babe, and Food Hunk. What is not fair game are some of the Facebook comments that she includes. They are misogynistic and vile in the extreme, which is something that women who go online face all too frequently. One refers to her as a “stupid female” who should “kill herself.” Another wishes death upon her from something she ate. Yet another makes a not-so-subtle reference to raping Hari’s dead body. None of these misogynistic comments and threats of death is acceptable in any way, shape or form, and I condemn them completely.
Indeed, my likening The Food Babe to Jenny McCarthy is even more appropriate than I had thought at the time I did it. McCarthy, after all, has also been the subject of misogynistic attacks based on her looks and her history as a Playboy Playmate of the Year. In retrospect, long ago I even fell into that trap in that I sometimes mentioned her ditzy blonde image and that she was an ex-Playmate as an introduction to dismantling her claims. I now realize that McCarthy’s history with Playboy has nothing to do with her promotion of antivaccine pseudoscience, and it was neither necessary nor appropriate to reference it. McCarthy provided more than enough fodder that needed refuting without mentioning it. The same is true of Vani Hari. Even though she has chosen “The Food Babe” as her “brand,” that does not excuse misogynistic attacks on her and implied rape threats. Any skeptic who has made misogynistic or threatening comments online about Hari is not my friend or ally. To them, I have just one thing to say: Knock it off.
On the other hand, it is necessary to point out that, as inappropriate and vile as these examples provided by Hari are, Hari also appears to be using them to her advantage. I can (and do) condemn such attacks, and will continue to do so. However, I also can’t help but notice that she appears to be conflating the vile comments she’s received on her Facebook page with the reasoned, science-based criticism that she’s been receiving from many bloggers, including us at SBM, all in order to tar reasonable criticism of her fear mongering with the brush of the sorts of misogynistic slurs featured in her response. All of this (or Hari not-so-subtly implies) is supposedly orchestrated by her enemies in the food industry. It’s fallacy of poisoning the well/guilt by association, plain and simple.
The Food Babe responds “substantively” to criticism. Hilarity ensues.
After having condemned criticism that is not science-based but is threatening and misogynistic, I next wondered: What about the substance of her point-by-point responses to criticism? Let’s just say that the same flaws in thinking that led to all the criticism are on full display here. I’ll pick some examples. Perhaps my favorite example is how she responds to the criticism |
if our own government so desires.
Under Chairman Mao, 45 million Chinese were wiped out during the Great Leap Forwards, and up to another 50 million during the Cultural Revolution. Most of the deaths during the former mass murder event was cause primarily by the control of food, and those that did not toe the party line soon found themselves without it, only to suffer a slow, painful, and deliberate death through forced starvation. From 1975 Communist China also brought in a “One Child Policy” directly funded and supported by successive U.S. Administrations and the United Nations Population Fund. God only knows just how many children were forcefully aborted by the state.
Even now, the Chinese Authorities are still carrying out forced abortions on anyone who dares to disobey the “One Child Policy”, and recently Hillary Clinton gave a speech in which she supported Population Control as a part of U.S. Foreign Policy. So as we go through these documents let it be known that western governments are as keen to reduce human populations as their communist and fascist counterparts, and that as we go further into hot tyranny, all our lives are in danger from the state and the organisations that control our governments.
One such method of population control, among many, is the control of food – what food we can eat, where we can get it from, how much of it we can have, and whether or not this food is actually safe to eat. The World Trade Organisation has already started regulating our food through Codex Alimentarius (the food code), and the US Senate has just passed S510 – the “ Food Safety Modernization Act ” – by sneaking it through another bill when S510 was already defeated through a blue slip error. Canada has also passed similar legislation conforming to Codex Alimentarius. As for those of us in the European Union, we are still waiting to see how they plan to implement Codex Alimentarius over here, and as soon as we know, we shall oppose it with every ounce of our beings.
I realise that I am going over ground that I have already covered elsewhere, but I feel it is vital to lay a foundation of evidence that is pertinent to the subject at hand: The weaponisation of food to better facilitate the reduction of human population levels. For new readers, this is going to be a lot of key information to digest and get your heads around, and I would advise those readers to do their own research before dismissing what I am saying. As I always say, “Evidence it, then Disseminate it”.
In the 1986 Rockefeller Foundation annual report, the writers discuss using the glossypol gene found in the cotton plant (more specifically expressed in the cotton plant seeds) in Genetically Modified Organisms for human consumption as a way of reducing male human fertility. The chemical composition of the substance the gene produces reads as “C30H30O8”, and Chinese researchers have found it efficacious for reducing male fertility in their clinical trials. As they said themselves in this annual report:
Male contraceptive studies are focused on gossypol, a natural substance extracted from the cotton plant, and identified by Chinese researchers as having an anti-fertility effect on men. Before widespread use can be recommended, further investigation is needed to see if lowering the dosage can eliminate undesirable side-effects without reducing its effectiveness as a contraceptive. The Foundation supported research on gossypol’s safety, reversibility and efficacy in seven different 1986 grants.
I doubt very much if the Rockefeller Foundation really cares if the use of the glossypol gene in GM food is safe and reversible or not, just so long as it accelerates the decrease in male human fertility. What I do know is that genetic engineering is not as an exact science as its proponents would like to make out, and one is never sure exactly how inserted genes will express themselves, or how they will affect the expressions of other genes. As Jeffery M. Smith writes in his seminal work, Seeds of Deception (pages 57-58), the method of inserting new genes into an organism is far from precise:
We have used the word ‘insert’ when describing the ‘placement’ of foreign genes into a host DNA. That’s more than polite. One common method used to ‘insert’ genes is to blast them into the DNA with a 22-calibre gene gun. Scientists first coat thousands of tiny shards of gold or tungsten with the foreign gene. Then they point it at a dish containing thousands of unsuspecting cells. Then they fire, hoping that at least some of the foreign genes will end up in the right place in at least some of the DNA. This, by the way, is what the biotech industry refers to as their highly precise method of gene transfer.
This can cause the genes to end up anywhere in the target DNA, with many unforeseen consequences.
Jurriaan Maessen goes into far more detail about the research into using the glossypol gene to reduce male human fertility by the Rockefeller Foundation, and how other research organisations have run with the work already done. What is particularly disturbing is how these other researchers are willing to look at the use of a genetically modified cotton plant as an actual source of food.
Already we are seeing fertility issues with Genetically Modified food through research done by Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and with the National Association for Gene Security. Surov triple blind tested Monsanto’s GM soy on hamsters, and found some rather starling results
This study was just routine,” said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.
After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.
And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.
The study, jointly conducted by Surov’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Association for Gene Security, is expected to be published in three months (July 2010) — so the technical details will have to wait. But Surov sketched out the basic set up for me in an email.
He used Campbell hamsters, with a fast reproduction rate, divided into 4 groups. All were fed a normal diet, but one was without any soy, another had non-GM soy, a third used GM soy, and a fourth contained higher amounts of GM soy. They used 5 pairs of hamsters per group, each of which produced 7-8 litters, totally 140 animals.
‘Originally, everything went smoothly. However, we noticed quite a serious effect when we selected new pairs from their cubs and continued to feed them as before. These pairs’ growth rate was slower and reached their sexual maturity slowly.’
He selected new pairs from each group, which generated another 39 litters. There were 52 pups born to the control group and 78 to the non-GM soy group. In the GM soy group, however, only 40 pups were born. And of these, 25% died. This was a fivefold higher death rate than the 5% seen among the controls. Of the hamsters that ate high GM soy content, only a single female hamster gave birth. She had 16 pups; about 20% died.
Surov said ‘The low numbers in F2 [third generation] showed that many animals were sterile.’
The published paper will also include measurements of organ size for the third generation animals, including testes, spleen, uterus, etc. And if the team can raise sufficient funds, they will also analyze hormone levels in collected blood samples.
[Emphasis mine.]
It appears that genetically modified soy, over several generations, can seriously reduce mammalian fertility.
Ordinary soy does contain enzymes that can affect mammalian fertility if a high amount of it is in the diet. The Chinese do not seem to have this problem with their high soy diet, but then they roast it first, which kills the enzyme. Soy sauce, and the Japanese Miso, is made exclusively with roasted soy. Soy milk, and other western soy products, are made with soy beans that have not been roasted first, and therefore is not recommended in high amounts in the human diet. As for GM Soy, the risk of fertility problems with humans, as illustrated by the above research, can be even higher.
This can not only cause unwanted affects in GM Soy with regards to its own natural enzymes being wrongly expressed to such an extent that the usual roasting of soy will not kill these enzymes, but that if the glossypol gene is inserted into GM Soy, the effects on human fertility can be so much more dire.
We do not know what genes have been inserted into GM Soy, as most of this information is a “trade secret” covered by biotech patents and not looked into at all by the FDA or any other food & drug safety body.
One major problem with inserting foreign genes into a target organism is that you have no idea where those new genes are going to end up within the target DNA, and how this is going to affect their expression. This is not the only possible cause for unwanted side effects with GM food. In Seed of Deception, Jeffrey M. Smith goes on to list the other possible causes of unwanted side effects in GM food (pages 61-62):
In normal circumstances, a gene in one cell will busily pump out its protein, while in another cell, that same gene just quietly hangs out, unused; its protein isn’t needed. Take, for example, the gene whose protein makes the eyes blue. In the pigment cells of the iris, that gene stays busy. But in the whites of the eyes, that same gene gets to relax. Otherwise, if it got activated, perhaps the entire eye would turn blue.
Who tells the gene when to work and when to rest? Somehow every cell provides a clear-cut job description to all its genes. Work here; rest there; work for a little bit, then take a break. And the job description can change depending on what the body needs.
When genetic engineers put an insecticide gene into the DNA of maize, however, the maize cell doesn’t have a clue what to do with this gene that it’s never seen before. Should it be turned on or off? Biologists can’t speak the language of the cell. They don’t know how to tell it to monitor the whole organism and to switch on the new gene only when needed – as it does with all the other genes. Instead, biologists do something unprecedented in the cell’s experience. The new gene is sent in with a ‘light switch’ permanently in the ‘on’ position, set to high intensity. This keeps the new gene working 24/7, non-stop, in all cells of the plant. The light switch, called the ‘promoter,’ consists of genetic material that is attached to the insecticide gene before insertion.
The selection of this genetic material presents an interesting and dangerous challenge. The cell protects DNA from foreign invaders. In plants and animals, an elaborate defence system normally prevents foreign genes from getting a foothold. But there are certain highly aggressive genetic invaders that get past the cell’s defences. Most notable among these are viruses, some of which are cancer-causing. These can wreck havoc on the DNA and the entire organism.
So not only can the glossypol gene be inserted into, say, GM Soy, but when inserted it will be set to “full on”. And if that new gene, placed in the wrong part of the DNA of the plant, expressing in the wrong way, and being set to “full on”, finds a way, like a virus, into invading the DNA of the creature that eats the GM Soy, what kind of havoc would that cause to the new host organism? Yes, we have pretty good immune systems, but our immune systems have never had to deal with a foreign gene set to “full on” through Genetic Manipulation within our stomachs that can possibly act like a virus.
With the use of viruses and bacteria to fire the new gene into the target host DNA, we cannot be sure if some of the virus’s or bacteria’s own properties are not also embedded in the new gene expression. In other words, the new alien gene could possibly act like a virus when ingested. And viruses, once safely in a new host, replicate themselves, and can even alter the DNA of this new host.
Going back to the Russian study above, one can see why randomly expressed genes in GMO Soy could cause such fertility problems after three generations of hamsters, and by implication, what problems this could cause with human fertility in the future. And if it is the glossypol gene being expressed in a viral form, these problems could be worse than we can possibly imagine.
To further illustrate this issue, I would like to turn to another book by Jeffrey M Smith -Genetic Roulette (page 24):
1.2 Rats fed GM tomatoes got bleeding stomachs, several died.
Rats were fed the GM FlavrSavr tomato for 28 days. Of the 20 rats, 7 developed stomach lesions (bleeding stomachs); another 7 of 40 died within two weeks and were replaced in the study.
This is the summary of intestinal problems suffered by rats in just one feeding test. Several feeding tests, including rats and mice, which show similar problems are shown in entries throughout this section of the book.
Despite these obvious problems with this strain of GM tomato, page 25 notes:
According to a 2002 paper by Arpad Pusztai, the ‘study was poorly designed and executed and, most importantly, led to flawed conclusions’. He said, ‘the claim that these GM tomatoes were as safe as conventional ones is at best premature and, at worst, faulty’.
So from this test alone, along with many others listed in Genetic Roulette, we can see that GM Organisms can cause major intestinal problems, which could leave the host animal even more prone to unwanted gene transferral.
Some might consider that I have over-laboured the point about the unknown risks of GMO, but when it comes to our food security and food safety, I cannot labour the point enough. As far as I am concerned I do not ever want to see GMO in my diet. The accidental risks of Genetically Modified Organisms are bad enough, but if scientists at the behest of the Rockefeller Foundation and United Nations Population Fund start messing around with our food in order to make us sterile, things for us can only get so much worse.
The fact that the UK Government is determined to allow GM Food into the United Kingdom’s food supply despite heavy public opposition shows a cavalier attitude to human life by the powers that be. They are not scientists, and the people lobbying them to allow GMO in the UK have a vested interest which is not based on our health. The fact that recently leaked diplomatic cables show how US interests were quite willing to retaliate against the EU if they continued to refuse clearance for the use of GMO within the EU is even more disturbing. I am quite sure that I do not need to spell out what this could mean for our food safety and security if they manage to do this, especially if they attempt to do this through the World Trade Organisation and Codex Alimentarius.
This is a very hard wake up call, but one that the whole of humanity must heed if we are to prevent these plans for the mass culling of humanity from ever becoming a reality.
RELATED ARTICLE:An image of Pluto from last year’s New Horizons flyby colorized to highlight differences in composition among various regions on the surface. That flyby may fuel the imagination of a new generation of science fiction writers. (credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Life on Pluto
It was a weird moment involving a weird guy: In the mid-1990s, a top White House political adviser was enjoying post-coital bliss with his call-girl girlfriend. The guy had his quirks and among them was a certain obsession with feet. But like just about everybody with access to the White House, what he was really obsessed with was power and influence. Wanting to impress her with his insider knowledge and access to the Oval Office, he casually mentioned that NASA had found life on Pluto. No, I’m not making this up. Way out there on the deep dark edges of our solar system, Pluto has been an enigmatic subject of fiction, showing up rarely in science fiction stories. Okay, yeah, actually, according to the girlfriend, he said life on Mars. But when she wrote this down in her diary she wrote “NASA found life on Pluto,” and was too tired to correct it. (Who knows? Alcohol might have been involved too; it was apparently a wild night.) We found this out after she (shockingly) sold her story to the Star, and that’s how the rumors of the possibility of evidence of life on a Martian meteorite first leaked out. We now know that the meteorite did not indicate that there was life on Mars, but scientists still keep looking. As for Pluto, well, we now know a lot more about Pluto, but nobody is talking about signs of life on Pluto. Yet. But maybe that will change. Way out there on the deep dark edges of our solar system, Pluto has been an enigmatic subject of fiction, showing up rarely in science fiction stories. So little has been known about Pluto that writers simply haven’t been able to take advantage of it as a story setting. Although Wikipedia has entries for fiction about all of the planets, including a “Pluto in fiction” entry, it is, unsurprisingly, rather short. Pluto served as an alien base in the 1974 Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamato. It was the location from which the evil Gamilons launched their “planet bombs” at Earth. Pluto also appeared in a number of Robert Heinlein stories in the 1950s, although usually only making a cameo. In the late, deeply-lamented animated show Futurama, Pluto was a penguin sanctuary. The 1999 computer animated series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles set several episodes on Pluto where soldiers battle an alien invasion, which was about the most extensive fictional treatment that the little world has received. Larry Niven came up with probably one of the most clever ideas involving Pluto in his 1968 short story “Wait It Out.” A stranded astronaut is on the surface of Pluto where he has frozen solid. But at the supercold temperatures far out in space his body has essentially become a superconductor that is active by night and deactivated by the faint energy of the Sun: he comes alive and “thinks,” albeit very slowly, whenever the tiny distant Sun is missing from the sky; before staring contemplatively at the darkness. There he stands, perhaps forever, waiting for a rescue that may never come. Of course, Mars has been the planet (other than Earth) that has been the focus of the most fiction—good, bad, awful, lame. Edgar Rice Burroughs set his rollicking John Carter fantasies on Mars. But the author who treated the red planet with the most sense of realism and respect and sense of place was Kim Stanley Robinson, whose Red Mars trilogy was announced as a new television show for Spike TV but now appears to be on hold, meaning that it may never happen. Now that we know a lot more about Pluto, an imaginative author could use its actual terrain much more effectively for storytelling, perhaps with astronauts trekking across Sputnik Planum, or climbing Norgay Montes, or rappelling down into the crevasses of Tombaugh Regio. A New Horizons image of Wright Mons, a potential cryovolcano on Pluto. (credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Pluto has almost always served as an alien or human base of operations, not a location for indigenous life. It’s not hard to see why—how would life form on a planet so incredibly cold? Niven’s short story offers one option, with electricity enabling consciousness, but maybe there are others. The data that keeps coming back from NASA’s New Horizons mission concerning Pluto is fascinating. Even if you know very little about planets and moons, the obvious thing you see when looking at Pluto’s surface is the lack of craters. There are remarkably few craters, indicating that the surface is very young, with most of the craters filled in with stuff. Flowing stuff. There is energy and movement, albeit on geologic scales, but Pluto is far more complicated than anybody imagined. But it is life here that imagines life out there, and New Horizons has provided the fuel for new imagination. Last year, before the Pluto encounter, I wrote about how we were in the “before flyby” phase and soon would be in the “after flyby” phase and this would inevitably affect art and culture in predictable and unpredictable ways (see “Deep in space, corner of No and Where,” The Space Review, June 15, 2015). The predictable change was that before the New Horizons flyby, most articles about Pluto were illustrated with an artist’s impression of Pluto, and after the flyby articles are almost always illustrated with actual photos of the planet—before/after, fiction/reality. But how will all this new data about Pluto affect our fiction? Will the reality also change our fiction? When Pluto was entirely mysterious, nothing more than a tiny dot in photographs, authors had to use their imaginations to depict the planet and usually their imaginations were rather weak about Pluto: cold, dark, mostly just a place for a tiny bit of action to occur in a much bigger story. But perhaps now there are diligent scribes staring at images of the ice mountains and the evidence of past nitrogen lakes and rivers and cryovolcanoes and haze and clouds (clouds?!) and all this wonderful crazy weirdness. And maybe they are dreaming up some bizarre alien life form that has evolved on Pluto and astronauts landing on the surface, as many miles away something crawls to the surface of a dark Plutonian loch. Maybe it is friendly. Or maybe not. But it is life here that imagines life out there, and New Horizons has provided the fuel for new imagination. HomeAfter looking back on all the different types of governments and different models of society throughout history, there’s little question that the more they focus on income inequality, the more the poor suffer. One of the major reasons for this is that with more focus, societies tend to go down the road of income redistribution. Beyond that, is there any doubt that even if you are poor, it is far better to be poor in a free market democracy like the US instead of the old Soviet Union, Cuba, or Vietnam? Isn’t it interesting to see how, in more modern times, places like China experience tremendous economic growth through the embrace of capitalistic policies (the same that made America a superpower)? At the same time, we are seeing liberal Democrats in America embrace some of the same policies that led to hundreds of millions of Chinese, Cubans, and Vietnamese living in huts on less than a dollar a day!
Liberals, like Barrack Obama, the Kennedy’s, and idiots like Michael Moore, are wrong when they talk about income inequality. In fact, they’re not just wrong, they’re hypocrites. Obviously, if someone has truly rare skills and they work 60 hours a week, they deserve a higher income than someone who is uneducated and only works part-time at a menial job. Yet you do not see liberals like Obama or Al Gore or Bill Clinton giving back their millions of dollars or refusing to work for an ‘unequal’ salary or income level.
In fact, these liberals feel that they ‘deserve’ more money than ‘regular’ people. They may even be right, if their skills are significantly better than the average worker. However, they also think that ‘other people’ like you and I should have more of our income taken away and redistributed for the common good. Its hypocritical to say a CEO should have his or her pay limited while liberal politicians and cultural elites make almost unlimited money.
The interesting thing is that income inequality in America is almost a misnomer now. Even children from families in the bottom fifth in terms of their income can get a college education. Of those that do, 84 percent will escape the bottom fifth and 19 percent will actually make it to the top 20 percent of income earners. Did you know that over the last 50 years the number of Americans living below the poverty line has ranged from 12 to 15 percent?
Being a “poor” American is not nearly as bad as you might think. More than 80 percent of poor Americans have cell phones, televisions, and refrigerators. Most also own a motor vehicle and have more living space than the average European. On top of all this, immigrants from all over the world still want to come here for a chance at a better life. This would not be happening if “poor” Americans were living in squalor.
Liberals and their obsessions are really only about making themselves feel good. That and appealing to low information voters who think that these policies will have some real effects. It is also about appealing to those on government welfare and not interested in bettering themselves. That way they can continue to get more and more money from the government.
What do YOU think? Is the liberal obsession with income inequality misguided? Is it designed only to make themselves feel better and get votes from the low information crowd? What is a better way to address the issue of income inequality?Illustration: Dan Page
I enjoyed Samuel Arbesman’s first book, The Half-Life of Facts, which was a discussion of the exponential pace of change, as exemplified by Moore’s Law, among other things. When I saw the title of his new book, Overcomplicated, I assumed that it would be a warning that we technologists had gone too far in creating complex systems. It would advocate moving to simpler systems, just as a doctor might advise an overweight person to go on a diet. I was prepared to argue against such a conclusion, but as I discovered upon reading the book, Arbesman does not say that complexity is necessarily bad or that we should seek simplicity. Instead, he maintains that systems are now unknowably complex, that they will become even more so, and we should…just get over it.
Much of the book is spent in discussing the reasons why complexity is inevitably increasing. Arbesman writes that “almost everything we do in the technological realm seems to lead us away from elegance and understandability, and toward impenetrable complexity and unexpectedness.” He cites three main factors driving this increase—“accretion,” “interconnection,” and “edge cases.” Accretion is the result of large systems being built on top of smaller and older systems, often via the incorporation of legacy code, producing what we call kludges. As these subsystems become interconnected, the resulting entanglement can change what was simply intricate to truly complex. Finally, complexity is exacerbated by the inevitable existence of edge cases—that myriad of individually negligible exceptions and rarities that yet constitute the long tail of cases that must all be accounted for in system design. The complexity resulting from these factors has passed a tipping point where no single person can fully understand a complete system.
At this point in reading the book I’m thinking that this is all familiar territory to us engineers. The question is: What do we do about it? Arbesman passes quickly by our usual strategies to manage complexity—the abstraction of subsystems to hide the complexity of lower levels, and “good hygiene” in coding. Good things to do, but they won’t solve the ultimate problem, argues Arbesman. So what else is there?
Arbesman suggests two approaches. The first is that we need to create more generalists—ideally people with “T-shaped” knowledge bases, those with a deep specialty combined with more superficial knowledge of a broad area. This has become particularly important now that most systems involve divergent specialized fields. However, Arbesman acknowledges that generalists are relatively useless unless accompanied by narrow specialists. Moreover, the market does not at present support generalists. It was easier to be a renaissance man in the Renaissance!
The other approach, which is dealt with at some length, is that we need to think more like biologists than physicists. A physicist would be inclined to attempt a mathematical analysis of the system, hoping for an elegant solution that explains and predicts behavior. On the other hand, a field biologist, accustomed to the overwhelming complexity wrought by evolution, would work from the bottom up, cataloging the appearance and behavior of the systems found, hoping perhaps to identify a new species or ecosystem.
I’ve been thinking about this biological approach, but I’m not sure how much insight it would provide. Some of our bugs are like distinct new species, like the “Goto” trap in programming, but the overwhelming majority might be one-offs, with little general relevance.
I agree, however, with Arbesman’s final conclusion that we should celebrate the functionality and sophistication of our creations. Our achievements will necessarily move beyond the understanding of a single human. After all, evolution has created us, creatures with astounding functionality and resilience alongside esoteric fragilities. Perhaps it will be the same in technology.
This article appears in the January 2017 print issue as “Cozying Up to Complexity.”Electric cattle prod from the 1950s.
A cattle prod, also called a stock prod, is a handheld device commonly used to make cattle or other livestock move by striking or poking them. An electric cattle prod is a stick with electrodes on the end which is used to make cattle move through a relatively high-voltage, low-current electric shock. The electric cattle prod is said to have been invented by Texas cattle baron Robert J. Kleberg, Jr.[1][2] of the King Ranch around 1930, although versions were sold as early as 1917.
Terminology differences [ edit ]
An ad for an electric cattle prod in 1917 magazine
Ranchers and farmers typically use the term "cattle prods" mainly to refer to simple non-electrified fiberglass or metal goads used to physically encourage cattle into motion; the majority of people living outside of rural areas use the term 'cattle prod' exclusively for the electrified variant. Most ranchers and farmers refer to electric cattle prods as "hotshots"[citation needed] (this is an example of a genericized trademark; one of the most prominent brands of electric prod is Hot-Shot).[3]
In an electric cattle prod, which is the precursor to the modern day stun gun, dual surface electrodes produce a very high voltage/very low current electric arc between them, which, when pressed against conductive skin, produces a painful but superficial electric shock which stimulates the target to cease their current activity and move in the direction opposite the source of the pain. With higher current, the cattle prod is the equivalent of a stun gun and functions exactly the same way. Cattle prods are the precursor to direct contact electric stun guns used against humans, and their basic operating principles are the same. The major differences are primarily in the matter of size and power: cattle prods tend to have a higher electric current and a longer handle than stun guns, which is helpful when dealing with very large, powerful animals.
Regular prods [ edit ]
Regular cattle prods can actually be anything from a baton (goad) or piece of pipe properly wired, to a manufactured fiberglass rod with a rubber handle or even a rectangular-shaped device similar to today's stun guns, which also feature batons. Most prods use two metal tips, but some are rubberized for herding stubborn animals. A Wiffleball bat is also often used as an effective prod because the hollow plastic bat makes a sharp ringing sound when slapped against the skin.
Unlike hotshots, which produce high voltage and can be effective on humans, regular cattle prods used on animals are simply used to tap, strike, or poke an animal (usually on the flanks), depending on how stubborn the animal is. Sometimes, a prod can be used as a sort of "extended fence", allowing one to simply intimidate skittish animals away from open gates or downed fences without having to touch them.
Electric prods [ edit ]
Electric cattle prod
A hotshot is typically cylindrical, and can carry an open electric current at the "shock end" when activated. The electric current at the shock end runs through two metal electrodes. Anything that touches the electric current receives a high-voltage low-current shock, not strong enough to kill a human or a large animal such as a cow or sheep from short-term exposure, but strong enough to cause significant pain.
The electric cattle prod is designed to inflict a painful shock to cattle, and thus "prod" them along; the pain stimulates movement. Some higher-voltage prods can interfere with radio and CB radio reception when activated.[citation needed]
There are various designs of electric cattle prods. Their shape is often subject to guidelines of what can easily be used and handled. They range in length from six inches (usually of a more encased rectangular prism design like a stun gun), to up to six feet. As the precursor of stun guns, cattle prods also have a wide range of voltage with enough current to operate in the same manner as a stun gun does against humans. A stun gun is nothing more than a beefed up cattle prod and both can be used on humans or animals by design. Whether it is called a cattle prod or a stun gun, both units are shaped for easy carry and function in the same manner against animals or humans. Most are simple designs powered by 9-volt or a combination of other types of batteries. Anything out of that range is usually too heavy and unwieldy for practical use. Another typical design is a box containing a large battery (or battery pack) at the handle end and wires embedded in a fibreglass rod, ending with two electrodes in a rubber tip. This design is well-suited for use as a regular cattle prod.
The use of electric cattle prods has been debated by many people.[4][5] Organizations such as PETA contend that the use of cattle prods is as much mentally harmful as it is physically.[6] Most farmers contend that the short shock is minutely felt, and soon forgotten.[7]
Usage on people, policing, torture and treatment [ edit ]
Cattle prods today are designed with a high range of voltages and currents. If more powerful prods are applied continuously to the skin, the current eventually causes heating, searing, burning, and scarring of skin at the contact point. Electric prods have found favour with torturers.[9]
Prior to the development of stun batons and the taser, electric cattle prods were also used on people in varying degrees. Their first common usage on people occurred during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s; prods were first adopted by police officers in Alabama to use on protesters and agencies elsewhere followed; Hotshot later developed an electric police baton.[3]
The picana is an electric prod based originally on the cattle prod but designed specifically for human torture. It works at very high voltage and low current so as to maximize pain and minimize the physical marks left on the victim. Among its advantages over other torture devices is that it is portable, easy to use, and allows the torturer to localize the electric shocks to the most sensitive places on the body, where they cause intense pain that can be repeated many times.
Electric prods have been used for the control of adverse self-injuring behavior in mentally handicapped people. This use is regarded by some advocates to be more effective than drugs since the experience of a shock is very short and temporary while using a drug may have long-lasting sedative effects.[10]
On August 14, 2013 in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, gang leader Mendel Epstein told two undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that he used a cattle prod to coerce Jewish husbands to grant religious divorces to their wives, leading the press to nickname him "The Prodfather".[11] The cattle prod had been favored as a torture device by Epstein due to its effectiveness when used on cattle.[12] He was convicted of conspiring to commit kidnapping, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.[13][14]
Alternatives [ edit ]
Cattle can be difficult to move and direct for a variety of reasons. Prods can be useful for moving stubborn or aggressive animals,[15] but often cattle will not move forward when they are fearful of something they see, hear, or smell. Removal of these distractions or hiding them, such as with solid wall partitions, can greatly reduce animal handling problems,[16] however, cattle handlers cannot completely overcome the animal's decision not to move forward.
By studying the psychology of the animals and redesigning the working environment it is possible to handle the animals without the need for brute force and causing pain and suffering to the animal in many, but not all, cases. Significant work in this regard has been done by Colorado State University professor Temple Grandin to study how cattle perceive the environment around them and to design better livestock slaughterhouse handling systems that do not induce fear into the animal.[17]
In popular culture [ edit ]
In the Martin Scorsese film Casino, a cheating gambler is shocked with a cattle prod by a security guard, which is passed off as a heart attack. As an example of "cheater's justice," he is threatened with a circular saw and has his fingers broken with a hammer.
In Fargo, a television crime series based on the film of the same name, a cattle prod is used on numerous occasions as a weapon against humans in season 2.[18][19]
In Pretty Little Liars, a popular television series, a cattle prod was used to torture one of the leading characters Hanna Marin. In Ridley Scott's 1979 horror film Alien, Ellen Ripley and her crew attempt to capture an escaped Xenomorph with the help of a cattle prod.
In Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale and the 2017 Hulu TV series adaptation, cattle prods are used by the Aunts to control the Handmaids, a class of fertile women who serve as surrogates for the ruling Commanders.
In Bottom, a British television sitcom, in Season 3 Episode 2 (Terror), a homemade cattle prod device is used to convince people to hand over money during Halloween.
Cattle prods feature as usable weapons in the video games Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, the latter themed around agricultural society in the American Southwest
In the 2017 film The Shape of Water, a cattle prod features prominently. It is the weapon of choice used by the primary antagonist, Col. Strickland, who carries it with him constantly. The head of a secret government program that captures and studies the Amphibian Man, Strickland uses the cattle prod to torture both him and a Soviet spy who infiltrates the program. Strickland introduces the cattle prod to the protagonists, saying "That lovely dingus right there is an Alabama howdy-do. Mold |
go?
In the case of the campaign, much of it has already been spent. As of the end of January, the campaign spent $53.7 million of the $57.9 it had raised, leaving just $4.2 million on hand.
A Carson campaign spokesman was mum on the subject of where the rest of the money would go, pointing out that the campaign hasn’t officially been suspended yet and saying to “stay tuned.”
John Philip Sousa IV, who has led the PAC efforts on behalf of Carson since he first formed the Draft Committee in 2013, says the 2016 Committee has also already spent almost all the money it raised, estimating there is only about $200,000 left in the bank. As for what happens to that money, Sousa said the group will take its lead from Carson.
“If he says he wants to run for the open seat for the Senate in Florida, then we’ll be a Super PAC and use the money for that,” Sousa told TIME, referencing recent reports that some hope to draft him for that campaign. “If he washes his hands of the political system and says I’ve had it, it’s too corrupt, it’s too dishonest … we’ll do an anti-Hillary PAC or something to try to influence the outcome in November.”
But behind all of this are the donors, the many thousands of people who gave $50 or $100 in hopes of sending the soft-spoken neurosurgeon from Detroit to the Oval Office. (As of October, 74% of Carson’s campaign money came from small dollar donations of under $200. The only candidate with a higher proportion of small donations was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.)
In the world of direct mail marketing that launched Carson to the candidacy in the first place, the role of these donors isn’t over yet, although they may not know that. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Carson’s campaign amassed a list of more than 700,000 donors. Carson’s team can now rent this list out to other campaigns or committees for what one head of a direct response marketing firm estimated at $5 or $6 per name.
“God bless you Dr. Carson,” one supporter wrote on Carson’s official Facebook page in response to his post saying he does not see a path forward in the race. “You are an amazing man, and it has been an honor supporting you (financially, and otherwise).”
“The day after the prayer breakfast, I started posting RUNBENRUN for President,” wrote another. “I have donated $$$ that we could ill afford, I have shared on social media, I have supported you however I could… God Bless you! I know He’s not done with you yet! Neither am I!!!”
Write to Tessa Berenson at tessa.berenson@time.com.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
An LGBT-focused retirement community in Philadelphia which caters to gay low-income seniors has been hailed as called a model for the rest of America.
The six-storey John C. Anderson Apartments complex says it has been overwhelmed for demand, and already has a 100-person waiting list for spaces.
Gustavo Velasquez,of the the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), told the Guardian that the project is part of a broader campaign by the US government to address housing discrimination based on sexual orientation, as a result of an increasing number of ageing gay Americans.
A statement said: “At John C. Anderson Apartments, you’ll find an urban LGBT-friendly senior apartment community where everything you want is brought together”.
The community centre, known as “the gay-dy shady acres” is reportedly a model for similar federally backed housing projects such as in Washington D.C.
An estimated 1.5 million Americans who are 65 or older identify as LGBT – a number which is expected to double by 2030 according to the Institute for Multigenerational Health.
Philadelphia City Council recently voted on a city-wide measure to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the city’s hate crime code.The crazy obsessive focused zombie-pigman scientist otherwise known ZISTEAU. Famed for his massive chaotic builds, imagination in building, smooth video editing and especially over-the-top pranks, he's the Mindcracker I most enjoy watching. His series are all like legit shows rather than the stream-of-consciousness let's-plays others favour, which is perfect for my habit of skipping to the best parts, only he's already packed the best parts together. I started watching him when he did Kaizo Caverns, but it was in his Super Hostile montage when he flooded the whole map with lava that I realised, "Here was a man who knows some big stuff, and goes to do it." Just really happy with all the quality content he's put out so far, and I like hearing his devious schemes out through all their convolutions.PS: I also appreciate his choice to restrict swearing in his videos, but when he swears it's such a deluge I can't help but laugh.Since it landed on the Red Planet, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the Gale crater in search of clues that will explain how the Martian landscape has changed over time. The rover has now identified a spike of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, corroborating previous elusive observations of methane that could not be readily explained for decades. While this certainly does not imply evidence of life, the discovery of organic molecules is pretty exciting and will help guide future studies of the Martian atmosphere. The results of the study were published in Science.
The study utilized readings obtained over the course of almost two years using the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite’s tunable laser spectrometer. The average methane concentration is fairly stable at 0.7 parts per billion by volume (ppbv), though there were spikes that brought the amount up to 7 ppbv. This fluctuation is about ten times greater than normal, which is particularly odd given that computer modeling of atmospheric methane predicted that it would have been fairly uniform.
Along with methane concentration, the researchers also used a suite of instruments to measure and correct for humidity, temperature, and fluctuations in the atmosphere. Ultimately, they found that these spikes of methane persisted.
"Within this context, and when we were all almost fully persuaded that the data we had so far collected were at the very least rough it not fully invalid, the expectations to decide on this were bestowed upon the capacity of the SAM instrument to come up with more precise measurements,” co-author Francisco Javier Martín-Torres from the University of Granada said in a press release.
Methane is a common byproduct of biological processes, but that is not the only way it is created. The presence of methane alone is not enough to say that life exists, or once existed, on Mars. However, it is still not clear where the methane is coming from. Future research will need to determine the origin of the methane as well as further investigate why it has spikes in certain areas.
“It is a finding that puts paid to the question of the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere, but it does pose some other more complex and far-reaching questions, such as the nature of its sources—which must lie, we believe, in one or two additional sources that were not originally contemplated in the models used so far. Among these sources, we must not rule out biological methanogenesis,” Martín-Torres concluded. “Another new question is related to the bizarre evolution of methane in the Martian atmosphere after its emission. Both questions should be addressed in the future with specifically designed new research.”A Delaware lawmaker who came out during a debate over her state’s same-sex marriage bill earlier this year and her partner will be the first couple to take advantage of the gay nuptials law that takes effect on Monday.
State Sen. Karen Peterson (D-Stanton) and her partner, Vikki Bandy, will convert their civil union into a marriage at the New Castle County Clerk of the Peace’s office in Wilmington on Monday morning.
“Vikki and I are excited and honored to be the first couple to convert our civil union to a marriage in Delaware,” Peterson told the Washington Blade. “We have been together for almost 25 years, and I never thought we would live to see the day when we could be married in our home state.”
Chris Beagle, a realtor who co-owns an event planning company with his partner of more than 23 years, Eric Engelhart, will be the first same-sex couple in Sussex County to convert their civil union into a marriage.
Beagle told the Blade last week that he and Engelhart will have a “very simple, very brief ceremony” at CAMP Rehoboth in Rehoboth Beach at 10 a.m. on Monday.
“I never expected to be afforded this type of honor or distinction,” Beagle said. “We are incredibly humbled, honored and grateful.”
The Sussex County Clerk of the Peace in Georgetown will also begin to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples at 8 a.m. on July 1, with doors opening at 7 a.m. The Kent County Clerk of the Peace in Dover will open at 8 a.m.
Delaware on Monday will join nine other states and D.C. that allow same-sex marriage.
Gays and lesbians in Minnesota and Rhode Island will be able to tie the knot on August 1.
Joseph Daigle, II, and Daniel Coke on Monday will become the first same-sex couple who had not previously entered into a civil union to tie the knot in Delaware. A reception and what Goodman described as a “community celebration” will take place at the Columbus Inn in Wilmington after the men exchange vows at the Gibraltar Mansion.
No other same-sex weddings will take place in Delaware on July 1 because the state did not waive the 24-hour waiting period for any other gay or lesbian couples.
Any Delaware civil union that has not been converted into a marriage as of July 1, 2014, will automatically become a marriage.
“July 1 will be a joyous day for committed same-sex couples in Delaware,” Equality Delaware President Lisa Goodman said.Zelda is one of those games that I remember the most from the Nintendo NES console game station. That golden cartridge was the coolest one in my collection, and I treated it like it was pure gold. If I am not entirely off course here, I think I sold my Nintendo NES when I saw the Amiga 500 for the first time. The possibilities seemed more to my satisfaction, and besides, you could program on it. A friend of mine and I used to create demos in machine code (also called Assembler) which we humbly spread to our friends. Later we also created a software we called “Geography Of The World” which we wanted to target for the schools. Those projects seem far less complicated now when I see what has become of these old cartridges.
It turns out that some genius mind created external drives out of them, and now has them for sale. They come in 1TB, 750GB and 500GB and use Toshiba 2.5″ hard drives that are fit inside of these cartridges. They are completely gutted and modded with a USB cable as connection.
Of course, it’s every geek’s dream shopping place, Etsy, that has been found by a brilliant modder calling himself/herself “8BitMemory” who is now selling (at time of writing) 39 customized Nintendo NES cartridges (only 1 Zelda Cartridge though I think) hard drives starting at $129.95-$179.95. As always with Etsy, it’s the one that gets there first that gets it. So if you’re an incurable Nintendo NES romantic, then hurry up and get your piece of history in an all new future packaging. Retro is the word!Alastair Clarkson: Walking away from the Hawks? Credit:Pat Scala ‘‘Yeah. He’s put out a statement today... you guys in the media need to actually talk to the individuals that you writing the story about. If you understand the nature of the bloke - and I think it’s evident in the statement he put out - that’s the end of the matter. In terms of my Richter scale it wasn’t even showing up. It wasn’t an issue for me,’’ the president said at the Hawks’ grand final lunch on Wednesday. Since Clarkson was given a three-year extension in 2011 he has taken the club to the grand final this year and last year, and was within a goal of doing it in 2011 when it lost in the preliminary final to Collingwood. Newbold insisted that despite the reported interest of West Coast that Hawthorn would not contemplate extending the coach’s contract until after the grand final. ‘‘We’ll look at that after the year. We’ve got the biggest game of the year coming up so I’m sure you won’t mind if we say we’re pretty focused on this Saturday,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s just not an issue. We’re about putting our best foot forward on Saturday.’’ Hawthorn great David Parkin, who is also president of the AFL Coaches’ Association and was the keynote speaker at the Hawks’ lunch, reckoned the only way Clarkson would not be leading the Hawks next year would be if the hierarchy decided the club would be better served by another coach. ‘‘I know him well enough... to know that he’s made a life commitment to the Hawthorn Football Club. Unless Hawthorn decide he is no longer than man I would... be absolutely convinced Alastair would be coach in 2014,’’ Parkin said. Earlier Wednesday morning, Clarkson’s manager Liam Pickering has described as "factually incorrect" a claim that the Hawthorn premiership coach would leave the Hawks to join West Coast after the grand final. Sheahan told On The Couch on Tuesday night: "My view about West Coast is that their next coach will come out of the grand final.
"Don’t assume that it will be Peter Sumich. "Whatever the result on the weekend... West Coast will make an offer to Alastair Clarkson that he will take. Right now my view is that Clarko will coach West Coast next year. If they lose, I think that both parties will be happy to part company. "If they win he’s delivered them two premierships, West Coast would come at him with a four to five year deal I think he says 'I’ve paid my dues here I want to go there and have another long term deal'." Clarkson has a year of his contract at Hawthorn remaining. SEN commentator Tim Watson told listeners this morning that Pickering had said Sheahan’s assertion was "100 per cent factually incorrect".
He quoted Pickering, who also works on SEN, as saying: "Al Clarkson will be coaching Hawthorn footy club next year and will not be coaching West Coast Eagles." Fellow commentator Anthony Hudson said he had heard rumours about Clarkson last week, but dismissed them, as similar stories had linked Clarkson to the Melbourne coaching position earlier in the year. "What I did hear - and I can’t confirm this 100 per cent – is that Clarkson I presume through his management approached Hawthorn four to six weeks ago and asked for a contract extension and that was rejected," Hudson said. In 2011, Ross Lyon shocked the football world by switching from St Kilda to Fremantle days after the Saints were eliminated from the finals series. The controversial employment of Lyon - and sacking of then Fremantle coach Mark Harvey - is now seen as a masterstroke. The Eagles, looking for a coach after the resignation of stalwart John Worsfold, may be using their arch-rival’s ruthless precedent in seeking a high-profile incumbent. Watson said the scenarios were different, as St Kilda was on the downswing after just failing to win a premiership. Hawthorn is days away from starting as favourite in a grand final.
"When you create what he’s been able to create … coaches usually don’t want to walk out." Former Saints big man Justin Koschitzke said after Lyon’s departure from his club, he would not be surprised "by anything that happens in footy". He said he had no inclination that Lyon was about to leave, and watched coverage of his signing with Fremantle in "disbelief". "I was gutted at the time, absolutely. We just thought we’d had a real sustained period, a great mentor for us and then it all happened really quickly. So it was almost why? What was going on? "But as it evolved it might have been the right decision."
Hawthorn legend Shane Crawford said he'd be surprised if Clarkson was even thinking about the move, given how much he was hurting after last year's grand final loss to Sydney, and how motivated he appeared by the drive to win a second premiership with Hawthorn. "But then again... it wouldn't surprise me that West Coast would want him..."Today a press release from Nautiluscoin announces the launch of a full economic ecosystem, built on the Nxt blockchain. The launch event of the Drachmae Ecosystem will take place on September 26, 2015. Furthermore, Brian Kelly Capital (BKCM LLC) will be making a seed investment in a new entity that will deploy this ecosystem globally, first targeting developing micro-economies in Latin America and Africa.
“We are pleased to announce that we have formally joined forces with the Drachmae Project and have developed a full economic ecosystem for the island of Agistri”, Nautiluscoin writes. “This ecosystem includes a fully functional mobile banking system, a B2B ecommerce platform, and a travel-booking site, all fueled by Nautiluscoin. This ecosystem will be rolled out on the Greek island of Agistri on September 26, 2015.
We are providing the tools for the municipality and businesses of Agistri to investigate ways of generating new revenue via our blockchain-based ecosystem. Businesses will be able to save money via the B2B platform by connecting directly with suppliers, while at the same time offering discounts to travellers via the travel platform. Powered by Nautiluscoin, the ecosystem will offer efficiency and simplicity, providing tourists with a simple one-stop shop for all aspects of booking a holiday.
We are focused on the end users of the currency – the businesses, citizens and visitors – this is our community. This proof of concept will illustrate how digital currencies and blockchain technology can benefit a community. To that end, the communtity in Agistri will be actively involved in the project and will share ownership and revenue from the Drachmae Project.
The mission of the Nautiluscoin project is to use digital currency and blockchain technology to bring money into an economy. While digital currencies have been successful at providing a means to remove capital from an economy, few have successfully shown that adoption and use can drive economic growth – the Nautiluscoin project is about to change this.
Coin Swap
The Drachmae Ecosystem has been built using the NXT Platform and Nautiluscoin will soon be swapped onto the NXT monetary system. We have chosen NXT because of its superior technical capabilities, security and community support. The business orientation of the NXT community will be the foundation on which we build our ecosystem.
The NXT Foundation will be assisting with the coin swap that will commence on September 18, 2015. We will post the coin swap instructions on Bitcoin Talk on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 and the offical commencement will be announced via Nautilsucoin’s Twitter account.
The NXT Foundation will also be assisting with the structure and the operation of the Nautiluscoin community, which includes the businesses and citizens of Agistri who wish to join the project. This project would not have been possible without the expertise and support of the NXT Foundation. The NXT team and Foundation have been integral to realizing this opportunity to utilise the power of blockchain technology.
The Launch Event
The September 26, 2015 launch of the Drachmae Ecosystem will include a community barbecue where the Nautiluscoin airdrop will formally take place. Each citizen that attends will be given €100worth of Nautiluscoin to spend at the barbecue and local businesses. As well, members of the press will be given €100 worth of Nautiluscoin.
We will also be hosting a Hackathon event for developers to explore our blockchain ecosystem and create apps. We encourage anyone with an interest in blockchain technology to develop apps that can solve real world problems for the community. We will be hosting up to 40 developers to join in this first of its kind Hackathon in Greece. We are also extending an open invitation to companies and government organisations to visit and observe the event.
The launch event will be capped off with a televised fashion show featuring professional models wearing GetNauti gear. We have hired a camera crew to be on island for the launch event to capture this historic moment. This fashion show is a pre-shooting for the Athena Model TV Show that will be hosted on Agistri in 2016.
We are excited to bring this revolutionary technology to Agistri and are grateful for the foresight of the Mayor, local businesses and citizens. This will be the first time an entire economic ecosystem has been experimented and deployed and we are looking forward to this historic event.
Brian Kelly Capital Investment
The ecosystem that will be deployed is both scalable and efficient, making it suitable for multiple use cases. In parallel with the Drachmae launch on Agistri, Brian Kelly Capital (BKCM LLC) will be making a seed investment in a new entity that will deploy this ecosystem globally. The new entity will license and implement new blockchain based economic ecosystems similar to the Drachmae Project. Currently, the entity anticipates targeting developing micro-economies in Latin America and Africa.
Commenting on the investment, Brian Kelly said, “With this technology we can deploy a fully functioning economic ecosystem which includes a banking system, a commerce platform and a currency. We are excited to be a part of this revolution.”
The new entity will be focused on deploying this technology to other countries, municipalities or organizations that need a fully functioning micro-economy.”
—
Also read: Nxt – the economy platform for everybody
View this in: Русский EspañolWritten by: Vandita
Cindy Pincus, the 29-yr-old minister at First Unitarian Universalist Society in San Francisco, was helping a fallen protester during the Berkeley protests early this month over police killings of Michael Brown, Eric Duncan, Tamir Rice, and many others when she was attacked in the head from behind by a cop with his baton.
Cindy was hospitalized after the attack and the Huffington Post reports that it took three staples to seal the gash in her head. The blow to her skull caused a gaping head wound and a concussion. “I had a brief blackout in my vision. I saw stars,” said Cindy. “I would say it’s an indiscriminate and disproportionate reaction to peaceful protests. It was completely way out of line”.
Video footages show that police has been initiating violence to provoke the peaceful protesters to intimidate the other protesters, paralyzing them with fear and anger. The protesters are left with no choice but to go on fight-or-flight mode and defend themselves. This tactic works for police because most of the time the protesters can’t defend themselves from a cop’s weapon and therefore he is charged for causing commotion, rampage and violence and put behind bars. Check out this video in which police randomly attacked a peaceful senior citizen…
The reality is riot cops are trained to engage in taunting — actions whereby they intentionally attack protesters – to provoke a protester into defending him or herself. The above incidents prove that a peaceful protester is more likely to be attacked by cops, given how police are trained. The more peaceful a protester is, the more vulnerable he is as target for police violence.
Here’s the video in which Berkeley police is intentionally attacking the most peaceful protesters…
Looking at what happened to Cindy and what happens to most peaceful protesters, Malcolm X’s statement – it is criminal to teach a man to not defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks – does ring true.
______________________________________________________________________
Source:
http://filmingcops.com/christian-ministers-head-split-open-bludgeoned-by-swarm-of-cops/THE FACTS
Among allergy sufferers, there is a widespread belief that locally produced honey can alleviate symptoms — the idea being that the honey acts like a vaccine. Bees that jump from one flower to the next end up covered in pollen spores, which are then transferred to their honey. Eating that honey — just a spoonful a day — can build up immunity through gradual exposure to the local allergens that can make life so miserable for allergy sufferers.
Or at least that’s the thinking behind it. But when University of Connecticut Health Center researchers did a test, they found that the honey had no such effect.
Photo
In the study, published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in 2002, the scientists followed dozens of allergy sufferers through the springtime allergy season. The subjects were randomly split into three groups. One consumed a tablespoonful daily of locally collected, unpasteurized and unfiltered honey; another ate commercial honey; and a third was given a corn syrup placebo with synthetic honey flavoring.
After tracking the subjects’ symptoms for months, the scientists found that neither of the honey groups saw improvements over the placebo group.
Dr. Stanley Fineman, president-elect of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, said he has seen a growing number of patients ask about local honey. “Seasonal allergies are usually triggered by windborne pollens, not by pollens spread by insects,” he said. So it’s unlikely that honey “collected from plants that do not cause allergy symptoms would provide any therapeutic benefit.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
There’s no evidence that local honey relieves allergy symptoms.
ANAHAD O’CONNOR
scitimes@nytimes.comMay 19, 2016 – Tackling Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: final report and recommendations
This report outlines the Review’s final recommendations. It first discusses the mounting problem of resistance and why action is needed to combat it and then provides an overview of the solutions that the Review thinks should be implemented to curtail unnecessary use and increase the supply of new antimicrobials. It then looks at the role of public awareness campaigns, the need to improve sanitation and hygiene, reduce pollution from agriculture and the environment, improve global surveillance, introduce rapid diagnostics and vaccines, the need to increase the number of people in this area, and use of market entry rewards and an innovation fund to generate more drugs. Finally the paper examines how these solutions can be funded and looks at ways to build political consensus around them. Supporting Documents Commissioned study by Dr. Nimalan Arinaminpathy the impact of diagnostics and new treatments against TB main report.
Commissioned study by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), into the future of TB diagnostics main report.
. Commissioned paper by ReAct-Action on Antibiotic Resistance Strategic Policy Program and Center for a Livable Future in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health main report.
Commissioned study by Katy Turner et al. into the impact of rapid diagnostics against gonorrhea main report and the model used.
and the. Study by LSE Master’s in Public Administration students on the cost and benefit of WASH interventions in Brazil, India, Nigeria and Indonesia main report.
. Commissioned study by NIHR Diagnostic Evidence Cooperative Oxford, into the future of diagnostics for antimicrobials main report.
. Commissioned study by Pierre Nouvellet et al. into the impact of new drugs and better diagnostics in the treatment of E. Coli main report.
22 March 2016 - Infection prevention, control and surveillance: Limiting the development and spread of drug-resistance This report examines the central role that infection prevention, control, and surveillance need to play in combatting the rise of drug-resistant infections. This is based on the recognition that fundamental improvements in these areas are the key to sustainable gains in health outcomes, and yet are often given insufficient attention in our response to the global challenges of rising drug resistance. The paper looks first at the role of infection prevention in the community through improved water and sanitation infrastructure. It then looks at the need to prevent and control of infections in health and care settings. Finally, it looks at monitoring resistant infections through surveillance systems that will provide valuable information for doctors, patients as well global and national policymakers.
11th February 2016- Vaccines and alternative approaches: reducing our dependence on antimicrobials
This report provides an overview of the markets and the pipelines for vaccines and other alternative approaches to tackling drug-resistant infections, by reducing the need for, and the use of antimicrobials. It makes three recommendations: First, available vaccines should be more widely used; both in humans and animals, and that this may require financial support. Second, there needs to be a renewed push for research into new vaccines and alternatives, through the Review recommended Global Innovation Fund and long-term sustained funding from philanthropic, public and private sources. Last, it recommends strengthening the market for new vaccines and alternatives through interventions such as market entry rewards and Advance Market Commitments (AMCs).
8 December 2015 - Antimicrobials in agriculture and the environment: reducing unnecessary use and waste
This report provides an overview of the use of antibiotics in animals and agriculture, and the role that manufacturing and use of antimicrobials play in bringing these into the wider environment. It calls for three interventions: First, a global target needs to be set to reduce use of antibiotics in food production and that we should reassess which antibiotics should be used in both animals and humans. Second, it recommends that there be minimum standards set to limit the release of active pharmaceutical ingredients during the manufacturing process. Finally, it proposes that there be improved surveillance to monitor the situation with respect to both these issues and to help to inform global standards and targets. Supporting Documents
A list of the papers used in our literature review and how they were characterised
Safe, Secure and Controlled: Managing the Supply Chain of Antimicrobials
This report examines two specific aspects of the AMR problem: the online sale of antimicrobials without prescription, and the supply of poor-quality and falsified antimicrobial drugs. A growing number of online pharmacies exploit gaps in the global regulatory mechanisms to offer antibiotics for sale around the world, often without prescription or clinical guidance – something that fuels dangerous self-medication habits and encourages the development of drug-resistant strains of infection by increasing unnecessary and excessive antimicrobials use. Meanwhile, poor quality and falsified antimicrobials fuel the development of resistance by delivering a sub-therapeutic dose of antimicrobials, providing enough exposure for the drug for microbes to begin developing resistance, without properly treating the infection. November 20, 2015 - The paper calls for improved global regulation and monitoring of both of these issues. The material in the paper relating to poor quality and falsified medicines is drawn from a paper prepared for the Review by Elizabeth Pisani.
October 23, 2015 - Rapid Diagnostics: Stopping unnecessary use of antibiotics
This report provides an overview of how diagnostics can play an important role in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, by reducing unnecessary use. It addresses how we can improve innovation as well as encourage the uptake of diagnostics. We suggest that Diagnostic Market Stimulus pots, to subsidise the purchase of diagnostics, would increase both uptake and innovation. We also propose that diagnostic developers should be able to bid into a global innovation fund to support early stage research, and that we need more research into the long-term economic case for rapid diagnostics.Regulatory documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington DC on Friday show revealed the magnitude of Zuckerberg's windfall after he exercised a long-standing right to acquire 60 million shares in Facebook Inc.
He then sold just more than half of them in the May 2012 flotation of the world's most popular social media website for $1.1 billion at the launch price of $38 – more than enough to cover his tax bill on the gain.
Investors who joined the rush to buy Facebook stock have suffered since the company was floated.
Despite 460 million shares changing hands in early trading – a record for a public offering in the US – the price of each share had slumped by $7 by the end of the second day on the NASDAQ exchange, and had fallen further to barely half its initial value within three months.
At the close of trading on Friday, Facebook Inc shares were worth $26.85 apiece.
With the share price still languishing, Zuckerberg's holdings in Facebook mean he is now sitting on a paper loss of about $7 billion in the company he founded as a student of computer science at Harvard University in 2004.
The 28-year-old chairman and chief executive officer held 609.5 million Facebook shares on March 31, more than 83 per cent of the company, with a current net worth of more than $16 billion.
The document reveals that Zuckerberg's total remuneration package last year rose by 16 per cent because of increased personal usage of jets chartered by the company as part of his security arrangements.
His actual salary, though, has come down. Though standing at $500,000 in 2012, it was reduced to just $1 on January 1 this year at his own request, along with the removal of his eligibility for annual bonuses.I just got back from the Welcome Home Sarah Palin rally. Still figuring out how to process through the entire experience.
The first noticeable change in downtown Anchorage was the police cars on every corner. I decided to park a distance away and walk to the convention center. There was a small but discernable pattern of people wending their way in the same direction. I figured they were all on the way to the rally. They were.
I approached the Den’aina Center and saw the t-shirt vendors out on the sidewalk. I readied my camera and headed in. A man in a suit stepped in front of me and said, “This is just like the airport.” I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I saw the line and realized they’d be checking my bags when I entered. I remembered I had an Obama button on my camera strap, and I quickly took it off and stuffed it in my wallet. I passed the check, and realized how many secret service guys were around. They weren’t hard to spot. Suits, glasses and wires sticking out of their ears. It almost made me chuckle. If they really wanted to be ‘secret’ that wasn’t the way to do it.
I walked in to the large “Eklutna Room” where the rally was to be held. More TV cameras than I have ever seen in my life were set up on risers all around the room. The room itself, when filled to capacity, holds 5000 people. I tried to eyeball it, and I’d guess there were 1000 or so there. Everyone was pushed into the center of the room where the podium was set up.
I arrived about 45 minutes before it started so I’d get a decent spot. Bad plan. I ended up getting stuck between a guy on my left who kept spontaneously bellowing “WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” at the top of his lungs about 18 inches away from my ear. On my right, the current Mrs. Alaska 2008. How do I know? She was wearing her sash. Next to her was an espresso-fueled couple who kept initiating chants of U-S-A! U-S-A!, and “Gimme an S! Gimme an A! Gimme an R!”…you get the idea.
There were little girls with signs that said ‘I [heart] Sarah’, and people wearing t-shirts with disturbing images of pit bulls in lipstick, and “Hottest Governor in the Coolest State”, and most of them were women. Hockey jerseys were also popular. Part of me wanted to ask everyone if they knew what the McCain-Palin platform actually WAS. But, I kept quiet. Being there by myself was odd. I was just starting to feel really really alone, when they started the motivational music. And you’ll never guess. Bruce Springsteen! It was like a voice of sanity filling the whole room, and it made me smile. I’m sure he wouldn’t be thrilled that his music was being used in this context, and would probably be as bewildered as me at the choice of “Born to Run”, but at that moment I didn’t care. It was a little gift from the universe. I will be forever grateful to ‘the Boss’ for being my little piece of musical driftwood, in a big churning sea of right wing rhetoric.
Then came the pledge of allegiance. A teenage boy in front of me said, “What’re you a communist?” and smacked his brother’s arm so he’d put it over his heart. A small group behind me yelled “UNDER GOD” louder than the rest of the pledge. More chants of U-S-A.
After the invocation, came Lt. Governor Sean Parnell, and Sarah Palin herself. And of course the crowd went wild. Her speech was Alaska focused, and she was definitely talking to the ‘home crowd’. She even made me laugh once, talking about how the secret service motorcade wanted lattes and she told them there was a coffee stand on every corner (which there is), and they parked the cars and got out to place the order at the little window. If you’re in Alaska, you get why this is funny. For those of you ‘outside’, the little window is a drive up.
After the Alaska references, came oil talk, and chants of Drill Baby Drill (initiated by the group on my right), followed by WOOOOOOOOing (by the guy on my left). She didn’t talk long, but the crowd seemed to think it was “worth the wait”. After the speech, she worked her way through the crowd shaking hands. I was pretty close, and maybe got a picture that’s usable. Then I was overcome with the irresistible urge to flee. So I did.
Outside, in the crisp autumn morning, I took a big deep breath. Across the street were two guys holding up a sheet, criticizing Palin’s stance on the Iraq war. One of them was talking to someone with a microphone. I crossed the street, looked at the other guy and gave him a big ‘thumbs up’. He looked completely surprised, as he probably saw me coming from the rally, but quickly flashed a big grateful smile.
And the day has only begun… Next stop, the “Alaska Women Reject Palin” rally. Mental whiplash awaits.
AdvertisementsWatchful Eyes Increase Generosity
Charities may want to add a pair of blinking eyes to their Web-based pleas for donations. That's one implication of new research into the evolutionary roots of generosity.
Researchers have long known that people tend to donate more liberally when they are being watched. The evolutionary explanation is one of self-interest: A generous act may pay off later, while selfishness can come back to bite.
But how hard-wired is that reaction? Humans are known to be acutely aware of when they are being watched -- the result of an involuntary brain response to other eyeballs that offers obvious survival benefits. Is that gaze-detector so strong that even a robot can shame a person into giving more?
To find out, Terence Burnham of Harvard University and Brian Hare of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, enlisted 96 Harvard Business School students |
-based entertainment out there in a moving, talking form – and depending on your own household, most of it is essentially “free”, being beamed into your house with little-to-no intervention. This, in my mind, is actually tamping down much of the enthusiasm for new superhero comic books, unless they’re done with exceptional craft, or are breaking new ground in some fashion. Which the majority of new superhero comics don’t and aren’t.
In some ways, this is the natural outgrowth of the last decade worth of trends in trying to push the comic out into bookstores and to other media – the wider the marketplace, the less space there is for marginal ideas and execution to succeed, (Because markets eventually weed out prime market access to everything except the most profitable material) despite it being slightly easier to barely-hang-on since there are a greater number of eyeballs now looking overall.
The problem is that for physical-based retailers, the sheer explosion of mediocre midlist is essentially untenable: carrying and displaying and handling inventory carries a cost and once you drop below a certain threshold of sales, most of your cash flow isn’t providing an especially large amount of profit (if any). As a general rule, that threshold is almost certainly above a national sales amount of about 20,000 copies – that averages out to something around ten copies per store, and below that we’re not really generating any real profit to handle those books.
Again, I don’t think I am saying anything especially new here – we can all read the sales charts, and do basic math! – but I think it’s critical to Marvel’s 2018-and-beyond plans that you try to rethink your actual publishing and marketing goals and efforts because content changes, alone, won’t move the needle effectively.
I think that the following needs to be done, regardless of any other changes to content:
First and foremost, it’s time to put a stake in the heart of the gated variant cover. I’m not generally a fan of variants in the first place because of the way they distort the marketplace and send the wrong messages to collectors, but putting variants behind “gates” (ie: “you must buy 150% of what you bought of X, in order to buy any copies of Y”) is anti-competitive and a sure way to make retailers are buying products that they can not sell. Dividing retailers into “haves” and “have nots” only makes the weak weaker, and at the end of the day, margins on comics are not so healthy that there’s really any room for stores to purchase material that they can not sell-through, radically reducing profit unless they’re inflating the cost of those variants, which inherently becomes consumer unfriendly. When you’re dealing with a business predicated at least in part upon collectability, telling consumers that they can not access every release is a sure-fire way to turn a percentage of them from the hobby itself.
Second, unless and until individual-title audience-size rises fairly dramatically (which absolutely can be done), there’s really no current Marvel “family” which can properly support more than a single release in any given week, and, to be perfectly honest, virtually none of them can really viably support more than one a month. Marvel has taken crown jewels like “X-Men” that used to sell well more than two hundred thousand copies a month, and reduced them to series that have a hard time reliably hitting over a fifth of that. Even your one real remaining periodical success, “Star Wars”, has dropped by nearly a third once you started ramping up the number of series being produced each month. You’re splitting your own audience, and asking them to choose between your own company’s releases. I think there’s a serious problem when the month a brand new “Star Wars” movie is released, the eponymous comic book sells barely sixty-five thousand copies, and it seems to me that this problem is clearly on Marvel.
Third, the correct publication frequency for the vast majority of periodical comics is monthly. Faster than that and consumers have a really hard time keeping up, retailers get stuck with more unsold product, and you give nothing but encouragement for the market to cut the number of copies entering the market, rather than trying to maximize sales. Highly targeted and marketed, fully-communicated increased shipping can work for books that are on creative- and story-driven highs, but randomly scattering sixteen issues throughout a year on nearly every series, just assuming the customers will absorb all of that yields little but faster churn on “standard attrition”.
As a corollary to that: due to the nature of the non-returnable marketplace, there is no occasion in which it is acceptable to launch a new ongoing series where retailers do not have the full and complete normal FOC cycle for the first four months of release (that is: having the current issue in-hand, with a full week of sales data, before the next issue’s Final order is due) – without some sort of safety mechanism (like: returnability) designed to mitigate the redistribution of risk that brings to the retailer. Weekly, bi-weekly series, these things completely suck to order in the best cases, and the wild swings that new series can have between releases in those initial issues are never the best case.
Fourth, something has to give in terms of pricing – at $3.99 for a bare twenty pages of content, the material has to superlative for the consumer to be willing to support that. There certainly are comics that consumers will pay that price for without blinking twice, but exceptionally few of them are published by Marvel today.
Finally, the comics should be leading the conversation of who and what the characters and stories are, you should not be following other media. Making the Marvel Universe more in lockstep with the MCU is not bringing in new readership and is alienating some older readers. ‘nuff said.
I think a much smaller, much tighter Marvel universe – something much more like 8-10 releases a week, where each and every comic released “counts”, where a normal person could conceivably read them all, and would really want to – is where you want to be. I want in my stores more books where I am selling triple digits, and really none that only move in single digits. I can’t profit from the latter, and they only take away visibility for the former.
You’re Marvel Comics, for god’s sake, a periodical that sells less than fifty thousand copies should be cancelled for damaging the brand!
The last few years of treat-them-like-an-ATM publishing did a lot of harm to Marvel’s brand, and “Legacy” put a horrible cherry on top by promising a lot, and delivering exactly the same thing the market has now rejected over multiple cycles. And the well is poisoned enough that I’m not sure how you’re going to ever get a big retailer buy-in again without dramatically changing the underlying publishing dynamic. It can’t be same old, same old any more, the market itself is very close to fundamentally breaking if something from the Market Leaders doesn’t change significantly, very quickly.
In other words: welcome to the X-Men, hope you survive the experience!
Thanks for listening, and Make Mine Marvel. (Please!)
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Brian Hibbs has owned and operated Comix Experience in San Francisco since 1989, was a founding member of the Board of Directors of ComicsPRO, has sat on the Board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and has been an Eisner Award judge. Feel free to e-mail him with any comments. You can purchase two collections of the first Tilting at Windmills (originally serialized in Comics Retailer magazine) published by IDW Publishing, as well as find an archive of pre-CBR installments right here. Brian is also available to consult for your publishing or retailing program.
Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.
Like this: Like Loading...16th episode of the seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation
"Thine Own Self" is the 168th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the 16th episode of seventh season.
Data, suffering amnesia, unintentionally exposes a primitive alien village to dangerously radioactive materials; Troi takes tests necessary for a promotion from Lt. Commander to Commander.
Plot [ edit ]
Data is sent to Barkon Four, a planet inhabited by a pre-Industrial society "roughly equivalent to that of the Renaissance on Earth"[1] to recover the radioactive remains of a deep space probe that crashed on the planet. However, Data is injured during the recovery, and without memory of who he is or his mission, walks into a village carrying the case of radioactive parts. Garvin, the village magistrate, and his daughter Gia, take Data to their healer, Talur, who determines he must be an "ice-man";[2] Gia names Data "Jaden". Garvin discovers the probe's fragments, unaware of their hazard, and attempts to sell them to make a profit. As the village folk begin to wear the fragments as jewelry, they start to succumb to radiation poisoning, though Talur is unfamiliar with the symptoms. Data uses his own, more scientific methods and concludes that the metal fragments are causing the illnesses, and, with Talur's help, attempts to urge the villagers to get rid of them. Instead, the villagers attack Data, believing him to be the cause for the illness, and cause his mechanical innards to be exposed. When Gia sees this, she is alarmed, but then realizes that Data is trying to help them. Data is able to prepare an antidote for the poisoning, administering it to Garvin and Gia, and doses the entire village by putting the rest of the antidote in the village's well. The villagers, still angry at him, attack Data, apparently killing him. Garvin and Gia bury Data, and bury the metal fragments in the forest outside of town. When Riker and Crusher arrive under the guise of friends of Jaden, they learn of his fate from Gia. Data's body and the metal fragments are beamed to the Enterprise. Data's functions are restored, but he has no memory of his life as "Jaden". He theorizes that his positronic brain must have been overloaded from a power surge from the probe as he recovered the fragments, leading to his memory loss.
A separate plot during these events follows Deanna Troi's efforts to become a bridge officer. She easily passes all of the required examinations except one – a holodeck simulation, supervised by Riker and meant to test her command abilities. After several failed attempts to save a badly damaged Enterprise without putting anyone at risk, Riker gives her a hint on how to succeed – that her first duty is to the ship. Troi realizes that she may not be able to avoid sacrificing some of the crew, and orders the holographic Geordi to perform repairs in a hazardous area that will quickly kill him. She passes the test and earns a promotion to Commander.[3]
Production [ edit ]
Captain Picard appears only briefly in the episode, since it was filmed in December 1993 while Patrick Stewart was appearing in A Christmas Carol on-stage in London.[3]
See also [ edit ]
Goiânia accident, an incident of radioactive contamination in central Brazil with some similarities.
References [ edit ]CTV Montreal
The busloads of asylum seekers arriving at the Olympic Stadium have a long way to go before they can call Canada home.
Ibrahim Yurtseven has been in Canada for ten days while awaiting his hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board.
He fled his homeland fearing arrest, or worse.
"We risk being arrested in Turkey. If they can't find me, for example, at home, they might arrest my family or members of my family," said Yurtseven.
While he came to Canada, his family fled to Greece.
"My best wish, I want to join my family here," he said.
Many of the asylum seekers are Haitians who since the 2010 earthquake had been living under special visas in the United States, but illegally crossed into Canada in hopes of remaining here.
That is not guaranteed by any means, especially since Canada ended its protected visa status for Haitians last year.
Other border-jumpers are from Burundi, Palestine and Syria -- but refugee claimants arrive every day at Canadian airports.
There have been so many arrivals in the past two months that the English Montreal School Board wil open St. Raphael's school as a shelter.
Speaking Friday in Ontario, prime minister Justin Trudeau encouraged people to use official channels to get to Canada.
"Obviously we want want immigration to Canada to be done in an orderly fashion. There's border checkpoints and controls that we need to make sure are respected," said Trudeau.
Asylum seekers will only be sheltered for 30 days, and within two months they will have a hearing at the Immigration and Refugee Board where they will have to prove they have a valid refugee claim.
Immigration lawyer Richard Goldman expects that many people hoping to stay in Canada will be refused.
"The claimants have the complete legal burden of showing they meet the legal definition of refugee, which means they would face persecution back in their country or other serious harm like torture or threat to life," said Goldman.
Yurtseven believes he faces those threats in his native Turkey, and he is desperate to avoid them.
"We hope for a better life, for our children especially," said Yurtseven.
If his claim is accepted, he hopes to continue his career in Canada as a teacher and build a new life in a new land.As Nathan explained a few days ago, several of us at _Gentle Reformation _were at the quadrennial Reformed Presbyterian International Conference last week. A number of people have inquired how they might listen to the messages that were given at the conference, so I thought it would be helpful to have the links collected in one place for easy reference.
Preaching Sessions
Several brothers preached throughout the week. I was grateful to sit under the Word as they brought powerful, relevant, and searching messages to us.
A Child's Powerful Witness (II Kings 5:1-5) | Gordon Keddie
Power. Prayer. Providence. (Ephesians 3:7-21) | Matt Kingswood
Seasoned for the Flames (Matthew 5:1-16) | Jeff Stivason
Can You See It? (Nehemiah 6) | Peter Smith
Plenary Sessions
I spoke five times on the theme of "The Sacrificing Church: Ministering Faithfully as Priests in the Local Congregation."
The Sacrificing Church As a Worshiping Temple (I Peter 2:4-10)
The Sacrificing Church As a Praying Priesthood (Revelation 8:1-5)
The Sacrificing Church As a Believing Community (Romans 12:1-21)
The Sacrificing Church As a Merciful People (James 1:26-2:13)
The Sacrificing Church As a Mission Outpost (Hebrews 10:19-39)Critics say the new government of premier-designate Rachel Notley should immediately rein in extraordinary salaries at Alberta's publicly funded agencies and expose them to scrutiny through the province's so-called sunshine list.
Based on tips from the public, CBC News examined salaries at two arm's length agencies: the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) and Alberta Innovates.
The AFSC gives loans to farmers and small businesses, and also manages the province's crop insurance. Alberta Innovates promotes and conducts research through four branches.
Annual reports show:
AFSC paid President Brad Klak a total, including salary and benefits, of $670,000 in 2013-14 — more than triple the salary of Alberta's premier;
Klak's compensation jumped from $573,000 in 2011-12 to $671,000 in 2012-13, an increase of nearly $100,000;
Seven AFSC executives were paid between $237,000 and $384,000 in 2013-14;
The CEOs of Alberta Innovates' four branches received between $338,000 and $479,000 in total compensation;
Six executives at the Alberta Innovates - Bio Solutions branch received total compensation of between $154,000 and $242,000;
Seven executives at the Technology Futures branch of Alberta Innovates were paid a total of between $272,000 and $364,000.
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said the salaries reveal a "total disconnect" between the reality of Alberta's taxpayers — many struggling to make mortgage and vehicle payments due to the oilpatch downturn — and the boards of these government agencies.
Brad Klak, president of the Agriculture Financial Services Corp. is paid total compensation of $670,000 a year. (Agriculture Financial Services Corporation) "We are hoping that the premier will do something about it," Jean said. "We have certainly talked about it for a long time and how bad it is."
Canadian Taxpayers Federation spokesperson Paige MacPherson said the salaries at Alberta Innovates are "completely out of touch with most of the rest of Albertans' salaries. But also we have to ask the question, what is the point behind these high salaries?
"Who are the people who are making these salaries at Alberta Innovates competing with?" she said. "What was the point of paying them these very, very high salaries?"
Agencies exempted from sunshine list
The New Democrat government did not respond to interview requests from CBC News. But the party's recent campaign platform promised to extend the government's so-called sunshine list to include salaries at the province's agencies, boards and commissions.
Former premier Alison Redford's government introduced the sunshine list in January 2014. It details the compensation given to all government employees who make more than $102,100 annually.
But the list specifically excluded the salaries of employees at government-funded agencies, boards and commissions, including the AFSC and Alberta Innovates. Both agencies, however, list the salaries of senior executives in their annual reports, which are online.
Former premier Jim Prentice began a review of Alberta's boards, agencies, and commissions in September 2014, but announced in January they would continue to be exempt from the sunshine list.
MacPherson called the exemption "completely unreasonable.
"Boards, agencies, commissions, publicly funded entities should all be on the sunshine list," she said.
"We are the shareholders here," she said. "Show us where we are investing our money. Show us where this money is going."
Jean calls for end to cronyism
Jean called on the NDP to end the cronyism and patronage long associated with agencies, boards and commissions.
The six public members of the AFSC board include former Tory MLA George Groeneveld, a Tory party worker from Olds-Didsbury, and two others who have donated to the party.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation spokesperson Paige MacPherson says salaries at agencies, commissions and boards need to be part of the government’s sunshine list. (Canadian Taxpayers Federation) Senior AFSC manager Jim Kiss was a Tory ministerial executive assistant for 14 years before becoming a deputy chief of staff.
"(The Notley government) should make sure the boards are not stacked with Tories, Wildrosers, or NDPers," Jean said. "They should be stacked with people who are actually getting the job done in the best interest of taxpayers."
Through freedom of information, CBC News obtained expenses claimed by some Alberta Innovates executives.
One receipt from the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel details a lavish meal for former Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures CEO Gary Albach and board members Stephen Lougheed — son of Peter Lougheed — Tom Corr, Amit Monga and Ken McKinnon. Also in attendance were unidentified board members of the Alberta Enterprise Corp., a venture-capital fund owned by the Alberta government.
Receipts for expensive meals, wine
The receipt shows the meal started with martinis and single-malt Scotch. During the meal of bison, prime rib and halibut, the board members enjoyed nearly $450 worth of wine, including two cabernets at $140 a bottle.
"Have you ever ordered a $140 bottle of wine?" Jean asked.
"But they think they can get away with doing this kind of stuff on the backs of taxpayers that are working so hard for their money and (the board members), bluntly, have no respect or regard for them at all," he said.
Receipts from Alberta Innovates
Click here to see the documentsThe global steel scrap market will be dominated by Asia by 2020, accounting for over 40 percent of global trade in the commodity by volume, according to the latest research study released by Technavio, a global technology research and advisory company.
Asia is expected to trade over 258 million metric tons of steel scrap in 2020, out of global trade totals of 633 metric tons, according to the Technavio research.
One of the drivers for the growth of steel scrap as an input to the production of new steel in Asia has been the ban on nickel exports from Indonesia. “Nickel ore is widely used for the production of steel in China, which is one of the largest consumers of steel,” explained BJ Chandrakumar, one of Technavio’s lead analysts for metals and minerals research. “The ban on exports by Indonesia has led to a shortage of raw materials. Thus, the use of steel scrap as raw material for the production of steel is increasing.”
In addition, the production of steel has expanded in several countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
The sources of steel scrap are divided into three segments: obsolete scrap, prompt scrap, and home scrap. According to Technavio analysis, by volume, the global obsolete steel scrap market accounted for over 284 million metric tons in 2015. The global prompt steel scrap market accounted for a little over 134 million metric tons in 2015.
The Technavio report did not provide an estimate for the volume of home scrap. Advances in technology have significantly reduced the amount of home steel scrap produced over the years. Home steel scrap is generated within steelmaking mills and foundries and includes left-over pieces of steel from steelmaking, steel and iron recovered from slag processing, and rejected or defective products at the mill, such as side trimmings, crop ends, and other process-related yield losses.
Obsolete scrap is derived from post-consumer products of various industries after the end of product life. These industries include automobiles, appliances, ships, and bridges.
Prompt steel scrap, also called new or industrial scrap, is generated during the manufacturing of steel products. Examples of prompt steel scrap include punched-out pieces of sheet from the manufacture of appliances, skeleton scrap from the production of can ends, turnings from the manufacture of screws and bolts, bumpers at auto stamping plants, and side trimming from the manufacture of hoods. It is sold to the scrap metal industry, which further sells it to steel mills and foundries after processing.
Steel scrap is present in various quality grades, which can be used for numerous purposes. The presence of contaminants lowers the quality of scrap and makes it difficult for separation. “However,” added Chandrakumar, “plants have developed the ability to derive better quality from lower grade steel scrap. These advances have led to an increase in the use of lower quality grades, thus driving the growth of the global steel scrap market.”Almost every culture on Earth frowns on the act of cheating on your partner, and yet, it's a fixture in movies, TV shows, and songs about heartbreak. It's some inarguably crappy behaviour, but why is it so pervasive? Is there any truth to the assumption that humans as a species weren't meant to be monogamous? The latest episode of AsapSCIENCE investigates the chemistry of the wandering eye, and finds that there really is a scientific basis to the saying, "Once a cheater, always a cheater."
Humans fall into the 3 percent of mammals that live their lives in monogamous pairs. We do this because, from an evolutionary stand-point, it's advantageous to pair-up and have one person hunt for resources and the other tend to the offspring. But extra-pair mating - or cheating - has become fairly commonplace in humans these days, despite the threat it poses to the all-important family unit. The culprit? Our good friend, dopamine, the neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres.
Dopamine is released after a whole bunch of pleasurable activities, including exercising, eating, and experiencing an orgasm. Back in 2010, a US study working with 181 volunteers found that 50 percent of those with the long allele variant of the dopamine D4 receptor gene had cheated on their partner, compared to just 22 percent of those who had the short allele. On top of this, the long allele participants were also more likely to be risk-takers and susceptible to addictive behaviours, such as smoking and alcoholism.
It's not just dopamine that's at play here though: the hormone vasopressin also appears to have some kind of role. As AsapSCIENCE explains, vasopressin is similar to the 'cuddle hormone', oxytocin, because it can affect a person's capacity for trust, empathy, and social bonding. Studies done on polygamous voles have found that if you inject extra vasopressin into their brains, it increases their likelihood of becoming monogamous.
On top of that, a 2014 study done on 7,000 Finnish twins found that those who cheated had a particular variant in the gene that codes for a vasopressin receptor - one that gave them lower than average levels of the hormone. So does more vasopressin equal better at being monogamous?
It's hard to know for sure, but there are indications that for some people, being in a monogamous relationship is harder than for others, due to biological and genetic factors. And even if you happen to have none of those, be careful with how you handle your money, because that could lead you on a dangerous path too. Watch AsapSCIENCE above to find out why.Packer Shoes x Stash x Reebok Insta Pump Fury
Three shades of blue fuse together to color the upcoming Packer Shoes x Stash x Reebok Insta Pump Fury. Packer Shoes and Reebok have a history of successful projects together, and this time they bring in another partner to help style this triple collab. Well-known street artist Stash puts his mark on this Insta Pump Fury, continuing his personal momentum on the brand’s silhouettes. Navy, carolina and royal blue style this production, with hints of white and grey mixed in between, with a splattered midsole to boot. Drop a line with your take on this Packer x Stash x Reebok in the feedback box below, and get pumped for this Fury to release on March 15th at select RBK retailers.
Source: HypebeastNEW DELHI: When CAG Shashi Kant Sharma was elected in New York with a thumping majority as a member of the UN Board of Auditors on Friday evening it was an unusual strategic alliance that worked in his favour.China and Pakistan teamed up with India to defeat US-backed the Philippines, and ensure that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India occupies the prestigious post for the next six years. India will replace China as a member of the board, and along with two other members, will audit New York-based UN headquarters, UN peacekeeping operations, UN Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and almost all other key UN bodies.“The UN election and other international positions are testament to the standing that CAG enjoys internationally, as well as to the credibility and impartiality of our audits,” Sharma told TOI in his first response after the election. In fact, it is also the first time that Sharma spoke to the media since he took over in May.When his attention was drawn to criticism from some quarters about CAG audits, Sharma said, “We would continue to carry out our constitutional responsibilities according to the rules. CAG has a very strong tradition, and continues to have a crucial role in the interest of good governance. I don’t intend to explain anything further.”The CAG is expected to set up permanent presence in the New York to discharge its new UN responsibility. In Friday’s election, out of the 186 votes cast, India bagged 124 votes against 62 for the Philippines. The General Assembly appoints three members to the Board of Auditors, who have joint responsibility for all the audits. The present members are the CAGs of Britain and Tanzania and Liu Jiayi, auditor-general of the National Audit Office of the People’s Republic of China.Sharma said that CAG has several other significant roles internationally, and is also looking at providing training and capability building for several other countries. He is the chairperson of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) and also heads a key committee of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions ( INTOSAI ), which look at knowledge sharing and knowledge services committee.The Indian CAG is presently external auditor of the World Food Programme, World Intellectual Property Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, UN World Tourism Organization and the International Organization for Migration. In recent past, CAG has also been the external auditor of UN Agencies such as the World Health Organization, Food and Agricultural Organization, International Maritime Organization, Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons etc.A version of this essay was originally published at Tech.pinions, a website dedicated to informed opinions, insight and perspective on the tech industry.
These days, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that anything really important in tech only happens in the cloud. After all, that’s where all the excitement, investment and discussion seems to be. And there are indeed innumerable efforts to not only build software for the cloud, but also to use the cloud to completely reinvent companies or even industries.
As important as these cloud-based developments may be, however, they shouldn’t supercede many of the equally exciting capabilities being brought to life on the edge of today’s networks. While these endpoints, or edge devices, used to be limited to smartphones, PCs and tablets, there’s now an explosion of new options for creating, manipulating, viewing, analyzing and storing data. From VR headsets to smart digital assistants to intelligent tractors, the range of edge devices is enormous and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Companies like Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm and ARM, as well as system integrators like Harman, all see connected cars as essentially “the” computing device of the next decade or so.
In addition, we’re starting to see the appearance of entirely new types of distributed computing architectures that can break up large workloads across different elements. Admittedly, some of this can get pretty messy fast, but suffice it to say that many types of modern applications, such as voice-based computing, big (and little!) data analytics, factory automation, and real-time document collaboration tools all require the efforts and coordination of several different layers of computing, including pieces that live out on the edge.
On the industrial side of this work, there’s a relatively new industry group called the OpenFog Consortium — originally organized by companies like Cisco, ARM, Dell and Microsoft — that has been working to try and standardize some of these elements and how they can be used in these types of modern applications. The group gets its somewhat confusing name from the concept of applying cloud-like computing principles close to the ground (i.e., near the edge or endpoint) — similar to how clouds near the ground are perceived as fog in the real world.
In many fog computing applications, sensor data from an endpoint device or attached straight into a simple server-like computer (sometimes called a “gateway”) is acted upon by that gateway to trigger certain actions or perform certain types of tasks. After that, the data is also forwarded on up the chain to more powerful servers that typically do live in the cloud for advanced data analysis.
Intel’s plan to purchase Mobileye is just the latest in a string of key developments in this market, and it’s not likely to be the last.
Probably the best example of an advanced-edge computing element is a connected autonomous (or even semi-autonomous) car. Thanks to a combination of enormous amounts of sensor data, critical local processing power, and an equally essential need to connect back to more advanced data analysis tools in the cloud, autonomous cars are seen as the poster child of advanced-edge computing. Throw in the wide range of different types of computing elements required for assisted or autonomous driving, and it’s easy to see why so many companies are making major acquisitions in this space. Intel’s plan to purchase Mobileye, announced yesterday, for example, is just the latest in a string of key developments in this market, and it’s not likely to be the last. MobileEye’s components will bring computer vision and other critical elements of connected car-based computing to Intel’s rapidly growing grab bag of complimentary technologies.
On the semiconductor side, companies like Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm and ARM, as well as system integrators like Harman (recently purchased by Samsung) all see connected cars as essentially “the” computing device of the next decade or so, just as smartphones have been for the last decade. That’s another reason why there’s so much excitement — and so many battles looming — in and around car tech. Add in the carriers, network providers, car OEMs, other tier-one suppliers and a raft of startups,and the stage is set for an intricate and complex competitive dance for years to come.
While it’s tempting to long for the simpler days of computing devices, where everything occurred locally, or even a pure cloud-based world, where everything happens in remote data centers, the simple truth is that today’s advanced applications require much more sophisticated hybrid designs. Building out a cloud-based infrastructure and cloud-based software tools was a critical step along this computing evolution chain, but it’s clear that the most interesting and exciting developments moving forward are going to be pushing advanced computing out onto the edge.
Bob O’Donnell is the founder and chief analyst of Technalysis Research LLC, a technology consulting and market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. Reach him @bobodtech.Tesla Sales Model Rejected In Texas Despite Citizen Support
June 11th, 2013 by Zachary Shahan
As we noted back in April, 80% of polled Texans thought that Tesla should be allowed to directly sell its vehicles to consumers.
Even a former Texas car dealer, Sterling McCall, wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle on why he thought Tesla should be able to. As part of that, Sterling wrote:
As a 40-year franchise automobile dealer in Texas, I think it’s time we updated our laws to better embrace competition and reflect the realities of today’s marketplace. That’s why I support legislation now being considered at the state Capitol that would allow U.S.-based manufacturers of 100 percent electric vehicles who have never been granted a franchise dealership to sell directly to Texas consumers. It’s a change that’s needed because manufacturers like Tesla don’t fit the traditional model for a volume retail dealership, not having or needing the full and extensive range of service, parts, new and used vehicle departments.
“It’s something the public wants. Ninety-nine percent of respondents to a Los Angeles Times online poll said that Tesla ought to be allowed to conduct direct sales of its cars. Right here in Texas, 87 percent of respondents in an Austin Business Journal online poll agree, too.”
In a similar manner to the above extended quote, Tesla itself wrote:
The Tesla sales and service model is based on direct customer relationships, without an intermediary licensed dealership. This is fundamentally different from the traditional dealership model just as an electric vehicle is fundamentally different from a gas powered car. Electric vehicles simply cannot be sold side by side with gas vehicles because they will always be a minority item in terms of sales and service volume. Existing franchise dealers have an inherent conflict of interest between selling gasoline cars, which constitute the vast majority of their business, and selling the new technology of electric cars. It is impossible for them to explain the advantages of going electric without simultaneously undermining their traditional business. Simple math shows no traditional dealer is incented to sell an electric vehicle with the same enthusiasm as the rest of their inventory.
Unfortunately, approval for the new model all had to go through the Texas legislature, which was heavily lobbied by the Texas Automobile Dealers Association to reject the proposal.
Michael Graham Richard of TreeHugger aptly notes: “That’s very sad, especially in a state that pretends to be more about free enterprise than most. Either a dealership structure adds value to the process of selling cars, in which case a company like Tesla will be disadvantaged without it and the dealerships don’t need special protection. Or they don’t add value to the process, in which case they don’t deserve special treatment…”
And, the nail in the coffin (unless Tesla makes this a national effort), is that the bill “failed to make it to the floor of the Texas House or Senate for voting before the regular session came to a close on May 27,” which won’t open again until 2015.
In other words, thanks to the Texas legislature, it’s much harder for a Texan to buy a Tesla vehicle than it could be. Why? Apparently because a number of businessmen and politicians are scared of have a more free market system in the state. Ironic.Profesii
Topul celor mai căutate joburi din 2015: peste două milioane de români au încercat să se angajeze în vânzări, logistică sau în sectorul administrativ
Autor: Mihaela Pascari 2091
Vânzările, logistica, sectorul financiar- contabilitate şi relaţii clienţi au fost domeniile care au strâns anul acesta cele mai multe CV-uri ale românilor aflaţi în căutarea unui loc de muncă, potrivit datelor furnizate de reprezentanţii site-ului de recrutare eJobs, cel mai mare portal de recrutare din România.
Platforma de recrutare online eJobs a pus la dispoziţie candidaţilor aflaţi în căutarea unui loc de muncă peste 250.000 de poziţii anul acesta, dintre care peste 9.000 au fost poziţii deschise în sectorul vânzărilor, sector care a avut peste 1,4 milioane de aplicanţi.
„Cel mai dinamic domeniu din punct de vedere al recrutării rămâne cel al vânzărilor, inclusiv datorită rotaţiei de personal superioare pe acest tip de poziţii”, spune Andrei Frunză, directorul operaţional al eJobs, platformă deţinuă de grupul de media Ringier.
Cele mai multe posturi scoase anul acesta la concurs prin intermediul eJobs au fost anul acesta în sectoarele vânzări (9.701 poziţ |
bipartisan board while expanding the power of the chief executive. Politico reported last month that the leading contender for the CEO gig is Michael Pack, president of the conservative Claremont Institute, who served as vice president for television programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and worked with White House chief strategist and former Breitbart News chairman Stephen K. Bannon on two documentaries.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors has not announced a leadership change, and a spokeswoman said she “can’t discuss personnel issues.” It is worth noting, however, that the Claremont Institute said last week that its chief operating officer, Ryan Williams, will succeed Pack on Sept. 1, possibly indicating that Pack is readying for a new job. Pack referred a Fix inquiry about his future to a Claremont spokeswoman who said “we do not have that information, as no official announcements regarding a nomination have been made.”
In the meantime, two former Trump campaign aides, Matthew Ciepielowski and Matthew Schuck, have worked alongside incumbent chief executive John Lansing, reporting back to the Trump administration on the operations of Voice of America and its sister outlets. Nasserie Carew, the Broadcasting Board of Governors spokeswoman, said she “can emphasize that neither Matthew Ciepielowski nor Matthew Schuck have been involved in any editorial processes at VOA or any of our networks.”
Bennett vouched for that claim: “They have not just had zero influence on my coverage; they’ve never suggested anything.”
Bennett, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and executive editor of Bloomberg News, said she understands journalists' worries about Voice of America's independence. She shared them when considering the director's position early last year.
“My concern coming here, since I came from a 35-plus-year background in media and had no interest in doing anything different, was to check historically how is the firewall respected,” Bennett said, referring to the divide between administration objectives and journalistic decisions. “I talked to every director I could get access to … and they all said the same thing: It was taken very seriously.”
I mentioned Trump's remarks at the news conference in Warsaw, delivered hours earlier, and asked whether Bennett frets about the prospect of future interference, based on Trump's attitude toward the media.
“I’m not sure how to talk about hypotheticals,” Bennett replied. “All I can talk about is what I’ve seen so far. If I see things that are said — and are accompanied by actions — then I’m going to worry greatly and this entire organization will worry greatly.”
“Accompanied by actions” is the key phrase there. According to Bennett, the president's rhetoric has not been attended by even the slightest attempt to alter coverage in his favor. Until she sees otherwise, Voice of America's director is giving Trump the benefit of the doubt.Whenever I think “gamma ray observatory”, impressive orbiting platforms come to mind like NASA’s massive 17 metric ton Compton Gamma Ray Observatory launched in 1991 or maybe some of its more modest brethren launched over the decades before or since like NASA’s 4.3 metric ton Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST) currently gathering data in orbit. Surprisingly, the very first gamma ray observatory was actually a tiny satellite called Explorer 11 launched over half a century ago near the dawn of the Space Age. And with a payload mass of only 37 kilograms, it qualifies as a microsatellite as it is generally defined today (i.e. a satellite with a mass between 10 and 100 kilograms). What is all the more impressive was what was gleaned from the analysis of its meager data set which amounted to just 22 gamma rays detected from beyond the Earth during its seven months of operation.
The Satellite & Payload
Gamma rays are the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation and are generated only by the most powerful processes involving atomic nuclei as well as highly energetic particle interactions. Because of this, gamma ray astronomy deals with the most violent imaginable events in the Universe. Since our atmosphere shields the Earth’s surface from gamma rays, one must get above Earth’s atmosphere to detect them. Even detectors carried to high altitudes by balloons, as was first done in 1957, would have a difficult time unambiguously detecting celestial gamma rays because of the larger number of gamma rays produced by the interactions of the thin atmosphere that is still above the balloon with the constant rain of cosmic rays. As a result, it was recognized early on that a satellite was the best means of unambiguously detecting celestial gamma rays especially in the lower energy range.
Explorer 11, designated as payload S-15 by NASA before its launch, was one of the “second generation” Explorer satellites. Unlike the “first generation” Explorers 1 through 5 that were orbited by the Juno I launch vehicle (which was limited to a payload of about 11 kilograms), this new series of Explorer satellites employed the larger Juno II originally developed by Wernher von Braun and his team at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama (which became NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center). The cluster of spinning solid rocket motors that formed the upper stages of the Juno I were retained on the Juno II but the modified Redstone first stage was replaced with a stretched version of the much larger Jupiter IRBM increasing the orbital payload to about 45 kilograms in the process. While the Juno II was kludged together from a variety of components and was far from an ideal satellite launch vehicle, it provided NASA with a means of launching science payloads into Earth orbit while more capable, purpose-built launch vehicles like Scout and Delta were being developed (see “Vintage Micro: The Second-Generation Explorer Satellites“).
Development of the gamma ray detection payload at the heart of Explorer 11 was started in 1958 by a team led by William L. Kraushaar and George W. Clark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The compact instrument they developed was designed to detect gamma rays with an energy in excess of about 50 MeV within a 17° angle of the long axis of the satellite. Because the flux of cosmic rays and other forms of energetic radiation would be over three orders of magnitude higher than the gamma rays they sought, Kraushaar and Clark designed a clever, three-part detection scheme to filter out the unwanted signals.
The first part of the instrument was a scintillation detector consisting of five alternating layers of cesium iodide and sodium iodide crystals. A gamma ray entering this detector has a high probability of interacting with the atoms in these layered crystals producing an electron-positron pair (which would continue to travel forward in the same general direction as the incident gamma ray) as well as a flash of light that would subsequently be detected using photomultiplier tubes. If the incident gamma ray was traveling within ±17° of the central axis of the detector, one or both of the particles in this electron-positron pair would then enter a Cerenkov counter consisting of a block of transparent plastic producing another flash of light that would be detected by another set of photomultiplier tubes. A pair of simultaneous flashes in both parts of this coincidence detector would indicate the possible detection of a gamma ray within the 34° wide field of view of the instrument.
In order to eliminate the possibility that this signal was actually the result of a cosmic ray or other energetic charged particle, the instrument was surrounded on the front and sides by more clear plastic that acted as an anticoincidence detector. An unwanted energetic charged particle would produce a flash of light as it passes through this block of clear plastic (which would be detected by another set of photomultiplier tubes) while an electrically neutral gamma ray photon would not. A flash detected by this anticoincidence filter would veto any signal simultaneously detected by the central part of the detector filtering out the unwanted signal. In the end, only a signal produced simultaneously in the scintillation and Cerenkov detectors but not accompanied by a signal in the anticoincidence detector would be recorded as a gamma ray detection.
In addition to the gamma ray detector with its power supply and its state-of-the-art transistor-based detection and logic circuits, Explorer 11 also included a telemetry and command system as well as a tape recorder to save data when the satellite was not within range of a ground tracking station. The exterior housing of the payload was covered with solar cells to charge the payload’s batteries during its operating life in orbit. Data received by the ground stations were recorded on magnetic tape that were subsequently forwarded to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland where the data were transferred to photographic film via a multichannel oscilloscope. This film data were then forwarded to MIT where they were reduced and analyzed with the aid of a then state-of-the art, fully transistorized IBM 7090 computer at the MIT Computation Center (for those who want a good chuckle, the IBM 7090 had enough memory for 32k words at 32-bits per word and a computational speed of 100 kiloflops per second – insignificant by today’s standards). The data, when fully analyzed, allowed the time of a gamma ray detection to be ascertained to a typical accuracy of 0.1 seconds.
Unlike the other second generation Explorer satellites, the spent fourth stage of the Juno II was intentionally left attached to the payload once Explorer 11 was in orbit (just as was the case with Explorer 1 and the other first generation Explorer satellites) giving the satellite a total in-orbit mass of 43.2 kilograms. Since the satellite was too small and simple to accommodate any sort of attitude control system to point its gamma ray detector, an ingenious means was found to have the satellite scan the entire sky for gamma ray sources.
During ascent, the cluster of solid rocket motors that served as the upper three stages of the Juno II were spun at 340 RPM to provide stability. Without any perturbing forces, the fourth stage-satellite configuration would keep spinning indefinitely with a fixed orientation with respect to the celestial sphere. But since this long, top heavy configuration is unstable, subtle perturbing forces from magnetic torques would cause the satellite’s axis of rotation to wobble increasingly over the course of a couple weeks. Eventually the satellite would end up spinning in a more stable configuration about its short axis like a propeller at a rate of 5 RPM scanning a 34° wide swath across the sky with each revolution. A precession rate of about 10° per day would allow the entire celestial sphere to be scanned over the course of a couple of weeks. Light sensors, which would detect the position of bright objects like the Earth and Sun, and a careful measurement of how the strength of the satellite’s transmitted signal varied over time allowed the scientists to determine where the gamma ray detector was pointed at any given time to an accuracy of a few degrees.
The Mission & Scientific Results
Explorer 11 was successfully launched into a 497-by-1,793 kilometer orbit with an inclination of 28.8° by Juno II Round AM-19E on April 27, 1961. As it turned out, this was the last successful launch of the Juno II before it was retired after the unsuccessful launch attempt of Explorer S-45a less than a month later. With the apogee slightly higher than planned, the satellite would briefly enter the lower reaches of the Van Allen radiation belt during each orbit saturating the gamma ray detection electronics during this part of the orbit and degrading the solar cells over time reducing the satellite’s expected lifetime as a result. Aside from this and the failure of the tape recorder (which limited data collections to real-time detections when Explorer 11 was being tracked from a ground station), the world’s first orbiting gamma ray observatory was ready to make observations.
The initial spinning mode about the long axis of Explorer 11 continued for the first two weeks in orbit. Starting May 16, the cone of motion opened up quickly and by May 19 the satellite had, for all practical purposes, started spinning end over end. The initial period rotation was 12 seconds which increased to about 15 seconds over the next seven months. Explorer 11 operated normally for the first two months but a worsening problem with the power supply over the following five months resulted in varying proportions of unusable data. The transmitter was finally turned off by ground command after 224 days in orbit when the power supply voltage had permanently fallen below usable levels.
Despite the loss of the tape recorder and the issues with the power supply, Explorer 11 secured 141 hours of data acquired from 6,000 useful tracking station passes with 250,000 tumbles during its seven months of operation. Out of a the 1,021 “events” that were accepted by the gamma ray detector’s logic circuits, a total of 22 were determined to be gamma rays from celestial sources (as opposed to gamma rays that definitely were or could have been from cosmic ray-induced events in the Earth’s atmosphere or otherwise questionable data). While it was difficult to make any definitive statements from such a statistically small sample, some broad conclusions were able to be drawn from an analysis of just these 22 gamma ray detections.
First, it was obvious that there are no unexpectedly strong gamma ray sources in the sky. As a result, only rough upper limits could be set for the gamma ray flux from various sources (e.g. the Sun, the center of our galaxy, nearby galaxies or various known active galactic nuclei). The average detection rate of 2.4 gamma rays per hour was about an order of magnitude or so higher than had been predicted to result from the interaction of high energy cosmic rays with interstellar hydrogen hinting that other processes (e.g. high energy electrons in intergalactic space) were responsible for the observed gamma ray intensity. With so few recorded detections, there was no clear statistical correlation evident with galactic latitude. Today, with far better and larger gamma ray detectors, we know that gamma rays preferentially come from the galactic center and from sources clustered along the galactic equator in addition to transient gamma ray bursts from distant sources far beyond our galaxy.
But even more important than what was seen was what Explorer 11 did not see. Half a century ago, the Steady State Theory of the Universe was quite popular. In this cosmological theory, new material in the form of matter and antimatter was constantly being produced to fill the ever expanding Universe. But unless there was some special unknown mechanism at work that somehow kept the matter and antimatter apart indefinitely, eventually the antiprotons produced would encounter normal protons and emit gamma rays that Explorer 11 could detect at an estimated rate of 3,000 per hour. The lack of such a detections was one more piece of evidence against the Steady State Theory bolstering the relatively new alternative model, the Big Bang Theory, for the origin of the Universe. While it would be several years before an improved gamma ray detector would be flown in orbit, the experience of Explorer 11 just goes to prove how a simple experiment flown on a microsatellite can change the scientific view of the Universe around us.
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Related Reading
“Vintage Micro: The Second-Generation Explorer Satellites”, Drew Ex Machina, September 3, 2015 [Post]
“Vintage Micro: The Amateur Space Telescope”, Drew Ex Machina, April 16, 2014 [Post]
General References
Josef Boehm, Hans J. Fichtner, and Otto A. Hoberg, “Explorer Satellites Launched by Juno 1 and Juno 2 Space Carrier Vehicles”, in Aeronautical Engineering and Science, Ernst Stuhlinger, Frederick I. Ordway III, Jerry C. McCall, and George C. Bucher (editors), pp. 218-239, McGraw-Hill, 1963
Ray V. Hembree, Charles A. Lundquist, and Arthur W. Thompson, “Scientific Results from Juno-Launched Spacecraft”, in Aeronautical Engineering and Science, Ernst Stuhlinger, Frederick I. Ordway III, Jerry C. McCall, and George C. Bucher (editors), pp. 281-297, McGraw-Hill, 1963
W.L. Kraushaar and G.W. Clark, “Gamma Ray Astronomy”, Scientific American, Vol. 206, No. 5, pp. 52-61, May 1962
W. Kraushaar et al., “Explorer XI Experiment on Cosmic Gamma Rays”, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 141, No. 3, pp. 845-864, April 1, 1965Video: AB de Villiers involved in one of the funniest run-outs of all time
Vivek Krishnan FOLLOW ANALYST News 740.58K // 19 Aug 2014, 15:57 IST SHARE Share Options × Facebook Twitter Flipboard Reddit Google+ Email
It looks like the South African captain AB de Villiers got a little too eager in the ongoing One Day International match against Zimbabwe, resulting in one of the funniest run-outs of all time. He clipped a ball sliding towards leg off the bowling of Prosper Utseya and started running for a single, thinking that the ball had gone past the wicket-keeper, Richmond Mutumbami.
But to the right-hander’s misery, the ball had fallen right next to Mutumbami after he had failed to collect it properly on the first attempt. By the time De Villiers realised this, it was too late, as the gloveman had picked the ball up, to run the batsman out comfortably.Winter is coming and Stelco Holdings Inc.’s steel plant on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie is stocking up for the stormy months ahead. Iron ore from Minnesota and Appalachian coal are streaming off ships on conveyor belts toward the blast furnace and coke ovens. Behind the docks, 25-ton coils of steel are lined up for shipment, still radiating heat three days after they were produced.
After decades of crisis, a renewed sense of purpose has settled over the 107-year-old company, which just completed the first initial public offering of a North American steelmaker in seven years. The question hanging over the reinvigorated enterprise is whether Stelco is finally on the cusp of sustained profitability, or whether it will wilt in an industry dominated by global giants and cheap Asian producers.
In the pantheon of great Canadian corporate names, Stelco doesn’t exactly scream confidence. The Hamilton, Ontario-based Steel Company of Canada was once the country’s biggest producer, with a workforce of 25,000 in the 1970s.
It’s since gone through two stints in creditor protection while it struggled with operating losses, bitter labour relations, high debts and pension deficits. Its most recent owner, U.S. Steel Corp., plucked some of Stelco’s best contracts and abandoned what was left of the company in 2015. Ahead, the winter freeze is the least of its worries as protectionist moves in the U.S. threaten to restrain its ability to expand in North America.
Who in their right mind would want to take control of such a business?
Meet Alan Kestenbaum, the 55-year-old Brooklyn-born turnaround artist who’s now Stelco’s principle owner and chief executive. Where others see a picked-over carcass, Kestenbaum sees an agile global player. Where some see old facilities and a potentially fractious workforce, Kestenbaum talks up unused capacity, strategic locations on the Great Lakes and fixable labour relations.
Investors seem willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now. Stelco’s stock is up almost 13 per cent since the company’s $17-a-share early-November IPO, giving it a market value of about $1.7 billion (US$1.3 billion). Bank of Montreal analyst David Gagliano initiated coverage with an outperform rating and a price target of $23, saying, “Stelco represents a compelling investment vehicle within the North American steel sector.”
Purchased through Kestenbaum’s Miami-based private equity firm Bedrock Industries Group LLC in June, Stelco has major advantages over some of its predecessors and competitors. After $4.4 billion of debt and pension obligations were eliminated through a restructuring that ended this year, Stelco has a clean balance sheet, along with $230 million of fresh cash raised in the IPO. The company says in its prospectus its total costs are “among the lowest in North America” and it expects its margins to expand as it uses more of its assets and regains lost volume.
What’s more, Kestenbaum has a track record of finding and turning around struggling metal companies at Miami-based Globe Specialty Metals Inc., which he bought for US$1 million in 2006. After 11 acquisitions and a merger with Grupo FerroAtlantica, London-based Ferroglobe Plc is now worth about US$2.7 billion. Kestenbaum believes he can achieve similar returns at Stelco.
“Two or three more acquisitions down the road and we’ll turn around and we’ll be $6 billion, $7 billion, $8 billion, why not?,” Kestenbaum says in an interview at Stelco’s Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, Ontario.
The company declined to say how much Bedrock invested in the Stelco acquisition.
Joe Ragan, who worked as Kestenbaum’s chief financial officer at Globe Specialty Metals, says the man has “the magic.”
Two or three more acquisitions down the road and we (will) turn around and we (will) be $6 billion, $7 billion, $8 billion, why not? Alan
“He always gets an extraordinary deal for the assets he buys,” Ragan, now Ferroglobe’s CFO, says of his former boss. “He’s got a very sharp acuity on how to structure a deal to get a really good value.”
The origins of Kestenbaum’s grand gamble on the Great Lakes trace back to an unsavoury dispute over 40 cents.
While he was still at Globe Specialty Metals, that company acquired a ferro-silicon facility in Bridgeport, Alabama from a New York-based hedge fund. When Kestenbaum looked into the situation, he was appalled at the way the workers had been treated.
“All around this facility I saw probably the poorest neighborhood I’ve ever seen in my life. These are US$5,000 homes and kids walking around without shoes,” he recalls. “And I remember sitting with this hedge fund manager at the plant and he was bragging to me how he knocked 40 cents an hour off the workers, US$3.20 a day, for a savings of US$100,000 a year.”
When the deal closed, the first thing Kestenbaum did was to give workers back the 40 cents an hour.
That move came to the attention of Leo Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers union, who asked to meet him. “I thought that was pretty unique,” Gerard said by phone from Pittsburgh.
A few years later, Gerard suggested Kestenbaum take a look at a Canadian steelmaker languishing in bankruptcy protection. Kestenbaum’s interest was piqued. “This is part of the payback for the lousy US$100,000 I gave to those workers in Alabama,” he says.
A productive labour relationship would be a sea change for Stelco. When it was a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, the company locked out workers three separate times, was sued by the Canadian government for breaking employment promises after the financial crisis and finally shut the Hamilton blast furnace in 2013.
“Hamilton was an Academy Award performance on both sides of how you do bad labour relations,” said Peter Warrian, a senior fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs who is a former USW research director. “They both heavily invested in rewarding the wrong behaviour.”
The Kestenbaum era looks like it’s off to a better start. He has already secured a five-year agreement with the remaining 1,650 hourly workers, and he’s made symbolic changes, such as allowing the union to fly its flag at the plants and inviting workers to a bell-ringing ceremony at the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Forces beyond Kestenbaum’s control have also been moving in Stelco’s favour. Steel prices have been rising as China, the world’s biggest producer, takes steps to reduce output to cut pollution and close illegal and inefficient plants, while prices for key inputs iron ore and metallurgical coal have declined in the past year.
The near-term picture, though, looks less rosy. The unpredictability of the North American Free Trade Agreement talks is a risk for Stelco and its ability to win U.S. contracts. If Stelco gets through that unscathed, the Trump administration may still follow through on threats to slap tariffs on steel imports, or otherwise ramp up Buy American provisions limiting the use of foreign steel.
The company is hinging a good part of its growth on winning contracts in the auto industry, which used to be an important part of its business before U.S. Steel migrated many of those contracts to its U.S. plants. This is where a collapse of NAFTA, which favours North American automakers, could really pose a “unique threat” to Stelco, Warrian said.
U.S. Steel doesn’t comment on its commercial relationships or labour relations of other companies, spokeswoman Meghan Cox said in an email.
Stelco will have to offer lower prices to compete with its former parent company and other major players, and that won’t be easy without scale, said James May, managing director of Toronto-based price forecaster Steel-Insight. “They’re screwed in a downturn,” when smaller companies will have to discount their price in order to generate sales, May said.
Kestenbaum says his new company is ready for the worst. On the threat of reduced access to the U.S., he points out he’s also looking to boost sales to Mexico and Europe, taking advantage of the company’s location on the Great Lakes. And he says he’ll be more careful than previous owners in preserving a clean balance sheet.
“You don’t take on debt that can only be repaid in optimal market conditions,” he says.
Back on the Lake Erie dock, the CEO will soon begin ramping up exports from a port that was primarily built for imports, with a goal of eventually exporting 500,000 to 1 million tons of steel a year to customers around the world.
“We look at ourselves as a global player,” Kestenbaum says.
–With assistance from Joe Deaux.
Bloomberg.comThis week, actor Riz Ahmed, a Muslim who has starred in Rogue One, spoke to Parliament in Britain. There, he explained that if television didn’t stop casting so many white people in prominent parts, young Muslim men would join ISIS.
Seriously.
He explained:
If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism. In the mind of the ISIS recruit, he’s the next James Bond, right? Have you seen some of those ISIS propaganda videos, they are cut like action movies? Where is the counter narrative? Where are we telling these kids they can be heroes in our stories, that they valued?....People are looking for the message that they belong, that they are part of something, that they are seen and heard and that despite, or perhaps because of, their experience, they are valued. They want to feel represented. In that task we have failed. If we don’t step up and tell a representative story…we are going to start losing British teenagers to the story that the next chapter in their lives is written with ISIS in Syria.
So, how did Ahmed become an actor? People he knew pushed him to follow his dream. His mother, he said, would shout “ASIAN!” every time an Asian actor appeared on television. “I really want you to understand how much that meant to someone who doesn’t see themselves reflected back in culture. It’s a message that you matter.”
This is asinine in every conceivable way.
First off, it’s rather Islamophobic to assume that Muslim youths who don’t see a Muslim James Bond will up and join ISIS. I didn’t see a lot of Orthodox Jews on television growing up. Somehow, I didn’t end up a member of the Neturei Karta. But this is the sort of patronizing nonsense in which the left routinely engages regarding Muslims and other supposed “victim groups” – that if they don’t see enough people “like them” in positions of power, they’ll go bad.
There’s no proof that lack of self esteem springing from failure of the dominant culture to feature your own culture leads to violence and terrorism. Instead, there’s a simple solution to Muslim parents who want to keep their children from joining ISIS: teach children not to value murder and terrorism, and don’t expose them to influences who do.
There is a broader point to be made here, too: the left consistently suggests that everyone is looking for cultural role models in order to live a good life. That’s foolishness, too. Hillary Clinton preached this in 2016: if she were elected, little girls everywhere would believe they could be president. Barack Obama preached it in 2008: if he was elected, little black children would believe they could be president. Is there any evidence whatsoever that the lives of black children were markedly changed by President Obama’s mere accession to the office?
Self-esteem isn’t the key to avoiding bad behavior. Virtue is. And we should all be able to root for virtuous heroes, no matter their color or background. To segment such heroes off into race, gender, and religion means to water down virtue into polarizing multicultural politics. I spent my youth dressing up as John Adams every Purim because I loved the movie 1776. Adams was not an Orthodox Jew. He was a hero. He was my cultural hero.
I didn’t need a guy wearing a yarmulke on television to teach me how to be a hero. I had my cultural heroes.
I also had my family. I had my dad – a real hero wearing a yarmulke – in my life every day. I had my mom, working as an Orthodox Jew in Hollywood, to model behavior. Those who look to culture for inspiration will be disappointed if they look for someone “just like them” in every way. They should instead look for virtue wherever they can find it.For the newspaper that ran from 1833 to 1950, see The Sun (New York City)
The New York Sun was an American[1][2] daily newspaper published in Manhattan from 2002 to 2008. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York paper, The Sun (1833–1950). It became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started in New York City in several decades. Its op-ed page became a prominent platform in the country for conservative viewpoints. Since 2009 The Sun has operated as an online-only publisher of political and economic opinion pieces, as well as occasional arts content.
History [ edit ]
The Sun was founded by a group of investors including publishing magnate Conrad Black. The goal was to provide an alternative to The New York Times, featuring front page news about local and state events, in contrast to the emphasis on national and international news by the Times. The Sun began business operations, prior to first publication, in October 2001.[3]
The newspaper's president and editor-in-chief was Seth Lipsky, former editor of The Jewish Daily Forward. Managing editor Ira Stoll also served as company vice-president. Stoll had been a longtime critic of the Times in his media watchdog blog smartertimes.com.[4] When smartertimes.com became defunct, its Web traffic was redirected to The Sun web site.
Published from the Cary Building in Lower Manhattan, it ceased print publication on September 30, 2008.[5] Its web site resumed activity on April 28, 2009,[6] but only contains a small subset of the original content of the paper, mostly focusing on editorials rather than news content.
The paper's motto, which it shared with its predecessor and namesake, was "It Shines For All".
Editorial perspective and reception [ edit ]
Editor-in-chief Lipsky said that the paper's prominent op-ed page would champion "limited government, individual liberty, constitutional fundamentals, equality under the law, economic growth... standards in literature and culture, education".[7] Another goal, said Lipsky, was "to seize the local beat from which The New York Times was retreating as it sought to become a national newspaper".[8] Stoll characterized The Sun's political orientation as "right-of-center",[9] and an associate of Conrad Black predicted in 2002 that the paper would be neoconservative in its outlook.[4] Unsigned editorials in the paper advocated prosecuting Iraq War protestors for treason (2003),[10][11] nominating Dick Cheney for the presidency (2007),[12] and lowering, rather than raising, the debt ceiling in response to the debt ceiling crisis (2013).[13]
The Sun's columnists included prominent conservative and neoconservative pundits, including William F. Buckley, Jr., Michael Barone, Daniel Pipes, and Mark Steyn.
The Sun supported President George W. Bush and his decision to launch the Iraq War in 2003.[3] The paper also urged strong action against the perceived threat of the Islamic Republic of Iran [3] and also was known for its forceful coverage of Jewish-related issues,[14] and advocacy for Israel's right of self-defense,[3][9][14] as evidenced in articles by pro-Israel reporter Aaron Klein.
The Sun established a readership niche for itself foremost in New York.[citation needed] Alex Jones of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy said, "It was a newspaper especially savored by people who don't like The New York Times, and there are plenty of those in New York."[3] The paper also scored more scoops than would be expected for its size and Stephen B. Shepard, dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York said that its effective coverage of local news earned it a place in the New York media world.[3] Accordingly, it was known as a good place for young, ambitious, scrappy reporters to start out.[15]
According to Scott Sherman, writing in The Nation in April 2007, The Sun was "a broadsheet that injects conservative ideology into the country's most influential philanthropic, intellectual and media hub; a paper whose day-to-day coverage of New York City emphasizes lower taxes, school vouchers and free-market solutions to urban problems; a paper whose elegant culture pages hold their own against the Times in quality and sophistication; a paper that breaks news and crusades on a single issue; a paper that functions as a journalistic SWAT team against individuals and institutions seen as hostile to Israel and Jews; and a paper that unapologetically displays the scalps of its victims."[16]
In the same article, Mark Malloch Brown, Kofi Annan's chief of staff at the United Nations, described The Sun as "a pimple on the backside of American journalism." According to Sherman, Brown "accepts that the paper's obsession with the UN translates into influence... he admitted the Sun "does punch way above its circulation number, on occasion". He goes on to say, "Clearly amongst its minuscule circulation were a significant number of diplomats. And so it did at times act as some kind of rebel house paper inside the UN. It fed the gossip mills and what was said in the cafeterias."[16] Brown's insult was in the context of the Sun's reporting of the UN's central role in the Saddam Hussein Oil-for-Food scandal.
In May 2007, Adweek columnist Tom Messner called the Sun "the best paper in New York", noting that "The New York Sun is a conservative paper, but it gets the respect of the left. The Nation's April 30 issue contains an article on the Sun's rise by Scott Sherman that is as balanced an article as I have ever read in the magazine (not a gibe; you don't read The Nation for balance)."[17]
Catholic commentator Richard John Neuhaus, writing in First Things, described the Sun as a paper that had, "made itself nearly indispensable for New Yorkers".[18]
Features [ edit ]
The New York Sun was particularly well known for its arts coverage, for instance, breaking news of the death of Jim Gary days ahead of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications throughout the world.[19] The paper included pieces by such critics as Adam Kirsch on literature, Jay Nordlinger on classical music, and Joel Lobenthal on dance. Lance Esplund, Maureen Mullarkey, and David Cohen covered art, Francis Morrone art and architecture. Literature was extensively covered by Otto Penzler on mystery writing, Eric Ormsby on poetry, Carl Rollyson on biography. Amanda Gordon acted as society editor, Alan Wellikoff covered cars, and Will Friedwald wrote about jazz. Of 20 guest columns written by Bush White House staffer Timothy Goeglein for the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel that were subsequently discovered to have been plagiarized, three were attributed to original articles in The Sun — two by Eric Ormsby, and one by film critic Bruce Bennett.[20] The Sun received critical praise for its sports section, writers for which included Steven Goldman, Thomas Hauser, Sean Lahman, Tim Marchman, and John Hollinger. Its crossword puzzle, edited by Peter Gordon, was called one of the two best in the United States.[21] It also published the first regular wine column in a New York newspaper, "Along the Wine Trail", written by G. Selmer Fougner.[22]
In its first edition, the paper carried the solution to the last crossword puzzle of the earlier Sun published in 1950.
Financial problems, circulation, and end of print run [ edit ]
The Sun was started anew in 2002 in the face of a long-term decline of newspapers in the United States, loss of advertising revenue to the Internet and the rise of new media. From the beginning, it struggled for existence.[3][4][23] "The Sun" was the first new daily newspaper launched in New York since 1976, when News World Communications, a company controlled by the Unification Church, launched The News World (that was renamed the New York City Tribune in 1983 and folded in 1991).
At the time of its creation, one media financial analyst said the Sun's chances of survival were "pretty grim",[23] while another media commentator characterized it as "the unlikeliest of propositions".[4]
The Sun published from the published from the Cary Building in lower Manhattan
It was underfunded from the start, with ten investors putting up a total of approximately $15 million—not enough for long-term running.[4] Beyond Conrad Black, who pulled out in 2003, these included hedge fund managers Michael Steinhardt and Bruce Kovner, private equity fund manager Thomas J. Tisch, and financier and think tank figure Roger Hertog.[24] The Sun's physical plant, in the Cary Building at Church Street and Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan, was antiquated, with malfunctioning telephones and computers, a trouble-prone elevator and fire alarm system, and dubious bathroom plumbing.[24 |
will lose every time. First, the comedian will always be funnier. And two, as President of the United States you are supposed to focused on real issues – like the economy, fighting ISIS, etc. – not ranting at a comedian because his jokes got under your famously thin skin.
You would think Trump would know this – but apparently not. So there was Trump this week during an interview with Time Magazine going off on Stephen Colbert, attacking the late night host with a passion he has still not used to denounce Vladimir Putin.
Trump first declared that Colbert was “a no-talent guy” adding, “There’s nothing funny about what he says.” Then Trump, without a hint of irony, complained about Colbert’s use of language, calling it “filthy,” adding, “you have kids watching.” (Not sure what kids are up watching Colbert at 11:30 p.m. EST, but if they stay up that late, I’m sure they can take some harsh Trump jokes.) Apparently the anti-politically correct Trump wants Colbert to be PC with his jokes.
But Trump wasn’t done. He remarked that Colbert “was dying. By the way they were going to take him off television, then he started attacking me and he started doing better.” Well, Trump is partially correct here. Colbert’s ratings weren’t great last year – he even trailed Jimmy Kimmel at times. Flash forward and Colbert is now number one in overall viewers and that is in large part to Colbert crushing Trump on a nightly basis.
In response to Trump’s attack, Colbert employed comedic jujutsu. The comedian didn’t defend himself against Trump’s words or whine like Trump often does. Instead he welcomed Trump’s barbs.
He started with the words, “The President of the United States has personally come after me and my show. And there’s only one thing to say.” Colbert’s face then lit up as he ecstatically cackled: “Yeah!!!” The studio audience immediately burst into cheers, cheering: “Stephen! Stephen!”
The comedian, with a true sense of joy, added, “Mr. Trump. There’s a lot you don’t understand. But I never thought one of those things would be show business.” Continuing, “Don’t you know I’ve been trying for a year to get you to say my name?! And you were very restrained. Admirably restrained.”
Colbert then went in for the kill: “But now you did it! I won!” Colbert triumphantly declared: “Please, oh please! Don’t make me trend on Twitter again!”
And come Friday the headlines blared that Colbert had responded to Trump using comedy to effectively decimate the President. How could’ve Trump thought there would’ve been any other result? You can’t out-snark a professional comedian. It’s like going into a used car dealership and trying to out negotiate the salesman. It can’t be done. Haggling is what they do, every day, ten times a day. You haggle once or twice a year at best.
But Colbert’s best point – and the worst for Trump- is that attacks by Trump should no longer be feared, but welcomed to those in the public eye. When Trump attacks you it raises your visibility, helps you get ratings, sell books, etc.
For example, when Trump went after Congressman John Lewis in January, the result was Lewis’s memoir skyrocketing in sales on Amazon.com. Trump has attacked SNL numerous times via Twitter. What has been the impact? Well, SNL is seeing its best ratings in nearly 25 years. And in December when Trump took to Twitter to slam Vanity Fair and its editor Graydon Carter, the magazine saw a record spike in new subscriptions.
The bottom line is that Trump has slammed so many from fellow Republicans to the Pope (remember that!) to the media to comedians, his tweets no longer have a sting. In fact it truly seems they help those he attacks.
That’s why I’m begging Trump to slam me on Twitter. I even drafted a sample tweet for Trump he can simply copy and paste to make it easier:
.@Deanofcomedy is a no talent loser. Don’t listen to his new @SIRIUSXM radio show premiering this Monday 6PMET! #TheDeanObeidallahShow
If only Trump would do that, my first show on SiriusXM Progress channel this Monday would be guaranteed massive media coverage and bring in a big number of listeners.
Regardless of whether Trump gets it, the days of being worried about a Trump Twitter attack are gone. And perhaps when more Republicans in Congress get what Colbert and the rest of us understand, they will no longer fear standing up to Trump before he further undermines our nation.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.Should Microsoft Be Allowed To Tells Its Users When Government Searches Their Data?
If the police serve a search warrant on your home, you know, but if law enforcement searches your cloud-stored files, you’ll probably have no idea — and companies like Microsoft are currently forbidden from telling you. That’s why the tech giant is suing the Justice Department, but can Microsoft even bring this lawsuit?
That’s one of the big questions that is being argued today in a federal court in Seattle, where Microsoft is trying to stave off a DOJ motion to dismiss [PDF] the case.
To back up for a second — especially for folks not familiar with the case — this lawsuit centers on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the related Stored Communications Act (SCA) and their rules for seizure of electronic files.
The ECPA still requires that law enforcement obtain a warrant, subpoena, or court order to search remotely stored data. However, the law doesn’t require that the government notify the owner of that data about the search; it also prohibits Microsoft and other companies from telling the affected users if the government has a “reason to believe” that disclosing this request might hinder an investigation.
Microsoft claims that the government is abusing this “reason to believe” standard and applying it so generally that it violates customers’ Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful searches.
“People do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud,” wrote Microsoft in the lawsuit.
In seeking a dismissal, the DOJ contends that Microsoft doesn’t have the standing to bring the Fourth Amendment case on behalf of its users because the company is not the one who may be harmed. Additionally, the DOJ argues that it isn’t the law which bars Microsoft from sharing the information, but each individual court order.
“Microsoft’s challenge effectively asks this Court to adjudicate the lawfulness of thousands of such court orders from across the United States, without regard to the basis for, and terms of, those… orders, which necessarily vary from case to case,” the DOJ wrote in its motion for dismissal.
Last night, in advance of today’s hearing on this motion, Microsoft filed one last reply [PDF], acknowledging that the Supreme Court has held as a “general rule” that Fourth Amendment rights “may not be vicariously asserted” on behalf of another party. At the same time, SCOTUS conceded that there are “special circumstances” in which this would be allowed.
For example, in NAACP v. Alabama, the state of Alabama — as part of its efforts to shut down the NAACP in the state — obtained a court order directing the NAACP to produce a list of its members. The NAACP refused, invoking its members Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process.
In its ruling in favor of the NAACP, the Supreme Court noted that it has “generally insisted that parties rely only on constitutional rights which are personal to themselves,” but conceded that, “The principle is not disrespected where constitutional rights of persons who are not immediately before the Court could not be effectively vindicated except through an appropriate representative before the Court.”
According to Microsoft, it has to be the one bringing the Fourth Amendment case on behalf of its users, because the affected users — by law — have no idea who they are.
After all, how can you sue the government for illegally seizing your data if you don’t know it’s been stolen?
“Not knowing of the intrusion, the customer would have no practical means of protesting or challenging any infringement of her Fourth Amendment rights — especially if (as commonly occurs) the investigation does not result in the customer’s indictment,” explains Microsoft.
Adds the company, “Under settled Supreme Court authority, this case has the requisite ‘special circumstances’ because Microsoft’s customers cannot effectively protect their own Fourth Amendment rights, which the Government violates under a cloak of secrecy.”
Microsoft’s lawsuit has been supported my many big names in the tech and internet industries — including Apple, Amazon, Twitter, Google, among dozens of others — who filed briefs with the court arguing that this action is the only way for this issue to be resolved.
In the brief co-signed by Apple, company explains that in just the first half of 2016 it had received nearly 600 ECPA search requests with unlimited or indefinite gag orders preventing the company from alerting customers.
“The volume of nondisclosure orders providers receive puts them in a unique position,” argued the brief, “they are the only parties that have the information necessary to assert both their own First Amendment rights and their customers’ Fourth Amendment rights.”Deford Says Thanks For A Good Game, Drops Mic
Enlarge this image toggle caption Carolyn Kaster/AP Carolyn Kaster/AP
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages!
I always wanted to use that in a commentary, that wonderful circus introduction ballyhooed by the splendid ringmaster, but I could just never find the ideal spot.
Of course, had I, there would've been some people who'd say that a circus doesn't belong in with sports. But, hey, just because there's clowns around doesn't disqualify certain daredevils from being certified athletes -- equestrians, tightrope walkers and those who fly through the air with the greatest of ease.
That's why I was so upset to learn that the grandest big top ever — Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey — was going out of business later this month. The Greatest Show on Earth — and it probably was exactly that once upon a time.
Well, by coincidence, this particular tiny show on earth that consists entirely of me talking about sports on NPR is also folding its tent flaps this May of 2017. Yes, this is my swansong, my farewell, my last hurrah. Adieu, adios, arrivederci, auf wiedersehen.
Sports Deford's 1000th Commentary Deford's 1000th Listen
I've been delivering these little homilies since 1980 — that's 37 years — and altogether, NPR statisticians tell me, my bloviation total is 1,656 commentaries — and I trust you've hung onto every word.
toggle caption Susan Ragan/AP
I have survived so long because I've been blessed with talented and gracious colleagues, and with a top brass who let me choose my topics every week and then allowed me to express opinions that were not always popular. Well, someone had to stand up to the yackety-yak soccer cult.
And perhaps just as important, I've been blessed with you, with a broad and intelligent audience — even if large portions thereof haven't necessarily given a hoot about sports. Nothing has pleased me so much as when someone — usually a woman — writes me or tells me that she's appreciated sports more because NPR allowed me to treat sports seriously, as another branch on the tree of culture.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for abiding me.
And now, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I bid you goodbye, and take my leave.The Danish finance ministry said on Tuesday that Ireland has repaid its €400 million loan earlier than expected, as it praised Ireland for its “exemplary” approach to restoring its public finances.
The loan, which was offered to Ireland as part of an international recovery package at the time of the financial crisis, was due to be repaid between 2019-2021, but has now been repaid in full. The loan was part of a three-year €67.5 billion package for Ireland by the EU and IMF, delivered on November 28th 2010, which, in addition to loans from the IMF and European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, also included bilateral loans from the United Kingdom (€ 3.8bn), Sweden (€ 0.6bn) and Denmark (€ 0.4bn). The Danish loan, offered in four tranches, was due to start maturing on September 30th, 2019, with the last tranche maturing in May 2021.A spokesman for the Danish finance ministry said that the early repayment of the loan would result in an expected loss of interest income of about €2.8million a year in both 2018 and 2019, and “slightly less” in 2020 and 2021.
Back in September, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said that Ireland was set to repay its debt to both Sweden and Denmark early, while Ireland will also repay €4.5 billion in funds owed to the IMF early. The combined savings from servicing the three loans is expected to be around €150 million.
Kristian Jensen, Minister for Finance, said he was “glad” that Denmark could help Ireland at the time, and “even happier” that the country can now stand on its own two feet.
“It shows that taking national ownership and implementing reforms and budget improvements also has a clear impact on growth and the outside world’s confidence in the national economy,” he said.
Noting that Ireland was “exemplary” in how it responded to the crisis, in terms of reforms and consolidation of public finances, in a statement the finance ministry said the Danish loan is now “redundant” as Ireland can now access borrowing on international markets at favourable rates.
It added that Ireland is now positioned as one of Europe’s fastest growing economies.We are all familiar with the saying “what you don’t know, won’t hurt you”. Well in the world of data management, security and privacy the opposite is most definitely true.
For most of us, as our organisations become more digital, we are increasingly realising the value of our data, how big an asset it is and how important maintaining it is.
However, although we understand how valuable our data is, we actually have very little insight into what is happening to it on a day to day basis.
Ask yourself, do you know exactly what data you have across your business, do you know exactly who has access to it, where it is stored, when it gets accessed, if it even gets accessed and when it’s accessed what gets done with it?
In my time administering IT systems, or working with those that do, I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been asked “who changed that file”, “who deleted that file?”, “can you tell me the files that a user has accessed and copied to a USB stick?” the answer is normally no, and it’s normally no, because our standard storage solutions can’t tell us.
Imagine a logistics company asking questions like, “who’s driving that lorry”, “who was the last person to drive it?”, “where is Fred taking that lorry?”, “can you tell me the type of lorries we have?” and been told, no, we don’t know any of that information, ridiculous right? Yet we do that with our data asset.
We have talked in recent episodes about the threat to our data security and privacy, be it policies or procedures or our people. Just as significant a threat is the inability to fully understand what is going on with our data sets, a lack of insight and analysis means it’s very easy for our data to be abused, lost and stolen without us having the slightest knowledge of it happening.
That’s our focus this week, in the last of our data security & privacy episodes, I chat with John Hughes of Varonis. Varonis provide data analytics and insights into how we use our data, what our data is, who is using it, what it’s used for and if it’s even used at all.
We discuss a little of the history of Varonis, why data insight is so critical, why it’s a cornerstone of our ability to meet compliance requirements and how it’s a crucial part of our defence against data security attacks.
Enjoy the show and thanks for listening.
To find out more about Varonis;
Check out varonis.com
Have a look at their excellent range of BLOGS at blog.varonis.com and of course follow them on twitter @varonis
You can also request a free GDPR data assessment via their website
If you want to learn more about any of the topics in this series, and you are in the North West England on April 5th, you can join me and a range of speakers at www.northwestdataforum.co.uk
You can find the previous 3 episodes in this series here;
Best Take Care Of Those Crown Jewels – Sheila Fitzpatrick – Ep 17
Don’t Build Your Data Privacy House Upside Down – Sheila Fitzpatrick – Ep 18
Make People Our Best Data Security Asset – Dom Saunders – Ep 19
If you’ve enjoyed this episode, then why not subscribe;
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AdvertisementsMaryland Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Approved by Senate Committee
ANNAPOLIS, MD — Just hours after Maryland lawmakers announced a scheduled hearing on the legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana, a key Senate committee approved a separate bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Senate Bill 297, sponsored by Sen. Bobby Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), was approved by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on Thursday, and will now be considered by the full 47-member Senate.
If passed, the bill would make the penalties for possession of less than ten grams of marijuana (approximately one-third of an ounce) a civil offense punishable by up to a $100 fine with no time in jail.
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Currently, possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana is punishable by a fine of up to $500 and 90 days in jail.
Maryland lawmakers are also considering three separate medical marijuana bills, which received hearings at the State House Friday.
During Friday’s hearing, Maryland Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein told lawmakers that Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration supports passing medical marijuana legislation, a reversal in position from last year, when medical marijuana bills were defeated in the General Assembly.
He says that’s because the federal government has not brought charges against any state employees in other states who may have been involved with distributing medical marijuana.
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The governor favors bills proposed by Delegate Dan Morhaim, HB1100 and HB1101, that would create a commission to oversee the program at academic medical centers.
A third proposal, House Bill 302, which would create clear rules for qualified patients and law enforcement, put in place a strictly regulated production and distribution system, and protect patients from housing and workplace discrimination, is favored by medical marijuana advocates.
Tags: HB 1100We are grateful to Maurice Glasman (Join Welby's Wonga war, 26 July) for registering London Citizens' call for a re-introduction of anti-usury legislation as part of our Citizens' Response to the Financial Crisis. This was launched at a Citizens assembly before 2,000 of our members, including Boris Johnson, Vince Cable MP, Greg Hands MP and senior representatives of the Corporation of London, in November 2009. London Citizens also called for 1% of the public money used to bail out the banks to be invested in strengthening and broadening the infrastructure of the credit union movement across the UK.
We also warmly welcome Justin Welby's challenge to Wonga and other legal loan companies and the consequent publicity it has stimulated. However, we believe that a statutory cap on commercial lending (of about 20%) is the answer and would see off such loan companies. A statutory cap on interest seems to work well for every other country in Europe, particularly Germany, where the economy thrives, unemployment is low and there is no market for loan companies. This would then leave the church free to concentrate on strengthening civil society and correcting other injustices, rather than try to pick up the pieces created by the state's reluctance to intervene and the market's ability to find opportunities for making money whenever and wherever they occur.
Neil Jameson
Executive director, London Citizens
• I welcome the archbishop of Canterbury's comments on Wonga and, as a member of South Manchester Credit Union, was pleased by his intention to aid their growth. I did feel, however, that parliament should urgently regulate payday loan companies as a whole and protect the public from exploitation. The archbishop should have called upon MPs to act in this way as the payday industry is much bigger than just Wonga.
His subsequent embarrassment related to the church's pension fund investment in Wonga, however, came as no surprise to me. Few know where their pension fund money is invested. As a member of Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), I have been concerned by its investments of £114m, on behalf of retired and current employees of the 10 Greater Manchester councils, in arms companies, including seven of the world's 10 largest arms companies. A recent fund publication revealed that BAE Systems, the world's sixth largest arms company, was the 11th largest holding in its portfolio at over £68m. Exports by arms companies can be misused to abuse human rights, sustain tensions in areas of division and hinder development by countries wasting money on arms. Furthermore, five arms companies, invested in by the fund, manufacture, modernise and maintain nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. Profits from arms companies are wholly incompatible with the fundamental responsibility of local councils and their employees to aid their residents.
A recent appeal to the Leader of Tameside council, who chairs GMPF, the other Tameside and Greater Manchester councillors who also manage GMPF and to the remaining nine Greater Manchester council leaders to end these arms investments, produced no outrage, surprise or embarrassment. I admire Welby's courage and leadership and would welcome such qualities on the issue of those responsible for the pension fund of thousands of people who have worked for or are still employees of Greater Manchester councils.
Mike Kavanagh
Campaign Against Arms Trade
• A further benefit of the archbishop's intervention is a reduced risk of wonga wonga parties at Lambeth Palace.
Kevin Holland
Aberystwyth, CeredigionThe comments were Perry’s first on decriminalization. Rick Perry mulls decriminalizing pot
Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he is supporting policies toward decriminalization of marijuana in his state, although he is still against legalization of marijuana entirely.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Perry said he has already begun the process to move toward softer punishments for marijuana offenders in Texas, according to the Houston Chronicle.
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“As governor, I have begun to implement policies that start us toward a decriminalization,” Perry said as quoted by the Chronicle, including with “drug courts,” an alternative to the traditional court system that sentence some drug users to rehabilitation and supervision instead of jail time.
( PHOTOS: 9 pols who talked pot)
Perry’s spokeswoman told the paper that the Republican governor still opposes fully legalizing marijuana, but he is looking for ways to reduce jail time for some nonviolent pot users.
“Legalization is no penalty at all, whereas decriminalization doesn’t necessarily mean jail time (for minor possession offenses). It means more of a fine or counseling or some sort of program where you don’t end up in jail but in a rehabilitative program,” Lucy Nashed said. “The goal is to keep people out of jails and reduce recidivism, that kind of thing.”
The comments were Perry’s first on decriminalization, although he has been supportive of the drug courts, which were created by a 2001 Texas law.
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Marijuana
TexasPaul Richards / AFP / Getty Images
Mitt Romney's enemies have unleashed a torrent of attacks in Florida over Medicare fraud conspiracy committed by a company Romney helped run in the 1990s.
The pro-Newt-Gingrich superPAC Winning Our Future has released a one-minute trailer and a "dramatic new film presentation" called "Blood Money," accusing Romney of personally profiting from Medicare fraud.
This follows the group's half-hour, disaster-movie-esque "King of Bain," which detailed layoffs by companies purchased by Bain Capital, the firm Romney launched.
The labor union AFSCME joined in on the attack, releasing a Florida ad tying Romney to Medicare fraud, and the Democratic National Committee today blasted an opposition-research memo to reporters leveling the same accusations. The ads may or may not resonate in Florida, where voters elected Gov. Rick Scott (R) in 2010 despite a massive Medicare-fraud penalty paid by his health-care management company.
"Those who engaged in wrongdoing were punished," a Romney aide wrote in an email today when asked about the ads. "Gov. Romney did nothing wrong."
What's the story behind Romney the sensationalized "Blood Money" accusation?
It all stems from Damon Corp., a medical-testing company run by Romney and Bain in the 1990s, which was caught in a widespread federal investigation into Medicare fraud at lab companies.
In 1989, Bain took over Damon Corp., then based in Massachusetts, and Romney sat on Damon's board from 1990 until 1993, when Bain sold the company to Corning Inc.
During Romney's tenure at Damon, the company allegedly defrauded Medicare for millions of dollars by offering packages of blood tests that resulted in doctors ordering unnecessary lab-work, paid for by Medicare. Damon offered suites of blood tests that, in some cases, were unrelated. Doctors could order Damon's lab-work in these packages-but Damon did not inform those doctors that it would bill Medicare for the superfluous tests included in the packages.
After Bain sold the company to Corning, federal investigators caught Damon and a host of other medical-lab companies engaged in similar activity. Damon pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud in 1996 and paid a total of $119 million, including a criminal fine and a civil settlement. The United States Attorneys Bulletin outlined the sweeping investigations, known as LABSCAM, in its April 1997 issue. Other companies, such as SmithKlineBeecham, were also caught engaging in fraudulent activity and were forced to pay fines.
This isn't the first time all Damon Corp. has come up in Romney's political career. When he ran for governor in 2002, his Democratic opponent pointed out the Damon fines.
Confronted over it in 2002, Romney told media he "blew the whistle" on Damon's fraudulent Medicare activity when he found out about it. And he did-to some extent.
"We put in place a program to stop that immediately," Romney told reporters on Oct. 9, 2002, according to a Boston Globe account. "That's how you blow the whistle."
Romney's present critics are quick to point out that U.S. attorneys didn't see it that way. Damon's prosecutors credited Corning, not Romney or Bain, with discovering and ferreting out the alleged fraud.
Romney and the Damon board did, however, contact Damon's lawyers, seek their counsel, and change Damon's policies.
The New York law firm Schulte, Roth & Zabel advised Damon to change its policy to clarify its requisition orders with doctors, The Boston Globe reported in 2002. Knowing of the federal investigation into lab companies, the firm told Damon that its policies weren't the same as those of National Health, another lab company accused of fraud by federal investigators, and ultimately advised Damon that its policies didn't violate any laws. Neither Damon nor Romney alerted federal investigators to this process.
Damon took the firm's advice and implemented the policy changes-but those changes weren't significant enough to save Damon from prosecution.
In 2002, Romney said he'd done his due diligence.
"We took action based on what the law firm told us," he said during a campaign appearance with president George W. Bush, the Associated Press reported at the time.
So while federal investigators, news media, and Romney's critics have been quick to note that Romney did not, in fact, stop Damon's questionable practices or effectively "put in place a program" that succeeded in stopping them, Romney did address the matter, as he said he did in 2002.
We can expect Romney's opponents to keep surfacing one key number, however: the $473,000 Romney reportedly gained from the sale of Damon Corp.
See the ad, which takes facts from the Damon case to accuse Romney of "Blood Money", below.
Responding to the ad, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul wrote in an email, "Newt Gingrich's SuperPAC ads would make Michael Moore proud and have already struck a chord with President Obama's liberal allies. They have been thoroughly discredited by independent fact checkers and by respected Republicans like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Once again, Speaker Gingrich is reaching into President Obama's playbook and trying to re-litigate old Democratic attacks."
Though Winning Our Future is steered by former Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler, the former House speaker and his campaign are prohibited by federal election law from coordinating with the group or advising it on ads and messaging.
Gerard Middleton contributed to this report.Some were only weeks away from graduation. Others were just beginning their quests for a higher degree.
But on Sunday, scores of Heald College students in Roseville, Salida and statewide were left feeling bitter and bewildered at finding their campuses would immediately close. That news came following an announcement by parent company Corinthian Colleges that it would shutter all 28 of its remaining campuses, rounding out months of trouble for the for-profit college giant.
“I went to school all week, just like normal, and I thought (today) would be just another regular day,” said Maria Mejia, 45, who was 10 weeks away from completing her medical office administration degree at Heald College Modesto in Salida. “I still have homework due for tomorrow. I keep thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’... If I show up to class tomorrow, are the doors going to be locked?”
While some students received an email from Corinthian’s chief executive officer Sunday morning explaining the company’s decision, many current and former students told The Sacramento Bee they first heard about the closures via social media.
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Ryan Shirley, 41, who recently graduated from the medical assistance program at Heald College’s Roseville campus, said he was planning on attending a May 15 graduation ceremony. He said that ceremony, along with remaining classes, was canceled with Corinthian’s announcement Sunday.
“I’m absolutely terrified,” said Shirley, a military veteran who planned on continuing his education with Heald this summer. “I spent the last year and a half working really hard to keep straight A’s, and now that the school is closing, my degree is absolutely worthless. There’s a very strong chance that I’ll have to start at the very beginning all over again.”
The closures affects more than 16,000 students in California and beyond.
The majority of Corinthian’s schools were sold last year to a nonprofit student-loan servicer after California Attorney General Kamala Harris sued Corinthian, claiming it misled students about the value of their education and a federal inquiry effectively cut off much the company’s revenue flow.
Several of the 28 campuses have been on the auction block. Among those for sale were the company’s Heald College locations, 10 of which are in California and two in the Sacramento area: Rancho Cordova and Roseville.
“I knew that the school could actually close if they didn’t find someone to buy it,” Mejia said. “But (administrators) kept saying they had potential buyers and they had high hopes that we’d get bought by someone, so we could all just continue with our education like normal. I don’t think anyone realized it was this bad.”
In a news release Sunday, Corinthian said it has had trouble selling its schools because local and federal authorities sought to “impose financial penalties and conditions” on prospective buyers.
Finding someone to take over the schools’ operations or buy them outright would have allowed its students to continue their educations, the company said.
“We believe that we have attempted to do everything within our power to provide a quality education and an opportunity for a better future for our students,” said Jack Massimino, Corinthian’s CEO, in a statement on the company’s website. “Unfortunately, the current regulatory environment would not allow us to complete a transaction with several interested parties that would have allowed for a seamless transition for our students.”
Earlier in April, Harris called on the federal government to forgive student-loan debt for those who attended the for-profit chain’s schools.
Students enrolled in Corinthian schools may be eligible for a full discharge of their debts, according to a U.S. Department of Education policy that allows such dissolution for students who cannot complete the program they enrolled in because of a school’s closure.
“What these students have experienced is unacceptable, and we look forward to working with Congress in an effort to improve accountability and transparency in the career college industry,” said Ted Mitchell, the U.S. undersecretary for education, in a statement Sunday. “A college education remains the best investment a student can make in his or her future, and this administration will continue to work to make a college degree affordable for all students, to hold colleges accountable, and to safeguard the interests of taxpayers.”
Mejia said she’s about $30,000 in debt because of student loans. Shirley, who’s covered by the federal GI Bill, said the school still owes him $12,000 in back pay for student loans.
Christina Droughton, who attended and worked at the Roseville campus, said she’s on the hook for $34,000.
“The closure of Heald College is not only keeping me from getting my degree,” Droughton said. “(It’s) also keeping me from being able to help support my family.”
Last summer, the department restricted Corinthian’s ability to receive federal financial aid amid concerns that the company had falsified its graduates’ job-placement rates, which the company used in advertisements to recruit prospective students.
Earlier this month, the federal government fined Corinthian $30 million, saying it paid temporary-employment agencies to hire students after graduation for brief periods, which allowed Corinthian to embellish its job-placement numbers.
In its statement Sunday, the company continued to tout its “historic graduation rate and job placement rates” as compared with community colleges.
“Colleges like ours fill an important role in the broader education system and address a critical need that remains largely unmet by community colleges and other public-sector schools,” Massimino said. “Overall, our schools did a good job for the students they served. We made every effort to address regulators’ concerns in good faith. Neither our Board of Directors, our management, our faculty, nor our students believe these schools deserved to be forced to close.”
Heald students who spoke to The Bee said the school offered a welcome alternative to more traditional colleges whose classes or schedules didn’t work for them.
“Heald College saved me, had faith in me, supported me, believed in me,” said Suchi Suarez, who was to graduate June 12 with an associate’s degree in medical assistance. “I became the woman I was meant to be. And now thousands of students have been... knocked down and left in the dust.”
Several Heald students said there would be rallies Monday morning on the Roseville and Salida campuses.
The 28 school closures include Corinthian’s 13 remaining Everest and WyoTech campuses in California, Everest College Phoenix and Everest College Online Tempe in Arizona, the Everest Institute in New York, and the 150-year-old Heald College and its schools in California, Oregon and Hawaii.(McKinsey, “Closing the Talent Gap” September 2010)
Nínive Calegari is a former classroom teacher who founded and serves as the president of The Teacher Salary Project, an organization aimed at improving the salaries of America’s teachers. She is also the co-producer of American Teacher, an award-winning film narrated by Matt Damon that documents the lives of four teachers based on a book she co-authored called Teachers Have it Easy; the Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. And she is the co-founder (along with Dave Eggers) of a network of literacy organizations working to help students improve their writing called 826 National. In this post, she writes about why she thinks it is imperative for teachers’ salaries to be raised.
By Nínive Calegari
(By Marvin Joseph/ The Washington Post)
My friend Erik Benner, a Texas high history teacher by day, works nights and weekends hauling flooring supplies at a warehouse with a forklift. “Honestly, I am invested and I love what I do, but I am run down and exhausted. There aren’t enough hours in the day.” Teachers in Fairfax County, Virginia, are wearing jeans to work to protest their low pay and high expectations. They recently threatened to stop writing college entrance recommendation letters to try to get the point across: they don’t want to be poor to do this important work and they do far more than an honest day’s job. Most teachers pay for their own graduate school and ongoing professional training, and over 92 percent buy supplies for their students out of their own pockets. But over the past few years, we’ve seen over 60 percent of teachers working second jobs, dining with their children at food banks, and even selling their blood to make ends meet. Examples of such financial stress and strain can be found in every state in the country; quality teachers are walking away from the profession, and salaries are part of the reason they leave.
Is this the way we want any of our teachers to live? Is this what we think will lead students to higher levels of achievement?
As the founder of the Teacher Salary Project, a nonpartisan organization devoted to elevating teachers’ pay, I’ve heard countless stories of professionals who have awards and recognition for their work, yet who feel forced for financial reasons to rethink their career. I interviewed a National Board Certified teacher who also won Teacher of the Year named Karina Colon. She recently left North Carolina for a job in Maryland to earn $12,000 more to support her family.
When we undervalue a profession, we also tell the next generation of bright educators they shouldn’t bother teaching—or that if they do, they must take a vow of poverty. And students pay a price: Teachers who spend nights and weekends working other jobs cannot possibly devote the necessary attention to their students or lesson plans. Even worse, talented college students who are passionate about teaching, but seeking a stable future, opt out before they even begin. No teacher should have a second job and teachers should struggle less financially so they can focus on their critical work in the classroom.
According to a McKinsey Study called “Closing the Talent Gap,” teachers’ salaries have declined for the past 40 years. In the past decade alone, salaries have decreased further in 30 states. Had salaries grown proportionally to our classroom spending, the average salary would now be $120,000. Instead, a teacher |
One, sneaked TopGear.com in through the back doors of the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore so we could see exactly what it takes to organise an F1 race.
Before we step backstage, though, a quick reminder of the significance of Singapore on the calendar, and why it’s generally one of the best to watch.
Full screen 1/6
“It was the first of the night races,” says Tom Kristensen, himself a nine-time Le Mans champ. “It brings back a lot of things that race fans and drivers are passionate about. It’s a street circuit and it’s fast. Ninety per cent of the corners are blind, and you come in really close to the barriers.
“That’s part of the excitement. You really have to be ultra precise. It’s as precise as Monaco, but the consequences are much higher when things go wrong.”
The press room
Matteo Bonciani, the head of Formula One’s communications, agrees. “It’s very appreciated because it’s a street circuit, but you can have a little bit of glamour. Suzuka isn’t exactly the same thing,” he laughs.
Bonciani is the gentleman you regularly see on your telly screens, shuttling the drivers around, including to and from the press room. He explains a little bit about the logistics of putting up the race.
“For us, Formula One means we arrive at the circuit on the Monday or Tuesday, and we stay the whole week until Sunday or the following Monday,” he says. “We divide it up between five or six people, and each of us is a delegate, and every delegate has the responsibility for certain areas. I am the media delegate.”
Other delegates include technical – that’s Jo Bauer, responsible for scrutineering – and the medical delegate, there are stewards (four at every race, including a former racing driver), the safety car driver, and of course, race director Charlie Whiting, F1’s ‘friendly policeman’.
Once on the scene, the FIA team decamps and assesses the local situation. This year, Singapore had thick smog covering its skyline a few days ahead of the race because of fires in Indonesia.
“We had this haze,” Bonciani explains, “which means we have no visibility. And if we have no visibility, it’s a problem because the helicopter cannot fly. The helicopter has to fly because in case of an accident, the hospital has to be reached according to a certain procedure. Things like that are crucial to us,” he explains.
And visibility, in its wider sense, is what F1 is really all about in the modern era. The communications centre is a building unpacked and constructed for every race, housing up to 200 people working tirelessly on data, images and audio. It’s basically responsible for everything you see and hear on your screen.
The comms centre
We can’t show you pictures of the inside, sadly – it’s too top secret for that – but the FIA’s chief technical officer, John Morrison, takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour and explains the complexity of the broadcast operation. Incidentally, John looks like he used to be in a rock band in the 1960s, which definitely helps Top Gear’s understanding.
Let’s start with data. The comms building houses a mixture of engineers, technicians and production staff; the majority of which work on the TV programme. There’s super-fast fibre wire running all the way around the circuit, transmitting data back to comms.
“We put loops in the circuit every 200 metres, connected to trackside units,” says John. “There are around 30 units in Singapore, and the cars all carry transponders. When they cross the loop, they fire data down into the loop, and the loop sends a little message back to them.
“The events produced by that are used to produce the overall timing of the event. Sector times, lap times, the position of the cars, everything. We can tell the car when it’s in a DRS zone for instance, and when it can use it,” he adds.
Another software engine then calculates the timing pages, which are then beamed to everybody at the circuit. “All the teams use this, the FIA uses it, journalists, commentators… everybody in the circuit. We send the teams this in data form, and they inject it into their analysis engines so they can make the necessary adjustments.”
Moreover, this software – a bespoke system devised internally – can even adapt to, say, the introduction of a red flag. “It will readjust the position of the cars based on the rules of the event,” says John.
A small team crunches through data, while another uses the data to produce the on-screen graphics: revs, g-force, speed and so forth. Yet another team edits together video packages for additional broadcast content (the ‘red button’ type stuff you generally see), and there are people working the on-board cameras (each car has a front- and rear-facing camera).
There’s even a team adjusting the colours of the cameras dotted around the track, to make sure the levels match, one team superimposing virtual, digital adverts in hard-to-reach areas of the circuit, and a team listening to all the radio messages between the driver and the team.
The final programme goes out to half a billion people worldwide
“There are 26 cameras around this circuit,” says John. These feed images into a bank of 26 monitors in the main heart of the production area – a sort of Batcave – where the executive director dictates what we all see. “There are guys talking to the track cameramen because the director has told them we’re – for instance – following Vettel, telling them what kind of shot we need. The director may go to the onboard, he’s got to put in replays, there’ll be suggestions for radio messages, the graphics guys will work up graphics onto the image.
“He’s taking all of this and mixing the final programme that goes out to half a billion people around the world,” John says.
Race Control
The heart of any Formula One race, and a room of silence, thick with responsibility and many, many screens, covering practically every millimetre of the circuit.
Race director Charlie Whiting is the man in charge of keeping the race run safely and to FIA regulations, with his deputy race director Herbie Blash sat alongside him on the front row of the room.
Not only are Charlie and his team – comprised of the regular FIA delegates and representatives pinched from local clubs – able to see everything, they’re also privy to all the data fed from the broadcast centre, and are in immediate contact with marshals’ posts, the safety and medical cars, and the stewards.
“They listen to everything, see everything, and everything is recorded,” explains Kristensen.
Scrutineering
The kingdom of Jo Bauer – the F1 technical delegate – is run by a team of scrutineers whose job it is to make sure the cars comply with the rules set out by the FIA. There’s a giant weigh-bridge used for the cars, which have to be at least 691kg including the driver and fuel at all times during the event.
“Initial scrutineering starts on a Thursday,” Jo tells us, “checking safety items on the cars. Things like the ERS light, wheel tethers – which are the ropes inside the suspension members – the seatbelts… everything.”
There are a group of 30 scrutineers sourced locally working for Jo, who briefs them extensively. There are two in every garage. “We can’t do it on our own,” Jo says, “it’s just too complex. Every delegate has his own team and we have to rely on them.”
The safety car
Move outside of scrutineering and you’ll find a smiling Bernd Maylander perched alongside the brand new, 502bhp Mercedes-AMG GT S safety car. “I have two of these because we’re also supporting the support races, and it’s always good to have a backup,” he says.
The baby AMG takes over from the gullwinged SLS, don’t forget, as Formula One’s official safety car; the car responsible for pulling together and slowing down the cars on track, and leading them in procession until the track is safe again to race.
Bernd – who’s been the safety car driver for 17 years now – is happy with his new ride. “The SLS was a fantastic car but this is the new generation,” he tells TG. “It’s quicker than the old SLS around these tracks, I think, and also really good fun, too.” We know, Bernd.
The routine is this: on the Thursday before the race, Bernd and his co-driver will head out onto the track and go guns blazing in the GT S, figuring out the limits of the car, where it starts to slide, riding the kerbs and everything.
“We’re really pushing the limits,” he says. This is because when it comes to race day, he’s got all the knowledge of how the GT S behaves, and make sure he can lap at sufficient pace to keep the F1 cars from overheating. “The race has to be safe.”
He’s sat in the safety car the entire time during the race, and both Maylander and his co-driver are in direct contact with Charlie Whiting. “We get all the commands from Charlie and Herbie. We report to race control on what we see on the track,” he says.
A neat reminder of just how hi-tech and closely scrutinised modern F1 has become comes from Sir Jackie Stewart, another of Rolex’s ambassadors and a three-time Formula One champion.
“In my day, if I’d made a little error of judgment or something on track,” he tells TG, “by the time I got back to the pits I could have dreamt up a wonderful excuse.
“Nowadays, these guys would know exactly what I’ve done before I know it…”Supermarket commercials generally aren’t known for being all that exciting. For a form of buisiness that prides itself on freshness, the ads just aren’t very fresh.
A series of ads created by New Zealand-based agencies Colenso BBDO and.99 for Kiwi supermarket New World injects some imagination into the proceedings for a change. The ads feature New World saving the day on three very different days. In the first one, entitled “Next Day,” a couple who we are lead to believe hit it off the night before decides to spend the day together, powering through the awkwardness while picking up ingredients for a picnic. The ad tells its story through quick cuts, flashbacks, and well chosen bits of archival footage. It also does so without hitting us over the head with what’s on sale this month, a welcome change.
See the other two ads in the series below.When the police detained Yang Zhong, 16, for the crime of “spreading online rumors” after he raised questions on his Sina Weibo account about the mysterious death of a local karaoke club manager, they took him to their headquarters in Zhangjiachuan, in the northwestern province of Gansu.
There, Mr. Yang said, they tied him to an interrogation chair used for criminal suspects and four or five officers beat him, kicking him, hitting him about the ears and shaking his head to and fro. “On and off for two hours, from about 3 o’clock until after 5 that day,” he said in a telephone interview.
Photo
Mr. Yang had been sentenced to seven days of administrative detention. But six days later, on Sept. 22, he was released, as protests over his detention surged online, though no one knew then about the alleged torture. Mr. Yang was an early target of new government regulations concerning the use of popular microblog services like Sina Weibo. Under the new rules, the sender of a microblog post deemed to be a harmful rumor that is reposted by others more than 500 times can be sentenced to up to three years in prison.
As Mr. Yang left, he said, the police warned him: Don’t tell anyone about the beatings.
On Thursday, Mr. Yang, his father and a lawyer sued the Zhangjiachuan police for torture and demanded compensation of 7 renminbi, about $1.15 — one renminbi for each day of his sentence. And an apology.
They also applied for Mr. Yang’s detention order to be legally overturned, saying he had done nothing wrong.
“It’s not about the money,” said Mr. Yang, a middle-school student whose photographs show a dusting of dark hair on his upper lip, and who says he loves “to read about true events.”
“I want to make the police who beat me responsible. What they did was illegal. It was definitely not O.K.,” he said, the words coming out in a torrent.
Several attempts to reach the Zhangjiachuan Police for comment failed, with calls unanswered or transferred to lines that were not active.
The case has attracted broad attention in China, gaining space in some national media, for two reasons: Mr. Yang is young (at 16, Chinese are deemed criminally responsible, but are not considered adults facing full legal sanctions until they are 18) and the new regulations are highly controversial in a nation that loves microblogs.
In the campaign against online “rumormongers,” which took off in August, the authorities have netted scores of people, including influential human rights advocates. These include Xue Manzi, a Chinese-American investor who often railed against injustice to his 12 million microblog followers.
In Mr. Yang’s case, the Beijing-based Jinghua Times quoted officials in Tianshui, the local higher-level city, as saying that he was sentenced to administrative detention, instead of facing criminal charges, because of his youth and his “repentance” for his actions.
“Whether the police held him in criminal or administrative detention, it was all illegal,” You Feizhu, one of his lawyers, told the newspaper.
Torture is widespread in Chinese police stations and detention centers, human rights advocates say.
Mr. Yang said his main concern now is school.
The Zhangjiachuan Middle School, where he was a ninth-grade student, has expelled him, his father, Yang Niuhu, said in a separate telephone interview, advising him to “go private.” The school was under pressure from the local education department not to take his son back, Mr. Yang said, because officials felt the case was attracting too much negative attention. He is now attending school in Tianshui, but that school has said it may not be able to keep him because he is still registered in Zhangjiachuan, Mr. Yang said. He said his son is afraid to return to Zhangjiachuan, where he might encounter the police officers who beat him.
“I’m worried about my studies,” Yang Zhong said. “I have the exams to get into high school next June and I don’t know where I can take them.”
His father said that local officials have offered the family money to educate him privately elsewhere, but that the family has refused. A person answering the phone at the school, asked for comment, said he knew about Mr. Yang’s case, then said he was “not too clear,” and then hung up.
Frank Ye contributed research.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Fentanyl, a highly potent painkiller often mixed with heroin, helped fuel a big increase in drug overdose deaths in Onondaga County in 2016.
There were 61 heroin-related deaths last year, up from 44 in 2015, according to the Onondaga County Medical Examiner's office. That represents a 39 percent increase.
Of the 61 deaths, 39 were people who overdosed on heroin mixed with fentanyl. Last year 2 1/2 times more people died from fentanyl-laced heroin than in 2015.
The county data is preliminary, which means the overdose death numbers for 2016 may increase as the medical examiner's office completes pending cases.
The county also saw a big increase last year in people who overdosed on prescription opioid drugs like oxycodone. There were 78 prescription opioid deaths in 2016, up from 52 in 2015, a 50 percent increase.
Fentanyl is a painkiller commonly used in hospital operating rooms. An illicit version of the drug made in Mexico and China is being mixed with heroin by drug dealers nationwide. It can be up to 100 percent more potent than heroin.
Dr. Brian Johnson, an addiction psychiatrist at Upstate University Hospital, said he frequently encounters drug users who did not realize the heroin they were taking was laced with fentanyl. "When you are buying drugs, dealers are not going to tell you what it is," he said.
Prescription opioid deaths include people who bought the painkillers on the street as well as individuals prescribed the drugs by their doctors, he said.
Many people taking prescription opioids for chronic pain find that their pain actually gets worse the more pills they take, he said. To ease their pain they take even more "and they never wake up," Johnson said.
To help address the problem, Upstate is working to develop a uniform approach to opioid prescribing among all its departments.
"We're frantic about this and we're gong to make sure things happen that will change it," he said.
What's happening in Onondaga County is part of an unprecedented national opioid epidemic.
Since 1999 the national rate of opioid overdose deaths has nearly quadrupled. On an average day in the U.S., 78 people die from an opioid overdose and 580 people start using heroin.
Over the past year, addiction treatment providers and programs in Central New York have been working to expand their services to accommodate a growing number of addicts.
But Johnson said there still are not enough services in the community to meet demand.
Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245
http://www.syracuse.com/empire/index.ssf/2017/01/follette.html#incart_river_indexRoman Anatolyevich Pavlyuchenko (Russian: Роман Анатольевич Павлюченко; born 15 December 1981) is a Russian footballer who plays as a striker for FC Znamya Noginsk.
He started his career at Dynamo Stavropol, and Rotor Volgograd, before transferring to Spartak Moscow in 2003. His performances there earned him a £13.7 million transfer to Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League in 2008, where he spent three full seasons before returning to Russia to play for Lokomotiv Moscow. After another full 3 seasons he moved in July 2015, to Kuban Krasnodar.
A full international for a decade following his debut in 2003, Pavlyuchenko earned 51 caps for Russia, and scored 21 international goals. He was named in the Team of the Tournament at Euro 2008, with Russia reaching the semi-finals, and was also in their squad for Euro 2012.
Early career [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko was born in the village of Mostovskoy, Krasnodar Krai. Pavlyuchenko was raised by his father Anatoly A. V. Pavlyuchenko and his mother Lyubov Vladimirovna. Pavlyuchenko has a sister. A few days after Pavlyuchenko was born, the family moved to Karachay-Cherkessia, the city of Ust-Dzheguta. Pavlyuchenko began his football career when he joined Victory Sports School and stayed there for seven years before joining another youth club, Dynamo Stavropol.
Club career [ edit ]
Dynamo Stavropol [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko started his football career at Dynamo Stavropol. Under the guidance of coach Vladimir Tokarev and Vladimir Kitin, Pavlyuchenko did not stand out among the rest of the Dynamo players. But under Fyodor Gagloyev, he was first invited to join pre-season tour with the club. Pavlyuchenko made his debut for the club, coming on as a substitute, in a 1-0 loss against Moscow on 5 April 1999. On 15 May 1999, Pavlyuchenko provided a double assist in a 2-1 win over Chita. In his first season, Pavlyuchenko made 31 appearance and scoring 11 goals. However, the club played was still relegated to the Second Division after the club was last place. Despite this, Pavlyuchenko was named 'Team of the top' junior division for the first version of the newspaper Sport Express.[4]
Rotor Volgograd [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko moved to Rotor Volgograd in 2000, although the move was made in the summer of 1999, despite president Rochus Shohu rejecting the offer. In his first match, Pavlyuchenko made his debut for the club against Elista where he received a red card after he punched an opponent player in the face. On 8 July 2000, Pavlyuchenko scored his first goal against Rostov where in his first season, he made 16 appearances and scored 5 goals. The club finished 11th in the league. In his second season, Pavlyuchenko made 28 appearances and scored 5 goals while the club finished 10th in the league. In his third season, Pavlyuchenko made 21 appearances and scored 4 times.
Spartak Moscow [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko moved to Spartak Moscow in the spring of 2003 for €700,000 where the deal between the two clubs was agreed. He was a replacement for Vladimir Beschastnykh, who left for Turkish side Fenerbahçe S.K.. On 15 March 2003, Pavlyuchenko made his debut for the club against Moscow. The next game on 22 March 2003, Pavlyuchenko scored his first goal for the club in a 2-1 loss against Alania Vladikavkaz. In his first season, Pavlyuchenko scored 10, making him the best scorer in the team. Also the club placed in 10th place and achieved winning the Russian Cup in a 1-0 win with Pavlyuchenko played for 87 minutes before being substituted. Also, Pavlyuchenko scored in the second leg on 15 October 2003 in a 1-1 draw against Esbjerg of the UEFA Cup which he made his debut in the competition on 24 September 2003. In his second season, Pavlyuchenko made 26 appearance and scored 10 goals which once again he was the most effective player on the team, which took eighth place in the league. In his third season, Pavlyuchenko made 25 appearance and scored 11.
Pavlyuchenko receiving a gift from the club.
In his fourth season, Pavlyuchenko was the top scorer in the league with 18 goals and first player to do so at Spartak Moscow. This also became the first player in the history of Spartak, who was tournament top scorer after the creation of the Russian Federation in 1992 The club was also close to win the league but lose out to CSKA Moscow having a same point but with goal differences. In his fifth season, Pavlyuchenko became a top scorer with 14 goals along with Roman Adamov. With Spartak Moscow he qualified for the UEFA Champions League. Pavlyuchenko was the hero when he scored the winning goal and provided an assist for Mozart in a 2-1 win over Slovan Liberec in the second leg of Champions League Qualification following a first leg 0-0 draw. That win would secure the club Champions League status as Spartak Moscow would play in the Group Stage and were drawn against Sporting Clube de Portugal, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. On 18 October 2006, Pavlyuchenko scored the only goal in a 2-1 loss against Inter Milan Matchday 3. On 5 December 2006 Matchday 6, Pavlyuchenko scored the first goal in the game as Spartak Moscow win 3-1 over Sporting Lisbon. This win ensure Spartak Moscow would go to the UEFA Cup after becoming third in the group stage. The following season Spartak faced Celtic in their UEFA Champions League qualifier. The first leg finished 1-1, with Pavlyuchenko scoring Spartak's goal.[5] The second leg also finished 1-1 with Pavlyuchenko scoring again, though he also missed a penalty in normal time. The game went to penalties and Spartak lost.[6] On 19 April 2007, Pavlyuchenko scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 3-0 win over Kuban Krasnodar. In his fourth and last season, Pavlyuchenko made 14 appearance and scored 6.
During his time at Spartak, Pavlyuchenko was the club's most prolific goalscorer, scoring 69 goals in 141 games. His goalscoring, together with his loyalty to the rhombik (the club's emblem), earned him much respect and appreciation from the "Army of Red-White Fans".
Tottenham Hotspur [ edit ]
In September 2008, Pavlyuchenko signed for Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £13.7 million.[7]
Pavlyuchenko made his debut for Spurs on 15 September against Aston Villa.[8] He scored his first goal on 24 September 2008, in the 2–1 League Cup 3rd round win against Newcastle United.[9] Pavlyuchenko went on to score his first league goal for the club in the 2–0 victory against Bolton Wanderers on 26 October 2008.[10] On 16 May 2009 in a 2-1 win over Manchester City, Pavlyuchenko was substituted 15 minutes before full-time for Fraizer Campbell. Unhappy of coming off, Pavlyuchenko stormed down the tunnel rather joining his teammates on the bench. His actions was criticised by Harry Redknapp, saying that he let the players and fans down.
"I don't like that, It's not something I like. You're looking to scrap away. The fans are here and paying their money to watch and I think when a player runs down the tunnel without sitting down and watching and getting behind the team, I think that is disrespectful to his team-mates Redknapp reaction on Pavlyuchenko actions.[11]
Pavlyuchenko then apologised for his actions, saying it wasn't his best performance and was angry at himself after coming off the pitch and not at the decision to replace him.[12]
Pavlyuchenko in the Tottenham Hotspur shirt.
He has scored in every English domestic cup competition game he has played in, except for the 2009 Football League Cup Final. In the 2009–10 season, Pavlyuchenko was fourth-choice striker for Tottenham, with Harry Redknapp preferring Robbie Keane, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe to the Russian which Pavlyuchenko was linked a move away from the club.[citation needed] Pavlyuchenko has been linked with clubs like Lokomotiv Moscow,[13] Zenit Saint Petersburg,[14] Roma,[15] A.C. Milan,[16] Hertha BSC,[17] Birmingham City,[18] West Ham United[citation needed] and Spartak Moscow.[19] However, Pavlyuchenko says that he cannot understand why the club didn't let him leave the club, without any explanation.[20]
Pavlyuchenko came on as a substitute on 21 February against Wigan Athletic and scored his first league goal of the season, a close-range finish to make the score 2–0. He also added a second from a very tight angle during injury time to make it 3–0. Harry Redknapp acknowledged the importance of his performance and remarked on Pavlyuchenko's popularity with the fans in his post-match interview.[21] He made his second start of the season three days later in the FA Cup fifth-round replay against Bolton Wanderers and scored twice, a match Tottenham won 4–0. Redknapp has since gone on to say that the Russian striker has taken his opportunity and may well see further first team action.[22] Pavlyuchenko continued his good form with another goal against Everton on 28 February, and another two goals against Blackburn Rovers on 13 March. He also scored a goal in the quarter-final replay against Fulham at White Hart Lane on 24 March.
Pavlyuchenko in 2011.
On 17 August, he scored a vital away goal against BSC Young Boys in the Champions League play-off round first leg. Tottenham were losing 3–0 until a Sébastien Bassong header pulled it back to 3–1 and Pavlyuchenko later made it 3–2. In the second leg, Spurs won 4–0 at home, meaning that they would progress into the Champions League group stages. Pavlyuchenko's promising form in this tournament continued with two second-half penalty strikes against FC Twente in Tottenham's second group match, followed by a decisive third goal as Spurs beat cup holders Inter Milan on Matchday 4. On 4 November, Pavlyuchenko scored with a volley in a 4–2 defeat to Bolton Wanderers. The following weekend, he scored again in a home win against Blackburn Rovers. On 6 March 2011, he scored a goal against Wolves. He scored the first goal against West Bromwich Albion on 2–2 draw on April. Pavlyuchenko scored a goal in a London derby against Chelsea in a 1–1 draw. On 22 May, the final day of the season, Pavlyuchenko scored two stunning long-range goals in a 2–1 win against Birmingham City to ensure that Tottenham finished fifth in the Premier League and qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League. The win also relegated Birmingham to the Championship.[23]
The Russian's Tottenham career up until this point had consisted of constantly being down the pecking order in the 2009–10 season despite having a better goals per minute ratio than all of his fellow strike partners in Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Robbie Keane. The same went for the 2010–11 season when in March Pavlyuchenko had a minutes per goals ratio of 151 compared to competitors Jermain Defoe who had 208, Peter Crouch had 243 and Rafael van der Vaart had 161.[24] In December of the 2011–12 season, the striker had been restricted to just 18 minutes of Premier League football, until he came on against Sunderland and went on to score the only goal of the game in the 61st minute.[25] This was his third goal of the season having scored against Shamrock Rovers and Rubin Kazan in the Europa League earlier in the season.
Lokomotiv Moscow [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko with Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014.
In early 2012, Tottenham unilaterally invoked an option to extend Pavlyuchenko's contract until the end of next season.[26] Reports claim that Pavlyuchenko had been involved in a training ground bust-up with Spurs coach Kevin Bond which led him to leave the club in the January transfer window.[27] However this was later refuted by his agent. On the transfer deadline, Pavlyuchenko signed a deal with Lokomotiv Moscow for a fee of £8 million with Louis Saha as his replacement.[28] Following his move to Russia, Pavlyuchenko says if Tottenham did not let him sign for Lokomotiv Moscow, he would sit out the remaining 18 months of his contract and leave for nothing and also tell Russian newspaper Sports Express saying "I explained that if they did not let me go now, when match practice for the European Championship is particularly important, then I would not consider a transfer in the summer."[29] On 3 March 2012, Pavlyuchenko made his debut in his first match back at Russia since 2008 against Kuban Krasnodar in a 2–0 win.[30] On 24 March 2012, Pavlyuchenko scored his first goal in over four years in Russia in a 2-0 win over CSKA Moscow and provided an assist for Felipe Caicedo.[31] After starting first 6 games of the 2012-13 season under the new manager Slaven Bilić, he lost his spot in the starting lineup and was intermittently used a substitute for the rest of the season. In the 2013–14 season, there was again a change of manager in Lokomotiv, but Pavlyuchenko was still used as a substitute by Leonid Kuchuk.
Kuban Krasnodar [ edit ]
On 16 July 2015, Kuban Krasnodar announced the signing of Pavlyuchenko. He reunited with former Russia teammate Andrei Arshavin.[32]
Ural Yekaterinburg [ edit ]
On 25 June 2016, following Kuban's relegation, he signed a one-year deal with FC Ural Yekaterinburg.[33]
Ararat Moscow [ edit ]
On 30 May 2017, he signed with FC Ararat Moscow and played with the new club in the Russian Professional Football League (third-level).[34] On 17 November 2017, his Ararat contract was dissolved by mutual consent.[35]
Znamya Noginsk [ edit ]
On 31 August 2018, he joined the fourth-tier Russian Amateur Football League side FC Znamya Noginsk. He announced he will be with the team on part-time basis and play only in home games.[36]
International career [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko training with the Russian national football team.
Pavlyuchenko made his debut for the Russian national team on 20 August 2003, replacing Dmitriy Sychev at half-time of a 3–1 friendly loss to Israel at Lokomotiv Stadium in Moscow. He did not play again until 3 September 2005, when he started in a 2–0 home win over Liechtenstein in World Cup qualification. He scored his first goal on his third cap on 8 October, the third in a 5–1 win over Luxembourg in World Cup qualification, four minutes after coming on for Andrey Arshavin.
Euro 2008 [ edit ]
Roman Pavlyuchenko was in the spotlight when he scored both goals in Russia's 2–1 victory in a crucial Euro 2008 qualification match against England.[38] He was named in Guus Hiddink's 23-man squad for UEFA Euro 2008,[39] and scored in warm-up victories against Serbia and Lithuania.
He scored a late consolation goal in Russia's loss to Spain in their opening match of the campaign and the first goal in Russia's third match of the tournament against Sweden to send Russia through at Sweden's expense.[40][41] He was declared man of the match after the 1–0 game with Greece,[42] although he did not score in the game, and then scored the first goal of the match in Russia's 3–1 quarter final victory over the Netherlands.[43] After the tournament ended, he was named in the 23-man Team of the Tournament.[44]
Euro 2012 [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko scored his first international hat-trick on 4 June 2011 in a European qualifier against Armenia in Saint Petersburg.
He was confirmed for the finalized UEFA Euro 2012 squad on 25 May 2012. In their opening match against the Czech Republic on 8 June in Wroclaw, he came off the bench in the 73rd minute and set up his teammate Alan Dzagoev for Russia's third goal. Minutes later he scored Russia's fourth goal, and Russia went on to win 4–1.[45] [46] Pavlyuchenko come on as a substitute against Poland (1-1) and Greece (0-1), which caused the team to be eliminated from the group.
Retirement [ edit ]
On 24 July 2013, Pavlyuchenko announced his retirement from international duty.[3]
Personal life [ edit ]
Pavlyuchenko is married to Larisa and has a young daughter named Kristina. In Russia, Pavlyuchenko is a local Duma (city council) deputy in Stavropol, representing the ruling Vladimir Putin-led United Russia party,[47] although "because of my profession it won't be easy for me to take part directly in the workings of the city council – but I am ready to help with advice and with a concrete contribution to the development possibilities for exercise and sport".[48]
Career statistics [ edit ]
Club [ edit ]
As of match played 1 October 2017
Club Season League Cup League Cup Europe Other[49] Total Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Dynamo Stavropol 1999 31 11 3 0 – – – 34 11 Total 31 11 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 34 11 Rotor 2000 16 5 1 1 – – – 17 6 2001 28 5 0 0 – – – 28 5 2002 21 4 1 0 – – – 22 4 Total 65 14 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 67 15 Spartak Moscow 2003 27 10 5 3 1 2 2 1 – 35 16 2004 26 10 2 0 – 5 3 1 0 34 13 2005 25 11 1 1 – – – 26 12 2006 27 18 6 0 – 10 3 1 0 44 21 2007 22 14 3 0 – 8 6 0 0 33 20 2008 14 6 0 0 – 3 1 – 17 7 Total 141 69 17 4 1 2 28 14 2 0 189 89 Tottenham Hotspur 2008–09 28 5 2 3 6 6 0 0 – 36 14 2009–10 16 5 6 4 2 1 – – 24 10 2010–11 29 10 1 0 1 0 8 4 – 39 14 2011–12 5 1 2 1 1 0 6 2 – 14 4 Total 78 21 11 8 10 7 14 6 0 0 113 42 Lokomotiv Moscow 2011–12 9 2 1 |
building was what we’d termed Barracks D. Jessie and I had purchased space in the building with the idea that if we made this a more permanent base or if we found a big opportunity to recruit in the city, we could stick people there. We hadn’t done either, so it had been left as a set of mattress-less beds for Otis and Archie’s groups and a place to stick any kid that got drunk off of lab-brewed booze and puked on himself, had an experiment screw up, or otherwise got into a state where they weren’t worthy of sleeping in the same building as other living humans.
That last bit had led to the building getting nicknames, and I was gravely disappointed I couldn’t remember any of them off the top of my head.
“Inside,” Mary ordered.
The door was never locked. The hallway was rarely lit by anything but light from the outside. A wood stove sat in an alcove just to the left of the door, while a matching alcove to the right was meant to hold shoes and coats. The stove didn’t burn, and there weren’t any shoes or coats in the alcove to the right. Boots had tracked in snow not all that long ago, and there were still traces of wet on the ground.
Mary, entering just behind Jessie and I, put a hand on our shoulders, making us stop where we were. When I turned to look, she was pressing a finger to her lips.
I was careful to put my mind to work with the Lambs that lurked in my head. Mary walked up ahead, gesturing, and Helen skipped to catch up. One set of each of them on either side of the hallway. The Helens moved in an almost playful way, hands clasped in front of them, not walking slowly, but taking exaggerated steps that made her zig-zag left and right. Mary was moving slowly, and the two kept perfect time with one another in their own coordinated ways.
Twin lambs matched them, not entirely matched to them. I paid attention to the little things that deviated. Helen’s legs were longer than the legs of the Helen in black, it affected her stride, made the steps even more exaggerated. Her head was lower as she slouched just slightly. the eyes didn’t match up. My Helen’s eyes were wider, more artful, less dangerous. The clothes were the obvious difference, as well. My Lambs favored black.
It was a spot the difference game like any I might’ve found in the very back of one of Jamie’s dime store novels, alongside puzzles and word games.
Mary, meanwhile, hadn’t drawn a knife with her left hand, even though my Mary had. That was curious.
“Too much wet. People came through here,” my Mary said.
I imagined giving a signal, shouting, whistling, and I could see the steps as things played out, my Mary making me regret it. The other Mary would do virtually the same.
I waited a moment, let them make their way down the hallway some, checking doors, and then worked out what might happen if I gave a signal or alert.
Again, I had the very strong, clear mental image of my Mary hurling a knife so it caught me somewhere non-vital. If I was annoying about the signal, she threw two simultaneously.
I waited another few moments, and then I whistled, in a loud, shrill tone that I knew would grate Mary’s nerves just a little bit more.
She hurled a knife in my direction. I remained still as the knife embedded itself into the wall just a handspan from my face.
The look she gave me was sharp and annoyed, but it was fleeting too. She and Helen made a run for it.
I looked at the knife that was buried into the wall. I wanted it. But my hands were tied behind my back with a coat draped over them. Taking it would require me to open my mouth, bite into that handle, and tear it free, and what did I do then?
Lillian and Duncan nudged me to move on. I gave the knife a forlorn glance, watching as Duncan hauled it out of the wall with both hands and then tucked it into his belt.
We were pushed to follow Mary and Helen, and we did. The element of surprise was gone, and Lillian, Duncan, and Ashton wanted to assist where needed without losing track of Jessie, Mabel and I.
At the end of the long winding hallway with small rooms on either side, we reached the kitchen in the back corner. It wasn’t fully equipped, but it had a sink, a kettle, and another stove. Archie, Davis, Valentina and Berger were present.
There were people who were intelligent or with very keen natural talents, and I counted Mabel as such, and there were people who worked hard and picked up a wealth of abilities, like Rudy. Archie was someone who had a high native ability and had worked hard to build up a gang and hold a good amount of a small city with a very small gang. I liked him a lot. Valentina and Davis had been top students at Beattle and they’d earned their places as the vice president and president of the student council.
I supposed Berger was likely in good company, given what I’d seen of him and the station he’d managed to reach. Which wasn’t to say that station equated intelligence, but I had no reason to think this man wasn’t intelligent.
That said, Berger knelt before them, arm shackled to the pipes of the sink with the same shackle he had used on me. His face was mostly crimson bandages, soaked through with dark red blood. Archie crouched behind him, the needle of a syringe at the side of Berger’s neck.
Davis and Valentina were standing off to one side, tense. Davis had a knife, but they were otherwise unarmed.
“Let him go,” Mary said.
“Can’t do,” Davis said. He glanced at me. “Shackled. Don’t have the key.”
“Not an issue,” Mary said.
“Might be,” Davis said.
“Builder’s wood,” Valentina said. “Poured it into the lock the minute we had worked that it was an internal threat and not the Crown marching in on our camp.”
Mary absently toyed with her knife, moving it so it rolled over the back of her hand before catching it.
Berger watched everything, more or less silent. When he talked, it was slurred. “I meant to ask. How did your year-end project go, Lillian.”
“There’s no need to ingratiate yourself with us, Professor,” Lillian said. “We’re invested in getting you back where you belong, with the Crown, Duke, and Lord Infante in New Amsterdam.”
“Well,” the man with a face of bandage and blood spoke, “Those are nice words to hear. You will have to tell me about your year-end project after things have progressed some. You as well, Duncan.”
“I’d be willing to graft wings on, shave off seventy percent of my body weight and flap my arms to Radham if it meant hearing my results sooner,” Duncan said.
“I still remember the day I got the mail that told me I’d earned my white coat,” the Professor said. He hung his head. “It hurts to talk. Please excuse my silence.”
“Of course, Professor,” Lillian said.
“I hope us going through with this wasn’t an inconvenience, Sylvester,” Davis said, from the far end of the kitchen.
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “The main thing is that I don’t want you three to get hurt. Not after we lost Otis and some of his men last night. I think the thing to do is to stand down.”
“Right,” Davis said. “Just like that, the plan is done? We lose you, we lose everything? Our last ditch effort here doesn’t count for anything? Just dumb luck and we’re done here?”
“You’re still free to go,” I said. “Presumably. Go, survive, be free.”
“I agree with Sylvester, for the record. Run away,” Jessie said.
“Kudos, though,” I said. “In most other circumstances, this would have been the thing to do, you three. It’s only because of bad luck, long associations and a bit of crazy crossed with exhaustion that it didn’t go that way.”
“That’s appreciated, Sy,” Davis said. “But let’s focus on doing what we need to, here. You guys went to a lot of trouble to get this professor out of there. You had plans, we talked about those plans. Things get tricky if those people there want to use the man.”
“Let them get tricky. It’s better that you guys leave unharmed than get clever about what happens with Berger. There are more professors out in the world. The Beattle rebels can still theoretically run off and drink, kick ass, be awkwardly teenager with each other, and maybe change the world just a little, you get me?”
“I get you,” Davis said.
Which was good, because I wasn’t sure I believed what I was saying. Getting another professor of Berger’s caliber would be a herculean effort, our chances of getting away from this weren’t strong, and I worried the massive disappointment of my being captured would fracture our little faction here. They’d been betrayed by authority once. My capture would be a betrayal of their trust in me.
Archie spoke, “I’m interpreting your instructions from last night.”
“I gave instructions last night?” I asked.
“Yes,” Archie said, at the same time Jessie did.
“About this hypothetical?” I asked.
“Yes,” Jessie said. Archie, meanwhile, only gave me a curt nod. Jessie elaborated, “About what should happened if the Academy came through or if things went sideways overnight, while everyone was fighting.”
“Past-Sylvester is really kicking rear,” I said. “Sometimes in ways that get in the way of present-Sylvester. You three are getting in the way now, just a little. Let’s not make the hostage situation any more tenuous.”
“You wanted us to stall the enemy, should enemy appear when you two aren’t here,” Archie said. “You’ll need a hacksaw and twenty Crown minutes to get through the chain. Or a saw and five Crown minutes to get through the arm, but I don’t see you taking a surgeon’s hand off. I’d call that a good stall, assuming they want the man.”
“We do want him,” Lillian said.
Archie smiled.
“What’s the needle?” Mary asked.
“Another stall. None of you look strong enough to drag a tall man any distance without getting tired. I’d be worried about you using Jessie or Sylvester there for slave labor, but they’re looking peaked. Sylvester especially.”
Jessie spoke, “I’ll note that last night, when Sylvester was giving you instructions, we said that it mattered only up until we arrived,” Jessie said.
“I’m gonna take a liberal interpretation here and now,” Archie said, making the last three words sound like one. “I’m gonna give these two kids a chance to run for it, unless you object, and I’ll square off and delay by threatening to poke the Professor here. We can talk, and if you two convince me you’re good with how things stand, maybe I let the Professor go without objection.”
“I’m not leaving,” Davis said. “I spent half the night commanding the Beattle Rebels and organizing misdirection, traps, and retreats, and that’s something I’m never going to do again. I lost two years of my life from the stress of having that many lives in my hands. I’m invested now. On the chance it counts for anything, I’m staying here.”
“Yes,” Valentina said. Not ‘yeah’ or ‘yup’ or anything like that. Only a careful ‘yes’ in a polite and resigned voice. There was a bit of steel in her.
“They say that clever individuals surround themselves with clever people,” Duncan said. “I’m not too shocked to find out that the biggest human pain-in-the-corkhole in the Crown States has surrounded himself with pain-in-the-corkhole recruits.”
“I love you too, Duncan,” I said.
“Sure, Sy,” Duncan said.
“Really, though. I’m seeing things these days. Not a big secret. Imagining got away from me, and I imagine the Lambs an awful lot, to keep me company.”
“Yeah, Sy,” Duncan said.
“So, for what it’s worth, that roster of Lambs includes you.”
Standing off to one side, his eyebrows raised.
“Probably your mental punching bag,” he said.
“Nah,” I said. “The voice of politics and social engineering, I think.”
“Better to pick Hayle, I think,” he said. I had the feeling it was a kneejerk reaction.
“Nah,” I said. “See, they don’t always go away when I tell them to. Mostly they show up when they decide, these days, instead of when I piece them together. I loathe Hayle because of what he did. To me, to most of you. We might not get along famously, but you place pretty well on my list of people I’m willing to have up there, tracking mud through my brain as they wander. You were one of seven and a half I was actively willing to invite in.”
Duncan frowned. I could see a lot going on in his eyes. They weren’t watering, but there was emotion latent, picking apart what I was saying for the manipulation. Maybe a large part of it was me talking frankly about losing my mind and the role that the other Duncan had on that particular stage.
“Gotta say, that plays into my decision,” Archie said. “Deciding if you’re compromised and telling me to walk away while under duress-”
“Nope,” I said, voice firm.
“If I need to make moving this guy clear of this city as irritating as I can, so you have more time to escape or for something to happen-”
“No,” I said.
“And, personally speaking, if it means I get to jab this smug blackcoat with a needle, I’m not so sure I mind.”
“Ah,” I said. I realized I couldn’t do much about it. I looked at Mary. “Don’t kill him, please.”
Archie began depressing the plunger, much of his head and body hidden by his hostage. Mary threw one arm out, and she tossed a knife, more in Valentina’s direction than in Archie’s.
The knife was attached to string. Her other hand flicked the string, moving it, and the projectile’s course changed, flicking out to the side.
The needle, only partially depressed, was struck out of Archie’s hand.
I saw it dawn on Valentina and Davis that they’d bitten off a bit too much, here. They backed away a bit, Davis holding his borrowed kitchen knife.
Archie rose to his feet, blood was streaming from a cut on one gloved finger where the blade had clipped him as it had divested him of the syringe. Hunched over his wounded hand, he used the other to draw a large knife from his belt, approached, and stopped short when Mary threw two knives into his thighs, just above the knees.
Mary’s free knife, still with the cord attached, was flicked. Archie seemed to sense that the attack would follow, and moved back and clear out of the way. Then he moved forward with staggering steps, knife held up and out, clearly intent on using his longer reach and the blade to win the fight.
Mary didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver – the Lambs and us hostages were mostly behind her, the room here wasn’t large, and the tricks with string and knives needed room to flail around.
“Go down, you bastard,” I told Archie. “You’ll only get hurt more.”
“Nng,” he grunted, hunching over more.
The hunch was a feint. I knew that, Mary knew that. He broke out of the supposed weakness and pain by stepping forward, lunging, cutting with that oversized knife of his.
But that attack in itself was a feint too. He stood straight, unfolding, no longer hunched in pain, and he had a pistol in his more injured hand.
Mary’s leg went out as the hand aimed. He didn’t extend his arm – he kept it close to the chest, aiming from there. The very tip of Mary’s toe caught the bottom of the gun and kicked it skyward.
He brought the hand down, aiming, and Mary already had two blades drawn, crossed like a pair of scissors, catching the lower part of his gun hand in the crux.
With a grace and fluidity that wouldn’t have been out of place if this was one more attack in a series of attacks, the final reveal after a long chain of feints, he let the gun dangle from one finger in the trigger guard, his other hand going up.
He dropped to his knees, hands raised.
The very instant she had caught his gun hand between the two blades, he’d realized he was outmatched and surrendered.
“Face down on the ground,” Mary ordered.
Archie complied.
“Helen?” Mary asked.
Helen took over guarding Archie. Mary, meanwhile, walked over to Berger. Lillian hurried to Berger’s side.
“Tranquilizer,” Davis said.
“Not a full dose, judging by the fluid on the ground. How are you, professor?” Lillian asked.
“I feel as if my mind dropped to the bottom of a very deep well. I’m feeling vertigo from the fall, it’s dark, and it’s a long way to the surface,” Berger said. “On the upside, the pain of not having skin on half of my face is rather muted.”
“You’re mushing up your words more,” I pointed out.
“Thank you, Sylvester. You’ll have to excuse that I’m missing part of my lips and tongue.”
Mary checked the shackle. She checked the lock, and then the links, and worked her way down to where it connected to the sink-pipe. She checked the end attached to the pipe.
“Lock is wooded here, too. Pipe is cast iron,” Mary observed, of the pipe. “Nothing to unscrew. It’s all one solid piece, welded together. We could tear apart the cabinet the sink is on and try to throw this sink to the ground, destroying the pipe, but…”
“Cast iron,” Duncan observed, finishing the sentence. “Buildings like this? I’ve seen the pictures of the houses after fires, after bombings, after other disasters, where the house is ruined, but the bones of it stand. Sometimes you see the piping just sticking up there like a skeletal tree, outlasting the rest of the house.”
“Helen,” Mary said. “Can you? Twisting the chain? Can you brute-force it?”
Helen took the chain, testing the weight of it in her hands. She gathered up a short length of it, and she proceeded to wring it.
Very faintly, I could hear the protest of the metal.
“Progress,” Mary said.
“Slow,” Duncan observed. “Probably not faster than a hacksaw.”
Mary stood up, wiping hands she’d dirtied touching the pipe on a towelcloth. She took in the scene.
“It’s a draw,” Lillian said.
Mary frowned.
“We take Sy, we take Jessie. They keep Berger for now. We make a…”
“Trade?” I asked.
“No,” Lillian said. “Not a trade. We can’t not bring you in, and we can’t leave Berger either. You can’t let us leave without Berger.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound like a very good exchange,” I said. “Giving up Berger for nothing. The way I see it, I gotta keep Berger, and I gotta stay free. Only way this works is if both sides leave unhappy. Bonus points if we’re amicable.”
“We’ll see,” Lillian said. She looked at Mary. “What do you think?”
“We’ll take Mabel and this man with us,” Mary said. “We rendezvous in an hour, due west of here. There should be a crossroad. We meet there, we discuss, we figure something out.”
Previous NextELECTRIC bikes got a boost in Wednesday's Budget in the form of a £200m investment commitment in charging infrastructure. But are the vehicles themselves anywhere close to offering realistic replacements for our petrol-powered bikes yet?
I'll be finding out over the next two weeks when I go cold turkey on petrol and borrow a Zero S for what will be the first UK test of the updated 2018 model.
It now charges up to six times faster, giving a claimed 85 miles for every hour plugged in, while maximum claimed range on a combination of roads is 150 miles. You can charge it at a domestic socket and it makes a claimed 60hp and 81lbft.
On paper, it should easily be able to do everything my Suzuki SV650S does, including my 120-mile round-trip commute to work. I'll let you know soon with a report and video whether the Zero S, which costs from at €12,700 (£11,309), is really a viable alternative.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, announced on Wednesday that the government would invest £200m to support the wider roll out of charging infrastructure, matched by private investment to create a £400m ‘Charging Investment Infrastructure Fund’ to increase the network of charging points for ultra low emission vehicles.
Zero Motorcycles’ UK Manager Dale Robinson said: “It’s good news that the government continues to recognise the role that electric vehicles can play in providing a cleaner future. In this past year we have seen a great deal of interest in Zero motorcycles from both the press and public alike and a constant improvement in the infrastructure will give more and more people a reason to go electric.
"The 2018 Zeros have 10% more range than the 2017 models, over 230 miles in the city, and the option of the factory fitted Charge Tank means that riders will be able to take advantage of these increasing number of charging points and recharge quickly while out on the road, and this commitment to invest in the infrastructure is good news for our current and potential owners.”VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC Gulf oil producers will not propose an output cut on Thursday, reducing the likelihood of joint action by OPEC to prop up prices that have sunk by a third since June.
“The GCC reached a consensus,” Saudi Arabian Oil MinisterAli al-Naimi told reporters, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. “We are very confident that OPEC will have a unified position.”
“The power of convincing will prevail tomorrow... I am confident that OPEC is capable of taking a very unified position,” Naimi added.
A Gulf OPEC delegate told Reuters the GCC had reached a consensus not to cut oil output. Three OPEC delegates separately told Reuters they believed OPEC was unlikely to take any action when the 12-member organisation meets on Thursday after Russia said it would not cut output in tandem.
The OPEC meeting will be one of its most crucial in recent years, with oil having tumbled to below $78 a barrel due to the U.S. shale boom and slower economic growth in China and Europe.
Cutting output unilaterally would effectively mean for OPEC, which accounts for a third of global oil output, a further loss of market share to North American shale oil producers.
If OPEC decided against cutting and rolled over existing output levels on Thursday, that would effectively mean a price war that the Saudis and other Gulf producers could withstand due to their large foreign-exchange reserves. Other members, such as Venezuela or Iran, would find it much more difficult.
Brent crude LCOc1 was trading down 73 cents at $77.60 a barrel at 1919 GMT.
Naimi said earlier on Wednesday he expected the oil market “to stabilise itself eventually”, after talks with non-OPEC member Russia on Tuesday yielded no pledge from Moscow to tackle a global oil glut jointly.
The UAE sided with Naimi, saying oil prices would soon stabilise, while ramping up pressure on non-OPEC nations.
“This is not a crisis that requires us to panic... we have seen (prices) way lower,” UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui told Reuters.
“The oversupply came from the evolution of the unconventional oil production... I think everyone needs to play a role in balancing the market, not OPEC unilaterally,” he said.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said some OPEC members, although not Iran, were now gearing up for a battle over market share.
“Some OPEC members believe that this is the time where we need to defend market share... All the experts in the market believe we have oversupply in the market and next year we will have more oversupply,” he added.
The group could opt to roll over output levels but stress the importance of better compliance, while also agreeing to hold an extraordinary meeting if prices keep falling, a Gulf OPEC delegate and several OPEC watchers said.
PRICE WAR
Among the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Venezuela and Iraq have called for output cuts. OPEC’s traditional price hawk Iran said on Wednesday its views were now close to those of Saudi Arabia.
Zangeneh said there was unity inside OPEC to “monitor the market carefully” but made no mention of a cut.
“The onslaught of North American shale oil has drastically undermined OPEC’s position and reduced its market share,” said Dr. Gary Ross, chief executive of PIRA Energy Group.
Russia, which produces 10.5 million barrels per day (bpd) or 11 percent of global oil, came to Tuesday’s meeting amid hints it might agree to cut output as it suffers from oil’s price fall and Western sanctions over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
But as that meeting with Naimi and officials from Venezuela and non-OPEC member Mexico ended, Russia’s most influential oil official, state firm Rosneft’s (ROSN.MM) head Igor Sechin, emerged with a surprise message - Russia will not reduce output even if oil falls to $60 per barrel.
Sechin added that he expected low oil prices to do more damage to producing nations with higher costs, in a clear reference to the U.S. shale boom. On Wednesday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said he expected the country’s output to be flat next year.
Many at OPEC were surprised by Sechin’s suggestion that Russia - in desperate need of oil prices above $100 per barrel to balance its budget - was ready for a price war.
“Gulf states are less bothered about a price drop compared to other OPEC members,” an OPEC source close to Gulf thinking said.
Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi talks to journalists before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna in this June 11, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/Files
OPEC publications have shown that global supply will exceed demand by more than 1 million bpd in the first half of next year.
While the statistics speak in favour of a cut, the build-up to the OPEC meeting has seen one of the most heated debates in years about the next policy step for the group.
“The idea of unleashing a price war against U.S. shale oil seems strange to me. I doubt you can win this battle as most U.S. oil producers are hedging a lot of their output,” said a top oil executive visiting Vienna for talks with OPEC ministers.At this point, the justified expressions of outrage and the paeans to the dead have long surpassed the need for duplication. What remains is to ask, with the cold clarity of an observer looking down from a great height: Who profits, and who loses, from the terrorist strike at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo?
The profiteers of tragedy, in this case, are all the worst elements in human society, East and West. On the one hand, our War Party is in high dudgeon: on Twitter yesterday [Wednesday], New York Times columnist Roger Cohen shrieked:
"I am shaking with rage at the attack on Charlie Hebdo. It’s an attack on the free world. The entire free world should respond, ruthlessly."
I asked him who or what should be the target, and he responded:
"The perpetrators. Their enablers. Their ideologues. Their fellow travelers. Follow the money. Ruthless equals remorseless."
Cohen, by no means a war-crazed neocon, is ready for a blood purge, and a good chunk of the political class in this country and Western Europe is right behind him. The actual perpetrators of the horrific act of murder are soon to be forgotten as the hunt for the "enablers" and "fellow travelers" is taken up with glee. And the hunters will range far beyond their home terrain as "links" are discovered in the far corners of the globe: indeed, with this act, the mysterious "al-Qaeda" makes its reappearance in our collective nightmares. That amorphous ghost, which seems to be everywhere and nowhere, will be chased down from Toulouse to Timbuktu – and then on to Tehran, as the West gears up for a fresh rampage across the war-scarred Middle East.
The ideologues of state terrorism are already sharpening their swords, which resemble pens, eager to slash their way into the kind of "moral clarity" their kind cannot find in peacetime. Over at the New Yorker, George Packer, an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq war – until it became unpopular – hones his blade: any attempt to "understand" (his scare quotes) what happened in Paris by reference to actual events in the real world is for sissies. The French immigration conundrum, French imperialism, and least of all the invasion of Iraq – all of this is irrelevant. Like all too many intellectuals, who deal in ideas, he is only concerned with "ideology," as if such a thing could exist without a material basis.
The problem, Packer avers, is "an ideology that has sought to achieve power through terror for decades." And it isn’t just an extreme form of Islam, but Islam itself that energizes this holy terror: after all, Charlie Hebdo skewered all religions, "but only Muslims responded with threats and acts of terrorism." That this is untrue – the terroristic Jewish Defense League threatened one cartoonist, Maurice Sinet, with violence, and the French government itself shut down the magazine’s predecessor because it "insulted" Charles de Gaulle – doesn’t slow down our relentless crusader one bit: after all, the man lives in a world of floating abstractions, and such vulgar phenomena as facts don’t get in his way. And he knows just where he’s going. In France, they can’t just round up all the Muslims and deport them – or worse – and Packer must satisfy himself with educational measures, which will somehow "prevent young Muslims from giving up their minds to a murderous ideology." But elsewhere, farther afield, "higher levels of counter-violence" must be pursued.
Shorter Packer: Bombs away!
The neocons are already using this incident as a way to justify the Surveillance State in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations. Gary Schmitt, writing in the Weekly Standard, warns against dismantling the Panopticon:
"As the U.S. Congress turns this year to the issue of whether to renew, reform, or let die key sections of the Patriot Act on terrorism surveillance, it might want to keep in mind what has just happened in Paris. If a country such as France – with as strong a counterterrorism effort as there is in a liberal democracy – is still vulnerable, it should give some pause to those members who think now is the time to water-down our own counterterrorism efforts."
Yet Schmitt undermines his own argument by noting that the French have shown little concern for civil liberties – taking an "aggressive stance [that] has of course upset civil libertarians of the French left and right" – and still the well-planned military-style terrorist operation succeeded. So the draconian measures the neocons favor and want to import here didn’t work – but since such measures are an end in themselves, and not a means to accomplish any goal other than enshrining tyranny for its own sake, that hardly matters to Schmitt.
Bill Kristol, the neocons’ strategist-in-chief, denounces the alleged weakness of liberals in the face of the inherent evil of Islam: the New York Times comes in for a tongue-lashing because they dared print a piece on what we knew (at the time) and what we didn’t know about the Paris attack. Among the latter was the motive of the killers – and to Kristol, who doesn’t want to understand the difference between a news organization and an opinion journal, this appalling lack of instantaneous knowledge is proof of their craven capitulation to terrorism. He also makes much of the fact that news organizations are blurring the images of the Charlie Hebdo magazine covers that so inflamed France’s Muslims – "as if they are pornography." According to Kristol, and his co-thinkers, once the threat of violence has been posed we have a moral obligation to broadcast the offending images or other expressive media as widely and loudly as possible – otherwise we are caving in to terrorists.
Would this be true if, say, the Black Guerilla Family blew up the offices of a white supremacist magazine? I think not. So this weird idea fails as a general principle. However, our politically correct leftists are wrong to conflate Charlie Hebdo with racist propaganda, as many are doing. While the magazine took particular aim at Muslim sensibilities – often in a manner that would never have been tolerated in France if any other group had been so targeted – the editors were (and are) equal opportunity provocateurs: no one was immune from their barbed commentary. They weren’t racists – they were professional polarizers. And therein lies the reason they were chosen as a target.
After all, if al-Qaeda – or whichever terrorist faction planned and executed this murderous act – just wanted to take down some infidels, they could have carried out a suicide bombing in the middle of Paris. But that’s not what they’re after. As Middle East scholar Juan Cole explains in a perceptive essay, the radical Islamists are out to "sharpen the contradictions" – to polarize French society along ethno-religious lines and dip into a pool of French-Algerian recruits. He writes:
"The problem for a terrorist group like al-Qaeda is that its recruitment pool is Muslims, but most Muslims are not interested in terrorism. Most Muslims are not even interested in politics, much less political Islam. France is a country of 66 million, of which about 5 million is of Muslim heritage. But in polling, only a third, less than 2 million, say that they are interested in religion. French Muslims may be the most secular Muslim-heritage population in the world."
Their strategy, therefore, is to create a subculture of grievance by provoking the French state into taking repressive measures – and giving the more reactionary sectors of French society the means to lead an organized and effective anti-Muslim backlash. These elements already exist in the National Front (FN) of Marine Le Pen, which outpolled all the other parties in the EU elections. The FN is the vanguard of the burgeoning anti-Muslim movement that was sweeping Europe even before the Paris attacks – and will now take off like a rocket.
The paradox here is unnerving: Charlie Hebdo was the French far right’s mortal enemy. The editors once sponsored a petition drive to ban the National Front, and various far-rightists sued the magazine over the years in an attempt to shut it down. That these types are going to be the main political beneficiaries of the Paris attacks mocks the dead with a dreadful irony.
The radical Islamist project is out to polarize not only France but the world: like their funhouse mirror counterparts, the neocons, they too view world events through a Manichean prism, a great civilizational conflict between two irreconcilable ideologies. Like the Weathermen faction that plagued the American left during the tumultuous 1960s, the goal of their violence is to bring down society’s fist on Europe’s Muslim minority – all the better to sweep them up into the waiting arms of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, or whatever form these fanatics invent.
Therefore the campaign to broadcast images most Muslims find offensive gladdens them because it quickens their effort to "sharpen the contradictions" French society is already rife with.
While the French far right rails against Muslim immigration, the reality is that most Muslims resident in that country have been there for at least a generation. They are citizens because, in the heyday of French imperialism, Algeria and environs was annexed directly into the French empire and made a "department" of the Republic – a mistake America’s imperialists avoided (or were dissuaded from) when they first acquired overseas possessions.
These aren’t immigrants, they are citizens, having been integrated – not always successfully – into French society, where they are in a position somewhat analogous to African-Americans in that they suffer discrimination in jobs, housing, and the exigencies of everyday life. The hijab has been banned in the public schools and in "public spaces," supposedly in accordance with the French anti-clericalist tradition of which Charlie Hebdo is one expression: however I know of no attempt to rip the crucifixes off the necks of Catholics who venture out in the public square, and this is one form of direct repression which must grate on devout Muslims as symbolic of their semiofficial otherness.
The contradictions are there, to be exploited by terrorist factions and by the likes of Marine Le Pen. And our own polarizers are also having a field day with this, hoping to reintroduce the intellectual terrorism that targeted the Susan Sontags and the Noam Chomskys, who stood up against the wave of mindless militarism that swept the nation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. How dare anyone challenge the idea that our response to murder must be to promote the nihilism that profanes the sacred as a matter of high "principle"! While some may seek to valorize Charlie Hebdo as unmitigated heroes, no libertarian – or decent person, for that matter – could react with anything other than revulsion to this cartoon which celebrates the murder of peaceful demonstrators by Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
A corollary to intimidating dissenters into silence – in the name of a fight for "free expression," no less! – is a foreign policy agenda that seeks to restart the so-called "Long War" which George W. Bush and the Cheneyites declared on the ashes of the World Trade Center. Indeed, if you listen to Bill Kristol, even Bush caviled in pursuing the neocons’ policy of perpetual war. This time they hope they can go all the way, if only the contradictions can be sufficiently heightened and the world can be polarized as a prelude to another American war of conquest – one that will take us to the gates of Moscow, Tehran, and beyond.
The warning of the Founders against |
begin to pay attention to the lands and to the fulfilling of the inviolable discipline, annam bahu kurvita. But we cannot continue to be indifferent to the hunger around us until the abundance arrives. Because, as classical India has taught with such insistence, hungry people and animals exhaust all virtue of a nation.
Such a nation is forsaken by the Devas, and no great effort can possibly be undertaken by a nation that has been so forsaken. In fact, not only the nation in the abstract, but every individual grhastha bears the sin of hunger around him. We have been instructed, in the authoritative injunctions of the Vedas that anyone who eats without sharing, eats in sin, kevalagho bhavati kevaladi.
Therefore, even before we begin to undertake the great task of bringing the abundance back to the Indian lands, we have to bring ourselves back to the inviolable discipline of sharing. We have to make a national resolve to care for the hunger of our people and animals.
There is not enough food in the country to fully assuage the hunger of all; but, even in times of great scarcity, a virtuous grhastha and a disciplined nation would share the little they have with the hungry. We have to begin such sharing immediately, if the task of achieving an abundance is to succeed.
To us Indians, sharing of food comes naturally. We do not have to be taught how to share, how to perform annadana because, we have been taught the greatness of anna and of annadana by our ancestors, and we have practised the discipline of growing and sharing in abundance since the beginning of time.
For such a nation to obliterate the memory of a mere two centuries of scarcity and error is a simple matter. Let us recall the inviolable discipline of sharing that defines the essence of being Indian. Abundance will inevitably arrive in the wake of such annadana.
ConcludedSpain's Abengoa reaches preliminary deal with creditors to avoid bankruptcy
by Staff Writers
Madrid (AFP) March 10, 2016
Spain's Abengoa said Thursday it had reached a preliminary agreement with its creditors aimed at staving off bankruptcy that could see them take control of the renewable energy giant.
Abengoa has been racing to restructure its debt ahead of a March 28 deadline or face going under, in what would be one of Spain's biggest corporate failures.
The preliminary deal with its main bankers and bondholders foresees the "restructuring of its financial debt and the group's recapitalisation", as well as a 1.5-1.8-billion-euro ($1.7-2.0 billion) injection, the company said in a statement.
In return, the creditors -- which include Spain's Banco Santander, HSBC and France's Credit Agricole -- would take control of at least 90 percent of the company, which employed some 28,700 people worldwide at the end of September.
The group's current shareholders, which include the founding Benjumea family, would be left with just five percent of the company.
But the preliminary deal must still be approved by creditors holding at least three quarters of its debt before the March 28 deadline.
"Doubts remain but I think this plan is positive," said Ivan San Felix, an analyst at financial group Renta 4.
Abengoa can now "move forward, which seemed near impossible several months ago."
The heirs of Javier Benjumea, who founded the Sevillan group 75 years ago, have gradually been marginalised by the banks which have criticised their management of the world player in solar and wind power, biofuels and water management.
Deemed a Spanish industrial jewel, US President Barack Obama picked it in 2010 to build one of the biggest solar plants in the world in Arizona.
But in November the group announced it was close to bankruptcy following years of unsustainable expansion and filed for protection from creditors.
Over the years, Abengoa built up a debt mountain that stood at 9.4 billion euros at the end of 2015.
And it posted a loss of 1.2 billion euros last year.
In a bid to stave off bankruptcy, the board approved a recovery plan in January that entails the sale of assets in the biofuels sector and focuses on its engineering and construction activities.
Under the plan, Abengoa is speeding up the sale of non-strategic assets.
It has sold the shares of a 100 megawatt thermal-solar power plant in the United Arab Emirates and has reached an agreement to sell its former headquarters in Madrid, it said.
lbx-laf/mbx/jh
ABENGOA
HSBC
BANCO SANTANDERAfter a brief comeback to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship as a driver this season, Cameron McConville appears set for a new position in the category in 2018.
The 43-year-old is understood to be playing a key management role in moves to revamp Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, which he drove for at Hidden Valley in June.
McConville is a long-time friend of LDM sponsor Phil Munday, who will have a significant equity stake in the squad under its new guise.
Munday is facilitating a shake-up that is expected to see LDM move from a two-car Holden squad to a single-car team running an ex-Prodrive Ford with full technical support.
A new workshop for the team is being built in Kilsyth, Melbourne, with a launch of the rebranded outfit scheduled to take place ahead of this month’s Coates Hire Newcastle 500.
McConville is keeping tight-lipped on any involvement ahead of the launch, but has garnered significant experience in motorsport outside the driver’s seat over the last decade.
He has this year been running Melbourne supercar dealer Zagame’s motorsport arm, fielding cars in Carrera Cup, GT, GT3 Cup Challenge and Formula 4.
Former Olympic silver medallist John Steffensen has driven for Zagame in GT3 Cup this season, but is expected to run a Carrera Cup car from the revamped LDM stable in 2018.
McConville raced a Munday-backed Zagame entry in Carrera Cup this year and had been set for a number of Supercars outings with LDM before opting to focus on his Zagame work.“It was a trend that was happening; we noticed that trend; we took advantage of that trend,” said Jason L. Furman, the chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. “Some of it was the Affordable Care Act catching up with the private sector, and some of it was pushing the private sector forward.”
Administration officials have pointed to falling hospital readmission rates as one strong sign that cost-control provisions in the Affordable Care Act are working. Also, they noted that a growing number of insurers and health care providers are agreeing to contracts that pay for the quality of care, rather than the quantity, another indication that the law’s encouragement on that front is starting to pay dividends.
But those are responsible for only a tiny portion of the slowing rise of health care costs; other changes, like rising deductibles and copays that discourage some people from seeking extra services, play a bigger role, analysts say. Still, the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group, estimates that the weak economy accounts for as much as three-quarters of the slowdown in the growth of spending on health care.
But even if only about a quarter of the savings is because of noneconomic factors, said Larry Levitt, a top official at the Kaiser Family Foundation, “that’s real change in the health system.”
Critics, however, say they see little evidence that the law will lead to significant cost savings.
“These claims are just as groundless as the ones that misled so many Americans to believe they would be able to keep their previous coverage,” argued Charles Blahous, a former Bush administration official now at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s communications regulator on Friday accused U.S. TV channel CNN International of violating Russian media law and said it had summoned the broadcaster’s representatives in connection with the matter.
The Russian foreign ministry accused Washington on Thursday of putting unwarranted pressure on the U.S operations of Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, and warned that Moscow could take tit-for-tat measures.
President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of Russia’s Security Council on Friday that Russian media outlets working abroad were facing growing and unacceptable pressure, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said in a statement on its website that it would look at warning CNN about the alleged violations, which it said also breached the terms of its broadcast license.
It did not say what breaches of Russian laws the U.S. broadcaster had made, adding it would continue its “systematic monitoring” of foreign mass media outlets registered in Russia.
Asked if the regulator’s move was politically motivated, Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying: “I don’t work in a political agency. I work in a regulatory service.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday the U.S. authorities were demanding that Russian state-controlled broadcaster Russia Today (RT) be registered as a “foreign agent” in the United States.
She said that move endangered the safety of the channel’s staff, because it included an obligation to disclose their personal data. “In the atmosphere of a witch hunt unfolding in the United States, this may present a real threat,” she said.
Putin, meeting permanent members of his Security Council, “touched upon the issue of ongoing and at times growing pressure on Russian mass media outlets in some foreign countries”, Peskov told a conference call with reporters.
“It was stressed that such pressure on Russian media is unacceptable,” he added. He did not name the countries where the Kremlin was concerned Russian media were coming under pressure.
The Foreign Ministry’s Zakharova said any move made against Russian media working in the United States “will get a tit-for-tat response”.
“And who it falls on, this should be easy for Washington to work out. The clock is ticking,” she said at a weekly briefing on Thursday.Tyler Greenway, medical student 1, Joseph S Ross, associate professor of medicine and public health 2 3 4 1Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA 2Section of General Internal Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA 3Department of Health Policy and Management, Yale University School of Public Health 4Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Yale–New Haven Hospital Correspondence to: J S. Ross joseph.ross{at}yale.edu
Tyler Greenway and Joseph S Ross assess the effectiveness, usefulness, and affordability of the drugs that get the heaviest promotion
The pharmaceutical industry uses a variety of techniques to promote its products to clinicians, including gifts and free food, advertisements, and detailing by company representatives. Although manufacturers might argue that drug promotion supports physician education, which in turn leads to more informed prescribing, studies have shown that greater contact with drug sales representatives is associated with an increased likelihood of prescribing brand name medications when cheaper alternatives exist.12 More recent studies have shown that payments from drug companies are associated with a greater likelihood of prescribing promoted drugs.345
In the United States, physicians have extensive financial relationships with the drug industry.67 However, since August 2013, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires that the industry publicly discloses all payments to physicians of $10 (£8; €9) or more or $100 on aggregate. This legislation led to the creation of the Open Payments Database, which archives all industry payments to individual physicians and teaching hospitals.8
Early analyses of the database show that numerous small gifts can often add up to large sums of money,910 potentially creating powerful incentives for physicians to prescribe selected drugs. Between August 2013 and December 2014, $3.53bn was paid to 681 432 physicians in the US by 1630 pharmaceutical companies to promote numerous drug products. We assessed the health “value” of drugs being most aggressively promoted to physicians to better understand implications of pharmaceutical promotion for patient care.
Assessing drugs’ value We obtained data on the top promoted drug products from the Open Payments Explorer, created by the non-profit investigative journalism group ProPublica to make the Open Payments database more easily accessible to consumers.11 We identified the 25 drugs associated with the largest total payments to physicians and teaching hospitals from August 2013 to December 2014, including all direct and indirect payments, such as speaker fees for education lectures, consulting fees, and honorariums, as well as payments in kind, such as the value of food and gifts. However, we excluded research payments, royalties, and licensing fees, which are typically not promotional. Next, we estimated drugs’ value to society. In theory, value to society (as opposed to the manufacturer) depends on the relative effectiveness and safety of the drug, its priority among available therapeutic alternatives, its level of innovation as an advance in therapy, the prevalence of the disease for which it is indicated, the disease’s attributable morbidity and mortality, and the cost to patients and insurers. The ideal drug would be effective, safe, novel, recommended as first line therapy for common diseases causing substantial morbidity and mortality, and affordable. We estimated drug value using five proxy measures of these characteristics, selected to be readily intuitive and reproducible by practising physicians (box 1). Box 1: Criteria for assessing drugs’ value Innovation was assessed following a schematic established by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).12 Drugs representing new mechanistic pathways in treating indicated diseases were considered first in class. Drugs that provided meaningful advance over previously existing treatments in the same class and received “priority review” status from the FDA were designated advance in class. Drugs that met none of these criteria were considered addition to class.
Effectiveness and safety were assessed by using the ratings systems of the French drug industry watchdog Prescrire International.13 Prescrire employs a robust evaluation process, whereby 10 or more reviewers, physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and dentists with no conflicts of interest who have had 2-3 years of specialised training on drug evaluation, review each drug evaluation for quality control. For drugs for which Prescrire ratings were not available, assessments were extrapolated based on Prescrire statements in materials and guidelines. For instance, many commonly used drugs such as levothyroxine, lisinopril, and metoprolol are recommended in Prescrire guidelines but have no official Prescrire rating.
Generic availability was used as a proxy measure of affordability for patients. We used the Drugs@FDA database to determine whether the drug was generically manufactured in the US or whether there was another generic drug in the same class with comparable clinical value available in the US
Clinical value was also determined by proxy measure, based on whether each drug was on the World Health Organization list of essential medicines for 2015. This list includes drugs that are essential to any basic, fully functional healthcare system, and thus offers a simple metric reflecting both the utility of the drug and the relative prevalence of the disease for which it’s indicated. Drugs containing multiple active ingredients, including asthma combinations and HIV drugs, were considered to be an essential medicine if any of its ingredients were on the WHO list.
First line status, or whether the drug was recommended as a first line treatment for its respective disease, was determined using guidelines accessed through the National Guidelines Clearing House.14 If relevant specialty society guidelines could not be identified, UpToDate, an online, evidence based, peer reviewed clinical decision support resource, was used to determine first line status We also determined the value top 25 drugs by 2014 US sales and the top 25 most prescribed drugs in the US during 2013, identified from IMSHealth data (2014 data for top prescribed drugs were not available when we did the study).15 A complete list of all included drugs, and how each was categorised, is available in the appendix on bmj.com. We used Fisher exact tests to compare categories of top 25 drugs, calculated using JMP 10.0 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC), using a P value of 0.025 to account for the two comparisons made for each measure.
Assessment of highly promoted products Table 1⇓ lists the top 25 medicinal products in terms of promotion, sales, and prescribing volume. Among the 25 top promoted products, 24 were treatments and one was used to test for adrenocortical function (HP Acthar) and therefore excluded from our analysis. One of the 25 top selling products was a pneumococcal vaccine, which we also excluded; two other products, pegfilgrastin and filgrastin, were listed as one but considered as distinct products. Only four of the 24 top promoted drugs (17%) were also among the top selling drugs (adalimumab, glatiramer, aripiprazole, and budesonide-formoterol), and none were among the top prescribed drugs. Table 1 Top promoted, top selling, and top prescribed medicinal products in US* View this table: Table 2⇓ gives the comparison of value for the identified drugs. Top promoted drugs were significantly less likely to be innovative than top selling drugs (8/24 (33%) v 18/25 (72%); relative risk (RR)=0.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.25 to 0.86) but not than top prescribed drugs (13/25 (52%); 0.64, 0.32 to 1.26). Furthermore, top promoted drug were significantly less likely to be rated by Prescrire as possibly helpful or offering an advantage than top prescribed drugs (RR=0.25, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.62), although the difference with top selling drugs was not significant. Table 2 Characteristics of drug value for top promoted drugs of 2013-14, top selling drugs of 2014, and top prescribed drugs of 2013 View this table: Only one of the top promoted drugs was on the WHO essential medicines list, compared with nine top selling drugs (RR=0.12, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.85) and 14 top prescribed drugs (0.07, 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.52). Fewer top promoted drugs were considered first line treatments than top selling drugs and top prescribed drugs but the difference was significant only for top prescribed drugs (0.42, 0.23 to 0.76). Generic equivalents were available for 15 (63%) top promoted drugs, eight (32%) top selling drugs, and all top prescribed drugs (table 2⇑).
Understanding promotion Compared with top selling and top prescribed drugs, the most aggressively promoted drugs in the US are less innovative, rated less favourably by Prescrire, and are less likely to be recognised as first line treatments by national guidelines, included on the WHO essential medicines list, and available as a generic. Although not all the differences were significant, and the sample sizes and multiple comparison limit the statistical power, the direction and magnitude of the differences suggest that top selling and top prescribed drugs, not top promoted drugs, were more likely to represent the ideal drug that is effective, safe, affordable, novel, and represents a genuine advance in treating a disease. This raises concerns about the purpose of pharmaceutical promotion and its influence on patient care. One view is that drug companies don’t need to promote high value drugs. If a genuinely innovative drug becomes available that significantly advances patient care, such as sofosbuvir (a top selling drug), this information might be expected to spread rapidly among clinicians, perhaps through peer reviewed publications and scientific meeting presentations, requiring little active promotion by the manufacturer. Conversely, a “me-too” drug with minimal benefit over previous treatments in a class with generic alternatives, such as rasagiline (a top promoted drug), might need robust promotion to facilitate its use. Efforts are needed to better evaluate the value of drugs, ensuring that this information is readily available at the point of care so that it can inform clinical decision making, promoting use of higher value medicines. Of course, choice of drug may be influenced by factors other than those we included in our value ratings, such as patient experience of treatment, previous treatment, cost effectiveness, and out-of-pocket costs or health plan costs. Even the existence of a comparable generic therapeutic option may depend on clinical context. For example, apixiban can often be replaced by warfarin, but not in patients who have contraindications to warfarin. Our list of top promoted drugs accounted only for payments to US physicians and teaching hospitals from August 2013 to December 2014. We did not include other promotional efforts, such as advertising to physicians, direct-to-consumer advertising and disease awareness efforts coordinated with patient advocacy organisations, pharmaceutical detailing to physician offices, or efforts to raise product awareness at professional and scientific meetings that did not include transfers of value such as a meal or gift, or continuing medical education through third parties. Furthermore, US data on payments to physicians from pharmaceutical manufacturers are available only since 2013 and our results may not reflect behaviour before this time or outside the US. However, we expect patterns of promotion to be similar, even if coverage and reimbursement policies differ. Despite these caveats, our findings suggest that pharmaceutical promotion should be met with healthy scepticism. Clinicians should consider taking steps to limit their exposure to industry promotion, including detailing by company representatives and sponsored educational events.16 They could also consider engaging with “academic detailing” programmes—educational outreach by pharmacists, nurses, and physicians that provides non-commercial, evidence based recommendations about medication choices.17 Key messages US physicians receive billions of dollars each year from drug companies as part of drug promotion
Top promoted drugs were less likely than top selling and top prescribed drugs to be effective, safe, affordable, novel, and represent a genuine advance in treating a disease
Clinicians should question the value of drugs being most heavily promoted by pharmaceutical manufacturers before prescribing them
Footnotes Contributors and sources: JSR has studied and reported widely on physicians’ financial relationships with industry and has a long research interest on biases that may distort evidence based practice. This article arose from discussions with TG about potential student research projects. TG and JSR had full access to all of the data in the analysis and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Both authors contributed to concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data, performing the statistical analysis, as well as the drafting and critical revision of manuscript.
Competing interests: We have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and declare that JSR receives research support through Yale University from Johnson and Johnson to develop methods of clinical trial data sharing; from Medtronic and the FDA to develop methods for post-market surveillance of medical devices; from FDA to establish a Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation; from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) to better understand medical technology evidence generation; from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop and maintain performance measures that are used for public reporting; and from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to support the Collaboration on Research Integrity and Transparency at Yale.
Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.ComicsAlliance has published this helpful future timeline of all superhero movies that will come out till 2020. It's a list of all the confirmed ones—its missing "one or two movies from Marvel" in 2019, apparently—and of course dates may change, but this is pretty much all of it.
From ComicsAlliance:
Our timeline makes the assumption that the Warner Bros movies will be released in the order listed in their press release, which seems a safe assumption. We can also assume that some of the "year unknown" movies on the bottom tier, like Thor 3 and Gambit, may eventually be placed in some of the existing slots in the timeline, and that Marvel Studios, Fox, and Sony Columbia will announce further dates in 2019 and 2020.
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I wasn't going to post this until I had more of a collection to go with it, but because dA doesn't seem to be over Frozen fanart yet, I decided to upload it now.I've wanted to see Frozen since I found out that Idina Menzel (or should I say the wickedly talented Adele Dazeem) was going to be in it (which was when it was still in pre-production), and I think if she didn't voice Elsa, I wouldn't like Elsa as much.Also, to my dear watchers: apologies for the inactivity, I've been busy with school.And! I have a tumblr now (because procrastination yeah), so follow me there [ www.saeriel.tumblr.com ] because I'll probably post more things that I think are inadequate for deviantart.Additionally, I have (well I've had for about a year now) Instagram [@isabelfang] which has random sketches and other things about my life.(Reuters) - Robert Durst, scion of one of New York’s largest real estate empires, has been arrested in New Orleans on a murder warrant issued by Los Angeles County, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Robert Durst is pictured in this booking photo taken March 14, 2015 and provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. REUTERS/Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office/Handout
Durst, born in 1943, is known for life twists that led him to be questioned but not charged in the mysterious deaths of his first wife Kathleen Durst in 1982 and a longtime friend in 2000.
There was no lawyer listed for Durst on the arrest report and Durst has maintained his innocence in the deaths.
The New York Times reported last week that the district attorney in Los Angeles had recently reopened an investigation into the December 2000 killing of Durst’s friend Susan Berman, and was tying it to the case of Kathleen Durst, who went missing from New York and was eventually pronounced legally dead.
The investigation could be bolstered by new evidence shown for the first time in a six-part HBO documentary series about Durst called “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” the New York Times said.
In a telephone interview with the newspaper, Durst said he did not have the “faintest idea” who killed Berman, nor did he know what happened to his first wife, it reported.
In a separate case, after being arrested while living in Texas disguised as a mute woman, Durst was acquitted of murder in 2001 after convincing a jury that he had fatally shot and dismembered an elderly neighbor in an act of self-defense.
The Durst Organization oversees the lease and maintenance of One World Trade Center, the western hemisphere’s tallest skyscraper, built on the site of the twin towers destroyed in al Qaeda’s hijacked airliner attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
His life also inspired the 2010 Hollywood movie “All Good Things.”
In December 2014, Durst appeared in a New York courtroom on charges of trespassing on property owned by his estranged family.
The Durst Organization is responsible for a good portion of the city’s skyline - the company says it owns 11 Manhattan office towers.
Robert Durst, who has lived in Texas after getting about $65 million from the settlement of a lawsuit he brought against family trusts, was charged in 2014 with urinating on a drugstore candy rack in Houston.Even as they embarked on a deliberate experiment in legalizing marijuana for recreational use, the states taking the plunge unintentionally (we can only hope) initiated a second experiment. In dropping overt bans on the stuff while appeasing critics with reams of regulation, could they so bind the marijuana trade in red tape and taxes that they retained all the flaws of prohibition and gained few of the advantages of legalized status?
The answer was very quickly a big "yup." But officials may just be learning from the experience and fixing their early mistakes. A little.
Last summer I wrote that federal financial restrictions, as well as restrictive state rules and high taxes, had conspired to keep the marijuana black market alive and profitable in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Washington, D.C., the four jurisdictions with nominally legal recreational marijuana. My conclusions weren't a stretch—I quoted local publications and pot vendors pointing out the advantages illegal dealers retained in terms of service and pricing. The rules hobbled legal businesses by hiking prices and preventing consumer-friendly offerings. Long-established illegal dealers were already in place to take advantage of that hobbling.
So officials ruefully revisited the issue and changed their ways, right? Well, some. They're in no apparent rush, but they are slowly loosening the screws.
Last month, Washington's Liquor and Cannabis Board reported that, one and a half years after recreational marijuana was legalized in the state, the "best estimate on the breakdown" of the marijuana market is: "$480M medical (37 percent of market), $460M state-licensed recreational stores (35 percent of market) and $390M illicit (28 percent of the market)."
That is, the rules have been so restrictive in the "legal" Washington market for marijuana that people remain willing to risk arrest and imprisonment while trading hundreds of millions of dollars of the stuff in ways that violate the law.
The market breakdown from the Liquor and Cannabis Board came at the end of the announcement of rescinded residency requirements on who can fund marijuana businesses, looser testing requirements for products, and looser restrictions on ingredients in products, among other changes. Those adjustments should make the industry more accessible to legal would-be participants and more able to respond to market pressure.
At the same time, state lawmakers and Seattle officials are pushing for legal home delivery of marijuana in an effort to counter consumer demand that's currently being satisfied by underground vendors.
Of course, City Attorney Pete Holmes couldn't admit the need for deregulation without throwing in some tough-guy posturing.
"I support our proposals to legalize and regulate marijuana delivery, but businesses that currently deliver marijuana undermine our efforts to demonstrate that there is a regulatory alternative to marijuana prohibition. All current delivery services are engaged in nothing less than the felony distribution of a controlled substance and must be closed."
Whatever, Pete. Just get out of the way.
In a similar spirit, Rep. Christopher Hurst (D-Enumclaw) proposes to lower the excise tax on marijuana sales from 37 to 25 percent in an effort to make legal weed more competitive price-wise with tax-free black market alternatives. "The criminals love the tax rate being high, because they don't pay it, and it makes it so the legal people can't compete with them," he noted, with unusual perspicacity for a lawmaker.
Unfortunately, Hurst's bill appears to have stalled in the House Finance Committee.
Oregon is having its own problems with marijuana taxes, through a process seemingly designed to confuse and discourage anybody delving into the legal market. The state just concluded a marijuana tax holiday with a temporary sales tax hike to 25 percent before the permanent 17 percent rate kicks in later this year.
According to The Oregonian: "Matt Price, who owns a chain of dispensaries called Cannabliss, said some customers have shrugged off the tax. 'And then,' he said, 'we have people that say they would rather go back to their 'guy,' so to speak, and walk out.'"
A huge tax hike drives people to illegal vendors? Who could have guessed?
Still, the permanent rate to come is set well below the extortionate take in Washington, and may well prove more consumer-friendly in the long run.
But Oregon has other restrictive rules in place. Edible cannabis products, which have proven very popular among medical marijuana patients, aren't yet available to recreational customers while the Liquor Control Commission, which has no authority over the medical market, puzzles over its preferred grab-bag of regulations.The waiting list to download the LBRY beta is well over 100,000 strong! If you join our Discord chat (the best place to stay on top of updates and get questions answered), one of the top inquiries is:
When will I get my beta invite code?
Now that publishing tools have been added to the beta, we will be steadily expanding the user base.
To that end, we have changed the way we weight those on the waiting list. Previously, we rewarded potential beta users for spreading the word about LBRY. Those who referred users to our waiting list were moved further towards the front of the line.
We now factor in how long you have been on the waiting list. Your position on LBRY’s waiting list is now determined by:
The number of invited users credited to you **PLUS** the number of weeks you have been on the list.
Many of you have been waiting for a long while. We halted new invites for about a month after closed beta launch to work a key feature: publishing tools.
Since publishing went live in the first week of August, we have added about 2,000 new beta users using this updated waiting list. Going forward, we intend to add approximately 500 beta users a week.
So if you’re still champing at the bit, then hang tight!
Remember – you can potentially jump the waiting list (and earn $1,000 in LBC) if you are a content creator interested in uploading quality digital media to LBRY. Learn more about this opportunity here.This article is about human races as a social concept and in anthropology. For the sociological concept, see Race and society. For "the human race" (all of humanity), see Human. For the term "race" in biology, see Race (biology). For belief that the human species is naturally divided into races, see Racialism
A race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society.[1] First used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century the term race began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits. Modern scholarship regards race as a social construct, that is, a symbolic identity created to establish some cultural meaning. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is not an inherent physical or biological quality.[1][2]
Social conceptions and groupings of races vary over time, involving folk taxonomies[3] that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits. Scientists consider biological essentialism obsolete,[4] and generally discourage racial explanations for collective differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits.[5][6][7][8][9]
Even though there is a broad scientific agreement that essentialist and typological conceptualizations of race are untenable, scientists around the world continue to conceptualize race in widely differing ways, some of which have essentialist implications.[10] While some researchers use the concept of race to make distinctions among fuzzy sets of traits or observable differences in behaviour, others in the scientific community suggest that the idea of race often is used in a naive[5] or simplistic way,[11] and argue that, among humans, race has no taxonomic significance by pointing out that all living humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens, and (as far as applicable) subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens.[12][13]
Since the second half of the 20th century, the association of race with the ideologies and theories of scientific racism has led to the use of the word race itself becoming problematic.[14] Although still used in general contexts, race has often been replaced by less ambiguous and loaded terms: populations, people(s), ethnic groups, or communities, depending on context.[15][16]
Defining race
Modern scholarship views racial categories as socially constructed, that is, race is not intrinsic to human beings but rather an identity created, often by socially dominant groups, to establish meaning in a social context. This often involves the subjugation of groups defined as racially inferior, as in the one-drop rule used in the 19th-century United States to exclude those with any amount of African ancestry from the dominant racial grouping, defined as "white".[1] Such racial identities reflect the cultural attitudes of imperial powers dominant during the age of European colonial expansion.[2] This view rejects the notion that race is biologically defined.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][excessive citations]
Although commonalities in physical traits such as facial features, skin color, and hair texture comprise part of the race concept, the latter is a social distinction rather than an inherently biological one.[1] Other dimensions of racial groupings include shared history, traditions and language. For instance, African-American English is a language spoken by many African Americans, especially in areas of the United States where racial segregation exists. Furthermore, people often self-identify as members of a race for political reasons.[1]
When people define and talk about a particular conception of race, they create a social reality through which social categorization is achieved.[24] In this sense, races are said to be social constructs.[25] These constructs develop within various legal, economic, and sociopolitical contexts, and may be the effect, rather than the cause, of major social situations.[26] While race is understood to be a social construct by many, most scholars agree that race has real material effects in the lives of people through institutionalized practices of preference and discrimination.
Socioeconomic factors, in combination with early but enduring views of race, have led to considerable suffering within disadvantaged racial groups.[27] Racial discrimination often coincides with racist mindsets, whereby the individuals and ideologies of one group come to perceive the members of an outgroup as both racially defined and morally inferior.[28] As a result, racial groups possessing relatively little power often find themselves excluded or oppressed, while hegemonic individuals and institutions are charged with holding racist attitudes.[29] Racism has led to many instances of tragedy, including slavery and genocide.[30]
In some countries, law enforcement uses race to profile suspects. This use of racial categories is frequently criticized for perpetuating an outmoded understanding of human biological variation, and promoting stereotypes. Because in some societies racial groupings correspond closely with patterns of social stratification, for social scientists studying social inequality, race can be a significant variable. As sociological factors, racial categories may in part reflect subjective attributions, self-identities, and social institutions.[31][32]
Scholars continue to debate the degrees to which racial categories are biologically warranted and socially constructed.[33] For example, in 2008, John Hartigan, Jr. argued for a view of race that focused primarily on culture, but which does not ignore the potential relevance of biology or genetics.[34] Accordingly, the racial paradigms employed in different disciplines vary in their emphasis on biological reduction as contrasted with societal construction.
In the social sciences, theoretical frameworks such as racial formation theory and critical race theory investigate implications of race as social construction by exploring how the images, ideas and assumptions of race are expressed in everyday life. A large body of scholarship has traced the relationships between the historical, social production of race in legal and criminal language, and their effects on the policing and disproportionate incarceration of certain groups.
Historical origins of racial classification
Groups of humans |
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What are your favorite DIY gift ideas?The robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba has already made life easier by cleaning floors on its own (when it is not running away), but a U.S. art exhibition recently showed how the device can turn household chores into a replay of childhood video games. At the art show, an artist crafted Nintendo-inspired covers and turned the cleaning robots into four of the most feared, but beloved video game enemies from the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda series.
The cute Roombas are part of an exhibition on 1980s video game memories at a Los Angeles art hall. The four designs were modeled after popular villains from Nintendo video games: the green and red Koopa shells from Super Mario Kart, the Goomba from Super Mario Brothers, and the Octorok from The Legend of Zelda.
▼ The green Koopa shell from Super Mario Kart
▼ The red and green shells ready to take out your real life Mario Kart opponent
▼ The Goomba from Super Mario Brothers
▼ The Octorok from The Legend of Zelda
Japanese netizens were split over which character they would want to adorn their robot friend, but they all seemed to agree that you should not try to recreate an actual Super Mario level by stomping on the poor creatures. They wanted to get one, but netizens would have to make strict rules to make sure their kids do not imitate Mario! But beyond the all around greatness of having Nintendo characters cleaning up your floors, some netizens had some comments and concerns:
But that’s going to make it hard for cats to ride! With a cover like that, it’s going to be hard for cats to hang on. I want the shell one and then I’m going to put my kid on top! ▼ Roomba kitty: real-life video game villain Image: Cheezburger
Watch the video below and let us know which video game Roomba you want!
Source: Nikita Sokuhou
Images/Video: Vimeo (iam8bit Productions)If one was trying to tack the label of antisemitism onto the Occupy Wall Street movement, (which apparently, everyone is) one needs to look no further than David Brooks‘ October 10th op-ed for The New York Times, entitled “The Milquetoast Radicals.” In it, he points to a 2004 article from Adbusters – the Canadian magazine that first put out the call to action for OWS way back in July – with the damning title of “Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish,” which plays the guessing game of Republican NeoCon’s religious orientation in relation to their pro-Israeli stance.
But isn’t using Adbusters to discredit what is now an independent, international movement sort of, well, besides the point?
It’s true that there is some really inflammatory rhetoric in the Adbusters‘ listicle of the Jewish neocons they produced, and even more in the response to criticism that editor-in-chief Kalle Lasn eventually gave. (Note: original spelling left intact):
The list of Jewish neocons we came up with is a provocation, I’ll admit. And if it were a list of dentists or firefighters or stockbrokers, then that would indeed be very offensive. However, the neocons are no ordinary group – they are the most influencial political/intellectual force in the world right now. They have the power to start wars and to stop them. They are the prime architects of America’s foreign policy since 9/11 – a policy that is heavily weighed in favor of Israel and a key-source of anti-Americanism in the world. So I think it is not only appropriate, but necessary to put them under a microscope. And if we see maleness, Zionism, or intellectual thuggery there, then let us not look the other way. On the ethnic question: Is it not just as valid to comment on the Jewishness of neocons as it is to point out that the majority of them are male or white or wealthy or from the Western world or have studied at a particular university? If half the neocons were Palestinians, would the US have invaded Iraq?
Well, that certainly lends credence to the argument that this protest was founded by an anti-establishment, anti-American, antisemitic, (and worst of all) Canadian publication. Just like it would be easy to point a finger at Anonymous – another early supporter of the OWS movement – and say that all of the people in Zuccotti Park (and across the country), are all anarchist hacktivists. It’s easy to say these things precisely because it’s lazy journalism at best, fear-mongering at worst.
The Occupation of Wall Street may have originated from an Adbusters‘ call-to-arms, but the magazine does not speak for the protesters or their many differing beliefs. They aren’t the “organizers” or “leaders” of the group, either.
If you are going to argue that OWS can not present a cohesive message because there are too many people with too many different grievances, you can not then turn around and dismiss the movement by saying its whole ideology is based on one inflammatory article criticizing America’s pro-Israel stance from seven years ago. (As Fox News has done.) An article, we might add, that was given far more attention by the press itself than Occupy Wall Street, which has made its clear on its official website that it is “not affiliated with Adbusters, anonymous or any other organization.”TechRadar is hurtling through space at six hundred miles per hour. It's difficult to take our eyes off course, but as we glide below a mothership we have to look up and admire the scale of the behemoth above us. It snatches the breath.
Right now there's very little to shatter the illusion that this is actually happening. But far from the distant reaches of space, we're sat in a studio in Guildford, UK, with what looks like a pair of early production model ski goggles strapped to our face.
Unless you've been living inside your own virtual reality for the last year, you've probably become aware of Oculus Rift. The low-latency VR headset, capable of transporting us to 3D virtual worlds, has been gathering momentum and will soon be unleashed on the consumer market.
But right now it's in the hands of developers to make these experiences possible. Among those taking the charge is Born Ready Games, creators of Strike Suit Zero - a space combat game in which you assume the role of an intergalactic fighter pilot.
The game was born from a Kickstarter campaign and released to PC earlier this year, and since then Born Ready has been beavering away on Oculus Rift support for the title.
All the fun of space - without the faff
So why did the team decide to jump on the VR wagon? Once you've taken a ride on Oculus, the answer seems simple: virtual reality and space were made for each other. Whether it roots from Spielbergian sci-fi or just a sheer curiosity of the unknown, the desire to explore the far reaches of space continues to be an enduring one for so many people.
"We've been brought up on Star Wars and Star Trek and Battlestar," says Born Ready Games CEO James Brooksby. "It's in all our fantasies, to be out there and be a space fighter pilot.
"What people want to do with virtual reality is have a virtual reality. Something they can't ordinarily do. In an airplane you can have some of that because most of us don't get to fly airplanes. But in space you're in a fantasy environment, you've got something that grounds you in reality but you've got the fantastical around you."
Strike while the iron's hot
Space could be the key that ignites Oculus's engine. "Immediately everyone goes: 'That's got to be one of the perfect things for virtual reality'," says Brooksby. But Rift could be just as important to the rebirth of the space simulator.
"Before we became Born Ready Games, there was nobody working on space combat at all," he says.
The days of Spasim and Elite may be a twinkle in the past but the quality space-based titles since have been far and few between. The space simulator genre took a decline towards the end of the 1990s - a trend that's now starting to see a reverse thanks to titles such as Strike Suit Zero and mass multiplayer online title EVE Online.
EVE has also been toying with Oculus Rift support. In fact, the game's developer and publisher CCP was even a Kickstarter supporter of the VR headset.
Suit up and take the plunge
The Oculus support was then demoed to players at EVE Fanfest in April. "It was a huge hit," says CCP's Chief Marketing Officer David Reid, who admits he was a little skeptical until he finally went eyes-on with the headset.
He describes his first few moments in game: "This guy goes by so I think I need to catch up so I take this really hard turn and I suddenly feel my stomach drop out like you're on a roller coaster or on a plane. And I'm like 'Ok, this is more intense than I expected'".Democratic Underground
Historic Disapproval: Bush Hits All-Time Low Amid Economic Meltdown
Source: ABC News
Just two presidents have had lower approval (Richard Nixon and Harry Truman) than President Bush, and none has had higher disapproval in polls since 1938.
McCain’s problem: Fifty-three percent of registered voters think he’d lead the country in the same direction as Bush, inching back up over a majority.
Forty-eight percent of registered voters are uncomfortable about McCain’s age, a new high. And while Obama has advanced since mid-June in the sense that he’s a “safe” choice for president, to 55 percent, McCain has lost ground on this measure; 51 percent now see him as safe, down 6 points.
Obama continues to trounce McCain on enthusiasm. Sixty-one percent of Obama’s supporters are very enthusiastic about their choice, vs. 38 percent of McCain’s.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/story?id=592…
(Source)When it comes to NoSQL databases, MongoDB and Cassandra may seem similar but are quite different. Both have similar use cases, but are not intended for transactional data (i.e., accounting systems).
Who Uses These Databases?
In the case of Cassandra vs MongoDB, both have a strong following with big names using each one.
Cassandra: Cassandra, released in 2008, has been used by many organizations including AppScale, Constant Contact, Digg, Facebook, IBM, Instagram, Spotify, Netflix, and Reddit.
MongoDB: MongoDB, released in 2009, has been used by many organizations including. Google, UPS, Facebook, Cisco, eBay, BOSH, Adobe, SAP, Forbes, and really many more. You can check the full list here: https://www.mongodb.com/who-uses-mongodb.
What About Database Structure?
Cassandra: One of Cassandra's biggest strengths is being able to handle massive amounts of unstructured data. In cases where your database needs to rapidly scale with minimal increase of administrative work, Cassandra may be a good choice.
How big can it scale? Cassandra can handle the load of applications like Instagram that have roughly 80 million photos uploaded to the database every day.
Cassandra uses wide column stores which utilize rows and columns but allows the name and format of those columns to change. It uses a blend of a tabular and key-value. Unlike a typical relational database management system (RDBMS), tables can be created, altered, and dropped while the database is running and processing queries.
Column families are similar to tables in RDBMS and contain rows and columns, with each row having a unique key. Unlike a traditional RDBMS, all rows in a table are not forced to have the same columns. These columns can also be added on the fly and are accessed using the Cassandra Query Language (CQL). While CQL is similar to SQL in syntax, Cassandra is non-relational, so it has different ways of storing and retrieving data.
MongoDB: MongoDB uses JSON-like documents that can have varied structures. It uses the MongoDB query language to allow access to the stored data. Since it is schema-free, you can create documents without having to create the structure for the document first.
Database hierarchy:
A useful comparison with Relational database management systems (RDBMS) in which you have: Table | Column | Value | Records. In comparison, in MongoDB, you have: Collection | Key | Value | Document. This means that collections in MongoDB are like tables in RDBMS.
Documents are like records in an RDBMS. Documents can easily be modified by adding or deleting fields without having to restructure the entire document.
Are Indexes Needed?
Cassandra: In Cassandra, multiple secondary indexes are not fully supported; you can only query using the primary key.
MongoDB: Indexes are preferred in MongoDB. If an index is missing, every document within the collection must be searched to select the documents that were requested in the query. This can slow down read times.
How Are Their Queries Different?
Selecting records from the customer table:
Cassandra: ‘SELECT * FROM customer;’
MongoDB: ‘db.customer.find()’
Inserting records into the customer table:
Cassandra: ‘INSERT INTO customer (custid, branch, status) VALUES('appl01','main', 'A');’
MongoDB: ‘db.customer.insert({ cust_id: 'appl01', branch:'main', status: 'A' })’
Updating records in the customer table:
Cassandra: ‘UPDATE Customer SET branch = ‘main' WHERE custage > 2;’
MongoDB: ‘db.customer.update( { custage: { $gt: 2 } }, { $set: { branch:'main' } }, { multi: true } )’
Where (And How) Are These Databases Deployed?
Cassandra: Cassandra was written in Java. It can be deployed on BSD, Linux, OS X, and Windows.
MongoDB: MongoDB was written in C++, and has support for the following programming languages: Actionscript, C, C#, C++, Clojure, ColdFusion, D, Dart, Delphi, Erlang, Go, Groovy, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Lisp, Lua, MatLab, Perl, PHP, PowerShell, Prolog, Python, R, Ruby, Scala, Smalltalk.
What Types Of Replication / Clustering Are Available?
Cassandra: Cassandra does replication out-of-the-box. You tell it the number of nodes it should copy your data to and it takes care of the rest of the process.
Cassandra allows for multiple masters where losing a single node still lets you write to the cluster. This can allow for better fault tolerance without the 10 to 40 second downtime required with MongoDB.
MongoDB: MongoDB has built-in replication with auto-elections. This allows you to set up a secondary database that can be auto-elected if the primary database becomes unavailable. However, MongoDB requires some setup (and maybe some help from support) to do replication. MongoDB has replica sets where one member is the primary and all others have a secondary role. The reads and writes are committed to the primary replica first and then replicated to the secondary replicas.
MongoDB has a single master. While the auto-elect process happens automatically, it can take 10 to 40 seconds for it to occur. While this is happening, you can not write to the replica set.
Who's Currently Behind The Databases?
Cassandra: Avinash Lakshman and Prashant Malik developed Cassandra at Facebook for the Facebook inbox search feature. Facebook released Cassandra in July 2008 as an open source project. The original developers got the name for the project from Cassandra, a Trojan mythological prophet. The Apache Software Foundation is currently behind the database.
MongoDB: MongoDB was started in 2007 by 10gen, which created the product based on the word “humongous”. In 2009, it was released, and 10gen later changed their company name to MongoDB, Inc. MongoDB, Inc. provides development of the software and sells their enterprise solution.
Who Maintains The Project?
Cassandra: Apache Software Foundation maintains the project.
MongoDB: MongoDB, Inc. maintains the project.
Who Provides Support?
Cassandra: Support for Cassandra comes from third-party companies like Datastax, URImagination, Impetus, and more. A complete list of Cassandra DB third-party support providers can be found at https://wiki.apache.org/cassandra/ThirdPartySupport.
MongoDB: MongoDB has an enterprise-grade support that provides 24 x 7 support along with the option for an extended lifecycle support. Extended lifecycle support allows you to continue using older versions and upgrade when you want. Getting support from MongoDB gives you unlimited access to security fixes and updates.
Who Maintains The Documentation?
Cassandra: The Apache Software Foundation maintains the Cassandra documentation and can be found at http://cassandra.apache.org/doc/latest/. While there, you can learn how to get started with Cassandra, the Cassandra Query Language, Tools, FAQS, and more. Datastax also maintains documentation at http://docs.datastax.com/en/landing_page/doc/landing_page/current.html.
MongoDB: MongoDB, Inc. maintains the MongoDB documentation, and it can be found at https://docs.MongoDB.com/. From there, you can find information about the MongoDB Server, Atlas (database as a service), cloud manager for hosted MongoDB, and Ops Manager.
Very useful community sites are the omnipresent StackOverflow and a bit more database-specific StackExchange for Databases.
Is There An Active Community?
Cassandra: Apache Software Foundation offers a community site with a mailing list, IRC, along with links to books and publications. This information can be found at http://cassandra.apache.org/community/.
MongoDB: The MongoDB community (https://www.mongodbdb.com/community) offers information about webinars, events, user groups, and the MongoDB University.
Which Database Is Right For Your Business?
Cassandra: One of Cassandra's greatest strengths is its ability to scale while still being reliable. It is possible to deploy Cassandra across multiple servers built-in without a lot of extra work. Part of this is because Cassandra handles replication with minimal configuration, making it easy to set up.
If you need a database that is easy to setup and maintain regardless of how much your database grows, Cassandra can be a good option. If you work in an industry where you need rapid growth of your database, Cassandra offers easier rapid growth than MongoDB.
MongoDB: MongoDB can be a great choice if you need scalability and caching for real-time analytics; however, it is not built for transactional data (accounting systems, etc.). MongoDB is frequently used for mobile apps, content management, real-time analytics, and applications involving the Internet of Things. If you have a situation where you have no clear schema definition, MongoDB can be a good choice.
If you have a situation where you are de-normalizing your database schema, MongoDB documents can be used to store the unstructured data in a way that is easier to update. In a situation where the write load is high, MongoDB can be a good choice. It offers a high insert rate.
Cassandra vs MongoDB: whichever you pick for your organization, Panoply, smart data warehouse, offers a single data management solution that can connect Cassandra, MongoDB, cloud, and more without coding.SEATTLE — Washington lawmakers have tried and failed in recent years to make big polluters pay for their carbon emissions to fight climate change. Now, voters will get to decide.
An initiative on the November ballot asks voters whether the state should impose the nation’s first direct carbon tax on the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline.
Sponsors say residents have a moral responsibility to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and a carbon tax is the best way to do it. They say the tax encourages businesses to conserve or switch to clean energy by making fossil fuels more expensive.
Businesses say the tax will drive up fuel and energy costs and put Washington companies at a competitive disadvantage.
And in a move that has bewildered some, major environmental groups do not support the measure. They say it doesn’t take the right approach.“Reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number of free-thinking Jews undesirable,” T.S. Eliot announced in 1933 to his audience at the University of Virginia. Eliot was no fascist, but he was willing to deliver his sentence about Jews during a high tide of anti-Semitic feeling, the year of the Nazi seizure of power. Eliot’s anti-Semitic note blended smoothly with his praise of intolerance. In his Virginia lectures, which later became After Strange Gods: A Primer of Modern Heresy, he railed against a modern world “worm-eaten with liberalism.” Impossibly enough, Eliot yearned for an orthodoxy that could impose moral law on a nation homogeneous in “race” and manners.
Many miles north of Virginia, also in 1933, a Jewish toddler named Harold Bloom was learning to talk in his mother’s kitchen in the East Bronx. Seven years later, at age 10, he would discover in the Melrose branch of the Bronx Public Library two poets who burned with the heretical romantic flame that Eliot detested: Hart Crane and William Blake. That same year he read Moby-Dick and exulted with Melville’s doom-eager Ahab. (Meanwhile, oceans away, the Germans and Japanese were setting fire to the globe.) In high school he plunged into Faulkner’s cauldron of Gothic torments and marveled at how the Southern master raised shlock to the status of high art. In college at Cornell, Bloom studied with M.H. Abrams, who had begun to rehabilitate the Romantic poets against the wishes of Eliot. But when Bloom arrived at Yale graduate school, he entered a den of Eliotic orthodoxy. The lions of New Criticism glowered at the Yiddish-speaking proletarian from the Bronx.
“When I was a child, my ear had been ravished by Eliot’s poetry, but his criticism—literary and cultural—dismayed me,” Bloom writes in The Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime, his sparkling and accessible new tour of a dozen essential American writers from Emerson to Crane. At Yale in the 1950s Eliot’s judgments were largely sacrosanct: He had deemed the Romantics dangerous eccentrics, Emerson and Whitman bad influences. D.H. Lawrence was “a very sick man indeed,” captive to his “daemonic powers”—so Eliot intoned in After Strange Gods. By the 1980s, when I arrived at Yale grad school, Bloom’s new anti-Eliot canon had won out: Blake, Shelley, Wallace Stevens, and Elizabeth Bishop had replaced the old guard’s Donne and Pope. Bloom, by following his daemon, had single-handedly made a revolution in literary taste.
The daemon, Bloom explains, is the intimate yet alien spirit that tells any true reader or writer who and what she is. When we read one of Dickinson’s cryptic, diamond-like lyrics, when we chase after Faulkner’s nightmare-harried Joe Christmas or scale that “harp and altar, of the fury fused,” Hart Crane’s Brooklyn Bridge, we glimpse these authors’ daemon. We grasp at least fitfully what makes their brilliance so true, so overwhelming. There are as many daemons as there are individuals, but exposing yourself to the radiance of Bloom’s dozen American masters will strike any genuine reader with the force of revelation.
Bloom’s structure is inventive. He pairs his favorite American authors so as to create new insights: Whitman and Melville, Hawthorne and James, Emerson and Dickinson, Twain and Frost, Stevens and Eliot, Faulkner and Crane. Some of the pairs are predictable, some less so. Stevens said that he and Eliot were “dead opposites,” and he lampooned the Anglo-Catholic Brahmin from St. Louis as one of “the lean cats of the arches of the churches.” Dickinson, Bloom persuasively says, answers Emerson’s tough hopefulness with her iron-sealed guarantees about the permanence of loss. Whitman and Melville, Bloom tells us, sense the powers of the ocean the way Tolstoy senses the powers of the earth. Faulkner and Crane, both sublime raiders of the inarticulate, push the American language up to and beyond its limits.
The daemon is the intimate yet alien spirit that tells any true reader or writer who and what she is.
Bloom is a personal and passionate reader who prizes the face-to-face. For him reading resembles falling in love: The author who chooses you turns you inside out, making the world look utterly new and strange. In one of the many autobiographical asides that dot The Daemon Knows, Bloom explains that he read Whitman with new intensity in 1965, during a severe mid-life crisis. “Walt, more than any other poet, pulls you close to him,” Bloom comments. Bloom needs the direct encounter with an author, and no author is more direct than Whitman: He expertly shows how Whitman’s evasiveness fuses with his immediacy. The Daemon Knows contains by far Bloom’s best criticism of Whitman, an author notoriously hard to write about.
Whitman is a healer, and his soothing, puzzling incantations help us through our dark nights. Melville, by contrast, is a prophet, and “Prophets do not heal; they exacerbate,” as Bloom rightly says. The ardent Ahab stands for the side of American power that sees truth in vast ruin. He fathers the lethal, thrilling heroes of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. There is real danger in such taste for destruction, and Bloom knows it. Yet he insists that the daemon instructs, rather than merely filling us with Ahab’s mad passion to strike at the gods.
Facing Whitman’s poetry, Bloom asks, “How to convert my ravishment by this into knowledge?”
One way ravishment becomes knowledge is by giving us a sharp sense of limits, and the primary human limit is death. Bloom cites Whitman’s lines about the grass that springs from buried flesh in “Song of Myself”: “This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,/ Darker than the colorless beards of old men,/ Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.” Then he marvelously notes that this is “a passage Hemingway must have pondered, since his characteristic voice—evenly weighted, usually precise, emotionally deferred—is both anticipated and surpassed by it.” Whitman resides at the center of Bloom’s book while Hemingway remains outside it because Whitman, unlike Hemingway, sees that there is something beyond death and fate: the daemonic self’s freedom.
Bloom traces a lineage of independent heroic women in American letters, from Hester Prynne to Isabel Archer to Faulkner’s Lena Grove. He adds that he might have written about Cather, Wharton, and Dreiser too, since all three produced superb female heroes. Standing against patriarchal threats, these women exhibit a quiet stubborn power. Hawthorne’s Hester clinging to her scarlet A is “our truest feminist,” Bloom remarks, a rebel against Puritan patriarchy. Lena Grove in Light in August moves us because, oddly serene, she stands apart from the turbulent actions that surround her. “There are in Faulkner uncanny moments of listening,” Bloom writes, “as if his narrative art sought a still center, where racial and personal violence, and the agonies of copulation and dying, could never intrude.”
***
American intellectuals have always had an uneasy relationship with the ferocious visionary enthusiasm that their countrymen and -women so often display. The American thirst for awakened, God-endorsed selfhood frequently strikes the intellectual as both reckless and naively romantic. Thirty years ago Bloom wrote The American Religion, a canny, spirited account of what he called our “post-Christian” sects. All of them, Bloom argued, insist on the self’s direct knowledge of God, from Mormons to Pentecostals and Christian Scientists. Bloom was surprised by these believers’ fierce certainty that God and the true self were the same. Jesus, they often said, knew and loved each of them personally, and even “falling in love was affirming Christ’s love for each of them,” Bloom writes in The Daemon Knows. “In such a labyrinth of idealizations I get lost,” he adds, “lacking the thread that might lead to an escape.” Jewish skeptical wisdom demands that we rein in such American zeal, our country’s never-ending thirst to be loved by God. If there is chosenness, it must be conditional.
Bloom laments in The Daemon Knows that the end result of unfettered, God-approved selfhood must be the Tea Party’s self-absorbed greed. Yet he also genuinely admires his heretical enthusiasts, since they have their hands on the daemonic live wire. The wonder at an alien God runs in Bloom’s veins as surely as in those of a snakehandler from the Florida panhandle. Home-grown religious oddballs appeal to him as they did to Flannery O’Connor, whom he greatly admires. The daemon rides roughshod and splendid when a writer like O’Connor can turn raw American spiritual struggle into art and when a critic like Bloom can bring together the country’s literature with its strange yearning for a God who validates selfhood.
We need more of Bloom’s daemonic eagerness. Skepticism, not passion, rules the day in many classrooms. The academy all too often produces criticism that lacks personal vision and directness, an injustice to both readers and books. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the American religion that exalts God in the lone self too frequently offers passionate vision untempered by sufficient critical skill. Making great art out of vision means testing and criticizing, not merely yielding to Dionysus. Bloom pursues the superior visions, the ones that depend on thought rather than raw instinct, and that’s why we cherish his writing.
Bloom’s eloquent farewell to Hart Crane is the last chapter in his book, the final time, he says, he will write about his original poetic spirit guide. Dead before his 40th year, Crane had an absolute, unerring drive to consummation in both life and art. His poems are an orchestrated ecstasy, so rich and intense that they can both bewilder and intoxicate readers. Bloom has been fascinated by Crane’s dense, hypnotic lines for more than 70 years now, and he gives them his all in The Daemon Knows. For Bloom, it is clear, Crane will always be the poet.
“Poems, novels, stories, plays matter only if we matter,” Bloom writes. We ought to think about books the same way we think about ourselves. Why do books mean so much, why do they have the force to astound and cure, denounce and explain, condemn and save us? If we are curious enough about these questions, we might unlock the daemon, the inspiring secret that Bloom has been on the track of since he was a child lashed by Hart Crane’s sublime words. The Daemon Knows opens us up the way Crane opened up the 10-year-old Bloom, by showing why some books matter to us like life and death.
***
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David Mikics is the author, most recently, of Bellow’s People: How Saul Bellow Made Life Into Art. He lives in Brooklyn and Houston, where he is John and Rebecca Moores Professor of English at the University of Houston.Two holdout jurors kept Bill Cosby from being convicted guilty of sexual assault, a juror told ABC News on Wednesday.
The juror, who agreed to speak to ABC News on condition of anonymity, said 10 of the 12 jurors agreed Cosby, 79, was guilty on two of the three counts. On count one, that Cosby had digitally penetrated Andrea Constand without her consent, the jury voted 10-2 to find Cosby guilty.
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On the third count, that the alleged assault happened after Cosby gave Constand drugs without her knowledge, the jury was also deadlocked at 10-2, in favor of the guilty verdict, the juror told ABC News.
Meanwhile, on the second count, that Constand was unconscious or unaware during the incident, the vote was 11-1 to acquit Cosby.
On counts one and three, the two holdouts were “not moving, no matter what” the juror said.
The juror also told ANC News that the jury initially voted in a non-binding poll, to find Cosby not guilty on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
As for whether any of the accusations against Cosby, made by dozens of other women, ever factored in, the juror said, “Never. Not once. If somebody would mention something, we would cut them off”
On Saturday, a Pennsylvania judge granted a mistrial after the jury had announced that they were deadlocked for the second time in the trial of Bill Cosby.
The comedian is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, mansion in January 2004.
The Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, jury, which was brought in from Pittsburgh, deliberated for multiple days — returning to the judge multiple times with questions and requests.
After the mistrial announcement, the District Attorney said they would retry the cast against Cosby.yes, i’ll take the embryo on the left, please…
We often worry about parents customizing their children into their warped idea of perfection. But what if the future parents want to put a limitation their kid's abilities?
Since yesterday I was on Skeptically Speaking, talking about the practical side of transhumanism with George Dvorsky (which was apparently such a fun show, we’re being invited back), I thought it would be fitting to take on a topic currently being covered on George’s blog and straight of Bill McKibben’s darkest fears; creating a custom baby through the latest and greatest technology that biologists and doctors can offer. Now, while you will probably never design your own custom child from the organs up and setting his ratios of IQ vs. social skills and athleticism vs. dedication to academic pursuits because this is simply not scientifically plausible to begin with, the decisions parents can already make today and would almost certainly continue making in the future could have a major impact on their children and their lives. And us our technology keeps advancing and we could make more and more of a drastic impact on a future child, the consequences will become more dire and the stakes will constantly rise, especially if the parents are behaving unreasonably, or even dangerously…
Of course just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should, and any ability to alter a developing embryo should be wielded wisely and with long term planning in mind. Humans are sill evolving, contrary to the popular pseudoscience we often hear, and when we decide to try and take evolution’s reins in an unpredictable world, we’re essentially betting that our choice for the future is the right one. And there’s a rather disturbing, but very real possibility of abuse in the future. Eugenicists didn’t just disappear after the end of the Nazis. They’re still out there, and their last major attempt to engineer “better humans” ended in 1999, an uncomfortably recent time period. What’s to say that more throwbacks to the 19th century pseudoscience that was cooked up by Francis Galton to justify racism and snobbism of the British upper class of the time, won’t decide to use the technology in question to try again? And in trying to somehow improve ourselves according to varying and often superficial standards could very well reduce our genetic diversity and make us vulnerable to new diseases, environmental changes, and even place us at a greater risk for extinction. We’re not in total control of the world around us and betting against the world is not something many would recommend.
Bioethicist Stephen Wilkinson, who wrote a book on the subject, thinks that these concerns are legitimate but not enough to necessarily forbid any particular method of customizing future children. He even goes to bat for a couple who decided they wanted their child to be born deaf because they have the same disability, doing everything possible to make it happen. And what he offers in their defense is a leap of mental gymnastics that is very difficult to follow and raises more question that Wilkinson seems willing to answer…
The strongest argument [McCullough and Duchesneau] would have to face would in all likelihood have to do with the welfare of the child created thereby: that deafness is welfare-reducing, and that it is wrong deliberately to created a child with lower welfare than it might otherwise have enjoyed. Yet, says Wilkinson, even this claim is weak. Partly this has to do with a skepticism about whether choosing for a disability is necessarily the same as choosing for a lower quality of life; partly it has to do with a claim that, even if disabled, people overwhelmingly have a life worth living… partly it is because the ‘Same Number Quality Claim’ does not reliably tell us that all examples of selecting for disability are wrong, and so, even at its strongest, will not tell us that this particular instance of choosing disability is de facto wrong.
So with the same logic we could say that if both parents are blind, they should be able to make a blind child at their pleasure and that we can’t possibly tell them otherwise since any life is better than no life at all. This not only has a strong tinge of anti-choice activists’ problematic arguments, but seems to reject the simple fact that if McCullough and Duchesneau deafened their child after he was born, they would’ve swiftly went to prison for child abuse. Quality of life claims do reliably tell us that we should choose to make sure people can enjoy life to the fullest and dictate that we should make whatever accommodations or inventions the disabled will need to do as many of the things the able-bodied do on a daily basis as possible. And when you go out of your way to make sure the future child will not even have a chance to grow up with the benefits the able-bodied take for granted because you want him or her to have the same disabilities as you, you’re being both selfish and cruel. It’s one thing to decide to give a child you know will have Down Syndrome a chance at life and prepare for this difficult task financially and mentally, but it’s completely another to seek those affected by this genetic disorder to ensure that the child will be born with the syndrome. The former is selflessness, the latter is cruelty.
Quite honestly, I’m surprised that an ethicist would actually defend a form of child abuse through technology a skilled doctor could use to fix potential health problems, arguing that we should allow people to do whatever they want to their progeny, and that quality of life is a vacuous notion, although it’s anything but that. If all life is so great, even a |
ways to thank our fans for their incredible support and commitment,’’ Red Sox chief operating officer Sam Kennedy said.
The Sox expect their home opener on April 8 against the Orioles to be a sellout — though there were tickets available as of Monday afternoon — but beyond that, there are serious questions.
Tickets remain for all home dates in April, and the Sox hope that the fan appreciation discounts will help boost ticket sales.
“We’re looking for ways to fill the ballpark, and hopefully this will help,’’ Kennedy said. “But more importantly, that it be received as a thank you given everything we’ve been through the last nine, 10 years together. We thought it was an appropriate gesture.’’
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There’s no question that the Sox have a tough slog in April. Not only is the team coming off a 69-93 season, complete with the Bobby Valentine managerial disaster, but it’s hosting 17 games in the span of 21 days in April, only the second time that has happened in the 113-year history of the club and the first time in 23 years.
And the teams visiting Fenway in April aren’t exactly the iron of the American League. While the Sox do have division foes Baltimore and Tampa Bay on the schedule, they also have the A’s, Royals, and woeful Houston Astros.
Buy Tickets
In another family-friendly move, or one in response to chilly April evenings, 11 of the 17 home games in April will start before 7 p.m.
That includes eight true afternoon games and three games with a first pitch set for 6:35 p.m.
That’s a rare concession for a team so committed to night games that it often had its players grumbling about not playing day games on getaway days.
It’s all part of the team’s push to be more welcoming to fans, as the Sox have encountered trouble selling tickets for the first time in recent memory.
Season-ticket renewals were down about 10 percent over last season, and tickets remain for many games throughout the year.
The Sox have tried to put together a more fan-friendly team as well, emphasizing chemistry after a season in which the team was widely regarded as both unlikable and unwatchable.
Perhaps, after a few $5 beers, the team will be able to change that.Tania Ku’s documentary short focuses on Lior Tsarfaty, an Israeli-born singer/songwriter who offers music therapy sessions for Alzheimer’s patients at San Francisco-area memory care facilities. Arriving with a guitar and a suitcase full of instruments, he quickly brings his audience into a circle of music-minded participants, with exercises ranging from Native American-style tribal drumming to a sing-along of old favorites like “You Are My Sunshine.”
Working at 15 to 20 venues per week, Tsarfaty acknowledges the emptiness brought in the passing of patients, yet he also chronicles their joy in hearing about his experience of becoming a new father. Ku’s film captures the energy and enthusiasm that the patients undergo during a Tsarfaty session, with several individuals playfully hamming for the camera with their instruments.
His presence is also a joyful distraction from the physical and emotional difficulty that the patients endure. One elderly man laments on how he struggles to get through each new day, but later takes a moment to praise Tsarfaty’s instruments in observing, “That suitcase does a lot of magic.”
At a very brief 17-minute length, “There is a Place” offers a perfectly formed consideration of one very special individual and the immeasurable happiness he brings with his songs. It offers more heart and soul than most full-length films.Case has progressed for almost 2 weeks without any arrest.
Xena, a Maine coon mix, is shown June 14, 2013, before an operation to remove a crossbow bolt that someone in the Davidsonville, Md., area shot into her left shoulder. (Photo11: Anne Arundel County Police) Story Highlights A compound bow shot the arrow that wounded Xena, a Maine coon mix
She walked around with her injury for 2 days, too skittish to be caught
Her owner surrendered the 2-year-old cat so Xena could get proper treatment
DAVIDSONVILLE, Md. — Two animal protection organizations and a county councilman are offering an $8,500 reward for information that leads to the conviction of the person who shot a 2-year-old housecat through the shoulder two weeks ago.
On June 12, the cat's owner discovered the long-haired Maine coon mix, named Xena, with a 2-foot-long bolt from a crossbow impaled in her left shoulder. She was scared and difficult to catch, but Anne Arundel County Animal Control officers were able to corral Xena two days later at her home in this area.
2009: Cat survives arrow through head
2008: Cat OK after shot from crossbow
Xena's owner surrendered the cat so she could get proper treatment. An operation June 14 removed the arrow, and Xena is recovering at Rude Ranch Animal Rescue in Harwood, Md.
"She's surprisingly doing very well," Kathy Evans, the rescue organization's president, told The Capital in Annapolis, Md. "She's a really sweet kitty."
Police did not know whether the cat had been shot on her owner's property about 25 miles northeast of Washington or whether she had wandered off.
The person responsible for shooting the cat could face animal cruelty charges, said Kristin Fleckenstein, spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office. That includes 90 days in jail or up to three years in prison and $1,000 to $5,000 in fines.
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"It is truly callous crime to shoot a pet cat with an arrow, forcing it to suffer for days in pain and fear," said Tami Santelli, Maryland state director for The Humane Society of the United States. "We hope this reward will bring forward anyone with information about this terrible act of animal cruelty."
The Humane Society of the United States offers rewards in animal cruelty cases across the country, the Washington-based organization says on its website. It recently doubled its standard reward from $2,500 to $5,000.
An Anne Arundel County councilman, Republican John Grasso of Glen Burnie, Md., is kicking in $2,500. An Annapolis, Md.-based feral cat rescue group, Cats "R" Us, announced a $1,000 reward.
"Animal Control staff and Anne Arundel residents are extremely disturbed that someone would inflict this type of injury on a cat," said Robin Small, Anne Arundel County Animal Control administrator. "We are asking for help from the public to find the individual responsible."
Xena, an orange Maine coon mix, had been walking around with an arrow in her shoulder for two days, too skittish to be caught. (Photo11: Anne Arundle Police)
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Are podcasts a dying trend? In the last month of 2014, approximately 15 percent of Americans over the age of 12 had listened to one. In 2013, that was 12 percent. In 2008, 9 percent. The stats are pretty clear: podcasts still have a lot of life left.
But podcasting is a media-based activity, so as a Linux user, you might be under the impression that podcasting is best done on Windows or OS X. That may have been true historically, but it’s now one of many Linux myths that no longer hold up 5 Lies Linux-Haters Like To Tell 5 Lies Linux-Haters Like To Tell Linux may have been a scary operating system before, but all of that has changed in recent years. These myths, which are more accurately called lies, are now dead. Read More.
Before you get started, you should read our beginner’s guide to podcasting equipment Starting A Podcast: The Best Recording Equipment & Platforms You Should Use Starting A Podcast: The Best Recording Equipment & Platforms You Should Use So you want to start a podcast? Well, hold up there. There's a few things you need to consider first, and though the technical capabilities of modern computers should make this kind of stuff super-easy,... Read More, which has recommendations for both headsets, microphones, and accessories. Once that’s settled, feel free to move onto the software below.
Whenever there’s any mention of audio recording or editing, Audacity is always the first suggested piece of software. Why? Because it’s free, open source, cross platform, and relatively easy to use as long as you aren’t trying to do anything too extravagant.
For the basic podcaster, Audacity offers more than necessary. It can record audio from your microphone, it can mix multiple tracks together, it comes with several built-in filters and effects, and you can always add more functionality through plugins.
But the biggest benefit is its sheer popularity. The community is large and there’s no shortage of tutorials and resources, making it great for a newbie. Get started with our beginner tips for better Audacity editing 7 Audacity Tips For Better Audio Editing On a Budget 7 Audacity Tips For Better Audio Editing On a Budget Want to move beyond simple cut-and-crop jobs? Knowing just a few Audacity tips can make your audio-editing life a whole lot easier. Read More.
Like Audacity, Ocenaudio (formally stylized as ocenaudio) is a cross platform audio editor that emphasizes a simple and straightforward interface. If you thought Audacity was too complicated, then Ocenaudio is what you want.
Ocenaudio is the result of a Brazilian research group’s need for an audio editor that had a shallow learning curve, an intuitive interface, and no unnecessary bells or whistles. This is as simple as it gets, and that means maximum usability.
Whereas Ocenaudio is one difficulty step below Audacity, Frinika goes in the opposite direction – it’s slightly more complex than Audacity but also more flexible and powerful. It’s more than an audio editor. It’s an audio workstation.
For a basic podcast, Frinika might be overkill, but for intermediate-level work with things like background tracks and multiple microphones, it fits the bill.
But there’s also the fact that Frinika runs on Java, which is what makes it cross platform, but there are several things to consider before installing Java software The Top 6 Things To Consider When You Install Java Software The Top 6 Things To Consider When You Install Java Software Oracle’s Java runtime software is required to run Java applets on websites and desktop software written in the Java programming language. When installing Java, there are a few things you should consider, especially regarding security.... Read More – namely, the potential for security vulnerabilities.
Ardour is what you’d get if Audacity was cranked up several notches. This program is a real workhorse and it can do things that none of the other above-mentioned audio editors can do. Indeed, Ardour is a digital audio workstation in every sense of the term.
It can record from multiple input sources. It can import all kinds of audio files for editing. It also comes with dozens of editing tools (e.g. cut, stretch, trim, crossfade, swing, zoom, etc) and mixing tools (e.g. mute, equalizer, pre-fader, post-fader, synchronizer, etc). Seriously, this thing is a beast.
It’s one of our recommended alternatives to Audacity 6 Awesome Alternatives to Audacity for Recording & Editing Audio 6 Awesome Alternatives to Audacity for Recording & Editing Audio There's nothing wrong with Audacity, and we recommend giving it a try if you haven't yet. But alternatives do exist - here are some of the best ones we've found. Read More when Audacity just isn’t powerful enough. The downside is that Ardour has a much steeper learning curve and it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Highly recommended for advanced podcasters.
When we wrote about running a live podcast This Is How To Run A Live Podcast Or Videocast This Is How To Run A Live Podcast Or Videocast Let me tell you - running a live video stream and podcast every week is tough work indeed. Actually... that's a complete lie - but don't tell my co-hosts that because they think I'm a... Read More, Mixlr was the top choice for audio-only broadcasting. The free plan has unlimited listeners and a per-broadcast time limit of 1 hour.
Once broadcasted, each podcast’s audio is saved and downloadable. You can take them, clean them up in post-processing, and then rehost them elsewhere if you wish. Plus, while broadcasting is live, Mixlr provides a built-in chatroom for real-time listener feedback.
The one downside is that Mixlr is only native to Windows and OS X, but several Linux users have reported that Mixlr runs well under Wine Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) With WINE Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) With WINE Read More. If that’s not an option, you can always try Mixlr’s apps for Android or iOS instead.
For video podcasting, there’s no program more commendable than the cross-platform Open Broadcaster. This simple but effective program can capture your screen and stream it live to YouTube, DailyMotion, Twitch, Hitbox, and more – or it can save the capture directly as an.MP4 recording instead.
Open Broadcaster has built-in scene management, meaning you can set up multiple scenes that each display different kinds of sources (e.g. webcam, window capture, screen capture, etc). The capture is also less CPU-intensive than other similar programs.
If you’re taking the video podcast route, you’ll need a way to edit recordings and mix in all kinds of audio. Plenty of open source video editors for Linux 7 Free Open Source Video Editors for Linux 7 Free Open Source Video Editors for Linux Video editing on Linux is constantly improving. A good selection of open source video editing software is now available to Linux users, and we've got seven of the best for you to check out. Read More have come and gone throughout the years, but Shotcut has consistently been one of the best.
It’s an intermediate-level program with a straightforward interface that’s easy to learn but lots of advanced features that’ll make your life easier. It also has a built-in capturing mode that supports both local saving and network streaming.
Linux & Podcasts: Perfectly Doable!
It doesn’t matter if you’re a newbie or a veteran. There’s an open source Linux program that fits your podcasting needs, whether your podcast is audio-only or livestreamed with video.
Once you’ve gotten acquainted with your podcasting programs of choice, don’t forget about setting up your own podcasting website A Guide To Setting Up Your Own Podcast Website & Feed Using Wordpress & Podpress A Guide To Setting Up Your Own Podcast Website & Feed Using Wordpress & Podpress I recently had the opportunity to become part of a podcast which I’m sure you’ll hear about soon enough - and it's all fairly new ground for me. As the only one with enough bandwidth... Read More. After all, what’s the point of a podcast if you don’t make it available to the public?
Have you produced a podcast on Linux before? Which programs have you found the most useful? Got any other podcasting tips? Share your thoughts with us down in the comments!One thing I really enjoy about living in Salinas, Ecuador is when we have an excuse to visit the ‘Tad. That’s what Rita and I call La Libertad, which is the next town inland from Salinas, and the commercial center of the peninsula. We love to jump on a bus and ride into the ‘Tad.
Although La Libertad is home to the modern El Paseo Mall, that is not where the action is, or where most of the locals shop. The mall is for “rich” people. Most of the business takes place in little family-run shops and stalls throughout the rest of the city.
You can buy virtually any service or merchandise you may want in the streets of La Libertad. Along the main road through the peninsula there are strings of hardware stores, automotive parts and repairs, electrical supply shops, furniture, doctors, pharmacies, clinics, plumbing supplies and lumberyards, to name but a few. There are eateries serving all manner of food, including rotisserie guinea pig if you have a hankerin’.
In the city we have had business cards made while we waited, got blood drawn and tests results the same day, and found a great shack to get oysters, $5 a quart. Actually, I can’t really call it a shack. It’s more of a lean-to with a plank across some stumps and a couple of plastic tables in an otherwise vacant corner lot, but great freshly shucked oysters!
On the north side of town, the road that runs parallel to the malecon and the ocean has a Tia store (groceries and household goods), appliance stores, electronics, government offices, banks, lawyers, copy shops, and more roast chicken than even Kenny Roger’s has seen.
But the real action, the part we really love to visit, is a street that winds up the hill to the Buenaventura Mall, and the side street that runs from about a block above it to the east, between the mercado and mercado de pescados. This section is always hopping, and probably 80% of the day-to-day commerce in the peninsula takes place there.
It’s a wild place; as it winds up hill, the sidewalks totally fail to take into account the change in altitude. Instead of being sloped, they are stepped. Sometimes not even stepped. If you are walking downhill, you have to pay attention, because the sidewalk you are walking on may suddenly stop and resume about 4 feet lower. All in all, it is better to walk in the street – like the locals do.
Although there are stores lining the streets, most of them also have their wares out on the sidewalks (another reason to walk in the street), and then there are vendors who have just setup in the streets. They may be selling food, TV and VCR remote controls, clothing – on our last trip, we passed a gentleman standing by his motorcycle, which was piled high with hundreds of handmade leather belts.
This street has beauty salons, school supplies, backpacks, shoes, musical instruments, hardware, jewelry, toys, household goods, plastics, electronics, restaurants, and even a Christmas decoration shop. It is hard to describe what a wild profusion of goods and services are on each block.
Near the top of the hill is the Buenaventura Mall. Outside is a square with more vendors, a stage for presentations, and a restaurant pavilion. Inside, it looks like a flea market and a department store had a baby, which then exploded. There are two levels of a mad conglomeration of … I can’t call them stores or even booths. Just areas where people are selling or repairing stuff. I have in the past purchased watch batteries, cell phone batteries, children’s clothing, a hat, a backpack, and shampoo. I’ve walked past the smart phone area, and watched while a guy opened up a Blackberry and started working on it with a soldering gun.
Perhaps my favorites spot is the food vending blocks, heading east from the “mall”. Although there is an enclosed two-story mercado, most of the action is out on the streets. If you want to see how the people of Santa Elena live, this is where you go to see it. Over several square blocks, there are hundreds of vendors selling vegetables, fruits, rice, beans, cheese, eggs, milk, chicken, pork, beef, cleaning supplies, household items, baby chicks (pictured above), parakeets, farming supplies, livestock feed – it really just goes on and on.
This is where the people shop. They pay cash, no sales tax, no receipts. Most items are packaged so that they don’t need to make much change. It will be a pound of strawberries for $1, two pounds of potatoes for 50 cents, and so on. This is a place where I have never felt like I’ve been “gringo-ed”. The prices are not on display, but there is so much going on, you can always see what others are paying. And if you don’t like the price of mangoes at one stand, well here comes a guy on a bicycle with a basket full of them who will make you a better offer.
You really get a feel for how the people live when you shop La Libertad. They will buy three eggs for 25 cents, 50 cents for a little pile of veggies, $1 worth of beans and rice – just buying what they need for that day, or maybe today and breakfast tomorrow.
The fish market is also a favorite place of mine. I usually shop at the one in our Salinas mercado, but in La Libertad there is a much bigger selection of fish, crabs, shrimp, shellfish and more. You can get 4 or 5 pound tuna in Salinas, but in la Libertad they have the big ones you need an electric band saw to cut.
Rita and I really love to visit La Libertad, and always find something new there. It has been interesting the two and a half years or so that we’ve been here, gauging other expat’s reactions to the ‘Tad. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. You either love it, or hate it. Some even fear it. Now it is true, we do not wear a watch or jewelry, or take out our cell phones, when we are walking around there. That’s just common sense in a big crowd. But we have never felt unsafe there. The thing is always not to stand out as a target. We are usually right in the mix, buying our goodies, chatting and asking about the wares, and paying in change like everyone else.
I’ve come to believe that the reaction to La Libertad, and to a lesser extent the bus system here in Ecuador is a good barometer for whether or not an expat is going to make it here – or at least, whether they will be happy here. If you use the buses like the locals, shop where the locals shop, and eat what the locals eat, then I think you will adjust more quickly and feel more at home than the folks who rely on cabs or hired drivers, and shop exclusively at the mall or grocery chain stores.
I’m not saying one lifestyle is any better than the other, and a lot depends on why you chose to live in another country anyway. But in our experience, if you want to be part of the real Ecuador, you gotta love the ‘Tad!This week, pay attention to whether or not you are juggling too many projects at once. Keep in mind that juggling forever is an impossibility. This may be a time to prioritize. At the end of the week, you decide if the Two of Pentacles tarot card fell in the upright or reversed position for you.
MINOR ARCANA
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN OR PLANET(S): VENUS, URANUS OR SATURN
UPRIGHT:
Two of Pentacles, Minor Arcana, represents balance and change. You might be juggling too many things at once. There is an opportunity for you to learn new skills and make significant changes in your life. But at the same time, you need to find balance. Take a look at some different approaches and attitudes. Try to focus on only one issue at a time in your life. Put yourself and your needs first. Don’t try to please others to a fault — you cannot be everything to everyone. Flexibility is also something you should be concerned about. It also can mean that there is an imbalance in your work or financial status. Balancing your material desires with your financial budget can be a challenge. This may be a time when you have overextended yourself. However, you may experience an increase in income.
REVERSED:
Everything in your life is out of balance and focus. This card indicates that you are in a period of self-doubt. You are preoccupied with events that have taken place in the past. Your mood swings and uncertainty may be getting in the way of making progress. Take responsibility for it and make some positive changes. You might also be facing a debt that will be difficult to pay off. The card also may indicate that everything in your life is unraveling due to your immature, irresponsible and reckless behavior and a lack of focus. Ask yourself, have I taken on too much or has someone put too much on me? This is a time for setting a budget and possibly seeking out a financial adviser. Financial problems are not resolved in a day — it will take some time. This may be a time when you feel that nothing is working for you. Rethink your objectives and goals before it is too late. Don’t give up and keep trying.
TO GET THE LATEST TAROT CARD FOR THE WEEK,
PLEASE VISIT THE CONFERENCE ROOM.
FOR THE CURRENT AND MOST UP-TO-DATE TAROT CARD OF THE WEEK,
VISIT THE CONFERENCE ROOM.
Join our FB Fan page!Just because there’s no official word on the possibility of Volkswagen creating a new Corrado model, doesn’t mean that digital artists can’t take a stab at designing their own. Assembled using bits of Volkswagen’s Sport Coupe GTE Concept and Audi’s Sport Quattro Concept, Theophilus Chin has not only come up with something that looks great, but also something that includes enough Volkswagen design language to be believable.
Now a new Corrado could certainly be built using MQB underpinnings if Volkswagen saw fit to do so, but we aren’t so sure that it would happen. The Corrado only saw one generation of life, meaning that many potential buyers are unfamiliar with the name, and those who do remember it may still have memories of reliability issues. Either way, if Volkswagen were to make something like this, we wouldn’t kick it out of bed.
See more from Theophilus Chin, here.SALT LAKE CITY — The LDS Church has accepted that same-sex marriage is now legal in the United States, but that hardly means the Utah-based faith is embracing moves toward it in places where it isn’t the law of the land.
Case in point: Mexico.
On Sunday (May 29), three members of the LDS Church’s governing Area Authority in Mexico read a letter at services of individual Mormon stakes (which are like dioceses), urging members to oppose a presidential proposal to enshrine gay marriage in the country’s constitution.
“The family is ordained of God and marriage between man and woman is essential to his eternal plan,” said the letter, reaffirming The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ long-standing stance against gay unions.
Signed by the Area Authority president, Benjamin De Hoyos, and his two counselors, Paul B. Pieper and Arnulfo Valenzuela, the statement exhorted Mexico’s Mormons to push government leaders to “promote those measures designed to strengthen the family and to maintain it as the fundamental unit of society.”
Echoing rhetoric about religious freedom used by LDS leaders in the U.S., the Mexican authorities encouraged adherents to “unite our voices with those of other citizens exercising our rights as are contained in the Constitution of the United Mexican States, which establishes and honors freedom of religion and expression of beliefs and thoughts, both publicly and privately.”
Mexico is home to about 1.4 million Mormons, according to LDS statistics, but the majority of people attend the Catholic Church, which also is fighting the same-sex-marriage proposal.
The three LDS leaders pointed members toward a new nongovernmental organization, which translates to the National Consciousness for Religious Freedom, while counseling that members’ involvement “should be done in a spirit of love, respect and civility toward those with different views.”
The LDS Church’s official Mexican newsroom website said the authorities’ statement also will be read by bishops of the more than 2,000 Mormon congregations in that nation.
Gay marriage “is already legal in some parts of Mexico, such as the capital, the northern state of Coahuila and Quintana Roo state on the Caribbean coast,” The Associated Press reported. “Adding it to the constitution and the civil code would expand gay-marriage rights across the country.”
If two-thirds of the Mexican Congress adopts the proposal, according to the AP, it then would require ratification by a simple majority vote of the states to change the constitution.
Growing numbers of nations have legalized gay marriage, including four in Latin America — Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay. Mexico would be the fifth.
“In gay-supporting countries, church members feel less disturbed by same-sex marriage because of the civil framework to which the word ‘marriage’ belongs,” retired LDS professor Wilfried Decoo, who has taught at the University of Antwerp and at LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University, wrote in 2014, “and because it pertains to nonmembers.”
While the LDS Church doesn’t allow same-sex marriages in its temples or chapels, it does recognize civil societies’ right to sanction such unions — which could happen in Mexico.
(Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune, where this article first appeared)Presented by The C02 Company, The Portland Mercury and Oregon’s Cannabis Concierge
Come Join us as we celebrate the end of Cannabis Prohibition in Oregon
This Historic event takes place at....Metal Craft Fabrication 723 N. Tillamook on Friday July 3rd. 2015
This is more than free weed. This is more than vendors, food and vapes. This is history in the making! Join us for a day to remember!
This is a 21+ event. Please bring valid identification
No outside cannabis allowed on premises
No alcohol allowed or served on premises
Attendees subject to search
Oregon residency is not required
No pets allowed
No re-entry
WEED THE PEOPLE FAQ
Q: When is it? Where is it? How much are tickets? Are there are rules?
A: It’s Friday July 3rd, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., at 723 N. Tillamook, corner of Tillamook and N. Interstate. Advance tickets are $40. You must be 21 or over, and we will be checking IDs. No alcohol or outside cannabis/cannabis products will be allowed on site, and bags will be searched. Empty water bottles will be allowed and you will be able to fill them inside the event.
Q: What is Weed The People? Do I need an OMMP card?
A: OMMP cards are not required for entry. On July 1, cannabis becomes legal in Oregon for adults 21 and over. Weed The People (WTP) wants to celebrate this, so we’ve created a party with vendors, food trucks, a customized soundtrack, gift bags, a Growers Gifting Room, and a Vaporizer Lounge where you can try out the latest and greatest vaporizers.
Q: What is a Growers Gifting Room and a Vaporizer Lounge?
A: Growers from around the State will be stationed in a room to meet with you and share samples of their cannabis crops, all lab tested for pesticides and molds. They will also have information about themselves, their growing techniques, etc. After you’ve collected your gifts from the growers, you can check out the Vaporizer Lounge, where a trained staff of budtenders will help you try out your samples using a wide variety of vaporizers. You are also welcome to take your samples home to enjoy at a later time. The number of samples provided will depend on the number of people in attendance, and supplies may be limited.
Q: Beers and buds! Whoooo!
A: Sorry, no alcohol of any kind will be allowed on site.
Q: Will there be dabs, pot cookies or other cannabis edibles?
A: No, this event focuses on Flowers only.
Q: So is this a competition for the best weed in the state?
Far from it. This is a celebration, and as such, we won’t be testing for THC levels. Instead, we want attendees to focus on the grower, the methods used, and the strain/flavor.
Q: I’m a licensed grower, and I want to share. Can I participate?
A: Absolutely. Send an email to Josh at cannabuzz@portlandmercury.com There is no fee to become a Gifting Grower, and we’ll even cover the cost of lab testing, through our lab sponsor OG Analytical.
Q: How do I get there?
A: The venue is located at 723 N. Tillamoook just 1 block from a Yellow Line MAX stop, and is across the street from several TriMet bus lines. Parking is extremely limited, so consider all other forms of transport. If you plan on consuming at the event please do not drive.
Q: Is this the coolest Cannabis event ever?
A: Most likely, yes. We are focused on responsible adult usage, and helping the community usher in legalized cannabis. We will be providing information on this new law, so you can understand where you can consume, how much you can posses, and other fun facts. Whether you partake regularly or haven’t touched the stuff in years, this event will offer something for you! Don’t be afraid of your freedom!
This event is sold out. To be notified about future cannabis events, please enter your email.
Press inquiries: publisher@portlandmercury.com
Ticketing customer support: support@merctickets.comAs reported, Nvidia Corp.’s forthcoming GeForce GTX 960 graphics adapter will barely become a performance champion due to rather moderate specifications. In a bid to boost popularity of the graphics solution among gamers, the company is expected to market the product under “overclocker’s dream” moniker.
The default clock-rate of the GM206 graphics processor on the reference Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 graphics card will be 1127MHz, according to a media report. However, the vast majority of graphics adapters from Nvidia’s partners will clock the GPU much higher because of excellent overclocking potential of the Maxwell architecture and the GM206 chip. Moreover, even Nvidia itself will call its GeForce GTX 960 an “overclocker’s dream” in its marketing materials, reports VideoCardz.
According to Nvidia’s press deck seen by the web-site, the GeForce GTX 960 will be able to operate at 1500MHz with air cooling, which indicates a good overclocking potential. Nvidia is also going to advertise memory overclocking capabilities beyond effective 7GT/s data-rate, according to the report.
Zotac GeForce GTX 960 AMP!
Previously it was reported that the GeForce GTX 960 will feature 1024 stream processors, 64 texture units, 32 raster operations pipelines and 128-bit memory bus. At 1127MHz GPU clock-rate, compute performance of the chip will be 2.3TFLOPS. Peak memory bandwidth of the reference graphics board will be 112GB/s.
Thanks to massive overclocking potential of the GeForce GTX 960 (GM206), gamers will be able to boost performance of their graphics cards themselves, albeit, at the cost of losing warranty. If Nvidia advertises 1500MHz clock-rate, it means that it will be possible to boost the frequency even higher. Still, due to 1024 stream processors and 128-bit memory bus, performance of the GeForce GTX 960 will never get even close to that of graphics solutions that are more powerful.
Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: If the information from the report is correct and Nvidia plans to sell the graphics solution under the “overclocker’s dream” moniker, then it means that the company pins a lot of hopes on overclocking potential of the GPU. While overclocking is a good thing in general, it almost never radically improves performance. Therefore, the GeForce GTX 960 will have to be competitively priced in order to be popular.Written because even after all these years, my two favorite DBZ characters still hold dear to my heart, and there's not enough child/parent interaction fanfics in the world.
Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, but you knew that already, right?
Angel Tears
It was a cool October night at Mt. Paozu, where a restless wind tossed about, screeching as it tore through frail branches of trees. Heavy rain fell from the dark skies above, where jagged paths of lightning would light the night briefly. This harsh thunderstorm brought the needed rain to the plants and trees, and fear to the heart of a little boy.
Cozy but terrified beneath his quilt, young Son Goten trembled violently, bringing the quilt up to his chin. He squeezed his eyes shut in hopes that the thunderstorm would go away.
But it did not, and it made his heart work harder, throbbing behind his little chest.
Having enough of the torment for the past ten minutes, Goten swung the quilt off him, grabbed his stuffed dinosaur, and slid out of bed. Clutching the beloved green toy to his chest, Goten shuffled along the carpet out of his room.
His eyes gazed uncertainly at the nearest room in the hallway. Gohan wouldn't be very happy if he went in there and woke him up. And besides, he had mentioned something about an exam tomorrow, and all Goten knew was that it was important, and he needed much rest.
Turning away, the youngest Son child resumed his pace toward the next door he saw.
I'm startled as I hear a noise suddenly. I quickly rise from reclining in bed and flick on a lamp on the nightstand at my bedside. If I hadn't breathed the next moment, I wouldn't have been able to hear the soft rapping of knuckles against my bedroom door. I almost speak, but instead I hear a gentle voice. Yet it seemed to carry something else too. Fear.
"Mommy? Are ya awake? Can I come in?"
I become concerned upon hearing that voice, and grant the knocker permission to enter the room. As I see Goten walk in, I hear the small pitter-patter of his feet on the carpet—the same sound I heard before.
I do not smile; something is bothering my youngest child. I see the worry and fear written on his face. He holds his favorite stuffed animal close to him and stands timidly before me, gazing at his bare feet, as if he were embarrassed.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" I ask Goten. I never liked to see him so scared.
He doesn't answer for a moment, his dark eyes full of uneasiness. He places one foot on top of the other, his toes fumbling with each other. He loosens his grip on the dinosaur and finally looks up at me, almost apologetically.
"I'm scared, Mommy," he whispers, and resumes hanging his head.
I just want to take him in my arms and hold him close to me. So I do. I kneel before him and scoop him in my arms, letting him bury his face in my chest. "This storm has got you scared, doesn't it, baby?" I murmur to him, smoothing his soft, dark hair.
He nods against my chest, and I return to sit on |
to each other and dress both at the same time on the pre-light day. Upon finishing photography on the first set we’d take that wall away to reveal the next wall, move in a new desk and props, make a couple of lighting tweaks and be ready to shoot without having to shift the crane base.
This arrangement worked for a number of reasons. We could set up the Technocrane operating station at the beginning of the day and never move it again. The crane itself only had to move once, to get to the “Napkins” set. We used the same shooting space and overhead rigging for our two single-wall sets. And the first two sets could share some lighting while giving us room to pre-light the third set.
“LIGHTBULBS”
Knox and I had a discussion very early on about the “Lightbulbs” set. We’d already planned to rig most of the lighting, with full grip and electric crews, on the day before the shoot, but the art department had an additional day of set construction. He put some money aside so my gaffer and I could come in on that first day and work out the mechanics of the cloud rig without our minions standing idle. (We overachieved: by the end of the day we had all three sets figured out, and “Napkins” was 75% pre-lit!)
We settled on a speed rail truss system that we’d build on the floor, supported initially by floor stands. Once the rig was built, the grip crew would run speed rail down from the grid, grab the truss, and pull the floor stands away.
I wanted the lightbulbs to pass as close to the camera as possible, so I asked that the middle bulbs be rigged from two movable pipes. This gave us the ability to quickly set a channel width for the middle rows of lightbulbs.
We ran out of speed rail, so we had to improvise with wooden boards. To the left of the board there are two pieces of pipe that run parallel to each other. (You can see the ends sticking off the back end of the rig, and the clamps that hold them in place.) Those are the channel pipes. Once the camera was in place we were able to change the width of those pipes such that the camera passed as close to those bulbs as possible over its move.
I told my gaffer, Andy Olson, to bring every stinger he had. He laughed. The next day, during the pre-light, he told me, “I thought you were joking, but I brought them all anyway. We’re using almost all of them!”
The “channel” pipes are easily visible here as they form a “V” that extends across the length of the truss. All lights are hung using A-clips, for speedy adjustment.
Andy brought a 30-channel dimming system, and we rigged 32 lights in total. (Four lights shared two circuits, but we put those at the end of the move and assumed the audience would never notice them coming on simultaneously amongst all the other cloud lights.)
As far as lighting the set, I’d initially wanted to use soft side light to create broad linear highlights in the bulb surfaces. One of the reasons I’d asked the sets to be oriented at a right angle to one of the stage’s white cyc walls was so I could use it as a large bounce source. My key grip, Gordon McIver, went even further and turned it into a massive book light.
The light source to the right was three Arri M18s aimed into a cyc wall, which was then further diffused by a frame of 12’x12′ grid cloth. The reflection of this source on one lightbulb was pretty, but seeing it on 30 lightbulbs was amazing.
The big light source was the easy part. It took the better part of a day to rig and power our “truss o’ bulbs.” Once we had everything roughed in, I snapped some photos and texted them to Greg Rowan, our director, who then talked me in on the overall shape of the bulb cloud. We were 95% ready at call time the next day, with only some final bulb adjustments once the camera was in place. Every light was held in place by a spring clip on its cord, so changing the height of each bulb was easy. Adjusting the placement was a little more difficult as we could only slide the bulbs left, right, forward or back on the bar to which they were attached, but we made do by adding crossbars, and then crossbars between crossbars.
Unfortunately, on the shoot day, the big soft source lighting scheme had to be scrapped as it revealed seams in the set walls that the client didn’t want to see. The seams in non-textured flats can be hidden by taping them over and painting them, but this doesn’t work on textured flats. I’d hoped that the seams could be explained away as possible grout lines in a brick facade, but early that morning some concerns were expressed and I initiated a backup plan. Once the final decision was made to hide the seams, we switched off the big source and turned on some smaller ones.
A Source 4 Leko, hung from the end of the truss, lights up the desk blotter, creating a soft bounce source. A 4’x4 Kino Flo peaks over the back of the set as a backlight. We later added a splash of light from a tweenie on the back wall to bring out its texture and prevent it from fading into blackness.
The bulbs lit themselves, but I needed a quick and elegant way to light the actress. I find low bounced light sources to be especially interesting as they feel “ambient” to me, as if they naturally belong no matter the environment. Sunlight striking a floor creates much the same look, and indeed there are many situations where much of the light in an environment is light radiating upwards from flat surfaces. I had the electrical crew hang a Source 4 from the truss and aim it at the desk blotter, which was a large enough source to wrap nicely around the actress’s face.
Alexa’s wonderful dynamic range and highlight handling allowed me to do this without worrying that the blotter would blow out to an awful, clipped video white. It truly lets me light as I would when shooting film.
The original Stanford University Shopping Center Apple Store design incorporated huge, milky plexiglass ceilings lit from behind by fluorescents that made the ceiling a single large, flat and perfectly diffuse light source. The floor was made of a very bright white material that caught this light and reflected it upward, resulting in nearly equal amounts of light from both the floor and the ceiling. The store interior felt as if it had an internal glow, and everyone inside was lit as if they were a fashion model. Sadly, the floor scuffed easily and was eventually removed, and while the ceiling is much the same, the feel of the store is very different without the radiant white floor.
When in doubt, I’ll often light from below. I started doing this in my low budget corporate video years, when I frequently found myself lighting people at conference tables. The most interesting—and quickest—solution was to hang a light overhead and smack it into the table, where scattered pieces of note paper bounced the light back on faces. I was able to shoot in any direction, and the soft upward shadows felt both interesting and real.
We scheduled “Lightbulbs” first as Knox and I decided to get the hardest setup out of the way early in the day. Although Andy and I tried to create a preplanned bulb illumination sequence, fading up specific bulbs as they entered the frame, this proved too time consuming. In the end we gave Andy his own reference monitor near the dimmer board and let him feel his way through the shot.
We set an overall bulb brightness level on the dimmer board using the master fader, so he could focus on bringing the individual faders up at the proper times without having to hit the same brightness level 30 times.
The foreground was very warm, so I lit the background to be a little cool. Cinematography is about creating depth and contrast, and it’s well known in design circles that “warm colors advance and cool colors recede.” Making the background a little cool created a pleasant color contrast between foreground and background while enhancing the depth of what is a not-very-deep shot.
One thing I love about the Technocrane is that I get to operate wheels again. I miss gear heads. They’re so smooth, precise, and just plain fun.
It’s clear that I’m doing some operating at the beginning of this camera move, but once I’d finished tilting up I had to immediately start tilting down to keep the top of the frame level across the rest of the move. The fact that I’m spinning wheels throughout this shot is impossible to see in the final spot, but it would have been obvious if I hadn’t. I love that.
The same thing happened on “Typewriter.” The crane arm wasn’t perfectly dead on to the set, but I was easily able to keep the actor perfectly centered across the entire move. The camera doesn’t appear to be panning or tilting at all.
“TYPEWRITER”
Once we had “Lightbulbs” in the digital can, we swapped out the desk, knocked down the set wall, and quickly lit for “Typewriter.” We’d already rigged two 4’x2 Kino Flos on the “Typewriter” set wall to act as large, downward washes. We’d left the large soft source for “Lightbulbs” built and ready to go, so we turned it back on for ambient fill. We also taped a piece of typing paper to the keys of the typewriter and aimed our Source 4 at it for a little upward-facing glow.
This small bounce wasn’t a big enough source to be flattering to the actor’s face on its own. We added a small Chimera, fitted with a directional grid and rigged to our overhead truss system.
In order to speed things up, we didn’t bother removing the light bulb rig until we’d finished this setup. I had the electrical crew pull all the lightbulbs up to the truss, and we waited to disassemble it until we moved to the final “Napkins” setup.
I would have preferred to light this with the table lamp only, but that would have required cutting the shade and using a bigger bulb. Art direction decisions of this type often happen on the day of the shoot, and I opted not to spend time tearing apart a lamp on a moment’s notice. Half of my job is getting the look right, and the other half is getting it done on time.
There’s not much else to say about this spot. It was very straightforward. The Technocrane worked perfectly and the lighting setup was fairly simple. While shooting this setup I had the electrical crew work ahead and turn on the lighting for the “Napkins” spot, which we’d already put in place.
“NAPKINS”
Initially this setup was a bit of a quandary. I knew I had to light someone laying on the ground and then pull straight back for a good distance without seeing lights or casting camera shadows. I had a full set of Cooke S4 primes on set, but I’d decided to only use the 32mm when possible. The 32mm is wide enough to capture a good-sized set in a small space, but isn’t so wide that it distorts faces in unpleasant ways. As all three spots started in closeup and ended wide, the 32mm seemed like the best choice for each setup. (32mm and 35mm primes are great all-around lenses. If I’m handheld and shooting quickly, I’ll often put one of those on and never take it off.) In theory I could’ve only rented the 32mm lens, but that’s asking for trouble if anything changed at all on the day of the shoot.
The trick in preproduction was to figure out whether I could get a head-to-toe shot on a 32mm lens at our maximum camera height, which was 18′ to the stage’s grid. I also had to find out what my angle of view was at that height, so I could tell the art department how much floor space to dress with napkins. It’s times like these that PCam is invaluable. Thanks to its various calculators I determined that it was possible for me to get a head-to-toe shot on a 32mm lens at 18′, and also that I needed 12’x12′ of “napkin space” to fill the final frame.
During our “pre pre-light” day, Andy and I talked about ways to make this sea of napkins interesting while also lighting an actress’s closeup. I’d toyed with bouncing light off the cyc wall, but it felt like that might be too broad for what was essentially a person laying on a flat white surface. Even confining the bounce to the lower part of the wall, such that it skimmed the napkins, seemed like it might be too much of a flat wash, and it left the issue of getting light around the front of the actress’s face from a very high angle. I broached the subject of hanging a Chimera in the grid, but Andy talked me out of it as he hates hanging lights in case he has to move them quickly. The napkin floor would have kept us from bringing in a ladder or a scissor lift unless the light was hung well off center.
In the end I embraced my “inner hard light.” We put a 2K fresnel on a stand as high as we could get it, and the angle turned out to be perfect for a classic, 1950s Hollywood key light. One of the tricks with hard light is getting the fill light right, as hard light casts shadows that emphasize skin imperfections. Lowering the contrast of those shadows, by placing a soft light near the lens—and preferably under it, so it reaches into the actor’s eyes—fixes a lot of issues. We had a small portable LED light ready to mount under the lens in the event I needed it, but the actress had perfect skin. She was a dream to light.
I wanted to create a pool of light around the actress, but not in a perfect circle as if it were a spot light. As part of our “pre pre-light,” Andy and I experimented with distorting our key light in interesting and visually random ways. We started off spotting the light all the way in, to create a pool of light with a hot center that grew darker at the edges. Then we added a cucaloris (“cookie”) for some breakup. Normally you’d flood a light all the way out so the cookie cast hard shadows, but I wanted to see how the shadows softened at full spot.
And… it was too soft. The pattern was mush.
I knew from experience, though, that adding another pattern would cause the two patterns to interact, so I asked Andy for a second cookie. He didn’t have one (almost no one carries them anymore, they’re considered a bit dated) but he had a piece of foam core with a round hole cut in it. We set that inches in front of the spotted fresnel to see what happened.
It was magic. The result is a little hard to see in the final shot, but the interaction of the small aperture in the foam core, the spotted fresnel, and the cookie resulted in a wonderfully random pool of light. It looked amazing on the Sony A170 OLED monitor we used on set, although it loses a little something in a highly compressed 8-bit file. Still, it looks fairly nice: not too theatrical, not too perfect.
This is a trick I use often. Stacking patterns causes the holes in the front pattern to act as apertures through which the rear pattern is projected. The result is a wonderfully random combination of hard and soft shadows that interact in unpredictable ways. I wrote an article about this effect here.
At each corner of the napkin region we placed a 4’x8′ piece of foam core, and bounced a Kino Flo into each one. Ideally I’d have filled from behind the camera, but no matter how big the source I’d still end up shadowing the actress with the camera at the beginning of the shot. Placing large bounces around the perimeter of the shot gave me the same effect without putting any lights behind the camera.
We placed four Source 4 Lekos on the ground, two on either side of the napkin field, to skim across the napkin edges and prevent them from appearing too flat.
We may have added a light CTO gel to the 2K fresnel to make it feel a bit like warm sunshine.
All that was left was to finesse the camera move. The crane operator, Robert Barcelona, placed the camera in a direct-down position on the head, and then joined me in operating it. My job was simply to pan, while he retracted the arm over the course of the shot so that the camera started centered on the actress’s face and ended up centered on her body.
This pool of light doesn’t look like it took a lot of work to create, but natural light can be surprisingly hard to reproduce at times—because it’s never perfect.
It took a couple of rehearsals to choreograph our dance, but we figured it out fairly quickly. Robert had the hardest job, as precisely retracting the arm while watching a spinning image couldn’t have been easy.
Alexa presets tend to look a little green. Adding CC-4 to the color temperature (top right, “3200 -4”) tends to fix this issue. I use a center “dot” instead of crosshairs when working with Alexa, as I like to see the center of the frame without showing the director and clients a crosshair. (One of my assistants likes to make the frame lines and crosshair red, to emulate the old “Panaglow” illuminated markings that helped film operators frame shots at night. Red worked well in that case because it didn’t affect night vision, but I prefer white because—in every other context—red indicates an error.)
TECHNICAL SPECS
We shot this on an Arri Alexa Classic, and while the savings in rental price over an Amira or Mini didn’t buy the Technocrane, it certainly defrayed the cost somewhat.
For quite a long time I’ve been very picky about noise, and I will normally rate a camera at half its stated ISO as most aren’t as noise free as I’d like. I’m starting to ease up on that practice, but at the time I shot this I was still deep in my anti-noise phase, so I rated the camera at ISO 400. Reducing noise does help in compression for the web, which is where a lot of my recent projects have landed.
I’d wanted to shoot the project on TLS-rehoused Cooke Speed Panchros, which are beautiful old lenses with all sorts of funky anomalies. Sadly, my assistant found that the 32mm was out of collimation at the prep and there was no one in the rental house on the prep day to fix it. I ended up with a set of Cooke S4s, and I really can’t complain as those are phenomenal lenses for shooting closeups, but the funkiness of the TLS Cooke Speed Panchros would have added an extra something to the project. The bokeh on “Lightbulbs” would have been wonderfully random, and the natural vignetting in those lenses would have added some character to the fairly flat fields of both “Typewriter” and “Napkins.”
“Lightbulbs” and “Napkins” were shot at T2 as I wanted the backgrounds to go a bit soft, at least at the beginning of the camera move. “Napkins” was shot at T4 1/2 as reduced depth of field didn’t make any difference to the flat set, and I decided to give my camera assistant—the excellent John Gazdik—a break at the end of the day. He didn’t need it, but I remember my days as a camera assistant and I try to be kind to mine whenever possible.
I nearly always shoot with a 144° shutter (1/60th second exposure at 23.98fps) as I’m extremely paranoid about flicker. Fluorescents flicker, LEDs flicker, and recently I’ve even seen tungsten halogen bulbs flicker.
My theory is that energy efficient halogen filaments are thinner, so they cool—and dim—faster when the AC current changes directions. I’ve had issues when shooting on-set tungsten practicals at 48fps/180°, and I’ve seen the same practicals flicker at 24fps/180° when dimmed. 144° puts me directly in the middle of the 60hz flicker-free window, and allows me to worry about more important things than whether an errant lightbulb might be misbehaving in the background… or, in this case, 30 dimmed lightbulbs in the foreground.
All spots were shot at 23.98fps to LogC, ProRes4444.
Production Company: Teak SF
Director: Greg Rowan
Line Producer: Christopher Knox
Executive Producer: Greg Martinez
Director of Photography: Art Adams
Art Director: Bret Lama
Gaffer: Andy Olson
Key Grip: Gordon McIver
First Camera Assistant: John Gazdik
Crane Owner/Operator: Robert Barcelona
Art Adams
Director of Photography
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Was This Post Helpful:The Modi government is pushing the "Make in India" campaign and they're quite right to do so of course. Industrialising is the way that the people and the country will become richer. A part of this is the temptation of gaining Apple as a domestic manufacturer. However, this should not be done by offering Apple any special deal. If there are rules and laws concerning the Indian economy which make Apple less likely to assemble inside India then sure, those rules and laws could usefully be changed. But they must be changed for all, not Apple given some special dispensation from them.
Which is, by good fortune, apparently what the government is saying:
The government won't offer any special concessions to Apple but is reviewing its entire policy on mobile phone manufacturing as part of an effort to promote the 'Make in India' initiative, officials said. This could meet some of the demands that Apple has made apart from benefitting other phone makers as well.
Apple is of course a most tempting prize. Not just the size of the company but the marquee strength of the brand. But it is still true that there should be no special deal:
“Apple has been looking for several duty and tax incentives for manufacturing handsets in India, but the government is unlikely to make any exception for one company,” said a top official in one of the departments mentioned above. Speaking to HT on condition of anonymity, the official said that any exception for the iPhone manufacturer will defeat the purpose of an integrated policy such as Make-in-India.
If tax incentives (for which read, not being charged certain taxes) make Apple more likely to assemble in India then that's fine. But the same incentives will also make other people more likely to assemble in India. And thus whatever the rules are they should be the same for each potential assembler.
Top executives of the US-based company will be meeting government officials on January 22 about its plans to kick-off manufacturing in India for which it has sought a slew of incentives including a 15-year holiday on customs duty.
If a customs duty holiday would tempt Apple then it would also tempt other people. And the aim is not to just attract Apple but to tempt many people.
The useful manner in which to view Apple's requests is as a guide to where the problems are. But to also view them as a guide to where the problems are for everyone, not just Apple. So, if Apple thinks that a customs holiday would be good for it then we can safely assume that such would be good for other manufacturers. We thus have a guide to what might attract other such manufacturers. Say, instead of a customs holiday for Apple, an abolition of the customs charges which are the problem? And then in that manner, no special deal for Apple, just a better environment for all potential manufacturers.Earlier this month at the National Assembly in Seoul, President Trump highlighted the tragic tale of the “two Koreas” — one free, just and peaceful, the other tyrannical, oppressive and dangerous. This contrast is at the root of America’s most urgent national security challenge. It is also now on vivid display in a South Korean hospital, where doctors are working to save a wounded and malnourished North Korean soldier who defected last week from Kim Jong-un’s slave state.
The defector, whose full name is still not publicly known, risked his life by speeding across the Demilitarized Zone in a jeep, then dashing across the heavily guarded border at Panmunjon. He knew that North Korean troops have shoot-to-kill orders against anyone trying to flee. By the time he made it across, some six bullets had pierced his arms and torso.
South Korean guards rescued him 55 yards south of the border, and doctors soon discovered just how grave his condition was: Along with the bullet wounds, he also had hepatitis B, pneumonia and “an enormous number” of parasitic worms in his intestines, some up to 11 inches long. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician,” said his South Korean surgeon. The worms can burrow into fresh wounds, with potentially devastating effects.
This defector’s plight is a window onto North Korean life. For all the regime’s spending on sophisticated weapons, monuments to the Kim family and bribes for elites in Pyongyang, even trusted soldiers suffer terrible malnourishment. A vast majority of other North Koreans endure still worse. Such is the cruelty of North Korea’s regime — and such is the responsibility of those foreign governments that enable it.FC Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi is set to be tried in a Spanish court on tax fraud charges as he, whether knowingly or not, benefitted to the tune of €4.1 million (£3 million) between 2007 and 2009.
The four-time Champions League winner has been accused of dodging the tax authorities through the sale of his image rights in South American countries Uruguay and Belize, as well as the United Kingdom and Switzerland, through shell companies by his father, Jorge Horacio Messi.
The original tax charges against Messi were dropped on Tuesday, with just his father potentially facing charges. However, Spanish authorities have decided to re-open the case as a judge declined the request of public prosecutors to try only Messi Sr., in which they were probing for an 18-month sentence.
The contracts that have been under scrutiny are those with Banco Sabadell, Adidas, Danone, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble, as well the Kuwait Food Company and others that he procured whilst playing for Barcelona. This, therefore, naturally falls under Spanish jurisdiction when it comes to taxes.
Once the charges had become public, Messi took steps to attempt to clear his name. These included a payment of €5 million to Spanish authorities, however, this did not shelve the will of prosecutors to seek criminal charges against the four-time World Player of the Year.
Lionel Messi is the fourth richest sportsman in the world, according to Forbes magazine, as he rakes in a colossal $67.4 million each year. Messi previously pointed the finger in the original hearing at a former agent who he believes was responsible for the tax fraud.
If found guilty, the Argentina international would, under state law, receive a sentence of 22.5 months imprisonment, with the hearing taking place in Vilanova i la Geltrú near Barcelona.
Main PhotoPunjab Governor Mohammad Sarwar (Source: Reuters photo)
The governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province resigned on Thursday just days after slamming the Nawaz Sharif government for its “diplomatic failure” to build ties with the US after President Barack Obama’s historic second visit to India.
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Punjab Governor Mohammad Sarwar had severely criticised the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for its failure to bring the US president to Pakistan.
“Obama’s visit to India is a failure of the Pakistan government. The second visit of Obama to India is Pakistan’s big failure on foreign affairs front as it should have arranged his visit to Pakistan,” Sarwar said in his statement after Obama’s trip to India.
Obama’s unprecedented second visit to India recently has echoed heavily in Pakistan, a Cold War-era ally of the US. Government sources said that the criticism by Sarwar had disturbed Sharif who demanded an explanation but instead the governor chose to resign.
Sarwar handed over his resignation to President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday night, which has been accepted. Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal will serve as acting governor pending a new appointment by the federal government.
Sarwar on Tuesday had said that it was a “diplomatic failure of Pakistan that US President Obama visited India and signed the all-important civil nuclear deal”.
He also criticised Obama for failing to give equal importance to India and Pakistan and not using the opportunity to reduce tensions between the two rivals. Sarwar became governor after renouncing his citizenship of the UK where he had settled several years ago to become a successful businessman and was the first Muslim lawmaker in the British parliament.
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Sharif was also upset with Sarwar for meeting with exiled MQM chief Altaf Hussain in London without his consent. Besides, Sarwar has close relations with Sharif’s rivals – PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Tahirul Qadri.Sergio Perez: "I feel ready to do a good job for a top team, to be able to fight for the title, for the championship" © Sutton Images Enlarge Related Links Race:
Singapore Grand Prix Drivers:
Sergio Perez Teams:
Sauber
Sergio Perez has revealed that he hasn't been approached by any teams for his services in 2013 amid rumours McLaren wants him as a potential replacement to Lewis Hamilton.
Reports over the weekend suggested that McLaren had made contact with Perez over the possibility of him replacing Hamilton should he join Mercedes. Perez, however, said that he hasn't had any approaches and is ignoring rumours which he says are solely based on his strong second place in the Italian Grand Prix.
"In the position that I'm in when I have a good result - because I'm fighting for the points and sometimes I can get some good podiums - it's always the time when the rumours start," Perez said. "But then you have a bad race and then there are no more rumours and they are changing to the driver who had a good race. So in that respect I'm not really worried; I know that I have a very strong car for the next seven races so I hope I can deliver very strong performances."
When asked if any approaches had been made, Perez simply replied: "No."
Perez did admit, however, that his status as a member of the Ferrari Academy would not have an impact on the possibility of driving for any other team.
"No, not really. I have a nice connection to Ferrari through the Ferrari Academy but I'm just part of the Ferrari Academy, I'm not part of the Ferrari team. So it doesn't affect it."
With Luca di Montezemolo having said that Perez is not experienced enough to drive for Ferrari, Perez himself believes he's ready to perform at a top team.
"In respect to what Montezemolo said about the experience - I fully respect his opinion. I have to know my position, probably he means that to become a Ferrari driver you need more (experience) - I don't know, it's only my second year in Formula One. I feel ready to do a good job for a top team, to be able to fight for the title, for the championship, so in that respect I feel ready but I fully respect his opinion."
Looking at the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend, Perez said his target would be to score another podium following his second place at Monza.
"I definitely have a very strong feeling. It's not similar to the Spa or Monza circuits but I think we should be quite good here. It's very difficult to know what to expect but I think we can be competitive here too and this is our target now to fight for the podium again."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Surface is an American science fiction television series that premiered on NBC on September 19, 2005. The program aired ten episodes before going on hiatus on November 28, 2005 due to NBC's coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It returned for five more episodes, beginning January 2, 2006. On May 15, 2006, NBC officially announced the series' cancellation.
Synopsis [ edit ]
During a routine submersible dive in the North Pacific Ocean, California oceanographer Laura Daughtery (Lake Bell) is attacked by an unknown life-form that appears out of a field of craters on the ocean's floor. Miles Barnett (Carter Jenkins), a 14-year old North Carolina teenager, finds himself face to face with the strange sea creature after falling off his wakeboard during a nighttime outing with his friends. Meanwhile, Richard Connelly (Jay R. Ferguson), a Louisiana man on a fishing trip, loses his brother in a suspicious diving accident when a creature drags him to the depths of the Gulf of Mexico.
All around the world, strange things are occurring in the world's oceans. Shooting stars fall from the night sky into the Caribbean Sea; a horrific howl tears apart a South African lighthouse. In South Carolina, an unknown carcass washes up on a public beach, prompting the government to evacuate and cordon off the area, claiming it as a beached whale killed by red tide poisoning.
Meanwhile, Daughtery's research is seized by government officials led by a mysterious Croatian scientist, Dr. Aleksander Cirko (Rade Šerbedžija); after attempting to confront them, she is fired. Curious as to what he's seen, Miles ventures back to the area where he first spotted the creature only to find the water covered in strange pods he classifies as "eggs"; he takes one home and places it in his parents' fish tank. Unable to cope with his brother's disappearance, Connely ventures to South Carolina to see the creature for himself. Connelly meets Daughtery upon arrival after they are both taken into custody due to asking too many questions. When the fish in Miles' tank disappear and the tank breaks, Miles discovers that something has hatched from the egg; he attempts to conceal it but it escapes and causes havoc at his sister's pool party. Daughtery and Connelly sneak onto the beach and bring back a hagfish that had been feeding on the carcass. Each returns to their home, and Daughtery sends the fish's stomach contents to be tested. As they wait for the results, reports of strange creatures beaching themselves around the world begin to surface. These three strangers may have stumbled upon the greatest secret in human history.
The creature that hatched from the "egg" Miles found appears to be a kind of web-footed aquatic lizard, possibly a Pliosaur (this is later proven to be false, as the show progresses to reveal the origin on the species). It has the ability to zap objects with an electrical charge and heal instantaneously. Miles's friend Phil names the creature Nimrod, shortened to "Nim".
Dr. Cirko discovers the origins of the creature, but is murdered before he can tell anyone. His assistant gives his research to Daughtery, who has already teamed up with Connelly.
In the remaining episodes we learn that agent Lee is actually a clone of one of the men on the original Kessler expedition. After some of the other young creatures attack him, Miles develops some of the creatures' abilities- electrical surges and a need for excess salt (as well as some form of communication with the creatures), due to Nim healing him by licking his bites and scratches. In the series finale the creatures' activities on the sea floor cause a massive earthquake which turns into a tsunami that destroys Puerto Rico and heads toward the east coast. Rich discovers a cryogenic version of Noah’s Ark in the Iderdex plant. Also there were dozens of monorails being sent into the Mariana Trench. The series ends with Miles finally meeting Laura and Rich during the evacuation. The last shot is of Miles, Laura, Rich and Caitlin looking out from the church steeple they climbed to escape the waves to see how the tsunami placed all of Wilmington, NC under water.
Themes [ edit ]
This TV series encompasses possible implications of genetic engineering, and modern biotechnology. The underlying theme of the series involves the artificial creation of an organism, through a secret biotechnological company. One scene in episode #113 involves a scientist (Dr. Morris) going for an interview for the company, where the interviewer reveals revelations such as the recovery of the Archaeopteryx, and that cloning Dolly the Sheep was 30 years after their secret company discovered how to clone.
Cast and characters [ edit ]
Episodes: Season 1 (2005–06) [ edit ]
# Tagline Directed by Written by Original air date 1 "Episode 1" Josh Pate, Jonas Pate Josh Pate, Jonas Pate September 19, 2005 ( ) People all over the world experience bizarre encounters involving strange new creatures in the oceans. Among those people are Laura Daughtery, a marine biologist and single mother working in California, Richard Connelly, a Louisiana family man fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, and Miles Bennett, a North Carolina teen who finds and hatches one of the creatures' eggs. 2 "Episode 2" Jeffrey Reiner Josh Pate September 26, 2005 ( ) After a mysterious animal carcass is discovered on the shore of Sullivan's Island, Laura and Rich head there to look for some answers but instead get detained for questioning. Also, a team of scientists face a hazardous autopsy of the deceased creature. Meanwhile, Miles decides to name his new discovery Nimrod but faces panic and trouble when Savannah throws a party at which point Nimrod ends up escaping. 3 "Episode 3" Aaron Lipstadt Jonas Pate October 3, 2005 ( ) The phenomenon becomes more widespread as similar creatures wreak havoc on the coast of Texas. Laura gets more upset with the government, especially after she loses her job, while Rich still has a difficult time getting over the loss of his brother as he starts to hear his voice in the water. Cirko and Lee find startling information that may link the creatures to global warming when they begin to dig under the ocean bed. Meanwhile, Miles discovers that it's not safe to raise Nimrod in the backyard when lightning strikes. 4 "Episode 4" Félix Enríquez Alcalá David Greenwalt October 10, 2005 ( ) Laura and Jackson head out to sea, where she ends up using a GPS device to track one of the creatures. Rich finds proof that the sinkholes in his visions are real, causing him to continue obsessing over his brother's death. Meanwhile, Lee tries to talk Cirko out of telling the Pentagon that the new species should be considered extremely dangerous. 5 "Episode 5 |
09 February 2015. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
The results, which cover foreign policy activity during 2014, saw Poland acknowledged as a leader in one more category than in the previous edition, with the country ranked fourth overall on the leader board, the same position as a year ago.
''Its leadership focused on pushing a firm stance on Russian aggression in Ukraine, and it also invested great energy in ensuring TTIP (The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) continued to advance,'' the ECFR summarised.
Poland was also highlighted as a strong player in coordinating the EU position towards China.
However, Poland was given'slacker' status on two issues, fighting climate change and development aid and humanitarian aid. The ECFR noted that Poland had cut its aid as a proportion of the counry's GDP.
Poland's foreign minister Grzegorz Schetyna, who took over from Radosław Sikorski in September 2014, has said that ''it is encouraging that our positive effect was observed in key areas such as the EU's relations with Russia, the US and China.
''It is the success of our diplomacy, but it also reflects a broader trend,'' he said.
''Thanks to the political growth of the "eastern flank" of the Union, we are taking on more and more responsibility for the common European policy,'' he added.
Germany topped the overall leader board standings, being marked as a leader in 17 categories, followed by Sweden and the UK with 11, France with 8 and Poland with 6. (nh)
Source: PAP, ecfr.eu"Usurious Epitaph"
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I recently described anarcho-grind juggernaut Liberteer's compelling, strange, inspiring debut, Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees, as "Napalm Death clobbering John Philip Sousa"-- not a phrase I use everyday. And judging from his incendiary, "burn the system down!" lyrics and Facebook posts, I assumed Matthew Widener, the Santa Cruz-based multi-instrumentalist and scene veteran behind the project, would have plenty to say. In the following exchange, we discuss the record, anarchism, his time in the military (and grad school), and using a broken CD as a shiv.
Pitchfork: You've been in a number of bands, including Exhumed, Cretin, County Medical Examiners, and Citizen, which morphed into Liberteer. What brought about the shift?
Matthew Widener: I have a ton of ideas for projects and become distracted easily. I learned how to play death metal and grind when I was in Exhumed in the early 90s, then I did Cretin with my best friend Marissa-- that band is still together, but it went on hiatus while she finished transitioning genders. I always wanted to take the Carcass clone phenomenon to its extreme conclusion, so I formed the County Medical Examiners. Eventually my plan was to even start looking like them, then release their album with just one note changed from each riff. But that's a lot of people to piss off in the name of a weird experiment, so I never really followed through. Then I did Citizen because I wanted a political grind band, but I didn't have anything really sincere to say, just a lot of posturing; I think I wanted to dress up like a G.I. Joe. In the years since, my politics changed, and I realized it was best to completely rebrand everything and start from scratch. The other guys involved didn't agree with my stance, so I went it alone.
Pitchfork: Better to Die works best as a complete record-- things bleed together, motifs return-- how'd you go about composing it?
MW: I wanted a grind album that sounded different, and I'm in love with the album as art, so I went for one long song, an operatic scope. But I realized grind needs the between-song silence as a psychological resting point, so if I made the album one long song, I'd have to do something to prevent fatigue. I tried to include those thematic parts every couple of minutes so the listener could identify with something and reset their ears. I say "the listener," but I mean myself, mostly.
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Pitchfork: You played everything on the record, horns and all?
MW: No, the horns are samples. I wish I could play brass. One day I'll rent a trombone and give it a go. But the banjo stuff is similar to finger-style guitar, and mandolin is dead easy. Some of the woodwinds are samples, but I play flute; I learned flute back in the service, when I was stationed in Iceland for a year and couldn't bring my bass because of space concerns. I can play a bit of clarinet, too. Oboe? I sound like something breathlessly fucking or dying-- I wouldn't make anyone listen to that.
Pitchfork: I read that you were inspired, in part, by classical music and that you plan to record a classical record at some point.
MW: I've been studying classical composition for some years. I play double bass quite seriously, pieces from the late romantic era, Mahler, Bruckner, and the like, to contemporary stuff like Xenakis, Penderecki, Ligeti, Scelsi. I also play cello and, to a lesser extent, viola. I've been working on recording a string ensemble and recently have been combining a small ensemble, anywhere from eight to 18 strings, with doom.
Any time you introduce distorted guitar, though, you have to contend with metal's overwhelming idiom; the moment you hit a power chord on distorted guitar, it's metal. So the challenge is to keep it more of a hybrid so the listener can approach the music as pure sound. At any rate, it's slow going since I compose on paper first, then record each section piece by piece. A minute of music can take a week of recording. My house is 150 years old with high ceilings and hardwood floors, so it's great for recording strings, but there's the occasional street noise, and sometimes my dog will paw at my bow or bark during a take. It's not ideal. But the next album I'll put out is either going to be classical string ensemble, or a blend with doom, depending on what I finish first.
"Anarchy isn't about anger or alienation; it's an optimistic and humane idea, so using typical grindcore riffs didn't make sense."
Pitchfork: Is Liberteer something you plan to recreate in a live setting?
MW: Not really. I mean, it could be done; I'd need at minimum three horn players and another guitarist, so I could hop on banjo and flute at parts. But I don't care much for performing; it's not my thing. I play live with my band Cretin so I know how much effort and rehearsal it all takes. I'd also have to find other musicians who agree with the Liberteer message, and that's harder than you think.
Pitchfork: The album's flourishes of horns, martial drumming, and marching music signals its political aspect. It's war music, right?
MW: Right. Not many people are picking up on that. They're focusing too much on the early-Americana instrumentation and trying to find significance there, but that's not really my point. I'm not an ironic guy, I don't think in that mode much, so the instrumentation is really more about propaganda music. I studied a lot of early propaganda tunes, listened to hundreds of national anthems, picked up on the tropes and employed them for Liberteer. I wanted it to be both inspirational and aggressive. That's a fine balance, those two: They're the domain of propaganda.
Take the typical socio-political grindcore album, and what do you hear? Pure rage, heaps of alienation. At best, it can rally the young. I remember being a teenager and driven to mosh purely by brutal riffs. But to me anarchy isn't about anger or alienation; it's an optimistic and humane idea, so using typical grindcore riffs didn't make sense. That's why half the album is written in major keys, which are never used in grind. If you're describing an autopsy or dwelling on dire socio-political topics, you're trying to offend, shock. But when you're trying to rally, to inspire? I think it makes me realize that even the most political of grind bands don't have an answer to any of the problems they present. They're only trying to throttle people into awareness. Liberteer is poised to come afterward. Like: "Hey, there's hope, let's talk about how it might look if we chose a different way."
Pitchfork: I read a lot of anarchist theory when I was in my early 20s and found it inspiring. Can you talk a bit about your interest in anarchism?
MW: I find it inspiring, too. For a long time I refused to honestly look into anarchism because I was more emotionally invested in the awful stereotypes: chaos, greed, dystopia, all that garbage. I used to pour a lot of my fears into patriotism. It led to my enlistment. But I've worked on my issues, mostly in philosophical and therapeutic realms. And my need for national identification sort of fell away. I started reading Proudhon, Kropotkin, Chomsky, Goldman, the usuals. There are a few main branches of anarchism and I don't identify too strongly with one over the other since they all have valid points. I don't have the answers. No one does. But I'm willing to start asking the right questions now. Anarchism is a beautiful idea. Equality and kindness are, too. So that beauty finds itself in my everyday thinking. As does my love of literature and art. All the good things that give us cause to dream.
"I used to pour a lot of my fears into patriotism.
It led to my enlistment."
Pitchfork: It's interesting to me how often Yeats' "The Second Coming" surfaces these days, in a variety of places. How'd you decide to title the opening instrumental "The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer"?
MW: Credit to Yeats for writing such dense and evocative imagery that people can abuse it as they see fit. The poem is famous for using the word "anarchy" pejoratively, the lawlessness of the end of the world. But how great is that image of the falcon spiraling away from its master? It was too tempting to hijack that bit and imagine the situation from the falcon's point of view: rebellion, freedom.
Liberteer: Build No System
Pitchfork: In "Build N____o System" you sing: "If rifles might free us from this hierarchy then consider it your burden for anarchy/ Burn all our kings on a pyre." You get this in "We Are Not Afraid of Ruins", too. Are you a proponent of bloody revolution?
MW: In a general sense, yes. But I'm wary of professional revolutionaries, since there is always another fight to be had, you know? I'm also suspicious of people who give politics such all-consuming weight. It becomes a god to worship, a convenient essence to brand us. I'm really not that political, beyond knowing that we have to give effort to figuring out ways to ethically govern ourselves. It's funny, I was studying to become an existential psychotherapist before moving into the tech industry, so I tend to think in those terms, rather than politically. There's an idea that we build culture to ameliorate our fundamental fears of existential givens, that we use patriotism and religion to assuage our panic. Rebellion can be its own cause, rather than simply a method. And that's what I'm afraid of. Is it done legitimately? Or is it just another politic? That said, capitalism will eat us to save itself, make no mistake. No hierarchy will ever allow itself to be dismantled, especially when it comes to concentrations of resources. I hold to the theory that, in many instances, bloody revolution is the only catalyst for change.
Pitchfork: Part of my problem with the Occupy Movement was that I didn't see enough of that sort of thing. I'm not condoning violence for violence's sake, but I also don't think sitting in a park and chanting for months is going to do much. To me, the willingness to destroy one world to make way for the new feels very positive.
MW: That's a great point. My problem with the Occupy Movement is that it's an expression of dissatisfaction about a natural byproduct of capitalism yet still thinks capitalism is right. Besides the anarchist factions that operate marginally in these gatherings, there's no consideration to how capitalism creates inequality. They seem to want to stabilize capitalism. Stabilize for who? The poor? Certainly not. Capitalism isn't meant to support a middle class. And even if it was? What about the poor, should they suffer so the middle class can thrive? If the middle class has no solidarity with the working-class poor, then they're just as greedy as the rich but even more deluded. At least the rich are honest; they can barely hide their contempt for the rest of us.
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Pitchfork: With that in mind, can you talk a bit about "99 to 1"?
MW: The expression is sometimes used in anarchist writings to demonstrate the absurdity of such a small ruling class exploiting everyone, and the insanity of everyone putting up with such injustice. Those who hold the capital are great at playing us against each other. So much is predicated on and couched in emotional fantasies and propaganda. The promise of reward through hard work, social mobility, fairness. The reality is that all of it is designed to keep 99 people making one person rich.
Pitchfork: I don't see too much high-profile political metal right now.
MW: You're right, most political metal is crusty grind or powerviolence and way underground. I'm not sure why that is. You'd think the recent economic events would mean more high-profile political acts. Even the grindcore that is socio-political usually neuters its lyrics by making them vague, agnostic to commitment. I wonder if bands are worried about alienating potential fans with a political message that is developed and definitive.
Pitchfork: How serious is the album art, where you give instructions on how to use the CD as a bomb and a dagger? I understand it's tongue-in-cheek and metaphorical, but these things really would work.
MW: I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of any stupidity on my part, it just seemed like a cool design idea. The context for violence isn't right yet. I remember a cannibal killer arrested somewhere overseas; the cops had him in cuffs and he was wearing an Exhumed shirt. Stuff like that is depressing. Thing is, before a vanguard can engage in the hard, nasty business of revolt, they need the support of the people. Violence can't be legitimized, but culturally we can have a context for it. And even then I have issues, since you deny someone their freedom when you hurt them, which is a breach of the only real dictate we have as beings: Be culpable for your freedom and make no act that denies someone theirs.
Still though, when the people are ready for it, liberty cannot be granted, it has to be taken. The U.S. is nowhere near that point. Most freak out when they see anarchists vandalize corporate storefronts during protests. We worship products like holy artifacts. So if most cannot or are unwilling to make the connection that the things they buy are sustaining harsh working conditions, poverty, environmental destruction, wage slavery, and the like, then no one has any business stabbing anyone with a broken compact disc. This shit is all around us. Most push it from their mind because of cognitive dissonance. Then discredit people like me for being a hypocrite, but I say it's more authentic to carry the discomfort of awareness like a sack of rocks. If everyone did that, it would be a no-brainer, we'd change.
"In Norway, I took what's called an 'arctic shit,' which is when you squat outside in sub-zero conditions and try to squeeze one out while everyone throws snowballs at you."
Pitchfork: Can you talk a bit more about your time in the service in Iceland?
MW: Yes, I was stationed in Keflavik for a little over a year. I was in Marine Corps Security Force Battalion at the time, which is a fleet anti-terrorist unit, and we guarded sensitive things at the NATO base there. I fell in love with Iceland. What a beautiful country and a lovely people. I had a girlfriend out in Reykjavik, on the street over from the only McDonald's in downtown, and I'd rent a car for $80 each weekend to drive out to visit her and spend time away from the base. During the summer months it's mostly constant daylight, and because you can drink out in the street, a young guy like me could lose days at a time. I remember seeing a slap fight for the first time, these big Icelandic guys pawing each other with massive open-hand strikes. Someone told me later it was a cultural and legal no-no to use a fist in Iceland, though I'm not sure if that's true. But mostly people were friendly, to the point where they would come up and hug and kiss you. The stores are small so women left their babies in strollers lined up outside on the street unattended. The women have a look to their faces--something about their noses drove me wild. I'd go back to Iceland in a heartbeat.
I also went to northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle, to a remote area called Setermoen to crosstrain with the Norwegian special forces and do cold-weather survival training; snow so deep you'd fall through and disappear without snow shoes. They taught me to ski. I tried to show off and broke my foot on a jump, but I was so numb from the cold that I didn't realize until later in the night when my foot swelled and they had to cut my boot off. It was worth it to see the women in the small town there: gorgeous, angelic. Please let me wake up in Scandinavia tomorrow. I traded metal CDs with some of the Norwegian soldiers. I grew a dirty mustache. I took what's called an "arctic shit," which is when you squat outside in sub-zero conditions and try to squeeze one out while everyone throws snowballs at you. I remember a wild northern lights show in Iceland, laying drunk in the snow so the entire sky was swirling green, then falling asleep there. Some of the other guys found us before we froze to death.
I was mostly miserable after I rotated back into the fleet to serve the remainder of my enlistment in the infantry. Everyone was pissed off. There were suicides. Officers had palpable contempt for the troops, and the troops would turn on each other. We went to countries in Asia where we'd sweat and live in the wild and march until exhaustion. I grew really disillusioned. I turned into a what's called a "shitbird." I extended illness and injury as long as I could, I spread dissension in the platoon, sapped motivation, that sort of thing. But I was likable and funny. So people put up with it. I had a lot of friends.
I was very fortunate to serve during the Clinton era, so I never had to go to war. I'm pretty sure had I been sent, I'd be a deserter. At some point in the Marines I woke up and realized how dangerous everything was, what a stupid position I'd put myself in, all in the name of misplaced machismo, romantic notions of worldliness, and getting my teeth fixed. Out there in the field with a beat up Hemingway novel, who was I fucking fooling? I was a poor kid, I grew up in a cabin in the mountains, I had no insurance. Most of the guys I served with came from similar backgrounds.
Pitchfork: Are you still in graduate school now?
MW: I'm no longer in graduate school. I have my degree in English and was almost done with an MFA in Creative Writing when I became a student of the great Scottish author James Kelman. He's been called the Scottish Kafka or Beckett, and I'd hold him in just as high regard. I was his assistant and pretty much the only student there writing in the existential tradition, plus we both like to drink, so we got on really well. It was James that convinced me to quit the graduate program, and ever since he's read and edited my manuscripts. A rare honor, almost unbelievable.
Pitchfork: Manuscripts? What are you working on?
MW: I've been working on a novel for the past four years. There's a writing method that Kelman taught me, a certain rigor of creation as far as time, space, and perspective is concerned. The manuscript is about a homeless man and his brother.
I can't stress this enough: Politics is a futile and embarrassing focus when such poignant works as Beckett's The Unnamable and Kafka's The Metamorphosis exist. It's depressing that I should have to scream over a distorted guitar about living together in equality.
***
Extra: Defunct Oakland crust quintet Stormcrow's 2005 full-length debut Enslaved in Darkness was recently reissued by Selfmadegod, and it still feels highly relevent. (They put out great splits between 2006 and 2010, but at their time of their breakup, this was the only LP.) In the spirit of California extremes, and folks associated with Exhumed, here it is in full:
Embedded content is unavailable.Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed federal agencies and attorneys on Friday to protect religious liberty in a broad, yet vague, guidance memo that critics fear could give people of faith — including government workers and contractors — a loophole to ignore federal bans on discrimination against women and LGBT people.
The guidance says the government cannot unduly burden people or certain businesses from practicing their faith, noting, “The free exercise of religion includes the right to act or abstain from action in accordance with one’s religious beliefs.”
The policy does not create new law, but rather interprets how the government should construe the Constitution and existing federal law. It comes on the heels of the Justice Department weighing in on a religious liberty case, in which lawyers under Sessions argued in a brief to the US Supreme Court that a Christian baker had a First Amendment right to deny a gay couple a cake for their wedding.
The guidance memo, which avoided mentioning pending cases by name but did refer to the ongoing controversy over contraception coverage in Obamacare, directs federal agencies to observe 20 “principles of religious liberty.” Among them, it says that religious employers are entitled to hire only workers whose beliefs and conduct are “consistent with the employer's’ religious beliefs” — a directive adopted under former President George W. Bush — and that some of the legal principles extend “not just to individuals, but also to organizations, associations, and at least some for-profit corporations.”
The US Department of Health and Human Services on Friday announced new rules that will allow employers with a “moral” or “religious” objection to stop covering contraception for employees.
One portion of the guidance directs lawyers in the Justice Department to scrutinize all proposed federal regulations, saying that the department won’t concur in the issuance of any rule that conflicts with the religious guidance.
The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBT group, issued a statement calling the guidance a “sweeping license to discriminate that puts millions of LGBTQ Americans at risk.”
The group contends the policy could allow federal contractors refuse service to LGBT customers, could let workers at the IRS refuse to process paperwork for same-sex couples, and may open a door for organizations to discriminate in health care and benefits for employees. The House LGBT caucus, meanwhile, called the guidance a "clear attack on the rights of LGBT community" in a statement.
The policy is the Trump administration's latest offering to religious conservatives, who reluctantly coalesced around Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and then, after he won the election, studded his transition team with advisors. Evangelical activists have clamored for President Trump to rescind Obama-era policies against LGBT discrimination, or, failing that, let religious objectors opt out.
In developing the guidance, the Justice Department consulted with religious and political groups with a history of opposing protections for LGBT people. A Justice Department official said those groups included the Mormon Church, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Alliance Defending Freedom’s president, Michael Farris, praised the Trump administration for the policy, saying it “helps protect that First Amendment freedom.” He added in a statement that it “simply directs the federal government to adhere to its legal and constitutional obligation to respect existing religious freedom protections.”
The Justice Department also consulted with the the American Civil Liberties Union, which supports LGBT rights. An official said the department did not consult “specifically” with LGBT groups.
Louise Melling, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, was still reviewing the guidance early Friday afternoon. But she told BuzzFeed News she was concerned it prioritizes employers over the individuals nondiscrimination policies are designed to protect — such as women seeking contraception coverage and LGBT workers.
“This guidance has principles that, in myriad ways, would allow religious freedom to be used to harm others,” she told BuzzFeed News, citing a provision that says harm to a third party doesn’t neutralize an entity’s religious defense. “You could imagine an employer arguing that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows them to not comply with a policy barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Melling was also unsure if the Justice Department believes provisions about religious organizations could be extended to protect non-religious businesses.
“We have to wait and go see how they interpret it,” she added. “You can trust we will be watching it.”Brit Dee, Contributing Writer
Following last year’s successful NATO mission in Libya, the Western corporate and political power structures forging a “new world order” have turned their sights on another strategically important African country — Somalia.
As reported in yesterday’s The Guardian, the use of air strikes is being considered against “pirates and Islamic insurgents” operating in the country.
An armed insurgent group called Al-Shabaab, which has allegedly pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, is currently waging a war against the shaky Western-backed Somali transitional government. US unmanned drone strikes against suspected militants have been taking place for some time — last month British national Bilal el-Berwaji was killed in a strike near Mogadishu — but now the West is considering “over the beach” airstrikes, using heavily armed helicopter gunships to attack purported Al-Shabaab training camps.
Such strikes have so far been resisted, the article tells us, because:
planners have…flagged the likelihood that civilians could be caught up in any fighting. That has been one of the prime considerations militating against pre-emptive military action, though sources said that situation could change.
Claims of a concern for civilian deaths seem disingenuous, considering the thousands of innocents killed during NATO’s relentless bombing of Libya last year — and no doubt the situation will indeed “change”, as Somalia is strategically important in the war for resources currently being fought on the global Grand Chessboard.
Somalia is rich in natural resources and believed to possess vast unexploited oil reserves, including in Puntland Province, said to hold between 5 and 10 billion barrels of oil, and in which Western oil companies began drilling earlier this year.
Somalia is also important in terms of the transit of oil and other goods, the British government estimating that annually 23,000 ships transit the adjoining Gulf of Aden, carrying $1 trillion of trade. Somalia’s pirates have been a persistent annoyance to those using such vital oil shipping routes.
Some have been caught and are facing trial in the region, but intelligence agencies say it is only a matter of time before one of them attempts to bring terror back to their homeland To justify yet more overseas military action, officials have been hyping the supposed terror threat posed to Britain by Al-Shabaab. It is claimed that Somalia is the new Afghanistan/Pakistan, attracting young British Muslims who seek training in Al-Shabaab’s camps so that they can wage jihad against the West. States The Guardian states:
If British Muslims really are traveling to Somalia with the intention of carrying out terror attacks in the UK, rather than taking part in a localized insurgency against a Western puppet government, the idea that the threat can be eradicated through drone and air strikes is illogical. The inevitable killing of civilians during such strikes will provide added motivation to potential jihadists who already feel aggrieved at the West’s violence against Muslim peoples around the world. Al-Shabaab are media savvy and adept at utilizing social media — reports and images from the aftermath of Western aggression will make for great propaganda, and surely serve to inflame expatriate Somali Muslims and make them hostile to the British government.
…has denied aid to all areas of Somalia that are not under the control of the US-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG), meaning that aid is restricted to a few square miles. ‘We are committed to saving lives in Somalia and we are already working in any area not controlled by al-Shabaab,’ Donald Steinberg, deputy administrator of USAid told a press conference in London. ‘Unfortunately, about 60 percent of people affected are in al-Shabaab territories.’ One could not have a clearer statement of Washington’s intention to use food and famine as weapons of war against a civilian population. As well as utilizing drone strikes, and the impending helicopter gunship strikes, the West has been using food as a weapon of control in Somalia. Susan Garth details how the US:
Thus we again see imperialists killing foreign civilians in order to secure access to natural resources, using the excuse of terrorism and “humanitarianism” to justify illegitimate warmongering, and appease the traditionally anti-imperial, but increasingly pro-interventionist, Western liberal left.
American Natural Superfood - Free Sample Brit Dee runs an independent online radio station called Resistance Radio, which broadcasts daily news, views and analysis challenging the lies of our corrupt political and financial leaders, and the controlled corporate media, at http://www.resistradio.com. Please help us combat censorship: vote for this story on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/q17nq/somalia_next_on_the_nwo_hitlist/ That Somalia is on the West’s hitlist comes as no surprise. In 2007, General Wesley Clark revealed that the country was one of seven — along with Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon and Iran — that Neocons planned to take over in the years following 9/11. var linkwithin_site_id = 557381; linkwithin_text=’Related Articles:’Georgia Southern inclusivity conference aims to help 'those who just don't quite get it'
Georgia Southern University (GSU) is hosting a conference to help students “understand the value of inclusivity” with sessions that include, "Modern responses to systemic anti-black racism & white supremacy," and, "The basics of privilege for those who just don't quite get it.”
The theme of SGU’s inaugural Diversity, Inclusion, and Fairness (D.I.F.) conference on April 9 is, “Embrace the Elephant. Think. Create. Be D.I.F.”
"Privilege is not a one-time lesson, but a field of study.”
“Many people say that it is difficult to talk about the ‘elephant’ in the room. Our goal is that...conference attendees will be more prepared and comfortable to address these important issues that affect us all,” Dorsey Baldwin, director of the Multicultural Student Center, told Campus Reform.
Baldwin explains that the mission of the conference is to create an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to openly talk, listen and learn about diversity, inclusion and fairness.
Sponsored by the Multicultural Student Center, “Embrace the Elephant” opens with a keynote speech titled, “Hug an Elephant, Kiss a Giraffe: Redefining Diversity in Everyday Life,” by Justin Jones-Fosu, an inspirational speaker who focuses on leadership, diversity, and student success.
There are sixteen sessions included in the all-day conference, all focused on diversity and inclusion.
One of the sessions called “How to Get Away With Prejudice,” will explore the use of microaggressions in the United States.
“‘What exactly are you?’ ‘What sport do you play?’ ‘That's so gay.’ [These are] phrases that permeate college campuses and our society as a whole. Attendees will be able to identify common microaggressions and develop strategies to interrupt the use of these terms,” the description says, “This presentation is intended for those with little-to-no familiarity with recognizing and interrupting microaggressions.”
“The Basics of Privilege for Those Who Just Don't Quite Get It,” is an interactive conversation about what privilege is. The description says that this session will include “visual activities” to see differences in privilege among peers.
“Participants will gain a better understanding of the areas of privilege and how to self-identify the areas in which they have or lack privileges. Privilege is not a one-time lesson, but a field of study,” the description states.
A roundtable discussion called “Intra-Communal Allyship” will focus on “cross communal support in identity affirmation” among Native, Asian, Black, and Latino participants, whom are “strongly encouraged to attend,” instead of centering the discussion on “the ways white people can be better allies to people of color.”
“Clap Back Season: Modern Responses to Systemic Anti-Black Racism & White Supremacy’ … will explore the art of social media clap back as a response to systemic racial oppression,” says the description of another session.
In this session, geared to African American men, participants will attempt to better understand concepts such as “social capital theory, unconscious bias, stereotype threat, and the historical context that shapes our current outcomes.”
Other sessions include; “The Light I Reflect: Choosing How I Present My Identities, Today,” “Extreme Self-Care and Self-Love for Women,” “Challenging Socio-Cultural Boundaries through Reflexive Awareness,” and “Build Bridges NOT Walls!”
The conference closes with a speech by Dr. Chris Linder, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, who researches “activist identity development” and how to create an inclusive campus environment.
Linder says on her website that the reason she speaks on these topics is because, “Coupled with my whiteness, my identity as a cisgender woman who presents as ‘traditionally feminine,’ significantly influences my experience in classrooms. I believe that I can often say things that people who do not share my identities cannot say without significantly more resistance.”
Baldwin explains that the reason this conference is so important is that the Student Center wants attendees to develop an understanding about D.I.F.
“We want participants to...increase their awareness of their identities, biases and privileges, understand the value of inclusivity and how individual actions impact our environments, and identify and develop the necessary skills to create positive and strategic change on the campus and in their communities,” Baldwin says.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @brianledtkeZameer Ghumra was found guilty of trying to brainwash young boys into supporting ISIS (Twitter)
A British Muslim man was today sentenced to six years' imprisonment by a UK court for showing an ISIS beheading video to schoolchildren.Zameer Ghumra was found guilty of disseminating terrorist propaganda and trying to brainwash young boys into supporting ISIS at Nottingham Crown Court today.The 38-year-old pharmacist, believed to be of Arabic origin, also told the children they should kill anyone who insulted Islam and instructed them to make only Muslim friends."These were shocking crimes which damaged the children and caused offence to the vast majority of law-abiding Muslims," Judge Gregory Dickson said.The judge also noted the lack of remorse shown by Ghumra during his trial when determining his sentence.The jury was told that the children, who came in contact with the accused at a madrassa he had set up, were encouraged to go to Syria to fight with the ISIS where they would have to behead people.Ghumra also followed various ISIS-linked social media accounts and made the two children follow similar accounts.Prosecutor Simon Davis said Ghumra had told a customer that ISIS were "not bad people - they're only defending themselves".Ghumra, from the city of Leicester, was working as a pharmacist in Oundle, Northamptonshire, when he was arrested at Birmingham Airport in September 2015.He had denied the charges and claimed that the children had been induced to make "false allegations" against him.Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: "Zameer Ghumra tried to brainwash impressionable children with this violent ideology by making one watch beheading videos and urging them both to adopt a hard line religious outlook.""The CPS case was that he intended to radicalise them in the hope that they would go on to be involved in terrorism. "The children were brave to give evidence and we would like to thank them for helping to secure this conviction of a dangerous man," Hemming said.Ghumra was found guilty of the charge of disseminating "terrorist propaganda" in the form of a graphic Twitter video on his mobile phone between January 2013 and September 2014.Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: "That act alone is unforgivable. His teaching role increases his risk, potentially giving him direct access to young or vulnerable people who may look up to him as an authority figure."I was on the hunt for a freshly slaughtered goat when I passed Aaren’s Super Market near the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Massive block letter signs trumpeting “meat” festoon the building making the concern all the more appealing.
As I walked into the store I noted a tiny cafe next door called Los Paisanos Taqueria and Bar. After getting a price on a chivo, and buying a fat sack of hog neckbones I made my way into the little Mexican restaurant.
It smelled like they’d pulled an all-night rager inside but I needed a taco, and I wasn’t going to let the funk put me off my mission.
Do y’all have buche? No. Do y’all barbacoa? No. Do y’all have carnitas? No. Do y’all have al pastor.
Paydirt.
My al pastor taco is petite; served on doubled-up, oiled and cooked on the plancha-corn tortillas (store bought), and garnished with cilantro and onions. In an homage to the rough and tumble neighborhood, the green salsa rests in the corner of a baggie tied up narco-trafficante-style.
This is one of the better tacos I’ve eaten in New Orleans.
Could they open up and make good money in San Antonio? No.
I’ve eaten my way across New Orleans since the 70s, and have almost given up on finding competent Mexican food. |
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What is your greatest fear? Waking up after a sleepover at John Waters’s house and finding my sleeping bag isn’t zipped up the same way as when I passed out. Or “President Palin.”
What is your greatest extravagance? Hope.
What is your current state of mind? Cautiously pessimistic.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Sobriety.
On what occasion do you lie? To advance my personal agenda.
What do you dislike most about your appearance? Based on your caricature on the left: everything.
What is the quality you most like in a woman? Proximity.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”
When and where were you happiest? Right now, here with you. Let’s not ruin it by talking.
Which talent would you most like to have? The ability to bullshit.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My desperate need to be liked.
What do you consider your greatest achievement? Staying on the air.
What is your most treasured possession? My freedom.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Thinking of the right thing to say—later.
What do you most value in your friends? Non-disclosure.
Which historical figure do you most identify with? Paul Revere.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction? Jesus of Nazareth.
What is it that you most dislike? Hypocrisy, animal cruelty, and yams.
What is your greatest regret? It’s a tie between muttonchop sideburns and believing Judith Miller. Honorable mention: Lehman Brothers—thanks a lot, assholes.
How would you like to die? Surrounded by enemies, holding a grenade.
What is your motto? “Religion is bad, drugs are good.”Paulinho: If his Confederations Cup performances are anything to go by Spurs have done a smart bit of business
Rate the central core of any Premier League team and it's not long before you're remembering the benchmark standard set by Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit in the late 1990s. In the first of Petit's three seasons at Arsenal, the creative-destructive duo claimed a double before heading back to their homeland to put the World Cup to rights as well.
Even though the Gunners failed to retain their crown in 1998-99, the pair were arguably even better in that campaign and both were picked for the PFA Team of the Year. Manchester United's Roy Keane and Paul Scholes are the main rivals to the Frenchmen when considering the greatest midfield partnership of the last 20-odd years, but it's arguably the Petit-Vieira axis that's referenced the most.
However, consistent two-man combos are much rarer these days. Squad rotation is the norm, and with three attackers favoured in the forward line, there has to be more flexibility in formations. Can any current top-flight team dominate the centre to the extent that Petit and Vieira did? In a swing across the north of the capital, Tottenham are emerging as the most likely candidates - and it could be a trio that we're admiring.
Until he sustained a serious knee injury at QPR early in 2013, Sandro wasn't far off Gareth Bale and Jan Vertonghen in making the most telling contribution to the Tottenham cause last season. "The beast is hurt", he tweeted at the time, and every Spurs fan felt the blow. In addition, the muscle injuries suffered by Mousa Dembele - who had looked on his way to becoming the "complete midfielder" - further impacted on dreams of a Champions League return. For when Sandro and Dembele had played alongside each other, such as in the memorable 3-2 win at Manchester United in late September, they had looked in near-perfect harmony. Fitness permitting, they give outstanding balance to Andre Villas-Boas' side - Sandro's strength and intuition to intercept, coupled with Dembele's dribbling ability and tackling prowess.
Enter Paulinho into the equation, and the prospects for an uncrackable midfield code look even greater. Having played a starring role in Brazil's Confederations Cup victory, the 24-year-old expects to head to White Hart Lane for a fee in the region of £17million. With Corinthians, Paulinho has won the domestic title, the Copa Libertadores and the FIFA Club World Cup. And with him on board, Villas-Boas will be minded to complete Spurs' switch to 4-3-3, which he preferred to play at Porto.
He'll certainly bring more pressing into the Spurs midfield, and athleticism too. He's a physical threat at set pieces, liable to out-jump defenders and place accurate headers on goal, as he demonstrated late in the semi-final against Uruguay. But Paulinho's displays at the Confederations Cup also showed us his quick-thinking. After muscling out Sergio Busquets in midfield early on in the final, he dug out a sensational 30-yard chip which very nearly caught out Iker Casillas. The control and finish for his goal against Japan showed an acute sense of marksmanship (he averages a goal every four or five games for Corinthians). And his exquisite floated ball into the box for Neymar, which led to Fred's opener against Uruguay, underlined the extent of his passing range.
Improvisation, finishing, long-distance deliveries - you could argue that Spurs already boast midfield options with those qualities, such as Gylfi Sigurdsson, Clint Dempsey and Tom Huddlestone. What makes Paulinho so attractive is that they're all combined together in one package. Working in tandem with Sandro and Dembele, the suggestion is for each player to shift seamlessly between attack and defence - Spurs' beating heart.
With Bale and Benoit Assou-Ekotto (or whoever's tasked to be left-back, should he be sold) doing the leg work on one flank, and Kyle Walker and Aaron Lennon rampaging down the other, AVB needs only stick a sharp striker like Roberto Soldado up front and the forward momentum is rather frightening. Spurs have to find another gear next season to make the top four, and putting Paulinho in the tank could provide it.
Seven more Confederations Cup transfer targets:
Keisuke Honda (Japan): Attacking midfielder Honda looks to be heading for AC Milan from CSKA Moscow, which will annoy Everton fans who would have been hoping to see the Japan star at Goodison Park next season. Set pieces are the 27-year-old's strong point, but he's an excellent dribbler as well.
Godfrey Oboabona (Nigeria): On trial at Arsenal last March, centre-back Oboabona was probably the Super Eagles' star man in Brazil. The 22-year-old has also been heavily linked with Newcastle and is thought to be available for around £1million from Sunshine Stars in his homeland. He's already won 25 caps for his country and has established himself as a first-choice defender.
Steevy Chong Hue (Tahiti): Scorer of the goal that took the Polynesians to the Confederations Cup, left winger Chong Hue seriously impressed in attack despite his side shipping 24 goals in three games, registering a surprisingly high pass completion rate of 91.9%. Still only 23, he's a rough diamond who could be worth a punt.
Hector Moreno (Mexico): Jose Mourinho is said to be a fan of the 25-year-old centre-back, who won the Dutch title with AZ Alkmaar back in 2009 and moved to Espanyol two summers ago. There is the issue of a £17million release clause in Moreno's contract but if Chelsea were to sell David Luiz, that potential big fee for the Brazilian would have to be reinvested somewhere.
Daniele De Rossi (Italy): Another Chelsea target, the 29-year-old defensive midfielder could be sold by Roma this summer according to the club's president. Along with the equally experienced Giorgio Chiellini, De Rossi was one of the Azzurri's best players as they ended up finishing third at the tournament.
Diego Lugano (Uruguay): Not as eye-catching as Edinson Cavani, but the Uruguay skipper is worth a mention. The 32-year-old centre-back was loaned out by Paris Saint-Germain to Malaga in January when it became clear he didn't feature in Carlo Ancelotti's plans. Although he'll be hoping to curry favour with Laurent Blanc, it seems more likely that Lugano will be up for grabs this summer.
Roberto Soldado (Spain): After playing the whole 90 minutes and scoring in Spain's opening win over Uruguay, the Valencia striker only got another hour's worth of football in Brazil. That won't have put off Tottenham, however, who have been tracking the 28-year-old for months and will be hoping to add him to the capture of Paulinho this summer.Pope Francis shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a private audience at the Vatican, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA pool via AP) The Associated Press
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican stressed the sacred nature of Jerusalem on Saturday as the Palestinian leader warned that prospects for peace could suffer if the incoming Trump administration goes ahead with plans to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The developments came as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Pope Francis and inaugurated the Palestinian embassy to the Holy See.
Abbas said he had only heard through news reports of the proposal by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to move the embassy to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians strongly oppose the embassy move, saying it would kill any hopes for negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and rile the region by undercutting Muslim and Christian claims to the holy city.
"We hope that this news is not true, because it is not encouraging and will disrupt and hinder the peace process," he said. He urged Trump to open a dialogue with both Israelis and Palestinians.
Trump hasn't yet laid out a clear Mideast policy, but has signaled he will be more sympathetic to Israel's hard-line right than previous administrations.
In Paris on Sunday, the French government is hosting a Mideast peace conference attended by dozens of foreign ministers to show Trump's administration that most of the world wants a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians and is fed up with decades of conflict.
The Vatican has long sought an internationally guaranteed status for Jerusalem that safeguards its sacred character. In its communique after the Abbas meeting, the Holy See didn't refer to Jerusalem by name but said during the talks "emphasis was placed on the importance of safeguarding the sanctity of the holy places for believers of all three of the Abrahamic religions."
During the meeting, Abbas presented Francis with gifts recalling Christianity's birthplace in the Holy Land, including a stone from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and documentation about the ongoing restoration of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
After the papal meeting, Abbas formally inaugurated the new Palestinian embassy across the street from one of the main gates of Vatican City. He pulled back a curtain revealing a plaque and extended the Palestinian flag from a flagpole outside a window.
The embassy, located in the same building as the embassies of Peru, Ecuador and Burkina Faso, comes after recent accords in which the Vatican formally recognized the "State of Palestine."
"This embassy is a place of pride for us and we hope all of the countries of the world will recognize the state of Palestine, because this recognition will bring us closer to the peace process," he said.
Abbas had initially accepted an invitation to be in Paris on Sunday, but French officials say that visit has been postponed.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfieldWhatever gets you through the night ‘salright, ‘salright…Don’t need a clock to waste your time oh no, oh no…Whatever gets you to the light ‘salright, ‘salright.
–Elton and John
Lunar cycle before last I proposed the diel theory of evolution. The diel hypothesis states that the oscillations produced by the sun and the rotation of the earth, and the slowing of the earth’s rotation over time, have played a more central role in our evolutionary history than the absolute passage of time. Here, I review how the diel theory recapitulates and extends previous work of Haldane, Spitzer et al., Rothschild, and others. I propose the strong null hypothesis that maximum-organic-chemical complexity, on earth, was reached around the time of first life. I infer a variety of just-so stories about the evolution of metabolism and the central dogma in an attempt to make this null hypothesis seem viable. A proposed proto-photosynthetic reaction center that existed in the primordial soup, perhaps until the great oxygenation event (GOE), forms the Gaian, central part of these stories. I explore the history of replication and recombination as relatively independent and suggest that it must be so. I try to answer the unsettled question of why meiosis arose in Eukaryotes by highlighting the importance of maternal inheritance and the nucleus, both of which separate plastids from recombination. I also illustrate how diel theory provides a new way of thinking about old biological problems like translation, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
I conceive of life, at the species level, as a set of genetically related cellular forms with a full complement of replication and recombination machinery, where replication and recombination in individuals are independent at the molecular level. I consider this, more or less, a molecular restatement of the commonly accepted definition of life as dependent on the appearance of natural selection. I organize around well-known guidelines for abiogenesis research.
First, use full-spectrum solar radiation, cycled and with a lengthening period, as a part of primordial-soup protocols.
Most intuitively understand the importance of light in evolution. Everyone knows about the day-night cycle. Thus, I ask, why has the light-dark cycle been so neglected in favor of wet-dry and temperature fluctuations, whether on a diurnal cycle or mostly otherwise? I make no attempt to review the myriad of lines of evidence for the importance of light in biochemistry; suffice it to say that many researchers have used light radiation as an energy source or catalyst to study the chemistry of life. Haldane recognized the power of UV light to transform simple organic molecules into a complex reaction mixture. The ideas of Oparin and Haldane—that a reductive atmosphere allowed the accumulation of organics, that the atmosphere transitioned from reductive to oxidative due to the evolution of life, that early life used fermentation as a way to get energy in an anaerobic environment, and that first life was quite simple—all still pertain, although I might disagree with the last of these, as have others. Recently, many central metabolic reactions were recreated using light in a plausible prebiotic mixture. Lipids, nucleotides, and amino acids can be formed in one medium with UV radiation. However, the light-dark cycle has found little or no place in abiogenesis research.
Spitzer et al. arrived at the first part of the diel hypothesis, the importance of “solar diurnal disequilibria,” almost two years ago, having built on the ideas of Rothschild, Cockell, and others. (I developed the diel theory of evolution without knowledge of the work of Spitzer et al. and was surprised when I stumbled across this paper while looking for critical comment--surprised because I had already read hundreds of papers, albeit on a topic new to me, but had not seen their work mentioned. I also had a draft of the theory posted online. At that point, I got a DOI and published without further changes.) It is notable that we reached many of the same conclusions from very different perspectives, them working primarily forward from evolutionary chemistry and me backwards from biology. Poolman and Spitzer (the paper I saw just before publishing) reviewed the state of the field in a comprehensive way but did not expand on previous ideas about diurnal fluctuations. Because the light-dark cycle itself has not been utilized in abiogenesis research, it was not featured. In the spirit of their review and others, I reprise Dobzhansky as follows: Nothing in biology makes sense except in the strobe light of evolution. Any number of abiogenesis reviews, including those which have appeared in just the past couple of years, neglect the day-night cycle altogether. The potential importance of the lengthening day over time has been ignored more or less entirely. By any measure, the study of the day-night cycle, which goes back to the bible, which got it wrong by separating the light side and the dark side, because they must be considered as one to really grasp the power of the diel hypothesis, has not been sufficiently approached.
If poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) slimed earth during the Hadean, then there is good reason to think that the light-dark cycle has been the major driver of chemical evolution since time immemorial. Aromatics can also be made de novo from simpler organic molecules and UV light on earth. Research on photochemistry, including prebiotic photochemistry, seems poised for great progress, but even more progress could be made regarding the prebiotic world by serious reconsideration of the day-night cycle as a functional unit. Even far reaching fields, such as the biomimetic capture of solar radiation for solar-electricity generation, may benefit from such reconsideration. Created by UV light in the interstellar medium, PAHs that fell to earth may have experienced their first ever darkness that first night. After that, early aromatics and their derivatives probably stored energy from light, especially UV light, during daylight hours, and released some of that energy at night. That would have made energy available for other reactions, some of which would not occur in the daytime anyway due to interference from light. Thus, it’s easy to see how a diurnal rhythm may have been established in the prebiotic medium even in our earliest history.
As a general rule, metabolic pathways may be interpreted as recapitulating prebiotic chemical evolution. If complex molecules were still being synthesized by early-evolved substrates at time of first life, which is not assured, then this line of reasoning should be valid. Some metabolic pathways will better reflect the daytime chemistry of the primordial soup, for example photosynthesis, while others may give us clues about nighttime chemistry, for example degradation and repair of photosynthetic machinery. The cyclic nature of biochemistry must also be taken into consideration. Instead of end products, all biomolecules must be considered as both substrate and product. Nevertheless, it should be possible to determine which steps in a metabolic cycle evolved first, and in what order, based on a combination of sequence data and the thermodynamic logic of prebiotic and post-biotic-but-still-rich-soup chemistry.
Second, consider the strong null hypotheses that complexity came before natural selection, that the soup remained complex through the GOE, and that modern life evolved from numerous ancestors.
If catalysis by modern enzymes reflects catalysis that was occurring by other means in the prebiotic soup, then catalysis by modern cofactors and coenzymes may reflect prebiotic catalysis by light, minerals, organic molecules, and mixtures of these. For example, the apparent necessity of chemicals like porphyrins, chlorins, and quinones in photosynthesis indicates that they were lead actors in the prebiotic medium. These molecules can capture energy from UV light, can transport individual molecules of gas, and can pass electrons around in redox reactions. Many cofactors serve as antennae for gathering light and/or for resonance transfer of electrons. They tend to consist of a somewhat-variable lipid anchor attached to a light gather, although cofactors that also function as primary energy-sharing molecules, such as ATP and NAD, do not have anchors. If there was a pre-lipid soup where molecules like protochlorophyllide passed around electrons in a less orderly fashion than in modern photosystems, then a maximal level of chemical complexity may well have been reached before any cell membranes appeared, much less any life.
Lipids must have been a prebiotic innovation if life has always been cellular in nature. It seems safe to assume that membranes existed prebiotically--undergoing complex self-assembly--something like cell division works in modern forms. Because modern fatty acid biosynthesis requires an array of precursors, energy molecules, and catalysts, this alone suggests a rich prebiotic medium: This same set of precursors, energy molecules, and catalysts also participate in many other metabolic reactions in modern forms, including plastids. Genes for cell assembly appear to be as ancient as they get, though that may also be said for all metabolic genes, including many of those used for oxidative metabolism.
Beyond cellular compartments, there is not a consensus on what did or did not self-assemble directly out of the soup in the earliest proto-cells. An early, mostly RNA proto-cell seems to have the most proponents. However, a pathway from RNA-polypeptide hybrids and then to separate RNA and protein function and on to central dogma also seems to be making a comeback. So far this bottom-up approach has not explained anything about modern biology or much about evolution that we know of for sure. Why and when did replicating proto-organisms or organisms begin using information contained in RNA or DNA molecules instead of relying on self-assembly for perpetuating their line? Were there information molecules before nucleic acids, for example the order of molecules in an electron transport chain? How many hundreds of millions of years of day-night cycles passed during a time when cellular compartments and proto-organisms existed, but before there was life, as defined here and elsewhere? Is translation a part of the central dogma because polypeptides were common prebiotically, or is it because amino acids were plentiful, and peptides turned out later to be stable and useful?
As a general rule, if metabolic genes have a common ancestor that seems to reach back to the beginning, then I propose that the metabolic reactions effected by those genes’ enzymes occurred in the soup before first life. If common ancestors cannot be found, I consider the possibility that the same biological reaction was still present in the soup until at least the last time in history it evolved. Considering the seemingly ancient origins of all biochemistry in all organisms, apparently including oxidative metabolism, then this leads quickly to a strong null hypothesis that the prebiotic soup may have contained the sum total of all biochemistry in all of life’s forms, and perhaps more. The most complex prebiotic mixture imaginable, based primarily on the biological data, but also on chemical theory, makes the strongest possible null hypothesis for the complexity of the prebiotic soup. While I make no attempt at a statistical model here, intuitively, it should be easier to prove that any one of two reactions was not happening in the soup, compared to trying to prove either one of the two was not present. That should be true whether being studied backwards from biology or forward from prebiotic chemistry.
The first organisms may have gotten by with a reduced genetic code, which is consistent with a rich prebiotic soup and conventional models of the evolution of the central dogma. However, why not posit that the first Darwinian organisms had the full central-dogma and metabolism package, since most modern organisms do? The genetic code itself had to evolve prebiotically, since it did not spring forth in its final form. Many believe the more complex parts of the code were shaped by natural selection after the formation of simple organisms. That stems mainly from the intuition that it would be difficult to self-assemble an organism with twenty codons.
A self-replicating photosystem in the soup, eventually based on DNA, but still not subject to natural selection explains the data in a more straightforward way. Much of the logic regarding the chemistry of the prebiotic world, as studied so far, for example the RNA vs RNA-peptide hybrid debate, would still apply in this scenario, but in a prebiotic way. Recombination, by and large, has been considered to have arisen from an error-prone replication process, not unlike what takes place in a cancer cell. I will suggest recombination had a very different evolutionary history--more nocturnal, more vesicular, and less dependent on energy—than replication.
Short intervals of life, say one lasting several hundred-million years or so, could have increased the overall chemical complexity of the soup, at least in theory. Even the ancestors of modern organisms may have increased the complexity of the soup, especially by colonizing niches outside the sphere of the self-replicating photosystem. However, with the exception of photosynthetic anabolism, metabolism tends to turn higher-energy, more complex molecules, into lower-energy, less complex molecules. Even mitochondria take in more complex products than they secrete, although the importance of ATP production as a creative force in evolution cannot be overstated. Thus, if photogenesis was taking place in the soup, it’s difficult to see how adding organisms to the mix would increase the complexity of that soup. I have not seen much evidence that metabolic DNA or proteins have gotten more complex or added features during evolution by natural selection. For example, a new kind of biological photosystem has appeared multiple times within the last 100 million years as the days have gotten longer, but it depends on new kinds of engineering rather than any new chemistry.
I would guess that life must have been created and gone extinct multiple times before any individual became the long-sought-after-but-as-yet-unfound common ancestor (LUCA; see also adapted animals in the evolution of eukaryotes or ADAM and EVE). It even seems plausible that we are related to previous generations of life in the following way: If life shared DNA with the primordial photosystem and then went extinct, and if that DNA was preserved in the self-replicating photosystem, then the next time life evolved, species may have used DNA from earlier false starts.
Neither the lack of oxygen in the geo-atmospheric record, nor the lack of oxidative metabolism in the earliest organisms, if the latter turns out to be the case, necessarily means that the soup itself did not have an oxidative side. Indeed, it’s possible to imagine that any molecular oxygen produced would be so useful in a largely reductive soup that none would escape. Perhaps oxygen only began to accumulate in the atmosphere and undersea when oxidative organisms began to use oxidative-photosynthetic machinery for their own ends, perhaps to avoid the formation of reactive oxygen species. Although this seems kind of unlikely, even to me, it should be testable in the laboratory. It does seem that, at least, there should be more oxidized organics in the geological record from prebiotic times if this were the case. If the self-replicating photosystem in the soup came into its own 3.8Bya and life did not form for another billion years or more, then stromolites may need careful reconsideration.
Even now, or today, which is the same in diel time, and in English often enough, as much carbon can be found in dissolved organic matter (DOM) as in atmospheric CO 2, perhaps a fifth of the total organic carbon. Subsurface UV breakdown (SUB) still plays a major role in degradation, and this relationship between DOM and SUB remains a vital part of the complex community of modern organisms. The DOM controversy, as revealed by the DOC (dissolved organic carbon) and the DON (nitrogen) seems particularly salty. The interaction between DOM, SUB and the community also fascinates. Perhaps the very best way to study the prebiotic chemistry of the soup would be to examine, in detail, the continuing role of the soup in modern biochemistry.
Just-so stories about human evolution tend to describe increasing biological complexity over time. Indeed, natural selection turns out to have been a great engineer especially considering eukaryotic forms. However, after the GOE, if not before, the need for energy and energy storage, especially in non-photoautotrophs, must have put a premium on chemical simplicity. Before the GOE, species could apparently pick up or drop metabolic cycles by natural selection or other means. Since the GOE, natural selection would appear to have primarily simplified metabolism and even genomes. For example, animals spend much of their time finding and eating specific organisms for their vitamins and amino acids, molecules synthesized by many protists. Exceptions may be found where species have regained a lost reaction, which would not seem to change the overall tendency to lose function over time.
In the evolution of life’s chemical complexity, light provided the energy, and the rotating earth and the lengthening day were the tinkerers. Natural selection came later but did not replace light, which may still act as the primary mutagen in many organisms.
Third, the more derived, complex parts of the soup would have provided the selective force driving competitive organisms.
The null hypothesis in any inheritance study under the rubric of Darwinian natural selection must always be “no common ancestor.” Speculation about lost genes, lost ancestors back through time immemorial, convergent evolution, and massive horizontal gene transfer all may be warranted as an alternative hypothesis. However, it should always be stated that when no common ancestor can be found, the study does not disprove the null hypothesis of no common ancestor. The complexity-first hypothesis provides a molecular motivation for this null hypothesis: It is easy to see how a metabolic trait may be adopted multiple times if organismal metabolism reflects ongoing chemical reactions in the primordial soup.
For example, Cardona et al. state, “Light-driven water oxidation by Photosystem II evolved only once in an ancestor or the phylum Cyanobacteria.” That’s a good restatement of the consensus opinion but ignores the null hypothesis altogether. They conclude, “We suggest each one of these forms of D1 originated from transitional forms at different stages toward the innovation and optimization of water oxidation before the last common ancestor of all known cyanobacteria.” Note that if more than one part of a genome have no known common ancestor, the holy grail of a common ancestor gets pushed even further back in time since natural selection works sequentially. Do we even have definitive evidence that oxidative metabolism postdates anaerobic versions from the genetic inheritance data?
There are other explanations for the data consistent with the |
; virtual horses.
Horses will have multiple stats that determine their success in training, eventing, or just riding round for fun. Some of these stats for each horse will include Strength, Intelligence, Endurance, Speed, Agility and Willpower. There will be numerous colors and patterns! Read below about one of our stretch goals.
We plan on launching with at least 100 different popular breeds. Each breed will have its own qualities and characteristics to make them unique. For example, an Arabian will have high Endurance, but might be light on the willpower (Arabian owners will understand!). Possible colors may also be determined by breed, such as Friesian horses will be in shades of black.
Training: Train your horse in multiple disciplines from Racing to Dressage. Training will improve stats, and the horse’s skill ability in the particular discipline.
Breeding: Work on improving your horses’ bloodlines through our artificial genetic algorithm. Offer your quality stud up for service to other players!
Competing: Compete in several different event types such as Racing, Endurance Racing, Dressage, Show Jumping & Western Events.
Clubs: Join or create a club with like-minded players and friends. Set your on goals and parameters for the clubs. For example: “Alpha Racing Breeders Club” and set your requirements for whom can join.
Marketplace: Work with other players by buying, breeding, selling your horses to improve your stock. This might be a stretch goal, but we would like to have an auction-like area (map) specifically for going and selling your horses to other players.
Player- you- the Ranch Manager will gain experience and levels to improve build up your own skill tree- for example: breeding faster horses or more efficient in Show Jumping training.
Bring your horse along trails, new maps, and through courses such as jump courses.
We will be starting a Kickstarter campaign in a few weeks! Depending on funding and your support, we also wish to offer these additional features:
“Layers” (like socks, color, a blaze) on horses to create thousands of different skin types generated based off of parents & genetics.
Riding w/ an avatar: Ride your virtual horses with friends, race them on trails and play around in club events.
Additional horse animations, barns, decorations, and items!
Customize your ranch- place your choice of buildings, items, fencing, and everything where you wish.
Train your horses over courses based on related disciplines in mini-games, we will still have simulated options.
Compete your horses by completing a course, also with simulated options.
Complete “goals” which are similar to quests in some games, like riding a course of jumps flawlessly, or finding a hidden area on a trail ride.
What are your ideas? Comment below!Richard Wenk is on board to write the screenplay adapted from the New York Times article "Reporting From the Web’s Underbelly."
Sony has picked up the rights to the New York Times article "Reporting From the Web’s Underbelly," which focused on cyber security blogger Brian Krebs. Krebs, with his site KrebsonSecurity.com, was the first person to expose the credit card breach at Target that shook the retail world in December.
Richard Wenk, the screenwriter who wrote Sony's high-testing big-screen version of The Equalizer, is on board to write what is being envisioned as a cyber-thriller inspired by the article and set in the high-stakes international criminal world of cyber-crime.
Escape Artists' Steve Tisch, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal are producing as are Todd Hoffman and Richard Arlook. David Bloomfield will executive produce.
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Nicole Perlroth's New York Times article told of Krebs, who has the appearance of a mild-mannered accountant but writes with a 12-gauge shotgun by his side, is an expert in the digital underground and is on a first-name basis with some of the biggest cyber-criminals in the world, many of whom are Russian.
Krebs started as a technology reporter for the Washington Post, where he developed his niche in the security domain. When his editors wanted him to broaden his beat, he refused and was let go. That's when he created his own blog, which hit it big when he was first to report about Target’s breach in security in December when millions of credit card numbers were stolen.
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For his work, Krebs had his identity stolen half a dozen times and had fecal matter and heroin sent to his house. Once, a SWAT team was called to his home just as his mother was arriving in an incident of "swatting" committed by hackers.
The cybersecurity project reteams Wenk with Escape Artists, as both are behind Equalizer, which is due September 24. Wenk, repped by Gersh, the Arlook Group and Schreck Rose, is already working on a sequel.
Storied Media Group repped the New York Times.Joel Kinnaman will star in Netflix’s sci-fi series “Altered Carbon,” Variety has learned.
Miguel Sapochnik (“Game of Thrones”) is set to direct the first episode of the 10-episode series, which was ordered earlier this year by the streaming giant.
“Altered Carbon” is based on Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 novel of the same name. The futuristic series is set in the 25th century when the human mind has been digitized and the soul is transferable from one body to the next. Kinnaman will play Takeshi Kovacs, a former elite interstellar warrior known as an Envoy who has been imprisoned for 500 years and is downloaded into a future he had tried to stop. If he can solve a single murder in a world where technology has made death nearly obsolete, he’ll get a chance at a new life on Earth.
The sci-fi series hails from Skydance Television. Laeta Kalogridis is writing, serving as showrunner and exec producer, along with Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.
Kinnaman is no stranger to Netflix. He stars in the most recent season of “House of Cards.” He’s also known for “The Killing,” plus films “Robocop,” “Run All Night” and “Safe House.” Up next, he’s starring in the hotly anticipated “Suicide Squad,” which hits theaters on August 5.
Kinnaman is repped by WME and Magnolia Entertainment.BRITISH AUTHORITIES are attempting to force a man accused of hacking the U.S. government to hand over his encryption keys in a case that campaigners believe could have ramifications for journalists and activists.
England-based Lauri Love (pictured above) was arrested in October 2013 by the U.K.’s equivalent of the FBI, the National Crime Agency, over allegations that he hacked a range of U.S. government systems between 2012 and 2013, including those of the Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and NASA.
The U.S. Justice Department is seeking the extradition of Love, claiming that he and a group of conspirators breached “thousands of networks” in total and caused millions of dollars in damages. But Love has been fighting the extradition attempt in British courts, insisting that he should be tried for the alleged offenses within the U.K. The 31-year-old, who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, has argued that he would not get a fair trial in the U.S., where his legal team says he could face a sentence of up to 99 years in jail.
The issues raised by Love’s case, however, are not limited to hacking. In recent weeks, his case has taken on a new dimension — opening up another potential battleground in the ongoing international debate about encrypted data and the power governments should have to access it.
Following Love’s arrest in 2013, the National Crime Agency, or NCA, seized computers and hard drives in his possession. He was then served with an order under Section 49 of the U.K’s controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which demanded that he hand over his passwords to open encrypted files stored on the devices. Love refused, and when the NCA did not push the issue any further, it appeared that the agency had given up on its attempt to make him comply.
Subsequently, Love sued the NCA in an attempt to have his seized computers and hard drives returned. But that effort has now culminated in the NCA doubling down and renewing its demand that he turn over his encryption keys. According to a court document dated March 2, 2016, the agency is asking that Love “provide the encryption key or password” for data encrypted using TrueCrypt software that was found on his Samsung laptop, two hard drives, and a memory card.
Naomi Colvin, a campaigner for transparency advocacy group the Courage Foundation, told The Intercept that she believed the case could have “huge implications for journalists, activists, and others who need to guard confidential information” — potentially setting a precedent that could make it easier in the future for British police and security agencies to gain access to, or to seize and retain, encrypted material.
Colvin said that the Courage Foundation, which is raising funds for Love’s legal defense, is backing him because “his case fits in to a pattern of political prosecutions of hacktivists and other truthtellers.” She added: “From our work with some of our other beneficiaries — particularly Jeremy Hammond and Barrett Brown — we’re very familiar with the prosecutorial overreach, inflated damage figures, absurd sentencing, and discriminatory prison treatment, including frequent spells in solitary confinement, that is common in these kinds of cases.”
The encryption key demand is set to be the focus of an April 12 court hearing, at which a judge is expected to rule on whether Love should be ordered to turn over his passwords. But regardless of the hearing’s outcome, Love has no intention of turning over his encryption keys.
“I don’t have any alternative but to refuse to comply,” he told The Intercept. “The NCA are trying to establish a precedent so that an executive body — i.e., the police — can take away your computers and if they are unable to comprehend certain portions of data held on them, then you lose the right to retain them. It’s a presumption of guilt for random data.”
Notably, in the lead-up to the April 12 hearing, the NCA has appeared keen to keep public discussion of the case out of the media, perhaps in light of a recent high-profile controversy on the other side of the Atlantic over FBI demands that Apple Inc. help thwart the encryption on an iPhone.
Court documents show that the agency requested — and a judge approved — that witness statements and skeleton arguments should not be disclosed “to the press, the public, or any third party save with the leave of the court until after the final hearing, and then only in relation to such matters as are referred to in open court or as permitted or directed by the court.”
Karen Todner, Love’s attorney, told The Intercept that the NCA’s apparent desire to minimize publicity was quite unusual. “In other cases that I’ve dealt with — not necessarily about extradition, but computer hacking cases — they’ve put out press statements and been quite proactive in the press,” she said.
Todner noted that Love’s case has similarities to that of Gary McKinnon, a Scottish man who successfully fought extradition to the U.S. over allegations that he hacked NASA and U.S. military computers. Like Love, McKinnon had also been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. After a 10-year campaign and lengthy legal battle, McKinnon’s extradition was ultimately blocked by the British government over health concerns.
“I think that they [the NCA] are possibly nervous because of the McKinnon case, because certainly the press that McKinnon received was helpful to his case. It courted public opinion and certainly Lauri’s case would probably also court public opinion.”
The NCA declined to comment for this story.Over the past two decades, imposition of sanctions on Iran has evolved into a dynamic game between Tehran and the international community, with every new round provoking a series of Iranian counter-measures. One of Tehran's weapons in this tussle has been to use its trade policy as a way of discouraging some countries from co-operating with sanctions or aligning themselves too closely with the anti-Iran camp.
A highly visible example has been Iran's trade relations with the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Iran has deliberately expanded its trade and investment ties so as to increase the economic costs for them of joining western-sponsored sanctions initiatives. Since 2000, for instance, GCC exports to Iran have increased dramatically, reaching $13.4bn in 2008-09, and thus the GCC states, particularly the UAE, have enjoyed a sizeable trade surplus with respect to Iran.
Simultaneously, Tehran has used trade to discourage the GCC states from forming a united anti-Iranian front headed by Saudi Arabia. This is why it has called for the joint development of its shared gas fields with Kuwait and Qatar but not the Saudis, preferred to trade in UAE dirhams but not other GCC currencies, insisted on regional security arrangements, championed the cause of Shia Muslims in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, maintained friendly relations with Oman where the vast majority of the population resent the Wahhabi/Saudi version of Islam, and given the Qatar Airways the right to operate its domestic flights.
Yet recent reports that Iran has blocked imports from the UAE "as a punitive measure" in response to its support for the US sanctions indicate that Iran's economic co-option strategy has failed. They also point to the catastrophic failure of Tehran's efforts to keep GCC states divided since the UAE is now fully aligned with Saudi policy towards Iran.
In the past, the UAE was often lukewarm towards international sanctions, as well as any military strike against Iran's nuclear installations, and this was mainly due to economic benefits that accrue to the emirate of Dubai from its extensive trade and investment relations with Iran. Disagreements between the ruling families of Dubai and Abu Dhabi with regard to Iran were another factor behind the UAE's refusal to co-operate with unilateral US sanctions. Under immense pressure from the US and concerned about Iran's offensive capabilities, its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, perceived Iranian meddling in the GCC affairs and the apparent progress of Iran's nuclear programme, the UAE has, however, shown a greater willingness to follow the Saudi lead and support US sanctions since 2010.
Emirates 24/7 reports that "most banks in the UAE have stopped money transfers to Iran since January 2010", while "transactions by Iranian citizens are closely monitored and usually blocked". In addition, the UAE played an important role in persuading China to apply effective sanctions against Iran. As a member of the Rome Club it is also taking an active part in discussions on how to maintain stability in the global energy markets in the event of a formal embargo on Iran's oil exports and its central bank.
This recent shift in the UAE's attitude is also a result of the diminishing economic and financial power of Dubai within the UAE federal framework. Dubai's economic collapse in 2009 reduced its political power and increased that of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, which is less friendly towards Iran.
So, what is Iran's objective in blocking trade with the UAE? Since its economic incentives have failed to keep the GCC states divided and neutral, it may now be seeking the same objective by different means: threats and intimidation.
This is evident in the Iranian officials' use of inflammatory terms with regard to the shared gas fields. On 22 December, for instance, Emad Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's energy committee, accused Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait of stealing oil and gas from fields that cross into Iranian territory.
Blocking imports from the UAE should also be seen within this context. In spite of massive improvements since 2009, Dubai still faces debt maturities of more than $10bn next year and may need to borrow more from Abu Dhabi. Aware of this, Tehran could be hoping that its move will cause internal tensions between Abu Dhabi and Dubai by depriving Dubai of an important source of income, thereby forcing the federal government to forgo some of its newly employed anti-Iranian measures.
Whether Iran's latest action will bear fruit or not is hard to tell. What is clear, though, is that sanctions are hurting the Iranian regime and that as a result its behaviour might become less predictable in the near future.numberFire.com
Ask anyone who the best quarterback is of the past decade, and you will hear the same few answers: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and maybe Aaron Rodgers.
But what if I told you that two of the most scrutinized and heavily criticized NFL quarterbacks deserve consideration for the velvet-rope, elite quarterback club?
Enter Philip Rivers and Tony Romo. Neither has won a Super Bowl, the way most measure quarterback success. But both Rivers and Romo have been two of the most effective quarterbacks of the past decade, and they’re proving to be elite once again in 2014.
Just how good have they been? To evaluate their play and efficiency, we’ll use our internal metric at numberFire.com, Net Expected Points (NEP). A quick refresher on NEP:
NEP compares every single play over a season to how a league-average team should perform on that play. Every situation on a football field has an expected point value; that is, how many points an average team would be expected to score in that situation (given down, distance-to-go and yard line). For example, the Chiefs may be playing the Steelers, facing a third-and-two on the 50. That’s a ton of variables, but numberFire has data from the past dozen years of every single play, so most situations have come up at least once. According to our data, an average team may be “expected” to score 1.23 (estimated number) points on that drive. However, Jamaal Charles reels off a 32-yard run to bring the Chiefs into the red zone, increasing the “expected” point value of the next play to 4.23 (still an estimated number) points. Jamaal Charles then gets credit for the difference, in this case 2.96 points, as his NEP total. That’s Net Expected Points.
Since 2000, the average passing NEP for a quarterback with at least 400 passing plays is +42.0. That means a league-average quarterback will add about six touchdowns over expectation to his offense throughout the course of a season. This may be counterintuitive since you would think the average quarterback would add nothing over expectation, but in today’s NFL, passing is the much more efficient option to running. Quarterbacks, in turn, tend to make up for poor rushing efficiency. Here are the top 10 quarterbacks so far in 2014:
Quarterback 2014 Pass NEP Philip Rivers 94.46 Andrew Luck 86.23 Peyton Manning 68.42 Tony Romo 52.92 Joe Flacco 50.86 Matt Ryan 48.94 Aaron Rodgers 48.76 Colin Kaepernick 41.97 Drew Brees 40.36 Cam Newton 31.77
Since 2000, there have been just 63 seasons where a quarterback registered an NEP greater than +100. Of those, only six quarterbacks have had at least four seasons over +100 passing NEP. You guessed it: Peyton Manning (11), Drew Brees (8), Tom Brady (7), Philip Rivers (5), Aaron Rodgers (4), Tony Romo (4).
Rivers has been over 100 for five of the past six years, and looks to be a lock to make that six out of the last seven years. Only Manning and Brees have accomplished that feat (although Rodgers may join the group this season). All told, despite the criticism, Rivers and Romo are both consistently great quarterbacks.
So, who is the better passer, and do either deserve MVP consideration for 2014?
Romo’s Résumé
Tony Romo has put up a passing NEP greater than zero in every season of his career. For Romo, 2013 was a “down” year—he added only 70.1 passing NEP compared to his yearly average of 90.0.
With that being said, we mentioned that a league-average quarterback adds just 42.0 points in a year. In 2014, Romo has already added 52.9 NEP, No. 4 in the league. What is more impressive is how he has led the Cowboys to a 5-1 record, posting these numbers against some impressive opponents: San Francisco, New Orleans, Houston with its revamped defense, and most recently, Seattle... in Seattle.
• GREG A. BEDARD: Where did it all go right for Cowboys?
Romo is putting together a fantastic year, but is he MVP-worthy? Not quite. With Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, and Philip Rivers all still ahead of him in terms of passing efficiency, the Cowboys would need to show true domination in the NFC for him to be considered.
Rivers’ Résumé
Just like the Cowboys, Rivers has led the Chargers to a hot 5-1 start. While San Diego played Arizona and Seattle, two stout defenses, to start the year, their last four games have been against the Bills, Jaguars, Jets, and Raiders.
Through six games, Rivers leads the league with 94.5 passing NEP. He’s on pace for 251.9 NEP, which would rank No. 3 all time behind only Tom Brady and Peyton Manning’s record setting seasons in 2007 and 2013 respectively.
• ROBERT KLEMKO: How Philip Rivers raised his game
Rivers’ per play passing NEP is a ridiculous +0.46, which projects as the highest figure since 2000 among quarterbacks who threw at least 400 passes. He has also been successful on 55.6% of his passing plays this year, the top figure in the NFL. And who comes in at No. 2? Tony Romo at 54.7%. With remaining games against the 49ers, Patriots, and two against the Broncos, Rivers certainly still has his work cut out for him.
In the 14 seasons since 2000, a quarterback has won Most Valuable Player 10 times. Nine times, that MVP award went to the most efficient quarterback—the passer with the highest total NEP. The only time a quarterback won and the award didn’t go to the top guy was in 2008 when Peyton Manning won his third MVP with the No. 2 NEP total at +146.3. The top producer that year was Drew Brees with +176.0. All told, if Rivers finishes 2014 as the most efficient signal-caller, it’s extremely likely that he takes home his first MVP trophy.
Keith Goldner is the chief analyst at numberFire.com, the leading fantasy sports analytics platform. Follow him @keithgoldner.
[widget widget_name="SI Newsletter Widget”]Image copyright Getty Images
The number of chickens in Scotland has fallen sharply following the closure of several large poultry producers late last year, according to the latest agricultural census.
Government statisticians said the total poultry flock fell by 11% over the past year, to just over 13 million.
The broiler sector was hit hardest, with numbers falling by 27% to 5.7 million birds.
The number of broilers is now the lowest on record.
The fall was partially offset by a 7% increase in layers and a 7% rise in the number of fowls for breeding.
Last month, NFU Scotland called on the Competition and Markets Authority to intervene to save processing facilities in Scotland, claiming that the number of independent chicken producers in Scotland had fallen from 28 to 12 since December 2014.
It cited the closure of a number of company-owned farms in the Scottish Borders by Hook 2 Sisters, Scotland's dominant chicken processor.
Meanwhile, the June 2015 Agricultural Census recorded small increases in the number of cattle, sheep and pigs in Scotland.
However, it also found a 10% fall in the area used for potato growing, which shrank by 2,700 hectares to 26,000 hectares.
The area is now the smallest on record.Primus is an American genre-defying band, which sucks. It was founded by cannabis spokesman and addict Les Claypool, whose idea was to write "'creative' music and a failed attempt at copying "Rush" [1]. In strong contrast to other bands, Claypool the bass player serves as the band's frontman. As a result of this however, all other instruments are mixed to be quiet so that his playing is most prominent. This is not a problem, as Claypool being an exceptional banjo-player-turned-bassist has mastered many bass techniques, such as slapping, and nothing else.
Due to many people's opposition to music where the guitar is nearly inaudible and the bass is at the front of the mix, an anti-Primus club, Primus Sucks!, exists. It consists of several vegetarians, the American Pet Association, Comedy Central, the Fishermen's Club, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, James Hetfield, and the entire Muslim community. "Primus Sucks!" is actually the official catchphrase of the band, invented by Claypool so that critics' complaints lose all meaning - as a result, the "Primus Sucks!" club consists of many devout fans who simply ended up at the wrong place. This is a fine example of Claypool thwarting critics' attempts at foiling his success.
Contents show]
History Edit
1984–88: Formation as Primate Edit
In 1984, when Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died under suspicious circumstances, guitarist and former school chum Kirk Hammett encouraged his old friend, a Les Claypool, to play his part. Claypool didn't get the job due to an argument that broke out over his demands to turn the band into a funk act. Metallica frontman James Hetfield denied Claypool's pleas, claiming they would never do such a thing as alienate their fan base and change their image. Hetfield later remarked that "Claypool was too shitty to play in Metallica" and "He should do his own thing", which made Les very sad. Les decided to get revenge, and started to make new friends to form his own, much-better-than-Metallica band.
Surprisingly, Claypool DID find friends; a guitarist named Todd Huth and a drum machine named LinnDrum. LinnDrum, unfortunately, exploded when they tried to make it imitate the sound of a hammer (by hammering it until it learned to, which it, unfortunately, never did). Lucky for them however, Claypool's old friend Vince "Perm" Parker had just gotten out of prison the army and wanted to play drums!
Finally with an actual living drummer, the three men of power known as Primate were ready to take the world by storm!...this would have to wait, however, as another group with a similar name called The Primates got their panties in a twist and threatened to sue for obviously ripping them off unless they changed their names. Now aware of all the political bullshit, the three men of power changed their name to "Primus". However, when Parker heard the new, horrible band name he had a heart attack and died. He was replaced by a new drummer; Peter Libby, who unfortunately wanted to play something a liiiittle bit more normal, and so was replaced by Tim "Curveball" Wright...who in turn was almost immediately replaced by Jay "Jayski" Lane.
1989–90: Frizzle Fry Edit
After this long game of musical chairs, Primus recorded a demo called Sausage, which was named after Claypool's huge love of sausages.[2] Unfortunately, Lane got sick from all the sausages he ate, and had to quit. So the band found a replacement for him in Bryan "Brain" Mantia. By this point however; Huth lost his mind, thought he was a chicken and flew away. Now with no guitarist in the band and Mantia being side-lined by a freak foot accident, Claypool replaced himself with no one and left the band. He planned to join his old band, Blind Illusion, but then he heard of this one guy who was ex-possessed and knew how to play the guitar! Les was so excited, and hired that man; Mr. Larry "Ler" LaLonde IV and reformed the band with another new member; one Tim "Herb" Alexander who was bald and could play the drums a bit.
On Christmas Day 1989, instead of spending time with their respective families, the band recorded their debut album Frizzle Fry; featuring such mega hits like "You Can't Kill Michael Malloy", "Sathington Willoughby" and "To Defy", AND with a music video featuring Kirk Hammett for a split second, Primus's popularity "skyrocketed" and thus, they were ready to sail the seas of cheese.
1991–92: Sailing the Seas of Cheese Edit
With the "success" of Frizzly Cheddar Fries, Primus headed out to the Atlantic Ocean on a teeny little boat for a fishing trip, hoping to gain some inspiration for their next album. Sadly, the band entered the "Seas of Cheese," where it learned the ways of fighting off conformity, to be what they want to be, to have their front man be the main guy with his big, stupid voice and slap happy bass, and for the guitarist to just make a bunch of noise that sounds like a cross between a cat getting stepped on[3] and a pig getting a rim job[4]. And what about that drummer? I can't even remember his name. Josh, right?
However, a reputable source[5] claims that the band never even left the dock. Instead, they merely dropped acid and stared at the sun for 2 weeks straight, which is why they're now all blind. Renaming themselves The Three Blind Mice (and then quickly changing their name back to Primus when they realized it was The Three Blind Mice was an even worse name), they went about to record their sophomore effort. Although the album already contained such hits as "Grandad's Little Ditty", "Los Bastardos" and the epic follow up to "Sathington Willoughby"; "Sathington Waltz", the band insisted on making music videos for some of their lesser, non-hits like "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" and "Tommy the Cat". MTV however, wouldn't bother playing them, or at least not when anybody would be watching their stupid channel. Their next genius idea to get recognized was to record a five song EP of cover songs named Miscellaneous Debris, ranging from the bold (The Meters, The Residents, XTC) to the bland (Peter Gabriel, The Police, Pink Floyd). Both the album and the EP combined sold a total of 6 copies, each release bought once by the band members' mothers, who all felt sorry for their unsuccessful sons.
1993–94: Pork Soda Edit
In 1993, Primus released their third album, Pork Soda, which was Les's statement against Coca Cola's refusal to make his plea of pork tasting soda. The album was much darker than their previous efforts, dealing with subject matter such as gays, rude abuse of belts and people painting their couches burgundy with a "Goddamn sprinkler". The band claimed that all the cheesy stuff on the previous album had made them sombre and that they would now do porky stuff. What next? Punchy stuff?![6]
Although success had eluded the band up to this point, and would continue to do so for years to come, they finally found some success with the single "My Name is Mud". It was during a time where lesser known bands were getting airplay on the radio and MTV, in the wake of the humongous success of that one, smelly grunge band from Seattle[7]. And so Primus managed to sneak by despite their lack of talent, flannel and unappealing sound and appearance. In the video, Claypool does his take on the film Deliverance and admits to "kiss[ing]" a friend of his "up-side the cranium [with an] aluminum baseball bat". Many fat people are seen lounging in a sauna and a skinny dude (rumored to be the infamous Bob C. Cock[8]) take mud baths and drink what appears to be an illicit substance made out of pigs. More people would have been outraged over the objectionable content of the lyrics and video had more of them cared. Fortunately, just enough people paid attention to make Primus a success (of sorts) and thus videos were also made for "DMV" (at MTV's request, thus making it shitty) and "Mr. Krinkle" (featuring many of the bands old friends, including good ol' Brainerd), but once again, nobody cared.
That same year, Primus appeared at the 1994 Woodstock Festival of Peace, Love and Venereal Diseases. It proved to be one of their most memorable live shows they had ever done, and included notable moments such as ending the show with Claypool throwing mud around the stage and pouring it into their amplifiers, calling people'sonsabitches' (whatever that means) and leaving the stage after having a bowling ball thrown at him, nearly taking his damn head right off of his body. Following this incident, the band decided to go on a brief hiatus and to start a few side projects that lasted barely a year, which had such thrilling names like "Sausage", "Caca" and "Laundry".
1995–96: Tales from the Punchbowl and Alexander's departure Edit
After wasting an entire year playing around with side projects and themselves, the band settled down to record their fourth full length studio album, Tales from the Punchbowl. Like those that came before it, the album totally rocked, but all anybody wanted to talk about was the big hit song about Winona Ryder's vagina. Ryder's then boyfriend Dave Pirner of Minnesota rockers Soul Asylum took offense to the song and threatened to beat Claypool up. Claypool scoffed at this statement, and replied: "What is he, some kind of a jerk off? I'm, like, 7 ft. tall, he couldn't kick my ass with one arm tied behind his back! Oh, and I totally did it with his girl too, HAHAHAHAA, fuck you."
Although the band was on top of the world once more (or so they thought), their camraderie soon took a nose dive as Claypool ventured off once again to record his first solo album "Highball with the Devil". Embarking on a tour with long time friends Adam Gates, Mark "MIRV" Haggard, and Brian "Brain the Beaver Stain" Mantia, shows during that tour consisted solely of people throwing shit at the stage and cries of "Where's Ler?!?!?!".
Feeling that his talents were being put to waste, Alexander departed in 1996 and went on to play with a couple of acts that nobody has ever heard of. Claypool and LaLonde were despondent. After years of maintaining a solid lineup, the band spiraled into a depression that lasted a fortnight. Fortunately, there was another. Yes, a special, little guy that WOULD have stayed a member of the band had he not broken his leg trying to recreate the bike crash scene from Pee-wee's Big Adventure years ago. Yes, Mr. Brain Mantia was still available, and had been waiting for years to join Primus. Sitting alone in his room, banging away at his tiny drum kit from the morning to the evening, occasionally being interrupted by his doting mother, Mantia had been honing his craft in preperation for the day that his good buddies Les and Ler would call him and ask him to join. And that day finally came for the psuedo-Mexican. And then they recorded a song for some TV show that didn't even feature his mad, wicked drum skillz at all.
1997–98: The Brown Album Edit
The Brown Album, named after the color brown[9], was a monumental undertaking for Primus. Now with new drummer Bryan "Brain Aneurysm" Mantia in the lineup, some adjusting was in order, if you know what I mean (heh heh heh....?). Converging at Les Claypool's own home, dubbed "Rancho Relaxo" after a location in an episode of TV's The Simpsons, Primus would spend 6 hellish months attempting to make the record. For one, Les had decided to self-produce the album despite having gone deaf in one ear from all those years of listening to his beloved Rush at full volume despite warnings from his mother. This lead to the record gaining a muddy (ie: shitty) sound as described by the smelly fans (all 3 of them). For another reason, Ler had gotten it into his head that he was some sort of "hippity hopper" and wanted to turn the group's efforts into a rap record after 5 awful weeks of churning out and tossing out song after failed song. Needless to say, his band mates were furious. A neighbor claims that he heard screams coming from the basement one night, an unholy racket similar to that of the sounds known to emanate from famous vocalist Cher. No one knows for sure what occurred that particular night, but it nearly tore the band apart, literally and.....well just literally. Like, seriously. I think they may have even killed a guy too[10].
In the mean time, fabled guitarist and ventriloquist Buckethead was discovered living in one of the many closets in Claypool's home. Buckethead proved to be a guiding light to the confused band, and set them on the right path. Chowing down on some Kentucky Fried Chicken (and subsequently throwing up into the buckets[11]), and with a renewed vigor, the band set out to record the best damn album that they possibly could. The album begat the video for "Shake Hands with Beef", yet another obvious and tired masturbation joke. This time, the band portrayed a couple of flies playing their stupid song on top of some garbage near a gross, sweaty family with a hot daughter trying to have a barbecue. For the tour, Les decided to grow an afro which seemed to turn many fans off from attending their loud, raucous concerts, and provoked others to yet again throw things up on the stage, prematurely ending many shows.
1999–2000: Antipop and breakup Edit
When Primus started recording their sixth album with Brain as the drummer, their recording company, Interscope Records, started to finally realize how much Primus actually sucked. Interscope tried to fix this by inviting other musicians to co-operate on the album, such as Matt Stone from South Park, James Hetfield from Metallica, and Tom Wa |
welfare states: the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany.
For all six countries, I use the IMF data easily available on http://www.imf.org. The IMF reports data on key macroeconomic variables. I chose the estimated data for the year 2012, which is still preliminary. One can just as easily use the data for 2010 or 2011 and find the same results. The IMF reports fiscal and debt data for "general government," meaning the combination of federal, state, and local levels. That is handy, as it enables comparisons across countries without distortions by the level of government or fiscal-federal definitions and practices.
Looking at Table 1, the conclusion is simple. The European welfare states tax and spend more than the US as a percent of GDP, yet also have lower budget deficits as a share of GDP, lower debt-GDP ratios, and lower unemployment rates. Note that the government sectors of Norway and Sweden have net assets rather than net debt. Some bankruptcy!
The second comment is by editorial board member Holman Jenkins, Jr. Mr. Jenkins tries to debunk global warming by writing that "the warmest year on record globally is still 1998 and no trend has been apparent globally since then."
His claim is both false and irrelevant. It is false because most data point to more recent years as being warmer than 1998. (For the National Climatic Data Center, for example, 1998 comes in third, behind 2005 and 2010.)
The claim is also irrelevant, since 1998 was an exceptionally strong El Nino (essentially, a tilt of Pacific warm water towards the west coast of Latin America). The El Nino made 1998 an exceptionally warm year both because of El Nino and because of long-term human-induced global warming. Comparing subsequent years to a very strong El Nino year mixes up trends and inter-annual variability.
It's not hard to strip away the El-Nino fluctuations (since the El Nino -- Southern Oscillation is directly observable independent of global temperatures) to get a sense of the underlying global temperature trends. There is no doubt that the temperatures of the recent 10 years have been among the hottest of the entire climate record. These years are much warmer than in earlier decades, even if temperatures have jumped around year to year as one would expect. The long-term trend is clear.
The Wall Street Journal editors have failed to notice that even the climate skeptics have come around. Interested readers might look at the reports of one such skeptic, Professor Richard Muller, physicist at Berkeley, whose team recently re-analyzed the global climate record in very great detail. They summarized their main conclusions as follows:
"Berkeley Earth has just released analysis of land-surface temperature records going back 250 years, about 100 years further than previous studies. The analysis shows that the rise in average world land temperature globe is approximately 1.5 degrees C in the past 250 years, and about 0.9 degrees in the past 50 years."
And:
"Many of the changes in land-surface temperature can be explained by a combination of volcanoes and a proxy for human greenhouse gas emissions. Solar variation does not seem to impact the temperature trend."I’m the author of the Steerswoman Series: 4 novels (so far).
All were originally published by Del Rey/Ballantine/Random House, but I’ve since recovered all the rights, and I’ve rereleased them myself, in both ebook and trade paperback formats.
I have plenty of ideas for works outside of the Steerswoman’s world –but currently I’m focusing on the series, for the most part. Watch my blog for news of other works.
The trade paperbacks are available from Amazon and Createspace. Or, contact your favorite bookstore to ask if they carry them.
The ebooks are vailable for Kindle at Amazon, and on all platforms at Smashwords — or check your favorite ebook sellers: iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.
What’s been said about the series:
“If you haven’t read Kirstein’s Steerswoman books I envy you the chance to read them now for the first time […] If you like science, and if you like watching someone work out mysteries, and if you like detailed weird alien worlds and human cultures, if really good prose appeals… you’re really in luck. It’s a very difficult trick to have revelations within a story that mean different things to the reader and the characters, but Kirstein dances over this constant abyss with delicate grace… These books really are terrific fun to read.” – Jo Walton, Hugo, Nebula, and Tiptree Awards winner, author of Among Others, My Real Children and The Just City “One of the very best treatments of the scientific method in fiction that I’ve read– I suspect it may be the best, but years on the Internet make me want to hedge everything– is the Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein. …. It’s a joy to watch the scientific reasoning process Rowan follows, and the plots have plenty of excitement as well.” – Chad Orzel, physicist, author of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog and Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist
“[Kirstein] walks the tightrope between fantasy and science fiction with precision and grace… [her] compassion for even minor characters is evident on every page, and her prose is measured and alluring without being overworked.” — Damien Broderick & Paul Di Filippo, in Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010 “The world Kirstein creates is captivating… [Her] striking portrait of an innovative woman who is scientist, judge, historian, and adventurer makes for a good, thought-provoking read..” — Publisher’s Weekly
(Of The Lost Steersman): “An original and fascinating take on the tensions between science and belief, observation and expectation, courage and fear. Highly recommended.” — Suzy McKee Charnas, author of Motherlines and Walk to the End of the World
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION If you ask, she must answer. A steerswoman’s knowledge is shared with any who request it; no steerswoman may refuse a question, and no steerswoman may answer with anything but the truth. And if she asks, you must answer. It is the other side of tradition’s contract — and if you refuse the question, or lie, no steerswoman will ever again answer even your most casual question. And so, the steerswomen — always seeking, always investigating — have gathered more and more knowledge about the world they traveled, and they share that knowledge freely. Until the day that the steerswoman Rowan begins asking innocent questions about one small, lovely, inexplicable object… Her discoveries grow stranger and deeper, and more dangerous, until suddenly she finds she must flee or fight for her life. Or worse — lie. Because one kind of knowledge has always been denied to the steerswomen: Magic.
WHEN A GUIDESTAR FALLS
Two shining lights hung above, motionless in the night sky as the constellations slowly passed behind them. The common folk knew them well, and used them to count the hours, mark the seasons.
But when the steerswoman Rowan discovered a number of broken blue jewels of clearly magical origin, her investigations led to a startling discovery: a Guidestar had fallen.
There were more than two; the others hung above the opposite side of the world; something had caused one of those to fall.
But what? And what might it mean? Rowan had no answers…
But she knew one thing: where the fallen Guidestar was located. To reach it, she must cross the Inner Lands and pass deep into the wild and deadly Outskirts.
Rowan’s travelling companion, Bel, is an Outskirter herself. Together the steerswoman and the warrior-poet have a chance of surviving the cruel landscape, the barbarian tribes, and the bizarre native wildlife.
But there are more secrets than one in the Outskirts: and each step closer to the Guidestar brings new truths, leading to the most startling secret of all…
THE BLIND SEARCH
How do you find someone?
How, if you have never seen him, never heard him described, did not know where he lived? How, if he wished not to be found?
And how, most especially, if he were the most powerful wizard in the world?
The steerswoman Rowan has discovered that the fall of the Guidestar and the massacre of Outskirter tribes were caused by one man: the secret master-wizard, Slado. But until now, no steerswoman had known of his existence, nor knew that the wizards answered to any single authority. Now, Rowan must find him.
She comes to the seaside town of Alemeth, where centuries of records might help her find clues for her search. Then, an unexpected encounter with a lost friend: Janus, a steersman who had resigned his membership in the Steerswomen, giving no explanation.
Now Rowan has hope for help in her search — but Janus has changed. The bright intellect is now shrouded in a dark, shattered spirit…
When sleepy Alemeth becomes a place of terror; when death and chaos move in from the wildlands; when doubt and lies surround the steerswoman at every turn — then all Rowan’s questions are reduced to one, the single question that drives every member of the Steerswomen:
Why?
A STEERSWOMAN ASKS, AND IS ALWAYS ANSWERED
The steerswoman Rowan has learned much about the master-wizard Slado: how his spells are devastating the distant lands known as the Outskirts, and how they will ultimately threaten even the Inner Lands. But she knows nothing else about him, not even why he is hiding his actions from the other wizards.
He must be found, and stopped.
Now, following the slimmest of clues, Rowan arrives in the city of Donner hoping to learn more about Slado’s plans. But when the answers begin coming in faster than the questions can be asked, a strange tale from the past emerges, a tale behind all the secrets of the present…
Fortunate that Rowan has the Outskirter warrior Bel on hand to watch her back. Because there’s one sure way to know that the steerswoman is on the right track:
Someone will try to kill her.One Piece: Burning Blood adds Nami, Robin, Hancock, and Perona
New characters confirmed in Weekly Jump.
The latest issue of Weekly Jump confirms Nami, Nico Robin, Boa Hancock, and Perona as playable characters in One Pice: Burning Blood.
Nami battles laying out traps for the opponent and inflicting heavy damage with her lightning finishing attack. Robin uses various locking techniques through the power of the Hana-Hana Fruit, as well as mid-range throwing techniques. Hancock not only has powerful long-range attacks and petrify abilities, but can also deal damage in the Logia system using Haki. And Perona can not only deplete her opponents’ life and capabilities gauge with her Hollow, but can deal heavy damage using her special Hollow.
One Piece: Burning Blood is due out for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in Japan on April 21, and for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and PS Vita in North America and Europe in June 2016.
Thanks, @kazu4281 (via Games Talk).EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is moving to repeal the Clean Power Plan as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to bring jobs and prosperity to communities that rely on the coal industry.
Our research focuses on determining which factors help create sustainable and prosperous regions, with a special focus on rural areas. In our view, Trump’s proposals will do little to help coal-dependent regions, and some will actually worsen their decline.
Communities that have historically relied on coal production, especially in Appalachia, have been suffering major economic and employment losses for decades. Today far fewer miners are needed to produce the coal that we consume, and alternative energy sources like natural gas, solar and wind have chipped away at coal’s cost advantage. Job losses in coal-reliant regions will only intensify as mining becomes more efficient and the nation takes steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Why has coal employment declined?
Coal industry employment has fallen from more than 500,000 workers in 1949 to around 50,000 workers today. Coal advocates contend that environmental regulations, such as the Clean Air Acts of 1977 and 1990, have caused hardship and job losses in many coal-dependent regions. But what these policies actually have done is change where coal is mined.
By requiring power producers to reduce sulfur emissions from electricity generation, the Clean Air Act triggered a shift in U.S. coal production from Appalachia, where coal is high in sulfur, to western states with abundant supplies of low-sulfur coal. However, overall U.S. coal employment was mostly unaffected by these regulations.
Instead, the decline in coal employment has been largely driven by market forces. The industry has invested in new mining methods and better machinery, so production requires far fewer coal miners.
What’s more, coal is rapidly losing market share for economic reasons. Coal faces increased competition from shale natural gas, wind and solar. These fuels produce less pollution than coal and have become much cheaper in the past decade. In the past five years, nearly all new electricity generation capacity added in the United States was powered by natural gas, wind and solar. Nearly all retired plants were powered by coal. Natural gas generated more electricity than coal twice in 2015.
Mining jobs are primarily driven by market forces, so there is little that President Trump can do to bring coal mining jobs back without severely distorting energy markets. West Virginia Governor Jim Justice has proposed just that, urging the Trump administration to offer a US$15 per ton subsidy to power plants that burn coal from Appalachia.
Such a plan would be a boon for coal company executives and shareholders, but would do little for coal workers and communities. Using data from the Commerce and Labor departments, we calculate that in 2015 labor accounted for just 12 percent of the value of total coal mining output, down from 17 percent in 2001. This decline reflects increased use of machinery and mining methods and reduced need for workers.
How to help coal communities
To aid workers and communities where industries are declining, governments typically choose one of two approaches: offering direct support to those industries or funding investments in people and places.
Industrial support aims to maintain employment by providing subsidies or regulatory relief. Between 2009 and 2014 the Treasury Department invested nearly $80 billion in the auto industry to save General Motors and Chrysler from bankruptcy during a severe nationwide recession.
President Obama proposed a plan in 2016 called Power Plus that would have provided $2 billion in tax credits for installing carbon capture technologies on coal power plants, hopefully enabling them to continue production. These credits would have represented a subsidy to coal producers.
But industry support policies are unlikely to provide effective aid for workers and communities in coal-dependent regions for several reasons. First, any job increases from subsidies will be offset as mining operations become ever more productive and efficient.
Second, our research has shown that high levels of coal employment are associated with lower levels of entrepreneurship and higher levels of migration out of Appalachian regions as coal crowds out other types of businesses. This means that prolonging coal employment may actually slow the transition to other economic activities and reduce long-term economic growth.
Aid programs can invest in people and places through initiatives such as job retraining programs, small business support and funding for infrastructure. Ironically, President Trump has proposed to eliminate the Appalachian Regional Commission, a regional development agency that has been doing this very work for more than 50 years.
Last year the commission funded over 400 projects designed to build worker skills and promote entrepreneurship, infrastructure development and health. Our research shows that investments like this help poor regions grow. Defunding the commission would reduce economic opportunities and make local economies less resilient against economic downturns.
Trump’s 2018 budget proposal also cuts the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s discretionary spending by 21 percent and eliminates $231 billion from the Farm Bill over the next decade. These accounts do not just benefit farmers. More importantly, they support a broad range of rural economic development and health initiatives. The proposed cuts would unequivocally harm rural communities.
Investing in quality of life
To spur economic development in lagging regions, it is helpful to consider what types of communities are likely to prosper in the future. Today we can predict that successful communities in 2040 or 2050 are likely be entrepreneurial and have well-educated workforces and high-quality schools.
Educated, highly skilled workers can live anywhere. To attract them, lagging regions need to offer a high quality of life and a clean environment. The Trump administration is moving in the opposite direction by weakening environmental regulation of the coal industry, which will make it harder for coal country to prosper in the long run.
We have found that entrepreneurship and creativity are key factors for promoting economic development in lagging areas of Appalachia. To foster them, aid programs should focus on improving quality of life and attracting new, highly skilled residents. One way to do so is by investing in natural resource amenities, such as abandoned mine cleanup. However, Trump’s budget request eliminates grants to Appalachian communities for economic development in conjunction with abandoned mine land cleanup.
Another strategy is investing in basic infrastructure, such as road maintenance, public schools and health care, freeing up local governments to invest local tax dollars in communities’ unique assets. The Appalachian Regional Commission already facilitates these types of programs. Substantially increasing the agency’s funding, rather then eliminating it, would be an effective way to help coal communities.
Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article originally published on Feb. 15, 2016.
Mark Rembert, Ph.D., contributed to this article.UBERLANDIA, Brazil – With just one UFC fight to his name, Colby Covington isn’t about to start making demands. But after Saturday night, he isn’t expecting to jerk any more curtains, either.
“I’m a little frustrated with that,” Covingtin admitted to MMAjunkie. “I want to be high up on the card. I want to show that I’m an exciting fighter. They’re going to find that out after this performance, and they’re not going to want to put me on UFC Fight Pass anymore because I come to finish, and I come to be impressive. Hopefully after this fight they’ll reconsider and start putting me on main cards.”
Covington (6-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC), an American Top Team product, made his UFC debut in August after traveling to Macau to score a dominant first-round victory over Wang Anying. He returns to action on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 56, when he takes on Brazilian welterweight Wagner Silva (3-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at Ginasio Municipal Tancredo Neves in Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
“It’s kind of weird; I went to China, fought a Chinese (fighter), and now I’m in Brazil fighting a Brazilian,” Covington said. “But I’m just happy I have a job. I’m grateful for the UFC. I can’t thank the UFC enough for that, so it doesn’t matter if I’m the villain or good guy. I’m just here to win fights.”
Covington’s fight is the lone preliminary-card bout that streams on UFC Fight Pass (7:30 p.m. ET). Five additional prelims air on FOX Sports 2 (8 p.m. ET) before the main card airs on FOX Sports 1 (10:30 p.m. ET).
Covington would love to walk away with another quick win, and he hopes the performance gets him a more prominent role in his next booking.
“I want to get right back in there,” Covington said. “I’m in my prime. I’m feeling the best I’ve ever felt. I’m more well-rounded than I’ve ever been in my career, so I want to get back to work. I don’t want to take too much time. I just want to be active, and I want to start building my dynasty.”
Thus far, Covington looks like the real deal. A former college roommate of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and recent UFC bantamweight title challenger Joe Soto, Covington believes he’s destined for big things in the sport. And if he gets the chance to prove it on a bigger stage, the 26-year-old is anxious to capitalize.
“I think by the end of 2015, I can be in the top 10,” he said. “I’ve just got to get the right fights. Whatever the UFC wants me to do to get there, I’ll do that.
“I’m not in any rush. I’m still young, relatively. I just want to keep putting on exciting fights, and whenever the UFC wants to give me the opportunities to be in the top 10, I’m ready to take them.”
For more on UFC Fight Night 56, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.Purchased this as a gift for my son. The soundtrack for this movie was great! Some of the songs - I need a Gangstar, You Don't Own Me and Heathens are perfect on vinyl. It has some language, but a nice record for the collection. A lot of soundtracks only have one or two songs worth listening to.
Also, my son loves how it's etched with the "Suicide Squad" name on side D of the record, and both records are pinkish/purple (Not sure what the color is considered exactly, but it's really cool as for the standard, normal vinyl record color). In our opinion, this album is the exception as most of the tracks are the best from the movie. We enjoyed the movie - have seen it more than once, so this is definitely an amazing album to have!
The list below is of every song on the vinyl in order of record side.
Side A
Purple Lamborghini — Skrillex and Rick Ross
Sucker for Pain — Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa and Imagine Dragons with Logic and Ty Dolla $ign (Feat. X
Ambassadors)
Heathens — Twenty One Pilots
Standing in the Rain — Action Bronson, Mark Ronson and Dan Auerbach
Gangsta — Kehlani
Side B
Know Better — Kevin Gates
You Don't Own Me — Grace (Feat. G-Easy)
Without Me—Eminem
Wreak Havoc — Skylar Grey
Medieval Warefare — Grimes
Side C
Bohemian Rhapsody — Queen
Slippin’ into Darkness — War
Fortunate Son— Creedence Clearwater Revival
I Started A Joke — ConfidentialMX (Feat. Beck Hanson)
Side D
Really cool "Suicide Squad" name etchingAfter a 10 year study of 3000 people, researchers have made the surprising discovery that hearts age differently in men and women.
We need personalised medicine
We know people age differently, both inside and outside. This is down to a complex interplay of genetics and environment, which leads to significant variation in the aging process for all of us. What we didn't expect was that such a striking difference would emerge between the genders. So what does this mean? Could there be more we're missing?
Science is already difficult, so it can be tempting to lump groups together. Gender and sex are also incredibly variable areas of biology, but after a long-term, 10 year analysis of 3000 people, the results are in and we may need to rethink how to approach heart disease in each gender.
What differences emerged?
While previous work has compared old and young hearts at a specific time, for this study researchers compared MRI scans taken over the decade in individuals; mapping their changes over time.
“The shape of the heart changes over time in both men and women, but the patterns of change are different. Men's hearts tend to get heavier and the amount of blood they hold is less, while women's hearts don't get heavier.”
In both sexes a chamber in the heart called the left ventricle gets smaller. This matters because this chamber is responsible for pushing oxygen rich blood fresh from the lungs to the rest of the body. This change forces the heart to work harder and raises blood pressure. While the ventricle shrinks in both sexes, researchers hadn't expect to find such a big difference in how it shrinks. They found in men the heart thickens and encroaches on the space, but in women this wasn't the case. In the female heart, the walls stayed the same or started to thin, but the shape began to change.
“Our results are a striking demonstration of the concept that heart disease may have different pathophysiology in men and women and of the need for tailored treatments that address such important biologic differences”
The surprising discovery is a reminder of how sorely needed personalised medicine is, and that we need to start looking at sex differences more carefully - especially in cardiovascular disease.
Read more at The Huffington PostPeter ConnerFriday 9 Jan 2009 09.17amDavid ThorneR 1200 GSHello David,Thankyou for your recent enquiry regarding pricing of the R 1200 GS Motorcycle. We do not accept household furniture as trade ins on vehicles and would reccomend you sell them privately. The R 1200 GS has a list price of $25,470. Please note that this excludes Dealer delivery and ORC and is GST inclusive. I welcome you to contact me personally to arrange a test ride at a time that would suit you.Sincerely, Peter ConnerDavid ThorneFriday 9 Jan 2009 10.03amPeter ConnerRe: R 1200 GSDear Peter,Thank you for responding to the online request I filled out several months ago and your kind offer to allow me to test ride the product before paying what is essentially five times the value of my car. If you could confirm for me that the model is available in desert yellow, I would be very interested.Regards, David.Peter ConnerFriday 9 Jan 2009 10.22amDavid ThorneR 1200 GS colours availableHello David,Yes the R 1200 GS is available in desert yellow. We have a desert yellow demo model on the showroom floor at the moment if you would like to come in to view and arrange a test ride at that time.Sincerely, Peter ConnerDavid ThorneFriday 9 Jan 2009 10.48amPeter ConnerRe: R 1200 GS colours availableDear Peter,I have just been informed that bees are attracted to yellow vehicles. Apparently a few years back, a guy I know purchased a bright yellow convertible and was unable to drive it with the top down due to constantly being surrounded by bees. Do you know if this is a science fact? I am allergic to bees and the last thing I want is to be stung in the eye while I am doing 240kph on the freeway during the test ride. Also, do you know if there are airtight motorcycle helmets available?Regards, David.Peter ConnerFriday 9 Jan 2009 11.09amDavid ThorneRe: Re: R 1200 GS colours availableHello David,You would be required to follow state speed restrictions of 100kph on the Eastern Freeway during a test ride and would reccomend lower speeds than that until you have familiarised yourself with the bike. We would generally not expect people to take the demo bike on the freeway but we can discuss when you come in. I have never heard that about bees liking yellow vehicles and would think it is not true. The R 1200 GS is available in granite, black and red in addition to the yellow. Would you like to come in today and discus?Sincerely, Peter ConnerDavid ThorneFriday 9 Jan 2009 02.50pmPeter ConnerRe: Re: Re: R 1200 GS colours availableDear Peter,I have been researching bees on the internet for the last four hours at work. When I type "Do bees like yellow" into google, it states that there are 2,960,000 results. It will take me a while to look at that many pages so I doubt I will make it in there today.One of the pages states that Qantas once had a yellow kangaroo as their logo but when it was painted on the tail fin it attracted nests of bees so the logo was changed to red in the mid fifties. This would seem to support the argument that bees are indeed attracted to yellow and contradicts what you have told me. Admittedly though, another page states that bees are technically unable to fly due to their wings being too small for their body weight but I have seen them doing it so this can't be true - somebody should check the internet and make sure everything on there is correct.Regardless, I do not think having to dodge bees in addition to the already present dangers of learning to ride a motorbike for the first time would be very safe. Once when I was a passenger in a yellow taxi, a bee flew in and I screamed causing the driver to swerve and hit a wheelie bin. I will continue my research and confirm that this would not be a factor before I arrange the test ride.Regards, David.Peter ConnerFriday 9 Jan 2009 03.18pmDavid ThorneRe: Re: Re: Re: R 1200 GS colours availableWhen you say you are learning to ride a motorcycle, do you hold a current full motorcycle license?Sincerely, Peter ConnerDavid ThorneFriday 9 Jan 2009 03.40pmPeter ConnerRe: Re: Re: Re: Re: R 1200 GS colours availableDear Peter,No, but how hard can it be? They are just pushbikes with engines. Part of my daily job role is to ride to collect co-workers lunch orders from McDonalds. I balance the bags on my handlebars because they will not buy me a basket. I think that qualifies me for something. Often, I have to make the trip twice when McDonalds® employees leave something out of the order. Actually, on average, every third time I go through the drive through they forget to include part of my order.Also the girls who work there are too attractive. This means that if I want something from my local McDonalds® late at night, I have to shower, shave and wear something nice before I can get a simple snack. As it takes me at least two hours to do my hair, I am practically starving by this time and therefore order twice as much food as usual. Ordering more food increases the chance of them leaving something out. Last night it was an apple pie and that is really the only thing I like from there. It is quite obvious to me that they do this on purpose Once, I ordered two big macs, minus the beef, large fries and an apple pie. When I got home and opened the bag, there were two happy meals in there. The toy in each was a Kim Possible figurine which worked out well as I gave one to my son and kept one myself. For a cartoon character, you have to admit that Kim Possible is quite attractive. I also have a thing for Lois from the television series Family Guy so I must have a penchant for cartoon redheads which is vaguely puzzling to me as I cannot stand redheads in real life. Nobody can.I read somewhere that redheads are more prone to allergies and if this is a science fact, and includes allergies to bee stings, all redheads should be encouraged to wear bright yellow T-Shirts.Regards, David.Peter ConnerFriday 9 Jan 2009 04.28pmDavid ThorneR 1200 GS test rideDear David,I apologise but we will be unable to organise a test ride for you at this time.Sincerely, Peter ConnerTranscript
>> US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into whether President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, is now requesting documents from the White House about former top aide Michael Flynn. The New York Times is reporting that while not a formal subpoena, the document's request is the first time Mueller's team has asked the White House to turn in documents related to Flynn, Trump's former National Security Advisor.
Mueller's investigators are said to be looking into whether there were secret payments to Flynn by the Turkish government last year. While taking payments from a foreign government is not illegal, failing to register as a foreign agent is a felony. Hiding foreign payment could bring on criminal charges. Flynn's ouster in February came after he failed to disclose conversations with former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak and misled Vice President Mike Pence about those meetings.The new Business School building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) is located in Ultimo, a cultural and educational precinct of inner Sydney. The building’s function is primarily postgraduate and executive education, but it serves the university as a whole and is intended to represent the innovative thinking that underpins the teaching, learning and research undertaken by the Business School. Named for Australian-Chinese businessman and philanthropist Dr Chau Chak Wing, who donated substantially to the project, the building is strikingly different from any other in the vicinity and it clearly generates plenty of interest at street level as pedestrians are drawn closer to inspect, photograph and engage with it. Responses range from aversion to delight, yet many people are unsure about the dramatically sculptural work. This ambivalence is intriguing because the building has been designed by Frank Gehry, 1989 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, an architect whose significant yet polarizing body of work is both admired and reviled worldwide. But perhaps it is appropriate that the Sydney audience will not simply accept that its Gehry building – his first in Australia – will be a great one deserving immediate approbation.
Examining the building beyond immediate concerns such as its appearance, the overall cost to UTS and the difficulty of its construction reveals an architecture that is challenging in at least three key ways. Firstly, it challenges more traditional notions of context in the sense that it thrives in both a local, urban context and in a virtual, global one. Secondly, it challenges construction norms by taking a standard construction method – in this case, brick veneer (a brick skin tied back to a structural frame) – and achieving an incredible fluidity of form and texture that has already raised the profile of the highly skilled bricklayers who laid in order of 320,000 bricks by hand, following the 3D construction model. Thirdly, it goes back to a tradition of university buildings that offers identity and a place for students to gather and be inspired, rather than simply providing accommodation for students gaining degrees through the system. This is important now because universities must embrace online learning and engage with a highly literate and mobile generation of learners.
A stainless steel stair in the main lobby – manufactured by Urban Art Projects – is one of the sculptural forms within the building. Peter Bennetts Image:
How does this building challenge the value we attribute to architecture that belongs to place and responds to context? On the one hand, it fits into its context in scale and proportion, colour and use of local materials, and through its enhanced connection with the surrounding streets and The Goods Line – a pedestrian spine along a disused railway track currently being re-landscaped alongside the Business School. It is contextual, as described in the UTS media release: “the exterior has two different but related personalities; an east-facing, undulating brick facade acknowledging Sydney’s sandstone heritage and a western facade of angular glass shards reflecting its contemporary surrounds.” On the other hand, Gehry radically distinguishes the building from its local context by taking the familiar architectural building type of UTS and other neighbouring institutions and morphing that typology into a wildly irreverent, lifelike being. This act of manipulating form allows the creation of remarkable and memorable images, such as the one used by UTS to advertise the new Business School building in print media, months before the official opening. This apparent reduction of architecture into a singular image – sometimes one associated more closely with the architect’s oeuvre than with the building’s place and use – is unsettling. Architectural imagery – as with all image making – is now global currency, and in this sense, the architecture could be located anywhere. “Bilbao, Paris, Los Angeles, Sydney; whatever program, whatever place, a Gehry is above all a Gehry,” said Sydney-based architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly of Gehry’s instantly recognizable work. 1
Bricks, including five types that were custom-made for the building, have been intricately corbelled to achieve the building’s remarkable fluid skin. Peter Bennetts Image:
These images, however, are no match for experiencing the actual building. Up close, the plastic, fluid quality of the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building creates an encounter and connection that are wholly physical. Its extraordinarily complex construction included five custom-made brick types manufactured specifically for the building by Bowral Bricks and laid with great skill by master bricklayer Peter Favetti, who came out of retirement to work with his son and the bricklayers of his business on the project. The brickwork is heavily corbelled and carefully executed to an exacting and highly detailed design. The undulations of the brick facade and the abundance of idiosyncratic visual and tactile detail make “being there” a highly engaging and personal experience. Comparisons with architects from other eras such as Gaudí and Lewerentz come to mind. Gaudí because of the playfulness and freedom of the form, and Lewerentz for the extensive use of expressive brickwork and the way materials such as brick and timber are used to create a sense of space and place. There are differences, of course – Gaudí and Lewerentz were not influenced by the possibilities of computer modelling and did not live in a world that communicates so predominantly through visual media, which is the context in which Gehry works today.
The third challenge faced in the realization of the Dr Chau Chak Wing relates to the way educational facilities might engage learners. Parallels can be drawn between the physical experience of this building and the education model that promotes face-to-face interaction and communication. While UTS belongs to a global conversation, and it is clearly useful for any university to have a global reach, “being there” – to experience both the architecture and the teaching – is most certainly also an important aspect. Professor Shirley Alexander, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education and Students) at UTS, was closely involved in the design process, working with Gehry Partners and local practice Daryl Jackson Robin Dyke as they interpreted the education brief set by the university. Professor Alexander noted that Gehry was very interested in the education model and embraced the idea of the building extending to a new model that combines the best of online learning with the best of a face-to-face experience. Increasingly, along with perhaps all other universities, UTS sees the campus as a high-value, high-quality experience for personalized learning – something that cannot be done online. Consequently, there is no standard lecture theatre in the Business School; instead, there are oval-shaped spaces that are described as high-touch experience spaces, supported but not dominated by technology. Some of the key spaces are for just forty people, allowing participants |
about the LCBO has always been selection, so having a new player on the market with control of what goes on on their shelves is something we should be excited about as consumers. This is only the first step in seeing wine in grocery stores, with more licences to be rolled out in 2017.
You can check here which grocery stores are carrying wines.
Here are some wines that are not (yet) available in your local grocery store:
2014 Cave Spring Riesling Icewine – Vintages 447441 – $49.95 – ****½ –
There is something really special about this wine. The aroma has this presence of caramel corn, and it’s just so satisfying to have something almost savoury right off the hop. Riesling Icewine tends to keep its acidity and this is no exception. There are flavours of canned peaches, apricot, and honey. Sip deliberately and serve with pâté and firm cheeses.
2013 Creekside Iconoclast Syrah – Vintages 471797 – ****+ – $22.95 –
This is outstanding syrah, but we should expect nothing less from Creekside. There is a layer of black pepper from start to finish on this wine. The aromas are blackberry and raspberry, with a good layer of charred wood. This wine is light on its toes as the fruit dances on your palate only to move to smoke and pepper on the finish, which is long and satisfying. Honestly, this is the sort of wine you might think you’d want to pair with grilled beef or lamb but, frankly, I wouldn’t pair this with anything to risk wiping out the subtleties of this wine.
2013 Marynissen Platinum Chardonnay – Vintages 471532 – $25.00 – **** –
If you’re not a fan of oaked chardonnay, you may want to take a pass on this bottle. That being said, this bottle does offer tropical fruit—oranges with butterscotch and wood smoke. The key to this wine is to be mindful of serving temperature. If you serve this too cold it will come off tasting a little like Popsicle sticks. However, serve this a few degrees below fridge temperature and you will unlock all the fruit in the bottle.
2013 Cave Spring Cabernet Franc – Vintages 391995 – ****+ – $19.95 –
Wow. This is a textbook example of what happens in Niagara during a more typical vintage. This is elegant and approachable right after opening, but there is nice tannin in the bottle so this should age gracefully for five to seven years in a cellar. It has flavours and aromas of licorice and raspberry, and subtle hints of blueberry with a whisper of cocoa and spice on the finish. There is a slight savoury edge to this wine, but it is a shadow under all the fruit, licorice, and spice.Most celebrity interviews for upcoming movies are fairly easy, so long as you don’t act like an ass. They know they’re there to promote the work, and if you facilitate that to some degree, they’ll say something quotable.
But there are exceptions. Not everybody likes to talk. And in the past when that has happened, it usually has felt like someone just trying to mess with me (Rob Zombie) or a performance artist doing their shtick (wrestler “White Trash” Johnny Webb, comedian Chuck Sklar).
Harry Dean Stanton is another story. He is what you see so often onscreen – a man of few words (in his most acclaimed movie, Paris, Texas, he’s silent for around a half-hour). There’s no mean-spiritedness or pranking to it – he’s a friendly, gracious person who simply prefers not to be introspective. Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, Sophie Huber’s new documentary about the iconic costar of such films as Alien, Red Dawn and The Avengers tries to get to the heart of the man, and ends up finding it through his music.
I ask you to imagine the following interview as a scene from a movie, because it certainly felt like one…
INT. ITALIAN RESTAURANT. DAY.
It’s noon, but you’d never know it inside this windowless, high-end, Old Hollywood joint on Santa Monica Boulevard. At night, this place will be packed by the A-listers who can easily afford $60 lamb chops for every meal, and the Z-lister who want to keep up appearances and pretend they do.
For now, though, it’s closed, and this whole side of it is empty save for one man sitting at a booth, nursing his tenth cigarette – which is illegal indoors but nobody is going to tell HIM that – and sipping on a Manhattan (it’s five o’clock somewhere). He’s in his eighties, and the vices don’t seem to have hurt much, though he is hard of hearing.
It’s HARRY DEAN STANTON, the guy you’ve seen in a hundred movies or more.
In walks LUKE, some dumbass in a Zombieland hat. He’s in awe, realizing there is probably nothing that can be asked here that the man hasn’t heard before, especially since he just did a 30-minute conversation for a radio show. Luke sits down and they shake hands. And the conversation (with only minor edits) begins…
Harry Dean Stanton: Now what is this for?
Luke Y. Thompson: This is for ToplessRobot.com.
HDS: ToplessRobot? What’s that?
LYT: It’s a website for nerds, from the Village Voice folks.
HDS: Yeah, I’m not familiar with the website.
LYT: [laughs]That’s OK. Probably a lot of my readers would know you best from The Avengers.
HDS: From what?
LYT: From The Avengers.
HDS: Yeah.
LYT: First of all, I just want to say thank you for your body of work, which has been such an inspiration – such a great thing to watch over the years. You’ve done so many really great movies. One of the movies that my generation loves the most is Red Dawn, which has less acclaim, but the one scene where you say “Avenge me, boys…”
HDS: Yeah.
LYT: It’s classic. It’s seared into our minds. When you did that, did you know that that was going to be the classic scene?
HDS: No, you never know. I never – as an actor, I never think about…I can tell what is going good or not, you know. But you never know.
LYT: Did you have sense of how big as stars those two boys were going to be back then?
HDS: How what?
LYT: How big Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen were going to be back then?
HDS: Kelly who?
LYT: Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen?
HDS: Oh, Charlie Sheen.
LYT: Did you have the sense that they had the potential to be…
HDS: I wasn’t thinking along those lines. It didn’t cross my mind.
LYT: Is this the first time someone has wanted to do a documentary about you?
HDS: No, there’s a guy in Kentucky who did one…god, Tom Thurman. He did one. But this is the one that’s been most comprehensive.
LYT: What’s it like to see someone else try to analyze you? It seems like you’re more of an instinctive kind of guy.
HDS: Everything just happens. There’s really no answer to any of this. It’s all a movie, even as we speak. And nobody knows the ending. [chuckles]
LYT: How did you meet Sophie the first time?
HDS: I met her here, as a matter of fact, in a booth across the…the other side of the bar. She was with her…I think she was with some guy she was going out with. That’s when I first met her. Yeah.
LYT: And how long was it before she proposed doing the movie?
HDS: Oh, it was two or three years ago.
LYT: Did you agree to it right away or was it something that took some convincing?
HDS: I wasn’t crazy about – I’m tired of being famous. [chuckles]Movies and all – I still do it, but it’s not important anymore.
LYT: I saw a quote from you online where you said that you could have taken opportunities that would have made you more famous, but they would have been a lot more work.
HDS: Oh, yeah. And if I fall into the suffering syndrome of regret, I question that. John Carpenter offered me my own series, and they presented it to me with this actual dialog: He said, “You will be more famous” – it was playing the part of a private investigator in a series with the Mary Tyler Moore people, totally solid organization – he said, “I’ll write the first three, later on you can help with the casting, the writing, the directing, whatever.” In other words, they were offering me a whole career of being a leading man. [chuckles]And, uh, they said “You’ll be more famous, more money than you’ve ever had, and more pussy than you’ll ever get, onscreen or off.” [chuckles]Those were the words they used.
LYT: And you turned them down?
HDS: I turned them down. I could have been a leading man right now, today. [laughs]But I did play the lead in Paris, Texas.
LYT: And that’s a movie everyone loves.
HDS: It’s my favorite movie.
LYT: Yeah, it’s a great one! You’ve done so many great movies, and you play great music. It seems like you worked plenty hard enough.
HDS: So, that’s what it is.
LYT: Yeah. One thing that really strikes me in the movie is the contrast between when you’re singing and when you’re acting, because you’ve played so many characters who don’t really lay their cards all on the table right away, but when you sing, all those emotions are laid out there right away. Is it a very different process?
HDS: No, it’s very similar, acting and singing. Any singer can be an actor. As a matter of fact, anybody can be a film actor! You, anybody in this – anybody, anywhere, can be a film actor, if you’ve got a good director.
LYT: But you’ve managed it, obviously with great directors, and with less-great directors. I subscribe to the Roger Ebert rule that any movie that you’re in can’t be altogether terrible.
HDS: No, I’ve been very fortunate in that way.
LYT: Is there any director that you haven’t worked with that you want to? You’ve done pretty much most of the greats.
HDS: No, I don’t think along those lines.
LYT: I saw that you did a Huckleberry Finn movie in 1960 that Buster Keaton was in. Did you get to work with him?
HDS: Buster Keaton?
LYT: Yeah.
HDS: Was he in it?
LYT: He was.
HDS: I don’t remember that. I don’t remember Buster Keaton. Are you sure of that?
LYT: I’m as sure as what the credits tell me.
HDS: Eh.
LYT: It may have been just a cameo on a different day.
HDS: What was the name of it?
LYT: Huckleberry Finn.
HDS: Oh, yeah. God, I can’t…it’s such a long time ago. No, I can’t remember what happened in that film. Who else was in it? John Carradine?
LYT: I don’t remember [Yes, he was]. The lead actor was someone I’ve never heard of before, so I guess it was a child actor who didn’t go on.
HDS: What was the name of it again?
LYT: Huckleberry Finn.
HDS: Huckleberry Finn, yeah. God, I remember that. God, it’s so frustrating – I can’t remember things.
LYT: One of my favorite anecdotes, I don’t know if you remember this one, but it was about when you were doing Repo Man, and they wanted you to use a fake baseball bat, and you insisted on using a real one for the scene. Do you remember that?
HDS: Yeah, I got in an argument with Alex Cox, right?
LYT: Yeah.
HDS: Yeah. That was a big argument. [chuckles]
LYT: Were they worried you were going to hurt somebody?
HDS: What?
LYT: Were they worried you were going to hurt somebody?
HDS: Yeah, he was afraid I was going to hurt somebody. But I knew what I was doing. We clashed some – a lot of times. But he’s brilliant – brilliant writer and director. For the most part.
LYT: My dad took me to that movie when I was young – that was a trip.
HDS: Was it Repo Man?
LYT: Yeah.
HDS: Yeah, yeah. That was a brilliant satire. I did that and Paris, Texas in sequence, and they’re my two favorite movies.
LYT: Wow. That’s a hell of a double header!
HDS: Yeah.
LYT: How did you come to be in The Avengers?
HDS: I can’t remember now. My agent called me. I’m still pissed off about that. In the original movie, they cut part of the scene out there.
LYT: Oh yeah?
HDS: It was the best scene in the movie. Still pissed off. [chuckles]
LYT: I believe it.
HDS: But they put it in the Blue version – Blue what?
LYT: Blu-ray.
HDS: Yeah. Yeah, they put it back in. And even though they cut it down, it still scored. I’m amazed.
LYT: So you said earlier you were kind of tired of being famous, but yet you probably still have all of these big movies and guys like Joss Whedon calling you up, wanting you to be in their movies. How do you…
HDS: Who?
LYT: Joss Whedon, The Avengers director.
HDS: Yeah.
LYT: All these people still want you. Do you find yourself in a place where you’re turning down roles now, because people want you too much?
HDS: Sometimes, yeah. Occasionally. I can’t remember the instances.
LYT: Philosophical question here, but I guess everybody asks this at some point or another: As someone who has lived a life that I think some people would be extremely proud of, is there a secret to living a long, productive life, as far as you can tell, or is it just happenstance?
HDS: I have no answer to that. There’s only the moment. Right here, right now, as we speak.
LYT: Well, that might be the answer – to live in the moment.
HDS: If there’s an answer, that’s it. [chuckles]Fall in love, intimately in love, with the gift of presence. With what “is”. Here, right here, right now. The seeds of everything you’ve ever longed for. It’s simple, and ordinary, and magnificent. See you all the way home. Tony Parsons. [chuckles]
Harry sees a waiter walking in the dark background.
HDS: Hey, who’s that? [calling out]Who is it?
[speaker]: You forgot my name, huh?
HDS: Yeah, who is it?
[speaker]: Giovanni Pizzochiare.
HDS: Huh?
[speaker]: Giovanni Pizzochiare. Nino – your friend, Nino.
HDS: Nino, I haven’t seen you in a long time.
Nino: I know, because you don’t come here when I’m here. How have you been? How you doing?
HDS: I don’t know.
Nino: All right. How’s the Manhattan?
HDS: Good.
They shake hands, as Nino realizes everything is being recorded. He makes his exit.
LYT: Popular guy!
HDS: Yeah.
LYT: Are there any career goals left for you, or have you achieved pretty much everything?
HDS: Any what?
LYT: Do you have any career goals left, anything to still…?
HDS: I have no goals.
LYT: Have you ever desired to put the acting and music together, maybe do musicals, or are those things you like to keep secret?
HDS: No, I have nothing to do with it. Just whatever happens, happens.
LYT: Has that always been your philosophy?
HDS: For a long time, yeah. Long time.
LYT: Do you remember what it was like doing Alien?
HDS: Oh, yeah.
LYT: The story goes, and I never know if this is a true story or not, that when they did the scene where it bursts out of John Hurt, that they didn’t tell you guys what was going to happen. Was that true – they didn’t tell you?
HDS: Yeah, that was – that was – actually that was traumatic. Blood running all over everybody…it was – it was a trauma, in real life, as an actor – on screen or off.
LYT: So was it pretty much one take, just to capture that reaction, and then on?
HDS: Yeah, one or two, I can’t remember.
LYT: Did you ever have a favorite kind of movie to make? You seemed to have an affinity for Westerns early on, or was that just coincidence – that’s what you happened to be cast in?
HDS: I can’t hear you.
LYT: Was there a genre or type of movie that you liked better? Certainly you were in a lot of Westerns to start with. Was that because they were your favorite, or just because it happened?
HDS: It doesn’t matter about the genre. It’s the writing, the director, the actors, if they’re all – if they’re all talented, it doesn’t matter.
LYT: What was it like living with Jack Nicholson, back in the day?
HDS: That was fun. We were close friends – forever. [chuckles]
LYT: He seemed pretty wild back then.
HDS: Yeah…yeah…yeah – he did Easy Rider, right? That’s what got him started.
LYT: Yeah, although Little Shop of Horrors – he’s wonderful in that too.
HDS: Yeah, he’s good.
LYT: Is he retired now? Did he say he wasn’t doing any more?
HDS: I don’t know.
LYT: What do you have coming up next? Are you working on any movies right now?
HDS: No, I’m just dealing with this documentary right now.
LYT: Is it hard talking about yourself so much?
HDS: Yeah, it’s tiresome after a while.
LYT: Yeah.
HDS: It’s taxing, because you do it so much.
LYT: Yeah.
HDS: I’ve done it, and for so many years.
LYT: When you do interviews and you’ve got people asking you about all of this old stuff, has it ever made you look back on things in a different way?
HDS: I don’t know. I can’t answer that. This is what it is. Right here, right now.
LYT: With that in mind, would you give any up-and-coming actors any advice?
HDS: Yeah – play yourself.
LYT: Play yourself.
HDS: Yeah. [chuckles]
LYT: Sometimes that’s a hard thing to do, to just play yourself in front of the camera…
HDS: Who else are you going to be except yourself? No matter what you’re doing, you’re still yourself, whatever that means. [chuckles]
As a publicist indicates the time is up, Luke is offered a picture with Harry, something that would generally be woefully uncool for him to actually ask for at a press day.
He does not turn it down.
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction opens in limited release this weekend.SAN JOSE, Calif. – If MLS defenders believe that knocking down Tommy Thompson is going to dissuade the San Jose Earthquakes rookie from attacking them, they might want to come up with a new plan. The current one doesn’t seem to be having the desired effect.
Despite being fouled a combined 13 times in the Quakes’ last two games, the 19-year-old Thompson is ready for more, starting Sunday in Portland (4:45 pm ET; ESPN2).
“That’s been happening my whole life, whether it was high school soccer, club soccer, at the collegiate level, and now as a professional,” Thompson told MLSsoccer.com. “My whole life, I’ve really been prepared for that. Honestly, it wasn’t a surprise, and I’m ready to keep on drawing those fouls. As long as it’s helping the team, I’m happy to do it.”
With Thompson’s help, the Quakes have drawn 34 total fouls in their last two matches. That’s a 31 percent jump over their average of 12.9 in the previous 22 games.
There are several obvious contributing factors to why Thompson has been drawing so many whistles: his skill on the ball, his position underneath Chris Wondolowski and perhaps most importantly, his size. Nobody wants to be made to look the fool by a teenager listed at 5-foot-7 and 145 pounds.
“Any time there’s a smaller, skillful player on the field, the first thing the [opposing] coach is going to say is to see how he reacts to some physicality,” Thompson said. “Because a lot of times, players might be scared to get the ball in the future, if they get hit hard. But that’s just not in my DNA.”
So far, Thompson – who was brought along slowly this season after becoming the Quakes’ first Homegrown signing in part because of winter knee surgery – has shown no ill effects from receiving so many tackles. With injuries taking their toll on San Jose’s attack, the team asked for Thompson’s release from national-team duty this week with the US Under-20 squad, which initially named him to the travel party for their 10-day camp in Argentina.
“He’s a tough kid,” Quakes coach Mark Watson said. “He doesn’t shy away from stuff. If he gets kicked, he gets right back up and gets on with it.”
Get the latest Quakes news at SJEarthquakes.com
Often times, Thompson gets up with a smile on face. That’s not because he’s enjoying the contact on the tackles, but because it means he knows he’s having an impact on the match – especially when opponents start jawing at him, going in on his rookie status.
“It’s almost a compliment,” Thompson said. “If that’s what they have to resort to, to take me down, I’m willing to laugh it off. Especially when they start to make comments after the foul. That’s when I think it’s really funny.”
Things don’t necessarily stay funny, at least not for defenders who might be getting frustrated by chasing Thompson around for a full 90 minutes. Thompson, however, just feeds off that energy.
“I’ve noticed a little bit of animosity toward me by the end of games, but I love it,” Thompson said. “It’s fun to be in the mix out there and welcome that physicality, that competitiveness out there from other guys. Bring it on.”Once, Col. James H. Johnson was an honor graduate of West Point, on his way to a storied career capped by his command of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. While leading the brigade, he had an affair with an Iraqi Kurdish woman that cost him his command, his career, and his honor.
Next week, Johnson will face a court-martial in Germany. He pleads not guilty to a host of charges ranging from bigamy to making false statements to financial misconduct. He is one of the most senior officers to be charged with misconduct during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
It all started in 2005, when Johnson, a married man, met a woman in northern Iraq – also married – while in battalion command. Allegedly, to win her over he used thousands of dollars in government money over the years to pay for a variety of favors for her family, and falsified receipts to cover his tracks, as Nancy Montgomery recounts in Stars and Stripes.
After the 173rd deployed to Afghanistan in late 2009, Johnson assured the public that he was spending his brigade's wartime reconstruction cash in a more transparent way than ever before. But according to Johnson's charge sheet, he was diverting some of it to his paramour's family. He filed an invoice for nearly $60,000 to pay her father for services ostensibly rendered on Forward Operating Base Shenk. According to the charge sheet, "the deliverables were not produced nor received as required by the contract, and was then known by the said Colonel James H. Johnson to be false and fraudulent."
Johnson would still be in command today had his wife, Kris, not exposed the affair, and the alleged official misconduct that protected it, to Army investigators. Perhaps most brazen: After undergoing surgery at home in New York, Kris Johnson learned that she had been discontinued from her military insurance.
"The reason turned out to be that the colonel had enrolled another wife," Montgomery writes.
That's the basis for charging James Johnson with bigamy. The colonel had been living with the Iraqi woman at the 173rd's home base in Vicenza, Italy – which the Army charges was "to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces and of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces" – and married her in November in Montana before divorcing Kris Johnson.
An officer's private life has professional ramifications, since commanders are supposed to set moral examples for the troops under their leadership. That's why Conduct Unbecoming an Officer is a punishable offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Johnson lost command of the brigade in March 2011 after the investigation began. It attracted a lot of attention: While the Navy fires officers at or around Johnson's rank with surprising frequency, the Army rarely does.
Johnson is pleading not guilty. While he tells the court martial that some of his decisions might appear "poor in hindsight," he insists his actions had "no effect on the command." The brigade deployed to the volatile eastern Afghanistan provinces of Logar, Wardak and Kunar from November 2009 to November 2010. Toward the end of his tour, Johnson boasted that he had increased the brigade's transparency over the discretionary cash at its disposal for Afghan reconstruction.
"We're seeing great progress with a program that we call the People's Development Fund," Johnson told the Pentagon press corps in September 2010. "Previously, coalition forces have exclusively allocated CERP [Commander's Emergency Response Program] dollars. This is a process that may not be transparent. Using the People's Development Fund, it provides transparent district governance that empowers district committees to prioritize CERP and other funding sources for their communities."
Kris Johnson stands to lose her own funding sources if her husband is convicted. According to Montgomery, she would lose her share of his retirement pay, education expenses for their children, and other benefits, "worth some $4 million over an average lifespan." Kris Johnson plans to testify against James Johnson next week – apparently, as a matter of honor.Attention! This news was published on the old version of the website. There may be some problems with news display in specific browser versions.
Raid over Ploesti - The Lightning Strikes
P-38G Lightning "Marge" skin by Wuax | download here
It was early on a quiet morning on June the 10th, 1944. The sun is rising slowly over an airfield near Foggia in Italy. Forty six P-38 Lightnings of the “82nd Fighter Group” (95th, 96th, and 97th Squadrons) are preparing for for an attack against Oil facilities in Ploesti, Romania, 600 miles away.
On this mission, each P-38 is equipped with 300 Gallon (1100 liter) long range drop tanks and a 1000lb (450kg) bomb each. The escort was provided by 48 fellow pilots from the “1st Fighter Group” (27th, 71st, and 94th Squadrons) also flying P-38 Lightnings.
Romanian IAR-80 fighters in flight
Almost 100 “Lightnings” rolled down the strip and took off, slowly veering towards their target, The Romana-Americana refinery. The site was defended by huge number of anti aircraft cannons and IAR fighters from the 6th Romanian Fighter Group on Pipera and Popesti-Leordeni airbases. Romanian IAR-80/81 fighters were worthy adversaries to the western fighters although towards end of the war, the IAR planes became outmatched in performance by the P-38 and P-51.
Built by adopting the fuselage from the Polish PZL P-24E with new wings and a more powerful engine, the plane proved to be easy to fly and very maneuverable. More than 400 aircraft of the IAR type had been built in Brasov’s IAR factory from 1940 until January 1943. The last version that came out from production was the IAR-81C - specifically built as a bomber/interceptor, with a 514km/h top speed, two 20mm Mauser cannons and 4 x 7.7mm Browning-FM machine guns.
Usually Romanian and German Bf-109s were sent to attack the escorting fighters while the IAR fighters were tasked with engaging the bombers, making allied bombers losses height - more than 7% per mission. For that reason, the Fifteenth Air Force tacticians decided to send bomb equipped P-38s in low level flight to achieve element of surprise.
A formation of P-38 Lightnings from the 96th Fighter Squadron,
82nd Fighter Group over Italy
American fighters, now smaller in number because multiple aircraft had to return back to base because of mechanical problems, proceeded towards target and just as they entered the target area, the Me-109s from JG “53” intercepted them in a short engagement not following American fighters to flak zone but rather waiting and attacking them on way back. JG “53” Pik As pilots claimed 6 “Lightnings” for loss of 2 Bf-109s.
As American fighters entered target area “1st Fighter Group” got engaged by 28 IAR fighters. IAR fighters made only one pass on P-38s and while battle was raging on extremely low altitude Romanian pilots claimed 14 “Lightnings” for 4 planes lost. At same time “The 82nd Fighter Group” “Lightnings” dropped bombs on target hitting refinery. Flak fire and ground collision claimed few more victims. In total more than 30% of the attacking force had been lost to enemy fighters and flak fire.
Officially “The 82nd Fighter Group” and “1st Fighter Group” that day claimed more that 30 enemy aircraft while losing 24 “Lightnings”. The bombing of Ploesti continued but only with the use of the P-38 being used to escort the high altitude bombers which were left to pound the ground targets.
Bf 109 E3 - Hai Fetito IAR skin by vandoors | download here
The War Thunder TeamAt Pusher we are currently writing a high performance system in Haskell and blogging about it along the way. In our first blog post we explained some tools and tips that we have used for improving CPU time of our program.
We’ve received requests for part two, so here it is. In this post we’re going to look at memory usage and the garbage collector. Why? To track down memory leaks (using GHCs heap profiling and ThreadScope).
First things first, why do we do space (heap) profiling?
Tracking down memory leaks
Haskell is lazily evaluated. This means that expressions are not evaluated when they are bound - not where they are in your source code - but when they are being used, for example as an argument to an IO action.
This is great because it lets you write code that matches the algorithm you are focusing on, without needing to manage the details of how it is exactly executed. It can often let you write code that is both high level, and also very performant; we will cover this in more detail later in this post.
However laziness can make it harder to reason the memory usage of your application, thus making memory leaks a common problem.
This page provides a classic example of how laziness in the accumulator of an innocent looking fold can lead to a very large memory footprint.
In practice we have found memory leaks most frequently occur in multi-threaded environments where a series of updates to a shared mutable variable were stored, but never actually executed i.e. if the reading thread was not running for some reason.
Improving performance
As well as fixing memory leaks, you may also want to look at memory usage in order to improve your program’s performance in general.
Because Haskell is a garbage collected language, the more data you create, the more work the runtime system has to perform in order to clean up. So if you are not using memory efficiently, or creating more data than you need to, then both the throughput and latency of your program can suffer.
The Haskell GC is generational; that is, data is initially created in a “nursery” (generation 0), which is fast, small, and collected frequently. When the GC collects data from the nursery, any data still around is copied to generation 1, which is larger and collected less frequently.
By default there are two generations, although this can be tuned. Haskell’s GC is “stop the world” so no work can be performed on any other program threads while the GC is running. This means that during large generation 1 garbage collections the delays can be in the tens or hundreds of milliseconds, something we’d obviously like to avoid.
Inspecting the heap
The Real World Haskell book already has a good tutorial on this topic, but I will explain the overall idea here.
Haskell’s profiling system provides great tools for inspecting the state of the heap (where objects are stored) over time.
First you need to build your program with the flags
-rtsopts -prof
and then run your program with +RTS and then one of the flags listed here. This will generate a file called your-executable.hp. You can render the data into a PostScript graph with the command hp2ps -e8in -c your-executable.hp. Below is a classic example of the kind of output you will see when using the -hc flag on a program with a memory leak.
We found the best flag to choose depends on the problem you want to solve.
If you think you are generating more data than you expected to, then you most likely want to know which function is producing the data, and what the data is that is being produced. We find the -hc option useful for the former, and -hd (showing the data constructor) useful for the latter.
When tracking down a memory leak, the two options described above will be useful if you are not clear on where the leak is occurring. Once you know what data is being created, you will want to know why it is not being garbage collected.
Heap objects can only be collected when no other objects are referencing them. If you have a leak then an object must still be holding a reference to the data you were expecting to be collected. We found the -hr option useful for this. In addition to the.hp file, it will also generate.prof file. Essentially, for each heap object you will see the set of objects that have a reference to it.
Inspecting the GC
ThreadScope is a great tool in gaining some insight into what the GC is doing. This will visually show exactly when and for how long the GC is run. In particular it can be a useful way of spotting the expensive generation >= 1 GCs.
The output will look something like this:
A lot of this information can also be gained from running with the RTS flags. -s provides a summary of information that will likely be useful even before heap profiling. -S will output very detailed information about every collection. More detailed information on these can be found here.
The various parameters that dictate how and when the GC is run can be tweaked, and this might be enough to overcome GC issues you may have identified; these options are listed here. Simon Marlow (one of the GHC co-developers) described some heuristics that can be used when selecting these.
You can also try using ghc-gc-tune which will run your program multiple times with different options in order to automatically detect the best performing combination.
So now you’ve got to grips with identifying memory leaks and tuning the GC, what’s next?
In part three I’ll be looking at a number of techniques and libraries we have found that can maximise memory efficiency when writing performance critical code.
Think I’ve missed anything here or would you like to know more about anything outlined above? Leave a comment below or find me on Twitter @willsewell_.PrimeNG 4.1.0-RC3 Released
PrimeTek is pleased to announce the 3rd release candidate of PrimeNG 4.1.0 featuring 80 improvements.
Issue Tracker Maintenance
After RC1, we’ve started reviewing all the issues at GitHub, that is why the number of changes are high for an RC. However we’re very satisfied with the end result, there are currently around 280 open issues, 28 of them are confirmed minor defects and rest are enhancements or feature requests. Quality of PrimeNG has been drastically improved in the last 4 weeks with over 200 filed enhancements in total.
Immutable vs Mutable
Removal of ngDoCheck was a controversial change and after discussion with our community, we’ve decided to add it back but with a configuration option called immutable. Data components like DataTable either uses setter based checking or ngDoCheck to realize if the underlying data has changed to update the UI. This is configured using the immutable
property, when enabled (default) setter based detection is utilized so your data changes such as adding or removing a record should always create a new array reference instead of manipulating an existing array as Angular does not trigger setters if the reference does not change. For example, use slice instead of splice when removing an item or use spread operator instead of push method when adding an item. On the other hand, setting immutable property to false removes this restriction by using ngDoCheck with IterableDiffers to listen changes without the need to create a new reference of data. Setter based method is faster however both methods can be used depending on your preference. Note that immutable property also defines |
happened."
Scott also said he considered not going to the All-Star Game.
"I was just thinking, Do I even bother going?" he told TVA Sports. "Because it was such a messed-up situation. I definitely considering not going."
At this point it appears the Canadiens plan to keep Scott in the AHL, and he accepts that.
"I think the plan is to just have me [in] St. John's and play with this team, and like any other player, if I warrant a call-up, so be it," Scott said. "It's back to square one in my career, I guess. I have to play and earn it and see what happens.''
It never crossed his mind not to report to St. John's after the trade.
"I'm making a lot of money playing hockey, why would I stop playing just because someone sent me to St. John's?" he said. "And besides, St. John's is a nice city. What are you going to do? Cry like a baby or work through it?''
So everyone take a deep breath. John Scott is OK.
"Everything is fine. Stop the 'Free John Scott' stuff," Scott said, chuckling. "I'm free, I'm fine. I'm playing hockey, and I'm still alive."Share Pinterest
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The fifth owner of the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT in which "Fast and the Furious" actor Paul Walker and the car's owner and driver, Roger Rodas, were killed was IndyCar driver and avid car collector Graham Rahal.
The car had six different owners since it was new.
Rodas' Always Evolving car shop was the sixth owner. The fifth owner appears to have been Rahal, who fit the car with the distinctive black alloy wheels -- replacing the stock silver wheels -- that made the car so recognizable at Southern California car events.
Rahal bought the car in Florida, and another Florida dealer apparently sold it to Rodas and his company. Rahal traded the car in for a Ferrari, and it was a Ferrari dealer who sold the Carrerra to Rodas.
Rahal had the Carrera GT for a year.
"I get bored with cars pretty quickly," he said in a story published earlier this year. "The Carrera GT is just harder to drive, and I drive my cars a lot. Nothing that I have will not be used. Every car that I have will be driven a lot. I have two cars that are old that don't get used that often, but that is rare."
Rahal compared the Carrera GT to a 2010 Ferrari 599 GTO. Some of his observations and his descriptions of how difficult the Carrera was to drive are chilling in light of the crash.
"It says it has traction control, but that traction control on that car is not going to do a thing to save you," Rahal said. "And that's what I love about it. Part of me is very happy about it and part of me regrets it. It was a great, great car.
"With the GTO, the noise, the shifts, the fact that it's still evolving, with the dual-clutch gearboxes these days, you don't even feel it shift. I'm not really a fan of that," he says. "I like to feel that you're interacting with the car. This [GTO] still has the old style, so you can feel it shift. That's what I personally enjoy about it, whereas a lot of the new cars you can't feel it at all. To me it becomes more like you're driving a computer than driving a car.
"The carbon clutch, things like that are a challenge, whereas the 599 you hop in, off you go. It's pretty simple," he said. "But if I was insanely wealthy and could have 10 supercars, a Carrera GT would be one. I would have to be somewhat of a garage queen, because long-term, I think that is a fantastic investment. I think that the Porsche collectors would agree."A good walk can do wonders for your mental wellbeing.
But it's not just about the occasional one-off feel good factor. Being active has a whole range of benefits when it comes to mental wellbeing.
It improves self-perception and self-esteem, mood and sleep quality, and it reduces stress, anxiety and fatigue. Physically active people have up to a 30% reduced risk of becoming depressed, and staying active helps those who are depressed recover.
In older people, staying active can improve cognitive function, memory, attention and processing speed, and reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
"Walking has always been there for me, my confidence has grown immensely. I'm a totally different person now than I was ten years ago and I owe so much of that to walking."
Kath, walker with bipolar disorder
The physical improvements you gain by walking can help to improve your mental health too. If you feel fitter and feel in control of your weight, your body image and confidence can increase - so it's not just the physical benefits that you'll notice when you start walking.Police in the Toronto suburb of Peel are charging a local man who was concerned with Muslim students being granted special Friday prayer time with “wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group.”
CBC News reports that Kevin Johnston made news a few months ago when he offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who could provide video of Muslim students “spewing hate speech during Friday prayers.” Police say Johnston was arrested for “numerous incidents” and won’t say if the YouTube video is one of those but that the charge “concerns over information published on various social media sites.”
The Peel region has been the focus of numerous school board protests because Muslim students are allowed to conduct Friday prayer services in Arabic and many parents are concerned that these events are potential focal points for radicalization.
Peel police Sgt. Josh Colley told CBC Toronto that Johnston was arrested after a five-month investigation that apparently focused on “messaging” that the police considered hateful.
“It’s not a private message that he was conveying, it was a public message … Anyone could hear, understand the messaging, so that’s where the communicating hateful messages comes into play,” Colley said. Even though the “the group that was targeted was the Muslim community,” Colley said that “affects us all.”
The Ontario government has already branded the opponents of the Muslim school prayers as racists and Islamophobes. In March, two cabinet ministers issued a public statement in support of the Muslim prayer days. “I have met with the leadership of Peel and have obviously been very concerned about what I’ve seen and heard,” said Education Minister Mitzie Hunter in a joint statement with Children and Youth Services Minister Michael Coteau. Later, she told reporters in Toronto, “It felt important to Minister Coteau and I to really reinforce our expectations … there’s just no tolerance for discrimination of any sort. We don’t tolerate issues of racism and Islamophobia.”
The school prayers have become an issue because local imams are invited to pray and speak to the students in Arabic, and the school board cannot provide assurances that the students are not being subjected to radical Islamic indoctrination.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commented on the YouTube video in April, saying critics of Muslims having special Friday prayer sessions need “to ensure that everyone understands [and respects] their neighbors.”
He further claimed that “Canadians have understood that our differences are a source of strength, not a source of weakness” at a news conference just outside of Toronto.
Follow David on TwitterYEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia’s Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan is expected to resign on Thursday, a source close to the government said, after an economic slowdown this year and outbreaks of violence prompted the president to call for a new government.
The source told Reuters the ruling Republican Party would discuss Abrahamyan’s possible resignation on Thursday. “There are all indications that this decision will be announced tomorrow,” the source said.
A spokesman for President Serzh Sarksyan, who proposed in August a “government of national accord”, declined to comment. Local media said that the decision was likely to be announced on Thursday at the Republican Party’s executive council session.
Abrahamyan was appointed prime minister two years ago. In 2015 Armenia’s economy started to deteriorate - economic growth slowed to 3 percent in 2015 from 3.5 percent in 2014 and below the government’s growth forecast of 4.1 percent. The government expects 2.2 percent economic growth in 2016.
Armenia, a country of 3.2 million people, depends heavily on aid and investment from former Soviet overlord Russia, whose economic downturn has hit Armenian exports and much-needed remittances from Armenians working there.
The government has also faced political challenges, including a flare-up of violence in Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in April between Armenian-backed separatists and Azeri forces.
Two months later a group of 30 armed men seized the police station and took hostages in the Armenian capital Yerevan. Two police officers were killed during a two-week stand-off, before gunmen surrendered to the authorities.
The incident led to mass protests in the capital, when people took to the streets to secure the release of a jailed opposition politician and resignation of the government and the president.
Shortly after that Sarksyan said that radical reforms in political and social life were needed. He said it was necessary to form “a government of national accord” to provide a broader distribution and division of political responsibility.
Local media reported on Wednesday that Abrahamyan might be replaced by the 53-year-old technocrat Karen Karapetyan, a former head of the national gas distributing company ArmRosGazprom and later Yerevan mayor.
After leaving the post of mayor, he moved to Moscow, to be appointed as the first vice-president of Gazprombank. He currently serves as the Russian gas distribution company Gazprom mezhregiongaz’s deputy CEO.
Experts say the new government is likely to be temporary and the final configuration will emerge only after the parliamentary election of 2017 and the end of Sarksyan’s second term in 2018, when the full transition from the semi-presidential form of government to a parliamentary republic will be completed.The Scot feels this summer's humiliating failure in the transfer market was the result of having the wrong support team around him, and has taken steps to change things
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By Liam TwomeyAfter a farcical summer, David Moyes is determined not to be embarrassed in a transfer market ever again as Manchester United manager.The failure to acquire an inspiring solution to his new team’s long-standing midfield problems damaged his standing in the eyes of some before United had even kicked a ball this season. The public rebuttals of Thiago Alcantara and Cesc Fabregas, combined with the deadline day farce of Ander Herrera and the belated, over-priced and underwhelming arrival of Marouane Fellaini only made things worse.Moyes believes the root of the problems lay in not having the right support team around him. He was hardly helped by the departures of venerated chief executive David Gill and chief scout Martin Ferguson at the start of the summer. At a stroke, the command structure which had done so much to provide Sir Alex with so many title-winning squads was swept away.Gill’s de facto replacement, the accountant-turned-J.P. Morgan investment banker Ed Woodward, swiftly proved himself less adept at negotiating the purchases of top-level footballers than he was at adding to the club’s lengthy list of lucrative commercial partnerships.Moyes, a man so ‘hands-on’ by nature that he used to personally lead the pre-match warm-up exercises while manager of Preston North End, regrets agreeing to delegate so much of the recruitment process on his arrival at Old Trafford. Working from his office in Mayfair, Woodward has agreed that from now on his remit will once again be primarily financial.Knowing he will be judged more readily than ever in the January window with United – and Fellaini in particular – struggling, Moyes’ instinct is to fall back on who and what he knows best.Robbie Cooke, his former chief scout at Everton, will work alongside United old head Jim Lawlor at the top of the recruitment pyramid, while the manager is taking it upon himself to personally run the rule over top transfer targets, travelling to Spain to watch Atletico Madrid starlet Koke in action against Porto on Wednesday.The Scot is also deploying the network of scouts which served him so well at Everton to analyse potential signings. Inter midfielder Fredy Guarin was subjected to such scrutiny before rising to near the top of the list of names Moyes considers desirable and attainable in January.It is a novel recruitment structure for United and one which, at present, remains a slightly dysfunctional one. The club already possessed a global scouting network when Ferguson left, largely consisting of people the new manager has not yet got to know or trust. At times in recent weeks they have even found themselves on the same assignments as the men who truly have Moyes’ ear.But Moyes’ priority is to act fast. Having – some would argue unwisely – given everyone in his inherited squad the chance to prove their worth, he has come to the same conclusion as many outside observers: Major surgery is required if United are to be a dominant force again.Many would say January is not the time to begin such an overhaul, when the required level of talent is vastly more difficult and expensive to acquire. Moyes, though, has proven to be a shrewd manipulator of the winter window before, as the signings of Seamus Coleman, Tim Howard, Nikica Jelavic and Darron Gibson would attest.Of course, improving Everton and improving Manchester United are vastly different tasks. But unlike in the summer, Moyes will at least feel confident he has the right tools.As promised, here is my new version of my Beauty and the Beast Rose in Bottle Necklace just kind of a bit later in being released that I had hoped. I always come across random unexpected problems in making things like this and have to work through them. Anyways, this is definitely a favorite piece of mine, I will add more photos as soon as I can but for now this should give a decent enough idea of it (:Rose hand sculpted and painted by myself with polymer clay.More Views Here: vintagelightjewelry.deviantart… ❤ ~ ~ ~ Etsy ~~~ www.etsy.com/listing/171829323… ~~~ ❤UPDATE: Photo size smaller due to it being stolen -_-© Please do not steal my work in any way! Thank youand thanks for taking the time to look at my art (:A massive operation involving 300 officers of the military police arrested 34 members of a criminal gang involved in drug and arms trafficking in Sardinia and northern Italy on 28 March.
The gang had also been plotting to steal the corpse of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the famous luxury car company to blackmail his family for the body's return.
The plan was devised in November 2015 and the gang made repeated trips to the cemetery in the central Italian town of Modena, where Ferrari was buried after his death in 1988. The authorities arrested the gang as it was about to enact the plan.
"The gang had planned it all down to the smallest details" explained Colonel Saverio Ceglie who was heading the operation, at a press conference. "The plan had been in place for years but did not succeed due to our intervention", he said, quoted by Italian news agency Ansa. The authorities had warned the Ferrari family, who were aware of everything.
The investigation into the gang's criminal activities, which had been going on for almost a decade, began when the gang kidnapped local bank director Giampaolo Cosseddu and his wife Pietrina Secce in October 2007.
In the course of the police operation, the authorities confiscated large quantities of cocaine and weed, as well as firearms. Drug and arms trafficking were the gang's two main revenue streams.Plan B pill, also known as the morning-after pill Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A federal judge has ordered the government to allow the sale of emergency contraceptive pill Plan B One-Step without a prescription to any woman, no matter her age. The action effectively reverses a stunning decision by Heath and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who, in 2011, overruled the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to make the pill more widely available over-the-counter. Sebelius’ intervention restricted over-the-counter sales of Plan B to women age 17 and older.
The judge’s order is the latest move in a long legal battle that has seemingly pitted scientists (including some working for the FDA) and sexual health advocates against government officials and others who see a controversy in making the pill more widely available. That’s despite significant scientific evidence that the pill is safe, does not encourage promiscuity, and does not cause an abortion. Judge Edward R. Korman’s opinion referenced and dismissed a specific concern cited by both Sebelius and President Obama at the time of the 2011 intervention, namely that the pill could be harmful to 10- and 11-year-old girls:
“This case is not about the potential misuse of Plan B by 11-year-olds. These emergency contraceptives would be among the safest drugs sold over-the-counter, the number of 11-year-olds using these drugs is likely to be miniscule, the FDA permits drugs that it has found to be unsafe for the pediatric population to be sold over-the-counter subject only to labeling restrictions, and its point-of-sale restriction on this safe drug is likewise inconsistent with its policy and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act as it has been construed. Instead, the invocation of the adverse effect of Plan B on 11-year-olds is an excuse to deprive the overwhelming majority of women of their right to obtain contraceptives without unjustified and burdensome restrictions.”
Calling Sebelius’s action on the issue “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable,” Judge Korman ordered the government to lift age restrictions on Plan B One-Step (and generic versions) for over-the-counter sales within 30 days. Korman concluded, “The FDA has engaged in intolerable delays in processing the petition. Indeed, it could accurately be described as an administrative agency filibuster … The plaintiffs should not be forced to endure, nor should the agency’s misconduct be rewarded by, an exercise that permits the FDA to engage in further delay and obstruction.”
According to the New York Times, the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services have not commented yet on whether they will appeal the decision.A young Afghan war veteran, whose family has lived in my district for eight generations, wishes to be my next representative in Congress. He would succeed the imploded former Rep. Eric Massa, whom I supported, and who taught me the bittersweet consequences of commingling voter naїvete with false hope, as did candidate-turned-President Obama.
This young Democratic candidate has sent me three letters (I’m sure thousands of other District 29 voters received them, too), saying, in effect, this: “I need your help.”
All across America, as savvy political incumbents and their often hapless, outspent challengers belly up to the fundraising trough, they reach out to folks like you and me – the so-called little guys — asking for $10, $25, $50, whatever we can spare to set this country back on the right path. They’re all saying, with false modesty: “I need your help.” (They want our little donations for less than $200, the amount at which candidates must report them to the Federal Election Commission, so they can say they’re supported by real people, real voters, not PACs and pass-downs from the national parties.)
This young man from my district fought in a war with real bullets, bombs, and IEDs. He faced menacing threats each day in theater. Now that he’s home, he’s filed for entry into another war. For that, I commend him – and feel sorry for him. I don’t know if, despite a pair of master’s degrees, he’s sufficiently trained for this kind of warfare.
By now, he’s realized he’s dependent on staff – to organize his schedule, to be driven to picnics, pubs, and pig roasts while he reads briefing papers prepared by even more staff, to deal with requests from the press for interviews (favorable, even fawning coverage, he hopes), and to build and maintain his website and social media operations. By now, he realizes he needs more money. Lots of money.
In the 2008 election cycle, Massa raised $2.1 million to defeat incumbent Randy Kuhl, who raised about $1.5 million. So far, the young Afghan vet has raised $136,000 or so, compared with the $636,000 raised by the likely Republican candidate. He knows he needs money. Much more money.
And by now, he realizes that acquiring name recognition throughout the district, which he does not enjoy, means he really needs to raise that $2 million or more Massa grabbed for the same reason. Maybe this political novice has recognized, or been bluntly told by “campaign advisers,” that the $25 or $50 I might send him, multiplied by the others to whom he sent his plea, is wholly insufficient for that task. The 660,000 folks in this district in which the median household income is about $42,000 cannot provide him with the several millions of dollars he’ll need to make a credible run in November against a better-funded Republican.
Smart Democratic operatives folks with serious money – in this district, mostly leaders of corporations and big institutions with a hint of academia and local pols who can direct the movement of money thrown in – know this. They whisper to him: “Hey, I know people willing to drop serious dollars on you. You want to be deniable about PAC or corporate money? Fine. I’ll get them to write you personal checks. … You’re a bright, earnest, honest, intelligent man. You’d be good for this district.”
Left unspoken is this: “You’d better be good for the district in return. And you’d damn well better be good for me.” And quid pro quo, disguised by gladhanding at house parties hosted by “real” voters, enters the war veteran’s lexicon. Those who want him in office for their own political or business ends hand him checks, even cash, and explain what the district really needs, and his idealistic campaign platform shifts ever so slightly, the first of many, subtle course corrections necessitated by the need for money. And so he learns the worth — and price — of bundlers.
He’s smart. He learns quickly. Soon, his campaign website’s donation page sets up a tiered system of rewards. Donate $100 and get an invite to a campaign picnic with the candidate. Donate $500? Sit at the head table at the picnic but not next to the candidate. Donate $1,000? Sit next to the candidate, have him pour you a beer, and you get to walk with him to his car (or the one provided by a supportive Democratic car dealer) when he departs. Donate the legal max – $2,400 – and the candidate will meet with you privately and take his own notes on what you think your business the district’s business community really needs.
Then the call comes – the one from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which spent $14,000 on Massa in 2008. Democrats, through Act Blue and other candidates’ committees and leadership PACs, dropped nearly a million bucks on getting Kuhl out of the House. The Dems want to keep this seat.
A mellifluous voice on the phone says, “Son, we like your style and your new, fresh ideas and approaches to solving the nation’s problems. We think you’ve got what it takes to be a terrific addition to the House. We think you could really contribute to the work of the House – you know, the business of the American people. We’ll send you $25,000 to help your campaign. We can get others to fund you too, Act Blue, unions, all of them. … There’s just a few small changes we’d recommend to your campaign platform, nothing big. Oh, we’ll send one of our consultants down to give you a hand with your ads. They’re a little too soft on your opponent. You gotta be tough, son.”
Money flows in. Consultants arrive. The Afghan vet’s website is spic and span’d. His image is spruced up with new clothes; media training follows. A targeted voter database spits out robocalls. Radio spots run; TV ads attack. Twitter and Facebook go ga-ga.
And lo and behold, come November 2, the young Afghan vet, born and bred in the land of the Marcellus shale (and its lawsuits over environmentally damaging hydrofracking for natural gas), is elected to the House of Representatives, for which he’ll earn $174,000 a year. Hearty congratulations flow in from friends, family, the folks who sent him checks for $25 and $50 … and top brass from advocacy lobbying organizations, many he’s never heard of: PhRMA, API, the NRA, the NEA, the Edison Electric institute, America’s Power, Americans for Financial Reform, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Business Roundtable, the Sierra Club, the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Association of Realtors, Greenpeace USA, the American Wind Energy Association, the American Dairy Association, the National Corn Growers Association … even the American League of Lobbyists.
All the calls follow the same script: “Looking forward to seeing you in D.C., son. You need anything, just call. Really. Anything at all.”
Two weeks later, the young Afghan veteran, now a duly elected member of the United States House of Representatives, ships out to Washington, D.C., with all the other freshman reps for indoctrination orientation to the House. He’s assigned an office in the Cannon House Office Building. He learns he has an office budget of $1.3 million to $4.5 million and is duly “advised” on hiring staff. Senior, presumably wiser, House members suggest this guy and that to help him: “Son, you need someone as your chief of staff who knows the ropes, someone who’s been around the Hill a lot, who knows people, especially folks over on K Street … those folks over there can be real useful to you.”
That chief of staff, the new member of Congress learns, can be paid almost as much as him, about $168,000. And the new House member will need someone who can deceive handle the press, and these days, that means someone who can also deal with rabid, vapid bloggers and Twitterstorms and Facebook fans. Add a scheduler, hands-on constituent handlers, and so on. Oh, he’ll need staff in his district offices, too. Hmmm. Experienced Hill people suggest he thank reward some campaign volunteers with those jobs back home in western New York.
He’s assigned to House committees and subcommittees. Some he likes, others, not so much. It’s how we work, son. The people’s business is done quietly, real quietly, in committees. We sort the wheat from the chaff. Or at least committee staff does …
He’s taken to the House Recording Studio, recently moved to the 580,000-square-foot, $600 million, three-years-late Capitol Visitor Center, and learns to use its digital facilities. For, y’know, keeping in touch with constituents. For emailing to the press video clips of him commenting on the important issues of the day as he stands beside the American flag in front of fake bookcases, clips local TV stations can splice into newscasts back in the district or dump on their news-lean, aggregation-heavy websites.
Each night, he attends receptions and more receptions, hosted by lobbyists pretending not to be lobbyists. He’s offered advice, counsel, and gen-yew-ine friendship by men and women wearing clothes that cost more than the Kevlar KM2 fiber body armor that protected him in Afghanistan. His Blackberry fills up with contacts as fast as campaign contributions churn toward his bank. He learns that the banking industry alone has five lobbyists for every member of Congress.
He meets the president of the United States, the man he once saluted as his commander-in-chief, and the man he is now required to face fearlessly as a constitutional check and balance.
He’s sworn in by the Speaker of the House, who, a few weeks later, will chew him out for having lunch in the Ernest Petinaud Members’ Dining Room with a freshman GOP representative he met at orientation. He learns quickly the mantra: No consorting with the enemy. No matter, because he learns, too, that he does not have time to make friends. On weekends, and they begin Thursday night, he flies back to the district, attends fundraisers and ribbon-cuttings and photo ops, and flies back to D.C. late Monday, when he’ll deposit the donors’ checks he collected.
He’ll live in an overpriced D.C. apartment or townhouse, perhaps sharing costs with a few other members (as long as they’re Democrats). During his weekday evenings, and even in his office between his 15-minute scheduled appointments, he’ll make phone calls to potential donors, shoring up his campaign war chest. And this is war, the atmospherics of Congress teach him.
People swarm to his office. Some are constituents, awestruck or mystified by D.C., wanting only an autograph or a flag flown over the Capitol. Others are staffers of other members or committees, coordinating stuff needing coordinating, details below his need to know. Most are lobbyists willing to impart information you need, son. His chief of staff, that experienced Hill staffer, deflects them from him, but sits with some and writes the language of bills our Afghan veteran would like to is told he ought to sponsor. He learns deal-making: a vote for another member’s bill in exchange for a vote on his bill. He learns to swallow the compromise. After a while, the deals go down more easily.
When the House is in session, he sits on one side of the aisle, the enemy sits on the other. He watches as the speaker, the majority leader, the whip, the Democratic Caucus maintain order and discipline. He’s a military man. He grasps that. Order and discipline … mean power and control and re-election. “That’s how you stay here, son. Follow the caucus, and you’ve got a 95 percent change of being re-elected, term after term.”
He learns a new language, that of deniability — the passive voice: “It’s unfortunate that the bill was not passed …”
Months fly by. He changes. He’s somehow different. Back in the district for fundraising, he dresses better than he used to, better than his constituents. He speaks indirectly. Promises once proudly, firmly made are rephrased as mere statements of intent. Bloggers in the district notice. They compare the rhetoric of his campaign to the voting record and the press releases flowing from his House office each day. They don’t match up.
The new member of Congress is called to task, as bloggers callously reprint a sentence from his announcement to run made months before:
[C]ome voting time, I don’t care whether an idea is Republican or Democrat, if it makes sense and will benefit the folks of this district and our country I will support it.
He cares now. He’s in the club. He wants to stay there.
In the summer of 2012, he sends me another letter: “I need your help.”
I flash with anger, yelling, “Goddamn it, you need my help? What the fuck are you going to do for me?”
And I don’t send him another $25 check.
photo credits:
• House Chamber: Clerk of the House
• 2006 House freshman class: Stephen Crowley, The New York TimesSinn Féin deputy first minister Martin McGuinness and Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader Arlene Foster clashed at the North South Ministerial Council meeting over the flying of the Irish Tricolour on Stormont House.
Sinn Féin deputy first minister Martin McGuinness and Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader Arlene Foster clashed at the North South Ministerial Council meeting over the flying of the Irish Tricolour on Stormont House.
Mr McGuiness dismissed the controversy as "much ado about nothing" and said unionists were "over-reacting" about the incident.
However, Ms Foster insisted it caused "huge offence" and called on the authorities to "get to the bottom" of how it happened as soon as possible.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland launched an investigation after the Irish flag was flown over the parliament building in Northern Ireland on Wednesday.
The hugely divisive issue of flags and parades has led to violent clashes between protesters and police in recent years.
Mr McGuinness and Ms Foster were speaking alongside Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Joan Burton and Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan at the North South Ministerial Council meeting
There was wide-ranging discussions between leaders north and south of the border on issues including fuel smuggling, the all-Ireland bid for the Rugby World Cup and the ongoing tensions over the Northern Assembly's welfare budget.
Mr McGuinness condemned the criminals involved in fuel smuggling - and said they were damaging the peace process.
Mr Kenny committed to raising the issue of Northern Ireland welfare cuts at his meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing Street on June 18. The Northern Ireland Assembly is at crisis point over its budget.
Mr McGuinness and Mr Kenny said they were both in favour of a cross-border investigation into allegations of republican sex abuse.
Authorities in both jurisdictions are carrying out separate investigations into allegations that sex abusers were moved both north and south of the border by the IRA.
Irish IndependentOne of San Diego best and biggest cultural attractions is about to get a whole lot beerier. Eater has word that Lee Chase, Jenniffer Chase, Jeff Motch and Clea Hantman, the owners of Blind Lady Ale House and Tiger!Tiger! have successfully won a bid to take over the Sculpture Garden Court Cafe adjacent to the San Diego Museum of Art and will open their third eatery in the space this summer.
The four proprietors, whose existing spots have won numerous bar and restaurant awards, reportedly beat out other popular local businesses for dibs on the outdoor space, situated in the heart of Balboa Park in the May S. Marcy Sculpture Garden, which houses the impressive work of 20th century artists including Louise Nevelson, Claire Falkenstein and Henry Moore. Their plans for the cafe include a re-design of the bar, plus new tables and seating.
Though the name of their third spot is yet-undecided, the owners told Eater that you can expect the well-curated beer selection and seasonally-driven menu they've become know for, plus a small craft cocktail program and wine list. The cafe will serve lunch, offer picnic boxes for eating in the park, and do a weekend brunch inspired by Tiger!Tiger!'s Sunday brunch; Tiger!Tiger!'s talented chef, Sharon Wilson, will help oversee the menu.
· Blind Lady Ale House [Official Site]
· All Beer Coverage on Eater [~ESD~]When the Melbourne Storm entered the newly-formed NRL in 1998, there were serious questions about how they would perform in a sporting market utterly dominated by the AFL.
Now, as they enter their 20th season in the competition, the Storm are considered one of the powerhouse clubs in Australian sport and will head into the 2017 Telstra Premiership as title favourites alongside the Penrith Panthers.
It's a remarkable journey for a team that has been through so much over the past decade. From premiership success in 2007 and 2009, to the pain of the salary cap scandal in 2010, and then redemption in 2012, the Storm have been there or thereabouts for longer than any other team in the NRL.
It wasn't always that way.
What started with a first-up win on a wet night in Wollongong in 1998 was quickly followed by premiership success the following season, but that's when things started to slow down.
When Cameron Smith debuted for the club in 2002, the Storm registered just nine wins in what was statistically the worst year in their history.
That year the average crowd at Storm home games at Olympic Park was just 9,103, a figure that slumped to 8,887 by 2004.
Coaches were coming and going, support was waning, and it was starting to show on the field.
It looked like the naysayers were right. The hysteria generated by the 1999 premiership was fading.
Enter the 'Big Three'. Smith and fullback Billy Slater, along with coach Craig Bellamy, were established figures, but Cooper Cronk's emergence as first-choice halfback in 2006 signalled a colossal change in the club's fortunes.
With the rise of Greg Inglis as a superstar centre, the Storm made four grand finals on the trot, winning premierships in 2007 and 2009 that would later be stripped as part of salary cap punishments.
That could have been a hammer blow to the organisation. Instead, it galvanised the club.
The Storm averaged 14,670 fans per game that year – a record at the time – having made the permanent move to the state-of-the-art facilities at AAMI Park.
On-field success returned with an emotional grand final win in 2012, and they nearly went all the way again last year, only for the Sharks to celebrate their own fairytale win in dramatic circumstances.
Light at the end of the tunnel for Slater
Tohu Harris to miss eight weeks
Storm's five-eighth debate continues
No.6 my ultimate goal: Croft
But the most profound change has happened off the field. The Storm boasted a record crowd average last season (19,024) and there is a genuine buzz around the city of Melbourne when it comes to rugby league.
As of February 22, the club has registered 16,296 members – nearly 3,000 more compared to the same time last year and fourth amongst the 16 NRL clubs – and that's the tip of the iceberg according to their skipper, Cameron Smith.
"We're nearly passed our membership mark of last year and we're aiming for 20,000 this year which would be fairly significant for a rugby league team in Victoria," Smith told NRL.com.
"If someone said 20 years ago that there was going to be a successful rugby league team in Victoria then you probably would have been laughed at. It's come a long way in a short amount of time.
"That's on the back of what the club and the players have put into Victoria, particularly the Melbourne region.
"Victorians love their sport, and they get behind their local teams. We're fortunate to be the only league team in town but we don't see ourselves competing with AFL; we want to work alongside those guys to create the best product possible for Victoria.
"People that follow football in general – no matter the code or who they support – they'll come down to support the Storm and be a part of our |
. "We have to be in the US - the US is the biggest market by far," he said.
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StumbleUpon What are these?Illinois’s attorney general asked Chicago police on Wednesday to release a video that allegedly shows an officer shooting a black teenager 16 times last year.
The request came a day before a judge was expected to decide whether to order police to release dashboard-camera video of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Police have said McDonald refused to drop a knife when officers confronted him while responding to a call about a man with a knife walking down a street on the city’s south-west side in October 2014.
The office of the attorney general, Lisa Madigan, said the police department had made “unsubstantiated” claims that releasing the footage to a journalist could hinder an ongoing investigation or deprive anyone of a fair trial. The letter also said police had no legal right to withhold the video because another agency, the Independent Police Review Authority, was conducting the investigation.
Chicago pays $5m to family of teenager shot by police 16 times Read more
An attorney for McDonald’s family, Jeffrey Neslund, who has seen the video, said the footage shows McDonald was armed with a small knife but walking away from police when an officer opened fire. He noted that McDonald’s mother does not want the video released, because she fears it could spark violence in her Chicago neighborhood similar to the riots that erupted in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after police-involved deaths of black residents.
The Chicago city council took the unusual step in April of approving a $5m settlement with McDonald’s family, even though the family had not sued, after being advised to do so by a city attorney who had seen the video.
An autopsy report showed that McDonald was shot 16 times, including at least twice in his back. The autopsy report also said McDonald had PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, in his system.
Police have said that the officer who shot McDonald had been stripped of his police powers and assigned to desk duty. Police have released few details about the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation, but the city’s attorney has said that McDonald was walking away from police when he was shot.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined comment on Wednesday when asked about Thursday’s trial. He did not immediately return phone messages later in the day seeking comment on the attorney general’s letter.
A Cook County judge is expected to issue a ruling on Thursday on a public records request filed by a freelance journalist seeking the video.TBILISI -- Georgia has officially expressed "shock and deep concern" over a deadly shooting along the administrative boundary with the Russian-controlled, breakaway region of Abkhazia.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said on May 20 that a 31-year-old Georgian citizen, Giga Otkhozoria, was shot dead by Russian troops patrolling areas near the boundary.
The ministry said eyewitnesses reported that Otkhozoria was shot six times while on the Georgian-controlled side of the boundary.
The ministry also stated that Tbilisi will use all legal and political mechanisms to ensure that people responsible for the killing are brought to justice.
Russian troops were deployed to Abkhazia and Georgia's other breakaway region, South Ossetia, after Moscow recognized the two regions' independence following a multiday war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008.
With reporting by agenda.geCHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- For the second time in three years, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga came away with a stunning win over a ranked Tennessee Lady Vols Wednesday night at the McKenzie Arena.
“I just think we were aggressive enough,” Chattanooga Head Coach Jim Foster said. “We weren't aggressive in South Bend, but I think we learned a bit about ourselves.”
Chattanooga started strong and saw its lead climb to 37-20 with just one minute remaining in the first half and went into halftime at 37-21.
The Mocs saw their first half advantage dissipate down the stretch as the Lady Vols began chipping away at the lead. With 4:31 to play, UT grabbed two offensive boards and Jasmine Jones, who finished the game with a team-high 19 points, put back a layup to tie the game 57-57.
Chattanooga regained the lead, but the Lady Vols would tie it up three more times, the latest being a 63-63 tangle on a pair of free throws from Bashara Graves with 1:05 to play.
With a minute left in regulation Andraya Carter managed a steal and went for the layup and UTK's first lead since the 18:58 mark of the first half. But that was brought to a halt. Freshman Keiana Gilbert (Columbia, Tenn.), who led all scorers with a career-high 27 points, got her hands up for the block and the Mocs got the ball back.
“I was the only one who was really near her,” Gilbert said of the block. “So I just had to make sure that she didn't score to tie the game and get the lead.”
Junior Alicia Payne (Memphis, Tenn.) was fouled on her trip down the court and connected on just one of her two free throws to give the Mocs a slim 64-63 lead with 53 seconds remaining.
With senior Ka'Vonne Towns (Lilburn, Ga.) and sophomore Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Tenn.) back in the game, Joyner grabbed a defensive rebound and was fouled. She too would make just one of her two charity tosses, putting the Mocs up 65-63.
Tennessee's Jasmine Jones missed her second jumper in as many tries in the final minute of play and Chattanooga would once again pounce on the rebound. Towns was fouled after the grab and made the most of her time at the charity stripe, draining both with three seconds remaining to seal the win.
Gilbert was 11-of-19 from the field and 5-of-7 from the free throw line, while pulling down five rebounds and recording one important blocked shot. She was joined in double figures by redshirt senior Destiny Bramblett (Radcliff, Ky.) who had a career-high 12 points and five rebounds.
Sophomore Moses Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) snared a career-best eight rebounds and added eight points, while classmate Chelsey Shumpert (Paducah, Ky.) dished out four assists with eight points and no turnovers in 24 minutes.
Chattanooga was 24-of-45 from the field (53.3%) and was outscored in the paint 42-32 by the Lady Vols. The Mocs had 11 points off 14 Tennessee turnovers but gave up 13 points on 17 errors. Tennessee outrebounded Chattanooga 35-30 and converted 17 offensive boards into 26 points while the Mocs had just 11 points on eight off the offensive glass.
Jones led the Lady Vols with 19 points on 7-of-15 from the field and pulled down eight rebounds. Ariel Massengale hit a pair of 3-pointers and was the only other Tennessee player in double digits with 11 points.
Chattanooga improves to 4-2 on the year and will travel to Arkansas State for a Monday night matchup, while the Lady Vols drop their first game of the year to move to 4-1.
UTC's next home game is against No. 5 Stanford on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale now on GoMocs.com or by calling the UTC Ticket Office at 423-266-MOCS (6627).Ryan Kennedy, 29, who emotionally controlled three women before raping them. He has been jailed for 11 years
A vicious sex fiend who emotionally controlled three women before raping them has been jailed for 11 years.
Ryan Kennedy, 29, controlled the women by emotional manipulation and eroded their self confidence before raping them over a seven-year period.
He made one of his victims apologise for 'ruining his fun' after she'screamed and cried' as he raped her.
Another traumatised partner was brutally raped her as 'punishment', with Kennedy threatening to hurt her more if she screamed.
A third woman said she submitted to his unwanted sexual advances after he threatened to leave her if she did not have sex with him.
Kennedy, an office worker from Bristol, smiled as he was led from court after his sentencing at Gloucester Crown Court.
Judge Jamie Tabor QC said: 'The phrase coercive control was coined to describe a situation where one person in a relationship, over a period of time, overshadows and eventually takes over control of the other person.
'The premiere feature is that the victims are made to feel guilty if they don't do as they are told.'
He added: 'Coercive controllers are often highly narcissistic and inevitably selfish.
'If told by other that is how they are viewed, they are always abrupt.
'You are a controller, and like most controllers you pick on members of the opposite sex and those that are vulnerable.'
Kennedy, an officer worker, smiled as he was led from court after his sentencing at Gloucester Crown Court (pictured)
Kennedy faced 14 charges - including 11 rapes - but after a two-week trial was acquitted of three counts and eight were left to lie on file.
But the jury found him guilty of raping three women between 2008 and last year.
'These rapes took place within the context of what was described as controlling, abusive and manipulative relationships,' prosecutor Fiona Elder said.
She said Kennedy, from Bristol, attacked one woman after she said she did not want to have sex with him, despite her asking him to stop.
Ms Elder said: 'She described herself as screaming and crying during the intercourse.
'She said that it hurt. She asked him to stop.
'He criticised her for ruining his fun and made her apologise to him. She limped off to the bathroom.'
Another woman'submitted' to his advances when she did not want to have sex after having had surgery.
'She gave the reasons why she did not want to have sex at that time but she said it was a case of submission,' Ms Elder said.
'He threatened to leave her if she did not submit to his sexual advances.'
Kennedy also raped another woman as a punishment, threatening that if she made too much noise he was'really going to hurt her'.
The court heard the pair initially had a consensual sadomasochistic relationship, but as it progressed it became'more and more one-sided'.
Ms Elder told the court: 'He used it as a punishment. She can't remember what she had done for him to get angry.
'He engaged in very aggressive intercourse which caused her to bleed.
'She tried not to make too much noise. She was told that if she screamed he was really going to hurt her.'
Defending Kennedy, Dominic Thomas claimed the accused'misunderstood what was meant by consent'.
He added that his client's sister and grandmother had died while he was in custody, and that he was teaching other prisoners how to read.A sequence of pictures from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys demonstrating the echoing of light through space caused by an unusual stellar outburst in January 2002. A burst of light from the star is spreading into space and reflecting off surrounding shells of dust to reveal a multicoloured 'bull's eye'. This sequence of pictures from May to December 2002 shows apparent changes in the circumstellar dust as different parts are illuminated sequentially in an effect called a 'light echo'. From the first to last image the diameter of the nebula appears to balloon from 4 to 7 light-years. This creates the illusion that the dust is expanding into space faster than the speed of light. In reality it is simply the light from the stellar flash that is sweeping out into the nebula
Photograph: Nasa/EsaI learned about Battle Box from Dave Williams around GP Las Vegas 2013. I don’t remember if my first games were at the GP itself, or a few days prior at EFro’s or Dave’s house. Dave didn’t claim to have invented it, only renaming it Battle Box, crediting the creator as Brian Demars who named it Danger Room. I saw he recently wrote an article about it, and was taking credit for inventing it which no one else seems to really be challenging, so I would assume it was his creation. I did see in the comments of his article some people claiming that it is similar to some casual formats that have previously existed. I don’t doubt that to be the case, but ideas are generally not completely new. If you take an existing idea, put in a few innovations, or even just one that vastly improves it, then you deserve the credit. Feel free to think of me as a champion of the format but as far as I know Brian is the creator and Dave independently renamed it Battle Box from Danger Room.
If you follow me on Facebook or are friends with me you have probably heard me complain about powerful Magic cards. I don’t get them and perhaps I never will. Why does anyone find it fun to win a game of Magic with something their opponent couldn’t answer through any set of plays? To me, a game won or lost to a single card that was completely overpowered is just a wasted game. If it’s a tournament, I don’t feel bad—I’m just playing the cards I opened or drafted, or the best cards available in Constructed, and the goal is to win. But I don’t feel proud of myself either. If I beat Kai or Finkel in a game where they could have won through different plays, but I bluffed in some damage I needed, or made plays that made them believe I had something I didn’t, then they played around what I represented, and I won because of that. I feel proud of my victory. If I beat them with cards no set of plays they could have made could have answered, then it might as well have been anyone. I’m not ashamed that I drew way better than they did, but I can’t feel proud of it either. The cards drawn and not the decisions made determined the outcome.
Battle Box for the most part (nothing is perfect) gets rid of these wasted games.
Battle Box creates a scenario where almost every game of Magic is a good game of Magic. Sometimes you will lose, and if the cards had come in a different order you would have won. You still draw a random card every turn. However, if you wanted to play around what your opponent has and increase your chances of winning, you will be able to. Cards are roughly the same power level, and no one ever gets mana screwed or flooded, so the vast majority of games come down to the decisions you make.
Rules
At the start of every game you have a land pile. It has 5 Guildgates and 5 basic lands. The Guildgates need to have the colors evenly distributed—2 of them need to produce black, 2 blue, 2 red, 2 green, 2 white. This gives you the ability to produce 3 of any one kind of mana. These are the only lands you get (though you could probably toss a nonbasic land into the box if you thought it would be particularly interesting, but I haven’t tried that yet).
Every turn you can play 1 land from this separate land pile. This means you are never screwed or flooded, and you have to choose whether to play one of these comes-into-play tapped lands or a regular basic land which comes into play untapped. It’s not the biggest decision in the world and the game revolves around spells, not the ability to cast them (hence no screw or flood), but even this can be fairly strategic as you are playing a 5-color deck with spells that can cost double or even triple of the same color. I purposely put in Leatherback Baloth because I think it puts players in interesting spots when their hand has a lot of double-color, non-green cards and the Baloth.
The spells are a stack of your own design. I find it best to split the stack so that you and the opponent both have your own library. This allows for cool abilities like fateseal and scry to be played the way they were designed. Cards like Impulse are fine and actively good for the game, but I don’t include cards like Worldly Tutor because the stack of cards can be quite big, and searching and shuffling your library becomes burdensome.
I like to start with 4 cards in hand, while I believe Demars created it with the starting hand size of 6, and otherwise the format follows the regular rules of Magic. You draw 1 new card every turn, just like in a normal game. One land a turn, and you have many options since your first 4 cards and every card you draw from there on is a spell. That results in no mana screw, no mana flood, and lots of awesome games. I once played William Jensen a single game that last around an hour and a half (and we are both pretty quick players), and on the final turn he had me at 1 life dead the following turn and I drew a Counterspell to stop the instant he had saved or drawn that was going to keep him alive to kill me, and was able to attack for the win.
Everyone has different power levels in their Battle Boxes. Mine is unsurprisingly low. I think Magic is at its best when you can tap out without worrying about your opponent using a card to draw 4 cards or make you discard your entire hand. I avoided anything that would provide 3 plus cards without anything your opponent can do about it. I add the last part because there are plenty of symmetrical wrath effects—if you get blown out by one of those, it’s your own fault. And that’s really the point here. If you think your opponent is holding back and can put him on a wrath, now you can gain an advantage by attacking and not overcommiting because it’s not like he has Sphinx’s Revelation and will win anyway. If he doesn’t have the wrath though and does have some slightly more expensive, more powerful spells you may have hurt your chances of winning by holding back. Welcome to playing real Magic, where your decisions matter.
When deciding what to include in my Battle Box, that’s what I wanted. I wanted an environment where you can freely tap your mana without fear of outright losing the game, where the power level of the cards is around even, and where the cards are decision-intensive. I also like to have little creatures to get the pressure going. Wild Nacatl is one of my favorites. You don’t want 1-drops that are completely dead in the late game, since you almost always get there. But his drawback of forcing you to play basic Forest, basic Mountain, basic Plains over the first 3 turns can be quite large since you are playing a 5-color deck with double-blue and double-black spells in it. So most of the spells and creatures are meant to be interesting and get the action going or give you and the opponent options. For example, one of the most controversial cards in my Battle Box has been Undead Gladiator. Some say he is too good and he indeed is quite powerful, but everyone draws a spell every turn. He gives you choices. Do I play this mediocre spell I’ve drawn (and most are), or do I cycle it through him and take the chance of getting something worse?
My List
If you find a card to be more powerful than interesting, you should almost certainly cut it. The beauty of the Box and one of my motivations for writing this article was hoping to get some great suggestions on new cards to add to my Box and cards that might be too powerful that I should cut. It’s been my favorite format of Magic to play and I hope you enjoy it as well, here’s my current list:MERA NAAM JOKER (1972)
What went wrong? It was Raj Kapoor’s magnum opus and if rumours are to be believed, a cut of the film ran for a whopping five hours. Well, it was certainly a lengthy film and the first Indian film to release with two intervals. The story was fairly simple — about a man who uses his profession of being a clown as a metaphor for being a simpleton in love. Perhaps there were too many themes, too many characters and too much of run time for the general movie viewer’s liking.
Consolation: Despite flopping dismally at the box office, Mera Naam Joker has managed to garner quite a following in subsequent years. It’s a big hit on the home video circuit as well as a top TV re-run favourite.It’s back-to-school time, which means that while I begin my self-imposed ban from office supply stores and try to avoid all the It’s back-to-school time, which means that while I begin my self-imposed ban from office supply stores and try to avoid all the parents behaving badly, there is something much more insidious happening. (And I don’t mean the fact that Betsy DeVos bought her way into our public schools.)
I’m talking about how some schools are busy trying to instill body shame and possibly triggering eating disorders in their students.
Katie Dickens recently found this out the hard way. Like all Georgia parents of first-time public school children, she filled out Form 3300. The form asks questions in four different categories: Hearing, Vision, Dental, and Nutrition. The Hearing, Vision, and Dental categories ask questions pertaining to hearing, vision, and dental health. The “Nutrition” category asks only for weight, height, and the ratio between the two (also known as BMI).
Dickens was shocked to receive a letter back stating that, because of her weight as reported on the form, her child was required to schedule a follow-up visit with her pediatrician and provide documentation of it to the school.
Besides the fact that any form that considers “nutrition” and “weight” the same thing betrays a complete lack of knowledge of both, and besides the fact that the percentages of what constitutes a “healthy weight” for kids are more or less arbitrary, we have the fact that schools are severely underfunded and have a difficult enough time fitting in actual learning alongside all testing preparation for students. So maybe they could keep their eye on the ball here instead of treading where they absolutely do not belong.
It’s called a BMI report card, and it can be made even worse if kids are forced to be weighed in front of their classmates. In some cases, the gym teacher calls out their weight for everyone to hear.
: "Yeah, I don’t need her to have a stigma already in the fact that she’s already nervous about starting school. It’s like a whole new world, you know that, we’ve all been to kindergarten. You’re scared to death, but you’re excited at the same time. The last thing I need is for my child to be worried about what she weighs at five years old… And [she] is actually above the criteria for her height.” Dickens said : "Yeah, I don’t need her to have a stigma already in the fact that she’s already nervous about starting school. It’s like a whole new world, you know that, we’ve all been to kindergarten. You’re scared to death, but you’re excited at the same time. The last thing I need is for my child to be worried about what she weighs at five years old… And [she] is actually above the criteria for her height.”
It’s not just at the beginning of the school year, and it’s not just Form 3300. In other schools, it’s done in the middle of the year, and it’s called a BMI report card. This can be made even worse if kids are forced to be weighed in front of their classmates with, in some cases, the gym teacher calling out their weight for everyone to hear.
You’re probably asking yourself who in the Sam Hill could possibly think this is a good idea, and that’s an excellent question. Driven by the utterly ill-advised You’re probably asking yourself who in the Sam Hill could possibly think this is a good idea, and that’s an excellent question. Driven by the utterly ill-advised “war on obesity,” more and more school districts and even state and national government programs are insisting that we focus on the weight of children rather than their actual health.
These programs fail on every level. They fail to acknowledge not just a natural diversity of body sizes and body compositions, but also natural fluctuations in kids’ weight. If a kid gets their BMI report card taken when they’ve put on weight before a growth spurt, and their parents take them to a doctor who puts them on a diet and restricts their calories, how does that affect that child's growth and health? How are kids supposed to learn to listen to and honor their bodies' hunger signals when we’re putting them on diets in elementary school?
How are kids going to have any chance to develop a lifelong love of movement when we teach them that exercise is either punishment for having a body that is “too big” or something to be done in order to keep kids from looking like their larger classmates? How do we keep our kids from growing up into pathetic Reddit trolls when our schools teach them that some bodies are good bodies and some are not?
Worse, since intentional weight loss almost never works, some of these programs are using other measures of “success,” one of which is an INCREASE in kids who are indicating that they are concerned about their weight. Just to be clear, they are suggesting that creating a preoccupation with weight is a good thing for kids. There is, as you might expect, no research to support the idea that any of this will make kids thinner or healthier (which are, of course, two different things).
In fact, research from the University of Minnesota notes: “None of the behaviors being used by adolescents (in 1999) for weight-control purposes predicted weight loss[ in 2006]… Of greater concern were the negative outcomes associated with dieting and the use of unhealthful weight-control behaviors.”
And we live in a world where And we live in a world where one out of four children has dieted prior to turning seven, and a staggering 80% of American girls aged ten have been on diets. So kids don’t need any more help being thin-obsessed.
This isn’t an insignificant matter; it can be a matter of life and death. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, in the last decade hospitalizations for eating disorders for kids under 12 are up 119%. Kids. Under. Twelve.
So, what can you do?
Call your kid’s school and see if they do anything like this. If they do, ask what it takes to opt out — can you send a letter? Get a note from your doctor? Claim a religious exemption? Then do it, whatever it takes.
Figure out who created this policy, get other parents together, and get some activism going.Vladimir Putin sends Independence Day greetings to Mukherjee, Modi
India
oi-IANS
By Ians
New Delhi, Aug 13: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent his greetings on the occasion of India's Independence Day to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his telegram, he praised India's "impressive success in social, economic, scientific, technological and humanitarian spheres. High is your country's prestige in the international arena".
Also read: I-Day address: Will Modi speak from behind a bullet proof enclosure?
He said Russian-Indian relations are based on long-standing traditions of friendship and mutual respect and have attained the level of special and privileged strategic partnership.
Putin said Russia attaches great importance to the launch of procedure for India's joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, "which opens up new vistas for broader and productive cooperation between our nations".
He recalled his meetings with Modi in Ufa, Russia, in early July and in New Delhi in last December.
"It is with warm feelings that I recall our meetings in Russia and India, substantive and constructive negotiations.
I am confident that by joint efforts we will ensure further growth of the whole gamut of bilateral ties and partnership interaction in addressing the burning issues of regional and global agenda.
This meets the fundamental interests of our nations and goes in line with providing international stability and security", he said, according to the Russian embassy here.
IANSHBO has a message for the thousands of fans begging to pay for its online streaming service, HBO Go, exclusively. Thanks, but no thanks. We don't want your money. Even if you'll just pirate our expensive stuff, otherwise.
Why is HBO turning away hoards of people practically begging the company to take their money... even more money than they currently make per subscriber right now? TV is complicated, but let's make this simple. I've got three big reasons why HBO Go won't go it alone: the price reason, the political reason, and the demographic reason.
1) The Price You're Willing to Pay Is Almost Certainly Too Low. Every month, the cable companies tally up their tall piles of ~$80 monthly cable bills and send money to each of the networks in the bundle. These fees range from a few cents per-subscriber-per-month to a few dollars. HBO currently has 30 million premium subscribers. It gets a whopping $7 every month for each one. The easy arithmetic suggests that with 15 million subscribers paying $14, HBO could get the same revenue.
Ah, same revenue, but not the same profit. Weaned off big cable, HBO's costs would skyrocket. It would have to build its own streaming infrastructure. It would have to take over its own marketing. It would have to build a customer services team and a billing team. All of these costs are currently covered by the cable companies. But if you wanted to pay for HBO Go exclusively, you would have to pay more for the unbundled content plus these new costs.
HBO leans on cable, and cable leans on HBO. Just like Disneyland would lose money if it sold a la carte tickets to Splash Mountain for $20 without requiring $80 park admission, cable companies would lose money if HBO went for $20, alone, without basic cable package.
So what you've got is a mutually beneficial relationship between HBO and TV on the one hand... and consumers who are screaming for HBO Go on the other hand. But as Tim Carmody put it perfectly: "HBO is never going to dynamite its multi-decade relationship with cable companies unless individual customers were willing to make a Godfather offer."*
2) It's All Time Warner's Fault. I'm summing up Gabriel Rossman's fantastic post here: Even if HBO could thrive with an a la carte model (and that's not obvious), its parent company would not. HBO is owned by Time Warner, whose other channels -- TBS, CNN, etc -- rely more on channel-surfing audiences, not cult followings. (Wolf Blitzer sounds like a Game of Thrones character, but, alas, he is not, yet.) Selling HBO Go on its own would encourage cord-cutting. Cord-cutting would hurt Time Warner. And a hurt Time Warner is bad for HBO. Rossman calls this the "taking one for the team" argument.
3) TV Is Where the People Are... For Now According to a 2011 Economist article, there are about 105 million multichannel TV households in America versus an estimated 3 million affluent homes with broadband but no multichannel TV. If you're selling expensive content to audiences with screens, which audience would you focus on? Probably the one that's 30-times larger. Cord cutting is still a pretty small segment whose over-representation in blogging-about-how-much-I-like-HBO-shows sector is somewhere near 1 million percent.
*If you're against bundling, philosophically, you shouldn't settle for freeing HBO Go from cable, because HBO itself is a bundling service. If HBO Go were priced too high, many of the people screaming for exclusive streaming today instead might scream for HBO Go to unbundle Game of Thrones and other shows and make them available on their own. It's a Russian doll set of bundling frustrations!Saskatoon police are investigating two separate stabbings that occurred this weekend.
Officers were first called to St. Paul’s Hospital at around 10:30 p.m. CT on Friday where a 26-year-old man was receiving treatment for a stab wound.
He told officers that he was in an altercation with another man in a parking lot at Fairlight Drive and McCormack Road when he was assaulted with a sharp-edged instrument.
Everyone involved then fled the area.
Related Saskatoon police arrest man who broke through front door of Exhibition home
The man made his own way to hospital. His injury is considered non-life threatening.
READ MORE: Meth, guns seized by Saskatoon police in Caswell Hill search
The second stabbing was reported at around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.
A 20-year-old man told officers he was in an altercation but was unsure where it occurred. He received medical treatment at a Saskatoon hospital for a non-life threatening injury.
No suspect descriptions were available.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Saskatoon police at 306-975-8300 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.It’s three o’clock in the afternoon on Easter, and I’m standing on a wooden deck in the Corona Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, looking out toward Nob Hill. A man is cooking large slabs of meat on a gas grill as two dozen people mingle with glasses of bourbon and bottles of beer in the cool, damp breeze blowing in off the ocean. All of these people are would-be movers and shakers in American higher education—the historic, world-leading system that constitutes one of this country’s greatest economic assets—but not one of them is an academic. They’re all tech entrepreneurs. Or, as the local vernacular has it, hackers.
Some of them are the kinds of hackers a college dean could love: folks who have come up with ingenious but polite ways to make campus life work better. Standing over there by the case of Jim Beam, for instance, are the founders of OneSchool, a mobile app that helps students navigate college by offering campus maps, course schedules, phone directories, and the like in one interface. The founders are all computer science majors who dropped out of Penn State last semester. I ask the skinniest and geekiest among them how he joined the company. He was first recruited last spring, he says, when his National Merit Scholarship profile mentioned that he likes to design iPhone apps in his spare time. He’s nineteen years old.
But many of the people here are engaged in business pursuits far more revolutionary in their intentions. That preppy-looking guy near the barbecue? He’s launching a company called Degreed, which aims to upend the traditional monopoly that colleges and universities hold over the minting of professional credentials; he wants to use publicly available data like academic rank and grade inflation to standardize the comparative value of different college degrees, then allow people to add information about what they’ve learned outside of college to their baseline degree “score.” It’s the kind of idea that could end up fizzling out before anyone’s really heard of it, or could, just maybe, have huge consequences for the market in credentials. And that woman standing by the tree? She’s the recent graduate of Columbia University who works for a company called Kno, which is aiming to upset the $8 billion textbook industry with cheaper, better, electronic textbooks delivered through tablet computers. And then there’s the guy standing to her right wearing a black fleece zip-up jacket: five days ago, he announced the creation of the Minerva Project, the “first new elite American university in over a century.”
Last August, Marc Andreessen, the man whose Netscape Web browser ignited the original dot-com boom and who is now one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture capitalists, wrote a much-discussed op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. His argument was that “software is eating the world.” At a time of low start-up costs and broadly distributed Internet access that allows for massive economies of scale, software has reached a tipping point that will allow it to disrupt industry after industry, in a dynamic epitomized by the recent collapse of Borders under the giant foot of Amazon. And the next industries up for wholesale transformation by software, Andreessen wrote, are health care and education. That, at least, is where he’s aiming his venture money. And where Andreessen goes, others follow. According to the National Venture Capital Association, investment in education technology companies increased from less than $100 million in 2007 to nearly $400 million last year. For the huge generator of innovation, technology, and wealth that is Silicon Valley, higher education is a particularly fat target right now.
This hype has happened before, of course. Back in the 1990s, when Andreessen made his first millions, many people confidently predicted that the Internet would render brick-and-mortar universities obsolete. It hasn’t happened yet, in part because colleges are a lot more complicated than retail bookstores. Higher education is a publicly subsidized, heavily regulated, culturally entrenched sector that has stubbornly resisted digital rationalization. But the defenders of the ivy-covered walls have never been more nervous about the Internet threat. In June, a panicked board of directors at the University of Virginia fired (and, after widespread outcry, rehired) their president, in part because they worried she was too slow to move Thomas Jefferson’s university into the digital world.
The ongoing carnage in the newspaper industry provides an object lesson of what can happen when a long-established, information-focused industry’s business model is challenged by low-price competitors online. The disruptive power of information technology may be our best hope for curing the chronic college cost disease that is driving a growing number of students into ruinous debt or out of higher education altogether. It may also be an existential threat to institutions that have long played a crucial role in American life.
I’m here at this party and in the Bay Area for the next few days to observe the habits, folkways, and codes of the barbarians at the gate—to see how close they’ve come toward finding business models and technologies that could wreak such havoc on higher education. My guide, and my host at this party—he organized the event for my benefit—is a man named Michael Staton. With sandy-blond hair, blue eyes, and a sunburned complexion, Michael is thirty-one—old by start-up standards—and recently married. He’s the president and “chief evangelist” of Inigral, a company he created five years ago to build college-branded social networks for incoming undergraduates. But just as importantly for my purposes, he’s also one of those people who has a knack for connecting with others, a high-link node in a growing network of education technology entrepreneurs who have set their sights on the mammoth higher education industry.
One of the bedrooms in the house where we’re mingling and drinking was Inigral’s headquarters for the first eight months of its existence, back when the founders were “bootstrapping” the company, which is valleyspeak for growing the business on their own using credit cards, waitering tips, plasma donation proceeds, and other sources that don’t involve the investment dollars that can shoot a start-up toward fame and |
grounds, CyberScoop reported last week. On some occasions, the FBI’s outreach efforts in the U.S. have been successful. At least one major American energy firm recently opted against signing a significant business deal with Kaspersky due in large part to the bureau’s briefings. Larger, brand-name technology giants have generally been less receptive and cooperative with the FBI.
The reaction from inside the U.S. intelligence community to the FBI’s work on Kaspersky has been mixed and, at times, disapproving. While there is general agreement among the intelligence agencies that Kaspersky is connected to and works with Russian spies, senior U.S. intelligence officials disapprove of the bureau’s handling of the years-long issue.
Officials from the NSA, CIA and DIA have spent the last year privately criticizing what they perceive as the bureau’s escalatory strategy, which they say is often based on lackluster intelligence work.
No evidence of a relationship between Kaspersky and the Kremlin has been made public, which has fueled a public debate about Washington’s tactics against the private company.
U.S. intelligence officials tell CyberScoop they are frustrated with what they describe as the FBI’s disregard for the the bigger picture.
When the FBI pokes Kaspersky in the eye, one senior U.S. intelligence official said, it’s often not the FBI that is left to face the consequences. Instead, the onus may fall on intelligence community agencies, like the NSA or CIA. Additionally, private U.S. companies may be targeted due to backlash from the Russian government, the source said.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
The long-running conflict between the U.S. government and Kaspersky stems from years of U.S. investigations and suspicions that Russian intelligence leverages Kaspersky as a billion dollar worldwide intelligence-gathering tool. Kaspersky has long denied any inappropriate relationship with Russian intelligence.
“Kaspersky Lab routinely assists law enforcement agencies and governments, including the United States, by providing technical expertise on malware and cyberattacks,” a Kaspersky Lab spokesperson told CyberScoop. “The company has never helped, nor will help, any government with its cyberespionage efforts, as Kaspersky Lab is committed to fighting cybercrime and making the digital world safer for everyone.”
Current U.S. officials also tell CyberScoop that attempts to build a working relationship with Kaspersky regarding particular cyber threats has been stifled once the FBI learned of the efforts.
The FBI’s actions — which, according to officials, exacerbate an already delicate relationship between the intelligence community and Kaspersky — show the cultural and practical gaps between the different agencies that impact the way they work together on a day-to-day and case-by-case basis regarding cybersecurity.
Much of the criticism of the U.S. government’s handling of the case has taken place behind closed doors. But intelligence veterans have spoken out about the issue.
“There is little doubt that the U.S. government’s handling of their Kaspersky claims will cause trouble for U.S. companies,” Jake Williams, a former NSA employee and founder of Rendition Infosec, told CyberScoop. “The data released so far against Kaspersky is weak and inconclusive and applies to many U.S. information security companies. Making claims without substance to back those claims will just lead to speculation that U.S. companies are involved in similar activities. Rebuking these claims is made difficult since the burden of ‘proof’ established by the U.S. is so low.”
Robert Lee, another U.S. intelligence veteran and now the CEO and co-founder of Dragos Security, has repeatedly spoken out on the issue. “It is not appropriate for the USG to make allegations against Kaspersky a private company w/o proof,” Lee tweeted in May. “Provide proof or stop.”
There is little love lost for Kaspersky in the intelligence community but, among senior officials who spoke with CyberScoop, there is a smaller and shrinking appetite for a public relations battle that could have a profound impact on operators working to defend U.S. computer networks.Pew Report Tracks How Politics Correspond With Religion
A new report from the Pew Research Center shows how Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are doing among religious and non-religious voters.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The political division between people who support Donald Trump and those who support Hillary Clinton corresponds with a religious split. A new report from the Pew Research Center shows our religious preferences say a lot about how we'll vote. Here's NPR's Tom Gjelten.
TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE: Polarization in America, it seems, runs in parallel along political and religious lines. Alan Cooperman, Pew's director of religion research, says his organization's latest survey of registered voters found two large, counterbalancing Groups.
ALAN COOPERMAN: White, evangelical Protestants, on the one hand, who make up about a fifth of all registered voters in the United States. And on the other side, so-called religious nones - N-O-N-E-S - people who don't identify with any religious group. They are now also about a fifth of all registered voters.
GJELTEN: And they're sharply divided politically. White evangelicals are, by far, the largest religious group in the Trump camp. So-called nones, meanwhile - the atheists, agnostics and the religiously unaffiliated - account for, by far, the biggest share of Clinton supporters. The evangelicals' pro-Trump position - nearly four out of five say they'll vote for him - is notable, Cooperman says, because Trump is not seen as a very religious person.
COOPERMAN: Even though any number of evangelical leaders have come out against Donald Trump, the evangelical rank and file is rallying behind Trump, much in the way that it did behind Mitt Romney just four years ago.
GJELTEN: Perhaps is another sign of anti-elite sentiment. People just don't follow their leaders that much anymore. Could be true for evangelicals as it is for others. Or maybe this support among evangelicals for a worldly candidate like Trump shows that Americans, evangelicals included, don't really care so much whether they're presidents are all that religious. Pew researcher Alan Cooperman cites a figure from back in 2000.
COOPERMAN: About 70 percent of Americans said that it's important to them that a president have strong religious beliefs. In 2012, that dipped a little bit, and so far in 2016, it's dipped even more.
GJELTEN: Down to 62 percent. The shift is most pronounced among millennials. Less than half - just 42 percent - say a candidate's religious beliefs are important to them. One more note - despite the overwhelming evangelical support for Trump and the corresponding support for Clinton among the religiously unaffiliated, neither group seems hugely enthusiastic about its candidate. Many Trump voters are motivated by animosity to Clinton. Many Clinton voters are simply anti-Trump. Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
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.Greetings! Professor Toucan here. Thank you all for joining me. I have some important information about registering for and purchasing your Comic-Con 2017 attendee badges. Comic-Con International has been diligently working to get everything ready for you and ensuring the badge registration process is as easy and smooth as possible.
First, I’d like to let you know what will be the same about this year’s process for both Returning Registration and Open Registration. I know you all are quite savvy, but a quick refresher is always a good thing!
Only those that purchased a Comic-Con 2016 attendee badge are eligible to participate in Returning Registration.
First time attendees, professionals, guests of professionals, trade professionals, exhibitors (and exhibitor-purchased attendee badges), volunteers, staff, complimentary passes, and retailers are not be eligible to participate in 2017 Returning Registration for attendees. Online registration for these categories will occur at a later date.
Badge registration and purchasing will take place through the Expo Logic waiting room—the same as last year.
Depending on which sale(s) you are eligible for, you will receive an email with a link to the Expo Logic landing page and a registration code that is unique to you. You will still be able to access your personal registration code in your Comic-Con Member ID account. As always, you can register for and purchase badges for up to 3 people, including you!
Now it’s time for the good stuff … what is being updated for 2017? You will no longer need to input a buyer shipping address during badge purchase. We are shipping badges directly to the attendee associated with that badge, instead of the buyer. For example, Black Canary purchased a badge for herself, you, and Green Arrow during badge registration. Black Canary’s badge will be shipped to her, your badge will be shipped to you, and Green Arrow’s badge will be shipped to him. However, international attendees will still pick up their badges onsite.
Because your badge will be shipped to you (regardless of whom the purchaser is) it is important you log into your Comic-Con Member ID account as soon as possible to ensure your contact information is correct. The deadline to change the mailing address in your Member ID account is May 18, 2017. Your Comic-Con 2017 badge will be shipped to the address on file as of that date.
For more information about Comic-Con 2017 Returning Registration, please click here.
Make sure to bookmark me here at Toucan, the official blog of Comic-Con and WonderCon, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, for the latest registration updates. As always, Comic-Con will continue to offer one of the most generous child badge policies in the industry. Children age 12 and under are free with a paid adult!Your browser does not support iframes.
Texas Rangers slugger Prince Fielder officially announced his retirement at a press conference in Arlington on Wednesday, fighting back tears at the end of a 12-year career.
Wearing a neck brace after neck surgery, Fielder was very emotional throughout the press conference.
"Doctors told me that with two spinal fusions, I can't play major league baseball anymore," Fielder said. "I want to thank my teammates, all the coaching staff. I'm going to really miss being around those guys. I had a lot of fun."
Fielder, 32, hit just.212/.292/.334 with eight home runs in 89 games in a season plagued by injuries.
The left-handed slugger was a six-time All-Star who averaged 35 home runs from 2006-13 and was one of the most feared hitters in the game thanks to the power packed into his beautiful, violent swing.
Fielder was also durable, missing only 13 total games during those eight seasons, though he was limited to just 42 games in 2014 and was besieged by injuries this season that led to his career-ending surgery.
During the press conference, he was flanked at the table by agent Scott Boras on one side, and Fielder's two sons on the other.
Fielder thanked just about everybody, including his wife for always helping him to stay positive, and cried some more when looking to his sons, saying, "I've been in a big league clubhouse since I was their age."
Fielder was in major league clubhouses as a kid with his father, Cecil Fielder, a power hitter in his own right. They are the only father-son duo in major league history to each hit 50 home runs in a season, Cecil with 51 homers in 1990 and Prince with 50 on the nose in 2007.
Both Fielders ended their careers with 319 home runs.
Fielder kept his spirits up despite the sadness of retiring, and was even able to deftly fend off one of the stupidest questions ever, with a reporter asking Fielder, "Do you understand what Lou Gehrig was going through in his famous speech?"
#PrinceFielder asked if he "sort of understands what Lou Gehrig was going through in his famous speech" #Rangers pic.twitter.com/DOiohj2XXX — mfr24 (@mfr234) August 10, 2016
"What?" was all Fielder could say, before the press conference moved on.Copyright by WRBL - All rights reserved
Associated Press - ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia's governor has suspended all five members of the local school board in Dooly County.
Gov. Nathan Deal issued his decision on Monday, following a November recommendation by the State Board of Education that leaders of the central-Georgia district be suspended.
State law allows a governor to intervene if a school district's accreditation is at risk.
A school accreditation organization began reviewing the district in 2015 and gave the district low scores for governance and leadership. A year later, the organization said the district showed little improvement.
Deal appointed a six-member panel to nominate replacement school board members and also named Martha Ann Todd as his liaison to the district. Todd is the executive director of the Governor's Office of Student Achievement.Everyone knows it as a nonsense poem – but this owl and pussy cat really are inseparable.
It may sound like a cliche – but this owl and pussy cat really are the best of friends (Caters)
They may not have been to sea in a beautiful pea green boat, but Edward Lear could have written his 19th-century classic The Owl And The Pussycat just for them.
The unlikely bond was forged after a litter of abandoned kittens was handed in to a bird of prey sanctuary.
Despite being fair game for owls, one of the litter has become firm friends with Nigel, a white-faced scops owl.
Staff said Nigel would normally fancy an animal the size of the black-and-white kitten, named Podge, for lunch, but as these pictures show that seems to be the last thing on his mind.
‘A lorry driver found the kittens in the road and not knowing what to do with them he brought them to us,’ said Kim Kirkbride of the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover, Hampshire.
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‘I offered to look after them but Nigel seems to have got a bit attached to one of them. They’re the best of friends.’
The rest of the kittens will rehomed through the Cats Protection League but Ms Kirkbride said: ‘Podge and Nigel get on so well, I’d be heartbroken to split them up.’That makes Call of Duty the best-selling video game franchise and it seems like it won’t be stopping there.
With Call of Duty Black Ops 4 arriving soon with refreshing new game modes, new class-based team system as well as the much-anticipated Blackout mode—the CoD version of battle royale, it doesn’t seem like Activision will have a run for its money.
Whether you’ve been a fan since the first game or just started playing the series, we’ll be going through the best CoD titles that diehard fanboys consider the greatest hits in the last 15 years.
Before we begin jotting down the best titles in the series, let’s take a look back at how it became so popular and how it made first-person shooter games the most mainstream genre in video games.
The rise of the FPS genre
While the late 90s was the start of the FPS genre as well as arena shooters, the early 2000s was the era where first-person shooter games began to take shape as story-driven narratives as well as high-skilled competitive gaming.
In 2001, the world witnessed some of the most amazing and ground-breaking first-person shooter games that defined the genre: Counter-Strike, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and most of all, Halo: Combat Evolved.
MoH: AA was one of EA’s most triumphant IPs at the time due to its pulse-pounding gameplay and total immersion of what it was like fighting in the beaches of Normandy during World War II. Some fans called it Saving Private Ryan: The Video Game as it was as believable and terrifying as the movie’s action scenes.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein, on the other hand, was id Software’s comeback that stayed true to its fantasy-WWII roots. Gamers praised it for its fast and thrilling gameplay as well as generally making them feel like a real bad-ass.
But the most notable FPS games of that year were two distant yet equally successful titles: Counter-Strike and Halo: Combat Evolved.
Counter-Strike was a PC-only game that helped shape the world of competitive gaming and popularize esports. CS was a modern shooter that innovated skilled gameplay, team cooperation, and tactical combat.
Halo: Combat Evolved proved the world that FPS on console is possible and having both a remarkable story-driven campaign as well as implementing a very addictive online multiplayer was a reality. It was also the first FPS game that added regenerating health and NPCs that actually help you in battle against enemies in a very non-linear way.
When these titles became instant hits, many game developers sought to do what they did, creating an overly saturated genre of a one-man-army protagonist saving the world from the bad guys in an FPS game format.
Gamers soon became tired of all the one-man army stuff in single player games and wanted to feel vulnerable to the point where they needed the aid of other allies on-screen.
2003: The year that started it all
What the world didn’t know at the time was that the developers of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, 2015 (which later became Infinity Ward and acquired by Activision), would soon transform the FPS genre with their 2003 debut, Call of Duty.
The world never saw CoD coming as it raised the bar in war games—much more believable set-pieces that put MoH:AA’s D-Day campaign to shame, smart AI teammates that were relevant and helped you from beginning to end, becoming more prone to death if you go one-man-army against a battalion of Nazis, gun recoil, iron sights, and the most immersive combat sounds to ever hear at the time.
It blew the critics’ minds with its wonderfully-executed theaters of war. It came to show that video games can be as impactful as any good action movie.
While they weren’t known for good multiplayer that time (Battlefield 1942 was the reigning class-based WWII multiplayer shooter during that era), the first game did lay the foundation of what CoD is known for these days: loud, explosive cutscenes, and just generally crazy gunfights.
Since then, Activision has been putting out a Call of Duty game every year, starting from games set in World War II, to the modern era, and to the future beyond planet Earth.
Whatever Activision’s theme for Call of Duty is ever year, it always seems to surpass their target sales.
What makes the best Call of Duty game?
In our Call of Duty game list, we’ll be counting down three major parts that make a memorable CoD title: Single Player, Multiplayer, and Innovation.
Single Player
CoD was always known for Michael Bay-esque narratives but it’s not always the explosions and over-the-top actions that made a particular title great. It had to have an engaging story, memorable missions and wonderful characters.
Take for example the All Ghillied Up mission in CoD 4 where you and your Captain were set out in a deserted Chernobyl in order to assassinate a high-priority target or the nerve-wracking Normandy Beach Landings where you had no idea how you were going to survive in the beaches of Pointe du Hoc filled with heavy enemy fire from the cliffs.
Multiplaye r
CoD became known for its multiplayer in 2007 with CoD 4: Modern Warfare. That title alone has set the bar really high for addictive competitive shootouts in which players up to this day came to know and love.
It has become CoD’s bread and butter for the series and the main feature of the game. They focused so much on multiplayer that they decided to remove the single player mode and added much more multiplayer modes for CoD: Black Ops 4—a risky move that could truly make or break the series.
We’ll be counting in the multiplayer that had the best maps, best guns, and best features like the Pick 10 system in CoD: Black Ops 2 and Zombies mode in CoD: World at War.
Innovation
Last but not the least is innovation. While the gaming community may see CoD as a repetitive cash-grabbing annual shoot-fest, we’ll be focusing on the titles that made the game feel fresh from its stale predecessors.
Innovations include the perk and weapon mod systems in Cod 4: Modern Warfare, the cod points in CoD: Black Ops and the addition of double jumping in CoD: Advanced Warfare.
CoD at its best
With all that said, let’s finally dig down on the proudest moments for both CoD and its community.
These are the best Call of Duty games ranked 10 to 1.
Please take note this is based on our own picks.Questioner: “How do you take on the bureaucracy that damages so many organizations?”
Jack Welch: “Damages? How about deadens?
That’s a better word to describe what bureaucracy does; it sucks the life out of a business … Kafkaesque … kick bureaucracy: At every chance, poke fun at anyone who tries to install process for process’s sake; rib people who get all puffy about their positions or titles.What you want is…A business where an idea’s value has nothing to do with the stripes on the shoulder of the person behind it …” (source)
I recently made some changes in how I approach my daily work life. I switched more to a result-oriented thinking. Again. Since I already learned the value of result-oriented thinking when it comes to getting things done. If the productivity and time-management information is not really working for you it may not be the technique but the engine running it (source)
The Mindset of Getting Things Done
There are two basic mindsets about something we want to do:
Process oriented
What does the task mean? What will happen on the way to get there? How does it feel if I do it?
Those may be the questions we ask internally if we adopt this mindset. The problem: if you don’t feel very good doing the necessary things, you might not give the best you could. This could lead to always trying to go the easy way and to avoid the tougher but sometimes necessary ways.
Result oriented
How can I achieve this? What do I have to do now to get there? How does getting the result feel?
If you think result oriented, you tend to see the end in your mind and you are looking for the fastest way to go there. You want to have the result. This means that you become much more focused on action “flowing” towards the result.
There may be some other mindsets when it comes to getting things done, such as the relationship oriented where you ask yourself “What does this task mean to my relationship to the people involved?” I seriously think that in general woman are more into this mindset.
Advantage 1: Flexibility
But the basic difference is the process vs. result orientation. If you think in results, the way to get the result is not that important. What matters is the result itself. This means that your way to get things done stays very flexible. If approach one did not work, doesn’t matter much! The approach was not important, the result is. So we just change the approach to a better one. We don’t get stuck in a process or even in the thick of processes.
So flexibility is one major advantage in the result oriented mindset.
Advanage 2: Drive to Action
Another even more important one is the drive to action. If you want the result you usually want it now. This produces a lot of potential energy to invest into the actions to the result. What I experience is that the anticipation of the result is what makes the process actually enjoyable, even if the task in itself is pretty boring.
An example
Here is an example when you are about to “clean the dishes”:
Cleaning the dishes process oriented:
“Ahwww, what an awful boring task again! I have to take the plates and glasses and make them clean. Then use the towel, dry them and put them into the cupboard.”
Cleaning the dishes result oriented:
“I want to have a clean and nice kitchen. What do I have to do to get the result? I have to wash the dishes, the plates and glasses and I put them into the cupboard then. So let’s get moving! I want to have my sweet clean kitchen back. … hmm, cleaning the dishes is not that bad actually ;)”
While it may not be that unbiased it makes the point clear: if you know why you are doing it, you are more motivated to take action having your result in mind. The same applies to all kind of usually more complex tasks of the information-age. Result-orientation simply makes it faster and easier to succeed.
Result-Orientation and the Present Moment
But …
… let me share this little story from the book “The Miracle of Mindfulness ” by Thich Nhat Hanh (which I found on Kevin Rose Blog ):
The cup in your hands:
In the United States, I have a close friend named Jim Forest. When I first met him eight years ago, he was working with the Catholic Peace Fellowship. Last winter, Jim came to visit. I usually wash the dishes after we’ve finished the evening meal, before sitting down and drinking tea with everyone else. One night, Jim asked if he might do the dishes. I said, “Go ahead, but if you wash the dishes you must know the way to wash them.” Jim replied, “Come on, you think I don’t know how to wash the dishes?” I answered, “There are two ways to was the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” Jim was delighted and said, “I choose the second way–to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” From then on, Jim knew how to wash the dishes. I transferred the “responsibility” to him for an entire week.
If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.” ~ The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh
Hmm.. this kinda contradicts my first conclusion, doesn’t it? I’m really curious. What do you think?
And secondly, do you honestly wash the dishes to wash the dishes or to have clean dishes?FAQ's about Eiffel Tower On this page you will find answers to some of the most popular questions about the Eiffel Tower as well as some less known interesting facts. Why was the Eiffel Tower built? Eiffel Tower was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. What is the Eiffel Tower’s height and weight? The Eiffel Tower has 2.5 million rivets holding together its 18,038 parts weighing 7,300 tons and measuring 1,050ft in height. When was the Eiffel Tower built? On March 31, 1889, Gustave Eiffel presided over the inauguration of the tower in Paris named after him. It was opened to the public five weeks later. The building of the Eiffel Tower lasted 26 months. Other interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower: Between 1925 and 1934, the Eiffel Tower served as a giant billboard advertising Citroen. (see picture bellow-right) The Eiffel Tower was the highest structure in the world until the construction of the Chrysler Building in New York in 1930. Every seven years, the tower is coated with 50 tons of paint to protect it from rust. The design of the tower met with huge disapproval from the artistic community in Paris. They relented when it attracted two million visitors in its first year. On a hot day, expansion of metal on the side facing the sun may cause the top of the tower to bend three inches away from the sun. In 1925, a conman twice'sold' the tower for scrap. In 2002, the Eiffel Tower celebrated receiving its 200 millionth visitor. Gustave Eiffel also designed the interior support structure for the Statue of Liberty. When Hitler invaded France, the French cut the lift cables on the tower to ensure that he had to walk up the stairs if he wanted to reach the top.
Eiffel Tower in Paris
Eiffel TowerTim Heitman/US Presswire Over the last six seasons, Cowboys outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware has averaged just over 15 sacks per year.
Former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah is getting into the Olympic mindset early this summer, handing out NFL Podium Awards for the top three players at each position group. Remember, this list is based on where these players are ranked heading into the 2012 season. Today, he takes on edge pass rushers (defensive ends and outside linebackers).
Once upon a time, the great NFL teams were identified by their ability to run the ball successfully on offense and stop the run on defense. Those days are over. Games are won and lost by your ability to pass the ball effectively and rush the passer. Last year, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl with the NFL's 32nd-ranked rush offense and 19th-ranked rush defense. However, they had the winning formula of a top-five passing attack and the third-highest sack total in the NFL. The main reason the Green Bay Packers fell short in their bid to repeat was their drop in sack production. They slid from second in the league in 2010 to 27th in 2011. There is plenty of evidence to support the fact that pass rushers have never been more valuable than they are today. With that being said, here are the three best edge rushers in the NFL.
Gold: DeMarcus Ware, OLB, Dallas Cowboys
Ware is the gold standard for edge pass rushers. In his seven seasons with the Cowboys, he's tallied 99.5 sacks. Want consistency? He's had double-digit sacks in each of the last six seasons. He's had 14-plus sacks four different times and he's been to six straight pro bowls. Last season, he finished second in the league with 19.5 sacks, despite constantly demanding double-teams. He is the ideal 3-4 OLB because of his length, explosiveness and ability to bend the edge. Ware is one of the top-five players in the NFL, regardless of position.
Silver: Jared Allen, DE, Minnesota Vikings
Allen has been a model of consistency and production throughout his career. In six of his eight seasons, he's posted double-digit sack totals. Since joining the Vikings in 2008, he's put up the following sack numbers: 14.5, 14.5, 11 and 22. Last year, he came just a half sack shy of Michael Strahan's NFL single-season record. He has a full array of pass-rush moves, but the one distinguishing trait is his unbelievable motor. He never takes a play off and throws his fastball at offensive tackles for 60 minutes. When he gets on a roll, he can pile up sacks in bunches and completely take over a game.
Bronze: Jason Pierre-Paul, DE, New York Giants
In just his second NFL season, Pierre-Paul clearly established himself as a premier pass rusher. He finished fourth in the league with 16.5 sacks, despite only starting 12 games. His combination of height, length, power and speed is off the charts. He can play inside or outside and be equally destructive. I listed him as one of the seven most dominant players in the league earlier this month, mentioning that one highly respected NFL defensive line coach believes JPP is the best pass-rushing talent to enter the league in the last decade. At only 23 years old, he is still just scratching the surface of what he can eventually become. That's a scary thought for opposing offenses!
Others considered: Terrell Suggs, OLB, Baltimore Ravens; Tamba Hali, OLB, Kansas City Chiefs; Jason Babin, DE, Philadelphia Eagles; Trent Cole, DE, Philadelphia Eagles; Aldon Smith, OLB, San Francisco 49ers; Chris Long, DE, St. Louis Rams; Von Miller, OLB, Denver Broncos; Julius Peppers, DE, Chicago Bears; James Harrison, OLB, Pittsburgh Steelers; LaMarr Woodley, OLB, Pittsburgh Steelers; Cameron Wake, DE, Miami Dolphins; John Abraham, DE, Atlanta Falcons; Justin Tuck, DE, New York Giants; Osi Umenyiora, DE, New York Giants; Cliff Avril, DE, Detroit Lions; Connor Barwin, OLB, Houston Texans; Chris Clemons, DE, Seattle Seahawks; Robert Mathis, DE/OLB, Indianapolis Colts; Dwight Freeney, DE/OLB, Indianapolis Colts; Brian Orakpo, OLB, Washington Redskins; Ryan Kerrigan, OLB, Washington Redskins; Clay Matthews, OLB, Green Bay Packers; Mario Williams, DE/OLB, Buffalo Bills.
Follow Daniel Jeremiah on Twitter @MoveTheSticks.Many who are released from jail or prison feel they are branded in society with a red ‘F’ for ‘felon.’ The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs is trying to ease their reentry into society, in part by not using words such as ‘felon’ or ‘convict’ in their literature from now on. (David Sckrabulis/Office of Justice Programs)
The Justice Department is taking a number of steps to reintegrate those released from prisons and jails into society, most notably during the recent National Reentry Week, such as asking states to provide identification to convicts who have served their sentences and creating a council to remove barriers to their assimilation into every day life. Here, Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason, who has headed the Office of Justice Programs since 2013, announces in a guest post that her agency will no longer use words such as “felon” or “convict” to refer to released prisoners.
By Karol Mason
During National Reentry Week last week, federal prisons and prosecutors’ offices and local organizations held job fairs, community town hall meetings, special mentoring sessions, and outreach events aimed at raising public awareness of the obstacles facing those who leave our prisons, jails, and juvenile justice facilities each year. The American Bar Association has documented more than 46,000 collateral consequences of criminal convictions, penalties such as disenfranchisement and employment prohibitions that follow individuals long after their release. These legal and regulatory barriers are formidable, but many of the formerly incarcerated men, women, and young people I talk with say that no punishment is harsher than being permanently branded a “felon” or “offender.”
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason, head of the Office of Justice Programs. (Department of Justice)
In my role as head of the division of the Justice Department that funds and supports hundreds of reentry programs throughout the country, I have come to believe that we have a responsibility to reduce not only the physical but also the psychological barriers to reintegration. The labels we affix to those who have served time can drain their sense of self-worth and perpetuate a cycle of crime, the very thing reentry programs are designed to prevent. In an effort to solidify the principles of individual redemption and second chances that our society stands for, I recently issued an agency-wide policy directing our employees to consider how the language we use affects reentry success.
This new policy statement replaces unnecessarily disparaging labels with terms like “person who committed a crime” and “individual who was incarcerated,” decoupling past actions from the person being described and anticipating the contributions we expect them to make when they return. We will be using the new terminology in speeches, solicitations, website content, and social media posts, and I am hopeful that other agencies and organizations will consider doing the same.
Adjusting language in no way means condoning criminal or delinquent behavior. Those who commit crimes must be held accountable. But accountability requires making amends, an objective that is much harder to achieve when a person is denied the chance to move forward. The people who leave our correctional facilities every year have paid their debts. They deserve a chance to rebuild their lives. We, all of us, can help them by dispensing with useless and demeaning labels that freeze people in a single moment of time.
Our words have power. They shape and color our estimations and judgments. They can build up or tear down. The hundreds of thousands of people who come out of our prisons on an annual basis and the millions more who cycle through local jails need to hear that they are capable of making a change for the better. And with that message of inclusion, that we are holding them to the expectation that they become productive contributors to our communities’ safety and success.
Note: This post has been updated to clarify that Mason’s directive applies only to the Office of Justice Programs, not the entire Justice Department.Yesterday, news broke that several Oregon players had been admitted to the hospital due to an excessively strenuous workout that the new strength and condition coaches implemented. It consisted of an hour of continuous “push ups and up/downs,” among other things.
Appalled by such a blatant mistake in my profession, I posted a link with a comment that punishment does not build toughness, and the reactions were interesting and distinct. On one hand, you had individuals who were appalled that a coach would put players through a workout difficult enough to cause “rhabdo”(a breakdown of the muscle) and who were dismayed that an “hour of push-ups and up/downs” could be considered good coaching in any way.
On the other hand, I received plenty of comments about how the players are just weak, need to toughen up, and profane comments I’d rather not write. In addition, I got told that a runner shouldn’t comment, or that football is all about these kinds of workouts and I just don’t understand.
And it wasn’t just me, the writer of the piece had the same reaction to comments. The comments in the original article are much the same. Many commenters proclaiming how soft and out of shape the athletes must be…
Let’s start with the |
,” and as in Norway, suppressed anti-aircraft fire. Indian Ocean operations drew to a close. The British Pacific Fleet changed bases in February, relocating to Sydney to engage in operations in the Pacific Ocean, directly against Japan. In the Emperor's Home Waters The U.S. Navy qualified the Corsair for carrier deployment in April 1944, at about the same time that the Fleet Air Arm was embarking the plane on Britain’s carriers. However, two Navy squadrons had already adopted the Corsair for ground-based service; VF-12 in October 1942, and VF-17 in April 1943. However, VF-12 ended up passing its airplanes to the Marines, and VF-17 operated from shore on New Georgia. Appropriately, when the U.S. Navy put its first Corsair squadron on a carrier, it was a Marine unit, VMF-213 on the USS Essex in April 1944. Other Marine squadrons soon deployed aboard ship as well, plus the US Navy’s own VF-12 (reequipped with new Corsairs), VF-17 and VF-301. One major reason for the decision to send the Corsair to sea was the need to deal with the increasing threat of kamikazes, and ultimately the plane distinguished itself in just that role. In addition, Vought introduced an F4U-2 nightfighter version, with a radome under the starboard wing. In the end though, only thirty-four F4U-1’s were converted to this standard, as the Navy preferred the Hellcat, with its better landing characteristics, for the nightfighter task. Nonetheless, the Corsair continued to thrive not just as a dogfighter, but as a highly effective multi-role aircraft. Just as the Royal Navy demonstrated its ground attack capabilities in Norway, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force chose the Corsair as its standard fighter bomber, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators confirmed its worth as a ground attack platform. In the Pacific, Japanese subjected to attack from Corsairs dubbed it “Whistling Death,” for the unique noise made by air entering the wing root air intakes at high speed. The Corsair was an important component of the wide-ranging American carrier that marked the late stages of the Pacific War. Amphibious operations were, as a practice, supported by carrier strikes against more distant targets, to isolate the objective and neutralize threats to the invasion from elsewhere. For example, the preparation for invasion of Leyte included raids on Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukyus in October 1944. American fast carriers hit Okinawa again, as well as adding Formosa to the target list, in January, this time in support of the liberation of Luzon. Okinawa as the site of the Corsair’s most important work as an American carrier aircraft. The fighter intercepted kamikazes, and supported ground units, and consistent with earlier operations to retake the Philippines, struck the Japanese home islands, especially Kyushu. But it was not just USMC and U.S. Navy Corsairs that rendered good service during the battle for Okinawa. Operating as Task Force 57, the British Pacific Fleet was an important component of the Allied naval effort. America’s last pitched battle of World War II was also Britain’s, and all four Royal Navy carriers ended up struck by kamikazes, though their armored flight decks limited the damage. Following the victory on Okinawa, the American fast carriers of the U.S. Navy’s Task Force 58, along with the British Task Force 57, concentrated on the Japanese home islands, including the Tokyo area. The total record for the American Corsairs for the Second World War is impressive. The US Navy and Marine Corps flew a total of 64,051 sorties, though only 15% were from carriers, indicative of a tardy shipborne deployment. There were just 189 Corsair losses, while the plane claimed 2,140 Japanese aircraft, an amazing 11:1 kill ratio for the Americans. Post-War Service World War II marked the start of a new age in aviation, that of the jet. Most of the great piston-engined craft of the war either faded into obscurity, or disappeared altogether, as jet power marked a quantum leap in speed and overall performance. The Corsair not only survived the transition, but thrived. Alhough it would never again be the killer of fighter planes that it was in World War II, it retained a place for itself as a valuable combat aircraft. U.S. Navy Corsairs were involved in the Korean War from the beginning. This time the primary model was the F4U-4, featuring greater protection for the pilot, a four-bladed propeller, and an even more massive R-2800-42W engine capable of driving the plane at 451 miles per hour. This was so fast that Marine Captain J. Folmar of VMF-312 was credited with shooting down a MiG-15 jet fighter, a most unusual feat. Some 297 F4U-4’s replaced their six.50 machine guns with four 20mm cannon, becoming the F4U-4B or -4C. Tthere were photoreconnaissance versions, and once again a night fighter variant, the F4U-4N. The vast majority though, 2,050 in all, were the standard F4U-4, all produced by Vought, with the last one delivered in 1947. The first American carrier on station off Korea, at the start of the conflict, was the USS Valley Forge, embarking two squadrons of F9F Panther jet fighters, two squadrons of Corsairs, and a fifth equipped with the Douglas AD Skyraider, a rugged attack plane so effective that, despite being piston-engined, would further distinguish itself in Vietnam. By the end of June, it was joined by the USS Philippine Sea, bearing an identical air wing. A third fleet carrier, the Boxer, arrived in time for the Inchon landings in September, embarking an all-prop air complement of four Corsair squadrons and two of Skyraiders. Carriers would rotate into and out of the war zone, but for the most part there would be four U.S. Navy carriers present, and usually one British carrier providing more distant cover. The Navy Corsairs resumed the Pacific War function that had gained them the nickname of “Whispering Death:” Ground attack. Typically in the early months of the war, Panthers would provide fighter escort, while Skyraiders dropped the larger bombs, and Corsairs delivered the lighter ordnance. Again as in World War II, the United States Marine Corps flew Corsairs, exploiting the plane’s ground attack capabilities for the Marine specialty of close support missions. The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, commanded by Major General Field Harris, supported the 5th Marine Regiment; together they comprised the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade for the USMC’s contribution to defending the Pusan Perimeter. The Marine’s Corsairs arrived on a pair of escort carriers, the Badoeng Strait and Sicily. Marine Corsair squadrons demonstrated both extreme effectiveness, and flexibility. With to the Inchon invasion and through the liberation of Seoul, they put on a clinic for effective air support, doing everything from dropping napalm to burn off vegetation, and cover for the enemy, on Wolmi-do island, to anti-tank strikes, countering a threat that the Japanese had seldom mounted. When and where necessary, the Marine aviators operated off of their escort carriers. But if there were bases available on shore, they flew from airfields. Marine Corsairs further proved their efficacy during the winter battles around the Chosen Reservoir in North Korea, and beyond. As at Inchon, Marine Corsairs repeatedly proved their worth, both to brother Leathernecks, and to Army units. Korea was the last war in which the F4U served the United States in a combat role. Amazingly, it was not the Corsair’s final war, and despite the transition to jets, it even remained in production until 31 January 1953, for France. The French navy first employed the Corsair in its war in Vietnam. The Aéronavale relied on two aircraft carriers, the Arromanches and Bois Belleau, the latter the USS Belleau Wood on loan from the US Navy. Both embarked air wings of American-built aircraft, with the 14th Air Flotilla on the Bois Belleau flying Corsairs. Once more, the Corsair entered battle as a ground support aircraft, though too late to affect the outcome. When the Belleau Wood arrived on station on 30 April 1954, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu was raging for four months. The ship relieved the Arromanches, and the latter’s aviators, in part because the Hellcat pilots on the latter had suffered too many casualties, and absorbed so much combat stress that the Hellcat, Helldiver and Bearcat pilots on Arromanches could no longer function. In that context, it should be no surprise that the newly-arrived Corsairs were unable to stave off defeat at Dien Bien Phu, or in Vietnam as a whole. The Corsair soldiered on with the United States until the mid-fifties, and France kept it in service until 1964. The after Dien Bien Phu, the French used it in the Suez in 1956, and then the Algerian war for independence. Meanwhile, Latin America became the last place to acquire Corsairs. Benefiting from the Military Aid Sales program, the Argentine navy received ten F4U-5’s and F4U-5N night fighters in May 1956, and sixteen more the next year. Some were not in flyable condition, and were provided as sources for spare parts. El Salvador received ten Goodyear-built Corsairs in 1957, followed by five ground F4U-1’s for parts. The last recipient was Honduras, taking a total of twenty F4U-5’s and night fighter variants between 1956 and 1959. However, none of the Honduran night fighters had the cockpit instruments to make use of radar, rendering it useless. The last recorded combat missions flown by Corsairs occurred in 1969, during the Soccer War between El Salvador and Honduras. Th met in air-to-air combat, and the Honduran Corsairs shot down two of El Salvador’s. In a few years the Corsair, one of the most enduring combat aircraft in history, passed from the scene. The last Salvadoran plane flew in 1971, and Honduras retired its Corsairs between 1978 and 1979.
A preserved Corsair in flight. Conclusions Just in terms of longevity, the F4U Corsair has to rank as one of the greatest planes ever. Additionally, it showed a remarkable adaptability, always finding a way to be useful. First designed as a carrier fighter, when found wanting it became a superb dogfighter in the hands of pioneering Marine aviators. Then a Royal Navy, needful if not actually desperate for an effective carrier fighter, pursued the technology and techniques required to make it one. Finally, the United States Navy and Marine Corps operated it from America’s own aircraft carriers to great effect. Yet the F4U was not the greatest carrier fighter of World War II; the rival Grumman Hellcat has to be granted that honor. Despite its undeniable assets the Corsair always had to compete for deck space with the F6F, in the Fleet Air Arm as well as the United States Navy. That fighter was undeniably capable, and its landing characteristics never demanded the kind of extra effort required of the Corsair. The Corsair though proved itself not just a premier air-to-air combatant, but a premier ground attack machine. The last models were in fact produced as ground attack specialists, and a generation of soldiers, Marines, and French troops for that matter could attest to its impact on the battlefield. In World War II, the Corsair was a battle-winner when it had to compete for superiority with Japanese air power. After VJ Day, it was equally valuable when there were no enemy fighters with which it had to contend, or the skies were dominated by jets with which it could not. An enemy on the ground was still one that the Corsair could strike with deadly force. The F4U proved a great fighter when flown from land by the United States Marines, and when operated from a pitching deck by the Royal Navy. It was just as good a strike aircraft, regardless of the platform from which it operated. Versatility and adaptability were at least as important as raw performance, enabling the Corsair to endure when equally famous aircraft had largely passed into history. Make history with your own Corsairs in Second
World War at Sea: East of Suez, available nowStory highlights Clinton earned four pledged delegates while Bernie Sanders gained three
The party chairman and vice chairwoman also announced their support of Clinton
Washington (CNN) Hillary Clinton won the Guam Democratic caucuses Saturday, capturing 59.5% of the vote to Bernie Sanders' 40.1%, according to official party results.
Clinton won 777 votes to the Vermont senator's 528.
The former secretary of state, who holds a wide delegate lead over Sanders, earned four pledged delegates, while Sanders gained three.
The party chairman and vice chairwoman, previously uncommitted superdelegates, announced their support of Clinton in light of the caucus results, giving her the support of all five Guam superdelegates.
The small contest is on track with the broader Democratic trend: While Sanders remains competitive, Clinton is on course to rack up the delegates necessary to claim the party's nomination.
Read MoreBut they’re not typical Republican primary voters, either — they may not even consider themselves Republicans. Mr. Trump fares best among people who identify as Republicans but nonetheless remain registered Democrats or have a history of voting in Democratic primaries — a legacy of their previous political allegiances — according to data from Civis Analytics, a Democratic firm.
One result is that Mr. Trump’s strength mirrors that of the Democrats in the middle part of the last century. It may seem odd to see Massachusetts paired with Mississippi as the top two states for Mr. Trump, but it’s something the Democrats pulled off quite regularly from 1928 until the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Take Massachusetts, where Catholics made up a majority of the Republican electorate and provided Mr. Trump with a big primary victory. He drew 53 percent of Catholics in the Massachusetts G.O.P. primary, while Mr. Kasich and Mr. Rubio combined for just 35 percent. The story was the opposite among mainline Protestants — the traditional Republicans — who supported Mr. Kasich and Mr. Rubio over Mr. Trump.
There’s more to Mr. Trump’s advantage in the blue states than the new Republicans. His main opponent, Ted Cruz, fares best among voters of the religious right who identify in polls as “very conservative,” which makes him a bad fit for the more moderate blue states.
But Mr. Trump’s weak opposition is in part a product of his own strength in the blue states. It helped block the emergence of a mainstream candidate, like Jeb Bush, leaving conservative states to elevate Mr. Cruz, a candidate with little appeal to the blue states, as Mr. Trump’s principal rival.
The less religious Republican voters in the Northeast might be a factor in Mr. Trump’s strength as well. Mr. Trump does worst in areas with high church attendance, like Western Michigan or Utah. When he draws voters who are both working class and less religious — as in Massachusetts — he can really run up the score.
Another important factor is race. So far, there has been a strong relationship between Mr. Trump’s share of the vote by state and measures of racial animosity or bias. While no one suggests that all of Mr. Trump’s supporters are racist, surveys show that they are particularly likely to express explicit racial prejudice. And the Northeastern states often sit alongside the South at the top of these indicators, despite the Northeast’s reputation as a bastion of liberalism.A rookie Toronto MPP has laid the issue of TTC fare increases and service cuts at the feet of the Liberal government. Jonah Schein (NDP-Davenport) is calling for a return to the pre-1997 funding arrangement in which the province paid half of TTC operating costs.
Readers at thestar.com seem about evenly split on whether they'd rather pay more or put up with less frequent and more crowded buses, like this rush-hour bus on Finch Ave. ( BRENDAN KENNEDY / TORONTO STAR )
Service cuts and fare hikes — whether 10 cents or 15 cents — are not the appropriate answer for working people who choose greener transportation, he told the Star. “A big part of the budget crisis at city hall has been created under this (city) administration. But a big part of it is structural, with the province,” Schein said. His comments came the same day the TTC released a report recommending city councillors on the transit commission approve a 10-cent fare hike that would bring the cost of a token to $2.60 and return the system to 2004 service standards on 62 bus and streetcar routes. The increase would be applied to all fares except the $3 cash fare.
Article Continued Below
The TTC is also recommending a10-cent fare hike in each of the next three years, which would raise at least $30 million a year — enough to eliminate the anticipated 2012 and 2013 operating shortfalls and reduce the shortfall in 2014 and 2015. City staff are expected to release a briefing Friday advising the city budget committee on the impact of committing to the TTC’s $404 million 2012 operating subsidy for the next three years and suggesting it endorse the 10-cent increase in each of those years. If the city made those commitments, TTC vice-chair Peter Milczyn has said he might consider a one-time, 15-cent fare increase for 2012 to raise an extra $15 million — enough to keep the threatened service. That would also be conditional on the city finding $93 million to pay for 108 extra buses and a garage, to ensure the TTC wouldn’t be short of vehicles next year. It cancelled an order for the buses earlier this year, assuming service would be cut. Councillor Gord Perks (Parkdale-High Park), who suggested last month a 15-cent fare hike would be preferable to slashing service, said Thursday he would prefer to use an expected end of year surplus to fund transit operations. He also criticized Mayor Rob Ford for failing to push the province harder for TTC operating funds.
“The mayor put all his chips around his deal for subways,” said Perks. “Any reasonable person would have said, ‘We have ongoing operating problems. Those are the real priorities.’” A survey at thestar.com shows readers split on whether they’d prefer a fare increase to maintain service levels. At midday Thursday, 44 per cent of respondents had said 15 cents is too much because the TTC is already too costly.
Article Continued Below
But 42 per cent said they might pay more if the service were better. That includes 28 per cent who said they would pay 15 cents, but only if the service would be maintained beyond 2012. Fourteen per cent said they would be willing to pay $5 if it meant fewer delays and cancellations. An additional 14 per cent said they would simply stick with their cars.Publisher Universal Studios
(1) B-47 a-bomb fell on house in SC, first such accident (2) Los Angeles - automatic control of machine tool production line, using punched tape, developed by Hughes Aircraft Company (partial newsreel).
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Reviewer: Htos1 - favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 30, 2012
Subject: History That explosion was just the trigger charge! Htos1 -- June 30, 2012History
Reviewer: ADDIE - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 16, 2010
Subject: That por Little House This is an interesting clip, but don't these things happen, kind of, a lot?
What I would like to know is how badly those 6 people were injured and if the home owner was ever reimbured. lol - May 16, 2010That por Little House
Reviewer: Popeye Doyle - favorite favorite favorite - February 9, 2010
Subject: Ah, progress! An interesting display of belief in progress no matter what happens. - February 9, 2010Ah, progress!
Reviewer: JohnnyTopQuark - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 9, 2010
Subject: No Protective Gear Plutonium-238 only emits alpha radiation (and VERY small amounts of gamma/neutron) which is virtually harmless to humans. Minimal shielding is required, if any.
Same with uranium-235.
The one route that may cause significant damage is if a plutonium chemical compound is ingested, allowing the alpha particles to directly radiate internal organs. Because of this, they should have AT LEAST been wearing respirators of some sort; just in case.
Absolutely insane hysteria and mythology has surrounded nuclear weapons since their inception. It is a curious phenomenon--one that I am devoting much time in the near future to investigating (also I want to dispel misconceptions). - February 9, 2010No Protective Gear
Reviewer: techguy - favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 25, 2009
Subject: If it had... fdungan said, "Had it gone off, South Carolina would be uninhabitable even today due to radiation..."
Although it would have been an horrific disaster, actually this statement isn't true. The bomb was of a type with that of the Trinity test. Ground Zero at the Trinity site is safe to visit:
http://www.atomictourist.com/trinity.htm
Had it been an H-bomb, the area would have been unsuable for years, perhaps decades; but by this time it would remain only somewhat hazardous, and inhabitable with some precautions. The largest-ever US H-bomb test, at Bikini Atoll, was worst-case from a contamination standpoint; a ground explosion rather than an airburst. Bikini is now inhabitable, though with some hazardous residues that can accumulate in locally-grown foods:
http://www.bikiniatoll.com/whatrad.html
It's easy to get shrill about nuclear hazards, easy (and justifiable) to be suspicious of official proclamations. Radiation and nuclear weapons are no small matter, but even so it's unproductive to engage in hysteria.
Incidentally... the bomb could not have gone "atomic" even if it had been dropped with its core, and it would have been possible to clean up the plutonium. The explosion would undoubtedly have broken it up, but it would not have been too widely dispersed. Removal of a not-unmanageable amount of surface soil in the area would have done the job.
The clip is a nice bit of history, I'm glad it's available here. said,Although it would have been an horrific disaster, actually this statement isn't true. The bomb was of a type with that of the Trinity test. Ground Zero at the Trinity site is safe to visit:Had it been an H-bomb, the area would have been unsuable for years, perhaps decades; but by this time it would remain only somewhat hazardous, and inhabitable with some precautions. The largest-ever US H-bomb test, at Bikini Atoll, was worst-case from a contamination standpoint; a ground explosion rather than an airburst. Bikini is now inhabitable, though with some hazardous residues that can accumulate in locally-grown foods:It's easy to get shrill about nuclear hazards, easy (and justifiable) to be suspicious of official proclamations. Radiation and nuclear weapons are no small matter, but even so it's unproductive to engage in hysteria.Incidentally... the bomb could not have gone "atomic" even if it had been dropped with its core, and it would have been possible to clean up the plutonium. The explosion would undoubtedly have broken it up, but it would not have been too widely dispersed. Removal of a not-unmanageable amount of surface soil in the area would have done the job.The clip is a nice bit of history, I'm glad it's available here. - September 25, 2009If it had...
Reviewer: thrillbot - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 1, 2009
Subject: Trying to Get in Touch with HistoryTeacher
I'm actually producing a documentary on the Mars Bluff incident for the South Carolina Educational Television Network (The local PBS affiliate).
You mentioned that your uncle was the USAF Attorney. I would love to talk to you and if he's willing, interview him for the film. I can be reached via email at mburrows@
Thanks
Matt Burrows HistoryTeacherI'm actually producing a documentary on the Mars Bluff incident for the South Carolina Educational Television Network (The local PBS affiliate).You mentioned that your uncle was the USAF Attorney. I would love to talk to you and if he's willing, interview him for the film. I can be reached via email at mburrows@ scetv.org ThanksMatt Burrows - March 1, 2009Trying to Get in Touch with HistoryTeacher
Reviewer: carolinagirl - favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 8, 2008
Subject: BORN THERE I was two when this happened and visited the site last week while there on vacation to see my family. A man bought the land and put a trailer park on it years and years ago but did not pay taxes. I don't have any idea why he didn't think he needed to, but there are dozens of bare areas where trailers used to be and abandoned electric and water meters amongst the pines. Wish I could upload the photos of it here. The sickest is that the old trailer park sign is still there next to a couple of government sanctioned standard green landmark signs that say "ATOMIC BOMB CRATER". The access road is called "Crater Road" and even sicker is an old bait and tackle shop sign. The shop was called "Leap of Faith Bait and Tackle".
While we drove through the abandoned park, we observed surveyors there, no idea what they are going to do, a museum perhaps? I just remember thinking as I found out about it as a kid as I played with friends who lived in Mars Bluff how lucky we were to be alive. - July 8, 2008BORN THERE
Reviewer: canmanbuildsuperman - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 10, 2008
Subject: Responses to comments Just a quick response to the comments below:
zenaris -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki are inhabitable and have many people living there today. You can even visit the place where the atomic bomb went off.
fdungan -- Actually it was an "ordinary atomic bomb" -- it was a Mark 6 plutonium implosion weapon, an improved version of the "Fat Man" bomb that detonated over Nagasaki. Even if it had had its plutonium core inside of it, it would not have detonated in a full nuclear explosion (it would have spread a lot of plutonium around, which would have been bad, but not as bad as a full-blown fission-driven explosion). It was not a thermonuclear weapon. There is no way in which its full explosive power would have left the entire state of South Carolina "uninhabitable." Perhaps you are confusing it with the Tybee bomb, which was a thermonuclear weapon, and was accidentally dropped in Georgia a few months earlier.
In terms of the misleading nature of the clip, the most egregiously inaccurate line is that this was "the first accident of its kind, in history." In fact, a number of accidental droppings and explosive (non-nuclear) detonations of nuclear weapons had occurred over the course of the 1950s. True, the EXACT circumstances of this "accident of its kind" had not occurred, but it's cutting a pretty fine line there, when most people hearing that are going to think that no accidents of dropping nuclear weapons out of bombers had occurred, when in reality all the line means is that no dropping of implosion weapons without their cores over inhabited civilian areas where the explosives then detonated had occurred.
Anyway, an interesting clip. - February 10, 2008Responses to comments
Reviewer: KenHirsch - favorite favorite favorite - August 18, 2006
Subject: Somewhat interesting Not really much detail on the atomic bomb, but still somewhat interesting.
Contrary to what zenaris says, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not inhabitiable. There are over 1 million residents of Hiroshima and more than 400,000 residents of Nagasaki. - August 18, 2006Somewhat interesting
Reviewer: zenaris - favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 2, 2006
Subject: "Dead" A-Bomb Hits U.S. Town An interesting newsreel and event. Maybe it's true that, had the bomb been armed and gone off, South Carolina would be uninhabitable even today - just as Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still uninhabitable. - August 2, 2006"Dead" A-Bomb Hits U.S. Town
Reviewer: fdungan - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 24, 2006
Subject: Thermonuclear Hydrogen Bomb
Keep in mind that this was produced during the height of the Cold War. The Air Force did its best to minimize the danger. Neither the press nor the military wanted to alarm the public.
During this era, people in the know read between the lines. Today we tend to view this newsreel as a coverup, but at the time it was produced (the McCarthy era), it was par for the course.
http://www.fdungan.com/savannah.htm This was no ordinary atomic bomb. Had it gone off, South Carolina would be uninhabitable even today due to radiation (the half life of radioactive isotopes is measured in thousands of year).Keep in mind that this was produced during the height of the Cold War. The Air Force did its best to minimize the danger. Neither the press nor the military wanted to alarm the public.During this era, people in the know read between the lines. Today we tend to view this newsreel as a coverup, but at the time it was produced (the McCarthy era), it was par for the course. - July 24, 2006Thermonuclear Hydrogen Bomb
Reviewer: opt17 - favorite favorite favorite - May 21, 2005
Subject: nothing to write nothing to write - May 21, 2005nothing to write
Reviewer: HistoryTeacher - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 8, 2005
Subject: An Important Bit of Atomic, South Carolina, and Automatic Manufacturing/Computer Technology The first bit is about the bombing of Mars Bluff, South Carolina. A B-47 suffered an electrical fault and toggled off a nulcear gravity bomb through the bomb bay doors, severely damaging several homes and injuring several people. My uncle was the government lawyer that defended the US in the ensuing lawsuit, so there is some family folklore to go with this and thus a personal interest. BTW, I suspect that the "TNT" mentioned was newsreel-eese for "an unknown high explosive agent": I suspect that they use more sophisticated stuff in nuclear weapons than TNT, but that is just a hunch. I dont think the device had any nuclear material in it to speak of, and none was ever recovered in any event. It was a "live" weapon, but apparently had its core of plutonium (I assume) removed for the exercise.
The second bit was about one of the first NC (Numericaly Controled) automated manufacturing stations. This generation of early automated milling station used paper tape to store the programming that controls the selection of tools, speeds and feeds, motion of the workpiece and cutter, ect. When I was in the machine tool program at the local tec college years ago, we had a beheamoth like this (only made by GE) gathering dust in the corner. More modern machines using more flexible CNC (Computer Numericaly Controled) systems had long ago replaced it. This is the technology that bridged the gap between the manualy operatied mills, lathes and shapers of 100 years ago and the ultra-automated manufacturing stations of todays factories. Must-have footage in any discussion of modern manufacturing and the early impact of computers on the workplace. - May 8, 2005An Important Bit of Atomic, South Carolina, and Automatic Manufacturing/Computer TechnologyWhile Yole sees the current business mostly driven by greenhouse applications and incumbent technologies (92% and 79% in revenue, respectively) during 2017, the transition to LED technology and the emergence of new applications will expand the market’s size.
In its report "Horticultural LED Lighting: Market, Industry and Technology Trends" Yoles sees this market reaching nearly US$8.6 billion in 2022.
Horticultural lighting market revenue ($B),
2017 vs. 2022 vs. 2017.
Source, Horticultural LED Lighting:
Market, Industry and Technology Trends,
Yole Développement.
than US$17 billion in 2027”, comments Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole.
At the LED device level, market opportunity represents almost US$100 million in 2017 and should grow to about US$400 million in 2022, eventually reaching US$ 700 million in ten years' time.
The LED lighting industry sees horticultural lighting as a new opportunity for which to develop high added-value products with greater margin levels. In Q4/2017, Yole identified less than 50 players as offering dedicated LED-based systems. The industry is highly concentrated in North America with a 50% market share (number of companies involved), the result of medicinal cannabis’s legalization.
“Looking ahead, industry evolution will strongly depend on market dynamics,” explains Joel Thomé, PISEO’s CEO. “Indeed, industrial players’ marketing and communications are currently focused on two main applications including medicinal plants (mostly cannabis) production, which is today the main market driver and vegetable production, which is developing with a “low-end / high-volume products” focus.”New tariffs proposed
Energy efficiency requirement from April
Urgent action is needed to put the solar industry on a steadier, clearer and sustainable growth path, avoid boom and bust and protect the wider Feed-in Tariff scheme (FITs), Greg Barker said today.
Reduced subsidies for domestic solar electricity production have been proposed as part of an urgent effort to keep the FITs scheme budget under control and reflect the plummeting costs of the technology.
The proposals, subject to consultation, would introduce a new tariff for schemes up to 4kW in size of 21p/kWh - down from the current 43.3p/kWh. Reduced rates are also proposed for schemes between 4kW and 250kW, to ensure those schemes receive a consistent rate of return.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Greg Barker said:
“My priority is to put the solar industry on a firm footing so that it can remain a successful and prosperous part of the green economy, and so that it doesn’t fall victim to boom and bust.
“The plummeting costs of solar mean we’ve got no option but to act so that we stay within budget and not threaten the whole viability of the FITs scheme.
“Although I fully realise that adjusting to the new lower tariffs will be a big challenge for many firms, it won’t come as a surprise to many in the solar industry who’ve themselves acknowledged the big fall in costs and the big increase in their rate of return over the past year.
“Our proposal for an energy efficiency requirement, as well as the launch of the Green Deal next autumn, creates a massive opportunity for these firms to use their expertise to get a foothold in this exciting new market.
“People who are now thinking of installing solar PV need to do so with their eyes wide open and I’d encourage them to call the Energy Saving Trust for the latest advice.”
The cost of an average domestic PV installation has fallen by at least 30% since the start of the scheme - from around £13,000 in April 2010 to £9,000 now.
If the Government took no action, by 2014-15 FITs for solar PV would be costing consumers £980 million a year, adding around £26 (2010 prices) to annual domestic electricity bills in 2020. Our proposals will restrict FITs PV costs to between £250-280 million in 2014-15, reducing the impacts of FITs expenditure on PV on domestic electricity bills by around £23 (2010 prices) in 2020.
There is a finite funding allocation for the FITs scheme so as to limit the impact on energy consumers, who pay for the scheme through their bills.
A recent surge in households installing solar PV has threatened to break the budget. There were over 16,000 new solar PV installations in September alone - nearly double the number installed in June. And nearly three times as much solar PV as projected has so far been installed with over 100,000 separate installations with over 400MW of capacity.
The new proposed tariffs would apply to all new solar PV installations with an eligibility date on or after 12 December 2011. Such installations would receive the current tariff before moving to the lower tariffs on 1 April 2012. Consumers who already receive FITs will see their existing payments unchanged, and those with an eligibility date before 12 December will receive the current rates for 25 years.
The eligibility date of a project is based on it being commissioned (in working order) and having its request for accreditation received by a FIT licensee (schemes up to 50kW) or Ofgem (more than 50kW).
The proposed new tariffs will offer a rate of return of around 4.5% to 5% index linked and tax free (for domestic installations) for well-situated solar PV - broadly comparable to that intended when the scheme was set up. The tariffs are broadly comparable to those offered in Germany, which has also recently reduced its tariffs.
Today’s consultation also proposes:
a new energy efficiency requirement that would mean from 1 April 2012 a property would have to reach a certain level of energy efficiency to receive the proposed new tariff rates. This could include reaching an Energy Performance Certificate level of C or taking up all the measures potentially eligible for Green Deal finance, depending on the outcome of the consultation. As a transitional arrangement, installations with eligibility dates between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013 would have 12 months from the eligibility date to comply with the energy efficiency requirement.
new multi-installation tariff rates for aggregated solar PV schemes, i.e. where a single individual or organisation owns or receives FITs payments from more than one PV installation, located on different sites. The new tariff rates would apply to all new PV installations that are part of an aggregated PV scheme and have an eligibility date on or after 1 April 2012. The new tariffs are set at 80% of the standard tariffs for individual installations.
The Government will also, as part of its review into the FIT |
, not only had a lively brain but a much more likeable personality.
Not knowing much about opposition politics - it was September 2006, when John Howard was widely expected to win a fifth term - I suggested to my hosts afterwards that Mr Tanner presumably was the leader-in-waiting.
Suffice to say, they must have thought me a complete dunce, since Mr Rudd was so obviously the coming man. Sure enough, within months Kevin 07 T-shirts were flying off the production line, and the Queenslander was well on his way to The Lodge.
Mr Tanner went on to become the finance minister in the Rudd government, but announced the end of his political career on the very day that Mr Rudd was ousted as leader.
Now a recovering politician, he has just published a scorching critique on the media's trivialisation of Australian politics. His basic thesis is that "big issues, big ideas, big battles" have given way to a sideshow, the title of his book.
"Under siege from commercial pressures and technological innovation, the media are retreating into an entertainment frame that has little tolerance for complex social and economic issues.
"In turn, politicians and parties are adapting their behaviour to suit the new rules of the game - to such an extent that the contest of ideas is being supplanted by the contest for laughs."
Two key rules now govern the practice of Australian politics, he says: "(1) Look like you're doing something; and (2) Don't offend anyone who matters."
By reducing his thesis to a short precis, I am not doing justice to his argument. But, again, that underlines his point. Things like blogs and Twitter are all part of the dumbing down process - the distillation of political analysis into, what, 600 or 700 words, or sometimes 160 characters.
Persuasive argument
The first thing to point out about Sideshow, perhaps, is that Mr Tanner could have written a much different and more profitable book. A member of famed "Gang of Four" in the Rudd government - the others were Mr Rudd, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan - he could easily have cashed in with a kiss-and-tell, dish-the-dirt, fly-on-the-wall number.
It is a measure of the man that he decided to publish something far more provocative and thoughtful.
In so doing, Mr Tanner also knew that he would become a victim of his own critique - that such a serious book would not attract much media attention. As he notes in the book: "Glorious irrelevance awaits any politician brave enough to push back against the rules of the political sideshow."
It is a persuasive argument, and perhaps the book should become mandatory reading in newsrooms across the country, not just in Canberra. And Mr Tanner is right - the journalistic eye and ear is constantly drawn to the theatre, soap opera and occasional pantomime of politics.
As journalists, we feed off petty intrigue, palace gossip, daily tittle-tattle and even political pillow talk. Doubtless, we are guilty as charged.
But the obvious counter-argument is that politicians are complicit, both by design and deficiency - a point Mr Tanner himself acknowledges. If the media coverage sometimes resembles a circus, then it is partly because the politicians and their over-active spin doctors have cast themselves as ringmasters and lion tamers.
Government departments regularly lay on contrived photo-opportunities, knowing that television reporters especially need pictures for the evening news. Sometimes they even lay on confected stunts. The slogans, the short sound bites, the message of the day. These are the invention of politicians and their image makers not journalists.
Is it not the politicians who have stepped away from big ideas, and given us something very small and very narrow to report on? Similarly, if we have a tendency to view politics as entertainment, do they not tend to view politics as sport? Remember Julia Gillard's words in the well of the House of the Representatives as she shook the hand of Tony Abbott for the first time as prime minister: "Game on."
ABC's Media Watch was very strong on this the other week, which you can watch here.
As far as putting our own house in order, one thing, it seems to me, that would improve political coverage immeasurably is to reduce the use of corny puns in television reports especially.
Perhaps there should be Twitter-style rationing - 160 a year. But ideally, much less.
Update, 0940, 19 May: A good thread of commentary. Thanks, as ever. Greg Warner and Kit Green make valid points about the abbreviated comments section, especially in the context of a blog post about the dumbing down of political debate.
As I have said, it is mainly a manpower issue. Shorter comments obviously reduce the workload on our moderators in London. The BBC's Giles Wilson has addressed this issue, and says it is under review. An alternative way to set out more expansive arguments, of course, is to make more than one comment.
A number of you have also raised the question of RSS feeds. This is also explained by Giles Wilson:
"The issue of comment length is clearly one that exercises many of you. In my original post I said I thought a character limit made for sharper comments, and I do believe that, but I also want to emphasise that it's certainly not our intention to encourage people to dumb down their contributions, as some of you fear. Others say that the changes will make debate harder.
"My colleague Alex Gubbay did spell out our thinking about comments when he said that 'this process is essentially about us online focusing more now on encouraging discussion around our content itself, rather than looking to host or manage a community'.
"We are trying to maximise the editorial value of contributions but we do not have unlimited resources to do this. Since it's less efficient to moderate longer comments than shorter ones, length is one of the factors we are taking into account. Making these changes is not an exact science. It is something we are keeping under review, though, so please don't think that your complaints have gone unnoticed."
"Changes to the RSS feeds are something I should have mentioned earlier, and I apologise for not doing so. Whereas we previously offered full text feeds of blogs, the RSS feed of the new pages is headline and summary only.
"I recognise that this is clearly an issue for lots of people, and is frustrating to those who have been using our feeds. The change is an unintended consequence of moving into our main production system, which does not automatically export full text feeds. We are looking at the issue and I hope to be able to come back to you with more detail."Free browser game for Facebook (planning to extend to other social networks).
browser game for Facebook (planning to extend to other social networks). Highly Social : Political competition to become the Guild Master.
: Political competition to become the Guild Master. Multiplayer party-based : cooperative and party versus party.
: cooperative and party versus party. Tactical turn-based combat.
turn-based combat. Specialization : different skill trees for each profession.
: different skill trees for each profession. Customizable and equipable avatar.
and equipable avatar. Lovely comic-style look.
look. Asynchronous play and persistent world.
play and world. Playable on any computer or device with a web browser, Android, iPhone and iTab included.
There is a new social role playing game in town. Guild Masters, a social fantasy role-playing game made by Otherwind, is a game for the Facebook platform. Unlike many role playing games on Facebook, Guild Masters focuses on the social aspect of the game, and this is not "sending gifts" and "inviting neighbors" to unblock stuff, this is to encourage relationships among players.
In Guild Masters, you create a character that can be one of four character classes Fighter, Scout, Priest, and Wizard. You can then adventure to gain treasure which you can use to purchase items or mounts for your character, heal your character, hire mercenaries or pay a fee for your followers.
But where does the social aspect come in? Social aspects are tied into many of the key components of the game. Adventurers can band together with other adventurers to form strong parties that can quest for greater treasures than adventurers that quest alone. Combats are turn-based. Every player submit orders – attack, defend, cast spells, use special skills or drink potions – and all orders are executed at the same time at the end of the turn. In an adventure party, each member should be focused in an area of his or her profession skills tree. They become specialized chess pieces where the battlefield is the chess board. So communication among the party members is essential for a coordinated assault.
Advancement in your guild is dependent on how many followers you have in the game. This may sound like all you have to do is get a bunch of followers and you can advance all the way to the top in your guild. This is not true. The game rewards people who have followers that level up. For example, having one level ten follower is better than having ten level one followers. Don’t think they must be your Facebook friends, we hate that. Any player of the game can be your follower.
Explore the world of Guild Masters with your friends and become powerful together. Perhaps you can even receive the rank of Guild Master, which is the top ranked player in a particular guild.Feminism is multi-faceted: to reduce it to “believing in equality for men and women” is to strip it of much of its meaningful, actionable, critical thought. We must ask ourselves which groups are helped by our advocacy and which are undermined. A feminism that upholds the toxic, oppressive practices of the tech industry and only uplifts privileged women is not one that will bring about true equality. As Bonnie Kreps explains, many feminists “do not believe that the oppression of women will be ended by giving them a bigger piece of the pie… We believe that the pie itself is rotten.”
So many of our diversity efforts in tech encourage marginalized people to seek the same positions, power, and personality traits as people in the dominant group — primarily white men. Consider what we idolize in tech culture now: the 10x engineer, the company built on exploitation, the abusive yet lucrative CEO. These are the roles and patterns we’re encouraging minorities to emulate. Instead, I argue that we should both embrace the characteristics and values that minorities bring to the table, and question the behaviors of our industry that are typically praised.
Take our recruiting practices. Studies show that employers seek to promote those who display overwhelming confidence and narcissistic tendencies, rather than those who are competent while humble. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic writes, “…so much of the recent debate over getting women to ‘lean in’ has focused on getting them to adopt more of these dysfunctional leadership traits. Yes, these are the people we often choose as our leaders — but should they be?” As he explains in the Harvard Business Review, women in management tend to outperform men in emotional intelligence, are more humble and considerate of their employees, and are more effective leaders in a variety of other categories. The Lean In argument focuses on encouraging women to be more like the men already in power with aphorisms like “fake it until you make it,” but why is it so bad to be realistic instead of overconfident? Why do we want minorities to assimilate into the existing corporate culture when we have evidence that that culture is neither healthy nor optimal?
On a larger scale, our diversity efforts are not improving the most important social issues in the industry. Tech’s racism will not be solved just through throwing in a few more people of color, and it certainly will not end just because white women are better represented. Adding more minorities won’t address our abusive manufacturing processes in other countries, gentrification in tech-heavy cities, or income disparity in the United States.
Photo CC-BY Bill Ward, filtered.
The current feminist landscape puts so much focus on getting women into positions of power, but those positions of power still serve to marginalize and harm others. We share article after article about how to get women promoted into leadership positions, but we don’t ask why women should want to lead an unethical corporation. We idolize unicorn startups making life easier for the millennial with disposable income, but we rarely ask where the startups focused on empowering marginalized people are. This isn’t the industry we should want to inherit. More privileged women can join the elite inner circle of tech, but that can hardly be considered a win when so many others are still disadvantaged.
It’s no coincidence that the people who question our values as an industry are people from minority groups. Minorities don’t have the luxury of automatically fitting the stereotypes we’ve laid out for people in tech, so they are more inclined to question whether those stereotypes are actually helpful. It’s possible for people in minority groups to try to gain status by assimilating into the existing culture – that is, playing down their otherness, behaving like white people, and avoiding the topic of diversity. But that strategy often fails to yield long-term satisfaction, as Leslie Miley discovered during his time at Twitter. After realizing the lack of support for racial minorities at Twitter, he asked, “had I unwittingly erased the importance of maintaining my blackness in a sea of white faces?” Miley got a taste of what it means to gain status in this rotten pie industry. It means a sacrifice of our values and assimilation into a culture that will never accept us. This is not something we have to stand for.
That’s why, in 2015, my appreciation goes to the people of color who have pointed out the racial homogeneity of mainstream, corporate diversity efforts. As Erica Joy pointed out, “[White women] rarely, if ever, make the decision to cede the privileges, power, or space granted to them by dint of their whiteness to a person of color.” Tech feminism, up until this past year, has largely been synonymous with white feminism. This is a holdover from the society we’ve all been raised in, but it doesn’t have to be a part of our feminism just because it’s a part of society as a whole.
Photo CC-BY Kevin Jaako.
2015 was a year of self-reflection for diversity advocates. At first, it was enough to get people to hear our message and to acknowledge that there was a gender problem at all. We’ve matured since then, and it’s time to envision the future we really want to participate in. The industry doesn’t have to become “corrupt and uncaring – but with more women!” As outsiders, we have the power to question the antiquated traditions we’ve been holding onto.
Towards the end of this year, we started to see more people criticize the harmful attitudes prevalent in the tech industry. Elea Chang criticized the way we built a work culture obsessed with a perfect employee who doesn’t exist, with their complete focus on technology as a way of life. An anonymous writer related her experience with abuse and how the technology we build enables that abuse. Another woman wrote an open letter to Facebook on how painful it is when their services dredge up the past. A study published earlier this month quantified the cost of hiring a toxic employee. And a memo from the Internet Engineering Task Force argued against the aggressive, hostile culture rampant in their community.
Tweet source
This introspection is healthy for our industry. We’ve spent so much energy telling women to “fix themselves” to conform to the existing culture. This kind of feminism assumes that what already exists is what is best. That’s an incredibly naive perspective to take for an industry that prides itself on being innovative and disruptive. It might be easier to just accept that it’s fine for marginalized people to become as toxic and greedy and selfish as their oppressors, but I don’t want to be a part of that future. If we reach our numerical goals only to look in the mirror and see all the corruption that already existed, we will have failed.
Looking forward to 2016 and beyond, I want intersectional feminism to become a major theme. It should no longer be enough to say that we need more women. It should no longer even be enough to say that we need more women and people of color. Our time, thoughts, and money should not go to token efforts for encouraging marginalized people to take on the toxic behaviors and attitudes that permeate the majority.
Rather than focusing solely on increasing diversity numbers, we also need to take a long, hard look at the practices and behaviors we promote. We can have a more sensitive, empathetic, and intersectional industry… as long as we are thoughtful in our efforts now. Social justice is not achieved when we get an equal share of the pie: the pie is rotten, and we should aspire to be better.With White House backing, banks resume foreclosure evictions
By Tom Eley
20 October 2010
On Monday, Bank of America (BOA), the nation’s largest lender, and GMAC of Ally Financial announced they are resuming foreclosure evictions and sales in states where they had temporarily suspended them, claiming that they found no impropriety in their foreclosure documentation.
BOA’s decision means foreclosure proceedings against more than 100,000 homeowners will restart. It is expected that JP Morgan Chase and PNC Financial, which had also implemented temporary moratoriums on aspects of the foreclosure process, will follow suit.
Banks had implemented the partial moratoriums in recent weeks after it became public that they and their contractors had falsified legal documents relating to hundreds of thousands of foreclosures. Other banks and their subsidiaries implicated in the scandal, such as Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs, never instituted a moratorium.
All the major banks used “robo-signers,” employees who, in lieu of proper documentation, submitted affidavits falsely attesting they had knowledge of foreclosure cases. They also falsified notary stamps and signatures. Some banks simply threw out paperwork, while others hired low-paid “Burger King kids,” as one Goldman Sachs executive put it, to process large quantities of foreclosure documents.
The move by BOA affects its foreclosures in the 23 states that require judicial review prior to eviction and sale. New affidavits will be submitted to courts on Monday.
“We did a thorough review of the process, and we found the facts underlying the decision to foreclose have been accurate,” said Barbara J. Desoer of BOA’s Home Loans unit.
“This is an important first step in debunking speculation that the mortgage market is severely flawed,” BOA spokesman James Mahoney declared.
The bank’s claim that it found no evidence of false attestations in its foreclosure documents after only 10 days of review is simply not credible.
“This wasn’t just a simple little mistake of forgetting to dot the ‘i,’” Florida lawyer Peter Ticktin told the New York Times. “There was a whole system put in place to make false affidavits. How are they going to erect a new system to do 102,000 affidavits unless they are going to use the same old law firms to make a second generation of bad affidavits?”
“These are lawyers. These are banks going to court and committing fraud,” said Ira Rheingold of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. “For them to say this is a minor technical problem is mind-boggling.”
“The companies are overstating the ease of withdrawing these affidavits and then resubmitting them,” Judge Lynn Tepper of Florida’s 6th Circuit Court told the Washington Post.
BOA’s move came much sooner than expected and was likely provoked by mounting pressure from powerful financial concerns. Shares of major US banks have been pummeled by investors fearful that the revelations throw into question the validity of securities based on mortgage loans. Before yesterday’s announcement, BOA’s stock had fallen by nearly 10 percent over the previous week.
On Tuesday, an alliance of leading financial concerns—Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund; BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager; MetLife, the world’s biggest insurer; and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York—will sue to seek BOA buybacks of as much as $47 billion in mortgage-based securities issued through its Countrywide unit.
In addition to accusing BOA of improper documentation, the investors are accusing the bank “of taking too long with foreclosures,” Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
BOA has already sustained major losses related to mortgage bond buybacks. In the third quarter, it had to pay $400 million for buyers’ claims related to mortgage representations and warranties. According to the Wall Street Journal, these “refer to complaints from buyers of mortgages—especially government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—that Bank of America and other big banks issued mortgages with faulty underwriting or documentation, and now must compensate them when the loans fail.”
In total, BOA has had to pay out $3.3 billion for such claims. It admitted in a Tuesday earnings report that it anticipates the losses will continue.
Similar demands will likely follow at other banks. A moratorium on foreclosures would very likely sharpen the conflict between the big banks, on the one side, and bond funds and money management firms on the other.
It is to avert such a scenario and the risk of reigniting the global financial crisis that the Obama administration has gone on record in support of the continuation of foreclosures, disregarding evidence of the banks’ rampant lawbreaking.
The latest administration official to intervene in the crisis on the side of the banks is Shaun Donovan, secretary for Housing and Urban Development, who penned a column for the Huffington Post warning of the supposed dangers should foreclosures be slowed.
“A national, blanket moratorium on all foreclosure sales would do far more harm than good,” Donovan writes. “[H]omeowners are at risk, too—and the best hope they have is for the ‘Foreclosed’ signs in front of the vacant, abandoned properties on their block to come down, so that the value of their homes can start rising again.”
This is an extreme free-market position. Donovan is arguing that speeding up foreclosures eventually benefits other homeowners by driving down the market to the point it can deteriorate no more, after which it should, in theory, begin to improve. The alternative—keeping people in their homes in the first place—is clearly not up for consideration in the White House.
Donovan assures readers that “a comprehensive review” is underway—not an investigation—involving a number of US regulatory agencies. Any changes will be put in place by the banks themselves.
“The message [we] are sending is the same: banks must follow the law—and those that haven’t should immediately fix what is wrong,” Donovan writes.
It should be noted that this same promotion of self-regulation set the stage for the financial collapse of 2008.
Indeed, the mortgage document scandal is a manifestation of an even larger fraud—the US housing bubble that exploded in 2008. Banks relentlessly promoted home buying and refinancing to cash-strapped American families with “teaser rate” loans, subprime loans, and other adjustable rate mortgages. Massive loan volume was the goal, and the resulting securities—counted in the trillions of dollars—were bundled, sold, and spread out across the global financial system. In this process, underlying legal claims to property title were of only secondary interest.
On these rotten foundations enormous personal fortunes were built up. Then, when the entire Ponzi scheme collapsed, the Bush and Obama administrations bailed out the banks to the tune of trillions of dollars, while saddling the population with the worst housing crisis in US history.
Obama’s “housing rescue” of 2009, (Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP) simply encouraged banks to change interest rates and payment plans, but it did not require them to lower principals, the grossly overvalued outstanding debt on loans issued during the housing bubble. The program has been a dismal failure, with only a handful of households gaining permanent refinancing.
The housing market, meanwhile, has continued to implode. In the third quarter, nearly one million US homes received a foreclosure filing.Local history You are in: North Yorkshire > History > Local history > Ripon's hornblower Ripon hornblower, George Pickles Ripon's hornblower By George Pickles The watch has been set in Ripon every single night for well over one thousand years. The ceremony is one of the oldest still performed in England. George Pickles is the current hornblower and tells the story of this ancient ceremony. The setting of the watch dates back more than 1100 years to the year 886. That was Saxon times, and also troubled times. The Vikings were raiding up and down the east coast and occupying parts of the country. The local thieves, rogues and vagabonds were taking advantage of the unsettled situation. On the English throne at that time was King Alfred the Great. He had lost his father and three elder brothers fighting the Vikings, but he was intent on victory and bringing stability back to the country. In 886, at the age of 37, he recaptured London from the intruders and set about touring the country drumming up support and giving confidence back to the people. The original horn given to Ripon in 886 When he arrived in Ripon, he liked what he saw and decided to grant a Royal Charter to the settlement, which is all it was at the time. The only thing he had to offer the people as a symbol of that charter in those simple times was a horn. On the advice of the King it was decided that the people of Ripon should become more vigilant and should always be alert to the danger around them. They could lose their settlement and the relatively good way of life they were enjoying, should an unexpected enemy descend upon them. The Hornblower sets the watch It was therefore decided to appoint a wakeman. That was a man who would stay awake and patrol the settlement and the surrounding areas from dusk till dawn. He kept a watchful eye for any approaching enemy or troublemakers, while the rest of the people slept safely in their beds. It was further decided that the wakemen should put the charter horn to good use. He would sound it at the four corners of the market cross each evening at 9pm to let the people know that the watch was set and he was now on patrol. Because the first wakeman of the day needed to be paid for his work it was decided to impose a tax on the citizens. After much debate it was decided they would be levied according to the position of their house door. If your door faced onto the market square, or a main thoroughfare of the city you were considered to be well off and were charged four pence per door, per year tax. If your door was down the side or round the back you were considered to be less well off and you were only charged one penny per door each year. "If your door was down the side or round the back you were considered to be less well off and you were only charged one penny per door each year." George Pickles It is still evident today that homes built after this tax was introduced were designed in a way that the position of the door brought them into the lower tax bracket. They were built with a very narrow frontage and most had a ginnell down the side leading to the door. There is still evidence if you look at the oldest properties in the city. This system prevailed until 1604, when a second charter was granted to the city by James I of England, who was James VI of Scotland, and was the first king to reign over a united Britain. It was decided that the time had come to make things more democratic in Ripon. The wakeman of the day had become a very powerful man and was elected or re-elected annually by 15 of his peers, these being the most influential men in the city. These men were the city's 'police force' and ruled the city with a rod of iron. The first mayor of Ripon's house That year a mayor was elected democratically for the first time by vote, by all the people. The first mayor of 1604 was Mr Hugh Ripley who happened to be the last Wakeman of 1603. He lived in the house which still stands at the south west corner of the market square. Wishing to keep the setting of the watch ceremony alive, the mayor appointed a hornblower to carry out the duty of sounding the horn at the four corners of the market cross each evening on his behalf. Because he didn’t trust him, and to ensure that the hornblower fulfilled his obligations, he imposed an extra duty on him. After setting the watch at the market cross, he must find the mayor of the day, wherever he may be in the city and sound the horn three times in front of him, raise his hat, bow his head and say the words “Mr Mayor, the watch is set". This is to prove his duty has been done. That ritual is still carried out at nine o’clock every night at the Obelisk and has not been missed, not for one night, in over 1100 years. George Pickles SEE ALSO Family history: A policeman's lot
East coast to Western Front
Cheap days out in Harrogate
Harrogate's underground railway Local history
History You are in: North Yorkshire > History > Local history > Ripon's hornblower See Also Local history
History On this site Family history: A policeman's lot
East coast to Western Front
Cheap days out in Harrogate
Harrogate's underground railway On the rest of the web Visitripon.org The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websitesA Manhattan Beach duplex said to be the former home of author Thomas Pynchon is accepting back-up offers. If the current deal falls through, you could sleep where the reclusive Pynchon once slept, or on the floor above, if you so choose.
The $1.05-million price tag covers both halves of the two-story, Spanish-style duplex. Built in 1931 and with a view of the beach, the property has been marketed to buyers as a possible tear-down.
Pynchon fans with a million bucks to spend must be kicking themselves. When the property was written up by Curbed LA on June 29, it was still available. Now, not even two weeks later, an offer has been made and accepted.
Manhattan Beach was the model for the Gordita Beach of Pynchon's fiction, which figures prominently in his 2009 book "Inherent Vice." The apartment is where Pynchon wrote his seminal novel, "Gravity's Rainbow."
In 1995, the L.A. Times reported on Pynchon's Manhattan Beach life in detail -- well, as much detail as you might expect for the exceedingly private Thomas Pynchon.
The reclusive author of "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Vineland" lived at 217 33rd St. in Manhattan Beach, in a small downstairs apartment next to Beach Pizza (then the Fractured Cow). According to Jim Hall, executive director of the Redondo Pier Assn., Pynchon wrote "Rainbow" in his apartment in the late 1960s, holing himself up for weeks at a time. Hall, then in the Army, met Pynchon through a mutual friend, among a circle of aspiring writers and artists. Coincidentally, across 33rd street lived actress Phyllis Coates, best known as the original Lois Lane on TVs "The Adventures of Superman." Pynchon, it turns out, dated her daughter, according to Hall. Hall remembers the author as a man who carried around a small plastic pig and lined the walls of his apartment with swine photos.
The pig was a theme. Phyllis Gebauer, who was a lifelong friends of Pynchon's, recently shared this photo of her standing on his stoop with a pig piñata they named Claude. The stoop? It's the door that you see at the lower left in the photo above.
The arm flashing the peace sign? That's Thomas Pynchon.
Will the new owners care that Pynchon slept here? If they don't, fans making a Manhattan Beach Pynchon pilgrimage may be left standing on that street corner, wondering, "Shall I project a world?"
RELATED:
Phyllis Gebauer's remarkable collection of Thomas Pynchon signed first editions debuts
Book review: "Inherent Vice" by Thomas Pynchon
When coffee meets Pynchon
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Photos: Top, 217 33rd St. in Manhattan Beach. Credit: Redfin. Below: Phyllis Gebauer, with Claude the pig piñata and Pynchon waving a peace sign from behind the door, in Southern California in the 1960s. Credit: UCLA ExtensionThe former coach of Immortals, Ssong, is in the process of joining TSM as the head coach. His estimated pay is double that of what he received during his time in IMT.
According to an unaffiliated esports agency, Ssong made roughly $150k per year during his time in IMT. For 2018, however, Ssong desired twice the amount of what he was making. According to recent news from other media outlets including 'ESPN', the team that Ssong ended up signing for was TSM. If the contract signing was finalized with Ssong's terms in mind, it's highly likely that he'll make at least twice the amount that he was previously making.
Ssong started coaching for IMT beginning in May. He was acknowledged and praised for his leadership as he pushed a 7th placed team to qualify for the NA LCS Finals and the 2017 World Championship. However, due to the reconstruction of the NA LCS, IMT disbanded their LoL team - leading Ssong to go so far as to look for a new team to coach through his personal SNS.
On the other hand, due to their failure of making it out of groups during Worlds, TSM received heavy criticism from fans regarding their players and staff. With the news regarding 'Zven and Mithy joining TSM' brought from other outlets including 'Per Sources', many wait in anticipation to see the 2018 TSM.Evan's book reviews by Evan Leybourn on
People edition
I read a lot - not all of it related to agile or business management, but enough. Below are some of the important books that have shaped my thinking (and writing). Not all of them a great (as you can see from my ranking), but they all contain some interesting ideas. This group of reviews will focus on those books that relate to people practices.
4/5
While controversial (and I certainly don’t agree with all of it), this is one of the most innovative approaches to business management and staff empowerment I have read. Built around the idea that individuals can be truly accountable in their work, Beyond Empowerment is a must read for any business leader looking for new ways to operate. I would love to see more case studies and practical implementation suggestions.
3/5
I’m never sure how I feel about the balanced scorecard. One one hand it provides a simple & generally unbiased performance tool, on the other the measurement of these behaviors can focus attention on the wrong areas and lead to unbalanced performance. However whatever my thoughts on the balanced scorecard in general, this book remains a valuable & practical introduction to the subject. You must read beyond this book, however, as the actual use of balanced scorecards has continued to evolve.
3/5
While it reads like an academic treatise, it’s a fascinating look at human motivation. This is Maslow’s expression of his eponymously named Hierarchy of Needs; which has become more well known than the man himself. Though it has it’s share of criticism, it is still a useful (if simple) model of human needs. Worth a read for anyone interested is psychology and human motivation.
3/5
I come to this book from a management behaviour perspective, and particularly find value in Burns’ 10 distortions. As described in this book, a ‘distortion’ is a thought that seems truthful and realistic, but is actually exaggerated, irrational or clouded by faulty perceptions and not factually correct. It is especially important, as a manager, that each of us understand our own patterns of thinking so we can identify potential fallacious thoughts that may effect our work.Tennessee, which imposes controversial restrictions on local broadband networks, may change its laws to let electric cooperatives offer Internet service. But even with the proposed expansion, Tennessee would still prevent cities and towns from offering retail broadband services outside their borders.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, last week announced legislation that would let private, non-profit electric cooperatives provide broadband. The state has 23 electric co-ops that provide energy to 2.5 million residents, about 37 percent of the Tennessee population.
"Electric cooperatives, currently restricted from providing retail broadband services, are uniquely situated to assist in bridging the broadband accessibility gap with experience serving areas with lower population densities and providing universal service throughout their territories," a bill summary says. The bill would still "prevent electric cooperatives from using electric system assets to subsidize broadband services."
The bill, which is pending approval in the state legislature, also would not fully lift a restriction that was the subject of a court case and a Federal Communications Commission proceeding. Under current law, Tennessee municipalities that own electric utilities may provide telecom services, but only within their electric service areas. The Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga, Tennessee offers broadband locally but hasn't been able to expand to nearby towns that requested service. The EPB asked the FCC to preempt the state law, and the FCC did so in 2015, but a federal appeals court later ruled that the FCC can't preempt the state law. That ruling kept Tennessee's law and similar restrictions in North Carolina in place.
Haslam's plan to let private electric co-ops offer service would expand the number of electric providers that are allowed to offer Internet access. But city-owned utilities like EPB still wouldn't be able to offer retail service outside their electric territories.
The "Chattanooga-owned EPB... for years has sought unsuccessfully in the General Assembly against opposition from AT&T, Comcast and others to expand its super-speed Internet outside its current boundaries," according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Haslam explained that he'd prefer to "have private providers rather than government subsidized entities have the first crack at getting that done."
The proposal would allow one indirect method of expanding broadband outside municipal borders. Cities or towns could sell broadband on a wholesale basis to cooperatives, which could then "provide retail broadband service to individual customers who may be outside a municipality," according to The Tennessean of Nashville.
The Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association praised Haslam's proposal, saying that "Co-ops serve areas with the greatest need for expanded broadband access."
Haslam's proposal would also provide $45 million over three years in grants and tax credits to private providers to expand in unserved areas.A backpacker who suffered from nosebleeds during a trip to south-east Asia came home to discover she had a three-inch leech living up her nose.
Daniela Liverani nicknamed the animal Mr Curly.
The 24-year-old from Glasgow told the Scottish Daily Record she noticed a lump poking out of her right nostril, but initially thought it was just congealed blood as she had fallen off a motorbike while in Vietnam.
However, she soon noticed something was amiss:
When I was in the shower, he would come right out as far as my bottom lip and I could see him sticking out the bottom |
aware that people who would receive vocational, substance-abuse, and mental-health services in many European countries are incarcerated instead in the United States. His scholarly work then proceeded in a new direction.
Examining prisons’ role vis-à-vis U.S. labor markets, Western found that the United States owes its (historically) comparatively low unemployment rate in part to its high incarceration rate: people who would otherwise be unemployed are excluded from the calculations. He has also documented the reduction in pay suffered by people with a prison record, compared to their peers with no record, and how incarceration contributes to income inequality in the United States by condemning some people to very low pay. He has explored the interconnectedness of race, lack of employment opportunity, and incarceration (finding, in research with his former Princeton colleague Devah Pager, that a black man without a criminal record had about the same chance of being called after applying for a job as a white man with a criminal record). And he found that the high incarceration rate had the perverse effect of seeming to raise the average wage for African-American men: because so many low-earning African-American men are in prison, racial equality in pay is more apparent than real.
During his time on the faculty at Princeton, he first ventured inside a correctional facility to teach a sociology course for incarcerated men. For someone who “had spent most of my career crunching numbers on a computer and teaching Ivy League students,” Western remembers, that experience was “unbelievably powerful.”
Since coming to Harvard in 2007, he has worked with Kaia Stern, a lecturer in ethics at Harvard Divinity School, to take groups of undergraduates into Massachusetts state prisons for courses on urban sociology. The Harvard students learn alongside inmates who are also pursuing bachelor’s degrees—and in the process, learn to view issues of crime and punishment in a more nuanced way. Because of this experience, Western, a married father of three daughters, has gained empathy for Jerry and others who have committed violent crimes. “Often we want to say that people in prison are criminal and evil and unredeemable, or that they’re innocent and victims of circumstance,” says Western. “The truth is that they’re neither of those things. You can do some very terrible things in your life and yet be deeply human at the same time.”Police stand guard as people watch the procession carrying the coffin of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez to the military museum in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 15, 2013. Chavez's body is being transferred from the military academy where it has been lying in state to the military museum that will serve as his final resting place. Chavez was 58 when he died of an undisclosed type of cancer on March 5. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The road from the military academy where Hugo Chavez's body has been lying in state to the hilltop museum where he'll be displayed indefinitely is lined with some of the most dangerous slums on the planet. It runs under bridges in dire need of repair and past grocery stores with few groceries.
Tens of thousands of Venezuelans gathered along that route Friday to watch the late president's body cross the city in yet another choreographed show designed to keep Chavez supporters in thrall, at least until an April 14 election to replace him. Afterward, people will have to go on living with the problems that Chavez left behind.
This tense, relentlessly gray capital embodies many of Venezuela's problems, with crumbling apartment towers and food lines often sharing the same sidewalk with cheering crowds eager to greet their departed Comandante.
"More than anything, the government continues fighting with everyone, and does everything badly," said Francisco Olivero, a 54-year-old carpenter who lives with his wife and five children in the poor neighborhood of Catia, just blocks from the funeral route.
Like many Venezuelans, Olivero said wartime-levels of street violence all over the city were his top worry.
"They kill people here every day," he said. "I've lost friends, relatives."
As thousands of bused-in police academy cadets gathered along the route to prepare for the procession, Olivero and his wife, Yelitza Acuna, hid from the sun while waiting in a block-long line to buy flour, coffee, butter and other food staples they said have been hard to come by for about two years.
The store, which sits along the most trafficked part of the route, happened to be selling the rare goods Friday, drawing a crowd of people desperate for a few bags of flour.
"The word spread in the street, and we all came running here," said Olivero's wife, who is a cook's assistant. Later, Chavez's coffin traveled down the street in a black hearse, to the roar of thousands of admirers.
Economists say government-imposed price controls designed to dampen inflation topping 20 percent have made it impossible for store owners to sell basic foods at a profit, sparking widespread shortages. For their part, officials have accused suppliers of hoarding the goods and have invaded warehouses looking for sugar, flour and other food items in short supply.
"You can't find anything," said 27-year-old lawyer Anglys Bericote, who rode a bus for four hours from the town of Cajigal to view the funeral cortege. Wearing a heart-shaped "I am Chavez" pin, she said she was taking the opportunity to also stock up on basic goods. People in her town have even had to go without toothpaste and toilet paper, she said.
"It's all the plan of the private businesses," she said, repeating the government's line of attack. "They want to hold onto everything so that it riles up people."
A few blocks from the military museum, where a ceremonial fire awaited the arrival of Chavez's body, Jonathan Rodriguez watched government supporters pass by in red T-shirts bearing Chavez's image. Raw sewage trickled from a broken pipe down the street, and the 37-year-old insurance agent scolded his two sons for playing nearby.
"The majority of them don't complain about the problems here," Rodriguez whispered about the passing Chavez supporters. "It's as if they didn't exist."
Rodriguez said he doesn't have that luxury. Violent crime is so bad in his part of town that he and his family shut themselves inside their home every night by 6 p.m., only opening the iron gate covering his front door the next morning. Yet for Rodriguez, staying indoors might not be enough to protect him and his family from the war outside. Several weeks ago, a stray bullet penetrated the zinc roof of a neighbor's house.
Almost all of Caracas' streets empty of people by dusk as residents live under the pall of a homicide rate 20 times that of the United States. On Thursday, the U.N. Development Program issued a study finding Venezuela had the world's fifth highest homicide rate, only behind Honduras, El Salvador, the Ivory Coast and Jamaica.
Rodriguez blamed his working-class neighborhood's ills on thugs who prowl the streets on motorcycles and said more police patrols could help retake the city.The next time you terminate a program, or restart your computer using the CTRL+ALT+DEL shortcut, think of David Bradley; the IBM engineer that invented the command. During a gathering in 2004 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM PC, the veteran engineer revealed that he’d created the shortcut to save time, since his work required him to frequently power down and restart his computer. He says never intended to make the combination public but was prevailed upon by IBM who found it extremely useful.
Read on below to see a video of Bradley recounting the creation of this now-iconic shortcut, and watch as Bill Gates does not take a jab at Microsoft with the best of graces.
For the sake of historical accuracy I should point out that while Bradely does take the credit in this video, Wikipedia notes that the CTRL+ALT+DEL may have been invented in 1975 by a Michael Donald Wise. If there are any wayward history Ph.D. students out there, this could be thesis material!
(via Hack A Day, image via Jose Antonio)Have you ever dreaded going into work because the people around you were in a negative spiral of energy? We are emotional beings and we can’t help but be affected by the varying moods and interactions we have with others. Life is always changing and this constant change can create difficult thoughts and emotions, which can flow into the workplace. The silver lining is that if we can meet suffering at work with concern and care, compassion naturally arises. Work environments that cultivate compassion create a much more positive and productive place to work.
We can experience a variety of difficulties at work. Organizational actions may trigger suffering like job loss and downsizing. It was found in a study that downsizing unsettles people who lose their jobs and distresses survivors who are concerned about their colleagues’ losses, along with their own job security (Mishra et al. 2009). Suffering at work may arise from events in an individual’s personal life, including marital or relationship difficulties, a child’s special needs, divorce, or loss of a family member.
When distressed employees received acts of compassion like emotional support, time off from work, or flowers, they demonstrated more positive emotions such as joy and contentment, and had greater commitment toward their workplace organization.
Compassion is an interpersonal process involving the ability to notice, feel, or perceive another person’s pain and to be with or take action to alleviate that person’s suffering. Over the last 6 years, Jane Dutton at the University of Michigan has studied an array of organizational settings (hospitals, universities, and businesses like Macys and Cisco). She found that when distressed employees received acts of compassion like emotional support, time off from work, or flowers, they demonstrated more positive emotions such as joy and contentment, and had greater commitment toward their workplace organization. These results existed regardless of whether employees received compassion directly or merely witnessed it.
As a consultant supporting workplaces to be healthy and mindful, I teach and encourage compassion for oneself and others in the workplace. When mindfulness (paying attention to the present moment) and compassion are present, they support greater stress resiliency. Stress inevitably spills into the workplace and this often contributes to less productivity and higher health care costs, but with a dose of compassion, we can bounce back from the ups and downs of life with strength and greater ease. Below are some tips that I have encouraged and research also supports.
Compassion in Action At Work
Take greater notice of your fellow employees’ psychological well-being. For example: If an employee has experienced a loss, such as a divorce or death in the family, someone should contact that employee within 24-48 hours and offer help. Melwani et al. (2012) demonstrated that people who act compassionately are perceived more strongly as leaders and that perceived intelligence (i.e., how clever and knowledgeable the person is) bridges the relationship between compassion and leadership.
Encourage and display more positive contact among employees. In many workplaces where I consult, there are meeting spaces that can be utilized for informal groups and gatherings. Planned groups can be encouraged weekly or monthly and allow for more opportunities to notice when someone needs help or support and then to offer it.
Invite more authenticity and open communication in the workplace. If we can keep the communication lines open with respect and kindness, we allow for time to talk about what may need attention and/or empathic connection.
Take on the perspective of the other person. In other words, this person is “just like me.” This is also known as “cognitive empathy,” or simply knowing how the other person feels and what they might be thinking. This type of empathy can help in negotiating or motivating people to give their best effort.
Start with self-compassion. In order to truly have compassion for others, we must have compassion for ourselves.
Self-Compassion Practice
Recall a time in the last few days when you experienced some difficulty. Invite compassion towards yourself with these simple phrases.
As you breathe in and out, repeat these phrases as many times as needed. If it is challenging to offer compassion towards yourself, imagine someone who has love for you saying the words below:
May I, you be free from sorrow and pain
May I, you find ease in this struggle
May I, you find peace and healing
May I, you find openness of heart
In the Blooming Lotus online course, we practice mindfulness and well being in daily life. The focus for September is compassion and we would love to have you practice with us.
What if you went to work in a place where you felt trust, compassion, and enthusiasm? Practice more compassion towards yourself and others and let me know how it goes.
Research
Dutton JE, Lilius JM, Kanov JM. 2007. The transformative potential of compassion at work. In Handbook of Transformative Cooperation: New Designs and Dynamics, ed. SK Piderit, RE Fry, DL Cooperrider, pp. 107–26. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press Dutton JE, Ragins BR, eds. 2007. Exploring Positive Relationships at Work: Building a Theoretical and Research Foundation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. Mishra AK, Mishra KE, Spreitzer GM. 2009. Downsizing the company without downsizing morale. MIT Sloan Manag. Rev. 50(3):39–44 Melwani S, Mueller JS, Overbeck JR. 2012. Looking down: the influence of contempt and compassion on emergent leadership categorizations. J. Appl. Psychol. 97(6):1171–85
This post was first published on mindful.org in August 2015Rumors were circulating today that Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 2 was going to be live streamed on AdultSwim.com during Comic-Con tonight. Unfortunately, those rumors weren’t exactly true. (Note: If you’re looking for whether Rick and Morty is going to be new on Sunday, July 23, see Heavy’s story here.)
Everyone — the people watching Rick and Morty online and the people who stood in line for hours at Comic-Con — got to watch Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 1. But according to people who attended Comic-Con, Episode 2 aired right after Episode 1 ended.
If you were watching on AdultSwim.com, you saw a design sneak peek for Episode 2, and then just random clips about Comic-Con. Season 3 Episode 2 did not stream online on AdultSwim during Comic-Con and it was not broadcast on Adult Swim’s TV channel.
So far, no one is leaking the episode. But some people are tweeting about being able to see it at Comic-Con. The new episode is going to be a post-apocalyptic Mad Max type parody, and this tweet definitely looks like it’s from that episode:
The new rick and morty episode was lit af — richard (@heiwaikiru) July 23, 2017
I just had the honor of watching a brand new @RickandMorty episode at #SDCC with 4,000 other fans pic.twitter.com/uxEMXpjCit — adam (@adamphan_) July 23, 2017
Just got to watch the new episode of @RickandMorty at Petco Park and it was fucking awesome! #SDCC2017 — Sean Wilson (@SeanWilson619) July 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/cayleneey/status/888993361859706880
I'm sooo jealous of the people that got to exclusively see the new episode of Rick and Morty at #SDCC! Ahhh! 😭 — lauryn 💘 (@AwGeezLauryn) July 23, 2017
The reason you’re not seeing leaks is because Comic-Con was very clear that no one should record the episode. According to one attendee, the following message was up before the show aired: “Please don’t record the live stream. If we see a phone you will be asked to leave. We love you.”
In the meantime, to hold you over, here’s the design sneak peek video:
Thanks to commenters below and other people who were there, we can now confirm that yes, Episode 2 did air at Comic-Con last night.
Episode 2 will air for everyone on Sunday, July 30 at 11:30 p.m Eastern.
If you’d like to get an idea about what’s going to happen, see photos from Season 3 Episode 2 in the story below:What has happened to Ahmed Musa at Leicester City?
For some of us who have keenly monitored his career since he left the Nigeria Premier League in 2010 for the Dutch Eredivisie, Ahmed Musa's career has been on a meteoric rise. However, since joining Champions, Leicester City, that once bright career looks to be in danger of sinking into oblivion.
Whenever the story of the Nigeria Professional Football League is being told, one name definitely pops up – Ahmed Musa! Aged just 17, Musa had set a record for the most number of goals scored in the Nigeria Premier League with 18 goals. That same year, he transferred to the Eredivisie to join VVV-Venlo.
After heroically helping VVV-Venlo avoid getting relegated in 2011, he moved to the icy-cold climate of Russia to join CSKA-Moscow in 2012 for €5 million. Ahmed Musa became an instant hit in Russia. Then CSKA-Moscow manager, Leonid Slutsky, highly favoured the Nigerian attacker and made him a regular feature in his team. Musa repaid the trust by scoring and assisting goals on a regular basis. He helped CSKA-Moscow win the Russian Premier League and the Russian Cup in 2013, repeating the feat in 2014.
By the time he left CSKA-Moscow last summer, he had scored 33 goals in 106 appearances for CSKA, won three Russian Premier League titles, one Russian Cup and two Russian Super Cup titles. So when Leicester City came with plenty of Premier League money Whenever the story of the Nigeria Professional Football League is being told, one name definitely pops up – Ahmed Musa! Aged just 17, Musa had set a record for the most number of goals scored in the Nigeria Premier League with 18 goals. That same year, he transferred to the Eredivisie to join VVV-Venlo.After heroically helping VVV-Venlo avoid getting relegated in 2011, he moved to the icy-cold climate of Russia to join CSKA-Moscow in 2012 for €5 million. Ahmed Musa became an instant hit in Russia. Then CSKA-Moscow manager, Leonid Slutsky, highly favoured the Nigerian attacker and made him a regular feature in his team. Musa repaid the trust by scoring and assisting goals on a regular basis. He helped CSKA-Moscow win the Russian Premier League and the Russian Cup in 2013, repeating the feat in 2014.By the time he left CSKA-Moscow last summer, he had scored 33 goals in 106 appearances for CSKA, won three Russian Premier League titles, one Russian Cup and two Russian Super Cup titles. So when Leicester City came with plenty of Premier League money to acquire his services last year, many of us agreed that it was time for his career to take another trajectory – this time to a bigger and better League after 4 years in the Russian cold.
Claudio Ranieri had sanctioned the signing of Musa for a then club record of £16 million. In his mind's eye, he must've seen the Nigerian as a suitable backup to Shinji Okazaki. Someone with Champions League experience who could partner Jamie Vardy, deputise for Marc Albrighton or Riyad Mahrez and bring some more pace to the Leicester attack. Musa started the season opener away to Hull City in August – Leicester lost that game. He was thereafter dropped to the bench in the subsequent fixtures against Arsenal, Swansea, Liverpool and Burnley. He, however, started the League Cup defeat to Chelsea. The implication was that he had no place in the Leicester City starting lineup – under the manager who bought him.
Without regular football, it became impossible for Musa to hit the ground running – the likes of Islam Slimani, Marc Albrighton, Shinji Okazaki and Riyad Mahrez were ahead of him in the pecking order, all day long.
So long as this season goes, the signing of Ahmed Musa has been one that has benefited very little to both player and club. Even when he'd come on for cameos, Ranieri had been criticised for bringing him on at all. Such was Gary Lineker's assertion when he was brought on in the Champions League round of 16 fixture against Sevilla.
Gary Lineker GaryLineker Follow Defend Claudio to the end after last season but his faith in Musa is baffling. Now I've said it, please prove me wrong Follow 20:59 PM - 22nd Feb 17Jeff Berwick is a Canadian born entrepreneur, libertarian and anarcho-capitalist activist. Berwick founded StockHouse Media Corporation in 1994, one of the most active financial websites in Canada. He remained CEO until 2002. He is the founder of The Dollar Vigilante, CEO of TDV Media & Services and host of the popular video podcast, Anarchast. Jeff is a prominent speaker at many of the world’s freedom, investment, bitcoin and gold conferences. He is a well respected individual in our crypto community and is very much in tune with the thoughts here at The Art of Not Being Governed.
Jeff, thank you for the opportunity to have this interview with you. When did you first get into Anarcho-Capitalism and Libertarian philosophy?
I think I’ve always been an anarchist at heart but was never introduced to the true philosophy behind it until about 2003 when I had dinner with Doug Casey in Vancouver. He told me I was an anarchist and told me to read “The Market For Liberty”. As soon as I saw how an anarcho-capitalist world would work I was enthralled and have never stopped learning nor promoting the philosophy since.
We are big fans of The Dollar Vigilante and Anarchast. When did you first get the idea for these projects?
After I began learning about anarchist philosophy one of the natural complements was to learn about Austrian economics. After years of studying it I predicted the 2008 crisis and after that happened I became more emboldened that my views on the economy and the financial and monetary systems were correct and decided to start The Dollar Vigilante in 2009 to help spread this information prior to the next collapse. As for Anarchast, I started that around 2011 because I recognized there wasn’t a really good anarchist interview show that could help to get out the information from hundreds of really interesting anarchists in a calm, rational way. The Dollar Vigilante has grown tremendously and now Anarchast has interviewed over 160 anarchists and we’ll actually be holding Anarchapulco from Feb. 27 to Mar. 1, 2015, in Acapulco as a live event where anarcho-capitalists can congregate in a format never before seen.
Who first introduced you to Crypto Currency?
I was first introduced to it by a Dollar Vigilante subscriber in 2011 when it was around $3 and also became enthralled with it at that time and have been covering it ever since. One of the most influential people in my views on bitcoin in 2011 was Trace Mayer who I had on Anarchast and made a compelling argument for why bitcoin was so important.
Do you feel the blockchain is a useful tool for defeating the Nation-State?
I don’t see it as “defeating” the nation-state so much as just evolving past it. The entire concept of a nation state is just an idea and the only way to evolve passed an anachronistic idea like the nation-state is to create a new idea that makes the old ideas obsolete. In this sense, absolutely, the blockchain has already created ways to move passed the central banking cartels, nation-states, legal systems, banking and financial systems to a much better one.
What are your trusted sources for news on crypto-currency and anarchy?
I have the blessing to be good friends with almost all of the main players in the bitcoin world due to my involvement with it since 2011 and also have a worldwide network of readers through the Dollar Vigilante who are always keeping me updated on the latest and greatest innovations in the crypto-currency space. The same goes for anarchy as a whole… if there are any prominent anarchists out there who I don’t know I am sure I will know them soon enough due to my involvement as a leader in the space.
What would you say the state of Bitcoin is today?
It reminds me of the internet circa 1995. I was around when the internet came out and I remember how many people doubted it would really catch on… but there were a certain amount of people who saw the big picture and who were investing and/or developing internet projects that went on to be fabulous investments and companies. If anything I am more excited about bitcoin in 2014 than I was about the internet in 1995 just because I’ve seen this before and because we are all now so connected via the internet I think bitcoin will grow much faster than the internet did in the 90s.
What would you say the state of gold and silver is today?
I write The Dollar Vigilante so I am expecting the US dollar and most fiat currencies to collapse in the next few years so I think its never been more important to hold some precious metals as insurance and potential profit during this collapse. I don’t watch the price of the precious metals daily because it is not of great import to me whether silver is at $20 or $50. When this all starts to collapse you won’t be able to purchase precious metals for fiat currency so I just want to hold them so I can retain some of my wealth during and after the collapse.
The past week or so stocks plummeted all around the world and started rallying again when the Fed mentioned a pause in taper. Do you think they will ever pause the printing machine?
I think it is highly doubtful. The system is so leveraged and indebted now that if the Federal Reserve ever stopped printing money and manipulating interest rates near 0% we would see a worldwide financial system collapse and the collapse of the US government. Therefore, the way of least resistance for them is to keep printing money until it goes into hyperinflation and collapses.Recently I met up with a friend of mine in San Francisco and we got to talking about someone we both knew back in New York. My friend explained to me that the reason why she liked this person so much is because she was one of the few people who made falling in love a priority.
Huh. Making love and romance a priority in your life. As obvious as it sounds, I had never even thought of it like that before. Your first instinct might be to respond with, “Who doesn’t make love and sex and relationships a priority in their life? Everybody wants that!” And while it is true that mostly everyone yearns for companionship, not everyone makes a point to go after it. Not everyone actively dates and puts themselves out there and doesn’t make apologizes for placing romance above, say, a career. We like to judge those who are in relationships or go on lots of dates because, to some, it comes across as a weakness in their character. “They don’t know how to be alone. They’re co-dependent.” But the truth is that wanting to be in love is nothing to be ashamed of. Going on 10,000 OKCupid dates doesn’t make you pathetic or desperate. When did admitting you want to fall in love with someone become so taboo?
When my best friend moved to New York a year and a half ago, one of the first things she did was join OKCupid and go on dates with a bunch of different people. Seeing as how I’m someone who doesn’t use the website and is fearful of the concept of dating in general, my initial reaction was, “Slow your roll, honey. You got time!” I didn’t understand what the rush was, why she couldn’t focus on building a career first and developing a circle of friends before she tried delving into the relationship pool.
After a few months of marathon dating, she predictably found a real gem of a guy and they’ve been together ever since. Sometimes she’ll say things to me like, “I can’t believe I found someone so quickly!” and I’ll say back, “Well, I can! At the rate you were going, you were bound to find someone!”
It’s easy to be critical of someone who makes no bones about wanting a life partner. In reality though, falling in love is one of the bravest things you can do. I give props to anyone who prioritizes it. I give props to anyone who’s fearless and goes after what they want, whether it’s a dream job or a dream relationship. Why shouldn’t they? Why shouldn’t they be on a dating website? God forbid we actually admit to other people that we’re lonely and looking for somebody to love. The horrors of honesty! Why is it more okay to say to someone, “I’ve just been too preoccupied with building my career to go out and date…” than it is to say, “I’ve just been really focused on falling in love with an amazing person and building a solid relationship”? Whatever the hell makes you happy, right? This lesson is so delayed, I can’t believe it took me 26 whole years to learn it, but different things make people happy. Wow. How revelatory! My goals in life aren’t necessarily mirroring the goals of others and that’s fine. There’s no “right” order to go in. All you can hope for is that people are living their life with some fucking guts. They aren’t afraid to say what they want and go after it. It might not sound like that hard of a thing to do but in today’s shame-based culture it’s considered a damn victory just when you’re being honest.If you only went by what you read in the Detroit papers this week, you’d think Mike Ilitch—the pizza baron and owner of the Detroit Red Wings and Tigers who died last week at the age of 87—was a god incarnate. And for the last three decades, if you’d asked anyone in Michigan, you’d have gotten the sense he was revered as such in the Motor City. Actually, they’d tell you, It’s Mr. I.
“Detroit native, pizza magnate revitalized two sports franchises in his city, along with the city itself,” the Detroit Free Press wrote.
“And there, in the midst of Detroit’s catastrophic financial woes, Ilitch’s pride glimmered,” legendarily hamfisted columnist Bob Wojnowski wrote in The Detroit News.
This is the kind of purple-crayon boosterism he was accustomed to during his life, so it’s only fitting that he received it in memoriam.
That’s not to say he wasn’t shrewd with his franchises. Ilitch was a tremendously devoted owner: Unlike peers who opt for assured profits over victories, he poured money into his rosters. He stocked his mid ‘90s and early aughts Red Wings juggernauts with stars in the pre-salary cap era and approved George Steinbrenner-worthy payrolls for a mid-market team during the Tigers renaissance over the last decade. His Wings won four Stanley Cups with Hall of Famers up and down the lineup. (At one point during the 2001-2002 season the Wings iced Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, and Luc Robitaille together on what coaches called The 600 Goal Line.) The Tigers, despite a string of division titles and deep playoff runs, never won him the World Series ring he openly told the press his life would not be complete without, but it wasn’t for want of resources. And what was good for fans was good for him. The Red Wings, most recently valued at $625 million, may go down as one of the best franchise investments of all time; he and his wife Marian bought the team for $8 million in 1982.
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Ilitch’s legacy is more complicated than just Hometown Kid Does Right, though. His boosters will be the first to tell you that he singlehandedly revitalized the city and invested in his hometown when no one else would. But this glosses over the real story, which is that Ilitch was an opportunistic businessman. He saw a wide open lane in downtown Detroit—and a generous tax abatement—and had a few friends on the city council always willing to help. Ilitch’s empire was about budget lines, not goodwill. This was business. And business in the city of Detroit was good for the Ilitch family.
In 2003, a Detroit News headline screamed “Fox Theatre’s Rebirth Ushered In City’s Renewal,” highlighting the downtown theatre that Olympia Entertainment, the sports and entertainment arm of Ilitch Holdings, bought and renovated in 1987. This was the media’s rote characterization of Mr. I: a white knight, riding into town to cure the city of all its ills. Rebirth and revitalization was his calling card.
I believed it for years. The son of a third generation Detroiter, I grew up on Tigers baseball, Red Wings hockey, and weekend jaunts around the city, from Belle Isle to the Fox Theatre. Those Fedorov and Yzerman-era Wings were something to behold! It wasn’t until I started reporting on the Red Wings arena deal that Mr. I’s sheen lost its glow. I quickly turned into the dude who, three beers deep at a Tigers game, would talk about how much of a scam artist Ilitch is, taking the taxpayers for all they’re worth.
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And how! Ilitch left behind a messy legacy of taxpayer subsidies and real estate speculation. (Not to mention that he outright refused to sign a community benefits agreement that would have ensured a specific percentage of permanent, non-construction jobs at the new hockey arena would go to city residents.) The amount of public money he accepted over the years is vast—the Wings alone secured $284.5 million in public money for their new arena a week after the city of Detroit declared for bankruptcy—and dominated the headlines. But the Ilitch family’s years of land speculation were deemed too dull and arcane for the readers of a major metro daily newspaper, and relegated to the occasional space below the fold.
That changed this week, when the Detroit News, which might as well be called The Ilitch News & Record these days, praised Ilitch’s robber baron acumen on the business page. “He was an entrepreneur with a demonstrated knack for buying low,” Daniel Howes wrote, “holding on and building value in the myriad assets Ilitch’s clan still controls today.”
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Ilitch’s cheerleaders love to endlessly emphasize how he was so courageously buying up Detroit real estate as if he was colonizing Mars. And though this is ridiculously offensive to the residents and small business owners of Detroit who weathered years of blight and disinvestment, there is some truth to it: The Ilitch family did invest in the downtown core when other developers found it too risky. But they also gobbled up property and let it sit. It was a badly-kept secret around Detroit that Ilitch wanted a new rink to replace Joe Louis Arena and had his eyes on the rapidly developing Midtown neighborhood—ask any Detroiter, they’ll tell you it’s called the Cass Corridor—which sits just north of the Tigers’ ballpark and the city’s central business district.
This is no coincidence. The Ilitches had been snatching up parcels in the new arena district for years. Then, in 2014, City Council agreed to fork over 39 parcels surrounding the arena for the tidy price of $1 as part of the development. A Detroit Free Press analysis found “that several private landowners succeeded in netting millions for themselves by selling similarly situated land in the arena’s footprint to Ilitch-controlled corporations.” For years, suburbanites and former Detroiters griped about how unsafe and drug-riddled the Cass Corridor had become, and celebrated when the new arena was announced. But part of the reason redevelopment had come to a relative standstill was because developers knew the arena was coming. And Ilitch held all the cards.
“I would say this is typical Detroit planning negligence,” a Detroit development source told me in 2014. “From the bitching around town, I get the impression that Olympia has been buying and hoarding that land for like 20 years. They’ve been letting it sit vacant and sad until the right time—apparently, now.”
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This is not to piss on Ilitch’s generosity—he helped pay part of Rosa Parks’ rent late in her life—but rather to point out what many won’t, or at least haven’t. Ilitch was simply a tremendously wealthy pizza mogul with a bad wig who exploited the city council, capitalized on a depressed real estate market, and spent money on his sports teams commensurate with metro Detroit being a well-off area hungry for championships. He wasn’t a savior. Sure, if we’re going by the extremely low bar for scumbag billionaire sports owners, Ilitch looks like Mother Teresa compared to Dan Snyder. Yes, he had a measurable impact on the city—creating short-term construction jobs, part-time concessions gigs, and hourly-wage jobs at the Motor City Casino (which is in his wife’s name, per MLB’s collective bargaining agreement)—but it’s patently ridiculous to paint him as Bruce Wayne (if Wayne Enterprises sold stale breadsticks).
Ilitch’s legend could never have been told without the deep roster of water-carrying lackeys at Detroit’s papers who took it easy on Ilitch interests and functioned, on good days, as a glorified PR firm. The beat writers for the Lions have always been the best in town, never afraid to throw rocks or hold the Ford family to account while the Wings and Tigers beat writers operate like state-sponsored media. The same goes for business and real estate writers who painted him as a visionary tycoon rebuilding the city from the ashes, when he just created a lot of barely-living-wage jobs and sold a ton of mediocre pizza. The truth is, Mike Ilitch was a rich old man who owned a bunch of stuff and never saw a tax break he didn’t like.
Bill Bradley is a writer and reporter living in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in GQ, Vanity Fair, and many other publications. Follow him on Twitter @billbradley3. Know something he should? Drop a note at w3bradley@gmail.com or DM him on Twitter for a way to securely contact him.MNT
CHICAGO (Jan. 5, 2017) – U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Bruce Arena has called 32 players to Carson, Calif., for the annual January Camp. Players will report Jan. 10 to the National Training Center.
This will be the first training camp coached by Arena since he took over in November of last year, and comes just two months before Final Round Qualifying for the 201 |
protest unsafe working conditions. While there were no serious injuries as a result of the blast, the California regulator said 18 of the citations were considered serious because of the "realistic possibility" of serious worker injury or death.
Four workers were treated for minor injuries and eight went through a decontamination process after the incident.
The blast occurred near a fluid catalytic unit, part of the refinery's infrastructure used to process gasoline. The company has 15 working days to appeal the citations.
Federal authorities called for an overhaul of refinery safety regulations in the wake of a 2012 blaze at a Chevron's Richmond refinery in California.Advertisement
Incredible colourised photographs of the Germany Army during the devastating Second World War have been revived to reveal in detail their fight across Europe before eventually being forced to surrender.
The images show some of Nazi Germany's most lethal snipers taking aim at allied forces, soldiers marching down an occupied area with tanks and trucks to the sides, and two technicians fixing a Nazi-German fighter plane.
One picture shows a group of soldiers carrying a casket of a fallen comrade in what appears to be a ceremonial send-off watched by an entire town.
The pictures were brought to life by Welsh electrician Royston Leonard, 54, from Cardiff showing the German soldiers fighting and repairing their artillery on the bloodied battlegrounds of Europe.
German soldiers stand around near a tank in this colourised photograph brought to life by a Welsh electrician. The picture shows the Nazis carrying their weapons - including machine guns and blades - as well as ammunition away from the camouflaged armoured vehicle on the rugged terrain
A deadly Nazi sniper takes aim at British troops during World War Two. As one camouflaged soldier (left) points the gun with his right index finger resting on the trigger, his comrade (right), who is wearing thick gloves, looks through binoculars from their man-made trench at the advancing army
Four Nazi soldiers of the Panzer Lehr division gather around a map as they plan their offensive in the town of Tilly-sur-Seulles. The Panzer Lehr division was an elite German armoured division during World War Two. It was formed in 1943 onwards from training and demonstration troops stationed in Germany, to provide additional armoured strength for the anticipated Allied invasion of western Europe. It was the only Wehrmacht Panzer division to be fully equipped with tanks and with half-tracks to transport its mechanized infantry. On several occasions it fought almost to destruction and by the end of the war in Europe bore little resemblance to the unit that had originally been activated
German soldiers with their rifles slung across their backs ride on modified motorcycles through fields with pillion passengers. Alongside them is a soldier driving a tank and two men carrying supplies walk the other way. In the background, other armoured vehicles can be seen making their way through the sprawling hills
Three German soldiers operate a heavy-duty cannon which is wheeled through a war-ravaged roadside. Beyond them, black smoke billows into the air as huts are set ablaze by fierce fighting during the war that claimed millions of lives
Two German technicians fix a Messerschmitt 109. Luftwaffe aircraft were painted this way in the early years of the war. During that period Nazi fighter planes could be recognised by the striking yellow noses, wingtips and tails - as seen in this picture. But as the Germans began to lose air superiority they started using less and less of their signature yellow design. Later only the undersides of the engine cowling would be painted yellow, or they abandoned it completely
The images were brought to life by electrician Royston Leonard, 54, from Cardiff.
'This project was to show the war from all sides,' he said.
'This set shows the German war machine and the soldiers at war. Colouring these pictures reminds us to never let it happen again.
'Look at the pictures and remember what happened in Germany could happen again in any country in the world today if we are not careful and help each other when in need.
'Hate is an easy weed to grow and can go unnoticed until it's too late and takes over. Be on guard as it can look like the best flower in the garden.
'What I see in the pictures is the world gone mad and sadly war was the only cure.'
Nazi soldiers in action towards the end of World War Two. Hiding behind a battered wall or archway, they take cover from British and allied forces. One soldier, left, points his gun at what appears to be an army vehicle making its way up the dusty road
Seventeen German soldiers stand in front of and on top of a massive tank as they pose up for a propaganda photograph which became a strong tool during the Second World War. The armoured vehicle is surrounded by machinery and weapons, likely to be trying to paint a picture of the Nazi strength despite their inevitable slide into surrender
A camouflaged tank roams through an unknown town, thought to be in Germany. Four soldiers sit on top of the tank while another two stand outside a shop with a blue front
Three Nazi soldiers sprint across a battered road amid heavy fighting. They are carrying all their gear and have their rifles in their hands ready to fire. Beyond them, a fire rages the other side of an armoured vehicle and a huge cannon is poised to shoot towards the allied forces
Dozens of German soldiers surround an enormous weapon which is mounted on a huge platform on caterpillar tracks. Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II, in the form of the German Nebelwerfer family of rocket ordnance designs, and Soviet Katyusha-series. Most were mounted on a small wheeled carriage which was light enough to be moved by several men and could easily be deployed nearly anywhere, while also being towed by most vehicles. But this was a specialist machine built for mass destruction
Two Nazis share a drink in their vehicle in the middle of dusty and arid ground. The Germans used different styles and sizes of canteens, and there were no specific models or colors for any type of unit. Most carried 750ml but a a larger litre model was also made. The canteens consisted of a metal flask, metal or plastic cup, a strap assembly and wool felt cover
Two German soldiers stand on top of a tank which has ploughed into a ditch. Nazi Germany developed numerous tank designs during World War Two. In addition to domestic designs, Germany also employed various captured and foreign-built tanks. By doing this Germany saw their tanks grow from what was described as tiny five ton packages to one hundred-ton monsters
The Wehrmacht, which was the German name for the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, fought for their dictator leader, Adolf Hitler, from 1935 to 1946.
During the height of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler designated himself as the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht.
The dreadful war concluded with a defeated Nazi-Germany which led to the eradication of Hitler's Armed Forces of Nazi Germany.
As the British and allied forces battered the Nazis into submission, the soldiers were left with no option but to hand over their weapons. A huge mountain of rifles and ammunition pile up as a conveyor belt of wounded Germans dump their guns
A massive line of German soldiers march in the central reservation as armoured vehicles make their way down the road. The man who colourised the pictures, Royson Leonard, said: 'Look at the pictures and remember what happened in Germany could happen again in any country in the world today if we are not careful and help each other when in need. 'Hate is an easy weed to grow and can go unnoticed until it's too late and takes over. Be on guard as it can look like the best flower in the garden'Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Witnesses said about 500 police surrounded the protesters
Bolivian police have broken up a long-distance march by indigenous protesters who oppose plans to build a road through a rainforest reserve.
Officers wielding truncheons and firing tear gas moved in on the demonstrators' camp, taking people away in buses.
President Evo Morales says the road is vital for development but has offered to hold a referendum on the issue.
Hundreds of people set off last month to march to La Paz but were stopped at Yucomo, with 250km (155 miles) to go.
An estimated 500 police officers moved in late on Sunday afternoon on a camp set up by the marchers.
Protest leaders said dozens of people had been driven away and their whereabouts were unknown.
Local police chief Oscar Munoz said the people were being taken back to their hometowns.
The Bolivian ombudsman, Rolando Villena, criticised what he said was excessive use of force by the police.
"Injured children, disappeared mothers who didn't want to separate from their children - this does not talk well about our democracy. This is not democracy," he said.
Deforestation
The clashes came a day after protesters had briefly held the foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, forcing him to walk with them.
Mr Choquehuanca, who had come to negotiate with the protesters, said the fact that he was freed showed "they want to resolve matters through dialogue".
Image caption The road is already under construction
In an apparent bid to defuse tension, President Morales said on Sunday that he would put the road plan to a regional referendum.
"If they say yes, a study will be done to see where the best route for that road is, the most direct...and with the least environmental impact," Mr Morales said.
Plans for a road through the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park - known by its Spanish acronym Tipnis - have divided opinion in Bolivia.
Indigenous people who live in the reserve say the highway would encourage illegal settlement and deforestation in their ancestral Amazon homeland.
Hundreds of protesters set off in mid-August to walk 500km from Trinidad to Bolivia's main city, La Paz, to voice their opposition.
But others, including Mr Morales, say the road would help bring basic services to isolated communities, and also boost the local economy by giving farmers better access to markets.
The road, which would link the highland city of Cochabamba with San Ignacio de Moxos in the Amazon lowlands, is being funded by Brazil and built by a Brazilian company.
The march, which set is the latest in a series of challenges Mr Morales is facing from indigenous groups and social movements that helped make him Bolivia's first indigenous president.I grew up in an anti-Madonna household. My parents did not approve of the pop singer and her hunger for constant scandal, so her songs were banned in my house, which of course meant that I tried my best to listen to them to see what the fuss was about.
So, when I heard that Sr. Cristina, the nun phenom who stunned everyone on Italy’s version of The Voice, had done a cover of Madonna’s song “Like a Virgin” I was a little stunned.
What a strange song for a nun to cover right?
It seemed like such a stunt. I started to imagine some slick marketing guys in suits proposing it to Sr. Cristina, but then I thought, “I have to see this before I make any judgments.”
Here’s the thing. I’m not going to rave about Sr. Cristina’s rendition of the song. Musically, it didn’t do a whole lot for me. But, what I will rave about is that the entire sense of the song, as Madonna sang it, has been lifted up, renewed, and made new. In fact, when I heard Sr. Cristina singing it, I realized that there were already seeds of the Gospel in the song (of which Madonna was probably completely unaware!)
“I made it through the wilderness” — “I will lead her into the wilderness and speak persuasively to her” – (Hosea 2:16)
“Yeah, you made me feel, Shiny and new” — “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5), “See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the wilderness I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.” (Is 43:19)
And it goes on.
That’s what the Gospel does when it meets culture.
Sr. Cristina is following in the footsteps of Jesus. When the Word Incarnate came to earth, he didn’t huddle in the Temple and snub his nose at the “secular” world. He entered it and he transformed it. He lifted up our human nature and united it with God’s nature, making something beautiful from what was debased and twisted.
So, Sr. Cristina has taken an epic pop song and totally reinvented it for me. I will never hear “Like a Virgin” in the same way again. The song’s lyrics have been purified, spiritualized.
But you know what is really awesome?
Madonna heard this new version of her song too:
Like A Virgin? #bitinghard A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:40am PDT
And now Madonna will never hear the song in the same way.
And maybe, if Madonna takes some time to think about it, she’ll realize that the reason Sr. Cristina can cover the song so effortlessly and make it work is because underlying the thirst for sexual fulfillment that Madonna focuses on in her rendition of the song is a thirst for God.
I dunno, I’m gonna be praying for Madonna’s conversion in a special way now.
I believe in miracles.
– – –
Other takes on the new video:
Calah Alexander – We Can – and Should – Use Madonna Songs to Transform the Culture
Catholic News Agency – Singing Nun’s Madonna Cover – Not Like a Prayer
Leticia Adams – Like a Virgin
Deacon Greg Kandra – Watch out, Madonna: Sister Cristina turns “Like a Virgin” into a prayer—UPDATED
– – –One of the saddest parts of growing old is the realization that some of the best and most incisive books you read in your youth have had damn near zero impact on the world. 1988’s “That Noble Dream: The ‘Objectivity Question’ and the American Historical Profession” by Peter Novick is one of the best books ever written about history as a discipline and historians as fallible human beings. At its core, “That Noble Dream” explores the struggle for objectivity in a field that attracts relativism, cooked data, and political influence the way an egg salad sandwich left in the sun attracts bacteria.
In service of his larger point about objectivity, Novick zeroes in on several specific case studies from the 1960s and “70s involving race and gender. These case studies are all, without exception, still relevant. In the chapter titled “Every group its own historian,” Novick writes:
“It is a truism that all historical writing, at least on highly charged subjects, is the product of a particular moment in time, which shapes historians’ decisions about what needs to be explained; which often leads them to conclude that their social responsibilities require that they write history of a certain sort.”
“Social responsibilities” as opposed to a fidelity to truth. That’s just beggin” for trouble.
“These days, the Internet exposes millions of people to misinformation, and it’s a lot easier to stumble across nonsense purely by chance.”
Novick details the about-face that occurred among black historians and sociologists after the 1965 Moynihan Report (“The Negro Family: The Case for National Action”) was released. The report sympathetically addressed the concerns of many in the black community regarding the disproportionately low number of nuclear families and the disproportionately high number of single mothers. But now that “whitey” was finally addressing the community’s concerns, something greater was lost “ namely the ability of black activists to slam white America for being blind to their community’s ills.
So whereas the previous party line had been, “white America is hurting the black family by ignoring its problems,” the new line would be, “white America is hurting the black family by exaggerating its problems.”
Black historian William J. Wilson (quoted by Novick):
“A new emphasis on the positive aspects of the black experience tended to crowd out older concerns. Arguments extolling the strengths and virtues of black families replaced those that underlined the deterioration of black families. In fact, aspects of ghetto behavior described as pathological in the studies of the mid-1960s were reinterpreted or redefined as functional.”
The history of the black family was to be written based not on facts, but on political concerns. Accentuate the positive, and attack as “racist” those who address the negative.
Almost 30 years since “That Noble Dream,” it’s happening again. Postmillennial political correctness “ irrational, inflexible, and far worse than anything similar from the “80s “ combined with a desire to paint black life during the Obama years in the best possible light, has, once again, created a shift in focus. “Black family crisis? Ha! More like racist whites spreading lies about strong and healthy black families.”
I bring this up because this month the young know-nothings of the left “discovered” a report by the Centers for Disease Control disproving the “myth” of absentee black fathers. The report itself is well over a year old, and had previously been covered by The New York Times and other major media outlets. But we all know that excessive pot smoking leads to procrastination, so the millennials are just now getting around to singing the report’s praises.
“The Absent Black Father Myth “ Debunked by CDC” screamed the Daily Kos. “The Absent Black Father Myth “ Totally Debunked by the CDC” crowed Alternet (adding the “totally” really makes the headline come alive, doesn”t it?), while Vibe victoriously announced “CDC Nullifies the “Absent Black Father” Myth.”
The only problem is, the CDC report does nothing of the sort. What it says is that among fathers who live apart from their children, the percentage of black fathers who interact with their kids in the course of four weeks is roughly equal to the percentage of white fathers who do the same. But the larger concern is whether there’s a disproportionately high number of black fathers living apart from their kids. That’s the issue, and Alternet had to concede that point in an update to its story: “To be fair and complete, as pointed out in the comments, there is a significant difference in the rate of single-parent families across racial lines as this chart from the KidCount Datacenter shows here.”
Pay to Play - Put your money where your mouth is and subscribe for an ad-free experience and to join the world famous Takimag comment board.From Deep Space to Deep Sea: Musk Mods Classic Bond Car
Having already conquered space, American business adventurer Elon Musk has his sights set on the sea. He recently bought the undersea vehicle from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, a Lotus with wings added for faux aquatic travel. Although merely a prop, Musk plans to add what’s necessary to make it a functional subaquatic vessel.
Famous for founding electric vehicle company Tesla Motors and space travel company SpaceX, Musk is no stranger to exploratory adventures. He plans on adding a Tesla drivetrain to the white Esprit. Inspiration hit when he learned that, after dropping nearly $1 million on the prop, it didn’t actually perform as it does in the film. If successfully launched, we predict he’ll wear a tuxedo and, although the original was piloted by Roger Moore, do a bad Sean Connery impression.Copyright 2019 Cable News Network/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Pope Francis on Wednesday canonized Junipero Serra, a Spanish missionary, a moment of deep pride for Latinos but a source of controversy for many Native Americans.
Serra, who came to California nearly 250 years ago, is the first saint to be canonized on U.S. soil.
"Junipero Serra left his native land and its way of life," Francis said in his homily during the canonization Mass at Catholic University in Washington. "He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life."
The Pope praised Serra's treatment of Native Americans, saying that he "sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it."
"Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us," Francis continued, "especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people."
The Pope has planned to meet with Native Americans in Washington after the Mass, a Vatican official told CNN's Delia Gallagher.
But some Native Americans say Serra was no saint.
"We're stunned and we're in disbelief," said Valentin Lopez, 63, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band located along Monterey Bay in California.
"We believe saints are supposed to be people who followed in the life of Jesus Christ and the words of Jesus Christ. There was no Jesus Christ lifestyle at the missions," Lopez said, who has campaigned against sainthood for Serra.
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, though, called the canonization of Serra "the most important dimension of the Pope's visit" to the United States, which lasts through Sunday.
"This is the big story: The first Hispanic Pope is coming to America to give us our first Hispanic saint. This is not a coincidence," Gomez said at a news conference last month.
The Rev. Timothy Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference in Washington, said many scholars acknowledge Serra's complicated legacy.
"But I don't think Pope Francis wants pristine saints," Kesicki continued, "because then no one will aspire to sainthood."
Fifty different tribes in California condemned the sainthood conferred on Serra, said Deborah Miranda, a literature professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and a member of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation of California. She wrote "Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir," a book about her ancestors' experiences in the Spanish missions.
"My objection and the objection of many California Indians is that he is being honored for in fact dishonoring many of our California ancestors. The missions ended up killing about 90% of the California Indians present at the time of missionization, creating all kinds of cultural and emotional baggage that we still carry to this day," Miranda said. "It's not a question of attacking the Catholic Church or attacking Pope Francis. It's about making sure that the truth is heard and that injustices are not continued on into the 21st century."
But the Native American campaign to stop Serra's canonization never gained an audience in Rome, Miranda said.
"We have gotten zero response from the Vatican, not a word. We do not exist, it seems, in Pope Francis' world," Miranda said. "They're interested in his record and in how many people he managed to convert and in the fact that he at this point in time is a famous Spanish person when the church really needs some positive PR, so they are purposely overlooking the deaths and the cultural genocide of Native American people because it's to their benefit."
Ahead of the Mass on Wednesday, thousands lined up for hours in nightmarish lines snaking around parts of the Catholic University of America campus.
The queues stretched to security checkpoints where those holding the 25,000 tickets distributed for the ceremony. Federal law enforcement agencies conducting the searches included the Transportation Security Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
By the time Francis arrived on campus, hordes of people were still waiting to clear checkpoints.
Wednesday was the Pope's first full day in the United States, a trip that will also take him to New York and Philadelphia.The Knesset Reforms Committee voted 4-0 on Monday in favor of legislation to ban the entire, widely fraudulent binary options industry from operating anywhere in the world from Israeli soil.
But with the bill now required to make its way to the Knesset plenary for second and third votes to become law — it passed its first Knesset vote 31-0 in June — the coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud), who opposes some of its provisions, is vowing not to bring it to a vote in the near future. “Why is this so urgent?” he told fellow MKs on the panel, having arrived too late to its session Monday to try to change the terms of the bill. “It can wait.”
Were the bill to become law, operators of binary options sites would have three months to cease all activity or face up to two years in prison.
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Following the committee vote Monday, Bitan arrived at the session and sought to reopen the debate, but was told he had missed the opportunity. Chairwoman Rachel Azaria (Kulanu) then urged Bitan to bring the bill for approval by the Knesset as soon as possible, but he said he had no intention of doing so.
The bill has already been watered down from the original draft published in February — which in addition to a wholesale ban of binary options would have required forex and CFD companies operating from Israel to obtain licenses in the countries where they operate.
Sources close to the legislation told The Times of Israel that the bill in its current form would likely gain final Knesset approval if brought to a vote. But they noted that Bitan’s stance could prove critical, since, as coalition chairman, he has the power to decide which proposed laws come before the Knesset plenary and can delay the passage of bills indefinitely if he so chooses.
Bitan arrived shortly after Monday’s committee session, after the vote had been taken, after Azaria had declared the meeting over and as the room was mostly cleared out. A Likud power broker who sits on the Reforms Committee but had not attended any of the committee’s discussions, Bitan asked to make changes to the law that would allow SpotOption and other binary options platform providers to continue to operate from Israel.
Bitan was told by Azaria that it was too late, and that the bill had been voted through. Fellow committee member Haim Jelin (Yesh Atid) chimed in that the law could not now be re-opened.
Bitan then declared that that he would not convene the Knesset plenary to vote on the proposed law in the near future, and said he did not think passage of the binary options ban was “urgent.”
In a semi-private conversation that was overheard by many of those who remained in the room after the committee meeting, MK Azaria pleaded with Bitan to convene the plenary right away to pass the bill despite the fact that the Knesset is currently in summer recess. “This law is very important,” she urged. “Binary options is causing anti-Semitism around the world.”
Soon after Azaria said this, a Knesset usher asked reporters to leave the room. But a source who remained told The Times of Israel that Bitan told Azaria and other government officials that a family prominently involved in SpotOption are leaders of the Georgian faction of the Likud Central Committee and that he needs their support to maintain his position in the Likud.
The widely fraudulent Israeli binary options industry is estimated to generate between $5 billion and $10 billion a year. It has been estimated to number well over 100 companies, and to employ between 5,000 and tens of thousands of employees.
The Times of Israel began exposing the fraud in a March 2016 article entitled “The wolves of Tel Aviv: Israel’s vast, amoral binary options scam exposed.” The fraudulent firms ostensibly offer customers worldwide a potentially profitable short-term investment. But in reality — through rigged trading platforms, refusal to pay out, and other ruses — these companies fleece the vast majority of customers of most or all of their money. The fraudulent salespeople routinely conceal where they are located, misrepresent what they are selling and use false identities.
Israel Police Superintendent Gabi Biton told the Reforms Committee on August 2 that Israeli crime kingpins are behind the binary options industry and that organized crime in the country has been massively enriched and strengthened as a result of law enforcement’s failure for many years to grasp the vastness of the problem.
“Our eyes have been opened,” said Biton, who investigates financial fraud and money laundering. “What we’re seeing here is a massive organized criminal enterprise. We are talking about criminals at various levels of crime organizations, up to the very top.”
At Monday’s Reforms Committee meeting, the third of three held by the committee in the past week, the main topic of discussion was binary options platform providers like SpotOption, TechFinancials and Panda, and whether or not they would be allowed to continue to operate from Israel even as the firms and call centers to which they provide technology are outlawed.
Representatives from SpotOption argued that they merely provide technology to binary options websites and that the bill should be changed so that their activity is not banned. Representatives of Israel’s Justice Ministry and the police said that platform providers, without naming SpotOption specifically, in fact host and operate the binary options websites and receive a percentage of each transaction, and therefore should be covered by the ban, as they will be if the law passes in its current form.
MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu) had asked, in written comments on the proposed law prior to Monday’s committee meeting, to make changes similar to those being sought by lawyers for the platform providers. He told the panel that “I think we can pass a law that does not hurt technology companies. It is possible that in six months the Israel Securities Authority will change its mind about this, but if we close something it might be impossible to re-open.”
Forer likened selling binary options technology platforms to selling weapons systems. “If an Israeli company sells a weapons system to a foreign country and the country uses it for something bad, is that Israel’s responsibility? Did Israel commit a crime?”
But police superintendent Biton told the panel that the technology companies behind binary options websites do in fact participate in the websites’ questionable activities. “They run the websites and the payment processing, and also have the ability to influence the results of trades,” the police officer said.
Deborah Abitbol, who as a lawyer licensed in France has access to the case files of French law enforcement’s investigations into binary options and forex companies, told the panel that according to French investigators, binary options technology platform providers have a button they can press that causes a trader on one of their websites to lose their money.
Abitbol also complained that many of the victims she represents lost their money to fraudulent Israeli forex companies and asked why the proposed law had been watered down to omit the clause requiring Israeli forex and CFD companies to obtain a license in the countries where they operate.
Moshe Avrahami, the CFO of SpotOption, told the panel that he strongly rejected the insinuations he said were voiced at the meeting that his company is fraudulent and cheats customers, and he denied that there was a “secret button” on the trading platform that could be used to cause clients to lose.
“They are saying that binary options technology companies allow people to cheat traders with a secret button. I know of no such thing. Our software is fair, and trustworthy. We have passed scrutiny with the most rigorous regulators — Cysec [the Cyprus securities regulator], for instance, and Japan. There is no regulator that is stricter than Japan,” he said.
Drama at the committee
At the start of Monday’s panel session, there were only two Knesset members in the room — Forer, who proposed changing the bill so that binary options “technology” companies would not be hurt, and committee chairwoman Azaria, who supported the bill with its ban encompassing platform providers like SpotOption.
A source close to the legislation told The Times of Israel that the presence and absence of various MKs was no accident, but the result of a pitched behind-the-scenes battle between proponents and opponents of the proposed binary options ban.
As the session got underway, with only Forer and Azaria in the room with the right to vote, it seemed as though binary options industry lobbyists might succeed in further weakening the bill to exclude platform providers like SpotOption from its provisions. Then, Shas MK Yigal Guetta appeared and began arguing in favor of the bill in its current form.
“We must not open any loopholes in this law,” Guetta declared. “This law does not threaten Israeli high-tech. If it did, we would have hundreds of Israeli high-tech companies here protesting. The [binary options platform providers] are using scare tactics. I think we should go with the law the way it is now.”
A few moments later, Jelin of the opposition Yesh Atid appeared. Jelin, together with Forer, had expressed reservations about the current text of the law in comments prior to the session. “I am here because I want to protect startups and young people developing software,” he told the panel. “I don’t want to see technology companies running away to Cyprus because binary options is regulated there and not here.”
But Jelin relented after he was reassured that pure technology companies would not be affected by the law and that only companies that operate binary websites and take a percentage of their earnings would be shut down.
When Azaria called for a vote, all four Knesset members voted in favor of the binary options ban, including the provision banning technology providers.
Azaria then called for a process known as revisia, in which all four Knesset members went off to a private room for half an hour and discussed possible revisions to the bill.
Both Azaria and Forer told The Times of Israel that the revisia process is a procedural one that guarantees that no further revisions can be made to the law before it goes to the plenary. After these revisia discussions, all four MKs returned to the committee room and voted publicly to ensure that no further revisions could be made to the proposed law.
As that vote was getting underway, MK David Bitan entered the room, accompanied by Moshe Avrahami from SpotOption.
“Here’s the sheriff,” exclaimed Ariella Malka, the administrative director of the Reforms Committee, referring to Bitan’s role as Knesset majority whip.
“There’s a problem with the law,” declared Bitan.
“This is what is called a last-minute development,” said Malka.
Bitan motioned for Avrahami of SpotOption to come closer. Avrahami said to Azaria and the other MKs that there was a contradiction in the proposed law regarding technology companies. “It seems there is no problem for a technology company to sell software according to the law,” Avrahami said, “but the explanatory notes prohibit it.”
Azaria and a legal adviser for the Justice Ministry began arguing with Bitan. “We sat down with the Israel Securities Authority and the Justice Ministry to make sure this law doesn’t cover more than it absolutely needs to. He can sell his software, he just can’t earn money from forbidden things.”
“So you want him not to earn anything?” asked Bitan, referring to SpotOption’s Avrahami.
“He can as long as he does not earn from things that are against the law,” said the Justice Ministry adviser.
“Bitan, let me give you some advice,” said Jelin. “Be careful or someone will have a fit of craziness and go back to the old version of the law [the one that prohibited operating forex and CFD sites without a license], and then everyone will lose.”
“The problem is,” said Avrahami of SpotOption, “that this law creates exposure to the money laundering law and the punishment is two years in jail.”
“That didn’t even go into the law,” exclaimed a government official in the room. (The Times of Israel was later told that a provision against money laundering has remained intact.)
“Bitan, you want to reopen the law?” threatened Jelin. “We will go back to the original law.”
“You know I am not afraid of you,” replied Bitan.
Bitan then asked that the Justice Ministry’s clarification of the clause pertaining to technology platforms be put into the Knesset protocol. A legal expert told The Times of Israel that the protocol is often used in lawsuits attempting to show that a law is self-contradictory or problematic.
Bitan then stepped away from the other MKs and began arguing with Azaria about when the law would come up for a vote in the plenary.
“I have had it up to here with the law against money laundering,” Bitan said. “You can’t even do anything in this country anymore.”
“That is not the issue,” said Azaria. “This is a very important law. Binary options is causing anti-Semitism around the world.”
“I’m very busy,” replied Bitan. “And I can’t bring this up during the Knesset recess. Why is this so urgent? It can wait.”
Last October, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bitan’s Likud party leader, called for a worldwide ban on binary options.Correction appended, Dec. 16, 2016
Movie and television review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has revealed its best and worst scored franchises—and, unsurprisingly, the nine-part Harry Potter saga leads the rankings with an impressive average movie score of 84%.
Not far behind is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise with 82%, The Lord of the Rings (including The Hobbit) with 80% and the five-part Mission:Impossible movie series with 75%. The Star Wars franchise, including the newly released Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, has an above-average rating of 73%.
Rotten Tomatoes aggregates reviews to give movies and shows ratings on a scale of 0 to 100%. The site calculated the ranking of major franchises by finding the average score of all the films in a movie series. To be included in the ranking, franchises needed to have a minimum number of five movies, as well as a new release in the past three years to qualify—which explains why Christopher Nolan’s popular Dark Knight trilogy is not on the list.
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In the case of Harry Potter, for example, 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2) received an extremely high score of 96%, whereas Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which was released earlier this year, scored 75%, with the total average rating of all nine movies working out at 84%.
Toward the other end of the scale from Harry Potter and Star Wars were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (31%), Fast & the Furious (54%) and Planet of the Apes (63%) franchises.
The five-part Terminator movie series scored a just-above-average 64%, despite James Cameron’s 1984 movie The Terminator |
a different beast from the Darkstalkers-alike I thought it was at first, but that different beast is an awesome one.Helaine Olen: Why do people give money away both before they die and in their final wills? Are there different motivations in each case?
Saul Levmore: Well, that’s a really good question. Some people give money away, I think, as a way to live forever.
Martha Nussbaum: I think it’s a surrogate immortality, in a lot of cases. People realize that their life is ending, but they want some imprint on the world that is identified with them. Of course, that can take many forms, not just giving money away. It can take the form of building a building, or whatever. But I think the reason that givers to institutions so often want to name a building is they really want their imprint to be on the world in some kind of durable, etched-in-stone way. They don’t want to be forgotten.
Olen: And what are the attractions of giving money away while alive?
Levmore: It’s unsurprising when you see the Bill Gateses of the world give away a lot of money while they’re still alive, because you can watch what people do with it—you can see who’s doing and a good job and a bad job, and then give more to some places than to others, and so forth.
I think most people would prefer to give it away while they are alive and to see the progress that's made. It's just that they’re unsure about their longevity and about their future economic needs. But I think it’s natural to earmark money and have it go for some new building when you die, if you really felt like you have lots and lots of wealth.
Nussbaum: It’s also that people want to give it away before they die in order to avoid the estate tax—which may disappear, shortly. Therefore universities hate the idea that the estate tax would go away. But this is also influenced by social norms. I find that in Europe, it’s much harder to get rich people to give money away, because their peer community of rich people doesn’t honor that, as much.
Olen: So there’s something very American about it?
Levmore: It’s also tax-related. They’re taxed a little bit more heavily than we are during their lives and the taxation system has a very, very strong redistribution element.
Olen: Saul, one of things you talked specifically about in the book is how we discount the pleasure we get from giving money away while we're alive.
Levmore: There are many systems of discounting. First of all, I think it’s thought to be impolite to say how you’ve improved the world by giving money away. So, people are shy to say that. And then, also, I’ve been a donor, but I’ve also been a fundraiser when I was president of the law school for a while, and I think that there’s a sense in which you don’t want to know if people flopped with your money. You give money away, and it goes to some college—maybe your college was better when you were there, but maybe it’s worse than when you were there. You would like to imagine that you’re making the world a better place, and in a funny way, it’s easier to do that when you’re dead. I think, for example, one reason people don’t give more money to their children while they’re both still alive is it would be a shame to give a lot of money to your kid and then watch your kid not go to work every day, or watch your kid misuse the money.It's What Makes Us Legendary!
It all began on February 17, 1993, when Kent Taylor opened the first Texas Roadhouse in Clarksville, Indiana. Kent’s goal was to own not just a family restaurant and not just a steak restaurant, but a place where everyone, of all ages, could come and have a great meal and great fun for a great price.
We like to brag about our Hand-Cut Steaks, Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs, Made-From-Scratch Sides, and Fresh-Baked Bread. Everything we do goes into making our hearty meals stand out. We handcraft almost everything we serve. We provide larger portions so you get more food for your dollar. And if you want an Ice Cold Beer or Legendary Margarita to wash it all down — well, we have those, too.
Our food’s not the only thing that’s Legendary at the Roadhouse — our fun is too! From our line dancers to our jukebox to our friendly servers, you’ll enjoy every second you spend in a Texas Roadhouse.
At Texas Roadhouse our team has an incredible sense of pride in everything we do. Our passion ensures you have a Legendary Experience every time. Because of our passion for our guests and our communities, our team members are involved outside the restaurants in their local communities as a way to give back.
The Texas Roadhouse story is simple. Legendary Food, Legendary Service® —
all with lots of Legendary Fun!Like many cars driven by teenagers in New Jersey, the Toyota Corolla 18-year-old Erick Rivera parked in a Newark high school lot Tuesday did not have any red decals affixed to the license plates.
The $4 decals, required by law to be on any car driven by permit or probationary license holders under 21, were instead in his pocket.
The Barringer High School senior said he doesn’t want to put them on his car because he feels they will make him vulnerable to police officers.
Across the state, teenagers and parents have turned to chat rooms and online forums to voice their objections to the new law which, they say, unfairly targets young drivers because of their age. One assemblyman even plans to introduce legislation to repeal the law.
Kyleigh’s Law, named after a teen who was killed in a 2006 crash, requires any permit or probationary license holder under 21 to stick red removable decals to the license plates of the car they drive. The law took effect Saturday. Underage drivers could face fines up to $100 if police find they have not placed the decal inside their cars during a motor-vehicle stop.
Motor vehicle officials said 69,480 decals were sold by Monday. About 250,000 drivers are required to purchase the stickers, they said.
"The law is the law," said Michael Horan, a spokesman for the state Motor Vehicle Commission. "They’re for sale and it’s up to them to come in a buy them. As to why they’re not coming in, I have no idea. It comes down to personal responsibility, like wearing a seat belt."
Pam Fischer, director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety, called the lag in purchases "an educational process."
But many teen drivers and parents say the decals do nothing but make them potential targets of predators or law enforcement officers.
"You’re putting your age on your car, you’re driving your age," said Ashley Wahba, 18, a senior at Somerville High School who needs the sticker but doesn’t plan on getting one.
"I’m concerned about the welfare of all drivers," said Assemblyman Robert Schroeder (R-Bergen), who plans to introduce legislation to repeal the law. "These young drivers would be targets of predators."
His 16-year-old daughter has the decals on her license plates.
Opponents are turning to the Internet to vent their frustrations. One Facebook group against Kyleigh’s Law has over 31,000 members, while an on-line petition against the law has over 5,000 signatures.
Bethany Johnson, 18, of Vineland, who authored a blog in support of Kyleigh’s Law, said she was involved in two crashes before she got her driver’s license in March.
"The average teenager is driving irresponsibly and there needs to be a way to identify them," Johnson said.
On Monday, minutes after Sara Murphy, 17, pulled out of her Warren home with the stickers affixed to her car, a police officer stopped her.
Murphy said the officer asked if she was using a cell phone or iPod because he saw a light emanating from her car. When she told him she wasn’t — she said her passenger was using the iPod — she got a $54 ticket for view obstruction for an air freshener and a guardian angel that hung from her rearview mirror.
Her mother, Kathy Karolis, said her daughter was targeted because of the decal.
"Get rid of the red stickers," Karolis said.
Tiffani N. Garlic of the New Jersey Local News Service contributed to this report.Laura and Tom Hall wheel trays of cut apricots on tracks to the drying yard at their KB Hall Ranch in Ojai, CA. Southland Farmers' Market Association What's in Season
The following charts give the months of the year when various California fruits and vegetables are usually in season. These are approximate harvest dates because weather and other factors can affect availability. Every market does not carry every kind of produce in season, but may carry other produce items such as dried fruit (see photo at right). Scroll below to see all the fruits and vegetables that may be available month by month. Or click on one of the three links below to jump to that season's chart: January February March April Asparagus
Avocados
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carambola
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Cherimoyas
Citrus: Blood Orange, Grapefruit, Kumquats,
Lemons, Navel Oranges,
Tangelos/Tangerines Dates, Medjool
Kale
Kohlrabi
Mushroom
Mustard
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peas, Green
Strawberries Asparagus
Avocados
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Citrus: Blood Orange, Grapefruit, Kumquats,
Lemons, Navel Oranges,
Tangelos/Tangerines Collards
Dates, Medjool
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peas, Green
Spinach
Strawberries
Turnips Asparagus
Avocados
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Citrus: Blood Oranges, Grapefruits, Kumquats, Lemons, Navel Oranges, Tangelos/Tangerines
Collards
Dates, Medjool
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peas, Green
Spinach
Strawberries
Turnips Asparagus
Avocados
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Cherries
Citrus: Grapefruits, Kumquats, Lemons, Navel Oranges, Tangelos/Tangerines Collards
Cucumber
Dates, Medjool
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Nectarines
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peas, Green
Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Turnips May June July August Apricots
Asparagus
Avocados
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Cherries
Citrus: Grapefruits, Kumquats, Lemons, Navel Oranges, Valencia Oranges Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Dates, Medjool
Eggplant
Figs
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Nectarines,
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Pears, Asian
Peas, Black-eyed
Peas, Green
Plums
Potatoes
Raspberries
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Turnips Apricots
Avocados
Cherries
Asparagus
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Citrus: Grapefruits, Kumquats, Lemons, Navel Oranges, Valencia Oranges
Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Figs
Grapes
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Melons
Mushroom
Mustard
Nectarines
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Pears
Pears, Asian
Peas, Black-eyed
Peppers
Plums
Potatoes
Raspberries
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Turnips Apples
Apricots
Asparagus
Avocados
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cherries
Citrus: Grapefruits, Lemons, Valencia Oranges Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Figs
Grapes
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Melons
Mushroom
Mustard
Nectarines
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Pears
Pears, Asian
Peas, Black-eyed
Peppers
Plums
Potatoes
Raspberries
Sapote
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Turnips Apples
Asparagus
Avocados
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chili Pepper
Citrus: Grapefruits, Lemons, Valencia Oranges
Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Figs
Grapes
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Melons
Mushroom
Mustard
Nectarines
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Pears
Pears, Asian
Peas, Black-eyed
Peppers
Persimmons
Plums
Potatoes
Raspberries
Sapote
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Squash, Winter
Strawberries
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Turnips September October November December Apples
Asparagus
Avocados
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Brussels Sprout
Cabbage
Carrots
Celery
Chili Pepper
Citrus: Grapefruits, Lemons, Valencia Oranges Oranges
Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Grapes
Guava, Pineapple
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Nectarines
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Pears
Pears, Asian
Peas, Black-eyed
Peppers
Persimmons
Plums
Potatoes
Raspberries
Sapote
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Squash, Winter
Strawberries
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Turnips Apples
Asparagus
Avocados
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels Sprout
Cabbage
Carambola
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Cherimoyas
Chili Pepper
Citrus: Grapefruits, Lemons, Tangelos/Tangerines, Valencia Oranges
Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Grapes
Guava, Pineapple
Kale
Kiwi
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Pears, Asian
Peas, Black-eyed
Peppers
Persimmons
Pomegranates
Potatoes
Raspberries
Sapote
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Squash, Winter
Strawberries
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Turnips
Yams Apples
Artichokes
Asparagus
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels Sprout
Cabbage
Carambola
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Cherimoyas
Chili Pepper
Citrus: Grapefruits, Lemons, Tangelos/Tangerines, Valencia Oranges Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Grapes
Guava, Pineapple
Kale
Kiwi
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Peas, Black-eyed
Peppers
Persimmons
Pomegranates
Potatoes
Raspberries
Sapote
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Squash, Winter
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Turnips
Yams Artichokes
Basil
Beans, Green
Beets
Brussels Sprout
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Chili Pepper
Citrus: Lemons, Valencia Oranges Collards
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Grapes
Guava, Pineapple
Kale
Kiwi
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Okra
Onion, dry
Onion, Green
Peppers
Pomegranates
Potatoes
Spinach
Squash, Summer
Squash, Winter
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Turnips
Yams
At a Southland Farmers' Market, you are assured that you are purchasing quality produce from certified local growers and producers. Southland Farmers' Market Association serves member markets, local California farmers and consumers by promoting and protecting the integrity of certified farmers' markets in Southern California. Photos by David Karp © 2002 Southland Farmers Markets Association
All Rights Reserved. Website design and development by Organic-Design.netImage copyright Merseyside Police Image caption Ryan Kenny admitted assault and theft
A transgender woman was attacked as she wore women's clothes in public for the first time on her own, a court heard.
Ryan Kenny, 20, from Birkenhead, admitted hitting the 25-year-old woman with her wig, stealing her handbag and punching her repeatedly while asking if she wanted to die.
He was given 20 months' detention in a young offenders institution by Judge Brian Lewis at Liverpool Crown Court.
The victim said: "I was just being myself... I don't see how it is wrong."
She also said: "I was hoping he would go to prison for six months. To be told he has gone for 20 months is just unbelievable."
The woman, who was returning home from attending a support group, said: "I still feel unsure about going into the city but I still think it is going to be some time before I am back to where I was."
'Disgraceful attack'
Police said previously she attended the group meetings with a friend who dropped out that night, but she felt confident enough to go alone.
The court heard Kenny, of Bridge Street, followed her out of Liverpool Lime Street station in March and later joked with a friend about about what he had done.
Judge Brian Lewis said it was a "disgraceful attack" on a "vulnerable" victim who was only targeted because she was transgender.
The woman, who cannot be named, reported the incident to Merseyside Police who worked with British Transport Police to trace the attacker.
A police spokesman said: "Throughout the case detectives from our anti-hate crime unit stayed in touch with the victim and met with her repeatedly to explain what was going on and how the court process worked.
"This ensured that she stayed in the process and did not withdraw her complaint against Kenny."Another State Successful In Decriminalizing Marijuana
Pot lovers rejoice! Logic and reason have finally blazed a path through the great plains of the midwest and into Illinois.
As of this month, "small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in the state of Illinois. On July 29th, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the bill, "removing criminal penalties for those found in possession of 10 grams or less".
This comes as a relief for Illinois marijuana users and legalization activists alike. Illinois residents can now enjoy "the ganj" without fear of harsh criminal penalties. Now, they can all breathe a little easier, if they can stop coughing.
"Previously, anyone caught with 10 grams or less of marijuana could have been charged with a misdemeanor, resulting in a fine of up to $1,500 and possible jail time of up to six months."
A little harsh right?
The rasping criminal repercussions surrounding the use of marijuana in Illinois were brought down by the advocacy and uproar of residents. They believed jail time, felony charges, and expensive fines were unjustly ruining the lives of otherwise kindhearted and model citizens. For instance, a high school student in good standing, bored or attempting to fit in, could be caught with just a gram or more of weed and then be debilitated by a criminal record for his/her entire life.
However, these changes are not just affecting the lives of angsty youth. Hilary Gowens, the managing editor for the Illinois Policy Institute stated, "Refocusing priorities by reforming the way the system punishes people for low-level possession offenses will lower costs and allow police to focus on serious crimes, while also ensuring that the state doesn't ensnare people caught with small amounts of marijuana in a costly and ineffective system."
With impending lower costs for the state, focused police efforts, and protection against harsh criminal punishments, many wonder why Illinois did not act on this sooner.
Although the consumption of marijuana is still illegal in Illinois, the new policies serve as a step towards nationwide decriminalization and tearing down marijuana's status as a Schedule 1 substance.
The hope for recreational use remains hazy, but alive.
So blaze on Illinoisans, if you've got the green.Bryce Harper makes a sliding catch Tuesday. If only he hustled a bit more. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
The Nationals were playing the Braves on Tuesday, which meant Fox Sports South announcers Chip Caray and Joe Simpson were looking for new reasons to criticize Bryce Harper. Wouldn’t you know, they found one in the fifth inning of the Nationals’ 6-1 win…after Harper hustled into second base with a leadoff double.
“His legs look just fine there,” said analyst Joe Simpson, who was setting up a lengthy critique of Harper’s behavior after his previous at-bat, a fly out to left field in the third inning.
(Via Fox Sports South)
“He hit it deep to left, Kelly Johnson caught it,” Simpson said. “It wasn’t near the line, it wasn’t a foul ball, and he didn’t even run. He didn’t even get out of the dirt circle. And if you want to know why people boo him when he goes to other cities, that’s because he only plays hard when he wants to play hard, he only runs when he has a chance, like he did a minute ago, to stretch a single into a double. So, any excuses people make for him about, ‘Oh, he has a bad hamstring’ or ‘Oh, he has a bad knee,’ I didn’t see any signs of it when he went first to second on the double. And man, when he dogs it like that and doesn’t run out fly balls, that’s a horrible example. … That’s just brutal. I don’t know how he gets away with it.”
[Umpire ejects Braves fan for heckling Bryce Harper]
“Joe DiMaggio, in the old days, was asked why he played so hard on every single play,” Caray said. “Not to sound old-fashioned, but maybe it is a bygone era in professional sports, not just baseball, but in all of them. Joe DiMaggio’s response was, ‘Because there might be somebody in the stands who has never seen me play before, and I want them to know that that’s how I play the game.’ Bryce Harper’s too talented to do what he did in the third inning on a consistent basis.”
Simpson wasn’t done.
[Bryce Harper fails to respect the ‘A’]
“Look, I’m not saying he needed to sprint to first on a fly ball, but he needed to run,” he said. “What if Kelly drops it? What if he lost it somehow? It happens more and more and more with this guy, the more we see him. He’s one of the acclaimed players in the game. He’s one of the figureheads for Major League Baseball in terms of one of its best players, and for a guy not to play hard at all times, ought to be a bit embarrassing for him and his organization.”
Update: As some have pointed out, Nationals radio announcers Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler acknowledged that Harper didn’t run out the fly ball when it happened.
“It’s not good that he didn’t run,” Slowes said. “If for some reason Johnson drops the ball…”
“If it’s a matter of not feeling good, then he should probably come out of the game,” Jageler said. “If it’s a matter of frustration, you’ve gotta shake it off and run to first.”
I don’t think Harper needs to be defended here, but there were runners on first and second base. If Johnson dropped the ball, Harper could’ve dropped the bat and jogged (or sprinted) to first safely.
Harper, who gave Nats fans a mild heart attack after he suffered a left hamstring strain less than two weeks ago, can’t win. If he hustles all the time, he’s reckless. If he hustles most of the time, he’s an embarrassment to his sport and his team. I’m sure Mike Rizzo was ashamed to show up to work today.
Caray and Simpson returned to Harper’s hustling habits after he singled in the ninth inning.
“The criticism I’ve levied at Harper tonight for not running is not the first time I’ve done that,” Simpson said. “But the sad part is he’s such a great talent, you just hate to see him do things that way, go about his business that way, because he’s so good. It brings him down several notches.”
“Look, we’re not trying to pick on Bryce Harper,” Caray said. “I know you’re not. I know you appreciate how talented he is, you’ve said as much. But for a game that’s trying to teach young kids how to play the game the right way, and for a guy that’s probably idolized by a lot of kids who watch this game, I hope Bryce Harper follows the Joe DiMaggio philosophy that I mentioned in earlier comments. Play hard, all the time, the rest will take care of itself.”
ESPN’s John Kruk commented on Harper’s failure to run out his flyball on “Baseball Tonight.” (In fairness to Harper, the main thing he learned in Little League was how to circle the bases after a home run.)
John Kruk on Bryce Harper's lack of hustle on a fly out against the Braves. pic.twitter.com/tZZaUJnvPU — Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) July 1, 2015
Man, I hope he sprints through the ‘A’ tonight.It's safe to say that relations between Billy Corgan and the members of the classic '90s Smashing Pumpkins lineup have not always been friendly, but that doesn't mean that his ex-mates don't still keep any eye on his current doings. Former Smashing Pumpkins bassist D'Arcy Wretzky showed as much in a posting on Facebook Tuesday night (Sept. 9).
The reclusive Wretzky reached out with the comment, "What's up with Billy's site? I'm serious. Anyone talking to him??? Really." A flurry of comments followed, some serious while others looked to take a few shots at Corgan. But eventually Wretzky rejoined the online commentary to address that her concern for Corgan was legitimate and she was not looking to stir things up.
After one fan stated that there had been a spike in traffic after Corgan's Ravinia show, Wretzky asked, "Has anybody talked to him today or yesterday," apparently showing concern after Corgan's well kept-up website went down for a period of time.
One of the posters then asked, "Is there a full moon? … You're asking about him. Is there something we should know?," to which Wretzky responded, "Last night there was a fool moon … could be tonight too (sometimes there are 2 in a row). I don't know. I just got really worried about him. Every time I ignore thoughts that pop into my head -- no matter how ridiculous or unlikely -- they always happen. So I'm obliged to act on them. You could be right (again) though. Before I tried to reach Billy, I sent a friend request to [drummer] Jimmy [Chamberlin]."
Another poster commented, "Kinda wondering why D'Arcy is concerned. Maybe she knows something we don't," to which Wretzky directly responded, "I do -- but I'll never tell."
Corgan, of course, is alive and well, as he plots the release of two new Smashing Pumpkins albums. As for what Wretzky's up to musically, one commenter requested, "Please save the alternative music … Please come back to the music world, please, please, please." She responded, "I don't have to 'cause my nephew is … but I might help."
Since exiting the Pumpkins in 1999, Wretzky has remained out of the spotlight, although she has undergone some major changes in her appearance, as evidenced in her Facebook photos below:It's damn near impossible to turn on a cable-news show and not see Kellyanne Conway sitting there, doing verbal parkour to try to explain how whatever awful thing Donald Trump (or his press secretary) just did was actually neither offensive nor terrifying, and really, it's all the media's fault, and did you know they won the election and people need to get over it? To put it plainly, she's the absolute worst.
So why have her on television? Recently, NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen went on the Recode Media podcast with Peter Kafka and laid out a pretty compelling case for why these news shows should no longer agree to have Conway on.
ROSEN: I don't think the people interviewing Kellyanne Conway know why they are doing that. Meaning that the journalistic logic of it is growing dimmer with every interview. KAFKA: ’Cause the journalistic logic is, "We've heard from one side, let's ask the other." ROSEN: Yes. And also, Peter, the logic is, this is a representative of the president. This is somebody who can speak for the Trump administration. But if we find that what Kellyanne Conway says is routinely or easily contradicted by Donald Trump, then that rationale disappears. Another reason to interview Kellyanne Conway is, our viewers want to understand how the Trump world thinks. But if the end result of an interview with her is more confusion about what the Trump world thinks, then that rationale evaporates. KAFKA: So it's not the lying? It's the inconsistencies? ROSEN: No, it's not just lying or spin or somebody who is skilled in the political arts of putting the best case on things or not answering a question, which is a pretty basic method of doing politics. It's that when you are done listening to Kellyanne Conway, you probably understand less. That's a problem.
It's hard to find fault with Rosen's logic here. Look no further than Kellyanne's interview with Chuck Todd, where she rebranded the concept of "lying" as presenting "alternative facts."
Now, it's clear why they do it. (Ratings!) But at what cost to America's collective intelligence? And journalism as a whole? So, news producers of the world, next time you think of having Kellyanne Conway on, maybe consider the larger consequences and then, y'know, don't have her on.Coyotes' Oliver Ekman-Larsson (23) plays against the Sharks during the final preseason game at Gila River Arena in Glendale, AZ on October 2, 2015. (Photo: Patrick Breen/azcentral sports)
Despite the performance review and ensuing questions about why he wanted the position, Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said an hourlong discussion over lunch Tuesday afternoon at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa next to Gila River Arena didn’t feel like a job interview.
“It was more casual,” he said.
But the meeting was still significant.
Not only did a portion of Team Sweden’s management staff for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey travel to Arizona to size up Ekman-Larsson’s credentials, but it was the first time the 24-year-old was able to have a sit-down conversation with his childhood idol, Nicklas Lidstrom.
“I’ve been looking up to Nick growing up, so it was kind of cool to just have lunch with him and get to talk to him a little bit,” Ekman-Larsson said.
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Lidstrom, who’s on the advisory board for the team, and Swedish head coach Rickard Gronborg took in Monday’s 6-2 win over the Canadiens and Tuesday’s practice, witnessing a brief example of what’s been going on for most of the season.
The Coyotes are striving to play meaningful games as long as possible, and Ekman-Larsson is a major reason that hope is still a reality entering Saturday’s homestand finale against the Blues.
“As he gets to become a more mature player, his game continues to grow,” coach Dave Tippett said. “That’s what we’re seeing.”
Ekman-Larsson registered a goal and two assists in Monday’s win, the fifth time he’s tallied at least three points in a game this season, and he added an assist in Thursday’s 6-3 triumph over the Stars to establish a career high for points in a season with 45 – the latest accolade in a season teeming with them.
His 17 goals rank second among all defensemen, while his point total sits fourth. He leads the Coyotes in average ice time (25:14), and nobody in the league has logged more minutes on the power play (303:04). What’s more, his seven game-winners have tied the NHL record for most in a season by a defenseman.
Considering that resume from just the past four months, it’s no wonder Team Sweden is considering Ekman-Larsson.
“Yeah, that’ a no-brainer for me,” Tippett said. “I guess I haven’t thought about who else they have, but I think Oliver’s got to be in that six somewhere or eight.”
This will be the first rendition of the World Cup since 2004. The tournament will kick off in September in Toronto and will scatter the best NHLers among eight teams (Canada, Czech Republic, Team Europe, Finland, Team North America, Russia, Sweden and United States).
Initial rosters of at least 16 players will be announced March 2, and Ekman-Larsson is hopeful he’ll receive an invite.
“It’s going to be tough to take a spot on the team, but I would love to be on that team because it’s not every year you get a chance to play, and we don’t know if there’s going to be a next time,” he said.
The Coyotes would appear to have a number of players in contention.
Wingers Max Domi and Anthony Duclair and defenseman Connor Murphy may stir interest from Team North America, a squad set to feature players 23 years old and younger from Canada and the United States that Tippett is helping out as an assistant coach. Team Europe might see wingers Tobias Rieder and Mikkel Boedker as options, while center Martin Hanzal and defenseman Zbynek Michalek have represented the Czech Republic in international competition.
“We’ve got some guys here that are certainly worthy of a look,” Tippett said.
Ekman-Larsson didn’t find out if he made the team during his meeting with Team Sweden brass, but he also didn't leave empty-handed. He made sure to grab some advice from the player he grew up admiring.
“He said just, ‘When you’re at the rink, be a pro and put in the work,’” Ekman-Larsson said. “‘That’s what you have to do when you’re a leader,’ he said. At the same time, you have to have some fun when you’re not playing hockey.”
Judging by Lidstrom’s accomplishments during a 20-season career – four Stanley Cups, seven Norris Trophies as the NHL’s top defenseman and the Red Wings’ captaincy – a chat like that in the midst of a playoff push probably can’t hurt.
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“You want the team to be successful, and you want to be the guy that helps the team win,” Ekman-Larsson said. “It means more this year (than last season) to be the guy who scores a lot of goals and puts up a lot of points. At the same time, we have a long way to go here to try to get in the playoffs.”
Reach the reporter at sarah.mclellan@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8276. Follow her at twitter.com/azc_mclellan.
Saturday's game
Blues at Coyotes
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Gila River Arena.
TV/radio: Fox Sports Arizona/KMVP-FM (98.7).
Blues update: The Blues have won four straight and are 5-0-1 in their past six. They sit third in the Central Division with 77 points |
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